Chapter Five: The Truth of the Frozen Mother
"My prison..." Sion repeated the words, his voice a mere whisper. "You... are my mother?"
The translucent shadow of the woman swayed like smoke in a nonexistent wind. "Your mother? No. I am more. I am less. I am the one who paved the way with my tears."
The dark hunters moved. Their leader, his mask darker than the others, stepped forward. "Lost one... give me your memory. Surrender it, and I promise I will end your suffering."
"My suffering is all that remains of me. If you take it... I will not even remain a ghost."
Elara stepped forward, the lost pilgrims around her. "We do not wish to harm you. We want to understand."
The shadow turned to her, its transparent eyes holding something akin to gratitude. "You... are the only ones who asked for nothing. You only sat with my pain."
Then it looked at Sion once more. "But he... finally came. The guardian who forgot me."
All eyes turned to Sion. "I... am your guardian?"
"In Eilidor, you guarded the glass. You guarded the separated emotions. And you guarded me... because my sorrow was stronger than all the others."
Sion remembered the glass city. He remembered the colored lights. He remembered how people walked, the colors of their emotions separate, pure.
"Why... why did I imprison you?"
"Because my sorrow... was infectious. Because I wept for something I had lost, and my weeping made others remember their losses. And in Eilidor... remembering is painful. So they decided: Separate the sorrow. Erase the cause of the grief."
Her transparent hand reached toward the scar on his neck. "And this... was the guardian's mark. The mark of one who ensures I would never remember what made me weep."
Sion touched the scar. It was burning now, as it never had before. "What... what made you weep?"
A long silence. The shadow began to waver, fading a little. "I do not remember. That is the point. My jailers... stole even the reason for my imprisonment."
Farel stepped forward. "The road... Are you the road?"
"I am its beginning. The first step. The first freeze. My tears flowed, and with them my grief, and they made this road. And the rest... came after."
The heart of ice beneath them beat again. And this time, the rhythm was different. Mournful.
"The pendant..." Sion began.
"The pendant is a piece of my memory. The part that explains the why. I found it one day, and I kept it. Then they took it from me. And put it in a box. And sent you to guard the box."
"But I... I left Eilidor. I ran away."
"Because you grew tired of guarding. Because you wanted to feel. Because the scar... was no longer enough to hide the doubt."
The Frozen Ones, who had been silent all this time, stepped forward—one of them. He was the tallest, the coldest. And when he removed his mask...
It was Kairen.
But not the child Kairen. Kairen the man, his face as pale as death, his eyes the color of black ice.
"Mother..." he said, his voice like ice cracking under a heavy weight. "I searched for you."
The shadow trembled. "My true son... The one I lost before I began to weep."
Everything suddenly became clear. Kairen was the son of the road. And the road... was a woman who lost her son, wept, and her tears formed the road. And the people of Eilidor, instead of comforting her, imprisoned her and stole her memory.
"Why..." Sion asked, his voice nearly breaking. "Why didn't I protect you?"
"Because you thought you were helping. You thought forgetting was a mercy."
The dark hunters exchanged glances beneath their masks. Their leader stepped forward. "Your memory... I will return it to you. Without a price."
But the shadow shook its head. "I do not want it now. I want... to ask my guardian son one question."
She looked at Sion. "If time were to turn back... Would you have guarded me? Or would you have freed me?"
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Thoughts on faction distribution? ❄️👑🗝️