Matriarch Neera was generous as she sent us away, providing enough of their meager supplies of wood for us to make a proper sled and loading it down with a mix of trading goods and slightly magical compounds. These included several antlers, pelts that seemed to never get even slightly wet, and a mix of herbs used in tattooing inks and the like.

I'd never had much to do with magical materials, or rather those that were already doing things, other than my brief lessons on tattooing, but they still held tons of value. Even if I'd never seen many of them, I knew that there were many types of magical beasts and plants that came about rarely and had fantastical powers. Sadly most of what I'd seen, except the weird shadowy beasts that had once attacked my home village, were very minor effects overall, and seemed very similar to some of the weird biology of Earth.

Isha added her things to the sled, but Chien had been cagey. I didn't know what his trades had been, but had some ideas based on what I knew about him. As we approached the door out of Icehome a girl appeared near the back of the entry chamber, looking around.

“Shit, we gotta go boss,” he said, hurrying out the exit.

“What did you go and do?” I asked as I began pulling the vehicle.

“Don't worry, it'll be fine, we just need to go.”

“Chien...”

As we began to move through the snow, flakes falling around us he whispered. “Look, I may have made some mistakes, and she might think that I'm significantly more interested in staying here than I am, and...”

“And you didn't have the guts to tell her the truth?” Isha accused, looking disgusted.

“She was trying to get me to meet her family!” he said, trying to be quiet while shouting at the same time, we were still not too far from the hive's doorway, close enough that others coming in and out could hear us. “What was I supposed to do when she went to get her parents, huh?”

“Stop her, and explain things properly obviously!” Isha reached for his ear, but my assistant ducked her hand, pulling ahead. “Come back here right this moment, you're going back and fixing this right now!”

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“No I am not, she'll be fine, it'll all be fine, you'll see. Sure, she'll mope for a bit, but that girl wasn't that dense, I'm sure she'll understand... eventually.” Isha tried to chase him, but Chien simply had longer legs, and unless they started to sling spells at one another there really wasn't much of a chance there.

I smartly kept my mouth shut. Sure, what Chien was doing was wrong, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't understand. He didn't want to get involved, to get tied down. The girl in question hadn't meant anything to him, even if she'd thought she had, and he was running rather than explaining that to her and possibly her angry relatives. I was also sure it would come back to bite him in the ass one day though, these things tended to and we lived long lives.

The two of them were so busy bickering that they hardly noticed as we pulled away from Icehome, getting further and further from the large settlement. Our working plan was to travel South and East, since I was told there was a coast that way, and hopefully a way out of this awful tundra. How far would it be? I didn't rightly know, but it could take weeks and weeks even if we went quickly. We weren't in a rush though, things would take as long as they took.

That first night away from Icehome the change in our preparations showed itself in how great it was. The little igloo we made from the snow and ice wasn't cold, but pleasantly warm, one of the heating stones we'd reserved filling it with hot air. With the furs we'd gained our beds were several times better than they'd been, and food was both plentiful and tasty compared to what it had been.

One thing alone put a damper on it, and that was the fact that Isha was still angry with Chien. Shooting him glares the whole night and even adding me to her list when she realized that I wasn't going to do anything about it.

“You can't think he's right,” she complained as she joined me in our bed.

“I don't.”

“But you're not going to say anything to him?”

“He's an adult, he can make mistakes if he wants to. I'm certainly no paragon of morals to tell him what he must do.”

“How can you say that with all the people you've saved?” she asked, taking my face in her hands and making me look her in the eyes.

“All the people I've killed,” I responded.

“Sometimes we have to kill, but I know you Elian, I know you hate hurting people. I know you didn't want to do those things, but you had to, because of what would have happened if you didn't. Can you seriously tell me that you enjoyed hurting people?”

“I don't, but it's not the same.”

“Sometimes good people have to do things they hate to stop evil. You could have caused lots more trouble back there in Icehome, and we both know it, you could have done so much more, but what did you do? You helped people, you gave them means to keep themselves safe while teaching them what you could. Sure, it irritated the people in charge, but you didn't try to lead some sort of rampage, or just up and tell them they were being wronged, instead you took a gentler path.”

“You see more good in me than I do love.” My thoughts went back to the children Cino had used, how I'd failed to save them, failed to help them, how I'd failed so many times and all the pain that came from those failures.

“Someone has to, but remember this, if you were a monster you wouldn't really care about harming others would you?”

In response I just kissed her on her forehead, for that was better than any words I had.

“Which is why you should tell Chien off,” she complained.

“I think we're a bit beyond going back to apologize,” I retorted.

“Maybe, but he should know not to bloody do it again. He probably does, but he'll listen better if it's you who points it out.”

“Let's not talk about this any more tonight,” I said, kissing her lightly.

“Fine.” With that word she turned her back to me, looking out the other side of the bed angrily. It seemed I wouldn't be getting any piece over this either for the moment.