They spent the night on the ledge above the clouds.
There was nowhere else to go. Climbing the ice wall in the dark would have been madness, even for this body. So Jin dug a hollow in the snow against the rock, out of the wind, and Haruka built a tiny fire from the bundle of sticks she'd been carrying in her pack since the forest. It wasn't much. But it was enough.
Neither of them slept well. The cold crept in no matter how close they sat to the fire. And every time Jin opened his eyes, the golden light at the top of the mountain was still there, far above them, burning steadily against the stars.
They started climbing again before dawn.
