YUVEN

Ice bit at his wrists from where the manacles locked him in place. Teeth cracked against his jaw with the deep hunger of a derelict beast. His feathers pricked his ears with the stiff chill in the air, but the rust swelling in his lungs stole the sunlit heat from his heart. Vengeance roared, but fatal pressure came in on all sides. Nails dug into the bed of his palm, he tried to make himself bleed, though blood magick wouldn't help him anymore.

Oh, Myl'la... I was so close to arriving home, to you... Tears crystallized on his cheeks, but he refused to kneel to anyone who sought to put him in chains. Molvisaliz... Bond broken, he adjusted so his back sat against the craggy rock walls of the gaol. Oath stolen. Blade hidden. Armor ripped off his body when he awoke in the chamber of permafrost. It shivered from the runes with an annoying melody, and he drove his fangs deeper into his lips, to taste the last flutter of her love. He swiped his tongue across his lips at the speckle of rust, the last taste of home and Neven's poundcakes.

I was so stupid. I was stupid to think the world would allow me reprieve. Shards of his own tears splattered against the cold stone at his bare feet. I am cursed. This Husk inside me? I should've known it would win in the end. If only I hadn't been so weak... I could've... He slammed his fist against the wall, where the chain rattled with a metal muse. I could've saved you.

But no... I could not do the one thing you have always done for me.

I could not keep my hand reached out to you.

Fenrer's fingers slipped out of his, and the jaws of mist swallowed him whole as he screeched his own voice hoarse. His mind urged him to take the leap into his own magick, to jump off the cliffs and save Fenrer as he had done for him — until Adara's scream sent a shockwave through his stupid heart, the shard of Fenrer's magick within his soul pulling him away from the edge, guiding him to something far crueler than the embrace of the sea.

But this is what I get... for listening to your compassion. This is what happens. He sent his chains into the wall to scream out his frustration instead of his useless voice.

He curled his legs closer to his body and listened to the rattle through the dungeon. Snow whispered through the grate above his head, and the howl of the wind groaned through his ears. It pulsated and grew into his rage at the sound of clanking metal peacocks. Mist slipped past his lips when the runelock rattled with magick, twisting with blues. He lowered his gaze to count the stones. One. Two. Three. Four. In time with the groan of the platform when it lowered to his level, the distant sounds of music filled the gaol instead from all around. Is it Hayvala Travon?

He looked up.

King Laucan Travon looked down upon him.

Snow swirled into a flurry above their heads. He straightened out his arms and resisted the laugh in his lungs. "I bet this gives you so much satisfaction after I beat your sorry ass at the Summit," Yuven hissed, trying to drown himself in his rage. "Here's what I get for showing tolerance. I should've just gone through Reyn." He set the back of his head against the wall with a huff. "Go on, gloat all you want... it must fill you with pride to finally rid yourself of the Trayes — after the massacre of my family, are you going to learn to finish the job?"

King Laucan's feathers fluffed out and he wrapped himself in his royal furs. Hesitation cracked the steel of resolve in a quick, flaming moment at the power of his words. Blood pricked the back of his throat, but he refused to bend. "So, tell me, King Laucan — shall we cut to the case? The crime of my existence? When shall I face the frozen execution, or whatever your damned people do to murder others under suspicion?" He rolled his shoulders and lunged at Laucan's silence, but the runes along the gaol lit up to suppress his magick. "Or are you here to stare at me and feel powerful? Was it not enough to capture me and Adara, to steal me of my dignity? Well, I won't let you have that, you icy asshole. If you think a crown will protect you from the sword of light, you are sorely mistaken." Yuven slumped back onto his hindquarters and spit a small glob of blood to the side, causing Laucan to grimace. "Oh, yes, your people sure got the best of me — congratulations."

Get it over with. This life is torture enough.

"You make it sound like I'm going to kill you."

Yuven studied him. "Is there no other result to this?" he questioned. "Unless you're truly so foolish as to keep me alive in here. Is the punishment you talking me to death?" He rattled the chains, and Laucan flinched. "It must be so easy for you, huh? So easy to clap a man in irons and call yourself strong." Snow danced along his feathers, and he shook them out to free himself of the cruel touch of his birthplace — but not the warmth of his home. "You are all alike. It's so easy to cover yourself in apathy as people suffer underneath your heel. Tell me, what inane reasoning, if there be any, for you to capture a Storm Warden and the Anima?"

"Irimount."

Yuven jolted at the name - the city lost to the dead.

Laucan relaxed his arms. "I want to know what happened, Traye."

Yuven checked for a trick, for some sort of jester to roll out and finish the king's punchline. "Excuse me?"

"Irimount," Laucan insisted with a touch of irritation. "I want to know exactly what happened over there. You are the last survivor, are you not?" He stomped with the flimsy power of a monarch. "Tell me what happened."

He's... serious.

Oh... and here I thought my life couldn't be more of a joke.

It was so cruelly hilarious, the twisted yoke of existence. "Is that what this is about?" It fluttered into a bubbly laugh, burning his tongue when he released it, causing Laucan to take a large step back. "Typical that monarchs don't seek the information on their own and go straight to violence to get what they want. Violence, entrapment, and force." Yuven cackled, the dissonance grating on his ears. "I am so sorry to disappoint you, but I don't remember." His chest burned and his laughter died when he slumped into his chains. "Besides, why are you asking me when you know? You're the one who turned your back on Irimount—" Laucan scowled, but he continued, "You're the one who allowed it to happen, don't give me that look." He pushed against his chains. "What? Want to find a scapegoat instead so people don't think to turn to you?"

"How can you not remember?" Laucan bit.

Yuven grinned at his knees, and clenched his jaw. "Quite easily."

The Corruption burned a part of me away.

Laucan scoffed and folded his arms. "I had nothing to do with what happened to Irimount, Traye. That was my father."

"Why should I care who? You're wearing his crown — as far as I'm concerned, you carry his sins and make them your own. Tell me, is each pearl on the crown just the misery you and yours have collected? Are they stained red with blood?" Yuven chewed on spite. "I have no information I can, or even would give you. You'll have to rip it out of my mind, but oh..." He hummed the last song. "You can't." He tipped his head and grinned at him. "The one person who might've been able to? You murdered him."

And I let him go.

"Anything else?"

Laucan frowned, disappointed. "No, I suppose I don't have anything else, but Blackwall might."

Blackwall. He drew out the name with a hiss through his nose, rattling his throat with the sound. "You are hopeless, King Laucan, to rely on that Keeper. I'll be laughing all the way down to the Infernal Hells."

"Hopeless?" Laucan released his own sharp laugh, but cut it off just as quickly, "At least I'm taking action to rescue Naveera from this fate."

Yuven closed his eyes and watched Maria dance underneath the glittering sunlight, extending a hand of invitation and a soft smile of love. Laucan's footsteps drew to the platform, and he drowned in crystal tears. "Deliver my ashes."

"What?" Laucan stopped at the edge.

"You have ears, don't you?" Yuven whispered. "I said deliver my ashes. Burn my corpse and send the remnants to Euros. I will not be interred here. I will not have my final resting place be this." His bones stiffened in the cold. "Find somewhere in that cruel heart of yours to listen to a Storm Warden's last request. Burn my body, and deliver the ashes."

Laucan's brow furrowed. "I'm not going to kill you, Yuven Traye. I just want answers. If you don't remember, Blackwall will figure out a way to get them."

"You might not like what you see," Yuven mumbled to the crinkle of ice in the air when Laucan ascended the platform. Blood slipped over his tongue, and a wet cough wracked his chest. It splattered red droplets over his garb, and he laughed through the burning pain in his lungs. His medication had been attached to his armor, and they stole that away too.

Time escaped his grasp, but his body knew it all. He curled against the wall and lost his strength, the rainwater turning dry underneath a crimson star. Molvisaliz... it is like without you to suppress the shard of the husk I become all too aware what is happening inside me — but for a mercy, for a single mercy... I will not kill you with my darkness, no... I killed you by letting go instead. Strings of red slipped past his lips to stick to the floor, and he smiled once more for the husk, the deep, slavering hunger for more than what life gave. Your compassion got the better of you, Fenrer Pyren. I warned you... that it would kill you.

He sat there, alone, in the cold dark. His heartbeat slammed against his ribcage to flee the darkness stuck to his soul.

"Fight back!" Adara Sazaka screamed on the call of the phoenix's melody.

Let the world burn.

"Stop their advance!" he cried out for the names lost to the crimson ashes. "Let none break through the line!"

We're all that stands between us and the end of our world!

A young Hanekan boy with dark hair held his hand out, a warm, curious smile crawling across his cheeks. "You can't hide behind the runestone forever, Yuven," he said, full of life and light. "I'll be your shield instead. I'll show you that you don't have to be afraid."

If only you knew.

Yuven allowed the rest of the tears to overflow down his cheeks. "Molvi... you've turned my greatest fear of hate into something far crueler, how could you have done that to me?" He whispered into his shirt. "You made me afraid to lose the people who saw me as more than the Husk who used me... What am I to do with that, Molvi?" He sank into Fenrer's shadow, and he never gave up when he tried to push him away. "That wasn't a gift, that was a curse."

Turns of his friendship, swallowed by the foam when he let him slip out of his fingers.

Days of his promise, with Yuven left in a cell of his own making.

And I was cruel. Yuven drove his fangs into his jaw. I was cruel and ignorant to how you were feeling... until it crushed you.

Fenrer stood, again and again against the darkness of others and his own.

What type of end was that, for someone like you? You deserved life. You deserved far more than what I gave you. He flicked his ear when the door whispered open again, and Hayvala descended the platform. Instead... here I am, trapped by monarchs with idyllic dreams and bloodlust to match. He glared at Hayvala when she came closer. "What?" He straightened himself out when she came closer with the strength her peacock brother lacked.

Hayvala sorted through her dress, then tugged out a picture to flatten it in front of him.

It was of a man, donned in scaled white armor with a glaive at his side. Violet eyes pierced through the painstaking art, drawn with a deft hand. Silver hair curled at the ends, with his feathers long and moontouched. Yuven leaned closer to look into the picture of the Avaerilian unknown to him. "What is this?"

Hayvala sat in front of him. "This, Yuven Traye?" She pushed it closer for him to examine. "This is Ser Yokonei Traye, the knight who protected me from harm, and dare I say it, the greatest Sentinel to have ever graced this age with his noble heart... and I could not do the same for him. I could not protect him the way he did for me. He was the tipping point of the war between our families."

I let you go.

Yuven stared at her. "Why are you telling me this?"

Hayvala smiled at him. "Because... when he had the option to save his own skin... he refused — because he didn't want to betray his brother." Hayvala scooted closer. "He didn't want to betray you."

Yuven snapped his attention down to the picture, but Hayvala took it off the ground. "I wanted to show you that," Hayvala said. "Because I need someone to remember him. To remember his name." Her pupils swirled into glassy moons. "Forget us, but remember him."

Yuven blinked when her feathers shivered. "Yokonei Traye."

Relaxation whipped through her frame. "Thank you, Yuven. I will do what I can to right this."

"You are a princess, are you not?" Yuven mumbled. "You're still a monarch. You still have powers over others."

Hayvala smiled, sadness ripping through her brow. "I'm afraid... that's not how it works here. Now, I need to go check on Adara—"

"Are you certain she is well?"

"Yes."

Then maybe... I could do one final thing right. Yuven lowered his head back to the ground and leaned into the manacles when Hayvala departed with the last picture of his family. I am a sword against the darkness, and I will let the abyss swallow me so it cannot consume someone else.

Fenrer slipped out of his hands, and he screamed out his name to the wind.