KEMAL

Another one.

Another desolate Elvkin town. Knots of crimson crawled up split tree trunks to reveal the pus-filled hollow within. It oozed through the flecked, black wood and down onto the stone barricades. Glass shards littered the vine-wrapped porches, the lichen limp to create loose fingers of nature, wilted and bitten at the ends. Doors torn off their hinges, large scratch marks tore through the road and crunched underneath his boot when he found the center. Runestones cracked on top of their oval gates, he kept his crescent blade at the ready. On one knee, Kemal dug his gloved hand into the dirt, a pile of it in his hands as he squeezed it.

Black-tainted crimson slipped between his fingers. It stuck when he tried to pry them apart and left strings between them. Always one step ahead of us, just like Neven said. He shook his hand off until the stringy crimson splattered against the cobbled stone path. Wood creaked, but he lifted himself straighter, grip tight on his crescent blade in preparation until he spotted familiar armor of another Warden who left the nearest house. Julis shook his head from the porch. "All the town records are soaked," he reported when he reached his side. "I couldn't sense any Obscura Texts, nor found any Oath necklaces from the missing Wardens. I think this is a dead-end, Kem."

"I guess they're done playing with us." Kemal slid the hook of his crescent blade through the dirt. "We're running out of time to pin this cult down." He looked over Julis' shoulder to the two armored horses they left outside the gates, their ears pinned backwards, their bodies stiff in their shared, instinctual uncertainty of what the shadows birthed. Boils popped in his stomach at the memory of Neven's shriek when magick scorched into his skin and left his throat instead. I don't even know if you're alright. He flicked his fingers once more, with feeling as he sent his undirtied hand into Julis' shoulder to tug him back to the horses, who let out quiet huffs at their approach. "Let's go back to Asairai, nothing we can do here if there's no Derelicts."

"Isn't it odd that no Derelicts stayed around to feed on the murk and dying magick in the air?" Julis questioned and mounted his horse, who lowered its head to sniff at the patches of red grass. "These towns would be perfect infestation grounds for them to spread and multiply... Infernal Hells, it would explain why villages and towns nearby disappear as well... but they've all been barren of anything save for the ones Captain Lotayrin was still here for, so the reason for vanishing doesn't add up."

Kemal hooked his fingers on either side of the saddle and traced the letters on the post of directions nearest them, with the largest plank which pointed at the desolate wasteland and gave it a name. Nystmel. "It is odd." In the saddle, he hooked his boots through the stirrups and wrapped the reins around his knuckles, nudging his horse to step back from the gate with its frustrated, nervous puff of breath, but it obeyed his noiseless command. "But without records, we can only guess how many Elvkin lived here by searching the house's top to bottom... and I'd rather not stay out here longer than I need to." He checked on Julis when his gaze wandered back over to the town. "Unless you're sensing something?"

"That's the thing," Julis whispered and nudged his horse forward to stand beside him. "I don't. I haven't sensed anything since we checked those ruins."

Nystmel. How far are we from Asairai? I'll have to check the map when we make it back. Kemal clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and urged his horse forward and out of its discomfort and onto the main road once more with Julis galloping behind him. Neven would strangle me, but we have to take some risks. Hoofbeats broke the quiet of the thick, deep woods and the shuddering canopy. Sun split through the white-tinted leaves. He twisted the reins to slow down his horse's sprint away from the area, and it shook its head, but complied. "Go ahead of me," he ordered Julis when he went to slow down as well, tossing him a couple magick flares and loading some of his own. "I don't think we'll be attacked on the road considering these attacks are happening within populated areas but better safe than sorry."

He kept his horse in place until Julis returned to his quick gallop into the distance, almost out of sight. His own horse crawled its way forward, ears flicking every which way with a prey's sense of instinctual nervousness. Its huffs rocked through his ears as he noted each post he passed which led to other disappeared villages — or ones which remained the closer he drew to Asairai, the call of the sea always in his heart and soul. Always home. I should send Stigan a letter, to make sure the other's aren't causing too much trouble. He never could round up the little ones... and he was made the Lord of Halace Islands... eesh. I hope the place hasn't gone up in flames. Or Surun saw another legendary sea serpent but it turned out to be a thick patch of seaweed. The youngest of the Tyronai siblings, Osha and Stigan, always sent him letters of varying subjects back home. They must be... Fenrer's age by now, maybe a little older. His horse evened out its unsteady breathing along with him when he let his thoughts drift the closer the sounds of the ocean came.

Maybe after this is all over I'll take my turn and make sure nothing exploded while I've been gone. I haven't seen them since I was sixteen... Ancients. He stuck his tongue out. I'm old, and Neven has the audacity to tell me I'm not even though the bastard lives into his two-hundreds. Neven's shriek broke his memories, and his horse sped up a bit at a distant, rocking sound of waves against a shore. I haven't even gotten any letters from Euros. If he's fine and just hasn't been sending any mail to anybody I'm going to have a long talk with him, or sick Yusari on him. A smile crawled on his face. That'll get his arse moving.

Asairai's high-pitched bells jolted him out of his thoughts. Julis dismounted his horse and allowed it to slip into the stables for care. Either way, we're going to figure this out. Kemal jumped off his horse mid-motion, where it joined its brethren inside to stuff its face full of hay. One more name to add to his thick notebook he brought with him to each town after Neven's departure to add to the gathered documents on cult activity in the underground bunker. He dismissed Julis with a handwave and a fist against his chest, to which Julis responded back in turn before rushing over to the Warden Lodge. Kayal is dead, and anything he knew died with him, but Yuven survived the Corruption, something thought impossible thanks to Maria's research, so... I won't say never until I get something to show for what Nev's been through here and over there.

Into the treehouse attachment which grew off to the side of the Lodge, he unlocked the door and slipped inside, placing his crescent blade on the front entranceway's weapon rack. He unlatched pieces of his armor off to put it aside, smoothing out his shirt before slipping his fingers through the rune which hid the basement from prying eyes. Back against the fake wall, it spun him around to the stairwell, and he took it downwards in comfort. It took him too long to sort through Neven's 'organized chaos' as his Oathbound called it, but he called it 'just a needless mess'. On either wall, a map of Elvkana and Orkaena, the two largest continents of Aztryxer.

He headed for the table below the Elvkana map to add a name among all the rest, each pile split between missing Wardens and barren towns of varying sizes and anything of note found within them, or not found. Ancients, this really does feel that this has no end. Kemal brought his hand down his nose as he flipped through the growing pile of papers of every town they failed to save from the abyss. But I don't want Nev to fall back into bad habits the moment he gets back. He let the if hang in the air when he trailed his gaze over to the lute Neven left in the corner to gather dust and go unplayed. As for the Obscura Text, I'm leaving that as our last resort and not our first go when we can't find anything.

Kemal tossed himself into Neven's seat and rested his elbow on the table, left in the quiet which his Oathbound once filled with music. He tugged a tome closer to him and flipped through the pages absentmindedly. Elvkana's Natural Magick Wonders. A description of the continent's multitudes of natural, untouched wonders full of primordial, crystalized magick. From great waterfalls to giant clusters of mountains, his finger traced each while his mind made a pathway on the map on the wall. With nothing left to do but wait for the next round of mail from Euros, he took the book and headed for the map. Heh... Ancients, even younger since I played this little game with Dad, listing every point of interest in Haneka.

It was a fun game for a sense of direction which Neven still lacked, but he kept his own sharp. Let's see. He took temporary tacks and quizzed himself without looking at the book as to the natural Elvkana wonders. Each one clipped onto the map with a flagged pin, and he took joy in learning from noiseless questions when he double checked the book and fixed his errors. Maybe I should have Neven do this. Maybe it'll keep him away from the Obscura Text by keeping him preoccupied and training his sense of direction outside of a blizzard.

He tacked the last flag onto the one which denoted the great mountain clusters, spewing out waterfalls in the pictures of a book. Work complete, he savored on his game, then went to pry the flagged pins off, but when he went to start backwards, his thumb grazed a name farther south from the cluster along the coast of the ocean. His heart jumped when he went to trace the lands around it, but he jumped at the sound of footsteps at the stairwell.

"Captain?" Aine's voice called. "Mail's here!"

Mail's here. Neven. He slammed the book closed and left the flags stuck in the map to crawl up the staircase. Back against the wall once more, he came back into the living room, and Aine looked in his direction when it clicked shut behind him. "Find anything on your rounds between the cove and the ruins?" he asked as he followed Aine out of the treehouse and towards the lodge once more.

"Nothing," they replied. "I'm guessing it's our turn to make rounds around the vanished villages?"

"Aye, but remember, don't go any further out," he instructed as they ascended the steps into the lodge. "We wait for reports to come to us this time around. We only have so many Wardens at this posting." He patted them on the back before heading into the mailhouse. He rushed straight for his small section and opened it. Unlike Neven, he kept his box free, able to tell which letters were recent. One sat within it, and he slipped it out. Icy trails of magick sealed it, and he slipped it open with his thumb. Relief filled the thick gaps of confusion from before at Neven's neat scrawl. He took a seat closeby and read through it for confirmation.

"Kem,

I know you must be concerned about my lack of correspondence lately. I assure you, I am hale and whole. I had to set up an Outpost with Maria which took up most of my time. Let me tell you, you are much better at logistics than I am. I will also be writing Yusari a letter before you get on my case.

I'm coming back with some new information on our cult.

I'll tell you when I arrive in a few weeks — it's too much to explain on paper and I can't risk this letter being intercepted or lost in transit. Yuven asked me if he and Fenrer can come to assist, but I fear I could not give them a straight answer.

Or more I didn't want to.

I've heard the spiel before, they knew what they walked into, they understand the risks. But after the risks we've seen taken, there's a part of me that wants to keep them far away from what we've stumbled into. Yuven himself suffered enough at the hands of cult activity in our very own home. Which I'll have to tell you about as it pertains to the newfound information I have.

Nonetheless, I'm sure you'll have much to say when I come. Warden-Commander Faehariel will also be sending some reinforcements with me. It won't be much due to the situation at the Burning Abyss, but it'll have to be enough until after that operation.

You've missed a lot, Kemal. I hope you've been having luck on your end of things, and that you've taken caution where it is due."

His Navei scrawl quaked with terror, and Kemal stood over him in the abyss while tears soaked Neven's face and his vertical slits of pupils met him through a starry connection between their souls, pleading for release before Kemal dropped the weight of the world onto it.

Oh, we'll have a talk. I want to know what the Infernal Hells happened to you.

His questions soaked a map in a child's game.