Mortance: Summer's Snow

Hale Ⅰ

"Where are we going?" I demanded for the fourteenth time.

My creator did not answer. He simply kept moving, forging a path over the ocean he froze. I followed along obediently, as there was nothing else. Vengeance... justice... the words echoed through my head. Kill those who killed them. I knew not what they truly meant yet, only that it was what he wanted.

I could remember where we came from as well as anything. Deep in the temple, where I'd saved him from that girl. She was gone now, and so were we. "Come," he had growled, and now we were here, wandering a frozen-over ocean in search of... something.

"Where are we going?" I tried again. He wouldn't even look back at me. His gaze stayed forward.

Then I saw it too. Land.

I trotted obediently after him towards the frozen beach. There were mountains beyond it, tall and snowy. I stepped my bare foot from the icy ocean surface onto the frozen cold sand and sighed. It was comfortingly chilling, and soft to the touch. I watched the frozen ocean melt behind us, and then I turned to see my creator giving me a glare colder than anything I knew.

"You killed that girl," he finally spoke.

"She was an enemy," I stated plainly.

"She was no threat," he said. "She had nothing but the hilt of a cutlass to fight me with."

"You would've killed her."

"No. I would've let her free, or taken her prisoner," he sighed like an icy wind. "It matters not what I would've done. You took that choice from me."

I lowered my head in shame. "I'm sorry." Vengeance. Justice. Kill those who killed them. "I thought that was what you wanted of me."

His tone shifted from anger to curiosity. "What do you know of what I want?" He asked.

"I know..." I hesitated. "Vengeance... Justice... Kill those who killed them. You created me to... to kill those who wronged you... to kill your enemies."

"Do you know what I called you?"

"I..." no name came to mind.

"Hale," he said. "You are called Hale, and I Maldegith, your father."

"Hale," the word sounded familiar on my tongue. "Maldegith... father..."

"Come now," Maldegith turned away from the water and began to walk towards the mountains. "Allow me to show you why you are here."

I know why I am here, I thought. I followed him all the same. My father strode on, strong and purposefully away from the setting sun. His gait was wide, and he seemed hardly to be hindered by the icy armor he wore. Will there be armor for me? I wondered. Or am I to fulfill my purpose as I am? As it was, I wore nothing but the cloak Maldegith had thrown over me as we left my birthplace, but I did not feel naked or vulnerable as another might.

The world around us was covered with snow. The light of the setting sun reflected brightly off the icy surfaces of the tundra as a chilling wind blew through the air. It all felt so familiar, so right. I knew of nothing before the awakening in the temple, but there was only one word I could think of to describe all this. Home.

Maldegith kept forward, using his spearaxe as a cane and never looking back at me. It was not long before we reached the mountains. My father did not hesitate at the slope. He found what some crumbling staircase my eyes would never have seen, and continued upwards. The path was rough and unstable, but I found my footing in his stead.

"Look south," Maldegith said suddenly. "See those ruins?"

I turned towards where he pointed. There were a few crumbling structures jutting out of the tundra. Were it not for the contrast, I would never have noticed them. "What are they?"