Norman stepped out of the stairwell into what felt like the icy fingers of death itself. Ok, that was pure hyperbole, he had died enough times to know what death felt like and this wasn’t it. It just really sucked.

The creeping cold crackled against the enchantments in his armor, the magic not managing to harm him. Yet he still felt the cold, his breath icing and falling to the ground as soon as it left his body. When he breathed in, the air was so painfully cold that his body nearly rejected it. He imagined this is what Antarctica must feel like during the coldest days of the year.

As they stepped out of the ruined front of the building, he got a good view of the surrounding area. Everything was eerily still and silent. A bit of motion off to one side caught his eye and he turned his head to see Lohr moving in their direction slowly.

The man was making his way through the towering statues of ice that had once been mindless zombies and he wasn’t being gentle about it. With a heavy fist, he knocked them aside. The statues shattered against the ground like glass, causing the first sounds Norman had heard since he exited the building. The sound echoed through the frozen forest of the dead. Had he not already been shivering from the cold, the sound probably would have sent a shiver down his spine.

It would take some time for his guard to arrive, so he scanned the area again and saw more movement. This time it was a much larger group. They were still a few blocks away, but Norman could tell it was the Ice King and his retinue.

Eugene grunted beside him, his teeth chattering. “I never much liked the cold. This Ice King is stronger than I thought.”

Norman nodded. Not because he thought the Ice King was stronger. The fact that their enchantments couldn’t keep all of the cold at bay was telling enough. Besides, he had seen what the man had done in Colorado. No, he nodded because he too disliked the cold. He would have offered to turn Eugene back to a greykin but it would mean removing his armor to cast the spell, and that would likely kill him instantly.

By the time the Ice King arrived, all of Norman’s forces outside the tower had gathered. All except the Wraiths who were still guarding the anchors. He was surprised when the cold didn’t let up as soon as the Ice King entered the array. The man simply paused for a moment, looked around, then shrugged and continued toward them.

The man had more control over his domain than Norman first realized. Even the Princes wouldn’t have been able to shrug aside the siphoning effects of the array. He really hoped he was doing the right thing here, and not just replacing Donovan with someone even stronger.

“Lord Norman,” the King intoned as he finally reached them. With his presence came a reduction to the deathly cold chill that had been seeping into his body.

Before answering, Norman took in a shuddering breath, the warm air bringing life back to his nearly frost-bitten extremities. It was only when feeling returned that he realized just how damaged his body had become in the short time outside. He grunted and held up a finger before reaching down to a pouch and taking out a potion.

Thankfully, the magical substance resisted the cold. He sucked it down and tucked the bottle away before finally acknowledging his former boss. “We have managed to contain and subdue most of the Council, as per our agreement.”

The Ice King’s helmet melted away and he quirked an eyebrow. “Most?”

“The Council Leader, Donovan, and his son managed to escape. But I have my people dismantling his spy network and looking for leads.”

“I see,” the man said as he looked around. “Will I need to worry about him coming for me?”

Norman shrugged. He wasn’t going to lie to the man and tell him he wouldn’t. “Impossible to say for sure. Without his power base, I don’t expect him to be much of a threat though.”

“I suppose hoping for the most favorable outcome was optimistic. But you are correct, I cannot expect you to know if he will return or not. However, if he does, I will deal with him. I have seen the state of the city. It is even worse than you have stated. To force people to live this way is a disgusting perversion, and I will not tolerate it.”

For a moment, the chill Norman felt before returned, but the man quickly squashed his anger and the aura he was emitting.

“Would you like to meet your new subjects?”

The man nodded. “I’m surprised you had the restraint to leave any alive. I don’t know if I would have after seeing what this city has become.”

“Well, I left some alive. Others… Well, you’ll see when we get there. Could you drop this chill?”

The man nodded and inhaled deeply, the chill evaporated, leaving the area feeling as dry as a desert. “Our people should be sufficient to hold off any threats, please, after you,” the Ice King gestured.

The pair left everyone else at the front of the building and walked up the stairs to the top floor. Once there, the Ice King stopped and stared for a minute at the miserable excuse for a councilor that Norman had questioned. When the man’s gaze flicked toward him, it was the first time he saw doubt in the man’s eyes. But the doubt quickly vanished as he scanned over the rest of the surviving Council, still huddled and shaking in the corner.

“Some of you might know me, others perhaps not. I am the Ice King of Colorado. Lord Norman, here has asked me to step in to take control of this land and ensure the project to save the world remains on track. I must admit,” the man stated flatly as he rested his hands behind his back and slowly strolled into the room, “that it annoys me that I was left out of those proceedings. But I suppose that is my own fault to some extent. I haven’t been a very welcoming neighbor.”

“You see, my priority was the protection of my people… from people, such as yourselves. You remind me of the leadership I forcefully ousted from Colorado. Those who prey on the weak. I shouldn’t be surprised by this similarity. You did recruit Gail after all. To have someone of such low moral standards in your little cabal is telling.”

As he slowly marched around the far side of the room from the group, they tried to shy away from the man. Then they realized Norman was still standing in the doorway, forcing them back even tighter into the corner.

The King glanced at the gibbering mass of a human that Norman had tortured. He pressed a single finger to the man’s head. The man instantly stilled, before falling over and shattering across the floor. After killing the man, the Ice King straightened again. “I don’t approve of Lord Norman’s methods, but I won’t condemn them either. Not after witnessing what you people have done to the populous under your control.” While the man’s words were flat and emotionless, Norman could see his anger radiate out as a layer of frost caked the floor.

“From now on, you will follow my orders. There will be no leeway for traitors or people trying to push their own agenda. Your actions here have proven you cannot be trusted. And if you see or hear even a peep of Donovan’s whereabouts, you will come to me before even pausing to think. Do I make myself clear?” With that last word, he stopped in front of the group and waited.

“Y- Yes, Ice King, W- We understand,” One of the braver members of the Council managed to get out.

“Good,” the Ice King smiled. “Now that a pecking order has been established. I want you to gather up all your mages. The ones you call controllers. It’s time that everyone else understands that the Council is no more.”

They didn’t immediately move, instead, their gazes flicked toward Norman and tears began to well up in their eyes.

The Ice King turned toward Norman. “I can handle it from here. Thank you.”

Norman nodded and left the room. He was glad to be done with the Council, even if Donovan was still at large. The man was a shifty slippery bastard, but even he needed a base of operations. And with California being denied him, he would likely have to start from scratch somewhere else. Which gave Norman and the world time to complete the arrays in peace.

By the time he reached the entrance again, the air outside had lost most of its chill. He found Eugene talking with a group of Death Knights. It seemed the man had anticipated their work would finish up here soon and had started to recall the strike teams.

With a nod from Eugene, the group headed off with weapons ready.

“What was that all about?” He asked.

“Patrol,” The big man said before turning his way. “We are still in hostile territory. We can’t afford to get sloppy now.”

“Fair enough,” Norman agreed.

“Oh, you may find this interesting.” Eugene handed him what looked like a journal. “I have the page marked.”

With a confused look, Norman accepted the small book and opened it up to the page. He quickly read the content, most of it just useless complaints from the councilor it had come from. That was until he landed on one line. He groaned. “Really? Her? Why am I not surprised.”

Eugene just shrugged.

He didn’t know how Anna had gotten involved with the Council, but at least he now had a name to go with the final elusive councilor. It also helped explain why she wasn’t here. She had apparently retaken her territory in New York. It seemed the unstable woman hadn’t quite learned her lesson.

Her ties to the Council were a difficulty he could do without because now he had to go question her.

He snapped the book closed and handed it back to Eugene. “Any other actionable information?” He asked in annoyance.

“None yet, but the remaining teams are scouring all of their mansions.”

Dammit! He was hoping something more concrete would present itself so he could avoid meeting his old friend. But it seems like that was a pipedream. “Find this portal to New York. Once the teams are done and the hellhounds return, we are taking another little trip. We can send most of the knights back, but I want a decent force for when we go visit Anna.

He would also have to turn everyone back into undead before they did so. It was possible Anna wasn’t as crazy as she was since they last spoke, but he wasn’t going to risk it. He glanced down at the ring on his hand. Yeah… she wasn’t going to like that either.

It took a few more hours for all of his troops to gather, and for the hellhounds to return. Then he turned everyone back into greykin and sent the hellhounds and all but Gabriel’s strike team back through the teleporter. That left him with sixteen Death Knights and Eugene. If shit went sideways in New York, he was ready.

The group approached the large square where the portals had been established. There were a total of five of the massive tunnel-sized portals, each emitting a soft glow. The centers of each portal rippled slightly like water and a distorted picture of the far side could be seen through the magical constructs. Thankfully, each was clearly marked.

Norman walked around the square, looking at each sign: Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and New York. It seemed the Council had been busy trying to expand its reach. And they weren’t the only people traveling. Each gate had a constant stream of traffic going back and forth through the magical gateways. He even saw a few carts filled with parts for arrays being transferred through.

Seeing this only made Norman more confused by Donovan’s actions. Going by the indirect attack on him, he would have assumed the man had wanted them to fail. So then why bother continuing to produce arrays?

He returned to the New York portal. Ferreting out Donovan’s reasoning would need to wait for later. Perhaps when he finally captured the man he could finish putting the pieces together at his leisure. But that was for another day.

“Let’s get this over with.”