There was nothing Kian wanted to do more than race across the desert, to bring the flood, the rains on the Pitt.  A flood would do nicely.  A storm was doable.  He could pick them off one by one; drown one, sufficate the other.  One at a time; it would be rather simple.  Go in, go out.  Quick.  Merciless.  Until they were all dead.  Until he had his daughter back. Keona.  His chest felt heavy as he followed his brother through the jungle, tail dropped behind him.

A weary sigh left his parted maw at his twin's voice.  He matched the other's frown for a scowl.  He had forgotten how unreasonable his brother was sometimes.  When his twin had set his mind to something, he was hellbent.  On some occasions, Kian had admired his determination, now he found himself anxious over his stubbornness.  He had seen what his twin was capable of first hand.  He'd left entire cities in ruins before.  All for their dead parents.

"I won't... Just...a mhíniú rud éigin domsa," he narrowed his eyes, ears flicking down.  "Cén fáth? Why Keona?" By all accounts, it did not make sense, the way his twin so fiercely raged over the child's absence.  It did not fit what Kian thought he knew of his brother.  "You spend all this time... Getting close to her... But you actually care?"  Haliaka, he had understood.  His deceased wife had been friend to both.  Seamus had loved her, just as much as Kian had.  He understood.  He understood that perhaps there was a rift between them now because of it, aside from other things.  Not Keona.

"Ní thuigim." Seamus was the clever one, of course.  He always had been.  Consequency, Kian always wondered if everything his twin did was part of some devious master plan.  Some unfortunate michief he did not see coming until it was too late.  Always too late.  "Tá tú nathair, deartháir." Always.  That had always been the way.  "Ach ní féidir liom tú a léamh." Perhaps he should never have tried in the first place.  He had believed one thing, but now it seemed all topsy-turvy.  Had he been deceived again, or had simply jumped to conclusions too fast? 

Seamus hardly cared for anyone, even those of his blood.  Their parents had mattered to him, but Raziel had been a roadblock.  He doubted Seamus cared about their eldest's children either. Halaika had been a dear friend.  Kian his twin.  Even then, he sometimes wondered how much his brother let himself feel.  Why was Keona set apart?  She was just his neice, just as Suvi and Lilja were.  Precious as his daughter was, Kian did not believe she had managed to melt his brother's heart when no one else could.  It was improbable.  There was always a logical explaination in the things his brother did, oft rooted in some form of revenge or gain.

"... We named her Sibéal, for you.  Haliaka said that's the sort of name you would have chosen."

"... She's gone, Sea."