1. Previously on An Apocalypse of Ice:

2. “I like this part,” Teagan said. He cleared his throat. “The Law will be appointed by the previous Law and is subject to approval by
a majority vote of the people of Winterfell. Between one and three individuals can serve as Law simultaneously. The Law will
serve for life, unless removed by majority vote.”
“Especially the part about how you stop being the Law,” Mag said.
“Yeah. That’s the whole reason why you’re doing this.”

3. They opened the mailbox and siIed their way through the papers, leaving the bills behind and picking out the unmarked manila
envelope that contained the copies of the new consJtuJon.
“Let’s give them hell,” they both said.

4. Now Piper needed a new assistant. He had too much work to do on his own and too few he could trust the work to. Lucia needed
to stay where she was as the new EducaJon Minister. Piper might have a beMer‐qualified media person in Edward Grey, who was
watching Arthur Stark as a bonus. Even then, that couldn’t replace an assistant. The Boltons weren’t good for much beyond
simple tasks. Maybe the Starks had it right with two people to do the work of the Law.
Perhaps he had gone too far. Maybe he should have stayed in poliJcs instead of trying to do both poliJcs and law at the same
Jme. Maybe arresJng Will for Sansa’s murder hadn’t been necessary. He could have just as easily arrested one of the others. For
plumbbob’s sake, why did they have to kill her in the first place? They were supposed to be too nice to bloody their hands. True,
Piper had planned for it, but it would have been so much less messy the other way. Except for having Sansa yapping in his ear
about her delusions of grandeur.

5. “Good. Now, I won’t be giving you any orders to arrest him. But I will need you to keep an eye on his family for me and report
back. Can you do that?”
She nodded.
“Then welcome to the police force, Mrs. Amana.”

6. Will took a closer look at Sullivan. Sullivan. Fiance who was an actor. Of course. Of all the students at this university, Lily had
chosen Will’s future brother‐in‐law to be his roommate.
Maybe everything was going to be okay.

7. “Win what?”
She ignored him. “You’re in exile. You’re on your own playing with phone wires, as if they can bridge the communicaJon gaps that
plague you. Your siblings are fighJng a losing baMle. Your children are on their own. No, it’s only a maMer of Jme before you lose
everything. You gave it a good try, but even the most valiant efforts fail.”

8. “So I have…” Meg tried to work out the math and figure out how much shorter she had been than her dad in her vision. “About a
foot to go. Maybe more. Can’t I grow faster?”
Arthur shook his head. “It’s not good for you to grow too fast. Once you’re about fourteen or so, you’ll probably be as tall as you
want to be.”
“But I want to be tall now so Daddy will come back.”

9. “I think I saw Daddy today,” Meg mused. “But I wasn’t sure.”
“Was it happening now?”
“Yeah.”
“If it is him, we can’t know where he is, Meg,” Arthur reminded her. “Otherwise the authoriJes might find out from us.”

10. “Am I the heir?” she asked her grandfather.
“That’s up to your dad,” he told her. “But it’s also up to you and your sisters. He’ll only choose you if you want to be chosen.”
“Because I took it. But then there was a long dark spot and I was trying to decide whether to keep it.”

11. Sexiest Sim Alive: Arthur Stark!
By Priya Ramaswami
In a town so focused on keeping its collecJve head above water that it hasn’t seen a single party in over a hundred years,
entertainment someJmes sounds like a word from a foreign language. But that is all changing with the meteoric rise of Arthur
Stark. His new movie, Strictly Smustle, premieres next week, and he will reprise his role as Ted Lake on the new season of Sim Who
in two months’ Jme.

12. For any ordinary Sim, these achievements would be beyond
admirable. By now, though, we know that Arthur is no ordinary Sim.
To stand out among the Starks, the family of illustrious individuals
tasked with reforming Winterfell aIer the catastrophic disaster of four
generaJons ago, Arthur has to do more.
(Pictured: Malcolm Stark, former chief of staff of what is now Stark
Memorial Hospital; Brandon Stark, former Law of Winterfell; Chris
Stark, famed Celebrity Chef.)

13. So how about taking up the mantle of his late uncle Brandon? Several years ago, Arthur and his sister Sabriel (the famously fiery
head coach of Winterfell’s first professional sports team) were all set to succeed Brandon Stark as joint Laws of Winterfell.
Although Pius Piper won the legal argument on that day, Arthur and Sabriel never gave up. Today, their bid to rewrite the laws of
Winterfell is spreading like wildfire, despite all manner of aMempts to suppress their arguments.
How does he do it? He credits his big brother, Will, who is head of the Stark family and perhaps the most controversial figure in
town.

14. At that point, the current head of Piper’s media organiza;on lowered the newspaper. “Yes, Arthur, what did you have to say about
him? Let’s find out,” Edward Grey declared.

15. “Will is the reason why I fight,” Arthur says. “No one should have to be deprived of legal protecJons and arrested for a crime that
there is absolutely no evidence of. It could happen to anyone.”

16. “Will is the reason why I fight,” the media magnate repeated. “Isn’t that sweet?”
“No,” Indy said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have called him in here to talk to you.”

17. Edward blinked. That obviously hadn’t been the response that he expected. “Quite right, India. As it happens, I do not find that
sweet. In fact, I find it appalling that your client, considered the face of Grey Media, is publicly endorsing lawlessness by inci;ng
rebellion against the lawful government and idealizing a convict—“
“Get real. Will Stark was never convicted of anything.”
“But he started this rebellion.”
“And there’s not any proof of that. You going to do anything worth my ;me today?” Indy asked. He looked at Arthur and rolled
his eyes.

18. Edward took a different tack: “I could yank the broadcast license for Sim Who. Then where would your plans to direct an episode
be, Arthur?”
Well, they would be in the toilet. The more important ques;on was “how would people feel about Sim Who being canceled for
poli;cal reasons?” They would probably deluge Edward’s office with sonic screwdrivers. Besides, Teagan Fitzhugh was the show
runner. He regularly broke the fourth wall and was related to a simself, so what was the point? Episodes would find their way to
sims’ homes even without a broadcast license.

19. “I demand that you renounce this ar;cle,” Edward concluded. “Then, and only then, I will consider maintaining the broadcast
license.”
“I’ll write—“ Arthur began.
“You won’t be wri;ng anything. All you have to do is sign this statement.”

20. Arthur looked at the statement, then passed it to Indy. Indy nodded.
“You want me to sign this?” Arthur asked. He had expected a bigger confronta;on.
“It’s the best thing for you to do,” Indy answered. “That’s the smartest thing that plaid shirt’s done all day. And it’s s;ll not
enough.”

21. By the morning aXer Ferd and Mag picked up the cons;tu;on from the Starks’ mailbox, a copy of it arrived on the doorsteps of
almost every resident of Winterfell. Nobody knew where it came from. Some people threw it out along with their morning
papers, but others, curious about this new piece of paper, read it.
To the people of Winterfell. Your freedom is at risk. Your families are at risk.
Of course, some people thought that the cons;tu;on’s authors were overreac;ng. Everything was fine for them, aXer all, and the
current Law seemed to listen to their concerns instead of assuming that they had no role to play in making a beYer world. Others
wondered if the doom predicted in the cons;tu;on could happen to them.

22. The Starks’ allies took advantage of the buzz by hos;ng Tuesday discussion groups for the cons;tu;on.
“Why do we need a new cons;tu;on?” one woman asked. “Everything’s fine.”
“I wish it was,” Teagan said, “but it’s not. Not if you can be arrested and held for days without any reason other than the Law
feeling like it.”
“But we haven’t done anything wrong,” someone else said. “It doesn’t maYer to us.”
“Will Stark didn’t do anything wrong, either.”

23. “Didn’t do anything wrong? He killed someone!”
“What people forget about the way Piper runs things,” Jocelyn said, “is that not everyone gets jus;ce in his world.”
“No kidding.” Kay scowled. “I went to jail for a night just for looking at Piper funny.”

24. “And it isn’t just about who goes to jail and who doesn’t,” Wally Doran said. “Raise your hand if Piper’s agents have searched your
home.”
One woman raised her hands twice to reflect her frustra;on with the search.
“You know what? All your hands are going to go up before long, unless one of you is hiding Will Stark under your bed,” Wally
explained. “If Piper cared about you, he’d respect the privacy of your homes. Instead, he’s sending his agents to rifle through
every nook and cranny that exists.”

25. “He’s obsessed with the Starks. He cares more about destroying them than about jus;ce, law, and order,” Indy said. “That’s why
we’re asking you to vote for this cons;tu;on and use its procedure to remove Piper from office.”

26. Naturally, Ferd and Mag had leX Piper off the mailing list for the cons;tu;on, but the aYorneys on the first floor couldn’t stop
talking about it.
“What is this?” Piper asked, sneaking up behind one of the junior staff aYorneys.
“It—“ She tried to hide it, but Piper had already seen the email on the computer about the cons;tu;on. AXer asking some
ques;ons, he instructed her to print out the email aYachment, then went upstairs to read it.

27. How could the Starks have wriYen this? Piper had people watching their house constantly. He should have known about
whatever they were trying to do. And they were supposed to be on the defensive! How could it have possibly gone wrong, inches
from his birthday?
But Piper s;ll knew what to do about it: Call a press conference and use it to keep everyone on his program. In the mean;me, he
needed BriYany Amana to come to the office right away.

28. “Good aXernoon, Mrs. Amana,” Piper greeted her. “Let’s have a seat. I trust that you know why you’re here?”
She blinked, giving Piper that wide‐eyed look he had come to detest.

29. “This. This is why you’re here.” Piper gestured at the cons;tu;on before ripping it in half. “Can you honestly tell me that you had
no idea this was about to be distributed to every household in Winterfell?”
“Yes,” BriYany said. “I haven’t seen it un;l this morning. Same as you.”
“And why not? You are part of their family. And you can’t turn on your family. You said so yourself.” He leaned closer to BriYany.
“Do they not trust you?”

30. “I can’t imagine why not—“
“Did you discuss our conversa;on with them?”
“No.”

31. Piper began to pace around the room. “Mrs. Amana, I’m sure you can understand me when I say that I am beginning to ques;on
your loyalty again. Your nephews and niece have a way of turning up in here and telling me quite convincingly that they are
planning nothing, then produce—this. And you are doing so far less convincingly than they did.”
“This took work,” BriYany said to Piper. “They’re working jobs and taking care of four children. They must have started this
before our conversa;on.”

32. “Jobs and four children,” Piper repeated. “So if you didn’t help them, who did?” He focused on BriYany again. “Find out who
their accomplices are. No, wait.” Piper began to pace again. “It must be those simselves. They’re the ones hiding Will. I know
it.”
“They wouldn’t do that,” BriYany thought out loud.
“Oh, yes, they would. They like to talk about having rules. But I know they’d do anything to get rid of me and make their pet
family happy again. They’d throw out all their rules to do it. Just the other day, they—“ Piper focused on BriYany again. “Get
them out of that house. I’m going to find out what they’re hiding. And do it now.”

33. Ten minutes later, Piper took to the podium.
“You may have seen a new document circula;ng around town,” he explained at the press conference. “It is a document of
rebellion. It is a radical aYempt to alter the fabric of government—a government which does not require any improvements at
this ;me. We are beYer off without it.

34. “But never let it be said that I do not value your opinions. Tomorrow, I am calling a special elec;on on the rebellion. All adult
ci;zens of Winterfell with no criminal connec;ons may come to the courthouse at any ;me between seven am and midnight to
cast their votes on this crucial issue. I urge you to make the right choice.”

35. For the most part, the Starks spent their ;me going about their own business at home. Piper s;ll kept a goon sta;oned outside
their home at all ;mes, so they didn’t discuss the cons;tu;on unless someone asked them about it. Instead, they stuck to the
other responsibili;es BriYany had men;oned.

36. But as word got around, more and more people came by the Stark home to ask what they thought.
“I remember when your uncle took back the Law from the mob,” Pao Mellon told Sabriel when he came to check on the bills.
“You’re doing the same good work as him. Tell me what I can do to help.”

37. Sabriel didn’t answer him then, because the Boltons were s;ll in earshot. But that night, she snuck out of the house and put a
note in the mailbox for Pao: How many people live here? And how many of them support us? Keep us posted. Without that
informa;on, they would never know when their plan succeeded.

38. “You had a dream,” Gemma said. “And now you think you’re the heir?”
Meg stood her ground and stared back at Gemma. “I don’t think it. I know it.”
“That’s not fair. What if I wanted to be the heir?” Gemma asked.

39. “What are you talking about?” Lirael came running over, pursued by Lyra.
“Who’s going to be the heir,” Meg said.
“Meg thinks it’s going to be her because she had a dream about Grandpa,” Gemma explained. “I was telling her that’s stupid and
unfair. Because it is.”

40. “What’s an heir?” Lyra asked.
Gemma and Meg explained in terms, each one interrup;ng the other as they gave their own version.
“That sounds hard,” Lyra concluded.

41. “But you don’t have to worry about it, because it’s me!” Meg announced.
“Stop it. You know that’s not how it works. Aunt Sabriel’s going to pick someone—“
“It’s okay,” Lyra said. “I don’t want to be the heir.”

42. “Maybe now you don’t. But what if you want to later?” Gemma asked. “It’s just like what Piper did, sneaking into the office—“
Meg’s jaw dropped. “I’M NOT LIKE PIPER!” she yelled.
“It’s just like him to say you’re gonna be everyone’s favorite forever and ever!”

43. “I don’t!” Meg turned to her sisters for support. Unfortunately for her, Lyra and Lirael had gone off to play Mary Mack.

44. “I wish they’d stop figh;ng,” Lyra said. “I don’t care if Meg had a dream. Except if it’s about something happy, like Dad coming
back. I wish Dad would come back. Then, everything’s going to be okay again and they won’t fight anymore.” She stopped for
breath.
“They’ve been figh;ng all day,” Lirael said. “I don’t—“
“Look! The swing’s open!” Lyra skipped toward the swing, thoughts of figh;ng forgoYen. Lirael followed.

45. Meg turned back. “I’m not—“ She stopped when she no;ced their teacher hovering over them with a familiar‐looking woman.
“Gemma Stark?” Mr. Lillard asked.

46. Gemma assumed her tough pose, knowing something was wrong. “Yeah.”
“The Educa;on Minister needs to talk to you,” Mr. Lillard said. “Could you please come with me?”
“It’s supposed to be recess,” Gemma grumbled, but she went anyway.

47. “It’ll be you next.”
Meg turned around. “Valen;ne!” She gave her best friend a hug, grateful to see someone who wasn’t going to aYack her. “What
are you doing here? I thought you’d be with the older kids.”

48. “I had to talk to you,” Valen;ne explained.
“Good. I’ve missed you. I can’t have classes with you anymore, and since your mom won’t let me come over—“

49. “They got to my mom,” Valen;ne whispered to Meg.
“What?”
“That’s the bad thing you saw. That’s why my mom won’t let you come over anymore.”

50. “That’s awful! We have to do something!”
“I know. But we’ve got to be sneaky about it. I don’t want to end up like Kay, and it’d be even worse for you.”
“So what do we do?”

51. “My mom’s supposed to give Piper informaJon about your family,” Valen;ne whispered. “So we lie to her and give her false
informaJon to pass on to Piper. And then we lead Piper into a trap. So, what do you know about Piper’s downfall?”
“Well—“ Meg tried to piece things together. “I haven’t seen anything with him and your mom—“
“Shh! They’re coming back!”

52. Meg looked up. First, she saw Gemma back on the playground. Second, she saw the two people approaching her and Valen;ne.
“Is it my turn?” she asked Mr. Lillard.
“Yes, Meg,” her teacher said.

53. She looked back at Valen;ne, then set her mouth in a line and followed them.
They led her up the stairs into the empty schoolroom. The Educa;on Minister sat at the teacher’s desk, and the teacher leX the
room. Meg stood.

54. “How are you doing in school?” Lucia asked.
“I’m geeng A‐pluses,” Meg told her. “I’m looking forward to geeng out of primary school. My best friend’s already with the big
kids.”
“Good. And the situa;on at your home hasn’t hurt you?”

55. “What do you mean?” Meg asked.
“I mean, growing up without a father,” Lucia said. “It must be hard. Have you had any word from him?”
“No,” Meg said. But as she spoke, she realized her danger. She had seen her dad. She knew where he was. She couldn’t let
anyone realize that she knew.

56. “Are you sure?”
Meg had to do something. She let her face go blank and tried to ignore everything around her as she hoped for a vision, then
searched her memory for a possible distrac;on.
“Meg? Are you listening to me?”

57. “You searched the simselves’ house,” Meg said, trying to sound as eerie as she could. She watched Lucia. A glimmer of
recogni;on crossed the Educa;on Minister’s face. Meg pressed on. “Do you know what they’ll do to you? They always get their
revenge whenever someone hurts the people they love. They wait un;l we’ve taken care of a problem ourselves. But then they
fly in on dark wings and fight back. They’re wai;ng for Piper to fall. It won’t be long now—“

58. “That’s enough!” Lucia shouted. “Go!”
Meg walked from the classroom into the hallway and took a breath once the Educa;on Minister was out of sight.

59. Piper wasn’t young anymore. That meant that in addi;on to tracking down Will Stark, figh;ng off Arthur and Sabriel, and actually
running the office, he had started looking for a successor.
Unfortunately, all of his aYempts to find someone had been met with either apathy or flat‐out rejec;on. He had asked Lucia to
refer her highest‐performing secondary school graduates to him in hopes of geeng someone young who could do the job
throughout adulthood, but most of them seemed to have beYer things to do than come to the office on ;me and learn about the
law.

60. Or they were Stark sympathizers.
“You can’t train me to be the Law because you’re not really the Law,” Ivy Copur told Piper. “It’s like what Ted said on Sim Who.
You can’t pretend to be somebody you’re not.”

61. Piper rubbed his temples. “Ted?”
“Arthur Stark’s character,” Ivy said.
“Get out.”

62. This was where legacy families had it right. Brandon Stark had never had to think that much about the succession, because he
could turn to his brother’s kids. Did Piper’s brothers have any kids who he could recruit? He hadn’t thought about his brothers in
years. Why should he, when all they did was read books instead of caring about how to use their knowledge?
Time was running out. Cons;tu;on or no cons;tu;on, everybody died, no maYer how much they tried to put it off. The search
of the simself house had yielded absolutely nothing except for Lily standing around and smiling as if she had invited him over for
tea, exactly as young as she had been when Piper arranged for her firing all those years ago. As for asking the children, Piper
could have predicted that it would have been useless when Lucia brought him the idea.

63. The special elec;on was supposed to cement Piper’s leadership, but that wasn’t working out so well, either. He had only won the
elec;on by a narrow margin, despite having access to every resource the office of the Law could provide to ensure his victory.
That cons;tu;on was catching on in the town’s collec;ve mind, and Piper’s familiar strategies were failing him.
He would not allow the Starks to beat him at his own game. No one needed to know what the actual vote count was. A few extra
in his favor to make his lead look more commanding, and maybe the movement would fizzle if anything would have the courtesy
of going to plan.

64. “Do you think we’re going to win the special elec;on?” Jan asked. Her eyes glowed from the previous night’s experiments.
“No,” Arthur said. “I wish I could say yes. But we haven’t had enough Jme.”

65. “Maybe we have,” Sabriel said. “Piper thinks he’s cueng this off, but an elec;on means that people are going to talk.”
“Not the people who are allowed to vote, though.” True to form, the Starks all had criminal connec;ons that barred them from
vo;ng in the special elec;on.
“It’s not over,” she said. “We’ve probably got a lot of people signed on, though I don’t think it’s half yet. And Piper’s only making
things worse by searching so many homes for someone most people have barely even met. More are coming. The rules say we
should give up once the elec;on’s decided, but we’re not playing by the rules.”

66. “Good evening,” Piper’s voice said on the radio.
“Whoa!” someone said.
“Lirael?” Jan asked, turning toward the source of the noise. “What are you doing here?”

67. “Reading,” she said. “Is that okay?”
“How long have you been here?” Jan asked.
“Since the ghosts—“

68. “Listen,” Sabriel said.
“Thank you for your vote of confidence,” Piper was saying. “Approximately seventy‐five percent of you voted to allow me to
conJnue serving Winterfell as your Law. I will conJnue to govern well and according to the laws.”
“No, you won’t.” But confusion appeared on her face. “Seventy‐five percent?”

69. “That seems high,” Jan said. The glow in her eyes had faded. “Well, I guess because we weren’t allowed to vote—“
“No. That’s not right,” Sabriel said. “We’ve been doing beYer than that, and we’ve got lots of allies who haven’t been flagged as
having criminal connec;ons.”
“Or maybe it is, and we just aren’t doing as well as we thought.”

70. “We’ll ask around. Quietly,” Arthur concluded. “Or get someone to break into Piper’s office and get the real vote counts.”
Lirael made a note to ask around if the grownups couldn’t do it. Or get Lyra to do that. No, that wouldn’t be quiet.

71. BriYany didn’t sleep well most nights. Even now that Carla was old enough to sleep through the night, she stayed up worrying
about the dangerous game that she played. Would her children survive? What about the rest of her family? What about herself?

72. “Have you heard from your dad?” she heard Valen;ne saying outside.
Who was she talking to? BriYany got up and walked toward the door.

73. “Well, maybe you will soon. I heard that he’s come back to—“ Valen;ne paused. “No, I don’t know where he is. But people are
saying he’s back, and he wrote the cons;tu;on.”

74. BriYany stopped listening. Will back? Could it be true? If it was, what would she do about it?
She turned her face from Carla, who slept on the other side of the bed, and remembered saying that she would arrest Will if Piper
gave her the order to do so. She remembered telling Valen;ne that the Starks were the only other family that they had. She
remembered vo;ng for Arthur and Sabriel that aXernoon.
There was no telephone in the second floor hallway, so why had Valen;ne decided to talk on the phone out there?

75. “I can’t turn on them,” BriYany whispered to the wall. She would tell Piper about Will’s return—but only to further unhinge him.

76. “You’ve studied for that exam five ;mes over.” Sullivan sat next to Will on the sofa. “It’s okay to take a break.”
“I don’t think I’m ready.” Will kept looking at the book.
“Sean, you’re geeng beYer grades in physics than I’m geeng in drama. That’s not supposed to happen. You’ll be fine. It’s okay
to just…be a Romance Sim once in a while.”

77. Will looked at his ring‐less hands. “You won’t ever win,” he remembered. He griYed his teeth.
He wanted the break that Sullivan offered. The symbols were star;ng to swim, and he kept making mistakes in the calcula;ons.
But this wasn’t about an exam. It was about the phone lines. It was about his freedom. It was about his family.
“I can’t,” Will said. “I’ve got to keep going.”

78. “Suit yourself,” Sullivan said. “When they find your body, don’t say I didn’t warn you about working too hard.”
Will smiled for a moment as Sullivan stood up.

79. “Though my fiancé’s coming over this aXernoon for a visit,” Sullivan con;nued.
“I’ll—“ Arthur? Here? Will found himself struck with the need to s;ck around somehow and see his brother. He could find out
what was really happening back home, not just garbled rumors. He could hear about his children—well, four of them. But when
it came down to it, Will had to let Arthur slip away.
“I’ll go to the library,” he finished.

80. “I was going to tell you to go to the spa. Or to the bar. But if you insist, the library. Just go get a massage aXer finals,” Sullivan
instructed Will.
“Thanks.”

81. If Will was actually studying for an exam, then he would have set aside the book a long ;me ago. But he was here to do his duty
as the heir. He couldn’t rest un;l he had worked out the solu;on to the phone lines.
At least the problem showed signs of giving way. Some;mes, Will wondered if he could have made the same breakthroughs while
with his family. He thought about sleepless nights when Gemma and Meg cried their hearts out, unable to voice their needs.

82. But Will didn’t exactly sleep here at Oldtown, did he? He would uninten;onally nod off over his books, then force himself back
into the problems again with thoughts of how he would never prove the winter woman wrong if he got a moment more sleep
than necessary.
Plus, not sleeping kept the nightmares at bay.

83. “Is that a photographer?” Sullivan asked.
Arthur looked behind him. “Yeah, it is.” He waved the dormie over. “You want a picture of me and my fiancé?”
The photographer took the picture, then headed off, plainly disappointed.

84. “I thought that’d send this one off,” Arthur said to Sullivan, no;cing that his fiancé was gaping. “What?”
“You’re just that used to photographers?” Sullivan asked.
“Didn’t you know? You’re looking at Winterfell’s Sexiest Sim Alive.” Arthur did a spin. “And all those fans had beYer know I’m
taken.”

85. Sullivan pulled Arthur into a kiss. “Couldn’t agree more,” he said aXer breaking away. “Come on in and tell me everything.”

86. “You wouldn’t believe it,” Arthur said.
“What?” Sullivan decided he had done a good enough job washing the burned macaroni and cheese out of the bowls.
“Piper’s self‐destruc;ng way faster than I expected. When I leX, people were lining up outside the house to sign their names to
our pe;;on.”

87. “And to get a glimpse of you, I bet,” Sullivan said, not a trace of jealousy in his voice.
“Maybe. They’re all glad I survived the Sim Who finale. I’m thinking it’d be fun to direct an episode,” Arthur mused. “If my agent
doesn’t throw a fit. He’s one of Piper’s people.”

88. “Give it a try,” Sullivan said. “So, people lining up outside the house. What could have brought that on other than geeng a look
at you?”
“Piper decided to have a special elec;on on our cons;tu;on,” Arthur explained. “He was going to try to get rid of it that way. But
we started asking around aXer the elec;on—and he rigged the votes.”

89. “So you won?” Sullivan asked.
“Not yet, but it’s the beginning of the end. And now he’s convinced that Will’s the one who wrote the cons;tu;on in the first
place, so he’s prac;cally tearing off the walls on people’s houses. They’ve had enough.”

90. “Sabriel must be having a field day,” Sullivan mused.
“She is.” Arthur laughed. “And so am I. Once this is over, then…then we’ll be a family again. And you’ll be part of it. The first
thing we’ll do is go on a real date. Just you and me.”

91. When she grew up that evening, Gemma wished for an end to the ghosts. Unfortunately, she didn’t get her wish.

92. “Meg?” Gemma asked that night.
“Yeah?”
She couldn’t stop herself from talking. It must have been because of all the ghost scares. “Is it really happening like you said? Is it
almost over?”

93. “Yes,” Meg said, not a trace of doubt in her voice. She had measured herself against the marks on the wall right aXer growing up.
By now, she was about the right height for the vision to come true. But Gemma didn’t want to hear that.
“Nobody cares what Piper has to say anymore,” she told Gemma instead. “That magazine with Uncle Arthur’s interview is
supposed to be banned, but Valen;ne’s handing it out all around the school and nobody’s saying a word. How many signatures
does the cons;tu;on have?”

94. “I think we might have enough now,” Gemma said. “But they’re wai;ng to see how it goes when Uncle Arthur directs the episode
of Sim Who before going forward with the cons;tu;on. Because if we can have par;es and dates because of him, then that’ll be
one more nail in Piper’s coffin.”
“Works by me,” Meg said. “And then Dad will come back, and everything will be okay.”

95. They went to sleep, each hoping that becoming teenagers would help them get along beYer.

96. Sabriel examined her reflec;on in the mirror. Had she ever really looked at herself in mirrors before? She had never cared much
about how she looked. She had always accepted her long hair as if she never had any alterna;ves.

97. That aXernoon, Arthur had returned triumphant from his Sim Who direc;ng session, which had cemented his place as an Icon in
Winterfell’s film history. He had also brought back several new signatures, which would be enough to present a very long list of
names to the people of Winterfell and finish dismantling what remained of Piper’s government.

98. Time to get that icky hair out of her face and finish off Piper once and for all. Sabriel started to cut.

99. Most of the others also changed their appearances. Meg, Lyra, and Lirael all took their hair out of their current hairdos. Jan
changed her hair back to brown.

100. Gemma tried to cut all her hair off, like her aunt. Luckily, Arthur convinced her to stop midway through. She didn’t have the bone
structure for a super‐short cut.

101. Finally, Sabriel finished trimming her hair to her sa;sfac;on. She gazed at herself in the mirror, trying to get adjusted to not
having the weight of unnecessary hair on her head anymore.
She felt more like the person she wanted to be than she ever had before.

102. Meanwhile, Arthur was the only one in the family who didn’t feel like he needed a makeover. He picked up the phone and called
Sullivan.
“Hello?”
“Remember that date I asked you for?” Arthur asked, a smile playing on his face.

103. “Yeah,” Sullivan said.
“It’s Jme,” Arthur said. “I’m an Icon now!”
“Congratula;ons!” Sullivan said. “I’ll be over as soon as I can!”

104. “First, we’re going to take out Piper,” Arthur said. “Meet me at the courthouse.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”

105. Sullivan turned to Sean, who had just come out of the bathroom aXer giving himself a dras;c makeover that made him look even
more familiar. “I’m heading out,” he said.
“I know,” Sean answered. “I’m coming with you.”
“You don’t have to,” Sullivan said.

106. “Actually, I do.” Sean stood up. “I know you’ve wondered why I’ve been playing with phone wires and studying all the ;me instead
of ac;ng like a normal Romance Sim. But I’ve got a fix for the phones.”
“Really?”
“Really. They’ll be fine tomorrow, and the day aXer that, and the day aXer that.”

107. “Then—“ Sullivan started, knowing the answer to his unspoken ques;on.
“I’m Will Stark,” he said, his heart pounding at the admission. He kept talking to cover it up. “And we’re going to Winterfell
together.”

108. Will kept walking through the crowd, slowly and steadily making his way toward the courthouse. He felt his feet growing heavier
as he passed person aXer person, but they looked through him as if he was s;ll Sean Cooper. No one moved to arrest him.
Why were all these people here?

109. He glanced through the window and heard Piper talking: “…announce that I have restored the phone lines…”

110. Will turned back. “What’s going on?” he asked a woman in a brown jacket.
“The phones are fixed,” the woman reported. “You can call out any day of the week now. He says he’s the one who did it.”

111. “Do you believe him?” Sullivan asked her.
“I—I don’t think so.”
“No,” Marisa said. “All he ever does is lie. He lied about the elec;on. Why should this be any different?”

112. Sullivan turned to Will. “Go.”
He was right. Will hadn’t come this far to turn back. He walked into the courtroom.

113. “…I hope to usher in a new age of communica;on…” Piper con;nued on.
“What is a massively mul;player online game?” Will asked.

114. “Arrest him!” Piper shrieked. Will hadn’t had ;me to put a finger on it before, but something about Piper wasn’t right.
Everyone stayed in their seats.

115. “It’s a game,” Will con;nued, standing just inside the doorway. “There’s not much that people can do when ;mes are tough, but
they can play games—using the phone connec;on to do so. That’s how the phones were broken.”

116. “If none of you understand your du;es as ci;zens, I’ll do it myself!” Piper yelled, coming down from the podium. “As the Law of
Winterfell, I—“
“You won’t.” BriYany rose from her front‐row seat and placed herself between Piper and Will.

117. Piper stared at her. “You liar! You told me that if I ordered you to arrest him, you would do it!”
“Haven’t you heard?” BriYany asked. “You’re not the Law anymore.”
“Of course I’m the Law!”
“Not according to most of the people sieng in these seats.”

118. Piper stared out at the crowd, then broke into a run, exi;ng through a back door that Will did not remember seeing the last ;me
he had been in the courthouse.

119. Will approached the microphone. “It was me,” he explained. “I fixed the phones. I did it by building a new server that people
could play games on, so that people won’t need to use the phones to connect anymore. So now, you can call any ;me you want.
They’re going to be fine from now on.”
They didn’t call him a crazed killer or boo him off the podium. In fact, a lot of them looked happy.

120. Piper ran up the stairs. It couldn’t be true. They had to be lying. He knew he needed to fix everyone’s opinion of him, but that?
Not being the Law anymore? Impossible.

121. He opened the doors of the office to find Arthur and Sabriel sieng at the twin desks and the office returned to its former color
scheme.
“Hiding?” Arthur asked Piper.
“No, you’re not,” Sabriel finished. “I always told you this is my office.”

122. “You get out of those chairs,” Piper demanded.
“You’re the one who’s going.” Sabriel stayed seated. “All those people outside? They want us to be the Law, and they hate you.”
“I need proof of that. Where are the signatures?”
“And have you tear up the page? No way. You’re not the Law anymore.”

123. “You should sit down,” Arthur said. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

124. Piping Down
By Ursula Fitzhugh
Pius Piper is no longer the Law and is leaving town for good. He will be spending his reJrement anywhere but here. If he ever
returns to Winterfell, I would not want to be him when Sabriel Stark finds out about his return.

125. Under the new consJtuJon, Arthur and Sabriel Stark are now serving as joint Laws of Winterfell aIer the vote of no confidence
against Piper. Arthur has returned parJes, makeovers, and dates to Winterfell, and I have it on good authority that it will soon be
possible to move around large items again thanks to Sabriel.
Their first act was to pardon Will Stark for the completely bogus charges that Piper brought against him. Now when people think
about Will Stark, they will think of the sim who returned decent phone service and Internet access to Winterfell.

126. “Dad!” Meg ran out of the house once she saw Will approaching the house. “I knew you’d come back!”
“Meg! I haven’t seen you since you were a baby.” Will had worried that he wouldn’t know which kid was which, but he had talked
about the kids with Arthur and Sabriel on the way home. He pulled her into a hug. “I’ve got so much catching up to do.”
Meg smiled. Everything was going to be okay now.

127. Next ;me on An Apocalypse of Ice:
+ Time to face the change ch‐ch‐changes!
+ Will everything really be okay now that Will is home? (LOL.)
+ Winterfell’s first wedding party!
+ OMG I’m halfway through this thing now! (10/20 restric;ons aXer Arthur and Will liXed Show Business and Gamer!)

128. Guest starring:
+ Ferdinand Penguino (The Penguino Legacy)
+ India Ve;nari (The VeJnari Dualegacy)
+ Magellan Penguino (The Penguino Legacy)
+ Spencer Fitzhugh (The Fitzhugh Legacy)
+ Teagan Fitzhugh (The Morgan Legacy)
+ Ursula Fitzhugh (A Villainous Apocalypse)
+ Wally Doran (The Bass‐Ackwards Apocalypse)
Thanks to Pen and Rose for their feedback on this chapter!

129. Time to break out the cute photos with Will. PARTY TIME, EVERYONE!
Happy Simming :D