KEMAL

Shit! Kemal tugged at his bonds the longer the cultists took to bring Fenrer back. Moments. Minutes. Hours. Days. His strength left him for his insolence, but he refused to give up. I still have a duty, I'm not finished yet. Slowly, he allowed the stars to pour into his mind, bathed in winter. It struck pain through his heart, but he refused to let go as he tried to find the weakness in his bonds. A cough wracked his chest and a glob of blood splattered on his hands. Pain prickled along his lungs, and death whispered in his ear.

"Captain..." Telon whispered.

Death had stretched out a hand, but he refused it. Not yet... not yet. Kemal caught his breath, unable to keep down the food he had been given. "Telon, what did I say about formality?" Telon sucked in his lips, and Kemal released a shaky laugh when the swell of winter entered his mind once more. "Are you afraid to die?"

It took quiet moments until Telon gave, "There are much worse things than death... death would be a mercy."

Death would be a mercy.

"But that doesn't mean that I want to die," Telon added.

Death would be a saviour.

"Me neither." Kemal rested his brow against the edge of the divot. One last temptation. But I won't let death have me yet.

He froze at the sound of footsteps, and he lunged around when the cloaked cultists dragged Fenrer along with them, who made nary a sound or a twitch of life. Into the center, they latched him down once more, but Fenrer slumped against the chains and caused them to rattle at the pressure. Upright, he went to needle the cultists for information, but they slammed the door behind them. "Fenrer?" he whispered. "Talk to me."

Fenrer trembled, his face hidden in the shadows. Tears slipped down his chin. "It's so loud here," he rasped when the silence stretched on too long. "How could I have been so blind...?" Kemal jerked when Fenrer lifted his head to reveal the truth in his tears. Water mixed with blood which left trails on his cheeks from his bloodshot eyes. "I think I know what they did to Julis, Kemal." He slumped again, and Kemal raised both hands to the best of his abilities. "I should've... known better."

"Easy," Kemal tried to reassure him as he used to when Fenrer was but a child. "Do you know what they did to you?"

Fenrer shook his head.

"What are you seeing?" Telon questioned.

Fenrer continued to take in deep breaths. "It's not over yet..." he muttered, head low. "Deliver unto us from the crimson night." It came out a fervent, weak, prayer. "For the salvation of our decayed souls and find peace beyond the Obscura. Ojain, reveal the path of the Traveller. Evyriaz, guide us along the stars, to safety-to-" Fenrer sucked in his lips. "Home. Always home."

"Fenrer..." Kemal flinched at the uttered prayer to the Ancients.

"As ash we arrive, and ashes we return. Magick made, magick unmade." Fenrer's fists tightened in his manacles. "Darkness we come. Darkness we return. Guide us from this path. Give us the mercy of light and shadow."

"I don't remember that being a part of the scripture."

Fenrer laughed, but then it devolved to a weak whimper. "It's worthless," he whispered. "Don't tell me it's going to be alright, Kemal." He lifted his head again, the broken smile thickening the darkness within the room. Palpable against his skin, Kemal frowned at the shattered hope of light in the frozen swirls around his pupils, drowning in the sea of crimson which filled the divots and swelled into the dirt-carved aqueducts. "I should've known better. I've learned this lesson once already." His ragged breaths joined the distant wailing when he shrunk in on himself as he used to do when he was a young boy.

Kemal frowned, then followed the circuit of the divots. Each one at Fenrer's cardinals, including himself. Red stained the carved aqueducts, and he took in a breath. "Do you want to escape? Are you giving up?"

Chains rattled in response when Fenrer looked his way again. It took too long for the younger Warden to answer with a half-shake of his head. "...I want to go home."

"Me too." Kemal smiled. Another breath, his mind burned when he slipped his hand against the clotted blood with a side-eye at Telon, who widened his eyes, but then closed them in acceptance.

"You're not..." Fenrer squeezed his eyes shut. "Kemal..."

"There are things worse than death, Little Wolf." Kemal tried to find the strength to lift his hand against the twisted circle. "Pick your moment."

"You don't deserve—"

"None of us do." Kemal took in deeper breaths. "You're right. We're not finished yet." I still have some tricks up my sleeve. As tattered as it was, he leaned his shoulder against the aqueducts. If only one little light can survive... I will happily walk into the Otherworld... and leave it up to them. To those who come after me — for those who had come before me. For those right in front of me. He left a mark of blood on the aqueduct leading into his divot. "Little Wolf, you've survived so much, and as your Guardian... I will do my duty to the last."

"I don't want you... to..." Fenrer's tears continued their red trails. "You can still live."

"Would you call this life?" Kemal asked softly.

"Kemal..." Fenrer whimpered.

"It'll be alright," Kemal continued. "What is that damn saying Neven used to say constantly?"

"I am the blizzard..."

"And I will never die," Kemal continued.

Telon leaned deeper into his divot, all tension leaving his body while Loto responded in the same. His last order. The very last. Die. My order is to die. Kemal wanted to laugh, but he preserved the last of the strength in his heart when its beat faltered. Tyber followed that order from the start... and if I am to be the last, then... well, I owe Neven that much. He rested both hands on his chest and waited for his moment, keeping the winter stars at bay enough, ready to cut the connection when the opportunity presented itself, though the pressure in his head told him Neven was already trying to break through.

Stubborn, aren't you...

Hours passed until the cultists returned, though he frowned when they lugged a giant book between two of them. Fenrer lifted his head when one of the cultists approached them. "It's time," they said. "How've you adjusted to your eyes, Warden?"

Fenrer remained quiet, slumped in defeat.

Two cultists came forward to hold onto his shoulders, then forced him to face upwards when the two book-carriers set the book down in front of their circle. What are they doing? Kemal sat up to get a better look, though he found himself glued to his divot when the spoken cultist tapped a glyph into Tyber's divot. It glowed a murky red, making a slow crawl through the aqueducts.

Fenrer appeared to come back to life in realization when he tried to lurch with several rapid blinks. "Open the book," the cultist ordered to the others.

The... His mind failed. His heart skipped several beats when the two cultists pried open the book, the pages untangling from a sticky red substance.

Except its pages were empty.

"That's an Obscura—!" Telon began.

One last time, the cultists forced Fenrer to look while he shook in terror. In an instant, the swirls turned blood-red and filled the forest with a wave of crimson. Cracks formed along the dirt pathways of the rune circle. In an instant, Kemal whipped his head around when Tyber screamed. Fenrer remained dead quiet as green tangles revealed his aura and struck into Tyber. Another followed after and struck Loto between the eyes, which caused him to shriek with an echo.

"Fenrer!" Kemal gasped, then found himself choking on blood when it filled the divot and pierced into his skin. It threatened to flay his soul, to rip it out once more. One more tangle and the auric tangle slammed into Telon's neck with a gurgle from the Warden.

Fenrer's tears came down in opalescent flames as he tried to writhe away from whatever was within the Obscura Text. The cultists struggled to keep him down. Kemal slid his hand over his divot, creating a small circle of his own with his own life as the last auric tangle rose. He angled himself, taking a breath at the final second. It flashed past his face, the page becoming awash with an inky black. It flashed with memories, and he shut his eyes tight when the bramble inched closer to his pupils.

A flash of pain, but he found himself standing in the throne room of Sivaport, though with the cultists taking the palace of the deceased tyrant. It rattled his brain, threatened to make it explode, and he tore open his eyes with a gasp. One of his last when the world's colours brightened, and Fenrer had finally started to screech in pain, doubling over until it rang his ears into silence.

Kemal rolled over in his divot, the motion too slow against the current of the world. Hands close together, the winter stars faded. I owe you that much. Kemal gasped out in pain when it started from where the tangle drove into his eye. Flashes. Memories. His youngest brother and sister swung on his arms as he waved them about on the beaches of their island. It glowed in the back of his head and along the blood on his hands as he pressed them together, his cracked glyph spinning to life as one of the cultists looked his way.

He released the glyph, which turned from a reddish brown to gold. A soft spin of crystalline stars.

I am the sword in the darkness. One of its points engorged with his thought.

The cultist jerked. "Sir—"

Far too late for that. Kemal drew the blood magick they started into himself instead of Fenrer. Telon and Loto slumped, unmoving. Fenrer's eyes turned green then slipped into the back of his head as the cultists released him when steam sizzled at their hands. Kemal threw the glyph to his other side to create another circle with him at its center. The book twisted itself in his direction, and he faced its truth. Several eyes fluttered about the pages, narrowing at him with its teeth growing larger, though the cultists tried to control it.

Death is a mercy, a saviour. Kemal brought the golden glyph over his heart. "You should've killed me first," he said through the blood which slipped past his lips and the dull throbs of pain against his stomach. He took in a breath, then allowed the red flecked golden glyph to expand above him. "I, Kemal Tyronai, Storm Warden of the Evenfall... invoke the Golden Tenant—" His world went dark for a second, and the bridge called to him. Velteraiia.

The main cultist turned to him. "No lone Warden can invoke that ancient magicks, Tyronai," they said coldly. "You have nothing of equal worth to give it."

Kemal pursed his lips with death. He raised his hand to the glyph, and continued as the book squirmed with much more malicious intent than Neven's. "I give unto you my life and the bonds which I made to bridge the gap of generations," he said. "Bring the light upon those who would destroy the balance." He found his lungs clearing up when he lowered the glyph at the book, causing some of the cultists to stand in front of it to protect it.

"Kem, don't!" Neven screeched. "No! I can still save you! I'm coming! You have a family to go back home to!"

Kemal allowed the last of his tears to fall. "I give unto you the life I have lived, the questions I can no longer ask." He bit on his tongue when barbs of light hooked into his skin and attached to the golden glyph. "As my decree as a Storm Warden, a Protector of the light. Use my life as your arrow, and strike the heart of the crimson dusk. Cleanse the stain of corruption I leave in my wake." He drove his teeth downwards. "For the greatest wyvern-" It enlarged. "The smallest flower-"

"Stay in the way!" the cultist snapped when one of the cultists got cold feet from the way they shifted. "Don't let it touch—"

"I give unto you my all." Kemal let it go and forced it to pull the starry twine with it. It sped forward, and light filled his vision.

Neven's voice fell silent, and everything went dark as he allowed his eyes to close, falling asleep to the hush of the ocean, the waves against the beach, his sisters and brothers laughing, with one last goodbye on his lips.

Don't worry, Nev... I can wait a little while longer, to make sure you can cross that bridge without me.