Journey onto the Storm (BOOK 2)

Chapter 17

FENRER

Time ran out.

He checked his resonator when it gave a slight twitch on the largest white crystal, where a shred of crimson tore with a little static shock through the crevices. Asu donned his boots and wrapped his tattered cloak around his small frame. Fenrer went to open the door, but stopped when Asu turned to Suka as she raced to put on another pair of slightly larger boots.

"You have to stay with Mom, Suka," Asu pointed out when Suka fumbled for her own outside cloak. "I'm not going to be that long."

"All I've been doing is waiting in this stupid shack for something to change," Suka complained, and Fenrer hid a smile in the shadows at the familiarity — a different melody of the past. "I want to go help the Warden too! Why do you get to do everything?"

"I'm older." Asu turned his back on her.

If I had my way, neither would have to go with me, but I don't know what I'm looking for until I stumble upon it. Fenrer let go of the door and knelt to Suka. "I won't be long," he echoed Asu's sentiment. "I need someone to keep an eye on your mother to make sure the moondew takes effect. Ancients willing, I'll figure out what happened here, and my companion can handle the rest." Floorboards creaked underneath his boot when he headed to the door. "Show me where they buried them, Asu, and then I want you to come back here as well. It's dangerous outside right now for both of you."

Wind tore through the wilted fields with Adara and Yuven nowhere in sight, but they left an auric trail of frozen lilybells. Asu closed the door on Suka, who gave one last small whine until the breeze through the wood drowned her out with a grounded moan on shaky foundations. Fenrer nodded at Asu, who gathered up his cloak and stomped across the muddy hill. His boot sank into the damp path, with Asu tearing and hissing with his struggle before sending a frustrated wave of air magick which sent a burst of dry crust out of their way.

"Asu."

Asu frowned at him, then tucked his face in his cloak. "It's not far."

Fenrer gauged the distance between him and the small town on the death throes, an empty shell. Dirt caked the cobblestone and painted broken paths into the forest, fields, and farms. Asu sent another burst of wind into the ground. Grass waved with the small, inexperienced show of power. Leaves from the tree crinkled with the slow drain of the ground below, a sure sign of a Derelict, but he frowned at the lack of murk which sent a thin veil of mold and decay through all the world. Fenrer turned back to Asu when he stopped with a tremble to his knees, and the stone wall crumbled from the base.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"One of the Elders said this was an omen for the Crimson Dusk," Asu whispered. "Right around the Dance of the Amphitere, our festival for the departed and new life, the hunting party was attacked by a Derelict." He tucked his small hands between his arms. "Mom was the only one who offered to go look for them." Fenrer stopped beside him when Asu shrank deeper into the airy magick swirling to pick up the pieces. "Is that true? Is another Crimson Dusk coming? Will it be like the Great Crimson Dusk?" Despair and a ribbon of a wish danced along the river of thoughts.

"The Order hasn't gotten any signs that we're on the cusp of another Dusk," Fenrer murmured. "I can't say for certain, otherwise. Things are just sometimes... timed unfairly."

The rest of their walk remained in silence with the overhang of tension spreading the auras within the distant buildings through the world and drawing out the wriggling shadows on the edge of his view. Asu rubbed his hands in quick succession and mist raised from his breath. His temples tingled and Fenrer stopped on the border of a thin layer of mist.