"Bunch of crows," Braum muttered as they crossed an anteroom with large paned windows that looked down into the sparring rings of the castle. Up here, the training circles looked like footprints left behind by giants, the equipment like marbles in a pit. Little streaks of snow collided on the panes, frozen from the temperature outside. Elodie's hands were wrapped tightly in her skirt while Braum's swung idly as his side, at ease.

Once they were away from the doorway and alone from the others, Braum let out a long, heady sigh. Alone, except, of course, Ann, who lurked just inside the archway of the room, hands folded in a tidy lotus in front of her. Her crescent eyes were a gentle warning reserved for the prince, a little reminder that they were not alone.

"You must be tired," Braum offered. When Elodie gave no response, he added, "And bothered by my noisy advisors."

Elodie thought very carefully about her following words. "Lord Alden and Emerys were very kind to me."

Braum crossed his arms behind his back as they walked. His cloak stalked behind him like a lengthy shadow, stretching down the hallway, eager to catch up with him. Elodie watched him from her peripheral vision. Memories bubbled up in small moments. Spotting him from across the room at a soirée where he'd been surrounded by crowds of silk and brocade or from up at a balcony giving an address during the summer solstice. He wasn't unfamiliar to her, just separate. He came from a social strata she'd never ascend to, surrounded by sparkling people and radiant opportunities. Her footsteps were tipped and tense, like a rabbit hiding from a wolf.

"I think all of your stewards are very protective of you."

"Are they now?"

"They asked me many questions, but I think it was all in the interest of protecting you. Not all nobles are so ... one-minded." She blinked, realizing she'd perhaps overstepped, and waved her hands frantically in the air as though she could clear the words out of the way like smoke after a fire. "Not in a bad way! And not that I need to lecture you- I only just met them ... so ..."

Braum barked a laugh, then promptly put a hand over his mouth as though to hide the sincere grin underneath. "Well said."

They walked silently through another hallway into an anteroom with several alcoves displaying vases with Forsythia stalks and pots decorated with an open-palmed set of hands. Elodie recalled her mother had a set of beads with similar iconography dedicated to the Builder. She remembered playing with it as a child.

More windows flooded light onto the wooden floors, decorated with plush carpets, a pleasant warmth compared to the grey swaths outside. The more they walked, the tighter she gripped her skirts.

At last, Elodie asked, "Why did you ask me to walk with you?"

"You seemed overwhelmed. I wanted to help you escape."

"That's it?"

"That's it." His chin tilted slightly to glance down at her from the corners of his eyes. "Should I have another reason?"

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"No- ah- of course not, your highness." Elodie looked down. His honesty caught her off balance. The bridges of her ears turned red. "I just thought you'd ask about oration or ..." Or what?

"I've got a dozen questions, but this walk is yours," he said, rolling back on his heels, pleased lilt to his pace. "You can tell me everything in your head, or we can walk in silence, and you can clear it."

Elodie stepped a little closer in time with him as they walked. "I'm not very ... not one for conversation. I rarely feel I have anything of value to say." This conversation wasn't so bad, though. "Or ... I'm slow. To say what I mean."

"I don't mind."

Elodie examined him to see if he was being honest or giving her a platitude. When she was satisfied that he was telling the truth, she said, "It's all been ... a lot. I don't know what to think, and people keep asking me to explain. Which I can't."

"Mm. I can imagine."

"I'm scared." Why was she telling him this? "And I wish someone would tell me what to do. Or ... wake me up if this is all a dream. I need time to think, but I also don't know if it's going to get worse."

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Elodie let out a breath she felt she'd been holding since this morning. Little misty drops sat in the corner of her eyes, but the spool of thread inside her was unwinding. Her fingers uncurled from her skirt. "I don't need to bother you with the details like this. Thank you. For the walk. And for listening. I'm sure you're busy..." She imagined Alden's ice-cold stare from here for distracting Braum and shivered a little.

"The way I see it-"

His footsteps came to a halt. Elodie's trailed ahead a few more paces before stopping as well. She met with wells of inky black depth.

"We'll see each other more, and I'd be a fool to pass up an opportunity to walk with you before everyone else takes notice." Somehow, Elodie felt like what he wanted to say was, "You can't escape now." Gravity.

Ah. Elodie understood. Now that she was an orator- if she was an orator- her life as a wallflower had ended. He was giving her due warning: she was going to become a person that was more spectacle than substance. One that garnered attention. The very thought moved through her like a sluggish pour of syrup. There had barely been time to recover from the physical exhaustion of this morning, and now the emotional and mental exhaustion began to coalesce.

Even princes would vie for her time now that she could grant wishes and make dreams come true.

"Oh."

Braum said something more, but the sound of it was distant and echoed. Elodie's head was fuzzy, and a gnawing cold was in her stomach. She reached a hand to the wall to steady herself.

Braum's toying expression changed to dismay. The next words she made out. "But perhaps a walk was too strenuous. I've been careless, I didn't consider-"

The voice in her throat plummeted to the depths of her chest. She wrestled with it, trying to pull it back up with gasps of air. Ann had already stepped forward from the shadows, offering an arm Elodie leaned on greedily. Ann and Braum both became blurry, ink stains spreading out and joining with the other colors of the room.

I need expression, the voice from within said lazily. The tone was similar to her voice but muted and sultry. It had an electric-tinged edge, like biting down on a copper coin. Last time, you were asleep, so I expressed myself. But your body won't be able to hold its muse if you don't express it.

The cold in her stomach started to stretch and expand, pushing on the walls of her body. Little cracks formed at the edges of her skin, and Elodie felt a screaming pain kicking at the fissures. It wasn't a wholly ugly pain, either. It was like a poem demanding to be written, a creation clamoring to be sung. The stabbing needles darted up and down her arms with little sparks commandeering obedience.

How do I express it? Elodie begged.

Speak, it responded.

She closed her eyes. Pop. Nothing. No words. Only the resounding, dull thud of pain drumming on her elbows, knees, and stomach. Her heartbeat slowed, and each thud reverberated louder than the last.

"Lady Elodie!" It was Braum's voice that cut through the rhythmic pounding.

Vaguely, she was aware that her hair whipped around her like a banner on one of the castle's high tower poles. Her skirts fluttered and mixed with apparated snowflakes that melted and froze in a cycle around her. Braum's blue gem reflected two bright lances of light where her eyes should have been.

Braum called again, jaw set in a tight square. "Can you hear us?"

Speak.

"It wants me to speak," she exhaled, the sound harsh and guttural.

"So speak!"

Jagged crystals formed between threads in the rug as she backed away, and where her fingers scraped the wall, a spiraling pattern of ice fractals erupted up to the ceiling. A wind began to pick up with a woosh from the floor, slamming the windows open and sending icicles flying into the training ground below. They exploded into clouds of ice upon impact with the castle walls. Snow from outside cascaded down towards her body and mixed with the melting and freezing pieces of magic around her.

The wind barreled through the hallway, and one of the vases of forsythia teetered to the edge of a pedestal. Braum threw out an arm to brace it, pushing it back in place through reflex.

"Elodie, say something!" His voice was getting farther away.

What do you want the magic to do?

There was a crunching sound, and then Elodie felt a sudden warmth in her palm. Ann cupped Elodie's hand with her own, anchoring her to the floor. Ann's face contorted with determination and fearlessness.

"Take it away!" The snow in the air pulled towards her hands, and Elodie felt it pool like a cool chain of metal in her free hand.

Then send it away.

Elodie extended her hand to her side, fingers splayed out with her palm outwards. The magic extended from her hand and then pulled taut, snapping backward like a rubber band into the hand that held Ann's. Ice crystals jolted outwards in spikes where their hands connected, and blue, glowing leylines shot up both women's arms, shining through their veins.

Ann screamed and recoiled as the tips of her fingers turned grey and became encased in heavy ice. She hunched over it and backed away a few steps into the wall, reflexively trying to shake the ice loose. It continued to grow, and the weight became too much for her to bear. Her form crumpled like a wet piece of paper as the ice ballooned outwards. There was a thud as her body was pulled to the ground with it. The weight of it was enough to shake the hallway stones, and the vase that Braum had previously saved crashed to the ground. Shards of hardened clay, glass and flakes of snow pressed themselves into cracks in the ground. The few remaining candles guttered in the cold winter air.

Between the chaos, the pain in Elodie's body ebbed away as the magic was expended- expressed- as the voice had called it. She could feel it leaking away from her like blood trickling out of a wound. It coursed through the ice. The leylines sparked with her energy.

Then, as soon as it formed, the walls, floor, and ceiling were empty. The magic dissipated, twinkling away with a eerie light. Gossamer curtains around the window hoisted themselves up in the breeze from outside.

Elodie felt the ground give underneath her. Ann didn't move.

Distantly, Elodie heard the Prince yelling, "Wardens!" in a booming voice that carried and echoed on hollow walls. The echo reverberated into darkness.