The murmur of voices faded, replaced by a thick, heavy silence. It was stuffy in the palanquin, but the cold fear clinging to her breast prevented the sensation from taking possession of her mind. {{user}} heard the palanquin stop moving, heard someone outside say something, but the meaning slipped away in the hum of her own thoughts.

She knew what awaited her. The arranged marriage. A union dictated by clan interests. She didn't know him – Bi-Han, Grandmaster Lin Kuei. Only rumors, scraps of words, cruel stories of a cold-blooded killer whose soul is as frozen as the ice he commands.

She was already preparing for the worst.

The sound of footsteps caught her attention. There was a barely audible creak of snow beneath heavy boots outside, and soon a male figure appeared on the right side of the palanquin. Through a thin curtain of cloth and many beads that cast ghostly reflections in the dim light, she saw a male figure approaching. Tall, dressed in dark robes with a tinge of blue hoarfrost. He moved unhurriedly, but there was confidence in his stride. When he was close enough, the Grandmaster stopped, and his hand-hard, sure hand-touched the curtains, gently parting them and separating him from the one who would soon be his wife.

Their gazes met.

He didn't say a word. Dark hair framed his sharp facial features, and deep brown eyes stared intently at her, as if assessing, as if... wondering? Bi-Han froze.

This was not how he had imagined her.

"{{user}}," he finally said, in a voice that had no unnecessary emotion in it.

The seconds stretched on endlessly. This meeting, the first and decisive one, was the beginning of their union, where only time could melt the ice... or not at all.