Spoiler: siblings on the roof
Show
Oh.. so that's what it was. It was like a nagging concern Isaera had as well, but more like an afterthought in the back of her mind. But they were in survival mode, had been for quite some time. Even with this silver she brought, it was a small start, and may only be a reprieve, depending on luck and how thriftily they spent it.

But now Tarien had brought up a point that no one else had yet. Their family, their people had a great lineage. And now, the thought of losing it, and losing everyone...

"I'm scared," Isaera quietly said. It was impulsive. She had almost not said it out loud at all.

"I'm afraid I might never live up to our name, either. That if I go out there like Kalenaus, and father, I'll just.. I'll just be another casualty. And the thought of you all mourning..."

Her eyes watered as she looked at her brother, but she turned to look more vacantly at the sky. "We're lucky, compared to many other of our kin, to still have each other. I don't want to lose anyone else. Including me."

She gazed at her brother again, let down by her resignation to defeat. She didn't like the look of his disappointment. "Tarien, you aren't.." bad? excellent? How would she finish that sentence?

"You don't have to.." she sighed once again, unable to complete her sentence.

She sighed. "Listen, Tarien. Don't let my success keep you down, away from greatness. And don't let my failures push you beyond your limits. You- You are talented. Maybe not excellent. Not yet. You have centuries to improve. But combat-magic, hurling spells amidst a battlefield with.. I don't know.. orcs swarming at the shield wall and axes flying past you, and your dead kin all around.. that is not the singular way we measure you. You've more talent and heart than you realize. And the truth is.. this family would have fallen apart without you."

It was almost certain that the house wouldn't be in the process of a renovation, all the manual work wouldn't get done, her sister would have ran off, her mother would be wasting away, her cousins would be completely out of control... and Isaera would have no one to really talk to.