MARIA

Alchemical concoctions bubbled in the small cauldrons along the station and fed into the glass tubes. Along the translucent procession, it fed into small squeezers to fill phials full of Yuven's medication; extra for if she took longer than Neven expected for them to take. Her own supplies sat at her feet at her last minute preparations, and a heavy fur cloak hung on the rack to her small workstation. Mother's dissatisfaction at her Naveera excursion echoed out of the last letter she sent, ringing clear with frustrated worry — after all, Mother ran away from Naveera for a better chance, a better life away from the cold. Nonetheless, her advice was precious for a longer stay compared to the operation from before. Dried hazebulbs packed into an extra box for Fenrer's crippling chronic insomnia, she heaved up her bag, grabbed the fur cloak and off she went.

Good thing Yuven and Fenrer will see us off, that makes my job easier. Maria kept a bounce to her step as she went to the center of the citadel, where a pillar from the core spread out power and energy. It touched into the plane, though it could only be activated at the thermal breath of their home. The world's pure magick. Walls unraveled when she came closer to reveal those who were to be the Outpost's Wardens, and those who came to bid farewell, with Yuven and Fenrer among them, speaking to Neven who stood on the boundary of the Umbral Gate.

"I'm ready." Maria came to Neven's side, who inched to give her space. "Yuven, for you." He took the phials without complaint, though when she whipped around to give the box to Fenrer, he raised his hands in confusion. "Dried hazebulbs for a certain Hanekan. They'll keep. Instructions inside." It took all five of her fingers plus her palm to shove it into his chest, for him to accept help for once, albeit ruefully from the way his face scrunched.

"Thank you, Maria," he said with a tightlipped smile. "You shouldn't have."

"You can thank me by actually taking them," she replied to his reluctance in return. "And not—" She raised her finger to his chest when he went to put it aside, prodding it firmly against his solar plexus. "Ignoring the fact that you need it like I know you're thinking of doing right now." One more poke for good measure, she pushed him with her palm, and he took a step back with pursed lips. "Take care of yourselves since I won't be here to do it for you." Tongue out, she beamed at her friend and the light of her own life when Yuven hooked his fingers in his riding belt, feathers twitching on the ends. Gemstones bubbled within the aqueducts, creating a circumference as the Irimount Storm Wardens prepared themselves.

"Be careful," Yuven rasped out, causing Neven to rejoin her before they both stepped into the pillar of astral light. "I know we cleansed the Corruptor, but we can't trust the people within Naveera." He stepped to the boundary line, though the border raised to keep him separated from her. His hand touched the weave of stars, and he pulled it back with a small hiss from his nose. "Just... get it finished and leave. Do not waste time there. Get the Outpost set up and return before the Umbral Sea is shut." He rapped his knuckle at Neven, whose lips quirked into a warm smile. "You hear me, Miesero? You enjoy meandering too much."

"I hear you." Neven stepped up to the starlit boundary. He tapped the wall which kept him from his two charges with the bridge of his pointer. "Always."

Yuven's hand dropped loose to his side as he scowled, then huffed his way back to Fenrer, who waved. Maria smiled when Neven bounced his palm against her shoulder, and she followed him into the Umbral teleporter the volcano opened with its own natural might.

From the warmth of their home, to the biting cold against her cheeks. Gemstones turned into cracked marble streets paved with old blood and bones. The destruction Evyriaz wrought left large pieces of debris scattered across the city battlefield. Spires broken from the firmament. Waterfalls of snow mixed with dust hushed into swirls at their feet. Neven twisted around to their small group, with Maria heading the chosen few of Outpost Chirurgeons and alchemists. I guess the Warden-Commander wants to eventually turn this into the size of a lodge...

"We're going to move all the supplies we have out of the estates and into Irimount Headquarters," Neven ordered, firm and in step of his rank. "I want someone to check the rune-stations below us to make sure that our last foray didn't leave it damaged. If not, we can repair it ourselves. Fenrer was kind enough to confirm that the runic circuitry could still carry the current of the flow." Neven tapped his belt.

Fur lined all their typical, gray leather armor, lined with soft golds along the trimmings and chained metal. Firewoven fabric protected them from the worst of the cold, but she shivered at the blast of wind, a wave of ice which left all but Neven in reaction to it. His feathers fluffed closer together, and Maria found herself rueful of not getting some sort of cold resistance from Mother's side. "Only way we're going to warm up is to get moving," Neven said with a smile. "First, let's go to the headquarters of Irimount's knights and kick-start the power, where I want some of you to move onto the Grand Spire — it will have the core of Irimount within it. Ancient's willing... it will be undamaged, and Irimount will shine bright again."

"Look at you," Maria teased as Neven took the lead, keeping her pace up with him in her capacity as a Captain herself. "Good to see you in better spirits. Yuven was getting worried about you."

"Really?" Neven walked around pieces of debris while the Wardens behind them whispered amongst themselves. "Aiya... we'll have to get a couple of stonemasons over here as well." He nudged broken pieces of pottery and stone out of the way with small, sapphire studded glyphs. Maria frowned when he brushed the tip of his nose. "I know he did not like this idea — he tried very hard to convince me of this path. It is like the very thought of me walking Irimount once more bothers him." Neven folded his arms with a soft plume of mist leaving his lips with his melody. "When he is the one that suffered the most here."

Maria frowned at his back. "I think he was ultimately worried as to how you would take it."

"Irimount was once my home." Neven walked along a shattered storefront, running his fingers along what was left of the windows, stopping before the sharpest edges. "I have not been here in a long time, Maria. Last I was here, I was sixteen. I am... what..." He raised his fingers, counting in Navei under his breath. "Thirty-three? I am very old." His feathers fluffed out and scattered little pieces of snowfall clumping against them.

"You live two centuries, Neven, don't give me that."

"Tell that to Yuven," Neven pointed out with a happier bounce to his step, as if he was about to take flight the way his ancestors once did. "I am just happy he gets to live them too. I am certain it will be a struggle, but he has you and Fenrer." Any energy in his body dissipated with the swirl of wind underneath the broken lamps across the street. "I had spent turns thinking about how he will not even reach adulthood, to his full peak, not even getting his adult feathers. Spent days being questioned as to why I bothered." He raised a hand to brush his own, and a tight sigh escaped his nose in a draconic plume of hotter mist. "I am... relieved beyond words."

'I told you," Maria replied when they reached the black, wrought-iron gates of the Knight Headquarters, bound with a wyvern sigil wrapped around its own wings. "The answers won't always be found in an Obscura Text."

Through the creaking grates when they swung open with Neven's windy motion, they streamed into the expansive courtyard. Several detached buildings sat around the circumference of the statue Neven planned to wrest control of. Its bronze plaque froze over once more when they came to a stop in front of it. Behind, the largest building made out of black stone foundations, supported by painted marble pillars to create an outside awning all around it. Polearms sat on weapon racks, rusted to their hilts from lack of maintenance and use. Neven put both hands on his hips, and faced them. "Over there used to be the barracks for the Ice Squires and Pages. You will be able to repurpose it for any Storm Warden Trainees who get sent here, as it has all the facilities needed." He pointed down one of the longer paths to the wide building tucked against the fence, then switched it to the closest building with thick stone mason work. "That's the weapon's storage; seeing as runeforges do not live long even while indoors, they are underground. Also more than likely unpowered and it will take days to get them hot enough to forge or repair anything, so what we have is what we got."

There was no denying the daunted expressions of the non-Avaerilians around her as they shuffled in cold discomfort, and her own skin threatened to crack with frost lacerations. From the way Neven's ears twitched, he noticed it as well. "It will take some getting used to," he acknowledged. "As I said though, movement will keep you warm. If you stand still too long, you will freeze. Maria, I want you with me while I search through the records of the Headquarters. I also need a map of the surrounding areas. Dawlo and Seila, I want you two to go to the Spire and check that powercore. Activate it if able, but if not, come back. I want everyone else to get flames into the lamps along the fence. Make sure to close them tight, if you do not, they will splutter out and freeze the runes."

Maria turned to her own little sub-group of alchemists and healers. "I'm going to try and find records of any plagues that often strike Naveera and any native flora that was once planted," she instructed. "I want you to find a building that we can repurpose as an on-site Infirmary until I have checked the safety of the main headquarters." Orders given, they scrambled, so she went to catch up with Neven as he headed for the doors. He hesitated in front of it with a deepening frown. "What's the matter?"

"It's just... it has been so long since I entered this place." Neven put both hands against the doors, and pushed with his shoulders to open them.

Dusty snow whistled out from the wind they released. Broken fragments of the wall let snow bury underneath the openings, where a giant desk broke in several pieces, the chairs overturned. Inside, Neven's feathers stiffened. Archways looped into doors off their hinges into long hallways of fallen candelabras. Billowing flags tore at the seams, frayed and unwoven by the fall of Irimount. Unrecognizable as to the insignia they carried. A deep, mournful howl filled the air, whistling through the small cracks to scatter the snow further inside the building.

"Well... at least it's not buried," Neven joked through his teeth. He took a step forward, but came to a stop when he scuffed one of the fallen standards. Maria came closer when he knelt forward, picking it up with the tips of his fingers. He unfurled it between both his hands, trying to shake off the white dust bunnies. "Come, let's go find a map." He left the unraveled flag on the broken desk, going around it into the open archway. "The Knight Valiant's office is on the top floor, but I'm hoping what the Wardens seek will be in the records."

"The Wardens, Nev?" she mused. "Are you looking for something else?"

Neven didn't reply to her question. In the labyrinth of black stone, she struggled to map what Neven appeared to know by old instinct, tossing open a thin veil to reveal a room of stacked scrolls from top to bottom. "Let's see." His gaze trailed across the words above the stacks. "Maps. Maps. Maps... Ah!" Arm lodged into one of the scroll cases, he pulled out a massive one from behind several small ones. "This should be it." He motioned for her to stand at the long table, then rolled it open with a whisper of ice through the woven lock. Maria put her hand on the end once it revealed itself, then took in the old, marked lines, checking the date on the corner.

"It's... not recent, Nev," she whispered. "It must be twenty turns old by now..."

"We... don't change as quick as the sunlands, Maria," Neven whispered as he followed the lines with his gaze and hand. "My solution is a simple one. There are a couple of counties out there in the frozen wastes connected to Irimount. I plan on going to them, reaffirming their position on the map, to note down changes if there are any."

"You're going to go out into the Frozen Wastes?" Maria asked, aghast at his recklessness.

Neven lifted his head to her with a deep frown. "It is the only way we are to confirm this map's accuracy for the future of the Storm Wardens here, in Irimount. I will not have them hide behind the walls forever. Best that they have an idea of the landscape, and the only one who can do that here is me." He swept it forward to close it with a snap close to her fingers. "It may take a couple of days, yes... but once the Outpost is comfortable, that is what I'll be doing." Scroll in his hands, he latched it onto his belt with his crescent blade. "As for what I'm looking for... I'm looking for answers as to how a cult got its clutches in Irimount. The records that might have an answer to that will be in the Knight Valiant's personal Annex." Darkness spread in his vertical pupils, a reflection of the Obscura Text's murk on his mind. "And I am hoping it will answer the questions I have yet from Elvkana — what they're planning, what their goal is, what their motivations are. There has to be an answer somewhere, and if I could not find it in Asairai, maybe I can find it here." Passion filled his voice. "For Turns I have spent following their tracks, leaving the dead behind in my wake. This is my duty, I will not forsake it."

Maria opened her mouth to argue, but stopped herself. There was never any point to arguing with a dead-set Avaerilian if Yuven gave her any experience. The only way forward was to compromise. To keep moving. "Fine, but if you're going out there, I will be coming with you. I'm not taking no for an answer." Out of Neven's way, she took longer to read the Navei above the stacks. Connected by words, she unfurled scrolls of native flora and the previous state of the underground farms. "This Outpost is going to take a lot of work, Neven."

"I know." His expression softened from its cold, determined stone. "I'll make sure it has the foundations to bloom within the ruins of the cradle."