Noctisardor Bypass Yeah, and I'm still giving 'em hell

This would have all been so much easier if it was fresh news. Or would it have been? Arbiter didn't know, but she knew whatever news Maia had, here she was to destroy it. She shook her head. Even one so even-keeled as Arbiter couldn't entirely mask the downcast tone, Neither of them are here. But how did she even say it? Probably best to go with the easy one first, Sarah disappeared when the winter was at its worst. Before we even moved here. I hope she found somewhere not effected from the earthquakes.

So. The hard part. Which may or may not be obvious because Arbiter did closely guard her feelings -- if names in her family were adjectives instead of nouns perhaps she would have been Stoic -- but normally she was not a wolf that had any trouble with words. Maybe it made all those more normal sorts think she was a monster, but no, with these things she was just quiet. A pause while she for a moment gathered her will to continue, she said simply, Terance is dead. There. Out with it. He and one of our sons left to track the herds. Pike only returned months later -- they'd been attacked by mountain lions. But he-- another slight pause. Did she really need to know about his potential suffering? Her own regrets? No. Simplify, that's easier, But Terance didn't make it back. And she had her regrets, but they were hers alone. And maybe that was why the wound was still raw.

She drew in a breath, clearing her mind before adding, I don't know where Ibis is either. I looked for her pack soon after he went missing but it was gone. Nor did I know how far it was to find any of you. Plans of trips to visit had vanished with the prey after the earthquakes -- destinations died with Terance. Hell, she wasn't Ibis' biggest fan at all and Arbiter had looked for her. Terance's whole family had turned to ghosts, essentially -- aside from her remaining children. Maybe that was part of what bugged her in the end -- hadn't Terance and his siblings been close once? Now how long had it been? Arbiter had been out here alone -- without her mate -- for what, a year? Okay, not quite that yet, but it felt like longer. I'm sorry. Maybe it felt added on. But it felt like it should be there. Even though Arbiter hadn't herd it much from others towards herself.