Sorry, My Love: The Adventures of Lovers-Chapter 46: Aeiwou’s Request

The ice palace trembled at the heavy tread resounding within its frozen halls. The air snapped with cold, the walls creaked under the weight of frost, and the tall doors of the throne room creaked open slowly to permit a cloaked figure in a cloak of pale blue, her breath misting in the cold air.

Aeiwou advanced, her cold eyes bright, her fingers crackling with the soft light of blue magic. She bowed her head, her cloak rustling against the ice, her breath in short, controlled gasps.

"My Queen," she started, her voice firm but with an undercurrent of desperation. "I implore you. Let us go. Let my people depart this frozen wasteland."

Martha, on her shattered throne, her white hair cascading down her shoulders like a stream of ice, raised an eyebrow. Her fists clung to the armrests, a burst of frost racing through the hall.

"Leave?" she gasped, her breath as icy as shattering ice. "You enter my halls, unbidden, and now you have the temerity to ask for freedom?"

Aeiwou bristled, fingers spasming, the blue radiance in her eyes flashing. "It is not a request, my queen, but a supplication. My people did not volunteer for this exile. We ask for warmth, life, an opportunity to rebuild."

Martha's lips curled into a cold thin smile. She leaned forward, and the ice beneath her throne creaked because of this movement. "Warmth? Life? You wish to depart my world because it is too cruel? Too cold?"

Aeiwou's fists were balled in rage, blue light around her hands growing stronger. "It is death, my queen. This world is death."

Martha's eyes narrowed. The air chilled, the frost creeping inwards on the walls, the castle's breath becoming harsh and jagged. She stood up from her throne, her cloak swirling around her, her eyes fixed on Aeiwou.

"You would leave me?" she spat, every word a scrap of bitter frost. "After I allowed you to stride my frozen halls, after I allowed you to breathe my icy air?"

Aeiwou stepped back, her heart racing. "You gave us nothing. You hold us captive here, my queen, in this ice and death."

Martha's eyes blazed with icy, uncontrolled rage. She lifted her hand, and the ice on either side of her throne started to crack and splinter outward like a network of frozen veins.

"Then perhaps you should depart," she whispered, her voice low and deadly. "But not as you wished."

Aeiwou's eyes widened as the ice under her feet trembled. She flung her hands in front of her, catching the blue magic and shaping it into the form of short, chubby things – snowmen with jagged, cruel teeth and glowing, empty eyes. They lurched forward, their chubby bodies rolling across the ice floor, their cold, thick arms hurling snowballs the size of boulders at the queen.

Martha just smiled, her eyes flashing as the first snowball struck the side of her throne, pieces of ice flying across the hall. She took one wary step forward, her breath misting the air around her, her fingers fluttering.

"Ella!" she called, her voice ringing over the chaos.

From the blackness above, a tiny shadow, her hair colorless like that of her mother, her eyes shining with cold. Down the stairs came Ella, her naked feet making no sound on ice-hard floor. She lifted her hand, and the snowmen froze in mid-sprint, their empty eyes flashing fear before their bodies collapsed into a thousand shining shards.

Ella's mouth curled into a cold, cruel smile. She thinned her fists, ice spiking hard and knife-edged around them. She hurled forward, arm in a wide arc, and the ice knives flew, whizzing through the air to slash at Aeiwou.

Aeiwou's eyes blazed, her hand flying up, her palm crackling with hot, blue magic. The spikes broke on her magic, the ice shards shattering onto the floor at her feet. She snapped her wrist, and a burst of blue magic shot forward, striking Ella in the chest and slamming her back against an ice pillar. The pillar cracked, and ice shards shattered to the floor.

Ella stumbled, hard, gasping breaths, her eyes wide with shock and agony. Martha's eyes went black as night, her jaw clenched. She stretched out her arms, her cloak flying around her as a burning gust tore through the hall, snow swirling into a screaming blizzard that filled the room, blinding and choking.

Aeiwou retreated backward, her cloak fluttering around her, her breathing taken by the icy blasts. She whirled around, her color pale with fear, and hastened toward the door, her boots skidding on the ice-coated, wet floor.

"Run, then!" Martha's voice called out across the storm. "Run and let your people know that the Queen of Antarctic has no traitors!"

Aeiwou stormed through the doors, her breathing in gritty, urgent gasps as the storm poured through behind her into the chilly hallways. The knights stepped forward out of the darkness, swords glinting with new frost, their eyes burning, their bodies stiff and unyielding.

"Seize her," one of them snarled, his voice a low, rumbling growl.

They pursued her, their armor crashing, their eyes blazing with cold, hard fury. Aeiwou dived down a side corridor, her cloak billowing behind her, her breath icing in her lungs. She ran out the castle gates, the wind cutting at her face, snow piercing at her skin, and dived into the storm outside, her heart thudding.

She. approached her people, their eyes wide with confusion and fear, their breaths foggy clouds in the cold air.

"The Queen will not let us go," she gasped, her shaking fingers. "She has declared war on us."

Gossip ran through the crowd, a terrified shine in their eyes. Some of them, anger contorted on their faces, went to their arms, to the knives made of the remains of long-dead animals, the metal sharp and wicked.

"We fight," one growled, showing him his teeth, his eyes flashing bright. "We fight for freedom."

Aeiwou spoke not as they spun, their faces alight with madness and terror, and raced to the castle, their cries traveling across the icy wasteland. She rose to her feet and watched the blackness of her warriors fighting the giant, icy forms of Martha's knights, their swords clashing, their cries tearing the tempest.

When it was finished, when the snow was deep and the cries of their dying grew faint on the cold wind, Aeiwou wheeled away, gasping in short, shallow breaths, her eyes hollow and empty. She wrapped her cloak tightly around her shoulders and said into the wind, "We will find another way."