-[The Fear Of Blood Tends To Create Fear For The Flesh – Hiei Jaganshi]-
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN: Diamond Emptiness
Grey, that was the colouration as the wind swept through the landscape slowly, deafly. No sounds could be heard, and no real life could be seen. The grey, a darkened form of white snow was the only thing that the eye could see – not even the division between land and sky could be seen. Tiny flakes of white, not quite snow, and not quite rain, fell to the ground just as silently. The chill in the air was almost a deathly ice, the land was covered in huge ice-glaciers, so pure and clean that they eye could not distinguish the glaciers from snow until they were right in front of them. Without any real sign of light or dark, just the twilight between the two, the lands seemed a grey wasteland.
Within the depths of the largest crystal-clear ice glaciers, the snow didn't seem to cling to the frozen substance, unlike the other glaciers. Much like a polished crystal, the little light in the area caught within the shards of ice, and reflected throughout the lands in patterns. Down below the glaciers, a small cavern was visible, an expanse of land that wasn't covered in ice, or filled with snow from the constant storms. The floors of the cavern were submerged in an inch-deep layer of running water, and the waters flowed down towards the depths of the caverns. The cavern had but one sign of habitation – the cavern walls were not the rough, worn away texture of time and movement, however, carved out neat, and clean. Despite being made of ice, the walls held the texture of bricks in a citadel, a quaint feel despite the emptiness about the lands.
"Has the child awoken yet?" Came a quiet, withdrawn voice from the depths of the caverns. The sounds of footsteps against the icy floors of the inner caverns could be heard, signifying two beings residing deep within the darkened caverns. The voice held the distinct sound of a woman, in her mid fourties. An air of indifference was about the voice.
"She hasn't, I'm afraid." Came a different, more emotional voice. The voice sounded to belong to a young girl, early twenties at most. The sound of reluctant admittance was about the voice, however, the voice sounded innocent in comparison to the first.
"The old fool should have kept his two cents out of the matter." The first voice spoke, and, the tiniest hints of light came into sudden view. A kind of blue light could be seen deeper within the caverns, revealing two figures. One, a form that clearly belonged to the first voice standing next to a little table situated in the centre of a large room. Long, silver hair hung down to the floor in many plaits, hanging lower down than the sleek dress she was wearing. Grey eyes stared over at the other figure without emotion, a tallish woman appearing in her late fourties. The dress she was wearing was of a teal colour, flowing down to her feet in layers of thin material. She had a thin, almost bony form, which showed up the age in her face. The other form, was of a much younger woman. A small, petite form sat down on the floor before the woman. Long, blonde hair cascaded down the forms back over the top of a short, almost elfish outfit. Combined with bells, ribbons and lace, the outfit resembled something of an incredibly foreign look, and in tribute to the somewhat bizzare outfit, the shoes that the being was wearing, resembled that of a kind of boot, bells lining the top of the boots, which were of the same colour as the outfit – a kind of cerulean blue with white. Brightly coloured, jade eyes stared up at the woman from a slightly rounded, and young face, looking to be more than young enough to be the daughter of the woman, though, there was no resembelance between the two.
"You can't blame the old man, really. There wasn't much of a choice in the matter." The young girl spoke, looking down at her hands slowly as she ran her fingertips over her right arm. Bandages were bound around the girl's arms, thick and heavy bandages, which showed that the girl had sustained a fair amount of damage recently. Tugging at the edges of the bandages carefully, it gave the impression of an irritation that she was unnable to push out of her mind.
"Still finding it difficult to use your arms, are you, Monique?" The woman asked, a kind of sneer in her voice as she looked down upon the girl, and the sneer didn't go unnoticed as the girl sprung to her feet with more energy than a gymnist.
"No, they just sting a little." The girl called Monique stated, and she stuck her tongue out at the woman in a childish manner as she then began to walk away.
"Then don't stick your arms in the equivalent to a fire next time." the woman spoke briskly, and, she then turned on her heel and began to make her way in the opposite direction.
Corridor of ice after corridor of ice was all that could be seen the deeper into the caverns that anyone went, and the young woman called Monique stepped with a kind of energy in her limbs. Her long blonde hair flowed behind her as she moved, and her jade eyes flicked from sculpture to sculpture with a kind of keen interest – it was possible the girl was almost always interested in the little things in the almost empty world. The sounds of a slight crystal chiming could be heard the deeper into the caverns one went, and the girl seemed to walk at a pace where her footsteps were in time with the musical chiming. A large, almost decorative door was at the end of the corridor, and Monique came to a halt in front of the door, a few meters away from the ice-like structure.
"I'm sorry, but I've gotta go check on the girl!" Monique called out loudly, and, there was no real audiable response to her statement. A tiny, half smile crept onto Monique's lips, and, she merely stepped towards the huge door. "Thank you~!" She sung, and, as she walked into the door, there was no force of physical matter that repelled her like a normal door would, and, she instead walked straight through it like it was only a wall of fireflies.
Lines of ice ran throughout the whole room like the thin strands of spiders webs, sending strange arrays of filtered sunlight throughout the room like decorative crystals. The room Monique had entered was huge, a kind of large hall that resembled something of an arctic palace. Water slowly streamed down the walls, just as silently as the world above, and the filtered light reflected off of the walls, almost seeming to intensify the strength of the pure light effectively. The being stepped towards the far side of the room, her long blonde hair trailing out behind her as she moved, and her jade eyes remained upon a kind of formation in the icy walls in front of her. The large cavern was far colder than the other rooms, and, as Monique reached the edge of the able flooring in the cavern, she placed her eyes, not on the strangely formed ice cluster at her height, but rather, an overlooked oddity within the frozen substance.
A silhouette was visible through the ice if one looked hard enough, somewhat resembling a near-human appearing being. An averagely sized human, though the tiniest hints of pointed ears contradicted that. The being was encased in a thick layer of ice, and a great many chains bound the being without mercy – hands bound and arms tied tightly at their sides, a man by the looks of it. Old, neat robes was what the figure wore, a kind of cross between a japanese kimono and a chinese shirt, the being looked to be not a pheasant, but rather, a well respected being, putting asside the strange bindings of course. Long, silvery hair hung in the ice like a kind of mist, and, yellow, almost feline-like eyes stared straight out at Monique. It was almost impossible for the being to be alive, let alone conscious, though as Monique watched the being, a tiny smile crossed her face as she saw those topaz eyes shift ever so fractionally.
"The girl, I've got to go check on her!" Monique spoke, as if answering a question that she had just been asked of by the being. The smile across her face increased slightly, and she placed her weight on her right foot without hesitation. "Well, I don't know. Those injuries looked pretty bad." Monique blinked after several moments, and, as she lost the slight smile, she rubbed the corner of her right eye carefully with an index finger. "Ahlora? Still as stubborn as always." It was evident enough that there was another voice in the room, though there was no 'audiable' voice to be heard, almost implying a kind of telepathy. "In any case, I'd better go and check on the girl, before she wakes up." Monique spoke, and, her eyes shifted from the figure in the ice, to a kind of walling to the far right. "Later, old man!" She sung, and, without another glance, she began to leave the room. The walling that Monique headed to, she stepped through like the kind of door beforehand, and she ended up standing on the other side, just like with the previous door. The tiniest flakes of ice floated through the air in front of her, and as she began to continue down the walkway that began to descend downwards towards the depths of the frozen caverns, she began to hum a tune under her breath. The corridors began to become darker, and darker, less being illuminated, until all that could be seen, was the tiniest hints of light reflecting off of the ice from a gem that Monique held in her hand.
Stepping through another wall as she had before, the tiniest hints of another room was visible to the eye. As Monique stepped over towards the right, the gem she held in her hand illuminated the tiniest hints of objects within this room. The light reflected oddly, in a kind of pattern against the ceiling, and, Monique merely placed the gem on a little alter to the right of where she was stadning. Faint lines of light filtered over to the other side of the room, where a large mass of ice was located. The walls were strangely reflective, much like a mirror, and, the light reflected throughout the room slowly, and it slowly began to light up more and more, like the icy altar was giving it energy. Tilting her head to the right slightly, Monique carefully stepped towards the large mass of frozen water, where she crouched down to look deep within the crystal-clear substance.
Though slightly distorted, the sight of a figure within the depths of the ice was slowly becoming visible, and, Monique wrapped her bandaged arms around her knees carefully. Monique carefully wiped a hand against the seemingly polished ice, wiping away the tiniest of misting to be able to see more into the ice. The form was of a young girl, though only barely recogniseable against the pure crimson that covered her form. An almost sickening sight, though Monique merely ignored it. There were no bandages, no attempts at bandaging the injuries, the wounds left fresh, like they were merely grazes, though it was more than obvious that the damage resembled severe burns more than anything else. From head to toe, that was all there was. Burns so bad that the flesh was bleeding, and infections were clearly starting to take over the more damaged parts of the girl's body. Monique glanced over at the gemstone sitting on top of the altar, before she moved a little closer carefully to take a proper look at the girl lying within the ice. There was a lot of blood covering the ground beneath the girl, a dark, near black colour to the blood. Long hair was soaked with blood, making the girl look like she had a dark red colour to her hair, rather than the misty blue that was supposed to be in her hair instead. Monique let out a breath after a few moments, and she carefully stood on her feet. Looking down at the painful sight of the nearly crippled girl, she sighed slightly, holding her hands above her head as she stretched slightly. She could see the form of the girl within the ice shift slightly, which caused her to frown slightly.
"Can't be having you wake up." Monique spoke, more to herself than anything else, however, as she saw the girl shift slightly again, she carefully placed her hands to the frozen substance that kept the injured girl in place. To bring the temperature down more than what was required to keep the ice intact was not a necessity, however, as Monique brought the temperature within the ice to a far colder temperature, the tiniest hints of consciousness from the girl slowly faded away. She frowned slightly, glancing down at her arms as she saw the girl cease moving – for the time being. She just needed to bring the temperature down that little bit more so the infections wouldn't spread.
"There, that should just about do it." Monique spoke, standing on her feet again. Her sight of the girl in the ice was not that good, a kind of mist was within the structure, showing how cold the temperature inside was. The sound of something smashing met Monique's hearing, and, as she looked over at the reflective wall to her right, the sight of broken mirrors was all that she could see. A deep frown crossed her face as she watched the last mirror break, and, she let out a breath in mild agitation. "Idiots, don't you want your little prisoner back?" She wondered out loud, her eyes flickering back to the girl lying within the cage of ice. "Too bad."