Prelude Chapter Two: The Snow Witch

Radagon I

The golden light and warmth of Shabiri's teleportation spell grazed Radagon's skin, as both scholars materialized at the gates of The Academy Of Raya Lucaria. This bastion of knowledge, revered and remote, held knowledge that even the greatest members of their order could not comprehend. Radagon couldn't help but admire the academy's pursuit of arcane powers beyond his own, perhaps one day he could study the very books that line the inner sanctum of these walls.

Beside Radagon, Shabiri stood in stark contrast to his reverence. Ever since their time together as youths Shabiri had held the texts that demean any 'unholy' arts not aligned with the golden order dear to his heart. His hatred was rooted deeper than the Erdtree itself, as his parents were taken from him when one of his younger brothers found a twisted connection to these unholy arts and if by accident or on purpose he turned their parents into living puppets, the event was traumatic for Shabiri and his other younger brother Gideon, who both ran and joined the Golden Order around the same time the scholars found Radagon orphaned on the streets of the capital. Radagon believed that empathizing with Shabiri was perilous to say the least, for under his loyalty for the Order lied an ugliness that Radagon could not unravel.

"Heretics of the Academy Of Raya Lucaria, open your gates so I, Shabiri of the Golden Order may pass and consult your leadership of your imminent surender" Shabiri says, his voice amplified by a spell. Most likely to sound more intimidating. Still Radagon stood by his side, his hand on my sword's hilt, ready for anything.

"Whoever seeks passage must solve my riddle to pass and consult with whoever they choose." A childlike giggle echoes from behind the gate as a feminine voice answers Shabiri's call, as calming as it was cold. A chill came down Radagon's spine causing him to shiver as he felt somehow the air had gotten quite colder. To his right he saw Shabiri tense as if he were a snake about to coil, The voice continued as it recited its wintery riddle.

"In nature's theater, a spectacle grand, I perform my dance upon the land,

little tendrils, swirling in flight, yet within me, burns a hidden light.

Cold to the touch, yet warm I wield, the paradox of nature, tightly sealed.

In the soft silence I make my form a tempest born of calm and storm. So tell me scholars, if you can, what am I, Wrapped in this land's plan? A joke wrapped in a frigid cloak, unravel me, if you dare evoke."

Her voice speaks teasingly as to further provoke Shabiri, who now wears a look of pure insult upon his face. Radagon began to worry about his comrades' answers as Shabiri tended to be quite rash if provoked.

"A small flame." Shabiri answers the voice, and Radagon's suspicions are confirmed as the voice sighs loudly as if she were punched in the gut. Radagon at that moment decided to declare a secondary answer as he heard her footsteps walk away.

"A snowstorm, a snowstorm in summer." he said, the words plummeting from Radagon's mouth like a spear from a warrior's grasp.

The footsteps stop and Radagon heard a giggle, and the footsteps resumed as they walked quickly towards the two scholars, a figure passed through the illusionary gate, and they are greeted by the face of an attractive young woman their own age, her raven black hair fell across her shoulders and chest, she was dressed in a garb of white, almost as pale and pure as the moon itself, and atop her head perched a comically large white witches hat. Unlike Shabiri she wore no disdain or malice on her face, only a small smile like a crescent moon that welcomed them and seemed kind and genuine. Radagon almost wanted to apologize for Shabiri's behavior but he stopped himself, reminding himself that they are messengers and they must not stand down even in the face of such innocence.

"It seems like one of you, negated to put their blinders on when they awoke this morning.'' The girl laughed, and Radagon almost saw smoke come from Shabiri's ears, most likely from the burning from the small flame he mentioned earlier.

"That is not very polite, Renna." a bodiless voice speaks from close by, a man's voice cold and calculating. Renna turns and picks up a pebble from the ground and throws it playfully at the voice which stands out of view behind the magical gate, the stone clanked against a seemingly metal object. Renna then stuck out her tongue in the direction where the voice came from and then turned back to the scholars.

"Enough of this!" Shabiri had grown tired of the Snow Witches' antics, and with a swift sweep of his hand he pulled a scroll from his golden belt which were lined with Rubies more crimson than the sacred flame itself, and presented it to the white witch who with a her lips pursed and with a look of feigned insult at being yelled at she takes it from him. "Read this, and pray to whatever heretical god you worship, hapless fool."

Renna read the scroll with her lips pursed, as if she were reading an assignment turned in by a student who lacked mental competence. Her mouth twists and she looks up at Shabiri, and then back at the scroll. Renna then grinned, looked up at the two scholars and ripped the scroll from the middle. Paper and jewels that once adorned the scroll dropped to the ground and floated away in the wind as Renna turned and walked away back through the veiled gate beyond their view again.

Shabiri stood Mortified at the Vice-Headmistress's act of rebellion, he just stood their spluttering in anger like a toddler who's toy had been broken. As soon as Shabiri's splitting started it was silenced by an icy wind that blew from the gate in front of them, Radagon clutched his sides as he felt his nipples harden against his breastplate causing him much discomfort, although the discomfort was nothing in comparison to the fear that crept into his chilled blood as he heard Renna's voice speak from beyond the gate in a haunting tone that made him and Shabiri shiver uncontrollably.

"Hear me, Scholars of gold, I sincerely hope for the warmth that keeps your sealed souls within the corpses you call bodies, that you never again attempt to cease the learning of the minds you yourselves have cast to the wind, in name of 'order'. Shabiri of Limgrave, Radagon of Leyendell, I swear by my name as the third princess of Caria, I will defeat you. Now, I bid you leave."

Alas the two scholars listened as her footsteps retreated into nothingness, leaving them in silence as they stood before the blue-hewn gates of Raya Lucaria. In Radagon's peripheral vision, he saw Shabiri grip his fists together tightly as they turned bright red, coincidentally the same color as his face at the moment, he began muttering curses aimed at the Academy and its vice headmistress who we had just encountered. Radagon on the other hand, found his hand frozen to his sword, perhaps a reaction to the colder side of the Snow Witch and her words that somehow felt truer than anything that had ever graced his ears before. Shabiri and Radagon did not know the true arcane power and knowledge wielded by the Academy of Raya Lucaria, but upon meeting its vice headmaster, they now have witnessed but a slight glimpse of the oncoming storm of the Carian royal family.

"Radagon… ready the men, the trolls, whatever holds faith in our order, we shall tear every book from the walls, burn every astrologer, and crucify the Carians who claim to be royalty." Radagon nodded his head despite his uneasiness, as like a breeze in the fall, uncertainty crept through Radagons veins as he walked behind Shabiri away from the magical gates of the academy.