Sayskel and Kelenn sat silently by the fire talking to each other through their implants. Taidra sitting between them on the ground, his head resting on Kelenn's thigh. It was growing late and Feno was on watch duty; not that that stopped Sakmi's spies from sneaking into camp. Kelenn was sure he had seen Ravn fleeing camp earlier despite not having been caught, the man's white hair making him stand out when he wasn't trying to hide. Obviously, Ravn knew Inai was planning to send Ryraso away.
'He'll be off to tell Sakmi,' Sayskel mused softly to Kelenn, not wanting to startle Taidra with the information. Their cousin was already blaming himself badly for the destruction of the warship. 'To tell the royal triad.'
There was silence for a moment, the implant relaying thoughts but not necessarily emotions unless they were projected. Kelenn looked at the fire and stroked Taidra's chestnut hair, thinking about the royal triad. The twins had their own secrets towards the k'nairi, secrets that even the royals didn't know. Secrets which could have easily been revealed that night if they hadn't been so distracted.
'We can't be friends with Ryraso anymore,' Kelenn commented dully. 'He's too close to them.'
'He lied to us about that,' Sayskel added darkly. The twins had been friends with Ryraso for so long and yet. 'We're idiots.'
'Because we didn't connect the dots between Ryraso being Tai'ray's adoptive son's surrogate father and Ryraso being close to Tai'ray? No, we are more than idiots,' Kelenn murmured, his voice taking on a self-hating tone.
'No,' a third voice murmured, Kelenn blinking in surprise as Taidra's voice came through on their implant. Taidra had his own implant, not one which was a communicator but one which allowed him to join networks. It was very rare Taidra used it to join their private one however which showed how much their cousin wasn't enjoying the silence of camp. 'None of us wanted to admit it, that's all. Ryraso has been so loyal to us all."
'He is loyal to the Namya,' Sayskel exhaled, moving closer to his brother and cousin, eyes watching Eyeri as he moved around the camp doing a last minute check on the people who had been injured. 'He just has conflicting loyalties. Or rather Tai'ray isn't going to give him up and that makes being around Ryraso dangerous.'
'For you two, yes it is,' Taidra agreed. 'I pray Tai'ray will not follow through on his threat once he had calmed. Dyn'ad neither,' he said half scolding, half fearful.
The twin's relationship with the k'nairi had always been a strange one. Taidra was unaware of their secret as well. Kelenn suspected that while the royals were unaware of the secret, the fabled link likely made the knairi react differently to the twins because of it. Still Tai'ray threatening to punish Sayskel for his comments and Dyn'ad threatening darker, more detailed promises down Kelenn's ear during their fight did make the idea of facing the three men again more unnerving.
'I doubt he will,' Sayskel murmured. 'Is it bad I feel betrayed by Ryraso?' he asked, tears threatening to run down his face but he kept them back through sheer will alone.
'I feel it too,' Taidra admitted, cuddling closer to Kelenn's leg. 'He kept Tai'ray's feelings towards him close to his chest. Even if they were only friends... Friends don't adopt a child for you but ten years? The way Ryraso spoke about his time made it seem shorter.'
'Ryraso isn't the only one who kept things vague,' Kelenn pointed out softly.
'You can hardly blame Aw'endo in this. The kid was brave standing up to Dyn'ad,' Sayskel argued.
'Not Aw'endo. Isst. He knew how long Ryraso was there, he just never said,' Kelenn revealed gently. All three were silent for a moment as that fact sunk in. Neither Isst nor Ryraso had trusted them with the truth, even after so long.
'There is something else you are forgetting,' Taidra added in his own dark tone. 'Ryraso knew the Winglord was planning to come after him personally to reclaim him. He didn't tell us about the Winglord's plan to capture every caw, nor that he was on the list. We weren't planning or preparing for an invasion from the k'nairi with that as their sole purpose.'
'He put us in danger' was the thought which was shared between the three men.
Eyeri appeared in front of them, the boy biting his lip nervously. "Are you okay? Your injuries aren't hurting?" he asked, clearly unsure if he should be bothering the family members. Kelenn and Sayskel had made their feeling on Ryraso clear earlier when Eyeri had patched them up. Or rather had said something along the lines of Ryraso having questions to answer. Kelenn regretted those words slightly now with how Eyeri was looking at them. Scared little bunny dealing with warriors.
"We're fine Eyeri," Sayskel said stiffly with a gentle smile for the boy. "Are you okay?"
The boy looked away and shrugged. "I can't say I'm happy but I guess I'll have to manage," he offered, kneeling next to Taidra to double check his head. Taidra following his finger, willing to humour the boy. "Are you still angry with Ryraso?"
"Yes," both twins said with no hesitation.
"But not with you," Sayskel added more gently before Eyeri could be scared away from them. "We have known Ryraso for a long time Eyeri and this came out of nowhere."
"It came out of nowhere for me too," Ryraso's voice interrupted, the man hobbling over with a sheepish expression, not looking stable on his feet at all. "Tai'ray making a romantic claim on me was not something I was expecting."
Sayskel glared at him but stood up and made the man sit down before he fell down. "You were friends with him for ten years and he adopted a child for you. He's saved your butt several times in the war. Somehow I doubt you had no idea at all," he spat out angrily.
"You knew all that, same as I did," Ryraso pointed out weakly.
"Ten years, Ryraso! Ten. I thought he saved you because he was paying off a debt. Let's face it, you have saved them a few times in the war as well," Sayskel snarled.
"It was nothing personal, I swear," Ryraso breathed.
"You just didn't trust us," Kelenn commented, looking at him. "You knew we trusted you more than the others we knew at Sevli and you didn't return the favour. Even after you knew the crew here didn't care about your former association with the k'nairi. Worse, you willingly put us in danger by not telling us valuable information. You didn't even have to make it widespread but you could have warned Taidra at least that the Winglord was gunning for you."
There was silence for a moment as even the people listening in shifted uncomfortably. Ryraso looked at the ground with nothing really to say in his defence. He should have trusted the twins, he should have trusted Inai but he had been so scared about their reactions to the truth.
"Leave Ryraso. Go pack. Please don't try to stay in touch, we want nothing more to do with whatever is going on between you and the royal triad," Sayskel said calmly.
"Sayskel, Kelenn," Ryraso breathed, reaching out but neither man would look at him, Taidra on the floor still pressing close to Kelenn refusing to acknowledge him either.
"Just go," Kelenn said softly.
Ryraso didn't want to leave them like this, the friendship they had built up over so many years in tatters but he couldn't think of anything to say. So, Ryraso went. Eyeri went to follow him but Sayskel caught his hand to stop him, pulling him in for a hug.
"Let him stew for a bit Eyeri," Sayskel said coldly. "He deserves it."
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"So this is it," a voice commented from behind Ryraso as he packed what little supplies had been salvaged from the ship. In the day since the ship's fall, several parties had gone back to go through the wreckage. The D'mar had raided a lot of the stuff but there had been some things worth saving. It still felt strange, though holding what was left of four years worth of service of the warship. It didn't seem to amount to much. "The last time we see each other," Isst added.
"I hope not," Ryraso commented, turning to face Isst, the man standing with a crutch and a bandage around his torso. Tai'ray's attack would add one more to the hundreds of scars which littered Isst's body but Isst was likely to make a fast recovery. If nothing else, he had Inai boosting the speed. Inai wasn't a healer per say but some of the powers granted to him by the gods could help with an injuries recovery process. "It would be a shame if this was it after all this time."
Isst grinned at him cheekily. "I thought you were fed up of me," he teased, sitting on a log near the tent heavily.
"I am," Ryraso said dryly before reaching down to give the warrior a hug. Isst hugged back awkwardly. "Look after yourself," he whispered, letting his facade drop for a few moments and letting himself shiver in sadness and fear. What the twins had said had hurt him more deeply than he wanted to admit but Isst had always known.
"I will Ryraso, you look after yourself too," Isst murmured, gripping Ryraso tightly before declaring. "Brothers?"
"Always," Ryraso promised.
With those final remarks, the two separated. Sharing a look of sadness, then Isst closed his eyes and sighed, "Ry, I hate to say this now, but I fear if I don't I will never get enough chance to."
"Don't you even dare" growled Ryraso, knowing full well what Isst was about to say.
Isst grinned, "Told you so!" He was referring to the warning he had given Ryraso all those years ago when he had first left the little valley to go to learn to heal from the K'nairi. His warning that you either failed, or got caught by the K'nairi. Something which was very true, but at the time Ryraso hadn't believed it. At the time, he was ignorant of the link. Now he was almost too painfully aware of the thing.
"Fuck off," Ryraso grinned back before pulling on his bag of supplies before heading to the main tent where Inai was waiting with a team of bodyguards to take him to his new home. At least one of them, Ryraso knew, was caw as well, though Ryraso didn't know the man personally.
"I'll look after them for you Ryraso, don't worry about that," Isst called after him, knowing the twins were weighing on his mind.
"Thank you," Ryraso called back, waving as he limped away, not saying goodbye to his friend on purpose. It wasn't goodbye, not yet.