~Hope

The blizzard soon gives way to an impossible calm, the biting wind disappearing to an unusual warmth. Fate pulls me along as we tread in the messed snow that Missy has left in her wake, while I try not to spill the cup of tea in my other hand.

I’m not too sure it’ll be any good now that its been salted with a good layer of snow, but I just can’t bear the thought of throwing it away either. The rich thought of wasting food and water is something of a past life.

The tavern glows in the dark night, the energetic noise of life flooding this small void in the storm. A spot of warmth in the heart of the snowstorm.

Two figures stand in before the doors of the tavern. Missy, who shivers while brushing the snow from her hair and shoulders, and a lithe young woman who doesn’t seem quite human, who stands nervously while trying to find some words.

“Hello.” The spirit says nervously, “Are you alright? You’re shaking.”

“I’m... alright.” Missy says, as Fate pauses her approach leaving us in the role of audience. “It’s just... it’s the end of the world.”

The spirit chuckles, her crystalline laughter like thin ice shattering on the top of a lake.

“I know.” She says. “Should we go inside? Would it be okay, I mean with what I am...”

“It’s fine, let’s go.” Missy nods quickly, opening the door. “It’s cold out here.”

“Oh, thank you.” The spirit says, crossing the threshold into the tavern. She seems as sweet as she sounded last night, but there’s now two bodies frozen by her aura and she’s walking into a full tavern.

The body count is guaranteed to be nasty, the town will be lucky if they can find enough hands to dig the graves to see them buried before the bodies start defrosting.

I should turn away and leave, I’ve got no business dying here… but Fate hauls me along, and I can’t find it in me to pull away from her warm touch.

The room inside is pleasantly warm, strangely enough the aura I was expecting is completely absent, though my skin does prickle a little. It must just be the effects of coming inside from a blizzard.

I turn my eyes to the crystalline girl ahead of us.

~Fate

The room is chillingly cold. There’s no breeze but I feel cut to the bone by the freezing aura around the spirit.

Said spirit nervously looks about the room, and if her cheeks weren’t clear as crystal, I’m sure I’d see a blush. The room is dead silent as they take her in, her vaguely feminine form retaining none of an animals sexual characteristics, while she carries herself with a grace impossible for us beasts.

“Um… hello.” She says hesitantly looking about the room. I have to wonder if her gaze can freeze a man solid, because not a single person finds themselves able to reply.

“Uh… um…” The spirit mumbles, growing more panicked the longer the silence lasts, until finally Freddy launches up from his chair and stumbles over to her.

“You came!” He shouts in excitement, stopping short of her only because she stumbles away in a panic.

“Oh no, uh you can’t touch me!” She shouts. “It would freeze you to death. I don’t want that.”

“Oh?” the old man says, with a great big smile. “Then do you want something to eat or drink? We have ale by the barrel and food warming in the fire.”

“Please!” The spirit shouts eagerly, stepping a little closer as she gazes at the fireplace. “Food and drink. I was told about them, you need them to survive don’t you? You put it in your mouth and it’s incredibly fun, right?”

She explodes with questions, eagerly throwing herself at the crowd that is more than happy to answer her questions. There’s a beautiful shimmer to her, as the flickering fire reflects off the layer of water covering her.

“It’s not so cold.” Hope says, settling in at a table by the side of the door and staring into the tea cup in her hand. She picks out the snow that fell into it before drinking all that remains and refilling it from a teapot sitting at the table. “I guess maybe she didn’t kill them after all.”

“It’s not cold?” I ask, shaking my head at her strange antics. “You were shivering in bed this morning, finding any excuse to stay under the blankets, and now you’re telling me that this isn’t cold?”

“Yeah.” She looks a little confused, but quickly shakes it off.

“Missy, what are you doing here?” An older lady asks, as the younger woman slinks back towards us to escape the cold, interrupting us. “Only those with a finished list were invited tonight. There’s still too much imperfection in this world for you to explore before you get worked up trying to see the end early.”

“I just… it’s nothing. It was a mistake.” She mutters, laying her head on her arms as she flops onto the table beside Hope.

“It’s a good thing that this spirit is such a nice young girl.” The older lady says, “You could learn a thing or two from her.”

“Yes, Grammy.” Missy says, not lifting her head up. The older lady runs a hand over her head before leaving her with us.

“Want to meet the spirit?” I ask Hope, but she just shrugs, looking a bit tired as she sips at her hot tea. It is late at night, I suppose, but how is she not excited about this?

“I want to go talk with her; I’ll be back in a moment,” I say. She grunts a half-hearted reply as she settles in.

“The mountains are pleasant and quiet.” The spirit says, sitting by the fireside, gnawing on a frozen cut of jerky, while holding in the other hand a frozen mug of beer. “It’s just that it’s all I’ve ever known, and I wanted to get out and see the world. I came here because I want to know how you humans live.”

“Mostly by eating, drinking, shitting, and pissing.” Freddy says, and Missy’s ‘Grammy’ smacks him up the backside of his head.

“Oh, can I try doing those things too?” The spirit eagerly latches onto the words.

“No need, they’re the less interesting parts of being human.” Grammy says, clearing a little room. “You should try dancing and singing instead, it’s the one pleasure us poor village folk can lord over the rich bastards in the cities. They have their large halls and pretty dresses, but they’re so stuck up that they can’t dance.”

She kicks aside a table and stomps heavily in a quick beat forming a strange new music from the sound of her pounding feet.

“Gagger, your old fingers still able to work that flute of yours?”

“I’m not dead yet, Remy!” The man replies, excitedly pulling out the instrument. “What song are you wanting to hear?”

“Something cheerful and energetic. I want to dance like I’m twenty again!” She says, huffing and puffing as she starts to spin around. “That tea is some good blend, it takes the ache right out of the bones!”

“Ha, well best enjoy it while it lasts.” Freddy says, lifting a hand towards Grammy and getting his gangly old legs moving. They move with an energy that I’ve not often seen from anyone their age, somehow stealing the spotlight from the mythical spirit sitting among them.

“This is dancing?” She asks, standing and imitating the movements, as an older lady teaches her a foot dance that flows well with the music.

The clacking and thumping of feet, make for quite the loud ruckus, and it’s not long before a few of them start singing. It’s not like a proper singer from the city, not only are they not trained, it’s like they’re intentionally belting out the words without care for the tune they should be singing to.

Yet, with the madness of the moment, and the levity of the music, it fits better than any song you could pay for.

I join in on the fun, it’s been a while since I could lose myself to the movements.

~Hope

She moves like a strung doll jerking about at every twitch of the amateur puppeteer guiding her. It’s the sort of thing that might inspire laughter from a young child as they try to imitate her.

By the bright fireside, there is music, dance, games of dice and cards, good food and drink, but the light forms shadows in the places that people don’t want to see.

The spirit leaves a small puddle behind with every step, the water running off her in weak streams. There’s a reason that she hasn’t ventured so far down from her mountain before, she never had the courage to face the consequences.

A spirit of the mountains is mean to stay in the mountains.

She’s dying.

She’s letting herself die, but with a smile on her face as she dances to her first song, drinks her first beer, eats her first meal, and gambles away her first coin.

Meanwhile, Freddy, Grammy, and all the rest dance, sing, and move with a vigour that should be impossible. Their smiles aren’t twisted by ignored pains, they’re truly without trouble, but their movements are tired and growing more so.

I feel my own eyelids dragging down, but I fight it to watch on.

As they dance, drink, and gamble the shadows dance after them, all but one.

Fate.

Defying her namesake, she holds onto life with her every desperate breath. She dances not in remembrance for what was once good, not for the last time, but simply once more. Her feet are light on the ground, where others are heavy, and her voice is cheerful where the others carry a certain airiness that comes from disguised sorrow.

She is the only one in the room to stand up in the defiance of The Lovers. Defying perfection itself.

“This is the end.” Missy says beside me watching the same scene as I. “Spring is supposed to be a time for new life, but instead…”

As I watch, a few of the older members sit down to rest by the fire. Some gulping their beer, others sipping tea. It makes me tempted for another warm cup myself, it’s a struggle to find the strength to fight against the weariness holding me down, but the warm tea is a luxury I’ve long been without.

“The last spring isn’t meant to be like the others.” I say, mumbling a little as my tongue refuses to work quite as it should. I move it around my mouth but it just doesn’t quite feel right.

“I want a normal life.” Missy says, on the brink of tears. “I just want a normal life, but instead… instead we have the privilege of seeing the gods come together, ending our dreams. I just want this to keep going. I want… I want… I want to see my… my…”

She breaks down, her words failing her. Jake runs into the room and fusses over her.

I guess there’s one more here who can’t accept deaths cold touch.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand them, but the spirit and the old codgers of this town, I get them. I’m jealous of them. The singing and the dancing is a little much, but I still want a seat by the fireside with them.

To take whatever herb or drug they’ve used to take away the pain, to let themselves comfortably slide out of this life.

Numbly, I reach down for the bag. My burden. My responsibility. My…

I hug it tight, it digs into me, it hurts, but I don’t care. I close my eyes, and let myself drift away to a perfect world.

~Fate

I dance, I sing, and I toss cursed dice to lose more coins. The spirit energetically follows alongside me as one by one the older villagers fall away from us. Many have lost their breath or grown tired, napping in their chairs or sipping at their tea as they drift off.

Finally, when the music stops, I sit down with the spirit who seems a little sad that it’s all over.

“What did you get up to on the mountain?” I ask her, “You don’t dance, or eat, or drink. There aren’t many people who can go up to the mountains and visit you.”

“Yeah, but it’s fine.” She says, lowering her head as she taps away at her drink that’s still not melted. Her aura is still deeply chilling, and the exercise wasn’t really enough to take the edge off of it. I’ll have to take a distance soon just to defrost a little bit.

“It’s comfortable, and normally I’d be happy to just continue existing as I was, but… the world is ending. I wanted to know what it’s like to be human. The other creatures are interesting in their own ways, but humans do so many interesting things. I wanted to try living it, just for a little bit.”

She taps her bread against the table, and the outer layer shatters. She nibbles on some of the fragments, but the watery mix drips from her mouth.

“Was it fun?” I ask, looking around for something to drink, my mouth is a little dry.

“It was fun.” The spirit says cheerfully, looking over towards the fireplace. “I like talking with people. Dancing would be more fun, if I could take some time to learn it, and singing is interesting.

“Most of all, I think I like fire. It’s pretty, like snowflakes but it moves about, no, it dances. I don’t get to see fire on the mountains.”

She wonders closer to the flames, the light of it shining off of her surface as she trails water after her.

“Can you spare a cup?” I ask Grammy, one of the few townsfolk still awake. The tea pot on the table isn’t steaming, but I don’t mind cold tea all that much. She’s a little sleepy and doesn’t seem to notice as I pour myself a cup and take a sip.

It’s the same stuff that Hope was drinking earlier, and while it’s a little more powerful than what we had back at the inn, it really is surprisingly nice. I’d usually want some sugar in my tea, but this is just right without anything extra.

“No, none of this for you young woman.” Granny says, pulling the cup away from me while fighting off her heavy eyelids.

“What, why?”

“This is a special blend our herbalist made for us before he went on to the lovers. A weak mix gets you a good night sleep, a medium blend will take a little of the aching away, but a heavy blend… a heavy blend is just perfect.” She says.

“Wait, you mean…?”

“The aches are getting worse and I don’t need Missy or anyone else taking care of me when I can’t get out of my chair. Let the kids have the fun, and make their mistakes.”

“The tea?” I ask. “The tea is poison?”

“Only if you drink too much of a heavy blend.” She says, “Are you okay?”

“Hope!” I shout, racing to her side. “Hope, are you okay? How much did you drink?”

She doesn’t respond, numbly falling aside as I shake her. The bag in her arms slips off of her lap and hits the ground, rattling as it opens up.

“Hope! Hope!” I shout, but she doesn’t respond to my shaking at all.

I nearly trip over her bag as I pull her up on the table, trying to figure out what to do with her. Something rolls out of her bag, and I wouldn’t pay it any attention, but it’s so important to her, so my eyes turn to look at the open bag.

A pair of empty eye sockets stare back at me, the small, child-sized skull looks at me for only a moment before it rocks back towards Hope.