(Previous version) Queen of Ice, Sword of Iron, Heart of Crystal

Chapter 11 ~Rhea

Flying. The word that brought me both exhilarating joy and unspeakable pain at the same time- despite everything, I still thought of it, still missed the feeling of it, still dreamed of it-

And this time, it was no different.

As always, I was soaring, shooting through the morning skies, the large, iridescent wings outstretched from the backs of my shoulder blades. They were extensions of my body, very much alive and breathing as the rest of me.

There was a cool, wild breeze on my face and whispering in my ears, the golden light of dawn behind my closed eyelids, and that wondrous sensation of being feather light and not having a care, as I lifted off, spun, dove, and spun again, with nothing but the soft clouds beneath my feet. Freedom was a song in my blood, my breath, my bones. I was free, and it seemed like I would always be. As if I was weaving in and out between the worlds. My long, white-gold hair streamed behind me, caught on the winds. My heart was filled with a pure joy that I couldn't describe or fathom, so full that I thought it would burst.
~
But deep down, I knew what was to come.

I ignored it, resisted it, pushed, fought, roared against it. Maybe this time it would be different. Maybe this time I'd be fast enough to fly away, to find a way to escape-

But no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, it never stopped the dark, icy arrow that pierced right through one of my wings, cleaving the world I knew in two.

Struggling, struggling, I was struggling to stay airborne, fighting with all the strength, all the fight I had left. It was no use. My strength was failing, right when I needed it the most-

I plunged straight to the ground, right through the protective layer of clouds. Like how I'd fallen from a cut bridge. This was another world, another past lifetime, and I was falling. To the stormy, cold hell of a world below, my body smashing onto the hard, unforgiving snow. The edge of a snowy wood.

The sorrow, despair, and emptiness hit all at once then, like a dead weight. It always did. My Court frozen, my kingdom fallen, my sister- the Faerie Queen, also frozen, and my one and only lover- dead. Still more unmoving figures lay sprawled on the ground not too far off. An ambush. There had been an ambush near these woods. Only one of many that had been a result of the Great War with the Northern Kingdom, ever since it had arisen with the Queen of Ice. And it was my fault. I hadn't saved them, and now they were all dead, to be long forgotten. And it was all my fault.

And yet, somehow, I forced my aching limbs to push myself up, my hands raw and numb in the snow, which was still falling. There was a presence, cold and predatory, standing in front of me, looking down upon me, and I didn't have to look up to know who it was. Still, I forced myself to lift my head anyway, to meet those hard, icy blue eyes. Somehow, I managed to get to my feet.

"Please, help me." My voice was barely a rasp, an echo through my dry lips. "We can still survive this battle, together. There is still hope of winning this war-"

Her cold, icy voice sounded then. No trace of the half sister I once knew, once trained with in the courtyard. She'd been cast out of the kingdoms by our mother when we were young, and for years I hadn't heard anything of her whereabouts. I had never even known anything about her tremendous levels of power, until now. Never before had she shown it, before she'd been kicked out in our early days. But now...but now... I couldn't even have imagined, had never thought to make that connection...
"Together? I didn't know that word ever existed between us. You thought I was on your side. You thought. Perhaps you'll think differently when I make a demonstration of who I truly am."