"Ice and Flame" by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

        "Have you seen my sisters?"
        The rabbit paused, stared at Flame and sniffed before hopping away.
        "Fine. Be rude," she called. "See if I will paint your fur white this winter."
        Muttering imprecations to herself, Flame continued on. "Have
        you seen my sisters?" she asked an orange-leafed oak. The oak shook itself. No. A few loose leaves fluttered to the ground. Flame sighed sadly. Hopeless. As she flew onward, the pines reached out their playful branches, and Flame chuckled at their welcome. The pines were always so much more friendly. The other trees all got sullen this time of year. Must be because they were losing their greenery. Jealous things. "Have you seen my sisters?" she asked hopefully. With a mournful sigh, the pines whispered, No, you are the first of the ice-singers this year. We feared you had all forgotten.
        Forgotten? No. Was she really early for once? Regretfully, she disentangled herself from the pines. "Do tell me when they come," she said. The pines bowed their crowns in acknowledgment. Before Flame skidded away on the winds, she lightly touched the pine boughs and let icicles form as she whispered her Song to them. With a light breath, she coaxed the crystalline lengths to hang like jeweled teeth. Thank you, the pines exclaimed, showing off their new ornaments.
        Flame smiled briefly, but the moment of levity did not last. As soon as she left the stand of trees, the worry assaulted her again. It was very late Autumn. Of course her sisters would be late the one year she remembered on time, she thought crossly. She felt a strange and lonely fear. Was she all alone? She was not used to it....
        The trees gave way to a clearing, and she paused upon the edge of the expanse. Rarely before had Flame ventured out to the lands of the human-things, only as she passed over them to get from place to place. Her sisters seemed to love toying with the creatures, and from her sisters, she had learned that these human-things were much less durable than the trees and the other creatures she preferred to tend to. She was usually content with the wildlands. But now...she craved more company than the rude rabbits and the friendly, though a bit haughty pines.
        Before she was allowed to make a conscious decision, a heavy gust of wind knocked her aside, buffeted her across the meadow, and into a low cottage wall. The North Wind laughed uproariously before spinning away. "Self-centered, inconsiderate bully!" she proclaimed, pulling herself upright. The breezes helped to dust her off, comforting her with sympathy.
        She looked around. This place looked familiar.... Ah yes. She had been to the edge of this meadow just this morning. She gave an exclamation of dismay and touched the remains of the lovely snowdrift she had deposited on the fences and the wide meadow just earlier. All gone already?! Puddles of slush pooled on the ground.
        Determinedly, she beckoned the winds, and with their help, Sang more snows and let the lacy flakes drift from the sky. She laughed for a moment, reveling in the chill touch of the snow on her bare skin and the playful toss of the winds.
        With her mood fairly high once again, Flame peered through the glass panes of the cottage. Something captured her attention, and she gasped in delight. It was a sun-jewel! But...so much larger than she had ever seen, and it flickered and danced more wildly as well. Her eyes gleamed with the reflected red-gold colors, and she yearned to touch it. She had never seen sun-jewels except within the Living, and those were untouchable.
        She did not know how long she stayed there, gazing with a mesmerized expression at the sun-jewel inside the cottage. The breezes eventually became bored. They tugged at Flame to catch at her attention, and after numerous attempts, they finally pulled her from the trance. "What if I could touch it..." she murmured with a smile, and proceeded to try to climb through the window. She was stopped short by the glass pane. It thwarted her every attempt, and it was several more minutes before she admitted defeat. By now the afternoon had become dusk, and through the cottage window, the sun-jewel had dwindled to a glowing ember.
        Pouting, Flame took off again, dancing across the new snow and leaving no tracks as her Song carried the winds with her and left the glitter of white snowflakes in their wake.
        She spent the night and all of the next morning traipsing across the countryside and along the edge of the forests and human-lands, and as night came around, she found herself once more at the same cottage that had so occupied her attention the day before. The sun-jewel once more flared with its hypnotizing light from within, and she wanted more than ever to touch its gleaming light.
        Idly, she began to trace lace frost across the glass, delighting in the fanciful designs that sprang to life as she Sang softly, building up a light crescendo as the frosty designs spanned across more and more space.
        "What was that...?" The human voice jolted Flame from her, and she realized that there had been conversation coming from within for several moments now. She had been so engrossed in her Craft that she had not even noticed.
        "Hm?" A woman's voice.
        "I thought I heard some noises from the window."
        "Oh. The wind's just strong today. The wintermages predicted it."
        Flame found herself frozen there, uncertain whether to flee or stay. But no, no one was coming, so there was no need to worry. The human-things would not bother her. She could no longer see the sun-jewel through the heavy veil of frost she had Sung to the windows, and with a smile, she began to edge the roof with icicles as well. She was in the midst of doing so, oblivious to everything else, when the silent babble of the winds brought her short. She whirled abruptly and saw one of the human creatures standing before her.
        Her instincts were to flee, to meld into the snow drifts that she had just Sung and hide from the man, but something held her rooted in place. She stared at the human in fascination, taking in the brilliant sun-jewel that burned within his chest. It was not as glorious as the sun-jewel she had seen in the cottage, but it had a different edge to it -- silvered and ruby and topaz that made it more fiercly...alive. He was wrapped in layers of clothing, but she could still see it. His skin had a rosy blush, unlike her own pallid flesh, but the eyes were a deep and crystal blue that were so similar, she could not tear herself away. They mesmerized her.
        "What is it, Thar? Come back inside," came a voice from within the cottage. The man named Thar did not move, and neither did Flame.
        Another figure ducked out from the half-buried doorway. "Gods! I didn't expect this much snow in so short a time. I suppose we'll be snowed in and I'll be forced to study for the next few days. What are you doing --" The second figure stopped short as her gaze followed Thar's. "An ice-singer!" she exclaimed breathlessly as she looked at the fae being. Puffs of condensed air came from her mouth with each word. Her eyes were an even deeper blue than Thar's, and Flame felt a strange affinity to this woman-human-creature.
        "She's beautiful," Thar added. His eyes never left Flame. Abruptly, the ice-singer whirled and took off in a swirl of snow and breezes.
        She traversed the lands for several days, bringing the snow and ice and frosty bite of winter with her. Each night, she returned to the little cottage on the edge of the woods and from the window, she would gaze at the sun-jewel that burned on the hearth and at the sun-jewels in the man and woman who lived there, and sigh with yearning. She listened as they spoke, watched them each day. Once in a while, she would find Thar gazing intently back at her. One time, as she blew frost to the window, she found herself suddenly confronted face to face with Thar. He laid one hand against the pane from the inside, as if he could touch her, and she felt herself sucked into the eyes that glittered with the light of his own sun-jewel, which danced with a life to it that she had never known. It was a wild dance that she longed to know for herself. Why do human-things have sun-jewels in them? she wondered. She would turn her gaze upon her own silken skin. There was no glow from within. There was no brilliant light within her breast, nor within the winds that followed her.
        She Sang through the days, the harbinger of winter. Her Songs painted the hares white so that they might hide better in the snowy lands, whispered the lullabies that lured the great grizzly to sleep, beckoned billowing clouds with her, laced the lands with frost. But one ice-singer could not do much and have it last. "Have you seen my sisters?" she asked the stag. Suddenly the call of the pines reached her ears. They come! They COME!!!
        It was then that she heard the Storm Father's rumbling voice. "Flame!" he called, and she shivered at the sound of the powerful sound. Her sisters swirled with their followings of wind sprites as they Sang their melodies. The sheer primal force of the stormgathering raced through her veins. How could she have forgotten and not heard its call?!
        With a surge of relief and her own eldritch Song trailing her, she flew to join her sisters. "Foolish child," they murmured with fond derision for the youngest of their number.
        "Running off before a stormgathering..."
        "Father was worried."
        "For Flame?" Laughter. Singing.
        Flame blushed and then there was no more time for idle thoughts or talk, for the Storm Father howled, and the ice-singers called their winds, and even the North Wind found himself drawn into the midst of the stormgathering. They raced across the lands, blanketing everything in a layer of snow so thick that soon there was nothing but white visible. The steeds of the Storm Father shook their proud manes and their chill breath sent clouds of shimmering snow skidding out in puffs.
        As the entourage neared Flame's forests, she looked down and saw a lone figure struggling against the rising gales. A human-thing -- and not just any human-thing. It was the one named Thar. Laughing, she swooped down with her winds and spun around him. He did not notice her, so intent was he upon each step...and then she remembered how her sisters had often spoken of the fragility of these human-creatures. They could not stand the intensity of cold as the winterfolk could.
        The stormwinds shrieked and an icy chill gripped the land. Dear gods...the cold.... Thar closed his eyes and trudged on, hoping only that he could return before he got lost in this storm that had sprung out of nowhere. Already, he could see nothing but white walls in all directions. Only instinct guided him, but he had no idea if he went in the right direction or not. He prayed that it was. Where his skin was exposed, the cold reached in with icy roots. His fingers and toes were numb. "I'm coming home, Maera..." he kept whispering to himself, as if by saying it, it would be true. One step...another...another.... Where was he?!
        The snow piled in huge drifts, and as Flame watched her human struggle onward, she felt something stir in her that she had never felt. Could this be fear? she wondered. She only knew that she suddenly did not want to lose this human-thing with its bright sun-jewel inside.
        Abruptly, the crust of the snow drift Thar stood atop broke. He fell into the deep snow, floundering. No! Don't panic. He had heard of people drowning in snow drifts.... The cold reached deep into his bones....
        Her voice barely audibly above the chaos around, Flame Sang to her winds, and the pile of snow Thar had vanished into was blown away in seconds, leaving only the shivering man. He did not pause, did not look around to see what had provided this unexpected blessing, but immediately rose and continued on. There was only one thought in his mind -- to escape the madness of the storm. The path before him seemed to magically clear of snow or obstacles.
        Flame raced beside her human.
        And then the cottage stood before them. With an almost physical force, the winds tossed Thar to land against the door. He grunted, and a second later, he was inside.
        "Flame! Hurry!" her sisters called, but she shook her head, and as the wave of wind sprites tore across the land, she called her own following and made a wall to protect the little cottage, lest it be buried under the untamed force of the stormgathering.
        "What are you doing, Flame? Hurry!"
        "Flame..."
        The voices called to her through the rising gale, but she did not hear, for there was only the cottage. She gazed within, and saw the awed expressions of the man and woman gazing back out at her as they witnessed the force of the stormgathering. Flame stood in the midst of her winds, white hair a billowing cloud around her head and her milky skin gleaming like ice. Blue eyes sparkled as she held her hands aloft, commanding the elemental forces around her so that like the eye of a tornado, the cottage stood as an island of peace amidst the triumphant chaos and Song of the stormgathering.
        And then they were gone. "Reckless child..." came the echoes The storm fury did not fade immediately, but in gradual increments the intensity died down. Was it minutes? Hours? At last the sky held only a few scudding clouds. The Storm Father and his followers moved on to the east. The quickening of the blood in Flame's veins did not leave as easily. Only her sudden anxiousness for the cottage and its inhabitants tamed her power, and light as the wind, she ran across the top of the deep snow to the cottage, but hid, melding into the snow as she heard a creak.
        The door was shoved open and both humans climbed out upon the fresh snow. "I've never seen anything like it before!" The woman exclaimed.
        "Maera...is it safe to come out like this now?" A light fall of snow had begun again, although it was nothing on the level of the previous fall.
        "It's safe. I think. None of the books I have seen in the libraries of the Circle have ever described a stormgathering like that. You could see the creatures! it was no ordinary storm...."
        "No...." Thar was thoughtful as he gazed around, searching intently. He was still heavily bundled.
        "The ice-singer...did you see it? It's the one that has been hiding here so much recently."
        "I saw her. She kept the worst of the storm away from us."
        "I know. An ice-singer...." Maera sighed wistfully. "They have powers that wintermages can only dream of."
        Thar's trance seemed to break, and a smile cracked his features. Flame's breath caught as she saw the sun-jewel in him flare. It was so beautiful. "Someday," he said, embracing Maera's small form. "Someday, Love, I'm sure you'll reach the status of a wintermage."
        Maera smiled and kissed Thar. "Love you." The smile faded momentarily. "I hope so...someday...to be a wintermage...." She sighed with yearning.
        A wintermage. Flame wished she had paid more attention to her sisters when they laughed about the pranks they played upon the human-things. Then perhaps she would be able to understand her humans. She did not think it odd that she thought of the man and woman as her humans now. A wintermage. Was that similar to ice-singers? But the woman was human. And mortal.
        And a sun-jewel beat and danced within her.
        Flame noticed the open door to the cottage then. She did not pause to consider what she was doing until she stood before the great sun-jewel. Reflected in her icy gaze were the dancing edges that flickered, and though it did not live with the intensity of the sun-jewels in her humans, it was a sun-jewel that she could touch. The winds cried for her to come back out, but she did not listen. She reached towards the sun-jewel...
        A scream split the morning air.
        Maera and Thar raced into their home and gasped in astonishment at the sight they found there. "By the gods..." Maera breathed. An acrid scent filled the air. The ice-singer was crouched on the ground, doubled over and with small sounds of agony escaping her lips as she clutched an arm. Her wind companions threw off their own hesitation and brushed into the cottage, causing havoc as their passing sent papers flying madly, rippled Maera's wintermage books, and knocked over lighter objects. They spun around Flame, lifted her to her feet so that she hovered in the air. The ice-singer was of humanoid form, but...one hand was missing. The right arm, graceful and white and supple as the rest of the ice-singer's body, ended in a terrible black stump at the wrist. Agony wracked the fae creature's body. "Sun-jewel...sun-jewel...." she whimpered.
        "It touched the fire...." Maera's eyes followed the ice-singer's to the hearth.
        Flame threw back her head, a terrible Song rising from her throat. Thar stepped forward, an agony on his face that could match Flame's. He reached out to touch the ice-singer, but what looked like substantial flesh, his hands passed right through. Flame remembered seeing Thar enfold Maera in his embraces many times as she stared through the windows, and she sighed.
        "You cannot touch Flame!" Flame laughed, but something...ached in her when she said that. Even though she had always known that she was insubstantial to the creatures of this world, except to bedeck them with the snow and ice that was hers to give.
        "Now she knows," Maera said, rolling her eyes. "The creature's like a child.... Touching fire because it's pretty." Flame glared at Maera.
        "No," Thar said. He looked as if he could feel the roiling pain that came from where Flame's hand had once been. "No, that's not what she means. It's her Name."
        Flame hissed, "Yes!" The ice-flame in her flared in response. This one understood.
        "Hm?" Maera looked confused.
        "Flame."
        "A strange name for a creature of ice." Slowly, Maera advanced on the ice-singer, careful not to frighten the creature away. She stopped a few feet from Flame, and her eyes drifted shut as she called on the threads of wintermagic and meticulously wove it around the little ice-singer.
        When she opened her eyes, she found Flame eyeing her with curiosity. The ice-singer stared her right hand wonderingly, exactly as it had been before she had touched the sun-jewel on the hearth. "Wintermage?" Flame asked in confusion.
        "Not yet, but I shall," Maera responded.
        Flame thought for a moment. Flame...a strange name for a creature of ice. "Sun-jewels," she said, pointing to the hearth and then placing her hand over Thar's and Maera's breasts respectively. "I only have an ice-flame...." she said sadly, her new hand resting over her own white skin above her breast. Before her humans could say more, Flame Sang to the winds and they carried their mistress out the still-open door.

* * * * *

        For the next several weeks, Flame wandered the country. Sometimes with her sisters, and sometimes alone, and one other time for a stormgathering. Each night, the cottage called her, and she could not resist. She had to see her humans. Even though the sun-jewel had hurt her, when Maera the wintermage had touched her with her sun-jewel, there had been no pain. There had only been a sweetness and the strangest sensation that was like the hearth-sun-jewel and not. It was a soft touch, something that Flame had never imagined. The ice-flame-hearts of the winterfolk have no place for the sun-jewels, but Flame yearned for that remembered sensation all the more now. Something is missing from me, she realized. What was it? The humans had it...that...something, and it was not just the sun-jewels (Fire? Was that what they called it? Or was it something else....) that burned in their breasts.
        "She goes again to dally with humans," her sisters would say with exasperation each night.
        "Flame, Flame.... Can you not learn?"
        "Oh, let the child. We'll be gone soon anyway."
        Gone soon.... There was no escaping that fact. The winter was half over, and soon, Flame would be forced to leave this realm with the others. Too soon....
        She was not shy about her humans any longer. Nor did they fear her. She understood now why she had felt that strange affinity to Maera upon first glimpsing the woman. They were kindred spirits in a way -- an ice-singer and a wintermage; or would-be wintermage.
        "I shall be Tested soon," Maera said to Thar worriedly one night.
        "Don't fret. I'm sure you shall do fine. And then you will be one of the Circle." Thar held her close, and Flame watched their sun-jewels burn with an intensity that hurt her eyes so that ice tears dripped to her chin.
        She smiled as she offered to aid Maera when the woman began to practice her spells. Thar would watch them from afar, but Flame always felt his presence.
        The winter went on, and then came the day of Maera's Test. She left the cottage early in the morning, and when Flame came as usual just as dusk started to set in, the woman was still not back. Thar greeted the ice-singer. "I will be going soon," Flame said sadly.
        "Leaving?" Thar's brow was furrowed, and he turned an anxious gaze to the little ice-singer.
        "The winter is almost over. I need to return to my realm then...or else I will die."
        "Ah." Thar sighed. "I will miss you." He was silent for a long moment. "I wish that you could stay with us forever."
        Flame did not respond at first. She Sang and drew the icicles to form a delicate lattice from the rooftop. At last, she paused and asked, "Do you love me?"
        Thar chuckled. "Of course I do, little friend! And so does Maera."
        But Flame did not hear the last part of his sentence. Something had gripped her with his answer. Abruptly, another presence drew her attention and Flame snapped to attention to whirl around in time to see Maera. Thar turned more slowly, a tender smile whose source was unmistakable spreading across his lips at the sight of the woman. But...something gave both him and Flame pause. The winds sighed sadly and told her the news before Maera even spoke it.
        Tears streaked Maera's face, frozen under the stiff breeze. "I failed," she said. "The Test. I failed my Test and so I can never be a wintermage." Her voice broke at the end.
        "Oh...Maera," Thar exclaimed and rose to catch her in his arms.
        "I tried so hard!" Maera exclaimed. "All that studying...."
        "You can try again."
        "It's no use. The only reason I can even do so much is because of Flame's help. If only I were an ice-singer. That would show them all." The sturdy little woman sighed and brushed away her icy tears and chuckled.
        "I'm always here for you," Thar said.
        "I know," Maera said with a sniffle. "Where's Flame...?" she asked, glancing around.
        "She...was around a moment ago.... I don't know."
        "Well...she comes and goes."
        The couple quietly slipped into their cottage.

* * * * *

        She had thought. And thought. And thought. And now she had come to the solution. It was perfect. It was the only thing. And it would make everyone happy. A little voice of doubt nagged her, but Flame brushed it aside, for there were no flaws! It had taken an agonizing night to decide, as well as the whole next day. All the while, her body and voice had been kept busy as she flitted about and Sang the snows out to blanket the lands.
        All through the night, until the moon had risen high and had begun to sink back below the horizon, Flame danced along the edge of the forest that was the border between the wildlands and the cottage of her humans. At last, she made her decision. She made her way to the cottage, but no one was awake to answer her calls, and there was an urgency to her now that she had decided what she wanted, no what she needed to do. She wished she could pass through the dead things of this realm the way she passed through the living, but as it was, the walls of the cottage kept her out as well as it kept the wind.
        With a laugh, her winds suddenly whispered in her ear, and she smiled as she let her friends deposit her atop the roof. No fire burned this late, and sweeping down ahead of her, the winds slipped down the chimney, carrying the ash away that their mistress could go down. They set her gently on the ground, and she flinched as she realized that she stood upon the hearth where the pain-sun-jewel had been. She stepped away from it quickly, even though no fire burned upon it now.
        Down the short hallway and another door, but this one was half ajar. With a light puff, the winds blew it open and she slipped into the chamber. She slid up to stand beside the bed where Maera and Thar slept. Their bodies fit together like they had been made to be that way, and a slight smile touched Flame's lips. In repose, her humans were so beautiful. A pang of guilt hit her again, but she ignored it. What I do is right!!!
        She stood there for long moments, and at last, she let her pale eyelids drift closed as she remembered Maera's always did when she wove her wintermage spells. She began softly, her ice-flame's Song that was the center of her very existence spiraling out in the still air. It was eldritch and lovely and a sound that no mortal ears had ever heard before. Gradually, the Song built up -- still quiet enough not to disturb the slumbering humans. But Maera woke up. Her eyes snapped open and she gazed at Flame, caught in a trance that the ice-singer wove around her mind and body.
        She called to Maera's wintermage soul, reaching out with her Song so as to capture the essence that she had seen so many times as Maera wove her spells. She knew it as well as her own Song by now, and as the Song continued, she coaxed the Maera-essence away...away...away from the body, until it hovered in the realm between. With a sigh, Flame slipped into the human body lying upon the bed with Thar and gave Maera her wish's fulfillment. Maera was now an ice-singer. And Flame...
        ...Flame felt a burst of warmth that she had never known before. It flooded throughout her body, and yet...she searched within herself....
        The sun-jewel was missing. She nearly cried in pain upon that realization. She had a human body now! Why did she not have a sun-jewel...? But something else gave her pause, for as she lay there, she noticed that her body felt different. She was of this world now. She could feel Thar at her back, feel his breath upon her skin. The flood of sensations overwhelmed her.
        And so she did not hear Maera's wail of despair as the wind sprites carried her insubstantial form out to the snow realms that would be hers now.

* * * * *

        Thar's touch on her shoulder woke her in the morning. Flame had not even known when she fell asleep, but a wondrous lethargy had overtaken her body such as she had never known before. Sleep, they call it.
        "Maera. Maera. Wake up; it's late."
        She sat up in the bed, luxuriating in the feel of the material on her skin, the warmth in the room, and smiled at Thar. "Thar!" she exclaimed. Thar blinked in surprise at her exuberance. She laughed. "Don't you know? It's me, Flame! I can stay in this world forever now," she said.
        "What are you talking about, Maera --" He broke off. He studied her for a long moment, gazed into her eyes, delved within. He knew then. "Oh gods!" he whispered. He looked upon Flame with horror. "You're not lying, are you?"
        Flame rolled her eyes. "Of course not. I'm Flame."
        His eyes locked upon hers, and for long moments, he simply stared into their unfathomable depths. "Oh gods..." he whispered again as he stood up, his back to her as he gazed off into the distance. Flame gazed at him with worry, the doubt coming back to gnaw at her again. This time, she could not shake its persistence. I didn't do anything wrong. We are all happy. Maera has the power she wanted. Thar said he wished I could stay here forever. I have...I have this! But she felt again the emptiness where the sun-jewel should have been. Thar wheeled abruptly, and Flame was taken aback by the fury in his eyes. "What have you done with her?!" he demanded, taking her by the shoulders. He gripped so hard that she felt the pain of his nails digging into her skin.
        "You hurt me," she said, and shrugged his hands away, but his grip was too tight.
        "I will hurt you even more if you lie to me or if you have killed her!" he raged, tears in his eyes now. Flame felt a hot wetness at her own eyes as well. "What have you done to Maera?"
        "Nothing! She is an ice-singer now!" Flame returned, angry now and hurt at Thar's reaction. He was supposed to be happy. She had sacrificed herself for him. Have I? "You said you loved me!" she shouted.
        He understood then, as he had understood the fae ice-singer from the moment he had seen her. Very slowly, he took his hands away, but there was pain in his expression. A terrible pain because he understood all too well. "Ah Flame...you misunderstood me."
        "How?!" She cried. She misunderstand?! She understood well!
        "Flame, I meant that love in a different way. But I love Maera!" Flame was silent, her eyes on the snow outside the window. "Give me back Maera. Please." He left the room then. Flame was alone in the silence.
        Anguish. Condemnation. She had seen it in his eyes, and in the blinding flare of his sun-jewel. The sun-jewel that she still lacked. Why? I have given up myself for that, for them all, for Thar, and for Maera. I sacrificed Myself! And....
        No you haven't, the voice of guilt whispered inside her in the gap where the sun-jewel should have been.
        No...I haven't...she abruptly realized. With a cry of anguish to match that which she had seen in Thar, she stood up and threw open the window. "Maera!" she called out to the iceland. "Maera!!!" Decisively, she reached inside and tore forth her Song once again, sending it out into the crisp morning air. Thar had come back to the bedroom at her first cry, and he stood at her back, watching mesmerized as her call and Song summoned forth Maera's ice-singer presence. the ice-singer figure stood atop the layers of snow before Flame, and with a last burst of Song that tore through Flame's body with a fire like that of a sun-jewel, she threw herself from her stolen physical body. In the same instant, Maera did not hesitate to reclaim it, and as they passed in that realm of between, Flame whispered, I'm sorry.
        And then it was Flame who stood beyond in the snowdrifts and Maera who looked upon her own body once again and cried out in relief. Thar maintained his distance, and Maera looked back up, Flame shook to see the tears in the woman's eyes. There was no more condemnation, for the little ice-singer had made her sacrifice. She could have stayed in Maera's body if such had been her will. As the winds swirled around Flame's figure to take her back to the realm where the winterfolk lived when the time for winter was past, Maera raised her hand in salute. Then she closed the glass windows to keep the chill out.
        A burning loss seared Flame's body. As she wrapped her Song about herself and dove through the air, she was not surprised by the sun-jewel she felt burning in her breast where before had been only an ice-flame. She cried.