You, Too… Should Walk Forward

21st of Byrn, the forest of Auðr, the lands of Ragnvaldr

(Six days later)

The land of Ragnvaldr was known for their density of spirits, which were said to inhabit everything, including the trees. The famous golden trees of the forest of Auðr were rumored to be inhabited by the spirits of rulers and nobles of times long past.

As the trio climbed higher and higher on the mountain slopes, the air started to change. They only walked along the edge of the mountain range, and yet the forest already seemed different. The golden trees thinned and clumped closer together, their roots reaching deeper into the earth.

The morning breeze carried on it a light chill, and every now and again dewdrops caught the still-cold sunlight just right, sparkling like tiny diamonds on the bushes and flowers that clung close to the soil.

The low-growing foliage was nearly indistinguishable to the untrained eye from the multiple giant bushy spiders camouflaging themselves in order to hunt smaller monsters. Their prey was not intelligent enough to see the difference between them and the bushes while foraging, but if a human looked at them closely, they could. They did not attack humans, for they respected them, instead only purring softly to clue them in on their presence, as if reminding them to watch their step.

The roads here were less traveled. Houses on the side of the road lay empty, and what could be once considered ‘villages’ remained bare. In most that they passed, there were usually only one or two people who still lingered, too doggedly stubborn to leave. The heroes didn’t see any signs of destruction yet, everything had simply been abandoned, with their owners already met - if only with a passing glance - a few days earlier.

“War is always like this,” Fin finally said at some point, breaking the silence as she looked not at the houses, but behind her, in the direction the refugees had traveled. “Whatever possession one has, I doubt it’s worth one’s life. But then again…”

She smiled affectionately, facing forwards again and looking at the people that still clung to their daily routine: some of them gathering firewood, others feeding the household animals.

“Perhaps they still hold onto hope.” Hal also watched, her vision not as jaded by life’s cruelty.

“Eh, nah. They’re just stubborn.” Fin reached out and ruffled Hal’s hair, teasing her again for her naivety. “But,” she continued, chuckling to herself as Hal swat her hand away, “Perhaps that is their own way of surviving.”

“Perhaps…” Rei agreed as she watched Hal’s fussy antics, shaking her head with a resigned smile.

Eventually, they had to stop. The path they had been threading up to this point continued further into the mountains, through other villages and towns, but it was no longer the way they needed to go; it would only travel so much further before it became a dead end. After their stop and a discussion, the group decided to make their own detour by cutting a path through the woods based on their map.

The noon air carried on it a chillier bite than previously as they traveled deeper into the forest. Gradually a thin layer of frost began covering the ground as they walked, growing thicker as they proceeded, eventually thick enough to crunch under the weight of their steps. The animals seemed to be avoiding this region entirely, as the women hadn’t seen any deer or spiders for quite a while, long before they could see their breath in the air.

“We’re still far away from the mountain’s higher regions. This sort of weather is… Unusual,” Fin observed, squinting as she noticed further ahead along the path what looked like patches of snow.

Despite the biting cold as they advanced, the frost giving way to patchy snow giving way to accumulated snow, Hal seemed to be completely fine.

The same could not be said of Rei, however, who was trembling and clutching the folds of her dress around her tighter. She hadn’t anticipated this sort of weather, at least not this early in the year.

“You could use your sword,” Hal suggested, trying to be helpful. “It makes heat, doesn’t it?”

Hal sounded far away, mumbling and only half-paying attention as she rummaged through her bag, searching for who-knew-what.

“I don’t want to waste it on something like this…” Rei shook her head to dismiss the idea, even though she instinctually knew that there was no inherent limit to how many times she could use it.

“Then, how about this?”

On cue, Rei looked over as Hal took from her bag a traveling cloak, unfolding it and holding it out for Rei to see. Rei was skeptical, as the cloak seemed quite thin, but at this point she thought anything would be better than nothing. She ended up pleasantly surprised, as the moment Hal placed it over Rei’s shoulders, warmth started spreading through her body.

Looking at it more closely as they began moving forward again, Rei noticed its seams and the small symbols that were made out of embroidery thread, slightly glowing an ember-warm orange.

“Mom made it for me.” Hal smiled, watching as Rei examined the handiwork, pleased with herself. “The cold doesn’t bother me much, but she still made sure I packed it. I guess it came in handy, after all.” Her grin brightened just a little more.

“You can have it.”

“I see. She must love you very much, to treat you that much like a human child without thinking about it!” Rei smiled, making Hal pause for a second.

“Thank you.”

“Ye- Yeah. You’re welcome.” Hal blushed slightly, hurrying along.

“What, scared of Rei, now?” Fin teased as Hal passed her, gently batting her across the back of her head as she did.

“No! I’m going as the vanguard, like any hero would.”

“Hmmm,” Fin laughed as she looked at the confused Rei behind her, then back up to Hal. “Sure.”

The cold only continued to worsen the further they went, the snow at their feet starting to thicken and the wind howling, as if they were walking into a blizzard. Under the thick layer of ice that now formed on everything around them, the trio could see that the trees were somehow still in bloom. Blades of green grass mingled amongst the flowers that remained frozen, their beauty preserved. Here and there, a petal would be caught in the wind, somehow broken free from its icy shell, and for a split second one might wonder if they had walked into spring.

And then the blizzard wind would howl, its cold biting deeply into anything exposed, a constant reminder of this otherness.

“It’s like everything is frozen in time,” Rei eventually observed as they approached a set of houses.

The houses, along with everything else, had been deeply frozen and seemed to be kept in almost perfect condition. The ice continued to thicken the further they went, making it increasingly hard to see, but eventually the group noticed that the scenery around them had changed. The houses they passed earlier weren’t just rural one-offs, they realized; they were walking through a village - or, rather, what was once a village. It was empty, nothing other than the houses and the plants frozen in ice and time.

They didn’t see the man standing in the middle of it all until they noticed a glow inside the storm. He was taller than all of them, covered from head to toe in a white armor that interconnected perfectly, difficult to see in the snowstorm and making him look like a machine. A faint white, pulsating glow emanated from his torso, and with each pulse the wind grew and receded in turn.

Now that they could see him, it was quite obvious that he was the cause of the blizzard.

“What are you doing in this place?” he spoke, his voice deep and carrying far. “Leave. There is nothing for you here.”

“Now that we’ve found you, we can’t leave,” Hal said, crossing her arms.

“And why, pray tell, is that?” He turned his head towards her, slowly, the white glow of his helmet dimming slightly.

“This blizzard you are making - it’s not magic.”

Rei looked quizzically at Hal for a few seconds, then turned to Fin, wondering if she might know what was going on.

“That’s right. I sense no magic coming from him either,” Fin agreed, staring at the man.

“‘It’s not magic’… That is true. I possess no such thing as ‘magic,’ but what I do have might as well be ‘magic’ to you.”

“Magic or not, you’re making a big mess!” Hal pointed at him, scolding.

Fin and Rei only sighed in tandem, realizing in a frustrated unison that she hadn’t learned her lesson to just let things be. They’d both known it was a foolish hope, and yet, after all of the feelings Hal went through after the golem, they’d still clung to it.

However, after hearing those words the man gave pause, but surprisingly started to laugh. It was low at first, growing slowly louder and louder.

“I suppose that is true, yes.” He looked to Hal’s side, over to some nearby buildings.

“Everything is a mess, isn’t it?”

Hal followed his gaze, looking at the dilapidated buildings. They were preserved in ice well enough, but there was damage that couldn’t have been made by his blizzard. Now that it was pointed out to her, she could see the lingering traces of soot, the scars of a blade too big for any human hand.

She looked back up to the man and asked, “Why are you here?”

“To keep this place… exactly as it is. The good,” An arm swept out, gesturing to the gardens around them, under layers and layers of snow; the children’s playground, with all of its colors and dents; the more fortunate houses that were spared from destruction. “And the bad,” The other arm swept out as the man now gestured to the dilapidated church, barely any part of it standing; the destroyed statues and roads.

“Everything as it was.” There was no malice in his words, but there was no pride either. There really wasn’t anything to his tone, he was merely… Talking. To Hal and the others, it almost seemed like he was talking to himself.

Hal slowly walked towards him.

“Hal… What are you…?” Rei’s raised voice was caught in the blizzard. She couldn’t advance any further for how intense the wind had grown, and for a moment she could have almost sworn the wind was intentionally holding her back when she tried to step forward. She considered using her sword, but then remembered she might hit Hal.

Rei looked at Hal’s figure, a white shadow hidden behind the falling snow at this point, and realized that she didn’t seem to be planning to start a fight, at least not yet. If Hal had wanted to start something, she would be sprinting, not walking, Rei knew.

Hal, however, unimpeded by the cold and the wind and unaware of Rei’s confusion behind her, continued walking.

“It was a beautiful town,” the man continued, still seeming to be talking more to himself than Hal. “I remember the young couple down the street that always tried to find the best in others, the old woman who kept giving me candy, always insisting it was very good and sweet even though I told her again and again that I could not taste it, the small one that always clung to me, trying to put all sorts of things on me, smiling all the while.” He looked at his hands, clenching his fists.

“I want to keep their memory here, like this,” He looked at Hal, still approaching.

“It is the least I can do.” The man’s voice shifted, but only barely. Still, it was enough for Hal to hear a quiet grief he’d carried for a long time.

“No.” Hal marched on, still progressing towards him.

“This is not ‘the least you can do.’ You’re not keeping them alive, You’re just stopping yourself from ever moving on.” She now stood in front of him, looking straight up for his height and completely unafraid.

“Do you not feel the cold?”

“Oh, I feel it, alright. But that doesn’t mean I can’t walk forward despite it,” she said, placing her hand on his chest. “You, too… Should walk forward. The people here wouldn’t want you to stay stuck like this. They loved you too much for that.”

And with that, Hal pushed him just one single step backwards.

He wanted to protest, and nearly did, growing frustrated now with this funny little stranger’s audacity. But as he looked down at her, he noticed something and almost forgot about her entirely.

He reached down to the ground, and picked up a little blue ribbon that he realized must have been stepping on. He looked at his right shoulder, where a swatch of the same blue fabric barely clung to his armor. Both pieces were frozen, and yet…

He’d completely forgotten about it. He thought that it was enough to keep everything stuck in time as it was, but it wasn’t. Even like this, memories slipped through his fingers, and things that should not have been forgotten had been. Was it the village itself what he ought to remember, not the people that made this place special? No, that was wrong. And he knew that.

And yet… And yet…

He realized, for the first time in centuries, what he ought to remember.

All because of this impudent little person standing in front of him.

The humor wasn’t lost on him, and he couldn’t help but start laughing again, the blizzard slowly dying down.

“I have lived for a very, very long time. I have lost many things. Can I not rest?” His words weren’t aimed at anyone in particular, and still…

“Would the people of this place want you to have this fate? To remain here forever for their sake?” Hal asked. It was a genuine question, there was no hint of judgement in her voice.

He surprised himself, but he couldn’t help but answer, “No… I guess not.” He chuckled, glancing down again at the ribbon in his hand. “They would not.”

A few paces away Rei, trudged through the snow, trying again to get to them now that the storm had died.

“Ah!”

She managed to slip and fall, and, freshly sitting down, looked up at them from the snow.

“Rei! Are you okay?” Hal turned around at Rei’s yelp, and her eyes were wide as she started working through the thick snow to get to her friend.

“Yes, I’m fine, don’t worry.” Rei answered as she slowly worked her way back to standing.

On her feet, she looked to the man, then back to Hal, and asked, “Is everything alright?”

By now the wind had died down, and the snow ceased falling. Behind everyone, Fin was abruptly audible again, ladling a litany of swears at the snow that had worked its way into her boots, melted, and gotten her socks wet.

“Yeah, everything is good.” Hal reached for Rei’s hand - if anyone asked, Hal could say she was helping her stay steady, “... Right?” Hal turned back and smiled at the man as she confirmed with him.

“Yes.” He said, looking over at them, chuckling in amusement. “I think… I think it might just be.”