A laugh in the dark caused Mandible to bolt upright, turning his head this way and that, observing every inch of his surroundings. U'val had marched him into a barely visible cave in the side of a glacier, farther north than even Yakyakistan. Ice coated the walls and ceiling, while the floor was coated in a layer of snow so dry it felt like he was walking on rocks.
"Not scared of the dark are you general?" U'val asked, stepping ahead. The black changeling stammered for a second, before the platinum guards brushed past him, dutifully following after their master.
"Tril'ik, Ezin'dle. Stay here." U'val ordered quietly, stopping the two dead in their tracks.
"B-but my Domine..." The female guard started, but U'val shook his head.
"And keep Mandible from freezing. The poor ling looks like he is about to shatter." That alone settled it. Instantly both the guards nodded their heads and turned towards Mandible. The general couldn't help but feel intimidated as the two stared down at him, their visors not betraying the slightest hint of emotion.
Silence reigned for a second before the female growled.
"I saw a forest or something a couple of dozen miles that way. I will look for some firewood." She hissed shaking her head. "That is how you keep mortals warm, yes?"
"Go, I will watch this one. Stay safe, Ezin'dle." The male guard said calmly in a deep voice as he sat down across from Mandible, not taking his eyes off him for a second.
The newly identified Ezin'dle didn't respond as she turned to march out of the cave. Mandible went silent as he was left with the towering goliath sitting across from him.
"So..." Mandible started nervously tapping a hoof. "Tril'ik right?"
If that was his name, he didn't respond to it, merely staring down at him.
"It's an... interesting name. I'm noticing you tall antlered types really like apostrophes." Mandible said rubbing a leg. Still no response.
"We've been traveling north together for like, what now, two, three days? And I just realized the two of us haven't said a word to one another in that entire time. That's a little strange ye-" He was stopped when Tril'ik suddenly spoke up.
"Stop trying to converse with me, mortal," he said, not moving.
Mandible's jaw dropped. Instantly he rallied and sat up. "Why, because you are a demi-god and I am unworthy to bask in your presence?"
"No. Quite the opposite," Tril'ik responded. "I will only say this once. You are a mortal, full of life and exuberance. You have choice and free will, even if you can choose wrong. I am a shield. A tool. An object. My one purpose is to stand between my Kes and danger and die in his place should the need arise. I am not even a living being."
The platinum guard's voice was monotone and robotic, it was obvious he was repeating a code that had been drilled into his psyche.
Mandible's jaw dropped. And he thought he had loyalty issues...
"What... that is insane! You are clearly alive. You're breathing. Thinking." Mandible started. Tril'ik sat up slightly, clearly annoyed causing Mandible to flinch.
"That is the creed of the Vurion. We are the Kes'Kel'Kes' shield and shepherds. We both look over his flock, and stand between him, his subjects and danger. Our minds and bodies are not our own. They are his." Tril'ik said, shaking his head. "Ezin'dle and... Tzar'ak... might have forgotten this, but I remain."
Mandible flapped his mouth open and closed for a couple of seconds. He steeled himself and gulped, furrowing his brow. "So... your 'Kes'Kel'Kes' down there have you guys so brainwashed that you will willingly kill yourselves if commanded eh?"
Tril'ik responded quickly. "U'val is not the Kes'Kel'Kes. But if he wished me to, I would slit my throat with my halberd without hesitation."
U'val felt like he was being watched... and he was. The same dark laughter echoed through the crystalline ice around him. In a second, the teal and white ice and snow turned a shadowy black, as if someone had poured ink into the water that formed them.
"A thousand years of exile, surviving my own death..." A masculine dark voice echoed through the dark. "And I had thought I had seen everything."
U'val stopped casually looking around, his eye locking with a pair of glowing neon green circles in the dark.
"Now... seeing one of your kind again after all of these years, now that is a surprise." The voice said as two blood-red pupils appeared in the glow. "I had assumed the alicorns had driven your kind into your rightfully deserved extinction. Or at the very least devolved you back into obscurity."
"Oh, they did," U'val replied, cocking his head to the side. "First one than the other. Thankfully their new king is managing to turn them in the right direction... for the most part."
"And what is the right direction to your kind creature?" The voice laughed. "This world is based around a constant balancing act between light and dark. A delicate scale. But you... you beasts rose from nothing to throw the scale-out entirely. You hijacked the world from its true purpose to play out your own little delusions of divinity for millennia."
The voice was quiet for a second until a smirk filled with sparkling white fangs appeared under the lights. "But I guess the truth finally caught up with you huh?"
"Indeed it did," U'val said, rolling his eye. "But your little scale still isn't balanced, is it? Otherwise, you'd be out there standing on the same level as the Alicorns, instead of wallowing in this cave."
The voice snarled, a bestial hiss ripping through the cold air. The cave wall shifted, as the head of a unicorn with a curved bladelike horn formed from ice, shooting towards him, coming to a stop an inch away from his face. "And there is no one to blame for that but your master. I know who you really are, U'val. Nothing but a pampered pet to the real 'god' of this world. I assume he is still alive too eh? Pulling your leash around like a good dog? Or maybe your other master got through to you again eh?"
U'val's single eye narrowed for a second before he shook his head. "No. I am an independent these days," he responded with an exhale. U'val turned away from the crystal head. Slowly he started to walk away. "But I suppose you are right. You and I have nothing to gain from a partnership. Such is life, I'm afraid. I hope you don't mind staying in this cave for another thousand years then, right?"
"Wait..." The crystal head called back. There was a pause before it hissed.
"Fine... you're right. I'm stuck here, and you are likely the only creature on the planet who knows where I'm stuck... If I want to get out of this literal hole..." the crystal head seethed, tapering off slightly.
"Very well then," U'val said turning on his heel to stare over at him. "But I want to make this clear. This is a mutual deal. I scratch your back..."
U'val stepped forwards, smirking as he brought his face an inch away from the crystalline one. "You scratch mine."
The voice growled once again. "How? Even if you somehow reconstitute my body, my Empire has been taken away from me. Light rules triumphantly over every inch of this world. Without the Crystal Heart to corrupt-"
"I am well aware of that, which is why I brought you this," U'val said with a smile as he held up a certain amulet he had recently acquired. There was a grinding sound as the crystal statue raised its eyebrows.
"How did you...?"
"I have my ways," U'val said, grinning ear to ear. "Now then, do we have a deal?"
The crystalline head was quiet for a second, before it slowly opened its mouth, revealing, in place of a tongue, a red and gray curved horn.
Mandible let out a sigh of relief as he held his hooves over the fireplace. It was a welcome feeling of warmth, something he hadn't really experienced since he left his queen's side.
Ezin'dle had since returned from finding firewood, hence said fire infront of him. The Platinum Guard was sitting next to the cave's entrance, watching the outside for danger of some kind... not that there was any danger this far north. He supposed it was just some sort of natual paranoia, that made sense for bodyguards.
Mandible quickly turned his head deeper into the cave as he heard the sound of foot steps. The single glowing eye of U'Val appeared in the dark, as he came closer.
"Good news." U'val spoke simply. "We have what I need and can move onto the next phase of the plan."
Mandible raised an eyebrow for a second, then his eyes latched onto what U'val had held up in his magcial grasp. A red and grey curved horn. His eyebrow only raised.
"We came all the way out here for that?" The changeling asked, barely hiding his indignation.
U'val merely nodded, dropping it into his outstretched hoof. "Once upon a time, this horn belonged to the most powerful unicorn in history." He said as he balanced the sharp end on the tip of his hoof like it was a knife. "Him, coupled with the Alicorn amulet, will serve as a perfect lynchpin for the foreseeable future. Until then, Ezin'dle."
She straightened up and stood firm the second U'val's eye was on her.
"Begin preperations for phase three."
Without a second of hesitation, Ezin'dle instantly turned and left the cave, flying to the south east.
"Come." U'val exclaimed to Tril'ik and Mandible. "We return south."