YUVEN

Another day not in his usual protection and support. No touch of cold stone against his cheek. Left only with warm walls. He crawled into the attic to avoid the encroaching, pale-haired beast who dared to intrude on his new territory. An unwelcome, terrible, pale-haired siren who sang fables and lied with them. It hummed in his ear the longer he hid in the stone's shadow and the feathered beast sat and played a tune for the flowers. Pollen tickled his nose when he peeked over the edge of the windowsill and into the yard, but he failed to spot the time-wasting cheater. Books he swiped from the new stock brought down from the Annex tucked themselves into the rafters where he hid his prizes of information and knowledge.

He observed the enemy movements with an appraising eye for the schedule. But for some reason Fenrer isn't bothered! Why isn't he bothered? He liked the garden. The garden walls protected us from looks... Yuven stuck himself in the corner and shoved his lips against his teeth. And then... that Naveeran who took us out of it. He just sits in the backyard reading books, or on the couch reading books! Yuven swiped said books to rifle through them, tasting rust at the fairytales. Of Sentinels riding upon wyvern back with gleaming glaives. If Fenrer wants to trust the beasts in this house, I'll just have to protect us both!

Music tickled the tips of his feathers, and he scowled at the rising sound. It pulled at his down, and he crawled onto his knees to slip into the boards. His magick gave him wings, and he floated in the unseen, tricky in his placements when he pressed his hands against a wall, then slipped through it onto the bottom level of the red-brick house.

"Let the song whisper upon your voice," Neven Lotayrin sang again as he plucked at the strings on a white-laquered lute. "Higher, farther, above the dancing clouds. Swept off our claws, we fly, higher, higher." His golden feathers swayed with his own notes. "In the dream of space and time, we fly through its separated love. Higher and higher."

The steam in the pot on the runic oven simmered in time with the tempo he created with the instrument. Yuven drew back into the wall when the lullaby continued, an inkling in the mouth of shadows and Neven continued to sing, "Leave me to take the fall... I am sleeping on wings full of dreams and light... I take the leap for my soul."

One hissed behind him, coiling in pain. It reverberated through his own heart, and he found himself unable to keep a hold on his safety, tumbling out of the wall with a small gasp. Neven jolted off the couch, swinging himself around and his mighty foe spotted him once more. On his feet once more, he refused to kneel to his enemies. Back pressed against the wall, he focused on Neven when he put the lute down with too warm a smile, though made no approach towards him like before. He made no move to drag himself through the flowerbeds. He snapped his head up at lumbering footsteps from the back area, where the burly Hanekan named Kemal stepped out of the private bathhouse with a huff, but came to a stop when his other enemy spotted him.

But songs are dangerous. Songs are dangerous and get rid of the comfort of the dark. Yuven scowled at Neven, who kept up the irritant of a smile. It widened when Fenrer crawled down the stairs, but froze with the rest of the haunted bones of white spires. His head tipped, a curious puppy.

"Perfect timing. Just when I was about to retrieve both of you!" Neven clapped his hands together with a small bounce of his knees, keeping the melody in his voice. "I have made dinner successfully!" He pointed at the table, and his excitement made him scowl in turn with the red-eyed shadows which kept him company. Yuven clenched his fist at another shadow looming behind Neven, paler in form, an empty expression in its eyes. Fenrer gave no acknowledgement of the shadow when he ran up to Neven with a wide grin and nod, before switching his route to the table to hop into one of the seats. Yuven pressed himself further into the wall when Neven inched closer with the cold footsteps against stone. "Yours will be ready soon."

Nothing the enemy does will make the rust go away... only the shadows. Metallic needles stuck to the back of his throat, drawn by the song to sit beside Fenrer, who beamed at him.

"It's our first dinner not at the castle," Fenrer piped up with a wiggle. Too excited surrounded by enemies. "Thank you, Neven!"

Neven waved his hands with a soft chuckle, though it took no time for Kemal and Fenrer to chow down on the food given to them. A bowl of stew was placed in front of him instead of the same seasoned meats and tubers Fenrer got to have. He looked at the plate beside him, then his bowl. It's different from what they're having. Yuven lifted the spoon to drive it into the bottom, to hear the stifled clink and the chunks of awaiting rot squishing underneath his heel.

Neven sat down on his other side, and he scooted closer to Fenrer. "I'm sure you must be hungry, Yuven. You haven't eaten since we got down here."

Yuven scowled at the other portions of food. Separate. Different. Judged. Fingers on the edges of the bowl, he shoved it away from him, and Neven frowned. "I'm not hungry."

It fell quiet.

"I know your appetite isn't the best, but you have to get something into you. Even if it's a sip," Neven said, another smile crawling on his lips. It tore at his cheeks with uncertainty and the shadows revealed the truth to him. "I promise it won't taste like it usually does."

No! I don't have to do anything my enemy tells me! I won't trust anything my enemy tells me! Yuven turned his back on the pale-haired siren. "I'm not hungry."

Fenrer continued to eat, though the old people had stopped. "Yuven," Neven whispered. His melodic accent rang out across white spires, and Yuven scooted to the edge of his chair when Neven clutched the back of his. "You need to eat. I am not asking you to finish it all. Just get something into you, you haven't eaten since you arrived."

Yuven hopped out of the seat and stalked out of range of the warmth of a stolen family not meant for him, unloved and abandoned to the pale shadows on the other side of metal bars. "It doesn't matter if I eat or not." I'm a shadow. I'm a shadow and I'm your enemy. He went to leap back into his winged magick, but froze at the call of his name. It shuddered on a song, and he drove his teeth into his lips at the song and power.

"Yuven Traye."

"I am not—!" He whipped around to glare at the sapphire abyss, formed into the beads of a wyvern. "Hungry! I am not hungry and I don't want your stupid food!" He straightened himself out to make his shadow engulf the pale one with twisted, malformed teeth. "I can get my own food!"

"How are you going to do that?" Neven's brow furrowed. He sighed and got out of his chair. "Yuven, please, you need to eat—"

"No!"

"Yuven—"

He ran before the song grabbed onto his name again. Spatial wings wrapped around his body when he threw himself into the wall. Names marked upon a stone surface, reflected in glass and claws. He bounced across the rooms, confused, lost, dazed at the swallowed rust driving into his nose. In the darkness, he stumbled into his room, facefirst into the boards with a sob. His bed, the final bastion of solace. He burrowed under the covers and ignored the judgment of the world for crimson ghosts.

His door creaked.

"Go away..." Yuven whimpered into the mattress. "I'm not hungry." He dared to peek at the lack of an answer. Neven closed the door with his hip, holding not one, but two bowls. He bared his fangs to scare off the light. "I said I'm not hungry!" His stomach growled. And you shut up, you mutinous... mutineer. He smacked it to get it to stop its lies.

Neven raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he sat down on the ground with the bowls in his hands. Pale shadows pushed frozen plates in front of him with phials upon phials of black tar. Every bite he took, the rattle of dark chains behind him intensified until it swallowed him in the dissonance. Shivers rolled up his arms, drawn without a song until his foot pressed against the floor. Neven put the bowl he pushed away in front of him, still carrying the second. He peered at the adult Naveeran, the pale shadow, then whispered, "You eat it."

He'll eat it, and prove it. He'll see me as an enemy.

Neven raised his bowl and dipped his spoon into it without fear or hesitation. He sipped off the edge of metal. Rust engulfed his throat with a wet hiss and he found himself going down towards the bowl. It warmed his cold, dead hands. A plume of mist left his mouth carrying his shock at the cheater's proof. He chewed on the chunks of shadow mud when he bit into the stew without taking his gaze off the sapphire abyss in the dark. Against his own will, against the pale shadows, he sipped at the stew until there was nothing left. It tasted off. Strange. It smothered the rust. Salty tears crew in his throat, but he froze when Neven came closer to give him more from his own sustenance. His shadow grew into the light, and Neven headed for his door, faltering at the frame.

Yuven finished the rest and put the empty bowl on his desk, and the other Avaerilian walked away with wings.

It angered the shadows.

Each one moved and twisted when he took refuge under the blankets in their rule of night. Red orbs floated around his bed and grew teeth to rip at chunks in the air. Hungry. Always so hungry. Yuven shrank deeper into the mattress when they grew closer, to feed on him for neglecting them.

The light... is my enemy.

A maw formed in the shadows.

Yuven bounced off his bed and through the other wall. He stumbled onto his knees to twist at what he retreated from.

Golden light pierced the darkness when it tried to ooze out of the wall. Yuven frowned, then glanced back at who he intruded on. On the bed against the wall, the pale-haired beast slept. Minutes passed, but the shadow never gave chase past the crescent, golden moon. Yuven inched closer to the wondrous color. Runes which glowed winter whites ran along the surface of the cold metal. Into its radiant sheen, he crept into its embrace. I... want the light. Chills crept along his fingers when he clasped onto the hilt. I can... scare the darkness. He tightened his grip. It's... so warm, like that stew.

Tears slid down his cheeks and he tugged for his sole saving grace.

He screeched when the shadows burst out of his wall to push the rack. It loomed, to crush a ghost. He shut his eyes and waited for the end, to be torn open by the teeth and gobbled up. Leashes of light bloomed through the dark, and he opened his eyes to stare at the glyphs above him. Sapphire-studded, shedding snow. The rack pressed against the points of power, and he let go of the golden crescent. He tilted his head back.

Neven Lotayrin held a mirrored glyph in his hands, his blonde locks disheveled and flyaway. Horror prickled his skin at the sight of the golden warrior. His eternal enemy. Yuven rolled out of the rack, then rushed through his wall again to get back into his room full of shadows. Back under the covers, he whimpered his terror and dug his fingers into his scalp.

He waited for the shadows to consume him, for the darkness to savor upon his magick.

For Neven to abandon him.

His blanket of spatial distortion shielded him from the cold. It pulsed.

Snow danced through the fabric of his sheets. A threat of false security. I know better. I know better than to trust my enemies. Yuven curled deeper under the blankets when a massive shadow tore the innocent flakes to make them melt. Gentle footsteps, and a soft hum tore at the formless masses and made them retreat from the pure light.

"Yuven?"

No, I won't! If I look— "Go away... Don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Yuven peeked from the rim of his blankets.

Neven came closer, through the hungry shadows without fear. "Are you alright?" He raised his hand. Magelights bloomed out of his glyph and attached themselves to the corners of the walls. He escaped the shield of fabric, but froze when Neven rested his hand on top of his head. Awaiting the inevitable end, he braced himself for the sharp end and then nothingness. It never came when Neven rubbed the top of his head with a softer hum.

No! I'm your enemy! You're my enemy! Don't sing... I'm not... a flower...

He fought to resist the movements of the enemy, sleep tugged him into its embrace of darkness.

Left to wait for a better day.

"Leave me to take the fall..."

I won't wait for a day that will never come for me...

"I take the leap for my soul..."

It will never come... I'll never wait for something that'll never come. It's a waste of time... and I won't waste time.

"Higher, and higher."