NEVEN

"I am the sword in the darkness. I am a shield against the obscurity of the crimson inferno. For as long as the abyss seeks to claim this world. I shall stand strong; I shall face the abyss, no matter the cost. For there is no victory without sacrifice. I will stay vigilant when all else falls into the Echo Obscura, never shall I turn away. From the greatest wyverns to the smallest flower, I will give my all."

Each word fell upon his lips and he clung onto the elation spreading throughout his body when he held his crescent blade across his palms to soak in the moonlight eeking through the tall, spiraling windows of the grand hall. His heart dedicated to the cause of light against the dark, he transacted the final oath which made him a Storm Warden. Excited hollers jolted him out of his quiet vigil the moment the sun rose for the new dawn. Some, tired from the long night, headed straight to bed, Yusari among them. Kemal, Evani, and him sat with a couple of the restless Wardens to share ghost stories from their respective homes.

Patience brought rewards.

All that's left is a real posting for out of training Storm Wardens. I haven't Anaysa in a while... I wonder if I could get a posting in Irimount? See how everyone is doing and show them Storm Wardens aren't the enemy and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Neven sat along the training fields with his friends forged through the brutal training of the Wardens, and Evani swayed on his hips.

"Speaking of ghost stories," he said. "Have either of you been tasked with the gardens?"

"I haven't." Kemal chewed on his meatstick. "Why?"

"I heard someone say it was haunted," Evani explained as Neven leaned into the grass below. "Things moved around. Weird shapes and shadows in the corner of your eye. You know, typical ghost things."

"Haunted?" Neven rested his head in his hands as he stared up at the stars. "I think we'd notice if there was a ghoul or a shade on the grounds. One of the Aurus Wardens would've sent it on its way." Though I know where the rumour comes from. He got out of the grass and stared in the direction of the healing wing of the blooming citadel. It opened once more, and the dreaded curiosity dissipated with time. Ever since then... The image of the skeletal child with snow-white hair prevailed in his memory, but he let it go. I doubt the garden is haunted by a random ghost, or else this mountain would be full of deceased Wardens...

On the cusp of the new morning, Neven took his regular spot in the line as the Warden Commander and their trainer went up and down to look them over one last time. "Kem," Neven whispered before the two approached their end.

"Hm?" Kemal held himself tall and strong, their Unit Leader who dragged them through the mud and showed his capability in a leadership role.

"I know we don't get to choose our postings," Neven muttered. "If we get the chance, would you be interested in coming to help me in Irimount? I was thinking after some experience under my belt I could go home." He sent a glance to Yusari who stood at the other end of the line, in conversation with Majen. "I want to change things there. I want to show them that the world is more than what we were raised to see it as."

Kemal drew his thumb over his lips. "That's a big expectation, Nev, because I don't think everyone is like you." He huffed and set his hands on his belt. "Besides, can you imagine me in heavy furs, buried in snow?"

"Honestly? Yes."

"Let's just see what happens, Nev," Kemal said with a chuckle.

"Half of you are going to Haneka, the others to Dyrin," Warden-Commander Faehariel said when she stopped her inspection. "These postings are not expected to take too much time. It is a generalized sweep of the areas around them and some intel gathering for further postings. You are to conduct yourselves accordingly. Majen. You may take control here."

Neven waited as Majen moved down the line and explained their duty, then let his gaze drift to the garden of marbled walls and beautiful mixtures of languages, blended together into a song. He snapped back to attention when Majen reached their end of the line. "Your half will be going to Haneka," he said as the first half of their group split off to busy themselves with the scrolls. "As the Warden Commander mentioned, this shouldn't be anything more than a typical sweep, but we've been having issues with the hierarchy." He unfurled his scroll and shuffled through the margins. "We've also had reports of oddly placed Derelict infestations. You'll cross through Sivaport, follow the dawn path through the lands of Sungrove and the golden forests. You will be staying at the outpost in Krakan." He nodded to Kemal. "Tyronai, make sure your team doesn't get lost."

Kemal glared at him when Majen turned away. "What?"

"He means to make sure you don't get lost."

A couple moons after Kemal's odd behaviour, his questions became more pointed, and never random and out of place. Grumpier too, he acts like an old man. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?"

Kemal grumped something in Hanekan, and Neven twisted to Yusari as she directed her own group, having learned and tempered her fiery spirit. We never got much longer to explore what's between us, and she's going to Dyrin and I to Haneka. He steeled himself for goodbyes; for the boat to carry them in different directions. Haunted or not, he needed time for his thoughts, in a tundra field of snowroses. He tapped Kemal's shoulder before moving for the supposed area occupied by a ghoul. He stepped through the marble arch, but the air remained warm and inviting. Into the garden shed, he went among the stacks of tools to find a water pail, sorting through the clippers and pruners. Air whisked into his feathers, and he turned his head around at the prickle along his ears. A soft shuffle. Wind coursed through the smallest cracks along the window, but he found his goal and hoisted the water pail into his hands to leave the shed, rounding the other side to fill it with water.

He moved to the first flowerbed to set the pail down at his feet. Hands outstretched to the moisture all around him and inside him, a glyph tipped with sapphires spun out of his palms and drew the water from the pail into the center of the expressed flow. He dragged the glyph along when the drizzle began from the peaks of magick, spinning for a more even coating along the white petals. He came to a stop at the tiny snowrose, struggling to bloom. Nearby, the obsidian stone, who carried the names of past Storm Wardens, never forgotten in their bravery and sacrifice. He took a smaller piece from the drizzling glyph to bring it closer to the small snowrose. Prickles grew along his skin when the water dripped onto the hard to reach roots, and he turned around once more, though he remained alone in the garden. Trick of the light. Naveera has worse ghost stories. He grinned. I bet Evani wouldn't be able to sleep at night again if shared some.

His feathers coiled and the barbs scratched against each other at the shift in the air pressure. The stone rippled and distorted, and he frowned when a translucent shadow peeked out from around the corner. It went still when he caught its gaze.

"Hello?"

It disappeared the moment he blinked.

I think I'm sleep-deprived. He went to continue his watering of the flowerbeds, until Evani's ghost revealed itself once more.

Frozen violets blinked back into reality with another quiet shimmer when they stood over the pail he left behind. Full of wide-eyed nervousness, the child stepped through the flow of space and time, and their white-hair fell along their brow in small, snowy curls. Their entire body trembled when they put their hands on the pail.

It's... is that the same child...?

An Avaerilian child, all alone and not a ghost.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," Neven spoke in the song of Navei. "What are you doing out here alone?"

Tears welled into the violets at his words and melted the sharp colors. In another instant, the child dove back into the distortion wrapped in the air, bringing the pail with them. Neven stayed low to the ground when he let his feathers follow the movement of worlds, and knelt down to the obsidian stone, before peering around it to investigate Evani's ghost. The child kept himself pressed against it, but instead of the torment and terror, he glared at him instead with the fires of wyverns.

In a ripple of space, the child disappeared through the standing stone.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Neven smiled when the child peeked out halfway through worlds. He shifted to give the child space, and they drew out of the stone. One step closer. Another, until the child came to a stop in front of him, full of the same curiosity Kemal once carried. His expression shifted into a glare, though he was unsure of how he had offended the child. Shadows dug into their clammy face, and then he held out the pail.

"Do you want to help water the flowers?" Neven asked.

The child kept his shaking arms outstretched.

He moved to take it from them, slow to not startle them into retreat.

Someone called his name from the arch. Neven scooted forward when the child whimpered, and then rushed back into the veil of distortion. The pail clunked onto the ground and rolled into his knees. Tiny water droplets escaped the container and dampened the grass around the stone. He set it upright once more, then headed for the archway. He held out his hand, then concentrated on the stillness of water, its resolute texture formed into an icy mirror from his glyph, which he raised to peek behind him.

Space and time distorted unseen doorways as the child stepped out once more to grab the waterspout, staring down at it then him. After a few silent moments, the child headed for the tiny snowrose to sit beside it, the pail tucked between their crossed legs.

His icy mirror shattered into mist along his fingers and returned to the flow of equivalency. He returned to his group, and joined them on the descent.

"Where'd you go?" Kemal mused when they boarded the lift to the harbor.

"To see if Evani's ghost was real."

"And?"

Neven grinned and let his fangs dig into his lips. "No ghost."

"Oh, good." Kemal shuffled them off the lift when it reached the bottom of its slope. Pathways made of marble and cobbled white stone wound through the harbor and straight out into the piers.

How long are we going to be in Haneka for? I'm not... too excited to have round two with their heat. He decided to not allow Kemal the last laugh, but he stopped when Yusari poked him in the arm when they rejoined the other half of their group. He smiled at her. "I bet you're happy to go home again after all these Turns."

"Yes, but it's strange. I've come to see Euros like a second home, I will miss it until I come back," Yusari said with a point upwards to the caldera. "It's assuring to know that no matter what, I'll have a home to come back to here."

"I know what you mean." Neven gazed up into the rose of the sky. I wonder if Mother and Father would like it here, maybe I should tell them about it, but they love Irimount dearly, and so do I. I miss it. I miss the bakeries with their fresh poundcakes, I miss snowgliding over the dunes outside. I still haven't received an answer from them when I told them about my first posting...

"Yusari?"

"Yeah?"

Neven sucked in ice and ignored the faces around him, too busy with their own conversations. "I am about to be a miscreant. I wish to hug you if that is fine."

Yusari widened her eyes. "Who are you and what have you done with Nev?"

"I am still Neven." He pursed his lips. "If you do not wish to—"

"You overthink way too much. Hug me."

He embraced her and caused his heart to lodge deep into his throat. "I don't know when we'll meet up again, but I will send you lots of letters," he said, then held her out in front of him. "I want to thank you, Yusari."

"I'm sure it won't be that long." Yusari embraced him in return. "If the distance scares you, think smaller. Dyrin and Haneka share a border. Are neighbours. Draken's Descent is all that keeps them apart on the north side of Haneka."

I'm so used to the vast distances in Naveera, the Grand Cities seem so far apart from each-other. "Yes, I wish you luck," Neven said. "I am glad to have learned, to have made friends and to have met you, even if we had a... rocky start."

"Me too." Yusari clapped his shoulders. "Do you want to try this next time we meet?"

"If you do." Harbor bells tolled and set his soul song on fire.

"Then it seems you better get to that posting, Lotayrin." Yusari shoved him with playful fervor. "I'll be taking the next boat straight to Tohane."

"Neven!" Kemal's voice bellowed over the bells.

"Oh, dear." Neven giggled. "Farewell, Yusari. Hofva'eritadlo."

Yusari tipped her head. "What does that mean?"

"It means..." Neven breathed in the love of the mountain. "It means it is never truly goodbye if we see each other again." He nodded at her once more, then rushed onto the pier with the Hanekan-bound galleon. He stepped onto the gangplank and waved at Yusari when she stood with the others, a smile on her face when she returned it.

It is not goodbye as long as there is home.

Kemal gathered them on the upper deck and flattened out a map of the Hanekan archipelago. "I know where Sungrove is, and the dawn trail is one of the most used roadways through Haneka and the inlands."

"You've been?" Neven questioned.

"I haven't, but I have heard of the Lord of Sungrove — its steward. I've seen him a couple times when I was younger when he came to visit our island." Kemal threw his arms over his head. "If you think you've seen giants in pictures, he's about as close as you'll get to the real thing outside of the desert."

"Majen mentioned issues with the hierarchy," Evani pointed out from his barrel of a seat.

Kemal rolled up the map. "Maybe, but my father always spoke highly of Lord Soren. So, we can see what's going on with that when we're there and add it to our reports." He shrugged. "Something tells me this isn't going to be a regular old sweep."

"Then what is the something?" Neven needled for more information.

"I don't know." Kemal pressed his hands against his stomach, then added under his breath to him. "It's the same feeling I got the day my father didn't come back from sea."

Neven knew better than to question Kemal's odd feelings found in his gut. That's why he's so good at asking the right questions, and I'm not. He clapped Kemal on the shoulder in hopes to be a comforting support, and cast his attention to the distant horizon of the future.