The frost bit harder this time.
As Ariella stepped through the Mirror Gate with Leo and Eleanor flanking her, the cold wasn't just physical—it was spiritual. The air inside the Frost Queen's realm tasted like secrets and memory, as if it carried whispers from a world that had always existed just beyond human comprehension.
The ice beneath their boots shimmered with veins of sapphire and silver. Above them, a white sky stretched without clouds, without sun—just an endless canvas of light that seemed to watch.
Eleanor squeezed her mother's hand. "She's close."
Leo looked at Ariella. "You ready?"
Ariella's grip tightened around her daughter's fingers. "No. But I'm here."
They walked for what felt like hours, though the realm existed outside of time. Eleanor didn't complain once. Her small feet left no prints in the snow.
At last, the terrain dipped into a valley shaped like a spiral—ice cliffs rising on either side and at the center, the Palace of Stillness.
