Ice remembers

Marcus Olson

Your scars are there to show you that you're human

The wind over the Sea of Glass carried a cold that bit through wool and leather alike. Marcus picked his way carefully across the ice, boots crunching against thin plates that had drifted together like broken mirrors. Beneath them, dark water shifted and breathed with the slow pull of the tide. Out toward the center of the sea, the enormous skeleton still remained. Marcus paused to look at it, a small shiver crawling down his back as he recalled the story his father told him of Ronin, Remi, and himself against a group of ascended. Taking a sharp breath in, he turned his attention to the shrine.

The shrine stood low against the frozen expanse, seemingly intouched by wind and salt and time. It was no towering temple, with no heavy ceremony, just a place where the world felt open enough to be heard. Marcus knelt, careful not to put too much weight on the ice beneath him. One hand rested against the cold surface as the other had pulled his offering from his pocket. A variety of fresh berries grown in the Halo greenhouse. “Frey,” he began, voice steady despite the wind, steady despite how he had gone unheard so many times before. ”I want to keep growing.”

---

I’d like to use my COTS pass! Marcus would like a quest for a new shift.

Even when you wish they'd wash away

Frey

Despite the temperatures - rapidly plummeting towards frigid out here in the Tundra now that they have left Longheat behind - the berries that Marcus sets out on the shrine stay plump and dewy and ripe, untouched by the frost. And when Frey appears, ethereal and shimmering as if formed from the aurora itself, they carefully scoop the offering into their cupped palms. "And grow you shall," they say, straightening up and smiling down at the young hybrid.

"But this time, we shall keep your feet upon the ground rather than having you spear through the skies," they say. Around the shrine a blistering wind howls through, but Frey appears untouched by it. "This is what you will need to do. Take heed not to run before you can walk."

---

Marcus has received a quest and must do the following:

1. Complete a thread tracking a pack of arctic wolves across the Tundra. No shifts may be used to fulfil this requirement.
2. Complete a thread hunting, killing and cooking something. No shifts may be used to fulfil this requirement.
3. Complete a thread camping out beneath the open sky in any region. 
4. Complete a thread encountering a Shadowfang. (No need to fight it, only to observe it).

Marcus Olson

Your scars are there to show you that you're human

Marcus had seen this god before, but the moment Frey appeared, he still felt the pull of awe settle somewhere deep in his chest. The wind howled across the Sea of Glass, sharp enough to sting his face, yet Frey stood within it like part of the sky and land all at once. Marcus lowered his gaze instinctively when they gathered the berries, relief flickering through him when the offering was accepted.

Frey’s warning settled over him like a careful hand at his shoulder. Take heed not to run before you can walk. Marcus breathed out. A faint, sheepish smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “That’s… probably good advice,” he admitted quietly. His eyes flicked briefly toward the frozen sea and the enormous skeleton rising from the ice before returning to Frey. ”Thank you Frey.”

FIN

Even when you wish they'd wash away