Leo reached out.
"Amanda, wait!"
The words tore from his throat. He lunged forward, ignoring the exhaustion screaming in his muscles. He couldn't let her go up there. Not alone.
Not into that blinding white hell!
He crouched low. His legs coiled ready to spring out. To shatter the ground beneath him and force his way to her side.
Panic surged. Overwhelming. It flooded his chest, tightening his lungs until he couldn't breathe.
Zzzzt.
A cold tingle brushed his face.
And the dread subsided instantly.
Leo faltered, but the tension already left his legs. He stood up straight, his movements stiff and mechanical.
His desperation was replaced by a solitary goal.
Chasing her is illogical. A waste of resources.
He blinked, staring at Amanda's retreating back as she blurred into motion.
Then the tingle faded.
His logic fractured. The fear crashed back in, harder than before.
"No..." he gasped.
But she was already gone.
A piercing cry shattered the air.
It snapped his attention back to the ground.
The cry echoed off the cracked walls of the arena.
He turned, and his stomach dropped.
He witnessed a glistening pool of crimson spreading across the floor.
Seraphina hung suspended in the air. Motionless. Her silver hair was stained red. Her body was skewered by jagged shards of ice rising from a fissure in the ground. Blood traced quiet trails down their length.
Rage flared. He wanted to scream, to tear the world apart for letting this happen.
Zzzzt.
The rage evaporated.
Leo stood frozen, his mouth half-open in a silent roar. He stared at the dying Queen. But didn't see a friend. He saw a variable in a failing equation. Another problem to be solved.
Until his thought spiraled again. The flood of grief hadhe returned. Horror. Helplessness.
He sank to his knees. His limbs felt boneless.
"S-Seraphina," he choked. His voice trembled.
He swallowed hard. Glanced at the elves pressing in a tight circle, their faces masks of horror. Then he turned his gaze to the swirling chaos overhead, pleading for an answer.
"Ai," Leo gasped. The panic was choking him again. He curled his fingers in the air, trying to grab her attention. "Please. Help me save her. Potions. Spells. Anything."
She nodded and drifted toward the Queen.
Ai's eyes flared. Burned with intensity. Billions of streams of data cascaded through her irises. Calculations ran at impossible speeds. She saw timelines, biological degradation, magical interference. She saw every possible outcome in a fraction of a second.
Silence stretched. Tense. Heavy.
Then Ai turned to him. Her voice was tinged with emotion. Careful.
"I have completed analyzing her situation..."
Each word was a hammer blow.
"Seraphina's vital signs are critically compromised. The frozen spikes have siphoned a significant portion of her essence. Rendering known healing methods ineffective."
She paused.
"I'm afraid that recovery is unattainable under present circumstances."
The words knocked the breath from his lungs.
And his face went slack.
Despair surged. An ocean threatening to rise up to drown him. He opened his mouth to scream, only to deny himself.
Zzzzt.
The tingling sensation returned.
It forced his mind into a brutal calm. The scream died in his throat.
He stared at his hands, confused by the sudden shifts. He felt like a machine one second, and a broken man the next.
Then the grief came rushing back. A cruel cycle. Logic and agony. Cleared and flooded. His trembling fingers clenched around nothing as he fought a war inside his own head. He was a prisoner in his own body, forced to feel everything and nothing, over and over again.
"N-no," a voice wavered nearby. "There has to be something."
Amanda had dropped back down beside him. She stepped forward, her face pale.
"Amanda."
The voice was weak. Strained. But it cut through the tension like a lifeline.
Seraphina drew a heavy, wet breath. "Come here... my child."
Crack!
The frozen spike piercing Seraphina shattered with the explosion of power from the castle's final breath. Motes of golden light cascaded over all of Elderglade.
Seraphina fell.
Amanda lunged.
Time slowed. She reached out, catching Seraphina's limp body before it hit the ground.
Leo watched, unable to move. The cycle of the mask kept him pinned. He analyzed the blood loss. His forehead knotted. Then he wept for it. He calculated the fall. Then he felt the heartbreak.
He saw the blood dripping onto Amanda's arms. Saw the warmth seeping into her skin.
Amanda's legs gave way. She dropped to her knees, cradling the lifeless weight. Every breath Seraphina took was a painful reminder of the battle they had fought side by side.
Blood pooled around them. Mingling with the remnants of the disappearing voices from the castle.
An invisible thread tethered Amanda's soul directly to Seraphina's. It dragged her into a space that felt foreign yet intimately familiar.
The sensation was alien. Overwhelmingly light.
Warmth enveloped her. A sharp contrast to the biting chill of the unfolding events.
Seraphina's breaths grew shallow. Each inhale was a battle against the dark. Her hand trembled as she reached out. Fingers brushed gently against Amanda's face.
The blood staining her skin seeped into Amanda's awareness. Sticky. Warm. A stark reminder of life leaking away.
Seraphina's hand faltered. The effort to keep it raised was immense.
Amanda leaned into the touch. She pressed her own hand softly over Seraphina's. The contact was heartbreaking. The warmth was a final gift. She gazed into Seraphina's dying eyes. Searching for a flicker. A sign that this was not the end.
Words surged in Amanda's mind. Questions she would never ask. Regrets she would never voice. They choked her. She clung to Seraphina's touch as if it were the only thing anchoring her to the earth.
Seraphina mustered the strength to speak. Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Amanda."
The word was heavy.
"I am so... so happy... that I gave birth to you... and only you."
Tears burned Amanda's eyes. Her whole body shuddered.
Seraphina's chest heaved. She drew in another ragged breath. Pain laced every syllable.
"I'm sorry... I left you alone."
Amanda's throat tightened. The words strangled her. She opened her mouth to respond. To offer solace.
But Seraphina smiled.
It stopped her.
Despite the agony etched across her face, a serene calm settled over the Queen. A silent farewell.
The smile remained as Seraphina's body began to relax. The fight left her. Her limbs grew heavy. Limp. She surrendered to the inevitable.
Amanda felt the connection snap.
The warm light dimmed.
Seraphina was gone.
Her mother. Gone. For real.
Amanda buried her face against the lifeless form. Her arms clutched the body so tightly she crushed the remnants of the frozen spikes still lodged in Seraphina's chest. Her shoulders shook.
Grief threatened to shatter her. But she refused to let go. She anchored herself in the fading warmth of the woman who should have been her entire world.