The snow fell like paper sprinkled across the temple and buried all in a thin margin indented by all that pushed back. Each step on the cold ground a mark on the line of the paper that fell and a punctuation of intention by its marker. Sub-Zero's brow pale and creased beneath the winter's edge like a thin white duke.
Lost in the a forgotten province of the Eastern Country, the Lin Kuei resides beneath the margin of snow and the back of mortals minds. Here in this moment, he felt the snow wither and melt beneath his breath. The mask, metal and fabric wrapped around his neck and chin to tug at his nose and hide his breath from the cold that feared the heat of his lips.
The courtyard of the temple began to wither away like spring in a long arc near the temple steps. The snow which might otherwise melt to ice under the heat, melted as though summer was upon them and a flame as hot as the sun burst from the stone steps until emerged from it was Scorpion, Fujin, Sareena, and Nightwolf. As the flame licked at its chops one last time, the snow harsh and fast to come down upon and squeeze the fire into dust, Ashrah, the demon sealed the portal to the Netherealm behind her.
A scene to behold, the group was quickly surrounded by the Lin Kuei. Frost and Smoke joined around Sub-Zero.
"We were not expecting you so soon." A voice broke from highest step of the temple.
The ranks of the Lin Kuei broke for Kenshi to part between them and trace down the staircase.
"Where is Kotal Kahn?" Sub-Zero added to the commotion.
"Our fate rests in his hands now." Fujin's response was ill received.
"Old man, go back and get him then!" Frost interjected, and Sub-Zero glanced her back from the soap box with the cold, callous eyes of an exhausted father.
"Any word from Kung Lao and Master Bo' Rai Cho?" Smoke pondered.
"We could use some sake first." Hanzo broke the formation and after a long pause, Sub-Zero nodded.
The meeting hall was made of stone, tatami mats covered the floors and bamboo walls, sliders around them with rice paper screens. They were certainly in China, but where was uncertain as the influence of Edenia and Earthrealm were etched into the fabric of the temple.
Across from Sub-Zero sat Hanzo Hasashi and Fujin. All others were squared away to be tended to or simply not permitted in this private meeting.
"You bring demons to Earthrealm, Fujin?" Sub-Zero marred Fujin's sip of hot sake with cross words.
After the warmth filled him he lowered the ceramic and glanced back into the cold eyes of the Lin Kuei's grandmaster.
"Sareena and Ashrah are a far cry from demons." He added, "they will earn their way."
A low hum of taiko drums played in the frosty peaks of the edges of mountains and forest around the temple. The Lin Kuei would make all known that tonight would be a very important one.
"You are guests tonight, we will treat you well, even Hanzo, but you must return to the Netherealm for Kotal Kahn." Sub-Zero asserted, he would not drink until he had received his response.
"We would have better luck finding Raiden in the Chaos Realm." Fujin pushed back.
"Why hasn't master Bo' Rai Cho reported?" Sub-Zero prodded further.
"We've been in hell," Hanzo pressed, "how should I know?"
"Our lives are in your hands, Wind God, and you have butter fingers?" The grandmaster refused Fujin the breath to respond and added, "we haven't found Jax either, but the Black Dragon is in custody with your Earthrealm warrior."
"Sonya Blade." Fujin put her name in his mouth as he believed it should be spoken.
"Sure."
The crisp air rung as each toll of the drum echoed through the wind and down the mountain hills. At the western corner where the land stretched just a few trees past the temple walls, Sub-Zero spotted one of the demons, Sareena, arms tight to her chest and folded for warmth as she gazed out to the moon that peered blankly overhead.
"Cold?" He broke the sound of soft drums and eerie cool to approach.
"I'll live." She was short with him as well.
He crossed over to the other side of her, between the two trees. She had changed into fabric robes that helped cover her body from the wind, but her markings from her face, to the tattoo on her shoulder that peered over the limp valley of fabric still cast her out like a shadow in the light to him.
"You are of the Brotherhood of Shadow."
"Once upon a time."
"Then you know hell like the back of your hand."
She could sense the pressure he put on her, but there was no life to a dead horse.
"If anyone could reach Kotal Kahn now, it would have been Fujin, but he's right, he's lost to us."
"Then we have lost."
She wouldn't respond to this. A pause stretched between them with cold breaths that fled like ghosts into the air. She watched the conical caps of trees fall down the mountain side and the lights of a distant village flicker like flames to escape the cold winter night.
As her breath reached out like a wraith it pulled from her words she wasn't sure were meant to be spoken, but perhaps Sub-Zero would know what to do with them.
"There is another that could find him." She added after an ugly pause as the grandmaster stared her down to fill the gap, "the wraith of shadows."
"Explain?"
"It wouldn't do this willingly, but it has the power to cross the oracles."
"No." He entertained the thought in his head, but as cold as the air around him, the thought died and withered with it. "I will not suffer the Netherealm's treachery."
She watched him pass beyond the corner of the temple wall. Alone and with only the ghosts of her breath to keep her company, Sareena kept her eyes on the flicker and twinkle of firelight in the distance.
How frail it must feel, the fire in the village beneath the war cry of the cold wind.
How desperate would it be to survive?