KEMAL

"I want a couple of Storm Wardens free to keep the coastline clear of Derelicts for the fisherman and to keep a pathway open for any reinforcements from Euros to have easy access into Asairai harbor," Neven said from the head of the terrain table. Pale-gold feathers frayed at awkward angles of stress as he craned his neck towards his team. "I don't want anyone leaving past this boundary." He drew a glyph along his fingers around the terrain of Asairai. It shrunk with the missing villages and where the Wardens had disappeared. Kemal pursed his lips when Neven pressed the glyph downwards, and it created a new rune. "Until we have reinforcements and information from Orkaena, we're in the dark. I will make an exception here—" Neven moved the runic circle to involve the forest, straight to the coast. "Due to the nature of the ruins that were found in the area. I want to see if any more will pop up." His head raised to the awaiting Wardens, all that remained of their posting. Thirty men and women from the fifty-three which once occupied the lodge were left. "We can't afford our numbers to dwindle anymore than they have."

"What about the capitol, Captain?" Aine whispered from their spot at the table.

"Until we figure out a safe route through the woods, that's off the table," Neven said, clipped. "I'll be keeping the patrols the same, but I've set the boundary. Don't go past it." He ducked his hands behind his back with a quick bounce of his knees. "I'll set up the duties soon. Rest well." Though all others dismissed themselves with his finishing word, Kemal folded his arms and waited for them to leave. Each one, except Julis, the only other person aware of the true reason for the posting. Lost in an old obsession, Neven looked between them and headed for the door without another word to them.

"I'll handle him," Kemal grumbled. "I want you to take Aine and keep an eye on those ruins and to keep Neven happy, just don't go much further than that." He stepped out of the meeting hall to follow Neven through the lodge. His Oathbound's footsteps found themselves to be quick and uneven.

The light breeze which poured through the thick boughs of the tree-town spurred him onward over the marble streets, winding themselves underneath thick roots. Though Neven's steps wandered not to the athenaeum as before, they wavered between the small streets, directionless until Neven double-backed to the tree-house with the secret bunker. Into the ground floor living room, Kemal closed the door when Neven left it open. Crescent blade unhooked from his belt, he set it upon the weapon stand while Neven leaned on the kitchen counter, tapping his heel against the floor while he rocked back and forth on his shoulders. "How many have we lost so far? Have we lost any since I've been gone? I counted thirty, I feel like I'm missing some."

"You counted correctly. I would've put it in my report if others went missing during your absence." Arms folded, Neven's agitation broke the boundary and set itself upon his shoulders. Something he could do without. "Don't forget, I'm also a Captain. You are not the sole carrier of whatever burden you have between those feathers of yours. Anything you direct also gets my second opinion. If I believed an order to not be wise, I would've said something. The calls you've been making are with the information you have, which we don't have a lot of." Kemal ran his fingers to the base of his wolftail. "I sent a message detailing your realization about king's blood back to the citadel. Haven't heard anything on that front. You'll be the first one I tell if a report comes into the post."

Neven sank into the kitchen counter. "Fifty-three I was in charge of," he whispered. "Thirty is all we have left. Twenty-three are missing. Twenty-three I sent out onto patrols and they never returned. All except one, and Kayal is dead and anything he saw went with him." He lowered his head. "And I subjected Fenrer to his final moments desperately hoping I'd get something out of it. To make the sacrifices I set upon them worth it."

"We'll find them, Nev." Kemal grabbed his shoulder to drag his puffball of an Oathbound to face him. "You've always been told you care too much. Now, nothing wrong with that — but we both know you've already gone down a slippery slope for it. Your mad obsession for whatever the Obscura Text showed you a while ago. Whatever it is, it's not worth having a husk of an Oathbound, so do me a favour and don't go down that road, aye? You will never escape it, and I'm not too keen on losing my Oathbound to his worst enemy. Himself." He pushed his finger into Nev's rib-cage before letting him go. "You aren't recovered enough , and I'm not chopped liver. Let me do my job." One more push to send Nev away from his counter of misery and to the couch. "I already took the liberty of setting Aine, myself, and Julis on ruin duty. Everyone else I'll swap out at the regular intervals between land duty and coast duty. How about you get the feathers out of your head and go surf once you're up to it since you don't seem to mind taking a risk at getting your ankles nibbled on."

Neven sprawled out on the couch and rolled over. "I have stuff to do."

"Hasn't stopped you before."

"You are the one who keeps complaining about it whenever I go out."

Kemal raised his shoulders against his neck. "It's almost like I'm taking the piss out of ya, puffball. I thought you'd have gotten used to my brand of humour. Ancient's know I've dealt with your gallows humour plenty enough." He sent a knee into Neven's back to try and rouse him out of his sluggish stupor. "Neven, you know that we all signed up for this, understanding the risks. That each and every one of us will likely die due to Derelicts. It's just the nature of the things we do." Kemal headed over to the secret wall. "I told my Trainees as such — Kayal included."

"Children."

Kemal raised a finger. "Maybe to you, you double century being — but they were well within their twenties and are close to taking their Oath." He sighed. "Your perspective as a parent probably isn't helping matters — of course they'd be as children to you because what you're seeing is Yuven and Fenrer in their place, but those two signed up for it too."

"I wish they didn't." Neven flattened himself on his stomach and shoved his face into the pillow.

"Too late now, and I'm sure Yuven would have some strong opinions on that front if he heard that from you." Kemal pushed magick into the rune, allowing the bookcase to slide and reveal the staircase downwards. "They're Warden's just as much as we are. Yuven was made Captain at his age, and if you want my professional opinion, that kid is well on his way to possibly being a Warden-Commander when he's gotten some more experience under his belt."

Neven sat up and cross-legged on the couch. "I will admit he always had a forceful personality required for such positions of leadership. Yusari was much the same."

"Speaking of, sent her a letter recently?"

Neven scrunched his nose. "Why do you feel the need to be in my affairs of the heart?"

"Because otherwise you'll avoid it like the plague thinking everyone lives as long as you do so you can take your sweet time — I can assure you, we don't have the time, and guess who will have to hear about it later? Me." Kemal leaned against the bookcase to keep it from closing on him with a point at himself. "Send her a letter, Nev. We both know if you don't she will swim across the Dark Sea to kick your feathered arse if you don't." He took the first step down to leave his Oathbound to his thoughts, but stopped himself short to have one last word within the conversation. "I've never been interested in matters of 'the heart or body' as you so say, but there's so little chance that if it pops up, don't turn away from it. We're protectors of the light. If happiness lands in your lap, protect it well. You only get this one chance at it and Derelicts won't pass up the meal if you let it slip away."

Neven drew his sharp fangs over his lips, but then retracted them with a sigh. "I shall consider your words and send her a letter."

"And not about work. You do that enough. Get away from it for a while."

His Oathbound's suspicion revealed itself in his frayed feathers. "While you do what?"

"Don't worry about what I'm doing."

"Kem—"

"You are going to make your feathers molt with the amount of worrying you do every bell, Nev. Can you let me do my damn job? I'm in charge here just as much as you are. I have equal authority — but I can also equally kick your ass if you don't, and in a contest of brute force, I will beat you."

"Confident in that, are you?"

"Yes, you lanky puffball." Kemal leaned his head back when a burst of wispy mist slammed into the wall with none of the ferocious intent of Neven's Obscura driven madness. "Take that energy and cook some poundcakes for the patrols when they come back. They'll appreciate the treat just as much as the Trainee's did." Kemal closed the bookcase behind him to wander downstairs, to his mountains of unanswered questions and mysterious explanations. He half-expected Neven to follow suit, but he relaxed when the Avaerilian in question remained upstairs from the silence. Double the work. Kemal overturned the papers Neven brought back from the citadel, to fill in the blanks of the map. But what do all these places have in common? Clearly the cult is trying to find some sort of confluence...

A door opened and shut.

Good puffball. Kemal smiled. Or, bad puffball if you're going right back to where you started — you're just going to find that text isn't there anymore. He headed over to the dingy corner of dusty books and shut crates. Things he made sure Neven had no interest in to hide his little secret. Kemal dug through the thick, bound pages to find the Obscura Text shoved into a large atlas, wrapped in thick fabric to keep its mouth shut until an absolute last resort situation came up. Questions unanswered, temptations raged. Why are you the way that you are? What makes a Text act as you do? Kemal held it in front of him. Its oily cover, a falsehood from his dry palms. He carried it to the map of Elvkana. And why do you affect some and not others? He unwrapped its fabric prison and let it fall onto the table, before allowing its pages to open wide with an unfelt wind. Sewn together down the spine, he ran his thumb down the connection before allowing the pages to continue to flip back and forth, a lure for a fish. Blank pages. Why show my Oathbound but bind your secrets so deep that you need an Aurus' eyes to see the truth?

Inquiries remained unanswered by a book with an aura unseen.

Troublesome thing. Kemal snapped it shut and wrapped it once more in the fabric, and for added protection, wound his magick through it to prevent its influence to latch back onto the person it affected. No... if there's anyone you're going to have to deal with. You're going to deal with me now. Because unlike Nev... I know how to ask questions and when. He put it back within the unassuming crate he chose, shoved it into a hefty atlas with it closed and shut with magick. Underneath multitudes of other books of information unrelated to their duty. And if that last resort does happen... it won't be him asking you questions. He used his foot to push the crate behind others, before turning his back on it with ease. Its unsettled presence and fluttering pages of blank doom pushed into his Oathbound's mind, but he wasn't so easily dissuaded from the truth.

Because the Obscura Text is tied up in this whether we like it or not. It's not its contents that matter though... just what it is by nature. Kemal released a sigh when he ascended the steps of secrecy. I'll have to have a talk with Julis about it and make sure Neven never gets lost in its pages again. Whatever he saw... I already don't enjoy the idea of. There's such a thing as seeing too much at once.

Neven was no longer on the couch, ignorant of its presence within the tree-house.

The Keeper of Pyon who ran the atheneum gave him a raised eyebrow when he requested it into the Warden's protection, but all he needed to tell them was a simple question.

The Keepers always enjoyed those — and he knew how to play their game of information and knowledge.

Because knowledge isn't always written and not always lived. As our words are 'Protect the light, and no victory without sacrifice.' Theirs would be 'Seek the truth in the dark and bring it forth into the light.' Kemal clenched his fists. And I can do both, and we need to make sure this cult doesn't taint the light anymore than they have. We're going to find those Wardens... no matter what.