FENRER

"You'll take the gate and align it with the western cardinal. That is where the Teboran border lies," Captain Ineha spoke as Fenrer and Yuven stood on the other side of the table. "Are you sure about this, though? You don't have a specific landing point, and we can't assume Tebora has any gates. It is safer to assume they don't." Captain Ineha tapped the old, marked capital of the forgotten kingdom. "Here is Prunalis. Maybe it's name has changed in the past fifty Turns, so be ready for anything." Her finger drew a line to the old citadel. "From the information you gathered, Traye, I'll send a message to Faehariel that it's possible the desert wall has been compromised on the western coast, but we need eyes on there to confirm." Captain Inhea lifted her head. "Everything sorted?"

"Teleportation shouldn't be a big issue for us," Yuven murmured. "Fenrer, do you still have the trail in your sight?"

Silver lilies bloomed along the inked paths of the map. A soft scent beckoned to him. "Yes, I could align the gate to follow the path of the Anima confluence." He rested his hand against the map, able to feel the soft touch of the flowers against his fingertips, when he reached out to them in his dreams. "It might be safer to try and align it for Lyzetiel citadel," he explained. "I'm sure some of their wards are still up, but I can use that to make sure we don't get thrown across the continent." He smiled at Yuven, who pursed his lips. "We'll be fine, Captain." He bowed deep to her. "We shall depart now and investigate the matter further."

Captain Ineha rolled up the map. "Head straight for Azahama and get prepared for the journey. And, Traye—" She stopped them before they left the office. "Find those records from the citadel."

Fenrer followed Yuven out of the Warden Hall into Fallholt's courtyard. "I wish you woke me."

"Why? I could find information myself, and you were tired," Yuven pointed out. "Need you rested to align the gate." He raised his hand with a scoff. "My magick can only do so much. You need aim me, like a bow and arrow."

Onto the road of Azahama, Yuven took the lead, avoiding crowds making the trek of daylight safety between the towns and hamlets spread across the valleys. Fenrer held onto the silver lining in the clouds of thought. Yet... He raised his head to the nearing tower, where a crystal floated at the highest peak. One small leaf in the tree of the world, Aztryxer, where the hearts of the land continued to beat and provide. Fenrer tested the air with his magick, trying to discern the presence of Derelicts. "It's been quiet." Fenrer listened to the bushes with his grounded magick, twisting through the roots around them.

"Expect a horde attack sooner or later."

"Try not to be too optimistic, Yuv." Fenrer grinned as they passed underneath the sun gate into Azahama proper. Homes built along the ridges, close-knit and tight into the alley, where paper trails signaled the incoming Sunfire festivals. "I'd think you were getting restless."

"You expect me to handle all missing pet reports?" Yuven questioned as they came into the center of the city, where the giant gate remained on the stepped pedestal, its runes full of power from the plane. "I kill Derelicts, I don't remedy stupidity." He frowned, then came closer to him. "What happened in town, Fenrer?"

Fenrer ignored the burning of his band, then shrugged. "It was a husk as you figured from the reports when I came back. It must have eaten that man, drained him of magick, stopped by that small hamlet to devour that poor animal and made its way up there to start spreading taint through the water well." He switched on his heel to leave the gate for the time being. "It wasn't an Aurus' doing, as usual." Back to face Yuven, he tipped his head. "Are you not coming?"

"Eh?" Yuven pointed at the gate. "I'm more curious as to where you're going. We have no time to waste."

"I'll be right back. Need some things to take care of before we leave." Fenrer moved away from him to traverse the city, to the Warden Lodge on the edges of the city. I don't want us to starve while we're over there. Up the steps, he passed the guards and into the front area, where a large board took up the center, while two stairways split over a set of double doors. Storm Wardens checked over the papers. Others whispered in corners. He rifled through his belt to grab Yuven's paper of specified diet foods. Every time he's in a rush it slips his mind... Fenrer slipped into the supplies wing, where a painted wall separated a small area from the back, where several larders of packaged, long-lasting foods sat in small barrels, as far down as he could see. A Sorter moved new supplies into their proper spots. Fenrer leaned on the counter, taking out his small, wooden food containers, which Yuven had also forgotten his own.

"I'll be with you in a minute, Warden."

Fenrer waited as the Sorter came to him. "How long do you expect to be on the road?"

"I can't say, it could be several weeks," he answered as they took the wood containers.

"Any specific diet restrictions of note?"

Fenrer held out the paper to them. "My Oathbound. I can live a little with less food, and I'm not picky, so make sure he gets the most out of it. I can have the usual rations myself."

The Sorter disappeared among the larder with no further questions. After a few minutes, they came back to set the wooden containers back down, one with a painted strip along the middle. "Alright, I got everything for your partner. For you I put—" They brought their hand up. "Three sections as usual, separated by small, cut flatbread. Eggs with rice. Tubers. Mixed vegetables. All easy to cook over a fire if that's how you want it." They brought all their fingers down. "That should last you."

"Thank you." Fenrer bowed his head as he took the containers before heading out of the supply wing. I'm surprised Yuven hasn't come and see what's going on. If he took any longer than ten minutes, he was sure his Oathbound would hunt through the city looking for him. But, I'm pretty sure I didn't take that long. Fenrer wrapped the food containers around his belt before making his way through the crowds. And I'm not letting Yuven cook any of this. He raced back to the gate, where he spotted Yuven's snow-white hair in an instant in a crowd of dark browns to blacks.

"Nine minutes," Yuven grumbled.

Fenrer lifted up the painted container. "Can't very well leave without food, Yuven."

Yuven patted his own belt. "Oh." The icy aura tightened around his body, before he whipped out his hand to take it from him. "I forgot."

Sharp spikes of snow dug into the air around his friend. "Yuven, you alright?"

"You could remind me," Yuven said as they headed up to the teleportation gate. "You didn't need to."

"I had to get my own anyway," Fenrer pointed out. "It was no trouble."

Feathers flattened against the side of his head, Yuven breathed a sigh then guided Fenrer into the circumference of the marble gate. It stirred with power, the air shimmering for a destination of the mind. Lilies bloomed in his memory, and he reached out to Yuven's shoulder, who nodded, closing his eyes. Fenrer focused on the path the river of stars led him, and the expanding magick of space and time, he jolted when the shards of ice pricked into his mind. "Yuven?"

"Am I forgetting something else?" Yuven whispered out to the world, where his voice echoed through the rift.

Every rune blazed with power, and the gate shoved them through the world in one blinking instant. Rivers of the echoes flowed in the dimensional space of the between. Twilight colors whispered and danced as the trail of lilies spun closer and closer into a spiral. Yuven's magick pushed them closer to their destination, where the world rippled with the movement.

"No, Yuven." Fenrer glanced to the side, where Yuven peeked through the boundary of reality through half-lidded eyes. Ice-touched violets took over his entire eye, where magick brimmed to the surface, pure and true, with no spray of crimson to stain it with blood. His aura shone the echoes following them, guiding them on their endless path. "I won't let you forget. Close your eyes and focus. We're almost there." Almost, the river is expanding into an ocean of silver... Fenrer honed in on every piece of magick in the echoes, where the confluence brightened. Pain rocked through his head, but they closed in on the destination, and he reached out to touch the stray piece of reality.

A jolt struck his heart with a blade of grounding. Fenrer gasped when they stumbled out of the gate they left behind, which whispered away into the wind. No way to turn back, Fenrer rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, where an auric migraine threatened to bloom. Yuven brushed himself off. All around them, scorched trees, and the grass beneath their feet ashen grey. A massive wall stretched further still, with no sign of a breach, while a massive tower lunged into the clouds. Lyzetiel citadel, and the silence choked him. Nearby, empty stables, where hay crumbled to dust.

"We made it." Yuven patted his back. "Good aim."

Fenrer shivered at the descending cold down his back. Whispers of lives lost swirled to bloom the migraine further as Yuven stepped forward, eye on the giant wall which blocked the desert border. Unending chills continued to draw its teeth along his spine as he followed Yuven up to the nearest stairway to the parapets. As they closed in on the empty stables, Fenrer stopped at a skeleton, donned in rusted Storm Warden armor, thrown against the wall with its spine broken. "Yuven."

Yuven stopped to turn back.

Fenrer ignored the whispers and intent as Yuven approached the skeleton, kneeling down to grab the necklace. Ice flowed around the crystal as Yuven stared deep into it. "Paper..." Yuven patted himself down, releasing a deep sigh of relief as he took out his list-taking notepad. "Syu... I didn't forget anything." He wrote down on it with a quick flourish, before setting the oath necklace back around its deceased owner. "Fenrer—?"

"Help..." A voice spoke over the rest, and Fenrer tensed up, where it echoed around him. "Tower... breached..."

No... Fenrer slapped his hands against his temples as the echoes pulsed. Not yet.

"We need to find a roadmap," Yuven's voice broke the myriad of whispers. "And any other oath necklaces. I will not let these names be forgotten." He moved up to the stairway, leaving the skeleton in the stables behind. "What of you, Fenrer? Are you..."

"Help..."

"Yeah. I'm not sensing Derelicts though."

Yuven frowned, and they made the long trek up the wall to view the other side. Over the top, they looked upon the great expanse of orange and whites. Hilltops fell away into a distant desert of dunes, unable to see much farther than the mist allowed. Wind roared from the emptiness, rolling across the hills to make them sing. The tower shadowed them from the direction of the sun, the empty citadel abandoned by anything living.

One of the windows shattered from the top down, spreading glass around the base of the tower. Yuven leaned on the parapets. "See anything?"

"No breach that I can tell. It could be farther down the wall," Yuven observed. "And we don't have time to traverse entire wall. We head for Prunal. Main command room should have a road map." Yuven pointed up at the tower. "On guard, could still be Derelicts."

Something tells me that that's not the case. Fenrer followed, ignoring the whispers of the past left behind in the desolation of Derelicts. Air gripped his elbow, and he stopped to investigate. Nothing rested behind him, only the expanse of stone wall. Fenrer sped to catch up with Yuven, who pressed his entire weight into two large doors. It never budged, and he scowled. "Warded. Fenrer?"

Fenrer placed both hands against the wood, once a mighty tree. Magick sprinkled along his fingertips as he focused on the echo, ignoring the myriad of lost souls. Whips of green tangled around his arms, and the doors creaked open. Fenrer dropped his hands against his sides, and the whispers turned into a cacophony of screams.

Several skeletons scattered around the first floor, where one broke apart against a pillar. Fenrer closed off his mind as the barrage on his temples pressurized with the thinning air in his lungs. Too many voices to pick out, begging to be remembered. We lived, they spoke. We were here.

Yuven continued on his note-taking whenever he found an oath necklace, gaze set on the task. Fenrer stood in the middle of the room, where the echoes pulsed and spirits danced. He pressed his hand against his brow, blocking all of them out to wait for Yuven to decide a next course of action. There's so many... Fenrer followed Yuven when he headed up to the table at the back, where a roadmap of the surrounding area yellowed, where several ink stains blotched the routes. Yuven leaned over it, unable to see or hear what he was. "There's a road leading straight to Prunal from the tower." Yuven pointed it out. "How does it look?" Fenrer shivered when Yuven turned to him, and frowned. "Fenrer?"

"I hear all of them." Fenrer looked along the tower walls, higher and higher into the stone architecture. "All around us."

Yuven reached out to hold his shoulder. "We'll send more people here to retrieve them. No Storm Wardens are ever left to obscurity."

"It's not just that." Fenrer looked outside. Emotions of grief, despair, and loss of hope dug needles into his chest, but he pushed through all of them. "There was a large attack here, Yuven. Coordinated."

Yuven blinked, dropping his hand. "Derelict General?"

Unable to answer straight with all the noises in his mind, he shrugged and left the tower behind, to release himself from the pressure in the air. Yuven's right, we don't have much time. Not enough time for me to unburden the souls. He rubbed his sides as Yuven rejoined him, pointing down the next stairway over down the wall. We need to head to Prunalis. The Derelicts are here, and they are here in numbers. And with that Anima confluence, they'll show themselves. Fifty Turns. They're old for Derelicts. He eyed Yuven, who returned his silent indication. Which means in that time they've learned, eaten and they're probably strong due to it. How strong though...? Fenrer turned his back on the deserted hills to look upon the silent forests of Tebora. And where?

In the silence, it cracked in his blood.

They're here, but they always were.

Crescent blade at the ready, he descended the stairway wall with Yuven, detaching himself from the spirits trapped in the skeletal citadel. Full of the golden warriors, and died doing their duty to the world.

Never in vain, for we will come back and release you. I hope you find peace in the Otherworld, and rejoin the echoes to live again.