The songs of late-summer swallows were a bother. They reminded me of the beginning of another colorless day. A day like any other, dry and aimless. Even the bed I slept in, made of the fabrics only good money could buy, felt hot and heavy against my back. As I looked out the window, a river of people walked past in the distance, taking no heed of the girl looking at them from a tower far away.

I was no longer a girl. Ribbons no longer coiled around my arms and legs, and I’d grown out of any frilly pink dress that may have aroused excitement in the past. Even the curls in my hair had gone; there was no reason in keeping them. Instead, it hung freely to my waist, as cutting it was a chore my captors had no interest in performing. I was a little taller, or perhaps the thinning of my figure with the change in clothing only made it seem that way. It had been four years. Days had passed by the dozen with nothing to fill the time. Not that I had any desire to do so.

Life in the palace was a bore. Each day I existed in its chambers with nothing asked of me. I had nothing to give, either. I was the product of convenience, no one could even be bothered to get rid of me. In the past, there was some swordswoman and a girl younger than I who talked too much, but it had been a long time since we’d last met. It was a lonely place to be.

Today was the anniversary of Kirill’s death. There was to be a mourning in the afternoon, but I was not so fond of finding myself within a crowd of people. If I wanted to visit his grave, I should do it in the morning, while I would still be able to approach freely. Crowds of people still made me nervous, even as an adult.

Compared to his father’s, Kirill’s tomb was a humble block of stone with a plaque engraved with his name. Below it, someone had smeared “the short-lived” with black grease. I removed a handkerchief and began to wipe it away, revealing the title that he had been given posthumously. “The strong-willed”? That was the best they came up with? I supposed it was true. He never faltered, even at his own detriment.

“Hey! What are you doing!” the gruff shout of a guard who noticed I’d come too close. “Step away from his High Excellency’s-”

“I’m sorry, sir. I will be on my way.” I barely had a look at the man’s face, which was grumpy and tired, before hurrying away, covering my own.

“Wait!” A woman’s voice. It held familiarity. I heard it long ago. Well, not too long. It was louder, more authoritative. “Anastasia. That is you, is it not?”

I didn’t stop running. Hearing her voice was painful. It felt like using a fishing hook to gouge out pieces of my chest. My heart bounced around violently, struggling to keep up as I quickened my pace away from the voice.

The footsteps of sandals against stone, faintly approached me, much faster than I was able to run. Fingers tightened around my arm, and another hand flipped my hood over, exposing me to the light of the day. It was Delanor. Her dirty-white hair hadn’t changed a smidge since four years ago, but her manner of dress had. She was in a short grey cloak, and a dagger hung at her waist. The emblem of the thousand-tailed serpent, which symbolized Exia’s rule, was printed on the back.

—

There was a meeting hall near my room in the palace, left unused by Isa’s underlings for the most part. Its well-stocked fireplace and lack of windows made for a good place to discuss matters. Delanor poured me a cup of tea, barley with a hint of cinnamon. The spice mixed with the sweet flavor of grain made me want to gag, but I kept it down.

“I’ve heard everything from Exia. You don’t need to explain it to me,” Delanor said. “I’ve become something of an associate of his, you see.”

“You became one of his spies. You needn’t entertain me with stories of your travels.”

“I’m a diplomat. I only dress this way to avoid attention. You wouldn’t believe that someone with no standing could walk into the palace, would you?” She retorted.

“I suppose. What have you come for, Delanor? Surely not for small talk. I’ll see you off, if that is what you have in mind.” I pushed the empty cup of tea back at her. She held a hint of confusion in her eye.

“Many things changed when you disappeared, Anastasia. At the same time, some things didn’t. The Doll’s Empire continues to fight west of Aya’s Tree against a nation of tribes hungry for blood. This marks the third year of the start of their war, and it shows no sign of ending. I’ve heard that neither Isa nor Emily hold the power they once did, since escaping the void star they’ve barely shown themselves on the battlefield. Exia’s body was permanently damaged from his fight with those two, and he spends most of his time lying in bed, unable to move his legs.” She went on and on. “Time is passing you by, Anastasia. Excuse my harsh words, but why are you alive? The spark in your eye from the last I saw you is no longer there.”

“And what of it!? Would you come here only to blame me for what has happened?”

“No, I have come for your help. I see the ribbons are gone. What have become of them?” she asked. Her white tail waved back and forth as she spoke, a compliment to her shaking hands.

“I cast them aside. I will never shoulder their curse ever again.”

“What curse? With those ribbons, you had tremendous power! You may have even been the strongest woman the realm had ever seen! With your strength, the very whims of fate bent to your will-”

“And amount to nothing. When it mattered, the snake sat by and watched as the only man I ever loved died. Is that power? It is the peak of weakness! Don’t bother me with trivial matters like these again.” I furrowed my brow. The room was hot and suffocating, and my voice struggled to spit out words.

“Please, Anastasia. Don’t you want to know why? You have a question remaining in your heart, do you not?”

“What question? Get out, Delanor. Do not see me again.” I stood up and rushed out of the room. Turning a corner in the hall, everything was a blur as I took a few steps and locked myself back in my room. Hot tears stained the pure-white covers of the bed as I buried my face in them. What did she know? Thinking she could get hurt and sit comfortably on an extended vacation while the rest of us suffered. And after it was all over, come back into my life and ask for my help? In the critical moment, when her presence might have mattered most, she was nowhere. Her existence was just as meaningless as mine. A silent bystander, a powerless observer who can only shed tears at the tragedy of lives lost. Maria Petrov. The thought of my former best friend was gut-wrenching. In the end, she was a mystery.

I fled to the gardens at the heart of the palace. It was empty-clouds had gathered over the sky, turning the late-afternoon sky a sullen grey. Rain pecked at my face over and over, flowing down my neck. Its chill was wet and cold, and as I sat on my knees the fabric on my shoulders sagged and soaked. Kirill, a loveless man. Our last moments played over and over in my head. His hands weakly hanging against my back, the serene expression on his face. The light leaving his eyes, my helpless body trying to drag him towards the rift with no avail. Had I ever been granted the chance to love him? Hardly. But I failed to make much of an effort, and failed to cherish the moments we had together. I would never have another chance. Cold droplets streaked down my body. In the empty garden, I submerged myself within the windstorm. Delanor was right. I could not quietly pass away, as much as my heart yearned for rest. Every day of solitude, hardening me to the world outside. Maria, why did you kill him? I neglected her and turned away when she needed me most. What she did was revenge. I had failed as a friend. But the thought of it only turned me desperate. I had to know. If I just heard the answer from her mouth, then it could be the end. At that point, I would disappear from this earth. It barely mattered what her answer was.

—

A knock on the door. Whoever was outside could be heart hopping around between each set of knocks, banging on it in a most annoying fashion. The rain from the prior day had not yet passed, and if I had been able to fall asleep amidst the whirlpool of thoughts, I might have thought the day had not passed. But as I tossed and turned, for hours on end, only this visitor broke me out of my torturous cycle of memories. As I rose out of bed, there was a note slid under the door.

“I’m sorry for imposing on you yesterday. If you would be willing, I would like to meet again. I will wait until the end of the day.” -Delanor.

Ugh. She was always like this, wasn’t she? I had no reason to agree. There was one thing she was right about. Maria killed Kirill, and I still did not know why. She plunged a shard of ice into his chest. It made a dull sound, like a rock hitting a sheet of leather. I remembered his weakened grip as he held my hand, his shallow breaths. And yet she didn’t die. She’d been impaled through the abdomen, but I knew well enough such a thing wasn’t enough to bring her down.

“Delanor, I can still hear you out there. Come in.”

The door instantly slammed open, and Delanor leapt straight onto my bed without a moment’s hesitation. She grabbed a fistful of sheets and sniffed it. “Huh. Smells like you, all right.”

“Has living abroad made you lose all sense of manners? Get down!” I yelled.

She sat herself down on a wooden chair for a desk after dragging it in front of my bed. “I’m happy you are willing to come around.”

“I no longer have a taste for these games. Tell me about Maria.” I got straight to the point. I had little interest in Canary or the captain, in her or Exia, in any of the Academy dolls, or any of the magical monsters that ruled this nation. But Maria, she sent my heart into a panic and my stomach into knots.

“Maria is…an interesting case. She resumed her work as a doll and fought in the vanguard of the main force against te western invaders. The void seemingly didn’t rob her of anything, and she continued to freeze the landscape while wiping out swathes of enemies. One day, in the midst of an intense battle against a unit of fire-breathers, she vanished. Then, two months ago, I read a report from a scout near Iralsk. He was caught in a blizzard of what he described as frozen rose petals, and when he came to, he saw a stone dragon, completely encased in ice. But that was not the only thing. The earth had been turned to ice, sprouting with a field of roses. Each one was crystalline, a fragile sculpture of exquisite craftsmanship. And they were all produced in an instant.”

“I fail to see how you require my help for anything. If she would like to run berserk in the wilderness, I see no reason to stop her.” I said. Maria seemed distant as ever, aimlessly seeking out a prize only she knew. Perhaps it was failure to understand her that resulted in Kirill’s death. But I had no way of finding out. Until I saw her empty yellow eyes again, her frozen expression, I could never know.

“Her life after leaving you was one of bloodshed and violence. She threw herself into danger, day after day, with seemingly no purpose. She’s a woman with no desire to live, but lacking the courage to take her own life. A lot like you, in that regard. In my view, she may be looking for a final resting place. A way to leave the world peacefully, to shut herself away forever. You may lose your final chance to speak to her if she disappears for good. Are you ready for that?”

“Have you tried speaking to her, yourself?” I asked.

“She refuses to show herself to me. You must know, Maria Petrov is a walking snowstorm. Her strength approaches the forces of nature themselves. When you are a day’s walk from her, the skies cloud over and the air turns cold. No one can speak to her unless she wills it.”

“I have my doubts. But very well. If it helps me sleep better at night, maybe just one more conversation with her is enough.” I agreed. With a swipe of my hand, a single ribbon swung out of a dresser and wove itself into my hair. Since that fateful day, the serpent never again showed itself to me. Divorced from its silent whispers, the ribbon was again my own. But it was only a ribbon. The serpent’s power had never done me any good, anyhow.

“Thank you, Anastasia. We can take a godsteed for most of the journey, it should only take a few days to reach the southernmost tip of the continent. Talk to her, calm the blizzard in her heart. We leave at nightfall.” Delanor held out her hand.

“What is this?” I asked.

“One of the feline greetings. Grab my hand and shake it a few times. It is a symbol of agreement.”

I grasped her hand and squeezed it hard before she pulled it away.

—

“Anyhow, I am surprised they leave someone like you unattended. Are they not afraid of you causing some trouble?” She held the reins of the godsteed tightly, looking left and right at the ground far below. The desert blended into a large yellow sheet. Ruins of St. Keres, fragments of melted glass dotting the landscape, were the only remaining sign that people had once lived there.

I paused. The two, the girl in white and the blonde lady, had kept me under supervision, long before either of them had realized their powers were vastly weaker. The journey back was short and uneventful, as it seemed neither of them had any interest in snuffing out the life of a defeated girl like me. Every few days, Emily offered me a bit of food, but I vividly recalled ignoring her advances. “They knew in their hearts that I had nothing up my sleeve. Which I didn’t. They didn’t even lock the door when I holed myself up in a tower on the south side of the palace.”

“Good for you. Did you ever speak to them again…those two? The Lady or the queen?” Delanor asked. Her ears perked up as we passed through a cloud, the moistness making my hair stick to my neck. When the air cleared, I looked at the night sky. It was a black sea, filled at every point with lustrous stars, but also empty. The view from here was far better than the one from my window, where torches and lamplight were enough of a disturbance to obscure the dimmer stars from view.

“I did not. There was a woman who brought me my food each day, she held a curved sword at her belt and a curious set of robes. She made numerous attempts to speak to me, but I rarely returned the offer.”

“What did she talk about?”

“The weather, how I was feeling, what I wanted to do. Probing me for signs of discontent.”

“It seems someone in the palace was feeling remorse over what happened. Guilty, even.” Delanor concluded. “They had no reason to treat you as well as they did, yet you were sheltered there all this time.”

“Are you telling me to be grateful?”

“No, but perhaps the world cares more about you than you think.”

“I wish it had extended that care to someone else.”

“We can’t change the past, Anastasia. We can only live with it.” Delanor reached behind herself and grabbed my hand, clenched around the saddle. “Get ready, we’re going for a short dive.”

My innards flew into my mouth as the godsteed plummeted through the air before stabilizing again. My hair was a mess, and so was Delanor’s. Her hairstyle was different; longer and tied into two large ends with ornaments resembling white lilies. But after that dive, each part was frayed and messy.

“What was that?!” I asked.

“You missed that, Anastasia? We are under fire. Duck down and get ready to descend. ”

My nose picked up a speck of dust. It was marked with the scent of smoke, and as I turned my head, a bolt of fire whizzed past my head.

“I think I already know the answer, but I should ask to confirm. Are you able to fight?” Delanor asked.

I took a breath. Compared to the self of my youth, I was a swallow with a clipped wing. I could only imitate the movements of those that could fly. My wings could propel me forward no longer. The feeling of emptiness wrapped around my arms and legs was unmistakable. I was powerless. “No, I do not believe so.”

“Great. We need to lose our pursuers.” Under the night sky, they appeared only as black specks briefly blocking the moonlight reflected off the clouds. Bits of red light, turning orange and yellow before a ray of fire burned a hole right through the godsteed’s wing. The horse screamed in panic, and again we tumbled through the air. Unlike the first time, we turned upright and upside down, over and over. Delanor's hands pulled back on the reins with all the force she could muster, but the ground rushed forward nonetheless. Each flap of the godsteed’s wings only sent the desert sands rushing closer. Another bolt flashed past, and I saw the panicked eyes of the godsteed relax as its body went limp. Blood sprayed into the air from the smoking wound in its neck, suspending a mist of droplets as we went into a free fall.

“Brace yourself, Anastasia! Use the body as cover!”

The impact a second later made me feel like an insect. A fly swatted to the side with an incomprehensible amount of force, sending waves rippling through my body from the shock. But I lived. As its final act of service, the godsteed’s corpse protected me from most of the impact. Delanor was not so lucky. When she finally squirmed free from beneath the godsteed’s body, the left leg buckled on her first step.

“Ow…” Delanor tried putting a hand on her thigh. She winced in pain and did an awkward hop forward. “I think it’s broken. Into the forest, we can count our graces in making it near Iralsk. We will use the trees as cover.”

—

“Curses!” Delanor bit down on a strip of cloth tying a few sticks forming a makeshift splint. As she pulled to tighten the knot with all her strength, she let out a muffled scream. Upon opening her mouth, even in the midst of the night, I could see the beads of sweat on her temple. Her feline ears turned forward and back, honing in on any possible sources of noise. “Quiet, so they won’t find us. If we leave now, I think we can avoid them.”

“Who are those…fire-using scholars?” I asked.

“Fire breathers. A vanguard force of the western invaders. I’ve never seen them this far east; they must be planning some kind of encirclement.”

“Do you need to alert Exia of this?”

“No, he probably figured it out himself. I am not the only one tasked with the Academy lands, after all. And my leg is broken, our godsteed dead. It’ll be a miracle if we can make it out of this alive. This really is the worst turn of events. Don’t let me die, Anastasia. Can I ask that of you?”

“You are full of tricks, you know that? Knowing I won’t live for myself, so you thrust the responsibility of your life on me. I see Exia’s underhanded methods clearly in you.” I was exasperated. Asking something like that of me while helpless and vulnerable, it was unfair how hard such a request would be to refuse. “Mutual survival. We will carry on together.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. With a grunt, she stood upright.

“Lend me a shoulder, will you? Walking is a little hard right now.”

—

As we walked, Delanor spoke. She spoke in a hushed voice, but as we stood in the darkness of the forest, we could not be too careful. Every rustle of leaves was a horror hiding in the night. But no such thing came to haunt us. It was a peaceful night. The moonlight faintly reflecting off the lush green leaves, we headed south. Delanor had a natural sense of south; she seemingly knew where to go, and as I had no better guide, I nudged us along.

“They won’t chase us through the forest at nighttime.” she said. “My idea’s paid off.”

“Why?”

“There should be some forces garrisoned in Iralsk. Along with the tree cover, they are likely afraid of an ambush. I suppose I should inform you a little on the nature of these western forces, if you would lend an ear. If you know more about what Maria’s been fighting the past few years, you might have a better time with her when you meet.”

“Anything more you have to say about Maria, I need to know. I will solve her mystery. It’s the last thing I’ll do.”

“Whatever you say. They’re a western coalition of dragon worshippers, known as scaleskins. If we have the misfortune of bumping into any in the daytime, they will look a lot like the sarassin, but they’re all colored like Exia and have wings. Maria was their natural enemy because her ice renders most of their flames worthless. Her presence alone was enough to motivate a retreat from a battle, her power was so one-sided. With Maria’s presence, the Academy empire pushed the scaleskins all the way west of Aya’s tree, which stood between the scaleskin realm and the empire. With her gone, the tides have once again turned.”

“What business do they have with the empire? I do not recall any expansion into their lands.”

“The scaleskins are every bit as warlike as the Sveshen emperors were. Sensing the transition of power, they took the chance to march through the mountains north of Aya’s tree to mount an invasion and take over.”

“Suits us right. Our leaders deserve to never know peace. They should burn until nothing is left..” I said. I took solace in the thought of seeing Isa and Emily’s bodies reduced to ash and blown away by the wind. If Maria motivated feelings of uncertainty and regret, those two spurred nothing but rage. Peace if Kirill was killed? The Archive felines wrote better jokes than that. I was powerless, but if I could once again taste the power I once held, their heads would roll. My life in the palace was dry and muted; its uneventful nature quelled the fires of emotion. But I was free. Delanor had taken me out of my own cage, and again my heart beat with life.

“I know how you feel, but even Maria thought these guys were bad enough to fight against…or maybe not. No one knows what that girl is thinking.” Delanor grumbled. “You’re becoming like her, you know. Consumed by a torrent of feelings, and losing yourself.”

“And that is fine. I died four years ago, the one standing beside you is a ghost.” I said.

“I didn’t know ghosts could lend me a shoulder.” Delanor rebuffed.

“Maybe the feline sense of humor isn’t so bad.”

“What?”

“Nothing. What became of Aya’s tree through all this? You said they marched through the mountains north of Aya’s tree…why not through the forest itself?” I asked.

“I don’t know too much. Few are allowed passage into the tree itself. You need to be a scholar of considerable caliber, and among those I know, only Exia has ever been allowed inside. It’s a den of absurdities and reality-breaking tricks, something no army would ever want to step near. If the scholars of that place wanted it, Aya’s tree could likely grow legs and take root somewhere else. The late Lady’s legacy is legendary, after all. No one can fight a legend. Not even Maria.”

“You speak like you are expecting such an end to come one day.”

“It's an empty conjecture, Maria is well on her way to becoming a legend herself. It is up to you whether that legend is one of tragedy or not. I hope you give thought to what you will say to her. When I first met you two, I felt that one day you would have the chance to shake the world to its very foundation. Don’t betray me now, Anastasia.”

—

Emily was no stranger to the flaming skies and falling ash of the battlefield. She looked at the tumbling balls of fire, falling sparks burning to dust, with a sense of dread. It always smelled strange, either of gunpowder, blood, dust, or a mixture of the three. Gone were the times where battles were settled with swords; scatter cannons and long-range crossbows dominated the field. That, and the bolts of fire and explosives exchanged by each side.

“Give me a report, Emily.” Isa was curled up in a corner of an abandoned stronghold. Its jagged stone walls provided some privacy for the meeting between the empire’s supreme commander and her queen. Isa’s black hair had grown with her frame. The void’s robbing of her age was quickly being undone; she was no longer a girl.

“You’ve finally begun to resemble how I imagined you would. You still look younger than me. So it takes a century in the void to correct the losses of time.” Emily studied Isa with envy. She was nearing forty, and the methods to maintain her youth were growing weaker. Of course, her beauty far outshone that of any other thirty-six year old woman. But for Isa, who had successfully turned back the clock, it was nothing.

“Only to have my fire taken from me. It pains me, you know. Sitting out of the fight, anxiously waiting for results. I still have not grown used to it.” Isa grumbled. “And I am lacking an heir, unlike you. What is that girl doing, anyhow? I have not seen her for weeks.”

“Yes, my dear Vivian. She turned fourteen just a few days ago.”

“I heard she took the title of Pristine at the age of eleven, just like you.”

“She did. The hundred-and-second, Vivian Wehrhardt.” Emily said with her hand to her heart. Vivian’s eagerness to learn was the one thing that still made her smile when she woke up in the mornings. “I believe she is somewhere on the battlefield, assisting the main defensive force.”

“Does it worry you? Having girls so young in high places?”

“It does not. They are supervised by a commanding officer, and denying her the chance to refine her skills on a battlefield would be stealing her future away. Besides, we need all the forces we can muster. The hundred and first, hundred and third, and hundred and fourth were all lost.” Emily said somberly.

“You said they were ambushed and encircled, as fire rained down upon them from above until nothing but their charred corpses remained. And yet, Maria Petrov, who seems to have her own death wish, continues to live.” Isa kicked at a rock lying on the floor. She was tired of hearing the name over and over. The girl who appeared at St. Keres, the girl who killed Matrie, the girl who stole away the life of the man Isa wanted to kill herself. And now, the captain of a special unit that had just been annihilated. Her body was the only one to not be found, and while personally Isa would like to believe Maria had finally met her end, it was against her nature to trust in such a convenient thought.

“The scaleskins used curses. They sacrificed thousands of their soldiers to fuel the magic-eating blaze.”

“Unfortunate, I suppose. The only time three Pristines were lost to battle in a single day. And a fourth one is missing. It was a mistake to allow such important pieces to form a unit on their own. We should have been more careful.”

“You have changed, Isa. When you first ascended to the throne, you would have discarded the notion that anything lost had value at all. Years of rule are changing you.”

“Losing my strength has opened my eyes. Every living person has their uses. Even if they are weak, stupid, or both. Those girls were weak. Almost every doll you’ve trained in the past two decades is a frail shadow compared to the opposing fire users. No matter. I trust the strength of your offspring.”

“I appreciate it. Vivian is quite strong. Did you see her last battle? She-”

“Save it for another time. I trusted you as general commander to lead us out of this conflict. Now we are struggling to hold even an inch of land. Surely you still have a plan to shift the winds in our favor.”

“Just one. It will be our last chance, but with our final blow we will purge the scaleskins from our lands forever.”

—

“Aerial bombardment sixty-five degrees east! Viv, your barrier, please!” Lilac yelled. Under some special circumstances and Vivian’s request, Emily had assigned the two of them to the same unit. As a career chemical-brewer and researcher she had no combat ability, but when it came to tactical management of a squad with a doll like Vivian, she found herself quite at home. With her quick reactions and Vivian’s long-range barriers, she protected the entire first army. Any successful scaleskin assault required a direct engagement, while the dolls under Vivian’s shield could send volleys of counterfire unexposed. It was a perfect defensive setup, so long as Vivian was protected.

The third and final member of their squad, who reported directly to Emily, was a swordswoman and Emily’s best friend. The time-splitting swordswoman, Akari. Maybe it was a flaw in strategy, but Emily preferred to keep those important to her all together, rather than spreading them out. In battling an army both in superior numbers and technology, it was these exceptional people who had tipped the balance in their favor.

Akari was a mirage on the battlefield, appearing behind an armored scaleskin for an instant before splitting it in two, diagonally from shoulder to hip. The slash was clean; the lower half of the body remained standing for a few seconds before collapsing.

“If you want to look away, feel free. A kid shouldn’t have to see this kind of stuff.” Lilac offered. As a second guardian over Vivian while her mother was away, it gave her some solace to know that she wasn’t out of arm’s reach, even on the battlefield. Long ago, she’d covered Vivian’s eye’s to protect her from the sight of death.

“I am used to it, Aunt Lilac. Thank you for your concern.” Vivian’s uniform was made of green fabric at her request. She kept her pointed Academy’s hat on her head. One of the privileges of the Pristine was the allowance of their preferred uniform. As such, she’d chosen one reminiscent of her mother’s clothing. At least, that’s how it looked to everyone who knew Vivian was the commander’s daughter.

“Watch out!” Lilac shouted. Another fire-breather, head turned low, barreled straight at Vivian from the sky. A horrible crash sounded as it collided directly with Vivian’s clear-yellow shield of branches. The impact sent its body crumpling to the ground. If that wasn’t enough, Akari appeared to briefly thrust the tip of her sword through the scaleskin’s back.

“These fire-breathers are absurd. They have no regard for their own lives.” Vivian observed the dead soldier lying only feet in front of her, red blood leaking from beneath its body.

“That’s the heavy infantry for you. If not for their own recklessness, that armor would be essentially impenetrable. It took me months to develop a new round that had even an ounce of effect on these guys. They are tougher than humans and faster; the armor itself would be difficult to lift for a normal person.” Lilac said. “Watch out, two hundred meters north. Ground bombardment, brace for impact.”

A rumble shook the floor beneath the two. A massive fireball collided with Vivian’s sky-reaching golden fortress in the distance, erected only an instant earlier. Akari sheathed her sword. As if she’d been standing behind the two this whole time, she took a long look at the scene of fire and smoke.

“Quite the skill, Viv. You have your mother’s blood.” Akari said. She ran a hand through Vivian’s platinum-blonde hair. It was whiter than Emily’s, and braided in a way that adorned each side of her head in a half-crescent before falling just past her shoulders. “One day, you might even see the day where you surpass her. One day.”

“I have no need to surpass her. It is the duty of the child to protect the parent. If only I have the power to protect her, and the ones she holds dear, you and Lilac, and anyone else close to the Lady. I will not allow harm to come to you.” Vivian was resolute and confident. “After all, I am the strongest.” she smiled.

“Oh? And you will emerge victorious against death itself?” Akari asked. Her sword kept its silver sheen, and as her hand drew it out of its sheath Vivian saw her own reflection. She saw a shield. It was a wall, thick and sturdy, which no blade nor magic could pierce.

“Yes, if that is the enemy Lady faces, I will stand between them and ensure no harm comes to pass.”

“It’s a child’s duty to surpass the parent, not exist beneath their shadow forever. When I left home, I didn’t look back. If I had remained in my parent’s care, I am sure my skills would be far inferior to what they are now.”

“Lady is the greatest scholar in the world. I can only learn from her.”

“There is no rule which says we cannot achieve even greater heights. What new ground will you tread, how will you impress your footprint upon the world? Have you considered it?” Akari asked.

“Such things are still too much for me. Give me some time, I am sure I will have an answer for you one day.” Vivian brushed her off before sending a cloud of butterflies into the air, each one consuming a droplet in the rain of sparks produced by a fire-breather circling above their heads.

“Not another one. These guys never stop.” Akari grumbled. “Don’t worry about him, I can deal with it.” A silver flash shot in a straight line as far as the eye could see, far into the enemy line. Akari appeared a short moment later, and the fire-breather above their heads was no more. Not even a body remained; it was as if he’d never been there in the first place.

A messenger appeared. He gave Akari a quick bow before handing her a curled up piece of paper. “Captain, a message from her Excellency.”

“A message from Lady?!” Vivian’s eyes grew wide with excitement. A summons from Emily could only mean good news to the girl who only knew victory.

—

“I’ll keep it quick. Akari’s leading a counterattack as we speak to counteract the bombardment. Every minute is a life lost.” Emily said. “Is it good to see you, Viv. How are things on the field?”

“Fun. The fires of the fire-breathers are nothing compared to the craft you taught me.”

“Great. I believe you are aware, after losing Maria’s squad, our offensive has stalled. Aya’s tree, however, has finally answered our pleas for help. They have given us the location of the scaleskin’s moving capital. I want you to take some godsteeds and have Akari lay waste to the capital. Doing so should provide a decisive blow.”

“Thank you lady…thank you for trusting me with such an important task.” Vivian asked nervously. “What will be my role in this upcoming mission?”

“Be her shield. Akari is reckless, even overconfident sometimes. Make sure she doesn’t do anything too risky, and eliminate any threats that you might come across. If you encounter another den of curse users, retreat immediately. Those are the only things that can threaten you now.” Emily said. “I could not bear to lose my prized students. I cannot imagine what would happen if I lost you.”

“I am not like them.”

“Oh, but you are. Don’t be naive, Viv. Your skills are formidable, but you are not invincible. Such hubris is reserved for the legends of the world. And those legends died long ago.”

“...” Vivian was silent. “My apologies.”

“It's all right. Remember, your first priority is to return alive. It will all be for naught if you fall on the battlefield.”

“But…it would be an honor to fall in service.”

“Not for you. Young lady, return in one piece. Don’t forget that you’re my daughter.”

—

“Careful with the scales! Shave them off with the standard issue knives, not anything from the kitchen! Hey Tim, is your head full of rocks? I just told you to stop using that piece of junk! That’s our dinner you’re mucking up!” A woman shouted orders at a dozen men who were working on something. It was a stone dragon’s corpse. I was taken aback by the blank stares of its dead eyes and then deep purple that had spread across its skin, but there were more pressing matters. The edge of Iralsk was lively; even in the middle of the night, I saw hundreds of men and women at work in rebuilding the lost city. The scene smelled of mortar and ash, a homely scent compared to the raw earthy smell of the rainforest surrounding it.

The woman noticed my approach and came close. The white uniform and cap, the well-kept black hair. Eyes tempered with resolve from a hundred battles, but with a gentleness held by few.

“Captain!” Before I had a chance to run up, she bent down and caught Delanor, shifting her shoulder’s weight from my back to hers.

“That’s Colonel Yavokhaev now, if you would believe it. I’m in charge of the garrison at Iralsk. We welcome you, Anastasia. And Delanor. You’re quite unlucky when it comes to getting hurt, aren’t you?” she said.

“Colonel. You would not believe how happy I am to see you. I…I…” the words choked my throat as I tried to say them.

“You don’t need to say it, Anastasia. We can discuss it another time. Delanor sent advance notice of what was going on. Rest up in the infirmary, for now. I’ll come by later.”

The infirmary was one of the few complete buildings close to the edge of the city. A building of red bricks, its thick walls kept me safe from some of the summer heat. It was cool, further assisted by a breeze that came through the window. Thin curtains hid my sight from the other beds, but it was a quiet night. There were few soldiers staying here, if any.

Delanor was in the bed next to me. Her white hair was visible through a crack in the curtains, where she shifted awkwardly from side to side. Her leg was held straight by a wool cloth wrapping a wooden splint holding her leg straight. It wasn’t too different from the makeshift one she had made out of spare bits of wood in the forest, but it looked sturdy. Her eyes were wide open, and every moment her cheeks puffed out and she blew loudly. “I can’t sleep.” She complained. “The scaleskins we ran into on our way here could come at any moment, ripping this place apart.”

“You said they wouldn’t pursue us through the forest at night, did you not?” I asked.

“Yes. But daybreak is soon. Our time of protection winds down as the sun rises. The scaleskins would roll through here like a knife through paper. We need to tell the captain. I cannot move my leg. Anastasia, would you?”

My head was comfortably pressed in the center of a pillow, lying on a bed that was so soft I could sink into it. Delanor’s point was compelling, but getting a night’s sleep was weighing on my mind heavily. I shook my head. This was an important matter. As I sat up, the now-colonel parted the curtain at the edge of my bed with a glass of water and some cracker-like food I had not seen before. When I bit into it, it was like a rock. It finally came apart with a hard crunch with my back teeth. It was a piece of caked flour with a dash of salt.

“It’s a new recipe. Do you like it?” the colonel asked.

“Neither. I would work on making it softer. Is this supposed to be bread?”

“Hard rations. They last longer and don’t require yeast, so we eat it a lot. That stone dragon you saw, we’ll be eating that too. Sending supplies down here is a lot of work, so we try our best to look out for ourselves.”

“Captain, er, Colonel! I had no idea you were stationed down here. Were you not a wanted fugitive? I saw your papers myself.” Delanor asked from the room over. Upon hearing her, the captain scooted another curtain to the side, connecting our rooms. “Exia said something about the two of you being fine when I asked, but I never imagined you returning to the third army.

“I thought you were asleep,” the captain said. “Your leader is quite the negotiator. Not only that, after hearing that we’d opposed the crown by harboring Anastasia, it was clear to the queen and her advisors that we were innocent of any wrongdoing. They even gave me back my rank, and let Canary work by my side.”

“Living a good life,” I complained. “While the rest of us were suffering.”

“We had our own battles to fight. Besides, we had no idea where you were, and Maria got even worse after you left.”

“How so?”

“She wouldn’t talk to anyone. That wasn’t anything new, she’s usually not too talkative when you aren’t around. But I heard it was an issue from some of her squadmates. Working with her was a matter of staying out of her way, and any time she acted up, no one wanted to be the one telling her she was out of line. At some point the higher-ups issued an order to just let her be, since she generally listened to their orders. I heard about what happened to her squad. She probably abandoned them. Whether that was the correct choice, I can’t say.” the colonel recalled. “I led a squadron similar to the one I had with you, Anastasia, but I was promoted and reassigned elsewhere. Then I led a battalion, and since nothing bad came of that, they promoted me again and sent me here. ‘Keep watch of the void star and any threats that might arise from the south’ sounds like an easy job, but since we’re so out of the way, there’s always something to do.”

“I see. We have an urgent matter,” I said. “Scaleskins pursued us on our way down here. They could attack at any moment.”

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“You needn’t worry about them, Anastasia.” The captain said confidently. “They wouldn’t dare come close.”

“They can rain hell from above before you have a chance to fight back. Are you ready for that?” Delanor asked. “That’s how I broke my leg. Killed the godsteed lent to me, and now I’m going to catch hell from Exia when I get back.”

“Your concern is noted. Trust me, we have it under control. I was meaning to ask, why are you here? You disappeared for years, not sending a letter, not appearing anywhere. When I caught sight of Maria out in a mountain pass, I expected you to be not far behind. But you never appeared, and I was wondering what happened.”

“We are searching for her. She…” I paused.

“We have reason to believe she’s come around these parts.” Delanor finished my sentence.

“Missing people, one after another, popping up in front of me. It’s my lucky day.” the colonel chuckled. “But I suppose this isn’t too funny for you. I have a rough idea of what happened, but I need to hear it from you, Anastasia. Why did you two split up? What happened to the emperor? Why would two best friends abandon each other?”

“I…” Tears, warm and wet, blurred my vision. The sight before me as I looked down was a blanket, quickly stained with wet splotches. I couldn’t look at the colonel’s face. She’d left. When it really mattered, she and Canary had packed up their things and disappeared. Her life had been going well, largely free from misfortune and loss. Her life had grown prosperous and successful. Mine had withered and rotted away. “You abandoned us.”

The colonel embraced me. Her uniform was cold and hard; its creases uncomfortably rubbed against my skin. “I’m sorry. Looking back, we were unable to come to terms with how powerless we were. Again and again, we faced threats that only you or Maria could save us from. That was a mistake.”

“Apologizing now is pointless. You should have been there.”

“I still don’t know what happened. Tell me, Anastasia. What events transpired in the void star? There’s a thousand rumors flying about and I know not one of them is true. Only you can tell me. I’ll do what I can to make it better.”

“Maria killed Kirill. I could not stop it. I spent all that time traveling south, seeing my dead father, fighting in a sarassin colosseum-only to find that it was all useless. It was pointless. Every day is a reminder of it. It hurts, you know. Opening my eyes, seeing tomorrow is empty.” My eyes were shut. I couldn’t bear the thought of looking at the colonel’s face with mine covered in tears and snot. I was a pathetic person. I could only cry and watch tragedy unfold.

“...I see. After that, it makes sense. Maria didn’t seem like herself after she emerged from the void star, and I saw her face. She had been stabbed through the abdomen, and while they treated her, she just looked at you. Unblinking, unmoving. She was in awe of what she’d done. As if she couldn’t believe it herself.” The colonel recalled the events of the day after, when she and Canary had found us outside of Aya’s gate. “Kirill was nowhere to be seen. That blonde woman, who I hadn’t seen ever before, spent hours operating on Maria to clean and suture her wounds. I watched every minute of it. It was like nothing I had seen before, Maria staying completely still through the procedure. I’ve seen my share of emergency surgeries before, and if I remember anything, it’s the screams of the people who get opened up.”

A shock ran through my spine. My body lost all of its tension, and I fell onto the bed. A lost memory, sealed away from that day. A unit of sarassin rushed over with all of their life-saving implements initially intended for someone else, but at Exia’s direction, they provided that woman with those tools and supplies.. Strangely, enemies and allies came together to save Maria. There was a surreal beauty to it, as the violence between them came to a halt.

My eyelids were growing heavier. The colonel grabbed my hand. Her hand was still bigger than mine. It was warm, and her fingernails were still well kept after all this time. I felt them lightly pressing against the back of my hand.

—

A loud explosion shook me awake. I snapped up from the bed and slipped into the pair of shoes the colonel had left at my bedside. The sun had barely crossed over the horizon, and flocks of birds hastily began their retreat from the imminent danger.

“Ack! Damn, can they not let me sleep?” Delanor shouted. “Anatasia, what’s happening?”

I recoiled at the question. “I don’t know! I’ll check outside.”

As I reached outside the building, the first thing to catch my attention was a column of grey smoke, a few hundred paces north. Dozens of men rushed towards the column, each of them carrying a curious piece of machinery in their hands. It was metallic and tubular, but far too large to be a normal musket. On instinct, I pulled at the shoulder of one of the soldiers. He was barely taller than me, and one look at the roundness of his face showed that he was no older than fifteen or sixteen. “What’s happening?” I asked.

“There’s an attack, Miss!” he bowed. “The colonel has ordered everyone to defensive positions.”

“Thank you, sir,” I replied. “Good luck with your mission, may you be granted victory.”

He bowed his head again, and ducked away.

The captain was at the top of a wooden platform propped up by a tower of wood. “All cannons, fire!” On her order, I heard dozens of metallic pops, as the dozens of men and women around me, holding their curious weapons at their shoulders, released their rounds from the devices. Faster than my eyes could follow, dozens of explosions surrounded the column, widening the carnage.

“Anastasia!” a voice I had not heard in quite some time. It was Canary. His messy brown hair had been cut and combed back, and he held no reservations in brandishing his gold-black eyes.

“It has been quite some time. “Welcome to the pride of the south, the great city of Iralsk. Haha. It’s little more than a commune of soldiers, but we have our fun.”

“Canary! How long has it been?” I grabbed his hand and shook it heartily. Some feeling deep in me told me I shouldn’t try to hug him.

“You’ve grown. How has womanhood been?” he asked.

“...”

“Not good? A shame.”

“You look the same,” I replied. “The captain, uh, colonel mentioned you last night.”

“Did she mention that I have…been promoted! I am now a captain. You should address me by ‘captain’ now.” he said confidently.

“You’re Canary, now and forever. No matter, are we under attack? I heard the explosion and came to see what was happening.”

“You should run. We have the situation under control, but there’s no telling how the situation could change at any moment.” Canary advised. “We have no dolls down here to provide fire support, after all. These guns were inspired by a dead overgrowth we found buried in the desert. They don’t look like much, but they hit harder than your normal scatter-cannons. They can pack more explosives without self-detonating. I would say that we’ve repelled scaleskin raids in the past thanks to this new technology.”

“Fancy yourself an inventor, now? Never would have thought of you that way.”

“A munitions officer, technically. But the colonel gives me plenty of time to tinker with the things we scavenge from the scaleskins. Without anyone that can fight the scaleskins, we seemed lost. But maybe it is because we were cornered, we found ways to stay alive. Look out now, we’ve got more enemies incoming.” he waved his arms to the colonel. She looked down and nodded.

“Aerial bombardment! Use your overgrowths!” the captain yelled. As a wave of fire descended, it was swiftly intercepted by a volley of expanding leaves and branches. Instead of burning up, the greenery flying through the air billowed up and formed a shield, blocking out the sunlight for an instant. It erupted in a magnificent sky of fire, but as the ash rained down above our heads, we were unharmed. Specks circled around far above our heads. They were too small to see, but if I stared for long enough, the sunlight glinting off of their armor blinded me for an instant.

“Prepare a second volley of counterattack! Drive back the buster!” the colonel yelled.

“Buster? Canary, what’s a buster?”

“You’ll see. Well, I hope you don’t, because that means it got too close. But it’s a huge scaleskin, two or three times taller than a typical one. And scaleskins are already quite tall. Anyhow, they stuff the guy into a thick suit of metal and use him like a living battering ram. The armor is tough as hell and he doesn’t go down easily, so we have to keep raining fire on him until he gives up.” Canary let out a bout of mischievous laughter. “We’ve succeeded every time so far. I expect this time will be the same.”

Volley after volley, with the guns mounted at their shoulders, the colonel’s soldiers fought back the encroaching force. Rampaging waves of fire spread across the forest, clearing away the foliage and revealing the true appearance of the great scaleskin that towered above the tree. Its armor was dented and cracked, revealing patches of pink skin exposed by scales burnt off from the heat. Only half of its face was exposed, baring a row of fangs and glaring at us. A puff of steam burst from its mouth.

“There he is! Soon he’ll be like the roasted dragon we eat for dinner-”

A blast of heat at my side, just outside of my field of vision. A smoking pile of charred matter, its origin indistinguishable, replaced the man that had just pointed his weapon at the scaleskin. The beast’s mouth was wide open, revealing its luminous red throat. A crooked smile emerged.

“Tim!” the colonel yelled. “All hands, resume fire! Target the exposed spot on his face!”

“Step aside, step aside!” Delanor yelled from the back. She balanced on a wooden crutch, shifting forward with each hop-step of her good leg. Upon standing clearly before the scaleskin, she yelled something in a language unintelligible to my ears. It paused. The buster looked at Delanor, who was an insect in size compared to its massive body.

“All hands, hold your fire! What’s she doing? Is she…talking to it?” the colonel was shocked. “She’s become a real diplomat, hasn’t she? Trying to talk it out in the midst of a battle.”

Delanor and the scaleskin conversed for another moment, with Delanor vigorously shaking her head and flicking her tail back and forth as her opponent watched silently, only to reply with short answers between her pauses. Its expression soon returned to rage, and it opened its mouth again, with Delanor as its target.

“Look out!” she hobbled as fast as she could, too slow. I closed my eyes. Delanor was a girl my age, someone who had abandoned her life and stayed at my side. Death so close was sickening. I held my hands to my ears to block out her struggle against her own body to seek cover. The panicked shuffle and sweep of the crutch were painful.

An explosion rocked my feet, sending me sprawling to the ground. My closed eyes and hands over my ears gave little cover to the shockwave and rain of dust pelting my skin and hair. I stood up, only to fall down again. The tremor sent my head spinning and ears ringing and as I opened my eyes, I saw Delanor, collapsed on the ground. She was alive. Her ears flicked back and forth as she crawled towards me, a hand outstretched.

The scaleskin buster was still. Its armored left leg was no more, and the realization took it a second to notice the limb had gone. A blackened stump, adorned with a jagged chunk of cracked metal, had replaced what supported its massive body. Red blood poured from the wound, and the beast fell to its knees. Some soldier’s dismembered arm laid on the ground near Delanor. The fingers made a thumbs-up.

“Nice going, Canary! Good hit!” The colonel cheered, with both of her hands in the air. “One of you, help the feline up. What are you looking at?”

With a fist on the ground, the armored scaleskin braced itself. It growled something in its language, clutching at its severed leg before hobbling away, defeated.

Delanor’s face held a relieved smile. “‘We accept a temporary truce while the feline diplomat leaves.’ What a swell guy.” she said to me. She regained her balance, pressing her crutch against the ground after shooing away her helper. “Thank you, sir. I can take care of myself.”

“Delanor!” I wrapped my hands around her body. Her heart beat quickly and her breath was tired, but she was alive.

“That was a real attempt to mediate things, you know. Killing a diplomat is a crime, after all. Not that crimes in war are treated too seriously.”

“But, you had Canary-”

“He was a backup plan. A backup plan that I needed. Do you know how scary it was to see that thing’s fire breath? I was this close to turning into a pile of bones. Canary’s a lucky guy, being able to eat an explosion like that and come out safe and sound. I hope they find all of his pieces.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe. I couldn’t bear to lose anyone else.” I had no more tears to shed, but for the first time in many years a spark of happiness stirred in my heart. My shoulders were lighter, and the air felt a little more cool. Delanor’s pure-white hair shone with a radiance unlike before.

The scaleskins in the sky disappeared into the horizon. It was still morning, and while the scenery was littered with craters, smoke, and fire, the rush of victory made everything appear beautiful. Or, the relief of surviving another day. But that feeling was short-lived.

“Tim. Sorry about that, we should have been more careful.” The colonel knelt beside the charred mess of burnt flesh. “Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten.” One by one, the white-uniformed soldiers under the colonel’s command knelt and lowered their heads in silence. The enemy assault was repelled, but not without cost. The scaleskin had taken a life. My ribbons had taken the life of a man in the colosseum. It was a moment of desperation, an effort to save Maria. I was always unfit to fight, to balance the decisions of life and death.

“Delanor, let us return to the infirmary. I will prepare for my journey south, alone.” I said to Delanor, who stared blankly at the remains of the soldier’s body.

“Anastasia, wait.” the colonel said. “Don’t leave just yet. We haven’t finished talking. I’ll meet you back at the infirmary later.”

The night was quiet, raging fires in the forest calming down as the day passed. Outside of my window, an unimpressive black patch had replaced the trees that had stood that morning. It looked just like the man who was killed, but instead of one pile of charred remains, there were many. Delanor was asleep. She was far closer to the explosion and some glasses-wearing physician had said she needed to rest.

Canary strapped a pack full of shells to his back and crawled through the grass as Delanor tried to talk with the scaleskin. Delanor was able to speak sarassin, and the scaleskin language was similar, so with some effort she could communicate with the enemy forces. The scaleskin was the supreme commander of some unit or another and resented us for killing and eating dragons. When it refused to stop and prepared to kill the helpless feline, Delanor gave Canary the signal. He leapt up from the grass and wrapped his body around the leg before detonating everything in his pack, sending bits of his body all over Iralsk. His head had flown almost a kilometer south, startling one of the farmers looking to resettle the area.

The colonel thoroughly reprimanded Canary in front of the rest of her soldiers for making such a plot with the injured Delanor. It had saved some lives, but it could just as easily have cost more. He was stuck portioning stone dragon meat for the rest of the night, so I couldn’t see him, the captain informed me.

“Still, I cannot accept the idea of allowing you to the south alone. It could be dangerous. A stray overgrowth, a single fire-breather, even a wild animal could spell the end of your life. Let me send you an escort, at least.” the colonel pleaded. “If you disappear again, I won't be able to sleep at night.”

“Trust me, colonel.” Since I’d stared at the scaleskin in the face, watching as it prepared to incinerate Delanor, I wondered to myself. What would Maria do in this situation if I were in danger? Would she save me? What would happen to my attacker? She had never failed to offer her aid when it was needed. Her presence was just beyond my reach, at the tips of my fingers. If I found myself staring death in the face, she would make herself known. “I will be fine. Maria will keep me safe.”

“Agh, I can’t deal with these suicidal people anymore. Your life has value, you know that? Maria isn’t here. She might show herself, but what if she doesn’t? Are you ready to die without seeing her again?”

“I was ready to die when I stepped out of the void star four years ago. Everything after that has been the life of an apparition, someone who doesn’t know they are dead.”

“You still have desires. You still have a heart. I saw the look on your face when you hugged Delanor. You can’t fool me, Anastasia. There’s still something for you to live for. Looking for a loved one is a noble ideal. That is why you are here, is it not?”

“It is.”

“Then I’m giving you an escort. His name’s Garan, the best shot in our unit. We have no dolls down here, but that’s exactly why we’re dangerous. Fought back three brigades of scaleskins, and still going strong.”

“Fine. But I will send him away when I get close.” I said.

“Good. He’ll be there to protect you, Anastasia. Those who can’t fight, they’re at the mercy of those who can. Don’t forget it.”

—

I walked south. Past the plains, it was true. The air turned cold. The morning cries of birds died down and were replaced by a deathly silence. The soldier that the colonel had sent with me rarely spoke, and when we traveled, he walked far behind me.

One night, as I crouched down beneath a naked oak tree and unrolled a mat to sleep, he approached slowly, with his gun held at his hip. Turning his head side to side, he scanned the area for movement. “Something sneaking through the shadows. Stay near me, child.” The scar on his cheek reached from his temple to his cheek, barely missing his eye. “It is not safe here. Sleep if you’d like, I will wake you.”

—

A gust of frigid wind raked against my cheek. A howling gale blowing past, snow obscuring the sky. Garan was still on the ground, his face blue and still. When I grabbed him by the collar and shook him as hard as I could, he didn’t stir. Pieces of snow swirled through the air, and when one hit my arm, the cold stung through the sleeve. It was a rose petal. Pure white and slowly melting, a torrent of rose petals rising rapidly in the whirlwind. A silhouette in the distance. Hair braided into two parts, one which held an old black ribbon. Finally, yellow eyes which barely moved as I approached. Her clothes were tattered and torn. The frozen rose of the north, Maria. Her face captured my attention as it always had.

“Anastasia. I was waiting. You have come at last.” she reached out a hand. When I gripped it, it was as cold as ice. Her fingers were frosty, and as she squeezed, it sent a shiver down my spine. It was a dreadful feeling. Was she really alive? If so, then why did she feel this way? Garan’s hand had felt more human.

“Maria.”

She extended her arms to embrace me. There was no rise and fall to her breath. I pulled back.

“What…happened to you?” I asked.

“I was lonely, Anastasia. All alone, I wandered here and there. It was far colder than any snowstorm. I would have preferred to be buried under an avalanche. Hoping for you to come back to me. I knew you would not. But here you are.” Maria gripped herself, and shook. Her yellow eyes had lost all of their vigor, and were hollow spheres. I hardly knew if she could see my face.

“Loneliness does not do this to a person. Why did you kill him?”

“Who?” she asked. I pointed to the corpse fifty paces from us.

“Ah, him. He was caught in the blizzard. But you are safe.” Maria smiled. “I am happy to see you again. Have you been well?”

“Answer my question, Maria. What has become of you?” Blooming roses of ice had sprouted around my feet, fragile and glasslike. Each time I took a step, I heard the cracking of dozens of petals and stems beneath my feet. “Was it…the void star?”

“Do you know of curses…Anastasia? Magic and curses. Magic creates, and curses consume. My ice was nothing more than a curse.” Maria turned her hand over. A silver ring, its luster lost to time. It was only a band of metal around her finger. “I lost feeling in my feet long ago. My hands, it has been over a year. I am ice, and ice is me. The last meal I ate was a steamed loaf of bread, last spring. It is laughable, that blood sorcerer, he saved me for a time. Do you remember him?”

“Enough, Maria.” I cried out. Seeing her in this state was painful.

“Oh, so you did not want to speak. Could I interest you in a game of Princesses and Dragons? I could make us a set.”

“Maria, stop!”

“Mm. All right. What did you come to see me for, Anastasia? I thought you never wanted to see me again.” Maria asked. Her voice was weak, a whisper from her mouth.

“Nothing…nothing at all,” I said. I couldn’t bring myself to ask. Did she even remember what she did? I didn’t have it within myself to seek answers from her. She was close to death. Her blood didn’t flow, her body was only pushed forward by the ice that consumed her body.

“Please, Anastasia. There is no need to hide it. You’ve come for a purpose…to see me. It is a joy someone like me could only dream of. I love you, Anastasia. You were the only one that could make my heart feel warm.”

“That’s…not it.” I said. I couldn’t even cry. The tears in my eyes froze the moment they left my eyes, scattering in the wind. I could only see Maria who weakly attempted to lean her body against mine. It was light, like a pillow. Even with her weight pressing down, I could not feel a hint of warmth. “Why did you…?”

“Is this about that man…Kirill?”

I nodded. “Please. Tell me why you took his life.”

“It was…a childish delusion. From the day I looked into your eyes, I wanted you all for myself. When I saw how much you loved him, I tried to leave those feelings behind. But I suppose I failed. That is all. We could not both have your hand. But now, it seems neither of us will.” Maria managed a weak laugh. “I hope you are satisfied.”

“Satisfied? No!” I yelled. “I have only been searching for one last answer before I die.”

“That saddens me, Anastasia. Even if I were to pass on, I would damn the earth to an icy hell if it took your life.” Maria swallowed. “I am not long for this world. Live on, Anastasia.”

“But…I can’t live without him, or without you.” I buried my head in her chest. Somewhere deep within, I heard a heartbeat.

“Do you not hate me for what I did? How could I be at your side?”

“I don’t know. But look at you. I’ll bring you back, even if I have to make this world over.” I wiped away the frozen tears on my cheek.

“Do what you want. It would be…the greatest blessing.” Maria said. She collapsed on the floor, an empty husk that stared blankly forward. Her eyes were frozen over. The roses at my feet bloomed with even more violence, threatening to swallow her up.

“I won’t let that happen.”

The passing time was a blur as I ran forward. Holding Maria in my arms, the storm followed me wherever I went. I ran without stopping, past the abandoned farm cabin, past the thousands of trees. Only one destination remained in my mind: the void star, hidden deep beneath the caves of Aya’s Gate.

—

“That’s a hell you’re making. Every inch of the earth is going to be frozen, and when you leave this cave nothing will live. Assuming you can even survive, the rest of your days will be a struggle of surviving the cold and finding food to eat.”

I knelt down on the cliff overlooking the void star’s rift. It looked much the same as four years prior, hungry for prey to slip into its clutches. The thousand-tailed snake stood behind me, poking and prodding at my head while I gathered my thoughts.

“Were you not dead?”

“The rift being open for this long casts a shadow of the void into the cave. I can move and speak, if nothing else.” the serpent explained. Her white snout and red eyes eyed Maria’s frozen body.

“You have been here all this time, have you not?” I asked. “Do not bother me with trivial things. Just tell me about the void star. What is its true nature?”

“Not much, really. It amplifies the will of whoever touches it. Your father’s heart was filled with destruction, and so he got destruction. The old Sveshen emperor wanted blood, and he was blessed with blood. If you want life, you will be given life. Especially with my blessing. The only problem is excising the curse from Maria’s body. The void star will likely take it and belch it all over the place, freezing the world and covering it in ice.”

“And you don’t object to that.”

“Of course not!” the serpent said. “My people, the sarassin, have braved greater trials. I’m sure they’ll be fine. I already gave you my acknowledgement, anyhow. It isn’t like I can take it back. Now, go on, use my power. Or your power, whatever you want to call it.” the serpent grumbled. “Go on, do it. I won’t stop you.”

I closed my eyes and placed my hands on Maria’s body. The cold was painful, but her frail body was beautiful. Tiny branches of ice ran along her chest, her stomach, her arms. But there was still life in her. The ribbon in her hair stirred at my touch.

Her heartbeat was weaker than before, only giving a weak squeeze every few seconds. If I had waited a day later she would be dead. I had to work quickly.

True creation was the pinnacle of all power. With it, I would recreate all of Maria’s destroyed body, and cast her curse into the void star. This could only be done once, as the making of a single body required almost all of the serpent’s. I remembered what I’d done four years prior, as I sought to mend the void star. But this time, I was to create a new body, instead of a shattered piece of void.

Power flowed from the ribbon in Maria’s hair at my direction. First, her heart, frozen solid. She had never felt anything for anyone besides me. It fluttered when I came close, but remained unmoved at the sight of anyone else, even beating violently to match her hatred for our enemies. Next, her hands, which commanded a storm of frozen rose petals. No longer would ice flow from her fingertips. Third, her eyes. Their pale yellow turned into a magnificent gold when she fought for something she believed in. Fourth, her face, which looked upon everyone with contempt. I alone was able to soften that gaze.

One by one, I made her body anew. Carefully recreating every piece with the serpent’s power, the curse of ice left Maria’s body. Her body was free of ice, and when I ran my hand along her arm, it was warm and covered in soft skin. Her chest rose and fell softly, and when I placed my hand beneath her chin, I could feel her breath. She opened her eyes.

“Anastasia…” Maria grabbed my hand. “You didn’t have to do that. After what I did to the man you love, would you still spare my life?

“I would. Nothing will bring him back now.”

“I suppose.”

A burst of frozen air shot from the depths below. The void star, begotten by the curse of frozen roses, screeched and roared. I shielded Maria, who was still lying unclothed on the ledge beside me, and threw my cloak over her bare body.

“So, you’ve done it. Countless will perish at your hand, Anastasia. The world is your enemy now. I hope you are prepared.” with a final word, the white thousand-tailed serpent, vanished.

“Anastasia.” Maria sat up and got to work putting her tattered clothes back on. “The ice is gone from my body. You have barely a ribbon to your name. We are powerless. What will we do when we return to the world?”

“We will fight as always, the two of us. We never needed power to struggle. I had all the power at my fingertips, and I could not protect a single man.”

“I like the way you think, Anastasia. But maybe I will study again, learn to control ice again like a true doll. I still need to settle the score with that blonde Academy woman.”

The two of us climbed up the caves to reach the entrance of Aya’s gate. It was a frozen wasteland, adorned with a sea of frozen roses. The sun itself seemed to have been frozen still. All life had been wiped out by the ice, the only sign of its former presence being the remains covered in frost.

—

Colonel Yavokhaev was never one to despair. After her first sighting of scaleskins to the northwest, she spared no efforts in preparing for inevitable conflict. From the reading of obscure Archive documents in hopes of a breakthrough to enlisting the help of resettlers to assemble explosives, her efforts paid off. Then they paid off again, and again. But as the emptiness of their underground warehouse soaked into her mind, her thoughts melted into nothing. Certain doom awaited their next battle with the scaleskins. A single buster alone took over a hundred pounds of shells to repel, and Canary’s plot consumed another fifty.

When the alarm sounded for the final time, the colonel was enjoying a handful of morning biscuits with Canary in the room separating their personal quarters. It had been a clear day, and the early fall sunlight spilled through the windows. The two had been discussing the remainder of their assignment, three more months, they were promised. Ninety days and the nail-biting standoff would be over, and they would be allowed to fall back to the safety of the empire’s northern territories. The colonel’s plea for reinforcements had remained unanswered. The main force had been occupied in the north, perhaps. Or the scaleskins had interrupted her messenger swallow. In any case, help wasn’t expected to come anytime soon.

“I guess it’s finally time to go, huh.” she said. Canary said nothing. He left the room without a word. In a single breath, the captain rushed to the north side of Iralsk. The trail that the past battle had blazed through the forest was a path for the scaleskins to penetrate directly into the settlement. Three giant scaleskins, including the one that Canary had repelled earlier, lumbered forward, their eyes burning with bloodlust. A line of soldiers stood with their shoulder-cannons mounted. As long as the colonel willed it, there was still hope. It was the grace of the underling, the subordinate. Only the person at the very top was fully aware of the hopelessness of the situation, everyone else only had a vague impression.

“Protect the colonel! Hold them here!” someone yelled. His name was Alexei, or Alexander? The colonel couldn’t remember. She was frozen. A volley of shells peppered the scaleskin in front with explosion after explosion. When the smoke cleared, little damage had been done. Compared to the endless rain of shells the other had received, this was little more than pebbles.

Three beams of heat, and almost a dozen soldiers were caught in the blast. Some screamed in pain as they clutched their missing limbs, others were silent. The colonel remained unmoving. There was nothing she could do for these people. If only she was someone born with power, with the ability to fight these monsters…

“Fyodora. Let us go. If we can leave, at least we will be able to keep you alive-” Canary pulled at the colonel’s hand. “Let’s not make their sacrifice in vain.”

“What sacrifice? We will all die here. Well, you won’t. You’ll continue living on, in some form-” the colonel said. She couldn’t even look away at the smoking pile of bones in front of her.

“Come! Now is not the time for indecisiveness. Do you not want to see those girls again? To see the conclusion of their efforts?” He asked. It was true. She would have liked to see them again. Compared to this hell, her time with those two was a paradise. She could only reminisce on the times. She grabbed Canary’s hand. The two ran south, looking left and right. If there was a horse they could take to escape this place, maybe there was hope for them after all.

The colonel fell in a heap. For an instant, she hadn’t even realized the truth. Her dreams, along with her left leg, had been incinerated in the blast of the scaleskin.

“Damn this!” Canary hissed. He wrapped the captain’s arm around his neck, picked her up and kept running.

“Hey, Canary-” the captain whispered. “Maybe this isn’t so bad, after all.”

“I won’t let you die. If you die, I’ll be all alone again.” Canary cried out. “Were we not to find a home together, somewhere on the eastern shore?”

“We were…but I was just thinking…maybe somewhere around here wouldn’t be so bad. It’s you and I, so the place doesn’t matter, does it?”

It was Canary who spotted the wave of heartless blue rushing like a wave from the south. The air turned from hot to cold. Before he could react, his feet were encased in ice, quickly rushing up his body to envelop him entirely.

“That Maria…she was alive all along, wasn’t she? I knew nothing could kill that girl. Aren’t we lucky to have met someone like her?” the captain said. As the frost covered her skin and spread down her throat, trapping the words before they could come out, she noticed a frozen rose sprouting at Canary’s feet.

—

The scaleskin capital was a mountain of steel. It was firmly rooted in the ground by a foundation of metal. Dozens of columns pierced the sky, coming close to Akari and Vivian, circling high overhead.

“Remember what we discussed. I bring down the towers, protect me while I do so.” Akari ordered. “Any sight of the curse-bearers, and we retreat. On your mother’s command.”

Vivian nodded. She counted thirty-one in total. A scaleskin in a red robe passed by a window on one of the towers, and looked straight at her. It dashed away. “They see us. I’ll prepare to defend.”

“Wish me luck, Vivian. It’s been a long time since I had to execute a full combination.”

“A full combination?”

“Watch me.”

Akari leapt off her horse, and entered a free fall. She kept a hand on the hilt of her sword. Reaching partway down the tallest tower, she stopped. Caught in midair by an invisible force. A silver flash shot through the tower, and she reappeared on the other side. It was a clean cut. The molten edge where Akari’s sword had passed cleanly through the metal separated the top from the bottom. The sheer bulk of the thing made its fall seem slow, sluggish. But when the severed column hit the smaller structures below, dome-like shelters and square buildings, they were crushed with a tremendous boom. A cloud of dust expanded from the tower’s final resting place, leaving the bodies of a few dead scaleskins in its wake.

Akari resumed her freefall. A silver flash, and another tower fell.

“Oh, right. The eyes. Lady told me to use the eyes to look at the things I didn’t understand.” Vivian’s prismatic eyes, a skill passed down from mother to daughter, to expose the things that could not be seen. This included movements too fast for the eye, as well as the invisible. Akari fell, with her sword sheathed, and bracing against nothing at all, swung her sword in a wide arc as she shot with great speed at the tower. Upon contact, she reappeared on the other side, with her sword sheathed again. Even the prismatic eyes could not perceive Akari’s movements. A web-like interlace of Akari’s footholds wove between the towers. They formed the basis for Akari’s gravity-defying jumps.

Their actions did not go unnoticed. Flying scaleskins, their huge wings comparable to the wings of the godsteed that Vivian rode on. They released bolts of fire at Akari wherever she showed herself. “Oh, protect her. She can’t pay them any attention while she does this. I should keep them from disturbing her.” Vivian closed her hands around the swarm of enemies. Following her direction, two huge walls of branches closed up on a few scaleskins. Vivian felt the crunch of their bones as she squeezed the life out of them.

Akari was nearly finished. Twenty-two towers had been felled, and hundreds of dead scaleskins crushed by debris littered the capital. Vivian looked to the south side. A huge cauldron, empty except for a weak flame within, hauled by a crowd of scaleskins in red. “Curse-bearers! Akari! Retreat!” but Akari could not hear her. She was too far away, too occupied with finishing the job. Destroying the capital here could spell victory.

The scaleskins in red climbed up the cauldron, tearing off their robes and leaping inside. With each sacrifice, the flame grew. It bubbled and overflowed, soon spreading all across the capital, swallowing up the dead. A new column of fire shot up, straight at Akari, catching her in free-fall. It was the only point where her movement was predictable.

“Akari!” Vivian could only watch.

“What’s the problem? Scared of a little heat?” she joked. She was behind Vivian, without a burnt hair on her head. “They can’t hurt me. I’m not your typical doll. We should leave though. We couldn’t destroy everything, but I would call this a success. Look.”

Much of the city of steel was destroyed and in flames, only a handful of towers in the north remaining untouched. The cauldron was no longer visible. The city itself was overflowing with liquid flame, and with each second, its reach grew closer to Vivian’s godsteed.

“Well done, let us go.” Vivian said, bringing her head low and preparing for a swift retreat.

Only with her back to the city did Vivian feel her heart skip a beat. An unbearable weight, pressing down on her back, forcing her to descend. Her arms were heavy. The godsteed too, struggled to flap its wings, but it was not enough. “The curse-”

“Fight it, Viv. I’ll get us out of here.”

With a heave, Akari pulled Vivian off of the godsteed. Her grip was like iron, and she could feel the muscles of Akari’s arm and chest as she held Vivian with one arm. To Akari, Vivian was no heavier than a sack of rice.

“No sweat, they can’t stop my flight.”

“Akari, you can fly?”

“I can try. I’ll get you far away, but I doubt I can travel like this for long. You’ll have to figure something out when I run out of juice. You can do that, can’t you, Viv?”

Vivian had no time to answer as Akari leapt off the side of the godsteed, which was soon eaten up by the raging beast of flame. This was the curse. A monster of fire, with thousands of arms, white-hot fire running along each one. This was what had wiped out Maria’s vanguard. And it followed only inches behind the two.

Vivian blinked. Her momentum was gone, and she was ten paces forward from a moment ago. Then she fell. Another blink, and another ten paces. They remained just out of reach of the curse. Vivian raised her arm to erect a barrier, but Akari grabbed it.

“Don’t let it touch you. Curses consume the flesh and the life of your creations. It will eat your branches and you after that. Those fire-breathers above us are trouble. We can’t stop them. I’ll try to dodge out of the way, but if I get hit, that will be trouble.”

“Did you not survive being swallowed up by the curse a mere minute ago? Can you not do that again?”

“I can’t. Jumping across a timeline takes a lot out of me. If I did I’d probably miss the jump and end up back inside the curse, and this time I’d really be dead.”

“We cannot keep running like this. We will be hit, one time or another.” A fresh wave of bolts whizzed past Vivian’s head, only missing from Akari yanking her body upwards.

“Well, I’ve got an idea. Brace for impact, I’m going to have us hit the ground.” Akari picked up the pace. With each flash the distance between them and the curse grew just a little bit. Upon touching the ground, Akari fell to her knees shortly before getting back to her feet. “This is bad, Viv. But I’ve got one final trick up my sleeve. You can’t be close, or you’ll get caught in it.”

Vivian nodded timidly. The reality of the situation was clear. There was just enough distance between her and the encroaching curse that she could shrug off its effects. “Will you…win?”

“I will. Report back to Em, and send her my regards.” Akari gave her a confident thumbs-up.

Vivian ran with all of her strength. Away from Akari, away from the curse that stopped to swallow her up.

—

“That’s right, girl. Don’t forget me.” Akari laughed to herself. She would have hoped to see Emily one last time, but that would have to wait for another chance. “Here’s to you, my terrible brother.”

The swarm of scaleskins grew. More and more appeared, until even the red of the sun was blocked out by balls of fire. Vivian was far enough. Akari had skillfully cut down every one of her pursuers. None would pass until Akari allowed it. The curse itself had no effect on her, as her origin differed from the scholars of the Academy. Touching it would still kill her, though. No human could live with their flesh consumed.

With Vivian gone and enemies abound, the conditions were perfect. She had been itching to try it out, but there were always pesky friends holding her back. She wanted to jump at the opportunity, but her exhausted body could feel no such excitement.

The time-splitting swordswoman split time with her sword. Cutting herself and the land around her off from the rivers of time, she was barely afforded a thought of the approaching wave of ice from the south before everything went still. Thoughtless and breathless, the only thing remaining in her mind was the image of the curse’s flames wrapping around her body, unable to consume it in the prison of severed time.

—

“Viv!” Emily’s godsteed dove as the lady’s daughter was stranded in the lifeless badlands. Unlike the deserts of the south, the ground was hard stone, and scarcely an insect could survive in the cold crags of rock. “You succeeded. That’s my daughter.”

“Akari…she’s-” Vivian pointed in the distance. Like flies around a lump of sugar, stoneskins hovered in circles around Akari. A few ventured near her, only to be caught and suspended like bugs in amber. It was a surreal sight, with the arms of the curse inches from consuming Akari, but stopped in their tracks.

“She really did it. Incomplete, but I’d expect nothing less of the time-splitting swordswoman.” Emily said. “You did well, Viv. I should have given her the same order.”

“She saved me. Without that, I would have never made it this far.”

“I know. She’s always getting herself in trouble for the sake of others. Viv, there’s no time. We must get away from here. A curse, consuming everything in its path approaches from the south.” Emily warned her daughter. It was true. A wall of blue, staining the sky was growing larger and closer.

“There is nowhere to run. I will fight it. I haven’t forgotten what you’ve taught me.” Vivian’s eyes were the same yellow as Emily’s. They shone a brilliant gold when she was feeling confident. Across all of the great scholars that Emily had been able to meet in person, the golden eyes united them.

“Your eyes, they remind me of…my own. I never told you about your father, did I?” Emily said.

“No, you did not. I was curious, but I never had the courage to ask. I thought you would tell me one day.”

“He died shortly before you were born, that is all. The storm approaches. Prepare yourself, Viv. The final test awaits.”

—

Isa was alone. In her desolate tower of stone, Emily had left her some hours ago. She wanted to check on something, she had said. It had been quite a long time since she left. The room grew colder and colder, and when she looked outside, There was only a field of ice. A sea of frozen roses, blooming ever more beautifully. Just like the flames that had once consumed her heart, she felt ice creeping into her body. It was cold, and she could no longer feel her feet.

“This is…?” No matter where she stepped, her limbs went numb, her mind hazy. She collapsed to the ground, the cold stone rubbing against her skin. “How…unceremonious. Sister, are you there?”

There was no response.

—

When an abyssal soldier, defeat in her eyes, had showed up at Yair’s doorstep all that time ago, he’d thought nothing of it. Six months later, when another one appeared, completely naked and his eyes full of rage, he’d thought it curious. Three abyssals to come by his village in less than a year? That made it the most eventful year in over a decade. He viewed the world through the reflection on his tea-glass, looking over the things that interested him. His body was too old and frail to go on adventures of its own, but it refused to die. It was a small excitement in the endless bore of mixing herbs and trading his medicines for food. He could even watch as he worked.

He had seen the icy curse pouring out of the void star. He’d seen Canary’s demise at Iralsk. It would be only a few short days until the curse arrived at his doorstep, ready to consume everything. Maybe this snowstorm of rose petals would be the thing to finally rob him of his long-lived nature. But he wasn’t about to yield to it. The duty of the living was to fight for life, after all.

“More wood!” Yair yelled.

“I hear you, old man!” The abyssal who stood over two meters tall, with rage-filled eyes and a body bound with bulging muscles, felled another tree. With a single swing of his axe, he cleaved a chunk off of the trunk and cast it into the raging bonfire. The other abyssal, her blonde hair tied into a bun on her head, and far more normally sized, returned with an armful of sticks and twigs.

“Eh…and there we go. Jon, you’re smiling.”

“It has been so long. I hunger for battle, and the time has finally come.” The abyssal named Jon tore off a chunk of wood with his bare hands and threw it into the fire. “Ilyanovich, do you not enjoy the fruits of life? The freshness of the air, the rush of survival. Does it not excite you?”

“I don’t know. I suppose, but…I’ve lost so much. We are not to befriend humans, lest they lose their lives and leave us alone. Have you not felt such a thing, Jon?”

“My only friend is dead. I have not seen him in years. Kirill, my friend…when I asked what became of him Yair only raised his eyebrow and left me alone.” Jon recalled.

“You two, we can talk when the storm’s passed. A bigger fire, a greater one! Only one that razes the heavens will take us to tomorrow!” Yair yelled again. He grabbed fistfuls of colorful rocks and cast them into the blaze. With each stone, the bonfire cracked and popped.

“Old man, you needn’t tell me twice. We all know what awaits if we do not succeed. Why do you live? To see tomorrow? You have already seen it.”

“You wouldn’t know. Young ones like you never fail to keep the world from turning on its head. Who do you think this curse is from, anyway?”

“I have…an idea.” Ilyanovich recalled. “The girl who killed my friend in a duel…a doll by the name of Maria Petrov. When I looked into her eyes, I saw nothing but ice. A heart cold enough to freeze the world over.”

“That’s correct. You should understand by now, you abyssals. Those of us with no guarantee of tomorrow, with lives fragile as a blade of grass, the spectre of death is what brings vigor to our spirits and life to our bodies. Now, I’d like not to die, so, more wood! You all have little to gain from being undying, either. Suffering in a shell of ice for eternity is no pleasant fate.”

“Argh!” Jon knelt down and flung the remainder of the tree trunk into the fire. At this point, the bonfire itself was higher than the trees that surrounded them, and with a few more of Yair’s rocks, the fire spread. Soon the whole forest was ablaze.

“The villagers! Should we not alert them?”

“Hah! I did, and none of them listened. If we save them from this tragedy, they can count themselves lucky, but I’m a spiteful one. I’ll let those who fail to lend me an ear suffer the consequences.” Yair said.

“You’re a funny old man, you know that? I’m glad the winds carrying the ashes of my body sent me to you.” Jon said.

“I’m flattered, but I’ve only got one more thing to say.”

“More wood?”

“More wood!”

—

Months passed. The storm of Maria’s curse raged for weeks, but as we peeked out of the shelter of Aya’s gate one morning, it had cleared. It was bitingly cold, and the forests surrounding the gate had been frozen solid. Even the waterfall masking the entrance to our shelter had been frozen solid; forming a sculpture that appeared as moving water.

We settled near the sea to the east. The river flowing out to see offered an abundance of creatures that had survived the storm by burrowing deep below the mud at the bottom. At first, I was hesitant to eat such things, but with Maria’s encouragement and the pangs in my belly, I got used to it.

In a few weeks, we had opened a hole in the ice large enough to catch fish. Using discarded bits of shellfish or crawfish as bait, we were granted a luxury of the sea a few times a week. Otherwise, I spent my days scavenging for frozen fruits and edible plants.

Maria was true to her word. When she was sure I would not go hungry for the day, she ventured into the forest to explore and train. Perhaps she was afraid of any threats that might arise in this new world. One afternoon, I found her, and I noticed a few ice crystals in the air around her fingertips. Instead of the emotionless gaze that she used to hold while fighting, every second was filled with effort. With her body free of the curse, she was again thrown into the depths of normalcy. Ice would not come naturally to her; she forced it to obey.

There was an abandoned settlement to the south, that we scavenged for supplies from time to time. A sewing kit, some clothes, even oil and wicks. As we walked back to our home from the place, I was startled by a man who was frozen solid. His life had long left his body. In his left arm, there was a basket of apples, all of them covered in frost. Maria nonchalantly took one and bit into it.

“Maria!”

“What? I can tell you one thing, and it is that he will not be needing the apple.” she munched on the fruit, breaking apart the frozen bits with her teeth.

“I suppose. Do you think…anyone survived?” I asked.

“I dread the day we find out the answer to that question,” Maria said. “The world will not take kindly to the girls that turned it into a frozen hell.”

“But…they won’t know that we are behind it, will they? I had no choice! You were dying.”

“Not many ice users were as strong as I, and do you think it matters to them? Their friends, mothers, daughters, whomever was killed in the storm will be fuel for their hatred. Why do you think I still seek power? It is to fight. When that day comes, when the surviving dolls appear at our doorstep, I will be ready to meet them. They will know that it was no curse that made Maria Petrov who she was. It was the force of her will.”

“I will fight beside you. I still have two ribbons left. The one Delanor gave me, and the one still tied in your hair.”

“And? You’ll make a mosquito to sting at whoever might do us harm?” Maria smugly asked. It was true, with the two short bits of ribbon there were but a few things I could make with them.

“Teach me to use ice, Maria. Surely you can, can you not?”

“Unless you like the feeling of plunging your body into a freezing pond, I would not recommend it.”

“...I suppose so. Anastasia, what do you want to do, now? I wish to stay here. It may be strange, but the life we live here, the search for food, the quiet life beside the frozen ocean, it suits me.” Maria asked.

“I want to find our friends. Canary, the colonel, Delanor, maybe others. Perhaps they survived the storm.” I said. “Even if the world does not accept us, I am sure they will understand.”

“Wait, the colonel? Who do you speak of?”

“The captain. She was promoted.”

“Good for her. I can’t wait to see her well-picked outfits again.” Maria laughed. “Just this once, I would ask her to find us something nice. That is, if there is anywhere left to purchase clothing.”

“We’ll find her and ask. Let us return home and plan where we should go. The world is ours, after all.” I said. My life with Maria was one of discomfort and constant struggle, but her presence made it all better. If I could taste the life I once had, of adventuring across the plains with friends, there would be no greater joy. I recalled Kirill when I considered the journey. He was one of our companions too. A journey without him would not be the same, but nonetheless, I dreamed of it. Maria would be at my side, after all.