Aeoryi

Tales of the King's Folly: Chapter 7

The insides of the ice demon ruler's rooms was surprisingly not icy.

Rugged carpets and wooden objects stood against the partial transparency of the ice castle's walls. It is the first non-solid water thing I have seen in the castle. It is very elegant, even for an unearthly horror.

Whismald, the Ice-melter, stands in front of me. He speaks with the same raspy voice that sounds like it's being forced through a rattling pipe.

"What business does this human have with me?"

I answer slowly, as to not invoke the wrath of this demonic form of ice. "I need you to help me get rid of the water that has flooded this world."

"Not all is lost yet, is it now? This northern ice sheet has yet to melt, correct?"

I ask him what he means.

"The central kingdom was one of the few places to get hit." Whismald gestures to the nearby ice table, and the surface of the table grows into a miniture map of the land in a flash of deep purple. The map shows the central kingdom, save for parts of the Central capital flooded. The west, being built on these plateaus that protected the rest of the land from being swept away by Efridit's hatred, was unaffected. "Your kingdom and some of the westerners' mining islands got hit. Nothing else."

Only the central kingdom and the mining islands. The mining islands. Why specifically mention those? They are very tiny, and usually consist of a few hundred meters of rock and forests. The mining islands' purpose was unknown. All that was really known about them was that the Western Emperor deemed them as the "West's most valuable resource". Clearly Whismald believed that as well.

 I then ask if The Ice-melter can freeze the flooded region, and in response the icy surface map of the table shatters in a pink explosion. 

"Unfortunately," he says, "I cannot use the fourth to connect to the trace he has already grasped himself."

I am confused by this statement, and ask for clarification.

"I cannot control the waters - in this case freezing them, if something else is controlling it. It is one of the most basic rules of the fourth..." The icy terror continues on to ramble about parts of a deal and that subject.

The ice demon was not as powerful as he seems. He is such a weak force compared to Efridit. Sensing this incompetence, I ask him, "Where would I be able to find someone powerful enough to stop him?"

Whismald is not impressed. A chandeler falls just a few feet away from me, shattering into a pink explosion. the explosion I can see better this time. It doesn't roll out; it rolls inwards, then implodes on itself, leaving no debris.

The sudden action comes with sudden harshness.

"I cannot control Efridit's water. That is a rule of the fourth, and not something I can change."

I ask him how I can make Efridit no longer own the water, and he says, "You can either make it challenging for him to maintain, mainly by making a large place for it to gather, which would make the water harder to constantly Enforce, or you can distract him and make him go to another waterbody."

I don't exactly understand what he means, but I get the general meaning of it. Make it difficult to hold the water in place or convince the eldritch water demon to leave. Maybe he could be rationally dealt with. Maybe he could peacefully leave. I then snap back to reality. Efridit was not leaving. He must have gone insane after I had provoked him. He called me a god, yet I am no god. It feels almost pointless now. I invoked the flooding of the world by violating some holy pact, and yet it didn't even exist. I suppose I could ask the Ice Abomination standing in front of me, so I do.

I ask, "Is there a deal between gods and demons? Is that why gods only kill demons if they 'interfere'? Is that why the Eldritch demons are st-"

A response from Whismald interrupts my question. 

"Get out. Now."

I ask him again, "But you would know, you are a descendant of those demons, right?"

Whismald tells me, "I said to get out." and motions with a clawed white hand in a punching manner. It is followed by a pink-white streak and I have just enough time to -

The crystaline floor shatters into Iridescent dust in a magenta accented flash. I fall onto the first floor, landing on some of the crystal dust leftover for some reason by the powers of demons.

The entire castle is now sand, and several pink eyes stare at be from within their watery lattices.

I should've never talked to that unfathomable ice demon. He was, in some ways, worse than Efridit.