Iced
Page 122
Youre never going to believe what I discovered, Dancer says. I was staring straight at the results and still refused to accept it. I kept checking, running different tests, testing different objects. I went back and grabbed more ziplocks and tested that stuff, too. The results were the same over and over. You know what absolute zero is, right, Mega?
Like, where the feck Im standing? I say, but I dont mean it, because if it was, I wouldnt standing here. Id be dead. I frown, studying the scene, trying to make sense of something. If they didnt see it coming, why were they screaming? Did they feel the same suffocating panic I felt at Dublin Castle before it arrived?
Isnt absolute zero theoretical? Christian says.
Technically, yes, because all energy can never be removed. Ground state energy still exists, although laser cooling has managed to produce temperatures less than a billionth of a Kelvin.
Again, what the hell is your point? Ryodan says. Are you saying these scenes are being cooled to absolute zero?
No. The only reason I brought that up was to illustrate the connection between extreme cold and molecular activity, and the fact that even at the most extreme cold possible, all objects still have energy of some type.
And? Jo says.
On a molecular level, the debris left by the Hoar Frost King has absolutely no energy. None.
Thats impossible! I say.
I know. I ran the tests over and over. I tested multiple samples from every scene. I went to Dublin Castle, dug pieces of Unseelie from the snow and tested them, too, he says. Theyre inert, Mega. No energy. No vibrations. Nothing. Theyre motionless. Deader than dead. The things I was testing cant exist, yet there I was holding them in my hands! Physics as I know it is being reinvented. Were standing in the doorway of a new world.
So, you think its drawn by energy, and eats it? Like fuel, maybe it uses it so it can move through dimensions? Jo says.
Dancer shakes his head. I dont think its that simple. Most of the scenes it iced didnt have an impressive stockpile of energy. If it was after energy, there are an infinite number of richer places to fuel up. I speculate the absence of energy when it vanishes is a secondary and perhaps a completely unintended effect of whatever its doing, tangential to its primary purpose.
I got the same impression with my sidhe-seer senses at Dublin Castle, that it wasnt malevolent or intentionally destructive. I sensed it was enormously intelligent and hunting for something.
What is its primary purpose? Ryodan says.
Dancer shrugs. Wish I knew. I havent been able to figure that out. Yet. Im working on it.
Well, what are we supposed to do?Jo says, looking around. There has to be something!
Stand around, hoping the bloody thing decides to appear while were looking, then hit it with whatever weve got handy in the two seconds its actually here in our world? Christian says disgustedly. At least I know what the Crimson Hag wants. Guts, preferably immortal ones. He gives Ryodan a look. And I know what to use for bait.
So do I, Ryodan says.
What are you talking about? Jo says, looking between Christian and Ryodan. Whats the Crimson Hag?
I realize she hasnt seen my Dani Daily. Nor does she know Ryodan was ever dead. She has no clue her boyfriend is immortal. I decide to save that bombshell for the perfect moment. I also decide Im going to be spending a lot of time with Christian and Ryodan, hoping the Hag comes after them. I let her loose. Im the one that has to send her back to hell.
Ryodan says to Dancer, Work faster. Get back in your lab and find me an answer. Dublins turning into Siberia and the thing just deposited a pile of frozen shit on top of my club.
At least it didnt ice the door, I say. Cause then we couldnt get back in.
Ryodan gives me a look that says he knows I know the back way in.
Try a flamethrower, Christian says. Does the trick. Till everything blows.
Speaking of which, any ideas what makes the scenes blow up? I ask Dancer.
I think it creates a kind of energy vacuum where things get unstable. Like I said, physics arent working right. Its possible objects reduced to no energy are brittle, and when disturbed by vibrations of objects around them, they explode. The lack of energy may also be the lack of glue necessary to hold matter together. Except in these cases, theyre shellacked in ice. Once that shell is compromised, everything comes apart. The larger the disturbance of molecules surrounding the scene, the more violent the explosion. You freeze-framing in to study the scene would generate a significant vibrational disturbance.
Sometimes I miss the most obvious things. How many scenes exploded when Ryodan and me were fast-mo-ing through them and I never put two and two together? I ponder what Dancer just told me, crunch it with a few other facts, mix it all up good to see what I get.
The Hoar Frost King leaves no energy behind when he vanishes. Its stripped from everything he ices.
Rjan said that when the HFK iced places in Seelie, the Fae werent just killed, they were erased like theyd never been.
Both times I saw the HFK appear, all sound vanished. None of us could hear a thing. Dancer confirmed a third case of similar silence and hollow-sounding aftereffects at the WeCare event he witnessed.
Like, where the feck Im standing? I say, but I dont mean it, because if it was, I wouldnt standing here. Id be dead. I frown, studying the scene, trying to make sense of something. If they didnt see it coming, why were they screaming? Did they feel the same suffocating panic I felt at Dublin Castle before it arrived?
Isnt absolute zero theoretical? Christian says.
Technically, yes, because all energy can never be removed. Ground state energy still exists, although laser cooling has managed to produce temperatures less than a billionth of a Kelvin.
Again, what the hell is your point? Ryodan says. Are you saying these scenes are being cooled to absolute zero?
No. The only reason I brought that up was to illustrate the connection between extreme cold and molecular activity, and the fact that even at the most extreme cold possible, all objects still have energy of some type.
And? Jo says.
On a molecular level, the debris left by the Hoar Frost King has absolutely no energy. None.
Thats impossible! I say.
I know. I ran the tests over and over. I tested multiple samples from every scene. I went to Dublin Castle, dug pieces of Unseelie from the snow and tested them, too, he says. Theyre inert, Mega. No energy. No vibrations. Nothing. Theyre motionless. Deader than dead. The things I was testing cant exist, yet there I was holding them in my hands! Physics as I know it is being reinvented. Were standing in the doorway of a new world.
So, you think its drawn by energy, and eats it? Like fuel, maybe it uses it so it can move through dimensions? Jo says.
Dancer shakes his head. I dont think its that simple. Most of the scenes it iced didnt have an impressive stockpile of energy. If it was after energy, there are an infinite number of richer places to fuel up. I speculate the absence of energy when it vanishes is a secondary and perhaps a completely unintended effect of whatever its doing, tangential to its primary purpose.
I got the same impression with my sidhe-seer senses at Dublin Castle, that it wasnt malevolent or intentionally destructive. I sensed it was enormously intelligent and hunting for something.
What is its primary purpose? Ryodan says.
Dancer shrugs. Wish I knew. I havent been able to figure that out. Yet. Im working on it.
Well, what are we supposed to do?Jo says, looking around. There has to be something!
Stand around, hoping the bloody thing decides to appear while were looking, then hit it with whatever weve got handy in the two seconds its actually here in our world? Christian says disgustedly. At least I know what the Crimson Hag wants. Guts, preferably immortal ones. He gives Ryodan a look. And I know what to use for bait.
So do I, Ryodan says.
What are you talking about? Jo says, looking between Christian and Ryodan. Whats the Crimson Hag?
I realize she hasnt seen my Dani Daily. Nor does she know Ryodan was ever dead. She has no clue her boyfriend is immortal. I decide to save that bombshell for the perfect moment. I also decide Im going to be spending a lot of time with Christian and Ryodan, hoping the Hag comes after them. I let her loose. Im the one that has to send her back to hell.
Ryodan says to Dancer, Work faster. Get back in your lab and find me an answer. Dublins turning into Siberia and the thing just deposited a pile of frozen shit on top of my club.
At least it didnt ice the door, I say. Cause then we couldnt get back in.
Ryodan gives me a look that says he knows I know the back way in.
Try a flamethrower, Christian says. Does the trick. Till everything blows.
Speaking of which, any ideas what makes the scenes blow up? I ask Dancer.
I think it creates a kind of energy vacuum where things get unstable. Like I said, physics arent working right. Its possible objects reduced to no energy are brittle, and when disturbed by vibrations of objects around them, they explode. The lack of energy may also be the lack of glue necessary to hold matter together. Except in these cases, theyre shellacked in ice. Once that shell is compromised, everything comes apart. The larger the disturbance of molecules surrounding the scene, the more violent the explosion. You freeze-framing in to study the scene would generate a significant vibrational disturbance.
Sometimes I miss the most obvious things. How many scenes exploded when Ryodan and me were fast-mo-ing through them and I never put two and two together? I ponder what Dancer just told me, crunch it with a few other facts, mix it all up good to see what I get.
The Hoar Frost King leaves no energy behind when he vanishes. Its stripped from everything he ices.
Rjan said that when the HFK iced places in Seelie, the Fae werent just killed, they were erased like theyd never been.
Both times I saw the HFK appear, all sound vanished. None of us could hear a thing. Dancer confirmed a third case of similar silence and hollow-sounding aftereffects at the WeCare event he witnessed.
