Subrift Tales/Chapter 2

The year is 1806. The country is Niphora.
The radiant sun of mid-summer was high in the misty veil of clouds, beaming down in solitary rays while a sprinkle of rain joined them. It seemed that the atmosphere was trying to be several things at once, ending in a bizarre blend with no strong points - it was wet, not particularly warm, and hard to see in, and the chance of a rainbow was very small. Niphora was a stranger to hot weather, and so this day, so far from the middle of summer that it was meant to be, came off as no surprise to many.
For nine-year-old Calon Azural, this weather was nothing special. He rarely went outside as his body was ice-cold - not as cold as it was two months ago, but it nonetheless gave him less energy to do the things he used to like. Watching the drizzle through the lounge window, and how the sunlight shone off of it, was enough to keep him interested. In many ways, it reminded him of the ice that he blasted from his hands.
On the other end of the room, however, was a completely different perspective. Calon's sister, Karie Azural, was in tears on the carpet at the far wall. She was only five years old, with fluffy blonde hair and tear-filled deep brown eyes. Karie wanted the sun - the hallmark of summer days - but it was nowhere to be seen. As an older brother Calon was used to this, but nonetheless annoyed by her presence. Defeatedly, he walked over to her spot on the floor, collapsed into a cross-legged sit, and asked,
“What's the matter, Karie?”
“It's not sunny...” The little girl sobbed. “Why can't it be sunny?”
“Do you want some snow instead?” Calon gave his sister a warm smile, and while her tears were slowing down, she returned with a look of confusion.
“Snow?”
“Yeah, snow! Snow's fun to play with.”
“Where's the snow?”
“Right here!” Calon held a palm to the air, and a shard of ice flew slowly into the air. Moments later, his opposite hand blasted the ice with a second shard, causing them to both shatter into a flurry of tiny, soft, snow-like particles.
Karie was mesmerised at the sight of it - she'd never seen her brother's ice power before, only heard the odd bedtime story about them. Hopping up immediately, she danced after the ice flecks that drifted far out across the room, trying to catch them in her tiny hands. Calon, meanwhile, felt a brief brim of energy, warm as a real summer's noon. As the feeling began to cool, he quietly watched on, amazed by the energy and simple joy of a little child. She was having so much fun with something that he found so small.
Two months have passed.
Calon was with his older sister, Tenna Azural, lounging on her bed as they flicked through a catalogue. Tenna was thirteen years old, with almost-white hair in pigtails and the same brown eyes as her father and younger sister. She'd drawn a star on three of the book's items with her red pencil already, having many good ideas on what her mother could have on her soon-coming birthday.
Calon, however, was eyeing the pages in boredom, twirling his blue pen as he waited miserably for his sister to turn to the next page. Each time, he found nothing that could make a good present. Just a minute later, the back cover of the catalogue closed up.
“Calon, did you choose anything?” Tenna asked.
“No, nothing.” Calon replied, blank and miserable. “There's nothing good in here.”
“Tell that to Karie. She drew a circle around every single page!” Tenna was laughing at the thought, but her little brother gave her nothing but an emotionless stare. “Hey, Calon, what if you make your own gift for Mum?”
“Make my own gift? In one day?”
“Yeah, just a simple arts-and-crafts project.”
“No. I'm terrible at art.”
“Don't be so narrow-minded...”
Calon didn't respond. A whirl of ice shimmered in his open hand, but he didn't let it blast out as usual. He kept watching as more ice flowed from his skin, covering the shard in many coats of glazed frost. By the time he was finished, the crystal was completely opaque. In a silent frustration, one less of anger and more of malaise, he tossed the shard forwards, striking the front frame of the bed like an arrow in a target - but it didn't shatter. The ice was stuck in place, hanging like a sideways icicle.
Tenna was shocked, but acted like she'd seen it all before. As the amazement in her head shifted, out came an idea.
“I've got an idea. Can you make five more of those?”
“Sure.” Calon wasn't about to take orders from his sister, though his desperation for ideas cancelled their sibling rivalry out. He channeled the ice into his palm, far more quickly this time, and pelted the bedframe with the shards. Tenna ducked out of the way, not quite trusting him to avoid her, then reached out to pluck the ice from the frame. Laying them down on the covers one by one, she pointed their long, sharp ends towards one central point, and they were frozen together instantly.
“See?” She asked jubilantly.
“Yeah, that looks just like a flower.” Calon replied, in a soft but nonetheless happy tone. “Mum really likes flowers... at least, that's what Dad thinks.”
“It must be boring to get flowers every single year. She'd probably like the change.” Tenna was bright and beaming as she turned to her brother and told him, “We're going to need another six flowers to make this work. Smaller ones this time.”
“Am I making this present or are you?!”
“Hey, who said that he's terrible at art?”
Calon was infuriated with his sister over their short verbal skirmish, but at the same time he felt quite grateful towards her. She'd saved him from a difficult situation, all the while helping him along the way to learning a new application for his powers - the ability to build with ice.
Another two months have passed.
It was now near the end of the autumn. The yearly Illustrinald, the festival where the sky turned silver for a day, had passed and the weather was steadily changing to invite long, cold nights. To the youth of Niphora, this was a joyful time as it brought the snow and a time away from school. It would have been the same for Calon, if not for this being his entire reality.
While he was starting to feel more active, Calon still wasn't fond of going out in the snow. He was supposed to be helping little Karie in building her marble run, though a world of distractions stood for him on the screen near the top of the opposite wall - Chain Runner. It was his favourite game on the Screenportal, Niphora's best-known entertainment console. As he methodically tapped buttons on the two loop-shaped controllers in his hands, he gazed in amazement while the hero, Alter, threw out his grappling hooks to deftly avoid obstacles on the road ahead.
“Calon! Are you done yet?”
Calon was rightfully annoyed to hear his little sister shout from a room over - Alter was about to reach the airship he was targeting, after all. He quickly tapped another button, pausing the game in an instant. He turned and knelt to face the plastic pieces Karie had started arranging, but given up on halfway through. After a short time fumbling, he found the funnel-shaped blue piece that she was struggling with, and tried to press it into position. Though just as she had told him, it was refusing to slot in probably. He was about to pull the piece back out, only to be cut off by a shout from the kitchen.
He ran to the source of the alarm - less of a run with the ice binding on him, it felt closer to a fast jog. Seren Azural-Phirium was standing there, his hands aggressively clamped over the mouth of the tap. The cold water was stuck running at full throttle, madly splashing his hands and leaking in a trickle through a tear on the side.
Seeing the situation rapidly unfold, Calon channeled the ice into his hands at full speed. He held his arm out to his target, and fired an unrelenting barrage of icy spikes - the kind of bullet storm that Alter would have to dodge on his adventures. They struck down the winch that was working the tap, pushing it out of its lock and instantly depleting the water flow. It wasn't perfect - there were still rapid tiny drips - but any more force would have demolished the winch. Seren felt the rush of fluid on his hands patter out, along with the sudden chill from the explosion of white, and turned to see his son, tightly gripping his left hand that was sore from the rapid ice attack.
“Thanks, Calon,” he said, starting in congratulation but soon shifting to worry. “What's wrong, does your hand hurt?”
“No, it's fine. I just threw too much ice.” Calon was calm, almost forgetting the panic he felt moments ago.
“Calon, do you think you can do anything about the rest of the water?” Seren asked.
“I don't think I can.”
“Can you at least try?”
With a shallow confidence, Calon walked up to the tap, holding his hands over both the tear in the pipe and the dripping head. The cold built up once again, though with no space to shape an ice shard, it seeped straight through his open palms and coated the metallic surfaces with tiny blankets of ice. As he let go, he was astounded to see the white glaze he had created - and that no droplet of water was leaking any further. He barely had the time to marvel at his work, however, as he felt his father's arm joyfully wrap around him.
“Amazing work, Calon!” Seren told him in delight. “Your ice powers get better all the time, don't you know?”
Calon didn't say anything at first, but he was beaming from the praise. His dad was right, he kept on finding new ways to control the ice. Six months ago, it was nothing more than a problem for him. He was confused, but at the same time he was amazed that he could use the cold to help others.
“Thanks, Dad.” He finally told him. “Hey, why don't I use this to fix Karie's marble run?”
“Why? What's wrong with it?”
“Just some pieces that don't go together.”
“Alright, I'll let you get on with that.” Seren let go, though his son stayed still a while, giving a smile of subtle thanks. Calon soon let go as well, rushing to the lounge as fast as he was comfortable with, before Karie would notice. The marble run was exactly how he'd left it, with the funnel piece still hanging limply off the top. He pulled the piece back out, then pressed his hand to the slot he was aiming for. Cold energy seeped out from his fingers, coating the top rim with a blanket of paper-thin, sticky ice. The funnel in his hands reached to its place again, and this time, it stuck into place instantly.
Another two months have passed. The year is now 1807.
Calon was bored once again, staring out across the garden from a wooden chair at the far end. His eyes kept trying to follow Tenna, pacing in loops around the four-inch snow with her male friend from school. He must have been Calensian, with his faded blue hair and the kind of accent that most people thought was casual and friendly - though Calon only saw an annoying side to it.
“Hey, Tenna,” he asked in this voice. “who's the little kid over on the chair?”
“That's just my brother.” Tenna spoke almost too casually, making Calon think she was being disrespectful.
“Does he get as annoying as my brother?”
“Nah, Calon's kind of quiet. He used to be really fun-loving, before he fell into a Subrift. I prefer him that way.”
“Subrift, huh? My ma ran into one of those.” Tenna's friend told her, slightly more relaxed than before. “Thanks to that she can bend water and earth. It's amazing, she knows so many ways to make our life easier with it! What's so bad about that?”
“Calon didn't end up like that.” Tenna was suddenly seemed miserable at the thought. “The Subrift he landed in left a serious impact on his physical ability. But it's getting better, in the past eight months his health's kept climbing up. I've probably got until he's ten before he starts pestering me again.”
Fed up of watching these two moseying in the garden, Calon hopped out of the wooden seat and began to let the ice flow into his hands. He blasted a wave of frost at the ground, and at once it shaped into glistening glacial shards, aiming up towards the clouds. He had always loved the sight of the ice, especially in winter when you could see nothing but white through its transparent sheen. This time, however, it didn't bring him the same wonder. Calon knew in his heart that he'd seen this all before.
Breaking his thoughts was a heavy rustle, and the sound of branches bending. He ran to the tree at the garden's front, and saw a boy trying to grab onto the lower branches - he was seven years old at the most, with the same blue hair as the Calensian boy. That was clearly the little brother he had mentioned, though Calon had no idea he'd been invited to come along.
“Hi,” Calon started, barely avoiding a stutter. “What's your name?”
“I'm Rys,” the little boy replied. “Rys Soleras. Aren't you Calon?”
“That's right. Are you my sister's friend's brother?”
“Sister's friend? You mean Marcin?”
“Yeah, him-“ Calon was about to keep talking, but he stopped as he noticed Rys scrambling up the tree. “Get down!” he shouted imperatively - though not as loudly as he would have liked. “That tree's too icy, you shouldn't climb it!”
Calon wasn't about to climb after him, so his only option was to catch Rys when he fell. Standing a fair distance in front of the tree, arms outstretched in front, he waited tensely for the time of rescue. Quickly after came the sound of fingers flipping off the ice, and Rys fell backwards from some five metres up in the branches, distressed but trying not to cry out. Calon was ready to resc-
It happened again. Calon froze and fell back. Rys landed in a shallow mass of snow, stamped down by his feet as he ran around the tree earlier. With a scream, he collapsed onto his side. After struggling to get his body to respond, Calon made a quick two-step dash over, and knelt down to comfort him.
“What's wrong?” he asked, trying to sound like his parents might if he'd done the same, “Where does it hurt?”
Rys didn't reply, though the way he clutched his knees in pain was all that Calon needed. He pulled up the leg on both of his pairs of trousers, revealing a deep bruise on the right knee. Calon had never done anything medical before, but he did remember seeing ice used for treatments. He held a hand to the bruise, and let out a cooling breeze from the palm. Rys was still wincing, though part of that was from the cold air biting at his open leg. Calon moved on to the left leg, quickly finding another bruise at the top of the shin and pressing his icy hand to it.
“Agh, stop!” Rys reacted with panic. “You're going to freeze me!”
“Sorry, sorry.” Calon replied. “Are you feeling less sore, though?”
“Yeah.”
Calon smiled and pulled the little boy's trouser legs back down, before lifting him up to his feet. He turned around to walk away from the tree, only to notice Marcin standing there in a foul mood. Calon felt intimidated at first, but quickly realised who he was angry at.
“What were you thinking, Rys?” Marcin sounded much less angry than Calon was expecting. “With how many trees you've fallen out of, I'm surprised you haven't broken any bones!”
“I-I'm sorry, I really am!” Rys was very cheerful in his response - clearly the brothers were used to this happening. “By the way, Calon here gave me ice so it doesn't hurt as much.”
“Wait, that Calon? As in Tenna's brother?” Marcin turned to Calon and asked, “So how'd you help my brother?”
“I just used my ice.” Calon said plainly, as he held out a hand and formed a snowflake of shards within its open space. “It's something I got from a Subrift.”
“That's kinda sweet. So what did your sister mean about it being a problem?”
“Well, it started like that. For two years I was constantly freezing and I barely had any energy. I feel much better now, though, but I'm still not healthy enough to go to school.”
“Hope you get better soon, Calon.” For once, Calon didn't find Marcin's voice annoying - he seemed genuinely calm and sympathetic. “From what I've seen, Subrift powers are a really great thing. I'd hate to see someone suffering because of them.”
Another two months have passed.
It was the start of the springtime. Flowers were starting to bloom, but as was typical for Niphora, the air was still rather crisp. Calon was out in the forest with Royston Ferroson, one of his old friends from the scouts. With his condition greatly improved, Calon was set to go back to school in a few days, so his mother had arranged this as a preparation. They'd been holding off this trip for two years and nine months, on account of Calon not being healthy enough for the occasion, and after that time they'd become barely recognisable from each other.
The eleven-year-old Royston was now taller than Calon, his previously white hair was now a dusty pale blond, and it had changed from a neat and sideswept style to a short, messy crew cut. He wore his scout uniform with its eight badges sewn in, while Calon had to make do with everyday clothes - his old uniform was from nearly three years ago. Although he would have liked to fit in, Calon found that the white and dark grey he was wearing stood out much more against the bark of the trees.
“Hey, you know which way we're going, right?” Royston asked.
“Aren't you the one with the map?” Calon responded.
“I can't keep taking the map out. It's difficult to fold and unfold.”
“Uh, right... we're going to take a left turn at the next fork, aren't we?” Royston nodded, a simple and clear response that told Calon all he needed to know. They kept walking, the woods and foliage around them never seeming to change. To pass the time, Calon was plucking the long, dark leaves from the walls of foliage and pulling them apart - he'd peel away one half, then the other, leaving only a kind of skeleton. Before long, a slice of leaf ended fluttering onto the red ribbon around Royston's neck. Confused, he seized it between two fingers and turned to see his friend mindlessly repeating the menial task.
“Calon, what are you doing with those leaves?”
“Just passing the time.” He told Royston, barely turning to address his friend. “It's kind of interesting.”
“Didn't you listen back when you were a scout? Leaves are living things, just like us, and we need them for oxygen.”
Calon didn't give much of a reply - just a sheepish nod, a wordless way of accepting his wrongdoing. The sound of their conversation had faded out, leaving only the rustle of leaves caught by the chilling breeze.
“You've gotten out-of-touch with the world in the past three years, huh?” Royston asked, breaking the silence.
“I haven't been so far away from my house in ages. Even little things like this, I find weirdly fun.”
The boys took the awaited left turn, though before long they found their sights unfamiliar. The trees had grown denser and far more luscious than before, their verdant leaves forming a kind of curtain on either side of them. With the greenery blocking out the sun, their surroundings were plunged into darkness.
“Hey, Royston?” Calon asked as he took hold of his old friend's arm. “This definitely wasn't on our route on the map.”
“No, I think it was.” Royston sounded confident - he was used to getting lost, after all.
“We should check the map. Just to be sure.”
“How are we going to read the map in...” Royston's sentence lost its momentum as he turned and noticed Calon channeling ice into his palms. A clear crystal shard rapidly began to form, and he held it up towards a tiny ray of light off to his side - one of the few places, however small, where the leaves above them didn't block out the sun. The light shone through his makeshift prism and was reflected to the right, away from Royston. Calon shifted his ice shard around in the pillar of light, until he eventually found the perfect angle that sent the beam shining off to his left.
“How did you do that?” Royston asked, impressed but still staying calm, as he turned to face Calon, with the map illuminated just under the reflected light.
“Remember how I said I can control ice?” Calon began. “I just used the ice to reflect the light. Kind of like a mirror?”
“That's so cool,” his friend replied. “what else can you do?”
“Well, I can make snow, and freeze water... if you get sore or hot I can give you ice to cool you down...” Calon's voice trailed off before long, as he became aware of something creeping closer in the distance. The darkness made it too hard to tell, though he could just make out a four-legged outline.
“Okay, I've worked out where we are,” Royston told him. “We were supposed to take a right turn on that fork, not a left. Then we need to-“
Calon tilted his prism, abruptly sending the light away from the map. With a struggle, he aimed it towards the shadow just in view. It was a fox. A wild animal of the forest, angry to have been disturbed by humans. The fox charged forth, giving the two boys no time to think. They sprinted back the way-
But then, Calon felt it happen. His entire body froze for a moment. He toppled forwards, collapsed on the ground with the wild grass uncomfortably close to his face. Royston heard the thump as he landed, and with a second's decision he charged forwards, standing aggressively to guard him. The fox jumped up and tried to claw at him, but was pushed back quickly. But Royston was too slow to pull back his arm after the push. The fox sank a row of teeth into his arm, and the boy cried out in furious pain. With his free arm, he began struggling to prise the jaw away. But there was some kind of sound from behind drawing his attention - like the beginning of a howling blizzard.
Royston turned his head for a second, and saw Calon standing upright, his shirt and face covered in grassblades. His eyes were closed, his hands outstretched, and a whirl of ice gathered all around him. A crystal shot out and blasted right in front of the fox, scattering an explosion of icy powder into the air. The fox panicked and jumped back, and within an instant there was a mass of ice spikes on the ground ahead. The animal ran off to the side, only to be boxed in with more ice on the ground. With a yelp he backed away and tried to charge round the side, only for Calon to blow a harsh snowy wind at him. The wild fox wasn't hurt, but the chill got to him and he was suddenly terrified of the human boy's powers. As the animal sprinted back down the path ahead in a whimpering zigzag, Royston grabbed Calon with his free arm and they took off the way they came, until the woods around them started growing more sparse.
“Hey, Royston, are you okay?” Calon asked him, worriedly. “Did the fox hurt you?”
“Really badly, actually.” Royston showed his friend his arm - the bite wasn't deep or bleeding, but it looked sore. “It stings a lot...”
“I can help with that!” Calon pressed both hands to his friend's wound, and the ice began to rapidly flow through. After a few seconds, he let go and took a glance - the sore was much less red, and Royston wasn't wincing nearly as much.
“Th-Thanks, Calon.” Royston replied, with a hint of the stinging pain as he started speaking. “We'd better get back home soon, so I can get a bandage and a check-up, or something. You know, that ice of yours is absolutely amazing...”
Calon didn't respond, but he was beaming positivity. His ice really was amazing. He could make people happy, build with the ice, fix everyday problems, help the injured and fight off any enemies he encountered. No longer was it a problem for him - the cold he felt all the time was much more bearable, and even if it did give a sudden freeze sometimes, he could always recover. For the first time, he felt happy that he'd fallen into the Subrift those three years ago.
Category:Subrift Tales
Category:Stories
Category:Chapters