Riandur woke up in a cold sweat to find hard blue-grey eyes assessing his movements. It wasn't the first time he had been forced to relive that day five years ago in his dreams. However, the symptoms of panic that his body showed while he was sleeping were increasing in severity. Originally, Rowlis had only seen a knit brow or him kicking out in the night during his episodes; but now, she feared the shadows that would wind around his body and the flare of his wings at odd hours of the night which sent things tumbling. She had been knocked from his bed while checking on him a couple of times and, though she understood the guilt that wracked him when he thought about the last time he and Saiph had seen Navi, she didn't know how to help him anymore. They had begun sharing a room on the first anniversary of Navi's disappearance. After a near silent dinner amongst the older and younger courts, most of Nav's friends had gone and gotten unbelievably drunk in the House of the Wind which had led to Rowlis and Riandur seeking each other's company to stave off their dark thoughts and nightmares. At first their evenings together had helped to cover their grief; however, as time continued to tick away both were slowly brought to the realization that while living together provided temporary relief it wouldn't heal the hurt they felt and having a friend close wasn't enough to completely eliminate their worry. Nothing short of Nav's return would ease the nightmares of the spymaster in training, or melt the icy walls that Rowlis had built around her heart.
Maintaining eye contact, Rowlis cocked an eyebrow as though asking what had happened to make this time any worse than the dozens of others he'd awoken in a panic. Riandur merely shrugged knowing that what she was hoping for was for him to describe a random nightmare to her and that, by describing the pain and fear he'd relived, he'd just be dragging up old terrors for Rowlis too.
After the silent exchange, Riandur rose to bathe and get ready for the meeting he knew they'd be having today; the meeting they'd had annually for the last five years. Today his friends would be attending a meeting with their parents, the inner circle of the Night Court, to decide if they would continue putting resources into trying to find Nav. This year would be the hardest yet. In the beginning, the consensus had been that if they couldn't find her in a reasonable amount of time, and if none of the other courts had stepped forward to use her in a power play, they would declare her dead to help everyone move on. The discussions Riandur had overheard leading into today told him that it would liking be Saiph and Nav's parents, himself and Rowlis, and the second in command, Amren, standing up against the rest of the circle.
As Riandur eased himself into the warm waters of his bath and waded out to the edge overlooking the mountains, he thought about how Navi had used to love going flying through them with all of their friends. He reminisced about how he, Saiph, and Nav had soared through the peaks trying to track and find Diarmuid and Rowlis, neither of whom had been born with wings, who would winnow out into the terrain and hide. It had been their favorite game growing up and had taught them all techniques for tracking fae when winnowing was involved. To keep the game fair Diarmuid and Rowlis wouldn't winnow too far on any given trip and would allow some tiny marker of their passing whether it be a footprint or a broken twig. Saiph had always excelled at the game using the hunting instincts his mother had instilled in him to his advantage while trying to pass them on to his sister.
Ten minutes later Riandur exited the bathing pool, eyes glazed over with memories of time long passed to find Rowlis had made her escape, returning to her designated, though unlived-in, rooms to prepare herself for the day. Looking into his wardrobe Riandur selected a black tunic and trousers as well as calf length boots before running his fingers through his shoulder length blond hair and attaching his gauntlets that bore green siphons to his wrists. Now dressed, he left his bedroom in The House of the Wind to join to join his parents and friends in the meeting room for breakfast and to debate continuing the search for one of the missing heirs to the Night Court. Being close to such meetings was convenient, but he and the rest of Saiph's circle had only moved to the House of the Wind after Navi had disappeared. None of them had fancied passing by the room she had once occupied in their shared townhouse every day.
When he arrived, the dining room table was covered in papers and maps that showed all of the places they'd checked over the years and all of the people they'd inquired with while searching for Navi. All attempts had ended with discouragement and a general sense of failure. This left many in the group believing that Nav was dead at this point and that it would be better if they declared her as such and gave up the search so everyone could finish grieving and move on. The last bulwarks against this opinion becoming a reality were Navi's parents, Amren, who had always had a soft spot for Nav as a girl, Rowlis, and Riandur. Looking around the room, it became clear to Riandur that not only was his information predicting an uphill battle to convince the remainder of the group to give them another year accurate, but that this would likely be the last year that Rhys, Feyre, and Rowlis would hunt for her. All three of them held onto a tiny spark of hope in their eyes that told him they'd get a final year, but the oceans of pain and darkness encroaching on the tiny flames spoke to the inevitable death of their optimistic thoughts on the matter. Only Amren still had flames blazing in her eyes to match the desperation in Riandur's heart, leading him to believe that much of the searching would fall on their shoulders once again.
In the last five years, he and Amren had visited all of the Solar Courts together, hoping to gather any information that the other leaders had overheard while his parents had checked in with leaders from the other Seasonal Courts. It was during this time that Feyre and Rhys would travel around trying to gain permission for these trips by their court while also maintaining their own and dealing with the rising threat of the Autumn Court.
Unfortunately, there had been little information to be found. All of the other leaders had denied involvement in her kidnapping, with Tarquin going so far as to provide the Night Court with as much time as they needed to search his lands without having to worry about him leveling the threat of the blood rubies against them. He had told them that he hoped his compliance could be the first steps toward mending the relationship between their lands and didn't feel comfortable denying them access despite knowing Nav wasn't in his court. Even the Autumn and Dawn Courts, who would quickly gain power through the marriage of two of their children, had allowed the Night Court brief access to their lands. This left everyone involved in the search unsure where else to check, as those who would benefit most from an heir to the Night Court disappearing appeared to be cooperating more than would be expected.
Riandur was pulled from his thoughts as Rhys and Feyre entered and everyone situated themselves around the long table to begin the most trying day of their year.
