DISCLAIMER: The author's imagination and passion are the only sources of inspiration for this novel, which is a work of dedication. Parallels between these pages and the past or present may be apparent to some readers, but they are completely coincidental. You are free to interpret this art anyway you see fit, and it is meant for your enjoyment.
Not only did the air near the Hylde estate's edge get colder, but it also became heavier. Where the Empire's sun found it difficult to reach, Dyierrean waited where the permafrost and the shadows of old trees met. His blue eyes glowed with a resonance that seemed menacing and old, making him appear less like a Duke and more like a tale.
"Giywon offers you the warmth of the sun," Dyierrean stated in a rumbling, deep voice. "But the sun blinds. I offer you the clarity of the ice."
He did not show her a garden. He guided her far into the Glacier Caverns, a centuries-old, hallowed location in the North. The walls started to hum as they moved. It was the sound of ancestry rather than the wind.
Dyierrean started a fire within the cavern, but it didn't burn orange. They blazed a crystalline, light violet. His enormous frame produced a shadow that seemed to ripple with a strength he normally suppressed as he sat across from Reinn.
"You've seen Giywon's magic," Dyierrean said, staring at the flames. "The Dragon's Fire. The golden aura of the 'Sun of the Empire.' It is loud, proud, and destructive. It is the blood of the Emperor."
His face's precise angles were highlighted by the violet firelight as he leaned forward. "But the Imperial line was never meant to be just the sun. In Season 1 and 2, you saw the tension between us. Giywon and I were close as children, not just as allies, but as kin. My mother was the Emperor's younger sister—the favorite daughter of the previous era."
As Reinn observed him, she became aware of the genuine significance of their "Brother-in-Arms" relationship. "She was the one who fled to the North."
"She kept it a secret," Dyierrean clarified, lowering his voice to a whisper. "She married my father, Duke Dyionne Mydril, because she carried the Dormant Magic of the royal line to keep it running secretly to protect us when needed. If the Emperor represents the Dragon of the Sun, then she carried the Shadow of the Moon—the magic of stasis, of ending, of the cold truth. It has been dormant in the royal family for three generations because it terrified them. A King who can create is a god; a King who can freeze time is a threat."
Suddenly, a slight bloop-bloop sound reverberated through the ice tunnels, puncturing the tight environment.
Leo emerged from behind a huge stalagmite, looking like a stressed-out marshmallow in his crazy warm suit. A directional microphone was in his hand.
Leo muttered loudly into his communications, "Are we at the 'Dark Secret' part yet? Ji-Hoon, are you getting this? The Duke has the chance to win the throne. This is a massive plot twist for the legal filing!"
Dyierrean didn't even look back. All he did was flip his wrist. Leo's jacket sleeve was beautifully stuck to the ice wall by a tiny piece of ice that flew through the air.
Leo said as he struggled to unstick himself, "Hey! This is the North! Do you know how hard it is to get 21st-century outdoor clothing through a rift?"
Dyierrean snarled, "Keep listening, Fixer," but a rare, spectral grin appeared on his lips. "And you might learn why your 'Source World' lawyers are so afraid of this dimension. We aren't just characters. We are the descendants of a magic that predates your scripts."
With his hand extended to cover hers, Dyierrean turned back to face Reinn. Even though his skin was frigid, it didn't bite; instead, it felt like a solid, grounded reality.
Dyierrean added, "Giywon loves you with the passion of a man who wants to build a world around you," as his blue eyes met hers with a raw, mature intensity. "But I love you with the magic of a man who will stop the world for you. My blood carries the power to freeze. I am the Royal Frost, the secret weapon the Empire forgot it had."
He got to his feet and dragged Reinn along. When his repressed magic finally surfaced, the cavern started to sparkle. Suspended in time, frost-flowers blossomed in the atmosphere. This was the Mature Romance of the North: it was an endless, fixed moment of complete safety rather than a whirlwind.
"The Auditor is coming for us, Reinn. They will try to tell you that you must choose one path, one 'Male Lead.' But my mother taught me that the sun and the ice must coexist for the world to breathe. I don't want to be your Duke. I want to be the silence at the end of your longest day."
A vibration shook the mountainside, shattering the tranquility of the grotto. It was a deletion, not an earthquake.
Reinn peered out onto the valley from the cave entrance. A terrible, sterile grey light was flooding the Hylde Manor. The colors of one of the outer towers were literally fading into white nothingness, turning it into a low-resolution drawing.
"The Auditor," Reinn muttered, her heart pounding.
Giywon's voice echoed over their mental link, full of a regal rage she hadn't heard since the battle. "Dyierrean! Reinn! The Manor's foundation is being unwritten! The servants are becoming outlines! Get back here—our cousin-bond means nothing if we have no floor to stand on!"
Dyierrean's eyes glowed a deadly blue. "It's time we showed the Source World what happens when the Royal Blood reunites once again."