To Warmer Plains
Prologue
Kit feared she'd done too good of a job concealing her distaste for travelling company. After tolerating a few weeks of her previous company's insistence, she realized her protest would change nothing at that silent acceptance, at the least, made for a smoother ride. She'd even begun to acknowledge a legitimate need for the extra protection after the recent series of attacks.
That did not change the fact, however, that Kit Magnar did not particularly enjoy the company of or trust Black Ice Shadow. He was cold, distant, and unfamiliar. Travelling with Saros had put in her such a mindset that she'd come to expect a certain emotional detachment from those of Sidereal stock, but at least Saros had seemed like an identifiable, if a bit uncouth authority figure. Black Ice Shadow was a creature bizzare even by the Maidens' standards, an exotic and disturbing breed of heaven and hell. The pair moved quickly through the plains away from Denandsor on their first night of travel. Black Ice Shadow towered over her, and his long strides made it difficult for Kit to keep up. He walked at least ten feet ahead and rarely looked back, only speaking to her when he felt it necessary to remind her that haste was a necessity. Still, he was not curt, and their was a certain civility Kit found in his quiet darkness.
A few hours had passed into the night when Black Ice Shadow came to a poignant stop, eying his flanks with perhaps unneeded suspicion. He held up a halting finger to Kit, who followed suit. After a few seconds of silence, he turned with a gentle rustling of bracken.
"I think, Madame, that this spot shall be suitable for us to rest for a few hours."
He lowered himself by bending at the knees, keeping his feet close together. He pulled from his backpack a bedroll, deploying it swiftly and offering it to Kit with an open right palm.
Kit looked up to see the offering; she'd been preparing to start a fire. She was soon to set the dry twigs aflame with a mote of essence, but Black Ice Shadow quickly extinguished the heat with a lightning-fast wave from his left hand, keeping his right palm open and facing her. Kit gave him a quizzical, if not slightly disappointed glance.
"I'm sorry, Madame. No fire tonight. Please get some sleep."
Kit nodded; she now appreciated the need for stealth. She began to crawl under the thick deerskin blanket provided with the bedroll as she glanced up to Black Ice Shadow, asking a question she should have known by now, having spent time in the company of these times, was foolish.
"Where... Where will you sleep?" Her hesitance made it apparent that even she'd realized partway through her asking the question what its answer would be.
She was sure that if his black cowl hadn't covered his mouth, she'd see even him grinning.
"I will stand watch. I have forgone sleep for some time in my studies, and certainly, I will be called upon in my future duties to do so again. It is a small matter."
Kit had some trouble getting to sleep that night; it was not a fear of the unknown troubling her, rather, something less palpable. Her mind would not quiet itself whilst her gaze pierced infinitely into the depths of the night sky, littered with constellations and the occasional owl. A wayward, lateral glance every now and then revealed that Black Ice Shadow patrolled the area with stoic conviction, never breaking stride or stare. Though she'd just met him, this assured her -- despite his troubling outward appearance, Kit saw within Black Ice Shadow, despite her inherent resistance of forced company, a certain trustworthiness, almost a... humanity. It was to this thought that she was finally able to drift into sleep.
Morning came with an unpleasant sharpness with which Kit was unfamiliar. When Black Ice Shadow roused with her a quiet, firm utterance of "Madame", the sky was not it usual myriad of pink and yellow hues. Just faintly purple, the Unconquered Sun had yet barely made his presence known to the day. Kit was used to the lifestyle of a prodigal, curious child -- though she'd grown up with a barbarian tribes, her elders had always made special allowances for her, hoping to foster her innate creativity and curiosity. She spent a good deal of her childhood raising at leisurely hours and whimsically exploring the territory. Early mornings were one of many facets of Exalted life Kit was still getting used to.
After groggily getting to her feet, Kit began rolling up the bedroll. In the meantime, Black Ice Shadow stood at the edge of a grassy knoll, contemplating the horizon. Behind himself he'd started a small fire; its heat made warm a pair of rodents the Sidereal had seen fit for breakfast.
The two of them sat down on a pair of tree stumps to eat a few minutes later. The silence grew tense, but Kit, who'd spent the past month with the most awkwardly matched group of people the stars could muster together, and Black Ice Shadow, who'd spent the past year with a living shadow, were both rather accustomed to such silences. Their first breakfast was eaten without a word spoken, and the pair stood in tandem upon finishing, looking onward. Black Ice Shadow, against his custom, broke the silence.
"We will go Southeast, to the range towns of Marukan. There, we will rendezvous with my retinue. Is there anything you require before we depart?"
Kit was a bit taken aback by his staunch politeness, forced as it may have seemed -- Black Ice Shadow had done his best to defeat the image of a brutal killer, though it still unnerved her somewhat to be poignantly aware of the man's primary purpose.
After a moment of startled silence, Kit managed a trailing reply, "No... not really..."
A day of solitude to reconsider her decisions came to mind, though she decided presently against sharing her sarcasm.
The day brought more of the same, and endless lull of grasslands and sloping hills, nothing too severe, but, alas, nothing too exciting. Their conversations were minimal, usually consisting of pleasantries and curt, direct inquiries, always rooted in the present.
As the sun set, Kit strolled forward mindlessly, caught up in the horizon. A moment of frank realization washed over her; she found it hard to believe how quickly she'd adapted to her new life. Less than a year ago, she was a harmless, innocent girl, exploring the wildernesses of Creation and her own mind, carelessly drifting in and out of a barbarian tribe. Today she followed a ghastly assassin Southward, hoping to enter a city she'd never visited and take shelter with people she'd never met. She was still oblivious of the true significance others had attached to her Exaltation, but she was beginning to suspect that her difficulties channeling Essence and her natural talent for shaping it were not natural distributions of power for her kind.
Black Ice Shadow carried himself with a mystique Kit found alluring. Though she'd only just met him, she found that following him had developed her trust in the man considerably. To what reason this developing trust was owed she could not place; perhaps it was the isolation of their journey, and that he could have easily disposed of her by now without any privy parties, or perhaps it was the hushed humanity he held in his voice. Regardless of an explanation, she was ready to breach the barrier of polite quips by the time they settled down into their camp for the evening.
The two of them were sitting on either side of a small fire; Black Ice Shadow had assessed the area, and found it safe for a small blaze. Kit found the planar nights harsh; the sun did not warm her flesh, and the wind lapped at it bitterly. They sat on tree stumps, though Kit was hunched considerably, drawing all warmth she could from the flame. Of the two, Kit spoke first.
"Do you plan to sleep tonight?"
"No." His response was shorter than she would've liked, but she was determined for these prolonged silences to cease being part of their travel routine. Kit, ever the optimist, continued.
"Certainly you don't plan to make the whole trip to Chiaroscuro without sleeping!" Her enthusiasm was delivered with more force than she would've liked; despite her charm, she stumbled with smooth dialog.
"I will sleep when it is safer for us. We are too exposed here."
Kit had plunged headlong into the conversation, and had rather talked herself into a corner. Rather than back down, she let fly a question whose straightforwardness took aback the Sidereal.
"What am I getting myself into?"
Black Ice Shadow, for the first time demonstrating a command of body language, leaned forward, resting his left elbow on his knee, and in turn his chin in his palm (he still wore the cowl, so he remained largely expressionless to Kit's eyes). There were a few moments of silence broken only by the wind's stirring of the bracken around them. While Black Ice Shadow thought, both saw fit to preserve its sanctity.
Finally, he spoke.
"Madame, you have opened a door into a world unlike that to which you are accustomed. It is both far more wonderful and terrible than mortal men could hope to conceive. It will bring great opportunity and insurmountable hardship alike. This is the path you have chosen for yourself, like it or not. You have opened the gate to this path, and you know, as I did, that turning back now is inconceivable."
They didn't speak again that night. The period of stunned silence following his reply left space for another of the wind's symphonies to be played upon their environs. Kit, shocked as she was that he replied at all, was initially discouraged by his response. She pondered silently.
Why? Why had she been chosen for this task? Her adventures and explorations had always been innocent and curious; she had done nothing to ask for this duty, and had no reason to expect it. She was just a girl; she wasn't ready to bear the world's responsibilities. And yet, she was comforted by the reported inevitability of her destiny. He was right; knowing what she did, how could she hope to sit idly and let this new world pass her by? That was not in her nature.
Perhaps this, she mused, is why she was chosen to begin with.
If indeed she was destined for greater things, she'd find a way to pull through.
She always had.