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[FIC] abalation| fire emblem: heroes - metastable; chapters 5&6
title: metastable
series: fire emblem: heroes
sub-series: feh originals
characters: helbindi, sharena, alfonse, kiran, fjorm, anna - all of the feh originals basically
rating: T
warnings: canon-typical violence, fjorm's chronic illness, using in-game items as world building
previously: metastable, chapters 3&4
next: metastable, chapters 7&8
--
Chapter 5
Royalty did a lot of meaningless shit for the sake of appearances, Helbindi groused to himself. But, he supposed that if he had the wealth and stature of a royal he’d be bored out of his mind enough to make up unspoken rules for his entertainment too.
Without the clear drawn battle lines - you die, I live; you live, I die (by various and increasingly horrible ways) - Helbindi felt as exposed as if he were on the simmering planes of southern Múspell. Hired or not, he had to trust in these Askrans to not dump his ass at the next stop, or to hold his life above his head like you would taunt a dog with scraps. His experiences from the Brambles District to sitting with the Múspell generals had been no different.
Being with this Order of Heroes was a new experience and he wasn’t sure if he resented being in this position more or Surtr for being the reason it turned out this way.
Nah . Helbindi flicked away a dead leaf that landed on his sun warned gauntlets. he definitely hated Surtr more. At least now the bastard was feeding the worms - the sole good deed he could offer this world.
Ahead of him he spotted Princess Sharena. She had slipped out of the carriage earlier and now jogged beside the carriages and entourage with the occasional “hello,” and “yes, I’m fine!” called to the guards. Eventually though, she let herself fall back alongside Helbindi’s horse and grinned up at him. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Training?”
She let out a pleased hehehe in response. He had guessed right.
“I wanted to get in as much as I could before the weather got too bad,” Sharena elaborated, plowing through the churned up slush and mud with relative ease.
“Are those two still bickering?” Helbindi gestured with a jerk of his head to the carriage where Kiran and Commander Anna were. Sharena’s smile strained at the corners and Helbindi nodded to himself; he had guessed right again.
“Not anymore,” she said. Which could mean a lot of things. “But they need to cool down before they can make up.”
Helbindi clucked his tongue dismissively. Maybe the power dynamics weren’t too different after all. Kiran’s ability to create an infinite army was valuable beyond measure - they shouldn't be surprised that Askr’s little military project wanted to keep them close at hand at all times.
“Hup-!” Sharena expertly dodged a too deep rut in the road. Now that they had left the city, the quality of the roads leading to the mountains had plummeted. Especially the one they were on - the one leading to Múspell.
Maybe he’d twist Hríd’s ear into getting them maintained more - if he decided to take him up on his offer as an advisor that was. But then he made the mistake of smirking to himself at the mental image and Sharena spotted it.
“What’s got you grinning, hmm?”
“None of your business.”
Sharena clapped her hands together pleadingly. “Please? It’s rare of you to smile, period! I haven’t seen that kind of grin on you at all before.”
“What, you catalogue this sorta stuff?” Helbindi squinted down at her - it might have been sweet since she had insisted she would befriend him when he had woken up in the Askr army infirmary. but it also meant she could be keeping watch on him as a former enemy.
“It’s the kind of thing friends notice!” Sharena said, grinning widely.
Helbindi looked down flatly at Sharena - who was covered in mud from the knees down and red faced from exertion. In that moment, much to his chagrin, he believed her.
“Nope.”
Sharena let out a good-natured, “Aww! Phooey,” and let her face screw up into a false pout.
For a heartbeat Helbindi thought she might try again, or to order or threaten him to spill. But she didn’t. Instead she grinned once more. “You’ve got your reasons then.”
And then the matter dropped.
Not that it stopped Sharena from pestering him about other things. If he had hobbies, what his favorite meal was, and the like. She chatted about the heroes Kiran had summoned and the worlds they were from.
Royals.
Still… Helbindi shifted his weight, let his horse have her head, and tapped his heels into her sides. They sprang forward, heading forwards to the front of the line, and Helbindi twisted back to call to a puzzled Sharena.
“You gonna keep up, or what?”
Sharena smiled brightly, and then with determination in her face and the swing of her arms she picked up her legs to join in this impromptu race.
-
Snowflakes were beginning to gather on the ledge of the little window when Sharena returned. The door flung open and a mud caked princess waved to them all. Fjorm sat too far away to help pull her back into the moving carriage but she shared a giggle with Sharena and Kiran at her filthy state.
“I didn’t know mud masks were popular here too,” Kiran teased.
Sharena looked as if she had fallen face first into the muck and Fjorm pulled out her canteen and a handkerchief to offer. Gratefully, Sharena accepted and wiped the worst of the grit from her face and neck.“I tried racing Helbindi, but then I hit a patch of ice and splat .”
Sharena mimed the impact with her hands. Beside Fjorm, and with the ghost of a smile, Alfonse sighed and shook his head.
-
Anna swung out of the carriage an hour before they reached the pass and sat astride her own horse to watch the flow of soldiers go by. The storm had been swift in its arrival - even if the party had left the capital at daybreak they would have not beaten it - and already the heavy snow was getting ankle deep. Anna looked down from the dark skies towards the second carriage that held their supplies for the journey. Upon it and sitting next to the driver, one of the royal Askran mages held their hands aloft and kept the worst of the howling winds at bay.
It made for slow going since the protection only extended so far. Beyond it, the wind cut to the quick with its bone chilling howls. No one was eager to stray far.
But unless they wanted to be trapped in Nifl until spring - or return to the capital to go the long way around the mountain range, which would take weeks even then - the party needed to get through the pass and quickly.
One by one, like fireflies in the grey air, torches lit up. Even someone proficient in light magic managed to keep a weak orb of light above the carriage carrying Kiran and the royalty.
Anna felt her cheeks burn again with embarrassment but didn’t stop to dwell on things. She had higher stakes to prioritize.
“Good idea!” Anna commended the soldier with the magic. Even if the torches wouldn’t stay lit then the light would act as a beacon to prevent strays.
Not there would be much straying possible, Anna looked up at the sheer cliffs on either side of the party. Partially natural, partially man made, the Wolf’s Fang cut a curve through the narrowest part of the mountain range and would spit them out into the narrow desert on Múspell’s border. The wider end started in Nifl, but the path would only be more treacherous the closer to Múspell they got.
They had all overcome worse, Anna thought, even as a strong gust pushed through the wind wards and bit at her face with cold. Easy.
-
Kiran was, unhappily, left alone in the carriage. Even Fjorm, who shook and sometimes bent over double by her coughing fits had left the little protection they had in the carriage to walk alongside it. The weight of so many people combined with the ever deepening snow was forcing the party to a crawl. So Alfonse, Sharena, and Fjorm had all left to help clear snow from the wheels and alleviate horses’ load.
The window had frosted over, blocking Kiran’s view of outside. Resentment settled in the back of their throat like a bad taste; for being considered so weak and so valuable that even if the future of Askr’s throne could walk in through storm but not them-
What had started out as a joke on Kiran’s part earlier, a witty retort to Anna’s claim, had them quickly realizing otherwise. Anna had been serious in her own weird money grubbing way. Angrily, Kiran wiped away the doodle they drew on the window, realizing they had been drawing home. Somber, cold, and alone, Kiran tried to make themself comfortable in the rocking carriage.
-
A boulder barred the way forward. At some point a rockslide had happened - recently if the light layer of snow was anything to go by - and so several soldiers armed with lances were tasked to lever the heavy stone up and out of the way.
Commander Anna stood by to oversee and assist. Her red hair the only bit of color that stood out as she and everything else all began to blur behind an increasingly heavy curtain of snow. Helbindi rolled his shoulders, thankful for the thick Askran uniform and cloak to keep the worst of the chill at bay.
“Hello, Helbindi.”
Helbindi looked sideways at the approaching princess with now what written all over his face. “Shouldn’t you be in there?” Helbindi jerked a thumb at the warmly lit carriage. “You’ll be hacking up your lungs in this cold.”
Fjorm smiled, but it wasn’t out of amusement. It was rather sad. “The mountain air can do me no more harm than inside will do me good.”
He considered her for a moment, calculating, before shrugging and spreading his palms helplessly. “Stay then. But stay close and don’t go waltzing off a cliff.”
“I promise.” Just then, Fjorm’s smile turned just the slightest bit merry. “I will look out for you as well, Helbindi.”
Helbindi’s eye twitched. Was she looking to deeply into things, or had she overheard the promise he had made to Hríd?
“Bah, suit yourself.” Helbindi grumbled with a wave of the hand. He decided he didn’t particularly care. Everyone could keep their scheming and double meanings to themselves. He had a job to make sure none of them died and it was as easy as that.
--
Chapter 6
“Careful! Careful,” Anna dropped from the saddle. Her horse had started to shy and the ground was far too uneven to attempt to rein the damn beast back in. She held her hands up to call for a halt. While the soldiers’ efforts had slowly but surely forced the boulder to move, the stone was also the only thing holding back a torrent of rock and ever increasing snow.
Two of the five let off on their lances and stepped back as more snow trickled down their cloaks and necks; pebbles skittered to the ground and the mass stopped its lurch forward. Easing their lances out, the remaining soldiers stepped back as well. They would have to do it in bits, Anna thought as she tapped a finger to her chin, at least until the boulder was rolled far over enough for the carriages to go over the mess. Dark would come faster than her whole platoon could clear it away and they still had more than half of the pass to get through.
Anna turned back to the rest, hands on her hips, to evaluate. Time was of the essence, but so was caution. Alfonse was helping Kiran down from the carriage - they could be so stubborn sometimes! But Anna would have to deal with that situation later - and Sharena was moving up and towards Anna, still dreadfully caked in cold mud. A change of clothes for Sharena was in order, and while they had packed, all of their supplies were stowed-
A light went off above Anna’s head. She would have the pots and pans taken out, as well as the latrine shovels. With everyone divided up into teams (Kiran included, which might help start to ease the burn of their argument), they could all start taking the burden off of the boulder and to make a bridge-
The boulder moved.
Left to teeter on edge and propelled forward by the weight behind it, the boulder rolled over as easily as a baby in a crib. Anna turned as she heard the clack of rocks hitting, and then there was snow barreling down upon them all.
-
Fjorm burst through the surface coughing. Her face was wet with snow and tears and Fjorm struggled to breathe while her body insisted it needed everything out - including air. There was grit in her eyes and distantly she realized the wind bit at a wound on her cheek. While in the last months she had felt as if she was freezing from the inside out, now her lungs burned with each heave and struggle against the snow pressing against her on all sides.
Time came to a crawl as Fjorm struggled. Struggled to breathe, to dig herself out, to know where she was, and what happened. She freed an arm and wiped her eyes clear before snow blew into them again. Barely an arm’s length away, she saw a hand poking limply out.
Fjorm kicked and clawed the rest of her way out, as desperate as a wild animal to grab for that hand. To pull them out. At last she kicked her way onto her stomach and Fjorm crawled her way over and closed her hand around the stranger’s. I’m here.
The hand didn’t squeeze back and Fjorm nearly cried. But she didn’t have the time. She had to dig.
-
Fjorm was joined with others. Others who had stood far enough away, by those who had been by the carriages. Even one of the horses managed to thrash its way out of the drifts and stood trembling in shock farther away.
“Helbindi!” Fjorm called when she recognized the gauntlet on the glove. And slowly she and the soldier with her unburied the man’s face and a leg.
For a gut wrenching moment, Fjorm thought the leg was Helbindi’s - the knee is far too awkwardly bent, he must have broken his back right in two - before Alfonse’s sword hilt breached the surface and wiggled pathetically in the air.
Helbindi took in a ragged breath as he came to consciousness and Fjorm did cry from relief. With all four moving and digging, Helbindi and Alfonse were uncovered and dragged out.
“Thank you,” Alfonse managed as he shivered horribly. The soldier who had helped Fjorm dig draped a coat over Alfonse’s shoulders and Fjorm closed her eyes as she realized the coat had come from one of the dead men.
"Don’t… mention it,” Helbindi waved dismissively. He managed to stand and Alfonse was soon scrambling to do the same.
Fjorm had already turned away to search for more.
-
Night had fallen as far as Helbindi could tell. With the clouds and snow darkening the skies, he could barely tell what was in front of his own face. Someone had lit a torch, but the weak light did little as everyone frantically dug.
Helbindi had managed to snag Alfonse by the waist when the snow plowed them over. His horse was dead for sure, but the prince had been smart enough to dig an air pocket for both himself and Helbindi to breathe into before the snow had settled down and left them suspended.
A soldier’s empty eyes stared up at the sky and Helbindi closed them with a swift motion. He moved on, squinting into the dark and cursing with every step that sent him sinking down to his knees.
Something shifted under his foot and like a man possessed, Helbindi pulled back with a shout and dug. His hands felt like blocks of ice, but he kept going. Fjorm and two soldiers joined him and they all just kept going.
Sharena’s hair announced who she was, and soon, but not soon enough, she was being hauled out feet first. Helbindi felt something snag, and looked down to see Sharena’s mouth moving silently - she had no air to call for them to wait - and her hands clasped with a soldier’s.
And then abruptly, with the princess still desperately trying to save someone while she was being saved, light fell upon them all. Helbindi turned and squinted into what had to be the sun. It was far too bright, too large, and too close to be torchlight.
“Help!” Someone called out. “We’ve got people still trapped!”
More voices rose up in an abrupt clamor, making Helbindi realize how deathly silent everything had been up until that point, with pleas for help and cries of salvation. The light dimmed and Helbindi realized it was magic just as Princess Laevetein and a dozen others strode out from under the light.
-
By technicalities, Prince Alfonse was next in command - as both the Askran prince and second of the Order of Heroes. And while Laevetein acknowledged the prince’s skills in strategy and battle, he had none of the prowess in dealing with accidents or snap decisions. So she and Helbindi took the lead.
“Dig where he tells you,” she ordered half of her entourage, to the rest, the ones that knew healing: “You. With me.”
Her caster sent the light higher above their heads and Laevetein surveyed the damage. Helbindi had organized groups of three to four to dig. Effective and they would not crowd one another. Scattered about were the Askran royalty and a few others meant to find the remaining survivors.
Or dead. Laevetein looked down.
Princess Fjorm had made her way to her steed’s side, but before she could speak, Laevetein asked, “how many.”
How many missing was what she meant, but Fjorm understood.
“Five. Including the Order’s commander and summonder.”
Laevetein nodded. “Wounded?”
“There,” Fjorm pointed to the huddled group. Laevetein nodded and reached over her shoulder - not for her sword, but for her staff.
Fjorm’s eyes were wide. “You know how to heal?”
“It was necessary,” Laevetein answered.
-
With every minute that passed, Fjorm knew her friends’ chances of survival dwindled. She could have screamed at her selfishness. That her hope was that the next people found were Kiran and the commander. She looked out onto the half recovered carriages and blew out another shuddering breath that fogged around her.
In the corner of her eye she could see the bodies that lay stretched out just on the edge of the light’s range and left to be blanketed in snow. There was no ceremony for the dead in a storm. So Fjorm closed her eyes, willing for the thousandth time that her friends were alive.
Fjorm knew her efforts were best kept to the healers, to tell them best how to treat the shock and cold and frostbite. But she could be searching still. Kiran had saved her, she owed it to them to help them out - even just this once.
The light shone brightly even with her eyes shut tight and Fjorm looked up, wondering why the source had moved. But this light was brighter - like a defiant ray of sun of the dawn.
And it was coming from under the snow.
“There!”
-
Kiran and Anna both gasped and coughed once their little den of packed snow was breached. Anna was laid out across Kiran’s lap, her shoulder and arm covered in frozen blood, and they both raised hands defensively against the incoming light from Laevetein’s caster.
Sharena, arms outstretched for them to grab onto, watched as the crumbled remains of a pendant left Kiran’s hand. The bits of stone and gem, once so intricately carved, seemed to turn to ash in the heartbeat from leaving Kiran’s palm to vanish into the dark. Her chest tightened, knowing how close the two had been from death.
-
The healer’s tone was reverent when she threw a blanket over Kiran’s shoulders and she trembled from excitement. Kiran trembled from the cold instead. “You can bring back the dead!”
“No.” Kiran’s voice was hoarse, and not just from the exertion. “No… I can’t. I’ve- I’ve tried. It only works to bring you back from the very edge of death. But not…”
They gestured to the dead soldiers laid out under the harsh light. It felt as white and artificial as the fluorescent lights from home.
“I’m sorry,” Kiran mumbled, even if they didn’t know who they were saying it to the soldiers, their families, or to the survivors. “I can’t help them.”
“But-”
Anna’s hand clasped over Kiran’s shoulder firmly and the healer looked up sharply in surprise. Though Anna’s sleeve was drenched in red, she bore no signs of pain or stiffness. If anything, the commander looked better than ever.
“Kiran is powerful, but not almighty. Let them be.”
The healer stammered her apologies and left, but Anna didn’t let up on her grip of Kiran. Instead, she and Kiran watched as the carriages were uncovered and the dead horses exchanged for ones from Laevetein’s entourage.
“Thank you, for saving me. I know I put so many doubts into you when we were at Nifl, but... “ Anna let go of Kiran’s shoulder to sit beside them in the snow. “Thank you. For aiding us - me - over and over even though we ask so much of you.”
Kiran looked away from the carriage to Anna, face unreadable. When the two of them had been buried, they had no air to spare on these words. But now they did.
“You were the first person I met here, Anna. You called for me, and sometimes… sometimes I wonder if I was kidnapped. Or if I’m some sort of army making machine for Askr. And I feel so silly and wrong when I have friends like you, Alfonse, Sharena, Fjorm… everyone.”
Kiran drew their knees up close. “Am I free to leave whenever - wherever -I want, Anna? Am I free to go home again if the time comes?”
-
Anna said something back to Kiran, and their shoulders dropped in relief. But whatever she said was swallowed up by the wind and crunch of snow as someone came to stand by Fjorm’s side.
“Hey.” Helbindi said gruffly, and Fjorm turned to him, feeling like she was eavesdropping on Kiran and Anna’s conversation. “You and me? We’re even.”
Fjorm blinked in confusion. “I… my apologies. I’ve missed something.”
“This whole Nifl ritual with saving someone from the snow deal? You saved me so it cancels out whatever obligation you felt you had earlier.”
Speechless, Fjorm felt her jaw drop. She could have explained the nuance of obligations and honor and codes followed in Nifl - if not spoken outright then the ones you learned as a child and kept with you like mannerisms. She could have accepted his terms with a polite nod and smile. But Fjorm did neither.
She threw back her head and laughed. Laughed at the passing of death’s hand, laughed at the sheer joy and relief of having her friends alive and well, and laughed at being alive even if for a short while longer.
series: fire emblem: heroes
sub-series: feh originals
characters: helbindi, sharena, alfonse, kiran, fjorm, anna - all of the feh originals basically
rating: T
warnings: canon-typical violence, fjorm's chronic illness, using in-game items as world building
previously: metastable, chapters 3&4
next: metastable, chapters 7&8
--
Chapter 5
Royalty did a lot of meaningless shit for the sake of appearances, Helbindi groused to himself. But, he supposed that if he had the wealth and stature of a royal he’d be bored out of his mind enough to make up unspoken rules for his entertainment too.
Without the clear drawn battle lines - you die, I live; you live, I die (by various and increasingly horrible ways) - Helbindi felt as exposed as if he were on the simmering planes of southern Múspell. Hired or not, he had to trust in these Askrans to not dump his ass at the next stop, or to hold his life above his head like you would taunt a dog with scraps. His experiences from the Brambles District to sitting with the Múspell generals had been no different.
Being with this Order of Heroes was a new experience and he wasn’t sure if he resented being in this position more or Surtr for being the reason it turned out this way.
Nah . Helbindi flicked away a dead leaf that landed on his sun warned gauntlets. he definitely hated Surtr more. At least now the bastard was feeding the worms - the sole good deed he could offer this world.
Ahead of him he spotted Princess Sharena. She had slipped out of the carriage earlier and now jogged beside the carriages and entourage with the occasional “hello,” and “yes, I’m fine!” called to the guards. Eventually though, she let herself fall back alongside Helbindi’s horse and grinned up at him. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Training?”
She let out a pleased hehehe in response. He had guessed right.
“I wanted to get in as much as I could before the weather got too bad,” Sharena elaborated, plowing through the churned up slush and mud with relative ease.
“Are those two still bickering?” Helbindi gestured with a jerk of his head to the carriage where Kiran and Commander Anna were. Sharena’s smile strained at the corners and Helbindi nodded to himself; he had guessed right again.
“Not anymore,” she said. Which could mean a lot of things. “But they need to cool down before they can make up.”
Helbindi clucked his tongue dismissively. Maybe the power dynamics weren’t too different after all. Kiran’s ability to create an infinite army was valuable beyond measure - they shouldn't be surprised that Askr’s little military project wanted to keep them close at hand at all times.
“Hup-!” Sharena expertly dodged a too deep rut in the road. Now that they had left the city, the quality of the roads leading to the mountains had plummeted. Especially the one they were on - the one leading to Múspell.
Maybe he’d twist Hríd’s ear into getting them maintained more - if he decided to take him up on his offer as an advisor that was. But then he made the mistake of smirking to himself at the mental image and Sharena spotted it.
“What’s got you grinning, hmm?”
“None of your business.”
Sharena clapped her hands together pleadingly. “Please? It’s rare of you to smile, period! I haven’t seen that kind of grin on you at all before.”
“What, you catalogue this sorta stuff?” Helbindi squinted down at her - it might have been sweet since she had insisted she would befriend him when he had woken up in the Askr army infirmary. but it also meant she could be keeping watch on him as a former enemy.
“It’s the kind of thing friends notice!” Sharena said, grinning widely.
Helbindi looked down flatly at Sharena - who was covered in mud from the knees down and red faced from exertion. In that moment, much to his chagrin, he believed her.
“Nope.”
Sharena let out a good-natured, “Aww! Phooey,” and let her face screw up into a false pout.
For a heartbeat Helbindi thought she might try again, or to order or threaten him to spill. But she didn’t. Instead she grinned once more. “You’ve got your reasons then.”
And then the matter dropped.
Not that it stopped Sharena from pestering him about other things. If he had hobbies, what his favorite meal was, and the like. She chatted about the heroes Kiran had summoned and the worlds they were from.
Royals.
Still… Helbindi shifted his weight, let his horse have her head, and tapped his heels into her sides. They sprang forward, heading forwards to the front of the line, and Helbindi twisted back to call to a puzzled Sharena.
“You gonna keep up, or what?”
Sharena smiled brightly, and then with determination in her face and the swing of her arms she picked up her legs to join in this impromptu race.
-
Snowflakes were beginning to gather on the ledge of the little window when Sharena returned. The door flung open and a mud caked princess waved to them all. Fjorm sat too far away to help pull her back into the moving carriage but she shared a giggle with Sharena and Kiran at her filthy state.
“I didn’t know mud masks were popular here too,” Kiran teased.
Sharena looked as if she had fallen face first into the muck and Fjorm pulled out her canteen and a handkerchief to offer. Gratefully, Sharena accepted and wiped the worst of the grit from her face and neck.“I tried racing Helbindi, but then I hit a patch of ice and splat .”
Sharena mimed the impact with her hands. Beside Fjorm, and with the ghost of a smile, Alfonse sighed and shook his head.
-
Anna swung out of the carriage an hour before they reached the pass and sat astride her own horse to watch the flow of soldiers go by. The storm had been swift in its arrival - even if the party had left the capital at daybreak they would have not beaten it - and already the heavy snow was getting ankle deep. Anna looked down from the dark skies towards the second carriage that held their supplies for the journey. Upon it and sitting next to the driver, one of the royal Askran mages held their hands aloft and kept the worst of the howling winds at bay.
It made for slow going since the protection only extended so far. Beyond it, the wind cut to the quick with its bone chilling howls. No one was eager to stray far.
But unless they wanted to be trapped in Nifl until spring - or return to the capital to go the long way around the mountain range, which would take weeks even then - the party needed to get through the pass and quickly.
One by one, like fireflies in the grey air, torches lit up. Even someone proficient in light magic managed to keep a weak orb of light above the carriage carrying Kiran and the royalty.
Anna felt her cheeks burn again with embarrassment but didn’t stop to dwell on things. She had higher stakes to prioritize.
“Good idea!” Anna commended the soldier with the magic. Even if the torches wouldn’t stay lit then the light would act as a beacon to prevent strays.
Not there would be much straying possible, Anna looked up at the sheer cliffs on either side of the party. Partially natural, partially man made, the Wolf’s Fang cut a curve through the narrowest part of the mountain range and would spit them out into the narrow desert on Múspell’s border. The wider end started in Nifl, but the path would only be more treacherous the closer to Múspell they got.
They had all overcome worse, Anna thought, even as a strong gust pushed through the wind wards and bit at her face with cold. Easy.
-
Kiran was, unhappily, left alone in the carriage. Even Fjorm, who shook and sometimes bent over double by her coughing fits had left the little protection they had in the carriage to walk alongside it. The weight of so many people combined with the ever deepening snow was forcing the party to a crawl. So Alfonse, Sharena, and Fjorm had all left to help clear snow from the wheels and alleviate horses’ load.
The window had frosted over, blocking Kiran’s view of outside. Resentment settled in the back of their throat like a bad taste; for being considered so weak and so valuable that even if the future of Askr’s throne could walk in through storm but not them-
What had started out as a joke on Kiran’s part earlier, a witty retort to Anna’s claim, had them quickly realizing otherwise. Anna had been serious in her own weird money grubbing way. Angrily, Kiran wiped away the doodle they drew on the window, realizing they had been drawing home. Somber, cold, and alone, Kiran tried to make themself comfortable in the rocking carriage.
-
A boulder barred the way forward. At some point a rockslide had happened - recently if the light layer of snow was anything to go by - and so several soldiers armed with lances were tasked to lever the heavy stone up and out of the way.
Commander Anna stood by to oversee and assist. Her red hair the only bit of color that stood out as she and everything else all began to blur behind an increasingly heavy curtain of snow. Helbindi rolled his shoulders, thankful for the thick Askran uniform and cloak to keep the worst of the chill at bay.
“Hello, Helbindi.”
Helbindi looked sideways at the approaching princess with now what written all over his face. “Shouldn’t you be in there?” Helbindi jerked a thumb at the warmly lit carriage. “You’ll be hacking up your lungs in this cold.”
Fjorm smiled, but it wasn’t out of amusement. It was rather sad. “The mountain air can do me no more harm than inside will do me good.”
He considered her for a moment, calculating, before shrugging and spreading his palms helplessly. “Stay then. But stay close and don’t go waltzing off a cliff.”
“I promise.” Just then, Fjorm’s smile turned just the slightest bit merry. “I will look out for you as well, Helbindi.”
Helbindi’s eye twitched. Was she looking to deeply into things, or had she overheard the promise he had made to Hríd?
“Bah, suit yourself.” Helbindi grumbled with a wave of the hand. He decided he didn’t particularly care. Everyone could keep their scheming and double meanings to themselves. He had a job to make sure none of them died and it was as easy as that.
--
Chapter 6
“Careful! Careful,” Anna dropped from the saddle. Her horse had started to shy and the ground was far too uneven to attempt to rein the damn beast back in. She held her hands up to call for a halt. While the soldiers’ efforts had slowly but surely forced the boulder to move, the stone was also the only thing holding back a torrent of rock and ever increasing snow.
Two of the five let off on their lances and stepped back as more snow trickled down their cloaks and necks; pebbles skittered to the ground and the mass stopped its lurch forward. Easing their lances out, the remaining soldiers stepped back as well. They would have to do it in bits, Anna thought as she tapped a finger to her chin, at least until the boulder was rolled far over enough for the carriages to go over the mess. Dark would come faster than her whole platoon could clear it away and they still had more than half of the pass to get through.
Anna turned back to the rest, hands on her hips, to evaluate. Time was of the essence, but so was caution. Alfonse was helping Kiran down from the carriage - they could be so stubborn sometimes! But Anna would have to deal with that situation later - and Sharena was moving up and towards Anna, still dreadfully caked in cold mud. A change of clothes for Sharena was in order, and while they had packed, all of their supplies were stowed-
A light went off above Anna’s head. She would have the pots and pans taken out, as well as the latrine shovels. With everyone divided up into teams (Kiran included, which might help start to ease the burn of their argument), they could all start taking the burden off of the boulder and to make a bridge-
The boulder moved.
Left to teeter on edge and propelled forward by the weight behind it, the boulder rolled over as easily as a baby in a crib. Anna turned as she heard the clack of rocks hitting, and then there was snow barreling down upon them all.
-
Fjorm burst through the surface coughing. Her face was wet with snow and tears and Fjorm struggled to breathe while her body insisted it needed everything out - including air. There was grit in her eyes and distantly she realized the wind bit at a wound on her cheek. While in the last months she had felt as if she was freezing from the inside out, now her lungs burned with each heave and struggle against the snow pressing against her on all sides.
Time came to a crawl as Fjorm struggled. Struggled to breathe, to dig herself out, to know where she was, and what happened. She freed an arm and wiped her eyes clear before snow blew into them again. Barely an arm’s length away, she saw a hand poking limply out.
Fjorm kicked and clawed the rest of her way out, as desperate as a wild animal to grab for that hand. To pull them out. At last she kicked her way onto her stomach and Fjorm crawled her way over and closed her hand around the stranger’s. I’m here.
The hand didn’t squeeze back and Fjorm nearly cried. But she didn’t have the time. She had to dig.
-
Fjorm was joined with others. Others who had stood far enough away, by those who had been by the carriages. Even one of the horses managed to thrash its way out of the drifts and stood trembling in shock farther away.
“Helbindi!” Fjorm called when she recognized the gauntlet on the glove. And slowly she and the soldier with her unburied the man’s face and a leg.
For a gut wrenching moment, Fjorm thought the leg was Helbindi’s - the knee is far too awkwardly bent, he must have broken his back right in two - before Alfonse’s sword hilt breached the surface and wiggled pathetically in the air.
Helbindi took in a ragged breath as he came to consciousness and Fjorm did cry from relief. With all four moving and digging, Helbindi and Alfonse were uncovered and dragged out.
“Thank you,” Alfonse managed as he shivered horribly. The soldier who had helped Fjorm dig draped a coat over Alfonse’s shoulders and Fjorm closed her eyes as she realized the coat had come from one of the dead men.
"Don’t… mention it,” Helbindi waved dismissively. He managed to stand and Alfonse was soon scrambling to do the same.
Fjorm had already turned away to search for more.
-
Night had fallen as far as Helbindi could tell. With the clouds and snow darkening the skies, he could barely tell what was in front of his own face. Someone had lit a torch, but the weak light did little as everyone frantically dug.
Helbindi had managed to snag Alfonse by the waist when the snow plowed them over. His horse was dead for sure, but the prince had been smart enough to dig an air pocket for both himself and Helbindi to breathe into before the snow had settled down and left them suspended.
A soldier’s empty eyes stared up at the sky and Helbindi closed them with a swift motion. He moved on, squinting into the dark and cursing with every step that sent him sinking down to his knees.
Something shifted under his foot and like a man possessed, Helbindi pulled back with a shout and dug. His hands felt like blocks of ice, but he kept going. Fjorm and two soldiers joined him and they all just kept going.
Sharena’s hair announced who she was, and soon, but not soon enough, she was being hauled out feet first. Helbindi felt something snag, and looked down to see Sharena’s mouth moving silently - she had no air to call for them to wait - and her hands clasped with a soldier’s.
And then abruptly, with the princess still desperately trying to save someone while she was being saved, light fell upon them all. Helbindi turned and squinted into what had to be the sun. It was far too bright, too large, and too close to be torchlight.
“Help!” Someone called out. “We’ve got people still trapped!”
More voices rose up in an abrupt clamor, making Helbindi realize how deathly silent everything had been up until that point, with pleas for help and cries of salvation. The light dimmed and Helbindi realized it was magic just as Princess Laevetein and a dozen others strode out from under the light.
-
By technicalities, Prince Alfonse was next in command - as both the Askran prince and second of the Order of Heroes. And while Laevetein acknowledged the prince’s skills in strategy and battle, he had none of the prowess in dealing with accidents or snap decisions. So she and Helbindi took the lead.
“Dig where he tells you,” she ordered half of her entourage, to the rest, the ones that knew healing: “You. With me.”
Her caster sent the light higher above their heads and Laevetein surveyed the damage. Helbindi had organized groups of three to four to dig. Effective and they would not crowd one another. Scattered about were the Askran royalty and a few others meant to find the remaining survivors.
Or dead. Laevetein looked down.
Princess Fjorm had made her way to her steed’s side, but before she could speak, Laevetein asked, “how many.”
How many missing was what she meant, but Fjorm understood.
“Five. Including the Order’s commander and summonder.”
Laevetein nodded. “Wounded?”
“There,” Fjorm pointed to the huddled group. Laevetein nodded and reached over her shoulder - not for her sword, but for her staff.
Fjorm’s eyes were wide. “You know how to heal?”
“It was necessary,” Laevetein answered.
-
With every minute that passed, Fjorm knew her friends’ chances of survival dwindled. She could have screamed at her selfishness. That her hope was that the next people found were Kiran and the commander. She looked out onto the half recovered carriages and blew out another shuddering breath that fogged around her.
In the corner of her eye she could see the bodies that lay stretched out just on the edge of the light’s range and left to be blanketed in snow. There was no ceremony for the dead in a storm. So Fjorm closed her eyes, willing for the thousandth time that her friends were alive.
Fjorm knew her efforts were best kept to the healers, to tell them best how to treat the shock and cold and frostbite. But she could be searching still. Kiran had saved her, she owed it to them to help them out - even just this once.
The light shone brightly even with her eyes shut tight and Fjorm looked up, wondering why the source had moved. But this light was brighter - like a defiant ray of sun of the dawn.
And it was coming from under the snow.
“There!”
-
Kiran and Anna both gasped and coughed once their little den of packed snow was breached. Anna was laid out across Kiran’s lap, her shoulder and arm covered in frozen blood, and they both raised hands defensively against the incoming light from Laevetein’s caster.
Sharena, arms outstretched for them to grab onto, watched as the crumbled remains of a pendant left Kiran’s hand. The bits of stone and gem, once so intricately carved, seemed to turn to ash in the heartbeat from leaving Kiran’s palm to vanish into the dark. Her chest tightened, knowing how close the two had been from death.
-
The healer’s tone was reverent when she threw a blanket over Kiran’s shoulders and she trembled from excitement. Kiran trembled from the cold instead. “You can bring back the dead!”
“No.” Kiran’s voice was hoarse, and not just from the exertion. “No… I can’t. I’ve- I’ve tried. It only works to bring you back from the very edge of death. But not…”
They gestured to the dead soldiers laid out under the harsh light. It felt as white and artificial as the fluorescent lights from home.
“I’m sorry,” Kiran mumbled, even if they didn’t know who they were saying it to the soldiers, their families, or to the survivors. “I can’t help them.”
“But-”
Anna’s hand clasped over Kiran’s shoulder firmly and the healer looked up sharply in surprise. Though Anna’s sleeve was drenched in red, she bore no signs of pain or stiffness. If anything, the commander looked better than ever.
“Kiran is powerful, but not almighty. Let them be.”
The healer stammered her apologies and left, but Anna didn’t let up on her grip of Kiran. Instead, she and Kiran watched as the carriages were uncovered and the dead horses exchanged for ones from Laevetein’s entourage.
“Thank you, for saving me. I know I put so many doubts into you when we were at Nifl, but... “ Anna let go of Kiran’s shoulder to sit beside them in the snow. “Thank you. For aiding us - me - over and over even though we ask so much of you.”
Kiran looked away from the carriage to Anna, face unreadable. When the two of them had been buried, they had no air to spare on these words. But now they did.
“You were the first person I met here, Anna. You called for me, and sometimes… sometimes I wonder if I was kidnapped. Or if I’m some sort of army making machine for Askr. And I feel so silly and wrong when I have friends like you, Alfonse, Sharena, Fjorm… everyone.”
Kiran drew their knees up close. “Am I free to leave whenever - wherever -I want, Anna? Am I free to go home again if the time comes?”
-
Anna said something back to Kiran, and their shoulders dropped in relief. But whatever she said was swallowed up by the wind and crunch of snow as someone came to stand by Fjorm’s side.
“Hey.” Helbindi said gruffly, and Fjorm turned to him, feeling like she was eavesdropping on Kiran and Anna’s conversation. “You and me? We’re even.”
Fjorm blinked in confusion. “I… my apologies. I’ve missed something.”
“This whole Nifl ritual with saving someone from the snow deal? You saved me so it cancels out whatever obligation you felt you had earlier.”
Speechless, Fjorm felt her jaw drop. She could have explained the nuance of obligations and honor and codes followed in Nifl - if not spoken outright then the ones you learned as a child and kept with you like mannerisms. She could have accepted his terms with a polite nod and smile. But Fjorm did neither.
She threw back her head and laughed. Laughed at the passing of death’s hand, laughed at the sheer joy and relief of having her friends alive and well, and laughed at being alive even if for a short while longer.