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The flakes of white swirled around her, almost compelling her to join them in a sort of dance that nature brought. However, she was never a good dancer.

“It’s nice out here, isn’t it?” Mason said, tugging the scarf up over his nose as he walked alongside her.

“Is that supposed to be sarcastic?” Nevara asked, staring down at the boy.

Mason almost flinched at the statement, looking up at the snow spirit with wide eyes, then shook his head and said, “No.” It took him several moments to realize the intense stare of Nevara would not lessen, and slowly lowered his gaze. He tugged his scarf up to his nose again as he looked over the howling winds and snow covered hills. He lowered his voice, the winds fighting to dissolve his words in their sound, “No….I just… It’s nice to see a snowstorm again.”

“I do not think that’s normal, Mason,” came a reply from Nevara.

He shrugged and fixed his gaze back on her again. “Well, I don’t know… It just… it feels homey somehow,” he said. “You’re a snow spirit, shouldn’t you like the snow and winter?”

The snow spirit narrowed her eyes but quickly turned to face where they were heading. She watched the snowflakes blow past her and grumbled, “I hate winter.”

The boy gave an odd look at his partner as she turned her sights to the world around her.

It didn’t matter because winter would surround her for all eternity.

Among the winds that guided the snowflakes in their dance, an image seemed to move in the distance. For a moment Nevara furrowed her brow in confusion, they hadn’t seen a living being since they got to this new dimension.

She squinted, trying to see what on earth it was before reeling back. The figure looked to have on a white coat with fur trim. Though she could not see their face as they walked on ahead, covered by a hood, the symbol painted on their jacket was clear as day. Her eyes widened.

It couldn’t be.

Could it?

Without thinking she flew towards the figure, wanting for just a moment to see their face. The winds howled in her ears and for a moment she could hear their soft chuckle.

“Nevara!” the boy from behind her called, breaking her from her trance. The image vanished all too soon at the simplest sound. She looked back to Mason with the usual cold expression, watching him navigate the snowy hills as carefully but effectively as he could. “W-what are you doing!?” he called out.

She just looked back towards where the figure had been and for a moment, her expression melted into a frown. They were gone, nothing but a sea of white remained in their wake. She simply turned around and said, “It’s nothing… Let us continue onwards.”
---

The machines whirred as the last sentence hung in the air. The kitsune seemed to pay no mind to the small crack in the globe. He seemed fully satisfied in this new development despite his own possession being broken, evident by the smug grin on his face. The stern narrowing eyes of the doctor was well worth something so easily fixed.

“What do you mean by ‘karma’?” she asked sternly, watching Kyuu closely.

Kyuu simply chuckled and allowed the globe to float above him as he held out his hands, like he was falsely surrendering to his boss. “You know, karma? Right?”

Amestuchi stood up from her seat and with no hesitation approached the kitsune cyborg. “I have no time for your games, Kyuu. I am asking if this will put us off course.”

“Probably not,” the kitsune shrugged, looking over at one of the screens before turning to his employer again with a slight frown. The smug grin reappeared as quickly as it left as he shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Kyuu,” Ametsuchi pressed. “Can you pinpoint what it is?”

His cybernetic ears twitched as he crossed his arms, as if lost in thought. After several moments, he shook his head, “Aw, I’m so sorry about that, but I really can’t say. There’s so many futures here, I wouldn’t even know where to start!”

“Then go and do something about it.”

He breathed a sigh, his expression dropping to a frown as he gestured in a lax sweeping motion to the outside world. “So you want me to remove it, I assume?” he asked her.

“Of course not,” she replied, adjusting her glasses briefly as she looked over her screens. After a moment, she looked above at the large contraption strapped to the ceiling, like a makeshift pillar. “I want to study it of course, without destroying my research. I want it in a controlled environment like this entire tournament.”

The kitsune just watched for a moment before shifting his gaze to the pillar. The strange object continued to glow from beyond the pillars that circled it. He could understand every single machine in this room and how it worked, but that thing? That was the oddest thing in there by far.

Still, there was an assignment, for better or worse. “Alright, I’ll find something that may suffice,” he told her finally, voice spiced with a slight annoyance of the extra work.

Being the “Navigator of Fate” certainly had its flaws when it came to responsibilities, due to its importance.

The simple sentence lingered once more as the Doctor watched the strange object for a few more moments before deciding to acknowledge his answer to her. “What do you have in-,” Ametsuchi asked, or at least began to, before a screen flashed a different colour followed by a river of text pouring down the screen.

She whirled over to attend the recent change, eyes scanning the text. Not a moment after she started reading, did she finally reach to that respective keyboard and combat the flowing text. In a short few lines of code, the problem had been slayed. As a reward, a familiar voice exited the speakers, “Dr. Ametsuchi, come in!”

“Kit,” Ametsuchi spoke, holding the serious tone. “You triggered the emergency system, is something wrong? Where are you?”

The nervous tone was enough to confirm this wasn’t a simple check to see if everything was operating right. “By one of the lakes… I…. There’s something really strange going on here, Doctor,” Kit’s voice explained.

The doctor’s stature remained still as stone and asked back in a clear tone, “And that is?”

The small buzz of the audio returned before the voice continued it’s story.

“I…. I heard some of the residents here were falling ill, so I wanted to see if I could help them. I found a common thread and surveyed the area.”

“How long have you been at this?” the Doctor questioned. Surely, a simply survey wouldn’t take too long.

“A while,” Kit’s voice admitted with a sigh, “I just… want to make sure everything’s okay here. It’s not though... It’s dying.”

Was it truly important for a single pocket dimension that was meant to house a tournament and nothing else to start acting strange? No. Despite that line of logic, Ametsuchi wasted no time to inquire further about the strange development. “What do you mean?”

The answer from Kit came straightaway: “I can’t use any of my magic around this lake, no matter how hard I try. That’s why I was trying to use that strange magic set you gave me.”

It was Ametsuchi’s turn to hesitate. She simply stood there, her face knitted into a serious expression as she tapped idly on the desk for a couple moments. If there was nervousness welling within her, she didn’t show it in her voice as her words came out crisp and clear as they always had.

“Are you absolutely certain this is correct?”

“I’m sure, but I can take a look a little longer just in case!”

“Good. I’ll do a scan of the area as well, so send the coordinates. Don’t forget to check on any contestants in the area. One star has moved to Ice Horizon already, and the others are moving as we speak so be prepared,” Ametsuchi explained to Kit.

“Alright! Will do!” Kit chimed before finally the screen returned back to its normal set of strange characters and vast array of numbers.

“Why the sudden interest?” Kyuu asked, watching as the woman checked over the all the screens, watching several star symbols appear on the screen along with a series of characters.

Ametsuchi simply looked back at the fox and grinned. “If Fate wishes to send me ‘Karma’, it’s just one more step closer to my goal, but I’ve heard it’s a tricky concept,” she told Kyuu and looked back over her many screens. “Every little variable helps. Even false ones.”

“Ah yes…. I bet it does,” Kyuu agreed, then floated towards the door to leave the woman alone in the dark room once again.

Most would think his task would be a hard one, but then again, he was a fortune teller.

He knew exactly what to do.

-------------

The feeling of icy shards pricking his face was hardly pleasant. Mason had to admit, however, there was a quality to it.

Familiarity was something foreign to say the least. Now that it surrounded him like this, there was a craving to simply lie there and embrace what felt like the closest thing to ‘home’ that he had found so far, no matter how cold it was. All that was needed was a forest, and then he could at least have an image of what home could actually look like and be allowed to stand in its false presence. Of course, it didn’t matter how familiar it was. The cruelty of being so far away from the real thing would taint it.

The same thought process could be used on Nevara’s current state.

He watched as she moved almost aimlessly, gliding further and further away from him with every step he took. She didn’t need anything to move quickly in the air.

Concern had frozen onto his face a long time ago.

“Nevara!” he called again for the upteenth time, hoping to bring her back from whatever plane her mind was currently at.

He could feel his heart skip a beat when the spirit didn’t even flinch in his direction, almost favouring the idea of melting into the very element she was a part of rather than be at his side like usual.

Like always.
He tried again and again to get her attention, but the spirit continued her walk unphased. As nice as the snow may be, the continuous effort of pulling his legs above the snow and back down again was slowly taking its toll on his energy as well as his travelling efficiency.

“Nevara!” the third call made him relax at her straightening to attention. For a moment she stood still, before flying off into the blanket of white.

The moment came so suddenly for Mason, that the boy stopped entirely before trying to move as quickly as he could. However, this time there was no glimpse of her navy hair, no matter how closely he looked. The growing horror began to twist in his gut, adding some strength to his movements...

Only to send him into the snow below as gracefully as a seal on land.

For a moment, he remained in the little hole in the snow he had accidently created. Not to finally curl up and die, no. That would be dumb on too many accounts, including being counter productive. Instead he simply chuckled to himself at the sheer irony of this situation and the newest joke that the world had given him.

‘Surrounded in familiarity but losing a friend to it,’ he thought to himself. He tried a couple of times to rephrase it in his head, but none of them felt truly funny. After several moments to take in the frigid feeling of ice against his cheek and letting his mind go for a few moments, he finally picked himself up and looked in the last direction he saw her. “She couldn’t have gone far right?” he mumbled to the wind.

The hollow feeling that he was wrong seemed to overtake the assurance that she would realize she had taken off again. Taking a deep breath, he continued on his trek, all the while mumbling, “The next time I do something stupid, I can use this incident to tell her I’m not the only one to act dumb between the two of us,” he told himself.

The whirling winds was the only real companion to listen to that promise. The beating of the wind against him and his surroundings continued to sing in his ears. Slowly, it became more rhythmic in nature.

That is until the sound of the wind and the rhythmic wind broke their duet. He whirled around just in time to see the large wings spread wide as if to snatch him up. The blue eyes among the feathers stared right back at him.

His heart leapt in his chest as he quickly leaped out of the way as the adrenaline started to flow through his system. His hand shot for the dagger behind his back, grasping onto it so tightly his hand hurt.

An eruption of snow flew into the air at the being’s descent. It cloaked it in a natural veil for only a couple seconds, as the lightly tanned fur was not exactly something easy to blend into the snowy surroundings. The tan and yellow wings that stood out so much suddenly vanished from view.

The being slowly walked forward, allowing the boy to see it clearly- or him rather. He was a tall being covered head to toe in tan fur. Blue streaked around his neck and forearms, as well as down his chest. The tail with the fluffy chestnut end whished through the air, as if trying not to be swept up in the winds. The lips of his short snout curled in a way to reflect a smile as he held up a hand.

“Hello. I’m wondering if you know the way to shelter.”

The effects of fear still hung in his voice as he struggled to ask, “Ah! I- Um… W-what?” Despite the hand raised to appeal to his nervousness, fear still ran through his body. On this being’s arms those eyes remained, as did the wings on either side of his head that framed his feline face. His sides had a small pair too, all those wings embedded with eyes.

Mason didn’t even want to see them let alone count them, and for some reason the almost primitive fear demanded he take out the blade and try to fend off the being.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the being insisted, the eyes in his head knitted with slight worry. “Are you lost?”

That woman’s voice echoed in his mind again, sending tremors down his frame like no chilly wind could. He took several deep breaths, trying to release the grip on the dagger’s hilt. ‘It’s fine, it’s okay. This being isn’t doing anything to me,’ he tried to assure himself. However the simple thought rang in his head, ‘But that’s what everyone is like at first…’

In a swift motion he forced his hand to loose its hold on the hilt and look up at the being. He kept his eyes trained on the eyes in their head, and tried to smile as best he could. That’s when he saw the blue star on the being’s cheek.

“I.. It’s... It’s fine,” he explained; chattering teen “I just never really expected well... someone like you. My apologizes.”

“I haven’t really met anything like you either to be honest,’ the being replied. “I’m Casimir and you are?” The newly named Casimir reached out a hand, a gesture for a handshake most likely.

Underneath of running current of nervousness, Mason knew this being was being polite, trying to get him to calm down. The expression on his face must’ve looked strained, too fake. All he could do was manage a simple but clear, “Uh….. Yeah.”

The ideas flooded into his mind. Should he stay, should he run, should he lie? His eyes darted back to the star, trying not to focus on the one pair of eye wings gazing back at him. It was right there. Casimir was reaching for mason’s hand. It could be easy if he did it right. He breathed a small sigh as his hand twitched, unable to reach towards the many eyes; compelled by instinct not to. Could he betray such a genuine look?

He bit his lip after several moments. He couldn’t do it. He could almost laugh at himself, when had he ever? “I’m sorry but… I need to go,” he said, finally making his decision as he turned away.

He only made it a couple of steps before hearing the winged feline being call out, “Wait, why? Aren’t you cold?”

This certainly made him stop in his tracks and look back at the strange creature with a small spark in his eye. Focusing on the expression and the lingering voice made it easier to look at him. A small chuckle was drowned by the wind as he shook his head and finally answered, “My…. my friend is acting a bit strangely. She’s probably a hill or so away… or she’ll come right back.”

“Do you want any help?” Casimir asked.

That cautious feeling enveloped again. However, he let it be carried away as he tried to think of how to explain it. Heck, he had made another error telling this being he was not alone. The boy shrugged as he forced his body to move closer so he could be heard better, “Well… I’m not sure if you can but well…”

“Well, if they haven’t gone far then I can fly you around for a little bit,” Casimir told the boy, letting his hand fall limp for a small moment. In a few moments, the fingers vanished, replaced by the feathers sprouting from his arms.

Mason had to admit, it almost looked amazing.

However, his mouth worked for him instead, shouting, “No!”

Both of them flinched in response, Casimir drawing back his wings as Mason struggled to stop wrapping his arms around himself.

Casimir sighed and let the smile finally fade walking over carefully to the shaking child. However, just as he opened his mouth the kid looked up and stammered out a question, “I-I mean. Won’t I be too heavy?!”

Casimir took a moment, all those eyes looked down at the boy as if examining him for every crack. Yet the gentle voice seemed reassuring, trying to sound like a warmth among the icy surroundings, “You seem small enough. I’ll be fine.”

The small gesture of opening his wings and the smile was all Mason needed to finally say, “O-okay.”

The boy took a deep breath and walked close to Casimir, the eyes, and the bright sun-toned colours. The feline being extended one wing further, cradling the boy as he pulled him closer in. Despite the fear wracking his body, Casimir’s voice told him, “You’ll need to hold on tight though.”

The boy reached for the cloth around his waist and he expertly took the green fabric and ensure it would remain below his belt by tying it tightly before walking forward to tie it around Casimir’s. The feline’s ears flicked as he watched the boy tie the two of them together before smiling and lowering his head to allow the boy to wrap his arms around him.

Mason sighed, his body finally seemed to relax.

Mason could hear as the wings shifted against the icy winds around them, cutting it off. All at once the snow kicked up, blinding everything for a moment before the rush of wind and snow came down on them.

In a matter of seconds, the familiar ground was lost and against the boy’s judgment. He closed his eyes, both to protect his eyes from the possible damage as well as not exactly wanting to look down. It wasn’t exactly a normal experience to be up in the air. However he knew one thing now, he had no idea how Nevara stood flying around like this.

It seemed like forever before Casimir’s voice called out to someone, “Hey, you there!” All too soon, the boy held on tight as the direction of the wind changed and gravity set in.

The air left his lungs in a flash as his heart seemed to drop to his feet.

They were falling.

All at once, gravity seemed to catch up with him as they were jerked back, trying to combat what felt like impending doom, and trying to drag Mason down with it. The boy kept his grip up before finally feeling the heavy thud that dared to shake him off again.

He stayed there for a moment, only to feel someone take both of his sides and gently tug him away from Casimir. Examining the fact the wind was like before they set off, the boy let go, only to find himself being held up to whoever Casimir had found.

Mason dared to open his eyes to see the bored face of Nevara, judging him as always. Mason smiled nervously as Casimir asked, “Is this strange little creature possibly your friend?”

She never even looked away from him, staring at him like normal, but the look in her eyes felt as if he had suddenly committed murder. “Yes,” she replied.

Mason smiled and looked back at Casimir, motioning to the ground. Casimir nodded before setting the kid down, letting him untie them. It was then that Mason froze halfway through tying the sash back around his waist like normal and asked, “Wait a moment. Are your eyes playing tricks on you?”

Casimir gave a confused look, “What do you mean?”

“You’re seeing something. There’s nobody there,” he insisted.

“No…” Casimir corrected him, raising an eyebrow at the boy’s apparently strange antics. “There’s a being next to you, right there.”

All at once a grin tore its way onto Mason’s face. He raised his arms in triumph as he shouted, “Oh my gods! Finally!”

Both spirit and feline being shot the boy a confused look. Casimir asked, “I’m sorry?”

Mason simply motioned from Casimir to Nevara several times, almost hysterically as he spoke, “You don’t understand! It’s been forever since someone has seen her! Not unless I’m in the land of the dead!”

The look of surprise evolved into shock on Casimir’s face. The boy’s smile didn't even falter, even after that last sentence. “What?!” he exclaimed, seeking more confirmation.

Nevara, on the other hand, looked like she would’ve slapped the boy if she could. He breathed a sigh and motioned to the boy, “Calm down, you’re going to hurt your head again.”

“That’s only when we teleport!” Mason insisted, “But you have to say this is amazing!”

“I think you have Hypothermia,” The spirit countered.

“I do not!”

Casimir held up two hands to both of them, and stated, “Let’s please calm down. We should probably get out of the storm first.”

Nevara nodded, looking off into the snow and replied, “He’s right.”

“Huh. Oh sorry, it’s just…nice not to have to pretend she isn’t there,” Mason apologized.

“It’s fine,” Casimir assured him.

The spirit looked back at the two of them. For a moment, it hung on Casimir more so than Mason. She breathed a sigh and shifted her gaze back to Mason and crossed her arms. Mason bit his lip again in response.

All too soon Nevara spoke calmly and clearly, more so than she had been the entire time they had been out there. “Casimir, how-,” she began only to flinch at the voice contesting her.

“About you stay with me for now,” Mason finished. He could see the stare of Nevara on him. It was worse when nobody responded for a second.

Casimir’s question seemed to cut some of the tension, “Are you sure?”

Mason smiled and nodded, “Y-yeah… I’m sorry about before, I just think Nevara should go ahead of us for a little bit. If she acts dumb-”

“I wasn’t acting dumb,’ the spirit finally cut in, bitterness tainting her voice.

“Then we’ll just fly over again,” Mason finished.

“Mason…” The spirit passed on, voice monotone as usual.

Mason took a deep breath and turned to Nevara, challenging to the look she was giving him as he explained, “He has better vision than me with all those eyes… probably.”

The winds seemed to be the only thing that answered before her own voice cut through them, “I’ll take 5 minutes.”

All at once, the spirit flew off, faster than Mason expected her. He breathed a small sigh, but not in relief.

“You’re a contestant aren’t you?” he said almost as soon as Nevara left his sight.

He watched as Casimir seemed to almost want to touch the precious mark on his face. However, he nodded all the same, “I…. Yeah..” Something was wrong though as he looked back at Mason with a slightly nervous look in his eye, but added to his initial response all the same “And judging by the fact you know that, I’m guessing you’ve had at least some contact with some.”

Mason nodded, “Yeah.” He watched the gaze of the feline falter as he asked, “A-actually, what are you going to do with it? I’ve heard…. There’s a wish if you collect a bunch,”

Casimir sighed as they began to talk. The distant gaze as he peered into the snow sent a strike of concern in the boy. However, he was not as far gone as he initially thought as he replied, “Yes, I want to save someone. If I could have more than that one person, I’ll be honest and say that I’d love to save my entire people too.”

The wound of worry divided into a fissure of guilt. What could he say to that? The idea had been in his head once that this could happen, but now that it was, he could barely manage a word

“O-oh.”

The feline looked back at him and smiled sadly, before it easily dwindled. His next words sent shivers down the boy’s spine: “But I guess you won’t give me yours easily, will you?,”

‘Too late now’, he told himself. “You don’t know that,” Immediately he wanted to shove his hands in front of his mouth. The nervousness in his voice had given it away. There were certainly days when Nevara’s cold tone was something he wished he could emulate.

“You were staring at my face quite a bit, but I get it. It seems a lot of people want these,” Casimir explained. Yet somehow, there was no lunging at him, no yelling. He simply wore an understanding expression as he added, “Honestly, I’d rather not fight you though.”

Somehow, that reassurance almost made Casimir’s appearance tolerable. Mason nodded in agreement, “Same here, but.. I can’t just give you my star.” A smile flicked on his face, knowing Nevara would be pissed if she could hear this. All the same he said with a small chuckle, “Guess we are at a stalemate, huh?”

“What do you want then?” Casimir asked, causing the boy to flinch. Could he really tell him he was just trying to go home? Wanting to fix a banishment he had no idea about the cause of?

Instead of answering, Mason tried to emulate Nevara in how she dodged conversations. “Well… She and I share a star,”he explained. “She’s pretty cranky most of the time, but maybe… We might be able to discuss who gets the stars if you go talk to her, hopefully to the best cause.”

Even with the hopeful expression on Casimir’s face, he tried to smile back at Casimir, “I’ll be fine here, just… go.”

----
At first it seemed like nothing. It was the wind, she kept trying to tell herself. The howling could play tricks with the sounds. Like how a desert supposedly could play tricks with the mind, so could the snow.

Yet somehow she could still hear them. In the end, that was all that mattered. A gale of screams and cries, cloaking a small chuckle that kept calling her further into the snow.

It’s not real. It’s not real.

The mantra was a faulty one at best and she knew it, but what else could she use? She needed to keep focus and then get back to them before Mason did something stupid.

However, the flapping of wings that had broken her out of it previously, signalled she was probably too late for that. The being flew alongside her, the great wings seemingly not fazing her in the least as she asked calmly, “What do you want?”

“Your friend suggested I talk to you,” Casimir replied.

The spirit was not like the human child, as the cold, frozen gaze seemed to pierce into his own. The feline creature seemed to falter his gaze only for a moment, as if her dead eyes were strange to him.

Or all too familiar.

“Really?” Her voice easily challenged the wind as well as Casimir, “What about?”

“Well… If you don’t mind, I would like to know your name,” Casimir offered, smiling as if to lighten any tension the spirit wanted to give off.

Nevara thought for a moment and saw the smile and she nodded, “I see. Alright.” However, an expression of confusion made its way across the feline being’s face as odd characters and sounds spilled out from her mouth.

She didn’t even even blink when she stopped and spoke normally, “There.”

“Uh, can you repeat that again?”

“No.”

“Is there a translation?”

She sighed and finally told him, looking unimpressed by this polite behaviour, “If you wish to know my name, you are wasting your breath.”

“You’re a contestant as well, aren’t you?” Casimir asked.

The ghost’s eyes narrowed in response, “The boy told you?”

“We’ve discussed things,” Casimir explained, “We would like to settle this without fighting.”

The sigh seemed to echo and dance along with the sound of the wind and wing beats, and replied curtly, “How so?”

“We want to put the stars to the best cause.”

“That… sounds like him. Is it right to assume that you two have discussed your motivations?”

“Yes, we have,” Casimir told her, “Seeing as how you also have a star though, it’s only fair to see if you also have a good cause.”

“I see. So what is yours then?” She asked plainly enough.

She was almost grateful when he was quick to respond, “I want to help my people.”

Her lips tugged down in a frown as she suddenly flickered out of view for a moment, eyes wide. The feline once again looked away for a second. She saw why now. She breathed a sigh and flew a little further forward, only to look back at him. “My condolences… That is not an easy burden to bear.”

Despite that, she could hear the screaming even more, and all she wanted them to do was to stop now. She tried to shush it quietly, but they drowned her out. They always did.

The expression on Casimir seemed to be one of growing hope, at least in his eyes while understanding seemed to crawl into hers. He replied just as readily as before, “Yes, and with every star it would make this easier.”

“I imagine so.”

“What do you want?”

“We can wait until we find shelter.”

Casimir frowned at that, she was avoiding things like her friend who was walking on his lonesome. “Have you told him what you want at all?” he asked.

“Do you really need to know that?”

“Well… It seems like an odd thing to keep from him,” he told her, “Unless you first met up here.”

“No… We didn’t,” she snapped, as if he had struck something he hadn’t expected to.

He paused before asking, “Then how did you meet?”

He expected no response at all. Against all odds, the spirit opened her mouth to speak.
----

She looked upon the strange sight with her usual expression. A human child simply lying there, curled up on the ground. His rusty red hair flopped over his face, motionless as if it was another corpse. Well… If that was the case, she would’ve most likely seen either the blood or his spirit briefly.

Or Death itself.

She flickered, almost wanting to hide at that simple thought. That being was terrifying. She would rather not meet the fearsome being again while she had the choice. Luckily, the child stirred and slowly picked himself up from the ground.

The child held his hand, green eyes looking around in pure confusion as he asked, “W…..What?”

“Good morning,” she greeted him.

The boy turned his head to the direction of the voice and replied, “H-hello…?”

Despite how heavy his words seemed to be from whatever had just happened to him, he asked, “W-who are you?” The hazy look in his eyes seemed to soften, as he waited like a young child would, to hear the rest of a story.

“Yes, my name-” she began to say. All too soon that haze in those green eyes lit up in alarm.

“W-wait… Y-you’re a ghost!” he shouted, throwing himself back as if that would be an effective way to get away from her.

Well, he was certainly awake now.

It seemed this revelation allowed his words to come loose, asking several questions:“Where am I!? Am I dead!?” He scrambled away, trying to pick himself up several times only to fall backwards onto the dirt.

She narrowed her eyes and spoke, raising a hand as a symbol of harmless intentions, “Stop, you are going to faint again.”

Green eyes held firmly, not letting her out of his sight. Despite the layers of clothing on him, his whole frame shook harshly. “I… How did you…!” he stuttered. The child’s body sprung up before Nevara had a chance to speak, in another attempt to get on his feet, only to fall forwards this time.
Despite the fall, at the first chance he looked back up, eyes shining with an emotion Nevara had not seen in a long time; desperation. “I…. I… Do you know what happened to me?!” he asked again.

At the simple emotion from the boy, a prickling feeling tainted her thoughts for a second; strange.

She simply sighed and explained, “Considering you weren’t dragged off or drowning in your own blood, I assumed you fainted.”

His expression fell in disappointment as he listened to her. His gaze finally broke away from her as he stared down at his hands, a gesture that seemed to alleviate a pressure Nevara didn’t see before. In a somber tone, he replied, “O…..Oh, I’m sorry for assuming that and...”

“It is fine,” she spoke curtly, “Besides-”

“No…I mean… I’m sorry to make you well…cry?”

It was her turn to stop and stare at the human child. She narrowed her eyes in confusion, only to see the white specks drifting down towards him. With no hesitation, she reached up to her face, feeling her ethereal skin. Sure enough, her fingers registered the branching rifts that had cracked open her cheeks. So that was the prickling feeling. Pulling her hand away she spoke, “Oh.... So I am… Strange.”

She waved her hand, as if that would somehow dispel the cracks and the snow falling from them. She took a deep breath and asked, “A-anyway, what is your name child?”
--

Sympathy seemed to cross over the feline’s eyes, an emotion Nevara wished she could scrunch her nose at, especially if it was about the fact she had cried. “I see… but…. What is your wish?” he asked again. “Are you wanting something back too?”

The sound of a roar whispered in the wind, and all too soon Nevara stopped in her tracks, leaving Casimir to watch her vanish from his vision.

He struck his wings hard against the current and after the short struggle, flew back.

The noise reached his ears too, but it didn't sound like any animal he knew of. “What… is that?” he asked the snow spirit, only to see her wide eyes as she looked back at him with a slightly alarming look.

“Oh no. No no no no! Dammit!” she cursed and shot forwards, challenging the wind easily as she was not governed by simple physics.

The neverending gale of snow seemed to combat him at every turn. That is, until he finally saw the large black dot far below. And a blue and purple dot.

In a moments notice he flew down to the ground, watching the scene become more clear to him.

The first thing he saw of the black dot was the slits in its slimy skin, watching him carefully. Casimir flew to its side, watching as it reared its neck back and dove down. He glanced over at its target, only to see the boy barely managing to move out of its way.

The monser paid no mind at its crushed face,it raised its head again and struck down.

Bending the wind to his will, Casimir let the current speed him down to ground level. In a flash, he pushed the child out of the way, letting the creature hit stone again.

Tossing them further away into the snow, Mason winced at the arm that Casimir had struck, both standing up to watch the thing lolled its half-bashed head to the side. Mason adjusted his hand on the spear. It let out a hiss, and the six eyes on its head turned to them.

“What is that?” Casimir asked in disbelief, a glowing aura surrounding him as they watched it stand on the blades.

“Not now,” Mason insisted. “Run!”

As if on cue the creature pounced, and instinctively Casimir held out his hand. The spikes pierced through it, but it only hissed and crawled forwards, paying no mind to the spikes as it lashed its long claws forwards.

First a dodge, then a block with the icy spear, then the boy scrambled away from the silver blades assaulting the ground. Casimir took to the skies as the head pulled itself up.

Like a lizard, it stretched out its neck out wide, only for a wind current to blow both Casimir and the being’s head backwards.

Casimir looked down to see the boy’s hand raised to him, then saw the boy motion to another direction. The screaming from the being only made it easier to chase after the same decision to run.

The two raced down the hill as quick as they could.

Mason knew better than to hope, while Casimir followed his lead. However, Mason dared to look back once.

He was just in time to watch the being dart up and and a scream to echo out among the winds before crashing down.

Mason darted forward towards it. His eyes widened as he saw tan in black jaws.

The creature turned to him as he raised the spear and tossed it into the air, watching it spin as it hit one of its eyes and disappear.

The being shrieked in anger as it opened his mouth. Casimir took advantage of this to use one wing to push the other off the sharp tooth, and used another magic gust of wind to throw him away from it.

Mason ran to meet him. “You okay?!” he asked, as Casimir changed his wings to arms again. He held out one hand for Nevara to return, and held the other towards Casimir.

Nevara appeared seconds before Mason took Casimir’s hand as he got up. Pulling them both into a position to run again, the being wasted no time on a clawed assault.

The large blades forced them to let go, separating in different directions.

The creature jumped to Mason. The boy whirled around to block one blade, only for another to come down. Pushing the lance and tossing himself out of the way, he watched as the creature screamed as it tried to pull its claw out of the ground.

The soft crackling of ice was enough for Mason to take his spear and stab the ground. He could hear the cracks as the being bit into its own flesh in an effort to free itself. He looked up to Casimir.

In return, he raised his hand.

And then the world fell for Mason, while the beast ripped off its limb and jumped for Casimir.

In mere moments, the boy held his hand out and let the air catch him. The winds however, only tossed him onto the ground with a hard thud. Pain flowed through his leg almost immediately, forcing him to hold it. He huddled as hailing shrapnels of ice pierce the world below. The being fell to the ground shortly, only to scream at the massive amount of sharp ice tossed onto it.

Mason watched as it grew motionless, before getting up and screaming out Casimir’s name.

He watched in growing horror as he saw movement. Then a smile graced his face as he heard, “I’m fine!”

A blue hand tossed a mass of black tar out of its way with one arm. Right between one of the gaps between the monster’s jagged teeth.

Mason smiled and limped over and insisted, “We should get out of here.”

“I can’t fly, and you can’t walk…. But,” Casimir replied then raised his hand. Ice crawled forwards, surrounding the tar-black being in ice. After several layers, Casimir’s breath was like a chimney. After several moments the feline spoke, “That should be good for the night. Hopefully it won’t get out.”

Mason could only nod, finally letting go of the spear and allowing it to dissolve again. The bluish glow transformed into Nevara, who simply spoke, “We should take watches. That thing is a scout, and if it doesn’t freeze to death first, it’s going to kill us. If you can make a wall Casimir, then we should be safe.”

Casimir pointed behind both of them, the dark tunnel edging into the earth and standing out amongst the greys and whites.

“It seems like it was part of a small valley or something…” Mason spoke. “I can go check out the cave. I’ll take first watch too, it’s the least I can do.”

Casimir smiled back. “Thanks,” he told the human.

“Same here,” Mason replied, and smiled back.
---

Doctor Amestuchi could easily admit fate wasn’t an easy thing to predict or control. She could also easily say that if any one of her workers had the potential to take her expectations and throw them through reality and back again; it would be Kyuu.

With that in mind, she had fully expected Kyuu to try something strange to of Kyuu simply to get a reaction out of her. However, this was something she had to admit, she didn’t think of as his first choice for him.

Standing by the floating cyborg was a woman in white. A quick look over the woman proved nothing really amazing in Amestuchi’s eyes. Just a regular-looking human with a bright blue eye. Perhaps the bandages over the other eye could be something of interest; it could be worse.

The woman gave a warm smile and lightly bowed to the doctor, before standing tall and finally speaking, “Hello, my dear Doctor.”

At least she was polite.

“Kyuu, who is this?” Ametsuchi asked as she turned to her worker, who only smiled back at her like a Cheshire cat. That proved to be a possible issue, considering Kyu’s track record she had seen so far.

Kyu seemed to go along with the human’s lead. “This,” he spoke with a gesture of his hand as he drifted closer to the stranger, “is my lovely colleague.”

Looking between the two, Ametsuchi wasn’t completely sure if this was a joke or not. It could easily be, or simply some cryptid puzzle he was giving her to solve. Either way, it would waste time, and she needed that for studying the recent numbers. The doctor finally let her gaze rest on the one-eyed woman and said, “I didn’t think you had any… colleagues like her.”

“No, I don’t actually,” Kyu admitted with a small chuckle, “But she’s more of an… acquaintance.”

“I owe you a favor,” she spoke calmly, glancing over to him with the same smirk on her face; almost playful.

“Not one you were forced into I might add,” Kyu retaliated gracefully with his own smirk to match.

The one-eyed woman laughed as the kitsune glided past her. Her warm smile didn’t even flinch once as she admitted, “This is true. Sharp as always, Kyu.” She looked away from the kitsune back to Ametsuchi. She reached for the clasp on her jacket and pulled down the fur-trimmed hood, allowing long red locks to spill out of it. “Now, what do you wish of me?”

“What is your name and how can you help me? I have a good number of people assisting me already,” Ametsuchi pressed on.

The smile on the one eyed woman’s face twitched only once, as if taken aback by the small request. However, she replied with little hesitation: “Well, I don’t mind sharing if you can tell me about yourself.”

“I would like to know about you first.”

“Very well, my dear Doctor,” she finally answered. “I am Vera, it is a pleasure.”

“And your specialty?

For a moment, Vera paused, simply staring as she lifted a hand to her chest and her smile faltering. After a single moment, she looked up and replied, “My… specialty for your goal, my dear.”

The sentence was an easy one to say, as it was rather obvious to her staff. So Ametsuchi spoke without hesitation, “I wish to master fate itself.”

The moment of silence hung over the last word like a veil, only to be blown away by Vera’s laughter. “Kyu, you never told me your employer had a sense of humor,” she giggled.

“You are mocking someone with a terrible first impression, Vera?” the voice of Ametsuchi seemed as calm and collected as usual, but the sharp sting of annoyance pricked the edges of her words. As subtle as it was, it demanded attention.

Kyu glanced at Ametsuchi, silent but with the same grin as Vera’s laughing died down. She waved her hand calmly and explained herself, “No no, it was not made as an insult, my dear. Simply…. nerves. A lot of things can go wrong if done incorrectly.”

“I would know a thing or two,” she started, reaching for her bandages. At first, Ametsuchi could only guess as to why, until an ink-like substance dribbled down Vera’s face from her eye socket. In a blink, small arcane symbols formed and slithered down her skin as if it were a moving tattoo. They came in dozens down her face and wrapped around her entire body, before seeming to contaminate several parts of the room, the air, and the ground. The marks floated around her aimlessly, unwilling to touch the computers or the other two beings in the room.

“Being a Knowledge Mage and all,” she continued with that same smile, “And seeing as you are dealing with something so fickle, I would love to assist in any way I can.”

As if in demonstration, Vera walked forward. Almost out of nowhere, the seat that Ametsuchi cast aside flew to the woman’s side. A quick glance was all the purple-haired woman needed to see the magic’s tight grip on the chair.

She breathed a sigh. At least this was no practical joke as well as nothing she couldn’t handle.

“Very well, just please allow my contestants to do as they wish. I need their variables,” Ametsuchi told the smiling woman. With the flick of the woman’s fingers, the marks loosened their hold. Calmly, Ametsuchi sat down and continued, “For now, I’ll station you with Kit, she’ll keep an eye on you.”

With another small bow, Vera answered. “I shall try my best, my good doctor.” However when she looked up, the playful glint in her eye was gone. An almost cold gaze washed over it to contrast her continuous smile, “But do not worry, I will behave. It is a pleasure to work for someone of your status.”
---

The snow slowed about an hour after they had fallen through the ice, but the cave entrance had certainly made protection that much easier.

However, pleasant sleep it was not.

The sound of the howling winds only forced Casimir to recall the unpleasant memories of watching as his guard cried out in pain.

He retaliated with magic soon after, trying to keep the beings that wished to attack the prince at bay. “Go!” he shouted at Casimir. The young prince shuffled away, only to watch the blood dribble onto the ground. He wanted to help, he wanted to run.

Running never solved anything. It caused everything.

However, his legs moved on their own and raced on. He kept running and running, running past the table that started this whole war. He reached out to try to grab the chair, to have a proper talk and quell the angry nation. He could see the hatred in their eyes and the weapons strapped to their backs.

“Come Prince Casimir, let’s have a chat,” their king said with a sneer.

He couldn’t, he simply ran out the door.

The light squish of blood, of bodies. Of his people that didn’t deserve him. They only screamed at him, holding their hands up in desperation. Hatred in their glazed eyes.

“Why have have you done this!?” they cried. “Coward!”

The sound of blades hitting stone arose alongside a simple sentence, “It is your turn, Prince.”

His ears flicked back as his eyes snapped open, only to hear something step forward. For a moment, he threw himself up to get a better check of his surroundings. To his relief, nothing was there, he was back in the cave.

He smiled tiredly. A dream was better than reality. He wiped a stray tear from his eye then called out to to the boy, the one he had helped. “Are you there? Is it my turn for-?”

He heard the light hiss from behind him and turned around. And in the glowing moonlight, he saw those green eyes lit with rage.

Was this another part of the nightmare? He questioned to himself before the spear in the boy’s hands tried to strike him with the blunt part.

The feline jumped up and looked up at the small, strange nameless creature. The boy took a step forwards, gritting his teeth as he moved his injured leg. “Give me that thing,” he seethed.

“W-what are you talking about?” Casimir spoke.

The boy yelled a warcry as he slammed one end of the staff onto the stone, using it as a push off to close the gap. He swung. Casimir took one arm and transformed it into a wing, tossing the boy back with the strength of a wingbeat.

“Please! Talk to me!” he asked, searching for the reason in the boy’s expression as the kid struggled to get up from his wounds.

Had it been the monster? Did it taint the thoughts of whatever his race was? He knew some incantations, maybe his natural magic could extract some whatever madness spell that fallen onto the boy.

He didn’t know, and he didn't have time to think as Mason got up again and used the spear to once again push his way forward.

All he knew was this human had become a child of rage.

Only this time, Casimir was ready for him. With a wave of his hand, a layer of ice sprouted up, tripping up the boy almost instantly.

In response, Mason stabbed the spear into the thin veil and dug into it, only for his injured leg to give out and send him flying along with a few shards of ice to fly at Casimir harmlessly.

The boy struggled to stand as Casimir watched in pure confusion. The boy looked back with a mix of emotions, only to look deep into the cave and bolt.

He had no idea what he had possibly done to the boy, but he walked forwards all the same. If he could help the boy overcome this spell, then he would be of use. Descending into the darkness, the echoing shuffle rang out as both Casimir and Mason’s footsteps crept down the unknown hallways.

The flash of blue caught Casimir by surprise, as a sheet of ice came barreling to him. However in seconds the ice reversed its path, flying right back in the same direction. In the flash of light he could see the boy’s wide eyes as the sheet of ice threw him back deeper into the cave. The mad shuffling of what sounded like a wild animal.

Then all of the sudden another current of ice appeared, and Casimir threw it back as quickly as he could. The barrage of ice continued as he made his way towards the boy, all the while thinking of the incantation.

Taking a deep breath, trying to call more magic from his drained energy, he raced into the cavern, and landed with his hands touching the ground. All at once the ground shook, and the many walls and natural pillars shook as well.

As the boy seemed to fall from behind one of the pillars, he looked up. Casimir followed suit, only to see the ice descending from above. Using his magic, they spiraled around him. In a second, he felt a fierce wind throw him into the ice and into the wall. He easily saw stars as the world seem to fade out for a moment.

He slowly pushed himself off with his one hand, and looked back. Mason slowly moved forwards, taking the lance in hand and yelling, “Tell me what this mark is!”

The runes glowed fiercely, illuminating the tears beginning to stream down his face.

“What!?” Casimir asked, trying to pull spells from his memory.

The boy dropped the spear, allowing Nevara to form once again. “I deserve to know, you had no right to take it all from me!” he shouted again.

Confusion knitted on Casimir’s brow as he slowly tried to get up. What was this boy talking about?

He reached out, for magic or to try to calm the boy he didn’t know. Fear darted into the boy’s mind, and he reached behind him and lunged. Ice formed from Casimir’s hand at ose movements, only to watch as the boy bent his knee, landing on his hands before picking himself back up and finally closing the gap.

With a quick motion, Casimir could feel the blunt end of the dagger strike his head. His vision flickered, watching the confusion dance in Mason’s eyes as he insisted he tell him something. However his gaze shifted onto the apparition that was the ghost woman, who simply stood there.

She could explain everything, clear everything up.

Finally it dawned on him as those blue eyes held fast like a blizzard as he drifted off.

Mason screamed as he shouted for the upteenth time, “Don’t you fall asleep! Why did you send those things after me!? What did I do!?”

Nevara simply watched as the boy curled up in a ball, finally giving up on asking the unconscious body questions as he used his good leg to push himself away. Even as the star drifted onto his arm like before, he didn’t seem to care.

“Mason, that’s enough,” she told him, approaching the two.

Mason looked up at her, desperation like before in those eyes and told her, “Even when we took him down, he still didn't admit to anything.”
She sighed and remembered just an hour before. She simply sighed and spoke the same line she said before, “He has many eyes, just like them, not to mention he wasn’t affected when he was bitten by it. Most things die if they get hit by it. He didn’t.”

The boy looked at her, looking back at Casimir once more.

“He said I knew about them,” she spoke. “That’s why I came back. Coincidence that we had none following us and yet here one is in another world. He’s lying like everyone else, Mason.”

The boy looked back and nodded. “He should be alright though.”

“You made sure?” she challenged. Only for the boy to nod. She shook her head and breathed a sigh, “Well, there are probably others like him out there. If we can find them, we can find out the truth.”

“Or finish this tournament,” Mason added.

WIth that, Nevara nodded. She only looked over at Casimir once more as Mason looked over the unconscious being one more time.

She frowned and sighed.

Lying was a natural talent when you can’t even smile properly.

Description
The flakes of white swirled around her, almost compelling her to join them in a sort of dance that nature brought. However, she was never a good dancer.

“It’s nice out here, isn’t it?” Mason said, tugging the scarf up over his nose as he walked alongside her.

“Is that supposed to be sarcastic?” Nevara asked, staring down at the boy.

Mason almost flinched at the statement, looking up at the snow spirit with wide eyes, then shook his head and said, “No.” It took him several moments to realize the intense stare of Nevara would not lessen, and slowly lowered his gaze. He tugged his scarf up to his nose again as he looked over the howling winds and snow covered hills. He lowered his voice, the winds fighting to dissolve his words in their sound, “No….I just… It’s nice to see a snowstorm again.”

“I do not think that’s normal, Mason,” came a reply from Nevara.

He shrugged and fixed his gaze back on her again. “Well, I don’t know… It just… it feels homey somehow,” he said. “You’re a snow spirit, shouldn’t you like the snow and winter?”

The snow spirit narrowed her eyes but quickly turned to face where they were heading. She watched the snowflakes blow past her and grumbled, “I hate winter.”

The boy gave an odd look at his partner as she turned her sights to the world around her.

It didn’t matter because winter would surround her for all eternity.

Among the winds that guided the snowflakes in their dance, an image seemed to move in the distance. For a moment Nevara furrowed her brow in confusion, they hadn’t seen a living being since they got to this new dimension.

She squinted, trying to see what on earth it was before reeling back. The figure looked to have on a white coat with fur trim. Though she could not see their face as they walked on ahead, covered by a hood, the symbol painted on their jacket was clear as day. Her eyes widened.

It couldn’t be.

Could it?

Without thinking she flew towards the figure, wanting for just a moment to see their face. The winds howled in her ears and for a moment she could hear their soft chuckle.

“Nevara!” the boy from behind her called, breaking her from her trance. The image vanished all too soon at the simplest sound. She looked back to Mason with the usual cold expression, watching him navigate the snowy hills as carefully but effectively as he could. “W-what are you doing!?” he called out.

She just looked back towards where the figure had been and for a moment, her expression melted into a frown. They were gone, nothing but a sea of white remained in their wake. She simply turned around and said, “It’s nothing… Let us continue onwards.”
---

The machines whirred as the last sentence hung in the air. The kitsune seemed to pay no mind to the small crack in the globe. He seemed fully satisfied in this new development despite his own possession being broken, evident by the smug grin on his face. The stern narrowing eyes of the doctor was well worth something so easily fixed.

“What do you mean by ‘karma’?” she asked sternly, watching Kyuu closely.

Kyuu simply chuckled and allowed the globe to float above him as he held out his hands, like he was falsely surrendering to his boss. “You know, karma? Right?”

Amestuchi stood up from her seat and with no hesitation approached the kitsune cyborg. “I have no time for your games, Kyuu. I am asking if this will put us off course.”

“Probably not,” the kitsune shrugged, looking over at one of the screens before turning to his employer again with a slight frown. The smug grin reappeared as quickly as it left as he shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Kyuu,” Ametsuchi pressed. “Can you pinpoint what it is?”

His cybernetic ears twitched as he crossed his arms, as if lost in thought. After several moments, he shook his head, “Aw, I’m so sorry about that, but I really can’t say. There’s so many futures here, I wouldn’t even know where to start!”

“Then go and do something about it.”

He breathed a sigh, his expression dropping to a frown as he gestured in a lax sweeping motion to the outside world. “So you want me to remove it, I assume?” he asked her.

“Of course not,” she replied, adjusting her glasses briefly as she looked over her screens. After a moment, she looked above at the large contraption strapped to the ceiling, like a makeshift pillar. “I want to study it of course, without destroying my research. I want it in a controlled environment like this entire tournament.”

The kitsune just watched for a moment before shifting his gaze to the pillar. The strange object continued to glow from beyond the pillars that circled it. He could understand every single machine in this room and how it worked, but that thing? That was the oddest thing in there by far.

Still, there was an assignment, for better or worse. “Alright, I’ll find something that may suffice,” he told her finally, voice spiced with a slight annoyance of the extra work.

Being the “Navigator of Fate” certainly had its flaws when it came to responsibilities, due to its importance.

The simple sentence lingered once more as the Doctor watched the strange object for a few more moments before deciding to acknowledge his answer to her. “What do you have in-,” Ametsuchi asked, or at least began to, before a screen flashed a different colour followed by a river of text pouring down the screen.

She whirled over to attend the recent change, eyes scanning the text. Not a moment after she started reading, did she finally reach to that respective keyboard and combat the flowing text. In a short few lines of code, the problem had been slayed. As a reward, a familiar voice exited the speakers, “Dr. Ametsuchi, come in!”

“Kit,” Ametsuchi spoke, holding the serious tone. “You triggered the emergency system, is something wrong? Where are you?”

The nervous tone was enough to confirm this wasn’t a simple check to see if everything was operating right. “By one of the lakes… I…. There’s something really strange going on here, Doctor,” Kit’s voice explained.

The doctor’s stature remained still as stone and asked back in a clear tone, “And that is?”

The small buzz of the audio returned before the voice continued it’s story.

“I…. I heard some of the residents here were falling ill, so I wanted to see if I could help them. I found a common thread and surveyed the area.”

“How long have you been at this?” the Doctor questioned. Surely, a simply survey wouldn’t take too long.

“A while,” Kit’s voice admitted with a sigh, “I just… want to make sure everything’s okay here. It’s not though... It’s dying.”

Was it truly important for a single pocket dimension that was meant to house a tournament and nothing else to start acting strange? No. Despite that line of logic, Ametsuchi wasted no time to inquire further about the strange development. “What do you mean?”

The answer from Kit came straightaway: “I can’t use any of my magic around this lake, no matter how hard I try. That’s why I was trying to use that strange magic set you gave me.”

It was Ametsuchi’s turn to hesitate. She simply stood there, her face knitted into a serious expression as she tapped idly on the desk for a couple moments. If there was nervousness welling within her, she didn’t show it in her voice as her words came out crisp and clear as they always had.

“Are you absolutely certain this is correct?”

“I’m sure, but I can take a look a little longer just in case!”

“Good. I’ll do a scan of the area as well, so send the coordinates. Don’t forget to check on any contestants in the area. One star has moved to Ice Horizon already, and the others are moving as we speak so be prepared,” Ametsuchi explained to Kit.

“Alright! Will do!” Kit chimed before finally the screen returned back to its normal set of strange characters and vast array of numbers.

“Why the sudden interest?” Kyuu asked, watching as the woman checked over the all the screens, watching several star symbols appear on the screen along with a series of characters.

Ametsuchi simply looked back at the fox and grinned. “If Fate wishes to send me ‘Karma’, it’s just one more step closer to my goal, but I’ve heard it’s a tricky concept,” she told Kyuu and looked back over her many screens. “Every little variable helps. Even false ones.”

“Ah yes…. I bet it does,” Kyuu agreed, then floated towards the door to leave the woman alone in the dark room once again.

Most would think his task would be a hard one, but then again, he was a fortune teller.

He knew exactly what to do.

-------------

The feeling of icy shards pricking his face was hardly pleasant. Mason had to admit, however, there was a quality to it.

Familiarity was something foreign to say the least. Now that it surrounded him like this, there was a craving to simply lie there and embrace what felt like the closest thing to ‘home’ that he had found so far, no matter how cold it was. All that was needed was a forest, and then he could at least have an image of what home could actually look like and be allowed to stand in its false presence. Of course, it didn’t matter how familiar it was. The cruelty of being so far away from the real thing would taint it.

The same thought process could be used on Nevara’s current state.

He watched as she moved almost aimlessly, gliding further and further away from him with every step he took. She didn’t need anything to move quickly in the air.

Concern had frozen onto his face a long time ago.

“Nevara!” he called again for the upteenth time, hoping to bring her back from whatever plane her mind was currently at.

He could feel his heart skip a beat when the spirit didn’t even flinch in his direction, almost favouring the idea of melting into the very element she was a part of rather than be at his side like usual.

Like always.
He tried again and again to get her attention, but the spirit continued her walk unphased. As nice as the snow may be, the continuous effort of pulling his legs above the snow and back down again was slowly taking its toll on his energy as well as his travelling efficiency.

“Nevara!” the third call made him relax at her straightening to attention. For a moment she stood still, before flying off into the blanket of white.

The moment came so suddenly for Mason, that the boy stopped entirely before trying to move as quickly as he could. However, this time there was no glimpse of her navy hair, no matter how closely he looked. The growing horror began to twist in his gut, adding some strength to his movements...

Only to send him into the snow below as gracefully as a seal on land.

For a moment, he remained in the little hole in the snow he had accidently created. Not to finally curl up and die, no. That would be dumb on too many accounts, including being counter productive. Instead he simply chuckled to himself at the sheer irony of this situation and the newest joke that the world had given him.

‘Surrounded in familiarity but losing a friend to it,’ he thought to himself. He tried a couple of times to rephrase it in his head, but none of them felt truly funny. After several moments to take in the frigid feeling of ice against his cheek and letting his mind go for a few moments, he finally picked himself up and looked in the last direction he saw her. “She couldn’t have gone far right?” he mumbled to the wind.

The hollow feeling that he was wrong seemed to overtake the assurance that she would realize she had taken off again. Taking a deep breath, he continued on his trek, all the while mumbling, “The next time I do something stupid, I can use this incident to tell her I’m not the only one to act dumb between the two of us,” he told himself.

The whirling winds was the only real companion to listen to that promise. The beating of the wind against him and his surroundings continued to sing in his ears. Slowly, it became more rhythmic in nature.

That is until the sound of the wind and the rhythmic wind broke their duet. He whirled around just in time to see the large wings spread wide as if to snatch him up. The blue eyes among the feathers stared right back at him.

His heart leapt in his chest as he quickly leaped out of the way as the adrenaline started to flow through his system. His hand shot for the dagger behind his back, grasping onto it so tightly his hand hurt.

An eruption of snow flew into the air at the being’s descent. It cloaked it in a natural veil for only a couple seconds, as the lightly tanned fur was not exactly something easy to blend into the snowy surroundings. The tan and yellow wings that stood out so much suddenly vanished from view.

The being slowly walked forward, allowing the boy to see it clearly- or him rather. He was a tall being covered head to toe in tan fur. Blue streaked around his neck and forearms, as well as down his chest. The tail with the fluffy chestnut end whished through the air, as if trying not to be swept up in the winds. The lips of his short snout curled in a way to reflect a smile as he held up a hand.

“Hello. I’m wondering if you know the way to shelter.”

The effects of fear still hung in his voice as he struggled to ask, “Ah! I- Um… W-what?” Despite the hand raised to appeal to his nervousness, fear still ran through his body. On this being’s arms those eyes remained, as did the wings on either side of his head that framed his feline face. His sides had a small pair too, all those wings embedded with eyes.

Mason didn’t even want to see them let alone count them, and for some reason the almost primitive fear demanded he take out the blade and try to fend off the being.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the being insisted, the eyes in his head knitted with slight worry. “Are you lost?”

That woman’s voice echoed in his mind again, sending tremors down his frame like no chilly wind could. He took several deep breaths, trying to release the grip on the dagger’s hilt. ‘It’s fine, it’s okay. This being isn’t doing anything to me,’ he tried to assure himself. However the simple thought rang in his head, ‘But that’s what everyone is like at first…’

In a swift motion he forced his hand to loose its hold on the hilt and look up at the being. He kept his eyes trained on the eyes in their head, and tried to smile as best he could. That’s when he saw the blue star on the being’s cheek.

“I.. It’s... It’s fine,” he explained; chattering teen “I just never really expected well... someone like you. My apologizes.”

“I haven’t really met anything like you either to be honest,’ the being replied. “I’m Casimir and you are?” The newly named Casimir reached out a hand, a gesture for a handshake most likely.

Underneath of running current of nervousness, Mason knew this being was being polite, trying to get him to calm down. The expression on his face must’ve looked strained, too fake. All he could do was manage a simple but clear, “Uh….. Yeah.”

The ideas flooded into his mind. Should he stay, should he run, should he lie? His eyes darted back to the star, trying not to focus on the one pair of eye wings gazing back at him. It was right there. Casimir was reaching for mason’s hand. It could be easy if he did it right. He breathed a small sigh as his hand twitched, unable to reach towards the many eyes; compelled by instinct not to. Could he betray such a genuine look?

He bit his lip after several moments. He couldn’t do it. He could almost laugh at himself, when had he ever? “I’m sorry but… I need to go,” he said, finally making his decision as he turned away.

He only made it a couple of steps before hearing the winged feline being call out, “Wait, why? Aren’t you cold?”

This certainly made him stop in his tracks and look back at the strange creature with a small spark in his eye. Focusing on the expression and the lingering voice made it easier to look at him. A small chuckle was drowned by the wind as he shook his head and finally answered, “My…. my friend is acting a bit strangely. She’s probably a hill or so away… or she’ll come right back.”

“Do you want any help?” Casimir asked.

That cautious feeling enveloped again. However, he let it be carried away as he tried to think of how to explain it. Heck, he had made another error telling this being he was not alone. The boy shrugged as he forced his body to move closer so he could be heard better, “Well… I’m not sure if you can but well…”

“Well, if they haven’t gone far then I can fly you around for a little bit,” Casimir told the boy, letting his hand fall limp for a small moment. In a few moments, the fingers vanished, replaced by the feathers sprouting from his arms.

Mason had to admit, it almost looked amazing.

However, his mouth worked for him instead, shouting, “No!”

Both of them flinched in response, Casimir drawing back his wings as Mason struggled to stop wrapping his arms around himself.

Casimir sighed and let the smile finally fade walking over carefully to the shaking child. However, just as he opened his mouth the kid looked up and stammered out a question, “I-I mean. Won’t I be too heavy?!”

Casimir took a moment, all those eyes looked down at the boy as if examining him for every crack. Yet the gentle voice seemed reassuring, trying to sound like a warmth among the icy surroundings, “You seem small enough. I’ll be fine.”

The small gesture of opening his wings and the smile was all Mason needed to finally say, “O-okay.”

The boy took a deep breath and walked close to Casimir, the eyes, and the bright sun-toned colours. The feline being extended one wing further, cradling the boy as he pulled him closer in. Despite the fear wracking his body, Casimir’s voice told him, “You’ll need to hold on tight though.”

The boy reached for the cloth around his waist and he expertly took the green fabric and ensure it would remain below his belt by tying it tightly before walking forward to tie it around Casimir’s. The feline’s ears flicked as he watched the boy tie the two of them together before smiling and lowering his head to allow the boy to wrap his arms around him.

Mason sighed, his body finally seemed to relax.

Mason could hear as the wings shifted against the icy winds around them, cutting it off. All at once the snow kicked up, blinding everything for a moment before the rush of wind and snow came down on them.

In a matter of seconds, the familiar ground was lost and against the boy’s judgment. He closed his eyes, both to protect his eyes from the possible damage as well as not exactly wanting to look down. It wasn’t exactly a normal experience to be up in the air. However he knew one thing now, he had no idea how Nevara stood flying around like this.

It seemed like forever before Casimir’s voice called out to someone, “Hey, you there!” All too soon, the boy held on tight as the direction of the wind changed and gravity set in.

The air left his lungs in a flash as his heart seemed to drop to his feet.

They were falling.

All at once, gravity seemed to catch up with him as they were jerked back, trying to combat what felt like impending doom, and trying to drag Mason down with it. The boy kept his grip up before finally feeling the heavy thud that dared to shake him off again.

He stayed there for a moment, only to feel someone take both of his sides and gently tug him away from Casimir. Examining the fact the wind was like before they set off, the boy let go, only to find himself being held up to whoever Casimir had found.

Mason dared to open his eyes to see the bored face of Nevara, judging him as always. Mason smiled nervously as Casimir asked, “Is this strange little creature possibly your friend?”

She never even looked away from him, staring at him like normal, but the look in her eyes felt as if he had suddenly committed murder. “Yes,” she replied.

Mason smiled and looked back at Casimir, motioning to the ground. Casimir nodded before setting the kid down, letting him untie them. It was then that Mason froze halfway through tying the sash back around his waist like normal and asked, “Wait a moment. Are your eyes playing tricks on you?”

Casimir gave a confused look, “What do you mean?”

“You’re seeing something. There’s nobody there,” he insisted.

“No…” Casimir corrected him, raising an eyebrow at the boy’s apparently strange antics. “There’s a being next to you, right there.”

All at once a grin tore its way onto Mason’s face. He raised his arms in triumph as he shouted, “Oh my gods! Finally!”

Both spirit and feline being shot the boy a confused look. Casimir asked, “I’m sorry?”

Mason simply motioned from Casimir to Nevara several times, almost hysterically as he spoke, “You don’t understand! It’s been forever since someone has seen her! Not unless I’m in the land of the dead!”

The look of surprise evolved into shock on Casimir’s face. The boy’s smile didn't even falter, even after that last sentence. “What?!” he exclaimed, seeking more confirmation.

Nevara, on the other hand, looked like she would’ve slapped the boy if she could. He breathed a sigh and motioned to the boy, “Calm down, you’re going to hurt your head again.”

“That’s only when we teleport!” Mason insisted, “But you have to say this is amazing!”

“I think you have Hypothermia,” The spirit countered.

“I do not!”

Casimir held up two hands to both of them, and stated, “Let’s please calm down. We should probably get out of the storm first.”

Nevara nodded, looking off into the snow and replied, “He’s right.”

“Huh. Oh sorry, it’s just…nice not to have to pretend she isn’t there,” Mason apologized.

“It’s fine,” Casimir assured him.

The spirit looked back at the two of them. For a moment, it hung on Casimir more so than Mason. She breathed a sigh and shifted her gaze back to Mason and crossed her arms. Mason bit his lip again in response.

All too soon Nevara spoke calmly and clearly, more so than she had been the entire time they had been out there. “Casimir, how-,” she began only to flinch at the voice contesting her.

“About you stay with me for now,” Mason finished. He could see the stare of Nevara on him. It was worse when nobody responded for a second.

Casimir’s question seemed to cut some of the tension, “Are you sure?”

Mason smiled and nodded, “Y-yeah… I’m sorry about before, I just think Nevara should go ahead of us for a little bit. If she acts dumb-”

“I wasn’t acting dumb,’ the spirit finally cut in, bitterness tainting her voice.

“Then we’ll just fly over again,” Mason finished.

“Mason…” The spirit passed on, voice monotone as usual.

Mason took a deep breath and turned to Nevara, challenging to the look she was giving him as he explained, “He has better vision than me with all those eyes… probably.”

The winds seemed to be the only thing that answered before her own voice cut through them, “I’ll take 5 minutes.”

All at once, the spirit flew off, faster than Mason expected her. He breathed a small sigh, but not in relief.

“You’re a contestant aren’t you?” he said almost as soon as Nevara left his sight.

He watched as Casimir seemed to almost want to touch the precious mark on his face. However, he nodded all the same, “I…. Yeah..” Something was wrong though as he looked back at Mason with a slightly nervous look in his eye, but added to his initial response all the same “And judging by the fact you know that, I’m guessing you’ve had at least some contact with some.”

Mason nodded, “Yeah.” He watched the gaze of the feline falter as he asked, “A-actually, what are you going to do with it? I’ve heard…. There’s a wish if you collect a bunch,”

Casimir sighed as they began to talk. The distant gaze as he peered into the snow sent a strike of concern in the boy. However, he was not as far gone as he initially thought as he replied, “Yes, I want to save someone. If I could have more than that one person, I’ll be honest and say that I’d love to save my entire people too.”

The wound of worry divided into a fissure of guilt. What could he say to that? The idea had been in his head once that this could happen, but now that it was, he could barely manage a word

“O-oh.”

The feline looked back at him and smiled sadly, before it easily dwindled. His next words sent shivers down the boy’s spine: “But I guess you won’t give me yours easily, will you?,”

‘Too late now’, he told himself. “You don’t know that,” Immediately he wanted to shove his hands in front of his mouth. The nervousness in his voice had given it away. There were certainly days when Nevara’s cold tone was something he wished he could emulate.

“You were staring at my face quite a bit, but I get it. It seems a lot of people want these,” Casimir explained. Yet somehow, there was no lunging at him, no yelling. He simply wore an understanding expression as he added, “Honestly, I’d rather not fight you though.”

Somehow, that reassurance almost made Casimir’s appearance tolerable. Mason nodded in agreement, “Same here, but.. I can’t just give you my star.” A smile flicked on his face, knowing Nevara would be pissed if she could hear this. All the same he said with a small chuckle, “Guess we are at a stalemate, huh?”

“What do you want then?” Casimir asked, causing the boy to flinch. Could he really tell him he was just trying to go home? Wanting to fix a banishment he had no idea about the cause of?

Instead of answering, Mason tried to emulate Nevara in how she dodged conversations. “Well… She and I share a star,”he explained. “She’s pretty cranky most of the time, but maybe… We might be able to discuss who gets the stars if you go talk to her, hopefully to the best cause.”

Even with the hopeful expression on Casimir’s face, he tried to smile back at Casimir, “I’ll be fine here, just… go.”

----
At first it seemed like nothing. It was the wind, she kept trying to tell herself. The howling could play tricks with the sounds. Like how a desert supposedly could play tricks with the mind, so could the snow.

Yet somehow she could still hear them. In the end, that was all that mattered. A gale of screams and cries, cloaking a small chuckle that kept calling her further into the snow.

It’s not real. It’s not real.

The mantra was a faulty one at best and she knew it, but what else could she use? She needed to keep focus and then get back to them before Mason did something stupid.

However, the flapping of wings that had broken her out of it previously, signalled she was probably too late for that. The being flew alongside her, the great wings seemingly not fazing her in the least as she asked calmly, “What do you want?”

“Your friend suggested I talk to you,” Casimir replied.

The spirit was not like the human child, as the cold, frozen gaze seemed to pierce into his own. The feline creature seemed to falter his gaze only for a moment, as if her dead eyes were strange to him.

Or all too familiar.

“Really?” Her voice easily challenged the wind as well as Casimir, “What about?”

“Well… If you don’t mind, I would like to know your name,” Casimir offered, smiling as if to lighten any tension the spirit wanted to give off.

Nevara thought for a moment and saw the smile and she nodded, “I see. Alright.” However, an expression of confusion made its way across the feline being’s face as odd characters and sounds spilled out from her mouth.

She didn’t even even blink when she stopped and spoke normally, “There.”

“Uh, can you repeat that again?”

“No.”

“Is there a translation?”

She sighed and finally told him, looking unimpressed by this polite behaviour, “If you wish to know my name, you are wasting your breath.”

“You’re a contestant as well, aren’t you?” Casimir asked.

The ghost’s eyes narrowed in response, “The boy told you?”

“We’ve discussed things,” Casimir explained, “We would like to settle this without fighting.”

The sigh seemed to echo and dance along with the sound of the wind and wing beats, and replied curtly, “How so?”

“We want to put the stars to the best cause.”

“That… sounds like him. Is it right to assume that you two have discussed your motivations?”

“Yes, we have,” Casimir told her, “Seeing as how you also have a star though, it’s only fair to see if you also have a good cause.”

“I see. So what is yours then?” She asked plainly enough.

She was almost grateful when he was quick to respond, “I want to help my people.”

Her lips tugged down in a frown as she suddenly flickered out of view for a moment, eyes wide. The feline once again looked away for a second. She saw why now. She breathed a sigh and flew a little further forward, only to look back at him. “My condolences… That is not an easy burden to bear.”

Despite that, she could hear the screaming even more, and all she wanted them to do was to stop now. She tried to shush it quietly, but they drowned her out. They always did.

The expression on Casimir seemed to be one of growing hope, at least in his eyes while understanding seemed to crawl into hers. He replied just as readily as before, “Yes, and with every star it would make this easier.”

“I imagine so.”

“What do you want?”

“We can wait until we find shelter.”

Casimir frowned at that, she was avoiding things like her friend who was walking on his lonesome. “Have you told him what you want at all?” he asked.

“Do you really need to know that?”

“Well… It seems like an odd thing to keep from him,” he told her, “Unless you first met up here.”

“No… We didn’t,” she snapped, as if he had struck something he hadn’t expected to.

He paused before asking, “Then how did you meet?”

He expected no response at all. Against all odds, the spirit opened her mouth to speak.
----

She looked upon the strange sight with her usual expression. A human child simply lying there, curled up on the ground. His rusty red hair flopped over his face, motionless as if it was another corpse. Well… If that was the case, she would’ve most likely seen either the blood or his spirit briefly.

Or Death itself.

She flickered, almost wanting to hide at that simple thought. That being was terrifying. She would rather not meet the fearsome being again while she had the choice. Luckily, the child stirred and slowly picked himself up from the ground.

The child held his hand, green eyes looking around in pure confusion as he asked, “W…..What?”

“Good morning,” she greeted him.

The boy turned his head to the direction of the voice and replied, “H-hello…?”

Despite how heavy his words seemed to be from whatever had just happened to him, he asked, “W-who are you?” The hazy look in his eyes seemed to soften, as he waited like a young child would, to hear the rest of a story.

“Yes, my name-” she began to say. All too soon that haze in those green eyes lit up in alarm.

“W-wait… Y-you’re a ghost!” he shouted, throwing himself back as if that would be an effective way to get away from her.

Well, he was certainly awake now.

It seemed this revelation allowed his words to come loose, asking several questions:“Where am I!? Am I dead!?” He scrambled away, trying to pick himself up several times only to fall backwards onto the dirt.

She narrowed her eyes and spoke, raising a hand as a symbol of harmless intentions, “Stop, you are going to faint again.”

Green eyes held firmly, not letting her out of his sight. Despite the layers of clothing on him, his whole frame shook harshly. “I… How did you…!” he stuttered. The child’s body sprung up before Nevara had a chance to speak, in another attempt to get on his feet, only to fall forwards this time.
Despite the fall, at the first chance he looked back up, eyes shining with an emotion Nevara had not seen in a long time; desperation. “I…. I… Do you know what happened to me?!” he asked again.

At the simple emotion from the boy, a prickling feeling tainted her thoughts for a second; strange.

She simply sighed and explained, “Considering you weren’t dragged off or drowning in your own blood, I assumed you fainted.”

His expression fell in disappointment as he listened to her. His gaze finally broke away from her as he stared down at his hands, a gesture that seemed to alleviate a pressure Nevara didn’t see before. In a somber tone, he replied, “O…..Oh, I’m sorry for assuming that and...”

“It is fine,” she spoke curtly, “Besides-”

“No…I mean… I’m sorry to make you well…cry?”

It was her turn to stop and stare at the human child. She narrowed her eyes in confusion, only to see the white specks drifting down towards him. With no hesitation, she reached up to her face, feeling her ethereal skin. Sure enough, her fingers registered the branching rifts that had cracked open her cheeks. So that was the prickling feeling. Pulling her hand away she spoke, “Oh.... So I am… Strange.”

She waved her hand, as if that would somehow dispel the cracks and the snow falling from them. She took a deep breath and asked, “A-anyway, what is your name child?”
--

Sympathy seemed to cross over the feline’s eyes, an emotion Nevara wished she could scrunch her nose at, especially if it was about the fact she had cried. “I see… but…. What is your wish?” he asked again. “Are you wanting something back too?”

The sound of a roar whispered in the wind, and all too soon Nevara stopped in her tracks, leaving Casimir to watch her vanish from his vision.

He struck his wings hard against the current and after the short struggle, flew back.

The noise reached his ears too, but it didn't sound like any animal he knew of. “What… is that?” he asked the snow spirit, only to see her wide eyes as she looked back at him with a slightly alarming look.

“Oh no. No no no no! Dammit!” she cursed and shot forwards, challenging the wind easily as she was not governed by simple physics.

The neverending gale of snow seemed to combat him at every turn. That is, until he finally saw the large black dot far below. And a blue and purple dot.

In a moments notice he flew down to the ground, watching the scene become more clear to him.

The first thing he saw of the black dot was the slits in its slimy skin, watching him carefully. Casimir flew to its side, watching as it reared its neck back and dove down. He glanced over at its target, only to see the boy barely managing to move out of its way.

The monser paid no mind at its crushed face,it raised its head again and struck down.

Bending the wind to his will, Casimir let the current speed him down to ground level. In a flash, he pushed the child out of the way, letting the creature hit stone again.

Tossing them further away into the snow, Mason winced at the arm that Casimir had struck, both standing up to watch the thing lolled its half-bashed head to the side. Mason adjusted his hand on the spear. It let out a hiss, and the six eyes on its head turned to them.

“What is that?” Casimir asked in disbelief, a glowing aura surrounding him as they watched it stand on the blades.

“Not now,” Mason insisted. “Run!”

As if on cue the creature pounced, and instinctively Casimir held out his hand. The spikes pierced through it, but it only hissed and crawled forwards, paying no mind to the spikes as it lashed its long claws forwards.

First a dodge, then a block with the icy spear, then the boy scrambled away from the silver blades assaulting the ground. Casimir took to the skies as the head pulled itself up.

Like a lizard, it stretched out its neck out wide, only for a wind current to blow both Casimir and the being’s head backwards.

Casimir looked down to see the boy’s hand raised to him, then saw the boy motion to another direction. The screaming from the being only made it easier to chase after the same decision to run.

The two raced down the hill as quick as they could.

Mason knew better than to hope, while Casimir followed his lead. However, Mason dared to look back once.

He was just in time to watch the being dart up and and a scream to echo out among the winds before crashing down.

Mason darted forward towards it. His eyes widened as he saw tan in black jaws.

The creature turned to him as he raised the spear and tossed it into the air, watching it spin as it hit one of its eyes and disappear.

The being shrieked in anger as it opened his mouth. Casimir took advantage of this to use one wing to push the other off the sharp tooth, and used another magic gust of wind to throw him away from it.

Mason ran to meet him. “You okay?!” he asked, as Casimir changed his wings to arms again. He held out one hand for Nevara to return, and held the other towards Casimir.

Nevara appeared seconds before Mason took Casimir’s hand as he got up. Pulling them both into a position to run again, the being wasted no time on a clawed assault.

The large blades forced them to let go, separating in different directions.

The creature jumped to Mason. The boy whirled around to block one blade, only for another to come down. Pushing the lance and tossing himself out of the way, he watched as the creature screamed as it tried to pull its claw out of the ground.

The soft crackling of ice was enough for Mason to take his spear and stab the ground. He could hear the cracks as the being bit into its own flesh in an effort to free itself. He looked up to Casimir.

In return, he raised his hand.

And then the world fell for Mason, while the beast ripped off its limb and jumped for Casimir.

In mere moments, the boy held his hand out and let the air catch him. The winds however, only tossed him onto the ground with a hard thud. Pain flowed through his leg almost immediately, forcing him to hold it. He huddled as hailing shrapnels of ice pierce the world below. The being fell to the ground shortly, only to scream at the massive amount of sharp ice tossed onto it.

Mason watched as it grew motionless, before getting up and screaming out Casimir’s name.

He watched in growing horror as he saw movement. Then a smile graced his face as he heard, “I’m fine!”

A blue hand tossed a mass of black tar out of its way with one arm. Right between one of the gaps between the monster’s jagged teeth.

Mason smiled and limped over and insisted, “We should get out of here.”

“I can’t fly, and you can’t walk…. But,” Casimir replied then raised his hand. Ice crawled forwards, surrounding the tar-black being in ice. After several layers, Casimir’s breath was like a chimney. After several moments the feline spoke, “That should be good for the night. Hopefully it won’t get out.”

Mason could only nod, finally letting go of the spear and allowing it to dissolve again. The bluish glow transformed into Nevara, who simply spoke, “We should take watches. That thing is a scout, and if it doesn’t freeze to death first, it’s going to kill us. If you can make a wall Casimir, then we should be safe.”

Casimir pointed behind both of them, the dark tunnel edging into the earth and standing out amongst the greys and whites.

“It seems like it was part of a small valley or something…” Mason spoke. “I can go check out the cave. I’ll take first watch too, it’s the least I can do.”

Casimir smiled back. “Thanks,” he told the human.

“Same here,” Mason replied, and smiled back.
---

Doctor Amestuchi could easily admit fate wasn’t an easy thing to predict or control. She could also easily say that if any one of her workers had the potential to take her expectations and throw them through reality and back again; it would be Kyuu.

With that in mind, she had fully expected Kyuu to try something strange to of Kyuu simply to get a reaction out of her. However, this was something she had to admit, she didn’t think of as his first choice for him.

Standing by the floating cyborg was a woman in white. A quick look over the woman proved nothing really amazing in Amestuchi’s eyes. Just a regular-looking human with a bright blue eye. Perhaps the bandages over the other eye could be something of interest; it could be worse.

The woman gave a warm smile and lightly bowed to the doctor, before standing tall and finally speaking, “Hello, my dear Doctor.”

At least she was polite.

“Kyuu, who is this?” Ametsuchi asked as she turned to her worker, who only smiled back at her like a Cheshire cat. That proved to be a possible issue, considering Kyu’s track record she had seen so far.

Kyu seemed to go along with the human’s lead. “This,” he spoke with a gesture of his hand as he drifted closer to the stranger, “is my lovely colleague.”

Looking between the two, Ametsuchi wasn’t completely sure if this was a joke or not. It could easily be, or simply some cryptid puzzle he was giving her to solve. Either way, it would waste time, and she needed that for studying the recent numbers. The doctor finally let her gaze rest on the one-eyed woman and said, “I didn’t think you had any… colleagues like her.”

“No, I don’t actually,” Kyu admitted with a small chuckle, “But she’s more of an… acquaintance.”

“I owe you a favor,” she spoke calmly, glancing over to him with the same smirk on her face; almost playful.

“Not one you were forced into I might add,” Kyu retaliated gracefully with his own smirk to match.

The one-eyed woman laughed as the kitsune glided past her. Her warm smile didn’t even flinch once as she admitted, “This is true. Sharp as always, Kyu.” She looked away from the kitsune back to Ametsuchi. She reached for the clasp on her jacket and pulled down the fur-trimmed hood, allowing long red locks to spill out of it. “Now, what do you wish of me?”

“What is your name and how can you help me? I have a good number of people assisting me already,” Ametsuchi pressed on.

The smile on the one eyed woman’s face twitched only once, as if taken aback by the small request. However, she replied with little hesitation: “Well, I don’t mind sharing if you can tell me about yourself.”

“I would like to know about you first.”

“Very well, my dear Doctor,” she finally answered. “I am Vera, it is a pleasure.”

“And your specialty?

For a moment, Vera paused, simply staring as she lifted a hand to her chest and her smile faltering. After a single moment, she looked up and replied, “My… specialty for your goal, my dear.”

The sentence was an easy one to say, as it was rather obvious to her staff. So Ametsuchi spoke without hesitation, “I wish to master fate itself.”

The moment of silence hung over the last word like a veil, only to be blown away by Vera’s laughter. “Kyu, you never told me your employer had a sense of humor,” she giggled.

“You are mocking someone with a terrible first impression, Vera?” the voice of Ametsuchi seemed as calm and collected as usual, but the sharp sting of annoyance pricked the edges of her words. As subtle as it was, it demanded attention.

Kyu glanced at Ametsuchi, silent but with the same grin as Vera’s laughing died down. She waved her hand calmly and explained herself, “No no, it was not made as an insult, my dear. Simply…. nerves. A lot of things can go wrong if done incorrectly.”

“I would know a thing or two,” she started, reaching for her bandages. At first, Ametsuchi could only guess as to why, until an ink-like substance dribbled down Vera’s face from her eye socket. In a blink, small arcane symbols formed and slithered down her skin as if it were a moving tattoo. They came in dozens down her face and wrapped around her entire body, before seeming to contaminate several parts of the room, the air, and the ground. The marks floated around her aimlessly, unwilling to touch the computers or the other two beings in the room.

“Being a Knowledge Mage and all,” she continued with that same smile, “And seeing as you are dealing with something so fickle, I would love to assist in any way I can.”

As if in demonstration, Vera walked forward. Almost out of nowhere, the seat that Ametsuchi cast aside flew to the woman’s side. A quick glance was all the purple-haired woman needed to see the magic’s tight grip on the chair.

She breathed a sigh. At least this was no practical joke as well as nothing she couldn’t handle.

“Very well, just please allow my contestants to do as they wish. I need their variables,” Ametsuchi told the smiling woman. With the flick of the woman’s fingers, the marks loosened their hold. Calmly, Ametsuchi sat down and continued, “For now, I’ll station you with Kit, she’ll keep an eye on you.”

With another small bow, Vera answered. “I shall try my best, my good doctor.” However when she looked up, the playful glint in her eye was gone. An almost cold gaze washed over it to contrast her continuous smile, “But do not worry, I will behave. It is a pleasure to work for someone of your status.”
---

The snow slowed about an hour after they had fallen through the ice, but the cave entrance had certainly made protection that much easier.

However, pleasant sleep it was not.

The sound of the howling winds only forced Casimir to recall the unpleasant memories of watching as his guard cried out in pain.

He retaliated with magic soon after, trying to keep the beings that wished to attack the prince at bay. “Go!” he shouted at Casimir. The young prince shuffled away, only to watch the blood dribble onto the ground. He wanted to help, he wanted to run.

Running never solved anything. It caused everything.

However, his legs moved on their own and raced on. He kept running and running, running past the table that started this whole war. He reached out to try to grab the chair, to have a proper talk and quell the angry nation. He could see the hatred in their eyes and the weapons strapped to their backs.

“Come Prince Casimir, let’s have a chat,” their king said with a sneer.

He couldn’t, he simply ran out the door.

The light squish of blood, of bodies. Of his people that didn’t deserve him. They only screamed at him, holding their hands up in desperation. Hatred in their glazed eyes.

“Why have have you done this!?” they cried. “Coward!”

The sound of blades hitting stone arose alongside a simple sentence, “It is your turn, Prince.”

His ears flicked back as his eyes snapped open, only to hear something step forward. For a moment, he threw himself up to get a better check of his surroundings. To his relief, nothing was there, he was back in the cave.

He smiled tiredly. A dream was better than reality. He wiped a stray tear from his eye then called out to to the boy, the one he had helped. “Are you there? Is it my turn for-?”

He heard the light hiss from behind him and turned around. And in the glowing moonlight, he saw those green eyes lit with rage.

Was this another part of the nightmare? He questioned to himself before the spear in the boy’s hands tried to strike him with the blunt part.

The feline jumped up and looked up at the small, strange nameless creature. The boy took a step forwards, gritting his teeth as he moved his injured leg. “Give me that thing,” he seethed.

“W-what are you talking about?” Casimir spoke.

The boy yelled a warcry as he slammed one end of the staff onto the stone, using it as a push off to close the gap. He swung. Casimir took one arm and transformed it into a wing, tossing the boy back with the strength of a wingbeat.

“Please! Talk to me!” he asked, searching for the reason in the boy’s expression as the kid struggled to get up from his wounds.

Had it been the monster? Did it taint the thoughts of whatever his race was? He knew some incantations, maybe his natural magic could extract some whatever madness spell that fallen onto the boy.

He didn’t know, and he didn't have time to think as Mason got up again and used the spear to once again push his way forward.

All he knew was this human had become a child of rage.

Only this time, Casimir was ready for him. With a wave of his hand, a layer of ice sprouted up, tripping up the boy almost instantly.

In response, Mason stabbed the spear into the thin veil and dug into it, only for his injured leg to give out and send him flying along with a few shards of ice to fly at Casimir harmlessly.

The boy struggled to stand as Casimir watched in pure confusion. The boy looked back with a mix of emotions, only to look deep into the cave and bolt.

He had no idea what he had possibly done to the boy, but he walked forwards all the same. If he could help the boy overcome this spell, then he would be of use. Descending into the darkness, the echoing shuffle rang out as both Casimir and Mason’s footsteps crept down the unknown hallways.

The flash of blue caught Casimir by surprise, as a sheet of ice came barreling to him. However in seconds the ice reversed its path, flying right back in the same direction. In the flash of light he could see the boy’s wide eyes as the sheet of ice threw him back deeper into the cave. The mad shuffling of what sounded like a wild animal.

Then all of the sudden another current of ice appeared, and Casimir threw it back as quickly as he could. The barrage of ice continued as he made his way towards the boy, all the while thinking of the incantation.

Taking a deep breath, trying to call more magic from his drained energy, he raced into the cavern, and landed with his hands touching the ground. All at once the ground shook, and the many walls and natural pillars shook as well.

As the boy seemed to fall from behind one of the pillars, he looked up. Casimir followed suit, only to see the ice descending from above. Using his magic, they spiraled around him. In a second, he felt a fierce wind throw him into the ice and into the wall. He easily saw stars as the world seem to fade out for a moment.

He slowly pushed himself off with his one hand, and looked back. Mason slowly moved forwards, taking the lance in hand and yelling, “Tell me what this mark is!”

The runes glowed fiercely, illuminating the tears beginning to stream down his face.

“What!?” Casimir asked, trying to pull spells from his memory.

The boy dropped the spear, allowing Nevara to form once again. “I deserve to know, you had no right to take it all from me!” he shouted again.

Confusion knitted on Casimir’s brow as he slowly tried to get up. What was this boy talking about?

He reached out, for magic or to try to calm the boy he didn’t know. Fear darted into the boy’s mind, and he reached behind him and lunged. Ice formed from Casimir’s hand at ose movements, only to watch as the boy bent his knee, landing on his hands before picking himself back up and finally closing the gap.

With a quick motion, Casimir could feel the blunt end of the dagger strike his head. His vision flickered, watching the confusion dance in Mason’s eyes as he insisted he tell him something. However his gaze shifted onto the apparition that was the ghost woman, who simply stood there.

She could explain everything, clear everything up.

Finally it dawned on him as those blue eyes held fast like a blizzard as he drifted off.

Mason screamed as he shouted for the upteenth time, “Don’t you fall asleep! Why did you send those things after me!? What did I do!?”

Nevara simply watched as the boy curled up in a ball, finally giving up on asking the unconscious body questions as he used his good leg to push himself away. Even as the star drifted onto his arm like before, he didn’t seem to care.

“Mason, that’s enough,” she told him, approaching the two.

Mason looked up at her, desperation like before in those eyes and told her, “Even when we took him down, he still didn't admit to anything.”
She sighed and remembered just an hour before. She simply sighed and spoke the same line she said before, “He has many eyes, just like them, not to mention he wasn’t affected when he was bitten by it. Most things die if they get hit by it. He didn’t.”

The boy looked at her, looking back at Casimir once more.

“He said I knew about them,” she spoke. “That’s why I came back. Coincidence that we had none following us and yet here one is in another world. He’s lying like everyone else, Mason.”

The boy looked back and nodded. “He should be alright though.”

“You made sure?” she challenged. Only for the boy to nod. She shook her head and breathed a sigh, “Well, there are probably others like him out there. If we can find them, we can find out the truth.”

“Or finish this tournament,” Mason added.

WIth that, Nevara nodded. She only looked over at Casimir once more as Mason looked over the unconscious being one more time.

She frowned and sighed.

Lying was a natural talent when you can’t even smile properly.