take me down to the fighting end

Qanik stood, legs braced against a strong wind, perched on the precipice of a glacial crevasse as she peered down into it. Her face was smooth, betraying none of the emotions roiling through her. Was she considering flinging herself off the cliff into the abyss? No. That sort of oblivion wasn't for her. She was a warrior, a fighter, not a coward. She faced her problems head-on, she didn't escape from them.

So why was she here? Why was she not back facing those problems? The painful emotions stirred up by the appearance of Flamesong, first unexpectedly on the border and later at the meeting, refused to be tamed, to be placed into neat categories so she could know how to deal with the problem. She didn't know how to settle this, how to decide how she felt so she could decide what had to be done.

So she was here, on the glacier field, the last place she would think anyone would think to come with this late-winter cold come in, so that she could be alone for a while, and think. If the world would allow her just this time...