Rei took a deep breath, a single tear finding its way down her cheek, unfreezing. A gust of wind blew into the cave as she opened her mouth to speak.

“I killed my brother in order to save my country from tyranny!” she shouted, the gust nearly stealing her breath away. “I loved him, but I knew he would never change his mind, and in my rage, I… I killed him.”

Taki dropped his hand as Rei’s declaration echoed across the cavern. Rei stared at the back of his head, terrified of the face he’d reveal upon turning. She imagined his face contorted with rage, with hatred for taking his life. She shook as she thought about how much he hated her for it, but if it were rage, she could take it. She could bury her sin in the past, leave it alone forever, but if he...

Taki turned to face Rei, and he was smiling. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he wore his pride and happiness on his lips.

“You finally admitted it,” he laughed. His eyes shimmered, and he faded away, leaving only bare traces of his shining violet, sparkling and disappearing like embers.

A moment passed, and the wind’s screams overtook his final words, carrying his light towards the sky. And Rei broke out into tears; each one froze into crystals as they left the warmth of her cheek and shattered against the cave floor.

The wind, the shattering of ice, and the cries of a young girl—far too often, that is what filled the nights of the Eternal Winter.

“My name is Aeso.”

Rei’s tears stopped, and she looked up to find him smiling at her awkwardly. She wiped her eyes and returned the smile.

“I’m Rei.”

Aeso chuckled.

“That was brave, you know,” he continued. “Would you like to know my story, then?”

Rei shook her head.

“I don’t care about your story.”

“Wha—” Aeso sighed. “I used to be a prince, you know—used to have a whole city to my name.”

“Didn’t I say?” Rei reiterated. “I don’t care.”

“Now I have to deal with this puny smartass of a girl,” he continued, ruffling his long hair. “You really get on my nerves.”

“As do you,” she returned. Aeso used to be a prince, but no longer. He used to have a city to his name, but no longer. Rei understood that in a winter such as this, the reason was painfully obvious. She didn’t need to hear about it.

Meanwhile, outside and in the sky, a halberd of divine light burst through the clouds. The blizzard scurried away as the earth shook, and the light fell closer and closer. For a moment, there was a calm silence, and then everything started shaking.

Rei and Aeso jumped to their feet as the cave began to collapse in on itself. Its stone walls fractured and cracked, and roars came from deeper within the cavern.

“Get out!” Aeso shouted, barely audible over the roars.

Rei tried to move forward but found that part of her dress had indeed been frozen to the ground. When the realization fell upon her, she instantly gave in to despair, fearing Aeso’s smug laughter greater than death.

Before Rei could resign to her fate, Aeso lit his right eye on fire and launched himself outwards at an incredible speed. Rei felt a short tug at her waist before her vision blurred and the wind was knocked out of her; the ice that had formed on her skin and clothing melted away.

The gods watched Rei and Aeso tumble out of the cave together from the Heavens. They slapped each other on the backs, smiled admirably at their creations, then disappeared into sparks of what they used to be.

And the sky… it showered gold.

Rei coughed violently, feeling the dust of the collapse entering her lungs. Behind her, a boulder caved in, blowing the bowl of dust away. Rei winced and tucked her head in to brace herself. Nothing came, and she relaxed, finally opening her eyes.

Her mouth gaped open at the sight of the sky that enveloped her. The night was silent and cool, and the wind swept by with a childlike gentleness.

“The stars are falling…” she breathed. Its light shimmered across her eyes.

In the center of the clear sky, framed by the blackness of the pure night and the falling of gold, tumbled a fiery streak of sapphire—a waterfall made of crystal light.

“Should we go and see what it is?”

Rei turned to find Aeso standing beside her, admiring the sight with blue and gold light splashed across his body. Rei stood and dusted herself off.

“Let’s do it,” she beamed.

Rei and Aeso then set off towards the sapphire light, expecting to arrive there soon after its collision with the earth.

“Oh, and Aeso?” Rei began, picking her next leg up from knee-deep snow. “Can we not talk about what just happened in the cave?”

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “You saved my life, and I saved yours, so it’s even now.”

“I’m glad.” Rei snickered. So he doesn’t know, thank goodness.

“But also, I told you so.”

Rei froze.

“Y-You… told me so?”

“Yeah, remember when I said that I’d have to rip—”

“Enough!” Rei burst, trudging through the snow with a greater ferocity. “I get it, just shut up!”

Aeso laughed, noticing how Rei’s shoulders pressed against her in embarrassment from behind.

“What is this?” he asked himself. The dull knocking in his head grew louder with each beat. The clambering at his door, the cries of the poor, the dying, the starving. It’s almost as if… strands of long silver hair blew with the wind against a white sky… I want to protect her.

“The city is starving.”

Aeso widened his eyes. He was back in his throne room, the weight of his gold crown still bearing down on him.

“And?” he replied, a tired uncaring look on his face. I’m sorry, Ariane.

Aeso watched the beautiful, young, frail girl tense up. Her silver hair shook with frustration and her fists clenched.

“I found our food store room,” she began, her voice quiet and hoarse. Her bare toes curled in on the cold stone floor. “And we have enough for everyone…”

“Are you saying that my estimates were incorrect?” What am I saying? “I am the Prince of Aarhus, the chosen demigod of Volhynia, Aeso Mstislav… you have no right to suppose you know better than me.” Why am I like this? “Don’t leave your room again until the blizzard passes!”

“But that won’t be for another month, and you know i—”

“GO!”

Ariane caught her face in her hands and sobbed before rushing away. The patter of her soft feet lightly echoed around the castle.

Aeso realized he had stood up in his reprimanding of Ariane, and fell back down to his throne with a sigh.

I’m sorry, Ariane, but I can’t bring myself to care about my people when the only person I can care about is you. I know it’s selfish, but they can all go to hell… it’s probably warmer there anyway.

If it’s just us, then we can be happy. I’m certain that I was given this divinity for no reason other than to protect you, and if I have to become a demon in order to fulfill that destiny, then so be it.

I’ll tell you eventually. I’ll apologize for being so cruel. I’ll thank you for saving me that one day. But I can’t say it now, because if I do… I’m sure you’d hate me even more for the demon I’ve chosen to become.

Aeso pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. One more month.

The next week arrived with the harshest storm in the history of Volhynia. The winds raged against the city, and the snow was determined to bury it.

Aeso sat in bed, his blankets curled around him, and prayed. He wrapped his aura around the castle like a blanket, not willing to extend it over the city. Maybe, he thought, I could save a few people. Maybe a dozen, if they’re lucky. But the city was large, and the further he extended his shield, the more certain it was that it would break—the more certain that the castle would fall, and Ariane with it.

The storm ended on the fifth day.

Aeso and Ariane had both agreed to only eat once every five days to ration their food, and now that the storm was over, he was certain that they were both tired and hungry. As such, he made his way towards the food store room across the castle.

The castle’s hallways were ornate, a relic of a time in which Volhynia boasted supreme wealth. Now, the massive tapestries that were draped across the walls were nothing more than expensive insulators.

Aeso reached for his keys as the door to the storeroom came into sight. The metal was cold to the touch and clinked against each other as he reached the door and inserted the key.

Click.

Aeso frowned as the key turned smoothly in the lock. Usually, ice ended up freezing into the locks, and it’d take some effort to break it open. The doors pushed open just as smoothly, lacking the characteristic crackling of ice, having frozen onto its metal hinges.

Many stacks of grain piled high in the room, but it became immediately apparent… more than half of it had somehow disappeared over the week.

“Stolen?” Aeso narrowed his eyes. The only ones that had access to the castle were himself, and...

And...

Aeso’s heart dropped and he twisted back around. His boots clattered desperately against the stone as he raced back. It’s a lie, he convinced himself. It has to be. Tell me you’re lying, Ariane...

“You’re lying!” Ariane shouted at him, rising to her feet. A cool gust of wind blew across the grassy plain, and Aeso stared at her in shock. He’d never heard her yell before. She was two years his junior, making her fifteen at the time, but Aeso often felt she was wiser than anyone he knew.

“W-What do you mean?” he stuttered in reply.

“They say you’re our last hope, Ae,” she sighed. “My father said that when Winter comes this year, the gods won’t be able to help us. It’s been fifty years, and they’ve lost.”

“Then we’ll all die,” Aeso mumbled, hugging his knees closer to his chest. Before he could react, Ariane tackled him and pinned him to the ground. Blades of grass scraped against his cheek as she pressed her arm into his face.

“You’re lying!” she shouted again, somehow managing to keep his flailing body pinned. “Because if you’re not, I’ll never forgive you!”

“Get off of me!” he screamed, struggling to escape from this scrawny girl’s grip.

“I care about these people, Ae!”

“I said get off of me!”

“If you’re the only one who can do it, then you have to do it!”

Aeso sensed Ariane’s strength weakening, and he shoved her off himself. He panted heavily as he stared at the sky, and realized that it was probably the last time it’d be so blue. Ariane was sniffling beside him, and he turned to realize that she was crying.

“Don’t cry,” he begged, sitting up. “I’m sorry for being so rough.”

“Why don’t you want to do it?” she asked, turning her head to him. Her cheeks were tear-streaked.

Aeso paused and started to idly pick at the grass.

“There’s no feeling worse than giving something your all, and failing anyways,” he explained. “More so if people are relying on you. More so if you become the hope that everyone else will lose. How could anyone recover from that?”

“There is a worse feeling,” Ariane cried. “Having everyone you care about die is worse. Having done nothing to save them is worse.”

“But…”

Ariane wrapped her arms around him and held him close before he could continue.

“Hope is hope, Ae. You’ve always been mine, so please… at least try.” She leaned back to look him in the eyes, and smiled. “And if you fail, you can always come back to me and cry, ‘I tried my best, Ariane.’”

Aeso slammed the doors to Ariane’s room open.

It was luxuriously decorated, with furnishings once imported from cultural centers across the globe. It was filled to the brim with the most expensive of the world’s creations, and yet...

She’s… not here.

Aeso’s lungs heaved in and out as he looked side to side.

She’s not here.

A cold breeze wafted into the room from the window, and already it was clear what had happened. The drapes fluttered open with the next gust, and the view of the town unravelled.

There was not a single house left intact in the city, and their remains stuck out of the ground like wooden stakes. Parts of bodies stuck out of the snow; frozen corpses blanketed the city.

Aeso pitched himself outside from the window and stumbled on a pile of limbs below. Apparently, many of the townspeople had begged to be let inside in their last moments. Aeso had prepared for a sight like this since the first storm hit; Aarhus had always struggled in the Winter before even that fateful Solstice, so he’d been certain that his job was impossible from the start.

It didn’t make it easier.

He walked forward, climbing onto the main street. The view looked the same as far as the eye could see, for the Winter truly spared no one. The few families that had survived the collapsing of their houses tucked their youngest deep in their embraces, yet death took them all the same.

It took Aeso hours of trudging through snow and carnage to finally reach the end of the road. There were no bodies at this point; no one even considered trying to leave the city. But, just beyond the edge of the border, there sat a single girl on her knees, her hands put together in prayer, and her hair as white as the snow that surrounded her.

Aeso walked just past her to turn and face her. He fell to his knees and struggled to look her in the face.

“Hey, Ariane…” His hands shook on his lap as he finally looked up. Her body had been completely frozen, coated in an impenetrable layer of clear ice. He clenched his jaw and shuddered, taking her hands in his own. Her eyes were closed, and her face was eternally set in a desperate hope. It begged the world to forgive humanity. “I should’ve known…” he began, “...that you were too kind of a girl to let me…”

The wind blew past them, and Aeso smiled, his eyes tired.

“I probably should’ve told you this a lot sooner, but…” sobs took control of his chest, and tears fell onto his lap. “I love you.”