Private Naboo Revelation

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes


Dee'ja Peak, Naboo
Abrantes Estate — Nightfall​

The mountains always held a stillness after dark, but tonight it pressed closer, thicker and heavier ike a hand firmly on his shoulder. He stood at the terrace steps outside the estate, lanternlight spilling like molten gold across the marble. Soft glow painted columns, banisters, and shadows on familiar stone, yet his gaze stayed fixed beyond.

Out past the lanterns. Out into the night that did not move.

Dee'ja Peak stretched in sweeping ridgelines, sharp against a starless sky. Forests below rolled in dark waves, but their usual chorus of insects, branches, and nightbirds was silent. No motion. No sound. Just a hush, as if the world held its breath. Cassian's fingers brushed his cloak clasp, cool metal biting his palm. He wasn't a Jedi. He couldn't feel the Force. He was a soldier, a High Republic general, forged by discipline, grit, and battle.

Yet something tonight felt…off. Not wrong or dangerous. Just quietly, unsettlingly present, like an unseen awareness among the mountains, watching. Waiting.

He breathed the cold air, letting it burn his lungs. The estate behind him hummed, and his family's voices drifted from the windows. He could hear Sibylla inside, speaking with Caleb, her tone as controlled and elegant as always. They'd both been summoned home. Not for ceremony, nor for celebration. However, it would begin with a dinner that would be preceded by a discussion beforehand. As Abrantes' parlance, that could mean anything, from Naboo politics to trade disputes, to a personal matter his mother wished to address before the toast.

Whatever the reason, Cassian could not shake the sensation that the estate felt different tonight.

Quieter.

Older.

As if the mountain had exhaled a warning he couldn't fully hear. He scanned the tree line, studying shadows beyond torchlight. The silence felt brittle, like frost on a windowpane, making the hairs on his arms lift beneath his sleeves. He tried to pinpoint the feeling. He couldn't, and that bothered him more than anything.

He shifted, boots crunching on gravel. Dee'ja Peak had raised him; he knew its winds, wildlife, and moods. He'd camped, hunted, raced speeder trails with Sibylla. This was home. Yet tonight, it felt like something unfamiliar had slipped between its familiar bones. Something not meant for the eyes of soldiers or nobles.

Cassian tightened his jaw. "I'm imagining things," he muttered, though he didn't believe it.

Behind him, the doors opened with a soft groan of polished hinges. Warm light brushed over the back of his cloak.

"Master Abrantes?" came Caleb's voice, rough, stoic, yet a hint of gentleness all the same. "Alistair is ready for you both."

He didn't turn right away.

Instead, he allowed himself one last look into the mountain darkness, into that strange, poised stillness clinging to the woods. Whatever was out there, whatever presence had roused his instincts…It wasn't done with him.

Only then did he straighten, his expression returning to the calm expected of a general, a son of House Abrantes. He stepped toward the light, leaving the silence behind him.

But as he passed through the doors of the estate, he couldn't shake the feeling that the silence wasn't staying behind; it was following.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Dee'ja Peak, Naboo
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall

Sibylla paused mid-sentence as Caleb's silhouette crossed the doorway, the lanternlight catching on the older man's shoulders. Not far behind, the purposeful steps of Cassian Abrantes drew her attention. But something in his expression made her straighten.

It was the way he moved. The purpose in his gait. He moved like a soldier called to attention but not for battle but something else, able to read the subtle tension in his shoulders and the way his jaw set just a little too tight. Cassian did not spook easily. Not by weather. Not by silence. Not by shadows.

And yet....

"Cassian?" she asked softly as he reached her, the delicate arch of her dark brows tipping with a faint crease of concern. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

It was a gentle tease, but her eyes searched his face with more care than humor. She'd grown up on these mountains too. She knew the moods of the Peak and the way its winds whispered stories and its forests never truly slept.

Tonight, even she had felt the quiet press against the windows.

She touched his forearm, light but grounding.

"Is everything alright?"

Having their father call for them wasn't unusual, but the urgency of the matter did weigh heavily in Sibylla's mind. But even then, it was Cassian's expression that honestly concerned her more.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Dee'ja Peak, Naboo
Abrantes Estate — Nightfall
Sibylla Abrantes
​

Cassian drew in a slow breath before answering, his eyes fixed on her as he showed a small smile, but it was easily taken away by the warning in his heart. The estate's light, warm and golden, never quite reached the depth of the unease coiled in his chest.

"Not ghosts, sister," he said at last, voice low, steady, but heavier than usual. "I don't believe in omens, but this feeling is weighing on me heavily."

He shifted his weight slightly, one hand behind his back, and the other, he gently placed around his sister, giving her a small, gentle hug. It grounded him, but only a little.

"But something is wrong," Cassian continued, choosing words with the care of a field report. "Not just on the Peak tonight. Not only the forests or the quiet."

Tension threaded through his voice, signaling his growing apprehension. Subtle, but unmistakable.

"It's been… everywhere. Persistent. Like a note you can't quite catch, but always present when silence settles."

He looked down briefly. His jaw tightened. Then he lifted his gaze again.

"My room at the barracks, no one says it out loud, but the soldiers move…" Cassian paused as he looked over to her. As if he was even trying to understand what he was saying. "There's this undercurrent. A restlessness."

He took a deep breath, controlled and relaxed.

"And in Moenia, at the Intelligence office? The analysts were tense. Not fearful, but vigilant. It's as if something in the data skews the patterns, an untraceable glitch in the machines."

He shook his head, sharp and inward-facing.

"I've tried blaming overwork. A slump in morale. But when I stepped onto Dee'ja Peak tonight, I knew it wasn't only me. The mountain feels off. The air. The silence."

He paused, letting the truth settle.

"I'm not a Jedi warrior; I can't feel the force. I don't pretend to understand it." Cassian hesitated, his voice softening to a thoughtful, grim near-whisper, vulnerability apparent. "But something is shifting. And if I'm feeling it strongly…"

"…I don't think it's a coincidence."

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Dee'ja Peak, Naboo
Abrantes Estate — Nightfall
Cassian Abrantes

Hearing Cassian say it aloud made it real.

It prompted SIbylla to take an intake of breath before squaring her shoulders. She slipped her arm more firmly around him, returning his brief hug with a quiet squeeze of her own.

"You don't have to be a Jedi to sense when the ground shifts beneath your feet," she murmured low enough so that only he would hear, "You and I grew up on this mountain. We know it better than anyone. If it feels wrong… then something is wrong."

Tawny hazel eyes drifted toward the stillness pressing against the glass like a second skin.

"And if it isn't only here," she added softly, "then this is bigger than a mood of the Peak."

Maybe it was superstition. Maybe it was just the weather. Whatever it was, there was this weighing sense of foreshadowing that Sibylla couldn't quite push.

Could it be perhaps that the preparations were underway to try to locate and secure Kalantha? Or was it due to the murmurings she'd heard from the Nobility and the Great Houses regarding a sense of unrest within the Senate?

Or maybe it was just something closer to home as Cassian said with the intelligence agents in Moenia.

"Come, if anything, I am sure we will get a better understanding once we speak with Father." She told him, moving to walk with him towards their father's office.

 

[Elian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Cassian Abrantes
​

Elian Abrantes approached with the soft tread of someone who had long since mastered the art of arriving unnoticed in his own home, an ability honed not from stealth, but from years of drifting between study halls, archives, and late-night wanderings across the estate grounds. The lanternlight caught the edge of his cloak as he stepped into view, and he let his voice drop into a low, melodramatic whisper that echoed just enough in the hall to be theatrical.

"Cassssssiiiiiaaaannnn........................Siiibbbbbyyllllaaaaa." he intoned, drawing out the words like a ghost story told around a childhood hearth.

A heartbeat later, he broke into an easy laugh, warm, unhurried, as familiar as the cedarwood scent clinging to him. He slipped an arm around each of his siblings in a sweeping embrace, pulling them both close with the kind of casual affection that seemed to carry more weight now that the estate felt so still.

"You two," he said with a dramatic sigh, "Always look like you're preparing for craziness, rather than coming home for dinner."

He stepped back just enough to take them in, his grin softening into something genuinely fond. Elian had always been the one who could find humor in the cracks of tension, who refused to let the mountains' eerie calm, or the weight of House Abrantes expectations, sink its claws too deeply into him.

"You worry too much," he declared, lifting one brow in mock admonishment. "Honestly. Dee'ja Peak has always had its moods. A little quiet, a little wind, a strange feeling or two, it's part of living on a mountain older than our entire bloodline."

He swept a glance toward the tall windows, where only a sliver of moonlight slipped through the curtains.

"Besides," he added with a light shrug, "Half the estate staff thinks the mountain spirits are restless whenever the weather shifts. The other half blames old Naboo myths. And I, personally, blame the dry air and the fact that this house absorbs every sound like it's made of thick wool."

Elian's smile widened, teasing but warm.

"Take a breath. Relax. We're home. And whatever Father wants to talk about, it can't be so dire that the three of us can't handle it."

He clapped a hand against his own chest with flourish.

"And if it is dire, well, fortunately for this family, you have me. Resident voice of reason, master of calm, breaker of tension, and, might I add, champion of dramatic entrances."

His eyes glimmered with mischief, the kind of spark that had followed him since childhood.

"Now then," he said lightly, "How about we save doom and gloom for after dinner? I hear the chefs made something incredible tonight, and I, for one, refuse to face familial catastrophes on an empty stomach."

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Dee'ja Peak, Naboo
Abrantes Estate — Nightfall
Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes

Sibylla stopped mid-step when Elian's drawn-out whisper reached her. For a moment she simply stared at him, then let out a long sigh and pressed her fingers to her temple.

"Shiraya above," she muttered, rolling her eyes before looking back at him with an incredulous, exasperated stare.

She stepped forward and lightly tapped the back of his head with her knuckles.

"This is not merely a dinner, you silly Gualara," she said, unable to hide the hint of amusement. "Truly, you behave as if you had been rehearsing for the Theed Opera rather than walking into your own home."

Elian only grinned, which made the young woman even more exasperated.

Sibylla crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow as he went on about mountain moods and myths. If he knew the truth, that the gods were real and that she had met Shiraya's vessel Vere and Set themselves, he would probably have refused to believe a word of it.

He was better off not knowing. At least tonight.

"Oh, so that is your plan?" she asked. "Dinner first, then Father, or are you simply hoping to fill your stomach before he launches into whatever lecture he has prepared for us?" Her tone stayed teasing, but she did genuinely want to know. Their father did not summon them for nothing.

Those hazel eyes swept over Elian's ruffled mop of chestnut hair and his ridiculous wide grin.

"And where, precisely, are you coming from?" she asked, suspicion and affection mixing easily as the topic was shifted to Elian. "The Academy? The Veruna Estate? Or some other trouble you think I will be far too distracted to notice?"

She took a small step closer, chin lifting in scrutiny.

"Go on, Elian," she said, eyes narrowing with sisterly mischief. "Explain yourself before Cassian and I imagine something far worse than the truth."

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Elian Abrantes
​

As it always had, the smallest of smirks appeared on his face, how his brothers antics were able to get that smile and even then a light chuckle. He felt Elians arm around him, as the eldest looked to Sibylla with a small shake of his head.

Smile on his face all the same, but then...

Cassian's expression didn't shift much at his brother's theatrics ended, but the faint exhale through his nose gave away a restrained sigh. He adjusted the fall of his cloak across his shoulders, posture straightening back into something closer to parade-ground readiness than family comfort. The estate's lanternlight washed across his features, sharpening the quiet resolve already settled there.

"Elian," he said, tone low but firm, "I appreciate the enthusiasm. But at least try to take this seriously."

His gaze swept toward the corridor that led deeper into the estate, where the muted rumble of their father's voice had just echoed, a single, resonant call that carried the unmistakable weight of expectation.

"These aren't the sort of meetings Father arranges on a whim," Cassian continued, voice steady, disciplined. "And not the kind he interrupts our duties for unless he considers the matter significant."

He let the words rest a moment, not harsh, simply honest. The kind of straightforward truth he had learned on starships, in briefing rooms, and across half-lit battlefields.

"I don't think we can afford to laugh this off, not this time."

He stepped forward as the door to the private study opened, the warm glow within spilling across the polished stone floor. Alistair Abrantes' silhouette stood framed in the entryway, upright, composed, unmistakably waiting.

Cassian rolled his shoulders back, aligning instinctively to the posture of a man prepared for whatever lay ahead.

"Come on," he murmured, more an instruction than an invitation. "Father's ready. And whatever he has to say, it deserves our full attention."

With that, he moved toward the study, leading his siblings, he opened the door, and held it open for them. "Good evening, Father."

*********

Alistair Abrantes stood with both hands braced lightly on the back of his chair, the glow of the hearth catching in the silver threading his hair. Though age had touched his features, it had not diminished the force of his presence, his posture still carried the unmistakable authority of a man who had shaped half of Dee'ja Peak's politics with little more than conviction and an unyielding spine.

As his children entered, the stern line of his mouth softened. He smiled, the warmth his children had seen many times before. He moved to give them a gentle hug.

"Good," he said, voice low and resonant, filling the study with a quiet gravity. "You're here. All of you. Sit, please. Humor an old man and his wishes. I am grateful you've come home, to share a meal with your Father and Mother."

His gaze moved across them one by one, a measure of pride, affection, and the faint shadow of concern all woven behind the keen, sharp intelligence in his eyes. Only once they settled did he lower himself into his chair with a careful, deliberate motion. When he spoke again, his voice carried a subtle shift, the tone of family matters giving way to the tone of House business.

"There are things we must speak of before dinner," Alistair began, fingers folding atop the table. "The situation on Farstine has worsened."

The fire cracked softly, the only sound in the brief pause that followed.

"Trade disputes that were once merely irritating have escalated into something more dangerous. Trade routes shifting. Supply lines disrupted. A string of targeted attacks."

He exhaled through his nose, controlled, measured.

"And at the center of it, tangled in every report and every whisper, is House Veruna. Particularly, Thessaly's name keeps coming up."

The name hung in the air with the weight of decades-long history. Alistair's jaw tightened just slightly, but he turned, directing his attention fully toward Sibylla. When he spoke, his voice softened, not gentler, but more deliberate. This was the way he spoke to a peer, not a child.

"My reach only extends so far," he said quietly. "My eyes and ears speak truth, but not the whole truth. Farstine is not merely a trade issue, there is something else going on." His gaze sharpened. "You are the Queen of Naboo."

It wasn't an accusation, reminder. Merely a statement of the fact, clear as the crest carved in the stone abve the hearth.

"What else is happening there?" he asked.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

Sibylla sat a little straighter as her father spoke, the fire's warm glow doing very little to ease the tight coil forming beneath her ribs. Her expression remained composed, but her thoughts drifted to darker places.

Aurelian's pale exhaustion after Parrlay. The assassins who had nearly taken both their lives. The twisted, deliberate lies inside the Farstine ledger. And how every thread, every whisper, pointed in the same direction. Farstine.

She drew in a steady breath and lifted her gaze to her father.

"The situation is far more tangled than mere trade disputes, Father," she began, her tone polite yet laced with careful precision, the faintest edge of wit beneath the composure. "Farstine is not simply mismanaging its affairs. It is artfully manipulating them."

Her hands folded neatly in her lap as she continued.

"We uncovered shipments rerouted through shadow channels, investors who appear only long enough to vanish and laundering buried beneath agricultural accounts. The damage is not random. It is placed with remarkable intention, striking the very sectors that feed into the Royal Treasury."

Sibylla paused and the motion drew not only her father's but Cassian's attention. Her hazel eyes drifted briefly from Cassian and then Elian before return to her father.

"And there were attacks upon us," she added in a quiet tone, "Assassins hired through enough cutouts to make any investigator doubt their own notes. Yet the trail bends, however faintly, back toward Farstine aligned interests. Not directly, of course. That would be far too simple."

Lord Abrantes gave a slow questioning blink at that revelation, concerned of course, but not surprised, even if the slightest flash of fire burned in his eyes. Assassination attempts now that Sibylla was Interim Queen were not unheard of, but even then, a father worries. Sibylla quickly spoke to clarify and assure both her brothers and her father.

"I do not think we can blame this on coincidence," she went on. "The sabotage, the targeted shortages, the quiet unrest in Moenia, even a few of the Royal Houses and vassals' peculiar tensions. They form a pattern if one cares to look for it."

She drew in another breath slowly before adding.

"And I suspect someone is using Thessaly's associations as a most convenient veil. Whether they are complicit or merely careless remains to be seen, but they have been positioned as the perfect shield."

A pause and then she added thoughtfully.

"There is a larger design at work here, Father. Whoever is behind it has little regard for the consequences. Not for House Veruna, not for our family, and certainly not for Naboo."

Sibylla's voice softened into a more certain tone.

"Farstine is only the curtain. Someone else is moving the stage behind it."

It was then that Sibylla took a slow breath and added, even as her fingers lightly flexed in a faint slow of nervousness.

"To which is why I propose we utilize the resources and allies we have on hand.. as much as those willing to ask for assistance as well as offer it."

Sibylla swallowed hard and then made her pitch.

"Including Interm Chancellor Aurelian Veruna would be a benefit in utilizing what he has gathered on Farstine and how this is affecting trade. Not just with House Veruna but also regarding Thessaly."

It was a bold ask for certain, but the expression on Sibylla's face said that she truly believed it would be the best course.

It was just not every day the Daughter of an Abrantes requested their father to consider bringing in a Son of Veruna, a House at the heart of a centuries-long blood feud between both families.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes ​

Alistair Abrantes listened without interrupting. His features remained carved in stone at first, the practiced neutrality of a statesman who had weathered forty years of council chambers, border skirmishes, and more political ambushes than he cared to count. But as Sibylla spoke, layer after layer, his quiet stillness deepened into something heavier.

Recognition.

By the time she reached the word assassins, the candlelight had sharpened the lines around his eyes, and though he did not outwardly flinch, the briefest tremor, no more than a narrowing of one eyelid, betrayed him. A father's wound, tightly leashed.

When she finished, a long silence stretched between them, filled only by the pop of the firewood. Alistair leaned back slowly in his chair, folds of his dark robe shifting like shadowed tides. His gaze studied Sibylla for several breaths, not as a daughter, but as the Queen of Naboo.

And then, his response came low, thoughtful, and edged with the weight of old history carried in the bones.

"You speak of a pattern," he said. "And you are right. This has the shape of design, not chaos."

His fingers tapped once against the carved arm of his chair.

"Farstine has always been reckless, but not ambitious. Not cunning. They do not weave shadows like this." His gaze drifted toward the hearth for a moment, jaw tightening. "Someone is giving them confidence, cover. Or both."

When Sibylla proposed bringing Aurelian into the fold, Alistair's eyes did not widen, but something in him went perfectly still. A moment of suspended breath, equal parts disbelief, calculation, and the old, bitter reflex of a man who had lost too much to the House she named.

Alistair looked over to Cassian, his eldest, regarding his words truly and carefully.

"What say you, Cassian?"

Cassian leaned back in the chair, taking a deep breath as his hand raised to his chin. He already knew his answer. Given everything that had happened between them, revelations that were made. Truths that were finally revealed.

"There was a time when I would've said that is the most foolish idea I've heard in my life." The General glanced over to Sibylla briefly and to Elian. "Sibylla trusts him, and believes in him. I believe we should too. We can't fight a war if the house are tearing each other apart. We need each other."

Alistair, slowly, almost imperceptibly, he leaned forward in his chair. "But to bring him into this?" Alistair's voice lowered, grave. "To give a Veruna visibility into an Abrantes investigation, into our vulnerabilities, our fears, our suspicions, requires more than trust. It requires certainty."

He met Sibylla's gaze directly.

"Do you believe Aurelian Veruna capable of loyalty beyond his bloodline?"

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

Sibylla took a slow, steady breath but not one of hesitation, no, but to ensure her answer carried the clarity and sound judgment the moment and her father demanded. She could not afford to let her emotions drown out the sensible truth. Not here, not in this room, and certainly not before her father, who had weathered more storms than any of them combined.

And whose opinion and guidance she held above reproach, above anyone.

So when Sibylla lifted her gaze, her voice was steady.

"I do," she said, and the simplicity of it carried more weight than a speech of a thousand words.

A second breath followed, allowing her to gather her bearings before she continued.

"But before I explain why, I want to be clear on one thing. It would be dishonest to pretend I have no feelings for Aurelian Veruna . You all know where my affections lie. I will not insult any of you by pretending otherwise."

Saying it aloud, before her father and brothers, was far more difficult than speaking it on a Senate floor. Her cheeks warmed but she did not look away. Instead, she straightened her back, folded her hands neatly in her lap, and let her composure settle as if facing the Senate floor.

"My feelings are not the measure by which I am making this judgment," she began to explain quietly but in a firm tone. "And they will not be the measure by which I advise our House or Naboo."

She paused, letting the shift in her tone signal that she was speaking now not just as a daughter or sister, but as the Voice and Interim Queen of Naboo.

"Had you asked me this in the weeks following the Mandalorian attack on Dee'ja Peak," she continued, "I would have called the idea reckless. Even foolish. Aurelian was not a man I trusted then."

Hazel eyes softened with memory but her words remained firm.

"But I have seen him lead through our interactions with Mandalorians, the Confederacy, Black Sun, and the Empire. He has shown not only decisiveness, but also restraint. Not only strength, but discernment. He has acted for Naboo's prosperity and stability, not merely for House Veruna's advantage, and certainly not for his own comfort."

Sibylla felt her father's gaze sharpen, but she pressed on.

"And more than that… when his father ordered my assassination, he did not turn away. He confronted Remus Veruna himself." She swallowed once. "He turned him in. There may be some who would call it a power play, but I believe him when he said he would not have allowed his father to kill me."

For a heartbeat, silence. Only the fire gave a soft crackling that cut the din.

"But that act alone is not why I trust him."

Her eyes met Alistair's directly.

"I trust Aurelian because he has shown -- again and again -- that he is willing to listen. To change course when wisdom demands it. To take counsel and apply it, even when it contradicts his own desires. That isn't to say he is perfect, far from it. But no one is. He is willing to admit his mistakes and work to address them with me, not in spite of my name, but in addition to it. That is loyalty beyond bloodline. That is loyalty to Naboo."

And while Sibylla's breath gave the slightest of tremors, her voice did not.

"I make no apologies for his past, nor for the reputation that clung to him or his House. But I will say this with full certainty: Aurelian is not Remus Veruna's shadow. His actions over the past years have proven it."

She let her hands clasp together more tightly.

"And if Thessaly is involved in this conspiracy, then she is not only targeting us, but him. She would kill her own brother to seize House Veruna. The evidence points toward it. Her ambition is well known, as is her hatred for our House. The attacks against Cassian are proof of that."

Sibylla drew in one last breath.

"Aurelian seeks not to destroy us, Father. He seeks to end this feud once and for all, before it consumes us both. If he is offering help and asking for it in return, then we would be wise to accept."

Softly, she finished.

"But before we move forward, I must ask my own question." Her voice gentled, though a quiet fire still burned beneath it.

"Where do you stand with House Veruna? With Aurelian himself, not as Remus' son, but as the man he has chosen to become?"

She searched her father's face, the answer she needed resting somewhere behind the steel of his eyes.

"For my part is clear. But yours, Father… yours will decide how we proceed."

 

[Elian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Cassian Abrantes
​

Alistair Abrantes did not answer immediately.

In the long, quiet stretch that followed Sibylla's question, the fire seemed to dim, as though the hearth itself recognized the gravity in the room. Shadows moved across the elder statesman's face, older shadows, decades old, carved in the fault lines beneath his eyes and along the hardened set of his jaw.

He drew a slow breath and let it fill his chest before he exhaled again, measured, controlled. Not hesitant. Reflective.

"I hold a long, complex, and often adversarial history with House Veruna, shaped most sharply by its former patriarch, Remus Veruna, a man I considered one of the greatest political threats Naboo had ever allowed to flourish."

Alistair had always hiddend his disdain for Remus. "Remus is cold, calculating, and ruthlessly ambitious, a man whose mastery of manipulation make him far more dangerous than any off-world enemy. His influance is a blight on the Royal Houses, at sickening disease that wears the mask of Nobility."

Alistair stood up and moved towards the small table against the wall, and there held several bottles of different whiskeys. The father pulled four glasses and slowly poured as he spoke. "House Abrantes and House Veruna have clashed several times on political fronts and other matters of Influence. I hate to say that the hatred that bore within our houses against each other, have bled its way into our generation of family. While some have shown undestanding it seems."

The father in turn gave them all a glass, as he settled on Sibylla last, raising his glass. He gave her a smile and a small wink. However his mood turned cold when he mentioned Thessaly Veruna.

"Thessaly was once full of promise and prestige, her life was twisted under her fathers expectations, a means to an end for his own dark ambitouns." Alistair looked over to where Cassian was sitting, staring at his eldest son with a straight expression on his face, yet there was the smallest glimmer of sadness that showed on his face. That some might not be able to pinpoint.

"At one point, she could've been better. But now she plays her hand, and acts against our family, by trying to claim the life of my eldest son." He looked between Sibylla and Elian. "Who's next, either of you?" The Lord responded quickly and swiftly. "No, this lioness will not walk into the wolves den, and not pay the consequences. She is an enemy that is now beyond diplomacy. The price of her actions makes the path of mercy, diminish to nothing."

Alistair rubbed his bearded chin for a moment, before he took a seat back in his chair and taking a small drink from the glass.

"Aurelian is......different." He set the glass down, his hands finding each other once more, leaning back in his chair.


"Aurelian's choice to turn against his father." Alistair chuckled lightly, scracthing his beard just slightly. "That's a move straight out of his own fathers playbook. It was bold, dangerous and undeniably intelligent. Yet I see something in Aurelian, as I watched what he does. I believe that Aurelian is not his father." He regarded his next words carefully, and truly. "He does possess the capacity to become far darker, far more formidable than Remus ever was. But he also carries the potential to become somthing far better, something good. He stands at a crossroads that you were all on at one point."

He looked over to Sibylla. "When you made the choice to support Aurelian and withdraw from the race." He looked over to Cassian showing him a small smile. "When you made the choice to sacrifice love for the safety and well being of your family." His eyes lingered on his Eldest son for a few moment before he turned to Elian. "And you, when you made the choice to lie about your eyesight." Alistair raised his hands to stop Elian from saying something, as he was about to do.

"The point is, those were all your choices. We do no control you, we will show you the paths. And it will be up to you to forge them as you see fit. I would just hope that your mother and I have imparted enough strength, courage, honor and wisdom in all of you. To ensure that you made good decent choices."


"Aurelian Veruna is not his father." he said firmly. "And I don't hold him as an enemy."


A faint breath. Almost humanizing. The words were simple. But their meaning, in a feud as old as theirs, was seismic.

"And you," he added, gaze softening only slightly as it rested on Sibylla's "Have proven time and again that your judgment is sound. If you believe Aurelian's loyalty lies with Naboo, then I will trust that faith."

He leaned forward, voice dropping into something more measured, more dangerous.

"But understand me, Sibylla. If we bring him into this, he becomes part of our shield and our vulnerability. You will hear me as a father." A rare emotion flickered in his eyes, fear, buried so deep it almost didn't surface.

"If you trust him with your heart… then the stakes grow infinitely higher. As for where I stand?" he concluded, his voice returning to steel.
"I stand with you. And I stand with Naboo."

A final, steady nod.

"And if Aurelian Veruna is willing to fight for both, then he will find no enemy in this house."

*******

Elian accepted the glass from his father with a flourish as though he were receiving a royal artifact rather than a well-aged whiskey. He held it up to the firelight, letting the amber liquid glow like molten gold behind the crystal. His gaze narrowed in exaggerated scrutiny, as if he were inspecting a suspicious specimen under a magnifier.

He tilted the glass one way, then the other, eyes following the swirl of the whiskey with theatrical seriousness.

"As the resident expert in… absolutely nothing related to politics," he murmured with mock gravity, "I can at least confirm this looks safe."

The corner of his mouth curled, mischief sparking to life.

He lifted the glass a little higher, squinting through the rim as though the swirling drink might reveal a secret about their future, or at least about the immediate comfort of the next few moments.

When the whiskey caught the firelight just right, Elian's grin widened, warm and irrepressible. With the ease of someone who took joy in diffusing a room thick with tension, he declared brightly:

"Hear, hear!"

The words rang with a laugh, not mocking but celebratory, an affirmation, a toast, a reminder that even heavy truths were easier faced with warmth and family at one's side. He clinked his glass lightly against the nearest one, then took a generous sip, savoring it like he'd just solved a great mystery.

"Excellent vintage," he added under his breath with a satisfied hum, as though this too were a matter of state importance. He giggled lightly and took in a big deep breath. "This is exciting, you know all of this secret meeting stuff. We should definetly do it more often. I do think we should bring mom in next time, and perhaps Caleb. They might feel left out from our super secret meetings."

For a moment, the weight in the room eased, softened by Elian's unabashed, charming sprit, just enough for the fire to seem brighter and the shadows less daunting.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

Her father had not just answered her question.

He had opened a door that generations of Abrantes before him had kept locked.

He didn't hold Aurelian as an enemy.

There was a weight of relief that lifted from Sibylla then. She hadn't realized how much she had worried and wondered what her father thought of Aurelian, of House Veruna and Thessaly. Certainly, he kept a lot of what he thought to himself, or a select few passed on to Cassian.

Hearing him say aloud what he truly thought of it all brought a soft smile to her face, but also one of piqued curiosity. Not at her father, no, but at the way Lord Abrantes had turned his gaze towards Cassian when he had spoken of sacrificing love for the safety and well being of their family.

What had that been about?

The look Sibylla gave to Cassian indicated that she'd be asking him about it later.

Not that it took long for Elian to utterly distract her and draw everyone's attention towards him with his tomfoolery.

"Goodness, Elian, really, must you make a joke out of everything?" she told him, shaking her head but also unable to help herself be amused by his antics. Although, she also felt a wave of relief that father did know exactly what was going on with Elian. She wondered what he thought of his antics and just how much he truly knew, but that was for another discussion with her father as well.

"Although he is right... mother might mutiny and make all of us partake in hosting her next Harvest Festival." They all laughed at that. Truth be told, Elian's lightheartedness had lightened the air enough to be more comfortable than strictly serious.

As it was, Sibylla took and another breath, and before she could let the moment pass she spoke.

"Thank you," she said softly, looking first at Alistair, then at Cassian and Elian. "For your trust, and for hearing me."

She straightened in her chair, folding one hand over the other in her lap.

"You are right, Father. Bringing Aurelian into this will make him both our ally and a potential vulnerability...I do not take that lightly."

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the fire, but not in hesitation just in gathering the right words.

"But neither do I take lightly the choice he has made to step away from his father's shadow. I have seen the crossroads he stands upon, watched him struggle between the legacy he was born into and the legacy he wishes to build."

She turned back toward her father fully, meeting his eyes.

"I believe Aurelian can be more than the son of Remus Veruna. More than the heir to a feud older than any of us. And if Naboo is to weather what is coming, then we need to choose those who we believe are part of Naboo's path forward...if he fights for Naboo, then he will find no enemy in this house."

And that's when she made the proposal.

"So, with that in mind, so that you can be a witness for yourself. I would like to invite Aurelian over for dinner, maybe even a few days. So you can all get to know him properly."

Eyes were cast over in Cassian's direction.

"Not just see the polished version but the one I am familiar with... flaws and all. And make a better determination there. He wants to come meet with you all as well."

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Elian Abrantes ​

Alistair Abrantes did not move at first. The fire crackled, the amber of Elian's whiskey gleamed, the mountain wind pressed faintly against the windows, and yet every particle of the room seemed to still as Sibylla spoke her final words.

Invite Aurelian, over for dinner? For a few days, at Abrantes Estate?

For a long breath, Alistair simply regarded his daughter, the weight of her proposal reflected in the lines that had deepened along his brow over a lifetime of command. And then, quietly… something shifted in his posture.

Acceptance. Measured, thoughtful and real.

"We will meet him," Alistair said. "Properly. As you suggest."

He did not say he will judge him. He did not say he will test him. The absence of those words was meaningful.

"I will see him as the man you believe he is. Very well," he said. "Extend the invitation."


"Then it's settled," Cassian lifted his glass in silent acknowledgment of his sister's words, the faintest smile curving his mouth small, controlled, but undeniably genuine. It wasn't the grin Elian wore so easily, nor the polished warmth Sibylla had perfected over years of diplomacy. It was Cassian's own quiet version, the kind that surfaced only when something struck him deeper than he let on.

He took a measured sip of the whiskey, letting its warmth settle into him. The blend was familiar, one of his father's preferred bottles, aged long enough to carry a depth that lingered on the tongue. A steadying drink, one that grounded him in a way words rarely did.

As laughter and conversation sparked again around the table, Cassian's gaze drifted toward the doorway. The weight of the discussion, the revelations, the history laid bare, it all pressed against him in a way that felt tighter than his uniform's collar.

He set his glass down just long enough to incline his head to each of them father, brother, sister, an unspoken 'excuse me' woven into the gesture. Then he stepped away from the table and made for the hallway with a deliberate calm, retrieving the whiskey glass on his way like a man taking a familiar companion with him.

The moment he crossed into the corridor, the air changed. It was quieter, cooler and less crowded with the gravity of family, politics and more importantly old wounds resurfacing

The gentle hum of the estate at night echoed faintly, distant footfalls of staff, the soft pop of lantern-flames, the muted whisper of Dee'ja Peak's winds threading through cracks in the stone. Out here, the walls didn't listen so closely. They didn't judge. They didn't expect.

Cassian drew a slow breath, letting the whiskey's warmth anchor him as the hush of the hallway wrapped around him like a cloak. Here, where only the estate shadows and the mountain silence kept company, he felt the tightness in his chest begin to ease.

It didn't fade entirely, but loosen.

He took another sip, leaning one shoulder lightly against the wall, the cool stone balancing the heat in his palm from the glass.

Solitude didn't scare him. He'd spent years with it, on transports between deployments, in barracks after lights-out, in intelligence briefings where he was the only one brave enough to question the data. Solitude was predictable. Honest. It didn't ask anything of him but breath.

And right now, it suited him far better than the sharp emotions and tangled hopes spilling through that study. A faint exhale escaped him, almost a sigh, but not quite.

"Solidarity," he murmured under his breath, lifting the glass slightly in a small, private toast to no one but the quiet.

For now, this stillness was his ally.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

There was a warm, quiet rush of relief that washed over Sibylla as soon as she heard those eight words.

We will meet him, properly. As you suggest.

The fact that her father agreed to meet Aurelian Veruna at all, to consider seeing him as the man she believed him to be, stole a sharp breath from her lungs, one that she held only to exhale in a soft whossh of relief.

And then the smile that bloomed across her face was practically incandescent. It brightened her entire countenance in a way her family had not seen in far too long. Ever since she stepped into politics, Sibylla had learned to dim herself, to keep her bearing, her expression cordial, her opinions tempered, her reactions mild. A necessity, she once believed, so they could not be used against her, her House, or her reputation.

But that kind of self-restraint was not the whole of who she was. And every day, especially beside Aurelian, she was learning what it meant to reclaim the parts of herself she had quieted.

"Thank you, Father," Sibylla said, rising from her seat as Cassian affirmed the decision with a steady it is settled.

Elian chimed in with some lighthearted remark, but it barely reached their sister before Sibylla moved, crossing the room to wrap her arms around her father in a tight, joyful hug. Lord Abrantes paused, but not in surprise, but in the muted but understanding compassion a father understood when it came to their daughter. The abruptness of it warmed every heart present, even Alistair's typically collected composure softening in response.

Outside the study, Cassian stood alone for a moment, murmuring something about solidarity under his breath when another warm voice drifted from behind.

"So I see my eldest son has decided to grace us with his handsome presence," Lady Callista Abrantes said warmly as she stepped out into the cooler corridor, adjusting her fur coat around her shoulders. She came to stand beside him as she noticed the official conversation had come to an end.

A soft, amused smile curved over her face, but as she came to stand beside him, she brought her hand up, moving to cup Cassian's scruffy cheek, her thumb brushing lightly in that instinctive way only a mother could manage.

Concern deepened the warm green of her eyes as she studied him, reading the darkened circles and additional lines of tension on his face as unspoken burdens in a single glance.

"You have not been sleeping well," she murmured. "I can tell."

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Elian Abrantes ​

Alistair's arms came around her slowly at first, then with steady strength, pulling her close with the unabashed protectiveness only a father could hold. His chin touched the top of her head, eyes drifting closed. The scent of her hair, the warmth of her cheek against his shoulder, it was a reminder of how much he cherished, and how much he feared losing.

"My daughter," he murmured, the words slipping out with surprising gentleness. "I am proud of you," he said quietly. "Of the leader you are becoming. And of the woman you have chosen to be."

He glanced briefly toward Cassian, who still lingered by the hallway, and then to Elian, whose grin could have lit the room by itself. A rare warmth softened his features.

"This family is stronger together than apart," he added, voice firm but warm. "If you believe Aurelian worthy of standing beside us, then I will judge him with clear eyes and honest measure."

He released Sibylla gently, his hand brushing her cheek in a gesture almost mirror to Callista's.

"I promise."


****************

Cassian blinked at the unexpected voice, the quiet of the corridor parting like a curtain as his mother stepped into it. He straightened instinctively, an old habit, ingrained in him since childhood, but the stiffness eased the moment Lady Callista's familiar presence settled beside him.

She always carried warmth with her, even out here in the cooler air, as if the mountain winds bent around her instead of touching her.

"You don't mean that." Cassian said with a small smirk and a teasing tone, as a means to deflect what she was seeing from him.

When her hand lifted, Cassian didn't flinch. He never had. She cupped his cheek with the same ease she had when he was a boy returning scraped and bruised from climbing the ravine trails. Her thumb traced lightly through the short scruff along his jaw, and despite everything, war rooms, impossible decisions, ghosts of battles both political and actual. Cassian felt his worries, slip away.

He met her eyes, and the depth of understanding there struck harder than any of the political discussions he'd just walked away from.

"I'm fine, Mother," Cassian said quietly. But his voice lacked its usual steel. He knew it. She certainly knew it. So with a small sigh, he let the truth settle without flourish or defense. "It's been… a long few months," he admitted, gaze drifting briefly down the dim corridor. "Longer than I expected. And sleep has never been one of my stronger skills."

He offered her a small, almost self-deprecating smile, the kind only she ever coaxed out of him.

"There's a lot happening. On Moenia. Even in the barracks." He swirled the whiskey in his glass once, watching the amber surface catch the lanternlight. "It feels like something's shifting, and I can't quite get ahead of it."

His expression softened, tiredness shaping the edges of his words.

"And if I stop moving, people will get hurt." he added quietly, "My mind just refuses to let me rest." Cassian lifted his gaze back to hers, steady, honest, and unguarded in a way he was with almost no one else.

"But you don't need to worry," he said gently, the corner of his mouth tilting upward. "I've faced worse than sleepless nights."

Despite the attempted lightness, there was a quiet truth beneath it.

"What about you, are you and father doing okay?" Cassian's mind drifted to the most recent attack against him, and what was uncovered. He knew the family was aware of it.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

Lady Callista watched her son with that quiet, uncanny perception only a mother possessed. Cassian's words might have fooled a colleague, a soldier under his command, even a Senator. But not her. Never her.

The smirk he offered, the way he deflected with humor, the slight lift of his chin as though to reclaim control of the moment -- they were habits she had watched form from boyhood into manhood. Shields he raised without thinking.

And lately, those shields had been staying up far too often.

"My sweet boy," she murmured, the ache beneath her words gentle but unmistakable, "you have never fooled me with that smile."

Her hand lingered on his cheek just long enough for him to soften before she let it fall, smoothing the front of his coat with slow, thoughtful motions. The kind of gesture that gave her an excuse to stay close without forcing him to speak before he was ready. She plucked a bit of imaginary lint from his lapel, then another, her brow knitting with both fondness and concern.

"You say it has been a long few months," she said softly, "but I think it has been longer than that. Much longer."

Her eyes lifted to his, warm and searching.

"You used to come home between rotations. Even for an hour. Even just to check in. But this past year, it feels as though the mountain sees you less and less." Her voice softened to something almost wistful.

"Your father and I know duty keeps you busy. But this… this feels like more than duty."

She brushed her fingertips along the edge of his coat collar, then rested her palm gently against the center of his chest.

"And I remember what you told me at the Vineyard," she added quietly. "You carry so much in here. Far more than you share."

A small, knowing smile curved her lips.

"And you forget, far too often, that I have known you since the moment you first breathed air on this world."

Her thumb traced a small circle against the fabric over his heart.

"I told you before, and I will tell you again. You are not alone, Cassian."

And while her tone was kind, there was a firmness to it that carved straight through armor.

"A mother always worries... especially for a son who carries his burdens in silence."

She tilted her head slightly, those green eyes so alike hers studying the exhaustion he tried so hard to hide.

"What troubles you in your mind, my love?" she asked gently. "Truly? What is chasing your sleep, keeping you away from home?"

Calista's voice held no judgment, only a genuine invitation.

"This doesn't seem merely to be the unrest at the barracks. Nor the attack against you… is there something else you hesitate to say?"

Calista stepped closer and she lowered her own voice an octave, matching Cassian's honesty with her own.

"And as for us," she added, answering his last question, "your father and I are fine. Concerned, yes. For all of you. Determined, certainly. But fine."

She gave his chest another gentle pat.

"It is you we worry for and you we want to understand."

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes ​

Cassian did not immediately answer. The instinct to do so, to ease her worry, to deflect, to reassure, flared automatically, the way it always did. But something in the way she spoke, in the way she touched his coat as if smoothing years of tension rather than fabric, made the practiced words catch in his throat. He could feel it, his lower lip trembled slightly as he regained his composure and took another deep breath.

He stared at her hand on his chest, the warmth of it bleeding straight past the armor of his composure.

For a long moment, Cassian said nothing at all. A quiet breath left him first. Then another, slower, more measured, less like a soldier preparing his next sentence and more like a son remembering he did not have to march everywhere he stood.

He lifted his gaze to his mother's, and for the first time in months, he didn't try to hide anything. Cassian Abrantes softened.

"It's… not one thing," he said at last, voice low, rougher than he intended. "I wish it were. It would be easier to target. Easier to fix." He looked down the corridor, as if expecting the shadows to offer him the right words. They didn't. They never did.

"You're right," he admitted quietly. "It has been longer than a few months." His hand came up, not to pull away, but to cover hers where it rested over his heart. A rare gesture for him, small but telling.

"I thought, if I kept my distance, if I handled everything alone, then at least the damage wouldn't touch the family." He swallowed once, jaw tightening before he forced himself to go on. "But when everything started shifting, the attacks, political fractures, deception in the Agency. I didn't want to bring that home. Not if I didn't need to. So I stay in the barracks, there doesn't need to be unnecessary disorder here. Family is what needs to be here. I couldn't carry that poison through these doors and let it infect you all." He scoffed, and shook his head, chuckling lightly.

"And I didn't want any of you to see what it's been doing to me." He shook his head faintly, eyes shadowed. "I didn't want you to look at me and see...." He took a breath. "…But you saw it anyway."

There was no frustration in the remark only tired resignation, and a deep, aching kind of affection. He met her gaze again, voice dropping softer.

"I haven't been sleeping because every time I close my eyes, I feel like I'm missing something. Like if I rest, something will slip through the cracks. Another attack. Another failure. Another burden someone else will pay for."

His jaw clenched, the admission dragging itself out of him. "I told Shade the same thing," he confessed. "That if I stop for even a moment, if I rest, something will slip through the cracks. And then someone else will pay for it."

Another breath. Harsher. More vulnerable. "So I keep moving. I stay awake. Fight, more missions. More burdens. I can't stop."

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

DEE'JA PEAK
Abrantes Estate | Nightfall
Interacting with: Cassian Abrantes Elian Abrantes
Items: x x x x x

"Thank you, Father," Sibylla murmured, a smile warming her heart-shaped face.

"It means a great deal to hear you say that," she added, leaning briefly into the gentle touch he placed upon her cheek. Even now, in moments like this, she still felt like a little girl trying to make her father proud.

"Alright, it is best we head off to dinner before Mother decides to come in here and hunt us all down herself," Sibylla teased as she drew away from Alistair's grasp. She turned toward Elian, who was enjoying the single glass of wine Father had granted him far too much. Sibylla rolled her eyes and strode over to him.

One purposeful arm wrapped around his, already pulling him along as he gave a small yelp.

"Come now, dearest brother, we had best head to the dining hall so you can have something to go with that drink of yours, lest the wine make you even more ridiculous," she teased, ushering him down the corridor.

She did not get far before she felt the faint buzz of her comm vibrating inside the pocket of her skirt.

"Oh, just a moment," she said, releasing Elian. Of course, he took the opportunity to steal an even larger gulp of the wine.

"You realize that will be the only one you are getting tonight, do you not?" she chided, glancing at him before pulling the comm unit from her pocket.
One look at the notification froze her in place.

Her breath caught sharply. Her complexion paled.

The name.

Ace.

She swallowed hard and slipped her arm fully from Elian's.

"Go on… I will be there in a moment," she murmured, already tapping the screen to open the message.

Just four words.

HOLO.NET//ENCRYPT:113M-ejj--; uplink=SECURE; mask=ACTIVE
TO: Queen Sibylla Abrantes
FROM: Acier Moonbound
SUBJ: (no subject)

Can we talk?

- Ace

Four simple words, yet they hollowed her breath. After a month of silence. After he had told her to go away on Roon, to leave him alone. After he had pushed her away so brutally, insisting she should not worry, insisting he wanted no one near him.

A knot grew in her throat with every passing second.

Words. She had always been good at words. Observing people too. The very two things Ace had thrown back at her when she reached out to him with worry and compassion.

She should not take it so harshly, she knew that. But she did. She had. The hurt still twisted in her stomach, tangled with the simmering anger of the way he had lashed out at her. And through all this time, she had never truly processed any of it. Never spoken to anyone about it.

Her teeth caught lightly on her lower lip.

Now, what should I say? she wondered, anxiety and hope knotting together inside her chest.

That was the question.

Lady Callista listened without interrupting, her expression softening with every word that left her son's lips. She had seen Cassian exhausted before, seen him wounded, seen him carry burdens heavier than armor. But this… this was the weight he hid behind his eyes. The weight no battlefield could explain.

She let his confession settle between them like mist on the mountain air.

Slowly, she lifted her free hand and gently patted his chest again, giving it a rub as if she could simply brush away his concerns with her touch.

"Oh, Cassian," she whispered, not with pity, but with understanding deep enough to carve stone. "You carry storms as though you alone are meant to weather them."

And while her tone was gentle, there was a firmness beneath it that was edged with a quiet insistence.

"Your concerns are not misplaced. I see that. I hear that. And Shiraya knows, you have every reason to feel the shift you described. But facing all of this alone does not make you stronger. It makes you isolated." She gave a soft, rueful smile. "And isolation wears a man down long before duty ever does."

The gentle touch of her palm pressed lightly against his chest, not demanding but as a reminder.

"We work as a family, Cassian. We shoulder burdens together. We weather storms together. That is how House Abrantes has endured for centuries. Not by one of us standing alone."

She tilted her chin, those green eyes searching his exhausted ones.

"It is fear that cuts deeper than swords," she murmured. "And you have been fighting it without armor, without shield, and without counsel."

Callista let out the softest of sighs and her expression turned thoughtful and warm.

"You say you did not want to bring poison through these doors. But my darling boy… shutting us out only leaves you to drink it alone. That does not protect us. It only hurts you, and by extension, all of us who love you."

A gentle pat to his chest preceded her next words.

"Speak with your father," she urged softly. "Use us. Use the family. Draw from our strength when your own runs thin. That is why we exist, Cassian. Not merely to share meals and traditions, but to steady each other when the world turns sharp."

She paused, watching him with the kind of maternal perception that saw far deeper than words.

"And who," she asked quietly, "is Shade?"

Not accusing. Not alarmed but simply curious, concerned, and ready to understand more of her son's train of thought and world.

 

[Elian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes
​

Elian, looked at the whiskey he'd been graciously granted, blinked down at the commotion with a half-startled, half-delighted expression as Sibylla tugged him along. Her sudden release sent him rocking on his heels, the whiskey in his glass sloshing precariously close to the rim.

The moment she turned her attention to her comm, Elian seized his chance.

He lifted the glass with theatrical stealth and took a long, exaggerated gulp, far more dramatic than necessary, finishing it off with an appreciative sigh. He smacked his lips together in satisfaction, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"Well," he mused aloud, swirling the single remaining drop at the bottom of the glass, "If it's the only one I'm getting tonight, I may as well enjoy it properly."

He straightened his posture, an attempt at sophistication undercut by the lingering giddiness in his eyes, and added with a playful lift of his brows:

"Besides, big sister, one does not waste the gifts from father. I'm merely honoring his generosity." Eliang giggled as he took the glass to his lips once more and finished what little remained. Once he settled back on Sibylla, it looked as if she had seen a some sort of spirit ghost of sorts.

"Nope, don't do that. First Cassian, now you. What's going on?!" Elian laughed lightly as he leaned in to his sister, wrapping and arm around her, however he didn't look at what she was doing. Clearly something was amiss, but he wasn't about to intrude on her privacy.

As outgoing and carefree as he was, even he knew what buttons not to push.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Elian Abrantes ​

Cassian felt something inside him settle, not vanish, not lighten entirely, but settle, beneath the warmth of his mother's words. The kind of warmth he'd forgotten how to accept. He let out a slow breath, one that released more pressure than he expected, and when he lifted his eyes to hers again, there was no shield left between them.

Just her son.

He placed his free hand gently over hers where it rested on his chest, the gesture small but deliberate, a quiet acknowledgment of everything she had said and everything he hadn't known how to hear until now.

"Mother," he murmured, voice softer than it had been in months, "You always know how to cut straight through the armor I build."

It wasn't frustration. It was gratitude, deep and unspoken and long overdue.

"You're right," he admitted. "I've been trying to hold everything alone. Not because I didn't trust any of you… but because I didn't want to make my burdens yours. Even though, there was times Sibylla told me of the same thing. She told me I didn't have to carry things alone. But you are right about isolation, it does things to you. I lose sight of things sometimes."

His thumb brushed lightly over her fingers, grounding himself in her presence.

"But you're right. Isolation isn't strength. It's just…quiet enough that the doubt gets louder."

He breathed out again, a slow, steady exhale, and for the first time he allowed himself to lean, not physically, but in the way his voice gentled when he said. "I will, be better about that I promise." He leaned in and pulled his mother into a strong hug, much more needed for him than it probably was for her. "Thank you, mother."

Callista's question came with that careful curiosity only she could manage, and Cassian's expression softened instantly. No panic. No flinch. Just a warmth that seemed to settle over his features like dawn on the mountain. He pulled back and his gaze dipped toward the floor, and with a smile, gentle and unguarded, unmistakably fond, curved the edges of his mouth.

"Shade…" he said quietly, tasting the name in a way that softened the tension behind his eyes. "She's… a fellow intelligence agent. Someone I've worked with for several months already" He hesitated, not out of fear, but because the truth carried weight. There was so much more to this than could be revealed right now. Like how they met, the fact that she was tasked to kidnap Cassian and take him back to Graham. But he was able to persuade her not to. They saw something in each other that day, and ever since then, its just blossomed.

"Someone I care for deeply." The smile deepened, a rare glow slipping past his worn exterior.

"Someone I…" He drew in a quiet breath. "Someone I love."

Cassian lifted his gaze again, meeting his mother's eyes with a rare openness.

"She's been one of the constants in the chaos," he said softly. "She challenges me. Grounds me. And she, is able to see pieces of my heart that I don't show easliy."

A faint, almost shy note touched his tone, something his mother hadn't heard from him in years.

"I've never said it aloud until now. To her yes, but not to anyone else."