Aestheraht

Chapter 5: A captive King

There was a time in my childhood I can faintly recall feeling happiness. I was 13 years old. It was a fine weathered fall, and the underworld was preparing for the cold winter. During the winter the passages to the underworld usually freeze shut, so new entrances have to be concealed and kept secret, so they were usually guarded by at least a volunteer thief. Not the best security but it's what we had. This year I was guarding one of the passages leading into the deeper parts of the underworld. Despite my age I had quite a reputation with my magical skills.

I was known among the people as "The ice demon". They called me this in reference to my specialty in ice magic and my tendency to protect myself by covering myself in ice. I've been told I look like a demon when I do that.

There was a kid who was guarding that entrance with me. He was around my age, and he was absolutely covered in dirt and grime. But the interesting thing about him was his ocean blue hair with eyes to match. His name was Aquen. Aquen was always a wild card, At any time a roll between overly bubbly and horribly depressive. Aquen was a water mage,we told ourselves that together we were unstoppable, and had the skill to back it up.

Individually though, Aquen was weak. Fickle. But he was kind, no one wanted to hurt him when he was alone. He had a way with words. Aquen and I commonly went on 'Missions' through the underworld. We would map out how to get across the whole entire kingdom in the shortest amount of time. Traveling from camp to camp, through tight tunnels and closed entrances. We knew how to get anywhere.

That night though was the worst of it all. The door we were guarding, little to our knowledge, was an entrance that the king's knights used. Some of the knights were trying to slip in while we guarded it. The knights didn't enjoy two kids telling them they can't enter so they drew their weapons.

Aquen and I shared a glance and a grin and set to fighting. My hands grew cold, frost forming on them. Aquen quickly dashed in, water slowly forming in droplets around him as he got closer. I followed behind him, my arms covered in ice.

In a flash of movement one of the knights drew a blade and slashed across Aquen's body. It was quicker than I could even process. My body reacted instantly in fear, raising a wall of ice between where the guards sword once was and Aquen's body, clumped on the ground and shaking. I rushed to my injured friend and rolled him on his back. I looked in his eyes but the dark blue that once roared with chaos and life was now as pale as the silver of a cloud. His hands had already gone cold.

That is the first time I experienced grief, or pain. I stared into his eyes, hoping and praying that that spark of light I had grown to truly love would come back into his eyes, but he was gone. I was silent, and nothing seemed to move around me. I couldn't feel the passage of time. My grief quickly turned against my attackers, the people who had taken Aquen from me.

I stood slowly, my vision tinted red as I craved blood and retribution of those who had hurt my friend. My family.

My heartbeat played through my head and a tiny voice repeatedly screamed for vengeance.

Through the noise I heard the clanking of swords as they attempted to break through my ice wall, and I couldn't help but smile, even laugh, as I raised a hand, feeling magic swell inside of me. I turned my palm outward and made a pushing motion.

The ice wall exploded outwards towards the knights, a flurry of light blue shards piercing through crevices and nooks in the knight's armor. I saw them one by one fall, until only two were standing, hiding behind their shields.

Now, a two versus one, I could win.

I covered my arms and chest in a thick layer of ice, as I slowly approached the two knights, still cowering behind their shields. As I approached, one of them swung a sword wildly, knocking their shield upwards too soon. I quickly reacted, lowering my arm to block his sword's sweep. There was a sharp clang and a cracking sound as the iron collided with the dense ice covering my skin. My grin widened, as I used the opportunity to dash forward, wrenching the sword that had stuck in my ice out of the knights hand, and smashing the knight's armor with the opposite arm I had used to block. He stood his ground but doubled over, and I smashed both my forearms over the knight's head immediately shattering the ice, and putting a huge dent in his helmet. I felt a sharp pain in my backside before I could see the man fall. I fell forward and reactionarily rolled to the side as a blade pierced the stone where I had just landed. The knight's tempered steel blade roared at the collision. The knight struggled to get his sword out of the ground. As I started to force myself upwards the knight gave up on the sword and tackled me. He started pummeling me with his fists, cold iron pounding into the roughed skin of my face. I raised my arms to block, the ice holding up poorly against the constant flurry of fists.

My life flashed. My success in surviving, my failure in living. I hated myself for dying like this. I hated that I did nothing. I saw Aquen. I saw the years of time we had known each other. I remembered all our adventures. And I remembered him being killed. Again. And I couldn't stand it. Something in me broke.

I can't remember what happened to the knights afterwards. Everything went black. I just know I had to have passed out at some point.

I woke up lying on the cold stone, the ceiling above me. My body ached and for the first time I could feel the frostbite covering my skin. It was the most pain I'd felt at once and I couldn't help but cry. I laid there for hours before someone came to find me. The first thing I heard was a gasp, and a soft voice muttering "What happened here..." to themselves.

I groaned and heard the person quickly shuffle over to me, picking me up in their arms. "Oh, you're so cold! And such a small child..." Their face was soft and feminine. They had caring eyes. Those eyes held my attention until I drifted to sleep, tears staining my face and my body absolutely drained, ignorant to the bloody carnage that surrounded me.