YUVEN

Archives and old records spread out around him on the table. After his excursion viewing the town's defenses, he found himself and his thirst for the reality of the cult unsatiated. None of the townsfolk had a clue as to what went on outside their little town — save for the few with family outside of it, wondering why they heard nothing from their loved ones or friends. The Storm Wardens set to guard were uncertain at best and demoralized at worst. Though none proved more of either than Neven, who he often found sitting on the couch brushing his nose. But I'll figure this out. I'll find the answer, Miesero, and we can all go home. Yuven flipped through the papers to study the names, the signatures, combing through who had disappeared, referring to their reports for a hint — an overplayed hand. Fenrer's ministrations appeared to have brought some semblance of energy back to Neven though. Satisfied thusly, he dropped the subject of throwing Neven onto the boat if he refused to comply. But that's not to say I'm allowing you to stay once we have our trail.

Except nothing screamed out to him even in the reports the missing Wardens made before their untimely disappearances. Simple observations. Any Derelict formations noted and dispatched; the numbers, the strength, the mix of depraved hunger and a modicum of intelligence. As he went through the Captain's reports, he paused at Neven's thick scrawl upon one parchment. One done under the influence of the Obscura Text by the indistinguishable Navei script which spelt or meant nothing, save for a small passage about ruins. Derelict found... others think it a Corruptor. It had... bones. Yuven straightened out his neck. Bones? Derelicts don't have bones... But Neven doesn't think it is a Corruptor... He tapped his fingers against the table, then gathered the paper of interest before putting everything else in its respective files. I better question him. Thoroughly. I don't trust his memory to be clear if he wrote that under the influence of the Text. Out of the Lodge Archives, he glanced around, his gaze settling at the Warden behind the desk, lazily twirling a small magelight between their hands. Not a single post had been put on the bulletin board. Miesero... Yuven ignored it to head past them, leaving the Lodge to head back to the Treehouse for confirmation, answers, and something to follow.

Inside, Neven was once more, on the couch, considering the fireplace instead of brushing his nose. "Ah, Yuven!" His feathers perked further as he stood up from the couch. "Have you found something? Anything I can assist with?" Hands clasped together, Neven's feathers shuddered with his body, and Yuven frowned at his ghostly pallor.

"More questions than others." Neven's downturned expression pushed him forward. "But, I think it's questions you can answer for me seeing as its a report you wrote." He held out the paper, though when Neven reached for it, he kept it out of his fingertips. "It mentions ruins and that you found an abnormal Derelict — a possible Corruptor, though you also note you do not believe that to be the case even if it had all the signs of one." Paper crinkled in his hands, he tilted his head forward when Neven's frown deepened. "Mind explaining? Where are these ruins? Why do you not think it was a Corruptor? It could've been a Corruptor but completed the transformation — I don't think I need to tell you that the end result is often grotesque." It would've been my fate had the Storm Wardens not cracked the shell of Irimount I created.

"I—Those ruins are to the east by the coast," Neven said. "It lay within the same direction Kemal went, though when I followed his team... there was nothing in the ruins. It was like they were never there at all. Just like all of those towns. There one moment. Gone the next." Shoulders raised, he released a sigh. "I came back to read the Obscura Text, but the next thing I knew... I was on the beach, with Aine fussing over me and I had been missing for a couple days." Yuven narrowed his eyes at that piece of information, but Neven continued, "I can take you to the ruins so you can see for yourself, but I recommend waiting for Fenrer if there is something there that we can't see. Julis, an Aurus that was a part of Kemal's team, seemed unsettled whenever he was there."

"Did Julis say why the place caused him discomfort?"

"He said he couldn't explain."

Yuven bit on his tongue. "Curious." He glanced up to the staircase when Maria came down it. "Maria," he called to her, causing her to stop on the last step. "You were here when they brought Kayal in—" The name caused Neven to lower further, but she straightened herself out. "Is there anything initial you found? I'm sure Julis was the first Aurus to examine him. What did either of you find?"

Maria glanced at Neven before joining them in the foyer. "Nothing, Yuven," she whispered. "Julis mentioned he lacked an aura at all. He was completely unresponsive though he breathed. He would only eat and drink when someone physically manipulated him too. He was more a shell in the shape of a human than a living person. I didn't want to say he was dead, especially if it was Aurically caused because something like that can be undone by another Aurus, but when Julis confirmed... it just told me it wasn't, and not even Fenrer would've been able to call his soul back to his body... his soul was long gone."

"Except when Fenrer did pierce his mind," Yuven pointed out. "He did come back to life."

"Necromancy."

He turned at Neven at his words. He lowered his head again. "Kayal was never alive — not really. He was doomed from the start, when he was dragged in he was dead, just a failed husk... and it makes me wonder if that's the same thing of what we stumbled into at the ruins," he whispered. "When I chased Fenrer after I had subjected him to it, he told me Kayal was a case of a resurrection gone wrong. Or maybe that was the point. It was necromantic magick." He curled his fingers together, and Yuven frowned when he flicked his feathers, and a small one broke off from the rest. "That's all I can give for you."

Yuven pinched his chin. "Then maybe those ruins, and all those towns, were the sites of purposefully botched resurrections or necromancy," he mused. "It'd explain the lack of Derelict signs even if they're attracted to such. Difference is, Kayal was found and brought back here. Why? Why him when all others disappeared?"

Neven gave a slow, confused shake of his head.

"Maybe he was left on purpose to taunt us?" Maria mused.

"Possibly." He thumbed his lip, then turned to Neven when he brought a hand up to his face. "Neven—?"

Neven tilted backwards into a collapse, nearly bashing his head into the table had Maria not reached out to him to redirect his fall. Not enough to save him. Not enough to help him. Yuven stood there, hearing his own chokes in his mind when Neven's body stiffened, and then started to convulse. Chains wrapped around his throat when the noise dulled in his ears. Maria dived straight to his side without hesitation — an action she had done so many times as blood started to bubble past Neven's lips with the constant choking as he drowned. Yuven looked him over, surrounded by white noise and the rustic taste constant in the back of his throat and salting his nose. His knees threatened to buckle to join him, and Maria snapped something, though her strong, sunlit voice failed to break the white noise. Her words indistinguishable in his ears though he fought to listen, to find comfort. "Mie—" It was all he could hear of himself as he took a tiny step forward while Neven suffered his fate.

Let it be me. It's nothing I haven't suffered before. A laugh crawled up in his throat, but his knees trembled when it stretched on. I was just talking to him. He was fine.

Neven's golden feather sat at the toe of his boot, withered. Air stuck itself to his lungs, but he jolted when a strong hand grabbed his shoulder. Fenrer, with Adara standing at the door frame with a confused, and horrified expression on her face when it set on Neven. Fenrer snapped something in turn, shaking him, but the motion itself sent numb pinpricks through his body. Ready for the end, he looked over his shoulder at Neven, who had started to taper, but it hadn't stopped. No. Yuven gripped onto Fenrer. Let it be me, I can weather it! Tears started to fall down his face, stinging him with their bitterness. Let it be me! Do something!

Fenrer let him go when the thought crossed his mind to rush to Neven's head, kneeling down beside it before pressing his fingertips against his temples. Auric swirls danced in the forest when he closed them to focus. Energy cracked in his ears while he forced himself forward, to behold what he had subjected so many others to. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop or give it back to me! On his knees, the noise started to come back when Neven's chokes quieted and Fenrer drew his hands away with a wince. Maria got up to grab some towels from the washroom, coming back to wipe off Neven's blood-soaked, crimson face. Veins popped out as he struggled to breathe.

I don't understand. He looked up at Fenrer, who had gone ashen himself with ihs own confusion. This shouldn't be happening. Yuven pressed his hands against Neven's shoulders. "Miesero...?" He gave him a shake when he didn't respond, pushing down the crushing sensation in his windpipe. "Miesero, what's the meaning of this?" he asked, wanting an answer so desperately. Why couldn't it have been me? Why must he suffer this? He did nothing! He can't be—It's not possible— Yuven jerked and whipped his head to Fenrer. "What did you see in his mind?"

In a moment, the confusion turned to horror when Fenrer glanced at him. "...He's not the source of the Corruption."

No. Yuven drove his fangs into his lips. "He's not corrupted," he pleaded to whatever higher power deigned itself to listen. He can't be.

It was Maria's voice which brought him back to reality. "Let's not jump to conclusions," she replied. "Derelict caused sickness can cause this reaction as well... as aone-off and not constants. I'll monitor him to make sure and cross out any possibilities until we get to the bottom of it."

"But it's never that long unless you're Corrupted," Yuven said, trying to keep his tone calm, collected. "It's never that fierce and vicious."

Maria studied him. "Correct. Adara," she said to the other woman who hovered, even the vaunted Anima magick incapable of undoing what Derelicts cause to the body. "I need you to grab my tools and put them on the table. Fenrer, Yuven... move him to the couch." Up on her feet, Yuven obeyed her command when he found his own faltering, and with the help of Fenrer, they hauled up Neven to palace him on the couch.

Miesero.

Golden light pierced the darkness of his nightmares until there was nothing left of it. He found himself useless while the others managed to move. "Let it be me," he whispered, driving his fangs deeper into his lips the moment the others were out of earshot.

"No."

Neven's weak voice made him jump along with the hand which tapped at his feathers. "Hah..." a sickly laugh left his pale lips. "I did say once that I wished it had been me instead of you... I suppose be careful what you wish for?"

Yuven tightened his grip on his shoulders. "What's your name? Do you know where you are?"

I am Yuven Traye.

Neven gazed at him for far too long. "Neven Lotayrin," he said. "I'm..." He looked around with an anxious breath. Yuven grabbed onto his hand to keep himself calm, to tell himself of life as he quietly answered, "We're at the treehouse in Asairai."

Both basic questions answered, Yuven released his hand and tried not to scream at his punishment wrought on others. "You had an expulsion flash."

Neven revealed his own fangs with his small smile. "Is this how you've felt for so long, Yuven?" he asked through weak breaths.

It was nothing to me! Turns I spent dealing with it! It was either terrifying, then numb, then inconvenient! Let it be me, please. He held onto Neven, to the golden light which chased away his crimson nightmares. What's one more? What's one more of it? "This is worse," he managed out his vulnerable weakness. "It's just a one-off. You won't have to suffer it. You're not Corrupted." You can't be. It's not possible. Fenrer would've said something. Fenrer would've noticed — but then he said you're not the source then that must mean... He tried to shove down his tears. "This is worse."

Is this how all of you felt... watching me die?

Neven pinched the tip of his feathers. "It'll be alright, Yuven."

How can you say that?

Neven's hand dropped back down onto his quivering chest as he closed his eyes and though everyone else moved, he found himself as frozen as the home he decried and abandoned to death.