The dream did not fade to darkness this time. Like an icicle falling and stabbing into the earth, Abrial’s senses stabbed back into her body.

She was trapped in the darkness behind her eyelids, eyes shifting rapidly back and forth in an attempt to break through and see. The sounds of her own labored, ragged breathing filled her ears, along with the irregular pounding of her heart that seemed to pulse everywhere in this darkness she floated in.

Stabbing through the heat and panic and blackness, a sudden spear of white pierced through. Though Abrial’s eyes were shut tight, she was blinded by this light, and the sensation that followed paralyzed her body and senses.

A freezing cold stabbed through her limbs. It pierced into her heart, spreading out through her body like ice-ridden blood in her veins, immobilizing all of her senses beneath a layer of frost. Even the pounding of her heart slowed, and slowed—and stopped.

She lay still as stone on her bedroll, her body encased in a skin of frost.

For a moment, Han Abrial Chae-young was dead.

She had been throwing a fit in her sleep for four hours now, cursing and weeping tears of blood. Her bedroll was so drenched with cold sweat that it looked like it had been dunked in an icy river, and her fever had reached such scalding hot temperatures over the last hours that the entire temperature of the tent had risen slightly. Her whole body emitted the heat of a fire. It didn’t help that, as Abrial’s fits grew more fierce and she began to weep uncontrollably, patients who knew her had begun to crowd around her with worried faces, trying to pacify her in her sleep. Once word had gotten out to the rest of camp that Abrial was deathly ill and suffering the most terrible agony anyone had ever seen, even more people had rushed in to see if anything could be done, or just to get a glimpse of her spine-chilling bloody tears. They gaped at that strange tattoo on her collarbone that glowed so red-hot it was like it had been freshly pressed on with an iron. How strange! And almost demonic, no?

Now, as the fourth hour passed, a large crowd was gathered around Abrial. In the center of it stood a tall, graceful man dressed in robes the color and texture of a river — of course, it was Instructor Wei. He leaned over Abrial’s effectively dead body with a concentrated look on his face, beads of sweat dripping down his pale temples. No one knew if he was sweating from the heat radiating from Abrial’s body, or from concentrating so fiercely — probably both. Two of his long fingers rested on Abrial’s bare collar bone above her glowing tattoo, like cooling rods.

As everyone watched, something very strange began to happen. Many people gasped.

“What’s that white stuff?” someone whispered.

“That can’t be — frost, is it?”

As absurd as it seemed, there really was a pale, bluish-white crystalline substance appearing all over Abrial’s body. With a quiet crackling sound, it spread out from her left chest, slowly encasing her entire torso like water eating up a sheet of thin paper.

“It’s—it’s colder in here!” a spectator remarked.

“It must really be frost!”

“But — that can’t be right,” murmured a young man alarmedly. A scarlet headband sat askew on his forehead. He turned to the moon-pale young man standing next to him with his arms crossed. “Ah Ran…Teacher Wei wouldn’t encase Abrial in a frost just to cool her down, would he. She’d—she’d get frostbite like that! It’s not safe…is it?”

“Why are you so worried about her?” Ya Syaoran scowled. “Teacher Wei isn’t an idiot.. He must be doing this on purpose, so it must be necessary to save her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t threaten her life even more”

As Instructor Wei’s long white fingers rested on Abrial’s collarbone, a blue frost began to creep up his joints, spreading from Abrial’s skin to his. A nervous tittering rippled through the crowd.

“It’s spreading to Master Wei! Has he—lost control?”

“What kind of technique is he using? It must be very difficult for even Master Wei to struggle with it!”

“Someone should do something!”

“Don’t do anything!”

Everyone hushed. The tone of Instructor Wei’s voice was so harsh that it seemed to whip through the air, lashing everyone’s voices back into their mouths.

Leaning over Abrial, Instructor Wei’s eyes were still closed, but his other hand was thrown out in a gesture to ward anyone off from stepping closer. The crowd surrounding the bedroll scooted backwards, creating a large empty circle in which only Abrial’s frost-covered figure and Instructor Wei remained together. Master and student, one attempting to pull the other back from death.

Instructor Wei’s eyes shot open. He sucked in a deep breath. Then, pursing his lips, he twisted his hand and tore it away Abrial’s skin.

There was a shattering noise, and a flashing light.

Gasps and shrieks sounded throughout the crowd, and many people threw their hands over their faces in defense.

Thousands of shards of ice shattered away from Abrial’s clothes, shooting outward in all directions like jagged blades.

Instructor Wei was lightning-fast. He waved his long blue sleeve gracefully through the air, and just like that, the shards melted away before piercing a single person’s flesh. It all happened in an instant, almost too quickly for anyone to see properly.

In the silence that followed, a thick, nasty and watery cough sounded. There came the noise of shifting blankets.

“Wh-what…” wheezed a young woman’s rasping voice. “Wh-what’s going on? Why are all these people…here?”

Shouts and gasps burst from the crowd once again. With the danger of ice shards melted away, they began to push in, shoving and elbowing to see the sickly young woman, now most definitely alive, lying on the bedroll.

“I can’t believe it — he’s done it!” an onlooker cried. “Master Wei has saved this young woman’s life!”

“She’s awake!”

“The ice is gone!”

“Do you feel that? It’s not hot in here at all anymore — in fact, it’s a little chilly, isn’t it? Amazing! He truly is as powerful as his reputation!”

On the bedroll, Abrial shrank back and blinked blearily at the masses of people swarming to get a glimpse of her. They looked fuzzy and warped through the haze glazing her eyes. Why were they here? Where was she? What was going on?

“Everyone, back away,” called a firm, almost cold voice — Instructor Wei’s? Instructor Wei’s!, Abrial realized with a leap in her heart. Why was he here?

Most of the crowd respected Instructor Wei’s uncharacteristically harsh words and created a perimeter around Abrial, murmuring and glancing from a distance, many dispersing now that the dramatic critical danger was gone. But a few people ignored him completely, converging on Abrial like desperate waves crashing into one another in a storm.

The first to reach Abrial’s bedrollside was Wu Dafu, his scarlet headband sticking to his warm forehead from the sheen of anxious sweat that had formed there.

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“Abrial!” he exclaimed, falling right to his knees by her side. He grasped her clammy, sweaty white hand in his own tan one, brown eyes studying her face urgently. Her cheeks, which normally had a tinge of pink from excitement and vigor, were white as milk, a little green, and shining with cold sweat. Her large, dark eyes were blinking erratically, trying disorientedly to clear away the haze in front of them.

“W-Wu Dafu? Ah Fu?” Abrial wheezed, squinting. His bright red headband was unmistakable.

“Yes, it’s me!” Wu Dafu answered eagerly, clutching her hand tightly. “I’m so glad you’re all right! How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

Abrial grunted in pain in response. Wu Dafu paled.

“What is it? Is something making you suffer still? Is it a headache?”

Ya Syaoran’s pale hand landed on Wu Dafu’s shoulder, gripping it tightly.

“You’re hurting her hand,” he said flatly.

Wu Dafu’s cheeks flushed scarlet. He let go of Abrial’s hand immediately.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice!”

On the other side of Abrial’s bedroll, a small, amber-haired girl was jumping up and down with bright emerald eyes that glowed with joy.

“Abrial!” she cried, eyes sparkling. “Abrial-jie is alive! I thought she was going to die, and that made me so sad, because Abrial-jiejie is really cool and I want to be just like her. But Teacher Wei saved her! Abrial-jie is alive!”

An amber-haired teen boy with bony, pale hands snatched the little girl’s wrist and pulled her roughly away towards the tent exit.

“Let go of me, you stupid idiot!” the little girl hollered, wriggling and kicking.

“I told you not to go close, Klara!” the young man, Dieter, snapped. “Ouch, that hurts! What if she’s contagious?”

“Teacher Wei said she we can’t catch whatever she has! Let go of me or I’ll bite you!”

“Bite me, then!”

Klara complied gladly, sinking her small, pointy white teeth into Dieter’s forearm and causing him to shriek. Once out of his grasp, she scurried back to Abrial’s side, sticking her small, pointy freckled face near Abrial’s clammy one.

“Abrial-jie!” Klara exclaimed, pushing Abrial’s sweaty hair behind her ears with small fingers. “I’m so happy you didn’t die!”

Abrial blinked up at Klara, still squinting.

“Do I know you?” she said bluntly. “You’re the little girl…with orange hair…”

Klara pulled back. Her large, round blue eyes immediately began to water with tears.

“You don’t remember me?” she squealed. “I’m Klara Bernadotte, the Princess of Roatia! You teach my stupid idiot brother sword fighting!”

“Ah,” Abrial croaked weakly, remembering while fighting off a haze of nausea. “Right.”

Another face appeared at the foot of Abrial’s bedroll. It was Lyra, her tan skin looking paler than usual from worry. Her baggy knitted hat sat askew on her curly brown locks.

“Hey there!” she greeted, smiling anxiously at Abrial and giving a friendly, hesitant wave.

“Hi…Lyra,” Abrial croaked, her lips curving into a weak smile. She tried to sit up but failed, so Wu Dafu swiftly helped her by the arm, fluffing her pillow to better hold her up. Ya Syaoran rolled his dark eyes.

Three more faces appeared among those already surrounding Abrial. They belonged to Bi Gho, Bi Chanjuan, and Niklas.

Niklas flashed a blinding white grin down at Abrial and sent her a salute.

“Hey there, soldier!” he boomed. More than a few women in the tent nearby sighed at the sound of his voice, glancing over and wishing they were the sickly, almost-dead young lady he was speaking to. “Glad to see you’re awake. Almost lost you there — what a performance! You pulled through at the last second, didn’t you, hahaha…”

Bi Gho snapped her fan open and blocked Niklas’s sharp-jawed face from view.

“Don’t mind him,” she sniffed distastefully. “He doesn’t know how to read this kind of situation. It’s just jokes, jokes, jokes. Anyways, we are all extremely glad to see that you have woken up, Abrial. From now on, don’t worry yourself; the Day of Shadows has almost passed, so the worst of the agony is most definitely over. If you have recovered, you won’t be troubled any longer. My, you must be quite the magnificent shadow magician to have endured all that! You ought to come to my classes more often, Abrial — imagine how proud I could be to tell people I have a student like you? Just thinking about it gives me shivers of excitement, ahaha!” Bi Gho was still preventing Niklas from making badly-timed jokes with her fan, while getting sidetracked herself. On the bedroll, Abrial was still too disoriented to understand either of their words!

“What magnificent shadow magician? She couldn’t even properly complete one task in my lesson yesterday. Don’t make bad jokes, jiejie,” Bi Chanjuan muttered irritatedly. She stood by her sister with her arms crossed. Though she had an expression of not wanting to be there, she periodically glanced at Abrial out of the corner of her eyes with an expression that betrayed her curiosity.

Bi Gho slapped her younger sister over the head with her white fan. Bi Gho grunted.

“Meimei! How can you insult someone after they woke up in the infirmary after almost dying?” she scolded. “Did you learn that from me?”

Bi Chanjuan’s face paled with rage and fear as she ducked the fan as it swiped out for a second blow. “I’m just telling the truth, jiejie! She was shit at my lesson!”

“Pfft, I don’t care whether it’s truth or lies! ApologizeI to Abrial right this instant!”

Abrial laughed weakly, then dissolved into a fit of nasty-sounding coughs, causing the Bi sisters’ quarrel to pause for now. After her coughs had subsided, she smiled crookedly up at all of those who had crowded around her with a mix of worry and relief on their faces.

For some reason, she felt her eyes begin to shiver with tears. An odd emotion she couldn’t name welled up within her chest.

“Thank you, everyone,” she said quietly. Her hands played subconsciously with her blanket, twisting it. “For being here. You’re the best.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Abrial’s wet eyes bulged. She covered her mouth instantly, as though hoping she could catch the words and stuff them violently back down her throat.

What’s gotten into you, Abrial? She thought furiously. How embarrassing is that?! Why are you almost crying? Did someone just kill everyone you love or sentence you to live the rest of your life in that house? Why should you be crying?! Are you happy or sad?! Make up your mind!!!

Around her, everyone had a different reaction. Bi Gho smiled beautifully, while Niklas grinned his bright, crooked grin and Lyra smiled shyly. Klara jumped onto Abrial’s stomach to give her a bear hug, while Wu Dafu instantly took Abrial’s hand again without thinking and smiled warmly. On the other hand, both Ya Syaoran and Bi Chanjuan either voluntarily or involuntarily made faces like they wanted to vomit, and Dieter, who stood slightly outside of the circle, scrunched up his nose like he had heard something disgusting and gagged.

After the highest point of embarrassment had passed and the water in her eyes had evaporated, Abrial regained the courage to look around at this group again. Her eyes darted from face to face, an expression of discontent taking over her features.

“Where’s…Where’s…Finley?” she asked, the confusion obvious in her tone. “Why isn’t she here?”

Niklas’s blue eyes lit up mischievously.

“Hmm, that’s right, where is that skilled girl?” he said, tapping his chin as though wondering the same thing himself, though he obviously knew the answer. He dropped his hand and grinned at Abrial. “Good question, but you know what I want to know even more?”

“...What?” It was a ‘What?’ of confusion, not a ‘What?’ encouraging Niklas to speak, but Niklas seized the opportunity anyways.

Niklas winked charmingly, throwing Abrial into even deeper confusion.

“Why is it that you think Finley Fellner should be here? Why is it that you expect her to appear as soon as you wake up? Is she always the first thing you see when you open your eyes after having a tiring time?”

Abrial stared at this silly man, frowning and utterly lost.

“I don’t get it. Why are you asking that? Are these questions important?”

Niklas laughed, the sound jolly and carelessly attractive. The crowd surrounding this group around Abrial’s bedroll had thinned out significantly after her miraculous awakening, but some especially nosy magicians had remained. The women left gasped, enamored at the sound of Niklas’s laugh, stumbling from its charm like drunken pigeons.

Meanwhile, Bi Gho shot Niklas a glare sharp as a honed blade of ice. She slapped him furiously over the head with her fan, causing him to shriek in pain.

“You nosy brat,” she chided sternly. “Leave the poor girl alone. She’s only just woken up, and there are people surrounding her! Keep your lewd, misplaced and bland jokes to yourself!”

Abrial’s frown deepened.

“Lewd?” she muttered. “I don’t get it…”

Wu Dafu, who was still holding Abrial’s hand gently, understood suddenly. He blushed with embarrassment and let go of her hand right away.

At that moment, grumbles of annoyance and gasps of surprise sounded from the outer crowd as it was violently forced apart by a newcomer. In the next moment, a gasping, pale young woman shoved her way in between Ya Syaoran and Wu Dafu to drop to Abrial’s side.

A bright warmth spread through Abrial’s body. Her lips split into a sparkling grin.