Petrova rose up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Noticing the sides of his tent were sagging, he brushed his hand along the edge; feeling something powdery on the other side.

Seemed like some snow had blown onto his tent. Noticing the sound of footsteps outside, an idea came to him.

He waited for that person to close in, passing just beside his tent.

Then he burst out, scattering snow across that unfortunate individual.

Said unfortunate individual spun around, hand reaching to an empty hip scabbard – before they regained their senses a short moment later.

"Ah. Hello, Petrova." Levina awkwardly began.

"You looked quite surprised." Petrova said with a laugh.

"And she reacted fast…" He noted. That response was beyond just training; even some of his Yetis would have reacted slower.

Well, now wasn't the time to press.

"I… was, yes." Levina gave a small, almost-imperceptible nod.

"I do that occasionally. Most of the Yetis are used to it by now; you're the first one I've been able to surprise in a long while." Petrova gave an earnest smile.

"I see." The two just stood there in silence for a while, Levina slowly brushing off some of the snow on her.

"So… breakfast?" Petrova began walking towards where the Yetis were cooking some a light meal, Levina following close behind.

Night fell, and Fredrich was forced to admit an embarrassing truth: he was lonely. Though a pawn like him should have been happy to serve one as high-ranked as the Spymaster, it wasn't as if there was any good company around him. The Spymaster only spoke when necessary, for one, and Frostnova was worse. That girl gave the impression that she was merely tolerating his presence out of necessity; she abjectly refused to talk to him as they walked.

Fredrich had tried to start a conversation a few times, but save for that information exchange, he hadn't gotten much. After the first few days, he had pretty much given up. It was counterproductive, after all – he could provoke Frostnova, and who knew where that could lead.

He was well aware of how weak he was in comparison to her.

With a sigh, he flopped down onto the hard floor of his tent and tried his best to fall asleep.

Petrova sighed, focusing on his steps as he shambled out of his tent. Today just wasn't the day, for some reason.

Eh, it wasn't as if he hadn't had such episodes before.

He began his daily routine, walking through the scattered tents to reach –

Levina jumped out of her snow-covered tent, sending a clump of snow flying towards Petrova.

Swiftly, he dodged out of the way, unconsciously drawing his sword and entering a fighting stance–

–before he almost keeled over laughing.

"Okay, I admit I probably deserved that." He said as the chuckles finally faded. "Though, how'd you realize it was me?"

"You walk faster than the others. Th- because of that, your footsteps sound different."

"Ah, I see."

"Breakfast, right?" Levina said, turning back to beckon Petrova.

It took Petrova what felt like an eternity to connect the gray-haired Liberi in front of him to the masked solider he was used to seeing.

By the time he returned to his senses, Levina was already far into the distance. Chuckling to himself, he sprinted back towards her.

"She wasn't wearing her mask, huh…"

Andrey looked through Frostnova's eyes, at an empty black expanse.

Made sense; she was asleep. Now, what if he were to… ah, there it was.

A red line stretched across her field of vision, drawn by Andrey's Arts. With a snap of his fingers, it was gone, replaced with a crude circle, then a square.

Frostnova stirred in her sleep, letting out a quiet groan.

Andrey quickly dissipated his Arts. Best not to wake Frostnova up with red lights dancing across her vision.

Frostnova woke up to red lights dancing across her vision.

"Good morning, Yelena."

"Good morning… what exactly are those red circles? Your Arts?"

"Yep. You were sleeping late, so I… tried out something new." Andrey replied.

Frostnova sighed. Well, that was a mistake. Perhaps she'd have to be a bit harsher on herself, in the future.

"So… you can mark objects in my vision?" She guessed.

"Yep. For example, if I…" Andrey paused – "do that, there's now a line across the roof of the tent."

"I see." Frostnova replied. "Seems useful. Mark anything you think could be important."

"Got it!" Andrey sounded positively giddy.

"… it's not necessary to trace that hill, Andrey." Frostnova said as she walked.

"But –"

"No."

Levina switched off the portable lamp in her tent, encompassing the small space in darkness.

The sound of approaching footsteps came to her as she laid down, and she flicked her lamp back on and got up – longing for the comforting weight of her dagger in her hands.

Petrova peeked into her tent soon after, the opened flaps letting in a blast of cold air that made Levina shiver.

"Ah, sorry if I disturbed you." Petrova said, seemingly hesitant.

"It's fine. Is there anything?" Levina replied. Well, he did disturb her somewhat, but she wasn't against it.

"Nah, just wanted to wish you goodnight."

"Ah, okay. Goodnight to you too." And then Petrova was gone, closing the flaps of the tent as he left.

Well, that was a surprise. Making sure the flaps were securely tied shut, Levina turned her lamp off and slept; a small, inexplicable smile on her face.

Morning rolled by, and Petrova sat down by the heater that the researchers had, idly cooking some stew. Life on the move was awfully… unstimulating, he'd admit.

"Heh, 'unstimulating.' Sounds like something a scientist would say." He chuckled lightly.

Well, he did have three scientists tagging along. Perhaps he could ask them?

No, that'd be pointless. And it would probably make him sound like an idiot; he still had some pride left.

Levina soon swung by, and Petrova ladled out a bowl of the stew for her. It was fortunate that they were flush with supplies at the moment; nobody took nicely to eating tree bark, much less a group of privileged researchers.

"Then again, I'm sure they have their own problems…" Petrova noted. "And it isn't as if they have complained so far."

"Anne seems to get along quite well with some of your Yetis." Levina said as she ate, pointing to where Anne was vigorously attempting to teach a pair of Yetis… something. If the frantic hand gestures were to go by, Anne was having some tough luck.

"Mhm. What were you planning to do, before this stuff started happening?" Petrova asked, stabbing a piece of carrot with his fork.

"Mineral and Originium survey. Essentially, finding ores or Originium to mine." Levina replied.

Well, that he could understand. "Any luck?"

"Not much, though we weren't expected to find anything significant. And either way –" Levina suddenly stopped.

"What is it?"

"Nothing much. Just… Infected rebel groups have given this area quite the dangerous reputation. Only a very large or pure deposit would justify the massive amount of extra security needed. Especially given Blacksteel is somewhat overstretched at the moment." Levina cautiously spoke.

"Huh. That's good news." Petrova ignored the countless other questions swirling in his head.

"What is Blacksteel? How large is "very large?" How bad is our reputation?"

"If I may ask… why?"

"The Yetis and the Guerillas we operate under are the only two major guerilla groups in this area. If we have a reputation, we're doing our job well." Petrova sighed. "Though maybe losing most of our squad members wasn't the best for us."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Petrova burst out laughing.

Eventually, he managed to compose himself again. "Sorry, that shouldn't have been funny. That's just… the most generic response you could've picked."

"You're over it?"

"We're rebels. Rebel Infected. I count every day we aren't dead or dying as a win."

"Fair enough." Levina replied, turning back to her stew. Petrova followed suit; he had forgotten the soup in his hands, and it was cold already.

"How are your Arts like?" Frostnova asked as the sun began to set over the horizon.

A short moment, and Andrey responded. "My Arts, or Leithanien Arts?"

"Leithanien."

"Well, we don't have much time." Andrey hesitantly replied.

"It'll be fine."

"…I suppose I could explain the basics.

"Most Arts from Leithanien are integrated or reliant on some form of musical system. I'm not sure how this all started, but culture and our academia are keeping it moving forward. Anyhow, our Arts are quite well-developed, and there are formal schools of study dedicated to the development of Arts. Most of the populace use Arts in some form."

Frostnova sucked in a breath of chilly air. "Does that mean that anybody could be a threat?"

"Arts don't just include combat Arts, Yelena." Andrey replied.

"Right. Okay, continue."

"This came at a cost, however. At least during the Witch King's reign, Infected were the primary test subjects for new forms of Arts. Naturally, Infected rights weren't good back then. I'm not sure about now, however."

A faint fire of anger lit behind Frostnova's eyes. "…If I see that happen, I can and will kill whoever is doing it."

"Even if it risks this entire plan?"

"It won't come to that." Frostnova spoke with no small measure of finality.

Resigning himself to Frostnova's stubbornness, Andrey decided to change the topic. "Anything else you want to know?"

"I've already got hundreds of years of history to think over, thanks."

Well, it looked like that was it for the day. Andrey was getting tired of "speaking" anyway, he supposed. Retreating to his cave, he summoned a – solid, fortunately – bed and collapsed down onto it.

As she woke up, Levina realized, with no small measure of shock, that they were a mere day away from finding Fredrich again. Or at least she hoped.

A fact which Petrova was quick to remind her of, as the two sat down for breakfast. "We're a day out of where they should be. Thoughts?"

"I think this is going to go horribly." A Yeti snarked from behind Petrova, earning a playful jab in the stomach.

As said Yeti faked a mortal wound, Petrova laughed and turned back to Levina. "You think we'll find them?"

"I don't see any other path they would take. There's a large hill in the region; we can camp there and keep watch." Levina replied, consulting her map as she did so.

"They could be well beyond us, if they're moving through the night." Petrova pointed out.

"Fredrich is too weak for that. He scored lowest on our physical." Levina smiled. "Much to Anne's surprise."

"You'd be surprised what Frostnova can do to people."

"…You're fine with Frostnova kidnapping him?"

"Sounds like something she would do." Petrova replied. "Again, we're rebels. We don't have a code of honor, moral law, or anything like that. We'd like to be good people, but if it helps the Infected somehow, we will do it."

"…Your dedication to your cause is impressive."

Petrova smirked. "Hey, it can be your cause too."

"I… don't think I'd fit."

"Relax. We're a bunch of dead Infected. If you don't want to join, fair enough." Petrova patted Levina on the shoulder, and left to manage the other Yetis.

Levina watched him go, before standing up to organize the research team.

For once, Frostnova and Fredrich had stopped early. Frostnova now sat, alone, on the side of a snow-covered hill. The sun was slowly setting, casting a warm kaleidoscope of colors onto the snow.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Frostnova said.

"…It's unfortunate I can't watch it with you."

"Hey, you're still here." Frostnova smiled. "Alive is good enough."

"I suppose. Two days to the town, yes?"

"Mhm." Frostnova absentmindedly replied. Andrey really was stressing out, wasn't he? For once, Frostnova just wanted to forget the rest of the world and stay here, in the snow…

…If only just for the night. Her lips moved, and the words flowed out.

"Come on, Andrey. Watch the sunset with me."

AN: Romantic moment! Hopefully I wrote it right (and didn't overuse ellipsis, which I've noticed myself doing a lot lately).

In other words, I originally didn't intend Petrova and Levina to be this close. But I had to write something on the researchers / Yetis, and they were the two most significant characters. Happy accident, I suppose.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!

P.S.: I've been having some difficulty accessing AO3, so the upload there will be late.