ADARA

It is a journey of a thousand lives and a thousand dreams. From the snow-capped peaks of Naveera; where wyverns of eld danced with the fae inside the icy tempest of sky and ocean. All the way to the cliffs of Haneka's gulf into the heart of the Lounara Sea, where an azure moon spreads its blanket of peace over the world. Past the southern stretch into the desert of Oltalon's massive dunes of sand and the ancient city of Razbtzar, giving rise to giants with the ability to tear rock out of the ground and move the heavens. One shall not want to see it all in one single life, to know the many names and faces of the mythos, as unending and twisting they are — for our souls return to the echo to be born again, a cyclic truth of the silver dawn.

Tussocks of a blooming rainbow fluttered in the breeze and glimmered. Pebbles clattered when she climbed down into the field to join Fenrer and Yuven at the bottom of the small ridge to overlook the rest of the steppes. Yuven stomped a swath through the beautiful field with zero remorse when he crushed smaller grassy stalks underneath his heel. Book in her pack, she fought to avoid the ensnaring roots, and with Fenrer at the back, her heart fluttered into a sense of calm. Tales never told her all.

One life for one journey.

Adara stopped in the carved path of dirt to kneel by one of the strange flowers. Its petal smoothed against her fingertip, she tickled at the base of its root, and she leaned back when it opened up with a twirl and stretched out long stalks which dripped dabs of viscous syrup.

"What now?" Yuven asked.

Fenrer stopped behind her to tuck his forearm on his crescent blade. "Prismaflax," he answered her unspoken question when she drew a small dab of syrup onto the edge of her finger then wiped it across her nail. It smeared with a mix of colours, never the same one. Adara drew her shadow out of the way of the sunlight to clean off the rest. "It is used in dye making in Dyrin." He smiled, brighter than the sun she blocked from the blooming flower to shed molten sparks against the tips of the spiralling greens. It warmed her heart at the beauty around her, but frowned when Yuven folded his arms at them with a deepening scowl.

"It is flower — they're everywhere on steppes," Yuven called. "Come. We must find the Warden outpost guarding Draken's Descent."

"I'm sorry, find it?" Adara raced to catch up with him when he left the blooming field of prismaflax behind without intrigue and curiosity. "Wouldn't you know where it is? Unless it's like you and can disappear into thin air at the snap of a finger." To emphasise her point, she clicked her thumb and middle finger across each other, then scowled when Yuven took a small step back into white mist. Adara tried to follow the trail, but the wind blocked her view, and she folded her arms when Yuven leaned over her shoulder.

"I thought I told you I'm the only one who can truly 'disappear'," he said and pushed his fingers into air quotes. Adara sniffed when another copy loomed over her other shoulder with a matched smile of deviousness. "My magick is the precursor to illusion." Her feet stepped on both pairs of toes, but he burst into white as Fenrer brushed the bridge of his nose. "We shall find the Wardens of Draken's Descent through the watchtowers along the cliffs." His smile dropped with a wave outwards to the expanse ahead of them, and her legs burned at the journey ahead. "One or two will have golden smoke rising off of it. They need to move with the people of the steppe to keep track of Derelict activity. We work from there." He hopped off the next outcrop to land in the pale grass without waiting for her or Fenrer, though he was hard to lose track of with his head full of snow-white hair.

Stalks weaved with his departure, so Adara sighed and accepted her fate to follow him. Hands gripping the craggy edge, she swung out her feet and tried to test the distance from her person and the ground below. Fenrer's shadow engulfed her, and she dared to let go. Her boots hit the ground and sent a shockwave straight to her knees, her stumbling alerting any and every little creature who foraged for food below. Hands on her knees, she shook her legs when Fenrer took the leap without fear and landed beside her with a smile.

"Must you two show off?" she questioned and rubbed her knees.

Fenrer chuckled, the sound rocking her chest. "I'm sorry, I promise Yuven won't make you jump sheer drops."

Adara checked back on the outcrop, not the steepest obstacle to overcome, but it gave her no comfort of what awaited her the longer she travelled with Yuven Traye, who appeared the type to throw himself at any obstacle with escalating fervour the higher the hurdle. "His definition of sheer drops is anything that can kill you, right?" Adjusting the crimson shawl around her neck, she buried deep in her mother's late love before continuing into the grass of the steppes. "I know there's the old adage of 'what doesn't kill you'. Yuven seems the type of 'if it doesn't kill me it clearly didn't try hard enough.' Honestly, I'm surprised he's well enough to move..." A sigh escaped her lips, heavy with the burden she left behind in Tebora — Jisa, who faced a hurdle and gave herself to the crystal to set her free from a gilded cage of crimson spotted gold. Feathers plucked, she caught up to Yuven with Fenrer on her tail as he climbed onto another rock.

He stretched out his arms to the expanse, and she hung back when his glyphs of signature mist and curly, yet no less sharp edges expanded from smaller snowflakes to the focal one in front of him. It sharpened the world on the other side with mystical focus, following the directions through a perfect mirror. Adara gaped when he nodded off to the east, where through the looking glass made of his icy magick, a stone tower raised off the edge of the drop in the horizon. Golden smoke tangled off the peak, surrounded by nearby yurts. "Why waste my time searching when I know what I look for?" he questioned with a sneer her way before shattering the looking glass, and the expanse dulled into a blur of clashing yellows and golds. "I suspect we shall reach them during the height of day, so let us continue."

Mountain claws struck out of the lands of Dyrin to send sharp shadows over the land she turned her back on. Between one of them, a waterfall poured into a basin and sent distant mist into the air. Beauty, speckled with crimson shadows. It haunted her mind through the film of a blood sunset and the stench of rot and the loss of her last friend. Her love, broken and turning to sand and cause sunrash across her fingers with its heated teeth. Her other hand found the hilt of Garren's seastone dagger. Thumb against the flat of the blade, she frowned at their consistent pace, never able to enjoy the light. It sprinkled foam of the sea across the sharp edge, a source of where it was forged at the crack of an anvil, but with mystical metal no one in Tebora could hope or ever dream to master. Adara slipped it back into the frog on her belt and tightened her crimson shawl. Birds flapped in the constant breeze along the steppes which weaved through the grass and distant fields of prismaflax, spreading the mist from the waterfall to water the nearby pastures.

"What's it like on Euros?" she asked when the sun crawled closer to the peak of the sky, woven with the colours of a pleasant afternoon. Clouds fluffed stretched, rolling into silver twine.

Is it beautiful? Is it free from pain?

"Eyrusha," Yuven said from the front. Adara crossed her arms when he stopped to turn to her. "It is beyond your comprehension — not a good word for it to paint picture. You shall see soon enough." He came to a stop at another ridge, with the Warden camp coming closer. Adara tried to tip her head back to take in the entire tower. Massive stone bricks laid a strong foundation for the reinforced wood, wrapped with black steel. Yuven indicated for them to approach, and she sighed at the familiarity of being paraded around once more. On one of the posts, an individual snapped their head up.

"Captain Yuven Traye," Yuven responded as their lips opened to stop them. "We seek safe passage down Draken's Descent." He tugged out the red-ribboned scroll off his leather strap to hand it to them. "Promptly. Derelict horde made manifest at King's Summit and we need to reinforce the Burning Abyss," he reported as other Wardens gathered, along with others who wore felt garments and padded wool along their arms. Adara shrank back at the sudden influx of attention, but Yuven never wavered while the guard unfurled the scroll.

"You're going to have to talk with Warden Katau," they said to hop off their post. Their wyvern necklace bounced along their shoulders, and the magick inside the star glinted with yellow wisps of wind. "They've gone out to check the road between here and Lounara's Bluff."

"How long will they be gone?" Yuven questioned.

Here we go...

"They should be back by dusk," they said.

Yuven's brow crinkled in clear agitation for the hold up. "I see. Regrettable. May we stay until their return?"

"Of course, Captain."

Yuven turned to her and Fenrer. "To the tower."

Adara found herself sticking to their shadows at the curious stares sent her way. Smoke tangled out of the protected flaps on top of the yurts. Quieter life pushed the business of Azahama out of her reach as they went about their day once their interest in the newcomers waned. Horses huffed in the small stables attached to the watchtower, where the caretaker groomed one with a long brush down one's black coat. Her stomach complained at the tangy, but no less sweet smell of meat roasted over a fire. In the shadow of the watchtower, Adara eyed the sheer drop before turning to Yuven, who folded his arms with his expected scowl.

"Is something wrong?" Adara questioned.

"I do not like this," Yuven grumbled. "Usually they'd let other Wardens pass without issue into Draken's Descent—"

"But if they're holding us up to talk to someone else then there might be a problem in the area," Fenrer finished for Yuven, who put his nose in the air. "I suppose we'll find out at day's end."

Adara sat on the ground between them. "So we wait."

"Regrettably," Yuven repeated his early word of disdain. "But you can take this time to read those one hundred pages you promised me."

"I don't feel like reading right now." Adara set her head in her hands and tried not to drown in the trickle of uncertainty crawling down her spine. "Especially not your monolith." Hands in the grass, she stretched out her legs and took the reprieve given to her. Her attention drifted to Fenrer, who appeared to have a distinct interest in the thick canopy of the land below. Haneka, only a death drop away. Adara forced herself back to her feet and drifted with the wind to the edge to take a dangerous glance. Mineshafts dug into the rock, but no miners pounded at the stone for precious metals. Lamps swung on the entrances, but she spotted no slavering beasts, coiled tongues, or cracked teeth embedded with crimson. It swirled in her mind at the depth, where the trees below were almost undefined.

"If you fall, Anima, we can't help you," Yuven called.

Adara stepped back from the edge. "I don't see anything wrong with them," she reported when she returned to them.

"You don't know what to look for. Besides, it might not be shafts themselves," Yuven pointed out.

Ignoring him, she returned to her seat against the large tower, hidden in its shield of shadow from the glaring light of the sun. Darkness flickered, but she tried to keep herself awake and from her endless nightmares. A promise made, she refused to rely on Fenrer's magick to send herself into peaceful sleep, but all it gave her was a sense of longing to the greenspun horizon. It gave birth to small crystals and shone with life. Her thoughts wavered when she tried to reach out to Jisa, to stop her from laying her hand on the crystal surrounded by giant bleeding roses. Silver auroras ripped and sparked an inferno on her shoulders, and the green crystals burned with argent fury. A whistle twisted with the distant screams, and Adara lifted herself out of her doze, and almost let out her own scream at the creature which burst with windy speed above her head, with the sun lowering itself into the distant sea.

Yuven lifted himself off the ground. "I think that's our Warden."

"I'm awake."

"You better be." Yuven sniffed, and Adara groaned and tried to shake the headache growing between her ears. On her other side, Fenrer sat down with his shoulder pressed against a box tucked against the staircase into the tower itself. Her hand touched his shoulder, and the familiar sense of spring's serenity swirled across her heart as he breathed softly and surely. She jumped when Yuven bit, "Leave him. Gods know he never sleeps otherwise."

"What was that thing?" Adara asked, but let Fenrer go when he didn't respond.

Her question came with a pounding answer when the creature banked into a running landing. Adara scrambled to the side when it fell into a steady trot with a swish of its horse tail. It let out a hungry chirp, and she balked at its front end. Half of an eagle where its front limbs furled into sharp talons which tore into the grass. Feathers flattened against the top of its head, but fell along its back to form into the back end of a horse, creating giant wings. It stood several inches taller than a large horse, where said horses went quiet in their stables.

Yuven smiled. "Never underestimate the speed of what a hippogryph can do in the time it takes a horse on foot."

It turned its beady yellow eye to them, and she stepped back when the Warden hauled themselves out of the saddle, carefully tied around the body of the hippogryph. Grey energy filled the straps and untangled themselves off the rider. Helmet off their head, they shook out their braided hair.

"Are you Warden Katau?" Yuven asked as another Warden held out a dead weasel to the hippogryph, which took its prize with quick glee as the Warden from before handed Yuven's scroll over to them, which they looked over.

"I am," they said and eyed him. "You are?"

"Captain Yuven Traye," he said. "Everything you need to know is on that scroll, and I want to know why we can't travel down Draken's Descent. What has happened?"

Adara found herself enamored at the intelligence within the thin pupils as the hippogryph munched on meat and bone. Warden Katau ran their hand through the feathers of the hippogryph. "I'm afraid I can't let anyone pass into the descent," Warden Katau said with a nod. "We have a wraith haunting the entrance near the abandoned monastery. It's already caused some injuries among my men. We are unsure of its origin, and until we figure that out, we struggle to coax the wraith to scatter."

"You have no Aurus?" Yuven's expression twisted, and Adara winced. "Most postings have at least one Warden Aurus for cases such as this, what happened to yours?"

It went quiet.

"We were about to move because of a Derelict attack," another Warden responded under their breath. "One of them dragged our Aurus..." Their finger traced a line through the grass, and Adara shuddered when they pointed at the cliff. "After that, not only have we had to deal with the errant wraith, but there have been several reported Derelict sightings along the cliffs."

Yuven folded his arms and shook his head.

"Is there no way to get down there? Isn't there another entrance?" Adara asked Yuven.

"We might be able to handle the wraith," Fenrer's voice said behind them, apparently awoken from the commotion. "At least, I can. I can pinpoint where it is, at least, if you show me where. It's really important that me and my companions reach Haneka. And we can handle the Derelicts as we descend through the mineshafts." He stood beside Yuven, whose scowl deepened. "Where did you last see the wraith? I can track it."

"Fenrer..." Yuven went silent when Fenrer ignored him, but Adara couldn't find it in her heart for any smugness.

"I think it's best if we show you," Warden Katau remarked.