They left Hystaeria early in the morning, after buying thick clothes and other things to protect against the cold.
They were headed towards a long mountain range, where two taller peaks cut the monotony. Those peaks were one next to the other, like two giants looking at the world while they guarded whatever was on the other side. Between them, the mountain range ended abruptly in a narrow space, which made Leo think of it like a doorway to a different world. Those peaks were called the Twins and between them laid the path they would walk through: the Pass between the Twins.
They walked for three days, and each day they would make camp and assemble their tents. They would talk and play around a campfire, before going to rest, getting ready for the next day, living their lives under that shadowy sky.
The closer they cot to the mountains, the colder the night was, colder even than what they expected them to be. When they reached the base of the mountains, it was really cold, and Andur said they would have to cross it and reach the other side in the same day, before the night, if they wanted to avoid the risk of being frozen to death in their sleep. They spent that day in their tents, planning the route which would give them the less trouble, and when the night came, Andur told everyone to rest well, because the next day would be rough.
Everyone tried their best, but the night was cold, and the tents didn’t protect them as much as they would have liked. In their restless night, Leo had a nightmare. He woke up sweating, and with a feeling of separation and sadness. The sweat was getting cold too quick, so he changed into other clothes and hanged the wet ones on a side of the tent.
He went back to sleep with the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and he still had it when they all finally got up. Even after packing up, he still hadn’t managed to shake it off, but everyone was too busy so he didn’t bother telling anyone
They walked for about three hours before the vegetation around them started to get scarce, and the road became thinner and thinner until it was only a thin mountain path.
They were walking upwards around the edge of the southern of the Twins, the only way to reach the Pass without climbing, and as they advanced, they could tell how the air was getting colder and colder.
At some point, the cold seemed to calm down, and there was no trace of the wind. And then it started snowing. They were too far into the mountains and there was no place to camp, and going back would have meant wasting a whole day, so they decided to go on, hoping the snow would stop falling soon.
The weather didn’t seem to be on their side, and the snow was accumulating under their feet, making the group advance slower and slower. To make matters worse, after a while some strong winds started to blow, leaving them nearly blind and deaf. The group was unable to defend against those harsh conditions, as any magic would require a lot of constant energy because of the strong wind, and they had troubles seeing the person in front of them. Andur decided to keep moving forward, and had to yell at the others to get his voice heard through the wind noises.
With their visibility reduced so much by the snow, and the wind blowing towards them, they couldn’t see, and even less hear Jinei trip over and roll down for a few seconds, and they couldn’t hear him calling for help from just some meters below. The group kept advancing, oblivious to their comrade’s fate, concentrated in keeping the pace, and moving forward, until they were just too far to notice.
They managed to find a small hole in the surface of the mountain, and they all went into it, keeping everyone close to keep the most heat inside. That was when they realized they were missing a person. They waited for him, hoping he was just late, but he didn’t appear, and the snow storm was too strong for them to move. They were worried, but helpless, so they just kept waiting, hoping he was still alive. A hope the strong winds were trying to take away.
The storm didn’t last for long, and after about an hour, the sky cleared up. They knew an hour in that storm would be deadly, specially without the ability to use magic, but nonetheless they had to find him, or at least his body. Andur took Garen and told the rest to stay and get warm while they searched for Jinei, he knew it would have been useless to make everyone help, as the path was too narrow and too many would just get in the way, and everyone else understood it.
They backtracked half of the path, without luck, and then decided to go back. When they were halfway to meet the group, Garen noticed a darker spot in the snow, some meters below where he was. He called Andur and they both went down to it. They dug through the snow, until they reached Jinei’s frozen body.
They agreed that it was already too late for him, and they couldn’t do anything to bring him back. So they carried his body back, and told the rest of the loss. Everyone was saddened by the news, and some, including Leo, felt somewhat responsible for it.
Andur was the one who had asked them to accompany him in their journey, and Leo was the one who wanted to go. Amy felt responsible because she was the last one in the path before him, Garen helped convince Andur to take the Pass, and Eanel loved the man like if he was his own son and he was the one who told Andur to accept him into his division. Nathiel was still a kid, and his innocence and young age didn’t give him any reason to feel anything other than sadness, Ly barely knew the man, so they just cried for the death of the man. On the furthest corner was Eana who, while being so closed to the rest of the world, couldn’t help but drop a few tears for him.
Andur was the one to give a prayer for his soldier and friend, and he used his magic to build a beautiful coffin made of pure solid rock and Garen engraved and image of him on top of it. Nathiel brought a red flower from some place far away, and kindly placed it on top of the coffin. Everyone gave his own personal detail to the grave, and after everyone was done, it was Eanel’s turn.
He wrote into the side of that coffin, a place reserved just for him. A message which said:
Here lies Jinei of Tar,
father and soldier, strong and kind,
loyal and dependable.
He brought happiness, love, and care,
and saved me from the pit of despair.
He was taken by the hand of nature,
without warning or notice,
without a chance to say goodbye.
We will always remember you, Jinei,
just like everyone who will through this path.
You are in all our hearts now, and ever.
Those words were now burned into the rock, but as the message said, also in everyone’s hearts. They would never forget about the man who made his own place in the world, despite he was unable to use magic.