Chapter 5 Frostblood Experiments

❄ Snow ❄

Tick..Tock..Tick..Tock… The frozen feeling of silence was eventually met with the smashing tick of time. Snow was staring at the large clock framing the entrance of her family’s library. This clock was like her; always moving forward, yet running in circles. Patting her hands against her face and shaking her head, Snow broke out of the trance before crossing into the library. The crescent shaped room was floored with a soft scarlet rug and backed by the stones of a dormant fireplace. The caramel furniture and diamond shaped windows gave the feeling of a fancified living space rather than a humble library. The actual library, in its various bookshelves and worktables, was located on the wings of the room. Here, Snow started her search. There was one person she knew who frequented this library rather obsessively; it was basically a second room for her. Snow peeked around one of the bookshelves and found Lussuria sitting at a table near the corner of the room, hidden away from entrance view. Lussuria’s gaze was fixated on a runic mage tome. As Snow approached she could see that the pages were filled with mysterious circular symbols instead of words. Lussuria knew she was there and indicated that by raising the tome up to her face revealing its cover; a fiery red rune.

Snow took a seat just across from her.

“Lussuria.”

“Oh, Snow… hello there.” Lussuria's voice was heard behind the red tome.

“Mom is putting her thumb on me again about not progressing with the Frostblood, can you help me figure it out? You are the smartest one out of all of us.”

“I have my own quota to meet Snow, if I don’t put a bigger gap between me and the rest of the mage college during these finals then they might just think we are equal and my chances of getting promoted ahead of time dwindle.”

“You get perfect scores on every exam though Lussuria. How will you increase the gap when you are already capped on test points?”

“Speed then; If I finish the test before anyone even flips the first page then that would suffice.”

“Sounds like you are making excuses Lussuria. Come on and just help me out.” Snow stretched over the table until she was peeking over the top of Lussuria’s book. “How about a trade then?”

“What on earth do you have to offer me?” Lussuria’s eyes snapped to hers.

“You know what I have to offer and it's worth a lot more than a few seconds on a test.”

Lussuria gritted her teeth slightly but couldn’t form a rebuttal.

Snow smiled, vaulting over the worktable and began pinching Lussuria’s clothes in various spots.

“If you help me, I'll put a good word in with Lazerous and tell him how ‘grandly’ you helped me. Maybe he’ll make you a special outfit too.” She kept annoyingly pulling on Lussuria’s clothes, teasing her. “Mine feels wayyy stronger than this outfit. Sheesh. I don’t think you have much of a choice here.”

Snow continued the pestering until Lussuria gave in.

“Ugh, fine!” Lussuria slammed the tome down and got up, rushing past her.

“Yes! I’m sure with your help I’ll be able to finally activate my frostblood!” Snow followed her in earnest.

Lussuria began pursuing down the library, pulling books out every now and then. Once she was done, she took the collection of texts and left the library, Snow still trailing behind her.

“Where are we going?”

“To the training hall.”

“Are we going to try sparring?”

“No.”

The wintery frontier of Regalia gave a landscape view to the background of the indoor arena, presented by the tall barred windows lining the rear of the fighting ring. On the opposite side, draped spectator balconies canopied over the entrance stairs in clear view of the fighting grounds. Various banners from different regions including their own lotus banner were hung from all the walls on skyward pointing flags. The purpose of this hall was for the spectating of high profile matches as well as the settling of basic disputes by combat. The castle was cleaned, washed and upkeep to the highest standards but this arena was rarely cleaned, indicated by the cracks on the stone walls and scorch marks on the ground. The gravel was usually smoothed over but the only substances that were cleaned here was that of blood and bodily fluids.

Even though this arena was primarily intended for official matches, it has increasingly been used for the training of one’s swordsmanship and practice of one’s magicry. It is also where Lussuria decided to conduct her ‘experiment’ to try and bring out Snow’s Frostblood.

Snow was sitting on the tiled floor with her legs crossed just before the gravel arena. She patiently waited as Lussuria dragged a piece of chalk around her. Once the circle was complete Lussuria started scribing various mage symbols on the inside of the strange circle, occasionally referencing the old runic mage book she was holding. Lilly was also present, curiously examining an assortment of magical instruments that were laid out on a nearby table.

Once the sign on the ground was complete, Lussuria put the book on the floor and went to the table where Lilly stood behind.

“Wand.” Lussuria demanded while holding her hand out, like she was in the middle of a procedural operation.

Lilly grabbed the wooden wand off the table and placed it in Lussuria’s hand. As Lussuria began reciting a spell incantation, A magical glow shone from her palm.

“Rune

Activate

Frost

Reveal!”

The magical rune lit up under Snow, shining a bright azure blue and releasing a low hum.

“Do you feel anything Snow?” Lussuria questioned.

Snow was looking at the azure blue light shining beneath her but she felt nothing.

“Nothing yet.”

Lussuria put the wand down and held her hand out towards Lilly again.

“Augment runestone.”

“Auggie-ment runestone... okay, got it!” Lilly grabbed the inscribed rock and placed it in Lussuria’s hand.

Lussuria repeated the spell, the augment runestone glowing in her hand, while the runic circle underneath Snow began to spin, the light shining from it growing in intensity while the humming noise increased in volume.

“Feel anything yet?”

Snow still felt nothing.

“Nothing yet!”

“Okay, looks like I’m going to have to crank it up more. Lilly, mage baton!”

“Uhhhhh... okay!” After a moment of confused searching, Lilly handed her a metallic baton.

Lussuria took it, waved it, and the runic circle appeared to become energized. It spun faster as the light it was giving off grew blinding and the hum of its magic rose deafeningly.

“Snow, how about now?!” She yelled over the palpable feeling of magic pulsing through the air.

Snow did feel something, it started as an odd and vague sensation at first, but then erupted into a tickling one, quickly spreading all over her body. She immediately bursted into uncontrollable, squealing laughter.

“I feel it, hahaha! Stop, it tickles too much!” Snow yelled, rolling around while arcs of yellow electricity crackled over her.”

Lussuria looked at the baton in her hand in confusion.

“Lilly, I said the mage baton, not the lightning stick!”

“Whoopsie, but Luss they look so similar!” Lilly said innocently.

Lussuria was moving to stop the spell when the realization hit her. Snow’s squealing laughter should have been replaced with that of screams or foaming mouth shakes.

“Snow, how is that not hurting you?” Lussuria’s head tilted sideways at the anomalous reaction.

Snow was too busy laughing while lightning coursed over her skin.

“What?! Just make it stop, hahaha! Please, it tickles too much!”

Lussuria shut off the rune and looked at Snow closely, before pulling at some of the fabric of her clothes.

“It insulates against lightning magic too!?” The envy in her voice was obvious.

“Alright, enough with the clothes! Why can't I summon my frostblood?” Snow demanded, sighing bitterly as her magic provoked laughter faded.

Lussuria took a moment to think before responding.

“I don’t know Snow, but I have another idea."

This time Lilly and Snow stood next to each other in the arena ring for the next experiment.

“Lilly, I want you to activate your frostblood after I activate mine.”

“Okie-doky!”

When Lussuria closed her eyes, a flash was felt as the room grew colder. Lussuria’s eyes reopened, now glowing bluish-white. The signature eyes of a frostblood both beautiful and mysterious.

“What does your frost power do again Lussuria? Something about making you remember more?” Snow curiously asked.

“I've learned how to use it to enhance my spellcasting, But I can also sense magic with it. I should be able to feel some kind of magical reaction in your body if Lilly activates hers right in front of you. Go ahead Lilly, do it now.”

Lilly clenched her fist and released a small roar that would have been cute, if not for the frost energy that erupted from her in a wave that dropped the room’s temperature even further. A small patch of ice formed under her feet. Her skin quickly paled, and her eyes glowed like Lussuria’s, but not as bright.

“It’s on Luss!”

Lussuria gave Snow a closer inspection.

“I don’t feel anything? That’s so weird. Lilly has... Lilly has a tremendous amount of energy, but you, I'm not even sensing regular mana waves within you. How strange...”

“Well, that’s just what I need to hear. Not only can I not activate my frost blood, but I don’t have regular magic either. Just perfect.” Snow sighed despondently.

All three of them heard the creaking doors of the training hall open. Gravis was entering with training gear over her shoulder and paused when she realized there were three sets of eyes were on her. Everyone kept staring at her in silence.

“Uhhhh, I'll come back later.” She quickly tried to leave once seeing the overly interested gazes.

Gravis was sitting on the stairs of the training hall entrance listening as they explained what they were trying to do.

“You want me to form ice so Snow can interact with it?” Gravis raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, just summon some ice Gravis, I want to test something. I would ask Lily but the ice she can summon isn’t potent enough for this.” Lussuria urged her on.

“I can only do this a few times a day, and using it up like this would be a waste of good training.” She complained, but one look at Snow, with her begging eyes, and she gave in.

“Ugh, I don’t want to waste it, but if you think it would help... fine.”

Gravis got up and made her way onto the start of dueling grounds in the center of the hall.

“Stand back.”

Everyone gave her space. Gravis closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. The entire hall felt a pulse of chill as Gravis opened her glowing eyes. This chill was a lot more powerful than both Lussuria and Lilly’s, proving Gravis was definitely the strongest among them.

Gravis formed a claw with her hand and slammed it on the ground, palm first.

“Emerge!”

A sharp noise rippled across the hall as a thin trail of ice spikes erupted from the floor in front of her, several feet tall.

“Wow it's like a little pointy pathway!” Lilly squealed, clapping her hands.

“Shut up, It's supposed to be a lot bigger than that!” Gravis sounded offended.

Lussuria looked at Snow,

“Okay Snow, go ahead and touch it.”

Snow placed her hands up against one of the spikes. It felt like normal ice, but there was a faint buzzing sensation that was growing stronger.

“Wait, I think I feel something in the ice!” The ice started buzzing in her hand, then it started visibly vibrating.

“It's like buzzing or something?” Snow pushed on the ice, the piece she was touching broke off and started levitating above her hand. Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Hey! Are you all seeing this?!” she shouted towards her sisters. The ice was floating above her hands as she moved it back and forth. “Am I really doing this right now?!” Snow happily exclaimed, amazement coursing through her as she used one hand to set the piece of ice spinning as it floated over her other hand.

“Lilly, stop playing with the telekinetic rod!” Lussuria shouted by the table, noticing Lilly messing with one of the instruments.

It wasn’t just the ice buzzing, all the magical items were levitating and shaking in the room, including the rest of the ice from Gravis' spike trail.

“I just wanted to see what it would do, hehe!” Lilly giggled before Lussuria took the rod away from her, causing all the things floating in the air to drop to the ground. The piece of ice Snow was playing with also dropped into her hand.

The buzzing feeling disappeared from the ice. So, it wasn’t her. Snow squeezed the ice in her hand, cracking it slightly.

“Why can't I use it?! I'm obviously frost blooded too!” Her frustration grew, especially having witnessed everyone else have an easy time doing all these cool things while she couldn’t even turn this ever-elusive power on.

“Sorry about that Snow” Lussuria said.

“Yeah, I don’t know why, you should have had a reaction to something by now.” Gravis commented.

“Have you tried eating it?” Lilly randomly blurted from underneath the table.

The three older sisters all shared a glance, the same bewildered expression on their faces before Lussuria and Gravis focused on Snow.

Snow understood their gazes and looked back at the piece of ice.

“Why not?” She decided.

There still wasn’t a reaction in the end and the less said about the taste, the better.