Chapter 37: The Edge of Winter

The five of us moved down the pier and found a series of coaches waiting for us. The servants quickly loaded up all of our luggage while One had a quick conversation with the driver, and soon we were off. We didn't even stop to stay the night in the town but headed off another. We were able to maintain a faster pace for several hours.

As I took in the scenery of the new area, I noticed the climate had changed a lot. Before we were on the ship, it was all old-growth forests. Still, now it was sparsely populated, with scraggly trees and long fields divided up by endless wooden fences. Every once in a while, we'd see a village off in the distance, but the road was nearly empty.

The road quality was levels above what the roads were back around the castle. The road was made from extremely tightly placed cobbles that we barely even felt the bumps on, or the suspension was just way better in these carriages.

The wind began to bite into the chill a little bit, and I pulled Six's body against me a little closer as we all huddled for warmth. Apparently, the winter clothes we had packed were still in the trunks. One seemed a little embarrassed about it, but none of the Numbered seemed to mind coming to my side of the carriage and squirming together for warmth. Even Four was sitting on my lap at the moment.

***

A couple of hours later, the scenery got boring, and I was just a little bit chilly. With the sun starting to head down to the horizon, we pulled over for a place to camp. Soon after, as soon as we did so, we each changed clothes into an interesting set of garments.

Five helped all of us get situated. It was how her "old people," as she put it, would dress from the even farther north.

The outfit started with a very thin but tight-fitting top of silk and matching pants. And then we each put on a thicker pair of pants and a puffy jacket, which certainly suited Five well if I wasn't lying.

Six was a little bit upset about having to get out of a dress, even though she knew it was coming, but that didn't stop her from grumbling the entire way. I had to say, the lithe bodysuit looked fantastic on her lithe frame, but when she did put on the puffy coat, it was a little too short for her frame. She claimed it made her remember what it was like being a teenager and constantly growing out of her clothes.

We slept in the carriage, and this time, I wasn't the only one alone in a bunk. We all huddled for warmth as it became truly cold. We didn't even bother undressing. None of the women suggested any sort of fun times, and I wouldn't have let them take off my pants even if they'd tried. It was just too cold for it.

Early in the morning, the sun woke me up before anyone. For the first time, I'd seen all of my Numbered or actually sleep. Normally, one of them would keep watch throughout the night. I had an idea why they didn't feel the need when I tried to open the door. I couldn't.

Gently, I bumped into it with my shoulder, and I heard the cracking of ice and a thump as a foot of snow fell off the roof.

One sat up from where she had been lying against me, the cold air apparently waking her. She looked around and saw me before lying back down, swinging her legs over and joining me as we walked out of the carriage, trying not to make any more noise than necessary. Outside was a vast field of snow.

I looked at it, and I shook my head. 'It's so different,'"

One nodded. "Yeah. It's odd that it's summer back home and winter up here." Looking around, I noticed that every carriage was covered in ice. The horses looked uncomfortable, but they each had thick blankets over them, and the drivers had taken care of them before heading to the tent they had pitched a little ways off.

Pulling up one of the maps I had brought with me, I found our position and confirmed with One together. We headed out, walking towards the west for a few minutes. Once we were out of earshot, I asked, "How are you doing, One?"

She looked up at me and smiled. "Quite well, Master."

"Fully recovered from the voyage?"

Her smile tightened slightly. "Yes, Master," she said before giving me a small smile.

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"Sorry. I won't keep bringing it up," I said consolingly, not wanting to alienate my only true ally. I wasn't sure it was possible, but upsetting her seemed like a poor decision in many ways.

"How am I doing?" I asked.

She turned to look at me and cocked her head. Then she blinked. "Oh. Yeah. You're fine. Like... sometimes I forget that you don't have the memories of Master. You're like a kinder version of him."

"Really?" I said, surprised.

"I mean, obviously, I don't literally forget, but you do such a good job at matching everyone's expectations of you that it's easy to fall into old habits."

"You don't seem nearly as tense," I said, but she just waved her off.

"Yeah. It's okay. The... it's like the kindness and politeness that Master would always show as a front was now just real."

I frowned, considering the implications. Maybe I was the same person, and I just had lost my memories. That still didn't quite line up yet. I knew things I shouldn't, words that no one else seemed to. There were no memories, but there was some general knowledge, and it didn't line up with what I had learned so far.

I shook my head as our destination showed up ahead of us. The field of white was broken by several stones jutting up in the middle of nowhere. As we trudged up to them, I could make out the strange writing along the edge of the archway that I had seen in the last place. I didn't bother trying to write it down; I merely observed. I came here this time alone because I wanted to try interacting with some magic. I wasn't exactly sure what people would expect of me. I wanted to experiment with how magic interacted with the runes, but, well, there were several concerns.

As I stepped up to touch one with my finger and trace it in the mind-bending simple pattern that didn't seem to line up, I focused and pulled the shadow of my finger, cast on it, and touched the filament to it. Nothing happened.

"So, are you going to tell me why you're so interested in these arches?" One asked.

"Portals," I corrected. "These portals."

"So you know. Tell me."

I shrugged. Was it time to let One in? Probably honestly.

"Well..." and I said, "Uh, I'm not sure I really should tell you, but I think I'm going to. I don't have any memories, but there are a few things that Columb gave me. I apparently had secrets even beyond what you knew."

One nodded. "Most likely, Master."

"Apparently, my primary allegiance is not to the Court of Shadows," I said, watching One for any sort of twitch. Either she was an expert at concealing her emotions, and I knew she was, or the fact that we were serving an organization that wasn't my first allegiance didn't bother her one bit. I suspected this was the latter, but was I willing to risk it?

She didn't say anything, so I continued. "Apparently, I'm part of a larger, larger organization. Something far more powerful than what this court is."

One's eyebrows shot up. "Um..." and I saw her mouth hanging open as I looked over my shoulder. But she wasn't looking at my words. She was looking at my hand.

Looking down, I saw a faint blue glow radiating from the rune underneath my finger. Not all of it, just a few tiny percentage points of it were filled up with energy where the shadow was touching it. I watched for several moments as it crept up, but just before the blue was filling up the room, it was about to reach my finger. I pulled it away, and it slowly drained.

"How..." One asked me. "How did you do that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but..."

One went forward to inspect the stone, completely forgetting our whole previous conversation. I circled around to the back, looking at it and brushing snow off some places where it had collected so I could get a better look at the mind-bending runes. As I was kicking some snow off of the base plate, I saw the tip of a feather.

"Huh? Odd," I muttered as I grabbed it and pulled it from the snow. The base of it was stained black, but the ink was not fully dry. I looked around at the pristine coat of snow, seeing no tracks.

"Someone's been here recently," I said as One poked her head around the corner and looked at the feather I was holding out.

"The ink's frozen, not dried," I said as she took it and looked at it carefully.

"Huh? So they are. I wonder what someone out here was doing?" One asked.

"Looks like writing," I said with a half grin.

"Maybe. I doubt it would be that simple if it is related to something you are interested in... You think it has something to do with this mysterious organization you're part of?" One asked. I knew she wouldn't forget that. But before I could answer, I saw over her shoulder Six and Four trudging along the snow towards us. And I closed my mouth before I could say anything.

I raised my hand and waved. Four returned the wave, and they picked up the pace, following our trail through the snow, before standing next to us, One holding a feather strangely in hand.

As they reached us, Four said, "Morning," in a surprisingly cheery voice.

"Hey, what's got you so excited?" I asked.

She smiled up at me. "Five's cooking breakfast. Ready to head back?"