Yae and I had agreed to meet at the building's exit in forty minutes. Meanwhile, I stood in my room, in front of the wardrobe, sifting through the immense variety of available clothes.

A long cloak, falling from the shoulders down to the feet, had caught my eye. It seemed to be the standard attire worn by the members of this group. It was black, lined with thick wool on the inside, with red accents both inside and out. The front boasted various accessories and clasps made of a metal that looked like iron, running down the entire length of the garment. Underneath, I put on a warm black and white outfit, also featuring metallic details, and pulled on a pair of sturdy black leather boots.

After getting dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror.

The image staring back at me felt alien. I had never seen myself like this, wearing clothes so heavy and... grim. The black cloak was dense; the weight of the wool and gray fur, mixed with the cold touch of the front metal, created an immediate aura of power and danger. The ponytail I had tied up, still a bit messy, gave me a more restrained look that contrasted strangely well with the darkness of the attire.

I adjusted the sleeves of the dress beneath the cloak to make sure I could move my arms comfortably. The truth stung: I no longer looked like the goddess I once was. I looked like a true mercenary of the Tears of Hollows.

As I stared at myself, smoothing out the folds of the fabric, I remembered Yae complaining about the freezing cold outside and tried to picture how she would have bundled up to meet me. Well... at least these clothes were highly practical for combat and survival.

I took a deep breath, letting the rustic scent of wool and iron fill my nostrils. I was... ready. Ready to meet my sister and explore the snowy city, because tomorrow... tomorrow our training would begin.

On the nightstand sat a small metal key I hadn't noticed before. I picked it up. I locked my bedroom door and walked with firm steps toward the exit to reunite with Yae.

The sound of my leather boots echoed against the cold stone as I crossed the sanctuary's corridors. The atmosphere remained that suffocating mix of grandeur and oppression, but now, dressed like them, I felt fewer eyes weighing on me. It was as if the darkness of the cloak had rendered me invisible, or worse... had turned me into one of them.

As I approached the main exit, the blinding white light of the snow reflected off the polished floor. The air no longer smelled of pine and meat, but of pure ice and dampness.

There she was. Yae.

Unlike me—who left the front of the cloak open, unfazed by the biting cold—Yae had bundled herself up entirely in the most sealed, heavy version of the attire. The dark fabric and wool covered her body almost up to her neck, locked tight by the metal clasps. She rubbed her hands together and lightly stamped her boots on the floor, her pink hair clashing violently against the grim, crimson palette we now wore.

"Took you long enough, Neiva," she said. Warm vapor condensed as it left her mouth with every syllable, drawing little clouds in the freezing air.

I smiled, walking up to her with calm steps.

"I had to get used to the weight of all this."

Yae stopped rubbing her hands and looked me up and down. Her eyes swept over the metal, the lace of my dress, the leather, and the thick wool framing me. That warm smile she always wore faltered for a few seconds. There was a moment of silence between us, an accurate, painful realization that our divine image had been left behind for good.

"It looks good on you..." she murmured, her tone a mix of melancholy and cold, adjusting her own collar to block the wind slipping through the doors. "We really look like part of them now, don't we?"

I looked out at the snowy city, feeling the bite of the ice that didn't physically affect me, but still seemed to freeze our past.

"It's just to keep us warm," I replied, trying to sound more convinced than I actually was. I offered her my hand. "Ready to explore the city?"

She took a deep breath, accepted my hand, and nodded.

"Ready."

I smiled. Just as I was about to step the tip of my boot outside the building, Primitia's gray sky gave way. It started to snow. Soft, perfect snowflakes fell with silent grace, twirling in the wind before kissing the stone streets.

Yae looked at me, her eyes shining with a childish wonder I hadn't seen since our mission began. Suddenly, she forgot the biting cold and the discomfort of the heavy cloak. She immediately ran out into the street, jumping and laughing as she tried to catch the flakes in the air. I went right after her. The sound of the snow crunching beneath the heavy leather of my boots felt strangely liberating, and I found myself laughing and jumping alongside her.

"Got one!" I yelled, holding out my hand. The snowflakes didn't melt right away on my skin; they seemed to belong there, sliding softly through my fingers without giving me the slightest chill.

"Liar!" Yae shouted, laughing out loud, a small cloud of hot vapor escaping her lips.

Taking advantage of her distraction, I quickly crouched down. The fresh snow molded perfectly in my bare hands. I packed a tight ball, stood up, and hurled it straight at Yae. The white projectile flew and hit her dead center on top of her head. The snowball shattered in a small burst of ice dust, and her pink hair—so vibrant against that gloomy palette—was speckled with white clumps.

"You've got some nerve!" she laughed, shaking her head furiously and brushing the snow from her hair. "You'll see!"

Yae bent down clumsily, restricted by the thick cloak, struggling to gather the snow. By the time she threw her first snowball, I had already stepped back, laughing at the top of my lungs. Her shot grazed my shoulder.

Within seconds, the quiet street turned into our battlefield. Yae tried to use her natural flexibility and acrobatics to dodge, but the heavy wool slowed her reflexes. I, on the other hand, with my cloak open and a body immune to the cold, moved with an enviable fluidity, firing back with accurate snowballs. During those brief moments, the weight of the guild, the revelations, the sudden changes, and the loss of our home vanished. There, in the middle of the ice and dressed like assassins, we were just two sisters reclaiming a fragment of our stolen joy.

Our heavy panting was what finally made us stop. The exhaustion, mixed with laughter that made our chests ache, eventually won out. Without warning, I let myself fall backward onto the thick layer of untouched snow. Yae laughed and threw herself down right after, collapsing next to me with a dull thud, muffled by the heavy wool of her cloak.

We lay there side by side, staring up at the gray sky as it gradually eased its white storm. My body surrendered to relaxation, and almost by instinct, I started sweeping my arms and legs back and forth, brushing through the soft snow and creating a smooth mold around me.

Yae turned her face to me, her eyes brimming with curiosity.

"What are you doing?" she asked between short breaths.

"I don't really know," I admitted, keeping up the synchronized movement on the ground. "Just leaving a mark in the snow, I guess."

She smiled and started copying me, moving her arms and legs, sinking the dark, heavy clothing into the immaculate whiteness of the ground. The sound of fabric scraping against snow was the only thing breaking the silence. When we finally stopped, Yae lifted her head slightly to inspect the mess we had made around us.

"You know..." she murmured, her smile softening into a more contemplative expression. "The shapes we made. They look like figures with wings."

I looked at the imprints carved into the snow. Indeed, the trails from our arms formed perfect arcs, like wings spread wide from our bodies.

"Like the divine beings from mortal tales," I finished, understanding her vision.

"Yes. Let's call them angels. Snow angels," Yae decreed, a melancholic sweetness in her voice. It was a new concept, an expression invented by us, in a world that didn't belong to us and didn't know the same angels we did.

Gradually, the snow stopped falling altogether. Primitia's sky opened a brief rift between the oppressive clouds, revealing a ray of pale light that bathed the sanctuary's outer garden. I sighed, pressing my hands against the cold ground to push myself up. I offered my hand to Yae, who gripped it firmly, and I pulled her to her feet.

We brushed the snow from our grim cloaks and our hair, erasing the excess whiteness covering our black and crimson.

"Shall we?" I asked, nodding toward the vast garden and the stone streets of the city stretching beyond the guild's gates.

"Let's go," she agreed, adjusting her collar one more time to lock in her own body heat.