Frey was dead weight as she and Lumi dragged him up the hill to Drifa's house. Over the next few days, Lumi came and went, but most of the time Frey was left in Drifa's care. Her days were spent trying to bring down his fever, and her nights fretting because she couldn't.

Snow fell and fell. Winter had arriving earlier and with an abandon that even the wisps weren't used to. Drifa had her suspicions as to why this was but it was Lumi who spoke first. "A fire god in a land of winter is an infection. Our land is only doing what a body stricken with illness would do: it's attacking that infection." She pointed a finger at Frey's sweat-soaked body. "He is making winter fight for its very existence. And the harder it fights, the harder he fights against it. You know this cannot end well."

Drifa knew, of course she did. She hung her head while Lumi troubled herself with Frey's needs. Winter had stretched on as though the world was caught in a time loop. Even for the winter wisps, the weather had grown intolerable. They had suffered through months of this already. Houses were buried in cold white tombs. Crops failed. Livestock starved and died.

Winter wisps couldn't freeze to death, but a cold this overpowering had the potential to force them into their orb state--a state which they could be trapped in as long as it remained so relentlessly frigid. And there remained a risk that they'd never be able to change back. No one knew if this would happen, but everyone feared it. The elders often told the story of a young wisp who had, in a fit of adolescent defiance, transformed and floated away from his home. He was young and hadn't been trained on how to turn back into human form. His parents found what was left of him two days later, nothing but a few pieces of ice slowly melting in the morning sun.

No one knew if that story was true or not, but people's fear of something similar happening to them certainly was. As winter wore on, the wisps' mood declined along with Frey's health.

Through the early days of his fever, her touch had brought Frey comfort; she'd clung to the hope that she could somehow cure him. He'd mumbled about snowshoeing through stretches of alpine valleys, while Drifa had twined her fingers with his, envisioning campfires and the sound of crickets chirping in the distance.

Soon there were no campfires, no summer holidays. Frey stopped speaking of the crunch of packed snow under his feet, of the blinding brilliance of a cloudless winter day. When she touched him, she felt only an intense panic. The sickness had grown and there was no relief, not for either of them.

"We can take him back." Drifa chanced to peek in Lumi's direction. Lumi shook her head. "It's too dangerous. He's so out of balance, there's no doubt that he'd infect Bindland the same as he has here. If only his father would come for him... or better yet, revoke his god status."

Drifa's head sprung up. "He can do that?"

Lumi dipped a cloth in a pan of cool water and held it against Frey's forehead. "It hardly matters. He hasn't a clue his son is here, and even if he did, there's no telling if he'd be willing to help."

Drifa's head began to spin with possibilities. Pacing the room, she built up the courage to ask Lumi what she needed to know, starting with where exactly Frey had come from.

Lumi rolled her eyes. "The Land of Fire Gods, where else?"

"Right." She drummed her fingers against her lips. "Could we send a message to this Land of Fire Gods letting Frey's father know what happened to him?"

"Think, Drifa. We'd need to send a messenger, but who would volunteer for such a task? What winter wisp would risk entering the Sun King's domain?"

Drifa knew exactly who would volunteer to go and evidently, so did Lumi. "No Drifa. No!"

She let a few minutes pass before she spoke again. "How would a messenger--not me of course--travel to the Land of Fire Gods?"

Lumi's eyes, those eyes that somehow saw without seeing, slid to Frey's chest and then back again quickly. She said nothing, but her subtle glance had been enough: the sun amulet, the one that had identified him to Lumi in the first place--that was the key needed to unlock Frey's kingdom.

Lumi left a while later and Drifa took over laying wet rags upon Frey's body. When steam began to rise as the heat of his skin dried them, she dipped the cloth in water and began the process over again.

Despite these efforts, Frey's condition did not improve.

Even a god can die, she thought.

**Two more parts remain! Thanks for sticking with the story so far. If you like it, be sure to hit the star!