MARIA

Warmth spread from the candlewick on the top of her research desk inside her private quarters back on Euros, full of her notes, anatomical drawings along with notes taped to the sides with her own adjustments and comparisons between a healthy body and a body corrupted by a Husk. Her feathered pencil scratched out the margins of her mistakes to form new corrections full of observations. We have a long way to go... and it's coming soon, how long can his dose of stardust stave it off before we have to face it? Maria opened up the tome on the tiny lectern beside her, flipping through pages to find the section on mortality rates and timeframes for corrupted individuals. Adults barely lived any longer than mid-twenties if corrupted in adulthood.

Children rarely made it past the aftershock, in that regard, Yuven was an anomaly. But Yuo gave him until early twenties, and he's always told me my need to beat the odds is a double-edged sword. Maria licked her thumb to turn the next page. Harbor bells tolled, a reminder of her home in Sivaport, with Mother tending to her garden and Father working long days at the forge, hammering away until the very heart of Aztryxer heard his strength. I'll have to double his dosage and prepare the ward... Maria leaned around the corner of her small workspace at a rippling tug. "You know that won't work." Back straight against her seat, she smirked when Yuven slipped through the door with a quiet scoff, throwing off his loose fitting jacket for the mountain climes onto the coat stand. "How'd the meeting go?"

"Fine." He rolled out his shoulders and swiped one of her books from the small shelf on the wall before slouching into her bed, flipping it open. "I'd say I'm surprised you didn't attend, but—" He set the book against his legs and eyed her from across the room. "I'm sure you have matters to settle." He returned his nose into the spine of the book, his feathers perked up in the lie of his inattentiveness of her actions. "Besides, some of the younger Wardens wanted to celebrate the first successful operation in what... decades? Quite frankly, I'm not in the mood for these long celebrations. It's pointless and the work of the Storm Wardens will never truly finish."

"I think it's necessary." Maria sent an ember of her magick into the runes of the brass holder, and the candle blazed into the lamp above her head. "Sometimes the little victories can make all the difference." She swished a loose, mutinous strand of golden hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear before checking on Yuven once more, who leaned deeper into the pillows without another word. "Does that really bother you that they are?"

"No one celebrated when I was cleansed. I suppose it's more depressing to them — a child who got lucky instead of a powerful wyvern, an Ancient—" the name of the Traveller left through his lips with a fanged hiss. "One can be painted as a testament of the strength of the Storm Wardens, the other is simply the way of the world."

Maria frowned at his firm, empty statement. Yuven leaned his head into his own shoulder and whisked wind to turn his own pages. Her fingers trailed along her own handwritten notes of everything Yuven described to her when she was younger, inexperienced as she put all her focus on researching the Corruption for a way to save him — and others who suffered as he had. Yuven's gaze peeked from over the rim of the book, and she sighed. "I'll be sure to give you celebration and fanfare when I rip that core out of your soul for good."

His violet eyes swept over her frame, and he murmured, "If that day ever comes, I'll settle for you burning it to ashes in front of me."

"I'm flattered that you think my flames can be hot enough to turn a Derelict core to ash," Maria said. "One of the first things I tried with a released core was burning it, melting it, even empowered with blood magick it didn't crack from the pressure." Her thumb brushed over her palm, where a faint white scar had once occupied, a testament to her fiery frustration bled onto the core of a Corruptor's death, and it drained it into itself. "But, I'll give it another attempt when I get it out of you."

"You seem certain that you have a way." Yuven put the book down and wandered over to her side to loom over her shoulder. Maria fought down a giggle when he leaned around her, then tried to tip over her with his own growing smile. "Come, Myl'la, do not keep me in suspense, you know the worst killer is boredom and suspense." He gripped her shoulders and tried to move her out of the way of her research notes when she set her arms over the pages and rested the back of her head against his chest. Maria reached for the smallest of her tomes, then held it out for Yuven to take.

"Light."

Yuven's playful mischief died into one of thoughtful confusion. "...light?"

"The foundation of magick. Energy. Focus. Expression." Maria bounced in her chair when he flipped open the pages with curious interest. "Everything is connected with magick, including the dark and the light. Think of the purest expression of darkness, the Derelicts, and think about what might be the purest form of light, the other side of the coin." Out of the chair, Yuven closed the book and handed it back to her. "It might sound like a flimsy fancy, but I believe this will work. If we counteract the overflow of darkness in your soul with light, we might be able to force it out in full." Her hand clasped his yet warm ones. "I just need some final preparations, and Yuven..." She squeezed his fingers, and he returned it. "You know that it's at its most vulnerable when—"

"I'm in the throes of death — the Expulsion Event," Yuven finished with a slow nod. "It is in the name, after all."

"I won't give up on you," she reiterated. "And I will make sure other Corruptors never need fear the absolute of the abyss." As the Oath I made as a Storm Warden, to be a shield as much a blade. Her own sat on her personal weapon rack. Amber flames swung through the runes with the flicker of lamps, and she let him go when someone knocked on the door. "Get some rest, Ice Knight," she whispered and patted him on the back when he went to the bed and slumped into the sheets, rolling over to catch the book once more, folding one leg over the other. Maria opened her door, then tipped her head when Fenrer revealed himself, donned in his own off-duty clothes.

"Hello, Maria. May I talk to you?" he asked.

"Aiya, Molvisaliz!" Yuven lunged onto the end of the bed. "Am I stuffed liver?"

Fenrer raised his hands with a smile. "No? And what is wrong with stuffed liver?"

"Hmmph." Yuven folded his arms. "It is gross, and that's saying something because all food tastes gross to me." He sent a whisk of ice past her head, and Fenrer dodged with a raised eyebrow.

"Love you too, Yuv," Fenrer said with a weary, but no less amused sigh.

"Better."

Maria followed Fenrer out of the room when Yuven settled down, then closed the door. "Is something wrong? Is it about the meeting the senior Wardens had about the Irimount operation?" she slid into the ocean's breath for an added sense of privacy of a shared language. "You usually wait for when I'm on shift in the ward to talk. If it's something Auric based—"

"No," Fenrer answered with an added shake of his head, the lamps along the halls revealing the constant shadows under his eyes, where the pin of Hanekan nobility bounced against his cheek, forged into the shape of a protective wolf — the symbol of the near extinct Pyren's. "It's going to come soon, isn't it?"

"I can see you've done away with your formality for brevity. How tired are you?" Fenrer gave her a slow blink, so she added, "How has your insomnia been as of late?"

"I'll answer that if you answer mine."

Maria released the tension into her shoulders and walked down the corridor, further away from her room and Yuven's precious love. "Yes, it is soon, are you asking because you've also felt something wrong?" she questioned. "I won't lie, Fenrer, your Oathbound connection is a bit of a mystery to my research. I wasn't able to find any cases where a Corruptor had a connection bound by the stars to another individual, so I'm not sure what'll happen on your end when it starts. For Yuven's peace of mind, I'm hoping it won't do anything to you, but knowing the force of the corruption, I won't hold my breath." They stopped in the small foyer where windows carved around to the view of the sea, and she sat down on the small bench, and Fenrer joined her with a heavy sway to his movement.

"Back at Irimount," Fenrer replied. "When I came to, I tasted blood, and Yuven's aura had taken on a red sheen within the snow." Opalescent flames set the edges of his irides alight. He rested his arm against the windowsill, dipping his head forward. "If there is any way I can assist when the time comes."

"There might be, but you could start by getting some rest." Maria sent a fist into his shoulder. "And answering my question now that I've answered yours."

Fenrer sucked in his lips with a soft, slight noise she swore was a scoff, the sleep-deprived side of him tossed aside the calm shield and revealed the fire of a Hanekan. "About the same as it usually is, but it hasn't gotten worse," he answered with a smile. "You don't need to concern yourself over me, Maria. I have Yuven doing that enough." He set his arm across his chest and studied the stars outside without another explanation.

"I still think you could try some haze bulbs," Maria said, and prepared herself for the next predictable reaction Fenrer often took when someone told him things he refused to hear. He looked away with another shake of his head he attempted to hide, right on cue. "Just a small one when it gets bad. I have some in stock, it would not be any trouble."

"Other people need it more than I do," Fenrer pointed out. "I do sleep, Maria."

"I wouldn't say your sleep has any quality to it."

"You are being pedantic."

"And you are being stubborn." Maria prodded him in the side of the head, and he tapped her hand away. "The tough guy act doesn't work on me. You can either ignore what I just said and I'll just have to annoy you some other time and never stop, or... you can try a small bulb and see how it helps. If it doesn't—" Maria threw up her hands at the concept of a future defeat. "I'll concede, but I'll try and find something that would help. It's just how I am, Fenrer, deal with it. I am sure you've tolerated much worse behaviour from others, but I can show you that the little annoyances can get under your skin much faster that would make you blurt out the first thing that comes into that thick skull of yours and have Neven wondering where you learned all the colourful words." Her hand clapped onto his shoulder when his frown deepened, any further, and she'd need to take a picture for Yuven, who still thought Fenrer couldn't show any emotion besides a calm temperament, and certainly not a scowl. "Your choice, Fen."

His next breath came in heavy. "Understood, Maria, I shall try a small bulb."

"Good boy." Maria gave him a friendly pinch on the cheek, which he leaned out of. "Remember who I'm seeing, Fenrer, and realise I'm not easily swayed into inaction by someone shoving their head in the dirt, your bad mood might as well be a nice breeze. Because to me you'll always be that kid who, after I told him not to down a tincture all in one go — proceeded to do just that to spite me."

"I did not do that out of spite—" Fenrer stopped. "And how do you remember that? We were seven." His annoyance turned into exasperation.

"I took it personally. How do you remember it?"

"It tasted like stale bread."

Maria laughed, then sent one more fist into his shoulder when his expression lightened. "I only get on your nerves because I do care about you, Fen," she reminded him. "So, tomorrow, come see me in the ward and I'll give you a tiny bulb. I want you to try it, and tell me if it works or not. Yuven and I are going to need you when the Expulsion Event starts."

"Very well." Fenrer hauled himself off the bench. "Goodnight, Maria. Thank you." True to his form, he bowed in gratitude with another weary sigh. "Though I don't think it will."

"Go to bed."

Fenrer closed his eyes and wandered into the shadows, leaving her on the bench with the little stars in the sky. After a few silent moments to her thoughts, she returned to her room.

Yuven curled underneath the covers with the lamps doused to their smoldering runes. Maria slipped out of her day clothes and into her warm night ones, fixing her hair in the small mirror on the nightstand before slipping in beside him. His arms slipped around her with the softest trill of Navei, cuddling into her as his feathers fluffed out in a sense of peace she hoped to bring to him past his allotted time.