Page 16 of Frostforge: Passage Four
"That's all," Wolfe said, stepping back from the edge of the podium."Squad leaders, keep your first-years in line.Dismissed."
The assembly dispersed with a surge of voices, fear, and speculation spreading through the crowd like frost across glass.Thalia caught fragments of conversations as she filed toward the exit with the other fourth-years.
"— heard they sank three merchant vessels last week —"
"— my cousin in Seaward said they've been evacuating —"
"— think they'll attack Frostforge again?"
The last question sent a chill through her that had nothing to do with the academy's perpetual cold.She remembered the blood on the snow, the screams, the metallic scent of ice-bronze clashing with dark steel.
"Thalia?"
She turned at the small voice, finding Daniel and Felah hovering uncertainly behind her, separated from the flow of students moving toward the doors.Daniel's lanky frame seemed more hunched than usual, his bronze skin ashen.Beside him, Felah's dark eyes were wide with barely contained fear, her short curls damp with nervous sweat despite the cold.
"Can we talk to you?"Daniel asked, his voice cracking slightly.
Thalia nodded, stepping out of the stream of departing students.She gestured to a recessed alcove near the hall's entrance, where an unlit torch bracket created a small pocket of shadow.
"Is it true?"Daniel asked once they'd gathered there, his words tumbling out in a rush."About last year's attack?All those deaths?"
Thalia's throat constricted, memories flashing like shards of broken ice: the ambush on the Golem Fields, friends falling, Roran bleeding in the snow."Yes," she said finally, the word barely audible."It's true."
Felah clutched the hem of her sleeve, knuckles white."Are we really safe here?"Her voice trembled."Are any of us?"
Thalia's first instinct was to offer comfort, to manufacture some reassurance.But the words died before reaching her lips."Frostforge was never safe," she said instead, gently."The academy has always been dangerous —"
"I don't mean from training," Felah interrupted, her usual timidity giving way to naked fear."I mean from them.From the Isle Wardens."
Something in the girl's tone made Thalia truly look at her, seeing beyond the nervous first-year to the person beneath.“You’ve seen them before, haven’t you?”
"My brother," Felah whispered, eyes downcast."They took him two years ago.A raid on our fishing village in the far South.He was only fifteen.My family moved to Verdant Port after that — we needed the safety of the city."
Thalia's heart sank.No wonder the girl was so skittish, so afraid of failure."I'm sorry," she said, the words woefully inadequate.
"My parents were in Westgale when the Wardens came," Daniel added quietly."They survived, but..."He swallowed hard."They still wake up screaming sometimes.My father can't go near the water anymore."
The weight of their trust, their fear, settled on Thalia's shoulders like a physical burden.They were looking to her for something she wasn't sure she could provide — safety, protection, answers.She was only a fourth-year herself, barely holding her own squad together against external sabotage and their own prejudices.
"You're strong," she told them after a silence that stretched too long, knowing the words were hollow even as she spoke them."And you're not alone here."
But as Felah's shoulders relaxed slightly, as Daniel nodded with desperate hope in his eyes, Thalia felt the hollow ache of responsibility expanding in her chest.Their faith in her was misplaced.She couldn't even protect them from whoever was sabotaging their equipment — how could she promise to keep them safe from the Isle Wardens?
***
Thalia ran her fingertips along the edge of Felah's newly forged replacement blade, eyes closed, attuned to the subtle whispers of the metal beneath her touch.The weapons storage room near the forge hummed with residual heat from the day's work, a welcome contrast to the bitter cold that ruled the rest of Frostforge.Here, alone among racks of steel and ice-bronze, she could finally breathe — and focus on finding whoever was trying to sabotage her squad.
She'd excused herself after the evening meal, slipping away while her squad drilled defensive formations with the other first-years.They didn't need her for basic drills — and she needed answers before someone got hurt worse than a bruised ego.
The blade vibrated beneath her touch, its current flowing like water through her senses.Ice-bronze had a distinctive signature, a crystalline pattern that ran through the metal like veins through flesh.Each piece was unique, the way a voice or a face was unique.And Thalia could read those differences better than anyone at Frostforge — it was the one gift that had kept her alive this long.
She moved methodically down the row of her squad's weapons, checking each piece for inconsistencies, for the telltale disruptions that would indicate tampering.Daniel's weapon felt clean, its current flowing smoothly from hilt to tip.So did Rasmus's curved blade and Sigrid's broadsword.
Thalia reached for another blade — one of the backups they'd forged after Felah's shattered during the mock battle.She ran her thumb along its edge, feeling the way the metal resisted, then yielded.Something felt off — a subtle wrongness in the alloy's composition, a current that stuttered where it should have flowed.
She opened her eyes, examining the blade more closely.Under the forge lamps, it appeared perfect, the surface unmarred.But her fingertips told a different story — this blade had been sabotaged too, the mixture altered just enough to create a fatal weakness, just like the last one.
The heavy door creaked open behind her.Thalia turned quickly, half-expecting to see Kaine — he'd promised to help check the equipment — but her breath caught at the sight of Roran instead, silhouetted against the dimly lit corridor.
