YUVEN

In the lull of the blizzard, Yuven sliced his crescent blade in the air for warm-up against the endless cold. Any howl sharpened his feathers as he stood in the backyard of the Lotayrin villa. Through the window, Neven and several of the other Storm Wardens sat around the table in discussion of a plan he had yet to be told. It proved a greater suspicion when Fenrer sat outside with him, doing naught but toy with his auric band. "Is something on your mind?" he barked when Fenrer slipped his thumb through the crease. "Or are you just here to make sure I don't get any funny ideas?"

"I don't think I could stop you from getting funny ideas," Fenrer said with a swift glance his way, before setting his hands against the frost grass, legs stretched out. "Stop you from doing them, certainly."

He curled ice around the runes of his blade, then sent two sweeps into the air, where both waves crashed into the other wall. Pebbles broke apart at the contact. Glyphs expanded at the final finish, freezing the holes his attack left. "Did he tell you what he intends to do?" Yuven questioned at Fenrer's characteristic, but no less suspicious silence. "I know you two talked last night, I just didn't hear any details." He rubbed the back of his neck with a scoff of rust, licking the corners of his lips to stifle the cough in his lungs. Thumb against his lower lip, he spat out a small glob of the stale rust, shaking it off his fingers. "Since he doesn't want to tell me and I have to do guesswork..."

"Only what I'm supposed to do, that's it."

"Cleanse a Corruptor, but you knew that," Yuven accused and hooked his crescent blade in the frog on his belt. "Why would he feel the need to reiterate what you already knew?" Fenrer's brow furrowed up at him when Yuven loomed over him, a faint shadow cast over his Oathbound, his best friend. He squatted in front of Fenrer, glaring into his spiral eyes — the shapen truth left unseen to him. Fenrer returned his gaze without a need to blink. Left in stasis, the river of green flames slipped around his pupils when Fenrer set his elbows on his knees, lips thinning in apparent weary annoyance. Ice pricked at the corners of his eyelids, but he refused to take his attention off of Fenrer for the breaking point. His own arms across his knees, he came closer, slipping his fangs over his lips as Fenrer continued to stare blankly at him.

The glass door slid open. "Yuven, Fenrer, I think we're about to... get started..." Adara's voice faltered, but he refused to lose again when he got on his knees, bumping against Fenrer's who twitched at her arrival. Too close to his victory, he slipped his tongue between his lips and bent forward. "What are you two—"

"Shut up, Sazaka." Yuven raised a finger in her vague direction. "This is important." Hands up, he brought one closer to put Fenrer off-kilter, then stopped when a soft scoff left in a puff of mist through Fenrer's nose and he met him halfway, fingers laced together with a tight grip when his eyes narrowed, though refused to blink. Yuven scowled when Fenrer's fingers dug into his knuckles. "That's cheating."

"I haven't done anything yet," Fenrer mumbled. Yuven tried to tug his hand out of Fenrer's, but Fenrer held himself about as bendable as a restless rock. Still, he ignored the screaming of his head and refused to bend, elbow bent with Fenrer's when his Oathbound twitched. "I'll let go if you give this up."

"No."

Fenrer inched his wrist forward with ease, though he battled his own weak bones against his gigantic strength. Yuven dug in, and he sent a burst of ice at Fenrer's face. It swirled in the air around him, and Yuven winced when Fenrer pushed his hand backwards in one smooth motion, then let him go the moment the world flickered out of reality with his loss. "Cheater." Yuven rubbed his wrist and straightened himself out to face Adara, who frowned at them both as Neven came up from behind her. "Are you going to tell me what we're doing or am I to continue guessing?"

"Our first goal is to draw the wyvern out," Neven replied to his question, while not answering it all the same. "I've stationed Storm Wardens all across the city at chokepoints. Maria and the other Warden Chirurgeons are safe in one of the mountain bunkers in case things go wrong. They are setting up the medical field station as we speak." He hooked his fingers in his belt. "So, I need you to take me to where you encountered the wyvern, where Adara will stay up here and expel as much magick as she is comfortable with. Anything to pique its curiosity, and while she's doing that I'll go to the place where you encountered the wyvern to entice it."

Yuven swung his attention to Fenrer, who appeared unfazed at Neven's proclamation. "Are you mad?" he demanded and stomped to Neven. "You are going to get yourself killed if you go down alone!" Arms folded, his feathers flattened against his ears, shielding the tips from the unsettled song on the wind.

"Nonetheless, I must be shown the approximate location of where it appeared."

Yuven scowled at all three of the quiet individuals in the backyard of death's disruption. Irimount moaned straight to its towering white marble peaks which remained unbroken from the doom he brought upon it. "Fine." He kicked his heel through the tough dirt beneath his studded boot. "I will take you and the Wardens left for the vanguard to the location — but you are not going down there alone," he finished when Neven's long, golden feathers perked up with his ears. He ignored Neven's sudden burst of energy to wander over to Fenrer, holding his shoulder. "You. I need you."

He never needed to say a word to his Oathbound. Fenrer nodded in understanding, their previous silent argument brushed aside with ease as they left through the back alley, where Neven faltered when they passed the estate bunker, but kept up the pace when Yuven escaped from the constriction and out into the fatal emptiness. The cradle clawed at the blizzard with no inhabitants left to shield. "Whatever your plan is," Yuven commented with a scowl. "I just hope it works even if you are not keen to tell me what it is."

"You will know once we get this operation underway," Neven insisted.

He gave up.

The Grand Spire pierced the white firmament, a monument of Avaerilian pride — bent underneath the weight of a cult who dug their claws in at a king's apathy. Yuven drove his fingers into his palms. Each pearl on the crown, bloodied with that self-same pride over their lessers. Other Wardens gathered close when he took his flimsy lead and they stopped in front of the spire which grew out of the mountain itself. A beacon through the mist, he turned to Neven and pointed at its snow-capped doors. "It was in the lowest bowls of the spire. I will take you." He held out his hand. Mist rose out of his glyph, but it shimmered into a transparent river. It tightened around a pocket of his distortion, of his ghostly ability as he pushed it into Fenrer's hands. Fenrer curled his fingers into it, where it broke apart in the wind and wrapped around his entire body. He waited for him to nod before motioning for Neven to follow, leaving Adara at his Oathbound's side, trapped in his magick for their quick escape.

"Pull us out the moment it overwhelms you," Yuven ordered.

"I will," Fenrer replied, then nodded at Adara, who held out her own hands. At her feet, a silver glyph shining brighter than the sun whispered and bloomed at the start of her heel. Power raged from the inferno when she stared at him evenly, finding her control after her multitude of despair.

Trust placed, he caught up to Neven on the giant marble steps, frozen over with another layer of ice. Inside its tiled confines, the wind stifled into a deep hush when the doors closed behind them with an ominous rumble of cold thunder. Neven's feathers flicked, his pupils thinning into beads when he lowered his head downward.

"What?" Yuven asked before stepping to the lift which they narrowly escaped the decayed flames.

"Do you hear that?" Neven lowered himself close to the ground, ears flicking.

"Hear what?" Yuven joined him on the floor, but heard nothing except the wind blasting through the smallest cracks, whistling the last tune of Irimount.

"It sounds like humming." Neven drew himself back to his feet then headed for the lift with a questioning tip of his head. "Are you certain you can't hear it?"

Against his better judgment, he joined Neven inside the lift. "I don't hear anything except the wind, Miesero. I think that's what you're hearing." Yuven pressed his fingers into the small buttons carved with Navei numbers. It rumbled, then brought them downwards, and with each pass of the levels, a deep, unsettled hiss left Neven's nose when he raised his hand, feathers tight against each-other.

"You're not hearing that?" he asked once his nasal hissing went quiet as the lift slowed.

"No." Yuven raised an eyebrow at Neven's discomfort when the lift pulsed to a stop, and the stone doors slid open with an echoing creak. Water lapped at the steps, undisturbed from the tide of blood the wyvern wrought with its awakening. On the edge of the abyss, the sword stuck in the stone, shining bright with the palpable rainbow flow sweeping down the cascades to create stars. "Come." He stretched out his magick to keep him above the water. It sprang and bloomed across the sepulcher full of tombs stacked along the crystal walls. Clouds slipped over his boots when they reached the rainbow cascades. "Here is where Fenrer was overwhelmed by its aura." He pointed to where he stood. "It came from there." He switched his indication to the cascades, dripping their beauty into the black maw below. He followed Neven to the edge, and they both looked down.

Emptiness, and no abyss stared back at them.

"It's louder here," Neven mumbled.

"What exactly are you hearing?" Yuven asked.

"It was faint when we were outside, but it's clear here." Neven patted his stomach and forced him to step back. "Fenrer said it was dormant, but he didn't specify as to if it was sleeping."

Yuven clutched the hilt of his crescent blade. "What are you planning to do?"

"Only what our ancestors have done for turns to call out to each other." Neven opened the pack attached to his leg. "Navei'al. I am going to sing as I listen." He dragged out a Naveeran flute, then slipped it between his lips. Yuven stiffened when the notes came out soft, though incomplete when Neven kept his gaze trained on the edge, stepping backwards with the passage of time. It whistled through the small crystal opening at the end of the flute, with Neven changing its pitch when he slipped his fangs into the side grooves. Mist danced around his feet, following his enchanted music as dust streamed off the roof, and Yuven trembled at the sound of clanking metal chains.

"Neven, I think you have its attention..." Yuven hissed and dragged his crescent blade out.

Neven's song continued against the unheard, sending icy disturbances underneath his feet. As Neven finished the dynamic, something finished it in keyed dissonance. A shockwave drove straight into his neck when its own coiled through the cascades and turned the stars red. Water slipped through the grooves of its mangled maw when its mouth opened with a torn hum as Neven pocketed the flute in one quick motion and stepped to his side as two large claws slammed into the rock and stifled the flow. Colours washed out, it went still, before swinging its neck downwards with a sickening crack of bone. Black irides washed deeper into the crimson pupils when it licked its toothy tongue against the ground. Fumes of rot left through the openings between its teeth.

"Time to go!" Yuven latched onto Neven's arm when it opened its mouth, its lower jaw splitting in half to swallow them whole. He sent a blast of ice through the faint connection he left behind, and he wrapped an arm around Neven when the heat intensified and burnt the beautiful music apart. Knees cracked against stone, he found himself at Fenrer's feet, who stepped out of the way when Neven ran forward.

"It's coming!" he snapped, his voice echoing with the power he created.

It rippled the mountain.

Black, broken wings slammed out of the mountain in his reflection, its neck tearing out of the stone as it screeched into the air. Dread created a circle around Irimount when veins pulsed. Its shadow expanded when it took flight, circling Irimount once more. Its tail flared out, smashing into the peak with cries of agony.

"Let's get started," Neven called over the shaking of the world, then clung onto his forearm. "Yuven, I must ask you to wait for my signal before you try and take it down. We need to do this carefully."

"It won't give us time to do things carefully!" Yuven snapped as it spun in midair.

Spikes grew out of its crimson glyphs. It slammed into the cradle and broke pieces of the rock apart in one swift blast. One screeched through the street, with them scrambling out of its way when it dug into the dirt and burst apart in mold and decay. He winced when Neven dug his fingers deeper into his arm.

"Do you trust me?" Neven asked, no, pleaded.

Yuven nodded when bubbles popped in the air.

"Then, come!"Neven snapped. "Fenrer, Adara, to me! I am going to get you both out of the way of this—"

"Navei'al..." its voice tore through his bones from the heavens it reigned. "... hear... the tundra... listen..."

It swooped downwards and landed on the top of the spire, stretching out its wings. Sinew tore across its ligaments. "What's it doing?" Adara asked.

Yuven grunted when a ripple of distortion slammed through the street when it opened its mouth. Wardens disappeared into its hold, thrown back into different parts. His magick came up too late, thrown back himself with Neven's hand still on him. Out of the rubble they both scrambled into, he looked up at the spire when its mouth opened wider, silent.

"What in the infernal hells is it doing...?" Yuven asked Adara's self-same question.

In a moment, all the Wardens which stumbled with them stiffened.

Beside him, Neven cried and sank to his knees, digging his fingers into his feathers. Through the broken wall, Fenrer writhed in agony as he drove his hands into his temples and sank to the ground, with Adara nowhere in sight.

"What? What?" Yuven exclaimed and rushed to Neven's side. Golden light wrapped around him, and he winced at the hiss of steam against his fingers when he tried to touch his shoulder. In a magick mirage, Neven gasped out and his pupils disappeared deep within the sapphires. "Miesero!" Yuven ignored the pain slashing his skin when he drove past the golden cloak of wings clawing itself out of the air around Neven. "What is happening?!"

In opposition, the Wardens slumped against the scattered rubble and walls, their eyes drooping. Yuven raised his head once more at the pure silence save for Neven's agonized breathing. Scales tore into his skin, and Yuven drew his hands out of the mirage when it slipped over Neven's face.

It's singing. Yuven looked around, then knelt closer to Neven. "You're hearing it sing."

Neven nodded when golden jaws revealed its own set of teeth.

"How loud is it?" Yuven asked, sending out his spatial distortion when Fenrer slumped forward. Oathbound at his knees, he set one on his back to keep him down. "Neven! You have to tell me how loud it is!"

Neven let out a breath of confusion. "Deafening... Yuven, we have to... stop it." He dragged himself to his feet, and the golden stars sprinkled off his armor. "It's echoing."

"Echoing?" Yuven asked when Fenrer moaned beneath him.

Another silent shock-wave rippled through his spine. "Neven," he whispered when Neven flinched. "If it's affecting you..."

Neven stared at him in despair.

There's too much of a chance it's spreading through Naveera! Yuven got off of Fenrer when he pressed his hands against the floor. "We have to shut it up!"

"Wait..." Fenrer twisted around. "Adara landed somewhere..."

"Why are you worried about her now of all times?" Yuven grabbed onto his front and shook him the moment he stood up.

"It's her magick." Fenrer dug his fingers into his shoulders.

Yuven groaned and stretched his distortion through the pressure in the air, finding her. His ghostly hand clung onto the back of her collar, and he dragged her back to his original point. "There!"

"It's him."

Her sob slammed him to a stop when she curled into herself and cried.

"What?" Yuven asked as Fenrer stared up at the wyvern on the spire.

Adara lifted her head with a tortured laugh, eyes wide in ancient terror. "It's him, the one I saw in the sphere." Her hands clung onto his forearms, and Yuven failed in his duty after all. "It was what Blackwall wanted me for... why he wanted us both, Yuven." Tears coated her cheeks and froze them. "It's Evyriaz."

Fenrer's eyes widened in tormented shock.

"Fenrer, wait—!" Yuven stretched his hand outwards as Fenrer broke in a run for the spire. A groan left his lips, but he stopped when Neven brought two glyphs up to Adara's ears. In a snap of his fingers, her tears quelled, and she straightened herself out in confusion.

"What...?"

"You're hearing it sing through your magick." Neven panted. "Yuven, we have to silence its song!"

Yuven let go of Adara and sprinted after Fenrer. Skipping through his distortion magick, he slid to his side and sent his own glyphs around his ears. Fenrer slowed to a stop, then continued his quick pace for the spire as Neven stumbled after them.

If this is really Evyriaz... if we don't shut him up... Yuven glanced at Neven when his pace slowed, his pupils thinning into beads when mist escaped through his jaws. If it's affecting him that way... it's affecting others, isn't it?

Infernal Hells... as if Naveera wasn't cursed enough.