The Ice Prison

Nova opened his eyes. The lavender scenery of Castle Lavender greeted him. It was chilly. He sat up. He was still in the throne room, surrounded by the ice sculptures and the throne. While the sight was all too familiar to him, he hated it; the enclosed space felt like he was in prison; it was also on purpose. He needed to protect himself; so he had encased himself in this labyrinth of a castle in order to thwart off adversaries.

I hear soft breathing. Souhait remarked. Because Nova and Souhait were two souls in one body, Nova could always hear Souhait's thoughts in his own head alongside his own; it felt as if he had two separate minds–one he had control of and the other he did not. Souhait's thoughts were to guide him; it was his way of protecting Nova. As the creator of Terrenter, Souhait possessed many abilities. Transferring his thoughts to Nova happened to be one of them.

Souhait guided Nova to the direction the breathing came from and he saw Arcturus sleeping soundly. From looking at Arcturus's memories, Nova knew Arcturus had trouble sleeping recently; his inability to sleep had happened after he survived the explosion. Nova crawled towards Arcturus and took a good look at his sleeping visage.

To Nova, Arcturus was handsome. He had thick eyelids that made his eyes look droopy, but Nova found it charming. His eyelashes were a bit of a darker shade than his hair, but they were still a notable scarlet red. He had a sharp nose bridge that made his nose look like a perfect right triangle from the side. His lips were thin and a bit chapped, but if they had proper care, they would look nice. He admired Arcturus's skin color; it was a mix of beige and tan. He envied it; his own skin color was pale, almost translucent. He didn't like how he could see his own veins.

Nova's attention were solely on Arcturus's ears. While he had noticed Arcturus had free earlobes, what caught his attention the most was his bright yellow earring. His earring was cuffed and had a small sphere dangling down from it. Arcturus was not a Shiftie, yet he had an earring that only Shifties wore; Nova knew it was a memento of Kori.

His eyes were glued to his earring because he could sense life from it. A Shiftie's earring was their life source, which meant their consciousness, soul, and will were all molded into said earring. If destroyed, a Shiftie would die completely. However, he detected not one life, but two. It had confused both him and Souhait.

How could there be two souls in one earring? Is that even possible? I thought we were the only ones that had two souls in one vessel.

It definitely is odd.

Before he could ponder further, he soon felt a tight pain on his heart; it felt like someone was squeezing his heart. He found it hard to breathe; sweat quickly formed and trickled down his face.

Souhait, it's that pain again! Hurry and numb it!

Okay. Souhait's voice sounded frantic. In a matter of seconds, the pain subsided. His body felt numb. It made him relax. He would rather feel numb than feel pain.

I shouldn't have let my guard down. Your activated powers subside whenever I fall asleep. I should have told you to restart the numbing when I woke up.

You are usually cautious about these things. I am surprised you were distracted by a handsome guy for you to forget what you normally do. Is he that handsome in your eyes? Is my sweet Nova falling deeper in love? Souhait teased him by snickering. Nova pouted; his cheeks were heating up.

Shut up.

Souhait cackled before becoming silent. I will go check the Spirit World. Wait until I return.

Okay.

Not being able to hear Souhait's voice in his mind for a while was a lonely feeling. While he was always by himself physically, having Souhait around always eased that loneliness. However, Nova believed that feeling would go away now that Arcturus was here.

He wasn't sure what to do next. He stared at the sculptures. He knew that he needed to preserve them as they were made from blood sweat and tears. Noticing that Arcturus wasn't going to wake up any time soon, Nova decided to do just that.

It did not take long for him to use an ability that allowed him to store large objects into a mysterious space. When he reached his marked hand out, the dragon statue started shaking. It quickly got sucked in. He repeated the same process for the other statues. He felt some sort of relief that he didn't have to get rid of them. He then looked at the throne. It was created when he started living in this ice prison. While it wasn't his best work, he did feel as if it would be a waste to throw it out; he also stored it in his hand.

I hope Souhait doesn't mind the extra furniture in our little cottage.

Now that he was done with storage, he wasn't sure what to do next. He sat back down next to the sleeping Arcturus. He glanced over at him again. Arcturus was sleeping facing up with his hands resting on his stomach. His eyes were glued to his scarlet hair. The color fascinated him. He had never seen such bright red hair before; it was as bright as a red apple.

I hope he doesn't mind if I touch his hair for a bit… He slowly reached a hand out to touch his hair; it felt coarse and slightly dry like he hadn't washed it in months. He quickly pulled away when he realized how creepy he was being.

I wouldn't like it if someone I barely knew touched my hair, so what right do I get for touching his hair?

Nova then glanced over at Arcturus once more. He became worried about Arcturus's posture. Sleeping flat like that wasn't good for his neck. He didn't want Arcturus to have neck issues in the long run. He gulped in worry.

I hope he doesn't find this creepy…

He crawled towards Arcturus. Once he was near his head, he gently lifted it up. He spread his legs out and then brought them together so that he could use them as a makeshift pillow. He slowly let go of his hand so that Arcturus was resting his head on his legs.

The thought of this made Nova burn up. He became flustered. I'm just being nice and not creepy! I'm sure Arcturus will understand once he wakes up. I hope he's not creeped out by this. Oh gosh, what if he finds me creepy?

His heart skipped a beat when he became startled upon Souhait's return. What is going on?

If Nova's face could go any hotter, he would be melting the entire castle. Souhait could see everything through Nova's eyes, which meant Souhait saw Arcturus resting his head against Nova's legs. He found himself regretting his actions as he heard Souhait's humming.

Oh? What is this? You are making a move on him already? But this is non-consensual!

Souhait, stop being overdramatic and tell me the news.

The lightheartedness between the two quickly dissipated. A tense mood wafted in, making Nova feel uneasy. He heard Souhait clear his throat.

It is like we predicted. Another soul has been forcibly taken away from the Spirit World.

You still cannot find the source?

The perpetrator is hard to find. The way they take out the soul is such a swift process that nobody in that realm cannot detect their identity. However, the most likely candidate is the Invader.

If she is our perpetrator, that would mean one thing: we need to leave this castle and search this island and find her.

Nova, you do know that we are severely outnumbered and weak? We may be stronger and more impervious, but our conditions and restrictions restrict us from going all out.

That is why we have Arcturus with us.

Arcturus is not enough. We need more allies, more wishes and more power.

Nova looked down at Arcturus; his gaze fixated on his earring. Souhait, are you suggesting that we seek help from a Shiftie?

Whatever life we detect in that earring is our only safe option. We are powerless with one granted wish so far. Whether it be a Shiftie or something else, it is alive. Arcturus's wish made it so that they are considered alive and are beings that we need to grant wishes for. To not grant their wish means disrespecting Arcturus.

Souhait was correct, much to Nova's chagrin; he was absolutely correct. Nova was reluctant to seek help from a possible Shiftie, but they were left with no other options. They needed power. Granting wishes bestowed said power to them. They could not be picky; nobody, other than Arcturus, was their ally. The entire world was their enemy; they needed all the strength they could get.

The uneasiness within Nova accumulated. He felt apologetic towards Arcturus who was going to be dragged into their eternal conflict. He knew that there would be a day where Arcturus would resent him for dragging him into this mess; if Arcturus wanted to leave his side, he would surely allow him to do so.

Are you prepared, Souhait?

I am ready when you are.

Nova took a deep breath. He slowly reached a hand out to the earring and used a finger to touch it. With one single touch, Nova felt a strong force pulling him in. Nova's eyelids were forcefully shut as he fell back into slumber.