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Sybok left at the start of the wet season.
On Vulcan, precipitation was negligible. During the wet season months, there was, on occasion, garua, a mist that condensed only at night. In the northern- and southernmost zones, this garua at times became so thick that it resembled what in Standard is called ‘rain’. However, at other latitudes, such as in equatorial ShiKahr, even garua was uncommon.
However, every known life in the universe is based around water, and Vulcan was no different. During the wet season -there were, to be precise, two such, which occurred when the planet drew nearest to the sun in its elliptical orbit, and the moon hung precipitously between the two larger bodies – gravitational forces in combination with the rotational trajectory of the planet began to draw liquid water upward, until finally it would sit just under the skin of the earth. Water slowly rose in the deep wells, the ancient deep cave lakes beneath ShiKahr refilled. Seeds, carefully pushed into the sand in anticipation of this bounty, shook off their withered armors and awoke: Vulcan crops grew rapidly, racing to throw off their fruits and seeds before the inevitable return of the desert.
In the seasons prior to Sybok’s departure, he passed many hours in the company of Spock and his step-mother, in the garden of Sarek’s family compound in ShiKahr. Vulcan memory is superior to that of humans: although Spock was, at that time, no more than five human years of age, he can, even as an adult, clearly recall his brother during this period.
For instance: Sybok led him in games of logic and inquiry, very standard for a child of Spock’s developmental level. However, unlike Spock’s other instructors, Sybok often seemed genuinely interested in Spock’s responses to the hypothetical scenarios he was presented. Unlike Spock’s other instructors, he did not correct errors, but rather, seemed to delight in them: especially those which, by his own words, seemed ‘particularly human’.
At this age, Spock was still prone to smiling, frowning, and other facial displays of emotion, which likely were the result of significant time spent in the presence of his mother. Sybok attempted to mimic these, an activity which pleased both Spock and Amanda: Spock recollected, for instance, occasions upon which his mother had made a joke, and Sybok had eagerly entreated her to repeat it, watched and then imitated the way she threw her head back with a laugh at the punch line. At one instance he had noted that his brother Spock was the only one who could ‘teach him to regain his own emotion’.
Spock was not informed of his brother’s departure: he only knew that, one day, his brother ceased to visit the family house in ShiKahr. He asked his father when Sybok would visit again, and received no reply. Then his mother took him aside and told him that Sybok had chosen to follow the ways of V’tosh ka’tur, and that Spock should not speak of his brother in his father’s presence again, because it would make Sarek sad.
Spock understood this to be illogical: his father did not experience emotion, therefore his father could not be made ‘sad’ by the departure of Sybok. However, he also inferred that Sybok’s increasing interest in emotion and illogic might have been precipitated by Spock’s own lack of control. Sybok was a full Vulcan, and Spock could not replace him.
Nevertheless, from this event onwards, Spock endeavored to adhere strictly to the teachings of Surak.