I walk over to the wall leaning on it. Man, I could go for some food. Maybe some soup, oh oh or maybe some jerky. Yeah, that wouldn't be bad not one bit. I could ask Sunny for that water memory thingy he has. Yeah, I'm really thirsty. Wait Sunny- Sunny's talking to neph.
"-Why the change of heart, how come you were so confident she'd uphold her end of the deal"
I pipe up finally after having not been paying any attention
"because Changing Star is the best way out."
A voice chimes in from behind Sunny
"I could not have said it better myself"
It's the handmaiden leader i didn't know when she appeared but I'm used to that happening, Sunny jolts a bit. Good, he's always scaring me it's his turn. I do not laugh to myself even slightly, that does not happen.
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Song Seishan"
Caster gets a weird look, I wonder why. I also promptly forget most of her name, I've never been good with those. Sometimes I used to forget my own, so forgetting someone else's isn't shocking.
It's rude I know but eh who cares, not me. I walk over to Sunny, then I hold out my hand doing the give me hand. He sighs summons the water memory thingy and hands it to me. I drink some good water, it's a pretty damn good memory, I should get one like it when I get out of here. I hand it back to him and I go back to my spot on the wall.
Yeah, I think I'll get some jerky from healer.... shit I forgot her name, I'll have to ask or hear someone else say it.
Soon, efforts are started to clean up the bright castle. I spearhead hunting down any nightmare creatures that got into the castle. I bring the bodies to the artisans who've been asked to make something by Neph.
I have no clue but I do know Kai is going to be going into the labyrinth soon so I keep some of the bones to make a ton of arrows for him. So that and the clothes he asked me to make are my main projects for now.
I also make him a bag from a fallen beast's hide. I want to make sure it holds up of course, its won't be easy for him so I want him to stand a far better chance.
I'm walking around when I see the hunter's leader, whose name starts with a G but I don't remember much else. I notice the guy seems pretty damn sad. He's not like crying or anything but the guy seems miserable.
It's probably because of the death of the artisan leader, the two seemed to have been close. The look in his eyes reminds me of when my cohort died. I walk over summoning my notebook.
"Hello"
"Oh hello, you're the ice hunter right? I've heard of you around."
He gets a slightly odd look while looking at me. I offer him the notebook
"I know what happened with the artisan leader. Do you want to write about them? After all, everyone sees everyone differently, and writing down what you saw them might help."
He looks at the notebook before slowly taking it and writing for a while. He hands it back to me after an hour or two. There's a lot of sadness on his face but it seemed to have helped.
"Thank you"
I nod and just leave. I got things to do. His handwriting isn't the most neat and he wrote quickly but it's readable.
The day before Kai leaves to look for the new sleepers coming here because of the winter solstice, I give him the clothes, arrows, and his new bag.
"Oh- thank you ■■■■. It looks really good."
He smiles, he likes the stuff I made, how nice. I hand him my notebook
"for documentation, write whatever you want"
he looks a little surprised before going back to smiling then taking the notebook. He gives it back pretty quickly. I see his signature and a little note about me calling me quite honest, for some reason.
"Hm."
"I know you're worried about me but I'll be okay."
I tilt my head
"I'm not, I know you're strong enough to survive. I want to make it easier."
He laughs a bit
"Well I'm glad. I'll be fine, if anything I'm more worried about you"
"No need I'm going to be fine"
He gets a weird look, I think its almost sad, weird.
"Yeah... I'm sure you will be"
His handwriting reads like a middle school girls who put needlessly fancy things into their writing.
After a week of Kai being gone, he finally comes back. I'm one of the first in the command center. I lean on the wall waiting for him to get here already, he's taking too long, I know he's fine and all but still. I decide to look at my runes while I wait.
True Name: heat seeker
Rank: Dreamer.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Ice Fragments: [932/1000]
Memories: [Armor of Ash] [Snow and Ash Daggers] [priest's notebook] [silk thread] [silver cutlass] [feather boots] [blood drinker] [stone shield] [rusty halberd] [stained glass cloak]
Echoes: -
Ice shards: [flame of the divine]
Attributes: [Crown of Snow], [Mark of Divinity], [True Cold] [Being of Cold] [Cold film]
Aspect: [Child of Cold].
Aspect Rank: [divine.]
Aspect ability: [frozen over]
Aspect Ability Description: [All you touch is turned to ice it is capable of great destruction and great creation]
Aspect Description: [You are the child of a law of this world, of the cold left behind by the death of a god. You long for heat for warmth yet never will you find it. You take the heat from the world yet stay as cold as the grave.]
Aspect legacy: [Cold wind of Boreas. 1/7]
Aspect Legacy Description: [You have seen a death that has changed you. That changed it all and you have promised to take the empty seats of the gods and fill them with humans]
I'm almost done with filling up on ice shards. I'll be at full power soon enough. Sooner than that will be the raid on the crimson spire. How many are going to die? How many are going to live?
That's when I see Kai who's looking worse for wear. I walk over
"Singer you're back. Are you okay, no injuries right?"
Kai smiles, it's a lot weaker than normal
"Yeah I'm fine"
I take out a sewing kit from my satchel and I start patching up his jacket. It's still on him but I've done this quite a few times before so he's used to it. Effie passes him a plate of food and some water as he sits by the fire.
Sunny walks in and Kai smiles at him with that tired smile
"Hey Sunny"
Sunny gets a really weird look walks over and pats Kai on the shoulder
"Hey Kai welcome back."
Nobody talks for a while, Kai just eats and drinks while I fix up his jacket. Soon everyone else arrives.
"How many?"
Is the first thing neph asked and Kai gets this look
"None, I scrowed the labyrinth looking for any sign a sleeper passed there recently but there where none, there was no one alive and no bodies not even a fresh bone the spell did not send anyone to this hell not this year and it wont the next one too"
I look up from my work
"So its now or never to raid the spire"
Everyone is silent for some time
"tell everyone to gather in the throne room. I will speak to them."
Everyone leaves, I go with Kai. Soon 510 people are in the throne room. It had been cleaned of all stains. Changing star sits on the stairs to throne, soon she slowly stands
"dreamers of the forgotten shore, a week ago I sent several scouts into the labyrinth to look for those young man and woman who like us where sent to this cursed place amoung then was Nightingale whom you all know he spent 7 days searching for them but he didnt find anyone not even a single sign of their passing this year none has come."
People start whispering amoung themselves not quite in a panic yet
"Many of you understand what that means, to those who dont i will explain, for many years this castle served as a fortress for the humans sent to the forgotten shore some of you enjoyed the safety it offered while other survived in the shadow of its walls but none of would have been if not for the bright castle it offered us protection against the dreadful beasts of the dark city it offered us shelter however this shelter was never free. Some people lost their souls to preserve it and many more lost their lives every year 100s of human lives were sacrificed to allow the bright castle to exist and every year 100s more came to be thrown into its maw"
I look around at the faces of the sleepers sent to this place, all of them are so young. None of us is even 30.
"But no more there won't be anyone coming to the dark city this year just like none will coke after that. Without new people the losses we suffer will slowly accumulate, until there is none to man the walls, none to fight off the nightmare creatures, none to keep these halls safe until there is no more shelter, this end is enviable."
People start to panic at that, what else could they do
"which means one thing we can not remain in the bright castle anymore"
It's a truth that cant be denied ill give her that. The truth that we need to leave.
"But this isn't the end of us, a long time ago I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. Come with me, follow me, only I know how to save you. Follow me, and I will lead you out of this hell. Follow me, and I will show you the path back to your homes. But make no mistake... The road ahead will be long and arduous. Not everyone will make it. The weak will die. The strong will die, too. And those who remain won't be the same. But there is one thing I can promise you ...Follow me... and you will never be slaves...Slaves to your fear, slaves to your fate, slaves to the Nightmare Spell. Come with me, and whether you live or die, you will do so as humans. Not cowering beasts."
Many will die, most of this is just flowery words to make them feel better.
"But I will not force anyone to follow me ever whether you come with me or stay there is no shame in staying those who do not wish who do not wish to go may leave this hall right now"
Nobody would ever leave, she's the only way out and their only hope isn't she?
"Good I'm glad then it's decided. Then the day after tomorrow we will leave the bright castle the day after tomorrow we march on the crimson spire"
The next day all of the most powerful people march through the dark city, to kill the lord of the dead. I'm not shocked, it makes sense that we got to kill the damn thing. That's when I get approached by Song
"You're the ice hunter from the outersettlement."
"Yeah, that's me."
She nods
"I've heard quite a bit about you, there were just so many rumors as facts. You were just as well known as hunter Athena, but far more mysterious."
I stare at her, I'm not getting why she's talking to me. I hope it isn't to ask me for anything.
"Bringing that many kills to the outersettlement, once a week, and even once a fallen demon. It was something quite impressive to hear about."
I nod about to start tuning her out. Wait I could ask her to write in my notebook about the bright castle, I summon it, she looks at it with interest
"Could you write about the important stuff in the castle while Gunlaug was in charge? For documentation"
She looks at the notebook with a expression of maybe confusion maybe something deeper then she laughs and takes the notebook writing for some time. Then she hands it back to me
"I hope you find this insightful" she then leaves to go speak to someone else. She wrote slowly but with very neat and clean handwriting, if anything it's a too bit fancy.
I jump over a rush of bones slashing at it, a cold shiver runs through the thing as more ice spreads through it like a second poison adding to the plant parasite already there.
I make small ice pillars to reduce friction to speed myself up, combined with the blood flower drinker my speed is second to Caster. I slide under another attack and it hits Stone Saint's shield, who I could swear was smaller but I probably misremembered it.
I keep running using my daggers to get small shallow cuts along the tyrant. I'm about to run past Song but I notice her get hit in the shoulder by a falling rock throwing her off enough that she'd be hit so I grab her and I jump over another another attack. I make an ice wall quickly putting her done and I go back to moving.
I summon my shield noticing it about to attack Neph, and I throw it it cutting through the bone chilling it, and letting Neph get a real good hit in. I then desummon it.
"Legacy to your left!"
With that Caster is able to avoid a hit in his blind spot. Soon its core is exposed and Effie throws her shield right through it. We win just as I knew we would.
The day after we are marching, causing a path of death as the sleepers rampage through the labyrinth. I'm a little too aware that so many of them are likely to die. Maybe even Cassie or Kai or Sunny or... well anyone could die even me.
Still, I'd like to make sure id remember what they look like. So one by one I go over to my cohort members asking to draw them. I won't forget their faces now. I'll have to do is look into my notebook.
I also have each sign it. Sunny's handwriting isn't very good i don't blame him, apparently he hasn't written a lot, and he gave me a weird look.
Effie has very striking handwriting, she laughed when I asked her to draw her and for her to sign it.
Neph's handwriting is fancy but it's done pretty quickly.
Cassie's handwriting is incredibly messy, I'm not shocked she's blind after all.
Caster's handwriting is also fancy and his is the slowest like he was trying to get it just right.
Healer's handwriting is a little shaky but pretty good.
Soon the dreamer army gets to the crimson spire. I stare up at it for a while before I draw it. Then I desummon my notebook as I go to help the artisans. When night comes around I stay up for longer than normal. How can I sleep knowing how many will die? It feels wrong. Maybe.... more than just a few will live. I sigh to myself, I'll just make sure as many as I can survive.