The Tragedy of Regina d'Ghiaccio

[Told by Rina, the soft-spoken "handler" for the party]

Have you ever heard the tale of Regina d’Ghiaccio? You’ve never heard of the Ice Queen? She lives up high on Mount Baratok, in a castle of icicles built at the very tip. And she hates all happiness and warmth, and in the winter she sneaks down into the valley and steals the heat from people’s bodies, leaving them frozen solid!

But the truth is: that is a lie.

The story of Regina d’Ghiacco like many stories has a kernel of truth to it that inspired the fantasy. The truth is far grimmer and sadder. I can tell it, but it is not as fun. I will need some help though!”

[Rina summons two other Vistani - Stefan, and Rozalina - to pantomime the story alongisde her behind a white screen cloth held by two other troupe members.]

"A young woman - a princess, a baronet, who is to say, it does not matter. She was a beauty herself: eyes like the winter dawn on glaciers, blond tresses like the gold her family mined in the mountains. 

[Rozalina acts as a young woman, Stefan acting out the other characters that dote on her.]

Her name was Jezra Kartova. And she was loved by all. But her first love, was the wilds. Winter was her favorite time, and she loved our alpine mountains deeply. At the first snow she would go out and dance among the flakes, saying it made her feel alive.

[Rozalina speaks with the man pretending to be animals, and dances about trying to catch unseen snowflakes on her tongue.]

Irony as bitter as Vistan’s tears.

Jezra’s end came when she and friends were climbing the slopes of Baratok, hoping to reach its summit. The avalanche that came crashing down tore away Jezra’s friends to their deaths.

[The pantominers pretend to climb, then Stefan falls down as if struck]

Jezra's keen senses gave her just a moment to dive into a small fissure. But it was also her doom, as she realized her beloved snow had trapped her there to slowly die, buried alive.

[Rozalina cowers alone behind the screen, then crumples in an unmoving ball]

Who knows exactly what happened in that cave. Who knows if something came to the poor girl and offered her escape. Perhaps freezing slowly alone in the dark, left a mark.

What is known is that Jezra Kartova wandered free from the fissure. But not as one of the living.

[Behind the screen, Rozalina stands up. Through some trick, they’ve made her hair float around her, her dress rippling in a nonexistent breeze.]

For those that have seen her—if they survive—describe a young woman as beautiful as fresh snow, as insubstantial as the winter winds, and as deadly as a blizzard.

[Stefan walks back out, pretending not to see Rozalina. She grabs him and makes him dance with her , till he rigidly stops moving mid-step.]

Dancing alone with her only partner: the dark winter.”

[Rozalina dances by herself, a sad mirror of her dance among the snowflakes earlier, then wanders off sadly. As the music fades Rozalina comes around to take a bow with Rina. Finally after a comically long time Stefan finally “unfreezes” behind the curtain to come around and bow as well. The audience hoots and claps.]

Sofia: “I think I prefer the Ice Queen. Better story.”

Arahja: "And just as true, too."

Rina: “You joke, but it's real! But I heard it from an expert. ‘Of all the unliving shades I’ve seen,’ he said, “She’s by far the most lethal, and the most beguiling.”

Arahja: “Who is the ‘expert’ you have at your beck and call to feed you horse dung? Ha. “

Rina: Well okay maybe *I* didn't hear it directly. But I swear, it was my cousin's husband over in the camp in Vallaki!"