Frozen Heart
Prologue
There is a story in Magnolia that mothers and fathers always tell their children at night, when the winter’s chill is safely locked outside and the summer heat held the snowy mountains at bay.
As it usually is, the story is about a girl.
She was as beautiful as a snowflake, with hair as white as snow and eyes so blue as to be made from ice, a wonderful child of the elements.
Wherever she went followed snow and games and laughter, a force of nature all her own that dulled the winter’s harshness with joy.
Everyone in the city loved her, their little snow fairy, who made all the winters calm and soft until spring came to warm the people once more.
Word of her powers spread throughout Fiore, a testament to her power over the elements of winter, and even mages admitted that her latent strength was immense.
But where there is great power, there grows an insatiable hunger to own that power.
A dark wizard came to Magnolia one day, when the girl was nearly full-grown, lusting after the great power and the girl who housed it.
But she was a trickster in her own right, a mischievous child of wind and snow, and would not be so easily fooled.
His endeavors to earn the girl’s favor were thwarted at every turn, any attempts to court her backfiring spectacularly at just the right moment, and the wizard’s anger grew.
It was when he asked the girl’s father for her hand, and was summarily rejected, that his temper truly flared.
Mad with pride and jealousy, he vowed revenge on those that would steal the girl’s affections from him, seeing himself as the only one worthy of her attention.
The wizard laid siege to the town, his magical rings creating thunderstorms and floods that devastated anyone caught in their path.
Seeing this, the girl intervened, turning the floods to snow and using the North Wind to shove the storms over the nearby mountains.
But this had been his plan all along.
The wizard called upon an old magic, older than almost anyone could remember, and laid a curse on the girl’s soul.
Never again shall you know touch or warmth or companionship. Ageless as the frozen sea, you will watch the world pass by, as lonely as the glaciers that stand guard at the world’s peak. This will be true for always…
Until an act of true love thaws your frozen heart.
Her magic flared as it was bound by the curse, freezing most of what had not been destroyed, and her father moved to hold his daughter-
And froze.
The moment he made contact with bare skin, his own body froze to solid ice, expression caught in a moment of horrified surprise.
Oh, but the realization tore at the girl’s heart, and she fled the town in icy tears, taking refuge in the nearby mountains.
From there, she watched the town rebuild, detached from the world.
So, she made a new home, a magnificent castle of ice that clung to the mountain peak, and hid herself away there.
Her gift had been turned into a curse, a danger to all who would draw near, so she pulled the snowy storms in like a shroud and warned away all who would seek her out.
She became a master of the blizzard and the thundersnow, the tundra and the glacier, as she had been of snowballs and ice skating, and the girl they had once known was gone.
Now, and forevermore, she would be known as the Snow Queen.
Of course, children would ask if there was a happily ever after, if a brave mage had gone and won her heart with True Love’s Kiss, and the mothers would lie and the fathers would evade, because they knew the truth.
For there was no happy ending for the Snow Queen, hidden in her ice palace high above Magnolia.
There was no happy ending, because life is not a fairytale.
As it usually is, the story is about a girl.
She was as beautiful as a snowflake, with hair as white as snow and eyes so blue as to be made from ice, a wonderful child of the elements.
Wherever she went followed snow and games and laughter, a force of nature all her own that dulled the winter’s harshness with joy.
Everyone in the city loved her, their little snow fairy, who made all the winters calm and soft until spring came to warm the people once more.
Word of her powers spread throughout Fiore, a testament to her power over the elements of winter, and even mages admitted that her latent strength was immense.
But where there is great power, there grows an insatiable hunger to own that power.
A dark wizard came to Magnolia one day, when the girl was nearly full-grown, lusting after the great power and the girl who housed it.
But she was a trickster in her own right, a mischievous child of wind and snow, and would not be so easily fooled.
His endeavors to earn the girl’s favor were thwarted at every turn, any attempts to court her backfiring spectacularly at just the right moment, and the wizard’s anger grew.
It was when he asked the girl’s father for her hand, and was summarily rejected, that his temper truly flared.
Mad with pride and jealousy, he vowed revenge on those that would steal the girl’s affections from him, seeing himself as the only one worthy of her attention.
The wizard laid siege to the town, his magical rings creating thunderstorms and floods that devastated anyone caught in their path.
Seeing this, the girl intervened, turning the floods to snow and using the North Wind to shove the storms over the nearby mountains.
But this had been his plan all along.
The wizard called upon an old magic, older than almost anyone could remember, and laid a curse on the girl’s soul.
Never again shall you know touch or warmth or companionship. Ageless as the frozen sea, you will watch the world pass by, as lonely as the glaciers that stand guard at the world’s peak. This will be true for always…
Until an act of true love thaws your frozen heart.
Her magic flared as it was bound by the curse, freezing most of what had not been destroyed, and her father moved to hold his daughter-
And froze.
The moment he made contact with bare skin, his own body froze to solid ice, expression caught in a moment of horrified surprise.
Oh, but the realization tore at the girl’s heart, and she fled the town in icy tears, taking refuge in the nearby mountains.
From there, she watched the town rebuild, detached from the world.
So, she made a new home, a magnificent castle of ice that clung to the mountain peak, and hid herself away there.
Her gift had been turned into a curse, a danger to all who would draw near, so she pulled the snowy storms in like a shroud and warned away all who would seek her out.
She became a master of the blizzard and the thundersnow, the tundra and the glacier, as she had been of snowballs and ice skating, and the girl they had once known was gone.
Now, and forevermore, she would be known as the Snow Queen.
Of course, children would ask if there was a happily ever after, if a brave mage had gone and won her heart with True Love’s Kiss, and the mothers would lie and the fathers would evade, because they knew the truth.
For there was no happy ending for the Snow Queen, hidden in her ice palace high above Magnolia.
There was no happy ending, because life is not a fairytale.