As his brother spoke his name, Aldric's faced curled into a slight smile. It was Gideon, he'd known it as soon as he laid eyes on the man. He looked him over. "I hadn't made plans to either." He tried to laugh slightly, but he was obviously still a bit in shock. "I'd heard the rebels took the Capital and the royal family, I thought the worst." His eyes fell to the ground for a moment. He remembered the day he had heard that news vividly. He had cursed himself for abandoning the empire, for leaving his brother to fight alone. One man wouldn't have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but he still had beaten himself up quite a bit over it. He frowned a bit when Gideon mentioned the fate of his company. He hadn't heard what had happened after he left, though he'd imagined the majority of them hadn't made it through the war. Part of him thought they got what they deserved, but he couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness. They had been his brothers-in-arms before that night, even if what they did stained their reputations in his eyes. He was pulled from his thoughts by his brother's acknowledgement of his companions. "Oh, I actually just met them as we were leaving the ship. We seemed to be heading to the same place." He glanced nervously back to his brother, wondering what exactly the man that now stood before him would think of his desertion. "We have quite a bit of catching up to do." A thousand thoughts raced through the young man's mind. On one hand, his brother was alive and well, despite all odds, on the other, however, he was a deserter, and Gideon had been the Captain of the Guard.