YUVEN

Ice held a certain cruel quality, found within the deepest recesses of the coldest glyphs. Cyan peaks created crystal beacons on the mosaic map of their continent at the base of the captain's stand, conjoined by other podiums of similar design. Each a star, with wyvern wings wrapped around the circumference. Some of them remained empty for Captain's not on Euros, which left him with Maria, Neven, and a couple other of the senior Wardens, with Warden-Commander Faehariel sat atop her own, with three empty ones around her — each one meant for a Warden-Commander to delegate the work between what had once been a giant Order, bleeding out its life into a grim knell of truth.

Our numbers dwindle every Turn, and the Derelicts increase in number that our Aurus Wardens suspect another coming of the Crimson Dusk, and the fact this operation went off without minimal casualties... Fortuitous luck? Yuven glanced at Neven from the side, who pursed his lips. What are you trying to prove with this? Ever since Kayal—

"I'm going to have to send a message to Warden-Commander Kamilaz from her post in Rasii-Vhenlah, but it may take some time with the state of the Teboran wall," Commander Faehariel broke the tense silence between her inner circle and his derailed train of cold thought. "Captain Lotayrin," she called to the senior Captain, and Yuven folded his feathers against his ears, left without a voice or a modicum of control when Neven straightened out his shoulders and kept his hands locked behind his back. "You may proceed with your reports on Irimount. Are any of its systems still active?"

"Irimount's magitek generators need a sweep of repairs to regain full functionality throughout the city. It should do the rest on its own once that is complete," he said without a break of thought. "We revitalized most of the conduits in preparation for this. I also had a check on the ice engines, tested with a bout of fire magick within, and they performed in acceptable parameters, though the lack of its use left much to be desired." He waved his hand in his direction. "Yuven and Fenrer cleansed Evyriaz, and we cleared out any remaining draugr, but I advise another sweep with Aurus Wardens to confirm."

Evyriaz. Yuven dug his scoff underneath his tongue and tasted venom. But as long as you are able to keep your faith, I will hold my words. Just this once. He nodded at Commander Faehariel to reaffirm Neven's words, but naught more. Out of place and of lower seniority, he listened, and absorbed the information within the words.

He narrowed his eyes when Neven added, "I think it would be wise to set up a small post in Irimount to assess the damage."

"It's not hospitable as is," Yuven muttered under his breath, but he scowled when Neven and Faehariel turned their sharp attention to him. "I apologise, Warden-Commander, but I don't think setting a base in Irimount is wise. For one, the Naveeran aristocracy have constantly rejected the Warden's outreach of help from the archives I read in the Annex. Long before Neven and I were even born." He clenched his fists and metal manacles froze his skin off and he waved his hand back at his Guardian, who put a hand on his chest with a deepening frown. "Two, and worse, they have shown a disregard and incorrigible disrespect to our duty and our Order and have actively had a hand in nearly murdering a Warden." Fenrer's fingers slipped out of his. Jadeite exploded in little glyphs and tore cliffs asunder straight to the sea. "Hard to keep our Oath when the people we're trying to protect from the depravity of the Derelicts turn and kill us instead." And me? Stuck with this accursed bloodline of mine with precious memories I apparently have no use for. Blood seeped down his lips when he drove his fangs into the corners.

Neven's expression of concern stoked the fury in his flames.

"I understand your misgivings, Warden Traye," Commander Faehariel said, her voice measured — with a wisdom he would never achieve with his skill in battle. "I dare not ask you to forgive or forget the transgressions you've experienced. Quite the opposite, but it is the world we serve, forevermore until it no longer exists. As was the Oath you swore underneath the twilight expanse. With a base in Irimount, we can keep a closer eye not just on the Derelict activity, but on the activity of its people. I will not allow another Tebora to happen." Her words finalized, she twisted to Neven. "Captain Lotayrin, draw up logistics for a hospitable Outpost in Naveera and archive the map of Irimount for an update in the Annex and write down Wardens with the skills needed to traverse the environment — or an inclination to learn." On her heel, she nodded at Yuven. "You are to continue training Adara in her magick forthwith and keep up reports of her progress to satisfy the Elder Convocation."

"Understood, Commander." Yuven refused to kneel to anything but his oath, so he tipped his head to her in respect and reverence for the symbol she acted as to the Order.

"You are all dismissed." Hands upwards, her opal glyphs shattered the cyan crystals and they glimmered over the map once more, collected in the circuits between the carved marble mountains. Yuven lost his grip on his dreams when Neven descended the steps and headed out of the grand hall. Maria squinted at him, but he gave her no time for a lecture.

Forgiveness? He stomped out of the corridor and dogged Neven's steps through the citadel and outside. "This is a mistake, Neven."

"I disagree, and Commander Faehariel gave the order, all that is left to clean out Irimount," Neven replied, and Yuven drew ice through his fingertips until it weighed down his palm. "Yuven, there is a difference between sticking to your principles and being stubborn and believing one way is the only right way. Often you choose the latter, and I don't want you to trip on your own self-made ice." Yuven swung himself forward on the springs of his glyph, and Neven grabbed onto the shaft of his created glaive with ease, throwing it to the side with a look of parental disapproval of pursed lips and a furrowed brow. His pupils twisted into the vertical fury of their wyvern ancestors he experienced on the frozen wastelands. A barbed rattle echoed from Neven's feathers when his nostrils flared into the deeper hiss of frustrated concern.

"I say one thing and you always say the other. You are worse than Fenrer," Yuven bit and drew back the glaive over his arm. "Unlike you two, I do not have the luxury of throwing caution to the wind. You are inclined to disagree, I say we settle this the way our ancestors have for time immemorial, and I will have my victory over you this once." He raised the glyph to point it at Neven's chest. "Fight me. Here. Now, while we still have the chance, because unlike you, I'm not going to live for two centuries, and I still have goals to meet."

And you are the one I am no closer to meeting than I was before. On the steps of a throne, he shouldered the truth the king failed to provide — a meaningful challenge.

Neven's hiss fell silent. "Yuven."

"I am not taking no for an answer, and I will not have you going easy on me."

Neven's feathers thinned with his deep blue irides when he held his hand out, and Black blood sewn upon his own smile when a glaive spun with golden ice fell into his palm through the sapphire tipped glyph. He switched his grip with ease when it finalized to its peak of a cold blade, the magick hammer crushing it into a point, and Yuven wanted nothing less than all of Neven's effort.

Anything less would be an unacceptable response.

His personal gauntlet of life.

In a moment, he lunged with the wind.

Neven cast himself aside and sent the shaft of his glaive straight for his chest. On his knees, he ducked underneath the breeze Neven left, eyes lost to the focus of a fighter, a warrior against the Derelicts. Magick loaded into his heels, and he sent himself upwards on the glyph of power. It bounced across the grass, but Neven stepped upon it and froze it in ice. Mist curdled. It caught against his steeled toes, and Yuven grunted when he kicked the ice back into his face, crumbling into snow. Arm upwards, he blocked Neven's over the shoulder swipe. Underneath the clouds of Euros, of home, in the past of a childhood slowly oozing out of his memory. On ocean tides, taught how to fall, to fly, to dance, to fight. Only on thin ice. The clash of blades sparked out snowflakes when he tried to push his magick into Neven, who remained stalwart, resolute, and as shifting as a river unfrozen.

He spun the glaive into a circumference of power. Sapphires whispered to life and created a shield when he thrusted for its center.Another burst, and Yuven grunted when Neven sent his own lunge to meet him, and it blasted over him. On his feet, Neven swung the shaft over his shoulder, and gave him no time to react except to defend when his two point hit first cracked the shield, then destroyed it in full. In a flash of gold, Yuven scowled when his legs refused further movement, and they sprawled out on the grass when Neven swept them out from underneath him.

The grass, caked in frost, fell still.

And I'm no closer than I was moments before. Yuven leaned on his elbows and drove his fingers into the dirt until it coated the tips.

Neven sheathed his glaive with a shake of his head, his feathers scattering the snowdust along the barbs. "I know it is difficult," he said and knelt down in front of him. "You bear so much weight, but you need to realize there are others who will shoulder the burden." He stood up once more, stretching out his hand, but retracted it when Yuven found the strength in his knees to stand once more. "I will be setting up the logistics for Irimount, and I will hear nothing else on the matter." He sent a finger across his long, gold-spun feathers, flicking out more pieces of packed snow.

Lost in the waves, Yuven drew his fangs across his tongue when Neven disappeared across the grounds of painted marble and basking hippogryphs in the paddocks. Battle lost, but the war not yet won, he stomped back into the citadel with his own duty remaining — that which involved getting Adara back into a training rhythm, for the Elder Convocation wanted results and a show of their 'good faith'.

They patted themselves on the back for their definition of restraint. I'll give them the results they desperately crave. My last laugh before I go. Yuven sent a whisk of fire into his fingertips, curling the embers into twine around his palm. Through the thin windows of the western wing, he caught sight of Adara and Fenrer, a regrettable but unpreventable turn of events and a chance in the dynamics he got comfortable with. It was one fight to win instead of the bitter taste of unreachable victory Neven left in the dirt at his feet. Fireleash curled in preparation for the training, he jumped through space, moved through time, and landed with the blur of silver stars. His first sight out of the realm of ghosts, Adara's slowly widening eyes as the battle fever continued to rage.

"Ancients—" Fenrer exclaimed when the force of his arrival pushed him back and out of the way of disruption and distraction. Yuven landed on one heel, then sent the next on a blaze of glory straight at Adara, who covered her face when the flames twisted into icicles, but when she lowered her guard too much, too soon, they burst and covered the new battlefield in fog. Fireleash unfurled, he swung it through the mist and created pockets of embers, kicking a heavy one at Adara once more.

"What are you doing?" she snapped out and dodged the bubble of embers.

"Training." He pushed the leash into the ground, and a glyph exploded outwards to carry his challenge. Silver flames swirled across Adara's arms, a flimsy show of control, with too much room for improvement. Her flaming fist went for his face, through the cloud, but he sent a gasp of winter through the flames. Each ember died. Each attack, stifled. "Give me something to work with!" he ordered, before sending his knee upwards on the coattails of a curling white glyph, and Adara stumbled back from the force of magick. "Think!"

Before Fenrer regains his senses and interrupts this.

Adara growled and showed her teeth she once called a smile when he knew better. Anyone who showed their fangs meant a challenge. Her own glyphs of flames cast outwards and reflected the bubbles. Heart quickened, he ducked when they exploded all at once with a scream of intensity. Spatial bubble outwards to catch the inferno, he ducked out of it and drained the air out of what he left behind. Flames flickered and fell apart, and he lunged through it once more, leaving a copy to push into Adara, slipping through space to land behind her.

"I taught you better than that." Yuven kicked a wave of ice into his hands, which solidified into a glaive. Adara swung on her heel as Fenrer waved away the fog. He prodded her in the chest, which she shoved away, but stumbled. He poked her in the shoulder, she winced and tried to grapple onto him. He took a step forward, and widened his eyes when flames danced on the trails of her kick. He pushed off her to dodge the low swipe Neven employed on him earlier, with more expert precision than Adara's haphazard attempt at defense.

"What's your problem?" Adara panted.

"Out of breath already? So much for Anima magick. I thought you said you were ready." He brought up flames instead of ice. It curled below the skin,a breath of energy compared to the stasis of immobility. It burnt his white glyphs into steam, spinning madly, wildly. Her own matched his, and she sent balls of embers through to scatter across his shield. A spark against the cold with his shield of icemade faith. He drew his fingers along the inner circumference, cooling the steam into crystal water, then sent it into her face. Adara caught it with her fingertips, where the water glimmered into silver gemstones. Subconscious primordial shifting, a start, but not enough. He went for one last attack through the disappeared fog, with Adara rushing to meet him with a frustrated slew of words he barely processed in Common. It coiled into a singularity, but he lurched when Fenrer jumped in the middle of the fiery tempest, grabbing onto both their wrists. Unmatched for Fenrer's innate giant's strength, Yuven scrambled to catch himself when Fenrer breathed deep with the pulsating magick hovering around his body until it disappeared with a whisper of mixed smoke.

Infernal Hells—!

Yuven brought up a shield when Fenrer sent his fist into his own glyph. The magick he stockpiled fluttered outwards through the mist, and the grass weaved from the impact.

Yuven quaked underneath the strength, but Fenrer released him with a sigh. "Most people would expect a hello first, Yuv." Magick flowed out from his open palm, and he rolled out his shoulders, released from the power they both threw in his direction.

Adara rubbed her shoulder with a scowl. "Here I thought you were trying to kill me..."

"Oh, please, Adara." Yuven brushed off the remnants of snow off his pants. "I find the best training comes to you unexpectedly. I shall give you a pass for the primordial shift you created in the middle of that, but your footwork is terrible and I have yet to see you practice your base primordial. You rely too much on the concept of your power and don't practice with the reality of it." He prodded his finger into her ribs, and she held her ground as she always had. One of the few people who refused to bend to his power. "We will have to work on that."

Adara waved her hands out in front of her. "Gods, Yuven, I barely had time to wind down from Irimount!"

"Yet you have enough time to meander about doing nothing." He glanced at Fenrer, who folded his arms. He leaned for Adara, nostrils flared. "Just because you've allowed yourself the one distraction that is my Oathbound, doesn't mean I will allow you to slack any further."

"I see my name is 'distraction' now..."

Yuven swept to Fenrer, and underneath the light of the mountain sun, he held himself a little taller, a little stronger, and more alive and with a sense of happiness he saw but once. Back underneath the shadow of an obsidian stone carved with unforgettable names. Though the shadows under his eyes remained, he swore Fenrer's smile touched them. He forced relaxation to flow through his spine, and he stepped back from the pair. "I just want her to be ready. There is a more than zero chance that not only will the Elder Convocation expect a report — they'll want a demonstration."

Adara's fiery energy died. "Was them hearing my side of things not enough?"

"No. I don't know what that yet shocks you. Most people are recently hearing about an Anima returning after hundreds of Turns. I want us to be prepared for the response." He fixed his shirt sleeves. "So, if I wasn't interrupting anything important, I think we should get started."

Adara opened her mouth with a scrunch of her brow, but Fenrer stepped forward. "I agree."

"Good to see we're once again on the same page," he said and clapped Fenrer's shoulder. "I'm sure you can have your discussion afterwards."

"Oh, we were just finishing, actually," Fenrer piped up, a shard of the young boy from before peeking out from underneath the blanket of avoidance he hid himself under to avoid the pain he wanted to shoulder. "You see, I was talking to her about crystals."

Yuven stopped and narrowed his eyes at him. "Really? What types of crystals? There are many to discuss. And I'd hoped Adara would have grasped the concept by now, considering..."

Fenrer slipped his cheek into his awaiting palm with a blank smile. "I started with elementia crystals, those are quite basic though. You could say they're doors to the wider world of crystals." Behind him, Adara grinned. "So, I found myself telling her about crystal hearts, and about how they're doors to other crystals."

"Fenrer..." Yuven let him go at the sudden burst of devious cruelty giving birth in front of him.

"And then I had to tell her about how I knew someone once who found a door made out of fire-charged crystals, only to go past it to find a door made out of... what was it...?" He pinched his chin, but when Yuven went to step away, Fenrer dogged his steps. "It might've been astral charged metal, which then led to me telling her about how runesmiths often have to go through doors of said metals to get the result they want. You could say I knew a runesmith who climbed up a tall mountain to go through a door made out of sponges—"

Yuven stepped into his spatial distortion, and Fenrer's voice went silent. His lips stopped moving and formed into a wolfish grin, far too pleased with himself.

"Torture instrument," he grumbled. "I'd be surprised if she can tolerate past two doors."

"I know," Fenrer mouthed and waved with a happy smile.

I don't think I've ever seen you... like this.

Over an extended gap, he frowned when Fenrer twisted around to return to Adara, sending him another emerald side-eye of acknowledgement.

Fenrer, he cast the powerful name to the winds of voiceless thought, but nonetheless, Fenrer responded with a stop, needing no voices to hear someone's truth. Just don't torture me when the time comes. He forced his fangs into a grin. I think I could do without hearing about your stupid doors while in the throes of death.

Fenrer's smile died all at once, and he tasted the ruefulness of his own thoughtless imagination as he poked at the shield of faith Fenrer wore in defense of the innocent. His lips went inward, but he faced Yuven in full. He spoke out something out on the wind, unheard, though from the way Adara's eyes widened, she heard it instead. Yuven reached his hand out for the young boy's fingers, a test of his life, but they drifted out of his hands and fell into the sea below.

Fenrer smiled again, empowered by faith unbroken.

I'm sorry, Molvisaliz.