After knowing that I might, eventually, get a veritable host of spirit-infused Ice constructs, I had a wide smile on my face. Maybe, for once, we wouldn’t be hopelessly outnumbered. But before I could begin working on those constructs, I had some other work to do.

While Lenore was training that first spirit I was busy, trying to understand if there was some drawback to giving them bodies. For example, if I were to permanently lose the portion of Astral Power used to create the body once it becomes theirs, I would most certainly not create more of them, not unless I could find a way around it. But if I could create them without problems, I would happily give bodies to all the spirits in the valley, literally raising an army from the Ice.

Restoring the first order of business, I pulled out the Soul Prison. I had a few ideas about how I might be able to break it, allowing the Nidhögg to break free but it would still need a lot of effort. Especially as I didn’t just want to let the dragon out, with its disembodied spirit returning to the river of reincarnation to be born anew some time in the future, I wanted to give it a body, so it could remain on Mundus and do what good apocalyptic dragons did.

Sitting on my throne, I pushed my mind towards the Soul Prison, curious if there would be a change, now that I was crowned Queen. The moment mental communion was established, I could feel amusement but also acknowledgement and even a bit of admiration, right before a flood of images and concepts inundated my mind. While the torrent of thought wasn’t chaotic, it certainly was overwhelming, with instructions, requests and even a short notion of congratulations mixed all together.

Shaking my head, I pulled back a little, trying to process what I had just experienced. Maybe the most important part was a hint on how to funnel power into the Prison, using a method similar to the one I had used before, where I had allowed the Nidhögg to influence and use my own spellcraft. The important difference was, this method didn’t use my body, it could be used to create a siphon, allowing an outside power source, such as the Nexus, to be directly funnelled into the Prison. It would take some time and delicate carving to create the funnel but I already had an idea of how to do that.

Sliding down the tower, I walked over to one of the pillars I had created to allow me access to the inner part. These pillars were, now, redundant, the central tower theoretically able to channel the entire power of the Nexus. But I didn’t just want to turn the tower into that power siphon, simply because it was mine, my very throne the key to controlling it.

But these pillars, strong enough to channel roughly three-quarters of the Nexus’ power output, they could be used and I had little emotional attachment to them. Focusing, I raised an Orb of Ice from the glacier, channelling power from myself and the pillar to infuse it. It was remarkably simple, the Ice of the glacier, infused by the Nexus for uncounted years, was almost Eternal in its own right and pushing it over that edge was no great feat of magical prowess. The only problem was that I had to make sure the runes and formations I wanted to build into the Ice were there before the process was finished, or even I would be hard-pressed to carve them into the Ice. Eternal Ice was, as one would expect, incredibly difficult to change, once it was fully established.

Whistling to myself, I walked around the valley, creating a focus orb for each of the pillars, before finally, some eight hours after I had started, I set the last orb next to the pillar it was supposed to bind with. By now, night had fallen, allowing me to simply step through the shadows and appear on my tower.

However, the moment I stepped into the Shadows, I realised that now, I truly wasn’t alone. There were countless beings around me and only thanks to the previous encounter with the remnant spirit, I was able to recognise them. They were just like that one, only they were bound in the Shadows, instead of the physical plane. Maybe, if I got Lenore to help, I would be able to either keep them in the Shadows, to stop others from doing what I did or I could bring them into the physical world, working as scouts and assassins. Either way, it was an interesting and quite welcome discovery.

Stepping out of the shadows on top of my tower, I plopped down on my throne and for a few minutes, I simply relaxed. It was surprisingly comforting to know I had the entire power of the Nexus at my fingertips, strong enough to move mountains or bury them in Ice if I so desired.

But no, I still had work to do, namely, create the Keystone to link the five focus orbs around the tower together, so they could funnel power into the Soul Prison, strengthening the Nidhögg until we could strike the Prison, a blow from the outside linking to a blow from the inside, the combination enough to shatter it.

Reaching out, I pulled a large chunk of Ice from the glacier, almost three metres in diameter and let it float to the top of my tower. Just that relatively simple feat would have drained a lot of my Astral Power, but with the Nexus at my disposal, it was trivial. With a grin on my face, I let it sit above the platform up top, slowly forming and carving it, turning it into the keystone I needed. As the night went on, that irregularly shaped chunk slowly turned into a finely carved crystal, with countless small runes carved on every surface. Finally, I felt that I was finished and reached out, putting my control over the Nexus to the test, to move all five of the focus orbs at the same time, putting them on top of their respective pillars and linking them into the Nexus. Power linked up, the focusing orbs were locked in place by the power flowing through them and I could let go and watch as they did their thing.

At that moment, power surged all around the valley, beams of pure Astral Power shooting from the five pillars to the keystone in the middle, a beautiful web of silvery light. Once it reached the keystone, the crystal lit up with that very power, all the runes starting to glow as the five streams merged into one and began flowing into the Soul Prison.

It would take some time, a few days, maybe even a week, for the Nidhögg to get enough strength to shatter the prison and in the meantime, I could only access some of the Nexus’ power. But compared to what I could do by myself, even a small part of the flood the Nexus could produce was enough for me to work with.

With the siphon installed, I leaned back on my throne, letting my eyes fall shut. Creating the tower had been exhausting enough and adding the fiddly, detailed work needed to create the power siphons had finished me off.

“Quite impressive, love,” Sigmir’s voice whispered in my ear and I began to smile.

“Thank you, dear. I just hope I’m doing the right thing. I believe I am, but is it truly right to employ any means necessary to accomplish my goal? I don’t know the long-term consequences of my actions,” I admitted. It was something I had never dared to consider, not even in the privacy of my own mind. I was, at the end of the day, dealing with an elder power, one I hoped to use as a scourge to get my vengeance. I was under no illusions that I could actually trust the Nidhögg, at least not outside of very distinct circumstances. It would be in my debt, that was one thing I had going for me and what I wanted was, at least according to legend, its own purpose. But how far could i trust the legends, how close would my experience match them?

I simply didn’t know.

“Only you can know that. I, for one, trust in you and your judgement, that you are following the path you are on because you believe that it is the right one. The only question is, who set you on that path in the beginning?” she asked, my smile fading a little. But before I could consider the question too deeply, I felt my mind fading, the dream around me getting faint and indistinct.

Trying to hold onto Sigmir’s presence, I slipped into a deep slumber, my only focus on her comforting embrace.