Quest Mirrors in The Ice[Open To Northmen/Nordenfiir]

[Crocus]

They both hesitated at the word, and her eyes went back to the pair when she turned around. Their caution was warranted, and didn't make her angry. A wry smile appeared though as she shook her head.

"If want to hurt you, not warn you. Not help you get through woods fast." Crocus spoke carefully, giving both a measuring look and recalling how they used their words. "I, I'm born human. Not all other. Father raise me from little one."

To the question of magick however she found it a bit harder to explain. She wasn't nearly able as her Father was, but she could do some small magick with a tremendous cost. Doing even just a little bit had aged her to where she was now.

"More than man, less than Father. Magick has cost, too much for me." She looked at the hand on her staff for a moment, memories surfacing of the last attempt to do magick well out of her capabilities.

"I taught, flower magick. Protect, ward." She continued to explain.

 

[Talus]

Talus listened carefully, letting Mikaela do most of the talking.

He was still too weak to really do much of anything, but Fen had taught him to listen. There were always things to be learned, and if someone slipped up that could be more valuable than a diamond found in the middle of the street.

The young Apprentice frowned slightly, talk of magic causing his ears to perk up. Flower magic was...something he'd never heard of before, but protection and warding were about as common back up as common could be.

"Do your people have any magic?" Talus asked Mikaela Ryurik, suddenly blurting it out without any real thought.

The thought had only occurred to him because of Crocus being so open about her own story. It made Talus wonder about his savior.

He knew almost nothing of the people of the Tundra, and this walk seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn. Perhaps it would help him get back. He doubted that the Faerie would know much of the Portal Stone. It did not seem their...trade.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

From little one.

Mika couldn’t help but finding the way this stranger spoke adorable. Perhaps that was another thing that managed to relax her a bit. Together with Talus’ remark. Because, in fact, Nordenfiir sort of did. That’s why she nodded, slowly, thoughtfully, but honestly.

“We do, in a way.” Thus they were different too. That, however, didn’t make them bad. Already she could see his point. Unless, of course, the man would choose to leave. Then that would be an obvious sign of distrust toward magic. Luckily, they all remained.

“What about your people?” she now wanted to know.

They had little to do but talk as they walked. The cold only kept you busy for so long. Besides, all of the walking was causing Mika to feel rather warm. She loosened her scarf a little more while watching Crocus move further between the snowy branches.

“Crocus?”

The crunching of snow intensified beneath their feet as they proceeded their journey to what Mika hoped to be the settlement.

“Do you go to the village from time to time? Do you find people interesting?”

The Northerners were a tightly knit bunch. If they wouldn’t know her, and they certainly wouldn’t know Talus, then vouching for both would be a challenge for Mika. She would still do it, though. Mostly because travelling, should they arrive safely, always shaped a bond of sorts. Surviving was easier together.

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

She moved, guiding them along as she listened to the pair talk behind her. Until spoken to, she remained silent and observant of the area around them.

Mika asked if she went to the village at all. Shaking her head, she had to think about the last part of the question. She did find humans interesting, but they were threatening at the same time.

"I do not visit. They not like me. Bad omen they say. Not hurt yet, but not try luck." She said in reply to Mika.

"Interesting, yes. Watch of-a lot. Quiet, not seen, I watch. Simple lives." She added on quietly.

 

[Talus]

"Not all of us." No, certainly not. "But some."

Some like Talus himself, yet he did not feel the need to share that particular detail just yet. One of them had saved him, the other...well he was still trying to figure out just what Crocus was. The Faerie seemed friendly enough, but he had always been weary.

Best to keep his cards close. "Do you have your own village?"

He asked Crocus.

There was no malevolence to his quesiton, not even subconsciously. He was a stranger in a strange land and simple curiosity was driving him to attempt to learn more.

"Or do you just live...in the woods." That idea seemed rather odd to him. Vel Anir was a thriving city, a civilization born and grown outside of the people working together. No longer a backwater like...well, like this place.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

All of them turned out to be familiar with magic to some extent. In a way it kept them together. They moved on. While Talus posed his questions Mika thought about the way Crocus lived. If there was a village, like the man suggested, then she was pretty sure that the Faerie wouldn’t tell about it. From what she’s told them so far the human kind was seen as a danger of sorts. Not a surprise when one knew how xenophobic some of their kind could be. Even though Mike didn’t view Nordenfiir as humans, she did admit that the majority was a bit closed to strangers and foreign traditions.

“Have you ever left this place? To cross the sea? Or the mountains?”

Mika wondered aloud. By now she was thinking about whether there were other Faerie wandering the land. So far she hadn’t met any, but, if this one was real, then there might be others. Rare enough not to leave a trace.. or perhaps they were masking it with magic.

Could one smell beyond magic?
For now the question would remain unanswered.

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

Crocus turned when spoken to, but did not stop walking, avoiding tree limbs and snow being dumped on her even as she kept her eyes on the one asking.

"No. Small home, father and me. He-" She paused on the word. Why didn't they have others living close to them? Besides being fae, why didn't other fae live close? What kept them so far away?

"Keeps balance of woods." She hedged, still hesitant to say anything ill about her father. She would be dead without him. All the knowledge she had learned, all of the fae she had encountered. She would have seen none of it, and likely fallen prey to it.

"Just live here in woods." Her eyes shifted to Mika at her questions.

"Have not. Not-permissible-to leave the woods." She spoke a word in fae and shook her head, but did not try to sound it out. With the luck she was having with simple words, she decided to leave it be. "Stay in woods, keep balance with Father."

She continued to walk forward, eyes shifting back and forth as her own question came out.

"You have gone far? To strange places not your home?"

 

[Talus]

"Very far." Talus commented.

The Tundra, this place, it was almost the entire length of the world away from Vel Anir. Back home very little was known about this place, who lived here, what went on. There were brief encounters, a few researchers going back and forth, but not much was known.

He suspected that was part of the reason that Fen had sent him here in the first place. Learn about the locals, poke at the populace and perhaps take something away which would be helpful in the future.

"I cam through the portal stone." He informed the Faerie. "To the south."

Though that was not the limit of his travels.

Dreadlords as a matter of their profession moved all around the world on different missions. Talus had seen more of Arethil than most would ever dream of.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

“Yes, I’ve travelled as well, probably not as far as him, because I’m still not sure where he’s from.” she half-joked with a soft smile marking her lips. It intrigued her to know that this Faerie didn’t even bother going further than the woods. Even if one loved their home and wanted to protect it, surely at some point you got curious and left to see other things, experience certain events, and learn from everything that was out there.

“I like it, travelling I mean. A lot of places are different. People are different. And yes, places can be dangerous, but I think that altogether it is worth it.”

Rubbing her hands against each other she felt the hunger rise, but didn’t show any of it. They probably still had quite the walk ahead of them. Besides, as long as Talus could manage so could she.

Meanwhile another mind came to mind. “Can your father keep the balance on his own? Then.. you could visit different places. I think that if you’re not hostile, people will be fine with your presence. Well, depending on where you would go. Orcs might be.. a bit hostile.” That was something she’s experienced firsthand, and it wasn’t anything she would wish upon another.

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

"Por-tal stone." She sounded the word out before continuing her question. "What is that?"

Her eyes went back and forth as they spoke, her eyes settling on Mika as she spoke more than Lus.

"Balance not so easy. Have to learn. Even after many winters I not always right. To much sympathy, things not balance." She explained slowly, careful to not reveal to much of herself to these strangers. Considering the balance she spoke of could very well include them.

"Not have to be mean to make people hurt. Think strange, they not like different. They hurt anyway." Crocus spoke calmly, sparing a moment to show her under arm where a large scar was, while looking back at them.

"Wary of people. Not trust, but not hate. All people young, still learning. You not see many winters to be cold here, Lus." She chided Talus with a shake of her head. What did people learn if they did not know how to survive? Where there warmer places? Her bare feet crunched more snow as she guided them through a dense part of the woods with ease.

The paths seemed to appear before them where none should exist, as though a glamour had been lifted in her presence. The girls eyes were never on the path before her, always searching the trees around them or looking behind at her companions.

"It not cold where you from, Lus?" Crocu finally asked, the wonder finally making her voice the question.

 

[Talus]

"Half the world away." He told Mikaela with a slight smile, turning his head towards the Faerie for a moment.

Talus knew that he was younger than most people who would do such things, wandering out in the middle of nowhere. In some cultures he wasn't even considered an adult yet, though that wasn't something he could help.

The Apprentice had faced more death than many others, and he liked to think that gave him a certain quality of age others did not have.

"Not really." He told them both. "Vel Anir is warm most of the year. The city doesn't even get snow in the Winter."

The climate was not as hot as Alliria, but never really cold.

Certainly not compared to the Tundra. "Where are we going?"

He asked, his sense slowly beginning to return to him.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

Silently wondering what the balance was all about she tried to imagine whether Crocus was talking about nature or something else. If it was regarding nature then she wasn’t sure what sympathy had to do with it. One had sympathy for living beings, right? Well, mostly. And from what she saw around her there weren’t that many creatures here. The silvery fox were supposed to be here somewhere. Perhaps other, rare, animals roamed these places and Crocus helped them to survive. Now that she thought about it, that would make sense. Maybe she was leading them away form interesting, mythical beings in order to protect them. Could that be the balance she spoke of?

Still thinking she noticed how smoothly they moved through the forest. Either Crocus knew every bit of this place or something was wrong. And by wrong Mika thought about magic. Could they be trapped in an illusion, she wondered again. A part of her felt bad for being so distrustful of the faerie. It only confirmed her words on people being wary and perhaps mean toward the unknown. Instincts were hard to ignore. Mika blinked away the thoughts, trying to remain positive, though unable to relax entirely. To her this simply couldn’t turn into a mere stroll through the snow even if she assumed that Crocus didn’t want anything bad to happen to them.

Dangers may always lurk around the corner.

“No snow,” she mumbled, “how odd, but interesting.” Too hot, probably, she realized while touching a branch full of snow. She loved the cold.

“I wouldn’t mind visiting this place of Vel Anir one day.”

Another thing she wouldn’t mind was, indeed, knowing where exactly they were heading to. So far Crocus has been slightly mysterious about their direction. Perhaps it was the language barrier, or maybe Crocus did it on purpose. Mika sniffed, but could only smell the three of them. No trap so far.

“Do you plan to lead us all the way there?” If so then.. she took out the mead, took a sip, and motioned for Talus. “If you want?” And then, curiously, her gesture went to Crocus. “You can have some, too, if you would like. It’s mead.”

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

"I lead through secret way of woods. Fae use them. Hidden from eyes like yours. Fast, no tricks to make wander lost with me here." She informed them with a smile, the path would seem foreign to any that walked the woods often. A game trail lay beneath the snow, the only sign of use as she trod forward.

"I take you close to human place. I not go there. Cause trouble being there." She explained before looking at the container. "Me- mea-mead? What is, it?" She asked cautiously.

 

[Talus]

"You would probably be welcome." Talus did not state the that the Faerie likely would not to be.

Vel Anir had many beauties, but xenophobia still sat at the very core of the entire city. Outsiders, specifically those not of human appearance were often not taken in the greatest light. Talus had seen it happen more than once.

Hell, he'd even been a party to it.

The old laws had been done away with, but that didn't mean much to a people rooted in a certain culture. The young Apprentice doubted things would change quickly, if at all.

"It's alcohol." He explained. "They have it back home too, though we more prefer Ale."

Talus had no idea why that was. Cultural difference he supposed.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

Already dreaming about visiting a foreign land where snow never fell she was too late to give Crocus an explanation about the mead. Luckily Talus did. She nodded a ‘thanks’ to him, wondering if the Fearie would try it. Surely they drank some sort of alcohol as well. Almost anyone she’s met had their own type of drink. Ale for Talus, apparently, mead for the bears, even though it was hard to get because they had no honey here.

“It’s strong, but.. eh, it warms you up a bit. From the inside. Like a tiny fire in liquid form.”

Gesturing for her to try it, but carefully, Mika then looked around them. The path they followed made no sense to her. Or rather, to her there was no real path. Where she wouldn’t have tread on her own they now walked through with ease. It almost felt like a trick of the eye, the trunks, the branches, the snow. Everything was the same and still they moved through without crossing their own footprints. She knew they moved forward to the settlement, whichever one Crocus had in mind.

“Don’t drink too much, it might cause you to feel light in the head. We wouldn’t want to get lost because of that,” she joked, giving both of them a wide smile with slightly mischievous eyes to match it. A Nordenfiir, a stranger from the South and a drunk Faerie. Wouldn’t that be a sight?

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

Crocus gently took the offered flask, smelling before tasting. It tasted strange, like nothing she had tasted before. Then again, when all one had was the bounty the woods had to offer, one did not want often.

She exhaled sharply, feeling the fire the woman spoke of and handed it back quickly.

"You drink this for warmth?" She asked quickly, unsure if she enjoyed the flavor enough to suffer the burn afterwards.

She supposed it was something special to humans, some kind of rite or ritual they had for enjoying such a drink. It did make her feel a touch warmer, but again, the burn made her question the worth.

"Not easily lost in home. Something else have to play trick. Most not want to offend father, though. Leave us alone. Not worth their life for small trick." She reassured them. What she said wasn't entirely true.

Other fae might delight in throwing them off the path, but actual harm they would refrain from.

Hopefully.

Through the clearing of trees ahead, the lights from the coastal town shone just over the crest of the land. A sure sign of reaching some form of civilization.

Crocus rummaged through the makeshift pockets and pulled holly out along with witch hazel and some binding, wrapping the pair before finding a low hanging branch to hang the sign from.

"You go there. Take long way round woods. If come here. Look for this." She showed them the bundle of herbs, the flowers alight with a small bit of magic.

"Crocus three times, quietly. Calls me. I guide through again, or show woods. Safe spot with this, others not bother it. Holly is safety and meetings." She explained before hanging it from a branch in plain sight.

She pointed towards the lights once more.

"Nothing bother outside woods. Not easy to trick outside them. Scared humans gather and hunt." She explained.

 

[Talus]

Talus wasn't entirely sure if he was just slow on the uptake or if the Fearies odd way of speaking was difficult to comprehend.

He found himself looking to Mikaela quite often, wondering if she was experiencing the same thing. He was sure that Crocus was doing her best to communicate, but language and learning had never quite been his forte. Much to the dismay of his Proctors.

A battle he could direct, a Regiment he could lead.

A book? Well he could read it, but it would take him thrice as long as it would any other man. It was a failing he found mildly shameful, though admitting it never came easy.

"Thank you." He said finally.

The town was nearby, and they had not been lead into a trap. Talus counted that as a win, and as far as he understood Crocus was even offering to take them back when it came down to it.

That was something.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

They got to the edge of the forest, and to her surprise Crocus offered to bring them back to the other side should it become necessary. Unsure if that would be a thing, Mika thanked her regardless. The two of them would be safer going down the settlements near the sea. Certainly because on the other side of the forest there were the planes of snow and mountains. Unless you went the direction Mika had come from, but that was just the other part of the forest they had entered. One with minor villages here and there and no traces of magic, at least not the type as obvious as it was here.

“You should.. come with us? I will vouch for both of you.” she promised, wanting for Crocus to at least have a decent meal and a fire to warm up, even if she didn’t appear to need any of it. Offering out of kindness and gratefulness, Mike wouldn’t be offended if Crocus would say “no”, Talus would follow, she assumed. He was more human than the Faerie. He certainly needed warmth.

Thinking, she wondered if there were other places they could call for Crocus, and if so, how fast the female would be there. “These, you hang them there, too?” she wanted to know, gesturing to the line of trees on their side. If so, they might meet up a bit further, after they would leave the settlement should Crocus decide against risking to mingle amongst the Nordenfiir.

In the end they would need a port or a key. That was, of course, if Talus wanted to go home. If you asked Mika he was welcome to stay, but the lack of his preparations for this journey looked like he’s been having some other things in mind.

* * *​

 

[Crocus]

Crocus pondered fora moment the offer after giving both a sharp look when they said thanks. These two hadn't remembered her warnings. If the broonies had a mind for the cold of this place, it would have been a harmless lesson for them to learn what those words could do.

She hoped they only kept saying thanks because she was more human than fae.

"Cannot, father waiting. Mad if not home. He come find, hurt those around me." She explained. "Can make trips, and tell him before go. If not home with out warning, he come find." Crocus finished, bundling another of the herbs together and handing them to Talus and Mikaela.

"Hang when you enter wood, call for me, work better if together but work if alone." She nodded, looking back to them as the illusion that hid the path began to close. "Will find you, safely get you through woods." She called to them as the illusion wrapped itself back over the path and her.

Where they had just traveled looked like a thick clustering of dead briar and bramble bushes, the woman vanishing in the new scene before them. The wrapping of herbs hung just before the beginning of the illusion, and should they enter the illusion, it would feel very real to them. Crocus watched them for a short time inside the illusion, never leaving the woods but always listening.

Seeing people had helped her with their language, and the pair had been odd, but she supposed she was as well. A stranger to these lands, and someone that was welcoming even to a changeling like herself. It was a nice sentiment.

 

[Talus]

He watched the Faerie disappear into the woods, or rather, the illusion that hung there. He did not know it was such, but an uneasy feeling settled over him at the twisting vines and herbs that she moved through. Lips thinned, and then slowly the young Dreadlord turned away.

"Perhaps we should go." Talus fully intended on venturing into the village with Mikaela.

It had been some nights since he had known true warmth, and he looked forward to the idea of actually being able to stay inside. If only for a few nights. His mentor had sent him to the Tundra for a reason, and though he wasn't quite sure what that was just yet he was eager to at least find out.

He would return home eventually, but only when he knew why he was here in the first place.

"Are there any Elders in this village?" Perhaps that was an ignorant question. "Shamans or the like?"

He had no idea what Mikaela's people called their magic users.

It was always different.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

Carefully accepting the herbs she put them away in her satchel. As far as she had understood they were supposed to hang them wherever they wanted to enter the forest, unless it was here, where a batch already hung in the tree. A part of her wondered if Crocus would be able to follow them through the link of magic between her and the herbs in her satchel, but figured that so far nothing bad had happened, so no evil would come from the herbs. A nod, and then she followed Talus toward the huts in the distance. The cold bit into her skin once again. Being in the open left the wind playing at will.

“Most settlements have a shaman,” she nodded, wondering if he was wounded. At least one healer was present among the Nordenfiir. Sometimes they could do more than just heal the basic cuts, but they would have to be lucky to find one with greater magic abilities in a small settlement near the sea. Then again, one always found the most unexpected things when they weren’t prepared for it. For example Crocus and the rumor of the silvery foxes. Both were rare, and both were near.

“If you’re looking for a mage.. well, we might be lucky considering the amount of magic already present in the air.” Smiling with a light shrug, she quickened her pace toward the village. It wouldn’t take them long to get there. The path was straight and easy to follow. With fresh snow on top of it, there was no risk of ice taking away their grip. Anything rarely melted in these areas.

“Hmmm not to offend you, but it might be easier for me to do the talking.. ehm.. Nordenfiir can smell those who aren’t their own.” It was a light warning, both for his safety and hers. She didn’t want any misunderstandings when they would enter one of the so called “inns”. In fact, inns around these area were more like larger houses of Nordenfiir who were willing to open their homes to travelers. Common fires and half-finished huts were mostly the shelters for those who weren’t welcome inside of the huts where families lived.

Mika planned to make sure they both would get to sit next to a fire and eat a decent meal.

* * *​

See you in a bit Crocus

 

[Talus]

"No offense taken." Talus said as the crunch of snow echoed beneath his feat.

There was a pleasantness to that he couldn't quite explain. Talus had experienced snow before on his journeys, but that had been in the Spine. Conditions there had been a different sort of brutal.

Briefly he wondered how he always got himself into these situations.

"I don't know much about your people." He admitted. "Actually, I don't know anything at all."

Talus had never been much for reading. Vel Anir had encountered Nordenfir before. The famed warriors of the north. There were books on such things, but...Talus had never even picked them up. Hal or Sierra might have known better, but he himself was ignorant.

He glanced down at himself. "I'll try not to come off too badly."

The young Knight assured Mikaela with a smile.

She had saved his life, the least that he could do was not embarrass her in front of her people.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

“I’m pretty sure that would work out, unless we have the bad luck of bumping into a group of those supporting the usurper.” she grimaced, thinking about the bloody history that was still fresh. “I doubt they would make a settlement in the open, however. The Queen wouldn’t tolerate that, not after they have slaughtered her entire family because they would rather go back to the old ways.” Shrugging while taking a deep sigh, she took a look at Talus. “One of the things meant no foreigners.” Clearly it was best for Talus, and for Mika, that Maude was ruling the Nordenfiir now.

“Oh, yeah, something that might appear odd to you is.. we don’t use coins. We trade things. Due to the harsh climate it’s.. well.. you can’t do much with gold here, some people take it, especially those who have trade with the South. Smaller places, however, might not be too keen on it. Not saying they won’t, perhaps they have plans.” Another shrug followed as she tried to explain him a bit more about their lives. They continued their journey down and soon enough the first huts were within reach. She looked for the firepit, wondering if anyone was sitting next to it, but the fire was out. Perhaps there were less adults here, less wood, less stronger people to make sure the fire in the middle of the settlement kept on burning.

They would soon find out.

Nodding, she took one of the larger huts to knock at. He was free to try another or stay by her side. The latter might be easier, however, there were always curious Nordenfiir like her.

* * *​

 

[Talus]

Talus decided to stick with Mikaela, mostly because of her words about "the usurper". He had absolutely no idea who that was, but anyone who didn't like foreigner likely wouldn't enjoy his company.

Best to stick with the person that had already shown him more Kindness than most people had for his entire life.

Briefly he wondered about the politics of this place. Granting someone such a title implied there was a rightful ruler, yet the tundra hardly seemed to be a Kingdom. From his perspective Mikaela's people were more fragmented than together, though he realized that he hardly had a complete picture.

Inwardly he made a note to find out more.

He listened carefully as she explained the Norden firs propensity for barter, nodding his head in understanding. Talus carried little gold, but he did hold some items of value that would likely garner some eyes. That at least meant he could 'pay' for things if he had to.

As Mikaela knocked on the heavy wooden slat Talus stood just a few feet behind her. The door opened, a burly man with dark raven hair and a thick beard appearing. His eyes set on Mikaela first, then swept to Talus on surprise.

 

[Mikaela Ryurik]

“Sorry for bothering, do you have some space to spare? Two of us, he means no harm, only lost, I vouch for him.” she made it clear to the burly man whose eyes were still on Talus. There was some hesitation, but the Nordenfiir knew how harsh the weather could get. He opened the door a bit further, then took a step to the side.

“Get in, both.” his raspy voice announced and Mika slipped into the warmth of the hut. She took the sled with her, thinking of the things she might offer their guests for the hospitality. A problem for later she decided while introducing the two of them. “I’m Mikaela, this is Talus.” The man motioned to the fire, eyes still wary of the one who didn’t smell like the Nordenfiir did. “The name is Fjorn, sit down, there at the fire, I’ll bring you some food.”

To Nordenfiir standards, especially for a settlement so small and quite far away from the bigger cities, the “house” was quite large. Mika derived that fact from the various doors. One led to the kitchen where the man disappeared to. Then, she heard and smelled two others, children, she thought, playing in one of the other rooms. There was no female inside of the house right now. Perhaps the mother was hunting, or fishing. She didn’t ask about her, but quietly took a seat next to the fire, then started to look through the packages on her sled. Most of the snow was already melted away. She regretted not having dusted it off before bringing it inside, because of the thin wet traces it left on the wooden floor. It would evaporate, but she felt like she was making a mess already.

“Move closer to the fire, I think you really need it.” With a smile she nudged Talus to warm his hands while they waited for Fjorn to return with whatever he had to offer.

* * *​