Running and frozen floors don’t mix. If it wasn’t for Crash snatching me up, I know for a fact that my face would have married the stone floor shortly after we fled the chapel.
I almost wished it had, because that would save me from the nightmare I was looking at. The beast thrashed as it pushed forward, its body large enough to bang against the walls as it moved. Four yellow dots were carved into its forehead, accompanying four horns that extended backwards from its draconic skull in every direction as its mouth opened wide, its head giving way to a long, pale blue, serpentine body. Two clawed arms scraped the floor as it gave chase, and I idly wondered how something like this was flying.
As we ascended higher, a realization washed over me like a cold stream of shower water after May was done in the bathroom.
This thing still hadn’t fully left the sanctuary.
“Crash, I know I bitched outside about your driving, but for the love of God go faster!” I screamed, my eyes widening in horror as I stared back at the ice dragon looming towards us. I was barely able to crane my neck to watch as the beast started rising higher to give chase.
A loud shriek left her beak as she turned around, her body maintaining her forward momentum as she lifted her claws above her head. The muscles in her wings tensed as her feet gripped my bag tighter.
A flick of the shoulder, a crack of air, one singular motion... and the world behind us was engulfed in a hail of blades.
Wind sickles, extending from the floor to the high-rise ceiling, pushed through the creature like a hot knife through a snow cone. There was no grinding sound, no cry of pain, no warning at all of what this attack did. For about half a second, I believed that the attack did nothing, other than kick a faint breeze in the ice dragon’s face.
I was an idiot. It was already dead.
I wondered what it looked like from its perspective. Did its viewpoint split in half as one side of its face desynced from the other? As the creature surged forward, the aftereffects of Crash’s assault made themselves known as the dragon slowly fell to pieces, each cut clean and straight.
I kept waiting for a surge of blood that never came as the luchador flew down to get a better look. What I had believed was a living, breathing dragon of unfathomable power had been nothing more than ice given form and function. My thoughts briefly flashed back to the golem outside, and I quickly realized that the lack of normal anatomy probably didn’t mean much down here.
‘Whole lot of pomp for not a lot of substance,’ Crash complained. ‘Guess I forget my own strength sometimes.’
And suddenly I realized that the thing that just did that was carrying me around like a ragdoll and I felt horribly small and weak in her presence.
She tilted her head at me as she glanced down. ‘What?’
I didn’t respond right away.
Emilie shook her head and elbowed me. “Get a grip, would you?”
“Duh, I mean...” Had I been staring? I was, wasn’t I? I shook my head slightly and looked away, red dusting my cheeks. That can be from the cold, right?
Fuck, I knew they were on our side, but still, watching what these things could do was making me feel self-conscious. How the hell was I supposed to match these things at some point? Brawly’s personal team was filled with monsters.
Practice, lots of practice. Emilie’s right, get a grip. I glanced up, winced, and sighed..
Crash just grinned at me, preening slightly at my loss for words.
“Sorry, I was just... Impressed.” There really wasn’t any way to mask that, either. Hopefully my escort wasn’t the type to let a bit of praise go to her head. “I’ve never seen air quite so sharp.”
‘I like cutting things.’ The masked avian preened. ‘It’s how I differentiate from the rest of those brutes. Well, mostly. Lele likes cutting things too. Though not as much, I suppose.’ She shifted her head up and to the left with a grin. ‘Though I'd like to think I’m a bit more skilled. I can even cleave through steel, given the need.’
Why was she looking longingly at Lucas when she said that? What the hell kind of emotion am I feeling from her with my empathy!?
‘Back on topic,’ Lucas quickly shouted, looking decidedly uncomfortable as he darted down behind me. ‘We need to get to the throne room, and we should really get a move on, because it’s a bit of a trip.’
I nodded, quickly looking anywhere but at the smirking malevolent gremlin that would be my ride. As I gazed around the hall, an uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. Something didn’t feel right.
Weren’t there more ice cubes, earlier?
A light scraping tipped the game away, and Crash had already started flying away as the beast she had felled slowly started putting itself back together.
‘Guess that confirms that whatever the hell that thing is, it isn’t alive.’ I winced as three different sections of skull fused back together as we put more distance between us.
Crash nodded before picking up the pace. ‘I’ve never known an ice type capable of something like that. I saw it manipulate the ice outside, but something like this is... unheard of.’
I opened my mouth to reply, only to almost bite off my tongue as we quickly gained speed, my ghostly companions settling back into my shadow as we pushed through the winding hallway. Sets of armor and weapons blurred in my peripherals as we shot through the hall.
‘Left or right up here?’ Crash asked.
I whipped my head around, my face stinging as the cold bit into my skin, to notice a fork at the end of the hall. A white and gray silhouette smiled at me, her eyes closed as she waved. Her dress billowed lightly as she slowly floated down the hall on the right.
‘Left, that’s the shortest path,’ Lucas shouted.
Crash nodded once and banked away from the ghost.
I could feel a cold feeling of dread shoot down my spine as we curved around the chamber. “Wait, I think-”
Crash stopped, a flash of icy steel passed in front of my eyes, and a few strands of hair fell to the ground as our escort rapidly kicked her wings back to go the opposite direction.
As we flew down the other path, I was able to take stock of them, the armor that had come to life. Full plate mail, taller than Wayne, slowly rose to full height, its mask open to reveal a hollow void as the frozen effigy of false life lifted his hand up to lower his helmet, the pale blue ice clanking as he moved. A bright yellow dot sat dead center on the phantom’s face plate.
‘Ice dragons, hollow knights, terrain that comes to life and tries to kill you, Lucas I’m just going to come out and say it. Your castle blows.’ Emilie glared down at the trail of darkness that darted along the wall, her hands coming together in front of her. The air around her distorted as and launching a Psybeam at the soldier as it lifted its sword up and started gliding along the floor toward us.
The soldier took the beam head on, barely pausing as he brought his sword up and cleaved the attack in two.
Emilie gaped at the display, her eyes wide as she ripped her gaze away from the charging sentry and glared down at her own hands. ‘Barely even slowed it down...’
I frowned at the whispered words as our escort shifted around again, my pack slipping from her talons at the sudden change of momentum. I tumbled forward, roughly hitting the wall, and glaring up at the luchador as she brought her wings down in an arching slash. Wind whipped forward, splitting the knight right down the middle.
Crash turned back to me and winced. ‘So-’
‘Stop apologizing.’ I groaned, my muscles protesting as I slowly dragged myself to my feet. ‘Just stop chucking me around like a ragdoll.
Crash nodded, before wincing as a loud, grinding screech met our ears.
Great, the dragon caught up. Well, ice creature. Dragon made of ice?
Crash darted forward, pushing past the armor as the two halves fused back together and deeper down the path that Lucas had outlined. I glanced back to see the ghost sigh and fade into the aether.
Why the hell was it trying to lead us away from the throne room? I cut off my own thoughts as we pulled up, narrowly avoiding a set of gauntlets that thrusted up from the ice. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest as more hands, some armored, some not, joined in as the horde started to drag themselves out of the ground.
It was like a scene out of a George Romaro movie, shambling frames, rising from the depths to hunt and devour any who dared enter their airspace, cleaving at any who dared claim ownership of what they lacked.
Living, breathing flesh for them to claim.
Emilie elbowed me. ‘Lea, stop being dramatic, you’re accidentally projecting again. Your panicking is so loud that I can hear it from here.’
I pointedly ignored her and faced forward, away from the horror show. “Crash, for the love of all that’s holy, punch it!”
‘Already punching it, like hell do I want to be a part of the Dawn of the Dead extended universe!’ Crash screeched as she beat her wings faster.
“How the-” The world around me blurred and my stomach didn’t get the memo that we were moving now.
‘Toa loves those stupid movies.’ Crash shivered lightly. ‘Emilie, lift the mental map from Lucas and navigate. If cutting these things to pieces isn’t the answer, then we’re blitzing this stupid dungeon.’
I swallowed and braced myself as we pushed further ahead, my vision shifting wildly at the absurd speeds. The only thing I could make out was another split in the hall. No ghost girl to potentially lead us away from danger this time.
‘Left at the end of this hall,’ Emilie mentally shouted. ‘Also, I’m calling Tauros shit. I saw the kind of crap everyone else can do. The Air Cutters are impressive, but-’
‘My job is to keep you safe,’ Crash countered before Emilie could finish. ‘Me cutting loose would be glorious. The chance to put everything I have into a fight comes up so rarely anymore, and I have to hold back because if I didn’t, I’d turn everyone in this damn hall into minced meat, and probably bring down half the palace.’ Crash turned an eye down and glared at my starter. ‘But I can’t do that, because you lot are here.’
“Shutting up noooo-” Emilie screamed as we dipped down low, banking slightly to the left and narrowly avoiding a group of ice javelins that jettisoned themselves from the ceiling.
Crash pulled her head up with a snarl. ‘Honestly, those lug heads up top get to have all the damn fun. This is what I get for being the fucking sensible one.’
Was she just not caring about the hell that was going on around us? I bit back a scream as we once again picked up speed. God, I wanted off this rollercoaster so bad.
'I’m really hoping Brawly’s doing alright,’ Duskull muttered from my shadow. ‘If we’re having this much fun, I imagine he’s getting put through his paces out there.’
‘He’ll be fine, don’t-’ Crash cut herself off as she banked back up, narrowly pulling me from another icy grip. ‘Worry so much. We just need to push through whatever the hell’s in here, got it?’
I nodded, bracing myself as we banked left. A wall of white sentinels stood at the ready directly ahead of us, spears in hand.
‘Teleporting now.’ Emilie shouted and I felt us lurch forward. The world swam in my vision at the sudden movement as we rose up higher yet again.
More hands rose up from the ground and a curse bit out from my lips as the doors on either side of us started to blur together as we picked up even more speed. Thankfully our pace slowed as another set of frosted javelins launched out from the walls ahead of us. Crash stopped, letting them cross in front of us, then diving down out of reach of a pair of arms reaching out from the ceiling. Frozen spikes shot up as she did so, nipping right at my feet as we moved forward.
‘Teleporting again.’ The world lurched forward a second time. ‘Ohh, I’m starting to feel the head rush on that.’
‘There should be a huge set of double doors at the end of this hallway. Those lead to the throne room,’ Lucas explained. ‘The path to the red orb is behind that, through a passage underneath my chair.’
“Not really your chair anymore, you can’t really sit down!” I shouted cheekily.
‘Not the time, Lea!’ Emilie screamed as we once again picked up altitude as frozen gauntlets grasped at my feet.
“I, can’t, help, it, it’s, how, I, deal, with, stress!” I was jerked in a different direction at every word as Crash’s flight path became more and more erratic.
Lucas chuckled lightly. ‘I thought the joke was good, Lea. I approve.’
“Thaaaanks.” The world disappeared as we zipped through another group of sentries, and I finally lost my battle against my breakfast and hurled.
‘Aim down!’ Crash screeched.
I coughed lightly and glared up at the stupid bird. ‘Where the hell else am I supposed to aim?’ I shouted back. ‘Do you have any idea how unpleasant this is? Cut me a break, damn it!’
More icicle spears. This was starting to feel less like a palace and more like a damn Pikachu Kart course. All it needed was a lack of guard rails and track music.
‘Please tell me we’re almost there?’ I asked. ‘I know this palace was huge, but this is-’
Crash came to a dead stop, and my body lunged forward at the sudden change in momentum. For a brief moment, my head had a forward view of the chamber, and all upper brain function ceased.
No less than two dozen frozen soldiers guarded the passage leading to the throne room, and the ornate stone doors were sealed shut, a thin layer of ice coating them.
Crash swung her wings forward, sending out a horizontal blade of air that met a united wall of shields. For the first time since coming down here, the attack was repelled. The phalanx of frozen guards took a step forward, and I swallowed as Crash beat her wings to back up.
She swung me down and I sagged down in relief as my feet touched down on solid ground. I reached down and pulled up all three of my occupied Poke Balls.
“I’m not taking no for an answer this time. Sol, Shadow Ball, Apollo, Air Cutter. Joern, Razor Leaf. Emilie, Psybeam. I don’t care where you aim. Fire at will and don’t stop until those things are shaved ice!” I shouted as an explosion of white light filled the chamber.
‘Aye, captain!’ Apollo shouted, before leading the charge with one of the largest Air Cutters I had ever seen. Four long wind blades launched forward from a single beat of his wings, only to bounce just as harmlessly off the barrier that thwarted Crash.
‘Apollo, those things stopped Crash’s attack, what the hell did you think that would do?’ Emilie asked.
Apollo puffed up. ‘Let’s see you do better, lass.’
Emilie hopped up from my coat, her eyes glowing blue as she teleported to Sol’s back, her arms outstretched as she focused. Her Psybeam and Sol’s Shadow Ball seemed to merge into an odd purple and white laser that pushed across the wall of ice the creatures presented, phasing through the metallic barrier entirely and slamming into the icy bodies behind them. The creatures seemed to sag down as the wave of energy moved across the chamber.
‘Oh, for Kyogre’s sake.’ Apollo groaned as he rubbed his forehead with his wing.
"Huh,” Emilie muttered. "That was... okay these things don’t like psychic attacks at all, what the hell?"
‘A little help back here.’ Joern asked as he launched his attack behind us. The same direction Crash was now facing.
I spun around and winced at the sight. The army we had left behind as we pushed deeper was starting to catch up, and their numbers terrified me. Shoulder to shoulder, the mass of lifeless armor marched forward. I took some solace in the fact that Joern’s leaves were at least doing something, but it paled in comparison to the dilapidated messes that Crash was leaving in her wake, her air blades cleaving through the horde with a practiced ease.
It still wasn’t doing much to leave a dent in their numbers, though. If only we could...
I tentatively turned away from the motionless frames in front of me and focused on the horde behind us.“Joern, I want to do an experiment. Let’s turn these things back into a block of ice. Water Pulse, full power,” I ordered, before glancing toward my starter. “Emilie, I need you to-”
A cracking sound met my ears as a sword shoved itself through the ground. I jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding the attack as the creature was pulverized into a faint white powder, its frame crumbling to dust as a black wave pulsed over it. I glanced up to see the wide, frantic eyes of Sol, her horn glowing an oppressive black as she hissed at the ground.
‘Stay the fuck away from my trainer, you frozen, zombie wannabes!’ she screeched, her teeth barred as she whipped her head back around and launched another Night Slash toward the shield guards and finally breaking the barricade.
A loud hissing sound drew my attention back and a small smile pulled at my lips. The second Joern’s attack made contact with the soldiers, the water crystallized. Their steps stuttered as their bodies expanded. Joints fused, before losing form entirely as the hollow knights fused together in a massive wall of ice that barred passage to and from the hall we just flew through.
‘Why do I have a feeling that just bought us time?’ Lucas asked.
Crash gave a cry, then dove down, her wings shining silver as she cleaved through the now motionless shield guards in front of us. ‘Probably because there’s already a hand shoving its way through the damn glacier.’
Joern turned back and paled, his eyes widening as more of the body followed after. ‘What’s the point of killing something that isn’t alive? There has to be something pulling the strings here, we aren’t actually in a damn zombie movie.’
A haunting wail pushed through my mind as my shadow expanded out below me. Whatever appendages that had been clawing through the ice quickly crumbled to powder as an ethereal glow overtook the hall. Green fire lit empty torches on either side of the sealed doors as the stone slowly asserted itself over the ice.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
‘They crawl, from the cold,’ Duskull rasped out from the shadows. ‘Just had… to return this place… to how it was.’
I frowned. “Duskull?”
‘The ice is fighting back,’ Duskull said, his voice strained. ‘Whole place is under terrain.’
I swallowed down a lump in my throat before turning to the large stone gates, their natural appearance shining through for the first time as a pair of ornately carved Absol faces stared back at me.
Now or never, then.
“Then we should get a move on.” I nodded toward Crash who lifted up her wings.
‘Wait,’ Duskull shouted. ‘I don’t know if I can take the strain and keep this up. The doors are open. Hell, they should be transparent. Just... push through...’
I turned toward the doors, before hesitating. Something felt off.
The ground quickly started to freeze over once more as Duskull floated closer to the doors. My team looked at me expectantly as Apollo dived forward. Because of course that idiot would be the first to dive headfirst into the abyss.
Screw it. Whatever this place wanted to throw at me, I’d deal.
I pushed through the doors, and the world shifted.
----------------------------------------
A loud crack was the only sound that met my ears as we pushed through the sealed gate into the throne room, my body once again tumbling along the hard stone floors. It was odd, though. Despite us probably being close to the heart of the palace, no ice lined the floor.
I slowly dragged myself to my feet. “Kind of a rough landing, don’t you think, Crash?”
No response.
I quickly glanced behind me, only to see the large stone doors slam shut. Two Absol figureheads stared back at me, but no Pokémon.
“Emilie, can you hear me? Where are you? What happened?” I kept turning, my eyes frantically trying to place a familiar face. All I was greeted with were limply hanging flags, unmoving suits of armor, and a staircase that extended up beyond what I could easily see.
I was alone.
“Joern, Apollo, you two were right next to me, where the hell did you go?” I shouted. This didn’t make any damned sense. “Lucas?”
As the final name left my lips, the sound of metal scraping against stone broke the silence the chamber had gifted me. My eyes darted toward the armor sets I had learned to distrust, but they remained still and lifeless. My eyes quickly traced up to the top of the stairs as a messy head of stiff hair crested the top of the stairs.
Full plate mail, just like the rest of the soldiers outside, but this... this was different. The armor wasn’t empty, nor was it whole or well put together. The steel still had that frosted over shine, but it was cracked in several places, a large hole adorned the center, with a number of black lines trailing from the wound. A single gloved hand rested on a white pommel, while the other hung limply as his side.
His face, though... That’s what truly set this thing apart from the hollow knights outside, and what made it worse was that it was a face I recognized. Short beard, long hair... It was all passed through a lens of frostbite and blood though. What had once been a majestic mane of blonde hair had matted together, flecks of black binding it together in a frozen mess. White skin had adopted a blue hue, and the eyes remained closed as the former king marched down the stone staircase, a red cape billowing behind him slightly as he moved.
I froze for a moment, then dipped down into a low bow, my shoulders tense as the sounds grew closer. “Your majesty?”
No response. Just a steady clank, clank, Clank, Clank.
“Worth a shot.” I sprinted away from the creature, desperately tracing along the walls for someplace to go. Some shelter I could gain from the shambling icy remains of my friend’s once noble body.
I had no delusions that I could take this thing on. My team could barely dent the ones outside, what the hell was a tiny little human like me supposed to do?
“Lucas, Emilie, Sol, Crash, fucking anyone at this point. I don’t know where you are, but for the love of all that is holy, get in here and save my ass!” No response. I pushed out with my mind, desperate to try and find someone, anyone that could help stop me from becoming a pincushion for the very large sword the big scary ice zombie was pulling out of its scabbard.
A weight lifted off from my shoulders as two minds entered my field of view. To my immense surprise, the creature that was leisurely chasing me through the room had something resembling higher brain functions. Maybe... conversation wasn’t out of the question?
I let out a soft scream as symbols once again flashed through my mind. The same dotted symbols ran through my head as I clutched at my skull in agony. A loud ringing settled behind my ears as I leaned up against the wall, my vision going fuzzy as the mental feedback loop asserted itself. I broke off from the creature, doing my best to push back against its mind as I left.
To my great surprise, the creature stopped moving.
I took several heaving breaths as I tried to steady myself. “Great, and me without a translator.”
‘Not entirely...’ The words echoed around in my head, barely above a whisper. They were feminine, and decidedly not attached to the creature in front of me. ‘Hello? This... feels odd and incredibly intrusive, but... I seem to be missing a few of the important bits for normal communication. Ears, a mouth, eyes...’
I glanced up towards the source of the voice before pushing myself away from the wall and climbing the staircase in front of me. ‘I’ll take whatever I can get at this point. You’re the first friendly voice I’ve found since coming here, and I’m used to it.’
Two ornate seats rested at the end of the room, and a grin pulled at my lips as a familiar specter stood proudly in front of the left chair, her eyes striking despite her ghostly appearance.
The setting finally struck me, and I quickly bowed my head. ‘Uh... hello?’
Giggling echoed around in my head, and the floating monarch tilted her head to the side. ‘A fair sight duller than my husband, but I suppose that’s to be expected. He is a sword, after all.’
Oh, god, they shared a sense of humor. That was equal parts adorable and terrifying.
‘Regardless, I wish we could be meeting under better circumstances. I am Persephone, the final queen of the Hailfire Kingdom.’ She bowed her head back. ‘It is a pleasure to formally meet you, Lea.’
I leaned back, glancing nervously at the shell behind me. It remained motionless, much to my relief. ‘Nice to meet you too, though you seem to know a fair bit more about me than I do you.’
‘Hmm, well, I suppose it would be quite cold of me to not know a bit more about my husband’s new friends.’ She grinned. ‘I’ve been following you since you entered the palace. I might have pushed out to find you sooner, but... leaving the castle seems quite hard to do at the moment, unfortunately.’
I nodded. ‘Don’t suppose you know where my friends are, do you?’ I winced at the casual tone a second after the words left my lips. ‘Uh, your grace.’
Giggling once again met my ears. ‘You’ve helped my husband through quite the ordeal, I think we can dispense with the titles. They’re not quite you, my dear.’ She lifted her arms up with a flourish before floating forward. ‘Believe it or not, they’re also in the throne room, just... a slightly different one. You have no idea how odd this is for me. This castle... It’s like I’m looking at two different versions of the same place. Our patron is quite the powerful entity, I suppose.’
‘Powerful is right...’ My eyes trailed back toward the motionless soldier behind me as my mind made the connection to what Duskull mentioned earlier. An eerie crypt flashed through my mind, and I grimaced at the comparison. ‘I was already in its terrain, though. How did it separate us?’
Persephone shrugged. ‘I wonder everyday how he does what he does. Every time I’m left with more questions than answers.’ She smiled down at me. ‘This one, however, is fairly simple. You were in its terrain. I pulled you out.’
My eyes widened. ‘Wait, so-’
‘This is the real world.’ She glanced past me to the upright corpse, her nose scrunched up in disgust. ‘In all its putrid glory.’
I leaned back. ‘How?’
She floated up closer to me, her hand resting against my cheek. Pins and needles seemed to dance along my jawline as she smiled at my frozen frame. ‘You called out to me. I could feel a pull, a connection. I simply pulled back and here you are.’ She smiled. ‘You’re welcome. I can’t imagine being on the receiving end of our patron’s ire is pleasant.’
Move. I needed to move. Somewhere. Just...
Her smile widened. ‘Not used to dealing with stronger spirits, are you, hon. Feeling a little spooked?’
That giggle felt more malevolent than it did before. My chest was starting to hurt. My vision was spotty. Why?
She tapped me twice before leaning back. ‘Breathe, darling. You’re no good to me dead.’
I sucked in air like it was going out of style, my vision coming back into focus as I put some distance between the two of us. ‘How the fuck did you do that?’
‘I’m a very old ghost, and you’re a very young channeler.’ She paused as she looked me up and down, as if assessing me. ‘Quite skilled, to be sure. Your mind is quite the fortress, but young.’ She crossed her arms and floated backwards. ‘It doesn’t matter how well your mind is hidden away if I can fill every inch of it with my being. How do you think possession works?’
I quickly backed away from her, suddenly far more terrified of the being in front of me than the husk behind me.
‘Aw, don’t be like that, I was just proving a point. I could very easily take everything I wanted from you. I’m not. So, when I ask you the questions I want to ask, you’ll be honest.’ The smile that accompanied that statement dropped my spine in an ice bath. ‘Sound good?’
My head was moving up and down before I could even fully process what it was that she was saying.
‘Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, tell me.’ She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing as a demonic visage supplanted her face. ‘What are your intentions with my husband?’
My brain suddenly stopped functioning, as various mental images plagued my head, all more confusing than the last. I blinked twice, before staring at the specter with a vacant expression. ‘I speak with absolute honesty... that I have no intention of moving in on your man.’ I shuddered as her face paled. How a ghost could pale was beyond me, but... ‘Even if I did swing that way, he is both dead AND the wrong species, so...’
‘That’s not what I meant, and you know it!’ She shouted, her face now solidly red.
‘Are these facial expressions a holdover from when you were alive and it’s all just instinctive? Because I know for a fact you don’t have any blood to blush.’ I pointed at her face as I finished.
The ghost bit her lip as she tried, and failed, to contain her giggles. ‘Okay, that was a good one and stop distracting me and answer the question!’
‘I don’t know what you want me to say! The question doesn’t make any sense!’ I lifted my hands up in front of me and backed away slowly. ‘Unless you mean him. In which case I think I broke him. Sorry. Uh... Also no judgment. Well, maybe a little bit of judge-’
I think the glare she just shot my way stopped my heart. No, hold up. There it goes. Oh, thank God.
‘That... thing,’ Her face contorted like she was tasting something sour on the final word. ‘Is a puppet, and a pale imitation. A frozen over marionette that our patron saw fit to test you with.’ She grimaced. ‘You didn’t have to try very hard to cut its strings, it would seem.’
‘Guessing you’re not a fan?’ I asked.
‘Hardly. Though I have confirmation that my husband’s spirit has found a new home, this spectacle is offensive to me in more ways than I can stomach. I take solace in the fact that my husband's actual body rests in a crypt beyond this city. Parading his actual corpse around would be...’ She stopped and turned away from the image, a glint of hate still present, and bore down at me. ‘Which brings us back around to my original question. What are your intentions with my husband? Why did you steal his sword from his tomb?’
‘I didn’t steal anything.’ I lifted my hands up defensively. ‘Hell, I technically stopped a pair of homicidal monsters from stealing it, so bite me. It’s not my fault he wanted to hang out after the fact.’ I shuddered. ‘Honestly, just thinking about being trapped down in the crypt gives me the willies.’
The specter’s frown worsened, and for a moment I thought I was going to back up even further. She sighed before turning away and placing her hand on the other throne. ‘You knew nothing of our kingdom, then? Of what we guard, even in death.’ Her hand clenched. ‘Why do you seek our sacred charge? For what purpose do you want the orb?’
I frowned. ‘I just want my friends back. I don’t really know what the hell is down here. I just know they are. Somewhere. Look, I don’t know what I have to do with any of this, alright? I just... The red orb seemed important.’
She turned to glare at me. ‘Important enough to steal?’
I groaned. ‘You can throw as much shade as you want, but your ‘patron’ threw the first punch. I don’t care about any ‘trials’, and if your god cares so much about a dude that’s been dead for a thousand years, then he can take his supposed divinity and shove it up his geologically correct ass!’
Persephone leaned back as if I’d struck her.
‘Please, just... I want my friends back. That’s it.’ It was getting harder to focus. Something cold was stinging my face. I reached up and wiped at my cheek, only to wince at the light moisture I felt.
Great, I was breaking down in front of a queen.
‘Has... has it really been a thousand years.’ Persephone’s voice was incredibly distant, and she had lost most of its pallor. She looked away from me as her body shook. ‘I’ve barely felt the years pass.’
I wiped at my eyes with my gloves before glancing back up at her. ‘None of us knew this city even existed. Honest. I’m no thief.’ I firmed up my gaze and glared at her. ‘The only thieves around here are you and that stupid block of ice out front.’
Silence met my ears as her majesty glanced down, her brows pulled together as she seemed to bounce something around in her head. ‘I... suppose that would explain some of the more drastic changes in wardrobe.’ Her gaze hardened. ‘But you’re wrong about who struck first. A group broke into the shrine of eternity a few weeks ago.’
I leaned back. ‘The what?’
She turned and looked me over, her eyebrows lifting up towards her hairline as she slowly leaned back. ‘You really don’t know, do you?’
I shook my head. ‘No clue. The extent I know about your kingdom is what little Lucas has told me.’ I grinned at her. ‘Most of it revolved around you, though you’re not really leaving the best first impression.’
She opened her mouth, before snapping it shut and looking away. ‘I’ve never been the best at that. Regice only knows how that goofball put up with me.’ She glanced back up at me, her gaze softer. ‘The shrine of eternity is where the hopeless cases go. Where people who are too far gone for normal means of recovery go to be cast into a frozen shell, in the hope that in the future, whatever ailment that plagues them might be cured.’
I felt my jaw go slack, before snapping it shut as a thought struck me with the force of a sledgehammer. ‘Wait, Lucas brought you here to be frozen!’
She nodded. ‘An illness plagued our kingdom in its final hours. No doctor could find a cure. I... Percival believed we just needed more time.’
‘Percival?’ I tilted my head to the side, holding back a laugh as I slowly realized what she was referring to. ‘Wait, Lucas was called-’
‘That was his name in life, yes. He seems quite taken with his new name in death though. To be honest, he never enjoyed being called that. He always urged me to pick some other pet name, but I liked it too much to do it all the time.’ She looked down, a soft smile on her face. ‘He always got so fussy when I deigned to call him by the name his mother gave him, it was cute.’
I smiled at the image, filed that info away for potential blackmail later, and took a step forward. ‘I just don’t get why you’re dead, if you were frozen. I was under the impression that time stopped for you guys.’
‘It does.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘Assuming you don’t get buried under a pile of rubble when your deity decides to plunge the entire city into the ocean while your people are getting massacred in the streets.’
I winced. ‘Ah.’
‘Yes, ah. I don’t hate him for that, though. He made the right choice, considering the alternative. Those craven monsters from the mountains would have been the worst sort to have control over the Red Orb.’ She shook her head. ‘It also saved a great many others that were down there. I was just... unlucky. I’m very grateful a few others beyond myself had regrets that tied them back for a time. They filled me in on what happened.’ Her face went cold. ‘The invader almost shattered a number of them when he first arrived. Regigigas be praised that our patron managed to get the jump on him before he could cause any more harm.’
I sighed, wondering if whoever attacked this place was the same person that sicked Lunatone and Solrock on me. No, the timelines don’t really match up. Besides, what would be the point of sending some psychics down to do your dirty work if you were just going to come down and wreck shop yourself.
Wait.
Something clicked in my brain and it took everything I had to not jump up and down. ‘Persephone, could you describe who it was that came down here?’
She glanced at me with narrowed eyes, and I took a step back. ‘Friends of yours?’
I quickly shook my head. ‘Nope. Never met them. Only people I know were the group of teenagers that fought off a big scary Aggron in front of the big scary door.’
Her eyes narrowed further as she started floating closer. ‘How can you never meet someone you don’t know?’
I swallowed. Legends above she could be terrifying when she wanted to be. ‘I don’t know them, but... I might know OF them, alright. Look, my friends and I came to this island to find someone, and we... really haven’t been having much luck. Tall, kind of lanky, silver hair, probably dresses like he shits gold bars.’
Persephone scrunched up her nose and glared at me. ‘You know, for a lady, you sure seem to swear a lot.’
I glanced around the room nervously, looking anywhere but directly at someone that actually carried the title of royalty. ‘...Look, they’re just words, alright?’
She glared at me. ‘They aren’t words that should be coming out of the mouth of a lady of your standing.’
My standing? What, as a poor baker turned rookie trainer?
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, it’s just... your description is fairly apt. That man blasted into the chamber with a beast that defied comprehension. A hulking monstrosity of metal, more powerful than anything I had ever seen. Even in death, I could feel its presence.’ She stopped and looked away. ‘I was so terrified that he was going to shatter the statues that still remain down there with how violent of an entry he made. If it wasn’t for our patron’s swift actions, he might have.’
I sagged down in relief and felt a smile pull at my lips. We found him. One of the strongest trainers in the world, and he stumbled, ass backwards, into one of the biggest clusterfucks of all time.
Fuck, he might have actually caused it. Duskull and Lucas were both innocents, damn it all.
‘Guess we found him, then. Is he still alive, out of curiosity?’ I asked.
Persephone chuckled lightly. ‘By some metric, I suppose. I don’t see him being thawed anytime soon. I’m grateful they were tagged before they got a chance to react, I’d rather not think about what a clash between those two might have done to that chamber.’ She shivered.
...fuck.
‘Right... Not anytime soon.’ I sighed. Yeah, things couldn’t ever be easy, could they?
Well, that’s not true, I suppose. I didn’t even know what I was doing and I put the fake Lucas in a vegetative state.
Hooray for small miracles.
‘You’re really good at avoiding questions, aren’t you?’ Persephone inched closer still.
Oh good, the feeling of dread is back. ‘How so?’
‘Don’t get me wrong, this conversation has been informative. I’ve got a decent idea of who I’m talking to and learned... one or two disturbing things about how time works for ghosts, but you still haven’t told me what you intend for my husband.’ She tilted her head as she stopped, just a scant few feet away from me. Her presence felt intoxicating, overwhelming my senses and locking my focus. ‘Tell me’
“I don’t intend anything for your husband. I was just happy to have another friend.” The words spilled forth from my mouth as they popped into my head. May had always joked about my lack of filter, but truly losing that felt horrifying. “He joined me, all but begged us to stay, and I’m happy to have him as long as he wants to be with me.”
‘Surely, you have some great designs for him?’ She asked, her voice wavering slightly. ‘You’ve earned the favor of a king. Many would kill for such a position. To use that for their own gains.’
“He’s just Lucas,” I countered. “He’s no more a king than either of us, not anymore. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my own goals that he’s helping me reach, but at the end of the day, I don’t really care about that.” I felt a smile pull at my lips. “He’s always there with a joke when needed, regardless of how bad it is. He loves seeing other people happy. Despite the fact that he’s dead, he’s one of the livelier members of my team, and that’s a tall order, let me tell you.” I stared up and met her gaze head on. “He’s my friend. Nothing more, and nothing less.”
I saw a war wage in Persephone’s eyes in the span of a second. Worry and fear pushed past me, mixing with relief and pain. They washed over me, seeping into my core and pushing away the cold feeling that settled there.
In an instant, that shared calm shattered as panic rushed off of her in waves. She overtook me, her being filling every part of me, and my body moved all on its own.
We lunged forward, kneeling down as a shadow passed over the top of my head. Our head panned around as we twisted, gliding through the air with a practiced grace and elegance that I knew I lacked.
A tiny bit of jade hair slowly drifted down to the ground as I glimpsed at the now mobile doppelganger, his sword poised next to his head as he lunged forward with the tip aimed directly at my skull.