Several more cubes hovered over the now visible pedestal. The top of it looked like a huge tome. As she peered closer it was covered in strange runes, but for some reason they made sense. This tome was her Character Sheet and she could read it perfectly. Reaching out she touched the floating cubes.

Mana Heart I - You have formed a Mana Organ. This organ creates Health at the expense of Mana. This is perfect for warriors. Grants +1 to Health Regen per day. Grants -5 to Mana Regen per hour.

Ahead of the Curve II - You have learned several more types of skills far before your peers. You have 1/4 skill types until the next tier. Grants an additional +1 to Free Attribute Points. Grants an additional +1 to Free Feat Points.

Congratulations!

You have reached level 2 through your actions! You are granted +6 Free Attribute Points. You are granted +2 Free Feat Points.

"Holy crap," Hijla couldn't believe what she was seeing. All of a sudden she had 8 Attribute Points and 4 Feat Points. Something told the girl that this couldn't be right. She was only two months old after all. But she had to use these points, and she had to use them fast.

She was tempted to dump five points in Intelligence to see if she could replicate forming her Mana Heart but a quick glance at her conviction told her that she didn't have enough to do that. So she did what any other individual would do if their life was literally leaking out of them and shoved all 8 points in her Constitution. Immediately Hijla doubled over. It wasn't in pain but queasiness. It felt like her body had just been filled to the brim with extra blood and it all rushed to her head. She laid there, unable to move. For how long she wasn't quite sure. But she had one more thing to do. She spent 3 Feat Points on Health Regen I and II. The influx immediately knocked her out.

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Scilla sat. She couldn't bring herself to leave her youngest child. The child was a near constant source of worry before this episode, but now, now Scilla just feared. Her handkerchief twisted between her fingers. Another Healer was leaned over her daughter's fragile body. They had already switched twice. A full 18 hours have gone by, her baby not making a single sound. But she could still see the little girl's heart beat. Angard was currently tending to the girl. He was skilled. Scilla herself had recruited the man from one of the southern schools. But the north didn't have the resources to allow his craft to flourish.

"Angard?" The Healer's body had gone stiff and his hands were no longer pressed on her daughter's chest. "Angard, why have you stopped?" A note of anger and worry crept into the back of her voice.

"Oh Goddess..." Much like Scilla, Angard grew up in the south and as such worshipped the Empire's pantheon. "Oh dear Ank..."

"Angard! Why are you calling her name?" Scilla's heart felt cold. Ank was the Goddess of Life, but she also eased the death of those that were being cared for. Young infants went to her arms when they died of sickness or hunger. The fact that Angard was invoking the name of that Goddess could only mean that her child was dead. But that couldn't be right. She could see little Hijla's heart beat furiously. She could see it beat stronger than it had ever beat before.

"My Lady, what is your daughter?" Angard's eyes were wide as he looked back at the Marchioness. His lips twitched and sweat rolled down his face.

"Angard...watch what comes out of your mouth." The woman's voice turned cold. She would not abide anyone speaking ill of her daughter, especially as she laid there, dying.

"My Lady, over the course of the last half an hour your daughter's Health has more than doubled and her Regeneration has tripled, though that is doing nothing to fill her lifeline."

Scilla's breath caught. She too began to look at her child. A child that never made a sound out of turn and never fidgeted when you picked her up. A child whose eyes watched intently and who would always look you in the eyes. Another memory popped in her head. A month ago Hajlmar had called the child Hijla. Since then the girl always moved towards you if you said her name. No child knew their name so young.

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Hijla awoke within herself sometime later. She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep this time, but a quick glance at the lifeline told her it was still cracked. And even more of the red mist hung in the air. There was so much that it brushed the top of her head. She had to start fixing this issue now. Hopefully the extra Health would tie her over for a bit.

Several thoughts flitted through her head but each one required her to build something out of Conviction, of which she had very little left.

"What do I do?" She asked herself as she paced back and forth again. Taking another look at her Character Sheet she scanned through every option available. Her eyes caught on two. Spirit Perception and Loved by Winter. Depending on whether or not the little wisp outside of her was a Spirit of Winter she might have a solution, though it probably won't feel great.

Hijla's bright blue eyes opened. The taste of copper covered her tongue, though some spots felt like she stuck a battery on them.Her focus was quickly drawn to the wisp in front of her. Only, it wasn't just one wisp anymore. There were hundreds. Hijla couldn't see anything but wisps, their soft twinkling sounding like a song. They danced and moved across her vision. Their song changed and flowed. It was Winter. She didn't know how she knew, just that she did. Then she felt it. Hands with fingers long and delicate picked her up through the wisps. They were her mother's hands. No, they looked like Ice made flesh and felt just as cold. The sensation felt strange. She could see herself moving, she could even feel the hands, but her body told her otherwise. A nauseous feeling washed over her.

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Then a face came into view. A face sculpted from a glacier. It was a woman's face. As she brought Hijla close the woman's body grew larger and larger. Her hands were like giant saucers and she was as tall as a mountain. Her hair was the clouds spread out across the sky. Her arms the great storms, and her breath the aurora. Her nose was long and delicate with ears that pointed just a tad. The woman smiled and cold ran through Hijla's body. Her teeth were not human. They were sharp and predatory. Her smile was not warm but cruel and cold. Her eyes, made from the bluest sapphire, as if she plucked it whole from the depths of the ice, were slit. They were reptilian. The great woman was clothed in snow flurries and two glaciers made her slippers. "Child," The woman's voice rang out. Hijla could see an avalanche happen on the side of one of the nearby mountains.

"Where...?" Hilja's voice dwindled as she realized she could talk. Looking down on herself she realized that she was in the body of her inner self. A body grown though not trained. Long black hair fell straight across her shoulders. She had full breasts and a thin waist. Somehow she knew she was also tall like this. "How?"

The Giantess laughed. Her voice traveled along the sky moved clouds and twisted the aurora. It sounded like the twinkling of the wisps, but grander. "You are one of mine." The woman's reptile blue eyes stared down into Hijla's own. "It has been a long time. I did not know you were going to be born, otherwise I would have greeted you then."

"Yours?" Hijla's voice cracked as the word traveled.

"Yes, mine." Once again the Giantess's smile turned cruel. "Though, I did not expect you to be in this state. Both dying and remarkably awake for your age. How strange." The woman's eyes narrowed and the sound of crackling ice followed.

"Uhm," the girl's voice faltered, "Who are you?"

"Winter." The Giantess, Winter, began to walk. Hijla could see the castle she was plucked from. Seas of wisps and other strange creatures danced and cajoled around it. They were turning away from it.

"Winter, where are we going?" The girl feared the answer because she already knew it.

Winter paused to look at the strange human again. "I am taking you with me. You are dying and you are one of mine." The woman, no, the Spirit said it as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"What if I'm not done yet?" Hijla's eyes went up to the great sapphires of Winter. "Can you send me back?" This time her voice did not crack and her back stood straight.

"You wish to go back?" Winter's face twisted, confusion apparent. Never before did one of her children ask to go back. Though, they were usually far younger in spirit than this one. She looked into the girl's soul. There was nothing that could evade Winter's vision. She saw many things. Fire as tall as the palaces to the south from which red hot steel was drawn. She saw war and battle and death. She saw glaciers upon southern fields. But most importantly, Winter saw a throne. A throne left empty, hidden at the foot of a frozen mountain and surrounded by a frozen river.

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Hajlmar rushed through the hallways of Norland's Keep. It had been his family's home since they joined the empire. Its stones were old and cold, like everything else in the North.

A howl ran through the keep's hallways. It was Winter. The man knew that it could be no other. The Spirit was the strongest force in the North and only she could cause his keep to shake as it was. A conversation flashed through his head.

"Do you know what the midwife said?" His wife was sitting at the edge of their bed, holding his newest child. A miracle if ever there was one.

"Mary? I heard that she is moving to her brother's a few towns away." It had been a surprise for sure. Mary had helped his wife birth and care for his oldest three children.

"Yes." His wife's black, curly locks tumbled over the child as she looked down on her. The babe was suckling at her mother's breast. Another miracle. Hajlmar loved his wife but she was quite old being a mother. No one expected her to have another child, much less be able to breastfeed the girl herself. "Did she tell you anything?" Hajlmar frowned. There was a hint of worry in his wife's voice and this was a woman who did not worry easily.

"No, no she didn't." His wife nodded absently. "Scilla, what did she say?" Hajlmar couldn't help but look at the small child. She was smaller than all his other daughters when they were born, But Hajlmar already had his wife's physician, Angard, check the child. She wasn't sickly nor weak, quite the opposite. The girl had the heart of a work horse. The only strange thing was that she didn't scream at all hours of the day.

"She said, oh I'm about to sound crazy, but she said that the spirits had claimed her." Hajlmar paused at his wife's words. All of a sudden he could hear his blood in his ears. When was the last time the spirits claimed a child? His brain ran on overdrive with several skills activating. A decade, over a decade ago. It was right before he married his wife. A lad. The boy just went up in flames in his mother's arms. She was left unhurt and there was not a speck of ash left over. The boy just burned away. Claimed by the Spirits of Fire. Hajlmar, like many in the North, now believed the lad works the forges of Brunjárn. But since then not a single child had been claimed.

"No, if the spirits had done so then they would have already taken her." His wife's eyes stared up at him. He wasn't lying. The child had been born over a week ago. Every story of a claimed child occurred in the first week, beyond that they were always safe.

Hajlmar cursed himself now as he ran through the halls. Winter had come in the middle of the sixth month. It had been warm just minutes ago. How could he have been so foolish. His child had been claimed, and by none other than Winter herself. As he turned the corner leading to his daughter's room he could see only his wife and her physician. His wife was beating on the door, shouting, but Angard kept trying to pull her back. Hajlmar let one of his oldest skills open. A red haze came down over his eyes. He could see nothing but the door. And he charged. Hajlmar Norland the Gatebreaker, not the father or the husband or the Marquess, but the soldier and weapon charged at the door to his daughter's room. It held, but only for a moment. Then the wood cracked and splintered and Hajlmar was through.

Immediately he felt the ice. It swarmed in the room. There was a woman, made of golds and greens, crumpled against one wall. But he quickly paid her no mind. She was a goddess, he knew, but he didn't care. His vision was taken up by the embodiment of winter. She stood with his daughter made of naught but ice and snow. And then she looked up at him as she held Hijla. His mind couldn't process what he saw. Her eyes and smile were sharp and cruel, as if she wanted nothing more than to rip his entrails out while he still lived. But the way the Spirit held his daughter looked exactly like how his wife did it. Not only that, but the child was suckling from the spirit as if she was her own mother.

"Our daughter is strong." Winter's voice reverberated through the halls. Hajlmar could barely think. This was the first time he had ever seen winter. "Ah, mortals, how they always forget." A laugh spread out from her. It was harsh and cruel, like breaking ice and avalanches. "She has asked to stay, and I have granted her wish." Then her eyes looked straight into his own. "Do not let her die again."

Then the room was empty except for a sleeping babe. Hajlmar suddenly breathed, not realizing he couldn't beforehand.

"What happened?" His wife asked, still standing where she was minutes ago. And then it clicked. Winter had let him see all of that, but why, he wasn't quite sure.