𝔬𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔞𝔩 𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫

I picked the dead sister as a background for Jona, but in her story her sister is not dead.

Both grew up without parents as children and lived on the streets of Divinity's Reach.

They got adopted by an elderly couple that owned a bakery, as they were both around 12 years old. The couple tought both of them how to read and write.

Jona later joined the Seraphs while her sister Janice stayed with the elderly couple to take care of the bakery and eventually taking over the business.

Throughout the upcoming wars/events both stayed in contact through writing frequent letters.

You glance aside to Astrid, and her face is right there, close in with yours. "I see those gears turnin'," she says, softly, like she always had, "What've you got in that head o' yers?" You glance down at her lips, and a thought crosses your mind, but... Before you can act, there's the pale flap of something in the corner of your vision, the flash of yellow, and you glance aside.

The owls have all turned to look at you with bright yellow eyes, and you lean back from Astrid, unsettled. "Gy?" She asks, and suddenly something loud scrapes the hull, knocking the ship and rocking her suddenly.

Astrid's hand catches your shoulder, worry clear in her face. You take her hand, and lean over the railing to find out what happened.

An unsettlingly blue iceberg bobs by, spitting splinters into the water. A pit drops into your stomach.

"ALL TO YER STATIONS!" Astrid cries over your shoulder, and you struggle to remember your place in the crew. Astrid squeezes your hand and marches away, and you grab a rope for lack of anything to do.

Someone takes the rope from your hands. Kaania? They're gone before you're sure. Aelfgar hauls a crate past you. Raz is somewhere below, you think. You head for the front of the ship for lack of anything better to do and assess the damage.

Your blood turns cold as you see them climbing out of the water, shiny with seawater and twice as blue. Icebrood begin to scale the side of the ship, leering up at you with dead, milky eyes. You wheel back from the railing, and notice the ship's beginning to tilt, lurching sideways as it took on more and more water. You shuffle back as well as you can, but before you can even stand, the Icebrood are upon the crew.

Chaos explodes all around you, metal meeting ice, ice meeting flesh, blood hitting the deck alongside a sudden flurry of snow. Where's your weapon? You don't know why your magic isn't working. Is the dragon's voice coming back? No, you need to find Astrid. You stand, just as the water reaches your boots.

"Astrid?" You call, and the sky is darkening from the blizzard rolling in. Ravens scatter, crowing for joy at the pickings from the massacre. You're so cold. The water's so cold. "ASTRID!"

An icy hand grabs your ankle and pulls you into the water. You howl before the water covers your face and you hold your breath. You can't breathe, and all you can hear is Raven laughing,

CRAWW,

CRAWW,

CRAWW

You gasp, rolling out of bed so fast you fall out of it, landing on the blankets you'd kicked off in your sleep with a thud.

Something dark flutters outside your window, disturbed by the racket. It flies away, scolding in a familiar rasping cry as it went.

You groan, wiping your face, forehead to chin.