The Quarry l

The road to Rocspirit stretched east beneath three pale suns.

It had been a long morning, and neither of the two travelers seemed particularly interested in making it any longer. The old road ran between low hills, its cracked stones buried beneath patches of coarse dirt. Weeds pushed through the gaps, and broken signposts leaned toward the ditches. Nothing moved across the surrounding countryside except the grass shifting in the wind. There were no buildings nearby, no other travelers, and no sound of approaching vehicles. Just the steady crunch of footsteps against the road.

405 walked ahead.

His thin legs carried him forward at an even pace, each step accompanied by the faint click of his joints. His body was assembled from wood, cloth, and carefully fitted parts, with seams running beneath the fabric that covered his limbs. From a distance, someone might have mistaken him for a small child wearing an elaborate costume. A closer look would have made that impossible. His movements were too precise, his posture too rigid, and his face too still to pass for human.

N had spent most of the morning trying not to stare at him.
She was five years old, small enough that the uneven road occasionally forced her to skip to keep up. Her shoes were dusty, her clothes were wrinkled from sleeping in them, and the little bag hanging at her side bounced against her hip whenever she hurried. She'd complained about the pace twice already. Both times, 405 had continued walking as though her voice were no more important than the wind.
Now, the countryside was giving way to something else.

The hills narrowed around the road, and beyond them stood a forest so dense that its edge looked like a wall. Thick trunks crowded together beneath a canopy of black leaves. Their branches twisted over the road, overlapping until they formed a dark ceiling that swallowed the sunlight. The forest extended far beyond what N could see, and there was no way to tell how long it would take to reach the other side.

A weathered wooden sign stood beside the entrance.

THE WIDOW'S PATH.

The letters had been carved by hand, their edges worn smooth by years of rain and wind. Several repairs held the sign together, and a smaller inscription beneath the name warned travelers against leaving the marked trail. Someone had scratched a crude symbol into the wood, but time had made it difficult to recognize.

N stopped beside it.

405 took several more steps before she realized he hadn't stopped with her. By then, he was already approaching the first trees, his small silhouette becoming darker against the wall of black leaves.

"405?"

He didn't turn around.

N looked from him to the forest. The road disappeared beneath the branches, swallowed by a darkness that made it difficult to see more than a few feet beyond the entrance. She could make out the beginning of a narrow trail, but everything beyond it blended together. There were no birds calling from the trees now, and even the wind seemed to weaken as it reached the forest's edge.

"Um." She tightened her grip on the strap of her bag. "Do we have to go through there?"

405 continued walking.

N hurried after him, her shoes scraping against the dirt. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" He reached the first trees. "405, wait!" For a moment, his head tilted slightly. N thought he'd finally decided to acknowledge her, but he stepped beneath the branches without saying a word. His wooden body disappeared between the trunks, leaving her alone at the entrance.

N stared into the darkness. The road behind her remained bright beneath the three suns. The hills were visible in the distance, and the open countryside looked almost inviting compared to the forest ahead. She could turn around and walk back the way they'd come. She could find someone else to travel with, someone who wouldn't abandon a five-year-old at the entrance to a forest that looked like the setting of a ghost story.

Instead, she took a cautious step forward.

"405!"

Nothing answered.
She waited, listening for the familiar click of his joints. There was nothing. No footsteps, no rustling leaves, not even the sound of a branch shifting beneath his weight.

"Seriously?"

Her voice sounded embarrassingly small.

N glanced over her shoulder one last time. The road stretched behind her, empty and bright. Then she looked into the trees again, trying to convince herself that the darkness wasn't as bad as it seemed.

She hadn't come this far because she wanted an adventure. She hadn't followed a strange puppet because she thought traveling with him would be fun. Her older sister was missing, and nobody had been able to bring her home.

That was why she was here.

N wanted her sister back.
She didn't need a long explanation for why she'd disappeared. She didn't need an apology or a promise that everything would be different. She wanted to see her again, to know she was alive, and to bring her home where she belonged. Everything else could wait until they were together.
Her older brother would know what to do.
N pictured him standing in front of her with his arms folded, telling her to stop whining and get moving. He'd probably laugh if he knew she'd been frightened by a few trees. Then he'd march into the forest himself, just to prove there was nothing to fear.
She couldn't picture his face clearly enough to remember his exact expression, but she remembered how she felt whenever he was around. Even when things went wrong, he had a way of making the world seem manageable. N wanted to borrow a little of that confidence now.
She pulled her bag closer to her side.
"Fine."
She drew a deep breath and stared into the forest.
"FINE!"
Then she ran into the trees screaming.
"WAIT FOR ME, YOU STUPID PUPPET!"
Her voice bounced between the trunks, startling a flock of birds into flight. Their wings beat against the black canopy as they scattered overhead. N flinched at the sudden noise but kept running, her arms pumping as she charged into the darkness.
She expected something to jump out at her. A monster, maybe, or a wolf with too many teeth. Something that would justify how frightening the forest had looked from the road.
Nothing did.
The trail twisted between the trees, occasionally narrowing until she had to turn sideways to squeeze past the thick roots. She followed it without slowing down, determined to catch up with 405 before he disappeared completely. Every so often, she thought she heard a faint clicking sound ahead, but whenever she listened carefully, it vanished.
After a minute or two, her lungs began to burn.
N finally stopped in a small clearing where the path widened around a fallen tree. She bent forward with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and a few strands of hair had stuck to her forehead.
The forest was quiet again.
She straightened and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"405?"
Her voice carried a little farther this time. She waited, hoping to hear an answer or at least the sound of his footsteps.
A black leaf drifted down from somewhere overhead. It turned slowly as it fell, landing on the dirt beside her shoe.
N almost called out again. Then she remembered that 405 probably wouldn't answer even if he were standing ten feet away. He had a strange habit of treating questions as though they were background noise. Sometimes he'd answer hours later. Sometimes he'd ignore them entirely.
Calling for him wouldn't change anything.
With a frustrated sigh, N started walking.
The path stretched deeper into the forest, winding around exposed roots and patches of coarse earth. The trunks grew so close together in places that she had to squeeze between them, and their branches knitted together overhead until only thin gaps of pale sky remained. The farther she went, the harder it became to tell how much time had passed.
She tried to keep track of the direction.
East.
They were traveling east toward Rocspirit, though 405 had never explained why that place mattered to him. He'd only said that he was going home. N had asked what kind of home a puppet could have, but he'd offered no useful answer.
Home.
She kicked a small stone out of her way.
Was his home in Rocspirit? Or was he planning to continue farther east after they reached it? She remembered hearing about the lands beyond Avethryn, the Land of the Birds. If someone continued east past its borders, the next major territory would be Karnathar, the Land of the Giants.
N frowned as she stepped over a root.
Could 405's home really be there?
She imagined a giant sitting at a workbench, carefully carving wood and sewing little clothes, building a puppet small enough to fit beneath one arm. The image was so ridiculous that she almost laughed.
No. That couldn't be right.
A giant couldn't have made something as fragile as 405.
He was strange, and he could be annoying, and sometimes she wasn't even sure whether he was listening to her. But there was something about him that made her feel as though he could keep walking forever without getting tired. He never complained, never asked for food, and never seemed bothered by the weather. Even when the road became steep or the ground turned muddy, his pace remained unchanged.
Maybe a giant had made him. Maybe a bird had made him. Maybe someone from a place she'd never heard of had put him together.
She didn't know.
405 had a habit of leaving questions behind him without explaining why they mattered. N had started to suspect that he preferred it that way.
She continued along the trail, watching where she placed her feet.
For a while, the forest remained ordinary. The air was still, the ground was dry, and the black canopy blocked most of the sunlight. She could hear the occasional rustle above her, probably a bird shifting between branches, and the soft scuff of her shoes against the dirt.
Then the temperature dropped.
At first, N barely noticed. The shade was thick, and the wind no longer reached the ground. She rubbed her hands together and tucked them beneath her arms, assuming they'd warm up once she kept moving.
A few steps later, she saw her breath.
N stopped and stared at the small cloud drifting from her mouth. It hung in the air for a moment before disappearing.
She looked up, searching for the suns through the canopy. The black leaves were packed too tightly together. Not even a thin strip of sunlight reached the trail.
Was it getting late?
She couldn't tell. The forest had swallowed the sky.
N rubbed her arms and began walking faster. Her fingers felt stiff, and the fabric of her sleeves seemed thinner than it had a few minutes ago. She breathed into her hands, then shoved them into her pockets and hurried forward.
The temperature kept dropping.
Moisture along the exposed roots turned white. Tiny crystals formed around the edges of the black leaves, catching the faint light whenever N moved beneath them. When she brushed against a low branch, frost scattered across her shoulder.
She stopped and looked back.
The path behind her was no longer brown.
A pale crust had spread across the dirt, covering fallen leaves and climbing over the roots. The nearest tree had developed a thick layer of frost along one side of its trunk. As N watched, the white coating crept higher, branching across the bark like veins beneath skin.
She took a step backward.
The frost continued to spread.
A sharp crack rang through the trees. The trunk turned pale beneath the ice, and its black leaves stiffened until they looked like thin pieces of glass. The branches groaned beneath the sudden weight. Another crack followed, then another, as the freezing traveled from one tree to the next.
N's stomach tightened.
She'd never seen anything like it.
The frost reached the ground in front of her, moving across the dirt in a widening sheet. It swallowed the fallen leaves and covered the roots, leaving a clear, hard surface behind it. A small beetle scurried across the trail, its legs moving frantically as it tried to escape. The ice caught it before it could reach the nearest root.
N ran.
Her shoes struck the ground hard enough to send dirt scattering behind her. She didn't know where she was going. She only knew that the cold was coming after her, and every second she spent looking back was a second she couldn't spend getting away.

The trees froze as she passed them. Their branches turned white, then blue, then almost transparent. Ice filled the spaces between the roots and climbed the trunks, spreading through the forest with a speed that made no sense. The ground behind her hardened while the trail ahead remained barely warm enough to run across.

N's fingers began to hurt.

She shoved them deeper into her sleeves and kept moving. Her breathing grew ragged, and the cold air scraped against her throat. She could feel her shoes stiffening around her feet. The tips of her fingers had gone numb, and her knees were beginning to ache with every stride.
A thin layer of frost appeared over the path ahead.
N tried to change direction, but her foot slipped. She caught herself against a tree, pressing her palm against its trunk, and immediately recoiled with a sharp cry. The bark felt as though she'd pressed her hand against something burning. Pain shot through her palm and up her arm, so sudden and intense that she couldn't even scream properly.
She clutched her hand against her chest.
The cold wasn't normal.
It wasn't winter, and it wasn't snow falling from the sky. There was no wind carrying ice down from a mountain. The temperature was dropping too quickly, and the frost was spreading too deliberately.
Something was doing this.
Something was freezing the forest around her.
N forced herself forward, tears gathering in her eyes. Her legs felt heavier with every step, and she couldn't feel the tips of her fingers at all. She tried to call for 405, but the first sound caught in her throat. She swallowed, tried again, and managed only a frightened whisper.
"405..."
The forest offered no answer.
Then she heard footsteps.
Soft ones.
Not her own.
They came from behind her, measured and unhurried, following the trail as though whoever made them had no reason to run. The sound was almost lost beneath the crackling of the ice, but once N noticed it, she couldn't stop hearing it.
She glanced over her shoulder.
The trees behind her had disappeared beneath a curtain of white frost. Their outlines were barely visible, and the trail she'd followed was now a narrow tunnel between frozen trunks. She couldn't see anyone moving through it.
The footsteps continued.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
N turned forward and ran harder.
A voice drifted through the trees.
"In the cold amidst the play, snow begins to fall today, wrapped in red ribbon filled with doubt, it takes the children and chokes them out..."
The words carried a gentle rhythm, almost like a song someone might sing to a child before bed. The voice was calm, and the person speaking seemed in no hurry to finish. Each line floated through the forest with unsettling clarity, never raised above a conversational volume.
N didn't recognize the voice.
She didn't want to.
Her shoes slipped against the increasingly slick ground. She caught herself before falling and pushed onward, her heart hammering against her ribs. She wanted to look behind her again, but she was terrified of what she might see. The footsteps were too close. Whoever was following her didn't sound tired, and the cold was spreading too quickly for her to outrun it much longer.
The footsteps stopped.
A blast of blue Zyn energy ripped through the forest.
The sound struck like a thunderclap. Glacial blue light surged between the trunks, illuminating the frozen branches and sending sharp shadows racing across the trail. The air seemed to buckle around the wave of energy, and the trees shuddered as it passed.
Birds exploded from the canopy in every direction. Their wings beat wildly as they fled the sudden surge, scattering black leaves across the trail. Small animals vanished beneath roots and into holes in the ground. The insects went silent.
N stumbled but kept running.
She didn't dare look behind her. She didn't dare stop. The blue light had flashed across the path, but the cold had already reached her, wrapping around her body in a tightening grip. Her breath came in short, painful bursts, and her legs felt as though they were dragging weights.
Then she realized something was wrong.
The trees weren't moving.
Neither was the ground.
The forest had become a frozen picture, every branch and leaf locked in place. Even the dust suspended in the air had stopped drifting. N could see a black leaf hanging just above the trail, its pointed edge caught in the pale light. It should've fallen. It should've moved with the air.
Instead, it remained perfectly still.
N tried to take another step.
Her body didn't respond.
She looked down.
Ice covered her from the waist up. A thick shell had formed around her stomach and chest, pinning her arms against her sides. It had crept over her shoulders and climbed toward her neck while she'd been running, and she'd never even noticed. The shell was so clear that she could see the fabric of her clothes beneath it, distorted by layers of frozen air.
Her legs were trapped beneath it.
N tried to move her fingers.
Nothing happened.
She pulled against the ice, struggling to free her arms, but the shell didn't even crack. Her breathing quickened, and the small clouds escaping her mouth vanished before they could drift away.
She was stuck.
The footsteps began again.
This time, they were close enough that she could hear the faint crunch of ice beneath each step.
N turned her head as far as the frozen shell allowed.
A man emerged from the white haze.
He was tall, easily over six feet, with broad shoulders and a muscular build that made the narrow trail seem smaller as he approached. A gray kimono hung loosely over his body, its fabric covered in strange patterns that shifted between dark and pale as the light caught them. The right side had slipped off his shoulder, exposing his arm and part of his chest. Beneath the kimono, he wore a tightly fitted white shirt with long sleeves.
A white sash circled his waist, one loose flap hanging beside his hip. His blond hair fell around a composed face, and his eyes were a clear, cold blue.
A gold revolver rested in one hand.
A saber hung in the other.
N stared at him.
She'd seen this man before.
She was sure of it.
Something about his face tugged at a memory buried somewhere in her head. It might've been his eyes, or the way he carried himself, or the strange feeling that came with looking at him. She tried to remember where she'd seen him, but every time she reached for the memory, it slipped away.
She knew him.
She just couldn't remember from where.
The man stopped a few feet away and looked over the frozen trail. His gaze moved from the trees to the ice covering N's body, then returned to her face. He didn't look angry. There was no obvious excitement in his expression, either. He looked as though he'd been searching for something and had stumbled across an unexpected inconvenience.
He walked closer.
N struggled against the ice. Her shoulders shook, but the shell held. She tried to kick, only to discover that she couldn't feel her legs anymore. Panic tightened around her chest, making it difficult to draw a full breath.
The man crouched beside her.
"What's somebody so young doing out here at this hour?"
His voice was lower than she'd expected. There wasn't much warmth in it, but he didn't sound particularly threatening, either. He spoke with the casual impatience of someone asking why a child had wandered into a place where children didn't belong.
N stared at him.
He tilted his head, studying her face. "Aren't you only five?" She couldn't make herself speak. Her mouth felt stiff, and her teeth were beginning to chatter. After a moment, she managed a small nod.The man's expression changed slightly. He looked at her as if he'd confirmed something he'd already suspected, then released a quiet sigh."Of course you are."He stood.N's eyes followed him as he took a step back and raised the gold revolver. Its barrel pointed toward the ice around her waist. She stared at the weapon, unable to understand why he was aiming at her after taking the trouble to approach.The man adjusted his grip.N squeezed her eyes shut.The gun fired.The report cracked through the forest, followed by a sharp, crystalline shatter. The ice around her waist broke apart, scattering fragments across the trail. The shell fell away from her chest and shoulders, and N dropped to the ground with a startled cry.She tried to catch herself, but her arms barely moved. Her knees struck the frozen dirt, and she collapsed onto her side. Cold seeped through her clothes. She tried to push herself upright, only to find that her legs refused to respond.For one terrifying moment, she thought she'd lost them.She could see her feet. She could see the fabric covering her knees. But she couldn't feel anything beneath her waist, no matter how hard she tried to move. Her fingers dug into the dirt as she attempted to drag herself away from the ice.N's breathing grew ragged.The man lowered his revolver and looked down at her."Don't touch the ice."She hadn't been planning to.He stepped around her and crouched again, keeping his hands away from the frozen ground."Listen carefully. The temperature here is approaching absolute zero. Touch the ice directly, and you could lose your fingers before you realize what's happened. Depending on how long you've been exposed, you might already have permanent damage."N looked at him with wide eyes.He glanced at her legs, then leaned forward slightly to examine the skin around her knees."And judging by the color of your skin, you're in considerably worse shape than I thought."She tried to speak, but her teeth were chattering too hard. She wanted to ask him to help her, but the words wouldn't come out. She didn't know who he was, why he'd frozen the forest, or why he'd shot the ice around her instead of simply leaving her trapped inside it.The man watched her for another moment before looking toward the path behind her."You're looking for your sister, aren't you?"N stopped shaking long enough to stare at him.He looked back at her."She's somewhere in the Land of the Birds."Her face lit up."My sister?"The words came out as little more than a whisper. She pushed herself onto her elbows, suddenly forgetting the cold and the pain."Where is she? Do you know where she is?""I know she's there.""Where?""I haven't said I'd tell you."N's smile disappeared.The man rested his forearms against his knees, the revolver hanging loosely from one hand. His expression remained calm, as though the conversation had taken an ordinary turn."First, you tell me where the puppet you've been traveling with is."N stared at him.For a moment, she didn't understand what he'd said. Then the words settled into place, and her expression changed."405?"The man's eyes narrowed slightly.He didn't need to ask what the number meant.N pulled herself backward, her hands scraping against the frozen dirt. She tried to keep her legs from touching the ice, but her movements were clumsy, and every shift sent a dull ache through her knees."Why are you looking for him?"The man studied her face."That expression tells me you know exactly what I'm talking about.""He's my friend.""Is he?"N opened her mouth, but no answer came out.She hadn't really thought about whether 405 was her friend. She'd followed him because he was heading in the same direction she needed to go, and because traveling alone had seemed worse than traveling with someone who barely spoke to her. He'd never promised to protect her. He hadn't even promised to wait for her at the entrance to the forest.Still, she'd followed him.The man seemed to understand more from her silence than she wanted him to."Where is he?""I don't know.""That's unfortunate."He stood and adjusted the loose edge of his kimono. The saber at his side shifted with the movement, its hilt catching a faint line of blue light.N stared up at him, her heart pounding."Why do you want him?""That's not something you need to worry about.""Then why should I tell you?"He paused.For the first time, something resembling amusement crossed his face. It disappeared almost immediately, leaving the same detached expression behind."You're a stubborn little thing.""I'm not telling you anything!"Her voice cracked at the end. She hated that it did. She hated that she was cold, that her legs wouldn't move, and that this stranger knew about her sister but refused to tell her where she was.Most of all, she hated that she was scared.The man didn't seem bothered by her outburst. He looked down at her for another moment, then glanced at the frozen trees surrounding them."Your father probably wouldn't appreciate you getting yourself caught up in something like this."N stopped breathing for a second.Her fingers curled against the dirt."My... what?""Your father."N stared at him as if he'd spoken another language."How do you know my father?"He didn't answer.The silence was worse than anything he could've said.N's face went cold for an entirely different reason. She hadn't told him her name. She hadn't told him where she came from or why she'd left. He knew about her sister, knew about 405, and now he knew who her father was.Who was this man?How much did he know about her family?She tried to stand, but her legs folded beneath her. She fell back onto the ground, biting down on a cry as her knees struck the cold dirt. Her hands trembled while she tried to gather herself.The man watched her struggle."You have two options," he said. "Go home, or get out of my way."N stared at him."That's it?""That's it.""But my sister...""Is somewhere in the Land of the Birds.""You said you'd tell me where she was!""I said I'd tell you if you answered my question.""I don't know where 405 is!""Then you have nothing to offer me."He turned away.Panic surged through N's chest. She scrambled after him, dragging herself forward with her arms. The movement hurt, and her legs trailed uselessly behind her, but she didn't stop."Wait!"He halted without turning around."Please! I just want to find her!"The words came out louder than she'd intended. They bounced between the frozen trees and returned to her in fragments. She gripped the dirt with both hands, struggling to keep her voice from breaking."I just want her to come home."For a moment, neither of them moved.The man looked over his shoulder.N couldn't read his expression. His eyes remained cold, but the impatience in his face had faded. He seemed to be considering something, weighing her words against a decision he'd already made.Then he released another sigh."I don't like hurting children."He turned fully toward her."I have three of my own."N didn't know what to say.The man crouched beside her for the third time. He set the saber aside, placing it carefully against a tree where it wouldn't touch the ice. Then he raised both hands.Blue Zyn energy gathered around his fingers.It was the same color as the light that had swept through the forest, a glacial blue that seemed to drain warmth from everything it touched. The air around his hands grew hazy, and frost formed along the edges of his sleeves. N instinctively leaned away, remembering the ice that had trapped her.Then the blue darkened.The energy turned black, an inky color that swallowed the light around it. It clung to his fingers like liquid shadow, moving across his skin in thin, twisting strands. The change was so sudden that N forgot to pull away."What are you doing?""Healing you.""That doesn't look like healing!""Most things don't, if you don't know what you're looking at."He placed his hands against her legs.N flinched.The first touch sent a sharp sensation through her body. She couldn't tell whether it was pain or cold. Her legs twitched involuntarily, and she gasped, trying to pull away.The man's grip remained steady."Hold still.""It hurts!""I know."The black energy spread beneath her clothes. It moved along her legs, tracing the places where the frost had done the most damage. The skin around her knees darkened before gradually returning to its natural shade. For a moment, N thought he was making everything worse. She stared at his hands, terrified that the strange energy would spread until there was nothing left of her legs to heal.Then she felt something.A faint tingling sensation spread from her knees to her ankles. It was uncomfortable, almost unbearable, but it was also the first thing she'd felt below her waist since the ice had trapped her.She sucked in a breath."My legs...""Don't move yet."The man kept his hands in place, his expression focused. The black energy pulsed once, then again, each time spreading through the damaged tissue before drawing back into his palms. His fingers shifted slightly as he worked, following the injury from her knees toward her feet.N watched him in silence.She'd never seen anyone use Zyn like this. The blue energy had frozen the forest, but the black energy was doing the opposite. It was restoring what the cold had taken, reversing the damage as though the injury were something he could simply refuse to accept.The man's jaw tightened."Fourth-degree frostbite would've meant you might never walk again."N's eyes widened."Never?""Not without help you probably wouldn't have found out here."He adjusted one hand, and the black energy gathered around her left knee."I'll heal you this once. Don't mistake that for an invitation to keep doing stupid things."N looked down at her legs.The tingling became stronger. Her toes twitched inside her shoes. She could feel the ground beneath her again, first as a vague pressure, then as a distinct sensation of cold dirt against the soles of her feet. The feeling returned unevenly, and she winced when it reached her ankles.She began to cry.She hadn't meant to. The tears simply came, slipping down her cheeks as the pain and fear she'd been holding back finally caught up with her. She wiped at them with her sleeve, embarrassed by how hard she was shaking.The man didn't comment.He finished the treatment and withdrew his hands. The black energy unraveled from his fingers, fading into the air until only the blue glow remained. He flexed his hands once, then let the energy disappear entirely."Try moving your feet."N did.Her right foot shifted slightly.She gasped and tried again. This time, both feet moved. Her knees trembled as she pulled them closer to her body, testing the strength returning to her legs. She pressed one foot against the dirt, then the other, and slowly pushed herself into a sitting position.They hurt.But they worked.N looked up at the man, tears still clinging to her eyelashes."Thank you."He didn't respond immediately.Instead, he reached for his saber and stood. He slid the weapon back into place, checked the revolver at his waist, and looked farther into the forest."Don't thank me yet."N wiped her face with the back of her hand."Why?""Because you're still here."She stared at him, confused.The man shook his head, almost as if he were disappointed that she hadn't understood. He looked down at her legs, checking that she could move them, then returned his attention to the trail."I know what you're capable of at your age."N's fingers curled around the dirt."What does that mean?""It means you have a choice. Go home, or keep chasing something you don't understand.""My sister isn't something!""No. She's a person. One you want to find badly enough to walk into a forest you were afraid to enter."N looked down at her hands. Dirt had worked its way beneath her fingernails, and her palms stung where she'd pressed them against the frozen ground."But wanting something doesn't mean you're prepared to get it," he continued."I can do it.""Can you?"N raised her head. "Yes!"He studied her for a moment. There was no mockery in his expression, only a cold sort of patience, as though he were waiting for her to understand the size of the promise she'd just made.Then he turned away."If you want to continue this pointless journey, you'll have to fight me."N blinked."What?""You heard me.""But I can't fight you!""Then go home."He began walking deeper into the forest.N stared at his back, unable to understand how he'd gone from healing her legs to threatening to stand in her way. He'd told her where her sister was, but not where to find her. He'd asked about 405, but refused to explain why he wanted him. He knew her father, knew things about her that she hadn't told anyone, and now he was telling her to give up.She didn't know what to make of him.She only knew she couldn't let him leave without an answer."Wait!"The man stopped.N pushed herself upright. Her legs shook beneath her, and she had to steady herself against a tree. She kept her hands away from the ice coating its trunk, remembering the pain that had shot through her palm when she'd touched it earlier."Why are you doing this?"He didn't turn around."Doing what?""Helping me and then telling me to go away!"For a moment, only the faint creaking of the frozen branches answered her. N waited, breathing through the ache in her legs. She expected him to ignore her again, just as 405 had done at the forest entrance.Then the man looked back."I told you. I don't like hurting children.""Then don't!"His expression barely changed."That isn't always an option."N fell silent.The words didn't make sense to her. Not really. She was five, and the world was still a place where adults were supposed to know what to do. They were supposed to keep children safe, tell them the truth, and help them find their way home.This man had done one of those things.Maybe.He'd healed her legs, but he was still standing between her and the only lead she had on her sister. He'd shown her kindness without giving her any reason to trust him. Even now, with his weapons resting at his sides, she couldn't tell whether he was trying to help her or simply deciding how much trouble she was worth.N looked at the revolver.Then at the saber.Then at the ice spreading across the trees.The cold had reached every part of the forest around them. Frost clung to the roots and covered the dirt, and the black leaves overhead had become brittle sheets of glass. The air was so cold that every breath hurt her throat. She wanted her brother. She wanted her sister. She wanted to be somewhere warm, somewhere familiar, somewhere that didn't feel as if it were trying to freeze her alive.But she had come too far to turn back now.The man seemed to read the answer in her face.He sighed."Stubborn."N tightened the strap of her bag."I'm finding my sister.""Then you'll have to get past me."He turned away again. This time, he didn't immediately continue walking. He stood beneath the frozen branches, his gray kimono shifting slightly in the cold. The gold revolver rested against his side, and the saber's hilt caught a thin line of blue light.A butterfly drifted through the air.Its wings moved delicately against the frozen forest, almost too fragile for the cold surrounding it. It passed between the black leaves, circled once, and settled on the man's raised finger.He didn't react beyond a slight movement of his eyes."When there's an obstacle ahead of you, when there's the rock within your path, when there's an enemy blocking you from your fate, you cut it down."