The next morning, the team packed up the site. Dan had managed to create some rudimentary Wind Resistance enchantments the evening prior as a proof of concept, which meant they were as ready as they were going to be. All they could do was press forward while they still had the supplies. The alchemist passed out earplugs to help deal with the howling winds.

  Ooble, who didn’t have ears quite like humans did, received a fast-hardening paste to cover his… Maeryn didn’t know what the actual word was, so she was just going to call them ear holes. She thought Dan might have called them membranes? But she had no idea what those were either. In any case, the paste basically deafened him while he kept it applied.

  The drive grew colder, until the air temperature seemed to reach some inexplicable lower threshold. That evening, after they set up camp and applied Dan’s enchantments to another encirclement of Ice Walls—which helped enormously with the constant shrieking of the snowstorm—he attempted to measure the cold. Unfortunately, none of his thermometers were capable of dealing with the temperature extreme. Dan could only shrug helplessly as he gestured at the frozen mercury in one of them. “It’s so cold even my thermometers gave up,” he summarized. “Abyssing cold. That’s how cold it is.”

  “Hear that, folks? The official temperature is ‘abyssing cold,’” Terrance snarked, stuffing his gloved hands under his armpits even as Maeryn felt him cast Warm Self. He sighed in relief, and grimaced apologetically at the alchemist. “Sorry. This is just miserable. I can’t wait to be out of this.”

  “That goes for all of us,” Veronica muttered. “Maeryn, how far away are we from the dragon?”

  Maeryn closed her eyes and shifted paradigms from holy to ice, trying to gauge the strength of the mana resonance compared to earlier. “If I had to guess, I think we’ve crossed about a fourth of the distance,” she judged.

  Another pulse of mana caught her attention, and she turned to Dan, whose eyes momentarily flashed frostbite blue as his expression closed off. Right, he was an ice mage too. “She’s right,” he concurred after a moment. “We should expect three more days of hard travel.”

  “Which means we’re going to two and a half before we see if mister ice dragon’s in a friendly mood,” Terrance summed up.

  “Peter is doing quite well with his Draconic lessons,” Ooble reported. “Between us, we should be able to rapidly carve out any message we wish to convey. Though I do hope the ice dragon has not rendered themself deaf. Speaking would be much more convenient.”

  “Remember, the plan’s to deliver the message from a safe distance,” Maeryn reminded them all. “Terrance is right, we should expect to enact the plan in two and a half days. Let’s eat, establish shift rotation, and then get into those tents to conserve what warmth we can.”

  “Do we even need the shift rotation?” Frankie wheedled. “Literally nothing has attacked us at night. And we have the Ice Walls. And I’m tired of waking up in the middle of night to do absolutely nothing. Can’t we just skip it tonight?”

  The thought of just staying inside, and getting a full night’s warm rest was tantalizing. Maeryn very much wanted to say yes. But with her relationship with luck? Tonight would be the night that some giant ice bear or something would crash in and try to kill them all.

  She sighed, and Frankie slumped in resignation even before Maeryn could open her mouth. “No, I get it,” the engineer answered for her. “We’re dead if we’re caught unawares like this. Abyss.”

  “It’s only for a little while,” Ernesto consoled her, placing a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. “One week, maybe two, and then we’re back at Stonewing, in your own bed. You just need to last until then.”

  “Fine…” she muttered grumpily, folding her arms and looking away.

  On that sour note, the team quickly made and scarfed down their dinner before retreating to their tents. Maeryn took first watch with Frankie, wanting to make up for the inconvenience at least a little. At least this way she’d get a solid six hours of sleep. And she could distract the pilot with more fire magic.

  Sure enough, Frankie listened raptly as Maeryn lectured her on Purification and Destruction. After a solid half hour of discussing how fire purified by destroying contaminants, and how that was used both for cleaning and for forging metal, Maeryn moved on to teaching her another cantrip.

  She lifted her hand, which glowed a soft yellow. The color reminded her a little of how a child might paint the sun, and it never failed to make her smile. “This little spell is, aptly enough, just called Purify. It leans on the Purification concept to make certain cleaning tasks easier. For example, it’s surprisingly helpful in helping get stuff out of clothes, or for making water safe to drink.”

  Maeryn shot her friend a sly smirk. “Or, maybe, cleaning a certain engineer’s hands after she’s gotten them all dirty and oily?”

  Frankie blushed a little. “Yeah, okay, guilty. I’ll give it a shot in a few minutes.”

  Maeryn blinked, a frown lightly touching her lips. “Something wrong?”

  “I just…” Frankie bit her lip. “I know that, technically, I’m a fire mage now. But it’s not where my passion lies. I know that we’re still in the realm of things that make life a little easier here and there. Keeping warm? Literal lifesaver. Being able to burn things on command? Awesome. Conjure a light in the dark? Super convenient. Casually burn the grime off stuff? Nifty. But… if we keep going much further, we’re going to get into combat spells, aren’t we? Because that’s what you know. It’s what you’re good at.”

  She looked at Maeryn apologetically. “I don’t plan on changing careers or anything. I don’t see myself using magic all the time, not beyond the basics. And I just… I don’t want you feeling like you can train me to replace you. Even subconsciously. Because I can’t, and I don’t want to.”

  Maeryn’s heart twinged a little. “I don’t feel that way. Promise. I just thought these would be little helpful spells for what you do. I’m not trying to turn you into a combat fire mage or anything. I just… I want you to be happy. And I like being able to share something that made me happy, too.”

  Frankie looked at her, really looked at her like she was trying to stare down into Maeryn’s soul. Then she nodded once. “Okay.”

  And that was that.

  Maeryn watched Frankie fight with the Purify spell for a while. After her hand sparked for the seventh time, burning her palm and forcing the engineer to shove it into the snow again, Frankie let out a disgusted sigh. “That’s enough for the night. Any more and people are gonna start accusing me of masochism.”

  Maeryn raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m feeling like that was directed at someone.”

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  “Who, me? Never.” Frankie’s expression said the exact opposite, however, and Maeryn could only shake her head in exasperated amusement.

  However, with her only source of entertainment gone, Frankie was visibly becoming bored. Maeryn counted down the minutes, and just when she thought her friend might hit a new record of boredom tolerance… “Hey. Rin.”

  The hunter had to resist the urge to snap her fingers. So close. Maybe next time. “Mmm?”

  “Suppose we finish saving the world. The Undead are wiped out, the Mist is purified until it’s not a problem anymore, mana returns and stabilizes, everything. What’re ya gonna do then?”

  “You mean, like, for a living?”

  Frankie snorted. “Sure, if we completely ignore how utterly unlikely it is that you’ll have to pay for anything ever again, being the leader of the team who saved the world.”

  Maeryn scoffed dismissively. “Yeah, right.”

  “I’m serious! They already call you the Heroine of Geova! Imagine what they’ll do when you become a literal living legend.” Frankie clapped her hands above her head, spreading them sideways as if to unfurl an imaginary banner. “Captain Maeryn d’Vert, Savior of Mankind, Leader of the Legendary Heroes.” She laughed gaily. “You cannot possibly tell me that you wouldn’t be able to do whatever you wanna to do after that.”

  Maeryn was unwillingly reminded of a particularly disheartening conversation with Alric and Terrance. Even so, the picture Frankie painted was pretty compelling. “Maybe,” she demurred. “Humanity’s memory is fickle, but… maybe. It’d be nice, but I expect I could only ride on those coattails for a year or two before people started demanding something from me again.”

  Frankie frowned, but gestured at Maeryn impatiently. “Fine, fine. For a living. Or for a hobby. Whatever. What do you wanna do, after all this is done?”

  “Honestly, I haven’t put much mind to it.” Maeryn looked out in the direction of the frozen wasteland, where the ice dragon waited somewhere in the distance. “Part of me just wants to strike out on my own. Not have to deal with Geova or Zephyr at all. No more politics, no more burdens or people just wanting to use me for my fame.”

  The face of Donovan, the Elder most responsible for stealing away her family from their home, flashed across her eyes. He’d tried to turn her into a martyr, for his own ends. When she was at her lowest, at her most vulnerable, he’d isolated her from anyone willing to help and just waited for her to die. That was a level of cruelty she hadn’t thought anyone willing to delve to. And Maeryn just didn’t have the strength of spirit to deal with that again. “People will want to strike me down to raise themselves up, or to leech at me and get me to do what they want. It all sounds like too much trouble. Someplace to live in peace, that’s what I want.”

  Frankie lowered her gaze to the fire thoughtfully. “Yeah. I guess I can see that. Kind of surprising, though. I thought you’d want to just get strong enough that nobody would dare try.”

  “The thought’s crossed my mind,” Maeryn admitted. “It’s not like I don’t have a model to go off of, if that’s what I decide. Agatha’s a Grandmaster that nobody dares cross. And she is my teacher, after all. But…”

  She shook her head. “Maybe it’s that my spark is g-” She cut herself off, shaking her head violently. “In recovery,” she forcefully corrected, “but I’ve been thinking lately. It’s not wrong to pursue strength, but there has to be a goal for it to mean anything. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

  “A driving element,” Frankie murmured. “Something to pursue.”

  “Right. Agatha apparently got so strong because she wanted to revolutionize the hunting profession. She needed power to force people to respect her and the people responsible for their safety. It makes sense. I probably would’ve done the same,” Maeryn admitted. “But I don’t have anything like that for me. I just don’t. Frankie, I spent my entire childhood dedicated to saving the world. I don’t know anything else. Once this is done? I need to figure out who I am without it.”

  “Really? You don’t have any ideas?”

  Maeryn shrugged. “I mean, I have options I guess. I could get myself engaged to Terrance and go live in Zephyria. He’s offered, after all.”

  Frankie stumbled over nothing at all, almost falling flat on her face. “He what?!”

  Maeryn’s lips turned up ever so slightly into a wicked grin. “He did propose the other day. Not the most romantic proposal I’ve ever heard, but…”

  “You…! What?” The engineer leapt to her feet, examining Maeryn carefully before she caught sight of her smirk. “You’re kidding me. It’s a joke, isn’t it? Ha ha, very funny.”

  “No, no, he actually did propose,” Maeryn confirmed, allowing her amusement to shine through. “But it was a backup plan for both of us. Just in case we’re both still single when we’re twenty.”

  “Oh. Yeah, that makes more sense,” Frankie muttered. “Still, though, that was mean.”

  “I’d apologize, but I’m really not sorry,” her friend told her with a little chuckle. “Consider it a little payback for all the rumors you spread about me.”

  Frankie’s face twisted at that, but she ultimately nodded in reluctant acceptance. “Fair, I guess. Still, you don’t sound too enthused about the prospect.”

  “Eh, it’d be something to do. I don’t have anything against Terrance, but I kinda feel like I’d be a trophy wife or something if I don’t have something to call my own,” Maeryn confessed.

  “You could be the ambassador to the dragonkin?” Frankie suggested earnestly. “They already respect the abyss out of you. And with their love of stories, you’d be welcome forever.”

  “See, that was an option before I learned I’m pants at Draconic,” Maeryn countered with a groan. “I still plan on learning it someday, but I’m pretty sure someone else will take that spot before I can reliably say ‘Hi, I’m Maeryn the Guiding Flame.’ Also, politics. Not for me.”

  “Yeah, that’s fair. You could always work for me, you know.”

  “Work for you?” Maeryn echoed confusedly.

  “Sure. When we’re all done here, Peter and I are gonna strike out on our own, make a company that builds better airships, and more land vehicles for people who can’t afford airships.” Frankie sighed dreamily. “Can’t you see it? People with their own SPATTs? Maybe something a bit more enclosed for family travel? Crossing the landscape in hopes of spreading humanity across the surface again?”

  After a moment of consideration, Maeryn nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I can definitely see that happening.” She smiled warmly at her friend. “Yeah. If I can’t think of anything else, sure, I’ll work for you. I know you’ll treat me right.”

  Frankie smiled back, then lightly dug her toes into the snow. “Well, I do have one more suggestion for you that might fit,” she offered hesitantly.

  “Hit me.”

  She looked Maeryn straight in the eyes. “Have you ever thought about being an airship Captain full-time?”

  The hunter blinked owlishly. “Eh?”

  “Think about it. You could just travel around. No roots. Just an airship to call home, go where you like. Transport people, maybe do some shipment runs to earn the money to stay aloft. You’d only have to deal with people when you feel like it. And you could visit everyone.”

  “But… I’d be flying without you.” Maeryn whispered, feeling suddenly lost.

  Frankie smiled at her gently. “And I’d miss you,” she affirmed. “But you wouldn’t be gone forever.”

  Maeryn didn’t say anything, too busy staring agape at her best friend.

  “Think about it,” Frankie repeated. “If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. But if it does… well, I think it’d make you happy.”

  With the conversation clearly over, the engineer started doodling in the snow. Some distant corner of Maeryn’s mind wondered if she was literally finger-painting blueprints, but the rest of her was stuck circling the idea that Frankie had put into her head.

  Could she? Could she really just… take an airship and go? Be free from everything? Touch down when she pleased, leave when she wanted? Have no master but herself? Why? Why did that tug at her heart so earnestly?

  Her mind conjured an image: her, fully whole once more. Fire burning steady in her chest, dressed in the burgundy outfit the dragonkin had gifted her, with the Zephyrian airship coat left open atop it, and Maeryn’s own Geovan equipment strapped and ready to go. Standing in the cockpit of Stonewing, looking down at the world without a scrap of Mist touching it. She could go anywhere and be welcome. She could live and explore the world, see what it was she’d fought so hard for.

  Her vision blurred, and tears escaped to trail down her cheeks even as she reached up to roughly wipe them away. She wanted it. She wanted it more than she’d ever wanted anything.

  Then mana resonance screamed, and Maeryn leapt to her feet, extending the blades from the vambraces she’d worn under her winter coat.

  Frankie glanced up quizzically at her, perhaps catching that something wasn’t quite right, just in time for one of the Ice Walls to utterly shatter, exploding out towards her. She screamed in fear as Maeryn tackled her into the snow, letting the ice shards fly over her head.

  “Go! Wake the others!” Maeryn ordered before throwing herself into the fray.