FENRER

Light glimmered out of the reflective diamond at the top of the cabin he shared with Adara. Her weight at rest against his arm gave him a sense of calm at the fluttering silver rivers which wound themselves around her flaming aura when he brought his senses into focus. She slept without disruption, so he continued to read the compiled notes of Yuven, Maria and himself about everything they knew from Neven. They have a goal... that much is clear. He used his thumb to push onto the next page to leave Adara to her rest. Everytime the boat swayed underneath him, he swallowed bile and paused his reading to center himself. But-what is it? He tilted his head back against the pillow at the salty spray in his nose, adjusting his arm a bit so he supported Adara's sleeping form — a surprising heavy sleeper considering Yuven's stringent routines. At the risk of losing feeling in his arm.

Clouds blocked the sun rays which cast themselves on the massive expanse of water, as far as the eye could see. Though as he turned to flip to another page, underneath the salt and water, a scent of rot. Off the pillow, he hesitated when Adara stirred, so he relaxed. Was I... imagining things then? Fenrer rubbed his nose, biting on his tongue when the boat gave another raucous sway at a hefty wave. He abandoned his notebook, tucking it somewhere safe in his armor before trying to catch some sleep himself. Days — or weeks upon the water had done enough to unsettle his stomach. As he brushed Adara's shoulder, he scrunched his brow when the rot joined in the salty taste. Wait... I'm not imagining it. He slowly and carefully pushed Adara onto her side to let her sleep before sitting up.

As his boots touched the wood, he frowned at the slightest layer of dark mist over the beams. That can't be right. Knees in the layer of dark, he drew back at the decay, rot, and carrion. He checked on Adara, who gave no hint or reaction to the sudden change of their environments. Fenrer straightened himself out, then peeked out the porthole. Water, sending up sprays of foam while the clouds provided cover from the blazing sun, though the dark mist continued to seep through the hull. Its tendrils curled along the wood, but it gave no clear indication of Derelict formation. Hand up, he traced a glyph through the air and let it expand against the entire room, chasing away the darkness with green, misty vines. Ward in place, he left the room, though brought a hand closer to his nose at the thickness of it outside his room. What with Adara's aura burning whatever came close, sending ashes upwards into nothing.

What? Why has no one sounded the alarm?

Fenrer hurried through the corridors and onto the deck. Dark mist inched its way across the mast, and he widened his eyes at the lack of reaction from everyone else. Fenrer rubbed his eyes, though the mirage persisted with a flutter. Yuven should be in the captain's quarters... He hurried across to the other side, ducking past the stairs and through the double doors. Yuven sat at a desk, tapping a map in quiet contemplation. "Yuv?" He slid the door closed behind him, waiting for the tell-tale click. Mist curled at the windows of the cabin, though Yuven raised an eyebrow at him. "Are we at the Derelict Sea?"

Yuven overturned his moonwatch which sat on the edge of the map. "We shouldn't be," he muttered. "I know I said I wanted us to go full speed — but I do, surprisingly, I know — have realistic expectations." He snapped his finger, and an ember lit up in the reading lamp. "Why?"

"I think it came to us."

Yuven gave an owlish blink. "What?"

Fenrer tapped his feet. "I see corrupted mist everywhere. How're you not sensing it?" he asked, throwing his hands around him. "It permeates the air here. I'm surprised it isn't visible to anyone else with how thick it is. Are you sure we're not on the borderlands of the Dark Strip?" He straightened himself out when Yuven left his chair, hurrying to the blinds of his cabin to throw it open. Per the usual, the sea stretched on ahead, a sparkling, abyssal blue. "I know it looks normal but there's something wrong," Fenrer insisted when Yuven opened the window to look downwards into the water, and he joined him. "It's not a formation right on top of us, i can tell you that much, but..."

"We're not at the Dark Sea." Yuven drew away from the window, closing it as he went.

Fenrer frowned. "Do you... not believe me?"

"It would be so much simpler if I didn't," Yuven replied with a shake of his head. "Sadly, Fenrer — you are an Aurus, and by virtue, whatever you're seeing... I have to believe it..." Yuven tapped his boot against the wood of the cabin. "When did you start sensing this?"

"Ah, a few minutes ago?" Fenrer turned when Yuven hurried for the doors.

"Is the boat covered in it?"

"As far as I saw, only the deck and below," Fenrer reported when Yuven opened the door. Reluctant to leave his once Corrupted Oathbound alone to his own devices, he followed Yuven onto the main deck. The crew prepared the defenses for their approach to the Dark Sea — unawares of the black-crimson mist which licked at their heels, and drew away from the golden speckled chains the Storm Wardens set upon the railing without care. Fenrer adjusted his strap over and over to find an easier means to breath, but stopped at a low rumble in his heart. He grabbed onto the back of Yuven's shirt, causing him to swipe his violet eyes to him.

"What?"

"Something's not right."

"I got that." Yuven turned away from him. "I want those chains dropped. Now." The Storm Wardens looked at their captain, brows writ with confusion. "I said now," he barked. He headed over to the first anchor, pushing the chains into the water. The splash created golden ripples, but revealed nothing of his sight to the others. Yuven leaned over the railing, teeth bared, before rushing up to Fenrer.

"Are you sure, Captain?" one of the older Wardens asked. "We're not at the Dark Strip yet. It's still leagues away." They pointed to their current heading, where the Dark Sea bloomed like an infection in the water. A bulging vein of thick goo where no ship dared to tread unless truly desperate. "If we drop the chains now we risk—"

"Leave them down," Yuven ordered. "Once we enter the borderlands, we'll be all the more prepared." He tugged at his elbow, and Fenrer relented in following back to the cabin, though he stopped him outside the doors. In his heart, the rumble continued, full of ancient malice while their boat continued to sail for the heartlands of the oceanic Derelicts. "How does it look now?"

Fenrer drew his attention over the deck, while the uncertainty of the crew made the crimson tainted mist slither, but the golden chains against the boat pulled it back to where it belonged. Deep in the depths. "It's working," he whispered, and Yuven relaxed.

"Good." Yuven cleared his throat and headed outside to look up at the helmsman. "Set our course for the heartlands at full speed. Kick off the engines once we're at the border. We'll have to rely on the wind until we're out the other side—"

"Captain?" another Warden asked through a tight voice.

"I think I just saw something move..." a younger Warden whispered at the railing.

Yuven drew his eyes upwards and rushed to the two, pushing them aside to look down into the water. Fenrer joined him, and stretched his senses further. It created a slice of pain through his temples, but he continued through the murk. It rippled black tar underneath the waves, confirming what he had hoped his sight betrayed. Massive tentacles, stretching outwards. Next he blinked, it disappeared, and he glanced at Yuven, who shook his head. "Full speed ahead," he ordered once again. "We stop for nothing. If Derelicts try to get in our way — ram them." His hand settled on his shoulder, and Fenrer drew away from the lapping waves, hearing the bubbles in his ears. "Keep an eye out, Fen."

"There's something in there," he warbled. Embers bit at his blood, and the dawnblade burned against his back.

Yuven clutched his shoulder. "Probably Derelicts looking for a meal," he whispered. "Just get back below deck and let me know if anything—"

Fenrer looked over Yuven's shoulder, widening his eyes when the waves turned red. Black foam churned into the depths and created thick bubbles to pop on the surface. Some of the Wardens at the railing stepped backwards as the sky darkened in reflection to the world below, the overcast clouds above their head casting a light drizzle when the living sea showed its teeth. Yuven snapped his head upwards, then looked over his shoulder.

"I definitely didn't blink and we skipped several leagues," one of the Wardens muttered.

"We didn't." Yuven snapped around. "Someone go below deck to turn off the engine—" Once one Warden scrambled to follow his orders. "Set the wind at our sails. We're getting out of this patch as fast as possible."

The pyretic flame — thine ancient enemy. Fenrer grabbed onto his temples at the ignited pain crashing against his skull. Yuven switched his gaze. "In darkness, fury..." It cracked against his eye sockets, and though Yuven's mouth moved, no words came out. Lightning cracked through the darkness, revealing a massive shape in his inner sight. Tentacles stretched across the deepest of depths, but when Yuven raised two cold glyphs to his face, he tried to cling onto the familiarity. In one world, Yuven barked another order, a blur of noise, thick against his ears while another Warden rushed below deck. Pyretic flame. Burn the abyss. His hands found Yuven's shoulders, whose expression finally died to one of concern. Being of wretched darkness... feel the fury of the flames. Wood creaked in his ears, and when the boat swayed, bile rose up to his throat. Energy shivered at his shoulders when he raised his head to what settled itself on it.

A webbed eye, veiled over with red.

The bile in his throat littered his tongue, and he resisted the urge to heave. Yuven pulled him away from the endless red horizon, not acknowledging the terror which bloomed around them in an instant. His eyes burned, the webs breaking apart the flow until Yuven tossed him into his cabin, and he found himself pushed in front of a bucket the moment the bitter-tasting salt filled his nose and he found himself unable to resist the call.

As he threw up what little he had in his stomach into the bucket, Yuven shook out his hands with a nasal hiss, lips pressed into a thin line when he locked the door behind them. "Fenrer?" he asked. "Are you with me now?"

Fenrer gripped onto the edges of the bucket. "...huh?"

Yuven knelt down beside him. "You were having an Auric Trance."

"I... was?" Fenrer tried to straighten against the screaming of his stomach, but found himself returning to the bucket to hack bile into the bottom. "We're in the Dark Sea."

"It seems so." Yuven set a hand over his knee, feathers raised high against his ears. "Which means it expanded massively over the course of a few moons. I don't believe Neven wouldn't have said something if it had changed when he first returned to Euros..." Yuven looked out the window, where the Wardens and crewmembers scrambled to set up further defenses while the waves stilled in death. "Maybe we've been looking too close to home. It seems the cult activities are having a greater effect on the whole."

Fenrer gripped onto Yuven's shoulder. "Not whole."

Yuven flicked his gaze to Fenrer. "What?"

"Remember what we told you?" Fenrer rasped. "Evyriaz did something during the Great Crimson Dusk — it split the world's magick and the echoes."

"I'm aware." Yuven craned his neck again. "I'm going to send Maria here to check you over." Away from his side, Fenrer tugged at his sleeve, but Yuven's newfound strength away from death's door proved his undoing. "We're going to have to douse the main lights. Adara's enough of one on her own." He pulled out his Derelict Resonator, the sound grating against his ears when it clacked against the crystals inside, slowly turning red at the corruption all around them. "Stay here." He opened the door. "I will be back."

Fenrer let him go.

Every sway sent bile past his lips in viscous rivers without any effort on his part. Teeth dragged against his skin, bitten by the flames as he tried to summon a measly glyph. Vines burned to nothing, replaced by tendrils of embers, blazing with morning. Pyretic flame... the deep Hanekan voice spoke out, the dialect near incomprehensible to him. Water solidified into tentacles, but a shape reentered the cabin, and the moment the cold touched his brow, he sank deeper into the abyss.

Drowning; all over again.