#freightened

After the warfare Arcuris had been through it was only a natural thing for a brother to be concerned for their siblings. For Arcuris, he only had one brother and he did everything he could to keep his brother safe. Sometimes, he overdid his protection for him, trying to keep an eye on him at all times. At points he would even fight his battles for him, which Gallerius would get upset at him when he wanted to do it himself despite being much smaller than Arcuris.

“You’re his big brother. You need to keep an eye on him, Arc. That’s what big brothers do.”

He heard his father’s voice in his head constantly, doing everything in his power to follow his orders. Gallerius was stationed in a very conflict ridden area within the Empire’s provinces. As Arcuris was at a decent rank he put in a request in order to have his brother moved to a less known area within Gyr Abania, which was at the time not as bloody as more present times. He was worried for him.

Gallerius approached him one day, his face red with anger before his pointed his finger at his brother, “I’m so damn sick and tired of living in your shadow, brother! You treat me like some innocent little lamb who couldn’t defend himself from a fly. I’ve shown how well I can fight in the name of our Empire and you keep treating me like I’m still little. Well, I’m fucking not!”

Arcuris didn’t answer his brother. He knew he was made at him. He would be too. Maybe he would understand he did it for his own good.

“You really have nothing to say, Arcuris?” he shifted his jaw to one side of his mouth and his eye twitched in anger before turning to walk out, “Just stay the hell out of my life. I’ll make my own damn decisions after this.”

A couple of months had passed since his brother was moved to Gyr Abania. Word had spread of very restless natives who lived in the region who were rumored to makes moves against Garlemald. Most of these were either quelled or dismissed as to keep most of the population To those who knew about it, they kept an eye on it in order to keep things from spiraling out of control. What good that did.

“Arcuris...” As Arc was preparing his equipment for another patrol and officer stopped him and waved for him to join him in the briefing room alone. The man was his superior but there was a look of grimness on his face. Arc did not like it as he usually shown to be cold and calculated, “Arcuris, this is about your brother.”

Arcuris sat down in the chair. His blood ran cold as he instinctively gripped his pants, bracing him for whatever was about to be said. Nothing could quite prepare him for it.

“Your brother and his patrol was attacked by rebels in Gyr Abania. Most likely Ala Mhigans.” He trailed off for a moment as Arcuris was stuck looking blankly as the officer sat next to him. He looked up to the banner of the Empire sitting in front of them on the wall, reluctant to continue his news. It seemed like the little bit of humanity wanted him to spare him from what was to be heard but it had to be said, “He didn’t make it, Arcuris. We did everything we could for him. I’m so sorry.”

The man stood up and put his helmet on, “Take-take as much time as you need to process this...”

The man left the room as Arcuris sat in his chair. He could feel his chest becoming heavy as his hands felt glued together in his lap as hot streams of tears ran down his cheeks, tapping on the armor he was wearing. He grabbed his hair forcefully as his breathing became erratic, whimpering. He lashed out at whatever he could smashing a chair beside him to the floor as he roared in pain. He fell to the ground, his face soaked in tears as he wept in agony.