Chapter 47: A Phantom Reborn

Chris slumped to her knees. Every muscle in her body burned with exhaustion. Leaning her arms on the floor, she drew desperate, ragged breaths into her lungs.

Her eyes still stung from the tears she had cried. Now that the immediate threat was gone, her mind returned to the pain. She limped over to her father's lifeless body and knelt beside him. She looked down at the face of the man she had not seen outside of portraits since she was a little girl. She had hoped that she would remember his face when she saw it again, but it was a stranger's face that stared back at her. She reached down and closed his eyes. Then, trembling, she laid a hand on his chest and gently caressed it. Perhaps it was a meaningless gesture, but if there was even a tiny chance the Goddess would let her father see this moment, then she wanted to convey her tenderness to him. She wanted to say something, too, but no words would come to her.

"Chris." A hand touched her shoulder. "Listen to me. Chris!"

She turned to see Nash kneeling beside her. His hair was a mess and his eyes were wild. Seeing the Harmonian's face startled her out of her fog she had been under. Her mind was drawn to another matter of the utmost urgency.

Hugo. But how? What happened to him? How did he survive? Where has he been? A thousand questions flashed through her mind like wildfire.

She had to find him. She shot to her feet and looked past Nash, scanning the mouth of the tunnel leading into the chamber. Where had Hugo gone? "Hugo… I have to… go after him…" she managed to say.

Nash blocked her path. "No, listen to me. Rina and Yumi need you. They're badly hurt. They need healing. They need the True Water Rune."

Nash's words snapped her back to reality. Goddess, the others! How could she forget? She felt ashamed. She had been so blind to her own needs, she had forgotten all about the others. Only now did she take a good look at the state of her companions. Nash looked to be in the best form out of the bunch, though the Harmonian spy had a cut and a scrap here and there. Geddoe squatted on the floor with his arms on his knees and his head slumped forward. The mercenary captain looked exhausted, but unharmed. Rina and Yumi were not so fortunate. Both women were on the floor and unconscious. Nash led her over to them. Even at a glance, their condition was dire. Both had lost blood, and Rina looked as pale as the face of the moon.

Kneeling over Rina, Chris felt the cold and clammy hand of fear press down on her chest. Even the power of a True Runes had its limits. Surely her fight with the Masked Bishop must have exhausted the True Rune's power? Like a natural wellspring, it would replenish itself as time passed, but Rina and Yumi might not have time. With dread in her heart, she awakened the True Rune and called urgently on its healing power. She had expected a trickle at best. The flood that came was overwhelming. The power surged through Chris' limbs and poured into Rina, filling the Safir chief with healing magic so potent, the woman's body quivered. Blood clotted, wounds knitted, and some color returned to Rina's cheeks.

Chris could hardly control the power. Like a river flooding its banks with spring melt-water, the healing magic spilled over into her own flesh. She felt a tingling, vibrating sensation on her skin, and then her aches began to fade. She was still bone weary, but the rune's magic returned some vigor to her limbs.

She felt dazed by the rune's power. Such potential! It was both amazing and terrifying. She felt certain the rune did have its limits, but now she wondered if she might not exhaust her own body before she exhausted the True Rune's power.

She moved on to Yumi.

"I must go to him," Chris said.

She had finished the healing. Rina and Yumi remained unconscious, but their breathing had steadied, and their wounds had knitted. The rest was up to them. They would live, but even with magical healing, Chris doubted if they would be back on the frontlines anytime soon.

The Sindar machine hummed. Its rings still spun, and the spheres still glowed with the power of the four True Runes that had been attuned to it. Chris had hoped the machine would return to its inert state once the Masked Bishop left, but the Goddess had not seen fit to allow this to happen. For now, it was enough that the True Lightning Rune and the True Water Rune were safe from the Destroyers. There would be time to figure the rest out, later.

Nash gave her a grim look. "You don't even know if that's really Hugo."

Chris shook her head. Her heart was beating like a drum. "It is him. I can feel it."

Geddoe limped over to them. The mercenary captain tried to hide it, but Chris could tell that the man was dead on his feet. He had refused her rune's healing, reasoning that others needed it more. Now he dug into one of the many pockets on his studded leather hauberk, and when his hand came back out, it made a fist around something that glowed bright red. Geddoe extended his hand to Chris and opened his fist.

Chris gasped. "The True Fire Rune!"

"I managed to wrest it from the woman," Geddoe said. "Take it. Give it back to its rightful owner."

Gingerly, Chris closed her hand over the True Fire Rune. She had expected the rune to burn her fingers, and felt sheepish to find out that the rune produced no warmth at all. She looked up into Geddoe's dark eyes.

"Will you take care of my father?"

Geddoe gave a sad smile. "Of course. He was my friend."

The dark warrior found his quarry on a wooded hill, not far from the mouth of one of the ancient highway's many entrances. He had tracked the dark knight here using the power of Dharma, which acted like a lodestone pointing to the servant of chaos. Yuber had used the Sealing Rune to block Pesmerga from sensing his location, but the enchantment had no effect on the dark warrior.

"Yuber!" the dark warrior called. "Come out. I know you're there."

There was a rustle from the bushes, and then a shadow separated from the trees. Yuber stepped out into the moonlight. The dark knight leaned on one leg, favoring the side without the wound. His twin swords were in his hands.

"I lead, you follow," the dark knight said, with his eyeless leer. "How predictable."

The dark warrior shrugged. "I chase, you run. A matter of perspective."

"It was ever thus," said the dark knight.

Summoning his swords, the dark warrior approached. "Where are you running?"

The dark knight gave a chuckle like the rasp of a file against iron. "That's the difference between us. My path is not preordained. I don't know where I'm going. Somewhere new. Somewhere in need of… inspiration."

The dark warrior regarded the shadowy apparition in frustration. For a moment, they stood watching each other in silence. Then the dark warrior charged his foe, swords flashing like viper's fangs. Yuber made no attempt at defense. He surged forward, shadows bleeding through tall grass, and his blades fell in deadly arcs. But Yuber was nearly spent. The dark warrior parried the savage blows, then slipped past the dark knight's guard to deliver a swift thrust. His blade sank through armor and ribs and pierced the place where the demon's heart should have been.

The dark warrior separated from Yuber, and the dark knight staggered forward. Chuckling. His shadowy form exploded into dark smoke.

A living shadow. The real Yuber was still out there.

The stars were out.

By the light of the full moon, Chris guided her horse through the sea of grass. She could barely make out the contours of the land, but the Karayan steed seemed sure of every step. As for Chris, she jumped at shadows. Every swaying bush and every creaking branch was a clue that threatened to pass her by. At every hilltop, she reined her horse in to scan the horizon, then dismounted to check for tracks. She had lost count of how many times she had seen tracks and sworn they must have been Hugo's. Each time, they had led her astray.

Again, there were no tracks. She got back into the saddle. Worry began creeping into her mind. Was she on a wild goose chase? What if Hugo was already long gone? What if he had never been there in the first place? Could she have imagined seeing Hugo, just because she ached to see his face?

A gentle breeze stirred her hair. Her hands gripped the reins tightly. No. She could not give up. She had seen him. She would find him. She spurred her horse into a trot. Not knowing what else to do, she let the Karayan horse follow its familiar trails through the Grasslands. She trusted the spirits of the wind to carry her where she needed to be. Towards home.

Chris barely recognized her destination when she saw it. In the moonlight the burned remains of Karaya might have been mistaken for a field of rubble. She would have passed it by, had not her horse dropped out of its trot and stopped to graze on the outskirts of the packed-earth village green. If not for the dark silhouette standing outlined against the moon in the middle of the burned village.

Heart leaping into her throat, Chris slipped from the saddle. She forced her steps to slow as she approached. Goddess, she wanted to run to him.

She stopped ten paces from the dark figure. "Hugo!" she called out.

Hugo was a statue against the face of the moon. Slowly, he turned to give her a sideways glance. His brows knitted in confusion. "I… don't know you."

Chris felt an icy hand grip her heart. "What… what do you mean?"

Hugo turned to regard his surroundings. "This place…" He shook his head. "I was chasing the servant of chaos. My steps led me here… I… something held me back in this place. What is this place?"

Chris followed his eyes as they tracked the dark contours of what remained of Hugo's village. She tried to picture it, the way the village had once been. She had seen it not long ago, though it had been in flames. Somewhere over the rise on her left, she had encountered Hugo and his friend. Lulu. She forced herself to remember his name; the name of the boy she had killed.

"You are home, Hugo," she said, voice cracking. "This was your home..."

Hugo squeezed his eyes shut and pressed a hand to his forehead as if in pain. "Home…? I don't understand…"

Step by timid step, Chris drew closer to Hugo, until she could see him better. His entire body was encased in cold black armor. The dark material glinted like metal in the moonlight, but there was nothing natural or even artificial about it. The metal radiated the cold of the void. Even without touching it, Chris knew this was something spun from the World of Emptiness.

Hugo had removed the helmet. His familiar features—the blue-green eyes, the blonde curls frosted silver in the moonlight—stood in confirmation of what she had known in her heart: The dark warrior was none other than her beloved Hugo. But his features seemed to have matured since last she saw him. And had he grown taller?

Worst by far, his eyes had gone as dark as coals. There was no life in them any longer.

Besides his head, the only parts of him not encased in dark armor were his hands. She reached out and clasped his hand in hers.

Hugo's hand was so cold it burned her skin. She gasped in pain, but refused to let go. Only now did she see his skin. The flesh of his hand had paled to a ghostly white, with a web of dark purplish veins standing out beneath translucent skin. It was the hand of a dead creature. No, not dead, she decided. Inanimate. Something that had never lived.

"Hugo," Chris said, swallowing back tears. "What has happened to you?"

He stared at her, frowning as if trying to recall something. At last he said, "I am a weapon." He glanced down at the hand she held in hers, and nodded as if reaching some affirmation. "I am a servant of order."

The taste in Chris' mouth was that of ashes. Goddess, but his words held no passion. No life! She took his face in her hands, forced his cold eyes to meet hers. "No," she said. "You are Hugo of the Karaya. You are a man."

There was a slight hesitation before Hugo shook his head. "Names are… distractions. Relations are confusions. I am the purity of original purpose. I am a weapon that does the will of the cosmos."

He pulled away from her, determinedly but not ungently. She followed him. "Hugo. Listen to me. You are…" She swallowed hard, summoning her convictions. "I do not know what happened to you. I cannot know what you have endured where you have been. But know this. You are more than a mere weapon. You are a person. A unique person. And you are… precious… to me. To others, too. We… that is, I, want you back. That day in Alma-Kinan, I regret pushing you away. I wish I had not…" Tears stung her eyes. She reached out for him again.

Hugo struck her without warning. His fist caught her on the shoulder and spun her off her feet. She tumbled onto the hard earth. For a moment, she laid on her back, dazed. Hugo loomed above her, his black armor a dark void in the starlit sky.

"Don't touch me," he said, and the tone of his voice cut her deeply.

Chris got to her feet warily. She half expected Hugo to lash out again, but he was so still, he could have been a statue.

I cannot give up, she thought. I cannot abandon him. Even if it kills me.

She closed her fingers on the object in her pocket. Hugo had come here, to the ruins of what had once been his home. Whatever he was now, clearly something remained of the man he had been.

"Hugo, you must try to remember. Remember Karaya. Remember your mother, Chief Lucia. Remember Lulu. Remember Fubar. Remember me… Chris."

"I don't remember," he said. "You are a distraction. Next to the eternal struggle, you are meaningless. Leave me."

His words cut Chris like a knife. For a moment, she doubted. There was no emotion in his voice, no humanity. Was there anything left of Hugo? Could she get through to him?

In her pocket, she clasped the True Fire Rune firmly. She imagined she could feel the storm of power and emotion within the rune's smooth crystal shell through her fingers. She hesitated. To hand over the True Fire Rune to the creature in front of her was no small risk. Who knew where Hugo's current path would lead him? He could take the rune and leave, or worse, use it against her people. And yet, the fury contained in the True Fire Rune had almost overwhelmed Hugo once before. If the rune were to regain its hold on him, might it not burn its way through the icy walls raised around his heart?

Chris took her hand out of her pocket and held it out. She opened her fingers. The True Rune shone pale red against the dark, like a star in the night sky.

"Take it," she said. "Remember."

Hugo's hand twitched. He inched forward. Hesitantly, he reached out to pluck the True Fire Rune from her palm. She stared up into his eyes, her lips parted. He might have been leaning down to kiss her, the way her heart raced.

Hugo's fingers brushed the glistening orb of the rune, and the rune flashed violently. There came a crackling hiss, and Hugo grunted with what might have been pain. He pulled his hand back as if strung by fire.

Chris gaped. For a moment, she was stunned with confusion. Then, understanding flooded her.

The rune had rejected Hugo.

Hugo turned and began to walk away. Chris started after him. Hugo spun around and drew one of his swords in the same motion. She stopped just short of the blade pointed at her throat.

"Follow me," he said, "and I will kill you."

Chris stared down his blade, past his pale, dead arm, and swallowed. Hugo's cold eyes gleamed in the night. At that moment, she had no doubt he meant his words. She said nothing. After a time, Hugo returned the blade to its sheath. He resumed his walk, away from her.

"Hugo!" she called out. He gave no reaction. She watched him go, and felt her heart sink into the abyss. It was not fair. She had gotten him back. Now she had to lose him again? Tears welled in her eyes. Through the mist of her tears, the light of the True Fire Rune flickered in her outstretched hand.

Something snapped in her mind. A sudden calm came over her.

"No." She thought she had whispered the word, until she saw Hugo's step falter. He paused, but did not turn back.

Chris wiped away tears with the back of her hand. "It will not end like this. I do not know what manner of monster you are, inhabiting Hugo's body. But I will not allow it. You do not belong here."

Hugo slowly turned. Twin blades leaped into his hands. "I told you—"

Chris threw her hand up, and awakened the power of the True Water Rune. The rune flared to life, and blue flames haloed her arm. She drew all the power she could handle. She let it stream through her body, like a raging river. Then she drew even more.

The power of the True Water Rune exploded out from Chris. Hugo had no time to react. Like a dam bursting, a raging torrent of water surged towards him. The waves swept in a circle around them, like a whirlpool surrounding them. Water swept over Hugo, shoved him back, knocked him over. As the water flooded the scorched grass, heat drained from the air. Frost formed on the water, raced along the surface of the wave, climbed the curve of the watery walls. With a crackling sound, the water froze into ice.

Chris's breath misted in the cold. The stars above had faded. She stood inside a dome of thick, dark ice. If not for the faint light of the True Fire Rune, she would have been plunged in darkness. She could hear Hugo's ragged breathing. She went by the sound, feeling her way along the icy wall.

She found him lying on his back, his body trapped in ice, leaving only his head, a shoulder, and an arm exposed. His swords had vanished back into the void. The pale, dead arm wriggled as Hugo twisted, struggling ineffectually against his icy prison.

The jagged ice sheet scraped her knees as she knelt beside him. "Calm, Hugo…" she murmured, and caught his flailing arm by the wrist. Hugo stared up at her, eyes as cold as the ice that held him. She had to use both hands to restrain his arm.

"I do not know what has happened to you," she said, her voice a broken rasp, "But I can reverse it." Goddess willing, she could. She drew upon the True Water Rune again, and the essence of the rune's magic surged up inside her. The power swept through her body and poured from her hands into Hugo's arm. Chris took deep breaths as she struggled with the leviathan that was the rune's power. She focused it all on Hugo's pale-skinned arm, and let it course through his dead flesh.

What she sensed inside made her recoil. Emptiness. A hollow presence. No blood, no sinew, no muscle. Where his flesh should have been imbued with life, there was only the void. It was truly a dead thing.

Chris gasped for air, and felt cold sweat break on her forehead. She fought a sickening feeling and a strong urge to recoil, to let go of his arm. She had to keep going. With all the force of her will, she pushed back against the void. Deep beneath the dead flesh, she sensed life, though it was faint. It should be possible to reverse the damage. But as she assessed the corruption in Hugo's flesh, she realized something that made her sick to her stomach.

The poison was spreading.

The corruption of the void was slowly working its way from Hugo's arm into his shoulder, and from there towards his chest. If she could no excise the corruption, eventually it would devour even the last shred of Hugo's humanity.

Chris pushed harder. The void fought back, sending waves of sharp pain through her hands and arms. Her teeth rattled in her mouth. She quivered. But she would not give up. She was already drawing as much power as she could from the True Water Rune, so she did the only thing she could think of. She surrendered to the rune's power. She let it engulf her. For a moment, she knew for a certainty that she would drown, but the thought did not scare her. If she had to die to save him, then she was ready for the Goddess' embrace. But then she realized: this was furthest thing from death. This was the essence of life. This was purity, as cold as the newborn world itself.

She wove the essence of life into a spell to burn the corruption from Hugo's veins.

Hugo convulsed, like a fish trashing in its death throes on dry land. He gasped, and his mouth opened but he would not cry out. Chris' heart wrenched at the pain she saw in his eyes. But even as he writhed in agony, she saw life return to his eyes. Frost rimed his arms, his shoulders, his chest. The black armor peeled away like the sloughing of a snake's skin. Beneath the armor, Hugo's naked skin was the white of bleached bone. But through the rune's power, Chris could feel his heartbeat. She could sense the glow of life beneath his skin. In his veins, the corruption retreated from the searing cold of the True Water Rune.

As the last shred of the void's corruption left his body, Hugo lay still in his icy cage. Warmth leached from his skin as frost sheathed his body. His breathing was faint. His heartbeat was a tiny thing, and fading.

Chris fought down a rising panic. In the embrace of the True Water Rune, she could not feel the cold, but he certainly could. Had she cured Hugo, only to let him freeze to death?

"No," she said, with conviction. "Stay with me. Do not give up!" With a thought, she shattered the ice that gripped him, baring his naked body. The effort of that simple spell nearly broke her; Goddess, she was tired! She rubbed his arms, trying to work some heat back into his body. It was a futile effort. They were still trapped inside the icy cage she had woven around them. The cold was closing in on them. And now she was too exhausted to draw even a tendril of the True Water Rune's power. She collapsed against Hugo's cold chest. Her eyelids felt so, so heavy. She needed to rest, if only for a moment…

There was a flash of light. The light was brilliant and glaring, and it startled Chris awake. She shielded her eyes against the light and tried to see the source. Something shone bright crimson above Hugo's chest. Chris wrestled with her muddled thoughts. The True Fire Rune…?

The rune hovered in mid-air. A ringing sound started as a vibration in Chris' body, then grew until it reverberated through the tiny chamber. The True Fire Rune pulsed ardently red, and its light bloomed until it vanquished the shadows inside the ice cage. The frost on Hugo's arms melted. Light made pearls of the meltwater on his warming skin. The True Fire Rune's light built until it was a miniature sun, and she could see nothing.

After what felt like a long time, the light faded to the brightness of a warm candle. Chris stared down at Hugo. The skin that had, moments before, been pale and icy cold, now blushed pink with the warmth of life. A pale red glow surrounded his hand. There, branded into the back of his palm, was the emblem of the True Fire Rune.

A tiny spark appeared in the air above them, sending a faint wave of warmth throughout the icy chamber. Chris looked down expectantly at Hugo, but his eyes remained closed. She stared up at the spark. How is he doing that? The heat from the spark was barely enough to make a difference in the temperature, but it was something. Perhaps it would be enough. Grunting with effort, she pulled Hugo up and over her shoulder. She dragged him clear of the icy sheet on which he was lying, and found a patch of damp grass where the ground had not frozen over. There, she laid him down, and ran a hand over his cold breast. Hugo's breath plumed, but the rising and falling of his chest was still faint.

Chris rose on unsteady legs and stumbled over to the wall of the ice chamber. She pressed her hands against the ice, and called upon the True Water Rune. But trying to grasp the rune's power felt like being carried downstream by a raging river. She did not have the strength to hold it.

Frustrated, she slammed her fist against the ice wall. A prison of my own making! Damn it all, I should be able to undo what I have made! She hurled her fists against the ice and put her whole body behind the blows, but the ice would not budge. All that happened was that she scraped and numbed her hands.

Something dripped on Chris' face. She looked up, blinking against drops of meltwater. The cage would weaken with time, she realized. Eventually it would melt. She sat down on her haunches and put her hand on Hugo's forehead. Her fingers came away cold. Too cold. The True Water Rune would keep Chris safe, but by the time the ice melted, it would be too late for Hugo. A mere spark of the True Fire Rune's power would not be enough to protect Hugo.

Chris grabbed his shoulders and shook him. She did it gently at first, but when that did not work, she shook him more violently, shouting at him to wake. Hugo's breath plumed against her face, but he would not stir.

She sank to her knees, still holding onto Hugo's shoulders. A numb feeling spread through her body, but this feeling had nothing to do with the cold. She stared down at Hugo's face and her heart ached at the sight of him slipping away. She stared down at Hugo's face and, as she sat there, trapped in an icy cage of her own making, huddled over his unconscious body, she finally admitted it to herself.

She loved him.

Goddess help her, she truly loved him.

As she sat there, staring at the face of the man she loved, something came to her. It was a thought—a memory of something she had once been told as a squire. Sir Pelize had told a story of the frost-bound Lemenes people who dwelled in the far north of the Nameless Lands. In search of their prey, Lemenes hunters walked the ice of seas in the permanent grip of winter. It was said that when one of them would slip through cracked ice and plunge into the icy water, the Lemenes hunters had a strange way of clinging to life. As a last resort, when a fire could not be sparked, when everything else had failed, the Lemenes hunters would build a shelter of ice and snow against the biting wind, and inside they would strip naked and lie close together, to preserve body heat.

It had seemed madness to Chris when first she had heard the story. In fact, the numerous barbs and crude suggestions she had gotten from the other squires had made her wonder if the story was not meant to embarrass her. Even now, it seemed a far-fetched solution. But if it could save Hugo, even mad ideas were good ones.

Chris unbuckled her belt and slipped out of her coat. She unbuttoned her blouse and stripped her skirt off, then peeled the damp stockings from her legs. Then she laid down beside Hugo and wrapped her arms around him.

Hugo felt the power of Dharma bleed from his body. For a long time, he felt himself float through the endless abyss that was the space between worlds. All around him, he perceived only darkness. It was a darkness unlike the veil of sleep. He could see, but there was nothing to see. Nothing but his own naked body floating in the void. Had he been truly awake, the feeling would be surreal.

After a time, he began to feel cold. He became aware that he had been cold, and that he had only now begun to sense it. The sensation—the very act of sensing itself—shocked him. For what felt like an eternity, he had felt nothing. He had forgotten what it was like to feel altogether. Trapped in Pesmerga's false world of Dharma, Hugo had forgotten the feeling of life itself. Anger, fear, joy, and sorrow; all emotion had drained from his body, like the skin pared from an apple. Cold and heat had not touched him. Pain had meant nothing. To suddenly feel again was… frightening.

Hugo tried to move his limbs, and they responded sluggishly. He felt cold to the marrow, as if his skin had frozen to ice. A deep ache spread through his wakening body, responding to the loss of his inhuman side. Slowly he became aware that his eyes had been open. When had that happened? He found himself staring up at a rugged surface of multiple hues of blue. The surface dripped water down on him. Ice, he realized, not without confusion. Melting ice. A groan escaped his throat. He shivered. He felt frozen to the bone.

Something shifted against him. Soft skin against skin. He heard a gasp. Then a face lifted into view. Silver hair and violet eyes.

"Chris," he tried to say, but his voice was a wretched croak, and the sound that dragged itself free from his lips was unrecognizable as a name. Spirits, but his throat felt parched. When was the last time he'd drank anything? In the dim flicker of the crimson light, Chris' face glowed with angelic vigor. She was fire to warm his cold skin.

"Hugo," she breathed, eyes glowing.

She was naked, Hugo realized with a start. Her body was pressed against him, her limbs tangled in his. He suddenly became very aware of the soft mounds of her breasts pushing against his chest, nipples brushing his skin. Blood rushed down his body in reaction, and this drew another reaction: the dim crimson light flared into a bright and angry glow, and a sudden wave of heat washed over him. Chris gasped, but Hugo barely noticed. He pulled free his right arm from the tangle of limbs and stared at his hand.

The True Fire Rune gleamed on his skin. More shockingly, his hand was there, whole and unblemished. As if it had never been severed from his arm.

"Spirits… How…?" he fumbled.

Chris hushed him. She took his hand in hers, closed his fingers into a fist. "I shall tell you everything, in time. For now, do not strain your mind. You are back. You are back with me." Her voice trembled. Tears glistened in her eyes. "You have returned to me."

Hugo stared into her eyes, drank in the sight of her. Spirits, it was like taking a deep breath of air after coming close to drowning. It was like the dawn's first light over the horizon. He pushed onto his knees and pulled her into his arms, pressing her tight against him. He buried his nose in her neck and drew in her scent. She smelled of sweat and blood, but beneath it all was her scent. A scent sweeter than perfume.

After what felt like an eternity, they pulled apart. The warm light of the True Fire Rune exposed Chris' curves, and Hugo's head swam with need. She must have noticed. First, there came a surprised look on her face. Then she smiled—part shyness, part eagerness. Gently he placed his hand on her thigh. He asked the question with his eyes.

She answered with a nod. A nod that spoke of hunger, and desperate need.

He took her in his arms, and kissed her.

Chris could not say how much time passed while she and Hugo reacquainted themselves with each other's bodies. Afterwards, she lay pressed beneath him, blissfully exhausted, her legs wrapped around him. Lazily she raked her fingers through his hair, listening to his breathing in her ear. The stars of the night sky peered in through the melted cap of the icy vault. The ice chamber was warm as a baker's shop now that Hugo was awake.

When she turned her head, she could see he was smiling at her, eyes dumb with satisfaction. She traced the lines of his face, and felt wonder. As the Goddess was her witness, he had aged. And he was taller. She was sure of that, now. She ached to know more about what he had experienced, but there would be time enough for that, later.

"I remember," Hugo murmured, eyes fluttering closed.

"Hmm?"

"Luc. The Destroyers." Hugo let out a deep sigh, half contentment, half concern. She felt a pang of regret as he pulled away from her to rise on his elbows. His eyes regained their clarity. "The True Fire Rune's memories… I've seen it. The Ceremonial Site. The Sindar weapon… We have to stop them—"

Chris pressed a finger to his lips, and sighed. She felt exhausted. She needed to rest, and she definitely needed to feel Hugo's lean, hard body against hers. Among other things. "Naturally," she said, a touch irritably, "Tomorrow. By the Goddess, even the Destroyers need to sleep."

She pulled him back down on top of her.