Sane grinned from ear to ear. He had previously told himself that it didn't matter to him what Shiloh did but now he realised he had been wrong. He lived his life working with the people and the thought that there were some people he couldn't tame was too much for his ego. He needed to assert his dominance as a matter of pride in his work and his abilities. Finally, her agreeing to work with him had been the satisfaction of that need.

Sane nods in acknowledgement of her words. Despite how difficult it is for him to believe, she has no reason to lie to him now, so he is left with little option but to accept her claims that things had once been worse and that now she would be able to survive without assistance if need be. For a normal person he might have been more concerned but for Shiloh he suspected she probably would be alright on her own. Her regenerative abilities were truly something to be proud of so she would have better chances than most. Still, there was no need for him to waste too much time worrying about it because now he could keep a direct eye on her. He was not concerned for Shiloh's safety out of fondness but rather for human decency reasons. Now that his earlier rage had passed and he had gained a new perspective into the woman, he had came to recognise her as sick. Sane was certainly capable of many terrible things but murder and neglect of the sick was not one of them. Therefore he felt an obligation to ensure she survived to see the next day, if nothing else. After that, he would have done his part.

Instead of dwelling on this any longer, he turned his attention to more pressing matters. How were they going to launch a projectile at the energy beam? The obvious solution was telekinesis but at this point he was feeling a little weaker than usual. He would have to fire it quickly and accurately both while ignoring the intense cold he knew from Shiloh to be up there. That was going to be a challenge right then.

"I think I can use telekinesis to fire something with my mind at the energy beam," He said slowly, "But I'm going to need to eat and rest before I attempt such a feat. Do you think we could share your food in the Foyer? You seem like the sensible type who would bring food on your travels with you. Now, you're not willing to share then you had better have a brilliant alternative idea."

"I don't have any food with me. It bringing it would have just slowed me down in crossing the tundra." Shiloh went silent for a few minutes, her arms in a posture as if she were thinking. "…I'll be back in about fifteen to twenty minutes. I'm going to get something." She then went down the winding passageways to find a particular area she knew that had descending spike traps. When she was out of sight, the sound of a loud crack echoed through the halls followed by the multitude of flapping wings. The flapping was soon stopped when the metallic shing signalling the deployment of a hidden trap cut it short, and then everything fell into silence again. The rise and fall of pressure-weighted spike traps, triggered arrows, and clang of retractable spears built into the walls sounded one after another as she came back. Returning to where Sane and she previously stood, Shiloh was holding the corpse of a dead wyvern. Its cause of death was identified by the gaping hole through its torso. She then meticulously set the creature's body in a specific part of the passage on the floor before coming back.

 If it wasn't obvious as to what she was doing, Shiloh was setting a rudimentary bait trap using the wyvern corpse and pressure plates. Her reasoning for this was to lure some of the glacial salamanders there to reduce their numbers. Wyverns she had no problem dealing with, but the large ice lizards were deadly in how well they camouflaged with the walls and their breath could freeze a man solid in seconds. Continuing the train of thought she had disrupted earlier, she cleaned her hands off on her clothes. Once she was back on the mainland she'd buy herself a clean set. "If you want food, I'll give some to you in the foyer." She watched the wyvern corpse-baited trap out of the corner of her eye, then began walking back to the hall lit with arcane flame. So in short, his idea wasn't that much different from hers. Regardless of the methods, they were still going to lob something at the beam. There were an abundance of projectiles in the Vault to use, but if he was going to use magic to throw the thing then that meant their number of attempts would be limited by his stamina.

Back in the warmth of the blue-lit chamber she pulled up a chair to one of the tables still intact. Checking if there were any changes to the place since they both left, she searched the bodies of the fallen scavengers and treasure hunters for anything edible. Most of her searches turned up hidden weapons, stowed coins and jewels, or flasks of indeterminate liquid. Ignoring anything that was not food, she spent a good half hour before she had what she was looking for. Setting her findings on the table, she placed some portions of dried jerky, cheese, and hardtack down before Sane. She had already eaten hours ago, and could go for a few more hours before her next meal. The things she had taken were from the newly deceased, rather than the five who were still unconscious. To her it was more logical to reclaim from the dead than the living. The dead had no use for it after all. 

No food? Sane scowled. He had been counting of finding food on location to survive, meaning he had been planning to borrow some from those already at the Vault. The thought that he might actually have to hunt for his tea was beyond distasteful. But then Shiloh said she was going to get something. Was she going to hunt for their dinner? He supposed he wasn't going to complain if she was offering to do the work. He waited patiently for her return, listening to the sounds of  her killing with mild interest. When she brought back the wyvern, Sane actually sculpted his face into one of neutrality. For quite some time now due to his anger, he had been wearing his emotions on his face plain for anyone to see but he had now sufficiently calmed down to regain control. He would not look angry or dissaproving or disgusted again, only smiling or neutral. Shiloh would only get to see what he wanted her to see of him from now on.

So when she began to position the creature on the floor, he hid his surprise and curiosity in favour of blankness. He was pleased he did too because it didn't take him long to figure out that she was only setting a trap for other creatures. He nodded his approval but that still didn't get him fed. Finally, when she offered to get him food in the Foyer he smiled slightly as he replied, "Yes. It is about time. Please lead the way."

Then he followed her into the grand space where she began the laborious job of scavanging the dead bodies about the place. He sat down on a wooden chair beside a rickety table and leaned back as he watched her work. This was how is was meant to be. Her serving and respecting him because he was the one who had to do the real work, in this case disrupting the beam of glacial light that froze the local landscape and beyond. She brought him proper food not homecooked He began eating as she brought him food and whenever he finished anything she had set another item on the table for his consumtion. For almost half an hour he dined before he felt quite full. He felt oddly like a husband that worked hard and then had his wife meekly serve him before and after. The thought was amusing to him, though he had no desire to have any sort of a wife, meek or otherwise, at this point.

"Thank you, my dear," He said with carefully regulated calm, "That was a wonderful meal considering what you had to work with. But don't forget to eat yourself if you need to. You'll need to be in peak form when we face the cold upstairs. I think I will have a little lie down now to rest my mind and body. It will also allow my food to digest. Then, when I am reasonably strong again, we can go and destroy that beam. I suggest you also take this opportunity to rest as well."

He stood from his chair and made his way over to the hearth where blue flames were dancing strangely. He didn't let that concern him, however, as he lay down in front of those flames and closed his eyes in preparation for sleep. He made sure to rest his hands over where his daggers rested sheathed against him, more as a show to ward off potential attackers than actually for defence. His daggers were not his main weapon after all, his mind was. Now, he trusted Shiloh to entertain herself while he napped for an hour or so. The woman had agreed to stay now in a frail alliance so he doubted she would make off or try to cut his throat while he slept.

With his demands over for now, Shiloh now had the liberty to resume her schedule again. She approached the stairs, taking the one descending downward. Soon she was back where the frigid underground river flowed again, and where the poison-tailed wyverns dwelt. This was where she had been considering on retrieving the perfect projectile for her catapult. Fixating her gaze on a glimmer beneath the water's surface, she reached out as if to pull it towards her. The dimmed shine shook, water rippling gently. The longer she kept it up the stronger the ripples became until she successfully dislodged a glistening silver-plated helmet from the depths. Ducking quickly, the flying helmet barely missed her head. Her attempt to pull it out had been fruitful, as her previous attempts had produced nothing. Picking the helm up she tested the heft and balance. Hollow inside but large enough to send flying–just what she wanted. Unfortunately the clack of the metal helm hitting the cavern wall attracted the attention of the dangling wyverns.

Quickly retreating back up the stairway, she took her newly claimed projectile along. When the flapping of the wings ceased she knew they had given up in pursuit, and breathed easier. She stashed it behind a stalagmite with the other stones and debris she had been collecting to prepare her device. Even if they went unused, it was still prudent to set them aside. Wandering the icy halls again, she siphoned more fragments of negativity from unsuspecting scavengers and left them in safe corners of the Vault. When they would awake at least they wouldn't stumble into a field of spikes. As she continued, her need for food was still sated. Her body was now on a set timetable, and that made regulating her needs easier. While she walked she evaluated what had happened so far. Sane was still as insufferable as ever, his attitude left unchanged from before. But she wouldn't bother with him anymore, once they were done. Personally she would also prefer if he conveniently forgot her too. Sometimes, it was better for certain individuals to remain strangers.

She had enough of another's ego for the rest of the year. Taking inventory of what had been removed when she was temporarily out of commission, she put her subconscious in order and readjusted things with more fine tuning. When all was set to her liking, she checked the feeling in her hands by pinching the skin of her thumb. It was better now. The emotional numbness was fading, as it should be. She passed by the area where she had set the baited trap, and found a group of ghouls stuck in the spears. That was a few less carrion-eaters for the inhabitants to worry about, and less undead meant a safer passage. She was disappointed that there were no glacial salamanders, however. Perhaps they were too sly. Picking up a frost-encrusted gold coin, she flipped it in the air. Heads meant she would stay until the beam was gone, tails meant after the first three attempts she would leave. The coin landed in the palm of her hand, showing tails. Turning it over to the other side, she revealed that both sides were the same. Tossing it aside she decided she would leave when she saw fit, as she would have done regardless. It was hard to keep track of time so she stayed just outside the foyer entrance. "…One more round to go." She muttered to herself.

Sane wasn't sure how long he had slept but he woke refreshed. He took his time getting up and stretching, looking casually around for Shiloh as he did. She was nowhere in sight, though he still didn't think she would have left. He began moving around the Foyer slowly, getting himself into the mindset of work and keeping an eye out for the elusive woman at the same time. As he came to the entrance to the Foyer, he became aware of her mind just outside. It was still shielded but he had become accustomed to her mental barriers so much so that he could detect them. They were like a hardness in the mental landscape that prevented him from reaching and detecting minds behind it. He could always go around the block but he didn't need to because he knew that the block was Shiloh.

He made his way to where she stood in the hall way and waved casually. "Good morning - or whatever time of day it is. Are you ready to head upstairs? We must be quick and we must bring some things for me to throw so we don't waste time looking for something up there. I highly suggest that you let me into your mind from here on in so that we can communicate with the most efficiency. This that we are about to do will require both precision, skills and luck. Reducing our reaction times to each other will be a helpful advantage."

As he spoke Sane performed a precision attack, much like keyhole surgery, to carefully get into Shiloh's mind. Once inside, he looked around swiftly for anything he should know before continuing. He chanced upon her escapade down into the lower levels of the Vault with the river and found himself surprisingly unsurprised by her show of telekinesis. She did seem to be in the slow process of teaching herself the art of psionics. Sane did feel slightly annoyed, however. He would have picked a much more worthy person to learn his trade. But he managed to hide this irritation behind a facade of placid tranquillity. The the thing that made him really angry was that is begame quickly apparent that she had already re-polluted her mind! His jaw clenched with fury for just a moment. The ungrateful bitch! But he quickly pushed such useless feelings away and continued to look blankly at her. She wouldn't know.

He also saw in her mind that she had ammunition and pieces for building a throwing contraption. He supposed it was always good to have a backup plan so he nodded and drew back from her mind. "Yes, by all means, let's put together your little toys. I will help and then we can take it, your projectiles and anything else you want to upstairs." He nodded and gestured with his hand beack towards the Foyer. "Please lead the way. I will follow."

Shiloh was beside the foyer entrance with silver helmet in hand. "The catapult has less than a seventy percent chance of success upon completion of its construction, additional factors aside. If your plan doesn't work then it's likely mine won't either. What else do you need other than projectiles? I've taken the liberty of loading as many as I could find." Next to her was a large burlap sack with large objects between the size of a coconut to that of a human skull. In fact, that was most of what she had in there. With all due respect to the dead, their intact craniums were unfortunately the perfect size and weight to be used in launching. Things like bags of coins and jewels were too irregularly shaped to deal an effective impact. She noticed Sane's facial muscles tighten around the sides of his lower jaw, but thought nothing of it. 

Her mind was back to being up to speed, returning more flexibility to her actions and mannerisms. "Once we reach the halfway point up the ascending stairwell, the temperature will take a sharp nosedive. The ascent from that point on will take a minimum of three to five minutes as stiffness in the joints from the decreased ambient temperature starts to set in. At the top of the stairs, we have at most ten minutes to deal as much damage as possible before frostbite becomes a serious threat. I will temporarily lower my guard mentally so you can enter, but not until we reach the top of the stairs. A sustained connection is only needed at the moment we are to take action." She was aware of something stabbing the insides of her mind again, but by now she figured Sane couldn't help himself from doing that to everyone he met. Not that there was anything else he needed to know anyways.

With the sack in hand, she began making her way up to the beam. With each step she counted the seconds as the upper chamber drew nearer and nearer. It was as if there was an overturned hourglass inside with the grains trickling at a constant rate. As she predicted, she felt the drastic drop in temperature at the halfway mark. Instead, she pushed herself to climb faster. Entering the chamber a blast of arctic air hit her face like thousands of frozen needles. There the beam stood, in the center–bright and pulsating with eldritch energy. Dropping her sack of projectiles, she dropped her mental wards when the skulls and stones hit the floor and poured them out. Including the silver helmet, there were eleven objects in total. "Ten minutes." She reminded him. In her hand was the helmet, the largest of all of the projectiles.

Sane followed as he had said he would. Shiloh was carrying all the projectiles and her makeshift devices up with her in a sack. He would have been willing to help with some of that, though he saw no need to offer if she was already lugging it along with success. He supposed it was only fair, considering that he was the one about to actually throw those things. Still, she must be strong to move so quickly up the extensive staircase with the heavy loot, even as the cold set into both their bones.

Knowing how cold it was going to be still did not prepare him for the real thing. He almost hunched up and stopped because of it but realising that it wasn't going to get any better and there was no hope of 'getting used to it', he forced himself to move quickly along. He was half tempted to block off his own pain receptors and dumb his own sense of temperature to increase his efficiency. However, he quickly decided against it. He needed the pain to determine how much damage he was taking from the cold. It would let him know when he needed to retreat. Without it, permanent damage might end up being done to his body without his even realising. So he arrived in the upper nexus half a minute or so behind the woman and was again almost crippled by the cold. But she reminded him or their time scale and held out the helmet, which looked to be their best projectile to throw.

However, as arrogant as Sane might be he wasn't going to count of his being able to hit the beam first time and instead levitated a skull from the bag. They had plenty of the hollow head pieces so he could warm up using them. He took a deep breath of frigid air and imagined his lungs freezing solid they stung so much. He lined up the skull in the air before him. By now his eyes were glowing a faint icy blue. Perhaps camouflaging with their environment of ice or perhaps reflecting his cool and calm concentration; he calculating mindset he now employed to sort the direction and power with which he would need to shoot.

He fired the first skull with sudden and immense power. It went flying straight across the room towards the glacium and flew straight through the center of the beam. Sane was pleased. He was not able to see so much as sense the bone being frozen and then shattered into a million pieces in the same instant by the energy. But the chaotic, icy infulencer did seem to be diminished slightly as well. It flickered in his mind's eye before restablishing itself with a slightly weaker aura than before. He reached out again to levitate the helmet. He fired it cleanly but watched as only half of it was swolen up by the energy this time. Trust it to be when he used the helmet when he failed. His aim had
not been quite so good but the item still exploded into many shards, weakening the energy beam in the process. It flickered for longer this time.

Sane was not as in tune with magic or even energy in the same way that he was with mental activities. But he was in a high state of telepathic concentration at this time and able to pick up a few clues and signs to raise his suspicians. The magic that permeated this place was designed to affect the mind and he felt it faulter several times along with the beam and then stay slightly diluted. Also, his 'vision' - if it could be classed as vision at all - at this time was on a slightly different level to that of normal light. He could 'see' things that might otherwise have slipped the notice of normal humans. Minute things were falling apart, patches of heat were beginning to grow and then fie in remote corners of the room.

"Shiloh, I get the feeling we are the not the only people to try attacking this thing. It's weaker than it looks and those objects disrupting it are affecting it more than they should. I think it will fall apat soon with no additional assistance from us." He picked up another projectile and fired it idly as he spoke. It missed so he picked up another one and aimed more carefully. It exploded, "I don't think we want to be here when it finally fails so we should just go home now. I might even go as far as to say this place will be quite gone by tomorrow."

He continued throwing projectiles one after the other with varying degrees of success, the speed that his ammunition aquiring gradually falling as his stamina was used up again. He sent Shiloh a steady stream of his findings via telepathy. He didn't think he would have the time to explain them verbally. This place was already weakened. That was probably due to the way he had stalled going to theis place in order to gather maximum possible earnings from more and more employers on the same job. He was quite happy with the way things had turned out; more money for less effort was the way he saw it. Plus he had got his 'challange' from Shiloh beside him. Breaking her in had been a pest of a job. So his contribution to the cause had been exceptionally small but it also happened to be the staw that broke the spine of this place. It would last a little longer but not too much. There were only two skulls in the bag now. He was too tired to throw these effectivly now. The last two he had thrown had both missed and the one before that hadn't even reached the target.

He turned to Shiloh wearily and hoped that she would be happy to leave. They must have used up at least half of their allotted ten minutes anyway and his fingers were completely numb. His face also felt like it was going to fall off. In fact, his whole body wass ridiculously stiff. His eyes returned to normal as he ceased to use telekenisis but he found himself quite unable to do anything other than hobble weakly. He sighed, annoyed. He really wished that this hadn't happened but as it was it was looking like he was going to need Shiloh's help to even get down the stairs. He hoped with all his might that once he was in the Foyer he would warm up enough to walk normally.

While Sane launched the skulls at the beam, Shiloh detected a slight change in temperature. Somehow, it felt as if the temperature was slowly rising. Was she imagining things? There were instances where in subzero conditions the body's senses would register an extreme sensation as the opposite. She checked her fingers. No signs of frostbite–her nerves were still live. Then came the tremors, minuscule at first but gradually growing stronger. The energies were shifting, and like he said–things were starting to fall apart. The place was coming down. With one last glance at the chamber's ceiling, she said through clenched teeth: "We're getting out of here." The joints of her hands were stiffened and it was difficult to even do something as simple as clenching a fist. Soon the rumbling was growing louder, and this time she knew it wasn't the roar of a dragon. Everything she needed was already packed and ready to go.

She turned to go back down the stairs when she noticed Sane was barely moving. Shiloh didn't need to think twice on what to do; re-erecting her mental wards she tapped into the shadows and used them to charge herself up with power. Adrenaline was kicking in as she artificially triggered her fight-or-flight response, and in a sudden burst of strength she grabbed Sane by the midsection and half-dragged him along with her. Stomping down the stairwell they were out of the waning beam's chill zone in less than three minutes. Once back in the foyer she let go of him, and immediately began readjusting the straps of her knapsack and securing other important belongings while feeling was returning to her body. Her movements were rapid, expecting the place to cave in at any moment. At this point her body was acting before her conscious mind could keep up running on pure instinct and muscle memory. She was so focused on getting out that she didn't say another word to him since they returned to the coldfire-lit foyer. The foyer itself was empty, even the people she had knocked out earlier were gone. The walls were visibly shaking and dust was forming where stonework was coming loose.

Without so much as a goodbye, she was flying out the foyer entrance into the winding tunnels. The sudden burst in activity got her blood pumping through her veins and with the foyer's warmth she was more or less in full working order. As the tremors intensified, she was running full-speed as traps were being triggered in her wake. Every living thing inside the Vault was trying to escape, from the scavengers to the wyverns. While she ran she felt something smack into her upper back and head, but ignored it and kept on running. There was no time for that now–she had to get out before it all came crumbling down or else. Her repeated rounds through the tunnels before meeting Sane had paid off, making finding the quickest way to the front doors a breeze. Charging full-throttle, she kicked the door open and tumbled forward into the snow outside. Getting up, she crawled away frantically trying to put more distance between her and the collapsing ruin. She wasn't risking getting hit by falling debris.

The adrenaline rush wearing off, she slumped over on the ground hyperventilating. It was at that moment Shiloh realized she had dropped Sane in the foyer and bolted. Trying to get up her legs refused to budge. Cursing she tried to force them to move, but they had been taxed beyond their limits. She was stuck lying here on her side until the fatigue relented. Rolling onto her back she heard a shrill yelp as she felt something on her back. Craning her neck, she finally got a glimpse of what hit her in the back during her escape earlier. There was one of the small wyverns with its talons embedded into the material of her knapsack. They stared at each other in silence for a few minutes until Shiloh blinked. Having run out of witty remarks and sarcasm, she sighed loudly.

Later she was picked up by traveling teams driven by dog sleds sent to search for survivors. She and her hitchhiker were both loaded up onto a sled and brought back to the main settlement on the ice island. Within a few days, she was back in Adeluna working again. 'Glaciem' was over, for now. 

It wasn't long before the slight manifestations of the places weakness were beginning to make themselves known in a much more real and dangerous way. Slight tremors turned to large shakes and slight cracks became extensive ones. Sane gasped in shock as he felt Shiloh wrap her arm around his stomach and start pulling him along backwards at a brutal pace. It was like a punch, winding him and making him double over in pain. But Shiloh kept on going him until he was back to the warmth of the foyer. Once there, she dropped him and began sorting her possessions strapped to her person. He continued to pand and wheez as he began to feel more normal again. There was blood returning to his extremities once more and his joins began to loosen. He opened his mouth to speak to Shiloh, only to see a figure darting out the room and into the maze.

He stood up straighter, gently slapping his own face to get everything working how it should be. He thought it incredibly rude that Shiloh had run off so quickly but didn't have time to muse about it. He set off at a slow job towards the exite, stopping every now and again to pick up a tricket, treasure or coin he liked the look of. Money was the main reason for his visit here, after all. It was only when the rocks began raining down with great speed that Sane actually began to worry about how he was going to get out safely. In answer to his own question, he began to actually run. His body was quite warm enough for it now. More often than he would have likes he had to defend himself via telekenisis against both falling rocks and against traps. But then he spotted a hole in the cieling where the roof had caved partially in. He hopped up onto the ice rubble and began to run along the top of the Vault's maze. Here he was safe from both traps and falling debris and it was easy enough for him to make his way straight to the exit. Once there, he willed the snow to rise and meet him as he jumped from the roof.

It did so and then lowered him down gently. Only another two minutes of running and the young telepath collapsed. Hopefilly, he was far enough away to be out of the danger zone. It was very ungrateful of Shiloh to leave him thusly, expacially consideering how many skulls he had thrown for the both of them. But then he supposed that this was the problem with not letting anyone see your weakness. He wondered if he would have helped him if he made more of a big deal about his condition.

Then he fell into a deep, deep asleep. Several hours later, when he woke, he would need to walk for almost another twenty four hours to get to where he needed to be. He hoped people would be out searching for survivers and he could get on one of their transports. They were and he found himself being pulled aboard one after about three more hours of  silen travel. How many others there were, he wasn't sure, but he was grateful nonetheless to be around other people who didn't shield their mind's from him, to be in a semi-warm and to be no longer be expected to walk. He allowed his head to loll and dozed again, dreaming of frigid treasures.