Iveren was surprised to find a woman in the snow.
It shouldn't be snowing. It was the wrong season for it. Iveren knew the ice, though, and no one should be out in weather like this, not even a Tear-Eater. The snow fell like a mammoth, as heavy and unstoppable as one of the great giants thrown down. Despite being almost to Halta, the storm was giving the Freezing Fog healthy competition. Maybe the storm was following him. Or maybe it was following her.
No one should be out here...unless they wanted to die. Or they had no choice.
Iveren considered the slowly struggling shape ahead bitterly. He had come for the first reason. Given how hard the vaguely feminine snow-covered body dragged herself forward, she was here for the second.
He pushed through the curtain of wet white. It didn't take long to catch her. She crawled like a heart-shot Great One, too stubborn to die. Iveren shook the gathering snow off his hides and shielded his face with his forearm. Yes, definitely a woman.
She turned back to face him as Iveren came up behind her. A startlingly tanned face shone darkly in the washed out white of the world. A strange symbol burned on her forehead, throwing off a smoky purple color. He'd heard stories of the Great Enemy of the Tear-Eaters, the Sun-Touched himself, the Bull of the North. She didn't look anything like the stories.
"I'm here to help you," he said, shouting against the storm. The blizzard wasn't loud so much as it forbid sound. Iveren risked the anger of the Weather Gods by speaking against their wishes. She needed his help.
"I don't believe it," she croaked, barely audible beneath the thick snowflakes.
"If I wanted to hurt you, I'd just walk away," Iveren said harshly. He just wanted to die. The last thing he needed was to put off his longed for fate for an ungrateful woman.
"No, you don't understand." She moaned and fell backward in the snow. Iveren gawked as he saw her front. Beneath the snow hare fur-lining of her robes, her torso was painted a garish red from her blood. Her wounds were hideous and she'd lost so much blood, it was a miracle she still moving. "I don't believe this. I'm supposed to die."
"You will if I don't get you to shelter."
"I'm supposed to die!" As he drew close, he saw her eyes were wide with set-in shock, her beautiful brown orbs glazed from pain and the nearness of her demise. "The stars hold my Ending and it's on me. I don't have the strength to turn it aside."
"I do. If you want to die, do it after I've fixed you up. I'm not letting you do it right now." Iveren lifted her over his shoulder, doing his best to be gentle given he had to carry her where she was hurt. A Starmetal Powerbow fell from her hand. He gave it a hard look and at last picked it up. It was heavy, like all the weapons of the Exalted, but she might want it later.
He struggled now as he pushed through the snow, burdened by the woman and her weapon, along with his own travel gear. A mile to the south lay a thicker copse of trees, oen that would break up the fierce storm. He needed to build a shelter if she was going to live.
Some time later, Iveren reached the trees and found a natural hollow at the base of one. Carefully, he put his bloody burden down. The cold snapped at his skin when he took off his hides but she needed warmth and they were the best he could do for now. He tucked them tightly around the semi-conscious stranger and drew his knife. He laid into some branches and set to work.
Steam rose from his flushed skin by the time he was done. The makeshift A-frame would keep the cold off her. As snow fell, it would settle on the pack built over the shelter, adding to its insulation.
Iveren crawled into the enclosure and pulled the blocks of snow he'd cut to seal the way behind. There wasn't enough room to stand but he had the light from her brow and that was enough to examine her injuries. They were frightening. Claws had torn into her body. While she hadn't been disemboweled, whatever attacked her had ripped away flesh. There were pieces missing. It was easier to find savaged skin, in fact, than whole. If she were mortal, she'd already be dead. As it was, she didn't look like she'd live much longer.
He gritted his teeth and lifted his hands to her wounds. She was in pain, frozen to the bone, and insensible now. Whatever she was, she was in no condition to protest...or observe who he was and what he could do.
Iveren's brow cracked open and blood fell across his face as his Charm sank into her. Necrotic energy swam through her bloodstream, rising to extinguish her life. It wasn't supernatural death, only the kind that all men and women faced when wounded too far. With his Charms, he clenched his hand and demanded the death beneath her skin stop. She screamed as mangled ribs snapped back together, as torn flesh pulled painfully to knit back together. But she would live.
The stabbing ache in Iveren's breast told him that, somewhere, another corpse had just animated to menace the living. The unholy power in him could not abide a conscience like his. For every good work he did, another just as evil or worse happened. Such was the true power of the Void and it was irresistible. Unless the man it worked through fell to meet it instead. Perhaps if it just took him, the only corpse that would come back again might be his own. No more deaths because of him. No more suffering, just peace.
Iveren pulled off his underclothes and flinched when he slid under the hides. His Charm halted her death but she was badly frozen. The only way she would live to morning would be by his body heat. Reluctantly, he unbound her robes beneath the hides, clumsy at it for lack of sight. At last, they opened and her bare skin seared his skin with cold.
Hours pass and sleep claimed him. It was an unsteady rest, one that frightened him and left him feeling emptier than when he'd passed out. Iveren opened his eyes, looking past the nightmares of the Neverborn, and found the woman staring at him. Her eyes were the most marvelous shade of purple, like the color of the sun setting across the Inland Sea or the bold majesty of Saturn when She shone in the sky.
"Who are you?" she whispered. Her breath caught in her throat, rasping past in a voice tortured by harsh conditions. Iveren reached behind him and pulled out his water bottle, kept unfrozen by sharing the hides with them. He uncapped it for her and let her drink her fill. That might be dangerous to a mortal but she was plainly not that.
"My name is..." He stopped, wincing at the rage of the Neverborn. He had a choice. And he made it. "My name is Iveren." Grimly, he hoped she appreciated the knowledge. Uttering it had just cost another mortal their life, for most certainly another skeleton rose somewhere else.
"I'm Ahn-Ahru."
The exotic name suited her for she was very exotic. Her skin was deeply tanned, almost the vibrant red of the Haltan people. Her hair was a brown faded to black, as if its color was caught halfway between mortality and divine magnificence and hadn't quite chosen one or the other. In the dim light of what little morning sun made it into the shelter, he could see that she was a great beauty.
At once, Iveren became conscious of Ahn-Ahru's body. The bloodstains could not conceal her lush female figure, especially since her wounds were closed from his Charms. It had been so very long since he'd had the company of a living woman this close. His cock hardened in an instant and he rolled away before she could protest its presence.
"Thank you for saving my life." Ahn-Ahru's words were cool and controlled, gracious for his efforts yet clearly drawing the line. Iveren smiled a little to himself. She didn't want him taking her gratitude as an invitation. Given they were still naked, it was not an unreasonable thing to do. "But I don't understand how you did."
"I guess you weren't as wounded as you thought," he said evasively.
"There's something about you...what is it?" She sounded so plaintive, such a drastic change from the earlier control in her voice. Involuntarily, Iveren rolled his head back to the side to look at her. This close, he could feel her breath on his lips. It was a steady, hot touch, intimate as a kiss. "You did the impossible, Iveren. You...saved me."
"Please, I did what anyone would have done." Iveren could not stop staring into Ahn-Ahru's eyes. "I couldn't let you die." He physically shook himself free of those beautiful eyes and rolled away from her, turning onto his side. "I've sins enough, Ahn-Ahru. I won't add to them before..."
"Before you die," she finished for him. He gasped slightly at the feel of her small hand pressing between his shoulder blades. "You're intending to, aren't you? You were going to die and yet you gave it up so I could live."
"I've sins enough," Iveren said firmly. "Now, you need to lie back and rest. Even an Exalt like you needs to recover after injuries like that. Let me get you some food."
He climbed out from beneath the hides and went to his pack, as it was braced against the door at their feet. Outside he could hear the snow settling still, packing them in. At least it was warm enough in here now. The first thing any Tear-Eater learned was that cold could freeze you or warm you, depending on how you used it...or how it used you. Iveren pushed aside a disassembled Realm-issue field shovel, his bundles of herbs, and found his provisions on the bottom. Naturally, he hadn't expected to need them at this point but it hardly seemed worth it to dump it from his pack at the time. Now, he was grateful.
Iveren pulled the stores out and turned about. Ahn-Ahru's head jerked down, barely visible in the dimness of their shelter. Had she been looking at him? Iveren returned to the hides, knelt and unpacked some of his dried jerky and trail bread. Putting it before her, crawled backwards and found his underclothes.
"I'm sorry I don't have better to offer you," Iveren said, dressing as he spoke. As he pulled his pants up, he felt eyes on his back and glanced behind him. Once again, Ahn-Ahru's eyes visibly dropped. She was staring!
"Thank you. You've done the impossible for me. I'm not going to complain about the food." She took several bites, chewing slowly, and then suddenly began eating with increasing pace. Iveren smirked to himself as he checked the shelter's integrity. Exalt or not, healed with Charms or not, she'd lost a lot of blood. Her body needed fuel to replace what it'd lost. "Why do you want to die?"
The question surprised him. He looked at the beautiful woman still naked beneath the hides and frowned at her. It was a very personal inquiry and so far he'd followed her reserve with his own. "I've done things, Ahn-Ahru. Things that a man deserves to die for. Why do you want to live?"
"Do I need a reason?" she asked. She looked as surprised by his question as he felt from hers.
"You said you were supposed to die."
"I was. Now I'm not. I don't understand it." Ahn-Ahru looked introspectively puzzled, an internal scrutiny and confusion painted plain across her tan features. Iveren sighed as he looked at her. An inestimable sadness had carved its tracks across that beautiful face. That old sadness had left its marks, enhanced her beauty, but it made him wonder what pain she could carry that would linger so long.
"What about me?" Iveren asked. They were both surprised by the question.
"You should have died already," she said. Her bare shoulders shrugged, the motion stirring the curtain of brown-black hair like wind across the surface of a stream. "I don't understand that either. I don't understand anything anymore."
"Neither do I," he said, sitting down and settling on the top of the hides. Making extended eye contact seemed intrusive so he let his eyes rest on her middle. Even beneath the thick furs, he could see Ahn-Ahru's body stir with each breath. The hides seemed transformed from functional to evocative, simply because they curved with her hip. He really hadn't been around a living woman for far too long. It was distracting him now from doing what he should be doing. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." She finished a mouthful of dry biscuit and pushed the bundle away from her. "Where are we?"
"Far away from anything like civilization, even villages. The only thing I know of out here is the God Jorst. I could try taking you to him."
"No need," Ahn-Ahru said, a sudden hardness stiffening her eyes. The stony expression was undermined by the wetness that welled up around her gaze. "Jorst is beyond helping anyone now. Just as I was. It was his Sanctum I traveled from."
"You...killed the King of the Bough?" Iveren was stunned. Starmetal Powerbow or not, Jorst was no Small God.
"Not I. Another." She took a shaky breath and her face twisted with the effort it took to control herself. "She was too much for either of us. How could I know? How could I have known how horribly strong the White Reaper was? ...why didn't they tell me?"
Ahn-Ahru lowered her head and then rolled away from him. She made no noise but Iveren watched the uncoordinated trembling of her shoulders and he knew what was happening.
Silently, he glided across the surface of the hides. Coming up behind her, he lay down and put his arm around her shoulders. Ahn-Ahru's body stiffened against his...and then she began sobbing. Iveren pulled her close to him, made a shelter with his arms and he held her while she cried out her pain.
"Navia," she said at last. "It must be Iselsi Navia." She wiped her face with her arm and huddled against him. The heady scent of her living skin brushed his senses and Iveren closed his eyes, hoping not looking at her would help his control. The last thing she needed right now was the intrusion of the male response. "Death and Decisions sent me but it's her hand, it's always been her hand that wielded me. And now she wants Sad Ivory broken. It would have worked, too, if you hadn't been there." Her eyes regained their awareness and she met his eyes. The purple hue of hers was flecked with stars. He could almost see the beauty of her life mapped across them. "Are you a Maiden's blessing? What are you, Iveren?"
"A monster," he said, his voice ragged. Feelings long forgotten were stirring now inside him. Iveren swallowed and took a deep breath. "I've never been a blessing, Ahn-Ahru. If I've been one to you...it's a spark of light in an eternity of darkness." They lay together for some time and Iveren fought to ignore her beauty.
"What should I do?"
Her voice broke on the words and she winced as tears came again. Iveren shuddered as her arms embraced him. Just be there for her, he thought, just be what she needs. Don't think about yourself...or how she makes you feel alive again. Ignore the smell of her hair, the silk of her skin, and how much heat her body gave off even through the hides.
"Someone sent you to die," he said at last, when her tears stopped. She nodded without looking. "Do you want revenge?" She nodded again but more slowly. "What do you really want?"
"A life," she whispered against his neck. "A life for myself. An existence where I'm more than a weapon."
"Ahn-Ahru," he said. She pulled her face away from his neck and looked at him. Her eyes looked like wet amethyst and there was such need there that Iveren couldn't help but respond. "You're more than that already. You're a woman worth saving."
She kissed him.