The Defier

Kidjina shivered in the ice hut. Marq had never known her to be cold, no matter the wind or the ice that would cut through him. She was always oblivious to it. But now, her blue skin had turned as white as her locks.
"Is it.. them?" he whispered softly. She just nodded. Her breathe was now gasps of vapour.
Marq shrunk into the limits of the lamplight at what he saw... the mist from Kidjina's nostrils wasn't wafting away. It was moving, congealing the way mist should not. She was moving with it, like a dance, and the mist her partner. Coalescing into swirls and eddies, until Marq could make out a figure within it, moving like shadows from the lamp, moving away from Kidjina now. It had limbs, arms... was that its hair flowing like weeds underwater? Was that the brief glint of an eye staring at him from the whirl of mist, now smoke, now something more.
Kidjina now stopped moving, her eyes open once more, locked upon the figure before her. Unlike Kidjinas stocky bulk, the figure was a waif, long and slender, it towered above her.
"Kahi", Kidjina whispered, another waft of mist escaping her blue lips, "I bring a seeker of truth"
The creature's eye swung in his direction, its hair like a slow net spreading out toward him. The eye was peircing, blue, clear. And beneath it, the smoke parted like a smile.
"One from the past is it?" the creature's voice was like ice crunching underfoot.
Somehow, Marq found his voice, "I am... from Refuge, yes. I am Returned. But we..."
"You are my future." the voice cut him off. Marq felt his ears pop from a sudden change in the air, "what is it you seek?"
"I..." where could he start, he and Kidjina had been given a task, from the Seers of the clans, and the Faceless of the Trinity both. An unheard of alliance that only one who stood in both worlds could be trusted with.
"We seek...", just out with it now, "We seek the one who created Refuge. We seek Zurghasta."
"The Defier." The voice paused like Marq's heart beat in the deathly cold.
"Yes. He is known."

Summary

Rumours swirl across the alleys and bars at Runners End of the fate of the First Breaker Marq D'Or and the Shadowseer Kidjina. Some say they tired of the comforts they had attained, and missed their lives on the Ice, and so sought one final expedition.
others within the Koroza clan itself have hinted that Kidjina was seeking ever deeper connections to their ancestors, and Marq left to help her.
There are records within the library at The Academy in New Lafaelle of meetings that preceded their departure. Meetings between the one of the most senior Masks of the Faceless, and the Seers of the Koroza clan. There were documented rumours from that time that something had been discovered frozen deep within one of the Black bergs.
Some say it was this that preceded the sudden retirement of Mar D'Or and Kidjina, and their departure with their Icewarden deep into the uncharted darkness beyond the Sea of Black Ice.
Some say they went to find the birthplace of the two Moons. Others say it was to discover a lost continent and the magics and technologies of the ancients still frozen in time. Others say that deep within the ice are locked the spirits of the Shadowkin's ancestors, with their lost wisdom about the nature of creation and the cycles of Ashitiri.
The only truth known is that neither Kidjina nor Marq D'Or ever returned from the cold dark and no evidence of their fate has been found.

Related Ethnicities

• Koroza
• The Returned

Related Species

• Kahi, Ancestor Spirits

Related Organizations

• Seers of Ashtiri
• The Church of the Faceless

Related Vehicles

• Icewarden