Arriving at the border of the windswept steppe was a little strange. While I could see no reason for the sudden demarcation, it was certainly there. Within maybe a hundred meters, almost in a straight line, the pine-trees got smaller and misshapen, as if trying to stand against the wind was pushing them down. They gave way to brush, and then even that brush vanished, leaving us on an endless-seeming, white expanse. What gave me the willies was that the sky was cloudy and roughly the same colour as the snow, at least when it faded into the distance, taking away the normally clear demarcation between earth and horizon, making it look like the expanse was truly endless.

“Now, this is not creepy at all.” Sigmir noted, looking as disturbed as I felt.

“You can say that again. Adra, did you cross the plains on your way north?” I asked, curious.

“No, I passed further to the south - and right now, I’m glad about that.” she answered and I could see Rai nod in agreement. All of us were used to having the forest give at least some cover, allowing to hide if it ever became necessary. But here, the only cover was the snow beneath us and that was of no help when it came to escaping from enemies.

When I thought about that, I realised something else. Just because the land looked flat didn’t mean it was; there was always the possibility that there were valley and depressions all around us, only covered by snow. Luckily, the magic of the old, imperial road somehow managed to keep snow from accumulating on it, which helped a great deal with navigation and prevented missteps. But if we left the road, I would lead, using my magic to make sure we didn’t get swallowed by a snow-drift.

“We need to gather wood.” Sigmir announced, bringing up the task that was normally part of setting camp. It took me a second to realise that she was right, unless we started to dig into the snow, we would find no fuel for a fire, and a few days - or however long it took us to cross the frozen expanse - without any way to cook food or warm up would be uncomfortable for me and lethal for the others. And so, we spent the rest of the day on the outskirts of the plains, gathering wood and making sure we would be ready to enter the frozen desert before us. For a desert it was; one without sand or heat, but an area hostile to life nonetheless. Well, unless the life had adapted to it, and I had no doubt that there were some critters that loved it here - maybe something similar to the Querder we had fought before, digging through earth and snow as they hunted. That was a truly cheery thought that would certainly not give me nightmares later.

Luckily, the night passed without incident and the next morning, we set out. Our magic bags filled with as much wood as we could cram into them, if we had too much, we could alway ditch it at a later date.

After entering the steppe, the first couple of hours were spent in an even worse boredom than in the forest. There, we had to keep watch, making sure nothing was hiding behind the next tree, but here, where there were no trees nor any actual cover? That vigilance fell away, to be replaced by a feature that my gut told me I would come to hate. That feature was the wind, which was a constant feature blowing down from the north. It cut through my clothes, making me feel itchy, exposed and a little cold. For the others, it was worse; where I felt just a little cold and clammy, Rai looked like he would soon suffer from hypothermia. He was lacking the powerful cold-resistance bestowed upon Sigmir by her bond with Ylva, strengthened ever since Ylva had crossed the first divide or the fur that kept Adra warm in her changed shape.

“We should rest for some time!” I called out when I noticed that Rai seemed to be getting blue. The others seemed to be quite happy to get off their feet for some time and I certainly was happy to get off my mount, not that it was unpleasant, but even now, after a few hours, my backside was simply complaining about the exertion. And it was made worse by the wind, I felt like it was rubbing my body raw, just its mere existence.

That was when I realised that even without sitting on a mount, there was nothing to stop the wind. We could ask Elding and Hringur, our mounts, to block but even they didn’t enjoy the harsh wind so I came up with a simpler solution.

I was an Ice-Mage after all, so creating a rampart of Ice was easy for me, a semi-circle of ice that would protect us from the wind. As I raised it after anchoring it to the snow below, I instantly felt the wind tear and rip at it, trying to grind it away. And I had the feeling that the wind would manage. It wouldn’t matter, I hadn’t created the Ice in such a way that it would be permanent, as I did with my weapons, but simply created it casually, like I did with the Icicles I used to attack. Those lasted for a few hours before evaporating back into the Astral River.

“Rai, Adra, you two sit and warm each other.” I ordered, gently but firmly, causing both of them to blush while they huddled together with their back to the frozen dome, cuddling under a blanket.

I had to hide a smile; the two of them, especially Rai, looked adorable. Not that Rai would have thanked me for that characterisation, but he looked so much like a puppy that was miserable after being left out in the cold for too long, that I had to strictly control myself. Adra looked less frozen but even she looked much happier watching Sigmir and me set up a fire from the warm cocoon she shared with Rai. Even I was somewhat happy about having a fire burning, adding some warmth and driving away the chill the wind had driven into even my body.

Once the fire was nicely burning, I placed a pot filled with snow above it, letting the snow quickly melt into water before adding some crushed herbs I had bought in Kolyug, creating something that might be called tea. I drank it more for the taste, which was surprisingly good, but I could see that the others were incredibly happy to have something hot to warm their insides.

If there had been anyone looking on from the outside, I had no doubt that we looked quite cozy, I had expanded the ice, keeping the wind out and some of the warmth in, making it almost an igloo, just created from slightly opaque ice instead of snow, and on one side, Rai and Adra were sharing warmth under a blanket, on the other side, Sigmir and I were cuddling for warmth and enjoyment, with Ylva wrapped around us, substituting the blanket. Lenore had declined to leave her Hallow, even though she had some interest in the seemingly endless wind around us. I was not quite sure, but I had a feeling that there was something magical in the air, similar to the taste of the air in after we had left the glacier dungeon. It was a different flavour, but the texture was reminiscent of that.

“Do you think the wind is natural?” I asked the others, specifically looking at Adra.

“Could be.” she answered with a small shiver. “But if it isn’t, would you want to meet what’s causing it? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t want to challenge a dragon - the stupid Infernal Bear was bad enough.”

I chuckled at that, amused that she was considering me that reckless. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to challenge such a being just yet. Maybe once we all are much more powerful.” I answered with a smirk, before continuing. “No, I don’t think that whatever is causing the winds is still present.”

Adra interrupted me, eyes wide. “You think it might be an artifact?”

“I was thinking more of a place of wild magic, some leftover from a long forgotten battle. You think an artifact might be responsible?” I would love to study something that powerful, even if only from afar, the few true artifacts I had seen were rather unwieldy after all. Kolyug and the old, imperial road were marvels of magic but I could only ever look at a small part of the whole, making more than very superficial observations impossible.

“Dear, I doubt that such an artifact would be unguarded. If it were easy to acquire it, it would have been taken long ago.” Sigmir stopped me before I was too enamoured with the idea to go artifact hunting.

“I wasn’t thinking about that.” I lied, embarrassed at my reckless reaction.

“Sure you were not. That sparkle in your eyes, that must have been for some other reason.” Adra laughed.

“It so was. I was just thinking about giving Sigmir a kiss.” I retorted before doing just that, causing the other two to giggle. No artifact was worth enough to consider risking my dear for it, that I knew.