(Scene 3) The Snow Palace - Escapade to the Kingdom

You know, Trev thought, once you get used to all the ice, this place isn't half bad.

At her request, all surfaces of her chambers had been covered in soft, plush fur, and now she could barely feel the cold. She reclined comfortably on the lounge chair - made of ice, of course - that took up one corner of her chambers. It was her favourite place to be; she was only ever comfortable with her back against the corner, and this position gave her a perfect vantage point of the rest of the room. Despite her better judgment, she began to relax.

There was a knock at the door. She straightened. All her muscles tightened, and she fought the urge to scream and hide under a blanket. Her imagination began to run ahead of her sense, as it always did. This had been a trap. The Empress had never wanted them to work for her. She had split them up, only to attack them separately. Trev shouldn't have trusted her.

"Who is it?" Her voice didn't tremble, and she felt more sure of herself. She prided herself on not showing vulnerability - ever. No matter what happened, she could find away around it, get Alistair, leave and start anew. She'd done it before. There was nothing to be afraid of. She stood, facing the door, fists clenched at her sides, prepared for the worst...

The Empress opted not to answer directly. Instead, she keyed in the code and watched silently as the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. She found herself immediately face to face with the redhead, who stood in front of her with muscles so tensed she looked as if she was preparing herself to attack the Empress. She allowed herself an amused smirk, and then proceeded to let herself into the room.

After she settled comfortably into Serena's favourite lounge chair, she surveyed the redhead, who had not budged an inch, and asked politely, "Tell me about yourself."

Trev cocked her head quizzically to the side. That had thrown her off. However, it had given her the chance to calm down and let her logic catch up with her. It wasn't the Empress' style to pull a trick like the one she considered. If she had wanted her dead, she'd be dead already. Trev relaxed a bit and took a slow step forward.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything," said the Empress. "Everything..."

There was a long silence.

Then she sighed melodramatically. "I'm bored, you see. And my muses have all escaped me. So... logically, I'd try and find something useful to do... because I really need a break from all that dreaded paperwork... I haven't gone outside in ages..."

Gingerly, Trev went to the chair and sat down beside the Empress. "All right," she agreed. As it always happened when she felt uncomfortable, she joked. "Where should I start, with my childhood?"

The Empress looked at her quizzically. Was she trying to be funny? She said nothing, showed nothing, but she wondered where else one would start if not at the beginning...

Trev began quietly. "I was born in the kingdom of Loch-Ruan. I was an illegitimate child, so I was raised in secret. I grew up in a cellar in my mother's house. I never saw her much. Mostly it was my grandmother and aunt who took care of me. They never had much sense about them." They were crazy, you mean. "I don't think they fully realized what it meant to talk to me as a real person - to look me in the eye while they clothed me and bathed me, to call me 'girl' instead of pretending I was some sort of unpleasant chore."

Trev looked up. She'd never talked to anyone else about this before - except Alistair, of course, but at this point Alistair was so much a part of herself that she barely counted him as another person. She wondered if the Empress knew what illegitimate meant in Loch-Ruan. It wasn't a matter of being ignored, or being neglected, or being sectioned off from the rest of society. You simply didn't exist. You were a non-person. People hid you, but even they wiped your existence from their minds as soon as you were out of their sight. "Do you know what that means?" she asked carefully.

The Empress stared at her as if she were crazy or stupid, or both. But then after a second, her glare softened and she turned away, her dark eyes burning holes into the wall that they both faced. "You underestimate my omniscience, my dear mercenary," she said softly, in an attempt to kill the intimacy of the conversation and to bring back the chill she was so used to.

There was an uncomfortably long silence before the Empress spoke again, and when she did, it was in a voice that failed to mask her vulnerability, her insecurities. It wasn't that it trembled, it just lacked that cutting edge. "I guess my empire isn't perfect, isn't it?" she said, laughing quietly. "I'm sorry your childhood was like that," she said, the apology sounding awkward coming from her own mouth.

Trev nodded. She, of all people, knew how hard it was to humble yourself enough to make such a statement. "It wasn't all bad," she amended. "A few years ago I realized that nothing was keeping me there. The door was open, nobody was stopping me. All I had to do was leave, if I wanted out. And then after a few months of roaming, I met Alistair. Your empire really is beautiful."

Head bowed, she looked up at the Empress. Dare she ask a question? She didn't know whether she was being impertinent, but it was her nature to be inquisitive. "Where did you grow up?"

The Empress was a little taken aback by such a personal question; it wasn't that she didn't see it coming, it was more because she didn't think Trev would have the courage or the nerve to ask her. She looked away for a moment, quickly losing herself in the translucent glow of the wall of ice. But then realized Trev was still eagerly awaiting an answer.

"I'm sorry. The indoors is getting to me," said the Empress shortly, effectively ending the conversation. She rose to leave, but when she realized Trev was gaping conspicuously at her, she whirled around, her robes crackling as she motioned for Trev to follow. "Let's go see what has become of your kingdom."

She knew she was being impulsive. But the fact that there was no one left to scold her, struck her once again, and she felt a slight tug of nausea in her stomach. She quickly pushed it aside, and told herself she had the Swiss Markisa, who was a magnificient lover, and she also had the Princess, who was not only her long lost cousin twice removed, but also one of her closest friends. So she was not completely alone. Not really.

She cleared her throat of any weakness, and spoke commandingly. "Wait here and do not move until I return." And she moved so swiftly it was as if she had teleported away.

Seconds later she entered her room and quickly stripped off the white robes, revealing matte black battle armor. Light, but nigh indestructible and very comfortable to wear. Sleek and form-fitting, it hugged her body perfectly; thus were the advantages of designing one's own armor. The majority of the outfit was made of a new hybrid metal that was almost liquid in normal atmospheric pressure, but solidified on impact, effectively shielding her body from harm. She just had to make sure she didn't get thrown into a wall at high speeds, because her bones would shatter inside of her awesome armor. She was not unduly concerned of this, for the lightness allowed her to retain her speed, which effectively meant no one would be able to lay hands on her to even try and throw her.

Aesthetically, the battle armor outfit was just as much of a fashion statement as it was practical. It was of course, by no means easy to conceive such flawless perfection, but after hundreds of prototypes, it finally happened. Although it was form-fitting enough to leave very little to the imagination, the material covered every single inch of her body up until her neck, where it flared into a high collar which she could zip and unzip at her will. She generally left it unzipped and unpopped, so it lay near her shoulders like the lapels of a blouse.

She turned slowly in the mirror, admiring her figure for a moment, then remembered she had left Trev frozen in the middle of the hallway, playing wax museum by herself. She nodded once, ran through her doorway and the force-field, which beeped once and then, registering her absence, locked down the room until her return.

After a few seconds, she was back where she started. She liked the look on Trev's face as the redhead took in her costume change.

"I am ready now," she told Trev. "Let us proceed."

Trev said nothing. Her palms itched, and goosebumps erupted all over her skin. She was going to visit the kingdom - finally.

She began to walk ahead of the Empress. She almost ran out the door, and then started walking frantically and aimlessly down the hallway. She was going to the kingdom.

Joy was filling her. She would go, and see, and conquer...

The hallway forked, and she realized that she had no idea where she was going - she had been blindfolded on her way into the palace. The thoughtless anticipation began to seep from her. She waited silently for the Empress, whose footsteps she could hear clicking toward her.

The Empress popped her collar and quickly zipped it up to hide her grin. All that was visible of her now was her hair, which was carefully iced into lethal-looking spikes, and her very narrow, almond shaped eyes.

She quickly slid past Trev down the narrow hallway and turned into the left hallway. She moved quickly, darting down the spiralling steps as they made their way underground to a secret passageway.

The underground tunnel was dark and damp and brutally cold like the palace which was built above it. Her breath misted in the air before her and she breathed lightly, gradually picking up the pace. Another turn of a corner and they came upon a crackling forcefield which barred their way to the large steel double door, ornately decorated with heavy locks and chains. The sight itself was the embodiment of a blatant anachronism.

"You have been authorized already. Just pass through," the Empress told Trev, as she herself walked through the forcefield without halting.

She stepped up to the door, and pressed the palm of her hand against the steel door -- at her touch, the chains fell away, clanging loudly on the ground, creating a cacaphonic harmony with the rhythmic click of the locks as they unlocked. The great steel door slid open with a pneumatic hiss and daylight shone through.

The Empress moved quickly up the steep hill, saying nothing of the slight burning in her legs. She felt a little disgusted with herself, for it was a message, loud and clear, from her body that reminded her how long she had neglected to set foot outdoors.