Song of Ice and Fire

Lyzbeth Heredis

As I open my eyes, all I can see is darkness.

The walls are as bleak as a field in drought. The concretes eroded over the years of neglect. Ruins and debris of the past are everywhere. 'Tis all but a cemetery for the ones that died years ago. This, however, may not be a cemetery for the dead. This is a cemetery for lost memories. It might have been a home or a place of work for people. Wherever this place is, sadness seems to already get to me.

As I walk around this depressing place, I feel that I might have done a wrong incantation. There is nothing here except debris and rocks. As I was about to go, I hear a strange muffled voice from a far off distance. It seems to be coming from a second floor.

I take the broken staircase and find myself in an open room. There are pillars in each significant middle. As I continue to walk, I can feel myself closer to the origin of the muffled voice. At the end of the room, I see him.

Poor, Romain! He is chained against two pillars of this building with his mouth gagged with a packing tape. I don't know if Romain can pick his way out of this, but I think I can. I take the hair pin from the back of my head and try to pick the lock as hard as I can.

I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm just trying my best to do it. After several tries, nothing seems to work.

"You don't perhaps know how to pick a lock, do you?" I ask Romain

I see him shake his head.

"No? Well, I'll just try my best."

Something's not right though. This pin is made with gold and platinum. If I could not pick the lock, then maybe, the pin would have broken the lock into opening. I look closely into the chains, and somehow, it is glimmering quite oddly. Right, now I know why. This chain is enchanted. Picking it won't do any work.

I put the hair pin back on my head and stepped away from Romain. As I think of an incantation to speak, I could hear small clatters of steps coming towards me. I take a look behind me, and it is the same lady. Now that she is drawing close to me, I can see her likeness. She has piercing black eyes that could almost kill. Her black hair flows through the cold wind that brushes past us. Somehow, I can say that she is beautiful, in a strange way, however.

In all honesty, even though our kinds are rivals, I would have greeted her with joy. She, however, ruined a would-be friendship by kidnapping Romain. Just by seeing her, I feel thrill and nervousness within me. In order to get Romain out of here, I know I would have to fight her. I do not know how capable she is. I don't even consider myself as "proficient" in my Arts.

"Child, please leave," the lady says slyly. "You should not be here. I do not want to harm a mortal."

The only way to face an enemy is to play confidence. I draw a deep breath before I speak. "Set him free."

Mistress Soprano taught me that confidence is the greatest card I have to play if things go awry. I did my best, but still, I can feel my voice quaver.

"I say this once more, child. Do not involve yourself in this. Leave."

My mind says, yes. I should run. However, my heart overrules my mind. It says I should fight. There is a fire that burns within me, and I don't even know why. Slowly, my voice finally manages to be more firm and affirmative, like a Scirese should be. "Set him free! You do not know who I am!"

"It is I that should be saying that. I shall give you a chance. Leave. I won't harm you as a reward."

Her tone is quite mocking indeed. She is wrong to underestimate me! I feel courage flow within me as if a spirit had come upon me. I am already a master enchantress. We have the same odds of winning and losing this match.

"No!" I exclaim, filled with confidence. "Let Romain go!"

In my words, I see the color flush in her face. "Foolish child! Now you shall feel my wrath!"

I hear her speak something in an inaudible language. I know 'tis not Latin for I cannot understand it. I see a glow of light circle around her, and within a flash, she became a beautiful Raven bird bigger than me. For a minute, I almost stumble down my feet, but courage gets the best of me. As she reaches for the sky, I point at her and say my words.

"You are wrong to challenge an enchantress. Light of day, let my true self lead the way!"

It was my incantation. All of a sudden, a white light glowed all over the place. My modest green-checkered dress became a flowing blue gown. There is a petticoat inside the gown as a shield from strong attacks. My white flats became high sapphire stilettos that could stun an enemy through its glimmer. As an enchantress, I have wings similar to a Blue Morpho Butterfly.

I see through her eyes. Though a Raven bird might be fierce, but she is no match for me. Fear is written all over her as if someone took a marker and marked it on her face. I take off from the ground and face the bird. So, this is going to be a fight mid-air. This should be interesting.

"You are full of surprises, miss," the bird says. "I am called Danaca. I truly do not expect you to be a Practitioner. What are you? What Arts do you practice?"

Can't it be more obvious that as an Enchantress, I practice the Radiant Arts? Why, isn't she the arrogant one?

As I ponder that down, I cannot believe that she used my distraction to her advantage. With the flap of her wings, she created a ball of flames hurling towards me. I flew to my side before it burns me to death. As the flames land elsewhere, I look down to see where it went. Fortunately, it landed far away from Romain. I can see that he is a bit stunned to see this. In any case, I can't tell his expressions. His mouth his gagged and his eyes barely say anything significant.

I need to focus. This is nothing like the training I had at Lucerna. We were not trained to face an enemy because they think another war is not in the imminent future. But, lo, here it is. I create a ball of ice and snow from my fingertips and toss it towards the bird. Not long enough, we were just tossing balls of fire and snow all around. 'Tis like a child's play. We're just singing a song of ice and fire.

After hundreds of balls simply being tossed and evaded, we fall equally tired. Still, even though I am losing myself, I still have a little energy burning within me. I see that she can no longer go on, but I can.

"Nature's vines!" I recite immediately.

And, with that, vines suddenly rose up the ground. These vines circled the bird's body and pulled it down to the ground. I see her struggle to be free, but no. I land myself.

"Do you really think these vines will help bring me to my end?" she asks smugly. "Go ahead, kill me now!"

No. Even though she is my enemy, she is not worth killing.

"A hope to guide misguided sons and daughters, to Infelix she goes like the flowing waters," I recite solemnly.

And there she goes to Infelix. As far as I know, it is a prison for rogue practitioners. We had an agreement. Involving the mortals in our rivalry is intolerable. They say it was created after the First Arts War, but I don't really know the story. In any case, she won't be doing any Arts in that place.

I snap my fingers and I am back to normal. Even though I've used my strength unnecessarily for this day, I cannot help but feel joy. This is my first battle, and I won it. I finally defended a mortal's safety against a powerful being. Still, there is that little voice screaming within me that someone might have seen us. What if someone reported this to the authorities? What if the following day, the persecutors burst my door open and take me to be burned.

And,someone did see.