Tresova Rebellion: Together again has started at Outside Arx - Mourning Isles near Tresova - Tresova - Veiled Harbor.

A meeting had been agreed upon, but not without predictable wariness on both sides. The chosen place would be on the shore of the Veiled Harbor, near where the base of the great lighthouse abutted the curtain walls of Bloodstone Keep. At the edge of arrows hot, but well past the point where even an exceptional archer could hit a single person. When Scylla arrived, the castle gates did not open. Instead, high above, Caius had set his armored boot into the loop of a stout rope, and was being lowered down the outside of the walls.

He spins slowly on the way down, looking half dramatic and half ridiculous, but the rebel in full armor gradually sets his feet on the Stony ground, let's the long rope lie and walks toward Scylla, drawing his plumed barbute off as he does so.

Scylla checks composure at hard. Scylla fails.

"You couldn't just walk out the gate?" Commented upon as tumultuous lube gaze shifts over her brother, composure isn't something easily maintained for Scylla hadn't seen Caius alive in the flesh since, oh, she was hit in the head by a flaming piece of timber. It had an unexpected effect. The tone was reminiscent of the older sister he knew, a loose line of chastisement despite the dire circumstances and the loss of life that had stained the shores of Tresova but there was a faint warmth to it. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

"Your letters explain your dissatisfaction with the decisions I chose to make as Baroness of Tresova as was my birth right given I was the heir. But what they don't fully explain is why you didn't just choose to speak with me first, as if you wouldn't have been welcomed? You're my brother. Why?" A gloved hand was held, "And don't feed me something about our people being fully dissatisfied."

Caius Carideo has changed a great deal. Even with only his head visible, the black hair has been grown long atop his head drawn back into a tight knot, with the sides and back shaved in a curious non-traditional style. A pale scar is visible on the scalp behind one ear, and he has grown a short beard. Much more muscular than in his youth, expression relaxing into a stern, natural glower, he could easily be a wholly different person. It's not until eyes narrow and lips bend with a wide, lopsided smile that he truly looks like Scylla's long lost brother. "Will your husband send the cavalry if I offer a hug?"

There is a check of brow at the question, umber crown canting a fraction, "As if I'd give those who have eyes on us the satisfaction of seeing us embrace." Posture is languid, after having taken careful stock of her brother's current wellbeing, Scylla doesn't appear overly affronted but there is no smile that touches lips into a joyous offer of reconciliation, "If we can approach these troubles without further bloodshed and perhaps come to an agreement about where Tresova currently stands then I'd say perhaps you've earned a smile."

"I asked you questions, Caius, I want answers."

"Bah, they can barely see us through the mists," Caius scoffs lightly at the refusal, but his smile does gradually fade as he answers. "Because, Scylla, by the time I'd returned you had already married this Baron and given him Tresova. Blackshore flags were already flying, Blackshore soldiers held our castles, and the Blackshore priest and his Templars were preaching that we'd incur a crusade. You had left and gone to live days away. You'd surrendered rule to Blackshore. Then Thrax fell into civil war, and folk were looking to me to make a choice. I know not how, but before I even arrived they *knew* I was coming. If the Arvani soldiers were warned, we could never win. I didn't know your mind, and couldn't risk sending word before we acted: the only chance we had to take the island back was with total surprise." He looks resolute, but not proud.

"As for settling this without more blood? I'm all ears, sister. What do you propose?"

"I'm going to try and not be offended by your choice of words." An exhale of breath, "Aedric found me in the ocean after suffering a severe blow from the wreckage that I thought you had perished in. I served as his first mate for years and earned my place in Blackshore and it was slowly over time that I remembered how to get back home through the mists. You say that you know what I've done to get rid of the madness that was here, how did you know of that if you've been away? Why did it take -you- so long to return? Where have you been?" Scylla levels the assessing weight of her gaze, carefully on Caius, "I didn't surrender anything to Blackshore, I made the decision for our people to give them a better life with a barony that was flourishing and who welcomed our people with open arms regardless of their chosen backgrounds. No one was asked to renounce anything they just couldn't overrun the island with it." A shake of head sending umber curls brushing against cheek, "The things they were doing here were worse than we've ever seen and we've seen some things, you and I."

A pause, "My mind is that you would have found that you had family within Blackshore and if you hadn't gone this route, my brother, who do you think would have taken over in my stead?" Brows rise high then with insinuation, "You should have trusted me and that is what hurts about this the most. I never gave you reason to doubt me."

"Release the rest of the men in Bloodstone and open yourself up to negotiations with Blackshore."

"You gave Aedric Blackshore rule of Tresova," Caius repeats stubbornly. "Their priests were saying change, or be destroyed by an army of Templars. 'Purging heresy is holy work' he said. Whatever they had done before I returned, if you think the Arvani have open arms for us, you're wrong. They were *celebrating* that Blackshore would erase us on the mainland, Scylla." Which is a clue to where he'd been.

"First I could remember was chained to an oar aboard a Helianthus galley. It was.. a hard time. Won loose during a battle some time ago. Still had only.. pieces of who I was. Fell in among a rough band, but it kept me alive long enough to remember Tresova."

As to the last, "If I release the rest of the Blackshores, your Baron will leave us? Without that agreement, I see little wit in giving away my last piece of leverage."

"I gave Aedric Blackshore my hand in marriage and together we both oversaw the rule of Tresova." Parrots right back, "I was -on- Tresova up until the point I found out I was with child." Arms come to cross over the breadth of chest, "You mentioned that you were grateful that I had removed "that cult" in your missive. You've not been overly open to what you view as the right way of things anymore. Are you saying, truly, that you wish to still take part in sacrificial worship?" A cant of head, "And know that I'm asking without judgement."

"Is it this rough band that had been supporting you here? You accuse me of handing over Tresova and yet you are perfectly fine with using pirates?"

"Think about this, please. What makes you think Blackshore is going to be the last of your worries when it comes to the Arvani? There were houses wanting to do business with us just to see your rebellion obliterated and your head put on an Islander spike."

"The cult was empty butchery, Scylla. Our people who lived through it were clear on that much. None mourn its annihilation. Yet can you blame them if our people balk at being called heretics? It's how we were raised, and when done right and true, there ought be a place for it." When she compares Blackshore to his company, Caius scoffs. "Those who followed me here *followed* me, sister. They obey me. Some I even count as friends, and they're mercenaries, not pirates. You gave an outsider rule of our homeland. I will love you until my last day, but don't you *dare* pretend that's the same thing."

Mention of other houses earns a rueful chuckle. "They really do hate us, don't they? All the more proof: if what it means to be Tresovan is to survive another generation, we need live apart from Thrax. It can be done, Scylla: we're days away from the nearest Arvani domain, we lived apart from them for so long, we could do it again. If they're shown victory, and shown cause to hope, our people can survive. Why does Aedric covet this island so? Tell him to take his soldiers, stop dying here for a land that doesn't want him. I'll send back every Blackshore survivor and let them all go. Thrax has its own wars to fight."

"You know nothing about Blackshore and it's Baron, what we've done, who we've seen - where we've been." A shake of her head, "You wouldn't be speaking like this if you truly knew but I am done trying to convince you that Blackshore could be an ally because you seem to want to think otherwise at every opportunity. Regardless, Tresova was mine to mold into a fealty that could protect it and I don't see that as a negative. In fact, I've been highly praised for it by our Islander kin and there are many who are seeing your rebellion as nothing more than a temper tantrum." No inflection that Scylla herself leaned either way, "You sound like a Seraceni."

"They don't hate you because we come from old blood but they dislike you because you choose to put faith in He of the Deeps much like the Eurusi do."

"Aedric covets this island because -I- covet this island - it was our home and I had hoped to make it better than when we left it the first time around. I had thought to bring my daughter here to learn of her Carideo history but that looks like it won't happen until her Uncle either changes his mind and sees reason or is slaughtered. You're not only in a war with Aedric Blackshore, you're in a war with me as well."

"Let the survivors go now and there is still a possibility for you to potentially come out of this alive. We're not leaving these shores until our banner is flying high once more."

"Even if Blackshore is beaten and driven from Tresova.. You and your children could always come and go. Any Tresovan could. I wouldn't mind Blackshore as an ally.. it's Blackshore as our master that we can't abide. And of course your new Isles kin praise you for erasing our independence. They *hate* the Abandoned, sister. They want us all dead, regardless of religion. If Aedric only covets the island on your behalf, then hear me, Scylla: you can end this. For the sake of your new family and your old, let the killing end. Bid Aedric return to his barony, lose no more soldiers, kill no more Tresovans who only want live free. If you love our people, do this one last service for them: leave them be. I'll release my prisoners and perhaps when the wounds have scarred closed, Carideo and Blackshore can be true allies. As equals, not as master and subject."