They never stopped searching for distant relatives. It wasn't a particularly hopeful search, but just the possibility was enough to be worth the cost. It was part of their budget. Every year since the disaster, there was at least some attempt to find a lost branch across the worlds. There had been various levels of success. And as the years passed, the chance decreased, but they kept trying.

There is a new lead and since he was closer, Temple is sent to investigate. He asks for one of his not-that-complicated-but-are-we-really-boyfriends-? for help and Felix volunteers.

Felix agrees with Thomas that not dressing like a MIB for the occasion is a missed opportunity, but disagrees that it is enough of a missed opportunity. Instead, they rent a car go to the address, identifying the potential distant-relatives. Then they cast a divination spell and search for a set of twins that might or might not have magic.

The divination reveals a set of magic twins! One is gifted - with two gifts. He has much more lifeforce than most humans, but his Health is extremely depleted.

The other has no gift, but his lifeforce is augmented as well - moreso than the first.

Temple and Felix are observing them from a distance. "Oooh, they already know about magic."

"That didn't show up in the detective's report?"

"Not necessarily? Oh, yeah, it's strange that there are no notes indicating that they had contact with people who are in the know."

"Could be like Henry - which, wow, lets hope is not that. Specially with two gifts. Any idea which ones?"

"This scrying does not have that much granularity. But at least we don't have to convince them that magic is real. The gifted one definitely has a health-gift, just looking how skinny he is."

"Alright. Maybe we should get a bit more warded and come back later for the reveal."

They depart and come back an hour or so later.

They live on the top floor of an apartment building. It's not exactly nice, but it's not terrible, either. As they approach the apartment they might be able to hear someone half-shouting through the door. 

"-gonna fucking kill yourself if you keep this up, James!" 

'James' says something in reply, quiet, hard to make out under the music also audible. 

"I get it, Jay. You need to ease up, though. Don't make me bury you, damn it." 

Flinch. "Yeah, lets... interrupt that."

They are interruptable. A knock at the door brings one of them to answer it - the non-gifted one, going by the healthy state of his body. 

"What?" He asks the two strangers at the door. He's not really in the best mood, but he does his best to push back his anger and frustration, putting a neutral expression on, if not a pleasant one. 

"Huh, sorry to interrupt. But are you two Alexei and James Starr? We might be related and wanted to talk."

"...Alex," he says, neutrality wiped away by mildly confused, slightly suspicious surprise. "James is my brother. Related?" His face goes through a couple subtle expressions, "This... isn't really the best time." 

He glances back into the apartment, lips twisting in frustration. 

"...You know what, no, come in," he says, turning back to them. He steps away, waving them through the door. 

"Thank you." Temple says letting himself and Felix in. "We are only very distantly related, but we have been trying to contact all the possible relatives. I can explain."

"I am not actually a relative, I just came here to help Temple with the situation. I am Felix Vaesteri."

"Oh, right. I am Temple Grayward."

"Nice to meet you, I guess." 

Just inside the door is a small space for shoes with a closet for coats to the left. He doesn't ask them to take theirs off, just leads them down the hall to the right and into a small living room. 

The other one is on the couch inside, reclining such that he takes up the whole thing. When he sees them come in, he pulls his legs up to leave room on the couch. Alex settles there, waving the visitors to sit wherever - there's another couch and a couple beanbag chairs in the room. 

"Hey," he greets sunnily. 

He's just as skinny as their divination had shown - not skeletal, but you could definitely see his ribs if he was shirtless. 

"What's this about long lost relatives?" 

(Concerning!)

He puts his best smile. "Yeah, distant, but I have a genealogical survey that points for us to be related." Not to mention that naturalborn sorcerers are just too rare for it to be a coincidence. "But we have been trying to find all the surviving branches of the family."

"What for? Just curiosity, or what?" 

Deep breath. Band-aid rip off. At least one knows about magic and the other suspects of something amiss. "No. We need it because magic is real, and we need to find relatives for magic reasons."

"I was expecting you to take a bit longer than that."