Chapter 20) Frozen

Something has happened in Manster. No one knows what, exactly, only that it is unlike anything any of us have experienced before. So, to that end, our family follows Gaia north, to investigate Manster ourselves. Vidar, Skadi, and the rest of the Thracian resistance remain in Mease to continue securing it, and to take care of the Manster resistance's survivors. They'll head to Darna from there. Our journey to recruit continues and, as typical, we are walking into trouble.

I miss the early days when we just showed up and people joined. Those days had been nice.

Statues. That was the first thing we saw when we arrived in Manster after a grueling journey through the mountains. There were three statues just within the city's limits. One was of a child, face scrunched up from crying, with the teardrops frozen to their face. Another was of a young girl, maybe a few years older, looking back with her face twisted in fear, her fair locked mid-movement. The third… the third was hard to tell. It was horribly chipped and cracked, half-buried in the mud. It was better than the fourth one we saw, a few steps within the city. That one had shattered into pieces, with barely any of it recognizable enough to have been from a person. The chipping and scratches on the window of the nearby building hinted it had fallen out of it.

"So, anyone wondering if the gods have turned away from us?" Dain asked dryly, carefully moving the pieces out of the way. Freya assisted, even more careful than him. They were the only ones who could move. The rest of us were frozen in shock. Gaia had her eyes closed, as if she was fighting back tears. "What the hell is this?"

"While I have seen the Stone spell work before, it was agonizingly slow and certainly didn't affect so many people at once," I whispered, looking around. Everywhere you looked, there were statues. Some were intact. Others were cracked. All were mid-movement, people who had tried to run far too late. "I don't know what this is." I wondered if it would've been so creepy in the moonlight. The sun shone brightly above us, as if these were statues you'd find in a garden, and not… "But I do believe we shall learn."

"Any suggestions where?"

"We shall head to the temple, of course." Despite my own misgivings, I strode forward, moving as quickly as possible without knocking any of the statues over. It was difficult, because it wasn't just people who had been turned to stone. Animals had as well, from horses tied outside taverns to the rats scurrying through the trash. "I imagine it is straight ahead, near the castle."

"Sounds like a good place to me," Noba agreed, quickly keeping pace with me. She winked, but took my hand for reassurance. "We're not solving anything standing around. Let's move, everyone! Maybe we can keep an eye out for the precariously balanced?"

We did just that, making our slow way to the temple and entering buildings to make sure everything was 'okay' inside. Gaia would stop by many of them with a sad look on her face, recognizing whoever the person had been. The rest of us simply did what we could. I tried to not think of what the cracked, chipped, and broken pieces would look like when the spell was reversed. If I did, I would probably freeze, and I knew that wasn't something that could be afford. If we froze, then there was no way we would be able to save them.

"I think we should expect to see something bad once we're in the temple," Hezul whispered to me as he moved the statue of a baby to some soft blankets and pillows. I was moving the statue of the kitten who had half-leapt off the windowsill to the same place. "Something of this scale…"

"There will likely be a lot of dead," I murmured, checking the rest of the room for any other statues. The only other one was the mother by the smaller tub in the next room, her stone hands still submerged in the water. She had likely been checking the temperature, to make sure it wasn't too hot for her baby. "Why do something like this, though? Normally, you can at least..."

"Perhaps as a means of taking out the Resistance here?" He stopped me as I passed and pulled me into a hug, softly kissing my hair. I leaned into him and closed my eyes, freely taking comfort I sorely needed, and I hoped I could give him the reassurance he needed as well. "Or a way to demoralize."

"It seems too random for that, though." I leaned up and kissed him, smiling slightly. Even though this was such a horrible situation, I was proud of myself for being able to kiss him without hesitations. It was such a silly thing. "Well, I suppose it doesn't truly matter. We can't stop now."

"No, we can't." He smiled proudly at me, and I felt my spirits lighten at the sight. "Shall we rejoin the others?" His eyes darted to the door suddenly. "Or they could be here."

"Drat! I wanted to spy!" Vala complained, poking her head into the room. Baldur did the same, leaning over her so that it half-looked like they were stacked on top of one another. "Ah, but I just knew coming to see you two be cute would be just what I needed." She grinned and skipped over to hug both of us. "That said, we are moving to the next house."

"Give Dain a hug when you come down," Baldur suggested, now leaning against the doorframe. His smile was a touch bitter. "The house he went through had two shattered ones. Shook him bad."

"So, be cute in front of him too, okay?"

Hezul and I both rolled our eyes, but when we did join the others, I did kiss Hezul's cheek, just to make him blush. As Vala had predicted, it made Dain grin and he started teasing Hezul while we continued walking. Gaia probably thought we were insane, but she didn't say anything. She just continued looking at all the statues sadly, leading us through the city. To my surprise, we actually entered the castle itself before heading down some stairs, showing a hidden temple underground. Even more surprising, though, was how even the people within the castle walls were frozen into statues. This included priests and acolytes, and that was beyond unusual. While I would never say they were loyal, except to the Emperor and Loptyr, they never targeted their own with ritual spells like this.

Then we made it into the actual temple, which was set up… oddly. It had seven different chambers, six in a circle and one in the middle. The six in the circle had steps leading up to them, while there were remnants of some sort of barrier around the center chamber. However, there were truly more questions than anything because… well, while there was blood and priests… it was the priests' blood that spilled over the altar and streamed across the tiles. The priests themselves were all contorted and rotted, not statues. Dead.

"They must've died right before the spell was cast," Gaia murmured, walking around the altar with a critical eye. The rest of us just looked around, hunting for any sign of what we saw in Mease. But there was nothing. There was absolutely nothing. "Their spell must've rebounded or something. Killed them. The petrification-"

"The what?" Baldur asked, frowning. Noba and Dain looked at Hezul, Vala, and me, no doubt curious if we knew because we had fancy tutors. But we shook our heads because we hadn't heard of the term either. "Peri…?"

"Petrification. It's the process by which organic material becomes a fo…" Gaia frowned. Vala, bored, decided to check the bodies. "No, you wouldn't know that word either. Stone. Process by which organic material becomes stone. It can occur naturally, over many, many years. There's some petrified trees, or remnants of trees rather, near Leonster." She pulled her braid over her shoulder, shaking her head. "Ah, I'm distracted. The point I am trying to make is that I think the petrification was accidental. Though, what they meant to do…"

"Well, you might find out," Vala suddenly called, kneeling by the body furthest away from the altar. She caught my eye and waved me over. "We got one alive."

"How?" I asked, even as I rushed over with my staff. The priest had been facedown on the ground, but I rolled them over so that I could check the injuries myself. The person groaned and coughed weakly before blinking open blue eyes that were cloudy with pain. They blinked a few more times, and I went to work, first tending to their head injuries when I realized their hair was actually blonde, not red. They had a lot of blood on them. "I am not sure to call you 'lucky' or not, but you still live. Please, hang on."

"Yeah, we've got bunches of questions for you." Vala's eyes were hard. She even glared at the priest. "Bunches. And you're going to answer each one, got it?"

"Vala, please, can that not-?"

"Don't be mean to Charon!" A child's voice startled all of us, and we turned to see a group of children stepping out of one of the chambers, all of varying ages. "He saved us!" one of them, a young girl, snapped. "Don't be mean to him!"

"I am trying to heal him," I replied automatically, mostly because I was startled. I had never heard of a priest saving a child before. Never. "That is what this staff does. It heals people."

"You mean it's not some weird cane… club thing?"

"I would think I would stab someone with the sword on my belt if I wanted to kill. It is much more efficient." I sighed and returned my attention to 'Charon', who looked so confused. "They are speaking for you. Please, don't betray that trust. I will get you healed." The others could tend and talk to the children. I would just focus on what I could do. "It will be okay."

This was horribly complicated, wasn't it? Of course it was.

When I got Charon stable, Hezul carried him upstairs to a room while Gaia herded the children away so that the rest of us could be serious. We had to ban Vala from the room, though. She kept on snapping at Charon, and while that was understandable, it didn't make answering our questions any easier for him. So, she waited outside while the rest of us sat around the bed we put Charon in, with me continuing to tend to his rather extensive injuries.

"I am afraid that I do not know what the spell was meant to do," Charon whispered softly, leaning more on the pillows we used to prop him up. Because of how stained and torn his robes had been, we had changed his clothes, using Baldur's because he was the closest in size. It was startling how… normal… he looked out of those robes. What also caught my eye was the necklace he wore, as priests typically didn't wear jewelry. "I am not so high of rank. I was instructed to bring the sacrifices to the room."

"Yet, you took them to another room instead," Dain pointed out softly. Everyone had decided to sit to make this seem a little less intimidating, so he was in a chair by the bed, next to Hezul. Baldur and Noba sat on the bed itself, with Noba stretching her legs out over Hezul's lap, to really emphasize that this wasn't a… well, no, it was still an interrogation. There would just be no torture. "Why?"

"I don't know." Charon shrugged helplessly, smiling bitterly. "I just… I couldn't let them die. I'd seen so many die. But I couldn't let these ones die. Maybe it's because if something had gone differently, I would've been one of them. Or maybe it's because I still have pieces."

"Pardon?"

"I'm one of the Hunted. So, once, I lived in a simple village, unlike the Inheritors who lived in the places of power. And I still have…" Charon bit his lip, bloodying it. Baldur quickly used his sleeve to blot it. "The Hunted are divided into four categories, you see. When we're brought to processing."

"Processing?" Dain glanced at Hezul and me, but both of us shook our heads. This sort of thing wasn't something we knew much about. "How… no, never mind. Four categories?"

"Priests, nobles, soldiers, sacrifices. I don't know how they pick. Only people whose job it is know that." Charon shrugged again, but thankfully didn't bloody his lip again. I was having enough trouble healing him up as it was. "Sacrifices are killed, of course. To allow Loptyr's power to remain strong. The rest of us, the non-sacrifices, are presented to Archbishop Archeron, who rips out our memories."

"They what?!" Noba yelped, nearly flailing off the bed. Hezul steadied her, though, so she just bounced a bit. "Your memories?"

"Yes, so that we can devote ourselves to our new role," Charon confirmed. He said the words softly and easily, as if there was nothing wrong with it. Without his memories, he truly wouldn't have known anything else. "Unlike most, though, I had…" He took off his necklace and opened the pendant, revealing it was actually a locket. Inside was a picture of a smiling family, with two little boys. One of the boys resembled Charon. "This was in my hand when I woke up after my mind was wiped. I don't know who the people are, but I can guess." He closed the locket again and tried to put it back on. I did it for him. "So, I still had a piece, you see. A piece of the life I had before."

"Have you tried to find them?"

"I wouldn't know where to start. 'Charon' is the name they gave me. My clothes were burned as soon as I changed into acolyte robes for the first time. The only connection I have is this locket." He shrugged, again relaying it so easily. It hurt my heart, though. "But because of that piece, I did find myself questioning many of the tenants I was taught, more so than my fellows. I suppose it just led to me saving the children. A random whim, really."

"I… I see…"

"Charon, we would like to save the people of this city," Baldur began softly, taking control of the conversation. He made sure to look Charon right in the eye and smile. "I'm not sure if you've seen, but they're statues. All of them."

"Typically, the only way to reverse the Stone spell is the Kia staff, which was crafted by Maera specifically for that purpose," Charon rattled off easily. He seemed a little more chipper when talking about magic. "However, since this was caused by the rebound of the spell, it is possible that it can be reversed by different means. I could try to study it, but I would need assistance."

"Well, we can try, but we… ah…"

"You're trying to save more than one city. There's been whispers of a rebellion blooming." He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. This time, they were serious and resolved. Determined. "As I told you, I am not high ranked enough to know what the plans, but I do know someone who is. Acheron's daughter, Lethe." Hezul and I shared a startled look at that. I had never known Acheron had a spouse, or a child. "Her rank is the same as mine, technically, but she's been trained as his successor, so she has access to classified knowledge."

"Where is she now?"

"Conote."

"Will she talk?"

"I don't know. But I do know that she has become more and more hesitant as of late." He smiled very, very faintly. "Against her father's wishes, she made friends with those outside of the priesthood. That friendship shakes her, because what we are taught is different from what the people experience. So she has told me, at least."

"I see." Baldur nodded and looked at the rest of us before returning his attention to Charon. "I think that's all we need for right now, and if we ask more questions, Gwyneth is liable to hit us for straining you."

"I wouldn't hit you," I protested, scowling. The others laughed, though Charon was startled by something. "However, I do think Charon needs rest more than anything right now." I smiled at him and started removing the pillows so that he could lay down. "Try to sleep. It will be good for your wounds."

I fussed a little over Charon, mostly to give my mind some time to settle, and then all of us left the room, shutting the door behind us. We all looked at each other in silence, wondering just what to do. Did we trust him? It was a gamble. But all of this was a gamble.

"We're not actually believing him, are we?" Vala drawled, joining us. She had been leaning on the nearby wall, no doubt listening in this entire time. "Can't trust someone like that. Sudden whim? Really?"

"I don't see why that part is so unbelievable," I replied, a little more tartly than I had intended. Dain rested a hand on my back to reassure me. "It was a sudden whim of mine that led me to steal the tome."

"Yeah, but you've always been nice."

"Yet I sat there and watched Galle kill people. I watched those children in the arenas. I did nothing for them. It was only after I left that I even thought about it." I shook my head. "While I am uncertain as well, I cannot refuse to believe him on those grounds. The only difference is that I had more of my memories to give me a better grounding, and that is only because of Galle." If Acheron had his way, neither Hezul nor I would have any memories besides the life in the court. In that case, neither of us would've been here, because we never would've known anything different. "So…"

"We have to head north anyway, in order to reach Darna," Dain pointed out logically. Perhaps a bit too logically, based on Vala's sudden glare. "Conote is north. It certainly wouldn't hurt to look into it. My main question is Lethe…" He glanced over at Hezul and me. "Do either of you…?"

"No, we have never met her," Hezul replied. He smiled bitterly. "Galle didn't exactly let us meet 'new people' a lot. Even if she is Acheron's heir, I doubt she would've been introduced to him, and therefore us."

"I see." Dain closed his eyes, nodded, and then opened them to look at all of us. "Well, let's try. It's the only lead we have, for now."

I thought it was a reasonable decision, truthfully, but Vala's frustrated growl and the way she stomped off hinted otherwise. I winced and made to follow, but Baldur stopped me and went after her himself. So, instead, I went with Noba while Hezul and Dain went a different direction. I had never seen us so… well, we weren't even divided. It just…

"So, I'm thinking we search the place and find useful stuff," Noba said, stretching her arms above her head. She winced when her back popped. "Stock up and the like."

"That does sound like a good idea," I murmured. However, I glanced back to where Vala had gone. "...Should I…?"

"I don't know how else that could've been handled, Gwyneth." Noba smiled reassuringly at me and patted my shoulder. "I think she just needs to calm down a bit. Then she'll be right back to teasing you."

"I hope so." Embarrassing as it was, I… "I don't like any of this."

"Neither do I. So…" She now grinned. "I am going to tease you relentlessly, okay? Starting with how cute it is that you and Hezul share a tent~!"

"N-Noba!"

She really did tease me the entire time. I couldn't even retaliate because I was so flustered by it all!

Our Family

Gwyneth

21 years old

Class: Shaman; Weapons: Fire - A, Thunder - B, Wind - B, Light - A, Staves - A; (Axes - C, Swords - B, Lances - B, Bows - C)

Skills: Paragon, Critical

Winces at what happened to Charon, all to aware of how she had stood to the side and let it happen, due to how helpless she felt. It's why she stands up for him, though she wishes she had spoken better so that she didn't hurt Vala

Frustrated by all of this, she's taken to practicing in order to 'work it out' in a useful way. Hezul often has to come get her, and remind her of the dangers of pushing herself too hard

Hezul

23 years old

Class: Paladin (Dismounted); Weapons: Swords - A, Lances - B

Skills: Ambush, Wrath, Pursuit

Uncertain about whether to trust Charon or not, but feels the need to give him a chance, because like Gwyneth, he is well aware that if things had been slightly different, he would've been even worse. And while he never tortured people, he has killed many, many people. Good people, at that.

While on patrol with Dain, he checked the stables to see if there were any horses, but sadly, the ones there were turned to stones, same as the others. They'd have to walk a little longer, it seemed

Noba

20 years old

Class: Soldier; Weapons: Lances - A

Skills: Adept, Nihil

Despite how shaken she is, her talks with Gwyneth have helped bolster her resolve, which is why she is able to keep walking forward. She wonders if Hezul and Gwyneth once felt the same when they all first met, and smiles at the thought. Family is supposed to help each other, after all

Though wary, she is inclined to trust Charon. After all, she is aware that there are good people among the Empire's leaders, because Vala, Gwyneth, and Hezul were once in their number. And when she trusted them, she got more family. So, she wants to give Charon the chance too.

Baldur

22 years old

Class: Mercenary; Weapons: Sword - A; (Lances - B)

Skills: Pursuit, Charisma

Listened to Vala rant and ramble, and held her while she cried, just giving her the shoulder she needed. He knows that she knows what needs to be done, and acknowledges how hard it has to be for her. It took him a while to think past his family's deaths too

After Vala retreated to her room, he played with the children, learning their names and where each of them were from. He's glad that they can still smile despite everything, and those smiles remind him of what they are fighting for

Dain (and Freya)

24 years old

Class: Dragon Lord; Weapons: Lances - A, Swords - B

Skills: Adept, Nihil, Pursuit

Spent a good hour or so resting against Freya after finishing his patrol with Hezul, with her crooning and 'hugging' him with her wings to comfort him. It worked greatly, enough that when he returned inside to cook, he actually felt settled and confident again.

After dinner, he took the children flying on Freya, after seeing one looking curiously at her. To his delight, they all laughed and cheered, and he was almost sad when Baldur reminded him that bedtime was a thing

Vala; Fjalar

18 years old

Class: Fire Mage; Weapons: Fire - A; (Swords - B, Thunder - B, Wind - B)

Skills: Miracle, Wrath

Logically gets what everyone is saying about Charon, but all she can think of are the priests who tortured her brother and the priests who slaughtered her family. She hates them all, and she can't trust any of them, especially with her new family. If she loses them, she'll shatter

Spent the rest of the day holed up in her chosen room, letting herself mope after Baldur encouraged her to 'get it all out'. It's better that way, because then, she won't explode at a bad time.

Our Allies

Gaia

Unknown age; appears mid-twenties

Class: General; Weapons: Swords - A, Lances - A, Axes - B, Bows - B

Unsurprised, yet saddened, by the confirmation that the Loptyrians removed the memories of their 'chosen children', and wishes she had the power to reverse that. Sadly, though, she doesn't

Checks on each of the statues and whispers stories to them, promises of things she will tell them 'again', when the spell is reversed. Manster is her chosen home, and its people are hers to protect. And she will.

Charon

Uncertain age; anywhere between 18 and 24 as he has been with the priests for eleven years. Looks about twenty

Truly expected to die in the ritual and even hoped for it. He's very confused about how he survived and actually is a bit upset about it, since it means he has to keep on thinking. Still, the children help him smile.

Has seen Gwyneth and Hezul frequently in the distance, due to their close proximity to Galle, and he is amazed by the changes he sees in them now. It makes him wonder if even he could change, though he thinks that would require a miracle.

Author's notes: Well, here we are. Not completely crazy Loptyrians, and a bit more into what exactly happens to the children who are hunted. 'Lethe', by the way, is another river of Hades, specifically the "river of forgetfulness". Iirc, it's also the name of a goddess. Charon is the name of the ferryman who would bring the newly dead across the river Acheron and into Hades. And yes, the temple described here is the same one used for Fe5's final map.

Next Chapter - Balance