Finding Contentus

Chapter 115: Trust

Minaleese found Carisse in one of the rook towers. The Icer was overlooking Winturn with attentive eyes like a Godmother to all.

"You are everything I and our people have wished for and more," Carisse said like no time had passed between them at all.

She looked at Minaleese, her expression was emotionless, but her eyes... shined with immeasurable joy.

In fact, the tiniest semblance of what looked like a smile twinkled on her lips. Minaleese didn't share the same sentiment. She simply stood next to Carisse who was dressed in a long, cloudy grey dress with crystal patterns.

"You probably don't remember me, do you?"

"I don't remember much from back then since nothing was worth my memory," Minaleese said coldly, keeping her face even as she watched the children going about their day.

She saw herself in them. Children that had no idea what emotion even was, which drove their curiosity to discover what it was like some object in the lake, like trying to ensnare a Yumboe.

"Seleese had potential," Carisse said with something close to fondness, eyes showering over Minaleese's tawny-brown skin that differed from both her parents. "When you were born—"

Minaleese gave her a look. "The future." She didn't want to speak about her mother, or her father. She didn't want to look back and recount her old life. She wanted to look forward.

A hint of intrigue could be seen in Carisse's eyes. "How did it feel?" There was something exploitative in her whispering voice. She sounded so cold, so removed.

Minaleese exhaled a visible breath. "The Ice Queen's sole desire is to freeze everything. That is her only want, her only desire, her only goal. You would worship such a force?"

"If it is her will," Carisse said easily, like it was common knowledge. "The duty of the Icer is to bring her roots out in the suitable container, not question her motives. We are to trust her power. All the Icers before me failed."

Carisse smiled properly this time. It was a soft smile, but it still looked like frozen wood cracking. "I am the first to succeed with you."

"And Gabrielle is the first to take us all in the right direction." Minaleese turned from her.

Carisse didn't stop looking at Minaleese like her prized possession. "Will you teach our clan what you have learned?"

"To me it seems that Urielle has already been doing what I could not." Strange. Deep down, she wanted to lash out at Carisse, but what would that do? She wasn't a child. If it wasn't for Carisse, she would have been stuck in the Ice castle for the rest of her life.

For all the good and the bad she had experienced, Minaleese did have Carisse to thank. She was the one that set her free as an experiment. And her test worked brilliantly, surpassing even her own expectations. With Maxis, with Minaleese and Kakara.

"So the Racaans were the missing pieces all along. It's ironic wouldn't you say? The Great Racaans, lovers of nature and life, but not loved by nature and life." Carisse studied Minaleese for an emotional response.

Minaleese thought about her husband, about her sister wife Bantii, her twins Genesia and Neosa and her niece Mpho, how they had affected her life, Kakara's life and Gabrielle's life.

"Rënero has a saying about moving like water, and being fluid with the flow. The same can be said for us, as your experiment with me can testify. To be emotionless is to be non-living, but to have emotions and know when to freeze them is what living is truly about. In other words, to know when to freeze water into ice and melt ice into water is the natural flow of all things pertaining to how our people should live from this day."