Then he saw the elevated floor at the opposite end of the room and what lay upon it. A great throne: tall, mighty and made of icicles that had been somehow intricately woven together in an intricate criss-cross pattern. The throne itself was encased in clear frozen crystal and seated upon it was a lone female figure.

She was at once the most terrifying and beautiful creature that William had ever laid eyes on. It was obvious she wasn't human despite her womanly shape. Her skin was the same magnificent blue as the ice of her castle, though it retained none of the glassy texture. Instead it was rich and deep as it lightly glittered Like freshly Laid snow in morning sunlight. Looking at her was a difficult task for modesty and decency called for him to turn away and if he hadn't been quite so entranced he actually might have.

The woman was completely naked save for a crown of silver atop her head. Her body was flawlessly proportioned with slender shoulders that were raised in a confident pose and flowed into the slender waves of muscle along her arms. Fingers as delicate as snowflakes tipped with long nails as dangerous as icicles gripped the arms of the throne as she sat upright encased in her crystal prison.

The beautifully round swells of her breasts were perfectly curved and settled proudly on her chest, their firm supple peaks rising to light blue nipples. Her waist was trim and she had a smooth belly that made his fingers itch to run along the gentle contours of all she had to offer. Womanly hips flared at her waist into a beautiful arch as her bottom rested upon the throne and her long gorgeous legs were parted to show a glimpse of her sex between them. Like her nipples, the skin of those soft petals at the apex of her thighs was a Lighter shade of blue than the rest of her. Her bare feet rested on the floor beneath her with heels flaring out and toes pointed slightly inward.

She was the pinnacle of womanly allure until her face was glimpsed through the ice. Inhuman beauty stared out at him and yet like the beauty of winter it was stern, cold and cruel. Her full lips were tightly pressed together and her fierce eyes gleamed Like sapphires at all who entered her domain. Hair poured from beneath the crown in waves of midnight silk to those proud shoulders of hers. She appeared to be anywhere from twenty five to thirty five though one had only to meet her gaze to know her agelessness. A mere glance told him that she was truly ancient, everlasting and very, very powerful.

It wasn't until he looked right into those cold blue eyes that he realised he'd been walking towards her. She didn*t move inside her crystal prison. The clear ice that she and her throne had been encased within never shifted. Her eyes remained open, vigilantly staring forward at the door to her hall.

That was when William reached out and touched that sub zero prison and felt the ice beneath his fingers alarmingly begin to split under his touch. At fist it was just a small chip beneath where his fingertip had pressed against the smooth surface of the glassy substance. That Little mark then fractured into a long crack and that crack splintered into similar veins that spread throughout the clear material. The crackling noise of the ice beginning to break thundered through the silent hall until finally he could no longer see the woman beneath for the fractures were so many and so frequent.

It was then, with a deafening thunderclap, the ice exploded outward in tiny shards. William raised his hands to cover his eyes until he felt the explosion pass him. When he Lowered his hands he found himself eye to eye with the great lady who was seated beneath.

Her gaze burned into him at freezing point. Looking into those eyes as they now looked back into his felt unsettlingly as if he'd gone for a quick swim in a bath of liquid nitrogen. She regarded him for a Long moment, looking him directly in the eye as she stood a few steps from her throne and a few inches taller than he was. She'd moved with such speed that he hadn't even glimpsed it. One moment she'd been sitting, then the next she was stood there only a few feet from where he was standing.

“What trespasses upon my domain?" Her voice was dangerously calm. It resonated through him with such power that he felt his knees weaken and his heart begin to race. A viciously sharp edge hung at the edge of its strange melody.

William looked about quickly for any signs of trespassing. Then the penny dropped and he turned back to her, not without summoning a great deal of courage to do so.

“My n-name is William." The slight stutter in his voice was borne out of fear rather than the temperature.

“What is a William?" She asked with an edge of impatience that he did not like at all.

“What am I? I'm a man." He sure as hell hoped he still was at any rate.

“A man? A human? I have not had a human in my kingdom for millennia.

Perhaps you are not what you say you are. Perhaps I should dig inside you and find out what makes you." Her hand raised in a smooth graceful gesture and he caught sight of her wickedly razor edged fingernails.

“No! No. Please. I am a man and...is this what happens when you die?”

He couldn't keep the question restrained within him any Longer.

The beautiful creature tilted her head sharply at a slight angle as he asked her his question. There was a brief pause in which her expression remained hard and otherwise unreadable.

“It is what happens when you die." She finally answered.