The fact that Frederik was acting natural seemed strange to her. Couldn’t he feel this immense load of emotions weighing her down? Obviously not, but Lynn knew that already. With a frown on her facial features, the Ice Dragon Slayer did her best not to break apart in front of the guildmaster that she very much respected. She didn’t want him to see her as a weakling, because she was not. She was stronger than she thought she could ever be, more confident than any woman that existed and a daunting army of one to her foes. There was not a time in her life that she had cried, she wasn’t going to do it now, not that she knew how to in the first place. But why?
What was making her feel this way?
Why was she troubled?
A few moments later Frederik would disappear after discovering that he had a communication lacrima device on his person, meaning he was going to contact the guild. Lynn paid no heed to the situation around her, but as soon as the man was out of earshot, she would rise to her feet abruptly and roar the word:
“EINARRRR!!!!”
It was the name of the Ice Dragon who taught her how to use dragon slayer magic. She wasn’t the one who raised Lynn, like most other dragon slayer stories go. Lynn was the one who ventured to the North to seek out an Ice Dragon, specifically, to train her. It took her an incredible amount of time to find Einar’s humble abode, but she was persistent and it would be a shame to go back without learning anything. Einar welcomed her like an adoptive parent, realising that Lynn was capable of using the magic that could slay a dragon with the lacrima that was installed in her being. Why did Einar accept her? Didn’t she have another human under training, who didn’t need to install lacrimas and the like to use dragon slayer magic, you may ask. The answer would be no. Einar accepted her because she found that Lynn had potential, and a long journey ahead of her that dragon slayer magic could help her get through more easily.
But Einar was gone, and the only thing that could connect her to the dragon that was no longer in existance was her magic, and the North. Here she was, at the Silent Glaciers once again, one of their training sites. Einar’s words rang loud and clear in her mind now, causing her brain to feel compressed yet thick, her vision blurring from the liquid that oozed out of her tear ducts and froze in a trail along her flushed cheeks. The trails went further down her cheeks, making it look like she had two frozen rivers sourcing from her eyes. Lonely, blank ruby orbs stared into the sky emptily. An unknown force was clouding her mind, an aura of gloom surrounded her and she felt like there was no escape. Whatever she did to force it out of her mind, it seemed like she was running into a wall, every time.
“EINAR!!--”
...save me…
She wanted to say the last two words out, she wanted to beg her mentor to take her away, she wanted to be free from this burden, a burden that she herself couldn’t identify. Lynn fell back to the ground on all fours, crown of azure tresses lowered as the liquids that were produced from her eyes fell to the ice sheet below her as tiny snowflakes. Einar wasn’t there for her now, like everybody else. She was always alone in this world, she didn’t
belong. She should have gone ahead and returned to her world when she had a chance, but now it was too late. The humans
despised her. Why was a non-human like
her doing on Earth? Who did she
think she was? What was she
thinking when she thought she could
fit in with the humans?
Stupid. All. So.
Stupid.
Frozen fractals rose from the glacier, connecting and constructing with the energy that Lynn channeled through the ice below, forming the infrastructure of a castle, all from ice. A piercing feeling bit into her eyes as her vision shifted.
Do you seek ethereality?
An echoey metallic voice spoke in her head. In fact, around her. Lynn blinked rapidly in an attempt to rid the stinging in her optics, a blurred sight before her. Her head felt heavy. She could tell that where she was now was neither the Silent Glaciers nor anywhere she had ever been to. It was a reflective, flat landscape, one void of vegetation and elevation. When she was granted vision with crystal clarity, she was almost blinded by a brilliant light at the far end. What separated her from the light seemed to be a glassy river of black water. It was not flowing.
Do you wish to free yourself from this wretched shell?
The sound of water trickling down into a puddle rang loud and clear within her ears. She listened on, guessing the voice had more to say, when...distorted figures emerged from the river, limping almost in slow-motion towards the light. Lynn flinched, widening her trembling eyes and gasping in shock at the sight of such hideous beings. Goosebumps broke out all over her pale skin as she stumbled back, falling on her rear. She carefully observed as the foreign figures reached the light, and at that very moment, if her eyes were not playing tricks on her, the light flooded into their bodies, filling them to the brim and spreading out. The creatures became the opposite of what they were previously. Now they were even beautiful. Even from quite a distance, Lynn could see their beaming faces, now lit up with happiness of freedom. Recalling the question that the voice had asked, Lynn began nodding her head eagerly.
Your mind and body.
Lynn gasped once again as the heads of said creatures turned to her with reassuring smiles before the edges of their bodies began blurring and blending in with the light as she was brought back to reality. Her head started hurting, causing her to grunt in frustration. The voice was barely a whisper now while she transitioned from the otherworld-
...grow towards ethereality...
-back to the Silent Glaciers, Earthland. Holding her head between her ice cold hands, Lynn lifted herself from the glacier and there stood a magnificent castle of ice before her very eyes, the burden vanished and a new path set for her by fate.