Content warning: A lot of deaths, some described in more detail.

— Chapter 29 —

Foeslayer

Foeslayer was basking down on the sunlight, true, real sunlight. Not a dream or her imagination wishing she were free, she is outside…

A day and a half ago the weirdest thing in many centuries happened, she had been freed from her ice encasing as she was already used to, but this time it was different, there was only one Icewing standing in front of her, and the first thing he did after the initial surprise of seeing her wore off? He struck up a conversation, and not just a quick chat telling her the name of the one who'll kill her this time, but her first real conversation in so long.

Foeslayer was tired of Icewings, she always wished she'd never have to see one again in her life, a wish she knew was in vain, they'd just keep coming, they would fight, she'd die.

But this Icewing wasn't like the others, apparently he'd come all the way down there to talk, to meet her, to potentially free her, and suddenly for the first time in forever she felt an emotion she believed was long gone: hope.

And they talked for a long while, the Icewing presented himself as Prince Winter, and hearing his title of prince brought back bad memories to her of her prince from an age long gone, but she knew better than to judge her only salvation just based on that.

She presented herself, and Winter had flinched and immediately recognized her as the mother of Darkstalker, and this was always her least favorite part, constantly hearing the Icewings badmouth her dear son with a bunch of folktales and exaggerated myths.

But this was much different than any other time.

"How much do you know about him? Since after your capture I mean," Winter had asked with a cautious tone.

"I know that he is not the monster that your tribe has always painted him to be," Foeslayer said, her tone instinctively getting a little colder with the topic. "I raised that dragonet, even his name is heroic, that of one that'd stalk the darkness and fight it. He is not a monster."

Winter had opened his mouth as if he was about to say something right away, then he closed his mouth and appeared to think for some moments.

"When you hear the tales of your son, to you they sound like folklore… But if there was tangible proof of what he had done?" The Icewing questioned, and she glared at him after that question. Why must everyone be so hard on her kid? But she has to be careful as much as it pains her, she wants freedom more than anything in the world.

"I have no idea how you could prove that, but if you somehow manage to find something tangible… I guess?" She finally said, and Foeslayer noticed some relief in his face.

"Okay…" He said with a nod and looked at her. "That's what I hoped to hear, there's this one… Acquaintance of mine, he's the reason I came over here to look for you. He's a seer, of your tribe, and he knows you and your son's tale with quite the detail…"

That suddenly made Foeslayer's heart feel slightly warmer, someone from her own tribe? They're looking for her? After such a long time she thought they'd have forgotten…

"A Nightwing asked you to free me? Well, prince Winter, I am grateful for your aid," Foeslayer finally responded, giving a small nod at him.

Then the prince looked uncertain before he asked. "But… How can you be alive after all this time? It's been-"

"Please don't tell me how long it has been," Foeslayer quickly interrupted him with some smoke coming out from her nostrils. "I'm fine with never finding out exactly," after seeing him slowly nod, she explained this part. "You can thank Queen Diamond for this, my mother in law and I never had the… best of relationships, and we kind of really disliked each other. So your great ancestor made me come here to the Ice Kingdom with her magic, trapped me down here and enchanted me so that when I die, I'll freeze and my wounds will heal until next time I get unfrozen."

Well, the Icewing looked horrified by that, this is a first, the few times she got to tell some of these details to other Icewings that asked for a minute or two, they'd just look annoyingly satisfied or smug about it, but Winter didn't seem pleased by the thought.

"How many times…?" He asked, with the rest of the obvious question lingering in the air as he looked at the many frozen dragons around, and she just shrugged at that.

"I lost count sometime after 40, which is also the amount of times that Diamond killed me herself before starting this whole "trial" business," she replied.

After some seconds of silence, he spoke once more. "Foeslayer… What you did to us so many years ago, it took away one of the best things my tribe had. Each of our Animus was meant to make a single big gift to help the rest of the Icewings, and in two thousand years we could have grown so much more as a tribe…"

"And besides, I know how things went between you and Arctic," Winter's tone had grown colder and Foeslayer looked at him warily. "I know unlike other Icewings, that you two were willing lovers. But on the other talon I am aware as well of the things that went wrong. The arguing and bickering over things like him not wanting to use deadly magic against his own tribe, you telling him the Icewings were not his tribe, that he was too scared to help…"

Foeslayer stepped back, to hear someone else talking about the drama back at her old home, and it happened to be an Icewing… She remembered all these arguments. Yes, she hadn't thought of them or about Arctic in general for a long while, but these had happened.

And here's someone, many centuries later, that brought back these memories, the fights, being scared that Arctic would leave them, angered at the thought he'd ever possibly hurt their children to go back to his stupid kingdom.

She did not want to talk about this, but it seems like the Icewing wanted to.

"So what? What will you tell me now? That I was a bad wife to the husband I lost centuries ago?" She asked him sternly.

And then she felt as if she had basically given herself a gut punch.

Darkstalker, Whiteout, Arctic, they're gone, last thing they all would know of me is that I seemingly just stupidly left after an argument.

She snapped out of her thoughts as Winter spoke.

"... I am not pleased with all the things that you've done, and I will still of course ask you more about Prince Arctic… But nobody should deal with such a punishment, it's extreme, I did not know that when I came down here I'd find the mother of the Icewings' greatest terror, just checking to see after that Nightwing asked me to… But I feel like I must do something now."

Foeslayer did not expect that, this conversation is such an emotional whiplash as she couldn't be sure whether he was going to actually go through with it and free her or not. But now hearing his tone filled with conviction…

"How do you plan to free me? Animus magic from an angry queen is something rather powerful," Foeslayer commented.

"I'm aware of the power of magic, but I am also an Icewing prince, so I believe I should know how a royal would operate, and having you here with no way to bring you out for possible negotiations would be a stupid mistake."

The Icewing stepped closer, examining the only thing that's on Foeslayer: her shackles, he moved that horrible spear closed and tried to pierce it but it did nothing at all, so he scrunched his snout in thought and then after some seconds he brought his head closer and blew a little frostbreath a the shackle.

The shackle broke, and she was finally free.

After that they had trudged through the way up and out of the caves, but when they were near the exit, Winter turned towards her.

"So as you might imagine…" He said with an awkward tone. "Nobody in this kingdom knows that I am doing this, and I don't want to be punished or exiled either. So could you wait for me an hour or two while I get this spear back in its place?"

Foeslayer felt like this was such a tease to tell her to wait when the exit is about a dozen steps away, but she had waited for centuries without any hope of escaping, she can wait a few hours. It would be unfair if the one who released her got in trouble just for helping.

So Winter stepped outside and flew off, Foeslayer was nervous of the idea that he might be found out or that someone would follow him. Her shackles are broken so if she's executed, that'd be it for her, she'd never get to enjoy freedom.

But at last, the prince came back and she was able to step outside and look up to the sky. It was almost night time so one of the moons was already visible and shining gently on them.

It was unbearably cold out here and there was wind picking up, but she didn't care at all. She took in the moonlight, the cold breeze and pure air, and felt the grass covered by snow under her talons.

She took a deep breath, flaring open her wings and stretching them. Queen Diamond took so much away from her, but now she's finally leaving her prison, and she's never coming back to this kingdom.

The next few hours were focused on escaping the kingdom while mostly everyone is asleep, and they had to take the long way around, going over the sea for a while to evade the Ice Cliff, then they finally reached the Sand Kingdom which was also cold at night but not close as much, and at last they reached the outskirts of the Sky Kingdom at dawn, Foeslayer landing and feeling actual green grass without any snow, and it was amazing.

Winter looked at her in silence for a minute before clearing his throat.

"Now that we're here and away from the Ice Kingdom… May I request something of you?" He asked, and she looked back at him with some doubt.

"What would this request entail?" She replied.

"Simply if you could wait here for a day or two. Another reason for my arrival back there was… That my sister is going to take the trial today later on, I need to return home to be there."

Oh, that was not the kind of request she had expected, basically being told to wait again but at least now she's at a nice spot outside.

So he possibly broke the rules to help his sister, this Icewing is… Interesting, she thought.

"So I take it you aren't telling me where I can simply find that seer you met?" She asked.

"I'd prefer to be there so I can explain too, that seer is alongside a few others of my… Acquaintances too," he replied.

"But surely you could at least tell me the name of your seer? If there's the chance you might not be able to return, at least eventually maybe I can find him myself," she requested and Winter thought about it.

"I suppose that's fair… Well, his name is Oracle, he's got silver eyes and a simply recognizable look on him with his small size," he replied with a shrug.

That sounds interesting for a Nightwing, Foeslayer simply nodded at Winter now.

"Well… Take care and enjoy your freedom, I'll try to not take longer than two or three days if all goes well," the Icewing said and then he opened his wings and took off.

Foeslayer watched him leave, and then she began to walk around, and she could finally say after so long that one thing never changed: Pyrrhia is still beautiful.

And another thing that hasn't changed: she's hungry. So she looked around and managed to find a deer, perfect, she hunted it quickly and hungrily devoured the animal for her first meal in several centuries.

And after the rare occurrence of having a full stomach, she decided to lay down and get some actual sleep, not "sleep" without thoughts while encased in ice.

But it couldn't have just been a dreamless rest.

And this wasn't just a dream, but memories, the worst ones in her whole life.

Foeslayer was flying in the sky, her body moving completely against her own will, she wanted to pull back, to stop herself, her mind was screaming but by now there were no Nightwings around that could read her call for help, so she flew over the sea and saw the icy white of her enemy's kingdom.

And what is worse, as she approached the kingdom she saw a figure coming closer to her, probably alerted by her own spell that she's here, and now Foeslayer was face to face with Queen Diamond, who's smiling wickedly.

"Finally I see you once more," she said with every single one of her words dripping with venom and arrogance. "I was looking forward to talking with my daughter-in-law for a long time."

From that moment, Foeslayer was rather sure that she'd never see her family again.

Her memories then moved forward, and there she was, back in the Diamond Caves, although far more heavily bound than she'd be later on, cruel chains all over her body with sharp sides, and small spikes protruding all over their length, piercing her skin and drawing blood if she dared to move an inch.

She heard someone slowly stomping down and closer to her, and then Diamond was there, just some steps ahead and staring at her prisoner with a wide grin. And she appeared to be carrying a few things on her back but the Nightwing wasn't able to move her head enough to tell what they were.

Diamond slithered closer and then forcefully grabbed one of Foeslayer's back talons, making her wince as the chains pressed on her limb and some blood dripped on her black scales, and then she felt a weight on her ankle, her eyes shifted but she wasn't able to turn her head enough to look at what the Icewing had done.

And then the queen dropped her talon without any care on the ground, making the sharp chain hurt there again, and then she repeated the process on her other ankle back there, and also dropped that talon on the ground the same way.

"It's done now, ooh I can't wait, so that's why I'll proceed immediately," Diamond's cruel voice spoke from behind and then she walked to Foeslayer's side, suddenly she could feel one of Diamond's talons on her back, and then she was dragging one of her sharp serrated claws up her back and closer to her neck, making a bloody red line up there as Foeslayer shuddered but tried to not make a sound, now it's probably time for her execution, so at least she won't give her killer the satisfaction of having made her scream, beg or anything during her last hour.

Diamond's claw stopped at the base of her neck, pressing on it as blood trickled down, as if marking a spot…

It was all very quick, Foeslayer heard Diamond draw a weapon of some kind, and the very next second it had already pierced her neck and ended on the other side, she gasped in pain, eyes darting down as her blurry vision saw an unusual speartip.

Her head slammed the ground, and suddenly she was feeling so cold, is death always like this? Just cold… No… She can feel something on her ankles among the rest of her pain, an odd sound, and a sensation that just kept growing.

Nearly her whole body was feeling cold, and she was scared.

At least the pain ends now… Dear Darkstalker, I hope you can do what Arctic couldn't…

And then, Foeslayer stopped thinking…

Until her thoughts came back to her merely a minute later, she gasped as she opened her eyes, the pain was all gone although the aftershock remained, and behind her she heard Diamond laughing to herself.

"Ah ah ah, did you think that'd be it? That I'd feel satisfied with just ending your miserable life one time?" She stood in front of Foeslayer, whose eyes widened in shock and fear, she had died, so Diamond… No, not even she would make such a punishment, no dragon in Pyrrhia would ever be this cruel.

But as Diamond's talons gripped Foeslayer's head to look at her right in the startled eyes, the Nightwing saw her eyes, and realized that if there's one dragon that would dare going to such extremes, it'd be Queen Diamond.

And then the queen, who's grabbing Foeslayer's head, slammed it forcefully against the ground, making her gasp for breath, but didn't even get time as then her head got twisted and her neck snapped with a loud CRACK.

Her conscience shut off immediately after that snap, barely feeling the following cold for a second before her vision went dark.

Then she was feeling again, her neck was intact, but then she felt something piercing her straight in the heart, her eyes instinctively opening from the shock and pain and she saw the cold ground below her starting to get redder, and she fell to the ground.

Her heart is beating and pumping again, she was wishing that it didn't as soon enough the spear had gone into her skull and struck her brain, that was as instant yet as painful as when her neck broke.

Queen Diamond laughed some more, Foeslayer dared to open her eyes, and she was met with the queen's crazed eyes, filled with euphoria.

"Yes, yes… This should do it, this is the perfect punishment for your crime of ruining my kingdom and taking away my son. You know, the war that you started has been going rough and keeps putting pressure on me, so at last I got something to unwind. I'll see you again after dinner."

Queen Diamond held her spear close to her and walked away, leaving Foeslayer trembling, shaken and scared for her possible new life… Forever.

Foeslayer's memories during her sleep moved faster ahead, she recalled every single death that Diamond put her through, the queen was the cruelest dragon she'd ever heard of, and she never quite put her through the same death twice. Of course her heart or other vital organs would get stabbed other times, but what came before it always changed, be it several jabs all over her body with the spear, Diamond clawing at her face with her serrated claws, etc.

And the queen had been keeping count with unsettling glee, on a wall near Foeslayer she'd often see upon being awakened for another death that each time there was a new vertical mark cut on the ice. she had died 10 times… 17… 25…

Starting from the 30th death, somehow it got even worse.

She was unfrozen once more, by now having given up completely on life and death, she's nothing but a toy for a crazy queen, what dignity or pride could she ever keep by this point? Diamond didn't even ask her questions or try to interrogate her for information, she just wanted to kill her.

This time, she saw that Diamond was wearing something a little different, instead of her great shiny crown, there was a smaller tiara on her head, and there was some more jewelry on her body than usual, and her expression was somehow looking even more dangerous today.

"Congratulations, today you might be freed," Diamond snarled at her, Foeslayer's head immediately turned to look at the Icewing, her neck hurting from how fast she moved it.

"What…?" She questioned, not believing her ears.

Diamond approached and pulled the sharp chains off her with ease, very quickly and surprising given she just snapped them, so only the shackles on her ankles remained.

"Stand up," Diamond ordered with her regal voice, and the Nightwing shakily got up, she didn't get to actually stand or move like this in so long.

"So, I thought of a very entertaining idea, and it's a very simple concept, could even consider it a game that a pair of dragonets would get," she said with an unsettling happy and nice tone that made Foeslayer shiver.

"A game…? What sort of game could you even propose?" The Nightwing muttered.

"If you can kill me, all the spells binding you will break," the queen announced, and Foeslayer looked at her as if she had grown a second head, just looking silent at the Icewing, who looked amused by her reaction.

"It should be far more interesting for the two of us, so ready? Try to resist."

Foeslayer's old fighting instincts snapped back into her mind, and she dived to a side as she could tell Diamond was lunging at her, so she evaded the mad queen… But when Diamond landed on the ground, her talons instantly cracked the ground beneath.

Three moons, what was that!? Foeslayer's mind quickly wondered as she then saw Diamond turn towards her and run at the Nightwing, so she tried to literally melt the ice by using her firebreath on Diamond.

The Icewing queen merely closed her eyes and walked through the fire without even as much as a burn mark, opening her eyes and looking smugly at the Nightwing who stepped back in shock.

"Underwhelming, you really thought I wouldn't have prepared a response to fire?" She snarled, and taking advantage of Foeslayer's shock, quickly darted towards her…

And the Nightwing found herself lifted up by the queen's front talons which were holding her, and it only took her a second like if she didn't even need to try.

And then her next death occurred when the Icewing threw her against a wall, cracking most of it with the impact and breaking basically all of her bones.

The group of deaths from 30 to 40 were filled with pain and a fear that had been reborn, these weren't even fights, they were spite matches. Diamond clearly wanted to break her down further, make her think she even had the smallest of chances to receive freedom, make her deaths mean even more as disappointment and broken hopes fill Foeslayer.

Diamond showed strength that no dragon should possess, one time she literally killed Foeslayer by grabbing a big chunk of the wall and smashing her head in with it.

Another time she had turned and snapped her head so hard that she literally ended up facing the opposite direction.

And then Diamond just showed more tricks, like how one time Foeslayer was unfrozen by… Nobody? No one was there… She took some steps around in confusion before feeling a sharp pain on her chest, that was her weirdest death.

And then the 40th encounter…

Foeslayer got unfrozen, breathing heavily as she stared down at Diamond, who stared right back at her. Foeslayer quickly looked for whatever weapon or tool the queen may use this time, and one of Diamond's talons she spotted a large narwhal horn.

Seeing Diamond and the horn of a narwhal moved around some of her memories, something that Arctic had said years ago…?

"Foeslayer," Queen Diamond announced solemnly. "I am pleased to announce that you'll very soon have a new job upon you in these caves, so this might be the last time we see each other… Maybe."

Foeslayer's head perked up, something changed? No more seeing Diamond? It sounded amazing at first, but she knew better than to hope for something good.

"So this is why I'll make sure this encounter will be one to remember," Diamond said, and Foeslayer heard a sound emanating from her… Too late she realized what it was after the blast of frostbreath had gone through the queen's mouth and hit her side.

She screamed in pain, until now, the queen surprisingly hadn't used her natural weapon as an Icewing, it appeared that she was waiting for the right time to do so.

After using it, Diamond lunged forward with the narwhal horn and stabbed one of her legs with it, blood leaking out and Foeslayer can barely stay up, but at the same time she felt all the cold and pain from the frostbreath fading away.

Oh you have to be kidding.

Diamond kept throwing frostbreath at her, constantly enveloping different parts of the Nightwing's body with cold absolute pain followed by a terrifying numbness, before the queen inevitably stabbed her with the horn and then all that went away so she can continue doing this.

After several minutes, she had circled back to in front of Foeslayer, and fired frostbreath straight to her face, it went into her nostrils, it reached her eyes, she couldn't see anything, she was certain she was blinded and in a lot of pain for the remainder of this life.

And then death appeared as during her screaming, Diamond shot a large blast of frost right into her mouth, and Foeslayer fell over, her lungs and her heart freezing.

And that's when, at present time, Foeslayer finally woke up with a gasp, eyes wide open, a talon pressed against her chest, feeling her beating, alive heart.

She slowly and shakily stood up, gasping heavily and taking deep breaths for air, she managed to walk, trying to calm herself down after reminiscing about the worst part of her long life, the memories still ever so present, at times she thought she was walking on grass covered by her own blood, her mind imagining Diamond suddenly appearing from absolutely anywhere and choking the life out of her, or throwing a tree at her head.

She sat down after some minutes and closed her eyes to think, her breathing slowing down as she tried to regain composure.

I'm a mess… She thought with sadness filling her. I hate her. I hate her kingdom, her subjects, everything related to her. But she also died centuries ago, none of her subjects truly knew of all that I went through until now, one of the members of her tribe saved me… What do I even think about Icewings?

She noticed she was clutching tightly the grass below her talons, like if she was scared she'd be suddenly pulled away from this clearing, away from the sun, thrown back into something worse than prison.

Does someone ever truly heal after this? Her mind thought with resentment. I have to be the only dragon to have ever died over a hundred times, all painful, and I am not even in my own era, I don't know anyone of my tribe, or from other tribes, or who's even queen.

I miss them, I miss my home, my children, even Arctic.

She looked up to the sky, towards the direction Winter and her came from, she hoped the Icewing would hurry, she can't take this for much longer, to still be in solitude, she needed someone, and most of all, someone that could understand her, that might show support.

I wish I could see my family again…