FENRER

Magick splattered across the flow and created the bridge to the lands of Velteraiia, where the sounds of drums echoed in his heart. Over the myriad of ocean waves which lapped at the shore. He inched his way to the translucent stone at the lack of spirits on the other side, enjoying their rest of revelry through the thick cover of trees and massive cliffs to put Sivaport to shame. Voices clamored. Auras bright. Joyful and free. A sense of insatiable, childish curiosity tugged him closer, but he slammed to a stop when a voice rumbled with the might of kings, in familiar, but at the same time, old Hanekan, "You do not belong here, little one. Where you stand is where you stay until the world returns to bring you forth to the halls."

Out of the shadows, a massive man stepped through the undergrowth with a greatsword strapped to his back, still not quite an unwieldy weapon for a man of his size. He wore old, traditional Hanekan garb, tight leathers and furs from successful hunts wrapped around his shoulders. Mist flecked off his dark brown hair when he stopped at the edge of the steps. In the pale river which flowed underneath the bridge, Fenrer raised an arm to his brow to shield his eyes from the resplendent memories and the rising dawn. A wolven headdress covered the top of his head, and fell down onto his shoulders to connect with the rest of his leather armor. The spirit blurred when it heaved itself onto the bridge, and Fenrer trembled at the shadow the spirit extended closer to him, gigantic in both spirit and body.

Taller than Father.

Fenrer swayed on his feet, and took small steps back when the giant came closer. "Who are you?" he mumbled and wiped his brow again, trying to hold onto the starry tangle before it disappeared into the mist. He focused on the headdress, but the world tipped over, and he sank to his knees, smaller than ever before at the mercy of the giant.

"As you are a Warden to Aztryxer — as am I one of many Wardens to the vaunted lands of Velteraiia." He came closer, but the spirit stopped at his end of the bridge and withdrew his greatsword, slamming it into the brick below to separate Fenrer from distant memories. "You will not find what you seek here. What you seek remains in the land of the living. Your presence brings naught more than an unsettled reminder to the peaceful dead."

"I didn't mean to disrupt the rest." Fenrer leaned around him to try and catch a glimpse of someone familiar, but pulled himself back to the giant when he put both hands on the hilt of the greatsword. He tried to catch his breath, but the land shuddered when he dug his fingers into it and heat waves crashed along his shoulder blades. "I just keep finding myself here..."

"Ever was the curse of those born with the eyes of crystal," the giant said, unwavering. "You toe this bridge, even without you as at the door as you are. You are a vessel to the restless souls who have yet to cross. Yet." He dragged the greatsword out of the brick and lowered it to his face. "You still do not belong, and as a Warden, I must see to the domain's peace from the living, Aurus. Slip back into yourself, and take heart that those lost are safe and enjoying their time until the cycle continues back into the planes."

Fenrer reached out to the sword, but found the world spinning upside down straight into the blanket of darkness as he grasped for Dad's hand. Water dripped down his temples, and he tore open his eyes to a gentle lamplight hooked on the ceiling of one of the healing wards. He touched the cloth glued to his brow, but the fiery forge no longer blasted at his skin with the previous ferocity. Ugh. He used an elbow to prop himself up, tugging at his shirt, confused.

"Fen."

Fenrer froze at the voice which spread silver lilybells across the plane through the roots of compassion. "Adara?" he questioned and swung around for the source, but the world wriggled from the defiant motion, and he put a hand against his brow when she lowered the book to the small table beside her. He read the title; Hanekan, though he tried to wrap his head around when Adara learned his home tongue, but it left him out of time, and he rasped, "How long was I out?"

Adara followed his gaze to the book, then her aura spiked in sudden, hot embarrassment which smacked him in the cheeks, and he tried not to flinch when the lilies shriveled when she swiped the book back into the bag at her legs. "You were out for a couple days, your fever's gone down though." Her smile remained, but he frowned at the shadowed weariness dug into her cheeks. "You just missed Neven."

Neven... Fenrer grasped for what he remembered last. In the crimson darkness, he knelt to nothing but the light when he raised the radiant shape of the blade, and struck it into his own chest to send the pulse of his magick deeper into the thick cloud of Derelict teeth. "Yuven—?" He scrambled to sit up further, but stopped when Adara raised her hands to him and put her soft touch on his shoulders, but he needed to see it to the end. "Is it—?"

"It is," Maria's voice spoke up from the doorframe. Her hair drew back into a loose ponytail, and she rested her shoulder against the wall. "He's alive, Fen. He made it. After all that time you both spent worrying about each other instead of yourselves, I wouldn't be surprised if the next time Yuven sees you, he will do what I have already advised him not to, rile himself up, get excited, jump all over the place, exhaust himself although bury you with more affection than you can handle." Her fingers went down with each warning. Fenrer leaned back when she headed to his side with the same forceful presence of the giant on the bridge, and he gasped when she shoved her hand into his brow and pressed him back into the mattress where he wasn't needed. "Stay down."

"I'm feeling fine," he said and rolled over onto his side.

"You spent about a week sweating a veritable ocean of buckets, and I'll have you know Yuven wasn't doing that. His fever was about what I estimated, yours wasn't, so." Maria scooped up a capsule from the alchemy table in the corner of the room and held it out to him as Adara retreated back into her chair. "Drink. Rest up. Let your body recover." Fenrer chugged it, then went to scoot himself to the edge of the bed to stand, but stopped when Maria slid in front of him, her arms crossed. "And no, you can't leave to rush straight to Yuven's side because I spent the better half of the last bells convincing him to sleep instead of doing what I know you're thinking, which he has finally done."

Fenrer released the pressure in his lungs through his nose, putting the cup to the side. "His soul freed itself from the core?" He nestled himself deeper into the pillow when Maria sent a small burst of embers into the lamp before closing the top.

"Yeah." Maria moved the lamp higher onto the desk to press the light deeper into the corner. "It's as I suspected from my research — to overload the Corruption made of dark, we had to fill Yuven's soul with light beyond comprehension. It was the only way to tip the balance back." Her hand waved to Adara, who stiffened her shoulders against her neck. "Adara over here made it much easier to facilitate."

Fenrer turned to her, and she wriggled in her seat, and her nose scrunched up. "I just took what you and Yuven taught me back in Fallholt," she said. "Internal instinct. External focus. Back in the frostlands I realized that no amount of training or explaining will make it click for me. I was either going to be ready for it, or not." Her nails dug into the wood of her seat. "It was the same when I first encountered that Derelict..." Fenrer frowned when she hugged her sides. "In the heat of the moment, it was the first time I had ever let my magick flow freely — and the next, I was staring at a Derelict made of stone." Adara sighed out her aura's relief when it spread through the room. "I'm just happy I could help for once, and that Yuven's alive." Tears drained out the color in the silver. "I didn't lose someone I cared about again."

Fenrer measured his words, but turned his head to Maria, who steeled her stance and raised an eyebrow at him. "Then it seems I owe you for my Oathbound's life, the both of you," he said and tested his defiance to sit on the edge of the bed, and kept himself planted on the mattress when Maria squinted. "I am heartened to hear that he is well."

"We have a lot to figure out now that we're in uncharted waters, Fenrer," Maria said with a heavier, weary frown. "I want you to keep an eye on his aura for me when you're both back in commission. Until then." Maria swiped up the ledger on the alchemist table. "I suggest you go back up to your room and stay in bed for a couple more days. I'll be moving Yuven up to the main level sometime tomorrow depending on his condition."

Fenrer rolled his neck, then asked, "May I please see him then, before I go?"

Maria sighed and closed the patient ledger. "Fine. You get a minute, but then I want you in the citadel, sleeping." Fenrer found his hands held out when she pressed a wrapped bulb into his hands, then he found his footing when Adara offered an outreach of help, which he took and found comfort in the silver moonlight, against the scorching heat of the sun. Maria took the lead out of his room and to the next one over, opening the door with a quiet hand.

Neven leaned back in a chair, his sapphire crusted aura dim and withdrawn as he slept at Yuven's side. Colour returned to Yuven's face, covered by an airmask which took in the energy from the stones on each side of his head. Fenrer waddled to his other side to avoid disturbing Neven. The icy maelstrom slowed into a softer cloud of cold mist, no longer wracked with crimson brambles and sharp lightning to spread blood through his soul. Fenrer raised his hands closer to his own chest as he took one more step closer to focus on his aura. Fluttered into sleep, but brighter than before. A smile crawled on his face when he prodded the aura through the river, and it responded in an instant to the connection, though Yuven remained asleep. His own soul settled, he drew away from his side and nodded at Maria. "Thank you," he mumbled to her.

"Thank me by getting some sleep, Fen. I already have Neven not getting any sleep until now, and I have to get some shut-eye myself." Maria stretched out her arms, then nudged Adara. "Do me a favour and make sure he gets to his room in one piece and without falling over."

"Sure." A sense of peace fell across Adara's silver-wrapped aurora when she came closer to him with the same, warm smile she had before. In the cave, when he relented to her request to let her explore the cave she left in Tebora, to come back out the other side unfettered from her regrets.

I had doubted myself, but... she did need it. Fenrer nodded for her to take the lead out of Yuven's room, leaving Maria with the two Avaerilians which made up his family. Adara guided him to the lift, and they stepped into it together. He counted his breaths along with the pulse of her auric heartbeat. "Thank you, Adara."

"What?" Adara mused.

"Yuven won't ever say this to you. He is prideful, stubborn, but nonetheless, I know him more than most, so I will in his stead," Fenrer said and shifted to face her on equal ground. "I am glad we met you. I am not like Yuven, I do not believe in happenstance, but still, the rarity of all the Ancients' plans falling into place. People come together when they're needed the most in each other's lives." Her aura wriggled, but he tasted the texture and frowned at the stall in her thoughts, so he added, "But without that... even if we had none of that." He choked on a different heat, trying to spit out his words when Adara twisted her entire body to him with a tip of her head. "I want you to know... I appreciate who you are even though the world would sooner judge and discard you for something out of your control."

Adara pressed her hands together as her cheeks glowed underneath the light fluttering through the runes taking them upwards. "I'm glad we met too," she said as the lift opened. "You changed my life." Her hand touched his back, but he focused on her aura in full bloom, spreading the pollen of untangled compassion. Fenrer let her guide him to his room, but slowed to a stop in front of his door. Quakes threatened his knees when he turned to her before she walked out of reach.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Are you reading in Hanekan?"

Adara stilled. Her mouth opened, then closed. "Yeah. Maria started teaching me before all this happened. So, I'm still not good at it, but I do know one word."

"What's that?"

"Goodnight," Adara said in rough, but no less obvious Hanekan with a wry smile on her face. "Do you need anything?"

"Just... one more question, if it is no trouble." Fenrer inched closer to her, into the moonlight she stood in. He drove his fingers into his stomach, then asked, "Can I..." He steadied his breath and counted the precious moments before it slipped out of his fingers of exhaustion. "...kiss you?"

Adara blinked, and Fenrer stared at her when she giggled and the aura sprinkled into stars. "I was starting to get worried that you were going to ask me to speak a full sentence in Hanekan." Her smile softened. "Yes, and that'll go for the next time too."

"Habit from the Law, self-assuring to make sure," Fenrer admitted, then bridged the rest of the distance. "First, I think I still owe you an ending to that story. I cut it short last time."

"Oh? How did it end?"

Lost underneath the moon, he brought his nose closer to her. "They reunited in death," he said before crossing the distance between two souls and pressed his lips against her warm ones. Once more, the aurora he once reached out to softened into a gentle colour instead of the raging silver tempest from before. He pulled himself away with a bow to her. "Just because a story has a sad journey... doesn't mean the end must be meaningless... and that is what it means to carry the dreams upon our wings, to have faith even in the darkest depths."

Faith... in what this world could be.