For once Fiera felt that she didn't have enough layers on her. Even when she had been far up north, she had had the sense to deck herself in layers of reindeer skin. She had pulled on all three of her Institute-mandated shirts and two pants, coupled with the standard black cloak, she did feel that wearing gloves would be an overkill, something she regretted once her feet stepped into the fresh crunch of snow.

It had snowed a little since she had stepped into the Institute, timing it perfectly to the First Snow.

"What do you have to get?" Fiera asked casting a long glance at Kai. He seemed to be at home, wearing a thin black shirt that was in stark contrast to his pale ice-webbed skin.

"Oh, I have nothing in specific to get." he said, "I think you do, though."

"Yeah, I need some clothes. That should be about it." Fiera said, "Although I was told I could borrow Aaron's or Zare's. I figured that won't last long term."

"What about your friend?" Kai asked, he pointed in a direction and they began walking. It was a quiet evening, although the clouds looked ready to pour again or maybe snow. She didn't get an umbrella because Kai had assured her that he 'was the guy built to stop rain' and was beginning to feel rather sceptical about it all, honestly.

"You mean Rose?" Fiera said, "Yes, she was unconscious when I tried asking her if she needed anything, and I am not sure she would like it if I got something of my own whim & fancy. I'll wait till she is conscious again."

"I have been meaning to ask," Kai said, "Who is she, exactly? She never gave her last name."

Ah, that's how it worked here, Fiera thought, last names were important.

"It is complicated," Fiera said, "Rose would rather not associate herself with her family anymore. I respect that."

"Is that it?" Kai frowned. "I didn't know it was possible to simply show up one day without your last name and have nothing to do with your family."

It felt like he was about to say something more, but he chose to pause there because they had stopped right in front of a thrift shop.

It was a small cabin, built to the side of the road, very close to the Institute. The walls and the slanting roof were wet with the rain and snow was starting to gather. The shop was owned by a very normal man, who professed great interest in seals, judging by the multiple photographs and posters of seals he had put up behind his desk, and the innumerable seal memorabilia on his desk. She was able to snag a shirt, a pair of sturdier boots than the ones she had on and a jacket although it didn't seem to be in as great a condition as the very normal man seemed to believe. While she went to pay for her stuff, Kai waited at the door, his eyes fixed at some distance.

"What are you looking at?" she asked letting him carry the box with her boots. The streets were strangely empty, something Kai assured her was normal in the area.

"Nothing really. May I ask you something?"

"Yeah, although whether or not I answer is up to me."

"What do you think of my mother - since you've you know, met her." His lips didn't exactly tremble, but Fiera could sense an apprehensiveness in that question. It came from a place that was afraid of the answer but had the guts to ask the question.

"I met her in the North. I think she was studying ice-sprites. You can find them only on those Northern slopes in this country." She said.

"When was this?"

"About two years ago. I was just fourteen. It was on one of my annual visits to my caretaker."

"I haven't seen her," Kai said, he looked up briefly at the sky as if to calculate the years, "I haven't seen her properly since I was four, except very briefly on random occasions. And the last I saw of her was three years ago."

That's a long time, Fiera thought.

She didn't know what to feel about parents who were very comfortable abandoning their kids, especially since or perhaps because of the fact that Fiera had lost her parents very young, that she felt that the relationship between parents and children was often being taken for granted.

"Tell me," he said.

"She had made some breakthrough research," Fiera said trying to recollect her interaction with Neer Laiken, "She was very excited to tell me about it, although I am afraid I -"

She fell back with a thud, feeling a piercing pain shoot up her arm. Her ears rang as she drowned out Kai's surprised scream. She felt the bags in her hand hit the ground first before the cold icy ground was shoved to her back.

Son of a-

"Fiera!" Kai shouted.

"Stop screaming my name -" Fiera retorted, staring at the grey expanse of the sky, and sensed Kai go silent beside her.

"What the fuck is happening -" Kai grunted. He began tying up her arm, and he had used his Ice, to freeze her arm in place, and that's when she noticed it, the long tail of a black arrow sticking out her forearm. In a few seconds, she lost the feeling of anything in her arm.

"Help me up please -" she said, and Kai pushed a hand under her neck, propping her up. There was no one who spotted them or rushed to help them because the streets were empty.

"Can you walk? It's just a little way up to the Institute -"

"Yeah," Fiera said, standing up using Kai's body as support. He gathered her bags in one hand, and with an arm around her shoulder carefully led her a step forward, "Yeah, I'll be fine." She let his hand go, feeling a numbing pain ache her arm. His freezing her arm was what kept her from screaming in pain.

"Who were they -"

"Assassins, probably."

"Why are they after you -"

"I have something they want."

He said nothing.

She was kind of hoping he would ask her what it was, so she could curtly snub him, but he didn't.

And she had no idea why she wanted to be rude to him in the first place.

Must be the arrow.

The walk up to the Institute was strangely unpleasant.

Didn't these people ever patrol their lands?

Didn't they have anything to be afraid of?

"Ah," she remembered that she had been having a proper conversation in a long time before she had been interrupted so rudely, "Ah, yeah, your mom -"

"It's all right, you don't have to tell me everything right now," Kai said.

"Oh shush," she sighed, perhaps she should keep Kai around for every time he might get injured, "She's a brilliant woman, and she helped me in a very important matter."

"In what matter, if, you, uh, don't mind me asking?"

"She taught me how to bake," Fiera said.

Before he could ask whether or not she was joking, she opened the door.

Aaron would not be pleased with how her first walk in the city of Inima went.