Ciel and Kou sat by the river. Kou had a small spear made of ice in his right hand, ready to strike and catch any fish he sees. While Ciel just looked at his reflection in the river, wondering to himself.
Kou, readied his spear after seeing a bright red fish under the water. He threw his spear in order to catch it, but...
"Say, Kou, what's with that silver ring of yours? It seems pretty valuable."
Kou misses the mark on the fish by a few inches. The fish swims off and away. Kou grits his teeth and grabs his spear from the water.
"It's some kind of artifact I found. And yeah, it is pretty valuable."
"Then why not just sell it?" Ciel approached Kou from behind, his hands resting on Kou's shoulders with a smirk on his face.
"Sell it?! Are you stupid?! This piece is...-"
"It's not a simple artifact, is it? If it was that simple of a thing, you would have sold it from the day you found it. That piece of silver glows in the night as well, for some reason. So just spill it out."
Kou lets out a sigh, putting his spear down. He sits on top of a rock next to Ciel.
"I found this ring when I was six, maybe seven years old. Up until that point, I had adjusted my mana already. But I was born with such depleted amounts of mana that I could not use my art without draining myself... But after finding this ring? I had so much more amounts of mana, it was crazy."
"It's not just that, though, the ring doesn't simply only give you more mana, does it?"
"Nope, it doesn't. But I'm hesitating to give you this bit of information..."
Ciel smirks. His smile speaks of confidence written under his eyes.
"I'll take a really, really wild guess. I think that ring of yours is the ring of a goddess. Not just a goddess.. The goddess of snow, ice and hail. Daughter of Boreas, cold north wind. She is Khione. Am I wrong?"
"Wait, how do you know that much about Khione?"
"I've done my fair share of research. Moving on... why is Khione inside your ring?"
"I... I'm not sure, actually. I found the ring hidden in her temple when I ran away once. After wearing it, she started to whisper to me and help me out so far."
"That's pretty... weird. So the ring you found is whispering to you. Are you sure you're not crazy?"
"Hey, stop kidding around!" Kou lets out a sigh. "Ciel, I've something to confess to you."
"Please, don't reveal your undying love for me. I would probably just kill you here."
Kou completely ignores Ciel's pathetic attempt at humor.
"I've never been able to use any sort of magic except for ice magic before. But with you? While fighting with Reeves? I was able to use wind magic. Never before in my life..."
"Wait, are you being serious?"
"Yes, Ciel. I've no affliction with any other magic type except for ice. And usually, I just use my art."
"Okay, that's weird... I don't think you would be able to use wind magic then."
"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm confused about it as well."
"Well, I might have an explanation for that."
"Yeah? Go on, then." Kou gets back up and picks up his ice spear to try and catch whatever fish remain on their side of the river.
"You've probably never had an affiliation with any magic, because you never tried using it. Am I correct? You relied on your art, then you also only used ice magic along with it, which made you look like you only had an affiliation for ice."
"Really...? I guess that's valid." Kou jams his spear into a small fish, then removes it from the spear and puts it aside. He goes into catch a bigger one.
"You know, the thing I'm most curious about is, what's the relationship with you and Taku? I know he can be a jerk, I'll give you that, but he's not really that bad. In my humble opinion."
"That's your opinion. You only knew him for about a week, and you already think he's a jerk. Think about it like this; your whole, nineteen year long life, you're stuck with the same jerk. To top it all off..." Kou jams his spear into a big fish before finishing his sentence.
He speaks aggressively, like he is currently mad at something. Like he hit his toe on a desk. "That same jerk is your parents' favorite child! They make you look up to him!"
"You must really hate him, huh?"
Kou scoffs at the question. "Don't even get me started."
"What does he even do? What makes him so bad? Surely, it's not just his attitude."
"Oh, he's all high and mighty. I always lived under his shadow. He hasn't even inherited the clan's adjustment art! Why is he so special?!"
Ciel smiles and puts his fist up to his chin as he watches Kou getting progressively angrier and catching more fish with each outburst.
"Don't even get me started on how lucky he is! Every time I fight him, he ends up winning. Can you believe that? I'm better than him! In every aspect of our lives! But the gods must favor him for some reason!"
Ciel sighs. "Actually, I can believe that. He's not talented like you are, he's hard working. And the gods? They're on your side. I mean, that silver ring is the proof. You've got a Greek goddess attached and bonded with your soul, and you say he is favored by the gods?"
Kou jams his spear into the water one last time, catching another fish. But he freezes in place and turns around.
"Wait, what? Khione is bonded with my soul?"
"Yeah. You've got the soul of a goddess inside your mortal soul."
"How is that even possible? For starters, how can you even know that?" Kou quickly takes off the fish from the ice and adds it to the pile of other thirteen fishes. He then drops his ice spear into the river, allowing it to slowly melt and wash away.
"How can I know that, huh. Remember, I can see souls? When I try hard enough, at least. It's kind of the Voldrald's thing, really."
"No, no, no, that can't be right. Why would our souls even merge?!" As Kou says that, questioning the reality of the situation, his ring starts to glow.
"How would I know that? I can only observe souls, can't even interact with them. That's many levels above me."
"You're probably seeing things wrong. It's merely the ring of a goddess, Ciel. Stop making me panic like that."
"What's so bad about being merged with a goddess' soul?" As Ciel speaks, another voice rises from Kou's direction.
"The Voldrald raises a good question. Why would you not want to be merged with the likes of a goddess, such as I?"
Kou, doesn't pay much attention to the voice. He instead speaks further. "I mean, for starters, I would lose a portion of my humanity. Right? The soul is the most important part of a human."
"Gods and goddesses have souls too, I should let you know."
"Yeah, but it's not the same. Wait a minute, who are you?"
Kou looks around to see whoever is speaking with him. When his eyes can't find anyone, he sees Ciel pointing at his hand.
Kou, quickly raises his right hand up to his face, seeing his ring glowing.
"I'm the goddess Khione, the one that has bonded with you, Ogawagi."
Kou, in shock, falls back to the ground. His head falls down to the river behind him. He then springs back up, rubbing his eyes to see if this is an illusion or not.
Ciel, smirks and gets up from the rock. He walks to Kou, firstly, picks him up then grabs his hand to take a closer look to his ring.
"Well, this is certainly interesting. I didn't think you would be talkative, queen of ice."
Kou's ring glows intensely at Ciel. "That's goddess of ice to you."
"Actually, it's ice and snow." Ciel smirks even wider.
"So this is actually a goddess? A goddess inside my finger?" Kou asks.
"She's inside the ring that's on your finger." Ciel corrects Kou, with a tired expression on his face.
Kou rolls his eyes at the correction. "It's basically the same thing."
"It's different enough, Ogawagi." Khione says, the ring glowing bright enough to catch everyone's attention as she speaks.
"Let's get back on the topic. And keep the filth away from your finger and this ring. Why is it so bad to be bonded with my soul?"
Kou falls silent, unable to answer a simple question like that. He himself is not sure why he is so opposed to the idea of sharing souls with the ring and the goddess inside his ring that has helped him throughout the entirety of his life.
Ciel, breaks up the silent. A bit of offense in his voice. "Wait, the filth? You're talking about me, aren't you?!"
No response comes out of the ring or Kou, making Ciel look like an insane man in the middle of this forest.
The silver ring burned against his skin. His thumb traced its edge repeatedly, a restless rhythm betraying his unease. Kou clenched his jaw, his teeth pressing against each other.
Ciel clenches his fists, his knuckles turning white with the pressure. He grits his teeth in anger.
"I'll tell ya why he doesn't want to be bonded with your flawed, nasty soul, Icy Queen! It's because you're a banished goddess. You're hated by your own kind, why should he like you?!"
As Ciel speaks with anger, Kou's eyes go wide with the sudden exposure through Ciel's outburst.
"Wait, banished? Why would she be banished?"
Ciel grins, still, his face covered in anger. He isn't furious, but he sure is annoyed. He fixes his hair and cleans his throat.
"Yeah, it's true! Your fragile goddess was banished, because she let her love for your clan get the better of her, she blessed your clan! Why do you think your clan has an inherited adjustment art while the others don't?"
"You speak of my banishment as if it was correct treatment, Voldrald. That's what I expected from your clan to begin with... I was poorly judged, and on a whim, I was banished."
Ciel scoffs at Khione. He grabs Kou's hand and brings it up to his face, speaking face-to-face with his silver ring.
"You were permanently banished, and you call that a whim? Do you think we're stupid? Tell him why you were banished."
The glow on Kou's ring gets lighter, nearing to disappear entirely. No response comes from the goddess, while Kou is left there, in shock. Especially wondering why Ciel would be so furious...
"You won't tell him? Alright then!" Ciel lets go of Kou's hand. He continues to yell.
"Kou, your goddess didn't just kill people. She killed generations of people! She assisted in a literal genocide! They all died because a jealous goddess had to take it out on someone!"
The ring on Kou's fingers glows even brighter than before in response. Kou's eyes flashes with the ring.
"Silence, mortal! You are not even supposed to know that. How can you?"
"Oh, this isn't about me, Icy Queen. This is about you and your jealousy."
Kou stares up at Ciel. "What do you mean... when you say a genocide?"
Ciel chuckles at the question. Not out of joy, but out of anger. The rage within him is displayed through his eyes, his voice is dipped in fury.
"The Voldrald clan. Gods know how long ago it is, it's much before both you and our lives combined. Khione caused the genocide of the Voldrald clan after she was rejected by Ares. Do you wanna know why? Ares bestowed upon the Voldrald his agonising blessing."
The voice of Khione gets louder as Kou's ring glows brighter, surrounding both Kou and Ciel in a flash of light.
"Your wretched kind was bestowed the worst of blessings imaginable. I did your kind a favor, you insolent brat!"
"Yeah, right! The solution was to wipe out more than half of their lives, wasn't it?!" Ciel latches onto Kou's wrist tightly, facing his ring once again. "Face it, your divine jealousy was the end of their lives."
"They deserved it, for all I care!" Khione defensively yells at Ciel.
"And you, for all they cared, deserved to be stuck in this stupid piece of silver for the eternity of your immortal existence. Gods know how much I want to take you and melt that ring in the spot."
Ciel, turns away from there and walks towards the other side of the river. The flash of light starts to get dimmer, eventually it disappears completely. Leaving Kou in shock, thinking over what he's just witnessed.
***
While on the other side of the river, Ciel picks up different fruits from trees by casting rock spells and shaking the trees, breaking apart a few of them in half. The trees fall over behind him as he continues to walk deeper into the forest.
Kou, starts to rush towards Ciel. He walks over the the river, the water freezes over as he walks past. Expecting to feel his feet sink into water, he fumbles over a few steps when he's greeted with solid ice.
Kou stares at his ring for about a few seconds after crossing the river, he then looks at Ciel, who's walking away from him. He calls out to Ciel, to try and get his attention, but Ciel doesn't even look behind himself.
Kou, then gives up and sits down on the grass. Settling down. He looks at his reflection on the freshly formed solid ice on the river. He then switches his focus to the ring on his hand. He remembers Ciel's word, the thought of the goddess he worships committing a genocide on his clan covers his stomach with disgust as he looks down on the river once again. The ice melts away.
He gags up but holds it back, he plunges his hand deep into the river. All the fishes in the river swim away from the spot. Kou tries to clean away his hand, his ring, the bloodshed of the past. He has a hard time accepting or believing it, but a harder time denying it. After all, Khione only excused herself, didn't even refuse.
Tears start to run down through Kou's eyes as he looks into the water. In his eyes, his ring is covered in blood. He takes his hand out and stares into his ring, he places his hand on the ring and starts to remove it from his hand.
But suddenly, the noise of fruits falling to the grass makes Kou jump away. Ciel looks at Kou, who was about to take out his ring.
"Don't bother. It won't undo what's been done. Nor will it separate your soul from Khione's own."