Nineteen and still sobbing, like a fledgling caught in cold rain.

Hedi pinched her cuff and drifted toward Selina, her wool like a quiet cloud eager to be warmth.

She brushed Selina’s icy cheek with the soft cuff, catching the tear before it fell like a thawed drop.

“You hate me.”

“Why?”

“Because... I hesitated...”

“Remember what you said about your sister? Vain, hot-tempered, selfish. Yet when I hit a wall, you comforted me, the way she soothed you as a child.”

Hedi fished through memory and pinched Selina’s cheek, gentle as a kitten’s paw. “About Stratford and me, I trust you’ll stand with me. You hesitated because of your sister. That sister pulled you from the Institute all the way to Shattered City. If you’d left with me without thinking, that’s when I’d truly hate you.”

Selina nodded, half-believing, that cold tone still clinging like frost—proof of anger.

“I won’t hate you,” Hedi said. “Angry, a little.”

“So you are mad!”

“I can’t foresee every branch before things happen. I can only look back after, like counting rings on a felled tree. But anger’s different from dislike; the first is a natural flare when things go wrong, the second is a deeper refusal.”

“Such a professional definition.”

“I’m a Professor—maybe it’s an occupational habit.”

Hedi finished wiping the tears and drew back. Selina seized her wrist with a pull like a tide grabbing shore.

“What’s wrong?”

Selina stayed silent, eyes on Hedi’s hand. The fingers that soothed her cheek trembled like thin reeds. She bowed and kissed Hedi’s palm, a mark strong yet fragile, like frost on glass.

“I like you. Your clothes, your words and deeds, the way you walk, the way you sleep—I like all of it, madly!”

“How much?”

“Enough to turn all the world’s snowflakes into candy hearts!”

Hedi halted in the street, still as a pine under snow.

Snow thickened. Their footprints vanished like swallowed ink.

Row houses, inns, restaurants—everything wore silver, and the only thing in sight was snowfall pouring like a white waterfall.

“Let’s go.”

“You haven’t answered.”

“Nice metaphor.”

“Heh, took me a long time.”

Laughter warmed Hedi’s eyes and reached her lips, showing white teeth like moonlight on porcelain. “Been cooking that line since you lived at my place?”

“Mm.”

“Hmph. Say it to me by the sea, I’d be happier.”

“I’ll take you when the snow stops.”

“Forget it. Travel gives me no joy. Not that this place is bad—it’s just who I am.”

“Shattered City is the farthest you’ve gone?”

“I shouldn’t have gone.”

“What about after?” Selina clutched Hedi’s hand like a buoy in a gray sea. “In your head—”

“If unknown magic chose to guard me, whatever its motive, it won’t let me die in a storm of splitting pain.”

“Please don’t say that!”

They walked home through the white hush. Hedi glanced now and then at windows glowing warm, like small hearths in the frost. Just the thought of a fire felt snug, like a blanket of embers. Light softened her eyes and made her fair face seem finely cut, snow-carved jade. Her thoughts shifted; in a breath the softness turned to melancholy. Her gaze left the warm windows and fell to the streets, heavy with the printless weight of snow.

“What do you plan to do?” Hedi asked.

“I know where my sister is. It’s just... hard to meet her.”

“Mm... Did I ever ask why your sister opened the Dark Realm?”

Selina shook her head, quiet as falling flakes.

“Right. She vanished without a word.” Hedi looked at the sky, clouds packed like bruised wool. News from Shattered City got sealed in the first instant, like a lid on boiling water. “Where did you learn it was your sister who opened the Dark Realm?”

“The Deputy Dean told me.”

“When?”

“After I returned from the Shattered City study. She told me then.”

“She went alone?”

“She looked like it.”

Hedi nodded, thoughtful, like counting snowflakes. “She arrived at dusk.”

“How do you know?”

“Last time I saw her in Shattered City, it was dusk. Steam carriages aren’t fast. The Institute’s farther from Shattered City than my place. So—leave in the morning, arrive at dusk.”

Selina nodded dull and slow, half understanding, fog swallowing edges.

“And before that?”

“Before?”

“After your sister vanished, how did you step by step become an Investigator?”

Selina walked in thought, roots deep in winter earth.

Hedi waited, patient as night snow settling on eaves.

The crunch of broken snowflakes echoed in their ears like thin bells.

“My sister spent a while talking with someone.”

“Did she mention the Dark Realm?”

“Seems so.”

“Could it have been for money, entering the Dark Realm?”

“Our family’s fine. She isn’t the type to gamble her life for cash.”

“Who was she talking to?”

“I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember? You became an Investigator on a hunch?”

Selina frowned and rummaged through memory, like turning out drawers. “Could it have been the Deputy Dean?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Uh... She received me when I went to the Institute. She approved me becoming an Investigator. She also told me about my sister.”

“Did you learn that after you became an Investigator, or before?”

“Is something off?”

“I don’t know,” Hedi said honestly. “Maybe Stratford is just too hateful. I keep feeling she’s hiding something.”

“Hiding?”

“Tsk.”

“You’re angry!”

“No... Can’t I even click my tongue?”

“Seeing me know nothing, yet still asking this and that.”

Hedi laughed, a light trill like chimes. “Every question hits a blank wall. It’s frustrating.”

“I’ll find out!” Selina thumped her chest, drumming up courage. “I’ll remember soon.”

“The Dark Realm in Shattered City has been open for over a year. Whoever spoke with your sister would be even earlier. Not remembering is normal.”

“I can remember!”

“Holding onto Stratford just because you dislike her.” Hedi looked at Selina and smiled, slow and warm, like tea in winter. “Maybe she didn’t do anything.”

“You’re suspecting the Deputy Dean?”

Hedi told Selina everything about what happened at the Institute, then added, “Still very suspicious.”

“If so, does that explain the guard—”

“Don’t say it.” Hedi cut her off at once, sharp as a snapped twig. “Killing a public officer carries heavier consequences than you imagine. And the guard killed himself.”

“Body control?”

“Even without controlling the body…”

A cluster of tendrils had grown from the guard’s back; suicide was the last clean door in a house of horrors.

Hedi shook her head, snow dusting her hair. “He would have died anyway.”

“You’re hiding something from me!”

“Everyone keeps a little secret. Also—what tone is that?”

“I don’t keep secrets.”

“If you recall who chatted with your sister, you’ll likely know why she opened the Dark Realm.” Hedi breathed out a white plume, a moth of mist. “If you can’t, that’s fine. It’s not ours to solve.”

“Can’t we use memory magic?”

“No human can pry a memory without damaging the brain.”

“You mean witches can?”

Hedi kept breathing white mist, like a humming blower. She glanced at Selina now and then; seeing her still deep in thought, she warned, “Don’t seek witches on your own. They hold malice toward humans.”