ADARA

Fenrer, I hope wherever you are, you're going to be alright. We're coming. Adara made sure she had everything while she waited at the door, with Maria and Yuven upstairs at Neven's bedside. Two more days passed before she got any news from a sullen Yuven that they would move promptly to rescue Fenrer and the other Wardens. Anxious twitches tore through her fingers. Floorboards creaked when Maria and Yuven guided Neven, with his pallor ashen and body shaky, they stopped on the final step before letting him go.

"Easy, Miesero..." Yuven released Neven, who straightened himself with a rough cough before he sent a scowl her way. "Adara, we're going to be depending on you to lead us right where Fenrer went." The unspoken 'don't disappoint me' hung in the air between them, but she held her tongue when Yuven ignored her for Neven, who shook out his frayed feathers. "Miesero, you should not do this. You're barely—"

Neven raised sharp pupils up to Yuven while he held a hand near his mouth, his fangs stretching past his lips. "I am fine." With a roll of his lean shoulders, he nudged himself through them and to the door. "We don't have a lot of time." He looked back at all of them, feathers folded. "I can do this. I have to. For both Kemal and Fenrer. All those I sent to this." His lips folded inwards, and Adara glanced at Yuven when his feathers raised. "I may not be well, but I can still fight, and that is what I'll do until I cannot."

Yuven's fingers curled against his palm, and he gave a sharp nod at the older Warden. "Adara. It's your time." He faced her with no hint of the bitterness he had when she first met him. "Lead. Lead, and we will follow. Go."

"You will?"

"We are not the ones who found where Kemal had truly been last." Yuven tapped his boot against the ground, his impatience palpable, though in comparison to Neven, he became remarkably tolerant as Neven stomped out of the treehouse and out of both Maria and Yuven's hands. "I don't think I need to state how much—"

"Of a time limit we have," Adara finished for him, and Yuven's feathers fluffed out. "I know. I agree. It's the cove, Yuven. That's how we got teleported. I looked up—" And found myself burning in the twilight sea, but I don't know if I can do that a second time. I don't even know how I did it the first time. Oh, Fenrer... I hope you're managing. It might be too naive of me to think you're okay. Adara rushed out after Neven, who had made his way to the eastern gate in the time they chatted back and forth. Yuven rushed beside her, with Maria taking their backs with a wave at the other Wardens.

"Keep your posts!" Maria barked to the Wardens at the door. "If the boat gets here before we return, hold them. We might have a slew of injured for them to take!" With that, Maria caught up to them, and Adara scooted out of her way when she jogged for Neven with a sense of purpose. "Neven, be careful!"

Neven's fangs bared, but he slowed down in front of the gate with a flick of his feathers until they all joined him. It was Yuven who took the lead out of Asairai, their last bastion of safety against the unknown. Tangled fingers and lost warmth, Adara chewed on her lower lip when they hurried down the forested paths, following the line of the coast before they reached the cove once more.

"I knew there was something off with this place," Neven said, the vindication in his voice ringing clear. Into the damp cove, Adara shivered at the layer of mist which fell upon her shoulders, but she bit on her tongue when all three Wardens turned to her. "Do you know how you activated the portal?" Neven asked in one quick sentence, his melodic accent almost making her miss the all too important words. He paused, then added, "If you cannot remember—"

"I... I don't know what I did," she admitted but headed up to the tidepool. "I just remember... looking up." Adara repeated her previous actions, but her heart lodged into her throat when nothing happened, even when she met the gaze of the phoenix. Yuven stepped into the tidepool. Glittering water sloshed around his boots when he followed her gaze, before indicating for them to join him in the tidepool. "Don't tell me you've figured it out already?"

"All teleportation has a basis in connection between planes," Yuven remarked when Neven slid in. He stretched both hands forward between all of them. "Hold onto me. I'm going to try and find the remnants of the echo left behind when you were moved. I may overshoot it, or undershoot. Take a deep breath when I tell you too." He looked between all of them, then nodded at his hands. Maria grabbed onto them first. Neven followed suit with a flick of his feathers before all three of them turned to her. "What are you waiting for?"

"Last time you did this, Yuven, you shot us across the Twilight Sea," Adara pointed out.

"Well, I'm not doing that. Grab onto my hand."

Adara grabbed onto his hand with all of them squeezed tight together while the water lapped at her. "And if this doesn't work?"

"We'll end up somewhere."

"That's comforting." Adara huffed.

"I'm not here to be comforting." Yuven's grip tightened. "Ready on my mark." He closed his eyes, and a small whisper of mist swirled around them. "And if you don't breathe when I tell you too, it's not my fault if you throw up your lunch. Breathe."

She almost failed to do just that when the tug on her skin turned into a tear. If it were not for Yuven's hands gripping onto theirs, she doubted she could hold on for too long. It rustled in her ears, and she gasped when her face smacked into the layer of water and her knees bounced against the stone. Sprinkles of water dripped from strands of brown hair, and she snapped herself up to check on the others. Dread filled her heart when all three of them had landed on the bank, though from the way Yuven squeezed out his shirt, he hadn't escaped it either. "You could have mentioned the pond, Sazaka."

"Back to last names, are we?" Adara crawled out of the basin.

Yuven waited for her to crawl out before folding his arms with a twist to his lips. "This is where you may take the lead." He paused, then turned to Neven. "If anything is familiar to you, do mention it, Miesero."

Neven looked over his shoulder, then around at the massive, thick trees. "I'm afraid I don't."

"If we can find where Fenrer and I sheltered before... we stumbled on that Derelict, I think I can guide you the entire way." Her attention drew to Neven. "It was an abandoned village, but the thing is, Fenrer could see those who lived there while I couldn't. You were one of the few they mentioned passing through." When Neven's brow creased, she continued, "I don't expect you to remember it from what they said. I think you were within the grip of the Obscura Text at that point. It obviously was what led you out here in the first place, then maybe brought you back."

Yuven side-eyed Neven. "I guess it matters little at this point. We have a lead now, we're going to see it through. Take the lead to this village, Adara, and we shall investigate it for ourselves. We have no time to waste and I don't plan on sleeping in a graveyard."

Lovely. Adara nodded and rushed through the trees in the same direction Fenrer had taken, though no further pulses ran through her temples as before. Paths became clearer. Shadows moved as they should with the shed sunlight through the leaves on the branches. "You said Neven was one of the few they mentioned," Maria said. "Did they mention others?"

Adara nodded as she crawled over exposed roots and over fallen logs. As they went deeper, she frowned at the withered state of the world around her. The stagnation Fenrer mentioned... "They mentioned Kemal's group... and a Keeper of Pyon that Fenrer believed to be Blackwall."

Yuven froze in place, then narrowed his eyes. "What was he doing out here, did these people say?"

"No."

His fangs slipped over his lips, but he tossed his hand at her for her to press on. Adara rushed, refusing to leave Fenrer behind. I know he must be alive, that Derelict was some sort of portal. Jaw clenched, she carried Kemal's crescent blade at her side, though she frowned at the lack of warmth it exuded, though she failed to mention it to the others. I hope we can get there in time. I don't deserve to have this crescent blade yet. Her lips sucked between her teeth when Yuven side-eyed her again with a frown. "This entire forest was an illusion before," she explained. "Fenrer broke the illusion and that's when we found signs of Kemal's team and the Derelict appeared."

"An illusion." Yuven's brow scrunched, but she blinked at the bright victory in his eyes.

"How are we going to get all the injured out of there?" Adara asked.

It was Maria's reaction which quelled any hope in her heart when her amber gaze drew downward onto the path and she said nothing. It slammed against her chest at a familiar gravel road, and she ran down it without waiting for the others. Through a break in the treeline, the ruins of the village which Fenrer wandered into with his eyes aflame. Shattered stone palisades of failed defense. Houses dusty and webbed with crimson tangles, the only hint of what had happened. Neven stopped at the edge of the gate, a flicker of recognition in his eyes. "Here," Adara said as she stopped in the middle. "Fenrer said this place was alive, but I didn't see anything."

"I'm not surprised, he's an Aurus," Yuven mumbled, but turned to Neven when he forced himself into the village, eyes wide in dismay. "Do you recognize this place?"

"It's just like all the other towns," Neven said when he joined them in the square. "Little to no signs of a Derelict infestation, but empty like whoever lived here never existed in the first place." He went to a house on the corner between the road, and headed up its front steps to use his foot and let the door swing open. Musty air escaped it with a shuddered breath, but no ghoul wandered out to feast on the living. Neven returned to them with a shake of his head. "I'm afraid I don't remember coming through here though."

"What do you remember?" Yuven pressed. "Anything could help, Miesero. Think. You were missing for a couple days based on the reports of the other Wardens."

"And I still insist that can't be right," Neven argued. "I was gone for a few bells at the most."

Maria headed up to her side. "If this forest had been an illusion... both can be true in a way. To Neven inside the illusion, it could've been a couple bells, but to the outside... in reality it had been days," she pointed out and both Avaerilians turned their attention to her. "But for that to be possible, it would need to be a powerful illusion, based on either blood magick or Anima magick, and considering what we're dealing with, I would bet it's blood magick with unwilling participants. If it's anima magick, though, which I doubt considering breaking that would most certainly be difficult for even a Flare — it would mean it was weaved for a reason."

Adara mumbled, "But if it's anima magick..."

"It would be an ancient weave considering you are the last living Anima," Yuven said with a push of Neven's shoulder. "We should continue on. There's nothing to see here." He pushed past her, though she found herself drawn to Neven, who flicked his gaze around with a frown. "Come! I don't want Fenrer in their grasp for any longer. Nor the other Wardens such as Kemal."

Maria took the step she wanted to take. "Are you alright, Nev?"

Shadows flitted across his features, then mumbled, "...something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Adara's heart jumped into her throat at his blank statement.

"This entire place isn't right," Yuven complained.

"No, I mean..." Neven went in the other direction.

Branches creaked, and Adara shuddered at the pressure in the air. Colours washed into monochrome, she gasped when all three Storm Wardens converged on her with their crescent blades at the ready when the sounds shambled closer. It rumbled her ears and the pressure dug its nails into her mind. Tendrils of scattered, dying blues splattered against the grass when it crawled its way to them.

"Yuv." Maria tugged on his elbow when a shape stumbled closer to them.

Yuven raised his crescent blade, at the ready until Neven raised his hand with a soft gasp. "Julis?"

It was a man who shambled closer to them, though with no intent of harm from the way his limbs remained loose at his sides. Bile swirled in her nose at the missing fingers along his hands soaked with old blood. It drove into her throat at the empty eye-sockets where tears of red dripped down his chin. Neven moved away from them, but Yuven grabbed onto him. "Don't."

Julis stopped in front of them, expression blank and emotionless until he sat down on the ground with a crescent blade pointed at him.

"Yuven, put the blade down," Neven chirped with a sharp inflection.

Yuven relinquished it with a rueful scoff and Neven knelt in front of Julis. "Julis?"

He gave no response.

"Who is that?" Adara warbled. "Gods, what happened to his eyes? He's alive."

"Nev," Maria said, her expression twisted into empathetic horror.

Neven's feathers twitched before slumping into the tangles of his hair and he straightened himself out. "I see."

Yuven huffed and sheathed his crescent blade. "If he's alive, we don't have the time to take him back." Disgust curled his nose and he looked away from Julis. "I can't believe I'd see that sight again, an Aurus without their eyes. Nev, you can take him back to the pond. It should still be active—"

In a glint of gold, sinew tore at the seams, and Adara covered her scream at the familiarity when the hook of Neven's blade tore through Julis' neck, and he was no longer alive, and she had found the day where Yuven's jaw dropped.

"He was not alive anymore." Neven's voice jolted her out of her own shock and the pooling blood at Neven's boots. "Burn him," he said to Maria, who brought her hands up without her or Yuven's level of surprise. Embers glittered at her fingertips, and she sent the scattered pieces over Julis' body, where the fumes drove into her nose and she squeezed her nose shut when Neven stumbled past Yuven.

"You should've let me do that," Yuven said.

Neven stopped, then shook his head. "It's my responsibility. It will continue to be so until I'm dead, Yuven. I was the one who was responsible for this posting. The least I could do is give them a swift route to peace after the cult tried to steal it away from them." Neven's wavy hair fell against his ears when he twitched and jutted out his lip — a near perfect reflection of his adopted son. "The very least I can do is finish this." On he went without stopping, like he knew where he was going.

Adara frowned at the ashes splitting into the sky.

"Maria?" Yuven asked when Neven drew further away.

"He would never have been the same, Yuv," Maria whispered when the flames lit up her eyes. "Once you take out an Aurus' eyes... there's no putting them back."

Adara choked. "We need to find Fenrer."

Yuven jerked. "Yes, we do." He rushed after Neven.

Left with Maria, she stood by the dead, a flimsy mercy, but she forced herself to turn away and keep going forward. A cruel world, but she had known it to be so. Her fairytales nothing more than a far-off, distant dream, she clenched her fists and held on tight to the crescent blade belonging to someone else.