(Another one set in the past. Pretty sure I never really wrote out what happened when Dest found Stefan the first time after everything that happened. So now I will!)

Destiney sighed softly as she wandered through the streets of Ul’dah alone. Maybe she should have allowed her husband to accompany her after all. At least his presence would have been a small comfort in this city.

Why he wanted to start over around here… She’d never know. Yet at the same time she needed the fresh start. At least here it wasn’t cold. Though she missed the woods too. Perhaps this was for the best. She needed time to recover mentally from everything. Right now the woods just reminded her of all she had lost.

Her father… Leon…

No it was best that she came here with her husband for that fresh start. Neither had died in the Shroud but it still reminded her that they were gone.

What bothered her most was she had heard rumors. Sightings of a hyuran man with slightly pointed ears. It could easily be someone else entirely. Yet part of her hoped it was her brother. Even all these years later. There was no way he knew what had befallen their father. Not since he had run away before it had happened.

Her queries lead her towards the guild at the far end of town. A guild of mages studying black magic. In a way that didn’t surprise her. Her bother had always had an obsession with the arcane. Even when they were younger. Always her opposite even though they were twins.

Walking into the guild felt awkward since she wasn’t there to join or even study. Though her steps faltered when they fell on a face she would have known anywhere. A small fuzzy ruby head perking up at her attention on it’s master. The boy… No the man. Her brother was no longer a boy. His nose buried in a book as always. The same intelligent blue eyes met hers when the carbuncle finally nudged the leg of her brother.

“Stefan…” Destiney barely breathed his name. Wondering if he’d really recognize her now. With all that she had been through. The change to her hair. The clothes that no longer fit a simple shourdling archer.

What should have been joy to see her brother alive and well shifted into anger. He had left them all. The hurt at him abandoning them. The fact he was just here as if it didn’t matter. Didn’t matter that they had lost their father.

Destiney stalked over to her brother as he closed his book. Esper tilting his head curiously at the woman. The crack of skin against skin made everyone around them pause what they were doing to look. Stefan raising a hand to his cheek as he stared wide-eyed at his sister. Angry tears gathered in her eyes as she stared at him.

“How could you!” She kept her voice down but it was still colored with the rage at his actions. “How could you leave us like that! Here you are as if nothing matters! As if father dying means nothing to you!”

“W-What?!” Stefan looked taken back by both her words and actions. Never mind the stares at their little scene.

“He’s dead!” Destiney hissed at him. “The Garleans killed him! If you had been there…” Tears began to fall down her cheeks as she tried to find what she wanted to say. But what could she really say? There was probably nothing that could have changed what had happened… Finally giving up and turning away in a hurry. Rushing out of the building. Leaving a shocked Stefan alone with a very confused Esper.

“Destiney…” A mix of emotions going over him as he kept a hand over the cheek his sister had slapped. Esper gently nudged his leg before giving him a worried stare. He knelt down to rest a hand on Esper’s head. This way his face was out of view of others. No one could see his own tears. The pain of that news… The hurt at his sister’s anger… The sister that had always protected him even when he didn’t want it. It was all his fault… He should have known his actions would eventually come back to bite him in the end. Just hadn’t thought things would turn out like this. The slap had been more then deserved.