ADARA

After the reality of the situation hit their shoulders, Yuven spent most of the time pacing around the table in the bunker with a string of muttered Navei words leaving his lips as he moved papers around, flipping them over, reading them before tossing them to the side with a nasal hiss of frustration. Her interest drawn to the maps on either wall instead of his ceaseless movements, she studied the names, the directions. Each part of the unknown world her and Jisa dreamed of. Little pins stuck to some of the points of interest, and her gaze trailed downwards to the books below it. Over her shoulder, Fenrer fiddled with his leather strap when he came down the stairs. "Maria's with Neven. What do you want us to do, Yuven?" he questioned, which caused Yuven to pause his steps. "I've tried everything but nothing points to Neven being corrupted, which only really leaves one option, doesn't it? At least, Maria said as such."

A soft noise of affirmation left Yuven's lips when he punched them. "Based on what you saw while treading his mind... Kemal is the one who is Corrupted — but this must've been a recent development, which means he is still alive." Yuven folded his arms, resting his hands underneath his elbows. "Question is... if that's the good news or the bad news."

"Why wouldn't it be good news? It means we can still save him," Adara pointed out.

Both Fenrer and Yuven lowered their heads. "The longer they're in that corrupted state, the further their bodies metamorphosis," Yuven reminded her. "Think of Corruptors like cocoons. We ourselves are not Derelicts... but we're going to birth them from our souls." Her nose scrunched, and made her feel no less distraught when Yuven continued without mercy, "It is a very delicate time frame of initial corruption, to 'cut' the Echo Obscura's hold on a soul." Hands on the table, he sighed. "The aftershock can kill. Expulsion flashes can kill — and of course, even if they survive all of that, death is all that awaited them in the Expulsion Event. Maria's made a huge leap in medicine, but it will need refinement, and I don't know if we can get Kemal in time."

"It's..." Adara forced out. "It's still better than nothing, surely?"

It was Fenrer who spoke when Yuven held his silence with a heaviness lowering his feathers. "It's a slim chance, but yes." Fenrer gave a swift nod and a weak smile of hopefulness. "Maybe the giant's blood will make all the difference. It may prolong the suffering, yes, but it will mean he might have a chance of getting through this just as Yuven has." Though the Avaerilian across from Fenrer lifted his head with a quiet chirp, Fenrer continued, "With that, back to what I asked. What do you want us to do? I can continue monitoring Neven with Maria, but I think based on what you've told me, I should be out in the field, getting an auric read on the area. Sooner we find the trail Kemal's patrol took, the faster we find him and can send them both home for needed rest."

Yuven tapped the table with incessant rhythms. "We explore the site of the ruins mentioned in Neven's reports — I'm not so concerned with the missing villages. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was meant to serve as a minute distraction to the real thing," he said with wiggled feathers. "But I want us to be careful. I do not want to put any more undue stress on Neven. He is not in the condition for it. Speaking from experience," Yuven grumbled. "Afterwards, I'm going to be studying these maps and Kemal's notes, trying to pick up his trail and we will go from there. Ruins first and we'll work from there. I will meet you both outside the Lodge." With a shooing motion of his hands, Adara followed Fenrer up the steps and out of the treehouse.

"How is Neven?" she asked with a touch of his forearm when his hopefulness withered off his face.

"Not doing too well. I do not think the stress and worry is helping," Fenrer muttered when he led the way to the Lodge's entrance. "But, Maria knows what she's doing, so the best we can do is take the reins and figure out what happened here, why, and how it's connected to what's happening in Orkaena — what it means for Aztryxer. Are there other areas affected that we're unaware of? What about the desert in the south? We have a lot of questions and no answers." His head lowered. "The person who might've had those questions? Or who would've known what to ask?" He lifted his head again to the distant gate. "Kemal's under the thumb of the cultists, we can't let them get away. I think he found something out. He's got the key, I'm sure of it, but we need to find him first."

Adara bit on her lip when Fenrer continued on his way, holding a strong front as always. On the steps, she tapped her foot against the stonework, up until Yuven deigned to show himself after several minutes of no incessant nagging or complaining. Shadows weighed heavy underneath his eyes, and she frowned at the small dots of red on his sleeves. The same expression Neven himself wore when she found herself alone with the older Avaerilian, with Fenrer suffering underneath her hands and Yuven on the throes of death. It caused Fenrer's stone wall of expression to crack. "He had another one, didn't he?"

The answer was a stiff nod as Yuven led them to the gate closest to the Lodge. "The ruins are quite a ways into the forest. I hope you two are prepared for anything to happen. We are going to follow Kemal's tracks up until the ruin. I'd rather not get captured by a cult of necromancers who vaunt Derelicts as their gods."

"That's comforting," Adara mumbled.

"I'm not trying to be comforting, Adara. It's called being realistic with the situation ahead of us. I know such may be beyond you, but some of us don't have the luxury of being comforted. I thought you'd have learned that by now."

"Yes... that was the joke, Yuven. Thank you."

"We don't have time to joke."

"Good to know we can get back to something normal," Fenrer said with a quiet sigh, his brow scrunching in exhaustion. "Shall we get on with it then?" His gaze cast over the forest around them, the galactic spirals starting to shift in the greens when he twisted on his heel. "Even standing out here I feel some sort of stagnation in the flow." Hand raised, he pointed in the direction they faced, with Yuven flicking his ears. "Which is odd, Elvkana has always been more attuned to the flow than Orkaena." It dropped back to his side, and he was the one who led the way into darkness with Yuven following close behind. "Apart from that oddity though, I don't sense anything particular or would speak of Derelict infestations or dark magicks apart from the stagnation." Adara kept close between them, the memory serving her some measure of comfort in the dark. The boughs thickened above their heads, nary a streak of sunlight piercing the path before them.

"How bad is the stagnation?" Yuven asked.

Fenrer paused to take another look around the area. "I..." He released a confused breath. "It's hard to tell. Maybe once we get to these ruins I'll have a better idea."

Onwards into the shadows, Adara brought up a magelight to light the way instead. Silver flames pierced the shade of the boughs, casting light on the undergrowth where not a noise uttered a peep. "It's quiet."

"Too quiet." Yuven rested a hand against the hilt of his crescent blade.

Soon enough, their dirt, beaten road became a scattering of dirty, marble stone when the forest opened up. Light returned, she doused hers, but frowned when neither Yuven or Fenrer appeared comforted by the radiance of the sun. Moss grew over storied pillars. Lichen sought to reclaim what time abandoned. In the center, the last remaining building which stood against it all, with small towers peeking out of its destroyed roof. Yuven's feathers thinned. "Here we are," he said as he took the lead away from Fenrer, who studied the air while they approached. "Here is where Neven said they found the completed Corruptor — and where Kemal was heading before he disappeared. If there's any hint of where they went, we'll find it here." His gaze flicked to Fenrer. "Anything yet?"

Fenrer shook his head.

"Hm." Yuven continued onward without much comment, heading to the cracked doors of the little fort. Hand against the weakest part, he shoved it open with Fenrer's help to reveal the insides. Sunlight streamed through curtains of hanging vines. Toppled pillars crushed the debris or cracked in two. On the floor, a circle with broken gemstones, filled with dirt akin to a grave. Curiosity dragged her forward, but it was Fenrer's hand which held her back, doing the same to Yuven when his knees bent in intention. Under one of the fallen foundations, a skeleton, though parts of it turned to ash with every breath of wind. "What?"

Fenrer's gaze swung around. "Do... either of you smell that?"

Yuven raised his nose in the air. "No."

"It's..." Fenrer let them go and entered, heading to the border of the circular grave. Head lowered, he pursed his lips and sighed. "Maybe... I was just imagining things."

"Molvisaliz," Yuven warned.

"I'm serious, for a second I smelled decay but—" Fenrer straightened himself out, and Adara joined him in the ruin when Yuven swatted her forward. "What is this place though? Does Neven know?"

"From what I understand, his reports denote this as a place of possible worship," Yuven explained after a minute of silence and studying of Fenrer. "Worship of what... hard to say. Most of the etchings and glyphs are far too old to read or study." Yuven stepped onto the grave, and Adara frowned when Fenrer gave a tiny jolt of the body, though Yuven appeared not to notice as he knelt down to scoop up the dirt. "I don't see any signs that someone else has been here. I suppose it's possible Kemal went past this place."

"Fen?" Adara asked, causing Yuven to lift himself back to his feet.

Fenrer blinked rapid fire as he looked around with a sense of urgency. "I wasn't imagining it," he whispered as he nudged Yuven off of the dirt, then pushed several greenlit glyphs into the dirt. Pebbles shuttered as Fenrer's magick shoveled up what time tried to bury. Until it hit more stone, and Yuven frowned at the empty basin with the piles of dirt scattered over the rest of the floor.

"It'd help to know what you're smelling," Yuven muttered.

"Blood."

Her heart jumped into her throat at his words. "Derelicts?"

Yuven gave a quick shake of his head. "No, a surefire way to know if a Derelict is in the area or has been... is rot and decay, not the scent of blood." He gripped his crescent blade tighter while Fenrer knelt to the edge with a horrified expression. Though when he stretched his hand out, a blaze of opal flames burned the forest. Her hand wrapped around his shoulder along with Yuven repeating her motion before he bashed his head into the stone. "Fen? Molvisaliz!" Fingers wrapped around Fenrer's face, he shook him. Adara dug her fingers into his shoulder blade, using her other arm to brace his front. "Kah'mai. Adara, he's having an Auric Trance in the worst place—"

Fenrer raised his hands to theirs, silencing Yuven. Adara caressed his warm cheek. "Fen? Fen, what are you sensing?"

Yuven's feathers fluffed out when he studied his Oathbound.

For a moment, Fenrer simply mouthed words. Except the fire in her veins screeched in the ashes. Wings reflected in a distant mirror, smashing the sea of darkness and crimson. Its beak created cracks, and she bit down her tongue to hold down the scream growing in her lungs, though it was getting difficult when her body bubbled and popped. Yuven stretched his arm to her instead, fighting to drag them away from the unburied basin. Her hindquarters slammed into the stone with a gasp, though Yuven struggled with Fenrer, who held himself as strong as the stone beneath his feet. Her flames quelled, but she shivered at the searing over her skin, raising as gooseflesh. "Yuven—"

"Death."

A simple word made the hanging vines fall still in the breeze.

Yuven's feathers scowled. "Death?"

Fenrer stared down into the basin, one arm limp at his side with her out of it. "...slips through the veins... taking the place of stagnation..." His brow scrunched in pain, and the flames died to reveal the forest again. Dullness entered the swirls, but Fenrer held onto Yuven when he slumped. "I... Yuven, I don't want to be here." His tone came out pleading. "There's something... I don't like it." A quick head shake, and Adara came to his side. "We can't be here. This place is the wrong place. We have to find a different way."

"What are you talking about?" Yuven demanded.

"Yuven," Adara whispered and wrapped a hand around Fenrer. "Can't we talk about this when we're out of here? I'm sure you want to check on Neven too."

Yuven released a rattled hiss through his nose, then nodded, hauling Fenrer up to his feet. "Come, then... at least we aren't leaving with nothing."

Fenrer's state unsettled her. I've seen him have an Auric Trance before... this doesn't feel right. Arm over her shoulders, she helped Yuven guide him out of the ruins. What... Why did I feel... The phoenix fire in her heart sputtered, but she gripped onto the embers. Why did I feel like I was being burnt alive from the inside?