The only sound was Phoenix's heartbeat in his ears. He was the sole life for hours in any direction. Even the wind outside of the palace walls had died. His icy mount had gone still like no living horse could manage, as lifeless as the man who'd made it.
"It didn't work," Phoenix whispered, but the words still sounded painfully loud in the quiet around him. The statue who'd once been Miles stared at the gates, unseeing and unblinking. "It didn't work."
Forcing himself to his feet, he approached Miles and stroked his cheek lightly with his glove-clad hand. Miles gave no response, offered no recognition that he'd been touched. Sick with his failure, Phoenix slid his hand down the prince's arm until their fingers were intertwined, then gave one gentle tug toward him. Though Miles stepped obediently forward, and again when Phoenix backed up, he stopped after that as surely as if a wall were in front of him. Knowing what he'd see, Phoenix looked down and saw the decorative line of snowflakes under their feet in the courtyard bricks.
Manfred's voice sighed across his memory. Without my permission, that body can never cross the snowflake symbols in the courtyard, even if it stays in this palace for a thousand years. Ten thousand.
Phoenix sank to the ground, defeated.
He was the hero who'd set off on a desperate quest. He'd faced enormous danger and saved the prince from deadly peril with love, a force greater than any their foe could wield.
But the prince still wound up dead.
Hugging his knees to his chest, Phoenix stared up at the writhing sky and watched the stars go out.
"Manfred told me about how he ripped out his feelings," he said to the statue. "It's strange to think that he must have once had something good inside of him. A soul. But it's not hard to picture yours. I watched you, you know. Not like I was your guard, but like your..." Phoenix's voice wavered. "I was stupid. You were going to be king. You would never have a peasant beside you. I knew that, but I still watched."
And now he was watching his prince's soul slowly extinguish itself in the night sky. There was a strange, cold light to the soul stars. The constellations he knew from back home had warmer lights like candles; the new stars above him here gleamed like moonlight on snow. One particularly brilliant sapphire star flashed bright, then went dark.
Love for his people. For justice. Gone.
"I don't know how you did it," Phoenix said quietly. "Always living your life knowing that it wasn't your own." The prince of the kingdom had never worried about going hungry, but after their new life in their new house, Phoenix Wright had been able to choose between life as a farmer or guard or weaver or cooper or whatever else he might want in the world. In Angelos, Miles had attended every state function even when he was ill or injured, and dutifully prepared to marry someone to give the land its next heir. And when he was here... tears beaded anew. "I don't know how you go through this hell and then think of anyone else."
His chest heaved with a deeper sob. The few tears he'd let leak out before felt like nothing, now. It was over, everything was over, and these tears came so hard that his vision blurred. With the cold still held away from his body, they dripped off his chin and splattered against the ice below. "I can't go back."
Another particularly bright star died. Love for his father. Gone.
"I can't ever leave here. Like you." After hiccuping, Phoenix took a deep breath and pressed the heels of his palms against his wet eyes. "I know my body can walk out any time that I want, but my heart's always going to be trapped here in this courtyard. Thinking about how you're imprisoned and your soul got sent somewhere else. Thinking about how I was supposed to save you. How you weren't supposed to die." He opened his eyes, blinking hard, and tried to focus past the aftereffects of pressing too hard. Light danced everywhere, but those eyespots faded as surely as the stars.
"This wasn't how it was supposed to end," Phoenix said, and wiped his eyes again. "This wasn't how..." What use were more words? His tongue stilled and he looked up at the terrible northern sky as spots still danced in his vision. It took them longer to fade, this time. For a long time Phoenix stared up at nothing, only distantly able to wonder how long it would take him to die if he never moved from that spot. Within the castle he wouldn't starve, and within the spell's embrace he didn't feel cold. Maybe his body would go on with its mockery of life for as long as the prince's. Maybe ten thousand years from now they'd both still be there, motionless and hollow inside.
"You were right," Phoenix said softly. "I'm in love with you. And how stupid does that sound now?"
Another star went out.
What cruel timing, Phoenix thought, aching, as he propped his chin on his knees and studied the sky. You'd almost think that one was for me.
He was so focused on that empty spot overhead that he almost didn't notice a different star falling back to earth.
By the third, he sat up again.
By the fifth, he stood.
"What?" Phoenix asked, slowly turning. The dim, grey light had vanished and the night overhead looked more natural than it had since he'd first set foot in the castle. Points of gleaming starlight fell, one by one but soon as a diamond waterfall. Light spun around Phoenix like he was the eye of a hurricane. Awed at whatever was happening, Phoenix reached out a hesitant hand and brushed against a single star. Bone-deep fear struck him and he jerked back, but another star hit him before he could pull entirely free of the storm. That one brought reckless joy with it. As the storm's eye began to wander across the courtyard, more of the swirling diamonds impacted him. Uncertainty. Hope. Despair. Rage. Devotion. Love.
Crying out, he flattened himself against the ground and tried to limit the impacts. It was too much, too fast. Whatever was happening was beautiful but utterly terrifying. Down there on the blocks, frantic to escape the rogue starlight, he almost missed the long, pained gasp above him.
Phoenix's head jerked up and his eyes widened. The statue that had once been Miles Edgeworth was dropping to its knees, clutching its chest as a star hit the pure white crystal and burrowed inside it. "You're..." He leapt to his feet and pushed through the swirling stars, gritting his teeth against the impacts of pain and joy and fear and loss. "Miles!"
Miles cried out and tore at his chest like he had in his bedroom, like he could somehow dig emotions out of himself. He was still pure white, even lacking pupils in his eyes, but Phoenix recognized his voice and face again. With fierce hope bursting in his heart, he clutched the prince close and held him as he jerked in pain. "Please, please, please," Phoenix gritted out as other stars swirled around Miles but rebounded off.
"Father," Miles whispered, sounding so young, and Phoenix knew what had happened. Manfred had told him as much. Agony was such an overwhelming emotion that it would return to Miles first, and he wouldn't want anything else if he couldn't fight through it. That first star that had dug its way inside had been filled with the pain of his father's murder and so it was the only thing he could feel in the world. "Stop, stop, I don't want this any more, stop, I made a mistake—"
Another star rebounded and began to weave a dizzy path back toward the sky. Phoenix stared at it in a panic, then caught the prince's head in his hands as he shook it blindly. "No. Let it in, whatever that is, let it in! There's more than just pain. I promise, please!"
Miles let out a ragged cry.
Do it, Nick he heard again in Larry's voice, and Phoenix lunged forward to kiss Miles. He had no spell to offer this time, only love. He pressed against the hard body, the crystalline mouth, and tried to remember everything good and living and warm in the world. Let it in. Please, we're so close, let it in.
For a seeming eternity Miles only trembled in his arms, still fighting the emotions swirling around him. That shaking slowed, then stopped. Stars stopped as well, and for few long breaths they were motionless inside of cloud of diamond starlight under a dancing sky. Slowly, like a breeze picking up, the stars set back into motion. As they did, Miles kissed back.
Phoenix clung desperately to the man as he felt warmth return to his mouth. He opened his eyes as their kiss continued. Warm raincloud grey stared back at him. He couldn't keep kissing any more, as much as he wanted to. He needed to breathe, laugh, and sweep the now-living prince into the fiercest embrace of his life. "What," Phoenix demanded when his dizziness passed, "just happened?"
Miles, trembling, studied his hand. He was still paler than he'd been back in Angelos, and his hair might never be brown again, but he was alive. "I heard... something. And I wanted my feelings back." He looked up at the sky and, dizzy, nearly fell to the courtyard below. "I remember being up there and it was—" He staggered again and Phoenix supported him, and Miles accepted the help gladly. "It was so cold and still. Everything made perfect sense. I didn't need to feel any more, but... but I wanted to, even with everything that would come along with it." His startled grey eyes looked away from the sky and met Phoenix's. "It was you, wasn't it?"
"Me?"
"You said that you love me."
Phoenix blushed. It was the first heat he'd felt since Maya cast her spell. "You knew that."
"I'd never heard you say it, though." Miles laughed breathily, then studied his hands instead of Phoenix's face. Phoenix couldn't blame him; if he'd just broken out of an eternal ice prison formed by the world's most powerful mage, he would want to see that his fingernails were fingernails again, too.
Eternal. Strongest mage. "How?" Phoenix ventured asking. "How were you even able to want your feelings back?"
Miles looked up at the sky. "Manfred thought that he knew the only way to strength. He thought that anyone would get stronger if they ripped out any weak emotions inside of them, and once you were so strong, you'd never change back." He let out another breath and it steamed in the cold. "He couldn't even conceive of the idea that someone would reject the path he'd chosen, and so he called it impossible."
"That's amazing," Phoenix said softly, kissed his prince again, and watched their breath mingle in the winter air. After that long pause, he asked, "So... are we about to freeze to death?"
An initial flash of concern on Miles' face soon turned into a sly, confident smile. "I didn't break his spell, did I? It played out, just as he'd intended to make me into his weapon... but then I didn't let him." He flicked the silver trim on his jacket, nodded once, and gestured at the courtyard. A second horse grew from the ice and Miles looked at Phoenix with pride. "No. We're not about to freeze to death. Let's..." A long breath shuddered out of him. "Let's go home."
They stood, and together, took a step forward.
Miles rebounded like he'd hit a wall.
Phoenix's vision jerked to the line of snowflakes like they were poisonous snakes clustered at their feet. "No," he said dumbly and felt his knees weaken. Not now. Not this.
"No," Miles said firmly. Glaring up at the sky, he said with all the confidence of his royal birth, "Manfred von Karma, you longer have any power over me. I reject your control, I reject your beliefs, and I reject the entitlement you feel to guide my life. You are gone, and I am no longer under your authority." His hand trailed an intricate line of silver on his jacket, but came to rest over his heart. "And even if you managed a second attempt, you would not overpower me again."
A dozen ice-cold stars died in unison, and with one long stride, Miles stepped over the line of snowflakes. "Now," he breathed with clear relief, and Phoenix realized that he hadn't been sure whether he could truly break free of von Karma's last grasp, "let's really go home."
After mounting his horse, Phoenix looked up at the darker sky again. "It was von Karma," he said, very nearly smacking his forehead. At Miles' curious expression, he explained, "I was watching stars go out and I thought your soul was falling apart above me. It was him. He'd kept himself up there for a century and we killed him, so those stars could finally fall."
"A century up there," Miles repeated quietly, and shivered. How cold had it been up there in the sky? How lonely? "He tortured me, but that man managed to make his own prison, as well." With a long, searching survey, he took in the landscape beyond the spiked gates: grey ice, jagged rocks, thin and hesitant snowdrifts. "I never want to see this place again," he said to himself, then turned to Phoenix. "Can you ride well?"
"Pretty well," Phoenix said, and felt wild joy pour through him as they angled their mounts toward the steep road leading to the flatlands. We're going home. I did it. We're going... really fast. Wind whipped him again, but this time he wanted to laugh even as he could barely breathe. They crossed the hellish terrain at impossible speeds, never slipping no matter how thick the ice, and slowed to a walk when the first white-capped tree greeted them.
A fox bounded after a rabbit and disappeared below the brush. Birdsong drew their attention upward to where crimson darted from branch to branch. With a flutter of wings, the cardinal descended onto a holly branch and plucked a berry for its meal.
"Red," Miles said as he stared at the bird until it flew away. "I remember that, now."
Emboldened by the sight of life, Phoenix leaned over and kissed him. His heart surged when the kiss was returned. Some part of him had known, just known that he was only the soldier on the front lines, whose role would end as soon as the battle for the prince's life did. That dark part of him had reminded Phoenix that he was only a peasant, not a prince, and that this wasn't the happy ending that would tie off the tale. Well, that part could just stay quiet, because his prince had just kissed back. "There are," Phoenix said, and kissed him again. "So many colors." Again. "To remember."
Miles smiled. "I trust that you will help to remind me." That smile wasn't as wide as he'd given back in the courtyard, but Phoenix recalled that he'd never seen the prince give a truly broad smile even in Angelos. He was forever controlled and in command of himself. Phoenix had never suspected the depths of the man's emotions; if that diamond hurricane hadn't struck him and left him overwhelmed, he still wouldn't believe it.
Trumpets sounded as Phoenix opened his mouth to reply. Startled, both men turned toward the bold noises and saw a military regiment cresting a hill. At its head were Maya and Mia Fey, and slightly behind them, Larry with his broken leg in a splint. The sight of Miles and Phoenix rippled through the regiment from its head, and by the time Mia was galloping across the snow toward them, the soldiers near the back of the line were cheering.
"Prince!" she said as she reined her horse to a stop. "Are you all right? I'm..." She smiled wryly. "I'm here to rescue you."
Though Phoenix tried to pull back from her notice, Miles caught his arm and pulled him up equal. "Thanks to Guard Wright, Manfred von Karma is dead and I was able to escape his captivity." As Mia studied his silvery hair with a frown, he added, "With only minor side effects." His hand tightened on Phoenix's arm. "I am deeply indebted to this man, Mia."
Mia raised an eyebrow knowingly, but her expression soon fell. "Your Grace... I hate to be the one to deliver this news to you, but... your father the king..."
"Is dead." Miles' joy faded. "Yes. I know. I had been able to think on other things, but I... I know." His face walled off as surely as if he were that statue again, and Phoenix's heart ached for the role he had to play for his people. "I should go show myself to the troops and let them know their efforts were not in vain. As well, I'm sure that they have some lingering concerns over von Karma's control of me, and my appearance and mount will heighten it. I must assuage those fears." His ice steed began to walk toward the soldiers, but he took one long second to trail his hand down Phoenix's arm before he left.
"Thank you," Mia said as they watched Miles walk toward the regiment and describe what had happened with no more emotion than he would use to relate a new trading agreement. "We didn't exactly get along when we first met, but we've both settled into the idea of what the kingdom needs from us, and..." Her smile went lopsided. "I'm actually thrilled to see my closed-off, pompous future husband again."
Startled, Phoenix stared at her with huge, wounded eyes. No. No! I rescued him, I put those pieces back together, I... I...
"Phoenix, was it?" Mia asked. She leaned in close. "My future husband and I are going to use a spell exactly once to give the kingdom the legitimate heirs it requires, and then he is going to look the other way as I take a consort who is driven mad by the sight of me. Who will live in the palace, and play with our children, and share my life."
Hope and fear and confusion mingled inside Phoenix. "Should... should you be telling me this, Mage Fey?"
"From the way he looked at you just now? Like he's never looked at me?" Mia pulled him close and had Phoenix walk beside her, back toward the regiment. "Oh, you'd better learn the truth of this arrangement sooner rather than later. It's going to be messy and complicated, with a lot of lives in that castle. And everyone's going to ignore the rules together and be happy."
After the still perfection of von Karma's home, Phoenix could do with some messy, crowded lives. And happiness. "He actually can be happy, you know," Phoenix found himself saying as they watched the prince dispassionately relate the details of von Karma's defeat. "He tries to be so serious and dedicated, but..."
"Oh, I know," Mia said airily, then glanced at Phoenix again with greater consideration. "But you know that even more, don't you? So, Guard Phoenix Wright, do you have any idea how to be a king's consort? Which trading partners we care the most about? Which forks to use at a state dinner?"
Mostly, he'd been thinking that he really wanted to kiss Miles again. "Not the slightest idea."
"I thought so. Sounds like you could use a guide." Mia patted him on the shoulder and steered them toward where Miles was informing the captain of the guard that no, he would not be arresting his two former troops for desertion. "Come on," Mia whispered into Phoenix's ear. "Let's turn you into the man he ignores me for."
Though it was hard not to ride up and rejoin Miles' side that instant, official debriefing be damned, Phoenix just managed to stay back with Mia. "You're going to be a much different High Mage than von Karma."
"My sister is going to be queen," Maya said, joining them and pulling Phoenix into an awkward but fierce mounted hug, "and so apparently it's going to be my job to be High Mage."
Maya as High Mage? Well, all those lives inside Angelos' castle certainly would be messy. "Thank you, Maya," Phoenix said, and hugged her again, so tightly that she let out a tiny squeak. "I couldn't have done it without you."
"Really?"
"Your spell kept me alive and it helped save him. At least until I started freezing to death."
"Oh." She frowned slightly. "Good?"
"Nick!" Larry said and rode up; still on Buttercup, Phoenix saw. "You did it! Sorry that I was kind of useless," he added, rubbing his head sheepishly.
"You weren't useless, Larry," Phoenix said as Maya inspected his palm where she'd first cast that heat spell. "Picturing you actually helped me to figure out what I needed to do to save the day."
"Really?" Larry considered that, then leaned in close and whispered, "Then to pay me back, do you think you could set me up with Maya?" As Phoenix rolled his eyes, too happy to be surrounded by friends again to be too annoyed with Larry, Larry added, "Or get me a free room in the castle, since I'm out of the guards? Either's good!"
Before Phoenix could respond, a trumpet blared and the regiment formed up. Miles returned to Phoenix's side, his face still the mask of the prince they'd rescued and the king who would soon be crowned. But his hand slipped down and held Phoenix's, and as it squeezed tight, Phoenix shared a tiny, secret smile with him. Things might be perfect on the surface, whether it was a royal marriage or flawless ice statue, but all those messy lives and emotions below were so much better. So much stronger.
Six months later, the capital was frozen again.
"Got you!" Maya shrieked in delight as she pelted her sister with a snowball.
In a huff, Mia dusted herself off and tilted up her chin. "You just attacked the queen. You're playing a dangerous game, Maya."
"You're not the queen yet," Maya said and smacked her with another snowball. She had good aim, and so Mia yelped and hurriedly followed Phoenix inside the Great Hall. He chuckled; she glared.
"So," Phoenix said with consideration as he looked past the lead crystal windows to the field of snow outside, and then back in to the Great Hall. Fires blazed merrily in huge fireplaces and thick green evergreen boughs lined the walls. Red and gold bows held them in place, and the same colors burned as a thousand candles along the tables. Color was everywhere. "My first state dinner. Is it going to be all right for me to sit up at that head table?"
"I'm not sure," Mia admitted. "But I know the king wouldn't have it any other way. And he..." With a sigh, Mia saw Miles near the end of the Great Hall, gesturing toward the ceiling. "Would you stop that?" she loudly asked as they walked to join him.
After kissing Phoenix in greeting, Miles gave her a bland smile and gestured toward the roof again. An enormous snowflake formed below where a red velvet bow tied the evergreen, then sparkled as it turned slowly in the firelight. Down the line of boughs, a dozen more flakes matched it already. "Why? It is a midwinter feast."
"And after the feast, they will melt all over the floor."
"Water evaporates," Miles said and gestured another crystal flake into existence. Every last one was as beautiful as the first one that Phoenix had seen back in von Karma's castle, and this time they stayed that way. "You're simply jealous that you can't do the same."
"With the right tools, my powers are far more flexible than yours," Mia said, arms folded below her breasts.
"Perhaps. You still can't do this," Miles said, and hung a snowflake below another bow.
As Mia walked away, shaking her head and wondering if the kingdom's stability was truly worth him, Phoenix pulled Miles close and smiled at him. It was entirely inappropriate for a consort to do with the king, in front of servants and with his marriage not yet settled. Neither cared. "You look happy." That happiness had been an uncertain thing; the marriage hadn't taken place, but the coronation had. It was a ceremony that could only take place with the death of the old king and that had reminded Miles of all of that pain anew. This would be not only the first state dinner for Phoenix, but also the first for the kingdom without Gregory at its head.
"I am," Miles said after a short beat. "I... I am."
"Good." Phoenix studied him, knowing that his expression was embarrassingly love-struck, and felt his smile broaden further when he saw how much Miles meant it.
"And you?" Miles asked, coughing and pulling back a step when an elderly servant woman smiled knowingly at them and walked on with her table linens.
"I'm perfect," Phoenix said and pulled him close again. Although the beauty beyond the windows was bitterly cold, he could feel the heat of Miles' body through their jackets. He kissed him, again not caring who watched. "I love winter."