A giant peeked above the clouds and saw nothing but whiteness. He surveyed the place where his feet rested and saw nothing but earth. He shrugged and dust and small pebbles rolled off his shoulders.
There are creatures flitting here and there but he paid no attention.
He is indifferent.
He is a mountain.
Somewhere, a woman raised her eyes even though there was nothing around her but darkness. She had been wandering this place for god knows how long but she never saw or felt anything else resembling any recognizable element from her previous world.
Except for the occasional gust of wind and the intermittent whispers, she was alone.
Time flowed funny where she was because there was no way to tell if it moved at all.
Nevertheless, she raised her head and tried peering past the shroud. A thin film of blurry images floated in front of her eyes.
She tried again.
She saw white.
A contrast to everything around her.
It gave her hope.
She tried looking into it again.
It was really blurry but she saw movement. Somewhere in that white landscape, a dark figure moved.
'My daughter. Trust in yourself. You can conquer that mountain.'
__________________________________
Ice felt the sharpness of the rock bite into the flesh of her hand but she gritted her teeth and vaulted past the overhang.
If she lost her grip, it would have been certain death.
She rested for a while and placed an anchor.
She dared not look below. She would surely lose her resolve.
She had been climbing for two hours and she was still nowhere near halfway.
This was as far as she went last time.
It was here that she admitted her weakness and cried for it.
She prayed for strength when she was here last.
She prayed again.
Their faces are fixed in her mind. She would see them again.
Even if it killed her.
She steeled her mind and looked down.
The ground still beckoned.
Ice summoned the inner peace that she has long sought for.
It was there. She allowed it to suffuse her whole being.
Ancient images and symbols swam in her mind. She saw another person staring at her with sympathetic eyes.
She knew those eyes.
Once upon a time.
The world stopped screaming its demands at her. It became a sonorous but persistent sound.
It was pleasant.
Comforting.
The ground became just the ground. She wasn't up nor was it down. They just simply were in a different place on the same earth.
Deeply realizing that removed the threat of falling.
She got up to climb again. The mountain didn't seem so imposing anymore.
__________________________
There was buzzing in the air that grated on Ora's nerves but she forced herself to stay calm.
The shackles on her feet didn't bother her as much anymore.
By her reckoning, she had been here for a year. She got up and began stretching her limbs. The chains clinked.
The sound strengthened her. It means she can still make things move. She practiced moves she learned from childhood.
There are still unsure movements but gone are the weaknesses that plagued her for the first few months.
She moved faster and faster. One with a keen eye would not see a young woman repeating kata after kata.
They would see a flame dancing in the wind, getting fiercer by the minute.
The chains began to glow red.
"Hope hurts more than you would expect."
The sound of her father's voice startled her and she stopped. The room grew quiet.
Only the irritating buzz remained.
"I do not hope, father. I endure. There's a difference," she said defiantly.
"Then tell me you do not look forward to anything," her father's voice was gentle but the mocking quality did not escape her.
"More importantly, what is it you hope to gain, father? Do not speak to me about hope. Hope breeds ambition. It is not I who yearns for something," Ora said flatly.
"I did not wish for anything. This is duty. A responsibility. One that you know nothing about," Zhu roared and she flinched.
Like always.
"Duty to whom? To the shadows of your ambition? To the false promises of power? Do not talk to me about duty. It is you who forgot about it first when you allowed my mother to die," she spat in front of him.
Had she been another person, that action would have meant death.
"Even that is part of it. It must be nice to be carefree like you. I was naive once and wanted nothing like this. But the price we pay for every step we take are the changes that come with it. Imagine a world without the dragon. I don't think you can but I have pursued that thought to its end and all I saw was a world burning."
"I can imagine it. Believe me, I can. What I can't imagine is a world without my father and mother. You took that away from me."
"We are what we are, Aurora. I did not choose to be frivolous like you did not choose to be filial."
"Yes. I suppose we can't turn back now."
"Where is the flame?"
The sudden change in topic was expected but she felt dismayed nonetheless. In the end, it was always about the flame.
The accursed flame.
"I don't know. Torture me if you want. You won't get anything from me."
"I don't do that. Whatever you think about me, dishonorable is not one of them. There are other ways but I'd prefer if you just tell me like the dutiful daughter I trained you to be."
"You don't even sugarcoat your words," she said in mock amazement.
"I know I was not your typical father. I used the word train because that's what it was. You don't write with a sword, Aurora. You don't cut with a brush."
"I know someone who made me believe you could. Once upon a time."
"Your John is nothing of the sort. An inept, weak sort of a man. The only thing useful about him was his knowledge of the gates but even that is immaterial now. They are forever closed to us and the only option we have is to deal with the consequences that the hope they offered are now gone."
"He wasn't weak...but I wasn't talking about him, father," she said sadly.
"Your master, the claw? He was nothing but a slave to his obscure philosophies," he sneered.
"I was talking about you."
His eyes widened for a brief moment but they grew cold just as fast.
"Sentiments would get us nowhere. Are you sure you won't tell me where the flame is?"
Silence. She stared hard at the man she once thought the world of.
Zhu snapped his fingers and a minion approached.
"Bring me the diviner."
"At once your honor."
"This one is really interesting. If anything, what she could tell me would be entertaining enough to warrant the exorbitant amount she charged," he said to no one in particular.
Ora stayed silent.
The diviner is a small woman of maybe 70. She still moved with a trace of gracefulness that Ora found fascinating.
There was nothing sinister about her so Ora allowed herself to view the old woman with equanimity she would accord anyone.
"Hello, dear. They did not tell me you are a prisoner," her smile is totally disarming.
"Yeah, well, there are so many things they don't tell at this place," she smiled back.
Zhu scoffed.
"The chi in this place is tainted, Dragon. I won't be able to tell you anything. For starters, free the girl and bring her somewhere more pleasant, then I will do as you asked," she said, unafraid.
Ora liked her.
"It is not your place to tell me anything other than what I asked you."
'The dragon was livid.
"The Dragon prefers to display his strength rather than quench his thirst?" Why go to an oasis, then?"
"Maybe your blood can quench my thirst, then," he said threateningly and Ora almost laughed when she waved him off like a petulant child.
"Your need is larger than your pride, mighty one. And your pride won't allow you to be petty. You and I know I am just a simple old woman. Threatening me will not make you any more powerful than you already are. My requests are not for my satisfaction but yours. Remove the shackles to free up her chi. That way, I can have a clearer sight. Let's not waste time. Yours or mine, it would be valuable time wasted."
Ora loved her then especially when her father ordered the shackles removed.
The buzzing immediately stopped and Ora found her energy correct their flow at once.
The shackles were energy disruptors then.
"Better. Now, I shall begin my reading."
The old woman looked at Ora's eyes and she felt her heart skip a beat. This one is the real thing.
The old woman gasped and immediately opened her eyes.
"I can't do what you asked of me. The price is too high," she faced the Dragon.
"Whatever the price, I will pay it."
"I wasn't talking about money. I beg of you, stop this at once. You are playing with forces you don't understand."
"That's none of your concern, whether I understand or not."
"I refuse."
"Then I regret what I am about to do."
"You wouldn't dare touch my grandchild!"
"As you said, my need is greater than my pride."
"You are serious."
"You should have divined it. I am always serious."
"I'm sorry child." She turned to Ora.
"It's okay. He has that effect."
"Spare me the dramatics. I grow weary of your prattling!"
"Alright, mighty dragon. The blood of the world is on your hands."
"Yeah, yeah. I already know that."
"No, you don't. But whether or not you do, you shall get what you asked for. You wanted to know where the Frozen Flame is. It is not with her. If you have a pen and paper, write this down."
The Dragon waved impatiently.
"I have a good memory. Spill."
"The Flame can be found in a life purposefully given. For the spark needed for it to stay aflame is no longer a random source but a will. The essence is still within your daughter but like all things in the universe, it needs its other half."
"You will stop speaking in riddles, hag, or I will have you and your whole family beheaded."
"You know what I am speaking of. You already know of the immense power your daughter has that is why you covet the Frozen Flame. While it is true she can't control it now, she can overpower death. The flame will be found when she can summon enough will to wish a man back to life. That's all I can tell you. Never mind my payment. I have my life."
With that, the woman turned her back resolutely.
The Dragon let her. His mind is now racing furiously.
"Now I only have to find the architect and kill him in front of you," he said and laughed in a manner that chilled her to the bone.
The man she once knew as her father left her after one malevolent glance.
In her peripheral vision, she saw a shadow going after the Dragon. She couldn't focus on it. It's like it managed to stay around dark corners enough to stay unnoticed as it quickly followed him.
The shadow was fast enough to escape the guards' notice but Ora has seen enough of that kind of speed and movement to recognize it.
It looked a lot like Ash's shadow step.