The fireplace was so large, Min could have stood within it, stretched her fingers as high upward as she could reach, and still not quite touch the top. Despite the wall of fire that burned within, most of the grand room was bitingly cold.

What the room had been originally she was not sure. It brought to mind the great feasting halls of Norse mythology, or the grand cathedrals that had once dotted England. It seemed carved right out of the rock of the Peak.

Most of it was empty, even of decoration. A few soft and colorful rugs had been laid out in front of the fire, tables set out on them and a dozen bookshelves standing along their edges as if someone had tried to make a smaller room within the huge space. Beyond the boundaries of those shelves was just echoing darkness and cold.

They had been at Felwinter Peak now for three days. Kalina and Gen had of course eagerly jumped at the chance to come here once they'd been filled in. It was clear, not just from this room but many others down here, that the Peak must have once been home to a small army of Lightborn.

Now, it was just the four of them, and a handful of rusty old frames constantly setting about busywork that seemed little more than an exercise in futility. Even now, out there in the dark of this leviathan of a room, a single frame was sweeping.

It had been at it for over three hours by Min's count.

Saladin sat in a chair near to Minerva, regarding the fire with a solemn look that told of faraway thoughts. At his feet, a great grey wolf half dozed. Minerva, book opened on the table before her, watched the Iron Lord closely as the question she had just asked him still hung in the empty air.

When far too many long minutes stretched with no answer, she tried again. "Sir? What does it stand for?"

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied after a moment, finally looking away from the fire and toward his fellow Titan. "I'm not even certain it's an acronym. Does it matter?"

"No," she said quietly. "I suppose in the end it doesn't matter, past my own curiosity."

"I have noticed that about you," Saladin said with a warm smile in her direction. "I have often wondered if you're not a secret Warlock."

Min returned the smile and ducked her head a little. "Yes, I have heard that before. I just feel on poor footing if I don't understand something."

"Know your enemy," he said, and tapped the table lightly. "I wish more Titans felt more wrong-footed when confronted with the unknown; felt driven to learn, as you do. Running in and bashing your head against something is all well and good, but it is not the answer in every fight."

"Do you really think this SIVA is still an issue?" Minerva asked, and he nodded slowly.

"It is its nature. It doesn't stop, and it never was so much stopped as merely 'contained'. It will execute its directive until another directive replaces it."

"And it is following the directive of this War Mind…Rasputin?"

"That is my understanding."

"You said that it's replication chamber was destroyed, that Rasputin was sealed away."

"Yes, but the Fallen have not forgotten. I am certain their movements lately near the Plaguelands indicates they're searching for it again. We cannot risk that their efforts bear fruit."

The Plaguelands. They had seen this area on their way to the Peak. From the sky, it looked like a macabre desert in a painting; one that had been designed by an artist not quite in his right mind. It was a gray, morose stretch with miasmic yellow-green waters, with trees and structures that looked almost metastasized. Forge had explained that the area was under strict quarantine, that SIVA had 'infected' the entire area.

If what Forge had told her was accurate, this SIVA had started out as a means to help colonists. Made up of self-replicating, self-maintaining nanites, they could build entire colonies overnight. Stock armories, create farm equipment, medical equipment…the possibilities were endless.

For some reason, as Saladin had been describing SIVA, Min found herself constantly thinking about the color grey. She felt some sort of connection between the color grey and SIVA, but could not have said what it was.

She had to agree with him on one point, however- if there was any of SIVA left out there, the Fallen getting their hands on it would be less than ideal.

"I suspect Gen is in the Observatory," Saladin said after another long moment of silence. Min had been watching the fire now herself, lost in thought. It took her a moment to focus on what he'd said.

"Oh, yes, I suspect he is," she said with a smile. The Exo had been enamored of the Observatory since they'd first spotted it, coming around the Peak to land. Saladin had told them it was so old that in the Golden Age it had already been ancient, made into a museum. Gen had spent so much time up there since that Min suspected he would have proposed marriage already, if only one could marry a ruin.

"Lady Skorri spent much time up there, when she wasn't working on the Iron Song. I don't know that anyone has entered the Observatory since the last she left it. It is good that someone goes there again."

Then he shook his head and gave a small laugh. "Listen to me. I ask your forgiveness Minerva. I tend to wax on when I'm tired. Have a good evening. By morning my source should have some more information on the movements of the House of Devils. Hopefully my fears they are looking for SIVA will prove unfounded. At any rate, it is something that can be addressed in the morning. Sleep well, Guardian."

"Good evening, Lord Saladin," she said softly as he rose. The wolf rose when he did, and moved silently to his side. The dark of the grand chamber swallowed them long before the sound of their footfalls echoed away.

Min looked back down at the book on the table in front of her after he'd gone, lightly flipping a page back, and then another forward as she tried to find her place again. She had been reading about the War Minds when Lord Saladin had come in to check on her, the book prompting their conversation about SIVA.

She had just found her place when a voice suddenly spoke up at her shoulder. "Good book?"

Minerva's cheeks flushed with color a moment as she jumped slightly in surprise. Kalina laughed, touching her shoulder before stepping past her and toward the newly vacated chair.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Min scowled good-naturedly at her. "You did mean to, and you know it."

"I did not!" Kalina protested, but was unable to keep the grin off her face. She half-fell into the chair, casting one leg over an arm. "Ok, maybe a little. I can't help it. I like…stalking."

"Stalk prey, not friends," Minerva told her, and Kalina's eyes twinkled.

"What makes you think you're not prey?" she asked. Min gave her a level look that made her laugh again. "So, good book?"

"I don't know, I haven't had much chance to read it. People keep interrupting," Minerva said. "Where have you been?"

"Here and there, getting the lay of the land," Kalina said. "Did you know that there are still people living in that titchy little village down at the foot of the mountain? More importantly, did you know they have ale?"

"So were you getting the lay of the land, or were you getting drunk?" Minerva asked with amusement. Kalina faked scandal.

"I would never go down there to get drunk!" she said.

"Because you're steadfast and sober?" Minerva asked.

"No! Because they don't have anything an Awoken can drink," she said, and Minerva laughed. Kalina dropped her feet down and leaned forward in her chair.

"So, where's Gen?" she asked.

"Up in the Observatory again, I suppose," Minerva told her.

Kalina jumped to her feet and grabbed Minerva's hand. "Come on, Mini. I haven't been up at the top yet. Let's go have a look."

"I was reading," Minerva protested but didn't hesitate getting to her feet. Kalina snorted.

"No you weren't. People keep interrupting you, remember?" she said.

They walked across the endless lake of shadow, the small oasis of firelight and books shrinking behind them. Min didn't bother to 'wake' Lev up; the Ghost was in his tag. While they didn't have to sleep, the Ghosts often retreated to their tags in what Lev had called 'incognito' mode, for various reasons. During private conversations between their Guardian and others; during personal moments such as toilet use, bathing or more intimate encounters; and even on occasions where their Guardian needed to disguise the fact they were actually a Guardian. Ghosts themselves didn't care about Guardians using toilets or having sex- being artificial constructs, such biological functions held no taboo for them. They, however, did recognize that those things remained personal or taboo with most of the Guardians, and respected that.

While in incognito mode the Ghost could neither see nor hear anything going on outside the tag. They would get an alert and 'wake up' if their Guardian's life-signs suddenly plummeted to dangerous levels, allowing them to still maintain their primary function of healing and bringing them back from death. They also could maintain translation using 'partitioned short-term caching'. Min understood that as sort of translating without conscious effort or memory of what was said. She still heard Kalina's words in Russian in her ear, but Lev himself would retain no idea of what they said to each other. Or so he claimed.

Short of that, however, it would be up to Minerva to signal to Lev that he was free to come out again.

He had gone in of his own volition when Minerva had started to read. She had discovered quite quickly while reading Watership Down, that having someone reading over your shoulder, even a Ghost, was oddly grating.

Binky, as well, was nowhere in sight. Min didn't know why, but didn't bother to ask.

The large chamber and its fireplace were part of a small complex at the base of the mountain. Saladin had told them it used to be a meeting ground, much like the plaza in the Tower, but now he used it and it's abandoned network of storage rooms as his home. When there had been other Iron Lords, they had mostly lived somewhere at the top of the mountain near the Observatory; someplace he referred to as the Temple.

Once out of the large chamber, lamps and occasionally torches lit their path. Kalina, chatting away about the little village, led the way ever upward, navigating the almost impossible maze through the mountain without a moment's pause. Minerva, who was well lost after only a few minutes, just silently followed and listened to her companion.

They reached a lift, and as they rode it upward even Kalina was awed into silence.

The lift was set into the side of the mountain, and three of its four walls were made of glass or something close to it. As it rose, they could see the moonlight streaming over the white peaks and rocks, an occasional flare of silver fire marking out a waterfall, or a small lake, or a river. The village that Kalina had been talking about glittered like an accidental spill of stars.

At the top, a broad stone courtyard wreathed in silver light and snow greeted them. At the far end toward the west, a long path lead off and wound up the peak, lit by stone lanterns. What looked like a long rope bridge crossed part of a gap between peaks, and she thought she could see the old rusted remains of the gondola system that had brought people up to the peak centuries before. In that direction, the unmistakable round dome of the Observatory could be seen.

Straight ahead, a wide set of stone steps lead up to enormous columns carved right into the mountain.

Within the courtyard, an old fountain reflected the moon. Its pool was ice, and Min couldn't even guess when the last time it could have been liquid water would have been. Carved at the top of the fountain, wearing a beard of ice crystals, a howling wolf stood guard.

The sky was clear, the stars and the great cracked orb of the moon seemed formed of crystal high above them. Billows of white breath curled around their heads as Min noticed the footprints in the snow, leading off toward the suspended bridge, marking where Gen had gone. She started to follow, only to halt before she got two steps by Kalina again catching her hand.

"Let's go this way first," she said, and started toward the wide steps and the enormous columns.

"Gen's gone to the Observatory," Min said as she followed the Hunter once again.

"I know, but I want to look around. Aren't you curious, Min?"

She was curious, of course. Terribly curious. But this other structure was likely the Temple, which Saladin had told them he'd sealed after the other Iron Lords had died. Curiosity was one thing, but testing Saladin's trust was another entirely.

Can't hurt just to go up to the door, she thought, as she and Kalina climbed the stone steps, cautious of the random thick patches of ice that had formed on them.

Huge iron doors, emblazoned with a great brass tree and two howling wolves, greeted them at the top. Tucked back behind the enormous columns, drifts of snow and ice centuries old had built up against the doors. Even if they hadn't been sealed by Saladin, years of mountaintop blizzards would have done so.

Kalina folded her arms and pouted a little at the doors, as if she took them being closed as a personal affront.

"Well, that's disappointing."

"It's probably for the best," Min said. "What are you doing?"

"Front doors are never the only way in," Kalina said. She was heading around to the side, measuring the columns and the great crags of rock beside them.

"If you fall off the mountain I'm not jumping down after you," Min said, as the Hunter started to scale a few of the rocks.

"Aha!" she said with sudden triumph. "Over here!"

Min reluctantly started to scale the rocks herself. "If I fall off the mountain, I am pulling you down with me," she promised as she huffed up to Kalina's side.

"You always say the sweetest things, Min," Kalina told her with a grin, then gestured. "I think we can make that, don't you?"

There was a twenty- or thirty-foot gap here, and on the other side of it was a low stone worked railing surrounding a wide balcony.

"Well, yes, I think we could make it," Min said. Almost the moment she started to say 'yes' Kalina was off, and Min's shout was on her heels. "That doesn't mean we should!"

The Hunter's laugh rang back toward her as Kalina launched herself into the air, her jump jets igniting and depositing her easily onto the balcony. For a moment she vanished from sight, then popped up again. Her face was almost entirely lost in shadow, save the little glowing embers of her eyes.

"Come on, stuffy pants!" she called.

"I'd ask you what 'stuffy pants' means but per your context, it isn't difficult to deduce," Minerva called back. "Kalina, we shouldn't be doing this."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over all the big words!" Kalina shouted. "Come on!"

"Should I simplify it for you?" Min asked. It may have been the cold, thin air up this high, but she felt giddy and happy, and oddly daring. "Mini no jumpy!"

"Mini jumpy!" Kalina immediately called back, laughing.

"Oh, I'm going to regret this," Min said to herself, then took off toward the gap. She leapt, only igniting her jump jets as she started to descend. The balcony was slicked with ice, and she skidded as she landed. Kalina grabbed hold of her, still laughing, and for a moment both of them were on the verge of falling.

"You are a terribly bad influence," Minerva said, puffing, as they regained their footing.

"It's what I live for," Kalina said, then turned toward the Temple. "We-ah!"

She had just loosened her grip on Min, then snatched at her again as her feet skidded out from under her. Min awkwardly caught her, overbalanced, and the pair landed in an indignant heap on the freezing stone.

"Yup," Min said with a faint grimace of pain. She'd cracked her funny bone, and buzzes of electricity were singing through her arm. "Nothing but regret…"