Question Ice Cold Blood

Chapter 1:
I stood there as the people were looking at the casket, in just a few minutes, it would be my turn to speak, I would tell the story of how I met my boyfriend, well, for them it was my sister’s boyfriend.

I stepped up to the speaking platform. “Hello all, I am Lord Dave, the new lord of the Taken Castle and the one who has to try and fill some of the emptiness left by my adopted brother, my sister’s boyfriend. I will tell you how the old lord really died, not what the MCO wants you to think.”
I had to hold back a tear, I couldn’t cry out now, that wouldn’t be accepted of a boy. Damn, why did I have to change. “It started about five years ago, when me and my sister were begging for some money…”

It hadn’t been me and my sister, as I didn’t have a brother or a sister, as far as I know, I have always been only child, and then my parents died, and I ended up on the streets. Yeah, my life is crap, no, I won’t talk about everything, though it was not really that bad in comparison to some others, I at least had a goal in life.

And then, one day, the most beautiful boy walks in, notices me and starts talking to me! How do you react to that? Well, I was shy, but after a few months I eventually went to his home, it was not a mistake as you might have recognized, since I was here at his funeral, crying over his death. But I should get back on track.

“Anyways, the reason he died was given when he got his powers about 4 years ago, he could give himself superspeed, for a few seconds, so he called himself Lord Burst, he could use his bursts of speed to go heroing…” I really had to hold back my tears, but they didn’t want to be stopped, and I felt a few tears flowing out of my eyes, and I felt the trails freeze. “…He, he really meant a lot to both me and my sister as our lord, and as a hero he has saved us a lot of times, but to us, he meant the most to us as a person.”

I didn’t mention that saving me was why he had gotten his powers in the first place, well, we both had thought that when I got in trouble around four years ago with a gang making a living in our local underworld, he had to save me from the gang and apparently the stress caused him to develop powers, I didn’t… and probably won’t ever… really know what had happened back then, what I did know, was that while the gang members were trying to come in the castle, the one I now ruled, he left through some secret passage and beat them all up in a second, and then he stood there, amazed at what he had done.

“When he got his powers, he immediately got an MID, so that he could function. We found out about a school for mutants he could go to, it would help him train his powers better. So that was where he had been for the last four years, but last month, last month was when it really started. Last month I noticed the first change, I had changed eye colors, from my normal dark brown, I got these glowing blue ones…” I pointed to me eyes to illustrate it. “…So I got my MID, except there, the MCO wanted to keep me until they found out what my powers were, I was comfortable in just coming back, but they didn’t want that.”

“They threatened us to be hold in special holding cells until they could find out about my power. Lord Burst, he did not like it and he threatened to kick them out of here if they insisted on going on with their impossible demands. They relented, or so we thought, so when we went back to the castle, we did not expect some fanatics to try and kill us. They shot with a few guns first, trying to get us to back off and go back to the MCO. They didn’t know our car was armored, but they did dive out of the way when we almost hit them with the car, almost however, also became the problem, as they called in some Knights of Purity.”

A shudder of horror came from a small part of Lord Burst’s… Brian’s classmates, they were his closest friends and he said they should be invited to a funeral should it come to that.

“I don’t know how they paid them, but they did, and we paid for that, we paid for that in the blood of Lord Burst and Lady Camille, as the Knights didn’t give us a chance to surrender, they instantly fired at us with their most deadly weaponry, going for killing us, not even trying to keep up an image of the non-aggressors. Lord Burst used his speed to get us to safety though, yeah, it broke some of my bones, but that didn’t matter, we could heal it, what mattered was that he got us to safety. Then, then he collapsed and we feared there was something wrong.”

“We got him to our hospital wing as soon as possible, but it was already too late, he was burning up, he was going through a burnout and the result… the result you see here, next to me. My sister couldn’t live with the loss of the first person who truly loved her, she died of grief a week later.” The last part wasn’t entirely true, it was true that I couldn’t live without the first person I had truly loved and who had truly loved me, but my suicide attempt failed.

The air around me was frigid now, I had been so caught up in my emotions that I hadn’t noticed the fact that I lost control of my aura. I hurried back to my seat and set to controlling my aura.

I am Dave, born as Camille, always known there was something I didn’t like about my body, which my parents didn’t like, so they put me out on the streets after a big fight, thinking I would come back. I didn’t, I had been planning to run away for a long time already, and this was as good an opportunity as any. I was saved from the streets by my boyfriend, Brian, who later became Lord Brian, and after that Lord Burst.

I had gotten my powers when I was depressed, and found out about the sheer scale of them the day Brian died, when I had tried to kill myself. I can send all my flesh and energy to some other dimension, it also absorbs all the energy around me, giving me a freezing aura. That aura has given me some problems, but I can control it, for now. I can also send my thoughts, or some other such concept, away to that same dimension, in that state I am nothing more than a mindless husk with rotting skin and a huge problem with the truly living. I am a Warper 5 and a new enemy to the MCO.

I am Lord of the Taken Castle, The Cold Touch of Death, I am the Skeleton Lord!

I walked among the guests, now was not a time to mourn for the Lord who had died, that was against tradition, no, now was a time to honor the Lord who had died by having fun and living on in their name. Such did tradition dictate, such would be acted. I looked around and saw the group I was trying to find, the Whateley students.

I approached them carefully, not wanting to scare them off. One of them saw me coming and motioned to the others. They all looked around and saw me coming. The one who had seen me coming and apparently the leader of this bunch was the first to speak. “We are sorry to hear about what you went through. You might not believe it, but some of us went through something similar.”

He would have said more, had I not put up my hand to stop him. “I know some of you probably went through something similar, maybe even worse, but right now, I am looking to introduce myself to you, not get condolences about my… brother.” I had accidently let a small gap fall between the words, trying to make sure I didn’t accidently say boyfriend.

“I am Dave, I have no last name, as I abandoned mine along with my sister, to cast of the chains of our family’s traditions. I wanted to ask you about what is to come in my first year, and then, are there any people from Poe in your group?” Two hands went up, one big guy, great looking really, and one girl.

“Then I might want to talk to you a little bit later, about what Poe is like, as I most likely will end up there.” They shifted a bit uncomfortably, but they didn’t say anything about it. The rest of the group just looked at me. “What, I will need some help working through it, and… Well, I am not entirely normal, even compared to you.”

Just as I said you, a loud gunshot was heard and I felt something enter my aura. I instinctively dialed the strength up and the bullet stopped in its flight path. “Come out you dirty old rat! If you can’t take me on face to face, you are not worthy of the title of Lord of the Taken Castle!” The guests were looking at me as I ran towards a particularly large set of trees, only ducking to touch a small bit of the lake and let my aura do the rest in forming a sword, made of ice, this was mine.

There was some cracking of some sticks and out came a man of middle age. “I should have been the one who got that title!” He shouted as he ran towards me, fists up ready to hit me. I rushed towards him and jumped up, hitting both of his fists with my sword, where I let it shatter, slightly.

“Jonas! Long time no see you old good for nothing!” I said as I grabbed the man by his shoulders. “Where have you been, you’re just a tad too late!” His huge grin was enough to see that I was not in trouble as I turned around and addressed the crowd. “This sack of shit here is Jonas, brother of Brian, the previous Lord, he was kind enough to me to lend me his expertise in avoiding getting caught by the MCO.”

In response Jonas grabbed me and pulled me up. “And this waste of air is your new Lord.” He paused to get a lot of breath and everyone except the Whateley students covered their ears. “ALL HAIL LORD DAVE, THE SKELETON LORD, THE NEW LORD! ” The Whateley students were left with ringing in their ears, just like I was, but now everyone inside the walls of our, no, my castle knew, I was the new Lord of the Taken Castle, and I was the one who would protect them as long as I was here.

Then Jonas put me down and walked me back to where I stood when he had shot at me, while I turned to him. “Hey, Jonas?” He looked towards me. “Yes?” “What the hell were you thinking!? You could’ve hit someone innocent back there with that careless shot!”

He grinned at me. “How are you supposed to be a Lord if you can’t even take care of your people? But now, we have to introduce your companions here to our customs, they look quite shocked.” I looked at the students and saw more than one look at me in awe, and fear, I saw that too.

“Well, fire away with your questions, though afterwards, I’ll talk to the Poe residents.” I really wish now that I hadn’t said that, a storm of questions came down on me, though the most dominant question was about my title and what it was about.

“Alright, alright, I get, you got a lot of questions, I’ll first say something about my title, Lord of the Taken Castle. As tradition dictates, I am the new Lord of the Taken Castle, as I was the one who was the closest to the old Lord when he died. The title of the Lord of the Taken Castle is never in the same bloodline if the old Lord wasn’t at least six generations away from the previous from his or her bloodline or killed the last Lord.”

“This tradition comes, according to legend, from back when the first Lord of the Taken Castle, took over this Castle, the Bloodred Castle, from its previous owners and renamed it to the Taken Castle. The old Lord made his will on his deathbed, and stated that only someone who took the Taken Castle from the previous Lord by force would be the new Lord. This was changed by his son after said son had murdered his father with a dagger to be the last person to see the previous Lord alive or the one who took the previous Lord’s life with force or the Castle.”

“I was the last one who saw Brian before he died, and as such, he made me the new Lord. With the title, there come responsibilities, such as that I have to do what I can to protect the citizens of the Taken Castle.” I took a deep breath, and proceeded, looking at their astonished gazes I did however, allow myself a smile. “Yes, those who hold the title are really Lords of this castle, and the surrounding lands, no we don’t steal from the surrounding lands like the medieval lords did, and no, we don’t make people pay money to be safe. Are your questions answered?”

At their dumbfounded looks, I nodded and went through with what I originally wanted to do. “You two, would you come with me?” I then took them by their hands and dragged them away from prying eyes and ears. “I think I should introduce myself again, to the both of you, though I need to know, do you know the secret of Poe? Wow, that rhymed, wasn’t my intention to do that.”

The small girl was the first to speak. “You know the secret? And yes, we do both know the secret.”

I smiled. “Yes, I know the secret, you see, about a month ago, when I got my eyes, I was till called Lady Camille.” I let that sink in, and when I saw that they understood, I went on. “So, when my changes became apparent, Brian made a few quiet inquiries about where I would best be kept safe, and he was brought up to speed on the secret of Poe. Our plan was to move in after the vacation, announcing that he was bi-sexual and that I was myself, a gay boy, changed by his mutation, only in appearance, not in wiring.”

They nodded at their understanding. The big guy stepped forward, looking at me more appreciatively. “Well, I can say that I wouldn’t have guessed it from the way you walk and talk, and you would be welcomed with open arms I think.” The girl then stepped forward. “It is quite a shame you left the sisterhood for the brotherhood, but I think they’ll understand, most of them anyway. Well, let’s get back to the party, and let’s have fun until we have to go, see you in the new schoolyear!”

And with that, the party went on, and we had a great time remembering our Lord, our classmate, our friend.

I sighed as I looked out of the train window, looking at my reflection. It wasn’t something I was used to, I still kind of expected to see the face I was used to, long brown hair, brown eyes, nothing really standing out. What I saw was a fallen in face, as though I had gone without food for weeks, my hair was now an almost glowing white and my eyes, oh my eyes, from the nice brown I had, I had gotten truly glowing ice-blue eyes. I breathed over the window and then waved my hand over it, causing it to freeze up.

“That looks nice.” A small immature voice sounded from besides me. I looked and saw a little girl looking at the window. Her mother, most likely, was looking at me slightly afraid, but mostly just trying to not attract my attention. I grabbed the bucket of water I had with me, stuck my hand in it and lazily waved it through the water, which began to freeze up slightly. “Tell me little girl, do you like princesses?”

The girl looked at her mother. “Can I please?” The mother looked afraid, but I just mouthed ‘just some ice’ it put her somewhat at ease, so she nodded. “Yes, I really like princesses.” I then grabbed through the water and used my aura to form a small statue of a princess, and after I secretly pricked my finger, I added some pink ice to make the dress. “Now, be very careful, and put it in the freezer when you get home so you can keep it cold until the winter.”

The way the little girl’s eyes lit up was worth the pain I got, and when the mother said thanks to me, she sounded sincere, which was rare since I became the new Lord. But unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and with me done entertaining little kids for the day, I had nothing to do but think about what was before me, Whateley Academy.


Ah, Whateley Academy, well, this was still Dunwich, which means that I had to wait until they came to get us. I looked around for someone who looked uncomfortable in their new body, when I saw someone very androgynous walking around. Please let him/her be changing into a boy, please.

I looked a bit further buy I couldn’t really see anyone else who looked like they could still be changing, and neither did I see someone really uncomfortable in their body. What I did see were people glancing my way, probably worried about how I looked. Then salvation came in the form of three vans driving towards the platform.

Out came a woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Shugendo, the dean of the students. We were called by name and I was to be seated in the second van. We then were divided into three groups, those groups were led by upperclassmen, and to my pleasant surprise, Sally was one of the leaders of the groups. And I was put in her group, which would mean that she too, jumped the gender barrier.

“Hello Dave, or would you like to go by Lord Dave around here?” Sally asked me as I approached, she hadn’t yet seen my changes, or just didn’t care, it wouldn’t matter much in the long run. “I go by Dave here, or Skeleton Lord, if you want to use a title.” Then she turned to really look at me, and I could see the shock slowly covering her face.

“My god, Dave, you look so much worse, are you sick or something? What happened?” I sighed, knowing this would happen, but I would have liked to avoid it until later. “Unfortunately, I am not sick, but I will explain more later, for now, we have an introduction to go through, right?” Sally nodded, and then turned her attention back to the rest of the crowd.

A few more people and we got the second person of our group, I recognized her from the van, having glanced around to make sure that Jonas was not hiding anywhere on the van. She looked at me and then looked away, while I was already looking back to the group.

The next person in our little group was a person who seemed to be mid-transition, and completely drenched, even though it hadn’t rained in this region for a few days. Mrs. Shugendo finished splitting up the group, with no more people added to our group, and then set the upperclassmen out to show us around, and we got to see the faculties first.

“Alright everyone, let’s go.” Sally was upbeat, and the girl was looking around a bit worried. “Shouldn’t the groups be more evenly spread out?” I grinned, knowing what the reason was we were separated. “We actually are part of a different group as they are, a sub-group if you want to call it that, no, the groups should not be spread out more evenly.”

Sally looked at me as though I had blown out all the candles on her birthday cake… Wait, where did that come from? Sally looked at me and then smiled. “I’ll tell you when we get to a safe place.” It seemed as though she was saying it mostly to me. Then we continued our tour, seeing what were, according to Sally the highpoints, and then we came to the Homer Gallery.

“Well, I promised you that I would tell you when we got to a safe place to talk about why we are in such a small group. We all, one way or the other, changed gender or are still changing gender.” Sally looked around, the girl was shocked, I was standing back with a smirk and the drenched one who was mid-transition just stood there. “Let us introduce ourselves, I will start, then Dave, then…” She stopped when she saw the drenched boy/girl hold up his/her hand.

“I will start. I am Blake, born as Henrietta.” He, I assumed he was a he due to the name change, had a nice voice, a slight accent that was very hard to place. “I am turning into a boy, a process which started about three months ago. I was run out of my hometown for the fact that I was a mutant, so I turned to the only mutant I knew of who would help me, I turned to the villain Greatman, and he sent me here, under his protection I also got my MID without much trouble.” I was amazed by that, getting something from the MCO was normally pretty annoying, especially for a mutant. He saw my amazed expression and smiled. “Yes, well, let us say that Greatman is very convincing when he wants to be. It also helped of course, that he held the entire building hostage. Then I was sent here, not much to talk about really.”

Sally sighed. “Well, you had it easier than me. I was born a boy, when I first found out, I was understandably freaked out, and then, when I finally found out I was turning into a girl, it got even worse, as my parents didn’t want anything to do with a mutant. I was kicked out and slowly changing into a girl. With nowhere else to turn to, I swallowed my pride and knocked on my brother’s door for help.

He had been through something similar as me, and at the time, I had no idea what was happening to my then sister turning into my brother, I had it explained to me but I didn’t listen. It was a shock for me to discover that my brother was a mutant too, something my parents had kept from me. So when I finally got to my brother, he explained what was happening to me, and I got to experience the female life. I can’t do anything about it, so I learned to live with it. It turned out that a female psychic spirit had latched onto me, that’s why you had those strange thoughts, Dave.” Sally said the last bit with a giggle, she found those amusing, apparently.

Then, the girl stepped forward to tell her story. “Not much to tell, really, my brother was here before me, and when I manifested I started turning into a girl, my parents accepted it and I chose my new name, then I came here.” Sally looked at her strangely. “Could you tell us your name? We can’t always call you ‘that girl who is a new freshman changeling’, can we?” The girl became bright red as she realized her mistake. “I am sorry, I am Gabriela, my codename is Firecharge.”

“Oh yeah, codenames, I forgot to tell mine, mine is Leviathan, after the biblical monster.” Blake said as he turned to Sally. “And yours is?” Sally looked straight at us. “Backlash. And now it is Dave’s turn to tell his story.”

And so it was my turn to tell the story, the unmodified version, not the one I told at the funeral. “Oh, and I chose my codename. I am the Lord of the Taken Castle, the Cold Touch of Dead. I am, the Skeleton Lord.” A slow clap came from Blake’s direction. “Great acting, now tell me, will that always be what you say when you introduce yourself?” I just shook my head, laughing alongside him.