Bringer of Winter- a M/M/M Epic Fantasy Romance

PROLOGUE- Visions of Shay'yah

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me

there lay an invincible summer."

-Albert Camus

"Khif, the darkness is where they dwell, where your ancestors lie in wait for you to bear their power in your fists. You must know this darkness, my child. Know it. Feel it. Let it consume you. Let Wal'yah's frozen depths take over you. Only then will the ground rise up to meet you. Only then will you embody her power."

"Grana, I don't understand," the boy whispered, shivering as the chill of the ancestor's souls enveloped him, his grana's shay'yah, her magic, powering them and giving them strength. "How do I do that? I barely know how to use my shay'yah, much less—"
   
"Quiet, child. You think too much, and speak too much. You must silence your brain and your tongue, and simply feel. Feel the ancestors around you."
   
The child grumbled in irritation as he shifted, his crossed legs beneath him beginning to prickle with ants. Just as he had resigned himself next to his silent and secretly amused grandmother, the door to the room slammed open and two children tumbled in. The older girl, only four, bowed low with her fingers over her lips once she had righted herself. The younger child, barely two, continued to roll on the ground and over to the Cailleach's knees, bumping into the old woman and squealing with laughter.
   
"Naka!" Khif squealed with excitement, ducking down and tackling the toddler who had crashed without hesitation into their grandmother. The little girl had the exact same shade of bright, glowing orange hair as the boy, and stunning orange eyes that rivaled an autumn sunset. And, just like the boy, the girl was tiny for her age.
   
The second child, now staring shyly at her soft wool moccasins, looked up at her wrestling siblings and giggled softly. Much the opposite of her siblings, four-year-old Ally had the light blonde hair of their mother and her soft sky-blue eyes.
   
"Naka, Ally!" a woman's voice called, followed closely by a tall, regal woman that made all the children turn and bow low. Although the Cailleach's smile was mischievous, the woman looked furious.

"I told you to leave the Waya and Cailleach alone today, girls!"
   
The children's mother, Te'a, was stunningly beautiful with a slim waist, busty chest, and wide hips. Her golden blonde hair was legendary in Nibea for the way it shone even in the weak winter sun, and all praised Ally for having inherited it. Unlike most Nibeans, Te'a was serious about propriety and the proper time and place of things. As such, her two children, Khif and Naka, as Nibean as any children could be, drove her to distraction daily.
   
"But Mama, I was gettin' bored anyway. I wanna go'n play!"
   
The boy's words made Te'a flinch heavily and she glared down at him, her temper kept in check only by the presence of the Cailleach, who seemed to watch the interactions with an amused act at being irritated.
   
"Waya, speak properly. You are not a wild animal."
   
A snort from the corner made Te'a turn her attention to Ryker, whom she had not noticed until then. Silently watching the interaction between mother and offspring with the same amusement as the Cailleach, he bowed his head and touched his fingers gently to his lips, forcing Te'a to do the same out of respect for his station.
   
"I don't know about that, Te'a," Ryker muttered, his eyes on the boy's small form and his sisters, all of whom now rolled on the floor in gales of laughter. Using strange hand motions, the boy brought a chill wind directly into the room and, as snow began to fall from the ceiling, his shay'yah glowing throughout his body for those who had the eyes to see, his sisters chattered happily and jumped at the flakes of snow that lit on their faces, tongues and hair. "He's not much of a gentleman, either."
   
"I don't wanna be a gentleman, Ryker. I'mma war'rog. I don't need'a be a gentleman."
   
"Yes, my Waya," Ryker answered, laughing in his deep, gravelly voice.
   
"It's alright, Te'a," the Cailleach said when Te'a opened her mouth to retort to the boy again. "They are but children, and we should let them be children while they still can."
   
The ominous tone in her voice was ignored by Te'a, who nodded in distracted agreement but immediately scooped Naka up and scolded her for rolling in the snow in the Waya's bedroom, but both Ryker and Khif froze and stared up at the Cailleach, Ryker watchful and the boy with confusion.
   
"What's wrong, Grana?"
   
The Cailleach turned to the boy's little form, looking deeply into his eyes, and after a heavy pause she smiled sadly. "Oh my love, nothing is wrong. I fear time is not as kind as I would like it to be, Fate even less so."
   
"Grana?"
   
The gentle snow Khif had brought into the room falling softly on the Cailleach's golden orange hair, streaked heavily with white, the Cailleach put her finger to her lips to silence him.
   
"Go play with your sisters, Khif. Time flows, and I will not keep a child from play. Especially one like you. Go. We can finish our lessons later."
   
With a whoop of joy, the little boy grabbed Ally's arm, dragging her behind his stomping feet and, with a quick motion from the boy, his shay'yah dancing from his fingers, a squealing Naka was yanked from her mother's arms seemingly only by the wind. Ryker following behind the children with a gentle smile on his face, Te'a turned to the Cailleach in exasperation.
   
"You spoil him, Cailleach."
   
"Maybe," the old woman murmured, looking up at the snow that still fell in soft drifts from the stone ceiling with a blissful smile on her lips. "But he deserves it. With the trials he shall face..." The Cailleach broke off, studying Te'a for a moment before shrugging. "Never mind. It is nothing."
   
"Cailleach, tell me please," Te'a began, wringing her hands in her lap. The Cailleach had always poked fun at the much younger woman for her discomfort with anything to do with Nibean shay'yah, but now she kept her silence. Te'a didn't even seem to notice the gently falling snow, and that in itself was strange. "My son, Khifin. You always say he is unique; that he is different from any Cailleach before him, and not just because he's male. Can you tell me why? What makes him so strange?"
   
The Cailleach was silent for a full minute as she lifted her hand, palm up, and caught flakes of snow on the tips of her fingers. Each snowflake was completely still once it had reached the old woman's skin, and none of it melted no matter what part of her body it fell on. And, unlike Te'a's breath that fogged out of her mouth as thick as smoke, the Cailleach's breath wasn't seen at all.
   
A true queen of ice, Te'a thought, studying the older woman. The Cailleach was over eighty years old and yet her face had few wrinkles and her hands were as steady as any woman a quarter her age. She was truly a demi-goddess, and Te'a had never ceased to feel awe when she was in the presence of her husband's mother.
   
"He is more powerful than any Cailleach has ever been. In his body flows so much shay'yah that he is barely even human. He is as close to a god as any mortal in existence now, although there are three siblings far from here who, together, could rival him."
   
"Not human...?" Te'a's voice was soft, her eyes distant. "But how..."
   
"It is not something to be afraid of, Te'a," the Cailleach whispered, reaching out and gripping her hand with fingers cold as a snow storm. "Here. See in your offspring what I see in my grandson. See through the brightening veil of shay'yah..."
   
As the old woman's grip on her hand tightened, her fingernails digging into her skin, Te'a gasped. Icy cold shivers raced through her body, crackling up her spine like sparks of heat. Her vision went black and just before she screamed in fear, an image of Khif stood in front of her. Khif, with Ryker beside him, dwarfing the child to a ridiculous degree. Snow fell around their forms, Khif's red hair stark against the dark gray sky behind him.
   
Khif smiled brightly, waving at Te'a happily.
   
"Look at me, Te'a," the Cailleach whispered, her voice soft, whispering, soothing. When Te'a turned to the old woman, she had to fight the urge to rip her hand from the woman's grip. The Cailleach's skin glowed an unearthly, dark blue. It came from within as if, rather than her skin glowing, it was the blood that flowed through her veins that was afire. "This is my shay'yah, the blue light which you see. Much brighter, much deeper within me than any other normal je'lyen who does not bear the Bheur blood. Now look on your son again. See him as I see him every day."
   
When Te'a's eyes turned to the image of her child again, as if pulled with a force much stronger than she could resist, her heart felt as if it had been yanked up to her throat.
   
Khif glowed with an inner light that outshone the Cailleach's like the sun outshone a tiny star in the night sky. The child's form was hardly visible but for the deep blue shay'yah that sparked across his skin. Not only was it brighter than the Cailleach's, but it was a lighter shade of blue with deep streaks of gold and a deep black hue that almost drowned out the blue.
   
"See his future as I see it, my daughter," the Cailleach whispered, her grip on Te'a's hand tightening painfully.
   
In the next moment, the Khif in front of Te'a was a decade older, possibly more, still shadowed by Ryker. He wore foreign clothes and the gold in his shay'yah had dimmed. Blood coated his hands, and Ryker was completely drenched in it. It dripped from his long, braided hair like drops of melting water from icicles. Te'a wanted to gag, to look away, to scream, but she was unable. Forced to look on, she watched as, rather than the smile of a few moments ago, Khif growled low and snapped his teeth at her, his ice-blue eyes ominous and filled with bitterness and hatred.
   
After this, flashes of images ran through Te'a's mind, indecipherable to her thoughts that were not used to anything even similar to this. She saw Khif killing men surrounded by screaming, ecstatic crowds, saw him in a pool of blood, shivering against cold stone. She saw a man with a twisted mind hovering over him, holding him down, and then there was more blood.

She couldn't name everything she saw, but finally when the flashes of images ended, she again saw Khif standing before her. Glowing even brighter than before, he looked older, an adult with his body filling out the war'rog armor he wore, now backed not only by Ryker but another man who stood on his right, and another on his left. The snow blew up in a flurry around them, the glow of Khif's shay'yah surrounding both him and the men to his sides. The two at his sides smiled simply, gently, waving at Te'a as Khif simply smiled sadly at her, tears in his eyes.
   
"Dear gods," Te'a gasped as the Cailleach finally let her hand go and sat back, leaning against the cold stone behind her "That man. One... one of them. He was—"
   
"Yes. He was Nelek." 

"And the other? My son will have two by his side?"

"Yes. The other... His path will lead him to our family sooner than I would like. But your son will bring him back to the glory of the ancestors, back from the brink of destruction and damnation. It will take only the sacrifice of his agony and his pride, and the patience of a true Cailleach."