Moonsong Glacier [m] going toe to toe with an enchantress

With nothing constructive to occupy his mind, Aventus took up nighttime wandering as a hobby. It was easy to put up a facade of strength after his mother's death, easier still when he felt responsible for holding his family together while Merrick and Avicus both crumbled, but it affected him nonetheless. In the lull between border patrols, hunts and manhunts alike. In quiet hours before dawn, or times like now when he found it difficult to sleep. In the darkness, he imagined her indigo eyes peering back at him.

No insects chirred in the cold air to keep him company, leaving Aventus mostly in silence with his thoughts. Here and there he could hear the scurrying of crepuscular creatures. Eventually, he forced himself to pursue one of their trails to avoid thoughts of Arielle bounding across his mind again. She was never far from it lately, which perturbed and delighted him in turns, particularly when those thoughts crisscrossed with smoldering memories of Akashingo's pleasure rooms or the pale, stubborn she-wolf from the north.

Following that old pika trail was how he found the fresh scent of a stranger, which then led him to the hollow with its silver webs in the walls. He approached on quiet paws with his shoulders tense and at the ready, but there was no monster waiting to spring. Just a dark wolf sequestered away against the wall, almost invisible there. They could have been doppelgangers, the pale green of Val's eyes reduced to a silver glint in the low light, except Aventus was alert, and this one was staring at the wall like a dullard.

What are you doing here? he asked, not too brusque, but not exactly conversational, either.