#unfortunately it has mentions of my WOL but. i don't care. their ship is canon here so. throws confetti

[heirbane]

(Still, still. Valdeaulin had wanted Gaius for himself, fury reddening his gaze at the mere mention of a return back. He had vowed, the Elezen cursed, his anger simmering so violently that static picked up around the mage. "I told you," he seethed, "that I would sooner kill you than let you return - and yet you mention it as if it is nothing. Do you not remember what you swore?" It was not Gaius who had spoken, nor the shewolf he had mated, but Severa, reeling from the news just as the Black Wolf. "Valdeaulin," she said, voice lost and far away. Her mind tried to conjure up images of what Alta had seen and defeated, the buckling of buildings and sidewalks she still had memorized. "There's - … nothing to return to." Silence stretched between the group, as silent and violent as a blade. Eyes the shade of levin sought another to bore into, something to latch onto, finally meeting the gaze of the Warrior of Light. Her shoulders were rounded, pulled forward, curled around herself as if she, too, were afraid of crumbling - as if simply bringing the news back had made her weary and small. Gaius pulled a knife from his holster. With practiced ease, he pointed the hilt in Valdeaulin's direction, offering the Elezen a means to an end. For several moments, blood thrummed in his ears, anger making his grip on the weapon shake. Valdeaulin had gone home to emptiness once, too, and the emotion that it stirred in his throat made him want to weep and scream all at once. With a sudden flick and a damning sound, the knife was dug halfway into the wooden butcherblock countertop. He turned, boots heavy, and slammed the back door behind him as he left.

Severa and Gaius had left the dawn after their conversation, leaving what remained of his cobbled together family with a man who had only just come to terms with the loss of his own, twenty and five summers gone.)