"You were the one who gave the information, correct?" The man in military uniform stepped forward, the insignia on his right shoulder displaying the Estellia family crest clearly.
"Yes," the clerk responded, now visibly nervous. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so eager for the reward the Estellias had promised for information about Annabelle's whereabouts.
"Where is she now?" the guard asked. Behind him, a full platoon of armed men had secured the perimeter around the teleportation station.
"F-Frosten," he stammered in terror.
"FROSTEN?! WHY?! HOW?!" The man slammed his hand against the counter, the wooden surface snapping in half from the force.
"She came here requesting two tickets. She was with a young man who had a scarf covering his face... I... I couldn't make out his features," the clerk explained, his voice shaking.
"AND YOU GAVE HER THE TICKETS KNOWING WHO SHE WAS?!" The guard grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off his feet in rage.
"Denying service was... was against company policy!" the man stuttered in fear.
At this point, he no longer cared about any reward. He just wanted to survive this encounter.
"Take this fool away. Detain him," the guard commanded, gesturing to other uniformed men with stern expressions.
"Understood, sir."
"Please... I... I didn't know... please let me go!" the clerk screamed as he was dragged away.
"Pray we find her in Frosten, or you'll lose your head for your stupidity," the guard called after him.
"Sir," an officer approached, holding a small device.
He turned to face the subordinate.
"What do we do about this?" the officer asked, showing him a relic. "It seems whoever has her is extremely smart. The tracker's been frozen."
The guard sighed heavily. The situation was dire, and now that it was confirmed someone was actually holding her, it made everything worse.
"Send word to base. The shadows should be dispatched to track them. The lord is getting impatient," he ordered.
...
...
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Anna pulled at her hair like a woman possessed, her frustration finally boiling over.
"THIS IS THE TENTH CAVE! THE TENTH FREAKING CAVE! WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN CAVES AT THE NORTH POLE?!" She was absolutely livid. How could this monster continue to torment her like this? Yes, she had done terrible things to him before, but this was madness.
She pulled her hair while screaming and glaring at him, but he remained completely unperturbed. In fact, he wasn't even listening to her anymore.
Floating in midair, he was fighting the urge to sleep more than anything else. He had commanded Anna to use her flight ability on him, and now he enjoyed the cold air, stress-free while he regained his ether. Meanwhile, he made sure she trudged through the ice and snow, ignoring her wailing as he sent her repeatedly into caves to retrieve anything useful.
Of course, she had returned with various items, most of them useless anyway. But with each cave she entered, she came out looking more like a lunatic. Her ether was depleting rapidly since he actually found flying more convenient—it gave him a higher view of the topography. Or perhaps he was just being lazy and letting his mind conjure excuses. Either way, he remained frustratingly unconcerned about her suffering.
She had fought numerous monsters at this point. Giant cobras so massive she could barely see their full length. Enormous manticores. Gigantic spiders she barely managed to kill. And to make matters worse, he wouldn't even let her ether refill in peace. He kept wasting it, making her suffer until she could barely feel her legs.
"Go... I see another mountain up ahead. It should be it," he said lazily, willing himself forward through the air.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She roared again, completely and utterly frustrated. She needed to do something fast, or she might actually lose her mind.
Now here she was, inside yet another cave. It was huge and dark, the ominous atmosphere it projected wasn't better than any of the others. If anything, it was worse.
Absolutely worse.
"I have to kill him one way or another. But he already said I would die if he dies," she bit her nail nervously. "AHHHH!" She pulled her hair in frustration. "How about I just... paralyze him? He won't be dead, right?" she said, but then shook her head. "He said I can't be too far from him," she muttered, annoyed that he had accounted for everything. If she paralyzed him, she would have to carry him around with her wherever she went.
"But how do I even do it? I can't cast spells on him," she said, exasperated.
This was it. She was doomed.
Perhaps death would be a better option than this endless torment.
She had tried everything she could think of. The slave contract seemed to have no loopholes, no weaknesses she could exploit. Every attempt at rebellion brought pain, every thought of escape was met with magical resistance.
Her noble upbringing had never prepared her for this. She was used to being the one in control, the one making demands. Now she was reduced to crawling through frozen caves, fighting monsters, and following the whims of someone she considered beneath her.
But even as these thoughts plagued her mind, her pride refused to let her accept defeat. She was Annabelle, daughter of a duke, one of the most powerful young nobles in the kingdom. There had to be a way out of this nightmare.
The cave stretched deeper into the mountain, its walls covered in a thin layer of ice that reflected her torchlight in eerie patterns. Strange formations jutted from the ceiling, and the air grew colder the further she ventured.
Something felt different about this cave. The others had been merely empty or filled with monsters. This one had an almost ancient quality to it, as if it had been waiting for someone to discover its secrets.
All of a sudden, while lost in thought, something crawled down the wall.