The weight of the world on their shoulders thrust there by the loss of Maslakhat as guardian was like the release of young adults into college. Their own matters had taken precedence. The land had suffered for their blindered view that had been facilitated by their upbringing. They did not have the staff of their former kingdom to do as they felt they wished.

Eness speaks to them with the irritation gained from a mother’s experience. It shamed them, but it was their further lack of good behavior that had clearly tipped the scale. Antares with his aggression bolstered by his frazzled grip on wildly thrashing reins, Atair with his attempt to pick up the pieces from the eldest, and then an additional lack of grace when it came to being confused by fatherhood and preference of battles he knew how to fight, and finally Rigel. Rigel with the cutting-off-at-the-knees that had sent it all into the spiraling dive.

When she finishes her first sentence, Aldebaran spares a glare for Rigel most of all - still sore at his mistreatment that had come from something so simple. When Eness ceases to be the bold and brazen self that none of them recognized, turning her attention to Atair with his temper and his anger at being shoved between two impossible decisions, Antares seems to finally awaken. "Peace," he says at last as his sister-in-law spits at his feet. "Peace, Eness. You are right, and my brother is right..." it is clear he still requires a mental self-evaluation to let his hackles smoothe. "It should not be the burden of the Sadim that I cannot keep my house in order. That is my job alone and it has fallen to a mare who ought only have had to think of her own." His ears turn back, "My apologies for your pains. Indira has gone away and I cannot find my daughter. Between that and my Mira’s despondency, I have seemed to only bring failure. I will do better. Thank you for saving us all, I will strive to better provide for the Dunes with this chance you have gifted me."

"Eness, please do not think ill of us. Our plight may be self-made, but we were under prepared for the death of Maslakhat. Even having taken the Dunes -- somehow it still felt like when Father watched over us and made sure nothing came to call that was too great for us to weather." It is a weak smile he offers, but it is the first he’d offered at all to anyone but Naz or the other women of his life. He turns then, a deep lowering of his head to Antares first, before leaving.

"Thank you for our home, sister. I believe Sakhmet would be proud of the fire you gave life to for that moment. I certainly am." He murmurs, looking up then to Atair while still talking low enough to mean for only Eness to haer. "I know you are angry… but no matter how much you hate him right not, remember- you knew who he was when you married him… and that anger you want him to forget has been a part of him longer than any of us have been. It was his only safety as a child and he won’t be parted from it..." Something about how he says this brings his eyes down to further hammer home the nail. Atair had always been scared that his anger would harm her-- had warned her that he was going to be unfit for her.

"Atair. Speak with your wife. Go home. She has made sure that no one will take these sands from beneath our feet. You owe her your undivided attention tonight.." He bows lower than he had ever done in that moment, eyes ashamed and averted as they ought to have been. "Name your price, Eness, and I will pay it. You have been more gracious than I would have been in your place." But he does not wait for her price just then. He instead leaves his last remaining brother to follow Aldebaran away.

The privacy finds Atair closed eyed and trembling with the shock of the almost-war he would have incited. He does not move, does not look to her. He is too confused. He is too unnerved by the words of rejection that still pierce at his chest. He hears a shift in sand and flinches, so like the boy who got himself chewed up and trampled in the early years of his military training.

When he opens his eyes, his expression is void, back to that neutral mask she had originally seen painted across his starry face.

He had been and still was so elated to have sons, to have Eness, but the initial understanding had given way to a panic that was bred from stories abroad of men who lost sons, daughters, wives -- every day there was some new tragedy. He had never been worthy of a Soul-Bond, what could the fates have in store to have given him such a blessing---? When would they take that from them?

He had thought they meant to take her from him when she gave her claiming call and it was answered by Antares with anger. He had thought that the fates meant to take her, or to make him take his brother. The nights spent without worry had erupted into so many worries he could scarcely breathe, much less bear to share them all with someone so newly having brought two great gifts into the world. He had been careening over the dunes because he had thought that the Balance of Maat had sent agents to come and collect what he owed. He can see she shakes, but he is afraid to touch her, afraid to approach her, broken within by the years being told that he was too harsh, too angry, too beastly, too violent - and having that same identity painted over him by the one who he believed accepted his faults and flaws.

What does one say in the midst of all that?
"I am here."
It was all he could force up from the choke in his throat.