"Be careful," Thalia warned."Senna's dangerous.She’s proven that she’s willing to kill.If she knows you’re watching her —"
Luna's lips curved into a knowing smile."She won’t."She adjusted one of the metal beads in her hair — a nervous tic that Thalia now recognized as part of her deliberate facade.
Before Thalia could say anything else, Luna slipped away, quickly adopting her usual appearance of mild confusion as she merged with the flow of students in the corridor.Within seconds, she'd vanished from sight, just another unremarkable figure in the press of bodies.
Thalia exhaled slowly, steeling herself for what lay ahead.The Trials of Steel.Ice-metal golems.The Forge Gauntlet.And somewhere in the midst of it all, Senna Drake weaving her plots like a spider crafting a web of frost.
CHAPTER FIVE
The heat of the Howling Forge embraced Thalia like an old friend, wrapping around her in welcome contrast to Frostforge's perpetual chill.She paused at the threshold, letting the familiar symphony wash over her — the rhythmic clang of hammers striking metal, the hiss of hot steel meeting cold water, the low rumble of the great bellows feeding oxygen to hungry flames.The assembly's tension melted from her shoulders.This place, with its dancing shadows and glowing embers, had become more of a home to her than any dormitory ever could.
Thalia moved deeper into the forge, her body remembering the precise way to navigate between work stations without disturbing the students bent over their anvils.The smell of molten metal mingled with coal smoke and sweat, forming an aroma that most found overwhelming but that Thalia had grown to associate with her greatest triumphs.Here, last year, she had first discovered her unusual connection to metal — the way she could sense its composition, its weaknesses, its potential.Here, she had forged her first successful blade while her Northern classmates watched in disbelief.
The thought brought a smile to her lips.Advanced metallurgy section or not, Thalia knew she belonged here.
She scanned the vast chamber, spotting familiar faces and new ones alike, all focused on their work with varying degrees of intensity.Some students were struggling with basic tasks — heating metal to the proper temperature, striking with consistent force — while others moved with the practiced grace of those born to the craft.And then there was Kaine.
He stood at his usual station in the far corner, a place he had claimed for himself last year and that no one had dared to encroach upon since.His broad shoulders moved in a steady rhythm as he hammered a glowing piece of metal, each strike deliberate and precise.Thalia felt a flutter in her chest at the sight of him, a reaction she had grown accustomed to but never quite mastered.In the previous term, Kaine had gone out of his way to help her develop her burgeoning talent for metallurgy, which had entailed plenty of long, late-night work sessions in the forge, just the two of them.Thalia wasn’t sure if her feelings for him — warm, complicated, confusing — were entirely hers, or shaped by the intensity of this place.But seeing him now, with sparks flying around him like fireflies and that familiar furrow between his brows, she couldn’t deny the pull.
A dangerous pull.Senna Drake had made that abundantly clear last year, when she’d pulled Thalia aside to stake her claim over Kaine, hissing threats that had proven far from empty.
Thalia approached, noting how the muscles in his forearms tensed and released with each movement.His focus was absolute — he hadn't noticed her yet.This was typical Kaine, lost in his work, skipping other classes just to spend more time with hammer and flame.It was one of the things they had in common, this devotion to craft, though his bordered on obsession.
"Still hitting things to solve your problems?"she called over the din, falling back on teasing to mask the unexpected nervousness she felt.
Kaine's head snapped up, hammer pausing mid-stroke.For a moment, his ice-blue eyes looked almost startled — an expression so rare on his stoic face that Thalia instantly catalogued it in her memory.Then his features softened, just barely, into what passed for Kaine Ember's version of a welcome.
"Thalia."He nodded, setting down his hammer with deliberate care."You're back."
"Observant as ever," she replied, moving closer to his workbench.The heat was more intense here; Kaine always kept his forge hotter than the others."How was your break?"
The words slipped out automatically — the same question she had asked Luna, asked all her returning classmates — before she realized her mistake.Kaine had nowhere to go during breaks.The Ember clan, already in disgrace for generations, had completely abandoned him after he’d been imprisoned, accused of patricide.Frostforge was his only home now.
Thalia winced, mentally berating herself."I'm sorry, I didn't think —"
"It's fine," Kaine cut her off, but his shoulders had stiffened.He reached for a rag to wipe his hands, the movement precise and controlled, like everything he did."Nothing much changed.Same forge, same work."
There was something in his voice that caught her attention — a flatness that seemed forced.Kaine had never been particularly expressive, but there was a difference between his usual economy of emotion and this deliberate suppression.He was ashamed, she realized, of having nothing to share while others returned with stories of home and family.
Thalia searched for something to say that wouldn't make it worse.Her gaze landed on his workbench, where an unusual object lay partially covered by a cloth.Without thinking, she reached for it.
"What's this?"
Kaine moved as if to stop her, then seemed to reconsider."Careful.It's not finished."
Thalia lifted the cloth to reveal a shield unlike any she had seen before.It was smaller than standard, almost circular, but with elegant points extending from four sides.The surface gleamed with a blue-silver sheen that spoke of high-quality ice-steel, but it was the intricate runes etched along its edges that truly caught her attention.She picked it up, surprised by its lightness.
"It's feels like it’s singing," she murmured, running her fingers along the engravings."These runes — they're not just decorative, are they?Those are cryomancy runes."
Kaine watched her reaction carefully, his earlier discomfort seemingly forgotten."It's a prototype.A shield that doesn't need to be held."He gestured to the runes she was tracing."When it's finished, a fighter will be able to use cryomancy to control it, make it hover and deflect attacks while keeping both hands free for weapons."
His voice had changed, taking on a rare note of animation.This project clearly meant something to him beyond a simple exercise.
"Has anyone done this before?"Thalia asked, still feeling the pulse of magic beneath her fingertips.The shield seemed almost alive, as though waiting for the right command to spring into action.The magic of metal felt like currents in a river, but this shield was more animated than other metals, even other ice-metals.
Kaine shook his head."The theory is solid, but making it work?"He frowned slightly."That's the hard part.The balance between the weight of the metal and the lift of the magic has to be perfect.Too heavy, and even a master cryomancer couldn't keep it airborne for long.Too light, and it won't provide enough protection to be worth the effort."
"What make you choose this alloy?"Thalia pointed to a small ring, a strip of a different metal within the steel body of the shield."There’s more nickel here."