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Chapter Forty-Five
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2022-01-16 18:53:10More than a week had gone by since Alex and the rest of the Ravennites returned to the Citadel. The weather had greatly improved since the terrible storm had shrouded the mountains in its darkness. The temperatures still hung near zero, but it definitely felt warmer and more comfortable after the hellish nightmare Alex endured.
His mind had been so ravaged by the experience that he could not bring himself to think about it. Alex was not even certain how much of it he may have simply imagined during his hallucinations. Whatever the case, none of the Ravennites, who he had lived among for nearly two years, looked at him the same ever since. He could not step outside of his own quarters without them staring at him as though he was not even human.
It was several days before people finally spoke to him, and even then, all they could talk about was how amazing
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Beyond the Citadel plateau, the Domineer party approached the natural land bridge between the mountains. Just as Malachai said, it was a company far too small for an attack, consisting of only seven Domineers, one of whom was holding up a post with a large, light-colored cloth tied to it.Inside the Citadel, Matheus hurried to the top of the wall and watched as the Domineers cautiously made their way across the bridge. As soon as they made it about halfway across, however, Matheus signaled for the archers to aim their bows down at them.The small Domineer party froze immediately. Most of them were growing restless while on the verge of panic. The man leading the company, however, did not seem to be fazed by this expected hostile welcoming, as he only glared up at the archers along the wall. “Easy now, Ravennites!” he boldly called out to them. &ldqu
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The atmosphere was plunging into absolute confusion as nobody knew what to say or think of such an incredible claim. Rowan, on the other hand, was quick to grow furious as she lunged forward angrily. “Be quiet!” she shouted loudly with so much hate echoing in her voice. “You’re a liar! You don’t know Alex! I do, and I tell you now that he would never betray us like that!” The Domineer put his hands up mockingly. “Take it easy,” he jeered. “I’m sorry that Robert couldn’t be here to tell you himself, but maybe he can.” He nodded his head toward Alex, who could feel the life quickly draining from his body the longer this conversation proceeded. “Go on, tell them,” the messenger continued. “Why don’t you tell them about your meeting with Robert Morenno at the Iron Furnace? Tell them how you revealed to him exactly where to find the Citadel. And not only tha
Last Updated : 2022-01-17Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Forty-Eight
The dreams were no less disturbing tonight. Alex had no idea what time it was when he had finally fallen asleep in his depressing cage. The only notion he had was when the faint amount of light flowing in through the cave’s opening had all but vanished, leaving the narrow tunnel in a dark state illuminated very dimly by the torches along the walls.Time seemed to be moving even more slowly as it continued to drag. Alex was constantly waking from his weak ability to sleep. There was simply far too much consuming his heart. How could it come to this? He never meant any betrayal against Rowan and her people, and he hoped that she would be able to see that. He could not help but wonder, should he ever get out of this cage, if he could face her again. Sometimes, the tempting idea would enter his mind to simply try and break himself out, but he forced himself to shake the thought away. That it only would c
Last Updated : 2022-01-17Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Forty-Nine
Hours later, as the sun began to make its rise over the snow-laden mountains, Delmar emerged from his quarters atop the tower under more stress than he had felt in a long time. He had barely gotten any sleep with the burden of Ramon Morenno’s proposition on his mind.In the early hours of the day, Delmar reluctantly began issuing his orders for the Ravennites to rally and prepare themselves to face one final battle in three days' time. It was not easy for him to manage. Many of the Ravennites did not know what to think of the situation, from their distrust for Ramon Morenno to the fact that such an event was unprecedented during the years of their struggle with the Domineers. Others, however, were able to muster the courage to thoroughly prepare for what seemed like a long time coming. Regardless of the apprehensive atmosphere shrouding the Citadel, the concern that was on everybody’s mind was
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The hills were silent over the next couple of days. The Ravennites did not trust Ramon Morenno one bit, and Delmar took every precaution by ordering regular patrols around the Citadel to keep an eye out for any unwelcome Domineer activity. However, after two restless days, Delmar recalled most of his scouts as no sign of the Domineers was ever detected.Ramon had kept his word and left the Ravennites in peace to prepare to meet his offer. He did not wait for his messenger to return with Delmar’s answer before he immediately began recalling every Outsider in the Dark Zone to fight for him. Caine was right; the only way he would be able to draw the Ravennites to fight in the valley was by giving them reason to believe they could make this their final battle. Ramon needed them to think they might have a chance of defeating him once and for all. Of course, he intended to unleash everything he had upon De
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For several hours, Alex lay awake on the dirt floor of his cage, watching through the wooden bars as the light of dawn slowly began to appear. From what he was able to hear, the Citadel sounded unusually quiet this morning. As he rested his head back against the ground, his attention was captured by the sound of somebody ducking their way into the tunnel. It took him a second to react, but Alex suddenly sat up in his cell and peered out.He could make out the dark figure of somebody approaching him, but it was still too dark for him to know who it was until they stopped before his bars and spoke in a kind, familiar voice. “Good morning, Alex.”Alex shifted his head in surprise. “Altha?” he uttered. “Is that you?”Sure enough, Altha grabbed and lit one of the torches from the tunne
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Delmar and Matheus turned and headed out of the edge of the woods as the Ravennites gathered their weapons and followed. Delmar led them out a few dozen yards before stopping, and the Ravennites quickly formed lines behind him. He said nothing, but simply listened until the sound of the horns in the distance finally ceased. Delmar squinted his eyes as he could see the form of somebody appearing at the other end of the valley.Caine emerged from the edge of the trees, stepping into the light of the morning sun. Looking down at the ground, he closed his eyes and clenched his left hand into a fist. Caine resisted as he instigated the pain from the wound in his hand and allowed it to fill him with raw anger.Opening his eyes, Caine looked out to see the many forms of Delmar’s Ravennites, and he could tell they were staring right back at him. He tensed every m
Last Updated : 2022-01-20Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Fifty-Three
It was so quiet in the Citadel now. Alex could feel the silence enveloping him like a veil, almost as though he was back in his dreams again. He had spoken to nobody else since he was released from the cages, and part of him believed those few who remained after the Ravennites departed were doing their best to avoid him.When he had finished preparing to leave the Citadel and never return, Alex found a moment to himself standing before the bank of the small lake. It was still frozen over, but it never failed to give him a much needed vibe of tranquility, especially when he needed to soothe the scars in his heart.Alex left his weapons back in his quarters. There would be no need to carry them any longer. Altha had generously given him a couple small loaves of bread for his journey back to his true home. That, along with the clothes on his back, was all he
Last Updated : 2022-01-20
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Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Epilogue
Seven years laterFor seven years, the Ravennites worked to rebuild their lives after the devastating war with the Domineers, maintaining their distance from the world beyond their borders. No Outsider had entered the Dark Zone in all that time, until now.The Ravennites had all but abandoned the Citadel. Despite that, few Ravennite sentries remained posted atop the plateau at all times, as though they were guarding something.The sun was making its descent on a cool spring evening. After all this time, the walls of the Citadel remained standing, as well as the tower, but it was not enough to stop the dark figure ascending the steep plateau toward the fortress above. The Ravennites had long boasted of the impenetrability of the Citadel on all sides. The Domineers had been able to breach their walls only once, and near
Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Sixty-Five
Alex was panting and sweating profusely in no time, but he could not let the exhaustion get to him. Walking beside the long road leading away from the mountains, he stopped periodically to rest for a moment and sip what water was left in his canteen. Every time he tasted the spring water, he felt instantly reinvigorated. Very few vehicles passed him along the way. He tried to flag a few of them down to ask for a ride, but nobody would stop for someone so ragged-looking. As Alex watched them go, it was almost as if he was on an alien planet. He had not seen one in so long, and he knew that readjusting to his old life was definitely going to take some time.Many miles later, Alex stopped to rest under the shade of a small cluster of trees along the side of the road. To his disdain, he emptied the last contents of his canteen into his dry mouth. His legs were aching and he was starting to become dehydrated, a
Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Sixty-Four
Alex’s mind was made up. He had decided he would spend a final three days among the people of Ravenna before setting out for the Outside. This he felt would give him more than enough time to prepare himself to leave and, as a personal matter, a chance to spend the last of these days with his closest friend.Alex kindly requested of Delmar that word of his intentions to leave this time did not get out to the rest of the Ravennites, at least until he had gone. He thought it would be best for him to simply slip away as quietly as possible. The people had lessened their habits lately of referring to him by the name of Winter’s Bane, but their behavior around him never changed. They would salute him every time he stepped foot outside the cottage. Many of them seemed too nervous to make eye contact with him, and they almost always moved out of the way whenever they saw him coming. Alex was used
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Even Delmar knew it was not over yet. Despite the fall of Ramon Morenno and the total collapse of the Domineers, there were few who managed to escape the valley and had presumably gone into hiding. Delmar was not willing to let his guard down until he was certain that the mountains were safe once again.For the next few weeks following the battle in Ravenna, Delmar mobilized as many scouting parties as he could to comb the mountains and root out any and all Domineer stragglers. In time, many, if not all the Outsiders, were either found and captured or gave themselves up in fear, but Delmar ordered that they be brought back to the valley before exiling them back to the world from which they came.As Rowan observed her brother’s merciful actions toward them, she herself felt an unusual notion of pity. Thanks to Alex, she had more than enough faith to
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The cool gusts of wind flowed all around him as Alex slowly regained consciousness. As the light returned to his eyes, he found himself gazing up at the beautiful, green canvas of the springtime trees and the calming sound of flowing water filled his ears. He recognized the feeling of pure and intangible tranquility - he was lying in the Oasis.“This is not real,” he muttered quietly as he lay still upon the damp stone between the two flowing streams.“Of course it’s real. Why would you think that?”Alex sat up at the sound of her familiar voice. There, sitting on the edge of the cliff looking out at the mountains in the distance, was the young woman he had seen in his visions of the abandoned Citadel. Her hand was resting lightly in the stream as it flowe
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Amidst the massive skirmish, Alex whipped around at the sound of the breaking catapult. Not only him, but the Domineers had been swayed by the commotion as well, and Alex noticed the Ravennites rushing to assault the last one standing.Alex took this brief opportunity to scan the battlefield. It seemed that the Ravennites were inadvertently dividing their efforts. The majority of the chaos was spread out across the center of the valley; those around him were engaging all enemies left and right with no intentions except to kill. Delmar and Ramon were locked in a hand to hand duel as they moved blindly around the field, all while the rest of the Ravennites were pushing their way toward the Domineers’ catapults with little resistance. Alex tensed himself as he realized the tide of the battle would almost certainly shift in favor of one of them at any moment, and it all depended on who made the daring mo
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At Delmar’s command, the Ravennites retreating immediately released a series of battle cries before returning to the fight. Alex turned his head to see them charging forth. He could feel his head burning intensely amidst the raging ferocity of the battle. He glanced back around as the enemy was upon them. Their numbers were still too great.Malachai stood by his side as the Ravennites gathered. “Are you with me?” Alex said quietly. Malachai looked him in the eye with a serious expression. He said nothing, but gave a slight head nod as he seemed to understand what Alex was thinking. Without saying another word, Alex broke from the weak formation, with Malachai by his side, crying out as they charged and the Ravennites followed right behind them.There was no time between them anymore. The last of the two armies were upon each other immediately,
Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Fifty-Nine
Rowan had been running through the woods and hills for hours. She stopped only to catch her breath, but as she made her way deeper into the northern territories of the mountains, she was all but exhausted. She could feel the cold sweat in her hair and the sting of the winter air in her throat with every breath she took.Rowan was not sure if this was fate or irony. She knew the path she was taking up the mountainside well, for she had been through it years ago when the last of her family escaped the onslaught in Ravenna. Now she was heading back the same way to fight beside her brother and her people in the battle that would end where it all began.As Rowan climbed to the peak of the snowy hills, she could not help but collapse to her hands and knees in exhaustion, dropping her spear into the snow. She could barely breathe; tears were forced out of her eyes by
Ice Cold - Part Two: Winter's Bane Chapter Fifty-Eight
Back at the edge of the valley, Ramon shook his head in frustration. The battle continued to proceed indecisively, but it was clear that the Ravennites were beginning to push his people back. The trees around him had soon been brought down, clearing the way for the Domineers to push the catapults into the valley. Ramon glanced back and forth between them and the battle ahead, his mind racing to come to a decision.He suddenly turned back to the Domineer by his side. “Send them in,” he commanded, gesturing to the catapults, “and run them down.”“Wait, what?” the man responded in curiosity. “But what about our men engaging the Ravennites?”Ramon only looked at him with anger growing in his eyes. “I said,” he growled viciously, “send in the catapults!&rd
