Three Wolfmen heads were skewered on bamboo sticks.

  I couldn't find their bodies.

  Ellie stood looking across the chopped meat being grilled on the bonfire, with her sky-blue curls extending to her collarbone, and her eyes back to porcelain smooth, no longer bearing the shadows underneath.

  "Why did you come back, bear-boy?" she asked, dripping ridicule. "I thought you were off to your Light Princess already."

  "Ellie. Are you gonna eat those?"

  "Eshava, Borvik, and Nexil? Of course not. I don't want my blood to be polluted by these vile beings." She held her head up and inhaled the burnt smoke.

  "So this is why Felipe loves the smell of flames. I figured I just have to burn my opponents for it to be... therapeutic."

  "You'll be attracting attention with that trail! Do you want both of us to be killed?"

  "Well, there they are," she grinned.

  A group of humans came, each one holding a pointed weapon. They were wearing straw hats and unruly clothes. Angry farmers.

  "She's the witch that's been destroying our crops!" a bearded man yelled.

  One of them shot an arrow, and I instinctively blocked, the attack deflecting from my arm.

  "Do not hurt her," I hissed.

  "We work hard for a couple of hours a day only for her to ruin our source of wealth—"

  I heard Ellie's sinister cackle behind me.

  "Get out of here!" I yelled.

  "Why would we listen to a mutt like you?" the man continued. "We won't let her get away with it."

  "Kill each other."

  Suddenly, the men started to stab each other violently, using their farming tools. I can't handle the scene. It reminded me of the battles I'd seen in the Sunstar Coliseum.

  I looked behind me and saw far worse. I felt a chilling dread all over my body as I watched Ellie laughing at the battlefield, her eyes glistening.

  "What have you done?" I cried.

  "You're here, of course you'd stop me if I fought them. So I did that instead."

  "Why would you toy with them?"

  "It's simple. I want to enjoy my life, Skymint. Can you name anyone who wouldn't do that if they were in my place? I do know one in this cruel world—you, bear-boy. You'd sacrifice everything for people who'd never do the same for you." She said softly. Those words made me hesitate my resolve to end her.

  "But you killed them."

  "They killed each other and that's not my fault. Did you really think I'm going to go back to my former self? How naive!" She wickedly chuckled.

  "Also, take care of those." She pointed at the dead bodies. "I couldn't afford to waste any more of my magic."

  I can't even look at the mess there. What I'm sure of is they were all punctured to death.

  She's unhinged. It's clear now that I have to use the curse cleanser. My heart beat loudly in my chest. It's time that I remove her from Arie.

  "Are you even listening?" she asked.

  "I still can't fathom that you would blame me for Caron's death. Whatever, believe what you want."

  And she turned, kicking mud onto the bonfire, then stopped.

  "Since you just came back, I'm gonna be generous."

  She summoned an ice equipment, a casket lift, that she manipulated using her fingers to carry the corpses one by one, moving onto the bonfire and dropping them onto the flames.

  "Arie won't be happy that you've been abusing her Chillberry too."

  "Not when it's making ice useful after committing a murder."

  The bonfire had been extinguished.

  Suddenly, she lunged toward me, pinning me onto the ground.

  "Do not betray me, Skymint. Do not." Her eyes went creepily huge. "I'm gonna kill your sister if you do."

  Her words struck me like a thousand icicles. I could no longer stop the urge to fight back.

  My knee hit her abdomen, and as soon as my arms were free I rolled to the side. She hissed in pain.

  "I'm sorry, Arie. I have to do that."

  "That was surprising. You know, I could just add a little bit of sleep debt."

  I summoned ice turrets. I controlled them to shoot ice projectiles at her, to incapacitate her, but her attacks mocked my invention.

  "Try to come up with something better next time." She summoned a large ice pipe which she carried on her shoulder and shot me a directed ray of ice.

  I dodged just in time.

  It had caused a large hole in a tree, followed by a parasitic frost that shattered it whole.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "I want some tuna!" I yelled to motivate myself.

  I defrosted the ice platform I'd created above me, the ones I summoned while going down to the land where I'd hidden the flask, and it fell from the sky.

  "Then be faithful to me." She slashed the ice platform that fell, oblivious that she had also destroyed the flask holding the curse cleanser.

  The clear liquid exploded between us, and I swear it touched her.

  Then she started to lose her balance. "I'm—I'm not tired yet. I'm not..."

  "There's no next time, Ellie," I stated.

  Her knees buckled down on the mud, her head bowed. The bottle was now splintered into glass fragments.

  Her hands gripped her head. She groaned in agony. When her eyes opened they were wide and teary.

  "Arie, it's me, Skymint!" I cleared my throat. "I'll explain."

  "Leave."

  "I did what I could to get you back. I apologize for withholding the truth from you."

  "Don't be stubborn, ju—just leave right now!" Her voice was shaky as though she was afraid she might accidentally cast a spell.

  My worried eyes were still locked on hers when she snatched the sapphire pendant on her neck and threw it hard toward me.

  It was so sudden that I didn't notice where it specifically hit me, but it's broken now, destroyed by my hard exterior, severing the life connection between us.

  Our lives... are no longer tied together. The feeling like I have lost something deep within me. This will pass. It should.

  That spell was wrong in the first place, and yet I was shattered when that pendant broke. I'm longing for that pendant. After all, it was my gift for her.

  I was so caught up in my want to get Arie back that I forgot to give her space to process it.

  She started a fit and destroyed everything within her reach.

  I ran as far away as I could from her sight. It wasn't long before she also started using ice blasts that caused destruction in the grassy lands.

  It only hit me lately, the possibility of horrible consequences, that erasing Ellie might have been a huge mistake, and that terrified me more than anything else.

  ***

  Arie's POV

  My memories that were locked away from me flashed vividly, hiding my eyes from reality.

  The stuff Ellie had done... it was unforgivable.

  I've encountered her multiple times already, but she had always erased my memories of ever discovering her within myself.

  I felt intense shame for myself, especially that Skymint knew all along.

  The words I said, every action I executed, I wanted to bury my face deep down the Glacia Trench.

  I'm a Dreamer's Magic user, and I never knew because she had cast a spell that only she would be able to use it, not Arie.

  She had lied, cursed, and killed. And I'd enjoyed it. We share the same body after all.

  I'm a liar.

  I'm a witch.

  I'm a murderer.

  I'm a danger to everyone.

  Therefore, I am Ellie too.

  I blasted ice toward the sky.

  I could no longer confront her unlike my previous encounters.

  There's no longer Ellie anymore. No curse to blame. Only myself who was left to be accountable for her sins. I was her after all, just functioning under a magic spell.

  She had brought to the surface everything that I hated about myself, far worse than the people I hated.

  And Claudius—

  Ellie had kissed him. Using my lips. Stolen his first kiss while he looked at me with shock and confusion, knowing it was a violation, not affection.

  He'll never be able to separate me from that moment. Neither will I.

  My body wasn't even my own. She'd turned it into a weapon, a tool, a costume she wore to hurt people I cared about.

  I wanted to scrub my skin raw. Burn away every touch, every word, every breath she'd stolen from me.

  I'd licked Skymint—mocked him, degraded him like he was some pet to humiliate.

  He endured that humiliation because he knew it wasn't really me.

  How can he even look at me after what my body did to him?

  Skymint wasn't the first to know about Ellie. Skadar knew all along. He'd been with me during my forbidden acts in the palace.

  Ellie must have wiped his memory too. But instincts remember what the mind forgets.

  Just like how Dorsey's instincts were screaming I'm evil.

  I would not wish that curse even on my worst enemies.

  I don't know anymore. Somehow, Dorsey was right all along... but for the wrong reason.

  I was always Ellie to her.

  Only if I knew, we wouldn't have been in bad blood ever since.

  Since that mischievous child play.

  When I had sliced her forehead.

  The envy that I felt toward her, Ellie turned it into destruction.

  Worst of all, it was true that I framed her at the trial.

  It was my fault that she got imprisoned!

  I was the one who placed those peasant slippers under her bed, marked with her essence using that heirloom I'd enchanted.

  Dorsey went to prison because of me. Everything she said about me being evil—she was right. She'd been right all along and I'd dismissed her as jealous, bitter, cruel.

  I can't help but laugh about it.

  That my wits were used for evil.

  Which could have prevented my father and uncle's death, my brother's horrible death, and I could have killed Felipe instead of innocent people who have nothing to do with the prophecy!

  All of this would have been over already only if I knew I had magic.

  I felt a surge of erratic emotions come out of me.

  As more memories flooded in, I found myself freezing the fields around me.

  I opened my mouth, inhaling, and forced myself to calm down.

  My hands were shaking.

  I feel my soul becoming whole.

  I broke out a scream.

  I didn't care that it echoed back from the skies. I doubled down and tears started to fall down my cheeks.

  No shouting of my name. No hug that came.

  Even Skymint wouldn't dare to stop me at my breaking point.

  It wasn't long before my throat started to get uncomfortable.

  I fell onto my knees and hugged them close to my body, and sobbed quietly.

  Who am I really?

  Was I some batshit crazy girl all along masquerading as a princess?

  A sadistic witch exercising power on everyone that annoyed me even the slightest bit?

  I find it tempting to let go of morals and embrace my cruelty.

  I stood up and looked for Skymint. I ran and ran, letting exhaustion drive the intrusive thoughts away, until I found him in a clearing.

  I found him in a wild pose, hands gripped on an ice machete.

  "Skymint, what are you doing?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

  "Preparing for the aftermath. At least I can now kill you and I could just go back to my sister alive. And to my fishing life."

  "I understand, Skymint. Even I was disgusted with what she did—with everything I did, and you're brave enough for staying with me despite my hideous personality. You're free to go wherever you want now."

  "How about you?"

  "I'll just disappear. I'm a hopeless case. Who knows if I would never abuse my magic ever again."

  "No, I came all this way to get you back, Arie! You're not hopeless. You're here, and that's what matters the most."

  "But Skymint, Ellie was me! She's a byproduct of my unconscious. The curse only let free what was already within me, and it doesn't erase that her way of thinking is still underneath the girl you're talking with."

  "She doesn't define who you are, Arie." He stated, his eyes watering. "Remember, you are the Ice Princess. You have a goal to become the Ice Queen—oops, that was Ellie's."

  I chuckled. "See, I've told you she's me. Can you even look at me without her flashing in your mind?"

  "Arie, I'm sure you do remember that I have a bad memory. Although, I'm sure that you can be better than her. You have control over yourself. You can build your own identity, garnish her goals with your good motives."

  "You don't know what you're talking about, bear-boy."

  "Yes, I don't know what I'm talking about." He agreed unexpectedly. I couldn't tell if he was serious or just trying to comfort me. "Speaking from life experience, when I do feel that things are getting out of hand, I remind myself I have the power to choose my path."

  "I can differentiate your tone from Ellie's." He added. "I'm not going anywhere, not today that I've got you back already."

  "Let's get out of here." He reached his hand toward me.

  I should have killed him. He's seen the most vulnerable state I ever had, my ugly side, and my Dreamer's Magic.

  No. Stop. That's Ellie talking. That's—

  Intrusive thoughts again. Fade away, fade away. I'm not the Apex Lyssoto.

  Adjustment phase is always a horrible experience.

  "I won't judge you." I've been assured. "We can cry together in the carriage."

  Skymint had summoned an ice carriage.

  I held his hand and walked together, going inside the carriage.

  He used his hands to get the wheels moving, following ahead of the sun's journey to the center sky.

  After we had dried our eyes of the tears that passed, my head fell on his shoulder, sleeping soundly in his warmth.

  The warm stone he is.