Cinderfall

Seraphine

She stared into the vines yet again, as if their tales would suddenly change. In the millenia that she had reigned over this region, she had never known the vines to lie, nor suddenly come to a new conclusion. Change was their nature of course, as everything that grew from a fire vein. Fire was the element of change, the element of the future. It needed change to thrive, just as the land and herself needed the vein to survive. The change in the vines though would be slow, as large predictions of the future often were. Seraphine wasn't pleased by the story these roots were threading for her.

The vines had been her strongest tool since the starting years of her dominion over the fire vein. She had planted them herself, placing seeds filled with purest essence of the vein from every major location, and it had grown marvelously into a physical model of the vein, mapping its tendrils as they spread below the ground. From this she could gain a picture of where her vein was healthy, if it was expanding in an unsafe way, or for this case at least, if a different vein was encroaching.

She sighed as she looked at the frosted tips of some of the tendrils, just at the edge of her plant. The element of Ice, the element of the past had pushed up against her territory, and was beginning to chill the vein.

Seraphine paced along the walls of the little grey bricked room. Unlike most of the rooms of her dwelling, this room had little in decoration, only her golden vined plant that had weaved its way through a trellis that ran the expanse of one of the walls. Besides that, the room was only furnished with a large medicine cabinet, a large bowl filled with calm water, and a large rectangular table where the bowl sat. There was a heavy stone fireplace and a heavy wooden door, but there were no windows in this room.

This was not odd as there were no windows in any of the rooms. She had no need for windows as she lived far under the earth centered at the source of the vein. It was important that this room was bare, for it was where Seraphine observed the changes over her dominion and attempted to view the future paths. Had she been powered by a water vein, the room would be filled with looking glasses and maybe a lily pond. Had she been powered by the element of earth the room would have large polished slabs of quartz and obsidian, but she was powered by fire, the source of all life and thus her room was covered in vines and illuminated by fire.

She continued to pace with growing frustration. Never, never since she had taken charge of her domain had she faced a problem like this, and a problem it truly was. Ice, The element of the past, was forbidden to wield. It can only be contained. By this point, no mage should even be able to use the element, much less wield it as this mage clearly did. Of course, technically mages could master any element they were born to given enough time and practice with a healthy vein, but the longer the mage used a certain elemental vein the more intertwined with it they became.

After a few years, even their life would become one with the life of the elemental vein they used, as Seraphine was well aware of. As it stood, after a millennia with this particular vein the woman had shown no signs of aging. She was more vein than human, She neither ate nor slept anymore, but her body never felt weak. She stretched her fingers and watched the shine of slight gold whenever she moved.

No warden even half Seraphine's age would be able to leave the bounds of their own vein anymore. They needed to be at least that age to know how to wield the power of ice. The older mages had long since destroyed any information pertaining to that practice. Was the frost not contained completely? Or was someone stupid enough to make the attempt to take the power? Both of these options seemed unlikely.

So then how is there one now knocking at her door? Ice was of the past, and unlike most elements was not able to grow on its own. Only a mage could direct the ice to move forward from its permanent stasis. Could there still be a mage left of that much power? If so, what had they been doing all this time?