YUVEN

Morning came too slow for his liking. Daylight struggled to fight the bloody night. Birds fell silent into the trees, broken only by the distant howls of Derelicts. He propped himself in one of the broken rafters to keep watch, swinging his foot back and forth. Every change in the wind ruffled his head feathers through the cracks of the glass. Clicking open his moonwatch, he frowned down at the information. And the ticking. Moments into his life.

It comes too slow... I'm almost expecting the clouds to bleed. He counted along with the ticks as the light sent its flaming tendrils through the dark clouds. Yuven huffed and returned to the others through his magick. The Anima jumped with a short gasp when he came through the wall, though Fenrer and the older Storm Warden had no such satisfactory reaction. He ignored her to head for Fenrer, taking his medication. "Let us discuss our next plan," he said before anyone else could make the morning go ever slower. "We cannot stay here and note down every name. I checked the archives, and to their credit, they kept track of who was posted where." Yuven folded his arms and ignored the rust in the back of his throat. Forgotten and pushed away. He bit on his tongue, though avoided his fangs.

"If it concerns you that much, I still have a job to do," the old Warden spoke up.

"Wait." Adara, the Anima, stepped forward. "I'm still not following half the time. I just got ripped away from the only home I've known. I want some things explained before—"

Agitation drove his fangs into his tongue. "If you have not realised yet, Anima, we do not have the luxury of explanations." She bristled, but he pushed on, "We have to get you out of here. That is why we're here. All can wait until we've confirmed that the danger has passed."

Adara snapped on her heel to face him down, with fiery courage and without the fear and sympathy of many. When all who faced the Derelicts succumbed to despair, within the star, the light. "And what danger is that? Me? Am I the danger? As if I haven't had that hanging over my head in the form of a headsman's blade since the day I comprehended my own existence?" she snapped, and he glanced at Fenrer when he shuffled and the auric swirl denoted her overpowering aura he'd never see. "Or is it something else? Is it those beasts that you've said yourself you have ways of beating back? I didn't say explain everything to me right this instant, but tell me where you're taking me. Tell me what I'm walking into."

Tell me why they see me as a monster. Yuven scowled at her. "We are taking you to the Elder Convocation. In Azahama. Is that satisfactory?"

"Where is that?"

One question too many. One question to waste time. Garren, the old Warden, moved and caused the Anima to turn to him in confusion. It took long minutes into the morning for the other Warden to return with a large, folded map in his hands. "Here," he said, with far more patience than what he had within. "Look." He unfolded it for her and stretched it out. "Azahama is within the borders of Dyrin, but for the most part, it is a neutral city." He traced the lines of the part of the continent which split the northern lands from the south and parts of the west, sharing its borders with all. "You could say it is the capital of all magickae. It is the seat of the Elder Convocation, who make our laws."

Adara leaned down to the map to brush her thumb across the parchment. "This is our entire continent? Not the world?" Wide-eyed and awash with the fiery anger from before, she grabbed the map to stare into its etched lines.

"Satisfied?" he questioned. "We have no time."

"Not even close," she grunted in much the same fashion as her Guardian. "But good enough. Since you seem to be in such a rush." Adara pushed the map into Garren's hands. "What about distance? You mentioned teleporting? How is that done?"

So many questions, and no time for them. His heartbeat ticked along with his silent moonwatch. Yuven eyed Fenrer, who nodded with a quiet answer. "Let's leave the tower and head to where we landed," Yuven instructed. All three followed him without further arguments or needless questions, though Adara pursed her lips and studied him. Fenrer kept his pace, readying an elementia shard between his two fingers. "Are you sure you're rested enough?"

"As rested as I'm going to be," Fenrer admitted as they headed out and down the massive steps to the destroyed stables for horses and hippogryphs. Skeletons, weighed down by death in duty. For their defeat in sacrifice. Yuven dug his fingers into his palm as he stepped past all the shadows with Fenrer, who shook his head at the things unseen.

Energy hushed through his veins, and he stopped the group. "Here," he said, though noticed Garren hung back. "Fenrer?" He swung his arm out in front of his chest, dipping his head forward. He turned to Garren when he didn't move forward, which caused the Anima to echo the lack of motion. "Is there something else?"

Garren glanced at Adara with a heavy frown, with the same shadows of the skeletons lost in their duty. "As I said in the tower," he said after the bright silence the sun left with its rising dawn. "I have a duty to fulfil. If you take her to Azahama, I'll stay and gather up records and make my way to Haneka."

Whatever remained of the Anima's indignation fell apart in confusion. In hurt and a sense of loss on a winding, dark path. "What do you mean?" she asked in a small voice, where the fear and despair returned with the distant screeches of Derelicts.

Hunting. Hungry. Ravenous in his blood as the blizzard descended onto his mind. "I thought his meaning was quite clear, Anima Adara," Yuven mumbled as Fenrer set the elementia shard into the ground. "He came here to find out what happened to these Storm Wardens and to bring back answers."

"Don't call me Anima," she snapped and twisted back to Garren, who glared at her. "Why do you have to stay here? It's clear what happened!" Tears welled up at the edges of her brown eyes. "You saw what came about after! What other answers can you get from here?" She pointed at the skeletons with a shaking hand. "They were killed! They were killed by those things! The crescent blades didn't do anything for them! It's obvious they were overwhelmed." Yuven stepped forward to snap at the ice, but she bit, "They were abandoned, old man. Just as we abandoned the townsfolk in Prunal. Is that what awaits me?" Her arm dropped to her side as she attempted to keep a stiff upper lip. "Am I just going to get abandoned over and over again? By Mother? By Father? And now by you?"

Don't say you'll come back, when all you do is leave.

Yuven pushed against his own bones, but found his words lost on his tongue. Jaw clenched, he fought with the words in his mind. With the truth in the blood fog. He made another heavy step forward, but stopped when Fenrer's hand rested on his shoulder.

Garren Tyronai never looked away, and in the iron greys, he found the resolve of his other Guardian. Kemal Tyronai. "Whatever you take from this, Adara," he said without the same waver in Adara's voice. "Whether you curse me for abandoning you — curse your parents for their deaths — or hate the people who have brought that pain on you, cursing your existence — you would be well within your right to feel all."

I will return, Neven promised.

Garren nudged her towards them, and she stumbled on her feet, as lost as a pale-haired little boy. "I told your mother I wasn't good with kids," he added as Adara caught herself faster than he had on ice. "I don't have an answer to those questions you have." He shrugged while a shimmering lioness formed in his shadow. "You'll find them in the other kingdoms. You're not going to find anything here."

Yuven observed Adara as she bit down on her lip and clenched both her fists. "So, it was always about your duty?"

Is that what it was always about? A young boy wailed.

Garren lifted his head to the giant wall, stretching into the known horizon where the sun reflected off the shadows within the iron, leaving parts of the world unseen. "I wonder what Ancient I offended to be put into this situation," he whispered, though it echoed around the desolate ruins. He sighed, and age tore through his brow. "You believe this is the last time we'll see each other?"

Adara fell silent.

I will return.

Garren shrugged and waved his hand. "As if the known fates would ever be that kind to me," he said with an annoyed, but no less fond smile. "I can assure you, Adara, if you follow those two, we will meet again. I cannot rest easy until I've seen this through to the end... and I want to go home."

"Wasn't this your home?" Adara asked, insistent.

"Sea to sea... Where we hang our woes over the warmth of the hearth, to dig deep into nature's bounty and hear the call of the sea..." Fenrer whispered behind him in gentle Hanekan, bringing his hand up and then down in prayer as he tipped his brow against the edges of his fingertips.

"Always home, right in our hearts," Garren repeated and then smiled again. "Adara, did you see this as your home? Or do you see me as your home, for I'm all that you had?"

She fell silent again.

Snow swirled in his mind with golden, winter warmth.

Garren sighed then rested a hand on her shoulder. "You shouldn't ignore that call in your heart," he pointed out. "I apologise for what I've kept from you. I have no excuse save for the one I've given." He closed his eyes, then huffed. "You annoyed the shite out of me sometimes, aye... but this was my home too. I just need to return to the sea and reflect on the time I've spent here." He released her with a nod before drawing a clinking pouch out of his bag, pushing it into her hands. "This should do you if you need anything. You're the one who worked for this."

Adara clutched it in her hands and peeked within. "It's—"

"Your money made over Turns of working at that damned tavern," Garren said. "I can safely say Hanekan taverns are far more entertaining when one can actually fight back against, what you'd call, pigheads." He sniffed and folded his arms. "You'd be surprised how different and how similar the other kingdoms are."

Adara trembled, and a couple tears dropped down her face, though she never wailed with the boy in the distance. "You're ridiculous, old man." She brushed her forearm against her face. "Fine. Do what you need to do if it'll make you feel better."

Knives ripped against the ice he encased around his body like a shield as she stepped past. He lifted his head to the old Storm Warden.

"Don't leave me."

"I won't."

Adara headed into the forming circle, with the shard as the focus within the magick matrix.

"Are you sure?" the words tumbled out of his mouth. He hesitated when all three stared at him. "It is entirely possible the pathway will close, and it is a long walk to Haneka from here." He settled one arm over the other and shrugged away the painful flurry. "Can't say the state of the rest of the wall from here. You'd be extremely lucky to not run into Derelicts."

Adara grimaced as Fenrer stood over the shard.

"I'll be fine, you just worry about your own duty," Garren said. "I won't stick around for long once I've collected what I can. I'll head through Haneka to Euros."

"I was not worrying. I was warning you of the possible logistics." Yuven turned his back on the old Storm Warden, as Adara had done. "Fenrer? The pathway?"

"I can see it, but once the morning passes, it'll be out of my reach." Fenrer held up both his palms. The circle danced through the stalks of the crass to connect them all within its embrace. Adara stayed at the edge as the bubble grew with twilight stars. "Rest is up to you, Yuven."

Yuven left her at the edge to help his Oathbound, where the stars intensified around them. He echoed Fenrer's position as ice leaped around the forming bubble, coalescing the elements of magick as the shard pulsed out energy. Fenrer closed his swirling eyes, and Yuven grabbed onto his hands.

The arrow of space and time.

Yuven opened his mind and magick to the world's pure flow. Adara gasped behind him as the sun pierced the air with tendrils of light.

Into the twilight of stars, and the whispered promise of winter.