Soul Seeker

30: Whiteout

Ciara woke still heavy with sleep. Moving seemed impossible as she stared at dust motes swirling in a shaft of murky light that filtered in through the window. She hadn't shut the curtains. She hadn't done anything; worn out from the day which had seemed to last a lifetime, she had fallen onto a bed fully-clothed and sleep had dragged her down immediately.

She tried to move, and winced. Every part of her body hurt.

Someone knocked at the door.

"Come in," she croaked.

Tonraq stuck his head around. "Wow, you look terrible."

"Thanks."

"The storm doesn't seem to have passed over yet, so we're all going to the doors to check and see if we can sled in it, if you want to join."

The thought of moving, getting back on the road and travelling, made every bone in her body cry out for rest. But the alternative was to stay in a house built on top of Hati's domain, which may as well have been an active volcano.

Ciara dragged herself out of bed and followed Tonraq. They followed the others to the front door, and Fell tried to open it.

The door didn't move.

"I thought you were supposed to be strong, or something?" Ciara asked, and he shot her a look full of ire which she found much more comfortable than his earlier outpouring of emotion.

"I think it's... the frost," Fell grunted. "Must have frozen the hinges in the night –"

The door opened with a crack and a horrible grating sound.

Instantly, a blast of freezing wind hit them in the face, and they stared at the slice of whiteness, trying to figure out what it was. Ciara couldn't tell if it was the biggest snowdrift she had ever seen, or a whiteout. She drew closer, and realised with a sinking heart that it was a mixture of both. The snow reached her chest, and the storm had created a gloomy white world so confusing she couldn't tell where snow ended and sky began.

She felt that if she stepped out into it, she might fall off the side of the mountain and into the sky itself. Because who could tell what was sky and what was land?

"Well, we're going nowhere," Sebastian remarked.

"Wait, we're forgetting we have a guardian in our midst," Isa said. "You used your ice, actually used it, to help us against Hati! Surely you can make this go away."

Ciara's mouth went dry. "You want me to control the weather?" That seemed wrong, bending the weather to her will.

"You could at least try. Or clear a path for us to sled in."

"I don't know how."

"You were creating shields against Hati, just do whatever you did then."

"Yeah, because our lives were in danger! I can't actually control it! I was just letting my ice respond to the fire, I was letting my soul do whatever the hell it wanted. That's not control." The more Ciara thought about it, the more scared she became.

"You could at least try," Fell said, while Tonraq and Sebastian exchanged worried looks.

With the pressure of all their eyes upon her, Ciara didn't dare refuse. She took one step towards the threshold, sinking into a fighting elja stance with her feet planted firmly. She took a deep breath, stretched out her palms, and turned inward. Mentally, she felt like she was groping for her power, clumsy and blind.

Ice-cold pain shot through her, and her knees buckled.

"Ciara!"

"Stop – stop!"