The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 34 - Catching Up (Patreon)

                                                                                               Alexander North

The imperial family may not have anywhere near as much power as it used to have, but it does still serve a major purpose in the Empire. Even if part of that purpose is more of a figurehead, since the imperial family technically has less power than the general in most things. Outside of their control over the mother terminal that is, and their large control over the economic council seeing as they always have the largest wealth in the entire empire. For obvious reasons.

So not only would I not be very happy if Cynthia died here, considering she’s my freaking cousin and we’ve hung out a lot since we were kids, but the entire Empire would go bonkers if she died.

Cynthia suddenly reaches out and grabs my arm before smiling slightly and saying, “I’m glad you’re here.”

I give her a nod while moving over to the door to close it as quietly as I can.

“How bad is it?” I ask, only for her to grimace when she tries to move. “Stop. Stay still.”

She does so and quietly answers, “It’s not life threatening, and I should still be okay to fight.”

I raise an eyebrow at that before beginning to take off her armor to reveal her under armor beneath and the cuts and bruises all over her arms and legs after I remove the segment covering them. There are probably some bruises as well on the torso area, but I’ll leave that area alone for obvious reasons.

She’s right about them not being life threatening though.

“How did you end up passing out with…” I begin before trailing off as I notice the blood dripping out of her black hair. “Oh.”

How did I miss that?

I glance at her face to find it flushed a little, making me realize that it’s probably freezing cold here. So I quickly administer first aid with the equipment in the room, which happens to be a storage room that also has some first aid kits in it. Which is probably why she was here in the first place. Likely came to get the first aid kit before passing out.

After finishing wrapping up all of the visible injuries, I help her back into her armor. But for some reason her face still seems a little flushed.

Is it because of a concussion?

“Do you think you have a concussion?” I ask her, worried about how she’d be able to make it through this hellhole with an injury like that. But she just shakes her head and mutters, “I… think I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

I purse my lips at that before realizing it might just be because I had stripped her to her under armor.

Oops.

Guess anyone would be embarrassed by that.

After a few seconds, she seems to return to normal and asks, “Have you contacted your dad yet?”

I nod my head and ask back, “Did you contact yours?”

She nods before glancing at the door as another howl echoes through the floor.

A few more seconds pass with the howl still echoing down the halls before I ask, “So you heard about the frost infused, right?”

She’s family, so she’ll likely end up finding out eventually. Better to tell her now than have to explain later when we’re in a tough si-

“I know you’re one,” she says without even taking her eyes off of the door and instead trying to get to her feet with a grunt and some wobbling in the process. “Dad already told me.”

My mouth drops open at that, but before I can say anything, she puts her hand on my head while I’m still kneeling on the floor next to where she was in order to gain her balance and push herself the rest of the way up.

“Rude…” I can’t help but mutter while following her to my feet. “Guess that means dad told the emperor then.”

Cynthia turns to look at me with an eyebrow raised before putting her helmet on and saying, “You know he’s told you to call him uncle Rainald, right? At least a hundred times by now.”

Yeah, and I’m not going to call him that. He’s the emperor. Period.

“Sure,” I tell her as always, making her stare at me through her helmet, likely with a brow raised in suspicion.

It’s good to be joking like we used to. I haven’t seen her since basic training a couple of years ago.

And if I remember correctly, we were both corporals back then. Which makes me wonder what rank she is now, but her insignia is too damaged to tell.

“So you’re a second lieutenant now?” She suddenly asks as we begin making our way towards the door. I watch her as she walks to make sure that she didn’t lie about the concussion earlier, but surprisingly, she seems to be walking perfectly fine.

So I turn to face where I’m going as I answer, “Yep. You?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her glancing at her destroyed insignia before facing forward again and answering, “A warrant officer.”

Oh? So I out rank her by a single rank then. Interesting.

Then again, I’ve probably seen more active combat than her. Considering the pirate fiasco a little while back.

Once we reach the door, she pauses, making me stop as well before she turns around and asks, “Can I see?”

I furrow my brows in confusion at that for a second before understanding and taking off my helmet. She then steps closer and stares – likely at my eyes. And after several more seconds, she reaches for my hand and grabs it, only to frown.

Understanding what she’s looking for, I extend my claws while my hand is still on her own, making her jump slightly in surprise.

“Huh.” She mutters before looking up at me and asking, “Retractable?”

I nod my head in response and she begins moving my gloveless hand around for a few seconds, only for our bare skin to touch at some point, making her skin begin to freeze over. She jerks her hand back and stares at the frozen skin.

“Yeah, probably should’ve warned you about that,” I tell her while frowning. “Didn’t think about it since you’re wearing gloves.”

Just that her gloves have quite the number of holes in them.

She stares at me for a second before shaking her head and turning back to the door while blowing warm air on her hands, which were thankfully only a tiny bit frozen since we barely had any contact at all. Basically just a small bit of skin that peel away after she blows on it and rubs her hands together enough.

Which makes me wonder if I’ll ever be able to control that power. Because freezing people every time I touch them with my bare skin might get a little annoying.

“Ready to head out?” she asks, making me glance at her before nodding after looking at her sword sheathed on her waist.

“Let’s go,” I tell her while opening the door and stepping out of the room.