| He took his sturdy, battle-scarred hand out of its gauntlet, and placed it against the warped, glassy surface. Condensation immediately greeted it, informing him that it was, indeed ice. But it was certainly no normal ice. Whereas at this altitude, his hand should, by all rights, have been stuck to the glacier almost immediately, Acradius Journeyman was brought to the realization that this material would not be good for cooling a man down. It radiated an artificial heat, somehow. Natural heating elements are very few and far between, limited essentially to stars and heat escaping from deep in the earth. Both of which wouldn't have merely warmed his outreached hand, but rather incinerated it.
The only remaining options were that this ice was something that was, in the traditional definition, not ice. Either that, or somehow, the crystalline substance was alive, which he doubted. Even the few animated Ice Golems he had met in his adventures had been cold to the touch; many times supernaturally so.
The most logical explanation was the weapon. Perhaps it was a magical artifact, giving off so much heat that it was able to seep out of the specially-created ice containing it. Perhaps, to fuel itself, the ice was literally absorbing the cold off its surroundings, to keep its prisoner right where it was. It was all theory, of course.
The blond man looked at the weapon. It, like many other things on this planet, seemed to be guiding someone somewhere. It wasn't a difficult thing to do, for a mind such as the Time Warrior's, to figure out the precise angle it was pointing at. With his eyes glowing white, he levitated, following the path laid out before him.
And as he flew... he couldn't shake the feeling. This entire planet gave it off. It was something tucked away, in the back of his mind. Memories called from long ago. So distant, it was like trying to remember a dream... |