ADARA

No, no, no! This can't be happening! Metal melted across the fire of her skin, the ashes falling off onto the platform as she sobbed at the pain with Maria clutching onto her with a concerned glance. It drove into her spine, a threat, a promise. Behind Maria, Neven Lotayrin broke apart the bolt in slow motion, though its remnants became naught but debris slammed into his legs as it fell quiet and he slumped to the ground to feed the platform keeping them from a descent into the abyss. Fenrer dragged himself to his knees with a heave from his shoulders. Northwards, Yuven Traye, released from his bonds, froze.

Maria scowled when the sounds grew silent. Adara let herself be pulled off the platform even as her skin turned to ashes in her lap. Maria rushed over to Neven the moment Yuven stumbled to him with a tortured gasp. Her heart jumped to her throat when the platform trembled, and the patches of light on the roof of the hollow grew further away. Tendrils grew over the walls and swallowed the last remnants of light while she had been sent a flame without fire. Her gaze drew to Yuven, whose voice came out in eerie stillness as he snapped and shook Neven Lotayrin, who didn't respond to his adoptive son's quiet pleas. Every word spoken. Every cry screamed. Adara tried to wipe it off her skin, the ripple of fire.

Cracks formed along the carved stone when the tendrils tightened their grip, trying to drag themselves upwards along the walls. Bile stung her chest when serrated teeth raised over them, the lights slowly out of reach. "No," she whimpered as she clutched her arms.

"Neven! Neven!" Yuven snapped as he shook the older Warden.

The pain was too hard to bear whenever she dared to move but a mere inch. Jaws, unhinged and wide, drew over their heads and made everything disappear. Colours washed out of the already greyscale environment, leaving only the brightness of life in the other's eyes. "We're being swallowed," Adara rasped. It's Prunal all over again, and... Over her shoulder, Yuven had gotten behind Neven at Maria's instruction, lifting him up by the arms as his gaze swung upwards with a horrified grimace. Adara reached her hand out to the closest wall of darkness to her, but pulled her hand back when slicing red barbs stretched out to leech onto her fingers. One caught her fingertip, and she screamed when it dug down and caused her to bleed. It took all of her strength to pry herself out, leaving only but a sizzle of silver smoke.

Colours wasted away.

In, and out.

A prickle through her skin caused the falling ash to freeze mid-air.

Adara looked over her shoulder once more, to Fenrer.

Sunlight weaved and consumed the colours, leaving a nascent blindness gripping onto the air. He lifted himself off his hands with a breath, though her heart dropped when he opened his eyes. It expanded along the swirls, into a radiant brilliance when he hauled himself to his feet, a rumble of Hanekan leaving his throat, causing Maria to twist her head around as she fought to stem Neven's bleeding. Red cascades fell around them when Fenrer raised his hand outwards. It tore through her mind, her skin when a hilt sparked, then the blade as it twirled and twisted into reality. A molten dawn with the amber at its core, twisting vibrancy as Fenrer grabbed it out of the air, lowering it to the ground.

"Fen—"

Yuven blinked, then scowled in an instant as his spatial distortion whipped around them as Fenrer raised the blade higher, towards the sky and the sun. Adara grunted when three extra bodies came closer to her, with Yuven on his knees to send a wall of ice around them, glyphs of misty, white hues.

In an instant, she knew why.

Fenrer once more angled the sword downwards to strike their already breaking safety net.

As the sunlight tore through, distortion kept the piece in place with strained effort from the way Yuven's gaze grew more focused, holding the burden of the icy shield as waves of fire slammed into it.

"What the hells is happening!?" Adara snapped, bursting forward despite her ashen pain, though Maria grabbed her around the waist.

Fenrer handled the sword with unfamiliar ease. Angled backwards, he swung it upwards, causing a carved crack to drive itself into the jaws. Smoke sizzled and a horrible rattle sounded throughout her very bones, though Yuven continued to grip onto the icy shield. Her heart dropped when the edge nearest them started to crumble, pebble by pebble.

"He's going to destroy the platform!" Adara snapped. "Fen, stop!"

"I don't think he can hear you," Yuven mumbled, a bead of sweat rolling down his brow. He closed his eyes tight, but the next wave caused him to choke, the icy barrier falling away. Everything sizzled around her, though she experienced no heat. Maria brought her shield forward when Yuven slumped to the ground, wheezing.

"Stop, Little Wolf!"

Fenrer had frozen mid-swing, arms shaking. His eyes opened to reveal a deeper hue of hazel, his teeth baring. "You cannot use him thus," he said, though it had none of his inflection. "In your efforts to destroy the darkness of which you were forged to do, you will burn innocence to a crisp! He will die!"

Morning glyphs formed in the air and pushed around them.

"It's too much..." Maria gasped, unable to keep up her fiery ward against the fury of light radiating around Fenrer.

"What do you mean?" Adara called out.

A hazel gaze lifted to her as Fenrer tried to pull back the shimmering dawnblade. His brow furrowed. Deep, ancient sounding Hanekan shook her bones, even though it came from nowhere at all. On her feet, she jumped when a shimmer of mist leaped from Fenrer as the light consumed what was left of humanity. A wolf bounded for them, leaping with purpose as Fenrer gave another swing of the dawnblade through the corroded air. A giant took its place, forming a ghostly barrier around them. It cracked in an instant with the force, the darkness burning, but so were they.

"What's happening, Kon?" Adara rasped.

Kon scowled. "For days, I could not reach Little Wolf. For a moment, I thought our covenant had broken—" He snapped his head up. "If I try to help him further, you four will die."

"But if you don't he'll die!" Adara snapped, standing.

Ignoring Kon's warning bark, she rushed past his barrier, and the heat slammed into her face. Waves of ash coiled off her arms as she hesitated, then steeled herself against the coming of the furious dawn. Cracks of light formed along the carapace of pitch clinging on to feast on them, with Fenrer pointing his blade upwards without breathing and with no intent to falter.

"That is the full concentrated power of the sun!" Kon snapped to her.

And I am the full concentrated power of magick.

Adara reached the headsman block as the glint of metal cleaved downwards.

Ash splattered the mix of Neven's blood below, causing silver sparks to ignite.

Moonlit carved silver around her fiery shield when she blocked Fenrer's final, lethal strike. It cracked against her barrier, but she whispered, "Fen. You said you wanted to go home... you have to wake up, whatever's doing this, you're still in control." Her attention raised up to him, his expression impassive, and cold as he put more pressure onto her flimsy shield. Embers stuck to her clothes, slipping past with ease as she held herself strong. His blade touched her palm, and she almost screamed at the heat, almost overwhelming in her phoenix fire.

Fenrer stared down at her, and then, through his lips, the Hanekan she came to learn sounded out, "The fury of the light," whatever had possessed him commented. "Thou cannot prevent that which has begun. Yet still, you bathe in the ashes of evenfall." His expression remained cold and impassive as he studied her, though the platform rumbled underneath. "Corrupted Darkness must be expunged."

"You're going to kill us," she pleaded with him, or whatever had deigned to speak with her. "Neven's already—" It cracked her elbows, and she bit on her lip as the silver tangles spread outwards. "You would sooner see everything erased. Wake up, Fenrer." Her grip tightened on the molten lava that was the blade.

Ashes piled up around her.

Fenrer's gaze slipped over her. "It is a sickness."

Adara narrowed her eyes, then formed a glyph in one hand. As she shoved the blade, redirecting it off to the side with Fenrer barely reacting save for a curious raised eyebrow, her hand, and aurora of a glyph slammed into his face. Silver shockwaves sent off the final dusk, and it fell quiet. The dawnblade melted away, and she sank into the ashes beneath her while Fenrer collapsed once more.

Larger cracks fell off the platform, and when she looked back at the others, Kon had started to disappear, but dragged them away from the edge before turning into nothing but glimmered mist. Into nothing.

No. Adara ran her hand through the ashes, cupping them in her palms as they smouldered silver. Teeth drove downwards, sizzled and furious, and her stomach plummeted with the slow descent. I have to do something! We're going to die! The platform tilted, and her heart crushed her windpipe and made it all the more difficult to breathe.

"Sazaka?"

A melodic tune against dissonance, she peeked over her own pile of smouldering coal.

Neven. He had crawled his way to the center of the glyph. Each breath, a momentous effort from the way his chest heaved. Adara looked past him, where Yuven and Maria, like Fenrer, had gone limp. "Neven," Adara said, finding the strength to meet him halfway. Her dragged purpose paused at the blood coating him, his gaze unfocused. "Gods... I can help you, Maria taught me some—"

"Stop." His bloodied hand raised.

"What?"

Neven looked between the others, his expression softening. "Ahah... I see now what he meant." Neven swayed, but then he held himself upwards with his other hand. "Adara Sazaka... I must ask that you pour your flow-touched magick into me... I can get us out."

"What?" Adara trembled when another piece of the platform fell into the abyss. "I can't do that! Neven, you'll die! Look at you! You're bleeding and—"

"I know what I signed up for."

Adara bit on her lip as the wall of smoking darkness caved inwards. "I can't." Tears ran down her cheeks. "Yuven will never forgive me."

"He does not need to know — I would see them safe. If it takes my life, if it means I could save four lives..." A large crack drove through the platform, but Neven tilted his head, as if they had all the time in the world. Though his eyes squeezed in desperation with no time left. "Would that I did not have to ask this of you... with so few moments left in me."

"You could survive."

"And we would all die regardless. I have lived my life by the creed... I am the sword of the light, and no matter what, I will give unto the world my all. Allow me this one last thing... for my family." His smile drew. "Do not fret or fear, Adara Sazaka. You made a difference in their lives, do not blame yourself — this is my will, would that it could be either of our choices." His hand reached forward.

Adara choked on tears slipping down her throat, then threw her burning hand forward to grab onto his. Streams of silver created further cascades of ash as Neven concentrated, and he smiled at her. "You truly are powerful," he remarked as the air around him turned a silver-gold. "Thank you, Adara. I wish you luck... for what is to come. Hear the beat of the world, dance with the movement of life, and most of all... sing." He drew away from her. "Sing like your life depends on it."

Massive sapphire glyphs grew around the platform as the walls of darkness pressed into them. Glaives peeked out of the cracks Fenrer had formed, and Neven muttered in soft Navei. Golden tangles grew around them, and Adara flinched when it formed into a tail on one end. Neven took in a deep breath, then smiled at her as his eyes opened, nothing more than sapphires themselves. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"What... no?" Adara reached one hand for Fenrer.

Neven grinned as a magick carved glaive raised through the glyph in front of him and slammed upwards with a tearing screech. "Good."

With a roar, golden stars filled her vision as teeth caved inwards to piece them. It sizzled, and her stomach churned as it went upwards, the ground beneath her disappearing. Heavier. Weighed down by gravity. It shattered, and when it fell silent, she dared to open her eyes.

Through the peak of a mountain, a half-formed maw was left sizzling with gold, with her, up in the air, falling through her dreams. Her last sight as she looked around was misty, but solid looking golden feathers stretching out of wings, scales of glimmered power, flying farther and farther away.

Evyriaz...?

Unable to breathe through the ashes, she closed her eyes to get herself away from the continuous radiance, the cruelty, of the light.