MARIA

Water lapped at the strip of coast her childhood home sat on, the railings locked around the modest backyard full of Mother's pottery and flowering blooms. Attached to the side, Father's forge, where she spent her smallest days trailing after him, listening to the pound of hammer against hot metal. Embers danced with his strikes and his careful runic tracing along every blade. A delicate artform. Maria hesitated on the pebbles of the cobbled path, tucking her crescent blade closer to her hip. Both of them returned to their old home with the end of the Hanekan civil war, with her staying behind on Euros for her training days. Smoke billowed out of the chimney over the forge, where she knew pipes pumped steam for further power inside the house itself. In tandem, a balance, nothing wasted. Her arrival to Sivaport was met with a harried King Reyn and his furious Court Physician.

Days passed with her irritation falling into dismay. If Fenrer was truly as bad as Bryn made note of... what was he thinking? And what happened? Bag adjusted on her other hip, she sorted through her supplies and hoped for an opportunity. Oh, Yuven... would that I could reach out and drag you through the Umbral Sea. I can only hope that wherever you are, you're... well enough. Maria walked along the fence post, where several other houses sat among the fields of wheat, with some fields sporting damp soil for sugarcane. As she came closer, she smiled at the familiar crack of a hammer and an anvil, and the hiss of steam when molten metal dunked into the coldest water. Maria pushed open the small wooden gate, grinning wider at the familiar creaky hinge as she headed to the small front porch, stepping up it as the hammering subsided at the hinge.

Her boots creaked the floorboards of the porch, where Naveeran windchimes danced on the corner with the breath of the sea. Pearls tingled against the longer tubes, casting a soft hum over the property. Mother fashioned it with Hanekan crystals, a joining of two cultures from the etched wave on the wooden anchor hanging below it as it swung on the icy suspension. Hand raised, she rapped her knuckle against the thick oak door, and tucked her fingers around her bag's strap. Her heels bounced with anticipation of her return when soft footsteps sounded from the other side, and the door creaked open.

Mother hadn't aged a day, but Naveerans lived double the life.

She blinked at her, then pulled open the door with her widening blue eyes, the pupils constricting into vertical slits as her short, curly, golden hair bounced with her lurch of surprise. "Maria," she said, her accent slipping into the flowing end of her name. Though she stood over her Mother, she looked up at her all the same, and beamed at the woman who gave her her life by finding her own.

"Hello, Misara," she trilled out in her rather rough Navei as Mother looked at her up and down. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to come visit apart from my letters." Into a small bow of respect, she straightened herself out. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I would have come sooner, but I had business to attend to at the Lodge." Maria fell into the swaddled warmth when Mother wrapped her arms around her, where her long, beautiful feathers shuddered against her head in familiar joy. Yuven's feathers shuddered in much the same way in excitement or glee. Her smile died on her lips at the mystery of his disappearance when Mother tugged back, her smile showing her fangs.

"You grow more beautiful by the Turn, solise'mal," Mother trilled in Navei and brought her hands against her chest and shook them. "You will never interrupt anything. Welcome home for as long as you will stay." Mother nudged her inside, nodding at her boots to put them in the rack Father made for Mother's specified house rules of zero outdoor footwear on the floor, taking the indoor slippers Mother weaved. Old habits die hard, she chittered at her when she grumbled about the thickness of them.

In the ice... I suppose it was one small reprieve from frostbite in the toes. Maria put on her designated inside slippers and wandered through the tight, but warm and welcoming corridor when Mother cupped her elbow and brought her down the steps into the living room, where the core of her home was at its warmest with Father's forge closeby. "How have you two been?"

Mother raised a finger and bustled into the kitchen, and Maria leaned into the couch and waited for her as she popped a kettle into the burner of the rune oven. "You don't have to make me anything, Mom." Maria got off the couch, but stopped when Mother whipped her head around and her feathers thinned, so she raised her hands in defeat and plopped herself in the cushions.

"You are just as bad as your father," Mother whispered, her voice swelling in affection when she put out a cup on the counter. "He wants to jump straight into the point — into conversations," a rising hum left her throat when the water whistled and she squeezed chocoberry juice into the mixture. "I need a drink before I talk, yes? A drink can help clear the head for further words."

Guests in the Ollain home found themselves beset with Mother's chocoberry tea as was the guest rule and guest right of breaking bread before discussions took place. Maria held out her hands for the cup when Mom placed it into her hands with her slender fingers, sitting down on the seat with a nod. Maria followed her silent indication, and took a sip. Warmth burst into a cloud on her tongue, and she sank into the hearth of home. "Thank you, Mom."

Mom tapped her fingers together with a wider, livelier smile. "You are very welcome, Solise'mal. Now, we are doing well, but I would know how you are doing," she insisted. "You said you had business at the Warden Lodge?"

Maria drained another sip, tasting her deep-seated fear, though her research withstood the test of every theory deposited about the Corruption. Her one chance. Every Corruptor's chance at a full, quality of life. "It's... Storm Warden issues," she said with her caution. "We're going to handle it though." If Reyn can get into contact with his diplomats... where are they? Who took them? Questions danced across her throat when the king met her in the lodge, with several other Storm Wardens in confused attendance at his sudden arrival. "I'm just a little worried about it, because I arrived here too late." She set the cup on the coaster, and folded her hands across her lap.

Mother's brow scrunched, then she shook her head. "Maria, do you remember what I used to say to you? You were always asking, always wondering about the world." Love expanded through her voice when she scooted closer. "You always wanted to be the first. You were so driven, ambitious, and competitive from such a young age that I couldn't keep up with you sometimes, but I always told you that you will always be right where you're meant to be at the time you're supposed to be there. Things work out. Somehow, someway, but they do." Mother squeezed her fingers. "I know you cannot talk to me about your work, I understand. I do not pry." Released from Mother's firm grip, Maria smiled at her, but hesitated at the familiar sounds of heavy-thudded boots.

"Natala? Who came to visit today?"

Father came from around the bend, his protective mask hanging on his toolbelt full of instruments, pliers, and varying shaped hammers and chains. His calloused, smudged hands rested on the archway into the living room. Mother lifted her head when his amber gaze rested on Mother, over to her as frayed strands of his auburn hair stuck out in odd places from the heat. Maria hauled herself to her feet, the other person who always towered over her, the giant in her life, the massive shadow she followed into the forge to watch him work his delicate art. "Dad."

"Ancients. Maria." Father's face broke into his typical beaming light, the true sun at the dawn. He skipped the steps and rushed over to her to grab onto her shoulders. "When did you land in Sivaport? When did the boat arrive? Are you well? How is it over on the island?" His questions brought familiarity, consistency, and a foundation of support back underneath her to catch her when she fell and scraped her knees running across the streets.

"Elias, she just arrived." Mother giggled. "Let her take a drink."

Maria raised her hands. "I'm fine," she said and basked in the warmth he extruded. "I was just telling Mother I was on Storm Warden business, or else I would've come home sooner." Her fingers clasped his thick, protective leathers which kept him out of the danger of the forge. "I'm so happy to see you both in good health and brighter spirits, it seems." Maria scoffed when Father tugged his arm around her neck and ruffled her hair. "Dad." Her hands went into his elbow. "The ocean breeze did that for me on the way here."

"What can I say? Some things don't change." Father beamed at Mother. "It also didn't do a good enough job. So, Storm Warden business, aye?"

"Yeah, I need to head back there at some point to sort some stuff out, but... I wanted to see you both," Maria said as her parents approached her.

"You look tired," Mother fussed, and pushed the cup once more into her hands.

"I've been busy with my posting." Maria chuckled, but her laugh died in her throat. "You could say I'm on leave for now to recuperate... I'll be heading to Euros again soon once we figure out this situation." Her hand trailed down her own sore spine, and she sighed, but jolted when her parents moved in tandem with each other to wrap her in a comforting embrace. In the open window, the ocean breeze pushed the carved Naveeran windchimes, where the pearls bounced and twinkled in the sunlight, encased in ice. Maria returned their foundational embrace, then pulled herself back. "I'm sorry for dropping in only to scamper away from you two again."

"It must run in the family," Father teased. "You have no need to apologise." He set his hand on her head. "As long as I get to see my daughter sometimes as she 'scampers' about." He nudged his knuckle into her brow, then hoisted his toolbelt over his hips. "I've got a commission I need to work on, but you know if you need any maintenance on your blades or a retrace of runes, you can always come to me. For anything." He rubbed his hands together. Maria smiled when he spun on his heel, but he and Mother shared the same look of purest devotion before he left the living room and around the bend into the forge.

"He's been beside himself with worry," Mother said after he disappeared.

Maria hunched her shoulders and chuckled. "He always does that, I've told him it's not good for him."

"He will do so anyway, and I will too." Mother clasped her shoulders. "But, if you need to go, know that we're still here and we'll take care of ourselves, and hope you do the same. I await your next return, like a dawn on the horizon to melt blizzards." Her eyes crinkled. "Solise'mal."

"Misara." Maria choked on young tears, afraid of the monsters in the dark, and hugged her once more. And I can only hope that I will get to introduce you both to the man who's brought his own light into my life. His devotion sat around her neck, and she drew back and let Mother escort her to the front door. "I'll keep sending letters, and I'll see you before I leave if I can."

"Of course." Mother tucked her hands against the door, her feathers rippling in the ocean breeze.

"Do you need me to get you two anything?" Maria asked as she stood on the porch.

"No, we are good for the next moon," Mother said. "Thank you for asking, though... Although, you could tell King Reyn that your father will be done with the commission soon, he would appreciate that. You know how he is with his work."

"I can do that, no problem." Maria hopped off the front steps and waved at Mother, who returned both the greeting and the goodbye. Off to the heart of the city, she wound her way through market stalls bursting with food, where fishmongers sliced open and cooked filets for hungry patrons. Signs hung outside of bars, where people hooted and swung their tankards and played their cards. Sivaport came to life with a single, musical voice.

As her direction took her past the lodge and towards the castle, she hesitated at the crowd of housecarls among the grass, where King Reyn leaned down over a shape. Maria burst into a run to check on the king, and slid to a stop at who he investigated.

Fenrer Pyren, pallor ashen with his breath too shallow for life. "Move," Maria ordered one housecarl out of her way. Bag beside her, King Reyn slipped out of her way as she grabbed Fenrer's shoulders, then checked each piece of his vitality. "Fenrer?" she pressed when his eyelids fluttered, tapping his cheeks. "Fenrer, are you with me?"

He remained unresponsive, but alive nonetheless, but clear as day, his Oathbound, Yuven Traye, was nowhere to be seen. Maria threw her bag into the hands of a housecarl. "Get him into the castle ward," she snapped out an order. "King Reyn... did you find him here?"

"Yes, Warden Ollain." King Reyn straightened himself out and complied with ease. "I heard magick crack and came to investigate, and there he was... looking like he did when I dragged him out of the ocean."

"And was there no one else?"

King Reyn shook his head as a housecarl pulled Fenrer into a sitting position.

"Your Grace?" a housecarl said from the stables. "I think someone fell into the hay."

Maria ran over as a young woman stumbled onto her hindquarters out of the bales of straw, where it stuck out of her thick brown hair into tangled mats. "Ow..." the woman whispered with her hand on her head, then turned to her. "Where am I?"

"Adara?" Reyn mused.

The young woman, Adara, whipped around to look at all of them. "What, King Reyn? Where are Yuven and Fenrer? They were just... here." Her voice dropped into confusion when she tugged her foot out of the hay bales. "Are we... in Sivaport?"

Yuven.

"I have sent Fenrer into the castle ward," Maria said and knelt down to the woman in obvious distress from the shaking of her limbs when she tried to drag herself out of the stables with a soft pant. Another patient, but not the last. "Someone help her into the ward, I'll see to them both."

"Wait—Who are you?" Adara waved her hands out in front of her in an attempt of protection and preservation.

Maria whispered with an arm across her knee, "I'm Maria Ollain, I'm a Storm Warden. You're safe now. You're in Sivaport. Wherever you teleported from the track must've broke apart..."

Adara's gaze dropped to the crescent blade, then raised to her face where tears cracked down her cheeks. "Yuven did it?"

Maria tipped her head, but time worked against her always. "I need to go find Yuven Traye. Get her somewhere safe," Maria said with a nudge into the housecarl. "King Reyn, did you see anything else?" She moved out of the way when the housecarl offered a hand to Adara, who took it with shaky knees.

"No." He moved out of the way of Adara, who came to a stop.

"He fell farther away," Adara mumbled and faced her. "When we were going through the Umbral Sea... I think he fell somewhere... in that direction? I don't know how teleportation works..." She pointed past the gatehouse past her groan of pain, out into the farmlands, opposite of where Mother and Father lived. Deep in the golden wheatfields. "I don't know if that will help..."

Oh, Yuven Traye... you're going to get it if you did what I think you did. Maria ran out of the gatehouse, but she heard the clamor of armored footsteps behind her when Reyn barked out an order to the housecarls. Thankful for his quick actions, Maria led her sudden contingent through the streets and out of the heart of the packed city. "Yuven?" she called out onto the winding streets as she trailed along the fence posts protecting the wheat fields as the housecarls split off. "Yuven!"

The air fell still.

Maria vaulted over one fence as the wheat shuffled around her. Through the field, she frowned at tangles of ice whispering from the dirt in a scoured trail. "Gods, what did you do?" Maria sped up her pace, following her new leads.

Until the fields broke apart in her devoted love.

Yuven Traye sprawled across the grass, where wheat skidded from his landing. Icy glyphs shimmered into mist and abandoned its user into crimson tears. Blood splattered his armor, his lips near blue. "Yuven," she whispered out his name, then ran to his side to pull him onto his back, where his hand fell limp at her knees. "Yuven." Maria pressed her thumbs into his cold cheeks, though his chest rose and fell. Her necklace dangled over him when she loomed closer, brushing his hair off his brow, with his feathers flattened against his head. Maria stopped when his eyelids fluttered, and the violets flowed into the field.

"Yuven." Maria grasped his face. "Can you hear me?"

Reunited.

His lips parted in blinking confusion as he drew his gaze up her face, then fluttered down to the necklace. His pupils nearly disappeared with how they thinned in exhausted burnout of his magick. He raised his other hand to cup the necklace he gave her, and he breathed out a long sigh of joy to go along with the familiar, gleeful shudder of his feathers, and went limp.

I will always remember you. Always.

One of the housecarls caught up with her. "Warden Ollain?"

"I found him." Maria pushed aside her fear to carefully haul him by his arms to his feet, where his head lolled. "He's in a bad way. I need you to go ahead and tell Bryn I'll need to use some of their stores. I can handle him — Yuven, leave it," she hissed when he forced open his eyes with a soft hiss through his nose, flattening on his heels. "I can carry him."

You never change. Maria wrapped her hand around his side when the housecarl nodded and bounded away. Yuven leaned into her, and Maria used the momentum to pull a giant's strength through her limbs, a pulse of the desert suns of her ancestors when she heaved Yuven across her shoulders, and his lack of complaint sent a burst of concern through her heart. Let's get you home.

Back to Neven, now that you've returned to me.