MARIA

Tangles of gold sat past her shoulders as the clang of drums sounded from the bright building through the thick sprawl of stone houses with arching roofs. Carriages batted the cobbled streets when they rolled inside, past the platform in the center of the city. Where's Neven? Maria tossed her head to try and get the pale, unkempt strands out of her face, allowing a plume of steam to leave her nose to warm up her lungs. Shadows flitted across the bars across the windows, ignoring her presence and savoring in cold inequity. Her wrists tensed against the metal and runes kept her magick at bay from full release. Flames tickled the tips of her fingers, but no further when she drew them back into her palms as the steam turned into wet mists of exhaustion. One more phantom, she sat back against the stone and imagined Yuven's warm arms instead. In the safety of their bed and wrapped in each other's burning love and newfound hope of a future.

His soft hum in her ears battled against the chorus in the distant opera house, the natural instinct to sing, dance and listen all at once. It rumbled against her collarbone when he lost himself in his innate desires, when he let go of his scrambled thoughts and let himself simply be. Air caught in her chest, and in the silence, she took the chance to brush her hands down her own arms to stop at the ridges of her nails, cracked and tight against the beds before testing her skin's turgor, and watched it slowly right itself back into place. Onto her temples, she brushed circles around them before following the ridge of her cheekbones, then down to drum against her own ribcage to rest on her abdomen. Knuckles against her brow, she tasted her own flames when they fluttered over her eyes.

Mild dehydration, a little malnourished... though that's to be expected. Maria wiggled her toes and fingers and tested for frostbite on her vulnerable extremities. I'm more worried about freezing to death, if anything. Arm against her brow, she sunk deeper against the pale stones and counted the cracks in the ceiling for something to occupy her mind. Her hands fidgeted for work, adjusting phials and cutting herbs, crushing them into paste. Clangs snapped her out of her doze, and she forced herself into a sitting position at the approaching group of shadows.

Two Sentinels held up Neven between them, whose legs dragged behind him as soft puffs of mist escaped his nose against his ashen pallor. "What did you do to him?" she snapped when the Loyalist came into view to unlock the cell, and they tossed him inside with no sense of gentle intent. "Nev." Maria returned her attention to her fellow Warden, and froze when Navei broke the music outside.

"You're in luck, Hanekan," the Loyalist said, cold and unyielding when she tried to inch her way to Neven, too far out of reach. "I hope you can appreciate Lotayrin's devotion. This is where it got him. You will be released tomorrow when we bring him out to meet his judgment. You'll find sanctuary near the gates out into the Frozen Wastes — but you're not welcome here anymore." He twisted over to Neven, then sent a quick kick into his ribcage.

"Haven't you hurt him enough?" Maria bit. "He is a sick, injured man and he is your prisoner! The most you could do is have the common decency to let me check him over!"

"You think we're stupid? We unlock your chains, you will attack us the first chance you get — as is your kind's wont." The Traye Loyalist snubbed her. "I advise you to hold your tongue for his benefit. He sacrificed himself for you. What a waste of his name and pride." He closed the cell behind him, and the trio left her in the darkness of ice with Neven, who remained unresponsive as his tattered blonde locks waved with the howl outside.

Obscura Hells. Maria pushed her wrists against her chains, but it snipped at her and opened bits of her skin to make her bleed with the pressure. "Neven?" Childish terror cracked her voice when she tugged against the pain. Her fingers wrapped around the chains and tried to muster her strength to break them, but her body failed her when she needed it the most. Come on! A sob tore through her ribs when it peeled at her bones, and she stumbled to the ground to crack her knees. Hands outstretched, she tried to form glyphs, but they scattered with the wind when she pressed her chest against the stone to ground herself closer to the world. Tears slipped over her lips when she wriggled, writhed to no avail. Clumps of long golds caught in the corners, and she hissed through her teeth when she broke them off, leaving pale strands in the cuffs.

Maria supped on her own tears. "Yuven..." she sobbed, resting her brow against the cuffs and the music tapered off against soft piano keys echoing through the streets. Mom's voice disappeared with all the rest, though her hand continued to brush back her hair with the soft touch of snow, the soft lullaby of sleep escaping her as she fought harder. Endless. Relentless.

I am a sword in the darkness! I am a shield against the obscurity of the inferno!

Her bones screamed when the manacles dug deeper and the runes burned.

For as long as the abyss seeks to claim this world, I will stand strong! I shall face the abyss, no matter the cost! It inched across her knuckles, and her strength waned into her heart instead. No victory without sacrifice! I will stay vigilant when all falls into the Echo Obscura! Never shall I turn away!

A scream shattered the oath, and it didn't come from her own throat. Maria allowed her own tears to fall silent to listen to the predatory quiet. The piano keys stilled into a stifled pressure in the air, and she stuck her tongue out to taste it. Cold. Maria relaxed the tension in her arms to shift herself towards the thin windows allowing them a view of the pale streets and connected guardhouses. Venom spiked in her blood, and she stilled at the familiarity — and the double-edged sword when shadows grew within the windows when minutes of life passed her by.

Black ooze dripped between the bars and turned them rustic red with a single touch. Mold danced with the decay of carrion when it swirled into her nose and she went still at the beady, empty crimson orb which peeked around the corner with a guttural, quiet groan. Bile rose into her nose when stringy sinew caught between its teeth when it chewed its own tongue. Its shadow bones broke and reformed when its tendrils swirled around the bars rusting away into nothing.

"...oh, will we ever be free...?" a haunting, held note echoed from the opera house.

No! Maria swung her attention to Neven when the orbs moved along its body to zone in on the easier prey. It let out a rumbled hiss and squeezed itself through the rusted bars. It flaked to nothing and clanged to release flurries and the same echoed note faltering on its wispy tails. Hairy appendages wrapped around the icicles which made up its spine, and cracked each one as the sole flame above her head turned crimson with a breath.

"... free from the ancient fear...?'

The world was cruel indeed, to send a Derelict to them. Maria swung herself around as it slid itself across the floor as appendages grew out of its body and its pace picked up. Shit! Maria tried to grasp for anything, be it a pebble or the torch. Hesitation cracked her throat when it closed in on the bars. Pale remnants of her hair remained in the cuffs, burning bright.

"... set free from this torment..."

Maria balled up her hair, then pushed her magick through her hands to create not fire, but Yuven's ice into a blade of freedom. It pushed against the clumps, and as the Derelict dragged itself across the stones with half its body, the seams tore and broke about golden waves. Twisted around the very chains which sought to keep her from her oath, she drove her finger across the sharpest stone to cast bubbles of life down her thumb. Against her feet, she let it stain the golden chains, frayed at the ends as the Derelict screamed with spittles of sinew and coiled itself to strike.

Flames seared and melted, and she screamed along with it as the metal shimmered at the volcanic pressure. Her fingers crushed together, but she refused to break her oath. It sent an echoing clang to rise with the voice outside, and as the Derelict slipped through the bars, she sent the ball of flames from her feet instead to slam it down into the ground. In front of Neven's unconscious shape, she scrambled to her feet and faced down the beasts underneath the bed.

Its spiny icicles tightened and cracked as it unhinged its jaw with a snarl, twisting its mandibles with a snap.

Fuck, I don't have my crescent blade! Maria sent her own bundles of snakes for Neven, wrapping them around the air to protect him from what was to come. Fists up, she rolled out her shoulders. Hit it enough times though, maybe I can force it into reformation— Maria twisted around when it spat out a bulb, which stuck to the flames and doused the light.

"... find me upon this field of bloodied wheat, a scythe against the slaughter..."

Hunger. Depravity. Relentlessness.

Maria threw out her leg to send a whip of flames towards it, cracking some of its teeth when it was sent back into the bars. Ice dripped to the ground, full of sinew and slipping into the cracks, the first hint of reformation. To live, or to die, she kept up her attack with her weakened flames to try and open it to its core, to threaten something which knew no death. It burned with her spilt blood as glyphs pulsed out the rivers of flames when she grounded herself and released it from the focal points to try and burn it away.

"Depraved apathy... reprobate being..." a deeper, yet no less softer song joined the higher one. "Forever shall we dance... an endless cycle..."

The broken skin around her wrists burned, but she flicked a fire glyph into its face when it made to jump at her, claws outstretched. Through its smoke, she tackled it, drawing upon the strength of giants to shove its body into the wall with a scream of her own. Her fingers dug into its formless shape, and sucked at her magick, but she threw all her might downwards to slam it into the floor instead. Steam wrapped around its body as it screeched, its tongue whipping outwards with its own teeth. It missed her neck by an inch, stealing her breath away as she jumped back.

"... but I am the blizzard..."

Born of the greatest wyverns...

"... Of this rattled song..."

In the smallest flower...

Maria slipped to her knees when her blood magick stole the rest, and mist expelled out of her nose when it released itself from its burnt chains. Its attention trained onto her, and it cracked its jaw once more to swallow her whole .

"For thus, I shall give my all!"

The suspended, long note carried on a burst of a golden glaive which cleaved the Derelict from its leap. It burst, not into golden stars, but a sudden spray of red which gasped into shadow ash. Maria scrambled back until she hit the wall, and swung her attention down the shaft of the beautiful glaive made of ice.

Neven stood there, pupils thin beads as he released plumes of icy smoke through his nose and his lips, his fangs extended. His fingers loosened around the glaive, and it clattered and burst into snow to mix with the ash. Maria found her strength to catch him when he sank to his knees. "Neven..." Maria held him close, checking over his ashen features. If... there's a Derelict in the city... Maria tugged her feet back when the sprinkles of black ash skittered to join the spiders in the corners. Maria ran her flames over him, but she widened her eyes at the lack of response from his flow. "Gods... what did they do to you?"

The song long ended with the dance, and she bit on her tongue in the endless cold.

Every voice faltered out with the forlorn notes, and no one else screamed again.