Aspect Of Winter

by Tom Early

  “Feayr Hanson, your Trial has begun. You have one hour to make it to land. Begin.” The homunculus bowed low to me, and vanished. I was left alone in the stormy ocean.

  I looked around, barely able to see anything over the massive waves. The thunder continued to rumble ominously, and the lightning seemed to be getting closer. This wasn’t good at all. My first priority was to get out of the water. Even though I sincerely doubted that I could die of hypothermia, there was also no way I could make it anywhere by swimming, not in this. I began to tread water, desperately trying to gather some shred of focus in all of this. It was no good. Fortunately, I remembered what Aiden had said, about Stability being an extremely helpful spell for the Practical Trial.

  I forced the words out as fast as I could without swallowing a mouthful of seawater, and my mind cleared rapidly. It was like I was a step removed from what was actually happening to me. I was able to take a rational look at my situation. I could also focus now, and I agreed with my earlier assessment that getting out of the water was the first step.

  I gathered my energy, and slowly froze the salty water around me, forcing the salt out along the way naturally. It was much more draining to do with the salt content in the way, but practice had made it manageable for me. I bobbed onto the surface on a sizeable chunk of ice, getting thrown this way and that by the crashing waves. I frowned, and changed the form of the ice into more of a dinghy-raft combination, with the edges curling up slightly to keep water from continuously washing over my feet. It floated much better, but I still wasn’t getting anywhere. It would have been really nice if I could just fly myself around on the ice, but I felt sick just thinking about how much more energy that’d take.

  I stood up unsteadily, and tried to see which way land was. I couldn’t see anything beyond around fifty feet without light however, so I cast Darksight again. My eyes began to glow, and I could see much further in muted colors. There was a strip of darkness on the horizon to my left, and judging by how small it was, it was quite far away, easily several miles. Hopefully that was land, as I couldn’t see anything else. Looking down, however, was a different story. For some reason, my Darksight allowed me to see below the ocean’s surface somewhat, probably because of my connection with ice and water.

  There was an absolutely massive serpentine shape circling my makeshift ice raft. The only reason I didn’t scream was because of the continuing effects of Stability on me. Instead, my mind immediately jumped to how I could use whatever it was to my advantage. If I was going to make it to shore within the hour, I needed to go fast. And even going nuts with my power alone wasn’t going to cut it, but along with whatever that thing was, perhaps I could…

  That was when the creature decided to make itself known. Sharp spiny ridges crested above the surface of the water, easily six feet in length before they disappeared into dark blue and gray scales. Its body was incredibly long, the water around me roiling as its bulk disturbed it. Eventually a massive head rose out of the waves, towering in front of me, water streaming off of its scaly hide. It had two massive, slightly luminescent sea-green eyes that were filled with a malevolent intellect, with slit pupils that narrowed as they took me in. The ridge continued all the way up its head, stopping dead in-between its eyes. Two long blue whiskers hung off of its chin, below a mouth filled with teeth that were incredibly sharp and almost as tall as I was. A low hiss filled the air as it stared unblinkingly at me. I had to act quickly.

  As it swayed in place, taking me in, I started my spell. I clenched my fist behind my back, and some of the ice forming my boat began to rise up slightly, and become fluid enough to move quickly. I added more and more water to it from the ocean, perspiring slightly as the magic took its toll, until I had what resembled a coil of incredibly thick rope. The creature let out another rumbling hiss.

  “Too bad,” I said brightly. “Too slow.”

  I snapped my hand out at the creature’s head, and the coiled ice unfurled like a whip and shot towards the creature’s head. Its eyes widened as the ice wrapped itself around its neck and mouth, once, twice, three times, fusing together as it went. I fused the other end of the coil to the boat. Predictably, once the serpent found that it couldn’t open its mouth to devour me, it tried to flee instead, preparing to dive back to the depths.

  “Sorry, but you’re mine now,” I said mock-sternly, and flicked my wrist, forcing icy spikes to grow on the inside of its ice collar.

  It roared in pain, writhing its massive body around as the spikes dug in. I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I was pretty sure this was a simulation, after all. It looked at me, pupils blown wide with agony and rage, its mouth working ineffectively as I thickened the ice holding it shut, careful to keep its nostrils uncovered. I just smiled at it innocently, and pointed towards the land visible in the distance.

  “I’m pretty sure you can understand me, serpent,” I said coolly. “You can either cooperate, or I can hurt you more. Choose wisely, because I’m prepared to keep asking until I get the answer I want.”

  I received another low hiss for my efforts. I shrugged, and sent one of the ice spikes shooting deeper into its neck. Its head shot back as the pain sent it into shock.

  “Let’s try that again. Take me to land, or I kill you.”

  The serpent’s head snapped back to look at me, and I stared calmly back into its hate-filled eyes. God, I loved Stability. It felt like I could do anything. The feeling was… freeing, to say the least. I pointed towards land again, and this time, the head tracked the motion. I just looked at it, nodding my head slowly. The serpent’s body slowly turned to face the direction I was pointing, and it began to move. I held on for dear life as my ice boat picked up speed, getting dragged along by the serpent. I kept getting buffeted by the waves as I was dragged through them, the serpent weaving through the water faster and faster.

  I tried to set up my Ward variation to protect myself, and every wave that was about to hit me simply froze instead, a shield of ice in place around me. Much better. I froze my hands into the boat, as well as my feet, to avoid getting thrown off. I cautiously made the ice in front of my eyes transparent, and found that the serpent was moving so fast that the sea seemed almost to be parting in front of it. We were almost there.

  The air was knocked out of me as something slammed into the bottom of my raft with incredible force, shattering it and knocking me into the water. I coughed as the seawater flooded into my lungs while I thrashed my way to the surface. When I opened my eyes again, two serpentine heads were staring at me. The one with the remains of my ice collar around its neck hissed smugly and lunged at me, its mouth gaping wide. There was a terrible screeching sound as its teeth grated against the ice summoned by my Ward. My limbs deadened as the energy flowed out of me from blocking the assault. The other serpent lunged as well, and again my Ward sparked to life. I could barely withstand another one of those. The energy drain felt like I was getting hit by an 18-wheeler over and over again. I looked around frantically. I was only a few hundred feet from shore.

  A hissing noise caused me to turn my head slowly as a third serpent rose out of the depths. The three of them swayed around me slowly, their eyes tracking my every motion. I didn’t have nearly enough energy left to summon three more collars, or the time. The last vestiges of Stability brought an idea to the forefront of my mind, however, and I took it. It was the only option I had.

  I recited the incantation for Light, pouring more energy into the spell than it was designed for, and squeezed my eyes shut. There was a brilliant flare of incandescence as the spell overloaded. I opened my eyes a millisecond later, and formed an ice path in front of me, lifting myself onto it without looking around. I was counting on the light to have blinded the serpents, but I had no idea how long it would last for.

  I ran on the icy trail, the water freezing barely an inch in front of where I placed my feet. I heard an enraged hissing noise behind me as the serpents took notice. I ran faster, desperate to make it to where the water w
as hopefully too shallow for them to swim. I stumbled as my Ward froze the air directly behind my head, draining my energy even further. The ice beneath my feet cracked from the strain, and my nose began to bleed. One of the serpents had just tried to take my head off. The shore, made of soaking wet stones and driftwood, was almost directly in front of me. I kept running, then wading as my ice path shattered, submerging me up to my waist. I chanced a glance backwards, to see the three serpents hissing furiously at me from where the water was deep enough for them. I kept moving, and collapsed on the shoreline, soaking wet and exhausted.

  Everything around me faded to white, and the homunculus waited patiently for me to get to my feet.

  “Congratulations. Forty-three minutes and twelve seconds. You have passed the Practical Trial, Feayr Hanson. Well done.”

  It turned around, and opened a portal out of Limbo. I looked down at myself, only slightly surprised to find that I was completely dry, and only mentally drained. That was how Limbo worked, I suppose. The land of illusions so real that you could never tell the difference. The homunculus made an “after you” gesture, and I stepped through the portal.

  I was gated back into the gathering hall, along with two other applicants, the horned boy from before, and a girl with black feathered wings which turned white at the very end and incredibly elongated ears tapering to a point. Both were wearing the same standard outfit that I was. They must have done better than me, to beat me here. The boy refused to look at me, and the girl turned to stare curiously and a little bit shyly at me, her head tilted to one side in an oddly birdlike fashion. Her hair was long, straight, dark, and framed her heart-shaped face perfectly. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, and were brought out more by her warm bronze-colored skin. I smiled uncertainly at her, and she smiled a little in return. I decided to walk over to her and hold out my hand.

  “Hi, I’m Fay. Did you pass the Trial as well?”

  She took hold of my hand daintily for a second, and then answered in the most musical voice I’d ever heard, high and bright and full of melody, with an accent that I couldn’t even begin to place.

  “You’re Fay, then? Sam told me about you last night. Congratulations on passing so quickly! You must be good! I’m Aria, Aria Tempestas. I just passed too! Isn’t that wonderful? I like your hair, by the way. It reminds me of snow.”

  I blinked at her. Her shy expression did not prepare me for the sudden outpouring of words at all.

  “Uhm, thanks? You must be Sam’s roommate, then.”

  “That’s right!” she chirped, smiling a little wider now. “I’m a Magpie Girl. Sam’s a nice person.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know what a Magpie Girl is,” I replied.

  “Not many people do. We prefer it that way,” she said, tilting her head in that birdlike manner again. It soon became clear that no answer was forthcoming. I smiled at her again, and sat down in one of the chairs to wait for Sam.

  She gated into the room a few minutes later, fist pumping unreservedly. When she saw me, she ran over and hugged me.

  “I passed! Man, that Trial was rough, though.”

  “Oh? What’d you have to do?”

  Sam began to explain to me how she was placed in a room like the cells we were in yesterday, except there was an exit. The way out, however, was filled with a ridiculous number of traps to slow her down. She told me about how her rotating Minor Orbs saved her from the razor wire, and how she needed to wall run over a pitfall trap. Apparently the University had decided to test her athletic ability as well as her magical sense for the Practical. I have to say, that worked for her.

  In turn, I explained to her how I was thrown into an ocean with bloodthirsty serpents in it. She smacked me on the head for not trying to talk it out with the serpent before trying to control it (in my defense, it looked really hungry), and winced appreciatively when I described how the other two showed up near the end. When I finished, she just whistled and agreed that I had the harder one this time around.

  After that, Aria started up a conversation with her about “proper wing maintenance,” of all things, and Sam listened earnestly as Aria described how to smooth your feathers in the right way.

  Over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so, another eight kids reappeared victoriously in the Gathering Hall. A minute after the eighth kid came through, the clear sound of a bell rang through the Hall, and the last two kids from yesterday were summoned, staring at the floor and determinedly not looking up. There was the football jock-type kid from yesterday, and a slender delicate-featured girl whose lower body half was that of a large snake with purple scales. From behind us on the dais, Speaker Sekhmene’s voice rang out.

  “Congratulation to those applicants who have passed the Practical Trial. Dylan Thompson and Kaede Hebi, you have the choice of leaving now or remaining to try your luck in obtaining victory in the Trial of Competition. If you leave, we will make sure you remain protected. Make your choice now.”

  We all turned to look at the two of them. Dylan scowled, kicked the floor, and quietly said that he’d leave. Kaede drew herself up firmly and said she’d stay. The Speaker nodded to two homunculi standing behind her, and they walked over to the kids. Dylan was escorted to one portal, Kaede to another. We all turned back to look at the Speaker.

  “Excellent work, all of you,” she said emotionlessly, offsetting the positive tone of her words. “Return to your rooms or remain here, it matters not. Dinner will be provided in your rooms in five hours. Make sure to get some sleep, for the Trial of Survival begins tomorrow.”

  I stayed around for a little bit, listening to Sam talk with Aria, and then headed back to my room. Tyler was napping in the bed, and I took a while to think about my Trial, and about tomorrow’s Trial of Survival. I wasn’t sure I liked the side of myself that was willing and able to do anything to win. Stability calmed the front of my mind, but it was the thoughts and urges hiding in the back that worried me. Could Stability, in the process of calming me down, also have loosened some of my inhibitions? I didn’t like to think that I was so capable of happily inflicting pain, even in a situation like with the serpents. I would never be a normal kid, but I didn’t want to be a monster either.

  And… it was kind of scary, knowing that a lot of my problems could just be solved by being the “me” that I was afraid of. The temptation was always going to be there. I let out a sigh and rested my head on the table, wrapping my arms around myself.

  I heard Tyler’s sleep-rough voice behind me. “Fay? How’d you do? Did you pass? Are you okay?”

  I took a second to compose myself, and turned around to smile at him. “Yeah, I did. I passed the first Trial.”

  Tyler sat up and grinned at me sleepily, his blonde hair sticking up every-which way. “That’s awesome, Fay! Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  I must have had quite the expression on my face at that, because Tyler immediately looked concerned and got out of bed, walked over, and hugged me. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I just kept them down by my side.

  “It’s okay, you’re here now. Whatever happened, it’s over now, and you made it through,” Tyler whispered to me, holding me close. “If something bad happened, well, it’s your choice to talk about it or keep it to yourself. Just don’t suffer on your own if I can help.”

  I hugged him fiercely back, keeping quiet. I didn’t know what to say, so I just did my best to relax into his warmth. It helped. Eventually, I disentangled myself from his arms, and went to go lie down on the bed. I was done with this day. Utterly. I felt Tyler climb back in, and wrap his body around mine again. I curled up and went to sleep and felt my eyes closing.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  I was standing in the middle of a frozen field, broken stalks of grain dusted with hoarfrost extending off in every direction. The sky above me was a hopeless gray, and snow continued to fall, icy winds whipping it into stinging clouds. I stood in the center of it all, all the energy of winter crackling at my fingertips, a
nd I smiled a cold smile. I had left the heart of my frozen kingdom far behind, but what did that matter now? All of Gaia was mine. The world had fallen to its feet. Those few people who lived were weak, and utterly at my mercy. With a thought, I could snuff out the pathetic remains of their race. With a thought, I could set my wolves upon them, fill the air with the howling of the Final Season’s horde. And there were only three beings left to oppose me. I could not find them, and if my rule was to be final and never-ending, they needed to be gone.

  So I walked this miserable plane, searching every corner, spreading storms of ice and snow as I went. They would be hiding in the few areas of warmth left, and I would find them. I held out my hand, long bone-white fingers extended, and clenched them into a fist slowly, hoarfrost crackling as I did so.

  And when I found them, I would end them.

  I woke with a start, gasping for breath. I lifted up my hand shakily. Still normal colored, and trembling as badly as the rest of me. My heart was pounding madly in my chest. I’d never had such a vivid dream in my life before, and it wasn’t fading, not even in the slightest.

  That was when I felt the difference. The air, once a pleasant temperature, was freezing. I could see my own breath fogging in front of me, and I had nothing to do with it. Somehow I just knew that this was the doing of someone else. I heard the clash of metal off in the distance, even through the closed door. Something had arrived at the Retreat, and it wasn’t good. I shook Tyler awake quickly, and whispered in his ear.

  “Ty, there’s something going on. You need to get up. I think the Retreat is under attack!”

  Tyler’s eyes flew open, and he scrambled around the sheets, forcing himself upright. I shushed him before he spoke. I didn’t want to risk the chance that there was something just outside to hear us. I concentrated, formed Tyler’s spatha from the air, handed it to him, and activated both of our Wards. The familiar bond rose thrumming to the surface, and we began to operate as one unit.