YUVEN

Snow melted. He knew it melted, he knew and still he let it too close, to soak into his heart. Neven slumped to the ground, with Kemal reaching forward to prevent his head slamming against the floor. Snow didn't melt. Snow couldn't melt. His knees locked, the shadows curling their teeth into his skin. A whimper escaped his throat, and he became a ghost once more to flee into his room, to find a means of escape back to the garden, where people were safe from him.

One by one, the magelights of fresh-fallen snow dimmed and disappeared out of existence. Left in the dark when the final one melted to his floor. In his corner, behind his shelf of high shelf books, he bit on his tongue, over and over to drag out the shadows as he waited for the end to come into his throat; for Kemal to arrive and blame him for Neven's death, to blame him for the mess of melted snow.

Wetness slipped down his cheeks and no one came back for him.

Neven broke his promise, the house failed to be his home.

"Yuven?" Fenrer's small voice sounded through the endless darkness, and he twisted around to the light when his friend closed the door with a click before turning to him with a frown. "Yuven, is everything okay? What's the matter?"

"N-Neven melt," he sobbed in webbed Common, so Fenrer would know his dastardly deed. "Neven melt."

"Neven... melt?" Fenrer frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" Cheek against the wall, he tried to get away from Fenrer when he came closer. "What happened, Yuven? You can tell me."

I melted Neven. You'll hate me for melting him! Yuven screeched in his mind and caused Fenrer to withdraw with wide eyes. I ruined everything!

"But I still sense his colors," Fenrer argued pointlessly.

Snow melted.

Judgemental gleams shimmered around him, curling on red tongues, but Fenrer twisted to the door at the sound of a click and hushed voices. More to add to hatred and his monstrous existence. Fenrer turned back to him with a firm nod. "He'll be fine!" he insisted, but the concern cracked his voice. "He'll be fine, he has to be, he's the best Storm Warden!"

The best Storm Warden wouldn't need naps, they'd never allow themselves to melt! He shifted deeper into his corner, biting down on another sob.

"It's okay," Fenrer repeated with a small, fearful step away from him when the shadows expanded to chew on him too. "As long as I can sense his colors, he's fine." He headed out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Body trembling, he sat himself up. Space and time bent to his will when he leaned into the wall beside him to slip through its physical boundary and observe what happened on the other side. Kemal and Yuo loomed over Neven, who flumped into bed, eyes closed. His chest rose and fell in uneven waves of melted snow. Yuven kept his protective field, a blanket around him, so that the gleams would never reach him, a ghost. I won't let anyone close to see me again.

"I knew this was going to happen," Yuo tsked.

"You and me both," Kemal stated.

"I hope he learns his lesson when he wakes up."

He'll never get back up. I melted him.

Yuo reached forward to grab Neven's forearm to run two fingers down it, but Neven remained unresponsive to the strange motion. Yuven lifted his head to the healer when he sighed, "Magick burnout. I tell him to get some rest, and what does he do? He doesn't do that." He collected his bag as Kemal moved out of the way. "He'll be out for a couple days. It'll give his magick time to collect itself. And—" Yuo turned to prod Kemal's chest, who pulled back. "Tell him if he keeps doing this it'll turn into chronic burnout and I'm quite certain he doesn't want to deal with that."

"I'll tell him." Kemal followed Yuo out of the room.

Yuven waited for the door to close before releasing himself from a spatial embrace to steady himself in Neven's room. Wetness continued to stream down his cheeks, pointless and useless, and he rubbed his sleeve on his face to try and chase it away. It continued to stream past his attempts to stop it, so he hobbled to Neven's bedside.

Rage crushed his bones when he crept closer. No more footsteps threatened to bring down the judge. His fingers reached out, and he clasped onto Neven's shoulder. He shook it. More and more. Over and over to get the snow to unmelt. "Wake up," he pleaded. Snow melted. Another fervent shake. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." Annoyance slammed into his throat and he sobbed, "Snow doesn't melt. Stop melting."

No answer and Neven continued to break his promise. Yuven knew all along. Tears slipped down his chin. Off his shoulder, he reached over to grip onto his longest pale-gold feathers, and he gave a light tug. Yuven whimpered and crawled onto the bed. If you don't answer me I'll make you answer me. He slipped to Neven's other side. "Wake up." He pushed into his arm, to try and make him get up. "Wake up."

One last thing to return the pale-haired beast, his enemy of light.

Yuven crawled on top of him to dig his knees into his stomach. "Wake up. I'm hungry now..." He sniffed. "I'll eat... I'll eat if you wake up."

It continued to melt, his fallen enemy.

Yuven slid off the bed with one last sob with the shadows as his only company, with their slithering tongues and crimson eyes. The monster inside growled, hungered, a threat to eat him instead if he failed to bring it food again. Through the wall, he dove into his corner once more, to keep the shadows at bay, to prevent anyone else from getting hurt. Frost slid up the walls as he cried to himself. Left in the dark. Every sound entered his head. Every creak. Every vicious knock. Wasted time. Lunch came and went, the person who made it melted and fallen. Dinner approached, and he squeaked when a knock sounded at his door.

"Yuven, you need to eat dinner," Kemal replied.

"No!" he spat in Navei.

To his surprise, Kemal understood. "I can't negotiate dinner. You need to eat. Neven would murder me if you didn't."

"No!" Yuven snapped and threw his magick at the door with all his pitiful might. It slammed against the wood and the knocking spread throughout the house. He continued to throw it. "No! No! No!" He accentuated each nex with a slam of his magick, to get Kemal to flee, an enemy of light when he was the shadow. His stomach growled when it went silent, and he returned to his spot.

Moonlight shed through the curtain, and he found strength to move again to slip for Fenrer's room.

"What's wrong with Neven? Why are his colors dull and pale?" Fenrer whimpered on his bed, and Yuven tasted shame when Kemal sat beside him. "Why can't I see him?"

"Neven is fine, just foolish." Kemal rubbed the back of his neck with a huff. "Do you know what magick burnout is?"

Kemal asked a lot of questions.

"It's—" Fenrer sniffed, face wet with his own tears. "It's when someone tries to use magick but has no energy inside them?"

"Right, but push their body past that limitation anyway," Kemal replied. "I'll make you and Yuven a snack. I'll worry about Neven."

Yuven retreated from the wall at Fenrer's quiet whimpers and his nod of affirmation. He couldn't take it anymore. The monster growled, its teeth on his neck to drain his magick — the reason Neven melted. It was me. I told him I was his enemy, he shouldn't have trusted me! Yuven dug himself in his corner as he tried to push the monster away, and his magick latched onto the corners of his room. Frost crawled through the walls and overtook his door. Into the knob. It twisted from the other side, shedding the flakes of ice. His bed shuddered on its frame when the monster thrashed in annoyance and agitation. The bookshelf behind him tilted back and forth, tossing books onto the floor.

"Yuven!" Kemal said from the other side. "Everything's fine!"

You'll judge me too.

"Not!" Yuven bit. Icy crystals slammed into the door to tear at the wood. "Not fine!"

I want Neven! I want the golden crescent blade! Rust overwhelmed his throat, and he coughed to taste the red liquid on his lips. Everything hurt him. Everything threatened to swallow him. It burned down and slashed spires in two. Energy dwindled, his magick continued to heave and push outwards. He coughed again, fighting for breath as the monster stole it from him. I'll bring down this stupid house!

It refused to break.

The frost that made a thick layer of the door started to melt.

It nudged on its hinges as the doorknob twisted with its own sapphire glyph. Again and again. Leave me alone! He cried. I'm just a monster! I'm just a monster you were forced to take care of!

It melted away.

Yuven buried his head in his knees and waited for the end. A shadow knelt beside him, pulling him into its protective embrace of cold winters. His might fell silent, the house stopped shaking. Only his own sniffles and cries replaced the rage and agony of the monster. "I'm sorry," he begged. "I'm sorry."

Another shadow stood at the door. "Fenrer's out of his auric trance... going into shock, he's inconsolable."

"I'm sorry."

"What's he saying?" the familiar voice asked.

"He's apologizing."

Neven.

His tone was shaky, exhausted. Yuven raised his head when the Naveeran hugged him tighter. His fingers dug into his shirt, to hold onto the half-melted snow who broke his promise. Kemal ducked back into the light to head to Fenrer's room, another who he made suffer.

Out of the corner and lifted back into his bed, he ducked away when he met Neven's gaze. Magick swirled in the sleepy, sapphire abyss. Neven grabbed a plate from the endtable, pushing it into his hands. Gentle foods. Bread, soup and crackers. Spoon in his hand, he ate at it, the warmth rushing through his limbs. Except it tasted wrong, not Neven food. It held a layer of staleness and rot, but the sickly sweet taste of the broth battled for dominion over it. Without the threat of choking, he finished the rest, set it aside, then clung onto Neven again. "I'm sorry."

Neven raised a hand to brush the top of his head. "You're alright," he soothed in the song of Navei. "You need rest, and so do I. You're okay. I'm okay too."

Yuven released his hold on the older Avaerilian, and Neven got up on trembly knees to take the plate away and left through half-lidded eyes.

I have to check on Fenrer.

Off his bed, he rushed to the other wall to save his friend. Fenrer sat in his bed, in a clear daze with his own plate in his hands. Yuven waited in the darkness as Kemal tried to get him to eat, with Fenrer following along obediently and without argument. Hanekan left Kemal's lips as Fenrer gazed at him numbly, with the plate taken from his hands as a forest fire raged in his eyes. He looked from the plate to the older Hanekan when he got off the bed with a pat off Fenrer's head, leaving the room. Yuven bit on his tongue when Fenrer continued to sit there, stupefied.

Yuven dragged himself out of the protective embrace to head to Fenrer's side, who stared at him, face damp. On his bed instead, he reached forward to hug him, to drag him back into the light, to protect him from his shadows. I won't let them eat you.

Shadows crinkled in the corners of his eyes as Fenrer hugged him back without complaint, and he let his friend go so he could sleep. Back through the wall, he sniffed and dragged the shadows away from the light. Into bed, he sat there, left in silence, left with his own thoughts. Fingers dug into the blanket, he cried once more, but with no power, with no might. He just cried. 

A house that shouldn't have been a home. Snow refused to melt and the darkness was scary.

He wanted Neven, and Neven returned, just like he said he would.