Ifrailian Tales

The Answer.

I can’t feel anything…

It's cold... 

This is peaceful...

He felt something small and cold, touch down on what should have been his left cheek. Followed up by another, and another, until hundreds of little cold spots were colliding with his body.

Not long after, he heard breathing. His own breath to be exact, then he felt his chest raise and lower in perfect synchronization with the ragged intakes of oxygen. Touch and sound, two of the five senses returned to him. Then, the perfume of fresh flowers tickled his nostril. Smell, and if the dryness of his mouth said anything, it was that his taste had returned.

He opened his eyes, this alone was a struggle. What he saw racked him with deja vu. Temperatures below freezing, an empty yet vast landscape expanding in all directions. This was the very same scene he saw within his dreams. The implications were terrifying, was he dead? Artemis couldn’t give a straight answer, maybe this is what awaited us all after death. A solidary, peaceful chill that overtakes our senses.

“You blame yourself.”

The same woman from the dream called out to him. She sounded much closer than before, he tried to pull himself up to no avail. His body wasn’t responding, he tried to throw his arms and legs out. But it was as if some unseen force kept him locked in place.

“What are you talking about,” Artemis shouted back!

“You know what I speak of,” a gust of wind tore through the layer of snow, sweeping it off the ground and into the air. Creating a dense, powdery veil which obscured vision, “The children.”

The mist of white dust dispersed. Artemis still couldn’t move his body from the neck down. But without the blanket of snow, the reason for his immobility became clear. Save the head, the captain’s entire body was frozen over. And what's worse, he could feel tens, to hundreds of eyes glaring back at him from deeper inside the ice.

“That-”

She appeared in front of him, there was no grand entrance accompanied by sound or anything of the like. One moment there was nothing but snow and ice, then the next, the most beautiful women he had ever laid his eyes upon. Her clothing appeared to be woven out of plants, forming a sort of form fitting dress. Flowers were braided into the length of her brown hair, which seemed to extend past her lower back.

“You blame yourself for their deaths. And the fact you survived only heightened your guilt. You sought atonement, and when all options proved frivolous. You created your own hell, a life of solitude and loneliness. Only then would you know of the cold your students were thrown into.

She spoke the truth, more accurately she pulled those words and feelings directly from his aching heart. So many bright futures, all ended with one swing. How could anyone recover from it? Artemis wasn’t interested in meeting the person who was capable of stomaching such an atrocity.

“I was their teacher, I should have been capable of protecting them! Or… at the very least die for them. And I couldn’t even do that for them. In the end, I wasn’t able to help anyone of them…”

“You’re correct...”

Artemis was helpless to stop the tears, he couldn’t hide behind his arm either. There was no barrier between his deepest, most intense regrets, and the unknown women. Even now, he could remember the smiles of those kids, ready and eager to learn… They were gone, and nothing would change that.

“... you did fail the children, but you may still repent.”

“Huh…?”

The woman stood tall, striding atop the slippery surface. Until she was right on top of Artemis. She stared him down, with a stern yet strangely welcoming glare. “The human heart is a very reactionary component. Revenge, an eye for an eye, appeasement through pain. Gratifying in the moment, but ultimately unfulfilling. Sometimes, vengeance will only serve to create an empty husk of a man.”

“I’m not sure I understand…"

“Artemis,” her voice softened, “You’ve carried this burden for years, and it has consumed you. The pain, it’s shaped the path you’ve chosen to follow. Have you ever considered that suffering isn't the correct method of redemption.”

Clouds expanded outward from a central point. The sun, the superheated star blasted through the dense, white puffs. Casting it’s gaze directly onto Artemis and the woman. He opened his eyes, stealing another glimpse of the fair maiden. She smiled, no hidden notes of pity or disgust, only a warmness that touched his cold, apathetic heart.

“I shouldn’t be here.”

“Correct, your allies still need you in the fight.”

“That’s not what I-”

“I know, but they’re the ones who need you now.”

Artemis closed himself off once more, “No! No… I failed my students… this… this is my punishment.”

“Artemis…” the woman placed her hand onto Artemis’s face, he did not open up, “Do you honestly think those children would be capable of holding such a grudge?”

… His eyelids pulled back, “No…”

“Exactly. Those boys and girls don’t want you to share their fate. They would want you to move on, to live your life. You don’t owe them your life.”

Wind swept through the icy wasteland. Kicking up the top layer of white powder, and gently whisking the women’s hair to the right. Even when Artemis failed to respond, her smile never left her lips.

“Your wrong,” Artemis met her gaze, “I owe my students at Rebella everything. My life, my dignity, everything. And I’ll use this worthless life of mine to make a difference in this world. For the students at, for all those dead by the Federations hands… for my men at the Wall…”

The woman nodded and backed away from the mostly frozen man. The ice started to splinter, c***k around Artemis. He struggled, pushing both his arms forward with all his might. The ice chipped away in response, “I will-”

Shattered, the frosty prison which confined Artemis shattered like glass. And he fell into the darkness below. The sunny sky, the winter wonderland, they all became spots on the horizon as he sunk further into the dark. Undeterred by the utter blackness that threatened to consume him, he made his proclamation.

“I’ll live! I’ll live my life to the fullest. I’ll fight till this war till it ends, and then I will make up for my past failures and teach again!”

A light sliced through the darkness, hurling towards Artemis. Glimmering, and intense, but he did not look away as it sped towards him. No more would he lock himself away within a prison of grief. From this moment on, he’d face his problems head on.

The shining light increases its speed. The closer it got, the more recognizable the shape at it’s center became. Matching pairs of paper thin wings, twin antennas attached to one small, rounded head. A butterfly was flying towards him, strange yes but here and now, it wasn’t just a simple insect. That bug represented his second chance at life. He reached out with an outstretched hand and cried out, “You hear me, I’m moving forward!”

The glowing, virtually glass like bug launched forward. Yellow, sparkling beams of light following behind the creature expanded, and split off into several separate streams of rainbow tinted luminous glow. That all jettisoned towards the falling man, wrapping around his body until he was fully covered, a cocoon of light.

The woman's voice from before rang out clear as day within his head, “The road ahead of you will be rough, unbearable even. Are you prepared to accept this gift?”

“...” Artemis hesitated for the smallest bit of time, “Yes, I am.”

“Then you shall live, with my final blessing.”

The pressure within the glowing sphere increased, without warning the flowing energy entered his body. He recoiled back, gasping for air but the process was not finished. There was no pain, but a definite feeling of discomfort permeated. Which only grew the longer the transformation dragged on.

The blood in his veins boiled, cooled, and then boiled again. It was as if his DNA was being played with, tasted by an unsatisfied chef who then added something new to the mix. Something which was missing, a vital key to unlocking a deep well of hidden potential, a metaphorical spice.

By the time the procedure came to an end, Artemis could hardly recognize the body he had occupied. It now felt, foreign and unknown. He wasn’t allowed to give this sensation much thought, the dome surrounding him suddenly turned to dust, forcing him into another freefall. This time however, there was no undying dark threatening to swallow him whole, only a bright yellow light.

Whilst the radiance of the yellow glow completely, and utterly filled his vision. Artemis heard the mysterious woman's voice, for the last time. “This will be my final gift to you. My last show of compassion for those created with my touch. Use the gift I bestowed upon you Artemis. And save your kind from a future of cold, and silence.”

The world opened up to Artemis once more. Wiping his vision of the cold, unfeeling darkness that threatened to shallow him up whole. Replacing it instead with a painful stab of white light, which seemed to re-center him in reality.  This time, things would be different, Artemis had steeled his resolve, the will to see this invasion through. In a manner of speaking, Artemis, the captain, had been reborn.