Noble as the Oath We Undertake

A pale ghost stalks the mirrors of Tunnel A. Asterius's blank eyes dart around, looking. Searching. There is something I need to find. Someone.

They had been distantly aware since their birth. That they were not the first to receive her mantle, her burden, her destiny. There was another, somewhere, hidden. If only Asterius could find them. It had been too long, alone.

...Did her elder sibling even know he existed?

The first thing he was aware of was the shame. He had failed his one and only duty- protecting Natural Order and destroying all that sought to destroy it in turn. He remembered, like a distant dream, Order's relentlessly encroaching hold. Fighting, protecting, and then exhaustion. Sleep that gave way to something even deeper than sleep.

And then, now, an echo of his beginning, being cradled in a skystone tomb.

Once again he kicked out, and once again a spray of skystone shards heralded his release into the world. But it was different, this time. Rather than stepping out into a lush garden, his paws met rough wood and smooth crystal. Instead of The Spire, all that he was met with were endless reflections of himself and the nothingness that filled this tunnel.

His paws automatically lead him down the path towards Polaris, but rounding a corner he was met with something unexpected.

Sleek, feline, but unmistakably something like him. The same color-bleached pelt, eyes, and flesh. The same core of skystone, albeit in a slightly different spot. He did not need to reach out to know this, and yet he did, almost without thought.

He found magic to be highly untrustworthy, especially away from the spire, but this time it listened hesitantly. He could sense within them that same pure, untainted resonance of natural order.

"Hello." He spoke, uncharacteristically soft.

There's the clatter of stone shattering, and Asterius finds himself picking up the pace. Something, someone here.

She can sense it to, that mirrored other, Natural Order. The one they were looking for. Perhaps her approach had stirred it to waking. Perhaps it was a coincidence in timing. Either way, it had happened, and so it was fate.

Rounding that corner to, she'd be faced with that mirror. Pale flesh and fur, blue Skystone sparking, that knowing look.

"Hello, sibling," it would return the greeting. "I had been looking forward to finally meeting."

For a long moment, he just stares.

"I'm sorry." He speaks without thinking. He is not exactly sure what he is apologizing for. For abandoning them and everyone he was supposed to protect? For failing to protect in the first place? For the inescapable duty that his sibling must share. For placing what should be his burden along upon their shoulders?

All of the above, maybe.

"...But I am glad to meet you as well." He adds, after an awkward beat of silence, "You may call me Wulfsige. What shall I call you?"

Held in the gaze of her counterpart, Asterius fights with strange emotions. There's a feverish eagerness, to prove herself. There's the fear, of worrying what Wulfsige would think of him. Finally there is a faith - a belief that whatever Wulfsige does, whether they leave here together or split to work their own way, that it was meant to be.

She can sense their hesitation. You had accepted this burden believing it was yours and yours alone, did you. It was conflicted, wasn't it? But she will wait for them.

"I am Asterius," she would declare, voice confident. "Our creator decided it was best you were not alone. And so I am here for you, Wulfsige."

"Asterius." He tests the name on his tongue, "It will be a pleasure and an honor to work alongside you." It is strange, to no longer be one-of-a-kind. And it should be a good thing, yes? Another set of eyes to keep watch, another set of claws and teeth to protect the helpless. A burden shared is a burden lessened for them both.

But it is still weight crushing the back of another.

"I have been asleep for... far longer than I ever intended." He frowns. "What has happened in my absence? Does Order still claim Canis and Gemini?" He is restless to get back to his duties. To do what he should have been doing during all of this wasted time.

Perhaps if she was more like common Gembound, she would have smiled. But Asterius's face remains set like stone. "Likewise to you as well, Wulfsige," he would bow in respect. As much as they were equals, made for the same purpose, she was aware of the other being her elder.

And then they concede that they had fallen asleep. Asterius does not pay that any mind, shifting straight to business to report. "I personally assisted with the finishing of cleansing Canis, sibling. It is now no longer within Order's thrall. Gemini still remains to be done, but we can now turn our focus there." There's a pause, before they add, "Many other Gembound have also worked to do so. Even if it is dangerous for them, and they would be safer elsewhere, they might prove useful allies in this."

He knows Wulfsige likely wouldn't be the happiest with their charges risking themselves. But to cleanse a whole cave was a mighty task for just one or two. Asterius had been forced to put aside her worries about it already.

They would return the bow with a simple nod. He was, admittedly, not quite sure what to do with such reverent respect. Sure, he was technically older, but so much of that time had been swallowed up by sleep. He felt lost and unprepared.

But he wasn't lost. He knew exactly what he had to do.

"Good work." I should've been there to help you. "I was there when Canis and Gemini were first invaded. Many gembound fought alongside me. They shouldn't have to.. but they did." He huffed out a sigh, "But I agree that this time its even more necessary. Order's fungus is most easily destroyed by magic neither of us possess." Wulfsige was built for defending, not destroying, and Asterius was much the same.

"There are a couple gembound I can think of who'd make excellent allies, if I'm able to encounter them again." The black cat and her strange ally are the first to come to mind, but there are others. The problem would be locating them again. Would they have returned to Canis after the mold was eradicated? "Are there any gembound you've encountered who would be of assistance in the cleansing of Gemini?" His sharp silvery eyes would stare intently at Asterius as he waited for an answer.

She'd straighten back up, returning to standing. Idly she thinks, perhaps they need not show so much respect to their elder - she was placed her to be Wulfsige's equal, after all. But she supposes that can wait until they have gotten used to each other's company, their eyes watching each others back.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that they want to make a good impression.
"I see. Your efforts have not gone in vain." He's aware they wish they'd succeeded immediately but - there has been no END yet. The future is still uncertain. There is still life to guard.

She thinks back to Canis, who she saw there - but there are not many she is comfortable calling upon. "The ones who purged the rest of Canis... several of them were that of the House of Chaos. But the ones who were not- a wolfhound, like you, and a hunched beast in white. They might be useful." Asterius shifts some at admitting that - but any enemy of an enemy is an ally for the time.

They do their best to think - reaching for knowledge they don't exactly have. They did not have enough experience, too few others to discuss with. She's left grasping at straws.