“No!” Yuuki’s voice forcefully left her body.

  Her hands reached out shakily.

  As she put both of them on the ice coffin that covered Sarman, she resolutely repeated what she had said.

  “No.”

  “No?” Salamander questioned her. “You can’t say no. You don’t have a choice.”

  “Says who?” Yuuki would never let anyone tell her that she couldn’t save Sarman.

  She would never give up on him.

  Her life would be meaningless without him.

  He was everything to her.

  “Says me.” The flaming lizard spat back at her. “And Sarman himself. You can’t save him. That is just the way that fate works.”

  Salamanders’ final two words shook something within Yuuki.

  “Fate?”

  Sarman had said she couldn’t save him because of fate? He wasn’t so callous as to deceive her like that. What did that mean about the night before? About the time they shared together.

  Sarman could never have known fate. There was no possible way.

  The only way that he could have learned his own fate was from the dragon M’kara, but they had agreed as a group to not ask her for info on any of their futures. It was a tacet understanding between their entire group.

  But it had only been made once Yuuki, Nic, and the rest had made it up the mountain.

  Sarman and Aria had been grabbed earlier.

  What if he had heard his own future the night before they got there.

  Was that why he had suggested their agreement in the first place?

  Yuuki narrowed her eyes at the lizard.

  “Did you two learn the future from M’kara?”

  The lizard shrunk back slightly. It was as if it didn’t want to answer initially, which was all that Yuuki needed to see to know the truth. Yet, despite that, Salamander did speak up.

  “Yes. We did.”

  Verbal confirmation.

  Sarman knew.

  He knew the entire time.

  “Yuuki…”

  “Don’t!” Yuuki could feel her eyes starting to water. Her vision was growing blurry. Her heart beating a million times a second. There was a pressure in her chest. It was growing.

  “Yuuki, calm down!” Salamander was trying to calm her down.

  The spirit king knew that her emotions were in a fragile state currently. Even the tiniest of provocations could cause another outburst of the ice magic she had in her blood. If she let go fully, the damage to Kyoku could be irreparable.

  “How can I be calm?!” Instead of calming down, Yuuki grew more hysterical as she yelled at the lizard. “You’re telling me that the man I love is letting himself die! That I can’t do anything? I just have to sit here and accept this? Screw that!”

  Yuuki shut her eyes. The pressure in her chest wanted to escape. It wanted to run wild and free. It was looking for any avenue out of her body.

  Her hands clenched into fists.

  They were the most obvious spot for the magic to leave her body.

  How could she let Sarman die for nothing?

  How could Salamander allow their contractor to die without doing anything?

  If there was nothing else that could be done, shouldn’t she just let everything end?

  “What if I die as well?” The words escaped her mouth, barely a whisper, just loud enough for Salamander to hear her.

  “You can’t do that! That would be tantamount to spitting on his final wish. Sarman is letting himself die so that you can become the woman you are meant to be, Yuuki! If he doesn’t die like this, you would never unlock your Royal Ice magic! And without that magic, this world will be doomed to a second irradiated winter.”

  That single truth nearly broke Yuuki. The person she cared for most in this world was willing to let himself die for her. He was dying for her.

  How could she accept that truth?

  Yuuki couldn’t.

  A tear made its way down her face.

  It reached her lips. A salty taste. A taste that made her remember something.

  Yuuki thought back to a dream she had just a few nights prior. On the ship heading here. In the dream, Sarman had stayed back on the shore. Had that been a premonition to this very moment?

  “Don’t be so sure of yourself, miss.” Yuuki’s thoughts were intercut with the words of the boat’s captain. “They get cold, and the blood in them starts to slow. Eventually it will be too slow to keep you livin’.”

  Yuuki’s eyes snapped open. That was it. If she made Sarman’s body cold enough, his blood would slow even more. She looked back at Salamander. If there was anyone who could help her, it would be them.

  “Salamander, have you been analyzing the poison this entire time?”

  The lizard cocked his head at her. “Of course I have, but unlike the rest of the people in this room, because I’m attached to Sarman, his natural body temperature is higher, so the ice hasn’t cooled his blood enough for there to be enough time to create a counter for the poison.”

  “How much longer would you theoretically need?”

  “5 minutes? Maybe longer?”

  “Then I’ll make sure you have that time.”

  Yuuki wasn’t making a promise she couldn’t keep. Her magic may be new to her, but Yuuki had an implicit understanding of what it did. She could harden the ice, she could soften it, and she could even make it colder. If Salamander is making Sarman’s body warmer than normal, then she would just make the ice colder to counter that.

  “What?” Salamander cried out in confusion. “You can’t! It won’t work. Sarman is meant to die here.”

  Nic and Aria were standing next to Sarman. The latter had been a long time friend of hers, and Nic had quickly become someone she was fond of. Anyone who asked her now if they were friends would get the same answer; absolutely. Yuuki knew what the two of them had been forced to sacrifice to change Nic’s fate.

  Yuuki knew her father was behind her. Their family had been cursed by his father, to never be able to use the very magic she was now using. But because of Crystal’s sacrifice, Yuuki was able to use it.

  There was no telling who would be sacrificed to change Sarman’s fate. For all Yuuki knew, it could be Nic or Aria, or her mother standing with Ruby. But she couldn’t care less about the odds. She was playing this game to win, and she would leave with nothing less than Sarman at her side.

  “I don’t care.”

  Her voice carried the weight of her desires.

  “What?”

  “I don’t care! And I can’t believe that you would willingly let your contractor die without fighting back.”

  Salamander hissed in response to the accusation that Yuuki was throwing at them.

  “You don’t think I want him to live? To hell with that! I want Sarman to live more than anyone else! I made an agreement with his mother to make sure he stays safe after she died, and now I’ve made a similar agreement with him to protect you! How can I protect you if he lives?”

  Salamander spoke rapidly. Yuuki had pushed a button that neither realized would be there. The spirit progenitor had made two almost identical deals with their two most recent contractors. When Lily Ordwell was on her deathbed, she had made Salamander promise to protect her baby boy. It was why they had contracted with Sarman at such a young age. And now, a deal had been struck so that Salamander would protect Yuuki once Sarman passed.

  The truth was that the spirit didn’t want to abandon Sarman. It would be a betrayal of their original promise to Lily. Yet, they felt the conviction in Sarman’s belief that Yuuki was needed for the world. Salamander couldn’t go against Sarman’s wish.

  “I can’t… I can’t go against his wishes…” Salamander’s voice faltered.

  “Why not? We have a chance to save him! He doesn’t have to die.”

  “But what if you do instead?” Salamander shot back. “Time won’t forgive someone being saved. It doesn’t accept the future being changed. If you save someone, time will fight back and take someone else!”

  Yuuki knew that.

  She understood the consequences.

  But…

  “I will fight time if I have to. I won’t let myself be taken. And I won’t let Sarman die either.”

  Salamander was quiet.

  The flaming lizard let out a small sigh.

  It knew that there was nothing it could possibly say that would change Yuuki’s mind.

  “Fine. But freeze him fast. He’s running out of time.”

  Yuuki nodded and put her hands above the already entombed Sarman. She felt for the ice covering the room and slowly began to absorb it back into her. The walls slowly de-crystalized. Then the floor. Finally, all that remained were the people. Yuuki felt out for those she cared for. Nic, Aria, her Father, and her Uncle. She unfroze them, but kept the vines wrapping around them frozen.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Using the ice she had already reabsorbed, Yuuki thickened the ice around Sarman, cooling it even more until Salamander finally gave her an approving nod. As the lizard disappeared within the ice tomb, Yuuki’s chosen few woke up with quite the start.

  The first to say something wasn’t one of her friends, or even her father. It was her Uncle.

  “This is…” He was staring at Ruby and Yuuki’s mother’s current frozen bodies, as well as the frozen vines wrapped around his body.

  “Magic Ice. Some pressure on the vines should snap them in two. I froze them completely since they were also made through magic.” Yuuki responded while continuing to focus on Sarman’s icy tomb. She was continuing to reinforce it with more ice, making it thicker and thicker to keep the cold in for longer.

  “You did this?” Yuuki’s father spoke up as she heard countless ice vines snap and crumble as those she had unfrozen began to escape their restraints.

  “I did. This was the last gift that the real Crystal gave me as she was dying.” Yuuki felt the ice tomb in front of her stop growing. Without unfreezing Ruby or her mother, Yuuki wouldn’t be able to do anything else. She had to believe that this was enough for Salamander to purge the poison from Sarman’s blood.

  “Yuuki, is Sarman…?” Aria knelt down on the other side of the ice. As she reached her hand out, she reflexively pulled back as the coldness bit into her skin.

  “He’ll be fine.” Yuuki knew what the other was worried about.

  “But Aerial said…” Yuuki sighed as Aria’s words drifted off. Sarman had told the other Spirit Progenitors not to let anyone interfere. While Yuuki did feel a tinge of anger at the spirit for doing that, she understood why they did it.

  “Forget what the spirits told you. Salamander has been convinced to give it another go. With my ice cooling Sarman’s body down and slowing his blood, Salamander has more time to work on curing the poison in his body.”

  Yuuki stood up and looked at the four people around her. At this point in time, they were the only four that she was willing to put her trust into. Nic was handing Aria one of the two swords he carried around, but instead of taking it to use, Aria tried to hand it to Yuuki instead.

  “You take this. Your mother has your sword and I don’t need it to fight.”

  Yuuki stared down at the sword being offered to her. She knew exactly how it’s magic worked. It was the blade that Aerial infused some of their magic into. It wouldn’t be hard for her to use it skillfully.

  But using it wouldn’t feel right. She couldn’t.

  Yuuki gently placed her hand over Aria’s and pushed it back towards her, declining the offer.

  “With my Ice magic, I’ll be fine.” Yuuki knew that her magic could allow her to create swords made of ice. She didn’t know how strong they would be in the beginning, but she had no better time to start getting used to them than now.

  Aria seemed to see the determination in Yuuki’s eyes as she quickly took the sword back and gave her friend a stern nod in understanding.

  Yuuki turned around to her father and the Shogun. “Uncle, I hope you see now what this fake Crystal wants from Kyoku. We must not give in to her demands or let her take this nation. Not without fighting back at least.”

  The Shogun, Yuuki’s uncle in all but blood, heaved a heavy sigh as he looked upon Ruby and Yuuki’s mother enclosed in ice. It was clear that he had wanted to come through these talks peacefully, and yet now there would be no chance for that future. Here and now, a decision had to be made. “I agree with you. Her idea, to bring about a second Irradiated Winter, is a grotesque one. Just hearing it almost made me vomit. The pain that the first Irradiated Winter inflicted upon this world has yet to heal. There are many connections between peoples that have been destroyed. There are still area’s of this world we can no longer go to thanks to the increased amounts of Irradiation, such as the Dragonsung Wastes. To think that she wants to create yet another event of such destruction,” The Shogun shook his head. “The thought is impossible.”

  They were all in agreement.

  All they had to do was to subdue Ruby and Luna Ito.

  Yuuki felt the ice encasing the two of them. She reached out and grabbed it. She pulled back the coldness into her hand.

  “What?!” The two women opposite her cried out in surprise when they found themselves facing a united group of six opposite them.

  “What did you do?!” Yuuki’s mother was yelling at her. She had already locked onto Yuuki being the culprit of the ice encasing the vines coming out from her sword.

  “So the curse has been removed already? That's fine.” Ruby, on the other hand, had already dismissed the actions that had been taken. She didn’t seem to care at all that Kyoku was standing against her as well.

  Yuuki felt a chill go down her spine.

  Why was Ruby so calm?

  What was her plan now?

  “You all have made your decision.” Ruby spoke loudly, addressing everyone else in the room. “So know this: The death and destruction to come is on your hands.”

  Ruby raised her hand.

  A single snap.

  It happened at the same time as the roof above crashing in. Yuuki’s eyes were drawn up to the destruction. There was a man in the middle. The shadow of a man.

  He was coming down too fast.

  He was going to land on top of her.

  Was she his target?

  Yuuki didn’t have enough time to finish forming the icy sword growing in her hands.

  CLANG!

  The falling man had been dragging a rather large sword behind him in the air. With a great force, he had brought it down in front of him, only to be met by two blades in an x shape.

  Yuuki recognized the hands holding the hilts.

  She could feel some tears forming.

  “Tou…” Yuuki whispered the nickname for her father she had used in private since she was a baby.

  Nobu, her father, used his strength to fling the man to the side.

  “Tsk. So this is where you fled to, Alec.”

  “I was ‘fraid that I would never get to get revenge for that match we had. I’m glad I get to. And I get to kill him today as well.” The man called Alec pointed his sword at the Shogun.

  The three had an obvious history. One that Yuuki had never heard about before. She had never heard her father talk of an ‘Alec’ before.

  “To- Father, do you know that man?”

  Her father’s muscles tensed when he heard the question. “I do. Alec, the One-Armed Tyrant. One of the strongest fighters on this entire planet. Leave him to your Uncle and I. Knock some sense into your mother for me.” Nobu gave his daughter a knowing wink before swinging at the man named Alec again. “Asumasa! This looks like our opponent, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Certainly, Nobu! Sterling!”

  Yuuki watched her father and Uncle begin to fight. Swords clashed against sword. There was nothing that she could do from here.

  “Hey! Where do you think you’re going!?” Nic shouting out from her other side forced Yuuki to pay attention to the other combatants in the room.

  Ruby was leaving.

  “Yuuki, cover us!” Nic shouted at Yuuki as he ran forward.

  It was clear what he wanted her to do.

  Yuuki had to distract her mother, letting Nic and Aria run past to run after Ruby.

  She had to do it.

  The blade in her hand formed.

  It wasn’t truly a blade yet. Jagged ice crystals covered the entire length of the “blade” and Yuuki was sure that it would only last a hit or two before breaking and needing to be reformed.

  Even so, Yuuki had to try.

  And so she kicked off the ground with her foot. She lept over the table in front of her as her mother got ready to stab the katana that Yuuki had used for a decade into the ground again. She was going to create more tentacles.

  Yuuki barely had any more ice that she could use.

  But it wasn’t zero.

  With the tiny bit of power she could control, Yuuki froze the spot directly below the katana, blocking it from penetrating the floor.

  As long as she could keep it in the air, Yuuki could stop her mother.

  “Yuuukiiiii!” Her mother screamed her name in anger.

  Why was she siding with Ruby? Why was she standing against her? Was Yuuki some horrible daughter? Was there no love left within her mother for her?

  Yuuki’s mind raced with questions as she brought her sword down on her mother. Predictably, the blade shattered to pieces as soon as it came into contact with the katana brought up to deflect it.

  Yuuki couldn’t afford to waste time.

  She thought of the image of a sword again in her head.

  The katana that had been her partner for so long.

  Yuuki thought of the hilt, wrapped in cotton and adorned with gold in its kashira and habaki. In her mind, she thought of the curved blade.

  As she took a step back anticipating an attack from her mother, Yuuki was already holding a new, fully formed, blade of ice. There were less jagged edges and problems with the blade as a whole.

  Every attack, whether Yuuki defended or attacked, caused the blade to be destroyed.

  And every time, Yuuki created a better replica of ice.

  Until finally, when Yuuki’s icy blade was the spitting image of the sword in her mother’s hand, Yuuki found her blade locked against her mother’s without it snapping into a million pieces.

  “You are a disgrace to me.” Yuuki’s mother spat words in her face as they both pushed against the other’s blade with all of their might.

  “You’re the disgrace. Why would you align with her anyway?” Yuuki tried to fish for info, but was instead answered by a surge of strength from her mother, forcing her to disengage and jump back.

  Luna thrust the Katana out, a move that Yuuki would never expect. Luna knew this.

  Two vines whipped out from the hilt of the blade, shocking Yuuki.

  Was this her mother’s feedback loop with the sword?

  Yuuki had learned a long time past that when a magic weapon is used by someone with a matching magic to the weapon, they would create a feedback loop that would increase both’s magic by an unknowable amount.

  When she had used the blade, Yuuki always had to stab it into the ground to create vines. But it seemed her mother was different.

  Thanks to the feedback, her mother could create tentacles at any time.

  How was Yuuki going to deflect these?

  She could easily deflect one with her icy katana, but not both, And the rest of her power was used up containing Sarman.

  There was nothing she could do.

  Yuuki watched as the vines came closer.

  Time seemed to drag out to a crawl.

  “YUUKI, USE IT! I’M DONE!” Salamander’s voice cut through everything.

  He was done?

  Was it true?

  If she took the ice away now, she could save herself, but what if that meant that Sarman was going to die?

  She couldn’t take that risk.

  She had to find another way to survive.

  “Yuuki, I swear to my father right now, but I am done. It’s been over five minutes.”

  She hadn’t even realized that it had been over five minutes. She had lost track of time, fighting her mother.

  Yuuki swallowed her breath.

  She was going to trust the spirit.

  If Salamander was lying, she was going to destroy the entire world.

  Yuuki grabbed the mass of Ice she felt behind her and quickly split it into two slabs before throwing themselves in front of her. The vines hit the slabs with a loud thunk.

  “I swear, if you are lying Salamander-” Yuuki was caught off guard as the two vines slammed into the slab again, this time hard enough to shatter the slabs.

  Flames shot up in front of Yuuki. A tornado of fire that burned the vines to a crisp. A hand grabbed Yuuki’s shoulder as he spoke.

  “Salamander wasn’t lying.”

  Sarman stood in between Yuuki and her mother. There was a giant hole in his shirt that Yuuki could see the raw skin beneath. He was barely put back together. But barely was good enough for now. At least for Yuuki it was.

  “Sarman!” Her voice cracked as she said his name.

  “HOW?!” Luna yelled at him. “I poisoned you with an incurable poison! How are you standing there?”

  To her, the poison used was incurable. And certainly, before that moment, it had been. Yuuki would later learn that, to an extent, it still was. The only reason that Sarman was standing there was because Salamander had given up on analyzing the poison and had instead used the slowness of the blood’s movement to burn the poison straight out of the Demi-Human’s blood stream.

  Sarman living had clearly messed with Luna, as she was shakily backing up. “Solus!”

  Before anyone could react to her shout, a blinding light stopped them all.

  When Yuuki could see again, her mother, as well as the man named ‘Alec’, had disappeared.

  “Did she just yell Solus?” Yuuki’s uncle was the one who asked the question.

  “I believe she did. Nic said that he ran into them in Crystallia, so it makes sense that Solus is working with Ruby.” Sarman sighed as he explained what he had heard from their friend.

  Yuuki didn’t care about any of that and quickly hugged Sarman. She laid her head against his chest.

  Thump. Thump.

  She could hear his heartbeat. It made her smile. But it didn’t douse her fury at all.

  Once she had confirmed that he was alive and well, Yuuki slammed her fist on her chest.

  “How dare you try to die like that! You aren’t allowed to leave after telling me that you love me! It isn’t fair!” Yuuki yelled at Sarman, who awkwardly looked between her and her father, the latter of which was glaring at him.

  “Yuuki, can we discuss this later? I don’t see Nic or Aria around.”

  Yuuki’s eyes widened. She had almost forgotten that they had run after Ruby.

  “They went after Ruby.”

  “By themselves? We need to go after them!” Sarman grabbed her hand and rushed towards the door that Ruby had left through, with Nic and Aria following her. Yuuki wasn’t going to let go of the discussion, but she knew she had to hold it till they had gotten through everything.

  Squeezing Sarman’s hand, Yuuki picked up her pace until she was running alongside him.