The proxy watched numbly as Poet climbed down and off of his porch, his breath coming out ragged and tired as he just stared. The flames that had been burning brightly against the edges of his coat seemed to finally die down and snuff themselves out once he had calmed somewhat. He looked down at Poet when the other stopped in front of him, his one blue eye a little bit red from crying as he towered over his brother. The size difference between the two of them was still staggering, especially with Aurum's upright position. His wings only added onto it, pressed firmly up against his spine as he let his claws slowly release from the earth. When he finally spoke, his deep voice was scratchy from tears, and he sounded faintly tired, "I... I find it hard to believe that you've brought good news with you, considering the first thing you said when you got here is that everyone was dead." His tone might've been considered more joking, had he been a little less wrecked.

Of all the things that Aurum had expected Poet to possibly tell him, his father being alive was not one of them. Truthfully he hadn't known what the hell Poet was going to tell him, but Aethelwulf being alive? It hadn't even crossed his mind for the barest minimum of seconds, and when Poet said it, it felt like a swift punch of surprise right to the gut. Aurum just stared down at the other for a long moment, his brain trying and failing to process the information that he had just been given. Sure, he had heard of people coming back from the dead. Hell, he had come back from the dead not too long ago, but Aethelwulf? It just seemed so... impossible. Eventually he managed to speak, his voice a faint wheeze, "I... you... what? You can't... that can't be true. Aethelwulf... Dad cannot possibly be alive. I saw... I saw him dead. He's been gone so... so long." Aurum didn't sound angry this time, instead he just sounded confused, and perhaps a little bit upset. Not necessarily about Aethelwulf being alive, but just the shock of it all.