YUVEN

Magically powered war table. Books and scrolls of Haneka's past bloody conflicts — as far as I can go until only Obscura Texts are left to me. Good, at least they can give me that much. He scattered the scrolls over the terrain map and sent bursts of his magick through it to get an accurate estimation of the area around Sivaport and beyond. All the way to Draken's Descent but no further. I am just going to have to trust Fenrer to guard the king. Arms folded, he dragged his fang across the corner of his lip and overturned yellowing history books to point points of interest on the war table. Hesitation gripped his fingers, and he sighed and added an extra one to the Goldwood — Sungrove. Fenrer's greatest pain and the spiral of his failures. Yuven went around the table to adjust the angle, twisting the knobs on the side as the magick within hissed to respond. He opened a small, hidden compartment to pull out pieces, putting a few on Sivaport. King. He placed the first piece on top of the castle. And stay there. Yuven drew his fingers over the other carved pieces, before dotting them around Sivaport. But what about outside...?

Sunlight oozed through the thick blinds of the small corner of the castle, where Keeper Kalla took residence, but he found himself alone without a black-cloaked knowledge seeker to pester him at best. Then I have to meet Maria and have her take me to her parents. Ugh. He rubbed the ridge of his nose and hissed out his frustration as he nudged the pieces around, trying to fit them into a giant puzzle. I'll make sure to post Storm Wardens throughout the city... and stay undercover. Integrate with the populace and report any strange activity. I will not have another Azahama. He curled his fingers and drove the tips into his palm. No matter what.

"Warden Traye, I hope you've found everything you need."

Feathers poked into his ears, and he twisted around at his disruptive annoyance in the form of Keeper Kalla. "Apart from solitude," he grumbled and put his back to the table and his front to her. "I do believe I requested to not be bothered unless it was important, so you better hope it's important." He set his wrist on the hilt of his crescent blade, wrapping his fingers around one of the seax's attached to his leather strap. "It also better be good. Keeper's are supposed to have all the knowledge at their fingertips, I will be sorely disappointed if you don't."

"I doubt anyone can have all the knowledge at their fingertips save for Pyvansomiir."

"The being that doesn't exist."

Kalla smiled. "Not in the sense that most think of him, no." He kept his front to her when she moved closer to take his place at the map. "I came to see if you're a little more receptive than your Oathbound."

"If Fenrer wasn't receptive to you, you might as well leave now, because I certainly won't be."

"On certain matters, yes." Keeper Kalla poked the map. "Not on this one. I didn't come here for your diplomacy, Traye — the information I do have is better suited in your hands. I tried to give it to Fenrer Pyren, but he was understandably reluctant, so I have to go straight to you." Her finger clutched onto the piece he named the king. "I advise you to not be so focused on Sivaport, Azahama was the cult's fuse of the circle, the start of the focal point of power." In show, she created an incomplete glyph, wrapped with thorns. "I have people watching Draken's Descent for me and the outlying borders. I advise you to learn what you can of Haneka's history, and use that to cut off the cult's ability to create the next cardinal point here."

"Give me one good reason to trust you, because I haven't heard anything I did not already think of."

Keeper Kalla raised an eyebrow, clearly undeterred from the way she put the piece back where he put it. "Our Orders wield different weapons. Yours, blades. Ours, our minds," she pointed out. "Our Orders aren't so different when you peel away the layers."

Yuven flicked his feathers. Auric tendrils latched onto his mind and dug into his temples to tear out memories he failed to recognize as his. His grip on his seax loosened until it rested against the other side of his waist. "How many Turns ago do those layers go?" he threw back at her. "I say the Pact of Hundred was the start of that separation between our Orders... methods and the start of our policy on not involving ourselves in petty politics as your Order still enjoys doing." He dug his heels in and refused to kneel. "Or else the monarchs would've done away with having someone like you in their courts. Glorified spymasters."

Kalla laughed. "Oh, I don't have the pleasure of being Reyn's personal spymaster — that goes to his brother."

"The carouser?" Yuven raised an eyebrow.

"You should know better than anybody that the surface isn't always the full truth. I've heard you're one of the Storm Warden's greatest minds of this century," she pointed out. "If you want to add a couple more points of interest to this map of yours... you're in one. Sivaport itself. Reyn, at sixteen turns, laid siege to the outer bounds while Gustul worked to undermine his own father and to make sure the siege didn't harm the common folk. People have underestimated you before, Traye, I am surprised you would do the same to someone else who is far more sharp than he shows." Keeper Kalla headed to one of the stacks to pry out a respectable sized monolith and smack it on the nearby desk. "With a cult... the Storm Wardens have to at least recognize where they came from."

Yuven glared down at the book without a title. "They're clearly trying to open the Burning Abyss."

"When was the Burning Abyss formed, Warden Traye?"

An obvious rhetorical question, but he humoured her. "Somewhere around four-hundred and five-hundred turns ago. The Storm Wardens used Azahama as bait to pull in one of the largest Derelict Goliath's this world has seen," he muttered. "And they did this by convincing everyone in Dyrin to collect there and forcing the Elder Convocation to pour all their magick into a barrier that attracted a massive horde. We conscripted many during that time, back when our solution was 'Join us, or die.'" He folded his arms. "Different Warden Commander's back then with different ideologies."

"Do you disagree with them?" Keeper Kalla bridged the distance to face him. "What else happened in that timeframe... Your Highness?"

Yuven folded his feathers, and refused to bend to the taunt. "The Storm Wardens declared a Hurricane March into Naveera — the kingdom once thought to be nigh impregnable, unable to be invaded... was invaded by the Wardens to tear out the Anima who sought shelter from persecution, only finding it within Naveera. Many people were killed for suspected cultist ties — back when we couldn't afford the risk," he drew out in a snarl when his teeth pushed past his lips. "I guess the cult has no need to touch Naveera... they were built on a foundation of blood. They're a perfect focal point already. Travon's killed Traye's. Traye's killed Travon's. The cult already got my blood plenty of times over. First, in Irimount, and then I bled all over the face of this continent and Aztryxer itself." He kept his arms folded, his chest protected when he glared at her. "I won't deny what the Storm Warden's have done out of a sense of pragmatism, and the world better hope we are not forced to that point again. We are still very capable of complete conscription... Warden-Commander Faehariel simply is of the belief that people are more willing to stay loyal if given an option otherwise."

"What do the Wardens of the desert think?"

"I don't know, never talked to any of them." He stepped away from her at a crack in the dark tension. "I'll ask if I ever run into any." Attention on the map, he chewed on his lip and dragged it to her. "I am listening, Keeper Kalla. But do not give me a reason to distrust you in full, I am much closer to the Wardens of old than I am to the current ones." He thinned his feathers to tighten the air around them and feel the vibrations of magick in the castle.

"And that's why I came to you when I realised Fenrer Pyren would not be so willing to listen," Keeper Kalla said and picked up the book to put it into his arms. "This book details all the conflicts Haneka has been through to the present date... including the Desecration of Sungrove and the civil war. Every loss sustained. Economic downturns. Anything you want to fill the blanks will be found here. On my end of things, I will keep listening to the outside, and suggest you do the same if you want to prevent another Azahama. They are still after the blood of king's, Traye. You may be correct in that they have no need for yours... but don't think so singularly. There is always that minute chance."

"If they can hit me first." Yuven raised his hand and shimmered out of her reality. "I don't intend on giving them the chance either way."

"Good, then I shall go straight to you after all instead of using Pyren as a liaison."

Yuven squinted at her. "What reason did he have for distrusting you?"

"If I had to guess, your experiences with Keeper Blackwall was all he needed to condemn our entire Order no matter another's intentions or lack thereof. I have my own methods, and labor to believe it, I am not working to undermine King Reyn. He knows my agenda of knowledge well."

Auras tore along his skin, and he slid his teeth over his lips again. A hiss slid through his nose, but Keeper Kalla remained unmoved in her passiveness and her own hidden blades. "It is as good a reason as any to be wary," she said with a light shrug. "I just hope you can open your eyes a little more, Yuven Traye. This situation is a bit too close to Fenrer Pyren where King Reyn and Haneka are concerned. You still have that separation... and it's like you said." Her eyes narrowed and revealed the truth of what all Keepers hid their intellect behind. "You're far closer to the Wardens of old than any of your peers."

Yuven held the book against his chest. "I shall read this the next chance I get, Keeper Kalla."

"Good. I shall King Reyn you are hard at work, though do not be surprised if you get disrupted again — it simply won't be from me unless it's a report of anything I hear outside," she said and headed for the door. "Feel free to flick through my other books — they may even enlighten you on our Order. I can't say they'll give you an edge on Blackwall, but I'm sure you'll find a use for the information." Her cloak swished across the dusty floor and she disappeared into the corridor. He curled his lips the moment her footsteps receded, then placed the book back on the desk to rifle through it, to test the truth against lies.

As Keeper Kalla promised, it was information of Haneka's bloody conflicts, though the earlier pages rippled with ungraspable words and translations. He heaved open the later sections, straight to the civil war and Desecration of Sungrove — the fuse. Into the seat, he sent a magelight into the lamp and seared the passages into his memory — the violation and pillage of Sungrove's residents and the murder of one Lord Soren Pyren and his entire family. Except Fenrer. He flicked through the much more recently penned section of the civil war. Monarchs. He dragged his fingers across the words and Fenrer's despair when he destroyed the remnant that took his father's bones. Maybe... maybe I will find repentance in giving you back the closure stolen from you in finding out the truth about the Ancients. He tapped his cheek and ruffled out the energy of his feathers. By writing down every name I can find of those who lived in Sungrove at the time of the Desecration. Every name the tyrant would've had the entirety of Haneka forget out of some power trip and thirst for slaughter. He slammed the book closed. And in so doing, making sure this cult never gets a single speck of King Reyn's blood. Usurper's and tyrants.

He heaved the book under his arm and left the small library to head back to the guest quarters to shove it into the bookshelf with some difficulty, with the distant statue of Fenrer's ancestor on the peak of the gulf, his hands out to the sky and blade piercing the ground to raise the sun the Great Crimson Dusk attempted to swallow a thousand turns ago.