Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 101 : For Wolfsbane Is A Flower

22 Days Ago.

I fell. Everything was falling. I was a shooting star midst the sky as I felt my form shift and unhook from Peter. For once in my life, I felt it all.

Pain and sorrow mixed with hope and joy. The fruit of life itself was embedded deep into my body and soul, even infecting my mind. 

They screamed to be saved, to be kept hidden from the flames. They seek to return to the way life was before. When winter was not eternal, when their lives were simple.

I heard them. I felt them. I understood them. I cried softly, and for the first time in the Nawia, tears rolled down my face. They, too, were the souls of joy and sorrow that I bonded with.

‘They do not have to suffer. None of them had to suffer. You can help with that. You can change that. Please, help change that.’

“Of course… I will… I have to.”

I gave a heartfelt smile. Yes, I will help them. I will save them. I will make sure they’re safe from that whore’s flames and from this accursed winter. 

My body slowly descended, my consciousness fading in and out of the world while I felt myself being carried, being pushed almost.

‘We have so much work then~ it’s time for a change in management, and for a new and better world to be born.’

I nodded in agreement. Yes, that was right. A new and better world shall be made. One where they can all be saved, where people who only wish death and destruction can be shoved off the deep end. Yes, that would be a wonderful world, a peaceful world.

That shall be the world I wish to make!

With that in my mind… Everything faded away, and darkness took me once more.

21 Days Ago

“Wakey wakey~” 

A warm voice echoed into my head like a soothing blanket, then an alarm broke through the warmth and comfort like a needle, blaring all around me as I lurched up, growling as I bared my fangs.

“Hahaha~ I missed this.” The sweet voice returned, as sticky and floral as honey. I rubbed my eyes to see who it was as the light adjusted, revealing a beautiful and tall fae who sat by my bed frame. She was now in a form-fitting and skintight black bodysuit that was made for the specialized missions Watchtower agents went on. 

Her hair was tied up into a ponytail, and she had a playful smirk on her face with a small curly piece of hair near the corner of her mouth.

“Welcome back. Did you have a nice time?”

“Oh… Masha? Have I returned to the land of the living?” 

“You have~ and the mission was a complete and total success! You did quite well out there, the best actually. It was everything we could have hoped for and more.” Masha went on all fours, crawling up to me on the bed.

“Would you like a reward~ the other two already got it~ best to say that they won’t be waking up any time soon~”

I shook my head and held up my hand, showcasing the ever-glittering ring on my finger. “Thank you, but no. My reward shall come soon when I save this world and mine from the evil that lurks within.”

Masha stared at my eyes, and I stared back. For a moment, it looked like she was about to grow closer before she finally recoiled away all of a sudden and gave a light-hearted laugh. 

“Ah, wel,l we do need you awake and lively for what comes next in this grand scheme.” Masha stretched herself, rubbing her fingers over the skin-tight uniform. “These are quite nice~ I like the material, it is so elastic and flexible. I was afraid it wouldn’t fit me, but alas!” She raised her arms up.

“It has! Much like you fit into this world. Come, would you like to discuss it here or would you rather be in your cafeteria or sunbathing outside? The weather has inexplicably become quite lovely.”

I gave a little smile. I didn’t feel quite right at the moment. My vision was quite blurry while my heart, well, it felt as if it were ripped out of my chest and shoved right back in. “Here would be fine if that would be okay with you. And can you care to explain what grand scheme you had me begin?”

Masha snapped her fingers as the door suddenly opened up, revealing a cart full of food from the ship's stocks. Pancakes, eggs, sausages, and even sundaes were all filled upon the plates and trays as they were rolled in by an elf who was wearing a butler’s outfit.

“Ah! Oh, how I missed the fashion of others. It’s been quite a while since I had a new cloth upon my body. I shall take good care of these garbs.”

Masha crossed her legs, taking a sundae from one of the trays alongside a spoon as she ate. “Mmm, wonderful~ Ah, we don’t get a lot of food like this nowadays. Of course, we can grow, but the Eternal Storm ensures it’s always the barest of bones. Same with animals unless we trade with the Coven or the Mokoshans. So this stuff is amazing.”

I looked over the food. I hadn’t eaten for quite some time, but I didn’t have to at all. Ever since I was blessed by the Caretaker, my hunger hasn’t surfaced.

I stared at the feast before my eyes. A memory bubbled up to the surface of my mind. Adrian would come into my room early in the morning. He’d be carrying a large tray of anything he could get his hands on: Fried rice, oatmeal, sausages, and steamed ham. One time, he even brought in lobster… The bed stank so much after that.

“I made extra!” He said at first, but that extra quickly became part of the regular routine experience. 

“Make sure to clean yourself, please. For some reason, the bed is a lot harder to scrub after breakfast than it is after our nights…

That stupid, lovely man… I cried for a bit before drowning the pancake with syrup and butter and stuffing it into my face like the wolf I was.

“My my~ a messy eater~ I’m sure your hubby loved that, didn’t he?”

I swallowed and wiped my mouth. “You have no idea… But you didn’t answer the question from before. What was the whole point of myself being down there? Did we not fail in our endeavor of defeating and killing that whore?”

“Oh that you failed.” Masha twirled her spoon around and pointed at me. “But that was never going to work out. You were totally going to fail that. Even I could see it was a suicide mission. But by some miracle, whose Name is Masha.” She winked.

“You lived. And not only did you live, but you’ve awakened the Presence of the Caretaker across the land. The souls of the damned have returned to the surface! Congratulations, the war has only begun!”

I thought back to what happened, to when that strange blob of souls consumed me. When I became one with the Smorodina, and with… Peter. Ah, I didn’t even know who he was at first. I remembered him faintly from one of John’s meanderings. That was his friends, I believed.

Then, I saw his life, his passions, his goals, and his desires. They were so… Ordinary, so rudimentary. I wondered why exactly someone like him gained such a skill and talent. A power like never before seen to such an uninteresting and quite frankly boring man.

Magick worked via importance. It worked by relevance. People who were born at the top stayed at the top, and at the bottom stayed at the bottom. They could work all throughout their lives, but if they were never destined for greatness, then they would never reach it.

That was how Destiny and Fate worked. There was the idea of multiple possibilities, multiple realities, and worlds that branch off. However, I didn’t exactly believe in such malarkey. If you were Destined, that shall be your Destiny. Destined Ones are called such for a reason. 

A Destined One of Horse shall always have the traits of a horse. It shall not be a lizard nor a fish. Even if there were multiple possible worlds out there, they were only possible, not the actual. There shall only be one actual world, and that is the one we are in. 

So what made him special? What made him important?

“What made him important?”

Another memory resurfaced in my head. One of my friends and I were out drinking coffee by the towers from Ephitet.

“Hmmm? Adrian? Well, he’s kind, sweet, adorable-“

“He’s not exactly a stellar Magi now, is he?” She said as she watched along the field where they were testing out drones, pointing out Adrian who was currently fixing up one of the blades.

“He’s not a Silen, but I guess I’m just saying you could do better. I mean, look at you.” She gestured to my body, giving off a small laugh as I simply smiled and nodded my head. Even if the jest was in bad spirit, I didn’t exactly mind it.

She was right, there was nothing significant about him. Not his Name, not his history, nor his achievements and accomplishments. Yet…

“He makes me happy, and that’s what matters.” 

He made me happy. And that’s what mattered. So perhaps this boy made the world happy; perhaps that was enough for it. A small warmth echoed in my head.

“Peter, was he part of that plan?” 

Masha blinked a bit. “Well, I didn’t know his Name, but there was always a plan to have someone take on the curse of the Original Spirit to awaken the Caretaker.”

“The Curse? Is it truly so vile to be called a curse?”

“It’s a dangerous power, that's to be sure. It’s no ordinary Magick, it’s from the very dawn of this world if you believe the legends.

I tilted my head curiously as my tail began to wag. “Do you not believe in those legends?”

She stroked her chin. “It’s hard to say, they changed so much over the centuries that I have trouble keeping track of all of them.” Masha laughed and lay her head on the bed, giggling like a schoolgirl.

“But, it’s very real. The power to completely and utterly absorb and devour the world lies at his fingertips if he chooses to go down the path of the Harbinger, but he could also be a force for the world. His power is directly connected to yours.”

Masha stood up, gently gliding her hands to my wrist. “The power to give life, meaning, and purpose.”

I remembered it well. My fingers glided along the air, literally remaking and transforming the souls of the dead into the weapons they were in life. I didn’t understand how or why… It was Magick in every sense of the world.

“And now you can use it to help change the world, to help give back the meaning and purpose that it has lost. You are the Chosen of the Caretaker, the anchor of the world that gives it life. You can save us.”

Save us… That’s what the spirits called out for. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they needed: To be saved.

Was that her Destiny? Her Fate? Her Purpose? To become a savior?

To become a messiah?