The month passed quickly. Too quickly. Marc had taken the news surprisingly well, immediately trying to form a relationship with Sean, offering to play board games with him and help him with homework. As requested, he stayed away from the topics of Sean’s past and religion. He even hid his cross bracelet in his bag after Sean saw it.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to leave. Sean spent the last night in my bed, cuddled up next to me. He promised to call Marc if something was wrong, and Marc had promised to help if Sean called him for whatever reason.

I was driven to the airstrip in a black car. I tried to put Sean’s sad expression at the back of my mind. At least he wasn’t completely alone now; Marc knew about him, and cared about him as much as I did. But Marc didn’t know where I actually worked, how I was often gone for a month or two. Hopefully Sean wouldn’t let anything slip.

When I climbed onto the empty jet, I was met with Junior Director Thompson.

“Sir,” I curtly nodded in greeting.

“Calvin, sit,” he ordered, motioning to the seat across from him.

My brows furrowed for a split second. I sat.

“You and I are going to Alaska,” he said.

My eyes widened, “Alaska? To…. To EW-7?”

He nodded, “While you were away, EW-54 was given paper in an effort to increase his communication abilities and test his general intelligence, and he drew pictures of EW-7. Blueprints, almost, as well as crowns, a market, typical kingdom things. He’s quite the artist. He also wrote in the same language found along EW-7-1.”

“So why am I going? I’ve been away for a month,” I argued.

“Hall is absent and Johan’s busy with EW-47,” he curtly replied. “Besides, you’re the only one that EW-54 actually has a reaction to. Everyone else, he either ignores or tries to kill. And, this will get you back in the swing of things, plus it’s a chance to see the stone-cold kingdom up close.” A smirk pulled at his lips. “How did your brother and son react to each other?

I was silent for a moment, slightly annoyed. “They became friends quickly.”

“And you’re certain he won’t tell anyone?”

“He takes secrets seriously,” I jumped to Marc’s defense. “He’s not close with our parents or sister, and he has very few friends; he won’t tell anyone anything.” I quickly moved on to another subject, “So, why are we going to EW-7? Just because Ice wrote in their language?”

“It will only be for a day or two,” he assured me. “We are hoping to find clues to the pasts of both of them.”

I leaned back, skeptical, “We’ve had that thing cataloged since the Great Depression. There are no more clues to find.”

“Perhaps, but now we have a link; a link you may be able to use to get EW-54 to communicate more,” Thompson replied. “We know that these people are, at the very least, still alive and still out there. And, EW-54 is immortal, so he may have lived there over a century ago.”

My eyes widened, “How did we figure that out?”

Thompson shrugged, “Subject testing. Shot him in the head, he recovered.”

My eyes widened more, “He recovered from a bullet to the head?!”

He nodded, “Took a while, and he was exhausted and very hungry afterwards, but yes. Although he was very angry at blood all over his hair. Tried to kill the guard that gave the subject the gun.”

I snorted, “So he has pink hair now?”

“No, apparently a long shower got rid of it,” Thompson chuckled.

We chatted for the duration of the flight, mostly talking about nothing in particular.

We later transferred to a helicopter, and changed into thermal clothes. It had been some time since I had worn layers like this: an undershirt and long johns, thick jeans, a thick high-neck shirt, a sweater, and a thermal jacket.

From the helicopter, EW-7 was beautiful.

It spanned about 30 kilometers, and was constantly blanketed in white. The century-old stone and wood buildings were slowly crumbling, but everything remained mostly intact. The northern lights made the winter sky glow, reflecting off the snow to give everything a green and blue tint. There wasn’t much sun in this area this time of year, so the lights were free to dance.

I wasn’t sure what exactly we were supposed to do here aside from studying the old paintings and tapestries that had been found, but hopefully something could give us a lead to Ice’s ‒ and the kingdom’s ‒ past.