Gren could hardly believe it was already Prince Callum's birthday. He also couldn't believe he was now twelve years old. In his mind, he could still see that little eight year old he had first met, and now he was one year away from being an official teenager. The party so far was good, lots of food and people to mingle with. His normal party strategies of sticking close to General Amaya, having pre-thought-out conversation starters when people interacted with him, and having a friendly face on while observing the crowd were working out well so far. The one thing Gren was having a harder time dealing with was seeing Prince Callum's friends - Soren, specifically.

Gren had no younger siblings of his own, but enjoyed kids. He appreciated the times he was able to spend with the two young princes when Amaya visited them. But Gren was more of an expert on language development than child development, so he took in everything children did with the understanding that he just might not understand kids.

He also saw the boys every several months for lengthier periods of time, usually a few days per trip, including during the winter solstice festivities, so any changes to the boys' interests, growths and personalities weren't as jarring as any changes in Lord Viren's two children – whom he mostly only saw during the boys' birthday celebration parties.

He remembered Soren from when they had first met at Callum's eighth birthday party. If he remembered correctly, Soren was probably around eleven at that time. Gren had heard that he was a sickly boy but was impressed by how healthy he seemed to be then. The older boy said he was exercising more, and in the following year, he remembered him expressing his ambition to become a Crown Guard. Gren always got the impression that Soren wanted his father's recognition. During parties his blue eyes would flicker to Lord Viren often, as if checking to see where he was and if the high mage was watching him.

That's why the next few times he saw Soren, he was a little surprised by how much more…aggressive(?) he seemed. That probably wasn't the right word, but it was hard to pin it down. Confident? Arrogant? Changed. Definitely changed. His eyes still flickered to his dad, but not nearly as often, and he walked around with an air about him. A falseness that Gren wasn't sure if he should admire in a 13-year-old for putting on a brave face during (arguably) the most awkward years transitioning from childhood into the expectations of adulthood, or if he should feel bad because he remembered going through that awkward time too.

Last year, Soren was…happy. He seemed pleased to be allowed in the Crown Guard track at such a young age, and Gren even had a nice conversation with him. He loved exercising and training at that point. The regiment seemed to give him genuine confidence and purpose, and Gren shrugged off the previous year as that awkward transition year.

This year, the two times he saw Soren, he was at two different places in terms of personality. During Prince Ezran's birthday earlier this year he was a little off, but that was understandable considering there had been an assassination attempt on the king's life. (One that, thankfully, Corvus had stopped.) He had a new scar on his left eye, and had just seemed shaken – but everyone was a little shaken. He mentioned being more committed to exercise and studying combat strategies. But now, during Callum's birthday, Soren was back to having that air around him again and Gren just couldn't figure out why. It even spilled into his relationship with Callum.

Some of the words or body language Soren would use with the prince made Gren perturbed. It felt like he was picking on the young prince and Gren couldn't decide if he should say something or not.

On one hand, Prince Callum would probably speak up if it bothered him a lot; on the other hand, what if Callum felt too uncomfortable to speak up and was just hoping the problem would go away? Did Soren even realize that he seemed to be hurting Prince Callum's feelings? They were friends – you wouldn't intentionally hurt your friend. That made no sense!

Gren ultimately decided he could only hear Soren mumble "step-prince" so many times before finally looking for an opportunity to address this when no one else was around. He took a deep breath, signaled to Amaya that he would be back in a moment, and walked to the column where Soren was scanning the crowd.

"That scar above your eye seems to have fully healed. It looks nice." Gren started the conversation; better to start on a friendly note rather than: stop calling Prince Callum step-prince.

"Yea! Thanks! I saw my friend have this cool scar over his eyebrow so I tried to shave mine, but then I accidentally cut it and–bam ! An actual scar! Heh, it worked out so perfectly." Soren was actually smiling, and the conversation so far felt nice.

The crown-guard-in-training stopped examining the crowd then and turned to him, his expression dropping as he recognized Gren. – Disappointment, Gren noted, although he wasn't sure as to why.

"What do you want?" He asked flatly, returning to scanning the crowd.

Gren could feel his nervousness setting in: butterflies in his stomach, heart rate going up. He was putting himself out in a social situation with a person he didn't know well, and even though he used to talk to him once per party when he was a kid, Soren now had the build of a young adult in height. This wasn't a situation of a teacher scolding a kid for name-calling; this was one adult telling an almost adult to stop being mean. This was closer to a peer interaction than Gren had first assessed, and the realization of that confrontation made Gren uneasy.

"Well, I usually talk with you during the boys' birthday parties."

"Oh, well, not sure why. Not like we're friends."

Cold tone, he noted. Gren wasn't sure why, but Soren was clearly communicating that he wanted nothing to do with him. Still, Gren had a mission: he was going to say that calling Prince Callum step-prince, even though it was under his breath, was hurtful. He just had to stay focused.

"Speaking of friends," he smiled, transitioning onto his mission, "I couldn't help but overhear you call Prince Callum the 'step-prince' instead of his name a couple of times today – you know, on his birthday."

Soren turned to look at Gren and raised an eyebrow.

"Even if today wasn't the prince's birthday, I still think that nickname is probably very hurtful." Gren continued.

Soren looked away, "Well you're wrong. Callum, I mean Prince Callum, and I have been friends since we were kids. He knows I'm just teasing. I would give up my life to protect him, but he needs to grow a thicker skin." He turned back to Gren, eyes flashing, "And you should learn to butt out, or are you going to take this friend from me too?"

"What?"

"Erg," He rolled his eyes, "Never mind. I'm going to go talk to my actual friends now. You can continue to do your hand-language-thingie or friend-stealing-thingie somewhere where else for all I care." Then he walked away.

All of his previous anxieties now hit Gren in full force. He searched for General Amaya's location in the large hall akin to how a person drowning would search for a floating log in the water. He didn't exactly know what he had expected, but it certainly wasn't that.

July was the first time in the fort without General Amaya, and Corvus was a little unsure what to expect. Turns out, in terms of training, it wasn't too different, except senior officers now took over training duty and Gren's sign language class took a little break - with the expectation that they would be practicing on their own, of course.

Half of the week Corvus would find himself continuing his physical practice with the rest of the battalion - keeping up skills needed of all soldiers, but on the remaining three days he was allowed to train on his own in the forest about a morning's walk away - practicing skills he specifically needed as a tracker. Today, thankfully, was one of those days.

It was nice to be in the forest working on his tree hopping footwork, and practicing with his bladed fleur-de-lis, but it was especially nice to get away from the rumor mill that seemed to suddenly spring up in General Amaya's absence.

The most common rumor being that General Amaya and Lieutenant Commander Gren were secretly "in a relationship". Because that was the "only reason" why a soldier who doesn't wield a weapon would get promoted to such a high position. Apparently, it also explained why General Amaya seemed to be more tolerant of officers dating enlisted soldiers under their chain of command, because she was, according to the rumor, doing this herself. (Although, Corvus still held plenty of doubt regarding both stories.)

Corvus, personally, thought his fellow new recruits should stop gossiping before their class ended up with a bad reputation of being nosy. The veteran soldiers did, thankfully, put a stop to the rumors if they overheard them. They would say something among the lines of "this comes up every year", "I used to think so too, but no" and "you'll see as you work here longer".

The best description to try to halt the rumor was Terrance saying that he thought about General Amaya and Commander Gren as the figurative mother and father of the battalion – both looking after their family in different ways. Furthermore, children don't want to give any thought into their parents' love life and, as the figurative children in this metaphor, the battalion should also not pry into their love life. – Corvus would have to agree there. Regardless of their personal situation, or lack of it, it wasn't anyone's business so he wished for the rumor to just stop.

But then that brought up the next pressing question to some of his fellow young recruits: was Commander Gren single? Because there was no denying the man was attractive, but in addition he was also very "friendly", and "kind", and "optimistic". He would be a "very good life partner".

Corvus had to agree that Gren was…cute. His freckled-splashed face and soft blue eyes were usually full of eagerness and life, but what was the point in looking into the lieutenant commander's love life? If Gren was interested in someone then surely Gren would show interest in that someone. He was the guy that was always talking about body language so naturally he would put out some sort of signal, right?

Until then it was best to realize, and accept, that someone could be attractive and single, and not want to be in a relationship.

Corvus sighed; personally, he tried not to mix work and romantic relationships, but he guessed it wasn't necessarily fair to expect that of others.

Still, at least today he got a break from the gossip, got to work off some of this frustration, and he was planning on making the best of that. Plus, starting tomorrow, he'd be on leave and visiting his family! That'd be a nice break too.

He wondered how big Asha had gotten. Wondered if they had any new recipes in the bakery. He could visit Kendrik and Boss - who was really getting up there in age, Bibi and Pops were getting up there too. Auntie Russom and Jel would be nice to see. He hadn't been writing letters to his extended family, but his mom tried to keep him in the loop regarding family matters.

And, even though it'd been over a year and a half, maybe he could see Leo…

And maybe this time it wouldn't be so damn difficult…

Corvus lost his footing, and slipped. Dangling by the branch of a tree seemed like an oddly fitting punishment for thinking of Leo, since that was figuratively how their relationship seemed to have ended.

He pulled himself back up and laid on top of the large branch for a moment. A messenger crow flew past him, probably towards the Breach.

Corvus brushed his mop of curls back and ran his hand across his face. His fellow recruits might be in a rush to get into a relationship, but did they realize how hard it is to be in a relationship? Or deal with the aftermath of one? Urg, maybe visiting wouldn't be all fun after all.

It was still early morning and Gren had just finished lingering paperwork when Amaya stepped into the room.

"General Amaya!" Gren smiled and saluted. "I'm ready to return home tomorrow."

She smiled weakly and saluted back. Her behavior seemed…hesitant?

"What's wrong? Did I mess things up at Prince Callum's party yesterday? I'm sor-" And Amaya put a finger to his lips.

"Stop. You were fine." She gave him that look, and Gren calmed down. "We don't usually talk about our personal lives, but it occurred to me this past June that there might be someone who you would benefit from talking to."

The fact that Amaya was being uncharacteristically diplomatic while signing to him, and the mention that this idea came in June, made Gren instantly apprehensive about whatever the general was planning.

She could sense it, and changed tones, "First, I'm going regardless if you join me." She signed, serious again. "Second, I'm not trying to overstep any boundaries."

"I know." Gren signed, because he did. Amaya would never intentionally do anything that wouldn't be in his best interest. She helped him when he was grieving over his sister, helped him fly through the ranks at every advancement point in his career so she could keep him by her side, she invited him to family events and gave him the only semblance of family since he left home. She had always looked out for him and always would. And he would do the same.

He took a deep breath and signed. "I'm ready to hear the idea."

"The commanding officer of Embla's battalion survived the battle. I think it would be good for both of you if you were able to meet and talk. Maybe share some stories."

Gren's heart rate increased, because the idea that there was someone else that knew his sister, and was willing to talk with him, was mind-shattering. He brought his index and middle fingers to his temple, rubbing his forehead. Embla had mentioned her commanding officer a few times in the letters. What was her name? What was her name?

"General…Tish?" No…that seemed too informal. "General Tishala?" He finally remembered while looking up at Amaya, spelling out the name.

She gave a small smile and nodded. "She now lives full-time in Port Town with her family. In addition to meeting her, I think you would enjoy meeting her family. She has a young daughter, two years old, I think. You were great with Ez when he was little. I think you would have fun." She nudged him.

"So, like a vacation?" He signed, raising an eyebrow.

"Just for a day or two on our way back to the Breach."

"I haven't talked with anyone about Embla except you…" Gren thought aloud.

Amaya placed her hand over Gren's, her eyes conveying her compassion and support without the need for words.

"And you're going regardless of my decision?" he continued verbally.

She nodded, and Gren nodded to himself – processing.

While the thought of meeting someone else that actually knew his sister was exciting, it was also a little scary. His sister always believed and supported him; encouraged him to do things because it was what he wanted to do – not what he was expected to do. In the last six years of her life their relationship had been primarily through letters, but she had still helped guide him through his early teenage years without even being physically present. Truthfully, he probably put Embla on a pedestal, and that's why meeting someone that saw her everyday was a little scary. What if General Tishala's version of Embla didn't match his image of his sister? But then again, wasn't it better to know the full version of a person and accept them for who they are, the good and the bad?

Gren steeled his face. "I'll join you." He signed and nodded.

Amaya's smile grew as she stood up. "Good. Oh! There's more."

"More?"

"General Tishala is Corvus' mother, so he will likely be on vacation there."

Gren looked down, thinking back on their conversation. Corvus' mother…the one who lost her legs during the Battle of the Breach, who felt the loss of her battalion like a weight.

Amaya briefly placed her hand back on Gren's, recapturing his attention, before signing, "I didn't realize the connection until I saw Corvus last month." She continued, "So I wrote, and was pleased to hear from her. I strongly believe this will be good for both you and the general." She reassured him with a small smile.

And Amaya was probably right, as she so frequently was; maybe talking with him would be just as healing for the general as it would be for Gren.

He nodded, "I think you're right."

"When am I wrong?" She winked with a grin and it brought a smile to Gren's face.

"I will give Corvus notice and then we'll leave tomorrow morning." She signed.

"I can write if you want to spend more time with the princes in privacy," Gren offered, gesturing to the other paperwork on the desk as if saying one more thing to do doesn't hurt.

"Thank you, I will take you up on that offer." Amaya smiled, "Will you join me later? They enjoy spending time with you, too."

Gren instantly smiled, "Of course, I love the boys."

Amaya smiled back, "I know, they love you too. How about meeting mid-afternoon? I would like to take the boys on a walk."

Gren gave two thumbs up with a wink. "Sounds good."

Amaya half grinned at his antics and shook her head fondly before leaving the room.

A/N: I had fun naming this chapter since they all "defended" something:
Gren - Defend: Callum, Retreat: Back to Amaya
Corvus - Retreat: Away from the rumor mill, Defend: his feeling regarding relationships to himself
Amaya - Defend: (although more like persuade) Gren into seeing General Tishala, Retreat: time with her nephews :)