Permafrost

65: Fort

⭐️Chapter 65: Fort

So now the group had resumed their way to the worship room, and this time they would NOT be interrupted. Corrin was leading the way, and the others that threw the Wave Crashers into the dungeon had caught up quickly. The Infernos were currently engaging in a discussion to busy themselves as they suppressed the panic of fighting a magical spirit with unknown powers deep inside themselves.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could leave those meanies here though?" Ryn said. "I know I could do without them."

"Ugh, I won't want to deal with them, they're disgusting," Zane grumbled.

"Oh come on, they're bullies and they pick on people! We don't need them around!" Ryn exclaimed.

"Guys, we can't keep them here," Silvia sighed.

"Aww, why not?" Cosmo asked.

"Yeah, they deserve it," Jack added.

"They live in Laocrah Town with us. As much as I want to leave them here, it just...wouldn't be right. They have families just like us, you know?" Silvia replied, as if not wanting to admit it.

"Ugh, fine...whatever...guess we have to be the "better people" or something," Jack groaned.

"Knowing them, they'd probably use your kindness to their advantage and continue doing rotten things once they got back, but...I guess that's just how it is..." Fang said quietly.

"Unfortunately..." Silvia sighed.

"Man, I hate them so much!" Ryn hissed as she stomped her foot while walking.

Fang just avoided talking more. He himself was a Wave Crasher, and even if he knew the Infernos meant the other three, he still felt included. Why oh why did he have to have the Infernos grow on him? Was he seriously so weak that he'd sided with them? This wasn't a mistake, right?

Ryn was about to ramble more, but saw Fang looking away and stopped. She'd done enough already, and the Wave Crashers had already been thrown into the dungeon. She needed a change of topic, and looked around the room for something. Her teammates were battle ready, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to Corrin's teammates. Ryn looked up at Corrin himself, who was smiling with confidence as he lead the group through the vast rooms.

"You know, you've been doing a great job leading us!" she said. "I'm glad we found you, or we would've had to navigate this place ourselves!" she commented.

Corrin smiled at that. It was nice to get a genuine compliment that wasn't because of his status. He's only gotten those from a few village kids before, and occasionally from his three friends.

"Heh, it's uh. No problem," he replied.

"When we get back to our own homes and this is settled, I hope we could maybe meet up again sometime! As friends, maybe," Ryn said.

"That...that would be nice..." Corrin sighed.

"Oh yeah, how will we even GET home? Kagayaku can't fly everyone down, yknow," Jack asked.

"Doesn't Chion's assistant Enaz have cryokinesis? I know there were a few people that had that here as well..." Jay responded.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about him..." Corrin said. "Yeah, the ice makers could probably branch out an ice slide to return everyone home."

"An ice slide? That sounds fun!" Cosmo exclaimed.

"Sounds like the colder version of those metal slides that burn your butt off during the summer..." Fang grumbled. "Or those weird plastic slides that give you electric shocks...man, summer is torture."

"Uh Fang. It IS summer," Ryn reminded him.

"Oh yeah I forgot. Maybe it was because YOUR SNOW MESSED ME UP!" Fang snarled loudly.

"Wait, what? What happened?" Jay asked.

Silvia sighed. She wasn't expecting to deal with all of this today.

"When the Frost Army invaded our home to take our citizens away, they brought snow with them. I don't know if our place has defrosted yet, but seeing as several areas we walked through contained snow and ice, I'm assuming it hasn't."

"Oh yeah. Some Rinklings can do that, make the area colder when they arrive. I guess a whole bunch of them caused the humid air to bring snow," Corrin explained. "Some cryokinetic Rinklings are in the Frost Army too, so that could've factored in with it."

Ryn didn't remember snow from when they'd invaded from when she was younger, but it was probably just bad memory. She remembered the cold, though.

"Okay, but if it's still there....isn't that a problem?" Jack grumbled.

"A problem? Won't it just melt?" Cosmo asked.

"I know, but...if there's another way around this that's better than just waiting, I'd prefer we'd do that instead," Jack replied.

"Well, when this is all over, I'll make sure everyone helps rid of it. Prince's orders," Corrin smiled.

"Oh."

"Awww, thanks!" Ryn said happily.

"No problem. Probably the least I could do after involving you in this mess. Honestly, I feel like that spirit...Misty...had other intentions. She might've just made up that prophecy so the King would trust her..." Corrin explained.

"Well, we can never know for sure," Rehl mumbled. "But we ARE headed there, so I suppose we must ask when we arrive."

Corrin nodded his head in a "yes" format a little, then shook his head "no". He understood what Rehl has meant, he just had his own concerns was all. He always did.

"Yeah...it's just...what if she WAS trying to overthrow dad? Mom's not here to say anything about it, but...I don't know. I just hope we're doing the right thing by stopping her. I know Ryn probably didn't think she'd be a part of some prophecy, especially if it was made up on the spot-"

"Relax, I'm sure the queen is fine," Zane said calmly. "After all, you know we have our ways of contacting her."

"Wait, there's a queen?" Ryn asked, as the conversation had nearly flown right over her head.

She wasn't paying too much attention to Corrin's discussions with his friends.

"You never brought her up," Silvia added, now curious.

"Well. There WAS a queen. Queen Pagos, my mom, was exiled for...some reason. It's okay, she didn't murder anyone or do something SUPER bad...we can still contact her. I'm just hoping the spirit didn't ask my dad to do it," Corrin replied, a hurt expression on his face.

"I'm disliking this spirit...Misty or whoever, more and more..." Jack growled.

"Well, that's why we're on a mission to stop her once and for all!" Cosmo said confidently.

"Yeah..." Ryn smiled.

Suddenly, Corrin halted. Everyone noticed, and halted behind him. Ryn looked at him.

"Huh?"

"What's the holdup?" Fang asked.

Corrin pointed to a doorway at the end of the current room.

"It's just up ahead!"