Further confirmation about the temperature

The White Tiger of the West rose around me. I didn’t have a lot of choice and this wasn’t the time to worry about secrets regardless. If the Pandora Shell had been opened, if its contents had been unleashed…

I tried not to think about it. I knew what it meant and couldn’t delude myself to the contrary no matter how hard I tried, but that didn’t meant I wanted to accept it--and I had something more immediate to worry about, anyway. The physical manifestation of my soul rose around me, breaking through the layers of solidified air with careful motions and sloughing off the shattered pieces like it would have rain. Curling its arms around the frozen forms of my mother and I, it lifted us both and tried to find a safe place to set us down.

It was harder than it sounded. Through the eyes of my soul, I saw dark splotches on everything in sight, as if it had rained mud or oil—and I didn’t dare let any of it touch either of us. But in the end, there was no way to truly be sure anywhere was safe, regardless of what may have seemed obvious. Against this threat…

My mother had tried to bury me in lava and freeze me beneath layers of solid air to try and keep me safe from the Pandora Shell’s opening. It was a desperate thing, so much so that I could feel her dying in my arms. I felt the agonizing cold myself, but to someone without a body like mine, temperature extremes like this must have been…