The world has been gray for as long as I can remember. It is a world drowned in the suffocating dust of a war that refuses to die, a perpetual meat grinder fueled by the whims of two nameless, greedy tyrants. When my father was alive, he was the hearth of our home—the only light that kept the shadows at bay. But a year ago, he was conscripted and slaughtered in a border skirmish, leaving me behind with a woman who had long ago traded her soul for a bottle. Now, she only calls me "useless" or "bastard" when her pockets are hollow. In the wreckage of my life, I lost something more precious than comfort: I lost a listener.
I returned home one evening, the smell of mildew and stale ale hitting me before I even crossed the threshold. "I'm home," I murmured, my voice a mere ghost in the damp air.
"Where is it?!" My mother's scream shattered the silence like breaking glass. "Where is my money?!"
"I don't have any, Mom... the shop was closed early because of the raids..."
SLAP.
The impact sent a white-hot sting through my jaw. My frail, malnourished body crumpled to the rotting floorboards. As I fell, a small, hidden pouch slipped from my tunic—the meager silver I had scraped together for a month of bread. She lunged for it with the desperation of a starved animal.
"Liar! You would let your mother wither while you hide this?" she spat, clutching the coins to her chest. "I'm telling you, this is the last time you hide things from me!"
I had heard that phrase a thousand times. But the real "last time" was coming, and it would be written in blood and frost.
Days later, the madness returned. Her gambling debts had caught up to her. "Give me more! I know you're hoarding it!" she shrieked.
"I gave you two gold pieces yesterday! That was everything!" I shouted back, a rare spark of defiance lighting in my chest.
She didn't argue. She simply grabbed me by the collar and hurled me out into the freezing mud. "Don't you dare come back until you have gold! If you're empty-handed, die in the gutter for all I care!"
The door slammed, and the bolt clicked. I stood in the pitch-black rain, shivering. "Goddamn woman..." I hissed, my heart hardening into a stone.
I spent hours in the village, scrubbing blood and filth off the floors of a mercenary tavern until my fingernails bled. By midnight, I had 500 silver pieces—a single gold coin's worth. But as I walked the forest path home, a shadow lunged. A street urchin, no older than twelve, snatched my purse and bolted into the thicket.
"No! Give it back!" I screamed, chasing him through the thorns.
We reached the edge of the Great Obsidian Lake. I tackled him, and in our frantic struggle, we tumbled over the ledge. The water was ice-cold and deep. As I sank, my lungs burning for air, I felt my life flickering out. Is this it? To die for a piece of gold? In that moment of absolute despair, something inside my soul—a dormant, ancient spark—fractured.
KRAK.
The sound was deafening. A wave of absolute zero erupted from my chest. In an instant, the entire lake was silenced, turned into a solid block of jagged crystal. The autumn trees were flash-frozen, their leaves turning into glass. My vision flashed with a notification that burned into my mind: [Status: Unknown -> The Ice Queen].
I dragged myself onto the frozen surface. My reflection in the ice was a stranger. My hair was no longer brown; it was a glowing, ethereal blue, flowing like frozen fire. My eyes were no longer dull; they were twin diamonds, cold and sharp. Beside me, the boy was a statue of ice, his last expression of terror preserved forever. I took my money from his frozen hand and walked back, leaving a trail of frost with every step.
I kicked the door of our shack open. My mother looked up, a bottle in hand, and screamed. "What happened to you? Your hair... your eyes... you look like a monster!"
"Here is your money," I said, my voice sounding like grinding glaciers. I threw the 500 silver at her feet.
She looked at the silver, then at my new, otherworldly beauty. A sickening, predatory grin spread across her face. "Oh... this is more than enough. You've become quite the 'S-Grade' treasure, haven't you?"
"What are you talking about?" I stepped back, a chill of dread rising.
"You're going to pay off all my debts, child. Every single one."
She began to chant an ancient, forbidden sleep hex. My new power was immense, but my body was exhausted. My knees buckled. As the world turned black, I heard her voice through the haze, calling out to a magical terminal.
"Gaya_TheBroker... Connect!"
The air hummed with dark energy. "Gaya? I've got a live one. High-grade. The Ice Queen herself. How much for a slave that can freeze a city?"
That was the moment I ceased to be a person. I was no longer a daughter, or even a girl. I was an asset. A weapon. A slave. And as the darkness took me, I made one final vow: I would turn this entire world into a graveyard of ice.