ADARA

Mesas flowered on the horizon while they walked farther from Azahama and into the Dyrin wilderness with their backs to the plains and their destination which tore through the basin of forests and rivers which carved itself to the distant ocean. On the highest peak of the terrace, villages sprouted with triangular rooftops shielded in the shade of flowing pink willows and cherry trees. Their path turned rocky into the downward slope, and she came to a stop when Fenrer pointed in the distance, where the path of the train diverged and disappeared among the buttes. "That way is Toyon — that's the seat of Sovereign Hirishi," he explained, then nodded southward, where the sky expanded. "We're going that way."

"Barring any issues," Yuven bit from the front. "It's almost sundown. I want to get to the forest edge before nightfall." He closed the fluttering map of inky lines to wrap it in an icy field of protection before setting it back in his pack. "It's a bad omen to stay out while the dark toll takes its time." He sent a strange grin at her, but kept their pace down into the basin.

The setting sun ensnared her in its last embrace, where the two moons danced together on the waves of twilight. It glimmered the land in beautiful rays and struck the shadows across the land with its last fight of the day. Her breath swelled in her lungs when the wind caressed her cheeks and reminded her of the life she found herself thrown into. Her fingers tucked into the warmth of her shawl, and she jumped when Yuven came back to her with the same devious grin.

"You don't want to be trapped by the dark toll," he said with a wave at Fenrer, who waited for her. "They say in the Great Crimson Dusk the sun split apart and bled. You see a remnant of that when the toll passes into nightfall — the sky turns crimson and the sun fills with the mist of the Obscura and the rays turn to blood." He leaned closer to her and bared his pronounced canines. "It is bad omen while on the road, you know. You sure you want to watch the sun set?"

Bells tolled.

Yuven stood on the edge with his arms crossed, while Fenrer raised an eyebrow at him.

I refuse to believe that even a sunset could become nothing more than a nightmare.

Floorboards creaked in her memory with her ascent into the bloody field, where the sun split into layers and bled from the cracks. A shiver crawled through her spine while it descended into the clouds and set them in red evening fire. Trapped with the Derelict who feasted on her friend, it stared into her soul and hungered for her with a sense of vengeance for when she turned it to stone. Yuven disappeared from her side vision, and the sun sent one last blip of light through the clouds.

Wind cracked in her ears, and she leaped and stifled a scream when Yuven removed his hands from the sides of her head.

"You done?" he questioned while the clouds blocked the setting sun. "It is story, Adara. It is not real."

And yet, it's familiar... like I saw it through the Derelict... Adara swallowed on her fear and forced herself to follow them back onto the path which tore into a massive aspen forest.

"I've never heard that before," Fenrer broke her fear apart with a question in his voice.

"Really? Neven is the one that told me that. He said it's supposedly the last thing the Naveerans saw before being swallowed by the blizzard," Yuven said, then sniffed. "It's all old tales, not a hint of truth to them. I've never seen the sun bleed." He shrugged his lean shoulders and nodded at the next waymarker which pointed them down the path. "If we follow this path we'll reach the forest and be on our way before a stray Derelict decides it wants us for a midnight snack."

"Lovely." Adara held her boiling stomach. "I'd rather not hear anymore stories from you."

"That's too bad, I've got plenty more," Yuven said and snickered to himself at the head of their three-man band.

Oh... he's already unbearable. Adara rubbed the bridge of her nose while the high leaves of the aspen rustled with the wind, and the shadows engorged itself on the dying light. Tension wracked through her knees and made it difficult to take each step. Yuven and Fenrer walked with a steady, unfailing sense of confidence. She jumped at every little movement of the undergrowth, but she forced herself to follow through on what her life became outside of Prunal.

"I don't know about suns bleeding," Fenrer said. "There is the tale of the green spark, though."

Glad for an opportunity to get away from the thousand pairs of eyes on her, she jumped on it for a sense of security. "Please tell me it doesn't involve blood and death?"

Fenrer gave her an awkward smile. "Not... exactly," he explained. "It is said that at sundown, there's a rare chance of a green beam of light slicing through the sky. In Hanekan tales and sea shanties, it's said to be an entrance into Velteraiia — the world of spirits and those we have lost."

Adara raised an eyebrow and waited for Yuven's near predictable quip, but none came. "Is that real?"

"Yes, I don't think it is caused by any portal opening to land full of dead," Yuven mumbled when the forest edge thickened into the groves and shards of the sky slipped through the leaves. Their path darkened with the small roadside lamps which flickered with every breath of the world. "We've got enough of them wandering the land of the living to contend with."

Chills swept down her skin and stifled her warm flames deeper into her heart. "So you don't believe in fairytales, but you believe in ghouls?"

"Ghouls. Ghosts. Shades. Wraiths. Whatever you refer to them as." Yuven stopped them at a dead end in the beaten path. "You want to watch out for the latter, especially. No one wants to deal with an angry wraith." He stopped, then eyed her. "You think Fenrer performed ritual for the fun of it? If we didn't have Aurus performing it, we'd be beset by ghasts aplenty." Adara found herself smiling when he hit his hand off Fenrer's shoulder, who in turn nudged him back. "We don't have the time for these questions. Save it for when we're in Euros. Our main goal is to get to the Hanekan steppes." Her smile dropped when he whipped out the map of inky snakes, which echoed their environment and path. "If possible, I want to avoid major townships."

"What if we need to resupply?" Adara asked.

"Another question, Adara. I should give you a list." Yuven turned his back to her to face the forest, where the last dregs of the sun glowed and tangled with moonlight. "Let's head deeper."

Her uncertainty heightened without a clear road to guide her. Shadows raged when the clouds lost their luster of flames and went monochrome, splashed against the purple backdrop between the night and the day. Yuven came to a stop and lifted his hand outwards. White embers tangled and grew into a contained bubble as it raised out of the icy glyph, empowered by the focal points of flames. It hovered over their heads, and it cast them in the glow of frost.

"Magelight," Fenrer said before the question danced off her tongue and Yuven continued onward and put away the map. "We won't need it for long though."

Adara tried to envision the dance of embers on her palm as she took the space between Fenrer and Yuven. It tickled the edge of her fingertips, but never dropped through the air to create the inferno she supposedly carried. Doubt plagued her, and she winced when a spark lit on her palm, and fizzled with an unsatisfying whisper. Why won't you come to me? She pressed her fingers together, to force the vital spark before the rage, but it never came again. Leaves crunched underneath her heel and taunted her with its reality. A groan slipped past her lips as she tried once more, and failed all the same.

"It'll take some time," Fenrer said behind her.

"If I'm so powerful, shouldn't it stand to reason that I should be able to call upon it like I have before?" she mumbled to him.

Yuven shook his head. "Power is one thing. Ability is another." His magelight returned to hover over his palm, and he glanced back at her in the shadows of its light. "Power is something someone has deep inside. Ability is what you can do with it — the action of making all that power mean something." His fingers dug into the ball, and it crushed into fine snow to whisper onto the breeze, plunging them into darkness.

Moonlight spread off the leaves and danced along the stars, and Adara gasped when the light came not from the sky, but from the forest itself. Grass tangled with stars and small mushrooms which sent a rainbow into the environment. Flowers which wound around the trees opened up their petals to reveal the crystalline pollen. Inside hollows within the trees, the bark curved to form the aforementioned eye sockets, but it was full of bioluminescent moss. Every shadow turned into a weave of night without the teeth of a monster.

Adara studied the sky, where the forest sent its glow to touch the clouds into a misty aurora. Shoulders slacked against her sides, she followed them deeper into the forest, where Yuven dragged the pace through the bright groves. He trudged through the undergrowth, and came to a stop at a small area surrounded by blooming bushes.

"We'll camp here. Fenrer try and train her in primordial shifting while I set up the wards."

"Are you sure you don't need me to do that?" Fenrer asked.

"You two can make a fire. I can handle wards," Yuven repeated and sent a quick wave of frost into the air. Icy spiderwebs laced around the trees and formed along the branches. It expanded with the source point Yuven made on the ground, where a faint glyph rustled through the grass before disappearing with a hush. The ward glittered before shielding itself in the night.

Fenrer leaned onto the ground, and Adara came closer to observe as he pressed his two fingers into the grass. It responded with his touch and formed a small circle of the ground, where stones formed out of his more curved glyph of mossy greens to match the ones within the hollows to create a small dip for a temporary fireplace. He settled himself on the ground while Yuven went around the perimeter and didn't acknowledge them.

"How do I do this?" Adara said, ready to learn the truth of her magick.

Fenrer glanced at Yuven, then returned his attention to her. "I'll just create the first spark. What I want you to do is focus on the flow around it," he explained with a level of patience Yuven refused to show her. "Focus on how it connects to your soul and your magick, and when you feel that first bite of fire, let it ignite."

Hesitation gripped her tongue, but she pushed her questions out of the way and nodded.

Let it take flight.

A crystal bird called her back home.

Green embers tangled out of nothing in the center of the fire. It sparked, awaiting for the ignition.

Adara scooted closer to lower her hand to the beacon of light. It licked at her fingertips while the flames danced into deep silvery oranges. It shuddered her veins and sent bile into her throat while people screamed and Derelicts hungered and feasted on flesh and bone. Sparks danced along the bridge of her fingers, boiling her blood.

"Focus," Fenrer reminded her. "It's okay."

Let it ignite.

It ignited into a fireball and seared the air in front of her. In another quick instant, Fenrer lunged forward, where it rippled back into the soft greens and he stifled it with a quick shake of his hand. One more moment, and silver-laced glyphs formed to expel them into further wards along the ground, and Yuven scoffed.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed.

Fenrer rolled his neck with a wince and shook his head. "As I said, it's okay."

"I said campfire, not an entire inferno," Yuven mumbled when he sent another leash of snow into the bushes.

Silver smoke fizzled on the ground. Adara pressed her hands against her temples with a groan when it disappeared among the dirt. "I don't think I can do this," she murmured when Yuven returned to their incomplete fire and sat down rifling with the marked container on his belt. "It's just—" Frustration sliced her tongue and left a taste of venom in her throat. Hand upwards to grasp onto support, she let it go. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Fenrer glanced at Yuven, who uncorked the container. "It might be the barrier I weaved on your mind in the spire. It was for your safety, not the Conclave's, but I fear I may have overdone it, if that's the case," he admitted with a sense of shame and Adara frowned when he placed his hand on the black fabric wrapped around his forearm. "I can remove it, if you wish."

Adara cupped the silver smoke between her palms and pulled the charcoal. It never seared her skin, a part of her though lost. "No," she said and wiped her flaming tears off her face. "I have to be able to do this—" Or their sacrifices meant nothing. Hand open, nothing remained of the failure of her inner inferno, nor the spark in her blood. Her drive rippled underneath her skin, while Jisa held out a crystal bird and she swore to protect it, to give it space to fly, but left it behind in a little box underneath a floorboard in a vine covered shrine to a magickal deity. "I can figure this out."

Yuven stabbed a wooden utensil through a piece of dough and shoved it into his mouth without taking the violet pinpricks off her. Adara glared at him. "Don't have anything to add?"

"What do you want?" he asked after he swallowed his mouthful. "I'm having to eat my dinner without a fire." He stabbed the next portion with no mercy.

"Well." Adara breathed in the last ashes and snapped to her feet. "Excuse me, Your Grace. Let me get right on that for you, shall I? Can't have you eating a meal without some warmth. Let it not be known that I haven't learned a thing or two while working in a tavern." She caught an amused grin from Fenrer as she dove for the undergrowth. Ignoring the tug of brambles, she used her dagger to cut pieces of bushes and branches for kindling. Her hoard of wooden victims in her arms, she tossed it into the created pit and put them in place. She rifled through her pack to grab the few things she brought with her. Among them, her coin purse which amounted to nothing, rescued before she got her chance to flee — and a wrapped flint and steel from when she lit the fireplace within the cabin her and Garren lived. One last memory of the life she had.

Knees at the fire and aiming her angle, her wrist burned with her rage and the strike against the steel as she shed it onto the leaves and created her own embers. It created a ring and expanded outwards as she fed it energy from her hand and breath.

"You know that'd be easier if you sent a little burst of primordial air magick at it, Princess," Yuven said with a pointy grin.

Adara ignored him and set the campfire alight, which caused the luminescent forest around them to dim. Satisfied with her work, she sat back while it spit embers into the air. "There's your fire. Happy?"

Fenrer raised his hands. "I might have something that'll help," he said. "Forget the fire for a second." He sat up when an ember fell from the crackling pit, and he held out his palm, where it caught into the web of moss and shimmered. "The basis of magick isn't some sort of element, or a bloodline." He covered the ember with his fist. "I should've clarified — the spark I referred to wasn't fire, it was ingenuity. Magick comes from an idea of the flow." He opened his palm, where it bloomed into a glyph and air whispered out of the strong edges. "I hope traveling with us will help you figure out your magick, but it's getting late." He nodded at Yuven, who shrugged. "We should get some sleep while we're able."

"No argument from me." Yuven sat up and closed his container. "I'll—"

"I'll take first watch, Yuven," Fenrer interrupted.

Yuven scowled and tossed his pack to the side. "Mieso'jeg..." He laid down with his pack.

Adara grinned, but jumped when Fenrer held out a new well of flames to her. "We only want to help."

Her aurora seared the air and the galaxy in his eyes.

Adara brought her hand forward, where he slid the well of fire into her palm. Magick energy coursed through her fingertips when his brushed against hers, but he stood and left her at the fireside with a respectful nod, heading to the edge of their warded grove.

It sat in her palm, and shined bright with the moon.