YUVEN

I will die of boredom before I die of the corruption at this rate.

Hypnotized by the thick gray clouds through the thin shield of glass at the peak of the gaol, he sprawled out his legs and stretched out his hands straight to the fingertips before loosening them. Ice cracked cold bones against the stone of permafrost. It clumped into his wilted feathers, fighting for any hint of warmth in the cold air. Firelamps glowed through the metal bars of observation. He kicked a stray pebble with his heel, and listened to it skitter without its chains. Wind howled with grief, and he bit on his tongue when the rust overflowed. It stuck to his teeth in globs when he dared to cough, so he set his back against the wall and waited for any sort of end. Anything for freedom.

He timed the guard changes. Neither King Laucan or the princess Hayvala returned to him with pretty words. Music floated in the distance, and he found himself swaying to a familiar lullaby. Swollen chest soothed, he stretched his fingers out again, a reminder of his life. A short life, but it was his. It was his and he refused to hand it over on a silver platter to any monarch or Derelict who crossed his path. Not without a fight. On his knees, he tested the strength of the manacles and the suppression. His muscles burned as he continued to pull, but he stood up and shifted around to face the wall instead. Metal clattered when he tried to shake himself out of it and into the safety of spatial distortion. He investigated the lock on the manacles. Circuitry carved into runes, sparking to life when he pushed his magick through the frozen flow. Shocking that magitek even works here, or that they even use it. Yuven rolled his shoulders, and listened to the distant whispers of his jailors.

I bow to no king. I bow to no one. I bow to nothing but the world. And if they think I will be so easily forgotten, that I will be cowed so easily as the other Trayes and become nothing more than a discarded ghost — they are mistaken. This ghost can still make noise. I will not be silenced by a puffed out peacock and his metal parade! Yuven set himself perpendicular to the wall, then smashed his chains against the permafrost. A metallic scream rang through the gaol and echoed through the dungeons above. A tune given to the ghosts unseen without the eyes of an Aurus. The whispers died down in response, so he rattled the chains against the ice and made it screech.

Clanking footsteps came closer to the door in a rush. "Shut up down there, Traye," one of the bloated knights snapped through the carved helmet daring to call itself a wyvern.

"Or what?" Yuven mused. "I'm already a prisoner, or are you afraid of a little noise?" He shook his wrists, causing another guard to reveal themselves. "What can you do that isn't being done to me already?" He let go of the chains with his newfound audience. "You may put me in chains, but you will not intimidate me. You can wear all the armor you like, but it won't protect you, not from the jaws of reality. It will crush you while you're inside it, break all your bones and shatter you to dust." He straightened himself out when one stepped onto the lift. Rock scratched against the barrier when it reached the bottom of the gaol.

"You will hold your tongue, Traye. You are too fortunate that the current wing has a dangerous sense of mercy. Your family has caused untold amounts of destruction in their bid for power. Your loyalists forced people out of homes and stomped on whoever dared to speak out against them."

"You consider this mercy?" Yuven asked. "What world are you living in? Oh, wait." He hummed out a bloody laugh. "You aren't living in any world. You've all decided to shove your heads into the snow crowing about some old legacy or other. A dead world." He poised his legs when the guard came closer with their fists clenched and furious. "Your people will never gain it back, and quite frankly, you don't deserve to have that idyllic glory back. The Derelicts will teach you that lesson. You know what happens to metal armor when they sink their teeth in?" He leaned forward when the guard stopped inches from his reach. "It will rust. Rust, and crack, and age a thousand turns in a single second. It will dig into your bones and stain the marrow red."

"Unlike the sunlands, Derelicts struggle to keep a foothold here," the guard said. "We have never had need for the Storm Wardens. Which, had you any respect for our history, you'd know the pain the Storm Wardens have caused in the name of their 'light'." His tongue drew over his fangs, forming a snarl. "How they invaded us wanting to find darkness when there was none."

"You're right, I don't care." Yuven grinned when they bristled. "But if you're so offended, why not teach me a lesson?" He held out his magitek cuffs, locks upward. "I bet it gives you so much pride to have power over a prisoner, a man unable to defend himself. If you have any of that reported Naveeran honor, you'll release me and we'll see who's in the right. One on one."

They stepped back. "Nice try, Traye. I'm not stupid. You will stay here, where you belong."

"You're not smart, either."

Yuven stumbled back when they backhanded him with their open hand. Blood slipped into his cheeks, but he refused to unleash the torrent of parasitic hunger when they relaxed their hand at their side. "Bleat out words all you want, Traye. You aren't leaving this cell. May the blizzard drown out your doomsong so our people never have to suffer your ilk again." Back turned, Yuven yanked on his chain when they stepped on the lift to return to their post. Alone in the Ice Gaol, numb pinpricks clamped onto his knees with a taste for his blood. His bones rocked against the stone when he slumped into the manacles, wheezing for fresh air among the stale, old blood. Hells damned parasite. He swallowed and nearly choked on the metallic taste. It broke the rhythm of his heartbeat, and he waited for the tide to wash out of his lungs.

He lost track of time.

He lost the moments when he left Maria for an answer to the shift in the world, found in the Anima, a young woman who clung onto their naive idealism like it was the last desperate attempt against a cruel, unforgiving world. True terror sat between the crushing jaws of Derelicts, where only a crescent blade gave them finality. Not a blizzard.

Slow them down? Sure. Stop them? No, hells no.

He listened to his own breathing steady with the beat of Neven's expert plucking of lutestrings. A gentle, sleepy song expanding in his ears to pull him into sleep. Neven never raised his voice any higher than a melodic refrain while he slept on his bed, in the house beside the sea. Birds cooed through the window and glided across the rising moisture from the foam crashing against distant beaches. Hippogryphs cooed in his ears whenever he snuck to the paddock to sit with Tix'snuv, who followed a base love. Food. Tix'snuv did anything for a choice morsel. He relished the sensation of the saddle straps tightening around his legs, keeping him locked safely on Tix'snuv's back as they took to the sky with a running jump off the highest flight launch strips.

Days where he sat with Fenrer during their halcyon training.

The day when Fenrer walked in on him and Maria sharing a quiet, close moment inside the stables, only for his Oathbound to burst out into laughter and flee from retribution.

Gods, he'll—he never let me live that down... Yuven chewed on tears when he pulled himself to the icy reality around him. I had never felt... so happy. The emotion shrunk in his chest when he slumped deeper into his raised arms with a soft scoff. What I wouldn't give to be able to freeze time, to stay in those moments before it all ends into whatever nothingness awaits in death.

Neven closed a snowbound book with a grin when he pushed the truth of the useless stories. "Is it not the moment we live and die for?"

Maybe, Miesero. Just maybe. That moment. The single moment where it would make everything worth it — if only this taint inside me didn't eat it all away and turn it into a swallowing abyss. And yet...

He looked into the sun and found a seven turns old Hanekan looming over him, hand outstretched with a wide, welcoming smile, unafraid of the monster inside him.

Why can I remember that moment so clearly? Like it happened just yesterday? I wait for the taint to turn it to crimson ash, but it never happens. Is it waiting for me to lower my guard? Is it waiting for me to give up on you?

Quieter footsteps shook him from his lonely stupor. Magelights bloomed into the flickered sconces. His own version of retribution when both Blackwall and Laucan appeared on the other side of the metal door. He set his shoulders strong as stone, a shield against the darkness when the two descended onto his level, but never lowered themselves into his chains.

"Hello once more, Warden Traye," Blackwall said, his smile unwiped from his blank face. "Do you remember what I said when we discussed the Anima way back when the Storm Wardens first brought her to the judgment of the Elder Convocation?"

He remembered, but he refused to give the snake of a Keeper the satisfaction of a worded response. "Bold of you to speak of the Conclave's judgment when it's the Storm Wardens you should worry about now. You murdered a Storm Warden in cold blood. If you think there will not be penance for that, you are mistaken."

"I warned Fenrer Pyren to step aside. He need not have died had he simply moved out of the way," Keeper Blackwall pointed out, calm. "It is his own doing for not heeding the warning, for not choosing his battles more carefully. Hence, I see no reason for a penance when I gave him the chance."

Yuven lunged the length of his manacles to snap his teeth at Blackwall, a low vibration tickling his nose, and a slight glimmer of bittersweet glee unfolded over his lungs when King Laucan flinched with the lack of resolution Keeper Blackwall had. "I will not have you speak his name in my presence!" He pushed against the floor. Spatial distortion ripped through the air, but the chains kept him out of reach of the Keeper's throat. "And I will not have you sully him."

Blackwall blinked. "The point still stands, Yuven Traye."

Rage billowed out of his nose, and he scowled deeper. "Why are you two here? Have we finally gotten to the point of this whole farce? Instead of a ploy about some ridiculous thought that I remember anything of Irimount's fall?" He whipped his head around to Laucan, who sank closer to the wall and his feathers puffed against his ears in obvious terror. "Go on. Tell me what this is about, and if you lie to me again, you can drag this out and I will give you nothing! I will sit here and take anything I have to my grave."

"That is not a lie," Blackwall stated without a hint of uncertainty. "We captured you in particular to find the truth of Irimount. I told you our Orders aren't so different, even if our methods differ when it comes to the threat upon Aztryxer. You didn't want to see reason back then, so it came to this." He waved his arms around the gaol.

Yuven laughed. "What a waste of time, then. I'll tell you what I said to the fluffed peacock over there." He tipped his head at Laucan, who frowned. "I don't remember, Keeper Blackwall. You think you're the first person to attempt a memory extraction?" He bared his teeth into a wild grin. "Fenrer Pyren, he was more powerful than you could ever dream of being. Maybe you had him killed on that fact. You couldn't stand someone with more power than you."

"Interesting theory," Blackwall said and tucked his hands in his sleeves. "If only he was alive. It is quite a loss to the world, an Aurus as powerful as he was. But that is neither here nor there." He came closer. "You've sworn an oath to the world, to protect it against the Echo Obscura and its infernal flames. I am all but certain there is a puzzle piece in your head. In the story of Irimount and the little boy who brought it down to the ground. Oh yes, I know the rumours very well." Blackwall twisted to Laucan. "King Laucan, he has not been very forthright with you. You asked me who caused the fall of Irimount? Why... you're looking at him."

King Laucan widened his eyes. "What?"

"Idiot," Yuven mumbled. "Couldn't be bothered to read up the report, could you?" He chuckled. "Are you sure you can stomach it? Oh, who am I kidding, king's let people stomach it for them." He rolled his shoulders. "Yes, it is true, but what Blackwall fails to mention is that it was a cult who set up the perfect storm — and leaves out the detail that I was not myself, and when you failed to show to save the people you claim to love so much, it was the Storm Wardens who pierced the darkness that day. So, there's the truth for you. Do you like what you hear?"

King Laucan lowered his gaze to the ground, pallor ashen.

Yuven leaned to the side to spit out a pale glob of crimson in the corner, tasting thick bloody ash. "Have a stomach. Have a stomach and face reality. It changes nothing. I don't have my memories. They are gone."

"Why?" Laucan dared to demand.

Yuven shook his head at the audacity. "I really do question your choice on people to back, Blackwall," he pointed out. "Back to the matter at hand, I've decided no. I will not give you access to memories you seem to think I have. Under the protection of the Auric Law, you cannot force your magick through mine, to find the truth you seem to think I've willingly hidden." He set himself down and glowered at Blackwall. "Feel free to do what else, but even you will bend to the Auric Law to avoid the steep punishment."

"I have no need to mind control you, Yuven Traye," Blackwall said. "The Auric Law only goes so far for those who understand the loopholes. The Elder Conclave need Aurus themselves after all. If one looks for an opening, you'd be surprised at how many there are, but to stoop to mind control for something so trivial? I say only a desperate fool would resort to that, and I am neither desperate or a fool." He slipped his hand into his cloak, and a chill swept through his spine when he tugged out a fluttering parchment. "You are not a fool either, but you might just be desperate."

Laucan turned to Blackwall. "You didn't tell me you went through his effects."

I can only hope the supposed lifetime of bad luck from such an act crushes you.

Blackwall leaned on his level with a raised eyebrow. "You are typical, Yuven Traye. I have seen many who talk the same as you, but none with your ferocity. You are just the type to stick to every conviction. Undergo every punishment where others would shy away at the tiniest bit of pressure, even if it meant abandoning their loved ones for the worst, but you know the sting too keenly." He held out the parchment with ruthless stiffness.

Words flowed into the small swirls of Maria's handwriting. The way she sliced through her i's and curved her a's, the hint of Hanekan deep within her style.

"So, let's try this again, Yuven Traye," Blackwall said. "Or shall we put the pressure on them instead?" He straightened himself out.

Terror swallowed his song when Keeper Blackwall went for the lift, though Laucan remained frozen in the shadows. "Wait!" he gasped, causing Blackwall to turn back. "You can do whatever you want to me, but do not hurt her. She has done nothing to you. Your problems, your issues are with me." He pleaded for her life, for her safety as Blackwall returned to him. "There is no need to for this, Keeper Blackwall. I cannot even remember my memories! You cannot punish her for something I'm incapable of doing!"

"You aren't incapable," Blackwall said, expression flattened. "And though Fenrer Pyren had power, he had no idea how to use the power he had. Unlike me, Yuven Traye." He knelt closer. "I have researched things such as this. You claim that it is impossible. I argue otherwise. It just needs a little pressure in the right points. The information in your head is of no use for you, do you deny this? Do you even care? What does the past matter to you when you cling so desperately to your present because that's all you have left?"

Yuven pricked the tip of his tongue with his fangs at her warm laughter in his heart.

"Your only oath is to the world. You are a pragmatic man, I'm sure you can see where I am coming from," Blackwall reminded him. "You cannot use the information I can get from those memories, you know this. So, what will it be?"

Myl'la...

Yuven swallowed his tears when they fell down his cheeks. "Fight all you want for my memories, Blackwall, my words still stand, and I'm going to laugh when you fail, but hopefully I die in the process."