As he vanishes up into the sky, clutched in her hideous legs, I shut it out. Refuse to process what he did. I can leave the sidhe-seers behind now in relative safety. Ill think about what he did later.
Assuming there is a later.
I freeze-frame toward the Hoar Frost King. Its major weird not being able to hear a sound. Im not feeling any vibrations either. At least deaf people can feel vibrations. This is worse than a sound deprivation chamber, its a sensory deprivation world with the HFK in it.
As I get close, I see Lor and Ryodan are pushing toward the black box in what looks like slow-mo. Both of them are covered with thick white ice that keeps cracking when they move. Its cold like the night I died at the church.
The Hoar Frost King is hovering silently over the mountain of speakers, icing them one by one. Its lingering longer than usual, I guess all those decibels make the food source richer, and I think maybe its licking chocolate off its fingers.
When I freeze-frame in behind Ryodan he turns and roars silently: Get the fuck out of here!
Icy needles spear my lungs with each breath, my heart labors to pump. My head feels heavy and I realize its cause my hair has iced. I toss it, and the stuff shatters, white crystals rain from my head.
Youre not going to make it in time! I yell back, eyeing the distance between ice monster and IFP. When it opened its slit and glided into our dimension, it appeared in the worst possible placebetween the IFP and speakers, not between the speakers and the abbey. Although it didnt ice the IFP, its too fecking cold in the vicinity of the box for us to get there to cut the tether.
I look at Ryodan. He can survive this cold like I cant. I dont know why. Guess its something to do with him surviving a gutting, too. Hes always been able to get closer to the iced scenes than me.
But I can freeze-frame in faster for some reason. He gets bogged down when he gets closer to the center of the cold. Like hes trudging though concrete.
I dont pause to think. Its possible, its the only plan I got, and there aint no time for second guesses.
I blast into Ryodans back and force him forward. As we go fast-mo-ing toward the black box, he totally gets my wavelength: Im his locomotive and hes my shield. I can push us, but hes got to steer and slice.
I feel him yanking my sword from my coat and drive us forward. He ices, and cracks a half-dozen times, shaking off the crystals like a dog shaking water. I die a thousand icy deaths and come to life again. My lungs feel bloody and raw with each breath so I hold it. My bones hurt. I swear my eyeballs have iced in my head. My vision is getting all fractal-like.
Still I push us into the pain because this is my world and no fecking Fae is taking it from me. My mouth is open on asilent howl. Ryodan shakes violently as I force us to the icy epicenter.
He slices down with the sword and cuts the tether.
Were expecting the IFP to move real slow.
Based on the rate of movement Kat documented when the sidhe-seers had been tracking its progress toward our home, it takes about a minute between cutting it loose and the fire-world fragment hitting the far wall of the abbey. Giving us plenty of time to retether it, because according to her figures, we really had at least two minutes.
Her figures were wrong. Way the feck wrong.
Like a redlined supercar with stockpiled torque, the IFP explodes free and smashes into the Hoar Frost King.
I fast-up as fast as I can go so things transpire in the slowest motion possible.
The fire-world fragment swallows the Hoar Frost King.
It engulfs it.
Sound returns.
I hear ragged breaths. Gasping. Somewhere, folks are crying.
Its gone.
The Hoar Frost King is gone.
Just like that.
It worked so well I almost cant believe it. I stand there stunned, feeling wary. Im not the only one out of sorts. Ryodans got his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Lor is kind of hunched like he thinks the sky is going to fall on him. Id snickerbecause, dude, its pretty sad when you cant just take a happy ending for what it isbut we still got major trubs. The IFP is devouring the mountain of iced speakers and heading straight for the abbey.
Kat, Dancer, and the other sidhe-seers are running toward us. Cruce is below the abbey! Kat screams. Youve got to stop it!
Ryodan and Lor begin chanting but I can tell from the look on Ryodans face hes got no expectation of finishing in time. The ten or twelve seconds we got before it hits the wall isnt the thirty he needs to do the job.
Kat starts screaming at Ryodan because hes not going fast enough, and Jo starts screaming at Kat for screaming at Ryodan because hes doing everything he can. Then all the sidhe-seers get in on it, and since Ryodan and Lor are looking down at the totem cord theyre trying to ward, nobodys looking at the IFP and Im the first one to see whats happening.
I knew it died too easily!
Ice is forming at the base of the fire-world fragment.
The bottom of the funnel is turning blue, crusted with white hoar frost.
The IFP sure swallowed the Ice Monster, but now the Ice Monster is icing the fecking IFP!
As I watch, frost spreads rapidly upward.
Uh, guys, I say.
Are you bloody kidding me? Dancer explodes. Its coming back out?
Lor looks up. Aw, shit.
Motherfucker, Ryodan agrees.
Assuming there is a later.
I freeze-frame toward the Hoar Frost King. Its major weird not being able to hear a sound. Im not feeling any vibrations either. At least deaf people can feel vibrations. This is worse than a sound deprivation chamber, its a sensory deprivation world with the HFK in it.
As I get close, I see Lor and Ryodan are pushing toward the black box in what looks like slow-mo. Both of them are covered with thick white ice that keeps cracking when they move. Its cold like the night I died at the church.
The Hoar Frost King is hovering silently over the mountain of speakers, icing them one by one. Its lingering longer than usual, I guess all those decibels make the food source richer, and I think maybe its licking chocolate off its fingers.
When I freeze-frame in behind Ryodan he turns and roars silently: Get the fuck out of here!
Icy needles spear my lungs with each breath, my heart labors to pump. My head feels heavy and I realize its cause my hair has iced. I toss it, and the stuff shatters, white crystals rain from my head.
Youre not going to make it in time! I yell back, eyeing the distance between ice monster and IFP. When it opened its slit and glided into our dimension, it appeared in the worst possible placebetween the IFP and speakers, not between the speakers and the abbey. Although it didnt ice the IFP, its too fecking cold in the vicinity of the box for us to get there to cut the tether.
I look at Ryodan. He can survive this cold like I cant. I dont know why. Guess its something to do with him surviving a gutting, too. Hes always been able to get closer to the iced scenes than me.
But I can freeze-frame in faster for some reason. He gets bogged down when he gets closer to the center of the cold. Like hes trudging though concrete.
I dont pause to think. Its possible, its the only plan I got, and there aint no time for second guesses.
I blast into Ryodans back and force him forward. As we go fast-mo-ing toward the black box, he totally gets my wavelength: Im his locomotive and hes my shield. I can push us, but hes got to steer and slice.
I feel him yanking my sword from my coat and drive us forward. He ices, and cracks a half-dozen times, shaking off the crystals like a dog shaking water. I die a thousand icy deaths and come to life again. My lungs feel bloody and raw with each breath so I hold it. My bones hurt. I swear my eyeballs have iced in my head. My vision is getting all fractal-like.
Still I push us into the pain because this is my world and no fecking Fae is taking it from me. My mouth is open on asilent howl. Ryodan shakes violently as I force us to the icy epicenter.
He slices down with the sword and cuts the tether.
Were expecting the IFP to move real slow.
Based on the rate of movement Kat documented when the sidhe-seers had been tracking its progress toward our home, it takes about a minute between cutting it loose and the fire-world fragment hitting the far wall of the abbey. Giving us plenty of time to retether it, because according to her figures, we really had at least two minutes.
Her figures were wrong. Way the feck wrong.
Like a redlined supercar with stockpiled torque, the IFP explodes free and smashes into the Hoar Frost King.
I fast-up as fast as I can go so things transpire in the slowest motion possible.
The fire-world fragment swallows the Hoar Frost King.
It engulfs it.
Sound returns.
I hear ragged breaths. Gasping. Somewhere, folks are crying.
Its gone.
The Hoar Frost King is gone.
Just like that.
It worked so well I almost cant believe it. I stand there stunned, feeling wary. Im not the only one out of sorts. Ryodans got his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Lor is kind of hunched like he thinks the sky is going to fall on him. Id snickerbecause, dude, its pretty sad when you cant just take a happy ending for what it isbut we still got major trubs. The IFP is devouring the mountain of iced speakers and heading straight for the abbey.
Kat, Dancer, and the other sidhe-seers are running toward us. Cruce is below the abbey! Kat screams. Youve got to stop it!
Ryodan and Lor begin chanting but I can tell from the look on Ryodans face hes got no expectation of finishing in time. The ten or twelve seconds we got before it hits the wall isnt the thirty he needs to do the job.
Kat starts screaming at Ryodan because hes not going fast enough, and Jo starts screaming at Kat for screaming at Ryodan because hes doing everything he can. Then all the sidhe-seers get in on it, and since Ryodan and Lor are looking down at the totem cord theyre trying to ward, nobodys looking at the IFP and Im the first one to see whats happening.
I knew it died too easily!
Ice is forming at the base of the fire-world fragment.
The bottom of the funnel is turning blue, crusted with white hoar frost.
The IFP sure swallowed the Ice Monster, but now the Ice Monster is icing the fecking IFP!
As I watch, frost spreads rapidly upward.
Uh, guys, I say.
Are you bloody kidding me? Dancer explodes. Its coming back out?
Lor looks up. Aw, shit.
Motherfucker, Ryodan agrees.
