ADARA

"I'm not so sure about this, Fenrer. I do have two left feet."

"You were doing fine back at the palace."

"You were doing most of the work."

"If you focus too hard on falling, you'll end up doing that."

Her knees quivered as she tried to balance on the post which barely fit both of her feet. Any small motion sent a jolt of nervous electricity straight into her heart when her heel slipped, but she caught herself in time as Fenrer stood on the shore, right beside her. And Warden Trainees do this often? Adara moved one foot to the closest post, but she groaned and found herself stuck, slowly tugging herself forward as Fenrer followed close. "I'm trying not to think too hard." Knees locked, she froze. "Do you think Yuven would just... let me learn passable footwork on solid ground?"

Fenrer smiled up at her. "Do you want me to answer that?"

"Ugh, no." Adara swung one foot to the next at a rush of irritation. Her heel inched forward to the edge, and she rushed to catch herself on the next post. Her heartbeat thundered with distant storms as Fenrer climbed onto the post she once occupied, perfectly balanced, a steadfast presence of unwavering faith. "Also, are you sure you should be doing this?"

"I've been bed-ridden for a week," Fenrer said, and Adara frowned when he walked from post to post with a graceful, otherworldly movement which reminded her of the Princess of Naveera. Gliding. Flying. He kept his hands behind his back and stopped at her side. External focus... External focus... Gods! Adara shook out her head when Fenrer floated once more to her other side, barely tripping on his own feet as his jadeite swirls examined her. I think he's doing that on purpose. "I can't help it if I get stage fright..."

"It's just me, Adara."

Adara took a step, then gasped when her boot went too far forward. Arms out, she flinched when Fenrer swung himself around in a single movement, without a wasted breath as he caught her with his hands on her elbows and her back into his chest as he placed a foot on the post below her. Limp in his arms and in an embarrassing, awkward position, she mumbled, "Yuven would've just let me fall."

"Aye," Fenrer said at her the top of her head, unbothered by her deadweight. "But... last I spoke he was dealing with some things, but he also mentioned he wanted to get you back on track, and impressed upon me the importance of proving the Elder Conclave wrong." One hand went to her back as he pushed her forward onto the pole she slipped on. "I'm also not Yuven, I'm more preparing you for what he might make you do." He let her go and followed her close.

"Oh..." Adara went to one more pole, and she scowled when her knees shuddered. "Do all Storm Wardens know how to dance?" Her gaze fell upon his face when he slowed to a stop beside her. "You made an impression at the palace, I doubt that's just from Warden Training." Her foot kicked the next pole, but instant regret washed over her when she swung herself into Fenrer instead to avoid the collapse into the crystal clear water below.

"I wouldn't say all of them know how to dance as I did in Naveera — that was an extreme circumstance that required more than what you think of dancing. The Wyvern Flight is precious to the Avaerilian people. It is not just a dance. It is important in their expression of self just as much as their voices are." Fenrer straightened her out. "Neven taught me. He taught me a lot of things."

Adara closed one eye to aim her next foot onto the pole, farther away from solid ground. "You know, for someone even Yuven applauds for his skill, I was expecting..."

"Another Yuven?"

Adara nodded and continued on. "He wasn't what I was expecting, at the least." On one more precarious post, she waited for Fenrer to get ahead of her. "What else did he teach you?" Hands up to gently reject his offer of assistance, she reached him all on her own, and she grinned down at her two left feet before returning her attention to Fenrer.

"Hm..." He hummed and went to the next post. "He taught me some Naveeran instruments and how to hold a tune, though I'm not capable of extending magick throughout my voice the way an Avaerilian can. Due to his teachings though, I have learned how to manipulate my glyphs around movement. It's a difficult skill to master—" Adara flinched when the next pole proved misaimed from its slanted position, and she stumbled into his arms once more when he got in the way of her descent. "Even Yuven has trouble with it."

"Yuven? Having trouble with something? You jest." Adara hauled herself up with his shoulders.

"It requires patience and a firm understanding of your physical self which resides among the flow." Fenrer's gaze bore deep into her and they both stood separate across the smallest of gaps. "Do you remember the orchard?"

Adara checked on her reflection in the water, where Fenrer followed along. "I don't think I'll ever forget," she mumbled against old tears, etched upon her soul forevermore. Golden light clashed with crimson claws as Fenrer tore at its spine with a motion of a fighting dance. "What about it?"

"Derelicts are stagnant," he explained, and Adara tore herself from the water's surface to look upon the reality of her life. "It is what drives them into a frenzy when they cross the Echo Obscura — to feed on magick, to rip and tear at physical bodies, to consume what we are made of — what they cannot have." He put a hand on his heart with a sigh. "Due to that, they spread the taint, the stagnation, creating an imbalance upon the world which needs a more forceful hand." His hand dropped from his chest to hang limp at his hip. "Think back to the tree, Adara, do you understand what I did in that moment?"

"You chased away the darkness wilting it?"

Fenrer smiled. "Things cannot just disappear, Adara... it must go somewhere." He bridged to the next post to come closer to her. "I have... a gift, an ancients-given gift that I would use to bring the light." Adara bit on her tongue on the lie Yuven bid her keep, then listened close when Fenrer stepped to another post right beside her, unaware of his gift being all his own. "I did not snap my fingers to make the darkness disappear, Adara... I took it upon myself."

"Wait, you what?" Adara twisted to him, keeping her heels flat against the post.

"Overcome with the dark, it is impossible to redress the imbalance without outside assistance. Misery. Despair, these concepts create and birth bulbous crimson claws," he said with a calm smile. "I can recover. I can heal from providing a current for the darkness to tread. It is what gives Aurus the ability to tear Husks out of Corruptors. Through the flow of empathy I can see, can touch and affect as I can..." He pressed his hand against his chest again. "Even the mightiest wyvern drowning in darkness cannot fight against the smallest light." He let it go. "That... is what I did back then at the Summit. Unable to seek equilibrium, I offered you the scales of my soul." His arms went around himself when he twisted on his heel and onto a farther post. "Ever have I found it difficult to close out another's pain, making it my own, unable to ignore it, although sometimes I wish I could. Not many Aurus are able to bring upon the darkness with my efficiency, though all can perform it." He rolled out his shoulders and jumped across a post to spin onto another, sending a wave of water upwards into a glyph to snap it across the fold. It followed the starlit spirals around his pupils. Left in the mist, he returned to her. "What I am trying to say, Adara, is that we have our gifts for a reason. It is yours. It is not a curse." He shook his head. "It is not the cause of another's suffering. You will learn a lot here. Yuven may be a hard teacher with sink-or-swim methodology but you will learn quickly with him. He is a magickal genius. Nonetheless, I can teach you how to dance." He reached out his hand to her. "Internal instinct. External focus."

Out of caution, and full of trust, she took it. He stretched them both out to a full extent, and they followed the same circle of the icy ballroom. Her steps mirrored his own. Phoenix trails swept up her knees as they continued the circuit around each other in silence, until his warm, steady fingers slipped out of hers. He slowed to a stop, but she continued the circle he created. His beaming smile caused her to grasp what she had managed to do. Each step, instinctual on her inward tempo. The walk, external to the flow's focus. Glyphs followed along, bendable with her will as they latched onto the posts. Her heart pounded in shock, in surprise and glee at her small success. Droplets sizzled with her approach and burnt away into steam underneath her force of fire. "Hey, I'm—!" she began, and then it became too soon when she slipped halfway through her burning, hazy glyph, causing Fenrer to catch her once more.

"One lesson Neven taught me first and foremost was how to fall," he said and straightened her out, but kept his hands on her forearms. "He wouldn't even let me see the Wyvern Flight until I understood what it meant to fall first." Adara let his arm wrap around her back to guide her across the posts. "And... do you want to go down to the harbor after your lesson? Or to the Annex? I can teach you some more Hanekan."

"I've been studying on my own since Maria's been preoccupied," Adara stated, then stuck her tongue out. "Are you sure? My Hanekan is... not great."

"Neither was my Common, once upon a time." Fenrer smiled. "Things take time, Adara. We may not live two centuries as the Avaerilians do, or even longer as the Elvkin, for the Giants share the near century lifespan as non-giants, but we can look upon this life all the same as time continues and rhymes." He twisted around her, then brought her close with a sprinkle of mischief to his grin as suns and moons mixed when their glyphs entwined together around them. Magick brought the flow a breath of life as the water below shuddered at the force of soul's pure power. "I am waxing poetic though, what do you want to do?"

I want to stay here forever. "Being in the Annex means Yuven could still pester me. Last time I saw him he nearly bit my head off about slacking. I pick the harbor."

Fenrer's eyes widened. "Oh! He's warmed up to you fully, then."

Adara matched his grin. "He sure has."

The dance flowed into a stop halfway across the field of posts. Her fingers hooked in his shirt, when his smile softened. A new growth underneath the wilted rose of her past, blooming into spring's warmth, love, and summer suns. Tara's scrawl pushed her forward onto a path, though the closure remained out of reach as to the truth of her departure and Gregor's involvement. Fear webbed up her throat, but it froze into scattered leaves when Fenrer tightened his grip, the mischief falling into deep understanding. "We're still here."

"I know." Adara hugged him tight, nuzzling into his shoulder. "Thank you."

Bubbles popped in her ears at a fluttered shadow reflecting off the surface beneath them. Fenrer's cheek moved against hers as a small drizzle turned into an instant waterfall. Water soaked underneath her shirt and straight to her undergarments as she let go of Fenrer, and found herself falling backwards. A sharp laugh cascaded through her ears when she broke the surface of the clearwater cave-pond. Fenrer remained on the post, arms outwards to let streams of water fall from his sleeves and fingertips. It soaked and darkened his brown hair and thinned his braid as he turned his face to the source of the laughter, and Adara slapped the surface of the water. "Yuven!"

"Oh, apologies!" the white-haired Storm Warden said from the other bank, showing his fangs. "I mistook this place for training grounds!"

Adara let the silver anger simmer away in mist through her heart as she waddled her way to the bank, and Fenrer kept his balance even with his dampness. Her smile grew when she came closer to Yuven, where life breathed into his fair features, and brought a youthfulness she hadn't noticed before. Arms outstretched, she grunted when Yuven pressed his palm against her brow when she went to embrace him, water and all. "Absolutely not."

"You're the one that caused me to fall!"

"No, that was your lack of inner balance," he chittered, and easily walked up to Fenrer to hug him close with a sideways grin in her direction. "Does the water bother you? Here." He pulled back from Fenrer to create two giant glyphs of airy textures.

"No!" Adara gasped when a burst of tight wind crashed into her face, though Fenrer stood still with a deep sigh when it fell over him.

"Good to see your magick's returning to might," Fenrer said with a clap of Yuven's shoulder.

Yuven's smile died. "Would that other things could not return." He rubbed his sides, and Adara frowned at his sudden hesitance.

"So..."

"I am to suffer flashes for the foreseeable future," Yuven admitted, and Fenrer's brow creased in concern. "Before you worry... I am no longer dying, but it changed my body in ways that cannot be repaired. I will cope as I did before... and count my blessings." He held out a phial, not of liquid, but of medicinal capsules. "This is Maria's first experimental dose for me to control them, but Fenrer... I wish for you to also act as my warning system as I don't get much of one."

"Of course."

Adara slipped into the sense of peace, of stretched normality. "It is good to see you, Yuven. I'm glad you didn't die."

Yuven raised an eyebrow at her, then smiled once more. "We'll see if you feel the same way once you're through my training, but before you fret—" He whipped out thick bundles of paper from his spatial distortion. "I have planned out a firm schedule I'll expect you to follow, and I even had the decency to give you open days to do what you wish, though do not be surprised if I throw something at you nonetheless, whether Fenrer is there or not — maybe even especially if he's there." He pushed it into her hands, then pushed another one into Fenrer's. "I know it is to no avail with your insomnia, I gave you a guideline of a sleep schedule, Molvisaliz."

"...thanks," Fenrer said through his toothy grin.

"We have a lot to go through," Yuven ignored Fenrer's obvious false, strained gratitude, though genuine happiness. "We got you to learn Primordial Shifting. I think now I can teach you some glyphs. I will jump straight into them in the coming days, and I overheard something about falling?" He leaned closer to her, violet eyes wild, as fierce as a dragon. "Do not worry, I will teach you properly. Once I'm through with you, the Elder Conclave won't need to complain, they'll find something else to complain about, I'm sure, but it won't be you."

Adara echoed Fenrer's forced smile. "I'm... super excited."

Yuven's feathers shivered in delight, in life. "Good, because you're stuck with us now, Sazaka. Is this everything you dreamed about?"

Yes.