The world seemed to grow colder the closer we got to the nexus of energies at the center of it all. Unfortunately, we had no other choice but to keep pushing onwards. The exit was there, if the Ice Queen was to be believed, and that was the only way we were getting out. The land around us seemed to come alive with jagged rows and crags of glimmering sheets of white ice. Here, at the very center of the Ice Queen’s world, was a massive pillar of light that was almost blinding to look at, piercing ground, sky, and cloud, swirling with raw magical energies that almost seemed to hum and whistle and whisper.
It was… beautiful in its own way, a sight I would likely never see anywhere else.
Olga was… weakening for some reason. Her breaths were ragged and her eyes were unfocused. Still, with her hand in mine, we pushed onwards. Magic swirled around us, behaving almost like water. With an almost absent thought, I reached out to the magic that belonged to the Ice Queen, that endless well of pure power that made my own seem like nothing in comparison, a small and flickering candle before a thousand blazing stars.
Strangely enough, an infinitesimally small portion of the well of magic responded to my call, breaking away from the swirling torrent and snaking towards me. I felt the infinite cold that swirled within the magic, the very idea of ice and snow and the death of the cosmos. It circled my outstretched hand and steadied. It was a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the Ice Queen’s true power, perhaps even smaller than that, but – even then – it was still far greater than my own.
And yet, the magic swirled and danced at my command, appearing as motes of silver light over my palm, cold beyond words, beyond the very idea of it. And yet, it did not freeze me as I expected. The cold was there and it would always be there, but it was also controlled – subdued. I could mold the power as I wished without freezing to death. And yet, as quickly as the thought occurred to me, the moment passed, and the magic that’d once succumbed to my will leapt off and rejoined the greater whole. My brows furrowed and I looked on in confusion as the motes of silver light disappeared into the whirling haze of power that surged before us. What was that, just now?
You didn’t think it would be that easy to usurp my power, did you? And in my realm no less; tsk, it seems Vicky’s yet to teach you some manners, The Ice Queen’s voice echoed in my thoughts, filling my mind with spiteful laughter. Her voice was like the cracking and breaking of ice. But, strangely enough, I found it not nearly as disturbing as it should’ve been. Lady Victoria’s mundane chuckle was the more horrific of the two of I bothered comparing. The ability to usurp the magic of another being is a most heinous crime even among Dark Mages; Diavolus, the theft of magic. Remember the feeling, little one, remember the sensation; in time, perhaps, you will come to learn the darkest of the dark arts. And, congratulations on finding the exit, even if your performance was… disappointing at best. You would’ve died so many times if your little friend hadn’t been there to pull you from the fire. Still, a victory is a victory; your reward waits on the other side….
I paused for a moment, eyes narrowing. The Ice Queen’s presence made me feel sick, feverish even. My hands balled into fists as I shook my head. What? I can do that?
Not yet… but you’ll get there.
Her laughter echoed and faded. I shuddered.
“We’re here….” Olga rasped. Her voice shook me out of my own head as I turned towards her. “We’re finally here.”
Her face was pale and gaunt – as though the energies of this place were poisonous to her. But… how come I wasn’t affected? She shuddered, clearly cold, but I hardly felt the snow or the ice in our midst, not even the thunderous blizzard that accompanied the swirling energies of the Ice Queen. I caught her as she nearly fell and wrapped her right arm over my shoulder, before carrying her forward. She was light. And I was stronger now than I had been. Lifting her was easier than I thought it would be. Blood streamed from her mouth, staining her lips crimson.
“Shi Zikia!” I uttered the words of healing spell and felt the magic within me take form, before surging into Olga. Her eyes widened. A harsh wheeze escaped her throat and her legs seemed to lose all their strength. Still, she looked immediately better, but there was something going on with her magic, I realized. I felt a great turbulence within her, roaring, searing flames bursting and raging at her depths against a creeping darkness that I somehow fed when I healed her body. “Olga, what’s going on?!”
I pulled her up. The weakness that’d befallen her had grown stronger. We pushed on regardless. She huffed and huffed and panted, but somehow had the strength to force her legs to move. Her hands shuddered and tiny streams of blood came from her nose. Olga huffed and wheezed, “Don’t worry about me, Uriel… I’ll be fine. We just need to get out of here. And… thanks for healing me.”
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She was far from fine – far from alright and far from healed. However, she could move her body now and I figured that would just have to be enough until we got out of this place; the Healing Room would likely do a far better job than I. “You’re welcome; now, come on. It shouldn’t be far ahead, right? We have to keep moving.”
Olga nodded wearily, eyes drooping even as she forced herself to take another step. The blood that’d streamed from her nose was increasing in volume, becoming a steady trickle that dripped down her lips and her chin. She shook her head and urged me onwards, despite her clear weakness. I gritted my teeth as I did so, still pulling her bestride me, a single one of her arms wrapped around my shoulders. In the distance, a bloom of white and silver crystals seeped and bled into the air, shimmering and flickering like the distant stars in the night sky. Beyond the ribbons and embers of snowy radiance was the pillar of light and power that was the core of the Ice Queen, an endless and infinite ocean of pure magic. In that moment, Olga and I were nothing more than ants, wandering into the heart of a giant’s home, searching for a way out.
I averted my gaze and covered my eyes with my free hand as the silver light grew in intensity. With each slow step we took forward, the world seemed to grow quieter. The distant sounds of the woods grew silent. And even the reverberating noise that emanated from the pillar of light itself, a deep thunderous boom, became mute, a distant and discordant note at the back of my head that was akin to the buzzing of a lone bee.
“We’re… almost there….” I said, though I couldn’t be certain if Olga heard me. Her eyes, as I turned to glance at her, were fixed upon the pillar of light. I turned away and gazed into the blinding haze of power. My eyes burned and filled with tears. It was like staring into the sun. We strode onwards, regardless, until we were close enough to see the slight shimmer within the heart of the light, a shimmer that revealed a library on the other side. I almost chuckled at that. All this just to get to the library?
As we took the next step, the world simply disappeared around us. All the white from the snow and the silver motes of light from the pillar were gone, replaced by what I could only describe as an endless darkness, filled with stars and distant spinning lights, discs of fire and swirling vortexes of colorful dust. And then, the darkness disappeared as well, our immersion in it having lasted no more than a moment, less than a second, a moment within a moment. And, the next I knew, Olga and I found our faces flat on smooth cold stone, which I recognized almost immediately as the tiles that made up most of the floors within the Shadow Academy – though, I couldn’t quite claim to be intimately familiar with the place when I’ve barely explored it. Despite that, however, I knew that I was back at the San Jose Academy; the familiar darkness that permeated the air had returned, blanketing my form in a distant, but sickening miasma. I blinked once and then twice, and found strength in my limbs as I pushed myself up off the floor.
I glanced around for a moment. Stacks upon stacks upon stacks of books atop tall shelves greeted me. My eyes widened when I noted that some of the books were moving, locked in place by chains that bound its cover; the others were screaming, muffled shrieks leaking through the pages. Other books seemed to whisper at the depths of my mind, offering promises of power beyond imagining, of arcane secrets. I shook my head of them and turned to Olga, who had not risen from the floor – blonde hair flayed out. “Olga, we’re here.”
She did not respond. My eyes widened as I reached forth and grabbed her by the shoulders, before flipping her over. The soft rising and falling of her chest told me that she was still alive. However, her skin was pale as snow and her lips had turned a shade of grey. I leaned over her. Her eyes were closed, but seemed to be rapidly moving behind her eyelids. I shook her. “Olga, wake up!”
She didn’t move. I wasn’t too afraid, however, as I knew that she was still alive – unconscious and likely weakened, but alive.
“That was surprising, boy; I honestly wasn’t expecting much from you,” A sickeningly sweet and horrifyingly familiar voice spoke from behind me. Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder. And, there she was, the Ice Queen. Blue eyes shimmered in the haze, twin orbs within each blazed the cold flames of dead stars. “Then again, Vicky did choose you; so, I suppose you do have some potential, even if it’d take you at least a century for you to reach a level of power that’ll get other dark lords to notice.”
I breathed in and froze. She was there. She was standing right there, the being whose power encompassed the cosmos, upon whose palms danced entire universes; she was right there. And it was only then that I noticed the fractal frost that covered the floor, permeating the air, smothering even the books in a layer of ice that seemed to smoke in the open air. The Ice Queen took a single step forward, smiling. Though terrifyingly powerful, I could not deny that she was equally as beautiful. Her blue eyes held me in place as her wavy black hair swayed with each step she took forward. Her skin was of a darker hue than Lady Victoria’s, similar to mine, but with an almost reddish tint that reminded me of a mestiza, a Filipino with some Spanish blood. Beyond that was her height; she was just as tall as Lady Victoria, which meant she absolutely towered over me – three Olgas stacked atop each other.
I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. My lips refused to move. The Ice Queen spoke, “Be not afraid, boy. I come bearing gifts.”
She took a step towards me and I felt my bones freeze. She held up a red-colored leather book and grinned, revealing pearly-white teeth of unnatural straightness. “I did promise you a reward, didn’t I?”
My eyes narrowed at the otherwise unremarkable book and the world shuddered.
Finally…..