Crystaline chased the auroras because her lost kin had painted them. The old stories said pixies once wove those colored lights above Shiverveil. She was the last one still searching for them. So she flew north into the sky, her purple and teal hair streaming, sparkles trailing behind her tiny wings. Then the storm hit. Snow slammed her sideways. The wind tore at her, and her wings began to stiffen. Ice crept along the thin edges of them. Each beat grew slower and harder. If she stayed in the open, her wings would freeze solid and she would fall. She dove toward the ground and spotted a dark mouth in the rock. Crystals ringed the opening, glowing faint blue and pink. She squeezed inside and dropped onto cold stone, gasping. The wind died behind her. Slowly, warmth from the glowing walls loosened the ice on her wings. The cave stunned her. Mineral light shimmered across every surface. Crystals grew from the floor and ceiling like frozen flames. She had never seen a place so beautiful hidden so close to home. A soft sound made her turn. A kitten stepped from the shadows. Its body was clear as glass, shimmering with icy light. It watched her with wide eyes and flicked its crystal whiskers. "You live here?" Crystaline whispered. She loved to give gifts, so she reached into her satchel. She pulled out a small crystal bloom she had gathered and set it on the stone. "For you." The kitten sniffed the bloom. Then it padded deeper into the cave and looked back, waiting. Crystaline followed. The kitten led her to a low alcove. There, half buried in frost, sat a faceted orb. Its surface was frozen crystal, and a pale light pulsed inside it. The glow beat like a slow heart. Crystaline had never seen such a thing. She touched it. The frost cracked away under her fingers. The orb brightened, and a thin beam of light shot up. It struck the cave ceiling and threw a shimmer of color across the crystals. The colors moved and rippled, exactly like the auroras she chased. Crystaline's breath caught. This was pixie work. Her kin had made this orb. It was a signal, still glowing after all this time, waiting for someone to answer it. The kitten pressed against her leg. Outside, the storm still howled, but she no longer wanted to flee it. She had a trail now, faint and real. The orb's light dimmed and then flared twice, as if calling to something far away. Crystaline lifted it from the frost. It was cold and heavy in her small hands. She would carry it. Wherever its light was meant to reach, that was where her lost kin had gone. The storm had trapped her, but the trap held the first true clue she had ever found.