God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Mountain of ice, part 1

Barely two days into their climb, the groups had to split up. They had four different routes where each party would always be within sight of at least one of the others.

Borianna led the first party up and D'Argen waved them away with a grin. Another of the mortals took Yaling and Abbot back down before they disappeared over the snowy ledges and Lilian and their party went even further out and disappeared completely. D'Argen could only smile at Thar as Vinson took them a different route.

When night fell though, D'Argen could see three separate lights on the mountainside at different heights.

"How are you not cold?" Hortson, the fourth member of their small team, complained a few days in when Thar sat down in the snow in his linen and silk robes.

"Thar is made of ice, he feels most at home here," D'Argen answered with a grin as he helped Vinson put up their tent.

Thar let out a sound that D'Argen must have misheard because it sounded like a snort. He chanced a glance at the other, but Thar's face was completely blank. D'Argen returned to packing snow around the tent's edges.

"Are you cold?" D'Argen asked once he was done packing snow. His gloves were completely wet and his fingers were already numb. "I may have something," he muttered under his breath as he rummaged through the pack.

There was not much in there in terms of food or drink, but Vah'mor and Lemisyre both had packed D'Argen with multiple layers and furs. Although it was windy and the air was cold, the sun had been bright and unobstructed on them the last few days so D'Argen had not layered up even more. He felt the burn on his cheeks and nose from the wind and the sun both, but that was not reason enough to break out the fur-lined hood. Especially not when he walked beside Thar who dressed so light.

It was embarrassing.

"Hortson!" Vinson snapped out, drawing D'Argen's attention to him. "Pack the inside edges too. It looks like it'll be a windy night," he ordered.

D'Argen was confused only for a moment. When Vinson came up to him, he did so with a soft start of, "Missir D'Argen—"

Which was quickly interrupted by Thar correcting him with, "Leige."

"My apologies. Leige D'Argen, if I may?" Vinson asked, his head lowered in what he thought was respect but hiding his throat in an insult.

D'Argen ignored his body language and prompted with a hand for the man to continue.

"You are the most experienced climber of your group, no?"

"Yes. Well... by myself, yes. Not with your contraptions and ropes. Though I did finally get it right today when I tied you off!"

"Yes, yes, you did. Umm... I... I don't know how to say this without being blunt, but please know I mean no offence."

"Uhh... okay? Go ahead?" D'Argen was unsure how to respond so he let the mortal take charge of the conversation.

"Hortson is not bad. Not our best, but definitely not our worst climber. The issue is..." Vinson hesitated, trailing off and finally sounding unsure for the first time since he was put in charge of their small team. After a moment, he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and looked D'Argen right in the eyes as he said, "Hortson has been making rookie mistakes since we started."

Okay?

"Is... is this not something you should talk to him about?"

"It is. I did. He said that that's why you're here."

"Me?"

"Well, you and Leige Thar."

"Missir," D'Argen corrected without thinking even as he focused on Vinson's words. "What do you mean, that's why we're here?"