Page 20 of Frostforge: Passage Two

Last year, their proximity would have sent Senna into a cold rage.Thalia glanced toward the corner where Senna had been working, half-expecting to find the older girl stalking toward them with murder in her silver eyes.

Instead, Senna remained hunched over her blade, running a whetstone along its edge with mechanical precision.Her brow was furrowed, lips moving in silent conversation with herself.The sight was so unusual that Thalia nearly missed her timing with the hammer, barely catching the brass at the right temperature.

"Focus," Kaine said softly, noticing her distraction.

Thalia returned her attention to her work, letting the rhythm of metal-on-metal fill her mind.The brass flattened under her hammer, taking shape as she folded and stretched it according to the rough design she'd sketched.Unlike the others who worked on boxy, angular pieces, Thalia aimed for something more organic — curved plates that would articulate around a central core.

She lost track of time as she worked, aware only of the shifting color of the metal, the heat of the forge, and the occasional presence of Kaine as he drifted between his own work and hers.When she paused to wipe sweat from her brow, she saw that Instructor Wolfe had stopped at several stations, offering criticism more often than praise.

As Thalia quenched a section of brass in the water barrel, steam rising around her face in a white cloud, she again glanced toward Senna's corner.The Northern girl was sliding her blade into a leather sheath, her movements oddly mechanical.Without looking up — without even seeming to register the presence of anyone else in the forge — Senna stood and walked out, her usual predatory grace replaced by something that looked almost like sleepwalking.

"That's strange," Thalia murmured.

"What is?"Kaine asked, appearing at her side again with a pair of tongs.

"Senna," Thalia said, nodding toward the now-empty corner."She didn't even look at us once.Last year, she would've been over here threatening to slit my throat for standing too close to you."

Kaine's expression darkened."I've noticed her behaving oddly since we returned," he said quietly."Not just toward you or me.Toward everyone."

Thalia frowned, returning to her work.As she hammered the next section of her breastplate, she wondered what could possibly distract Senna from her obsession with Kaine.Whatever it was, Thalia doubted it meant anything good.

***

"Time," Instructor Wolfe called, her voice cutting through the rhythmic percussion of hammers and the hiss of quenching metal."Store your work properly.We'll continue tomorrow."Thalia stepped back from her workbench, wiping sweat-dampened hair from her forehead with the back of her wrist.The curved brass breastplate gleamed in the forge light, its surface marked with the careful hammer strikes that would eventually form the warding patterns necessary for animation.Not perfect, but further along than she'd expected to get in one session.She carefully lifted the piece — still warm to the touch — and placed it on the designated storage rack, labeling it with a piece of chalk.

Around her, students were packing up their tools, some with expressions of satisfaction, others with barely concealed frustration.

Thalia rolled her shoulders, feeling the pleasant ache of muscles well-used.She untied her leather apron and hung it on a hook by her station, then gathered her sketches and notes into her satchel.The other students were already filtering out of the forge, voices rising in volume as they discussed their progress and plans for the next session.

She had just turned to follow when a hand caught her elbow — gentle but insistent.

"Wait," Kaine said, his voice low enough that only she could hear."I want to show you something."

Thalia glanced toward the door where the last students were leaving."Is it about Senna?"

Kaine shook his head, a lock of dark hair falling across his forehead."The runes.Remember?From last year?"

That was all he needed to say.Thalia nodded, stepping back from the door."Lead the way."

They waited until the heavy oak door swung shut behind the last student before Kaine guided her toward the back of the forge.The old furnace stood against the far wall, its iron surface blackened with decades of soot and use.It was rarely used now that newer, more efficient forges had been installed, but it had never been removed — a relic from Frostforge's earlier days.

As they approached, Thalia felt it again — that strange tingling sensation that traveled up her arms and settled at the base of her skull.It was similar to what she felt when working with particularly potent herbs, or when handling raw metal that held strong magical potential.But this was older, deeper somehow.

"You feel something, don't you?"Kaine asked, watching her face closely.

Thalia nodded."Like pins and needles, but not unpleasant.Almost like it's...recognizing me."She hadn't shared this particular sensation with Kaine before, but something in his expression told her he understood exactly what she meant.

"I spent nearly two weeks of the break trying to decipher these markings," Kaine said, squeezing behind the furnace to the narrow space where they'd discovered the runes the previous year."I copied what we could see, took the sketches to three different merchants in the Winterhearth who deal in antiquities.None of them recognized the script, though one thought it might be pre-unification."

Thalia raised her eyebrows."Before the Northern tribes united?That would make it —"

"At least three hundred years old," Kaine confirmed."But that's just a guess.The merchant wasn't certain."

He gestured for her to join him behind the furnace.The space was narrow, barely wide enough for one person, let alone two.Thalia pressed herself against the cool stone wall, acutely aware of Kaine's proximity as he squeezed in beside her.The heat of the forge didn't reach this forgotten corner, and the temperature dropped noticeably.

"I tried to move the furnace further during the break," Kaine said, "but it's too heavy for one person.I think there's more inscription beneath it."

Thalia studied the runes visible on the wall.In the dim light, they seemed to pulse with faint energy — or perhaps that was just her imagination, spurred by the tingling in her fingertips.Some resembled the cryomancy symbols taught in their first-year classes, but most were utterly foreign, carved in angular patterns that seemed to flow into one another.

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