Thread by @WriterWilke

Glacier: 0/20
It's been a little spell since I was able to do a #20TweetTales thread, but I'm glad to be back at it. Today's story is inspired by Joe Hill's fantastic piece, Glacier. artstation.com/artwork/nQ0rQX
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction
(repost because of errors)

Glacier: 1/20
First as a child and now as an adult, Thessa heard the Prophet's words in her head. "And lo, the Ice Dagger in the heart of fire will melt, only then shall the Ratha Lands be reborn. But with the rebirth, shall also come death."
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 2/20
Her knuckles turned white with strain on the pommel of her sword. Since that first time, she'd traveled thousands of leagues, through the Dead Empire and across the Sands of Purgatory. She'd even crossed the supposedly Endless Sea.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 3/20
Now, just a few hundred yards away, the Ice Dagger stood at the bottom of the Canyon of Souls, held frozen for over a millennium in the searing heat of the Canyon of Souls. Only hellspawn like spiketails and sand demons lived here.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 4/20
A loud crack echoed through the canyon. A jagged slab of ice the size of Thessa's childhood home plummeted and smashed into the hard-packed ground, exploding into millions of glittering ice-shards that melted before her eyes.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 5/20
Yes. Ratha Land's rebirth was coming, but Ratha himself was coming as well. Thessa's lip curled in disgust. The last time the demon lord walked the world, Heaven's Light was extinquished and humanity was almost wiped out.
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Glacier: 6/20
Eventually, a small group of angel and human heroes invoked the forbidden Nephiris magic. Only by combining their individual arcane abilities was Ratha's destructive path halted, freezing him inside the glacier now in front of her.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 7/20
A second crack echoed and another chunk of melting ice fell, shattering a few yards away. Thessa sheathed her sword and started walking toward the glacier. Another piece fell of and destroyed an ancient land bridge.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 8/20
With Ratha frozen, Heaven destroyed and the humanity in ruins, Angelic refugees flooded the human world, seeking shelter, but there was little to find for those who'd once decided humans were beneath their aid.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 9/20
So came the Seraph Wars, two hundred years of magic and blood scouring every known corner of the world. Even with the destruction of their own realm, the arrogance of the angels was matched only by that of the humans.
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Glacier: 10/20
Despite their superior powers, the angels were severely outmatched. At the end of the war, angelic-kind were outlawed. All who'd been captured were executed, the rest went into hiding. So they stayed for generations.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 11/20
Eventually, a human man and angelis woman fell in love and their union produced an abomination to both human and angel-kind. For its own safety, this Nephelim child was spirited away and lost to the shuffle of a busy world.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 12/20
A third crack, louder than the others, shattered the air in the canyon. Thessa watched as a massive line cut its way down the glacier. Her time was running out. She quickened her pace to a trot, then a run, then a sprint.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 13/20
Frigid air buffeted her face. More pieces fell from the glacier only to explode when they hit the dirt floor. Thessa dodge left and right with the deftness beyond any normal human or angel.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 14/20
Thessa didn't blame the humans who pulled the rope tight around her father's neck, nor the humans who swung the axe that severed her mother's head. No, they were still all but pawns in one creature's mad game. She blamed Ratha.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 15/20
Her hand fell to the hilt of her sword as if to remind herself it was still there. Her sword, the last blade carved from the essence of Light itself. It had been made for her mother, but Thessa herself was destined to wield it.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 16/20
Rage boiled in Thessa. She would see Ratha's eyes open just to watch her sword slide into his throat. She would funnel her life into that thrust, committing her very essence into doing what man and angel had not been able to do.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 17/20
She reveled in the knowledge that, after a thousand years of sleep, she would be the first and last thing that demonic sonofabitch ever saw. As if to challenge her thoughts, another crack cut through the air.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 18/20
Thessa dodged left and rolled. A horse-sized sliver of ice stabbed into the ground where she'd just been. She doubted Ratha could exert his influence on the falling ice, but it also wouldn't surprise her.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 19/20
Her antithesis, her negative, Ratha was born of demon and human blood. That was why she knew exactly what it would take to totally destroy him. It would everything, her body and soul, to rend him from this existence.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 20/20
She snarled. Yes, the Ratha Lands would be reborn. But she'd sacrificed everything, training in sword and arcanus the world over for this moment. Death would come when the glacier melted, and it's name was Thessara Uraziel.
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction

Glacier: 21/20 (BONUS)
This story was inspired by the fantastic art of Joe Hill. Don't hesitate to check out more of his work. artstation.com/artwork/nQ0rQX
#20TweetTales #Fantasy #Fiction