Unmeasurable. Impossible. I stared at a blank wall of smooth stone with a somber, vacant expression. Silence. These prisons I'd help build, they became a temporary place of isolation. Nobody thought to look for me here. I stood inside these cold, silent rooms with nothing but the sound of my heartbeat and slow misty breath for company. My mind was numb, but it also raced. Spun with visions of my colead and her bony body, those hollow gems, so crazed and wild ; finding precious moments of clarity by peering at me as if my soul was somehow worthy of the trust she so readily gave. Those eyes haunted my slumber, they robbed the peace of my wakeful hours. I had watched a friend slip from this world, helpless and heartsick to cure an inflicted mind.

"Mi-dus," a soft, silvery voice tugged my heart and slipped timidly into a pain ravaged mind. Neve, she learned how to say my name a few days ago; and I didn't have the heart to push her aside. Even with grief still acute upon features and slipping into our bond. The ice princess is a child, the young Zephyr couldn't truly understand why I sorrowed, or why I sometimes cried out in my sleep.

She lavished a lock of my mane with gentle tugs. Trying in vain to make me feel better. I didn't halt her attempts of comfort. My cheeks are cold, wet with grief and the white of each eye bleed from lack of sleep. I still ate and drank, mostly for Fina, who had taken it upon herself to patrol and become my personal therapy. The phoenix touched my mind and urgently slipped me a image of someone, a lean figure standing near the edge of Helovia threshold. Only partly visible by a pale sheet which was beginning to fall from heaven. It was a frame I recognized almost instantly, her limp appendage drooped low. Golden pools rose, frantic and wide. I stumbled toward the doorway, squinting into the sunlight. A renewed sense of purpose swept across my soul, I grapple to it as a fevered man that was upon his knees in need of salvation. "Watch her," I pressed. For my sake, she traveled back and circled. Neve chirped, curious where we were going and mildly excited that we were leaving the wretched den I'd chosen to grieve in.

Wings unfurled, sore from being tucked back. They willingly surrendered the warmth that had been kept neatly insulated. I drove into heaven, thrusting fast and hard. Paying little heed to the chilling wind lashing my face. Tiny talons dug deeper as Neve tightened her grip upon my flesh and dipped her feathered head down out of the current. We traveled at a steady pace, flecks of snow struck my pelt, melting on contact. A thickened layer of fur would keep me warm for awhile, or at least until the cold turned wet and began to seep through.

Why did this almost feel like a repeat of events during previous weeks. Would Africa return to me, only to be broken beyond repair? Just as Seele had been...I couldn't bare to watch her fade in that same way.

Fina was easy to spot, her simmering wings sent impressive heat waves gliding beneath the sun. She circled a cluster of timber. I leaned forward, angling toward the ground, a snarly canopy of sickly white branches forced me to land in small clearing just beyond the line of trees. Hooves kissed frost and snow at a wobbly canter that sent a wave of muck flying behind my charging feet. The trees loomed, their branches cloaked in winter colors. I walked to the edge of their line, Africa?" The sky had burst, snow was falling all around.