ADARA

"Turn back!" a guard outside the gatehouse screamed over the crowd. Complaints and roaring indiginance rumbled through her ears, but the guard remained unfazed by the noise. "By order of the king! Go back to your homes until we have confirmed that the magick presence has dissipated!" Another guard waved a yellowing parchment. "We have another confirmed murder at the outer orchards of one Rosaleta Forrester! For the safety of all, go back home! And if anyone has any information to come forward!"

R-Rosa? Adara took several steps back as people around her shifted in new agitation. New realization of the threat, the blight of magick. Fear ripped through her legs at their hate. Anyone who knew Rosaleta knew who hung out with her the most as the town's prime source of orchard trees. It wouldn't connect instantly, but it would at some point. Out of reach of Jisa as more guards corralled them off to the side past the gatehouse, Adara found her legs working against what she intended to do, and tried to worm her way through the crowd. Anything to escape the lick of steel coming down on her neck.

I'll come back for her... but I need more time.

Anna and the other tavern workers tried to argue their cases, but were shot down. Too far away to hear the words between them, Adara reached the end of the crowd waiting on the stone bridge. Past the carts of food waiting for knights to pull them to the castle feast hall. Tower bells tolled throughout her bones as she rushed through town, where people muttered while the rumour mill twisted with the crunching of bones. Vomit crawled up to burn through her heart as she pushed on past the mask-wearing festival goers, where the irritation fell into unease as she left through the farthest gate, into the forest Garren made their home.

Not a single bird chirped in the canopy. No little voles scrounged for their meal.

Silence permeated the air as she drew farther away from the bustling town of agitation. Adara hesitated on the broken path, drawing her fingers across her chest as she tried to listen for a familiar sound other than the dissonant bells which danced with the quiet. Sundown sprayed crimson along the clouds, and she kept a steady pace through the stretching shadows.

"Garren!" she called as she came to a stop at the remains of the purge. Broken down houses burnt to nothing but ashes.

Mommy! a child cried from within her soul.

Each heartbeat pounded blood through her ears to join the crimson-speckled drizzle lit up by the disappearing sun. Adara shuffled her way through, where her steps cracked every leaf and branch in the forest. Checking behind her when a sudden chill crept up her spine, she lifted her head when growing firelight rose over the canopy. Her heart screamed to run, to flee from a clearing full of ghosts. Adara curled her shawl around her to race for the log cabin.

"Garren!" Adara jumped up the steps. "Garren!" Through the door, she slammed it behind her as if something chased her all the way home. It was only ever silent.

"Adara?" His seaborn voice sent relief through her to chase the shadows of her childhood nightmares away. "Where have you been?" He folded his arms. "You find your Storm Warden?"

Adara kept her hands flat against the door as he approached her. "You said they were here," she hissed. "You promised my mother to not let them find me." With her fist to steady her on the wood, she faced him. "Who are they? The Storm Wardens? The king and his knights? I want answers, and you seem to have a lot you've held out on since I was a child. It's time I hear it. All of it."

Garren stopped in the shadows of the fireplace. "It's a lot, Adara." He flicked his gaze to the left, as if listening to something in his ear. "I've already told you most of what you needed to know. Your mother and I were Storm Wardens, sent here to gather information—"

"But that doesn't answer how my mother died," Adara bit. "Why did she leave me?" Tears gathered in her throat, threatening to push the vomit past her lips.

"You've already seen it for yourself," Garren pointed out. "In the Derelicts."

"About that, what in the three hells are they?" Adara snapped and released the door. "Because the Storm Wardens at the tourney talked about them, but I still don't understand what they are. You hunt them?"

Garren's shoulders slumped. "More like they hunt us."

Adara hesitated. Garren moved past her to the window, drawing the blinds before going back to the locked chest with the golden crescent blade. "That's how it's been since... well, depending on who you ask, since our world has existed. It was as if there was no end," he muttered as he hovered his fingers over the hook of the blade. A light blue sheen mingled with the gold as he holstered it around his waist.

"I'm not in the mood for stories."

"I never said it was a story," he pointed out. "Far from it, Adara. Derelicts are far from a story, and many people beg for them to be. That is what your mother meant — what she made me promise. You..." Garren took in a weary breath. "Adara, you've never been able to control your magick because quite frankly, you have too much of it. You're what we call an Anima — one who can touch the flow with much more potency than what we consider normal, even for Flares." He straightened his shoulders as he folded his arms. "You are a beacon in the echo. Derelicts were drawn to you even at a young age."

"Then why is this the first time I've seen them?"

Garren frowned and didn't look her in the eye. "It isn't the first time you've seen them, Adara."

Embers crackled in the fire. "I think I'd remember seeing that..." Crimson eyes bore into her soul, intentful, and hungry, but not for her flesh. For vengeance when she left it naught but stone and the bells cracked it apart. "I'd remember seeing something like that." Her head hurt with all the lies beating down on her temples. "What are you hiding from me?" Garren moved past her to the door, and she whipped around, "Don't leave when—"

He brought a finger up to his mouth as he pressed his fingertips against the door. Adara joined him, though heard nothing. Until armored footsteps broke the eerie silence of the ghosts. Wood creaked outside as the danger made its way up to their front door, dissonant with the growing sounds of panic.

"Garren Tyronai!" Adara jumped when a fist pounded on the door, and shook her core. "In the name of King Brien, open up the door! You're under scrutiny for the murders of countless townsfolk fifteen turns ago and the murder of our queen! Come out and face justice!"

Swords peeked through the rusted cage and bore down on the bird. An inferno bubbled at the surface of her skin, but Garren held a calm hand out to stop her. "No," he whispered. "Not here, Adara. I can handle them."

"Garren—"

Garren ignored her while green light creeped along the doorframe, pulsing with grounded drums. He closed his eyes as he leaned against the door. "I hear three, could be more. Diata, Aeoniir, I may need your assistance." Garren reached into the firepoker basket.

Adara stared at him as a white mist fell along his shoulders. "What are you planning to do with that?" she growled as the knights on the other side yelled his name. "They're in full plate wielding lances or swords or..." Adara waved her hands as Garren pushed her out of the way of the door. "Garren, don't be ridiculous." Tears fell down her cheeks. "Use that blade or something—"

"I reserve my blade for the blood of Derelicts," Garren muttered as he pressed the tip of the firepoker, where more magick spiderwebs gathered to join it. "Unless I'm absolutely pressed."

"Garren Tyronai! We're giving you until the count of five to surrender yourself or your sentence will be death where you stand! Five!"

"Garren—" Adara rasped.

"Four!"

Garren glanced down at her.

"Three!"

"Garren," Adara begged. "Don't do this. We can wait this out... you're not—"

"Two!"

Garren huffed out a breath. "Adara, if there's one thing you need to know—"

"ONE!" they shouted.

"Storm Wardens don't retire."

In a crack of the drum, the door exploded into splinters outwards. One knight stumbled back, while the one had their hand up where the door used to be. In another flash, she expected metal to lunge forward to take her guardian away. Adara choked when the firepoker burst through the unsuspecting knight's neck. Blood poured out over his plate as he let out one last gurgle. Adara forced herself to her knees, but gasped when Garren switched on his heel. Hand on the shaft of the polearm which missed his head by a hair, he brought his free hand up to the knight's face. Frost cracked their skin from their pores, and mist fell through the cracks in their armor.

One arm around the frozen knight, Adara gasped when Garren blocked the third knight's sword using their companion. In another blast of crimson shattered ice, Garren tossed the knight down the steps through the sheer force of his magick.

"You blight on the land," the knight growled as Garren descended the steps, icy disks coming to life in his hands. The knight spit while blood caked his plate from the explosion of his fellow. "You will bring ruin to the world."

"We've already been there." Garren never flung the magick disks forward. "Never forget. You are the people who spilled blood. I didn't kill the queen... but hells be damned, I'll gladly kill your king if the Derelicts don't get to him first," no emotion shook his voice at the proclamation. "That's the thing about monarchs, boy... they bleed like us blighted ones."

Adara left the house as the knight charged Garren with a pained scream.

Into silence as the whisper of ice tore through sinew.

Blood splattered against the grass as the vomit filled her mouth. Her knees gave out as the headless knight fell at Garren's feet. Adara choked on bile as mist whispered around her, embracing her with warmth. "Y-You killed him." Adara rested on the first step, twisting her shawl between her fingers to feel the fabric between her fingers, unstained. "You killed him. You just..."

"Aye..." Garren left the knight on the ground to head for her. "I'm sure he won't be the last. If I hadn't killed him, he would've killed us."

But—

Adara released a breath of acidic bile as she leaned back into the mist. Unable to flee from her cage while blood dripped through to cake her feathers. An unearthly howl joined the bells of sundown, but the clouds bled. "Garren," she rasped. "Garren, what's happening?"

Adara tensed up as he sat down beside her, completely ignoring the other body at their doorstep. "You were right when you said I was afraid," he admitted. "I am, but not because of knights who couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. Not because of a bloodthirsty king who forgets he bleeds as well." He held out his hand to the crimson drizzle while the howling and panic continued. "Derelicts, beasts of the Echo Obscura. They form... and this is what they give us." He scowled. "You were right. We do need to leave."

Adara forced herself to her feet. "If we're leaving now, I need to go get Jisa!"

Garren frowned at her, then snapped back as an explosion rocked the air. Adara stepped away from him as he got up. "Adara, we don't—"

Surrounded by blood, Adara rushed away from him. She heard him scream out her name, but she had to run away. Run away to protect someone when she failed Rosaleta.

Unearthly howls shifted into screams as she rushed into the crimson hell. Fire rose from buildings as she broke the palisades. People scrambled away from the lunging shadows. Derelicts crawled up the belltower, causing the sound to crack with their dissonance. Adara ducked into cover as guards tried to hold their own, whacking the bubbling creatures with their swords.

Rust crawled through the flimsy steel as it had with her dagger. Adara pressed herself against the wall, ignoring the dripping liquid oozing from the roof tiles. Hand on the hilt of her new dagger, she held her ears to block out the horrible squelches as the Derelicts drove themselves past the plated armor. Heat bore down on her shoulders and set her magick aflame.

Gods... but there are no Gods... not if these things exist... Adara dipped into the shadows and brought it along her shoulders. Magick rose the hair on the back of her neck with the sounds of monsters devouring everything in sight. Whether wood, flesh, bone and metal, they feasted with impunity. Adara broke into a run to reach the edges of town, where bulbous darkness swayed the trees. Her foot tripped in something gooey as decay wafted up into her nose, and she scrambled to get away from what caught her boot.

A half-eaten corpse, whose flesh hung off their bones.

Gods. Gods. Gods.

Using shadows cast by the light, she kept close to any defense she had. One Derelict stalked the edges, and a noose of panic drew steel across her throat. Adara reached the smaller castle bridge, dodging the retreat of defenseless people. Adara ignored it all to rush across to the weak spot Jisa explained to her. It was all she could do to use the shadow of light against the shadow of crimson. Horrid howls crawled through the air, and she could no longer tell what was human and what was beast.

Torches sputtered with crimson embers as she passed the sconces on the bridge.

Adara wormed her way through the small opening, rushing for a nearby window to leap into the castle corridors. She slipped on dark liquid, but caught herself. Unburdened by light, she stopped at the fleshy masses growing in the stone walls. All the outside noise turned into whispers. Deep, infernal bells distorted the air as she raced forward.

Tendrils of shadows wrapped around any pitiful light, dousing it to call upon the dark.

Silence remained, and she chanced it. "Jisa?" Adara creaked open a door. "Jisa?"

Movement to her left made her jump. Cloaks of darkness fell away to reveal a young girl. "A-Addie?" She whimpered.

Adara stepped forward to help her, but stopped at the blood caking her skirts. Tears left trails of grime through her cheeks. "I thought..." Jisa rasped, but Adara pulled her away from the wall as crimson flesh cracked it.

"I said I'd come back for you, Garren said we're leaving, so we're leaving now," Adara said, forcing her attention to remain on Jisa instead of the hell around her. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

Jisa quivered into her arms with a shake of her head. "Those things—" A sob escaped her lips. "Addie, they came out of the walls and the ground. One of them tore off—"

"No, don't." Adara brushed her shoulder. "We need to get out of here now... what happened to those two magickae?"

"I-I don't know." Jisa trembled. "I... we were told to wait down here when those things attacked. I-I didn't know whe-where else to go and—" She swayed on her feet. "Addie... there was no way out."

"It's fine. I can make a way out if need be. Do you know any other ways out of the castle in case that happens?"

"I think so..."

Adara clutched Jisa's shaking hands, and hers weren't better off. "Garren is waiting for us. We can find those two magickae. I'm sure they can help, they must still be around. Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm okay..." Jisa wiped her cheek with the heel of her palm. "It's... It's not my blood, Addie."

Adara led the way out of the room and back into her own shawl of shadows. It took more energy to block them both out of the perception of the world. Shadows climbed across the stone, but it was impossible to tell if it was dim lighting, or something hungrier than flames. Adara kept Jisa close to her as they retreated away from every sound at Jisa's pulling directions.

Adara came to a stop when another, familiar whisper licked the back of her mind. "Wait... did you hear that?"

"Yeah... I do hear it." Jisa frowned, then dragged her forward. Adara pushed some of the loose stones, which fell away into a corridor full of swirling markings. As she led the way towards the light, the whisper became stronger.

"Adara..."

Mother?

Howls echoed behind them, so she quickened her pace towards the only safety left. Breaking through the crimson veil, she gasped at the towering roses shielding them from bloody dust from the roof. Hedges taller than a giant covered all their sides. Out of the nightmare, and into a dream. Ice doused her flames, but she found herself drawn to the floating crystal at the center of it all, where silver tendrils stretched out towards them, inviting them into its embrace.

"It's warm," Jisa whispered, letting go of her.

"Yeah..." Both of them moved forward in sync.

Adara stopped at a hiss, and whipped around to the walls while Jisa made her way forward. Flesh crawled its way through the stone and the dirt. It crushed the giant roses, where they bled from their petals.

Plants don't bleed.

Only one light remained as the world went to shadows.

Broken from the mystical sight, Adara raced to the steps as water sloshed onto them with Jisa's ascent. "Jisa, we need to get out of here."

Jisa turned back to face her as the silver tendrils swirled at her feet. "I hear it though," she said. "It can help us."

"What?" Adara tried to listen to the air, but the Derelicts screamed instead.

Jisa turned back to it as the world cracked. "I... I understand."

"Understand what?"

Jisa released all the previous tension in her shoulders, then turned back with a torn smile. "I'm going to break the cage, Addie."

Adara jolted, but raced forward as the shadows lunged from the walls. Jisa touched the crystal and the silver tendrils seared the air around her. "Jisa, no!"

Everything disappeared into the wings of evenfall and an endless twilight sea.