《In Fairytales》 Chapter 1: Postbellum (Kullervo) Chapter 1: Postbellum (Kullervo) ¡°Do you know what makes a great warrior, dearly beloved?¡± I asked Eris on that airless, rainy summer night on our porch steps. She looked at me, thinking over the puzzle I had posed, her heterochromatic gaze changing slowly from its brown and violet majesty. One eye was electric green and the other was aquamarine to counter it, both resting beneath her wide brow like twin, elemental worlds. Her face reflected my own as only my first-born was created to be. I could see her mind process the query silently. ¡°I can only guess that it¡¯s the same qualities that cause others to carry on and fight for a cause worth dying for,¡± she said assuredly and I nodded in answer. She contemplated this as I came to my next piece of intellectual nourishment for my eldest child. ¡°Which are found to be the weakest?¡± ¡°Is it those who are inexperienced in any skill, father?¡± she bemused, shuffling her dark brown, bat-like wings close to herself. ¡°Nay, my child, it is those who have too much in one area of expertise alone. The jack-of-all-trades may not be able to do much with their skills, but they are better than a master of one skill and one skill only. I¡¯m proud of you, my first-born!¡± We went inside our house at the edge of the world and sat down at the dinner table. Cora, my cherished wife, nursed our newborn while Fantasia, my second born, spoke a prayer over the freshly cooked rice and geravin meat. The farms of these cattle-like reptiles spanned many regions of this world and their meat was common fodder. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Nearing the end of our dinner, I finally spoke of a plan I¡¯d been mulling over to my wife and children. ¡°We can''t just let the girls be content with the skills they already have, they must continue to adapt.¡± Cora looked up from her food, and the baby with a frown. Her blood-red locks were chaotically unkempt from recent nights of little sleep. I continued, ¡°I have business throughout the continent to ascertain the state of our world after this most recent war. I¡¯d like to bring the four of you along with me.¡± ¡°What more could they learn? They''ve had at least three decades of strong counsel from Magus Rom, tacticionary development from Alamu himself, government, literacy, music, and art from you, weapons training from Meseret, elemental control from Plecostomus, and weaponless combat from Vitaals. The whole kingdom has practically raised them!¡± Cora said at length, looking between our eldest and second-born. I thought for a bit over this entourage of kings and queens who had taught my daughters everything they knew. In order, these teachers of my children were the Magus of the Nocturnas; the previous king and queen of the Darkness and Light Clans; one of the six Void regents; and the arbiter of the Metal Clan, all of whom were situated under my rule. ¡°They lack culture, I¡¯m afraid. Fantasia hasn¡¯t left the house in months, Eris has been trained in nothing but war. They both could stand a little fresh air and conversation.¡± I said decidedly. ¡°Well, if you want to speak of culture, look no further than the Nocturnas. Vyvin and Vio come here five times a fortnight to teach them of their culture as well as agriculture and medicine.¡± My wife countered yet again. Fantasia put her hand on mine with a begging look in her eyes. She was nearly sixty-eight years of age and still looked as young as if she were only twenty-three. She glowed with warm light that stemmed from a knife-like crystal jammed into her chest by assailants that had kidnapped her in her youth. ¡°Please dad, can you get them to stop telling us about mushrooms? The last time they came, they made us find a species named shivri that was used to make people vomit.¡± ¡°The stench haunted our vestments for months!¡± Eris chimed in seriously. I smiled and agreed to talk to the pair of Nocturnas along the way. Fantasia nodded at this, setting her plate in the center of the oaken table with a shift of her six, dove-like wings. ¡°We will be visiting the major cities around the continent. You each will have your separate chances to meet both the common folk as well as the royalty I have established there. You will also be living among them for a day each,¡± I said matter-of-factly as I got up and took everyone''s plates and utensils outside. I focused carefully, channeling what I had in mind and fire erupted from my hand, purging the dinnerware of any refuse. I came back inside and Cora made the final decision that we would leave in the morning. She stood carefully with our child and stretched her wings similar in appearance and manner to that of sparrow¡¯s. It would be a quiet and restful night as we would prepare in the morning. Chapter 2: Onward to Adventure (Fantasia) Chapter 2 (Fantasia) Of the most incredible of my father''s ideas, this was one of the more impressive. Truly, to travel the continent and experience the cultures of all of the clans and learn of their own significant powers was quite an enjoyable thought and so much more the action of it. However, our trip would be dangerous. ¡°Come Fantasia, bring what you''ll need. Remember we have to go to extreme climates so bring everything you can that''ll keep you warm, cold, whatever,¡± my mother said haphazardly as she changed my baby brother''s wrappings and covered him in several layers of clothes. Truth be told, she seemed to be a lot more tired and stressed now that she¡¯d had her baby. Her eyes were more bloodshot, her once full, thick red hair was becoming thinner and her face was etched with lines of worry. I wonder, did she look quite like that with me when I was in my baby brother¡¯s place not quite so long ago? My father and older sister''s conversation swiftly broke my ponderings as my sister hoisted our tent and her rucksack over her shoulder. She held a weapon designed for her, a trident, in her offhand. ¡°Remember, Eris, we are going among the rulers in peace, there is no need to stress.¡± ¡°Father! Not more than a month ago we had an angry mob attack us and you had to save the day. Mother and Fantasia could''ve been killed!¡± She was feisty as ever since that one day she came back and always seemed to find a reason to fight with my father. Had she always been so quick to argue and rush into a fight? I didn''t know and frankly didn¡¯t care either, she barely came into my life thirty years ago. I remember how emotional my father had gotten, it was a little frightening to see him cry as much over someone I''d never heard of. I wonder if he''d do the same if something were to happen to me. ¡°Yes yes I know! Still, as long as I am king, we may come and go from wherever as we please.¡± ¡°What of Nihilis and the Void Clan?! They''ve proven time and again that they are far from under control!¡± She shot back. Ah, yes, this I knew about! I smiled to myself as I left to go pack, thinking of the terrible death-bringers that had committed a mass holocaust on the Harp-Note and Time Clans in search of the Harpnotica and Nightingale. I remember that from my history lessons with Magus Rom. My father and sister argued on and on with my sister''s harsh bites and my father''s calm reassurances. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Soon we left the house I knew so well. There remained at least six more hours of daylight by the position of Sol-Ano, our sun. The warm morning wind was flowing freely across the massive expanse of my father¡¯s property. We flew from our perch in the clouds with my mother having Eris hold her luggage so she could hold the baby. I found it difficult to carry one bag, let alone imagine carrying three. As much as I disdained my older sibling, I had to give it to her; she was stronger than most. Soon we landed several miles from the house near a stone barrier, entirely impassable through flight. I knew this wall too well, every inch of craggy, unscalable rock that arched towards the sky defiantly to forbid any from entering or leaving. The wall rose to just below where the air was so cold that your wings would frost and harden. My father produced a key from his coat pocket and turned it in a hole in the stony wall. A doorway appeared and we passed through to a snowy and forested area. The change in temperature was drastic as we ventured into the tundra. We tramped through the frost quickly and as we went, it froze over our footprints in a haze, leaving no trace. The farther we went, the harder it was to see the barrier through the falling sleet and ice. It was strange living at the edge of a world, so vast and bursting with vibrancy, in obscurity. I wondered at times why my father would want such a life for us, far away from the bustling cities and towns full to the brim with adventures and new people. My father brought us to a nice warm cottage to get some sleep and change. Sol-Ano was setting, and Forever Twinkle was already high in the sky, casting its ominous silver glow across the freshly fallen snow. My father made dinner, kindling the fire gently in the fireplace, to cook a nice herb and meat stew from our last dinner''s leftovers. That was our family food rule: let nothing go to waste unless it was spoiled. My wings were flooded with warmth and I steadily grew sleepy. After dinner, father told us some of his war stories of how he''d fought alongside Nightingale against Mirage of the Venom Clan to keep her from dragging everything below the surface of our world, down into the inky depths of Toxicon where it could be ruled by that noxious Clan of poisons and remedies. I was only half-listening and soon fell asleep. I¡¯d heard this story many times before but every time my father told it differently. I thought I heard Eris mutter my name before she carried me in her big, strong arms to my bed. I slept better than ever before that night. Chapter 3: Fulgor and Frost (Eris) Chapter 3 (Eris) I had scarcely fallen asleep in my cot near the door before I heard my father''s footsteps come close. Although he didn''t look at me, I could sense a tense aura streaming from him. ¡°Come, Eris.¡± I wanted to ask questions but I took one look at the blades strapped to his sides and back, and immediately felt the answer appear in front of me. I followed him outside cautiously, trident in hand, looking for any sign of movement. In the time it took for me to look around, my father was already gone. I rushed after him quickly, following his long-strided footprints in the snow as I continued, picking up the pace. I stopped at the edge of a frozen lake, just in time to see that he was engaged in a harsh sword duel with an adversary of blinding light. From their hair to their pointed boots, the enemy glowed a bright, unearthly white, even their eyes were harsh and judgemental. The light pouring from them was so blinding that I couldn¡¯t see much of their face, leaving them androgynous. My father leapt back from the duel, wielding only one blade. I saw the other two left haphazardly at the edge. One was as broad and long as a shield, his Hag¡¯kistux, the Blade of the Mind¡¯s Eye. A longsword made of blackened star steel, his Pasrangivel, the Blade of Slicing Shadows. I gathered them up and I felt this was another moment in which we weren''t father and daughter, but knight and squire. Thus, I held my tongue and his weapons, taking a step back to preserve his honour as he blocked and parried with his third sword, that of flame, Ignilion. This was his fight and his fight alone. The foe slid back along the ice away from my father before they channelled their raw energy through their hands. My father with a dark blaze. His adversary with freezing light. They rushed at each other at breakneck speed, turning the frozen lake back into the water it once was as they went into a grapple, blade against blade, fire against ice. Before either touched the water, my father leapt into the air, spreading his black dragon''s wings while his opponent spread their illuminating, luna moth-like wings. His sword ignited in a violent, red blaze while his opponent¡¯s blade seemed to turn from silver, to cold, harsh steel. They flew at each other. The force of their blows knocking them backwards. I had experienced several of my father¡¯s breakneck techniques firsthand, and I¡¯d learned to predict them with and without my psionic abilities. Here, though, he moved at a pace not even the ever encroaching eye of time could predict. With his opponent matching him, they traded stroke for stroke. Each clash and hiss of fire on ice shook me to my very core. I¡¯d never seen my father fight so desperately in all of my two hundred and thirty-seven years of life, death, and rebirth. My father soon began evading his foe through diverse aerial manoeuvres, the orb in his chest glowing with a white heat as his body was working overtime to accommodate for his foe¡¯s literal, blinding speed. I blended into the shadows to avoid a blastwave of heat that emanated from the roiling black and red mass of energy in my father¡¯s chest. It withered the trees around the lake, and turned any form of water to steam. His adversary, being caught by the wave, dimmed a bit, revealing a woman of strong build. Her light seemed to reignite as she became unfazed as the wave passed. Unfortunately though, that was all the time my father needed to put his extinguished blade to her throat and elicit an unspoken surrender. After filling the lake with ice once more, the unnamed foe of frost, and light left, leaving me alone with my father. He grunted as he took a knee. Ice had formed in spirals all over his body. Though it melted quickly, it was obvious that all of the blows I thought he had deflected had really been his own attacks being parried and answered. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He gritted his teeth as he stood shakily, removing his now tattered robes and coat, revealing a suit of armour. I ran over quickly and helped him hobble back to the cottage, taking the two items of clothing from him. ¡°Speak nothing of this to your mother or sister, Eris. That person was simply here to spar with me and nothing more. Your mother would take it the wrong way...she would believe her an enemy of ours. She sent me a letter asking to meet with me to spar and I agreed.¡± I nodded as we came to a quiet, nearby clearing we¡¯d passed along our way there. I laid my father down in the fresh, falling snow gently as he huffed with exhaustion. There was no way that he had survived so many sword blows from a weapon wielded by someone with twice the skill he had. He smiled at me, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Your face is all twisted up, like I¡¯m leaving you.¡± I felt infuriated at his response, gritting my teeth. ¡°You stupid, old man! What were you thinking going as fiercely as you did! Don¡¯t you always tell me not to try so hard in combat?! That there are better options than fighting?! Why didn¡¯t you get someone else to help train this person?! You are old! You can¡¯t just leap into combat anymore!¡± He put a finger to my lips, stopping my tirade. He spoke softly but firmly as he gently brushed away some of the tears that I hadn¡¯t noticed falling down my cheeks. ¡°Do you know that sometimes people don¡¯t have luxuries just given to them? That some people may be too strong to fight machines or to give up fighting all together?¡± I felt as if daggers were being driven into my windpipe as he continued. ¡°Fantasia plays the violin so well, and your apothecarial skills rival those of the greatest in Reality. Imagine if I told you one day that neither of you could do those things anymore. Sometimes combat is necessary, especially in a family that never listens.¡± ¡°Father, she could¡¯ve killed you!¡± I felt the words fire from me like a gunshot before I could contain myself, and they continued to pour forth like a waterfall. ¡°Do we really matter so little to you that you would just throw your life and crown away?! What about your son! He can¡¯t even hold his head up, let alone carry the weight of your crown! What if you never heard Fantasia¡¯s music again? What if-¡± He held me close, silencing me completely. His suit of armour fell away, leaving him in his plain clothes. He was incredibly warm compared to the outside chill. I could do nothing but sob against him as he held me close. For a long time, he just let me cry, he didn¡¯t scold me, he didn¡¯t say I was disrespectful, he didn¡¯t even note how cold it was. After a long time, he finally spoke in a quiet, calm, and gentle tone. ¡°There is a family of sparrows in that tree behind me. No significance, just look at them, and how they are: beautiful, thriving. You ought not to worry so much, a girl of your age should be enjoying her life to the fullest. You have the rest of your life as queen to stress and worry, grow old and bicker with the other rulers from the lands we¡¯ll be visiting soon. Wrinkles come from worrying too much¡­¡± He seemed to cut himself off in thought, possibly listening to himself speak and heeding his own advice. ¡°Let¡¯s head back to your mother, shall we? Breakfast must be ready by now if that¡¯s what I¡¯m smelling.¡± It was uplifting being able to smell my mother¡¯s cooking from this far away, even through my snotty crying. My father took a piece of cloth lining from his armour, tore it, and gave it to me, ¡°Dry your tears. Buck up. Let¡¯s go see what your mother is making, shall we?.¡± He finally let go of me before pain-stakingly putting his armour back on. I wanted to help him with it but he refused and did everything himself, tying the straps and tightening them around his back, arms, legs, and shoulders without a word. This was a man of war and worse battles than this with more at stake than just his own life. Already his wounds were disappearing before my eyes as if the incident had never happened. There was certainly something frightening about my father underneath all of his grit, muscle, power, and blind luck, and it was wonderful. We walked back through the woods without incident or talk of what had happened. The only proof of anything happening being the slightly blood-stained piece of cloth he¡¯d given me. For years to come I¡¯d still keep it hidden away where no one would ever see it. A testament that my father, the immortal that he was, could bleed, and would die one day. Chapter 4: Duty (Cora) Chapter 4 (Cora) Being the wife of the High Emperor was certainly a simple task before we¡¯d had children. Fantasia was sewing and mending clothes while I tried to get the baby warm by the fire. I was also trying to cook a good stew for our journey ahead. I¡¯d taught Fantasia how to sew at a young age, but she¡¯d never quite gotten the handle of it. I was constantly walking between her, the baby, and the food, trying to manage all three at once. At some point, I almost started warming a piece of unfinished cloth, and quite nearly threw the baby into the stew I was making. I finally sat down as I just focused on keeping the baby warm, I had no idea where in the world my husband and Eris had gone. Fortunately, the very people walked in the door at that moment, Eris quickly took over cooking while my husband took the baby from my hands, tucking him into his armour to keep him warm. He shook his head lovingly at me as I sat there exhausted. ¡°My love, don¡¯t take on so many tasks at once, if you¡¯re going to cook, at least give Fantasia the child or tell her to put her sewing away so that she can do it for you.¡± I nodded absent-mindedly. I was so completely burnt out, and tired that I didn¡¯t question why he had on his armour, why Eris held two of his three swords, why he was suddenly calling Fantasia, or why I was now on my cot. The last thing I remembered was him looking at me, a look of concern on his face as he turned away and got back to watching over our daughters. It was late that night that my husband and I were told that our first-born had been captured by the Void Clan. Neither of us had slept in days as we continued our advance on the enemy. Our troops slept soundly alongside their respective rulers. They needed the rest. I looked into his dark-ringed, beaten eyes that held the candles of his indomitable spirit. Those eyes that reflected the rage I felt in my heart. ¡°You said she would be safe!¡± I shouted at him. He bared his teeth and a snarl like a beast without breath escaped from his lockjaw, sabred grin. ¡°She isn¡¯t dead yet, is she?¡± He argued as he looked out in the direction of the bastion that held our oldest nearly thirty-two kilometres away. ¡°We leave tonight, she will be free by midday.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. We flew from our roost as I took the life from one of our beasts of war. It was regrettable and I shuddered as the power entered my veins. I shook my head, this was war. It was only fitting that I give our enemy back the gift they had given me. I formed a firearm from the force within me. The enemy¡¯s bastion came into view far faster in the world of my dreams than it had that day. Before we even struck the ground, I fired my weapon along the walls of the enemy¡¯s stronghold, each shot finding its mark. Each life fuelling my crusade. We landed and my husband began his dance among the soon-to-be dead. I dodged through swarms of enemy soldiers like bees pouring from the walls and guardhouses. I fought for hours, only taxing my body with cuts and bruises here and there. Any being that laid a hand on me fell instantly from the horrid lifeforce I drank from them. Hate was all that filled me as I fired shot after shot through the enemy in righteous fury. When there lay nothing but bodies around me, I looked to the bastion. My body shook, my vision blurry, but I fought sleep¡¯s annoying embrace one more morning as Sol-Ano rose. Then I realised that this wasn¡¯t Sol-Ano as it was filled with black, crystalline energy. A maw appeared beneath it as a monster rose through the building. Anything caught near it atomized, eyes that were frenzied and opalescent, a thousand arms reached towards the sky. A bellow like a horn of rage and war burst from the creature¡¯s jagged, torn open face as the sun roared into the sky and erupted into several pieces shooting down around the continent. I heard it, however, differently. I heard his agony beneath the beast-like appearance. This wasn¡¯t just rage, this was grief. Within one of the arms beneath the bastion was our only daughter. Within the crazed marble eyes was a wreck of a man that I would come to know painfully well when the crystals broke away and collapsed in upon themselves. He walked from that place where the pieces of that wreck no longer stood. His wings dragged along the ground, splayed over the bodies of the damned. His head was turned down, in his arms, barely contained, was his heart itself that he had sought for years. At the time, I had hardly thought of our next child that was to be born six months later. I soon awoke to Fantasia shaking me gently. I bolted upright and asked her about the baby but she pressed a hand to my shoulder and I lay back down. ¡°Father says you should rest, you¡¯re exhausted. He also says that having kids is hard and takes a lot out of you.¡± I tried to respond but the words never left my mouth. Fantasia quieted me and gave me a flask of water and a bowl of soup. ¡°Father says he was looking for firewood trees with Eris this morning, that¡¯s why he wasn¡¯t here. He¡¯s going to go chop a few right now to help keep us warm.¡± I sighed, knowing that it was probably best if I got some rest, as exerting myself would only make me sick, and we couldn¡¯t have that. I probably should¡¯ve worried more about our baby, however. I assumed that he was lying in the wooden crib within the cottage nearby. Chapter 5: Gates of the Frozen City (Kullervo) Chapter 5 (Kullervo) Cora was burnt out and exhausted, and I knew it. I couldn¡¯t say anything about the sparring because it would worry her more, just as chopping wood with her baby tightly slung against my chest would. I had made the sling in my armour for just such an occasion as this after all. In the event of a fight, I could conceal him there and make my escape to take him somewhere else. I¡¯d left the girls to work on the sewing and cooking even though both could easily chop a whole forest for wood within half a day. I needed them there to care for their mother. We were about to walk into the middle of a frozen wasteland to meet the Clan that caused this eternal winter here. I hacked apart at least fifty logs before looking back to the house. Cora and the girls had just come out and brought the sleigh out of the shed on the side of the house. I smiled as I noticed my wife looking much better. I quickly went over after I put the logs against the house and gave the baby to Eris while Cora wasn¡¯t looking. We soon piled in as Fantasia brought over a small group of typinole that could easily get us to the Frozen Wastes within half an hour. It was fortunate that we¡¯d tamed a few the last time we were out here because normally the trip would take two days on foot. My wings ached from the cold. I remembered vividly the first time I had crashed into a snowbank from twenty feet in the air. That had been, to put it lightly, unpleasant. They were truly majestic creatures and very docile despite their wolfish appearances and mouths full of icicles. I made sure we were bundled up before hitching the sleigh to our beasts and setting off. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. As we came within a hundred miles of the city, the temperature dropped drastically from around forty degrees Fahrenheit down to twenty, then as we came within sixty miles of the city, down to negative five. I made sure we had no less than five warm layers on (the baby was practically engulfed in wool and cotton clothing with extra heating layers around him), and even then there seemed to be an overbearing chill in the air. We entered the city proper at a slow gallop from the typinole who stopped at a customs station. I released them as I told the customs officer who I was and why I was there. The insipid, harsh-eyed man wore little more than a light set of armour and a tunic underneath and spoke in a shrewd voice. His speech was sharp and clipped, and he almost spoke faster than I could reasonably keep up with. He recognized me by the orb of black and violet flames within my chest, a lens through which Core energy flowed through me and gave me my powers. He looked into my eyes and noted the twin irises within one of them, impossible to replicate by any means. With a curt nod, we finally entered Cryox, and what a sight it was. We were in the centre of a massive crater just downwind of the ferocious blizzards that ravaged the arctic plains. Houses were built from sheets of blue ice and christened with a heavy covering of snow. Large patches of giant lichens grew like great flower boxes scattered around the shops and houses. The marketplace was full of pale white people in simple clothes, speckled here and there by the occasional winter-scaled Nocturna. A lone Weaver lay sleeping against a wooden stall of crystalline statuettes. I left the girls to find an inn as I walked onwards towards the palace. Snow and ice barely melted under my feet, which was surprising since typically my own body heat would melt it straight into water, but instead it would melt then refreeze while I was still over it. I shivered thinking of the power and cruelty that this Clan could unleash given enough provocation. Needless to say, on my way through the palace gates of clear blue ice, I felt a strange warmth from the initial palace guards underneath their cold-steel armour, frozen over helmets that hid their light blue eyes and variegated features, both light and dark, tan and auburn. They recognized me as the High Emperor and true friend to their Clan. I smiled to myself as the throne room opened before me and the queen came forth. Chapter 6: Gratitude (Fantasia) Chapter 6 (Fantasia) I hated the cold, and this inn was no exception, no matter how inviting the open blaze of the hearth was. The innkeeper was in a very light-weighted tunic and seemed to be sweating profusely even though the hearth was a good ways away from his little desk. Although the innkeeper seemed cordial enough, he seemed to despise us and everyone else in his inn, with particular disdain for the roaring flames before him. Some salt-and-pepper flecked Nocturnas were near the flames, discussing questions of the multiverse in low tones as they clawed their black scales off to reveal their fresher, lighter tones they wore in climates like these. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. An assistant of the innkeeper led us upstairs to our private suite while the innkeeper went outside to cool down. The assistant was a slight boy of about twenty-four, with dark, brazed skin and bright tawny eyes. I imagined he wasn¡¯t from these parts and had somehow befriended the innkeeper in his travels. He led us to our room without incident but did bow to us as he left. Our room was quite unimpressive and to a great extent, under furnished with two, queen-sized beds, a small kitchen with the fresh ashes of a recently lit flame in the oven, an oaken table with four chairs, a wardrobe with two armour stands next to it, and a balcony to look out upon the walls of the crater we were in. There was no gold filigree, no royal violet curtains, no decoration of any kind save for the balcony which was closed in by a tight metal shutter to keep heat in, no running water, and nothing but daylight to see by. There was barely enough metal in the room to make a single coin. I scowled at this, we were royalty! We deserved better than this. My mother looked around the room before sitting down on the bed and nursing our brother. I could only imagine what my father would think... Chapter 7: Citizens of the Frozen City (Eris) Chapter 7 (Eris) I didn''t know what I''d expected although this was certainly not it. Fantasia seemed awe-struck and disgusted at our punitive conditions however I simply understood that my father had a plan, no matter the conditions we were given. I went to the balcony, opened it, and looked outside just in time to see a small huddle of ''gleaners'' going out into the wastes to scrape what fungus and plant life would grow on the glaciers and frosted sheets of ice nearby, and also to hunt whatever animal life was out there. This was a precautionary measure implemented by their queen since they had farms within the walls of the crater that, to my knowledge, were quite bountiful and pretty much ran themselves. ¡°Core below, what is this place about?!¡± Fantasia sputtered out angrily as she looked around the room frantically, hoping beyond hope that it was better than what she was seeing. Mother didn''t say anything and seemed to be entirely focused on the baby. This room was truly miserable, it was too small to even have separate rooms of its own and was more of a communal living space for the five of us. I shook my head as I walked out, quickly telling mother that I was going to see what father and the queen were doing. When I felt I was out of sight, I removed some of the layers my father had put on me. I couldn''t feel the cold or heat from either the layers or the outside and so I didn''t care much for them. When I stepped out of the hotel, I''d expected it to be as slow and sleepy as when we''d come. I was soon proven wrong as a large crowd of people stood huddled around the door, all eyes on me. I hesitated a bit before asking what the matter was, scanning the crowd for my father, or any other politically significant figure to get out of this mess. Though it was common for a small crowd of thirty to forty people to follow my father around the city, it was very rare for any more than five or six to be around my sister, mother or myself. In front of me stood a crowd of at least sixty pairs of bright and dull blue eyes, pale skin and frosted white hair. A man of about my mother''s age stepped forward and cleared his throat, speaking a heavily accented dialect of Imaginarian, ¡°Madame, we have come to ask you to speak to us of the state of the world.¡± He spoke in an especially thick, shaky accent that was slow and slightly hard to understand but I heard it and understood what they wanted. I deliberated with myself for a second, what¡¯s particularly new about the world that I can tell them? Nothing of importance came to my mind especially seeing as how this was my family¡¯s first destination on our expansive and exhaustive journey throughout the Continent. ¡°Who among you speaks the common dialect?¡± I asked loudly across the crowd ¡°If any among you speak it, please come forth!¡± Twelve people each raised their hands and came before me. ¡°Whatever I speak, please translate it to your fellows so that they might understand.¡± It was common for there to be separate dialects across the many cities of my father¡¯s rule. Some of them were so varied from the original tongue that they were practically separate languages. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The amount of attention that was focused on me was daunting to say the least and I didn''t know what I could tell them that was new and interesting. I pondered for a bit as I began to speak again, interrupting the awkward silence of dragging minutes and seconds, ¡°I need to reach my father and speak with him promptly. Let us walk through the city to the palace.¡± After letting the translators finish, many of the crowd nodded and made a way for me to walk through. As I walked past them, I could hear them shuffling behind me. I turned to see them following me. Is this what it feels like to be queen? I asked myself quietly as I walked the frozen roads carefully. A woman ran up to me with her child in her hands, asked me something in quick, thickly accented Imaginarian before thrusting her baby forward into my hands with a small bow. I took it so as not to drop it while a translator told me to kiss it and give it my blessing. I shrugged internally as I gently gave the baby a kiss on the forehead and prayed a quiet blessing aloud over it before giving it back to its mother who bowed and thanked me loudly. Seeing this, other mothers came up to me with their children ranging between twelve and newly born, asking the same thing of me. After several minutes of blessing the children and kissing more people than I had ever in my life, we walked on toward the castle, picking up more people and assimilating them into the crowd as we went, eventually numbering in the nineties to possibly hundreds. As we passed a more densely populated area, something caught my eye. A frail old man stood coughing on his front porch before falling down in front of me. The crowd moved around him and gently lifted him up before bringing him to me. The people were finally quiet and those carrying him were sombre as he lay in their arms, his wings creaked and groaned as he attempted to stretch them, his orb flickered as barely a ball of frozen white light the size of a rose petal, scales fell from his dragon-like wings as he murmured out something. One of the translators turned to me, eyes like tombstones, ¡°Good queen, this man wishes to speak with you. We fear he is not long for this world.¡± I came closer to him and his cold, sightless eyes seemed to readjust as he looked at me. He was blind and more pale than his kindred citizens but he seemed to look right at me. He coughed away from me, blue blood staining his palm. I reached over to his hands and held them as the crowd gently put him into my arms. I held him close to my chest and something seemed to spark in his eyes as he felt my warmth, as if my very presence was keeping him alive. ¡°Are you the fonterling princess?¡± He asked in his solemn dialect. I answered yes and he seemed to gasp and his eyes opened as he looked to the sky. He reached his frail arms up and he whispered something quietly that I couldn¡¯t piece together and that my translators were at a loss to explain. His family told me that he had always wanted to meet the future empress of his land. I held his hand tightly as the crowd bowed and closed their eyes, lifting up a silent prayer as he spoke to me in his fading tongue until he fell silent. I embraced him, even if I couldn''t understand what he was saying, I could still tell by his tone of voice that it was deeply personal and important for me to hear. I felt him heave and gasp before he exhaled one last time speaking the words, ¡°I am at peace now, my peqtissin¡­¡± I lay him down and closed his blind eyes as some people rose and carried him away to be buried in the Frozen Wastes. The word he had spoken was peqtissin, a heavily accented form of the word for ''queen''. I unconsciously wiped the tears I didn''t know I had been crying from my face as the remaining people sat around me in rings for a moment of silence that even the children seemed to understand. Chapter 8: A Simple Observation (Cora) Chapter 8 (Cora) I hated when my children left without me, but I was somewhat glad it was Eris and not Fantasia. Helios was quiet at last after half an hour of crying and whining about every little thing. Fantasia still seemed angry at our living conditions and was still looking around the room for some form of precious metal or gemstone. I looked down at my weathered, shaky hands and for once felt comfortable being as old as I was. I ordered the servant boy to bring us some meat, fruits and whatever else the gleaners had found just so that I could sate Fantasia''s incredible annoyance and lost dignity. The innkeeper had put us in this room with full knowledge that it was the warmest room in all of Cryox and that I was with-child. They gave us the best of what they couldn''t enjoy. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Fantasia lay on one of the beds and pouted, using one of her three pairs of wings to cover her face and the other two to cover her body. ¡°Your father knows what he''s doing, have a little faith.¡± I whispered to her, she grumbled something but I wasn''t listening. I saw a large crowd of people walking through the city gates through the window. I frowned as I looked out at them. They weren''t the gleaners, their frames exuded a troublesome energy and their low brows and angry sneers spoke to a violent, and evil intent. I closed the metal shutter and the simple, white curtains and told Fantasia to bolt the door, drawing a dagger from my pack. She didn''t do as I told her and so I had to do it myself, I thank God that the baby slumbered in my arms. Chapter 9: Bellicose (Kullervo) Chapter 9 (Kullervo) I walked with Taiga out of the castle. "So, let me see if I am understanding you correctly. You believe the Void Clan are preparing to do something drastic?" The Empress of Frost nodded. "Yes, there has been a notable rise in their unrest. They have been entering the city by force or in secret. If I had to guess, I''d say they''re looking for something." "That''s preposterous, Taiga. The Void wants for nothing just as you and your subjects do, what could they possibly ask of Cryox?" Our conversation abruptly ended as Eris walked up with her entourage. I smiled, knowing full-well what was happening. I had talked to the queen earlier about the current status of Cryox and no small amount of other things of little consequence. Aside from this recent discovery, all was well. Eris ran up and hugged me while the crowd bowed respectfully to the three of us. The queen curtsied back to them with a smile, a common greeting. The people then disbanded and began walking their separate ways. Eris told me of our conditions and I nodded knowingly. ¡°Father, the people have given us a room that Fantasia and I both believe unsatisfactory.¡± ¡°And in what way is that, my child?¡± I asked with a frown. ¡°It has no furnishings that benefit our status, we have been given a room fit for commoners!¡± ¡°Is it warm?¡± I queried to which she stopped and thought before answering that it was. ¡°Then it is the best these people can give to us. Since we¡¯ve brought your brother with us, we need to keep him warm regardless of how or where. It¡¯s one thing for the two of us to be alone in this frozen city where we can choose wherever we wish knowing full-well we can just ignore the cold all together. It''s another for your mother and baby brother to be with us in a place like this.¡± Eris nodded in understanding. A roar from across the square riveted our attention as a band of very large, brutal-looking, Imaginarian gentlemen came forward. They held their wings out in an attempted display of intimidation. Their apparent leader walked up to us with stormy steps, ¡°Listen here, Skyforth! We¡¯ve got a thing or two to teach you about ruling this world! You¡¯d better listen and listen well! We¡¯ve got spells and guns from a Witch on high who will tear your miserable ass to pieces!¡± The man spat in my face. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I scowled and Eris forcibly pushed him away from me. ¡°Have you no respect for the Emperor?!¡± She shouted at him before being hit viciously by one of their number. ¡°See, people of the Frozen Wastes! This is your ''king'' and ''queen''! These dictators of your very lives! These war-mongers and villains! See how weak they are!¡± The band shouted and hooted raucously as the cityfolk took cover. Taiga scowled, ¡°Yugor, you have been exiled to the outer rims of the city, how dare you come back before me!¡± She drew her sword, but I motioned for her to stand down; this had become personal. ¡°Leave now or you¡¯ll pay the price for laying a hand on my daughter.¡± The words came out more from being a father than what I knew. Eris lay in a bank of snow, entirely unconscious, but I knew she would be fine. She was undead after all. Yugor drew a twisted, wicked blade of pure ice with a snarl. It was then that I saw why my champion had fallen. A magical artefact, crafted so to look like brass knuckles gripped around the offender''s hand with markings of blazing magenta. ¡°We''ll kill all of Cryox if you don''t meet our demands, Skyforth.¡± I¡¯d had enough of these people and so I finally decided that action was called for. I told Taiga on the side to move the citizens a good distance away, we didn''t need anyone else involved in this fight. I drew my blades with telekinesis, raising my hands to accept those of fire and darkness, wielding my blade of the Mind''s Eye like a massive, floating shield. I lowered one blade to the ground on top of a goon¡¯s shadow and he fell with a cry. I flicked the blade over it and he crumpled into a ball, unconscious. Yugor came toward me with a grin on his face as he drew a weapon I''d only seen a rare number of times: a firearm. He fired and I partially melted the first bullet with my heat shield before another nailed me in the shoulder, passing through the shield like light through glass. I moved out of the way and narrowly avoided four more. I barely had enough time to catch my breath before a length of frozen chain whirled around my wrist and dragged me to the ground. I rose up and incinerated the unfortunate cretin that had the nerve to bring chains to a sword fight. My Mind''s Eye cleaved the shooter''s hand clean off while I threw my dark blade through another one''s chest viciously, calling it back to me as I finally began using my mind to increase gravity in the surrounding area. I spread my wings as the rest crumpled before me with even Taiga finding it difficult to stand. I ignited my sword of flame and held it to the leader''s neck. ¡°I can take this to the air while you mongrels are struggling to breathe. You¡¯re outmatched, leave now or regret the day you were born.¡± I released my hold on gravity and they got up and skulked away disdainfully. It was fairly obvious to me now that there was certainly something remiss within my kingdom if Void miscreants such as these were bold enough to face me head on. I took the artefact from the snow that the goons had dropped and torched it to slag. It had symbols on it that alluded to the ancient, Nocturnian god of sleep. Taiga was already tending to Eris but I fumed both at my daughter¡¯s poor performance and at the nerve of these people. There was a lingering taste in my mouth. Something wasn''t right. I dismissed it as nothing but the aura of wrongness still lingering on the corpses of the decimated beings of the Void Clan. The icy queen in her blue and silver dress lifted Eris with a strength that seemed contrary to her elegant frame. We walked back to the hotel in silence and with no train of curious eyes following us. Chapter 10: Today (Fantasia) Chapter 10 (Fantasia) A great weight was suddenly and forcibly thrown onto me. I awoke from my nap and came back to the squalid reality of our present lodgings. The baby cried and my father and mother were conversing with a woman in a silver and blue dress, a tiara of ice made her already titanic height somehow more imposing. As they spoke, I could see where she¡¯d touched, frost curling around and melting after contact had been broken. I huffed and very carefully manoeuvred out from under the weight of my unconscious sister. A nasty bruise across her jaw spoke to a petty squabble that had possibly broken out over this or that, whatever had set her temper off in the moment. I sniffed haughtily as my place as a princess had taught me. How this petty wench called family had wound up disgraced this time would be a story to behold for certain. I was far too tired to care about my attitude towards Eris, if father lost his temper on her, all the better in my eyes, she probably deserved it. Father looked angry enough but I could see that underneath it all, he was worried. ¡°Very well, we will be making our way from here down southwest towards Noxurnos, can you guarantee us safe passage from the city?¡± Mom begged, to which the queen of the tundra nodded her crown-adorned head. ¡°I¡¯ll escort all of you myself in the morning when the blizzard lets up and you are ready. By all means, stay as long as you wish though, they know you¡¯re here but don¡¯t know that you have the child.¡± Her emerald eyes seemed to survey the cooing infant curiously in his warm cage of furs and clothes. His little arms were all I could see from the bed as they grasped at the air searchingly. Taiga smiled and created a small wafer of ice from the air and gave it to the baby, making him squeal in abject delight as he teethed on it. I got up and walked over to them but my father put a hand up, stopping me as he talked, ¡°We must do everything in our power to make sure they don¡¯t find him for as long as is reasonable. I doubt any of the current presiding rulers would want anything to do with him, but the people would most likely want to hold him ransom or worse.¡± While my father typically spoke about matters like this all the time, especially of his children, my mother seemed particularly distraught by this comment and walked outside, her face turning almost as pale as my father''s already pale features. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. His typically kind, brown-eyed visage that was only marred by a single violet ring in his left eye held no such niceties beyond the physical and was almost colder than the outside. ¡°Fantasia, follow your mother.¡± His words were quiet and alone were inoffensive, but there was something that charged them in such a way that made us more akin to king and servant than father and daughter. I began to argue since I didn¡¯t like the cold but he cut me off before the words even left my mouth. ¡°I will not repeat myself.¡± There was the briefest threat of violence as he set the hearth alight with just a glance, his black, curled locks spinning with his movements. As I left, I saw him bring out a map from his pack and begin discussing in low, fervent tones with the queen. My mother was the kind of woman to worry over one thing or another until it made her sick and, oftentimes, she would be found hunkered over somewhere crying, vomiting or in some other way incapacitated in a way unfit for a queen. At these times, only I could really comfort her and tell her that what my father spoke of would only come to pass if we let it. I donned every layer I had for the cold and even stole Eris¡¯s long fur coat. So what if it didn¡¯t fit me, it was warm, and the warmer in these extremes, the better. Outside, I found my mother sitting near a small group of birds she had nimbly carved from ice with her sword. She was in the middle of finishing up her covey of doves when I found her. At least she looked dignified where she sat. Every now and again she would get like this and all I could do was sit and watch her. She gave the birds to passing people as they came and went their separate ways and eventually she had no more and rose up, wiping her red and black dress of snow, breathing in and out shakily. How could a woman so fragile and pure have married one of the most terrifying warlords of all the world? I thought to myself as I walked over to her and offered her my arm. ¡°Can we go look at the shops around the city before it gets dark?¡± I asked her innocently as she looked into my light hazel eyes. She nodded and sheathed her sword before taking my arm and walking with me along the frosted, icy roads. For some reason or another, I felt watched, as if someone were looking deep into my deepest heart of hearts. I took a cautionary glance around our immediate vicinity but could see nobody who would want anything to do with us. Today was a beautiful day in the middle of a city with barely any sunlight and a blizzard raging along the outskirts. There was no use spending this day crying for a future that would never come or looking for secret admirers or gawkers as father called them. Today was a day to not worry about yesterday¡¯s mistakes or tomorrow¡¯s problems. All we had was today. Chapter 11: The Projection (Eris) (Eris) I had been sloppy again. I knew father would scold me, but how could I have seen the punch coming? I was practically blind in that eye because of the necrovirus that had committed me to the grave so many years ago. That was no excuse and I knew it, I could see without my eyes, just as I was doing now. My body had sustained a fierce wound, an abrasion with bruising just across the left side of my jaw, possibly from a magical weapon. Just when I was feeling comfortable with my freakish appearance too. It didn''t matter, it would heal just as every other injury had before. I hadn¡¯t even seen the punch coming, let alone the battle that must have ensued from this action. More than likely the rogues would be executed both for their actions and for the use of magic; the forbidden art. I could see a woman with my father. The air around her chilled everything within a few centimetres of her, and I could see the heat turn to stagnant and eventually still whenever she spoke. She must have been Taiga. I always found it hard to make out great detail in this way and so people just wound up looking akin to cheap store mannequins and paper was always blank, however, the powerful waves of frost and the marked chill in the area around her, left her identity unmistakable to me whereas the difference between my mother and my sister would normally be difficult if I did not see the particles of light floating around my sister. From the way the sound waves coming from their mouths seemed, my father must have been angry about something and the empress of ice was trying to remain calm but she seemed very obviously frightened by him. I didn¡¯t blame her. It seemed they were looking over a map and father was talking about our path. First, we would leave to Noxurnos, then Somnias, and from there- ¡°Eris, I would prefer you not to be using your omniscience to hear this conversation. It¡¯d spoil how our trip will turn out.¡± He said as he looked dead-centre at where my mind¡¯s eye would¡¯ve been. His eyes always glowed visibly with a pale violet light whenever he saw more than what he let on. Pity, I wanted to see where we were going next. I walked my mind through the hotel until I found my mother and sister outside. My mother had dark grey particles that flew around her slowly like an atom, while my sister shot out beams of yellow light all around, illuminating every surface. A migraine soon swept over me as I was bombarded by the thoughts of everyone else. I tried to tune them out but it was very difficult to accomplish and I¡¯d never been properly trained on how to do so. I¡¯d only recently learned to use this skill last year with a lot of father¡¯s instructions being more vague than any of his other teachings. Though this skill was called ¡®omniscience¡¯, it didn¡¯t truly give pure, unadulterated and complete knowledge of what the viewer saw and could only be used when the user was unconscious or incapacitated in some way. I suppose father just called it that, seeing as how the other title he gave it sounded much less eloquent, ¡®astral projection¡¯, something or other he¡¯d borrowed from human science fiction or mysticism. A migraine pulsed from my eyes all the way into the back of my head as I lost focus thinking over this and I felt like I slipped a bit, making my mind-form briefly visible. I quickly caught myself but not before my sister¡¯s emotions changed suddenly from a sad rainstorm to a scared partridge. My family was very good at concealing their thoughts in such a way that I couldn¡¯t hear them, but Fantasia was very bad at hiding her emotions. She turned and looked dead at me, one of her eyes flickering a golden light not too dissimilar to dad¡¯s as she searched the spot I¡¯d just been in. Could she...see me? If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Hey, wake up, princess!¡± My father¡¯s harsh voice sundered me from the world I had just been in as he smacked my head with a pillow. In a sudden rush I woke up and promptly vomited over the side of the bed. I felt like trash and dad wasn¡¯t making it too much easier for me. I never threw up, there was simply no need for it especially since I rarely ate. However, this had carried over, unfortunately, from my previous life. ¡°That¡¯s what you get for listening in on private conversations, I thought I taught you better!¡± He said heatedly as he set my hands in ice water. The cold definitely helped with the pulsing pain behind my right eye (albeit in regards to the migraine) but nothing could help the vertigo and motion sickness I felt as I lay back down and closed my different coloured eyes with a groan. ¡°You made yourself sick because you used your omniscience for too long. It looks like you tried to manifest a form of yourself too?!¡± He said incredulously as he smacked my hand harshly, fortunately it didn¡¯t hurt as badly as my headache. What he spoke of was an advanced technique of omniscience that allowed the user to manipulate physical objects at the cost of making their mind visible. As he was now lecturing me, I soon remembered why we didn¡¯t practise this technique as much. ¡°Eris Seraphim Caelorum Skyforth!¡± I winced at the full pronunciation of my name from the man who had first given it to me. He had only spoken my full name sparsely in my life and only whenever I was in deep, deep trouble and mom wasn¡¯t around. It meant ¡®You, seraphim of heaven¡¯ in the human language of Latin but my mother thought of me as something from the depths of hell, but that was after they had already named me. ¡°At least you don¡¯t complain of our accommodations as much as your sister does.¡± He growled as he cleaned up my mess. ¡°Tell me the consequences of trying to manifest physical form from omniscience.¡± He said quietly as he worked. ¡°It was an accident, I lost focus. I was checking up on mom and Fantasia.¡± He growled low and I quickly changed my tone. ¡°Loss of one¡¯s mind, dissociative personality disorder, psychosis, replacement of one¡¯s own self with something else, and culmination of a shadow of one¡¯s most violent, chaotic desires. Physical manifestation should never be attempted by amateur wielders of psychic abilities.¡± I nodded, feeling my hands carefully as the feeling began coming back into them. I felt numb and awful and the realisation dawned on me that I could''ve disappeared and never returned, wandering endlessly as an effigy of the person I once was, accident or not. I shivered at the thought, yes, I hated my life as the daughter of a mother who disdained me for something outside of my control, but not enough to hurt my father like that. He had brought over a large metal bucket and held it to my face. ¡°Please throw up into this if you have to. I don''t want to make any more work for the cleaning staff than we need to.¡± He said as he gently squeezed my hand. Without a shadow of a doubt, this man loved me beyond anything I had ever known and all the more so since that day I''d come back. He had his rough moments and his times in which he seemed cold and heartless, but there really was a love for his children deep down inside and it blazed more brightly than any light I''d ever seen. Chapter 12: Duality (Cora) A lot clouded my mind when my husband walked up to our room and that girl was in the arms of Taiga. If it weren¡¯t for my husband telling me it was him before he came in, I would¡¯ve been content to last the rest of my days here. I¡¯d lived like that once and I shivered at the thought. Never again. I shook my head as Helios woke up slowly. I was not in the mood for another day of wailing baby. As my husband relayed what happened, I can recall two things of perfect clarity: the look on his face as he drew out the map from his pack and his words that he said. ¡°We must replot our course. We have been discovered.¡± His face was contorted in a way that I remembered from all of the wars I¡¯d lived through with him, that I¡¯d fought alongside him to win, and that I¡¯d die with him again and again just so that our two children could live safely and happily forever. That demon-child could carry the nation easily as a wonderful bit of refuse. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I ceased this line of thought as he eyed me aggressively, he could read my mind quite literally, even if my face portrayed otherwise. ¡°Eris will be the first to know of our plans, I advise you treat her well.¡± His eyes always glowed so fiercely and it scared me so violently whenever he used his telepathy. His mental voice was always harsh and biting like the grating, sickening grind and crush of a rabid dog''s bite. Taiga had begun walking towards the door but my husband shut it with a wave of his hand. His face turned a touch more gentle, ¡°Why Taiga, let¡¯s discuss what we had been before we were so rudely interrupted by those outcasts.¡± He said, his words turning to honeyed sweetness as he stepped aside to give her room at the map. His face tightened back up as he talked. Something dark, angry, and feral brewed in the stress-fractures of his face even while the civil, gentle king of our world talked over some matter of importance. Chapter 13: Food for Thought (Kullervo) Chapter 13 (Kullervo) I was infuriated with my family. My daughters acted in ways contrary to my teachings and my wife was afraid of her own shadow. She had more to fear from her younger daughter than the elder simply because she hadn¡¯t been versed in grit and hadn¡¯t been taught how to shut her mouth on certain topics. After Taiga left and I had tended to Eris, I was left alone with myself in that tiny room, thinking morbidly over the knowledge that a piece of this Clan¡¯s Core crystal had been heinously stolen. Both the culprits and reason remained unknown, however, it was heavily suspected to have been by the very Void rogues that had attacked myself and my daughter. Taiga had also heard rumours that other Clans had shards missing from their own powerful crystalline treasures. This knowledge was quite concerning to me, giving me ever more reason to seek out the other Clans and gather intel on how they were fairing postbellum and whether they knew of this shard-thief. Eris had fallen back asleep, Fantasia and her mother were out looking through the various shops in the immediate vicinity, and Helios slept soundly again in his wrappings. ¡°This will pass too.¡± I said to myself as I stood from the small dinner table. ¡°I have survived wars and battles unlike any others for centuries, surely fathering my children and being gracious to my wife can¡¯t be too much harder.¡± I paced to and fro around the small kitchen area, every once in a while shifting the logs in the oven to get as much heat out of them as possible. ¡°I wonder what the future has in store for us.¡± I asked openly at the empty room as I looked from my eldest to my youngest. My heart sank like broken shards of glass in water. The age difference and the disparity between experiences was almost devastating. My daughter was almost two centuries old with thirty years having been spent in the grave already and two wars having been waged in her lifetime. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. My son was only a few months old, he would never know what war was, he would never be laid, still awake, within a crypt of gold and silver. My daughter was still young and full of life, the same as my son, but it was evident that she was a beast of war and combat. She was a pure conduit of violence and merciless slaughter, her weapon attested to this, having been called the ¡®Dark Child¡¯s Trident¡¯, the Argusselx¡¯r. She took after me, the shadows cloaked her every step and her mind was closer to a constant, impenetrable labyrinth that spiralled and spiralled, further and further until it would become obvious that it could not be breached easily, even for myself; this was the perfect killing machine. However, that was the very reason I taught her the ways of medicine because she wasn¡¯t just any killing machine, she was my daughter. My flesh, my blood, my heart¡¯s work, and so much more. I walked around faster and faster as I remembered my wife¡¯s thoughts, the baseness of which caused the ball of energy in my chest to arc and spike fiercely as I grew angrier. How could she think so unkindly of the very thing she bore?! How uncouth of my mate to believe such harsh things about my daughter! I dared not touch any surface as my blood literally boiled in my veins. ¡°Dad, stop.¡± My eldest daughter said from where she lay as she looked toward me. ¡°Don¡¯t be like this. Mom doesn¡¯t understand, she¡¯s scared and tired because she just had a baby.¡± I was preparing to scold her for listening in on my thoughts but rather she put a hand up. ¡°You always pace whenever mom does something stupid. You know that I can¡¯t read your mind.¡± She had a point as I sat with her. ¡°You worry too much.¡± She said quietly as she sat upright, her dark-violet clothes matching her now violet and brown eyes. There was a moment of silence before she looked me in the eyes. ¡°You can¡¯t rule everyone, dad.¡± Her mental voice said as her eyes flashed with every word, sounding like light bending through thick foliage. ¡°I should at least be able to rule my own family. A kingdom is nothing without a ruler, and a family is nothing without a head.¡± I replied in kind, reaching the words like tendrils into her mind. I rose and went into the kitchen to make us dinner. Fantasia and her mother could eat at a shop somewhere in the city. Eris followed me but I held her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. ¡°You need to rest.¡± I said as I started walking her back to her bed but she walked through me like smoke as she began to get things together using telekinesis. ¡°I have rested long enough, my king!¡± She telepathically spoke, her voice like arcing thunder as her eyes shifted to a harsh red and dark blue. I saw the fire and ice that held her together, equal parts fierce and brutal. I didn¡¯t argue as I let her work alone for a time before helping her. We worked in silence for several hours before I finally spoke, ¡°This¡¯ll be the best damned dinner your mothe r has ever had.¡± Chapter 14: A Dress (Fantasia) Chapter 14 (Fantasia) I walked with my mother down the string of shops as the hoarfrost lamps were slowly but surely lit in their shattered majesty. The ground was covered in blue ice that was in-turn covered by a heavy frosting of snow. Lichens and large patches of floral growth in wintry tones of white, grey, and blue, grew along the boulevard like some discoloured flowers. Truth be told, I loved Cryox around this time of year seeing as how the plants seemed to sprout out of nothing but the cracked ice itself, a testament to the hardiness of the Clan that fostered them. ¡°Fantasia, look here.¡± My mother said as she looked through a frosted window, our breath was like the smoke that father often breathed out whenever he was frustrated. At the window, my mother eyed several articles of bright, precious gemstones that glowed with an inner light that came from their mystical makings. We decided to walk inside and ask for a smaller one that was cut in a cabochon style and was a bright, oceanic blue. The fire flashed and shone gently within it, sparking and igniting in a violent dance of life and light. Inside the shop sat an old woman with rings and spikes of ice jutting out of her body like a regal crown. A frozen over patch of withered flowering lichens lay in a bundle in a corner of the shop. Her eyes were blind and glowed with a cold, white brilliance that illuminated the entire space. There was no escaping from the cold of this place and it only grew in intensity inside the shop. She sat up when we entered even though we made no noise. ¡°Good! Good, good, good evening my dearies! It is not every day I am graced with the presence of royalty, let alone the empress and her daughter!¡± The woman came down from her chair. The ice shifted from her beaten-in chair and followed her every movement, forming rime wherever her body touched. Despite the amount of ice that covered her body, she was very nimble and moved with an alacrity that betrayed the hard wrinkles and white hair flecked with snow and mistletoe. She curtsied low to the ground, her dress, once made for a wedding, now was patched with multiple, faded, floral patterns and yet, remained full of holes and lacking in regards to a corsage with the parts around her shoulders being held together with clear, icy straps. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. My mother asked about the piece and the woman nodded, taking it quickly from its casing in the window. Now came the hard part. Any currency was too easily forged, thus my father had never clearly instated a singular form of currency across the kingdom, and so we¡¯d have to rely on both the goodwill of the seller, and reputation of the Skyforth name. My mother asked the woman what price she would put on it and the old woman, without hesitation, asked for a newly tailored dress. My mother nodded, eyeing her carefully to gauge the measurements since it would be dangerous to come closer than a few inches to the lady due to her temperature. Her breath did not come out in clouds like ours did but rather seemed to freeze the air around her face like a fine mist. After a bit, my mother said that she would tailor a dress adequate for the matron or until it was so. After wandering around a bit more, when the sky darkened, we thought it best to get started on the dress so that we could get home before it got any colder outside. We found a tailor and asked him for access to his materials which he willingly gave to us. While I cut the material, my mother sewed quickly and with careful calculation. Neither of us spoke a word as we worked, only focusing on the numbers my mother had told me at the beginning of this. The materials looked like soft, blankety quilts, but whenever I would stop for a bit, I could feel my fingers going numb from the frigidity. This material we were making the dress out of was called juneaurcrast. It was grown in the ice fields and bartered for food, housing, some forms of jewellery, and schooling. It was notoriously used to make clothes for these people who could no more stand heat than a snowman could stand a warm summer¡¯s day. Along with this, we used various fabrics that had been grown from lichens and mosses within the town. By the end, we had a dress fit for any well-to-do Imaginarian. Not entirely the kind of dress for commoners, but certainly not the most astonishing work my mother had ever fabricated. We brought it back to the old lady who graciously gifted the cabochon to us and a medallion that she had probably crafted of frosted steel. As we left, I could see a wide smile on her face as she held the dress close to her chest. Chapter 15: The Dragon King (Eris) Chapter 15: The Dragon King (Eris) After my mother and sister returned to the inn, we ate and went to bed. My mother and father took the bed closest to the door while Fantasia and I slept in the remaining bed. Everyone dropped to sleep in their own time, leaving me alone with my thoughts, and the silent, frigid night. I ate, drank and slept out of a duty to my family and for the sake of normalcy but in truth, I was always full, I was never thirsty, and as for sleep, I only slept to dream. I slept because I wanted to make my family happy and not because I needed it. I always thought about the disparity between those who live and myself, one who does not. It seemed the one thing we had in common was dreaming. Indeed, to dream, to dream and see memories and imagined things, to witness one''s deepest fears and desires, this one thing I had in common with my family. I stared out into the black of the room, only scarcely lit by the embers in the furnace. Yes, indeed, to dream¡­ I thought to myself as my eyes shut out the light. I always feared that when I''d open them again, I would be back in that stone coffin, with a blackened crown on my head. A war room bathed in torchlight with a map of the area on a table with multiple glowing pawns of holographic light, both blue and red, sat in the centre of the roiling pit of kings, queens, Nocturnas and automatons. My father sat slumped over in thought. I remember this day for its windlessness and how hot it was outside despite the heavy cloud cover. The rulers bickered and fought over one strategy or another, voting and cancelling votes over and over again. I watched from my place at my father¡¯s side, who was the only one of the group who was silent. The group each looked distorted and strange, like a funhouse mirror given a mouth and a form with which to voice its angry ventings and harsh jabs. Soon, one of them asked the group to be silent and hear out my father¡¯s opinion for our plan of attack. They leaned in and glared at him as he sat in silence. We were planning an attack on a large group of Void and necromancer forces that would either cripple them, or doom us. We were visibly outnumbered. Our forces were starving, underequipped for such a long campaign and our war beasts were either killed, wounded, or sick. Around the table of rulers, I recognized those of the Fire, Electric, Venom, Mechanical, Dark, Metal, Stone, Time, Nocturna, and Warrior Clans, all done up in fearsome war paint and with heavy armour. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Some were bleeding, some were far worse off than they would admit. Only I was unscathed. My father was never silent on matters such as this, he always knew what to do and when to do it. I remember angrily chastising him for his silence, a mistake I would never repeat in another scenario. He looked up at me, a look of mild annoyance on his face before he stood up. ¡°You all speak as if you were afraid. You speak like children.¡± A growl escaped his lips as he spoke. He held something in his hands that was dripping on the floor. ¡°You speak as though we have already lost.¡± He hung his head as he said these words, a darkness covering his eyes. The silence became uncomfortable and everyone turned away a touch, either tending to one of their many wounds or finding something interesting on the floor of the bastion we were stationed in. ¡°How dare you doubt your king!¡± He roared at us, the doors shook with the force of his voice. ¡°You act as though we have done nothing! As if the day is lost simply because we have fallen! Raise your heads! The enemy is more broken than they seem! See now, we ought to raise our heads, for they cannot anymore!¡± With a thud, he threw the severed head of a man onto the table. The silence was deafening as my father fumed, fire igniting across his body, and the shadows writhed like headless snakes. ¡°This man was the general of the unit we will be ambushing. Or should I say, I will be ambushing. Since you kings and queens are so quick to put your tails between your legs, and run or worse, turn and bite each other''s throats and bury your noses in each other''s failings.¡± He walked out of the room and I followed. His steps smouldered and sizzled, turning the cobbled stone black as he went. No others followed us. My father forced me to remain at the bastion while he walked on. I watched from a parapet as he walked straight into the jaws of the enemy. As soon as he passed out of the treeline, he roared like a fierce dragon. All enemy forces assailed him, all of which fell by his cleaving blades and powers. I watched as hundreds came with pikes and spears, swords and knives. I saw him impaled and stabbed, slashed and cut, but he never bowed. I saw him take the blades from himself and snap them in half. He spread his wings and the soldiers fell away from him like autumn leaves. He spun and slashed like a top, the look of pure emotionlessness on his face chilled me to my core. He felt no pain, he held no joy nor sorrow in his form. I watched so many bodies pile from his slaughter that I could no longer see him. I watched as the spires of that encampment crumbled, and fell by his hand alone. By the end of it, my father was completely red, caked with fresh blood from wingtip to heel. The enemy camp burned and shimmered as he set it alight while he stood in the centre of it, nothing more than a black outline and two, glowing red points for his eyes. Eyes that were dead set on me. He took no prisoners, he captured no resources, he slaughtered their beasts of war in their stalls and he left no trace of that emplacement ever having been there with cleansing fire. He had started in the early part of the morning, when he had finished, night was falling. All I could remember were those red, heartless, unfeeling eyes as they bore into my soul. Those eyes that held no more mercy in them. I jolted awake as I looked around the room. I was sweating and panting heavily. I was crying quietly as I got up and got to the floor. I was having a panic attack, something I¡¯d had many times while I was alive, but now that I was dead? Never. I was afraid of the beast, the monster, the demon, the dragon, the thing sleeping in the bed just a metre from me. Oh, what a curse it was to dream.