HAYVALA

"Come now, we don't have a lot of time! The gryphlings will need to be on the move promptly!" Lord Vlasiz said from the end of the tunnel while the royal staff bustled along. Everyone's feathers fluffed out against the surge of the blizzard bearing down on the edge of the barrier her baby brother kept up to preserve his people from a cold, frozen death. Ser Morzen passed around icecompasses and rations. People cried out for absolution from their end. Apathy answered them back in a howl, and she found herself staring upwards as the portal closed and lacked power. Nothing more than a doll, to be prim, perfect and proper. Her fangs slipped past her lips to dig deep and taste blood. "Your Highness!" Lord Vlasiz shouted, though the sounds of the frozen wastes drowned out his voice in her ears. "We must leave! If we linger we'll freeze!"

Whose game were we playing this entire time? Our game of honeyed words and icy daggers. Hayvala drew in a calm breath when Kazmira shivered closeby. Fur cloak undone, she headed over to her handmaiden to push it into her hands. "Mira," she said, shoving down the fury in her heart. "Please, take my cloak."

"Wh-What?" Her short, dark blonde hair tangled and frayed at the ends from the stress of the evacuation. "No, my lady." A curtsy in a lethal situation, and Hayvala raised a hand to stop her. Far too late for anything. "It's important you stay warm while we travel. It's a long road to the Pale Pass." Kazmira straightened herself out, trying to hide the ferocity of the chill in the air when she headed to join the others, cloakless. Some mounted onto the gryphlings, who let out low, rumbling clicks with agitated steps. One at a time with their cargo, Morzen released them out into the wild before going onto the next person.

"Your Highness," Morzen said with a wave at her. "You must stay in the center of the formation once you head out! I will be leading the vanguard. Lord Vlasiz, you must do the same. We'll get you to the Pale Pass, but we have to leave before the storm worsens, the other half will head for Irimount to take shelter in the ruins—!"

A shiver crawled up her spine with a whispered crack of magick, an avalanche of power. Kazmira lurched, her gaze trailing over her shoulder. Despairing breaths left her lips. "Your Highness, the barrier!"

Cries screamed out in her ears when she twisted around to bear witness to the fall of her people. Things moved in the blizzard, hungry for their sudden feast, but pillars of light pierced deeper into the anvils of snow. Pieces of the barrier floated and split to dispel the ancient energy. One by one. Some of the gryphlings made a hasty retreat, their cargo not able to wrest control of them. Volaris' beautiful spires took the brunt of the sudden surge of snow. Windows cracked. The palace stood above, but the light twisted with the hands of a clock. Over, and over. Neverending and relentless. Hastened destruction of Irimount's sister city. By nightfall... it will be gone. Her fang dug into her tongue when Lord Vlasiz hurried to her. "A gryphling is ready for you," he said over the roar, the singing, and the crying. "We must leave. Now." His attention trailed to the dissipating barrier, and Hayvala choked on despair when the time her family held cracked the palace in two.

Stone pillars fell forward. Monuments meant nothing against the wrath of the blizzard. It chewed on the pale streets of cobble and marble. It burned in her heart with dread, and she twisted around to Lord Vlasiz with a shake of her head. "I bid you," she hissed. "Keep to your Oath. See my people to safety. I will not leave my brother behind."

"But His Grace—"

"His Grace is a sixteens Turn old child," she screeched, and Vlasiz flattened his golden feathers. In another world, perhaps she'd have given him what he desired. The transition between the traditions and the progress for their survival. "And I will not have our children do the work of the adults who failed them. When we are all gone, that's who will remain, and if we do not give them a world where they can live, can wade through the suffering we started, we will die." Fire dug into her eyes and swirled the auras, fearful, in pain, uncertain of the future, but she undid her hair loops, switching the braid into a simple ponytail before her locks could fall heavy on her shoulders.

"Your Highness, you're the heir—"

"Not to the many," Hayvala whispered when Lord Vlasiz approached her, with Kazmira crying behind him, though her handmaiden fought for a strong front. "Laucan has no children. Neither do I... his last living heir is Yuven Traye, who I know doesn't want the crown — whose devotion lies in a higher purpose, and he, no more an adult than my brother." Hayvala bared her teeth at Lord Vlasiz, who released a nervous hiss through his own nose. "Neven Lotayrin... was right about us. If this is what we are in the end, maybe we asked for this."

The glaive fell at his feet, where he bested all his opponents, but the young Ice Squire looked her in the eye with no desire, no hunger for power. Even as snow filled Volaris' streets, she believed and accepted the truthful song when a high-pitched song left the mouth of the wyvern of moonscales. Hayvala brought what little power she had into her fingertips, then dug it into the unassuming crevices. Snow burst out of them, and she stepped back when a landslide blocked her rescuers from reaching her. Back to it, she rushed into the tunnel when the palace released another shuddering crack. She was brought no sense of comfort when the blood within her breathed. Magick tickled at her skin, and the blurry world started to sharpen. I was a foolish little girl. Hayvala traced the hands of the clock, and the movement of space beneath her. It matched the one above her head, resolute in her choice when it brought her upwards.

The statues held fast against the crumbling above them. Dusty white particles fell at their feet. Hayvala left the runic circle, but froze when a crack slipped through the icy floor. A yawning void, but she stepped over it before it grew wider. Chandeliers toppled over onto the ground, crushed underneath walls. Thick, heavy, swirling fog filled the open halls, drawing closer to a center. The noise from outside within the heart of a rebirthed blizzard. Her travel skirt hiked up, she crawled through the debris, coming closer to the throne room. Both doors split perpendicular, but she choked on the rot within. The steps to the king's seat split and tore, but the entire floor had caved in, no one in sight. Little spots of flame chewed at what remained of the tapestries. "Oh, Laucan... what did you do?"

Away from the throne room, she followed the path of her hope to the hidden stairs. It responded to her approach the moment her boots touched the focal points of power. Into the sanctum beneath the throne room. Notes started to ring out when the staircase folded outwards into the darkness. Oh, Evyriaz... if the blizzard won't spare us mercy... Lips sucked inward, she forced herself forward with the weight of her family's cruelty and tragedy. Lamps fluttered with dying life, their colors far too clear. Water lapped at the final step, a mirror to the truth. Within her own reflection, a mirage of the same wyvern, scales shaped as moons when it raised its head without her. Compelled with its movement, the abyss the Derelicts brought chewed at her own heart.

The icehearts sat upon the icy snowroses. Each one's petals melted with slow, agonizing drops to rejoin the water below. It was the world sphere, who she bid bring justice to who wronged her, floated above, as if waiting. Beneath its resplendent light, Laucan's limp shape. Blood seeped through the mirror, tangling downwards to taint the crystal depths. "Laucan." Ignoring the weight of her sins, she rushed over to his side, knelt to the king. Her hand clasped his shoulder, but he gave no response, so she brought another to press against his back. Chunks of rot filled her throat when crimson stickiness stuck against her palm without cease. Other hand off his shoulder, she matched the exit hole, and found the terrible entrance on his chest.

"Hayvie?" a soft voice sounded below her.

Hayvala jumped. "Laucan?" she asked, then tugged him onto his back, causing him to stare up at her through squinted eyes. "You foolish child. What you did was reckless." Her feathers dug into her ears, but she forced out, "Come. We must away to the Pale Pass. You know... into the Sunlands?"

Laucan flicked his gaze over at the icehearts, ignoring her with a soft breath. "I heard singing down here," he mused.

"But there's no one else here," Hayvala forced through her teeth, pressing her hands against the hole in her brother. In fact, the humming in her ears grew silent the moment she laid hands on her brother, and the world sphere of Naveera's supposed memories spun. Unaffected by the bloodshed caused by it and within it. White pieces of down stuck between the blood in her fingers when she supported Laucan's head, who tilted his head. "Are you in pain?" she asked. "We can get you seen to..."

"Pain?" Laucan questioned, then his attention drifted. Farther and farther away, but when she shook him, his head followed suit. "No, are you in pain?"

Her heart threatened to turn into sinew. "I'm sorry, Laucan. I failed you worse than you've ever failed me," she whispered, holding him close, causing his brow to furrow. "You have to get up. You said you wanted me to see the sun, did you not?" It lodged in her throat with his idealistic dreams, the desires of a child who had simply wanted her to be happy when all their family brought their own ruin. "We have a chance now... to do all those things you said when you returned from the King's Summit." Her fingers dug into his furs, and he lifted his sky blue eyes again, dull in color to go along with the trembling, dissipating aura around him. "You're braver than I am, I was always a little worried I'd melt underneath the might of the sun." So instead... I chose to freeze in the blizzard. Hot tears slipped down her throat, but she kept herself strong. "You did all you could. People managed to escape because of you."

"They did?"

Hayvala gave a slow nod when one of the snowroses melted in full and the iceheart, bereft of its stockpiled power, turned into nothing more than an empty crystal ball and sank into the abyss below. Laucan ignored the bubbling sounds by burrowing himself into her arms and furs. Oh, Evyriaz, though I held him as a baby, don't make me do this... I can't. Mother. Ser Yokonei... I can't do this again. "Laucan," she whispered. "Tell me what you want, more than anything in the world. Any childish, selfish desire of yours. I will give it to you."

Laucan raised a crimson slicked hand to clutch onto her sleeve. "Your eyes aren't clouds anymore." Hope. Faith. Belief. His smile widened. "You can see the sun after so long."

"Yes." Tears started to fall down her cheeks. "But I already did. Ser Yokonei... and now you painted a better picture — and sang a better song in my imagination that... seeing it might not live up to it. But if you were there with me, seeing your smile, seeing you enjoy life as you should. That would make me happier more than anything. I've only ever wanted you to be safe, to learn well." And what lessons did you end up learning? Her newfound clarity fell upon the hole in his chest, swirling red. "You have made many mistakes... but the difference between you and all those old lords... you can learn from it." And you can still learn. Evyriaz, please don't make me do this again. The moonfeathered wyvern released plumes of mist through its snout, its eyes open wide as white embers curled through its teeth in rage. Each scale bristled against the spun horns. Ferocious beauty in eerie silence.

Her own brother's feathers, caked in blood. Barely having gotten his first adult one.

Laucan watched the next iceheart fall without reaction. "I wanted to be a wyvern."

"You are a wyvern."

Laucan closed his eyes with a soft hum, then nodded. "I know... I heard the song, Hayvie. I heard the same song the Storm Warden released through this city... it took so long, but I finally heard it." Hope. Wonderful, swallowing hope when he gazed up at her with the same eyes he had when she told him stories of their ancestors. Mighty wyverns who flew across the skies in no time at all, seeing every sight there had ever been. He closed his eyes when the final snowrose scattered its petals, and the iceheart dropped into the crystal lake. Water lapped at its surface and brought it into the depths as he whispered, "It's so beautiful, I want you to hear it..."

Silence.

"Laucan, I..." Hayvala adjusted her grip, but the stillness choked at what was left of her heart. "Laucan?" Nothing responded in turn, the color of his aura gone from a world too cruel, nothing more than an empty shell. In the mirror everytime she closed her eyes, to try and make the world show its lie, the wyvern hissed and pressed the crown of its head against the glass, eyes wide open as it stared at her and pushed. Its tongue slipped out, releasing globs of flames as it snarled at her for her failures. "Come now," a woman's voice left the wyvern. "Are you not the fire of Naveera? Are you not a wyvern?" It taunted, its teeth rippling. "Come unto me. Accept me." The mirror trembled. "You sang so many songs to me. Are you going to turn away from duty?"

Her bloodied hands pressed against the mirror over its eyes. Knowledge at her fingertips. Depraved hunger. Her hiss echoed the being on the other side. Each breath expanded her lungs when the glass shimmered away — the connection of her soul. Her fingers pressed against the eye sockets, and it refused to flinch.

She dug her fingers in.

Hot air blasted into her temples, and then searing pain. It left her rotted throat in a screaming sob to join her tears when she tugged deeper around the small spheres which crystallized in her palm when she pulled them through the mirror. Each cry filled with grief. Every breath filled with tormented pain. Past. Present. Future. Stickiness filled her hands, but left the crystals, perfectly cut, in her palm. One body and one soul. I will pay for my transgressions... but you won't take my brother from me like you took everything else."

Her fingers dug into the spherical crystals in the darkness. A comforting, warm embrace with Laucan's corpse still against her knees. Each crack sent a flash of pain through her skin, but she refused to kneel. A cold breath licked at the base of her neck, the moon scaled wyvern, though she could no longer see it or anything at all. Its snout touched the top of her head. Whole. It swelled within her chest when the crystals trembled underneath her might and power. It settled her tongue with strength, and she laughed through the screaming, sobbing pain. If the Echoes are kind, baby brother... we will meet again... at the end of all things, but it as you said... balance must be maintained, and this was my justice.

Crystals shattered and tore into her fingerbones. Avae'londu, I bid thee! Open the door betwixt life and death. Take my soul and cast it into the unknown. Return unto the world which it had taken from me for my insolence so another need not pay the price! I pay with my silenced soulsong and these crystal eyes of mine!

Hayvala reached her hands out when Mother passed her the swaddled shape, then it tore itself out of the crib to wear a crown.

It sank into the abyss, and she followed it with one final breath in the ashes of family.