The game did not take over once they made it to the open plateau. Part of Draya wanted to know what a “Cut Scene” was, but she would have to wait for another time. The bridge was slick but had handrails, and the group carefully made their way across. They tried not to look down, but the steps were crystal clear, and they had to watch were they stepped lest they slip and fall.

The bridge emptied into a courtyard filled with ice sculptures and frozen trees. They didn’t look dead, only coated in a shimmering glaze with enlarged snowflakes hanging from their limbs. Draya thought it all looked beautiful, but Psycho only pulled his cloak about him tighter, hoping this bitterly cold adventure was almost at its end.

The door to the castle stood at the far side of the courtyard, ten feet tall and slightly translucent. All the walls were made of ice that amplified the starlight and looked like they should be crystal clear, but as they drew near, there was just enough haze and reflective quality that the castle's interior remained a mystery.

Psycho approached the doors, not knowing if he should knock or just barge in. The decision was made for him as they magically opened, revealing an expansive entry hall beyond. Twin staircases curved in from opposite sides, creating a heart design leading up to a balcony that ringed the hall. A frozen fountain stood in the center, light reflecting through the ice crystals, giving the illusion of movement as the group stepped inside.

“It’s amazing,” Draya said, spinning around to take everything in. “Ice is so much prettier than fire. I wish . . .”

“Who are you?!”

Everyone stopped moving and looked to the top of the staircase. It could only be Elsa. She moved to the edge of the railing to look down at them.

“Why are you here?! You should leave at once!”

Psycho gasped, and Jasper nearly fainted. She was a gorgeous young woman with braided, platinum blonde hair, pale white skin, ruby red lips, and deep crystal blue eyes. She wore a dress, though that fact was barely evident. She was covered in what looked like silk made of ice, like she had stood still in an ice storm, only it flexed and flowed with her. It was perfectly transparent, following every contour of her body, and they could only tell she wore anything because it glimmered in the light as she moved. The sleeves darkened past her elbows into a frostbite blue, and a few carefully placed snowflakes decorated the bodice, hiding just enough of her torso to force Jasper to use some of his imagination. Her lower half was visible through the crystal-clear railing, and the skirt was made from a small whirlwind of snow as if she were wearing a greenscreen with a blizzard projected onto it. Her long legs interrupted the stormy dress as she walked, their shape pressing against the magical fabric.

“She is in a children’s story?” Draya whispered her common refrain to Jasper, but the human was speechless.

Psycho ignored them. “We are here to end the winter.” He stepped forward. “You have cursed the land, and you need to stop. Hand over the source of the magical power, and we will dispose of it for you.”

Draya threw the elf a confused look, wondering if his straightforward, tactless approach was best here. Elsa thought the same thing. “What are you talking about? The realms, my family, and even my sister have all abandoned me. The Frosthold is all I have. It calls to me, protects me. Why should you care that I live in a frozen fortress away from everyone? Just leave me alone and never return.” Her speech ended with a flourish, and icicles leaped from the floor, stabbing up and toward the ranger. Psycho jumped back to prevent injury.

Draya stepped around the ice and approached the bottom of the stairs. “But don’t you see, you aren’t the only one living in this winter wonderland. All of . . .” she paused, realizing the town must have had a different name before the spell, but she went with it, “. . . Neverspring is trapped in this same cold climate, and they long to be free of it.”

“You are lying,” Elsa said, moving to the top of the staircase and challenging Draya. “I don’t have that kind of power.”

Fires lit in Draya’s eyes, letting the ice mage know she was ready for a fight if it came to that. “That may not be your intention,” Draya said, “but this Frosthold you speak of is likely more powerful than you realize. It might have motivations beyond your own.”

“Nonsense,” Elsa scoffed. “It has no intentions; it only welcomes me in its cold embrace, allowing me to build all you see.” She waved her arms in a flurry, and glittering frost hung in the air, expanding like fireworks and falling to the floor.

“You are a naïve, foolish girl,” Psycho said, stepping around the ice skewers. “You are blind to what is happening here. We can . . .”

“Silence!” Elsa cried and waved her hand at the elf again. More spikes grew from the floor, this time surrounding him. An “X” rose on either side of him, their intersections catching him under the arms and lifting him off the ground. He tried to maneuver out of the hold, but more icicles grew beneath him, threatening to impale him if he fell. One final spike extended from the floor, bigger than the rest and sharpened to a point just beneath his chin. “I don’t want to listen to you anymore.”

Psycho knew if he tried to talk, this last icicle would cut his throat.

“Anna sent us,” Draya said, taking a softer approach. “She is dying. When you left, she said she was hurt. And now the cold . . .”

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“It was an accident,” Elsa pleaded. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I thought it best that I ran away so I wouldn’t hurt anyone else.”

Draya dared to ascend a few steps. “But you are. The cold is sucking at Anna’s strength. We don’t know how much longer she will last.”

“No . . . “ Elsa started. “No, you are lying. You are trying to trick me. I just want to be left alone.”

Draya could see the struggle inside her and took a few more steps up. “That is the Frosthold talking,” Draya said. “You love your sister. You don’t want any harm to come to her. This power you have. It wants to grow. It wants to spread. You have to stop it.”

“I . . . I can’t,” she said weakly, collapsing on the landing.

On the floor below, the icicles trapping Psycho shrank away. Draya ran up the last few steps and touched Elsa’s shoulder.

“Show me where the Frosthold is,” Draya said. “I have the power to subdue it. You can make this right. You can give up the power.”

“No, I can’t,” she said, her voice low and crackly, like water flash freezing.

Draya didn’t pick up on the change in demeanor right away. “Yes, you can. The Frosthold is using you as a conduit to turn the entire countryside into a frozen wasteland. You can stop it. You can save your sister.”

“She is weak and naïve if she thought sending you was a solution.”

Now, Draya stepped back and watched the beautiful woman rise. Her face had changed, and her eyes were now white instead of blue.

“You are equally foolish to think you can use emotional blackmail to rob me of my freedom.”

“Elsa?” Draya asked, but she already knew it wasn’t the woman speaking.

“Through this vessel, I can cover all the realms in ice, and no one can stop me.”

“I can try,” Draya replied, resolve filling her voice.

Elsa attacked with a flourish, sending a wave of ice-cold air at the other woman, launching her off the balcony. As Draya flew, she struck back with a fireball, hitting the ice mage squarely in the chest and tossing her back as well. The top landing turned to water, and Elsa slipped down the far staircase. Draya hit an ice wall and fell to the floor, lacking the coordination to land safely. She took a lot of damage but remained conscious. However, her staff skittered away from her on the floor.

Draya pushed herself up and ran a few paces in place as her feet struggled to find traction but finally moved toward her weapon. Before she got there, the staff was entombed in a block of ice. Draya had her own magic she could lean on, but a massive snowball threw her back before she could cast.

Psycho had his elemental bow out and sent fire arrows toward Elsa when the ice mage hit the ground floor. Shields of ice sprang up, intercepting the arrows but melting as the fire spell released. After several failed attacks, a wall of ice rose directly in front of the archer, and his next shot exploded a few feet in front of his face, bathing him in fire. While he appreciated the temperature change, it also did 60 damage to him.

Draya scrambled to her feet and tried to formulate a strategy. Seeing that Elsa was still stalking toward her, she knew she would have to take the woman head-on, but she didn’t have the right spells prepared since she always relied on her staff. Snowy provided the proper distraction, jumping in front of Elsa. The ice magic did little harm to the wolf, and the familiar easily overpowered the mage and wrestled her to the ground.

Draya took a round to drop into her spell book and worked hard to shape the right fire attack. When she emerged a few seconds later, she watched in horror as ice impaled Snowy. The wolf had Elsa pinned to the floor with her paws on the much smaller woman’s stomach, but now icicles sprang up and pierced the animal from multiple angles, producing vivid red stains on her coat. Eventually, they grew long enough to lift the wolf into the air. Snowy whimpered from the pain as Elsa rolled out from underneath her.

The dragon mage hadn’t needed additional motivation to stop this woman, but now she had it. They stalked toward each other from 30 feet away, raising their hands to attack and releasing their power. A stream of white and red met between them, instantly filling the hall with vapor that quickly chilled into snow and then turned into a blizzard as the temperature fluctuations produced violent winds.

The women were equally matched for a moment, but then Draya allowed the 100 mana she got from her dress to raise the Difficulty of her spell each round, and the dragon fire pushed back against the flood of cold magic. To shape this spell into a continuous stream of fire that lasted over several rounds, Draya was spending all of her mana and couldn’t hold up this attack for long.

She didn’t need to; with only one round of magic left, her fire fought against the last of the cold and splashed into Elsa, knocking the woman back and into the side of the staircase. Through the display of power, Psycho had his bow ready, letting Draya engage this foe first, knowing they didn’t want to kill her. He kept a bead on the motionless ice mage, fire licking at the end of a nocked arrow. Draya ran over to her and propped her body into a sitting position.

“Elsa, Elsa,” she pleaded. “Are you okay?”

The pale woman opened her eyes, and Draya saw the original crystal blue looking up at her. “Dragon fire should work,” she said weakly. “But you have to be quick. I can’t . . .” Her body convulsed as if in pain, her eyes shut tight in concentration. When she opened them again, they were white. A wave of cold sent Draya flying back and skidding on the slick floor to the base of the other staircase.

Psycho released his arrow. Instead of a wall of ice rising, the air around the mage swirled, dousing the flaming arrow and turning the projectile white. It shattered when it hit Elsa. She responded by extending her arm toward the ranger, and a torrent of snow flew toward him, burying him in seconds.

“Fools,” Elsa said. “You will have to kill her to sever my bond. And I shall not make that easy.”

Snowy had been released from her torture when Draya’s attack had heated the room, and the wolf stalked the ice mage carefully, showing her fangs with the hair on the back of her neck ruffled. Psycho sputtered and climbed out of the snow. Jasper didn’t have anywhere to hide and continually inched toward the door.

Elsa caught the human’s motions and laughed at him. “You want to run? You think you will find sanctuary out in the cold? You wouldn’t last . . .”

Her voice cut off as her eyes followed Jasper’s to the right. Draya rose from the ground and sprinted to the open doors. Elsa reacted quickly, waving at the portal and slamming it shut. Draya’s form slipped through the door's crack right before it closed, a thick layer of ice forming over it.

Elsa shrugged indifferently. “I didn’t expect her to give up that easily. No matter. I’ll kill you three and then go after her.” She raised her hands to finish Jasper.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Psycho firing again and changed strategies, enacting her icy wind defense again. The arrow wasn’t on fire this time, so while it still went brittle and shattered harmlessly against her dress, it exploded for 60 points of acid damage. Elsa cried in pain, and Snowy tackled her from behind before the mage could retaliate. Spikes rose from the floor again, but the wolf was clever and scampered away before they bit into her.

The fight was on.