I wonder if temperature like this hurts a human, with their fragile skin-covered muscles.

I shouldn’t be wondering something like that.

Although it could help in case, I have to calculate a solution to a cold human.

Speaking of cold human, I am close.

They are slow.

I am close.

Ephin tried to remember what he knew about Vernox. It wasn’t a lot, as there wasn’t much in the area. It wasn’t exactly a country, as there were almost no people to call it home. Finally, and most painfully obvious, it was an icy wasteland.

He could barely feel his fingers or his face. High Morr wasn’t much further north, however the curled mountains of ice helped to form a weather barrier to aid the worst of it to avoid the city. The city still suffered from extreme amounts of snow, hail and other such freezing precipitation.

“-riddle?”

Beth’s fingers snapped in front of Ephin’s face, bringing him back to the moment.

The group had not moved from their spot near the collapsed ice caverns, deciding to figure out the meaning of the riddle before progressing any further and potentially having to double back.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Ephin said.

“What are your thoughts on the riddle?” Beth asked again.

“Well, this place is definitely icy,” Ephin said.

“Nice one, you come up with that on your own?” Jadon sighed.

“Well, none of it really makes much sense. Hidden from those who hid it? That could be anywhere. Search further and be frostbit could be anywhere in Vernox. The rest just seems like nonsense fear mongering to make the riddle seem cool.” Ephin shrugged. He had tried to figure out the wording ever since reading it the first time and hated how stumped he was. He hated even more the feeling that one of the others would figure it out first.

“What were the first lines again?” Beth asked.

“Deep where ice and might abide, Does the path you tread collide,” Ephin chanted.

“Wait,” Guy said slowly, “I think I know where it’s hidden.”

Figure it out first, Ephin thought, just like that.

“Where then?” Jadon asked, “I’m getting frozen waiting around here.”

“Well, it’s going to be a long trip, so I hope you wrapped up well,” Guy laughed before walking off in a seemingly random direction.

“Where are you going?” Beth asked, jogging to catch up with the rest following suit.

“Ice and might abide. We have to go to Fort Lastlight.”

Jadon stopped his skis immediately.

“You’re joking,” he spat. Guy simply continued to laugh and tried to explain in the gaps of his giggles.

“I wish,” Guy said, “but if you can tell me anywhere that is the definition of might in this icy hole, I’m all ears.”

Jadon paused but couldn’t think of anything and carried on reluctantly. Ephin watched him push himself along, a strange feeling crawling up his neck. He slapped a hand back there, but there wasn’t any bug. Must be the cold, Ephin thought.

Iarkspur wasn’t sure what she had expected as the group tromped across the ice. Whilst most of the view was overwhelming white and uninhabitable, there were also plants dotted around. There weren’t many, but there were still more than she would expect in as harsh an environment as this.

The first thing Iarkspur noticed about the flora of Vernox was that the majority were translucent. Likely to be harder to notice, or because they didn’t need to take in their energy from the sun. Iarkspur could tell the sun wasn’t very powerful here and with the nature of the region, it would usually be overcast with clouds. Instead, all the plants that she saw held a consistent feature of tiny horizontal holes, with some of the larger plants having holes large enough to put her head through (which she did). The holes were lined with tiny bristles and Iarkspur wasn’t entirely sure, but they seemed to generate heat from the consistent wind patterns rushing through the holes and they used the energy from the heat to keep themselves alive.

It took Iarkspur a lot of thinking and a lot of looking at a bunch of different plants to figure all of these theories out, which helped as otherwise she would be bored stiff. The rest of the group, in her opinion, looked as bored as she might have already been had there been no plants. What this also meant, was that she could take some cuttings of the plants and work on growing these alternative, snow-based flora. They had been travelling for a couple of days in the direction of Fort Lastlight and Iarkspur felt it was time to help improve the mood of the group.

“Hey Beth,” Iarkspur said, trying pull Beth into her interest. “Did you notice the cool plant life around here?”

“I did. Why?”

“Nothing, really. Would you like me to talk you through how they work?”

“Not really, sorry. I’m trying to figure this out at the moment and can’t really cloud my thinking with other stuff,” Beth said, holding up the collected notes Jadon had given her.

“Oh, what are those?”

“From what I can tell, the drawings of a madman. The thing is, those things we fought had working enhancements, so these notes can’t be completely mad. I think I’ll need to head to that library in High Morr that one of you mentioned. To properly translate this,” Beth finished, looking up from the notes at the others.

“How about we keep our thoughts on track?” Guy said from the front. “We’re nearly there.”

“Nearly at the fort, or nearly at the destination of the riddle?” Jadon asked skeptically.

“What sort of question is that?” Guy said, “Both.”

“Why are you so certain it is at the fort?” Ephin asked, the twinging feeling he had felt earlier, creeping back up his neck.

“Why would I lie?”

“You want to get us arrested and be seen as a hero?” Jadon said, chuckling at how obvious he found the answer.

“I want what is best for the group.” Guy had fully turned around to face everyone, tense.

“What is, in your opinion, what’s best for the group?” Ephin asked slowly.

“To find the place the riddle is sending us, of course,” Guy said.

Ephin twinging skittered up his neck again.

“Do you know where the riddle should be sending us?” Ephin continued his questioning, gradually pushing in front of the others.

“Of course, I do, the riddle made it quite clear.”

“Is that location Fort Lastlight?” Ephin asked.

“Yes, why are we still-”

Ephin swung out, aiming to punch Guy in the face, who easily stepped back out of reach.

“What the heck was that for?” Guy asked.

“You’re lying,” Ephin said, “I know.”

“You know what?” Guy said.

“That you’re lying, idiot,” Jadon snapped.

“I think I know where the riddle is meant to take us, where all the lines make sense. Fort Lastlight is not that place. I think you know that too,” Ephin said still stepping towards the backtracking Guy.

“Fair enough,” Guy said, his arms raised as he stepped backwards, “but can you blame me for trying to get home?”

“And take us with you?” Beth said.

“I would only have gotten Jadon arrested,” Guy said, trying to crack a weak smile under the series of glares everyone else was giving him.

Iarkspur, ever distracted, was not as angry with Guy as the others. This meant that she wasn’t staring as intently at him, which led to her seeing a thin line of black in the snow ahead of them and behind Guy. Guy saw her eyes move to follow them and turned to look in that direction.

“Hey,” Beth said, “look at us when we’re-”

Guy broke off into a sprint.

“Shit,” Jadon spat, slamming his poles into the ground to try and catch up to him. The others did their best to keep up.

Whilst Jadon couldn’t make out what exactly Guy was running towards, he could guess. A thin dark line, moving slowly, likely people. Considering the only major settlement in the vicinity was Fort Lastlight, it’s safe to say those people could be soldiers either travelling to High Morr for the siege, or a simple patrol. Either one could prove deadly to the group if Guy reached them.

He was, ironically, the fastest of the group now that he had skis on his chair. Whilst everyone else had to struggle through a foot of loose snow every step, Jadon slid over the worst of it with ease, only his arms aching from the effort.

As he rounded on Guy, the soldier still pushing forward even as he pulled out a sword, Jadon held up one of his ski poles as menacingly as he could.

“Stop where you’re going Guy,” Jadon said, “they don’t want to hurt you, but you might force their hand.”

“What about you?” Guy spat, slowing down and raising his sword in preparation.

“Well,” Jadon chuckled, “I’m a criminal, aren’t I?”

Guy swung, Jadon tried to deflect the worst of the blade so that he was able to duck out of the way, still getting used to maneuvering in the chair. He slid back, keeping just out of reach of the blade, but close enough to keep prompting Guy to advance at him, instead of the patrol in the distance.

Beth caught up and went to rub her gloves together to begin firing warning shots at Guy, however he spun and swung up, catching one of her gloves and slicing right through, the snow spraying with red as she screamed and fell to her knees, clutching the remains of her hand.

Ephin, who had been pushing to attack Guy, instead halted and knelt down beside Beth, hoping to repair her hand before any of the damage became permanent. He pulled the glove off to get a better look at the damage, however a couple of the fingers stayed within the glove, one other falling to the snow, blood spurting out in front of the two of them. Steeling his stomach, Ephin held onto Beth’s hand, hugging her as she flinched in pain, and the healing glow began.

Guy was still swinging wildly at Jadon, who was trying and failing to find an opening with his pole. It was not designed for combat with a sword and was already bent out of shape, likely unusable. But it was a good distraction.

Iarkspur scattered the seeds she had collected from over aging her cuttings the past couple days and translucent white plants shot up around Guy. He swung his sword at one, cutting it in two, but got his arm trapped in the following one, one of the bristled holes closing around his sword arm. Iarkspur continued to loop the plants around where Guy stood until his other arm and both his legs were pinned in the flora.

Jadon slid in front of Guy, bent walking pole threatening his throat. Beth, her one hand healed as much as she could hope for, walked up beside him.

“Answer me this,” Ephin said, standing on the other side of Jadon, “Do you think of us more as criminals, or as allies? And, final question from me, can we trust you to not hand us in to the authorities?”

“What do you expect me to say, really?” Guy said, sighing, “You were running from the most high-profile murder scene the city has seen for years. We were bound by circumstance, nothing more.”

“Can I?” Jadon asked, gripping the walking stick.

“You really ready to kill someone in cold blood? Unarmed and defenseless?” Guy said.

“You would have seen us all rot in a cell until we died, for a crime we didn’t commit,” Beth said.

“Then prove your innocence.”

“What do you think we’re doing by tracking this item down? We are trying to prove our innocence,” Beth snapped. “Jadon, I hate to say this, but yes. For the sake of us four, I think you have to.”

Jadon smirked up at Guy and raised the bent walking pole.

“Any last words?” Jadon asked.

“Would you believe me if I told you there was someone behind you all, right now?” Guy said.

“Nice try,” Jadon said, but couldn’t swing. He looked up at his arm and it was being held by A.D.A.M.; no, not him. Some other metal being.

“Is this human attempting to hurt you?” The metal being said.

“Yes,” Guy replied.

It didn’t respond, instead it turned to Beth.

“Is this human trying to hurt you?” It repeated.

“I guess so?” Beth said, looking down at her hand.

Before anyone could react, the metal being had disarmed Jadon and taken his bent walking pole and swung it at such force, Guy head was beaten clean off.

“What the heck?!” Beth screamed, Iarkspur joining her in her cry.

“The human was trying to hurt you?” The metal being said as the others backed away from it.

“What are you? Who are you?” Beth stammered in shock.

“I have been looking for you for quite some time. You are the one who connected the ball and the cup. And I have found you.”