Page 23 of Frostforge: Passage Two

"Give me that," she demanded, holding out a calloused hand.

Einar hesitated only a moment before surrendering the pieces.Wolfe turned them over, examining the break with practiced eyes.

"This is a clean fracture along a crystallization plane," she said finally."Could be poor smelting, could be improper quenching."Her eye narrowed at Einar."Or it could be that your design puts too much stress on a piece that's too thin for its function."

"Instructor Wolfe," Einar protested, "that steel was forged to my specifications.It should have withstood ten times that impact."

"Perhaps," Wolfe conceded, "but I won't have accusations thrown around my forge without evidence."She turned to face the gathered students."Unless anyone saw Greenspire tampering with materials, return to your stations.Now."

The students dispersed reluctantly.Wolfe fixed Einar with a stare."You'll need to catch up with the rest of the class.I suggest you start immediately with a new component."

"Yes, Instructor," he muttered, snatching back the broken pieces.

As he passed Thalia, he hissed, "This isn't over, Southerner."

Thalia returned to her station, feeling the weight of hostile stares.Northern students glared openly now, their earlier veiled suspicion abandoned.She took a deep breath and picked up her chisel, determined to focus on her own work — a delicate pattern she was etching into brass plates for her golem's exterior.

The brass felt strange under her hands.There was a discord to its magical resonance, a stuttering in the flow that made her fingers tingle unpleasantly.She closed her eyes, focusing her awareness on the metal itself rather than its surface.

The magic should have moved through the alloy in smooth, golden waves—brass was a blend of copper and zinc, the copper providing stability while the zinc amplified magical conductivity.But the current felt thin, weak in places where it should have been strong.

Thalia opened her eyes with a sharp intake of breath.This wasn't the same quality brass she'd been working with before.The zinc content was lower — much lower than the standard alloy used for golem components.No wonder it felt wrong; this brass would barely hold the enchantments needed to animate a basic golem, let alone the complex mechanisms she was designing.

She glanced around the forge, watching as other students hammered and chiseled at their materials, oblivious to the flaws she could sense so clearly.How many of them were working with substandard metals?Were Einar's accusations of sabotage right, just misdirected?

Or was something else happening — something that might explain both the weapon thefts and the compromised materials?

Thalia ran her fingers along the brass plate again, feeling the discordant magic beneath her fingertips.This wasn't just a quality control issue.This felt deliberate, as if someone had intentionally provided inferior materials that looked correct to the naked eye but lacked the necessary magical properties.

She set down her chisel, mind racing.If the stolen weapons and the sabotaged materials were connected, it painted a far more troubling picture than simple theft or Northern-Southern rivalries.

It suggested someone was systematically undermining Frostforge's ability to produce functional magical weapons.

Someone wanted to disrupt their training — and possibly even the war effort at large.

***

Thalia left the Howling Forge with her mind churning like molten metal.The brass plate in her satchel felt like it was burning a hole through the fabric, though its temperature had nothing to do with heat.It was the wrongness of it — the discordant magical signature that shouldn't exist in academy-grade materials.She hurried across the frost-crusted courtyard, barely noticing the bite of the wind or the way her breath clouded before her.Something systematic was happening at Frostforge, something that went beyond petty rivalries or even the theft of weapons.If someone was deliberately compromising the materials students worked with, the consequences could be catastrophic when those compromised creations were activated.

The common area welcomed her with warmth after the biting cold outside.A fire crackled in the stone hearth, casting dancing shadows across worn furniture and the scattered possessions of first-year students.Despite the comfort, few students lingered here between classes; many preferred the library or practice rooms where classmates’ eyes wouldn't follow their every move.

Luna, however, sat cross-legged in an oversized armchair near the window, her small frame almost swallowed by the faded upholstery.A massive leather-bound tome lay open on her lap, its yellowed pages covered in intricate diagrams of wild beasts and the magical bonds that could be formed with them.She appeared completely absorbed, her finger tracing a circle around the illustration of a Rimwolf, lips moving silently as she read.

"Advanced beast bonding?"Thalia asked, dropping her satchel beside the chair opposite Luna's."That's fourth-year material."

Luna's head jerked up, her eyes momentarily unfocused as if returning from a distant place.Then her characteristic smile spread across her face, slightly crooked, slightly too wide.

"Oh!Thalia!I didn't hear you come in."She blinked rapidly, a deliberate affectation that Thalia now recognized as part of Luna's carefully crafted persona."Beast bonding?Yes, fascinating stuff.Did you know Rimwolves can sense magic fluctuations through solid ice?"She closed the book with theatrical care."But you look troubled.More troubled than usual, I mean."

Thalia sank into the chair, glancing around to ensure they were alone before leaning forward."Have you found anything new about the weapons disappearances?"

Luna's expression shifted subtly — the distracted veneer falling away as calculation took its place.She shook her head, dreadlocks swaying with the movement."Nothing concrete.Senna's movements remain erratic but not definitively suspicious.She's been spending time in the east wing after curfew, but I haven't caught her near any of the armories."

"What about the most recent thefts?The war hammer and Riverton's daggers?"

"I was tracking a different lead last night," Luna admitted, her voice dropping lower."A meeting between two instructors in the western courtyard.Nothing came of it — just discussion of curriculum changes."Her sharp eyes fixed on Thalia."But something's happened, hasn't it?Something new."

Thalia extracted the brass plate from her satchel, placing it on the small table between them.To an untrained eye, it looked perfectly normal — smoothly finished, with half-completed etchings along one edge.

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