The Ice Prince of the Aifyn Line
Before the unification of the solar system, Aifyn was just one of nine planets revolving around the star known as Skye, and the inhabitants of Aifyn, known as Fyns, were convinced that they were alone in Outer Spacetime. It wasn’t until the Aifyn Kings decided to fly from the surface of Aifyn to discover the true nature of Skye that was life-giving, but so elusive and far away, that the Fyns learned the truth.
The planet Aifyn was a mostly desert world of silver sand that made the land look metallic. There were tropical oases of green and brown foliage, and just six bodies of water scattered around the globe, and many fyns believed the sky above the desert was a desert of another kind where Skye and other celestial bodies existed like they existed in their desert. The sky above the deserts of Aifyn was a light, yellow-brown when Skye was full in the sky that was often cloudless, and it darkened as Skye set, revealing the wonders of the cosmos that sparkled like the planes and dunes of sand that were sculpted by the winds of Aifyn.
The Aifyn Kings were Wynd Ryders; any fyns could become a Wynd Ryder if they learned to shape the wind into Wynds, narrow strips of condensed wind only visible to Ryders that acted as solid ground for Ryders to fly and move quickly through the air. Wynds could also be used as weapons, but only the best Ryders could achieve this. Wynd Masters used their superior skill to either conquer or defend their fellow fyns who lived in communities of varying sizes in the deserts and oases. The Aifyn Kings had been born in the deserts and lived harsh lives before they met and mastered the Wynds better than any Wynd Ryder before them. The entire world acknowledged them as their Kings, even though they had no castle, no thrones. The two Kings seemed to always make decisions together, and if one was spotted, the other was never far away.
The Aifyn Kings decided to fly to Skye and they used the Wynds to leave the surface of Aifyn for the first time. The fyns didn’t have advanced scientific knowledge, but their mastery of the wind allowed for easy and comfortable travel through Outer Spacetime. The Kings visited each planet of their solar system before arriving as close to Skye as was safe.
They reported the nature of the solar system back to the other fyns, after a journey of just a few years, and then they left Aifyn again to spend time with the other beings of their solar system they had discovered. There was a technologically advanced civilization on the planet second closest to Aifyn, or the third from the sun Skye, that was inhabited by beings very similar to the fyn of Aifyn, and the Kings learned about the long history of colonies of fyns traveling the solar system with technology they had developed in secret to settle on new worlds. Once these colonies left Aifyn, there was no way for fyns on Aifyn to know of their success or failure. The Kings had met beings on every planet that revolved around Skye and they would eventually confirm that they were all from Aifyn.
It was the Aifyn Kings who unified the planets into the Aifyn Line that exists in the relative present and they oversaw the construction of the planetary bridges that connected each planet and allowed the fyn civilization to thrive.
When the kings had a son, he was born inside of the ice of Juoil, the planet furthest from the Aifyn sun. He became known as the Ice Prince and was known as a better Wynd Ryder than both of his fathers, even if those who never encountered the Ice Prince in person doubted this claim. The Ice Prince could only be spotted on Aifyn or Juoil, and he was mostly a legend to the communities that existed inside the artificial environment of the planetary bridges because he never traveled through them when he traveled the solar system.
On Aifyn, the Ice Prince was generally viewed as a handsome boy who looked older than he was, and strong from riding cosmic Wynds. He seemed completely unapproachable and few had even heard him speak. He wasn’t haughty, he wore simple clothing, eschewing the formal short pants and long shirts of light fabrics that his fathers wore, but he had an air about him that made it clear he was not interested in meeting someone he didn’t already know. Even among the noble circles that the Kings frequented, the Prince wasn’t well liked and they were surprised when he accompanied his fathers to their fancy gatherings.
When the Transverse arrived to the Aifyn solar system, the Ice Prince dropped the Wynd he was using to assist in repair of the Juoil planetary bridge and immediately flew to meet the source of the power that he sensed.
The Ice Prince became aware of the Transverse after the unification of the Aifyn Line, when he used a Wynd to achieve faster than light speed. The legends foretold of a Wynd Ryder who would ride a Wynd fast enough to achieve ubiquity in Outer Spacetime, able to travel the length of existence in the blink of an eye, and the Ice Prince achieved it when the unified Aifyn Line was perfectly aligned with one of the six streams of Outer Spacetime. The six streams were not well known on Aifyn, but obscure astronomers noted the currents of space that dictated the formation of solar systems throughout Outer Spacetime, and the Ice Prince was an avid reader of obscure books. The obscure astronomers theorized that it could be possible to use the currents of existence to navigate the entirety of Outer Spacetime, but it required incredible speed to interact with the currents in just the right way to achieve it. One of those astronomers was sure that if a Wynd Rider used the planetary structures of the Aifyn Line to fly directly into the sun, Skye, while it was aligned in a particular way with one of the six streams, then the Ryder could catch the stream and traverse each of the streams, and effectively, all of Outer Spacetime. Everyone thought that the astronomer who came up with that was crazy, until the Ice Prince gathered a Wynd so large that it darkened the planets and their structures underneath it while the Ice Prince zoomed along it, headed for a collision with Skye.
But the Ice Prince did not fly into Skye, there was no collision. The speed that the Ice Prince achieved, mixed with the esoteric magic of the incredible Wynd that he gathered, caused a warping of Outer Spacetime that propelled him to speeds faster than the speed of light. He was able to ride the streams of Outer Spacetime in the blink of an eye, and in this sublime state of being when he lost his corporal form to move as a Wynd, he saw a vision of the Transverse. Outer Spacetime had given the Ice Prince knowledge of the Transverse so that he could guide them in learning to Ryde the Wynds and the streams of existence.
“I have been expecting you,” the Ice Prince said to seemingly nothing. He was floating in Outer Spacetime and the Aifyn Line loomed majestically behind him.
A hexagonal structure appeared before him and all of the walls were golden except the translucent one that faced the Ice Prince. He smiled at the females inside and he bent at his waist to bow before them.
“It is nice to see you again, Wynd Ryder,” one of the females said. She was a goddess next to the other who was a warrior clad in gold more brilliant than the structure.
“Garoa, you have brought the Transverse,” the Ice Prince said gleefully. Fyns would be shocked by the bright smile on his face, the Ice Prince was known to have a dour face, even during times of celebration.
“I have, and it is good that we are in agreement about that,” Garoa said, then she turned to her companion. “This is Maria. She is Wazad the Transverse.”
The Ice Prince stared at Maria with awe.
PRL Serials 