Tale of Two Bloods

A Perfect Circle

Aros rolled his eyes. "Yes. Look, there was a reason for everything happening the way it did. It wasn't ideal but what happened in the past wasn't random."

Aros continued to explain how there were choices and consequences and how decisions were made on impulse for selfish reasons but Wyatt was barely listening. He cut him off. "Aros! Does this mean that Icelium is still there uninhabited?"

He paused and narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"In order to stop a body from decomposing, you keep it on ice. I thought maybe it would be in the Frost Kingdom but what if Maverick's body is in Icelium?"

Aros scratched the side of his head as he thought about it. "Uh, I guess I'll go check."

"Will you take me with you?" Wyatt wondered.

Aros was about to decline thinking Wyatt was too important to be taken out of the kingdom without receiving the okay from Roy. Then it occurred to him that this young king was still a king and who was Aros to care about another kingdom? He smirked. "Sure, kid."

Wyatt grabbed Aros by the arm as he was pulled into the shadows. They stepped out from behind the shadow of a building made of frosted ice. There were little dancing orbs that shined light down on the abandoned ice city. The buildings were jagged and tall. Some had cracks in them. Everything seemed practical. Wyatt gasped as he saw the frozen remains of the massacre that he just learned about.

There were dark red stains and black ash splattered all over the frozen ground and on the sides of many buildings. There were frozen bodies littered everywhere. Body parts were scattered randomly as if they had exploded off of someone. He saw remnants of people who wore blue, scaly clothing with blue skin and figures of Repers dressed in old fashioned dress clothes. These Repers were different than the steam punk ones that he took out in his kingdom.

Aros glanced at Wyatt. "I suppose asking if you sense Maverick is pointless since you've never felt him before."

Wyatt nodded as he continued to stare around at the bodies, blood and ash. "My mother did this?"

"The exploding water users, yes."

"She was fighting with the Repers?"

"It wasn't exactly intentional. She was just fighting against the water users. Apparently, the Repers were too."

"I thought she was captured by the Repers."

"She was," Aros said leading Wyatt to the main building he stood outside so many years ago. "This was where she met the conductor, Ayson."

"Why did they kidnap her?"

"Honestly, I'm still not sure if that was because Ayson wanted to or because Vallyne wanted him too."

"Vallyne was working with the Repers?"

"Yeah. Pretty messed up, right? Never knowing who you can trust. That's why me and Anya are so close. We only had each other."

They entered the building and looked around. It was almost empty except for a few water users covered in black ash.

"It must have been difficult for you," Wyatt said causing Aros to look at him. "She was all you had but you weren't all she had."

Aros clenched his jaw as he looked away and continued to examine the small amount of chaos before him. "It was a good guess, kid, but there's nothing here."

"We should check a few more of the minor buildings just to be sure."

Giving a shrug, Aros agreed and they stepped out to a greeting of Repers. Before they could react, they were grabbed from behind and felt the world spin. It stopped as suddenly as it started and they found themselves standing in a different ice kingdom. This had much smoother ice, more elegantly designed buildings, ice sculptures and frozen fountains. They could see it from the window of the building they were in. In front of them was Caspian holding a drink. He was smiling slyly as he focused on them. Their Reper captives kept hold of them.