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Part 101 of Works by "Prank" (Pseud Series)
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Published:
2025-09-23
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450
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Tul 'Juran and Her Fathers

Summary:

Twice now had the San'Shyuum and Order of Restoration taken a "father" from her.

Tul fears what Rtas 'Vadum's fate might end up being.

Notes:

The 100th fic posted through my "Prank" pseud ended up being a daddy issues found family angst ficlet let's goooooooo

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Tul 'Juran had terrible luck when it came to fathers. Perhaps it was a curse, given that she was an exception to the rule that Sangheili could not know their fathers.

First her biological father died, then one of her two spiritual ones turned his blade towards her. It did not matter that he'd still seemingly been conflicted about her, had spared her life, and had tried to give her a final warning to not cross his path on the battlefield again. No, he should've known better - she would have Dovo Nesto's head for taking what was now two fathers from her. Always, the San'Shyuum - not just this one, but all of them - were taking from her. No victorious battles and captured criminals ever seemed to turn the tide of loss in her favor.

She had demanded an explanation for how the blademaster could betray his people, his warriors and shipmaster, for those that killed and suppressed them. What she really should've asked for was an answer of how he could betray her. All those words to try piercing her vengeful mind had appeared to be for the sake of her own inner peace and ability to maintain a warrior's composure. Looking back... he had just been trying to take the easy way out of his betrayal. They weren't for her sake. If he had ever thought of her, then he wouldn't have denied her justice, nor aided those that had taken from her mercilessly. He spoke of "the best for a keep" with no awareness of the irony.

But he wasn't the only father figure left in her life after the death of her true one. The knowledge of that did the opposite of ease her, though. She was now two for two; what would become of Rtas 'Vadum with her misfortunate track record? Would his ship be shot down, him going down with it? Would he be felled by a blade - potentially the blademaster's? Would he, too, betray her? She shouldn't ponder the latter, but it couldn't be helped. She'd never imagine the blademaster would betray them, yet it had happened. How could she be sure of others from here on out? 

One more chance. As the humans she was increasingly becoming accustomed to had phrased it, "three strikes". Apparently, it took three strikes to kill them. She'd question that, but three certainly felt enough for her. If she lost Shipmaster 'Vadum to either death or treachery... She wouldn't be able to take it anymore. Already, with two notches taken from her belt, she barely could.

"Before I lose another of my own," is what he had said when warning her to retreat. She shared the same sentiment.

Notes:

And that's a wrap on the ficlets / oneshots about Empty Throne era Shadow of Intent team. There's still one more oneshot idea born from reading the book, but it has nothing to do with Shadow of Intent.

I came up with this even before the book released, due to the Google Books leaks. Like half of this was my own thoughts about Tul's situation - two for two on losing fathers, both because of San'Shyuum, now Rtas is the next on the block. Poor Tul, man. She's been through it. Before this book, I didn't really see her as particularly angsty, but I guess she hadn't ever gotten over what happened in the novella. Curious to see what she'll be like the next time she and the crew get to show up in a story - whenever that happens. Although Empty Throne ended on a lot of on-purpose loose ends, it'll probably be at least a few years before we get to follow-up on them, and maybe not necessarily all of them in the same book (if it gets to be a book, might end up a Waypoint Chronicle). I imagine the next few Halo books will be wrapping up the Halo Infinite era and leading into Halo 7 (noticed that the books are used as a bit of advertising, which is the main reason why I don't feel confident a book-only storyline will get updated anytime soon), which the Empty Throne threads are not guaranteed to be a part of. At best, I say maybe we'd get more Severan appearances as the leader of the Banished while Atriox is away, because so far the Banished are still important.

I do hope that when Shadow of Intent returns to the spotlight, we get to see the Gray Team team-up and not just have it all been off-screen. I think it's an interesting crossover and it'd be nice to see Gray Team stick around a group of characters they've gotten to know rather than be blown into a brand new group to be the facilitators of character arcs for (not that it hasn't been funny to see them change the prejudices of Sangheili now more than once without really trying; you think they can work that same magic on post-Empty Throne!Vul? last minute redemption arc?). And it'd be nice to see Tul interact with humans a bit more. I'll be honest that I didn't really notice during my own read, but I guess apparently some people ship Tul and Jai now (if not shipping, then at least making jokes about a crush on Tul's end)? Now I wanna reread to try finding what the shippers are seeing.

You can read this ficlet as either mid- or post-Empty Throne; I imagine the humans that taught her the phrase "three strikes [and you're out]" were Gray Team, but it could've been the ODSTs or other Spartans at any point during Empty Throne since Tul already was complaining about their odd phrasing and human slang during a military operation.

My Fic Carrd

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