After her moment of shock dissipated, Komugi reset her determination to find the Ice Queen the next day. She held faith in Kyosuke's words, and swore that if he didn't come find her, she'd think of a suitable punishment for him.

After stealing provisions, Komugi set off on foot for the Ice Queen's castle, a month and a half journey from where they were at the Pilgrim's Temple. Kylon, Sprissa and their guard (whom eventually introduced himself as Broud) accompanied her on the trip. Broud claimed that he had dishonored the Ketra by allowing the Shadow of Halisha to infiltrate the Outpost, and he would be punished if his guardian found out that he had let the prisoners escape. He was in a largely sour mood because of it, but Sprissa's calm nature seemed to keep him from acting out on it.

Through some careful talking, Sprissa discovered that Broud was indeed the sibling she had been searching for. There was something strange about the way Broud gazed at Sprissa that left Komugi feeling uneasy. It was as if he had taken an interest in her, and didn't care that they were related. To each their own. She finally decided, and pushed all thoughts of it from her head.

The land grew colder as they traveled, and the Orcs had to stop frequently as they crossed the mountains between the Ketra lands and the Ice Queen's lands so Komugi could recover. Kylon, lacking warm blood flowing through his veins, became a Popsicle moments after thawing and drying when Komugi would stop, and had to be carried by Broud.

They finally reached the summit of the mountains between lands, and Komugi found herself staring into a frozen labyrinth of snow. She had arrived.

Her rage rekindled as they trudged through knee-deep snow, and it kept her warm as the snow and ice blew onto them. She had taken to traveling with a blanket wrapped around her, not having been adequately prepared for a journey through the cold. She didn't know how the Orcs did it; they were dressed less than she, but barely seemed phased by the cold. Sprissa explained with a smile that it was because they were created by the fire god, and the great flame from which their spirits extended were that which kept them warm. Broud seemed to be angry by this description, and muttered something about Ka'Toleth giving the Ketra immunity to all that which would be against them, which was why they didn't feel the cold.

A blizzard sprung upon them as they wandered through the land, wind and ice blowing so hard into their faces that not even the Orcs could bear it. Kylon had long since frozen, and Broud had tied a rope onto the zombie's leg and dragged him along through the snow like a pet rock.

Komugi felt as if her legs had turned to ice like Kylon's, and they hurt her. She had nothing but her knee boots to guard her legs from the snow, and those had long since gotten wet and frozen themselves. She feared she would be frost bitten to gangrene by the time they reached the Castle. She stopped mid-step as a particularly nasty gust of wind hit her, and a stab of pain went through her leg. Her knees were raw and bleeding from the snow, and she glanced behind herself weakly to find that it had smeared onto the snow and left a perfect trail for anyone to follow.

"I can't…" she choked out before collapsing. Sprissa and Broud had long since trudged ahead, and didn't hear her above the wind. She stared at the snow as more piled upon her, and noted how pretty each and every snowflake that packed together was. How could the Queen of this wish to be so cruel? She wondered, her eyes heavy. I think I'll nap here for a moment; I'm not so cold when I don't move. I'll catch up to them when my legs stop hurting. She decided, and relaxed as her eyes shut.

In her dreams she was a child running along a beach, her hand outstretched. She gasped as she ran, letting out tiny sobs of fear as the backs of her mother, father and sister walked ahead of her. They chatted amongst themselves, and Sharmin giggled at something they said.

"Wait for me!" she cried, her tiny legs unable to catch up with them. Her parents suddenly disappeared, and Sharmin began walking alone, her body language one of a person with the weight of a hundred sorrows upon her shoulders. "Sharmin wait, don't go!" Komugi cried, now her proper age. She was coming closer to her, and her hand almost touched her shoulder when suddenly wings sprouted from Sharmin's shoulders like an angels. They flapped once and she took to the air, flying into the sky and out of Komugi's reach. "SHARMIN!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. Sharmin was too far away from her now, in a place where she could never reach. She watched the sky until she could see Sharmin's figure no more, and collapsed to her knees as she cried. She was alone now, on the beautiful beach, with no one to comfort her.

"It's ok, I'm still here." A lightly accented man's voice came. Komugi looked up with a tear streaked face to find a man smiling down at her, holding a hand out to help her stand. The sun shone behind his head, and she couldn't make out his face. The sun behind him grew brighter and brighter until she couldn't look at him anymore, and shielded her face from it.

She opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring at a ceiling of chestnut wood crossbeams. The first thing she discovered was that she was warm; the next was the delightful smell of coffee. She shut her eyes again, wishing to return to her dream. The man had a comforting presence to him, and her heart felt empty now that she was awake and away from him.

"I saw her blink!" Kylon's voice came. Komugi sat up like a rocket then, and stared out with large eyes. She was in a plush bed of Dwarven design, inside of a cabin stacked with books and cargo boxes. She looked around herself without blinking, and found the concerned faces of Kylon and Sprissa standing near the bed. Broud stood in a corner with his arms folded across his chest, not masking the dislike on his face.

"Wonderful! I'm glad to know the medicine wasn't expired after all!" a human gentleman with short brown hair and a beard said.

"Where am I?" Komugi asked as the man handed her a tin cup. The smell emanating from it was undoubtedly coffee, and Komugi took a pensive sip of it.

"My cabin. Its great your friends got you here, you were in pretty bad shape. What ever possessed you to try to cross the Frozen Labyrinth without any type of winter clothing? Now your Orc friends I can understand, they're used to this weather." The man said with a fatherly smile. Kylon was behind him, poking through some of the boxes stacked against the wall. "I'm the Ice Merchant Rafforty; I'm pleased to meet you Miss Komugi." He said, holding his hand out. Komugi found that this man was another she liked, and smiled as she accepted his hand and shook it.

The Ice Merchant's Cabin was a tiny little shack in the center of four, strange pillars of Giant design. A ring of magic surrounded the cabin, everything inside of it the air of summertime. Flowers grew in here, and one tree had leaves that were a brilliant green. Rafforty explained that this was the last bit left of what the Frozen Labyrinth used to look like, before Princess Melissa became the Ice Queen Freya.

Melissa had apparently been sent to a land of eternal summer when her mother, the Elven Queen was betrayed by humans and murdered. No one knew exactly what caused her change into the Ice Queen, but it was common speculation that news of her mother's death had caused it. The only thing that was known was that when the Elf that would eventually become the Captain of the Ice Queen's guard came to the land, it had turned to ice and snow, and Melissa was no more.

Rafforty was part of a resistance that wished to either remove the Ice Queen from her power over the land, or return her to being Melissa. They were a small band of people, and their numbers were dwindling as Freya's magic grew. Apparently the Ice Queen was no longer satisfied with her small patch of land, and was trying to expand her territory and turn all of Elmore into a land of snow. Regardless, the more Komugi heard about Freya, the less she liked her.

After the blizzard ended, Rafforty told them the quickest route through the Labyrinth to the Castle. He stocked them up with provisions, and gave Komugi leggings and a heavy fur coat to keep her warm. She trudged on ahead of the group as Sprissa bid Rafforty a more formal farewell, glaring in annoyance at the sparkling snow around her.

"This Freya thinks she's so great, hah! Couldn't even handle a little grief and had to turn into Miss Frostbite." Komugi grumbled to herself. Kylon walked next to her and raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. Frost was already forming on his face, and he had a hard time blinking. She halted for a second in her pace of walking as the memory of her dance with Zaken sprung unbidden into her mind. Hot tears pricked her eyes and she blinked hard against them. "I'll bet she's a snore to be around too, I mean look at this place, completely lacks imagination."

"Sounds to me like you're jealous." Kylon commented through clenched teeth. His jaw had frozen shut already. Komugi whipped her head around to look down at him, the movement startling him and causing him to jump slightly.

"What kind of person is this Freya? You've met her before, right?" Komugi asked him roughly. "What in the world could Zaken see in a girl like her in the first place? Vampire or no, I'd think kissing her would be hazardous to anyone's health, not to mention the bedroom life."

Kylon thought for a moment and pried his mouth open with his fingers. Ice cracked from the joints and flaked off onto the snow. "She was pretty." He finally said, as if it explained everything. Komugi growled deep in her throat and glared at him, and he held his hands up. "That's all I saw of her, I swear! I never talked to the lady other than her saying 'out of the way, little pig!'" he imitated her voice by making his high pitched, and waved his hand like a diva. "She kicked me a few times too when I'd intrude on her and Zaken's alone time. Not a very pleasant lady to be around."

"See? See?" Komugi exclaimed, her face lighting up. "She's just like Koyori then, nothing good about her!" She hummed merrily to herself and picked up her pace slightly, feeling comforted by this.

"You still like Zaken, don't you?" Kylon asked in wonder. Komugi skidded to a stop quickly and turned a glare colder than the snow around them onto the short zombie. Without warning she smacked his hat from his head as hard as she could, sending it flying. The wind caught it as it was airborne; blowing it back in the direction they had just traveled. "Nooooo!" Kylon cried, racing after it on stiffening legs. She continued onward without him, her good mood now gone sour.

"Of course I don't like Zaken any more, I have Kyosuke now. He's much nicer and a better kisser to boot!' she grumbled. She didn't bother to consider why Kylon's words seemed to make her heart ache, and chalked it up to missing Kyosuke beside her. Freya had caused her plenty of grief enough for her to want to strangle the bitch on her own; it had nothing to do with Zaken, nothing at all.

Komugi skidded to a halt as she realized a figure blocked the path ahead of her. Floating in front of the bridge that would take them into Freya's courtyard, was a woman who resembled an elf only with blue skin and covered in ice. A wind sylph and one of the strange demonic clawed eyeballs that the Giants created floated on either side of her, and she smirked cruelly at Komugi.

"Who is this?" Broud asked as he and Sprissa came up behind her. Kylon had not yet returned from retrieving his hat. The blue elf woman giggled evilly, and flew at them. Komugi drew her dual swords to defend herself with but a gust of icy wind suddenly blew into her face and she shielded herself from it. She lowered her arms slightly to find the ice woman in her face, the same cruel grin plastered across her cheeks.

"Boo." The woman said in an echoing voice. Komugi let out a choked gasp as ice suddenly formed over her entire body. The shock of cold rendered her unconscious immediately.

"Sirra, you overstepped your boundaries, they weren't even near the castle. Perhaps they were just travelers who never intended to harm the Queen!" a voice came, rousing Komugi from darkness. She opened her eyes and blinked as she tried to focus on the blurry figures of a brown-gray creature and the ice woman.

"The Queen herself gave me orders to restrain them, her will is absolute." Sirra, the Ice Fairy, said in her echoing voice. As her eyes focused, Komugi discovered that the brown-gray creature was a large gargoyle, his wings folded peacefully on his back. Komugi attempted to brush her hair, which was wet from being thawed, from her eyes, only to find that her arms didn't move. She blinked in confusion for a moment and then struggled. Her arms up to her elbows and her legs up to her waist were encased in ice. Her arms were pinned shoulder height to the wall she found herself against.

"No, if you freeze her again, she'll die!" the gargoyle said as Sirra flew towards Komugi.

"Let me go!" Komugi shouted, angry at her situation. "Let me at that bitch Freya while we're at it, I have a few words to share with her before I plant my foot in her ass!" The Gargoyle and Fairy looked bewildered by her words, astonished that such a dainty looking human creature could have such a colorful vocabulary.

"Tsk tsk, my such harsh words, your mother would be ashamed to hear you talk like that, I'm sure!" the familiar sing-song voice of Melissa came. Komugi turned her head towards it and found Melissa lounging in an elegant throne made of ice. It was now that Komugi realized she was in a large, circular room made up of crystallized ice stalagmites. She figured this was Melissa's mockery of a throne room, and grunted as she tried to pull her arms free. The Gargoyle and the Fairy backed out of the room without question, bowing respectfully to the Elf.

"My mother would be more appalled at the behavior of a so-called queen more than my language, bitch." Komugi spat. Melissa stared at her evenly for a moment before swinging her legs from where they dangled over the arm of her throne to sit normal. Her form changed as she moved, a dress that appeared to be made out of crystal and ice forming on her body. Ice emerged from her shoulders from which a cape draped from. More ice crystallized in places around her face and up to her hair, forming a strange kind of makeup and crown. Her hair, which had been fluffy, slicked itself back and was covered in frost, as if she had brushed it when wet and then stepped into the cold. Her friendly expression faded, and she stared at Komugi without emotion.

"You know, I've tolerated your little superior attitude for longer than I can stomach." Freya said in a smooth voice, standing. "You really are the nastiest kind of human alive; I can't believe Zaken would have taken an interest in you."

"Funny, I think I said the same thing about you." Komugi retorted, not breaking away from Freya's cold stare. "I'd never demand my exes to pine away over me though, so I think it's obvious which one of us is the better person here." Freya drew in a sharp breath and glided quickly over to Komugi, and slammed an elegantly decorated hand against the wall beside her. Frost began to collect on Komugi in Freya's presence, and she felt her hair freezing.

"All of my lovers are mine alone. I do not share them, I merely let them out to play." She said in a low voice. Her expression did not change, but Komugi could tell she was seething with anger. "And I've let Zaken play with you long enough; you're more annoying than that Wimere was. How DARE you try to change my bloodthirsty beast with your trite countenance? Do you honestly think that there is something human left within him?" Freya lifted her head slightly to let out a curt laugh before putting a finger under Komugi's chin and stare at her directly into her eyes. Ice formed where her finger touched, and Komugi tried not to wince as it spread in veins up her cheeks.

"If Zaken was changing, it had nothing to do with me, it was his own decision." She said with chattering teeth. Freya's mask of calm broke then, and she stared at Komugi in horror, stepping away as if Komugi were suddenly made of fire. She looked to the ground in horrified thought, daintily touching her own chin with her finger.

"Zaken wish to change? Impossible! We immortals are unchanging, we are the ones who will inherit the earth from the gods in the end times!" she said in disbelief. She shut her eyes for a moment, recalling her resolve, and then opened them again to focus on Komugi. "Now that Zaken had withdrawn his protection on you, there is nothing stopping me from killing you, and you must realize I'm going to take full advantage of that." She smirked.

"I figured you'd try." Komugi glowered, narrowing her eyes at her. Freya chuckled darkly and tossed her cape over her shoulder as she returned to her throne and sat. "Where'd you get that?" she gasped as Freya pulled the black bag of slugs that Zaken had given to her, from beside the throne.

"It pains me to see that this carefully concocted magic I received from Triol went to waste on a child like you." Freya said, lifting a slug out and inspecting it as it wriggled in her hand. "Oh well, I'll forgive him of that much, I am a kind lover after all." She lifted the slug up and dropped it into her mouth, swallowing it as if it were a delicacy. Komugi winced and resisted the urge to gag, remembering the texture of the things.

Freya shut her eyes and leaned her back against the chair. Her breath came out evenly as if she were attempting to calm herself for some reason. Her body began to convulse suddenly as if seizuring, and black ooze began seeping out of her nose, mouth, ears and even her tear ducts. It slid down her chest and pooled onto the floor like black oil. Komugi stared at it in horrific wonder, not knowing what to expect next.

The oil began to bubble and churn, and take shape. From the pool rose a featureless, black shadow-being that Komugi instantly identified as being in the shape of Zaken, corsair hat included. She began to struggle as it took slow, uncertain steps towards her, goo dripping from its body as if it were already loosing consistency. Freya laughed as the shadow-being stopped in front of Komugi, and stood elegantly from her throne as if nothing had happened.

"Since you tried so hard to uncover his past, I thought I'd give you a little gift before you died." Freya said. "I applaud your attempt at finding out his truth to 'heal' him, but my dear, Zaken is and always will be what you see him as, from now until the end of time itself. There is no cure for the curses of Giants." She began to laugh again as the shadow-Zaken drew in close to Komugi. Komugi sucked in a frightened gasp and tried to pull away from it, but her room for movement was limited. The shadow-Zaken pressed it's oily, flat face against Komugi's neck, and she screamed as she felt hundreds of tiny little teeth go into her skin in a mockery of Zaken's bite. Her eyes widened and she stiffened as the oil creature lost shape and was sucked into the wound it had made. She struggled at the feel of something cold sliding through her veins, and coughed, the black ooze coming out of her mouth. Her eyes clouded over with black color as she stared in horror at the ceiling of Freya's throne room, which began to fade away. The last thing she remembered before the ooze filled her ears was the sound of Freya's hysterical, triumphant laughter ringing throughout the room.