Frozen Memories – 1.8 Bridge
Hidden Past – Back Cover
"Shadow Mist Sect; they're a bad group, arent they ?" Elsa mused where she stood in the painting filled room of the old crumbling mansion. She saw the figures, made of smoke and mist that Jarius had painted.
Jarius smirked and moved to sit down as he spoke, once more picking up a brush. "Bad, or good, I dont know, I cant tell you that much" Said Jarius where he sat at a painters easle as he looked her way. "They are a group of... incomplete people who simply wish to be whole. To that end, they're searching despreately for something"
"What ?" Elsa asked him. "What could they be searching for ?"
"If I told you, you wouldnt believe me. Even so, I will tell you. Your heart, and the key to unlock it" Jarius told her. For a moment Elsa said nothing, and then she started laughing. Jarius looked at her. "Something funny ?"
"Its just," Elsa shook her head and set her hand on the table "There are some questions I want to ask, questions I've been running away from, a question I want to ask; What is going to happen to me now ?" Elsa said, the room was white walled, beautiful paintings hung upon the walls by pieces of nails and steel. Paintings more than likely. "Jarius ?!" Before her however Jarius disappeared, like blocks of data and faded away into nothing
And then, data streamed in a column and a woman robed in red appeared. "There is no knowledge that has the power to change your fate" DiT said simply to Elsa
Elsa clinched a fist and pointed an accusing finger at the masked woman. "Even if it doesnt, I want to know, I have the right, to know!"
"A Nothing does not have the right to know, nor does it even have the right to exsist. And yet here you are" DiT told her, Something of humor in the one visible eye of the mask the woman wore
Elsa summoned her twin swords, however once again they formed a single weapon. She was stressed out. "But what is a Nothing ?"
A portal opened and the hooded man appeared, however his back was to Elsa. "DiT" He said tersely. "We are out of time, too many Nothings"
Elsa recognised the man easily "You! You're the one that stole our credits a week ago!" the hooded man ignored her.
A portal ripped into reality before Elsa, and next to DiT. In it stood Jarius, "Elsa, a Nothing is half a person" He said, "you wont disappear, you will be whole"
DiT turned towards him, "Enough of these outbursts!" She thundered, grabbing him, the two disappeared into the portal. The two struggled, but before the portal closed Jarius said simply
"Elsa, we will meet again, you wont know me, but I will know you. At that time, we can talk about everything!" The portal closed as Elsa ran for it, however as she neared, the hooded man blocked her path.
"Let him go!" Elsa screamed, the portal vanished, with it too the hooded man. "Jarius!" The only path to her knowing what was really going on, and he was gone. Elsa left the whitewalled room and went through the ancient mansion. Coming upon a stairway leading down into a oddly stirle room.
A computer stood there, unlike anything Elsa had ever seen in her life. As she stared at it, one more memory wracked her brain, she screamed and held her head.
Xeir – Awakening
Chapter One - Introductary Report
3 July 1987
Scala ad Caelum
Wolfe Family Forge
Dusk
KLANG KLANG Flip the sword over KLANG KLANG Flip it over again, the mantra went through her head as she hammered away at the fifty eighth sword of the order out of sixy. She flipped the sword over again, once more hammering it out. Dinner, raw fox meat for the most part, lightly cooked, was perfect. But now she was focused on finishing that order before full dark when the merchant was to return. She was not expecting anyone to enter the forge, hell the building was closed. The only people in there were her father, at least, he was until he left a few minutes before, Mark, who as far as Xeir knew was doing inventory or looking for more metal or mostly done blades to make into weapons of art.
Outside the shop two women stopped, Idun looked at the door, it said they were closed, But the snowman guide, Olaf, wandered right up to the door, and at his stick fingered touch, the thing opened without hinderence "I think she's in here!" They'd been to twenty different shops, and not one of them had information the two sought. this was the last shop, the last Clan Forge it was known as. And it was, in a word, very big.
Looking up at the forge building, it was rather big, biggest they'd seen for sure. "This is the last one, each shop directed us to this one. That was hours ago." Tiri said softly
Idun nodded and looked towards the door that Olaf disappeared into. "Yes, they said as much. But it's our last chance, come on" Idun lead the way in, Tiri right behind, closing the door behind them Idun stared, enthralled at the pure beauty of the weapons that surrounded them. Tiri scampered to a rack of weapons and started through it, unwrapping the hilt of the blade she carried to compare the weapons to it.
After about twetny minutes, Idun spoke. "Did you find anything ?" As she walked among the various weapons, halberds, spears, axes, hammers, mattocks, swords, shields, there were dozens of blades.
"Nope, none of these swords match the blade the shadowlings had with them nor this one." Tiri replied somewhat dishartened, but then things were changing, rapidly. Somehow she knew the sword's twin was imn that shop. Somewhere.
Idun made a odd sound and sighed. "It might be a dead end on the sword, But its the only lead we have on my girls, and I hope it is truth and not a wild goose chase. Those two girls we spoke with in the market, that one, she looked like Anna would as an adult."
"It wont be, Somehow I know it, I think it was those girls we spoke with earlier. You think that one you kept staring at was Diamond ? But as an adult ?" Tiri said. The twin of that weapon was in that shop somewhere.
"Possible, I could not stop looking at her, she looks so much like Kaedrians drawing for the poster" Idun replied. "I hope its..." She was cut off from a shriek, her heart soared at the sound as she thought of one person, the only person who could scream like that! Xeir!
At that same moment
Inside the Forges of the Wolfe Forge
"Wow" Olaf said softly as he looked about before going into the backroom, so much heat, yet he never melted, it was as if he couldn't melt. Looking around he could feel the heat from the forges, the man never noticed him as he selected some metals and what looked to be mostly finished blades before heating them up. "So this is heat ?" the little snowman wandered further into the forges, around a smelter he spotted a small pile of white stuff. Aha, snow! Wait... snow ? YAY SNOW! Olaf thought seeing more snow and what had to be a Snowgie dancing around in it, perfect, now he iknew/i his maker... no, his mother was in there somewhere!
Olaf had just wandered around the last smelter, how many were in this place anyhow, when he spotted her. In all her beauty! Mom! Was the first word on his tongue... but instead of speaking right away, he watched Elsa as she hammered on a piece of metal, inlaying gems of varioius sizes and colors. He watched for a few moments mesmurised by Elsa's beautiful fluid skilled movements, the rise and fall of the hammer, the intent careful observence of each hammer whack. All of it
Finally he couldn't hold it in any more and walked right up to her.
"Hi Mom!" He pretty much yelled dead in her face, Xeir stared for a brief heartbeat at Olaf's huge snowy smiling head that was between her and the sword she was working on
It did not have the desired effect he hoped for
Xeir shrieked dead into the snowmans face.
Olaf screamed as if it was a game of who could scream the loudest
WHACK went Olaf's head "Ah crud, not again!" Olaf's head splattered against the wall as Xeir held the hammer in a defensive stance as she watched as Olaf put himself back together, mostly. Her heart hammered in fear. this could not be happening, This snowman, she had made it, it found her! And those with her, he lead those with him directly to her! Xeir stared at Olaf, Wait a minute, it called me Mom ? Xeir thought, clearly confused. "Do I know you ?" She finally asked as Olaf reassembled himself, minus carrot nose he looked every bit a cute snowman.
"You made me" Olaf said simply. Xeir looked at her own hands. This was insane! Sure she had made the snowgies, but this, this was different. "Don't you remember that ?" Xeir nodded at long last. This, she felt in her heart, this was what she was dreading. Whoever came with this snowman, iher/i snowman that she created, they wanted to talk. She set the hammer down on the anvil.
She knew in her heart, this order... it wasn't real. It was to keep her busy. But why ? Was it because of her fears ? This snowman ? Finally she asked after a mong moment, "Who came with you ?"
"Uh... two women, I kinda forget their names" Olaf said somewhat timidly, yet he still smiled widely
"Where are they now ?" Xeir then asked him.
"Uh, Back there I think" Olaf pulled his right arm off and used it as a pointing stick and pointed back the way he came, the front part of the shop, the public space really, where she mostly trained as a child with Mark.
Xeir took a deep breath, setting her knuckles on the anvil of the forge, feeling the ice cold metal against her fingers, which felt like any normal anvil metal for all she cared or felt, the cold never bothered her, so why should it now ? She stood there, both hands balled into fists, her knuckles set against the surface of the anvil. How was she supposed to do this ? She barely felt her brother come to her side as she stood there, she shook, she was scared. She leaned on her brother, Looking to him she asked him simply. "What do I do now ?" Mark had no answer
Outside the Wolfe Forge
At that same moment
Diamond ducked back around the corner, her father and sister sat beneath a window leading into the forge, just beyond her father was the back door that they used to get coal or wood for the forges and smelters. "They went in, both of them. They were... following a snowman" She said softly. She was about to describe the snowman as the one they once built when they were younger when they heard a childish voice scream out, most likely to Xeir herself.
"Hi Mom!" Then they heard Xeir screaming louder then they ever heard her scream in their lives then something getting whacked, then "Ah crud not again!" Then everything went quiet, too quiet
Diamond turned to her father, "Did someone just call Xeir, mom ?" She asked softly, this was too weird. Her father shook his head a hand to his mouth, motioning not to speak, merely to listen carefully. First signs of trouble, block the doors so no escape could be made. Diamond and Marion both nodded and the three listened carefully through the wall as Marion sat up carefully and peeked through the window, seeing the two women in the shop. She nodded, they were both inside.
Within the Wolfe Forge
At that same moment
For long moments Xeir never moved, Even when Olaf went to the door and waited for her. Finally, after a few moments of careful thought, Xeir took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The Queen of Arendelle wanted to do nothing more then speak to her. Mark had said so himself. Turning to Mark she said simply, "I want you there with me. Please" To Olaf she said, "Can you wait for me I guess outside, please ?" Olaf thought a brief moment or so that the request to wait outside the building was strange, but in the end he simply nodded to Xeir and waddled cutely out the side door, on the other side of the forge building, away from Marion, Diamond, and Marcus.
Finally with the snowman outside Xeir went to the door, she took another deep breath and let it out slowly. It was time to get it over with.
Turning the nob she entered the shop part of the building and went to the area where two women waited, this was not going to be easy as Xeir felt eyes on her the moment she opened the door.
Xeir saw one of the women, in a dress very similar to her own, identical actually, other then the color, going through the swords on the various racks. Well, this was interesting. Xeir recognised the sword she had made over a week or so before in that major order on the hangar, the sword in her hand she failed to recognise. However as she turned her silver sapphire gaze towards the other woman she halted, Mark nearly running into her from behind.
Idun took in a sharp breath, seeing Xeir for the first time in seventeen years. She looked ready to fall over from either shock or joy. But instead she forced herself to remain calm, it was indeed possible that her children were both dead. But Idun refused to believe that. She had no idea how far from the truth her daughters apparently dead rumor was!
Xeir spoke first, directing her words however towards the woman searching the swords "Need some help in finding something ?" Idun had to stare, Xeir would have never spoken in such a tone or manner before should she had grown up in the castle! Much more gentle, less authoritive, more princesslike. If there was such a manner, Xeir did not possess it.
"Nope, I think I know what I'm doing" Came the reply, which sounded, to Xeir at least, hauntingly familar, but she was not able to put her mind on it right away.
"You wont find anything like that blade, at least, where you're looking" Xeir replied calmly, "What are you looking for anyhow ?"
"Trying to match this blade, with some others of similar make, once I do that I can figure out where it came from, and if I'm lucky, who made it" Came the Icewraith's calm reply as she went to another rack. Xeir knew where that sword came from, and who made it, but she looked to her brother, then jerked her head towards Tiri, as if silently asking her brother to take care of the customer with the sword. Xeir then turned all her attention on Idun, who never took her eyes off of her.
Crossing her arms, her scarred right hand clearly seen but also covered by the pale mostly sheer ice blue sleeve of her dress, Xeir spoke to Idun "I was told you wanted to see me. Is there something I can help you with, Ma'am ?"
"I hope so" Idun replied, then she introduced herself "I'm the Queen of Arendelle, Idun, the woman searcxhing through the swords is my sister, Tiri. He was in Arendelle recently, you were with him were you not ?" Xeir simply nodded as Idun pointed at her brother, though she also nodded at the question, not speaking. "I thought so, I hoped it was true. I see it was. To a point."
"Mark said you wanted to speak to me ? To us back in Arendelle. Why ? I take it that is also why you came here to Scala ad Caelum ?" Xeir asked Idun nodded but at first did not say anything. which allowed Xeir to continue. "Your soldiers, they had a poster, with my face on it. Why ? Why are you searching for me ? What importantence am I to you ? I dont even know you, at least until now"
"Word reached me while in Arendelle that someone I have been searching for was in the kingdom. Unexpected yes, but anything like that is very good news after seventeen years of constantly searching for those I had lost at sea" Idun replied, Xeir looked at her, a confused raising of her eyebrow confirmed to Idun that something must have struck her. "My daughters, they were lost at sea and yet I held out hope, I still do. That they're alive, somewhere."
"Seventeen years is a long time" Xeir replied simply, obviously not liking where the conversation was going. Something about a pair of girls lost at sea struck at her memory, however.
"Yes, it is a long time, but I never stopped searching. When they were not on the ship I searched the sea for two years, and sent word to neboring cities and kingdoms, searching for them, my daughters. My family." Idun looked around the shop then, taking in all of it. The building was designed like any other shop that sold and made weapons. Incredibly well designed. "I wanted to speak to you because I wanted to ask you not only why do you look like my oldest daughter as an adult, but why your brother said to me the names of his younger sisters." Xeir cast a look to Mark who was watching with both ears and half an eye, so to speak. Ready to jump to Xeir's defense at any second should she need his aid. Idun withdrew a roll of paper from her pack. She handed it to Xeir, "Your brother there, confirmed my hopes when he said your names."
Xeir took the poster to a nearby table, in the back part of the shop behind the counter and unrolled the missing persons poster and then stared at her own face, hand drawn yet perfectly matched, well, almost perfect. The only things missing from her face on the drawing were the scars, and dirt, but mostly the scars from the forges and sparks from making swords, Xeir never forgot the first sparks that bit into her skin and forehead as a child, making small cuts and mar marks along her brow. Her father said it made her look more a blacksmith then a normal visiting type child in the town as it was. But it was the writing on the poster that had her undevided attention. She stared at the date, date born, date missing, both of them, the date missing was two days before her date of adoption!
It was impossible! But no, it was iher/i face on that poster. this woman carrying it, in the contact information area, that was her mother ? The woman before her, the woman that searched to speak to her, was her birth mother ? Her true mother ? Xeir had no idea how to react, other then in complete shock or confusion. It was not until she was shown the poster with iDiamond's face/i on it, in the same handrawn style as Xeir's own face was, that she said anything, "This is impossible."
"Impossible yes, but true, seventeen years may be a long time, but tell me, how was my Royal Healer able to acurately draw you, and Diamond, so perfectly as adults when she never knew what you looked like to begin with ?" Idun said, she then removed something from her pack, a hair band of silver metal, little clearly glasslike yet made out of complete ice gems adorned the thing. She held it out to Xeir. "This was my oldest daughters, she had made it herself. She called it her princess crown." Xeir stared at the hairband. Memories assaulted her from all directions.
Briefly she saw a little girl and her mother, the child held in her hands a silver and white hairband.
"Momma look what I made! my own crown! Now I am really a princess!" the child said happliy putting the 'crown' on her head to show her mother, the ice gems glittered brightly.
The mother was equally overjoyed "You're learning sweetie! This is wonderful, have you shown your father yet ?"
The little girl shook her head "Not yet Momma, I wanted to show you first! But it wasn't all my work, the Royal Jeweler helped me, the crystals are mine though!"
Then another memory, this time shortly after her and Diamond's adoption. She saw herself, with Mark, searching the docks and the water for her missing hairband she had made. But never finding it. Xeir had thought it lost for ever.
Until she was seeing it in Idun's hands...
Snapping out her scarred right hand she snagged the hairband from Idun's hand, looking it over carefully, more memories assaulted her, of her dispair at not finding the hairband with her brother and her swimming for days until she had to force herself to give it up, to let it go. But now she had it back. "I thought this was gone forever when I could not find it in the sea" Xeir said softly. Idun however heard Xeir's words clearly.
"Dont you see it ? Seventeen years ago my daughter, Xeir, had just turned seven, we went to a friend on a island to celebrate, he invited us there along with other nobility. Can you not see it ?" Idun asked as Xeir turned away, trying to keep herself composed as snowflakes started to float around her. It was getting harder to control the onslaught of memories, both true and most lilkely dreams. "Can you come back with me, I know of someone who can perform a test, to be sure its true. In my heart I know its true, but."
Xeir took a deep breath, her back to Idun, finally she said while looking at her hairband, the hairband ishe had made as a child/i in her hands. "Seventeen years ago I and my sister were rescued by my brother and his friends. Boys my age and his. His mother and father adopted us the next day, and gave us a home. A family; a purpose, a life." She started walking, going to the back, to the forges. She needed to work on a sword, she wanted to work on a sword, she wanted to make sense of anything. Idun however followed her, she watched quetly as Xeir picked up a rather ornate sword and got to work. "For seventeen years I learned how to make a sword, how to sell a sword, how to defend myself with a sword. But now. you are telling me... I am not what I learned ?"
Idun simply watched as Xeir looked over a blade, it wasn't finished, she stuck it back in the forge. When Idun did not answer she turned to the woman, "What am I to you ?" Xeir asked the Queen of Arendelle, point blank. it was just the two of them in the forge, her back to the forge, which with the ice cold sword was making popping noises behind Xeir
"I pray in my heart and mind that you are my daughter, my eldest child." Idun replied. Seeing that Xeir had put on the hairband. It actually looked quite pretty in her hair, even moreso as Xeir was now an adult.
"Humor me for just a moment then, if you will" Xeir said raising her left hand thoughtfully. "Let's say, for the moment, that it's true, that I'm your daughter, what happened for me to show up here, in Scala ad Caelum, with my sister, without our parents ?" This was mostly a test as Xeir was scared, but she also wanted to be sure. Her nightmare, no, her memory, was replaying in her head again. And if Idun said what she was mentally seeing was indeed the truth, a bad memory and not a nightmare.
"There was a storm at sea, in the chaos a cannon was broken loose from its anchors. It smashed the bed my daughters shared, and in doing so, broke through the hull of the ship, the bed scattering upon the sea. We never found them." Idun said, remembering clearly the horror of waking up, her daughters missing, Diamonds's bed untouched, and Xeir's bed completly destroyed by the canon which by then had sunk to the bottom of the sea, the bed broken and hanging and scattered on the sea.
Xeir remembered it all, it was exactly as her dream, her nightmare the night before. She clinched her right fist. This was not good. It was then she realised she wanted to be alone, no, not wanted, needed to be alone, she needed to think over this new revelation carefully.
It was then that everything up and went to hell in a handbasket.
The forge behind Xeir exploded with redhot energy, it was her brothers forge she had stuck the ice cold sword into, not her own! Coals white hot exploded like tiny bombs, some of them spilling from the forge to the floor where they continued popping. But it was the pain that suddenly struck Xeir as the now red hot sword exploded from the forge, In her haste to defend Idun from being struck, Xeir smashed the blade with her fist as hard as she could out of reflex, her ice forming a thin, useless barrier against the red hot metal. Searing pain and the smell of burnt flesh filled her senses as Idun screamed something. Swearing to herself mentally Xeir gave a pained look to Idun and fled the forge through the back door, and once outside, she headed straight for the woods.
"Xeir, wait! " Idun called out after Xeir as the girl fled the Forge and was about to follow when Mark and Tiri arrived, Mark stepped up in front of Idun his strong arm barring the way, he shook his head to Idun when she looked at him and was about to say something to him, it was his look that told her to keep quiet, he briefly knew one of the places where Xeir had gone, or at least he hoped he knew where she was going to be later. Only Tiri saw another woman chasing after Xeir, recognising her as the woman she had spoken to earlier that day in the market
Scala ad Caelum, Wolfe Family Forge
In the Shop
At that same moment
Tiri went back to searching the weapon racks, The silver cloth she had used, from her own cape in fact, was wrapped around the sword as the hilt was visible only. She was comparing it with other blades to the weapon, trying to match the hilt with those weapons there. Well, no luck yet. She listened as her sister spoke with the apparent shopkeeper. Though Tiri had yet to fully notice how similar they were dressed. Muttering softly she went from one sword to the next, holding the hilt up to compare with other swords with it. Still no luck.
Mark noticed that the woman, dressed similarly to his sister, appeared to be looking for something. His eyes flashed bronze lightly before returning to normal and he walked over to her. "You appear to be looking for something, Ma'am. Anything I can do to help?" He asked calmly. He trusted his sister to keep her apparent mother busy long enough for their father to get there and sort the whole thing out.
Mark glanced to the hilt of the sword that Tiri held in her hand. That sword; That was one of Xeir's personal twin swords! Made from Duradaeden, no less. How. how was this woman one; In possession of it, and two, holding it without cutting her fingers off from the sheer sharpness of will ? Mark didn't dare hold it the way she was for fear of losing his arm to the sheer sharpness of the blades.
Regardless he returned his attention to Tiri; she acted as a customer, and if he was to inherit the forge, or at least part of it, he'd better act like he'd been taught to whilst working with a potential customer.
At first the woman did not look to Mark right away, holding the sword hilt to several different blades, completely ignoring the axes and spears and other similar weapons. There was no way this was even a dagger. Finally she spoke "Perhaps you may be of service." The Icewraith Princess replied, she turned towards Mark, aside from her silver dress, which was, in design alone, identical to Xeir's own ice blue gown with the addition of bones of some formn, like ribs and the line of a spine forming a type of armor that danced upon the cloth, her hair similar yet unbraided, a bright silvery hue. her eyes of deep silver or platinum. "I am trying to match this blade, with another like it. Or at least find the maker of it"
"How did you get it ?" Mark asked her as he crossed his arms, giving her a very dirty look.
She held up the Duradeaden blade that Xeir had made, it was part of a pair. Xeir hadn't noticed the weapon missing yet. Assuming one of the blades they were to sell was the stolen weapon. When it was in fact, not the blades they were to sell, but her own deadly unbreakable blade. "A shadowling carried this weapon. None of us at home or any of my soldiers can use it, for one thing it is too cold for any of those in my home to touch, or even try to carry. And two, even if one of us were able to use it, it is severely unbalanced. As if it has to be held with a similar blade in the other hand." The blade was wrapped in silver cloth, much like how Xeir had wrapped both swords in snow woven cloth when she had made them.
Tiri let go of the sword, it floated in the air surrounded by slivers of silver energy off her fingertips "Now that I answered your question, maybe you can answer one of my own" mark gave her a hard look. The woman before him looked alarmingly like Xeir, but with notable differences.
"I am listening" Mark replied simply.
Tiri smiled and the Icewraith moved her hand, the weapon floated towards Mark as she spoke. "Do you know who made this blade ?"
Mark tried not to smile, yes, he knew exactly who had made that sword. Fuck he wouldn't dare touch the blade with his barehands evne if Xeir handed it to him for a brief moment or two to begin with! "That depends" He said simply and as she looked at him, as if asking on what, he continued, "On what you want the maker for."
"This weapon is too cold for anyone to use, there is but one who could master such metal, such cold." Tiri said calmly in reply.
"And that is ?" Mark asked softly, giving the Icewraith Princess of Arendelle a calm, calculated look. "Who ?" If she said his sisters name...
"My missing niece, Xeir." Tiri said, "She and her sister, Diamond disappeared seventeen years ago, my sister idun has been searching for them since"
Mark raised an eyebrow. Oh boy, this shit again, or was it really true ? That Xeirs mother was there in their forge as promised ? Tiri saw his raction, turning towards him she said while pointing a knowing finger at him "You know who I speak of dont you ? Ahah! Dont deny it, you know her, somehow you know my niece!"
Mark stared her down and made briefly to bite her finger. "Who is denying what ? Look you want to buy a sword or no ? Who are you anyhow to come in here like this ?" Mark asked, this was too much, these people wanted his sisters HIS, Xeir and Diamond were HIS sisters, and nothing and nobody was going to take them away from him or his parents or Marion at all, ever.
"You reaction alone proves it!" Tiri all but crowed in Marks face. Giving him a pointed look she crossed her arms, the sword still floating in the air off her right hand as she smirked at him.
Mark did not look happy. "And that proves what ? That I know a Xeir ? Yes that's true, my sister is named Xeir. And that's her sword you're holding, no idea how you managed to grab the thing, if that. I dont dare touch the thing." Mark was at his wits end, this woman was crazy
Tiri went oddly quiet as she watched Mark for a moment more. "You know my niece ?" Her gaze went to the blade near her hand. Then briefly to him before spotting an old drawing on the wall behind the counter, over Xeir's head as she spoke with Idun behind the counter
Mark growled in a upset manner and crossed his arms over his chest. "Alright look, I dont know your niece at all. I have a sister, her name is Xeir. And above all else, she made that sword. That's her sword, well, one of them. How did you get it ? Answer me that and maybe I will tell you what I dont know." yeah, like he'd tell her.
"I told you already. A Shadowling carried it." Tiri explained as she let the thing float between them, "I fought the two, and won, but as I banished them from this realm, one of them dropped this on the grass, it froze the ground when it touched it" She indicated the sword.
Mark raised an eyebrow and glanced at the counter where Xeir and Idun spoke. Taking Tiri by the shoulder he went to another part of the shop, away from the counter, and spoke to her softly. "We were there in Arendelle, my sister and I, Your soldiers scared her, they had her face on a poster. At the time she was scared she might get jailed for something she carried on her person at all times. So she took off and hid somewhere, we left the next morning."
"What did she have ?that she feared the soldiers would take ?" Tiri asked him
Mark didnt want to answer that but did anyway "A symbol, her necklace. Had any of those soldiers touched that necklace she'd have killed them or beaten them down to take it back. Trust me, I know this because she beat me nearly to a pulp when I tried to clean it for her. And now, you have one of her twin swords. Why ? Why are you using that weapon to find my sister ? Are you even sure she is your niece ?"
Tiri gave him a hard careful look. The sword floated after them as Mark took them to another part of the shop. "My sister lost her girls eighteen years ago in a storm at sea. Their bed was destroyed by a cannonade broken free during the storm. Idun had the ship stop, and carefully searched it. The last seventeen years she never gave up hope of finding her girls. Her children."
Tiri explained to Mark exactly what happened the last seventeen years. From the storm at sea, to the loss of the two girls, all the way to the fighting the two shadowlings and finding the sword and then coming there to Scala ad Caelum. "Idun thinks she found her younger daughter in the market here. I for one hope it is true they are here to begin with."
Mark gave the woman a very hard look. "Now why should I believe that ? It still does not explain why you are even so much as touching my sisters sword. She does not let anyone near those swords" Mark said, already starting to loose his cool with this woman, who looked impecably like his own sister Xeir, that alone made him briefly stare at Tiri before asking simply, this time as calmly as he could. "Why do you look like my sister ?"
That question caught Tiri off her guard. She looked a moment at him, unsure how to reply before saying. "How do you mean ?" The sword floated between them the shards of ice and energy span and twitched around in a cascade of colors and patterns.
"The way you look now, your hair, braided similar to my sisters, though her hair is more white, yours looks, much more silver in color, your dress is more like armor yet still similar to Xeirs own dress design. The only thing missing, the cape." Oh fuck why did he say that ?! Ah fuck it, Tiri seemed confused as to what he was saying anyhow. "Then there's your sleeves, Xeir does not have what looks like scale armor on her sleeves like that. For her the armor wouldnt even be needed. Nobody is able to make a strike on her during training Sessions" Though, he kept to himself that she had managed on many occasions to knock him off his feet, Just like Marion.
Tiri crossed her arms, the sword held in such a manner allowing her to think for a moment, "Idun thought she saw her daughter, Diamond in the market, her second child out of two. She was with another girl, a young woman niether of us have met before. They directed us here, to the Family Forges they called them. Idun could not take her eyes off of Diamond in any manner." Tiri glanced towards Xeir, noticing then what Mark meant on why did she look so much alike to Xeir in the first place.
Xeir, Tiri noticed, was a lot like herself, strong and capable and clearly skilled with swords and their making. She saw also on the girls right hand scars and burn marks, possibly from the forges, or something else entirely. Tiri couldn't tell for sure exactly what caused those marks to adorn Xeir's right hand for the rest of the young girls life. After a long moment of quiet, watching her sister, and her possible niece, talking behind the counter before leaving the room to go deeper into the forge Tiri turned back to Mark, softly asking "What happened to her ?"
The question had Mark think carefully before answering. As it originally wasn't his place to answer such a question. He himself had no idea how his sister got the scars, one night she did not have them, the next day she did. Without complaint at that. "I do not know" Mark replied truthfully to the Princess of Arendelle, "One night, about ten, maybe seventeen years ago, we went to bed, she did not have them then, I had business with Mother in the city proper the next day, when it came time for dinner that day Xeir had the scars on her right hand, Father said it is worse up past her elbow and also her right side. Xeir wont tell me anything of how she got the burns and cuts. But she does not complain about them either." He watched his sister leave his sight, Idun with her. "One day she will tell me" He said before turning back to face Tiri, "Or maybe she'll keep it to herself to her own grave. Who is to tell ?"
"You still have no answered my question" Tiri said rather pointedly at him as her gaze locked on him once again
"About what I am apparently trying to deny ?" Mark answered with his own question giving her an equally pointed look
"Exactly. What are you trying to protect, to deny ?" Tiri pressed him for answers
Mark took a deep breath, to tell this woman what he knew as the truth, or not ? He chose to tell the truth. Something about the woman, the fact that she looked exactly like his sister and that she carried his sisters sword in her hands, made him pray his honesty policy was well paid up. "Alright, fine, I'll tell you, but you must not tell anyone of what I tell you, even her. seventeen years ago a burning ship came to Scala ad Caelum, at the time I was just a boy, just past nine years of age. The ship at the time belonged to a pirate. There was nothing of value upon the vessel save for two young girls. My sisters. They did not cry for their parents it was as if they had no memories of their past lives. All I could see in their actions and movements was worry of their next meal or place to sleep. It was just the two of them locked in the ships brig, left completely alone with no care taker or even a guard. My squad, really just some boys and a few girls my own age at the time, along with some of the older kids and teens, had stormed the ship as it docked. As we got them off to safety, the back end of the ship exploded" Mark then reached out a hand to the sword the Princess of Arendelle carried, it belonged to Xeir, and she never let anyone touch the deadly cold duradaeden blades. "Now that I told you all of that; may I have that back please ?"
Tiri took one last look at the sword hilt, and then handed the weapon over, the weapon still floated in the air as she pushed it to him, he easily snagged it by the hilt, the way Mark carried it was both a sign of either fear or respect, fear of the blade and what it could do, or the sheer cold of it, and clearly respect of its beauty and shine ? Tiri couldn't tell.
She was about to ask then what happened to the two girls he had rescued as a boy, and his parents subseqeuntly adopted when there came an explosion from further into the forge. Mark jerked his head in the direction of his forge. Had Xeir put a cold sword in it again ? Taking the blade he carried it to its place with its twin behind the counter and slid the thing next to its twin before closing the drawer as Tiri darted to the back forge.
Mark followed the IOcewraith, arriving just in time to see Xeir slap a sword from hitting Idun, earning fresh red cuts and burns on her right hand, holding a hairband of silver. That must be the hairband she tried to find when we were children! Mark found himself briefly remembering how distrought Xeir was when finding it missing and then unable to find it. Only to have it then ? He was about to say something when Xeir gave something of a pained look to Idun and took off from the forge out the back. Idun was about to follow, but Mark had noticed that Xeir was in such worry, again, she was leaving a trail of ice in her wake.
He held up an arm to stop Idun as she called out after Xeir, but the other woman never stopped, she just kept going. Running Mark could see, to get away, from what, he did not know. But when Idun looked at him, he could see that she was about to retort at him for stopping her when he shook his head, He never saw his own sister, Marion, take off after Xeir as he heard his fathers voice as his father entered the front part of the shop. Clearly complaining about how there was no shop keeper when there were customers to be waited on.
Woodbattle Training Fortress
1 hour later
Xeir ran for all she was worth, never answering her mother, never even looking towards her father and sisters, heck never looking behind. As she ran she left a faint trail of both ice, and blood as her right hand bled freely, her mind was a complete and total mess. Memories colloided with the world around her, she kept seeing that woman, Idun, her apparent mother. Her own arms reaching for Idun, the sounds of tearing cloth. All of it. When she finally got to where she and her brother and sisters, and all the kids their ages trained in the woods for sieges and hostage rescues, She went into a room typically used for where the hostage was kept as part of training and collpased in a corner, her back against the wall, clutching her head, weeping.
Was her way of life, her family that she lived with the past seventeen years. Was it all a lie ?
Was she truly a Princess ?
-8-8-8-
The memory washed over Elsa as she struggled to remain on her feet. Her head hurt. The maze of corridors in the ancient mansion lead presumably nowhere but to that computer.
Elsa held her head in her hands for a moment longer, tears streaking from her eyes. She removed her hands from her head and looked at them before taking in the strange computer. A feral scream and both of Elsas duradaeden swords formed from nothing but thin air as she ripped into the computer like a wild animal
Soon the machine was rendered a pile of scrap metal and electronics. The screens broken and stabbed, the casings bent and dented. The keyboards, all three of them, broken into pieces with the keys strewn across the floor. Elsa screamed again this time in triumph as she watched the computer remains begin to smoke badly.
"An impressive display" Came a calm voice. "But it wont save you from your fate"
Elsa twirled around, the owner of the voice was not the woman swathed in bandages, no, the person who spoke to her was an older man. "Bishop Kiyori ? What are you doing here ?"
"The same thing you are, looking for answers. And I can tell you, that the answers I sought were in that machine. The same machine you just destroyed" Kiyori said, the High Priest was clearly upset. Elsa pointed her sword at him. He raised an eyebrow. "So now the princess has a sword ? Where is the teacher ?"
"Dont try to riddle me, Bishop Kiyori. I want asnwers, and rthe answers I want arent in that... thing" Elsa screamed at him.
"Alright, then we are at an empasse, what answers do you seek ?" The High Priest asked
"Who am I ?" Elsa asked
"Really ? That is all you ask ?" the High Priest was confused as to why she asked that question in the first place
"It's the only question I can ask. Who am I, why am I here, why are you acting as if I am some sort of weed in your garden ?" Elsa said to him. He just smirked.
"Those, Elsa, are all the right questions" He said before turning and disappearing into bits of data. Elsa shouted something and made to follow, but halted. Turning as she raised her sword. Normally she had two blades, normally. But at that moment she had just one.
A shadow formed, bodiless and made of smoke. "Amazing that you could get this far" the voice echoed in the smoke
Elsa recognised him. "Hao Fan, Shadow Mist Sect's envoy."
"The one and the same" Hao Fan replied calmly
"Why are you here ?" Elsa asked
"You have questions, I have answers" Hao Fan replied, a chuckle on his words
"Really ? You have the answers to my questions ?" Elsa gave the smoke man a sour look. Hao Fan chuckled again. The hooded head, smoke covered, seemed to nod at her. Elsa sighed and her sword faded from view. "Alright, three questions, and I hope you get them right."
"Ask them" Hao Fan rasped in his echoy tone, seemingly bored yet ready to answer, or ask his own questions.
"Who am I ?" Elsa asked
It was a simple question, but it was everything but simple to answer. For long moments Hao Fan stood, or rather floated in place, his feet never appearing, he was after all, made of shadow and smoke. "That depends on who you ask, because if you are asking me to answer such a question, I can simply say in answer, something that you would not like to hear"
"Answer the question then. Who am I ?" Elsa said
"Who are you, or who am I ? Because I know who I am. But the true question is, do you know who you are ?" Hao Fan replied
"One second I am in Scala ad Caelum, the next thing I know I am in Arendelle, and told to come to this old mansion. Why ? Who would want me, a girl from Scala ad Caelum, to come here ? This looks nothing like home" Elsa said
"So who are you ?" Hao Fan asked "If this is not your home, why are you here ?"
"Who is asking the questions, Hao Fan, you or me ?" Elsa stared at him hard
"That is a good question, but to answer that question, you must dig deep within" Hao Fan said
-8-8-8-
DiT watched it all on the screen, their visitors dealt with things were moving smoothily for the moment. "It seems that even Shadow Mist Sect found their way here" Nara said
"Yes, they did" DiT mused
"Is this really neccesary ? I am all for waking up Xeir and chaining her memories back to gether, but to go to this extent" Jarius spoke up.
"It is not my doing, nor is it your own" DiT replied, "You did your job in that world, it is now time for you to disappear as if you never were real. Because objects and people from that world are not to be brought into this one" DiT explained
Jarius thought carefully on his next words and then nodded. "Very well, since I am a Nothing, I will live out my days in Scala ad Caelum within the simulation. From here, its all on you for what happens next" He said, he disappeared from the real world and reappeared in his manor within Scala ad Caelum, his part of this job was done.
DiT paid the leaving man no heed. His job was indeed done. However it was Naras concern over Hao Fan and Elsa speaking together that he spoke up anew. "If this is not our doing, nor Jarius doing, who brought Hao Fan into this ? Why was the High Priest in on this ?"
"It was Elsa herself, old friends coming to light, people she once trusted she hopes she can trust again" DiT replied
"DiT, you are beautiful on the outside" Nara said, DiT glanced at the man as he was standing next to her and stood from the computer, eye level with him. "And intelligent on the inside." She gave him a look as he pointed at her, his right index finger resting on one of her breasts. "However this intelli..." He shut up, and lifted his hand off her body.
"Intelligence ?" Light asked him as he raised his hands up as if in defeat and surrender.
"You think too much, you think too much" Nara said she smirked behind her bandages
She gently raised a hand to his own, and lowered his hands. "You need to switch to decaf coffee" She said before leaving the room. "I will pay Elsa a visit, Our alliance is concluded as of now" She said
Nara sighed, thankful to not get beaten up over something he said or did. Sighing under his breath he said "I dont even drink regular coffee" in truth, Nara hated coffee, Mortals had a drink though that he liked. Mountain Dew
-8-8-8-
"So who am I to you ?" Elsa then asked to Hao Fan
The smoke shaped thing chuckled. "Who are you to me ?" he repeated. "That is something I can answer easily so, but I do not think it is something you can easily accept"
"Try me" Elsa dared the Shadow Mist Ect envoy.
The smoke filled hood turned her way, seemingly walking towards her he spoke. "To me you are nothing more than a hinderance, a thorn in my side. A means to an end. A thorn in my side that I wish to remove by any means. A hinderance, a rock blocking my path. That is what you are to me" Elsa glared at him. "now, what are your other questionas ?"
"Am I truly dreaming ? Is this real or is this fake ?" Elsa said
Hao Fan simply chuckled and disappeared into wisps of harmless smoke.
Elsa snarled something as Hao Fan left her, he only answered one of her questions, but he was right, she didnt like his answers. He basically told her what she was to him, and honestly she felt the same mutual feeling towards him. Shadow Mist Sect, why hadnt she heard of it before ? Was were they suddenly on the rise ?
Elsa sighed and started down the hallway. Moving through the seemingly endless halls Elsa passed three rooms, the doors hanging open, showing empty beds slept in, otherwise the rooms were bare. Finally coming to a door Elsa stopped. "Alright, you lead me here, so lets get some answers" She said, pushing the door open
Entering the plain white room a sleeping woman laid in the bed, long golden white hair kept neat and clean even though she had been asleep a year. As Elsa stepped closer, a voice spoke behind her "At last, the Duradaedens Chosen One"
Turning around Elsa spotted DiT, her tormentor. "You!" She growled, "Who are you tallking to ? Me, or Xeir ?"
"To half of Xeir of course" DiT replied, "You reside in darkness, what I need is someone who can move around in the realm of light and destroy Shadow Mist Sect" DiTs voice was a low rumble, even for a woman covered in bandages
"Why ? Who are you ?" Elsa asked her
"I am a servant of this world, and if I am a servant, then that makes you a tool" DiT replied, then as if she had just made a joke, she laughed
"Was that supposed to be funny ? Because I am not laughing!" Elsa screamed, summoning her swords she ran at DiT. Swinging solid her left sword passed right through the body of DiT, letters and numbers swirled where Elsa had struck the woman
"I am sorry, but this image speaking to is nothing more than data" DiT had a smirk in her voice. Elsa shrieked in wordless fury and hacked at DiT, sorrow, anger, hate. Why was she feeling these things ? She made no impact on DiTs image as she repeated whacked at her body.
Finally DiT disappeared from the door way to apepar between Elsa and the sleeping woman on the bed. "Over here" Elsa screamed again and began whacking further at the image of DiT, leaving no harm to the body of the woman before her.
Finally Elsas strength spent, she hissed out. "I hate you, so much"
DiT smirked, "You should share some of that hate with Xeir, she is far too kind most days" Elsa growled something and DiT was unable to make it out. "Did you say something ? Perhaps I should motovate you ? You had questions, I think I can answer one or two at best."
"Alright fine." Elsa said. "Who am I ?"
"You are Nothing, Xeir however is who you should be asking about, you are half of her, your power that you possess you will have to give back to her" DiT replied
"So I am not a thorn in your side waiting to get pulled free and tossed aside ?" Elsa asked her
"There is no knowledge that has the power to change your fate." DiT told her. Elsa gave her a dirty look. "Even if there was such knowledge, the choice you make at the end may not be the correct one, even with all the thinking you do beforehand"
"What do you want ?" Elsa asked her giving her a pointed look. "Even with all my questions you refuse to answer them"
"I am under no obligation to tell you anything" DiT calmly replied. Making Elsa once more grumble in anger at what was happening around her. "You are after all nothing more than a tool. One of many" Elsa stared hard at DiT. "Because of Xeir asleep on that bed, unable to wake up, you live. But once you rejoin with her, Xeir will waken."
"No!" Elsa screamed her swords appeared in her hands and she dashed at DiT, once more causing no harm to the projection of data that composed the woman. Elsa whaled away on the projection, doing no damage, but wasting her anger and energy. Elsa was upset. She was torn from her home, lied to, her life was nothing more than a fake well built lie. And now this woman, the person she could not even harm, was the person behind it. And was taunting her! Burning out her anger on the image of DiT Elsa finally rasped "Why ?"
"I have no reason or need to share that information with you. As a Nothing, you do not even exsist, were not supposed to exsist. And somehow here you are." DiT said. Elsa glared at her. "So you have two options."
"Do I ?" Elsa asked, giving DiT a funny look. "That's funny because I do not recall being offered any choices"
"That is because both choices you will not like. So its not like you have a choice to begin with." DiT replied.
"Fine, what are my choices ?" Elsa asked as her swords disappeared.
"You can go through that door, back to your life in Scala ad Caelum as if this conversation never existed. Everything you saw of this place will be forgotten, you can go back to trying to get off Scala ad Caelum and be stuck there foreever. Trapped in your own mind and dreams" DiT said
"Not exactly the best choice is it ?" Elsa asked, DiT gave her a sardonic look, Elsa shut up
"The other is easy, join with Xeir, become whole as Jarius put it. Wake up from the dream" DiT said
"Either way I wont like the choice I pick" Elsa said
"Even when you think as much as you do, thinking in the face of such a debate will not save you from what is fated to you" DiT said. Elsa sighed. She did not like where this was going, the options DiT gave her were two fold, she could go back into the world she knew, Scala ad Caelum, and be foreever trapped on the city island never to leave it. Or she could wake up, give in to the insistence that she was Nothing, and without her, Xeir, the woman asleep on the bed, could not wake up.
Elsa looked up from her thoughts as DiT spoke. "You have five minutes to think on this choice. And whichever choice you choose, you cannot go back on it" There was something of a pained sound to DiTs voice. Elsa took a deep breath and began to think.
-8-8-8-
Diamond stepped into the tavern that belonged to Marions uncle, the Broken Arm Tavern was a good meeting place and was used by many a merchant, and at that moment was in use by Mark, his cousin Sapphire, and Princess Anna. Stepping into view Mark saw Diana as the name Marion went by, her hair magically black to match the outfit and style Marion had adapted to as her guise of Diana. "About time you showed up" Mark grunted when he saw her "Diana, whats the word on the Assassin's ? Are they still in Arendelle ?"
"I could only find Lady Blackmane, the rest she said had left Arendelle for the east, they went east with Georgina. Last she knew they were setting up to raid a Templar holding on the Silk Road and free Mongolia from Templar Influence entirely" Diana replied, Diamond liked the guise Marion had picked out.
"Great, that does not give us much of a edge against the High Priest" Mark grunted. Bishop Kiyori was a powerful man, he was backed by the Church, and also with a strange kind of magical power that somehow could transport a person to a tiny world and back. And transportation by leaf.
"Nobody can get near the High Priest. He is guarded by two men at all times. And to get into his guard one has to be selected personally by him, normally they are people he personally trusts with his life, and information." Diana said
"So faking being one of his guard isnt possible, we have to be in on his info giving and dealings, as well as trusted by him. He cant find any of us though, the Honor Guard still haunts the Palace." Sapphire said
"The honor guard is also still loyal to the ancient Tradition of the Wolfe Clan as guards for the Palace and the Queen and her family." Mark pointed out, that made the Honor Guard loyal to him
"But Elsa isnt here" Anna said sadly
"I do not think Elsa will ever return. But someone better in her place will" Diana said simply. Causing both Mark and Anna to look at her as Sapphire stood as up the steps came a woman with long black hair dressed in red furs and skintight dark red and brown bodysuit, stepping from the table Sapphire and the new arrival began to converse in a strtange language.
"What do you mean ?" Anna asked. Who could take Elsas place ?
"I just know someone we all know, and all miss, will be returning, it wont be the Elsa we know, but in a way it will be" Diana said. As much as she was going to miss Elsa, Diamond was excited to the point of butterflies in the stomach.
"OK you know I hate riddles even in that dream we were in in that old mansion" Anna said, giving Diana a glare. Diamond raised her hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright. Elsa will be coming back, we'll know her as Elsa, she will recognise us, but we wont recognise her, but we'll know its her, happy ?" Diamond couldnt really explain it so she tried her best. "We wont recognise her, but we will know its her, she'll recognise us for who we are exactly though. So we dont have to worry of her having forgotten us."
"Speaking of forgetting people" Kiyomori spoke up as she and Sapphire rejoined their table. Castingt a glance towards Mark, her cousin, she said. "This past year, where were you all ?"
Trading looks between themselves it was Diamond who spoke up. "We were sleeping"
Kiyomori raised an eyebrow."Where ? In cold storage ?" Sapphire asked
Mark smirked, Anna tried not to laugh, Diamond's jaw just hung open as she had no real way to respond as Kiyomori cracked a rare smile. "That is not exactly," Diamond started to say as Diana when Mark cut her off
"We're trying to find the rest of the Assassins in Arendelle aside from my aunt Blackmane. I was told by her son, my cousin Jade, that you are the daughter of the Faceless Assassin of Japan, is that true ?" Mark asked to Kiyomori, the last time he had seen Jade was a year before.
She nodded. "It is, but there are things you must understand. My father is not in any of the known dens. Without notice I woke up one morning to the High Priest demanding to speak to the head of the house, my father was gone and the butler with him. I had no choice but to quarter the High Priests soldiers in my own den in Greensky district. I left shortly after"
"What about the Kreen District ? The spiders there rely on themselves and resisted Assassin control for generations. Would they help us ?" Mark mused in thought
"After freeing them from the Templars forcing them to to hoard food and hide it through the kingdom, I think they will do anything for the Wolfe Clan" Sapphire said, Asami had told her the whole thing. And Mark just bringing them up got her thinking. "Tell you what, give me your family seal and I will try to find Lady Kreena. I mean I could use my mothers seal, but who would take orders from a brothel manager ?"
"Fair point" Mark reached into his pocket and handed her the seal of the Wolfe Clan itself "Any other news we should know about ?" Mark then asked
"Just a bit, the last few months I've seen the High Priest has been planting bonsai trees with small model diaromas across the kingdom, I dont trust them, soldiers seemingly sprout out of them at random to do patrols. So far he has kept them away from Blackmanes home. For the moment at least, he seems scared of her."
"The moment I find a person, man or woman, who is not scared of my aunt. I will personally see to it they're given a million in gold" Mark said
"But Lady Blackmane does not seem that scary" Kiyomori said.
"Huh ?" Mark asked her
"About a month after you guys left for Egypt, the High Priests men came to my door when my father was gone. Rather then live as a servant I instead sought out Lady Blackmane, as Sapphire said to do so should something go wrong. She's taken me in and I live with her as if nothing is amiss. We do not do as many contracts though. Arendelle is overrun with the High Priests men" Kiyomori said to him as she explained what the High Priest had been doing for so long.
"So the Bishop has let the money get to his head I see" Mark mused
"The High Priest has the entire backing of the Church behind him, as well as the Merchant Guilds and all the soldiers execept for the Sword Corps, those two hundred or so men and women are loyal to the Wolfe Clan, and by extension, directly to the Throne" Diamond mused
"That may be so, but thing is, they are servants to the Throne, not the one who sits on it, however, the one that sits on it can command them freely" Mark pointed out
"So even though they are loyal to you, if the High Priest sits on the throne, they will be answering to him as well." Anna said
Mark noddeed "Exactly. We need to keep Xercine on the throne at all costs, even if he must only be a figurehead. We need him on the throne. So when Elsa comes back, she can easily transfer power back to herself." Mark said "With Xercine on the throne, he can answer to us as well, and thus keep the Honor Guard under my control at the same time."
"That makes sense" Diamond mused, Anna agreed.
Sapphire was not so sure. But it was Kiyomori who spoke up. "You might want to see your Aunt. But be careful of the Bonsai trees on the roads. Not only have soldiers just appeared from thin air around them, people who got too curious also disappeared when near them." The truth was, people were taken prisoner and placed within the models each tree had.
Mark nodded and smirked. "Thanks for the advice." He said before opening a portal and falling backwards off his chair into it, disappearing entirely from sight.
"I am never going to get used to that" Kiyomori said simply
"Thats funny" Diamond mused
"What ?" Anna asked
"Normally Mark asks for his new enemies name before leaving." Diamond said. Well that was going to leave some major implications. Because if Mark could get past the high priest thanks to his portals and the magic of his aunt, then all the better.
But there was still the issue of Tiri to worry about too "Do you think he will run into her ?" Anna then asked
"Into who ?" Diamond asked
"Tiri" Anna said
"I hope so, I havent been able to find her at all so I am not sure." Diamond said in thought. "Though should Mark come across Tiri, he will be in the best possible hands. From what I hear tell of Tiri, she could cover for Elsa at times in great need because at the time they looked like twins." It was true, for about a week Tiri had to act as Elsa. Acting like a queen was fun, but it got old really quickly. Tiri was not used to the servants and all the guards, thankfully Diana, in this case Diamond was present as much as possible to keep things civil.
But if Tiri was missing. "Do you think the High Priest got her ?" Anna asked
"Possible, Kiyomori, Sapphire, can you search the jail for a woman dressed in silver, maybe with a ribcage visible over herclothing, otherwise a pile of ice ?" Diamond said to the two other women at the table
Kiyomori nodded, "I think I can get in there as a soldier of the Honor Guard to find out."
"I can check the logs where needed as well recently the guards under the High Priest have been capturing innocents and nobles alike and holding them in secret, most of the kingdom is in a police state, and others are scared to so much as sneeze wrong" Sapphire said
Diamond smirked. "Kiyomori, I have a question" Her gaze turned to the Japanese woman
"A question ?" Kiyomori asked
"Can you teach me your Essence Flames ?" In truth, Diamond wanted more spells to access as she was truly what she was meant to be. A Silver Dragon. So by teaching her how to cultivate such powerful means of magical energy, it would allow for some rather interesting hijinks.
Sapphire looked to her sister, Kiyomori smiled. "I can teach you how to cultivate them. But there is one thing you must never do. My own teacher made me swear that even should I teach the Essence Flames to another, they must never do what I do."
"And that is ?" Diamond asked her, eager for some new spells. Even if so few, she'd need them to take on the High Priest.
"I swore to my teacher that my student would never combine Essence Flames to make more powerful spells. I mastered thew ability to do it using the natural elements instead of my own inrternal energy. You must swear to me with Sapphire as your witness, that you will never combine the Essence Flames. When you do that, I can teach you how to cultivate them" Kiyomori had a point, had she used her internal energy to create even one single Lotus Flame combination, it would have killed her.
Diamond thought carefully on her words. What seemed like a minute to Sapphire and Kiyomori, was a full day to Diamond within her heart. Finally Diamond smiled after a minute and said "Kiyomori, with Sapphire as my witness, I swear to you I will never attempt to combine the Essence Flames. On one condition. If the need is dire, and I must sacrifice myself to save others by doing so, only then will I combine a Essence Flame"
"Very well, I accept your condition" Kiyomori said. She smiled. "We begin your training. Right now" Kiyomori held out her hand, on the open palm energy swirld and danced, forming a stone no larger then a small garnet in shape. She held it out to Diamond. "Eat this, this is the first of the Heaven Flames. The easyist to learn. All I could decern of its actual name is Green Lotus Flame"
Diamond reached over and took the essence flame, it felt warm, not too hot, but warm enough to be comfortable, to remind her that she was alive. "I am to eat this ?" Diamond asked looking at it, it was like a basic opaqe gemstone of green that radiated warmth. Kiyomori nodded. "But it is solid like stone ?"
"When you reach it to your mouth, it will do the rest" Kiyomori said simply. Diamond started to raise the stone to her lips when Kiyomori stopped her. "Its best to not do it here, do you have a place we can go, I can teach you better there" Diamond nodded and stood up from the low table
Sapphire stood as well. "I will go to the jail and see if Tiri is there, and if she is, try to get her free."
"If you need proof to get her free, show the captain or warden on duty, this" Diamond handed Sapphire a seal, it was magically created, and it matched that of the High Priest easily. If the jailer listened to reason, the High Priest could indeed be the same person to listen to.
"Alright, sounds like a plan" Sapphire said taking the seal and after briefly giving it a look pocketed it at her belt. "Best you two get going, I will meet up with you tonight." She said
"What about me ?" Anna asked, she had remained quiet when Diana asked to learn how to cultivate the Essence Flames. "Where do I fit into all of this ? None of the soldiers recognise me as Princess Anna anymore and the last person I want to see is Bishop Kiyori"
"I have a spare uniform of the Honor Guard, I think it will fit you." Sapphire said, turning to Anna she smiled. "You know the palace better than I do. So there is a means dressing the part of an Honor Guard can get you places. Even around the eyes and bonsai of the high priest"
"The last person I want to speak to is him" Anna grunted unhappily
"Keep your mouth shut and you wont" Diamond said simply as she sat back down after pocketing the essence flame
"What do you mean ?" Anna asked as Kiyomori snarled something and ducked from the window.
"He's outside right now. Heading for the tavern door. If we want to remain unseen, Kiyomori does have a spell yes ?" Diamond said, the woman in question nodded and quickly cast the disguise spell. Making all four of them look like Honor Guard members on leave to eat at the tavern before returning to duty.
The High Priest entered with four other men, one of which was a noble officer. The two sat at a table, their two guards standing nearby. Diamond and those with her easily overheard their words. "So the rumors are true ?" Kiyori asked
"Yes your holiness" Said the noble, a man named Derns. "My men reported a man and woman exiting the old property at the western edge of the kingdom"
"What of the rumors of a woman dressed in a hooded robe ?" Kiyori asked Derns, he meant Diana, in this case Diamond.
"My men have found those rumors to be false. No such woman dresses in such a manner unless it is blisteringly cold. And none of the magistrates have located our target of interest either." Derns said, their drinks came to their table.
"That makes sense, Derns. See to it then that the patrols are doubled. Track the man, find him, but be kind to him, relay to the soldiers, if they come across the man, he is to be treated with respect and asked to go to the High Priests residence to speak to me. I have interest in him and he is not to be harmed." Kiyori wanted to talk to Mark ? Whatever for ?
Derns nodded. "As you order, but uh."
"But what ?" Kiyori looked at the man
"What of those with him ? Are they to be spoken to as well, or is the man to come alone and those with him to remain unharmed ?" Derns had a point in asking his question.
Kiyori smirked. "If the man is with the woman he assumedly came here with, she is to remain unharmed, but taken prisoner in a kind manner. No harm comes to any with the man. Now, let us enjoy our drinks" Kiyori and Derns clacked their mugs together and ate and drank to their content before heading off. They never saw the four women soldiers leaving the tavern.
-8-8-8-
"Time is up" DiT said simply as five minutes passed.
Elsa stared hard at the door, it was not an easy choice, it was an agonisingly hard choice. "If I go through that door, I go back to my life in Scala ad Caelum and live the rest of my days unable to leave it." She went to the door and reached for the handle. But stopped. "I want the truth"
Turning to face DiT, Elsa stared at the bed, or in this case the woman, Xeir, sleeping on it. "You have made your choice then ?" DiT stated, more of a statement then a question. When Elsa did not reply and her weapons disappeared DiT smiled behind her bandages. "Very well." DiT's image faded away as Elsa trudged forwards. Her body turning into mist and points of light
At the center of the room was a bed. Elsa stood over it as the memories assaulted her. Seeing the woman who laid on the bed. As Elsa knew then what she had to do. She smiled softly seeing how peaceful Xeir slept. "I'm jealous" Elsa mused, raising a fading hand towards the sleeping woman on the bed, she said "It looks like my summer vacation... is over" Elsas body faded into mist that flowed into Xeir's sleeping form.
"Xeir" Elsa said softly
At Elsas quiet whisper, Xeir woke up.