the wind talks back

Amalia I took the stars from our eyes and I made a map I knew that somehow I could find my way back The man who greets them takes a good amount of time doing it- and in that time Amalia's steeled nerves begin to crumble and bend, leaving her shivering and terribly uncertain as she stands there in the cold. Fur has returned to cover the few exposed parts of her body (and some of the unexposed parts, too); still she feels the chill in her bones, biting and worse than anything she's known before. At last, though, their presence is answered. Amalia cannot help the sigh of relief that escapes her at the sight of the man: at least it isn't Zariah, she thinks, silently thanking Safrin for this smallest of mercies. Oh, she knows the name that must go along with him, has been warned by Loren about this twin with a different face- but she feels less abject fear in the face of him than she does the Tyrant, and with her friends behind her Amalia swallows, slowly stepping forward. "Are you Neron Launceleyn?" Amalia asks, before shaking her head at his question. "No, we... we aren't here on Rexanna's behalf. Or the Hollow Grounds at all. We came - the Old Gods have given us a task. To try to keep the portal system from being used by the Voice." Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too So I stayed in the darkness with you