High in the Pernin Mountains, where the world was rent in half, on top of a plateau with its top as flat as an anvil a man trudged through the elements. His heavy fur lined boots broke the monotony of the constant howling wind. The stark staccato of crushing earth beneath his feet moved on a beat, but it was not even. His left leg hesitated just a bit as he walked, but he walked with a sureness of step that belied that of discipline. The man’s head was completely covered except for the masque that covered his face, the device shimmered over his beard and seemed to illuminate his face. The beard had long ago turned to white, with only a few whispers of grey left to mark that there had been color there originally at all. He had lines on his face that sunk beneath the waves of beard. Lines that spoke of laughter, of anger, and of sadness. They are the lines of a life well lived, the proud medals to show the world, but now they are hidden by masque and beard.

The wind became more intense as the man, Bern, approached the plateau edge. His camp was only a few hundred yards away behind him, with smoke already rising from the stove pipe atop the main tent. The smoke showed the same colors of the sky, with the purples of twilight on the bottom going up to the bright gold bands of the final sunset.

At the edge, Bern saw that the cliff had stairs set into side, descending onto a small landing below the cliff edge, hidden from view. He breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the jutting stone platform. It did not look natural, just as the stairs weren’t. They were too sharp to be cleaved by time and nature, especially with the brutal ice. No, the ledge looked like the cliff was sticking its tongue out at the sunset, with the edge of the platform raised into a high-backed chair facing directly into the fading light. Bern smiled to himself, she has made a throne. The she Bern referred to was well hidden from his view, but he knew she would be sitting upon that chair, no matter how uncomfortable the stone would be.

Bern descended the stairs, placing one hand on the sharp rock face to stead himself from the vertigo of being so close to a hundred foot fall. This didn’t stop him from appreciating the view. For the last few moments as the world descended into dusk, the large valley before them looked as if there was a mixing of gold and silver, with the silver slowly overtaking the gold. This take over was even and orderly, as the various hills and dips gave ground to the silver while the open plain held firm to the gold.

Bern reached the landing, his feet firm on the stone. At least she was nice enough to put treading in, he thought. His steps were upon the rough patches where someone who was just a few fingers shorter than him would place their feet in steady stride. He reached the chair and placing his hand on it for support, stood next to it just taking in the view before him. As he watched the day fade away, the figure in the chair and he greeted the night. She looked so small there, with her legs drawn up to her chest, in the large high-backed chair. Her head was uncovered, yet her curvy auburn hair sat still in the evening air. It was a stark contrast to the girl’s skin, a soft white, a mix of white alabaster with soft hues of gold to bring some color. Her dark green cloak was open, and it too was not moved by the howling wind that seemed to surround Bern. She wore clothes of heavy brown fur looking like a small cub outside of its den. Her face was exposed to the harsh cold mountain air, but it too looked as if it was in a much milder climate. The small button of her nose met her mouth with a dimple and her soft chin rounded her face in a lithe figure.

As the sun fell below the opposite mountain, she let out a small breath, as if she were holding it during the whole sunset. She moved her blue eyes onto Bern. They seemed to move between light green and blue like waves upon a shore. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing that,” she said.

“Oh! I thought there were only statues up here. Yeah nice view,” Bern said, “the throne is a bit much, though.” He tapped the chair back a few times. “No scrollwork, your highness?”

“It keeps the wind from my back, thank you very much,” she said back to him a small smile coming up in the corners of her mouth.

“Kaena, you’re a Tamer. You can make the wind blow the other way. You wanted a throne,” Bern teased her. “Was this one any better than last nights?”

“No, but it was different. They are all different.” She said as she looked into the slowly disappearing valley below. She knocked a pebbled off the edge down into the valley below. She didn’t hear it hit the ground.

Bern shifted and rolled his eyes a bit at that, “Well Miss philosopher, what did the sky tell you this time?”

“Besides reminding me how annoying you are? I don’t know, they just feel different, you know? Sometimes the suns seem to glow a little brighter before they go, almost as if its one more smile before bed; a quick reminder that a wonderful day happened and is now over.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Hmmmm, well my belly is telling me that lunch has been over for a while, and that we will miss our supper if we don’t hurry. I tell you that each one of those is different,” Bern said with a small laugh. Dinner on the construction crew was always the same: stew. Sure the stew contents may change a bit, but their cook, Britta, always managed to make them all taste the same.

Kaena giggled a little at that, “I’m not sure that we should use the stew as a means of measuring of the days passing.”

“What, you don’t like Britta’s cooking? I’ll just tell her and then I’ll get your portions!” Bern said patting his belly. “Come on, let’s get up from this ledge before we get blown off.”

“Before you get blown off, you mean,” Kaena said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bern mumbled as he pulled a small globe out of his pocket. It was heavily inscribed and after pushing his will upon the object, it started to glow brightly, illuminating the stairway up to the plateau top. The white light made the stairs cast stark shadows on the cliffside. He shifted and started his walk to the stairs. Kaena got up from her seat and followed, and after a moment noticed his shifting.

“Bern, is your leg bothering you again?”

Bern frowned at this, “No, it’s quite all right. Just a little stiff from the night, is all.”

“Here,” Kaena shifted and reached for the air, exciting it around Bern. The wind picked up, shifted, and seemed to calm as the air around Bern warmed up.

Bern looked back at her, with a small look of thanks on his face. They had been working on the same crew now for 4 months, and she still continued to amaze him. How someone so gifted had shoehorned herself into this little pocket of creation was still a mystery to him.

They ascended the stairs together, Kaena on the edge and Bern, of course, with his free hand on the cliffside. They reached the top with the world around them in complete darkness and only Bern’s light globe to stave off the inky black.

“Hold on a moment,” Kaena said stopping at the top. Bern saw that she got into a familiar stance: the one she used to bring the rock up into the line with the built road. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and felt. As she extended herself into the rock, she fell into that familiar feeling where she could not longer tell what was her feet and what was the ground. She was ground, and it was her. She sharpened her focus, she was no longer the ground, but only a portion. Moving slowly, she found where the ledge had extended out from the cliffside and teased and coaxed it. She slowly broke it away from the cliff, little by little, until finally it fell free as if it was never apart of the cliff in the first place. Looking at the stairs that she had made, she pulled up on the bottom stair. As it came up, the edge of the cliff retreated.

While she was powerful, she was no Shaper and could not change the nature of the rock she worked with. As a result she had to pull it together to hide the steps she had carved into it. In the end, the edge was closer to the center of the plateau where the bottom step was, and the edge curved out to where she stood. Where before there was a staircase to nowhere, there was only lumpy rock.

Sweat beaded and flowed on her face as she worked. When she was finished, she looked as if she had just finished running a race and lifting heavy stones at the same time. Bern just watched the whole process in awe. Even though he was an accomplished Inscriber, he was always impressed by those who could shape and change the world around them. Kaena opened her eyes and looked to Bern, a little embarrassed. She didn’t like to show her power to off, especially to those who she looked up to. “Gods almighty, that was wonderful,” Bern said holding a hand out for Kaena to steady herself as she came back into herself. “And I’ll never get tired of that, little one. Every time you move the world, it always shifts a different way,” Bern said with a smile peaking over the sides of his beard and masque.

“It’s nothing like the art that you make, Bern. I wish I had your pinky when it came to ‘Scribing things. I can’t even get the glyphs right. Even when they are right in front of me!” Kaena said, sounding much better.

The two made their way into the camp and as they approached the camp, the air seemed to shimmer before them. As they stepped through the Veil, the air relaxed around them and was warm. Both immediately relaxed, with Kaena relaxing her hold on the air around Bern, and Bern removed his masque.

“Ah! That’s more like it. I hate this thing,” Bern said holding his clear and heavily inscribed masque in his hands. “No matter how flexible I make it, a beard never seems to feel right under it.”

“That’s a work of art, Bern. Most people don’t have clear masques. I like how I can actually see someone’s mouth move,” Kaena said shifting out of her heavy cloak.

“Says the one person who doesn’t have to wear one,” Bern grumbled as he too, removed his now unneeded cloak.

“Hold on a second, I used to have to wear one,” Kaena said holding her hand up mockingly. “I passed my test and I survived without it. Tell Bern, have you ever walked out of a Hub’s Veil and not had a masque on? Because I was scared shitless,” she said playfully.

“Actually, I have,” Bern said, a full smile crossing his face and reaching up to his eyes.

“Wait what-”

Bern held his hand up, having shed some of his outer wear, “But that is a story for another time. Come on, let’s grab some of Britta’s food before she gives it to the pimus.”

“Aw, please? You really did? I thought only Tamers did that!”

Bern just laughed, and made his way to the main tent. “Well, shall we?” Bern said cocking a hairy white eyebrow at her?

“Bern,” Kaena said quietly, “could you not tell the others what you saw me do? I don’t want them to know.”

Bern looked at her for a long moment, shook his head, and said, “Of course, little one. You know I won’t.” And saying that, he drew the heavy canvas flap back, letting the light and warmth and laughter pour out of the tent. Taking a deep breath, Kaena stepped into the tent. Bern followed after her and the flap fell flat behind them.