Under the Dawn's Light (Book 5)

Chapter 6

MARIA

Harmonies sang with Mother's voice as she listened to the lullabies of her childhood, her inner Avaerilian found solace within the notes stuck between multiple walls of damp, pale stone. As from her dreams, Mother tucked her in bed and continued the soft purr of Navei to set her on the course to slumber — the sirens of the north, Mother used to laugh at the descriptor, but acknowledged all the same that the ice fae and the oceanic sirens shared a penchant for their voice, their body movements, and the endless dance across the world. Embers died underneath her skin when she sat in the furs her captors gave her, tattered and moth-eaten, but more than they gave the Avaerlian they left in the darkness, his blonde waves slicked against his brow. Wheat-spun feathers floated to the snowy piles around him.

Gray feathers sat between her fingers, and Yuven refused to look at her. A symptom of sickness. Neven sat in his chains without further complaint whenever they came around to abuse their innocent prisoner. Dullness shattered the sapphires and left them in a mist through his lips. Shivers wracked his once lean shoulders, ruined by the mistreatment, the lack of nutrition. If this keeps up, he's not even going to last through whatever they have planned for him... Maria doubted Neven even knew she was still there from the way he sometimes blathered in Navei at nothing, though he had gone long silent to the ringing of the bells. He's not even able to magically regulate his temperature in his condition...

"Neven?" Maria forced through her teeth.

He and Kemal were among the first to welcome her to their posting, their designation built upon Warden secrecy. Beyond the walls, over the Dark Sea, the strip of Derelict horde constant in its hunger where regular boats crumbled to rust and rot, providing a feast for whatever lay within the depths. He cared for her as if she was his own, but underneath the scrutiny of his people, he stood up for her defense and claimed her an Avaerilian all the same. Maria dug her fingers into her palm at his uncharacteristic, defeated silence. The same man who flew across giant waves, through the misty tubes and out the other side with an excited smile of pure release. He flipped off the crescents, ignoring the risk of Derelicts hiding beneath the foam.

An Avaerilian who surfed like he was flying; deep within his heritage and half of her own.

Come on, Nev... Hold onto that hope and don't let their despair drain you of who you are. Maria tucked her soles into the furs to provide the added comfort and shred of warmth with her back against the pale white stones of their prison cell. "Neven." In the power of a name in his Navei tongue, he swayed on his shoulders and lifted his gaze to her from the dark. "Do you know how long we've been here?" Maria squinted through the colors of gray to investigate the state of his face. Shields of snow set a film across his pupils. Snow blindness? It can't be caused by the sun... maybe that's what's been causing his hallucinations? Maria scooted as far as her chains would let her to sit on the border between the darkness and the light when his lips parted for weak speech.

"Days. Weeks? A whole month?" His melodic accent broke as he slouched his neck and the metal clanged against the stone when he shifted his feet. "I... I do not know anymore, Maria." A soft grunt left a guttural hiss when he dragged his shoulder up the wall and tangles of his blonde hair stuck to his brow. "But I made a promise... a promise I have to keep." His beaded pupils slipped back into the darkness, half-rolled over to the small window which let a constant cascade of snow inside. Maria jolted when a sudden burst of energy snapped him against his chains towards the cell bars, his feathers folded against each-other as he tugged until his wrists bled. "I promised, you hear me?" He screeched with a snap of his fangs. "I promised him I would return! I am of the blizzard and I will never die!"

A birdlike scream left his throat as he pulled, tearing through her eardrums at the rumbling sound from deep inside his chest as the music outside on the streets raised into a powerful crescendo.