Redtail Rise gauze

Masque could honestly say they’d never given much thought to their younger siblings’ paternity or even their own. Avicus was such a force of nature, she was the only parent any of them had ever needed. But the Caru also knew how reproduction worked, had even watched the Wealda pair up to conceive the young man standing in front of them presently.

He and “Fifth” looked a lot like Ashlar, come to think of it. They couldn’t remember if Avicus had gone off with him—though inquisitive at the time, Masquerade hadn’t been invasive about it—but those two had always shared a particular bond. Masque frowned lightly, realizing that not only Ashlar but the other candidates were all gone.

I don’t know for sure about either one of us. It doesn’t matter to me, in the sense that you’re my brother regardless, Masque said, pausing before adding slowly, but you look like Ashlar. Do you remember him?