Adventures of John: The Return to Arendelle
Chapter 9: The Protégés
When night fell Zax and the trio were placed in a rowboat and rowed towards the wall. Inquisitor Zax maneuvered around the spikes until the point when it became impassable. "This is where we part ways, children," he told them. "I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you in developing your God-given gifts, and wish you luck in facing the soldiers of the devil." With that he dropped them off at the base of one of the spikes and rowed away.
"Well then," the large one said with a slight Irish accent. "We better get going."
"Why do you insist on using that ridiculous accent, Colt?" the raven-haired girl asked. "You were what, six when your family left that desolate place for the Southern Isles?"
"It may have been a horrible place, Rayna," he told her. "But it is still home. And what are we without home? Am I right, Alex?" The small African stayed silent. "Typical," Colt sighed. "Let's get on with it then."
They made their way carefully across the icy spikes until they arrived at the base of the wall. Alex stepped to the front of the group and raised his hands to the ice. His name wasn't really Alex, that was just what they called him. Not even Zax knew his real name, because he never spoke. Not a word. But then again, he was a slave before Zax found him. A slave doesn't need to speak, just work.
Closing his eyes, Alex concentrated on the ice. Heat began to emanate from his palms, but the ice refused to melt. Concentrating harder, he increased the temperature, until his fellows were forced to back away from the heat. The magic that protected the wall was powerful, but eventually it was forced to submit to its nature and melted under the intense heat. The group walked slowly through the wall, Alex melting the way ahead.
When they had melted all the way through, Alex and Colt stayed back while Rayna stepped forward. Whispering a single word, Rayna seemed to fade, vanishing into her shadow. Her shadow slid forward, darting around the area outside the gap. After a minute the shadow returned, and Rayna stepped back out of it.
"The way is clear," she said. "But we better hurry. There's still quite a bit of water between here and the ships and I don't want to be in this frigid drink any more than I have to."
So they swam to the ships of the Arendelle Navy, ready to do their work. They were seen several times along the way by Sylthine's spies, but every individual that laid eyes on them found one of Rayna's daggers in their eye socket. Thirty minutes later nearly every ship in Arendelle's fleet exploded.
"What's going on!?" I shouted, waking from my slumber. Looking around, I saw no one. But something had woken me up. There had been a great noise, like some kind of explosion…
No, I thought. No! Running to my window, I looked out to the fjord and found Arendelle's warships ablaze. It was too late for me to do anything. Even with my magic, it would take more power than I had to repair those ships. Unless of course I was willing to transform Arendelle into a nuclear blast zone. How? I asked myself. How did Hans get through the wall? Looking at it, I could find nothing wrong. I then reached out with my magical senses, probing the wall. Then I found it. At the far corner, where there were the least people, was a small hole, barely large enough for someone to walk through.
Magic! I thought. How did he get his hands on magic?
Suddenly my door slammed open, revealing a gasping servant. "The Queen requests your presence at the counsel this minute, sir!"
Re-conjuring my armor and cloak, I strode purposefully to the counsel room. Hopefully I would be able to find some answers there.
"How did this happen?!" Elsa questioned, frigid energy snapping in the air around her. She turned toward Sylthine. "I thought you had spies watching for things like this!"
"I did, your majesty" he answered. "Over a dozen of my spies that where watching the fjord and the ships are late for their check in. And my men are never late. I can only assume that they were killed before they could warn us of the threat."
"How many of these spies do you have?" I asked him.
"As many as are necessary, my lord," he answered cryptically.
I ground my teeth in frustration. "We need to solve this now."
"But how did he do it?" asked Admiral Avin, who had been completely devastated by the event. His usually immaculate uniform was crumpled and stained, he slouched in his chair, and he had a thin layer of unshaven stubble. "You told us that this wall of yours would be virtually indestructible."
"He had help," I responded. "Help from people with magic."
"What?!" they asked in shock.
"There was a small hole melted through the ice," I told them. "With the protections I put on that wall, it would take incredibly powerful magic to melt a way through. I'm going to assume that our saboteurs are to blame. Luckily I was able to go and reseal the opening they created, so we aren't going to have an invasion force sneaking through the wall any time soon."
"They could always make a new hole," commented General Coulter.
"Which is why we need to find them right now," I told them. "Before they can cause any more damage. I believe that they are still here, on this side of the wall. Sylthine, I need the help of your spies. I will search for the infiltrators, but I need to know where to look. Make sure your spies keep their distance. We don't need any more dead."
"With all due respect," he told me, "you are not my king."
"Do as he says, Sylthine," Elsa told him. "Or would you rather see Arendelle in flames?"
"Of course not, my queen," he said bowing. "I will give the Adventurer all the aid he requires."
"Then let's get to work."
"Have you ever wondered about all the things they tell us?" Rayna asked as they snuck into the city.
"What do you mean?" Colt inquired.
"About us and the Snow Queen," she responded. "Are we really all that different? What makes our powers God given gifts, while hers are witchcraft, or the power of the devil, or whatever?"
"Did you see what that John guy did?" Colt asked her. "He shattered an entire ship, crew and all, and he didn't even blink! That's not natural. It's not human."
"We blew up all those ships," Rayna pointed out, "and I didn't see you blinking."
"That was different!" he insisted. "We were-"
"Doing God's work?" Rayna finished.
"Yes!"
"Sometimes I wonder," she mumbled. "After all, isn't that what everyone does? Everyone thinks their actions are justified. In that John guy's case, we did come here to invade, and that ship did fire on him. Plus, quick as it was they probably didn't even feel it."
"Are you defending him?" Colt asked in shock.
"No," Rayna assured him. "I'm just not sure we should be defending ourselves either."
"What about you, Alex?" Colt asked. "Do you have an opinion on the subject?" As usual, the boy said nothing. "Come on then," Colt commanded. "We've got a job to do, so let's do it."
Suddenly a cloaked figure dropped from nowhere, landing right before them. His cloak was the color of blood, and from his entrance, they could tell he wasn't there to offer them to come for a cup of tea. He stood up, revealing a set of golden armor with eyes to match. Fluttering by his shoulder was a tiny ball of multi-colored light, inside of which they could barely glimpse a tiny figure.
"I'm sorry," said the man. "But I can't let you do that." He held out his hand, a flaming sword blazing to life in his fingers. "Do you think you can defeat John the Adventurer?"
Author note: I would really appreciate some more feedback from you guys. What do you think of my writing? What do you think I left out? What do you think I should have left out? Give me all the feedback you can. Except on story elements and series of events, because, well... that's how it happened. I can't exactly go back in time and change how things happened. Well, I suppose I could if I met the Doctor again, but that is besides the point.