Irinia was woken up by a soft poke on her cheek. Somewhat annoyed, and in disbelief that Azara would give another of her lessons in the dead of night with a snowstorm outside, she rose and rubbed her eyes to clear them.

"Azara, please. The moon isn't even full, we won't be able to see, and we'll be frozen," she said in a whisper, hoping to not wake the other occupants of the tent. To her surprise, when she looked up, Azara was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't even beside Irinia where she normally lay. She was gone from her sleep roll, and even the two extra pieces of canvas they had thrown over each other for extra warmth had been disturbed. Confused even more, and now curious, Irinia looked around the largest tent they had made for themselves. She then went to the entrance. She poked her head out, wondering if Azara had gone outside, perhaps to relieve herself.

There was nothing but the falling sheets of snow. It fell softer now, and the wind was not as furious, but there was a lot of it. Already the ground was covered in almost a foot of snow. Thus, there were no footprints from Azara leaving the tent.

Irinia popped her head back into the tent, worried now about where Azara had gone. Irinia put on a heavy cloak and walked out of the tent, trying her best to keep the wind out of the tent as she opened the entrance and stepped out. Then she closed it behind her. As she turned to close the tent, she felt a cold hand on her cheek, coming from behind her. She let out a tiny yelp and turned, only to find no one there.

She felt her cheek, which was still cold, wondering what on earth was there. It was just a large clump of snow that had fallen onto her face. It had frightened her, but she wrote it off as a result of her being sleepy and skittish. Then she decided to press on. She knew better than to leave the area around the shelter and kept her hand on it as she walked around it, hoping to find Azara.

Thus, she started to walk around the tent, with her hand touching it the whole way around. The snow fell in sheets so thick that it was hard to see anything through it. If she let go of the shelter, she could lose her direction. This was why she was worried about Azara. As much as Azara had talked about adventures she had been on, the mage had been raised in the south of Ursulam. Irinia didn't know if her friend knew the dangers of a snowstorm - much less how to navigate one if it came to that. It would be easy to get lost. Of course, would it matter if she was lost? She was a dragon, couldn't she survive a snowstorm with ease?

The snow kept falling. She wondered, even though they had made their shelter with an angled ceiling against their barricade if the snow would pile up on it enough to collapse it. Even now, she was having little piles form on her shoulders and head. Lighting a very small fire within the tent or immediately outside it may have been a good idea, even with the bit of smoke, just for the warmth.

A figure moved in Irinia's peripheral vision, and almost immediately she called out. "Azara?!"

No answer. She couldn't see anything moving in the dark anymore. In this snow, animals wouldn't be out, and she would have heard the howl of wolves if they were gathering around the encampment. Besides, wolves hardly ever attacked people unless they were starving, and in the middle of spring that was seldom the case. Perhaps her eyes were just playing tricks on her.

That was what she told herself anyway, but she wasn't going to try and test it. She hurried her pace and began calling out Azara's name over and over. She rounded the back of the shelter soon, and when she did so she saw another movement in the distance, with light accompanying it this time. The light pulsed once, and then darkness followed it. Then pulsed again. It was like a fire was being lit and then extinguished, and it came from over a small rise in the ground.

Setting her back to their shelter to make sure she had her bearings, she strode forward. Trudging over the slight rise in the ground wasn't easy, but she made sure not to slip and fall or get turned around. A wrong move in a snowstorm was fatal, but she didn't plan on making one. As she crested the hill, worries of what lay beyond, or of her own safety even, suddenly died at the sight she saw.

It was a clearing partially covered in snow. It would have been covered entirely in snow, but all over the ground, there was the shape of a person melted into the snow. There were also long tracks of ground where the snow had been completely melted. Furthermore, the entire clearing was filled with steam, which felt unusually warm within the falling snow.

Irinia heard a sudden yelp of surprise and turned to look in that direction. She just caught sight of a foot vanishing behind a large cedar tree. She recognized the voice behind the yelp though.

"Azara?! What are you doing? Have you gone mad?!" Irinia yelled as she stepped into the clearing. She recoiled from it though, as the sudden change in temperature was astounding, as the air went from biting cold to blistering hot. It was steamy, like a sauna without doors or windows.

Azara looked out from behind the tree she had used to hide, and when she realized it was Irinia she stepped out. She was still halfway from being fully dressed and had a sheepish look on her face. Irinia approached her, somewhat annoyed and confused. She had just risked her life only to find Azara was...playing in the snow?

"What are you doing out here?!" Azara asked before Irinia could speak.

"Trying to find you!" Irinia replied, gathering up the courage to even scold Azara. "Something woke me up, I thought it was you poking me."

"Well, no. I've been out here for maybe an hour or two now."

The Veyorn girl just blinked, her green eyes holding nothing but disbelief. "So what, is this!? Some sort of magic of yours? How is this not dangerous? "

"I told you, I may be just as human as you in this form, but I don't get cold the same way you do," she said, continuing to get dressed. "You should join me, it’s wonderful, just like a sauna! Of sorts, anyway."

Irinia closed eyes and shook her head. Why did her teacher have to be so weird? "While that sounds...wonderful, I'd rather not get into a state of undress in the middle of a snowstorm thank you very much."

"It is not that bad, I promise," Azara said.

"I'm sure," Irinia replied, rolling her eyes. Then a thought occurred to her. "So if you don't ever get cold, do you overheat in the summer? Can you regulate it?"

“Oh, no, I love the -”

"Warm one." A bone-chilling voice said from behind Azara.

Azara, with an undershirt for her mage robes not quite over her head, jumped suddenly and ran forward past Irinia with a shriek. Her arms flailed as she tried to fit her head totally through the garment and failed. She subsequently tripped and fell face-first into a snowbank.

When Irinia took her eyes off of this and saw the source of the voice, it caused a chill to run up her spine and freeze her in place. An apparition of a man stood just behind where Azara had been. He was translucent and shimmered in the snow. His clothes were rags and one of his arms was damaged. There was no emotion or expression on his face, and he stared at Irinia.

Standing still turned out to be a bad idea, as Irinia suddenly felt cold hands grab around both her arms from behind. She shrieked and turned in surprise, trying to push off against anything that was behind her. This resulted in her arms getting gashed as she fell and wrenched herself loose of the creature’s grip. After falling to the earth she looked and saw exactly what this creature was.

It floated into the air, with no legs, and was covered in a cloak. It looked similar to the man, in that it was translucent and seemed to shimmer in the dark. Otherwise, it was hard to see. Bladed hands extended out from under its cloak. That was how her arms became cut. It slowly moved towards her.

"Get away from me," she yelled, as she threw snow at the monster. This did nothing, as the snow passed through the creature. Alright Irinia, she thought, concentrate now. She could blind it with a bit of light if she wanted. Wait, could it even be blinded?

As it moved towards her she realized she didn't have a chance to think about it, and reached out with her hand and used the training Azara had given her to create a bright flash of light. She funneled as much of her presence into it as possible and said a prayer to the stars as she did so.

The powerful flash of light, accompanied by a light concussive force, was effective. The creature shrieked and recoiled back. The cloak it wore was set alight with white fire at the edges, and the wraith floated away into the darkness and falling snow. The apparition of a man who had appeared behind Azara covered his face and fell to the ground. He cried out in pain and began to crawl away. He would not get far, however, as Azara, who had just got back to her feet, ran over towards him and held out her little trinket - the mirror-like shield removed. Rather than blasting light beams though, she just held the glowing gem up to the ghost, and he cried out in pain when she did so. The form shimmered under the light, and his hands and legs began vanishing.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" she demanded.

"Isordus, a soldier of the King Dreifregis the II, slayer of all scourges. We felt you and the other. We know why you come. A bright one, a warm one. All of you come to steal our king's eyes. We shall defeat you. We shall slay your kind, as we once did, and as we have always done. We swore it, in life, in death, and forevermore."

And then, he released a loud howling wail, and his body and head vanished, as if consumed by the light Azara was shining on him.

"We have to wake the others," Azara commanded. "We can't stay here. We have to move."

Irinia shook her head and protested. "But, the snowstorm. We can't go anywhere!"

"Then this may end up being a siege until dawn," Azara replied, rushing off in the direction of the camp.

Luckily it was not to be. The creatures did not attack again, however, their subtle movements were seen by Joakim's sharp eyes throughout the night. Despite how easy it was to put him to sleep with illusion magic, he truly was a good watchman. Azara had helped to keep a large fire burning outside their tent throughout the night. She assured her companions that the light would help stave off the undead. Occasionally, when it burned low, she unshielded her little trinket, and each time she did this the light seemed brighter and brighter, and it put off a lot of warmth for them all as well. The only harm done to them throughout the night was that one of the horse's ropes was mysteriously cut, and the animal disappeared.

When dawn finally broke, and the snow began to clear, no wraiths or ghosts tormented them. What lay before them was only the peaceful scenery they had been greeted with upon first arriving.

Azara encouraged the group to get to the crypt as soon as possible, knowing what was going to be facing them. After climbing the side of the mountain, they found their lost horse alive, though somewhat frightened. Joakim took it back to camp, and finally, they covered the remaining distance to the crypt. The entrance was a gaping hole in the side of the mountain, framed by stone pillars, with runes upon them. It seemed almost harmless in the bright morning light, but everyone was now very aware that the dangerous part of their journey had just begun.