With numb fingers tucked under his armpits, Pip walked the whole frigid night through, and then some, before he found the Fangeyrd River. The damp, clotted snow ran right over its boundaries and onto the ice. It was only when his snowshoes crunched through the white cover and onto the slippery surface that he realized he’d found their rendezvous. Fighting for his balance, Pip stepped back with a flash of interest– he’d never seen a river frozen solid back on the mainland. The appeal of White North novelty faded quickly though, and his attention refocused on the sky. Would Norui arrive soon? Or had she reached the river already and started ahead of him?

There was another possibility, from a voice he’d been trying to mute the entire walk here– something had happened in the night, and she wouldn’t be making it to the river at all.

Fretting over those thoughts was useless. Better to put that energy toward setting up a camp in plain view of whatever direction his traveling companion might come from. Even with his snowshoes, his legs weren’t used to the hard work of walking over the snow for hours on end.

First, he needed to build a fire against the cold. Even though the heaviest of the clouds had cleared overnight, the weak sunlight filtering through the overcast sky wasn’t enough to warm the freezing air. Finding enough dry wood to burn would be a challenge in the sparse woodlands. Everything in the snow was wetter than a toad’s backside.Without tools, Pip managed to scavenge a handful of small branches, peel off some bark strips, and break a dead branch off an otherwise healthy-looking pine. By the riverside, he assembled them into a pitifully small campfire. Huddling over it to try warming his hands, Pip grimaced. No help for it, he’d need to harvest some green wood to burn….

With a whirl of indigo and gold, the flames roared to life. Pip yelped and fell back from the burst of heat. Across the newly energetic campire, a familiar figure lowered her hands from her spellwork and pulled back the hood of her lush indigo cloak.

“Lass! Yer all right!” Heart leaping for joy, he scrambled to his feet.

“Hello, Pip.” Norui loosened her scarf from her face as she approached the fire. Pip saw no footprints in the snow; she must have flown, and just now landed while he’d been busying himself with the fire. He glimpsed fuzzy bits of her furry familiar sticking out from inside her hood, looped around her neck and fast asleep.

The Mani smiled wanly. “I’m glad you remembered to come here. I was worried you’d get lost.” Her voice was completely drained of its usual cheer.

“Aye. Right smart thinkin’, settin’ up a meetin’ spot.” Pip hesitated, finding himself tongue-tied and awkward. “Ye uh… ye are all right, arenae ye? Last night, what happened and all….”

“I’m fine.” Her voice was flat as a knife blade, cutting off any further questions. She seemed to hear it for herself, and winced.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Pip said shakily. Norui approached the fire, pulling off her gloves to test its heat. Watching, Pip tried to pick apart her mood and read what she was thinking. Are we nae goin’ to talk about…?

The witch said nothing about the whistling figure they’d met in the night. Transfixed by the flames, she seemed in a world all her own. But like it or not, this wasn’t a conversation they could leave unspoken. Pip sighed and plucked up his courage to speak.

“So, lass. Ye, erm, dropped this last night.” From his pack, Pip produced the journal he’d rescued from the snow.

Seeing it, Norui’s eyes widened. “Oh! I did, didn’t I? Thank you, Pip.” She accepted it with a grateful smile.

“O’ course, lass.” Pip fidgeted his feet. “Ye know… up til he started bein’ a right ass, Honjo’d been teachin' me a lot o' the Mani tongue." Pip flexed his fingers. Half of him hoped that Norui wouldn't suspect anything. The other half hoped she would, and that she’d force him to come out with the truth. "About right after we boarded the boat. It's an interestin' language, much different from Nuralli and even Common."

“Oh? I didn’t realize.” She smiled still, but her eyes were fixed on the cover of her journal, bare fingers grazing its corners lightly. “How much have you learned?”

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Pip’s chest tightened, and he took a breath to keep his throat from clamping down and choking off his words. "Erm.. well, enough to read a wee bit o’ yer journal by.”

The meaning of his words sunk in, and Norui’s smile vanished into a pale stare. "You read…?"

Desperate to smooth things over, Pip rushed into an apology– “I'm so sorry, Norui. I thought mebbe it'd give me a bit of insight into what'd happened. I hadnae even noticed the letter til I'd read it through."

Norui was quiet. Shaking, Pip fidgeted his hands together. He'd never betrayed someone's trust like this, let alone one of his dearest friends.

When she finally answered, Norui’s voice was shushed and tense, as though speaking at all was a great effort. "No, I think it's okay, Pip. I mean, if I were in your position, I'd probably have done the same thing. I don’t think I really gave you many other options, did I?" She laughed, acting at ease– but the way she clutched at her journal, as though trying to protect its secrets too late, stoked Pip’s guilt.

“Kind o’ ye to say, lass,” Pip rubbed his hand on the back of his head. As much as he wanted to lighten the mood, there was still too much they needed to address. “But more’n that… that letter.”

"Oh.” Norui’s eyes scanned the fire. “I'm, uhm. I'm sorry. I probably... if I'd thought you might find it like that, I would have written it differently."

“Nae, I’m righ’ glad ye did.” Pip willed himself to catch her eyes. “I was worried out o’ me mind already, and it at least gave me a few answers. E’en if I shouldnae have gone snoopin’ in the first place.”

“I hope you aren't feeling too guilty over that. I mean, I didn't really give you a lot of cause for trust." Norui swallowed. "Which is why, though I really don't have much right to… to ask for favors, I'm really hoping you might consider... I'm not asking for a promise, but could you please just think about, maybe... not telling anyone else what happened?"

The request felt like a sucker punch. She’s really plannin’ to keep this all a secret, he thought, marveling and horrified all at once. He’d thought, now that he knew all about it, maybe Norui would want to come clean to the rest of the party. If they could put their heads together, maybe they could think of a way to handle whatever that thing had been. But if she didn’t want that, what was Pip to do about it?

“Aye,” he choked out. "If that’s what ye want. I’ll nae tell anyone about the journal, nor the letter. But I ask ye to let me tell ‘em about the thing we saw last night. I’ll nae mention any connection to ye, or what happened to yer clan. Just what we saw, plain and simple, so all of us can be ready if anythin’ should happen.” His vision swam with tears, and sniffs slipped out between his words. “Yer past is yer own, and it's yers to reveal at yer discretion. Me readin’ yer journal wasnae right in the first place. I betrayed yer trust. I…."

Pip couldn’t handle it anymore. He plopped down and buried his head in his coat sleeves, attempting to hide his insuppressible tears. Somehow, he croaked a few words past his choked throat. "I'm sorry, Norui."

"It's– oh, Pip," Norui sighed miserably. She sat down next to him, cross-legged and staring at the ground. "I'm so, so sorry. I've really– I've really messed things up. Of course you can tell them whatever you like, I'm not– I don't want you to think that, that if you said anything, it'd cause anything bad between us. It's just….” She floundered, unable to get the words out.

Letting the sputtering fire steal her attention, Norui cast about, then with a flicker of a spell, floated a trio of fist-sized stones from the stony riverbank and planted them about the dying fire. Another clever bit of spellwork, and the stones glowed, radiating heat.

Pip watched, trying to find something to say, but came up blank. Once the busywork had steadied the witch’s nerves, she took a slow breath and continued.

"Listen. If there had to be anyone around last night, Pip, I'm glad it was you. You're smart enough not to have– I can't help thinking, if we'd stayed back with the rest–" Norui folded up her legs, hugging them to her chest as she drooped her head. "Honjo, or Zilla, if they’d tried fighting… I don't know what would've happened. If anybody got hurt, I don't think I could...."

Norui was trembling, toe to wingtip. The night still seemed too fresh on her mind for her to talk about. Her breathing grew short and panicked. Pip gave her time to try and find the right words, and finally, she whispered, "I just couldn't."

Pip stood up. Even sitting, he had to stretch in order to put a hand on her shoulder. He wiped the tears from his face with his other hand and took a deep breath.

In the calmest voice he could muster, he said, "Lass... Norui. We dinnae have to talk about this now. But a’fore the next dark night, we’ll make a time to have a chat. Just a wee one. I'll be here, though, if ye need to talk about anythin'. Anythin' at all. Dinnae fear judgment from me. I understand yer reasons, and hold no ill will against ye for keepin' yer secrets. If ye decide to include the rest in what ye know, that’ll be yer call. I'll be silent upon the matter."

Pip squeezed her shoulder gently. He'd never really comforted anyone before. Until he’d met Norui and the rest, his journeys had all been on his own, and he wasn't sure if what he was saying made things better or worse. Firmly though, he promised her: "Ye dinnae have to carry the weight o’ this all on yer own anymore."