Prompt: “How many times do you think a heart can break?"

The wind raged on the mountain, snow hailing down on Luke and Albina. Normal people would have gotten frostbite, being out in this weather, yet neither girl nor boy felt anything but the cold at the beginning of a calm winter. 

Of course, Luke knew that was because they had Queen Icylin’s gift. The Queen… she’d given orders to avoid the forest below with more caution than usual. She’d told her warriors the spirits were loose and she’d sent Eira to warn the guardians of the place. Oddly, the forest-people didn’t give themselves a name. All Luke actually knew about them was their ability to transform into animals.

Albina yelled something, though it was whisked away by the wind, and pointed to a hole in the mountain. Luke got the message, and the pair trudged toward the Cave. 

The second they stepped inside, Luke’s senses took note of way too many things at once. He knew the information could be useful, but he also knew he couldn’t throw it around or see it until he needed it, that was how Icylin’s gift worked. 

“Will the cave collapse on us?” Albina asked. Her name was a dead give away to her pure white hair, which was in a snowy braid. Luke remembered her powers were different, she didn’t have control over caves and earth, like he did… Her gift was more useful back in the city. 

“It’s stable, I think,” Luke told her. 

She nodded and sat down, opening her pack to take inventory of her supplies. Luke joined her since the snowstorms could last a while, to say the least. 

They’d barely finished when a voice came from the shadows, its words ringing through the stone walls of the cave, 

“Warriors of Ice! What a pleasant surprise!”

Albina jumped up, nocking an icy arrow. Luke wasn’t far behind with his sword. 

“Come out and face us,” Luke growled.

A man appeared before them, and Albina let out a small gasp of recognition. His hands were in a gesture of surrender, but his smile was not reassuring. There was a glint in his eyes as if he was thinking This is too much fun. A gruesome scar ran down his face, diagonally. 

“What do you want?” Albina demanded. Luke was surprised to hear the smallest tint of emotion in her voice. She’d been known to build walls around herself so high, almost no one could read her. 

The man smiled bigger, “Nothing, child. Lower your weapons.”

“DON’T CALL ME A CHILD!” Albina screamed, pulling her arrow further back. The man studied the pair curiously, and Luke realized there was something not completely human about him, like an aura radiating power. 

“We killed her, you know,” The man fixed his gaze on Albina. “What are you fighting for, girl? She’s gone. So is everyone who came before her.”

Albina’s walls seemed to crumble, “You- you killed-”

“Yes,” The man said thoughtfully, regarding Luke. “Perhaps you care for this one? Shall we see how much he can take?” 

Albina let out a choked sound as the man drew a spear and pointed it at Luke’s chest. 

Poison, a familar voice in his head hissed. 

“Cooperate, and it can end. That is all we ask of you,” The man said to Albina. 

“I will never work with you, after what you’ve done to me!” Albina said defiantly. She let her arrow fly and it pierced the man’s heart. 

He looked slightly annoyed before he burst into green smoke. 

“Thanks,” Luke fanned the smoke away from him. “Uh- You good? Do you know that dude?”

Albina was milk pale, and she looked both heartbroken and terrified. She didn’t say anything, she only stared at the ground. 

“Albina, you okay?”

“Perhaps I will be, in time,” She replied, looking up. 

“Wh-What?”

“How many times do you think a heart can break, Luke?” She asked quietly, “How much must one suffer before they die of heartbreak?”

“I dunno,” Luke felt strange, talking about heartbreak with Albina. He kind of wanted to run away, so he wouldn’t say something wrong and make her even more upset. 

“Some say once is all it takes,” She speculated. “Others tell me one cannot die of sadness. I am not sure what is true or what is false, but I know for a fact, a heart can break over and over. It can break until there is nothing but splinters and ashes.”

“Who died?” Luke ventured. 

“Everyone I dared to Love,” she whispered. “But that’s not what you meant, was it? They’ve taken my sister…”

Luke had experienced loss, he knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about, and he knew that Albina wouldn’t want pity, so he just stayed quiet with her for some time. 

“The storm is quieting down,” he informed her, after a long while of silence. How long had it been? An hour? Two?

Albina sighed, “We should get back to the city before Queen Icyln sends out a search party.”

Luke nodded, and the two of them climbed the mountain, going back to their city, the place they’d been chosen to protect, and the only home Luke had ever known.