《Frozen Rose》


 Prolouge: A day like any other

    A peacefull day, like any other, that''s what I thought when I woke up in the morning.


    About myself, there''s not much to tell, I''m 17 years old living in Western Europe in a small village in the foothills of a large mountain range. You could say, the last hundred years went by without changing anything, well, almost, we have mighty telephones now, shaky mobile phone-reception but no Internet and no bus lanes or anything.


    So, what can one do when there is nothing to do and not really a chance to get anywhere without parental consent? Well, for me, it''s reading whatever I can get my hands on, giving me tons of useless knowledge, horseback-riding cause the parents of one of the other teenagers in the village own a stable and martial arts, cause the mother of the third teenager is an accomplised martial artist and it''s quite fun to learn from her togehter with her daughter. Other than that, I sometimes go running, mountain biking and rock climbing. Sounds fun?


    After I mentioned the other two teenagers I should introduce them a bit.


    First, there is Jenny Miller, 16 years old, blonde and quite cute. Nothing outrageous, simply cute. Her parents, or rather grandparents, own a stable where I help with the work and in return I was taught tons of knowledge regarding riding, horses and a bit of farming.


    Then there is the half-japanese Akane Tachibana with the martial artist mother. Funny enough, the japanese half is from her father, former banker and filthy rich. Her father fell in love with her mother and moved out her to escape the pressure in the city. Her mother is quite a bit younger than her father and some gossip monger blab that she only married for the money but everyone who sees them interact knows different, they are a great couple.


    Akane is 17, just like me, and we''ve spent more time together than appart, growing up like siblings and best friends, knowing everything about each other and trusting each other no matter what. That was something my girlfriend was a bit confused about at first, that there is another girl in my life, not blood related but closer than a sibling, more like a part of me, I''d rather seperate from an arm than from Akane but there is no romance between us and there never will be.


    Her mother teaches me and her daugther in martial arts but not as a sport, as a way of life, the whole bushido-stuff, honor, patience and so on. Hand to hand combat is only a small part of it, also combat with weapons and meditation. Sadly I''m rather bad with a sword, that''s Akanes style, mostly a single longsword but she can also work with daggers and anything in between. I''m more of a polearm-guy, no matter weather it''s a staff, a spear, a glaive or even exotic stuff like halberds or scythes, as long as the weapon is bigger than me chances are I''m good with it.


    Well, that sould be enough about my circumstances, now, back to waking up...


    First order of the day is my morning run, 45minutes jogging up and down the hills, then feeding the horses at the Miller-Stable and aftherwards a shower and breakfast. Then the girls and me are driven down into town by one of our parents to get to school to our daily fight with boredom. Mainly boredom because it''s easy. Not that I''m super smart or anything but when you can only choose between sports and studying you end up with a lot of time studying simply because you can only do so much sport a day before you are tired. So I get good grades, making me happy and my parents happy. After school, Akane and me have to wait for Jenny who got afternoon classes today, so our parents can ferry us back home in one haul. Checking my mobile I see an message from my girlfriend calling me to our spot, a secluded section of a local park where we often meet up.


    "Akane, I''ll be back in a bit, Susie wants to meet up."


    "''Kay, I''ll be right here, don''t get wet, it looks like it''ll rain soon."


    And of we go, out of the school and truly the sky is overcast and it looks like it''ll be a downpour. Hopefully not up in our village or it''ll be a chore to clean up the horses, they love to roll in the mud.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Thinking about random stuff I arrive at the park and meet up with Susie, she looks a quite a bit upset.


    "Hey Sam, you know we''ve been dating for over a year now..."


    "Hey Susie, of course I know, five weeks ago we had our "One Year Anniversary", not even I could forget something like that so fast."


    "Yes, but somehow we see each other less and less, I''ve been thinking about us again and again..."


    I''m getting a bit scared at this point, I thought we were doing great, I even got my parents to get me from town at night time once a week so we can go out together.


    "What do you want to say with this?"


    Suddenly she starts screaming


    "I''m saying that you are a boorish, rural farmboy and I don''t want to see you ever again!"


    With this, she turns around and leaves


    ...


    I''m standing there with a hearthwrenching feeling in my chest and for the first time in my life I realize that getting one''s heart broken is truly painfull. No idea how long, but I''m getting cold and wet. Why am I wet? Coming back to my senses I realize that it started raining and by the look of my clothes it started a while ago. A look on my watch tells me that it''s past time for meeting up with the others to get home. Turning around I start walking, looking but not seeing anything, walking back towards school and our meeting point.


    "Sam!


    Hey, Sam!


    Mister Samuel Smith, I''m talking with you"


    Coming a bit back to my senses, I realize that Akane stopped me and looks at me, looking as if she saw a ghost.


    "Sam, what the hell happend you look like three days dead and buried"


    "I...


    I''m fine, let''s get going, we can''t keep your mother waiting, can we?"


    "You are drenched and we were already waiting for a while, I doubt it matters now. What happened, I thought you were with Susie."


    At this I cringe and try to get walking again.


    "Oh god dammit Sam, did the two of you get into a fight? What happend?"


    Still trying to walk away she simply pulls me into a hug with no regard that she''ll propably get as wet as I am. But in her embrace I can let go a bit and start crying. I don''t know how long we stood there but after she releases me, her mother helps her to towel me of a bit and gets me into the car for our ride home.


    I''m still not completly myself but with a bit of prodding, pushing and gentle guidance the Tachibana-Mother Daugther Combo gets me into the shower and in a new set of clothes.


    After seeing me, Mister Tachibana made me a cup of coffee and sent the two ladys out, guessing that I''d like some peace to collect myself without them seeing me, warriors honor and stuff like that. I don''t see why it matters but I''m gratefull non the less. After the coffee and feeling almost human again, I tell him that I''ll go meditating on a meadow not far from our village to collect my thoughts and get myself into working conditions again. Up here, the mountains protected us from the rain and clouds so it''s a beatifull day


    Without seeing Akane or her Mother I leave their house and start running up the hills, into the forest and on a path almost no one takes it''s only me and sometimes animals. After arriving at the meadow I sit down on crosslegged and start emptying my mind submerging myself in a sphere of pure nothingness, centering me and feeling peace.


    Suddenly there is a white light around me and my eyes snap open, the rock is surrounded by a strange glowing circle. I try to get up and away but the instant I step in the ground within the circle there is a flash of light, blinding me and I''m falling...


    Then, nothing

 Interlude: Gods, the Universe and all the rest

    Floating...


    That''s how I''d describe my situation right now, floating in a white nothingness, unable to move, unable to manipulate my surroundings. Oh, and close to a nervous breakdown.


    Suddenly there is no more nothingness, only pain.


    Lots of pain, I want to scream but there is no air, I want to move away from the pain but it''s all around me


    Then I feel nothing again


    But there is a change, I can open my eyes and see


    Looks like I''m lying on a strange looking marble table and there is a mirror above me so I''m seeing myself in this mirror. It takes me some seconds to realize that the "table" is an altar and that the strange symbols I saw on the meadow are all around this altar. Looking at myself again I realize something: My eyes are closed...


    But how can I see with my eyes shut? Then I hear some people talking in a strange language I''ve never heard before. Trying to move my head to look at them I fail but suddenly I get pulled to the side and my viewpoint starts shifting away from my body and I start to panic. But as I still can''t manipulate my surroundings there is not much I can do in my panic.


    I''m turning, aligning myelf with the floor as if I''m standing and two people appear in before me, one middle aged man, looking laid back, black hair, wearing a suit and a slight smile on his face. The other is a strict looking, gourgeous lady, in a black costume and she has a sad look on her face.


    "Greetings young one, that was quite the ordeal you just went through. To introduce myself, they call me Ikol and some call me the God of magic, change and chaos."


    Neither of them moves his mouth but somehow I know that the speaker was the man, I''m not really sure how I know but I''m fure of it.


    "Greetings young one, and first of all, I''m sorry for what you went through. Some foolish humans wanted to gain the power of a god and bind it to their will. They failed but I''m afraid you got pulled in and are, what some would call ''collateral damage''. But I digress, to introduce myself, I''m called Thenea and, just like Ikol here, I''m considered a god. In my case, they call me Godess of Law, Order and Wisdom. If you want to answer, focus yourself on talking and we will hear you."


    Collecting myself untill I can focus, I try it out


    "Test...Test, seems like it works. Greetings to you aswell, my name is Sam, Samuel Smith, could you explain what happened? Where am I? What happend?"


    I stop myself before I annoy those two, something tells me one should not annoy those two.


    "Good, he''s halfway calm eventhough his mind is far from it, he can contain himself, impressive"


    It''s the guys ''voice'' again. Then he continues to explain:


    "As Thenea said allready, you those foolish magicans tried to meddle in powers far from their understanding, they used concepts they can''t fathom in the slightest and had no image to speak of so the magic went more or less rampant. That pulled you from your part of reality and even forced Thenea and me into a course.


    To put it in easy words: They wanted to infuse a body with godlike powers by more or less smashing gods into it. Foolish idea but they went with it. They body they summoned was a living, human beeing, without conscious thought and somehow that summoned you.


    Then they smashed Thenea and me into it and thought that some of your powers would fuse into you and they could use your shell with our powers. It didn''t really work out, it''s as if you put an egg between two mountains and expect the egg to survive the two mountains crashing into each other."


    At this point, I can''t really contain myself and burst out.


    "What?! Magicans, gods, what the hell are you talking about?!"


    Now, it''s the other voice, Thenea, answering me:


    "Well, there is much more out there than you know, let me show you a bit"


    And with this my point of view starts to blur and I see everything. Planets, cosmic clouds, stars, a whole universe. Then I realize that I''m outside of it and that this universe is surrounded by itself, selfreplicating, twisted into itself. I feel a sudden vertigo and it blurs again. We are back in the chamber I woke up in.


    "There is much more outthere than you could imagine, I pulled you back before your mind got overwhelmed, trying to make sense out of things you can''t make sense of.


    Oh, and before you ask: We can''t get you back home."


    That shook me out of the vertigo and the image I just saw.


    "What? Why, in the beging you said you are gods, why can''t you get me home?"


    "Ah, well, after I started it, I should explain it to you I guess.


    Imagine a sieve full of sand, the grains drop through the sieve and all drop at different speeds, some even speed up or slow down. That''s one reality. There are more than one, some call them planes of existance. We are sitting on one of the sand grains. Getting you home would be like trying to shoot a needle from one sandgrain into another, hitting it at a specific point of time without disturbing any other grains.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.And about the ''god'' part: We don''t claim to be gods, the some humans stumbeled onto a small part of us, a spark of our existance and they started calling us gods. We don''t claim to be omniscent or omnipotent, not even immortal. It may look to humans like that for we have knowledge and powers far above humans but to us, they are nothing special, we just exist on a greater scale in the multiverse."


    Now, the other voice speaks again:


    "Well, somehow I feel a bit responsible for your untimely demise, Thenea, I think we should help him, getting him a second chance, that should be in our power, don''t you think?"


    "Well, if you want to help him, I think I can help, too. While you start looking, I''ll explain things to him.


    Sadly we are unable to get your soul back into your body, if you were able to turn, you would see it turning to ash at high rate due to beeing in contact with the power of Ikol and me. What we can do, is take your soul and fit it into a babys body, one that would otherwise be stillborn. Your memorys will be sealed and slowly filter back into you over time, mainly as instincts and maybe muscle-memory and concepts. I doubt that you will remember your life, maybe a flash here or there but not much."


    I''m confused as hell and slowly start to get what is going on and I feel the more I hear the more confused I get. Maybe Thenea can shed a bit of light.


    "I''m afraid you two lost me quite some time ago. What I understood is, magic is real, some magicians pulled me out of my reality into another, killing me in the process and you Ikol would give me a new life if I want to. Right?"


    "Well, not a new life in the direct sense, your soul would get the body of an otherwise stillborn child, we would make sure that you get born allright and there our intervention would end. You lose your mind-memorys and only things deeply ingrained into your soul would remain. Maybe muscle-memorys or concepts, maybe flashes of memory of your old life. That''s the most we can do."


    Hearing a new word for the second time, I get curious.


    "What is a concept? You said I may remember concepts but I don''t know what you refer to with ''concepts''"


    Now, Ikol speaks up again:


    "Ah, in your world there is no magic? Well, a concept is what you need to get from the thought to effect. For example, using concepts from your world, you could get fire with particle motion, concentration of light, chemical reactions or friction. Using concepts from this world you would use a connection to the realm of elemental fire or a direct concept by imagining a fire and letting your will do the rest. Each concept uses different amounts of energy and is therefore easier or harder on the caster. And that''s all there is to magic, strength of will, energy and imagination. You don''t need to understand the complete concept conciously but atleast your subcouncious needs to understand it, mainly it''s trial and error.


    Oh, and I found a body for you and I even give you my blessing, the blessing of Ikol, do you want it?"


    I see that Thenea looks a bit worried but I''m still confused and go with the flow.


    "It would be an honor to enter this world with your blessing."


    Ikol starts smiling big time and Thenea looks REALY worried now.


    Ikol speaks again:


    "Well, then it''s and honor to bless you, young one. But it would be boring to tell you what my blessing does, you will find out yourself. And it''s time to part, I allready made sure that the rest of your new mothers pregnancy works without problems.


    As I doubt that we will ever meet again, I wish you a happy life, young one."


    "I wish you a happy life aswell, young one, I hope it will be a long one"


    "Wait, you two, I don''t know anything about the world"


    "Well, you are not even born, and you won''t remeber us anyway, so why is there a need to tell you?"


    With this, I start floating again and the everyting blurs around me.


    Then I''m feeling warm and save and I succumb to the feeling and my mind goes black.


    ***Edit***


    Any guesses what Ikols blessing will do? Originally I wanted to post another chapter today but I doubt I''ll make it so I let you guys guess a bit (and I''m curious if anyone gets the complete effect)