The Nine Bishops

Mika found herself in a familiar place. She felt as she had the last time she entered this mysterious white atmosphere: full of energy and in tune with all her senses. But on this visit, she felt more confident and walked ahead purposefully.

She was hoping to find her father again.

But this time, she was determined to find words to say to him. She wanted answers, and she sensed he had them. At the same time, she was nervous about what was to come; the last time she was here, her father had killed her. That was not easily forgotten. No matter what was about to ensue, she was determined to be prepared.

At last, the black speck reappeared, along with the sound of footsteps. Mika took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her father was standing about a hundred feet in front of her. Even at that distance, she could see the blue tint of his vibrant eyes and felt his unwavering gaze piercing through her. This time, Mika did not hesitate to speak.

“Are you real? Or is everything just a dream?” she demanded.

“What do you think, Mika?” her father asked calmly.

Mika hadn’t expected him to respond with a question. She believed she must be dreaming, but she couldn’t explain how real everything felt.

“What is this place? Why am I here? Why are you here? Why did you kill me last time?” she asked, in a torrent of emotion.

Her father shook his head in dismay. “This is not the place to ask questions.” An icicle began forming in his left hand. “This is the place to prepare.”

He transferred the icicle into his right hand, exactly as he had before.

But Mika was prepared. She dove swiftly out of the projectile’s trajectory and heard the icicle shatter into the ground behind her. She rose with a smile of victory, which vanished instantly when she realized her father was no longer standing in place but running towards her, with another javelin-shaped icicle in his right hand.

He got to Mika quickly and tried to drive it into Mika’s chest, but she reacted just fast enough for it to miss her heart. Instead, it penetrated her left shoulder. She immediately felt completely numb on her left side, and her arm fell down limply.

Mika staggered from the blow. She tried to maintain her balance, but her depth perception felt off, and she could hardly catch her breath. Oddly, she felt no pain, but her vision began to go in and out. It took a moment regain a sense of where she was. All the while, Mika’s father pressed his attack. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, he seemed determined to kill her.

He closed the small gap to Mika with cool determination. Mika focused now on just one thing: survival. Without a conscious thought, she had somehow formed an icicle of her own, which appeared in her right hand in the shape of a dagger. Looking down in surprise, she realized she was emulating her father’s magic. She could barely hold onto the thing, because she was starting to feel frozen all over.

Her father was upon her now. In the blink of an eye, he put a hand on her left shoulder, just above the icicle jutting from it. Then he drove his own icicle dagger into her heart. Mika tried to retaliate. But with the shock of the cold incision she lost her grip on the ice dagger. She sank to the floor, with her father still holding her. She had only enough energy to say one word: “Why?”

Just before everything went black, she heard: “Because I love you.”