The clouds brought welcome reprieve from the sun's rays, but they also heralded the onset of the sort of furious storm that gave Winterhold its namesake. Even now, numb to the cold, Serana found herself quietly grateful for the hefty cloak drawn over her clothes.
Snow from both the sky and the mountains swirled together in a treacherous haze over the banks that she trudged over. A tentative focus seemed to be all that kept the silhouettes of two distant mountains in her vision. The pass that wound between them was shrouded by the billowing snow drifts, but her memory carved a trail through to it.
She hoped that memory itself would be guidance enough.
The ache in her bones was almost numb to her now- along with the wind that whipped at her hood, the wild locks of hair that were plastered over her forehead, the sting beneath the cloth that bundled over her left arm, and the ever-present thump of heavy footsteps following her.
That last detail was something she hadn't thought possible to just tuck away into the back of her mind. Staccato, drumming against the snow with an ominously steady rhythm. She grimaced, pins and needles trickling down the unbroken skin of her left forearm- not as easy to get used to as she'd thought, evidently.
Her good hand instinctively snaked its fingers up her left sleeve. Sliding over her skin, checking for blood droplets that she already knew wouldn't be there. Even after her fingers retracted, the hairs on her arm remained rigid against her sleeve.
Still, at least it wasn't enough to break her gaze away from the mountain pass. There was nothing new to be gained from laying eyes upon the creature behind her again.
One foot in front of the other. That was all there was to do for the time being- that was something she'd grown accustomed to lately, wasn't it? Didn't matter if it was a downtrodden slave miner following her or an unearthly apparition from beyond Oblivion. The ache beneath each step she took remained unchanged.
She sighed, the wisp of air quietly swept from her lips into the wind.
An uncounted lapse of time passed by as she plodded on. The firm prints that her boots crunched into the snow gave her little worry, as they would be swept away by the storm easily enough.
The slope beneath her soles gradually grew steeper, her step feeling heavier with each gradient increase. The creature's march behind her must've faltered as well, since the rhythmic thump of its footsteps never seemed to fall out of sync with hers. Left, right, left, right- like an echoing shadow of her own movements.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as an uncanny breeze grazed against her skin, seeming to slice clean through her clothes. Her teeth grit together as she again fought the urge to look back.
She flexed her fingers to relieve what little tension she could from her hand, peeking up from beneath her hood to take her attention to anywhere else on the snowy slope. It was with some surprise that she noted just how close the two mountains she'd set her sight on before were now- the craggy surfaces of their peaks rose to her right and left, towering over the crevice between them like two snowy posts flanking an open gateway.
Probably just a few more minutes of hiking, and then-
-well, then it'd be a downhill march for a bit, at least. Once they reached the forest below though, they'd have to take measures to cover their own tracks, sheltered from the winds by the sturdy pine trees. Was only natural that one discomfort would be traded out for another.
She grimaced, the cave that sunk into the slope only slightly further up and to her right almost beckoning to her with its open stone maw. A strange feeling to be certain, considering her history with caves.
…
Just a few minutes to take a break, that's all it had to be. Maybe she could try slipping some of the rations she'd bought down her gullet, stave off the void in her stomach.
Then again, there was no guarantee she'd be able to find anything to keep a fire going in there. The thought of breaking her teeth on rock-hard bread and peeling apart rank fish-leather was enough to take her thoughts away from the cave.
She could handle this.
The more distance they could cover in the first day of travel, the better.
She nodded to herself in affirmation, hunching over again and steeling herself for the increasingly steep march ahead with a quiet breath. It nearly caught in her throat as the creature's cold metal words scraped against her ears.
"Body ahead."
Her chin jolted back up, whether startled by the thing's voice on its own or the words it spoke, she wasn't sure.
Whichever it was, the creature spoke truth- just ahead, half buried in the snow, was a body shrouded in frost-shingled robes.
She slowed to a halt, holding up a hand to gesture the creature to do the same. Its march ceased barely a snap-second after.
Her brows furrowed, the looming presence of the titan behind her eclipsed by something elsepressing on the edge of her nerves.
Inspecting the body further, she found that the hood cast over its head was lightly embroidered and hued a pale blue; more of traditional mage garb than cold weather travel clothing.
That maybe explained why it was out here in the ass-end of nowhere rather than the road, could've been a College field researcher of sorts? A student seeking an isolated place for an experiment?
But the cause of the person's death remained unclear. There were no wounds as far as she could see, at least on the side she could see. There seemed to be a heavier cloak drawn over the corpse's torso, so it was unlikely the person had frozen to death. Starvation or dehydration?
Her fingers trembled a little as an uncanny chill seemed to pierce through to her skin again. She swallowed a lump in her throat, not entirely certain of why her good arm was tensing all of a sudden.
She imagined a College mage would've been well off enough to feed themselves, and probably had enough common sense to keep themselves nourished while trekking through the cold.
Her teeth ground together to fight against the chattering that threatened to grip her jaw, her focus doubling down on the corpse before her- something was definitely off about it.
Her eyes narrowed, searching again for signs of a wound. Maybe there was one, and it was just small enough to be isolated to the side of the body she couldn't see? But even then, given the snow level and ice coating the body, it looked to be a few days old. Surely, regardless of how the person had died, the body would've been picked apart by animals by now?
Then she felt it again. Another brisk gale, setting upon her deadened nerves with icy pinpricks. A gasp escaped her lips.
Her gaze snapped back without hesitation, meeting the cold red eyes of the creature behind her. Its hood fluttered over its unmoving visage, butshe could see the tenseness in the grip of its sword hand. The crystals of ice condensing on the bare silver blade.
"You felt it too?" She asked, her voice barely raising above a hoarse whisper over the wind.
"Yes."
Her eyes darted over the sprawling snow banks, back to the cave opening that she'd ignored previously.
The clipped words that warped out from the creature's metal teeth struck her harder than the otherworldly echo of its voice this time.
"Movement detected. Under the snow."
"The cave," she said, a sudden urgency driving her to step past the creature. "We need to get to it. Now-"
The ground before her burst into a mist, powdered snow and ice shrouding the maw of translucent teeth that came surging out at her. She threw herself to the side, the warning cry that had been welling in her throat being lost to the wind. The crystalline jaws of her would-be ambusher tore by, the grand serpent-body of rippling ice that it was anchored to arcing past her with the force of a shrieking gale.
Drifts of snow whipped by in its wake, shrouding its undulating descent. From the corner of her eye, she saw the otherworldly titan cast out its blade with a frighteningly fast cut; the weapon's silver edge cleaved through little more than the cloud of ethereal frost that lingered where the serpent's tail had already slunk back into the snow.
She sputtered, coughing out a single word with as much force as she could muster: "Run!"
All the ache in her body seemed to wash away in a tide of spine-chilling adrenaline, a renewed force coiling in the flesh beneath her fluttering cloak. Her legs sprang into motion, bounding down the slope. The cask on her back thudded up and down with each frantic stride she took. The satchel hanging from her waist bobbed against her thigh, its weight amplified by the ceramics held within.
Footfalls surged behind her, thundering with a frantic war drum rhythm. They barely registered on her ears compared to the faintest whisper of ice slithering through snow beneath her, swirling in the winds around her.
When she heard the creature's sprint falter behind her, she glanced back, dread settling in her stomach in a glacial brick. Her head swiveled around in time to glimpse the creature's blade mid-swing, shaving off little more than a thin mist of particles from the serpent-body twisting down towards it.
Too close, too quick.
Icy jaws ripped into the creature's shoulder; thick sheets of stony carapace were sheared off, scattered to the wind with tatters of roughspun cloth. The creature's metallic visage swiveled over to its new wound, the suddenness of its movement betraying the bewilderment that its gritted maw and solid-lens eyes refused to show. Its body staggered in the gale that buffeted it as its assailant slipped back into the snow.
"We can't fight it out here!" She bellowed out over the wind, still mid-stride. "Get in the cave!"
She turned her gaze forward once more, not waiting to see if the creature would heed her warning.
The darkness of the cave ahead of her laid within but an arm's reach. A second later, the wind and snow assailing her had dissipated, and her boots fell onto solid stone.
The ground trembled with the creature's renewed footfalls behind her.
Her eyes scanned over the shallow expanse of the cave to ensure it was clear of other threats- it seemed so. There was just another corpse that laid limp against the wall, a gaping wound in the left side of its belly.
She turned back around, flexing the fingers of her good hand, desperately willing the feeble trickle of magicka through her veins to intensify; she swallowed a lump in her throat as she watched little more than a candle-fire spring to life in her palm, then flicker back out.
The creature outside barreled towards her at a pace that would've been frightening at any other time. Its pillar-like legs surged through the deep snow in bounding strides. Its arms pumped in furious synchronization, ice crystals that had been clumping around the wound in its shoulder simply peeling off into the wind.
A frosty, serpentine maw swirled in the snow just behind it. Translucent fangs lashed out, grazing against the tattered ends of the sheet-cloak clinging to the creature's torso. The creature did not look back, did not foolishly try to bring its great blade around again- it maintained its thunderous momentum, red eyes as cold as the icy jaws snapping behind it.
As soon as it drew within a few strides of the cave, she shuffled over to the left, giving it a wide berth. It blew clear past her, the sheer force of its passage palpable in her fluttering cloak. The echo of its footsteps rumbled throughout the cave, even as its sprint came to an abrupt halt.
Outside, the wind hissed, and a mirage of ice slithered back into the haze of snow.
Her eyes remained fixated there, scanning over the swirling squalls for any further sign of those crystalline fangs, those twisting segments of ice. A shadow fell over her from the side, and she caught a glint of silver angling back outward into the snow.
For another uncounted lapse of time, she and the creature simply stood there. The muffled howl of the wind rang in her ears, seeming to amplify the sound of her heaving breaths.
The creature broke that tentative silence, its words echoing with their usual metallic snarl.
"What was that?"
"An ice wraith," she answered, unfettered by the otherworldly reverb of its voice. Yet, when she opened her mouth to elaborate more, she found herself unsure of what else to say.
What little she'd read of such beings had been scant, vaguely sourced- a handful of personal accounts supplemented by common myths, mostly. The scribbly theoretical musings her mother had penned into the margins of those pages had seemed more detailed.
"It is no longer following us," the creature observed flatly.
"Yeah."
"Did you anticipate this?"
"Not… exactly."
Its eyes turned onto her, lenses gleaming with an unreadable crimson.
"It had the advantage over us, out there- ambushing us from the snow, blending in with the winds. Not to mention we were already caught off-guard. This was the closest shelter there was from that environment. Call it an educated guess that I figured our chances were better if we retreated here. At least now we can regroup and come up with a better approach to face it again."
From the corner of her eye, she saw the creature's gaze turn back outside.
After another few seconds of silence, it spoke again.
"How do we destroy it?"
Her brows furrowed. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. Just- gimme a minute to gather my thoughts."
She eased herself into the more open space of the cavern and away from the towering giant at the entrance, not waiting for a response. It didn't seem to have one anyways- its visage kept vigil on the storm outside. Her eye briefly caught on the tear through its shoulder, the frost ringing around the tattered cloth of its makeshift cloak.
It took just a moment to recognize the jagged scar that her own blade had carved in the carapace underneath, crystals of ice now seeping into the old, bloodless wound.
Her mouth opened and closed in the same second it took for her to fully turn her gaze away, any notion she had of asking after the creature's condition lost with the breath that blew out from her nostrils. It ran just fine, and it was standing watch just fine. It could probably still fight just fine as well.
…
It didn't seem like it'd be healing anytime soon though- that could prove to be problematic in the coming days, if they ran into more trouble.
…
Then again, she could say the same for her own wound.
One thing at a time.
Her good hand raised up, fingers pinching at the bridge of her nose.
Again, she surveyed the cave, a less frantic eye scanning over the rounded rock walls this time.
It was a shallow little hollow, it seemed, no passages she could see winding deeper in- if they really needed to, they could camp here for a few hours. Wait for the snowstorm outside to calm, let her magicka reserves spool up a little again.
Having fire on her side to face the ice wraith with sounded a lot better than trying to catch it in the midst of its slippery movements with a blade. Even the creature had struggled with that approach, it seemed.
Still, there was no telling how long it'd be before she could conjure up a flame strong enough to make any difference. And the longer they stayed, the more they gambled with the possibility of something worse catching up to them.
Her lips pursed as her gaze fell upon the corpse in the corner again. The hood that was draped over its head couldn't hide the drained, pale skin of its visage. The empty whites of its still open eyes peered up at the ceiling, held in place by rigid, cold flesh. Rust-red splotches ran down the stone behind the gaping hole in its stomach, pooling in the ground around it.
It was hard not to imagine what it must've been like, shivering in the cold, blood flowing out from a wound that couldn't be healed. That…
That was… close to how Cedric had died, after all.
Though at least she'd been there for him. This person- this mage, judging by its similar garb to the body outside- it looked like they'd died alone in here.
And for what?
Her eyes narrowed, noticing something that was still limply cradled in the body's right arm, tucked away amongst the still-intact folds of its robes on that side. She took a step closer, trying to get a better angle.
The carved sigil of a half-lidded eye peered back at her, set in the center of five distinct spokes that were etched into the frosted metal surface of a box. The College of Winterhold.
She swallowed a lump in her throat, walking over and kneeling down before the corpse. She willed herself to look upon its frozen-over face once more, gently reaching out and swiping its eyes closed.
"I'm sorry," she whispered gently, fingers sliding down to the box it clutched.
Whatever the contents were, they would be of more use in her hands than those of a dead mage.
Firmly, she pried the container loose from the rigid flesh that grasped it. Folds of cloth fell away as she lifted it out from its grisly nest, briefly inspecting it in her hand. The box was light, rectangular. A little larger in width than a decently sized tome, tall enough that she was struggling to keep it steady with just one hand. She set it down on the ground.
Her palm ran over its surface, the metal cast from a dim pewter. Creamy smooth, save for the sigil etched onto the lid and the hinges holding it in place. Her fingers maneuvered down to the latch, eyes glancing over for any sign of a lock mechanism- nothing of the sort seemed to stand out as such.
She cracked the box open with little delay, lips pursing as she studied the contents.
A thick cloth lined the interior, sturdily bracing a rack of glass vials in the center. There must've been at least a dozen, neat and sharp labels penned into small pieces of paper were stuck to their sides.
Her eyes scanned them over, lips scrunching together further as she noticed an odd theme around most of the labels.
Wine
Spiced Wine
Firebrand Wine
Alto Wine
Vial after vial of what sounded like commercial liquor. Cyrodilic Brandy, Colovian Brandy - something called Aqua Fortis. There were several more vials with that last label.
Her brows furrowed as she noticed a larger sheet of paper pressed up against the side of the rack, folded and crinkled. Her fingers snatched it up and flicked it open, eyes briefly abandoning their survey of the vials to examine the letter.
Wuunferth,
I regret to inform you that the College is unable to fill your order to its entirety. I would remind you that while we maintain a stockpile of alcoholic beverages for use in experimentation, we are not a brewery. I understand importing anything to Windhelm is a difficult task nowadays, but recommend you source such materials from elsewhere.
My late predecessor expressed some concerns in his notes regarding your association with the figurehead of the Stormcloak rebel movement, noting the volatile nature of a subset of the materials you were regularly requisitioning over the past year.
Her eyes doubled back a few sentences, latching onto a particular fragment.
volatile nature
Interesting.
I have decided that this warrants a formal investigation into your recent activities. A pair of College members will deliver this next shipment to you and conduct a preliminary questioning of your current studies.
In addition to cooperating with their in-person questioning, you are to submit a written report of, and copies of any journals pertinent to, your studies over the past year to me for evaluation. Ensure that these documents are delivered to my office within the month.
Penalties pending re-evaluation of College policy will be levied against you should you fail to comply.
Archmage Grasps-at-Stars
A rather brusque way to end off a letter. Sent a pretty clear message to the recipient though, she supposed.
Would-be recipient, she corrected herself, grimly looking back at the cold corpse she'd pried the box from.
Volatile nature… let's see…
Returning her attention to the vials, she skimmed over what remained.
Pine Resin
Argent Powder
Liquid Quicksilver
Fire Salts
Four vials of pine resin, one of fire salts. Each a little longer than her index finger while being a bit larger in diameter, filled about three-quarters to the cork stopper with their respective material.
She plucked them out from their places in the rack, one after another, her hand moving while her mind was still processing an actual plan.
Pine resin on its own was already quite flammable, and in its current quantity, she suspected she could keep them burning for a while- but maybe not able to produce a strong enough flame to be of use.
She peered down at her palm, the faint heat radiating through the glass from the salt vials palpable against her skin.
If she could somehow combine them with the fire salts…
Fingers moving again, she snatched out two vials of labelled wines from the rack, not paying attention to the specifics of their names.
Her other hand started moving, gingerly. It slipped into her waist satchel, fingers grasping the jagged lip of the old urn inside. Her teeth grit together as she pulled it out, the frayed muscle in her arm straining even with the small force exterted.
The urn scraped across the ground.
"I might have something going," she called back to the entrance of the cave. "Just give me a bit more time."
"Understood."
She popped off the corks on the wine vials, upending the contents of the open vessels into the urn. Two streams splashed into the bottom, one of a rich ruby, the other of a pale red. They swirled at the bottom of the urn, distinct shades clashing with each other as she gave the vessel a gentle shake.
Four lumps of resin splashed in after, dark brown clouds bleeding into the wine pool from the clumps of amber.
A wave of heat wafted out from the last vial as she uncorked it, the intensity of it palpable against her face even at arm's length. She tilted it over the urn, gradually letting the grainy crystals of fire salt trickle in.
Her left hand continued to shake the urn, the vessel's ceramic surface growing warmer and warmer beneath her palm. Only when the vial's contents were empty did she spare a look inside the urn, nodding to herself in satisfaction when she saw the muddy mixture within. Some small chunks of resin and yet remained – she reckoned if she stirred it though, they too would be assimilated into the solution.
…
She unsheathed her sword, holding the blade against her left palm. The coldness of its stark obsidian sheen prickled at her skin. It'd almost be a shame to tarnish the surface with whatever horrid concoction she'd made, but there wasn't exactly anything else thin and long enough for her to use-
No. That wasn't true at all, actually.
She set the sword aside, unbuckling its scabbard from her waist.
Balancing it on her left hand, her right guided the tip down into the urn. She swirled it around, folding clumps over swathes of murky red-brown. It didn't take long before she felt the entire solution thickening, coalescing into one sludgy mass in the bottom of the urn.
Guess I'll have to get this cleaned yet again, she thought with a shadow of a smile. Then again, a small bit of residue at the bottom could actually make a stew of dry fish and hard bread easier to swallow, for all she knew.
…
There was a sizeable rack of uncontaminated wines in front of her though, wasn't there?
Not the time.
What little levity she'd allowed to slip through to her lips evaporated, stony firmness taking hold of the edges of her mouth once more.
No time to celebrate even with the solution coming together- the question of how to actually weaponize it against the ice wraith still remained. It didn't exactly offer her the same flexibility as just being able to conjure up directed streams of fire from her hand.
After a few final stirs, she pulled out the scabbard, the tip slathered in dark brown tarry substance. The mixture clung on tightly, requiring her to scrape it off along the jagged lip of the urn.
She bit her lip, a strange sense of energy coursing through her as she felt the answer just sitting outside of her grasp.
Maybe if she had a matching lid for the urn she could try to seal it off and create a pressurized environment for the contents- but then how would she ignite it? It seemed a moot point considering how she did not, in fact, having a matching lid for the urn.
No, no, there had to be a simpler solution.
Her brows furrowed in concentration as her hand slid over to her sword.
The mixture was fairly adhesive- she supposed it wasn't all too different from the sort of pitch borne on torches. Maybe if they had a torch-
She shook her head, grasping the handle of her weapon in one hand and holding its scabbard ready in her other.
The wood probably wouldn't hold up to the intensity of the heat, once the compound was ignited. Even common metal could have some trouble withstanding it, now that she thought of it. They would need something stronger to bear the flames-
She blinked, her shadowy reflection gazing back at her from the half-sheathed blade of her sword.
Something like ebony.
Her eyes lit up as she gazed back to the cave entrance, attention trailing down to the dull silver blade grasped in the creature's hand.
That sword, whatever it was cast out of, had clashed with her own blade before- and came out unscathed as well.
"I've got a plan," she said at last.
Even the crimson glare of the creature turning upon her couldn't suppress the slightest of smiles creeping over her lips.
0-0-0
Fire fluttered within her left palm, a frail little ribbon against the howling snow just beyond. A tingling of needle-like pain prickled along her bicep as she raised it up to her blade, its ebony surface masked by a coating of muddy brown paste.
She swallowed, slowing her movements as she brought the fire within an inch- easing the flickering little candle-flame up, close enough for it to tickle at the sludge coating her sword.
That frail ember rose up and burst into a roaring stream of brilliant gold-orange. Her left arm recoiled back, the strain in her frayed muscles eclipsed by the adrenaline that seemed to flare into her body at the sight of flames coursing along her blade- though they only started halfway up the length of the ebony surface, their heat was cast all the way down to the handle.
The leather wrapping that pressed against her palm radiated with warmth.
A wispy breath blew out from her lips as she hefted her now-flaming sword, angling it out towards the snow. The flames remained unfazed.
She glanced over to the creature at her side. She made a slight waving motion with her sword, gesturing for it to bring its own half-coated blade over to the fire.
After a second of blank stillness, it complied.
Its arm moved its weapon over with a… slowness. Gentleness, even- timidness?
…
That just didn't seem to fit the iron-cast hand that gripped the handle, the chain that clinked against it from the crossguard.
And yet, its blade approached hers in much the same way that the little candle-fire in her palm had moments earlier. The reflections of the flames in its crystalline eyes fluttered with the same demure glow.
She blinked, and it was gone. Washed away in the torrent of fire that swallowed up the sludge slathered over its blade.
It drew back its now-flaming weapon, holding it upright and steady. A bloody orange shade blazed in the red lenses of its eyes, that same light highlighting its maw with a sinister glint.
She tightened her grip around her own sword, fingers flexing around the warm leather.
"I'll take the lead," she said, steeling herself with a deep inhale. She smelled a faint aroma from the flames before her, not entirely unpleasant- there was the smallest hint of sweetness to it. "Stay close behind me and watch my back. We'll move up the slope, continuing towards the mountain pass. If you or I catch any sight of the ice wraith, we stop and brace for its attack, that's the best time to score a clean hit. We let it move first, don't try and chase it down- if you miss a swing, reposition and wait for it to come at us again. Got it?"
"Affirmative."
She nodded, taking a step forward. Her boots crunched into the snow, and the wind lashed at her hood. Feeling her cloak whipping around her already, she stopped, an afterthought coming to mind.
"Watch where you swing that sword as well," she added. "Wouldn't want a stray flame catching onto either of our cloaks."
This time, it said nothing, simply nodding. It brought over its free hand, grasping its sword in a two-handed grip.
And then they were off, back into the howling winds, the blinding snow. Her footsteps trudging through the banks, the creature's shadowing hers in a booming rhythm.
Even with the wound in her left arm, she eventually found herself bringing her up too, hand clasping over the handle of her sword. The warmth from the leathers beneath felt oddly comforting.
It also made certain that she felt the uncanny chill racing through her veins, heard the ethereal hiss that sliced through the wind.
"Enemy spotted," the creature reported behind her in clipped monotone. "Directly behind. Circling around to your front."
"Under the snow?"
"Negative."
There it was. Undulating amongst the squalls, the dimmest glint of firelight betraying the crystal-clear segments of its slithering body through the snow.
"I see it," she said, slowing to a halt and bracing her feet in the snow. From the corner of her eye, she saw another roaring tongue of flame come up beside her, holding steady towards the yet-distant ice wraith.
For seconds longer, it remained that way, the wraith's frosty fangs never flashing over to them, its almost lazy motions carrying it in an aimless trajectory- as though it were gliding through an ocean. She frowned, fingers flexing.
It had set upon them with savage swiftness before- what was it waiting for this time?
Her eyes flicked over to the flames on her blade, still burning strong. Beyond their blazing glow, she saw the creature's visage, angling slightly towards her. She saw its thumb run up other the crossguard of its sword, sending a tinkling bristle through the chain cast over it.
"Wait," was all she said, somehow able to pick up on the similarly uneasy air of anticipation lingering over the creature- or maybe it was just her imagination, a projection of her own state of mind onto it.
It didn't matter. What was important was that neither of them acted rashly.
Their flames would burn for minutes longer. They could afford to stand their ground- wait for the opportune moment to strike. Like hunting deer in the plains of Whiterun.
…
A quiet hiss dragged over her ears, prompting a sharp inhale from her; in the distance, the ice wraith suddenly slipped out of its lazy circling and into the snow.
She swallowed a lump, letting her impotent left hand fall away from her sword handle as her right steadied its grip.
Submerged under the snow as the ice wraith was, it still seemed to leave a faint trail around the surface. A frosty mirage rippled over the snow banks, uncannily calm amongst the storm around it. Her eyes followed its motions with a razor focus as it snaked closer, unheeding of the increasing intensity of the winds buffeting at her cloak.
Left, right, left, right, arcing like an ocean wave.
It drew closer, closer-
-and then it stopped, circling back away from her.
Damn it, she cursed, the breath that she'd been holding in expelling forcefully.
The wind only seemed to howl ever more loudly, loose locks of hair under her hood now fluttering over her forehead. Gusts of snow billowed around her, the creature to her side now visible as little more than a pair of blazing lenses illuminated by the fires of their swords.
It was within this blindness that she realized she'd lost track of the ice wraith.
Her mouth opened in an attempt to call out to the creature, coordinate with it. The frosty gale that strafed over her stole away her breath, along with whatever words that had been pooling on her tongue.
A single word rumbled back out to her from the storm, as warped by the wind as much as it was by the metal maw it came from.
"Engaging."
She saw a flash of flames arc through the snow. She heard a slithering hiss-
-and then the shearing of cloth, the crunch of splintering metal. The howl of the wind reached a momentary crescendo, and the arc of flame flickered out.
Shit-
Ice-fangs flashed out at her from her periphery. She swung over her blade with a wild cut, her boots stumbling for purchase in the snow as she pivoted to the side.
The ice wraith's jaws snapped away in a blink, its head veering off to the side just before it could come within striking distance. Crystal-clear segments of its body wound right past her as a veritable deluge of frost assailed her in its passing wake.
She felt her sword tear away from its already tenuous trajectory. Her head snapped down, seeking whatever reprieve she could from the gales that whipped at her. Shards of ice rained down upon her cloak and clouds of snow blew up into her face.
The ground and sky seeming to swirl together as one, her body listing in the storm, her boots slipping in the snow.
Her eyes closed. And once more, she was brought down into the unforgiving embrace of the cold.
Her tumbling rocked to a sudden halt, a firm force yanking her upright. She ground her teeth together, bracing her jaw shut as deadened nerves in her wounded arm lit up with renewed pain.
"Stand firm."
Her eyes snapped open, the crimson glare of the creature gazing down upon her through the turbulent snow. A sizeable new tear ran along its left side, cutting into cloth and carapace both. It trailed into a thin fissure that snaked along its arm to the black, iron grip that held her by the front of her cloak.
Her own left arm still straining in protest, she placed her free hand upon its arm, pushing down upon it with as much force as she could muster through the coughs racking her body.
It seemed to understand the gesture at least, its imposing grasp retreating back to its sword.
…
A charred, splotchy sludge was all that clung to its blade now. She glanced over to her side, that brick she'd felt in her belly before returning in full weight as she saw little more than the same dregs slathering her own blade.
"The fire," she murmured. "We lost the fire."
Her mind raced, her body refusing to move.
Her left hand twitched impotently. Even had she the magicka to conjure up another flame, the thing would be snuffed out in seconds by the wind.
There was something there, another answer, another solution- and yet all she could do was stand, glazed eyes darting back and forth between the two extinguished blades.
…
Two blades, which had ignited the fire to carry Cedric's ashes.
Her eyes lit up. Her right arm snapped up, holding her sword out to her side.
"Strike my blade," she said, the sternness of her words slicing through the snow.
Her arm braced, already anticipating a wordless response- but the creature's weapon did not budge, remaining poised and upright at its side.
Its gaze was fixed away from her sword arm, lingering on her wounded one for some damnable reason.
"Now!" She all but bellowed, fueled by the adrenaline flooding her veins.
She was certain she saw it flinch this time, its eyes jolting back to meet hers.
The smeared tip of its sword tilted back in telling preparation for a swing. But then, its body started pivoting away from her.
Just past the creature's head, icy jaws snapped out from the winds, a piercing hiss heralding the ice wraith's return. Time seemed to crawl forward to Serana as she watched the creature bring its sword past her front, its blade's angle starting to tilt down as it cleared past her body.
In that split second, looking at the ice wraith bear down in its arc towards the creature's chest, she knew that the cut wouldn't be enough. Not against the slippery, twisting body of its assailant.
Not without fire.
Her right arm lashed out without thinking, the next second zipping by her in a flash of smeared ebony.
She didn't realize she'd struck the creature's blade until she felt the impact traveling down to her arm, didn't see the sparks that were drawn until they were bleeding down into the snow- illuminated by two lashes of reignited flames.
Warmth pooled beneath her palm once more as the creature's blade followed through its now-blazing arc, the searing tongues of golden orange that it bore cleaving through the snow in a brilliant flash.
A shriek pierced through the wind, punctuated by the shattering of ice. The ice wraith sailed over the creature's head in a rain of crystalline shards, a molten rift cleaving through its left jaw down to the segments of its neck. The tail end of its body never followed, peeling apart against a fiery metal edge into a mist of droplets that cascaded over the creature's cloak.
The head-half, half-cut jaws snapping with as much abandon as its body's wild twisting, plummeted down towards her.
Towards the flame-wreathed tip of her own sword.
She squinted, instinctively shielding herself a little from the flare that enveloped the frosty apparition's head. She braced herself in the snow, boots set wide apart, as her ebony blade pierced the ice wraith through its icy shell of a skull.
The wind shrieked with the steam swirling around the ravenous flames on her sword. A crackling crunch rang out, molten jaws sliding down to the halfway point of her blade, ribbons of fluid trickling out of its burning maw like liquid quicksilver.
With a great heave, she swung her sword down. The writhing remnants of the ice wraith, skewered upon the blade, shattered into glimmering fragments, burst apart into clouds of luminous vapor. Scalding water slathered dark splotches over the snow as a rain of droplets and crystalline shards pelted her cloak.
A pair of ice-fangs landed in front of her boots, glistening with a watery sheen.
The winds around her slowed into a melancholy wail.
The creature remained standing, its torn and soaked cloak billowing in the drifts of snow that grazed by.
A hefty sigh blew out of her lips, the scant relief that it afforded her a welcome sensation nonetheless.
0-0-0
They gathered themselves in silence, both of them finding the need to scrape off the scorched remnants of sludge from their steaming swords.
The creature took a little longer than she did, still running a clump of soiled snow over its blade by the time she was done checking everything else on her body. The cask bearing the Elder Scroll on her back was no less worse for wear than before, thankfully. The urn in her satchel had looked a little more chipped than it had been, but she could live with that.
What else… ah, right.
She bent down, scooping up the pair of ice wraith teeth from the snow and pocketing them into her satchel.
There did seem to be something else she was forgetting… Her fingers dug down before retreating from her bag, running over the wooden box of dried fish, the sack of hard bread- even the chunk of pottery she'd been intending to use as a plate.
Everything seemed to be there.
She shook her head, an inkling in the back of her mind telling her if she was missing something, it wasn't important.
She looked back to the creature, its hand shaken free of snow, its eyes inspecting the dull silver surface of its near-pristine blade. She stared for a while longer, wondering how long it would be before something about it- the empty lenses of its eyes, the iron teeth of its maw, the usual- would bring about that sense of unease in her again.
Its gaze caught onto hers for a few seconds, glaring directly into her eyes.
And then they turned away, falling groundward as it lowered its sword back to its side.
"Ready to go?" She asked, the words not exactly what had been swirling around in her mind.
There'd been a couple phrases that she'd mused over: Why didn't you listen to me? That could've gone better. Next time, just trust me.
None of them sounded… satisfactory.
As she watched its alien visage tilt into a slight nod, she found that she just didn't have the energy to go searching for a better way to say what she wanted at the moment.
She turned away, the sigh expelled from her lungs doing little to brace her for the strenuous march that remained.
"Wait."
The warped sound of its voice still managed to get a jolt out of her, it seemed.
"What is i-"
Oh.
Its black hand extended out towards her, iron fingers cradling a pair of vials in its palm. The clear liquids of golden and amber-brown within them kicked her recent memory back into mind.
"You dropped these."
A dry chuckle wormed its way out of her mouth as she reached out and retrieved the two vials of brandy, her fingers grazing against its fleshless palm.
"Thanks," she said, the earnest shadow of a smile that flashed over lips lost to its still-groundward gazing eyes.
Even so, the edges of her mouth remained curled- just slightly- upwards as she turned back around. She slipped the vials back into her satchel, making sure to close the bag more tightly this time.
She supposed treating herself to a small sip once they cleared the mountain didn't sound like such a bad idea.