Freezing winds whipped around her as she made her way through the white plains. The furs So-ree had stolen as she fled her old home barely seemed to make a difference against the cold but she still tried to pull them tighter. It seemed like the white nothingness around her went on forever but she had no choice but to go on.

“Are you sure that I’m not just walking in circles until I’ll keel over and die?”, she asked into the emptiness. She had been whispering and the winds scattered her words that she could barely hear them herself but a voice still responded.

You are. I can see the spirit hanging in the sky. You are on the right path.

“Not sure if I can trust you on that, Fen. I am almost out of food, I might just start gnawing on that leg you have me carrying around.”

My name is Fenner, you know this, child. And do not dare touching it. Only misfortune can come from you handling that. Be quiet instead and conserve your energy. You will need it soon enough.

So-ree groaned which was entirely lost to the howls of the winds around her but she soldiered on. Her choices were limited with no way to orient herself, so there was nothing left but to listen to the disembodied voice she had inherited from Aionwe and soldier on. Maybe her frozen body would be a warning for any other idiots that made their way out into this frozen hellscape.

With no way to track time, So-ree had no idea how many hours it took for her to notice the looming crag that interrupted the eternal snowfall around her. She stopped as the snow beneath her feet receded and she stepped on gravel instead. Only did the quieting winds register and she looked up. The rock face in front of her blocked out the winds and for the first time in a long while, So-ree was able to hear something other than the deafening roar that had been her constant companion as she travelled towards this enclave. At least she hoped there was an enclave here.

So-ree walked forward until she reached the crag, turning around to lean against it and letting herself fall to the ground as she felt the exhaustion of her impossible trek come over her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had made it. She got out of Kalder and reached this place, something she could have never even pictured a few weeks ago. The only future for her had been getting crushed in a mine collapse or getting beaten to death by an overseer when she went too far once again. Aionwe had saved her from that. Now she would have to carry on her legacy and kill an immortal.

“What now?”, she asked after taking another breath, savouring the feeling of not having her lungs punctured by a thousand needles of ice.

The enclave is somewhere to your right. Find an entrance and make your way inside. Use my gift to keep a low profile and get the lay of the land. We have to find out who we are dealing with before we can make any moves, Fenner’s voice answered immediately. Aionwe’s sacrifice will not be in vain, she has bought me quite some time with her last gift.

After another breath, So-ree pushed herself to her feet and turned to the right, surprised to immediately see a warm glow around the bend of the crag. Fenner had been right! Before proceeding, she grasped the small bag hung around her neck and focused on the spirit’s gift. She could feel their presence wrapped tightly around her, seemingly leaking into her at some points, but especially at her collar where the bag usually rested. It had taken about a week until she could feel it and quite some guidance from Aionwe in between her own trips into her old enclave for So-ree to figure out the twist of mind necessary to take control of what the spirit was offering her. She had to separate it out of the spirit’s body and gather it inside of her. It was easiest when she pictured a ball of yarn at the centre of her chest slowly spooling up all the energy that she took into herself. Once she felt she had enough, she reversed the spooling process, wrapping the thread of power around her body, underneath the spirit.

You are slow, Fenner commented once she finished the process. You won’t have this much time to get it right every time. You need to be better.

“Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep it in mind for next time”, So-ree answered, rolling her eyes. The spirit did not seem to notice.

With the wrapping of power around her in place, she made her way along the rock towards the light. It didn’t take long for her to reach the lights which turned out to be lanterns hung along the sides of a gap within the wall which lead inside. It was about three times her height and barely as wide as she was tall. So-ree stopped for a moment, her breath caught, as she saw two people sitting a few steps inside the gap. They were wrapped in thick furs against the cold and sitting on low chairs on either side of the wall. Fenner’s power did its job however and they paid no attention to her as she passed between them. They did not seem to take their guard duties very seriously, which made sense to So-ree. Who would make their way here through this storm or try to go into it? She was certainly glad to be out of it.

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Making her way deeper into the gap, she checked on the wrapping around her. It had thinned in some places where the guards would have noticed her but it was still in place around her body. All according to plan so far. It didn’t take long for the gap to widen and for So-ree to step inside the actual enclave. She found herself on a wide road with walls to both sides. Stairs and walkways as well as doors and windows which pointed towards living spaces within the wall dotted the rock and when she looked up, she could see the white sky above her. The height of the rock around her kept the snow mostly out as the wild winds didn’t lend themselves to a straight fall, but there were some patches of snow around her. The wall on both sides was interrupted by further gaps which led deeper into the rock on both sides which indicated that this settlement had far more space than what was just in front of her. So-ree had to take a moment to take it all in.

“They… they live like that? Under the open sky?”, she said.

Not all enclaves are trapped underground like yours. In fact, most spirits prefer the open sky. It nourishes us. But you humans are so fragile, accommodations have to be made.

Already So-ree felt like she’d come to the strangest place, not to speak of her strange companion. More than once during her flight into the white nothingness had she wished that Aionwe had been with her and now she thought the same again. Although So-ree had only known the woman for a few weeks after she had taken her under her wings, her absence left a hole. So-ree had no idea what she was doing but she had no choice but to act the part.

With that in mind she focused on Fenner’s guidance outside the enclave. She had to ‘get the lay of the land’, as they had put it. So-ree assumed that meant figuring out how this place worked and who was around. That was something she could do. First order of business, find a gathering place. And while she was at it, she would look for something to eat and maybe a change of clothes or a chance to wash up. She was no stranger to hunger or filth, but if she could go unnoticed she might as well take advantage of it.

So-ree had no idea what time it was, the storm of white making it impossible to even determine if it was night or day, but the fact that she hadn’t encountered anyone except the guards probably meant that it was either late or early. Or people avoided going outside, a sentiment she currently shared. After walking around and spying into a few windows, So-ree managed to find a larger common area where a few people had gathered. It was a room behind a door three flights of stairs up on one of the walls with a larger window and a double door. The walkway in front was larger as well, maybe they sat outside when the weather was better.

So-ree hesitate at the door knob. Would Fenner’s gift be enough to hide her opening the door? She knew that it worked better when no one paid attention to her and slipping in during a storm would draw everyone’s attention for sure. But after waiting for a while and no one showing up to open the door for her, she decided to just risk it. Time would eat away at the wrapping as well and it didn’t seem like she would get in otherwise. After taking a deep breath, she turned the door knob and pushed the door open just enough for her to slip in and close the door again. She pressed herself against the wall next to the door, in plain sight of everyone and took a survey of the room. No one was staring at her, that was a good start. There were four rows of table and a smattering of people sitting at them, some of them drinking from earthen mugs, others eating some sort of slob. Three women were nursing babies and a man in furs dyed red hovering over one of the women. None of them turned around to check on the new person entering the room. They were also oddly quiet, in fact, all of them were focused on their activities and not even the young mothers were saying anything to their babies or to each other.

So-ree checked the wrapping again and noticed some thinning which she quickly reinforced which earned her a disembodied grumble from Fenner. Then she circled along the wall through the room until she hit a table standing at the back wall next to a closed door. A large pot and a pile of bowls stood next to three filled mugs. Her grumbling stomach violently reminded her that her provisions were dangerously low and after once again checking her reinforced wrapping, she grabbed a bowl and filled it, finding a small box with spoons next to it. She started to dig in which earned her another disbelieving comment from Fenner which she ignored. They couldn’t expect her to work on an empty stomach.

While she leaned against the side of the table and ate her bowl, she checked on the people again. They all had a similar brown complexion and dark hair which both the men and women kept short. Most of them had kept their fur on but loosened them in places, revealing white tunics underneath. They still weren’t talking to each other. With nothing to catch her attention, she turned the half of her focus which wasn’t occupied with eating to the only person standing out in this room. The man in red furs. His skin was a darker brown and his hair was cropped even shorter than the rest. His eyes were of a soft ochre color and he had turned his head to the back of the room. Looking straight at her. So-ree slowly lowered her spoon and took a few steps to the right until she hit the other corner of the room. His eyes followed her. He got up from his seat, the woman he had been sitting with glancing up at him and then quickly looking down on her baby. The other people in the room similarly looked up and away. The man took a few lazy steps towards her and now that he was standing, So-ree only really noticed his height. He towered over the people around him, almost scrapping the top of the room with his head.

“Now, now, now, what strange little spirit do we have here?”