She heads back in. Well. One more person, who can keep herself warm. And fly - or was that a one-off thing? And why isn't she discussing it? 

A hundred yards. Add in margin of error.

What she wants to do is wrap the improvised equivalent of a heated blanket around her head and shut everything out. There is just too much stuff going on. The fact that she'll probably never get home is coming in maybe third. But lying on the ice would probably just melt a hole, so wearing it like an inconveniently large cape it is.

This is also the first real chance to get the story straight. Can't tell about the magic, but they know Earth contains immortals and are safely assuming that means their species. Whatever it is their species is, which she probably shouldn't ask because they're supposed to be perfectly normal back home. Them and specialty heat-generating synthetic fabrics. And some method of flying, when they can see a complete lack of engine or anything. Probably can't get away with "it just does that" even if that does work for the heat. Great.

The magic components are still in working order. Nothing crucial broke. Just flying away is an option, maybe starting over on more controlled terms. But that would leave these people out in the cold, and if Irissë was serious about an evil that would kill everyone they'll probably need all the help they can get. Which means what, exactly? Amber could fly them over one at a time if there weren't so many of them, or probably help propel a boat if there were seaworthy ones already, but both of those would violate the Statute of Secrecy. Warmth is probably about all she can do. And it's not even all that much warmth. There are appliances that could do it better. This elemental isn't even very specialized for this; it was supposed to be getting rid of heat sometimes and generating it others. But it's not like anyone else is better equipped.

Haring off somewhere else to come back with more warmth-themed elementals? There wouldn't be any guarantee of success, and it'd show too much even if it worked. Ice elementals, though; those could be sent ahead to make something resembling a traversible path. That could conceivably be done secretly, even, with nothing to tie it back to her. Just have to find some spirits powerful enough to matter, somehow, and get them bound, somehow.
At least this one is a solvable problem. She sets down one of the two tokens containing a bound intermediate river spirit. Let it freeze in place, buried enough that non-practitioners won't even see it. And she directs it to flow power through a nearby chunk of ice. Wasteful, but it ought to attract something useful eventually. 

Whatever caused the accident, it probably does mean getting home is theoretically possible. But not only does Amber have no idea how, she's got no idea where to even start looking. Universe's revenge for years of thinking it needs fixing, maybe.

In the meantime, privacy is a little important. She practices partitioning thoughts into private and public until it feels as natural as it's likely to get, then goes to find Irissë.

The stranger is gone for long enough they'd be worried about her, except that all she does is sit down draped in heat, putter around on the ice, and then pace while presumably practicing. When she does come back, Irissë smiles at her. Any better?

I hope so. Got my head around all this a little more. Am I still leaking thoughts?

The hopefully-private background thought is a rhinocerous this time, but with luck that doesn't matter.

Huh. No. I can tell you're suppressing things but not at all what they are. 

Good enough, I guess. I don't have to avoid everyone.

Do you know where best to leave this? It can make one room warm, might not make a huge difference but it will to a few people.

We can designate a room for people who get wet or are injured or give birth.

Hopefully emergencies aren't so common that it ends up being exclusively for those. But yes, wherever it's most needed.

Amber takes off the flowing mass and passes it to Irissë. The night is just as freezing as it ever was, but everyone else is just as underequipped after all. She shivers.

You're generous.  Are you joining us, then? I would that we could offer you better options.

I don't really have enough information yet to say yes or no. What is your war being fought over, and who is the everyone that the other side would kill? Why are you bringing families and noncombatants instead of just sending an army? Who are the guardians of the other continent that count as old by immortal standards? Who are they guarding? There's...a lot I don't know.

But whether I join you or not, I'm probably not the one who'd benefit the most from this.

"We're all going because we got kicked out by the guardians of this continent, so now we have no choice but to somehow make it across. Those guardians are called the Valar. They're older than the world - they built it. They're guarding their paradise. We got exiled from it after we rebelled against them. The Enemy is - well, he likes murder and torture and he wants to rule the world."

Language along with telepathy, good idea. Amber doesn't have the language to respond in kind yet, so it'll come out as mostly just the telepathy with occasional spoken words when she remembers relevant vocabulary.

"How old is the world? Do the Valar handle their guardianship badly, or what was the rebellion about? I've never met the equivalent of the Valar where I'm from, if there are any."

"Many Ages," she says with a shrug. "They mostly handled it okay but when the Enemy murdered the King and destroyed the Trees they sat down to counsel and it'd been three years and they hadn't moved and the Enemy was running free in the Outer Lands and we had to do something."

"So you left? From the sound of 'rebellion' I thought you were going to say you tried to dethrone them, or fought your way out or something.

Also, you might have to explain the Trees. There aren't a lot back home that get capital letters, let alone the definite article."

"It didn't used to be this dark everywhere. The Trees lit the world so you could see in it.

And, ah, we tried to leave. We came here and realized there was no way out. So we went to the harbor, and I wasn't in the vanguard so I don't know how it happened but what we were told is that they tried to convince the people who lived there to loan us ships so we could get to the battleground faster, and they refused, and they tried to convince them to teach us how to build our own ships, or aid us in the making, so we could get there before it was too late, and they refused, and then they tried to take a ship and weapons were drawn and it escalated."

"Escalated– oh. I'm sorry.

The people at the harbor killed your vanguard and fled?"

"They were close to done with the job when my brother arrived. I think he'd have stayed out if he'd known that we started it but he thought they'd attacked us unprovoked, so he attacked them, and won, and we took the boats. The Valar were furious, and sank many of them in retaliation, and then sentenced us to die on those shores, and in vain."

"Oh. Um– oh.

So you've all been sentenced to die pointlessly on the other side, even the people who thought it was self-defense and the noncombatants, and your response to this is to try to get there as soon as possible?"

"The war that originally motivated us to leave is still happening! The peoples whose deaths we were in a hurry to prevent are still dying!"

"That is actually a good point. But if the creators of the universe, whose job you are doing, have decided to make sure you fail, then rushing across isn't going to help!"

"But we can't stay here, we're exiled."

"Stay here anyway until they provide some way to get across since they apparently want that so much? Never mind, I can see how that one could be even worse. Find some third set of shores? Even if you do have to leave this way, It sounds like you're planning to fight despite knowing in advance it won't help."

"Knowing in advance we won't win. We can buy the continent a few free centuries, make him waste his greatest weapons against us, keep our allies alive until they grow enough to deliver the final strike themselves."

"Actually, if you have allies there who haven't been sentenced, what happens if you join them instead of fighting as your own side? If you give this collective punishment thing exactly what it demands and your faction stops existing without accomplishing anything?"

"I have no idea. Once you have a better sense of our language I'll give you the exact words, in case they matter."