While D’Argen alternated between consuming the sounds from the running water, sending out messages in different directions, and warming his fingers, Thar meditated. The light coming from him dimmed so much that only he was glowing—it looked like it came from under his white robes and pale skin—but the stale air remained warmer than what the location would have suggested.
When D’Argen tried, yet again, to send out a message, he felt a squeeze inside his core. It immediately bounced off against each of his ribs, circled down to his hip, tore through his broken leg, and left him completely breathless. By the time D’Argen opened his eyes, it felt like it had run through his entire body multiple times like lightning strikes. His mahee was almost depleted.
He chanced a glance at Thar, still silent and meditating except for the occasional shudder that revealed he was suppressing his coughs. Thar had his eyes closed. D’Argen must have been able to keep silent during the attack. Thar was, however, frowning so severely that there was a deep furrow between his brows.
D’Argen remained silent and finally decided to give his body and mahee both a break.
It felt like hours later when Thar said, “I should cross first.”
“What? Why?” D’Argen immediately jumped to respond. he had been doing nothing but wetting his lips on the sounds of the running water and he was bored. He had consumed enough to be able to breathe without pain. Sitting up, however, reminded him that even if his lungs and throat were mostly healed, the ribs were not. He wanted to rub the pain away, surprised that they were still hurting so much when even his broken leg felt like it was already healing. Probably the mahee prioritizing his ability to run over his discomfort at breathing.
Thar did not answer him but he did take the hooks and started walking toward the ice wall. D’Argen had to scramble to follow the source of light while he could still see where to put his feet. When he caught up, he realized that Thar had been walking slowly for his benefit while also increasing the light shining from his body.
“Why the ice? The rock would be better!” D’Argen asked.
Thar did not deem the question important enough to answer and strode right up to where the running water splashed the edges of the rocks and coated them in thin, slippery ice. He did not shift at all other than to spin on the spot to face the wall.
“Wait, wait, the rope!” D’Argen shouted, remembering their plan.
Thar waited obediently as D’Argen secured the rope around the man’s waist and then dropped to sit on the ground. D’Argen found two cracks that were deep enough for his heels to dig in and wrapped the rope loosely around his own waist. When he looked up, Thar was staring at him.
“In case you fall in the water,” D’Argen explained. “I will pull you back out.”
“That will hurt your leg.”
“And my waist. And my ribs. But you’d be here with me.” D’Argen grinned wide.
Thar turned to face the wall, hiding his face.
“Here we go,” D’Argen was the one to say it even though Thar was the one who swung the hook.
The first snap of the sharp edge hitting the ice had them both freeze automatically. The tip dug in quite deep but nothing else happened.
“Come now, put your back into it!” D’Argen goaded Thar.
The next swing made a hole the size of the man’s fist. Nothing shifted around them. Instead of swinging again, Thar used his upper body strength to pull himself up so he hung off both hooks. They held him, even if he had no purchase for his feet.
Thar worked slowly, swinging up and checking the hook would hold his weight before doing so with the other side. He moved diagonally, away from the thinner ice where the water broke the surface until he reached a height he deemed good enough. D’Argen swore under his breath because it was most likely Thar used his mahee to check the ice was strong enough to hold him. Then, Thar started swinging sideways.
Although it was not high and D’Argen could see the running water, he suddenly understood what Thar had felt as he watched D’Argen cross the dark gap before. If he could, D’Argen would have coaxed the ice out as well to create a small ledge for Thar to rest his feet on.
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D’Argen let out a breath that left his lungs aching once Thar reached the other side.
“Secure!” Thar called from the other side of the running water, his voice barely heard over the rushing and bubbling right in front of him.
With Thar’s light gone, D’Argen had to feel out the ice wall. The metal pole’s mechanism that had it spring open was strong enough to break the ice. The pole itself was flexible enough to bend just enough for D’Argen to lodge the other end in the cracks between the rocks. The rope was hanging barely a meter over the rushing water, but it was enough. Using a shorter rope, D’Argen secured himself to the one hanging over the water and then carefully and slowly, hand over hand and knee over knee, he crossed the gap.
By the time Thar’s white light surrounded him, he was sweating, his back was completely covered in tiny frozen droplets, and he was at least half sure that he had dislocated his hip again.
“This way,” Thar directed him without a break, leaving the rope behind and guiding D’Argen toward the dark tunnel.
They walked for a long time with only damp and cold rocks surrounding them. When D’Argen could not stop wincing anymore, Thar said he was tired and wanted a break. When Thar’s coughing increased to an alarming level, D’Argen pushed past the pain and got them moving again.
The path was smooth, like the running water had carved the tunnel out millennia ago, and though there were some parts where they had to hunch over and one area where they had to crawl, the tunnel was quite accommodating.
The problem arose when they entered a small cavern with a ceiling twice their height, a wall of dark-stained ice, and multiple formations from both ice and rock connecting the ground to the ceiling. The cavern itself would have been a nice place to rest but it was the fact that there were multiple tunnels leading out of it that made them pause. The light Thar threw out created strange shadows but it was not strong enough to penetrate the other tunnels more than a few steps.
“We need a break,” D’Argen announced, though he was worried about stopping for too long with the way Thar continued to cough.
Thar agreed with a quick nod and another bout of coughing. He used one of the formations to lower himself to the ground as he coughed but it did not stop. D’Argen limped over, unsure of what he could do to help but knowing that he had to try.
“I’m going to touch your chest,” D’Argen said in warning and then did just that. Thar’s entire body was shaking from the coughs and when D’Argen opened his mahee just a little, a sliver, he reached into Thar’s body. He did not reach for the other man’s mahee, there was no point, but he felt Thar’s lungs constricting even as they were filled up with blood. He felt the man’s throat torn up, his mouth and nose the same. The cold had touched Thar in a way that it never should have been able to – not when Thar himself controlled the cold around them.
As he was searching Thar’s body trying to figure out if there was anything he could do to fix it, the light faded completely. D’Argen startled in the dark and his other hand went to Thar’s shoulder.
“Are you alright?” he asked and received no reply.
Thar’s coughing was softer now, not as harsh and rib-breaking, but the reason for that was even more worrying.
“Thar?” D’Argen gently shook the man’s shoulder and got nothing in response.
He took a deep breath and it was so cold. Thar’s mahee was gone. He was no longer lighting their way or taking the cold into himself. “You’re just tired, I know,” D’Argen said, more to himself. Thar was passed out. He was sleeping. He was not depleted. It felt like a horrible intrusion but D’Argen had to know. He pushed harder against the man’s chest and reached further inside him. Thar’s mahee was like a wall of ice, blocking his way further in. It was hard but fragile, the ice so thin that it could have broken if only he pushed a little harder. It was still shifting like an iceberg slowly growing in the water. It was active.
Instead of pushing, D’Argen pulled back completely and opened eyes he did not realize he had closed. As he did, he realized that it was not pitch black. It took a long time for his eyes to adjust to the darkness around them without a spell, but when they did, D’Argen noticed there was a faint light source. He could not pinpoint where it came from, but the wall of ice, the one stained with dark rivers like marble, bounced some of the light around.
“Hey, I’m not seeing anything useful, but there is definitely light coming in from somewhere. I think we may be able to find a way to the surface from in here somehow, though it may involve breaking the ice.” Speaking to Thar made him feel better and without looking, it would have been easy to lie to himself and say that the following shake he felt in Thar’s body was not another cough but the man agreeing with him.
The chest under his hand barely rose and fell. It was so hard to keep the panic at bay. If Thar went dormant, if his mahee decided that the body no longer needed it, they were both screwed. D’Argen reached inside himself and then sent out another message down one of the tunnels. It did not come back for a long time.
“Maybe some water will do you good,” D’Argen said a little louder, letting his voice carry and bounce off the walls so he could consume it. It was so hard to consume his own sound but the echo of it down one of the tunnels was enough to wet his dry lips. D’Argen shivered in the cold and felt his body seeking warmth. He was so surprised that he moved closer to Thar.
Thar was not warm. His hands were always cold, as if his blood barely circulated or was made from ice crystals, and even his breath only fogged the air on a warm summer day when he exhaled cold air. Now… he was warmer than D’Argen. Even as D’Argen realized that he also noticed that Thar’s coughs were accompanied by shivers. The man wore thin linen and silk robes. Without his mahee, he would get frostbite and freeze in minutes.
D’Argen felt the stirrings of that panic inside him grow enough to constrict his own lungs and then he found himself coughing as well. He ignored it and pushed his hand harder against Thar’s chest, feeling the ribs under his palm shift and the man’s mahee pushing feebly back.