Part 1

City of Fantasy

The years cause clouds of dust to fade

In the wake of eternity

And slow eons contend against instantaneous moments

Purifying scars until they are crystal clear

Desolation suffuses the pale shape of your face

A desolation which refines the universe

Icy plains piece together the continent like colored glass

Yearning ignites a longing in despair

Flocks of birds accompany the funeral of light

Seawater caresses the heavens

You are more permanent than permanence

You are more endless than endlessness

You are clothed in legend

You fill the deep seas with sorrow

You move slowly towards the end of the world

The best of those times

And the most desolate of those times

Sunlight is engraved upon your thin shoulders

Push the future towards darkness

Find the lies of the past

You are the nobility of ice and snow

You are the white snow of the world’s end

Many years later, I stand upon a piece of refinement stone half submerged in water. I face the open sea: face my country, the people loyal to me, the hustle and bustle of the mortal realms, and the sky filled with Xian Snowbirds. Tears flood my face.

The years of the past echo tumultuously in my head; like a ravenous fire, they sweep and spread through the deepest, most bitter parts of my heart.

Though it feels as if only a day has passed, at the same time I have seen an endless thousand years.

How must the world change until light can shine upon the facades we have allowed to sink into shadow?

My entire remembrance of the ice kingdom has been split into several pieces.

Entering the world of memories is like taking an endless journey; from birth to death, the pieces line up, stop by stop. Although some parts are clear, some are also muddled, my memories blown apart into scattered fireflies by the passage of wind and snow.

For a long time after my coming of age, I kept dreaming about standing alone atop an empty, desolate plain of ice. The white snow of the end of the world surrounds me, and I stare unceasingly at the point where the sky ends.

This kind of dream is like a never-ending tragedy, but it is also a kind of merciful tale.

My name is Kasuo, and I grew up in the Snow Fog Forest with a witch so old that no one remembers her age. I call her Grandma, and she calls me Prince, as I am the eldest son of the Snow Kingdom. I spent my childhood with my little brother, whose name is Ying Kongshi; together, we are the last surviving illusionists of the Snow Kingdom.

Once, there were many illusionists in our kingdom. Illusionists were commonly at the peak of all sorcerers in the whole land, surpassable by none. More than anything, people worshiped their aura of mystery and power. But, later on, they died, one after the other, leaving behind only me and my younger brother to continue the bloodline of the illusionists.

Within the borders of our kingdom - the truth is, even after my coming of age, I was never clear on how far our lands extended. The maps on sheepskin scrolls outlined only the simplest of landmarks: “Blaze Mountain” in the West, “Ice Sea” in the East, “Lucky Star Spring” in the North, all the way to the “Green Sea” in the South. The area between these boundaries is yet unfamiliar to me.

Within these borders are many, many different clans, of which our sorcerer clan is the most honorable. And, within our clan, the illusionists make up the bloodline of the royal family. Of the others, I am the most familiar with the Star Clan, who have been the chief astrologers of the kingdom for a long period of time. The other clans include the Music Clan, the Healers, etc., and each have their own little piece of land and do not interfere with the others.

Of course, the most mysterious clan resides at the bottom of the sea: the Mermaids.

My mother once told me that the strongest beings in the whole kingdom would most likely be the Demon Witches, a group within the Mermaid Clan none has ever set eyes on. They lie for many years in a deep sleep within the darkness of the deepest ocean canyons, and if they are awoken, they are as frightening as a tsunami. I have even heard grandma say that if 100 of the demon witches work together, they can turn a whole continent into a swampy wasteland within a moment. She also said that the demon witches move without sound or breath, floating about on the wind like ghostly mirages. No one has ever seen their true form.

When I was little, I always thought that they were very scary; however, as grandma continued, it has been many years since they have appeared on the mainland in Snow Kingdom.

In the language of magic, my name means city of darkness, and my brother’s name translates to the shadow of snow. We have different mothers and the same father - the king of Snow Kingdom.

My father is the greatest king in the history of Snow Kingdom. Two hundred years ago, he defeated nearly all the forces of the Fire Clan on the shores of the Ice Sea. The same war dealt a blow to our family that we would never be able to recover from; my three older brothers and two older sisters died in that ten year conflict. Their deaths left Ying Kongshi and I as the only remaining illusionists. The sorcerers, astrologers, swordsmen, and others who also died in that war were innumerable. And of the sorcerers the king sent to the bottom of the sea to seek out the support of the demon witches who lived in the deep sea canyons, not a single one came back.

In the boundless snowy plains from my memory, shadowy figures fall endlessly. Under the silent sky, their bodies hit the ground with dull thuds.

You cannot begin to imagine how heart-wrenching those scenes are, just like you cannot understand the desolation of watching hacked up corpses pile high in the bloody snow. But, in my youth, these are the very images that decorated the landscape outside of my window.

Part 1

幻城

岁月褪去陈云

以永恒的踵音

而漫长抗衡着须臾

把悲伤炼成透明

容颜以苍白的形状覆盖起荒凉

而荒凉把宇宙擦亮

冰原拼接起大陆与琉璃

怀念把绝望焚烧成憧憬

鸟群送葬光线

海水抚摸星辰

你比永久更加永久

也比漫长还要漫长

你把传奇皮带

你把海底植满悲怆

你朝世界尽头缓慢前行

那时的多少风光

还有多少凄凉

日光被镶嵌在你瘦削的肩膀

把未来推向黑暗

把过去照得虚妄

你是冰雪的王爵

你是末世的苍雪

很多年以后，我站在竖立着一块炼泅石的海岸，面朝大海，面朝我的王国，面朝臣服于我的子民，面朝凡世起伏的喧嚣，面朝天空的霰雪鸟，泪流满面。

那些岁月在头顶轰隆作响。席卷着，蔓延着，像大火般烧尽内心的沉痛。

好像才过去短短的一日，又好像是漫长的千年。

到底要经过什么样的宇宙变化，光线才可以照亮你一直沉埋在阴影里的侧脸?

我对整个冰雪帝国的记忆，分为好多个部分。

如今回忆起来，就像是一次漫长的旅程。丛生，到死，一站一站地断续连接。

有时候清晰，有时候混沌。回忆被风雪吹散成流萤。

在我成年后的很长一段时间里，我都会梦见自己站在空无一人的荒凉冰原上，末世的苍雪在身边翻涌，我茫然地望向天地的尽头。

这样的梦境，像是一个无限悲剧，却也略显慈悲寓言。

我的名字叫卡索，我在学武森林中长大，陪伴我的是一个老得让人无法记得她年龄的巫师，她让我叫她婆婆，她叫我皇子。我是幻雪帝国的长子。和我一起长大的还有我的弟弟，他的名字叫樱空释。我们两个，是幻雪帝国仅存的两个幻术师。

其实在我们的帝国里，本来幻术师还有很多，他们共同成为整个帝国里幻术的巅峰，以一种不可超越的，凌驾在所有巫师之上的姿态存在着，是所有巫师崇拜的神祇。但是后来，他们相继死亡。留下我和我的弟弟，延续幻术师的血统。

在我们帝国疆域上——其实一直到我成年之后，我都不太能准确地说出幻雪帝国的疆域到底有多大，幻术法典上的那卷关于领域的羊皮卷，也只是描绘了简单的西起点 “狼山” 和东终点 “冰海”，被起点 “星佑泉” 道南终点 “绿海”，而这四个点所包围出来的区域，我并不是很了解。

——在这个疆域之上，居住着很多很多的种族，其中以我们的巫师一族最为尊贵。而这个贵族里的贵族就是那些幻术师组成的皇家血统。其他的还有像是我比较熟悉的星宿一族，他们从很久以前，就一直担任帝国的占星师的角色。其他的还有巫乐族，巫医族，等等。他们分别占据帝国的某块领域，各自不相干预。

当然在冰海的深处，还有最神秘的人鱼一族。

母后曾经告诉我说，整个帝国里幻术最强的人，很可能就是人鱼一族里从未曾露面的妖术师。他们长年累月地沉睡在海底峡谷的黑暗里，如果苏醒起来，就像是海啸一般可怕。我甚至听婆婆说起过，她说100个妖术师联合在一起，可以把一块巨大的大陆，瞬间变成死亡的沼泽。她说那些妖术师行动起来的时候无声无息，像是白色发亮的魂灵一样随风飘浮，没有人看过他们真实的样子。

我小时候总是觉得他们特别可怕。但是婆婆也说，他们好多年都没有在幻雪他路上出现过了。

我的名字在幻术法曲上的意思是黑色之城，而我弟弟的名字翻译出来是幻雪之影。我们有不同的母亲和相同的父皇——幻雪帝国的现任国王。

我的父皇是幻雪帝国有史以来最伟大的国王，在两百年前的圣战中瓦解了冰海对岸火族的几乎全部势力。而那一战也让我的王族收到近乎不可挽回的重创，我的三个哥哥和两个姐姐在那场持续了十年的战役中死亡，于是家族中的幻术师就只剩下我和樱空释，而那场战役中死亡的巫师，占星师和剑士等等更是不计其数。虽然父皇也派出过顶尖的巫师前往冰海的峡谷深处企图寻找妖术师们的支援，但是所有前往的巫师，一个都没有回来过。

回忆里是无边无涯的雪地上，不断轰然倒下的身影，他们的尸体在寂静的苍穹下发出坠地时的沉闷声响。

你无法想象那些画面有多么震慑人心，你也无法了解看见成片尸体堆积成脏雪的悲凉。但这些都是在我年幼的时候，装点在我的窗外的风景。