Page 37 of Frostforge, Passage Six
Kaine moved closer, studying the plants without touching them.How to approach the question he needed answered?Direct inquiry seemed best; Celeste had little patience for circumspection.
"I wanted to ask you something," he began, meeting her gaze directly."About Thalia's ability to sense currents in metals and plants.Is it something you share?Something that runs in your family?"
Surprise flickered across Celeste's features."No, I've never had such a gift."She tied off a bundle of leaves with practiced fingers."My skills with plants come from knowledge passed down through generations, not from any innate magical sensitivity."
"And Thalia's father?"Kaine pressed."Did he have this ability?"
A shadow passed over Celeste's face at the mention of her late husband."Marten was a good man, but not particularly gifted with herbs or metals.If anything, he was less adept than most in our family."She paused, studying Kaine with sudden intensity."Why do you ask?What significance does this have?"
Kaine hesitated, unwilling to burden her with the full weight of what they'd discovered—the connection between current-sensing and the Wardens' interest in specific bloodlines, the implications for Thalia's safety if she were indeed what the Wardens sought.
"We're trying to understand why the Wardens targeted certain families in Verdant Port," he said instead, offering a portion of the truth."The documents suggest they were looking for people with specific magical affinities."
Celeste's eyes narrowed slightly, her hands stilling on the herbs."There's more you're not telling me."
"There is," Kaine admitted."But I need to confirm some things first.When I know more, I promise I'll explain everything."
She held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded once, accepting his answer with the same grace with which she had accepted everything since her arrival at Frostforge."Thalia's gift appeared early," she said, returning to her work."Before her tenth year.I thought it was simply an unusual aptitude, not true magic."
"Thank you," Kaine said, meaning it."I'll return tomorrow.Try to rest, if you can."
As he left the infirmary, Kaine's mind turned over this new puzzle piece.If neither Celeste nor Thalia's father possessed the current-sensing ability, how had Thalia inherited it?Was the Warden theory of bloodline inheritance wrong?Or was there something in Thalia's ancestry that Celeste herself didn't know?
More importantly, what did this mean for Thalia now, sailing into the heart of danger with an ability the Wardens valued enough to occupy an entire city to find?
His thoughts shifted to Senna, to his long-held suspicion that she possessed a similar sensitivity to magical currents.He had noticed it during their childhood, before his imprisonment—the way she seemed to know instinctively which metals would hold enchantment best, how she could identify ore deposits by touch alone.
Yet Senna and Thalia could hardly be more different—one from the frozen Reaches of the North, the other from the sunbaked ports of the South; one tall and pale with eyes like winter, the other short and bronze-skinned with eyes that held summer's warmth.If both possessed this "natural attunement," it could not be a simple matter of shared ancestry.
Kaine quickened his pace back toward the archives.When he pushed open the heavy doors, he found Luna sitting rigid in her chair, her eyes wide with revelation, a single document laid before her.
"What is it?"he asked, crossing the room in long strides."What did you find?"
"The Wardens' documents about Frostforge," Luna said, her voice hushed with awe."They believe the academy is not just a school or fortress—it's a magical defense structure, specifically designed to protect the mainland from whatever the Deep Tide is."
Kaine's breath caught in his throat.The pieces aligned with terrible clarity—his years of research into Frostforge's original purpose, the Founders' cryptic references to a "threat from the sea," the Wardens' desperate flight from their ancestral islands, the captured storm mage’s ominous final words about something beyond the fog that wreathed the archipelago.
"The 'threat from the sea,'" he breathed."The Founders' writings...theyweretalking about the Deep Tide all along."
He began to pace, energy surging through his exhausted body as connections formed in rapid succession."The Wardens are right about Frostforge.It was built as a defense—not against human enemies, but against something older, something worse."
A memory surfaced—Maven standing in the Founders' chamber, her knife at Thalia's throat, her voice tight with desperation as she spoke of awakening the Founders' Price through blood sacrifice.At the time, he had believed her actions were driven by Northern prejudice, by the belief that Southern students were expendable.Now, he understood the terrible truth.
"Maven knew," he said, the realization striking like lightning."She wasn't trying to kill Thalia just because she was a Southerner.She knew about Thalia’s abilities.She believed Thalia's bloodline could awaken Frostforge's ancient defenses."
Luna's eyes widened."The current-sensing ability—"
"Must be connected to whatever power Frostforge was designed to channel," Kaine finished."Maven somehow knew about Thalia's gift, and she thought sacrificing her would trigger the true Founders' Price—the one that would protect the continent from the Deep Tide."
"Whatever the Deep Tide is,” Luna said, her gaze lost in the middle distance.
The enchanted lights flickered above, shadows dancing across the stone floor like restless ghosts.In the silence between the stacks, centuries of vigilance pressed close—the echoes of generations who had stood sentinel against a threat now almost forgotten, guarding a danger they could no longer name.A danger that still lurked in the waters of the archipelago, into which Thalia, Roran, and Ashe had sailed, blind to forces stirring beneath the waves.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When Thalia woke, she lay still for a moment, letting awareness return in stages—the unfamiliar scent of whale oil and salt-cured timber, the distant creaking of the fortress adjusting to its living foundation's movements despite how steady and solid it felt around her.
The small chamber they'd been given felt both alien and strangely comforting.No right angles existed within these walls; everything curved and flowed like water frozen in mid-motion.The ceiling arched overhead in a pattern that mimicked waves seen from below, while the floor dipped slightly toward the center, as if drawn by some invisible current.
