Chapter 5 - Awakening

A few weeks of adjustment passed for Diane, a much-needed reprieve for her to wrap her head around her current situation. The first morning after her arrival to this strange place was easily the heaviest blow. That was when it became clear that she was not going back home. That subject being the first thing that she wanted to find out about, they did not find any answer for her. While they had successfully summoned other-worlders in the past, that was a magic lost to time.

Even then, there was never any mention of the ones who were summoned having returned. The first few days she had spent cooped up in the room that they offered to her. The boredom got to her before any personal revelation, choosing to walk around the maze-like citadel instead of remaining stir-crazy. It was not a slight on the room she was using, as it was actually larger and better furnished than anything that she had afforded back home. The room was pretty comfortable, although she found it hard to admit it.

At first, she only received looks of curiosity, but after a couple days of walking around people started to greet the lost hero, Arte, in hopes of buttering up to him. Countless invites were given for public gatherings of officials, like balls and such. Her view of aristocracy was becoming skewed, since the lot of them that greeted her always seemed to be partying in some way practically every night.

Both of the revived were dealing with adjusting in their own way. Scarlet adjusted perhaps a little too quickly, while Diane was still struggling to accept her new home. Everything was new to them, and the prospect of such a thing had finally begun to bud within Diane - even reacting to the name Arte had become normal at this point, as she did not want to have the conversation that involved her having changed genders, much less having changed bodies.

Alas, there was another that had come to this world as well. News of their arrival had yet to reach anyone – the only rumor referring to them being about how a section of the forest that had mysteriously frozen over. All wildlife and insects that populated the area were found to have been frozen instantaneously, their stilled bodies stuck in the act of eating, drinking, or sleeping. It had turned into an alien environment. Despite the never melting ice that blanketed the entire area, it only felt a few degrees colder. Nothing made a noise inside and all wildlife avoided walking in.

Deep at the heart of the frozen forest laid a white-haired girl, dressed in a sky blue, mid-thigh length, kimono. A cloth was tucked under the obi, coming to wrap back out and around the sash, and was left open in the front – the bottom of it reached halfway down her calves. Hands and feet bare, her skin looked almost as fair as her hair. Slow, gentle, breaths, and still pink lips, were the only thing that marked her as among the living.

Still unconscious, as the transfer took more of a toll on them, recovering would take a bit longer. The body's new soul was slowly adjusting. Nightmare like dreams plagued them, however. Dreams that each felt too real not to be. Wars and individual battles, too numerous to count. Bodies stacked like cordwood around swamps of blood and gore.

They watched, disembodied, unable to close their eyes or look away – like they were a fixed camera, meant to record every second. No matter how much they cried or how loudly they screamed, they would not stop. Piece by piece, horned humanoids would pull her apart, only for her to heal even more quickly. In more ways than should exist, she was tortured every day, for what felt like years.

Unlike the unseen spectator though, she never made a sound. Her tear wet eyes staring holes in the eyes of her captors, with her jaw set. At times she would attempt to lunge at them, and heartily laughed when they retreated, bound with chains as she was.

It came as sudden as they were sent to that hell. feeling their eyes open, for real this time, they Stared up at a clear blue sky. Surrounded by a strangely scenery that seemed to reflect the sky's color, she covered her face with her arms as she rolled over. The girl howled as twin rivers ran down her face. The light fog that had settled just above the ground before, disappeared - the area now too cold for it to stay formed. The radius of the frozen space grew a little more.

Before he came here, he was James Hiroyuki, and as a student in university, he led a fairly normal life. His mother met his father while she was based in Japan, during her work in the NAVY. He stayed in Japan, rather than leave with her, after finding out about her pregnancy. Despite that though, his mother more than made up for it in raising James. He would not admit it, but he was, without a doubt, a momma's-boy.

The last thing that he remembered was walking home after eating at one of the university's lunch rooms, ready to study for a coming exam. However, it would seem that life had a different plan.

Unlike when her body first manifested, there were a few people sent from the city of Victus, to inspect the phenomenon nearby. When she woke up, causing the frozen area to expand, they were still walking up to the icy border, a clear line separating the frozen from the unfrozen. As they neared it though, it had begun to expand.

Having Noticed the sudden change, the solitary mage in the group shouted for all of them to run away as quick as possible. What he had seen looked like all of the natural mana that permeated the area suddenly changed types. As the newer, heavier, mana touched down onto something it was frozen solid. As far as he was concerned, nothing that he was watching should have been possible.

All but one of them managed to make it far enough, before the expansion halted. The one who did not, however, was a member provided by the temple of light. It looked like he was still trying to run, the veins on his neck and legs bulging in obvious strain.

"What in the twelve hells was that?" One of the two guards provided by the crown questioned loudly, obviously directing it to the robe wearing mage. But he did not know how to answer. It was one thing for someone to take in mana, and then change it. It was another thing entirely for it to just suddenly change. More than that, everything that they had recorded about mana said that should have been impossible. It was akin to an object suddenly falling up on its own, it simply did not happen.

With no idea how to proceed, and too scared to investigate, the small group started their journey back to the capital. Also to get as far away from that frozen hell as possible, as quickly as possible.

Still feeling lethargic, the girl sat up where she was originally lying down, and hugged her bare knees to her chest. It was right about then that his current predicament finally clicked into place. Like a firm slap, when he looked down, he was brought back to reality.

"Wait, what?" He practically shouted, which echoed strangely through the frozen forest. Pulling at where the Kimono folded over itself, and over her chest, he had a clear view of everything underneath it. Red all the way to the tips of her pointed ears, he realized then that, weirdly enough, nothing felt off besides his initial reaction. Rather, he felt more comfortable than he ever had – which he could not help but find strange. James was not sure how long he was in that disembodied hell, but something about him had changed. James' old life felt like it had all happened in a distant memory. Like looking at a blurry image, he had to focus on it to recall anything.

It was then that he realized that, while he could recall her face, he could not remember his mother's name.