ADARA

It was a journey into the darkness when night encroached; a miracle when she found the waterfall cave and led the other three inside. "This is where Fenrer left some sort of rune," she said with a point at the indent in the wall, and she made her way out of Yuven's when he raced for it. "I think he was going to use it as a beacon but..." Her head pounded at the overwhelming compression on her shoulders, but she raised her head when Yuven looked over them. His gaze lingered on Neven, who grew ashen with each step. "Do we keep going? Maybe you can follow it?" His lack of answer made her turn her attention to Neven as well, who rubbed his throat and scrunched his face when he met Yuven's.

"We're resting."

"Yuven—" Neven started — but Yuven always got the last word. No matter how abrasive.

"You will slow us down more if you don't rest."

Neven's lips curled and revealed his fangs, but he slid down onto the floor. Though no one looked more frustrated than Yuven, who sat closer to the entrance of the cave with his crescent blade close at his side, with Maria right beside him. Adara took the other side, though focused on trying to form silver flames in her palms for practice — full of doubt that she would get a second chance considering the events which happened before their arrival to the waterfall. It cracked against her throat when Yuven bit over to her, "That goes for you too, Adara. You still have to take us to the area where Fenrer got taken."

Adara let go of the embers with a huff and slumped against the rock. It burned on her skin, and she found herself dreaming — or more accurately, having a nightmare about the massacre of Prunal, though it was her at its center once more. Flames, silver and bright, chewed at corpses, shadows, and buildings alike. Fury in visible form when it fell as ashes along her skin, though when she tried to shake it off, it weighed itself down with dreamy lead. Though she tried to recall Fenrer's words of her powerful magick, it squeezed tighter against her skull, but she snapped awake when someone kicked her shin. "Ow."

"Consider that payback. We're moving," Yuven said, and Adara squinted at the curtain of water. Sunlight dripped across the tangled water, with Neven hauling himself up to his feet. "We're going to go as far as we can. I'm assuming we're not that far?"

Adara got on her own shaky knees. "We're not."

"Good. We move, then. I don't want to keep them waiting any longer." Yuven's attention drew to Neven when he rubbed his throat. "No one." Though he led them out of the waterfall and to the other side of the pond, she gulped down her nervousness when the three stepped out of her way, or stumbled slightly in Neven's case. "It's hard to miss. It'll be surrounded by broken crystals, though I don't know if they'll still be there. They seemed to feed the Derelict... or whatever it was."

"We'll figure that out when we're there." Yuven gave a sharp incline of his head to indicate movement.

"That's a first." Adara led them deeper into the forest. Much the same track her and Fenrer tread over until they ran face-first into danger and the cult who stole so many Wardens — killed them, even. Fingers against her chest, she tried not to flinch at any slight sound. It was a comfort to have multiple crescent blades and people who knew how to wield them, and though she carried Kemal's, she felt ill-equipped to handle it without gaining Yuven's ire for not being a Storm Warden thinking she could wield a Storm Warden's sacred weapon. But I'd rather not be without something to defend myself. I've learned my lesson on that front. As the grass withered and the roots split, she forced herself forward without the readiness of no return. "I think it's up ahead. Things started to wilt and then that thing appeared." She came to a stop and faced the three Wardens. "Do you know how you're going to get where Fenrer ended up?"

"That depends." Yuven took the lead from her and pushed brambles out of his way. Free from responsibility, she let Maria take the back while Neven joined her in the middle of their group. Yuven used his blade to crack through blood-red tangles, which turned a sickly gray when the hook crumbled them. Until the forest line broke apart and the pond came into her sight. Memories of Fenrer's outreach to the darkness shook her to her core, but she drove it out of her mind when Yuven looked back at her. "Is this the place?"

"Yes." Adara raised a shaky hand to point at the center of the pond. "It came out of there."

Yuven headed straight to the edge and looked inside.

"It's empty. Just rocks," he reported and turned his attention to the destroyed, dim crystals. "If it's anything like the cove, this might be some sort of portal. If that's the case, I should be able to find the previous trail it used, but considering what we're dealing with, we should tread with some measure of caution." He hopped to the bottom and the dry mire, then huffed. "Let's see if I can't find some sort of entrance way. The Derelict could've dragged Fenrer below the surface."

"You mean buried him alive?" About to facepalm at her lack of critical thought and not digging deep enough, Yuven's scoff stopped her short.

"No," Yuven said. "It's possible there's some sort of cave system like Draken's Descent. But be quiet, I need to concentrate. I want you two to secure the area and make sure we won't get caught by surprise." He pointed at Maria and Neven, who busied themselves quickly at his order, and Adara sat at the edge when Yuven flicked his attention towards her. "As for you, I might need the assistance of your magick."

"How?" Adara perked up, wanting nothing more than to help where she couldn't before.

Yuven twitched his hand at her, and she jumped into the pit with him. "I'm going to create a glyph. I want you to funnel your magicks into it. It should be of no consequence to you, but I want to conserve what strength I have for what is to come." He raised his head when Maria and Neven returned and looked over the edge. "Anything?"

"There are signs of Derelicts, but they're old," Maria reported. "I think we've got time."

"Good. Both of you in here. I'm going to try and follow the exact route taken by the Derelict who abducted Fenrer. Maybe we'll end up in a cave and we can follow any tracks left."

"What if we don't end up in a cave?"

"We get buried alive instead." Yuven drew himself up then held his arms out. "But do give me more credit than that, Adara. I've pushed the limits of my magick... and am one of two last living users of spatial expansion. I could do this in my sleep. Flinging us across the continent was the hardest thing I've done. Finding a possible cave is a simple task." With a crick to his neck, he threw his hands outwards. Across the edges of the pond, ice whispered up to reform the crystals. Glyphic spirals weaved through the grass, making slight connections to rip at her skin, but Yuven stood at the center of it all. And somehow... I'm more powerful than he is? Adara waited for his nod to gather flames into her palms, sending them into the focal points of power of his glyph.

Neven and Maria drew closer to them when the glyph split apart and ticked into an upwards motion. The near invisible hands of the clock while her blood rushed to her ears. Her flames blazed into the glyph and turned it into a sharp silver, and she bit on her tongue at the waves of pain when it constricted around them. Neven and Maria showed no signs of her agony, but she sucked in her lips and held her tongue, allowing her sight to go dark. Stars sprinkled along her feet, though moved with fast motions. It thunked against her ribcage in time with her heartbeat. Yuven's confidence was her only source of comfort of what he was truly capable of. Her experiences given to her by her journey with the Storm Wardens and their near fatal efforts to protect her and her agency with her magick.

"Yuven?" Though the world had gone silent, she knew he listened. "Are they alive? Will he be?" Did I abandon him? Aren't I supposed to be powerful? Her teeth drove into her lower lip at her inability even with her supposed, vaunted strength.

"If I have anything to say about it," was his response when the noise flushed out of her ears and her knees burned when she fell face first into stone. "They've overplayed their hand several times." Mist bloomed in light when Yuven lifted a bright swirl in his hands to shine the stone around them. Old, cracked posts held up the cave from collapse, strengthened by runes. Neven headed up to one to run his fingers along the ridges. "Those look recent."

"Where are we?" Adara questioned.

Maria formed her own magelight of pulsating flames, a bonfire in the night. "It's definitely some sort of old mine."

"Are we below the pond?"

It lifted to the ceiling, and Maria shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Neven," Yuven said. "Do you recall anything? Did you have any premonitions from Kemal's side of things?" Caution dripped from his tone when Neven lifted his gaze to him. "When... you had the convulsion you were conscious of?"

"I just saw light, and heard Kemal's voice," Neven explained with a frown, and Adara inched closer to them when the shadows crawled closer with hungry tendrils. "We shouldn't stay here though." A winterbloom of radiance crawled out of Neven's palm when he lowered it to the floor. Adara jerked back at the thick stains of blood along the cobbled path set down. Old, rotted, but no less present when Neven pointed at it and traced the path deeper into the darkness. "Most of all, we need to think of how we're going to get out of here as we rescue them."

"Same way we came in, obviously," Yuven mumbled. "Give me some credit, Miesero."

Adara side-eyed the older Naveeran when his feathers thinned against his head and Neven shook it. "It may not be that simple — if they find out we are here, if they don't know already—"

"I won't let them trap us like they've done so many others." Yuven bristled, feathers upright. "Come. We're here. Let's go all the way. Keep your voices down. We need to listen to any cultists. Because if we do have the jump on them, we have a golden opportunity. One I won't let escape my grasp."

Adara faltered when the three went into the abyss without her sense of hesitation. Tingles crawled up her spine when a stale breeze hit the nape of her neck, and she rushed to match their pace. Its eerie silence settled on her shoulders when they took twisted turns and steep inclines. Her legs burned from the exercise, but she held her tongue of further questions when the supports became far more consistent and stronger.

Until a shaft collapse blocked their way.

Yuven huffed. "Maria?"

"I can handle it." She drew forward and allowed her magelight to float beside her before planting herself in front of the mineshaft. Adara stepped back with Neven when a fiery glyph formed underneath her. It curved, then its edges sharpened and dug deeper into the dirt with a quiet rumble. Pebbles in the collapse tumbled, before the larger rocks found themselves pulled into the glyph and moved aside to reveal flickering lamps along the walls. Through their first obstacle, Maria replaced the blockage with a nod, then turned around.

Neven moved forward to an opening in the wall, but slammed to a stop.

"What?" Yuven moved for him.

Adara joined them, and looked through.

A giant cavern yawned ahead, its bottomless pit a jaw to consume anything thrown into it. Her heart sank at the small openings along the open area where bulbous crimson tumours oozed their innards and viscera into the darkness. "Gods..." Adara rasped, and she traced the pathway to the center of the dome, where a stone platform hung over the abyss by way of thick chains far above their heads. Every so often, a light spurt ahead, but doused when the shadows overtook it.

Yuven scowled. "We're in the right place. Let's go find them."

Adara found herself rooted in place and lifted her head further upwards to the unseen firmament. Darkness all around her, she bit on her lip and forced herself to follow the three when they moved on. Prickles set themselves on her skin and threatened to burn her alive for her ignorance.