Page 52 of Frostforge: Passage Two

"Nash," she breathed, recognizing the name of the Northern student who had confronted Roran — the same student who was conspicuously absent from today's competition."And these others — they're all Northern students."

"Yes," Luna confirmed, her finger tracing a column of names."But do you notice who isn't on this list?Senna.Her name doesn't appear anywhere."

Thalia frowned, reading through the ledger again.Luna was right — despite all their suspicions, there was no evidence linking Senna to the thefts or the sabotage.

"Where did you find this?"Thalia asked, her mind racing to reconcile this new information with everything they'd observed.

"Hidden in Nash's dorm room," Luna explained."After he didn't show up for the roll call, I thought it was worth investigating."

"This doesn't make sense," Thalia argued, frustration building in her chest."We saw Senna in that hidden room.We know she was collecting the broken golem pieces.Why would she do that if she wasn't involved?"

Luna shook her head."I don't know.But this —" she tapped the ledger "— this is hard proof.These students were stealing materials, replacing them with inferior metals, and selling the originals along with stolen weapons outside the academy.From the looks of these names, they were selling to Isle Wardens."

Thalia stared at the parchment, doubt gnawing at her certainty.Could they have been wrong about Senna all along?Or was this ledger itself a clever misdirection — one final act of sabotage designed to throw suspicion elsewhere?

"It could be a decoy," she suggested."Something left behind to mislead us."

Luna's expression hardened with rare intensity."I don't think so.The details are too specific, and it matches exactly with what we know about the thefts.Senna may be many things, but she's not our thief."

Before Thalia could argue further, a voice boomed across the plateau: "THALIA GREENSPIRE AND MATTHIAS STEELMAW, PREPARE FOR COMBAT!"

Thalia's head snapped up, her match completely forgotten in the wake of Luna's revelation.Across the arena, she could see Matthias already taking his position, his golem standing ready beside him.

"We're not done with this," she told Luna, folding the ledger and handing it back."Keep that safe."

As Thalia strode toward the arena, her mind churned with conflicting thoughts.If Nash and his friends were the thieves, what had they been doing with the stolen materials?And why had they chosen now to disappear?Most troubling of all — if Senna wasn't the culprit they'd been hunting, what had she been doing in that hidden room?

The answers would have to wait.For now, she had a battle to fight.She glanced at Matthias, at his golem with its compromised metals, and felt a weight settle in her chest.

Falchion fell into step beside her, metal footfalls ringing against the frost-hardened soil as they approached the arena's edge.Whatever came next, at least she wasn't facing it alone.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Thalia stepped into the combat arena, her golem moving beside her with fluid grace that belied its size.The crowd's roar washed over her in waves — some cheering, many jeering.She fixed her gaze on Matthias, her Northern opponent, who strutted toward the center with the confident swagger of someone who had never tasted defeat.His ice-iron golem stomped behind him, each footfall sending vibrations through the packed dirt floor.Thalia took a steadying breath, centering herself as she had practiced countless times in the forge.This wasn't just about winning anymore — with every malfunctioning golem she'd witnessed, the stakes had risen far beyond a simple tournament.

"Show the Southern slum-dweller what a real fight looks like, Matthias!"someone shouted from the stands.Laughter rippled through the crowd, sharp and cutting, followed by the disgruntled mutters of Southerners.

"Send her back to picking herbs in the gutter!"called another.

Thalia's jaw tightened, but she refused to look at them.Instead, she focused on the feel of her ice-brass golem beside her, its core humming with life.

The contrast between the constructs couldn't have been more stark.Matthias's golem stood nearly nine feet tall, a hulking beast of dark, soot-colored ice-iron with shoulders as broad as a doorway.Its limbs were thick as tree trunks, hands ending in blunt, hammer-like appendages designed for crushing strikes.The construct's head was little more than a brutish wedge with two glowing blue eyes sunken deep into the metal, giving it a perpetually angry expression.It emanated raw, unrefined power.

Her own creation was a different creature entirely.Standing just over six feet, Thalia's golem was lighter, sleeker.Its ice-brass frame gleamed with a warm, golden hue in the arena's harsh lighting, the metal polished to a mirror finish.The limbs were lean and articulated with twice as many joints as standard models, allowing for fluid, almost human-like movement.Its face appeared more innocent, with wider eyes that glowed a steady blue.Where Matthias's golem was built to intimidate through size and strength, hers was designed to outmaneuver and outsmart.

"The rules remain as stated,” said Maven.“Your golems will engage until one is disabled.Fighters will likewise engage until one surrenders, or until the judges declare a winner.Injury to your opponent is highly discouraged."She looked between them."Are the combatants ready?"

Matthias nodded eagerly, already shifting into a fighting stance.Thalia met the judge's eyes and gave her own nod, more measured but no less determined.

"Begin!"

Matthias wasted no time.With a sharp gesture from his right hand, his golem charged forward, its massive legs eating up the distance between them with surprising speed.The ice-iron construct raised both arms above its head, ready to bring them down in a devastating hammer blow that would have shattered a lesser golem on impact.

Thalia didn't panic.She'd spent hours studying Northern combat tactics, knew their preference for overwhelming force in the opening moments.Rather than meeting strength with strength, she extended her left hand with a quick flicking motion, sending her golem sliding to the right — a move more reminiscent of a dancer than a warrior.

The massive blow from Matthias's golem struck only dirt, sending up a cloud of dust and creating a small crater in the arena floor.A collective "ooh" rose from the audience, punctuated by disappointed groans from the Northerners.

Thalia maintained her defensive posture, keeping her golem light on its feet as it circled Matthias's lumbering creation.She watched his movements carefully, noting the way he favored his right side, the slight delay between his commands and his golem's execution.Fighting directly would be suicide — his golem had at least twice the raw power of hers — but wearing him down, forcing him to waste energy on missed attacks, that was a strategy she could work with.

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