Ice Years
(Age 11)
She woke up panting. Freya was standing over her, a look of concern etched upon her fair skinned face. Nam stood awkwardly off to the side, eyes shifting around as he gazed at the floor.
“Are you alright?” She enquired, and Nyx nodded hurriedly, shaking the fear from her eyes.
“Kwin Nia will see you,” said Nam, and Nyx stood up shakily, as she always did after having a vision, before she breathed deeply and allowed her mentor to lead her to the Queen’s chambers. The eleven year old girl’s eyes showed wisdom and suffering far beyond her years, but they also retained the hopefulness of the small child who’d been stolen from TonDC.
She still saw Costia in her dreams, but the image of the rolling head was beginning to fade, instead replaced by happier memories, and some images that she was unsure even existed. Of Costia in fields of flowers, allowing small hands to braid them in her hair, of her quiet moments with Lexa, the two of them just soaking up each other’s presence.
“In you go,” Nam prompted, nudging the petite girl into the throne room, where Queen Nia was already perched on her throne. The girl did her best not to look down on the ground where she knew to be the place Costia had been beheaded by the very woman standing in front of her.
“Seyah,” Nia intoned with a nod of her head, “what did you see?” Nyx took a deep breath, knowing that her Kwin wouldn’t like the answer she provided.
“Lexa of the Trikru will seek to form a coalition,” she began, “to unite all twelve clans under her leadership.” Nia visibly bristled at this information. “She will succeed with all clans but our own, but you will be forced to join under threat of extermination by the combined effort of the other eleven clans. She believes it pertinent to defeat the maunon.” Nia twitched, hand brushing absentmindedly over her blade.
“This is… displeasing, to say the least. I suppose she’ll be sending a messenger in order to bring up peace talks?”
“Sha, Kwin,” Nyx nodded, “a young man named Maverick. He will not harm anyone so long as he doesn’t feel threatened.” Nia rubbed her temples tiredly.
“I’ll make sure he’s treated well,” she sighed, eyes narrowed, “perhaps if I allow our powerful nation to become close to the Trikru, I will finally have a chance to remove your pest of a sister.” A small noise of protest rose from Nyx’s throat on its own accord, and Nia’s eyes snapped up to meet her own.
“Remember your place, seyah,” she purred, “you’ve proven yourself to be of the utmost importance, but you and I both know that I can end you with a snap of my fingers. You and your brother. If you don’t breathe a word of this to anyone else, I’ll allow you to see him once a week as opposed to once every fortnight, because I do reward good behavior.”
The terms of their agreement had changed six months into the twins’ stay within the Ice Nation, both having obediently progressed with their training, and they’d earned their first scars at the same time, curving under their ears. Nia had allowed them to be tattooed as well, a brief moment of indulgence for the strict woman, but they’d been adamant about remembering their past, and she’d been too tired to care.
“Sha, Kwin,” Nyx responded obediently, with a low bow. She felt the cold eyes regard her once more before dismissing her.
“Put your back into it, seken!” Nico’s brows were scrunched together in determination, sweat gleaming on his bare skin as he sparred with Roan, who was a relentless teacher and an even more relentless fighter. He was probably the most impressive warrior that Nico had ever been in contact with, though he supposed his older sis was his equal at least in combat, if not better. One had to be great to be heda, after all, but he didn’t let his thoughts stay on her for long.
They had long since graduated from wooden sticks to pointed metal blades and rods, not too sharp as to cause a fatal wound, but enough to break skin and cause bleeding if one wasn’t careful enough. There was also pain training, endurance training, etc., so these exercises were by far the most lenient on the body and the mind.
He was getting better at the others, though. He’d lasted a whole hour during pain training last week, which even Roan had been impressed with, grumbling that he hadn’t been able to last a week until he was twelve (that had been a massive boost to Nico’s ego, even if it had hurt like a bic).
Nico pushed forward, regardless of the ache in his muscles or the sweat running down his brow, and when he heard the thump of metal against skin that wasn’t his own, he slowed, allowing himself a small, proud smile at Roan’s deep belly laugh.
Age Thirteen
It wasn’t often that Nyx was reminded of her burning hatred towards the Ice Queen. Her thoughts were too occupied on other matters, such as the strange, recurring dreams of people falling from the sky, and of the maunon becoming increasingly more bold. But on the nights that she had visions about the Azgeda’s shortcomings, those were the nights she was reminded.
She’d grown quite a bit in the four years she’d been taken by the Ice Nation, her muscles were filling out nicely, she’d grown taller, which was a blessing and a curse at the same time, as it was now getting harder to duck under blows, and she’d started to need chest bindings, which was a menace in of itself. The monthly bleeding wasn’t very appreciated, either.
It was in between these moments of extreme pain, when Nia was beating her relentlessly for visions of a future she didn’t control, back burning and eyes rolled to the back of her head, that she thought about her childhood. She’d discovered not long after the first of these sessions that a wandering mind helped deal with the pain.
She thought of her mother and father, of how they would’ve grayed if they were still alive. She wondered if her mother’s eyes retained the kindness in them, the soft green that had always been the source of comfort after a particularly rough night. She wondered if her father still whistled as he chopped firewood, and if he had a new seken. She wondered about Lincoln and Nyko, if they’d finished their training, wondering what tattoos they had now. She thought about her sis, who had been forced to be so strong so young. She wondered how many braids she now had in her hair, and if her eyes had grown cold yet, like in her dreams.
She wondered about her life could have been if she and Nico hadn’t been captured.
She wondered what her family’s life would have been like had the Shaman not passed through TonDC when their eyes changed colors, saving them from the fate of death.
So as Nia beat down on her with a whip, lines crisscrossing over her bare back that she knew would leave impressive scars over the old ones, Nyx let herself drift off and think, for a moment, on what it would’ve been like to be a normal child, without the burden of visions, and with a sister who was not heda but was just sis.
It was a nice thought.
Roan frowned at the stormy face of his seken. His blows were fueled by more than determination today, filled with anger.
“You are mad at the actions of my mother against your sister.” He stated this as a fact, and Nico’s glaring multicolored eyes reached his stubbornly.
“Wouldn’t you be?” he shot back, not pausing in his fighting, having since graduated to actual blades. “Wouldn’t you be angry if a woman who had killed someone dear to you in front of your very eyes, and continued to beat your sister, the only person in the whole world you care about, because of something she can’t control? Wouldn’t you?”
There was a lull in the conversation, supplemented only by the metallic clang of blade on blade, and Roan let the question weigh heavily on his mind.
“No.” The response was simple, quick, and Nico thought that his mentor was going to leave it at that, with no explanation whatsoever. “I would be furious.” Another pause. “But I would not let it show, because my anger would distract me, which is something no good warrior can afford. Hodness laik kewlness, Neekow.” He had heard the words before hundreds of times, all from Roan’s mouth. But he still refused to let their message sit in his heart.
Love couldn’t be weakness, it couldn’t be.
Though the memories of his early childhood in TonDC were slowly fading, he remembered clearly how one time, his mother had been wounded in battle, and his father had pushed forward with the fire of a hundred blazing suns to make sure the battle was won and his mother returned home safely. The way they had looked at each other, so tenderly, was an image that would stick with Nico for the rest of his days. He knew he wanted something like that, eventually, and he knew that the bond he had with his sister was stronger than anything else in the entire world.
So he refused to believe that love was weakness, and instead compromised with himself, letting his anger sit deep within him, waiting to be unleashed at the right moment, and he bowed his head, taking a moment to breath deeply, centering himself, before once more allowing himself to barrel into Roan with all the strength he could muster.
Age Fourteen
“Do try and keep up, why don’t you, Nam!” Nyx threw her head back in laughter, long brown hair flowing behind her as she urged her horse to go faster, eyes alight with mirth when the man finally caught up, looking rather put out.
“Mockery is not-”
“...the product of a strong mind, yes, I know, I know,” Nyx teased, eyes still bright, “but it’s so fun.” Nam shook his head fondly, the small sign of affection uncharacteristic for the usually stoic man. The girl had really grown on him over the years, and he found himself sad at the thought of her graduating from his tutelage.
“I’ve half a mind to whip you,” he growled with a sharp glint in his eyes, “but I suppose it’s best to give you a break, after the beating you took yesterday for getting drunk like a branwada.” Nyx rolled her eyes at him, sticking her tongue out childishly.
“Mockery is not the product of a strong mind,” she bit back, and smiled contentedly when Nam simply sighed heavily and continued his path along the western border. These days were Nyx’s favorites, because she’d never been allowed to travel too far out of the Ice Nation’s capital before, as Nia still didn’t quite trust her and Nico not to run. But now, she was allowed to patrol with Nam’s supervision, and found herself drinking in the sights of the forests and the valleys from the plateau in the mountains. She hoped to one day be allowed to patrol the eastern border, venturing into the forests, whose trees she longed to climb, but Nia was still not wholly convinced.
“Shof op, seken.”
Age Fifteen
Nico breathed deeply as he observed himself in the mirror. His mismatched eyes stared back at him, the small look of confusion mingled with pride evident. He had grown much in the past six years, which was, of course natural, but he was struggling to see the remnants of the nine year old who had been dragged here, kicking and screaming (literally) against his will.
He knew today was important. Nyx had warned him. Today was the day they finally patrolled the eastern border, alongside Roan, Nam, a girl named Echo, and Nia’s seken, Ontari.
Today was the day they left the Ice Nation.
Today was the day they began their perilous endeavor to aid the people who's ship had fallen from the sky and wiped out a whole village.
Today was the day they would be taken by the maunon.