Erinyes

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

She didn't want to. She'd rather talk to mother. Whatever Cirrsseeto had done felt like betrayal to her. Worse, it wasn't even anything she could bring him to account over without sounding like some kind of insensitive monster. Decorated war hero. Lost a leg in the line of duty. He'd gone from a runny-nosed kid needing his big sister to someone who by seeming-happenstance had eclipsed her career ambitions and outmatched every ounce of worth she had. And he'd done it with mother's blessing. Salt in the wound.

And with all of that, she couldn't say no. She was trapped by family and niceties and too many ties. Things were so much simpler when she had her own ship.

The comm was still beeping. T'yeellaa raised it to her lips, and hit the audio input.

"Arr'uhai."

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

T'yeellaa's voice came on the line like a sudden fork of lightning, and Cirr's ear's buoyed at once. He barely had the wherewithal to temporarily mute the line as he bolted for his seat to leave the bridge.

"Mjisterr Luka you have the conn..."

Cirr bolted before his second played twenty questions, pausing just outside the door of the bridge.

"Cirrsseeto?" the line queried in a tinny recreation of his older sister's voice. Captain Quez thumbed off the mute toggle.

"Rrou'ehi" there was something earnest and hopeful in his tone. Cirr leaned against the wall, staring into the vox as if she were in there somewhere.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

It was him. Older, certainly. But there was something so hopelessly boyish to his voice, at least to her. T'yeellaa tried to picture it fitting the perpetual three year old of her mind's eye. She couldn't quite put him back together.

Worse yet, what did she say now? Hello? How have you been? So how's married life - again? To a human? Do I call you Captain? T'yeellaa looked at Rai'faani's cheerful face, and she just couldn't. Not right now. She turned away from her and from Samus, taking a few paces away to herself.

"How arre you?"

Desperate to fill the awkward silence, it was the best she could do.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"E naat'sua tauaannee cho'ikaa taa so." so the saying went. She laughed. It sounded forced. So was his line.

"jI'm good. Actually betterr than good. jI'm herre at yourr statjion actually. We'rre pjickjing up Admjirral Tyrree."

Cirr shuffled on his feet, wetting his lips with a pressed tongue. He coughed out nerves politely away from the mic.

"jI have a day beforre we ljight out. Fjigurred we could..."

Captain Quez awkwardly tugged on an ear as he tried to make his words work. It never used to be this hard. She was always the one he could talk to first. His big sister. His protector.

"jI just wanna see you."

And get a hug. Cirr winced. He couldn't say what he wanted to say.

"jI mjiss you. Mjiss talkjing. We have so much..."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

...to talk about? Like commanding ships?

T'yeellaa could feel her ears pinning back. Could feel the anger boiling, tracing down her tail like a live wire. Indiscriminate, mean anger. Cruel emotion that didn't care who it wanted to hurt probably deserved it the least. Goddess-dammit!

"jI can't." She bit through in terse tone, hating herself for it. "jI'm, jit'ss compljicated. The sstatjion, we'rre sstjill plajyjing catch-up wjith rretrrofjitss and sstaffjing and the Commanderr hass me rrunnjing rragged."

Her oily, wicked lies. T'yeellaa screwed her eyes shut.

"Motherr'ss herre, jyou know."

And the cruelty. The implication. She loves you more anyway.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"Oh."

He blinked as his ears fell a measure. Cirr nodded along as if he was convincing himself of the lie.

"Well jI know how that goes."

Still nodding to convince, the Captain looked for the best way to salvage vulnerability.

"Kosa, jI've barrely gotten fjive hourrs of sleep myself."

His tone was all smiles, and it didn't match his face.

"Guess jit's bad tjimjing then. That happens. Maybe laterr then?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Maybe laterr then?

The boyish upspeak was there, just barely. She knew she'd hurt him, and that he didn't really believe her. And she had no idea how to fix it.

Maybe?
Yeah, sure thing.
Definitely.

She'd lost her stomach for the lies. Even the half ones.

"jI have to go now."

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"T'yeellaa, jI..."

The line clicked dead. The Captain wrapped his big hand fully over the vox, forming a fist as he softly beat the back of his head against the wall. The words just didn't come out right.

Cirrsseeto sighed the life out of him, and drew in breath anew. He didn't have time to feel this way.

[Q. Samus Dage]

He'd watched; watched her ears pin back, watched her shoulders tense. He'd seen the stance she cut, and knew it well. Maybe not in the same exact circumstances, but Samus Dage was no stranger to what he saw. He blinked, frowning as he stepped forward.

A hand fell gently upon her shoulder. He didn't try to turn her around, he simply let her know that he was there.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa felt the warm embrace on her shoulder. She didn't flinch from it. She'd grown accustomed to Samus in her orbit. It was strange how she relied on that touch now. Her hand reached up to wrap fingers around his.

Everything inside her was screaming. She'd made an awful mistake.

"jI need to go."

T'yeellaa pulled his hand off her shoulder gently. She pulled away from Samus, keeping him tethered by the hand for a step further so she could turn to face him with ambivalent expression, somewhere between I need you, but I have to go, and I don't want you coming after me.

Her fingers separated, and she pushed through the concourse scrum.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Rrou'ehi?"

Rai'faani was expecting T'y to pass the vox, or at least chat about her chat with their brother. The look on her face was pained, and Rai'fa quickened her pace to move past Samus.

"T'yeellaa? What'ss wrrong?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

The look on her face was one that he knew all too well also, and with a tightening of his features, Samus made a worried, but trusting face as he watched her leave. Their morning had become something else entirely, and while it was concerning, the blonde knew how it best to abide by T'yeellaa's wishes. If their roles were reversed, he knew that he would be much the same.

Rai'faani's move to step past him after her sister was arrested with a strong hand around her arm.

"No."

His grip was firm.

"Let her be."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

The younger Meorrrei flashed a petulant look up at T'yeellaa's human plaything. Her denial was out in front at this point. They may have had a connection (whatever that was) and were living la vai dai'ou but she wasn't about to let him counsel her on family matters. She shook out of his grasp with effort, but didn't bother trying to get by the human.

"And jusst what do jyou know? Huh?"

Rai'faani began to bite at a fingernail, her tail switching nervously.

"Ssomethjing jiss wrrong. Everrjythjing ussed to be ssjimple."

[Q. Samus Dage]

"I know enough," he grunted after a moment of thought.

There was no reason to lay bare any sort of background experiences with Rai'faani, but the girl certainly did make a succinct observation that was impossible to ignore.

"Simple has a way of growing into anything but."

His eyes tracked back up to stare in the direction that T'yeella had disappeared. A long sigh, and his hands stuffed themselves into the front pockets of his pants.

"Whatever is wrong with your sister, she needs to figure it out first. Helping someone who might not be ready for your help can sometimes be the worst thing to do."

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Her mouth was open with a quick retort, but it evaporated into nothing in her throat. Only a pitiful sigh. Then a laugh. The sort of half-resigned sort that acknowledged she let the chips fall and wasn't about to pick them up.

"Thejy werre rrealljy closse. jI mean, we all arre, but jI rrememberr T'yeellaa sstjickjing up forr Cirrsseeto ljike sshe wass on a mjisssjion. jI thjink sshe thought the worrld would hurrt hjim jif sshe djidn't. He wass rrealljy sshjy. Thejy'rre not ssuppossed to be sshjy."

[Q. Samus Dage]

His gaze moved back do to her.

For his own part, Dage had no sibling; he'd been an only child. The only people he'd considered close enough to be brothers were now both dead.

"What happened?"

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

"Cirrsseeto happened."

Rai's ears swayed up and down with a sigh, her brow knitting a little as she tried to figure out just where on that particular ball of yarn the loose thread lay.

"Motherr arrranged hjiss weddjing to a powerrful Barronesss sshe wanted to courrt favorr wjith. jIt wass a djissassterr. Cirrsseeto ssufferred becausse of jit."

The young Meorrrei girl glanced down to her feet and up again.

"jI djidn't thjink about jit then, but jI thjink T'yeellaa rrealljy hated motherr forr that. Jusst anotherr rreasson. And then when motherr rrealjized sshe had made a mjisstake..."

Did Samus really have any inkling what abyss he was dipping his toes into? Did T'yeellaa have any intention of showing him how deep it went?

"Ourr motherr jiss powerrful. And vengeful. jYou'rre jin the mjiljitarrjy, ne? jYou've kjilled beforre?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

Now that wasn't exactly the sort of question he'd been expecting out of the younger Meorrei, and Dage blinked away the mild shock.

He shifted his stance so that a good portion of his weight rested on one leg.

"I was fighting the Empire back when we were still in trenches. So yes, I've killed."

More than I'd like to have.

[Rai'faani Meorrrei]

Rai hesitated, seeing the change in Samus' demeanor. That was probably a question she should have avoided, but he'd chipped away at the cracks in the dam that both she and T'yeellaa knew all too well and no one was safe. The younger Meorrrei's mouth was dry. She reached in her purse, clutching at her little leaf box.

"jI doubt motherr hass."

She paused, as if considering her words. Her eyes narrowed in thought and she nodded as if to affirm herself.

"jI doubt jit. But sshe knowss how to desstrrojy them. Goddesss, sshe doess. jIt'ss herr bloodssporrt. Herr gjift. Sshe desstrrojyed that entjirre housse, and nearrljy Cirrsseeto wjith jit. He'ss got a betterr hearrt than we desserrve, and he forrgave herr forr jit."

Rai'faani opened her leaf box, twirling another leathery bit of jeeta between two fingers.

"And forr what? To be thrrown to the galactjic wjind. And ssomehow he doess well forr hjimsself, and motherr hass the audacjitjy to boasst of hjiss accompljisshmentss ljike thejy'rre herr own."

She placed the leaf of jeeta in her mouth, and began to chew.

"Sso jyou assk me what happened. Cirrsseeto looked up to T'yeellaa like no one elsse, and no one elsse hass ssufferred qujite ljike mjy brrotherr. And he ejitherr doessn't rrealjize jit, orr he'ss jusst carrjyjing jit along untjil one dajy jit kjillss hjim. How cheerrful."

[Q. Samus Dage]

Cheerful indeed. He'd known many men like that; always giving, never asking. Always ready to provide what they could even if it was the shirts off their backs. In the end, most of them had died. Whether in battle or simply crushed by the weight of too much charity. There was nothing wrong with it, but if a person didn't take a moment to be selfish they were destined for a premature trip to the grave. The unlucky ones had to watch the galaxy pass them by as they themselves wasted away into nothing.

Dage let out a breath from between his teeth.

"I've never met your brother face to face," he started, "... but I've heard stories about him from Captain s'Ilancy, and I did fight at his side over Ossus.

"He's a good man."

The seriousness in his voice stayed however, as he met Rai'faani's eyes.

"But I've seen good men run themselves into the arms of the Reaper just by giving too much to everyone but themselves."