12:16
Moving as fast as they could while also maintaining their connections to air, the group cleared at least twenty rooms. All were cold, empty, and devoid of any signs of life. No stray pillows or books or toys. Not that the castle gave the appearance of a place where children played, with or without toys, but the point was Kim saw zero signs of habitation in those first twenty rooms.
Twenty. Rooms. Her brain almost broke trying to envision the floor plan of the place. It would take a lot of paper to make a paper representation of it. So much paper.
Not that the architect she worked for was going to be approached any time soon to make a castle out of snow. Or a castle of any kind. Or any building made of snow.
She thought she remembered reading about an ice palace a regent from some far away country that was perpetually cold maintained. It was apparently carved every ano because while the place was usually cold it did have a few mes of warmth. Enough to soften the ice walls of the ice palace.
And, woo, there went her brain. Wandering down corridors untold. Almost like it felt like they were doing as they walked large, empty room to large empty room with the occasional hallways thrown in for variety.
There were no torches, chandeliers, or sources of heat-throwing light anywhere in the place. Instead every room they entered had floor to ceiling windows through which the Aurora Borealis flowed to light the space. Which made absolutely no fucking sense if she thought about it. There was no way all the rooms were on exterior walls but yet—Yet.
Logic and architectural reality gave way when you were in a world imagined by a machine. It seemed ARFA wanted every room to be complemented by the beauty of the sky so every room was exposed to the natural light.
“Twenty down. Eighty to go!” Gwen cried in a cheerful voice. Between the warming cloak and the air lady riding along clutching her shoulders it was clear Kim’s friend was not feeling the cold at all.
“Hundreds,” Dempsey corrected from Gwen’s side. It seemed like the big guy spent a lot of time by Gwen’s side. For all the discouragement Gwen shot his way. Guess some guys were just gluttons for punishment. Or Gwen’s appeal was just that strong. Kim kind of weighted on that side
Gwen planted her hands on her hips and swiveled to glare at him, then shrugged and grinned. “Eighty plus one hundred plus maybe another hundred to go!”
Kim couldn’t help sighing. If each of these encounters had something of a lesson in them and she was really starting to think they did then what the fuck was the lesson here? Patience? She had no damned patience! It was why she resonated with fire and air, not earth with its infinite depths and embrace of ‘change takes time’ mentality. If an element could be perceived as having a mentality.
Whatever. Until proven otherwise she was going to stand behind Earth having a ‘all the time in the damned world’ attitude.
“In theory,” Abe offered. “It’s only eighty plus one hundred plus one hundred divided by a smaller number if we get lucky and find Gia before we run out of rooms.”
Ever the optimist that Abe. Kim considered herself more of a pragmatist. Sometimes their younger friend’s enthusiasm exhausted her. And made her realize just how much older she was than them. Like lifetimes. Lifetimes older. Potentially divided by a smaller number.
Dan eyed Abe then gave a snort that sure sounded like a laugh. But, it was Dan! Dan! Laughing? No.
No.
Maybe?
“Are you feeling okay?” Kim asked Dan in a quiet tone. Dan gave her a measuring look. Like as in measuring her sanity. Oh, that yardstick done got broke long ago.
“Fine.” There was a long pause as Dan’s brow creased in the smallest of frowns. “Why?”
“No reason.”
Kim took stock of her friends. They were looking all right. And she really had been joking about the cold making Dan laugh. But still she questioned how much longer they were going to go on like this. Eventually the cold would catch up to them. Despite Air’s intervention they were only flesh and blood and flesh and blood froze, even when wrapped up. It just froze slower.
Not for the first time since encountering the snow outside the bandit castle Kim wished she had control over snow and ice. It was water after all. But it was water in a state that she could find no entity.
That was the best way she could describe how she worked with the elements. Each of them spoke to her in a way. Had a sense of entity and not object. Ice and snow? Not so much. Electricity? Gee ,she’d dreamed since she was a kid about zapping people with lightning. Just a little. Yes, it was super deadly and stuff but so was fire and she was responsible with that!
The image of shooting lightning from her fingers or – better – her eyes was so damned appealing. But alas no lightning control. And no control of ice or snow. Darn it.
“Pew pew,” she muttered under her breath, shooting finger guns to the left and right.
“What?” Siobhan gave her a look that like Dan’s questioned her reason. Silly, Siobhan. They’d known each other more than long enough that Siobhan should be aware Kim had her moments where reason was entirely lacking. And the rest of the time it was still up for debate.
Rather than making an excuse, Kim lifted her hands slowly, fingers forming guns, and went, “Pew! Pew!”
It startled a laugh from Siobhan. Kim noticed that Siobhan’s face barely moved with her humor. It was disconcerting and made her seek out the gaze of the Air Lady attached to Siobhan. The lady shook her head then nestled her face tighter against the curve of Siobhan’s neck.
While she couldn’t see the Lady, Siobhan startled slightly, her hand lifting towards her neck an indiction that she must have sensed the Lady’s shift. Unless Air felt like expending the energy to be present for others, mostly it was only Kim and other Magickers with elemental connections that saw the elements as defined figures. Well, except for Fire. That element lived for the flashy and showed no hesitation in making itself manifest to others in whatever form appealed to it in the moment.
“You okay?” Her whisper garnered a quick nod in the affirmative from her friend.
“I’m fine. What were you shooting at?”
“The walls of heartache?” The answer came from deep in Kim’s psyche. As she said them she felt like they sounded familiar but she wasn’t quite sure why. Then Patti sang, “Bang! Bang!” and the notes of the Scandal song flowed through Kim’s brain.
She forced a smile and then whispered, “Bang bang?” at Siobhan
Her friend gave a long-suffering sigh, her soul in the lift of her ribcage, and turned to look at the entrance to the next room. Another quick darted look to the side at Kim and then she walked over to the entrance and through it.
Dan nudged Kim as he walked by her. “Good one.”
She frowned after him then shrugged and headed after the two of them. The others followed behind and they were off on another exploration of another very many empty, cold rooms.
They’d probably hit three more when Ben whined, “I’m bored.”
Ivan looked down his nose at his friend. “So?”
“I want a cookie!”
Ivan studied his friend for another long moment before shaking his head. His chest rose on a sigh that didn’t reach his mouth. Then he blinked. Once. Twice. Squared his shoulders and headed for the next doorway.
“Here,” Abe shuffled up next to Ben and thrust something at him. It didn’t take a genius to realize it was a cookie though Kim still looked to confirm. Yep. Cookie. Ben looked at the cookie. Looked at Abe. His expression suggested he was looking for some guile in the younger person. But Abe was guileless and Ben seemed to accept that fairly quickly. He broke off a small piece of cookie and held it in front of MF tucked in his jacket. MF eyed the morsel then engulfed it. Kim would say ate it but Fire didn’t really eat so much as consume. Once the morsel was gone Ben shoved the rest of the cookie in his mouth.
“Fank ‘ou,” he mumbled around a spray of crumbs.
Abe seemed completely unphased by the sudden shower of snack. “Welcome!” That said they bounded after Ivan. They still had a pep in their step. Kim wasn’t sure they ever didn’t. Like they probably were a peppy sleeper. But they did seem to be flagging just a little. More reason to keep moving through the rooms as fast as they could.
After twenty four – or more – rooms it was getting hard to retain her vigilance. But she was very well aware that was when they got you. So, she forced herself to maintain her focus and not let her mind drift. The fact it did, often, was, she suspected, the core of why Air and she vibed well. It too had a tendency to lose focus and chase off after phantasms.
Which reminded her. She slowed her steps so she fell in beside Prairie. “Any signs of spirits here?”
Prairie shook her head. “Completely devoid of them.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“After the bandits?” Prairie tapered off then shook her head and gave Kim a soft smile. “It is a very good thing.”
“Heard.” Kim eyed the back of her friends in front of she and Prairie. “So, I was thinking maybe I could get Air to search the castle.”
“Why haven’t you yet? It helped us before.”
“I’m asking a lot of Air. What with the shields we’ve got ten Ladies with us.”
“But isn’t air, I don’t know, everywhere? So infinite?”
“Nothing is really infinite.” At Prairie’s confused look she continued to explain, “Air is everywhere. You are right about that. But Air is not.”
Again the confused look.
“Air capital A not lowercase. Lowercase is what’s all around us. It’s what we breathe. But Air, capital A, is concentrated. It has energy and form. That’s what I interact with. Except when I–” she cut off abruptly, the image of open mouths and screams tearing towards her on a wave of undefined air seizing her mind.
She drew a hard breath through her open mouth and forced the image and its accompanying feelings down, deep down, separating herself from them as she’d learned to separate herself from the memories of her childhood. Like those, the memory of the bandits still existed but her mind was capable of dissociating her from the feelings tied to them and also almost all the details.
Was it healthy to do it? Maybe not in the long run but in this moment? It felt as natural as breathing and it kept her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Counting with the rhythm of it until the measured breaths became louder than the screams. Then she drew a long breath, held it in, and gave Prairie something she hoped looked like a smile.
“Anyhow. We have quite a few Air manifestations with us now. What air I feel outside of them is disconnected. It’s just air. So I can ask some of the Ladies to stop shielding our friends to go search or–”
“I see your dilemma. Don’t pull the shields. We’d have been dead from the cold more than ten rooms back if not for them. We’ll just have to keep searching the standard way.”
“I think I found something!” Ben’s voice carried back to Kim and Prairie from the next room.
“Wait!” Ivan snapped. “Wait until we’re all together. In case it’s a problem.”
Ben heaved a big, put-out sigh. Kim and Prairie arrived in the room in time to see him roll his eyes at Ivan. Then he saw them arrive and he waved a hand their way.
“Everyone is here. Let’s go!”
This time it was Dempsey that stopped Ben’s forward motion. He thrust an arm out and smacked his hand into Ben’s shoulder. Ben was moving fast enough he stumbled and almost lost his footing.
He turned such a look of betrayal on Dempsey, it was a surprise the big guy wasn’t staggered much as Ben had been. But Dempsey was clearly made of sterner stuff because he just met Ben’s stare and lifted his brows.
“Why stop?”
“Why rush headlong into what could be a dangerous situation?”
“Because it’s fun?”
It was a perfect Ben answer. Completely arguable but no one would argue it.
“What did you see?” Dempsey pressed.
Ben rolled his eyes then gave a big sigh before straightening his shoulders and meeting Dempsey’s stare. “It’s a small room. There’s a window in the door inside. Considering every other room we’ve entered has been same size, same shape, same snow, and same doors I figured it meant something new.”
“Valid assessment. So,” Dempsey cast his gaze over the group. “Kim, Siobhan, and I will approach and assess.”
“Why?” Which clearly meant, “why not me?”
“Kim has fire power. Siobhan has healing. I have a big shield. That’s why.”
“I do not like it but I can’t really argue with that logic.”
“Plus,” Dempsey added once Ben had said his piece, “Siobhan is good at figuring things out.”
“And I’m not?” Kim shot back.
Dempsey was quiet a moment then said, “You figure things out too.”
“Damned with faint praise. But I’ll take it.”
Kim stepped forward, rubbing her hands together, then lined up behind Dempsey as he approached the door. Siobhan walked up behind her, following her over the threshold after Dempsey.
It was good he called it with three people. Many more would have been a very tight fit in the small space.
Dempsey stopped in front of the next door and peered through the window situated high in its snowy-surface. “I think we found the lake.”
Kim rose up on tiptoes so she could look over his shoulder. Beyond the ice of the window was revealed a large space. No. Not large. Huge. And almost all of it was taken up by water. Water as far almost as far as the eye could see. The far shore was just visible if she strained. Instinctively Kim reached out with her Magick, asking Water about the lake.
It came back in a series of images that Kim translated, putting words to the impressions as soon as she sorted them. “It’s fresh water. Frozen. It goes down–” she paused, trying to parse the information, “a really long way. The ice is thick. We might be able to walk on it but I’m not sure we should. Something about the surface, it feels, unsettled.” Yeah, that was the word.
It made sense to her but by the looks Siobhan and Dempsey gave her not so much to them.
“It’s frozen but not frozen. And its water but there’s something off about it. Not just its surface state. There’s something about the entirety of it that makes me want to run in the opposite direction.”
“Well,” Dempsey drawled. “That’s not good. As we have to cross it. There’s no other exit out of the other room except this one. We could backtrack but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Can we skirt around it?”
Kim shrugged. “I think so. Just don’t touch it.”
Siobhan looked around the small room. “Why is this room here? Why is it so small? And why is there a window in the door?”
“I think I can answer that,” Dempsey said. “When I was younger I was on a swim team. Our school didn’t have a pool, but a local private school did. So we swam there. That pool had a giant dome over it. Held up by air. To not deflate it you had to enter an air lock,” he waved his hand to encompass the small room, “This looks a lot like that kind of setup. The window was so you could confirm the entry before you opened the second door. Outdoor pool in the warm weather. Indoor pool when it’s cold. This setup reminds me of that, except on a colossal scale.”
“So, a dome?” Kim angled her head so she could look up. She tested the space beyond the window with her Magick and it didn’t take more than a few mikros to confirm what Dempsey had suggested. There was trapped air beyond the door. Air pressure holding something too high up for her to see. She’d assume it was a dome. They could confirm when they entered.
She pulled back from the window and nodded to her friends. “It’s almost Magickal but I think it’s like what Ivan does? Technology that encompasses Magick.”
“But,” Siobhan pressed, “we can enter?”
“Why not? Worse thing that happens we all die. Which despite the mice singing that I don’t think is going to happen.”
“You’re sure?”
“No. But, what did you say? Scientific method?”
Dempsey turned to the other door. “I’ll switch out with Ivan. It makes more sense for him to be here. And I can prepare the others in case you ‘all gonna die!’” He grinned as he shook his hips like the mice had and flared his free hand.
Siobhan gave him a level stare and he stopped the shaking.
“It was funny.”
“Mildly.”
“I’ll take it.”
Kim pursed her lips. “You should show Gwen.”
“Show her what?”
“That you are funny.”
“Why?”
“She likes funny.”
“Uh, okay?” With that Dempsey turned and ducked out of the door. Ivan returned a mero later and firmly pulled the door closed behind him. He rubbed his hands together as his eyes narrowed on the second door with its window to the lake. A look of awe transforming his features he moved so close to it Kim suspected his nose would stick to the ice of the window.
“This is–” he petered off, clearly looking for a word, “remarkable.”
Kim walked over to stand next to him so she could look through the window again. “It is impressive. Want to get a closer look?”
“Do I!” Ivan’s voice rang with the excitement of a kid on their birthday when they were waiting to have a big party. Kim guessed for him Magick Tech like this would qualify as a big present.
His smile was so bright it could have lit the small room. Kim was surprised he didn’t utter a “yay!”
After shooting Siobhan a look to determine her position and then a quick glance at the door they’d entered in to make sure it was closed, he grabbed the snow door knob, twisted it, and pushed open the door.
Considering the tech and the purpose Dempsey explained it was for Kim expected to walk into warmth. But, yeah, snow castle. Frozen lake. There was no warmth.
There was an amazing vista above them. Not just the dome, which Ivan was definitely examining with his Magick. But, an image projected on it of the Aurora Borealis. It was so realistic it created the illusion they were outside rather than in a protected dome. The dome also had skylights in it, spaced regularly, so the actual Aurora Borealis flowed through. Maybe it was that causing the projected illusion on the rest of the dome. Maybe it was just Magick.
“Wow.” Siobhan had her head craned back, looking at the dome. She wasn’t looking where she was going and her feet were heading in the direction of the frozen lake. Recalling her earlier assessment that something wasn’t right about it, Kim didn’t trust Siobhan’s feet would encounter ice and if they did she wasn’t sure what effect that ice would have.
“Siobhan!”
Siobhan turned at the snap in Kim’s voice and gave her a quizzical look. Kim pointed at where Siobhan’s feet were within two steps of encountering the ice.
“Oh.” The corner of Siobhan’s mouth twitched. “So much for me being the one that sees things!”
Kim made a point of turning her gaze to the dome. “It’s distracting, for sure.”
Siobhan took that out. “It is.” She looked over at Ivan. “Anything?”
“Amazing,” Ivan’s tone was distracted. It was pretty clear he was deep in his Magick. If there was any doubt when he turned his gaze to Siobhan it was clouded and Kim would have sworn his eyes were overlayed with schematics.
She’d say it wasn’t creepy but she’d be lying and she tried hard not to lie to herself. Or others. But mostly to herself.
At least Ivan had stopped dead still within a hand’s breadth of the closed door to the air lock so he was in no danger of walking onto the ice. Considering that whole schematic thing she suspected he was not seeing the environment, making it doubly important she and Siobhan stepped in to keep him from danger.
“Is it okay to let the others come in?”
Ivan scanned the area with his opaque eyes. His gaze glided over the lake then fixed on a point somewhere to the far side of it. Eventually he nodded. “Should be. Just stay away from the water.”
“I had the same feeling.”
When Ivan didn’t reply Kim scooted around him and reentered the air lock. Making sure the interior door was firmly shut she opened the one out to her friends and stuck her head out.
“Seems safe. The room can hold about four people. I’ll go back into the lake so that frees up one extra space. It’s an air lock so make sure to have this door closed before you open the interior one.”
Dempsey nodded. “Got it.”
With that Kim left them to sort themselves out and headed back into the lake. In short order Gwen, Abe, Dan, and Patti entered. A few moments later Dempsey, Ben, and Prairie joined them.
“Careful of the lake!” Kim warned as Ben sauntered dangerously close to it.
He turned and gave her a questioning look.
“We aren’t sure what it is about it ,but something is wrong with it. I’d suggest not,” she emphasized the word even as Ben’s foot edged towards the frozen water, “walking on the ice.”
Ben’s lower lip protruded for a mikro then he turned with his characteristic grin. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Got it. Stay off the weird ice.”
He turned to look along the edge of the lake. “Looks like there’s enough room for us to go around.”
“Agreed,” Dempsey said. “Let’s get moving.”
“Someone going to wake Ivan?” Patti asked, drawing everyone’s attention to where Ivan still stood, hands loose at his sides, gaze going everywhere around the dome. “Uh,” Patti mock whispered, “Is that normal?”
By ‘this’ Kim was guessing Patti mean the eye thing. “Dunno. But we’ve seen weirder. Done weirder.”
“True!” Patti walked over and gently poked Ivan’s bicep. He blinked and turned his gaze down to her. His usual brown gaze, not one full of schematic. “Hey,” she said once it was clear she had his attention. “We’re moving out. Cold, you know?”
She emphasized this by briskly running her hands up and down her arms.
Ivan spared another glance for the dome then nodded. “Cold.”
It was clear by his distracted tone that even though his eyes were back to normal he wasn’t completely there. Or maybe it was the cold making him slow. Kim sidled over to Prairie. “Can you watch Ivan?”
Prairie nodded. “You noticed?”
“I did.”
“I’ve got him.” Prairie walked over to Ivan and looked up. Way up. “Hi.”
Ivan looked down at Prairie and blinked. “Prairie. Didn’t see you there.”
“I was wondering if you’d mind helping me around the lake?”
Ivan’s look of delight was answer enough so his “Yes!” was kind of redundant. Cute with the enthusiasm he projected. Still redundant.
Prairie smiled and tilted her head then placed her hand on his arm. “Thank you. The cold, you know?”
Ivan nodded. “I do. Cold.”
Satisfied Prairie had him fully in her little hand, Kim turned back to the others. “Stay clear of the ice. I know I said it but—just stay clear of it.”
Everyone indicated their agreement in their own way then they started around the lake with Dempsey at the front, Patti and Siobhan behind him, and the others following as they would. Prairie guided Ivan along towards the back and Kim fell in behind them, taking up the rear.
The lake was big. Really big. It took them probably forty-five meros to walk its edge but eventually they came to the far end where a wall with a door containing a window waited for them. Another air lock. Dempsey, Patti, and Siobhan entered first then after peering through the window to confirm they were clear Dan, Abe, Ben, and Gwen went through.
Kim, Prairie, and Ivan were the last and it was clear Ivan wanted to linger a bit longer. His gaze went to the dome and the schematics started flowing across his eyes once more.
Kim looked at Prairie. Prairie looked at Kim. Then by unspoken consent they gave Ivan another mero to absorb whatever his Magick was absorbing from the technology before Prairie gave his arm a squeeze. He looked down, blinking away the schematics and focusing on Prairie.
“Time to go,” Prairie said in her gentle voice.
Ivan just nodded and let her lead him into the air lock. Kim followed them in and closed the door firmly before Prairie opened the other door and escorted Ivan through. Once they were clear of the air lock Ivan started to be more Ivan-y. He squared his shoulders, firmed his chin, and smiled down at Prairie.
“Thanks. Not sure I was myself there.”
“It happens,” was Prairie’s soft reply. She let go of his arm and moved a few steps away then rubbed her hands up and down her arms.
“Cold?” Ivan asked.
When Prairie gave a short nod he moved in close to her and held out his hand. “I could put my arm around you?”
“You could.”
That was all the permission he seemed to need as he stepped in beside Prairie and pulled her into his side. It was clear he was radiating some heat as she visibly relaxed once in contact with his body.
Prairie looked at the others. “We should get going.”
“We should.” Siobhan spared the smaller woman a smile then focused on the room they’d entered. It was – you got it – made of snow, empty, and cold.
Ben took the lead, heading across the room and approaching the next door. He opened it, then stopped and looked back. “Not sure, but this could be it. It’s a lot bigger and there’s a mist making it hard to see much beyond the door.”
“All right.” Dempsey walked up next to Ben, shield at the ready. “Standard order?”
Patti stepped up next to Dempsey and held her shield out. “Standard order!”
Sass peeped and pointing towards the open door. If that wasn’t an endorsement of Ben’s supposition they had found their target? Well, Kim was going to go with it was. Time to move!
Once everyone was setup in the usual two per grouping with Ben ready to roam, Dempsey stepped over the threshold and into the next room. Ivan gave Prairie a long look then released his hold on her and stepped to the back to cover with his shield and she stepped up next to Siobhan, daggers out.
“Just a little longer,” Siobhan murmured as Prairie joined her. The words wobbled a little as her teeth chattered. They had been exploring the castle long enough that even the Air Ladies weren’t fully shielding them from the cold. It was good that they were at the end of this. Or, at least, hopefully they were.
“Hey, Dan?”
Dan shot Kim a look.
“Is this it?” When he just looked at her, she added. “The end of the story?”
“Gerda found Kai in the Snow Queen’s castle.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
“That’s a yes. Probably.”
“Good.” Kim focused forward as they entered the next room. Ben was right it was bigger. A great deal bigger. Definitely felt like it could qualify as a hall where the other spaces, separate from the lake, had been rooms.
Not that she could see very far to truly determine dimensions due to the mist. But by the sound of their feet hitting the hardpacked snow that passed for flooring, it felt immense. The other rooms they’d entered their footfalls had barely registered. They made sound as they contacted the snow hard as marble but the sound didn’t carry the way it did as Kim stepped into the new space. Hollow and then swallowed up.
Part of that muffling might have been the mist. It rose from the floor, thick enough to obscure their legs, rising to about hip height before dissipating enough that some of the space could be seen.
If the rest of the castle was cold then this area was positively glacial. Kim’s exhalations formed clouds as soon as they left her mouth, adding to the overall cloudy effect of the mist. Instinctively Kim called on Air to clear away the fog. Maybe not the best call as to do so the Air Ladies pulled away from her friends. They cleared the space surrounding the group of the obscuring mist but in doing so left the group vulnerable to the cold.
Almost instantly Prairie began shaking violently. Kirby popped into existence next to Prairie, huddling close to probably share what body heat it had. Did psychopomps have body temperature? They had bodies so—Okay, whoa. Not relevant in that moment. Siobhan drew Kim’s attention as she curled her shoulders forward, hugging her arms around her torso.
Fuck.
Okay. Kim hurried to grab a visual of the space cleared of the mist. Just more snow floors and space. The mist wasn’t cleared enough to see the walls or the ceiling. Just the floor and some space around them. Kim only knew there was a ceiling because of the Aurora Borealis drifting from above.
Or, maybe there was no ceiling and that was the actual Aurora. It would explain the cold. Well, the composition of the castle explained the cold. But if there was no ceiling then any heat in the space would rise and disappear.
“Moving forward.” Dempsey’s teeth chattered so much it was hard to understand his words. His steps were slower and it looked like it was an effort to lift his legs and place his feet down. Still he persevered, forging forward with the others following with equally uncoordinated steps. Ben actually wove a bit, like he was drunk.
Kim bit her lip. Cold or mist? Gah! Was it even a choice? She beckoned the Ladies back from where they blew the mists to the side and directed them to her friends. Immediately the mist flowed back in, obscuring their view of the room. But Siobhan’s arms loosened around her waist. Prairie stopped shaking like a leaf. It was the right decision, it just made this a bit harder. Better harder than dead and Kim had no illusions if the cold kept affecting them they would die.
An echo of the mice singing “We’re all gonna die!” played through her mind. Again she resolved ‘not if I can help it’.
“This has to be the place,” Dan said. “It fits the story.”
“Keep looking!” Dempsey called over his shoulder.
“Looking?” Patti shot back.
“Feeling. Searching. Moving.” Dempsey amended. “If this is the place we’ll find Gia and hopefully her friend eventually.”
“Gia!” Gwen called out. Her voice seemed to get eaten by the mist but at least she tried.
There was no response. Prairie and Siobhan picked up the call then Patti did too. Their voices didn’t layer over each other. They called in the spaces in between so it became almost a chant of “Gia! Gia! Gia!”
Immediately Kim’s mind added “Wouldn’t want to be ya!”
Yeah, completely inappropriate. Welcome to her brain.
MF was a bright light against Ben’s chest, marking him out in the mist. About a mero, maybe a little longer, Ben called out, “Found some—shit.”
“Shit? Found shit?” Patti headed off in the direction of Ben’s voice. Luckily MF was a beacon, allowing them to find Ben easier in the mist.
Patti’s voice drifted out of the mist. “Why would you tell us you found sh—Well, shit.”
It didn’t take long for Kim and the others to reach Ben and Patti. The utter emptiness of the spaces, previously kind of sad and creepy, helped as there was nothing to walk into or trip them up. And once they found Ben and Patti they also found out the cause of the “shits”.
Gia stood, hand on a column of ice. Completely frozen. There was no doubt. She appeared to be a statue, blanched of color though not quite as white as the snow and the ice of the column. More like the blue of skimmed milk.
A thin layer of ice encased her, looking almost like water. In other circumstances it would have been beautiful. If not for the fact that Gia was a living being and was trapped by the ice.
“Want to bet we found Erik too?” Patti asked, leaning in to stare at the ice column. “It’s thick but I think there’s someone in there.”
Beyond the column of ice, partially obscured by the mist wreathing the floor, were a bunch of smaller blocks of ice. But, Kim didn’t spare them more than a look because her attention was truly transfixed by Gia’s frozen state and the column that likely contained her friend, Erik.
“Well, shit.” Kim now understood Ben and Patti’s choice of word. It really applied to this shitty situation.
Gwen moved next to Gia and placed her hand on Gia’s chest. She recoiled slightly from the cold but didn’t pull her hand back. Well, not immediately. She was still a moment, eyes closed, then she pulled her hand away and shook it to chase away the cold.
“She’s alive. Trapped. But alive.”
“Can you tell if Erik is in that column of ice?” Ivan asked.
Gwen stepped a little away from Gia and placed her hand on the ice. She flinched and then yanked her hand back. “I’m not getting anything from it except cold. If he is in there he’s probably too deep. Which is weird. I usually don’t need contact to feel someone.”
“It’s probably the cold,” Abe suggested.
“Sure. Okay. Maybe.” Still Gwen looked disturbed by her Magick’s failing her.
Kim suspected it was the cold. Air was keeping her friends relatively warm but as they’d moved through the castle she’d noticed their steps slowing, although nowhere near what happened when the Ladies left to clear the mist. And their words had come slower. Not slurring but slower.
It stood to reason slow speech meant slower mental facilities and slower facilities could connect to Magick. She’d never encountered anything like these conditions so it was all guesswork, but it made some sense.
Woof
MF pulled Kim’s attention with a short bark. She looked over at the small fire dog, still tucked in Ben’s jacket, and sent a short query to it.
MF?
Woof!
An image of melting ice flowed into Kim’s brain.
Oh. Wow. If she needed any proof that the cold was affecting her, even though she wasn’t feeling it, that kind of pressed the point. She should have thought to apply fire to the ice encasing Gia and theoretically Erik in the column. Fire would need to be careful to melt the ice and thaw them without burning, but Kim was pretty sure it was capable. MF’s vision seemed to support that.
But she didn’t think summoning any fire creatures was smart with the snow making up the floors, walls, and ceilings. So, she’d have to just use applied fire. A fireball. No, a torch. Or maybe something like those devices nulls had that threw heat forward like a cannon. Combine air and fire. She could do that. Probably.
Worth a try.
“I think I can thaw them.”
Ivan shot her a look full of consideration. “How?’
“Fire. Air. Fire cannon. It will apply heat that I can direct so it doesn’t melt the stuff making up the castle, just them.”
“Fire cannon?” His considering look deepened. Schematics flowed across his vision for a moment. Then he nodded. “Interesting.”
“Not saying it will work but it might?”
“I’d like to try to make one.” Before Kim could have any feelings about him trying to steal her thunder, Ivan rushed to add, “Not now. But it’s an interesting idea. Might have applications outside of this place.”
Kim would like to pretend she hadn’t taken even a moment’s offense at the implication Ivan was gonna make a heat cannon, but c’mon. That was her thing!
Pushing down what she knew was just sheer bitchery, she looked at Gia then at Gwen. “Okay. Can you step away? Please?”
Gwen hurried to comply, clearing back a goodly area which very definitely spoke to her understanding of Kim’s Magick. Kim was pretty sure she could do this, but Gwen was right to clear a big space because maybe she could direct the heat, maybe she couldn’t. Maybe a big old fireball would erupt. Maybe it wouldn’t. Magick, especially hers, was not an exact science.
Scientific method! Sounded way better than “Uh, maybe this will work?” followed by “oops” when stuff went up in flames.
She was not a pyro, like Reagan said. Sometimes stuff just caught on fire around her.
All right. She held her hand up, palms facing each other with about two hand span’s of width between. Fire bloomed between them. She focused on it until it shifted from red to orange, yellow to white, and then with a little flex of her Magick it concentrated to a bright blue.
She could tell it was hot because Dan and Dempsey, closest to her, took a few steps back. To her it just felt nice. But a blue flame could instantly incinerate a human body so, yeah, better they stepped back. And maybe she pulled back a tiny bit. That flame could evaporate the ice around Gia. And maybe, probably, boil her cells. Sure, Kim was going to direct it with air but still better to dial it back. She pulled with her Magick and the flame went back to white and then to yellow which represented the heat that would burn paper or wood. That should do it.
Carefully she pulled in a long breath then let it out over the flame. She wasn’t actually directing the fire with her breath so much as using it as a visualization. The fire heated the air. The air flowed across the distance between Kim and Gia. Where it touched the ice encasing Gia melted away.
The heated air blew the droplets of water in the direction of the column of ice and the heated water started eating away at it. Two, two, two melts in one. Sweet!
Kim pulled back just a little on the air so it didn’t blast Gia, but just kind of radiated around her. Gia’s skin went from bluish-white to pale flesh-tone and then a soft flush traveled up her neck and into her face. Released from the cold her body collapsed. Ivan dived in, catching Gia before she could hit the snow floor. He turned his face away from the blast of warm air but then after a moment he seemed to think better of it and turned back to bask in it.
“Nice. Warm but not hot.”
“It’s all in the application of the fire.”
“Noted.”
“I’m shifting it to the column now.”
Ivan nodded and pulled back with Gia. Once they were a short distance away Kim flexed her Magick, nudging the fire up closer to a white flame. Whatever was in the column was far enough from the surface that she could afford to make the cannon hotter so the ice would melt faster and they’d be able to get out of the castle and the cold that much quicker.
“She’s not waking up,” Ivan said, drawing Kim’s attention to where Gia lay lax in his arms.
“Here, let me.” Gwen moved over and stooped next to Ivan. She placed a hand on Gia’s chest and closed her eyes. When she opened them her expression was not encouraging. “I don’t– She’s there but not? Here.” She unfastened her cloak and handed it to Ivan. “She needs this more than I do.”
Ivan took the cloak and draped it over Gia, then sat down so he could pull her into his lap. “I’ve got her. I’m not good for figuring out her physical state but I make a pretty good cushion. You figure out how to wake her up.”
Gwen gave Gia’s face, just visible above the drape of the cloak, a final look then rose with a look of determination. She walked over to Prairie and they started talking in low voices. Siobhan joined them. Hand gestures followed as they threw around what Kim was guessing were ideas about Gia’s state.
Kim was about as helpful as Ivan for that, so she went back to what she was good at and directed the heated air over the large column of ice Gia had been adhered to. The ice melted, water sluicing away, beneath the touch of air cannon.
It was pretty darned cool. But it was taking quite a bit of her Magick to maintain it because of the control involved. It was just easier to fling fireballs around! She’d need a snack after this. Or two. Two would be good.
She swayed on her feet but refused to let up the flow of her Magick. It couldn’t take that much more to get that column gone!
“Here.” Abe bounced over, hand out, then stopped short of coming into contact with Kim. “Uh, can I touch you?”
Kim spared a quick glance for Abe. “Yes. Thanks for asking.”
“No problem! Consent is super important! Even with friends!”
That said Abe place a hand on Kim’s back, lending her support. Instantly her legs felt just a little less wobbly. Guess she needed it more than she realized.
“Hello.” Kim turned at the sound of Patti’s voice to see the other woman hovering a short distance from her with her hand out. “Can I help?”
Kim eyed Patti’s hand then gave a sharp nod. “Please. I didn’t realize it was taking so much out of me.”
Funny. Before this group she hadn’t trusted many people. Sure Gwen and Siobhan but other than that? No. And now she had, like, an entire village that she was semi-okay with.
“Got you!” Patti stepped up to the side Abe wasn’t bracing and touched Kim’s waist.
Kim suppressed the instinctive flinch at the contact. Better than her back and she saw it coming so she could make herself good with the touch. She really did need the help keeping standing while she poured her Magick into the flame and the air directing the heat over the column.
She just knew Erik was in that column. And once he was free they were out of here. So, she could afford to expend the energy.
The ice of the column melted away. The snow of the floor absorbed the water, thankfully, or they’d be standing in a pool of it. As the layers and layers of the ice disappeared, a dark figure emerged from the ice. Standing somewhere between Dan and Dempsey height, the ice was still too thick to make out the figure’s features but it looked like they had long dark hair.
Didn’t rule out it being Erik. Some guys had long hair. Just look at Al with his man-bun.
It wasn’t long before the ice obscuring the figure’s features melted away. Kim squinted at what was revealed. Blinking.
At first she thought her mind was fucking with her, overlaying her memory of Al on the still iced face. But then Patti gasped and Abe blurted out, “Al?”. And Kim knew her mind was not fucking with her. That was Al. In the ice.
“Uh,” she called out, “Guys? Folks? People I know? Get over here!”
Prairie, Gwen, and Siobhan broke up their clutch and approached from the right. Dan, Dempsey, and Ben converged on them from the left. Only Ivan remained sitting with Gia in his lap.
There were various exclamations when the others drew close enough to see what Kim, Abe, and Patti had.
Ben moved to put a hand on the ice but Kim called him back. “It’s still ice and this cannon is hot. Let me just finish melting him out.”
She drew back on her Magick, changing the heat of the fire from white to yellow and then to be safe to orange as she carefully melted the last layers of ice between Al – Erik? – and the air. Once the final layer was gone she let the heat flow over the statue like form until the limbs loosened and Erik – she was going with Erik until told otherwise because it being Al was just too much for even her brain to process – slumped towards the ground.
Enter The Woods 