Victor barged through his bedroom doors and ran down the hallway with a glee smile. The pink-haired maid ran out of the prince's bedroom and chased after him with a fur cape to go along with the prince's extravagant clothes. The prince's speed was unmatched, yet the maid managed to catch the silver of his speed while wearing the cumbersome maid's outfit.

"My prince, you forgot your cape!"

"I don't need it!" The prince yelled out nonchalantly.

"But, it's cold out there!"

"It is always cold here, we are in a winter country!" The prince raised both hands, exerting himself to the freezing wall and ceiling of the castle.

"Precisely." The maid said with a finger up.

"Try all you want, but you can never catch me at that speed!" Victor pointed his tongue at the maid before turning around.

He turned around and immediately put a halt to his speed when he saw the woman stepping out of the corner. An inch, just another few inches to slam into the woman, but he managed to avoid it. The moment he looked up, his heart immediately dropped, it was his mother; staring with furrowed eyebrows.

"Mom--Ah! I mean, My Queen," Victor quickly bowed in an effort to calm his mother's seethed anger. "Please forgive me for my lack of gentility."

"My Queen?" The maid behind the prince courtesy immediately at the sight of her majesty and held in her heavy breath.

"My Prince, would you please treat your maid, Gabriella, a little better? One of her duties is to take care of you, don't make it hard for her to do so," the Queen nodded her head slightly at the maid but was interrupted by a cough.

"Mother?"

"My Queen?" Both the maid and the Queen's escort spoke out in concern as the powerful woman softly pressed the napkin lips against her lips.

"I'm fine," the Queen answered with so much confidence that it alleviated the concern of her subjects but not her son.

"Let's, we have much work to do today," the Queen brushed the prince's hair slightly with a small smile before leaving them.

The Prince watched worriedly as his mother walked down the spiral staircase along with her escort. Without looking back, he felt the warm but slightly heavy cape rested on his shoulders. Victor sighed deeply then turned to the window beside him; his gaze penetrated the glass pane and toward the dull landscape of gray and white, in which he had viewed a million times and a million times more.

Frosted icicles hanging off the edge of the roof of every house and buildings; while gray smoke coming out from gray chimneys from gray brick buildings decorated the blue sky. However, it's not the view that bothered him, maybe a bit, but it's not the main cause of his gloomy attitude. It is his concern over his own mother, he worried that his mother might be overworking herself, but it's not something new, she is always this busy. So does his father.

"Gabriella, why is the view always so depressing?" Victor pressed his hand against the cold glass pane and sighed.

"Well, it's because you always see the surface, not lie underneath it."

"Underneath it?" Victor's eyebrows raised slightly.

"Yes, what lies beneath it are the happy people of Snowholt, well… sure it's freezing and foods are hard to come by these days, but we endured. At least it's better than your great grandfather ruling and 5 years war between your father siblings for the throne that nearly destroys...uh, to get to the point, everything is great nowadays compared to before, and the people are lucky to have both your father and mother as their ruler. Besides, it's like everybody said, 'it's better to have your toes froze off than your spirit broken'."

"Happy people. I wish I could go outside and meet these supposedly happy people you mentioned."

"Perhaps one day, My Prince. Another topic to be brought up, why are you so in a rush this morning? It's not like the library going anywhere."

"Oh yeah! I'm not going to the library today."

"Excuse me? It's oddly weird for you to say that. What happened to my prince, did you eat him?"

"No, I didn't eat him," Victor rolled his eyes. "It's not that I don't want to go today, I will probably go later, but today, we have far more important things to do. Quick! Onward!" Victor began his stride while his maid followed behind.

****

Inside these very freezing walls, a room somewhere in the castle with stained glass and large dark wooden table; laid out across it is a map of the entire continent of Ealura with more focus on the kingdom of Frozehaven. Gathered around that table are the most powerful people in the kingdom.

"Report?" The man with the silver crown said in a deep commanding voice.

"My King, a quarter of our crops were destroyed by the winter two weeks ago, there are barely enough for the people of Frozehaven. Even after I scoured our emergency storage upside down, it is still not enough," Zacharias Renaud spoke with a groan; the man with a double chin and bald spot is none other than the Duke of Coldcliff. He had kept the kingdom from starvation for years now.

"Then take all you want from the royal storage, we can't let our people go starve."

"Excuse me, My King. You can't just give your own rations to the people, you need it more than them. If you starve and are sick, who will lead us?" The short wavy blonde-haired woman spoke out with furrowed eyebrows; the woman who had kept the border of the kingdom from being breached by an outside force is none other than the Duchess of Northwall, Leah Sutcliffe.

"It's better that I starve first than watching my subject do so, and I see no other option," the King's sight downcast as he rested his hand against the wooden table.

"My King, we both think that the kingdom can't last long like this, please consider the proposal that we showed you," the Duchess almost sounds like she is pleading to the king to reconsider his actions.

"I agree with the Duchess," the Duke put his stern gaze at the King.

"Anyone else agrees, raise your hand," almost the entire people in the room raised their hands except for the old knight beside the king.

"Surely your son will understand, it's the lesser of two evils."

"Easy for you to say, I won't let the prince be subjected to being the pawn in your schemes," the old knight said with a seethed rage.

"Enough, Commander," the King calmed the old knight.

"Give a day, I will reconsider my options."

"But, My King!" the old knight looked at the king with raised eyebrows.

"I have decided." The King glanced at the commander with furrowed eyebrows.

"As you wish, My King. Then I shall keep my opinion to myself," the old knight's shoulders dropped slightly.

"Now, about last night. The report, Commander."

"Yes, My King. In the middle of the night, at the north wall, accounts of multiple witnesses from our soldiers claimed that they saw a shimmering light in the middle of a field. A group of scouts along with me was sent to investigate by horses. We arrived and the light became clear but the origin of it is unknown. I sent a knight to approach it, and the light exploded."

"Explode?" The Duke said with a skeptical tone.

"Not exactly exploding, more of a burst of force that knocked several knights off their horses. Yet, no one sustained any injury."

"What did you find, Commander?" The King asked as his gaze deepens against the old knight, so does everyone else in the room.

The old knight was stumped, trying to find words that somehow explained what he'd found, but failed to do, so he directly said what he found, "A girl."

"An ordinary girl? The Duchess asked.

"Not quite ordinary, she was unlike anything I've ever seen."

"Head Priestess and Scholar, your thoughts?" The King turned his sight at the woman and man in the room.

"An omen, perhaps, a gift, could be anything, maybe the Goddess wanted to show us something," the priestess was stumped as she replied.

"Could be... I heard a forbidden book by a mad scholar once said that creation began with an explosion, maybe the same event, but smaller in scale? It's just my theory, further research is required," the scholar said as he rested his hand against his chin.

"A study is fine, but I would like to supervise the research, I don't want any harm inflicted upon the girl because if anything happens to her, then anything can happen to us," the priestess said as she nodded her head at the scholars.

"Anyone else disagrees?" The King asked around the room.

"I disagree. Curiosity is fine, but I won't let it jeopardize the kingdom's security. I propose we kill it and let it be the end before it can cause us any harm."

“By the goddess, are you that cold?” The Duchess looked at the old knight with disgust.

“Yes, it is cold here, but I know what you meant. Trust me when I say, nothing good will come if we play with fire. As I said, it’s better to extinguish it before it can spread.”

“I see that your fear has clouded your judgment, commander, but fire, if used properly, can benefit us,” The Duke pointed out.

“Use?! We don't even know what that thing is!” The old knight slammed his hand against the wooden table. He turned his pleading gaze at his Highness, “Please My King, end it”

“The fear of the unknown is understandable, commander, but if we don't know where that fear came from, how do we even know how to deal with it one day? What if this thing happens again, but on a more large scale than before? Think of the future, commander,” the scholar spoke out.

“We won’t have a future if we risk the present.”

“Enough. I have decided the girl will go with the scholar,” the King announced, and the old knight’s heart heavied deeply, but he respects his king's decisions, so he had to back down.

“If there is anything else to say, any issue, any problem, raise it now or we shall meet in the next meeting,” the people in the room held their voice. The King recognized the silence as an answer, “let’s end this meeting, at this moment. All of you may leave.”

"Long Live, The King," the people in the room said with their downcast eyes and their chins lowered.

The only door to the room opened, revealing two guards behind it with their swords sheathed beside them. The two guards took a couple of steps back, making a way for the people inside to leave. The scholar and the priestess bowed at their ruler again before leaving the room. The King raised his hand at the Duke and Duchess, stopping them before they could take a step. They turned to face his Highness, “Before you leave, would both of you like to join me and my wife for dinner tonight?”

“It will be an honor, your highness,” both of them answered before bowing their heads at the king. They raised their chins and left the room leaving the king and the old knight behind.

“My King,” the old knight called out.

“I know… if it pleases you, then if any threats should arise, you will have full authority to deal with it," The King sighed while the old knights nodded as a sign of gratitude for his reconsideration.

“Thank you, My King,” the old knight bowed deeply as the King made his way to the door and out of sight.

Just near the room, beside it is a spiral staircase, where the wall is the thinnest and you could slightly hear the discussion that was held inside with a single cup of glass. I mean you could guess whose ear it was that leaned against it; yes, it's none other than the curious prince and his loyal maid, Gabriella. The maid fidgeted and panicky glanced around her in distress while the prince still deeply focused on getting the information that he wanted.

"My Prince, you shouldn't eavesdrop on the king's meeting. It goes against the law, we might get tossed into the dungeon, if we get caught.*

"If we get caught," the Prince smirked.

"So what happens again when you get caught?"

"That's not possible. They don't know we're here."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Oh, cake!" The Prince should have realized that it wasn't his maid that asked him that question because his maid doesn't sound like someone who had a thick beard and a bald head. He quickly turned and his trusty maid was nowhere to be seen.

"How did she do that?" He whispered to himself.

The prince's guilty smile and shrunken head were enough to put a half-smile on the old knight's face, but it was enough to let him go; the commander pinched the prince's earlobe and pulled it with him up the stairs.

"Commander Julius. Wait! Ouch, ouch! Wait! You can't treat the prince of the kingdom like this!"

"Oh? Would you prefer being in chains?"

"No...where are we going anyway?"

"Training."

"Oh, Goddess, no. I would prefer the dungeon than training."

"And that's why we are going there," The old knight formed a sadistic smirk and the prince stared at it with despair. He groaned and sighed while occasionally yelped in pain as the commander forced him to follow.