MARIA

Steam hissed out of her alembic to settle the collection of liquids while she waited for the Naveeran herbs to grow within the safety of the small greenhouse covered by the protection of the Infirmary. Records and reports sat on one side and her tome of her own research notes took up the entirety of the table on her other side. Maria flipped to a page full of possible ingredients for future Corruption medications and appropriate holdovers during the Expulsion Event for maximum comfort and the best chances at what was once thought an eternal death sentence. It squeezed into the next container to create firm, jelly coated pellets into a small, handheld box. Maria marked it with red tape and pushed it off to the side, adding annotations into the margins to join the other reactions and side effects Yuven reported. At any rate, this should hold him over for a few months until these seeds grow and test how efficient they make the medication on Avaerilian's in particular... and I need to up the dose of hazebulbs Fenrer has to take due to our natural resistance.

On top of the tension which sparked between the pair of Oathbound to add to the amount of stressors on everyone's shoulders. Her quill scratched against the parchment until the page she was on no longer had room for her scrawl. Footsteps outside the small alchemical quarters caught wind of the familiar ripple of love when Yuven slipped out of the wall instead of taking the door right beside him. "How'd it go?" Maria grabbed the small box to hold it out to him, where he strapped it on his belt before folding his arms. "I thought you'd be longer."

"I see what you mean."

Maria lifted herself against the back of her chair at Yuven's random declaration. "About?"

"Neven." Yuven sidled himself to her side. "We spoke a bit about his posting, his secrecy." His hand clutched onto the edge of the table and his fangs revealed themselves in sharp concern. "I have never seen him have such a severe one track mind on something he can't even grasp. Fenrer was right when he said Neven doesn't even know himself." Feathers slumped against his ears, he released a frustrated hiss. "But with my stupidity and Fenrer's avoidance tactics, I cannot do anything for him." He clenched his fists and pressed the knuckles deep into the knots. "I have been told by Neven that Fenrer's sleeping, though."

Maria cleaned and placed her quill back into the holder and put the cork on the inkwell. "How did he manage that?"

His slim shoulders drew up into a shrug. "Evidently Neven is the only one who can get through to Fenrer," he pointed out and tapped the table with the tips of his fingers. "I've been asked to leave him until he gets the rest he requires after what happened in Azahama." Yuven swiped up an empty paper, rolling it between his fingers before she took it away from him and his fidget tendencies. "I should've gone with them. I should've swallowed my pride and gone." Maria rested an arm on the table when the down fluffed out in a predictable wave of anger, but she smiled when he let out an exhale and faced her before investigating the contents of the box, holding out a pellet with a confused noise deep in his chest.

"I want to go back to trying a compact medication," she replied to his vocalisation. "Get you used to it before I move onto the native flora and then we'll see what happens from there. I'm aiming for controlling your flashes completely." Tome closed, she picked it up to tuck against her chest and place it within the bookshelf against the wall among her other sources of research on the Corruption. Some books collected dust, others full of ignorant misinformation, but each one important and led to her own contribution to the field. A Healer's job was never done — neither was a Storm Warden's. Yuven's hand on her shoulder brought her from the endlessness of her work. "Yes?"

Yuven slid out of her grasp and through the mirror of promise, no mere ghost when she escaped the room after dousing the magitek of the alchemical station. Quiet whispers hushed through the citadel when she tread the corridors to catch up with a resolute love and her mutual desire for life. Dew collected on the stalks and garden beds underneath the windowsills to catch the shards of sunlight. It scattered against the breeze, casting the mist of protection to keep the Derelicts from the light. Maria followed the pulse of her necklace, Yuven's first goodbye, but not last. Through the western wing, she slowed to a stop when Yuven drifted out of a wall on the wisp of snow.

"I never could fool you with the perception of the flow," he said and they stood outside a door carved by wolves. "Myl'la, I don't know how to make this right, to correct the mistakes I've made, but of this... I do have something." His pupils shifted into beads of shame when he lowered them to the space between them. "I still... owe him much. Owe him as much as I owe you." He clicked the handle open and let it swing open. Upon the weapon rack, a blade forged with the dawn sat in Fenrer's myriad weapons of his choice, a bow among them. Maria slid her lips over her teeth when Yuven hovered in the corner, barely seen in his magicks while Fenrer slept too soundly in the bed, giving no reaction to the new stimulus.

"Yuven..." she whispered as she scooped up the old box of hazebulbs, frowning at its fullness, but she shuffled out of the way when he stood over Fenrer.

"Look upon this life, he told me even though all I was seeing was monstrous conviction," he whispered and knelt down to reach underneath Fenrer's bed, and Maria widened her eyes when a snow-white lute to go with his hair fell into his hands, Swirls decorated the centerpiece, and he held it close to him. Yuven pressed his knees against the frame of the bed, where his fingers plucked the strings and a shiver rolled up her spine at the resonant sound. "Look upon this life," he whispered and followed the notes upon the strings though Fenrer remained unresponsive. Yuven let out a sigh and left his side, the lute in his hands. Maria followed, box of hazebulbs in hand while Yuven shut the door behind him. "Neven sang the song of yearning to put Fenrer to sleep."

Maria chewed on her lip, then grasped the power of a single name. "He used Avaerilian magic?" Equivalent to the power of sea sirens...

Yuven nodded and tucked his cheek against the neck of the lute. "Yes, and the irony isn't lost on me." He let out a quiet scoff and shuffled down the corridor, and Maria lingered behind him. Hand outstretched, she laced her fingers around his to steady his constant pace, the squeeze he returned sent a shockwave up her arm and into the warmth of her heart. Each step brought her into the embrace of his magic. Stars flickered in the void she trusted him to guide her through until they slipped into a flicker of candlelight. Her room, where her desk, papers, and books remained undisturbed. Left with a mirage, she tightened her grip and tugged him back from the reality he was so afraid of.

He hung by the door again, as uncertain as the first time.

"I'll keep an eye on Fenrer," she said and set everything off to the side and away from the bed of comfort and desire. "Neven's right on that front. You both need to give each other time now that you have it. Take it before something else comes up." Maria brought her arms over her head when she stood in front of the window, a view unmatched on the horizon where the sun set. Drawn away from his uncharacteristic silence, she hesitated when he came closer to her, a twist to his lips of fond irritation. "These things have a way of working out if you don't try to force them."

"Unacceptable. Everything must bend to my whims. It is the only way anything gets done around here." Yuven sat down on the end of her bed and brushed back the wavy white strands as he set his arms on his knees and the truth of his words showed itself in his ruffled down. "Keep walking forward, no matter what's in front of me, no matter what I'm dragging behind me." His fists curled around the lute on his lap, but he hooked it in his elbow and sat it up to toy with the tuning pegs. Tongue out, he let his fingers drift down the neck and press against the woven strings. "I've never understood how one can just... do nothing when there is something to be done."

Maria slid beside him to brush the tips of his feathers with her own fingers. "What if there's nothing you can do?"

"Make one?"

"And what if you can't?" Maria pressed him onto a path of healing from the remnants of darkness Derelicts and people left in him. "What if you have to let time run its course?" Her hand lowered to his shoulder, down his chest to rest over his beating heart. "Yuven, you have to remember what I said. You have lived your life with the expectation that every second counts because you won't have it for long. As such, you've built your habits to live a short life to its fullest. You do not have to stop that, but now you have room to breathe." Her fist bumped against his rib-cage. "You should start there first."

Yuven released a soft exhale. His thumb pressed against one of the strings, and Maria lowered her hand to his stomach when he drew out strong, but no less gentle notes. It tickled the base of her neck and flickered the candles when he brought the method of magick against him to find a tempo. It twinkled through a resonant chord and sent the flames in her blood into a lull of embers. He set his foot on the small stool in front of him as he kept the steady progression of the chord, an instinctive feeling within the music when he followed with another exhale, then sang as only an Avaerilian could.

"Hear upon my voice, this lullaby,"

"As I drift off into sleep."

"I face the northern winds and the southern seas."

The sun inched into view from her window, a tangle of golden strands around the celestial body piercing into the Echo Obscura.

"For I fear no pit of sable crimson."

"I hearken to a single light, a silver-strewn sun." Yuven drew his thumb up the string to send the magick vibration through the air. "Of a Queen made of pure sunlight. Born of ferocity with a warm embrace. Full of love and strength both." He went quiet though let the notes fly free with instinctive motions. "Solise'qen." Hesitation tore between them and a sense of yearning he left her with. "Queen of the Sun," he stated with only his melody to carry it as he let the song go silent. He set the lute to the side, back to his slumped position with another uneven breath. Violet tides hid away, but Maria lifted her hand to grab onto his face.

"It will work out, Ice Knight," Maria whispered when he set a hand over hers with a frown. "I promise."

"I know." Yuven pressed his brow against hers, the shield of strength and pride revealing the truth behind the steel covered heart. "I believe you, Solise'qen." He raised his hand to the necklace around her shoulders, where her golden oath tangled with his. Lips inward, he studied her with an unspoken word, but she put a hand on his collarbone. The beads shifted into vertical slits of exhaustion at his blink. "I will not be doing that again, by the way — and definitely don't tell Neven, he'd be unbearable."

Some things never change. Maria grinned and pressed her lips against his when the sun reached out for the dark horizon and she for him. "Secret's safe with me, Yuven." Out of his arms, she held onto him all the same, for the life she dreamed of at their own pace, free from the claws of death. In his embrace, she rubbed circles on his back when his breathing stuttered. "It'll be okay, you'll find a way, I know you will. You have to let time do some work."

"I don't trust time." He dug his fingers into her shirt.

"I know," she assured. "But Yuven... you and Fenrer are Oathbound. You carry a piece of his magick in you and he a piece of yours. That is a connection even I cannot fathom. A magicks so obscure and misunderstood only those who have undergone it truly know." Face to face with him once more, she rested her head against his. "Do not trust time, then. Trust us. Trust the people who love you and understand you the most, and when you're angry... sit down and breathe. You are family. Nothing can change that, you know that," Maria said when she nuzzled his cheek. "What you need to do is let Adara try, though." He let out a huff, and she pinched his nose. "I'm serious."

"How will that help?"

"Fenrer loves her."

"I am very aware." Yuven stuck his tongue out lazily.

"I mean..." Maria pinched him again. "Help her, don't try to control the course of things. Give her insight only you have... then trust her to go the rest of the way for him."

"Will he forgive me?" Yuven whispered. "... I wouldn't forgive me."

Maria pressed both hands against his cheeks. "I think you know the answer to that, Yuven... but Adara doesn't." Her fingers drifted off his jawline and she scooted to sprawl across the bed with a wave of her hand. "I'll be waiting."

Yuven curled his lips until his fangs revealed, and he gave a stiff nod before standing up and becoming nothing more than a mirage in the morning, a promise of the day. Maria set her hands behind her head and settled herself down with his song in her ears.