ADARA

Soft light reentered her world, bouncing off bioluminescent lichen hanging over the crystal mausoleums of the sepulcher underneath Irimount's Grand Spire. Wait... are we back...? Adara looked down at the rainbow river at her feet, the untapped flow which had no visible source to feed it. It twirled around her pants, though refused to stick to a shade. No, we're not but... it's... It's not as cold. The soft blue light peeked through the opening of the cavern, and she raised her head. Stars twinkled across a clear expanse, and plumages of reds, greens, and blues spreading across, snaking through the world, stole her breath away of its cloudless beauty. Not a single, bulbous gray mass to block the night. Trails of flames, so far up above. But... Fenrer's hand wrapped around her arm, to tug her away from the beauty and back to reality when he pointed past her.

Evyriaz—Euron, sat in front of the same sword her and Yuven failed to pry out at their lack of worthiness, unchanged even with the passing of time. Music echoed around the formed crystals which poked between the bio-luminescent lichen, a cycle of life from death. Mist curled around him, forming little bubbled clouds as it inched away from him, while he kept his head down in focus, contemplation. "What's he doing?" Adara questioned.

"If what we just saw is anything to go by, he's performing some sort of shield spell," Fenrer mumbled, though appeared distracted from the way he kept his gaze lowered. "Maybe this is about to explain why he split his soul. Maybe to get around the sacrifice aspect?" Fenrer headed up to the ancient Naveeran, and Adara followed to stand at his other side. On the mountain once more, with names repeated on his lips. Atoran. Sylvia. Avarelia. Lasen. Each one a goodbye, and her heart squeezed with the calm heaviness on his brow. "He's going to give everything up for this... but I don't see how this would change anything, I thought they closed the Source Rift."

Adara looked over Euron's head to the beautiful, star-speckled, flame lit sky above. "...this can't be Naveera. This doesn't make sense."

"It has to be, this is the sepulcher," Fenrer pointed out with another glance around, but he paused when he faced the entrance into the cavern itself. Through the veil, another white-haired figure came through the mist, though their feathers were a darker gray and their horns curved upwards. In thick clothes, though without the fashionable furs she had seen during her time in Volaris, they appeared to steel themselves as they crossed the lake of shining stars to echo the one above. "You don't mean to tell me you're really going to do this, Euron."

Euron lifted his head, then looked over his shoulder though the magick continued to flutter off him. "Lasen," he said, tone soft. On his feet, he headed for him, though appeared to drag his feet where tendrils of light clung onto his clothes. Lasen's feathers ruffled at the sight of him. Adara nudged Fenrer, and she followed after Euron, whose expression yet held the hope his future would lose, displaced in time. Answers so close in reach, she faltered when Euron grabbed his shoulders. "It is good to see you, little brother. For one last time."

Lasen's eyes widened, a small hiss leaving his nose as he prodded Euron off of him. "I didn't come here to see you off," he said. "I came here to try and convince you to get off this course." He threw his arms out. "Euron, the war is over. This—This complex you've developed after you came back from battling the malformed creatures—"

"Derelicts, Lasen," Euron corrected.

"Derelicts." Lasen drew his eyes upwards. "You won, why are you continuing this? You can put down this mantle you've taken up — the Storm Wardens you made served their purpose. You won. We won. You can come back home. Rule, like you're supposed to instead of flying away on stars knows what crusade. Which one will it be this time?" Lasen's nostrils flared. "We're safe. Why continue this? A Derelict hasn't been spotted in so long, what are you worried about?"

Euron lowered his gaze. "I need to make sure they never come back as they once were."

"You don't even know if they can come back. I thought the hole was closed."

"It was."

Lasen paused, then gave a small shake of his head. "Then what's the point of this? Why didn't you just have Ser Lotayrin do it if this was so important to you, if you couldn't quell your paranoia. You are the king, or have you forgotten that tramping around Axtryxer trying to save everyone and forgetting your own people? What would Father say? Or Mother?" He stepped into Euron's space. "You haven't been the same since you came back."

Euron's expression softened, but Adara tasted rage of helplessness, confusion, of being told nothing even when everything happened around them. Out of the king's way, Euron squeezed his face with a smile. "You never experienced their horror, to you, they were but a story told in the dark, but they were real, and I wouldn't have you experience the despair they wrought upon the very land. Where fresh flowers withered and bled. Trees rotted from the inside out. Where no armor, nor conventional weapons ruined them." Lasen scowled, but Euron smiled in turn. "You are safe from them, and I would have that remain so, that you never have to see what they are — the depravity, the ruthlessness and hunger unable to be sated." Euron dropped his hands to his shoulders, and Lasen's pupils thinned into beads. "You're my little brother, I will keep you safe."

"Safe?" Lasen released a cold laugh, and Euron released his grip. "Keep me safe? What am I to you, a child? A child incapable of anything?" His feathers rattled. "A child incapable of understanding horror? That can't be told anything lest I lose whatever visage of innocence you think I have?" He shoved Euron away, causing the older brother to stumble with a frown, though his tone remained calm and soft, but she tasted Lasen's rage in her throat until it choked her, with Fenrer glancing at her with his own worried purse of the lips. What were you keeping me safe from? I deserved to know! It curled against her fingers with the echo of her own heart. I didn't ask for it! You should've told me from the start! I needed to know!

"Adara," Fenrer and Garren's voices intermingled, but it was Euron who continued the cycle of lies, "I had to. I would do anything to keep you safe from that truth," he insisted to Lasen, who shivered with silver energy. Anima. The original Anima. It lodged into her throat, being fed lies with each one told taking away Mother, leaving only a crimson shawl, and then Garren's eyesight. Terrible costs she never asked them to make. "You do not understand and thank all above you never have to. I don't want you to understand. You are not thinking straight, Lasen." Euron took another slow approach, but Lasen hunched his shoulders, his feathers stretching out. It crawled to a stop when he pulled out his sword to point it at his eldest brother, causing Euron to stop. He lowered his hands, then muttered, "Put that away."

Lasen held the sword in high-point. "You've been gone a long time," he growled. "You don't need to treat me like this. You think you know everything, but you don't. You were so focused on without that you ignored within. I've grown since we last saw each-other. I had to juggle the realm while you went gallivanting." His feathers thinned, and Adara lost the taste of her rage. "I will prove to you that I'm not that stupid child."

"I didn't say you were stupid," Euron said softly.

"You sure are treating me like I am." Lasen lunged forward, and Euron reacted with expert precision when he took out his own sword from its scabbard to knock away his brother's attack with ease, though from Euron's frown, trying wasn't on his mind when he considered Lasen, who appeared undeterred from being batted away so easily. "Do you ever listen to yourself, Euron? Do you ever realize how condescending and self-righteous you come across?" He dragged the tip of his sword through the flow, sending ripples and causing it to dig in her pants. "That you must do everything yourself because no one else can? It has to be you?" Another lunge, another attack Euron diverted with a small step back, his long gray feathers rustling when his brow squeezed. "You would subject your own home to serve some greater purpose while also protecting it? You can't have both. You have to choose."

One more strike, and Euron disappeared into the echo, a blur of color when he landed behind Lasen and turned to him. "You are lashing out, Lasen," he said. "I am not subjecting anyone to anything ever again," his voice wavered, but he directed another attack. Clangs sounded through the cavern. "I am doing this to protect you, so that you never need to make the same choices I have. That I have to carry." It reverberated through her heart, the helplessness and powerlessness, the many lives lost to save one. Fenrer grasped her hand, the warm comfort taking her out of what she bore witness too.

I carry their dreams upon my wings.

The Dragon Knight.

"I don't need you to protect me, I can damn well protect myself!" Lasen jumped through his own spatial echo. Euron kept his sword close to him in defense, taking the strike. It slammed into his guard, but as he went to reach out to Lasen with his hand, in an affectionate, embracing pull — Lasen responded with steel and blood.

It slipped past the handle, and Adara gasped when it struck Euron through his robes. The magick surrounding him thickened as he stared down at the sword stuck into his side. It curled closer to his skin, an inescapable flutter when the rage washed out of Lasen's pale eyes and he stiffened in turn. It fell quiet, not even a droplet to echo against a stone or crystal mausoleum. Blood spread across the torn fabric. Gooseflesh raised over her arms when the temperature dropped in cold fury. Distant roars of the future. Snow clumped onto her eyebrows, but she held her breath when small flakes started to fall from above her head. Attention raised to the opening, the flames disappeared, a pale hue forming across the stars.

In her peripheral vision, Fenrer brought his hands up to his mouth.

Euron tilted his head to the side, gaze shifting into the beaded pupils of a wyvern as he put a hand around the blade. Inch by inch, he pried it out of his side with nary a wince of pain as steam plumed out of his nose. "You think waving a sword around makes you a capable defender? That you can make the right choices against the pressure because you know how to strike at the right place? You know nothing of my cruelty if you think this cruel and unfair of me to treat you." he said through a throaty hiss. Cold fury, clouded cold created a film over Euron's eyes. "Fine, little brother, show me how to dance. Show me you know how to echo me. Show me if you know better than I!" It burst outwards from him, and she braced herself against Fenrer when the power slammed into her chest and heart. Out from the egg which formed around him, with Lasen taking a stumbled step back, a wyvern birthed itself from the crack. It slammed its claws down with a singing screech at Lasen, its eyes covered in its third eyelid. Fury, frozen.

Ice crawled around them and struck crystals into her ribs, with Fenrer looking more horrified by the second. Flames lit up the back of Evyriaz' throat, and it expelled forwards onto his yet small brother, who braced himself when his expression shifted from terror to fierce determination and commitment. The fires spread over the barrier, until it too turned into an egg. Euron shambled forward, and Adara shivered at the memory of thoughtless drive when his teeth slammed into the egg, trying to crush it with his split mandible.

It cracked.

A pair of horns slammed into Evyriaz with a writhe of feathers, causing him to hiss and step back. Through the mist, a much leaner wyvern crawled backwards with a rattle through their nostrils. Wings fluffed out, they went to take flight, but a screech left their throat when Evyriaz slammed forwards with a furious hiss, driving his teeth into their tail to try and pull them back down with a wild flap of their wings. Large feathers fell when Evyriaz swung his neck from side to side, but the smaller wyvern escaped out of the hole while the pale hue shifted and curled. Stars slowly started to disappear. Adara gasped when something swept underneath her feet, and brought them both with Evyriaz when he flew into his spatial distortion.

Far above the land, she choked on the beautiful plains of flowering tundra beneath her as it grew darker with each passing second. Lasen twirled on himself, sending bursts of flame forward as his much more imposing brother flew towards him with an empty expression. Each blast hit him head on, and Adara clung onto Fenrer to stop her fall, though clouds kept them safe from their lack of wings when Evyriaz flew through the balls of fire with ease. His first strike on Lasen sent a pulse and a scream as the pale hue turned thick and dark.

The first frozen wave.

Snow fell around them, and Adara gasped, slamming to her feet. Her heart screamed. Her logic sighed. "Stop!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears when Fenrer grabbed her hand to pull her back down to their safe cloud. "You're going to ruin everything! Look around—!"

Evyriaz grabbed onto Lasen's wing with a claw, throwing him with a twist of wings. The momentum caused another icy wave when Euron let go and Lasen tried to fix his flight path. Glyphs tangled when Lasen banked, embers dripping between his jaws as he sent the next bursts. Another glyph expanded around Evyriaz when he sped forwards with a huff. He sent his own white flames forward. The clash sent another powerful wave, the clouds thickening. The heat pushed Lasen back though he kept up the fumes while the outside showed the inside of their hearts. Tumultuous and furious cold. Evyriaz dropped his glyph at the last second, roaring forwards as he grabbed onto Lasen with both claws. Lasen tore at his brother's chest with his horns and teeth, a wild flail of helplessness as the two fell towards the whitening ground when the snow turned into walls with each flap of their wings. Layers upon layers when Adara bit on her tongue and the mist grew.

No...

Evyriaz put one claw on Lasen's neck, the other on his back, slamming him downwards into the mountains. He flapped, dragging him across the rocks before attempting to crush him into another rock. Neck forward, Evyriaz lunged and brought his teeth around Lasen's neck, who wiggled with a screech, flapping his wings in panic while a deep rumble echoed out of Evyriaz' throat. His own wingclaws driving into Lasen's to stop his escape.

"Look!" Adara screamed through history and the roar of what the two brothers birthed with their petty argument. It was Lasen who appeared to freeze the moment the words left her lips, his eyes flicking around as Euron continued to slam him downwards. A tiny squawk left Lasen at the next rumble. Another. Gods, he's going to kill him! Adara pleaded for the cloud to bring her closer, but it refused to bend. "Stop! You have to stop!" She ignored Fenrer tugging her. "Euron, you have to wake up!" Please! Tears dug into her heart when Lasen sent one last burst of flames into Evyriaz's face, forcing his eyes upwards, and everything fell still.

His jaws loosened around his brother's neck, who fell limp against the rock.

Both of the wyverns stared at what they themselves created.

The tundra had disappeared, replaced with endless white snow. No more were the stars visible. Just a thick cloud coverage which stretched from the horizon. Flowers, slowly buried at the continuous snowfall. Evyriaz's cloudy eyes became clear again with a huff through his nose. Lasen wriggled, causing Evyriaz to snap his attention back to him with predatory, lethal swiftness. Adara lurched forward when he slammed his head downwards to strike Lasen with his horns. Over. Wave. Over. Wave. It never stopped. Blood oozed out of Lasen's scales when he fell still again, though stared up at Evyriaz. Evyriaz slammed his wing claws down on his, then opened his mouth. Sparks shone white at the back of his throat and over his tongue. Lasen's hindclaws dug into his chest, but none pierced his thick, untouched scales.

"Don't..." Adara whispered.

Don't...

King Laucan and Yuven.

Irimount and Volaris.

Can't you see what this will do?

Evyriaz released a singing roar right into Lasen's face when the sparks died. It shook her bones with its fierce fury. A pause, and Evyriaz laid across Lasen to continue the endless screaming song, piercing her eardrums. The younger wyvern's feathers flattened against his dotted red scales when it roared back, its song a deeper hiss. Adara covered her ears when the two melodies clashed and rippled the clouds above her head. Unable to block the sound of Lasen's final tearing scream when Evyriaz once more grabbed onto his throat. Any little pressure, and his teeth would pierce the scales. One lunge, and the headsman's axe would strike down onto her own vulnerable neck.

Lasen fell quiet with one final, soft squeak.

Evyriaz's pupils thinned at the noise, and he let go of Lasen, only to dig his teeth into his shoulder instead, tearing out some feathers and scales with a vicious whip of his neck. Hide exposed, Adara flinched when Evyriaz chomped onto the haunch, sending steam through his nostrils as Lasen struggled and screeched. "He's torturing him..." Adara whispered.

Fenrer narrowed his eyes, then shook his head. "No, I don't think he is."

Evyriaz let go after a couple more moments, then dragged his teeth against the rock as Lasen fell quiet again. Adara widened her eyes when black-tinted crimson followed from the venom squeezing out of the tips of his fangs. "He just poisoned him with—"

Fenrer gave a slow nod.

Lasen writhed with another screech after a quiet moment, but Evyriaz laid on top of him and watched the clouds thicken. Evyriaz showed no emotion at his brother's sounds of pain and torment beneath him, even when Lasen bit onto him with none of his strength. Barely able to rip off a single scale or tear out a feather. Unmoved, Evyriaz sat there, patient and eternal when Lasen screeched with a jerk. Adara sank to her knees at the sight. "Why?" she whispered.

"I am the sword in the darkness," Fenrer recited above her head when Evyriaz lowered his face to Lasen's when he let out another singing scream, terror in his eyes. "I am a shield against the obscurity of the crimson inferno—"

Evyriaz's jaws opened up to release plumes as he continued Fenrer's chant in her own ears, "For as long as the abyss seeks to claim this world, I will stand strong. I will face the abyss, no matter the cost. For there is no victory without sacrifice." It breathed through his nose, the singular chant of the Wardens as he took flight away from his brother and into the thick clouds above, shining silver spreading from his wings, tearing at space and time. "I will stay vigilant when all falls into the Obscura. Never shall I turn away."

Adara shut her eyes to the screaming pain.

It fell quiet when her knees hit flowered grass. Eyes open, she followed the source of pressure.

In a bed of snowroses, a white-haired figure sat among it, brushing his fingers against a plucked stalk of thorns, examining the petals. "From the greatest wyverns, to the smallest flower," he whispered to it, and the names he carried when he knelt on a mountain top. "I shall give my all... to see you safe."