Work Text:
Icers, they call themselves. Fitting, since there is barely anything else other than ice everywhere they look around. It isn’t natural — even with erased memories, Sonya knows just like any other girl in the group that walls of ice don’t spring up from the Earth in an ever-shifting maze. They were placed here, and there is a reason behind it; she knows this in the same inexplicable way that she knows that finding food in this desolate prison will be a challenge.
And it's a prison, alright — they are trapped and can't get out, and they're suffering. Throwing them in here was no act of kindness.
How old is she, anyway? She remembered her name only a couple of days ago. Some inkling feeling tells her she's fifteen, though she isn't sure if that's to be trusted.
She isn’t sure if she can trust anything or anyone right now.
❄️❄️❄️
There's one girl — well, there are many girls, but this one stands out from the rest — who Sonya finds herself gravitating towards. In the hut where they sleep huddled on straw mattresses, all of them snuggled together with fire banked high in their makeshift fireplace, Harriet swims through the blankets and presses herself bodily to Sonya's back, taking her hands in hers.
"You're shivering," her breath fogs above Sonya's cheek.
"I know. This is better, though. Thanks."
Harriet is quiet for a while, and then she sniffles. "Fucking snow. I wish it were spring."
On the next summit when the Moon phase changes, in the hut under the Decision Tree, Sonya proposes they name their prison Spring.
"It's kind of contradictory, I know," she begins, "but since we're already trapped here, we can be hopeful, right? After winter comes spring."
"No offence, Sonya," interrupts Alejandra, "but it's been winter for twelve full moons already. I don't see any of this ice going away anytime soon."
"That's not the point. We are Spring. We bring each other hope." We keep each other warm , she doesn't add.
When she turns to Harriet, her smile wraps around her like a warm hug.
❄️❄️❄️
"Does it ever snow?"
"No."
"Does it ever get cloudy?"
"Nope."
"So it's always clear skies?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Sonya hums, her breath clouding her sight as it climbs from her lips and up towards the sky it never reaches. A clanking noise diverts her attention from the blue expanse above to the pair of boots with blades sticking out from the soles which Harriet shakes in one hand. "Ever tried these on?"
Sonya frowns. "I don't think so."
"Come on," Harriet places them at her feet. "I'll teach you."
❄️❄️❄️
The bladed boots are called skates, Sonya learns, and she falls only a couple of times before she figures out how to keep balance.
"Don't you have any jobs to do?"
"Damn, am I that boring?"
Sonya clicks her tongue, squeezing Harriet's gloved hand when her foot slips on an unexpectedly smooth patch of ice. "No, I'm just saying. You're spending every day trying to keep me from falling. What did you do before I arrived?"
"I skated."
"Alone?"
Harriet snorts. "God, no. Ximena taught me. Then I skated with the Mappers."
Once again Sonya squeezes Harriet's hand, focusing on shuffling her feet without tripping over herself as they round a corner. "Is that what you're preparing me for?"
"You have a good eye for detail. Your prospects in pursuing a career as a Mapper are promising."
Sonya turns to her rather abruptly, which was a mistake — she runs over a twig and brings both of them to the ground with an oomph.
"Sorry," Sonya grimaces. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Harriet brushes herself off and is already back on her feet, offering Sonya her hand to help her get up. "What was that about?"
"Sorry," Sonya buries the sharp tip of her skate into the ice as Harriet pulls her up with a grunt. "The way you said that thing about me being a good Mapper, potentially — it was a bit odd. It reminds me of something, but I can't remember what."
Harriet's face grows cold; Sonya immediately thinks of the Sun slipping behind the walls and plunging them into shade. No, please smile again, I take it back—
"Me too," Harriet says when they pick up the stride again.
Sonya glances at her once more, mindful of where she puts her feet this time, and comes to a realisation.
No, Harriet's face hasn't grown cold — it's haunted.
❄️❄️❄️
"Harri?"
"Hm?"
"You awake?"
"Mhm."
Sonya turns in her arms, the tips of their noses brushing. Her heart picks up pace. What she's doing feels forbidden.
"I had this strange dream. It felt so real."
"What was it?"
Warm breath pools in the space between their mouths, churning with whispered secrets. Sonya forgets to breathe when Harriet opens her eyes to look into hers. With fire dancing in her pupils, reflected from the fireplace, her eyes look like sunlight.
"I dreamed I had a brother. He was telling me stories — myths, he called them. He was… He was telling me a myth where spring was a goddess who married the god of the underworld, but the Earth was dying without her to care for it, so she had to go back."
"Oh," Harriet exhales, sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"It's not the whole story, though. I don't know how I know this. I just do."
Harriet is quiet for a while. When she opens her mouth and takes a breath, Sonya's breath hitches.
"I dream about my father sometimes." She gulps; Sonya only hears it because she's so close. "That's how I knew all those words. Do you think it's real?"
Are those dreams our memories? Is this what we've been taken from? Are those the people we've left behind?
"I hope it is. It was nice."
It was nice to have a family , she almost says, but realises that's not quite true. She already has a family here.
A cloud of breath gathers between their mouths, then lifts off into the fire and the night. Harriet moves a hand up her spine, and this time, Sonya doesn't think she shivers from the cold.
"Go back to sleep."
❄️❄️❄️
As it turns out, Harriet was right — Sonya really is good at this. She doesn't need to cling to her hand anymore, although she misses holding it.
Her training becomes more demanding. In the night, her legs ache and vibrate even though there's no ice under her feet, but oddly enough, it makes her feel good.
On her third Moon in the Spring, Ximena declares her ready to go beyond the walls. Sonya's training changes focus from skating to handling weapons: crossbows, spears, ice picks. Another Moon circles back through phases until she learns the maps by heart and feels confident enough to handle weapons with precision. It's exciting, and scary, but Harriet is there too. If they don't see each other during the day, they cuddle up together at night.
❄️❄️❄️
Cursing under the breath, Sonya screams at the top of her lungs, " SHADES!"
The warning rings and returns to her in waves. The maps are thrown back with haste into her rucksack, divided between her and Rachel. The crossbow is in her hands and a Shade is plunging down to its death with an arrow stuck in its eye, falling out of sight with a vengeful screech. Her heart is hammering in her throat all the way down the blocks. She's only relieved Harriet is one of those who stayed behind today.
The road back to the Spring isn't easy this time. The Shades seem determined to catch dinner, it seems, but the Icers don't give up so easily.
The dusk is approaching. Sonya grapples with a particularly stubborn Shade, piercing its wings with her spear but it doesn't seem to care. If they don't pick up pace, they'll be trapped here for the night.
Sonya thinks of her friends, the girls who have become her family. She thinks of Harriet waiting for her beyond the walls, anxiously twisting her hair in her fingers. Who will she hug at night if Sonya doesn't return?
"Go," she shouts even as her heart is breaking. "Go! I'll be right behind!"
There are several outraged shouts of protest in turn, but Ximena makes the final call. The blade she throws gets stuck in the Shade's chest.
"You better be back by sundown, Sonya, or I'll kill you myself!"
"Noted!"
The ice grows quiet when her family rounds the corner. The Shade bats its torn wings and stomps on the ice, nothing but pure malice in its beady eyes. If it wasn't so terrifying, she might have pitied it.
"Just you and me, now."
Trembling all over, her legs like jelly, Sonya waits for the monster to come close as she stands fixed to the spot, waiting for the right moment. She waits until it opens its beak, showing teeth, to plunge the spear through its mouth and out the back of its head. Not even a second later, she's running back without checking if it hits the ground dead. She knows it will.
By the time she rounds the last corner, the walls have started to slide shut. A chorus of voices reaches her on wings of the wind, encouraging her to go faster. The gap is closing in fast, only three girls could fit there abreast and she's only halfway there.
Not today, she thinks, burning with determination. She sees Harriet through the gap and she burns even brighter. I will not die like this.
Once she's picked enough speed, she presses her legs together and lets the momentum carry her. The walls brush the tips of her shoulders when she crosses the threshold to the Spring, her skates catching on a patch of rogue grass that sends her crashing to the ground. Her shoulder hurts but she doesn't think anything got broken. When she turns over to her back, she groans anyway, and then she's laughing. Familiar hands are gripping her arms and hands like home are holding tightly onto hers, and she's so happy to be alive that she laughs even harder.
Then her laughter cuts off and turns into a kiss: Harriet's lips warm and sure on hers, their hands clasped on their chests between them.
❄️❄️❄️
"You're shivering."
"I know. I'm not cold, though."
"Then why?" A hand brushes the runaway strands of hair from her forehead, pressing a warm palm over her skin. "Are you feeling sick?"
"No, Harri, I'm fine." Sonya takes the hand from her forehead and slides it down to her cheek, stroking her thumb over the soft skin and thin bones strung through the back. "I'm okay. I'm just happy."
With a sigh, Harriet shuffles closer until they're nose to nose.
"You know," Sonya whispers, "I think she comes back."
"Who?"
"Spring. She comes back to the underworld."
A puff of Harriet's breath fogs Sonya's lips when she smiles. "Why the hell would she do that?"
Sonya sighs, her breath crashing in waves over Harriet's lips. All around her there's warmth: the fire, the mattress, the bodies pressed to hers. Harriet's smile and her hands covering hers every night to protect them from the cold.
All around her there's warmth, and it feels like Spring.
"Simple. She's coming back home."