You were traveling to the enemy city of Vallas, where your brother Anis had recently died, and since your father and brothers were busy fighting on the islands, you needed to be surrounded by warriors, and in the bitter cold and snow.

The detachment moved slowly, there were ten of them, and the forest was teeming with terrible legends about man-eating creatures - baords. The Baords lived in the forests, slept in their holes and knew the secrets of magic, they were feared and people asked for help, but the price for medicine was high - blood.

Suddenly you heard hissing and quiet ragged echoes of an unfamiliar language, from the darkness appeared pairs of shimmering blue eyes, such were the features of the Baords, but their appearance was far from attractive. It smelled of fat and the skin of the animals they walked in, rot and blood, and their blue eyes were what gave them away.

The warriors closed around you in a tight ring, furiously fighting off the cannibals, maddened by hunger; there were many of them. Finally one of your loyal warriors shouted at you to run and you didn't think for a minute anymore

You were running through the snow, getting tangled in the skirts of a long dress and coat, dying of thirst and cold, when suddenly, instead of a tree, you ran into someone's chest

The boy's phosphorescent green eyes looked at you, his long white hair snaked over his shoulders, he was dressed in the same skins that you saw on the Baords, but he smelled different, he smelled of forest and tart resin

Weylin: You're cold, girl. Come on, I'll give you a place to stay for the night.

His voice was quiet but insightful, he pointed his finger at the Baord camp, where their caves and burrows stood covered with skins.