End of Chapter Eight
The memory flows. Not as an image, but as a flood. Everyone sees it. Everyone feels it.
And they see:
The Ice Queen seated upon her throne, surrounded by children. Not just ice-children. Human children. Half-and-half children. All playing together.
And they see:
The fear in the eyes of the first humans. Fear of difference. Fear of a power they did not understand.
And they see:
The night they decided: "No more mixing. No more different children."
And the Queen weeps. Because she saw that love... could become fear. That acceptance... could become rejection.
She did not weep because she lost children.
She wept because her children... lost themselves.
And her weeping forged the Path.
And now, having remembered...
She wants to know:
Is there still hope?
Or will the Eternal Path remain... a path to nowhere?