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“What’s this place?”
Jin took his eyes off the white and blue landscape to look at Malos. The Aegis’s eyes snapped away from the horizon to meet Jin’s gaze, before shying away to the side.
“An abandoned Titan,” he answered. “I’m not sure what’s its name. It doesn’t appear on many maps, and most don’t bother giving it a name.”
“It’s a big one, though,” Jin commented, looking at the endless sheet of ice stretching out in front of them. He could barely guess the other side, flirting with the horizon, far away from them.
“Yeah.” The snow crunched under his boots as he shifted his weight on his legs. “But it’s dead. Has been for a while. Land is scarce, but not enough for humans to settle on a sinking Titan.”
Jin looked back at the Titan, taking in the landscape. There wasn’t much to see. Mostly snow and ice, as far as the eye could see. Above them, the Titan’s back stretched in a low ceiling, sunlight faintly shining through it in hues of blue and lavender grey. The whole place looked like a giant, flat cave filled with a lake of ice. Light but noticeable wind blew steadily across it, air running through a few large holes in the Titan’s body.
“Why are we here?” Jin turned to face Malos, perplexed. There was nothing here. Nothing that could explain why Malos brought him here.
The Aegis uncrossed his arms, then crossed them again.
“I thought you might like it,” he explained, his voice lacking his usual confidence. He certainly did look less certain of himself than when he dragged Jin out of the Marsanes to some destination he refused to give until they arrived.
“Why?” The cold wind bit Jin’s skin, connecting his confusion into a thought. “Because I’m an Ice Blade? You thought I’d like ice?”
“No– Yes– I–” Malos rubbed his eyes, his good idea turning more into regret by the minute. He was so certain Jin would like the trip. That it would take his mind off his woes, if only for a moment. “I thought you’d appreciate the calm. No humans. No bustling. No overwhelming noises. ...Guess I was wrong.”
All expression had drained from his face as he came to accept that fact. He silently surrendered the lead back to Jin, waiting for him to decide when to leave. Things always turned better when Jin chose. Even if he rarely did. Malos wasn’t sure why he had decided to try and bring him here in the first place.
But the Flesh-Eater didn’t move, his ice blue eyes, so bright and beautiful in the cold hues of their surroundings, simply studying Malos for a moment before turning back to the landscape.
“What’s that noise?” he eventually asked, scanning the ice.
Malos followed his gaze, listening to the otherworldly whistling that kept echoing throughout the Titan. It was such a strange noise, different from animal cries or the rustling of the wind.
“It’s the ice,” Malos explained. “It’s singing.”
Jin frowned.
“It’s ice. It can’t sing. It’s not alive.”
“Neither is the wind. Neither is a purring motor. Neither is noise in general, actually,” Malos argued. “It’s just vibrations going through different materials, including your own ears. You can sing by making your vocal cords vibrate. The ice sings by growing quickly and cracking, making vibration spread through the ice and air and producing sounds...and you don’t really care about the how,” he interrupted himself as he noticed Jin’s gaze blurring out of focus.
The Flesh-Eater didn’t confirm or deny his conclusion, nor did he comment on his explanation. He simply blinked and looked back at the frozen lake, listening to the sounds. Malos studied him, anxious. Was he bored? Did he want to go back to the Marsanes? Did he want to stay? Jin could be so hard to read. Mikhail, Akhos and Patroka always expressed loudly what they wanted, what they liked or didn’t like. Jin never did. It could show in small details in his posture, in his gaze, but rarely in obvious actions or words. He was their leader, and yet the man who spoke the least.
It never stopped Malos from watching for the little details that could tell him how he felt.
“Do you like it?” he asked, studying Jin’s relaxed shoulders.
“Yes.”
Jin’s gaze was fixed on the ice, taking in its frozen details. The air was colder than ever as the light slowly began to dim through the Titan’s skin, but its bite didn’t bother them.
“Do you want to go on the ice?” Malos tried, watching the Flesh-Eater.
Jin nodded, breaking his statue-like stillness to step off the snowy banks and onto the darker surface of the lake. He casually walked over it, as if it was a steady floor and not a slippery frozen body of water. Malos smiled at the sight. Being an Ice Blade was part of his identity, whether he admitted it or not. The Aegis walked after him, his steel-sole boots finding an easy grip on the ice.
They walked together in silence, listening to the sounds of the ice and their steps. Beneath their feets, cracks were running through the ice, drawing blueish white patterns on its darker blue. The thick frozen cover didn’t even protest under their weight, safely supporting them as they went further away from the shore, toward the center of the Titan.
The lighting was now frankly purple, the red hues of the setting sun merging with the blue tones of the Titan’s skin. They could have turned back, leaving the place before nightfall, but what did they have to fear from the night? The entire place was devoid of life forms to threaten them, and of obstacles to make them stumble.
By the time Jin stopped walking, it was dark enough for Malos to bump into him, failing to notice his change of pace in time.
“Sorry,” he apologized, taking a step back.
Jin didn’t answer, his dark silhouette cutting against the light patches of snowy landscape in the distance. Malos hesitated, then reached for his chest plate and unbuckled its straps, dropping the piece of metal to let the amethyst glow of his Core Crystal envelop them. Its light was faint, fainter than it should have been, reminding Malos of the half it was missing. But it was still enough to light up Jin’s features in the night, and that was all Malos wanted. To be able to look at him.
Jin studied him, and reached to pull his mask away from his face, revealing his bright red Core Crystal. He carefully put the mask away, his gaze pausing on it before reaching back for Malos.
The irregular lighting wasn’t exactly the most flattering. The creases on their faces were enhanced by the badly angled red and amethyst light sources, making them look more exhausted than ever. But maybe they were. Perhaps they were here, on a frozen dead Titan in the middle of the night, because they desperately needed a moment of rest, away from the world.
Malos stared into Jin’s eyes, admiring the way their color changed under the unnatural lighting. They absorbed their Core Crystals’ hues into new colors, so different from his eyes under the sunlight. He could never get bored of looking into these eyes.
Jin held his gaze, in that way only Jin could hold it. Few people ever truly looked into the Aegis’s eyes. Jin did. Never flinching, never hiding. Even when they were still enemies, his eyes had looked at him with sincerity. Malos liked that.
Malos’s head leaned forward, eyes closing, until his forehead came to rest against Jin’s. The Flesh-Eater’s Core Crystal dug into his skin, its point almost uncomfortably sharp. But the sting felt good to Malos. It focused his thoughts to that warm point on his forehead, soothing. Jin didn’t move, supporting Malos’s head against his own, completing him in a comforting balance. Around them, the ice kept singing in the night, never running out of breath.
It felt like peace.
It was cold. It was dark. It was dead and abandoned. It was them.
They sat together on the ice, leaning against each other’s shoulder as they listened to the song of the ice.
“Do you think the world could be like that?” Malos whispered.
He felt Jin move next to him, slightly turning toward him in a silent question.
“Free from life,” Malos elaborated. “Allowed to sing its own song, without the noise of mankind to drown it out.”
Jin didn’t immediately answer. He didn’t really need to. Both his voice and his silence were acceptable answers to Malos. But Malos let the question hang in the air for a moment, giving Jin the time to decide whether he wanted to talk or not. Sometimes it took him a while. Minutes could pass, the conversation almost forgotten, and he would suddenly answer as if only a few seconds had passed. Jin wasn’t slow. He could be fast, faster than Malos, and so could his mind if he wanted to. Time simply flowed differently for him. Malos didn’t mind. Whatever was good for Jin was good in his book too.
“I guess it could,” the Flesh-Eater eventually answered.
He hesitated, his breath hanging in the air.
“Are we part of that life? Disturbing the song of the world?”
Malos looked up. Above them, the Titan’s skin was black, the faint silver light of the moon shining through its thinner translucent parts.
“Blades embody the world. They carry the song of the world. But no one listens.” He glanced at Jin, the glimpse of a smile at the corner of his lips. “You could make the ice sing.”
“What about you?”
Malos’s smile faded.
“I’m not meant to become a Titan.”
“Then what would your role be, in a world where the ice sings freely?”
Malos looked away, feeling Jin’s sharp gaze on him. His Core Crystal was stinging, its missing half feeling like a hole piercing through his chest. There was no role for him in such a world, for it would have already been carried out. Perhaps he would die. Perhaps he would sleep. Perhaps he would simply cease to exist. Never to hear Jin make the ice sing. For that wasn’t his role. Strangely, the idea made him...sad. He would have liked to hear Jin’s song.
He never answered Jin’s question. Or rather, his silence was his answer. Nothing.
Jin didn’t push him further, letting their conversation die. He rested his head on Malos’s shoulder, letting the ice speak for them. He didn’t tell him how meaningless it would feel to make the ice sing in a world where Malos wasn’t there to listen.
His eyelids slowly grew heavier, lulled by the otherworldly sounds of the ice through the night. He let them close, his body relaxing against Malos. The Aegis didn’t move, sitting still as the Flesh-Eater slowly fell asleep against him. He watched over him as the ice cracked and vibrated beneath them, its sounds hitting them like a storm. They were so loud, and yet so silent. The noise of an empty world. A world of peace.
A world where Jin could sleep through the night, Malos by his side.
The Aegis closed his eyes, listening to the singing ice. Jin was like this lake. Slowly cracking and creaking, away from most people’s eyes and ears. Forgotten by those who didn’t know the ice could sing. Strong and fragile all in one.
And beautiful to those who knew how to listen, unbothered by the bite of its cold.