Frank was really missing the staying power of Body 5. “Come on Deli. Come on. One foot in front of the other girl.”

The snowmaiden was leaning on him heavily, and stumbled forward, keeping her feet only because one of her arms was thrown around his neck, and he was holding her up with his own spare hand. He pulled her forward, as the wind howled around them, the snow covered back of the cart ahead of them the only sign they weren’t alone out here. The air was thick with frost and snow, the pale fog so thick he could barely see a couple of meters ahead of him.

She stumbled again, and he thanked his lucky stars that he still had Lift. With only Strength two, pulling her along was hard. He didn’t know the best way to help someone walk, but the moment he’d started thinking of her as a stumbling burden he’d have to manage he’d felt a Skill kick in. Now, he kept her hand hung on his forward shoulder, and his on her hip. She remained half a step to the side and behind, but every time she stumbled it was easy to direct her onto his back and side, stabilize for a moment, and go again.

They were still faster than the Snow Shades, and that was what mattered.

It had started innocently enough. He’d been on the lookout for Deadbeat, as the woman had begun ambushing him when he was alone. Popping out of nowhere, with a story, a smile, a touch. Frank had to keep reminding himself she was a stats whore.

“That’s uncalled for Frank.” He chided himself, with what breath he could spare, pulling Deli along. Managing to stay within sight of the cart, but feeling his Stamina drain. A guard swept out of the fog, clearing some of the shades ahead of them and to the right, before coming back around and clearing the left. Frank could feel his Stamina levels dropping.

Everyone could see their Health, and all Heroes their Mana, but Stamina needed a Skill to manage clearly. Non-Hero magelings usually needed one for mana as well. He’d had enough training to get a feel for his Stamina, if not the exact handle a Skill would give. His was low and falling. Deli was a pointed example of what would happen if he bottomed out. It would start with aching, and rapidly get worse from there if he kept pushing himself.

They called it Stamina debt. Once you were deep enough? You could barely walk, shuffling along like the Shades. Frank did not want to think of what would happen then. He still needed to swing his staff now and again to break one that got too close.

“Where was I?”

Deli stumbled again, and he lurched to the side to keep up with her, but managed to keep his feet. With something solid to support her, so did she. Her breath came in rapid pants, and when he looked, her eyes were blinking heavily, and a bit wide. He didn’t waste time on reassurance, instead putting his efforts into another step, another tug.

“Not a stats whore.”

Those were an Empire custom. One where any person, man or woman, of low social standing but gifted with a high stat or a bloodline, could sell their body and their parentage like a stud on a farm.

“No, she’s a stats chaser, and she’s seen something she likes here.”

Frank chuckled. It was nice being on the other side of it for a change. Even if she wanted him for his stats. That was normal to her and her people. Even the wording of it was somewhat crude: stats not Abilities.

“She’s shallow, that’s all. Wants my body, not my riveting personality. That’s no worse than many others, both here and back on Earth.”

It was nice to be wanted again. It was a bit spoiled by how many times a woman had thrown herself at him, because he was a Hero and she wanted children blessed by his bloodline, or to seduce him, or it was a plot, or she was an assassin, or-

“that’s the Empire for you.” He shook his head, and swung, breaking another Shade. Things were not going well, but they weren’t grim yet.

Health = 21/42

Mana = 3

The stones weren’t much use against lone Shades. He could use a mote of mana to kill one, but it would be only one. Without something to reinforce and drive them, they couldn’t get close enough to each other to get more than two or three of them with one stone. Thinking about it didn’t help, only walking did.

Having a woman chase him was nice, he was saying. Even if it brought up some distasteful memories, he’d get over it.

Another stumble, another lurch. Frank did his best to pace himself.

It had started innocently enough. Larger snowflakes, thicker snow. Till one morning, one side of the world was swallowed by a curtain of white. The caravan master immediately turned them to the side, towards a shelter he knew nearby. They’d been going for it ever since. By his count, the storm had swallowed them at least three hours ago.

He wasn’t sure how the others were managing, but if he balanced multiple stones, he could keep warm. So long as he kept them apart. Letting them get too close together while fully active was asking for an accident. In that respect, he felt like he was nearing a breakthrough, progress of some kind.

Deli began faltering not long after. She was quick and strong, but her Stamina was trash. Frank was still somehow surprised by the others, even if it happened every time.

They looked away.

Deli wouldn’t ask for help, she didn’t want to be a burden, to keep depending on others. And if she wouldn’t ask, no one else would help her. They’d say she made her choice, and needed to live with it. Frank didn’t think she’d have survived this one. The exhaustion always snuck up on her, and she’d be falling behind and out of it, by the time she realized she needed help.

It was possible she was using him. As a crutch, a way not to face her own pride. He didn’t think so. The first few times Cherna told her what he’d done, she avoided him. After a bad one, in a storm just a bit weaker than this, she’d woken up with a fever. Took her a couple of days of leaning on him to recover.

But at the end?

She’d take him aside, and offered herself up as payment. Because she had nothing else to give to repay him for his service, and couldn’t bear the thought of the debt hanging over her.

That was the thing. Everyone pulled their weight. And if they didn’t, or couldn’t, they paid or served those who’d done it for them. Frank could depend on any one of the locals to help. But they’d demand to also be paid for it.

It didn’t have to be an immediate payback, personal debts were very much a thing in the Confederacy, but they’d expect to be compensated for their time and effort. And whatever food, cloth, or other resources they spent helping.

It was a difference of cultures. He’d borrowed out his staff several times to other pilgrims to stand watch, but none of them paid him for it. A local would have. They’d have taken it as a personal failure to prepare that someone else was covering for, and a debt to be repaid. So it was. Big or small.

And Deli, for all her gifts, was poor, from the family of a grower and a hunter. She wanted to be a hunter, but so far, her marketable skills were those of a grower because she’d always lacked the Stamina to keep up with others, or train as hard as they could. It had left her Skills behind others, and meant that even with a debt delayed a year, she would have little to pay him back for the service of “aid and escort”.

The nature of the whole thing had spilled out when she’d bared herself to him in offer, that day.

He’d been tempted. Of course he had been, she was a beautiful woman!

But only for a moment.

It wasn’t why he did it, and he wasn’t going to take advantage of her. Frank was only trying to be a decent human being, as best he could. They’d gone back and forth, a culture clash that had lasted all morning and made him miss his carving session.

But by the end, they’d agreed on the way she could pay him back. As Deli lurched again and he caught her, he pulled up memories of her voice. She had a nice one, easy to listen to. And she knew a lot more about her people then she herself was aware of. Something an outsider could use instruction in, all the little customs and gestures that came naturally to her.

Deli didn’t think herself learned about the world. But she’d served admirably as his teacher, for the customs of the Confederacy.

While she’d never shown actual interest in him as a man, he’d grown a bit fond of her. In a platonic way. Mostly. Look, what happened inside a man’s head and dreams was between him and the Gods, alright?

“Oh great. Now I’m starting to argue with myself.”

Frank chuckled. He almost laughed, even as another Shade lurched out of the snow and tagged his foot with painful cold. He broke it and walked on, pulling his burden.

He was stuck in the middle of a snowstorm, surrounded by shambling dead, with a young woman depending on him for survival. But he still felt more comfortable than he did most days in the Empire. Comfortable enough to get lost in his own head again. At least the bodies he was breaking here were already dead.

Hesitating for a moment, Frank paused and took her hand, booping himself.

Still panting, Deli’s lips quirked up and she managed to get out: “Dead.”

They walked on.

***

The shouts ahead were a relief. He wasn’t at the “everything starts to ache” phase of it, but his Stamina was flagging. Most of the time, Stamina was a blessing, allowing one to keep going for far longer than anyone home could, and recover faster than was normal. It was one of the perks of this world, feeling sore muscles wash away under the returning pulses of Stamina and being able to start training again the same day.

The cart finally stopped, and Frank went on. Crisk was by it, looking back and grinning at them emerging from the same fog he was in to them.

“Told ya the guard said they were still back there.” He laughed with relief.

As he got close enough, the other pilgrims emerged around him. He leaned Deli against the cart, and finally straightened up, stretching out his spine.

“Report.” He snapped, ingrained habits from the training slipping out. Crisk stiffened, but tilted his head in acceptance. “We’re at the entrance. The lead and the bulls are digging it out.”

“Guard the cart and stay together. I’ll go see how long it will take.” Frank wasn’t in a mood to apologize. They couldn’t object to an order that was both sensible, and what they were already doing. He was just formalising it. It made them a group, with shared responsibilities.

And it included Deli. They’d guard her now, and she’d take the midnight watch to spare them sleep.

Frank went ahead. He would have liked to catch his breath first, but the sooner they got out of this, the better. He found the front full of guards, each digging with their axes. Moving aside snow, and hacking at ice. The bulls dug beside them. They were a cross between something vaguely bovine and a bear, digging at the snow and ice with their claws.

The cliff-face they were doing it on, looked no different than any other. But they moved with surety and purpose, so he’d have to trust they knew what they were doing.

He walked up to the caravan master, asking: “Any idea how long this will take? We have shades coming up our asses.”

“Not long, not long.” The master reassured him, watching the cliff, looking around for something.

Frank wasn’t convinced. While they were moving a lot of snow and ice, it was only revealing more snow and ice. But if the man was so certain, and he seemed to be, he looked for a way to help. Maybe if he pushed a stone in deep, and burst it, he might clear up a chunk of it? Like dynamite in mining?

“Ilias! There!” The master pointed, to a bit of rock that looked no different to him than any other. The Captain of the guards advanced towards it, as did every other guard. While his subordinates cleared away loose snow, he took his oversized warhammer in both hands. Their brushes turned to clinks, from snow to ice, and they got out of the way in a hurry.

The Captain erupted into red light, streamers of it ripping themselves out of his furs, and wrapping around the head of the warhammer.

“Hrargh!”

The sound was more animal than man, as he swung into the ice. Frank felt the blow in his boots. He was standing on snow.

A second, a third; looking less like a human and more like an industrial hammer, the Captain of the guards advanced into the ice, chips flying everywhere, shaking the cliff. There was a rumble above them, and snow came down in a flood on the workers. They jumped clear, and went right back to digging as soon as it settled.

The Captain wasn’t bothered, having made a tunnel into the ice, and continuing to rip bigger pieces of it out, thrown chunks of ice that the other guards had to duck and avoid.

There was an ear-splitting CRACK! and much of the remaining snow and broken ice slid out of sight along with the Captain and half the workers. Frank watched in disbelief as a hole in the cliff opened up, more than big enough for the carts and bulls. Hell, it was big enough for an elephant.

The caravan master turned back to him, just a bit smug. “Our shelter for the storm, good pilgrim.”

Frank looked from him to the cave. He’d give him this, neither the storm nor the Shades would be nearly as troublesome to deal with in there. But Deli had been telling him stories and fairytales, and among them were tales of the kind of things that could hide in caves. Either waiting for prey to come on by and walk in, or lost and forgotten dead, sleeping until something disturbed them.

Looking back out into the storm?

It was still a better option than staying out here.

***

With the guards no longer having to clear ahead of them, or dig, things became mostly safe, and they entered the cave in good order. Mostly, because every now and again, a Shade would fall or roll down the cliff and need to be broken. Twice they fell on someone, and that didn’t look pleasant at all.

But they got in without losing anyone. As he passed the entrance himself, Frank focused on the right pattern and called the flames. He still flinched every time he did so, but after a moment, they answered. Letting out a deep breath, he carefully fed the flames into the stone in a pattern that was growing familiar.

The stone lit up the cavern, a small star in the dark, much brighter than the torches and few lit lanterns providing most of the light. The entrance was large, and went on for a while, before opening up further. What caught Frank’s eye, as the others passed him and Deli leaned on the wall, were the runes. A line of them, carved into a smoothed out part of the floor, going from wall to wall, and then up them. He could even see some up in the ceiling.

Deli wasn’t in any condition to explain, but the guards bringing up the rear saw him looking.

“Work of the ancestors it is. Way stations, and shelter from the dead. No Shade can cross it without the spirit of the mountain pulling it out and throwing it back into the Winds.” He spat to the side. “They’ll be shrooms, deeper in. In case the snows bury us, or the storm doesn’t let up for a few quarters.”

Frank put them aside. It’s not like he could read more than a third of them. He could copy and study them later. What they’d said had chilled him.

“Those can go on for weeks?” He asked waving at the wall of white beyond the roof of the cave. The guard looked at him in confusion. “It can stay like that for more than a quarter?” He corrected himself.

“Sure.” the guard shrugged.

“The Winter Winds are blowing.” He peered up at the sky through the opening. “We’ve gotten a fair way south, but not that far.” The four guards got into an argument who’d be staying and who could go in and warm up.

Feeling off-balance, Frank helped Deli up and they shuffled slowly on. “Weeks, stuck in here?”

“You never mentioned quarter long storms Deli.” He part told, part asked her.

She shuffled after him, blushing and still panting. “Didn’t. Think. I. Had. To. Every. One. Knows.”

Yeah. That was the thing. “It isn’t what you don’t know that gets you. It’s what you don’t know that you don’t know, and can’t think to ask.”

He liked Deli. Most of the other pilgrims weren’t terrible company. That did not mean he wanted to spend weeks stuck in a cave with them.

As they moved on, he caught glimpses of more runes along the walls. Not magic, just writing, in fits and spurts. Paired names of couples, old missives and some warnings by hunters with dates by them. All long past.

It was like a message board, for travellers, hunters and explorers. At least if he was going to be stuck here, he’d have something to study. And who knows, the storm didn’t have to last long. Maybe they’d wake up tomorrow and it would be gone?”

***

It wasn’t.

For the record? Trying to run from a woman that wanted you inside a cavern was a lost cause. The cave they stopped in was just big enough for everyone, but not far more than that. And Frank wasn’t about to be driven into the deeper tunnels just to escape the amorous attentions of one woman.

The one time he’d been careless enough to complain about the problem, Katri had been close enough to overhear.

“So fuck her and be done with it. What a terrible problem you have.”

She didn’t understand. It was one thing to fuck around in the Empire, with company whores, or ladies of the night in a town. They were professionals, and well paid for it. Clean, and supplied with teas and concoctions to prevent any accidental pregnancies.

Preventatives he’d learned to buy for himself, and brew for them in person, because… Empire.

He did not want to have any child of his spirited away and sold to some Legion orphanage as a prime recruit. Or kept as leverage over him. Nor to get entangled with just any woman. He wasn’t the type to walk away from a child.

But bringing up the topic of pregnancy and prevention with a snowmaiden struck him as crass and foolish. More so, since she’d been so burdened with worries about it for so long.

No, Frank needed to find someone else to talk to on this. And not Crisk. His back door preferences were well established. The man had no class, none.

He needed an answer before Deadbeat cornered him and he had to admit his ignorance. He doubted she’d find that attractive.

At least a few days in here would give his Health time to recover. For everyone to recover. Worst part was, Deli was giving him the eyes again. Last time she looked at him with those, they got into an argument over the worth of a bit of help and whether or not it had made enough of a difference to save her life from her own foolishness. Frank had made the argument he hadn’t. Just helped her get there on her own. She’s the one that did the walking last time.

But it was hard to deny that he’d been doing more than a bit carrying this time. He just hoped that the fact they already had an agreement on it would balance the scales against the value of the service. She’d foreseen the need and planned for it, so he was only on the rope for the actual work he did. While he didn’t want to charge her, arguing that she would have made it without someone pulling her along was a lost cause.

Frank was on his own, or travelling with passerbyes with little true company for months to get here.

“How am I suddenly stuck dealing with two women at the same time? That’s basic advice Father gave me: ‘One woman at a time son. One is more than enough for any man to handle’.”

It was one of the pains that couldn’t be mended. His parent’s graves were forever out of reach. But he did have some hope, for an afterlife. If gods and magic were real here, who’s to say something like it wasn’t real back home too?

It would have been a lot easier if everyone agreed on one God or Pantheon. It was a childish thought back home, but they did here. Oh, each nation had their own names and cults, glorifying and worshiping different aspects. But they all agreed it was the same Gods, same Pantheon. At least among humans.

Who knew who or what the other kindred worshiped? It’s not like he’d ever met a traveling dwarf merchant, or a hermit elf to ask them. Their lands were somewhere over the nearly impassable mountain chain bordering the human realm to the west.

Where was he?

“Thou Shall Not Beget Strife Among The Faithful” was one of those things that the Academy taught. It was hard to argue you are doing God’s will in starting a crusade when a literal angel shows up, curses you for it, and strips the priests of their powers. The history of the Empire had a few historical examples for easy reference.

He’d believe in the Christian God too, if his angels did the same.