Neither climbing the first of the ruined cottages nor staying on top of them was an easy task. Many were one wrong move away from collapse and the ones that weren't were slick from the ice. In the very least though, the way as clear.
A little too clear, actually… Not only didn't Hat or Bow Kid see any guards, the storm itself wasn't as bad here when it should've been the opposite. This part of Subcon had long been Vanessa's territory, an eternal, frozen wasteland that had easily subdued the other forces of nature within its reach. It was still worse than Hat's first trip here, but nowhere near as bad as where the battle raged on. She looked up to see that they faced the outer rings of a monstrous circle of clouds. To her, that could only mean one thing: Vanessa—the eye of the storm—had already left.
It was good for them, but it made the girl panic at the thought of Vanessa marching through the forest at that very moment. They couldn't have passed her, so the village must not have been in her way. She just hopped the same went for many of the weaker spirits and Dwellers still fighting.
Her sense of urgency made the relatively short trek feel much longer. It also made her clumsy. Charging across a long, two-story structure, Hat Kid barely caught herself in time to avoid a gaping hole where the roof had fallen in on itself. For a split second, her feet touched air. She managed to hook her umbrella on the ridge of the roof, a few shingles raining down as she yanked herself back to safety.
"Hat, stay focused!" her friend shouted, already across the gap.
She leapt after her, "I am!" She caught up to Bow soon enough to once more race alongside her.
"This isn't like you!"
"I know!" Nevertheless, she couldn't help it. She didn't want Vanessa to hurt anyone—not Snatcher, the Dwellers, or any of the spirits that called Subcon Forest their home. She couldn't let the queen find the waypoint to the Horizon to torment Moonjumper and the other ghosts. This was the second time they'd had to go through this nightmare and she didn't want it to end the same way!
The young aliens threw themselves from one building to the next, bracing against frozen, jagged columns for purchase. The cold bit into their skin and seeped into their lungs as if they were drowning in liquid nitrogen. There was a spot just ahead, along a nearby tower, where a wooden platform had bowed and was encased by the ice. Swinging her backpack off her shoulders and into her arms, Hat Kid dug out her ice hat—leaving the pouch purposefully unzipped.
Bow copied her, and the two used the platform as a springboard to fling across a rare, unburied street and into the third level of what might've once been an inn. Nearly the entire side that they'd entered from had collapsed and the interior looked just as destroyed, complete with ruined stairs and broken floors. Balancing upon an old beam one after the other, the girls slipped out a window on the other end of the building.
A pit of stalagmites greeted them between the ruined homes, but some of the icy monoliths grew diagonally along another rooftop close-by. They didn't stretch quite far enough for the girls to make it to safety. As the two girls looked around for another way across though, digging out their Dweller masks next, they spotted a green glimmer on the other side. Activating their masks' abilities, they found one of the shimmering pathways that only the spirits could normally see.
After waiting a brief moment for the power to charge back up, Hat and Bow Kid made a running leap over the pit. It had to be timed right: After they'd already begun to descend, they reactivated their masks within a split second to avoid missing the first glowing platform, immediately springing from it to the next until shingles and mortar clacked beneath their boots once again.
A little later, under the strain of the years and their combined weight, the next house partially fell in. Both girls avoided dropping with it, but not before meeting the gruesome sight of a humanesque figure below. It captured the memory of someone trying to break their own front door, arms still raised and head pressed against the frozen exit in a mute, permanent wail. They pulled their eyes away from the scene with a shared grimace and moved on.
The pair continued like this for an unbreaking pace for some time until they finally reached the edge of Vanessa's manor. Where the gates once stood, a wall of ice had formed—likely as a small means of keeping out intruders while the ice queen was away. However, what Vanessa hadn't prepared for was for someone to come from a high enough point and with a long enough jump to sail over it. The young aliens flung their bodies over to the isolated grounds with ease, temporarily popping open their umbrellas for a softer landing.
Coming this far, they only slowed as Bow Kid took in the large, foreboding residence for the first time. Hat had been like that too, thinking the manor eerie, but nonetheless mesmerizing. The lights were on, as always. It stood out like a lighthouse against a dark ocean, deceptively inviting to any traveler in desperate need of shelter from the cold.
If it weren't for the fact that she has been initially sent there following one of Snatcher's contracts—which almost always had a grim or difficult edge to them—Hat Kid might've been tricked by the sight too. Even then, it didn't take long for her to see just how deadly the place was. She guided Bow around the left side of the manor, making sure to give it a wide girth until they reached the back just in case there were still a couple of statues guarding the main entrance.
Surprisingly, the way in from the basement wasn't sealed off. Hat Kid didn't know how many people Snatcher had sent to the manor before her, but Vanessa apparently didn't care enough to strengthen her security any more than she already had. Whether it was because she was just that confident in her own abilities or the fear she inspired was hard to say. Either way, it didn't make the girls feel any better as they cautiously went inside.
She didn't know how the floor kept from freezing over, given the ice that covered the walls: She was just careful not to splash around too much as she made it down the final step. Bow Kid bit her lower lip as she followed behind, experiencing all of the dread that Hat herself hadn't shaken away completely. Spotting the chains on the wall that once bound the prince, Bow stepped over to examine them and snorted nervously.
She pointed to the single candle sconce that hung near them, brows furrowed, and whispered in disgust, "How nice of her! She even left a light close-by so her prisoners can watch their skin turn blue as they freeze to death!"
Hat Kid pushed open the door to the separate wine cellar, waving Bow over, "That's not the only thing she was 'nice' enough to leave down here."
Along the far wall, hidden between two big barrels, was a secret passage that no one had bothered to tell her about. The only reason Hat Kid knew of it now was because—trapped on the third floor at the time with Vanessa closing in—she'd been frantically groping in the dark for somewhere to hide and stumbled into it. There was probably a hidden switch somewhere just as there was above, but so much of the wall had actually crumbled away thanks to the ice that it left a big enough opening for her to crawl through. Even with the queen's absence, it was still the shortest route.
Granted, Hat Kid had no idea if the burner was upstairs or not: It just seemed like the place where Vanessa preferred to lock away her treasures. If they had to search the rest of the manor, they would. Finding their way through the passage by feel, the young aliens moved up a second, unseen stairwell to the bleak confines of the attic.
It was just as creepy as the first time, loaded with crates, cobwebs, and dust. It hadn't made sense back then, but Hat Kid looked over the doorway to see the wide grin of Moonjumper's—the prince's—mask scrawled across the wall, matching the chaotic plaster of papers all over the rest of the level.
So long as they stayed quiet, neither Hat nor Bow Kid cared if they made a mess. They searched the handful of shelves and tore into the crates, scattering all kinds of furniture, books, and knickknacks along the ground. Some of it was stuff from Vanessa's childhood, or things that might've belonged to the previous king and queen. Other containers held various objects that, while old, looked completely untouched: Wine classes and bundles of white lace, masculine decorations that didn't entirely fit Vanessa's usual taste, baby clothes and toys leftover from the nursery, all symbols of a future that would never come to pass.
But no burner… There were only two other places Hat Kid immediately thought to look: Vanessa's bedroom and the study on the first floor. The study was too easy for most intruders to access, so she doubted the queen would leave anything very important there.
The girls began making their way down only to be stopped at the door. Peck! The queen might've opted to block off each of the floor's almost collectively, but she used huge padlocks to do so—which, even if Hat and Bow could break them, were on the opposite side. They'd need to return to the basement and go through the interior hatch.
Hat Kid hoped the queen didn't take any keys that they needed with her. However, after they'd looped back, they found no such lock on the basement doors. They were closed, but unguarded. The children still braced for the worst as they slipped past them, wincing with each step until the foyer carpet could muffle them.
Bow Kid looked to her friend for direction. She pointed down the main hall with a nod, That way! Their tread remained quick, but quiet.
She wanted to check first. Tiptoeing into the study, she found that the way to the second floor was also open. The padlock was on the floor, lying against the baseboard as though it had been dropped. After her storm had taken enough ground, Vanessa must've been in such a rush to push herself and her army forward that locking up didn't even occur to her.
It begged the long-wondered question yet again: What had changed? What put an end to the queen's centuries of waiting and encouraged her to act this way?
"Check in here," she instructed Bow Kid over her shoulder in a still hushed voice, "I'll look back upstairs."
She jogged up the steps two at a time, growing more impatient with each passing minute. A quick glance through one of the windows told her that the storm wasn't getting any better. She prayed that everyone was still holding their ground…
Ignoring the newly positioned statue of a familiar Mafia member, Hat Kid sped into the bedroom. Sitting propped on the desk, encompassed by a sprawl of open books, was the burner. It looked like the queen had been using it recently, although Hat Kid didn't smell anything strange in the air. She held her breath anyway, just in case, as she snatched up the relic and shoved it into her bag.
Meanwhile, bits of random text caught her eye. They were old books, yellow and hand-written. None of the words were good. It looked like Vanessa was trying to figure out a way to strengthen the device's magic. Well, a certain amount of loyalty already had to exist when it worked on her knights: She was probably trying to force her will further. Over who was something that Hat Kid didn't want answered.
It might've been wise to grab the books too, but she didn't know which ones to take and an unsettling feeling had begun to creep down her spine—as if she was being watched. She didn't wait a moment longer, turning on her heel to regroup with Bow. She found her friend still hunting through cabinets and tapped her on the arm as a sign that it was time to leave.
As they were racing back through the main hall, Bow Kid suddenly pulled her to a halt. Hat gave her a bewildered look before following the other child's gaze through the kitchen. On the end of the dining table nearest to the door was a Time Piece. There was no explanation for why it was there or why Vanessa would leave such an important relic out in the open, but it didn't matter. Bow Kid dove forward to grab it, then spun around and ran off with Hat just as quickly.
Considering their incredible luck thus far, the girls didn't want to jinx it by so much as glancing out the main entrance. Instead, they took the safest path through the basement yet again. If anything was going to come after them now, they weren't going to waste their energy by looking over their shoulders to check.