Chapter 932: What happened to Aelyra?
Strax did not take Mercedes to a meeting room.
He did not lead her to the office, nor to the main hall, nor to any place where a diplomatic conversation could happen with tea, comfortable chairs, and carefully chosen words. After a few minutes of silence in the corridor, he merely gestured for her to follow him and began walking toward the deepest wing of the mansion.
Mercedes understood before she even asked.
The path changed.
The bright, well-kept corridors gave way to narrower, colder, quieter passages. The tapestries disappeared. So did the windows. The light from the magical lamps became lower, bluer, casting long shadows against the stone walls. With each door they passed, the feeling of being inside a house disappeared a little more, replaced by the presence of something subterranean, ancient, and carefully isolated from the rest of the property.
"You brought her here," Mercedes said.
Strax did not look back.
"I did."
"Instead of killing her at the castle."
"Yes."
Mercedes walked a few steps behind him, keeping her arms crossed while her aura remained rigidly contained. The ice that had leaked from her in the courtyard had finally stopped spreading, but small particles still occasionally formed around her hands. She was no longer in explosive fury. She was worse. She was cold enough to think.
"And what exactly do you intend to show me?"
Strax stopped before a door reinforced by black and white runes.
"Consequence."
The word was simple.
The door opened.
A heavy smell came from within.
Mercedes did not react immediately, but her eyes narrowed. The air in the dungeon was different from any other part of the mansion. Not merely damp or dark. There was magic there. Containment magic, preservation, forced healing, and controlled pain, all layered so densely that even breathing seemed to pass through something viscous.
Strax entered first.
Mercedes followed him.
The dungeon was wide, circular, and sunk into the stone beneath the mansion. Thick chains descended from the ceiling. Runic circles covered the floor. On the walls, dim crystals pulsed slowly like sleepy eyes. At the center of the room was a low platform, surrounded by symbols that prevented any magic from escaping without authorization.
And there was Aelyra.
Mercedes stopped.
Her first reaction was not satisfaction.
It was revulsion.
The Monarch of Ice had seen wars. She had seen bodies crushed by monsters, soldiers frozen in the middle of battles, cities destroyed by magic, and sea beasts devouring entire ships. She was not innocent. She was not weak. She was not someone who easily looked away from the cruelty of the world.
But this was one of the most abject things she had ever witnessed.
Aelyra’s body had been reduced to a condition that no longer seemed to belong to a living person, held by circles of magic that prevented death and annulled any attempt at spontaneous regeneration outside external control. There were grotesque separations where continuity should have been, limbs held apart by black chains, and a series of small carnivorous creatures moving along the edges of exposed flesh as if participating in a slow and methodical ritual. Centipedes, millipedes, black ants, and monstrous-looking insects moved across the platform, obeying runic marks that guided their hunger.
Mercedes felt her stomach grow heavy.
Not from pity.
From disgust.
But the worst part was not the body.
The worst part was the head.
Separated.
Conscious.
Alive.
Aelyra’s eyes were open.
There was no longer any arrogance in them.
No storm.
No royalty.
Only pure terror, exhausted, repeated so many times that it seemed to have become the only possible expression. Her mouth moved in failed attempts to form words, but the spells around her reduced screams to broken sounds, just enough to prove there was still consciousness there.
Mercedes looked at Strax.
"This..."
She did not finish.
Before she could say anything else, a voice emerged from the darkness at the side.
"Oh, did you come to check if she is still alive?"
Frieren stepped out of the shadows as if she had just come from a library, not a punishment chamber. The elf transformed into a succubus walked with a curiously satisfied expression, holding a thin staff in one hand. From its tip, a green thread of mana stretched toward Aelyra’s body, pulsing at constant intervals, stitching life where death tried to enter.
Frieren’s smile was small.
Happy.
Terrifyingly calm.
"Do not worry, dear," she said, looking at Strax with an almost scientific tranquility. "She will not die. Ever."
Mercedes slowly turned her gaze to Frieren.
The Monarch of Ice’s expression became harder to read.
"You are keeping her alive."
Frieren nodded.
"With considerable efficiency."
"Is that healing?"
"In part."
"In part?"
Frieren approached the platform and adjusted a rune with the tip of her staff. The green thread shone brighter for an instant, and Aelyra squeezed her eyes shut, as if even the healing were merely another form of aggression.
"Ordinary healing is limited. The body tries to stabilize, reduce pain, restore integrity, and seek balance. That would be inconvenient here. So I am applying selective restoration, preventing vital failure without allowing complete functional recovery."
Mercedes stayed silent for a few seconds.
"You sound proud."
"I am."
Frieren looked at the work with genuine interest.
"It is a rare application of regenerative magic, preventive necromancy, sensory containment, and trauma control. Technically, it is brilliant."
Strax passed by her without reacting to the academic tone.
Mercedes looked at Aelyra again.
The woman who had ordered Vex’s kidnapping was there, without throne, without sea, without soldiers, without dignity. Her castle had been destroyed. Her title probably meant nothing now. Even so, Mercedes did not feel the clean relief she had expected. What she saw was too monstrous to be simple revenge.
"You are not going to kill her," Mercedes said.
It was not a question.
Strax stopped before the platform.
Aelyra tried to move her eyes toward him.
When she managed it, she trembled.
Strax observed her for a long moment.
"No."
Mercedes narrowed her eyes.
"Why?"
He turned his face only slightly.
"Because she does not deserve death."
The answer came without explosive anger, without shouting, without haste. His tone was almost calm, but there was something buried there that made the dungeon seem even colder than Mercedes’s presence.
Strax looked at Aelyra again.
"Death is easy."
Aelyra tried to speak.
Only a faint sound escaped.
Strax stepped closer, and every insect within the circle instinctively withdrew, as if recognizing a greater predator occupying the space. The fallen Monarch’s head tried to retreat, but there was nowhere to go.
"Death ends everything. It ends fear, pain, shame, and regret. It erases consciousness before it truly understands what it did."
He smiled.
There was no joy in that smile.
"I am going to make her life a hell until she gives up on living."
Mercedes did not look away from him.
"Strax."
"She ordered Vex kidnapped."
"I know."
"She ordered Vex sedated."
"I know."
"She ordered Vex locked in a box, chained, while they tried to remove her from Asgard."
His voice remained low, but each sentence made the pressure in the room increase.
Mercedes remained silent.
Because that was true.
And also because a part of her, a primitive and cold part that did not fit any moral speech, understood the impulse perfectly. If she had found Aelyra first, perhaps she would not have been merciful either. Perhaps she would have frozen every drop of her blood before remembering there were still laws, treaties, and consequences.
Strax breathed slowly.
"I am not going to pretend I am better than this today."
Frieren tilted her head slightly, observing him as if analyzing a rare reaction.
Mercedes remained still.
"Vex should not know about this."
"She will not."
"Not now, not later."
"I know."
Mercedes walked a few steps through the dungeon, keeping her distance from the platform. Her eyes passed over the runic circles, the chains, Frieren’s green thread, and Aelyra’s face. The revulsion was still there, but now mixed with something else. Not approval. Not exactly.
Understanding.
"This does not heal her fear," Mercedes said.
Strax went still.
"I know."
"It does not erase what happened."
"I know."
"It does not stop her from waking up at night remembering the box."
Strax’s hand slowly closed.
"I know."
Mercedes turned to him.
"Then do not confuse revenge with protection."
The silence fell heavily.
Frieren watched the two without interfering.
Aelyra, at the center of the platform, moved her eyes from side to side, perhaps trying to understand whether Mercedes might be a chance at mercy. But when the Monarch of Ice’s gaze finally landed on her, that hope died immediately.
Mercedes approached Aelyra’s head and crouched.
Her face was cold.
Not like uncontrolled ice.
Like judgment.
"You were lucky."
Aelyra tried to form a word.
Mercedes continued.
"Not because he will keep you alive. Not because Frieren will prevent your death. Not because your body still breathes somehow."
She leaned close enough for Aelyra to see every detail of her blue eyes.
"You were lucky because Vex did not see what they did to you."
Aelyra trembled.
Mercedes stood.
"Because she is still kind enough to be frightened by cruelty. And we are going to keep this away from her."
Strax watched Mercedes in silence.
The Monarch of Ice turned to him.
"Do whatever you want with Aelyra. But when you leave here, wash that expression off before you look at Vex."
He did not answer immediately.
Mercedes continued.
"She needs a father. Not an executioner."
The sentence struck deeper than any accusation.
Strax closed his eyes for an instant.
When he opened them, the fury still existed.
But it was a little more contained.
"You are right."
Mercedes nodded once.
Frieren smiled softly, as if the entire conversation had confirmed something interesting in her research on draconic emotional bonds.
"So do I continue?"
Strax looked at Aelyra.
The fallen woman no longer had the strength to sustain even hatred.
"Continue."
Frieren seemed pleased.
"With pleasure."
Mercedes turned toward the exit before the scene could become even more unbearable. Strax remained for another moment, staring at Aelyra as if he wanted to carve that sight somewhere cold inside himself.
Then he walked after Mercedes.
The dungeon door closed slowly behind them.
Outside, the corridor seemed almost too clean, too silent, too normal. Mercedes took a deep breath, letting the cold air fill her lungs and expel part of the horrible smell that seemed to have stuck to her memory.
Strax passed by her without saying anything.
Mercedes followed.
For a few seconds, only the sound of their footsteps echoed over the stone.
Then she spoke.
"Vex will ask."
"I know."
"What will you say?"
Strax took a while to answer.
"Enough of the truth."
Mercedes looked at him.
"Meaning?"
"That the woman who tried to take her away can no longer hurt her."
The Monarch of Ice observed his face.
"That is enough for now."
"Yes."
They continued climbing toward the upper floors, leaving the dungeon farther and farther behind. With each flight of stairs, the air became less heavy, less dark, less impregnated with punishment. When they finally reached the main corridor, the mansion’s warm light seemed almost strange.
Strax stopped for a moment.
He passed a hand over his face.
Mercedes noticed the gesture.
"Before entering her room," she said.
"I know."
"Breathe."
Strax looked toward the distant door where Vex rested.
Then obeyed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The aura around him slowly withdrew, not disappearing completely, but no longer seeming like a blade pointed at the entire world.
Mercedes observed that without commenting.
Strax finally opened his eyes.
"Better?"
"Less frightening."
"Was that a compliment?"
"That was the most you will receive right now."
He let out a short laugh, without humor, but real enough to seem human for an instant.
Mercedes walked beside him.
And together, they headed toward Vex’s room, leaving behind the woman who had provoked a dragon, a mother, and an entire family of monsters.
Aelyra would live.
That was the punishment.
Vex would sleep.
That was the priority.
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