With the woman Hovering over her, Snow White gritted her teeth and slowly, while still keeping it close to her body, aimed the crossbow directly at her stomach, "How about we play a better game?" She replied abruptly, pushing her aggressor back with a tap of the crossbow's tip on the woman's chest.
Unfazed, she took a step back and tilted her head, "You're not in your playground anymore, kid. Playing games isn't-"
She was interrupted by a bolt flying right past her, barely missing her cheek. "As I was saying, how about a game?" Snow White mimicked the smug grin that the woman had been donning for the entire time she had been there. Still unfazed, the woman sighed and gestured to her to continue. "I ask a question and you answer as truthfully as possible, then you ask and I answer. If we can't answer, we skip and the one who asked gets another try" She explained, fidgeting with the trigger of the crossbow, which she had tilted just enough to be aiming right at her.
The woman, cracking a cheeky smile, grabbed a chair, placing it directly in front of Snow White, "Go ahead" She said, leaning back into her seat, "And you, get your chair and come here" The woman called to the boy in the back, who with a low mumble, took the stool he sat on and carried it over to where the girls were, placing it at a safe distance from them.
"What's your name?" Snow White began.
"Vixen"
"That's not a name"
"Haven't you had this conversation already?"
"I… fuck you"
"Wouldn't you like that? Now ask your question"
Snow White seriously considered pressing the trigger, just… for a second, it wouldn't take long. She would shut up and they could leave with Warden once he came back. The thought, however, didn't last long. Any insight she could have on Warden would probably come from her, as much as she disliked the idea of that.
"What are you doing with that boy?" Snow White asked, deciding to play her own game.
"Whatever Warden is doing with you… I hope. You didn't fuck, right?" Vixen said perturbed, recoiling from just the thought of that.
"I'm not going to grace that question with an answer, ask again' Snow White retorted, resisting the ever increasing urge to either stick an arrow in her face or hit her with the butt of the crossbow.
"Alright… another important question. How did you find him?" Vixen said, intertwining her fingers with the tips of her hair, spinning them around until they're tied together. Then, equally slowly, she revered her motions and released her fingers.
"I contacted him, through his app or whatever that is" She replied, slightly baffled.
"There's a little problem with that, dearie, the app is fucking gone. He was fucking gone, so spill" Vixen demanded, pinning her with a vicious look.
For a moment, maybe one too brief, Snow White sat in silence, her trigger finger numbed by Vixen's response. "I literally just contacted him, through a friend, they said he could help me. That's all" Snow White explained, containing the faint stutter that seemed to emerge from her when shocked. "What do you mean Warden was gone?"
"Years ago, ten to be fucking precise, he just vanished, left a message in the notification board of the company and… yeah, vanished, I said that already" Vixen explained, her hand sliding down in her pockets, where her nails tapped against the screen of her phone. "I suppose you couldn't know, but has he mentioned anything about coming back?" She asked, this question leaving her mouth in a much softer tone than before.
"No, nothing" Snow White replied in a similar tone. Her finger didn't leave the crossbow's trigger, but lowered it away from Vixen. There was a story behind this woman, one whose path crossed that of Warden. She clearly said that Warden wasn't the only one that was hired to help people, she did the same and obviously, others did as well. For that alone, she knew she wouldn't pull that trigger, despite not abandoning it. She might be a bitch and in all honesty, Snow White didn't enjoy being around her, but she knew that the company she mentioned didn't have a lot of members. Taking one away from them would only harm someone else who might need them.
"What are you helping him with?" Snow White asked, turning to the boy, who raised his eyes when he was referenced.
"That's his story, kid" Vixen shrugged.
"But-"
"Oh, can you two shut the fuck up!" Triij shrieked from the other room, knocking on the wall to emphasize., "I'm trying to work!". The walls were thin and sound traveled much easier through the wooden planks he had managed to drag underneath that pile of garbage they sat under.
Vixen stood, picking up her chair, and walked over to the windshield that she and Warden had used to get in. From there, she sat on it, gazing out into the trash-filled wasteland. In a way of its own it must be endearing, despite Snow White not agreeing with it. She had no heart for worlds like this. No, she had never been to one and this visit did not urge her to do so again, but just the stories of worlds filled with factories and their chimneys, both reaching up to the sky and down through the ground.
Once Triij started yelling, not only at them, but at whatever he was working on, Snow White walked over to the boy in the corner, who had not moved since their little interrogation. "Hey" She said, drawing both the boy's and Vixen's attention. The woman took her eyes away from the view, for just a brief second, when she saw Snow White approach her client. With a slow motion, she assured Vixen that she wouldn't do anything, and she returned to her pondering.
"Hey" Replied the boy after a second, looking up at her. From up close, he was different from what the shadows made him look like earlier. Unnaturally thin, starved most likely, but muscular with bright eyes and long, dark hair. The bags under his eyes were still there and the obvious exhaustion did not leave him for a moment.
"Are you… okay?" Snow White decided to ask, and received a faint nod from the boy.
"Yeah, I'm alright. I'll be better when we leave this place, the air… it's too familiar" He said, making a visible effort to answer.
At least Snow White realized what was bothering her. The polluted fog hovering over everything was noticeable enough to make her feel far more tired than she should have been, but not enough to be able to pinpoint where her exhaustion was coming from. "Yeah, I'm used to a better atmosphere than this" She said, rubbing her throat.
That subtle mention of her home lit a small, barely alive spark in the boy's eyes and so the conversation took off in an instant. It turned out that Mnip, the boy, had a really rough start in life. He was born somewhat of a slave on a world far from where they were at that point, living with a family of poor farmers, who he helped with the crops. They were as kind as slave owners can be, which was just enough for him to not have any thoughts of escaping. When they lost the farm, however, in a bet, he was sold to the new owners and transferred to a factory world, where… Mnip didn't go into any detail with what he did there, but he implied it clearly. The adventure of getting a phone to eventually call Vixen was an entire story of its own, one which he promised he would share another time, since they were both going to Winter's deep.
Within a few hours of their silent conversation, during which they exchanged some stories about their lives, with Mnip leading the parade. All she told him was about her five brothers, but in all honesty, it was refreshing to have a conversation with someone that wasn't a decade or so older than her. Back home her brothers were a decade younger and her friends really did not have any stories of slavery and escapes to tell her, so talks like those were interesting. Not fun, they weren't fun, since half of them consisted of life experiences she would never want to have.
And as the sunlight started to slowly fade away until there was little to no light coming in from the windshield, which Snow White had finally come to the conclusion worked as a window, there was a knock on one of the doors. Triij waddled out of the room he was working and rushed to the door, opening it to reveal a soaking wet Warden, who was also carrying a large khaki sack on his back. "I couldn't get anything from the engine" Greeted Warden, who dropped the back near the entrance and wiped his feet on the welcoming mat (which for some reason existed).
"Didn't expect you to, leave it there and- NO! Don't come in with that damned coat! Leave it over there!" Triij almost shrieked once Warden tried taking a step inside. With a sigh, he took off his coat and let it hang from a small hook by the door before entering. Under that coat, which Snow White hadn't seen him take off even when sleeping for the past two nights, he wore a thick black shirt and a set of straps with knives.
"Everything alright?" He asked, turning to Vixen, who nodded absentmindedly in response. Warden's lip curved and looked at Snow White for confirmation, who took her eyes off of Mnip for a second to nod as well. "Great, Triij, in how long can we have the scissors?" Warden moved on, letting himself drop on the armchair she was sitting when talking with Vixen earlier.
"Tomorrow morning, have some patience dammit" Triij grumbled and opened up the sack Warden had brought, rummaging through whatever was inside. Quite a few exclamations and gasp of approval came from Triij while examining the haul and once he had finished, he tied sack tightly and headed back to the other room where everyone assumed he would return to work, "Sleep wherever suits you, other than the table" He said before closing the door behind him and locking it.
"You should sleep" Warden said almost immediately to Snow White, who was still conversing with Mnip.
"I can last for a few more hours" She replied, eyeing Mnip to say the same. It was obvious that she had some fun speaking with him since they, surprisingly, had a lot of things in common.
"Trust me, you need sleep. Tomorrow we'll go through the veil again and this time without anything protective. If you don't rest, you'll collapse" He explained in a somewhat louder volume in an attempt to make his statement sound urgent. Snow White was used to being addressed in such a way, but accepting it was not in her agenda anymore, simply working around it.
"So what?" She shrugged and tossed one of her bolts to Mnip, who examined it silently.
"I'm not carrying you through the borders of a warring country, which we are entering illegally, might I add" Warden said, turning his building frustration into sarcasm.
"I'm getting that illegal vibe already, but I'll be fine" Snow White remains adamant and indifferent as she does not spare a glance to Warden, who was glaring at the girl with a look that screamed I'm fed up with your attitude already.
"Last I checked, our contract stated that you do what I say is necessary to complete your goal. I'm not seeing any of that right now" Warden stated, tapping on the screen of his phone as a reminder of the contract.
"Yeah, exactly, you're telling me to go to sleep. You're my bodyguard not my mum. I'll be fine" Snow White retorted once more with a snarky attitude.
"Just remember that when you wake up at a random house after passing out in the middle of an ice storm" He said and immediately closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the armchair.
"That was the most passive-aggressive thing I've heard in years" She chuckled sarcastically, but received no answer. When she looked to the side to see what Warden was doing, she was met with her companion being in what seemed to be a state of coma. She knew that he wasn't actually sleeping, but the conversation was better left at that.
"He might be right, you know. I'll go to sleep in a bit, too" Mnip uttered once he made sure that Warden was fast asleep.
Snow White didn't acknowledge the first part of Mnip's sentence, replying with a simple not and a low "Sleep well" once the boy made for a makeshift sleeping-bag Vixen had probably made for him somewhere near where she was laying. He greeted her from the other side of the room and under Vixen's watchful eye, he tucked himself in to sleep. In the absence of any light other than the few green rays of odd moonlight that was slipping through the windshield on the wall, Vixen's eyes shone for no apparent reason, like two slim spots on a black canvas. At a few points during the night she wasn't able to see them, but she could feel that Vixen wasn't sleeping, or at least, wasn't sleeping heavily.
That sort rest they had just before reaching Triij's place was enough to hold her for a while more and with that in mind, she climbed up to the height of the windshield and crawled near it, lying in a way that would let her look outside. Thanks to the angle that car had been dumped there, it was facing the sky and that meant that Snow White had a full view at the source of the green light that kept shining throughout that night.
In the distance, reaching up to the edges of the sky, stood an enormous tower. It's design was utterly foreign to her, resembling nothing of the stone and concrete buildings of her home or the wooden ones from Murklake. Pure steel and other metals covered the entire surface of the tower, with pipes and cargo elevators decorating huge chunks of the outside. At its top, a machine she could not make out very well functioned without pause or rest. It's use was simple, though it baffled Snow White immensely. It was keeping a 'door' open to the veil, a massive one, through which trucks passed, left their cargo, loaded up with scrap from the wasteland and then left once more. The stream was endless from what Snow White could guess and the questions about its design and function were even more. After a few hours had begin to pass, both these things, including the comfortable position she was laying in, ended up acting as sedatives, sending her into a somewhat, yet not completely, serene sleep.
Once the morning had arrived, her regrets did so as well. She was the first one to be greeted by the sun's blinding light, almost making her drop when she realized that her eyes were being fried while she slept. Groaning, and making the decision to never sleep anywhere near a window ever again, she got away from the windshield and dropped down onto the floor. "Slept well?" Warden greeted her from the 'kitchen', which was nothing more than a small table for two and a fridge the size of a toilet.
"Mhm" She murmured and walked over. It was the second time she was sleeping in the same clothes, without taking a shower and that had started to dawn on her once she saw Warden wearing an entirely new set of pants, which unlike his previous baggy one, was slick and white. "Hey, where did you get the new clothes?" Snow White protested as she approached, feeling the freedom to do so since she saw neither Mnip or Vixen around.
"She…" Warden said, pointing at the two sleeping bags that Vixen and Mnip were using, "... gave a pair to me. Until I find a way to clean up mine in Winter's deep" He explained, while fumbling away with something on the table. When Snow White got closer, she realized that he was writing something, pencil and paper all the way. He was a few paragraphs in, too.
"So, you're cross-dressing" She snickered, deciding to have a bit of fun in the morning.
"Wh-" Warden didn't finish his sentence, probably didn't even want to do so and turned his head just slightly so as to look at her, his hand still writing on a perfect line against the paper.
"You're so easy to startle. Anyway, does she have any for me, you know an actual woman?" Snow White said, barely holding her laughter during that last part. It was more so to tease him than it actually being funny, but the look on his face was nothing but priceless.
"I don't think you've reached the 'woman' part yet, kiddo" He paused, giving her a toothy grin, "In the bag" He replied, pointing at a backpack near the larger sleeping-bag. Amidst the shock and amusement, both caused by his hilarious response, Snow White failed to hold back a laugh and so, she let it out, laughing for a few solid seconds.
"Oh, that was a good one!" She said, reaching over for the bag. All she found inside was a questionably fashionable and revealing underwear, which didn't fit her in the first place, and a couple of thick shirts, scarves, a beanie and a pair of boots dense enough to shatter concrete, all of which obviously made for winter. She didn't have to ask or think about grabbing them, they were going to Winter's Deep after all. All anyone knew about it was for its ice storms and… snowstorms and… yeah there's a lot of snow and cold there, seriously, why do people even live up there?
"Anywhere I can change?" She asked, but Warden just shrugged, saying he simply changed while she was sleeping. Not letting that fact creep her out, she looked around to find somewhere to change immediately, before she had any more eyes going around in this room. "Just don't look" Snow White decided, moving away from Warden and changing shirts as quickly as possible. Warden didn't say or do anything, but kept writing.
"Are you done?" He asked a second later and shut his book, but didn't turn, waiting for a positive response.
"Yeah" She confirmed, stretching away the morning exhaustion. She always needed a while to actually wake up, maybe with the help of a cup of coffee, but she doubted Triij would have any in that tiny fridge of his.
"Great, pack your things. The others will be here shortly" Warden said. He placed his book in one of his coat's pockets and closed it shut, standing up to inspect the room around him. The constant sounds from the tower outside were still going, albeit to a lesser extent, but there was a distinct silence in the air surrounding them. More people in the same place, no matter how spacious, made it feel crowded, lacking any personal space. Snow White was used to it, having five damned brothers, but she was used to having her own room to balance things out.
What she wasn't used to was wearing six different kinds of snow gear at once, and seeing how Mnip struggled to stand still with the scarf pinching his neck all the time, she wasn't the only one. Warden changed little, however, adding but a pair of gloves to his outfit and just sticking with his coat, whatever good that will do in a storm.
The serenity of this less crowded morning was shattered by an abrupt knock on the door, which was shortly followed by it being opened by Vixen. She stepped aside to let Mnip in, who was wearing a different outfit this time. Snow White suspected that it was another courtesy of Vixen, but mentioned neither that or how she helped herself to a new shirt. "Warden" She greeted, or at least Snow White supposed she did so, because Warden crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to brace for the worst, "Are you still mad? We spoke about this like an hour ago" He said, waving his arms around in mind frustration.
"You left the company for that bitch, Warden, of course I'm mad!" She said threateningly.
"I didn't leave for her, I left because of her. Huge difference" Warden tried to correct her, but she wanted none of it.
"You still left, you asshole! We almost shut down without you, half of the guys left and you just nonchalantly waltz back, taking a contract without saying shit to any of us!" Vixen almost screamed this time, clenching her fists.
"Hey, hey, guys!" Triij interrupted, emerging from the other room.
"What?!" Vixen turned to him, barely holding herself from throwing a few punches at Warden (or anyone in front of her, actually)
"Shut the fuck up, that's what. I got the scissors, get in line" He blurted out irritably, dragging a human-sized, spherical device that was drilled into a platform with wheels.
Snow White didn't express her surprise, because it would certainly sound stupid that she actually believed Triij would just show up with scissors. Yes, it is definitely normal to cut the fabric of reality with a pair of scissors, smart girl, you are, Snow White thought, directing her own sarcasm to herself.
The platform itself was not part of the device, since it didn't seem to be connected to it in any way, but Snow White supposed it would be necessary for it to be moved around. The spherical part, which was obviously the main part of the 'scissors' was an almost perfect surface, with only a line cutting vertically right in the center of it. How it had been made, she was completely unaware of, but it was already made clear to her why it was so valuable to Triij. One could place it anywhere, turn it on and transfer themselves to the correlating location on the other side… any location. That was hard to regulate, even harder to prevent.
"Alright, kids, stand in line and watch your hands" Triij said jokingly to himself as he punched a few buttons in from behind the device, "Don't die again, Warden" He said before entering the final combination, turning on the scissors. Warden did not answer, or at least Snow White didn't hear him do so, since she was standing behind him. She wouldn't blame him if he didn't however.
When only half of the sphere opened, the translucent white light of the veil flooded the room, embracing all that stood in front of it, which in that case excluded Triij. With a few rapid motions of his hand, the short man directed them to walk through it, like a door. Holding onto herself for peace of mind, Snow White followed Warden's pace, entering the device in less than three steps.
This part of the veil was unlike the day before, shrouded in a storm of white petals that flew towards the ground at rapid speeds, swirling in the air like dancers, only to meet the same destination as their peers. None of them, however, touched Snow White, flying either past or directly through her as if she was not even material anymore. "Warden?" She called, narrowed her eyes in a vain attempt to get a better understanding of her surroundings. Trees, there were trees there. She was in a forest, from what she could understand, but there was no other information she could make out. "Where are you? Warden?... Mnip?!" She tried once more, louder, but maintaining her posture. Freaking out would do little good for her in the veil.
"I'm here!" A voice came from behind and a second later, Snow White felt Warden's hand on her shoulder, "Traveling this way is a bit weird, hold on to my belt or coat and don't let go. I'll get you through this" He said, trying to whisper, but failing, in her ear before stepping in front of her. Hastily, and without arguing, she took a tight grip of his coat and held with her right hand, the other being used to keep her balance while moving through the clouds of petals.
"Where are the others?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, barely getting through to Warden. She doubted that her voice was heard, but it seemed that he was thinking the same, looking around to find Vixen and Mnip, "Τhey… they must be behind us!" He said, halting their advance a while later. Without a word, he took the radiating blue pebble he had shown her back at the boat and let it drop to the ground, where it landed softly, being embraced by what she believed to be the equivalent of snow. "Are you sure about this?!" She said, screaming even, when she realized what he was doing.
Without a response, they proceeded to move forward once more. They kept walking for a while, longer than what she would expect a trek through the veil to last and any attempts to communicate with Warden fell flat due to the ever-increasing force of the storm around them. Slowly, almost without Snow White noticing it, the petals started to fade away and be replaced by snowflakes, and the ground with thick layers of snow that eventually reached up to her knees, slowing them down even further. "Warden! Warden, where are we?" She called, pulling at his coat to get his attention.
In that brief moment of realization when she felt the cold embrace of the snow around her legs, she started tugging at Warden harder, trying to get him to notice her, but he barely budged. Seconds later, the same feeling of complete exhaustion she had felt back at the boat rushed through her.
Warden turned just enough to be able to see her, his face covered with a layer of ice and his lips cracked. "Shit" He exclaimed under his breath when he saw the girl unconscious, still holding onto him for dear life.
-~~-
Like being slapped out of a dream, Snow White woke up, only just enough to know she was awake. With her eyes still shut, she regained consciousness and tried to move her limbs as slowly as she could, trying not to draw attention to herself. The issue with that attempt was that she could not move at all. Something laid heavy on her entire body and after much inspection with whas she could move of her hands, she realized it was a warm quilt residing over her. The warmth surrounding her, however, did not come from the bed she laid on or what she was covered with. They helped, yes, but it took her very little time to understand that she was inside a heated room, since the only sounds she could hear were those of a fireplace.
No wind, no storm or anything meant that she was safe, at least from the elements of nature.
That last thought brought an entire series of concerns in her mind. Last she was awake, she was holding onto Warden, trekking through the snow, but that could lead into anything. He had said that they were getting into Winter's Deep illegally… had they been caught? That would most likely be the case. Warden was on his own, in the heavy cold with an unconscious kid hanging from his back.
For that alone she felt a mental hand punch her in the stomach, once and then a second time, realizing how she had risked his life. If she had been awake, then at least she could do something, walk if nothing else. If there was one thing she hated was being useless, a burden to others. Well, great job with that, she thought and with that, Snow White tried to take her mind off it. If there was time to talk to Warden about it, she would do it later.
She was on a soft bed with a cozy fireplace somewhere near her, something that didn't sound like a prison cell in any world she had heard of. The contradictions had only begun however, and as every second passed, Snow White was both reassured and confused about her situation.
This isn't good either way.
he door… a door actually, opened from somewhere across the room and a set of footsteps entered, shutting it behind them. "You'd expect she would have woken up by now" The unknown voice, which, from her understanding, belonged to an old man, claimed as he moved around the room. He received no reply, but he spoke again, "Who of you came up with the idea to cross the border from there? You could get both of you killed even without the Border patrol finding you"
It was obvious he was speaking to someone other than her that was in the room with them. That made the second, silent, figure even more mortifying in Snow White's mind when it eventually stood up and the sound of its footsteps grew louder until they stopped right by the head of the bed. "You might want to visit your 'friend', sir" Said the old man, leaving what sounded like a plate with food on it somewhere in the room, "They might be able to help you, like before, won't they?" He asked, but once more remained silent.
"Maybe" Spoke the second figure, his voice ringing with familiarity in her ears.
Snow White's eyes opened rapidly, catching a quick glimpse of her companion, who was standing in front of her, very much unharmed. "Wa-" She attempted to call him, maybe with relief, but his hand was already on her mouth, keeping it shut.
"This might be the time for you to leave" He said gently to the old man, who from what Snow White could now see was in his mid-forties, well built and dressed in a thick leather apron. "Thank you for the food, by the way" Warden said and the man mumbled something inaudible in response as he shut the door behind him.
A brief moment later, Warden took his hand away from her mouth and sighed, "Sorry, but he doesn't know my name and I'd like to keep it that way" He explained quickly, before his newly awakened companion had the chance to complain. "How are you?" He said, taking a step away from the bed, giving her some room.
"Nothing hurts, but… what happened? We passed through the veil, the petals turned to snow and I tried calling out to you, but you didn't hear me" Snow White said, more to herself, narrating her last memories in an attempt to provide a coherent image of what had happened.
"I'm sorry, the storm was loud, but pulling on my jacket was good thinking" Warden said, trying to be positive, but his troubled look was not something he seemed willing, or able, to hide.
Snow White let out a low sigh, gritting her teeth, and pulled herself up, resting her back against a pillow on the head of the bed. "What happened afterwards?" She asked.
"First, we are going to talk about what happened before," He said, imposing himself on this conversation. She knew it before they started speaking that he would take it there, scold her about how she was risking this entire thing and how he had told her what would happen if she didn't sleep. Were she back home, there would be an onslaught of curses or fights that would eventually lead to her running to the lake by her house or locking herself back in her room for a few days. She didn't have to worry about that anymore, which meant that she had nothing to fear from Warden. "Listen to me next time, okay? You didn't come this far from home to die in the cold and there is no finding Earth if you're dead" Warden said, far more softly.
"I'm alive, aren't I?" She replied jokingly, pulling the mattress closer to herself, up to her shoulders.
"For reasons other than your excellent survival skills" He countered with sarcasm dripping from his tone like a waterfall.
"I know, but that's the very reason you're here" Snow White said, balancing between seriousness and another over-done joke.
"Joking aside, kid, you being unconscious made this harder. Please be more considerable, I'm working for you, not against you" Warden said, leaning forward ever so slightly, his hand digging into the pocket of his pants. It was barely felt, but the crack in his voice made it obvious that he had made the last step towards shifting the conversation back to seriousness.
She did as little as to nod, but to him it was enough and dropped the subject. "So… what did happen?"
"It's not important, kid. Now sleep this night out, I'll wake you in the morning"
"At least tell me where we are!"
Warden paused, glanced behind him to the door that the old man left from, "Winter's Deep, outskirts of the city. Now please... sleep" He said, and a little speck of softness gave the tone to his last word.
Snow White said nothing more, falling back down in the bed, swimming underneath the covers. She was no friend to being scolded, but he was right, she shouldn't have been selfish. "Hey" she says just as Warden's hand grazed the doorknob, "I'm sorry".
Warden nodded, "What's done is done. Now rest, we'll talk later" He said, leaving her alone under her warm blankets once again.