The Elementals - The Ice Princess

Chapter 15

The colour drops from my dad's face. He falls back into a chair and looks as though he has just been sucker punched in the gut. "That can't be right, can it dad? You said that she died in a car crash. How can she be inside the darkness if she died? That can't happen can it?"

Just by looking at him, I can tell he is trying to regain his composure but is really struggling with it. Alexander makes his way towards the door. "I am going to leave you both to talk."

Struggling to keep his emotions in check my dad says, "I need to tell you about the night your mother died." He motions for me to sit down so I take a chair at the control panel with him. He grabs my hand in his. They are warm.

"When you were 7, you became very sick. You spiked a fever that we could not get down. We tried everything, your mom brought you into ice baths with her, she walked with you outside in the dead of winter and nothing seemed to work. So, we tried to use human science, and we tried to take you to a hospital but we didn't make it. The rain had turned to sleet and snow and the driving conditions were poor. On the way there, your mom took off her necklace and placed it over your neck in the hopes that whatever power it generated might save you. The effect was almost instantaneous. Your fever broke and it was almost as if your body was shutting down to fix itself. Our joy was short lived because a few moments after that, we were attacked on the road. A shadowy figure came out of nowhere and practically cut our vehicle in two. I remember looking over at your mom and seeing that her head had smashed the passenger side window. She was unconscious and there was blood everywhere. If your mom was alive, she would have been so disoriented that she wouldn't have been able to use her elements. So I had a choice to make. I had to choose between saving your mom, or saving you and the necklace. So, when the figure reappeared and turned its attention to your mom, I snatched you and ran as fast as I could to get you to safety. I ran for hours it felt like. No matter how much my legs and lungs burned, I didn't stop until we were as far away as we could be. Not a day goes by when I don't think what I could have done differently. It haunts me to this very day that I left your mom to die on the bridge."

I pull my hands away from his. He looks like a young child who is ready to break down. His lip quivers ever so slightly as he struggles to fight back the tears. "You woke up a couple of days later, completely healed but with no recollection of the week before. I've been waiting for you to all of a sudden remember, but when you didn't, I just left it alone. I figured that knowing the truth about what happened would be harder for you, especially since you hadn't started to develop your elements." The tears begin rolling down my dad's cheeks and he looks as though holding it together is becoming more futile with each passing second.. "It was the hardest decision I ever had to make Eira. I loved your mom and I know how much she loved you and it was more important to save you and the necklace so I did what I had to."

I begin to feel anger growing inside of me and I begin to see the necklace glow a faint blue as if it can sense the emotions that are welling up inside of me. I am on the verge of losing control and I begin to cry. "You knew mom was alive and you left her up there knowing that she was going to die over this stupid necklace." I reach up and remove the necklace from my body, as I do all colour drains away from it and it returns to normal. It is the first time I have ever taken it off and my dad's eyes widen as he sees it leave my neck. All these years it's comforted me and now that I know the truth, the thought of it disgusts me. I throw it down on the ground but don't follow where it lands. "I don't want this and no one ever asked me to do this." I slam my hands down on the control panel. "I want mom back!"

I turn to leave and walk out the door crying. Alexander is waiting outside, he sees how upset I am and looks confused about what to do so he let's me pass without saying a word. I run back to my room and cry into my pillow.

Back in the control room, my dad picks up the necklace as Alexander enters the room. He looks over at my dad who is studying the necklace. It may be the very first time that he has ever handled it.

Alexander makes his way over to the control panel.

"That didn't go well?"

"She needs some time to process, she'll be ok."

"In the meantime, what are you going to do with that?" says Alexander motioning to the necklace and pendant. It hangs from his fingers swaying back and forth refracting the lights from overhead into Eira's dads eyes. He watches it with great fervour.

"Well, we're going to have to keep it safe for her."

"When are you going to tell her who you really are?" asks Alexander.

Eira's dad stops looking at the pendant. "When she needs to know and right now she's in enough pain."

"It's not fair for me to have to lie to her for you, you know?" Alexander says looking back over his shoulder towards the door ensuring that Eira isn't standing there listening.

The expression on Eira's dad changes. It becomes a little softer and he sighs in a sort of quiet acceptance that is lost on Alexander whose attention is somewhere else.

"I hope we can hold off long enough for her to start developing her elements."

"It won't be long." Eira's dad replies turning his attention back to the pendant. "They're already starting." He makes a motion to the control panel with a quick nod of his head. Alexander turns and sees that the control panel is no longer what he saw when he came in prior to Eira and her dad's exchange. Now nearly half of the control panel is covered in a thick sheet of solid ice.