"Like all magic, shadowfrost requires a payment from the user. But unlike most of its peers. The cost is not simply energy." Corvus raises his arm at the elbow and produces a ball of transparent ice, shadows wisp out from beneath it.
"It feeds on memories." He examines the ball of ice intensely for a moment. “The more powerful the memory, the more powerful the spell.”
“Why would the Black Rose require memories to use its gift?”
“Memories make us who we are. To sacrifice them is to sacrifice a piece of ourselves. The black rose takes those pieces and forms what you see before you. Fragments of former knights. Like a tree letting its fruit be consumed to continue its species. Memories can be erased but they can also be created."
“Here you have an advantage. Do you know what it is?”
”Access to the subconscious?”
“Exactly. You’ll be able to use any memory no matter how insignificant as a resource.” He produces a small vial of water and places it in my hand.
“Freeze the water.”
I close my fist around the glass and imagine it freezing. A cold sensation emanates from my hand. I open my fist to see the vial slightly warmer than before.
“Find a memory, something insignificant.”
I close my eyes and recall a moment from when I was a boy. I had lost a sheep while tending to the herd, the thought of returning home without it terrified me.
“Now, freeze the water.”
I close my fist around the vial again. The rush of power surges through my body, the vial grows cold, the water crackles as it turns to ice. And then it explodes in my hand. Shards of glass burry themselves underneath my skin. Pain here may not physically damage me, but it definitely feels like it.
"What the hell?!" I yell.
"The memory you selected was too strong." Corvus says. His tone flat and unsympathetic.
"You're in my head. I know you can see my thoughts. Why didn't you stop me?"
"Some lessons are better learned the hard way." I glare into my hand at the glass, blood drips from each shard.
"I don't think a glass explosive was necessary." He shrugs and retrieves another vial and hands it to me.
"The power of a memory is the emotions tied to it. Freezing a small vial of water is trivial, pick your memory accordingly."
Fishing through a sea of memories a simple moment in time catches my attention. I'm walking alone down a path kicking stone, the scene is peaceful but insignificant. I watch as the memory slowly fades and my the vial grows cold in my hand. No explosion. Slowly I open my hand to a vial of ice. I sigh in relief and smile in silent pride.
"Teaching him to erase himself Corvus?" Samir's voice comes from behind me, a stern disappointed tone.
"You know just as well as I that the Noxbleum cannot be cut down with just merely a blade." His expression hardens into a contemptuous glare.
"There are other methods."
"Oh? Like harvesting witches?"
"That was not my doing."
"It was as much your doing as the Arator's. You sat idle as she hunted her down."
"Her?" The muscles of Corvus's jaw tense and his face twitches in rage and sorrow.
"My wife you arrogant prick! Those bastards killed my wife! And you sat out there in the woods waiting for your whore witch!" Samir does not react, his face is sad but not with guilt. Does he not remember?
"My boy... I died on the battlefield."
"But you didn't die. After the war you realized the true cost of the deal you made. You wanted out of this hell, so you threw me into the fire." Samir says nothing, he simply waits for his son to continue. "You and your witch found a way to tear the rose out of you, and put it in me. You gave up my life before it had even started." Samir sets his hands on Corvus's shoulders, a soft expression on his face.
"Covus... the wounds I suffered-"
"To hell with you!" Corvus rips Samir's hands off his shoulders and raises his fist to strike Samir. Before he can the ground begins to shake. Weapons and armor clatter to the floor as the world around us begins to collapse.
"What's going on?" I yell. But the two men are already brawling. Corvus took the distraction as an opportunity to tackle Samir to the ground, and is raining down blows. I rush towards them to try and pull Corvus away.
"SOREN!" My father's voice yells from the doorway. "Leave them. You're time here is over, we have to go!" I look back to the two royals enveloped in a whirlwind of punches and emotion as the stone room crashes down around them. A large piece of the ceiling smashes into the ground beside me breaking my fixation on the two.
"SOREN!" I sprint through the doorway and the world shifts back to the cave hall where I arrived. My father and I continue running towards the alter, rocks and pieces of stonework crash behind us. One narrowly misses me and my foot catches on a slab protruding from the floor. I tumble to the ground. My father rushes to me, picking me up and throwing me forwards just as a large boulder falls on top of him.
"No!" I yell, sprinting back to him. The boulder landed on his legs, pinning him to the ground. He waves me off, yelling as loud as he can.
"Go Soren! If you don't escape the collapse your mind will consume itself."
"I can't leave you!" In my panic I forget that he is not real, that he is just a construct of my own mind.
"I'm always with you my boy." He smiles a sad smile. Another boulder falls and he vanishes beneath it.
"Father!" Tears fill my eyes and begin to fall. A blast of wind comes from the altar as a strange black portal opens above it. I linger for a moment, staring at my father's final resting place. Before the ceiling gives way completely. The earth rumbles down through the air, smashing into the ground around me. I dash through the hail of rock to the portal, leaping through just as the cave buries itself.
It was so good to see you.
