It took me a few seconds to recover after seeing those two boxes. I could easily accept the title, and it even tickled me that I had gained it, though I had no idea what it would actually do. It wasn’t as if the glacial valley I had just claimed was filled with subjects to lord over, if I was lucky there were a couple of lichen remaining after the intense exposure to Wild Magic during the last week, everything else had either fled or died.

But the other box, that might be a problem. I was nearly certain that it wasn’t just a notification for me but one that had been sent to every sapient being on Mundus, Traveller and Native alike, maybe with an added quest to deal with me. And if there was no automatic quest, I could already see every official with the authority to issue quests putting one out there, given that the notification talked about the end of the world.

Which also made me smile with pride, being judged by the system to hold the power to substantially alter the course of the world was not something I had expected but I greatly appreciated it. Now, I only had to carry out my vengeance before I was dealt with and maybe add a bit of flair to my valley, if the system set me up as a boss, I would have to bring something to the table that made me worthy of that label.

Just as I was coming to terms with my new title and role as enemy of the entire world, I felt something odd. It was as if my senses had undergone a minute shift, allowing me to perceive something previously hidden from me, a presence that was staring at me. Looking up, I focused on that presence, at first thinking it might have some relation to the Nidhögg, only to see a weird disturbance in the air.

Focusing on that disturbance, I smelled a faint scent, giving me the impression of age, decay and death, not quite akin to the smell of a grave but close enough to understand. What I was looking at was a creature of pure Astral Power, similar to an elemental but not as primal, more akin to a spirit.

Pushing on my bond with Lenore, I asked my friend to attend me, only to realise that she already was on her way, pushing her wings to reach me as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I kept an eye on the disturbance, only to notice that it wasn’t the only one. There were a couple of them, though only one had actively approached me.

It took a few minutes for my feathery friend to swoop in and I could feel concern and curiosity over our link.

“Did you see that message of the world?” she asked as soon as she was in range, not even giving me time to speak.

“The one calling for all heroes? Yes, I did. And yes, it appeared the very second I finished the tower, named it Frozen Citadel and gained the Title of Ice Queen. Unless there is some incredibly amusing coincidence going on, I think it’s safe to say that it’s aimed at me,” I replied, trying very hard to act unflappable as if being declared enemy of all was nothing to be concerned about, just another day on the job. Sadly, given the close connection between us, trying to deceive Lenore was not something I could accomplish unless I deceived myself first.

“I see,” she accepted my words, but I could feel that the confirmation had shaken her. “What are you planning to do? The elves will be here soon, it’s only going to take them a few days and there will be more coming. We can’t fight an army, can we?” she asked, the previous, fatalistic certainty that we’d be unable to fight fading, maybe as she remembered just how many Yeti we had fought in this very valley. A feat we had accomplished before we had constructed the magical focus we were now standing on. The focus, powered by the Nexus, very much gave me the ability to fight an army, or at least throw incredible amounts of power at them.

“For now, I’m planning to borrow your sight to find out what that is,” I nodded towards the disturbance, shifting my sight to look through her eyes as she was looking at it. Curiously, to her senses, there was nothing there.

Intrigued, I asked her to move into her Hallow, so I could use the sight myself and once she did, I could see a strangely shapeless clump of Astral Power, primarily comprised of the elements I had smelled earlier but mixed with traces of something else.

“Who and what are you?” I asked, pushing my thoughts through the ability gained by my bond with Lenore, the Universal Understanding. If the thing was capable of thought, it would be able to understand me and vice versa.

Just as I finished, the thing fluctuated wildly, not projecting outwards but shifting rapidly, the movement making me think of a child hopping down in excitement. The response was almost as curious, somewhat similar to the way the Nidhögg spoke, only far less powerful, allowing me to understand their speech with only a little effort.

The longer we communicated, the wider the grin on my face became, as it turned out, I had some subjects after all. Not living subjects, but I wouldn’t discriminate against them for their lack of body. They, both the formless blob of power before me and the many similar blobs all around my valley, were remnant spirits, left behind fragments of living beings that had coalesced here due to the power of the Nexus. I was pretty sure they were not ghosts, not intrinsic individuals but more something like conglomerates of thoughts and power.

But due to their presence in my domain and the fact that I had become the queen of these lands, it made them my subjects, something the one before me was both incredibly excited about but also completely confused by. They never had agency before, so being ruled by another didn’t change things but suddenly there was someone who had agency over them, not just the mindless binding power of the Nexus that kept them here.

Given our location and the previous inhabitants, it seemed that the remnant spirits had some understanding of hunger, consumption and hunting but that was pretty much it, they had no understanding of agency or, as it seemed, could even comprehend such a thing. They simply were, and unless moved by an outside force, would continue to be, maybe until the world itself ended.

Now, what to do with such spirits, other than experiment on them to find out what made them actually tick? Lenore and I quickly began to consider what could be done with them and our first idea was to create a magical construct, similar to the ones we always used to scry upon our enemies and try binding the spirit to it. Or maybe invite the spirit to inhabit it, given the disposition I had observed that would very much accomplish the binding, without us having to try magically influencing it.

Our first construct was relatively simple, a raven-shaped construct modelled after Lenore, roughly fifty centimetres in length and with a wingspan of about a metre. We had done little to give it the ability to move, only added some runic circles that would allow for manipulation of the Ice, before offering it to the blob I had talked with.

It took a bit of explaining but once I managed to get the idea across, there were some fluctuations before they moved into the construct and I could feel an attempt to take over the Astral Power I had formed the construct with. The power was still mine but I relinquished control, allowing the blob to bind with it. In the process, I could see how the spirit infused the construct, almost becoming one with it, the Ice losing its crystalline lustre and gaining an ash-grey taint. Curiously, the area where their eyes would be changed even more, turning black with a smudge of silver in the middle, giving the bird construct a quite sinister feel.

As the construct was infused by the spirit, I realised that the changes weren’t just optical. Before, the construct had simply been part of my power but now, it was more akin to an independent creature and while I might still be able to take back control over the Astral Power I had used, there had been a fundamental change, some sort of disconnect. I would have to take a closer look at the implications but my current hypothesis was that the construct had become the body of that spirit.

“This has potential,” I mused to Lenore, quite happy with the looks of my newest project. “Do you want to instruct our newest subordinate on how to bird, Lenore? You are the resident expert, after all,” I grinned, noticing that our effort hadn’t gone unnoticed, more of these odd blobs moving to the top of my tower, streaming towards it from all around the valley.

Maybe this Queen-gig was even better than I had thought.