It had started a week earlier when she was staying over at a family friend's house in the countryside. The change in the weather was so sudden and completely unexpected. Thinking it was just an anomaly in the climate, her beliefs were disproved when she received an urgent message from her family telling her to return home at once. There was an important visitor waiting for her there. Riding back as fast as she could, the air grew colder as she approached the outskirts of Adeluna City. Upon her arrival at the family estate, she was appalled at the state of the surrounding landscape. All of the plants and trees were covered in a layer of frost! Inside she found her parents waiting, with a familiar face she hadn't seen in a long time. 

Liselotte's father greeted her and brought her into the living room where everyone was seated around the fire. "Thank the gods you've come back safe Liselotte. Your mother and I were worried that you wouldn't make it when the wind started howling. Come, let's not keep them waiting." It was rare to see her father so wound up, but she was taken by surprise when she saw who was sitting in the armchair by the window. "Professor! What brings you here?" she gasped. It was her old alchemy professor, clad in her usual white frock and attire. It wasn't like her to give surprise visits. "Oh good, you're finally here!" The young woman set down the tea she had been drinking and hopped out of her seat. Running up to the half-elf, the arcanist's eyes gleamed with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. "Bad news Lise! Something big has happened, and it's only getting worse by the second! Did you see the ice forming out there? That's no ordinary hoarfrost, and you know it. It's the start of Ignius but within a couple of hours the whole place's gone freezing like the dead of Glaciem!"

"Wait, I don't follow–are you saying this whole shift in weather is the result of a powerful magical disturbance somewhere?" Liselotte interrupted. It was true that she had begun to suspect it as such, but hearing this from one of the most learned mages she knew meant this was no ordinary ice storm. "Moreover, is there anything we can do to stop it?" Her professor nodded enthusiastically, her expression showing a rare moment of seriousness. "Maybe, but it's a risky one. No promises, but I have a hunch. The scryers over at the Academy discovered a swirling vortex on this side of the world, coming right from Itjivut–that frozen rock in the middle of the southern Nyella Ocean. It's my guess that whatever's causing the crazy weather has to be there." As she explained further, Liselotte could already see the look in her mother's eyes. "Professor Ryou, if you won't mind I'd like to discuss this with my parents. This is a lot to take in, and I can't simply leave without word."

"I understand, go ahead. If they don't agree to let you go, I won't hold it against you. If I was in their shoes I'd feel the same way." With that, Liselotte pulled aside her father and mother into the study and closed the door. Taking a deep breath, she braced herself. "Father, mother. I know after hearing the news from Professor Ryou you won't approve. But before you refuse, please allow me to plead my case. My professor's a capable woman, and in spite of her quirks she's one of the most responsible people I know when the situation calls for it. I know it's dangerous, but if we don't do something about it the entire world will be encased in a tomb of frost." She didn't have any better reasons to make her case, and lowered her head. She could hear the reluctance in her mother's sighing and her father clearing his throat. 

"…Very well, my dear daughter. As much as it pains me to think of losing you, I you have my blessing." She looked up in surprise, shocked as her father took her hand and placed his over it. "If the situation is so dire, who am I to deny?" He then smiled, but she could see tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "Father…" Liselotte bit her lip and fought back tears, forcing out a smile. "…I won't let you down, I promise."

As the great iron doors slammed shut behind them, she now stood with bow in hand as she walked the frozen halls of the Vault beside her teacher. Notching an elemental arrow of fire, she focused her eyes on the walls and ceiling. "Talk about a cold reception…how are things holding up on your end Professor?" A few feet away a small white bundle of clothes on legs hobbled about stiffly with a wand at the ready.

"Gods, it's cold!" Myouga yelled at the top of her lungs. "Why does it have to be freezing in here? Argh I hate it! It makes me SO MAD!!" She was bundled up on as many layers of clothing that she owned, all at once. As a result, she was waddling like a flightless bird in snow. Though she looked and often acted like a child, the angry exclamations she was shouting came as a reminder that she was indeed an adult. When they had entered the vault she expected it to be less cold inside than outside. To her dismay, it was the opposite. She wanted to use her magic to heat the place up, but Liselotte had advised her to conserve her energy for combat. The Vault was as deadly as a rigged ruler's tomb, so she couldn't argue with her there. She was still mad over her remaining vacation days being ruined, however. Ignius only came once a year, and nobody looked forward to Glaciem. And no Ignius meant no strawberries, no grapes, no peaches, and no watermelon. This was an utter travesty.

To lift her spirits, she recalled that they were exploring an unknown vault filled with things from bygone eras. But it wasn't the jewels and treasure that she was here for–it was the reagents. Places steeped in power like this were chock-full of bits and bobs supercharged with arcane energy. And as this place hadn't existed before, even more reason to collect samples to study at the Academy. While they walked down the icy halls, Myouga began breaking off pieces of ice and putting them through a magic mirror. The other end connected to her office in Iria, where she would organize things she had picked up here later. There were an awful lot of bones lying around, all picked clean with no remaining tendons or flesh. Either way, they looked like they were worth investigating and she took several.

"Professor, please don't lag behind. I'm sure there will be plenty more to take as samples further ahead." her former student called, waiting. "Just a minute!" Myouga replied, and she skittered her way to Liselotte's side again. She then shivered, looking up. "Hey, are those bats up there? Wait they have tails so no…" Squinting her eyes, there was a long pause of silence until she discerned their true identity. "Oh look! They're wyverns! They're sooo cute! Aww, and they're even huddling together on the ceiling in clusters. I think they're also poisonous, too." At the sight of the little dragonlings, she immediately decided she wanted one. Checking her pockets she looked for anything she could use as bait to lure one down. "Fiddlesticks, all I have are these pink berries. Maybe they'll like them? Hey Lise, did you bring the thing?" 

The half-elf looked to her in confusion. "What do you mean by, 'Did you bring the thing'?" "A cage silly! For keeping pets in. Do you have one with you right now? I'm thinking of bringing a few of these cuties home after we're done." Myouga grinned pointing at the ceiling. The woman raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Yes, I do happen to have one on hand." The news made the arcanist clap her hands a few times in glee. "Great! I knew asking you to come was a good idea! Fully prepared, like always!" While they were talking, something began to approach the two silently. Although it blended in with the frosted walls, its presence caused the small wyverns to scatter and swoop down at the two explorers.

"Get down!" The alchemist and her teacher both ducked as the wyverns flew about above their heads. "How strange. Why would they suddenly spook like that?" "I dunno, beats me. They didn't do that when we came in. Huh, I wonder." As the arcanist got back up she turned her head to the side as if she had heard something. "What's the matter?" she asked. Her professor went quiet and had her sight fixated on a single spot in the distance. Without a word, she began charging up a spell and the air around them began to shift before firing straight ahead. With a flash, the entire passageway in front of them exploded into a burst of light as beams reflected off the surface of the ice. Shielding her eyes, she heard a guttural growl as something reptilian fell from its place of concealment and was now in plain view. When the flare subsided she saw something resembling a great lizard with coldness emanating from its mouth and skin. 

"Ice salamanders…" Professor Ryou muttered. "So that's what made the little guys run. As if regular salamanders weren't bad enough, they had to be ones that give you slow frostbitten death. Get ready to throw a wall up if they get too close–and back me up." Preparing a more lethal spell, the small oni's face bore an impish grin. "Now…let's see if you're as cold on the inside as you are on the outside!" Liselotte drew her bow and notched a fire arrow to the string. Keeping a look out  for any chance of a potential ambush, she stood back as the mage unleashed an onslaught of spectral projectiles. "Eat this–you sorbet lizards!" Volleys of spectral energy impaled the salamander as it moved quickly up the wall, advancing towards the two. Although the attacks connected, they only whittled off a fraction of its health. The creature then reared back and spat a chunk of ice hurtling it towards the one who had hit it. Without batting an eye, the mage materialized a portal in front of her and the blast disappeared into it as it closed. "Lise, start aiming! I'm gonna try to lock it in place!" she shouted, priming a ball of electricity.

"Yes, ma'am!" Liselotte shouted back, raising her bow and pointing the elemental arrowhead at the spot behind the salamander's head. As soon as she saw the lightning fly she let loose her shot to close in from the other side of the salamander. The beast caught on to what her professor was trying to do and moved aside, however it stepped right into the arrow's path. The sound of sizzling and a snarl of pain was music to her ears. "Bull's eye, now let's see you try spitting ice at us now." The enchantment of the arrow left a nasty sear on the salamander's skin and it was clearly in agony. Professor Ryou followed up with a shower of lighting balls electrocuting it to the point it was fried from the outside in. After the fastest five minutes in her life, the salamander was now a charred corpse on the icy floor.

"Good work Lise! Now that's what I call a nasty burn!" the mage praised. She nodded in appreciation, then asked: "By the way professor, about that portal you opened–where did that lead to?" The arcanist crossed her arms as she looked pensively at the ceiling. "Hm…I'm not really sure. But at least the ice blast didn't hit us, right?"

Somewhere in one of the study halls in the Mage's Academy in Iria, a portal suddenly appeared beside a student causing him to be frozen solid. The rest of the people studying noticed after a while, and somebody called a cleric while the others started thawing him with torches. Once the coast was clear, they went over to the salamander's corpse. Professor Ryou realized she couldn't very well fit the entire carcass through her portable enchanted mirror, so she opened another portal and shoved it in instead. A few minutes later, the fried lizard was dropped into the middle of the Academy's plant conservatory onto the pavement.

"…Well then, shall we continue?" the half-elf asked her teacher. "Yep, let's! There's samples to be taken and secrets to be discovered! Time's a-wasting!" the professor replied back.

The next portion of the walk was uneventful, thanks to their combined efforts to navigate the array of traps. Most of it were boring, standard pressure plates and spikes, or the hidden pitfalls and arrow traps. So far nothing interesting had come into view, like a hallway with bladed pendulums or spikes that followed a pattern with safe spots in between sections. By now she had taken her fill of scales, bones, and ice chunks. Without anything to distract her from the ungodly cold, Myouga was growing incredibly bored. There was only so much fauna to exterminate before the population could replenish itself, and none of the wyverns were interested in the sweet pink berries she had. This was the worst exploration trip ever.

As they kept going, she swore that they were going in circles. Sure, the walls generally looked the same but this was ridiculous. She stopped walking and put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes as she spied something she was sure she had seen before. Hearing that she was no longer walking, her student asked. "What's the matter, professor? More salamanders?" The arcanist squinted as her gaze was fixed on a spot. "Is that? Wait, no… That's a pile of rocks. Didn't we pass that stalagmite earlier?" The half-elf looked at where she was staring and shook her head. "No, I don't believe we have. There aren't any footprints leading away from it." "Hrmm…" Myouga pouted puffing her cheeks up like a blowfish. "I woulda sworn we were going in circles now." To make sure she wasn't seeing things, she took her wand and scratched an 'X' in the floor before moving on. After what felt like forever, they came upon a large room lined with strange blue-flamed torches. Her first instinct was to stick her hand into the fire, only to pull her hand back in disappointment when it failed to burn. It was definitely magical in origin, that was for sure. The only question now was how to take it…

She was starting to feel a little less frozen the longer she stayed in here. It was still chilly, but a vast improvement over the frozen nightmare outside. Liselotte was already examining the banners and books sitting around, but all Myouga wanted to do now was to stand in front of the roaring fireplace at the very end of the chamber. Leaving the alchemist's side, she skipped over towards the massive cold flames until she skidded to halt stopping a few feet away from colliding with a warty disheveled goblin. Wincing at what would've happened if she hadn't stopped soon enough, she tried to tiptoe away when her foot stepped down on a piece of dry wood with an audible snap. Immediately she stiffened as the sound caught the attention of the goblin she had attempted to avoid, and signaled three others. "Uh-oh! Um–h-hi there fellas! S-so do you come here often?" Her flimsy effort at being unassuming didn't pass with the scavengers and she didn't need to think twice when they raised their weapons and started chattering angrily. 

"AAHHHH!!!" Myouga screamed as she ran away, arrows whizzing dangerously close by. "LISE–HEEEELP!!!" She wouldn't be so worried about them coming after her if they didn't have someone with ranged weaponry. She was a squishy wizard, and it was to her advantage to take out her problems before they got close enough to hit her. That was why she always went for the casters and archers first. Unfortunately she lost her chance for a surprise attack and was now on the receiving end of one. The mage hoped her screaming would carry far enough to alert her student to come to her aid.

The tell-tale scream from her professor informed Liselotte that she had likely run into trouble, and particularly the kind that she couldn't deal with herself. Putting down the tome she swiftly notched another arrow when she saw what–or who Professor Ryou had brought with her…goblins. Four of them to be exact, and one was an archer. "A wall! Lise, throw up a wall!" The arcanist cried zigzagging in an attempt to throw the aim of the goblin archer off. Focusing her sight on the short distance between her teacher and her pursuers, with a movement of her hand a portion of the floor shot up forming a stone barrier that cut the goblins off. Nearly out of breath, her professor hid behind the alchemist panting heavily. The wall didn't hold the group of goblins for long, as they began coming out from behind it. To buy Professor Ryou more time to recover, as soon as she saw the archer goblin emerge from the back of the pack Liselotte conjured thorny vines that held all of them in place.

"Good work! Now, let's send them off…with a bang!" Her teacher wisecracked, raising her wand as she channeled arcane energies. As she did so, she began to float off the ground and her eyes glowed a bright green. Impishly grinning from ear to ear, the arcanist shouted before lobbing her spell: "KA-BOOM!" A ball of light hurtled towards the caught goblins culminating in an ear-shattering explosion–sending giblets and rubble everywhere. Liselotte had ducked down and covered her ears, but it had only lessened the effects minimally. The whole foyer shook with the power of the blast, rocking the place. Seconds later it was over, and the smoke cleared revealing an awful mess where the goblin troupe used to be. "Did you really have to cause an explosion? Goodness, my ears are still ringing!" she asked, not agreeing with her teacher's chosen course of action. "…You're probably right. But at least it was quick! They're in a better place now." 

Liselotte shook her head in disbelief. She should be used to this by now, and yet her professor still found new ways to leave her speechless. That was how eccentric mages were, she supposed. However the presence of these goblins meant they weren't the only ones here searching for something. That blast her professor had unleashed no doubt would draw the attention of other treasure-seekers within the Vault, and she wasn't ready for a full-scale battle. There were three points of entry and exit from this chamber: one leading back to the passages outside, and stairways leading up and down. "Where should we go next? There are two other directions which we can go from here, up the stairs and down." The arcanist rested her chin on her hand and pondered it thoughtfully. "Hrmm…how about…up? In case if something attacks us as we climb the stairs, we can come back down. It's easier to see if something's coming down than if something's coming up, right?" The mage's rather vague explanation of her reasoning meant that should they choose to take the stairs up, it would be easier for them to see if an enemy was approaching them than if they were to take the stairs leading down. To the half-elf, both options were the same. "Either way is fine with me. Upstairs it is then. Let's rest first lest we run head-on into another battle, right professor?" The small oni averted her eyes and pretended to ignore the mention of her previous blunder. "Fiiiiine. It's warmer in here anyway." 

Once they were ready to go, they ascended the stairs to the room above. As soon as they set foot on the last stair Liselotte felt her entire body struck with a deathly chill that was almost paralyzing. Glancing at her professor's shaking she knew it wasn't just her imagination. "T-this must be the s-source of that aberrant weather…" she said, teeth chattering. What she saw next was far different from what she had been expecting: a massive cavern completely empty of anything, except for a throne of ice and powerful beam of energy coming forth from the ground shooting up through what should be the roof of the Vault. It was easy to see why no one else was in here–the temperature was below freezing, and it was as if her fingers and toes were developing frostbite the longer she stayed. It had only been a few minutes since they entered but the cold was utterly unbearable. "It's t-too much, we need to g-go back down." She whispered to the arcanist, her arms wrapped around herself to stop her shivering. As if to emphasize her point, the guttural roar of a dragon reverberated through the chamber. "Hurry! Let's go!"

Back in the warmth of the foyer, Liselotte leaned against one of the pillars in the room. When she had heard the roar, she felt as if her heart had stopped and her blood had turned to ice. Professor Ryou was also shaken, but she still wasn't quite ready to leave just yet. "Whew…that was close, huh? Hey Lise, can we go check what's down the other set of stairs?" The alchemist sighed. After what had happened in the room with the beam of energy, she wasn't eager to spend more time in here. As she prepared to refuse, she found it hard to say no. "Alright professor, one more area. But it will have to be a quick one, and once we're done promise me we'll return home."

They went down the stairs, this time into a massive open cavern system beneath the labyrinth of tunnels they had went through to reach the foyer. The sheer scale of it seemed to dwarf the Vault above in comparison, but that wasn't the only thing here that was great. Looking overhead from the landing they were on, there were channels of water flowing around natural pillars supporting the cavern ceiling that seemed bottomless in depth. Though not as cold as the place with the beam of energy, the moving water was surely as frigid as everything else. Myouga was pretty sure they weren't going to be crossing it any time soon, having promised to make their last stop in the Vault a quick one. And neither of them had brought a swimsuit. There wasn't much of anything else in here, aside from the little winged clusters hanging from the ceiling again. At her behest, the half-elf had prepared the enchanted cage which she planned to keep their new friends until they were back in the comfort of civilization.

 Now the only thing left to do was attract the little reptiles' attention. After a few seconds of thought, the arcanist grinned knowing what to do. "Ok Lise, you might wanna cover your eyes–it's gonna be a bright one." She warned, giving her student a heads up. Without further ado, the alchemist closed her eyes knowing what she had in mind all too well. Raising her wand, she flicked her wrist and sent a shower of light orbs that exploded into a blinding rain disturbing the resting wyverns up ahead. Not too happy with the rude awakening, they began sailing through the air at the source of the irritating light. "Here they come! Uh-oh, I think they're pretty mad!" Myouga shouted as the sound of flapping wings were drowning out her voice. Soon her excitement ebbed as she began to comprehend just how many wyverns she had disturbed with her little trick. "Oh no oh no oh no, there's a lot of them! Um think Myouga, think! Widdershins–how am I gonna stun all of them?!" Her student now opened her eyes and gaped in horror at the incoming fleet of angry draconic creatures heading their way. "What in the Conclave's name did you do?!" 

"I-I gave them a little flash but I think they didn't like it very much! I can fix it!" Myouga stammered, the anxiety going to her head. Paralysis? No, there was no time. A flurry of frost balls? That was pointless, and they probably were ice-resistant if they lived here anyway. Fire was no good, and flinging mud wasn't going to make things better. Flailing in panic, she unleashed a chain of concussive blasts wildly causing a good majority of the flying lizards to be blown back. The force was enough to discourage some to go back, but the more temperamental ones were still intent on exacting vengeance. Liselotte drew her bow and was prepared to shoot when Myouga cried out, "No don't shoot! There's too many of them! We can't hurt them if we wanna bring them back!" Exasperated the alchemist replied, "They want to kill us!" "I'll fix it! I promise! Just–just hit them with a stick if they get too close to you!" She pleaded. After casting wave after wave of gusts of wind, the crowd had thinned out to less than twenty. With that being a more manageable number, Myouga started launching charges of electricity and fire to disperse them even further. In her haste, she ended up hitting a few and two smaller wyverns in particular got a double dose of lightning and fire. They plummeted to the ground unconscious, while the rest of their kin fled.

It didn't take long for Myouga to claim the two and badger her student to bring them back to full health. They were then locked in the cage and the arcanist opened a portal that would bring the two exhausted explorers back to the safety of Hiadref.