Heart of Ice Part 3

“So I was thinking, if our bruises itch, does that mean we’re doing something wrong?” Mari, ever the (attempted) philosopher said as we circled the mountainside, me searching for enough magnivolts to open a stable portal, and Mari babbling away in giant-bird form.

“I don’t know.” I said, closing my eyes to better detect the little pockets of ‘magic’ (as the humans call it), while Mari swerved to avoid a flock of sparrows.

“I was just thinking, ‘case you know I believe everything has a deeper meaning. Also-”

“Mari! Shush!” I interrupted, “I’m trying to open a portal here, could you PLEASE be quiet?” I had a cain for snowflakes stretched between my hands, and I could feel the orb Mari and I had just collected pulsing in my lap. I opened my eyes when I felt enough magnivolts to open a safe portal into the Keeper’s realm, and threw the snowflake chain in front of Mari, controlling them so they would form a circle large enough for her to fly through them with me on her back. I channelled the magic deeper inside me, the stuff that was buried beneath my natural snow magic, and made a swirling motion with my hands, feeding the interdimensional magic through my hands and into the circle of snow. Seconds later, a slightly purple light shone out of the portal frame, and Mari dove straight for it. There was a whooshing sound, and we were somewhere else entirely. 

The sky was cloudy, compared to the crisp blue it was before we entered the portal. The mountain had faded into a lush forest which turned into a wintery scene to the left and a dry desert to the right. Directly in front of us was The Palace. It stood on a tall pillar of rock like it had since before time began. You could see where the respective wings were; the Weather Wing had clouds and snow and sun swirling around over it, and the Seasons’ one had four towers where the colours showed which one was which. Then, the Living Things Wing. This one was the plainest, but the most hectic inside. Only, as Mari flew us closer and closer, the colour of the Seasons’ Wing drained out of it and turned a bruised, blackish-purple colour.

“Oh no!” Mari cried and dove towards The Palace as fast as she could. I clung on for dear life, holding the orb to my belly, determined not to let it fall. This was the only thing that could possibly save us from Arila.

“Mari, do you know where Arila is keeping everyone?” I said, leaning down to talk by her ear. She nodded but didn’t talk, her entire focus on getting to The Palace. The sky grew darker and the wind picked up. Arila must know we’re here. I could feel Mari’s muscles tensing, ready for the impact that was inevitable at this point. Our speed and the distance left between us and The Palace made it impossible to land softly. As Mari hit the courtyard in front of the grand gates, her momentum threw me off her back. I curled into a ball around the orb and rolled with the landing, standing after checking the orb was fine. Mari raced past me on four legs as she was now in cheetah form. I raced after her, pumping my legs and arms to keep up. When I saw the staircase she ran down, I knew where she was going and as she gradually faded out of sight around the twisting stairs, I sent a prayer up to whoever was on that metaphorical top step. Please let Arila not have everyone already. Please let some of them be safe. I eventually reached the end of the stairs and powered on down the long hall. I could already hear Arila cackling and the crewel sounds of the Bracelets of Hannes transferring the powers of my family to her, and killing them in the process. I could hear Mari ahead of me, panting and struggling to get the heavy door open. I froze the locking mechanism, and she broke into Arila’s torture chamber, growling and snarling. I almost missed the door I was going so fast, but I grabbed the door handle with my left hand, as my right was carrying the orb, and swung into the room. What I saw before me stopped me in my tracks. There were three piles on the floor, one of sand, one of leaves and the other of dust. The rest of my family stood in cages or were chained to the wall, all of them straining against their bonds. There were tears in Mani’s eyes and Suma was sobbing, her shoulders heaving even as she tried to break the bars on the cage surrounding her. The dust must’ve been from Homrey. Oh, Arila was going to pay big time. As Mari and I skidded to a stop by her side, she turned from Dadi and smirked at me, noting the pulsing orb in my hands. It was still covered by the cloth I had carried it in all those years ago, but it was obvious to everyone what it was.

“Arila! Stop! I have the orb, and I will use it. Stop being greedy and let my family go.” I stared hard at her, seeing the glee in her eyes. She chuckled darkly, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Oh, Iriel. We all thought you had died already. What a disappointment. I guess I could make room on my schedule for one more Keeper death. I’m relatively free after this. If you give me the orb, you don’t have to die. That’s my final offer.” I held my ground, even when she walked towards me threateningly.

“Never. No one like you should ever even know the orb exists. If you let everyone go, I’ll still kill you, but maybe I won’t enjoy it as much. You deserve a fate worse than death, but who knows what you’ll encounter after this. Once again, put the Bracelet down and stop hurting my family.” I held out my hand for the Bracelet, watching her very closely. Her face twisted into what must’ve been her version of a smile.

“No. I think I’ll hang onto this. And the orb” She lunged for me and I jumped back, but not far enough, because she smacked the orb out of my hands. It fell to the floor with a thud and started rolling towards the door. Mari grabbed it and I jumped onto Arila, keeping her to the floor. I tugged the bracelet off her wrist and threaded it onto my own. Dadi reached his hand out to me through the bars of his cage and I clasped his hand, returning his powers to him. He immediately looked younger and brighter, and when I opened his cage, he went to the others and freed them as well. I turned to face Arila, who was glaring at Mari. I froze her in her tracks, leaving her in an awkward half-sitting-half-standing position. I took the orb from Maris's open arms and looked Arila in the eye as I unwrapped the orb. I still kept a layer of fabric between my hands and the smooth surface of the orb. As I held it closer to Arila, the icy-blue colour of it faded into a grey blue, and when I touched it to her only melted hand, it turned a dark purple colour, swirling with greys and blacks. The look in her eye as she slowly dissolved into dust was one of pure hatred. She tried to say something, but her mouth was too frozen and the orb was working too fast for us to hear anything other than a muffled mumble. Eventually, there was nothing left of her, except the swirling thunder clouds in the orb. The orb released a small tinkling sound, and the storm clouds drifted off to create a new Storm Keeper.

- - - -

“So what’s the deal with new Keepers and stuff?” Harri asked in his cute Aussie accent. We were sitting in his room in the cabin, all the other humans were gone out on a trip to the top of the mountain. It was just me and him, Mari stayed home to help everyone.

“Basically, when a Keeper dies, a new one is chosen in the human world, and then we have to find out who it is and show them The Palace and how to use their magic.”

“But how do you know if they are a Keeper?” Harri said, fiddling with his jumper.

“Well, humans can’t get to the Keeper realm, they don’t have enough magnivolts to enter a portal,” I replied, watching him carefully and feeling something strange inside me, something almost… warm.

“So what happens? Do we die or something?” He says looking at me suddenly, like he’s afraid I’m going to pick him up and toss him in a portal.

“No, you hit like a wall or something. Humans literally can’t go through a portal.” He looks back down at his jumper.

“It’s because of those megavolts or something right? What are those?”

“Oh, I guess you humans call them magic. It’s sort of like a magically charged area, and us Keepers can control them. That’s what gives us our powers.” Harri frowns and looks out of the window, pointing.

“So what does it mean if a small storm flew through my window and disappeared inside of me?” I stared at him.

“Th-that would mean you’re the new Keeper. The Storm Keeper.”