Private Meet You in the Mourning

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Takes place just after this thread.
​

The dinner had become a farce. Food hoofed down between attempts to track Brandyn down. Baros could tell that Briana was already contemplating going after her brother. She was always protective of him, and had a keen connection through the Force to the boy. His concern though currently was with the younger of the triplets, the one without the Force coursing through her being. He had always kept her close, knowing the pain she felt in feeling left out of Brandyn and Briana's magic circle. For some reason she resented Briana more for her gifts, with Brandyn getting a sympathetic pass on most occasions.

As Baros ascended the stairs to the family bedrooms, he wondered if he had been too harsh with the Cybelle Sal-Soren situation. He had thought it the best thing to do at the time, but feared now that he may have just doomed their family to losing Brandyn for good. He shook his head. It was not time for a pity party. His daughter needed attention. His duty did not allow the luxury of self-flagellation.

He walked down the hallway past Brandyn's bedroom. He resisted the urge to stop, open the door and check if he was somehow magically there. Instead he just sighed. This hallway had once been filled with the young voices of his darling children, but now a shadow of melancholy had permanently washed over its walls. He came to Blaire's door at the end of the hallway, paused and then knocked lightly.

He did not wait for a response. Knowing Blaire was still here was half the reason he had come to her room. The other half could be accomplished by opening the door as well. If she complained, he would take it on the chin.

"Blaire?" He said, baritone voice sounding strained with anxiety, "just wondered if you would like to talk."

It was already some time after midnight. But no one had been sleeping. Instead of celebrations over the announcement of the impending wedding, everyone was mourning the division of their family.

To soon, he thought. He wasn't ready for this.

| Blaire Sal-Soren |​

 

[Blaire Sal-Soren]

The hour was late and yet no thought of sleep had once crossed her mind, she was still dressed for dinner, for a celebration, for what should have been one of the happiest occasions their family could celebrate. She had chosen a pale-blue floor length gown with pearl inlay, styled in the very design the priest had painted on her head at her naming ceremony.

Her room was dark, lit only with a few candles in place of the artificial lights that normally illuminated her bedroom. There was a knock on the door, just one, soft and swift and without her leave the door was opened and in stepped her father.

"Blaire?" He said, baritone voice sounding strained with anxiety,

She got to her feet at once, setting the book she had been reading on the desk in front of her. It was "Tales of the Jedi." she could not remember which volume she had picked up. It had always been Bran's favorite. Whenever it had been his turn to choose a story for bed he would choose to hear of the daring Jedi, over and over to the point that even she could recite the words as they were being read. He never tired of them though and as they grew older he only seemed to care for them even more.

"just wondered if you would like to talk."

She looked to her father as the firelight flickered over his features. He looked defeated in a way she had never seen. She had seen him tired after long days of meetings, she had seen him cross–mostly at something Bri had convinced them to do–but this was something else entirely. His only son was gone. Left with no word and her dad had come to check on her or so it would seem. She had always been his in a way that Briana and Brandyn were not. She was ever at his side. She supposed that at first it had been for her sake. Unlike her siblings she was not born with a connection to The Force, they had taken after their mother in that way, Blaire however was her father's daughter through and through and that had been hard when they were little. She had to suffer the indignity of being left out or left behind but she had never been alone because she had always had him.

Now that she were older, a person in her own right, being left out of her sibling's gift hurt less, she was forging her own way in the galaxy and sometimes her father did not see that, still he thought she needed him to make life easier because The Force would not or that is what she thought until seeing him here right now.

He needed her.

Wordlessly she crossed the hard stone floor and wrapped her arms around her father's waist and laid her head on his chest.

Baros Sal-Soren

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Instinctively, Baros kissed the top of his daughter's head. And he cried.

It was quiet at first. Just a slowly growing stream of tears, that fell each time he blinked. He closed his eyes, and his forehead rested against the top of Blaire's head.

He was tired. Overwrought. The day had been long and a veritable rollercoaster of emotion. There was no need to labour his daughter with his own grief-stricken state. He was here for her.

"I..."

His words caught in his throat. A large lump catching every syllable beyond the first.

He sobbed, just lightly.

"...am..."

He gasped, realizing that he was about to lose all decorum and control. He hugged Blaire tighter, but it made matters worse.

"...to blame."

It had been a long time since he had cried ugly. And he was pretty confident his children and never been witnesses of such an event. For better or for worse, Blaire was given the burden of a broken father. Broken by his own obsession with protecting his loved one's from the demons within them.

| Blaire Sal-Soren |​

 

[Blaire Sal-Soren]

For the first time in what felt like years, Blaire did not know what to do and so she did the only thing that came natural as her father held her and wept; she wept too.

Her shoulders shook softly and the tears came in silence. On the outside she was a spring morning where you look out the window, seeing only sun you step outside and to your shock find yourself soaked. On the inside however she was a torrent, a swirl of emotions as wild and chaotic as the fabled water spouts on Kamino.

Worry, sadness, confusion all swirled within but we're nothing compared to her anger. She had so much anger and so many reasons to be angry.

Look at what Brandyn had done, hijacking this might from their parents after so long and so many trials had delayed it until now.

Reducing their father to this state. Hurting him in a way Blaire had never seen,

He never told us of his plan. He didn't trust us. Us!

If this had been Briana's doing that would make all the more sense, to run off with some boy or flee home on some grand fool's crusade, to make them all worry was far closer to her style than Bran's

That's not fair.

No, Brandyn made his choice and there was no taking it from him now only mending the pieces. She remembered the book that her brother had loved so dear, the stories of famous and infamous Jedi saving the galaxy or helping the needy.

"Would that you were to blame, father," Blaire said softly, still holding her dad close. "Would that be so bad? Bran could end up a hero, he could save lives. Bran will make us proud."

He always does.

Baros Sal-Soren

 

[Baros Sal-Soren]

Her sentiment was sweet. But unwarranted. Even if Brandyn were to become a hero of the Jedi Order, he would be only adding fuel to the eternal cycle of heroes, villains and mass destruction. The pain sunk deeper. Blaire meant well. But her hope was misplaced. It was not a lack of faith in Brandyn but the system that drove him to greater despair.

"Maybe," he whispered.

For a time, he just held Blaire. His baby girl. Memories of her as an infant washed over him. He had even then felt a stronger connection with Blaire, as if she knew they both lacked what her siblings had.

"It doesn't matter who is to blame. He will be back. And when he is. We will welcome him."

Even as he said the words, Baros thought his lines to be less likely than that of his daughter.

| Blaire Sal-Soren |​