YUVEN

Where are they? They should've been back by now. Yuven tossed aside papers when the patrols he sent out came back with no news of Adara and Fenrer's whereabouts. And Neven— He looked over his shoulder to Neven while he slept on the bed in his room, ashen and wracked with shivers. He doesn't need the added stress. Except when he focused on the starlit connection, it glowed with purpose and power — which meant Fenrer remained safe, alive. And with the situation... He dared not finish his own thought as he organized the papers and put them aside before heading over to Neven's side, only to come to a stop when he stirred. "Hello." I'm... not going to mention it to him. He doesn't need that weighing on him. He can barely function as is and Fenrer—

Neven smiled up at him. "How are you feeling?"

But neither should I hide the truth from him, or else I learnt nothing. Yuven curled his fingers together. "I'm well, Miesero. Maria is currently at the apothecary sorting out temporary medication for you to take until we get to the bottom of this," he said. "So, I sent Fenrer and Adara to investigate the ruins from your reports along with the cove. I was going to wait until you roused before following them." And I've learned nothing. Yuven slipped his fangs over his lips at his continuous, non-stop failures to be anything more than he was. "We're close to something though. I'm confident in it. The cult overplayed their hands. It's just a matter of following their wagers." He crossed his arms and flicked his feathers in the breeze. "And... if you're feeling well enough, I think some fresh air will do you some good." I can't keep failing you.

Neven perked up at such a simple leeway. "Really? You were so set on having me abed and threatening to throw me onto the boat." Legs swung over the edge, Yuven flinched at the newfound energy and found himself questioning his own resolve; and all the while cursing what he had turned into with Adara's influence. Back when the world had set itself in stone with his short life and he with no known escape. "I'd be happy to help, Yuven. I know the area outside the place. I'd very much like to retrace my own steps and talk to Fenrer about what he's felt so far. Julis couldn't get a good read, but with Fenrer's power..." On his feet, Yuven stretched his hands out when he quivered, but Neven raised a hand to him, rejecting his assistance with its biting sting in his heart. "When do you wish to go? Shall I make us some lunch? Are we to wait for Maria?"

"I don't know how long she will be at the apothecary. Best we get this over with and come back for us to see if the medication will work." Yuven turned on his heel to leave the room, with Neven's footsteps behind him and no threat of collapse, convulsions, and chokes. Every second he checked, Neven hummed under his breath with rejuvenated vigor. Was it... no, it couldn't have been a one time thing. It happened twice. Unless it was a coincidence. Unless I'm paranoid. Yuven pushed his fangs into the tip of his tongue and led the way out of the treehouse. I don't think I am. I hope I am. How am I going to tell him?

Neven walked side by side with him; as suspected, the fresh air appeared to swell within Neven when his thin feathers fluffed out, though dark shadows hung underneath his eyes and filled despair within the sapphires. His own smile threatened to tear apart his lips when Neven met it with his own. No. Think rationally. Logically. If anything happened to Fenrer, I would know. Neven knew, he just knew not where and what happened. Yuven waved a hand at the Storm Wardens who took over the guard posts at the gate, bidding them to let them through without words. He went to stomp forward with no time to waste, but before he disappeared towards the coast, Neven grabbed his wrist to stop him short.

"What? We have to catch up with Fenrer and Adara while they search the ruins and the cove Aine found you."

Neven squeezed his wrist, before taking the lead onto the path. "I don't really remember anything about that day." A quick head shake and fluffed feathers, Neven looked over his shoulder at him with a weak smile. "I know some of the Wardens think I had simply gotten lost, both in these woods and my mind... but I know I didn't." He stopped and faced him, as strong as a Storm Warden. "I know what I saw. I know I was almost to Kemal until..." Neven faltered, pallor ashen, but he took in a breath and a bit of color returned to his cheeks when the ocean roared with waves. "Well... where are we going first, Captain Traye?" he teased.

"The ruins. Those are closest. It is also Kemal's last known, confirmed location."

It was quiet on the road to the accursed ruins where Fenrer's panic and Adara's pain continued to drive into his skull. Neven tensed the moment the ruined marble pillars came into view, a disruption to the natural environment around Asairai — a disturbance. His heart faltered at the lack of sound, of anything. With no Fenrer and Adara to come rushing out to greet him, Yuven ignored the side-eye Neven gave him. "They must've moved on to the cove," he offered, which quelled Neven's fear from the way his feathers sloped, though did nothing for himself as he walked into the ruins proper. "What can you tell me about this place outside of the reports I read?"

"I know it wasn't here when we first arrived."

Yuven stopped with a hand on the old, rotted doorway and looked over his shoulder. "Did you not do an ecological survey when you took over?"

"I did."

"Did you have people double check?"

"Yes." Neven's brow furrowed. "Triplechecked even. I sent several teams — and this was before they started going missing."

We've got a timeline, with this as the 'start'. Yuven opened the doors wide. "So, can you confirm beyond a doubt that this wasn't here when you arrived? It just appeared out of thin air?"

"Yes. I took multiple surveys for the records," Neven replied. "I can give you all of them and you can pinpoint where it first appeared."

"My main question is where did it come from?" Yuven ducked underneath overhanging, overgrown lichen. "It had to come from somewhere. Entire ruins don't pop out from nowhere."

Neven faltered behind him. "Entire towns don't get wiped out with no viable explanation outside of Obscura Texts left behind," he pointed out, voice soft. "Clearly, what we're dealing with doesn't play on our field of knowledge. I have been half-tempted to get in contact with the Keepers of Pyon for possible access to their veritable trove of knowledge into the esoteric and forbidden-"

Yuven whipped around to snap the idea in the bud, but stopped himself when Neven tensed. "That... is a last resort. The Storm Wardens should have their own routes. We are far too different in methodology to the Keepers of Pyon," he remarked and kicked over loose stones into the giant, empty marble basin dug into the floor. It clattered against the stones and rested in the small pile of dirt inside it. It littered bitter salt on his tongue when he returned to Neven. "Fenrer and Adara must be at the cove. Let us catch up with them. There's nothing here that can help me or give me what I want."

Neven's smile grew weak. "We don't always get what we want, Yuven."

Yuven scrunched his nose. "I always fight for what I want."

"I know." Neven's head lowered, and it was his turn to lead the way out. Yuven followed him, uncertain of his sudden downturn.

"Is there something you wanted but couldn't get?" Yuven pressed.

Neven shook his head. "A whole lot of things, Yuven... but that is sadly... life." With that, he found himself unable to question Neven further when he hurried his pace towards the crashing sound of waves against sand. Yuven took in a breath of the salty air, relishing in the crisp taste on his tongue instead of the stale blood before going with Neven to the small opening which led into the cove and cave system of the cliffs. "Our wants can change," he said, pausing at the darkness and facing him instead. "My wants changing is what led me here. To the Storm Wardens. We don't always wish for the same things throughout our lives, Yuven. We can even stubbornly fight for those things." He rested a hand on the rock, his frown deepening. "But even if we gain it. We must be prepared to lose it." Yuven sucked in a breath when Neven lifted his head with a weary smile. "It is good to fight for what you want — but never forget what you already have. It is just as precious. You must be what stands between it and the abyss."

Yuven threw his arm forward to stop Neven from entering the darkness. "We're going to find Kemal. Isn't that what you want?"

"More than anything," Neven said.

Then why do you look so... Yuven pushed the thought out of his mind. Logic dictated everything. Emotions dictated desire. He slipped his tongue between his fangs and drew out, "Then we'll find him, and his team, and all the Storm Wardens who were taken from you with no control on your part. We will find meaning..." He drew in a breath and faced Neven, digging his fingers into the stone. "We'll find meaning to all of this hurt the cult caused, from now... and all the way back to Irimount, to bring peace to the dead of your home. They've gone too long to not expose some of their roots. I don't need an Obscura Text to find them." Yuven squeezed himself through the crevice, and it crushed his heart deeper into the pits of his stomach at the eerie silence save for the sound of dripping water. He faltered when the opening widened, but his feathers flicked at the oceanic breeze.

"It was your home too."

It crushed him further. "It was where I was born... it does not make it my home. I didn't know my parents. I didn't know my family. I don't even know why I was all that was left." Why I'm all that's left. Why did our families have to destroy each other over a stupid chair...? Why am I left alone again and again? He bumped his brow against the rock, with no crown on his head and no desire to bear it, but he froze when Neven glanced away and his lips parted to speak, though he closed it after a moment. "What? It's true. It's not like I had a childhood."

"Of course, I spoke out of turn," Neven said. "But... you're my family."

Yuven flicked his feathers at him. "Obviously." Out into the cove proper, he hoped to at least see, or hear Fenrer and Adara.

Only the abyss answered him. Water sprinkled in the tide-pool and old cave paintings glimmered with the streaming sunlight. Neven came up beside him with a glance around. "Well?"

Yuven bit on the lies for a single truth, and he pushed his chin against his chest to avoid looking Neven in the eye. They weren't at the ruins. They're not here. So where are they? I specifically said only these two areas since they're easily checked. He sucked in his lips when Neven drew in on himself. Hand up to his mouth to stop the threat of bile, he wanted nothing more than to be wrong instead of right.

"Yuven... they're not here."

Yuven shook his head and let go of his mouth and confronted reality with logic instead of emotions. "They're not."

Neven's feathers thinned and his pupils turned to slits. "There might be an explanation."

Such a hopeful idea.

"He's alive," Yuven offered, for what little it mattered.

Neven went ashen and hurried out of the cove.

I'm sorry, Miesero... that I can't even do that one thing right.