NEVEN

Caverns of verglas. Mountains high. For what we are, we shall forever sing to the peaks of faith. Magick sang off the strings he plucked when he sat in the chair beside Fenrer's bed and hummed softer tones instead of the force in a wyvern's voice as was requested of him. A steady vibration followed the movement of his finger and the ripple in his chest while Fenrer slept, comfortable underneath the piles of blankets with his box of hazebulbs abandoned on the endstand. Lost in his own dwindled silence, he set the lute in his lap and tasted a bitter defeat under those same mountains and deafened by the howl. I am your Guardian. I am supposed to protect you both, guide you on the right path, and when necessary, be firm... Neven hugged the neck of the lute against his neck and frowned at his charge. Time tells. Time always tells.

Out of the chair, he returned it to its spot at Fenrer's desk before he took a peek into Fenrer's old, worn notebook. Childish scribbles filled the margins, but the entirety of the Navei runic alphabet filled a bunch of the yellowing pages full of ink. In the pained wonder, Neven slipped it into one of the cabinets for safekeeping, out of the way of a possible lash of ire. I will not be here forever — I will need to return to Asairai, butI will not leave you two to fumble through this self-made abyss; this abyss I perpetuated when you were both young. At Fenrer's shaky side, he knelt down and left the lute tucked under the frame. He touched Fenrer's brow, and sighed at a lack of a response from the contact. The power in a singular desire... given meaning in a voice. Fangs against his lips, he withdrew from Fenrer and left him to his trembled peace. Wardens dwindled once more, soft memories of training replaced the ghostly emptiness, and he dug his teeth deeper.

"Most, if not all of you, will die in battle with Derelicts."

Neven blinked out the mist of the caldera when he stopped by an open window to feel the breeze through his feathers. Prickles of ice swept underneath his skin, and he shuddered at the sensation of his ruined home. Irimount's spires touched the claws of the cradle, a darkened shadow with massive wings spread crimson tendrils underneath the marble paveways. Uncertain of his own steps, he wandered the citadel, hands tucked close to his sides to keep them warm. How deep has this cult gone? Irimount. Asairai. Azahama. I hope Kemal is having better luck than I was, but from his letters, I am not holding onto much hope. Barbs tickled his ears when the wind continued to whisper through the empty corridors. I've had enough of a break. I need to get back into the swing. Out into the central foyer, past the crystal pillars which led into the grand hall, he reached out to the doors, but a ripple of spatial distortion blocked his path.

"Neven."

Yuven Traye, the small, pale-haired boy who hid in the walls and sought solace in standing stones full of names. "I thought you would be with Maria," Neven said and drew his hand away from the bubble his other charge formed to prevent his departure. As he had done so many times in a red-brick house. "And resting. You are not thinking straight either." Though I cannot break through your magick once you have it anchored. He let the thought pass to head for the younger Avaerilian instead, who drew himself up with a shield of pride.

"I want to know about Fenrer."

Starlight bound.

"He is sleeping, Yuven," Neven told him, and the wilted pride faded in full when Yuven's gray feathers slumped and tangled with his short, wavy white locks. "You are not to bother him until I have seen his condition once he is awake." He turned for the door once more, though hesitated at a rattled, distraught hiss which left Yuven's nose. "You are both too susceptible to outbursts — and your flashes are triggered by stress." He reached for the door once more, to get back into action, to make right his own failures on multiple sides.

"I know I messed up, Miesero."

Dad.

He hooked his fingers into the rune handles of the massive doorway. "You two are family," Neven forced out through a tight ball of ancient grief. "Family. You may not share the blood, but you share the time under my care." He let his fingers slip off the handles to face his solemn oath. "I will not always be here, Yuven—" He came closer when Yuven's expression contorted into confused uncertainty with a quickened shake of his head. "I will have to leave Euros to go back and finish my posting." He raised his hands to Yuven's shoulders, whose previous terror died into an uneasy irritation. "I cannot say how long that'll take, or if you two can come, or that you should. Look at what happened in Azahama. We do not have enough information and I'm responsible for that."

"Why do you not want us to come?" Yuven released through another guttural hiss, and two brothers let go for the last time. Neven dug his fingers into Yuven's shoulders with no way to share the accursed memory. "You have been acting off!" He gave a shove into his chest. "You have been acting off, what is wrong? We are Storm Wardens! We knew what we were getting into when we took the oath. We knew what it might mean! We want to help." Yuven took the step through the distance he himself created. "Do not push me away, Miesero. Or, if you are so hellsbent on doing so... just tell me why."

"You are my charge, I am protecting you. You and Fenrer."

"You are babying me." Mist plumed out of Yuven's nostrils when they flared. "If you think you are protecting me from the cult that has already ripped my life and memories from me, you are a bit late to that. I am not that stupid little boy who was scared of his own shadow." Yuven threw his hand out with a snap of his fangs at his last, hissed word. "Who do you think you're fooling, Neven? I know this cult is connected to the one in Irimount, the one who created a monster in me to awaken the corrupted Evyriaz—!"

Neven latched onto him to stifle his words before they rang out to the world. Ignoring Yuven's muffled huffs, he snapped his gaze around in habitual wariness for an overheard conversation. "Not here." He drew his hand down Yuven's arm to grip onto it tighter. "Come. Run the Gauntlet with me. We will talk there. Besides—" He opened the door with a wave of his hand. "It will be nice to get out there, into shape, and will help clear your mind before approaching Fenrer about what happened." Out into the open air of Euros, the rose of the sky, Neven savoured the sun of an unpromised life, but when he cast his attention behind him, Yuven followed at a snail's pace with a shake of his head and narrowed suspicion when they approached the first path, a log bridge into the several branches of the Gauntlet run.

So many Turns ago where he walked the same steps as the Warden behind him, and the Wardens before him.

"It is not like you to be so secretive," Yuven broke the silent tranquillity with folded arms and pursed lips.

Neven stopped halfway on the log bridge, where a little creek flowed and dripped into a tiny crevice to feed the fertile soil deeper. "I have been sworn to secrecy, Yuven." He reached the other end, then waited for him, where he joined him after a quick stride to cross the distance. "As I told you before, I have already told you and Fenrer far too much because of the situation with Kayal." He wiped off lichen from the signpost, pointing in several directions save the one they came from. "It is also not that I don't trust you, but think for a moment, Yuven. It is best if some information doesn't get into the wrong hands." Neven drew his finger over the wood of the signpost before jogging through the southern path of rocky outcrops and moss-covered marble. His heart drummed with the activity after being bedridden for too long, too much work to get done when he reached the first test. An army of posts piercing out of a cavern lake, with magitek pendulums to add to the difficulty. He went to climb onto the first one, but stopped when Yuven grabbed his shoulder.

"You do not even trust Euros itself to hold the secret?" Yuven accused. "You mean to say you have been sworn to keep it from other Wardens?"

Lost in the mire of paranoia, Neven chewed on his lip at the ruffled pages and the dark webs across his mind. "Yes." Onto the first post, he bounded forward without fear of the deactivated pendulums, with Yuven following behind with evident ease compared to the weighty effort he once held in his body. "It was the decree of both Warden-Commander's. I cannot tell you what prompted it, as I do not know myself, but all I know is that the southern Warden's in the desert came across something." He leaped onto the other bank, turning around when Yuven pushed himself off the last post to come into a roll next to him. "And I was asked to handle the team who would go to Elvkana to search for answers." One more glance at the cavern entrance, Neven led him deeper down the misty abyss.

"For Turns?" Yuven slipped out of a ghostly mirage to stop him short of his great fear. "You left when I became a Trainee. Both you and Kemal never looked back, not once." His grey feathers perked upwards with his irritation. "You came back for a bit when I took my Oath and that is all. Again, you got on a boat and didn't look back."

"I couldn't waver." Neven focused on his boots. "You were safe, in training, I could not be there all the time." He put a smile on his face, though Yuven remained stalwart and neutral.

"Are you going to do the same when you leave? Get on the boat, and not look back?" Yuven questioned when Neven pushed past him to the roar of the abyss and the whisper of cold mist which rose around the peaks from the ocean which crashed against the cove below. Answer stuck in his throat, Neven continued forwards and listened to Yuven's insistent footfalls behind him when they reached the line of rope bridges. "What are you so afraid of, Miesero? I know it cannot be heights, or you wouldn't have chosen this path in particular."

The roar of the abyss drowned out the rest of the world when Neven faced him in full. "I'm afraid of a lot of things," he forced out through the inflow of memories. Knees buckled, a Hanekan grabbed onto him and dragged him to the other side when his apathy threatened to drag him down into the depths when he took the first step onto the bridge and the path swayed and sent waves of nausea into his temples, but he pushed forward. Unto the middle platform, he came to a stop and waited for Yuven to join him, who gave no indication of his own fear for the endless death. "A lot of Wardens have gone missing under my command, and I was no closer to finding them — but..." Cold prickles swept up his feathers at the taste of truth. "I am now. I am closer. What I found in Irimount, in that accursed gaol they kept you in—" His breath hitched, but he schooled his lungs when Yuven drew back with a sense of uncertainty. "I should've known the answers were much closer than I expected."

Yuven brought his hands close to his chest, a shift in the corner of his eyes. "Miesero..."

A hungered depravity in knowledge. Neven took a large step back from Yuven, fearful of the crimson rivers stuck in his mind when he sought the truth from a book with every word incomprehensible. Empty, Kemal complained, but it never was. It showed images, words and stories. Pathways onto a singular desire. "I will not be leaving either of you yet," he pushed through his determination and the obsession. "Besides, you have many things left to do here, the Storm Wardens need assistance for the immediate issue that the attack on Azahama will surely bring onto the continent. Your duty is here." Neven reached forward to hold onto his own mind. "It is not with me."

Yuven lowered his head. "I do not know how I am going to fix things with Fenrer."

"Time," Neven repeated, and waved his hand when Yuven swung around with frustration. "Time and patience."

"I didn't feel that way about Aurus—" Yuven shook his head out. "But I can't get what he did out of my head, the way he ripped out my memories and I can't remember them anyway." He pushed off his shoulders and threw his hands into the air. "I couldn't tell you anything about the cult within Irimount. If anything, you know more than I do without context, Miesero, I didn't want you going there because you didn't need to see that," Yuven hissed through the plumes of mist rising off the foam. "You didn't need to suffer that, and you have proven my point, you know. What has happened to you? You lose all your sense at the mention of what you've been having to deal with. Miesero," Yuven pleaded. "Any more of this and I fear that you will lose your mind and that will be my fault too."

The curl of intent crawled up his shoulders at the repetition of a sorrowful, Navei word stolen from Yuven Traye's memories, but he shoved down the swollen overflow of murk rebuilt upon new clarity. "I needed to see Irimount for myself."

"Miesero—"

"You do not and should not be worrying about me as of this moment," Neven insisted, to interrupt the weighted word born from a child's wish for security. "Figure things out with Fenrer and let me handle the rest. If I require your assistance, I will tell you."

Over the bridge, he hesitated in the middle once more with no Kemal to pull him through his fear, but pushed himself to the other side alive and alone, though the lack of Yuven's footsteps betrayed the truth, and when he dared to turn back, Yuven disappeared, a ghost in the mist.