With Friends Like These..

[Tebrin]

Five years, ten, it truly didn't matter. Time, as Mr. Burnie supposed, had ceased to register. Years slipped in and out of existence, blurred by alcohol and apathy, and no longer computed. Some reason to want to be found. Tebrin was scarcely certain he had a reason to want to be found. He had yelled, leaned forward, gestured, felt nearly like slugging the governor, for no good reason other than that he hated himself.

But Burnie had a way with words. A way with Tebrin. A way of touching so directly on his feelings that he could have found it frightening, nearly supernatural. The closest to kin there is. His lips quirked, his anger dissipated, and for a brief moment, he was staring merely at a reflection of himself. Of someone he COULD HAVE been. Not at Glenn, not at the Governor, not at a man with a past as painful as his own. Simply at himself. He relaxed, lowered his gaze, backed away from his irrational fury. A place to stop. A chance. It was tempting, incredibly so, particularly because Tebrin TRUSTED this man in a way he trusted few others. Not even Calia (admittedly for good enough reason).

"...You're family, Glenn. No qualifiers attached. No 'as close to.' You're as good as family, as good as a brother, though I've been a shitty sibling, I suppose. I don't want to be the reason more family dies. Not you, not Rowen. Not anyone."

[Glenn]

You're family.

As simple of that. Of course, family meant that you couldn't choose. Family meant that you didn't even have to like the person and certainly not everything about him. Tebrin hadn't slugged him. Tebrin hadn't run away, and if he was about to the second they were done talking, well, Glenn would let that happen too. You love something, you set it free. Except for when you don't, which was exactly what they were going to do.

"Here's what we do now, Teb. We find our sister." Cute. Funny. She was a half-sister to Burnie, a sister-in-law? He didn't like that connotation. "Let's just say we're going to find Rowan. Then we can move on and figure what the future looks like, okay?"

[Tebrin]

Glenn had no choice in the matter. He was stuck with Tebrin, for one way or another, Tebrin seemed to have a habit for finding his way back here. To family. Even if this was not, truly, his home. He smirked a bit. Our sister. Thought about it some more, even allowed himself to grin. Visibly relaxing, he downed the remainder of his ale, flagged down a waitress for another. "Okay. Deal. We'll find Rowen, we figure out the rest after that." He could focus on this, on this ONE thing, for the other things - finding a home. Deciding what to do with Calia. Deciding what to do with GLENN. These were all too complicated. Too many. He could focus on this one thing, this thing that had led to his wandering in so many different fashions.

"Last I heard, Rowen was filtering around this area. That's why I came back, really, to investigate. I keep up with my contacts around the lands, they filter information back to me, but she's always gone by the time I arrive."

[Glenn]

"I'm the Governor. I have resources at my disposal. I have an Inquisitory, Tebrin." As if he was saying that he had a horse or a sword or a hat. "I've collected promising people from Myrken, from nearby provinces, people who can read who can research and reason. They help me answer all the maddening questions of our accursed little home." They did much of what he used to do, back when he still had time to do it. "You'll have to do most of the leg work, but they'll take what you learn and compare it with what we already know. They'll give you directions to search in and you'll take what you find back to us."

They would do this, because this is what Glenn Burnie did.