When Verin's window for going through anamnesis fully passed and it became known that Den Thelyss had not one, but two new souls for the first time in centuries, Verin felt that he and Essek were closer than ever. They alone would live their lives, with no memories or past glories to stand on, no ties save those they built. And the tightest tie of all has ever been between them.

Verin feels a tremble deep in his chest when Essek whispers that he is going to keep him. That Verin is his. What more does he need when that is true? Especially now, when so much of the life he's built is shattered and scattered across the Barbed Fields, when he knows that those he has put his faith in have utterly abandoned reason and any sense of compassion for those that serve them. The institutions he has served his entire life have failed to do what he believed they were meant to.

But Essek is here, holding him with a sharply possessive tone that has always made Verin feel like he could keep going. If Essek is here, in his life, then there is still light in it. Verin has been his nearly since birth. Why should any of that have changed as they grew older and closer?

He meets the next kiss, slick and sharp as Essek bites his lip. Verin reaches down to catch a bare thigh and gives a firm roll of his hips, as if Essek needed any reminder of the strength in his brother's body.

"I have always been yours," he whispers as heat suffuses his body, pooling low between his hips.