ADARA

"I need you two to do a full survey of the ruins, all the way up to the cove." Yuven gripped the edges of the table, his fangs pressed over his lips. Her own uncertainty ripped through her chest, but she held her tongue when he raised his head. "We need some sort of answer — and considering what happened when we were at those ruins, Fenrer, I am all but certain that there might be something there, as to what that something is remains up in the air."

The air in the bunker electrified with tension, and Adara looked over her shoulder when Maria headed down the stairs with a heaviness to her brow. "He's sleeping now, Yuv," she whispered. "Fen, did you see anything else when you removed the obscural madness?"

"I didn't," Fenrer said at her side. "It'll take time for the confusion to wear off though. We should keep an eye on him."

Yuven scowled down at the papers in front of him. "He barely knows his rights from his lefts."

"Is that what happens when you read an Obscura Text?" Adara clutched her shawl. "Because during the test the Elder Convocation put me through, Blackwall was the knowledge proctor—" Quickly assessing their reactions, she relaxed when neither Fenrer or Yuven gave much in the way of one. "He had me write in what he considered an Obscura Text. It—" Adara swallowed on the memory, the way it tickled the back of her mind, an insatiable hunger unable to be quenched until Blackwall stole it away from her. "It wrote back. I asked it... I asked it for an answer on what the future holds."

Yuven squeezed his lips together. "Dangerous question to ask — the future's untold for a reason." He folded his arms. "Well, what did it respond with?"

Adara paused, and looked around at Fenrer and Maria, with Fenrer's concern writ plain on his face. "All it said-or, wrote I suppose, it said the future held the ashes of a phoenix." Their silence unsettled her, so she broke it before it took too much control. "Not that I know what that means." Again, the silence made its bid, and she, far too out of her depth to make any sort of comment compared to Yuven, Fenrer, or Maria, or anyone else. "Before you make a snide comment," she said the moment Yuven opened his mouth. "I know what a phoenix is."

"A creature which is born from its own ashes, a pure expression of the cycle of this world," Fenrer mumbled as he pinched his chin. He moved his hand to his brow to rub it. "They are like wyverns. Rare — possibly driven extinct by Derelicts, but the most famous of these birds was the Princess of Evenfall, Ivara. Well, now that we know she's not an Ancient, that part of the tale should be scrutinized for what it is. A lie." His tone came out clipped, but his expression softened when she flinched. "It could mean anything. Asking for the future is broad. From the sounds of it, you didn't specify when. You just asked for it."

"This is why we ask questions clearly and to the point," Yuven failed to control himself. "And not leave it broad and open ended. Disregarding that, I'm not in the habit of following the whims of an Obscura Text, and it has no weight to our current problem. You two will investigate the ruins, all the way up to the cove. Report back to me with your findings and don't do anything stupid or I will make you regret it. Neven needs us, and I don't need him blaming himself for anything more." He nodded at Fenrer with a click of his tongue. "If anything goes wrong, Molvisaliz, I'll know."

"I know." Fenrer smiled, and her body warmed at their repaired friendship.

How much pain you two went through... just to get to this point. "We'll try, Yuven." Adara scooted out of Maria's way when she headed up to the table.

"You better fix that try into doing, Adara. I thought I taught you this. You don't have the luxury of trying." Though his expression remained unbroken, she smiled at the familiarity where it once terrified her with his ferocity.

Arm bumped into Fenrer's, the two made their way upstairs. "Do you want to go check on Neven before we go?"

"I have to after burning away the Obscura's influence on his mind," Fenrer said as he headed for the staircase which went higher into the massive, hollow tree. Adara kept in his shadow, comfortable and warm as he opened the first door they reached. It squeaked on its hinges, and Fenrer peeked his head in before ushering her inside. On the bed, close to the window, Neven slept on his side, not giving much reaction to their arrival. Deep in sleep. Adara let Fenrer approach him, observing him before he turned to her after the minutes passed. "Something's still bothering me though."

"What?"

Fenrer tapped Neven's shoulder, though once more, the Avaerilian remained unresponsive. Fenrer's lips parted, though whatever response he wanted to make fell short when he closed them. "Just... there's a lot we don't understand about the Corruption, I never thought... it can't cross the Oathbound connection, or else it would've done so with Yuven or I... right?" His helplessness crushed her heart, and all she could give him was a shrug. He shook his head, then nudged her back outside. "He needs to sleep though."

"I know you're worried," she mumbled. "But... everything I've seen from him — for as long as I've known Neven, he's been nothing but kind and polite — and Yuven is Yuven. Then I started to see it more, Yuven got a lot from him, even if you three aren't related by blood." Her own breath left her lips in a huff. "I'm worried too. I never met Kemal but from what you've told me of him..." Words lacked when Fenrer lowered his head then walked down the staircase, and she followed him. "We'll find him, Fenrer... I consider you my family too."

"We will."

I believe.

Two little words and it changed the course of her life. When she sat in despair, cursing her magick, it was Fenrer who reached out to her with those same words — a belief in the enduring will to survive against all odds. Her fingers laced through his when they headed out with no Yuven to chitter at them for being each other's distractions. But honestly... sometimes you need a little distraction to keep going in those dark times, to just take that next little step. A smile crawled across her lips at the sight of a couple of Elvkin children playing with ribboned bells. Innocence not quite lost as it had with her. In the mire she found herself surrounded by, Fenrer had been right the entire time though people and the entire world sought to prove him wrong. All you need to do... is believe.

They came to a stop at the gate, and Adara smiled at him. "Ready?"

Fenrer returned her expression with a nod. "Let's not keep Yuven or Neven waiting for another lead. We'll start by the ruins and make our way to the cove from there. And it bears repeating—"

"Don't get into trouble and don't get distracted," she drew through her teeth in her best Yuven impression, and Fenrer laughed.

"Not without me at least," Fenrer said in his spot on impression compared to her lackluster one.

"At least he's consistent." Adara followed Fenrer through the gate when he waved at the Wardens, who pulled the winches to set them free into the unknown — where the cult awaited. Though terror lodged into her heart at the heaviness to both Yuven and Neven, she found herself spurred forward by her insatiable wanderlust, the same sensation she once had back at Prunal, where everything was new and wonderful. Down the previous pathways, Fenrer sent a magelight upwards to pierce deeper into the shadowy boughs. "What do you think?"

"Of this situation or...?" Fenrer brought the magelight close again, allowing it to float between them. "I don't know. I'm not too keen to return to the ruins but—"

"Do you remember your Trance?"

Fenrer gave a shrug of the shoulders. "Hazily. It's not clear, but I'm braced for it now."

The approach to the ruins was a quiet one, with only their footsteps against marble interrupting the silence with the woods. Back through the etched doorway, she peeked around at the ruins and cascades of dust, along with the unburied basin of their last visit. "Do you sense anything now?"

"No,' Fenrer mumbled as he approached the edge, sending a bit of magick into it to no avail. "I know I wasn't imagining it though. I can still sense the stagnation, but it's fainter." His green gaze drew around the area, and his magelight split apart to stick to the corners of the room. "I think Yuven might want rubbings of these runes — I suspect they might be Ancient Elvkin hieroglyphs."

"I'm surprised this place hasn't crumbled in on itself," Adara said when she prodded a loose brick, which crumbled with ease at her touch. Back at Fenrer's side, the chill over her shoulders persisted, and she tried to rub it out of her skin. "All I know is I don't like this place much either."

Dangerous beauty, but she had no idea where it came from. Fenrer sucked his lips between his teeth and sighed. "Come on," he said with a tap into her shoulder. "We should check on the cove — that's where Neven apparently appeared from when he had gone missing for a couple days before Aine found him." Out of the graveyard of marble, the path took them deeper, though the sound of the ocean comforted her. As the treeline broke apart, she relished in the sensation of her boots sinking into the fine sand of the beach. Ahead, the cliffside which split the beach apart from what rested on the other side.

Fenrer ran his hand down the stoneface when they reached it, then peered into the split into the cove itself. Adara tilted her head, but before she could even take the leap, Fenrer held a hand out to her, motioning at himself before squeezing himself inside. Adara followed after him, and when light gave way to darkness, she found herself forced to trust the stone against her back. Stumbling through the darkness, it lodged in her throat at the whispers in her memories, and the single golden light as her only saving grace.

"Here," Fenrer said as he guided her out of the cavern. Eyes adjusting to the darkness, she widened her eyes at the small cave. Bio-luminescent tangles slipped out of the crevices when Fenrer doused his magelight. A tiny tidepool sat at the center, with its sole opening leaving back out into the ocean. Drawings splattered across the walls, depictions of creatures long gone. "And Neven came from here?" she mused.

"That's what Aine told Yuven, apparently."

"Is there another split in the wall?"

Fenrer pressed his hand against the wall and followed it to the other side. "No, I don't think so."

Adara frowned and looked at where the tidepool swept back into the ocean. "...did he swim?"

"I don't think he was in a state to, and swimming around here would be dangerous because of the tides," Fenrer said as he pushed magick through the cracks, causing some of the lichen to curl in on itself to flee. "There's a lot that doesn't make sense. From what Yuven could get, Neven had gone missing for a couple days and most had assumed he had been taken like all the rest." He leaned against the wall with a tap of his boot. "But then he appeared one day, delirious and babbling. I know some might discard it as stress, but...." Fenrer frowned. "I think it's more than that, but considering we don't have the Obscura Text which fed on his mind, we're at an impasse. It only leaves the Oathbound connection, but I think that's not viable either. When I tried to follow it, something kept me from going further."

Adara slipped her fingers into the waters of the tidepool. Lukewarm. Her gaze raised to the horizon, the brightest spot in the world. "Maybe we could try finding a way around the cliffs?

"Possibly." Fenrer traced some of the drawings with subdued interest. "I'm not sensing the stagnation here."

Adara mulled over his words for a moment as she stared down at the tidepools rocky basin. Her own reflection studied her, but a glint above her head caught her eye. Embers at her fingertips, she set them free to shed the cave in a silver glow. Her flames caught the sparks of opal gemstones and a carving of a bird, wings wide in flight with its beak protruding towards the pool. Waves lapped at the shore as she raised her magelight, causing them gemstones to glimmer. It buzzed in her ears, and the nascent light burned her eyelids, though when she looked away to her own reflection, she frowned when the room disappeared and it was nothing more than the same twilight sea.

Something in the distance called her name, though the shadow flew overhead. Twilight flames spread over its tail, sprinkling across the sea. "Fen?" she asked as she turned around, holding the ball of flame close to her chest. Wind blasted over her shoulders when the shadow above twisted on its own flight path, landing in front of her with the grace of a swan. It stared down at her with ashen eyes, lowering its beach closer to her.

Hypnotized by the movement, she found her hand disobeying her panic.

"Adara!"

Ash fell off her fingertips when she drew closer, her panic wilting away.

The sea of starry glass cracked underneath her.

Something grabbed her from behind as the panic returned and the shadow squawked with her gasp. Waves rose and churned, and she found herself sinking all over again.

Except this time, she scrambled to the surface. On her hindquarters in some sort of marble pond, surrounded by small crystals on the edges. Thick forests surrounded her on all sides, and she jolted when someone grabbed her shoulders.

Fenrer stared at her, wide-eyed and scared and soaking wet as the two sat in the pond.

It caught up to her all at once.

"...Where are we?" she rasped.