ADARA

The mead hall of Sivaport castle boasted a splendor of colorful banners which detailed all the stewards of Haneka. Between each, painted bucklers and shields, crossed with swords and axes hung between them.

On the farthest wall, a banner woven gray, with a dragon, black as night with eyes full of burning coals sewn into the coarse fabric. In front of it, Reyn took his seat, on equal ground to all who attended. Brick shielded the hearth which sat in the middle of the massive tables. Flames flickered under the long cooking spit, a vast array of meats being spun lazily by magitek runes attached to the handles. It sizzled and seared, and Adara sat quietly on the edge of the bench she sat on, with Fenrer beside her, ignoring his plate of mashed tubers and meats. Though the mood was jovial and free, Fenrer's dour face overshadowed it, along with Yuven's notable absence from his complaints and ceaseless scoffing at the sight of politics.

Yuven Traye, you better keep to your word. Adara chewed on her own food in thought, not having found the time to bring up what magick Yuven and her performed to Fenrer — a dangerous cycle to continue and she learned the lessons of the last. "I need to talk to you after this."

"What about?" His tone came out clipped, with a layer of uncertainty when he shoved his knife into the breaded breast of meat in front of him. After a moment, he cut into the breast to take a hesitant bite and a side-eye in her direction. His Auric Blinder rested around his neck, entangled with his wyvern necklace, whose tail and claws wrapped around a crystal of icy greens.

"Yuven."

Fenrer drove his knife deeper into the breast at his resounding name. "We talked."

Oh, I guess that's one less thing I should worry about... Adara leaned closer to him. "About what?"

"Nothing and not for long," Fenrer replied with another bite of his meat platter, not quite meeting her in the eye. "He's fairly busy." The unspoken hung between them, but he drove his knife deeper into his food with a quiet huff. "I know you said you'd help, but... the longer this goes on the more I think that maybe it can't be helped except through time." All around them, the Hanekans enjoyed their days, but they sat in their quiet, darkened mood of a corner, with Fenrer all but despondent. "I also have things I need to handle — for King Reyn."

"Fenrer, you two need to talk to each other... which goes into what I really wanted to talk to you about," Adara insisted.

Fenrer chewed on his food with an inaudible sigh which left his chest, indicating with his fork. Though the information she carried bore naught the weight of his faith, she had enough of duplicity. "Earlier, I talked to Yuven about what's been going on with you two, and..." Her own fingers tangled around her cutlery, and her appetite dwindled into the obscura of her stomach. "We — alright, I'm not entirely sure what sort of magick we performed. He called it a..." Adara tapped her cheek with the handle of her fork. "A Song Oath? Oath Song? He said you'd—"

Before the rest of her sentence came out, Fenrer sucked in a breath — along with the food in his mouth. He steadied himself after a couple of concerned looks by the nearby Reyn and Gustul, though the two royals kept to their table and overheard any petitions brought their way. On equal ground. Not a king and commoners, but a leader to those who sought guidance. Adara put a hand on his back when he struggled to collect himself, and he asked in a rasp, "Why?"

"I wanted to give Yuven proper motivation — you know what an Oath Song is?"

Fenrer coughed a couple more times with a wave of his hands and a nod. "I'll-I'll tell you later, Ancients—" It was clear he bit on his tongue to stop the call to his broken faith, and he waved his other hand again with a pained snarl. "Tuhmthii... here's not the place to talk about this." He threw his cutlery down onto his half finished plate. The back of his shirt slipped out of her fingers when he dragged himself off the bench. "You can have the rest if you want. I'll see you when you come to bed." He scurried out of the mead hall, and she found herself alone again.

Although the reaction was far from rage-filled as Yuven predicted, it was clear Fenrer was thrown off-kilter by the Oath Song. Adara, not one to waste good food when so many struggled — when she once struggled to make ends meet for her, Jisa, and Garren, she finished off Fenrer's plate, which he had barely touched, after her own. Full to burst, she shambled out of the mead hall after a long drink of water, out into the warm corridors of the castle proper. A stark contrast between the palace of Volaris and the fortress of Sivaport, she wandered close to a high arch window to look out onto the sea, a sprinkle of wanderlust deep inside her soul with storied tales of warriors on the high seas. One of the few oral tales Garren told her as a young girl. Ones not filled with grim and gore, the reality she was dragged through. The memories of the Azahama feast burnt into her vision, but she continued on her way back to the council estates. On the morrow, it would mark a return to Sungrove since the last time she was in the haunted township; Fenrer's childhood home, with parents she would never get a chance to meet. Yuven's sharp words about royalty tramped into her mind, the chopping block pressed against her own neck.

Free from its steel kiss.

Inside the room again, she frowned at Fenrer's lack of presence, left alone with the dawnblade set upon the mantle above the fireplace, the fine drapery of the wolven sigil hanging over a painted shield. A soft allure drew her closer to it, to stare deep into her reflection within the amber gemstone laid into the center of the guard. Phoenix flames bounced underneath her skin when she studied the gleaming orange surface of the forged metal. Her elbow locked to reach for it, but she stopped when the doorknob twisted, and she faced the consequences.

Fenrer slipped inside without a word, heading straight for the bed.

"Are you angry at me?" she asked.

Fenrer shook his head as he went to his side, sorting through the drawers. "We're going to have to get up early tomorrow, so if there's anything you want to grab before we leave, let me know," he replied with a whisper. "I'm not going to be able to rest well tonight."

Adara let go of the strange allure to head over to him as he set his evening clothes on the bed. "You still have the hazebulbs," she said with a point at the secure box of medicine which sat on the end table nearest him, but he ignored her direction. "I know you think they don't work, but isn't it better than nothing?" Onto his other side to catch his gaze, he stared at the sheets instead. "You're going to have a lot to do tomorrow and over the next couple days." Her hand wrapped around his arm before he could take his shirt off. "You don't have to do this alone, you know." Stance relinquished, she let go of him and headed to the window while he changed. "What did you and Yuven talk about?"

"Nothing... though he didn't mention the fact you two performed an Oath song," he muttered.

"What is an Oath Song?" Adara peeked over her shoulder. Layers of old heat rose up to her cheeks when he took off his shirt to put on the fresh one with a shake of head. "Is it bad?"

"It depends on what terms you both made," Fenrer grumbled and rolled out his arms, from shoulder blade to wrists. "You said your terms were for him to talk to me?" His expression sharpened into disapproval. "You made an Oath Song just for that reason? I wouldn't call that motivating Yuven to fix things, I'd call that forcing him."

"It wasn't just for that," Adara admitted, and Fenrer straightened himself out. "I want to be a Storm Warden... and he agreed to train me. Also." Adara raised a finger. "An Oath Song was his idea. I suggested making a bet on gold, and he dropped that on me." His glare fell, and he smoothed out his evening shirt, but headed to the desk instead to sit in the chair. Quill in hand, he scratched at the parchment he abandoned last time. Far from sundown, Adara climbed into bed and tasted his old fury, a near miss, with the two Oathbound on the precipice. "I understand if you don't enjoy the thought, but it wasn't just because of you that I agreed to it."

"I know."

"And with how Yuven is, maybe forcing him is the only way."

Fenrer curled his lips into his teeth and failed to respond to her. "If you say so. If you think that is best. Clearly, I don't know him as well as I think I do."

"Fenrer." Adara leaned over on his side of the bed to get closer to him. "There is no one in this world that knows him better than you do. You once told me you knew each other since you were kids. You have been Oathbound for longer than you two have known me. Doesn't that count for something?" Adara scooted to sit on the edge, to listen to him. "Not that I... completely fathom what an Oathbound connection is, I've tried to read up on it but the information is... lacking, so to speak." Smile on her face, it fell when Fenrer's gaze flicked downwards. "There's still a lot I don't know, Fen."

"I know." Fenrer dipped the quill into the inkwell, but left it sitting there after a long second of frozen movement. "I hurt him, Adara. I hurt him just as much as he hurt me. That day on the cliffs?" He tilted away from her with a shake of his head. "What did I do to him? He needed me. He begged for me to fight, but what I did instead was push him away and leave him to fight all by himself." His fist clenched against the desk, a wolven snarl starting to form on his cheeks. "Which led to him getting tortured by Blackwall, by an Aurus, creating a vicious cycle I never meant to form." He lowered his head again, closer to his chest. "Yuven always told me I'd get us both into trouble just because I couldn't ignore someone's plight." His fingers dug into the edge of the table, a shift overtaking his entire body. "And now lately it just feels like my heart is being flayed down to the muscle." Curled in on himself, he took in a shaky breath. "He never wanted this, Adara. He didn't want to be Oathbound... I convinced him otherwise."

Adara furrowed her brow. "From what I understand of Oathbound, both parties have to want it on a soul level."

Fenrer shook his head. "They aren't as permanent as some believe. It's just... there's consequences for breaking them. Just like for breaking an Oath Song. Both are considered 'soul' magick. Magick which touches the deepest flow of Magickae — highly regulated, but not illegal. But when damage is done there... there's no going back from it. Any magick concerning 'blood' and the 'soul' are dangerous branches to mess with. Look at what happened in Azahama." A torn smile grew on his face. "Look at what happened to Yuven in Irimount. We haven't taught you something like blood magick because one, you don't need it, two... the result could be devastating to you and everything around you with your flow-touched magick."

Adara returned to her side of the bed at his continued silence. "He cares about you."

Fenrer put a hand over his heart, the palm protecting the necklace of his golden creed with a small shake of his head. "I don't know, Adara... every minute I feel the connection waning... and..." He dug his fingers deeper into his rib-cage. "I can't even tell if Yuven is feeling the same things I am — like it's not affecting him the way it's hurting me." He curled up again with a stare into the flickering candle. Embers coloured by morning dew spat out of it when Fenrer narrowed his eyes, but he released a weary sigh. "I don't want it to break."

"Then you both need to work." Adara pointed at him. "Good relationships require work." Her own frustrated sigh left past her lips, and she slumped into the bed. "Just... come lay down, Fenrer. You don't have to sleep, but you do need to rest somehow." She refused to relax until he joined her under the covers, cuddling into her in an instant. Her fingers carded through his dark hair, to comfort him and assure him.

Dusk took its toll, and she found herself slipping into sleep, and Fenrer was wide awake the last time she closed her eyes on him.