The Angel of Frost

XV.

Jonah was lowering his sword when Hiames declared his intent to "help".

Except that by the way he phrased it, Hiames seemed bent on helping the murderous creatures outside.

He immediately brought it up in an icy arc. "So you are our enemy, after all."

Hiames chuckled with the sound of a melting glacier shattering into pieces. "Don't be rash, Jonah. You know you don't stand a chance against me."

"Those things outside killed my wife!" Jonah yelled, trembling with rage. "They don't deserve to live. Can't you see that?"

Hiames shifted his eyes to gaze deeply into Jonah's. The air became as cold as the black winter that reigned over all nature outside. Snowflakes swirled to life from minute droplets in the air.

"You think I am blind? I see more than you can with your mortal eyes!"

Jonah was frightened by the sudden cold, but the chill had failed to temper his foolish anger. He refused to back down. "If you can really see past what I can, then don't you see what they have done? They've killed everyone I know, even the ones I love, Hiames! If you're a deity, you should see that these creatures deserve no pardon."

"Very well, that is your verdict. But who made you the judge?"

It was that last question that finally silenced Jonah. Hiames was right; who made him the judge? He was just an ordinary farmer holding a broken sword, and in this new world he was as helpless as a prisoner with a death sentence.

"Who would, Jonah? Would any soul who died this day let you defend their memory, if you have been so rash in protesting against my wishes without even letting me finish what I wanted to say?"

Jonah didn't reply. He knew he wasn't really allowed to. Hiames was right, he had been rash. Helping the creatures could have meant something other that letting them kill Diana and him.

"I see that you have realized your mistake, Jonah. You deserve forgiveness; my eyes, though small, see that. But do not provoke me ever again."

Jonah tried to swallow, but he felt like his throat was frozen from the inside out.

Before Hiames could continue, the sound of a wooden door breaking into pieces burst into the room.

*

Diana felt like a forest blazing with wildfire as she listened to the exchange between Hiames and Jonah.

The cold indifference that deites always seemed to blast at any mortal they conversed with had irritated her time and time again as she summoned them to ask for advice or secrets.

There was one deity in particular, though, that had annoyed her nearly past her tipping point.

He was a winged avatar named Glaucus, and she had summoned him last year for help on a spell to keep the unusually low temperatures that winter from ruining her herbal ingredients.

The winged god had shrugged, and told her she was better off moving to a warmer place.

That was what nearly brought her to her tipping point. Fortunately, before she could make a fool out of herself, Glaucus had vanished in a flurry of snow.

There was something more to her dislike for deities than just one incident with an angel of frost, though...

*
(A/N: Flashback)

In the heat of battle, Diana was an arc of boiling fury.

She deflected an arrow with the flat of her sword, then parried an enemy to her left. A glint sparked from the corner of her right eye. She whirled, knocking back the enemy she was parrying and struck her sword on a flail swinging towards her, taking it off course.

She heard hooves galloping towards her. She balanced herself on one leg and stretched her arm forward, pushing the sword's blade as far as it could go in her hand. Then she swiveled on her leg,  slitting the throat of the horse that had been charging at her and toppling the knight riding it. By some stroke of luck, he fell on his sword. The blade pierced his hard armor and went through his heart, killing him instantly.

She swiveled again, this time in a full circle, and killed a throng of soldiers that had surrounded her in the chaos. Her hand never trembled, her stiff arm never wavered, and her blade never bent.

She was unstoppable.

Until her brother fell.

They had scraped out a meager existence for themselves with barely enough food and money to stay alive. They were orphans, and the only things they owned for more than a few hours were the rags on their backs.

So when Diana saw the chance to sign up for the army, she didn't think twice about it.

While her brother had turned out to be an ordinary soldier with average ability, Diana had excelled in all aspects of battle, including strategy and fighting. Immediately after training, she had been promoted to the captain of her unit.

The soldiers had bristled at the fact that their captain was a woman, but her brother had been proud of her. He often bragged about her to his comrades.

And now, she heard his cry of agony as he was struck down. Her world froze.

She searched around the battlefield for him, and saw his body leaking blood onto the ground a few feet away.

She rushed to his side, ignoring the confused cries of her unit as she left them and dodging swinging swords and deadly flails.

She knelt, feeling for a pulse just like the instructors back at the barracks had taught. His skin was stone cold.

She knew it was too late to save him.

Desperately she prayed for a miracle to every deity she knew, even the ones she had found utterly ridiculous.

None answered.

In the heat of battle, Diana was no longer an arc. She was now a kneeling figure with a lowered weapon.

A soldier, taking advantage of her vulnerability, struck her with his flail.

She fell, and she lay alongside her brother. Together they lay on the battlefield like two corpses felled by one blow. Her head bled where the flail had struck.

Her skin, however, was warmer than his.