KEMAL

A clock ticked in the corner of the Infirmary ward while he sat in front of Kayal, with the last book his Trainee studied before the fateful patrol: Tales of Shadows and the Progenitor Truth of the Gate. Its leatherbound spine tickled his fingertips as he opened and closed the pages for an answer. His condition never changed with the passing days, though he ate and drank when prompted. He stared into nothing, never quite sleeping. Kemal rested his hand on his knee and searched for the light within Kayal's empty eyes, devoid of pupils.

What did you see on that patrol? What did any of them see? What made them disappear but left you like this? He slapped the book against the endstand beside Kayal's chair then whipped out his Derelict resonator. It buzzed against the inner crystals, a constant reminder of their taunting enemies. With a snip, it shut as he pressed his fingers against the engraved golden metal. Sighing, he leaned back when the door opened with its own click to reveal Julis, who carried a steaming mug with his other hand.

"You've been with him all night," Julis said as he stood at his side, and the two stared down the empty Trainee.

"I owe him that much." Kemal tapped the edge of the book against his knee while Julis set the cup beside Kayal, who gave no indication or acknowledgement. "You sense any change?"

Julis knelt and the blue spirals spun with the stars unseen. His head tipped back and forth while his gaze drew over Kayal. He blinked twice while the stars fluttered on the edges of his irides. "I'm afraid not," he said. "I don't know if something was done to him to cause this. It is no auric magick I've ever seen if that's the case — at least, it'd take an especially powerful Aurus to cause this." Julis lifted Kayal's chin, who responded in one rustic motion. "His aura exists, but I can't get past it into the river of thoughts and emotions. I can't help but wonder if that is what is missing." Julis gently released Kayal and folded his arms. "I'll watch him, Kemal. Captain Lotayrin wanted to talk to you."

Kemal slapped his hands against his knees and lifted himself out of his chair. He scowled when soreness crawled through his thighs and up his back, which he rubbed the tightened knots of muscles as he clutched Julis' shoulder. "I know you're hesitant, but I want you to do what you can for him. You've got my permission as his Trainer." He studied Kayal, who never changed, and never gave signs of life. "If you want my opinion, I don't think there's anything you can do that'll make this worse." One more pat on his friend's shoulder, he left the small Infirmary attached to the Elvkin alchemist shop. He hesitated at the marble archway which led into the nature-born buildings, but continued on his route.

Neven wants to talk? Here I was worried he'd go back down there and obsess himself to death over that void text. He sighed, while the temptation tugged at the back of his mind, where nothing else gave an answer, and nothing else revealed the truth but the dark. He passed through the markets, but came to a stop at the sight of Maria, who haggled with Asairai's resident alchemist, Tanaara, heads and a single pair of horns taller than either him or Maria, Maria put her own looming figure forward.

"Maria," Kemal called as Tanaara handed her a box of clinking, sparkling phials. "Do you know where Neven is?"

Maria broke her attention away from Tanaara, who returned to her outside stall full of steaming mixtures. "He should still be at the Lodge." Her gaze drifted behind him. "He hasn't changed, has he?"

"I'm afraid not. It doesn't look like he's about to either."

Maria hauled the box over her shoulder and rested the side of her head against the wood. Her crescent blade hung against her waist, safely tucked through the double belt which propped her white overcoat which the wind pushed against her. Golden trimmings danced along the fabric and denoted her as a Warden Healer. Beneath it, her brown tunic carried a couple of chained phials attached to some buttons.

Kemal adjusted his leather gauntlets, and the sun shone too bright over his head. "Is that for your research?"

"Yes. We're on the right track, I think we've broken something about the Corruption that might just change the playing field," she said. "I'm planning on going back when the next boat comes around with supplies from Euros." Kemal moved out of her way, but she stopped and questioned, "Anything you want me to tell Yuven and Fenrer that you can't put in writing?"

"Not off the top of my head, but I'll let you know if I think of something," he said. "Good luck, Maria."

Maria used her free hand to send a wave of farewell before disappearing to the other side of the alchemist's shop which Tanaara lended for the Healer's use. I better go see Neven. Maybe afterwards I will clean myself up... Ancients, it feels like I haven't taken this armour off in ages.

He stepped across the root bridge over the river which tore itself through the treetown. It sparkled with sun rays to echo off the transparent leaves of the tallest canopies. Each tendril fell across the branches to sway with the wind, but he broke his staredown with the sky to head to the door into the ground level of the treehouse. Kemal frowned at Neven in the foyer of knotted wood, where he slipped on the final pieces to his Storm Warden armour.

"Where are you going?" Kemal questioned.

Neven said nothing while he tightened the straps to the leather bracers with a small huff through his nose. One small shake of his head, his feathers followed the motion as his Oathbound turned to hold his hand out. Wind borne ice caught the glaive on the weapon stand. The shaft met his palm with graceful ease, and he shouldered it. "One of the fishermen requested help, so I offered to go since..." His feathers drooped along his ears. "Well, since what happened with Kayal — has he changed?"

Kemal shook his head. "'fraid not, Nev. And they're not certain he will change."

Neven's lips thinned to reveal the edge of his sharp canines. "Sorlo d'lo, Kemal." His eyes shut tight to hide the beaded pupils of stress. "Would that I had an answer to all of this. To the disappearances and Kayal's condition." Shoulders stiffened with the burden of leadership, Neven released the tension in his cheeks and sighed. "But, as you said, moping around won't accomplish anything. I want you to join me." Without waiting for his response, Neven pushed past him with a glaive at his back and the crescent blade of all Storm Wardens at his side. Kemal followed him outside, straight to the harbour. Though not the size of Sivaport or Euros, what with the town nothing more than a handy fishing village on a level coast to trade with the heart of Elvkana. Boxes sat underneath awnings, where carts waited for their packages to the small bazaar at the center of the city. Everything moved in tandem with nature, and never impeded on it. Elvkin fishermen boarded their small vessels, but Neven took him to the largest karve, the 'root' to the fishing expedition.

One Elvkin wrapped a heavy rope to a standing raft, motioning to Neven.

"Just us?" Kemal asked as Neven hopped onto the raft while the Elvkin called to the helm before leaving them.

"I thought it'd be a good chance to talk." Neven raised his hand to the rope, where the water embraced it and strengthened its connection to the main boat. It twisted through the raft to reach the end, where bubbles left the runes on the end. Kemal steadied himself when the karve left the pier, while the rope dangled along to drag them with it.

Neven made safety preparations before sitting down while the harbor got farther out of reach. Kemal trailed his finger over the water while the karve took on speed with the smaller boats hovering nearby, taking their places along the waterfront. Out in the mist, Kemal sat down with a grunt, and set his arms across his knees. "I don't want you to blame yourself for what's happened, Nev."

Neven said nothing, and stared at nothing.

"Nev."

He adjusted the glaive on his back while the karve drew its sails and floated farther out from their floating raft, the rope ready to be cut in the case of Derelicts. Kemal stopped his fidgeting. "Nev."

Neven let go of the shaft, and sighed. "I meant what I said in that town." He sat cross-legged and shrank in apparent shame. "Sometimes I wonder if this has a point to it. If we're losing Wardens for some sort of... fleeting truth into the recent upsurge of cult activity. For all we lose, and nothing we've gained." Neven shook his head with a soft, frustrated hiss through his teeth. "I know better. Learned better. In Naveera, if you disappear, you are dead. It was always the will of the blizzard to some. One bad flurry, and you'd never make it out, and it was up to you alone on the off chance you were alive, no one was coming to help you..." Neven gazed at him with the sharp sapphires. "But I cannot — will not give up on them."

"We'll figure it out, Nev," Kemal said while the wind rustled the waves and licked at their raft. "I have a feeling if we can just... piece together what's going on inside Kayal, we'll have an answer to this." He pushed his fist into the wood. Turns of us hunting this damn cult down, and they're always a step ahead of us, but at some point, they have to trip. If they're taunting us like Neven believes, they're going to slip at some point, and we'll be on their trails like a wolf on the hunt... and then we can finally go home and have some rest. He studied Neven, who brushed his fingers through the water which slipped through the wood. Some answers we may never get, that I may never understand, but this? If only Kayal could talk.

Kemal reached around his belt to grab his Derelict resonator when it clicked hard in his ear. "Of course," he said and studied the four crystals within, where each needle slapped against it hard to chirp the warning. "We couldn't just get a nice day out underneath the sun, out on the water." He rubbed his back with a scoff and joined Neven. "Getting too old for this..."

"You're fine," Neven said. "And you're only thirty and four."

"Says the person with a double century life expectancy," Kemal grunted while the resonator went silent and Neven quickly cut the safety rope connected to the karve. It snaked through the water to slip around the side of the ship, sending a protective shield around it. "I don't live that long."

Neven blinked. "No one really does. Not with..." He zoned in on an oozing wave gurgling off at the edge of the mist. "Well, with those."

Warning bells sounded through the air with an eerie, dulcet tone while the smaller fishing boats made a retreat on the rippling waves. Kemal readied himself as the karve attempted to catch the tailwind. It proved too slow compared to the wave of shadow chewing at the foam, coming closer and closer. Kemal nudged Neven in the spine. "Better not let them get closer. I'll support you from here."

Water and Derelicts roared in tandem and tore through the world while their tongue teeth broke the curling wave. Neven breathed a plume of mist past his lips as he brought out his glaive, where the metal tip shone brighter blues. Kemal stepped to the edge of the raft, and focused on the air between the ship and the Derelicts. Air glyphs twisted the sails, but the Derelicts thirsted for the rippling magick, and Neven leaped off the raft. The tip of his glaive struck the water, and he drove it deeper. Glyphs pulsed across the ocean's surface, and Kemal steadied himself on the disturbance while Neven sent the magick slicing through the water, carried on his intent.

Waves crashed and sent crimson and foam up into the air into sparkled sunlight. Derelicts screeched and slithered from the shield. Neven nodded at him, and Kemal followed the tangle of energy throughout the world. Air whispered in his ears as he switched his unseen shield on the fabric sails, where it caressed his cheeks and he tried to tug it back with his mind, farther from the threat.

"Got it," he strained.

"Good." Neven surfed forward on a glyph of ice. As the Derelicts tore through the rising current, his glaive pierced through the heart and broke it into mist. His hand smacked the side of the karve, and the water twisted the keel in the direction of true safety. Another twist of motion, and Neven used his glaive to send the rising current into the back.

It skidded off the sides and Kemal sent the air with it, and the karve's sails expanded with energy. Left behind, he twisted back to Neven, who faced down the ocean of shadows. One Derelict slithered past his raft, towards the retreating boats, but Kemal slammed his crescent hook into its widening jaw. It released a bubbled screech and lunged out of the ocean's deep embrace, crawling onto his boat with a hiss. He scowled when its claws dug deeper into every knot, eating through the protective coating Neven left.

He drove his hook deeper into its throat. Blood pooled along its teeth as it writhed, and when he tugged back, it burst into golden stars. "Nev!" he snapped. "Make sure they can't follow the boats!"

Neven slid out of one Derelict as it launched itself with the ocean. He ducked out of another one's awaiting jaw, threatening to take off his head. His glaive pierced its throat, where it wrestled with the shaft, curling its teeth across. Neven threw it downwards in a burst of ice, back into the abyss where it came. Kemal frowned, and placed his foot on the water, but ice never came to him with the same efficiency Neven had.

Back on the stability of the raft, Neven battled the instability of the ocean. He slid through one wave with ease, sending the two halves into the slithering Derelicts.

Ancients, where did all of these come from?

Each Derelict molded into another. Neven surfed back to him, and the wave coalesced.

"Hold on." Neven straightened himself, and his arms out. Glyphs danced and expanded from the tips of his fingers. Ice exploded out from them, taking the shape of the same glaive he had in his other hand. He twirled it along the water, and the line of ice glaives launched out of the glyphs, powered by the air entering through the focal point. Kemal held on when they pierced patches of the ocean, freezing all in its path.

One hit a Derelict, where the ice whispered through its bone spine. Another slammed into a wave, which crashed into a rushing Derelict with a scream. Kemal braced himself as the largest of the pack swam out of the water, but Neven drove the glaive through its body. Ice trapped it in place, and he swung his crescent blade down its neck. A crimson core dislodged from teeth, and whistled into crimson ash and golden stars.

"So much for a safe patch," Kemal muttered while the other Derelicts struggled against the melting ice glaives.

Neven frowned at him. "This is strange."

"Is it?" Kemal mumbled, and snapped into action when a Derelict released itself from the frozen wave. It screeched and skittered across the ice patches. Its claws made of teeth dug into each one and supped on the detached magick. Ooze left its mandible while its scream shifted into a growl of endless hunger, while Neven never moved. Bones slid out of its spine as it scrambled and swam, where the water disappeared into its abyssal maw.

Kemal took the leap, and drove his boot into the top of its jaw. It chewed on the leather, but its teeth never pierced through as it could with plate. He drove his crescent blade from underneath its throat, and dismembered its neck. Golden stars joined the dance of crimson foam, and he glared at Neven. "We're going to be here all day. We just need to throw them off scent from the town."

Neven motioned for him to step back, then ascended onto the raft while the ice glaives lost their luster. He knelt close to the raft while a glyph rattled its underside. Neven brought both hands up with his glaive, where his magick rustled to the edge, and the disturbance of water came from them.

Neven launched air and water into the patches which exploded with frost. Kemal grunted and held onto the raft when the explosive force pushed them and the Derelicts farther from each other. He lifted himself off the planks as the Derelicts swam on the edge, never giving up the hunt. Relentless. Hungry. Kemal growled when one broke from the main pack.

"Damn things..." He sent his crescent blade into the water, and drove it deeper while his own glyph of vines and hard angles drove and sliced through the water. It knocked the Derelict back, but caused the others to continue the pursuit. "Nev, I can't do this forever."

"I know." Neven stuck his glaive into the raft, and the water tugged them into a chase with the Derelict pack. Teeth slicked through water with a hungry, curling growl.

Just need to get into the town's magick boundary. It should hold them off for a while.

They leaped through the water, trying to take off Neven's head, who sent shards of ice into their stomachs and brought them underwater. Sweat gathered on his brow as Kemal pushed magick through his rune shield to cover his friend while Neven sent them back with bursts of icy mist.

"Nev," Kemal hissed when his shield cracked when one latched onto it and licked its tongue across the golden light.

Ice tangled through the golds, but Kemal braced himself when Neven brought both fists up to his mouth. Energy gathered and whispered frost through the moisturized world. Kemal held on tight when Neven breathed deep, and unleashed the wyvern's ice. It blasted into the Derelicts, sending shards through their bones and freezing them in place. Neven dropped to his knees, his breaths coming in short and hard while sweat dripped through his hair, Kemal steadied him, but magick popped his ears, and the Derelicts were out of sight.

He let go of Neven. "Ancients."

Neven heaved himself to his feet and frowned at the expanse. "Something is stirring, Kemal."

"Right." Kemal waved down the harbour workers, and counted each fishing boat. For once... we didn't lose one.

But all it takes is one.