The Impossible Truth

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For a moment, all I could do was stare at her.

Of course Raven wanted to talk now. Not tomorrow, after I’d been given the chance to sleep and gather my thoughts. Not earlier, before I’d fallen apart in the middle of the village. Now, when my head ached, my body felt hollowed out, and it was taking everything I had in me just to keep myself standing.

A long, tired breath escaped through my nose, forming a pale cloud in the air between us.

“Raven,” I began, struggling to contain my bitterness, “If you just came here looking to accuse me of something else, it can wait until morning.”

Raven’s head drew back slightly between her shoulders. “I didn’t.”

There was no bite behind the answer. No anger. No irritation. Not even the slightest hint of suspicion. For the first time since I’d met her, she didn’t come across as hostile or defensive.

She seemed worried.

That took some of the edge out of me.

Not all of it, but enough.

I rubbed a hand over my face, fighting back another sigh as I took a few reluctant steps towards her.

“Alright,” I muttered, “What did you want to talk about?”

Raven let out a small breath as she lifted her head to meet my gaze.

“Firstly,” she began, “Are you alright?”

I fixed her with a stare. Clearly, I wasn’t, considering she’d just seen me step out of the healer’s den, probably looking worse for wear than I’d been back at Echo’s hut.

But the question sounded honest enough.

I shook my head. “Not really.”

Raven’s eyes dropped to the ground between us, her face falling slightly.

“I presumed as much,” she stated quietly, “You were in there for a while. May I ask what happened?”

I felt a shiver run through my shoulders. For a brief moment, I thought her question was going to send me into another panic as I felt my throat tighten again.

I tossed a glance back towards the healer’s den. Warm firelight spilled out through the open doorway as if it were inviting me back in. A large part of me wanted to retreat back inside, crawl under the nearest pelt, and sleep until morning. I’d spent enough of my evening answering questions I barely had the strength and energy for and unpacking things I would have rather kept shoving back down.

I took another deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.

“Panic,” was all I could say.

Raven’s eyes widened slightly, her gaze drifting away from mine.

“So that’s what that was…”

She’d said it so quietly, I almost missed it.

My eyebrows raised, “You saw?”

I did my best not to sound defensive. If she’d been standing outside of the healer’s den waiting for me for a while, then she had to have at least heard about what had happened by now. But if she actually saw what had happened, that was a whole different matter.

Slowly, Raven nodded.

“I tried to catch up with you after you stormed out,” she admitted, “I felt awful about what had happened at Echo’s. I wanted to tell you that… I was at least willing to listen to you this time.”

Her voice broke as her arms tightened around herself.

“And then you collapsed. I didn’t understand what had happened at first. When it first started, I thought you had just decided to throw yourself into the snow and pitch a fit…”

I frowned, rolling my eyes. She thought it’d all been an act. I suppose she hadn’t been the only one.

“But then I saw the look in your eyes,” Raven continued, “Your fear scent was everywhere. I didn’t know then if you were choking or… or dying…”

She bit her lip, sounding very much like she was about to start crying, and I felt my expression soften slightly.

“I’ve never seen you act like that,” she said in a whisper, “I’ve seen you furious, injured, exhausted, humiliated… Even frightened. But I’ve never seen you lose all control of yourself like that. It was like your own body had decided to rebel against you.”

An ironic chuckle erupted from my throat, “And yet you did nothing…”

“I wanted to help you,” Raven said quickly, “Believe me, I did. But by the time I realized something was wrong, Rain had gotten to you first. I wasn’t sure if either of you would have wanted me there to begin with, and I froze. So I decided to at least wait for you out here. I needed to know that you were going to be alright.”

I blinked as some of my weary frustration subsided. “You really stood out here for over an hour waiting for me?”

Raven nodded. “I did.”

A silence settled in the air between us, and irritation gave way into mild concern. She had been standing out here alone in the cold, cheeks growing red, hair tossed into a mess – not to yell at me or argue, but to make sure I wasn’t actually dying. Something about that realization hit differently this time as I allowed myself to sit with it.

“Rain says I should be fine,” I finally told her, “I just need to go home and get some proper rest.”

Raven gave another nod.

She paused for a moment.

“I’ll let you go,” she began, “But first I need you to tell me something.”

I felt my stomach drop slightly. “What is it?”

Raven hesitated before she glanced up at me again.

“What happened while I was away?”

My stomach churned. Did we have to have this conversation now?

“I’ve tried making sense of it,” Raven continued, “And no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to come up with a definite answer. Echo knows something, but she says it isn’t her secret to reveal. Bone was a little more direct and said that if I actually wanted answers, then I needed to quit testing you and actually talk.”

I felt a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. At least I knew I had more than just Rain in my corner.

“What about me is throwing you off exactly?” I asked.

“Everything,” Raven huffed, “You cook. You clean. You mend. You work without anyone needing to threaten or pressure you into doing so. People around the village actually trust you to do that work. You were patient when you sat down with Shade and Brook this morning…”

I felt my chest tighten a little at the mention of Shade’s name. Oh, how I wanted so badly to go back to him and apologize for scaring him earlier.

“Shade has begun to trust you now,” Raven said, “He feels safe enough with you to want to go back home.”

I let out a soft snort, “Well, that did take quite a bit of work on my part…”

“I imagine…” Raven paused as another observation came to mind, “You speak differently. Your posture and mannerisms have changed. You didn’t retaliate when I lashed out at you last night, and you didn’t try to avoid me or change the conversation when I started asking questions.”

“Did you want me to?”

“No… But that’s what you always do, and you know that you do!” Raven’s tone became desperate, “Now I look at you, and… I don’t even know what I’m looking at anymore.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

Raven had returned home expecting to have to deal with her husband. His hostility. His neglect. His reputation. Instead, she’d come home to someone who wore her husband's face, but whose behavior and reputation around his name had changed drastically since she’d left. And nobody could explain how those changes happened.

Nobody, that is, except for me.

I let out a deep sigh. “I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time, I’m not the kind of therian you think I am.”

Raven took a step towards me, her eyes pleading.

“Then tell me now,” she said, “Tell me who you are.”

I looked up and down the path and around at the village that surrounded us. Most people had begun making their way inside for the evening, bringing in food for their meals and wood for their fires. The few people that were still left milling about were far enough away that I figured I wouldn’t be overheard if I kept my voice low.

I closed the last bit of distance between me and Raven with half a step and bent down slightly to speak into her ear.

“My name isn’t Thorn.”

Raven was still for a moment before she glanced up at me. Her brow furrowed in confusion for a moment before a knowing look came over her face.

“I get it now,” she said casually, taking a step back, “Breaker… You want your old name back. Of course.”

The upper half of my body slumped over as I let out an exasperated breath.

I was way too tired for this.

“No, that’s not what I mean,” I said as I straightened myself.

“Well, what else could you mean?” Raven asked, “You want Light to give you a new name?”

Honestly, that didn’t sound like a bad start. Not if I was going to remain stuck in this world, that is.

“No,” I said, closing the distance again. I leaned down, keeping my voice low. “I mean I’m not really Thorn.”

Raven recoiled slightly, her eyes searching my face.

My expression remained flat and even.

“What is this?” she asked, “Some sort of trick?”

“No. It isn’t a trick.”

Both of our heads turned as Rain stepped out of the healer’s den.

I braced myself for some sort of lecture from him about not going home. About letting myself get distracted instead of leaving to get some rest.

Instead, he motioned for us to move closer, keeping his own voice low as he began addressing Raven.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on him this whole time,” he told her, “I can’t say much, but I can say as his healer that this man isn’t Thorn. Not really.”

Raven’s eyes narrowed, “ His healer? Since when?”

“Since shortly after you left to join the far-hunters.”

Raven’s demeanor shifted then, growing increasingly defensive and alarmed as she began pacing along the path.

“Who are you, then?” she asked, turning to me, “What did you do to my husband?”

Raven’s question carried enough accusation to put some of the tension back into my shoulders. I could understand why she was frightened, but the way she looked at me – as though I might have murdered Thorn and stolen his skin – made it difficult not to bristle.

“I didn’t do anything to him,” I growled. “I've never even met him.”

I drew in a deep breath, pinching the bridge of my nose as I tried to push some of my frustration back down.

“I don't know where Thorn is,” I said, looking down at Raven, “That's something that I've been trying to figure out myself.”

Something about my tone or expression must have gotten through to her somehow as the muscles around her eyes relaxed and she lowered her shoulders.

“Then tell me what you do know,” she said, crossing her arms, “If you're not Thorn, then who are you?”

Rain took a quick glance around the village before pulling the two of us inside, taking the conversation into the privacy of the healer’s den so that we wouldn’t be overheard. The three of us settled around the firepit next to Flower, who seemed to be a little less than pleased to be dropped into the middle of this.

Raven immediately wrapped a pelt around her shoulders, letting out a sigh as she let herself soak in some much-needed warmth.

I took another deep breath as I settled myself across from her, not really minding when Rain planted himself right at my side and rested a hand against my back.

“My name is David Willoughby,” I began, “I’m from Alaska. I know neither of those names seem real to your people, but it’s the truth.”

“Alright…” Raven responded slowly, “And where , may I ask, is Alaska?”

I let out a sigh, “The closest comparison that I've been able to find is what your people refer to as the Far North, but it’s not any place that really exists in this world.”

“What do you mean by ‘this world’? What other world could you have possibly come from?”

I groaned as I lowered my head and massaged my temples. “What I’m about to say is probably going to sound insane to you. Just promise that you’ll bear with me.”

“I’m mated to a former soldier of the High Mountains,” Raven said flatly, “I’m accustomed to insanity.”

“Alright, fair enough…” I drew in another breath, “I can’t say what, how, or why this happened, exactly. But I have seen some parallels between what I was doing and what Thorn was doing before I ended up here. I’d decided to go ice fishing. Your people refer to it as cold fishing. I guess Thorn had decided to do the same.”

Raven’s face twisted with confusion. “That’s ridiculous. Thorn cannot fish. He never learned how.”

“Well, apparently, he decided to try,” Rain spoke up, “I can confirm that’s what he was doing before I found him.”

“Before you found him?” Raven echoed, “Did he get himself lost, or something?”

Rain's face fell slightly. “Or something… He fell through the ice and into the water. I was the one who pulled him out.”

A look of shock spread across Raven’s face. Apparently, nobody had told her about Thorn’s failed fishing trip that he had decided to take after their argument. It was hard to believe, given that the entire village had been talking about it during my first few days here.

“When was this?” she asked Rain.

“Later in the day, after you left for the far-hunt,” he replied.

“Was he alright?”

Rain’s jaw clenched. “No.”

Raven’s shock shifted into worry as she waited for him to continue.

“You know how far that lake sits from the village,” he stated, “And he wasn’t exactly cooperative in helping me get him out of the water. By the time I finally managed to carry him back here, he was already unresponsive.”

Raven was silent for several seconds.

“But… not dead… Right?”

Something about the tone in her voice made my heart ache.

“No, not dead,” Flower reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder, “He was still breathing. His heart was still beating.”

“Barely,” Rain muttered, “The only thing we could do for him was place him close to the fire, cover him in furs, and see if warming him again would help him improve.”

Raven covered her mouth with her hands as she tried to comprehend what Rain was telling her. In her absence, her husband had gone off to go fishing on his own, fell into a frozen lake, and had nearly died. And she had been none the wiser about it.

After giving herself a minute, Raven finally looked up at me.

“And you?” she asked.

I could only shrug. “More or less the same. Except I don’t think there was anybody there that found me and pulled me out of the lake.”

A sadder expression settled onto Raven’s face.

The four of us fell silent again, staring into the fire as we tried to make sense of everything. Flower kept her hand resting on Raven’s shoulder while Rain watched me from across the flames, his expression difficult to read.

“I still don’t understand,” Raven eventually said. “If Thorn didn’t die, then where is he?”

Rain drew in a slow breath through his nose.

“That is something you would have to ask Storm,” he replied. “I can only tell you what happened to Thorn’s body. Anything beyond that falls outside of what I understand as a healer.”

I lifted my head at the mention of Storm.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to him about this anyway,” I said. “If anyone's going to know what happened at that lake, or why I was brought here, it'd be him.”

Raven looked across the fire at me. Some of the alarm had faded from her face, but her uncertainty remained.

“I can take you to him,” she offered, her eyes sweeping over me. “If you think you can make it.”

Rain narrowed his eyes as the hand that was resting against my back landed firmly on one of my shoulders.

“He should be resting,” he said.

“I know,” I muttered.

“You said that before you stepped outside and started having this conversation.”

“I know that, too.”

Rain fixed me with a look, but I ignored it, turning my attention back to Raven.

“How far is Storm’s hut?”

“Near Light’s,” she answered. “It isn’t far.”

I pictured the village paths in my head, tracing the route as best as I could from the healer’s den.

My legs still felt unsteady, and the thought of lying down beneath a warm pile of pelts was sounding better by the minute, but I knew that if I went home now, I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I’d probably wind up spending the whole night staring into the darkness, wondering if the answers to all of my questions had only been sitting just a few huts away.

“I can make it,” I stated.

Raven studied me for another moment before giving a small nod. She rose to her feet, allowing the pelt around her shoulders to fall to the floor. I tried to follow, but my legs protested the moment I attempted to stand. Rain caught my arm and helped pull me upright.

“Slowly,” he warned.

Once I was steady, he released me.

“If you begin feeling unwell again, you come straight back here. No arguments. If you cannot make it home afterward, stay with Storm. I’m sure he’ll find somewhere to put you for the night.”

I nodded, “I will.”

Rain’s expression told me that he didn’t believe me. I can't say that I blamed him, given all of the other times I'd ignored his advice thus far.

I gave him a rough pat on the shoulder before turning toward the entrance.

“Good luck, David,” Flower called softly behind me.

I glanced back. She offered me a tired but encouraging smile as her hand reached for Raven’s abandoned pelt.

“Thanks.” I replied, offering back a smile that was probably more tired than anything else.

With that, Raven and I stepped out of the healer’s den and into the cold.

Night had begun to settle over the village, painting the snow in fading shades of blue. Fires glowed behind hide-covered doorways, and thin trails of smoke drifted from the tops of the huts before disappearing into the darkening air.

For a moment, it took me back to my first walk through the village with Rain and Flower. I remembered the stares that had followed me back then. The way conversations had quieted as I passed. The way mothers had pulled their children out of my path, and how everyone watched me as though they were waiting for someone to give Thorn a reason to reach for a weapon.

This time, things were different.

The woman with the infant spotted me from her doorway and raised a hand in greeting as she watched me pass by. Farther along the path, the man I remembered carrying firewood acknowledged me with a nod before ducking into his hut. Neither of them smiled, exactly, but neither seemed to be afraid or bitter anymore, either.

It wasn’t forgiveness. Most of them still believed I was Thorn, and a couple of weeks of hard work couldn’t erase everything he had done.

But it was a start.

The thought should have been comforting. Instead, it made the question of what had happened at the lake feel even heavier. I had started to carve out a place for myself here, all while wearing another man’s face and answering to his name.

Raven remained quiet as she led me down the path. She stayed several paces ahead at first, her arms folded tightly against the cold. After glancing back and noticing that I was falling behind, however, she slowed without saying anything.

I pretended not to notice.

There wasn’t much room for casual conversation between us. I had just survived a panic attack and confessed that I wasn’t her husband. Raven had learned that Thorn had nearly frozen to death on the same day she left, and nobody could tell her where he had gone afterward.

Silence seemed like the safest thing either of us could offer.

Eventually, Raven turned onto a narrow trail that branched off from the one that led towards Light’s hut. Storm’s home stood at the end of it. It was smaller than the hut of the chief, but it was still larger than most of the others that were scattered around the village. Firelight shone through the gaps around the hide covering its entrance, laying thin golden lines across the snow.

As we approached, a bitter herbal scent drifted toward me on the breeze, with something warmer simmering beneath it.

Raven stopped outside and struck the wooden frame several times with the side of her fist.

We waited.

A moment later, a calm voice answered from within.

“Come in.”

Raven pulled the hide aside, and the two of us stepped through.

My eyes began wandering the moment I crossed the threshold.

Strange charms and trinkets hung from the supports overhead, turning gently in the warm air rising from the fire. Bundles of dried herbs had been tied together and suspended along one wall. Symbols I didn’t recognize had been carved into several flat stones arranged around the room, while shelves held jars filled with powders, roots, feathers, and other things I couldn’t identify.

I couldn't tell then whether I had stepped into someone’s home, a place of worship, or both.

Storm sat on a wolf pelt beside the firepit, carefully stirring a pot suspended over the flames. Whatever he was cooking appeared to be the source of the warmer scent I had noticed outside.

He didn’t look surprised to see us.

“Ah, Raven and Thorn,” he greeted casually. “I suspected I would be seeing the two of you before long.”

Raven stiffened.

“No more games,” she snapped. “I know the truth. That isn’t Thorn.”

She pointed at me as though she were presenting evidence of a crime.

Storm’s attention shifted from her to me. His gaze traveled over my face, then briefly lowered toward the way I was leaning against one of the wooden supports. If he noticed how exhausted I looked, he didn’t comment on it.

“Rain says you might know something,” Raven continued, stepping farther into the hut. “Something about what happened to my husband.”

Storm stopped stirring.

For several seconds, the only sound in the hut came from the bubbling pot and the quiet crackle of the fire. Then he set the wooden spoon aside and straightened his posture.

“I do,” he said.

Raven’s jaw tightened.

Storm gestured toward the open space across from him. “Please. Sit.”

Raven lowered herself onto one of the pelts, carefully leaving several feet between us. I settled down more slowly beside her, grateful to take the weight off my legs again.

Storm looked from Raven to me, his expression growing solemn.

“I’ve consulted the spirits,” he began, “I first reached out to them on the night Rain brought Thorn back to the village. His body was alive when I examined him. Cold, yes. Weak, certainly. But he was alive. He had a pulse and his lungs continued to draw breath.”

Storm paused. He stroked his long beard a couple of times, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared into the fire.

“And yet, when I looked deeper, it felt as though something inside of him was missing.”

Raven leaned forward, “His spirit?”

“Not entirely. A body without a spirit doesn’t survive long. There was still a connection that remained between Thorn and his body, but it had become thin. Distant. Like he had stepped away from it without closing the path behind him.”

I tried to picture what Storm was describing. I couldn’t. The closest thing I could imagine was a house that’d been left abandoned with the front door hanging wide open.

Storm’s eyes shifted over to me.

“When you awoke and I saw you for myself, I knew that the spirit was not one that I had known.”

Raven glanced at me. I could feel her eyes travelling over my face again, presumably searching for whatever Storm had supposedly seen.

“How could you tell?” I asked.

“There are qualities that belong to the body,” Storm explained, “Similarly, there are qualities that belong to the spirit. You may have possessed Thorn’s voice, his scent, and every mark his body had gathered over the course of his life, but the presence behind them was unfamiliar.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“You felt young.”

My throat tightened.

Raven's gaze lowered into the fire.

“When we met, I did not know who you were,” Storm continued, “I did not know where you had come from or how you managed to cross such a great distance. All I knew was that Thorn’s body had awakened with a different spirit inside of it.”

“But how did David manage to get inside?” Raven asked, “Did Thorn put him there?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine…”

Storm folded his hands in his lap.

“When I consulted the spirits, I sensed two lives that had been standing at the edge of death. Thorn in the waters of our lake, and David in the waters of another. Different places. Different worlds, but for a brief moment, the boundary between them became thin enough for something to pass through.”

I swallowed, “My spirit…”

“Your spirit,” Storm confirmed, “But you couldn’t have crossed over into our world and entered Thorn’s body merely by accident, nor by force. Not while his own spirit remained tied to it.”

I felt a chill creep along the back of my neck. “What are you saying?”

Storm’s gaze remained fixed on mine.

“I'm saying Thorn allowed you in.”

The words settled over the hut, plunging the space surrounding us into silence.

Raven stared at Storm, “He allowed it?”

“As far as I am able to determine.”

“Why?” she demanded, “Why would Thorn surrender his body to a complete stranger?”

“I do not know.”

Raven’s expression hardened, “You said you consulted the spirits.”

“I did.”

“Then ask him!”

“I have .”

The firmness in Storm’s voice made her stop.

The shaman let out a slow breath, glancing towards the fire.

“Thorn’s spirit still exists. I have felt his presence beyond the veil, but he refuses to answer me. I’ve called him by name, both from this tribe and the one he carried in the High Mountains. Neither has persuaded him to speak.”

“Can he hear you?” I asked.

“I believe so.”

“And he just ignores you?”

Storm looked back at me. “Yes,”

I didn’t know whether to feel angry or relieved. Thorn had apparently dragged me into the wreckage of his life, and now he refused to explain himself.

Raven’s hands curled against her knees.

“That sounds like him,” she muttered.

There was no humor in her voice.

My head began to race with questions. The same questions that had been following me since the moment I woke up in the healer’s den. Questions that I had tried burying beneath work, hunting, caring for Shade, and whatever else kept me from sitting still long enough to ponder them.

Now someone was finally providing answers.

“Is this permanent?” I asked, “Or can it be undone?”

Raven turned sharply towards me. She looked slightly conflicted by my question. Maybe a part of her wanted Thorn to come back, or maybe she just wanted me gone, but there was another side to it, too. A certain level of worry, perhaps over what the answer could potentially mean for her and Shade.

Storm didn’t answer immediately.

I felt my stomach begin to twist.

“Your spirit has taken root within Thorn’s body,” he finally said, “His body recognizes your spirit as the one sustaining it.”

My brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

“It means that as long as you keep his body alive, it will remain yours.”

I stared blankly back at him.

The answer should have been a relief. I wasn’t going to be kicked out of Thorn’s body and thrown back into the ice, or wake up one morning to find that he had returned and pushed me aside.

But relief wasn’t the only thing I felt.

“So… there’s no way back?” I asked.

Storm shook his head, “Not one that I know of.”

My eyes dropped to my hands.

Thorn’s hands.

This body had carried me through the forest. It had hunted, climbed trees, and survived injuries that likely would have left my human body broken beyond repair. I had grown accustomed to his strength and the vaguely familiar face that looked back whenever I caught my reflection in the water.

Somewhere along the way, I had stopped thinking of those things as borrowed.

Storm's answer made that feel more frightening than comforting.

“So what happens when this body dies?” I asked.

Storm’s expression softened. “That, I cannot tell you.”

I lifted my gaze.

“Your spirit came from beyond the reach of anything I understand,” he explained, “When Thorn’s body reaches the end of its life, you may be returned to the spiritual realm belonging to your own world. You may remain in ours. You may travel somewhere else entirely.”

I swallowed. “So I won’t know until it happens.”

“No.”

A slight scoff escaped me, “Wonderful...”

Storm allowed my frustration to pass without comment.

Raven remained unusually still beside me. I couldn’t tell if she was mourning Thorn, struggling to accept me, or simply trying to understand how one body could belong to two different lives.

Eventually, her eyes lifted back up to Storm again.

“If David cannot return to his own body,” she began carefully, “Could Thorn return to this one?”

“No,” Storm answered, “Not unless David willingly surrendered it. And even then, I do not believe Thorn would accept it.”

Raven frowned, “Where did his spirit go?”

“As I said, he wanders the spiritual realm.”

“Is he trapped there?”

“No.” The answer came with no hesitation as Storm’s gaze moved from Raven to the fire. “Thorn is exactly where he wishes to be.”

Raven’s irises seemed to glisten in the firelight as she drew in a sharp breath. “How can you possibly know that if he refuses to speak to you?”

“A spirit does not need words to make its intentions known. Thorn turns away whenever I attempt to guide him back towards the living world. He does not struggle against the place he has chosen, nor does he search for a path back to his body.”

Storm paused.

“If anything, he seems content to remain where he is.”

Raven looked as though he had struck her.

A lonely tear slowly ran down her cheek.

I felt something inside me sink.

Thorn had left behind a wife who had loved him and a son who still wanted his father. He'd left behind an entire life that, as damaged as it was, might not have been beyond saving.

And wherever he had gone, he was content to stay there.

“Then he abandoned them,” I said quietly.

I hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

Raven turned toward me.

“He left Raven and Shade behind,” I continued, unable to stop myself. “He let me take his place, knowing I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what I was walking into, and now he won’t even tell us why?”

Storm watched me carefully. “That is one interpretation...”

“Well, what other interpretation is there?”

Storm leaned towards me again.

“That Thorn believed someone else could do more with his life than he had.”

I felt my anger drain out of me.

My mouth opened, but nothing came.

I thought about the condition of Thorn’s hut when I first entered it. The relationships he had destroyed. The way Shade had cowered from me. The certainty with which people across the village had expected me to fail.

Then my thoughts conjured up the image of a fishing spear lying abandoned beneath the ice.

Just like my safety spikes after they had slipped out of my hands.

But I had gone out prepared. I'd checked the ice, brought my gear, and let the people know where I would be going and when I planned on being back. I had taken every precaution I could. And what’s more, I'd done it just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Thorn had gone out to do something he didn’t know how to do, shortly after his wife had left him. Angry. Alone. Presumably with as little gear he had to bother himself with as possible.

A question began to form in my mind. One I wasn’t sure I was ready to ask.

Storm must have seen it in my expression.

“I cannot tell you what Thorn intended when he walked out onto that lake,” he said gently. “His reasons remain his own, and his spirit has chosen to keep them.”

The hut fell silent again.

For once, none of us knew what to say. 147Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIT4r9fkFbJ

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