Nupian shrank back while reaching for the bow attached to the back of her leather clothes. Her bright, crystal-like eyes visibly contracted, though their determined glow remained vivid. Cold winds blew past her, shivering her fair skin.

In front of her stood an unknown lady, whose bare flesh flickered against warm sunlight amidst the sea of whiteness. An ordinary human couldn’t stand still in this harsh weather.

Behind Nupian, another lady rushed in. Her relatively neat attire, cleanly knitted pale robe adorned with flowers and blue dyes, gave rise to an air shield which blocked off the dirt leaping from her sprint. She reached her friend before she noticed the angelic maiden.

“Who are you?” Nupian shouted. “Don’t you know this is our territory?”

Iris’s silence permeated the atmosphere. Her presence dampened the weather, which quietened its song and halted its movement. The world bowed before her will, the overwhelming will Nupian and her friend couldn’t fathom.

“Don’t move!” Nupian stepped back, lightly pushing her best friend behind her. Her brows creased as phantom sweats irritated her face.

She couldn’t feel any danger, yet something about this lady terrified her. Did she come for the ruin?

Nupian signalled her friend to prepare to flee. Before she could get an affirmation, her friend slipped past her and looked at Iris, resisting the urge to collapse from her failing legs.

“Miss, are you a fairy?” Aconite said. “No human would have magically appeared in a snowy plain.”

Iris smiled. “Do I look like a fairy?”

Bright blue glows manifested over her luminous body and morphed into a long, lace-woven, florid dress that complimented the purity of winter with pastel-shaded flowers. The snow beneath her feet dissolved into a puddle. Grasses and small plants sprouted around her aura of life.

Nupian’s and Aconite’s expressions softened. They were in the presence of a magical being, a legendary fairy whose beauty rested in a realm beyond ordinary.

Nupian relaxed her arms and went to stand beside her friend, fidgeting with her hair as she struggled to form her speech. Fantastical and curious thoughts overwhelmed her, and nervousness rooted her.

Aconite took a deep breath and lowered her head. She tugged her friend’s clothes, indicating for her to follow. “We’re sorry, Fairy. We didn’t mean to disturb your outing. Please forgive us; we can offer you gemstones and sacrifices.

“I was the one who found the ruin,” Nupian said. “If you’re going to punish anyone, please punish me.”

Aconite stared at her best friend, who always looked out for her, and was about to ask the fairy for forgiveness when a wintry gush drew snows and dried petals on the frozen ground upwards. The little fragments of colour spun around Aconite, obstructing her vision.

When it subsided, Iris was already floating in front of the two tribal girls. She bent forwards to close the gap between her face and Nupian’s. Nupian averted her eyes. Intensely red flower-shaped marks blossomed on her cheeks.

“Miss Fairy, you’re too close.” Nupian couldn’t retreat. Her legs wouldn’t listen to her. Would the fairy take her to her magical dwelling, where eternal spring reigned over the fruitful trees and scentful bushes?

“I have no intention of punishing you.” Iris touched Nupian’s face, her nails gently grazing that trembling cheek. “Why don’t you show me where the ruin is? I’m interested in the area where Mother Nature has reclaimed her territory.”

“The ruin . . . isn’t your resting place?” Nupian swallowed a puff of air and glanced at Aconite, who wryly smiled. “Where are you from?”

“Above the sky.”

Nupian’s gaze followed, but the blue sky blocked her sight. Was she not a fairy, but an angel?

“Can we know why you’re here?” Aconite said.

“To search for my precious thing.”

“What kind?”

“One that will complete me.”

Those cryptic words puzzled Aconite, but she decided not to question further. The mysterious visitor was powerful but benevolent, at least when they had yet to offend her.

Her wish was to see the ruin, one that only she and Nupian knew.

“Please follow us.” Aconite smiled. Her radiant robe amplified her bright quality. “It’s deep in the forest. Walking from here will take around half an hour.”

Iris looked to the side. A large stretch of evergreen forest spanned the snowy landscape. Silvery shrubberies and frozen flowers peeked through layers of thick ice. Some also took refuge around gleaming crystals, whose gentle heat carved out small parts of the winter for life to flourish.

The towering walls still existed, though their appearances were now transparent and far away. Iris couldn’t leave the confine of the mountain, but she had the liberty to join these two to the ruin.

This innocent, hearty Nupian was much better than her terrifying older self.

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Nupian guided Iris into the forest. Aconite followed behind. They forsook the premade path and wandered beyond the winding maze of undergrowth and similar-looking trees. The sounds of their footsteps monotonously clicked as they marched towards the land where all animals fell asleep, all plants stilled.

They occasionally ran into a few Wild Beasts. These creatures fled upon sensing Iris’s power. Her nonchalant attitude dazzled Nupian and Aconite, who always had to avoid these encounters.

“Can I learn your power?” Nupian said. “Aconite is a priestess in training, but I belong to none.”

“What is your dream?”

“To venture out of this mountain range and witness the world.” Nupian’s eyes sparkled. She turned to her friend and smirked. “I’ll make sure to visit you from time to time.”

“A priestess doesn’t have to stay in the shrine for the rest of her life. She can go on a pilgrimage to spread her faith.”

“Someone has to tend to the altar and appease the spirit.”

“My power isn’t something you can take and discard,” Iris said. “Are you willing to serve me, for the rest of your life?”

Nupian opened her mouth soundlessly. She couldn’t figure out her heart. What she wished for was a power for freedom. If she had to serve this mysterious lady, wouldn’t it all be in vain?

Yet her heart didn’t fully reject this offer. She knew, through a feeling indescribable, that this lady would never force her against her will.

“There’s no need to give your answer right now.” Iris waved her right hand. The bushes in front of her parted, revealing scattered vine-infested stone structures. “Is this your secret base?”

Blushing, Aconite nodded. The ruin contained no treasure nor strange tools. It was too deep in the forest and decayed for too long that all identifying traits had already turned to dust.

Aconite and Nupian merely used this place as their secret base, where they stored charms and objects they didn’t want others to know about.

“Is there perhaps hidden treasure?” Nupian looked at Iris with shiny eyes. “Can you help us explore this place?”

“What have you two found?”

Nupian peeked at Aconite, who nodded. She then smiled at Iris. “We found a small archive. Although its content isn’t extraordinary, it still has stories about that historical period.”

“Do you enjoy them?”

“I want to see those mentioned in the books with my own eyes.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Iris’s words tickled Nupian’s heart, which bloomed in her chest, making it feel tight. She turned away and rushed to a collapsed building. On its crumbled walls were a series of faded symbols whose meanings eluded all. Iris inspected them to glean their secret, but she too lacked knowledge of this part of the land.

The pure-white snow land, the mountainous landscape, and countless buried ruins resting undisturbed in the vast wilderness, these characteristics pointed to the land of serenity, of quietude stiller than death, Nupian’s homeland, the Northern Continent.

Aconite went up to Nupian while keeping her attention on Iris, who might decipher something and reveal a secret they had yet to unearth. Iris glanced at her and smiled, blanking her mind and filling it with that lifelike image.

She drew away from Iris and helped Nupian move a few disordered ceramic tiles away from a broken trapdoor. They were about to open it when Iris stopped them.

“This trapdoor has a special mechanism that activates if one opens it incorrectly.”

“What . . . will happen if we fail the procedure?” Nupian said. “Are we cursed, Aconite?”

“Nothing malicious, my Dear. It merely triggers a few mechanical changes.”

“How did you know all this?” Aconite said.

“I travel a lot.”

Iris pressed her index finger on the centre of the trapdoor, at a circular mark enclosing a thorned rose whose wilted head blossomed despite its impending demise. Light blue glows transferred from her fingertip into the trapdoor, traversing the hidden circuit.

Gear-shifting noises crackled like ominous laughter. The collapsed building shuddered, spilling dust and rubble. Nupian and Aconite ducked and inched closer to Iris. Her presence assured them.

Even if the sky were to fall, they would be unharmed under her reach.

The last gear ceased its movement, and silence reclaimed its reign. Only the inaudible sounds of insects and winds persisted after that portentous echo.

Resisting the gloom plaguing her spirit, Aconite pulled out of her cloak an amulet and prayed with it. Its face, a symbol of snowflakes falling on an empty bowl, shimmered golden blue after receiving her power.

A wave of warm air dispelled the chill in the atmosphere, calming Nupian’s panicking mind.

“Who is the protector of your tribe?” Iris said.

“Her name is Mother of Bountiful Harvest,” Aconite said. “She governs the flow of winds and nature.”

“She has a beautiful insignia.”

“What does it mean?” Nupian said.

“Winter as life, change as life, austerity as life.”

Nupian and Aconite didn’t understand what Iris said, but they didn’t question her answer. Their eyes stayed fixed on the staircase below the opened trapdoor, whose structure, although familiar, gained a hint of mystique.

“Is your adventurous spirit extinguished?” Iris said.

Embarrassed, Nupian hmphed and went in first. Aconite closely followed her best friend, with Iris behind them. They descended the spiralling staircase, whose enclosed walls sank and revealed frames of dusty pictures, precious earthenware, and religious tablets covered in webs.

The two tribeswomen didn’t notice any difference. They found the stone gate guarding the archive in the same condition, except for a faint glow emanating from the gap between it and the underground structure.

Eyes sparkling, Nupian reached for the door, but Aconite restrained her.

“Miss, please help us. Nupian and I can’t protect ourselves,” Aconite said.

“Your Nupian doesn’t seem to agree, though.”

“She can be quite reckless.”

Nupian was about to speak up when Aconite glared at her. She sealed her mouth shut with a pout.

Chuckling, Iris went past them and placed her hands on the gate. She effortlessly forced it open, revealing an extensive hall filled with shelves and display cabinets. At the end of the hall, a leather-bound book of pristine condition floated atop a stand.

Its cover, that of a protruding rose with a realistic dark-green eye at its centre, vibrated with strange sounds akin to music played by a band of invisible maidens. Accompanied by the song, yellow light seeped out of the closed pages and illuminated the hall, dying everything in an intoxicating vibe.

Iris’s smile stiffened. The book’s aura closed in on her, filling the atmosphere with a suffocating grip of inescapable momentum. The world around her fragmented, its dreamlike air fractured. These cracks gave rise to muddled distortion. Their surfaces flickered between countless visions of forbidden secrets.

Amidst this chaos, a figure manifested, a figure whose existence transcended all changes, whose silhouette subsumed all that dared interact with it. The crimson-hooded lady stared at Iris.

Her lips curved into a smile as she reached for her kin. Her motion disintegrated the dreamscape and plunged everything into an endless abyss.

No force could slow her, no speed could escape her.

The malevolent hands magnified in Iris’s field of view. She could only wait for them to grab her, her heart already ceased beating, her mind thinking. Nupian, Aconite, the underground chamber, and the world of the snowy plain had already dispersed as milk-white mist surrounded by monumental walls.

The hooded lady’s presence towered over Iris, her shadow covering Iris’s soul.

Muffled shouts rang in Iris’s ears. The lovely tone of her fiancée finally reached her. She could feel a warm embrace enveloping her.

The moment the all-devouring hand caught her, she dissipated as an invisible force dragged her out of this realm of suspended consciousness.