Terran
The pains of our parents are manifold. I don’t know this yet, even as I chuckle lightly in response to Titanya’s mention of Jinju’s ‘trees’. I don’t see it coming when she mentions our mother, (Talulah, the heart of the Dale in so many ways I failed to be) I only smile with saccharine memories, drunk on the sweetness of remembering how things were.
I only feel my face grow heavier when she says, “And Father-”
There’s something so telling about the sigh that accompanies her words. I can’t read her mind, I have no way of discerning her level of emotion or how she might be feeling in this moment, but all the same I’m her twin. I know when something’s amiss. “Go on.” I prompt softly, though I really wish I hadn’t. Titanya indulges my request.
“I’ve kept something from you, brother.” Comes the first blow, a phrase that lifts me clear of the ground and flings my spirit into the gaping cavern of space. “Tiphon was not our father.” She says, but I’m plummeting towards the earth again, the weight of a thousand, thousand lies screaming through my mind while I drop. I’ve gone blank in the face, totally void of any emotion she might have expected. “His son, Tiberios, was our sire.”
And there it is. The blackness. She’s slammed my entire being against the pavement and shattered my existence into an infinitesimal dust. I feel like I’m spinning, like the world is tilting underneath me as Titanya’s black form begins to turn fuzzy at the edges. “Oh.” Is all I can say; that and, “I see.”
Tiberios. The one whose death haunted my parents - no, Talulah and my grandsire?- long after he’d expired. Mother had never liked to linger too long on the subject of him, but Tiphon had been more than proud to tell me about the previous Lord of the Dale when I’d asked. Tiphon… “Did Tiphon know?” I ask suddenly, the spark of life reanimating in my vision like molten gold. I felt … angry. “Did everyone but me know?” I scoff, hardly believing it myself.
The snap of a limb behind me draws the jerk of my ears, but not the turn of my head. I whuff the breeze and find the scent familiar. My little family was as curious as I’d expected. It’ll only be a moment before @[Ander] and @[Jinju] discover us but I refuse to let this die for their sake. Titanya had clearly saved the best for last.
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
@[Titanya] thought we might as well throw the kids into the mix!