ADARA

Why couldn't you have explained it if you thought I didn't understand? Her own tears long faded away, left with only memories. Memories of the very things he held in high regard. Belief. Adara chewed on the inside of her cheek, with days passing by and she found herself in Yuven's shoes. Time, with its cruelty and someone's life on the line. The bounce to her knees proved to not be any comfort when she let herself breathe for the first time since Fenrer left. And Yuven's been busy trying to pull the Storm Wardens back together. Out her window, Yuven pointed, directed, ordered the half-dead Storm Wardens, their gazes dark, grieving, but obeyed without question. Even from her distance, Yuven's expression contorted between fury, exasperation, and fear. Days of the same, and Fenrer was too far out of reach. I couldn't get him to see. Her fingers dug into her knees for some sort of answer in her bones.

The past, the present, the future untold. Adara forced herself off the bed, with sleepless nights without his familiar warmth, the way he brought hope to those who no longer believed. But you felt all alone. One last tear slipped down her cheek, the blade pressing deeper against her neck, but she resisted the cold touch of metal when she took the first few steps for the door, to take action. Yuven, you can't carry this alone either, you're juggling an entire battalion of people who have been soundly defeated by their oldest enemies. If I have to prove to you that I'm ready for this, that I can accept that sometimes I won't be able to save everyone — all that matters is that I could help one. Just one... even if that's myself. Her next breath came in stronger against her chest, and she opened the door to the new dawn.

Adara confronted her weaknesses, up every step of loyalty, duty, and faith to the bedroom carrying the Storm Warden who bid her provide him the strength to save them — even if it meant his life. Even with the hesitation causing her to backtrack, to find any reason to keep herself frozen on the headsman block. It clicked in her ears, and she let it swing open. Neven himself laid in the bed, staring out the window with the same empty expression of those under him. Yuven must've told him. Adara tapped her knuckle against the door, causing his feathers to twitch and for his attention to draw to her. "Hello."

"Hello, Adara," he chirped. His gaze lowered.

Adara took the nearby seat and interlocked her fingers together. He adjusted the pillow against his back and held the same silence lodged in her throat. "I feel like—"

"I should apologise," he said in time with her.

"What—" Adara waved her hand. "You first."

Neven sat up with a pained huff, but waved his hand at her when she reached out her own. "I put a heavy burden on you — one that shouldn't have had to happen in ideal circumstances, know that I do not wish you to blame yourself for the choices I made, because I would make them again, and I would've done it without your magick if such was possible," he said with a small tap of his hand into his thigh. "If there were any other way, but such is who we are as an Order. Sometimes, there are no victories without sacrifice. No battles won without some loss." He sat up with another wince, sinking into the pillow with a shallow breath, and she twitched in concern for the older Avaerilian. "What brings you here, to a wounded Warden's bedside?" He leaned his head back. "...is this about Fenrer?"

"He told you." It was nothing if not for her own confirmation.

Neven nodded in slow motion.

"I want to help him, but Yuven's told me in no uncertain terms he's dangerous and we shouldn't go chasing after him, but I feel like the longer we stay here the further away he gets," she pleaded for the one person who might have a chance at convincing Yuven of his current course outside of Maria, who appeared to agree with him. "He's lost, not thinking straight, whatever happened to him on that mountain..." She let herself drift off, the implication enough for the both of them when Neven lowered his gaze to his knees, digging his fingers into the blanket. "Neven." Adara bit on her tongue when he flicked his attention to her, his pupils thin slits. "I know Yuven's doing what he thinks is best, but I don't think this is the best course of action. Fenrer's in danger; the cult is still out there."

Neven looked out the window after a moment. "... ever were we slaves to our sense of duty. I didn't agree with what Kemal did, but after all this time, I've finally begun to understand it," he whispered, and Adara bit on her lip in helplessness. "I would've done the same thing, I did do the same thing in ignoring his advice and hunting for answers in the Obscura Text." His feathers drooped against his ears. "I did what I thought was the best course, so did Kemal, so does Yuven." He pushed his lips into a thin line. "I suppose in a sense, you could say the same as Fenrer, and Fenrer would do what he thought was right, even if all others may decree him in the wrong."

"Do you think he's wrong?"

"Fenrer knows better than to do what he did, but he did it anyway," Neven said, voice quiet. "He broke a Law, an inviolate law in the eyes of many. No matter the unfairness, or injustice."

"That's why I need to go after him."

"What do you plan to do? Are you even prepared? We don't know what's out there, and you said so yourself, the cult certainly is." He gazed at her. "What could you do that Yuven cannot? Yuven's a trained Storm Warden, so is Fenrer. Storm Wardens have lost their lives fighting against these people. You are not trained in being a Storm Warden; from what I hear, you've only recently got a handle on your power." He motioned with his hand. "What can you, Adara Sazaka, do, where you will certainly struggle as they have? People will try to stop you. Yuven will certainly give it his all if he finds out. Fenrer did not listen to him, to us, not to you."

Yuven's voice. Neven's words. It stung her heart, but she held fast against the storm.

"The only thing I could ever do," Adara drew through her teeth. "Just once. I can live with myself, even if it's just one person that I can save."

Neven's feathers twitched upright. His hand lowered from his knee to the side across from her, slipping past to reach for something between the frame and the endtable. Golden light shone from the darkness, laced with soft browns and greens in the runes. Neven held it across his lap, brushing his fingers down the hook, before holding it out to her. "You're going to need this, then."

"Isn't that—" Adara shook her head.

"My Oathbound's crescent blade? Yes." Neven clutched it. "Magick still remains in it, I want to believe it holds fast for a reason. He can't use it anymore." He held it out again to her. "Hope everlasting, such is our true oath we take as Storm Wardens. To hope eternal, to bring the light against the Echo Obscura. Swords and shields all; to not turn our backs to someone's suffering, regardless of the cause. Kemal understood this long before even I, where I was naught but a boy out of his depths, out of his snowtorn home with no idea how the world worked beyond it." A sad smile crossed his face. "He was ready to risk his life, for all the losses we sustained, even if it included his own, to save one little thing." He pushed it into her hands and lap. "He deserves a gentle rest, but he's always been stubborn. Magick remains for a reason, he'd never leave things half-finished." Neven's fingers uncurled off the hilt and blade, leaving its weight in her hands.

"Are you sure?"

"It will protect you from the darkness you are certain to come across, no matter what form it will take. Keep what Yuven taught you in mind. I can suggest you tell him regardless, but..."

"He'll forcibly stop me if I tell him."

Neven let out a soft laugh, resting back against the pillows and turning his head away from her. "...ah, what do I know? I'm just a wounded man not able to physically stop you. I did my duty to the last... and I will have to be satisfied with that." He let out a sigh. "Do your absolute best to prepare though, Miss Sazaka, and do not thank me for the things I've done, or what I am doing in turning my head away to the fact your wishes could certainly lead to your death in turn, but if you are anything like Kemal... you would've done it anyway."

Adara lowered her head, unable to refute his assumption. "I'll take care of it," she assured, getting out of the chair. "I will get Fenrer back."

Neven gave her a weak side-eye. "I believe," he affirmed.

I believe.

The call of dawn, Fenrer's hand stretched out to hers in a field of desolation in death with a smile. I think I understand now. In her hands, an old, tattered wyvern plush, holding it out as she held the crescent blade against the twisting mass snuffling out what little light, life, and humanity Euron had within. Adara drew her shoulders up and nodded, creeping to the door as Neven closed his eyes, keeping to his word of not stopping her, if not by physical force, but by words.

Her scramble to her room proved unneeded, considering the lack of Maria and Yuven within the treehouse as she rushed around to pack any necessities into her bag. Fenrer had taken anything and everything of his. Disappeared, with all the words but none of the emotion. Green stained with blood, the spirals slowed. Adara shoved some books for light reading, hauling it up before retreating from the treehouse to rush to the lodge, taking the side entrance.

Storm Wardens sat in chairs within rooms they passed, lost in grief, Kemal, a man she never met, whose presence hung heavy over the corridors. Head low, she kept his crescent blade by her side, the warmth against her hip keeping her moving, walking. Adara scrambled to hide when Yuven came out of the records room with another Warden trailing miserably behind him. It was all her friend could do was keep morale up. But you can't, Yuven — your morale isn't any better. Adara held her tongue when Yuven kept his gaze trained on the ground and motioned them away, and Adara stuck to the shadows when he passed her hiding spot to head to the offices, and without his company, causing his shoulders to slack and feathers to follow suit.

Adara left him to go deeper into the lodge, passing by the empty food hall. Adara crept for the opening into the pantry, slipping inside, free. Okay... going to need some preservatives for a long trip... I only have an inkling for what direction he went, and... I'll be alone until Yuven figures it out — and he will certainly come rushing after me. Adara huffed. That's fine. Adara grabbed some of the free containers to start sorting food inside, listening for steps in the corridors, though the lodge was haunted by living ghosts. Thankful for the organizational skills of the Wardens, she had everything packed before long, stopping by the food ledger to write down everything she had taken.

I owe them that much. For the kindness they showed me.

Her next hurdle as she left the Lodge was leaving the city. She stuck to her walls, what with Yuven setting Storm Wardens at every corner, causing the residents uncertainty from the way they avoided the gates. In the shadows, she stretched out her magick to wrap herself in it, trying to envision the way Yuven molded in and out of his with ease. A warm embrace gripped her, and she let herself walk forward with confidence, grace. Over the shaky foundations beneath her, the light threatening to reveal her in the shadows of the canopy. The sun at her back, boring her down, a warning, but she ignored it to slip between the cracks where it was unable to reach, pushing herself through the gate without a gatehouse, attached to the walls and doors before she was outside. Adara lifted her head, the motion slipping through the water of darkness. Voices sounded above her head, but Yuven was out of reach.

Hesitation cracked against her throat, but she let go and pushed herself out of the shadows and into the undergrowth, checking back.

A couple of Storm Wardens in the watchtower remained heavy in their conversations, with one sighing and shaking their head.

Adara adjusted the strap of her pack against her chest. "I'm sorry, Yuv. I know you'll catch up. I'll make it up to you."

Adara kept to the side of the road until she looked back once more and Asairai was out of sight between the branches.

No turning back now. Ten times, her breath left her. Ten steps she took. Ten glances around her environment before breaking into a run down the gravel road. Thick forests swirled around her, with none of the deception of the ones near the mountain. Memories swallowed her throat at her first steps into the world of magickae; the brutality, but the hope and joy within it too.

Hope, everlasting. Adara allowed a burst of silver flame flicker between her fingers when the sun rays pierced through the canopy.

I believe.