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Tears of Ice & Blood of Fire

By Corvus no Genmu

03: Monster

"The secret side of me, I never let you see.
I keep it caged, but I can't control it.
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly.
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it."

The world is dead.

Buried beneath an ivory sea of ice and snow.

Life, forever frozen as it once had been so many millennia ago… save for one tiny spot in what had been the northlands of the Norse. Here, ash was falling as abysmal snow. Smoke rose upwards across the land in thickening clouds of blackness, shrouding the evening sky in grisly veil. A red sun was setting on the horizon, splattering the sky with its crimson hue as the city below burned in an inferno of horror. Bones littered the decimated streets, corpses charred and blackened beyond recognition were scattered carelessly like discarded toys. The castle was in ruins and there, on the horizon, the North Mountain stood as a gravestone to the countless lives lost as the destructor rested upon its precipice.

Eyes golden in hue and animalistic in their ferocity gazed down at the burning lands below and wings black as molten earth spread wide and casted forth a shadow of death across the land as the monstrous thing at long last roared challenge to the storm. The lapping waves of the nearby sea retreated from the advancing heat as the destroyer's cry rushed outwards into the dead world beyond.

A flash of azure and the flames were buried beneath a rolling wave of ice as their crafter screamed in rage at the molten defiance wrought from a wretched beast. The perpetual blizzard roared with thunder, screamed with lightning, and howled with fangs of falling ice and sleeting snow.

The monstrosity atop the mountain turned sharply to meet the ancient quarry, mouth opening in another infernal scream as ice and snow came rushing up to meet its flames and ash. The two opposing energies clashed with a thunderous explosion of light and when it ended there was not but wisps of snow and whole clouds of ash abound the two human souls that once had command over the elements.

And themselves.

Only one stood tall and staring with wide, frightened eyes upon she who laid broken at his feet, both encompassed in the shadow of a once great and imposing mountain. The overbearing force that she had once been, the perpetual storm that had encompassed the world, was gone and in its place was a woman who could only be dead, so unnatural was the the wide, glassy stare of her eyes. The monster that he had been before, the destructor who sought not an end to the storm but a continual spread of fire and ash across an ice-ridden world, was gone and standing in its place was the man he had been before and was again.

His legs gave out beneath him, trembling hands reaching down to the broken form of his beloved. The hand bearing his wedding band reached down and clasped her own, the twin rings glinting even now so many centuries later. His other hand reached out and touched her face, feeling the familiar coldness of her flesh cooling the heated blood pumping through his veins. He whispered her name, the first word uttered upon this godforsaken world in a thousand years. She did not answer and he spoke it again, louder and more desperately. He shook her shoulder and her head bobbed upon a broken neck and in that moment he realized two important things.

He is a monster.

But more than that, he is a murderer.

Shido leapt to his feet, his hands cast in flames and his blood boiling in his veins. Beads of sweat steamed upwards from panting form, as he looked about the room with wide eyes, wild with adrenaline. He was in one of the guest rooms of Elsa's palace, the sun a fading sight on the horizon through the stained glass window, and over there, knocking at the door, was one of the castle servants.

"Sir Shido? Dinner will be served shortly."

Shido swallowed and steadied his breathing as the flames upon his hands ebbed away to embers while his blood rapidly cooled beneath his broiling skin. "A thousand pardons but… I am afraid that I have no appetite this evening. Please offer Elsie—her Majesty my sincerest apologies."

"Of course, Sir."

The young foreigner waited with baited breath until the servant's footsteps were beyond even his exceptional hearing and he collapsed back into the chair. He looked aside at the art candies and saw that, much to his relief, they were unharmed from his not-so-small slip of control. Shido held out his hand and clenched it tightly before unclenching it. A ball of fire appeared in his open palm, burning merrily upon the untouched flesh of his hand.

He glanced at the fireplace and tossed the flames to the logs inside and watched in silence as the fires crackled gleefully upon the dried wood. The flames were mesmerizingly beautiful and there, in the back of his mind, he could feel it stirring. The urge to let go of his control, to let the fire in his blood burst free in a blaze of glory and reduce all that surrounded him into ashes.

Shido clenched his fist.

"No."

The flames in the fireplace ebbed as his control tightened like a coiling serpent.

"No, I am not that thing's heir."

He couldn't release the chains and further tightened the bonds. He couldn't surrender himself. Not again. Not as he had done once before.

"These are my flames, to do with as I wish."

But that didn't mean that he couldn't allow himself the chance to… play …

"… I'm sure there is somewhere I can unwind."

Unfortunately for Shido, such a place was not to be found outside the palace walls simply for the fact that he could not find a means of escaping without notice. If it weren't the servants going about their duties it was the guards patrolling the palace walls. Honestly, it was proving rather vexing at how difficult it was and Shido was sorely being tempted to simply through caution to the wind and make a leap for it regardless of the consequences.

That is, until he found the ballroom.

Filled as it had been with visiting nobles and dignitaries, servants and even a small orchestra, the true scope and scale of the room had escaped Shido's notice until he found it alone and empty with naught a soul in sight. He looked back over his shoulder, up and down the hallway and satisfied that he wasn't being followed, shut the door behind him. It wasn't precisely what he had in mind, and it certainly wasn't Elsa's ice palace, but he supposed it would have to do.

He walked out into the middle of the spacious room and glanced at the unlit chandelier hanging high above his head. A snap of his fingers and a small twist of the wrist and floating orbs of ethereal flames danced merrily about the room, filling the silence with soft hoots and nonsensical murmurs. Though nothing at all like what Elsa had done in the creation of Olaf and his big little brother, the best that he could do was create mere shades, wisps really, of actual life. The wisps, as he came to call them, had no true semblance of sentience as what he had seen in Elsa's snowmen. They could mimic, they could follow simple instructions, but they had no voice, no soul, to them.

Still, he enjoyed their company and treated them as best as he could.

"Alright little ones what shall we sing tonight?" He asked the flight of flames. The few wisps that were slightly larger than the rest, and bore an additional purplish tint to their azure hue, looked to one another before humming low and deep.

"I close my eyes, tell us why must we suffer? Release your hands, for your will drags us under…" Shido's eyes widened in surprise not at hearing the wisps sing in such surprisingly deep voices, he had learned long ago they could speak with whatever voices pleased them. No, it was the song that they had chosen, one that he hadn't heard for some years but knew more intimately than any other. "My legs grow tired, tell us where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?"

Smiling softly to himself, Shido closed his eyes and sung with the now softly humming wisps, "To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, to all of my children to whom Death hath passed his Judgment… The soul yearns for honor, and the flesh the hereafter. Look to those who walked before to lead those who walk after."

He held out a welcoming hand and a pair of wisps drifted down, kneeling eagerly upon his palm as their larger, darker burning brethren, danced in a slow circle above the head of their maker.

"Shining is the Land's light of justice, ever flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe… The Land is alive, so believe…"

Shido spun, lashing his arm forward and sending the wisps upon his hand flying and they soared through the air, twirling and giggling in delight as they flew upwards and danced amongst the branching limbs of the hanging chandeliers. Save for one whose wavering visage was born in the midst of the lyrics. The not-so-tiny wisp broke away from the group and floated away to the opposite side of the room where it floated and watched in reverent silence.

"Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope we lie defeated! Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken… Bearing sins of the past, for our future is taken… War born of strife, these trials persuade us not…"

"Feel what?" hummed the tiny wisps as they floated down from the chandeliers, joining their large brethren. "Learn what?"

"Words without sound, these lies betray our thoughts! Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns…"

"See what?" hummed the larger wisps, looking to their tiny kin as though they might possess the answers, "Hear what?"

"Judgment binds all we hold to a memory of scorn. Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die, helpless in our cries!?" Shido did not shout to the rafters above but his voice resonated as though he had, his eyes still clenched tightly against the world and lost entirely to the song as the wisps joined him.

"Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow… To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth life flow yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow… In the same fleeting moment thou must live, die, and know…"

Shido grew silent as did the wisps above as they slowly flickered and died like candles. All but one who murmured and cooed delightedly, drawing Shido's eyes to open and see—

"…I think I might have put too much heart into that song than I realized."

The wisp, contrary to the others he had created this night, nay even before, was a bit large than the rest, a little over the size of his hand and was shaped almost like a cross between a child's imagining of a human figure and a lantern. Two tiny spots of gold that could only be a semblance of eyes glimmered delightfully in an otherwise pale, violet flame.

"Hi!" The wisp waved one lanky limb of flame excitedly down at Shido in a surprisingly feminine voice. "I'm Akari and I love singing in the rain!"

… What? Shido's hands clenched tightly as he watched the little wisp bounce merrily in the air as she, for with such a name and voice it could only be female, went on about much she enjoyed the sound of rain, the rushing roar of ocean waves, and even the steady growl of waterfalls. Shido enjoyed the rain too not so long ago, but with the rain came memories and with those memories came pain.

A forest reduced to ashes and a pair of amber eyes staring forlornly into his own, so similar and yet so different…

He shook his head clear of the past and focused once more on the present.

"Oh, and bubble baths, they're just so—"

"Akari," he interrupted the wisp's ramblings, "you are… alive?"

"Uh… uh-huh! At least, I think I am. Isn't that how it works? I am therefore I think?"

Drat.

Well, if he couldn't melt a living snowman he couldn't be expected to extinguish a sentient fireball now could he? Besides, there was a far more worrying question to consider

How am I going to sneak her out of here?

"I don't like it in here!"

"It'll only be until we get back to my room now please, shush! We can't let anyone see or hear you!"

"But it smells funny!"

"Can you even smell?" Shido asked, lifting up the small kerosene lantern in which sat Akari, her strangely colored flames hidden thanks to the distorted tinting of the glass.

He had procured, that is to say "borrowed without asking", the lantern from one of the tables that littered the otherwise empty halls of the castle. Thankfully, Akari proved adaptable in her size and managed to shrink her body down to a candle's light but not without complaints. Complaints that she was continuing to voice still.

"I have to otherwise why would I want to get out of this thing!" she exclaimed, her fire brightening for a moment. "Can't I come out yet?"

"No, no, not yet. Just. Be quiet." Shido murmured to the wisp as he continued walking through the castle halls. Oh I am so unbelievably lost. I think that's the third time I've passed that painting.

"… May I sing?"

He barely repressed the urge to groan. She had moved from complaints to requests now and he knew there would be no end of the absurdity anytime soon. "No."

"… How about I whistle? Will that work?"

Shido didn't stop walking though he did tilt his head at the idea. "How would you even do that?"

"Fine… What about humming?"

Shido rolled his eyes. "Yes, but quietly."

"Yay!" Akari cheered before proceeding to hum a small tune that rang a familiar bell in Shido's mind but whose name he couldn't quite—

Pain… death… destruction.

Shido's eyes snapped open and he turned sharply to the lantern in his hand and the wisp humming his mother's lullaby within. "That's enough Akari!"

The tiny wisp squeaked in surprise and shrunk down to such a degree that her flame was but a tiny spark within the distorted glass. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad…"

"You… didn't." Shido struggled for control, his blood boiling hard and fast, flames flickering along the skin of his knuckles as he breathed out clouds of smoke. "That song… brings painful memories I would much rather—"

"What are you doing?"

Shido did not leap, did not squeak, and most certainly did not panic. He twitched, gasped a soft oath unbecoming to noble tongue, and turned cautiously around to see the one person he had been painfully, that is to say agonizing with the utmost angst, to avoid plus two extras.

"Good evening Your Majesty, Your Highness and Ice Master." Shido smiled but it was a touched strained as he hid the mercifully silent lantern behind his back. "I trust dinner with the cousin went well?"

"That's really a thing?" Kristoff muttered quietly to Anna who looked up at him with amused offense.

"Of course it is!" She whispered back.

"She couldn't make it tonight," distractedly said Elsa, ignoring the byplay behind her as she tried to peer around Shido to see what he was hiding. "Which is good as she is apparently quite eager to meet you."

This was said with a none-too-happy stare towards the younger sibling who shrugged helplessly.

"She remembers seeing you two dance at the coronation ball. She thought you both looked cute together."

Shido's smile lost most, if not all, of the strain and the warm glimmer in his eyes returned as he regarded Elsa. "Do we?"

Elsa looked uncomfortable, not knowing if he was just thinking aloud or actually asking her. "I suppose…"

"Suppose? Suppose? Suppose nothing!" A loud squeak of metal and the dimly lit hallway was brightened by Akari's presence floating above the group, her burning body brilliantly blazing a warm rosy violet. "Songs ought to be sung of their love at every opportunity, why I don't know why you wouldn't think otherwise Anna—Wait, Little Anna?!"

The wisp's blinked and she zoomed down to hover before Anna, who jump back in surprise at the living fireball's proximity and blinked in wonder at the strange lack of warmth radiating from the flames.

"Are you Little Anna? Aw, you really are a cute little thing aren't you? So cute! Like a puppy, I love you already!"

Anna blinked and wondered if the wisp had any room to talk considering. "Who—?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Akari and I love singing in the rain!" The wisp zipped over to Kristoff and looked him over, her beady eyes narrowing as she considered him. "You're singing leaves much to be desired but you're funny, have a nicely proportioned front and bottom, and you even have a cute, cuddly animal sidekick. Yes, you'll do perfectly for her! I approve of your relationship! Kristanna all the way!"

Shido buried his face in his hands and knew that though the act was impossible, he was fairly certain he'd soon discover a way to die of shame right then and there. It was rapidly becoming apparent to him that Akari was the chattiest thing bar none. Well, save perhaps the snowman Olaf but really this was ridiculous!

Sure, he supported Anna's happiness but blast it, he had wanted to threaten—ahem—warn Kristoff of the consequences of any misbehaviors and Shido couldn't do that when one of his wisps was complimenting the man! Never mind approving the relationship and giving it a ridiculous nickname! True, Shido had no right but even if Elsa presumed otherwise, he did care for Anna like she was his own blood. She might not be his little sister, in-law or otherwise, but she was Elsa's and thus of only marginally less importance to him as the queen herself.

"Oh and you must be Elsie!" Akari flashed over to Elsa, who couldn't help but flinch back at the wisp's sudden proximity though the wee thing gave off no heat. "Wow… I see why Shido adores you so! You have a face to make angels weep in envy and a voice to make the heavens tremble! Sing for me, please? Let the music in your heart go!"

"You're a… How did he… What?" While not so eloquent as she would hope to be, Elsa did manage to ask the most important question.

"I'm a wisp which is kind of like fire but I can do stuff! Shido made me which kind of makes him my papa just like you are Olaf's mama!"

Shido's face paled at that, never really making that connection and, by the look on her face, neither had Elsa.

THUMP.

Akari zipped over and looked down towards the unconscious Kristoff. "Aw he fainted!"

Shido looked up towards the ceiling. "… This is going to be a theme isn't it?"

"Cid." He turned sharply to Elsa, surprised and thankful that she still called him by his nickname though the relief was soon buried beneath trepidation. For now he saw in her eyes the frozen storm raging eternal in her soul as she glared upon him not with anger, sorrow, or even hatred. The first two he might have handled and the last might have wounded him mortally to see but this… this nearly broke him. For there, in Elsa's eyes, was something he never wanted to see.

Betrayal.

"Elsie. I…" He swallowed and looked away from her gaze, watching as Anna tried unsuccessfully to try and resuscitate Kristoff. Poor girl had no idea what she was she doing but at the least, Kristoff would wake up knowing that the bruises were all meant with good, if not overly exuberant intentions. "I have no idea where I can even begin."

Surprisingly, it was Akari who answered, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

Shido blinked and glanced up at the wisp, wondering if it was a trick of the eyes that made him see the devious smile on her face. He could have sworn he read that in a book somewhere, a fairly recent one too but… He couldn't fault the wisp's words any.

"Yes," said Shido as his eyes met with Elsa's own. "I suppose the beginning is as good a place as any…"

There is almost no life here. Rather, there is very little life here, in this mountainous wasteland of ice and snow. Few creatures could survive the freezing hours of the day never mind the temperatures of the night and those that could did not linger for long under the shadow of the mountain. Once, when humans still lived in the valleys below, there were tales of the mountain's peak, of how it would come alive at the thirteenth hour of the night and call forth the ghastly wraiths of the dead and dying. A devil lived at the peak of that mountain, people whispered. A demon unlike any other, many agreed.

Only one dared to say specifically what resided upon that mountain peak.

Evil.

And that was more than enough.

Tales though they were, with no evidence behind their fearful whisperings, the people ran from the mountain's shadow. For though the centuries had come and gone with no proof of a devil's presence upon the peak, something had come and claimed residency beneath the underbelly of Heaven itself. For you see, in the span of a single night and for the first time in conceivable memory, there came to be snow upon an otherwise bald mountain's peak. A day passed and the snow reached the foothills. A night and soon a blizzard had begun to rage upon the villages.

The humans needed no further prompting. The sensible ones packed their things and left, never once looking back for fear of attracting the very eyes they sought to escape. And those that didn't?

They died.

Buried alive beneath several feet of snow, forever frozen in vestiges of terror and pain.

Yet the storm did not continue to spread nor did it linger eternally. Snow and ice remained, never melting even at the height of a summer's sun but nothing, not even the tiniest of snowflakes, floated from the ice-capped peak of the mountain. Not for well over a hundred years.

Not until something —someone— brought forth winter in the height of summer.

Then… that which resided deep within the mountain stirred.

Snow flew forth from the peak, condensing tightly and conforming into all manner of shapes until a veritable kingdom of animals graced the valleys at the mountain's feet. Wolves, large and brutish, sniffed the air and padded their way to the northlands. Deer, tall and graceful, leaped their way past the ruined villages and made way to the east. Serpents, white as ivory with eyes deeper than ebony, slithered beneath the snow down towards the south. Yet sporting the greatest number of them was the swarm of insects, consisting mostly of hornets and bees of all size and distinction, that flew hard and fast to the west.

For the presence sensed the presence of another being, another child born with winter's fury in their heart. Days passed and the presence waited in silence as the searchers returned, one by one, and perished. Memories of the world, of the changes, flowed through the sky and awoke the spirits that danced in the hours of the night but still there was no sign of—

There.

There it was.

There she was…

Eyes, white and merciless, opened in the darkness of the mountain's heart.

"I see you…" The wind stirred to an ancient whisper as the being arose to their feet, "and I will have you."