Cold

Rethys stared out a distant window of the tavern, seeing the soft and subdued visage of the town outside, brightly lit yet also dim with the cloudy winter weather.

"So, what now?" He voiced.

"I said that I will consider it." Sevi repeated. "Idle the day away as you wish in the meantime, just stay out of trouble, and away from people. We will speak of this again after nightfall."

"Alright." He answered.

He rose from his table and headed outside. He looked out, seeing the market ahead, with tall buildings surrounding the city square from every side.

'What to do...'

He pondered for a while before settling on perusing whatever wares the market peddlers had and busying himself with that.

He waded slowly through crowds of people, snatching fruit from stands and stalls and snacking on them in between visits to magic vendors. In the end, he visited each and every one of the magic item sellers the market had, using his senses to study the items they had on sale from simple enchanted home appliances to trinkets with minor effects.

After a few hours of that, he retreated to a random bench in the square, bored out of his mind once he had finished combing through every interesting item in reach. He had thoughts of going back to the mages' medial district or even venturing into the nobles' inner district in search of more, yet figured that bothering Sevi now was not the brightest idea.

He lingered there on the stone bench, watching faces move from one place to the other all around him, shifting and shuffling as they went about their normal lives. He tried to relax a little, yet he couldn't; it was too open in the city square, too exposed, and far, far too crowded. Yet relaxed or not, time did not care, and continued to pass by as he idled on the roadside.

People and carriages passed by Rethys as he lay down on the carved stone bench, not thinking of anything in particular and wishing only for the hours to be on their way as he awaited Sevi's judgement.

Staying idle for as long as he did, he felt a sensation take hold of him, an incessant itch to reactivate his senses and return to the ether's embrace. He found this intensifying inclination foreboding, and more than a little annoying. It seemed that deep down, he thought nothing bad of his senses and the repercussions of their use. His gut feeling towards them was too favorable.

Sevi had reassured him before, saying that it was a natural consequence of his affinity for the element, but it still distressed him greatly how more and more of his life was out of his control. He hoped that attaining magical power and knowledge would help solve these issues, and he hoped even more that it didn't involve gods-damned research.

Eventually noon gave way to an increasingly darkening afternoon as the streets emptied and the wind gained newfound power. A storm was on the horizon, and the city was preparing to enter slumber.

He observed the faces of passersby, rushing to finish their business before the city was beset by the wind and cold and then buried underneath it. The weekly market merchants were also hurrying to pack their things in anticipation of what was coming, gathering their trappings and strapping them on carts and carriages. They'd still travel to the next town even during a blizzard, though Rethys knew little of how they did it.

'Something to do with wards...' He thought, recalling hearing some such at some point in a distant past.

As the streets further darkened and the tall shadows of the buildings fully covered the city square, a familiar voice resounded, breaking him out of his ponderings.

"Are you certain about this?" Sevi asked. "Doing as you say would indeed benefit us immensely, yet it may cost you dearly in return."

"You're being vague about this on purpose aren't you..." He returned.

"No... well..." She sighed. "What I mean is that your humanity even now remains a badge of belonging and protection, abandoning it in favor of immediate gain is unwise."

"Belonging and protection..." Rethys spat bitterly. "Spare me..."

He looked around, spotting more sights of the poor and hungry, abandoned by all. Even having been in this city for a single day, he could instinctively tell where its slums lay, based only upon the occasional glimpses he caught of the movements of its youngest inhabitants.

It made no sense. Before, he had been ignorant, but now he knew the awesome and dreadful powers of magic. How could this be allowed to exist in the same realm? He simply couldn't understand or stomach it.

They had to survive all the way to being fifteen years old, their coming of age, to get any sort of attention from the Kingdom, and even they'd just be given lowly apprenticeships in smaller cities or get sent to frontier villages altogether. The damned bluebloods only cared about what they could get out of them, leaving them to rot on their own until they were usable enough.

Sevi seemingly caught on to what troubled him.

"I could offer you several explanations as to why those unfortunate ones remain neglected, but I can see you are in no mood to hear them. Know only that it is not malice that afflicts them and had once afflicted... you."

"Doesn't make it easier for them... I've seen what a few of the 'gifted' ones did once their magic bloomed; it wasn't pretty."

"I apologize for what you must have suffered, but we truly have bigger things to worry about for now."

"Yeah... So, what did you decide?" He asked.

"We will go through with it." Sevi declared. "I cannot deny the advantages of forsaking caution in favor of more immediate means of achieving safety, precarious as it may be. So, how do these Order recruitments work?"

"I don't know..." Rethys thought for a moment. "But it shouldn't matter. If I just make a big enough mess the guards will detain me, and the Order will show up shortly after."

"Then if we are to have you pose a street urchin, we need to get rid of all your current belongings and have you look the part. We can leave no loose end." She explained.

"I'll get to it then."

He stood, setting his sights on a distant bakery. He approached it, swung the door open and hurried inside. The store was empty except for its storekeeper, who noted Rethys' bizarre appearance instantly.

'What are we doing in a bakery.' Sevi's voice echoed in his mind as a Mind spell coalesced around the baker's head.

"You'll see." He voiced as he approached the counter and set a gold coin on it. "I want all the bread you have."

The middle-aged woman was startled for a second before voicing a meek "Right away sir" and scurrying off into the back. When she returned, she was carrying a huge sack on his back.

'Rethys what do you need all that bread for?'

"Bait." He whispered back.

He grabbed the large sack and headed for the exit, ignoring the baker calling to hand him his change. He then instantly made for the nearby back alleys, and once he was sufficiently deep into them, he set the sack of bread down to the ground and whistled, loudly.

Too loudly in fact, his strength reflecting even in such small actions. He awkwardly looked around; certain the entire district had heard that. He looked around, alarmed.

'Calm yourself, my spells still apply.' Sevi calmed him.

Eventually, those he had called for arrived. Street urchins, the small, pitiful, and wretched, all timidly approached him, confusing his call for that of the baker handing out the day's leftovers. They were too small, too weak, and too badly dressed to survive the winter cold.

He crouched near the sack of bread and pulled out a decently fresh loaf and offered it to the small crowd that gathered around him.

They all regarded him with worry and apprehension, recognizing some alarming signs they had grown accustomed to fearing. Yet the siren call of hunger could not be ignored, and eventually, one by one they approached and each hesitantly took a loaf from his hands.

He then rose, regarded the oldest one of them with a stern look, and handed him the rest of the sack, as well as the coin pouch in its entirety. He had kept the few gold coins, however, recognizing that they would do more harm than good to the urchins. Still, he had handed him upwards of fifteen gold coins in silvers and coppers, an unthinkable sum. It was his duty to deal with it discreetly now.

"Share." He ordered. "And never speak of this to a single soul."

The young boy nodded eagerly before grabbing the sack and pouch and calling for the rest of his friends.

He then took off his coat and cloak, remaining in lighter clothes, and handed them to the oldest boy.

"Let's trade." He said, and in return for his thick, cold-resistant furs, he received a torn cloth tunic and a bunch of rags that could serve as pants for those determined enough. A convincing disguise.

"Now get out of here!" He ordered, and the large crowd that had accumulated by now all scurried off in a hurry, leaving nothing behind.

He was certain that that was enough, yet Sevi took the liberty of casting many Mind spells on all the urchins to make sure they forgot today's peculiar event.

"That will do." She remarked. "Now head back to the inn."

He nodded and headed back to the Bearded birch, and, as per Sevi's request, paid the innkeeper a gold coin to keep the room he had rented for an indefinite period of time.

He then made for the room upstairs, which was a small, simple chamber sporting the basic amenities and those alone. His opinion of this inn shifted negatively.

"Alright, what to do?" He asked, sitting on the bed.

"Take off your clothes." Sevi announced, not bothering to whisper now. "And stand in the middle of the room."

"...Alright..." He voiced as he undressed.

He then stood on the wooden floorboards in the middle of the room, shuffling uncomfortably as he struggled to find some balance.

He gazed at his body, tight muscles rippling along veins of red magic and flesh of dark daemonic strength. He tapped the corrupted areas of his chest, hearing a sound akin to that heard from tapping stone.

He glanced at his left arm, still a stump ending shortly after the shoulder. He still couldn't entirely process that he had been one armed for so long, as sometimes he felt that nothing was amiss. Still, he looked forward to having it back.

"Sevi shouldn't w- Whoa!" His words trailed away as the floor beneath his feet disappeared and he sunk into a pool of blood.

*****

When Rethys next opened his eyes, he found himself sprawled on the floor, his body limp and aching all over and his stomach roaring with hunger.

He first went through the usual ordeal of snapping to attention in preparation for any fights, panicking as he realized his senses were inactive, before eventually realizing he was no longer in Yvtar, a wave of indescribable relief washing over him as he remembered where he was and what he had been doing.

He first took note of his state, he was feeling sore all throughout his body, which meant that Sevi's magic had worked that far at least.

He coursed his senses through his body, which helped him regain control over his limbs and muscles. He took note of his left arm, it was back, though it was also completely limp and immovable.

He tried getting up, only barely succeeding as his muscles screamed in protest. But that did little to deter him, as even with his bodily sensations restored, he had seemingly retained his incredible tolerance for pain.

He stood upright, his body swaying like a pendulum, and then realized that he was now much shorter than he had been. His limbs were shorter and his whole body thinner. Sevi had seemingly completely succeeded in reversing the grasp of time itself on him.

"Sevi?" He asked, startled at how his own voice sounded.

For a moment, he was impressed, exhilarated even, and then a moment later he was terrified of what this implied. For in that moment, he realized that Sevi did not just change his appearance to create a believable façade but had literally restored his youth and made him age backwards entirely, with all that entailed. And if he and Sevi could do it, what was stopping others from doing the same?

"You have awoken." Sevi's voice resounded, tinged with concern. "I was beginning to worry..."

"Wait, how long has it been?" He asked as he shambled to the bed and collapsed on it.

"It has been four days now." She revealed. "I had expected you to be greatly weakened after the fact, but sleeping for four whole days is strange. Regardless, we could simply chalk it up to your strangeness, and it would still not detract from the operation being a resounding success. It is actually quite surprising, just how adaptable your constitution is to ether, and how uniquely you respond to magic. This requires much..."

"Reeeseaaaarch..." He sighed absentmindedly. "Hah... you mages simply love your research. Every single one, even an ancient mage like you. I mean-"

"I... I AM NOT ancient!" She sharply retorted.

"Alright... I'm sorry." He responded, confused as to why she took offense to that in particular.

With great effort, he brought his face up and looked at the rest of his body. The veins of Blood magic were all completely gone, or rather hidden, as Rethys could still feel them underneath his skin. The dark spread of the corruption, meanwhile, was completely gone, along with his own bodily might cultivated through months of rigorous battle and merciless toil. He was extremely gaunt now, and would not look out of place among the other orphans of the city.

Yet despite losing his strength, size and height, his body felt much, much more durable than ever before. He felt himself all throughout, and felt that he could really take a punch now, or a hammer, or an explosion to the face, and still walk through unscathed.

He also wondered about his appearance now, as Sevi said she'd change things to make him fit better. He didn't know how to feel about it, but it sounded reasonable enough.

'It can wait...' He thought.

"So, what now?" He voiced as he turned to his left arm and tried moving it.

"The process must have taken quite a toll on you; you must be starving now. There is food on the table, help yourself and then rest aplenty, you will need it once we attune you to the element of Water."

Rethys shuffled off the bed and took slow, extremely uneven steps towards the table, plopping down on the chair before it with force. Thankfully it held.

He looked at the food on the table. There were all sorts of things, from soups to broths and from meat to cheeses and breads, and he felt only too famished.

"You ordered food by yourself?"

"I have my methods." She coolly replied.

As he gorged himself on the food before him, at first quickly and then slowly once he realized how unwieldy his body is, he remembered a crucial detail about this whole thing.

"So... how did I change? Or transform or whatnot. You know, losing my humanity."

As far as he knew, his appearance had only changed for the better, and aside from the more obvious and intended changes, nothing felt amiss. If anything, it seemed his corruption had been removed. The only thing he noticed was that it was hard to tell his two hearts apart now, which was ominous indeed, but not much to gawk at.

"Oh, that went well as well, thanks to your poor affinity with the Blood element. That factor helped limit the mutations that occurred to your body, and those that slipped through I made sure to be internal. All this makes you seem more human on the outside but less so on the inside, and you must have felt the difference already.

On the other hand, this makes you even more dependent on my presence, and makes me more dependent on yours, for some reason. In short, this makes us even more bound to one another."

"Huh..." He sighed. "So it's like we're married."

His offhand comment reverberated into the empty room, the very sounds taking their sweet time and echoing around as many times as possible as he slowly realized what he had just blurted out. The silence that followed was deafening, and the awkwardness... unbearable.

He had never truly thought of it, but now it hit him that he had a member of the opposite sex present with him in his every little action, a permanent companion. Sure, she was basically a magical parasite trapped in a magical gem and that had strange, terrible magical powers that called to question her very nature and his sanity for dealing with her, but it was nonetheless true. After all, she had perfectly human emotions and reactions, and he would know.

Yet what he didn't know was how to react to all of this. Rethys was many things, but social was not one of them, the poor lad never had a proper childhood and that went doubly so for his puberty. He knew how to survive in the cold, how to do basic magic laboratory assistant work, and how to carry himself around nobles and those of higher stations, yet he quite simply wasn't built for honest interaction.

Eventually, having gathered his bearings and the entirety of his social acumen, Rethys coughed twice in an effort to disperse the unease hanging in the air.

"Alright I... think I've had enough food. What's our next step."

And by unspoken agreement, Sevi answered almost immediately.

"We... we need to attune you to the Water element. I have already obtained a suitable reagent." She answered as a blue etherstone thudded on the table. "Though be certain first that your body is in good enough shape."

Rethys grabbed the etherstone and stood, tensing his muscles and testing his motions. Everything seemed perfectly fine now, aside from his left arm which was still terribly heavy. He could move around just fine, even though the sores never left and he still had slight trouble keeping his balance.

He ran his hands, or rather hand since his left was still limp, through his body, making sure that every inch of it was right again. He was pleased with the result.

"I'm ready." He declared as he put on the rags he had gotten four days ago.

"Very well then." She began. "Peer into the stone with your senses, and grab hold of the ether within. You should be able to do it now. Do not use your own ether on it, rather try to assume control of the foreign Water ether within it."

He did as she asked, and to his surprise, it worked. Ether that was not at all his listened to his commands, same as it would have for any other mage. He saw some of it leave the stone as he subtly manipulated it.

"I can use them now..." He muttered.

"First try..." Sevi sighed. "It matters not! Now command that very ether to enter your soul and go along with the flow, try your best not to resist."

He pressed the etherstone to his chest, bringing it closer to his two hearts, and moved its ether of Water into his soul.

At first, he expected the process to be insignificant, after all, he was already attuned to Blood and that never felt like anything special, or even anything at all. Yet as the process was finished, Rethys' mind exploded with information and untold power.

All at once, he was aware of every body of water that lied on Tevohs, his consciousness suddenly connected to each and every one of them all at once, becoming aware of their existence, REALLY becoming aware of them, and of what they truly meant.

He felt every stagnant swamp, every smallest muddy puddle and pool, every most insignificant stream and every roaring, life-bringing river and creek, and every expansive lake, each a small world in and of itself. Water was life.

He felt the seas and oceans, from their brightest wave to their darkest, coldest depth. The weight of whole worlds of naught but water cresting along the whims of a distant force. Water was motion.

He then finally felt that which sleeps far, far away, at the ends of the world. Mountains upon mountains of solid, jagged ice, monstrous in their might, merciful in their slumber. Water was power.

His mind lingered upon the sights of those massive hulks of frigid cruelty, their never-ending plains awash in white light, their lifeless depths steeped in dark, and all the familiar cold that he had felt his whole existence paled in comparison to this primordial force of immutable winter and true cold.

The spires of terrible, immortal ice called to him. They knew what he wanted, what he had come to them for. They offered it, and in return, demanded their dues. He gladly answered.

When Rethys next opened his eyes, he found himself in a massive carriage, his body strapped down in absurd amounts of veternium shackles covering him from head to toe.