ADARA

In a dome of stone, no one heard her cry. Adara paced the entirety of the garden, blocked off by silver twine while the crystal continued to pulse through. Adara ran her fingers down the smooth stone, and drew them back when it crumbled into a small pile of crimson charcoal. Squishing it underneath her foot, it squelched with the texture of rotted meat. Adara gagged at the sudden waft of decay, and scrambled from the ashen pile. Gods above... Adara peeked at the mark her fingers left, where red darkness shuddered, frozen in the stone.

Far away from the squishy pile, she returned to Fenrer's side. "There has got to be something that can wake you up..." Hand resting on his shoulder, she gazed into his face, skin touched by the golden sun. Adara pursed her lips and spotted a link of a white chain. Finger wrapping around the links, she unravelled it and investigated the spherical shape. Is this a pendant? Hesitation stopped her short of opening it, but curiosity dogged her steps. Adara leaned away and clicked the small button on its top. Half of her expected it to explode into a magick fireball.

It ticked in her ears.

Adara brought it close to her and drew the swirling metal. Oh, it's a watch... I think. Doesn't look like any watch I've seen. Well, I don't think it'll wake him up. Closing the pocket of the watch, she returned it to its place to grab the other white linked chain, shaped in a similar fashion. Why would he need two watches?

Adara opened it.

The dias within vibrated every which way with several cardinal hands clanging against the stones. Adara jumped at the sudden music ringing in her ears, but peered at Fenrer, who hadn't roused. Oh no. Adara jiggled it, but it continued to clack against the stones within. I didn't break it, did I? Panic shot through her as she snapped it closed, and returned it to its brethren. I'm sure it's fine. Adara leaned over him, frowning. And nothing.

She rubbed her hands and sent one more cursory glance around the silent garden. Palm out, she called upon the inferno inside. Embers bounced between her fingertips, but fizzled out when she focused on the heat. Irritation scratched her jaw as she tried to pull on the heat in the air, to gather it into the explosive aurora from before. Nothing came back up to the surface, but she winced when Garren's dagger pulsed against her thigh. Giving up on her magick, she reached forward to tap his face. "Sir Fenrer?"

It was me, wasn't it... Adara sat cross legged beside him, unable to bear the weight gathering on top of her head. A swirling tempest entered her stomach, and she tried not to puke with the mold in the air. "I'm sorry," she whispered, then dropped her attention to the black blindfold, shaped with a wolven image. Her fingers trailed along the fabric, soft as a feather. Silver whispered along the trimmings. He was wearing this before...

She jumped when he stirred. He sat up with a soft groan, holding the side of his head. He mumbled something in another language, then eyed her through the gaps between his fingers.

"I'm... I'm sorry?" Adara shrank into her shoulders.

He blinked a couple times. "You are unharmed?"

"I—Yes." Adara nodded as he sat up more, onto his knees. "What happened to you?"

"Don't worry about it." Fenrer got onto his feet with a heavy huff. "I managed to shield your mind for a moment." He double checked all the weird, magick pulsating gadgetry on his belt. "It's temporary, but do you feel better?"

"I... I do." Adara drew her finger through one of her short strands. "I may have... um, broken one of those," she admitted. "While you were out cold. I'm sorry, I was trying to find something to wake you up."

"Which?"

Adara pointed out the clicking dias. He grabbed it and opened it. Adara drew back at the snapping noises. Fenrer sighed, then smiled at her. "Ah, I see." He swung the chain between his fingers. "It's a resonance attuner. You didn't break it, it's used for estimating Derelict directions." He gazed into the crystal orbs. With a click, he lifted his head to the smooth stone, where the green galaxies swirled. "That's odd."

"What is?" Adara asked, coming closer to him when he rubbed his temple. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Fenrer nodded and withdrew his blade. "It's odd because I'm... not quite sure where we are." He surveyed in a small circle, tipping his head while the green spun against his pupils. "It's like a veil is over the world, I can't sense or see any other auras save for yours and the crystals." He headed up to it. "It's come alive again."

A lot of information poured into her brain from his observation. "Wouldn't we still be in the castle? We didn't go anywhere, did we?" Fear shot through her as she spun around to find the exit, and feared to see bloodied stomach acid come out of the stone. "Oh, Gods, that thing did swallow us."

"Hold on." Fenrer returned to her side. "I didn't say that. I'd be able to tell if a Goliath swallowed us."

Adara frowned at him. "Apart from us being dead... or possibly digested, Sir Fenrer? Which — are we?"

"No."

"You sound so certain about it."

"I'm fairly certain we're not. Also, you don't have to call me sir." Fenrer gave her a sheepish smile. "I think we're past that." He headed up to the silver spiderwebs, drawing a gentle hand along its surface. Starlit awe filled his green eyes as he followed the trail before letting it slip through his fingers before pulling out the 'resonance attuner'. He held it up to the wall, and it vibrated against the crystals within. Adara stayed behind him, observing his next movements. "I wonder..." Fenrer withdrew his crescent blade, then pushed it against the stone. Adara grimaced when the crimson charcoal dropped to his feet, spraying the decay, though he didn't react to the smell. Spider tendrils unraveled to get away from the golden light. He pulled it back, and it regrew with a hard pulse.

"What is it?" Adara mused. "I don't like this place."

"We're in the maw... but I don't understand. I need to get out and see this for myself," Fenrer said, and Adara tipped her head when he held out the bracer with runic markings within small divots. It sparked with gold flecked greens, and she gave a small gasp when a shield made of stars danced around them to gather into a solid wall. Fenrer pressed himself against the stone, and the crimson gave way again. "Stay close to me," he said. "We're going to get out of here."

Adara allowed the silence to swallow them both as the shield created a cave. Fear filled her heart at the teeth shaped tendrils following the barrier. Her spine shivered with the unheard howling in the air. She stared into the abyss around them, and it stared at her with a thousand beady red eyes. It never attacked. It never lashed out, but it followed. Adara whipped back when the light at the end of the abyssal tunnel closed behind them, and she lost sight of the crystal.

Of Jisa, who freed her from the cage.

"Gods..." Adara managed out as the embers skittered around her, pressing against the golden stars. "We're trapped."

Fenrer shook his head. "No, everything must end."

Where everything began, and where everything must end.

"Miss Adara?" he asked as her thoughts spiralled with the teeth-shaped tendrils tapping against the barrier, testing the meal unable to be eaten. "You have a blade on you, yes?"

"Yes." Adara drew out Garren's blade. "This?"

"Keep it close by," Fenrer instructed and he lit up the path in the darkness with each step he made. Adara toyed with the sheath of her dagger. Seconds shifted into minutes. Into what felt like bells of walking as her legs fell into soreness. Adara pushed on when Fenrer did, who kept his gaze focused on the nothingness ahead. Light tore through the darkness as Fenrer pushed harder on the abyss, and it split like a stone veil. Adara rushed out, waiting for Fenrer as he stumbled out of the opening, which regrew its stone layer with a huff. Adara lifted her head when he did.

A scream grew in her throat.

Encased in stone, a creature unfathomable, enough to swallow an entire castle whole. "What did that?" she rasped as Fenrer headed to her with his own disbelief. "Was it the crystal?"

He didn't answer for a couple moments. "I don't know. Come... it's too quiet."

Adara listened for the screams and the howls, but the air stagnated. Grass underneath her heel crumbled to crimson dust, and with no other choice, she followed Fenrer away from the castle hilltop. Across a ruined bridge with careful steps. Some pebbles fell to the abyss. Green glyphs spun to support them, and she reached the end with Fenrer. Through the treeline, she spotted the dwindling flames of the town fallen to the beasts, nothing left but corpses and ghosts. Adara tore her gaze away, and shivered with the chill in the air. "Where are we going? Can you tell me?"

"I spoke to your Guardian before I came to get you," he explained as he led her deeper into the forest, away from the infernal hells she left behind in her wake. "We're heading to that shrine on the hill to regroup... and rest." He sighed and drew his thumb across both his eyes. Silver whisked across the greens, and he shook his head. "I think that pulse of magick must have forced most of the horde into reformation... or else they're gathering into the Goliath." He tipped back. "We've been offered a chance, so we should take it."

Adara wrapped her rose-red shawl closer around her shoulders. Grime, dirt, and blood splattered her work linens, and she scowled down at her own trembling body. Questions roiled around in her mind, but she held them back as Fenrer shambled through the forest ahead of her. Past the last remnants of a people murdered for the crime of having magick. Past her home of twenty turns, where no fire lit up the windows. Tears fell down her face, and she rubbed them away. Was this even my home?

Over the creek where she first came face to face with the monster, she made the same trip a thousand times before, and yet each stone crumbled beneath her heel. Overlooking the orchards ahead, she wiped her face again as Fenrer opened the door.

"You two are alright," a familiar voice grunted.

"They better be," a melodic, thick accent hissed.

Adara jumped when the ice fae left the shadows of the northern shrine with a scowl. "Fenrer, what took you so long?" Yuven demanded as Fenrer shuffled his way to his fellow Storm Warden. "I was fine. You didn't have to—"

Fenrer mumbled something in the language of the waves, and tilted forward. Yuven wrapped his arms around him when he slumped, lowering him to the ground. He brushed his hand down Fenrer's back, confusion and annoyance dripping into his angled features. "What happened?" he snapped, and she jumped.

"I-I don't know," she bit back as Yuven turned Fenrer onto his side, holding him in his arms. "I..." She turned to Garren for her final support. "I lost control, Garren." Tears choked the words. "I didn't mean it, and the crystal took Jisa." Adara grabbed onto his arms to stop herself from shaking. "I don't know what I did wrong, Garren. I couldn't stop it. He did something—"

"What did he say he was doing?" Yuven asked bluntly.

Adara glared at him as she hugged Garren, who steadied her with a low scoff. "He said he could block the flow temporarily." Yuven peered at her. Up close, his pupils reminded her less of a wyvern. A smooth, if slightly vertical shape. His feathers tangled through his hair. "What?"

"I would have preferred if my partner was not knocked unconscious because an Anima can't control their own magick," Yuven growled as he set Fenrer on the floor. He tapped Fenrer's brow. "He'll wake up, but I'd like to get away from here as fast as possible."

One part of her longed to lash out at the ghostly fae. Another, ashamed of her inability to control herself. "I didn't mean it. I touched the crystal, things were happening too fast and I—"

"What a shock," Yuven interrupted her.

Another, powerful urge to slam her fist into his face overcame her elbow, but Garren held her back as Yuven ruffled out his hair and ran his fingers through his feathers. "Dawn shall be here soon, and we'll head to Lyzetiel fortress. Anything you have left to explain, Warden, now would be the time." He switched his challenging, defiant stare from her to Garren. "I am not Fenrer. I want everything laid out to me." Yuven glanced at her, then tipped his head with the same wicked grin from before. "Something I feel the Anima needs to hear as well from you. I do like my yarns."

What did I miss?

"You touched the crystal, Adara?" Garren asked as he let her go. "What do you know?"

"I didn't get a chance."

"Better tell her now before she explodes. Fenrer went through so much effort, we might as well drop it on her while she can't do that."

Adara glared at the ice fae, who shrugged his slim shoulders while he sat by Fenrer's side, who breathed softly.

Garren sat down on the other side of them, but looked at her. "Your mother and I paid a price to wrap a protection around you, Adara. I was against it at first, but she was adamant that since Lyzetiel fell fifty turns ago, the most we could do is stall the attack. Especially after it was clear information wasn't being passed through the border. It became clear you had Anima magick, and King Brien grew paranoid. He was seeing enemies left and right. At the time, I wasn't sure where it came from. It could've been he was always like that. Could've been the influence of the Derelicts."

Adara trembled. "What price did you two pay?"

What took my mother away from me?

Garren folded his hands in his laps. "If you wish to take something from a crystal, you must give something of equal measure." He lifted a hand to his eyes. "Your mother gave her life to keep the crystal active. I had hoped to find an opportunity to take you away from here, but King Brien had his eyes on me, as I told you before." He drew his fingers down the bridge of his nose. "For every time you saw the Derelicts, for every time the ward in your mind broke... my eyesight failed me." He sighed with a deep laugh. "I suppose that's the irony of things. My last view of a clear world was magickae dying around me due to ignorance, with me hiding in a building, hoping you wouldn't be found."

Adara sank to her knees.

"And with that," Yuven, the ice fae, mumbled. "The story is set straight. King Brien had no idea the queen was a magickae." His lip curled. "Hilarious."

"Oh yes, let's joke about it," Adara growled.

"I will, that's why I'm making the joke." He stared at her as if she grew a second head. "I'll tell you a story too. We're here to retrieve the Anima." He pointed at her. "That's you, Princess. Our job here is simply for that alone. I say we take our victory while we have it."

"I thought your job was to destroy darkness," she snapped at the two Storm Wardens. "Is that not what your Order stands for?" Adara stomped to the ice fae, whose feathers shivered. "I'm sure it's so easy for you to walk away when you have no idea what the people here have been through. People have died. People died and no one did a thing about it."

"Yes. People die." His apathy launched ice into her gut. "Welcome to the world, Anima. Derelicts attack — people die." Yuven stepped into her space, and she backed away from his imposing, venomous figure. "You want us to go and die too? You must've seen what ate the castle. We call that a Goliath. It is not your regular Derelict husk. You need more than three Storm Wardens to take one of those down. You need a whole fortress of Storm Wardens and prepared defenses to stand a fleeting chance," he hissed, and his ears flicked as his pupils tightened. "But you didn't have that defence. Your king and people saw to that. You all forgot the people who gave their lives to stop this wave. You turned your backs on them."

"I didn't turn my back on anybody. I didn't know." Adara got into his space. "And who are you to waltz in here acting like you're so much better? They were still people."

"Who dug their own graves."

"Aren't Storm Wardens supposed to be the absolute protectors of life?" Adara asked, and found the weight unbearable on her shoulders. "You left people to die... just to get to me?"

Yuven's expression turned quizzical. "I did. If you're expecting some apology or comfort, you're looking in the wrong place. I do what I must." He folded his arms and snarled at her, revealing the sharp canines. "What would've likely happened if I decided to save every damned soul in that town was that we would've died too for our wasted efforts... and then there'd be no one left." He tipped his head to Fenrer. "He knew that too, and he didn't like it anymore than you did... You're talking a lot more about it, but he understood." Yuven snubbed her. "Quite frankly, you're not in the position to tell me what I do and don't understand. You're the one who doesn't understand anything."

Adara lowered her gaze to Fenrer, who continued to sleep.

"Now what...?" she mumbled and sat back down.

"We rest," Garren said, "then head to the fortress in the morning dawn."