The Queen With A Heart Of Ice // One-On-One // CLOSED

Finally, about twenty minutes after Leste left, she slowed. She walked calmly, coolly, purposefully, as if she had a destination in mind.

Gerti finally reached the hut. She crept around inside, sword in hand, ready to fight. When she didn't find Celeste or Alastor, she went into the only possible spot: the basement.

What she would find would be terrible. And Celeste was already gone.

When Gerti spotted Alastor, she almost vomited. "Shit!" She hissed. "Alastor. It's me. Gerti. Izira received your message and sent me. Um…give me a minute." She quickly ran outside and searched her bag. Alastor was heavy, Gerti knew this from experience. She found what she was looking for, a pendant that granted her air manipulation. Since Gerti had no powers, she had to rely on enchanted jewellery. She then went back inside, pulled out a knife and began to saw at the binds around Alastor's wrists.

"I do hope that they don't burn the house down," Celeste said thoughtfully. "I'd hate for the real owners to come back to that."

Gerti cut through the binds and set Alastor free. It seemed that Celeste hadn't bothered to tie his feet together because there were no binds there. She channeled the magic of the pendant and created a cloud behind Alastor. This then allowed her to carry him in a cloud that was half a meter off the ground.

She stopped at a nearby inn. After asking around, she learned that there had been more soldiers in this area than usual, and after hearing that, she felt a thrill of fear.

"OK so I am going to walk to the kingdom and hand you to the Royal Healer. Right now you are on one of my clouds. It's going to be a few hours so I need you to tell me if you're uncomfortable or in pain."

But it was nothing to worry about, right? Izira couldn't possibly know where she was. Alastor was probably lying. He was excellent at that.

"Mmhmm," Alastor said quietly. Gerti took this as a sign to continue and began her long walk to the kingdom.

Leste got a room, and as she sat on her bed, an idea came to her. What if she were to go back? To kill Izira and become a hero of the kingdom, letting the Cold end?

The trip took shorter than Gerti was expecting. As soon as she arrived, she rushed Alastor to the Royal Healer. Then she went to visit Izira.
"Your majesty."
"Yes, Gerti. Tell me your news."
"I found Alastor. He was well tortured. Skin taken off, eyes sewn together. It was horrible. He's with the Royal Healer now, I don't know how much she can fix. But rest assured, he will never be the same."
"Oh, that is quite unfortunate." For once, Izira wasn't being sarcastic. "Any other news?"
"Yes. I have reason to believe that Celeste will come after you to try and rid the kingdom of the Cold."
"Oh, let her come. She's the reason why it's happening. I have no reason to be afraid of her. If anything, she should be afraid of me."

That night, Celeste tossed and turned, getting no sleep, although she knew she needed it. Her mind filled with plans of conquest and glory, spilling through her. She still had some spies in the castle, although she hadn't talked with them much since she had left.

After a few hours, Izira decided to go visit Alastor. She stood beside his bed and kneeled.
"How you feeling, Alastor?"
"Been better. Can't see."
"Probably for the best. You're more used to be not being able to see than having infected eyes."