Hierophant's Agdora: The Floating Island of Fire of the Arctic Circle

Chapter 6: Impérea

"Father, we need to talk..." she says with an uneasy tone.

"Tell me, my daughter, what troubles you?" I respond, immediately paying attention.

"You always told me that it was crucial for me to learn everything you know and that one day we would need to defend ourselves against various species and external attacks on Agdora... However, this year I turn two hundred and eighty-six, and nothing has happened to us so far! Not that I doubt your foresight, but I feel the desire to see the world! To create new things outside of Agdora!"

At that moment, I felt that she might slip through my fingers as well, and I made one of the first irreversible mistakes...

"Impérea! No!" I said harshly, turning my back to her. "I came from the world you want to see... Do you think we're in Agdora because I wanted a prison? The world is cruel! People are not gentle and friendly like they are here! The world is a dirty and cold place! They fear what they can't control... And they won't be able to control you! You're safer here in Agdora than out there..." I could see the indignation on her crestfallen face.

"Are you expecting me to stay in this perfect city forever? Why don't we use our abilities to help humanity?" she asked with the same tone of indignation.

"My dear... Humans don't live more than a century... Look at yourself... So young, and yet you're almost three centuries old. We have eternity... Let the humans write their stories about us..." I replied, now with a more persuasive tone.

"That's it... As long as I don't prove myself brave and strong, you will always see me as 'little'... I honestly hoped to change your mind, Dad, but I believe that will never happen..." she said, letting out a brief sigh.

"My daughter, I didn't mean..."

"Dad, I love you, but I've made my choice," she abruptly interrupted me. "I'm going to break the seal of Agdora!"

Impérea simply disappears before my eyes using teleportation magic. I follow her through the vacuum, through the residual matter that lingers in the air for seconds after the use of magic.

She stands before the portal of the city, the same one I created with obsidian centuries ago.

"Impérea, please, my daughter! Don't make me... I don't want to have to do this!" I say somewhat desperate. This was our first disagreement. She was as strong as me when it came to magic.

"Tutela obice!" she casts the protective barrier spell.

"Sonantis tonitrui!" I invoke a thunderstorm to try to intimidate her, but it's futile.

"Haec placant, solve fasciculos virtute naturae matris tutela sigillum." she initiates the breaking of the protective seal.

"Voco ex virtute naturae est mater custodire sigillum tutela." I use my counter-magic to stop her, but it doesn't seem very effective. She had truly captivated not only the life in Agdora but also all of nature outside it.

"Haec placant, solve fasciculos virtute naturae matris tutela sigillum!" she continues unabated.

At this moment, I simply give up trying to stop her. My overprotection should have an end at some point in our existences.

"Haec placant, solve fasciculos virtute naturae matris tutela sigillum!!" she pronounces the words firmly... The seal dissipates, and the icy wind from the North Pole blows fiercely into the island. It is done.

Impérea looks at me, a tear runs down her face, and then she leaves with the cold wind.