FENRER

"Are you certain, Fenrer?"

Ineha and Yusari loomed by the window of the office and the fatal report was written down in his penmanship. "It was unmistakable," he replied to Yusari's question. "It would explain the shifts within the environment you and yours have been getting out on your patrol routes." Arms folded against his chest, he chewed on the inside of his cheek. "I broke the blood circle, but from its condition, it had been there for quite some time — but it had to be sometime after Yuven's clearing of the place." Yuven wouldn't miss something like that. "That's the timeframe I can give. As for the phantasm in the well, it went without a fight... I think it was waiting for someone to come find it, but there had been no bitterness to make it a wraith, but I could not discern the identity of its soul at the moment." A bell clinked in his hands, a child cried for their lost pet and he suffered for his magick empathy. Yuven was always better at these things than I...

"So, we have possible sacrificial rituals happening right under our noses — the Elder Convocation's noses too," Yusari mumbled. "Too gungho about an Anima they can't be bothered to check their own houses." His report slipped into her fingers with a hush of wind, and she read it over once more. "We can't risk this being a one-off event, not with the state of the Burning Abyss and the Storm Spires. Thank you for your assistance, Warden Pyren." Hands on her knees, she bowed deep, and Ineha followed the motion. "I will be sending out Wardens to search recently dispatched infestations, or places of likelihood to search for any of these same signs of blood rituals. We're close to the Feast of Amphithere's. People will be out and about celebrating the halfway point of the Turn, and all those emotions and shows of magick are sure to attract Derelicts on the outer rims of the city." Yusari huffed and turned her attention to Ineha. "I need the Wardens at the Hall here to cover Azahama's western flank. You've got better vantage points with the hills."

Fenrer stewed on their conversation, but then lifted his head when Ineha said, "You're dismissed. I know you had plans to head back into Azahama."

"I will be behind you once I've seen the situation here and put postings on the board," Yusari added when Ineha finished. "We need to be vigilant if what you found wasn't a one-off." Her brown eyes crinkled in thought, and she swiped a pen and empty scrolls from Ineha's stacks. She wrote in the quick strokes of Dyrenji, then the translation in Common on a separate scroll. Magick whipped and sealed them closed, and she held out both to him. "Bring the translation to the Lodge and have the record-keepers read over it. Carefully. The other I want to be taken straight to Hirishi-Keinta. I want them to be made aware of this before the end of these festivities and they return to Tohane."

Fenrer slipped both into the leather strap and secured them in place with a buckle beside his phials of essence — but none of Yuven's medication for long road-trips. Words, sharp and furious, beat down on his mind, but he tucked his hand into the chains along his gray studded armor. "I'll see them back to Azahama," he told her, pressing his hand against his heart with his final dismissal, leaving the two women to talk in low voices to each-other. With the door shut behind him, he released a breath and hurried out into the main area of the Hall.

Outside in the soft, evening light, Adara waited for him by the carriage to take them back to Azahama, driven by another Warden, who locked their Derelict Resonator in the static holder above the footboard. "Fen," Adara said and dropped her attention from the book she read while she waited by the steps into it. "I—" A distant, crackled blast of a firework interrupted her. Anxious burrs swept through her silver aura when the light scattered through the darkening skies, but her breath followed the calming pulse in the lilyblooms. "What took you so long?"

"I had to finalize my report for Captain Ineha and Captain Yusari." Fenrer took her bag and slid open the door for her, allowing her inside first before joining her. He knocked on the separator between them and their driver before shutting it, and the blinds. Runes lit up in the corners when the wheels crunched beneath them. Another blast. Another anxious ripple within the aurora, but he pressed a smile on his face. "Fireworks. The Feast of Amphithere's — we're past the halfway point of the Turn so many are celebrating." He shuffled with his band, and his finger hooked underneath it to quell the itchy throb. "Praying for good fortune into the coming cold moons and for harvests to last them through both winter and any Derelict infestations which had grown over the summer."

"Is it like in Naveera where Derelicts slow down?" Adara whispered. "Yuven—" She cut herself off. Her aura tightened with overgrown burrs of frustration. "He said the cold can stall Derelicts, but not stop them."

Fenrer handed her the bag again. "Naveera is a little special in that regard. Their blizzard doesn't stretch past the Aethejiin mountain range and the remnants of the tundra which separates Dyrin from the mountains," he explained. "I'm afraid winters south of the mountains do not stall Derelicts to the same extent... that's not to say they aren't slowed down — but they remain energetic in their hunger for magickae. Traveling by foot, carriage, or the train becomes even more dangerous." He tucked his hands in his lap. "Many pray for the disappearance of the Derelicts..." Shut away from their words, he tasted their pain instead. "Yuven would say prayers are not going to remove them. Words are useless, he told me, words can't undo the death they create." In a flicker of the blinds, the thick forests between Fallholt and Azahama darkened. "Words can't save people from their bloodhunger."

Maybe he is right... I should've done something when Neven and Maria were stuck in Naveera. Instead, I left him to juggle everything himself when he was practically begging for me to help him because he... couldn't do it by himself. Teeth dug in his tongue, he tried not to vomit.

Adara's brow furrowed, the aurora fogged across the lilypads of silver twine. "What's wrong with having faith that things will turn out okay?" her plea tore into his brow in a single desperate wave. "Just because Yuven's become cynical because of this world doesn't mean everyone else has to be even if he has reasons to feel that way." Fist raised, she pointed at him. "People still tell stories. Still imagine fairytales. I don't need any other proof than that — and it gives Yuven no right to stomp on other people's faith because he thinks it will help."

Fenrer wrapped his hand around the black band, a woven sigil of opalescent dragon teeth. Auras bounced in his head when the blasts rang out in clarity, and the crunchy dirt road bounced into smooth rock. Adara's fingers traced his, and he dragged his attention back to her. "That's why... I want to enjoy these celebrations, and I'd like for you to enjoy them too once you're finished with Warden business. We haven't had fun outside of Euros since... Well..." Her hand fell off his. "Ironically, since that ball in Naveera." Lamplight cast shadows across her ashen cheeks. "You haven't given yourself any grace after what happened with Yuven."

The carriage rolled to a stop as he tasted her words for himself. "I'll try." A weak response, but better than the silence he kept falling into when a conversation concerned or involved Yuven. Knelt forward to avoid smashing his head against the top of the carriage, he frowned when Adara's aura shrunk in tormented ripples along the ashen aurora. "What?"

"I need to talk to you about Naveera — when Yuven and I were captured."

Bound by her uncertainty, Fenrer took his hand off the handle to leave the constricting space. "Aye?" Back on the seat, he rested his elbows against his knees and studied her aura instead of her passive facial features trying to hide the truth.

Her lips pursed and the next words came out forced through the silver aurora. "Fenrer, when you left me with Blackwall in the throne room; he gave me an ultimatum. He wanted me to unlock the world crystal to gain information, in return for yours and Yuven's lives."

"Aye, Yuven made mention of that." Fenrer went to hook his hand around the handle once more, but froze at the pulse of summer shame. "Unless there's something else? Adara?" He choked on her haunted, regretful frown. "Adara... what did you see in the crystal?" His hand found hers across the space, squeezing it to encourage the thoughts underneath the layer of flames to reveal themselves without fear of judgment or hatred. You have no need to fear, whatever is on your mind, I'll listen. "I think that's one of the things you were reluctant to share, even with the Warden Echelon."

Adara sucked in her lips before covering it with her free hand, but drew it down with another huff. "I... I don't know what I say anymore," she whispered. "I saw... a bloody battlefield, Storm Wardens being sent against a scythe of Derelicts — slaughtered — Fenrer... they were getting slaughtered." Her breath caught in her chest and aura, but Fenrer tipped the balance from oppressive darkness to soft light, the scales of a single, compassionate soul. One more urge, and she whispered, "And... something happened, but..."

"But what?" Fenrer inched closer. Knowledge at his fingertips. It burned under the pyre, a harsh reminder.

The chime of the bell broke Adara out of the haze, and she shook her head. While he, as ever, flew from the truth. "We can discuss it some other time." Fenrer let go of her hand and opened the carriage. "You said you want to enjoy the festivities. Let me pass these messages off, and I'm yours for the rest of this day, though we may only have time to head to the Azahama palace for the dance and feast..." He touched her shoulder, then brought his hand up to her cheek. "Let's do this properly this time without the overhanging sense of shame, hm? Meet me there." Out of her reach, he raced for the Lodge to take solace in the peace. Storm Wardens hurried about, never able to rest though the common folk took their chance. Carriers and Storagekeepers moved about the post area protected in the center of the lodge, but he read Yusari's tag and slipped the scroll inside.

It locked with a clunk, and he rushed out of the Lodge to catch up with Adara, pushing himself through the nausea-inducing mix of auras painted across the houses and walked through its overtow. Circles of pain tore through his temples, but he presented himself to the guards on each side of the massive red doors which protected Azahama Palace — which often hosted King's Summit and the lone Sovereign of Dyrin both for extended periods. Off to the side, Adara chewed on her fingers, her aura a thin mist when he approached.

"Fen—"

"Would they not let you in?" he questioned.

"I just... there are people in there who were ready to see me fail," she said, but her aura flickered, left in half-sight, a white lie. "I know I'm free from the Elder Conclave, but am I free from other people? Yuven never let me forget that people rarely change their minds unless shown otherwise." Her fingers dug into his sleeves, a plea for mercy from the way she shook him. "I just want to forget for a little while."

"Well, they will be too engrossed in their celebrations to worry about you. Blend in with the sea of faces, besides, Reyn's extended me an invitation to go into the palace proper," he reminded her. "And I'm extending an invitation to you to join me. At the very least, it may be quieter." Arm out, he smiled when she wrapped hers around it, and the guards let them past without a fuss.

People stood around tables full of food, stealing away with plates to watch fire dancers set up on small stages, tossing their flaming batons up into the air to create images of Dyrin's spiritual guardians, the Amphithere's. Music pounded on drums and whistled out of flues. Strings sang. Auras drove into his mind, a harsh reminder of his own. Up the steps to the palace proper, another set of guards checked them over, catching a glimpse of his crescent blade and Oath necklace before waving them inside. Rare was it that Storm Wardens were treated with reverence instead of nervousness of what it meant. Yuven always hated that the most...

"Pyren!" Reyn's voice called, and Fenrer came to a stop when Reyn squeezed himself off the dance-floor, patting down his collar of black fur. "Good to see you made it." He switched his attention to Aadara. "You as well, Miss Sazaka. You sure made quite a stir with your performance at the Four Faiths."

Adara squeezed his arm, a smile forced on her face, but Fenrer adjusted himself to keep Reyn's attention on him. "I have to thank you," he whispered in their mother tongue. "For your assistance during that. If I had been noticed, I fear what might have happened." He twisted around the ballroom full of dancers, the cold sweeping down his skin while he prepared himself for a different type of dance — one of life and death. The Wyvern's Flight. "What's the itinerary?"

"Same as always, Sovereign Hirishi will make a statement about the festival, calling upon the guardians of the echo to bless everyone with good tidings and safety." Reyn rolled out his shoulders, and Fenrer frowned when he tugged him closer. "Fenrer... they're on edge. They have been since the King's Summit — worsened by the Four Faiths they put Adara through." He motioned at her, but Adara dragged her attention to the long line of tables bursting to the brim with assorted platters of meats, baked goods, and fruits, with some cast to the braziers as sacrifice to the echo. "He won't say much to me though."

Yusari's other letter weighed down his leather strap.

"Adara?" he questioned, and she flicked back to them. "Do you mind if I take a couple minutes to deliver a message to Sovereign Hirishi? It shouldn't take me that long. Stay with His Grace." At the very least, I know I can trust him. Hot coals danced up a child's card, but he patted Reny's shoulder and detached himself from her. Using the steps of the dancers, he made his way through the crowds of nobles and courtesans, a reflection in ice. Hirishi's Guard hovered closeby where the Dyrenji sovereign stood off to the side, raised a little higher above the rest. The guards braced their ribboned polearms when he approached and caused Hirishi to turn to him. "Ah, Warden Pyren," they said, though their aura thickened in the very anxiety, the sharp edges slicing through the air. One hand raised, the guards relinquished their arms from him. "How can I help you?"

Fenrer unlatched the scroll and held it out to them. "Warden-Captain Ovana wanted me to pass this on to you." He waited for him to take it.

"Thank you." Hirishi broke apart the magick seal. His gaze flicked over the Dyrenji on the paper. "Warden Pyren, I... thank you for what you and yours do for this world, even if many others do not appreciate the sacrifices you make," they commented and folded it up. "Tell Adara Sazaka that if the guardians will it, I wish to speak with her before she leaves... I might have an answer to the heritage she shares within this kingdom."

"Really?"

"Sazaka is an old Dyrenji name," they explained and tucked the scroll in their robes adorned with deep golds and pitch black, the amphithere's taking flight along their chest. "I can't say it'll be a lot of information, but I'm sure the closure would be of help."

"That is... kind of you, Your Grace."

"Kindness is in short supply," they mentioned with a wave. "Go, enjoy the day, Fenrer Pyren. I shall be explaining myself during the statement. Until then, dance."

Free from his duty, bound by his oath. Fenrer raced back to where he left her and Reyn, with the Hanekan king becoming one with the wallflowers hanging out of their pots. "I think I have no other outstanding things that need my attention," he told her. "Let us enjoy ourselves, aye?"

He took her hand, but stopped when Reyn grabbed his other shoulder, his grip a firm squeeze. Noiseless anxiety rippled the storm clouds, but he let him go with a nod. "Don't let me keep you two," he said with a weak smile, the firelight glinting off the two dragon pins. Fenrer nodded, then tensed when Keeper Kalla approached with her own scroll, which he took with no sense of distrust. "We'll talk later."

Adara tugged at his arm.

His fingers laced into hers, and he let her take the lead for this dance.