The summer morning's warmth still enveloped them, but Antonio could feel the breeze in the air that signalled they were very close to the border.
He had left Inasdiff the day before yesterday with Basch and Arthur, they were riding on horseback to Primgate. The journey would take slightly more than four days to complete, and it was now late in the morning on the third day. The leaves were still green, the sunlight was bright and warm, and it still felt like summer for now, even though Antonio knew they were about to hit the cold front.
They rode out of the forest into the clearing to show the valley below, and Antonio signalled for the others to stop for a moment.
"There it is, the Prathage border," Antonio announced, "Pull out your cloaks, you're about to need them."
"You really weren't kidding, were you?" Arthur realized, "How much snow is that down there?"
"About two feet worth," Antonio estimated, "It will be the base layer of snow across the kingdom."
Basch and Arthur took the moment to pull out their cloaks and put them on. Antonio had already been wearing his, being well-accustomed to the strange weather, so he sipped at his waterskin while looking at the valley below. There was a clear line cutting across the valley, where the beautiful summer weather abruptly turned into a snowy landscape.
"Okay, we're ready," Basch confirmed.
Antonio led them down the hill into the valley, quietly riding along as he enjoyed his last bit of respite from the winter weather. It had been a long time since he had enjoyed proper summer weather, he had been dealing with the endless winter for five years straight now. Perhaps, upon his return, they can get to work on lifting it.
After a short while, they reached the divide where their path and view switched from a dirt road and thin green trees to snow as far as the eye could see.
"This is incredible," Arthur observed as they rode onto the snow and officially into Prathage, "This divide between summer and winter is drastic, there's no such thing even in my world. How is this possible?"
"This eternal winter is the reason we cannot fully claim the war to be over," Antonio declared, "The council is still in contention over it, they want the magic lifted and the suspected spellcaster punished."
"Who do they suspect?" Arthur inquired.
"My cousin, Princess Madeline of Prathage," Antonio answered, "If Alfred exists in your world, then surely Madeline does as well, right?"
"Yes, she is one of my former wards, just like Alfred," Arthur confirmed, "Does the Princess have enough magical power to cast such a spell?"
"She was born with ice magic, while Alfred was born with fire magic," Antonio described, "The King waited to declare one of them as the Crown heir, as he saw early on that Alfred might not want the responsibility of ruling Prathage. He held off on having Madeline married off to one of the princes in Ixaidel or Stulikya, in case she needed to be crowned Queen of Prathage. Naturally, as she became a young woman, the courtiers saw their own opportunity to secure power for themselves, becoming King of Prathage by marrying Madeline."
"A typical situation, even in my world," Arthur analysed, "For the longest time, women who inherit power were only seen as a means for men to take that power for themselves. Respect for powerful women has only become more commonplace in the last couple hundred years."
"The situation escalated seven years ago, when an ambitious courtier cornered Madeline at the palace in Primgate," Antonio narrated, "Nobody knows for sure what exactly happened between them, but it reached the point where Madeline's screams were echoing through the halls. When the two of them were found, Madeline's dress was partially torn, and she had used her magic to turn the man into ice. Alfred tried to use his fire magic to heal him, but Madeline's ice magic had frozen the man's heart."
"She killed him?" Arthur uttered, "Madeline killed a courtier with her magic?"
"She claimed self-defence as he was forcing himself on her, but the council was furious that she used her powers to kill someone," Antonio continued, "She was locked in the dungeons, only for Alfred and a group of loyal servants to break her out in the middle of the night. They helped her leave Primgate to find some unknown refuge. The courtiers saw this as a treasonous action by Alfred, and immediately declared war when the King refused to punish either twin."
"The word spread quickly about the murder in Primgate," Basch added, "Within days, we had to shut down the border between Ixaidel and Prathage."
"I was in Tark at the time, on a diplomatic visit with Stulikya's Royal Family, when word reached me of Madeline's murderous act and escape," Antonio elaborated, "I rode back home as quickly as I could, only to find that the civil war had already started. My father was the Duke of Baisicia, while my mother was a Princess of Prathage, so I am also of royal blood and next in line for the throne. With the drama surrounding Madeline, the courtiers who turned against the Royal Family pressured my father into leading their rebellion."
"So you ended up on the other side of the war," Arthur figured out, "How does the winter fit into this?"
"It was just about two years after the murder that it happened," Antonio illustrated, "Both sides had rallied armies and were fighting in the valleys between Primgate and Baisicia, in a battle that saw many deaths. On one midsummer night, we were fighting under the light of the full moon, when an enormous blizzard came in from the North and surrounded us. Once the storm subsided, the ground was covered in two feet of snow, and everything had frozen over. We quickly learned that the storm covered all of Prathage in an eternal winter, freezing all plants and rivers."
"And you believe Madeline cast this powerful blizzard?" Arthur checked.
"There is nobody else in Prathage known for magic powerful enough to do so, let alone ice magic," Antonio explained, "There are theories that Madeline was observing the war from her hidden refuge, and sent the blizzard as a warning not to dismiss her own royal right to rule the land. This became a challenge to some, as defeating such a powerful magic user would be worthy of a reward befitting royalty."
"What has happened since?" Arthur asked.
"After another two years of fighting, both our fathers had been killed in the war, so Alfred and I had become the leaders of the opposing sides," Antonio continued, "That's when Alfred reached out to me, hoping to negotiate my position. He understood that I was next in line for the throne after him and possibly Madeline, and it was worth an attempt to reconcile our differences and end the war. I agreed to meet with him, and we found a way to cooperate."
"That can really be all it takes at times," Arthur commented, "If you can't be open to dialogue, you will never find a solution."
"The past three years have been spent convincing the rest of Prathage to step down and come to the negotiating table, and we have finally reached consensus with most of the court," Antonio wrapped up, "There are a few issues that have not yet been resolved, including whether Alfred will be King and what to do with Madeline when she is found."
"There are many that want the Princess dead," Basch commented, "Even in Ixaidel, many expect that she will be forced to pay the heavy price. The one death of a courtier at her hand led to a civil war, and the eternal winter had countless effects on Prathage. Many people have been lost over the past seven years, all because Princess Madeline froze a man's heart."
As Basch spoke his last sentence, Antonio's thoughts drifted to the sweetheart he had left behind in Stulikya and never returned to. Perhaps, if Madeline's tragedy had never occured, Katerina would still be alive.
"There are many things that could've been different," Antonio mused, "So many things."