-The Pain of Ice-

Lilak woke in a cold sweat, instantly reaching for a mace that wasn’t there.

Warlan! Warlan, are you okay? Where are you?

She shuddered, pushing herself up from the strange soft fabric she was laying on. Where was she? Why was Warlan on her mind when she had entered the cursed ruins looking for her son, not her missing husband?

She only vaguely noticed the leaves and branches all around her and the rope bridge leading to a huge trunk with steps leading to the ground below. She was in a massive forest, and her son was nowhere to be found. Neither, for that fact, was the lineal.

Had they already been killed or captured? Was she next?

“Mom?”

Lilak jerked her head around, looking for the source. For Alic.

“Mom! You’re here too! And here I thought it was all a wonderful dream!”

She was going to strangle that child when she found him. She looked down from her position on the rope bridge and saw Alic smiling up at her.

“Don’t move,” she commanded, rushing across the bridge and practically flying down the stairs before she pulled him in tight with an embrace strong enough to probably bruise his ribs.

“Mom…” he gurgled, struggling to get away from her death grip.

“How dare you follow that false lineal into the Ruins? You could have been killed. Vanished, like your father!”

“But I’m right here. And Drew was protecting me the whole time, promise. He somehow made this fancy suit of Orenda armor for me and told me to run as fast as I could if I saw any of those blue eyes.”

“And did you see any eyes?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

“I didn’t, but I think Drew did. We were by the tower, scouting, looking for any sign of the beings, when he froze and yelled at me to run, to run like the forest was on fire and following me. I tried to, but then I started to feel sleepy… when I woke up I was here, in this huge forest! Where do you think we are?”

Lilak quickly scanned their surroundings, searching for potential threats, icy blue eyes. She saw nothing but towering trees and a strange path made of green stones that led further into the forest they found themselves in.

“I don’t know, but if we follow that green path we’ll probably find others. I’ve never heard of a Forlorn settlement this deep in the woods, but maybe Deporta has been expanding since I’ve been away.”

She tried to comfort herself, but it was obvious the Forlorn hadn’t built this strange place. Living up in the trees? Surrounded by wild, untamed nature in all directions? Hardly able to see the sun? Maybe they were already prisoners to those horrid blue eyes.

There was no point in running. If the abominations were capable of putting people to sleep, she and Alic would be helpless to stop the beings from simply knocking them out and returning them to this bizarre place.

But Alic didn’t need to know they were prisoners, that they would probably never return home again. Better to keep him calm and distracted.

“When did you wake up?” she asked as she cautiously approached the road and looked up and down the path, wondering which way to go.

“I woke up when the sun started coming through the trees. It sure is beautiful here, who do you think made this place? It doesn’t seem Forlorn to me.”

“It’s probably some people from Deporta determined to spend more time out in nature,” Lilak insisted, finally deciding on a direction randomly. If they were prisoners, it didn’t matter if they went forward or backward on the green stone path.

“If you say so, Mom,” Alic said, following Lilak as they started walking down the path.

She itched to run as far away from the path as possible, to arm herself with something, anything, and fight to the death for her freedom. But whether it was the strange bird calls coming from the trees above them or the warm sunlight streaming down to the forest floor, Lilak felt apathetic about sprinting away only to get lost in the sprawling forest.

Nothing had harmed them yet. True, Drew was missing, but after what that man had done, leading Alic into the Ruins at night, Lilak didn’t care if he didn’t show back up.

Alic’s head was on a swivel as he eagerly examined everything in sight.

“Look, Mom, Mom, look! Those trees, they have big doors leading into them. Maybe people live in the big trunks. Is that even possible? And where are all the people anyway? Mom? Mom, are you listening to me?”

Alic was overexcited. He was talking so quickly Lilak could barely keep up with his wild, random thoughts and tangents.

“I, I don’t know. Maybe it was easier carving out some of the trees than cutting them down to build proper houses,” she conjectured, distracted by her fears and anxieties. Would the monsters here put her and Alic to work like slaves? Forced to dig holes or move wood or gather food until they collapsed from exhaustion? Or maybe they would be the meal.

“Mom, you’re making that face again.”

Lilak knew what her son was referring to. When she worried she bit her bottom lip.

“Just worried the people in Whisten will wonder where we are,” she lied.

“I don’t even think they’ll notice we left,” Alic confided, dropping his voice as though someone else would hear them.

She nodded her head reluctantly. He was probably right.

The path began to veer to the right, and as they followed it and rounded the bend, Lilak put a hand over her mouth and firmly gripped Alic by the shoulder, halting his forward momentum.

He was about to cry out in protest, but his eyes widened as he took in the scene before them.

Gathered in a small circle were creatures with ebony skin and those terrifying, icy-blue eyes. Without the cover of night, Lilak could easily see their captors. They looked mostly human, but those large eyes and skin that looked more like stone than flesh and blood…

“Hello! We mean you no harm!” Alic called out, wiggling out of Lilak’s grip and walking forward to the alien beings.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Welcome,” one of them said, his voice low and rich. He didn’t sound like a monster, but Lilak still felt ready to bolt at any moment. “Did you rest well?”

“Where are we? Why did you abduct us?” Lilak spat out, wishing for the hundredth time she hadn’t left her mace behind in the Ruins.

“You are in Eon. A great privilege. The ascendancy has not permitted Forlorn visitors for many centuries. I do not know what he saw in the three of you, but if he deems you worthy to enter our lands, I will happily welcome you as well.”

“Eon? I’ve never heard of such a place.”

“It is not on any Forlorn maps,” the man said, standing and striding over to greet them.

Lilak took a step back, unable to look away from his terrible eyes.

“Did you steal my husband away too?” she asked defiantly. Anger kept the fear at bay.

“Your husband? I do not know who you are referring to. What is his name?” The man didn’t seem put off by Lilak’s retreat and rapid-fire questions. The others were sitting around what she could now see was an assortment of food, mostly fruits and meats she didn’t recognize. Her stomach started to growl in protest, but she had no intention of eating strange food from stranger people.

“Warlan.”

“A strong name,” the man nodded his head in approval. “He has never entered Eon, but I do recognize his name.”

“Did you know him?”

“He frequented shadeworld.”

“Shadeworld?”

“The broken land separating us from your people,” he explained.

“Oh, the Ruins?”

“Yes. But no one has encountered him in several years.”

Lilak stole a glance at Alic, only to choke on her apprehension as he sat down with the other strange beings and started chattering with presumably other children as a woman offered him food.

“You are welcome to join us for our meal,” the man said, gesturing at the group and their food. “My soulmate Rlysha will find you something to eat.”

“Soulmate? What, do you believe in all that nonsense?”

“Soulmates? She is my other half, the mother of our children, our soulyoung. I do not think soul means the same thing for us as it does for you.”

“And who are you?”

“The name your people refer to us by is Jadelin. That will suffice.”

“Jadelin? But, but that’s a story told to children…” Lilak said weakly, suddenly feeling the need to sit down.

“Here, eat something,” Rlysha said, extending a slender hand with a strange orange fruit cupped in her palm.

Lilak eyed the fruit with distrust as the male Jadelin rose and bowed slightly before loping into the trees and out of sight.

“Where’s he going?” she asked, hesitantly taking a bite of the fruit. It was sweet, with an interesting tang to it she enjoyed.

“Sio will return shortly. Enjoy the food.”

***

The family had been hospitable, freely sharing the fruit and meat in front of them. Alic had instantly connected with Jaque, Anhel, and Ria, the three children.

Lilak had mostly listened to Rlysha as she bantered with the children, content to retreat into her mind. The Jadelin? And they had seen Warlan? Where had they seen him last?

She felt the painful return of hope and wanted nothing more than to run back to Whisten and bury herself under the daily complaints and struggles of the rough people there. Anything to stop feeling this growing ache in her chest.

She was lost in thought when Sio returned with another Jadelin. He was similar in build to Sio, but his dark hair was in multiple tight braids, and the strange white markings that seemed to adorn each of the adult Jadelin were different. Instead of the white flames that licked at Sio’s wrists, this Jadelin had white hash lines across his face, drawing even more attention to his icy eyes.

“This Jadelin has encountered your Warlan,” Sio said simply, taking a seat by Rlysha once more. “He can tell you more than me.”

“Yes,” the new Jadelin said. “Walk with me for a moment. Your son will be safe with Sio and Rlysha.”

Lilak felt torn. She didn’t want to lose sight of Alic again, especially not so soon, but if this man could tell her anything about Warlan…

She stood and said, “Alic, stay here until I get back. Don’t wander off anywhere.”

He nodded absentmindedly, in the middle of a heated debate with the young boy, Jaque.

“We will make sure he is kept safe,” Sio said with a reassuring smile.

“Come,” the new Jadelin insisted. He was close enough to her that she could feel a warmth coming off his skin, almost like he had a raging fever.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Why do you ask?” He didn’t seem ill, but how could he not be at death’s door with a temperature so intense Lilak could feel it without putting a hand on his skin?

“You’re burning up!”

“This is my normal temperature, I assure you. Now come, walk.” He headed for the green stone path, and Lilak slowly followed, overwhelmed by the strange world she’d been inserted into.

Warlan would have loved it here. Would have insisted there was so much to learn from these strange people.

Well, she wasn’t Warlan. If the Jadelin knew anything about his whereabouts, however, she would gladly gather any information they were willing to offer.

“What do you know about Warlan?” she instantly asked.

He chuckled softly. “You are quite eager. Perhaps I should introduce myself first. My name is Drask. Yours?”

“Lilak,” she said impatiently. “Warlan? You’ve seen him?”

“I talked with him briefly, seven years ago. In the place your people call the Ruins. He was looking for something. He’d been scouring the broken relics there for something, an answer to a puzzle I did not understand.”

“Relics? What relics?”

“I apologize. The half-broken structures littering the landscape.”

“The buildings?”

“The same. My people think of the buildings as relics because they seem to change from time to time, alter, grow or shift. Almost like they are living relics from another people, another time. I have personally studied the relics for over two hundred years.”

Lilak gaped at Drask.

“Two hundred years? How old are you?”

“Four hundred forty-four. Slightly older than you I would assume.”

I don’t know why I’m even fazed at this point.

“Do your people ever die?”

“Yes, we just age much slower than the Forlorn or others living on Aeon.”

“Aeon?”

“This world.”

“You mean Ealias.”

Drask shrugged his broad shoulders. “I think you will discover we have different words for many of the same things.”

“It does seem that way,” she conceded.

“You miss him.” It was a simple statement of fact, not a question.

“Who, Warlan? Of course I miss him. He was my hus… my soulmate. I haven’t seen him in seven years. I thought maybe he’d been killed or kidnapped by the mons… by your people.”

“We have no interest in stealing away your people. Lilak, I have lived for several centuries now. Long enough to see the rise and fall of many, many men and women. Long enough to grieve the loss of not only many of my own people, but many of your Forlorn. I remember the first Deporta, before the wars destroyed everything built, everything gained.”

“The first Deporta? What does that mean?”

“The Forlorn have a complicated, messy history. Even I do not know the entire story. They were formed before I was born. But their history has been littered with senseless loss, a constant pursuit of power and control.”

“And the Jadelin have never fought amongst themselves?” Lilak demanded. “Surely your people can’t be perfect.”

“My people are a lot like you, Lilak. We are missing our history. Our origins. We do not know where we came from. Like your Warlan, we remain in the darkness, unsure of where to even search for answers.

“I know more about the Forlorn than I do about those who came before me. And every day our Orenda grows weaker, less focused on the three paths. We are a dying people, just like the Forlorn.”

Lilak looked over at the Jadelin. His icy eyes were lost in thought as though focusing on something distant, far away.

“And your lineal, ascendancy, is okay with this?”

“I am the ascendancy,” Drask said heavily.