Welcome to Gaia! ::

Leander sighed, releasing the blizzard. His mind was fuzzy, he remembered he was trying to kill someone with it, but couldn't really remember why, exactly. Trying to figure it out just made his head throb, so he let go of the spell and returned to the royal chambers, to where his beloved was at rest.

He smiled, murmuring as he opened the door and stepped inside. "My dear... are you up?" When he saw that she was, his stormy gray eyes lit up with mirth, and he made his way quickly across the large room toward her. The castle was quite cold, but Leander didn't seem to notice at all. He had at least recognized that Nino was not so comfortable in it, and had wrapped her up in a heavy fur coat, but still she seemed to fear and resist him.

"It's been so long, I've been away... My sweet, don't you recognize me? I am as alive as you are, I assure you..." His smile was the only part of him that was warm. His skin was cold and clammy to touch, his whole body pale white and his skin marked with blue where the enchanted ice had damaged and altered it. "Nadalia, can't you see that I am your husband?" He leaned forward, pressing his icy lips to hers again.

He felt her lips- hot and soft- beneath his own, even as she moved away from him. The warmth of a woman's touch beneath his skin was something he had not felt in some time, but the touch of his beloved seemed to fill him with a satisfaction he had not had in his short time in exile. The torture of being away from her only made him yearn for her all the more- absence truly did make the heart grow fonder, it seemed. When he heard her words, however, he merely laughed.

"My dear, my dear, if you wish for me to shorten your name to... Nino, was it? You needed only to ask." His eyes were calm and understanding, and his laughter reached his eyes. Reaching up his pale, cold hand to gently cup her jaw, he smiled, moving the hand away after a moment and beckoning towards the window. Making a sweeping motion, he looked to her and spoke again.

"You need not fear me leaving your side- I've returned for good, this time. There is no mistake. We will rise above as king and queen once again, beget this kingdom with an heir, and drive out those... strangers! The rogues that would try to attack a castle that holds its queen." Taking her hand in his, he noted how full of warmth hers was, and remained content.

It didn't make sense. Why on earth would she be confused? It wasn't like she was born yesterday. Arching a brow and letting her hands go as her eyes grew to the size of saucers (thankfully, it was only a proverbial statement), Leander carefully- and slowly- spoke. What she was saying made just as little sense to him as how his words sounded to her. Though they spoke the same language, neither of them was making any sort of sense to the other.

"Nadalia... oh, no, you preferred 'Nino', right? It's me. Leander. Do you not recall who I am?" Putting an icy hand to her forehead to check for some delusions brought on by feverish activity (which was futile, as everywhere on that young woman's body felt hot beneath his frigid skin), he looked concerned as he looked down to think. Could she truly not remember him? It made no sense, logically speaking. He didn't look so different than he did before his 'disappearance', and even that wasn't so long ago. However... with a flash, he realized something integral that might have explained it all from the getgo.

"...It's him, isn't it? Some other plebeian, perhaps, had taken your hand in my absence? My dear, there is no need to jest. I am King Leander, do you not recall?" Holding up a flat palm, he blew gently into it, creating an elaborate snowflake that looked like spun glass just from the precipitation in the air. Letting it spin with a gentle puff of breath, he carefully let it lift off from his hand, the flake easily the size of an orange and yet retaining all the lightness of a minuscule flake of snow as it fell onto the stony floor.

As it made contact, he moved his hand slightly, bidding it to take root and instantly sprout into an icy rose, which he plucked and handed to her with a bow.

"What else could I do to get you to remember me... my love?"

Now she had gone from oblivious to crass. From the look at her face when he presented the rose to her dismissive way in which she had tried to move off of the bed (he did resist the urge to laugh- the ground was not cold to him), he knew that there was something dreadfully amiss. Some god above was mocking him, and apparently had a very sick and twisted sense of humor. Luck was most definitely not on his side, and apparently karma had seen fit to spit in his face.

She did not even know of him? That went from naivety to utter ignorance, as there was no one in his entire domain that ever once had forgotten his name. "My love," he murmured, sitting down slowly. Something was entirely too strange... perhaps this--

His mind went blank with pain. Half-formed thoughts bombarded his senses in ways he couldn't understand, ancient poetry of blood and honor and sensuality and abstraction and mathematics and superstition and rhymes for children assaulted his consciousness and blanked out all else.

'She has been blinded by those who seek her hand; her mind has been taken by your enemies and she know longer knows your face, your name. She must see you as she remembers you.'

Like a vacuum had sucked away the debris, his mind cleared. He was being tested, of course. The gods had given him this second chance, and had insured he would return to lead their land to glory. "Worry not, my dear," he smiled. "I will love you just the same, until you see that I am your love." He stroked her hand gently between his. "Are you hungry, my love? Do you thirst?" He clapped his hands sharply and a fire sprang up in the fireplace. Just because he was the Ice King didn't mean he hadn't a mastery of all Anima.

Nino was cold. She was cold all night. She had curled up in the covers and huddled quietly until eventually she fell asleep. When she awoke in the morning, she was still cold. She stared up at the ceiling. She spent the rest of this time worrying about the members of the FEF kingdom and how she was to escape.
Then Leander came in again. She sat up in the bed. She was ready to give her a piece of her mind. How could he lock her up in her own castle? It was unfair! And the blizzard outside before wasn't natural. It must have been him causing all of that too. How could he do this? Then she saw all the food he had brought her. She glanced guiltily around at it all. It all looked delicious. He must have done all this for her. Was there something to this? Did he really love her? What kind of mistake was this?
She stared around for a moment before reaching for the spoon to eat the soup. She stopped. "You... You made all of this for me?"

"I'm sorry." She stared down into the onion soup. "I don't know you." She looked out the window. "Listen. You have it wrong. My name was never Nadalia. My name is Nino. I'm a girl from a place called Elibe... A place far, far away from here. The man I loved then... His name was Jaffar."

She realized she had to be gentle with how she dealt with him. The question, however, baffled her. This subject always did. "Jaffar didn't do anything... He... We... I'm here because... Jaffar is still in Elibe. And it does exist! I just need... a key! A key of some sort and then I can go back. I'm not who you think I am." Flustered, she looked away from him. She couldn't face this man, or his question... Who is Jaffar...