Chapter Twenty - Into The Cold

Chapter Twenty

I’m cold.

That’s pretty much all I could think about after leaving the dead Mage guy and taking some of his robes. Drew and I split the findings, although he didn’t have much, and tried to keep as much warmth as possible. My fingers were numb despite the gloves, and I was pretty sure my nose had stopped being part of my face.

Ahead of me, Drew plowed through the snow like it was just another day. The only difference, WE HAD NO IDEA WHERE WE WERE GOING. My first thought was to use the rune stone to get back, but we had no idea how to activate it. I spent a fair share of time pouring as much of my Aether as possible into the rune before I threw it into the snow.

“You should’ve left that creepy rock back there,” I muttered, pulling my cloak tighter around me. “You know, the one that looks like its straight from a demons house.”

Drew didn’t even look back. “We couldn’t just leave it,” he said, tucking the rune deeper into his Mage pouch.

The rune stone made my skin crawl. Ever since the evil Mage had touched it, it gave off a faint purple glow, and the air seemed to get colder. My gut churned every time Drew touched it, but I couldn’t tell him to drop it without sounding like a paranoid idiot.

The wind howled around us. The Northlands stretched out forever, an expanse of white that gave me a hard time differentiating the ground from the sky. Mostly it was just snow, lots and lots of snow.

Drew halted in front of me so fast I smacked headfirst into his back. Yep, still couldn’t feel anything in my nose.

“Leo,” he whispered.

“What?” I asked, my hands instinctively getting into a position to fire a spell.

“Do you hear that?”

I focused my ears; all I could hear was the wind. “Hear what?”

Drew didn’t answer, he looked puzzled for a second and then returned to his normal stoic posture.

“Never mind, must’ve just been the wind.”

Well, that was sure scary. “Don’t scare me like that man.” I chuckled.

I had not even realized how long we had been trudging through thigh deep snow before I noticed the setting sun.

“We need to find shelter,” Drew yelled into the wind.

“I thought the goal was to become an ice sculpture.” I yelled back. He glanced at me, but his expression was weird. He was one of my best friends, and I could tell he was off. Mostly in a, I have a weird dark secret kind of way, or a, I hate the dentist, kind of way.

“Any brilliant ideas? We could cuddle.” I screamed. No smile. I thought that one was pretty funny.

“There,” Drew said, pointing ahead.

I followed his finger and spotted something in the distance. At first I thought it was just another ice rock formation, but as I strained my eyes it became more distinct. Dark, jagged structures jutted out of the snow, their surfaces were black and gloomy. It looked like the remains of some ancient ruins, half buried under centuries of ice and snow.

“Well, that’s not scary at all,” I said, my voice practically oozing with sarcasm. He trudged on, he was right, there weren’t very many options. The closer I got to the ruins, the worse I felt. It felt like my Aether receptors were being sent into overdrive. This place was only getting sketchier.

Drew didn’t even acknowledge me. His expression had gone all… intense. Focused. Like he was trying to remember something.

We stepped inside the ruins; I had almost completely forgotten what the sound of relative silence sounded like. The air was heavy, like someone was pressing down on my shoulders.

“I don’t like this, Drew. Let’s just camp out near the entrance and leave in the morning. Maybe see if we can figure out the rune again.” I spoke. He didn’t even turn to respond, he just continued towards some stairs. I followed reluctantly.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked. “Because I feel like now would be a great time to tell me if some crazy scary stuff was going on.”

He finally glanced at me, but his eyes were distant.

“I’m fine, it’s just the cold.” He muttered.

This reminded me of the time my dad had been mad at me for believing the guy outside the grocery store was just looking to give me candy.

We found a relatively intact open area tucked against the stone walls. It wasn’t much, just some broken pillars that still provided cover from the wind, but at this point I would take anything.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Drew started a fire up, while I huddled in my cloak. He kept one hand tucked into his robes; I’m assuming touching the rune stone. I didn’t like that at all. The air seemed to get even colder.

“Drew.”

Nothing.

I reached forward, hesitating only slightly before I grabbed his wrist. It was warm, warmer than it should have been. The second I touched him, he jerked like I’d just yanked him from a dream.

“What!” he snapped.

“You’re creeping me out, dude.” I said bluntly.

He blinked, moved his hand out of his robes like he didn’t even realize he had been touching the stone.

The moment he stopped, the air felt lighter again.

We sat in silence for a while, the fire crackling between us. I could almost feel my nose again.

I sat in silence, reflecting on the day. It had been a pretty bad day. First, we get attacked by some evil mages, and then the big bad one teleports Drew and I away from Grace, that part sucks a lot. I hope she is okay. Then, the place we get teleported to is just constant snow and cold. I don’t think I could ever get use to this. At least I was here with Drew.

I noticed myself begin to drift to sleep. This time I didn’t stop myself. Once again, my sleep whirled into a foggy dream. It wasn’t like my usual dreams, the ones filled with flickering visions of lightning, thrones, ominous mountains and the blonde-haired man. No, this was different. The air was thick and sweet, filled with Aether, but softer, more like the calm rain before a storm. The ground beneath me felt solid, but unreal, like I was standing on something that wasn’t quite there.

And then there was her.

This woman was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Not like “Snapgram model with an sponsored workout”, like classic timeless beauty. She had flowing long brown hair, green eyes that pierced through me, and a welcoming smile that made my dream stomach feel queasy.

“I’ve been watching you for a long time Leo,” she smiled as she turned and walked, my dream body being pulled along with her. “Since you were little,” she continued.

Oh great. Dream lady is a stalker.

“Yeah? Uhh…” I hesitated. “Who exactly are you?”

Her smile didn’t waver in the slightest. “We’ve met, in some capacity.”

That wasn’t spooky at all.

She laughed, it was light and the world around seemed to grow more vibrant with each laugh, but there was an undertone that sent chills down my back.

The world around us shifted. The hazy, dream-like mist solidified into a terrifying clarity. I turned my head and suddenly I wasn’t in a dream anymore.

I was somewhere else entirely.

The sky was black, darker than ink, swirling with angry storm clouds. The air reeked of something metallic. Blood. Around me, the ground was scorched, covered in ash, bodies and broken weapons.

This was a battlefield. A fresh one.

“Do you recognize it?” the woman asked softly, appearing beside me. Her face now full of sorrow.

I swallowed hard, “should I?”

She tilted her head, considering me. Then, with the flick of her wrist, the mist parted further.

And then I saw them.

Bodies. So many bodies.

Scattered across the ruined landscape were all the figures I knew. Friends. Allies. People I cared about.

Grace. Adam. Claire. Oliver. Hen. Everyone.

I stumbled back, my foot caught on something, and I tumbled onto my back. One peek was all it took for horror to completely take hold of me. I stumbled over the body of my sister. Her arms had been burnt and charred; her lifeless eyes stared into mine.

They all lay in the dirt, unmoving. Their weapons shattered beside them. Claire’s hand was outstretched towards something unseen.

“No,” I screamed, shaking my head. “This- this isn’t real!”

“Not yet.” She whispered. Her words sliced through me like a blade.

I picked myself up, and forced myself forward, stumbling towards another body. Grace. A staff clenched in her hand, her knuckles white. She had died fighting. My heart dropped through my stomach, scraping every part of my body as it did.

“No, no, no” I trembled. This was wrong. This couldn’t be real.

I turned, my hands shaking. “You’re lying.”

She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Am I?”

I wheezed for breath, my heart slamming against my rib cage. “Tell me-tell me how to stop this.”

Her smile returned, though this time, there was something sharper beneath it. “Now you are asking the right questions, Leo.”

The battlefield around us flickered and wavered, like a dying candle. The bodies and weapons shifted and disappeared, the world changing and whirling once again.

Now we were standing somewhere different. The throne room.

It was the throne room. The one from my other dreams.

The massive throne sat at the edge of the mountain. Carved from obsidian and purple lightning itself. It pulsed with raw power.

The woman’s expression faltered. Her warmth flickered, and for the first time, I saw some uncertainty in her stance. She took a slow breath, regaining composure. “Leo, listen to me carefully,” she said. Her voice soft, still that strange mix of calm was overwhelming. But there was a tension to it now. “This…this isn’t what I had planned.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She didn’t answer immediately. She spun to look at the throne, and the shadows that surrounded it. It was like she was scanning them waiting for something to crawl out of the dark.

“This place,” she murmured, almost to herself. “isn’t of my making.”

And that’s when I noticed it. The edges of the dream had changed. Like two forms of Aether pushing against each other.

The air felt heavy, like when the rune stone had been activated. I recognized this feeling. It was the same oppressive aura I felt from the being that had brought us all here. A shiver ran down my spine.

“Leo, “the woman said sharply, stepping close. “You need to wake up. Now.”

But I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t wake up.

Something was holding me there.

And then the voice came.

This was something cold. Something deep. Like a whisper curling from the bottom of an ocean trench where no light had ever touched.

“No, Leo.”

“Not yet.”

The woman stiffened. Her shoulders tensed, her whole body shifting slightly in front of me, like she was trying to shield me from whatever was speaking.

The shadows around us thickened, swirling at the edges of the dream. The air vibrated with something ancient.

“This is where it all leads.”

The dream flickered back to the battlefield, before returning to the throne.

“Where it must lead.”

I swallowed. My mouth was dry.

“Oh, Astrivis, still up to your old games.”

“He is weak.”

“Little Leo.”

She turned to me, and for the first time, I saw desperation in her eyes. Her mouth moved like she was whispering something to me that I couldn’t quite make out.

The world around me collapsed. The dream shattered, and I woke up sweating.