The tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Moonlight streamed into the enclosure through the dozen holes in the ceiling, illuminating the forest of trees within it. Said forest was in disarray; a good number of trees lay in halves and quite a few hung from the branches of their still standing kin, clumps of soil dropping from their roots. The earth was a mess of divots, furrows, and spikes and water dripped steadily from the trees, solidifying into ice before they met the grpund. It seemed as though a storm had made its way through the cavern.

It was the aftermath of a fight between Ildrat and a group that had come with Galdis, Valerina revealed. When the trio encountered the forest, they had decided to leave Voscov within the tunnel and explore a ways into the cavern and stumbled upon what was, mildly put, a brawl.

Ildrat stood alone, facing off against a group of fifty, and it was simply a one-sided beat down - and the Frozen King was the one doing the beating. Everything in the cavern obeyed him - the air, the waters, the earth; everything. His opponents hadn't stood a chance with the environment working against them, and while they had been able to flee in the end, they had suffered extensive casualties.

It was at that point that Ildrat attacked the hidden trio with nary a word. The environment was turned upon them and in little time they found themselves bound and at the mercy of the Ethereal. He was going to have their lives, he assured them, but bid Valerina and Ellen fetch Voscov first.

The two girls had considered taking the chance to flee, but upon reasoning that Ildrat was capable of freezing the razatche horde from dozens of meters away, they decided to comply.

It was a horrible feeling, walking with their own two feet to their death, but that was all they could do. Resistance was futile in the face of absolute might, and Ildrat certainly was might of a magnitude they had never known.

They traipsed through the trees and stepped out into a small clearing. Ildrat sat on a throne of ice, his eyes frigid, and a finger tapping soundlessly against the armrest. Gabriel sat against a tree to his right, cradling his arm.

"Your friend has informed me of the fate that has befallen Sealarios and its lord," Ildrat spoke, his expression inscrutable. He made a gesture and a waist high pillar of ice condensed out of thin air. Another gesture saw vines lowering a copper bowl from above.

Ildrat eyed the four around him critically and found them wanting. The brunette - the one called Valerina - had the makings of a thief. Sly and selfish, his brief perusal of her consciousness had told him. He was not fond of both traits.

His attention turned to the boy they had brought back. That one was no good either. He was far too calm in the face of death and his calm did not find its source in bravery or courage. No, a brief scan of his mental self revealed that he was far too confident that things would go his way. There was no external factor giving him such certainty - he simply had that much of an ego. Ildrat did not like him.

The golden haired brat was almost the same though not quite. He was calm outwardly, however Ildrat could feel his mind racing. He feared death to a degree that was unfathomable for the soul remnant. The sort of fear that would see him push his closest comrades into infernal hells at the most dire of times. The sort of person Ildrat despised the most.

Out of the four, the silverhead seemed the most normal. However she was angry at the world and brought up a feeling of foreboding in Ildrat. She was not a razatche - a simple mental scan had revealed as much - but she made Ildrat's hackles rise.

However, what needs doing must be done. Now that he had availed himself a cursory look at their consciousness, he was certain they did not labor alongside Takun and his malodorous wench of a son Galdis like he had first feared. Despite how despicable they were, they would have to do.

"Come," he called, pointing at the brunette. "Approach the pedestal."

Valerina walked forward silently. She wasn't shaking in her boots, being far too tired to bother, but her mind was doing flips and a scream lodged itself in her throat as she slowly approached her demise.

"Pull out the canvas and the quill from within the bowl," Ildrat commanded. "And prepare to write."

Valerina did as instructed, pulling out a canvas, a quill, and an inkwell from within the copper bowl and arranging it on the pedestal.

"Sealarios has fallen," Ildrat intoned. "The thousand years is up and fate sides with Allidis."

Valerina glanced up sharply in surprise, and met Ildrat's frigid stare. A moment later she focused on the canvas and scrawled quickly across its surface.

"Burn it," Ildrat commanded when she was done.

She put the canvas back in, pulled out a flint from the bowl, and raked it against its rim. Sparks flew on the first try, landing on the canvas and catching fire. Silence reigned while the canvas burned and it was only when it had scattered completely into ashes did Ildrat move.

His eyes scanned the four with a chilling intensity. He caught Gabriel staring fixedly at his fingers tapping soundlessly on his armrest and ceased the movement.

That one is sharp, he mused as he raised his arm to allow a plain box chiseled from ice to slide out of the chair. The box opened and the air above it shimmered briefly with a captivating iridescence as four gems were revealed to the world.

"These," Ildrat began, drawing the attention of the teenagers whose gazes had been captured by the gems, "are the ethereal possessions."

He watched carefully the changes in their expressions before continuing; "I have decided to eschew the summary execution of you four as well as have you on your way home on the premise that you shall take these with you. I shall come for them upon apprehending Takun and his offspring and cleansing the island of the filth that have run afoul of it."

He rose slowly, his gaze settling upon them one at a time.

"They are not yours," he cautioned. "Do not try to use them. Do not touch them either for I shall know and you shall face due punishment."

He grasped at the air and the dirt exploded outward to reveal a flat stone upon which a circle of runes had been chiseled.

"Your way home," Ildrat said stolidly. "You would leave before the first light on the morrow when only a minute number shall witness your return. No earlier and no later. Am I understood?"

The four chorused in the affirmative and Ildrat pivoted on his feet without delay to stride into the forest. Half a minute later, when he was gone beyond the trees, he gave a morose sigh. He had used up a rather exorbitant amount of energy in the fight with Galdis - to say nothing of the legion of scourged on the island that were a constant source of enfeeblement for him. He would have to slumber for months more before he would be able to manifest again.

The Frozen King looked up at the ceiling of the cavern, his heart melancholy. A thousand years was a long time and he was terribly tired.

Meanwhile, Gabriel, Valerina, Ellen, and Voscov gathered around the ethereal possessions, gazing at them with wonder.

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"I thought it was only a single one," Ellen murmured, entranced.

"This is like a dream come true," Valerina said, giggling suddenly as thoughts of the legends surrounding the ethereal possession swirled within her head. If there ever was a cure for enix, these were it. No, the ethereal possession certainly could cure enix.

"Who is taking it?" Voscov asked.

Gabriel tore his eyes from the crystals and scanned the three people around him. He smiled as he recognized the greed in each of their gazes.

"I think I would step out of this. I don't want them," he said. "Voscov, why don't you have it?"

"I am not moved by them hence I do not want them either."

Ellen cleared her throat.

"I don't want them either. Someone else take them," she said.

Valerina snatched up the crystals from the box and three eyes snapped to her face immediately, none of them friendly. The brunette cleared her throat.

"Well, since no one wants them I'll just..."

"Do not dare."

"Drop it."

"Now."

Valerina gave a sheepish laugh and placed the crystals back in their box. She understood what was going on.

Minutes later they were seated within the clearing, the ethereal possessions and its box sitting untouched on the frigid chair where Ildrat had placed it. Valerina sat on a low hanging branch, her legs swinging back and forth as she scanned the trio with her, trying to resist the temptation to grab the possessions and shove them into her satchel.

"Are you okay?" she asked Gabriel. He had parried a speeding javelin wrought of compact earth with his arm. He could have dodged it, but if he did Valerina would have been impaled through her stomach. While she did not believe he had done it out of the goodness of his heart, she was aware that he was the reason she didn't have a hole through her midsection.

"I'm okay," Gabriel replied, jostling his injured arm slightly. "Nothing is out of place so it's most likely a minor bone fracture."

"I wonder," Ellen sighed as she gazed into the canopy above. "Why is Ildrat here? It has been centuries since the ethereal four walked the world and I doubt the Frozen King is immortal."

Silence fell upon them briefly and during that time Valerina noticed Gabriel's countenance change slightly. It was a miniscule change that could have happened for two dozen other reasons but the noble girl clamped down on it like a shark.

"You know something," she accused.

Gabriel met her declaration with a dry stare.

"I don't," he stated.

"Do you swear on the honour of your name that you don't?"

Gabriel scoffed.

"I swear on..."

"For all we know you are capable of selling off your own mother to push a lie through," Ellen interrupted. "Of you do know something, why don't you share it with us? We are all friends after all."

"I still..."

"Ponder your chances of beating back both I and Ellen with an injured arm," Valerina threatened.

"You wouldn't dare," Gabriel said with a light smile. "If Ildrat returns to find one of us dead he would hardly spare the rest. After all he entrusted all four possessions to the four of us."

"What sort of barbarian do you peg us for?" Valerina's lips curved upward in a predatory smile. "We would never harm a friend. Having you dangle by your arms from a tree, and for the whole night too is, at most, a light-hearted prank." She twirled a hair strand around her index finger. "A bone broken here and there is just a consequence of far too much fun."

Gabriel regarded her silently, his gaze panning from the brunette to the silverhead and finally to Voscov.

"I proffer tacit support," the indifferent prince said. "Sharing is a virtue."

"I carried you for miles through the tunnel!" Gabriel exploded.

"And you shall be appropriately compensated. Later."

"Stop making a fuss and simply speak," Ellen urged. "I doubt whatever it is would be too shocking."

"I still don't appreciate being threatened," Gabriel said, gathering himself. "However, Ellen is right. What I figured out is nothing too shocking. The Frozen King we saw is simply a ghost and nothing more."

"Buttertalk," Valerina countered immediately. "Ghosts are incapable of such feats he accomplished. Not to mention that they are incorporal and unable to have direct communication with the living."

"Let me finish speaking would you?" Gabriel snapped at her. "There is a good reason why I say this. If any of you dimwits had bothered to be mentally present, you would have realised that despite being able to speak with us, he was wholly unable to affect the environment."

"The drumming of his finger was soundless and the grasses did not deform under his weight," Voscov murmured.

"Exactly," Gabriel acknowledged. "Compound upon that with the fact that we know for a fact that the Frozen King had sealed himself and Allidis in black ice during the scourge war and you quickly realise that there is no way for him to cross a thousand plus years and appear before us. Unless, of course, what we saw was not the Ethereal himself but a manifestation of him. A ghost, if you will."

"But he speaks," Ellen pointed out. "And had control of all base manipulations. Truthfully speaking, I would more easily believe he is some demon risen from Nether's halls, but not even they are capable of having command over the disparate elements."

"I've said all I know," Gabriel shrugged.

"What we saw was a nascent soul remnant of Ildrat and not just his lingering soul," Voscov said. "It is already known that ghosts, if left to a particular area for a long time, are able to sleep into and influence their surroundings to a slight extent. Suppose at the end of the scourge war the remaining Ethereals had banded together to extract Ildrat's nascent soul from the black ice and brought it here to protect the possessions, then he would have been here for millennia."

"That does explain his seeming control over the elements," Valerina mused, the edges of her eyes crinkling as she smiled. "Even better, with him having manifested already, Ildrat is already done and gone."

Gabriel muttered a slight curse under his breath. Why did Voscov decide to open his mouth? This was the very thing he had wanted to hide. Nascent souls, once manifested, were bound to dissipate after a short time. Now they were aware Ildrat would not be coming for the possessions once they left, threatening them with him was impossible.

Silence descended upon them as they all digested what had come to light and planned for the future. Time trudged on slowly and soon Voscov began to shiver. Catching sight of his condition, Gabriel pulled off his coat and draped it over the ailing boy. Voscov gave him a murmured thanks and pulled himself deeper into the coat.

Valerina watched them and pondered. She knew that against the other three she was at a huge disadvantage. At the moment, and one on one, she had vaguely equal chances of grasping the possessions for herself but out in the world, the resources and clout they had at their disposal formed a large chasm between she and they. Quite naturally, she had come to the conclusion that the only way she would stand a chance was to have them willingly take on a handicap.

"Hey," she called. "Let's have a blood oath."

Ellen looked up from the leaf she was stabbing with a stick.

"Why?" She asked.

"An oath of secrecy in regards to the possessions."

Ellen scrutinized her for a while.

"I doubt any of us knows how to initiate a binding blood oath," said the silverhead.

"I wouldn't propose it if I did not have the know how," Valerina answered laconically.

"We do not need a blood oath, do we? A promise upon our names should be good enough," Voscov managed to say.

Ellen and Gabriel glanced at him and quickly pondered upon their individual circumstances.

"Come to think of it, a blood oath is perfectly sensible," Gabriel said.

"Indeed," Ellen agreed. "A simple promise upon our names is not enough to communicate the sheer severity of the situation." After all, she suspected none of them gave any weight to such promises. "What do you think Voscov?"

They were giving him the chance to change his mind, Voscov realised, and sighed drolly.

"I do not keep anything from Lynica," he stated.

"I keep nothing from my aide either," Ellen slapped down immediately.

Valerina rolled her eyes.

"Alright; we would all have the opportunity to reveal the secret to one person. No, disregard that: your aides only are to be told what transpired here but they are not to reveal it to anyone else. Were an aide to spill the secret, his or her lord would take the fall. Agreed?"

The three Maesers agreed readily and so Valerina continued.

"I do not have an aide or anything of the sort, however, so I am reserved the right to make a demand of each of you."

Gabriel tutted.

"Impossible," he said. "That is far too unbalanced."

"Don't be so greedy, Val," Ellen reproached her. "Do mention someone you trust and you would be allowed to share about the possessions with him or her."

"I have no one," Valerina said blandly.

"Then find one."

Valerina hummed, pretending to ponder.

"Alright," she said. "Two demands."

"One," Gabriel countered, prompting Valerina to glare at him.

"One?" she spat. That was the bare minimum. With Gabriel and Ellen being accepting to securing their interests with a blood oath for whatever reason, they needed her in order to pressure Voscov into the deal. Availing her of one demand was the very bare minimum.

"Do remember that a bone broken here and there is just a consequence of far too much fun," Gabriel said with a cheeky grin. "So one."

Valerina eyed Ellen. The princess shrugged, grinning at her.

"Alright, one demand," Valerina said through gritted teeth.

"Within reason," the blue eyed prince added.

Valerina's eyes flashed with anger. The 'within reason' clause might as well eliminate her advantage. However she needed the blood oath to go through; and if she played her card right, the clause might not mean much in the end.

"Within reason," she acquiesced.

And so they took the blood oath, mixing drops of their blood in the bronze bowl and lighting it on fire alongside some tinder. They recited the oath and its clauses as they watched it burn, and all the while Ellen's mind spun with ways to bypass said oath.