The Snow Empress walked on the left, her long silver-white hair falling down her back. With every step, flakes of snow drifted down.
They did not fall from the sky. They crystallized from the halo of icy blue light surrounding her.
Each flake was no bigger than a fingernail, its six points sharply defined. It fell soundlessly onto the hall's ice-crystal floor, then merged into the ten-thousand-year ice the instant it touched down, leaving a faint white trace.
The Ice Empress walked on the right, frost blossoms forming with every step.
Those blossoms were finer and sharper than the snowflakes, like ice needles compressed to their limit. They spread swiftly across the floor around her feet.
Each blossom bore intricate branching patterns, its edges glimmering faintly silver-white. In the dim hall, they looked like tiny stars flaring to life.
Side by side, the two walked at an unhurried pace. They passed through the place where the ice-crystal wall that had once separated them had stood, now completely dissolved, and headed toward the open space deeper within the palace.
That space was the heart of the Ice Snow Divine Palace: a vast circular hall beneath a high dome carved from a single block of ten-thousand-year ice. Dense ice-patterned runes covered its surface, gleaming with a still, cold light in the glow from the halls on either side.
The Ice Snow Queen stood at its center.
She wore a long ice-blue gown, its train trailing across the ice like a frozen waterfall. An intensely concentrated halo of ice-blue light surrounded her.
That halo was denser and deeper than before, like the power of extreme cold compressed countless times over. Centered on her, it slowly spread outward, then drew back in ring by ring, keeping time with her breathing.
Her face remained as