Himiko’s feet touched the sand, cool in the dim light of whatever this planet orbited, the deep blue reminiscent of a particularly bright night, although they could still see the path ahead. They had all been deliberating on their walk to the shoreline - although they accepted the deal with a casual demeanor, they weren’t certain on their plan. They really weren’t certain about anything.

“Hey, Amity..?” Himiko put her hand on Amity’s shoulder.

“Yeah? What’s up?”

"Uhm, can we draw back for a second? I want to speak out of earshot of the rest of the group…” Himiko whispered.

Amity slowed her pace, already somewhat behind the group, until they were a fair bit away. Still following the leader with the map, Himiko sighed.

“Can I please confide something in you?”

Amity gestured for her to speak, and she did.

“Amity, are you scared? About all of this, I mean. We’re going to go fight someone who we have no idea about besides the fact they’re a renowned killer. We could die and be forgotten by time, vanished within a mysterious green portal that I made. That I made.”

She wiped the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks away with her arm.

“Amity, I’m scared. I got us stuck in some place in the middle of nowhere we have no idea how to leave. I don’t know how we could even begin to leave, and that makes it worse because I can barely help. You know what to do, almost all of the time.” Himiko felt the tears escape her, and she didn’t try to fight them. “I’m the witch - I’m the one who pretends to be a witch. I don’t deserve this hat. I don’t deserve what I make myself out to be, I’m scared of everything that magic entails. It got us trapped in this stupid place and we might never leave.”

She felt her legs betray her as she fell to her knees, sitting down with them to her chest against a nearby rock.

“Amity, you hate me, don’t you? The reason the water things brought out my image is because you hate me for what I did to you - to everyone. It brought out your ex, and you hate her. Everyone hates me. I’m so sorry, Amity.”

Amity knelt down, beside the sobbing girl.

“Himiko, I-”“Save it.”

She continued despite the interruption.

“Himiko, I’m sorry. I don’t hate you. None of us hate you. This place sucks, but we’re not here because of you. We’re not here because of one of us, we’re here because of all of us - we all decided to go in, and we all decided to go away from the portal, and we all ended up stranded, together. You may have made the pencil, but it’s not your responsibility what we wrote. I’m sorry, if I did something to make you feel like I hate you. I really don’t.”

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The embrace of the girl consoling Himiko made her blush a bit as she sobbed, slowly slowing the rate of tears down.

“I don’t know why the water things decided to pick you of all people, but I can say with certainty that it’s not because I hate you. I don’t even hate her, actually. You know the story, what she did to herself.”

“Yeah…”“It wasn’t quite her fault, and I don’t blame her for choosing the route she did. Everything compounded, and…”

Amity felt herself tearing up a bit, and she decided to end that train of conversation.

“Yeah… I find similar qualities in you though, so maybe that’s why it pulled you out. You remind me of her in the best ways.”

“Thanks…“

Himiko sniffed, rubbing her teary face over the shoulder of Amity’s dress to dry it off.

“Thank you, Amity. You’re wonderful.”

The words made Amity’s eyes water a bit more as Himiko pulled away, and she felt a few tears run down her cheeks at the remembrance of that phrase.

Nonetheless, she stood up, and they both quickly made it back to the main group.

“Hey guys, we’re back. Sorry about that.”

“It’s all good, don’t worry. We still have a few minutes before we hit the shore, so maybe Amity should get warmed up a bit with the ice stuff.”

“Ah, right.” Amity stepped back, ready to practice her ice.

Himiko stepped up where Amity was, and asked Raleigh something.

“So, what exactly is the plan for getting across the ocean?”

“It’s less an ocean to cross, closer to a big river. The plan is for Amity to lead us, walking slowly as she freezes the water to ice in front of us.”

Himiko tilted her head a bit, “Is she up to this? I mean, she didn’t look good earlier today, are we sure she’ll be able to make a stable ice bridge for that long?”

Raleigh sighed. “She’s saying she’s fine, and I trust her.”

They walked mostly in silence, Amity trailing behind, practicing keeping an ice block stable for the entire rest of the way to shore.

Eventually, they reached the edge of the land, and Himiko looked out upon the dark blue area that spanned beyond her vision, blocked by a thin layer of fog that carpeted the entire ocean, although it stopped a few feet out from shore.

“Amity, you ready?”

She nodded, and determined, stepped up to the water. Her toes dipped in, and she turned around to the group, repeating something.

“So, to reiterate, we’re all going to walk carefully since it’s going to be slippery, and me and Kaiya will switch out if either of us get tired. We’ll make it across the water, and once we’re in the other area, we can take a breather before continuing.”

She turned back around, and placed the ice block she had been stabilizing in her hands for the past few minutes into the cool water, carefully retaining the intangible grasp on it as she forced it to expand, wide enough that they could walk on it, then proceeded to make it longer, gesturing for everyone to step on as she pushed it forwards in-front of her.

“And, off we are.”

As she walked, she felt the ice shrinking a small bit, melting in the back as she forced the front to grow, expanding itself with the water surrounding it, making the job of expanding it as she needed to significantly easier, as only half the effort was needed - rather than needing to create water and then freeze it using solely her ties to magic, she could pull just the cold and use that.

She doesn’t think of doing this, it happens automatically. Everything wants to exert the least effort for the most gain, and magic isn’t an exception.

They walked along the ice bridge, suspended in the water as the melting end pulled away from the sandy shore and the girl heading the group continued to grow it in the opposite direction.