Heavens Divide prologue
Heavens Divide
Prologue
It was a bright and sunny day on the dawn of the modern age. Mind you, when you’re in the North Pole ‘bright and sunny’ is the only forecast you can expect during the summer. Continuing on, it was a bright and sunny day in the forgotten kingdom of Arcticala. The sun radiated with all its might in a vain effort of warming the frost that sheltered a frozen kingdom only to be reflected by a large structure that rose above the wastelands. The last stronghold of the doomed empire, AKA the palace.
“OH furious flaming fudge!” a piercing voice flew across the elaborate halls of forsaken palace. “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! The queen is going to melt me again!” Tessa the midwife panicked whilst skating hurriedly across the crystal floors passing various ice sculptures of bygone queens and empresses.
She hated the antechamber and its array of frozen hags. They never fail to remind her about her centuries of tedious work for the sovereigns and the punishments she faced. The rulers more specifically the queens of this kingdom had hot tempers, short attention spans and the least amount of mercy. They would simply melt her (in fact just any citizen) and re-hack them again from blocks ice for pleasure or punishment or both (the line between the two is basically nonexistent in Arcticala), raising another important question ‘how come this kingdom lasted so long?’.
So you see Arcticala is a kingdom ruled by female tyrants with supremacy over anything ice related (or ice queens for short). They have existed along side the gods since Humans were able to grasp the idea of divine beings watching over them. The unfortunate citizens/ slaves include all animals, snowmen and magical beings that inhabit the North Pole apart from Santa who was forced to evict to Himalayas about two centuries ago because the queen apparently is not too fond of ‘male’ presence.
As of now Queen Slusht the third is about to give birth to the successor of this bleak kingdom.
“Tessa you are precisely two seconds late! Can’t you hear the queen is in pain!!” the guard snowman scolded her. “You know the rules, a toe for every second lost” Seemingly calmer but with a wider smirk.
“Look I don’t have time for this, let me pass” she replied, calm and collected but ready to throw her freshly sharpened skates at the continually widening grin of the snowman.
“AS you wish Lady Tessa” he stated sarcastically whilst breaking the magic seal on the Royal chamber.
“Thanks” slipped out blankly as she proceeded to help ease the queen’s agony.
Tessa sighed to herself, this was about the third Queen she had to play midwife for. Not a very glamorous job for a noble ice spirit but who is she to decide…
“TESSA YOU IMBECILE!!!” a figure on the bed at the FAR end of the room shrieked as she stepped further in. “YOU WERE DUE IN AT NOON!!! THIS IS NOW 12:00.2 pm” The voice is piercing despite the fact that it came from the FAR end of the hall.
“Yes, your highness, sorry your highness,” Tess replied but it was more like a reflex.
“Well that’s fine and dandy but COULD WE GET THIS DEMON OUT OF ME!!” the Queen now clearly visible blurted failing to contain herself (something she did not do often so you know something is up)
The pitiful midwife simply ignored it and started preparing for the royal birth. Its nothing new to her and the quicker its over the quicker she can tend to her favorite polar bears, fuzz and frizz. The cloth was moved to the end of the bed and then she asked the waiting snow-woman to fetch her a bowl of cold water (any water that is remotely warm can’t be found in Articala) and sent the ice ogre in the corner to inform the Queen’s sisters, Frigid, Rigid and Midget (the youngest sister…).
“YOU INSOLENT FOOL!! WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO LONG!!” the sorry excuse for a pregnant woman exclaimed.
“Your highness…I don’t know what you are complaining about. I have aided your mother and your grandmother before you in delivering an heir and none of them even said a word about pain” she replied plainly but she knows her house is probably being reduced to an igloo as they spoke. However it was true, ice queens don’t FEEL pain in fact they don’t FEEL at all. When its time to give birth, the successor just forms from ice breathed out by the queen so what is the deal with this woman. But before exploring the thought further…
“Sis!! Sorry we’re late, our sledges broke down so we had to skate,” Three annoyingly similar voices sounded and echoed. As Frigid, Rigid and Midget stormed into the room on their royal skates.
“Alright the family is present your majesty”, Tess informed
“I can start now?!” her breath running disturbingly short.
“Yes… (Just get on with it already!!)” the midwife was suppressing the urge to end a long line of ice queens.
Before Tess realized it the Queen blew a painful breath out, but instead of ice forming…it was blood. Something is definitely wrong cause the queen herself made it clear by choking. The red crystals began to take shape that represents that of a baby. After a couple of minutes it solidified into a sleeping baby and Queen Slusht is gradually being freed from her screaming and coughing fit. Tess did not hesitate to take the new born successor hovering above the exhausted queen and wrapped it in fur. It took a second later for her to realize that it was warm and…
“Your majesty…” Tess hesitated and could feel the sweat freeze down the side of her face.
“What just happened?” Slusht asked completely dazed. “Where is my daughter…?” she asked again in the same manner.
“Umm…well that’s just it” Tess sounded as clueless as the queen herself as everyone of importance in the kingdom witnessed from the far end of the room.
“Huh? I don’t understand…” she absently stated, desperately trying to hang on to consciousness.
“Well your majesty…It’s a human boy…”
The room tensed and a time seemed to halt to take a breather at the statement. The queen passed out and everyone was left with the same expression on their faces.
“Alright everyone…I think we should leave the Queen to rest for now and discuss the event with the council later,” Tess got a hold of herself first cause she anticipated that something was wrong with the whole picture to begin with.
Two weeks later the queen recovered but realizing that she lost the majority of her powers as a divine entity. The child supposedly rid her of her divine rites as a god and is born the way he is because the queen herself prior to giving birth fell in love with another god whose identity is unknown to everyone apart from the queen. She did not reveal the identity and as her final rite as a former god, she retreated to ‘Sanctuary’ the final resting place of gods to join the others as one of the last gods to enter Sanctuary before it was sealed and finally dividing the heavens from earth.
With the gods turning their backs on the planet they dictated, man advanced to the modern day society. Where materialism has taken over what last thread of influence left over by the gods.
Tessa the ice spirit left the child in the care of a human family before fading away.
She left only one thing with the child his name “Arcticon”
So the years passed by in the world of man and society was at the peak of its golden age. However the gods sealed in the sanctuary has had their share of waiting and turned back to look at the world they deserted…and they want it back…