Corvo landed face-first in snow. The world around him had rocked and spun, and he felt like he had plummeted a thousand feet down from the top of the Obelisk.

But the landing did not hurt.

He looked up.

Mother was on her back, staring up at a clear blue sky.

A clear blue sky—where the sun shone brightly.

Mother sat upright in the snow.

It was deep. They were on a field, hilly and coated uniformly with white. Behind them stretched a huge wall of black stone; and before, on the horizon, was a misty ocean.

A castle sat out upon the water. A narrow bridge led to it. And at its end sat a small village.

They were back in Veshod, at the Boyar’s castle.

Mother spat snow from her mouth. She groaned.

“I hate snow!” she said as she rose. Her backpack had spilled everywhere across the ground around them, and she groaned again as she began to pick its things up. “And the cold!”

“It’s winter!” Corvo said.

“So it is,” she said. “I had nearly forgotten, so warm was it in Seneria. But so be it. We will not be here long.”

“It’s winter!” He grabbed hold of her arm. “Mother!” he had to consciously use this new word, feeling that it befitted him now, “it’s winter!”

She glanced at him as she brushed snow from her chain coat. At first she looked confused, but then she smiled.

“Ah. How could I forget,” she said. “So then. You are six years old.”

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He smiled back, nodding.

She brushed another trail of snow from his head.

“How the time gallops,” she said. “We will throw you a grand party at the Boyar’s keep. I will make sure of it.”

“It’s your birthday, too!”

“Yes, but I am old now; I do not celebrate my birthdays. They only remind me how ancient I truly am.”

Once her things were back in her pack, she began again down the hill.

Corvo followed after her, at first. But though he was still exhausted, he was also ecstatic to be prancing through snow, for the first time, really, in what felt like so long.

So when his mother’s back was turned, he leaned down and gathered up a ball of snow in his hands.

He threw it at her.

It hit her in the armor. She spun around at once.

“Corvo!” she said. “What are you doing?”

He shrank beneath her gaze. “Snowballs,” he said.

“Snowballs,” she repeated. “Now is not the time for—snowballs. Come. We must rest.”

“Okay,” he said.

But when her back was turned again, he threw another at her. And a third.

“Corvo!” she shouted this time as she spun around. And she marched toward him, throwing her staff aside; but when he ran from her, she stopped. “Do as I say! You are—do not—gah…” she trailed off, gasping once in frustration, but coming to a stop.

“Why can’t you play?” he said, from a safe distance off.

She glared at him. But slowly, as the seconds passed, her look softened—and the scowl at her lips faded into a smirk.

She grabbed a clump of snow from the ground and threw it at him.

She hit him in the head.

“Ow!” he shouted. He fell over backward into a bank, feigning death.

“Corvo!” Mother said. She sprinted to him, trudging all the way, and grabbed for him on the ground. “Corvo! Are you hurt?”

But when she came near, he started laughing. He rolled away from her and threw another ball at her head, and snow rained down from her hair.

She stared at the ground for a moment. Doing nothing. Then she picked up snow herself, and she threw it back at him, until soon the air was a flurry of frosty projectiles sent one way and another. They were both coated in white by the time they were too tired to go on—yet they both were laughing more than they had in months.

When they were finally done, they collapsed into a bank together. Mother brought Corvo into her lap.

“I love you Corvo,” she whispered. “I know I am not a good mother. I know you will one day resent me. But truly. I love you.”

Corvo hugged her tightly. “I love you, mother,” he said, and that was all he needed to say.

They ventured into town after that. Everyone remembered them as the heroes who had saved the Boyar, of course, and they went directly to the keep. There they were given two huge, warm rooms to sleep in; and that night, for the first time since the Tower of Keraz, Corvo slept in complete darkness, and he was not afraid.

THE END.