“There”, he shouted against the wind. They had reached the end of how far they had gotten before.

“Proceed as planned”, Knightrider shouted, shuddering from the cold.

Everyone worked together to form a little igloo next to a boulder, a tiny bit hidden from the wind. Ice used some more mana to harden the outside, then scrambled inside after everyone else and closed it up.

Ignoring the weird taste, all players were stuck to their cold resistance potions.

Bloody directly huddled up next to Ice, leaning against his shoulder. Maybe because they thought it was funny, Little Droplet directly took the other side.

“On a scale of one to ten, how cold is everyone here?” White Light forcefully stopped his teeth from chattering. “I’d set myself on a seven.”

Absinth was muttering curses again. She looked the worst out of them all. “Why can’t Haven have a normal temperature indicator like any other game? Eight. At least.”

“Five”, Ice whispered. “If not four. I’m managing pretty well. It’s cold but endurable.”

“I’ll join White Light’s seven”, Bloody croaked.

“Agreed.” Spiderlily sniffled softly. She scooted a bit closer to Little Droplet, who didn’t seem to mind.

“Six”, Little Droplet said cheerfully.

“S…even”, Knightrider admitted.

“How about I make a fire?”, Absinth suggested, about to start her spell when WHite Light stopped her in a panic.

“No! Do you want to kill us? We have no ventilation shaft!” White Light paused, then grimaced. “Wait, isn’t that a problem anyway?”

“I’ll make us a little hole, but it won’t be enough for smoke. If this was an actual igloo we had time to build, it would be possible, but… this is a makeshift cave.” Ice got up, crawled to one wall and began his work. They had to stay inside for about forty minutes, then the snowstorm should be almost done. It was the best time to go out and check for the guards they were searching for.

They had no actual way to check the time, but most people had a surprisingly accurate inner clock after a couple of months playing Haven.

The players got restless at around the same time. The howling of the storm was lessening outside.

“I’ll break it open?” The Ice Emperor hesitated until he saw everyone agree.

There was still snow falling, but this was an acceptable level. The kind of situation where you’d hurry to get home, but where you’d at least still be willing to go home.

“Oooooh. Fuck me”, Bloody whispered. Ice coughed awkwardly and Bloody shut his mouth.

The guards weren’t giants, but they were still much taller than a common human - easily nearing two and a half meters. Each of them had a distinct face, enough to tell them apart.

The guards were made out of some kind of blueish green crystal, their armor cracking with every movement.

The crystal guards walked in groups of five, a total of fifty guards walking down set paths.

All the players were silent, staring at the information they got.

[Green Origin Guard - level 150]

A single guard… had a level twice as high as most players.

They alone could fight a war against Haven’s capital. Every single one was a calamity.

Stealth had never sounded so nice.

While the others were in awe at the level of these beings, Ice was filled with conflicted feelings. His focus was somewhere entirely else.

As someone who spent a lot of time with NPCs, Ice had begun to naturally watch out for all kinds of signs on their body. There was a lot you could read if you just looked at an NPC closely enough.

Of course, the same went for monsters, in a way. It was always possible to find their weak points.

Meeting a humanoid monster like that, Ice was drawn to their faces, their gait and other gestures. It didn’t make a lot of sense; monsters did have a sort of personality, but it was vague and simple. It basically could be divided into calm, cunning, aggressive and the like.

But those guards weren’t like that. With how their info was shown, they were clearly monsters and not NPCs but…

Each of them was so distinctly different.

Not only were their faces different, even the personality shown wasn’t uniform. There was one with relaxed eyebrows and naturally upturned lips, more strolling than walking. There was one with an angular face and a stern expression that walked perfectly upright.

These traits were stiff, so the guards still felt more like moving statues than people, but the fact that there was such a difference between each of them was unusual.

It meant that if one of these died, it would be odd for it to respawn. After all, it wasn’t just another monster of the same type, it would be exactly the same monster again. There was no way that Haven had thousands of these prepared, right?

“Ice!”

Bloody called his friend’s name for the third time, lightly hitting his arm. The elf snapped back into focus, eyes jumping over to the beastman whose hair was white with snow.

“Are you alright?”

“Later”, Ice muttered.

He had thought that this place was going to be a simple new area, but he was starting to think that this was a setup for a completely new kingdom. This place seemed to be filled with hidden lore.

“They’re walking regularly”, Knightrider told the others. He kept as low as he could without losing sight of the patrolling crystal-men. “It seems like getting the timing right shouldn’t be too hard, as long as they aren’t sensitive to sound and movement.”

“That would offset the difficulty of getting here at all”, White Light mused. “If it takes so long to figure out how to enter, the actual process can’t be too overwhelming. Otherwise, this quest would be impossible.”

All cold was forgotten. Despite sitting motionless within the snow, the players were too excited to feel the cold. The potions were still doing their work, so as long as their mentality played along, they wouldn’t come to harm.

“They’re leaving”, Spiderlily whispered when the first group of guards began to make their way towards the chasm.

From this angle, you could barely see where it began. Only now, when the snow had settled a bit more, they could see the edge as long as they knew where to look.

“We are going to be completely exposed once we go out. Is this not going to be a problem? At the latest when we reach the edge, we have nowhere to hide.”

The first group reached the chasm.

They walked in a row, the first guard slowly vanishing over the edge with uneven movements. Stairs shot through everyone’s minds at the same time.

“The stairs will probably stay for another while even after they’re gone. We can go to the edge and peek over it, then go down once they’re gone? I mean, we have zero hints as to which approach is the correct one right now. We should just try.”

Bloodless Sunset shook the snow out of his hair and looked at Knightrider. He disliked it, but the player had made himself the leader and he wasn’t interested in quibbling at this point.

“That’s the only thing we can do right now”, the knight agreed with a dark face. “Watch out. We have to get ready.”

All worries were unfounded. The guards were clearly not set up to be as sensitive to sound or movement as the harpies were, and neither were they set up to look behind themselves. They walked onwards, not even sinking into the snow and only leaving shallow steps, almost as if they weighed nothing.

“I sure hope those goddamn snappers don’t reappear again. That seriously sucked the last time”, Bloody joked lightly as he crawled forward on his stomach.

The crystalline staircase had appeared out of nowhere. It looked incredibly slippery at first glance, but the surface was rough enough that you could walk down without being too careful.

Knightrider stood up when the last guard vanished within the castle.

White Light couldn’t help but let out a gasp when it finally came into full view now that he could stand up as well. “This is amazing. It looks like a castle out of a fairytale.”

“Do you think we are going to meet the snow queen inside there?”

“...Elsa?”

“I meant the one with the ice shards and the boy, but okay.”

“Nerds”, Absinth muttered under her breath at hearing Bloody and White Light converse. Spiderlily opened her mouth but ultimately did not say anything and instead shook her head to herself.

Absinth took a step closer to the staircase.

“This is our goal, huh? Nice.”

She made to walk forward, but Little Droplet held her back. “We should plan on how to proceed first.”

“Plan?” Absinth scoffed. “My plan is getting the proof and giving it to the prince. That’s what I’m gonna do.”

Intuition made White Light flinch, but he was too late.

Spiderlily, who was the closest, reached out quickly when the heavy push sent Little Droplet stumbling towards the edge, but Absinth mercilessly sent a kick at her back.

Shocked, all four male players rushed forward in hopes of catching either of the two, but it was futile. There was no place to hold on to, the ground was merely snow and they had been standing too close to the edge.

Spiderlily and Little Droplet sunk into the bottomless abyss.

“What-”

White Light whipped his head around, face an angry grimace. Stunned, he froze, staring down the stairs - Absinth had used the time and was already far away. Her speed was too quick for it to not be suspicious, making everyone wonder if she had brought along a piece of equipment to increase her speed.

“What was that for!” Bloody clenched his fists helplessly. “What good is it gonna do her?! We are players, we respawn! It’s not like dead men tell no tales! She’s messing up the whole quest!”

“She might be hoping to find treasure or get a special reward by entering first. It’s also possible she is going to rush back by teleporting or dying so she can bring proof to the prince first.” Knightrider looked calmer than Bloody, but his emotionless facade did not work well with the fury in his eyes.

“The stairs”, White Light reminded them. “Let’s talk later! We have to get down before they vanish!”

Reminded by his words, the four remaining players hurried down the staircase. Not too long after they reached its end, the staircase began to emit crackling noises. It crumbled slowly but visibly into pieces.

The players dashed to hide behind a bunch of white bushes. They did not look too different from a common bush except for their colour, giving them some cover while they looked around. They hadn’t seen where Absinth had entered, but no one heard an alarm so far.

“I’m not seeing anyone around here… Strange. I wonder if this castle is just filled with artificial beings like those guards?”

“Possible. But did you realize? Those stairs weren’t a mechanism. They crumbled away. That looked a lot like magic… which would mean, there is a mage in this castle?” White Light frowned deeply. So far, Haven did not have any monsters that used magic actively like players did. “Also, does that mean that if you’re not a player with a teleport scroll, you have to commit suicide to leave this place? That seems quite unfair.”

“There might be another way out”, Ice whispered.

“What, can you create stairs like that?” Bloody’s eyes widened.

“...No. I could create stairs, but only on solid ground and they’d need a lot of mana. I can’t create a staircase over air.” But then again, he was merely a player. The one who created these stairs might as well be the true Ice Emperor, the ruler of this place.

“Do we want to split up? A single person is less likely to be spotted and if one is caught, the rest aren’t immediately in danger. We just need to gather as much information as we can.”

Knightrider gave his agreement. “The layout of the castle, inhabitants, portraits, books. Anything can give us a primary hint.”

“I’ll… go around the castle and look for a back entrance”, Ice suggested first.

“Then I’ll go the other way. Maybe I can find a way to sneak in through the side.” Bloody point into the opposite direction.

White Light glanced through the gaps in the bushes. Before them was what looked like a garden. “You two go first. I have yet to decide which way to go.”

“Good luck”, Knightrider whispered, patting Ice’s shoulder. Behind him, Bloody waved at Ice with a small smile.

It was quiet on the castle grounds. There were no birds and no wind, creating a heavy atmosphere. Ice kept behind the bushes whenever he could, not hurrying at all. Surprisingly enough, it was warmer down here - possibly due to the lack of the wind.

The backside of the castle did not have a lot of space to move around in. It was at the edge of the web that held the building, so the mage had to watch his step in order not to fall. Squinting upwards, he tried to make out if the window he could see was open or not.

He hesitated a bit, then hummed an incantation. The single block of ice attached itself easily to the castle wall, creating another step for the player to climb up onto. He peered into the room.

There was no one inside and it wasn’t closed either. It opened when he pushed against it and while it was a bit small, he managed to slip inside awkwardly.

The mage looked around.

It looked like a room for servants - sparse but practical, with four beds lined up. Uniforms were hung up on the wall.

Ice touched them carefully. Soft fabric without any lavish decorations, cut into a simple black dress. It reminded him loosely of a maid uniform, which would work with his guess of this being a room for servants.

Ice placed an ear against the door.

He heard nothing. Sighing in relief, he was about to push it open when the sudden sound of footsteps caused him to flinch. He froze where he stood.

“The master was happy with his meal”, a female voice said, sounding pleased. “What do you think, should we bring him some fruit later?”

“The cook said he made dessert. Maybe we could put them on a plate as well.” Clearly taken by the idea, another female voice spoke up. The two women sounded young and cheerful, not at all tense.

“Yes! Let’s do that. I hope the master will get healthy soon. I feel so bad seeing him the way he is.”

“At least his mood was quite good these days, no?”

“You think? I thought he looked a bit sicker, as if he had a headache.”

“Hmmm…” Both maids hummed thoughtfully, pausing somewhere near the door. Ice held his breath.

“Alas! Either way, all we can do is serve the master as best as we can!”

“Yes!”

Cheerful, both maids began to chatter about their work and left. Only when their voices were gone did Ice dare to push the door open.

Owl

While Elsa is the ice queen in Frozen, the original ice queen is a fairytale made by Andersen. The ice queen in that story is more on the dangerous side. (Fairytale. No surprise here.)

Little Theater

Absinth: "Down you go."
Bloody: "I always knew I hated you."
Owl: "I mean, I did call her Absinth. The devil's drink?"