NEVEN

Jelly danced on his knees when he hobbled beside Kemal, who slowed his pace for the rest of the path. Way past the time limit, long into the late afternoon, he imagined the worst of the punishments he forced Kemal to experience with him for their lackluster performance on their first day. "I'm sorry," he repeated when voices grew ahead, and the beach broke through the thick underbrush on the lower side of the mountain. "You would've been there before anyone else had I not had a momentary lapse in weakness." He stopped when Kemal went out in front of him, then slammed his hand on the rock to stop his advance. "What?"

"I would much rather a thank you than constant apologies at this rate," Kemal said. "So, you found out you were afraid of heights and needed a nudge. I didn't do anything special, Neven. I was doing what I thought was right. Can we just leave it at that? You're clearly still shaken and I don't need to hear it, aye?" Kemal motioned with his upturned hands. "You have no reason to be sorry."

"But—"

Kemal tipped his brow forward with wide eyes.

Neven tasted his words. "Th-Thank you?"

"Yes, that is all you had to say," Kemal said with a nod, letting go of the mountain and unblocking his path. "You're welcome."

"Common is weird..." Neven mumbled, feeling returning to his legs.

"Eh, you get used to it," Kemal said. "It's not my first language either, y'know. I still struggle with it sometimes. You're doing a good job. Give yourself some credit."

Neven released his fear out to the distant winds when Kemal led him down a small natural formed staircase through the juts. Muscles tight, he yawned out the tension, his fangs slipping past his lips. With a wakeful shake, he glided his fingers through the downy feathers to make himself presentable for the last rung of the Gauntlet, though he forced Kemal to give up his place in first. In a line, the other Trainees stood with their hands behind their backs. Trainer Majen swept over to them, "Ah, here come the last ones."

Everyone gave Kemal expressions of pity, who folded his arms and kept his attention on Trainer Majen. "You've all made it, it seems."

Yusari frowned. "You don't sound too happy about that outcome."

"Is it because those two were late?" another Trainee asked. "Lotayrin was the one who slacked over the bridges."

Trainer Majen looked down the line, then rested his gaze on him. Neven chewed on his tongue and cursed his lackluster abilities. "Hm, quite the astute observation. Tyronai, step forward."

An apology bloomed on his tongue, but he winced when Kemal sent a gentle punch into his shoulder when he went. He'd rather hear a thank you than constant apologies, but I have... His thoughts blustered when Trainer Majen shuffled with something in his pouch. Magick tickled his senses, and he inched his foot forward to send an icy glyph in between the two, to save Kemal from a punishment meant for him. Until Trainer Majen smiled warmly at Kemal, then held out a box.

"What is that?" Evani asked from within the line. "Is that some sort of punishment for failing the Gauntlet?"

"Why would I punish the person who won it?" Trainer Majen said as he pushed the box into Kemal's hands, who frowned in his own light confusion. "It's a reward, Tyronai. You've conducted yourself with remarkable effectiveness and situational awareness. Excellent traits to have so early in your training. So please, take a seat and your rest. You've earned it."

Some of the Trainees gaped at the escape their Trainer Majen gave Kemal, with Neven tasting his own bewilderment underneath layers of snow.

"But Yusari won!" one of the Trainees pointed out.

Yusari frowned. "He came in last with—"

"At what point did I ever say that this was a race? I remember telling you it was a test of endurance," Trainer Majen said, his voice becoming colder than Knight Valiant Utuvar's. "Let me ask all of you something, why are you here?"

Neven lost his answer, but Kemal reminded him.

"To... help people from Derelicts?" Evani mused. "Is that a trick question?"

"No, it's an extremely simple, quite explicit answer." Neven heard the steam rolling out of the jaws of fire. "Lotayrin, I want you to step forward, to me."

Neven stepped forward, ready for the lecture of his fear. I will fly. He repeated the song of comfort and of danger. I will fly above my fear. Apathy is finality. Apathy is despair... He raised his shoulders when Trainer Majen glared down at him. "I am sorry for my own conduct, Trainer Majen. It will not happen again."

Trainer Majen's expression softened into one of weariness. "Were you scared, Lotayrin," he whispered, low enough for the other Trainees to not hear his weakness.

Neven bit his tongue and nodded.

Trainer Majen turned him to face the other Trainees, who stared at them. "Such a simple question I posed to all of you," he said. "Even as I explained it to Lotayrin when he acted with habitual self-interest, it was very different from malice. Most people do and should have a measure of self preservation. I had thought the lesson would've gotten into your heads. So, tell me again what a Storm Warden does. Tyronai, don't answer for them."

Kemal lowered himself onto the sands.

"I don't have all day," Trainer Majen said at the long seconds of silence. "Think real hard."

None of them replied, some confused, others searching, but it was Yusari's face which broke into realization. Trainer Majen shook his head at them. "Let me ask you a question then, were you all aware of why Lotayrin stopped? I know all of you saw it. I know you all saw it, acknowledged it, and continued on without him, and it was Tyronai who went back the second he realised." Trainer Majen stepped in front of him. "Let me make this quite clear. Yes, you fight Derelicts — but if you think that's all Storm Wardens are, then you are mistaken. We are as much shields against the dark as we are swords of the light. Do you deny leaving Lotayrin in that position?"

None of them denied it.

"And so you thus willingly left a person in fear, in distress," Trainer Majen pointed out. "We are equal as protectors as we are warriors, and if you so readily abandon another Trainee... how can others trust you to be their protectors?"

Abandoned. Isolated... A shiver slammed into his spine at the memories of a baby, crying and laughing all at once. Little hands tugged on his small feathers, and he swallowed pain and horror. The words of a Blizzard Sentinel to his older brother, who brought with him a precious gift in a wyvern stuffy. Mother's sadness. Father's irritated pressure as he argued back and forth with the Spire. Trainer Majen said, "Lotayrin, we're going to use this as a teaching moment. I want you to step out into the water, and ready yourself. You're going to fight for the win they thought they were fighting for."

"That's not fair! He's already more experienced than us!" a Trainee argued.

Trainer Majen ignored them, and Neven walked onto the water and kept thin ice platforms around his boots. Over the abyss, his heartbeat rang with a growl in his chest. Golden scales rippled with agitation, with torment, agony, and incapability. He swept out the training polearm and sliced glyphs through it. Water gathered and formed into windsheared ice, and he turned to the crowd, no mere performer. Trainer Majen's smile widened while the Trainee's grimaced. "Now then, I suppose that means Ovana needs to earn it. Victory. Respect. None of you are above this. Do you want to be respected as the 'best'? Fine, take down the one who has the experience and you might just get it."

Neven narrowed his eyes when Yusari reacted. Her attention drew to them, and she stepped onto the water. Glyphs formed at her soles, a different support from his own. As he had stood in front of Anaysa, who refused to draw out her weapon against him. Honorable combat, but he chewed on anger instead at his new opponent with none of Warden Anaysa's experience.

"What are you waiting for, Lotayrin?" Trainer Majen asked as the other Trainees shifted in discomfort, with Kemal enjoying his box of sweets.

"I'm sorry, Trainer Majen, I just want her to have the first strike." Neven glared at her.

Yusari scoffed, and Neven slipped deeper into the stability of ice when she rushed at him with a spin-up of a wave. Quicker. Faster. Her magick tightened with determination and power, but he held himself stronger. Fire flared into his cheek when she slapped him across the face, and he loosened his grip on the glaive.

"I don't need your charity," she hissed.

Foam whispered.

"Charity?" Neven whispered, and glared at her. "And that's your idea of a first attack? Here. I'll demonstrate what a first attack should be." The tip of the ice touched the water, and the glyph exploded outwards. Someone shouted out her name, but Neven shook the world of water, and Yusari grunted when the explosive pulse pushed her closer to the edge of their fighting field. His heart pounded with the ferocity of his ancestors when he raced for his advantage while Yusari caught herself. Her scowl drove further into her oval face, and she raised her hands into a proper stance, and neven braced himself for a harder fight when she drove her hand forwards when he swung the training polearm.

Glyphs sparked and clashed, and she dodged out of one overhead swing after leaning out of his other strikes. Neven pushed himself off her attempt at a tripping glyph, and straightened himself out. Wind tickled at his feathers, the growl rising to a roar. "You know, that little wind attack was him going easy on us, and it is not my fault you couldn't see that," Neven said through his own hiss. "But if you think I'll do the same, you're mistaken. If this is what you want, I'll give it to you." He drove his glaive into the ice, and it spread out further on the malleable glass.

Crystals bounced off the foam, and Yusari glanced at them when they multiplied with the crash of the waves. Neven broke one with a swipe, and it released a layer of fog when Yusari ran for him. Glyphs of bright blues spun around her knuckles, but he brought his polearm up to smack at her thighs, she caught her own slip-up, and Neven dodged out of a jab. Salty spray splashed into his cheeks, but he burst another crystal, and the foam thickened. He sent his own thrust to her chest, but she side-stepped and grabbed it.

"About ancient's damned time you drop the haughty act, Lotayrin. You better not think about holding back — I want some action instead of pretentious words." Yusari snapped her wrist against the middle of the wood, and it broke with the precise strike. Neven ducked when she whipped the broken piece past his head with a huff. Neven sent his foot into the water, and Yusari grabbed his forearm when she stumbled. He grabbed another crystal into his palm, and broke it inches off her face. Released from her iron grip, he breathed deep into the wyvern's flames. It gathered closer as Yusari flipped onto her feet, waving at the mist with a grumbled word.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Neven hissed. Golden scales dug into his skin, into the same mirage which came forth when the Derelict hunted him. It struck pain, along with energized intensity. Icy glaives grew out of the foam, and he took one from the air and raced forward as she drew glyphs into the waves of his own.

Someone yelled out, "They're going to kill each other!"

Maybe it was Kemal.

He lunged when she aimed straight for his head with her own glyph, sharpening to a fine point. He swung the glaive over his shoulder, and broke through her shield with a two-point strike, using the momentum of his legs when she broke the shaft, but another one came around from the side, and Yusari growled and latched onto his hands. Her nails dug into his knuckles, but he glared at her through the mist. Crystals shattered, but before Neven could finish the fight and earn his victory, a huge wind glyph wrapped around both of them. Tendrils chained them and lifted them into the air.

Trainer Majen held his hands out, fists clenched. "That's enough, I think they got the message," he said, before lowering them onto the calming water. "Training day is over. I think it's best if you all go back up the mountain. Tyronai, come with me, I'll show you the short way."

Free of the wispy bonds, Neven rubbed his wrists.

He gasped when water smashed him in the face from Yusari's last lunge of her magick.

Great.

"Ovana! You are a Storm Warden Trainee, not some wanton fighter who's somehow still sore after they won a bout!"

Neven swirled his magick through the fog when she tugged strands of her hair back from her damp brow and she turned her back on him. It grew thicker, and he let it go. A grin formed on his face when Yusari screeched, drenched through her clothes.

The quick wind smack he got from Trainer Majen when he sent it his way sent him onto the surface of ice. His heart beat faster when he scrambled onto his feet.

"Enough," Trainer Majen said with firm finality, and Neven obeyed his senior without argument. "Get back up to the caldera and clean yourselves off. I want you all up early tomorrow, I'll be deciding your Unit Leader over the next couple days."

Neven rubbed his brow when he returned to shore, burning with purpose.