ADARA

I hope this wasn't a mistake.

The lamps were nothing more than wisps in the cold night when they left the village behind and time oozed past them with every step they took. Windsheared snow crunched underneath their heels when they braced themselves against the gale of ice smashing into their faces, protected by the firewoven scarves wrapped around their necks. Adara held onto Fenrer when the terrain shifted into cruel, jagged rocks sticking out of the dunes. Mountain peaks pierced through the low-hanging haze above them, and she breathed out a touch of hope when cracked marble led into a quarried path.

"We're almost there," Yuven said, the first word he spoke since they left the village, with no idea on how long they walked and how many days passed since with his attention trained on the ice compass Hayvala gave her. Massive pillars struck into the mountain face,a protective guide along the precarious path. Adara nudged Fenrer along, but he let go of her and trudged himself through the snow to Yuven, who waited for them underneath the outcrop of alabaster.

Adara wiped clumps of ice off her eyelashes, and asked through the howl, "Where have you taken us?"

"I will discuss it when we are out of the open frostlands," Yuven said and pushed them onto the craggy path, the edge blocked by its own carved out face. "We will also take a moment to rest once we're there." He kicked his boots off one of the pillars, and sent clumps off his heel as he put a hand on Fenrer's back when he stumbled. "You can sit soon," his voice came out a low tone of comfort, but he eyed her. "Do you have enough strength to light any braziers we pass?"

"I think so." Adara hopped up the first, and the hardest, step, following his consistent leadership when he continued along the mountain path. "I'm surprised this place isn't buried like everything else..."

"You'll see why," Yuven said ominously.

Adara kept her shoulder against the rock with Fenrer, and whenever they passed a brazier which sat on the claws of wyverns, she threw her flames into it. It burst to life, the twinkle of magick underneath her skin and left her fingertips in an aurora of a glyph. Into the snowy haze, she fought for each breath as they crawled higher and higher. Fenrer pressed a hand into his chest and made no noise of complaint. Yuven pushed them, dragged them, until the path expanded into a plateau out of the haze of a staircase, and they slid down it. Adara headed to Yuven.

"Welcome to the cradle," Yuven whispered and pointed over.

Crags built a natural defense around a huge city of white, several layers running around the mountain's cradle. Large bridges pierced through the openings and went out into the frostlands. Adara frowned at the broken pieces of what must have been tall, spiraling spires. Some of the debris crashed into the smaller estates and broke the streets. Against the farthest mountain, a tower of white sent its own lance through the clouds, where staircases weaved through it, inside and out. Farther still, she spotted shapes of further buildings hidden in the protection of the rock. Each one, a ruin of someone's story.

"What is this place?" she whispered and stared at the nearest tower, split in two with one side of it struggling to stand. On one of the eroded peaks, she frowned at the sight of a giant harpoon, whose golden chain trailed off the edge.

Yuven ignored her question to guide them to where the mountain path broke apart and one side went downwards, while the other continued on along the crags. Spikes carried lamps, with Yuven sending flickered embers into them without another word. On the bottom of the rocks, a smaller bridge raised above a sharp incline, but when she peeked over the side, thick mist boiled underneath it. On the other side, a massive gate carried on two pillars welcomed them into the city of shattered ruins. Wyverns breathed fire onto a blooming snowrose on its peak. Yuven stopped at the entrance, and sighed.

"This was just the closest entrance," Yuven mumbled and walked out into the marble streets. Glass scattered in the cracks. Roofs caved in to the buildings below them, or large hunks of stone crushed what laid underneath its unfortunate landing. Fenrer's footsteps faltered, and Adara turned to him. Galaxies spun across the emerald spirals when he scanned the environment with a twist of confused concern as they walked through the pieces of the grand city, unburied, but long gone. Her heart slammed against her ribcage at the hum of wind coursing through the breaks of buildings. A howl into pained wailing.

Yuven stopped them at what appeared to be one of the centers of the city. A statue stood on the pedestal, with his ice glaive raised into the sky, face hidden in his horned helmet. Scales ran along his armor. Adara shuffled over to the frozen plaque, clawing her fingers against the letters trying to form a truth. Fenrer joined her, but kept his attention on Yuven when he sent a burst of wind around the area. Unable to decipher the name, Adara frowned.

"Yuven..." Fenrer said with a sense of disbelief.

"What?" Adara returned to the two Storm Wardens in the middle of their staredown, with Yuven standing in the middle of the street with a hard-to-read expression carving ravines on his brow.

"I suppose you can call me a hypocrite," Yuven released a short, pained laugh to go along with the wail of the city. "But I had no choice. It was either this or us stuck out in the wastelands and you at the risk of death." His feathers thinned, and he put his hands on his stomach. "This is..." He faltered, and his feathers trembled with a shivering vibration. "Was Irimount. Hofvase'dylon. The City of the Dead." He held out his arms. "Here, where one mere child destroyed it. Every single inch of it. You will not find anything intact here save for that—" He pointed at the largest spire, then his arm dropped against his side in one cold motion. "But, I am hoping to find a point of intense umbral energy — where we can break through into the sea of twilight and teleport straight into Sivaport if I can adjust the Umbral Gate along the cardinal rune. That is my plan, and that is why we are here."

Yuven's home.

Adara dragged her boots along the surface of the cracked street, where the ground scoured with pure force. Hand outstretched, silver fireballs flew from the clouds and struck Derelicts and Storm Warden alike in infernal flames. Air stuck to her lungs at the realization of his words from before. Of his odd refusal to use her gift against a hungry horde. Her fingers trailed the ground scouring from above before studying Yuven, who gazed at them both. All around the statue, broken bell-towers rang out their haunted songs when the wind nudged them forward. Yuven drew his shoulders up in silence, but broke it, "I don't want to dawdle here. We find the Umbral Gate and see if it can still be used."

"Yuven." Fenrer grabbed his shoulder, and Adara frowned at the intense spirals. "We're not alone."

Adara stopped at his insistence. "Wait, what?"

Yuven turned with one slow motion to the house nearest them. Adara tucked herself between the two at the frozen shape upright within. Jagged fangs drove through its jaw, where its frozen flesh flaked off its bones. Icy blues pierced through the eye sockets when it followed Yuven's glance. Continuous mist left its exposed ribcage. Bones frostbitten, it moaned and cracked its neck back its previous position, staring at the shattered wall and the remnants of a crib beside it.

"It won't attack us," Yuven mumbled after his momentary silence of his own staredown with the crib, and Fenrer let him go. "This isn't like Sungrove. There's nothing left here for them to truly cling onto except in that haze. No energy. No emotion. No anything. Derelicts swallow everything and drain the very area of magick." Frost swept down his cheeks when he raised his face to the shadow of a spire through the mist. "We're deep in the cradle, so the frostlands can't expand into here, but at the same time..." His gaze trailed along the shattered streets littered with debris. "Come. Best not to dawdle here. The draugr will not attack unless an emotion overtakes them. I'd be more worried about wraiths."

"I'm not sensing wraiths," Fenrer's voice came out shaky, afraid.

Yuven returned to his side and held his shoulders. "I know being here must pain you, to absorb every piece of my shame about this place," he whispered, and Fenrer focused on him with a deepening frown. "If I had another option, we wouldn't be here. We're both uncomfortable. You've seen the worst of me and still chose to see the light instead. I believed in you, trusted you, so just this once, I'll ask the same for you to trust me." He put his fist on Fenrer's chest. "Just once, Molvisaliz."

Fenrer lowered his head, then nodded, the same historic pain of Sungrove stilling the spirals. "If you're ready for this, Yuven, far be it from me to stop you." He hugged himself, and said nothing more.

"Are you sure it won't attack us?" Adara asked when the draugr slid on its own neck to stare at them, cracking its own vertebrae.

Yuven leaned down to pick up a pebble, and Adara lurched when he punted it straight at the draugr's head. It smacked along its skull, but it remained still, encased in its own ice. It let out another agonized moan and shuffled closer to the crib, swaying on its gnawed on legs. "I'm sure," he stated and tugged at their shoulders. "Let's go find the Umbral Gate and find a place to sit."

Haunted bells rang out in a dissonant chord to the moans of nearby draugr, who swayed with the fatal tune. Until it went silent when they headed deeper in the city, where the streets joined together out of the ruined labyrinthe of white alabaster. Larger estates took up the corners, where insignias cracked. Two glaives twirled with frayed ribbons around the architecture over the gateway of the nearest villa, where short stone walls went around the property. Adara stopped at the bridge, and she stepped back at the piles of bones along the edge. Crimson cracks sliced open the marrow, and she rushed to catch up with Yuven and Fenrer when the two stopped at the base of the spire, sick to her stomach.

"Kah'mai." Yuven nudged a curved piece resting against a small staircase.

"What's wrong?" she pressed, and frowned when Fenrer sat down on one of the pieces and put his head in his hands.

"The physical anchor of the Umbral Gate is broken," he mumbled, then got on his knees to trace the divots between the staircases. Runes lined the edges and wrapped around the staircases, stretching outwards along the mis-matched stones of the street.

"Does that mean we can't...?"

"Not necessarily," Yuven explained and set his hands on his hips. "Maybe with enough magick we could... force an opening and I can pour my magick into it. Create a pathway straight to Sivaport." He hesitated, then gazed at Fenrer, who closed his eyes tight.

"Couldn't I do it?" Adara questioned. "If we need more magick... I have plenty, don't I? You two are unwell, and I'm still right as rain, considering." She waved her hand at the four staircases leading up to the main platform.

Yuven returned to them, skipping the last steps. "It's not an issue of who has enough magick. We'd need a foci — some sort of elementia crystal," he pointed out, but sighed and sat down on his own piece of debris. "Just catch your breath for now. We'll get to work after." His gaze trailed to Fenrer when he brought his hand over his mouth, his breathing shallow and pupils nothing more than starry pinpricks. "You, especially."

Adara gathered her flames into a well of warmth, but frowned when Fenrer trembled, and Yuven's concern wasted into confused suspicion. "Fenrer? What is wrong?"

Fenrer's brow scrunched with agony. "What is this infernal presence?" Tears trailed along the spirals of his irides behind his muffled voice. "Ancient's forfend."

Yuven lifted himself off his seat of debris in caution. "Fenrer, you have to talk to me," he said and knelt in front of him.

Adara looked around, though their only company was the wailing of the wind through the cracks and the touches of bells in the air. "Maybe we should get out of the open here?" she pressed when Yuven hauled Fenrer up by his elbows. "Find an empty place where he can lie down?" At Fenrer's side, she wrapped her arm around him when Yuven let him go to peek through windows, stopping at the estate where the frayed ribbons billowed in the screaming wind. Adara guided Fenrer to him when he vaulted over the wall and landed in the wilted garden of tough dirt, and she took the actual entryway.

"Wait here." Yuven raised his hand before drawing out his seax's. He used his shoulder to open the door off its rusted hinges, and it squealed with disuse and rust. Left alone in the dead garden, Adara nudged Fenrer when he fell silent, but his attention drifted along the marble. Tension choked her throat and burst her own fire into crystallized terror the longer Yuven took to return. He came from around the corner inside, and nodded.

Adara took Fenrer inside the large main foyer, where golden banisters split across the hems. She set him on a lounge sofa against the wall, where he rested his brow in his hands once more. In her peripheral, Yuven sent icy whips into the walls and created spiderwebs of a ward. Mist left his nose in a long plume, but he joined Fenrer on the sofa.

"We'll look for an elementia crystal. There should be stores of it in the spire," Yuven explained, and Adara closed the estate's double doors to shut out the city's constant moan. "And then we leave..." His gaze rested on Fenrer, who looked sick to his stomach. "Fast."

"Fenrer, what are you sensing?" she tried.

Fenrer shook his head without a verbal reply.

"I wouldn't try and push him for answers when he's like this," Yuven said. "It's not an Auric Trance though. Fen." He prodded his shoulder, getting out of the seat to put Fenrer into a prone position, with Fenrer making no attempt to struggle. "Lie down, whatever it is you're sensing; you need to shut it out. Use your aura-blinder if you must. You are unwell, you do not have the strength to sort out whatever emotion is left in this place. You must let it go." Yuven dug his fingers into his collarbone. "You must listen to my voice."

Underneath the giant roses of Tebora and the expanding light of the crystal. Her hand touched Fenrer's, and the aurora exploded in pain.

"Yuven?" she whispered and knelt beside him as Fenrer took in shallower breaths. "What if he can't?"

"What?"

"What if whatever he's sensing... is stronger than he is that he cannot block it?"