As soon as the Ice Princess said "Thaw", everyone did, and there was a very awkward silence.

"Aaaah…" she said "Now that's better." She watched everyone with interest.

The first to move was Gob. He slumped to the floor clutching his head.

The second was Leőn, from behind the throne. He sheathed his dagger, walked around to the step in front of it, gave Gervais a hard stare, knelt down on one knee, took her hand, and kissed it gently. Then he looked up and smiled at her winningly.

She blushed, the only colour she could wear other than white. Wordlessly he walked backwards down to his companions, never taking his eyes off her.

Gervais spoke after watching Leőn with a smirk. "Thank you Princess Ilae, and our apologies, we're sorry to have… startled you."

"This Mage doesn't speak for us." It was the White Orc this time, his tone gruff and demanding "What kind of a Princess are you… what kind of a preserve or sanctuary is home to malicious elementals, animal hybrids and Chenoos?"

"Oh, poor Grandpa," sighed the Princess with an actual tear forming on her cheek."Did you…"

"I did." said Kylie, flying forwards.

"You what?" demanded Gervais.

"I gave that poor creature the rest it deserved." Kylie answered.

"You? YOU killed a Chenoo?!" he sputtered.

The Princess held her hand up for silence, her other hand massaging her forehead. She looked sad, tired and frustrated. She stood. She looked from Gervais to the party below her throne shaking her head.

"I am only beginning to comprehend what I might have found myself in the middle of here… there are obviously some rifts between you all, and I'm not sure standing around in a throne room fighting it out all day is going to solve them. Let me offer you all the same hospitality I offered this Mage when he flew in on his... well I must admit, quite sensational Cockatrice—"

"He flew here? On a Cockatrice?!" Leőn interrupted her. She clearly didn't appreciate being interrupted, and seemed to be waiting on something more from the Elf with a cold silence, and a raised eyebrow.

Gervais wondered whether anyone else interrupting might have been treated quite the same. Nevertheless the pause became awkward.

"My apologies for interrupting you, your Highness." Leőn said, with a measure of sarcasm and a theatrically low bow, "Only we met his Cockatrice just outside your gates. It nearly took my arm off. It seemed a bit—"

"Bi-polar?" said the Princess cutting him off in turn with an icy smile.

"I was going to say demented..."

"It will fit right in to my preserve then. Gervais agreed to let me keep it."

Leőn looked at Gervais strangely. "And where did you even get a bi-polar cockatrice? I didn't think flying dangerously unbalanced monsters was really your style."

"It never ceases to amaze what might be found for a great price during a… fire sale… at Goblin Town." he said with a callous shrug.

"YOO FIND IT AT GOBN TOWN OR IT FIND YOO!!" called out Gob enthusiastically.

The Princess held up her hand again.

"I can see this is going to be a long afternoon. Please let's move next door. We'll have a meal together and sort it all out in a… civilised manner. Are we of one accord?"

Everyone nodded. A door swung open to one side of the throne room. The Princess stood, and with a sweep descended the stairs from her throne and lead the way into the dining hall.

Gervais watched as the she descended the grand staircase. The others waited for her to pass before turning to follow her. When he was halfway down the stairs himself he called,

"Kylie, may I speak with you?"

The fairy stopped mid flight but didn't turn immediately. That told him something.

When she did turn to him it was reluctantly, and the Troll runt turned with her, somewhat protectively. That told him something too.

He took a moment to examine the creature and was fascinated by the changes he could see to it. It wasn't much bigger, although whatever power it was that allowed it morph into a giant the way it had in the throneroom was interesting. Mainly it appeared much more intelligent. Much more sentient. Much stronger. Much more determined. Good he thought.

He had been going to invite her back to him, but he could see it would be futile. And he couldn't order it. She looked different too. Apart from changing her colour, she seemed confident. Strong. Purposeful. Also good. And it looked like she really was helping the Troll progress. Gervais had to accept he had lost his familiar. So he simply asked,

"Is all well?"

A complicated set of looks flashed across her face. He could see there was a lot she could think of saying, but didn't want to, or dare to. He could see she'd discarded the tinkly false persona she'd worn like a protective shell for the years that he'd known her. She was thinking of those years with him and what they now meant in this moment. She was remembering her life before becoming a fairy. She was wondering why he had sent her to the troll. She wanted to know why he would have ripped Goblin Town apart just to find them. She didn't say any of that though, instead simply answering in return,

"All's well."

The troll growled at him.

Gervais smiled, a little sadly.

"Then lead on." he said gesturing to the dining room door.

The dining hall was far more majestic and intricate than the throneroom. Where the one had been designed to draw attention only to the person sitting on the throne, the other had obviously been designed to draw attention to itself.

The hall was lined with what appeared to be supporting pillars towards the sides. Whereas much of the ice in the palace so far had been jagged and angular, these pillars were curved and flowing, carved and smoothed into the shapes of different varieties of trees and detailed right down to intricate bark and leaves or pine needles. Between and around each tree were equally ornate life sized ice sculptures of the strangest assortment of creatures, not least among which were elementals, hybrid wolfmen and a life size Chenoo.

The trees and creatures lined the sides of the hall with their branches creating a low covered walkway around the perimeter of the hall, but opened up their canopies in the centre to a ceiling of transparent ice so clear that it might not have been there at all, lighting the hall with the bright azure blue of the clear mountain sky. This hall really did feel like some kind of sanctuary.

In the centre of the room under the clear ceiling was a beautiful dining table running the length of the hall, all of ice right down to the fragile looking crockery and utensils and ice decorations in the centre.

There were far more settings than visitors, but at a few movements of the Princesses hands, a part of the table flawlessly separated from the main, reshaping itself as it did, turning the table into a circular shape with three distinct sections. There was a section with a single seat for the Princess, another section with a seat for Gervais, and a third section with three seats for the others, as well as an elaborate platform that would allow Kylie to be seated comfortably next to her companions.

The reshaping had been as mesmerising to watch as the tree and creature carvings, and no one had yet spoken a word since they entered the peaceful space.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

A door opened at the side of the hall and four ice golems strode out with trays of food and goblets of drink. Gobs eyes went wide when he saw them. They were like walking ice chunks, not small and evil looking like the ice elementals had been, but tall and solid and blocky. They were fluid and precise in their movements though, and they ushered their guests politely to their seats and then set the trays and drinks out, serving each of them wordlessly but impeccably.

The food and drink were the only things in the room not of ice, and were spectacularly coloured and plated. Strangely, the ice utensils did not melt no matter what touched them, and were cool but not painfully cold to touch and hold.

"Lady Ilae, might I make an observation?" Asked the White Orc when they were seated and served.

"Please everyone, enjoy your food. We can converse and eat together" she said to all, before turning to the White Orc.

"Of course Orc, though I am a Princess, and I don't yet have the benefit of your name," she replied.

"I have no name lady Mage." he growled, "Most call me 'the white orc' for obvious reasons. And while I acknowledge your accomplishments, though I'm sure I am yet to understand them, you are not my Sovereign; I owe allegience to no one if you'll pardon my insistence on the point."

She gave him a long look. It was a delving, piercing look. She answered him very gently,

"You may call me what you will, and so will call you by a name you don't even know you have… Garthûn."

If the White Orc could have paled any more he would have. His red pupils dilated rapidly, his breath drew in in a sharp gasp and his hands gripped the table so hard that cracks in the ice spread out from them.

In his mind he was back in the deep caves of his Orc tribe, his birthplace, being jeered and rejected and victimised and beaten. But there was a person who stood back from the brutality. She stood back in the shadows, concealed, she seemed to be crying. Was that his mother? Had she been powerless to stop her misfit child from being thrown away, but still given him a name he had never heard? In his mind he peered through the puffy, angry, beaten up eyes of his younger self at the figure standing back in the shadows, watching... was that his mother? Or was that... Princess Ilae?

The White Orc was jerked back to reality with a start.

"You were going to make an observation?" she prompted after some time passed in silence.

He seemed unable to move or speak any further.

"I will make it then for the benefit of all here." she continued

"On your way up the pass you were attacked by fell beasts, many of whom you murdered, admittedly for your own survival, then you arrived unexpectedly at a palace preventing access to the East and West passes, and you thought you must surely find within it the evil power dominating the land. Yet you found only a Princess Elemental Elf Mage. As well as a Bright Mage." She nodded at Gervais.

"You were going to make an observation regarding my apparent lack of… 'evil-ness' I presume?"

"Where did you get that name" the White Orc managed to choke out.

"This mountain range is my Preserve." She continued despite the White Orc's question. "Here I take in any and all creatures of The Realm who don't… fit the mold. I have a blessing that I have honed over years of working with the disadvantaged and the 'unique'." She looked at Leőn as she said it, eliciting a smile and a nod.

"I can perceive, even experience, some part of their difficult life journeys, I can get first hand insight into their lives, and in so doing I can at least begin to comprehend their fears and their hurts. Here," she swept her arm around the room, "I can offer them all a place to live that is more or less out of harms way, and a place whet they, to the best of my ability, won't be harmed by the rest of the world. I have them all 'cordoned' off from each other to prevent undue infighting--"

"Like a zoo?!" asked Kylie astounded. She quickly covered her mouth looking embarrassed "…Sorry that came out ruder than I expected, I didn't mean it like that. I've been hanging around trolls a lot lately"

Gob grinned happily "trolz iz rood!"

Princess Ilae laughed it off lightly "Well… sorry I don't have your name either…"

"Kylie" said Kylie.

"Well Kylie, you've seen the kinds of creatures I hang around with, so I obviously can't fault trolls. Especially interesting ones." she glanced at Gob with a smile.

"But less 'zoo' and more 'preserve'. My charges aren't here to be gawked at or studied. They're here to live out their displaced lives with as much peace and respect as I can offer them, for the rest of their sometimes very long lives. Like Grandpa. I understand why you had to kill him, I even agree it was a mercy. But it is both my blessing and my curse to want to protect the broken creatures forever.

That's why I applied to the High Council to grant me these domain over these mountains forever, as an eternal preserve. They have, I think somewhat reluctantly, offered me their consent and by limited way of support, nominated Gervais to register and monitor my progress. He visits me annually to… 'check in'."

She looked at him directly now.

"And that's why you're here on this occasion isn't it Gervais. My annual 'check in'?"

"Indeed." he answered.

"can a vampir liv heer?" asked Gob unexpectedly.

Everybody froze. But not because of any spell, and everybody for a different reason.

Gob looked around self consciously.

"juz askin fo a frend..." he said.

"Gob," whispered Kylie, "You aren't supposed to talk about vampires at the dinner table."

"wy?" he whispered back

"I don't actually know… it's just one of those things." she said.

"It's superstitious nonsense based on misunderstanding and an outdated segregationist mindset" said the Princess haughtily. "Gob, any and all who seek sanctuary here will receive it. Do you ask because you know a vampire who's seeking asylum?"

Gob nodded and tapped his inventory scroll. A stone sarcophagus materialised next to the dining table.

Everybody froze again. Except Kylie who buried her head in her hands.

Gob decided it was a good time to take the first bite of his food seeing as the talking had stopped. It was a slow roasted haunch of meat covered in a thick rich gravy. He had been salivating since it was served to him, but he'd been, unusually, caught up in the conversation and had been waiting for the right time to start eating. He raised it to his mouth and took a long awaited bite.

His tuskcap glowed and activated, a surge of power erupting through the point. His much anticipated haunch was obliterated, splashing rich gravy and gobbets of meat in every direction and over every person there.

There was an extended awkward silence.

"sory evywun. i foget dis." He took his tuskcap off and held it up.

…

"Pfffffft… HA HA HA HA-HA!" burst out Kylie despite herself

HA HA HA HA AHA HAHA!

The others started laughing too, even the Princess. Even the White Orc.

Not Gervais.

This wasn't going how he had planned.

He stood suddenly, furiously, gravy running down his purple robes. He frowned and placed two hands resolutely on the table top.

"BY THE STATUTES OF THE REALM IT IS AN INCARCERABLE OFFENCE TO CONSORT WITH A VAMPIRE!"

The laughter stopped suddenly, and all eyes were on Gervais.

"Since when?!" asked Princess Ilae quietly but with shock.

"Since the Grand Chancellor decreed it last week!" said Gervais.

"Did the Grand Chancellor 'decree' anything else last week we should be aware of?" she asked, now icily.

"He decreed a great number of things you should all be aware of." Gervais answered, glancing with concern at the sarcophagus.

He reached into his robe and took out a parchment, handing it to the Princess.

She unrolled it and read it silently.

"Extermination?" she gasped looking up at Gervais, her face losing composure as it turned from shocked disbelief to cold rage. She looked back to the parchment as if reading it again would reveal a misunderstanding. She sat up straight. Tense. Angry.

"EXTERMINATION?"

"SAVAGE-KIND?"

"CLEANSE?!"

She rose so sharply her ice chair flew back behind her and smashed into shards on the floor, skittering across the hall.

Leőn was by her side in a flash. He took the parchment and pushed it back into Gervais' hands,

"I think you should go." he said. He paused and looked Gervais deep in the eyes, "What have you become?"

"Know me for what I am Elf. This is my chance to find a seat on the High Council and make a difference." He stared back with determination. Something more than words passed between them. Connection. Gervais broke the stare.

"I'll see myself out." He walked away.

"Oh no you won't, traitor" the Ice Princess turned and flicked her fingers in an upwards gesture. Gervais shot straight up in the air as if fired out of a cannon.

SMASSSSSSSSH!

His body broke violently through the icy glass of the ceiling, shards raining down and tinkling on the table and floor as his form disappeared into the distance.

"No!" screamed Kylie "No! He isn't like that! He isn't…"

The White Orc had jumped to his feet too and looked to Leőn who shook his head sadly. His posture slumped.

Grrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaatttte-thunk.

The sound of stone grating on stone was unusually odd in an ice palace. Everyone turned to look.

"Vell hello everybody!" said The Count brightly, with a generous smile.

The vampire looked around at the ice palace in wonder. He looked at up the broken ceiling and then down at the ice shards on the floor in some confusion. He looked at the people, standing in disarray, some angry, some sad, all of them covered in gravy. Then he saw Gob, sitting at the dining table eating a big plate of meat and he chuckled.

"Ah Gob. Vot are ve eating today? Not un BAT I em hoping?!"

Gob looked around excitedly "hey evywun, dis is ze cont! don wory he dosn eet trol cos of hiz bow-wels."