Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Koschei smiled to himself as he walked along the dark forest of Galfania. It was perfect, everything was going so swimmingly that he might just burst out in song and dance.

Ivan was here; he hadn't seen him in so long that he got worried, especially after Mother Yaga sent him on his path. Ah, he thought this day would never come, but he knew he should have trusted in the spirits more. What a blessing it is that the family is reunited!

He grabbed at his bosom with his hand, noticing a warmth that he had not felt for so long; it felt like passion, like the flames of desire and freedom. Ah, alas! A proper and worthy vessel has appeared, someone who could wield the flames, someone who was chosen!

Joy, giddiness, and so much more began to wrap up Koschei as he began to laugh maniacally as he walked into the woods. “Finally! Destiny has arrived! We are to be freed! Rejoice, my fallen brothers and sisters! Rejoice!”

The masked man shouted into the winds, the earth, and the sea; all elements heard his cries of love and swirled around him as if to speak, chittering and chattering in words and whispers long forgotten but ones that he could remember.

“The Avatar requires your assistance.”

“Those who seek to control freedom have appeared.”

“Rid of them as you must.”

A large grin grew upon Koschei’s face, masked by his ivory mask, as he cackled. The Descendant floated above the ground and raced ahead as fast as he possibly could towards the danger that the spirits had foretold him. Thankfully, he made it in time to discover a brown-haired lady being surrounded by multiple survivors, all of them except one with a gun.

That one was wearing a tattered lab coat and had scales on his body, a Monsterkin, and one that seemed to be the leader of this troupe here.

“Do not do anything so rash now!” Koschei called out as he descended in front of the lady, smiling under his mask as he raised his arms out. He enjoyed the feeling of protecting and saving others; it was often a fantasy of his.

“Ugh." The one with scales pointed his cane at Koschei. “ More trouble... I presume you are a native of this land, judging by your clothing and demeanor. If so, do not interfere. This is between me and an ex-employee.”

“Ah, but this business involves you, and the chosen Unifire of the Great Harbinger. As their loyal follower, I must see that they survive. Perhaps an arrangement can be made-“

“No.” The lady interrupted as she shook her head. Fire blazed in her eyes, and her entire hand began to burn in wrathful flames that sparked the warmth in his chest.

“I will never arrange myself ever with someone with that much power and status in Epithet. Your kind will never change; you only want more and more until the world bends to your whim and desire.”

There was a hatred, a passion in her voice that made Koschei’s heart giddy. It was that passion that he yearned for, but it was that passion that would make this much harder to adjudicate. After all, the more people that survive, the better.

He turned to the rest who had their weapons out. “How about the lot of you? What are your stakes in this?”

The lankier of the two with red hair called out. “Well… our lives for one.” He let out a little laugh but grew silent as the rest stared at him.

Meanwhile, the shorter one perked up. “What Topher meant to say was that we’re just here under Contract, that’s all.”

“Ah… and you.” Koschei pointed at the scaled man. “You are the leader then, Sir…”

“Rook, thank you. And I’m not a leader, I’m merely a Magi, one trying to help uncover the secrets of this land to better the world at large.”

“Oh, screw off with that. You’re probably going to find a way to market faerie dust and sell it to the highest bidder or some other crap!”

“If it helps with funding ways to stop the spread of Anarchy, if it helps keep the peace, reduce casualties, then so be it. You’re so shallow-minded that you can only see the means, and never the ends.”

“The ends should never be used to justify the means, no matter what they bring.” The Chosen of the Harbinger raised her arm at Rook.

“Bah, it’s impossible to talk to the likes of you. No wonder you’re all known as the Choir… all you do is preach. If that shall be it, I will need to ensure you and all of those like you do not survive here.” Rook raised his cane carefully, as if he were about to begin an attack.

Koschei waved his hand in the air before bringing it back to himself. “Ah… I’m afraid I cannot allow that. If you cannot decide amongst yourselves to be together, I shall always ensure that my Harbinger shall be served above all, even if it means removing one such as yourself with so much potential.”

Rook narrowed his eyes curiously. “Oh? Are they a god of some sort? What do they want? Perhaps my colleagues and I could find a way to establish some sort of… ritual connection to help.”

The Chosen’s eyes flared as she snarled like a wolf. “Do not trust whatever he says; they are snake oil salesmen who deal in venom!”

Koschei merely smiled, gesturing away with a wave of his hand. “Oh? What we want is easy. That is to say, the freedom of all things. Living, non-living, all things visible and invisible. All things in the world shall be free at last. That’s the vision we seek, the vision we hope to find with the Chosen of the Harbinger."

One of the women, who was strangely in handcuffs while surrounding Koschei and the Chosen, leaned forward with a frown painted on her face. “Really, Jane, are you sure these are the types of people you want to be with? I mean, they’re not even hiding it.”

Jane simply gave the woman a blank stare. “Charlie… you should know- not all of you should know that actual crazy people are less malicious than Epithet.”

A silence blanketed the rest of the group as they looked down. “The only reason most of you are even contracted is because Epithet made sure that there would be nowhere else to turn to.”

The Harbinger took a deep breath. “I’m all in it for whatever freedom can be offered, even if it has to be done through flames and ashes.”

Rook’s eyes twitched. Freedom? What an insane concept. There was no such thing as the freedom that they speak of. Nature always has something to command over the other, laws, whether they be physical or even metaphysical. Even magic followed its own regulations and premises.

People just wanted freedom from their responsibilities and their liabilities. They wanted to do what they wanted without consequences. But, cause always comes with effect. For every action, there shall be an equal and opposite reaction. One thing leads to another, and that won’t change.

“And?" Rook raised his eyebrows. "Then what shall happen? We shall live under the rule of your spirits? Your gods?”

Koschei laughed. That’s all he did as everyone around him grew more and more unnerved. “No… of course not. Not under the rule, but with them. We are all spirits, after all; we are separated.”

He gestured to himself and then to everyone else in such a grand, sweeping manner that it was as if he were on stage. “We are divided, made to go against one another, made to fight and rule over another when we are all one! Division is the enemy of freedom; only in unity can we become one. Perhaps, in your land, it is more apt to say that we become the gods, we decide the rules and fate, together, as one.”

“...”

Rook stared first at Koschei, dumbfounded, before he stared at Jane, who had a look of confusion that matched his own before she waved it away. He had to give the crazy cultist one thing; that kind of ideology was not one he had heard spouted before. In fact, it was the complete opposite of what those protesters would talk about, and he wasn’t really quite sure how to respond for a moment.

“That… How interesting. You think that we will all be free when we’re one and the same?”

Koschei twirled around as if he were dancing. “No conflict, no hatred. There would be no reason to be against each other if we were all one. That is the purpose of the great Unifire, till all are one. Quite amazing, is it not? Now was that the answer you were looking for?”

The Magi from Epithet were trying to think of a way out of this. The only one that came to mind was trying to appeal to a crazy person’s sense of completeness. Otherwise… Jane would absolutely fry him. He looked around, gritting his teeth as he clutched his cane, taking a deep breath.

So the only course of action that ever could be left right now would be to run, to ensure his escape as successfully as possible. He needed to leverage the remaining forces he had left. Would a full-on assault work, he thought… no, he could sense the other remaining cultists that were watching in the background, if he were to declare war on them, then it would spell his doom.

Jane would always go against him, but the cultists… were still potentially useful if we were to find ones that had not met the Choir… In that case… survival was the only option, and to survive as much as he could, he needed to escape.

“It was an interesting answer, that’s for certain." Rook took a step back. "One that I am not accustomed to, but my answer is simple… for now, I would like to decline this offer, perhaps if we meet in the future under better circumstances, then I would accept it… But for now, this is goodbye.”

“Yes… goodbye!” Jane side-stepped Koschei and fired a ball of flames at Rook, but the magi, with his quick words, strung out a Vocalization just in time.

“The Spirits Of Creation Shall Rebuild The World.”

The fireball hit him squarely in the chest and would have evaporated his whole body, but instead, small spirits came forth from the call, wrapping around the ball of flames, compressing its destructive power before shunning it away.

“Defend and come with me now, that is an order!” Rook raised his hand as the group from before raced to his side, but Jane swiveled quickly and punched Charlie in the face, knocking her out completely.

She was about to race after the rest of them as Rook ran as fast as he could away from Jane with the others behind him, but Koschei raised his hand to signal her to stop.

“He’s getting away! We have to stop him!”

“We do not; he is currently a boon for us at this moment, and we can always track him if necessary.”

Jane frowned and shook her head. “What? How can someone like that be of any use to us? He’s just one of many megalomaniacs who-”

“Because he’s someone who has the capability to gather more of the survivors, someone who is connected to and can control them. He can help us gather if he is to survive. He will also seek my brothers and sisters… otherwise, if we need to find him, this one can help do so.”

He pointed to Charlie. “She was under the orders to follow him; if she could even get a whiff of his presence, then she could track him down.”

Jane thought about it for a moment; while she didn’t like leaving that man alive, that seemed like a decent plan; at the very least, nothing exactly changed before she saw Rook.

“Tch, fine… better than nothing I guess…”

She knelt down towards Charlie’s face, caressing her cheeks. “Sorry bout that. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard. I just didn’t want you to join up with them…”

Koschei walked towards Jane. “Do not fret! For I bring good news now, a boon if you will, while our brothers and sisters go find more to follow us, I bestow upon you a great honor!”

He plunged his hand into his chest, grabbing forth something that emanated great heat and a crimson gold glow: a feather.

“I bestow upon you: a quest!”