They found Roswaal stalking through the hallways in the dull light that spilled through the windows. The rain had actually gotten heavier and with it the clouds had grown thicker. Even if a window was opened, the cold air seemed to stay contained within the manor.

Roswaal must have heard the two of them coming up behind him, he stopped but didn't turn to face them. "My, my, my—to what do I owe the pleasure of you two strapping gentlemen gracing me with your presence?"

As they closed in on him, Peter sneezed inside of the suit again. "Sorry," he said. "We were just wondering…"

When Roswaal turned to face them, his dark hair swishing to the side, Peter caught a glimpse of the Margrave's clothing: his cloak and coat were fur lined and the shirt beneath them was of a heftier material. Lord Roswaal cocked his head to the side, as if awaiting the rest of the question.

"Hmm?"

It was Steve that vocalized it first. "So you've noticed the cold also. Obviously he's not the cause of it, then?"

"Me? The cause of this?" Roswaal said, pressing his gloved hand to his chest. "I assure you that it is not me and to be honest I am not privy to exactly what is at the root of all this," he said.

"It isn't possible for the cold to get outside of this manor," Roswaal continued, "And there are only two mages here competent enough, besides myself obviously, to pull that off."

"Miss Beatrice and, I guess, Puck and Emilia," Peter said.

Roswaal nodded. "It might be best if we go see them."

"Beatrice might be hard to track down, but I already asked her about this," Steve said.

With a flourish of his cape Roswaal turned to lead the way. "Then it sounds like it is off to Miss Emilia's room," he said.

The trio moved down the hall toward the main corridor where most of their rooms were situated, except for Lord Roswaal's. As the neared the door to Emilia's room there was this strange energy in the air. It wasn't Peter's tingle, but it was almost like a low level of electricity was racing across his skin and making his hair stand on end.

"Do you feel that?" Peter asked.

Roswaal looked back at him, there was a hint of shock on his face. "There's an incredibly dense cloud of mana in the air here," the Margrave said. "I'm shocked you could detect it." He kept his voice low, though there was almost a howl in the air from the slight wind that emanated from the door to Emilia's room.

With a finger held up to caution them, Roswaal stepped forward and knocked on her door. "Miss Emilia, it pains me to call on you like this, but may I speak with you?"

"Lord Roswaal!" Emilia seemed shocked to hear someone outside of the door. Her voice was muffled by the sound of the air currents and the walls. There was a slight crash as something in the room tipped over onto the floor. "Oh, dear. It's fine!" Emilia insisted. "Don-don't come in here. It's quite a mess. I'm quite a mess!"

Steve was just about to step forward when Peter flagged him down to stop. Roswaal looked back at the two of them as they were deciding who should speak and made the choice for them: he pulled Peter forward by the shoulders and pushed him against the door so that he bumped it. After that Peter felt compelled to knock for real.

"What's up, Emilia," he said trying to keep his teeth from chattering. He could only fire up the warmer in the suit so often if he wanted his battery to last for any amount of time. "Look, things are pretty weird out here right now and I just wanted to ask if you knew anything about it—like there's ice on the floor and it's about fifty degrees colder in the manor than…outside."

Peter trailed off as Emilia opened the door, her shoulder slumped and her eyes had this dejected weight to them. After a moment she glanced up at Peter, taking him in and then turning to head back into the room.

"I wasn't sure how to really tell you," Emilia said.

Across the room on her bed Peter spotted the source of all the wind and mana and fury: Puck. He was laying on his side on a towel with a fierce wind pouring out of him as sparkles of mana danced in the air around him.

This room was far colder than outside and there was frost gathering in the corners of both the floor and ceiling. Despite the frigid air, Emilia was wearing her normal pink sleeveless dress and thigh high stockings.

"Sorry about any issues that I might have caused," Puck said. "It's just my magic release period."

"Your what?" Asked Peter.

"Wait, why are you in your spider outfit?" Emilia asked.

Peter tugged at the chest of his suit. "Oh, it's the warmest thing that I own…here at least," he explains.

"I don't know," Emilia said. "It looks pretty thin."

Roswaal was over near Puck examining the small spirit as Steve asked. "Wait, I am confused how whatever it is you're doing with your mana release is causing it to be cold."

Puck flew up into the air and did a small roll. "It's my magic release period, basically if I don't release mana from my body regularly I have to let it off like this. If I keep it bottled up it could burst out and damage my gate."

Steve nodded. "Why didn't you warn us that it was going to do all of this, though?"

Emilia clasped her hands in front of herself. "My apologies. I didn't really think about it because the cold doesn't effect me the same way," she explained.

"Wait, is it because you're like a Snow Elf?" Asked Peter.

At the mention of her elvish heritage Emilia's cheeks grow rosy and she presses her hand to her mouth. "I think it's just because I lived in the woods for so long. It was basically snowing there all year." Emilia paused to sweep the silver hair back behind her ear. "I guess I'm just used to the cold."

Roswaal sighed. "If this goes on at this rate we will surely freeeeeeeze to death," he said.

"Why is it only effecting the inside of the house?" Steve asked.

"Oh, Betty did that," said Puck. "She's keeping the cold contained to just the manor house."

"How long is this going to last?" Peter asked.

"At this rate, probably a couple more days because I have to be careful to let it out slowly if I don't want to turn everyone in the vicinity to ice statues," Puck explained.

Peter slapped his hands to his mask, pacing around the room trying to come up with some kind of plan. He stops near the frosted over window of the room and is staring out into the front yard. "Couldn't we just spend the next day in the baths with, like, a uh-uh fire pit or something so that we can stay warm until this all ends and everything?" Peter asked as he dragged his hands down the mask.

"Starting a fire is a solid idea," Steve said. "We would have to sit really close for it to be effective."

Roswaal was studying the window, looking out across the front part of his land. "If were let Beatrice expand the area that she is containing the spell in or get rid of it all together then it might be possible for Puck to release more of his mana faster without the thread of us all dyyyyying," Roswaal said.

"How can you be so chipper about this?" Peter asked. "It doesn't matter. I'll go get the baths ready, Steve you gather the maids and tell them what's going on, and Roswaal you can find Beatrice."

Roswaal smiled. "Giving me orders in my own house?" He said and then he nudged Emilia and turned to her. "It would seem we've got a man of action here. Oh my."

"No disrespect, I was thinking that you were—uh-probably the only one who could reliably find Beatrice," Peter said.

"Oh." Roswaal said looking slightly shocked.

"I believe in you, Pete," Puck said.

"Thank you, Puck."

The mansion warmed up almost immediately after the the sphere of influence for Beatrice's containment spell was widened. To avoid messing up the crops in the town it wasn't allowed to go that far, but centering it behind the manor in the woods and letting it include most of the lands allowed it to avoid disrupting anyone else while keeping temperatures from dipping too low.

The fires were set inside of the baths on the floor and while the water was steamy hot, no one needed to be in it. Keeping the air moist while everyone gathered in the small bath was more than enough. The only person who hadn't come down was Puck.

Ram and Rem had been given a leave from their duties until this little crisis had averted. Despite the considerable warmth inside of the bath, Ram was still dressed for the extreme cold. She had put on ear muffs, a scarf, and a thick coat to keep her body heat in. If demons had body heat, Peter thought that Ram had been warm to the touch. Yeah she and Rem were.

They had been in the bath for most of the day, not using the water and just burning these strange magic stones that didn't make much smoke or burn down as fast as wood. When they first set the room up, Peter had carried a couple of tables and chairs into the room for them to sit on since the only place that was really designed for sitting under normal circumstances was the basin in the center of the floor.

Peter moved to the table to take a seat at the corner chair. It was becoming a little bit warm for him to still be wearing the spider suit, but if he had to walk back to his room or leave this immediate area for anything then it would regret being in anything else.

"I've got to get some other clothes," Peter muttered to himself.

"Peter, it's been a while since we have talked," Roswaal's voice took on an unusually serious tone. He hadn't noticed the margrave leaning in the corner, but as he looked toward the man he didn't know how he had missed him. He was so apparent with his dark clothes contrasting off the makeup and gloves that he was still wearing.

"It's just been a few days," Peter said. "But yeah, I guess we've just been in different areas of the house."

"I'm sure," Roswaal said. He looked out across the room where Emilia was talking at Beatrice, but the young girl was trying her best to look uninterested in anything that was said to her. He glanced back to Peter. "You are very good at keeping an eye on our Miss Emilia."

"Just doing my job, you know," said Peter.

"Of course," Roswaal said.

Somehow Peter could tell that Roswaal knew something. It was like he could see through Peter and every lie that Peter told, especially in this case the ones that he told himself. It might have just been the thing that Emilia had suggested about him that gave off that vibe, but Peter usually was a pretty good judge of characters. It didn't help that everything about Roswaal was completely strange.

"Lord Roswaal," Peter said.

"Hm?"

"Are you the only one of your family, this is a pretty large house," Peter said. "There must be other Mathers family people…" Peter trailed off.

"That's the way it goes at times," Roswaal said. "Large families get whittled down to a few, final members. I do have a relative, Annerose Miload. She is the head of her branch of the house though she is only nine," he said dragging out the vowel in the final word.

Peter nodded.

"Don't worry about me though, the Roswaal line will carry on," he said with a sly smile. Peter couldn't have known it at the time, but the Margrave meant exactly what he was saying. Every word of it.

"If you fail to get home," Roswaal said with no lead in. "If it is to be that you are trapped in Lugnica what will you do?"

Peter laughed, though it was shaky and clearly not the kind of laugh bought on by something humorous. "Why, why would you say that?"

"Because we're talking about other worlds…a universe of vast possibility. It may be that all we need to do to find a way for you to get back is simply discover a key. It could be, in fact it's just as likely to end up being, that once you fall into one world it's like a vinegar fly trap: easy to get inside of and impossible to get out," Roswaal said.

For a moment Peter thought about over sharing with Roswaal, but most of what he considered saying wasn't nearly as dangerous to know as the whole part about he and Steve being from another world. And who knows, maybe they weren't the only ones who had ended up stranded here from another place.

"Do you guys have the concept of a multiverse?" Peter asked.

"Sounds intriguing," Roswaal said.

There was know paper in the room to draw on and it didn't make sense for there to be any on account of how steamy it now was. Peter glanced up to see Steve talking to Rem and it looked like he might have been regaling her with the tale of how he and Peter had first met. He'd let Cap have this one.

"Imagine that time is a line and it starts somewhere and goes on until whatever ends it, right? But then everyday of every life a creature makes little choices and big choices. You choose what to eat, what to wear, and all of that. But some of those choices are bigger and that's where the multiverse concept kind of comes in. It dictates that for all of those core choices you make the original timeline splits into as many new timelines with one based on each choice," Peter said.

Roswaal stared at Peter, his lips moving as if he couldn't stop them now as he muttered the phrase, "…he will share science with you beyond simple comprehension…"

"What was that?" Peter asked.

"Something I saw somewhere once upon a time. So these choices that you made, if you could go back and change one to set your path somewhere different, would you?" Asked Roswaal.

Peter rolled the idea over in his head of all the mistakes he had made and even the things he had said that ended up coming back to bite him over the years. Most of them had happened in the last few years—since he got his powers.

"If I did I don't think I would be the same Peter that I am now," Peter said. "I'd be one of those other branches Peters and then who knows where I would be."

"Why bring up this idea of the multiverse," Roswaal asked.

"Part of thinking about how to get back home is finding out where I am," Peter explained. While he could guess that they might be on another planet, there was the possibility that even if they were on another planet that he also might be in a completely different universe.

"Like, I got to thinking, what if I get home from here and it's a different version of the Earth or what if Lugunica is the Earth that someone, millions of years ago made a different choice on."

Roswaal seemed impressed with him once again. They had both become distracted, since Emilia was able to get right up next to the table before Peter noticed her standing over him with her fingers clasped.

"I guess you lost sight of her," Roswaal said, his smile growing.

"You two look to be deep in conversation," Emilia said. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"We were just discussing the possibility of there being any chance for Peter to go home," Roswaal said.

"Oh," Emilia's shoulders slumped and her eyelids fell till they were half closed. She had tried to hide it to some degree, but it was apparent that her spirits dropped at the thought of having to lose Peter. Part of him felt proud of that, that this girl liked him enough that she thought of some form of a future with him.

Another part of him felt anxious, he couldn't stay in Lugnica.

Could he?

"It's looking like it's a very long ways off," Peter said. "I don't even really know where here is."

"Yeah," Emilia said. "I just came to let you know that I'm going to go check on Puck. It will probably be too cold for you to come look for me, so please don't. Okay?"

"Okay," Peter said.

When she left the room a rush of cold air got in and everyone looked up to see who was leaving.

"What do you suuuuuppose got into her?" Asked Roswaal.

Peter shook his head and the pair of them sat in silence for a bit.

"I'm still wondering about your answer," Roswaal said. "What would the Peter Parker that's here in front of me now do if he were trapped in this world for the rest of his life?"

"Help people. Be wit—er' friends with Emilia," said Peter.

Roswaal nodded. "If Emilia ascends to the throne she is going to need trustworthy people around her, protecting her. As the noble who supported her I will undoubtedly wield some special influence, but there will need to be people with her who can make sure that nothing bad comes to her."

"If she's elected, won't the people of the Kingdom accept her?" Asked Peter.

"I don't know about the elections where you're from, but there is always a losing side and depending on how mad that side will be there might be unrest," Roswaal said.

"Even throwing my weight behind Emilia for all of this has painted a target on my back—once she is officially announced to the Kingdom there will be no stopping it then," he added.

"Officially announced?" Peter asked.

Roswaal nodded. "While the Royal Selection is taking place now, it hasn't began fully yet. There is a final candidate to be found and once she is brought forward then the candidates will have their faces and names plastered all over the Kingdom."

Peter shot a glance out toward where Steve was talking to Rem and Ram while Beatrice sat nearby pretending not to be listening. "So this is just the beginning," he said.

"Yes," Roswaal said as he rested his chin on the backs of his hands. "We must be ready to do anything to realize our goals."

The hallway carpets crunched underfoot from the level of frost locked within their fibers. Emilia couldn't understand how this could be too cold for others. She had been completely nude in temperatures far below this and walked around barefoot in the snow all of the time, at least she had in her youth. Part of her wondered if she would ever lose her tolerance to it or if it was just who she was.

Witch of Glaciation.

She had used the title of witch to scare the villagers near Elior Forest long ago, it had actually worked then though it hadn't worked to frighten Peter or the assassin Elsa. It had been a little over a week since all that happened: meeting Peter, fighting that madwoman in the capital, losing her badge. It didn't seem possible that so much could change all at once.

Yet the thing that she worried about most was losing Peter after all of this. Maybe it was just because he didn't seem to need her for anything or have any kind of motive beyond just being around her.

What did he want to get out of being around her anyway? She wasn't that interesting. Did he want to kiss her—that was far too dangerous, besides Emilia was sure she wouldn't like it. She probably only liked her own mouth because it had always been on her face.

She opened the door to her room slowly. "Puck," she said in a small voice. "Puck how are you doing?"

"What's wrong Lia," Puck asked, the spirit looked to be completely normal. He was laying on his side watching out the window as a light snow fell.

Emilia didn't immediately answer him, instead staring out across the manor grounds at the newly fallen snow. "Do you think we'll ever live out there again?" She asked.

"Elior Forest?" Puck asked. "Sure, we'll have to return and help everyone, but I don't know if we can ever go back. Things won't ever be the same again."

"I wonder if when they're thawed out, anyone there will remember me?"

"You seem sad, Lia, what's wrong?"

It wasn't like her to lie to Puck and it wasn't like her to consider lying as an option when it came to him. Either because of their connection or because of his having been around her a long time he was more than likely going to know when she was lying without fail. Though the idea of it crossed her mind here in this moment, she knew it was useless to try.

Emilia lowered her eyes. "I just overheard Roswaal and Peter talking; they were discussing trying to get him and Steve back to their own world."

Puck flew over to her at lightning speed, hovering right in front of her face when he reached her. "They already found a way to get them home?" Asked Puck.

Emilia shook her head. "But what if they do soon?"

"You always knew that it would come down to him leaving," Puck said. "Boys will always come and go, but your Father is here to be with you forever."

Emilia forced a smile, look at that, she was lying in front of Puck. She saw Peter as someone who had the adacity to scoff at taboo and tradition and just one friends with a silver aired half elf despite the rest of the world's conditioning. Sure, a lot of it had to do with the fact that the world he had come from not even having half-elves or any kind of stigma attached to them, but it wasn't like she was going to find someone that didn't at least worry about what she was.

A whole war had been fought about Demi-Humans.

Then she considered Roswaal, he was a weirdo, but he also employed a pair of Demi-Human maids and Emilia had even heard there had been others in the past. People took notice enough to accuse him of doing perverse things with them, but Emilia had never noticed anything outside of the regular sort of strange that Roswaal engaged in.

So maybe there would be others who would accept her? It didn't mean that she was ready to give up Peter or that, despite the fact it was utterly gross, she found herself thinking about kissing him. It was a childish fantasy.

"You seem pretty deep in thought over there," Puck said.

"Yeah, I'm still thinking about the future," Emilia said.

"Well, just remember not to forget about me," Puck said. "I'll always be by your side!"