The Crown’s Entrapment

“Mhm…”

Waking up to a start, the heat from the hot spring made for a bracing morning as she stood up from the cave’s walls. Looking outside, the snow seemed to have stopped, the morning rays of the sun shining brightly against the white backdrop that currently covered the forest.

“Well, that makes climbing easier, at least.”

Making her way outside, the warmth from the sun made her trek so much easier as she made her way up the mountain. Granted, just because it was a day out didn’t mean that her task had become as easy as walking up to the top.

Unfortunately, she underestimated just how steep the mountain was.

“How am I supposed to climb this?”

Letting out a sigh, she put away her makeshift weapon and firmly held on to the nearest anchor that she could use. The prior snowstorm had made the rock cool to the touch, but the warmth of the sun at least made it all bearable as she climbed her way up to her destination.

“Ugh… Why… is this…. So steep?”

As morning turned to noon, the mountain seemed to turn steeper and steeper as she went up. Sweat threatened to make her slip as she gritted her teeth, her fingers starting to hurt the higher she climbed. And in a complete opposite to last night’s cold, the heat of the sun seemed to mock her as it gazed down on her back, her exposed skin almost burning despite the relatively cool air around her.

‘The sunburns I’ll get after this will be a pain to deal with…’ she sighed.

Looking up, the daunting height of the mountain almost made Xenia weep as time moved forward. She was making good progress, but the pain in her fingers was starting to get unbearable.

‘There’s got to be a ledge somewhere here…’

Climbing further up, she quickly made a beeline to the closest ledge that she could find just a few meters above her. Hoisting herself up, she rolled onto her back as she looked at her blistered hands.

“H-Heh… So much for soft touch…”

Catching her breath, she sat up and found herself looking down.

“Huh… I’ve come a long way…”

What was once tall and imposing trees in the forest now seemed like grass to her as the height of the mountain made it clear that she would die in one slip. If she was correct in her estimates, she was already higher up than even the tallest towers back in Ebodia or Cordon, and those structures were already pretty high by anybody’s standards.

“Now let’s see what I still have left…”

Looking up, the peak of the mountain seemed so far away despite the progress she made. It might just be the weather, but she didn’t think that she’d make it in a day. Were they really expecting her to do this in a day even without the sudden snowstorm?

‘They’re seriously overestimating themselves.’

Surely, even they would be forced to take shelter once the snowstorm hit. She could barely see anything, let alone these lights that should be visible atop the mountain. Hell, even now, she couldn’t see them.

Then again, these Northern Lights Osman was talking about were only visible at night.

“I guess I’m climbing through the night…”

Letting out a resigned sigh, she decided that she had had enough rest for the day. There was still a whole lot of mountain to climb, and she might as well make sure that she made some sort of progress.

At the very least, she could tell them that she did her best if she didn’t make it.

***

The day had turned into night, and Xenia was still hard at work climbing the mountain. Her fingers were starting to bleed at this point, but it wasn’t like she even had a choice to stop climbing. After all, she was already at a point where there weren’t even any ledges she could use to stop and take a rest.

Seriously, what was Osman thinking?

‘He must think I’m a freak if I can do this all day…’

Somewhere along the way, Xenia had turned her brain off as she just focused on climbing. Hunger and other human inconveniences were left forgotten as she instead put her all into not getting herself killed. Those Northern Lights that the admiral was talking about made themselves just after sunset, at least, which she could only hope meant that she was getting closer to her goal.

Silently, she toiled away, her hands digging deep into the rockface the further up she went. The cold was starting to return, but the clear night sky at least made for a pleasant view as she climbed higher and higher.

‘Oh… I’m here…’

Xenia blinked as her hands felt nothing but air as she reached up. Somewhere along the way, she wasn’t even looking anymore as she climbed, relying only on her touch as a way to look for anchor points along the mountain.

Hoisting herself up, she was honestly still in shock as she stood up, finally having reached the top after an entire day of climbing.

“Wow…”

Above her, the Northern Lights shined on, lightly illuminating the area as she braced herself against the cold winds from being so high up. She supposed that the only thing she had to do now was wait for something-

“You made it, Xen.”

Her eyes widened. No way… He couldn’t possibly be here…

Turning around, she almost braced herself for the voice to be a mere hallucination. Instead, she was only vindicated as Darius stood in front of her. She didn’t know how or why, but he was here. Somehow. Having climbed the mountain even faster than her. Without her even noticing…

…Was she that distracted?

“How long have you been here?” she asked, still in disbelief at what she was seeing.

“Enough,” he vaguely replied. “But enough about that. Let me see your hands.”

Xenia blinked before his words registered in her head. Slowly, she showed him her bloody hands.

“Xen…”

“Yeah, they’re bloody,” she weakly chuckled. “Climbing is hard, you know.”