YUVEN

Everything always leads back to here. Irimount. Can I truly not escape this? I put it behind me — no, I can't even remember it, nor this place, nor anything. Not the streets. Not the towers. Not even my parents. Hazy images were what he was left with of their faces, with Neven Lotayrin taking up the mantle of the first thing he imagined when the thought of a parental figure crossed his mind. On either side of him, Fenrer and Adara followed him into the darkness and the door of death he committed them to — for the one Maria wouldn't let him cross when the Corruption consumed his magick and soul. Light pulsed around the rune when they brought them closer to the gamble. His attention slipped to Fenrer, his blood staining his hands through a gaping wound. And no sooner do you come back from death... I'm pushing you towards it again. With a heavy thump of responsibility, the archway opened, a veil of mist greeting them once more into the sepulcher. Crystal tombs lined the rock walls, while the river of pure essence continued to churn into the abyss which held an elementia crystal. Had Evyriaz not gotten in the way and it too was corrupted...

Glyphs of ice spread out from his feet when he tread the path of crystalline water. Bioluminescent lichen lit up against the walls with endless snow. Its white-touched roses opening to a bloom. Cascades poured out of the crevices in sparkled tandem. In the center of the cavern, the same, irritating platform with the sword in the ice.

The Snow Prince's tomb.

A rainbow sheen fluttered over the cavern river of flow-touched essence and the echo of their world. Onto the steps, he headed to the stuck sword — a waste of good metal when he creeped to the edge. His lungs expanded, and then he released the power of a name. The only name Naveera ever answered to. "Euron Traye." It dropped into the pit of his stomach when two eyes, stormy gray in color lit up in the abyss before.

Rocks clattered deep below, and Yuven took a large step back when two horns of pure white revealed themselves with Euron's scaled muzzle.. Feathers poked between the scales, making his movements all the more muffled and silent. No longer the raging, corrupted beast, but still a being of immense power and pressure. It crushed into his own feathers, but he bowed to no one. He stepped back to Fenrer and Adara to give the wyvern space to climb onto the higher levels of the cavern. His tail swept through the essence, the rainbow scattering away from the graceful movement. Euron lowered his nose into the pool. Ice swept over it to still the tide, before drawing his nose out of it to consider them.

"Wardens of mine," Euron said without movement of his mouth. In their very minds. In their magick. One clawed wing gripped onto the platform, though it created no cracks. "Thou have come far. Wherefore are you here?" His Irimountain dialect proved hard to decipher — which left him the great communicator unless the wyvern deemed to speak even older Common.

"We're here to address what you did thousands of Turns ago," Yuven said, in Common, causing Euron to lower himself to his level. "For the sake of communication, these two don't understand Navei." He threw his thumb over his shoulder, though Fenrer pursed his lips and Adara raised an eyebrow. "You cast your body into Avae'londu, correct?"

"Avae'londu... thy world split." A misty plume exhaled from Evyriaz' nostrils, and Yuven stepped back from the force of expelled magick in the lungs. "You speak true, blood of mine. At the precipice of the Obscura, I cast mine body through the rifts, taking solace within Avae'londu." He folded his wings against his body to wind himself around them, with his layer of ice protecting the flow beneath.

"Wait—you mentioned the world split?" Fenrer took his own step forward with a concerned breath. "Evyriaz—" The reverence in his tone screamed out at him with his broken faith. "For a thousand Turns, the Storm Warden's fought against the Derelicts. We're here to pull you out of the Otherworld. You are of the living. You do not belong there, and the longer you are there, it risks the sanctity of that rift. The Echo Obscura could seep through and infect it. If you have any information about either, please tell us. Anything about the Derelicts. What even drove you to take such a risk? Is that not the equivalent of splitting yourself in two?"

Yuven studied Euron, whose feathers fluffed out. "Thy have the right of it, Molvasolevu." His tail curled. "But I am afraid of that split, I also shattered mine memories, the one individual I knew had all the information pertaining to such was Pyvonsomiir, and he — like everything else of which I knew, may be naught but ash — and though you state I do not belong in Avae'londu — nay, I do not belong in this world either. This world of a thousand Turns." Euron shook his head, the very motion sending wind into them. "To wit, is that why you are here? To tread the boundary to rescue my soul?"

Yuven looked at the other two, with Fenrer clenching his fists and Adara clearly doing work on the inside of her cheek. "I am going to use dreambloom to send these two into Avae'londu," he explained. "We don't have a lot of time. We are conducting a Cleansing March on a Goliath that's about a hundred Turns old. We do believe it's been feeding on a corrupted elementia crystal." Yuven met the wyvern head on. "You were protecting an elementia crystal yourself, were you not?"

Euron switched his vertical gaze to him. His silence spoke volumes, but his tail slid over the edge. In the darkness, light burst forth, and Yuven brought his arms up to his brow to shield himself from the resplendence when a crystal lifted itself out of it — a brilliant sapphire. It swelled his veins with magick at its proximity. Rainbow cascades dripped off of it, to rain down below. "Such is what I gave mine uncorrupted soul for," he replied. "If thou speakest earnestly — you may attempt to meet mine other half. But be warned, little ones... you can journey over the bridge, but seldom can one make the journey back without guidance. Find me. Discuss... and I shall send you outwards." Yuven opened his mouth to argue, but Euron lowered his nose further. "Thou must know the risk, Child of Space and Time. I will send them out — but thou must pull them back." Euron brushed his tail against the massive sapphire which bled out rainbows. "Thou can use the energy of this primordial — thine world split, you will not be able to accomplish the feat alone."

His argument died before he could start it. "Our entire goal is to get you out."

Euron tilted his head. Teeth slid out from his maw when he bared them — thought clearly not in threat. A feeble attempt at a smile. "Such is not the way of things, blood of mine. You wish to crack through the rifts, to provide support to you and yours? I am asleep — waking me up will draw enough that I can watch over Avae'londu with the Wardens of the Otherworld." Yuven frowned when Euron lifted his gaze to Fenrer, who frowned. "Thou must cross the bridge first... where thy sun rises and sets."

Yuven sighed and took a step back from Euron to return to the other two. "If he's speaking the truth, we have to shift plans. You'll still find him, but our main goal was also to cripple the Goliath from the other side of the Twilight Sea. We'll handle what happens after and hopefully they'll have found the elementia crystal in the gorge and destroyed it," he said. "The confluence of both powers should send a ripple through the Otherworld."

"Are you sure about this, Yuven?" Adara pressed.

"Must I repeat myself?" Yuven clenched his fists, then looked back at the wyvern. "Yes, I'm sure." If she had any more complaints, she didn't voice them. Yuven huffed. "We wait for Maria." His small pouch weighed heavy, the hot breath of the Goliath crawling over his skin and setting it aflame, with the screams of the damned and doomed echoing in his ears. It continued through the cavern by the time Maria arrived with supplies. 

Lanterns hooked on her belt with magelights bouncing within the flames, she held out two phials of oceanic blue liquid with a pitch black core. "Here's the final product," she said, lowering her gaze to the ice below, where the flow continued unabated. "I'll monitor you two carefully."

Yuven pressed his fangs into his lip and studied Fenrer and Adara, with Adara shaking in nervousness. Fenrer, however, had appeared to accept the situation. In the pale shadows, Euron released another plume of mist, inching his way to the edge of the cavern. He sat by the entrance with a rumbled movement, with Maria watching in subtle awe. It drove a wedge into his heart when Maria pushed the phials into their hands. "It may take a couple seconds to kick in, but I assure you it won't hurt. This is not death, but a pale imitation of it. Like going to sleep after a long day."

"We've had plenty of those," Adara grumbled.

"Myl'la," Yuven drew through his teeth.

"Yes?"

Teeth slid closer to block the sky, with Tix'snuv's own sudden burst of terror shooting straight through his heart. His fingers wound around the necklace, and he pulled it out. An icestone, carved with his own magick into the likeness of the nascent sun. He squeezed it in his palms to seek solace in her warmth, then held it out to her. Fenrer widened his eyes, Adara tilted her head, and Maria stared at it. Get it over with. "Maria," he said. "You have stood by my side for many Turns that no longer can I imagine life without you, short or not." His feathers folded against his ears when Adara's previous nervousness washed away into irritating glee. "Our lives... are short, but I would spend mine with yours for as long as we have them. I know this does not seem the time — but it also may be the only time..." He shoved his fangs into his lips again, then whispered, "Marry me?"

Maria cupped the icestone into her own hand, then lifted her head to him. "I was wondering when you were going to ask," she teased, then nodded, her other hand cupping his necklace of remembrance. "Of course, Yuven."

Yuven whipped his head to Fenrer and Adara. Any doubt washed out to be replaced with glee and joy. "Don't say anything. You still have a job to do — you can say what you will when you've returned."

"Can I get a hug if I survive?" Adara gasped.

Yuven scowled. "I'll think about it."

Maria let out a soft laugh, and in the corner of his eye, Euron had lifted his head. Everything and everyone in witness to his outreach for the happiness life tried to steal from him. And now I have to write a letter to Neven... His lips curled upwards, and he looked at the two to see them off.

"I'll take it first," Fenrer told Adara. "As an Aurus, I'll be able to guide you. I don't doubt Maria's master alchemical knowledge and now I need to needle Yuven about how long he planned that."

"Okay."

"I had to account for your giant's blood, so the dose is only slightly stronger, using a crushed seed of a snowrose," Maria explained when Fenrer downed it in one go.

Yuven crept up to Fenrer's side when Adara reached her hands out, though Fenrer remained standing to look at them both. "It tastes sweet," he reported.

"Interesting. I'll note that down. If you'd lie down..." Maria motioned. "Because in a couple seconds you may experience numbness in your limbs."

Yuven grabbed Fenrer when he went to sit down, though appeared to lose his balance. With Adara on his other side, the two lowered him to the ground, cast into the deathless sleep. Maria loomed over him, and he backed off for her to check his vitals. Fingers against his back. His wrist. Maria sighed, then nodded. "You two will be fine."

Adara sat down before taking it.

"Was it a difficult brew?" Yuven asked as he sat between them.

Maria held up a finger for him to wait as the effects took over Adara much faster than it had Fenrer. Until Adara joined his Oathbound in the same deathless sleep. Hazy images flashed in his mind with the manacles binding him to his nightmares, but he forced himself to gaze at Maria instead. "It was a little difficult," she admitted. "Not beyond my abilities, though. I had to start the brew time before the operation though, and then had to account for the lack of heat in Naveera." Adara's vitals checked over, he frowned when Maria sat in front of him. "They'll come back. You'll know when it's time."

Yuven nodded, allowing his concern to shove itself into his throat. "Would that I never had to ask them."

"Hold onto hope, blood of mine," Euron's song pierced through his feathers. "For the dawn must always come."