Hey guys, here is part three of this ICE and Shadow Saga. Hope you have enjoyed the read so far. I took a break from writing these past weeks thought i still updated my other story...anyway, here begin the next part of this saga.
Hope you enjoy the read.
A DREAM OF SHADOWS
One
Never in his life has Damian felt such terrible chill.
It felt like the cold was seeping through his clothing and into his very skin. He was holding his arms close to himself so that he could be warm, but it was almost useless for the chill that was in his cell. Everything was completely dark and yet the silence was what unnerved him even more. Damian was the fourth son of one of the Lords of Mistral, his family doing remarkably well for themselves last, he had seen them. As the fourth son in his family, Damian had known that he was never going to amount to much other than becoming a commander in his brother's army, or when his brother used him to gain alliance, however, the man hadn't wanted this life at all.
He had wanted to be something more than just a way to gain his family allies, so it was what drew him to the Hunt's Creed. Like most of the people of Remnant, Damian had heard the tales and stories of old about the honor of joining the Hunt and what the Brotherhood once was in the old legends. He admired them in his childhood, the men and women who chose to become soldiers to protect their home, to be heroes of the realm, but deep-down Damian knew that the real life that was waiting for him at the Hunt, was no like the grand tales he heard as a boy, but he still made the decision.
He remembers how furious his parents were when he first told them about joining the Hunt. His father had flown into a rage telling him that he was throwing his life away for nothing and his mother pleaded at him for days about his decision. It wasn't the life that they wanted to for him, up there upon that Gate in the North but Damian hadn't headed his parents at all and has made his way North toward the Hunt saying goodbye to his brothers before leaving them behind.
The first time he saw the Gate he was left breathless. It towered high in the middle of the two mountain that made the Chains of Remnant. There was just a sense of scale seeing it there, and it was like when he was just a boy, listening to the grand tales of heroes and by looking at the Gate, he knew that when he was part of the Hunt, he was going to be part of something bigger than himself.
The first few months there were harsh and Damian, as someone from Mistral, the cold of the North was not something that he was used to. He had found himself shivering in his bed at night when he went to sleep, feeling the chills in his bones whenever he was moving about to do his duty at the top of the Gate or on patrolling missions about the Watchtowers and the Ceremony with the Dragon Seed, helped with dealing with the cold as his Aura was released using it. He knew that the Hunt had many secrets but he had never expected this.
Damian remembers how much he was smiling when he was out there in the Frozen North moving from Fort Sina to Forn and working the two Commanders that were stationed at both Fort and over the years he had grown used to the Frozen North and his duty as he was permenately stationed at Fort Sina under Commander Snow's leadership. He had always liked Sina more than Forn because of how the two Fort were situated.
Sina stood beside a river with open lands as far as the eyes could see save for a few mountains in the distance, which compared to Forn who sat in a forest of tall trees. However, the past few months before he found himself in this cold and empty cell, Damian knew that there was something strange going on in the North.
The first reports were trivial things like Faunus found dead at strange places with no clues as to what killed them, they have been sighting of abandoned settlement that seemed to have being left completely empty like the Faunus that were there simply decided to leave everything behind to venture out in the Frozen lands without their gears and weapons.
Once or twice, Damian think he would see something moving in the trees, a great black shape of something but whenever the Huntsman that were with him investigated, they found no trace of them. It made Damian nervous about what the situation was and to make matters worse, almost every night, the sound of wolves could be heard howling, crying out to the low northern moon that hung in the sky above them.
But then…Damian didn't understand what had happened, the Hunstman had returned with a survivor from a battle with the Faunus. The patrol Huntsmen had returned with a woman, dressed in some odd armors but other than that, they couldn't tell anything about her. Damian had been on duty when they first brough her in and he had caught a glimpse of the girl.
She was oddly pale and bleeding from the side of her head, her hair as white as the snow of the North. He remembers thinking that it was similar colored to the Schnee of Atlas when he had noticed it but he hadn't voiced his thoughts at all. The Huntsman were all hooded, but they were few words exchanged before she was taken back into one of the chambers to have her healed. If Damian had known what would have happened these next few weeks to everyone in the Fort, he would have told the men to let her die where they had found her and not bring her into their walls, but he hadn't known then, he hadn't known…
As the days had passed since the woman was brought in, the people in the Fort had started to act oddly. Damian only noticed because it was something that had happened at diner when two of the Hunstmen, Green and Marlo got into a fight. It wasn't unusual but what was unusual was that Marlo's eyes were black as coal back then.
Damian had met Marlo before, and the man's eyes were the same color as his hair, which was an earthly brown but the darkness that was in that man's eyes it was like the brown had completely bleed out of his eyes and the black had taken its place. At the time, he had simply passed it off as his emotions causing the change in his eyes, but the strange things started to become even more apparent when Huntsmen wouldn't show at their post or wouldn't even show up at diner…
It was then that Damian had realized something was wrong but by then, it was already too late to do anything for on that same night, Damian had found himself assaulted by the very men he trusted to have his back. The two men held him down and tied both of his hand together before he was brought back into the courtyard of Fort Sina finding most of the Huntsman there, their faces pale as death, and their eyes black as night…
Then, almost as if the thought had been placed in their heads at the same time, all the Huntsman and Huntresses just up and left Fort Sina behind, it's gate wide open for anyone to walk through without problem, their destination going further North than before and Damian bound was forced to go with them.
He remembers pleading to them for hours, demanding answers for why they were doing this but the only answer he ever gotten was the silence and the chilly winds of the coming winter. They had walked for days and Damian had been completely exhausted, hunger crawling at him and he had collapsed in the snow, his strength having left him but when he next wake up, he had found himself in this cell.
That was months ago by now, he concluded, and Damian had grown thin with the lack of food and was only clinging to life as he didn't know the next time he would close his eyes, would have been his last. So, he stubbornly stayed awake finding himself eating whatever he could find on the floor of his cell, rats…spiders, as he found himself drinking his own piss for water…
But then, after months of darkness…his cell door opened, and two people entered inside and dragged him out of it. He was pulled through an empty hallway which was also dark as they were moving, Damian chanced a glance toward the two that were pulling at him. They were wearing identical armors, but no visible weapons upon their body. Their skin was as cold as ice and as pale as a corpse completely devoid of any type of emotions at all.
Then he was brought into a large room and the two men who brought him there left him inside of it. Damian glanced around himself taking in the room that he was brought in. The cold there was even stronger than what was in his cell as he brought his arms around his body to try to keep warm. It was a crumbling room he was in, filled with dead objects upon the ground around him as it was also completely iced over. The ceiling was destroyed with holes at the top and snow falling in. That alone tells him that he was still in the Frozen North, as to where…he had no idea.
Why was he brought here?
"Are you afraid, son of Man?"
Damian instantly turned at the direction of the voice. There was a part of the room that was completely covered in shadow as the roof there was still intact but since his eyes has grown accustomed to the darkness, Damian could easy see a figure there. From the voice, he knew that it must be a woman and he found his mind returning to the woman that the Huntsman had found…
Could it be her?
"Where have you brought me?" he asked, his breath causing steam to rise from his lips.
"You are in my castle," the woman answered, "But…it is not as grand as it once was."
The woman in the shadow moved to stand up and then she walked toward him until she stepped into the light and Damian found his eyes widening lightly. She was extremely beautiful, with snow white hair falling upon her shoulder and bright blue eyes that almost seems to glow. Her skin was oddly pale as well. She was wearing a similar armor to the men who had brought him here, but hers had more of a flare to them. She had a sword at her waist as well, the weapon's head carved in the shape of a wolf.
Looking at this woman, Damian found himself thinking back to his earlier thought about her being related to the Schnee of Atlas. There was something about this woman if she was related to them.
"Are you…related to the Schnee?" he asked.
The woman seems to smile as she approached him, coming closer to him softly singing to herself, her tone low and yet there was this haunting quality to it that chilled Damian to his core.
"Sing for our fallen shadows,
Ice sings through all,
Shadow will creep,
Yet the tale shall continue,
For the Crown has not yet sat,
Upon the old Kings of Winter,
Ice and Shadow shall dance again,
Banish our heart and crumble,
May the wolves howl at the moon,
Men of shadows shall walk once more,
All shall feel the ice,
All shall tremble in the shadows,
Swords and steels shall sing,
Horns will call to the sky,
For Ice and Shadow shall dance again,
The white-haired woman took hold of his face, her fingers are like ice against the warmth of his skin.
"You will serve son of Man, for your heart is weak," she spoke softly, "Deor Valaris."
At that moment, Damian felt his Aura react as if something had just pierced into his chest causing him to jump away from the woman's icy touch. Damian looked at his chest expecting to see something stabbing him there but there was no visible wound at all. He looked up at the woman in front of him, feeling his anger rising through him.
"What have you done to the Huntsmen of Fort Sina?" he yelled, "I know it was you they brought in because of your injury. Have you poisoned their mind to follow you? What sorcery have you done to them?"
The white-haired woman smiled yet again.
"Kneel."
"Wha…?"
Damian found himself falling upon his knees without even doing so. The man looked down at himself, his confusion rising at this. He had just obeyed the woman's words and he hadn't even mean to do so.
"I told you, son of Man," she spoke, "You will serve…for your heart is weak."
Then Damian feel his very body chilling completely over. His skin was changing from the normal pinkish tone to a deathly white all over his entire body. Then, the paleness reached his face as his mouth was opened in a silent scream as his eyes, previously a bright emerald had become as black as night as everything that was Damian was erased away leaving nothing but shadows which had taken its place within his body.
All that he was now, was a Wraith.
The white-haired woman observed him for a few moments before she simply turned away, leaving the Wraith in the room. She made her way through a hallway which give out to a large room that was filled with Grimm and other creatures that were present. She walked past them with the numerous Grimm barely paying her any mind at all as she was singing her song again, tone haunting quality of the song reflecting the chilling air and despairing atmosphere that she was in.
The crown of winter came,
Ice freeze,
Shadow thrills,
Dragons shall dance the skies,
The Horn will call to Man,
Cannibals urge to feed,
Rumble we shall, their darkest desire,
As bones will pile, white as snow,
Sap will bleed from Elfwood trees,
In the shadow of their heart, man will know
Ice and Shadow shall dance again.
The white-haired woman came to a stop at the end of where she was walking giving a glance down at the valley where the castle lay as thousand of Grimm could be seen, their howls and cries call out to the white moon in the sky.
What a way to open this story eh. Hope you have enjoyed the read so far and before you say anything, this woman is not Salem...she is someone else who will be probably be revealed later. As you have just read, i revealed what happened to Fort Sina before the Huntsman found it in Blood of Kings and where the Wraith who attacked Blake in the last book came from too.
Anyway, hope you have enjoyed that little bit of mystery to start this third Book.
Jacques0 out.
R&R