YUVEN

Schedule thrown off, the path all wrong. Gods, I wish Fenrer hadn't stopped to pick up that statue — I think it cursed us. That and his good heart. He could never turn away from other's pain. He guzzled down the night sky and tasted its layer of compost on his tongue. It slicked down his throat, and he fought the gag reflex growing in his chest and let his magick through his nose. Mist puffed into smoke when the bloody webs in his throat turned to blooming ash. He threw his foot into the ground. How much longer can we take? I don't have the time. His fingers wound around the sheathe attached to his belt when he adjusted his crescent blade, rolling out of his temporary sleeping spot at the first sign of the sun through the trees. Days of travel, they came closer to the steppes which separated Dyrin from Haneka. Quick shortcuts, a dangerous game, but he played one each day he breathed. Everything will... right itself once I am home.

Adara curled underneath a low-hanging branch, her bag full of useless books tucked around her arms. Nearby, the last watch through the night, Fenrer, who took a spot closest to the wards woven through the trees. Let us see if he's asleep or I'll be the one dragging him. He left Adara underneath her shelter to kneel beside Fenrer, leaning over to get a better look at his face. Shame replaced the webs in his stomach when he tossed their charge through space without thinking to aim — no time against the monster — no time against time. He dug his fingers into his palm, but relaxed the tension to give Fenrer a poke on his spine.

Fenrer's lips pursed, and Yuven gave him another prod.

"I'm awake, Yuven," Fenrer said and rolled over.

"The question is if you were ever asleep," Yuven grumbled. "It's morning and sooner we reach steps, better for us."

Fenrer drew his gaze to the sky of soft blues sprayed with the same golden hue of Maria's hair. "Barely." He sat up without the wincing of the previous days, but he gave one soft rub of his back. "I noticed you diverged your path a bit. I was expecting us to take the road through the marshes, not around it."

"You said it was storm season — and what with our..." Yuven clenched his jaw. "Detours — this would be faster and would keep our schedule in place. We go around the marshes when we can and get to road you pointed out at Fallholt. Unless there is some other thing you wish to do that would require me taking more detours. Please, let me know, I love scenic routes." Yuven scoffed and stood. "As long as we get close to the Hanekan Steppe today, Fenrer, I do not care."

"I don't mind," Fenrer said. "Are we moving now?"

"Of course. I don't wish to dawdle around here longer. We've had fortuitous luck to avoid Derelicts, I don't expect that to hold for long." Yuven glared at the sleeping shape of Adara. "We'd be moving a lot sooner If some of us would wake up at a proper time." He sent his heel into the ground and a wave of wind blasted Adara in the face, and her arms flailed in shock and she released a gasp of surprise. "We're leaving, Sazaka."

Adara brought her hand down her nose and scrambled to her feet before dusting off her linens. "Do you have any better way to wake someone up?" she questioned and swung her bag over her shoulders. "Something less intrusive than sending air into my face?"

"It woke you up, I say it works well," Yuven remarked as Fenrer lifted himself off the grass.

It took too long for Adara and Fenrer both to become alert and follow him out of the area, taking down wards he threw into the canopy to divert their presence of any Derelicts around them. Adara yawned behind her hand and shuffled along with the pace of a snail. It grated on the nerves in his chest and stifled the medication he, without fail, took each morning and night. He dug his fingers against his rib cage and longed to rip out his lungs to free himself of the corrupted contagion in his entire body, in the flow of his soul.

"Where are we going?"

And yet, it'd never get rid of the annoying buzzing between his ears.

"We're taking a Storm Track," Yuven replied.

"And what's that?"

Questions, questions, I know what book to give her the moment we reach Euros since she seems so determined to read herself into obscurity with fairytales. He followed the sun home, then sighed when the forest split. The painted mesa's of Dyrin disappeared back into the ground, with few dotting the landscape of blossoming trees. Patchwork lichen fell across the ravine they followed endlessly, where he guided them through an opposing path of the river to the sea. He examined the rock face, then found the little, ancient runes which formed a circle of movement, of ground and sky. "Would you like to do the honours, Fenrer?" He motioned his hand to the wall.

Fenrer took his place, and Yuven nudged Adara to give him space.

He brought both hands into a flat platform for his oath necklace. Green lit with a spark. It coiled around the wyvern and straight into the eyes. Colour flowed through the runes and rock grated against stone. Beside him, Adara let out a breath of amazement at a rather simple task for two Storm Wardens. It reached the top, and the crystal shone gold to drip throughout the rest of the lichen, and Yuven grinned when the hidden door cracked at a single point, and opened like a maw into the belly of a different beast. Fenrer let go of his necklace, then turned back to them with his own smile.

"This is a Storm Track?" Adara mused and hobbled over to the runes to brush her fingers into the divots.

"Look at what you can learn instead of trying to find all the answers in a book," Yuven said and walked into the tunnel. He waited until Adara came inside, then said, "Close it behind us."

"Wait, what?"

Fenrer touched the tips of his fingers to the wall, and the jaws of rock curled back into itself. Left in darkness, the world took on a monochrome colour where Adara's dark shape grasped at the darkness. "Are we expected to go through this without being able to see?"

"You can't expect Fenrer and I to do everything," Yuven said with a gasp. "Surely a powerful Anima such as you can manage a little magelight."

"The last time I did a magelight I had to have Fenrer help," Adara bit. "And I'm starting to question whether I'm as powerful as you say."

"I can do it—" Fenrer shuffled forward.

Yuven slammed his hand against Fenrer's wrist. "No, we cannot do everything for her." He came closer to Adara, who kept her hands out to the dark and stopped him from coming closer. "You have done it once. You can do it again. Simple as that."

"Is this really a time for a lesson?" Adara mumbled. "I thought you wanted to get this over with quickly."

"If you take too long, I can go back to what worked last time." Moisture flowed through his fingertips, and froze around his palm.

Adara scowled and turned her back to them without moving her arms. Palms up, silver worms wriggled in the air. It fell into broken embers along her fingertips — a truth, power. It gathered into a burning tempest small enough to fit into the palm of her hand. Tendrils curled around her hand. Tension wracked her shoulders when it grew. Her fingers curled into the flames, but she refused to move forward, to take the leap when it returned to a pitiful flame, unable to heat up the smallest snowrose and give it light in the dark.

"It'd help if you could see what you're doing," Yuven pointed out.

"I don't need your commentary." It spat in her hands.

Fenrer eyed him in uncertainty, but Yuven ignored him to place his hands against his back, leaning closer to Adara. In his peripheral vision, Fenrer let out a soundless sigh of defeat and rested his forearm against his chest. Faint golden light shimmered with his Oathbound as the anchor and created a veil of protection.

"Oh, please," Yuven hissed through his teeth, drawing out the word in the song. "You aren't feeling the magick, or hearing it in your heart. You are trying to detach yourself from it, from the power you wield." He came closer to the barrier which kept him from the growing inferno. "Many would kill for what you have within. Many have. You want to show that you're capable of being more than a monster?" He drew in the moisture and readied his own shield. "The Conclave will need more than what you've given us. So, Adara, you can light up this tunnel, or drown in the dark the obscura brings."

He grinned when Adara swung her fist around to slam it against the golden shield. It exploded into a fireball and scattered patches of flames at her feet. Annoyance and agony both folded her brow when she gathered herself and stepped back from him. "I'm not you," she growled through despair. "I don't know what it is but it just... it either refuses to come or it ends up like this." Adara lowered her gaze to the scorched ground. "If all I'm capable of is destruction then..." In the silence, she wrapped her arms around her sides with a shake of her head. "I don't know what you expect to happen when we reach Euros."

Fenrer lowered the barrier and the silver fumes crashed against the roof and slipped into the rocks to return to the flow. It followed the path the storm left in its wake, to create images along the walls of great battles fought and won. Crescent blades shone silvery gold to strike the crimson gems dug within the walls. Yuven stepped into the light it created to lead the way down the tunnel. "If that's all you see in your magick, of course that's all you'll get in return," he pointed out at the edge of colour. "I meant it when I said it was a confidence issue, Adara. If you allow others to dictate the meaning within your magick, it is not yours — and that makes you dangerous." He shrugged his shoulders and continued through the tunnel. "Do not bow to such things." He came to a stop in front of another shimmering gold crystal. "Or else they will crack your knees so you can never stand again with pride." Interlaced with ice, white flames lit through the runes and he tore through the force of his glyph to open the doorway out of the shortcut. Lichen moved for him when the flames gathered in his palms, and he threw them to the stone braziers outside.

Hippogryph statues held the bridge to the next part of the path. Wind roared through the deep canyon, where the river greeted them from far below. Chills crept through the hollowness of his feathers, and he headed to the wooden bridge. "Once we cross this, we'll be close to the Hanekan steppes. We won't have anything to stop us on the way, they have not been settled for so long. I hope you've saved your rations, this is when we'll need them." He stopped underneath one of the hippogryph statues to rest his hand against the plaque, brushing off the dirt stuck to the flattened metal.

Adara tugged on the rope with a frown. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"We use these paths because they're safe," Yuven grumbled.

"I don't mean the path itself, you ass," Adara said, then waved her hands. "I meant the bridge."

Yuven stood at the edge, where the wooden planks fell in a line, close together and tied into the knots of the rope. "I see nothing wrong with it."

"I think one of the planks rotted." Adara pointed to somewhere in the middle.

Yuven followed her indication, but tsked at her. "Are you afraid of heights? It is okay to admit that — not everyone enjoys the wind in their hair."

"Why don't you go check then?" Adara clung onto the claws of the hippogryph.

"I would, but I'm the rearguard."

"Nice excuse. You closed the entrance behind us, remember? I'm not stupid." Adara sniffed. "I'm not afraid of heights, I just don't enjoy the idea of falling to my death."

"I'm sure you'd be dead long before you hit the ground, Sazaka."

Fenrer squeezed past them without another word. He took each step in stride across the planks. Wind pushed the ropes, and Adara crawled closer and grabbed onto them. He reached the middle plank which legends stated to be rotted, standing on it with a careful placement of his boot. Another tremble of the canyon's wind, he nodded and turned  to them. "It's alright. It holds."

Yuven nudged Adara onto the bridge to catch up to Fenrer before checking over his shoulder to the tunnel. Adara's silver flames died with her departure, and the stories untold took the light into the gemstone. Flames of white coiled and dragged the doorway closed. Onto the bridge, he followed Adara, who kept both hands on each side of the rope until they reached Fenrer. The world howled, through the wind and through the water below which carved its own path through the hidden ravine. Sunlight dripped through the willows on the edge, a shuddered song left on the breeze with the creak of the bridge's boards, and the distant cry of a hippogryph.

Her uncertain footsteps shook the rope, and she glanced over the edge each time with a wince of caution. Yuven folded his arms at her slug movements, though a slug would be faster on a bridge it suspected to be 'rotting away'. "You know," he said and pressed his fingers into his knuckles. "I'm afraid we haven't discussed an important lesson 'ere we left." His sharp fangs slid over his lips, and fear's taste laced his tongue when Adara stopped and eyed him from over her shoulder. "It's a vital lesson in sword-work and magick, and I can't believe it slipped my mind."

Among so much.

It was Fenrer's turn to give him the same, over the shoulder glance.

"I'm sure you can enlighten me when we're off this death trap," Adara mumbled and dragged herself along the rope, forcing Fenrer to continue when the distance between them became larger.

"Why wait?" Yuven raised his arms, resting the tips of his fingers underneath the rope she clung onto for dear life. "I say there's no better opportunity than your 'death-trap'."

Glyphs of airy ice wrapped around the ropes. A shiver coiled into a spring, and launched itself down both sides. Adara's scream of shock broke the willow's song when the rope bridge shuddered and trembled. He swung his back into his side of the rope, following the wind, and predictably, Fenrer tried to balance the other, creating the momentum to swing around the planks. It tipped, and he let himself rest on the other rope, shimming along as Adara clung onto dear life with the groan of the bridge. Light flashed in the stone hippogryph's eyes, sending a counteractive pulse through the bridge, steadying them over the drop of death. Left with nothing but the rock of a lullaby, he chuckled when Adara glared at him, brown hair flyaway.

"Are you mad?" she asked.

"What's wrong, Sazaka?" Yuven asked and twisted with the bridge, forcing it into one more swing for good measure. "You honestly thought a Storm Track would be so easily bested by someone... trembling it?" He wriggled his knees, and the planks followed him and caused Adara to flatten herself against the bottom.

"Yuven..." Fenrer said from the front.

He needed to find amusement in the little things. He straightened himself out to take a step forward.

It pulsed crimson.

It washed across his eyes and blurred the stone guardians he found solace in.

He found his grip on the rope and his brow when the crimson drained into his stomach.

"You made yourself dizzy?" Adara questioned with her own scoff.

And never knew time's cruelty.

He raised his head into the sweating bucket of stale air, where Adara's smug expression gave way to one of confusion. Fenrer sidled past her and rested a hand on his shoulder the moment his knees sank to the planks, shivering with his own shaky limbs. "Adara," Fenrer said. "Get to the other side. I need room."

"I'm fine, Fen," Yuven said while the colour, the song, drained out of his ears and into his neck.

Not here. Not now.

His fingers dug into Fenrer's back, and he longed to drive his fangs into his own lips when Fenrer winced, but never faltered. Never hesitated in reaching his hand out through the dark. "Yuven, you took your medicine, right?"

"Of course I did," Yuven said and rested his brow into his hand. "Maria would not let me hear the end of it if I did not." Fenrer lifted him back onto his feet. "I do not think..."

He couldn't think at all.

Guided over the planks, one by one. Step by step over patches of ice. He struggled to lift his feet off the ground, off his uncertain foundation. In the shadow of another, whose own steps were light, graceful, and oh so sure, leading him to the end. Crimson washed the scene in blood, but when he stumbled, Fenrer and Neven both caught him, and taught him how to take each step at once. He came so close to the edge — so close to the goal, and his end.

Adara waited on the other side between the two guardians of life.

Knees against rock, he breathed deep and dug his hands into the lichen.

To remind himself.

He was alive.

A ghost with skin.

"Maybe we should stop?" Fenrer asked, and reached his hand out.

Again and again.

Yuven hauled himself off his knees, and almost stumbled backwards had Fenrer not placed a hand to block his descent. "No, not until we leave the track," he mumbled through his bubbling chest. "I need to see the steppes before we allow ourselves rest." He took the lead once more, though found himself lacking the strength to open the maw of the world. Resentment steamed his nose when Fenrer provided the way instead. Footsteps scurried across dust and pebbles, and it slid closed behind them. I took the medication, Myl'la... what am I to tell you if I get that far? That it lost its effectiveness, though you stayed through many nights to find something which once worked? He sighed when they left the exit of the track, or an entrance for those who came from where they headed.

You might as well dig deep into my soul and burn it to ash.

It pulsed and teeth grew at the edges of his view, black as rot.

"Fen," he said when the forest began to break into the horizon.

Fenrer turned, but the teeth drove into his pupils, and washed the world in tar.