Sophia leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath.

Neither Cliff nor her had really realized what it meant that Cliff used her mana, at least not until he "invoked" enough creatures to deplete about two-thirds of it from the summonings alone and then tried to control them all. The drain from one vestige was small, but the drain from a dozen was not, and Cliff hadn't realized he needed to pay attention to his mana use for such a small contingent. Sophia's mana supply was far less than the mana even a Tier One dungeon had to have.

At least, he didn't realize what was happening until Sophia ran out. Sophia felt something was wrong, but it didn't connect in her mind that it was low mana until then, either. Unlike a full-blooded Arcane Dragon, it didn't make Sophia pass out, but it was all too close.

"Are you all right?" Dav was there moments after Sophia sagged against the wall, concern written clearly on his face.

"I will be." Sophia suppressed a groan and saw Dav wince. That wasn't what she wanted at all. Of course, neither was running out of mana. She'd only gotten this low once or twice before. "It's just low mana. Nothing dangerous, just uncomfortable. It all started so well, too; now, uh. Wait. Xin'ri's still out there!"

"I could go get her," Dav offered, then paused. "Or I can just give you some mana to send another Echo. That's the better choice, I think."

Sophia blinked. She hadn't gone over loaning out mana with Dav because there were so many other things to learn, and anyway, they had an enchanted item that would let them send mana. "Right, the bracelets. I forgot." She smacked herself lightly in exasperation at her forgetfulness.

"How much do you need? Should I send you everything?" Dav tapped his bracelet, clearly thinking about his options.

"Half?" Sophia guessed. "That'll be about a quarter of my mana pool, probably, so it should be enough for a Winter Echo to retrieve Xin'ri."

With that, they got to work. Half of Dav's mana was more like twenty percent of Sophia's, even though his Core value was slightly over half of hers, but it was still enough to get Xin'ri back within the shelter of the underground ruins.

Xin'ri's first words were slightly annoyed. "What happened? We were making progress, then everything vanished. It's cold out there and my robe's heating can only manage so much."

Sophia blinked at the idea that Xin'ri had a heated robe, but moved on without questioning it. "I ran out of mana. Dav had to give me some to get you back. Uh, how far did you get?"

Xin'ri shook her head. "Hard to say, but we managed a ring around this ruin. I was trying to decide if I should work another ring or head towards the old entrance when they disappeared. I think the giant beavers were farther than that, but you'd know better than I would."

"No sign of intruders within a hundred feet of the ruins," Cliff supplied. He didn't say more than that, but that was normal, possibly even wordy, for Cliff. It was also a very good sign, in a way; that was a decent distance and enough to make Sophia a little more comfortable.

Of course, the blizzard was still creating whiteout conditions, so she didn't expect anyone to be there, but knowing they weren't was good. They'd probably be safe for the rest of the blizzard and likely some time afterwards. Sophia smiled but shook her head. "If it didn't take so much mana, I'd set some of the summons up as unobtrusive guards when the blizzard ends."

"You could increase your Core," Ci'an pointed out. "You'll probably want to increase your level, too, and maybe pick up an Ability that helps. I know you have the Wisps for it."

"But the upgrade-sickness…" Sophia trailed off as she realized how long it had been. "Was only a problem for the first month, wasn't it?"

Ci'an chuckled. "Take it slow and I'm sure you'll be fine."

Sophia looked down and shook her head. She didn't even want to think about updating anything with the Guide and she definitely didn't want to think about doing another upgrade. At the same time, she knew that was an overreaction; yes, it was miserable, but they'd promised it wouldn't happen again as long as she took things slow. "Fine. We should take advantage of the blizzard for as long as it lasts, though. I should be able to keep just the Winter Echo out for quite a while; let's warm up and let my mana recover, first."

"Buy a point of Core," Ci'an insisted. "Just one. It won't hurt."

Sophia grumbled and had to force herself to do as her friend suggested, but she managed to confirm the purchase right after they reached one of the rooms they'd repurposed into living quarters. They were much warmer than the outside, even with her Down Coat Ability.

The annoying part was that Ci'an was right. It didn't hurt and she did end up with a little more mana than before once it had time to recover. She still wasn't going to place more than one point a day. That was enough, and it was conservative enough that she'd be fine. At least according to Ci'an.

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Far more amusing was the fact that Dav chose to start with an Ability. He picked out the General Ability Thermoregulate, which was one of the relatively common first upgrade versions of Keep Warm. It was just as straightforward, except that it worked in cold weather as well as hot and did slightly more. It was also more expensive to upgrade, but that was common with Abilities that started with a better version. Ci'an said she would have recommended it anyway if it were available before the first upgrade.

The blizzard lasted another three days. By the time it ended, they'd managed to clear over a hundred and fifty feet in all directions and Xin'ri had the same space covered with alarms. It wasn't enough to catch someone who was close enough to watch them, but at least it would give some warning if someone unauthorized actually approached.

When Sophia added the fourth Core point, she found out another reason the advice was to slowly increase Body and Core as you went up in level and not just push them hard early on. She felt a little off, maybe even unbalanced. It wasn't obvious to anyone else, but Sophia could feel that her mana control was a little less precise than normal, as if her aura didn't quite want to work with her mana. It was almost like she was trying to affect mana someone else already had control of. That didn't make much sense, but that was definitely what it felt like.

On top of that, a fifth point of Core would have cost six times what she expected it to. That was evidence that the Guide thought something was off, too. She'd have to wait and see what happened over the next several days and probably buy a level, too. That was supposed to increase your available mana, too, or at least make it easier to get more work out of your mana pool; it was hard to tell if leveling increased the actual size of the pool or just your efficiency using it, especially when it also allowed you to increase the power of the Abilities (and sometimes also boosted their cost).

In short, it was complex and unintuitive. Not that any of that was new.

The snowstorm was both welcome and unfortunate for Pelrith Moonshadow. It forced him to hide in his prepared den for several days longer than he'd planned. On the other hand, he had a den; the hunting party didn't, not after he collapsed their entrance to the underground. They ought to be tired, cold, and thirsty by now; there was no way they could afford the body heat to melt snow without a fire.

Well, perhaps they had a fire and something of a camp. That was possible if they ignored the collapse and tried to take shelter in what was left of the collapsed ruins; there was wood there, wood they'd built with that was already in pieces from the collapse. That meant they'd probably survived, unfortunately.

There was no way they'd saved all of their horses, however More likely than not, they'd need the meat They'd have had to be lucky to bring enough back from the last hunt and the rest was inaccessible underground. If the hunt was lucky, they'd still have to deal with the cold and storms that left snow three feet deep were not friendly for horses.

He'd have to deal with them in pieces; while he could probably handle everyone except Los'en even if they worked together, he really needed Los'en to be alone if he wanted to win and not die. The Aurora was frustratingly tenacious and skilled.

Pelrith grinned as the pieces came together. Without enough horses, they'd have to leave some behind while the rest hunted … and they'd have to hunt to eat enough to stave off the cold. All he had to do was wait and watch.

Pelrith slipped into the shadows as he moved closer to the ruins. He didn't really expect to need to be cautious, but caution was always better. It wouldn't do to leave traces in the snow that revealed there was a person here; that would give away the game.

Pelrith approached from the north. That direction was rough to begin with, so it was far less likely that his enemies would choose it when they had only improvised gear for travel on snow. The fact that his gear was intact and not underground where he couldn't reach it was another point in his favor.

The ground in front of the ruin, where he collapsed the entrance, was clear and mostly undisturbed. At his current distance, he should have been able to easily find the hunters' attempt at a campsite, but nothing was there. Had they really all died in the snow?

Pelrith didn't believe it. However much he might want that, it was impossible to believe. One or two, maybe even five, he could believe. The dozen people who were out hunting? No, that was not going to happen. Especially not with Los'en in the group. He wouldn't believe that old fool was dead until he saw the body.

Pelrith made his way slowly around the site. He couldn't believe they'd have gone far, which meant they were probably in a hollow somewhere, if they hadn't simply dug themselves a home in the snow. If they had, he'd have to give up on finding them until the first time they sent hunters out; once they did, he could follow the trail.

The fact that he couldn't see a fire told Pelrith that was all too likely. They had to be somewhere they could keep warm enough, but a fire in a snow shelter wasn't a great idea.

Pelrith was cold and tired from remaining unseen when he finally found it: there were snowshoe marks that weren't his own on the slightly crusted snow. It looked like a group of six people set out a couple of hours before, probably on their way to search for food. They couldn't have much.

He leaned down and examined the tracks carefully. Six pairs of snow shoes; they all looked well made, not recreated. That had to mean that the hunters were more prepared than he'd anticipated, but at least there were only six of them. Now, which way should he go?

Pelrith pulled a short broken wooden rod out of his pocket. The piece he held was no more than an inch long and was so thin he could still snap it with his hands if he wanted to, but that was enough. It was keyed to Los'en's magical signature. He only had four of them, so he was careful with them, but he needed it here.

He dropped it onto the tracks. It flared with fire for a moment, before burning to ash and a tiny bit of charcoal and soot. That was his answer; Los'en had been near here within the past few hours. He was out with the hunters, not at the camp.

Pelrith smiled. This would be fun.

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