The tidal wave rushed into them long before Reina’s words did.
Hawkins didn’t know how she had found them so quickly but no matter how quickly the thought passed through his mind, Hack would always be three steps ahead of him. The Sand Wraith's meagre enchantment broke through the siren’s attempts to drown them, parting the waves without wasting a single pebble of his Trait.
The rain seethed against the quiet, assuming bunch of Traited, his mentor letting out a sigh of exhaustion as his breathing steadily adjusted back into its steady flow. He flicked his head towards Mantis, the half elf immediately recognising the crude Hammerlocke sign to gather everyone together and start looking for an escape. They didn’t have the strength to keep fighting much longer.
Mantis quickly ushered the three Traited and Tinker Mole over to the furthest point of Hack’s barrier, the water still rushing and filtering into the crack and rubble-strewn graveyard. Reina dropped down from her perch, still clutching an unconscious Cricket within her arms. Her jacket was the only thing covering the young Air Traited, Reina’s dishevelled hair soaked but strewn to one side.
“The chosen Bookkeeper out of all the other candidates sent to you to try and it chooses the one you wanted least, huh Hack?”
Reina looked as demented as she sounded, completely exhausted and unravelled by the constant chase between Enforcers, Overtaken and Traited. If it wasn’t for the plucky courage of a young Thyraxian trying to assist in any way she could then this whole debacle would be over. Cricket would have what she wanted.
No more annoying, scrappy Traited trying to fight there way through tooth and nail all to save a stupid book or a stupid kid caught in a war they didn’t belong in. They meddled where they didn’t belong and now she had no choice but to do the same.
"Traitor." Hack growled, attempting to stand his ground despite his own rocky footing.
Reina rolled her eyes, the rain she had summoned bucketing down as her sinister warning echoed around the void. Her scales were drenched in rain but for a moment she didn’t seem frazzled or broken but calmed by the rain she had summoned. She closed her eyes for a second and breathed, the rain trickling through the fins on her hands as she splayed them wide and summoned her grimoire.
It was a deep, dark blue almost black nothingness like the bottom of the Cercucian sea, with flecks of green and blues that flickered and died as if only escaping the light above to be dragged back down into the depths. Hawkins had never seen a Singfall siren before but he was certain with all the books he had read and stories he had been told that not one used a grimoire.
"To think you were once the infamous Gamekeeper too, Hackerby. I guess murderers certainly keep their connections when it comes to attempted genocide. Poor Sleek could never compare to you, Kinslayer.”
"What?"
Hawkins barely heard his own voice, Hack flinching and grit his teeth.
"Later."
The Sand Wraith’s expression softened, remembering their earlier argument.
"Promise."
Hawkins tugged awkwardly at his sleeves, trying to protect himself from the rain as Hack fidgeted from one leg to the other. It almost betrayed his earlier confidence with the prosthetic, the sludge like substance beneath them slowing his movements just enough to seem believable. The rain battered Hack’s attempt at the barrier, slicing through the translucent dome only for it to slowly rectify the growing holes in its surface.
Fidget was frantically digging behind them, the twins and Mantis blocking him from sight as they tried to redirect the water away from them. The two Mediators kept the attention of the Singfall siren still attempting to break their barrier, Hack’s breaths becoming more rapid by the second. Until Hawkins glanced over at Cricket. Reina was murmuring something to her, he could just about see her lips move but couldn’t read them from so far away.
Stroking her hair gently, the Singfallen’s eyes seemed to flash green with Tarragon before it erupted into seismic waves of pain. The two grimoires became one. A Triad but far older than any before it merged without sight, a deep sea green forced its way through Reina’s grimoire without any ounce of effort from the unconscious Tarragon. They hadn't laid eyes on Cricket’s grimoire. But just like his Triad with Memoriam it somehow didn’t need to. It was Abnormal.
“It took me a while to see it while you were busy playing warden. But you already knew how Memoriam worked. You're the same as Hack."
Reina hissed loudly, the sound piercing the barrier with enough conclusive force to rattle even Hack’s confidence. The Singfall siren's scales darkened to match her grimoire, a deep, dark navy that mirrored the Sand Wraith’s confrontation against Cricket as her Pulse echoed around the clearing. Her hair turned electric blue, irises tinged with green, furious at the comparison but clearly freed by no longer hiding the power so many like Hack had to hide.
"The same? As that halvasca? Don't spit on me and call it rain, little Mediator. I might be a necromancer but as sure as the seas change I'll never be like him. I'm the Stormkeeper."
Hawkins' eyes went wide, the phrase unclear to him but the link to the Keepers of Trait was unmistakable and he didn’t even need to see Hack’s expression to know it was true. He didn’t know how but despite not being Traited at birth they had willingly become Traited. Hack was a Sand Wraith which meant Blood Arts were their main focus of power while Singfall sirens held the power of songs, of Folka itself. The only question that lingered in his mind was who would choose to be cursed as a Traited and for what amount of power?
"Was. You were the Stormkeeper."
The rain that had steadily been chipping away at the invisible encampment broke through like a dam, the ex Stormkeeper’s steadily growing frustration becoming far too much for Hack’s Pulse to handle. He tried to redirect the rushing water with his Trait but it was too much weight for even him to handle. It was that growing fear, the nauseous feeling that clawed at his throat without warning that disguised itself as love and care even after he fell asleep. Cricket had never been the one pulling the strings. It was all Reina.
It was her who taught Cricket how to force a grimoire out of a Traited. It was her who drove Cricket to take back her status as Keeper, manipulating her just like the rain she conjured, leaving her alone and abandoned when she needed her most but spun it like some sort of punishment, kidnapping for the evil group who dared to take what was hers.
His smoke furiously emerged to overwhelm the Wavecaller’s senses, leaving him drowning in her memories as a group just like the Enforcers rallied together: Hack, Reina, Gizmo and so many more trying to do exactly what he was doing now. Protecting Memoriam from people like Reina. People like his mother, who squashed their dreams to force through their own. Hawkins didn’t even know if Cricket wanted to be the Bookkeeper anymore. Who knew if she did.
“No. That damn self proclaimed Storm Traited never deserved my power. She came to us, weak and alone even after her Agar got hurt but what did she do? She abandoned her home all because your beloved Fatekeeper asked her to? I would’ve died to save Neridia like she should’ve done for her homeland!”
The Abnormal Triad prevented the two from advancing, Reina’s voice booming as they tried to fight through the sheer impact of the noise. Daring not to look behind them and draw attention to the group desperately trying to avoid the rushing water breaking through, Hawkins' tired mind tried to come up with a solution, a distraction, anything to buy time.
“Cricket is clearly far more powerful, otherwise you wouldn’t be using her as a Triad.”
He could almost feel The Tinker Mole’s exhaustion, Mantis’ desperation causing her to look back and meet his eyes from just a moment, one arm still supporting Rin despite all their countless injuries. The Air Traited pushed the rising water away, Gidget’s hastily made the drainage system work overtime as Cull tried to heat up the air to rid themselves of rain.
“Shut it, Sand Wraith.”
The smoke that reminded him of the alleyways of Beggars End kept him calm as the earthy smell mixed with rain dissolved into the clogging smells of smog and dust in an attempt to conceal as many people as she could. But as if praying on a miracle, the surrounding rain clouds began to dwindle despite the darkness, Reina’s fatigue fizzled out along with her Trait as the Hanging Sun steadily began to rise and burn away the drizzle. They had one hour. They needed to make the most of it.
“It must be annoying having your plans play second fiddle to a child."
Hawkins noted Cricket's pale, shivering face, her breathing relatively steady but still covered in a seaspray of Reina’s Trait, propped up by a crook of stone far above the moat.
“Cricket is no child but you already know that Mediator."
Reina was no slouch, catching on to his aggravating tactics straight away and giving him nothing more than a smile before taking the ex Gamekeeper head on despite the sunlight.
"Yes. I know. She was once the Bookkeeper."
Reina was genuinely surprised, but she didn’t have enough energy to make her signature Trait weapon; her scythe turned to twin daggers in an attempt to break through Hack’s continuous defence but a lot of water and broken soil meant crops aplenty and Hack had no reason to hold back his Pulse anymore. Each rise and fall of his chest grew vines and flowers that roamed the sea of gravel and rainwater to try and trap her.
"Memoriam has already made its mark on you, I see. You've already seen what she is…well, was."
There was a tinge of sadness in Reina’s voice hidden by the hardness of someone who had discarded their morals a long time ago, letting loose her Trait with every ounce of energy she had. But even without Hack’s Armoured Transference he was a defender that couldn’t be brought down.
“So you knew, you knew and did nothing? You knew Memoriam would latch onto me rather than Cricket yet you still have her believing in this false goal. Why? Why now? Why keep going?” Hawkins pressed, trying to get through to her while concealing the others as much as possible.
Reina changed her target to Hawkins immediately, veering the jets of condensed, sickly sewage like water that no amount of earth pillars or strange botany could block. Hawkins managed to avoid it but he was now knee deep in Reina’s Trait and she was pissed and had all the control in the world. The breath he was holding was steadily expelled outwards, a brief sign from Mantis helping to ease his anxiety a little.
He hadn’t seen the Firestep wolves since this flash flood began but now the tunnels made sense. Hazard, Blaize and Gidget had used the same tunnel the Miner Craft had burrowed through to mediate their earlier argument and created false holes to not only drain the water but fool whoever tried to come after them.
Rin and Cull had decided to stay to protect the two unstable grimoires, the likelihood of creating a hole big enough and quickly enough without Reina noticing and flooding their escape. They had every right to be afraid of the rising tides but the sunlight kept them on their feet, the warmth seeping through their bones.
“As if I have the luxury of explanation. Only you can speak freely of what’s within those pages yet you don’t even know why you have it.”
Dread. Clinging to his throat. Water slowed his movements as the Singfall siren lulled him into a state of false security. Hack was too far away to help him, rushed away by the rapids as he tried to wade towards him and the twins. How could he have forgotten the Lockbind?
“So, am I to assume she learnt how to rip souls out of grimoires off her own trial and error?"
Reina laughed, lashing out at his exhausted attempt to block her as the Mediator desperately tried to avoid drowning. She sent his smoke scattering to the skies, Hawkins attempting to reform it into something useful but dissolved every time it came into contact with her.
Hawkins was grateful his mentor couldn't see his abysmal attempt at defense, spitting out the rank water and trying to divert her attention away from the group as long as he could. Grateful that he had sent Thea ahead to scout for Odi, the twins rescued Hack who was relatively untouched, he waded away to give as much of a wide berth as possible.
"Not her finest work. But it is better for them this way. Better to remain carefree as the spirits they are rather than stuck drifting."
The mucky water veered past the graves as if magically repelled by the combination of Trait, Pulse and Craft. It didn't take much to follow her vision, abandoning the effort to hunt for the nonexistent grimoires and instead heading towards the very spot the Mediator expected her to. The Soulcatcher Grove.
"Drifting?"
He distracted her with the question, one hand brushing against Sleek's gravestone in an attempt to keep his footing. Silently asking for forgiveness for touching his grave, the waist-high water attempted to pull him away but he held fast. Grateful the gravesite had been protected by the combination of Pulse, Trait and Craft. Reina lunged for the Mediator.
“You’ve seen the Trollians. You’ve seen what they truly are. You saw what they did to Cricket. You want those Enforcers to have the same fate? They'll drift from place to place aimlessly just like your Agar did."
Reina's plans were easy to predict after a brief glance at the abandoned Cricket. While Gidget and Hack had helped to create this lasting place for the Undercity with the combined efforts of Cricket's Trait, Gizmo's Craft and Reina's newly emerging Pulse, they could nullify it. They could either break it or find some way to use it themselves. If he had to guess, to lure Memoriam out of hiding.
"I wouldn't call that Drifting, no. Both of you, you and Cricket included."
The ring of smoke that smelled of Quicklit cigarettes, mingled with the eerie fog surrounding the Soulcatcher Grove as the Mediator’s addiction gnawed at his stomach along with the fear and adrenaline attempting to survive. His brain worked overtime to put his thoughts into words, the fog twisting and curling into the same memory that replayed over and over in his mind.
Cricket being surrounded by a healing flame. The two healers frantically try to fix their mistake. The flash of white blurring into another person. Seeing the Trollians transform into the spirits of the Enforcers. The truth behind the necromancers and his days with Wisp. His Agar had always been playful and carefree but the haunting thought that it was because he didn’t remember who he used to be was….heartbreaking.
All he knew was that Wisp never failed to show his emotions, whether reacting to Hawkins or amplifying his own emotions he wouldn’t have stayed as long as he did. Clearly with how bad they had left things but at least it ached a little less knowing he was happy despite how badly he had treated him before.
Hawkins blinked, the memory of Cricket’s injuries including another person baffled him but not before Reina’s fist slammed into his stomach. Cursing silently, he forcibly twisted his body to avoid desecrating Sleek’s gravestone as he slammed into the murky water barely keeping himself upright as the siren advanced. She was in her element.
"You're just making excuses to hide what you did. Carefree or not they might be free now but they've forgotten. They’ve forgotten and you exploited that to force them into something they didn’t want. Truancy.”
"You dare risk-"
"Drifting requires active thought to do so. Ambling through the days can still be meaningful even if it's the same burnt toast at the start of every morning. What happened to Cricket and what she's doing now isn't that. It isn't freedom to forget. It’s torture.”
Reina dragged him into the muck, gasping for breath as he was held down right below where Sleek rested. He could feel his mind going blank, desperate for oxygen as he thrashed and kicked at the siren with all his might. Reina’s grip loosened, suddenly distracted but Hawkins seized his chance and used his dwindling Trait to latch on and pull. He let out a growl of frustration, forcing himself to his feet and out of the steadily declining water.
The twins were surprisingly quick on the uptake despite the severe disadvantage. A second growl far fiercer than his own lunged at the blue blur of fins and scales, the Sand Wraith's wordless fury at Reina's attempt at drowning him nothing more than a purple haze. That explained the sudden distraction. No matter how furious he was at the alleged ex Stormkeeper, whatever grudge those two had with each other was on a whole other level.
“You sound just like him, Hackerby. You knew what he was planning to do Gamekeeper-"
"No. I didn't. All I know is that we failed. As Keepers and as necromancers."
Scales clashed against scales, Reina abandoning her attempts to use her Trait to her advantage as Hack kept to his namesake and hacked away at Reina’s attempts to brawl against a damn angry Sand Wraith. Hawkins managed to catch his breath, leaning against the tombstone before patting it gratefully and trying to clear as much as the muddy water he could.
Hawkins stared back at the trio, Cull’s arm raised in a bright blue flare as the pre prepared signal burned against the amber Hanging Sun. Thea was back. He had to squint to see the faintly glowing emerald Thyraxian clutching a much larger, dust ridden obsidian dragon no bigger than the insect spirit trying to carry her weight with her wind conjuring song. A Folka.
"Liar. The Timekeeper-"
“No. He cannot lie to a dragon. Not even the Gamekeeper can…"
Odi’s voice carried along with Thea’s song, waking him out of his stupor just a little more to relieve himself of a little exhaustion.
"Odi! Hang on…"
Her salamander form was battered and bruised beyond belief, her wings barely hanging on but as she put one claw in front of the other the indescribable feeling of relief at seeing Odi attempting to clamber through the rubble and avoid as much as the meagre landslide as possible. It was clear the moment their eyes met that they were fully aware of the unconscious Cricket only a few metres beside them.
She was wrapped in a protective layer of Trait, a bubble-like film attempting to keep her still and stuck to a crag of a broken chimney. Bile rose in his throat at the disgrace of being left abandoned all for a stupid fight. He had to physically restrain himself from rushing over there to heal the young child but instead watched Mantis reunite with her awaiting partner.
Mantis smiled at him, still wary of the current fight against the diminishing currents but with the Thyraxian’s guidance she noticed the lone Air Traited sat alone and unconscious on the edge. The half elf’s expression hardened, stalking towards the partially hidden Cricket only to stop halfway through and stare straight at him.
Hawkins felt like an out-of-body experience, the knife inches away from harm only to pull himself away and clearly, confidently make a decision for the first time in a long time. He shook his head. No matter the pain, no matter the suffering he would not allow anyone to senselessly kill a young, unconscious blind girl. Even if Odi had been hurt through her choices.
“Stop. Enough of your lies. I know what you did. I know what he did. I was supposed to be the Stormkeeper. To wield the very seas themselves and now because of a stupid book you tell me it was all a lie? That becoming a Traited was all for nothing?"
Hawkins tried to pay attention to the conversation, despite joining midway but was sliced by Reina’s Water Trait, her hand slicing through the air and his cheek as Hack clutched his arm, the deep wound seeping into the water. As the droplets fell the sky warped into a monochrome watercolour of Neridia: the Cerucian Sea outstretched before them.
A young Cricket, far younger than he had ever seen up to this point even now clutched an exhausted siren’s back, still swimming in an attempt to get this young child to safety. Eyes wide in wonder, Cricket watched the school of sirens beneath her sing and call to their sisters back and forth. It took a moment to realise such a small detail. Cricket could see. She could see everything.
The young girl had been tossed into the sea, left to drown after her family dared to try and enter the fabled floating country of Neridia during the height of their celebration. An entire country of elves and Trait haters after the war against Tarragon felled thousands of both sides and led them to create the Brink: the watery enchantment that lifts them away from the heart of the city. Floodbound.
Her fellow sirens felt no love even towards a struggling child but Reina could not stand by, willingly taking on the responsibility of Agar so she could survive. Memoriam pulled him out of Reina’s memories as if to prevent him from learning the truth of how a Singfall siren became a Traited. But in an attempt to break up the petty fight it was summoned right between the arguing Traited.
"It wasn't for nothing. It wasn't a lie, either. You…you saved her, Reina. You saved Cricket. You're right you were supposed to be Keepers, you were all supposed to but…you didn't fail. You saved us."
Hawkins desperately tried to block her vision from the black grimoire as it continued to nudge him like an old friend, the Smoke Traited trying to convince the deadly siren mere inches away from him. He took a deep breath, much like the same one Hack did before he had unlocked his Pulse for the first time and willingly let the black grimoire in.
Despite his hatred for Reina and her abysmal treatment of Cricket up until now, his patience clung to every strand of his Trait to try and get out of here alive. He recalled back to what he thought was the scariest Trait he’d ever seen and how he had refused to see Organa’s memories before the Eternal Death had taken her. Sleek’s last moments burned in his mind. He couldn’t let that happen to anyone else.
"How?"
Hawkins knew if he didn’t have a shred of empathy for the siren then Memoriam wouldn’t let him in. He smiled calmly and let the black grimoire decide. After all, it wouldn’t have shown her memories if he didn’t care. He clicked his fingers as the spark of flame bloomed to life and skittered along the thin canals Reina had created. The smoke that darted along his palm clashed like oil and water before a gust of wind picked up the spark and let it fly.
"You let things go in a different direction. Willingly. No one else did. No one else would so they died for it. You and Hack. Your generation of Keepers stayed alive even after they gave up what they knew. Why?”
The embers of his tiny flame danced along the waters, leaving a solid trail of connecting lights like burning stars that trailed into an outline of a person kneeling down as if to light a candle. His face was lined with grief and exhaustion, his salt and pepper hair ruffled by the dying winds surrounding the Soulcatcher Grove. He was the Timekeeper.
He gripped a small, broken watch wound back to the point of no return, clicking the broken top of the watch in an attempt to time himself more out of habit than anything else. He looked down at his hand, balling his fist as he stood up to face the day and turned to face his successor. The embers exploded into sparks of aquamarine, a long cloaked individual hidden except for her smile as she knelt down to a young Reina enamoured by the glowing electric blue lights. She was the Stormkeeper.
"For you, Hawkins. I became a Guardian, a failed Keeper of Trait for you." Hack admitted, his scales paling to a much calmer lilac.
The torch that was passed from generation to generation was held out in front of them, one after the other from Tinker Mole to Sand Wraith from Sand Wraith to Caithsee from Caithsee to Havalog. Until the current Timekeeper placed his hand over the Stormkeeper’s torch and snuffed it out.
All Hawkins could do was watch as the line of predecessors disappeared, leaving the mixing hues of blue and amber flame burned furiously into a familiar purple rage. The Stormkeeper tried to fight off the salt and pepper haired man, the Timekeeper walking towards a child, covered in dirt and sand as she desperately clutched the Stormkeeper’s cloak.
Her eyes were wide in fear, desperate to flee away from the blue flame. The Timekeeper thrust it into the young girl shaking hands, terrified and tried to return it to a young Reina. But she couldn’t accept it. She wasn’t a Traited. The rules the Timekeeper had forced upon the Keepers had torn everything apart, the newly chosen Stormkeeper forced to watch her predecessor fade to dust and the siren abandon her for stealing what was hers. It was for this very moment that created the first Lockbind. It was the Timekeeper who had changed everything.
“For my sister. She was like…Cricket. Smart. Brave. I became a Keeper for her. To save her but…” Reina’s voice trailed off, the Singfall siren sounding more vulnerable than he’d ever heard her.
Her hands were lowered to her side, weaponless but shaking as tears gathered at the corner of her eyes, blinking rapidly but still staring at the spot where her Master fought to save her and failed. It took Hawkins a few moments to silently connect the dots. Hack's admission warmed his heart but it was Reina’s explanation that helped him understand. They had become Keepers to save others. They had become Guardians to do the same.
Hawkins wasn’t sure how Memoriam knew but if he had to theorise, the Timekeeper could change who inherited but not who remembered becoming a Keeper. Much like Cricket beginning her life as a Bookkeeper to her brother’s attempting to fit their role as Keeper’s too. But the memories embedded in Memoriam were not the Timekeeper’s domain and despite his attempts to manipulate so many people for his own gain he clearly knew that long before anyone else. The question was, did Memoriam want to guide or stop the next Keepers of Trait?
"You're right to say I should've never been Bookkeeper but neither should Cricket or Sleek or Creed. We Traited…we caused this mess. We should be the ones to fix it. Not you. So we'll keep trying as many times as it takes."
"To do what?"
Hawkins looked down at the hovering black grimoire, nuzzling him just like Wisp used to and for the first time since seeing this damning grimoire on his doorstep grasped it in his hands and offered it willingly to the siren who had once been the Stormkeeper. He couldn’t look at his mentor’s eyes, his gaze burning into his forehead as the Sand Wraith silently pleaded with him to stop such a crazy move from going ahead.
"To remember."
Reina's expression softened with understanding, her desperation to reach out to uncover the forgotten memories stolen from her made her cry. It was like Hawkins had seen who she was the moment Memoriam had freed her from herself. Reina gave the fledgling Bookkeeper a genuine smile for the first time, the rain water steadily drifting down into Axis' drains below.
Her webbed fingers brushed against the black grimoire, still clamped shut but willingly waiting for the Singfall siren, who was denied everything all because of one single Fire Traited. Memoriam hummed with power, the vibrations making her scales quivering with anxiety only to flinch away at the last moment. The chains of the Lockbind appeared.
Hawkins looked at Reina. Her eyes flashed white. Terrified. She hesitated. Hack’s scales turned black. The hair on his neck stood on end, Memoriam daring to repel the siren backwards but Hawkins grip tightened on the frailty bound book, praying desperately for it to remain nothing more than a grimoire.
Reina opened her mouth as if to speak but the storm that erupted above her drowned out her words and the warmth of the Hanging Sun was gone. For all of Hawkins' compassion, Reina’s tears were wiped away in seconds and the pinpricks of water became razor sharp in her fingertips.
"It's too late for that."
Hawkins barely felt the slight difference between the anger of Hack’s Earth Trait and the subtle difference that came from the shaking ground. Just as the last of Reina’s canals seeped back into slushy gravel the pipes beneath the ground began to rumble until the infrastructure broke apart and the area exploded into geysers of pure chaos. Axis had become a sinkhole.