Alek held his hands out in front of him and began to form an intricate pattern with his fingers. Draz did the same, the two falling into perfect sync with one another. Their movements, both big and small, were elegant and precise. Claire stood in silent awe as their hands began to glow a pale violet hue which lit the darkness around them. Intricate geometric patterns were being left behind in the air with each sweep and twist of their fingers.

The shapes shimmered, the vivid colors fluctuating from their original purple into sapphire, and from sapphire to a bright crimson. They began to spin slowly in place before rotating outwards. The light began to pulsate as the shapes spun faster and faster. At the same time they also started to grow, expanding and curving until the edges of each isolated pattern touched and then merged, encasing the trio in a glowing geometric ball of light. Claire was tempted to reach out and touch them, mostly to see if they were really there, but she remembered what Alek had told her.

"Ready?" Alek asked. Then, as if reading her mind he added, "remember, Claire, whatever you do, stay very still."

Claire nodded.

"Volant," Alek and Draz said in unison. Their arms swept out to either side and the ball expanded outwards in response to the motion. Everything went eerily silent, though only briefly, before the glowing walls of the orb came speeding inward with a thunderous clap. A blinding flash of red-violet light caused Claire to instinctively close her eyes. A rush of warm air flowed up around her and she suddenly felt weightless.

"Claire," Draz said quietly. "Open your eyes."

Claire reluctantly did as Draz instructed, her gaze dropping to her feet. Instead of the metal grating of the platform, she could see the ground which now rested at least a hundred feet below them. The train car continued speeding along the tracks, not caring that it no longer bore any passengers. In the distance she could see the rest of the train barreling along, and further still she could see the blocked mountain pass towards which the train was heading. Something else caught her attention, something that made her stomach twist in uneasy knots. Streams of darkness poured out from both sides of the train. To Claire it looked like dozens of black snakes slithering through the snow, but she knew the black smudges weren't snakes.

"What is that?" she asked even though she was certain she already knew the answer.

Alek looked back. "Shades," he said, confirming what Claire had assumed.

"Where are they going?"

"Back to their master I presume," Alek offered with a shrug. "Whatever the case, they will trouble us no more, at least, not tonight. Shall we return to the relative safety of the ground? I want to take a look at your leg and we need to get a fire started to warm you up."

Claire did not find much comfort in that response, but she supposed it was the best she was going to get. Instead of asking more questions, for she had quite a few, she simply nodded. The mention of her leg reminded her of the pain which seemed to be stealing over her entire body at this point. Perhaps it was exhaustion, but she wasn't feeling particularly well either.

"Cadere," Alek stated, slicing his hand from left to right and then up in one fluid motion. The shimmering ball of faded light began to descend slowly towards the ground. It faded completely the moment their toes touched down and the weightlessness Claire had experienced faded as well. She crumpled towards the ground, Alek catching her before she could hurt herself.

"S-sorry," she stammered, the cold once again encircling them. "I don't know what happened, my legs just gave out."

"It's alright," Alek said as he crouched down. He shifted his position so that he could hook one arm under her knees and keep one arm looped around her shoulders. Draz started to speak, but Alek shot an icy glare in his direction. Draz scowled and looked away. Claire let out a startled shout when Alek lifted her up into his arms and pulled her tightly against his chest.

"Alek, you don't have to-"

"Don't argue with me," he interrupted.

"Claire's right, you don't have to carry her," Draz insisted. "I can do it just fine." Alek ignored him and started walking away from the train tracks. "We don't have to go far, but we do need to put some distance between us and those tracks."

Claire was on the verge of arguing again, but in the end she relented. There were benefits to her current predicament, even if she did feel useless. For one, Alek was warm which was a boon. Secondly, her leg had begun to throb again and the thought of walking on it made her sick to her stomach. So she stopped fighting let her head fall to rest against his shoulder. As she relaxed, she felt his arms tighten around her.

"Alek?"

"Hm?" He sounded distracted, or perhaps just tired. Claire wouldn't have been surprised if it was the latter. After all they'd been through, she was ready to crawl into a warm bed and sleep for days, she could only imagine how he felt. What sort of toll did those magic tricks take on him?

Despite the very real pain, Claire still felt like she was caught up in some fantastic dream. Every time something strange happened, she resisted the urge to pinch herself. If this was a dream, she wasn't sure she was ready to wake up yet. She suspected that it would all catch up with her eventually, that she was currently living in a weird state of functional shock, but until then she would see where this dream-not-dream took her. She had stepped into the unknown when she had stepped onto the train and she was determined to see it through.

"It wasn't your fault," she said, her voice soft and muffled against his shoulder.

He was quiet.

Claire sighed. "Fine," she said at last. "You are allowed to beat yourself up until we're far enough away that you can set up a camp. After that you have to forgive yourself. If you dont... I won't ever speak to you again."

"You promise?" Alek retorted with a soft chuckle.

"Not funny," Claire shot back. Despite her words, she couldn't help but smile.

"Very well," Alek said with a heavy sigh. "I will do as you ask, but only because if you do keep your word, I will have no one to speak to but him." His gaze slanted towards Draz briefly. "I find the thought of carrying on any manner of conversation with that nitwit to be quite distasteful."

"The feeling is mutual," Draz grunted without looking their way.

They walked on for several more minutes in silence. Snow drifted down around them and Claire was reminded of her childhood and the old farmhouse where she lived with her grandparents. Every winter the pond behind the house would freeze solid and she would spend hours out on the ice with a pair of old skates her grandfather purchased for her at a pawn shop in town.

Some nights, after they'd eaten and the dinner dishes had been washed and dried, her grandfather would skate with her. They were the sort of memories a person could hold onto for a lifetime, the sort of memories even time itself could not erase.

"Alright, this should be good," Alek stated, interrupting her thoughts. "Draz, can you get a fire going. I will get a shelter started."

Draz grunted but shuffled off to do as he was asked without further complaint.

"Do you think you can stand on your own?" Alek asked. Claire nodded. As long as she didn't put too much weight on her injured leg she'd be fine.

"Yeah, for a bit," she replied. Alek set her down and waited to make sure she'd stay upright before releasing her. Claire offered him a reassuring smile and hugged her arms around her to ward off some of the chill.

She watched as Alek marked out the perimeter of their future camp. Every few steps he'd stop and make a gesture with his hands before moving on a few steps and repeating the process. After about a minute he had come full circle.

"That should do it," he said. Before Claire could ask what he had done, Alek extended his hand and made a sweeping circular motion in the air before him. The response was subtle at first, but each point where Alek had stopped was beginning to glow. Claire watched with wide eyes as a tendril of blue-green light sprung upward like the stem of a flower in spring. It climbed higher, snaking and twisting towards the sky before it began to arch overhead.

Eventually all the tendrils, about ten in total, met at the middle and erupted in a shower of light particles that rained down around them. Wherever the particles landed, the snow began to melt. Soon the entire circle Alek had walked off was devoid of snow and replaced instead by soft, green grass. Claire had questions, who wouldn't have questions, but after all she had seen and all she had experienced, green grass in the middle of winter was not an anomaly she was going to worry herself with.

"Show off," Draz muttered. Claire turned to see he had gotten a fire going, though she saw no visible source of fuel such as wood. The growing ball of flames hovered about six inches off the ground and a soft orange glow stretched out several feet in all directions.

"Envy is extremely unbecoming," Alek replied with a smirk. He shifted his attention towards Claire and smiled. "Let's get you warmed up and take a look at your leg."

Claire slowly lowered herself to the ground. She was surprised to find the grass was dry and warm beneath her. Once she was settled, Alek sat down beside her with his legs crossed.

"This may hurt," he cautioned as he reached for her leg. Draz who had been tending to the fire, stopped what he was doing to watch them. Claire nodded and resisted a grimace when Alek reached out and took hold of her ankle. He drew it towards him and began to peel off the layers of denim Draz had used as bandages.

"You did this?" Alek asked without looking towards Draz.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"You did good," Alek continued. The praise caught Draz by surprise and for a moment he could only stare. "They scratches are shallow and as long as we can keep them from getting infected you should be able to keep the leg."

It was Claire's turn to stare. "Should be able to?"

Alek lifted his head to look at her and Claire saw he was smiling.

"Now he makes jokes," she replied with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head.

"Can you hand me the coat you're wearing please?" Alek requested. Claire offered him a puzzled look but did as he asked. He slipped it inside out and began to tear out strips of the lining. Once he had a few pieces he handed it back to her.

He began to wrap the torn strips of fabric tightly around her calf. "This really needs to be thoroughly cleaned, but this is the best I can do for now," Alek explained after examining his handiwork. "It should last until we can get to a proper town."

"When will that be?"

"Well, the next train won't be by until tomorrow," Alek said thoughtfully. "I'll have to determine just how far we are from our destination. You see that glow?"

Alek pointed towards the horizon. Claire had to squint but she could make out a faint pinkish glow against the horizon.

"Yeah," she said.

"That is Avala, where the train was heading," Alek explained. "It's not a walk I'd like to make without proper supplies let alone in our current state."

"What are we going to do?"

"That is a good question," Alek said. "I am still working those details out."

"I have a question," Draz interjected. For the past several minutes he had been quietly picking at blades of grass and flicking them into his fire. "What were shades doing on the train?"

"How would I know that?" Alek asked.

"Wouldn't you though?" Draz shot back. "Claire doesn't know much about this place, but I do. Shades don't regularly ride the train, Alek."

Alek was quiet for a moment. "I don't-"

"You can lie to me, I don't care," Draz snapped angrily. "I'm used to it. But Claire? She deserves to know why her leg is mangled and why she almost died back there."

"Draz..." Claire said softly, trying to interrupt his tirade. He ignored her.

"Don't you think you owe her that much? Are you really so wrapped up in your own self worth that you can't see the effect you have on the people around you?"

"You're going to lecture me?" Alek scoffed. "You're a degenerate, a thief, you make a living conning others out of theirs! I didn't ask Claire to follow me, in fact, I expressly told her several times to just go home."

"Guys," Claire said, her gaze fixing on shadowed figures approaching from the direction they had been heading in.

"A degenerate? At least I am not bending the knee to a tyrant king just to keep clothes on my back and my status intact! How does it feel being little lap dog, nipping at the heels of your betters and hoping for a few scraps?"

"Hey you guys," Claire tried again, a little louder this time.

Once more they ignored her, to caught up in their argument to notice.

"GUYS!"

"What?" they both snapped in unison.

"I think we have company..." Claire replied.

There were five newcomers in total, all of them wearing shaggy coats with large hoods lined in fur. Attached to the bottom of their boots were what looked to Claire like giant, handless tennis rackets. It took her a moment, but she soon realized they were wearing snow shoes.

It was what they held in their hands that caught and kept Claire's attention. They each carried what appeared to Claire to be a long spear -- the sharp, pointed tip gleaming like liquid silver in the moonlight. Their faces were shroud in shadow, and their eyes seemed to glow in the firelight as the two groups regarded one another in awkward silence.

Finally the smaller of the gathered strangers peeled away from the group and stepped forward.

"My name is Tanaraq," a female voice announced before her hands lifted to push back the heavy hood. Claire was surprised at how young the woman looked. If she had to guess, Claire would have put her around sixteen. The light from the fire played across the young woman's tanned features and glinted in her golden eyes. "And you are trespassing on Issumatar land."

"Trespassing?" Alek replied with shake of his head. "No, no, you've gotten it all wrong-" he took a step closer but stopped when he suddenly found five spears aimed in his direction.

"What my friend here is trying to say," Draz interjected. "Is that we didn't know we were trespassing. We were passengers aboard the train."

"There is no train stop here," the girl replied, lowering her spear slightly but not completely.

"No, there isn't," Draz agreed. "It was an unscheduled disembarkment."

Tanaraq turned towards her companions. She began to speak in hushed tones in a language Claire did not recognize. The girl kept motioning towards them, but with no insight into what they were saying it was impossible to tell if they were discussing the whether to kill them or take them back in order to cook them for dinner later.

"Who are they?" Claire whispered.

"If I had to guess, they're the Enuk, native to these lands," Alek replied quietly. After a few moments, Tanaraq turned back to them.

"You all will come with us. You will need to speak with grandmother," she declared, her dark eyes sweeping the group before returning to settle on Alek once more.

"Is that really necessary? We'll be on our way come morning, there really isn't any-" Alek began. Once again the spears cut off his protests. "Of course, seeing grandmother sounds nice too..."