An underwater symphony of screams crashed against the inside of Morvaan's skull.
The horrified voices of his guildsmen blended into one another and amplified the sound of dishes crashing from decorated tables. Their feet shook the hall and rattled chandeliers swinging in and out of sight from above him.
Morvaan didn't understand why he was on his side. He was giving a speech to the attendees of his wife's banquet just moments ago. Unbeknownst to him, he hadn't fallen from the podium. He was struck down.
Then it all came back to him.
The first note of this chaotic orchestra began with a scream.
His wife's scream.
Guildsmen scrambled about the Banquet Hall. Men and women—children—stumbled into one another in fear. The desperate trampled over the fallen. Those who stopped to aid them met the same fate as cowards sequestering in the face of Vita's gift.
The Light Heathen Army's lieutenant, Rorik, was aiding Commander Beacon through the crowd after a flaring orb of white light struck him. The sizzling imprint of a sphere marred the back of Beacon's armor and charred a portion of his flesh to charcoal.
"Damn it Beacon, help me! Move your feet!" Rorik growled at his older brother.
Beacon grunted through clenched teeth and scrunched eyes.
Rorik had to drag him through a crowd of distraught guests. Everyone's bodies bounced against one another in desperation.
The volatile orbs everyone sought to escape dove in and out of the crowd like birds preying on the ocean's surface for fresh fish. Synchronized ducking occurred in the congested line at random intervals. The wails of some veered the crowd in opposite directions.
It was at that moment that Rorik spotted their disoriented leader beside the podium.
"I'll be back," was Rorik's shallow attempt at a promise when he leaned Beacon against a nearby column. The Commander managed a painful nod and now Rorik was the one shoving people out of the way.
"Morvaan!"
The man's name slowly molded his senses together as the face of his younger brother, Rorik, came into focus. The golden gleam of his prestigious armor shone like the sun had finally risen above Morvaan.
Morvaan stirred and Rorik grasped his hand to yank him up to his feet. They both ducked as an orb of light whizzed by their heads. A single scan of the destroyed hall and the noble brothers concluded there wasn't one orb of quintessence.
There were many.
Morvaan's gaze followed the orbs' wild path back to their beautiful host and it took all Rorik's strength to keep Morvaan from leaping into the fray. Morvaan's first instinct as a husband would be to run to her, but he couldn't.
Not with her quintessence spiraling out of control. That energy was a conglomeration of the four natural elements, which crowned it the fifth. The fifth element of the world meant to bring peace had brought their ceremony crashing down with only a few allies in their midst to uphold what little order remained. One trusted ally being Raven Storm of the Allegiance Army.
"Move quickly!" Guests flocked to the glimmer of her violet armor knowing their lives were safe in the hands of such a renowned soldier.
Her bobbed hair swayed as she swung her mace. Its crown glowed emerald like her eyes with every orb she batted away from them. When the final guests escaped, and the doors slammed shut, she found Beacon's side at the column.
They may have belonged to opposite Authorities, but Raven and Beacon held the utmost respect for one another. Raven flushed out whatever weaknesses were to be had as a Nightmare woman in society by projecting a stubborn confidence that Beacon's jovial countenance always rendered useless. This time it was the smile Beacon forced, meant to reassure Raven, that provoked a concerned frown from her instead.
Then unstable orbs floating about like tainted dandelions jittered and jerked towards them.
Raven jerked her mace downward and extended it. She twirled the glowing staff around their bodies and deflected the volatile energy from both sides while Beacon reached into the glowing center of his shield and pulled out a sword to join her.
Not too far from them, Morvaan's wife - the host of all this chaos - writhed in the center of the hall with strained fingers as a pool of blood developed underneath her. Navi's alabaster gown was tarnished crimson as blood stretched across the polished floor.
She gripped her bulging belly full of life and anguish as blood seeped between her trembling hands into the cracks.
"No..." she begged. "No, please!"
Navi scooped the blood toward her in desperation as though drawing it nearer would rekindle the life within her womb. This was the risk she and Morvaan chose to take for the sake of their union. Their loved ones warned them of their actions with soft pleas, but it was often a warning bred of blood that solidified such qualms.
"Please don't take her from me..." Navi sobbed on her hands and knees.
The orbs interrupted her grieving with a vengeance and spiked out of control. Navi twisted onto her side with an outstretched hand to shield herself. Her guttural scream excited the flaring orbs of light ignoring her and destroying the banquet hall.
Navi failed to heed their warnings and now the time had come for nature to take its course while Morvaan watched his wife wither away before him. Her outstretched hand dropped into the pool of blood and her fierce eyes were reduced to the light flutter of her eyelids as her conscience waned.
"Release me now!" Morvaan shoved Rorik off him.
Before Morvaan could pass the column Beacon was at, he tackled Morvaan to the ground with his shield overhead.
"Are you mad?" Beacon shouted over the collision of orbs with his shield.
"She is my wife, now release me!" Morvaan shouted at him.
"None of us can get close enough without getting hit!" Beacon argued.
"Stop arguing and give me a damn barrier!" Raven yelled at them.
During their unproductive squabbling, Raven had taken the first opening she spotted to maneuver the chaotic swarm of energy like an agile feline. Only the naive would have thought Raven's armor enough to weigh her down, for beneath its glory was the physique of a warrior.
After a final swing overhead, Raven knelt beside Navi - a sight that forced Beacon's forgetful words down his throat. He clearly forgot what kind of soldier Raven was. Beacon and Morvaan shared awkward glances before an orb whistled by and got them to their feet just in time for their youngest sibling to rejoin them.
"We need to get her to the Mender's Ward." Rorik urged.
"We don't have time for that." Beacon motioned for his brothers to get close before he took off in a sprint.
His mighty shield provided them safe passage. The brothers were a considerable distance from Raven and Navi when they got into position. Rorik and Morvaan stood adjacent to each other behind Navi's head and Beacon found his place in front of her. After Beacon swung his large shield onto his back, all three brothers pointed open palms at each other.
Navi and Raven were in between them.
A beam of teal light shot out of Beacon's hands—green from Morvaan's—and orange from Rorik's. Their colorful quintessence collided to form a pyramid of aurora light. The orbs were no longer a threat to them as they bashed against its sides in violent ripples but failed to damage their powerful barrier.
"We have to stabilize her now or she won't make it!" Beacon knew his urgent words reached Raven through the barrier because she was closest to him, but the harsh reality eluded his brothers' ears.
"What about the child...?" Raven whispered to herself as Navi's head drooped to the side.
Raven grasped the center of Navi's gown with apologetic eyes and tore it open. She felt around Navi's stomach and concentrated on sensing any signs of budding life. Navi craned her neck back and a scream seized her lungs. The pregnant woman sat up on her elbows with strained breaths and screamed once more as she bent her legs.
Raven felt a sudden pressure beneath her hands and her eyes widened. Something moved - she moved - and that was the only sign Raven needed to shift in between Navi's legs with haste.
"What's happening?" Morvaan's muffled voice barely made it through the thick barrier.
He almost moved from his position until Rorik reminded him, "Stay where you are!"
That stilled his feet, but not his thoughts. His wife risked giving birth and he was twenty feet from her, ensuring that her uncontrollable quintessence did not wreak any more havoc. Navi had never even seen her quintessence. She was not supposed to because she was an ephemeral.
Ephemerals were not like them.
They weren't given the gift of quintessence to wield but to live. Yet a balance had been broken that caused excruciating ripples of pain throughout Navi's body as if a tangible enemy was in their midst - strumming chords of discord - but there was none. The only enemy to behold was the quintessence fleeing Navi's body against her own will.
A will that Raven could not allow to fade.
Raven unlatched her gauntlets and pulled them off. She spread Navi's legs farther apart with uncertainty. Raven had bared witness to many atrocities during the war but never had she expected to see anything like this. She also knew the child was still alive, but Navi had lost so much blood. One look at Navi's slick skin and the amount of blood spilling out of her and Raven flicked honest eyes at her crimson palms.
"Save her, Raven."
With those words, a knot formed in Raven's throat.
"But Morvaan—"
"He'll choose me, Raven. I love him, I know his heart."
Raven's conflicted eyes found Morvaan's petrified expression as he struggled to see what was happening through the aurora of quintessence.
"Raven." A weak smile graced Navi's lips.
"Don't make me do this." Raven's pleading eyes stared into Navi's, but she would not meet her gaze.
Navi's eyes were afflicted by the same grief clouding Raven's.
Raven didn't understand how Navi could ask her to make that decision when her husband was not but twenty feet from them. This woman, her friend, was her right hand and now she was requesting Raven to sever it.
Navi's back arched with another shrill and Raven moved her hands between her legs.
"R-Raven...she chose one."
That lifted Raven's head. Her eyes almost brightened, but a sadness overwhelmed what was supposed to be a secret they shared with their children together.
"A name?" Raven swallowed her tears.
Navi hummed a giggled as her eyes slowly rolled to the back of her head and closed. Her head dropped hard to the ground. That was all it took for Raven to scramble across the floor and shift behind Navi.
She pulled Navi up between her legs and Navi's head rested against her chest. Raven wrapped an arm around Navi's torso and gripped the bottom of her chin to tilt her head back. She patted the side of Navi's cheek, but there was still no response.
Raven gritted her teeth with stinging eyes.
"Navi, wake up!" She rocked her back and forth and stared up at the peak of the pyramid's aurora.
"Raven, what's wrong?" Morvaan's pained voice bled through the barrier.
At this point, Raven was not certain a mender could save the child with how limp Navi was in her arms. However, when she thought all hope was lost, a sharp hiss of breath raised Navi's chest.
"Her name..."
Raven moved her ear as close to Navi's mouth as possible.
"Yes, tell me." Raven had to know. "What has she chosen?"
"What name will the world come to know her by?"
And thus, an infant who had chosen her own name was born.