Berick

"Look at you now. Staggering. Lost. Lonely. All this could be over if you just give him to me."

The rattling of bone around her neck caused Lyrea to awaken as she shook off Garus's cold whispers.

"Stop your whispers and face me."

Cynical laughter drifted away from Lyrea, carried on the winds on which it arrived.

"You grow tired, how much further can you walk when there is nowhere to go."

Gasping for breathe Lyrea resisted the urge to stop and lie down, to rest for a brief moment, knowing it would be her last. For what felt like an eternity Lyrea had walked forward, carving her way through these lands of snow and ice with only the necklace on her skin to warm her and Garus's constant mutters and whispers on the wind to assail and weaken her.

"Stop little girl."

"Lie down and welcome my embrace."

"Rest and let me carry him. Does his knowledge not weigh on you. Let. Me. Hold. Him."

…

"You walk still with your body broken. You are a puppet of his making, piece-less and flawed, why does Asmonon the King, drag such a cripple in his wake."

Barely able to mutter words beneath her cracked and frozen lips Lyrea stared at the shrouded figure, mimicking each of her steps with one its own.

"...says the coward who avoids him…"

"I may be a coward but I am no fool. I have no ability to best Asmonon in power nor combat. I will not choose to endure his rage. Were you on my side…"

"...I will never be."

"You shall. When your skin is crisp like ice, when your eyes glaze and reflect my own look you shall be on my side. You would become another in his line of corpses, forgotten, pleading for the desires he would never grant. What honeyed words has he poured into you? Listen to him now, rattling and shaking upon your neck, knowing my words to be true."

Shaking furiously upon Lyrea the skeletal necklace of Koel was heating up, painfully burning and searing into Lyrea causing her to wince and stumble in pain.

"You hear me Asmonon. I will take what you denied from me, you sat and endured long but I have endured for far longer."

"Ahh, Koel."

Her skin blistering hot Lyrea felt blood run around the necklace as her skin split, why was Koel doing this? What was he trying to tell her?

"I have waited. I have been patient, watching as all ground to a halt as worlds were lulled to slumber because of you. Your greed and selfishness, your lack of compassion to share what you had learnt. You are the betrayer, not I. I just wanted to travel freely without your shackles."

"Even your sweet friend Berick descended from his perch above to save you," dark laughter came from Garus's shrouded figure as he leered at Lyrea and Koel, "but you've already sat by his remains. Poor Berick, so loyal and reduced to bone. It turns out he was not immortal after all."

Krrk.

From around Lyrea's necklace a shard of bone fell, withering to dust as a single heavy word found its way to Lyrea's ear.

"...forward."

Without a word Lyrea stood tall once more and moved bloody foot after bloody foot, heading towards Garus and his shrouded form.

"You give in then."

"Keep walking towards me and hand me what I want."

"Any further and he becomes mine, I will leave you to die here."

"You betray as well then."

Faster the words and mutters flowed from the mouth of Garus as his figure remained stationary, blocking Lyrea from the view ahead.

"You are but a ghost."

With a strong step Lyrea walked through the form of Garus as it scattered to the winds with an intolerable howl, "I will have what is mine. You will remain shackled to this world of mine, shackled to me. I will drain all the warmth from your body and claim him."

"You will never have him."

Stumbling through the disbanded form Lyrea saw what was hidden from her view all along, a single crystalline fire, merrily issuing light and warmth as it drove away the cold, beckoning her to come closer.

Dropping down by the fire's side Lyrea let herself fall as the cold, for now, could not disturb her.

But how long would this fire last?