The giant beneath the mountain has awakened after three centuries' slumber and devours some of my fathers' best men every morning. He will continue taking lives, one for every giant our ancient ruler killed to steal his land. But I know this ice gia...
From the darkness, shapes emerge. Glowing in the silhouette of the greenish reykr, glowing from the eerie glow of Julius's cursed heart.
"Cassia..?" A hand reaches out towards mine. Frightened eyes dart to my face, searching. Leif reaches closer, crawling on his belly over the debris. "Cassia?"
"I'm fine." I take in a deep breath, realizing that my throat feels dangerously tight. My breathing hurting from all the shock, from the sudden onslaught of tiny particles in the enclosed air. "Where... where is...?"
"Son of Hel!" It's Quinn cursing this time. The legionnaire's eyes glow from between gaps in a slab of rock. Her body is shadowed against the daylight, her body on the outside of the cave whereas we're still trapped. I scrabble my fingers through the gaps, the tight compact earth blocking us from joining her so soon. Our fingers touch, interlacing as Quinn curses beneath her breath. "Damn kamphundr cave-in came out of nowhere."
No, not nowhere.
I close my eyes, loosening my hand from Quinn's grip just long enough to hold onto Julius's heart, feel the pulsing of Fell's magic.
By the light of Fólkvangr, FellHallvarðr, I beg you.
Hear me.
For aching moments, there's nothing but silence. The labored breathing of Bran outside. Leif grasping in the dark, his cloak placed over a trembling, shallow-breathing Gertrud.
And then, a glimmer in my head.
The faintest whisper of the son of Aevi.
Regina... Cassia...
I'm... I'm sorry. I failed you.
"I was weak."
No, those last words aren't in my head.
Fell's in here. Somewhere...
And then, the forbidden thought.
He's dying...
"Fell?"
Leif grasps onto my arm, guiding me towards Gertrud. "Please, Cassia, we need to get out of here. We can't look for the jötunn."
I try and pull away, searching wildly in the dark. "Fell!"
The walls tremble as though living, as though angry.
"Bran?" This time, the gasping plea comes from Gertrud. Her cracked mask glows faintly now. And Leif, pleading, watching over her in the shadows.
Lord Leif Kazmer, the roguish playboy with the platinum hair, the Rahasian scholar with a legion of pretense and airs. He's just tired now. Scared.
Terrified because he gave it all up for you, for you and your head for adventure.
I kneel down, and without second thought, I rip my own mask off and place it over Gertrud's face. I point towards the cracks near Quinn, where a glimmer of light, big enough to crawl under, where it all peeks through.
"Get out." I tell him, watching as Gertrud's breathing stabilizes even as the reykr assaults my eyes, my nose, my senses.
"Cassia!" Leif shouts, the terror clear in the crack of his voice. But I've already gone further into the cave. My friends shouting after me.
The walls tremble, shaking, scared as I am.
The reykr burns at my lungs, clawing at my throat. I double over, coughing up mucus. I spit it up, see specks of red. Blood. It feels like shards of glass, to breathe this poisoned miners' air.
"Fell...?"
I grasp my way further into the emerald-lit cave. Then, I see it. The collapsed beams at the entrance, a bent-over young man, just barely missed the debris. He wears clothing sewn of thin sheets of unmelting ice. The seiðr flows weakly in his veins. He looks carved of the lands of Idriola itself, the unforgiving snow. And his eyes, they gleam rose-quartz.
They gleam weaker now, candles extinguishing in the wind.
"Fell!" I crawl towards him, both of us weak now. Fell's eyes turn to me, widening even as his eyes dim.
"Cassia. Cassia, my time is up. The seiðr, I used it all up to remain in giant form, to help you. Now, Aevi, the land itself is coming back to claim me. To have me join my mother, father, and siblings." He reaches up, curling his fingers in my hair, loose from the struggle. "I feel it, Cassia. The gods' gamble on me, it's just about used up."
His fingernails catch in the tangles of my hair, the knots and gnarls of all the chaos. The strands tug at my scalp, but I could care less. I hold his freezing hand between my palms. I cough into my arm, trying to keep the fit in, but failing.
His eyes go towards my sleeve, seeing the speckles of red.
"Your lungs... where... where is...?"
"I gave it to the young girl, to Gertrud." I pull his arm around me, holding tight. He cries out in pain. "Gods above, I'm sorry, Fell. This is all because of me."
"No, please, I chose this." I stagger against a wall, coughing again, feeling wet on my lips. His weight is heavy against me, my legs shaking to drag both of us to find a gap in the debris. "Please, Cassia, leave me behind."
"No..." I keep walking, step by step. He tries his best to help, but it's like the magic leaving his body, like it took all that's left. He's a hollow man with nothing inside him, but still, he gives even that. He gives the absence until there's nothing more than memory. "No, Fell. We're in this together. To the last."
He nods, his eyes rolling back in his head, and then snapping open. Barely focused. "To the last then, Queen Cassia. To the last."
Together, we stagger towards the light. Every so often, I pause to lean against a wall, to cough up more poison in my lungs, more blood. Every so often, the strain becomes too much and Fell stops, gasping for the magic to heal him, the magic that's all used up.
And finally, the light gets too much. It overwhelms me. My vision.
I can't see much else, or remember much.
The world just...
Fades.
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