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Reeve and Millie's first undulating experience riding upon Kuura's expansive back lasted little more than an hour before Eero announced they would stop to make camp. Reeve was so tired that she paid little attention as Dawn and Eero fashioned a dome of ice from the snow in a matter of minutes. Their dinner was a pungent fish stew Eero prepared as Reeve stared vacantly at the green and yellow flames of the fire Dawn had conjured while Millie pointed her staff at every unique object she could identify with a running commentary of her discoveries.

Reeve didn't remember bedding down to fall asleep, but woke in the morning on a sleeping skin. The aroma of reheated stew was beginning to drift through the chill air. After a quiet meal, the four stowed their belongings and emerged to a cloudy first light. Dawn and Eero released the ice of the dome back to the snow from which it had started and dispersed it over the site to obscure any trace of their passing. Once satisfied with their work, Eero climbed up to his perch at the base of Kuura's neck, and then Millie, Reeve, and Dawn joined him. As they started out, small flakes were falling, but they were relatively few compared to the previous days, and the wind was more a steady breeze than the relentless gale that had hounded them since they had first emerged out of Dawn's portal into Wyste.

They rode in silence for the first half-hour, but then Millie asked Eero a question. Reeve was immediately quite sure that it was the beginning of one of Millie's relentless streams of questions, and Reeve knew she'd have a distraction for as long as she wanted to tune in.

"How'd you land a colossal companion?" Millie said.

"Was my son's."

"How'd your son dot dot dot?"

Reeve saw Eero turn his head slightly, as though surprised that Millie hadn't dropped the questioning after one terse response. Oh, thought Reeve, you have no idea what you're in for.

"Saved from hunters."

"Kuura saved your son, or your son saved Kuura?"

They trundled along for half a minute.

"Did Kuura save your son, or did your son save Kuura?"

"He saved her. Then she saved him. Many times."

"What's your son's name?"

Again, silence. Reeve couldn't guess who would break first.

"Aarne," Eero said eventually. "Was Aarne."

"Oh, sorry. Did something happen to him?"

"He died in war between northern fey and ice-orcs."

Reeve leaned to look past Millie at Eero.

"I'm sorry, that's terrible," Millie said.

Reeve turned to look over her shoulder and found that Dawn was sitting, about where the base of Kuura's spine might be, with her back to the three of them. Her arms were around her knees, and she was gazing past Kuura's oscillating haunches along the route they'd traveled.

"We people of this world, we die," Eero said.

"Yeah, where I'm from, too," Millie said.

Reeve shifted her position back a foot and swung one leg over so she was side saddle, then swung both legs up and sat cross-legged in the same reward direction Dawn was facing. Without a leg on either side of Kuura's spine, it was much harder to keep her balance, but if Dawn could do it, Reeve wanted to prove to herself that she could, too.

"How did you meet Dawn?" Millie said.

Reeve lost the thread of the interrogation as she scooched another foot toward Dawn and concentrated on not tumbling off their mount. After a minute or two, she felt like she had gotten the hang of shifting her weight in time with Kuura's cadence.

"The war Eero mentioned," Reeve said to Dawn's back, "was that the same war your mom went to join?"

After several seconds passed, Reeve realized she might have to show the same persistence, or lack of tact, that Millie had. She frowned to herself, not sure whether she wanted to push Dawn on the topic.

"It is something we share," Dawn said quietly. "Few things could bind people more closely."

Reeve nodded. "Yeah. Tragedy can do that. I've seen it in my family. I'm sorry."

"Part of our shared tragedy is that neither of us even knows the precise fate of those we have lost."

Reeve stared at Dawn's back. "You still think your mother's alive?"

"I do, though I can claim scant little evidence."

"And Eero?"

"He knows less of Aarne's stake in the war and the substance of his last days than even I with my mother. Aarne simply never came home. The reason my mother would rejoin her fey kin to defend their lands is easy to divine. Why he, a human, would take up arms in a land not of his birth…"

Reeve considered all of the worlds in which she'd played, and her own. "Usually love, religion, or money, at least where I come from."

Dawn nodded.

A boulder the size of a small car appeared to Kuura's rear and began swiftly disappearing into the landscape behind them, and Reeve realized she hadn't even felt the bear step over it.

"This thing is huge," she said to herself. "She's like a land yacht. Well, dreadnought." She considered Dawn's back. "This acquaintance of yours we're going to see, what's the deal?"

"She's a Wystlander I met on a previous expedition. She helped me in a moment of need. I was able to return the favor. Last I saw her, she planned to move to a larger village I've not yet reconnoitered. She knows that I seek information of my mother. She knows many who served in the war, on both sides. Having now spent some time since settling in the village—its name is Meteolumijärvi—I think there a good chance she will have new information that might guide our next step. Eero has been there and knows where to find her."

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"Do you think," Reeve said carefully, "we should be looking more specifically for Dusk? Or my dad and Leaf? I'm happy to help you look for your mom sometime, but since my dad and Millie and I may not have much more time during this visit, and I'm guessing the people who took Dusk aren't big fans of your two's work…"

"I appreciate your concerns," Dawn said, "and your suggestions are rational, but you work from limited knowledge of this world, at least as it exists now, following your long absence. Never had Dusk been outwitted in the way her abductors must have. The trail they left fell cold almost as soon as I began following it. If they do not want to be found, I think it unlikely we'll find a trail of crumbs. And if they want to find us, I'm certain they will. Meanwhile, Deilmarkt should be safe where it currently rests. Leaf will safeguard your father. And I can tell you that, almost every time Dusk, Leaf, and I have investigated subterfuge, espionage, or sabotage in the last eight years, the threads we found to pull inevitably led to Wyste. At the moment, our fraught history suggests that it is the best place for us to be searching for answers."

Reeve looked across the barren landscape they had traversed. IRL, it might pass for the Arctic or Antarctic. She had a hard time imagining where they would find answers in such desolation.

They rode along with only the sound of Kuura's paws ploughing snow. Millie had fallen silent, Reeve realized, and only a moment after the realization, she felt Kuura's cadence slowing.

"Let us stop here, girl," Eero said. "Best decide our next step."

Reeve assumed Kuura was the 'girl' to whom Eero spoke, but Dawn responded immediately with a nod and slid down Kuura's haunch to leap the final yard to the gound.

"Pretty sure I haven't seen this in any playthroughs," Millie said behind Reeve.

Reeve slid both her legs to one side of Kuura's spine and leaned back slightly to see past Millie and Eero. What she saw so held her attention that she didn't realize she was sliding backward until it was too late to grab anything but Millie's foot, which she did, pulling Millie with her. Reeve landed flat on her back in snow deep enough to provide a nearly pain-free impact, unlike the impact of Millie and Millie's new staff on Reeve's chest and face, respectively.

"Not cool, Reavyr," Millie said.

The caster pushed herself to her feet using hands planted a little unnecessarily—in Reeve's opinion—on the side of Reeve's face and on her sternum.

"Didn't you tell me you tied your dad to his mount?" Millie said as she brushed snow from her sleeves.

Reeve sat up, frowning and shaking snow from her still prickly hair and from her shoulders.

"May want to consider it yourself," Millie said.

"Did you see that!" Reeve said, pointing.

"Shush, of course. I just didn't pull you off a Kuura when I did. Don't act like a noob."

The scowl Millie's comment produced was immediately wiped from Reeve's face when she stood and again saw the vista before them. Eero had stopped Kuura just a few yards short of the edge of a cliff that plunged a hundred yards to a circular valley. The cliff curved away from them to either side and appeared to fully encircle the valley, most of which was occupied by a lake of stunningly blue water. A sizeable village curved along one shore, and from the middle of the lake rose an island of craggy black stone. An imposing fortress stood watch over the lake from atop the island.

Reeve advanced nearer the edge, and the others joined her.

"Well, this is, you know, kind of the definition of an epic setting," Millie said. "Why haven't I heard of this?"

"It may not exist in any other ga—," Reeve reined herself in slightly for her friend's benefit, "—in any other world."

"And why is the lake not frozen?"

"Meteolumijärvi," Eero said, "is known for subteranean thermal activity."

Reeve shook her head. "Not to go full Walter Williams on this, but it'll save us a lot of time if we can use a nickname for that."

"And why isn't there any snow on the island? Same geothermal thing?" Millie said.

Eero shook his head. "The rock that broke from the heavens behaves like no other. It is not just the snow it keeps at bay." Eero tilted his head back and looked at the sky.

Above them, the clouds under which they'd traveled their entire time in Wyste circled counterclockwise, roughly following the rim created by the cliff, but above the lake there were no clouds, revealing a pale blue sky.

"'Rock that broke from the heavens.' Like, meteorite?" Reeve said.

"Meteo-lumijärvi," Millie said.

Eero nodded.

Reeve pointed to the island. "That whole thing is meteorite?"

"That could well explain why I have found that my portals behave erratically in a large region of Wyste."

"They do?" Reeve said.

"Have you not wondered why I did not simply used a portal to hasten our progress to our destination?"

"I hadn't. But if I had, I'd probably have assumed it was related to you not giving us cloaks until we were half frozen."

Dawn shook her head with an amused smile. "No, I too could have done without our snowy travel by foot. But portals I have cast in Wyste in the past have nearly deposited me amidst wild creatures, armed enemies, or, well, bedrock."

Millie facepalmes. "We're standing on the rim of a crater."

Looking at the circling clouds and the unearthly black island rising from the lake in the middle of the huge crater, Reeve imagined she could almost hear an ethereal whine playing over the otherworldly scene.

"What's that sound?" Millie said, looking around.

"Wait, I'm not imagining that?" Reeve said.

Kuura emitted a low growl, the whine suddenly intensified into a rising "AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA," a geyser of snow exploded from a drift to their right, a chime sounded, and a diffuse shadow passed over them.

The four looked up and then reflexively crouched in unison. The silhouette of a huge winged creature flickered through the clouds above and then slid into the open sky above the crater.

Millie looked from the enormous dragon to the snow that was still settling back down onto the drift from which it had erupted. "Are we being bombed by a dragon?"

Reeve shook her head, checked her UI, pointed at the drift, and said, "That was my dad."

Reeve's three companions stared at her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine. And," she pointed at the dragon that was nearly to the center of the crater, "does that look like the kind of dragon we ran into on our way to the ford, Dawn?"

"Of course," Dawn said. "I thought it familiar, but that was so long ago I'd forgotten."

"For me, not so long," Reeve said.

The dragon began a slow turn to its left.

"I'm off Kuura," Reeve said. "Could I please have my naginata back?"

The dragon completed its turn and headed straight for them.

Not taking his eyes from the oncoming beast, Eero nodded and slid the weapon out of his empty hand as if he were a magician pulling a string of scarves from the air.

The dragon was descending as it approached.

Reeve looked at the blade of her naginata, then the dragon. Shaking her head, she swung the naginata over her shoulder, dropped its shaft into the leather strap on her back, and unshouldered her bow.

"You sure you want to do that?" Millie said. She was quickly shaping a spell, its first light beginning to glow between her rotating hands.

"No. Ideas?"

"No."

Kuura snapped her empty jaws shut several times in quick succession, and the loud, bass-heavy sound produced sent a shiver up Reeve's spine. Drawing her bow, she sighted on the rapidly approaching dragon. As she waited for the green crosshair to appear, signalling that it was within range, she considered her Inventory and decided on a small Orichalcum dagger. In her peripheral vision, Reeve saw the arrowhead expand as the dagger merged with it. The crosshair suddenly shone bright on the dragon's throat. Reeve loosed the arrow.

"Should I cast?" Millie said.

"Wait," Reeve said, watching the flight of the arrow. A second later, the crosshair was proven accurate as the arrow struck the dragon in the base of its neck. Bright white light shone out at the site of impact, and Reeve pumped her fist as the dragon screeched. The harsh sound continued as the initially bright light faded through a spectrum of reds. Rising, the dragon flew not at them but over them, its nearly unbearable cry continuing.

Reeve felt a push from behind and wheeled, ready to fight some new danger, but made it only partway through her turn before she realized that she was feeling the shaft of her naginata pushing against her. Completing her spin and now facing the receding dragon, she reached over her shoulder to grasp the weapon's shaft and hold it in place.

"This happened before," Reeve said, remembering the way her naginata had behaved in the previous run-in with what may have been a similar dragon during their fateful travels some eight years ago game time.

Millie was also watching the receding beast. "It sounds—," she said tentatively.

"—like it's happy," Reeve said.

"Take cover!" Dawn screamed.

Reeve turned and recognized her father's plummeting halfling face the moment before it impacted hers.

Two chimes sounded.