Chapter 17: The Village that Surrendered, Surrounded by the Sleeping
Koolah had left the frozen crow-leaf forest, her surroundings of course were still no less cold and dark.
She was approaching a rime encrusted village that was under the deep shadows of several massive doleful obelisks of ice. These obelisks slept deeply, white mist flowing out with their snores. The village had not been anything special, anything important.
It merely had the misfortune to be too close to the focus of the loop magic, and along with everything else had fallen down through water and darkness.
Ghostly lights were cast onto the obelisks from the village, but these few lights were not enough to wake them. As Koolah grew closer she could see mirrors of ice flying about the obelisks. These had come later, and belonged to an invader like herself.
Koolah stopped between two obelisks, not daring to go into the village without permission. There was an icy cry bearing the echo of a dragon, and the mirrors flooded in before Koolah forming a wall and then with a second cry, turning into one large unbroken mirror.
“I am Koolah, brew-witch of the Dauftima pride, I seek parley with the sword-maiden of Judge Rimlasnathines”
There was silence. Koolah frowned, it was one thing a frosty reception, but no reply at all?
The air shuddered as the mirror cracked, Koolah stumbled backwards. Something was quite wrong.
“Leave”
It was almost a whisper.
Clearly the sword-maiden had encountered some ill-fortune, Koolah tried not to smile, since this made things far easier.
“Have you forgotten what a brew-witch is you blithering idiot? Let me attend to your wounds”
More silence greeted her.
Slowly the ice mirror melted apart into many little mirrors and these floated away, leaving Koolah free to enter the village. She paused for a moment, but deciding that the sword-maiden had accepted her quite reasonable and completely polite offer, she walked into the village.
Being further from the focus of the grand loop magic, the village had suffered quite badly before being trapped. The houses had burst long ago, strewn about like rotten fruits. The villagers twitched mechanically as they moved about their day again and again. Life had left them, cold and darkness taking their place. They did not even cast shadows.
Koolah took care not to disturb any of these tragic figures, though as tragic as they were, they were not suffering. They were trapped beyond such feelings. Koolah’s mood fouled further at the sight of these people and she quickened her pace.
It was not long before her destination came into view. Made of ice, a pavilion of mirrors. There floating above a floating mirror-like sword, was the sword-maiden of Rimlasnathines.
At first uncertain glance it looked like she was some human of either the hulvish or elvish race, but she was, when one paid full attention, clearly not so. Her legs transformed part of the way down into delicate taloned dragonclaws, and her hands while keeping the form of a human’s were clawed and scaled also. Silvery bangles were on each of her limbs.
These scales were a pure white, almost like fresh snow, and her skin was likewise, as was her elegant tail. She wore a blue dress of cloth like water that split at the sides to reveal her draconic legs, as if she was proudly displaying them. Her dress also split at the sides just above the hips, just enough to let two little scaled wings through.
Her hair in contrast to the rest of this was the cerise tears of a pale ruby, bound in braids with silver.
This hair framed a face that while beautiful was cold and without emotion. Her eyes were closed and did not even flutter beneath her eyelids as Koolah approached.
A dragon would not stand to have servants that are any less a treasure than a statue.
This was Yovra, dragonewt sword-maiden of Rimlasnathines.
Rimlasnathines, a powerful ice dragon who ruled the land of Lathinles, within which there was a huge frozen lake, that people out ignorance called Galshea.
Beneath that frozen lake was a fallen realm, that people also named Galshea out of ignorance.