A Shield of Faith (BOOK 4)

Chapter 33

MARIA

Wisps of silver petals danced across the essence pool Yuven laid in, lost to the Expulsion Event's final finish. His breath faded as she focused all her energy into his body, ready for the moment of release, the second between life and death. His chest barely rose and fell in full, and she left Fenrer at his side, to preserve his wish, even if it was his last. Maria bit on her tongue and tried to concentrate on the flow which emanated from Yuven, a reminder of his existence until it dissipated out of view. Neven leaned against the corner, pale and shaky as she stood to the test of Turns of research. Come on, Yuven. Maria focused on his face instead, paler than a ghost, and no more corrupted ooze slipped past his lips.

Adara sat near Fenrer, head lowered to her chest in insurmountable heaviness. All remained quiet as her fire twine tightened against her fingers. One of the Healers sat back with a towel in their lap, their brow scrunched in concern and defeated weariness, but she refused to fall into the steps of fear and despair. Neven shifted in his corner, glancing at Fenrer with a small, almost inaudible huff of pain, but none of them mattered in a single moment.

Maria glared down at Yuven and tried to cling onto the dying flow as he laid there in the clouds, unaffected by the silver clouds flying around him. Her fingers tensed in the eerie quiet, concentrating on the path of an inferno. Legs braced for impact, she dragged her magick down to her soles to keep her standing in place, against her exhaustion and the heaviness in the atmosphere. Her ability not to work magick, but miracles. Maria chewed on her tongue as she stood in front of him on the docks, and she had never seen him look so defeated.

"I just want you to remember me," he said and held out the necklace she wore for his love as he slipped it into her hands. "I could die not having my name etched on the annals of Warden history, if I could just be carried by you, Myl'la." He lifted the lavender fields of hidden weariness behind the mask of fiery spirit.

Just remember me.

"Captain Ollain?" the Healer with the towel whispered when they leaned closer to Yuven.

You didn't need to give me anything but you, Yuven. Maria clenched her fists as the world went in slow motion, with Neven slipping to his knees at the words the Healer spoke, with Adara's eyes widening in torment. But even if the entire world was ready to give up on you, I'm not them. Maria overturned her palms at Yuven's lost heartbeat and breath. Embers curled around Fenrer when she stretched her magick deeper and he shivered with a soft, uncomfortable inhale. Maria forced one step forward into the light Adara placed within the pool, the might which turned even the largest Derelict to stone. Orange glyphs rose from the air when she held her hands out, her crescent blade strapped close to her side as she raised it against the despair the Derelicts brought with their existence. Twine tighter against her fingers, she breathed out a plume of energy through her nose, the Avaerilian trait of Mother.

The rainbow within the essence rippled.

White flames burst apart the silver clouds as all but Fenrer jolted in slow motion at the activity. Yuven stiffened, then opened his eyes wide, filled with purple, mixed with tundra snows. A single moment. He gasped out in shock, pain, and strife as he rolled over onto his side and the ooze slipped past his lips in a waterfall, staining the rock and the essence with red, no longer mixed with black. Neven raced forward off his knees, grabbing his arm when he flailed for support. He raised a hand up to his throat, then his mouth as the Healer with the towel came closer, shaken and confused when the purples burned into intense morning mist.

"Spit it out, Yuven!" she snapped. "Let it go!"

He obeyed and choked up a crimson tendril, where a puny little red crystal clattered against the rock and rumbled with energy it stole from him. Flames at the ready, she sent the blade made out of her magick downwards to cut him from his death, serrated on the edges until the crimson tendril disintegrated and he sank into Neven's arms as the crystal shivered in Derelict depravity. Maria knelt down to scoop it up into her gloved hands, kneeling in front of Yuven to have him bear witness to a Storm Warden's true victory, where no Ancient managed the impossible that she had made. Embers grew from her gloves and clung onto the crystal with its own teeth when Yuven lifted his attention to her, breathing heavily, deeply with no small amount of discomfort and pain.