ADARA

Several covered carts sat around the fields, filled to the brim with boxes full of supplies and weapons loaded from the armory creating a bridge from the citadel to one of the mountain peaks. Adara offered herself to help, with Yuven all too happy to saddle bags of preserved food onto her shoulders, which left her and Fenrer taking their burden to the cart which Captain Lotayrin designated for food and medicine and Yuven disappearing into the paddocks in what she assumed was to saddle Tix'snuv, the magnificent hippogryph as snow touched as its bonded Rider. The wardens a part of the Irimount mission called out to each other for status reports, with Neven Lotayrin in the center of the carts, a ledger in hand as he directed with a familiar sense of efficiency, but an even more startling amount of patience for questions.

"You know, you don't have to help with this," Fenrer said as he effortlessly carried a large burlap bag over his shoulders, but she felt the pain in her legs with her own. "You're not a Storm Warden, Adara, no one is going to push you into this." He came to a stop at the lowered ramp of the food cart, setting his sack down to tuck it between a couple boxes with others.

Adara followed his lead with a shake of her head and a love for normality and shook out her arms. "If there's one thing I can do well, it's carrying things," she said and dusted off dirt from her slacks. "I know I'm not a Storm Warden, but you've done so much to help me, and I don't want to feel useless anymore — and Yuven dumped this on me after I asked so..." Her smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and her heart fluttered when Fenrer made himself out of her reflection. His smile danced across his sun-bronzed skin when he tipped his head, and the wolven braid drifted across his jaw. "I'm trying to keep him off my case for a little while."

"Yuven often gets like that when he wishes to distract himself," a different, melodic voice entered the fray from around the cart. Neven Lotayrin's feathers flicked with the breeze when he beamed at Fenrer, before bowing to her in one deep, smooth motion. "We did not get properly introduced, but I have heard much of you from Yuven and Fenrer. Neven Lotayrin, at service to the balance of light." Though his fangs sharpened with ferocity, a warm presence extruded from him. "You are Adara Sazaka, of Tebora."

Adara frowned at the odd, formal greeting. "Yes. Oh! Thank you for saving us," she said with her own bow at the awkward tension pulsing through the air.

"I am just happy that I reached the boat in time." Neven swept his gaze over the new burlap sacks before writing in the ledger, before tapping the point of his quill against the edge. "Everything is almost ready. All we need now is the hippogryphs saddled and prepared for the cold. Molvei'saliz?" his question came through the tone of parental concern, and Fenrer's smile dropped when he switched his attention to Neven. "Are you certain this is the route you want to go? So soon after your recovery?"

"I'm certain, Neven, it is either this or complete destruction of both husk and host... and I'm not willing to take that path though it was Yuven's first suggestion," Fenrer said. "Thank you."

Neven clapped his shoulder. "Then I need you to help me carry a couple more things, if you do not mind. The Warden-Commander Faehariel will be here soon to grip onto your previous paths through the Umbral Sea using the volcano's breath. We need to make sure we lose naught of our supplies. We're going to need every piece of them."

"I don't mind." Fenrer grasped his shoulder in return, then nodded at her. "Go check on Yuven. Tell him everything is ready to go." He wanted no time in following Neven around the cart, which left her with the daunting task of facing down Yuven Traye once more.

It was a small jaunt past the paddocks and into the stables through the wood hewn doors, where the chirping of hippogryphs spread the grassy scent through the air with a tinge of seared meat. Her soles broke small pieces of hay as she went straight to the back, where they kept the Rider's hippogryphs. One door hung open on its hinges. Through the doorway, Yuven Traye sat on a chair with Tix'snuv's claws spread out across his lap, a dangerous game at the glint across the edges, though he wore gray studded chaps to protect himself from the cantankerous hippogryph. "What?" he asked as he checked them.

"Fenrer sent me to tell you everything's ready to go, he's just helping Neven with a couple things..." Adara took a cautious step back when Tix'snuv's beady pupil slammed to her, his head tipping to the side with a huff. Armor wrapped around all but one of his legs, the one which Yuven wrestled with as he tied fur straps across the joints, clicking in the studded plate. "I see you're having a good day."

"You need to work on your sarcasm." Yuven pointed a farrier's knife at her before he shoved Tix'snuv's leg off his lap. "There. You're done." He discarded the chaps onto the chair before going around the hippogryph to hook up the saddle, where several phials sat tight in the upper straps. Tix'snuv squawked in apparent annoyance, nipping at Yuven, who simply brushed off the viscous beak. "And why did he send you to me when he or Neven could've come to me themselves to tell me we are about to move?" He hoisted one last small pouch into the saddle, and glared at her with the same ferocious gleam in his eye that he shared with Tix'snuv. "You should be staying here where Storm Wardens can keep an eye on you instead of once more gallivanting right back into the clutches of Naveera." He gripped his knee, resting his head against the side of the saddle. "You are lucky Blackwall did not drag anything out of you like he did me. Let's keep it that way."

Adara bit on her lip with the heavy knowledge she carried within her mind and magick. As if sensing her sudden apprehension, Yuven turned to her and narrowed his eyes. "He was so focused on me I almost don't know why he bothered with you. He wanted something," Yuven pointed out and came closer to her. "Adara, if something happened between you two I want to know. This is not me asking, I'm demanding it."

Adara pressed her fingers into her palm and sucked in her lips. "He didn't do anything to me, Yuven."

"I know I'm not Fenrer," Yuven growled. "But I can tell when someone's not being honest." He inched closer, feathers fluffed out. "Adara, what happened?"

As she opened her mouth to release the floodgates of knowledge, she jumped at the sound of the citadel bells. Yuven's gaze swung upwards, before he nodded at Tix'snuv and the hippogryph trotted out of his stable. "We'll finish this talk later, for now, let's go," he said and pushed her out of the room before closing the door behind him. His pace quickened across the fields and back to the gathered Storm Wardens chosen for the Irimount mission, with Neven facing Warden-Commander Faehariel in the center. Several hippogryphs were strapped to the arms of the carts, being fed hearty bundles of meat by their handlers.

"Is everyone ready, Captain Lotayrin?" Warden-Commander Faehariel asked.

Neven nodded and brought a hand to his heart. "We are ready for this. By the grace of the light, we won't be long, a couple days I estimate for preparations and scoping out the city," he explained, and Adara frowned when Yuven's glare zoned in on the other Avaerilian. "I'll be sure to grab some maps for us to update our thirty or so turns old records, along with any other information I may feel prudent to investigate."

Yuven scowled, his fangs drawing over his lips while Fenrer shuffled his way to rejoin them with Maria, who carried her own thick bag. Yuven's scowl dropped when he gazed at her, then shook his head.

"Then you have your command. Be safe. Be vigilant. Protect the light and each other well." Warden-Commander Faehariel stepped back and held out both her hands. Opalescent glyphs fluttered through the tips as it echoed across the galaxy in her eyes. "I will be keeping an eye on the Umbral Sea. I implore you to not take too much time longer than necessary. The volcano's breath will only keep it alight for so long." Hands raised, she drew her fingers together to snap them as a line of pure sunlight cradled around them, which she traced along to the flow. Petals flourished along the circle when it was completed. Unlike Yuven's nauseating motions through space and time, it was nothing more than a long blink and a reminder of what they ran from.

Wooden spokes reinforced with metal bumped against the broken marble. Hippogryphs chirped and chittered, their talons raking across the iceborn coals beneath their feet. Adara opened one eye in preparation, then both at the eerie silence which hung over the city of the dead — Irimount. Shattered windchimes hung off the trellis' to smaller houses. Beside her, Yuven's feathers thinned when he opened his own violet fields and gazed at Neven, who stood in the center of them all.

Neven twisted on his heel, expression blank compared to Yuven's tortured one. "Alright," he said and gathered the Storm Wardens. "We need to set up base camp, I also want a patrol to go and clear out any draugr which remains." He sent a whisk of sapphires into one of the smaller carts, dragged open with his glyphs. "I want everyone to take a lavastone. It will protect you from the blizzard for a time. Fenrer, if you sense it coming, I need you to say something the moment you do."

"I will, but right now..." Fenrer drew his gaze to the ground. "I think it's dormant again, we have time, I think, but for how long I don't know."

"Then we should hurry and set things up," Neven said, concise and clear, ignoring Yuven when he left Maria's side to take a slow approach to the other Avaerilian.

"Neven—"

"Yuven," Neven said over him. "Look, I just want you to come with me and help set up the main area for us to settle. You, Fenrer, and Miss Adara were here last. We need an idea of what we face here." He nodded in her and Fenrer's direction, leaving Yuven to sort through two separate patrols. "I want your group to sweep the west quarter. Yours, the east, straight to the bridge out into the frostlands. We need avenues of escape, and I want you to tell me if there are breaches within the mountain." He glanced back at Yuven, then slipped out a parchment to hand to each of the patrol leaders. "Read, and then start. Get back to me with any reports, and don't attempt to cross the bridge. Just tell me what state it's in."

"Yes, Captain," the two Wardens said with their hands to their hearts, before leading their respective groups in opposite directions, crescent blades in their hands.

"What are you planning?" Yuven accused when Neven returned to the rest of the Storm Wardens, who hid underneath the tarps hanging over the carts, though the hippogryphs remained unruffled by the moaning song on the wind.

"I will explain how we're going to approach this once we're not out in the open," Neven said. "If you'll follow me to where I want us to set up." He took the vanguard of their supply train, though Yuven hung back with Tix'snuv when the carts tugged forward on their hippogryph leads. Fenrer and Maria twisted to Yuven.

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Fenrer whispered.

Yuven's nostrils flared, but he said nothing in retort. "Let's just get this over with." He clicked his tongue at Tix'snuv, and the two walked in sync behind the lines.

A little, white-haired child, who clung onto a blood-soaked wyvern, trapped by four stone walls.

"Fen," Adara mused.

"Yeah?" Fenrer asked when Maria nodded at them and broke into a brisk jog to catch up.

The burden of knowledge... no. Adara sighed and turned to smile at him. "If there's anything I can do, tell me. Last time you sensed that Corruptor it left you flat on your stomach."

Fenrer nodded. "It was the initial sense that got to me, but I have accustomed myself to the pressure, and do not mistake me," he whispered. "It is very much here. I hear it." He tipped his head to the side, indicating to the ground.

"What does it sound like?"

Fenrer's gaze flattened when the galactic trails fluttered with stars. "I can't tell with the layers of permafrost the exacts, but it sounds like a hum," he explained and straightened himself out. "I will sense it before it attacks. If it even considers it I will sense it. We are not going to get taken by surprise this time. We're going to battle with it on our terms." Another blast of a flurry poured over the cradle, and he held his arms. "Let's go catch up with the others and get comfortable, we'll be here for much longer than I'm certain we want to be."

Adara watched him jaunt away, but found herself trapped along the broken marble path, once a bustling city which now belonged to a monster flaying a wyvern underneath its carapace.

I don't like this. Adara twisted to the Grand Spire.

Tebora's castle, up in flames, swallowed by a stone beast.