ADARA

Ten bells. He was only supposed to sleep for five.

Adara slipped past Wardens when they carried supplies into the storage houses detached from the Lodge. Gulls swooped around the distant masts of the Warden Galleon. Other, smaller fishing carves paddled across the gulf, but never left the border the two, giant statues set with their fronts towards the rising sun. Drawn to the Captain Offices, she opened the only occupied one, where Yuven sat behind the desk, a picturesque reminder of his authority when he flicked his gaze up at her with a quill in his hand and a parchment at his arm. His face betrayed no emotion, though his feathers thinned with a soft rattle when she came closer to the desk. He swiped a scroll out of the holder full of a variety of ribbon colors tied around each. Elementia crystals sat in a box on the edge of the table, shining bright with silver flames when she stopped in front of him. Cracks shuddered on the surface, but no longer did it explode into magma.

"What?" Yuven unfurled the scroll with a flick of his finger. Icy tangles tore open the wax seal and he read through it. "You have much better things to do than watch me do paperwork — like going with Fenrer to talk with the king since I am so capable in diplomacy I have been convinced to finish up the unanswered reports until I am to join you two." He poked the tip of his finger with his fang, though didn't pierce the sting when he took it away from the extra weapon Yuven didn't need before he continued writing. "Let's see. Derelict infestation on the border of towns. Swampers. Crimson bogs." He took another scroll. "Oh, my favourite." He bared his fangs. "Lost livestock or precious pets. Want to take these ones? They're always a joy." Yuven held it out to her, shaking it.

"I'll pass." Adara pushed her hands on the table when Yuven tossed the scroll into a marked basket behind him with other ribboned scrolls. "Also, Fenrer hasn't come out of his room. I think Maria is checking on him now." Thumb over her shoulder, she leaned deeper and forced him to behold her. "You are doing an awful job at fixing this."

"Paperwork needs to be done and he needs rest." Yuven dipped the quill in ink and moved onto the next scroll. "Things need to be delegated and not everyone is incapable of organization." He ruffled his feathers at her with his gaze trained on his work. "And I will not let anything slip through these cracks within the continent. I promised Neven I would find information and send it to him so he can do his work easier on Elvkana." Quiet, violet fury filled the fields of soft purples. "As much as I believe the world would be better off without monarchs and their own special brand of bloodthirst, it's important the cult doesn't get them for their ulterior means." He rolled up the next scroll to place it back into the rack. "Regretfully, that means protecting a king, but the preferential treatment isn't lost on me." Adara folded her arms when his nose curled. "All this has given is bloodshed, pain, and death to the common folk in their games. Quite frankly, I just want to destroy the board every time I see it."

Venom birthed in his face, and Adara stood her ground, but when she opened her mouth, he threw his hand at her. "Do not argue me — look at what 'King' Brien did to the magickae of Prunal on his word alone with metal peacocks to do his bidding no matter the random whim when drunk on power. He is one man, and they bleed like all the rest." He headed over to the weapon rack to grab the crescent blade, a plume of smoke leaving his lips. "If I am ever made to use my title and blood again, I will gut the person who caused the situation."

Adara raised her hands at his hair-trigger temperament. "Yuven, I didn't come to argue about royalty with you." Out of his way when he stomped past her and out of the office, she followed. "But you had to have learned from the King's Summit about what happens when you poke at these people with the power of kingdoms in their hands." Hands at her sides, she stopped when he whipped his head around with a quiet hiss. "This is not the time for a repeat."

"Well." Yuven released another wave of mist through his nose. "I doubt the next King's Summit will be very vital. One sovereign is already dead. We need to keep Reyn locked down — I quite frankly don't care about the Naveeran monarchy, the blizzard will finish them off, and they brought this upon themselves with Irimount. It is simply the consequences of their actions." He twisted to her with a firm nod. "Our goal is to convince Reyn to seek sanctuary on Euros until we've dug out the root of this cult if it has its claws in Haneka, and not before. I am not going to stay here forever as a glorified bodyguard. I am already a glorified pest exterminator to some and a symptom of everything wrong with the world and how doomed it is." He shook out his feathers, then headed down the rounded corridor to the foyer lit up by the skylight on the roof.

"King Reyn doesn't seem the type to abandon his people," Adara muttered.

Yuven slowed to a stop in the layer of mist. "If he has any sense of self-preservation and as is typical with monarchs who wish to keep their power, he will." He headed for the large doors into the Warden square, though pulled out a couple pieces of paper from his leather strap to slam them onto the dutyboard. He gave her no other venomous words when he stomped out of the grand foyer and left her alone in the windy silence and the crash of the ocean waves against the distant cliffs.

Ugh. Adara rubbed the bridge of her nose and switched her destination to the barracks. Sleepy Storm Wardens moved about the small kitchen area, but she went to the first door, unlocking it before slipping inside. Fenrer sat beside the window, looking out into the street where the lampposts glowed to pierce the evening fog in more comfortable attire, one leg crossed over the other with a book in his lap.

She went to declare herself, but Fenrer muttered, "You're a little hard to miss, Adara." He lowered his nose into his palm, but turned to her with a weak smile. "I'll be ready in a couple minutes."

"If you're still not feeling good, you don't have to go to the castle right this second," Adara pointed out.

"I'm better than I was on the way here." Fenrer overturned the wolven pin in his hands. An empty phial sat on the table beside him, the cork abandoned beside it. "I'm able to focus better." Tucked between him and the window, the dawnblade sat in glittered radiant embers. The fire in her skin skittered with the energy it extruded, but she ignored the allure of its forged perfection to head to him instead, and he followed her with the green swirls of his magick.

Aurae Crystallis. Adara mouthed the passages of the storybook of the rare, branded magick found in a Magickae's eyes. For when the world takes a breath, they can see. She grabbed the extra chair to sit next to him. "Do you need to talk?" Her hand slipped over his fidgeting one drumming on the table. "You've been under so much stress."

"Part of life," he said with a small wave of his taken hand, and Adara withdrew when he got up with a sigh. He gazed down at her, and the light of the lamps failed to reach the rivers of jade around his pupils. It rippled with the darkness in her own heart, the one she tore out of in Prunal, lost and all alone without the truth. His hand drifted across the black band wrapped around his arm, tracing the auric insignia. "As Yuven would say. No point complaining about it... it won't stop being a thing just because I whine that it's not fair. Words do nothing. Action does... as I have been suitably punished for ignoring that fact." He let go of his own forearm, swiping the dawnblade before he shuffled past her to the trunk of clothes in the corner. Heat rose into her cheeks when he opened it before preparing the armor of gray leather each of the Warden's wore. He held the gambison close to his chest, before flattening it out. "Don't mind me, though. I'm fine."

"Lying..." Adara muttered.

Fenrer squeezed his brow. "Fine, I am not, my Oathbound hates me." He twisted away from her to grab a linen shirt. "And now... I have to deal with the fact that... I'm..." He faltered, and Adara sucked in her lips when he slipped his old shirt off. "The Lord of Sungrove," he finished without looking at her. "After casting my father's soul into the Obscura." He gently folded the top before donning on the linen one. "What existence is the curse? One trapped in a rotted corpse with only one desire in mind, or... to be soul food for Derelicts?" He tied up the strings of his shirt, his figure shaky when Adara studied him, a threat of the previous bells which expelled out of his mouth and she resisted the urge to gag herself for her empathy, though Yuven remained stone cold and unaffected while all else cringed and folded. Adara waited for him to change before drawing out of the chair when he got to his actual armor. He set the silver chain around his belt, wrapping his eye cover around it for extra security. The Derelict Resonator remained silent when he hooked it onto the chain with the moonwatch. Her fingers found his arm when he smoothed out the leather straps, and he turned to her with a question on his lips.

Adara grasped his arm for security and warmth. "Does it have to be you?"

"Yes? Heiise Reyn already said the people of the Goldwood will only listen to a Pyren... of which I'm the last one alive," Fenrer checked the rest of his gear, but let her check on the phials along the ridge of the leather strap meant for his carrying gear. Circuitry whirred in his Runic Expanders when he tightened them around his wrists. "And... I don't want Yuven to have the same struggle he did before when it comes to kings." He avoided her at the mention of his Oathbound, drawing out of her reach to grab his crescent blade. He stared down at the creaky floorboards. "I'm already losing him, I'd rather not speed up the process."

"Fenrer, you have to talk to each-other." Adara chased him into the darker side of the room. "It's only going to get worse between you two if you keep this up. You need to communicate and you need to stop breaking yourself for other people." She slipped in front of the door when he tried to leave, and he squinted. "I promised to you both that I would help fix it but I can't fix it for you. You both need to listen to each-other, even if it's agonizing to do so because you're so worried about how you'll both react."

"Are we talking about the same Yuven?"

"You're the one who said his social skills are lacking." Adara raised her hand to his mouth when he opened it with narrowed eyes. "Essentially."

Fenrer shrugged his lean shoulders. "I am... not wrong."

"So..." Adara drew out. "I know what's going on hurts, that he said some awful things and I won't make excuses for him because his emotional capacity is overridden by his need to make everything a fight to strategize around—" Her hand wound around his neck. "But he does care about you. He is awful at showing it but he does."

I don't just believe... I know that.

Fenrer frowned when her thought tread the twilight boundaries. "I'll try and talk to him after I've had this meeting with Reyn. Only after though, we need to make sure Reyn knows what's at stake." He reached for the handle, but stopped himself when she brought herself closer into his space. Her lips brushed against his cheek when he turned his head around. Skin warm, she rubbed his temples, and the tension in his shoulders left. "I believe my seasickness has passed though. It made it difficult to focus and sort through all the auras, but I promise." He squeezed her fingers. "On that front, I am better. If it worsens, I have the eyecover." He patted the fabric wound around the silver chain.

"Is there any way I can help?"

Fenrer shook his head with a smile. "Remember when I said you're hard to miss? Your aura often swallows all others," he reminded her. "With that... you do plenty without even realising you do."

A soft, gentle ripple of flames tickled her cheeks at his words, and she embraced him. He returned it with a long breath before drawing away too soon, reaching for the handle and leaving the room. Adara hesitated, too long in the darkness before finding her wits to go after him.

He's right, we need to make sure another Azahama doesn't happen... and not just another Azahama.

Another Irimount.