Author's note: Chapter 10 is here with a term list included for those that have asked for it. Not sure how I feel about it, but lets try it. This chapter is quite short, but the next chapter is going to be posted right after so don't worry! :)
(Term List for the Chapter! Skip until Needed.)
Ennem: Energy exclusive to Dredincross which both creates and sustains Dreads.
Obreki: A curse equivalent to 'damn'. It's meant to insinuate a distaste of something by speaking of it as something lesser.
'Linrazzael's Horn': A large war horn carried by a soldier of Lor during the Alcar War. It was said that Linrazzael's Horn was loud enough to be heard across the Dormann River, calling the waiting soldiers there to action.
Zephyr: Dreads of an ice nature.
Olamo: A dredin word that essentially conveys surprise.
Gylga: a low standing person or dread. Someone who has no family or value.
Dokai'sillat: a child, specifically an immature one. Similar to calling someone a 'little boy' or a silly child.
Igletz: A word akin to a curse of pain. It's a very niche phrase.
Reora: The interdimensional name for Earth.
Edinmoor: The world on the other side of the breach, which is home to both Dredincross and Izanmoor.
Dredincross: The underberlly of the Edinmoor. Dredincross is a shadow reflection of the overworld Izanmoor. This is where Dreads progenirate from.
Izanmoor: The surface world of Edinmoor and the home of its humanity.
Chapter 10:
Nightmares in the Cold
"Jor--" Miramae felt her body lift in the air, her voice fading as she was thrust backwards.
Wind howled, shards of ice and sleet shredding through the air like cruel daggers around her as her shoulders pressed against an unseen surface. A moment later she was thrust free of the cafe's interior, the remains of a window cratering around her to join the dancing snow. Miramae's hair whipped wildly across her vision, but she could still barely see the outline of Joran's glowing green hand, his fingers stretched outward towards her.
He looked calm.
And then he was gone, swept away by a torrential wall of snow and ice that obscured the inside of the coffee shop in its entirety.
"JORAN!" Miramae screamed, her eyes widening as he vanished from sight and she flew further and further from where he stood.
A second later she collided with something hard, jarring her vision and whipping her head sharply upward. Her skull reverberated with the impact, and she felt her teeth bite into her tongue. She let out a small groan, glancing awkwardly behind her at the object that had so abruptly stopped her flight. A sharp alarm began to play from its interior, egregiously loud in her ears. Bracing herself against the vehicles's hood, she pushed herself to her feet with a hiss of pain. Her vision swam slightly, but she could see a small crater in the car's door from where she had made impact.
"Linrazzael's horn, that's fucking loud." She gritted her teeth, glaring at the blue vehicle.
It continued its obnoxious song.
"Shut it!" She barked, slamming her fist on the previously untarnished roof in exasperation.
It folded inward like it was little more than paper, bending in a deep 'V'. Still, the alarm continued. She glared at the contraption in grudging respect, but her annoyance was short lived as she turned her mind and her body back towards the coffee shop. Her body felt stiff, and she was having trouble moving, but she didn't have time to waste.
Her first few steps towards the store were little more than an awkward attempt to drag her feet. She wasn't 'hurt' so to speak, but the car hadn't exactly been soft. Her body was quite literally in disarray, though it was furiously attempting to right itself, leaving her sluggish and disoriented. Multiple tears in her back were working to knit once more together and she could feel her spine clicking and snapping as it straightened. Her shoulder muscles rippled as fibers and flesh weaved back into the correct position. Cuts and scrapes folded inward and disappeared as they were resealed.
It was roughly thirty seconds before her body was truly functional again. She let out a stifled moan, rubbing her forehead as she took a step back towards the aperture she'd been catapulted from. Her ailments now largely abated, she felt her mind centering on the task at hand.
**Those eyes. The snow. That was a Zephyr.**
One of the iclings of Dredincross had followed her through the breach. A powerful one, quite literally brimming with Ennem. It was nearly overwhelming, filling her nose with a harsh combination of sweet fruit and burnt residue even now. She shouldn't have been surprised but, even so, she was. They really were coming for her, just like the Maiir had promised they would. They would pursue her wherever she went from now on, whether it was in Reora or Edinmoor. Death would be to her a cloak, eternally following in her wake.
She took another step forward, squinting in concentration as she prepared to breach the distance to store. As if in a response, she felt a strong gust flair across her chest, pushing her backward. Within seconds, it was more akin to a gale, followed by a flurry of white sleet filling the previously empty window. It poured outward, vacating the interior of the shop as it surged towards her. She steadied herself, planting her boots into the cement as the mass of wintery residue began to encircle her.
"Not running this time, little Vermyr?" The words were warbled in an odd screech, splintered and shaking, as they echoed from the blizzard that had swept around her.
It sounded like thousands of tiny voices colliding with one another, fading in and out of volume as they spun through the air.
The Zepyhr was in a state of near incorporeality, his Ennem dispersed into the natural fractals of his frozen existence. She had never actually seen a Dread capable of this skill, but she'd been studying the great clans of Dredincross since she was a child, preparing for the day they found her. More than a few of them were capable of transcending humanoid structure.
The air hummed, undulating in a disconcerting thrum, filling the vacuum inside the icy tornado with a loud silence. Miramae clenched her fingers, her hair flailing chaotically as she followed the wisps of dark energy that were intermingled with frigid cyclone. The Zephyr's Ennem was like a tangled thread of truth amidst the snowstorm, calling to her with sincerity. It drew a smile to her lips in spite of the cold.
"Perhaps, you should save your taunting while in such a vulnerable form, dokai'sillat." Her words cut through the dwarfing quiet.
The thrum of spiraling air slowed ever so slightly, betraying the Zephyr's hesitation.
It would take the Dread at least a second or so to revert into a more stable form, and even then, they might not even think to do so. She had more than enough time.
Lunging to the left, she swung her left hand harshly outward, punching through the current of frost as she reached it. The ice tore at her flesh, slicing her hand and forearm as she grasped for the strands of Ennem that raced by. Instinctively she clamped down, latching her Ennem to his as the string of Dredin energy attempted to writhe free.
"Gahh!" The air spasmed as the splintered voice called out in pain.
The air convulsed and the storm spun inward, beginning to tear at her, but she only tightened her hold on the energy responsible for the frigid gale. Slowly but surely, the blizzard shrunk, uniting into a vague, fluttering outline.
Miramae growled in satisfaction, feeling the cold condensing beneath her fingertips as a body materialized before her. Ice cracked and groaned, clinking into a singular entity. It was like watching an impossibly intricate puzzle of nature knit itself together, forming a short, yellow haired man with pale skin and deep blue eyes.
"I'm not some pitiful human to be frightened by your meek blowing, Zephyr." She spat, her hand tightening around the throat of the icy Dread that was now in front of her.
"Olamo--you're a strong one, eh?" The Dread cackled through his pinched esophagus, his piercing blue irises glinting from beneath the film of frost that covered them.
His long brown coat fluttered in the wind as he attempted to pull away from her grip. She could feel her fingertips growing suddenly colder, succumbing briefly to a surge of frostbite before her body regenerated the frozen skin. It was painful, but she didn't care. She had him. She could feel it. The frostling's Ennem was already beginning to funnel towards her slowly, but surely. It tasted horrible but it was hers to claim all the same. They Dread must've felt it too, because his smile transitioned to a harsh leer.
