In honesty, Laoren had prepared herself to take at least a single bite or something. Perhaps she had erred in hanging with Outsiders too much in the past; as a local, Mia definitely looked like she had a much better handle on her abilities. The only hazard that had so much as threatened the winged human was a stray ice shard. Fortunately, she had managed to avoid that by slipping and falling onto the floor in a panic as it whizzed by.

By the time she picked herself up and rubbed at her butt, the welcoming party had already been wiped out. Laoren gave the customary 'job well done' whistle as she looked up the staircase. "Very nice, very nice. I'll have to write you a recommendation, not that you'd probably need it. I even forgot to grant you my empowerment earlier." As she said that, Laoren raised her hand for a high-five, her palm radiating the blackish energy she had bestowed upon the mallet earlier.

"So, what do your dungeon senses tell you our path is? Straight ahead through the main door? Or should we check out the kitchens or something downstairs. For some reason I usually generate at least one kitchen."

"An oral review, then. I will certainly pass your name on," Laoren said with a slight nod. She looked around at the icy domain and sighed. If only she could conjure such things up out of nowhere, wouldn't that be something? "You have the right idea. I can only give things a different form. If I wanted an army, I would have to find a concept that people considered roughly as threatening as an army."

Lowering her hand for the time being, Laoren looked at the side doors where Mia was looking. "Ah, you've come around on the joys of abusing the narrative, have you? Soon, you too will be standing in taverns holding a vague and rickety sign. Provided you needed help fighting, which I can't imagine," she admitted as she walked towards the door that her accomplice was looking at.

The handle did not give way when Laoren tried it, and it seemed to be locked. Undeterred, she reached down and tapped her boots, channeling her energy into them. After three or so kicks, she was able to knock a small hole in the door with the help of her magic, after which she reached through and unlocked the door. "You probably could have just broken it down, but I'll get rusty if I leave things up to others too much," Laoren explained, rather shamelessly for someone who had earnestly requested to be carried out of a moving train.

Within, there was indeed a kitchen of pristine quality, but, in fitting with the mansion's renaissance architecture, much less modern than kitchens nowadays. Laoren began poking around, looking at the cooking utensils with a frown. "No gas stove or anything...let me know if you see anything useful." She briefly looked at a door in the rear of the kitchen that might have led to a cold storage room, but...a cold storage room in an icy manor was a bit too many layers of cold for Laoren handle, mentally speaking.

"Ah, seems you're well-versed already," Laoren responded at Mia's comments on the dungeon. "Anyway, my enhancement magic is something entirely distinct from this manifestation spell. You might say that my power is meant to defeat whatever I created this dungeon from." She walked over to a set of cookwear as she talked, pulling out a knife. "This has its disadvantages though. If I try to empower a weapon I find in here..." As she channeled energy into the knife, it simply dissipated into black smoke.

After Mia had already blown down the door, and in an actually efficient manner to boot, Laoren commented, "I would've expected the boiler room or something, but I suppose a subversion of expectations makes sense in its own way." She followed the pugilist into the cold room with noticeable reluctance. It seemed to be fairly standard, with some hanging slabs of meat in the back and crates stored with what looked like perishable produce of all sorts.

However, as they went in, their attention would inevitably be drawn to a cauldron in the rear, which bubbled lightly. Laoren went over to take a look, finding some clear liquid inexplicably boiling within. The area around the cauldron was noticeably even colder than the rest of the cold room, which was already colder than the palace itself.

"This...seems like the opposite of what we're looking for, maybe?"

Seeing Mia's brief reaction when nearing the pot, Laoren sniffled as she tried to unclog her nose enough to smell what was going on. After some unladylike snorting sounds, she, too, was able to take a whiff of the alcohol-like odor. "Ah, yeah. I see what you're getting at. Makes sense to me." Noting that her companion's discomfort mirrored her own, she moved quickly around to the other side and gave the container a test tilt.

"It's not all that heavy," she reported, looking surprised. However, the cauldron itself was still cauldron-sized, even if the weight was more manageable than one might expect from a vat of liquid. "You could probably carry this yourself, but I think we'd best take a side each. For balance's sake and whatnot."

As it seemed that this liquid was the source of cold in the room, Laoren eyed the cauldron with understandable wariness, touching a finger to the side of the pot to test the temperature. Almost immediately she drew it back with a flinch, but then tentatively pressed her joint against it again. "Ice cube-y, but tolerable."

She squatted down and rubbed her fingers together, ready to lift on the word 'go'. Or any word, really, besides maybe 'no'.

With some awkward struggling on Laoren's part and presumably a little less so on Mia's, they were able to plop the cauldron down in front of the main door, after which Laoren began to examine it. A few test tugs and look-arounds later, she smirked.

"I might not fight very well, but cheating myself through these sorts of places is easy enough," she boasted, thumbing at a pretty noticeable keyhole. She plucked a single feather from her wing before standing around idly. "Gotta give it a moment before this feather is no longer 'part of me' and all."

After she felt sufficient time had passed, she channeled her black energy through the feather and slid it through the keyhole, jiggling it around a bit until she'd broken what she wanted to. Finally, and with ostentatious flourish, Laoren threw one of the doors open (as the other wouldn't budge) before bowing to allow Mia through.

The room beyond appeared to be a reception hall of some sort, lacking in any customary furniture besides the single carpet leading up the center that one would usually expect. Near the rear of the room, there was an immaculate ice sculpture of a hydra, heads depicted mid-hiss.

"The way to success is paved with bad ideas...in settings like this, anyway," Laoren rationalized in agreement with Mia, looking on with some amazement as Mia managed to punch liquid all over the statue in one stroke. There was something impressive about an application of brute force that was in equal parts flagrant and efficient.

Having expected a nice burst of Mia-fire to start the theatrics, Laoren had a look of momentary surprise when she was offered a lit match. After a moment of consideration, she took it. "Clearing my own dungeon...I suppose it's like, how do you say, eating your own cooking?" Without elaborating at all on the simile, she tossed the flame onto the statue.

The effect was immediate, if a little different than expected. The sculpture roared to life, heads flailing in pain, and yet the ice had not broken off to reveal an actual hydra underneath. Rather, the ice itself moved with the fluidity of a living creature. Laoren had just enough time to be surprised before the creature charged her, one of its serpentine maws flying towards her.

She managed to duck low enough not to get eaten, but the hydra's lower lip slammed into her, knocking her back as she rolled across the ground, still healthy enough but a little dazed. Meanwhile, another of its heads began to fire icy shards in Mia's direction, similar to those of the wolves from earlier while the creature's body charged forward.

Though she'd gotten chumped just now, it seemed as though Laoren had enough experience to at least shake it off quickly, getting back on her feet as Mia delivered a meaty punch. The call for aid came just as one of the hydra heads geared up for another blast of ice, this time towards Laoren.

She whooped and dove to the ground, managing to slide a good distance towards Mia as a result. Though the flooring itself was not made of ice, it was quite well-polished, at least where the ice had not struck yet. This allowed Laoren a nice mirrored view of the ice shards impacting on the ground just behind her.

Once again, she pulled herself to her feet, this time next to Mia. "Here, have this," Laoren panted, slapping her hand onto Mia's shoulder, both to steady herself but also to channel her black energy through the front-liner. This magic also had the side-effect of eating away at the shard in her shoulder slowly.

Now that the two were together, all of the heads focused upon them, two closing in from the sides to bite while two more geared up to fire more ice down the center. "I got right!" Laoren shouted out, hoping to take at least some of the heat off of Mia. In a quick motion, she withdrew the snot-encrusted shopping list from earlier, enchanted it with her magic, and tossed it at the snake head's open mouth.

Its reaction when the object touched its tongue could only be described as 'violently offended' as it reared back to flail, but it did have the intended effect of slowing that head for a moment at least.