Chapter -75: Through Blind Eyes
"Oh Lords above. Why have thou made my daughter this way? I had sought only to bring a light into this world in your name. Yet you blighted her, in the name of what? A test of faith for her? Or for me?"
"Please don't cry, my child."
"Please don't weep my child."
"I don't judge. A mother dare not be so cruel."
"Everything about you is beautiful. But your fellow Sages may not see it that way."
"You deserve a chance to show the world who you are. So I bequeath unto you this shield. With this you shant naught be afraid."
"Please, don't be afraid...my child."
"The world taught you cruelty, so learn to love it more."
"Hatred is wasteful. Empathy and understanding...can create miracles."
"P-Please...always be true to yourself... my dear, dear Carolina."
The Sage of Ice awakens to the warmth of her fur-coated blanket, a gift of gratitude from an Ursine she comforted in their dying moments.
In her surroundings she sees only the infinite darkness. It takes a few moments for her sixth sense, blessed by the Lords before her, to grant her the ability to see the objects that defined her room.
Each item held its own color, from the tinted blues of the large crystal light in the middle of the ceiling to the warm grays of her blanket.
"I awaken again to the sound of my mother's voice. Little by little, I can feel her voice growing fainter inside of me."
"'Tis truly been nearly twenty-five years since that day? Time plays cruelly with the mind..."
The blanket's rim is folded to the end of the bed, then folded back, neatly done both ways.
She floats over to her closet like a snowflake over water and gets dressed. She puts the gloves on nice and snug, then ties the rose over her chest.
She pinches the ribbons for a while, playing with them while pivoting towards the mirror.
There she sees her aura, the icy-blue wreath around her body, steady in all parts save the head.
"I am plagued by many thoughts. Little, frivolous things. Mayhaps, they'd be best stowed elsewhere today..."
She breathed through her nostrils, then breathed out. It was the only time her mouth ever uttered a sound, a cherished feeling found only in solitude.
Having played with her ribbon, she gave it one last tug on both ends, putting the rose in alignment and not a centimeter out of place.
She then continued to gaze at the reflection of her aura, nay, the reflection of all she kept private in these quarters.
A table was placed in the back corner, adorned with two empty tea cups collecting a thin layer of dust, and a tea pot filled with lukewarm liquid. She would have to remember to refill it later. A guest may visit anytime.
On a smaller table nearer to the door was a small glass orb filled with water and tiny glittering flakes. She floated over to it, then flicked her finger at it.
It made a jingle like pure silver, and so she flicked it again, a childish smile caressing her face.
"I bid thee farewell mother," Carolina nestled her hands before her waist and bowed her head, "For once more I take flight, on wings of glittering snow."
She quietly exited the room, as to not disturb her neighbors still asleep. The only Sage awake before her tended to be Lord Borealis.
On her way to give her morning greeting she passed before the room of a friend, and paused.
Walls were but a thin layer of fog. And her gaze cast through to the other side, seeing a discordant mass of aqua blue aura tossing and turning atop her bed.
Spikes stabbed out of their head, fraying like static as they pulled back in. Twas any wonder the recipient of this stress could bear to sleep a wink.
"Torren, my dear friend," Carolina reached for the door, hanging her hand mid-air for a long while before curling her fingers in gently, "You've been put through much duress, and yet still you cling on."
"But 'tis not living to suffer. A cruel warden holds your freedom under lock and key. And though I can reach through the bars and lay thy warmth upon your cheek...'Tis only a voice that can set you free, and I, with my impure tongue, cannot bequeathe it."
"But know that I speak in prayer every night, so that the stars may listen, and perhaps, our Lords be willing, one may answer them."
The invisible hand of kindness Carolina offered seemed to reach and put Torren at ease for the last few minutes of slumber.
Carolina stood at the door for a few moments longer, then forced herself away, enduring the cursed knowledge that her role in her friend's life was dwindling away, like sand against the tide.
She then went into Borealis' chambers, finding the man hard at work sorting through his tomes.
He was barely getting any sleep these days and his idolized features were crumbling away. That he stood tall, unbreakable as the moon, kept her observations from straying towards pity.
His aura was immaculate. Through the mere exertion of standing, his aura rose like a towering flame of deep blue. And if he was a flame, then it's only befitting that she be the moth that flutters towards it.
"Carolina," He spoke in his deep, assuring voice, "What can I do for you this morning?"
"Few things come to mind, my Lord. But I fear 'tis not my place to say."
"Our small group continues to drift further apart with every day...No, 'tis not in good taste to call us a group. For the word signifies unity, and very few of us find common ground among ourselves."
"We are associates, forced together by tragedy, and none has felt its pull more than you."
"But though thy distance remains far, your presence remains felt, and your resolve shines as bright as the imagined sun."
"So even should all others leave your side, I shall follow your light until it fades into the night sky."
In the few seconds she had these thoughts, she twirled her finger around in the air to etch the words "'Tis not what you can do for me, my lord.'" out of glittering snow.
Borealis tucked his hands behind his back and sighed, not out of fatigue but rather fondness for her elegant manner of speech.
"Then continue to do as you always have." He said softly.
She then waved her finger around to arrange the snow into a question mark above her palm.
"Yes?" He replied with a light furrow of his brows.
She paused upon the desired question and then waved her hand around, bringing the ice to flurry around a small orb of her aura. She then pointed at it and then to Borealis.
"The Wellspring? What of it now?"
"...I find my heart wavering whenever I try to ask. Because to question him means I invite doubt into my heart."
"But while thy path remains clear, the means escape me. You've ceased to care about relying on the one named Justek. Your daughter dangles herself beneath your nose."
"IS there a plan behind our every move? Or do you simply wish us to cast doubt upon your capabilities as a leader?"
"I wish there were gestures I could cast that would communicate what I feel. Alas...I falter, like a bug mere moments too late to save themselves from the snare of a venus flytrap."
She closed her hand around the energy and then shook her head with childish fervor.
Borealis' gaze was cast her way with mild disappointment, but was followed up by him saying, "I rely on all of you to make this world a better place. Don't ever presume I think less of you for a lack of progress, Carolina."
Carolina nodded, then left the room.
Upon reaching the foyer she saw a couple of Sages had risen from their slumber. Stonestein passed her by and made for Borealis' chambers, while Nimus dashed back them both, patting each of them on the shoulder and then turning around.
"Morning Carol!" He tossed at her in particular, his charming wiles armed with a bit of prickly panache, "Still looking as lovely as ever!"
He was off to fly on his wings of freedom, with her eyeing him with pity, believing that he would someday wander too close to the sun.
She gathered up some food in a box of ice and then left the palace, giving Gabriel the usual bow of courtesy for all his hard work.
Her departure from home was not immediate, rather, she fluttered through the city upon wings of glittering snow and picked out random children to greet.
The gifts she could provide consisted of bits of frozen desert she made with Adderbolt's help, a playful display of snow, and her delicate, minty smile.
Anything to stir their hearts with joy.
"I understand why it must be this way, the world...it can be dangerous. But there should be nothing wrong with children getting to play. There should be nothing wrong at all..."
They lapped up their treats like dogs to their fur.
They stared at her snow with eyes wide like flies buzzing towards the light.
And though she smiled on the outside, their immobile faces left her crying inside.
"Oh these poor youths. How I pity thee so..."
Yet she'll keep trying, until something changes.
Her morning rounds finished with a brief stroll towards the gardens, so she could lay upon their pillowy petals and roll around, free from the gaze of her peers.
Then she brushed the pollen back onto the flowers and fluttered her fingers farewell to them.
She then took flight towards the harsh colds in the southwest, her presence in the air as light as a feather.
Once her silhouette mixed with the icy and snow she was invisible to the naked eye, free to land upon the mountainside and continue her observations atop the soft blanket of snow.
She laid upon her hip and took out her breakfast from the ice box. It was a wheat-infused wrap with crunchy leaf vegetables and a little bit of chicken secured by Nimus.
"A lady must watch her figure after all." She thought with mild embarrassment at her expense.
She could part the flurry of snow and expose the going-ons of the village folk below.
Children were running about, throwing snowballs at each other and trying to entice their parents to join in.
The snow was rolled up into balls and put together into pieces of art, expressing the innocence of the young imagination.
And when their energy ran dry, the children sat upon their mother's laps and drank from a warm, sweetened brew.
"...'Tis would be a lovely world." But when she opened her eyes, she saw men young and old march in single-file lines.
Their bodies were wreathed in the arctic's chill and she was afraid to say their hearts were no less bitter.
"Other Tribes have found a way to put a patch over thy wounds. But this land still bleeds. The wound...festering in the muck of war and hate."
"Should they be despised for their indulgent depravity? Perhaps."
"But what other choice have they when they're led by one who wallows in this muck?"
At the head of this march was Colrez, a man whose aura was sharp, the sight of it leaving her eyes feeling as though they would soon bleed. And if that weren't enough, it was diluted, grimy in color.
"Should a dog burden sin for the one at the leash? ...Perhaps I am being presumptuous. Hopeful. Foolhardy if I must admit..."
"I have seen nothing but the truth laid bare before me, but if I cannot cling to hope for a better tomorrow than am I not better off joining these pitiable folk in wallowing in the muck?"
These poignant thoughts made her meal pass by quickly. It was pleasant, could have used a little more herbs to balance it out.
Then she took a stand and left her box at her feet, pivoting her gaze towards the mountain's peak.
"..."
Holding tight to that immature hope, she took flight through the blizzard winds, piercing the heavens like a straightarrow.
Then she hung in the air with her posture upright, facing the almighty Titans as they boiled away in a stew of their own sloth.
She immediately caught the ire of the one of fire, who gestured the back of his fingers against his brother of ice and chuckled, with the irony of his cold tone not being lost on him, "Hey lookie here, another fly problem!"
The Titan of Ice sipped down the last of his drink until he was making a disruptive noise on the rim of his cup. Then he put the cup down and waved his tiny, fluffy paw up, "Hi fairy lady."
Carolina peered with narrow eyes and then tried to make way for the edge.
Her vision burned white hot as Magmankey leaned his fist upon his cheek and chuckled more bluntly. He then opened his right eye wide up to say, "Oh no no, don't let me stop you. C'mon, take a seat."
Carolina kept pressing onward but her eyes were bleeding tears. But she would not be made a fool of today.
When she forced her influence upon the seat of the gods, the white hot blaze retracted into the Titan's aura, leaving behind a fire that could still put an entire forest down.
"Huuuuh..." The Titan of Fire sighed and leaned his head down against his slanted arm until the elbow fell upon the ground, "Alright, get it over with."
The past echoed into the present.
It was twelve years ago that they had their first encounter and had you painted the scene then and now you'd struggle to find any differences on the surface.
But inside Carolina had been more intimidated being in the presence of not one, but two Titans.
Their diminutive forms housed far greater awe and divine majesty than the projections that heralded their armies to battle.
And thus Carolina found herself too bewitched to act, causing the Titan of fire to create his own amusement from her stress.
"Heh, look at this broad Chillo, she's speechless."
"Awww don't be mean, we haven't had an Aurian for company in a long time."
"Aurian for company-?!" Magmankey slapped his brother upside the head so hard he fell on his back and spun around while being yelled at by the manic monkey, "Idiot! Of course not! Use your brain!"
Carolina began to reach out, only coming to regret this act when the Titan of fire turned quicker than lightning and grumbled out, "What. WHAT. C'mon, say something ya pesky fly!"
Carolina feverishly shook her head and gestured her hand out.
Magmankey then took a hand around his ear and stretched his neck out, saying in a smarmy tone, "Come again...? I can't hear you, speak up!"
Carolina shivered, putting her hand into a gentle fist as she drew it back upon her lap.
The Titan was cruel, grinning beyond what his face should feasibly contain while slapping its knees and nearly throwing itself off the side hooting and hollering, "Holy guacamole they sent us a mute one this time! Hee hee hoo hoo! That's a RIOT!"
She stood upright and floated over to the south edge of their spring, gesturing her hand towards the ground.
Magmankey then wagged his hand at Chillo to call him over, whispering just loud enough for her to hear, "Oh look! Look! She's trying to communicate!"
Her presentation lacked the detail she strove for, but depicted little tiny men fighting each other on the battlefield and the violence that it entailed.
She then started thrusting her finger accusingly at both Titans before throwing her hands up before her shoulders and leaning in with a shrug.
The two Titans looked at one another and it was the monkey who was the faster interpreter. With a malicious roll of his eyes he slumped against the wall and muttered, "Hooo boy, no voice, same bullshit..."
"So you're mad at us for lettin' them fight blah blah blah, you want us to stop, blah blah blah...Sheesh, leave it to an Aurian not to pass down the stuff they don't wanna hear..."
As Carolina prepared to raise her hand Magmankey stretched his arm out and planted her hand before her face, "Ah! Gonna skip the next few parts, I got things to do, feet to soak."
He then pulled his hand back but kept a sole finger raised, poking a dot of fire way above his head, "This is where I am, and thiiiiis..."
He dragged his finger down in a straight line, stopping not for the water nor for the stone beneath. After breaking the ground his finger continued to stretch for a few feet until he finally decided to plant another fire dot "Riiiight about here, is...where...your kind belongs!"
His finger snapped back and he gestured the hand around, "Any questions?"
Carolina tilted her head for a long while.
"Of course," The Titan said dully, "Basically, you can gripe and moan...Whoops, force of habit...ventriloquist your way around me but I ain't gonna listen."
Carolina sprang back up and felt a vivid jolt in her chest.
"Got a problem with the way things are handled around these parts?" Magmankey slanted his brows and muttered in a fierce tone, "Well maybe your kind should've thought about that before you went 'n screwed the pooch for all of us."
Carolina shook her head and the Titan barked back, "Oh don't be playin' the pretty lil' victim here. You know what you did."
Carolina steadied herself with a frown, unaware that it acted as the sheath for her glare towards the Titan.
"Are ya seriously that ignorant? Wow, and here I thought the consequences of your actions had been seered into your DNA."
With a flash of glittering blue, Carolina drew her butterfly daggers laced in permafrost and wielded them against the Titan.
The Titan rose to his feet and hunched over, putting his titanic presence over her comparatively ant-sized bod.
Fire seared his silhouette in ash and all that remained were the hollow whites of his eyes and smile.
"Layer the sin in as much human skin as ya want, a bug will remain a bug. Now GET outta here, before I squish ya."
To approach such raw power, and the disdain it poised upon one's kind, would be equivalent to dipping one's toe before the ferryman into Hell.
"But to lay down one's arms in the face of fear is a fate worse than death. If I must bear the label of fool, I find it preferable to being called a coward."
The Titan rolled his eyes and sighed, "You're just wasting our time, y'know."
Carolina shook her head and gestured her hand over the side with grace. She then crafted a fine play out of tiny snow soldiers on both sides, summoning a little moth of aura with frost covered wings that swoops in and freezes some of the soldiers.
Magmankey rolled his wrist around and remarked, "I ain't blind. So you save a few people, so what?"
He turned up the heat just a tad and the snow melted into the spring. She then propped her hands above her legs and faced him with poise.
With a few shakes of the head she laid one hand upon her chest and gestured the other one from there towards the Titan.
The Titan had flopped over to his other side and started scratching bits of rock off his legs, "It ain't kindness, you're being SUPER disrespectful when ya step on my fun, not that I should be expectin' a bug to not step around where they don't belong..."
Carolina frowned and furrowed her eyes a little, "You can lash me with your tongue and bludgeon me with your words, but you shall never be rid of the apathy in your heart. Only when you come to accept kindness again, shall your heart know the peace it doth yearn for..."
Magmankey turned his head over his shoulder and grumbled, "I ain't fond of that look on yer face. It's implyin' thoughts that could get ya killed."
"If my death enforces change, then 'tis a fate I accept. But now I stand, and you shant make me fall."
The Titan pursed his lips and let out a "Hmph!" and then grumbled through his grin, "A single person can't change the world. There, I fit that into another 'conversation', now will ya hurry up and beat it, bug lady?"
"You don't believe that. One stands tirelessly to prove you wrong..." With a panning wave of her hands from her neck to below her chest, she crafted a finely grained snow poncho to cover her shoulders.
The Titan grimaced and then bit down on the side of his teeth. Gnawing away with a loud, gritty noise, he then raised a brow at Carolina's knowing smile.
He then raised his hand up, menacingly, and pinched two fingers together.
"You got an addiction to meddling? Well here..." His eyes widened and glowed as he snapped his fingers, causing the volcano below to erupt and the magma to form into his towering visage, "Have yer fix..."
The flinch that followed put Carolina on edge as the titan of Ice soon followed his brother after a lazy shrug of the shoulders.
Before her ears were flooded with his hollering, before her body was bathed in ash and ice flakes, she drew her daggers and dove off the edge straight towards the battlefield below.
Both sides stampede towards the center, dozens of specks soon to paint the land in blood-drenched sorrow.
And where fighting thrived, her fellow Sage was sure to follow.
While either side was too drawn into the fever of war she flung a dagger towards the ground, a flurry of ice erupting off the blade.
She then sped across the battleground with her feathery frame going unnoticed, seizing opportunity wherever it showed itself.
"I have been spectator to many battles, watched as violence breeds more violence, seen sons replace fathers, and sons replace more sons..."
"These lands are ill with conflict and they deny their hearts peace. But so long as thy blades hold true, I deem naught a single soul worthy of death!"
The seconds to snatch the soldiers being flung off their mounts and contain them in ice were sparse. It was foolhardy to think a single life would not succumb, but if this power could not prove that untrue that what worth was there to it?
Here, she flourished as an exemplary lady, selfless and caring towards the people under her watch.
Here, she was a true Sage, the unseen legend who used her Aura to shield the weak.
And so it was only the natural order of things that this would drive a scorpion to strike out towards a moth.
In the midst of her aerial dance, Carolina was forced to draw her daggers to repel the sting of Vermilion's hand. The flurry was cast aside and then quickly put back into place, with Vermilion continuing her aerial assault, carried by spurts of flame from her feet.
"Surprise, ya blind BITCH!" Vermilion shouted with excitement.
Carolina's frost-laiden blades could repel the heat from her fellow Sage's blows, and that was all she intended to do.
To strike now would grant her everything she desired, and beyond that, Carolina could only gaze upon this young woman with pity.
Her aura was flying everywhere, tattering at the seams like an uncontrolled inferno. But the red glow was tinged in sorrow, which she sought to drown in blood and marrow.
"Oh Vermilion, of all the people I pity, I pity you the most. We all suffered hurt on that very day, but for you, you could never recover..."
"And so you lash out, thinking the world should be beholden to your rage."
"But these people are innocent. They do not deserve to be dragged into our sorrow."
"So if my bones must buckle, my arms break, then let it be done. I will appease your tantrum so that these people may know a moment's peace."
This was the cycle she was caught in. Never making progress, only ensuring that it is not undone.
And thus before she knew it, another day would soon be done.
This time she would return home less successful in her endeavors. Three people fell on Cryofloe's side, and five on Canofloe's.
In the cover of dusk she laid on her knees before every corpse and offered them prayer, so that their spirits would not linger in this world.
And then, she flew back to Sancturia, only realizing too little too late that she left her ice box on the mountain.
Twas a minor grievance, compared to what she'd see upon her return to the palace.
Torren was making her way to her room, her legs moving like lumber despite the haste of her demeanor.
Carolina approached in silence, as Torren laid her hand upon a pillar to catch her breath.
And her gaze just happened to wander towards her friend and gave her a spook, "C-Carolina!"
She turned and then pressed her hand over her left arm, trying to put on a brave front with a smile, "Good evening...how are you?"
"..." A gentle hand was not enough to ward off her acute senses, for a faint red tint bled out.
Carolina reached out and her friend made no attempt to dissuade her from exposing the wound on her arm.
Once it had been spotted, however, Torren was quick to snap her hand back down and put that same smile on, "O-Oh, I just...scraped my arm on a clam shell."
Carolina felt a droplet fall upon her hand, and another soon followed.
There were some rigid sniffles, and Torren's aura began to tremble.
"..."
An eight-year old Carolina walked through the palace with a small robe adorned with snowflakes. Having recently been anointed her Drive by her there-to-be future leader Borealis, her young heart was filled with pride.
But upon making her way towards her room, she became attuned to a great sorrow.
Placing her ear upon the nearby door, she heard a child weeping alone.
She pushes the door open, and inside finds Torren, curled up with her head against her knees in the center of this empty room with only a robe to her name.
Carolina stood beneath the door frame cloaked in shadow and entered cloaked in silence.
The young Torren cried and cried with no end in sight, and Carolina felt it wash over her, as pure as the waves she would one day command...
What was a day of celebration, was to some, a reminder of tragedy.
Carolina had made peace that her mother was not physically beside her anymore. But Torren could not move on.
What Carolina gravitated towards was the way her mother used to make her feel better as a baby.
Thus, with this newly gained blessing of her Drive, Carolina began to fill the room with tiny, glittering snowflakes, all of them floating in the air to give this room an atmosphere like the night sky.
And as they bobbed in place they let out a melody of jingles, soon causing the melancholic child to raise her tear-soaked eyes...
Carolina then let herself be carried by wings of snow, floating through the air with a soft, childish mystique as she beamed her smile into Torren's eyes.
And the child stared, mouth agape with awe and delight, as this fairy child danced to and fro for her eyes only...
"And we have been friends ever since. Yet...where once you relied upon my ears to house your sorrows, your voice is withdrawn, unable to reach me."
Carolina's blindfold became soaked and her tears dribbled out unto her cheeks.
She forced herself upon her friend and held her in her arms with all the gentle warmth she could provide.
And Torren's heart skipped a beat, her whole body barely able to hold back the trembling.
The tears were let loose upon her friend's hair, and with a nibble of her lower lip Torren whispered with the frailty of that child whom once accepted happiness into her heart, "H-Help me...!"
"I wish I knew who is the cause of your pain. But I cannot imagine..." As she had these thoughts, Lilith walked on past them undetected, "What manner of cruel soul would inflict this pain upon you..."
With a flick of her gaze upon the Sage of Water, Lilith sneered, and continued along her merry way...
Next Time: Progress at Work