meiko and I spent a little time in the village square this afternoon, generally taking a break from the caravan preparations. Most of them had been done before we left for Unaimo, anyway, and we were about to spend two months\u2014possibly more\u2014in complete isolation. No matter my feelings about Iqaliat, I wanted some time around people before leaving in the morning. We sat and talked as the villagers went about their business in the glow of the torches, both magical and mundane that dotted its perimeter, and protected from the cold by the spells on the sashimonos which stood guard at opposite ends. Most of them made a point to look at us and smile as they walked by, and a few spoke to us either in greeting or in thanks.<\/span><\/p>\n We were talking about nothing of consequence when she unexpectedly switched to Tien and said, casually, \u201cYou have an admirer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The sudden change in topic and language caught me off guard, and I wasn\u2019t sure I heard her correctly. \u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAn admirer. You have one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Please<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m serious. He\u2019s been watching you from across the square for a while now. <\/span>Don\u2019t look right at him, silly!<\/span><\/i> Be discreet.\u201d She admonished me when I turned my head to see who she was talking about. A little more nonchalantly, I looked around as if taking in the village. There was a young Erutaki man sitting on the other side of the square who looked away as my gaze swept across him, but in my peripheral vision I could see him turn back.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s probably looking at <\/span>you<\/span><\/i>,\u201d I said.<\/span><\/p>\n She smirked at me. \u201cOoohhh, no. It\u2019s <\/span>you<\/span><\/i> he\u2019s trying to work up the courage to talk to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Pfft<\/span><\/i>. How can you be sure?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Smiling mischievously, she stood up abruptly and said, \u201cLet\u2019s find out, shall we?\u201d And before I could object, she walked across the square to where he was sitting, spoke to him briefly, then strode off into the darkness towards the front gate. She had not gone more than a half dozen paces before he got up and approached me. <\/span>I am going to kill<\/span><\/i> her<\/span><\/i>.<\/span> I am pretty sure Suishen will understand.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Unnusakkut<\/span><\/i>, Kali. I am Anerk. It is an honor to meet you,\u201d he said, kneeling at my feet. My face suddenly felt very hot; I must have turned beet red. Somewhere out there, Ameiko was probably watching this scene and laughing. <\/span>Death is too good for her.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n He was just a kid, probably only a couple of years older than Ivan. He limped slightly on his left leg as he walked. I didn\u2019t ask. I probably already knew the answer, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pleased to meet you, Anerk,\u201d I replied. I gave him a smile that I hoped was friendly but not encouraging.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank you for saving our village.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I bowed my head slightly. \u201cYou\u2019re welcome. It\u2019s terrible what happened here. We knew we had to help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He looked down at the ground for a moment, long enough that the silence was awkward. Finally, he said, \u201cI wanted to thank you during the celebration, but Ivan did not know where I could find\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d I said, cutting him off. I really didn\u2019t want to know what \u201cthanking me\u201d would have entailed that night. He looked up again, looking right at me. He had that sort of nervousness that comes from talking to someone you have a crush on. <\/span>Way, way too good.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIvan says you stood face to face with the dragon. You were very brave to confront her with no armor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Personally, I could think of a few other words for that, and none of them were as flattering. Still, I felt like I was being placed on a pedestal or something here, and I was not comfortable with it, or where this might be headed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am not defenseless, Anerk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He winced slightly at that. It must have come out harsher than I\u2019d intended.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI did not mean to offend. Of course you have magic.\u201d He stopped there, suddenly reminded of Tunuak, I am sure. Another awkward silence followed.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, in a soft voice, he asked, \u201cIs it true what they say? That he smashed her eggs?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes, he did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His expression turned somber. \u201cI can understand her rage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes. But\u2026it was not going to stop. She didn\u2019t care about justice; only wrath. She was going to level this village, then move on to the next. And then the next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cAnd\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cKali! Sandru needs you!\u201d Ameiko was crossing the square, coming to my rescue with perfect timing. The kind of timing that is manufactured. Sandru absolutely <\/span>did not<\/span><\/i> need me.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Anerk. It was a pleasure to speak with you, but I must go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Tavvaujutit, <\/span><\/i>Kali. <\/span>Naammaktsiarit<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Later, I learned from Ivan that his family was killed in the first attack on the village. So, naturally, now I feel like a heel.<\/span><\/p>\n U<\/span><\/p>\n lf is confident he can get us to this Storm Tower. It sounds so easy when you just say it like that, but it\u2019s just one structure standing alone in thousands of square miles of frozen nothingness. Sonavut says it\u2019s closer to the Alabastrine Peaks, which you would think would be hard to miss, but day and night are one and the same now, and under overcast skies the landscape is an ink so black we\u2019d never see them on the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n But, as I said, Ulf is confident he can get us there. I don\u2019t know how, but this right here is why we hired a guide, and if he says he can do it, then he can do it. Who am I to argue?<\/span><\/p>\n What are we going to find there? The paintings in Tunuak\u2019s makeshift altar are vague, even the one of the woman Katiyana. He depicted her as essentially human, only blue-skinned with black wings, and I don\u2019t know what this means. The only blue-skinned beings I have seen that could otherwise pass as human are the yamah that occasionally visit Magnimar, and something about Tunuak\u2019s depiction of her (and, of course, the whole connection to Sithhud) just doesn\u2019t say \u201cazata\u201d to me. A tiefling, perhaps? Geniekin? (Aasimar? But what are the odds of there being two Nualias in my lifetime?) Not that it matters; I am just curious. Whatever she is, if the elders of Iqaliat are right, we are likely to encounter either her or her influence.<\/span><\/p>\n The Nameless Spires are supposedly the ruins of an ancient civilization, one that even predates Thassilon (which is as far back as my knowledge of history goes). The Storm Tower is rumored to be much like the spires of that place, only off by itself because\u2026because otherwise, it\u2019d not have a name, I guess. If Katiyana really is responsible for the growing ferocity of the storms, then it stands to reason that the tower itself figures into her plans. Perhaps she is harnessing some ancient magic or power that was once dormant inside, or maybe the purpose of the tower was to influence the weather, and she has merely appropriated it for her scheme with Sithhud.<\/span><\/p>\n Sithhud. Not much is written about him. Legend says his domain was taken from him by another demon lord. Clashes among the ranks of the Lords and the Gods are rare, but decisive ones are even more so.<\/span><\/p>\n I imagine he did not take it well.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e have reached the High Ice. Honestly, it mostly looks the same as the regular ice (the low ice?) except of course that it\u2019s <\/span>higher<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n Skygni said he\u2019d accompany us this far and today is the day he took his leave.<\/span><\/p>\n The air has been getting thinner as we climb in altitude. The whole ice shelf slopes upwards towards the north, and every day it is a little harder to breathe than it was the day before, and we are a little quicker to tire. Ulf says it takes about a month to adjust to the conditions, and we\u2019ll have to decide soon how we want to progress: stop and camp, travel slowly, or just push on. Strictly speaking there is nothing wrong with doing the last one\u2014we are just as vulnerable spending that month traveling as we are sitting still\u2014except for that part where we\u2019d reach the Storm Tower still short of breath and easily exhausted.<\/span><\/p>\n Our progress has been slow thanks to the storm that rolled through on our way to the dragon\u2019s lair and buried the ice road in several inches of snow. Of course snow doesn\u2019t melt in subzero weather, but eventually the wind blows it off the shelf into warmer zones. \u201cEventually\u201d just hasn\u2019t happened yet.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span><\/p>\n am really feeling the effects of the altitude now, along with everyone else. We\u2019ve chosen the \u201cslow travel\u201d option, and will be moving the caravan one or two days out of every week for the next month. This will keep us from going stir crazy without running the risk of pushing ourselves and the animals to the point of exhaustion. It\u2019s not ideal as no one wants to spend this much time just camped in the middle of nowhere, but we are all too aware of our physical limits and know it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s beautiful up here in its own way.<\/span><\/p>\n Nihali is less impressed. The magical devices I made keep us warm most days, but the spell that powers them has limits and every so often it is cold or windy enough to exceed them. She is forced to stay wrapped up in one of the covered wagons until these cold snaps pass.<\/span><\/p>\n A<\/span><\/p>\n wagon axle broke today. The constant buildup of ice had made it brittle and that was that. Fortunately, we have plenty of wainwrights among us and their knowledge plus a few spells had us back up and moving in short order.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not enough to mend broken objects with spells. This is something I learned long ago watching the occasional repairs in mom and dad\u2019s warehouse. An axle, for example, is but one piece in a system of moving parts, and there is more to the repair than just making it whole again: the surrounding pieces must be inspected for secondary damage and the whole unit properly reassembled. It takes skilled hands and a skilled eye. It also takes time. Spells just accelerate some of the steps.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been three months since I sent my last message home. Do they worry about me? I think they must, even though they know not to expect to hear from me again for several more weeks. I purchased a scroll in Kalsgard for a spell that, if I understand it correctly, I can use to see them and even exchange whispered messages, but it\u2019s still beyond my ability. Every few days I give it another try\u2014I want to <\/span>learn<\/span><\/i> it, not <\/span>cast<\/span><\/i> it\u2014but progress has been agonizingly slow.<\/span><\/p>\n A<\/span><\/p>\n couple of nights ago we were attacked by one of those glowing lizard things Skygni had warned us about. We\u2019ve seen a couple of them from a distance since reaching the Crown, but this was our first close-up encounter. Qatana and I were on watch when we saw it streaking across the sky, only instead of circling in the distance it made a turn in our direction. We had just gotten everyone woken up as it passed overhead.<\/span><\/p>\n Skygni said that they were dangerous, but not precisely <\/span>how<\/span><\/i>, so we had to learn the hard way. Olmas, once again, was critically hurt. After the fight was over, we determined that it probably sensed the world entirely through sound, much as a bat does, only it could also send out sonic pulses in far greater strength and intensity than needed for navigation. This is what struck Olmas. And a few others. And our encampment.<\/span><\/p>\n It stands to reason that some of the creatures that live up here have adapted to the long winter night by not needing to see at all. We\u2019ll have to be mindful of this.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span><\/p>\n am not tiring as quickly and as easily as I used to, which probably means we’re close to having adjusted to the altitude, if not there already. As soon as Sandru and Ulf give the word, we\u2019ll head to the Storm Tower at our full speed.<\/span><\/p>\n When skies are clear, we can just make out the Alabastrine peaks under the stars, far on the horizon. It shouldn\u2019t be much longer.<\/span><\/p>\n Sparna presented me with a gift. It was one of the nicest, most thoughtful things anyone outside of my family has ever done for me. He said it was in thanks for a spell I\u2019ve been casting for him every few days, but this goes far beyond that.<\/span><\/p>\n Some time ago he asked to borrow my crossbow, which I hardly ever use\u2014I think the last time was in Brinewall\u2014and when he returned it today, it had been enchanted in a way that I had not thought possible. Bolts shot from it no longer draw blood. When he explained this to me, I thought I was going to start crying right in front of him. Few people understand. I mean <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> understand. Ameiko, Qatana and Koya, for sure, but Sparna?<\/span><\/p>\n I actually thought he didn\u2019t like me all that much. You just get that sense, you know? But as I get older, the more I am coming to understand that I\u2019m just not any good at reading people. Or maybe I\u2019m too quick to assume the worst. I\u2019ve also come to terms with the fact that I was not particularly pleasant to be around when I was a child. I was quick to anger, easy to offend, and prone to small outbursts.<\/span><\/p>\n I still have shades of all three. I am my own worst enemy at times.<\/span><\/p>\n S<\/span><\/p>\n andru took the caravan to within a few miles of the Storm Tower and then brought us to a halt. I don\u2019t blame him. The first priority is to keep Ameiko safe, and that means keeping the caravan safe. We will set out on foot early in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\nNeth 11 (The Ice, Night)<\/h3>\n
Neth 14 (The High Ice, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Neth 19 (The High Ice, Evening)<\/h3>\n
Neth 25 (The High Ice, Afternoon? Evening? Daytime? Who can tell?)<\/h3>\n
Kuthona 6 (The High Ice, Night)<\/h3>\n
Kuthona 12 (The High Ice, Night)<\/h3>\n
Crystalhue (Alabastrine Peaks, Evening)<\/h3>\n
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