YUVEN

Miesero... Molvisaliz... Knees wet with mire and plague, he held Neven tight against his chest as the crimson-soaked wolfpin glinted in the faded light. His boots squelched with an ominous echo when Fenrer spoke out his relentless conviction, and all at once, the Avaerilians parted for his doomsong, at his command and powerful presence where Blackwall failed to compare. Fenrer lowered his arms with a steady, assured breath to overwhelm Neven's scattered, sharp ones with his nose in his hand. Maria's touch brought him back to reality, a snap of truth as her golden hair barely covered her ears, the ends frayed. Words of deliverance cried out from the crowd and set his heart on fire, unable to hear any other song but the one of a home he cared nothing for.

But he does... Yuven dropped his gaze to Neven as their pleas intensified and Fenrer turned in slow motion to him. Darkness dripped off his brow and slid down his cheekbones when he looked down on him while the mob raised his pedestal high above the splashed statue of Evyriaz, his wings raised for escape. It lodged into his lungs when the noise died. Lights lit up the palace windows, a damning edict of his bloodline's folly. You're all fools! Every one of you! He screamed out in silence, but his voice created no words. I am... His grip slacked on Neven's patchy garb. I am one person, and yet... you.

Fenrer Pyren split the crimson with nothing but his words and the swirling curse in his irides, which gave him power few had; feared and longed for in equal measure.

Maria's fingertips brushed against his cheek with her other hand on top of Neven's head, whose wheat-spun feathers clumped and froze over. "Yuven, we have to make a decision, there's Dere—."

Agony ripped through the crowd in desperate, depraved want. "Leave," he rasped to get away from all the endless noise and Fenrer Pyren's expression of resolve. "We leave, right this instant with them out of the way!" Ice slid through his throat when he hauled Neven to his knees, with his head lolled against his shoulder. "Get him out of here, godsdamnit! I can't carry him!" he snapped to Fenrer over the cries of the crowd, from his pedestal up high, and the wolf-pin sparkled silver instead when Fenrer tucked into his shoulders. And I will not kneel... ever again. Never! Understand me? He nodded to the other Warden. "Leave! We're leaving!" he barked out the worthless command and got off his knees so Fenrer would stop casting his judgment on his shoulders to push Neven into his much stronger arms. Tix'snuv came forward to bump his beak into his temple, but he jolted as Fenrer laid Neven on the saddle, but it had to be enough. He had to be enough. Yuven clicked his tongue and the three hippogryphs descended, wings outstretched to push the crowd further.

Look at what prayers did! Look at what doing nothing did! Frustration drove his fangs into his lips and made them bleed as he ripped out the Redirector as Fenrer led them to the Umbral Gate of Volaris. Energy poured through his fingertips when he broke the one-way ticket apart, tossing it into the circular runes as he faced the palace once more, pushing Tix'snuv ahead who carried his family, Maria hesitated beside him. "Yuven, there's—"

"I just want to go. I just want out of here." I hate it here. I wish this place would disappear and leave me and everyone I love alone! He choked on his plea, and Maria frowned before rushing to Neven's side. Mist swirled around them while the Avaerilians shouted and pleaded, but he slammed his hands against his ears and prayed for silence, for the final end of their doomsong. He drove his fingertips in his ears as the palace remained, a whisper of lights and broken foundations falling apart into snow and ice. It left only a throne and a crown of bloody pearls. It dripped against his boots, and he choked with the stop of the Volcano's Path the moment their feet went from white cobble to marble tiles. Hippogryphs rattled, free as the ones without burdens trotted to the pasture, but Tix'snuv remained resolute, with Neven across his back.

"Get me a litter!" Maria snapped to the Wardens by the western entrance closest to the Infirmary. Her voice remained strong, though Yuven choked at the tremble to her once steady frame. Yuven bared his fangs when Fenrer moved, but his Oathbound tugged Neven off the saddle gently, hooking his arms underneath his as he settled him on the grass.

"Miso." Yuven lunged for him when his head lolled with his breath, resisting the urge to swat Fenrer aside when he was all that kept Neven from complete collapse into the dirt to be buried. "You are home now. You're safe now." Stay awake. He pressed his fingers into his cold, iced over feathers and choked on a childish chirp. In response to the vocalization, Neven lifted his head with a confused hiss through his nose, blinking rapid-fire. "It's over. It's over, you're not there anymore." Never again... they can choke on their ice for all I care. "You're not." He bounced his brow off his. "I'm so sorry..."

"Hofva...? Yuven?" Neven raised his fingers to his face. "Are you well?"

Look at what they did to you! Yuven drove his fingers into his gaunt shoulders before raising them to his face. "It's over." They won't hurt you, or Maria, or anyone... again. He flicked a feather at Fenrer when he leaned forward with a word on his lips, but he slowed to a stop when Yuven huffed at him when Neven's hand slipped off his face. "Just get him into the litter. He's weakened and we can't waste more time." On his feet, he got out of the way for the Healers to gather the sickly Warden, and he found himself returning the cruel favor Fenrer gave him earlier, looking down on him as he sat on the grass, leaning back on his arms as he widened his eyes with a soft, confused breath of panic. "Good thing one of us acted, right?" Crowds parted at the command of a single man, and he drove his heel into the dirt as Fenrer got up, his hands raised as if to make him move as well.

"Fenrer," Maria snapped. "I may need your help with him. He's got a lot of damage that I may need you to go into his aura for." Her hand touched Neven's brow. "Nev?"

"Huh...?"

Fenrer approached his side and squeezed his shoulder. "Are you okay with me going into your mind to soothe you?"

Neven answered with a confused hum, and a slow nod. "Of course, I trust you, Little Wolf."

Bristles swept up his spine when Fenrer touched his brow as well and his eyes swirled into dark tunnels of jade, then nodded at Maria. "Okay, once you have him settled I'll be able to do what I can," he said, the seconds of panic long gone, but he continued to choke on it instead with his Oathbound free of its claws.

"He doesn't need Aurus magick," Yuven rasped.

"Yes, he does," Maria assured. "Look, Yuven, it's a lot to explain but they did something to him that I can't fix on the surface. Get him into the ward," she swung her order to the ones who carried the litter — and at that exact moment, Adara came out of the main entrance with books in her hands, and she slowed to a stop at the sight of them. Everything fell apart when she approached with a question on her lips, but Fenrer gave her a gentle wave of his hand, but Yuven elbowed him out of his way to grab Neven's shoulder instead.

"Have her wait outside the Infirmary," he barked, and Fenrer flinched. "Let's go."

"But—"

"I am not about to argue with you more, Fenrer, it's a waste of my time." Yuven gripped onto the litter and followed the directions of Maria once they entered.

Down into the private rooms, they opened a door to place the litter on the bed, pushing Neven onto it as Maria rifled through tools and her alchemy station. "Exhausted. Malnourished. Magick burnout," Maria got into her usual, familiar tempo, and it brought a sense of peace in his heart, but it drowned when Neven remained unresponsive. "We need to set him up on an essence feeder until we can feed him regular food, but the main problem is his magick nerves are completely off-balance and where is Fenrer?" Her hand slapped the table and scattered pencils off the patient ledger.

"Probably busy with Adara," Yuven grumbled.

"... I'm not."

Fenrer's voice sent a shockwave of Blackwall's echo up his spine. "Oh, good," he hissed.

Fenrer stared at him with a wide-eyed frown, then shuffled up to Neven. "Okay, what do you plan to do in the meantime?"

"I'm going to be checking over his vitals and making sure nothing's broken, fractured, or torn," Maria rattled off as she cut into his clothes to reveal his thin frame, his rib-cage visible. "If you sense any pain... stifle it. Can you do that?"

"Yeah." Fenrer twisted over to the head of the bed with one last look at Yuven. It lasted too long, so he rattled his feathers at his wasteful Oathbound. His fingers slipped between the wheat-spun feathers and touched Neven's temple. Black orbs danced on the edges of his vision, and he drove his fangs into his teeth and placed his back against the wall as Fenrer took in a breath, and started. It swirled with green tendrils, lashing and striking at his memories. Fingers in his arm, he tapped his foot as Maria got to work with the essence. Blood filled a capsule, and Maria put it into a holder by her alchemy station before slowly feeding Neven the phial of essence.

"Okay, that should give him some energy to work with." Maria ran her hands down his body.

"What did they do?" Yuven asked with Fenrer's entry into Neven's head.

Maria remained quiet and sent a blanket of flames over Neven's chest, sliding the glyphs under his skin. "He'll need to be slowly warmed up," she said to another Healer. "Get me a fresh batch of magmatic stones and we'll place them inside the mattress." Yuven took a step forward when neven cringed with a soft pant, his eyes moving rapidly behind the lids.

"Maria..." Yuven swung his attention to Fenrer, whose brow furrowed.

Icy wisps fluttered out of Neven's skin, and in an instant, Fenrer stumbled out of Neven's reach with a soft, pained gasp, and Yuven rushed forward to take control the moment Neven's squirms turned violent. "No!" He drove his hands onto his shoulders and threw all of his spatial distortion to leave them in silence as he covered Neven's mouth. Tears full of white embers tore down his cheeks as Neven writhed with a stifled sob. "No. It is over. It is over and whatever you found, it doesn't matter." Yuven winced when Neven drove his fangs into his sleeve. "I'm free. I'm free because of you. I am here. I am alive. I owe you so much, Miso." If Fenrer can't even do that much for you, I will. He brushed his hand through his hair to try and reassure him. "Home. Home, you are home, it's okay now."

They did not deserve your faith.

"Derelicts—" Neven managed out, but Yuven pressed his arm deeper to silence him.

"No. They have rejected our help so many times. Look at what they've done to you, to us." Yuven bit down his own sob. "If they're so content with their lot... content to trust in the blizzard to prevent the Derelicts, then let them. We have our base in Irimount. It is over. Understand?"

Neven gave a strangled nod.

"Good." Yuven released him and the bubble, twisting to Fenrer. "Next time, do a better job. You're supposed to be one of the most powerful Aurus in existence."

"I did, but—"

"But what?" Yuven snapped.

"He pushed me out," Fenrer explained. "He pushed me out, once that happened it'd be against the law for me to go back in—"

"As if that stopped Aurus before!" Yuven bit and stomped out of the Infirmary, with his last look sent towards Maria, who was too focused on mixing a tincture. Out of the doors and his uselessness, he met Adara outside and slammed the large doors shut. "I'm done training you, Adara. I have nothing else to give you since you and Fenrer seem so content to—" He flinched when she swung her foot forward right into her shin.

"I am not at fault for this!" she argued. "I don't even know what happened!"

"The exact same thing that happened last time," he said as she went to walk out of his argument. "Naveera dragging everyone down with them into their frozen hells. Neven and Maria were prisoners, they were torturing him!" Yuven swung his arms out and refused to cry in front of her. "Probably with an Aurus if Maria felt the need to ask Fenrer to do something, as if that'll make things better!"

"Yuven, listen to yourself—"

"No, I can hear myself just fine," he said and stomped closer to her. "Do you see what I mean, now? People don't get that Derelicts are the biggest problem, they would rather make each other suffer, the very thing Derelicts feed on. Despair. Magick. It attracts them and Naveera is built upon those very foundations." He shook his head at her. "People don't learn, Adara. That's what lets an Aurus be able to do what Blackwall did to me — use anything and everything to get what they want! Use their emotions, the things they care about. Neven had information on me, and that's what they wanted. Maybe they had to rip it out of him, but of course, the only way to fix that is with more of the same."

Adara widened her eyes, her mouth open and soundless, but Yuven zipped his hand through the air to silence her before it began, and tears grew in her eyes when she flicked them to the side. "No. I'm not going to let you start. At what point does this stop?" he pleaded. "At what point must he stop suffering and have to rely on the very thing that more than likely hurt him? Because that's all those powers do in the end, steal away someone's dignity and peace of mind. Show the worst parts of ourselves just to add an insult to the injury within the mind. It didn't even matter, Fenrer couldn't do anything. So much for all that power..." Yuven scowled when she waved her hands. "What? I am not in the mood to play charades."

Adara looked sick to her stomach when she brought her hands up to her mouth.

Air whispered over his feathers, a flicker of morning embers.

His fury died with his outburst, and he ran straight into a wall when he turned.

Fenrer let go of a small wisp of muffled magick which split a veil between Adara and Yuven. His hand dropped to his side, loose and limp.

The black orbs faded away, long gone to another dark memory. Senses swallowed, he finally tasted his own words in a single moment. "Fenrer—"

People don't learn, Blackwall mocked.

His fingers slipped out of his, but he was the jaws of the sea.

Fenrer released a soft, quiet noise through his half-parted lips.

"Fen—"

One step back.

"Fen, wait—"

Off the support of the standing stone, Fenrer stepped away from him, hand withdrawn.

"Molvisaliz—"

It snapped shut. Stars shuddered. Fenrer disappeared into the dark with a quick stride and ignored his call.

Molvi... Gods... what am I doing? Bile lodged into his nose when he turned back to Adara, and comprehended her warning, silenced by Fenrer as she stared at him, speechless.

"I don't need to do anything, Traye," Blackwall said as he held out the crimson soaked pin.

You'll do it yourself.