"They may have many, but you have me."~ Braum, The Heart of the Freljord
Quote from the goat.
I want Gregori to open himself up a bit. The Freljordians are kind of straightforward and headstrong, his fears should taper off soon.
Chapter out a little early today. Enjoy!
P.S. Let me know if you want to see images of some of the characters and such.
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The talks then devolved into simpler things, like the creatures Gregori had seen or come across in his travels. And he had seen many.
By that point his words had garnered the attention of everyone who walked in the group. The initial aversion they exhibited to him dissipated, leaving a bunch of interested men and women. Men who came to participate in the competition and women who came to either witness or find able men from the tribe.
The distance they had kept from him faded as they moved closer to hear him. They let out laughs and gasps at the creatures he described. They felt fear when he talked about large monstrosities. Most of them couldn't imagine such monsters existed alongside them. Gaping maws and swiping claws seemed like the least of their worries when he had gotten to explaining demons.
"Demons." He began. "They are magical creatures."
He made eye contact with those who would look.
"They are there everywhere, you just don't know where. Hundreds of them could be in the lands this very moment."
"Bah! Tall tales those are." One of the men spoke.
Gregori tilted his head slightly, "They remain true whether you believe it or not. I have no need to lie to you." His eyes boring into the man who made the comment.
"Demons come in every form imaginable. They can even walk among us as humans. Some transform to look like us, some take over our bodies and some inhabit items. But whatever you do.... it is impossible to truly kill one."
Tanen slowly spoke, "I have heard stories of people being able to kill them."
"You can kill them. But not for long. Which is why I said 'truly'." He faced Tanen. "Demons exist because we exist. As long as humans live, they will live. We provide the things they need to survive, and as long as we keep providing it they cannot die."
"What do we provide?" Tanen asked, nervousness creeping into his voice.
Gregori looked forward. "Emotion. Your feelings. As long as you feel, they will always return, even if you kill them. Anger, joy, fear, love, lust..... they all have a demon representing them, I haven't come across very powerful demons but weaker demons I've seen plenty of. The only thing you can do is seal them. Seal them and hide the seal or the sealed item away."
Tanen sighed, "How do you know this?"
"..... I have spent the last seven years being close to a sealed demon."
A silence spread through the group.
The rest of the walk went in complete silence. No one spoke up. No one tried to start conversations. Nothing.
Toward the end, Jorde decided to hop off the mammoth and join them in their walk through the icy land.
It was interesting. The entire journey till then was too easy. Way too easy. Not a single soul in sight. No stray creatures, no bandits and no straggling Ursine. The last time Gregori had come to the Freljord, it had been a bloody affair. Constant fights and battles were extremely common. Not seeing any of the 'daily occurrences' made him feel like something was going wrong. It wasn't like these lands.
But stranger things had happened.
Gregori pulled the white stone out of his pocket with his free hand and rolled it around his palm. It provided just enough discomfort to make him feel like something was wrong.
It kept him on his toes.
The pain it gave was momentary but necessary.
Dropping one's guard, even with these many people was a mistake he wasn't willing to make. The ones who survive are the ones who react first. And he couldn't let himself be lulled into a false sense of security.
He could relax once, they made it to Rakelstake. Till then however, he had to keep himself taut.
The white stone brought back many memories. Memories of his younger days. Days where he had a different name. Days in Demacia.
The stone hurt him. Made him feel weaker. Sapped him of his magic slowly.
Because it was Petricite.
The greatest anti-magic item on the continent. It absorbed magic. Not from nature itself but from living creatures who used it.
If someone sent a ball of fire at another wearing Petricite armor, there would be no damage. There would be nothing to indicate that the attack had even landed. It was that effective.
How they used stones to make armors?
Well, it wasn't really a stone. Petricite came from the mixing of wood from the petrified forest, ash and lime. The concoction hardened into this material. The Demacians used it to make structures, armors and even weapons.
But most importantly, they used it to hunt those with magic. A large amount of Petricite can instantly cripple a person. Losing magic at a rapid pace locks ups the body. Those who wielded magic were all criminals after all. Not even children were exempt. Those who were captured were placed into prisons with shackles made of the same material, leaving them permanently weak and struggling. Their magic cannot regenerate at a greater pace than at which it was being absorbed.
The life those prisoners lived was horrendous. They were paying for a crime they hadn't committed and paying heavily at that. The Demacian society was backward in that aspect. Fear of magic drove them to commit such deplorable acts. As a society, they had failed and continued to fail.
Gregori himself had questioned why he had been born with magic. Why his parents hadn't loved him despite that? Why was magic so hated when the wars that led to that had happened so many years ago? What made his hated in his parents eyes?
As he grew older, in his travels, he had come to realize that it wasn't him that was wrong. It was Demacia. It was the people who were wrong.
He had one day wanted to take his family there, to show his parents that even if they hated him, despised him, they would never be able to break him. He wanted to show the whole of Demacia that he was happy, despite their great efforts.
It was the ego in him wanting it. And deep inside he wanted it too. That kind of satisfaction was euphoric, cathartic even. Amoline had also advised him to do the same, even if her reasoning behind it was so his children would meet their grandparents. It was not the same for him. His goals were more for self satisfaction. His children didn't need to meet bad people, even if they were his grandparents.
Both Annie and Daisy needed loving people around them. They didn't need toxicity. He could make that decision for them as their father. But somewhere he felt like his children should see the morons that were his parents. They needed to see the bad just as much as the good.
After all, unlike Amoline believed. The world wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Annie was probably experiencing that in real time. All alone in foreign lands. Facing who knows what. Hungry.
The feeling just got worse as he walked. He was afraid for his daughter. Daughters. He looked down at Daisy.
Why did they have to suffer? Two innocent children who hadn't experienced anything in life having to go through an ordeal like this was unfair. His feelings and his suffering did not matter. He was old enough and had experienced enough. He faced what this world had thrown at him and he had come out on top. He would do so again.
But his children didn't deserve that pain and suffering.
And he would make sure they remained happy.
Like he did often, he looked up at the sky, spotting the brightly glowing star. And once more he prayed to the god who listened.
"Is my firefly safe?" He spoke softly, soft enough for those around him to not hear.
A comet shot past the sky. And he let out a genuine smile. He owed the god a long overdue visit, she had helped him so many times even when it hurt her to do so. That earned his respect and he would do anything to repay her.
He watched as the comet left his vision.
Annie was safe. That was all that mattered. He couldn't expect the best conditions for her daughter, that was not just possible... but her safety was guaranteed. That was enough and it would keep him going for a while longer.
It was getting close to the two week mark. And he estimated another two until he could leave the Freljord in search of his daughter. If Daisy's healing would take time, then he could wait. At that point, he had full belief in his daughter's survival. She would make it, there was no doubt in that.
"We are getting close now!" Jorde called from the front.
Gregori craned his neck to see forward. And the first thing that caught his eye was the bright blue glow emitting from the gigantic ice wall in front of the settlement. He squinted at the glow and his vision sharpened, the glow was from a statue.
A statue of a giant woman, one hand held a bow behind her back and the other held forward a large chunk of ice. The chunk was responsible for the glow. The ice wall behind it softly illuminated by the glow gave the statue an ethereal feeling.
Leading up to the large eye catching statue was a row, either side of which were statues of kneeling warriors holding up large axes.
This wasn't a normal settlement. This was a sacred place. One for worship.
He looked at Jorde, "Who does this place worship?"
Jorde turned around, walking to his destination backward. "Worship? You figured that out quickly." He looked surprised.
Gregori looked him in the eyes and nodded.
Jorde pointed a thumb behind his back, "That... is a statue of Avarosa herself!"
A couple of gasps came from the group. Others had widened eyes.
"Who?"
All eyes turned toward Gregori.
"You don't know about Avarosa?" Jorde asked.
All he received was a shake of a head indicating no.
"You haven't heard of the Three Sisters?" Tanen chimed in.
Another shake of the head.
Jorde looked let down, "Oh... the Three Sisters were the protectors of Freljord a long time. Avarosa, Serylda and Lissandra. They were the first Iceborn, holding both magic and might they conquered. But Avarosa and Serylda rebelled against their sister and sealed her away with the help of The Great Ram. Avarosa was the most peaceful among them, she showed mercy to the defeated and protected her people. Which is why we worship her."
Gregori groaned internally.
Just what he needed, more gods. Even near immortals were a pain. Entering domains of gods always proved to be way more trouble than expected.
"Once the two sisters passed, Freljord became the way it is now. But one day they will return... reborn into these lands to protect its people from untold dangers."
Dead gods? That was a lot better. No need to please anything dead. Gods or not.
"They were the first Iceborn?" Gregori asked wanting to confirm the fact.
"Yes! They then shared the blessing to people around them and more Iceborn started to appear. Sometimes it was passed from parent to child but it can appear randomly." Jorde was more than happy to explain.
"Iceborn are very important in our lands. Tribes offer great rewards to any Iceborn who want to join them. I mean, who wouldn't want an Iceborn on their side. The difference between like and death is often going to be an Iceborn. Our leader is one and so are the strongest in these lands."
Gregori nodded.
Jorde looked at him once more. "By the way, what disease is your daughter suffering from?"
"She is an Iceborn."