Eternal Winter

Andreas stands at the top of the stairs four of his goons and a hooded figure behind him. I don't need to lift the hood to know who it is. Heavy chains bine Fie's wrist and feet.

"You idiot," I send him, "he knows who you are."

"Correction he knows what I am," Fie sends the chains snapping as Andreas takes the first step down.

Andreas looks torn between capturing me and stopping Fie from killing his men.

"Just who are you?" Andreas moves towards me a blur of a man.

I move just out of his reach, "I have the Prince," I send Hummingbird.

"Good," she sends, "get him out in one piece we'll deal with the household."

"No need," I send before putting my shields back up, "do you know what your first mistake was?" I ask Ambrose. Fie tosses the crumbled chains at Andreas's feet.

"I can answer that," Fie says tearing the hood off. Sweet Underworld, he looks like crap, "you killed her sister."

"I've killed many," Andreas says with an arrogance that makes me want to skin him alive, "what measly person…

My movements as swift as a cobra my claws dig into Andreas's throat, "your second mistake was insisting on hunting her down, and your third was capturing him." I snap Andreas's neck the action won't kill him permanently but it'll keep him down for a while.

"I know what you're thinking," Fie says as I drag an unconscious Andreas through the floor like a raggedy mop.

I toss Andreas onto the massive dining table and drive a blade through either side of his scapula's.

"Tell me, sweet Prince, what am I thinking?" I take another dagger and pierce it through Andreas's thigh.

"You're going to ask the Underworld for a trade," Fie says just as the Five Winds fly in Sparrow coming in moments later blood coats his armor.

"Question is what will I ask for?" I summon the rose Amaranth gave me in the Underworld.

"You can't," Fie says.

I pull my glove off and prick the exposed flesh, "take this as my offering," the heavens roar, and the earth shakes as the Deity of the Underworld appears. For once not in his Crow form.

"What is it that you ask for?" His voice is like a dark melody.

"A way to end Elena," I say, walking over to Andreas and driving the rose from the Underworld through his heart.

"And so, it shall be," a bell, chimes three times, then the Bone Collector's there, dragging Andreas's corps to whatever domain she inhabits.

The Deity of the Underworld places a hand over my crown sending a pulse of energy that makes my bones feel cold.

I can see Fie move towards me, through my peripheral vision, "You can't, you'll kill her," is the last thing I hear as I'm pulled into the Underworld.

###

"I'm quite certain I told the child to keep her from making offerings," a female voice like a sweet lullaby says.

"She has free will," that dark melody says."

"Excuses," a cool hand taps my forehead snapping me out of my trans.

"Empress," I try to move but find I'm frozen in place.

"If you can climb through all eight levels, you may return to the world of the living," the Empress's voice is void of all emotion unlike the voice I heard while in the trans.

"If you manage to return, you will be reborn," the Deity of the Underworld says, "the longer you remain here the less you'll remember. Should you fail you will be trapped until your next reincarnation."

"Of course, that's not for another four decades," the Empress says, "keep in mind, even if you make it to the eighth level, so long as you deny yourself, you will not win."

"Deny, myself?" I ask once I'm certain their done speaking.

The Deity gives me a sad smile, "you have to figure out what that means."

"But this could take me all eternity."

"Then you've already failed," the Empress says as feeling returns to my muscles I begin to fall.

I feel like the air's being pulled out of me at one point I even feel hollow. I keep falling until I come face first with a snowy back. Blue Orbs float all around me. Icy wind cuts at my skin my armors gone all I'm wearing is a sleeveless long white dress even my feet are bare.

The wind howls sending me tumbling the moment I'm blasted with an icy wave. The cold seeps into my bones pulling me into a deep slumber. When I wake the tips of my fingers are red and blue.

I try to crawl but my bones feel like lead. It takes me several tries before I can stand. Where do I go? Everything is covered in snow.

There's a screeching sound then smoothing slime's wrapping around my ankle. I pull the hem up but there's nothing there. If I could make a burrow, to keep myself safe from the wind that cuts like a thousand daggers. Perhaps I could think of a way out.

I start walking aimlessly perhaps I'll find something or someone that can help. The blue orbs continue to float all around me, unbothered by the wind. When I tap one a pulse of energy pushes me back.

"Who are you?" a voice as cold as winter asks.

"I'm… I'm," Who am I? "I don't know."

"You don't belong here," the voice says, suddenly the orbs are being lifted higher as if to keep them out of my reach, "go back."

"How?" I look around but all I see are the orbs and then there's a rustling of wings.

Then a pair of yellow eyes are looking at me, "you're not dead."

"I'm not?" I ask the snowy figure, "where am I?"

"This is the First Level of the Underworld," yellow eyes says, "the Eternal Winter."

"How do I get out?"

"How did you get here?"

"I… I… I fell," I say, remembering my collision with the snowbank. Why can't remember anything else?

"So that was you," yellow eyes says, "why did you sleep for so long?"

"Sleep."

"Yes, sleep," he sounds slightly irritated, "you slept for four days. Which level did you manage to escape from?"

"You said I'm not dead," how could I sleep for four days, when it's so cold.

"I could be wrong," he says, "since you said you fell, you clearly came from one of the levels above."

"But this is the first level," I try to keep my eyes open but sleep keeps calling to me.

"Yes," he says before turning into an owl and flying off, "follow the path, I don't want you in my level. The last thing I need is one of those brutes coming down here," he's voice echoes all around me.

The orbs start to move, creating a shimmering path to my left. So shiny.