NEVEN

"Wake up... Wake up!"

Noise hushed into his ears and slipped through his feathers when something shook his shoulder in vigorous motions. Whimpers and cries carried on the faint, stale air of the cave. Dust tickled across his cheeks, and he lifted his hand to wipe it away and the sobs went quiet. On his knees, he frowned at the jagged jadeite teeth letting go of the broken wood planks. Pain swept a circle around his skull, and he brought a hand up to the throb as his fangs slipped forward, but movement at his side made him turn.

"Why?" he cried. "Why do that?"

Neven slid his fangs back where they belonged. He raked his fingers through his hair to find the wound, but the world spun every time he came closer to the sore spot. "Are you two alright?" He studied Yuven, whose face was smeared with dirt, then lifted it to Fenrer. "Fenrer...?"

Fenrer dug his fingers into his cheeks and vibrated in terror immovable. Tears carved through the dirt on his cheeks. Short, pained breaths left the young child's throat, and Neven hauled himself out of the debris. "Oh... Little Wolf. It is okay." He kicked off the planks and tugged Yuven along to reach the frozen Hanekan. "Look at me." Arms outstretched, he smiled when Fenrer burrowed into him. "I am sorry for scaring you two as I have."

His surprise heightened when Yuven echoed Fenrer's motion, pressing his cheek into his shoulder. Two children latched onto him, and he wracked his brain for his next action, but acted on instinct to wrap his arms around them both with a soft chuckle. "And this is why I don't rock climb." He patted the tops of their heads. "I'm okay, just hit my head a little too hard..." His bones complained when he shifted. "And all of me." On his feet once more, he pulled them to theirs and guided them through the dark. It took far too long for the system to bathe in light, and Neven tasted moisture on his tongue. Veils of lichen blocked a shattered door, and he pushed the way through to the gentle touch of rain. "Excellent. Stick close, I can find my way from here."

"But you're hurt..." Fenrer whimpered and strangled his arm.

"I'm okay," he assured when Yuven's lower lip quivered. "Let's just get you two out of here."

Lamps lit the way over the mudcaked marble staircase and cast shadows upon the monuments.

"Nev!"

Kemal.

Magelight in hand, Kemal glared down at them from the top of the steps. "Ancients," he hissed, reaching out to tug all three of them to a flat area. "Do I even want to know?"

"I know you will—" Neven went to clap him on the shoulder and explain himself and what he agreed to do, but the motion sent a wave of nausea and dizziness through his world, and he found himself clinging onto Kemal instead. Unable to gather the energy to care about propriety and appearances, he had grown too used to the affectionate ways of non-Naveerans. Over Kemal's shoulder, Warden-Commander Faehariel raced for them. "I found them..." He adjusted himself to stand beside Kemal, resting his hand over his eyes to stop the queasy sensation. "Opened up an old tunnel..."

"I understand, Lotayrin," Faehariel said. "Tyronai, you should take him to the infirmary. I'll come talk to you after I've talked to Fenrer and Yuven."

"Sure." Kemal glared at him. "Yuo is going to have so much fun with you."

Darkness ebbed through his sight as Kemal half-dragged, half-carried him to the western entrance of the citadel where the Aurus quarters and healing ward sat. "You've lost a couple marbles, you know that?" Kemal complained in his ear, though his voice came in and out of focus. "First, Warden-Commander Faehariel made mention you've become a Guardian when last I recall you had no experience with children, let alone traumatized ones. Second, I see you climb a rock face in cold, damp weather?" Frustrated concern dripped through his Islander accent. "Dare I ask what was running through your mind?"

"Good to know I don't need to start from the beginning." Knees bent, he pushed himself with Kemal's help into the infirmary, where Yuo looked up from the main alchemy station with a quirked eyebrow. Voices mixed with the rain pattering against the window, and he found himself in a prone position in the comfort and safety of a bed. He flinched when Yuo's hand pushed through his hair, his friend's magick twisting against his bones and searched for a break. "Ow..."

"Relax, Nev," Yuo mumbled and sorted through a thick bag. "Your skull isn't fractured, but I need you to stay awake..."

Distant.

"Awake," Kemal barked, much louder than Yuo, and Neven tore open his eyes to study his Oathbound, who folded his arms. "You think I'm going to let you get away from explaining what exactly in the Infernal Hells is going on?" He hummed out a decline, then pointed at him. "I am going to make sure you know what you've gotten yourself into as someone with five other siblings, two of them younger than I. Maybe that will keep you awake."

"Why do I need to stay awake...?"

"You're concussed," Yuo said in a firm, matter-of-fact tone. "You're to stay here for a full day so I can keep an eye on you and for any possible changes." He set the doctor's bag underneath his bed.

Kemal grumbled in Hanekan beside him, jaw jutting out in irritation. Neven settled his shoulders against the pillows, but found his thoughts scattered to the northern winds of Irimount when they roared over the peaks of the mountain and wrapped around the cradle. "I signed a document to become Yuven and Fenrer's Guardian," he stated the truth. "They need someone, Kemal. I know I have no experience." Tears crawled down his cheeks, the pain mixed within them burnt his tongue. "But I can't ignore what my song is screaming out to me. I want to do this, whether you approve of it or not."

A deep sigh left Kemal's nose. "I'm not that much of an ass, Nev. I know I can't stop you. Ancient's know you're stubborn." He canted his gaze to Yuo, who frowned at him. "I guess this means I'll have to go look at that house Warden-Commander Faehariel mentioned... make sure it can take the mischief of two children well enough." He hauled himself to his feet and shook his head at him. "I still think you've lost a couple of your marbles though, never thought you of all people would climb up a mountain without any protective gear at all."

"They were in danger..."

Kemal frowned. "I know... we'll have to make sure that path can't be accessed until the stonemasons can either fix it or magick can return it to its natural state." He rubbed the back of his head, tugging at his wolf tail where a metal pin kept it in place. "I'll be right back, Yuo." Kemal left his bedside without another word, disappearing through the double dark-oak doors which protected the infirmary from the outside corridor. Neven frowned at the empty, numb expression on his Oathbound's face the moment he turned, but he was long gone before he could press him for his thoughts.

"I can't sleep?" Neven questioned.

"Not until I give you the complete all-clear, then you can sleep to your heart's content." Yuo motioned for him to sit up in the pillows and pushed a thick liquid with a slimy texture into his hands. "You're going to love this."

"Ah, is that sarcasm?"

"Yes."

Neven brought it to his lips, and gagged at the tasteless goo when it slid down his throat with ease. Fangs out, he tucked his tongue between them and coughed with the phial taken out of his hands. Back against the bed, his head rang and he tried to push through the intensifying waves of constant dull throbs. A groan left his lips when the world sharpened, and Yuo brought a beam of light to his eyes. He winced away from it, and Yuo drained out the runelight with a huff without explanation to pierce his eyeballs with further pain. "How long am I to stay here?"

"For as long as I feel you need to," Yuo sent back at him.

Neven scowled, but Yuo had turned his back on his reluctance. "Yuo? Can I ask you something about Yuven? Well... him and his health problems? I will need to deal with it when he comes to stay with me."

"Certainly," Yuo said with an odd sense of caution and picked up a thick, leatherbound notebook.

"Can you... explain the important details to me?"

Yuo lifted his head, shoulders sagged. He twisted around to him to place the notebook on his bedstand. "You'll have to be aware that he has expulsion flashes..." he said, flipping open the pages. "They're triggered by the active Derelict core latched onto his soul, spreading taint through his magick. I've yet to create medicine to control them with any sort of consistency... and I will warn you they aren't pleasant and are quite messy." Yuo took Kemal's seat and flipped open to the first pages. "It's important that you take a couple steps should they happen and know what it looks like. His magick will lash out and cause him to seize and convulse, so here's what you do; one, you are to make sure Yuven is in a stable place, ideally on his side so he doesn't choke with his head supported. Two, you have to keep track of how long the flash lasts. His flashes recently have lasted about thirty seconds, but they used to last minutes." Another pageflip, and his head pulsed with the information. "Otherwise, it's a waiting game."

Neven stared at him.

"I will reiterate this with you when you are less concussed," Yuo said. "I will also be sure to tell Kemal this when he returns to check on you."

"Thank you."

Yuo snapped the leatherbound notebook closed. "I will be writing out Yuven's diet plan for you. You are to follow it strictly with no variation unless I give the all-clear for it. Yuven's flashes are right now too easily triggered by any slight change. His health and comfort come before anything else, even if he complains about it. He cannot, under any circumstances, have spices with his meals. His meat must be cooked all the way through."

"Tasteless..."

"Anything else will cause his sense of taste to act as if he is eating rot," Yuo said. "Which goes into my next point. He is to have essence laced with stardust every morning and every night. I have been told the taste is quite unpleasant, but it should suppress his sense of taste for meals and keep his appetite at a comfortable level. Are you still following?"

"Yes..."

"We can discuss the rest when you are not jiggled out of your thoughts." Yuo got out of the chair, but left the leatherbound notebook behind.

"I got it..."

Yuo stared at him. "We'll see when you're actually put to the proof of what you've gotten yourself into," he pointed out. "I am warning you, Nev... most would crack under this pressure and seeing what you might see."

"You have so little faith in me."

Yuo frowned. "You weren't there when he first came in. This isn't killing a Derelict, Nev. I'd argue this is much worse."

"I am aware. Warden-Commander Faehariel already gave me plenty of forewarnings, but I am not backing down from this."

Lips folded inward, Yuo sighed and waved his hand at him. "Then all I can do then is do my job. You'll see in time." He returned to the main alchemy station, and Neven found himself stuck in the silence, not allowed to sleep until Kemal returned — with Fenrer and Yuven.

"You want to say something to them?" Kemal pressed and nudged Fenrer forward, though Yuven dodged the nudge by shimmering out of existence. He kept his gaze trained on the window, his little arms wrapped around himself as he scowled. "Something they should know before we get started?"

Neven frowned when Fenrer climbed up into the seat, but Yuven glared at him from where he stood. He used the pillow to sit up, then whispered, "From this moment forward... I'm your Guardian. You are under my care, my responsibility." After all, Kemal didn't sign up for this, I did... in the end, this is me. Fenrer beamed, but he frowned when Yuven's scowl twisted into something bitter. "We already have a place. We'll head down together when I'm well enough and we can get to know each other better."

Yuven huffed. "You can't make me. I like the garden," he spat in broken Navei bells, revealing the truth he hid behind a cold exterior. "I will stay up there."

"Yuven." He reached out.

He slunk out of his reach, brow furrowed in vicious distrust across vast oceans of pain. "No," he snapped. "You'll just melt or leave like all the rest. I'm staying in the garden and you can take Fenrer and take care of him! I'm your enemy, I'll always be your enemy. The red-eyed shadows won't leave me!" He waved his arms with a soft whimper, then burst into the same snow particles of before, a hush of tormented innocence when Kemal and Fenrer stared at the space he once occupied.

He likes you, Warden-Commander Faehariel assured him, but the distaste became clearer after his ascent into the sky.

I hope that's true... Neven drew his hand back. Because I want him to trust me... but I don't know how to do that. Pain swept through his dull emotions, and he sank back into the bed, where the two Hanekan's studied at him with a mix of concern and a layer of weariness. We're two Avaerilian's, far from home, and he's been hurt enough by this world... by people.

"We'll see what we can do," Kemal replied in answer to his worries. "Come on, Fenrer, me and you are going to have a little chat."

"Oh... okay." Fenrer reached out to pat his forearm, and Neven smiled at him. "Feel better, Neven. I'll convince Yuven you won't hurt him like the pale shadows have."

Pale... shadows?