Months of hard and dangerous work had extended the staircase down a couple of hundred paces, but still, at the end of the woodwork, I stared into the chasm without being able to spot the ground among the swirling clouds of snowflakes and spray off the waterfalls.

It had been a clear and sunny day above, but down here, the mists made the temperature drop to very uncomfortable levels. The warm, fur-lined hood and the leather gloves I wore proved to be enough protection, yet. I just hoped that the temperatures would not get any worse the deeper we got and that the clear weather would hold for the day and the next.

“Ready?“ I shot a glance over to Simue, who was already studying the wall below us. She nodded curtly, and even she showed signs of...apprehension. “All right, I go first, so I do not hit you when I fall. I might be able to catch you, if you slip.“

Simue nodded, this was as much a life and death situation as any battle, so we took it seriously. But when I mentioned her slipping, she smiled at me. I won’t.

We bound a rope to our belts, securing the end of it firmly at the end of the wooden construction. This climb would be aiming at hitting two birds with one stone. We needed to get down for our sake, but at the same time, we wanted to make the extension of the construction easier for the workers. If we could prepare the wall with hooks, anchors, and ropes, they would have a much easier time in the future. And a much safer time.

So we picked the route for the first portion of the climb, leading up to a part of the Needle that was very close to the middle and not as sanded smooth by the constant exposure to the forces of the waterfall as parts of the sides were. We would hammer the anchors into the wall along our path and made the first rest there, as we should be able to sit, with legs dangling across the ledge and our backs pressed against the wall.

Muscles warm, comfortably burning under the already soggy leather I was wearing, I swung across the first paces of the wall, easily finding enough grip to hold my weight. We were methodical, stopping every now and again to secure ourselves to the anchor we had worked together to hammer into the wall.

It was the kind of quiet, cooperative exercise that just made the hours melt away on their own, especially as we got into the rhythm of it and the work slowly had turned into a routine.

It almost made me forget that we were dangling on our fingertips above an unfathomably deep chasm that would spell our doom were we to slip in our concentration or control.

Almost.

So far the day had been easy, as far as the climbing was concerned, the only danger being the wet surface and our weakening muscles as the hours went by, but the farther down we went, the more the separated waterfalls merged into one giant mess of spray. The cold became our worst enemy.

We spent the night pressed onto a ledge, secured very firmly with several anchors and lengths of rope. I held the watch, resting my sore muscles, while Simue slept sitting up and falling forward into the taut ropes binding her.

Time passed, as I watched the forces of nature roaring around me, lulling me into a meditative frame of mind as my thoughts wandered here and there, never lingering too much. I was brushing a topic here, finding a glimmer of interest there, but soon I was taken completely by nature, the waterfalls, and the sound as my exhausted body just did not allow stray thoughts to linger anymore. I just was. Just a part of it all, one with the rest.

It was in this state, my mind focussed sharply and with an intense clarity onto a pattern in the swirling mists in the darkness. Riding the pattern, my mind went deeper and deeper, until everything was closed out but my inquiring mind and the things it seemed to see. Myself, I was just along for the ride.

[Reader of Ill Omens] activated somewhere deeply buried into my consciousness, a side note I barely registered, enthralled by the pattern I was following.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Out of the swirling grey, meaning emerged with the cold clarity of a winter morning. To describe them as images would be to describe the feeling of love with nothing but the word itself, as there were so many nuances, paths to follow, and things to see, feel, and taste.

And yet I saw the doom of Ravenport.

Not what exactly, just a feeling of a dark pressure rising in the north, a force even the Wyld itself would not be able to stand up to. Swallowing everything in a dark tidal wave of shadows and flame.

I saw the Wreckage tumbling into churning waters, shadows darting in and out of the surf, snatching their prey with blinding speed.

And I saw the dragon. I had seen him once before, as he had hunted me through the silent city below the Abyss of Ravenrock, and my mind had not been able to stand up to the reality of a creature of such grace and magnitude. It was looking at me again. Burning eyes, hatred, and hunger, in a sea of black ink and oil. It knew. It recognized me.

It was coming.

The cold pulled me out of the vision, finally, as I shivered hard enough to make my teeth chatter in my freezing head. All warmth had all but gone, and with clammy fingers, I tried to get the small metal pot of coals we had between our bodies going again. It had been subdued by the water and the winds.

I never once tried to find that space in the whirling mists again.

It was coming.

The night still haunted me, even after a quick breakfast in the morning, even after the first stretch of the wall had been climbed. Just the rising exhaustion finally led me to concentrate enough on the moment and the immediate danger to ignore the ill omen of the night.

We hung above a veritable cloud, swallowing everything inside of it. I wagered the guess that the waterfalls were hitting either a plateau or the ground itself, thus creating the cloud of spray.

We had no more ropes on us, as we were securing the last of the anchors, and would enter the cloud with nothing but our strength to hold us against the wall. Getting more rope would mean climbing back up and neither Simue nor I felt the need to do that.

Maybe it was foolish, getting reckless this late in the climb, but we were so close to the bottom, or a plateau, that we felt it was justified. After last night, the feeling of having to hurry as much as I was able never had left me.

Simue did not share this sentiment, but she did not conflict my decision, on the contrary, she seemed to be eager to have solid ground beneath her feet again.

Through both days of climbing, Simue had stayed calm, cool, and collected, never hesitating, never wavering, never slowing down as she took to the wall like a mountain goat, never setting her feet wrong once.

I never even so much as glimpsed the side of Simue that had been vengeful and bitter, never once had I felt the incorporeal eyes of Zora in my back. Either the climb was as cathartic to her as it was for me, or she truly had her emotions under control. Which was the option I very much preferred.

I shared one more look with her, which she held earnestly before she nodded, and then I entered the cloud and spray, losing sight of her immediately. Losing sight of everything immediately, to be honest, but the very space right in front of my eyes.

The noise was all-consuming, and soon the water began to soak my clothes completely. Worse was the slippery surface of the wall, which no longer was as ragged and rough as it had been above the spray of the falls. I had to find smaller and smoother grips, and those I did find were slippery and hard to grasp.

It was the first time Zero showed his head, as he rose up above my head and joined in with feeling along the wall for gaps and protrusions he could grasp to secure me, changing his head to whatever shape was necessary to get the best hold on the wall. To be honest, his presence was one of the reasons I dared this wall under these circumstances.

As I was concentrating hard on the task at hand, blending out all that could be distracting to me, I barely registered the impact above my head. But when I did, my head snapped around in sudden panic. Something had hit the wall.

There was something in the mists.

As soon as I had thought the thought, a shadow appeared to my right and flew over me, disappearing as quickly as it had come. Was this some kind of bird? Or something bigger feeling along the wall with its arms, just as I was?

Decisions were taken away from me as something slammed into the wall hard, and I lost my footing. I slipped, wrestling with the wall a second longer before gravity took hold of me and I fell back into the mist. With a snap, I fell into Zero, wedged between the sides of a tear in the wall, cutting deeply into my torso as the wrapping of Zero around my chest grew ever so much tighter under my weight and the impact of my fall.

Then I slammed into the wall, desperately grasping after any and all I could see to find that grasp I could use to steady my fall, as even now I felt Zero slipping out above.

It was close, but finally, I hung from one arm, and just three fingers at that, dangling over the nothingness, while Zero raced back and forth, clampering across the wall to find something more sturdy to hold onto.

It mattered little as the third impact hit my back, tearing me away from the stone, and tossing me into the air. I whirled around, Zero coiling around my spinning form, as I searched for the attacker.

There! A shadow, small and nimble and winged like a bird, swam through the mist, about to disappear again. Screaming, I threw out Zero as both our skills activated, and the thunderclap of force we evoked even blasted away the mist and the spray.

Zero shot through the suddenly clear air, slamming into the creature - some kind of big, gliding lizard - and wrapped around its legs while I was in freefall still. Again, I slammed into the chain, but this time I took the creature down with me. The lizard was flapping desperately to slow its fall, but we descended fast and soon it lost control and we fell in truth. A second later I slammed onto the surface of a shallow lake, immediately being pummeled by the forces of the waterfall around me.

I had fallen, what, 10 feet? The surprise of hitting the surface so quickly had hit harder than the impact itself.

Now, where was this little piece of work I would strangle with a lot of enthusiasm, before making it my next meal?