Spirits of the Earth

[Open by request]

"Blast!" Adelaide cursed loudly, her breath coming out in a frosty cloud. For the past two hours she had been wandering around the Sionad Tundra, trying to find her way to the village of Hyoite with little luck. This was the third time she had passed by that barren dead tree, and she knew it was the same one as there was precious few trees in this place, regardless of whether they were alive or dead. The black gnarled tree branches were jagged and with sharp pointy edges, its very presence seemed to mock her lack of direction with its desolate appearance. Or perhaps she was just letting her frustrations get to her too much. Why she couldn't find the darn village was something that was puzzling her. The mage never had this much trouble before, why now?

She was debating about whether to turn around and try to retrace her steps, when suddenly she saw a white beastly shape running towards her, its fierce claws raised above its head and letting out a bone chilling howl of rage and hunger. It was a Yeti. Adelaide had only come across two of them before now but none of those had noticed her and she wisely kept out of their sight. This one however came barreling towards her, looking for all the world a dangerous beast determined to find its next meal.

On instinct, Adelaide focused her icy energies within her and quick as she was able, formed a block of ice at the beast's feet, encasing them in ice. The creature roared at her, and struggled to break free of the makeshift prison its feet were trapped in. Finally, the Yeti managed to break free of the frozen block and once again, came charging at her. But Adelaide was ready. From her outstretched palm, an icy projectile came soaring through the air and headed straight for the snowy creature's left eye. The bolt embedded itself there, making the creature roar in agony and frantically claw at its damaged eye trying to get the projectile loose. Blood was now coming out of the wound and running down the creature's arms and chest. Adelaide didn't waste any time and kept flinging magical ice bolts at the beast as it struggled with its injury and kept trying to advance on her. After what seemed like hours had passed but was probably only a few minutes, the Yeti fell down face forward into the snow, blood continuing to pool around its head soaking into the icy terrain beneath it. It did not get back up. She waited to see if it would, but the creature continued to lay there, unmoving.

Cautiously, the ice mage went over there and prodded the beast with her snow boot. Nothing. No movement. She kicked the yeti over on its back. It eyes open wide unseeing, her icy weapon still partially embedded in the creature's eye, blood continuing to ooze out. The creature was dead. Adelaide let out a shaky breath. That was rather close, she thought.

Sighing she turned around away from the now dead beast, and continued on as before, trying to find her way to Hyoite. The icy wind whipped around her, blowing her hair in her eyes and making her eyes slightly water from the sheer coldness of it all. If she could manage to find her way she was going to make a stop at the inn there, rent a room and rest and recover her magical energies. Her mana reserve was more than halfway depleted, and she felt tired after the fight too. Adelaide needed rest. She wasn't going to risk resting here in case anymore of those creatures decided to attack. The mage would not give them the element of surprise. Another hour passed with Adelaide still searching for the village albeit unsuccessfully.

Today was just NOT her day.

It felt like ages since Cryce had felt the frigid temperatures and biting winds of his home. These trips to Hyoite are what kept him focused on his goal, and he also found them to be somewhat relaxing. He was most at home in the ice and snow, the bitter cold embracing him with a feeling of comfort that normal people would receive from a fireplace. The blizzard lowered visibility significantly, but Cryce didn't need to see. He knew his way through the snow by heart.

As he traveled even further north, he began being more observant. He was nearing yeti territory. They weren't the most graceful of creatures, but they preferred attacking during blizzards so that the snow and wind would conceal them. Cryce then saw a shape through the snow. At first he thought it was a yeti, but it was much too small. Upon closer inspection he discovered that it was a person. Cryce approached in order to make contact.

"You're awfully far north," he said casually. "What business have you way out here?"

Through the blinding snowfall, Adelaide could make out a figure headed her way. He wore a black cloak to match his equally black hair, but as he drew nearer it was his eyes that caught her attention the most. They were the same icy blue as her own. Not to mention, she could sense the powerful magics of ice and snow within him. He too was an wielder of the icy arts. His white staff also pretty much pointed that out to her too. It was more white in color than her rod implement but the reason for it was the same.

Hefting her aforementioned rod in hand, Adelaide merely sniffed in derision in his direction at the comment. "I could ask you the same." she stated, playing it safe for now.

"I'm heading home," Cryce replied. "Now what are you doing?"

He didn't really consider his trip home to be sensitive information. Whoever this was wielded the power of ice and snow like himself. Her eyes were the same icy blue ad his own and their staffs were similar as well. Interesting. He had never encountered another ice mage before.

Adelaide regarded him a moment before responding. "Making my way to Hyoite. Killed a yeti a ways back that tried to attack me." She shrugged before regarding him again. "You live around here?"

Adelaide purposely didn't mention the fact that as of now, the ice mage had no clue where the darn village was. But she would eventually find it, if she tried hard enough.

"I am native to Hyoite, yes," Cryce responded. "And it would make sense that you were attacked. This is yet I territory during a blizzard. They like attacking during blizzards. They use it for concealment."

Adelaide shrugged again. "Its mistake was in attacking me. That yeti won't be getting up ever again." She made a mental note to herself to not venture in this part of the tundra again during a blizzard. At least not without some company around. The encounter was a close one, and she didn't wish to repeat the experience.

After some thought and internal debating, the ice mage relented and decided to ask him for directions. "I don't suppose you know where the village is?"

Cryce raised an eyebrow at her question.

"You mean to tell mean that you are traveling to Hyoite in the middle of a blizzard in yeti territory, but have no idea where you're going?"

Cryce sighed. This chick was lucky to be an ice mage. If she wasn't she would be beyond dead by now.

"Come with me then, I guess," Cryce told her. "I suppose I can't have leaving you out here for dead on my conscience."

Cryce resumed walking once more. Looks like he will be having company on this particular journey north.

Adelaide sighed irritably. "I honestly don't know why I am having this much trouble. It's never been a problem before no matter the weather."

She began walking after him, keeping both eyes and ears out for any more yetis but otherwise kept quiet. The snow and ice continued to fall around them, not looking like it was going to let up anytime soon.

After a fair bit of walking Cryce stopped. Something was off.

"This isn't right," he said finally. "We've been walking in a straight line, so why doesn't it feel like we're going anywhere?"

Stopping as well, Adelaide frowned. Now that she thought about it, something was indeed not right. At least it was some consolation that she wasn't the only one having an issue. However now they had a bigger problem. Neither of them knew where they were going. "I don't know." Adelaide said slowly, looking around as though the barren landscape could provide some kind of clue.

She looked back at their footprints in the snow which were quickly becoming covered up by the constant blizzard raging around them that only seemed to grow stronger with each passing second. The chilly wind blew harder, the freezing air sinking deep down into Adelaide's bones and even her cold resistant robe and heavy cloak couldn't protect her fully from its biting force. She pulled her cloak around her more securely but it did little good. The temperature was continuing to drop at an alarming rate and she even began to shiver a bit. Despite her toughened endurance, it was too darn cold and they were both now lost for reasons she knew not.

As if to point this fact out, that same dead tree came into view again. Something was definitely not right here. "I had passed by that tree numerous times already. We've been going around in circles."

How could they be traveling in circles? They had been walking exclusively in a straight line. This was the right way to go. Cryce knew it was. He had been this way before. His companion mentioned seeing the same dead tree before, but there were many dead trees in Hyoite. That didn't mean a thing.

"Only one way to be sure," Cryce said.

He formed a dagger of ice in his hand and then jammed it into the dead tree that Adelaide had indicated seeing before.

"Now we'll know if it's the same one."

Cryce continued on through the blizzard. He had to see this for himself. There was no way this could be real.

Glancing at the dead twisted tree, now with an ice spike sticking out of the bark, Adelaide wondered why she hadn't thought to try that before now. She shook her head. It was no matter. What did matter was getting to Hyoite.

The ice mage continued on after her companion in brooding silence. Not keen on striking up a conversation as Adelaide was content with the quiet. Besides there were yetis around. Best to keep on alert lest one ended up as food for the white monsters.

Adelaide frowned, the hair on the back of her neck raising. She felt eyes on the both of them from somewhere. Looking around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. The feeling only increased however. "Wait." Adelaide held up a hand. "Someone or something is watching us. I can feel it."

Cryce stopped and looked around upon hearing Adelaide's warning. He didn't see anything. Cryce shrugged.

"Well, if they want their life cut short then they will show themselves," Cryce told her.

Cryce then continued on his way. There was no way he could be defeated in his element. Anything would be either incredibly foolish or suicidal to face him in his own domain.

After an uneasy pause, Adelaide continued following Cryce since she didn't know what else to do. The feeling of being watched persisted, although nothing showed up to attack them. Still the ice mage didn't feel safe so she walked quickly after the other ice mage, hoping to find the blasted village soon.

Soon a still shape on the frozen ground came into view, and as they walked closer Adelaide could see it was the yeti she had offed. The ice dagger was still embedded in its bloodied eye. "This is proof then that we're going in circles. That's the yeti I killed right there." Adelaide pointed to the dead beast with her index finger. She waited to see what Cryce would say to this.

Cryce circled around the beast looking for any signs that the corpse may have been moved. He didn't find any.

"How long ago did you kill this thing," Cryce asked.

He wanted to know exactly how big of a circle they were walking in, especially since Cryce had not seen the dead yeti before now.

Adelaide thought about how long ago that she had killed the beast. "About an hour ago. Maybe an hour and a half." Glancing down at the beast, ice was quickly freezing over its already snow-white body. Pretty soon, it would be completely encased in permafrost.

The feeling of being watched was still there, only it seemed to not be as strong now. It didn't make Adelaide feel any better though. Something was out there, watching and waiting. Who or what though, was a mystery for now. Perhaps it was more yetis, biding their time. Although in Adelaide's experience, they didn't show such restraint when it came to attacking. Maybe it had something to do with her companion here. Whatever the case, she didn't like it. "Let's keep moving." and she began walking once more.

Cryce continued on along with his companion. An hour ago? They were walking in a pretty big circle for them to encounter something that occurred an hour ago. What's more, Cryce had not become trapped in this circle until recently. There was definitely something foul at work here.

The wind whipped brutally around the pair, Adelaide's silvery-white hair sometimes blowing into her face and she pushed it back each time it did. Suddenly the sound of a howl came from nearby, and as she turned to look, two yetis came running forth, alabaster claws raised with maniacal looks of hunger on their hideous features. The feeling of being watched had only intensified again, as though whatever it was wanted to see the outcome of this fight.

Holding her off-white rod in her left hand, Adelaide began summoning up her magic reserves inside the core of her being, what was left anyway. Icy energies surged about her as she readied her magic to come forth.

Cryce did not hesitate to spring into action. A massive icicle shot up out of the snow and impaled the first yeti through the chest. He then turned his staff into an ice bladed scythe and drove it into the second yeti, snapping the blade off inside of the beast.

"That was easy enough," Cryce commented.

Having just now launched a small cone of cold at the first yeti, Adelaide was surprised when the other one was killed just as quickly as the first one had been. Her magic had only struck a dead corpse as her companion was much faster in his castings than she was--and obviously much more powerful as she didn't have those kinds of capabilities yet. While no weakling at ice magic, hers was still only in the intermediate range. Cryce's had to be in the expert or master level range.

Not to mention, Adelaide could feel her mana reserve depleting even more, she probably only had enough power for one more minor casting before she would need rest to replenish it. Tiredness was taking hold of her as well, however now was not the time to dwell on that. Not while they were in the middle of yeti territory and an unknown assailant watching them no less.

Taking in a deep breath of frigid air, Adelaide let it out in a whoosh and glanced at her ice mage companion. "That was impressive." she commented. Adelaide hoped she would be able to pick up some pointers from him later on. But that would obviously have to wait.

Stepping over the dead bodies of the monsters, Adelaide noticed something on one of the bodies she hadn't seen before. A silver ring with some kind of symbol engraved upon it was hanging on a chain around one of the necks of the corpses. She picked it up, lifting it up and around the beast's neck and took a closer look at it. The symbol was of a lightning bolt surrounded by a circle and with dots surrounding that. It didn't appear to be magical in any way, so it was likely some kind of clan emblem.

Taking a brief once-over at the other body, Adelaide too saw the same ring on a chain around its neck as well. Idly, she wondered if the first yeti she had come across also had this silver engraved ring, but she didn't recall seeing one on it. Didn't mean she hadn't overlooked it though. Running her fingers over the smooth metal, Adelaide peeked a glance at Cryce to see what he was doing.

Cryce stepped forward to see what Adelaide had been looking at. It was a ring with a symbol on it that he had never seen before.

"That's unusual," he observed. "I never knew yetis to have a fondness for jewelry."

Cryce looked around, but the blizzard made it quite impossible to really see anything. Adelaide had mentioned the feeling of being watched, and now he was starting to believe her. Something was definitely out there. Or perhaps someone. Someone who had the ability to train yetis apparently.

"I would recommend that we keep walking, but we just end up walking in circles all over again. Perhaps we should just stay here and wait out this blizzard."

Adelaide was about to argue, but then reluctantly decided that he was right. They weren't getting anywhere as it was, so there was really no point to keep up this meaningless meandering. Plus visibility was extremely limited. And she needed rest to replenish her store of magical energy.

Nodding her head in assent, she put the piece of jewelry into her bag for safekeeping. She had a feeling it might come in handy, having some importance later on. Settling away from the bodies and from Cryce too, she sat down on the cold snow and ice, her rod implement placed across her lap, bag slung over her left shoulder. Adelaide made a mental note to study her magic book when she next got the chance to, as she needed to check something. However it would be too difficult to do that now.

The book itself was not really a grimoire, just a basic manual that she had written in and dogeared some of its pages, marking some notes here and there as needed. While it did contain some spells and magical theory, Adelaide was only interested in the section on ice magic. The other types of elemental magic in it didn't really interest her. She figured her companion whose name she didn't know, would have much more information and knowledge than her book would contain, being of a more practiced sort than she was.

So they sat down to wait out the storm. No more attacks came for the time being, and the white-haired ice mage was glad for that. Still an uneasiness was present, permeating the area like a thick sludge of tension.

Cryce sat down cross-legged in the snow. The biting winds and freezing cold did not bother him in the least, so the wind did get to the point of being irksome. Cryce formed a wall of ice to shield him from the wind as he sat and meditated in silence.

Resting a bit, Adelaide focused on regaining some of her magic reserve back, feeling more empowered as she did that. She continued at this as she wanted to be at full strength again in case of any more attacks.

A half hour passed in relative silence, the biting winds only proving a minor inconvenience for the female ice mage. The cold was refreshing as always, but Adelaide did have her limits though. As she relaxed, slowly regaining more of her mana back, she felt at peace then, if only for a short time. The tundra was where she belonged, no matter what dangers were present. She would defeat them like she normally would. And perhaps pick up some tidbits from a certain ice mage. However, Adelaide chose not to bother him for he seemed to be involved in his own contemplations, so she let the matter be for now.

"You never told me what you were doing out here," Cryce said out of nowhere. "You said you were going to Hyoite, but you never said why."

Though it was highly unusual for him to be the one to start a conversation with anybody, sitting around and doing nothing was boring. He wanted more than the howling wind to listen to, and for once in a great while he actually had someone beside himself to talk to.

Adelaide turned her head when he spoke. "I like the tundra environment. Especially the cold. Hyoite just happens to be located around here." That was all she really said, as unlike Cryce she didn't really feel the need for talking much, unless it was about furthering her own ice magic. So she went back to her own internal ponderings for the moment.

Cryce couldn't think on anything else to say. He was not good at small, especially since he traveled alone the majority of the time. With nothing else to do, he resorted to an old hobby. He held his hand palm up out in front of himself and started forming little ice figurines. The little ice shapes changed and flowed from one thing into another before finally resulting in a small ice portrait of his own family. Cryce stared at the small recreation of his family. His expression didn't change, but he became filled with incredible sadness at the memory of his loved ones.

While Cryce did this, Adelaide watched in fascination. She herself had practiced little things like this too, but not to the extent he was doing. The changing of one form to another was much more fluid and natural, something Adelaide still had yet to master. She figured now was as good a time as any to pose her question.

"Could you perhaps teach me some more about ice magic? I--" She paused, trying to best figure out what she wanted to say here. "I am not as experienced as you are."

With that, she conjured up her own little creation, a tiny spinning snowball that gleamed with an icy tint to it in the palm of one hand. She concentrated on making it bigger, gathering more snow to form around it. When she tried to make it disperse into a multitude of snowflakes to drift downwards, the whole thing just exploded abruptly, some of it hitting her in the face.

Adelaide winced. This was something she had been trying to perfect for a month now and with little success. It almost always either exploded or the magic simply dissipated in the attempt. She glared at her hand as though it were the one at fault here.

Cryce quickly closed his hand, the figurines dissolving instantly. It looked almost as if she had startled him, but he just wanted to keep her from seeing and inquiring about them figures. She had asked him to teach her about the power of ice they both shared. No one had ever asked that of him before. Cryce watched as the snowball she created exploded in her face.

"You're trying too hard," he said simply. "You're pouring too much power into it. That's why it exploded. You need to balance putting power into it with the power required to sustain it."

Adelaide nodded at this and tried again. Conjuring up another snowball, a bit larger this time she focused on equally dividing the power between sustaining it and splitting it into various snowflakes. It took a little bit, but she finally managed, watching with pleasure as the ball of snow split into many, many snowflakes, at least two dozen of them, swirling about in the air before drifting down to the ground below.

Looking pleased with her success, Adelaide smiled and did so again with the same results. "I actually didn't think about that particular bit." she admitted. "Thanks."

Cryce simply gave her a nod in response to her thanks. Admittedly, he was impressed by how quickly she improved after he only told her one thing. She would probably become quite powerful one day, but that wasn't important. Right now he had to focus on riding out this blizzard and keeping an eye out for any possible threats.

Conjuring up a large snowflake, Adelaide let it drift in the air suspended like that before she relinquished her hold on the magic, letting it dissipate. She decided she could practice more later, right now she needed to save her energy for any more possible yeti appearances. Once again, she focused on restoring her inner supply of mana until she felt quite refreshed and ready for anything.

The wind still blew around her, cold as ever but to Adelaide it was pure bliss. So far, apart from the wind, the tundra was quiet with no more threats coming. Adelaide tried to determine whether they were still being watched, and found she wasn't sure now if they were. Whatever was out there had to still be there, but seemed to be waiting for something. Or maybe trying to figure out the best plan of attack. And when it did come, Adelaide would crush it with her ice magic.

Adelaide didn't seem to have anymore questions at the moment, so Cryce went back to making ice shapes. It was all there was to do in the middle of a blizzard while they sat.

After some minutes had passed, Adelaide looked over to Cryce. She had some more questions for him, specifically how long he had been practicing his magic for, among others. Opening her mouth to speak, the ice mage abruptly closed it, unsure on how to phrase what she wanted to ask. Maybe later the right words would come to her.

The blizzard was still going strong, the heavy winds stirring ice and snow around continuously, while Adelaide's discomfort grew as the seconds slowly passed them by. Not for the first time, she wondered what was out there. What or who it was that could unite and train yetis to do their bidding. Was it a really smart yeti or some strange half-breed of one? Or was it a human who had somehow managed to ally him or herself with the creatures? Whoever it was must also possess some kind of magic too. It would help explain the feeling of being watched, even though she couldn't see anyone else besides the two of them. Perhaps some type of illusion magic?

Shaking her head, the ice mage tried to clear her thoughts some as wracking her brain for answers they clearly didn't have was doing more to unsettle her than solve anything. She supposed they would just have to wait and see.

The blizzard seemed to be lasting an unusually long amount of time. He couldn't help but wonder if the blizzard was the work of whoever it was that seemed to be watching them. What he didn't understand the most was why them? Why be so interested in some random pair of ice mages walking through the snow? Cryce would definitely have some questions if whoever it was ever showed themself.

No one did show themselves however. The blizzard continued on for another half hour before it showed signs of stopping. Another ten to fifteen minutes passed with the snow only trickling down a little now, the wind having abated. Adelaide took that as their cue to get moving again.

Standing up, she hefted both bag and implement in hand, tossing the knapsack over one shoulder only sparing a brief glance in Cryce's direction. "Let's go." Short and to the point, however they still didn't know where they were going. It was either walk or sit here all day in the snow.

Cryce nodded and got to his feet. He then made a replica of his staff out of ice and stuck it in the snow.

"Just so that we know we're actually getting somewhere this time," he said.

He then resumed walking with Adelaide through the snow.

As they walked through the snow, Adelaide kept her eyes peeled for any more yetis or anything out of the ordinary. It was about fifty more yards when the silvery-white haired woman spotted the entrance to a cave up ahead, several feet away. She stopped walking and paused, staring at it. Wondering if this was a good thing, since they hadn't come across a cave before.

Walking closer, she saw that the mouth of the cave was fairly wide, enough for two people to walk through without any trouble. There was also a strange scent coming from inside the cave, but Adelaide didn't have a clue as to what it was. Hesitating, she contemplated on what to do.

Cryce came up alongside Adelaide and looked at the cave.

"Is this new," he asked. "Or have you passed this before?"

Adelaide shook her head. "No. I haven't seen a cave in the area I'd been walking through. Which means--" she cut off her statement, brow furrowing as she studied the cave in interest.

For some reason she felt compelled to go in there. They might find their answers in the dark reaches beyond the cave mouth. She thought she could see an opening towards the back that led further inward, but they were too far away to tell for sure. At this she frowned. Unless it led downwards, the cave wasn't that big from what she was able to discern. There was only one way to find out. And that was to go in and take a look around.

Cryce wasn't sure how great of an idea it was to just go in and explore some random cave you just found, but Adelaide's mind seemed to have been made up. Cryce followed her inside. Hopefully she knew what she was doing.

Going inside the cave, some parts of the walls slick with moisture and ice, the ice mage looked around for a moment. There seemed to be nothing of interest here, except for the smell she had detected earlier seemed to be a bit stronger now. She still couldn't tell what it was though.

Pausing, Adelaide looked back at Cryce and then moved a bit further towards the back to take a look at the opening she could see better now that they were inside the cave itself. The path led a ways in a straight line and then to the right, before snaking sharply downwards into pitch blackness. So she had been right in her assumptions. There was a tunnel which led underneath the earth here. Where it led and what they would find down there if they chose to go in, who could say?

Nonetheless the possibility of adventure was intriguing to say the least. Adelaide had a torch with her and some tinder so seeing down there wouldn't be a problem, but it also had the unwanted side effect of alerting whatever might be down there to their presence. And that wouldn't be so smart. So, the choice came down to plunging onward and braving the dark, using a torch, coming back at a later time or not going down at all. Again, she hesitated.

"What are we doing here exactly," Cryce asked. "What does this cave have to do with anything?"

Adelaide supposed he was right. There was really no reason to go down there. Despite what secrets it might hold. Nodding her head, she turned to go back outside the cave. "Come on, then. Let's keep moving." Stepping back outside in the cold air, she made to continue on and forget about the cave for now.

Cryce sighed. This particular journey home was turning out to be a lot more troublesome than normal. Hopefully he would reach his destination soon.

They walked on through the snowy terrain, before Adelaide got the feeling they were going around in circles again. Sure enough, Cryce's ice staff replica was sticking out of the ground as they came upon it. She sighed irritably.

Cryce smashed the ice staff in anger.

"This is ridiculous," he growled. "Whenever I find who's responsible I'm going to kill them."

Adelaide had to agree. Whoever was doing this was obviously trying to get a rise out of them. And they were doing a good job of it too. She looked around some more. "Now what?" she asked her angry companion. She figured they should just keep on walking but if all they accomplished was going around in circles, then she didn't know what else to do.

"We might as well go check out that cave you were so interested in," Cryce replied. "It would be better than sitting around here doing nothing."

"Alright then." With that, she started making her way to where she last saw the cave and sure enough there it was. It was almost like whatever was making them go around in circles wanted them to find and enter this cave. At least that was a wild guess on Adelaide's part. "Might as well."

In truth, she was actually glad to be able to go explore the cave, now that they had a reason for doing so. But being who she was, she tempered her enthusiasm so one couldn't really tell. The cave entrance loomed just ahead, like the maw of some ravenous beast ready to swallow them up. Shaking her head of such thoughts, the ice mage ignored it and kept walking. Soon they were there again. Adelaide walked right in.

Cryce followed Adelaide without hesitation. He was hoping that who or whatever was responsible for all of this trouble would hiding inside this cave so that he could kill them. Of course he didn't inform Adelaide of his intentions because he didn't want her to interfere.

Walking towards the back where the tunnel led, Adelaide began to traverse it and got out a torch in the meantime, striking it against some tinder she had in a metal box in her bag. While there might be predators down there and who knew what else, going in there blind would just be plain stupid. So a torch to light the way it was, even if something could see them coming from afar.

The flame lit up from the tallow wrapped around the top of the torch, providing both heat and a light source in which to navigate by. Adelaide led the way, holding up her torch in one hand, rod in the other. Shadows danced upon the walls as they walked while a rat scurried on by, squeaking before disappearing into some hidden crevice. All the while they descended further into the unknown, their footsteps echoing, the temperature getting ever colder.

"I thought it was supposed to get warmer as you went further underground," Cryce said. "Something definitely isn't right here. Be on your guard."

Adelaide didn't comment, but kept on at a steady pace. The tunnel seemed to continue on straight for some time before turning sharply to the left, then the right then left again before going straight. All the while descending at the same time. And the temperature got even more cold, frost and ice clinging to the walls that she could see with the light provided from the torch.

Overall, the tunnel seemed endless, going on for quite some time. So far, other than that one lone rat, there wasn't a soul in sight, other than Adelaide and Cryce, that is. Not to mention the eerie quiet.

Cryce was on high alert. Something was so very wrong with all of this. He watched and listened very carefully as they proceeded onward. Getting taken by surprise would be the worst thing to have happen right now.

Soon they came upon a fork in the path. One path led straight, while the other curved to the right. Adelaide chose to go straight. Walking again for some time, Adelaide listened carefully for any threats, eyes darting this way and that. Their only company however, was just their shadows on the walls, the torch flames flickering and dancing as they went.

It seemed the route Adelaide chose was not the right way to go for the duo soon came to an enclosed area, the way blocked by an icy wall. A dead end. Adelaide huffed and began to go back the way they had come, trying to locate the fork in the trail from before. Coming upon it, she headed the opposite direction, hoping that this did not also lead to a dead end. Because then what else would they do? It seemed the only way to get anywhere was to find out what this cave had in it. It was either that or continue going around in circles in the tundra.

"It looks like I won't be getting home anytime soon," Cryce commented.

Coming to another fork in the road, Adelaide stopped and pondered which direction to take again. The paths this time branched out into three separate routes, one left, one right and one going straight. Remembering how the straight path led nowhere, she decided to go right. Going along this pathway, it continued on and seemed to be the correct one before they came upon another dead end. Adelaide cursed in frustration and marched back the way they had come.

At the second fork, she stood there thinking and looked to Cryce before making her next decision. Left then. And off they went.

Cryce sighed.

"There better be some magical freakin' treasure or something to make this all worthwhile," he growled.

Still, it was better than wandering the tundra in circles, he supposed.

And yet another dead end. This time Adelaide swore quite loudly before closing her mouth abruptly, looking around as she did to ensure nothing would creep upon them in the dark. Nothing did though.

Returning back to the fork for the second time that day, she chose straight as that was the only other option left. Adelaide really hoped this wasn't all for nothing, or she was going to be one pissed off ice mage.

It figures that they would choose the two wrong tunnels before the right one. If this one was another dead end Cryce swore that he was going to break through the wall at the end of it.

Finally, it seemed they were getting somewhere. Adelaide was glad, but at the same time when and if they met whoever the culprit was, she was going to quite literally encase their head in ice and then let Cryce do what he wanted. And she had no doubt he was just as furious about the whole deal as she was. That much was clear. After all, who wouldn't be?

Spotting something up in the distance, Adelaide quickened her pace. It soon rose up into view becoming quite obvious what it was. A heavy iron gate. Looking around a bit she continued on carefully, noticing that wherever this led it was definitely brighter here. So bright in fact, they didn't really need the torch anymore. Which was strange as there were no signs of other light sources here, no sconces on the walls. Whatever it was, it had to be magical in nature.

Sure enough when the ice mage looked up, there were a multitude of light orbs suspended above them, all hovering in the air of their own accord. As she watched, they moved around a little, sometimes bumping into one another before moving away, then staying still again. Yep, definitely magic. Which meant one thing. Their adversary was a mage too.

Cryce almost grinned as they finally found something significant, but only almost. There was definitely magic at work here. The floating orbs of light confirmed it.

"Shall I knock," Cryce asked.

Though it was pretty clear that it would be very excessive knocking.

Arriving at the gate, Adelaide tried to open it. Locked. Scowling at the door as though that act alone would make it cooperate, the silvery-white haired woman noticed a symbol on the wall near the gate. Peering closer at it, she saw it looked exactly like the emblem on the ring she had scavenged from one of the yetis they had killed.

Having an idea, she got out the ring itself and held it up to the symbol, picture facing picture. Soon, the gate opened with a click! "Finally." Adelaide muttered, putting the ring back in her bag. Listening for a bit, she made to continue past the gate to see what lay beyond.

"That works too," Cryce said mildly disappointed. "Now I'm going to go kill something."

Cryce went through the gate with his staff at the ready. Something or someone was going to pay.

Going a ways further, Adelaide could tell it was much colder down here. So cold in fact, even she Adelaide, an ice mage, was becoming chilled. Luckily the torch provided some heat as well as light which they still did not need, the area around them almost as bright as day.

She stopped suddenly. Before her eyes, there was a little creature made out of ice waddling around. It couldn't have been more than a foot tall. Adelaide blinked, but the creature was still there. An ice elemental. It had to be even though Adelaide had never seen one before. However its nature could not be denied. Its crystalline, icy features and electric blue eyes as it glanced at her, then Cryce before it continued waddling around as though aimlessly were obvious to any idiot. And Adelaide was no idiot.

Moreover, the waft of cold air or at least some of it, was coming directly from it. Not surprising, considering the source. It didn't seem to be hostile, just fleetingly curious by the two of them. Adelaide looked at Cryce to see what his reaction would be.

"Are you serious," Cryce asked. "That's it? That's what we came all the way down here for?"



The temperature dropped even further as Cryce's anger was kindled.

"You," Cryce said to the elemental. "What's the big idea with making us walk in circles?"

The elemental's only response was to look sideways at Cryce, but didn't say anything. However, it indicated its icy head further on into the cavern, as though to suggest their answers could be found that way. It continued walking around, ignoring them now.

Adelaide frowned. She wasn't sure this creature was the one responsible for their being lost. More likely, it served somebody who did. "I think it wants us to go further on. Maybe it has a master." Shrugging, she made to walk past the ice creature. It obviously wasn't going to be of much help.

Cryce stormed off in the direction the ice creature had indicated. He growing tired of this. It was time to attack first and ask questions while they bled out.

As they walked on, Adelaide saw more of these creatures, some of them the same height as the first one, while others were about two or three feet tall. They all gave off cold air as they wandered around. It was definitely below freezing in here, absolutely frigid as heck. Adelaide shivered a little. Despite being an ice mage and having toughened endurance to the cold, that didn't mean she was completely immune to it either. However not being of a Master level at her craft yet, it made perfect sense. Perhaps Cryce was totally invulnerable to the freezing temperatures, considering his immense skill. She still wished to learn more from him. But later.

She was sure she was thinking the same thing as her companion. What was the purpose of these creatures and who summoned or created them? None of them were hostile and just like the first one, they showed only passing interest in them, simply content to wander on without meaning. Tilting her head back, Adelaide saw more light orbs as well, all dancing along the ceiling while some of them remained stationary.

Entering a rather large cavern, even more creatures wandered around. There must be dozens of them! And an especially gargantuan one stood at a towering fifteen feet, perhaps more, over in the far corner. Like the others before, they did not show any signs of attacking them, the giant ice elemental only glancing at them once with a cursory look before turning its head face forward again at attention. Or something.

Suddenly, a booming voice rang out echoing throughout the cavern, the sound bouncing off the walls. "Well, I see you've finally found your way here. Welcome, welcome to my humble abode."

Adelaide turned her head sharply to look for the source of the voice.

Cryce looked around as well, but couldn't find the of the voice.

"Explain yourself," Cryce demanded. "What's the big idea with sending us in circles?"

At Cryce's question, a tall blonde-haired man in white robes carrying a staff appeared out of thin air some ways away from them. However, Adelaide thought something looked amiss with his appearance although she couldn't pinpoint what it was though. Still that didn't stop her icy retort his way.

"What is the meaning of all this crap? If you don't have a good explanation, I'm going to make you regret it." A large chunk of ice appeared in Adelaide's hand as she conjured up her magics, ready to throw it at the man in white before them if he didn't deliver. She glared fiercely at him, clearly showing the blonde mage exactly what she thought about all this.

"You better have a damn good answer," Cryce threatened.

Snow began swirling violently around him as ice began forming on his cloak and staff. Needless to say, he was incredibly pissed off.

"Oh, but what ever happened to good ol' introductions, hm? Tea and scones to follow perhaps?" he chuckled as though their threats meant nothing to him.

Adelaide was really angered now. What kind of game was this guy playing at? Did he not have any fear of being attacked? Whatever the reason, Adelaide finally lost her temper and flung the ice chunk at the man's head, watching as it made contact with a nice crunch! A part of her thought that was much too easy, but her ire got the better of her in that moment. She began preparations for another attack, ice swirling around her hand and arm.

Spurred on by Adelaide's outburst, Cryce unleashed a hail of razor sharp shards of ice at the man.

And with a shimmer and a pop! the man's image faded into nothing, as though he weren't there to begin with. Laughter could be heard from a far corner before he re-emerged into the room, walking with a slight waltz in his steps, clapping as he faced them.

"Now, now, is that any way to treat your host?" The man chuckled, very amused. "That t'was just an illusion, mind you. You didn't think I wasn't expecting that, now were you? Tsk, tsk." Shaking his head still, the mage went on. "How are you enjoying the wonders of my home? Do you like the elemental cooling system I've devised here? It's quite ingenious really. Cold air in a place such as this, it really is fabulous!"

Clapping his hands together once, the mage looked at both Adelaide and Cryce expectantly. "Now, I'm sure you two have many questions. Let's hear them, shall we? In fact, let's start with you there." Pointing at Cryce, the blonde haired man simply awaited an answer from him.

"You can start with why you brought us here," Cryce replied angrily. "And I better receive a reasonable answer."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Very well. It's quite simple really. I want you two to work for me. Imagine the possibilities! With our combined powers, we could accomplish much! Taking over the tundra for starters. Acquiring many items of power you've only dreamed about! People would bow down before us and worship us as gods! So, what say you to this magnanimous offer?"

There was a glint of something in his eyes that Adelaide couldn't quite decipher, but she knew one thing. This man was not to be trusted under any circumstances. Therefore her answer was quite simple as well.

"No. I don't trust you."

"I'm already a god among men with the power I wield," Cryce said. "Ruling some frozen wasteland would do nothing for me."

With a sigh, the blonde mage in white looked at them briefly before saying, "A pity. We could have achieved many great things together. Ah well. It's off you go then!" And with a wave of his staff, the ground opened up right underneath Adelaide and Cryce, opening up into a dark pit below, causing the two of them to fall right down into it!

Adelaide let out a yelp! as she tumbled down into the darkness and landed on her side hard. Groaning, she rolled off of the large rock she had fallen on top of and tried to sit up, gingerly holding her side in the process. Looking up at the hole above them, the infuriating mage simply said, "Enjoy your stay!" before the hole closed up, leaving them in total pitch blackness.

Cryce acted fast, creating a slide beneath him for him to slide down and dampen the fall. Cryce got to his feet and looked up.

"Let me out of here so I can kill you," he roared. "I'll freeze you solid and break off your limbs one by one!"

There was no response other than the sound of faint laughter through the rock and dirt which separated them from their captor. Adelaide winced and sat up, looking around. She couldn't see a thing and went to go feel for the torch she had dropped. Feeling around for it, her fingers grabbed onto the familiar piece of wood a few feet away, although in the darkness it was difficult to tell for sure how far. It must have sputtered out in the dirt which could be felt beneath her hands.

Blindly reaching for her bag, the ice mage located that too and fumbled around for the tinder box to relight the torch. Orange-red flames lit up the small chamber they were in, revealing a barren place of rock, dirt and not much else around them. She glanced quickly around for any kind of exit or tunnel. There was none. And so Adelaide cursed yet again.

"I'm gonna kill him," Cryce said simply. "I don't know how, but he is definitely going to die."

Adelaide could only agree, nodding her head with a grim expression on her face. She looked around again, once more trying to find some sign of an exit. There was nothing. Sighing, she planted the torch into the loose dirt beneath her, wedging it in securely so it would stay put.

To Cryce she said, "If we find a way out of here, that jerk is going to know some real pain." Although her words might very well have been feathers against a storm, for all the weight they carried. Sitting down in a corner, the ice mage thought about what to do, but no ideas were forthcoming.

There wasn't much for them to do besides sit at the bottom of the hole, but Cryce wasn't giving up that easily. A pillar of ice rose up from beneath him and carried him all the way up to the ceiling. It was solid rock.

Cryce lowered himself back down to the floor and sat down. He began contemplating a way to somehow escape and then murder their captor in the most gruesome way imaginable.

Watching the other ice mage conjure up a pillar of ice to raise himself to the ceiling and then back down again, Adelaide watched this all solemnly wondering how the heck they were going to get out. Then she realized now was as good a time as any to ask for further instruction on the practice of ice magic. Like really, what else was there to do in this forsaken hole in the earth?

She conjured up a small ice figurine that very much mimicked their mage captor, complete with staff before she use that same magic to shatter it again to pieces. That was how the mage should meet his end. She smiled a little at this. Summoning a snowball, she played around with it making it spin in her hand, varying the speed from slow to fast and then back again. Then the ball of snow disappeared with a pop! as Adelaide relinquished the energies sustaining it.

She glanced at Cryce then. "How long have you been practicing for?"

"Several years I assume," he replied. "I haven't really kept track of time."

How long has it been? Cryce wracked his brain. He couldn't remember. He had been so focused on vengeance that he had no idea how long he had been practicing magic. In fact, he wasn't even sure how old he was.

Adelaide nodded and continued creating various ice and snow shapes before her as a way to pass the time. Looking up at Cryce then after making her last snowy creation, she asked him, "Can you teach me more?"

"Like what," Cryce asked.

Cryce was normally quite antisocial, but now he was being asked to teach magic to some stranger he met in the tundra. Had she even told him her name? He did help her with her magic earlier, but he wasn't sure how good of a teacher he would be.

Adelaide thought about what she wanted to know more about regarding her icy powers. There was one spell in particular that had always given her trouble. While not extremely powerful, it was still a mean feat for her to accomplish at this point. While Adelaide could summon small icicles ranging in size from tiny daggers of a couple inches up to six inches in length, she had always wanted to conjure up a gigantic one of at least two or three feet tall straight up from the ground in order to impale an enemy like she had seen Cryce do before. Although his were actually taller than that, but Adelaide figured this was a good start. Not to mention powerful blizzards, but she knew she wasn't at that level yet and wouldn't be for some time.

"Like conjuring three foot tall icicles from the ground that are as sharp as spears." She shrugged and began tracing patterns on the rocky ground with a finger as she waited for him to respond.

"It's just like creating normal icicles," Cryce said matter-of-factly. "Just with a lot more power behind it. The more in-tune you are with the element the more power you can dump into it and trust that it'll do what you want it to."

Adelaide nodded at his words. She had expected as much, yet she still needed to practice it some more. She would do so now, but there was the obvious problem of them being stuck in this hole in the ground. She didn't know why the mage kept them trapped here, but it definitely bode ill for them, whatever the reason was.

Getting up, she began looking around for some kind of opening or weakness in the wall structure, hoping to find something. So far, her search turned up nothing. And Adelaide did not like being stuck here.

Cryce was sorting through everything that he knew hoping that he would think of something useful. Suddenly, an idea came to him. He remembered that if water were to freeze inside a crack in a rock, the expansion of the freezing ice was enough to split the rock apart.

Cryce made another pillar of ice and carried himself to the ceiling again. Perhaps there was a crack in it somewhere that he hadn't seen before.

Examining the walls still, Adelaide looked over to Cryce as he went up on his ice pillar again to check out the ceiling once more, obviously having the same idea as she did. Watching him for a moment she turned back to the wall and continued searching for something, anything at all that could prove handy in their situation.

Going over towards the left she spotted what looked like a crack of some kind. It was about two inches long and a quarter of an inch thick. Looking further, she found another crack a little southwest of the first one, this one a bit bigger at about three inches in length. Running her hand over the larger of the cracks, she debated on how much magic she would be able to channel in order to blast through the wall at this section. She didn't think she had enough power to do that. But with Cryce here, they may have a chance to break through and escape.

Focusing her magic, she cast a blast of ice at the second crack and with the sound of collapsing rock debris, she was able to make a small indentation in the rock face. But it still wasn't enough.

Cryce heard the sound of Adelaide casting magic and looked down to see what she was doing. It seemed as though she was employing the same tactic that he had been thinking of, but on the wall. Considering they were in a hole, wouldn't breaking through a wall just lead to more dirt? Wouldn't the ceiling be the only way out?

Cryce lowered himself back down to see what she was doing. He held out his hand and filled in the crack with ice. He then focused on expanding the ice. The wall could be heard cracking and crumbling under the strain of the expanding ice, but Cryce was determined to bring the whole thing down.

Now with the two of them trying to destroy the wall, Adelaide concentrated again to send more ice into the cracks. Another small avalanche of rock came tumbling down as she forced her magic into the wall. Hopefully this would work and they could get away.

Cryce just kept dumping power into the wall. He soon began thinking of what he would do to their captor once they were free, and the more he thought about it the angrier he became. The angrier he became to more violently the wall began to split apart. He wanted to kill that man so badly.

Focusing her icy energies, Adelaide blasted out another small bit of rock, and then another before she stopped to take a breather. She didn't want to use up too much of her mana reserve as once they got out of here, there would be no time for rest to recharge. And the chances of them facing off against their captor was pretty much inevitable. While she didn't know what they would find behind this wall, it was better than sitting here to rot for all eternity.

Focusing one last time at the wall, Adelaide put a sizable dent in it about four inches across. She would have to let Cryce do the rest now.

When Adelaide stepped aside to take a breather, Cryce knew he didn't have to hold back now that his companion was clear. He focused all of his power into the crack and blew the wall apart in a shower of dirt and rock fragments.

"Let's go find that bastard." he said.

The ice mage was once again awed at his display of power but quickly refocused her attention to the matter of escape. "Yes, let's." she agreed.

Stepping through the large opening in the wall, but not before taking her torch that was wedged into the ground, she emerged in what appeared to be a tunnel, going from left to right in front of them. She looked back and forth pondering which direction to go in. Both ways seemed to end in darkness so not much help there. She just didn't want to go the wrong way not when time was so critical to them getting out of here.

Cryce looked back and forth down each tunnel. Looking down each direction and seeing nothing, he headed right.

With that decision made, Adelaide followed him keeping her torch aloft, it casting shadows along the tunnel walls as they looked for a way out. The tunnel turned to the left as they walked and the ice mage thought she spotted the outline of a door up ahead. Quickening her pace, she began to hurry up to it, anxious to see what lay beyond it.

When they arrived at the door Cryce didn't bother to check if it was locked. He froze the doorknob and kicked it open ready to start blasting whoever or whatever was inside with his powerful cryomancy.

The only thing that greeted them was a small room furnished with a desk, rug and chair, no one inside its cramped interior. The room appeared to be some sort of study. Adelaide looked around at it, then looked at Cryce who seemed more than ready to start blasting whatever to bits and then headed over to the desk to see what was inside. Perhaps there would be something there to help them out.

The desk drawer was slightly ajar and the ice mage saw a piece of parchment sticking out from the edges of it, slightly yellowed at the corners with age. She pulled it out and began to read the words on the page.

Cryce was disappointed that there was nothing there for him to take his anger out on, but it looked like Adelaide had already found something. He came up beside her and looked at the paper.

"What is it," he asked.

Reading the words scrawled across the yellowed parchment, Adelaide frowned at what she saw there.

Day 4 of the Fifth Month:

Subject 1:
"My first test subject was a human male, aged 22, with the abilities of water magic. An expert at his craft, he made a fine start to my quest to gain more power. Powers that will eventually make me a god, or at the very least, a demigod. This young male will be just the first of many whose powers I will harvest for my own purposes. Ah, the wonder and thrill of it all... But I digress. The ritual was a complete success and as his life and magic drained out of him and into me, I felt the power that he wielded keenly as well as his life force added onto mine. That moment I felt as though I could live forever, having almost double the human lifespan now. But my journey has only just begun. I must look for new victims to ever add to the pot of glory. For now I end this entry with a job well done and now I am off to procure more ingredients to power the ceremony for the next unfortunate whelp to cross my path. It is a joyous day indeed."

-Entreris "The White", on his quest to aspire to godhood

That last part was signed with a flourish of a curly cue of sorts as though he were extremely proud of this accomplishment, which no doubt he was. Adelaide's grip tightened on the paper yet she went on to read the next entry, not having heard Cryce's query. The hint of dread was beginning to form in her stomach, a deep black pit of dread that would destroy if not tamed...

Cryce sighed after he did not receive an answer. He then started reading over Adelaide's shoulder. As he read, he began to scowl. This man was a monster.

"He's definitely a dead man now," Cryce said.

Holding the parchment in her hands, she turned it over and continued reading.

Day 3 of the Sixth Month

Subject 2:
"Wondrous is the day! As luck would have it, another pawn has indeed crossed my path. A Light Mage this time. This one a young female elf, her abilities at the advanced level. After capturing and subduing her, which was fairly easy I might add, I gathered the components I needed and performed the ritual again. The results were even more of a boon, as the extreme longevity of the elf's lifespan was added to mine. Her screams as she died were quite loud, however I had no fear of anyone overhearing, being underground and in a secluded cavern no less. In fact, I think after that ritual I looked at least twenty years younger! Imagine that! Fine days ahead, indeed. I am mightily looking forward to them."

It was signed again in a flourish with the same name. Adelaide started to feel sick to her stomach. This man was both crazy and evil. His ambition seemed to know no bounds. Despite her queasiness, she glanced at the other pieces of parchment strewn about in the desk drawer, but did not bother to read them fully. A quick look revealed four more ghastly rituals being done on mages with the powers of ice, divination, air and earth, and in that order too. This had all taken place within the span of five years, the last entry was dated exactly one year ago. Adelaide couldn't help the chill that ran down her spine at this small detail. One thing was for sure. They needed to get out of here! She put the papers down with disgust and began to make her way out the door.

Cryce had a different plan. He began gathering up every single piece of paper he saw.

"Let's see how well this bastard does without his notes," Cryce growled. "Besides, I'm sure there are a few powerful people who would like to know what's going on here."

Of course, that would be the most logical solution, she thought. Adelaide had overlooked that brilliant idea because she was still disgusted at what she had just read. Seeing Cryce gather the papers together in a bundle made her also realize that this madman would just continue his vile rituals if left to his own devices. It was better to inform someone of this. Perhaps then they could help to dispatch this monster. After that, the tundra would be safe again without the threat of "Entreris the White" breathing down their necks.

Adelaide did a mental check of how much magical energy she still had left after using a lot of it to blast through the cavern wall from earlier. It should hopefully be enough to make their escape and deal with the mad power-hungry mage if she was conservative enough in her usage of it. However she may very well have to let Cryce do most of the damage. And she knew her companion would have zero issues with that. He was just as pissed off as she was. Perhaps even more.

Taking a deep breath, she looked to Cryce and said, "Ready whenever you are."

Cryce kept gathering papers until he was certain he had them all.

"Let's go," he said. "If half of what is on these notes actually happened, then we don't stand a chance against him."

Adelaide contemplated his words for a moment, before she nodded in acquiescence. As much as she wanted to blast that mage with shards of ice, she feared even more the results of what could happen should anything go wrong. And if these papers were any indication, which they were, Cryce was right. They didn't stand a chance against the creep.

"Alright, let's hurry." she said, making her way out. Hopefully they would not run into the mage again. Adelaide shuddered at the prospect.

The problem with them leaving was that Cryce wasn't sure how. He had no idea where they were or where they needed to go.

"How exactly do we get out of here?"

Stopping short, Adelaide also realized she had no idea where to go either. Pondering for only a second, not looking at Cryce, she responded quietly. "I suppose we just have to take our chances and pick a direction."

The ice mage did not like the words she was saying but there really was no other choice. The chances of running into the devious mage himself were too high considering how they had entered the cavern to begin with. And not knowing any back routes that led out of here, Adelaide very much despised the odds stacked against them. Still there had to be a way. And Adelaide would find it.

Steeling herself for whatever was to come, she exited the room and looked back the way they had come. The corridor they had emerged in from the hole in the ground they were previously trapped in led in the opposite direction from the door to the study. It might lead out and safely away from the mage or it might lead them straight to the vile man himself. This direction appeared to be a dead end however, so there was nothing else to be done here. So that left the unknown path leading into darkness...

Torch aloft, the silvery-white haired woman started to go back the way they had come, hoping against hope that this wouldn't all blow up in their faces. It was too unthinkable, a fate worse than death itself. However there was nothing for it. At least she wasn't alone in this. There was some small comfort in that.

With Adelaide leading the way, Cryce was able to focus on a plan should they run into whoever this dastardly mage. The best hope was stalling him out, giving him something to do long enough for them to escape. If it did come down to a fight, Cryce would have to resort to taking advantage of magical saturation. This guy might have control over several elements, but that also means that he can't be particularly powerful in any given element. In theory, Cryce's power over ice should be greater since he focuses solely on ice magic alone. However, Adelaide was not as powerful as Cryce was, so he wasn't sure what she could do. He'd have to work on that next.

Entreris hummed to himself a giddy tune underneath his breath as he rearranged a painting on the wall in his personal chambers. The painting was nothing special, just the overall view of the tundra environment the tunnels and caverns he was in was based in. He had acquired the painting sometime ago and found that he had always liked it. White snow everywhere done in a simple artistic rendition of the frosty region he called home, a lone polar bear in the distance gazing at the viewer from afar.

Turning from the work of art, the blonde-haired mage went to go open a chest nearby containing several spell components and ritual ingredients to power his dastardly rituals to gain more and more power and renown. One day he would reach his goal, it was only a matter of time. Sifting through the materials there, he found he was missing something important. 'Leech Essence' was not here. He must have put it in one of the storage rooms elsewhere in the large cavernous abode. 'Vampire Dust' and 'Black Root' among other ingredients were all accounted for, but it was the Leech Essence that would really make everything else 'pop' to life. He chuckled to himself and carefully closed the chest, locking it with a metal key that he then put back in an inner pocket of his robes. However he had time to procure it as his victims were still trapped in the little hole he had put them in prior. Speaking of, it was time to check on his most 'honored' guests.

Entreris sat down at a small table and took off the protective cloth cover over top of the scrying orb in his chambers. Beginning the command words to activate it, the mists inside began to show him what he wanted to see.

                                                       ***
Adelaide and Cryce were headed down the dark corridor, looking for a way out. The hallway seemed to go on for a ways before finally turning into a small antechamber containing two doors on the other side of the gray cave walls. The doors were made simply of wood and gave no indication of where they might lead or which was the correct one to escape this place. Hesitating, the female ice mage picked the door on the right and cautiously opened it, readying her magic if needed.

A storage room greeted them, crates, barrels and boxes galore stacked high and low, the beginnings of cobwebs starting to form on some of them. Staring in disbelief, Adelaide wondered what all these containers had in them. There was only one way to find out she supposed. However, that was not their goal at this time, to go searching for who knows what in this stale, musty room. Looking around for another door inside this particular room and seeing none, Adelaide decided to see what lay behind door number 2 then. She made to head over to the door on the left.

Cryce, on the other hand, was not afraid to have a look. He conjured up a prybar made of ice and started opening crates to see what was inside. For all he knew there could have been mages trapped inside these crates waiting to be drained of their power. Perhaps there was something important in these crates that they could sabotage. They might not have been able to fight this guy, but they could certainly mess with his plans.

Adelaide was about to reach for the doorknob but then realized that Cryce wasn't behind her. Going back into the storage room, she found him prying open various boxes and crates. If he wanted to check out the boxes and stuff, it was no big deal to Adelaide. She supposed they could take a few minutes to see what all these storage boxes contained, although she really wanted out of this whole place as quickly as possible. Still, perhaps there was something here they could use against the mad lunatic.

She went over to one of the crates that Cryce had pried open with his ice tool and carefully looked inside, almost afraid of what she might find in there. Inside the musty smelling wooden interior, all lined up together neatly in rows were small bottles and vials of some mysterious liquids. One row contained a line of test tubes, something that an alchemist might use in their laboratory. And in those test tubes was some murky yellow liquid that seemed to fizz inside the clear glass. Adelaide dare not touch it, for all she knew the liquid was highly corrosive and could burn through her skin at the slightest touch or accidental spill.

There was a label on each one and Adelaide bent her head to get a better look at what they said. ''Leech Essence'', she read aloud, frowning at this. What the heck is leech essence? she wondered. It had to be of no good, just like the psycho it likely belonged to. All the yellowish bottles said the same thing, this 'leech essence' it was. Looking at the other vials and thin glass containers of different sizes and shapes, the rest of the bottles contained blue liquids and dark red liquids that Adelaide could have sworn looked like blood. She had no idea what the other bottles were as they weren't labeled.

Two other boxes contained a bunch of moldy, rotting books on various arcane lore and magical formulae, but so far nothing on ice magic she could see. Picking up one of the books, the ice mage saw it was blank, likely a journal of some kind for taking notes in. The spine was starting to fall apart though and hadn't been written in at all. She put it back and looked over to what Cryce was doing.

Peering over his shoulder, the crate he was standing in front of held more of those leech essence bottles, all appropriately labeled and dated. She shook her head at this. He certainly had enough of those. And yet another crate held various kinds of powders, elixirs and black dust-looking stuff. Again, Adelaide had no idea what all of these were, she had never seen this sort of thing before. Labels which read 'Black Root', 'Elixir of Holding', 'Vampire Dust', 'Crushed Pixie Wing' and others filled her with both disgust and dread. True, many mages utilized these sort of things, but this guy they were up against...

If they got out of this alive, Adelaide was going to seriously rethink visiting this section of the tundra again.

                                                        ***
Meanwhile, Entreris was not happy with what he saw. Not one bit. His victims had escaped the dark pit, having blasted a hole in the wall to get out. "Arghhhhh!" he yelled, almost knocking over a pile of books sitting in a corner. "Those blasted, sneaky little..." he trailed off, thinking. I suppose I'll have to go after them myself now. Shouldn't be too difficult to find... Looking back at the orb, he waved a hand across the hazy surface, with it revealing a new scene. "Gotcha..." he whispered, lips curving up in a devious smile.

Cryce picked up one of the bottles of leech essence and examined it.

"This looks important," he observed.

He then threw the vial and smashed it against the wall. Soon he was destroying everything he could by whatever means necessary, be it magic or physical. Whatever this stuff was, it was definitely ingredients to some kind of ritual or spell or something. By the looks of it, it also seemed to be things that were very hard to obtain. This should at the very least slow this psychopath down significantly.

Adelaide jumped in surprise when Cryce started throwing bottles and other containers at the wall, or blew them to smithereens with his icy powers. She backed away from the wall, not wanting to get any of the vile ingredients on her or her robe and magic rod.

Watching for a moment as Cryce continued to destroy everything he found, she too hesitantly picked up a bottle of blue liquid and dashed it against the wall, it dribbling down in dark blue rivulets of wetness that seemed to shine with a dark intensity from the light of her torch. Picking up another blue bottle, she proceeded to throw that one against the wall too. Perhaps they could destroy all this before the mage found out what they were up to.

                                                        ***

The blonde-haired Entreris stalked hurriedly down the dark hallways, using some of his magic to create a large floating ball of light in front of him so he could see where he was going. He was worried that the duo had discovered his stash of supplies, but he couldn't tell which storage room it was. He hoped it was only the one with several supplies of grain, flour and other dried food goods and not the one which contained all his components. If they got their hands on that...Eh, he didn't even want to consider that possibility.

His step quickened, intent on finding those two before they did any lasting harm to his carefully planned work.

Cryce didn't slow down or stop until everything was destroyed. He looked over the carnage he created with satisfaction.

"That should slow him down at least," Cryce said.

Looking around, Adelaide too felt a sense of satisfaction with all the shattered glass, powders and liquids on the ground everywhere. Now, it seemed unlikely they would fall prey to his plans...unless he had another stash stored somewhere else. Remembering the other door, Adelaide made to head that way, but stopped when she noticed a stray rolled up parchment sticking out of one of the boxes in a darkened corner.

Heading over there, she plucked the piece of paper out and unrolled it to see what it was. Her eyes soon lit up in delight. It was a magic scroll to summon an elder ice dragon and required two components in order to cast it, that of frosted quartz dust and one whole dragon claw. The instructions further said to crush the dragon claw into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle and then mix both frosted quartz dust and dragon claw powder together, then pour the contents onto a nearby unoccupied area of ground whilst chanting the appropriate words listed on the scroll itself. It would then summon an elder ice dragon within the span of a few seconds after that had all been carried out. Adelaide was both excited and relieved to have found this as this was a very powerful spell, one she couldn't cast from her own reservoir of magic. But with this scroll and the components listed, she could... And it was much better for them to have it in their possession than the mad mage.

Adelaide did not recall seeing any components of frosted quartz dust or dragon claws in this room and sighed in disappointment. Perhaps they could acquire the ingredients later and then come back here to finish off the mage. With a dragon under their control, the battle should be fairly easy after that, as surely the lunatic couldn't take on a dragon AND them all by himself, could he? Then she remembered his ice elementals and frowned. They would have to make sure they were in another area from those elementals when this spell was cast as she didn't want to risk them joining in on the fight to protect their master. Unless he could summon more...

Any further thoughts were soon disrupted as the white-haired mage soon heard hurried footsteps coming their way! Crap, it had to be the vile mage himself! Quickly stuffing the scroll in her backpack, Adelaide focused on her ice magic reserve and gripped her rod tightly in hand. Perhaps they could make a run for it, but she seriously doubted it. It seemed a fight was imminent, especially after the man saw all his precious materials destroyed and scattered all over the place, rendered completely unusable now.

Not two seconds later, the door slammed open and there in the doorway stood Entreris, looking both frazzled and out of breath, which quickly turned to pure anger once he saw all the devastation inside. A large ball of light fizzled out behind him, and the crazy psychopath simply roared in outrage and pointed his finger at both Adelaide and Cryce. "You two will pay for this! You have absolutely no idea what you've just done!" And with that, he began to unleash a mighty blizzard around the two of them.

Cryce was completely unfazed by the blizzard. He thrived in blizzards. He was an ice mage.

"I know full well what I've done," Cryce replied. "I ruined your plans, and now I'm going to ruin you."

Entreris amped up the effects of the blizzard and then began to summon two large water elementals equipped with scythes. The elementals immediately launched forward to attack the two ice mages and Adelaide leapt out of the way of the sharp lethal edge of one of the scythes headed straight for her head. Backing up, she began to cast a modest-sized ice wall between her and the attacking elemental, the other one having gone after Cryce. The wall was only barely formed when the elemental shattered through it with its scythe and continued going straight for Adelaide.

Between that and the roar of the blizzard winds, Adelaide could hear the madman chanting something but she couldn't hear clearly the words he was using. She dodged another attack of the water elemental's scythe and tried to focus on casting her magic in time, in order to target the attacking elemental.

Cryce didn't even flinch when the elemental attacked. This guy wasn't very smart if he thought sending a water elemental after an ice mage was a good idea. Cryce froze the elemental solid and smashed it to pieces and then launched the shards of the shattered elemental at Entreris.

Entreris finished his spell, the result being the ceiling directly above Adelaide collapsed down on top of her, pieces of rock and dirt falling over her, burying her in the rubble as one particularly large piece of rock hit her in the head and knocked her out cold. Her own spell as a result fizzled out, the energy dissipating into nothing.

Meanwhile, the other elemental seeing how Adelaide was currently out of the fight, went after Cryce now and swung its scythe at him. The pieces of ice from the previous elemental Entreris deflected them with his staff, and dodged the rest. With a wave of his hand, he then cast an illusory wall of shimmering force that he could see through and let magic through, but unless Cryce could detect the illusion and therefore break it, it would look like a solid wall of stone in front of him that blocked sight of the crazy magic-user. Wasting no time, the blonde mage then began another casting.

((I felt like being evil to my character, so we'll have to see how this goes and if both Cryce and Adelaide can get out of there alive and in one piece.))

Cryce shattered the second elemental like he did to the first. When the wall appeared, Cryce caused spikes if ice to erupt upward from the floor behind the wall. He then began digging Adelaide out of the rubble. They needed to leave. Adelaide wasn't strong enough to fight this guy. He needed to get her out. Somehow.

Summoning two earth elementals that immediately charged towards Cryce, Entreris simply stepped out of the way of the glacial spikes and shattered them with his own ice abilities. The shards of ice from the water elemental hit the illusory wall and with a shimmer and a loud pop! the wall disappeared, the illusion being broken by the icy projectiles.

The gleam of madness and desire for power shone in his eyes clearly then as Entreris watched impassively as Cryce tried to dig Adelaide out of the pile of rock. He was loving this, the thrill of the fight along with his rage and hatred towards the two ice mages for disrupting his plans fueled his need for blood.

Cryce covered the ground in smooth, slick ice causing the earth elementals to slip and be unable to get back up. With Adelaide now dug out, he needed a way out. The only way out seemed to be past the psychotic mage that wanted them dead. He would have to get past him somehow.

The blizzard was now on the wane as Entreris decided the effect to be fruitless and instead concentrated on making the ground walkable again in order for the earth elementals to continue their attack. He did this by shattering the thick layer of ice underneath his minions so they could get upright and get up they did, their stoney gazes once again turning towards Cryce at their master's call. Entreris the White followed this up with casting a large gust of wind in order to knock the remaining ice mage onto his back, so the elementals could easily get in a hit or two with their earthy fists.

Adelaide was still unconscious and would likely be out of it for quite some time, a nasty purplish bruise very much evident on her left temple that continued to swell into a large bump. Needless to say, she would have quite the sickening headache when she awoke. Her rod lay on the ground beside her, and the torch she had carried too also lay on the stone ground, the flames having gone out upon the rocks and dirt making their impact earlier. The light level in the room as a result was dim, but not completely dark but it still made visibility rather limited.

As the large gust of wind came, Cryce secured himself by freezing himself to the ground. He then erected a thick wall of ice between him and the elementals. It wouldn't hold them back indefinitely, but it would give him time to come up with a plan of escape. There had to be another way out or something. No crazy paranoid person would ever have any room with only one entrance/exit. There had to be another way out, and he had until his wall came down to find it.

If Cryce were to examine the wall to the right of the fallen rubble, he would find a secret door there, hidden by illusion magics. Looking carefully enough would reveal a thin outline of a door that seemingly blended into the stony infrastructure and was made of stone itself.

The elementals having been temporarily halted in their attempts by a gigantic wall of ice in front of them, they then started pounding on the frosty surface with large meaty fists and with it large chunks of ice were being chipped off piece by piece. It would take them several minutes to bash through the wall completely or enough to plow on through that is.

As for Entreris himself, he was not perturbed in the slightest and began to cast another spell. A blinding flash of light soon erupted in front of where he assumed Cryce to be, with the intention of momentarily blinding him with its extreme brightness. He was not going to let those two leave here alive, he would make sure of that.

Cryce almost smiled when he spotted the secret door. Almost. He then picked up Adelaide and started to carry her to the door when there was a bright flash of light. The flash startled him and caused him to trip on an inconsistency in the floor. Unable to catch himself with Adelaide in his arms, he landed on the hard floor with both the full weight of himself and Adelaide landing on his left arm. Pain erupted throughout his entire arm and he knew it just had to be broken, but he knew not to what extent.

Determined not to let this psychopath get the best of him, he began dragging Adelaide to the door with his good arm before opening it and taking her through.

The tunnel behind the door was long and narrow and not very tall, so Cryce would likely have to bend his head down in order to get through to the other side. With Adelaide being dragged across the ground, her rod and pack as well as the torch were left behind and no doubt Adelaide would want those back, most importantly her rod and bag. The torch was not nearly as important. But for now, the most vital thing was to get out of there as quickly as possible.

The earth elementals broke through the ice and began heading over to where Cryce had disappeared with Adelaide through the secret door. Unluckily for the earth elementals they were far too big and bulky to even hope to fit through the narrow crevice. Entreris smiled in satisfaction as he heard the snap of bone breaking and saw Cryce clutching his injured arm, while dragging the unconscious woman after him. With those two factors against him, the evil mage knew that the black-haired ice mage's progress would be significantly slowed down, giving him time to come up with a different plan. He knew where that tunnel led to after all and hoped he could get there first before the two of them could emerge through the other side. It led to one of the back routes present within this large cavern, going past one small room before leading outside into the cold tundra again.

Entreris almost decided to collapse the tunnel on both ends, therefore trapping the two inside for a very long time if they ever got out that was. However, it was much too inconvenient for himself to do that, as that was a handy exit for the madman. And so he chose not to, much to the good fortune of Cryce and Adelaide. It was too bad he couldn't just teleport straight there to intercept them. What a jolly funny thing that would be! Alas, he had yet to find and drain a mage with the powers of instantaneous spacial travel like that. It was on his to-do list.

He frowned. He had better hurry if he wished to catch them by surprise. And then he would finish them for good. Still a little extra help on his end wouldn't hurt. Making the tunnel itself rumble slightly, but it was not enough to cause a cave-in and hopefully would further impede his victims from getting too far ahead of him.

Commanding the elementals to stand guard at the door, Entreris made his way quickly to that back exit as fast as his feet would take him. He was almost there...

Cryce continued to pull Adelaide along, refusing to give in. He didn't come this far to die to a madman. His life's work was not yet finished. He couldn't die now. He wouldn't. He continued on down the small tunnel with no less determination than when he started. It was dark, but that didn't stop him. Cryce cursed himself for not thinking to grab Adelaide's torch, then again he couldn't have held it anyway because his arm was broken. When the tunnel began to rumble he panicked momentarily, fearing a cave-in, but it didn't happen. However, he did start tripping over rocks that had been knocked loose. he couldn't drag Adelaide over rocks, she would be harmed. Cryce coated the way in ice so that he could slide Adelaide over the dirt and rocks without harming her, but he was forced to go even slower now that he had to watch his step.

While Cryce was struggling to get the two of them to safety, the blonde-haired white-robed mage swiftly made his way to that back exit. He was just about to reach the corridor which led into the room which in turn led straight outside into the icy landscape, when a shadow situated itself between himself and his destination. Pretty soon, the shadow materialized into the form of a lovely curly-haired blonde woman with big blue eyes. It was Marissa, his older sister.

"Hello, dearest brother of mine. What's the rush, I wonder?"

Eventually,  Cryce came to the exit of the tunnel. They wound up in another room, but it was too dark for Cryce to really see anything. He propped Adelaide up against a corner of the room and Sat down to catch his breath and come up with a plan of escape.

As his sister stepped towards Entreris, he noticed that she was dressed in her normal assassin's garb, two daggers sheathed at her waist, both dripping poisons, one of a green substance, the other of a strange purple substance.

However, this was hardly the time for a family visit. "Not now, Marissa! I am quite busy at the moment, can't you plainly see that?!"

Marissa chuckled darkly, her blue eyes boring into her brother's own as she responded. "So what unfortunate whelps have you captured now, Entreris? Powerful mages? Fledgling apprentices?" she said all this nonchalantly, as though she had all the time in the world. Which at the moment she did.

The blonde mage gritted his teeth in aggravation. "I'll explain later, right now I have business to attend to."

"You know I don't care about your plans, brother. And Mother and Father wouldn't approve either." she stated, smirking as though she enjoyed tormenting her little brother.

"Mother and Father are dead! So I don't care what they approve or don't approve of!"

His sister merely chuckled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Your latest victims are none of my concern. And they are of no importance to the assassin's guild either."

"Marissa, I ask that you-"

"Move aside? Oh, I will but first I just wanted to see how my dear baby brother was doing in his dismal hole in the earth." She looked around and sniffed dismissively. "I do say your choice of decor needs work."

Entreris was slowly starting to lose his patience but he wouldn't dare attack his sister. After all, blood was thicker than water as the saying went. He was reminded yet again of how he had always both looked up to her and of how she intimidated him as well. But right now, she was crossing dangerous territory with him.

"Why are you here? Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he snapped.

"Now, now, Entreris watch that temper of yours. I was simply coming to say hello, but I can plainly see that this is a bad time, so I'll leave as you requested." As though the fact that this was a bad time wasn't already obvious to her, but of course it was. She just liked to mess with her brother and on very rare occasions spoil his plans.

With that, she dissolved into a wispy shadow again as she drew upon her shadow psionic abilities and made to leave the same way that she had arrived. Before she left, her words echoed in his mind as she spoke in a telepathic whisper to him, one last taunt for the road. "You really should have joined the guild, dear brother. You're wasting your time on this foolish endeavor of yours. Ta ta now, and don't die."

Then she was gone for good, leaving the blonde mage shaking slightly in irritation. But he quickly collected himself and marched off toward the room he was headed to. Hopefully he wasn't too late...

((Hopefully this should give Cryce enough time to do what he needs to do to get the both of them away from danger.))

After feeling his way around the dimly lit room, he eventually found the door. He immediately went back to Adelaide once more and continued dragging her along the long winding path of the caves this psycho called home. There had to be an exit somewhere.

And there was. Straight ahead, some twenty feet away, an opening to the outside could be seen as dusky gray light poured into the cavern, the hint of snow also showing from where they were at. Adelaide groaned in her unconscious stupor but did not awaken. If Cryce hurried, they would reach the exit before the mad mage would have the chance to round the corner and spot them.

Cryce sighed in relief as he finally saw an exit. He would need to hurry though. With newfound strength at the prospect of freedom, he dragged his unconscious comrade as fast as he could out of that damned cave. Once they were out, he kept going until they were out of sight of the cave exit and collapsed into the snow exhausted. He propped Adelaide up against the side of a rock and examined her injuries. She had a nasty bump on her head, but it didn't seem to serious. Cryce cupped his hand, coated it in ice, and then placed it gently on the bump to help the swelling go down. He really needed her to wake up. He couldn't keep going on like this.

It would be around four hours later when Adelaide finally began to stir. Opening her eyes groggily, she moaned and touched her head carefully as she had a major splitting headache. It felt like someone was excavating in there, digging inside with ice picks and other tools. Promptly falling back down onto the ice-covered snowy ground, she groaned and muttered, "What happened?"

                                                           ***

While inside the cavern complex, there was an angry blonde mage who had finally lost his temper, seeing as how he had missed his quarries. "Arghhhhh! Damn those two!" he shouted, tossing another book onto the floor from his bed chamber.

He didn't know what he was going to do now, looking for them yielded no results. Entreris supposed he would have to wait for another hapless victim to come his way, although he was worried his exploits might now come out in the open. Right now, he needed to calm down and think. The white-robed mad mage was not yet aware that his papers had been stolen but he would find out soon enough, as that study would be one of his next stops. Feeling some of the rage ebb away, Entreris tapped his chin thoughtfully and forcefully began picking up books and tomes that were strewn about the stone room, courtesy of his temper being unleashed.

Once that was all done, he made his way out of the room and down the hall. Those two had certainly foiled his plans, not only with their escape but also nearly all his ritual components were ruined, save for what was in the locked chest in his chambers. Heading to that storage room where the elementals still stood guard, his goal being to see if there was anything there that could be salvaged. It was a slim hope, but Entreris did not give up so easily. Acquiring more of these ingredients was going to be hard enough as it was. Hopefully, there was something left he could still use...

Cryce lifted his head when he heard Adelaide speak. She was finally awake.

"Be barely made it out alive," Cryce told her.

He wasn't one to sugarcoat things.

Blinking, the silvery-white haired mage touched her head again and grimaced as it really started to pound now. After some moments, waiting for the pain to subside a little, she then looked around for her belongings, namely her bag and focus rod. Not seeing them around anywhere, Adelaide looked at Cryce and asked him the question most prevalent on her mind now.

"Where are my rod and knapsack?"

Cryce looked around and then shrugged.

"We must have left them behind," he told her.

Adelaide was not happy to hear that. She needed her stuff back and with that thought in mind, dread began to set into the pit of her stomach as she realized they would definitely need to make a return trip to the hellish caverns. Sighing irritably, both at this and the fact that her head was still pounding something fierce, the ice mage looked around them and asked, "What now then?"

                                                     ***

In the caverns storage room, Entreris had gathered up what little components he could scavenge from the battle-ridden ground. Considering a battle had gone on here very recently, there was very little if any components left unscathed. However, some luck was with him, minor as it was. He had managed to scrounge up a little of the Black Root back into a small pouch and was now firmly tying it together to secure it in place. However, everything else was trashed, including his much needed Leech Essence. Without that, there would be no rituals. He could acquire more, just that it would take a long time to do so, not to mention be more difficult. After all, you couldn't get these at the local marketplace!

Having sent his earth elementals to guard the main cave entrance in the case that his enemies may return and with backup no less, he instructed them to keep watch and attack anything that came inside. Entreris could not take any chances after all.

Looking around once more, Entreris's eyes scanned the room for anything else of possible use. His gaze landed on Adelaide's dropped bag and magic rod. Going over there, he picked up the rod and felt it in his hands. It was cold to the touch and positively radiated icy energies. "Well now, what do we have here?" And a wicked smile began to form on his lips at what this could mean.

"I'm don't know," Cryce admitted gripping his broken arm. "What do you propose we do? We can't fight him."

It seemed that made two of them. Since neither one knew what to do, Adelaide contemplated their options. The best one was to go to Hyoite, if they could find it now and ask for help in defeating this threat. Surely someone there would be interested to know what was happening and even better, offer to aid them. Not to mention she needed her belongings back! Adelaide wasn't sure who would be willing to help them and to top that off, she now had no coin to speak of. No rod, no magic book, no money, nothing. She sighed and dug her hand angrily into the snow.

Looking at Cryce, she saw how he favored his arm as though broken. Well, that's just great. she thought to herself. They were both hurt, Cryce with a broken arm and Adelaide with a bump on her head that was obviously swelling in size. She doubted either one of them could put up much of a fight with their injuries, add to that Adelaide's head hurt so much she couldn't cast any magic now. Hyoite it is then. She just hoped luck was on their side now and that they wouldn't have to wander in circles anymore.

Adelaide was about to tell her companion this, when a white furry shape soon came into view, its loping gait making it obvious as to what it was. Another yeti. This day couldn't get any worse, she figured irritably.

As Cryce sat in the snow thinking everything over, he too noticed the incoming yeti and vocalized what Adelaide was probably also thinking.

"Damnit."

Cryce got to his feet, holding his broken arm against his body. He then suddenly realized something. His staff. He didn't have it. Cryce's eyes widened. He couldn't let that maniac have his staff! Cryce began growing angry at the thought of that psycho making off with his staff. Unfortunately for the yeti, Cryce was still fully capable of using magic. A spike of ice erupted from the snow and impaled the yeit straight through the chest, leaving it's lifeless body hanging from it.

"We need to get back in there," Cryce said to Adelaide. "I left my staff behind."

Holding her head in her hands as another wave of extreme pain hit her full force, Adelaide groaned loudly until the pain slowly began to fade. It seemed to come in waves, but always there was an ache in her head she couldn't get rid of. The waves that came were simply more intense, throbbing like hell. All she wanted to do at that moment was lay down and rest her head in the cold snow. It hurt so much... And she groaned again, squeezing her eyes shut tightly as yet another wave came, faster than the last time it hit. Her vision became cloudy and she felt like she was going to pass out again, but she tried to remain awake. Gods....

The yeti didn't attack them so Adelaide had to assume Cryce had dealt with it already and for that, she was glad. At least he could still use his magic. Adelaide didn't think she could concentrate at all on casting. Not with the way her head was hurting. As a result, Adelaide didn't hear Cryce's panicked comment about his staff. Her own rod was in there too, but right now she couldn't focus on that. Her head trauma pretty much prevented that. To make matters worse, she didn't know how much help she could be now, but damned if she was going to stay out here by herself with yetis roaming around, defenseless. And the situation was completely unusual for her, as normally Adelaide had no issue with being alone in the tundra.

Another moan escaped her lips then as she continued to cradle her head gingerly. Meanwhile, the sky darkened as night steadily approached.

                                                         ***

Entreris had struck gold. Not only did he find Adelaide's rod and her bag of belongings which contained his ice dragon summoning scroll, he had also acquired Cryce's icy staff. Humming in delight, he carried his new found possessions back to his chambers and then locked the door behind him securely as he exited the room again. He suspected they would definitely come back sometime to try and retrieve their possessions, which only gave Entreris an evil feeling of glee as he would get one more chance to kill them. And this time he wouldn't screw up.

He headed towards his study where he kept most of his ritual notes, as he needed to check on something he had written there. Heading down the corridor, he summoned a trail of lights in front of him and behind him so he could see where he was going without obstructions in his path. The lights lit up the tunnel with bright glowing balls of white, making the shadows pretty much nonexistent now. Turning the corner, he continued his trek towards the study.

Cryce walked over to Adelaide. She obviously had not heard him.

"He has my staff," he said urgently. "We need to get it back. He can't be allowed to have it."

After a couple more minutes of holding her head, Adelaide looked up at her companion. She too, wanted to go back in there to retrieve her belongings from the madman. Nodding at Cryce in understanding, she made to get up, swaying heavily on her feet before she managed to keep her balance. Then she started walking back the way they had come, following the faint traces of footprints in the snow as well as the trail left behind while Cryce had been dragging her through the snow while she had been unconscious. Nightfall would soon be upon them, the sky getting darker and darker with each passing minute.

                                                       ***

Once again, Entreris was furious. After the discovery of finding his notes gone, obviously stolen by those culprits who dare disturb his hard-earned work, the blonde mage was now more determined than ever to get them back and fix this entire mess. As he stormed through the cavern tunnels, he vowed that the two ice mages would regret ever messing with him. He intended to make them suffer. And they most definitely would, of that he was certain.

"We need shelter for the night," Cryce said. "The closest shelter there is though is the tunnel we just came out of."

As the sky grew darker Cryce realized just how long they had been in there. It must have been several hours at least. While they stood no chance against their foe in the state they were in, they stood even less of a chance while exhausted. At the very least they needed to sleep, even if only a little.

Adelaide agreed fully. Even though she wanted her stuff back, she wasn't going to rush in there with a pounding headache, unable to use her magic. That would be suicide.

As if on cue, her head stared to pound fiercely again. Running her fingers over the bruised temple, Adelaide winced and continued walking to their makeshift shelter for the night. Hopefully they wouldn't be discovered there. And hopefully by the coming morning, her headache will be gone or at least have subsided somewhat.

Cryce followed behind Adelaide keeping a wary eye out for danger and holding his broken arm against his side. He didn't know how severe the break was or if it would need to be set. He would check once they had shelter. Right now the top priority was getting to the shelter. Hopefully Adelaide didn't pass out or anything so he wouldn't have to start dragging her again.

The duo were able to make it back to the tunnel, to a side room without incident. No more yetis or the mad mage himself came to give them any more hassle, which at this time they really didn't need.

Sitting down in a corner after closing the door to the small room, Adelaide once again cradled her head in hand. Looking at the door, she figured they would need to bar the door with something and she figured the best way to do that was for Cryce to use his magic to create an icy blockade of sorts. Adelaide would do it herself but seeing as her head injury wouldn't allow it, the pain was simply too much to focus properly. The ice mage really hoped by tomorrow her disability would be gone and she would be able to cast again. Right now, she felt partially cut off from her source of freedom and power, and she didn't like that one bit.

So Adelaide continued to sit there, eying the door warily as though the crazy loony would barge in there at any second and finish what he started. They were after all, still on his turf.

Cryce sat down in a different corner and inspected his arm. The break didn't seem too bad, but it still should not be ignored. He encased his injured arm in a cast of ice in order to aid the healing process, but it would take time to heal, especially since neither of them knew any healing magic. Cryce sighed. This simple trip home was turning into a nightmare.

Still sitting in her own corner, Adelaide tried to conjure a bit of ice to put on her temple, but the magic fizzled out much too soon, leaving her with no ice to use. As a result her head began to pound again as though to protest the simple casting.

Sighing, Adelaide bent her knees and rested her head on them, just utterly fed up with this whole mess. She would be glad when it was all over with. Snowy white hair covered part of her face from view as she just sat there, resting to recover her strength. She paid no attention to Cryce in the opposite corner as he was dealing with his own problems. Now all they could do was wait, rest and hope that this Entreris creep didn't interrupt them and try to kill them. Because if he did, Adelaide despised their chances of getting out of this one alive. They had been lucky the first time, but this time they were just tempting fate. There was nothing to do about it though.

Closing her eyes, she began to drift off as her head got some much needed rest and a small temporary reprieve from the pain which assailed it mercilessly. The room was cool so that helped some with relaxation. Soon enough, she was asleep.

Cryce was not fortunate enough to have the ability to fall asleep so easily. He sat in his corner brooding, thinking of every scenario, every plan of escape, every trick that he had picked up over the years that he could use to hopefully give them some sort of an advantage here. However, he wasn't having much luck. It was several hours before exhaustion finally took him and he fell asleep, but even in his sleep his thoughts seemed to trouble him.

It was a couple hours later when Adelaide woke up, her head still throbbing but feeling a tiny bit better. She doubted she was well enough to cast her ice magic though. Looking around, the ice mage couldn't see her companion as it was really dark in here, but she thought she spotted a shape sitting in the corner where Cryce had been before, so she assumed it had to be him. At least she hoped it was.

Pretty soon, tiredness and exhaustion overtook her again and Adelaide fell asleep once more, her chest rising and falling with her soft breathing as she slept. The air was colder now and that also helped tremendously with the pain in her head.

Somewhere else in the cavern, a dark mage was scheming his twisted plans of power theft and murder, even more determined to end those pests that dare foul up his efforts he had worked so hard to achieve the last several years and counting. Inspecting both ice rod and staff he had recently acquired, he ran a hand over both, a wicked upturn of the mouth that could vaguely be called a smile gracing his pale features. Soon, he wouldn't have to worry any more. He would take care of his own, he always did...

Cryce stirred in his sleep. He then awoke violently, flinging a barrage of sizable icicles into the far wall. He sighed and slouched into his corner. Another nightmare just like all the others. Vengeance has not yet been achieved, and it would never be if he died here. It was going to have to give it his all if he wanted to pull through with his life still intact. He hasn't done a very good job so far.

Startled awake by the sound of ice chunks being flung against the wall nearby, Adelaide looked at Cryce and saw it had only been him. He seemed upset about something, but that was nothing surprising considering their current predicament. Adelaide didn't know about Cryce's desire for vengeance, as the two of them really weren't the most sociable of people, so each knew scant little about the other. And Adelaide was fine with that, as she wasn't one to form friendships easily.

Staring idly into the darkness, Adelaide wondered if this whole situation would have a favorable ending in store for them. She would NOT fall at the hands of that lunatic, not while she still breathed and had life in her. Her head was feeling much better now, but there was still a sizable bump that would no doubt take time to heal. Raising a hand, she concentrated a little and a tiny icicle formed in her palm. It seemed her magic was effective again, and the ice mage couldn't have been more relieved and glad for it. Still she thought it a good idea to get a little more rest, at least another hour or so.

Settling down as comfortable as she could get, Adelaide once more tried to relax and recover her energies. They would certainly need any and all advantages they could grab onto. Without her stuff though, and Cryce's staff also missing, they would just have to make do with what they already had. An intense silence filled the room as the two of them continued to rest, the coldness and darkness their only companions besides each other at the moment.

While normally he didn't mind silence, it was killing him in this particular instance. He needed to hear something. Anything. The only thing to hear was Adelaide, so that will have to do.

"So what's your story," Cryce asked.

Fifteen more minutes had passed as Adelaide rested, the silence feeling quite nice at the moment. Apparently her companion didn't think so, as he had asked her something. What her story was. Adelaide glanced up, then shrugged. "As an ice mage, I decided the tundra was the best place for me, but I do like to travel elsewhere."

Some silence passed before she continued. "I grew up in a small town south of here, in Serendipity. My folks were not actually from there though." Peering through the darkness his way, she asked him. "What more do you want to know?" Seeing as Adelaide wasn't the most talkative of people, she hoped that little bit of information would be enough to satisfy his curiosity. Plus her head still hurt some, and she didn't really want to chat that much. Her business was her own.

Cryce shrugged.

"I don't know," he told her. "I just wanted to hear someone else talk for a change. Talking to myself gets very dull. I never have anything interesting to say."

Though it sounded like a joke, he was totally serious. He was really getting tired of himself. Apparently it's possible for such a thing to happen.

"Do you still visit your family," he asked after a brief moment of silence.

A moment passed between them before Adelaide answered. "They're dead." she stated simply. More silence. "Sometimes I'll visit their graves when I travel back home though." And she left it at that, not wishing to talk any more about this. Her head was now feeling much better, despite the ugly purplish bump on the side.

Conjuring ice in her hand, she held it up to her temple, hoping to assuage the swelling and residual pain still present. Adelaide said nothing further, content to just hold the ice to her head.

Cryce was silent for a moment.

"My family is dead as well," Cryce said. "They were murdered. I escaped because I wasn't home at the time."

Another moment of silence.

"They took my fiance from me as well."

At first, Adelaide was unsure what to say to that. Then she asked, "Did you ever find out who did it?"

Adelaide could relate a little to this, as it had always been suspected her own father's death was due to a group of bandits he had accidentally run into and gotten on their bad side, but nothing had ever been proven. Still, it didn't come close to having your entire family being murdered.

"No," Cryce replied. "But I've dedicated my entire life to finding out so that I can kill them all."

Cryce fell silent for quite some time.

"I can still see them in my sleep," he said softly.

Again, Adelaide was at a loss of what to say here. While she was by no means someone who tried to comfort others, the ice mage was not cold-hearted either. She was just not that comfortable with sensitive topics having to do with others' personal plights. As a result, she too was silent as her mind churned over this news. She wondered why someone would want to kill his family, if they had a personal vendetta or something against him and his family, but she kept quiet, and didn't voice this aloud.

All she said was to Cryce was, "That must be really tough." Summoning more ice in hand, Adelaide continued nursing the bump on her head. Those rocks had really done a number, that was for sure, she thought inwardly.

The memories of that fateful day were flooding through Cryce's mind. The heads on the stakes, the red snow, the feeling of utter solitude save for the biting cold. The temperature in the chamber began to decrease even further and wind started to blow. They would pay. They would all pay for taking everything from him. A small blizzard began picking up in the small room where they were both taking refuge and began growing more violent as Cryce became more angry.

There would be no mercy. There would be no second chances. Cryce will find them, and they will die. They will die slowly and painfully. They will suffer physically like Cryce had suffered mentally and emotionally. Only when they were begging for death would he even begin the process of their slow and anguishing demise. They will know pain unlike anything they have ever felt before, and it would be the last thing they ever experience before their pathetic lives would be brought to an end.

They blizzard inside the small chamber was raging now as Cryce brooded in the corner, his hand gripping the ring that hang around his neck on a gold chain.

Adelaide said nothing as the blizzard raged on and Cryce's anger mounted. There wasn't anything she could say anyway. The cold of it all felt very nice for her aching head, although it was only a dull throb now. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long to fully heal.

The harsh winds in the small room made her eyes water just a bit, but it didn't really bother Adelaide. After all she was used to this type of weather as it were, living in the tundra and all. Glancing at Cryce as he stewed in the corner, she sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Adelaide really wanted her stuff back, and she also really wanted out of here, after they each got what they came for. She didn't know what they would do if they came across Entreris again though. Frowning, she became that much more anxious to get her rod and bag back. And if that moron dared to touch her rod, she was going to put an ice bolt right through his heart. Although she knew that would be far from simple to accomplish. The man was mad yes, but he was also very intelligent and powerful. And if they were to face him again, Adelaide needed to be as prepared as she could be.

Focusing on restoring her core of mana, she sat there quietly as she tapped into the heart of her magic, meditating on the energies of ice, snow and frost and re-energizing herself from that. The blizzard around her helped immensely and soon she was almost done. Another minute or so and her energy would be back in full.

Cryce abruptly stood up.

"Enough hiding," Cryce announced. "I'm going to kill that bastard, get my staff back, and then kill the ones who killed my family. You ready?"

With the abrupt end to the blizzard and Cryce's announcement, Adelaide was jolted from her concentrating and looked up at him. Sighing inwardly, she supposed it would have to do for now.

Nodding, the ice mage made to get up and proceeded over to the closed door. Putting her hand on the knob, she twisted it and began to walk out of the small chamber they had been in. The uncertainty loomed before them, not much light to be had making Adelaide once again wish she had her stuff. It was going to be difficult to navigate without a torch. But there was no other way. They just had to be careful.

Cryce marched fearlessly onward, empowered by rage and sheer determination. He was a master ice mage. There was no way this insane wannabe could get the best of him even with a broken arm. He was going to get his staff back and kill whoever and whatever got in his way. Adelaide was in no condition to fight, but that was fine. Cryce figured he was powerful enough to handle this guy.

Traversing the dark tunnels, the duo made their way to where they had last encountered the dark power-hungry mage. And where their stuff had been left behind at.

Going through the escape tunnel from before, they entered the devastated storage room where the battle had taken place. Adelaide looked around for her belongings, but didn't see them anywhere. Digging through the pile of rubble that had hit her on the head earlier, she still didn't find anything. Her stuff wasn't here. Which only meant one thing. The mad man had them.

Adelaide let out a curse at this realization.

Cryce could not find his staff either, which didn't sit well with him at all. He needed it back, and he was going to pry it from Entreris' cold dead hands.

"Looks like we'll have to got to the source," Cryce said. "And when we find him I'm going to kill him."

Adelaide fully agreed. "And I intend to help with that." she stated firmly, a steely look in her light blue eyes. That creep had her rod and there was no way she was leaving here without it, or her other belongings for that matter, money included.

Looking around some more she saw her torch wasn't even there either. Like he really needs it. she thought, irritated. Of course, it was probably just another one of the idiot's ways of trying to make things harder for them.

She was about to turn around and leave the room, when a voice she was positive she never wanted to hear ever again, sounded in the stone chambers she and Cryce were in.

"How nice of you two to stop by again. Couldn't stay away I see. Looking for something, I presume?"

Whirling around, Adelaide spotted the focus of her woes and grievances standing there in the doorway as once before, blocking their path. Entreris had a nasty gleam in his eyes, a rage and determination that she was pretty sure hadn't been there before. Or at least, not to the degree it was now. His earth elementals stood behind him, looking ready to attack at a moment's notice.

But now was their chance. Adelaide readied her magic, launching an ice missile at him. She was tired of this crap, and only wanted it to all be over with. The lunatic simply deflected it with his staff, the ice bolt shattering to pieces as it made contact with the length of the staff itself.

Entreris waved a hand and four copies of the blonde wannabe mage himself appeared on either side of him, swirling around in a dizzying fashion as the illusions took their hold, making it really difficult to guess who was the real Entreris. All of them spoke in mocking tones, laughing like complete crazies. "Who is the real Entreris, you don't know, and you never will!" All five Entreris's cackling maniacally at the same time, while his elementals charged forward to attack.

"I don't need to know," Cryce spoke. "You're not a true ice mage."

Cryce then created a blizzard. However, he kept making it colder and colder. The earth elementals began freezing solid as well as everything else in the room. The temperature dropped farther sti'll as Cryce dumped more power into the blizzard. It was now so cold that any normal human would freeze in seconds. Only an ice mage would survive such extreme temperatures, and Entreris was not a true ice mage.

While the earth elementals froze solid in huge blocks of ice, the illusions shattering, the blonde mage himself miraculously did not. Instead he laughed, a most chilling sound it was, sending a certain kind of dread down Adelaide's spine. "Hahahahahahahaha! You believe I would not think to come here without some sort of magical protection now, do you? Tsk, tsk. This blizzard cannot harm me as I AM INVINCIBLE!"

As he rose his staff in hand to cast another spell of devastation, Adelaide noticed the ring on his finger that she wasn't sure if it had been there before. It was a pure white color and she could sense the cold protections imbuing it fully. That has to be it, she thought.

She was about to summon more ice magic when a bright burst of light interrupted her concentration and she stumbled back, blinking to try and clear her vision of the after effects. Catching herself on one of the frozen crates, she regained her balance and began to concentrate again. We have to somehow get that ring off him, otherwise we're doomed... she thought sullenly.

"Then it looks like I have one more illusion to shatter," Cryce said.

He then unleashed a barrage of hail at Entreris. No more fooling around. He was going to unleash all of his power just to kill this one man.

The hail from Cryce as well as another icy bolt from Adelaide simply deflected off the blonde man as though there were some kind of invisible shield around him, protecting him from all kinds of cold attacks. It had to be the ring. They needed to somehow get it away from him. The question was how would they even do that? The crazy loon simply laughed, and threw more magic their way, a huge tornado of air swirling around the room, knocking Adelaide off her feet. He followed this up with another flash of light in front of them both.

The white-haired woman got up, a grim determination on her features. They needed to think of something and fast. Otherwise they weren't getting out of here alive.

Casting a thin sheet of ice in front of the man to try to distract him if only for a second, Adelaide tried to think of something that could work. They could blast the ceiling above him with ice, therefore making it crumble on top of him and knock him out that way, then grab the ring if they could. The problem with that plan was Adelaide didn't possess enough power to do that. She only hoped Cryce would have the same idea, since he was the stronger of the two.

Cryce froze himself to the floor so he wouldn't get blown away by the tornado and simply shielded his eyes from the flash. Entreris obviously had some kind of magical protection, so he would need a different approach. He erected a wall of ice in front of Entreris and then advanced behind it. The moment that Entreris took the wall down Cryce would lunge at him.

Entreris shattered the wall in front of him and began to summon more magic, this one an earthquake to shake the ground where the two were standing but not affecting him at all. He raised his staff to cast and send the magic forth. It would take a few seconds for him to do this.

Adelaide meanwhile began to concentrate on the ceiling above Entreris, hoping to cover it in enough ice, then blast the whole thing so it would fall on the maniac's head. However, only a small chunk of icy rock fell down, but it was enough to disrupt the evil man's concentration. She kept trying though, straining herself too. If her head started to hurt again after this, so be it. At least she would still be alive.

With the wall down and Cryce in range he lunged at Entreris aiming a punch directly at his face. He was prepared to face magic, so perhaps and non-magical attack would be more effective. Cryce had experience fighting hand-to-hand, so it shouldn't be too hard to fight this guy even with one arm broken.

The punch landed, and the vile man fell back to the ground, his staff also falling next to him. Meanwhile another chunk of ice fell on his head, this one a bigger one than the last.

Adelaide had to pause then, as she felt the pain in her temple start to flare up again. She held a hand there, taking a couple deep breaths while Cryce dealt with Entreris who was currently disoriented by both the punch to the nose and the icy rock. It was either now or never.

Cryce began to literally quick Entreris while he was down. He began channeling all of his anger through his right foot and into Entreris' ribcage. Any hope for mercy had been lost a long time ago. He had no plans of stopping until Entreris' screams ceased.

The sound of one of Entreris's ribs cracking filled the room and the madman howled in agony, trying to clutch his side in an attempt to ease the pain as well as stop Cryce from landing any more blows. Blood ran down his face as his nose had also been broken, it being bent at a most unnatural angle. He tried to yell out a curse but blood from his nose ran into his mouth, and he was finding it more and more difficult to breathe as the ice mage continued his relentless assaults on the blonde lunatic.

Adelaide took the opportunity to try and wrench the ring off his finger. It was a difficult task as Entreris kept trying to kick and punch the two of them, his arms and legs flailing wildly in his meager attempts to keep them away. After almost narrowly getting kicked in the stomach by a wayward foot, the female ice mage finally managed to get the ring from him. However, she dropped it on the floor in surprise when the magic surrounding the elementals evaporated, thus setting them free again. Before she could snatch it up again from the floor, there was the distinct sound of something breaking as one of the earth elementals stepped right on it in its attempt to swing at her, its stone body completely smashing the ring, rendering it utterly useless now.

Ducking out of the way, Adelaide managed to freeze one of its arms in place, while jumping out of the way of the other elemental. Going over to a frozen barrel, using it as temporary cover, she encased the second elemental's head in ice. Now her head was really starting to hurt again, but she tried to ignore it and focus on the battle going on around her.

She only had a split second to glance Cryce's way, seeing him still kicking the life out of their foe before her attention was then riveted back to the earth elementals. Casting a bolt of ice, she flung it toward one of the elemental's black beady eyes. The bolt made contact and the elemental roared in anguish, clutching at its eye.

Entreris wasn't looking too good at the moment with a bloody face and raspy breathing as he struggled to get back up on his feet. Now that his ring of protection was gone, one of them could deliver to him the icy death that he deserved.

Now that Entreris was vulnerable to magic once more, Cryce froze all of his limbs to the floor.

"Not so invincible now are you," Cryce said. "Now you're going to die. It will be slow and painful, the kind of death that you rightfully deserve you inhuman monster."

Spikes began digging into Entreris' limbs from the ice coating his limbs. Cryce relished his screams of agony. Cryce then began making icicles impale Entreris from below in places that would not kill him quickly. Cryce then placed his foot on the suffering man's throat.

"Beg for death worm," he growled. "Perhaps I'll be gracious enough to give it to you."

Entreris's only response was to glare hatefully at Cryce, still very much in agony.

The two elementals were still going after Adelaide and she was beginning to have trouble fending them off. "Cryce!" she called out, hating how scared her voice sounded then. Plus the fact she didn't really want to ask for help, but right now she wasn't strong enough to defeat these creatures. And she also didn't want to die.

Dodging another swipe from a stony fist, she managed to cast a weak version of an ice wall to shield herself from them, but they quickly smashed through it, coming at her yet again.

Cryce turned around and saw the earth elementals going after Adelaide. Ice began forming over the elementals once more, freezing them solid. The ice wormed its way into to every joint and crack the in earth elementals' bodies before expanding and breaking them apart. Cryce then turned his attention back to Entreris.

"I could do that to you too," he told him. "Though it would be a lot messier than that. You sure you don't want to die?"

Fear showed in the madman's eyes there for a second, before his face twisted into an ugly grimace of absolute hate, his detest of the black-haired man before him clear on his pale features. "You can try." he snarled. "But you won't manage it." Although Entreris did not look very certain of his own words, some trepidation leaking through his attempts at maintaining a tough countenance. Well as tough as one could be with a broken rib, bloody nose, and all limbs frozen to the stone beneath him. Entreris wouldn't go down without a fight, without some restraint on his part, even if that very restraint was killing him in waves of great pain that coursed throughout his body. He waited in agonized silence to see what Cryce would do then, but not before spitting a huge glob of spit in the other man's face.

Adelaide sighed in relief when the earth elementals were destroyed. She wished she herself had the kind of power that Cryce possessed, but she wasn't there yet in terms of skill level. One day though...

Going over to where the blonde mage and her companion were, she stared down at the vile loony, her stare quickly turning into an outright glare. "Serves you right." she hissed at him, readying a small icicle in her hands via her magic. Adelaide was going to launch the sharp projectile straight into his eye, and she prepared to do exactly that.

"I assure you that can very easily manage it," Cryce replied darkly. "Organs and flesh are much softer than stone."

Cryce then formed a small ball of ice inside of Entreris' body. It then began to grow ever so slowly. Cryce wanted this monster to feel it expand, to feel his impending doom slowly and painfully approach.

"I know you're afraid," Cryce told him with evil in his eyes. "You're afraid because you know you're going to die. You're afraid because you know that all of your life's work has amounted to nothing and now you get to die at the hands of someone that you see as weaker compared to you. And you'd be right on all accounts. Every passing second brings you closer to the end, and the two people you hate most in this world are getting to witness every....single.....moment."

As the ball of ice ever so slowly expanded inside him, Entreris cried out in pain, his eyes welling in anguished tears as he suffered at the hands of Cryce. His agony only further increased when Adelaide launched her missile into his right eye, blood spattering everywhere as it burst open. She quickly froze what was left of his eye though so he couldn't bleed out too fast.

The ice mage added her own power to Cryce's then so that the intense pain the moron was feeling would intensify even more, as she channeled her magic into the ball as well. Entreris's screams soon filled the room, nearly deafening them. Yet she continued on with her slow attack. The man deserved nothing less.

As Entreris' screams increased in volume, Cryce began shouting over them.

"Now you understand true pain! Now you know what it is like to truly suffer! And only when you beg and plead for death will it find you! Beg, you inhuman scum! Beg for the mercy of death!"

Entreris only continued to scream.

Adelaide kept on pouring energy into the ball of torment, until it was now the size of a large pebble. It then grew further into that of a medium-sized rock. Then it started to push against the man's heart and lungs now. A fierce expression was set on Adelaide's face as she too wanted him to suffer, and greatly. This man, this 'mage' was an affront to all mages everywhere, stealing powers that didn't belong to him. Not to mention lives.

And with that thought, Adelaide made a small spike erupt out of the icy ball, slightly piercing the outer edges of the man's heart. Blood started to pool out of Entreris's mouth as he bled from the inside out. Slowly, agonizingly so. His screams never wavered, they only got louder and louder before he would soon make himself hoarse from all of it. But that was by far the least of his worries. Adelaide and Cryce would make sure of that, that this 'man' would never walk again, much less breathe ever again. She said nothing to him or to Cryce, just continued her torture of this parasite.

When this was all over, the silvery white-haired woman would be more than happy to leave this forsaken place after she and Cryce reclaimed their possessions. Entreris 'The White' had worn out his welcome on this world, and it was time to end his pathetic self.

((OOC: I think in my next post Entreris will finally die. Got something I wanna write regarding that. Sound okay?))

Cryce was finally satisfied when Entreris screamed until he couldn't no more. It was time for Cryce to bid this monster his final farewell and finish him off.

"I'll see you in hell, you son of a bitch."

Cryce then stomped onto Entreris' chest, smashing the ice ball and finally ending his miserable existence.

"Good riddance," he mumbled.

Just before Cryce had stomped on his chest, Entreris cried out weakly, voice rasping a plea. "Please....make it...stop...." Then his innards were crushed as Cryce sent him on to the afterlife. His eyes wide open, unseeing.

Entreris was dead, and they were free.

Adelaide sat down wearily on the ground a ways from the now dead man, and sighed. "Glad that's over." she commented.

"He's just the first of many that will die in this manner," Cryce said. "I have others I need to bring to justice."

Adelaide didn't comment on this, just merely got up and started for the door. "Let's go find our stuff." She was quite anxious to get her things back, and no doubt Cryce was too. Plus the room they were in was becoming quite stifling to be in, and not because of the temperature.

Adelaide longed to be out amidst the tundra again, free among all the whiteness there and all the serenity it offered. Once they got their belongings, Adelaide would be gone from this place, as she never wanted to return to this cavern complex ever again.

"Perhaps we should have asked him where it was before we killed him," Cryce commented before leaving the room.

He had no idea where he put their things, but searching this place would take quite some time. There was no telling how large this complex truly was.

Walking along the corridors, Adelaide's head began hammering a fierce rhythm again, in tune to each second that passed by. Black spots danced along the edges of her vision, but the ice mage struggled to remain conscious and not black out again. Even though the danger had passed, there was no telling what else could be lurking here in these tunnels and stone chambers.

Conjuring more ice, she put that on her throbbing temple and nearly sighed in relief as the coldness of it soothed her tormented head. Looking around, she tried to figure out where the crazy wannabe may have put their belongings. Perhaps it was nearer to the place where they had first entered. So with that, Adelaide began to head back that way, well, that is where she figured it to be. Being dumped into an earthy hole in the ground and all the chaos that had ensued afterwards, there was no telling whether they could be headed in the right direction or not. They could just as easily be going the opposite way. That is, if their stuff was indeed where she guessed it to be.

Stumbling more than a few times over some rock and dirt piles, Adelaide gripped the wall next to her to try and regain her sense of balance before continuing on. It was going to make for some slow maneuvering for sure.

Since Adelaide seemed to know where she was going, or at the very least made it look that way, Cryce followed her. That bump on her head really seemed to be bothering her, but he figured a broken arm was a bit more serious than a mere bump. She could at least use both of her arms. Once they finally got out of there he was going to head straight home, or at least what used to be his home.

Finally they made it to the entrance hall where the two of them had first arrived. And was it ever a sight to see. The ice elementals which once covered every inch of the place were now nothing more than shattered piles of icy shards. The temperature was also much warmer now. Adelaide couldn't wait to get out of here.

Seeing a metal-clad door with a heavy lock on it, she made to head over there, still holding her head in the process. Perhaps this was where their stuff was. And she definitely hoped it was, as a scavenger hunt was not on her list of things to do here.

Trying the door, Adelaide discovered it was indeed locked. Figures. she thought irritably. Looking at Cryce now, she had little doubt he'd soon blast the door open to see what lay inside. She stepped out of the way so he could do that very thing.

Cryce simply employed that same trick that he has used many times now. He filled the lock with ice and expanded it until it broke, granting them access. He took a look around the room. Who knew that this guy was such a pack rat?

There was no doubt about that. There was stuff everywhere they looked, whether it be books piled in corners, to bookcases stuffed with them, scrolls scattered here and there, paintings on the walls and other junk all placed here and there about the room. While some seemed to have an obvious placement, other things were just simply there to take up space. A four poster bed was also positioned in one corner too, near yet another painting and a dresser which contained some items on top of it, but nothing of real interest.

Two things however, caught her attention. A seeing orb on a large table, only partially covered up by a thick piece of cloth but not enough to hide what it was. The other thing was a huge wooden chest in the opposite corner, sealed with a lion's head lock. Immediately she headed over there, as there wasn't any sign of Adelaide's rod and pack anywhere else, nor Cryce's staff. If it was anywhere in here, it had to be in that chest. Failing that, Adelaide wasn't sure where else they could look.

Once again, she let Cryce break the lock as her head hurt way too much to attempt to use her magic now. Our stuff better be in there... she thought sourly.

Taking the hint, Cryce stepped forward and broke the lock off of the chest. He would let Adelaide check it though, he wanted to see what all was in this room. Perhaps there was something interesting that he wouldn't mind taking along. Surely Entreris wouldn't mind.

Once the chest was open, Adelaide immediately leaned over to check its contents. Amidst some more vile ingredients, although not nearly as many as there had been in the storage room itself, there lay nestled amongst some soft fabrics and leathers, was her bag and ice rod.

Quickly, the ice mage reclaimed her stuff and checked the inside of her bag too. While the torch had been put back inside, there was no sign of the magic scroll she had acquired. Entreris no doubt had decided to put it away for safekeeping and if she couldn't find it in this room, she would have to forget about it. Her actual things were far more important to her. Crcye's staff also lay at the bottom but she didn't touch it. Adelaide would let Cryce grab it when he was ready.

Among the many scrolls just scattered haphazardly about the bed chamber, no doubt having been the evil man's bedroom, there were plenty of scrolls, many of them quite magical. Only a few of them were of icy nature, but none were of the ice dragon summoning scroll from before. Adelaide sighed in resignation, but was happy enough to pick up a few scrolls of interest, namely mana regeneration scrolls and summoning small, albeit weak ice elementals.

Stuffing those into her bag, she looked over at her companion as he too searched all the treasures of the once 'great', "Entreris the White." More like 'Entreris the Mad', she thought, her lip curling in disgust. Indeed the man hadn't been entirely all there in the head. There was no doubt about that. For all his intelligence and guile, he still lacked a sane mind, and that was what did him in in the end. And he completely deserved every last bit of pain too that they put him through.

Going over to the divination orb, Adelaide lifted the cloth and peered at the glass ball. Perhaps she could take it to the guild she belonged to, as some of the members there might have need of it, despite being solely a guild focused on elemental magics. And if not, it would serve as more than adequate guild dues, being a magical item and all. She stuffed that into her bag too, the base, cloth and all. None of the books present were of any interest or concern to her, yet she also bagged a couple as well for the guild, seeing as her bag could only hold so much. The books were of magical theory and the history of magic in general, also useful as ample guild payment. Now Adelaide was ready to move on, yet she waited for her companion to finish his search, although impatiently.

Cryce took his time with his search. With that bastard finally dead he had all the time in the world. There wasn't much that interested him. His only concern was ice magic, and three wasn't all that much of it here. He dug deeper and deeper into the pile to see if he could find a diamond in the rough of sorts.

There was something that Adelaide had missed. Underneath a pile of books, inside a metal container could be found a pair of gauntlets. But not just any gauntlets, these were magical and of the icy magic variety. Pressing a small patch of metal near the edge of each one made multiple icy blades of coldness pop up from a hidden crevice, the sharp spikes themselves were clearly enchanted with the powers of frost and winter. They were the right size for a man, and could also fit a woman too, that is if she was the big and muscular kind. Which Adelaide was not, so they clearly wouldn't fit her. The gauntlets were excellent at providing that extra edge in any combat situation, especially if one could fight unarmed.

Adelaide stood off to the side, just watching as she hefted her ice rod in hand, checking it over for damage. There was none though and she sighed in relief at this. Sitting down in a corner, she touched her head again, the bump still there ugly and purple as ever, but the swelling had gone down a tad which she was grateful for. She continued to nurse it with conjured ice while waiting for Cryce to finish his search.

There was a twinkle in Cryce's eye when he found the gauntlets. He picked up the container and examined them, looking at their condition and experimenting with the blades.

"This trip just became slightly more worthwhile," he announced bringing the gauntlets to Adelaide so she could see them.

Taking a look at what Cryce was showing her, Adelaide also showed interest. Examining the gauntlets further, she frowned as she realized these probably wouldn't fit her. "I suppose those are yours then." she stated, while getting up to see what else she may have missed. Although she wasn't sure what else she could fit into her pack, as the thing was pretty stuffed as it was.

Still, the white-haired woman didn't let that stop her and with a more keen eye, scrutinized every last thing around the room that she could see.

Cryce closed the metal box and then rifled through the chest that he had opened earlier. Sure enough, his staff was at the bottom. With his staff back in his possession, these gauntlets, and Entreris dead, Cryce was now satisfied with this small detour. He tucked the box under his arm and took up his staff. Adelaide seemed to have suddenly regained an interest in the pile of junk after his find, but he didn't blame her. He would wait until she was ready to leave. He was content with what he had.

Searching around some more yielded no further finds, so Adelaide stood back up, clutching her rod implement tightly in hand, knapsack on her back. She nodded to Cryce then. "Let's get out of here."

It was high time this nightmare ended. Adelaide couldn't be more glad.

Cryce nodded and walked out of the room and into the hallway before stopping.

"Which way is out of here," he asked.

Looking around, Adelaide spotted the gates which were still wide open. She wondered why Entreris hadn't bothered to close them, but then quickly decided she didn't care. The man was dead and none of her concern anymore. It was also much darker in here without all the orb lights floating around so Adelaide got out her torch, and struck it against some tinder she had in her bag that was inside a small metal box. Light flared up once more, enabling them to see much more clearly.

Now it was simply a matter of following the path they had first taken to get here. With torch in hand, it should be relatively easy now. She indicated her head towards the gates. "That way." And started walking over there.

Cryce followed behind Adelaide. He couldn't wait to get out of here. He would finally be able to visit his home and then maybe try to find out what other secrets these gauntlets were hiding. Of course, with a broken arm he could really only use one. He would have plenty of time to find out how exactly they worked while his arm healed.

Following the path before them, Adelaide along with Cryce, made their way out of the large cavern complex. Whether or not these series of caverns met up with any other caves and tunnels elsewhere in the tundra was unknown, and also unimportant as it was to just simply escape from there. The torchlight bounced upon the stone walls as the two continued their hurried trek.

Finally, there ahead shone light as the rays of the sun began to glimmer towards them, the start of another day had begun. Breathing a sigh of relief, Adelaide quickened her steps that much faster, more than eager to get out of here and get to the village of Hyoite. She needed to restock up on supplies, namely food rations for the most part. After that, she would head on through one of the many entrances to The Meeting Place, in order to get to the guild in Darken Vei from there onward.

Her bag reminded her as to just how heavy it was as she maneuvered her way to the outside, having to yet again readjust the straps on it and shift the pack across her back. Whether or not Adelaide would ever see Cryce again after this was of little concern to the female ice mage, as she did not make a habit of getting close to anyone. The exit loomed in front of them, ever tantalizingly so as they got closer and closer...

Cryce fought the urge to run to the exit as soon as it came into view. It was all over. It was finally over. Entreris was dead, they were out of that cavern, and they could both continue on with their respective lives. As for Adelaide, he would perhaps never see her again once they parted ways, but he made a habit of not forming attachments. He wasn't even sure if she qualified as a friend, but the point was that they were finally out of that mess and with they didn't leave empty-handed either.

Emerging from the cavern, Adelaide looked around with joy. Now, finally she could move on and not ever have to worry about that blasted wannabe mage ever again. While her head was still hurting, it would eventually heal and for that she was glad. They had made it out alive and that's what counted. She expected Cryce to set off on his own way now, and Adelaide would go her own route. The silvery-white haired mage took a few moments to breathe in the fresh cold air though, enjoying the simple pleasures that brought.

Gripping her ice rod in hand after having put out the torch in the snow by her feet, then back into her bag, Adelaide nodded to the other ice mage in a brief farewell and began to set off towards Hyoite.

Cryce, however, also intended to head to Hyoite, so they would not part ways just yet. He still wanted to visit his old home. The fact that Adelaide was still there didn't really matter now. They were now both simple travelers who had no business with the other, and he hoped it stayed that way. He really didn't want anything else like that to be happening again any time soon.

Seeing that Cryce was still with her made no difference whatsoever to Adelaide. They both continued on in silence to their destination, the morning light shining on the snowy ground making it sparkle in a beautiful, serene way. As long as no more drama happened any time soon, despite the fact Adelaide didn't mind some adventure every now and then, she would be content for awhile.

The gates to the small village soon appeared and Adelaide sped up, ever anxious to get going on to the next leg of her journey. Her first stop would be the market stalls, then the local tavern to get some much needed ale. After that, she would head back to Serendipity.

((And I think that concludes our tale now, don't you agree? :D ))

(OOC: I suppose it does. Now I just have to figure out what to do with those gauntlet things :P )