NEVEN

Down fluttered on the breeze at the turn of his eighteenth nameday, and once more he found himself in the exact same position as before. The lone pedestal with the Storm Warden training ingrained into his every movement. He dodged a water whip from his rage of an opponent, dancing upon sapphire crusted glyphs to scatter mist. On the beach, their Unit stared blank-faced at the usual fare of whenever it was him against her. Trainer Majen had a sense of humour. Neven ducked out of a kick from Yusari when she aimed it straight at his head. He dipped his protected polearm into the water, flinging droplets into her face. Yusari scowled, full of anger as she brought up a cracked shield, and the clash blasted them both back.

Kemal yawned.

Neven drove his fingers into the shaft of his polearm, using the glyphs deep in the water to create a tunnel of power. Yusari flicked her gaze around, then scoffed, sending her fist into the wall. Neven leaped over the whips when they sliced for his heels. Another clash. Mist sprayed when he used the same two-pronged strike to shatter her shield.

It blasted water towards the beach.

Evani shouted something obscene when it blasted him with water, though Kemal simply wiped his face. "Stop trying to kill each other, for ancients sake!" he snapped and stomped. "It's getting old!"

Neven ignored him to thrust Yusari towards the circle, but slowed his movements.

"Don't pity me now, Lotayrin!" Yusari snapped and threw her fist for his face, but he pushed himself out of reach with the ripple of waves, steadying himself on a small ice patch.

"Pity? Is that what you think that was?" Neven released a sharp huff. He readied his stance, then rushed her when she ran at him. One lunge, and he'd finish this feud once and for all. Yusari grabbed onto the shaft and used her shoulder to check him out of his own reach. His feet slid over the surface of the waves as he kept a grip on it, bumping the end of it into her stomach, swiping mist through the air.

Evani face-palmed.

Spikes of water grew out from her glyphs with purpose, and he shook his head.

"And I think that's enough," Trainer Majen said, throwing out a windy barrier between them. "Others need to have their go, you two. Your spite is going to take us all day. If you're finished, you're free to go back to the caldera or practice other Gauntlet routes, but we're to work on hippogryphs later."

Neven relaxed his shoulders, and Yusari scowled. He slid to the side, but dodged when she kicked a wave of water for him. "Real mature," he muttered and headed for the beach. He slammed the polearm into the sand and stomped off as Trainer Majen called the next two names.

"Oi, Nev," Kemal said, long done with his bout before he went against Yusari again. "What's been up with you lately?"

"What do you mean?" Out of sight of the others, he ran his fingers through his extended feathers, picking at the fluff. "What, you mean with Yusari?"

"I thought you two would've gotten over it a turn or two ago."

Neven gazed at him. "Tell that to her, you told me people are ceaselessy stubborn — I suppose she's one of them." He ran up the steps to the main part of the caldera, out of the gauntlet's reach. He squeezed out droplets from his sleeves, swinging them through wet glyphs to dry himself off. "It's fine, though." He smiled at his friend, who had turned into his closest confidant though he once questioned his genuine nature. Never again. "Anyway, is there something you want to talk about?"

"Yes, but you've been in a mood," Kemal pointed out.

"Hm."

"There's the mood," Kemal grunted in response, then punched him in the arm, and he grew used to the Hanekan way of showing affection. "Are you nervous about the hippogryph training?"

He shuddered at the thought of saddling up on a creature who flew higher than he could ever dream. Away from the soft, warm ground. His knees stiffened, but he steadied his breathing and bared his fangs. "I have no idea what you mean," he said. "I am fine."

"That's Neven for 'I'm screaming on the inside.'"

Neven scowled and stomped into the citadel, damp from the exertion as they headed to the higher rungs of the Trainee wing, moved up to make space for any incoming new Trainees.Into the armory, he unlatched his armor, and smoothed out the clothes hidden beneath them before hooking them onto the stands, fixing his belt. "Ancients, we have so much coming soon I can't keep it straight..." He bumped the heel of his palm against his brow and cringed into it, then eyed his best friend. "All Trainer Majen's been talking about is the greatest test we'll ever face, it's starting to wear on me thinking about it." Nose between his fingers, he eyed Kemal. "You wouldn't happen to know what that's about?"

"No idea."

"Helpful."

His response was another firmer punch to the back.

As he fixed his collar and left the armory with Kemal, they returned to the outside, but slowed to a stop at the sight of Warden-Commander Faehariel talking with Warden Anaysa, who nodded and turned with a smile when the two senior Wardens noticed their discussion.

"Ah, Tyronai and Lotayrin, just the two I wanted to talk to."

Neven brought a fist to his heart, the proper greeting for an older, more experienced Warden. Kemal copied his movement, but tipped his head. "Why do you want to talk to us?"

"Trainer Majen has been telling me about your cohesive teamwork for quite some time. I'm going to pose this question, which I don't often get to ask — have you two heard of Oathbound?"

Neven folded his lips, but Kemal nodded with a raised eyebrow.

Of course he has.

"What's Oathbound?" he questioned for himself.

Kemal eyed Warden-Commander Faehariel.

"It's an exacting ritual to connect two souls, magically binding them to each other," Anaysa replied. "It is uncommon for the process to work even with the closest of friends. It requires two souls to be in complete synchronization. For these two, distance becomes irrelevant."

"What happens if they're not?"

"The ritual just doesn't work," Kemal replied. "Nothing happens. Why are you telling us this?" he sent the question back to the two older Wardens.

"I have worked with many Storm Wardens who were very close to each other, unable to find sync for this ritual. Storm Wardens who have known each other longer than you two have," Commander Faehariel said. "I have observed all of the Units, but you two have shown a spark of that sync." Her opal flames swirled, and she smiled at them. "Would you like to try the ritual?"

Neven frowned, but blinked when Kemal asked, "How does that work, exactly?"

Ancients, does he always have questions at the ready?

"I'll take you down to the bowels of the citadel. This ritual must be done by an Aurus," she explained. "It's not simply binding your two auras together. But your souls. Your magick. In one quick instant, a piece of yourselves will mix with the other. You will feel and experience what the other has experienced and felt. If both souls fall in sync with this change, and once it's complete, you two will hold a shard of magick from each other."

Kemal pinched his chin. "I know it doesn't kill from what I read, but I do have to wonder if that hurts..."

"The process itself doesn't hurt," Commander Faehariel explained. "Don't make the decision now. Take time to consider it. Oathbound is a powerful piece of remnant Anima magick. It will strengthen you, but I must warn you of the consequences."

"What... kind?" Neven mused.

"Any magick induced pain will cross the bond," Faehariel explained. "You will feel it as intensely as your Oathbound — as if the pain has been done unto you."

One question danced at the hands of Naveera. "What about death?"

Her smile died into a thoughtful frown. "That depends on the cause, Lotayrin — it will feel like a piece of you being ripped from you. The exact details are lost on me, it is hard to describe. Though your shard will return to you through the flow... it is forever changed."

Commander Faehariel nodded at Anaysa. "Think about it. Discuss it between the two of you. Come to me if you wish to try."

Neven frowned at Kemal, but inquisitiveness remained in his features.

Why are you putting so much effort to be my friend? He accused Kemal of duplicity.

Kemal stared at him, genuine. Let me make that distinction.

Death is a constant. Apathy is an ancient fear. I trust him.

"We should think about it," Neven said.

"You want to?"

"...yeah."

"Then I've got some more reading to do before I make a decision," Kemal said. "See you in the refectory, Nev." He raised his hand in goodbyes and rushed back to the citadel.

Yes, he composes his thoughts through reading, through asking questions... Me?

He always found himself in the same spot, long after dinner when the moon raised higher into the sky. Lute in his hands, he sat against the tree glittering in the silver light, swaying to the self-imposed beat, waiting for an answer to the new question posed.

"That song is different," a softer voice said.

He raised his head to his new shadow.

Yusari stood in the moonlight, a question forming on her features.

Neven found himself smiling into the pegs when she sat down beside him. "Devious of you to throw all that water at Evani and act like you weren't aiming at him."

"I had to get back at him."

Yusari raised an eyebrow. "What did he do?"

"He thought it'd be funny to leave a water-charged elementia crystal among my clothes. You know how long it takes to pull the water out when they're deep-drenched?" He shook his head at her and strummed the strings. "Quite rude of you to try and get the last hit in. I think we finished off that fight."

Yusari smiled. "It worked the first time we fought."

Neven eyed her. "It also worked on you."

Yusari shoved him with a scoff. "My back was turned, Lotayrin, that wasn't fair."

"Not every fight is fought fairly," he said on the song of his hesitation. He leaned against the tree and her warm shoulder and played the notes. "What brings you into the garden?"

"It's public."

Neven folded his lips. "You're just as bad as Kemal."

"He'd go into detail," Yusari corrected. "No singing for this song?"

"Not every song has words. Not every song needs them." He shifted against the tree, but hesitated when Yusari pulled out a piece of parchment. "What's that?"

"It's a ballad from my home," she said and he grabbed onto it with quivering fingers. "Can you play it?"

He studied the notes and read the passages of emotions. Songs without words. Words without a voice. "You want me to play this?"

"I just said that." Yusari pursed her lips.

Turns of change.

Light gleamed through the citadel windows, and he shifted, though stopped when Yusari gazed at him. "I can play it," he said and stretched out his legs. "Just let me get comfortable..." Neven toyed with the notes, testing their heaviness and the weight in their meaning.

"Evani was asking me what you were still doing to piss me off."

"Hm."

"Apt response."

"This was your idea."

"You're a stunning performer then, sometimes I'm fooled."

"Likewise." Lava flowed through the expanse of his heart.

Yusari prodded his shoulder, and he shook his head at the chorus of life. He found himself at rest in her lap as he fixed the pegs then readied himself when she held the paper in front of him, leaving his hands free. "It doesn't have a name," he said as he flowed through the music, feeling it within his soul, hearing it within his entire being as he slipped into the purity of the flow.

"Not every song needs one," she threw back at him.

"You got me there." Neven breathed deep and played for her. It was one of the consistent things which began. He sat in the garden with empty thoughts, and she came and listened. Without words and sound. It became so constant that he expected her every time, no longer facing the dead but the living. Until one day she asked another question.

"Where'd you learn to sing so beautifully?"

He stuck out his tongue to expel heat and drew out a supposed short note.

"That's not part of the music."

"I'm the one playing it, I get to add my own flair."

Yusari tapped his brow with playful firmness.

He finished the longest passages, then sat there in the silence. "How was it?"

"It was beautiful, Neven. I don't know how you bring music to life like you do."

Because I used to play it in memory of the dead. The life that I once lived and would've given up for another pedestal. He drew his gaze up, then shrugged. "I guess I'm a natural."

Yusari blinked, but he adjusted himself and lulled himself into a sense of security he lost with his departure from Irimount. He flicked his ears, then his feathers when fingers tangled into them. Electric shockwaves sent the lava straight into the tips as they flicked at her disruption, and he squirmed. "Hey, hey," he said and drew himself out of her lap to cling onto her. "That's not fair."

"Not every fight is." Yusari grabbed him around the middle and tried to wrestle him to the ground.

"Ai, Yusari!" Neven broke into a fit of giggles when she drew her fingers over the tips. "I played you a song and this is how you respond? Why not play me a song for once?"

"I can't play an instrument to save my life, besides, this is funny." Yusari grinned with wild fervour.

Neven trembled with the flurry and shook his head, the feathers bouncing out the energy.He drew his head up, almost nose to nose with her, with no proper distance set. He sucked in his lips and fixed his feathers when Yusari's eyes turned into wide moons. "You always do this..." he grumbled and smoothed out the tips. "And you say I'm devious..."

Yusari laughed, and every time since the first time it swelled an inconceivable song through his head and made his feathers stand up. "You shouldn't have reacted when I accidently brushed them then."

"Like that was in my control."

Yusari set her hands in her lap with a smile, then stood up, and he met her on equal ground. "Still, thank you for playing that ballad for me, Mother used to play it for me when I was little," she said. "It was nice to hear it again."

"I am glad to have played something with meaning."

To live a life of meaning.

In the shadows born of moonlight, he stared at her, and found his head full of air instead of music. Another staring contest, as if the first one never finished. His lips parted at the confused, swollen air between his temples, a sound without words. He leaned forward in investigation, then mused, "Are you sure you won't play an instrument?"

"It'd sound like screaming."

He smiled.

"I'm serious," Yusari insisted. "You're downright hypnotizing when you play."

"Ah, like sitting on a rock out at sea singing to any sailors that pass by. I think I'll go with singing about gold. Hanekan tales always talk about pirates loving gold but then something something..."

"You could sing about dung and I think it'd still have the same effect."

Neven squished his lips together, the space closing in the longer he remained. "Who desires dung?"

Yusari choked out a scoffed huff. "It was a joke."

Back into silence.

"You know you could just plug your ears if you don't want a siren to entrance you with a temptation. It cannot draw you in if you cannot hear it, and through hearing... feeling the lie."

"Avaerlians don't come from sirens, I thought?"

"Not as far as I know. Ice fae and wyverns..." He hesitated on the final leap of life. In a nose's edge, he drew himself out of the moment and Yusari's shoulders slacked. "Bring me another ballad from your home, I shall play it for you. If you want."

"I'd like that. I'll try and find more."

Neven sucked in his lips when she drifted past him, staring straight ahead at the citadel and the truth of the Storm Wardens. Each one, a name under threat of fading into obscurity, but he gave memory a voice and refused to forget their names.

I know my answer.