The rugged peaks of the mountain range rose to the sky like sharp swords defying the heavens, sharp edges piercing through fluffy clouds and slicing past the sky. The thick vener of the wind at these heights was easily cut apart by the sturdy earth vener of the rock and the blade vener that coated its deadly edges.

These were the famous peaks of the Lyspire Mountains, a range of sword-like formations that rose out of the ground and extended across a whole fifth of the continent. Many prominent sects had made their home here for the rich mix of vener essences, though that didn't come with it's own risks.

Donovan sighs, shading his eyes with his hands as he peers across at the hidden path curving through the mountains, crouching atop a spike that jutted out halfway up one of the mountains. "So this is it?" He mutters, watching seven figures lumber out of a cave far below him, the entrance hidden by mounds of boulders.

In contrast, he was clear as day; from a black hooded cloak to black gloves to black boots, the early morning sun didn't provide him with much camoflauge as it fell across the mountains.

Shadows stretched out where the light didn't, the featureless silhouettes of the mountains framing one another, the larger peaks burying the smaller ones under darkness as if in some silent competition of size.

Donovan blinks, extending his perception into the shadows - it slides through them like a snake, his vener linking the shadows to act as a bridge for his senses, letting them extend far beneath him, down to the monstrous figures as they sit down around a campfire.

He can't make out their guttural grunts or the thick, heavy sounds of their language - it roils in the air as they speak, a heavy ball of blood vener that has his gut rolling - but he'd known as much; it had taken him months to get down the Aureolian language when he'd first come here, and he wasn't too interested in trying to cram another one into his head.

Not that he could; the language of the hives was otherworldly, and no one knew it.

Still, he listens in; maybe they'll drop a name or two he can look into. There wasn't any harm. They couldn't escape now, after all.

He settles in for a while, plunging his hand into his own shadow that drops down against the spike and disappears, pulling out a leather-skin pouch knotted shut. Yanking it open with a thought, he shoves his hand in and throws a fistful of nuts into his mouth, gagging- the taste of blood fills his mouth until he cuts apart that particular strand of his sense, shoving his perception of the vener to the back of his mind.

He doesn't really need to eat, but a bit of flavour on the tongue never hurts, and these were glazed velanuts grown in a Lord's garden. The small bits of life vener that clung to them were good for his body, even if only a little.

"I see you've found them," a lilting, soft voice comes from besides him. He glances to the side, a woman made of white clouds coalescing in the air, thin streams of wind pulling her body together.

"Mm," he says, offering her his nuts, "They aren't much, are they?"

"They're only captains, Dovo," she declines the nuts with a shake of her head, wisps of cloud vener trailing across her cheeks. Her whole body, white and fluffy, stands still in the air besides his spike. She's just a craft, cloud vener twirled together in an imitation of her real body halfway across the continent, ribbons of white making up the bulk of her form. "Don't be so quick to dismiss them, however. This group could extinguish a lesser sect."

"One's subordinates are the indication of one's strength," he retorts, turning away from her. He doesn't bother scooting over to give her a place to sit. "If these guys are shabby, so's their boss." He doesn't really believe this, but it was in his nature to disagree with her; be it on the the most convenient Key, the best location for a sect, or the strength of their enemies.

She scowls, a flash of lightning sparking across her pearly-white lips, "Arrogance will be the death of you, and the death of many in turn. Be mindful of the role you play."

"The only role I'm playing is the one I want to," he says sharply, "And arrogance is your sin. I've never underestimated my enemies." He smiles sweetly, catching a nut in his mouth, "You've experienced as much, Yun Lei."

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She's silent for a moment, the wind whistling through tight gorges.

"Do you really think you can win?" She asks after a beat.

Donovan blinks, glancing at her.

"Of course," he responds confidently, turning back to face the front - still nothing from the dracken, the useless sops, "Even if I can't, someone else will. God knows, none of those sovereign bastards will be content to watch someone carve out their territory. The hives might thrive for a while, but in the end," he shrugs, popping another nut between his lips, "They'll die and burn, their leaders' heads buried in some wackjob's throphy room."

"...my, you are ever so optimistic about such matters." She says, reaching a hand out for one of his nuts. He dumps a few into her hand, the clouds tightening together like strands of string to hold them.

"Hey, I have to go home. It's been twenty-seven years. If I wasn't optimistic, I'd be a hollowed husk of a person."

He hears the crunch as the nuts are crushed in her mouth, the life vener rushing to enforce her clouds as the excess waste - the tasty bits - are bit to ash.

"Your personality might actually have been bearable then," she says, that familiar hardness back to her voice- he was tempted to ask if she really was worred that Aureole would be conquered, but he represses the urge. There wasn't any point in idle curiosity; Aureole wouldn't fall and her worry would disappear and then he'd make fun of her for it until he left.

He rolls his eyes at her, "Remind me, which one us slapped the other at a birthday banquet and challenged them to an honour duel-"

"Oh, be quiet!" She says, a tongue of lightning crackling off her fingers and striking his shoulder. "I was just a child. You would dare bring up something so long ago?"

"Well, I just did dare, so kinda a moot point." A small smile curves his lips, "Your personality was better back then too- you were grumpy and moody, but at least the cuteness offset it. Now you're just grumpy, no cuteness."

She frowns at him, her eyes narrowing, "Not ten minutes, and I'm already reminded why I choose to avoid you. Consider me impressed, Dovo."

He bites back his retort - while he was happy to trade insults, he preferred doing it in person. He hums as the pair sit silent for a few minutes, gazing down the vast mountainside at seven blurry spots, sitting around a blazing campfire lit on tree logs.

It was odd how something so small could mean so much- because if you squinted, Aureole was the logs, and those seven blurry spots were the hives threatening to make it theirs, laughing uproariously as the world crackled and burnt.

They were obviously having a good time- if only he could actually understand what was so funny, their hiccuping laughs might actually be tolerable. Perhaps they were joking about commiting mass genocide on the local population.

Or maybe they were just joking about cat puns. You never knew. Evil hardly meant they had no sense of hu-meow-r.

He yawns, standing up, "Alright, I've had enough," he declares, dropping his bag of nuts, swallowing it with his shadow, "These guys know nothing. I'm killing them before they make trouble."

He doesn't have to look at her to know she's frowning, the buzz of lightning in the air, "Isn't that a bit hasty? We could still interrogate them, or follow them. Drackens on their aren't so common. They could still be valuable."

"They can be valuable as corpses. We already know why they're here and where they're going - following them won't do anything but waste time." With a pulse of his vener, he calls away one of the mountain's shadows, compressing it into his own.

They were so far below that they wouldn't notice if a massive shadow suddenly disappeared, least of all from a mountain behind them; even if they did, their deaths were guaranteed. He just didn't care much to scare them beforehand.

"Is it impatience, then?" She asks, not stopping him.

"Is it what?" He asks, focusing on the mountain's shadow trapped in his, pushing it down the path of his vener to the creatures below.

"Your sin." She huffs.

"Oh," he thins his lips, and with a quick twist of his vener, seven jet-black spikes burst out behind each dracken, impaling them straight through the chest before they even notice, golden blood splattering across the ground.

"No. It took me a week to find these guys, so I'm plenty patient. I'm not really sure what my sin is."

Their bodies thump to the ground as the shadows fade out, travelling through his vener and reappearing, stretching out from the mountain they'd been taken from.

"If I had to say- perhaps pride."

"...how thoroughly useless." She complains, shaking her head. The wisps of cloud making up her body start to fade away, her feet disappearing. "Next time, leave the dracken; search for a knight," Her lips curl in disgust at the title, "If captains know nothing, we can only take greater risks. As long as we find the hive's lord, we can end this before it begins."

Her eyes meet his, silver-gray peering at him, "We're counting on you, Dovo."

He waves her off, twisting the air essence with a pulse of etra to make her go away quicker. "Just hold up your end of the bargain and we'll be square. See you, Yun Lei."

Another spark of lightning strikes at him, though this time he bothers to dodge it, just because it'll infuriate her.

"Farewell, Deeplord. Thank you for the nuts."