Chapter Nine: Silver-Haired Old Lady

His eyes fluttered open, but his vision was clouded. He winced in pain as his head throbbed unbearably. He felt disoriented and unsteady, as if the world was spinning around him.

‘Where am I?’ With difficulty, he tried to speak but his mouth was dry and parched. He realized he was unable to open his jaw and tried to recall where he was and how he had ended up in this state. All he could think of was his thirst and the desperate need for a drink. ‘I’m thirsty.’

With great effort, he slowly sat up, trying to ignore the pain that radiated through his body. Groaning, he leaned his back against the headboard of the bed, taking small breaths to steady himself.

His chest rose and fell as he struggled to catch his breath. "So hot," he muttered, feeling the intense heat radiating from within him. Despite the heat, cold sweats broke out on his forehead, drenching his skin. He felt like he was caught in some kind of feverish nightmare, with no escape from the discomfort.

"How are you?" A voice startled him, making him gasp. He hadn't realized that he was not alone in the small, familiar room where he had spent much of his childhood. Confusion and fear surged through him as he tried to make sense of the situation.

He slowly turned his head and saw a woman near the window, sitting in a wooden rocking chair next to his bed. She was as old as his grandmother, with silver hair that reminded him of an ice queen. Despite her familiar appearance, he couldn't quite place her. The confusion and disorientation only seemed to deepen.

He opened his mouth, ready to fire questions yet after a brief moment, the door opened.

“My beloved grandson! Finally, you’re awake!” Another elder woman came inside his room. However, unlike the one seated beside him, this woman had a warm smile on her face.

"Grandmother?" He felt a tear roll down his cheek. "Tell me... I am not dreaming," he stammered, struggling to believe that this was real. Ever since he was summoned by Elvira's royal court and became a jester, he had never seen his grandmother again. He was never allowed to pay her a visit, and the thought of finally being reunited with her was overwhelming.

“Yes, dear. You’re not dreaming!” She pulled him into a tight hug. Once he felt the familiar warmth and coziness his grandmother exudes whenever she’s around, that’s the moment he finally accepted he was in reality.

“Oh, and have you greeted our benefactor, my dearest grandson?” She asked.

“B-Benefactor?” He gently pulled away from his grandmother. Diamond turned to the woman sitting silently on the rocking chair.

“Yes, she is. She healed you!. I want to let you know ~” She said in her sing-song voice. “She’s my new friend! I found her and her granddaughter a few weeks ago…They were…” She sobbed, pity overtook her, remembering how she met the grandmother-granddaughter pair in the streets. “They were shivering in the cold, no food, no shelter…” With the granddaughter in a coma, Diamond’s grandmother decided to take them in.

It was hard persuading the silver-haired old lady to come back home with her. She only agreed when she gave her a condition that she could repay her kindness in the future.

“I didn’t know that she was a healer!” His grandmother exclaimed while telling everything to her grandson about how she had met her newfound friend.

However, Diamond was yet to trust her grandmother’s so-called benefactor. “If you’re a powerful healer, why…why you can’t heal your granddaughter?” He asked skeptically, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. He learned the hard way of not trusting everyone, even the seemingly kindest lamb among the crowd. He had seen the cruelty of humanity in the eyes of the nobles in his queen’s royal court.

The old woman had a pair of sea-green eyes, just like those of the ice queen. Diamond momentarily shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts that were clouding his mind. He had been dreaming and thinking about the ice queen ever since he heard of her death, and it was madness to see her in other people, even in an elderly woman.

“I am…” the silver-haired lady was not smiling yet her eyes warmed as she looked at him.

“Grandson, do you not trust your grandmother?” She complained, her forehead wrinkled yet the corners of her lips slightly curving.

“No! How could I not–” He exclaimed.

“I see, you are recovered now. You can now talk back to your grandmother, huh.” She pinched the bridge of his nose, chuckling. “I will cook your favorite lamb soup. Rest more.”

His grandmother stood and reached for the door’s handle of his chamber. “Thank your for everything, my dear friend.” She turned her head and winked at the silver-haired lady before she disappeared.

The old lady merely gave his grandmother a nod which she exchanged with a hearty laugh. Diamond squeezed his brows as he observed them. They look like they have known each other for years.

The door clicked as his grandmother closed the door.

An awkward silence instantly fell between him and the old silver-haired lady, until she broke the ice…

"Diamond," she spoke. He was stunned. Before, her voice was raspy and had a slower cadence compared to a younger’s voice but now, it became silvery, melodious yet deep. There was no trace of an old lady in her voice. Instead, she sounded like a young mature maiden. In fact, her voice was familiar. How could he forgot that person’s name when she was always in his dreamland. Diamond had an urge to slap himself because he could see the resemblance of the ice queen in her.

‘Why? It’s not because I am in love-wait…’ he froze as he had a sudden realization because of his thoughts. However, he couldn’t say if it was true or not. ‘In love? Am I really in love?’ His eyes turned round, figuring out what he had just thought. ‘And with an enemy who took me as her hostage? That’s ridiculous!’

“Y-You…” He paid close attention to her. Face filled with utter confusion, his eyes narrowed at her.

“Diamond…” The old lady called his name. The affection in her eyes was visible as his given name rolled in her lips.

“How did you know my name? M-My grandmother w-was yet to know...” He asked

Again, she did not speak. Her body glowed with icy white light, slowly, until it devoured her. Diamond watched her in awe. Once the white light grew and grew, it blinded him that he had to shut his eyes and cover them with his hands.

‘What is happening here?’ It made him anxious. Serving the dark queen in the royal court, he had seen countless magicians who possessed magical power and not only some merely childish tricks. But he never felt or saw this kind of enormous power, especially, the power of light, which was believed to disappear after the ice queen was crowned. The light vanished and ice replaced it, plunging the world into total chaos of eternal winter – that’s what the hearsay tells as a tale told from nurseries to the dark corners of the market – where almost all rumors were born.

‘Is this the power of light? That’s impossible…’ He thought but then the temperature in his tiny room dropped. Even if it was summer outside, his room became the repository of snow. The floor turned like mirror, yet it was extra slippery and…cold. It was like the frozen lake in winter season.

His breath hitched. ‘This…this…’ His eyes started to welled up. ‘This is not the power of light…’

The blinding light, slowly died down and it vanished. He opened his eyes only to meet a pair of see-green orbs. Diamond turned like a statue staring at the woman seating in the rocking chair beside his bed. There’s no trace of wrinkles or flaws on her face and body. Aside from her silver hair, everything changed in her physically. She became a woman he knew who had a flawless face, hypnotizing eyes, alabaster skin, tall, elegant, and proud posture. Her loose faded dress was the same as the old lady he was facing just a minute ago, but that silver-haired old lady was gone. Suddenly gone.

“Diamond…we meet again,” she quietly said.

“I-Ice queen?” As he recognized her, Diamond was now beginning to distrust his senses' ability to figure out which is reality and which is not.