Derina: The Frozen City

A Journey of Time

Lora and Nerel traveled through the forest for what felt like hours, but they never seemed to get anywhere. The forest was an endless stretch of whites, blues and browns.. Every tree looked the same as the last, and yet Nerel never seemed lost. Any time Lora tripped or stumbled he never got aggravated, instead he stopped to help her and asked if she needed rest. After a while Lora gave up and sat down heavily on a stump. 

“I thought the river wasn't far? We must have been walking for hours, and everything looks the same. Are you sure you know where we are going?” she asked him. 

Nerel turned and looked at her confused. “Of course I know where we are going, I hunt in this forest every day. And we have only been walking for ten minutes…” he began but stopped with a slight laugh, “of course! The spell! It feels longer to you because of the spell Paxton put on the forest. It puts you in a sort of time warp where everything seems normal but a minute of real time feels like 30 instead, draining your energy faster! I'm so sorry I completely forgot.” then he smiled and walked over to her. “This will only take a moment.”

 he put his hands over her temples and closed his eyes. A moment later Lora suddenly felt a rush of energy and she no longer felt tired. Nerel stepped back and held out his hand. 

“Better?” he asked.

 “Much.” she said and took his hand.

 once she was standing she brushed off her legs out of habit, and sighed. “I still cant believe any of this is real, it feels like it's just a dream.” she said quietly. 

Nerel laughed. “I can assure you this is all real, if you die you are not going to wake up, so I suggest you stop thinking like a human and start expecting the unexpected, alright? Trust me you won't survive here as you are, you need to learn to be an elf, that's why we need to see Paxton, he's the only one who can help you.”

Lora watched him for a moment “who is this Paxton anyway? You keep saying his name but you haven't told me a thing about of him.” 

Nerel studied her silently before replying with a sigh. “Paxton is one of the three known mage of the magical realm Derina. he is known as the mage of knowledge. He owns all of the books known to this kingdom and some from the human world. He can speak many languages and the third most powerful of the three mages. He used to be second but a certain mage went rogue and found a unforgivable way to become more powerful. He is known as Safield, the frozen or heartless king. He was the mage of nature, but hated being the weakest of the three, so he went rogue and took over. Paxton tried to stop him but he had become to powerful. Safield tried to fight your father, but was no match for Marthel. Your father kept him at bay for a while but your mother was pregnant with you, he knew he couldn't keep him away forever and he did not want you to grow up in a world like that. A few days before you were  born Safield's wife had a child of her own, a boy. Unlike you, his son was not as strong as he wanted and despised him. He knew that if you were raised under Marthel, his rule would not last. So he made a plan to kidnap you the day after your birth and raise you as his own and use you as a weapon. Unknown to him, his wife, angry at his rejection of their son, warned Marthel, so he was able to escape before he got there. Unfortunately your father didn't get away quite fast enough and Safield's demonic creatures caught up right after you were given to the elder nymph and he was killed trying to keep the demons away from the nymph. Your father knew Safield had planned to kill him anyway and that there was no way to escape so he did not fear his death. Lucky for Paxton, Safield did not see him as a threat and let him live. Knowing that you got away, Paxton and the nymph planned to bring you back on your seventeenth birthday to learn how to use your magic and defeat Safield. of course he found out and sent a daemon to get you before you could learn of your past.” 

Lora stood in silence thinking over everything he said. “but what about my mother? And james and Amanda?” she asked.

“sadly your mother died giving birth to you. james, known as Jandar here, is the prince of Derina. he and Paxton's youngest daughter amaryllis, know to you as Amanda, were sent to the human world a year before you when they were about two years old and were raised as elves. "

"So wait Amanda is my cousin?" Lora couldn't hide the excitement in her voice, she had always wanted a cousin, and to hear that her best friend was actually her cousin, well, it was more than she could ever have hoped for.

"yes, she is, and When you were sent there, they were told to protect you. Amanda also has an older brother, who is the successor of his father and also the leader of the rebellion. You will meet him soon. her other brother, Dalaeon, went missing years ago.” Lora thought about the family she has just discovered. an uncle and two cousins she knew to be alive, what of daleon? she wanted to ask but decided it was a subject for another time.

“so my dad, Paxton and Safield were all mages? So they knew each other?” Lora asked

“yes they did, in fact, they were all friends growing up.” Nerel explained.

“and Safield betrayed his friends? How could he do that?”

Nerel shrugged. “He was greedy and wanted more power, it happens. He most likely never really cared that much. But don't worry, I won't let Safield get to you.” 

Lora smiled weakly. Her head spun with all the new information. She never knew her life could get so confusing.

Nerel looked at her with sad, kind eyes. “I'm sorry, I know this is hard, but we do need to keep moving. The river is just beyond the trees here.” Nerel held out his hand to Lora, and she took it. Nerel led her past some trees and to the bed of a glistening frozen river. Lora stared at the river with confusion. The river was frozen solid just like the lake in the clearing. If Lora looked closely she could see some fish swimming far under the thick sheet of ice. She looked at Nerel and raised her eyebrows. Nerel leaned against a nearby tree and watched her, clearly amused. “I never said the river was flowing. But you are a mage, so why don't you just melt the ice?” 

Lora glared at him, “As you know, I have not the slightest idea of how to do that.”

Nerel laughed, “sure you do, in your own way. It's part of your blood, it's a natural instinct, you just need to learn to channel it. It may seem hard, but once you figure it out, it will be second nature.”

Lora closed her eyes and sighed. She rubbed her temples, hoping to clear her head. She didn't have a clue as to how to use magic, but it was clear Nerel wasn't going to do it for her. She walked to the river edge and knelt. she laid her hand on the ice. It was cold and bit into her skin, but she kept it there anyway. She closed her eyes and tried to will the ice to melt. After a moment she opened her eyes and expected to see water. Instead she was greeted with the cold ice from before, she sighed in frustration and looked at Nerel. He gave an encouraging smile but stayed silent. Of course, who was she to expect him to help? She's lucky he was nice enough to help her this much so far, she needed to learn to do things on her own. She gave Nerel a slight smile and looked back at the river. She took a deep breath and relaxed her muscles. She imagined the ice melting away revealing the rushing water Below. Her body started to warm up, like a flood of golden warmth spreading from her hands to the rest of her body. she felt the ice fall away beneath her hand. she could sense Nerel beside her, he was happy. She could sense all the animals around them, the fish it the water, the birds in the trees. It was beautiful, it was like she could see everything in her mind but it was all an explosion of color and sounds. She concentrated once more on the water Below her. But even more than that, the stone in the earth below. She imagined it growing up toward her, creating a basin, and she willed the water in it to heat up. She opened her eyes with a sigh of relief, she didn't even need to look to know it worked. She looked over at Nerel who stared at her in amazement. She beamed proudly, she made herself a warm bath out of a frozen river. “You hungry for some fish? I'm sure I could catch some if you want.” She said with a beaming smile. He chuckled, “maybe after you clean off.” He said as he turned and disappeared into the forest.

Lora stood up and looked at her cloths, they were filthy, and cleaning them would do her no good with the freezing cold. Besides, they were hardly fitting for the weather here. She turned around quizzically. She didn't know how magic worked quite yet, but she had a feeling she couldn't make clothes out of nothing. She walked to a nearby tree and laid her hands on it. She imagined the trees bark and leaves turning into cloths, until suddenly she felt the tree cry out in pain. She quickly removed her hand, realizing that she was hurting it. She brushed her fingers down it's bark in apology before proceeding to a tree that had fallen down. She check to be sure it was dead before once again attempting to make cloths. She felt the wood beneath her fingers turn to a soft leather and opened her eyes. Out of the tree she had created a pair of warm soft leather leggings, tunic, and knee-high boots. She smiled in Glee, her second time using magic and she had such promising results. She silently thanked the fallen tree before going back to her bath. She striped down to her undergarments and got into the water, it was so nice and warm, she could sit there for hours. But she knew she must hurry. She used some moss to scrub away as much dirt as possible and finger combed her hair into a braid. She climbed out of the water far to soon for her taste and put on the new cloths. She went to the old tree and fastened a bag for her dirty cloths. Suddenly she got a shearing pain in her head. She cried out and feel to the ground. Nerel came running to her from somewhere in the woods. “What happened?” He asked looking her up and down. “Did you make these clothes?” 

Lora looked up at him though the pain. “My head, it hurts so bad!” She closed her eyes trying to ease the pain.

 Nerel sighed and sat on a rock in front of her, rummaging through some pockets in his tunic, after a moment he pulled out a vial with a light golden liquid in it. Lora looked at it skeptically, "You don't have any ibuprofen?" She asked, Nerel just gave her a weird look. "I'm guessing that's a human medicine? Don't worry, that will help more than anything human could make." he said, clearly humored. after a moment, Lora decided to take the mysterious liquid, who was she to argue with someone from this strange world she knew nothing of? As soon as the liquid passed her lips, her pain seemed to disappear. she sighed in relief. “I'm sorry Lora, I should have warned you, the reason your so tired and in pain is simple, your the strongest type of mage, a royal mage has no limit to their power. that in the sense that your magic can do anything, but you do have physical limits. think of your magic as a limb, say you wanted to get stronger, you would exercise and use your muscles more to build them up, but if you over use those muscles you can hurt yourself. your magic is limited in the same way, the more you use it the stronger it becomes. but you over use that magic it drains you and limits your physical body. of course there's ways to channel your magic so it doesn't drain you in that way. if you have a conduit crystal you could channel your magic through it, it intensifies your energy without draining it, like a magnifying glass. but at the moment we have no access to such an artifact, Safield destroyed all of the ones he knew of before he took over, The only one I know of that Safield hasn't taken or destroyed is Paxton's." Nerel explained calmly.

"So what do I do if I don't have a crystal?" Lora asked, frustration clear in her voice. "if I can't even make a change of clothes without nearly passing out, how am I expected to go up against Safield, who even my father couldn't stop? is there a way to make one of those conduit crystals?"

Nerel shook his head sullenly, "You can't make a crystal, the only way they can be created is by a phoenix, as I'm sure you can guess..."

"Safield killed them all." Lora finished with a sigh. Nerel nodded and continued.

"but as I said before, if you continue to use you magic, little by little, it will become easier and stronger, you'll be able to do more. The thing is, Lora, you are the next In line of the royal mages, and the only heir to the magic, Safield won't kill you, but your more dangerous than your father was. that's why he's so scared right now. you may be new to this world, but where as your the daughter of Marthel, your also the daughter of Elenore, Paxton's sister. and though your mother was second born to the knowledge mage line, she was still a lesser mage with traces of her blood lines magic flowing through her. and so do you. your father was never able to reach the full capacity of his magic, most mages of the nature and royal bloodlines never do. but knowledge mages have extraordinary abilities, photographic memory, an understanding of things no one else can even comprehend, and an ability to learn extremely fast, you may not have the full physically manifestation of the magic of knowledge, but that doesn't really matter because that would only limit you. so though I say practice will help, really you're the only thing limiting you as of now. but there are things I can teach you to make things much easier on you, and it is by using the simple logic that knowledge magic uses. but you must be patient. Safield was unable to ever use his magic as well as he should have because he had no patience what so ever. he saw the limitations of his magic, and was completely blind to it's capabilities. when he was unable to use his magic the way he wanted, he was overwhelmed with a sense of weakness, and it caused him to soon become jealous of your father, and even Paxton. so instead of accepting his magic and learning to hone it, he decided to find other ways of becoming powerful. Safield's magic was natural magic, so he could only control that of which occurs naturally, he could have made Derina into an even more beautiful paradise then it already was, but when he brought  the daemon here they corrupted his magic, turning it into something opposing to his natural ability to create, now he can only destroy. that's why there's an endless winter, they magnify his magic but also reverse it, and the more he pulls power from the daemons realm, the more his soul its self is corrupted. if he was ever to try and remove himself from them it would destroy him, and eventually he will become one of them. their magic also makes it so he doesn't exhaust any of his magic." he explained. "so patience is key," Lora said with a slight laugh, "don't worry, that's not a problem, I've always been extremely patient, if I wasn't I would never have been able to paint as much as I did." 

Nerel smiled, making his eyes sparkle, and Lora tried to ignore the strange feeling in her stomach that appeared. she was suddenly reminded of her dream, in which he died, and remembered the overwhelming feeling Nerel had felt  when he saw her. her face flushed involuntarily, and she quickly pushed the memory out of her head as he continued. 

"As I expected, another gift from your mother I must say, an almost unnatural patience, I've witnessed Paxton's patience first hand, it's my understanding that when your a genius who understands everything about every world in existence, and even time as an endless and truly pointless subject of thought, you would be very patient. which is good, that will only help you in the long run."

"well I'm not sure about all that, I mean I still get anxious or annoyed on occasions, but as far as learning new things go, I'm very patient."

Nerel nodded and chuckled, "well I mean you are still your father's daughter so I expected Elenore's magic didn't go quite as far as Paxton's does. so, now I guess it's finally time to give you some tips on that magic."

Lora leaned in eagerly. she truly did appreciate him explaining Safield's and her own magic, but she was ready to learn how to use it more efficiently.

Nerel smiled again at her eagerness, "ok, so first thing I should explain is this. like I said before your magic is not limited in the ways Safield's and Paxton's are or were, but if you follow the same rules that limit their magic, you can use a lot less energy."

"How so?" Lora asked, interrupting him. Nerel raised an eyebrow at her, and she suddenly realized that her supposed unnatural patience seemed to have no presence at the moment. suddenly a calming wave seemed to wash over her and she leaned back and looked at Nerel, her head c****d to one side, curious but no longer impatient.

Nerel suddenly laughed, confusing her immensely. "sorry, it seems to me that you have control over your own patience, I find it very amusing." Lora smiled, suddenly proud of herself for accomplishing such a control tactic so quickly. "well as I was saying," Nerel continued. "you could use these rules to limit you expended energy. it's quite simple really, you did it when you melted the ice in the river and created the hot springs. you used your magic to do things the objects you were manipulating could technically do naturally. you made a rock wall, you didn't change the rock in anyway, the rock already existed you just moved it. you melted the ice, which is just water and can melt easily when exposed to heat, and you heated the water, all of this is simple enough and uses very little energy, because your not changing it on a molecular level."

Lora nodded, pondering his words. "I think I understand. so because what I did could naturally occur at one point, it took very little energy to make it happen." Lora paused, and Nerel watched her with a slightly amused looks on his face. she smiled and continued. " so using that logic, I got exhausted after making the clothing, because I used wood to make it, changing it completely, if I used my magic to make a staff or spear, it wouldn't have bothered me as much. well, next time I'll be sure to maybe grow some cotton or silk and then make clothing, or use an animal, I know you can hunt." Lora said in understanding. Nerel stared at her, and for a second she thought she saw a look pass across his face? fascination? curiosity? maybe...pride? but then she blinked and it was gone. "it seems you figured it out pretty quick. I'm not surprised, but once you feel a little better I think we should practice a bit." he looked back at her expectantly and she nodded, "I agree, maybe as I walk I can do little things with my magic, to get used to it. but before we go, I was wondering if you could possibly explain more about the mages. I understand natural magic, and I figure royal magic isn't something you can really understand completely, at least not until I meet Paxton, but as he is my uncle," Lora paused and swallowed, the thought of meeting her uncle who she never knew about until now made her nervous. "I just feel like I should understand him a bit better. what kind of limitations could knowledge have? in the human world, people say knowledge has no limitations, just lack of understanding." 

Nerel seemed to not mind explaining more to her, it made her think if anyone had some weird unnatural patience, it would be him. "well it's a little vague, he's the only one who understands his magic completely. but it seems to me that he can do most things, but he can't do things that could not be accomplished without the knowledge and understand of it's existence. for example, he couldn't conjure things out of thin air, he would need materials that are used to create the object first. he can also do most of what natural magic could do, if he has an understanding of how such a natural occurrence would happen in the real world. he also can't create living things, though he can manipulate things already in existence. he could bend metals into new shapes, he could even manipulate the minds of people or animals and get them to do things that he wanted, if he ever felt like it, and although he sometimes uses it on animals, he refuses to use it on people, any race of people. and of course a person can learn to guard to such attacks as Safield has." he took a moment then, Lora figured it was to gather his thoughts. "another thing he is able to do, that I imagine you could probably learn to do, is sense the energies of any living thing, plants, animals, and humans alike. but honestly his magic is strange and I don't have a full understanding of it. I'm sure he is capable of much more, and he just hasn't told me. but for a majority of his physical manifestation of magic, he has to use magic similar to the idea of transfiguration in the human world. he's limited by equivalent exchange as well, unlike you."

Lora nodded, “actually I can already sense the life forces you speak of, I can feel them when I use magic.” Nerel shook his head as he stared at her. “You truly are fascinating, you know, most mages could never be able to do half of what you have done today after only having their magic less then 24 hours." Lora's face flushed but she said nothing. she wished Paxton's magic wasn't so complex, it sounded like a real pain to deal with. but she was also fascinated, and thankful that he took the time to teach her. "thank you for explaining Nerel." she said after a moment, "I'm feeling a bit better." he offered his hand, and she took it without hesitation as he helped her up. 

“Thank you.” She said in relief.

“Well I must say, even though you overused your magic, you did quite well making those clothes. I honestly hadn't even thought about it.” He said kindly. 

“Well I figured walking around dressed as a human and filthy as can be would draw to much attention.” Lora said with a shrug. 

“Good call,” he said, “but we should head out again if we want to get to Las Narith before sun down.” 

Lora nodded and began following him through the forest. The bath had relaxed her and given her some time to process everything. It was strange, even after everything that happened, she still felt overwhelmingly happy. She had only been in Derina for a few hours, but already she was beginning to feel like she was home.

               ***

James and Amanda made their way through the forest, constantly keeping an eye out for any sign of Lora, or danger of any sort. It had been years since they had been here, but it was as if nothing had changed. There was once a time when this icy forest was instead a beautiful place filled with all different colors and animals. It was magical, the nymphs made everything lush and green, the creatures that dwelled here flourished under the natural magic that filled the earth below. Many elves would visit the forest for various reasons, it was the gem of Derina that never seemed to end. now, under Safield's rule, the magic lays dormant, and the animals disappeared. Everything was frozen, and day after day very little seemed to change. Many daemon  filled the forest, keeping the magic from flourishing once more.

James sighed, he had always wanted to see Derina before it was frozen. He would never understand why Safield would want to set an eternal winter on such a beautiful place. His only chance of ever seeing his kingdom the way it was meant to be was to find Lora before anyone else and bring her to Paxton. They needed her to release Derina from this horrible curse. He just hoped she was strong enough to defeat Safield.

James was so lost in thought he almost ran into Amanda as she came to an abrupt stop. She turned to look at him, clearly tired, “this isn't right, the walk shouldn't be this long, at least not from where we were.”

James looked around, she was right, they had been walking for about 3 hours and there was still no sign of Lora, or the city. Everything around them looked exactly the same, were they lost? “I don't understand,” he said, “we should have reached Las Narith by now, unless Derek told us the wrong way.”

Amanda closed her eyes and sighed, “yah but why would he, that makes no sense, he knew if he lied we would kill him.” 

James shook his head in wonder, but stayed silent. Instead he took a moment to examine his surroundings. He wasn't very old when he went to the human world, but elves have amazing memories, they remember everything from the day they are born. Additional to his childhood memory of Derina, James, along with Amanda, was granted all known knowledge of their world by Paxton. This way they would be able to aid Lora once she was brought back. Because of this James should have been able to recognize their surroundings, even if he had never really been here. Unfortunately, at first glance, nothing seemed familiar. of course, over time things are expected to change, but even so, some thing wasn't right. 

Amanda stared at him, curious as to what he was thinking. She was always jealous of his ability to be so quiet and concentrated. Unlike him Amanda was always restless and filled with energy, that's why she was a warrior not a royal. Although she would never admit it, she secretly admired James. He was so strong and fearless, and had always been there for her. Unlike Lora, they had been raised as elves, Amanda being trained to fight and protect, while James learned politics, strategy, anything he would need to one day take his kingdom back. Of course he still received basic defense skills, but not to the extent that Amanda received. Personally she loved being strong and independent, but she felt like because of that, James would never truly see her as a delicate and beautiful girl that he could love, like Lora. 

Amanda sighed again and glanced around, she noticed James concentrating intently on their surroundings, and she almost laughed. She turned around looking at everything around her. They were in a part of the forest filled will many fallen trees and underbrush. They hadn't been able to find any trace of Lora yet, and she had no idea why that was, but she had a feeling Lora had been here. 

“We should continue on James, we are wasting time just standing around. I think Lora was here, now it's only a matter of catching up with her.” 

James didn't answer right away, instead he seemed to just stare off into the woods past her. After a moment he said, “ I think I know where we are,” he turned around and looked behind him, “this makes no sense,”  

Amanda stared at him in confusion, “what's wrong?” 

“I think,” he paused and furrowed his brows, “I think we are near the river that runs through the forest, it should be about a 10 minute walk from here.”

Amanda stared at him, “ok so if you know where we are, then what's wrong?” 

“Well, if we are where I think we are, then it shouldn't have taken us 3 hours to get here, 1 hour maybe, but not three hours.”

Amanda groaned, “so not only are we dealing with a time difference from earth to here, but there's also a time spell on the forest? You would think Paxton would have put a counter spell on us or something.”

“Well in his defense, we weren't exactly supposed to come through the forest when we came back here.” James said.

“Yah well now we could be anywhere between 3 to 5 hours behind her, I just hope she is slower than us since she knows nothing about this place.”

James started to Pace, “do you know what the time difference is between earth and Derina?” He asked.

“No,” Amanda said, “as far as I know, it varies, my guess is she had 3 hours head start, plus the hour it took us to get here.”

James rubbed his forehead, still pacing, “so she would have gotten here, what, 4 hours ago?”

Amanda nodded “roughly, yes.”

“But what about Derek? He was still alive when we arrived, he would have died long before we got here if there's a three hour difference.”

Amanda shook her head, “James, he's a demon, he can use energy around him to slowly heal himself, he most likely spent the last few hours healing his arms and keeping his wound from killing him. Clearly Lora broke his arms so that it would be longer before he could remove the knife and heal his wound. That way he couldn't follow her. Pretty smart if you ask me. It's a mystery how she knew enough to figure all that out. Right now she seems to be acting on instinct. We have no idea what she's capable of, she's not a human, and she isn't a normal elf, she's a mage, and a powerful one at that. But she's also confused, scared, alone. she got dragged into an unknown cold dark world, by a daemon she thought was just a self centered jock with anger problems. We have no idea if she has met anyone since she got here, or where she is. And if Derek is right, then Nerel is out here, and if she meets him, we have more problems than we think.”

“What about the spell? If we are right about a time spell, she wouldn't get very far, she would be exhausted by now, maybe she's asleep somewhere.” James said.

“Yah but she's also powerful enough to break that spell, even by accident.” 

“Then what do we do?” James asked.

“Well there's not much we can do except continue on, just concentrate on the amount of time it takes to get to your destination instead of how long it feels it's taking to get there. That should help counter the spell long enough to get out of here, let's go to the river and look for any signs of Lora or Nerel, and then head to Paxton's place in the city. He may be able to help us find her.” Amanda smiled at him encouragingly. “Don't worry James, we will find her.”

“I really hope so.” James said, pain and worry flashing across his face. 

Amanda stared at him for a moment. She could see his pain clearly on his face, he was never very good at hiding his emotions. She herself felt her heart clench seeing his pain. She knew he loved Lora, she had known for many years now. But it still hurt knowing that she was not the one he loved. Luckily she was a master at hiding her feelings.

“Well let's go.” She said light heartedly. And with that they continued on into the forest, looking for the river and doing their best to not lose themselves to the magic of the forest.