The dog sled stopped a few feet from the giant double door embedded into the wall built of snow. The message was clear to the woman – this was as far as the dog team would take her. Smiling, she paid the driver and shouldered her bag, heading towards the doors, determination on her face. Getting the funding for this trip had been hard, but when she had heard of this case she knew she had to go. It was confirmed to her as well. A rustling around the woman's neck was heard before the head of a red-gold pine martin appeared.
"Halt!"
The gruff voice rung out loud and crisp in the cold air. "Who comes close to the home of the panserbjørne? Who comes to the door of the King Iorek Byrnison?"
"An old friend!" she yelled back, the pine martin twitching its nose in the cold before disappearing into her furs again. She shivered slightly from the brief onslaught of the frigid weather but stayed still, waiting for the interrogation. She knew she had to be here and no sentry was going to stop her.
"Why are you here, stranger?"
"I'm not stranger, I'm a friend of the Kings. And I'm here about the Eternal."
Eternal. That was the name given to the wild child a group of explorers had found living out here. As cold and frosty as the child's home, that had been her personality. Yes. Her. The panserbjørne had taken her in, unafraid, unlike the humans, and she was now one of them. Her condition, the one that earned her the name 'Eternal', was why she was so drawn to this young girl. She was 17 and her dæmon still had not settled. This was why she had to be the one. What with her adventures during her childhood and all that she knew about humans, their dæmons and Dust.
"Name?"
The woman smiled, her eyes sharp and full of intelligence. Pushing her hood down so that her face was visible, she brushed some of her dark blonde hair out of her face. "Silvertongue." She replied. "Lyra Silvertongue."
