They will be surprised.

Stagnant as they are in their self-imposed isolation, they find the concept of change to be incomprehensible - especially as regards one of their own.  I can understand my mother's failure, and sympathize with the harshness she endured, even though that is what drives me to my task in taking up the burden she could not bear.  In more ways than one, I am my mother reborn - and this time I will not fail.  This time the rules and restrictions of my people will be broken beyond repair, as will my people themselves.  Unfit for this world.

They thought that I was foolish and weak for leaving our homeland to search for my brother.  They believed that we had no need of such ties to those who were not one of us, those who were outcast for their differences.  They never saw the myriad of patterns the snowflakes form as they fall at random from the sky in their millions.  They only saw the snow.

We are all the same.  We aren't like the snowflakes with their intricate variety within their apparent uniformity.  We are simply reflections from the frozen facets of a forest of ice crystals, echoed across space and time.  Distorted images of a single reality, we are thus removed from our original source even though we, as koorime, are all bound to it.  The mirrors tell both the truths and falsehoods that underlie our basic being - and I am going to shatter those mirrors.

I started years ago.  I was the first to die, just as I will be the last.  I hope that my beloved Kazuma can forgive me if he ever discovers what I have done, if he ever uncovers the real reason why I bore him only sons.  It wasn't simply chance or fate that denied him a daughter.  I couldn't bear even the thought of producing more creatures so heartless and cruel as those I had left behind, the ones who had cost me my brother's love.

It is rightfully so.  I don't deserve his regard, no matter how I yearn for it.  He was cast out by my mother - and thus cast out by me.  Only when this-me was grown did I dare to seek him out, that part of me once rejected and now craved.

He made me different, he made me complete, he made me more than a pallid image of a pallid image.  I sought him out, desperate for the reassurance that only he could give.  I wanted to know that he was safe, I wanted to know that he was strong - I wanted to know that he loved me.

I didn't truly understand what love was when I first started my journey.  All I knew was that it was something that I wanted, something that I needed to be whole.  It was something no koorime could give me.  Frigid hearts offer no comfort, know nothing of warmth.  How strange it is for one born of ice to seek the heat of fire - and yet so I did, so I do.  Yet fire must be wary of ice when it melts, lest its light be quenched.

I have been naught but trouble for my brother and his friends, requiring rescue from those who sought to take advantage of me.  I was weak then, my only strength my resolve.  I've grown stronger since, much stronger: I had my brother's example to follow.  Only once has he hesitated to use his strength, through his mercy letting my people live.  He had the power and the cause to destroy them utterly, and yet he let them live.

He showed them mercy.  I will not.

I greet the guards, wait patiently while they verify my identity, then pass them by.  I don't look back when they scream - there is no need, for I know exactly what has happened to them.  I know they won't scream for long.

The Gatekeeper has heard their cries.  She hasn't heard me.  Nor will she hear anything else.  Ever.

Calmly and methodically I construct the bridge of ice that will lead me to the island.  The last time I built this bridge it cost me all my strength; now it is a scarcely noticeable drain upon my reserves.  I smile in cold satisfaction.

It is a rare thing to see the bridge built at a time when the guard is not to be changed.  Some of the younger girls have gathered together to watch, whispering amongst themselves, waiting for me when I reach my destination.  Sorrowfully, I reach out to caress the cheek of the most daring.  Her answering smile is locked in place, a single moment of happiness frozen in time.  The rush of the wind cannot break the stillness of this tableau.

The elders start to approach now, aware at last that something is amiss in their little utopia.  The faces are even more familiar than those of the children: I can put names to them, and faces as well.  Janala, Hisaka, Sarina...

My heart aches.

Sarina was one of my closest companions from childhood.  Her expression implores me to halt my vengeance.  I almost slow my actions, but my conviction carries me through.

"You have no brother."

Simple words echoed across the years seal her fate - a match for her closed heart.  Other companions we shared join her in imprisonment.  I cannot call them 'friends'.  They would call me 'traitor', if I gave them a single chance.

There is one who does.  The only one who counts.  The others are no match for me, but her strength I cannot gauge.  Those few who are able to do so move back, leaving an open circle devoid of life if not of bodies.

I step forward, taking my place in the centre, and lift my eyes to meet those  of the Matriarch.  She glares at me wit hatred burning frigidly in her gaze.  Then, her lips twist in a parody of a smile.

"One is all that is required."

I laugh, startling her.  Indeed.  One to win; one to lose.

One.

"Hikari, are you sure that this was a good idea?"

Hikari didn't respond, saving her breath instead for the upwards hike.

"I mean, we don't know where we are, we don't know where we're going, and we don't even know how we're going to get home!"

She gritted her teeth, focusing determinedly on the path ahead.  /It's not _my_ fault that avalanche covered the entrance to the cave - I wasn't the one screaming like an idiot at the top of my lungs!/  The sight of that - monster - crouching just outside the entrance had been rather startling, she had to admit.  /Good thing it was only an ice statue.  Although why someone would come to a place such as this just to carve that thing and leave it there, I really have no idea!  It did feel bad at first, but that feeling was fading fast.  It wasn't as scary as in my vision.../  But then, it hadn't been frozen solid in her premonition.

She exhaled heavily, both from the exercise and from frustration.  She couldn't shake the anxiety from her mind, anxiety over both their own fates as well as that of their great-grandmother.

"How do you even know she went this way?" Kazuya continued his complaints.

Hikari was surprised that he hadn't run out of breath yet.  /He always was a loudmouth./  "Because I saw her come this way!" she snapped at her brother.

"Right," he snorted.  "In that vision of yours."

She resisted the urge to knock the wind out of him.  Barely.  "I was right about the cave, wasn't I?"

"And look where that got us!  Marooned who-knows-where - "

"If you don't believe me, then why didn't you just stay at home?!"

"I couldn't let my only sister go off into danger on her own," he declared, puffing his chest out.  "I, Kuwabara Kazuya, will protect you - "  The rest of his words were lost in an abrupt exhalation as his sister gave in to temptation.  "Why," he gasped as he hurried to catch up to her, "why are we following her anyway?"

She glared back at him, not slowing her pace.  /What does it take to shut him up?!/

"I mean, you were happy enough leaving it to Aunt Kalei before..."

"No I wasn't.  And neither were you, so don't pretend you were."

"Well..."

"There's something I have to tell her, Kazu."

"What?"

She hesitated.

"Come on," he coaxed.  "I'm your brother, you can tell me!"

"Like I told you about my vision?" she replied witheringly.

"I'm sorry I was rude about your dream," he apologized swiftly.  "Now will you tell me?"

She watched him from the corner of her eye, weighing his sincerity.  At last she spoke.  "There's a girl who looks a lot like Grandmama, except she has green eyes instead of red.  She's crying."

There were a few moments of quiet, the crunch of their feet against the snow the only audible sound.

"And?"  Kazuya prompted eventually.

"And nothing!"

"You mean that's it?!"  He stared at her incredulously.

"It's important!"  Her eyes locked onto his, challengingly.

"How is that important?!"

"I don't know.  It just is!"

"But - that's strange..."

Hikari was about to give her brother a scathing reply as to exactly what was strange - /Namely Kazu!/ - when she noticed that he had stopped still, staring past her with a puzzled expression on his face.  /Not that that's unusual, but.../

She blinked, halting, as she followed his gaze to its target.  Targets, two of them.  Ice statues, just like the monster, only this time of people frozen in mid-action.

/Just as lifelike, too.../

After a brief exchange of troubled glances, the siblings cautiously continued their approach, Hikari doing her best to repress a shudder.  The closer they came to the ice people, the more her sense of unease grew.

/Warriors.../  That much was obvious from her observation of their motionless figures: one had a sword drawn, the other was grasping the hilt of a dagger, as though in preparation to throw it.  /Female, both of them.../

"Wow," Kazuya breathed.  "They're amazing!  I wouldn't want to meet whatever scared them so badly!"

Hikari started, flashing her brother an anxious glance before daring at last to examine the women's faces - and was lost in their frozen eyes.

Attacked  - betrayal - sword drawn - anger - power - helpless - fear.

"Hikari!"

She blinked.  Kazuya was standing in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, shaking her gently as he peered intently into her eyes.

"We have to find Grandmama, fast," she croaked, her voice hoarse.  This time he didn't argue but simply nodded soberly, releasing her from his grasp.  She stumbled a few steps before regaining her balance, Kazuya's hands steadying her.

One step.  Another.  Two more, faster.  Faster. Faster!

She was running, swifter than she had ever run before, leaving her brother far behind her.  Only her shadow was able to keep pace with her as she sprinted towards the icy bridge without a second thought.  She was momentarily distracted when it began to outdistance her until she realized that it was actually someone else whose speed far exceeded her own.

That didn't matter, though.  She focused her attention on the figures before her, so near and yet so far.  The shadowy person would reach them first, but she didn't care about him.  There was only one that mattered.

Only one.