Each breath he took was like trying to inhale through several layers of thick cloth, and he was almost completely immobilized. His stronger right arm shifted ever so slightly beside him, but it was far from enough. He wasn’t even sure which direction was up.

Angel forced himself to still his nerves as his brain kicked into overdrive. Each breath he drew in brought less oxygen than the last. He hissed, twisting his body as hard as he could in a desperate attempt to make some space within the snow.

It was futile. The endless white surrounding him was stronger than any man, and the tiny amounts of wiggle room his arm got him weren’t doing much. The heat from his arm melted the snow around it, but as soon as the hole got big enough, more shifted to take its place.

The edges of Angel’s vision started to grow dark. His continued attempts did less and less as the minutes ticked by. He was out of lightning canisters, so Angel instructed his arm to load one of the stone spells and fire that one instead. There was a muted thump, but nothing else happened.

More and more of the snow was replaced by darkness as his head started to spin and a gentle warmth crept up from Angel’s spine, enveloping him like a blanket. He fought against it, but he could do nothing against its inevitable approach.

Warmth enveloped his entire lower body and slipped up to the back of his neck. Far above him, there was a thud. His brain was too addled to register anything beyond that. The world started to slip away.

A hand wrapped around Angel’s arm. It tugged on him, freeing his body partially. There was another tug and he flew out of the snow, still barely aware of his surroundings. Something struck him hard across the face and warmth – true warmth, not the false promise of the snow – washed over him. Angel’s eyes jerked open and he sat upright with a desperate gasp.

Instead of snow, he was sitting on hard leather – in the back of the cockpit of a chopper. A heavy blanket had been wrapped around him.

“Buried Gods, man,” Silver said, slipping out of the front seat to look at him. He still wore Lilian’s old mask, but his voice was unmistakable. “What are you doing, swimming around in the snow?”

“I heard that a strong chill was good for your skin,” Angel said with a weak grin. “What are you doing here?”

“Cowl activated his tracker,” Silver replied. “Imagine my surprise when he turned out to be Lilian. Lucky you.”

“Lucky,” Angel agreed. He vaguely remembered Lilian mentioning she’d called Silver in the catacomb, and it was a relief to know she’d actually done that instead of calling the other members of the Reawakening instead. “Where is she?”

“Digging up the snow,” Silver replied, nodding out the window. “Apparently the two of you found something big.”

Angel grimaced. His memories were coming back slowly. “We certainly might have. The Reawakening is here, though. We need to hurry, or–”

Silver shook his head. “Relax. Did you think I came alone? Look out the window.”

Angel followed the man’s instructions. His eyes widened. A dozen choppers sat within the valley. Twenty large, armed guards wearing Magitech armor had made a ring around the area.

“Vanessa got her mom to convince the city to send some help,” Silver said with a smirk. “These blokes have some state of the art weaponry. Besides, Lilian told me you blew the teleporter up before you went down.”

“I did,” Angel said, letting out a relieved sigh. He was still shivering slightly, but his magically empowered body was recovering quickly now that he was no longer buried. “But how did Vanessa convince Daliah to do this? I hope she didn’t promise anything.”

“All yours, you greedy bastard,” Silver said, chuckling. “Unless you want to share anything with your old friend. I’m here on her orders, you know. I’m just technically another employee.”

“I’m sure you are.” Angel gave the man a level look. Something told him that Silver was anything but just another normal worker. Knowing the man, he’d probably managed to weasel his way pretty high up in the Magistrate’s graces. “But thank you. You almost certainly saved my life. If the snow didn’t get me, Reave would have.”

“Nothing brings me more pleasure than sticking it to that asshole,” Silver said. He paused, then cleared his throat. “Well, a few things do. Money. Loot. New weapons. Women. Men. Clothe–”

“I get the picture.” Angel rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t disguise his pleasure at seeing the charismatic bandit. He rose to his feet, shaking the blanket off and hopping out of the open door of the chopper. Silver followed him out.

“So, what exactly did you find?” Silver asked.

“I’m not sure,” Angel replied. The valley had been completely buried by the avalanche, but Silver and his crew had made good progress in excavating one end of it. He spotted Lilian standing beside two soldiers that were nearly double her size and giving them orders. “But I mean to find out. Reave and Body referred to it as a Key, capital K.”

“Fun,” Silver said as they walked towards Lilian. “Worth anything?”

“We aren’t selling it. Nothing the Reawakening wanted that badly can be bought for coin.”

Lilian noticed their approach and gave them a grin. “Good to see you back on your feet, Angel.”

“Thought I was done for,” Angel admitted. “Causing an avalanche probably wasn’t my smartest play.”

“There wasn’t much else you could have done.” Lilian pressed her lips together. “Body’s powers are incredible. Once she has a hold of you, it’s not easy to break it. Finding a loophole in their orders was the best possible outcome for us. I had no idea that Mind could directly transmit her words into my thoughts, though. That’s deeply concerning.”

“I’ll figure something out for that,” Angel said. “Speaking of which, are you sure he can’t do that to us? And what stops Body from just showing up and ordering the guards here around?”

“Her power weakens the more people she tries to use it on,” Lilian said. “And I’m certain that Mind can’t forcibly invade someone’s mind. You have to let him in. It’s a two way connection, after all. I just clearly never closed my end – if there’s even a way to do that.”

Angel let out a thoughtful hum. “Good move calling Silver in the catacombs, then. You saved our life.”

“Just yours,” Lilian corrected. “I don’t need to breathe as much as you do. I probably would have wiggled out before I suffocated. My strength is quite high.”

“Just take the compliment,” Angel said with a sigh. “What do we know about the wall, then?”

“The guards have nearly gotten us to the bottom of the snow pile,” Lilian said. “They’ve got to be slow to avoid the rest of the snow collapsing on us, and we want to see the whole thing at once so the portable tunnel contraptions you carry around aren’t of much use either.”

“Fair enough,” Angel said. The sun was low in the air, but there was still some time before it fell completely below the horizon.

“We should have it all freed up by the end of today,” Silver said. He let out a heavy breath. “Until then… It seems like I’ve missed quite a bit since we parted ways. Care to fill me in? Lilian mentioned a few things, but not all of it.”

Angel nodded. The three headed back to the chopper, where Angel gave him a quick rundown of what had happened since they’d left Molten Ridges. By the time he was done, Silver was shaking his head in complete bafflement.

“I don’t even know what to say here,” Silver admitted. “This is starting to feel just a little bit out of my league.”

“Really?” Angel raised an eyebrow. “Was it the Buried Gods that clued you in to that? Or was it the possible key to Old World Magic beneath our feet?”

“I was more thinking it was the fact that your mentor was apparently some big shot in the Reawakening, and you just popped by his gravesite to rob it,” Silver said with a smirk. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Did he have any good stuff aside from Lilian’s thingie?”

“It’s not just my ‘thingie’. It’s a core,” Lilian said irritably. “And it’s worth as much as this entire fleet of choppers.”

“Is it for sale?”

“No!”

“Then it’s useless,” Silver said. “If anyone else had it – different story. I would have left after lightening their pockets. But I can hardly steal from you two.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Lilian said. “You’re really a big softie at heart, aren’t you?”

“Keep at me like that and I’ll bury you back in the snow,” Silver threatened. They all chuckled, the stress lifting a little in the relative safety of their camp. The three sat in the cabin, waiting out the rest of the day as the guards continued to excavate the scene of the avalanche.