Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 64 : And A Tale To Continue

“Thanks, uh… Baba Yaga… Man, that’s weird to say aloud. I’ll go and check up on the others first. Thank you again for the lowdown.”

“Anything for a friend of Ivan. Be wary, however, especially if you venture outside, you never know what danger lurks forth. Actually, I know what danger lurks forth, you don’t, but experience makes for the best teacher.”

She gave me a wide and crooked smile before I awkwardly walked away. “Uh… I-I’ll keep them in mind. Thanks…” 

I waved goodbye before turning around as I realized something. “Wait, sorry, uh, where’s Godwin? I kinda forgot that I don’t know where he was… Haha…” 

Baba Yaga then pointed down the hall. “Turn right at the very end, he’s staying at the library.”

“Thanks- Oh, you have a library? Can I read some books, or are they like… Cursed.” Never trust a gift from a Fae; that was obvious. But every time I thought back to items from witches, even from stories where people stole from witches… The items were never cursed, but better safe than sorry.

“It depends on the mood I’m in, but the worst that would happen is that you’d be turned into a toad for your troubles.”

I nodded along carefully, keeping that in mind. I couldn’t tell if that was a joke or not, but at that point, I was too afraid to ask. “T-Thanks for the heads up… Have a good… Alchemy.” 

She giggled and nodded along. “And you have a good soul searching.”

With that cheeky remark, I finally turned and walked to the library, rubbing my head as if a leaking faucet, the memories began to drip into me. My memories, thankfully enough. The talk managed to jog me enough.

Even still, that entire experience, Jane, Marian… Koschei… It felt like a fever dream, and was that guy even still alive? Surely he’s dead, right? He fell into the Smorodina with me, but… He did that on purpose, as if he knew what was going to happen, or maybe it was just a last-ditch effort.

It was hard to guess. Every time I tried to look into his memories, my head began to pound and ache so much that I had an urge to take aspirin.

“Andrei… Robert… Guys, are you there?” I asked openly, looking around, expecting someone to appear, or even just a voice in my head to speak out and surprise me. But nobody came, nobody spoke, and I was alone again.

I sighed for a moment. Yeah, maybe they were annoying, maybe they filled my head up with too many things at once. But, for the briefest of moments that I was with them… It was fun, like always having a friend with me. Now, they were gone, and I could enjoy peace and quiet. However, I was starting to think I enjoyed the chaos in my head while it was there.

“I’ll miss you guys…” I muttered quietly before I opened up the door to the library. My eyes widened as I was greeted by arguably the largest room in the house. It was like a hotel lobby: a wide open space with several couches and chairs. They were paired side to side with tall bookshelves that raised high into the ceiling, filled with hundreds to thousands of books at once. 

What I first noticed about the books was that many of them seemed to be… Different. Not different as in different stories, or their titles, as in they looked like they could have been made in different time periods altogether. Some were bound in leather, others in very rudimentary animal skin, so rudimentary in fact that it looked like I could see the fur.

A few were even just scrolls, bound in some rope and stuffed to the sides of the shelves. Then, beside them were more modern books bound in paperback, and some even with those wood kind of covers. 

All of them, however, no matter how ancient-looking they were, appeared to be sort of fixed, as if they were in perfect shape, even if they must have been hundreds to thousands of years old. It must have been some kind of charm that Yaga placed on them to keep it fresh, no matter what.

I riffled through them, gliding my fingers across the pages, sniffing them softly. They smelled like oatmeal-scented candles. Old-timey and yet new, repackaged. There was a certain spark to them that called out to me. Whispers in the air as if they were each telling me a story.

“It has been four cycles since the war began…”

“There was once a pug who lived in a faraway land…”

“Once there was a cat, and it stepped on a hat…”

“I fell apart the moment he touched me…”

“On the Idealizations of Sorcery…”

“...And they all lived happily ever after.”

“Peter, my boy!” A familiar voice shook me out of the stupor as suddenly several books fell down at my feet. I looked down in surprise. They weren’t there before.

I then turned upwards, finding Godwin in a tattered, makeshift white robe. I looked at his neck, finding cracks as if it were made of glass that splintered upwards. He reached out with his arms as if for a hug, and they, too, were cracked.

I hugged him, and he patted my back. “It’s good to see you’re finally up. You took quite a long nap. We were all quite worried, How are you feeling?”

“I-I’m fine, Professor, thanks for asking- Wait, what about you? Your arms and your neck, you’re shattering. What happened?” I didn’t remember at all him nearly falling apart like this, yet it felt like I knew the answer. 

“Ah… There was a little… kerfuffle with Professor Rook and I, we disagreed on what to do next… One thing led to another, and now, here we are. At least we are alive and well.”

He was hiding something, and judging from the sadness in his eyes, it would be the fact that Professor Rook… Wasn’t so alive and well.

Suddenly, the image of a reptilian-looking man cursing to himself in the darkness of a maze manifested in my mind as I just sighed. It was clear that he didn’t want to talk about it, so it was better not to push it at all.

“Wouldn’t Baba Yaga cure you? Or do you think-“

Before I could continue, Professor Godwin waved his hand. “I already asked. She could, but unless I return the favor to her, she won’t do it.”

I frowned and groaned in disgust. I knew it was being ungrateful, but like, we have a super powerful witch helping us, why couldn’t she just heal something like this without getting a favor? 

“What would she want in return? Maybe I can help?” 

Godwin placed a hand on my shoulder, shaking his head. “Peter, my boy, you don’t have to do that for me. You’ve already been through so much.”

I shook my head and grabbed his hand. “Yeah, but I’m not the one who has an existence that’s slowly being disintegrated. You know the effects of the Shattering more than anyone; it literally wipes you away as if you’ve never existed!”

Every single version of the Shattering, across every single nation, I’ve read, always had it as one of the worst ways to die. It wasn’t just death; it was essentially erasure. It’s not physical; if it were, it would have been so easily cured. The cracks on the skin were essentially just manifestations of how far it spread.

In Phorash, it was said that it would bring cracks along your fate, in Balthalem, it was said that the law that made you up would crumble, in Caniel, you would literally shift into nothingness. Although there had been studies that there are different levels of Shattering depending on the circumstances of how you obtained it… But it was still dangerous nonetheless.

“Any more Magick you do and you would literally dissolve, I don’t even think you would become a spirit.” 

Godwin smiled a little and laughed. “You would be correct, it was even there in the Nawia where only my spirit existed. But alas, it is my burden to bear, and you already have so much.”

I stared at his neck and arms. In my head, I remembered Robert’s hole in his gut, Andreis’ burnt mouth, and even… That strangled throat. I’ve seen people in pain, people who can’t do anything about it anymore but to stop others from feeling it… To stop me from feeling it. I knew what I had to do, what I must do.

“It’s my burden to bear yours as well, Professor. You all chose to carry me back up the mountain after all, it’s time for me to return the favor.”

Godwin looked away from me as I said that, frowning visibly as he shook his head. “Ah, Peter… I’m so sorry.”

I frowned and grimaced a little at his reaction. “What are you sorry for?”

“When we all climbed up that mountain, there was a disagreement on what to do with you. Some of us wanted to leave you behind, but Katya pushed forward.”

I felt both sadness and a sense of pride, especially since Katya pushed onward with keeping me by their side… But then I remembered how she looked at me when I woke up.

“Then, what happened next? It sounds like there’s more to the story.”

He sat down, a wave of distraught washed over his face as it was like he aged a dozen years. “Then came the wolf men. The Psoglav’s… They called you cursed by Change itself, and wanted you in exchange for a safe passageway.”

Godwin looked down, twiddling his thumbs with an air of grim sadness. “I was one of the few who opted to give you to them, but once more, Katya said otherwise, and we had to fight our way through the mountaintops.”

I looked down, meeting the gaze he had at the floor. I could tell that he was hiding who else tried to vote me out, but, since he only mentioned Katya pushing back, I guessed that everyone else opted to be done with me.

It made sense, at that time, while I was not the weakest link, I was the most unstable one. But… Man, there was this pang in my heart, to be told that I was going to be some sacrificial lamb so that they could both get rid of me and find a way to Yaga.

I bawled my fist and I could see Godwin instinctively flinch, raising his hands to his face defensively… So that’s when I saw it once more: The cracks.

Visions filled my mind with a scene of winter. Of a group trekking up a mountain, covered in blood and bathed in battle. They constantly had to fight off any monster that got close, exhausting themselves in hours of combat.

I simply sighed and unclenched my fist, taking a deep breath as I focused myself. “You… You just… Tch, you did what you thought needed to be done.” I leaned on a bookshelf. “I don’t know if I could blame you. I would have said the same thing about me.”

My eyes fixated on the windows and the thundering storms beyond. And now, because of me, they’re going to be in so much worse trouble. I wasn’t just becoming a danger to myself; I was becoming a beacon of destruction for others as well.

“It doesn’t matter, we need everyone at their best if we want to survive the gods coming after us. And that includes someone like you.” I gave a half-hearted thumbs up and a sigh. A burning question popped into my mind, one that I needed to answer as fast as I could.

“I-I’m sorry, wait- Do you know where Katya would be? I need to ask her something.”