Chapter 27

NEVEN

I never thought I'd be so happy to be on this boat... Knees against its tough surface, he pressed his face against the deck and listened to the wind and savored the spray of foam against his cheeks as the others filed in behind him after they found their chance to escape over the next couple days. I just want to go home. Go home to the rose which blooms out of the sky. My first post is finished. It's over. He rolled over onto his back to taste the sunlight scattered across the waves which entered the gulf from the sea. I'm safe... He lurched back into a sitting position when Kemal loomed over him with a raised eyebrow.

"We're leaving," Kemal said as the rest of the supplies were loaded from the Lodge, forced into abandonment as another Warden pulled the winch for the gangplank. "You can start breathing easier."

Neven released the tension in his lungs and got back onto his feet with sprinkles of dampness latched onto his clothes. "I'm going to make everyone poundcakes when we get home," he said, happiness fluttering into his feathers to tickle the edges of his ears. "To express my thanks for... standing by me. I'll feel better once we're out of the gulf." He twisted around to the harbor when the bells tolled, and the ship floated onwards with the wind catching into the woven sails. He stretched out his arms to embrace the world's life and its gentle warmth.

"Good to see you in better spirits," Kemal said as he brought a hand to his brow to block the blazing sun. "Warden-Commander Faehariel is below sorting out the supplies... trying to figure out how to work around Sivaport. I don't think she wants to risk a return only to have our welcoming committee be magickal cannon fire from the cliffs. I suggested one of the islands, so we'll see how that goes."

Neven frowned at Kemal's blank tone. "You know... I think your father would've been proud of your path," he insisted and heard Father's urging behind him. "People... people should be allowed to choose their own lives, not have it dictated by someone else. I'm sure your little brother feels the same way. You give him an example, a good example, Kem, even if you two chose different paths."

"Huh." Kemal's distant face turned into a mischievous grin. "You know, hearing that from you is... odd but comforting." He nodded with a bit more energy. "I know my dad would've been proud of me. The islands the Tyronai's run are in good hands, they don't need me, but the world still does." He motioned with his arm, where the sun fluttered shadows over his skin. "But... thanks."

Neven breathed deep when the bells became nothing but a distant memory on the song.

A deep song which rang out with his name. His singular, all-powerful name. Neven Lotayrin, not Atoran Lotayrin.

Neven Lotayrin.

Emerald shockwaves whispered but once and struck into his bones and slammed them into frozen pieces. Kemal raised an eyebrow. Confusion. Tormented terror. Neven tried to blink past the fog, but found himself unable to respond.

"Nev... are you okay?" Kemal asked.

"Help me!"

His lips parted for the plea for assistance, but he barely mouthed the words. Kemal shook his head at him as barbs dug underneath his skin and tugged in their claws to guide him on a different path, but he kept himself planted.

Help me.

Golden scales tickled at his skin and begged him to fly free. Fly high. Magick flowed around the boat, a constant split current as Kemal moved in slow motion to wave down Evani. What's happening, why can't I—

Stones weighed down his boots when he turned on his heel and caused Kemal to step around with a noiseless, voiceless question. Another tug, and he turned his back on his life. One more, and he shambled for the railing of the deck with Sivaport as the new goal. Wait! He tried to slam himself to a stop, but he was left with no recourse but to walk. His own heartbeat pushed blood through his ears as his feathers shuddered; the call of his name undeniable. Bones cracked when he found himself on the edge and the other Wardens slowed to an agonized crawl at his unwitting actions he tried to fight off. No!

He leaped onto his own wings forced out of him. Sapphire glyphs studded with jade in the center caught him in the waves as someone screamed out his name once more. Icicles grew out of the shadow's maw, and he burst into a running start when noise snapped back into the world. It continued screaming in agony. Arrows whizzed underneath the water. Lost in the flames, he rushed through the smoke and the forest of seaweed underneath him. He tried to fight his own body, but the attempt burnt into his mind. His will dissipated when he came closer to the pier, and when his feet hit the pier, it was of his own will when a small shape collapsed into his arms.

Opal flames died out of the greens, burnt to a crisp.

"Fenrer?" Neven rasped, and widened his eyes at the blood soaking his sleeve. He set his hand upon it with a cursory glance around the harbor before returning his attention to the one who needed him the most at his eerie silence. "Ancients... you're hurt." He cupped the young boy's forearm in his hand, then winced when Fenrer dug his fingers in.

Tears and grime slipped down his cheeks as he sniffed. "There was an attack," he rasped. "Sungrove—Everyone's—Help..." Neven braced himself when Fenrer collapsed into his arms, and he whipped around to catch sight of the boat. Air glyphs stilled the sails, but the harbor bells rang out and weapons clanged.

"Shoot." Neven set Fenrer's head in the crook of his arm, where his smaller one hung limp at his side in smeared, sticky fabric. "I need you to stay with me. Everything's going to be okay." He choked on failure ripped out from his one victory at Fenrer's lack of response. He put his fingers against his brow, and drew it back at the horrific flames. People milled about in curiosity. Shouts raised through the air while the castle bells rang instead. Fangs in his lips, he lifted Fenrer off the pier and jumped back into the safety of the ocean. Just need to get back to the boat. Fast! He spread out the power of his wings to keep the journey without the same turbulence below him as he skidded down waves with ease. I can't jolt him too much, or...

"Nev, have you lost your mind?!" Kemal screeched from the deck as Neven dodged a harder wave before it crashed into the boat and other Storm Wardens scrambled. He took one final leap into a sapphire glyph bubbling the water, and he sent the surge up his body to create a spout. He landed on the railing, and flicked moisture off his feathers as he held Fenrer tightly, who hadn't roused. Flames burnt circles around his temples and the emerald shockwaves faded.

"Kemal, I need you to take him!" Neven barked and pushed himself past the clamoring to hand off the half-dead seven turns old child into his stronger arms before his limbs failed him again. "Where is the Warden-Commander? We have an extremely ill child who needs immediate medical attention!" Energy bounced through his bones as Kemal studied Fenrer before taking him closer to the entrance below decks. Neven went to take a step after him, a surge of intent in his soul, but the world swung around him, and he found himself on his knees instead.

"What happened?" Warden-Commander Faehariel asked when she returned to the deck. Her attention switched to Kemal. "Warden Tyronai, get that child into a bed and let a Healer know the situation. Lotayrin." Exhaustion swept through his mind when he tilted his head up to her the moment she knelt down. "You must tell me what happened... what did you experience?"

"I... my body moved on its own..." Neven panted.

Faehariel's opal eyes widened as Kemal went to stand. "Tyronai, hold. I must look at this child's eyes."

"Sungrove..." Fenrer cried when Faehariel gently grasped onto his cheeks. "They're all shells. All of them..."

"What in the obscura hells is he talking about?" Kemal demanded.

"He said Sungrove... was attacked," Neven managed the moment he stumbled to his feet to join them as Faehariel slid open Fenrer's eyes. Spirals sprinkled with jade stars as he whimpered in her hands. "You don't think...?"

Faehariel closed his eyes again and patted Kemal on the shoulder. "Go. Lotayrin, go with him. I will talk to you afterwards."

Kemal disappeared with Fenrer below decks, and Neven followed suit. "How is he?" Neven asked, choking on wingless worry.

"Not good, Nev," Kemal said, his steps unimpeded by Fenrer's small body in his arms. "Oi!" His voice boomed down the corridor to the Wardens who stayed below, one of them Julis. "Need someone who is able to heal now instead of later!" He kicked open one of the cabin doors as Julis rushed forward with a roll of his sleeves. Neven shoved everything unneeded out of the way as Kemal set Fenrer in the bed. Neven went to check on him, but found himself dragged out by Kemal to give Julis some space. Collar choked, Neven wriggled when Kemal pushed him against the wall. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Neven rasped. "I just-I heard him."

"Nev, how far out were we in the gulf?" Kemal demanded.

His thoughts danced off the tracks when he shook his head.

"Nev, come here," Julis instructed.

Neven released himself from Kemal's grip to go straight for Fenrer's side. Ash fell across his pallor, untouched by the sun. "This is bad." Julis tore the fabric to reveal the sliced wound. Pale pus seeped out of the edges, and Neven gagged at the smell, though Julis remained unmoved when he shuffled through one of the cabinets. Water boiled in his glyph as he wet the cloth with the solution. He wasted no time in cleaning the wound to let magick sew into it. Speckled clots stuck to his skin, and Julis hissed something under his breath. "Very bad if he's not responding... this shit hurts." He disposed of the dirty crimson rags.

"It's the giant's blood," Kemal said from the door.

"Yeah, it must be." Julis took another pass with a fresh cloth, pinching Fenrer's cheek every so often. "He's burning though."

"Giant's blood?" Neven asked, going around Julis when he indicated. His own spirals flicked over Fenrer with an empathetic frown when Fenrer released another soft cry.

"We're not so easily taken down by infections or toxins, but Ancients, in his state at his age?" Kemal remarked with his own weary frown, his sleeves splattered with a child's blood.

"Miiha..." Fenrer squirmed when Julis lined the wound with magick twine and started to pull it together. "Miiha..."

He had to do something. Anything apart from standing around in his own self-made ice. Neven grasped his clammy face. "It is okay, little one. You're okay now. We'll take care of you." Agony struck his heart with a different pain as Fenrer's eyes fluttered open with a confused, fatal noise. "I heard you. I heard you. Your song is so powerful." He checked on Julis as he continued to clean Fenrer's arm of what remained with a nod of affirmation in his direction as he wrapped the arm in thick gauze. "Yes?"

"I... like your feathers..." Fenrer went limp.

A rattled hiss escaped his chest when he investigated Fenrer. His feathers tightened against his head. The child's chest rose and fell in uneven bursts, and Julis squeezed his shoulder.

"I did what I could. We'll see how he does over the journey." Julis stood up and cleaned off his own hands.

Out of the room, Neven faced Warden-Commander Faehariel and choked on worthless actions. Powerless ones. "I don't know how I heard him, Commander." He bit on inability and tried not to cry.

"You didn't hear him," Warden-Commander Faehariel said with a frown. "He's an Aurus... that is remarkably powerful for someone his age, Warden Neven, to have overtaken your mind from that distance and in his condition."

Neven brought his clean hand up to his mouth to prevent a surge of bile from spewing out of them. "It doesn't matter, does it?" he rasped. "I mean... look at him. What would've happened if he hadn't? We would've left him and hadn't had a clue. As long as he's safe, I don't care. If it was for his own well-being, then..." Then... I did my duty to the end.

"Are you well, Warden Lotayrin?" she asked. "Mind control is a very complex action that often leaves one emotionally confused and could cause migraines."

"Just... a mild headache," Neven whispered. "It's minimal."

"I'm sorry," a smaller voice said from the cabin.

Neven crunched his brow and shook his head at nothing.

"Let him rest. We'll get him proper care back at the citadel," Faehariel instructed. "We have a long way to go yet. We'll keep an eye on him and keep him stable. Warden Lotayrin, I advise you to rest. The mind is a complex thing, and Aurus magick moreso to untangle its complexity."

"When you said he was remarkably powerful, what did you mean by that?" Kemal, the questioner, pressed as Neven slumped against the wall beside him to resist another strangled, anxious gasp from another person's throat.

"In all my life..." Faehariel said with a weary frown. "I haven't seen an Aurus as powerful as he is... but... the previous Warden-Commander has. They speak of them in their observation journals." Her gaze grew heavy. "So, I pose you a question, Warden Tyronai... from which is a cruel law born but from a terrible, singular experience that drives others into fear and misunderstanding?" Question in the air, she walked away.

"What does she mean?" Neven asked, catching air.

Kemal widened his eyes. "The Aurus Law."

"What about it?"

"It was made hundreds upon hundred of Turns ago," Kemal explained. "It's a very strict law... at first glance. Aurus who tread an unwilling mind are subject to cruel punishment for the act of stealing someone else's freewill for their own ends... and must wear a band to warn others of their ability... as if their eyes don't show it enough." Kemal bounced his fist against the wall.

"So..." Neven drew out, grasping onto his own confused emotions.

"Faehariel is saying that Fenrer is about as powerful as the person who brought the reason for that Law's very existence... if not moreso."

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