Page 3 of Frostforge: Passage Four
The hall buzzed with tense energy as Northern and Southern students gathered in loose formations, eyeing each other with barely concealed wariness.Absence had only seemed to breed further distrust between these factions.Thalia caught a particularly fierce glare from Einar Frostborne, a Northern fourth-year whose disdain for Southerners was matched only by his skill with ice magic.Frustration ignited in her chest, hot and quick.These tensions between North and South had caused nothing but strife during her time at Frostforge — distractions from the real enemy that waited beyond their shores.
"Still the same old nonsense," she muttered to Luna, who merely hummed in agreement, her attention already fixed on the raised dais where the instructors were assembling.
Instructor Wolfe took the podium, her broad shoulders square beneath her ceremonial furs, emerald eyes scanning the crowd with predatory precision.Thalia was struck by Maven's absence; the one-eyed instructor had been a fixture at every opening assembly since Thalia's arrival.She had been present to witness the former head instructor's ultimate betrayal last term, but still, Frostforge's opening ceremony felt strange and foreign without Maven's scarred face glowering down at them.
Looking around, Thalia was suddenly reminded of the absence of last year's senior students, now graduated and deployed to various military outposts across the realm.She felt a pang as she remembered that Kaine was gone, off to the military with the rest of the graduates.His steady presence in the Howling Forge would be missing now, leaving Frostforge different, diminished.
Wolfe raised her hands, and the hall fell silent."Before we begin," the instructor said, her voice like metal scraping stone, "a moment of silence for those lost in the Isle Warden raid last term."
The stillness that followed pressed against Thalia's ears like deep water.In that silence, the ever-present cold of Frostforge felt even colder, as if the very air remembered the lives extinguished by Isle Warden blades and storm magic.She thought of Instructor Morrow, his body found amid the wreckage of the eastern tower, and of the students who had fallen defending the academy — some she had known, others merely passed in hallways, all of them gone.
She met Luna's gaze during the silence, finding her own grief mirrored in her friend's usually mischievous eyes.Then she felt a presence at her side, a shift in the air that was both familiar and surprising.She looked up to see Roran standing next to her, wrapped in a heavy storm-grey cloak that seemed to absorb the light around him.
His dark eyes found hers — searching, steady, unreadable.Thalia blinked, her heart lurching against her ribs.He looked thinner than she remembered, his walnut-brown skin bronzed by a summer spent beneath the Southern sun, but the familiar tilt of his brow, the calm he always carried, was like a balm to her wounded spirit.Without thinking, she leaned into him slightly, warmed by his proximity.
The hush in the hall hung heavy around them, and Thalia couldn't stomach it; she had to resist the urge to bury her face in Roran's chest and shut it all out.The names of the dead whispered through her mind like ghostly fingers, and beneath them, the fear that by year's end, her name might join theirs.
Instructor Wolfe's voice finally broke the silence, and Thalia exhaled in relief."To those who did not survive the Isle Warden raid," Wolfe said, her voice like flint striking steel, "we remember you."A collective breath rippled through the crowd like wind over glacier ice."And to those of you still standing — welcome back to Frostforge."
Her sharp gaze swept over the gathered students, lingering on the nervous first-years."Make no mistake.War waits for no one.Your status as students does not change the fact that you have been recruited for war, and war will find you, whether you are ready or not.Thus, it is our duty to prepare you — and your duty to prepare yourselves — with every waking moment."
Wolfe leaned forward, her hands gripping the edges of the podium, the polished metal of her rings catching the cold light."You should always expect the battle to come in the night."
***
The assembly hall emptied like a draining tide, students flowing toward the corridors in currents of hushed conversation and speculation.Thalia followed the press of bodies, wedged between Luna and their other roommate, Ashe Redwood, as they squeezed through the massive iron-bound doors.The familiar weight of Frostforge settled around her shoulders — the chill that no amount of forge-heat could fully banish, the distant echoes bouncing off stone walls, the smell of ice and metal and sweat.She'd returned, as ordered.But the academy felt different now, changed in ways both visible and unseen.
"Did you see Marr's face when he mentioned the increased patrols?"Luna whispered, her voice pitched just loud enough for Thalia to hear."He knows something he's not telling us."
Ashe scoffed, the red streaks in her black hair catching the light from the wall sconces.The scarlet-dyed strands were a signifier of her clan in the Northern Reaches, a cultural marker that indicated her ability to survive the hostile wilds."He always knows something he's not telling us.That's what makes him Marr."
They rounded a corner, and Thalia's steps faltered.The corridor wall to their right bore a massive scorch mark, black and ragged against the pale stone.It stretched from floor to ceiling, the edges crumbling where intense heat had weakened the ancient mortar.She'd heard about the attack, of course — news had reached Verdant Port even before the survivors did — but seeing the physical evidence made her stomach clench.
Luna noticed her hesitation and followed her gaze."They say that's where Instructor Morrow fell," she said quietly."Trying to hold back three Wardens at once."
Thalia brushed her fingers against the blackened stone.It felt wrong somehow, as though the violence that had created it still lingered in the scorched surface.Frostforge had always seemed impregnable, a bastion of ice and stone.Now it wore its wounds openly, like a soldier refusing to hide his scars.
"Come on," Ashe said, tugging at Thalia's sleeve."We should go unpack before the evening meal.Our room assignment is the same as last year — they didn't bother reshuffling after..."She trailed off, her usual bluntness failing her.
After the dead were counted,Thalia finished silently.
"Are you coming up?"Luna asked, her dark eyes searching Thalia's face with that perceptive gaze that missed nothing, despite her carefully cultivated appearance of distraction.
Thalia shook her head."I'll meet you there later.I just need to..."She gestured vaguely down the corridor that led deeper into the fortress.
Understanding flickered across Luna's face."The forge?"
"I won't be long."
Ashe and Luna exchanged a look that Thalia pretended not to notice.They knew about Kaine, of course — not everything, but enough.Enough to understand why she might want to visit the place where he'd spent most of his time.
"We'll save you a spot at dinner," Ashe said, with a gentle squeeze of Thalia's shoulder that felt strange coming from someone usually so reserved.
Thalia watched them continue down the corridor, waiting until they disappeared around the bend before turning toward the staircase.Her boots echoed against the stone steps as she began her descent, each footfall a hollow reminder of her solitude.The air grew warmer with each level she passed, the chill of the upper floors gradually giving way to the heat that radiated from the academy's heart.
The Howling Forge.The place that had given her purpose when she'd first arrived, lost and terrified.The place where she'd discovered her affinity for metal, for sensing the currents of magic within ore and alloy.The place where Kaine had first noticed her, had first spoken to her with something other than the dismissive contempt most fourth-years showed to new recruits.
And now he was gone, graduated, moved on to whatever fate awaited those who survived Frostforge's brutal training.Without him, would the forge still feel like the one place in the academy where she belonged?
