Naru Silverfox's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Naru knelt in the snow where the princess had been taken. Three nights ago, someone dragged Noria Storn from the ice plain, and Nina blamed Naru for it. Her own twin. Naru had sworn to guard Noria, not steal her. To prove it, she needed the one creature who had watched the whole thing happen. The frost pixie hovered near a cracked ice pillar. She had been there that night. Since then she had gone silent, darting away whenever Naru came close. Violet eyes tracked every move. Her wings beat fast, ready to flee. "I'm not here to hurt you," Naru said. She kept her voice low. She opened her hand. A single ice flower lay on her palm, petals clear as glass. "You know this. It belongs to the shrine. You led someone here. I need to know who." The pixie landed on the pillar's edge. She stared at the flower. Then she pointed, slow, at the runes glowing beneath the frost. Boots crunched behind Naru. She turned. Nina stood with her arms crossed, white hair loose, tail stiff. "You found a witness and didn't tell me," Nina said. Her voice came out clipped. "Were you going to feed it a story?" "I'm finding the truth," Naru said. "Watch." The pixie flinched at Nina's voice but stayed. Naru held the flower steady. "Show us. The one who took Noria." The pixie breathed out. Frost spilled from her mouth and hung in the air. It shaped itself into a figure. Tall. A woman in furs. Her face formed slowly, feature by feature. Naru's chest tightened. The frost face was not hers. Not Nina's. It belonged to an older woman, with Noria's own eyes and jaw. "That's not me," Naru said. She looked at Nina. "You see it. Say you see it." Nina stepped closer. Her jaw worked. The anger left her shoulders. "I see it," she said, quiet now. "That's a grown woman. Not you." The frost figure held out a hand, as if guiding someone. Then it drifted apart. The pixie sank onto the ice, spent. Naru stood. "Noria knows that face. She's been searching for it. The woman who left her on the ice." "Blood," Nina said. "That woman is her blood." Naru pocketed the ice flower. For three days she had carried her sister's blame like a stone. It fell away now. But a worse weight took its place. The culprit was no stranger. She was the one person Noria had trusted most, the one Noria wanted found. "We have to reach Noria before she does," Naru said. "If Noria finds her alone, we won't be there to catch what happens." Nina nodded once. The twins ran for the shrine, the pixie trailing behind.