Time Elapsed: 00:47:21

Snow was waiting for him.

The cryomancer had climbed up on part of the landside at the Ironback town entrance, and was perched where he could see anyone who might approach the town. When Severance and Maun came into view with Vast trotting at their heels, Snow immediately slid down the pile of rubble. Loose rocks tumbled down with him, and a large cloud of fine dust had lifted by the time his shoes hit the ground.

A few steps took him to the center of the narrow passage cut through the landslide, and there he turned to face them, arms folded. It was impossible to not see him, since he made for a very pale figure amongst all the dark rock.

The sight made Severance sigh internally. It appeared that Snow had a few things to say, just like Jack Coyote had warned.

As they neared, Snow didn't budge. His pitch-black eyes followed them in, right up until they stopped a short distance away.

Severance didn't know what to say to the cryomancer. He could almost feel the phantom ache of getting punched all over again and instinctively touched the side of his face that had borne the brunt of Snow's wrath. Even now, it was hard to tell what the other player was thinking, for his expression was firmly neutral, absent of his usual smile.

A quiet chuckle broke the awkward silence. Maun slapped Severance's back, using enough force to jolt him. "I'll leave you to it, Sev."

With that, Maun deserted him. That left Severance standing in the narrow passage, with tall walls of rock flanking him. There were only two ways to go: forward, or back. And the way forward was blocked by slender person who stood like a pale wraith, uneven robes hanging motionlessly about him.

A rock skittered down one side of the rubble and plopped to the ground between them. Severance felt a wet nose nudge his hand, reminding him that Vast hadn't gone anywhere. With a soft sigh, Severance scratched the furry head.

"Jack said you wanted to talk."

"Yes."

Snow watched him so intently that it made Severance's skin itch. There was a sense of dread lingering deep within—it'd been there since the airplane—and now it sinuously uncoiled like a great serpent, lifting its head in preparation to strike.

There was no escaping this, Severance knew. The only thing he could do was brace for the incoming damage. He settled his weight back on his heels and looked back at Snow with a forced calm.

"What do you want to know?"

Snow's chin lifted slightly, a touch of surprise flashing across his face. And then it was gone, squashed beneath renewed determination.

"How did this happen to you?"

How? It wasn't an unexpected question, not really, but it still gave him pause. How, indeed. His mind drifted back to the moment he first met the Veiled. Ever since he came across them, his life had irrevocably changed.

He shook his head, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "I guess you could say it started with the Gifts."

Snow frowned. "What do you mean?"

In answer, Severance patted his shoulder, where he bore the Veiled's marking. He knew the cryomancer had already seen it. "I was given five Leader-level Gifts. That's a lot of power thrown around, and it ah, messed up the System. It sees me as half-Elionan now. Some of the restrictions on Outsiders no longer apply to me because of that."

"The Gifts?" Snow's eyes flickered to Severance's arm. A deep furrow formed in his normally-smooth forehead. "I knew you had a few, but all from Leaders? Are you kidding me?"

"No. My clan is... strange." That was the best word Severance could come up with. When Snow gave him a disbelieving look, he added, "I'm the only Outsider they've taken in. There's not many of them, but those that remain are all kinda super strong. So the Gifts they have are all going to be well, strong."

Snow stared at him. "That's ridiculous."

"It's the truth." What else could he say?

"All right, fine. When did you start noticing the changes?"

Changes, huh? Looking at Snow's tense expression, Severance had a flash of insight. And suddenly he had a good idea of what was going on.

"I didn't become like this until I got the last three Gifts," he said quietly. "That was what pushed everything over the edge. But when I got the first one, it really hurt and it threw me out of the game. My arm hurt for days afterwards. And the second one..." Severance paused, recalling that moment. "That one didn't change much, I don't think."

"But you said the last three did," Snow prompted. He'd taken a couple of steps closer, and probably didn't even realize it. There was an urgency to his manner that made it painfully obvious, and Severance couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed it before. Snow had experienced something, and it had spooked him. Badly.

"Yeah," he said. "It was a very bad idea, but I got them all at once. It put me in a coma for a few days." Snow's eyes widened, but Severance went on, not giving him a chance to respond. "The Gifts were all similar—a passive boost to Agility. I got a huge boost in game, as I'm sure you've noticed. But it also changed things outside the game. It completely rewrote how I moved. I had to learn how to walk all over again."

Snow had gone completely still. His gaze had frozen itself to Severance's face. Even when Severance stopped talking, there was no reaction.

A whine from Vast made Severance look down. "Do you think I broke him?"

In response, Vast wormed his head under Severance's hand and looked up with those bright, silver eyes. Severance huffed, and rubbed between the vastlhidan's ears. "You don't care at all, do you? You just want your pats."

The sound of feet scraping rock made him look up. He saw that Snow had abruptly sunk down onto a large boulder and was holding his head in his hands. The sight alarmed Severance. He reached out, stopping short of the cryomancer's shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

A shuddering breath came, followed by a "Oh, you bet."

Snow didn't look up at them though, so Severance wasn't convinced. He hovered awkwardly nearby, unsure of what to do. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to reveal so much, but he'd gotten the sense that Snow was seeking answers. Desperate answers, like the kind Severance had when he'd gone to Olen after receiving the last three Gifts. His whole world had turned on its side and he'd balanced on the precipice between reality and disbelief. He knew that feeling all too well and he'd seen an echo of it staring back at him through Snow's gaze.

That was why he'd spoken honestly.

"Hey," he began, but Snow interrupted him.

"Look." He pulled up one of his sleeves, revealing a slender arm. It was almost delicate in appearance, save for the dark tattoo-like marking on the underside of his forearm. There were three feathers, elegant in shape, and two were much darker than the other. In fact, as Severance leaned in to look, he thought they were almost as dark as his.

"Those are-?"

"Not Leader given." Snow tapped the two darker ones. "But the next in line after that. Sub-leader, or whatever they're called. This one gives me a skill called Farsight. Let's me see things in perfect detail from far away. And this other one is also a passive boost to Intelligence. Gives my skills an extra punch."

Severance listened quiet, watching how Snow gave a brief, humorless smile as he explained his clan markings.

"Each time I got these, it was the same as you. It hurt, and the Intelligence boost kicked me out of the game." Snow looked up at him, meeting his eyes. "In the real world, I lost the need for my glasses. I had terrible vision, couldn't see anything past my nose without wearing glasses. But overnight, I gained perfect 20/20. Maybe even better."

Severance nodded slowly, taking this in. It was actually relieving to hear this, to know he wasn't the only one with freaky experiences, but it was also frightening. Awesome Dude had also mentioned some discrepancies, but Severance hadn't been sure how seriously to take his friend's statements.

But now that Snow was admitting this, there was no denying it. How many other players were experiencing changes? How many were keeping it quiet, and how many were spreading the word? What would happen if the world heard them and began to believe them? All of those questions were troubling.

"That's not all." Snow's next words gave Severance a spike of alarm.

"What?"

"A few days ago, I froze my coffee. I was playing around, thinking it would be funny if I could somehow freeze it like in the game, and suddenly, it just happened." Snow laughed, but the sound was a broken thing that couldn't be further from humor. "It should be impossible. It is impossible, but it happened."

Severance took a deep breath, held it, and then released it in a slow whoosh. His thoughts turned, trying to figure out what the best response was. In the end, he awkwardly put his hand on Snow's shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze, like Maun sometimes did to him.

"You know, I ended up healing myself after I dumped hot coffee on myself. It was... kind of scary. And not fun."

There was a moment of silence. Then Snow's shoulder trembled and a second laugh came out. "You too, huh? Maybe it's the coffee."

Severance's mouth curved involuntarily. "Could be. Maybe we should stay away from coffee from now on."

They lapsed into silence. It wasn't as tense as before, like something had broken down between them. Severance didn't find it awkward at all, and he didn't even realize he was still touching Snow's shoulder.

"Why is this happening?" Snow finally asked.

"I'm not sure," Severance answered. It was the best he could give at this moment. "But I think it's something we shouldn't go around talking about."

Snow snorted. "I'm not stupid, Sev. I haven't even told Jack."

That gave Severance pause. He tilted his head, considering. "Do you think we should? What if he's seen some strange things too?"

Strange things like knowing that Eliona was real. Of course, he couldn't say that out loud. It might break Snow for real.

The cryomancer scoffed. "If he's noticed anything, he'd be up in our business asking about it."

That made Severance remember being carted off to some abandoned ruins and getting confronted by the golden-eyed menace. He gave an uneasy laugh. "Yeah, that's true."

"But you're right. He's the team leader, so he should probably know. And, I've known him for years. He's a good guy despite being a prickly badger." Snow abruptly stood, making Severance step back to give him room and he proceeded to brush the dust off his robes.

He gave Severance a tiny, yet honest smile this time, and Severance couldn't help but smile back. The amount of relief he felt was immense. The dread he'd felt earlier had fled back to its dark corner.

"I'll talk to him," Snow said. "What's your number? We can talk more outside the game."

Severance gave it to him. "Jack also has it, if you forget."

"Of course he does." Snow rolled his eyes. Then he gave Severance a friendly punch to the arm. The second he did, however, he froze, eyes darting up to Severance's face.

"Oh. I'm sorry! I forgot."

It was Severance's turn to laugh. "It's fine. I'm not made of glass, you know."

Snow's expression darkened into a glare that would have made Jack proud. "No, you're made of flesh and blood and you're an idiot if you pretend otherwise. You have to be more careful."

"Really, it's fine."

"I'm sorry for punching you yesterday," Snow went on. "It's not okay that you didn't tell us before, but I get it. It's crazy and unbelievable. But don't forget, Sev. We're a team now, so give us some credit, okay?"

Severance nodded. Despite the scolding nature of Snow's words, all he felt was a growing warmth. "Okay."

"Good. And now that I know all your secrets, we can whisper about them behind Jack's back." With a last grin, Snow headed back towards the Mine entrance, where the rest of the team waited.

Severance smiled, following, though guilt flashed through his heart. All his secrets? Not quite, Snow.