He slept, while she was gone--fitfully, and it took him hours to drift off. He feared going too far, lest she return and be unable to find him. But how long would she be gone? Days? Weeks? Surely not weeks--a simple chrysalis shard could not possibly pay for that much time. Does it pay for anything, really? How do I know if I can trust her? He pushed that thought away. Unkind, and unhelpful.

Not far from the den, then, he curled up--away from the threads of Order white--and rested. Dim snatches of nightmare came and went. Later (he did not know how long), when he'd woken, he drank at a nearby brook. Even this was fidgety, unease coiled in his gut, and at length he gave up trying to graze and went back to the den. He didn't know if she was back, yet, and he didn't want to trespass on her den, so he waited just outside--laying down in the grass again and fidgeting further, waiting, hoping, fearing.

What will I do if the news is bad-? How will I tell my fathers? The thought alone was devastating, and Arsu forced himself to more positive thoughts. No, I mustn't think like that. He'll have been asleep, that's all--everyone does it. She'll find him. Maybe she'll even wake him up, he thought, and dared to dream of joyful reunion.

He held his brother's face in his mind, imagining him beaming, happy, a cheerful retelling to one another of all that they had missed...

@Game Master CJ

Refreshed and restored, Venari woke slowly but steadily, uncoiling to stretch and prepare the search for Arsu. But as her third eye opened, she was surprised to find his trademark magic radiating nearby. With more care than she expected of herself, she picked up the moonstone horn and exited her den; indeed, she did not have to travel too far to find him. Though she was ready to search Eridanus for him, she was thankful for the easy day her eye would get after the near-constant use in the search for Azizos.

With the eye closed and her movements gentle, she approached through the brush at a slow speed. But when she came upon him and found him sleeping, she hesitated. Was he as tired as she had been? How long did he linger near her den—surely not the entire time she had been gone?

"Arsu," she called in a strong tone, but not an unkind one. Loud enough to try and stir him. She would not produce the moonstone quite yet, but kept it hidden beneath her body, clasped within her legs. Again, Oliver's soft features flitted across her mind to remind her the topic was sensitive.

@Arsu

He was up like a shot, his heart suddenly going a mile a minute, his hooves stumbling over one another in their haste to race to her voice. It wasn't far. A few stuttered steps and she was there, and he took a breath, afraid to ask.

Afraid to know.

When he opened his mouth he found that his voice wasn't there. Her tone. It wasn't cheerful, reassuring. It was careful. It was solemn.

She was alone.

He swallowed, and found his voice. But his question wasn't the polite, refined query he'd hoped for. Maybe a 'Did you find anything,' or 'How did the search go?' Instead he blurted words without thinking, his frantic question registering in his mind only after he had spoken it. His voice broke halfway through.

"Wh-where is he?"

@Game Master CJ

She let him get his bearings—as well enough as he could—before she moved the moonstone along her underbelly, revealing it finally as she lay it outward to him, gently resting it in the grass.

"A golem in Polaris had it," she explained, and surprised herself with how quiet her voice was then. "It still retains his magic." It was a good thing, she thought, for if it had been broken or eaten, there would be naught she could do. She would not have even found the stone if the magic had left it. There was nothing left for her to say so she waited, unsure of what to do now. The contract was complete but it did not feel right to leave just yet.

"It looks like yours," she commented after a time. "Did you look alike?"

@Arsu

At the sight of the stone, it was as if someone had plunged his mind into a deep, cold lake. Water seemed to boil up around him, numbing and drowning all at once.

He took a few steps forward. Sank to his knees, and slumped to his haunches, lying silent for a long moment before Venari. He had no thoughts, just then; there was no room for them through the rushing tide that had engulfed his mind.

She was speaking, he realized. His mind went to her words, cold and numb, yes; there was no pain there, not yet. It was empty. Everything was empty. He blinked, his eyes--which had locked onto the horn--sliding up to meet her own.

"We hatched together. Twins, our fathers called us. We looked exactly the same. We shared everything," he added, quietly, his voice deceptively calm and measured. Still waters, and all that. He looked back to the stone, falling silent for a time.

A chrysalis--that, Azizos could have woken up from. But severed from his stone... there was nothing of his brother left.

"He's dead, then," Arsu stated quietly, and wondered that the weight of that thought didn't reach him.

@Game Master CJ

When Arsu mentioned they had been twins, Venari cocked her head lightly but did not bother him yet with more questions. Wouldn't that be easy then, she thought, to make another? It would surely be the spitting image of his brother, assuming the stone grew out of the forehead again. Truly, she was puzzled why it seemed like such a big deal, but again, she reminded herself (with the mental image of Oliver wagging his finger and giving her a tsk tsk) that this was sad. That's what he'd say, right? She had learned more from him than from anyone else, having been created without sympathy or much emotion.

Without wanting to disturb too much of his grief, she remained silent for some time, staring at the moonstone before letting her gaze wander the short distance back to Arsu.

"No," she decided to say, correcting him. "Well, Azizos... yes. But the stone retains his magic. If it did not, I would not have found it. It is a match to the chrysalis shard." There was tension in her voice. She did not know how to explain it to him in a way that felt compassionate, but maybe she simply lacked compassion after all. "Will you give his moonstone a second chance?"

She studied Arsu's face awaiting his answer. Maybe he would keep it like she kept many things, to admire and to remember. But if he decided to revive it, it would look just like him—no, them. That's good, right?

@Arsu

Her first 'no' had his gaze shoot up to her, eyes widen-... but her follow-up remark plunged him back into the icewater fog his mind had entered. What had she meant-? That he could revive it? He knew that--and for a brief moment, anguish threatened nonsensically to turn to anger.

Much good that would do, to a creature her size and... pointiness. Let alone how rude it would be, when she was helping him for almost nothing. He swallowed it all down and looked away. And--oh. She was asking him-...

A second chance? For an instant, the thought was almost hopeful. But then the image of raising another with Azizos's face--the spitting image, for surely it would be, given they were twins-... He balked, flinching visibly at the idea. At the conjured image of having to force down his deepening grief while smiling at a calf that looked exactly like him, exactly like he had been in his memories-... And how could he explain it? How could he tell a child who their stone had been-?

"I don't know if I can. If I could," he clarified, voice hoarse. "It'd look just like him but--it wouldn't be him. And having to explain that to a child-... Having to see him all the time but know he's gone..." He swallowed again, and shook his head.

There was water sliding down his face. What--where had that come from? What was it?

"I have to tell my fathers." His voice had dropped to a whisper, and for a moment he stared at--and past--the stone, lost in the horrors of that thought.

Of all of this.

@Game Master CJ

* i have been informed that gembound can all cry. this is now canon enjoy

The suggestion almost seemed to disgust him and she narrowed her eyes in thought. What would be so bad about that? Hadn't he wanted his brother found? As he explained, she looked at the moonstone with a quizzical expression. It didn't make sense to her but she wasn't going to argue with him. The gembounds seemed more complex than her, again her mind traveling back to Oliver. There was probably quite a lot she would never understand because she would never know their emotions, not in the sense that they experienced them.

When he said he'd have to tell his fathers, she almost blurted wait but it caught in her lungs. He wasn't moving. He was just there, staring, the fur of his face shimmering as if it had been raining. She stared at him in turn.

"What if you ask someone else?" she ventured, her own voice hoarse, unsure of how to properly suggest what she was thinking. "I know someone... he is very nice. He helped create the garden in front of my den, and many of the trinkets I keep inside." Eyes shifted back to the moonstone. "It didn't—" she started, but stopped immediately. It didn't want to die. She chewed on the thought and realized this would not be helpful.

"His magic is strong, Arsu. You should consider it—the second chance, I mean..." Venari said after thinking it over. She had come across several gembounds' stones, and their magic density varied. This one's was strong, stronger than its brother's. While it may not have been her place to push the idea, she could not help but feel the magic of the gemstone biting and clawing. But she would not convey this information to Arsu. Ultimately whatever happened with it was out of her hands and she probably would not think about it for much longer after their interaction inevitably ended.

@Arsu

He closed his eyes. That strange trickle continued, and he struggled to ignore it. She was... speaking, offering help in a way, and his heart wrenched a little at this. He was so focused on his own loss, but he'd thought her a monster and--she wasn't. He opened his eyes, looking straight at her, gathering himself.

"Thank you," he said, softly. And though he wasn't sure why she was suggesting he meet with this stranger, he recognized that she probably had a far clearer head than he in this moment. Wait--does she mean... to revive the stone? He thought about that, and tried to measure up the pros and cons, only to find that his mind simply wasn't up for it. It balked, going straight to the loss. I'm never going to see him again. The thought hit him hard, and he reeled visibly, pulling back and letting out his breath after a moment with a sharp exhale.

"Sorry, I-... Where is he?" He'd make no assurances now, but he owed it to her to follow up.

When he was ready.

Speaking of owing her-... Arsu opened his eyes again, struggling to look at Venari, struggling not to think of his brother. Of Azizos-... "I owe you more than I can say. If... there's more that you want-? I feel like-... I'd like to pay you more. This is horrible--it's bad news but... the not knowing-..." His voice grew hoarse again, and he took a breath. "It was bad." Not eloquent, maybe, but it was true. It had been eating away at him for far too many cycles. At least now-... at least he knew.

Was it better-?

Time would tell.

"I'll-... I will, though. Consider it I mean. Thank you."

Maybe he was saying 'thank you' too much, but he was hardly in any state to notice--or to care.

@Game Master CJ

Arsu's range of emotions continued to baffle her but she kept those thoughts to herself. She could see this had affected him greatly and she was trying to be courteous of the situation even if she did not fully understand. But when the question came, she opened the scrying eye to search in Oliver's most-traveled directions. "Oliver is sometimes here," she said absently, scanning Eridanus before moving her focus toward Orion and Canis. "He has a garden in the room of bones, Canis," she added, remembering their time there before closing her eye and looking down toward Arsu again.

She'd forgotten how Oliver had changed—his magic, coiled with something else. Just now when she had searched for it, that tingle of the Magnolet bit back at her. But Oliver was still Oliver, wasn't he?

When Arsu offered her further payment she shook her head. She was pleased with the chrysalis shard and especially that he had been able to illuminate it. Now it will hold this interaction within it, the grief she experienced through Arsu, in her garden of memories where she tried to learn and understand the gembounds. And from this, she had learned much. Death was sad, and it wasn't the same to just make a copy of the same loved one for reasons she still did not understand but chose to accept. Maybe she would ask Oliver more about it later.

"Nothing more is required. Our contract is complete," she said with finality, glancing one last time at the moonstone. "If you wish for me to accompany you to meet Oliver, you know where to find me. If you decide to see him, of course." There was a brief hesitation before she added, "Good luck with your fathers." A part of her had the mind to say she was sorry, but as she considered saying it, she did not know what she'd be apologizing for.

She lowered completely to the ground and said a silent goodbye to the moonstone before her eyes flicked up to Arsu and she said aloud, "Farewell." There was nothing more for her to do here and she had the awful itch to leave rather than explore more feelings in Arsu's presence.

If he had nothing more to ask of her, she'd have turned to slither back to her den.

@Arsu and attempted venari exit