Eventide is softly casting o'er the earth a magic spell,

And a love-song, everlasting, on the night wind seems to swell.

Good thing the Seer would never have to be without extra eyes and helpful voices, then. Whether he knew it or not, whether he had gotten used to her presence or not, Alune had acquired a shadow. It was small and slow, oddly pale and often lagging behind due to a limping stride and refusal to make use of the wings when her superior was walking, but she was there, nearly always. Whether he wanted her to, or not.

See, Erthë had a job to do now. She was very proud of it, and so keen to do it that it bordered on obsession. Often the filly didn't exactly understand what the Seer was doing; the rituals, the prayers, the obscure discussions with other learned equids. But she listened, and assumed she would wake up one day and just understand all of it on her own, like she had woken up to find that magic had blossomed within her over night, without her doing anything.

This too kept her thoughts occupied, and as she trailed her seer-boss-man across the wilderness of Helovia Erthë passed the time trying to familiarize herself with the frosty magic. Everything froze where she passed. Pools and puddles, rain and rivers and lakes, sweat and mist and even the air itself - nothing was safe from her eager eyes, everything had to be tested. It came, of course, with the added bonus of staving off the last remnants of warmth that lingered, more pronounced the further south they came. Some days when the air grew particularly warm and no wind bowed the yellowed grass her efforts left mist trailing in her wake, as droplets of water froze and vaporized and remained hanging. Ever they followed her, and Alune too; swirling and swaying, twisting and shaping into critters and beasts, small animals of common and mythical origins alike.

She ducked into the caves with far less concern than her master. It wasn't the first time she had visited this sanctuary, nor would it likely be the last. While perhaps not very fond of the place Erthë found it enjoyable enough to visit from time to time; the irregular rhythm of her limping stride sounded almost cheery as she followed in the midnight stallion's wake, her eyes gleaming near colorlessly pale in the red light of the Heart.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, for once choosing to break the silence in order to sate her curiosity as Alune began to poke around the floor and unearthed a sizable gemstone. "There's a whole cave full of those further in" she pointed out. "And a cave with glowing plants, and a room with stories on the walls. This place isn't very interesting... unless you like fire."

She cast a scathing look at the furnace beyond the quartz window before pointedly turning her back on the churning, writhing mass of molten rock below. Reaching for the place in her mind where the cold, glittering power nestled she grasped it and made it bend to her will, soon making the air glitter with frost as the water in the air around her froze.