"In every winter's heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a shining dawn."

— Kahlil G.

A gravelly voice rang out from the lake "Interesting sorrow." it rumbled. The sound coming from a beast like there was no mistaking it was entirely inhuman.

But she paid no heed to it. There was a swallowing gaping hole inside her chest that felt like double-tons of heavy rocks that pulled her closer to the ground like a decaying flower, preventing her to raise a glance upwards to see who spoke. The gravity of her sorrow pulling her closer to the ground.

"Are you of this world or not of this world?" it asked.

She froze with her face in her hands, mind drawing to an existential blank.

She didn't even begin to know how to describe who she was to someone in this foreign universe. Up until now, people presumed to know what she was.

How was she going to put it in a way where she won't alert anyone about the alarming disruption of her arrival as a behagthi would. "I am...was once of my world, and yet, I am not of this world." she said, wondering where her brains went off to after a big breakdown.

It grunted. "Are you tribe or spirit?"

She laughed, the question sounding silly in her ears. She was a wandering spirit, alright. But was she tribe? Would she arouse suspicion if she said she wasn't tribe? Going for a neutral answer, she replied. "Both."

Then, she dropped her hands to her lap and looked up, dread coiling like a fastening knot in her belly at the sight that greeted her.

It was a pale man hovering in the middle of the lake, his toes an inch away from its surface. He was wearing a gray leather hide around his hips with a thick leather string in knots that looped around thrice to secure its hide from slipping off. Apart from that he was naked from the waist up, his bones protruding from his skin.

There was a horror story her grandmother used to tell her about pale ghosts from the Old Norse. It was about living corpses who walk again after rising from death. There was a name for them, but she couldn't quite put what her grandmother used to call it.

Draugr.

She was sure that the entity hovering inches above the placid water was the beast of a snow prince Bla'keh was talking about. He resembled a living ghost with pale, translucent skin. An opaque marble-like layer of white that consumed his eyes, devoid of color. She noticed his dramatic bone structure. Tall, strong cheekbones, an emphasized granite line of his jaw, and, for all his gaunt build, his shoulders held a wide span and a broad back.

He hovered inches above the water at the center of the lake and under him, clouds of dark blood was blooming underwater, spreading like spilled ink across paper. It looked like he had emerged from the water because his long white hair was wet, and the length of it ran down to the middle of his back.

"Your sorrow is strong in you." he said, his mouth, although pale, was lush and full. "Let me take care of you, I know of a place where you can go where you will be free of it. There I will watch over you, growing in spirit, getting stronger as a soul to prepare you to be reborn into a life where the mountain poison doesn't thicken in your blood."

"I'm good." she replied, drying her tear-stained cheeks with the backs of her hands "Um, what is your name?"

He sneered, the man across her exuding cold authority and decrepit arrogance, "Don't you recognize your prince?"

"I.. um.. didn't think—" she stuttered, leaning back, feeling like her legs had frozen cold on the ground.

He raised a dismissive palm, "No matter. The mountain poison fills me at a full capacity. I won't hold it against you for barely recognizing."

In the waters of the lake, she watched a spreading of dark blood dispersing into thinning clouds, stretching outwards like curling tendrils of smoke until it disappeared in the wide expanse of the lake.

"Your emotions are distracting as I have more work to do." he shot her an annoyed glance "Are you sure you do not wish to sleep a final rest and dream forever?"

"N-no.. I- uh.. Hold on." she mumbled, a spark of irritation shooting through her at the realization of what he implied. It was enough to give her strength to rise up to her feet. "Are you responsible for the dream sickness?"

His pale eyes were unblinking. It narrowed, cutting to her like shards of ice. Then, he tipped his chin up in a nod of agreement.

At that moment, frustration was a welcome fire that melted away her harsh grief, "There are kids dying in the snow tribe because of you! Aren't you supposed to be their guardian? I thought protecting them is your duty. Not killing them off."

In a split second, his ghostly face was less than an inch from hers, "Don't speak to me of a curse you haven't got a faintest clue in understanding."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

She met his unforgiving gaze head-on, "Make me, then."

He gave a deep, menacing laugh. "Are you not frightened of me?"

She swallowed audibly, confusion ebbing in. A minute ago, this guy had offered to take care of her and judging by his speed and powers, if he really wanted to hurt her, he wouldn't have even offered at all. If he really wanted to do her harm, he would have done it by now. "Should I be?"

His mouth pressed into a line. He twisted, staring back at the lake for a few moments before turning to her "My loyal subjects leave me here alone in this lake because my pale form sickens them. It wasn't always this way. When I was much younger, I used to make them watch to incentivize hard obedience and loyalty. Fear used to be a powerful motivator for them, back then. But now it has changed."

"What changed?"

"Now, all they feel is disgust" he sneered, "I don't blame them. The mountain poison has turned for the worse in this century. Poverty is at a widespread, and the suffering of every snow tribespeople are much too strong and bitter. There is no stopping the poison and there is nothing a snow prince can do about it. I'm failing my people, they're drowning in pain and suffering. This is my curse."

"So what?" she bit out, remembering Bla'keh's words back in the elevator. "Killing your own people is your way of showing mercy?"

"No." he shook his head, wet tendrils of white hair clinging to his skin. "You wouldn't understand."

She licked her dry lips, "I want to understand."

He sighed, gliding back towards the center of the lake in a hover, without even moving a muscle. He looked past his shoulder to shoot her a final glance "Follow me and you die."

It was her turn to laugh, "I passed through universes just fine without dying. I think I'm good."

He gave a slow smirk, a taunting bait that snapped at her as he descended toes first unto the water, going fully under until he disappeared.

For the first time, no one spoke to her. No wise words came to her. Not even an advice from her grandfather rose to her mind nor a healthy reminder from Dr. Malia. What would her heroes say? None of their enlightening passages came to her.

So, she followed instinct.

And she very well knew what her instincs were telling her.

Looking out to the snowy lake that he disappeared into, a permeating echo of peace fell silent in the clearing with dry leaves rustling from the whistling wind. She let her eyelids close, feeling that same disquieting echo resonate somewhere inside her. There was no doubt about it. No doubt about it. at. all.

She slipped off her fur-lined leather boots. Then she started jumping on the balls of her feet, shaking her arms loose of tension, and breathed a deep exhale. Words began chanting inside her head. Ride or die, River, ride or die. We've been riding this prophecy bandwagon, if I stop now, more snow tribespeople are gonna die of his dream sickness. If I follow him—

She plunged headlong into the lake in a dive. She knew that if she had finished her train of thoughts, it will be quickly followed by multitudes of paralyzing doubt. She had to do it fast before uncertainty came kicking in.

When she opened her eyes underwater, she gasped for air. And the air entered her lungs. I can breathe? she thought in disbelief, casting her gaze in every direction.

She can see even better.

The blue of the water surrounding her was a darker shade of blue, the likes of which, she had never seen before. It was more vivid, more vibrant, and colorful as though the underwater landscape she was seeing had come from a fairytale picture-book. The floorbed was crowded with rocky corals with schools of fishes travelling between, clusters of flowers pervaded every surface almost entirely and the glittering sands were a neon green.

She looked at her palms and waved it around. The water didn't feel like water. It didn't bog her down in weight or sluggishness. There was no pressure resisting her movement. Gravity had absolutely lost its hold on her. The feeling in this underwater— it was akin to flying. Her weight wasn't a hundred pounds, she was lighter and weighed like a feather. And when she stroked forward with her arms, there was no water pressure against her skin. She flew forward like someone with wings would have.

She looked behind her, wondering if she grew wings but there were none. Instead, she found her long tresses of black hair wafting and curling outwards in a slow floating motion along with her red coat jacket that flowed weightless in the water that didn't feel like water. She had never felt so alive.

For a good long moment, she swam around the lake at break-neck speed, searching for the snow prince.

The man was a stark brightness against the vivid blue of the underwater depths. As she caught sight of him, thousands of bubbles around her multiplied into thousands more as she started gathering more speed.

She grabbed onto him, clutching his shoulders because she didn't know how to stop to a full-on break. When she barreled into him, they spun around in circles before slowing to a complete stop.

A bubble of mirth escaped her lips. A stunned snow prince staring at her with widened eyes. Where are we heading? She asked in mental-speak, the connection to him opening inside her mind like smooth gliding clockwork.

When he continued to stare at her, she closed the distance between them, in case, he ever thought of disappearing again. She didn't dare lose him. Wild horses won't be able to drag her away. He was her mission now until this day was done.

"Behagthi" he spoke, realization dawning in his features. "Is this not painful for you?"

"No." she smiled, feeling like she can twirl again with her hair and red coat jacket swaying in a circular swirl but she had to stop herself. "This feels beautiful."

He swallowed hard, throat bobbing in surprise. "Do.. do you wish to see the otherworld?"

She slid her hand down to entwine hers with his, "You keep asking questions. I'm beginning to suspect that you actually might care."

He huffed, looking away, then slid back to her. "No one has ever gone to the deep-end with me."

With her gaze, she followed the path that he was about to move towards the distance to. The floorbed under them was filled with neon green sand. The corals were sparse and the path ahead paved a steep fall into an abyss. A bottomless pit that yawned a black gaping hole where the darkness of its void was enormous.

A shudder went through her. "During Yuletide season," she gulped "My grandmother used to sing to me this song about the winter solstice, and it said something poignant about the place of the deepest darkest space much like that one."

His question rang an echo in their mental-speak connection. What is it? he asked.

Suddenly, the sense of dread came coiling back to her in a sickening embrace. The longer she stared across to the abyss, the deeper her fear sobered her excitement.

At times like this, it was good to remember her old childhood tricks. Whenever she got too nervous, or got extra anxious, there was only one thing that can help her get through it: music.

She pushed out a note through her lips, and the pulsing wave of the water blew bubbles outwards in a rippling stir.

The snow prince's face grew serious, his expression almost severe. "Do that again."

She almost snorted.

Princes and their autocratic tendencies, she shrugged off the thought and instead pushed out a few experimental notes from her mouth, and the resounding sound reverberated as though she had been singing into an empty cavernous space.

His eyes narrowed to slits, "Siren" he accused.

She grinned. There was a strengthening wave of motion pulsing outside of them. The corals seemed to glow more in its vibrancy, the sandy floorbed seemed to shift into a lighter hue of glittering dots and as the water rippled gently around them, it shifted in a varying spectrum between blue to purple shades of color.

The world around them was moving, and the pressurized rush of movement touching her skin felt a lot like warm crisp air that was gathering before a storm, crackling with an energy force beyond comprehension. Awaiting something powerful, dangerous and awe-inspiring.

Struck by the wildest urge of curiosity, she began singing her grandmother's winter solstice song, "Wrap up in the cloak of starry darkness, my child, and you'll find the center of all things. For from this place of the deepest dark space.." Her gaze snapped to the snow prince's piercing eyes when he had clenched her hand somewhat brutally hard, she paused for a moment to gauge his intentions then she continued, repeating from where she was interrupted. "For from this place of the deepest dark space, life eternal does spring."