Dream of a Vast Blue Cavern

Chapter 18: A Vast Blue Cavern: Stasia & Dynat

 The Fire Spirit exploded through his head as Stasia entered, flaming face burning relentlessly, dragging Dynat's mind into hers, joining them as one. In an instant, Dynat knew Stasia, and she knew him. Information poured forth, filling them so they thought they would burst.

 The Fire Spirit heated him, bringing fire and light into the ice cave. Dynat held Stasia's forehead in his hands, trying to incinerate her brain, but the Fire Spirit stopped him. Don't kill, it said. Find her Dreams.

 It forced him to look within her mind. He saw the charred heads of her sisters floating before his eyes, felt anguish at their deaths. Krevas buried under rubble, burned away to ashes, never to rest with the Ancestors in burial ice. Iskalon in ruins, destroyed by his insanity.

 Stasia screamed as the Fire Spirit burned through her mind, a high-pitched wail that echoed off the ice and penetrated the howl of the giant breath battering her shelter. She tried to pull away from the burning deity, but its power held her fast. Unwillingly, she knew Dynat, knew intimately the adrenaline of the slink hunt, the pleasure of fighting and killing her sisters, the boiling hiss of the Fire Spirit's endless whispers.

  Dynat tried to retreat. He did not want to know the Ice Queen any more than he wanted her to find his secrets. The Fire Spirit was too powerful. It pulled him further in, plundering her memories. He saw a large Semija male holding her hand, making her feel safe. He felt the loss of her family and too many friends to count. Underneath her cool exterior was a dervish of grief, anxiety, and anguish, explosive as Fireblood. In the depths of the Icer's mind, through the growing fury of the Fire Spirit's flames, Dynat saw a woman's face peering out from a heavy veil of fish scales. She had a pretty smile, scarred skin and golden eyes. His eyes. Why did she have his eyes?

 Stasia struggled out of the blankets and crawled away from Dynat, huddling on the far side of the cave against bare ice. Dynat let her go, his limbs limp with shock. Her body convulsed with nausea and pain. She lit an icelight so she could see if he came after her. She tried to disengage, but the Fire Spirit held her mind in his teeth and would not let go. Helpless, Stasia dove back into Dynat's memories.

 She saw Lianda's face as it looked in Casser's mind, but crisscrossed with glowing lava. Dark, dimpled cheeks loomed close, and lips brushed her forehead. "I'm so sorry, Son. I have to leave you, for a time. Be a good boy while I'm gone."

 Then she was sitting on her mother's lap, looking into loving golden eyes. How can that be? I was a babe when she left.

 "Mother?" Dynat whispered into the cave. The word echoed off ice and was lost in the howling fury. Together, deep in Dynat's memories, they saw Lianda's face in agony, flames wreathing her golden eyes, ashes drifting upward. Ashes strewn over Dynat's home. More and worse memories dislodged from the depths of his consciousness and drifted to the surface. Walking through Market, holding his father's hand; his father's head staring at him under the axe, eyes blank and empty.

 Her mind full of fire and traumatic memories, Stasia struggled know the present. Dynat was weak, distracted; if she could gather enough T'Jas she could—what? Kill him?

 Mother! He was screaming in his mind, lost in memory. Don't leave me, Mother! Father! Where are you?

 Stasia tried to exorcise compassion. Another memory burst up, of the Fire Spirit: Put aside the pain and live, Dynat. Take what you need, and forget the rest. Flames exploding in his head when he tried to delay or disobey orders. Years of never being alone in his own mind. Darker and darker commands, until he was told to take the princesses and destroy Iskalon.

 To take Stasia, the Dreamer. To destroy her home. Pity warred with hate. All the deaths of her family, brought about because a neglected, orphaned boy went mad from pain and loneliness and created a deity to keep himself safe. Or had he created it? Burning through her memories, the Fire Spirit seemed real as T'Jas.