Friendship Letters
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on December 9, 2024
The cold hasn't bothered you since the night you crossed the sea of dead stars.
Cold wind ravages the outer magical shields that surround the interloper, yet all he feels is a gentle winter breeze. He marches through the apathetic snow on a path that hasn't been used in years, a path that he'd never used before yet knows like the back of his hoof. There in the Frozen North, where the Siren's curse buried whole kingdoms in frost, he will find his quary.
Nestled on the side of a mountain range, a lone castle overlooks the long-abandoned valley. The river that once gave it life is but a memory, the houses and farms that dotted the landscape are naught but abandoned archeological dig sites. The bones of the archeologists and explorers that worked at those sites now serve as a warning, decorating in grim fashion the castle's gate.
Nothing can be heard within the frozen halls other than his own muffled hoofsteps. Even the howling of the wind outside has ceased as he approaches the inner chambers, frost-covered marble pillars glistening like crystals under the pale lights he'd summoned. A pair of hungry eyes watch his every move, looking for an opening through which to strike.
The castle's throne room is but a shadow of its former glory, its light smeared and stolen by the angry mob that sacked it long-ago. They never found the food they were looking for, only an emanciated queen that did her best to share every blessing with her followers in their last days. She yet remains, sat upon the rubble that once was her throne, muscles twitching and mouth agape in starved excitement.
The Interloper stops before the throne of the Northern Changeling Queen and watches as her slim silhouette rushes to meet him. She was an Unicorn once, a fair lady of the Sorcerous Empire of Üle, now nothing more than a fiend, an animal overtaken by the primal instinct to consume. And yet, as she pounces upon her prey and bites at his jugular, she stops, muscles frozen at the smell and taste of something all too familiar.
"Hope?"
She pulls back and spits out the flesh of someone she recognizes. It is him, the one in her dreams, the one that stood by her side through multiple lives. Her father, her brother, her son, he who they called Hope. But as she looks upon his dull blue eyes whilst they die she can't recognize them. This was him, it should be him, but it isn't him.
While she's distracted, the archmage pushes her off of himself, writhing in agony as the gaping wound on his neck struggles to close itself. She'd gone right through his shields and knocked him to the ground faster than he could've reacted. This was not the same Changeling he met in a cave of ice, flesh and stone; This one was different in everything but name.
"Your teeth are the one thing I didn't miss, Adeena..."
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