For the first time in years, Theo did not see Lillian when he woke up. The two of them had created this inherent trust and system to keep her gift under control, and yet something had gone wrong.

Theo did not hesitate for a moment after he woke up, he started searching for her. He did not dilly-dally and try on outfits for the day. He did not brush his hair to make it beautiful. He immediately stood up and started to look.

The camp was quiet and barely anyone had woken up by that point. The prince had never enforced a wake-up time since most people generally woke up when the sun rose. In this place that wasn’t the best system, but the prince was an understanding boss.

Thankfully, Theo didn’t have to search particularly long. Theo found Lillian sitting in the dining tent, with a cup of something warm, a massive coat covering her, and her body gently rocking back and forth.

It was not a comforting sight, to see his best friend in such a state. Theo could see terror in her eyes; something had happened to her.

He knew his friend needed comfort though. He grabbed something warm from the back of the kitchen. The cooks gave him odd looks, but he didn’t mind them as he went back to Lillian.

Theo sat next to his friend, offering the comfort of his company. Not a word was shared as he simply waited for her.

Of course, it was boring, but Theo was more than willing to brave some boredom for Lillian.

Time passed as the two people sat in silence, slowly sipping on their beverages of choice. People entered the mess hall as the day truly started. They chatted and meandered about, making merry as they tried to guess what the new exploration would look like. The silence of their table persevered throughout it though.

At one point Joy joined the table, but he could feel the tensions running through it, and sat there in silence with them. Waiting for whatever it was they were waiting for.

The day passed and Joy eventually left to go help some of the shoveling teams re-excavate the cavern he had collapsed.

People came and went through the mess hall, but the two of them were unchanging in their silence. Theo waited and waited for her, but the night grew near, and he felt the lull of sleep. Even his stalwart determination could not keep him up all night through this boredom.

Eventually he passed out right next to her. Never leaving her side, even if he had happened to have fallen asleep.

Dreams had always been such a spiritual experience for Lillian, but Theo had never quite gotten it. His dreams were impressionistic. He got hints of what happened and vague feelings. Lillian told wild tales of her adventures through the domain of Dream, but Theo never partook in that side of restfulness.

His dream that night was of the taste of white. On his tongue, he could feel what the color white tasted like. It was an exquisite flavor that started by tasting like the first snowflakes dropping from the sky, then it morphed into a greedy taste. The taste of hunger and emptiness. But white fades, leaving colors in its wake, so the flavor subsided until not a hint of it remained on his tongue.

Theo walked through fields of water. Instead of flowing as per usual, it all seemed to flow like wheat stalks in the wind. Undulating and slowly falling to the ground.

Eventually, he knew he had been hurt. There was no pain, only the logical understanding that pain had occurred and that he was going to wake up now.

There was never rhyme or reason to his dreams, he never found purpose or power in his mind, he simply let them be.

Theo awoke to the smell of coffee. Lillian had obviously not moved from her spot the entire night. Heavy bags were underneath her eyes, and she swayed slightly in her seat, but she refused to give in to sleep, or to Sleep.

He shrugged, there was nothing he could do to fix this. So, he got a cup of coffee to match Lillian’s and went back to sitting right next to her. He would not let her be alone while she suffered.

Sipping but never slurping, the two of them sat there in mildly uncomfortable silence.

Later that day the Freer Men finally arrived. Theo never actually got up to look, but he heard from Joy that it had been quite a sight. Apparently, they had engineered some sort of large machine that they used to help them plow the snow in front of them. The group obviously made worse time than the prince’s forces, but their speed was nothing to scoff at.

Theo had watched hungry acolytes all rush into the tent he and Lillian were sipping in, and ravenously devour much of the prince’s food stores. No one was going to tell these people that the food had been made via the chef’s gift, which was all for the better since it seemed that the Freer Men were running a bit low on supplies. They had assumed they would be able to live off the land for at least a short time but had severely underestimated simply how unhospitable the Frozen continent was.

Theo watched as the bigwigs from either group left the tent to go make some serious plans. But he knew none of that truly mattered right now. He wasn’t needed to make strategic plans, he was needed right here, sipping on the tea he had brewed. Coffee was getting a little old for him, so he had decided to change it up a bit.

Another day passed, and soon it was nighttime again. The food tent had cleared up a while ago, and Theo was still sitting right next to Lillian. He was sure that these two seats they had been using were now molded to their asses but refused to stand up to look.

Lillian had never been an all-nighter sort of person. Maybe if she lived a lifestyle where she was more encouraged to have an inconsistent sleeping schedule she could be. But she had lived on a farm for her formative years, then was subjected to an intense sleeping schedule by the prince, so that her gift could be used to its fullest capacity. Theo could tell that she was flagging.

Lillian’s eyes drooped and she swayed back and forth, obviously on the verge of falling asleep. Theo badly wanted to let her, but something in her dreams was scaring her, and it felt improper to fight her wishes like that. So, he opened a conversation to keep her mind active.

“What is the color of your soul?”

A pause, his voice felt a bit scratchy from lack of use, and he knew her voice would only be worse.

"My soul space? My gift, my soul, it is black as night with twinkling stars running around. It is an endless starry night.” She replied.

“No, not your gift or your soul space, I mean your soul. You.”

“Grey. A misty grey that shrouds all that it touches.”

“That’s some bullshit.”

“No, it’s not.”

“You’re just avoiding the question by giving some vague ass answer.”

"NO!... I mean, no. It’s showing my unknowable personality and the inability to truly be seen by those around me.”

“You’re about as subtle as Joy in one of his clown suits.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“That’s hurtful.”

“Got you talking though.”

The two lapsed into silence after that. Theo had been on a roll, but he made the fatal mistake of bringing up the fact that he was being successful in his attempt to cheer her up.

A long moment passed before Lillian finally opened her mouth.

“I didn’t know you were one for the metaphysical soul of humanity bullshit.”

“It may be bullshit, but I like to think that I exist outside of any god’s meddling. That without any gift or reason to exist, I still would matter.”

“That was surprisingly beautiful for an idiot.”

“Name calling is a low blow.”

Lillian playfully kicked him under the table. It was weak and he could tell that her eyes were getting droopy, the exhaustion was truly reaping what had been sown.

“You don’t have to tell me anything. But I can wake you up occasionally at night. Every few hours I can kick you under the table to keep you from getting to that part of sleeping where you dream. It won’t be particularly restful, but it will help. You don’t need to dream a powerful weapon, or a final solution to all our problems tonight. Just rest.”

Theo stared at Lillian for a few heartbeats, as she looked back at him with some difficulty due to the drooping eyes.

“Thank you.”

A small smile spread across her lips as she lowered her head to the table. An occasional shudder rattled her, but slowly, she relaxed. Her breathing evened out, and she seemed at peace.

Almost a murmur that Theo could barely hear, Lillian whispered, “lavender.” Then she was truly asleep, a light snoring filling the room. It wasn’t that loud, but Theo didn’t mind it.

Theo slowly watched his friend. He knew she was a deep sleeper, so he wasn’t too worried about waking her up by accident, but he still carefully and quietly tiptoed his way into the kitchen and begged them for another cup of coffee. It was a quiet begging since he didn’t want the commotion to wake up Lillian.

With a new cup and a new attitude, he started making plans. Grand gestures of kindness aside, it wasn’t feasible for him to stay awake the entire night, every night, to make sure that she didn’t dream. So maybe he could get Joy and a few other people to partner up with him? It seemed feasible.

He glanced at Lillian and noticed that her hood, that had stayed on throughout his entire sit down with her, had started slipping off her head.

Her raven black hair was completely gone and her newly bald head showed. It was quite a distinctive feature and Theo knew that Lillian quite enjoyed her hair, so there was no way that this was just some flight of fancy by her. Something had happened to her, and he hadn’t been able to do anything. It was quite frustrating.

The night slowly passed. It was beyond boring just sitting alone in an empty dining hall, he had considered asking the prince for one of his private books, just to have something to read to pass the time. But those books all looked quite boring. Back when Theo thought he might become a great leader and confidante to the prince, he had tried to read literature and books on strategy and commerce. But it all made his head hurt quite a bit, it was just too much for him. Theo saw no point in making himself miserable to pass the time.

So, he quietly started to make small sculptures with his gift. Sculpting with ice is naturally a reductive art, many a true artist would take a massive chunk of ice and slowly chip away at it. They pulled pieces off until the art decided to reveal itself.

Theo was no true artist, but he had a gift that allowed for far more control over the medium than any piddling master could ever hope to achieve. And his skills allowed him to make sculpting ice an additive art. He would add layers of ice to the sculpture until its form was as intended.

It felt much more natural to do art in this way to Theo. True artistry for Theo was to build upon his work until it formed into a full piece, not to take natural beauty and chip away at it until it matched his aesthetics.

He had been fiddling with an idea for a while with his art and felt this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Theo was going to layer his sculptures. There would be an innermost sculpture that would be enclosed by a second sculpture, or at least that was his goal.

The idea had appealed to him because it would be a true representation of art that no one else would see, nor could they understand. It was like keeping a secret in plain view.

The inner layer was going to be an ocean. Theo wasn’t exactly sure why he had chosen an ocean, but it seemed as good an idea as any. He knew he may be overstepping his own skill limits though. No matter how skillful he was with his gift he was not the most proficient artist. He always gave it his all, but it was quite difficult to truly make something look the way he envisioned in his mind.

He relaxed, took a deep breath in, then let it flow. Theo’s gift made no precise sense, he looked at what he wanted frozen, then let it freeze over. He had tried to explain it to many scientifically inclined people, who said many things about condensation and water vapor in the air, but that wasn’t the core of his gift. Everything in the world had the possibility to freeze, he was just giving them the opportunity with his gift.

Little waves started to form in the ice. It began as a blank slate, just a layer of ice that Theo had frozen into existence. But, little by little, ripples seemed to form in it. The ripples slowly grew until giant crashing waves were colliding with a rock face he had formed.

A moment frozen in time of a giant wave crushing a little beach. The icy beach was moments away from its impending doom yet seemed still and peaceful.

Theo took a small break after finishing the scene. It was small, no larger than his hand, but intricate details layered the sculpture, truly defining it as one of the greatest things he had ever made.

He kicked Lillian awake at that point, not forgetting his promise to make sure that she didn’t get a truly restful night’s sleep. She groggily looked at him like he was some villain, and she was an abandoned puppy on the side of the road. He made sure to keep her awake long enough that her brain reset entirely, otherwise this whole exercise would’ve been pointless.

She covered her bald head again. She wasn’t embarrassed with the hairdo; she had been known to make truly horrendous decisions with her hair. Cutting her own bangs didn’t go well the first, second, or third time she tried.

The missing hair was a mystery to Theo though, because it was far too clean of a shave for Lillian to have done it herself. His guess was that this was related to whatever scared her in her dreams, but he didn’t push. Lillian needed space to share, not a badgering fool.

She fell back asleep, quietly humming some tune to herself while Theo continued working on his piece.

He had reached a truly emotional part in the creative process, he needed to hide the great art he had just made. Layer and layers of ice formed one by one on top of his ocean scene. Soon the ocean had been covered by what looked like a vague outline of a human head. The shape was there, but there were no real defining features yet.

Theo considered who to make out of this portrait of ice. Doing a self-portrait felt rather odd, and making someone else’s face felt even weirder. So, he decided to make another person up.

It was a monumental task to give to a budding artist. To create a distinct figure out of nothing was a truly fascinating concept for Theo though.

Theo started with the hair. Long strands fell over the person’s face, and a ribbon that was frayed at the ends held the rest of the hair in the sloppy bun.

Next, the mouth was formed. The person wasn’t smiling, but their lips were crinkled. He knew that what that crinkle meant would be linked to the eyes. The eyes would reveal whether that was a crinkle of pain or of amusement.

The nose was molded as a hard ridge. It was a powerful nose that looked as though it could sniff up the whole world. Theo giggled a little to himself as he made this nose. It was a nose of monumental proportions, yet it felt right. The feature would be less overwhelming if he added a pair of glasses to it, but the power and size of the nose felt important to Theo.

Little features piled up. Blemishes on the skin, the too small ears, the little creases in the brow, the eyebrows that pulled outward on the face, it all almost formed a person. The lack of eyes held it all from becoming real.

At that moment, the person in the ice still wasn’t real. Theo hadn’t breathed life into them yet. He knew if he took that final step and made the eyes, this person would become real, and he would have to take responsibility for the person in there. Not real like it would stand up and start walking and talking, but in the sense that this art would truly mean something to him if he finished it.

Theo sat and contemplated his unfinished piece. During his thoughts he awoke Lillian to varying degrees of annoyance and thankfulness. But through it all he sat and pondered this being in the ice.

He watched it slowly melt. Every intricate feature he had created, all the feelings and emotions he had put into the art, they all slowly faded away as the ice melted.

It felt fitting to Theo. This piece was never going to linger in the world for people to gawk at. It was something by himself for himself, it was truly something of his own.

There he sat, next to his sleeping friend and a puddle of what used to be. A small grin crept along his face as he slowly pushed Lillian’s head into the melted slush.

She yelped and gave him a solid kick to the shins, but it was worth it. There seemed to be something in her eyes other than the hollowness that shone through before.

A new day had started, and light was shining through the tent. It was a somber and small light, since the perpetual gray skies dominated the Frozen Continent, but it was light, nonetheless.

With the grace of a man who had not moved the slightest bit in the past two days Theo stumbled to his feet and offered Lillian his arm.

“You want to see if the sunrise on this continent is any prettier than on ours?” He asked.

“We both have seen it before, you dullard, and we both know it isn’t all that pretty.”

“But today might be the exception to that.”

They walked into the morning; maybe they would be disappointed, but that didn’t change their determination in the slightest.