YUVEN

Ink swam along the world and through the cabinets and shelves full of phials of a rainbow of liquids. Along the bottom of those on display, the ingredients and dosages. On the ends, essences hung on racks, the soft glitter of magick bouncing at the bottom. He brushed the white strands of hair sticking to his brow as he leaned in a lounge chair, with Adara on his other side, a steaming cup in her hands as she was left in a daze. A flowery scent stifled the air, and he heard bubbles from a cauldron pop from behind the long desk which separated them from the back area. Ugh. The universe is toying with us now. He set his elbow against the arm of the chair and stretched out his feet, listening to the snow beat on the thick window panes. Tomes filled the bookshelves shoved into the corners of the room, and the soft firelamps embedded into the ceiling hummed with a flame ward. His energy waned when the person who swiped them from the clutches of the blizzard came from the small staircase behind the desk, wiping their hands. Prickles of unease swept through him when they stopped in front of him and Adara.

"I see you two have come around," they said with a distinct frostlands accent. "The one that was in the most severe condition has not yet come from slumber." They folded their cloth over their arm, and their feathers smoothed out. "You two are Storm Wardens."

Yuven dug his fingers into the couch. "Yes."

Everyone had a problem with Wardens one way or another. Either a harsh reminder of the reality they lived, or clung to a history long past. A tight exhale left their nose, and they said, "Well, whatever you are and why you were even out there during a night where the blizzard is at its worst..." They drew up a seat. "I am Dimaia."

"How is my friend?" Yuven whispered, causing them to turn to him.

"I'll know for sure once I've done a couple things," Dimaia observed. "I advise you two to rest, or use the sauna in the basement to warm yourselves up. You three are lucky." Hands against their knees, they lifted themselves out of their chairs. "You had no supplies, no warming potions. I thought Storm Wardens would be more prepared."

"It's a long story," Yuven drew out. "May I see my friend? He's my Oathbound and I need to make sure he's well."

"He isn't well, young one," Dimaia pointed out with a frown. "And he needs peace and quiet. But, if he is your Oathbound, then you may come in with me, but try not to get in the way or make too much noise. I can only help him if I get the full picture."

"I'll be right back," he said to Adara, who nodded. Out of the chair, his knees shook with the exertion. Underneath the small doorway, he clambered down the steps behind Dimaia, resting his hand against the wall to support him from further collapse. Walls trapped him in a cell of his own making, too close to another Avaerilian whose motives they kept close to their chest. At the end of a long corridor, they slid open a door and waved their hand for him to enter first.

Fenrer laid flat on his back on a low table meant for patients. Airstones hovered in the small divots by his head. Impassive, Fenrer's shallow breathing revealed the truth of his peaceful facade. Yuven stifled a sob behind his hand, cursing his weakness. I let you go, and this is the result... why did you chase me? Maybe you should have stepped aside. Maybe there was another way. Off to the side, Dimaia headed to the alchemy station dug into the stone wall, slipping instruments out of marked cabinets. His body drew him closer to the starlight connection between their souls, and he loomed over Fenrer, who gave no response to the change in environment. We don't have the luxury of anything. Frustration drove his fangs into his tongue and he turned to the alchemist who slipped an alembic into the glass pipe. "Why are you helping us?"

Confusion flicked their ears. "I am not in the business of just letting people who... fall into town to die out in the streets." Dimaia unhooked a small tube and slipped a thin needle on the end. "Now, I need you to tell me where he is from."

"Why?" Yuven got in the way between them and Fenrer.

"Because I am not used to treating sunlanders." Dimaia stood there with the sharp needle in their hands. "Our physiology is not so similar that I can just throw what I usually do at those suffering from snowfever." A soft, indicating chirp left their lips and they raised both eyebrows.

"Haneka."

"I see. Half-giant."

"Does he look like a giant to you?" Yuven whipped his hand at Fenrer.

"He is a giant in magick for certain." Dimaia nudged him out of the way, and Yuven sniffed and scooted off to the side, near Fenrer's head. "His physiology will be tougher to get anything going in his system. So yes, young one, half-giant. I need to know these things." They spun out a cotton bandage from the cabinet over Fenrer. With a swift cut of ice through the bindings. "Dare I ask what you three were doing wandering out in the blizzard?"

"No." Yuven narrowed his eyes at them when they examined Fenrer's arm, drawing two fingers down to his elbow, before wiping it with a damp pad. "What are you doing?"

Their feathers fluffed and they peered at him without a response, and Yuven lurched when they slipped the needle through his skin without a sense of caution or care. He came closer, ready for a fight, but they slammed their foot into his, and he stumbled. "You need to sit down, young one, it hasn't escaped my notice that you are unwell," they hissed. "You won't be helping him or yourself any by hovering over me."

"Then what are you doing," Yuven asked.

"I need to take his blood." Dimaia shook their head and finished up and wrapped Fenrer's arm. "Confirm what I already suspect." Once they were out of his way, Yuven returned to his vigil as a shield, taking a seat beside Fenrer.

"What is it you suspect?"

They set the blood phial into a safer container, sealing it. "Just from a cursory examination while you and the other sunlander were recovering," Dimaia muttered and wiped their hands once more. "Pnemonia, and little one, I don't think I need to tell you that if you three go back out there while that one is suffering from that affliction—" Their words drifted off their tongue, they sighed. "He will die, you must know this." In front of him once more, they folded their arms. "Even with someone of his physiology helping him to last as long as he must have out there, it is not infallible, and the blizzard does not show mercy to those who are not born of this place, let alone us." Feathers upright, they exhaled and cleaned off their station. "I will know for certain once I've examined his blood and how long it'll take for him to recover from this — one last question."

Yuven gave up and nodded.

"Is there anything else I should know that may have prompted this?"

Yuven tasted his guilty defeat. "He drowned, I don't know how long ago but he did." He held his hand out, and Fenrer's fingers slipped out of his and the misty jaws swallowed his best friend. "It probably doesn't matter at this point. Just... I'll be fine, the girl out there will last for much longer — I just want him taken care of before us."

Dimaia narrowed their eyes. "For that, he must stay here and not go back out there. I have extra beds for you and the sunlander," they said, then rolled a screen across the alchemy station. "If that is your wish, I will not press the matter, unless there is something you're not telling me."

Yuven lowered his chin to his chest. "I think that's it," he lied and tucked his notebook close to his chest. "Go check on the other one. I'm fine."

Dimaia nodded and left the room. He leaned against the tough chair and bounced a myriad of curses appropriate for the situation in front of him. Fingers against the bridge of his nose, he rubbed it and checked on Fenrer once more, who continued to breathe with the pulsating air stones on either side of his head. Adara's crimson shawl tucked around his neck for the added protection from the elements sprawled across his shoulders. "I'm such a fool." Yuven bounced his head off the edge of Fenrer's bed. Punishment for his incapability at the simplest of duties. He toyed with his leather straps and poked the corks of his medication, waiting for a reprieve from the universe who taunted him with one immutable truth.

Death followed him.

Everywhere.

He straightened out when Fenrer stirred with a soft groan. "Fenrer." Yuven got out of the chair and loomed over him when his eyes fluttered open. "Are you with me?"

"What happened? Why aren't we still walking?" his voice came out weak and the lowest of tidal Hanekan. He twisted his head around and scanned the room, but Yuven stopped him before he wasted more energy asking inane questions.

"We stumbled on a settlement," Yuven answered what must have been on his mind, and Fenrer sucked in his lips. "What do you remember?"

"Nothing." Fenrer squirmed in place and held his arms out straight. "We need to move."

An echo of himself. "Fenrer, for once... no," Yuven said through his teeth. "No. You can't. You need to rest. You have come from Haneka after almost drowning, which I still don't understand how you lived — to come into the one place that would make you worse just to rescue us." Tears wet the edges of the room, but he pushed them down. "What am I to tell Neven if something happens to you?" He loomed closer. "That you died and I couldn't do anything? That I was the reason for it?"

Fenrer blinked. "Reason?"

"I did this to you."

"No you didn't."

"Fenrer."

Fenrer frowned. "Yuven, you didn't do this to me. You didn't throw me off that cliff, I had to let go of you," he whispered and prodded his side. "You were the one chance Adara had at that point and I couldn't drag myself up you know that." Fenrer's breath came out tighter, but held up his hand when Yuven opened his mouth to stop him from the waste of energy better spent elsewhere. "It was my choice, Yuv, what was it you said to me back in Tebora on that hillside?"

Details shimmered away. "I think I said... that it is my choice to bear, not yours?"

"That I wasn't to blame for something they did to themselves?" Fenrer finished with a soft sigh. "It's the same thing for you, Yuven. You cannot blame yourself for something I chose to do." He flinched with a swallow, then added, "Whatever happened wasn't your fault we couldn't have known what would come after." Dampness soaked Fenrer's cheeks, though he struggled to tell whether it was sweat or his own tears. "Yuven?"

"Yes?"

Fenrer took in a slow inhale. "I think..." the words slipped past his barely open lips. "I think I just need to close my eyes for a little while. I overdid it back at the palace. But once I do we're going to keep moving and get you back home; out of here."

"I'm sorry for attacking you." Yuven choked down a squeak of fear in his voice. "You probably wouldn't be like this if I had just seen the obvious but I thought..." His excuse fell on the tip of his tongue, and he held the sides of his head instead. "I saw something that wasn't you before my memories got split apart, and now I don't want them." Chains clacked against stone. A pitiful, hungry moan filled the shadows nearest his bed, zoned in on his own tray of food. Moments stretched on and flayed his skin asunder for his compassion. "I can't even tell if they are... the full details or if I'm just filling in blanks. I'm going to lose them again anyway, just like with all of my memories until I finally lose my name."

"I can..." Fenrer lifted his hand.

"Don't even think about it," Yuven snapped and slapped his hand back down, and Fenrer placed it on his chest. "I will deal with it myself. You need to sleep, not throw your powers at the problem like you are a hammer and my mind needs a nail. You do have a bad habit of that, Fenrer." Yuven drew his hand off of Fenrer, then said, "I can wait for you."

Fenrer smiled, soft but weak. "You weren't so keen on waiting when we were on the road to Haneka?"

"And look where my rushing got us," Yuven pointed out and hauled himself out of the chair, and Fenrer followed him with his lackadaisy gaze. "Stay there, and take whatever this alchemist gives you."

Spirals danced with examination. "You don't trust them."

"I don't trust anything about this place, but once more I don't have a choice." Yuven swallowed bile. "Adara and I will be nearby, but if you want us to move, you're going to have to sit still for a while."

"I can't believe you're the one saying that to me." Fenrer folded his arms across his stomach, but his smile softened further. "We could've just kept going. I would've—"

"Died," Yuven interrupted, and Fenrer's smile went first. "You would have died, and you will die if I push you through that again. We are here, in a... safe place." he drew out his disbelief. "I advise you to take the chance for a reprieve from the blizzard because once we do get moving we're not going to get anymore of it."

Fenrer tilted his head to the side, his cheek pressing into the crimson shawl. In the disoriented silence, he drew his fingers through the fabric. "Isn't this Adara's?" He traced the trimmings, then dropped his hand back down to the patient bed.

"I assume so." Yuven scoffed when Fenrer slowly undid her gentle work in protecting him from the elements. "What are you doing?"

Fenrer drew out a sharp breath when he tugged it from around his shoulders with a gentle hand, then held it out to him. "It's her mother's, Yuven."

Yuven looked from the shawl to him. "She's the one that gave it to you."

Fenrer squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away from him. "Just need quiet..."

Noted. Yuven took the shawl from his limp hand, and he dragged it back against his side. "You need a lot more than quiet, right now, don't push yourself. I don't even want you thinking about it." He sent a soft smack into Fenrer's shoulder, biting down on a grin of pain at his lackluster response to the strangeness of Hanekan affection. Godsdammit. Yuven folded the shawl in the silence of his best friend, and left the room behind.

So much for not being distracted.