Eclipsis: Water

Chapter 20

"Significance? What significance?" Alara asked, sharply.

She had started to walk again, with Kōri beside her and Cetus following behind.

Kōri shrugged, feeling the chains tying his wings together shift uncomfortably. Cetus had nothing to suggest either; he was equally as outraged as Alara.

"I just can't seem to understand why Ondine of all the Suns. Why not take more than one Sun?" Alara's heart gave a great lurch. She had never been more angry in her life. "What's your King's name?"

"I don't know - no one does," Kōri added quickly, for Alara had just given him a look that half-convinced him that she wanted to decapitate him. "He's very... mysterious. Private. I don't even know what he looks like."

"You - what?" Alara had almost tripped over her words, confusion flooding through her and stumbling over her anger.

How is that even possible? Cetus asked.

Alara shook her head as if to separate her emotions. "You said he asked you more than once to spy on my kingdom," Kōri nodded. "How - ?"

"He's always covered," Kōri explained, turning his head briefly to Cetus, who had stepped on a particularly crunchy branch. "Head to toe. His face is completely concealed, too. Everything apart from his eyes."

"Well, what do they look like? How tall is he? What does his voice sound like?" Alara was scrambling to try and gain as much information about this King of Lune as possible. She was desperate to try and work out why he had chosen to target her sister.

"I - um..." The ice-fairy had paused, for he hadn't really given much thought to what his King looked like. He wasn't curious about his appearance, at least not enough. Kōri's fear of him was more than enough to focus on.

He tried to picture his King in his mind's eye. How fast Alara was walking currently - just short of a jogging pace - told him that her patience was extremely thin. He preferred not to add to the fire of rage emanating from inside her, so hot he could practically feel the heat of it.

"Blue - blue? Eyes?" Kōri told her hesitantly.

"Is that a guess?" Alara snapped.

"No, it's not," Kōri spoke more confidently. "His eyes are blue. Dark-blue."

"And?"

"He's shorter than me," The ice-fairy paused briefly to study Alara, who narrowed her dark eyes at him. "Shorter than you, too, I'd say. But he's muscly, I can tell through the clothes he wears. I know that what he lacks in height he definitely makes up for in strength."

"Dark-blue eyes, short. What else?"

"His voice is... cold."

"Cold?"

"That's the best way I can explain it," Kōri argued defensively, scowling. "If he wasn't King, he wouldn't be the type of person you could be friends with."

"I think the torturing and killing gave that away."

Kōri scoffed in annoyance. "You know what I mean. There's no warmth to him at all. No mercy, no remorse. His moods are unpredictable - he can be completely calm one minute and then fly into a rage. Rage seems to be the only emotion he's capable of showing. He's..." He dropped his voice to a whisper, so Alara and Cetus had to lean in to hear him while he looked around wildly. "He's not right in the head."

Alara immediately put space between her and Kōri after he had spoken the last sentence. His icy breath against her cheek had sent a weird shiver down her back. "An insane man for a King. Wouldn't really expect anything less for Lune."