Chapter 445: For The Rest Of His Days
The notion that he might have killed little Heila, the sweet, dedicated servant who had once helped the fallen Andrus to catch a giant fish from beneath the ice, unleashed a wave of cracks in the ice that formed Hauke’s mental world. All this time, he’d thought she survived, that things might still be all right, that he could be forgiven for what the ancestors had done with his body, but if Heila had died...
No, even if Heila survived, would she ever look at him again with the eyes of wonder she’d possessed when he built an ice house on the lake that day? Would she tremble in excitement while helping to haul a giant sturgeon above the ice?
As the son of Lord Ritchel and the first Frost Walker born with an iridescent horn in several generations, Hauke had few people he could consider friends. He’d hoped that Ashlynn and Heila would be two friends that he could grow alongside for years, especially when he learned that Heila had become the Willow Witch.
The ancestors had shown him just how much power he could wield by mastering his iridescent horn, and while he might never rival the Mother of Trees, he was certain that he could match up to Heila, maybe even enough to join Ashlynn’s coven... But now, even if they freed him from these chains, he would be trapped by the hurt and resentment created by what the ancestors, no, by what he had done to them today.
"Artificer Erkembalt, Master Aspakos," Nyrielle said, her words interrupting Hauke’s downward spiral. "Something important requires my attention before the sun rises. This is Hauke, he is Lord Ritchel’s son and in a sense, the one responsible for tonight’s bloodshed," she said, immediately making it clear that she expected Hauke to bear at least a portion of the blame for what happened tonight.
"Ashlynn says that he was possessed by the spirits of his ancestors," Nyrielle continued in a voice that was cold, clipped, and carried a trace of impatience. "The Fangs of Death used those horns to create Blood Golems that allowed them to live on after death, more fully than a normal Frost Walker ancestor, and the iridescent horns contain fearsome power on their own."
"Do you know what happened to the young lad?" Erkembalt asked as his face suddenly filled Hauke’s vision. The man’s whiskers twitched, and his silver-rimmed spectacles glowed with a faint trace of energy as he studied the fallen Frost Walker, peeling his eyes open even wider and making ’mmm, mmmhh’ sounds as he worked.
"That is for you to determine," Nyrielle said as she unfurled her dark wings. "Ashlynn cut him free of the spirits that possessed him, but perhaps the real Hauke is already dead, or ground away into fragments so miniscule that he may never be made whole again. His body is alive, but whether or not there is anything left of the person he once was..." her voice trailed off as she let out a heavy sigh.
"If he is already dead, then the body should follow the soul," Nyrielle pronounced coldly. "But if he is alive and bound by some form of curse, then I expect that my vaunted Breaker of Curses can release him from it, even if only a portion of him remains."
"And these horns and the sword?" a third, distant voice asked, likely belonging to the sorcerer Aspakos. "You want us to take them as prizes?"
"That remains to be seen," Nyrielle said. "Both are dangerous. For now, seal them away. Tomorrow night, we can decide what should be done with them. The Frost Walkers are our conquered foes," Nyrielle added. "Once you have secured these dangerous relics, you may bring Hauke inside their fortress to examine him, but gentlemen, make no mistake."