5th of Cylus
Iago had been educating Woe of late. In all the time he'd spent in tutoring, the lad had picked up quite a collection of Scalvorite customs. In his own time working the island, Woe himself had picked up the language, to the point where he was able to carry on a conversation in it. Little by little he felt he belonged more here than he had in other places. And while he didn't take that for granted, he was grateful for the acceptance he'd received from the people of Scalvoris, for the most part.
Woe had learned from his son that Scalvorites on their birthdays spend much of the time in seclusion and personal reflection. This sounded like a good idea if it weren't for the Tempest raging outside. Woe remembered past snowstorms, in Viden, and in Egilrun an arc past. His relationship with the winter and snow was complex, to say the least. Cylus in particular was a momentous season of deep reflection and occasion to him. He'd started on his life of adventuring in the season of Cylus. He'd met Emma Heen, he'd moved to Scalvoris on a Cylus season. A lot of interesting things tended to happen for him during this time.
But for the moment, as the Tempest raged outside, the icy and snowy blizzard blew over the coast of Scalvoris.
Woe stepped outside and walked down the stairway to the lower levels of his house. There were cave rooms where he could take refuge. Toutouye holed up and wintered in one of them, treating it as his space. Which Woe was happy to concede to the young wild child. For his part, he moved past this opening, and down the spiral stairs leading down from the house proper.
The visibility was terrible, almost nonexistent until he reached the very bottom of his islet. There, a thin layer of ice formed over blue sand. The hum of ice surrounded a few acres all around, making for an interesting musical phenomenon.
Tenderly, he tested the integrity of the ice and stepped onto it, finding it capable of supporting his weight to a point.
Once he was satisfied with its integrity, he began striding along the surface, carefully listening to the hum of the ice as the freeze pervaded the shallows around his islet. His mark from Ziell protected him from the worst of the cold, so he wasn't dressed as warmly as he otherwise might've been. However, for the sake of anyone else caught out in the cold, he usually threw on a heavy cloak for the purposes of keeping up appearances. And if someone else needed a cloak. This one had a beaver fur trim and mantle, with blue cloth to signify his rank in the Order of Adunih. It signalled that he was more or less a journeyman among the Order now, full of the responsibilities toward the health of those who lived in the world. He was tasked to provide healing to whoever he found, wherever he could find them. It was a position he was prouder to hold than any other that'd been bestowed on him.
With a sigh, he lowered himself to sit cross-legged over the ice, watching the snow fall lightly around him in the blizzard. He began meditating, and listening to the whispers on the wind and the hum of the ice, utilizing those sounds as meditative focii. It worked for a time, until something broke up the monotony of the sounds reaching his ears. He thought he heard a sharp crack, and a screaming. His eyes opened immediately. The quality of the hum of the ice had changed fractionally. As if the tonal instrument that it presented, with all the blue sand and dirt mixed in was disrupted.
He got up to his feet, and followed the direction he heard the sound of a yelp coming from.
A bit or so, and he began running over the ice. Thankfully the surface was dry enough that he could do so without risk of slipping. That and his agility didn't hurt his progress over the ice flat.
Eventually, through the snow, he heard the sound of whimpering and followed that without being able to see three feet ahead of him. His eyes narrowed, trying to sight anything at all in this darkness and flurry. Then, a glint of metal shone through the flurry, and he followed after that.
There, in the ice, he found an older girl, not much older than Iago by the look of her, stuck in the thin ice. Without considering it, he reached out to grab her by the arm and pulled her from the sinking hole in the ice. She jolted at his touch at first, but then when she realized he was trying to help her, she settled down some. Woe tried to reassure her, shouting through the furious flurries.
"I'm going to get you to safety. What on earth are you doing out in this blizzard, young lady?" He said but didn't expect an answer. Better for her to conserve her breath and keep warm. So he took off his cloak and wrapped it around her. That done, he considered how best to proceed away from the break in the ice, and also how to keep the girl safe until he was able to get her inside the cavern where Soz slept. He eventually had a thought, and it came unbidden but to try it anyway. The ability of Chill Finger gifted to him by Ziell could inflict a temporary chill upon an individual, rendering them more or less helpless, but otherwise abating with full warmth returning after a break or so. It was worth a shot.
So he laid a hand over her forehead, as she shivered in the cold. He channeled the divine ether through his hand and imparted the temporary chill upon her. "What are y-y-y-you d-d-d-doing?" She stammered. Then he lifted her up in his arms and began walking roughly back in the direction he'd come from. At first, all seemed to be going smoothly. He was able to make strides away from the ice break. But at the twentieth pace from where she'd fallen in, he heard the tine of the humming ice beginning to break behind him.
Shit He cursed inwardly, feeling the girl shiver in his arms. Her temporary hypothermia would resolve in a break or so, but it wouldn't do any good if they both were lost beneath the ice now...
He began quickening his pace, keeping his eyes on the cracks and trying his hardest to outrun, and when possible to avoid the cracks entirely with his feet. In the blizzard, it was a wonder he was able to hear anything. The fissures and rending of the ice appeared to be getting closer due to the sound of it behind Woe. He just about made it to terra firma before the ice behind him cracked against the shore, but then didn't collapse, but continued its high-pitched hum.
Woe took the girl into the cave of Soz, and then up the spiral ram leading up through the cavern rooms that made up the lower levels of the house's underworks. Eventually he made it to the house proper, and kicked open the trap door with his foot. He carried the girl in.
Sage erupted into the room, her eyes wide with a question. Woe said to her in terse tone, "Draw a bath, help her undress and give her a soak. She's suffering frostbite... You know the protocol?"
Sage looked uncertain, and opened her mouth several times stammering,
"Place her in warm water, not hot. Make sure it's the right temperature, then lower her into it." Woe sighed, exhausted from his mad rush up the ramp and through the house. "You can do that?"
She shut her mouth, and nodded. And so Woe brought the unknown girl to the bathroom.
Soon enough, Sage had the bath drawn, and Woe had the girl undressed. It was an uncomfortable situation, but he had to make the most of it, knowing that his intentions were good, he did what was necessary. He placed her gingerly into the warm water. "Make sure she's comfortable, and don't try to stimulate her limbs yet. Thank you, Sage."
So saying, he left the bathhouse, heading off to find Gloom, who would be able to dry some fresh clothes for the girl to change into once her limbs thawed.
