Addie wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. She had no words for their current situation. She just looked across the snow field dumbly.

Nettal started shaking Addie’s shoulders, “Addie!”

Addie moved her eyes over to Nettal.

“We have to find shelter. Didn’t your dad teach you that? Come on! We’ll freeze to death!”

Flashes of moments camping with her dad passed through Addie’s mind. Hadn’t her dad taught her how to make fire? But she couldn’t remember. Something about a drill? No, that didn’t seem right. Besides, she didn’t have her shoes or shoelaces. But why would she need shoelaces to make a fire? That didn’t make sense. She couldn’t remember.

“Addie!? Are you even listening to me?! Come on!” Nettal started roughly pulling on Addie’s sleeve. “You aren’t even wearing shoes! You’re toes are going to freeze! I’ve seen villagers lose their toes to the cold, even when we were treating them in the clinic. Let’s find shelter!” Nettal yanked on Addie’s sleeve, causing her to stumble.

“Yeah, ok. Shelter,” Addie agreed.

“Squishy?” Addie called out.

“Yes, my lady?”

“Actually, never mind.”

Pulsing magic through her soul, Addie called Ember out. She held the small eagle-looking bird in her palm for a moment, and then gently tossed her into the air. Ember immediately flew off, to help search the area for shelter.

“Ember will find shelter. I’m pretty sure we aren’t supposed to move.” Addie said as she planted her feet firmly in the icy slush. Her cold feet were melting the snow for now, but she could already feel pins and needles in her toes as they began to go numb.

“What? I just told you, we have to find shelter!” Nettal shouted.

A bit of snowdrift in the distance started falling down one of the peaks surrounding them. It wasn’t anywhere near them, luckily.

“No, when we get lost we are supposed to stay put and wait for someone to find us,” Addie remembered.

“Who told you that? That sounds like a stupid idea! Your feet are going to freeze, remember?”

Who had told Addie that? All of her memories on survival and camping were all jumbled up, and she only remembered flashes and pieces of any given thing on the topic.

“I... can’t remember,” Addie said. “But I still think we should wait here for Ember. What if she finds shelter, and we walk in the wrong direction from it?” Addie nodded her head, that logic made sense to her.

“I agree. Let us wait for Ember to return.” Squishy then walked in front of Addie and plopped his warm body down right on top of her feet. Even more of the snow started melting then, but at least her toes were feeling warmer under Squishy’s black scales. He soaked up the Binary light perfectly.

Even if her toes were going to be fine, the rest of her might not be. Neither she nor Nettal had on more than some pajamas. Nettal was already shivering, and it was amazing that Addie hadn’t started chattering her teeth yet, too.

The ankle-deep snow melted the longer they waited until Addie was standing in a puddle of cold damp grassy mud. The tops of her feet felt warm from Squishy’s body heat, but the soles of her feet had long since gone numb.

Nettal suddenly perked up her head and stared at Addie. “Where’s your ribbon?”

Addie hurriedly reached up to touch her hair, but Sen’s ribbon wasn’t there. Her heart dropped. “I forgot it!”

Nettal sighed. “Maybe we can ask for Sen’s help using the ring?” Nettal held her right hand up and looked at the ring still resting on her ring finger.

“Good idea!” Addie was mentally kicking herself over forgetting the ribbon; Christena had even asked her if she was forgetting anything before they left the mansion, and Addie had said no!

Addie sighed and crouched down to hug her body for warmth. “Let’s wait until Ember comes back to try with the ring.”

Nettal nodded her head in acknowledgment.

Perhaps it was because Ember knew the girls were slowly freezing, or maybe it was because she had found something quickly, but Ember returned within just a few minutes. Addie watched the tiny bird flit back in from over the horizon in the distance, her wings sporting small purple embers.

“That was fast,” Nettal observed.

“She’s a quick birdie,” Addie said proudly, teeth chattering.

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Ember quickly flew over to Addie, and the moment she dove back into her chest, Addie already had the magic ready to send everyone out into Realmspace.

She had never noticed it before, but Realmspace felt warm. So much warmer than the snowy frostland she had just escaped from. More than that, Realmspace was also pitch black, and these two factors had Addie ready to lie down for a nap. She had just gotten up to go to the bathroom less than an hour ago, in the middle of the night. No wonder she wanted to go to sleep. There was no time for that right now, though.

Slowly, Addie allowed a wick of soul flames to erupt on the tip of her pointer finger, lighting up the space as a small candle would. Somehow, the tiny light only made Addie even more sleepy. It reminded her of a sparsely lit room in the middle of the night, and her body agreed with that assessment.

Checking her left side, Nettal was inspecting the ring firmly stuck on her right ring finger.

“Try pulsing magic through it,” Addie suggested.

“I am!” Nettal frowned and furrowed her brow as she stared intensely at the ring.

“It’s easy. When I wanted to use the ribbon to talk to Sen, it always went right through immediately.” Addie clarified.

“I said I’m trying!” Nettal said with frustration. “It just won’t absorb!”

“Let me try.” Addie stomped over to Nettal and tried to reach for her ring.

The second Addie made contact with the ring, it shone gold and a burst of magic violently slammed Addie’s hand backward, pushing it away from Nettal.

The force of it whipped her arm backward painfully. “Ow!” Addie shouted as she twisted her body with the force.

The magic surprised Addie, but after the pain from the initial impact went away, her arm seemed fine. She flexed it a few times to be sure, but it wasn’t sore now so she would be fine.

“Why’d you do that!”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” Nettal shouted back. “The second you touched the ring, it finally absorbed my magic and just reacted like that on its own,” she explained a bit more quietly.

Sen had told them that the ring would protect Nettal, while the ribbon he gave Addie would allow her to call for help. Fear started creeping in as Addie realized that they wouldn’t be able to use the ring to call for Sen.

“It’s my fault!” Addie cried, “I forgot Sen’s ribbon!”

“It’s ok,” Nettal said nervously, “We can just try the ring again, right?”

“No,” Addie shook her head as the terror of the situation started dawning on her. “It’s,” Addie hiccupped, “It’s only for—for protection,” she stuttered.

Addie saw the moment the hope drained away from Nettal’s face. Or maybe that was just her cheeks going pale in fright.

Nettal walked forward and reached out to Addie’s hand, “Addie, listen to me.”

She looked her cousin in the eye, “We’re going to be fine, ok?” Nettal tried to say reassuringly.

“We’re gonna freeze.” Addie pointed out.

“What about Ember, did she find us some shelter?”

Addie redirected the question to Ember, who sent a pulse of feeling –yes– she seemed to say in that empathic way.

A tiny spark of hope reignited within Addie, and it must have shown on her face because Nettal’s expression also brightened up.

“Let’s hurry! We can use Realmspace to get as close to the shelter Ember found before we get kicked out of here.” Nettal forced a smile.

“Mhmhm.” Addie agreed as she nodded her head.

Addie and Squishy held onto their magic together for as long as possible, but they hadn’t built it up enough to stay in Realmspace for more than a few minutes. A lot of her magic had already been used up, too. They could jump into Realmspace a few more times for a short period, or maybe one more jump if they built it up enough to stay for an hour or two.

“After we find shelter, I can move us into Realmspace one more time for about an hour. Then me and Squishy will need to take a break.” Addie explained.

“Okay,” Nettal said as she continued trudging forward. “Will you be able to help make a fire?” she asked.

“I can’t remember how,” Addie said with a sense of guilt creeping up. She tried to shake it off, telling herself it wasn’t her fault that she halfway cascaded, but it didn’t help much.

“What?” Nettal said with confusion across her face. “You’ve got a flame going on your finger right now!”

“Oh, right.” Addie looked at the ghostly flame above her fingertip. “There’s no heat, though. See?”

Addie waved her finger near Nettal, who put her hand over the flame for a moment.

“Huh.”

“The only thing I can do is burn souls.” Addie looked at her feet as they continued walking. She could feel more guilt welling up from her soul.

Nettal briefly glanced behind her with pity across her face.

“That is incorrect, my lady.” Squishy stopped in his tracks and turned his head slightly to look at Addie. “Do not say such things about yourself. Are you not lighting the way for us now?”

Addie smiled. She still felt somewhat sad about it all, but Squishy’s words always had a way of filling her up with warmth.

“Besides, pay attention to where your emotions originate. They may not be coming from you as you might expect.”

Squishy prodded at Addie’s soul with a magic tendril, in that liminal space between magic and reality. He guided one of Addie’s tendrils down into a crack in her soul shell, to meet up with Ember. There, all of the feelings of guilt originated.

Squishy pulled his soul tendril away. “Besides, there have been times these soul flames have felt hot. Maybe you just need to practice.”

Addie prodded at Ember a bit. “Oh,” she observed.

“What?” Nettal asked.

“Just figuring stuff out I guess. My soul’s a mess.”

“I’ll heal you more tonight,” Nettal promised.

“Ok,” Addie smiled, warmth rising up her face. For just a moment, she was able to forget about the situation they were in. But then, it all came rushing back.

“My magic is going to run out soon!” Addie warned as she hurried up the pace a bit. “Let’s run as far as we can before it kicks us out!”

Within her soul, Addie could feel Ember pointing in a direction somewhere far out in front of them.

Addie started running, and Nettal tripped over her feet for a second, trying to catch up.

“Wait up!” Nettal shouted from behind Addie.

Addie paused for a moment, giving Nettal the time to catch up. “Let’s run fast!”

Nettal gave Addie a determined nod, and together they ran as far as they could.

By the end of the run, both girls were sweaty, a fact that became increasingly apparent when Realmspace finally kicked everyone back out into reality.

The biting wind tore at Addie’s sweaty face, and her bare feet started going numb again as she sank ankle-deep into the snow.

But, it looked like Addie would be able to conserve her magic, for now at least. They had made it to shelter, as confirmed by Ember within Addie’s soul.

In front of her, Addie peered into the gaping mouth of a giant cave. Stalactites and stalagmites extruded out from the ceiling and floor, looking like sharp teeth.