Diamond Caves

"You stab me, I die painfully, and then I go back to being frozen until someone wakes me up again. It's a cunning enchantment. The first forty times, Queen Diamond killed me herself. I suspect the original point of the spell was that she wasn't satisfied with killing me just once. But then the forty-first time, there were two dragonets here... so she must have decided I could be used for this other purpose, whatever you two are here for."

— Foeslayer to Hailstorm and Winter, Winter Turning

Template:Infobox LocationThe Diamond Caves are a system of ice caverns within the Ice Kingdom where the Diamond Trial takes place. They were named after the trial's creator, Queen Diamond. It is also known as the Gift of Vengeance. These caves are also where Foeslayer was trapped until Winter set her free in Winter Turning. Winter mentions that IceWings only use their animus powers once. He also mentions that Queen Diamond used her animus power more than once to create the Diamond Caves, and then to imprison Foeslayer. 

History

Pre-Series

Queen Diamond trapped Foeslayer in the Diamond Caves after Foeslayer supposedly "stole" the IceWings' last animus prince, Prince Arctic. She put her in shackles and enchanted them to freeze Foeslayer until she was touched by a diamond-tipped spear. The shackles would only release her if the frostbreath of a royal IceWing was breathed upon it, presumably ransom for Prince Arctic. According to Foeslayer, Queen Diamond was the one to kill her for the first forty times. The Diamond Trial may have started when, on the forty-first time the NightWing was killed, two dragonets came instead of the IceWing queen.

Winter Turning

Winter and Hailstorm were instructed to enter the cave and touch the ice sculpture of a dragon with the pointed tip of their diamond spears. They wandered the caves together looking for the dragon sculpture. Eventually, they stepped into a room that held many frozen IceWings, some having surprised and horrified expressions. As they explored around this cave, they noticed a large frozen NightWing in the midst of the frozen corpses. Hailstorm instantly lunged towards her and tapped her with the spear, unfreezing the NightWing from her prison, who turns out to be Foeslayer.

As the huge NightWing unfroze, she explained her job was to try to kill them. As they fought her, it was revealed that the dragon they were fighting was none other than Foeslayer herself, enchanted by Queen Diamond to be frozen, only aging when she was summoned by the IceWings challengers.

Once Hailstorm killed her, she instantly froze back into ice. Then, Winter realized one of them was supposed to kill the other and the living one would survive to tell the tale and gain glory, ascending into the First Circle. However, Hailstorm refused to kill Winter. Trapped in a difficult predicament, Winter promised to leave the Kingdom forever, and released Foeslayer, realizing the shackles could only be unlocked by the frostbreath of a royal IceWing. He freed her, presumably preventing the trial from ever happening again. Later, after Foeslayer had been released from the trials, she disappeared into the wilds of Pyrrhia, and eventually went to live in the rainforest.

Description

The Diamond Caves are series of caves and caverns made mostly of ice, filled with stalactites and stalagmites like any other cavern, located at the north-westernmost peninsula on Pyrrhia. Near Foeslayer's cave, there is an uncountable amount of frozen IceWing statues, who were previous victims of the Diamond Trial (which failed). An underground river runs near the entrance to the cave, into a dark chasm.