NEVEN

Sheets of rain fell from gray storm clouds which gathered over the Hanekan ocean. It boiled with distant thunder and strikes of lightning piercing the course waves when he turned around to take in the fierce sight of nature's fury. I need to find Kemal... but I have no idea where he is. Hm. Neven brought his fingers up to his temples. Kemal. Kemal. Kemal. He allowed his mind to wander over the starsewn connection which connected his soul to his best friend's. Neither his body nor mind gave him a tug in a certain direction, or a direct reply from Kemal himself. He released a huff at the silence, resolved to stamp around the citadel. How hard can it be to find him anyway...? He closed in on the highest paths around the caldera, slowing to a stop at a small, quick shape stumbling through the mud.

Fenrer?

Neven switched his route for the young Hanekan child out of the safety of the caldera. Loose stones clattered from erosion, and his heart jumped straight into his throat to stifle his song when Fenrer clambered onto one of the older paths, narrow and winding up one of the mountain peaks. "Fenrer!" It tore through his throat and blocked his need to scream. "What are you doing?" He ran down the path, sending waves of ice over the thicker patches of mud to close in on the small child before he went higher. Flew higher.

"I think Yuven's in one of the caves up there!" Fenrer pointed then stepped onto the slicked, wet path. Neven drove his fangs into his tongue when a little pebble broke apart at his heel.

Neven came closer, but hesitated at the amount of erosion. "A storm is rolling in!" Another screeching chord tore through his mind. One tiny step, Fenrer ignored his voice. "Stop, Fenrer!" He allowed the power of a command flow past his teeth in shameful guilt. Enough to give him time, and he chewed on the suggestion of his song when Fenrer stopped after heaving himself over a ledge. "If you go any farther you'll slip!" He took his chance to rush after him, but tucked his back against the rock face, the white abyss calling his name below to crash against rocks.

"He needs me, Neven... I promised," Fenrer spoke through the rain and continued his ascent.

"Ancients damned—" Neven slipped ice hooks out of his glyphs and gripped them with his palms before nudging himself forward, the path thinning out and Fenrer getting out of his reach. Water droplets cooled through his feathers, and he swung his attention around at another voice. Kemal raised a magelight, coming forward with a question on his lips. Neven went to reach out to him, but stopped when the path crumbled behind him further. "Fuck." Hook dug into the stone, he winced at Kemal, whose eyes widened in concern and shock. I have nowhere else to go but up! He left Kemal behind to catch up with the young Hanekan, who climbed and flew without wings.

Back against the wall, he shimmied his way forward while Fenrer had more ease of movement with his small size. Nausea swept through his temples when Fenrer's fingers slipped, but he held on tighter to the mountain. His foot inched forward, but the nausea turned into bile in the back of his throat at the furious roar of the waves against the rocks below. He strengthened his ice pick and drove it into the rock to keep him from falling to the abyss below. "Alright." Mist billowed out of his nose and lips, the excess of his magick coursing through his lungs to give him strength, and the world sharpened. "Fenrer—!"

"I won't leave him!" Fenrer hauled himself onto another rock against the maelstrom above.

"You should," a voice broke apart the rain, and Neven held on tight to his icepick to investigate.

Yuven quivered in a cave entrance. Tears slipped down his cheeks and fell off his chin with the rain splattering against his hair. The wind pushed the small Avaerilian back into the darkness. "Wolf boy, you see now? No help..." He hugged himself with a sob, and the barbs along his feathers scratched against his ears and urged him to get closer, a song upon his name and the words along a golden glaive.

Fenrer reached his hand out. "Yuven, please come down! I'm still here." His own whimper left his chest, and Neven drove his fangs deeper at the curling flames under his skin, a shuddered scale digging through the surface. "I said I'd be here!"

On the words of the ocean, Neven drove his next icepick deeper still, nudging himself forward. His boot broke pebbles and sent them downwards into the mist. Feathers cold and drenched, he winced when he came to a stop at a hop where Fenrer broke the path behind him.

"Neven," Fenrer gasped from his angle. "You have to help me."

In the jaws of mist, the Derelict groaned and crept closer to innocence bound. Neven breathed deep into the decay and gave life to his voice. Smoke poured from the corners of his lips, and he said, "I'm trying. I will. Just don't move." Icepick dug into a large crevice, he forced himself forward. Over the bridge with no Kemal to pull him to the other side. A child's cry replaced the baby's giggle, and he raised his head upwards in time with Fenrer, spurred onwards, Fenrer took the final leap without fear or hesitation.

His fingers dug into the pebbles, but the weakness formed under his boot.

The Derelict came closer, jaw agape and broken with mangled teeth.

Neven let go of the icepick, a golden sheen wrapping around his hands. He took wing before the stone broke beneath the young Hanekan. His foot took the place of Fenrer's, and he threw him upwards into the safety of the cave. It shattered beneath his feet, and he swung his ankle into another large crevice, letting out a gasp of pain when it crushed deeper into his foot, his last pick driving into the rock face with someone calling out his name above him. Fenrer and Yuven peeked over the edge, safe. Pain tore through his leg when he dared to look down to his fog of doom. Rain clumped against his feathers while his breath left in misty clouds. Head against the mountain, he tasted blood. It sloshed below him, the bridge torn apart. Limbs stone, he flicked his ear when Fenrer called his name.

"Neven!"

His legs swung out from safety.

"No." Neven stared into the abyss. Magick pulsed underneath his skin, a biting throb of pain as he held on tight to his life. "It is alright," he managed out. "I need you to stay there." He went to adjust himself, but chewed on his terror when his hand slipped. He tugged his foot out of the crevice, setting it on a stronger ledge. "I can get myself up."

I can get myself across! He called out with his stubborn, fearful pride underneath an ancient song of apathy. Droplets of water slowed when he released the excess of his magick through his mouth and body. He dug deeper into the rock and listened to the waves crash below him, cracking the world with its force. "I am... I'm afraid, but I will fly," he whispered the Navei song. "I will fly and be free. Apathy is death. Apathy is finality... but I will not listen to it." He allowed the icepick to melt, for him to start his ascent. Magick breathed and dug into his spine as he jumped off a hazy golden glyph made out of scales. It flung him upwards, and he rolled himself into the cave, causing Yuven and Fenrer to scramble out of his way.

Droplets fell off strands of his hair as he groaned and forced himself to his shaking knees. Sharp knives drove into his ankle, and his groan turned into a hiss in his nose. He raised his hand for the mouth of the cave, forming an icy cover over the entrance to keep out the storm. "What were you two thinking?" he asked and pushed himself against the wall of the cave, driving his hindquarters into solid ground.

"Didn't want..." Yuven whimpered from the deepest shadows.

"And I didn't want you to get hurt," Neven countered as he pushed his fingers into his throbbing ankle. "What are you two doing all the way up here?"

"We went to go see the Trainees off onto their patrol, but Yuven fell—" Fenrer faltered when Yuven interrupted him.

"I'm your enemy," he said through hiccups. "Why are you here? I didn't ask for either of you to follow me!"

I am not your enemy. Neven dragged himself to his feet, against the weight of his suffering to head for Yuven, on his knees when he inched back from him, baring his fangs in fear. "I'm here because you aren't my enemy. I swore to protect the light. You shouldn't put yourself or others in danger — I don't know what happened with the Trainees, but I would've been there in time, Yuven." He held his hand out to Yuven, who pulled his fangs back behind his lips, his eyes going wide with fright and confusion as his down feathers fluffed at his Navei.

"Don't yell at him," Fenrer pouted behind him with a powerful huff.

"I'm not yelling at him, I'm scolding him," Neven corrected. "But now that you mention it." He twisted on his knees to face Fenrer, who stared at him. "I told him he shouldn't put others in danger... and neither should you." He went to stand, but the sharpened knife dug into his bone, but he remained standing. "Come. We must find a path down and out of this cave. I know they're all connected." He dragged himself forward. "And this is why I don't rockclimb... or any climbing... Ancients." One last puff of lagged terror left his nose as he walked through the dark with the two children behind him.

It burned hotter with each step. "Just stay behind me. There must be some way onto the Gauntlet paths if we keep going..." Because that would explain how Majen often got ahead of us even though he was leagues behind... He walked around another corner, but slowed to a stop at a sharp cry.

Yuven tugged Fenrer farther out of reach of the calm dark, eliciting a surprised gasp from the other child. "No! I won't go!" His down fluffed out in alarm. "No," he said through a soft squeak.

Neven froze at the vocalization. "I am here," he reminded him. He patted his crescent blade. "I won't let anything hurt you."

"What's wrong?" Fenrer asked, unable to understand Navei. Neven went to reply, but stopped when Fenrer approached him to tug on his sleeve. "Is this an old part of the citadel?"

Neven spread magelights from a small glyph to strike into the darkness. "I'm certain it is," he said and drew forward against his limp, and slowed down when Yuven hesitated on the edge of sapphire light. Fenrer returned to him with a small tug of his own.

"Yuven, it's going to be okay," he said, his little fingers digging into Yuven's forearm and caused the other boy to meet him in the eye with a slack-jawed expression of shock. "I promised I wouldn't let anything hurt you."

Neven stopped them at a small drop, and he sent his magelight downwards. It hit the bottom after nothing but a second. "I'll go first." He took the hop, and regret slammed into his throat when his ankle buckled. He drove his fingers into the rock to keep himself standing. "Alright. Come here, you two." He held his hands out to catch them.

Fenrer took his offer of help, and Neven lowered the seven turns old child to the ground with a bit of difficulty. One behind him, he turned to the remaining one. Hands outstretched, he frowned when Yuven drew back with another soft squeak. "I won't go. You can't make me." His breath hitched.

Painful irritation drove into his ribcage, but he chewed on it then whispered, "I won't let you fall." He followed with his arms when Yuven scowled and made the climb down himself. With both of them on the ground, he tugged a magelight out of another glyph to set it in Yuven's palm, who flinched from the minute contact, but curiosity overtook fear when he bounced the magelight between his hands, taking the side with his crescent blade while Fenrer occupied his other side. Marble cracked out of the formed ingenious rock of the old magma tunnel. He eased his quick pace at a creak of stone, where it formed into old wood. "You should watch your step." He tested a tile, drawing back when it shuddered and revealed a lower level beneath it. "I doubt this place has seen upkeep in some time...I'm going to have to tell Commander Faehariel." He pinched his chin. "You know, if Kemal doesn't murder me first."

"Okay." Fenrer followed his steps without complaint.

Yuven wept in silence behind him.

"We're almost there," Neven soothed and sent magelights ahead to light up the old braziers. He faltered when Fenrer left his side and the creaks continued when he hugged Yuven.

"It's okay." Fenrer ignored the sag of the floor beneath him. "I promised—"

I promised!

Neven switched his glyph into a tough net and ran to catch them the moment the sag turned into a crack. It yawned into another unseen abyss. Out of a golden glyph, he brought down an icy glaive to keep the woven magick in place with the two children inside. It slid along the pebbles when he held on tight, and Neven gasped while a wyvern screeched alongside him when the magick shaft broke apart, and he went flying far past his intention. His head smacked against a rock, his skull screeching from the contact, and the world darkened with the crack of wooden supports.

Mother sang a lullaby in his ear, and the mirror in front of him became all the clearer.

I...

Through the fluttered worms of consciousness, he raised his hand to the glass, and a golden claw touched the other side. It slipped out of his reach, and the abyss consumed him.