Inside the fortress barracks, Thalia's fingers fumbled with the clasps of her ice-steel armor, numb from cold despite the hours spent gripping her spear.Each piece she removed revealed another layer of sweat-dampened wool, now chilled against her skin like a second coating of frost.She and Luna kept their fur cloaks wrapped tight around their shoulders; even within these stone walls, the air hung bitter and sharp, defying the meager heat that emanated from the braziers stationed at intervals throughout the long room.
Across the barracks, Ashe Redwood sat hunched by the largest brazier, her tall frame folded awkwardly on a wooden stool that seemed too small for her.The fire's glow caught in the red streaks of her black hair—not dyed, but infused with alchemical compounds during her clan's coming-of-age ritual.Beside her, Brynn Firstborn paced in tight, agitated circles, her hands punctuating the air as her voice rose and fell in familiar cadences of complaint.
"—and Commander Holm didn’t even acknowledge my report on the perimeter weakness in the eastern wall," Brynn was saying, her voice sharp as an ice-blade."Four years at the top of our class, and he treats me like I'm some green recruit who doesn't know the difference between an ice-brass fitting and common iron."
Ashe nodded along, but her eyes flicked toward Thalia, and the corner of her mouth twitched in what might have been the ghost of a smile.Yet there was something else there too, a grimness that didn't match the resigned amusement Thalia had expected.
Thalia caught Luna's glance and saw her own weariness mirrored there.They'd all heard Brynn's tirades for weeks now, each day bringing fresh indignities for the former top-ranked recruit of Frostforge Academy.There would have been satisfaction in Brynn's fall from grace—the noble-born Southern girl had never been accused of humility—if her grievances hadn't been so legitimate, if her talent hadn't been so obviously wasted here, if they all weren't suffering the same fate for the same unjust reason.
Irony,Thalia thought, settling onto a bench near the brazier and stretching her hands toward the flames.Brynn had spent four years looking down on every other Southern recruit who'd crawled up from the slums or the countryside, yet to the Northern military commanders, she was just as Southern as the poorest dock rat from Verdant Port.Her family’s wealth and influence couldn’t touch her here in the Reaches.
The heat from the brazier barely penetrated the chill that had seeped into Thalia's bones.She flexed her fingers, willing sensation back into the tips, but the cold remained, a presence that had taken up residence inside her and refused to leave.
"—and if they think I'm going to sit here sorting supply manifests until my hair turns gray, they're—" Brynn's tirade cut off abruptly as the barracks door slammed open, the sound like a crack of breaking ice.
The outpost's courier stood in the doorway, snow clinging to his beard and eyebrows in crystal formations.His gaze swept the room, dismissing Thalia and Luna with barely a glance, lingering a moment longer on Brynn before settling on Ashe.Without greeting or ceremony, he pulled a tightly rolled scroll from his satchel and thrust it toward her, the Frostforge crest visible in the wax seal that bound it.
"For you," he said gruffly."Orders from Frostforge."
A hush fell over the room, punctuated only by the crackling of the brazier.Every head turned toward Ashe as she broke the seal with a sharp twist of her wrist.The parchment unfurled with a soft sound, and Thalia watched Ashe's expression change as she read—her lips pressing into a thin line, her jaw clenching tight enough that a muscle jumped beneath her skin.Without speaking, she rolled the parchment closed again and tucked it inside her tunic, close to her heart.
"I have to leave," she said, the words falling flat and heavy into the silence.
Brynn blinked, momentarily stunned out of her indignation."Leave?And go where?"
"Back to Frostforge," Ashe replied, her eyes flicking briefly to Thalia before returning to the flames."They want me to testify at Roran's tribunal."
Thalia's stomach plummeted like ice calving from a glacier.The brazier's heat, already insufficient, now seemed miles away, belonging to another world entirely.The courier gave a perfunctory salute to the room before stepping back through the door, letting it bang shut behind him with finality.
"You?"Brynn's voice cracked with barely contained fury."They're sending you south while the rest of us rot in this—this frozen wasteland?"She laughed, the sound brittle as thin ice."Let me guess, it's because you're Northern, isn't it?Never mind that I ranked far higher than you at the academy, never mind that I've filed seventeen separate reports on structural weaknesses in this forsaken outpost—" She threw up her hands."I'm going to get whatever slop they're calling supper tonight.Maybe if I'm lucky, it’ll have a single grain of salt in it for flavor."
She stormed out, her footsteps echoing against the stone floor.In her wake, a silence settled, broken only by the soft popping of the brazier's flames.
"Ignore her," Thalia said finally.
"I always do," Ashe replied, her voice steady."She knows as well as I do that this isn't a promotion.It's..."She trailed off, eyes fixed on the dancing flames.
Luna leaned forward, her posture casual but her gaze intent."Why you?"she asked."Why do they want your testimony specifically?"
Ashe shifted on her stool, shoulders tense beneath her furs."The Storm Chase trial," she said after a moment."At the end of our third year.I was assigned to Roran's skiff, the same as Thalia's.They must suspect I've seen his storm magic before."A pause."And they're right."
Thalia remembered it vividly.The churning ocean beneath their small vessel, the Isle Wardens closing in from all sides.How the sea had responded to Roran’s command, rising in walls that shouldn't have been possible, how the sky had darkened and lightning had danced at his fingertips.How he had saved them.The Isle Wardens had shown their greatest weakness that night.Their own power, directed back at them.No one else had seen Roran’s actions save for Thalia and Ashe, but in a way, his fate had been sealed on the deck of that skiff.
For a moment, Thalia’s brow furrowed.Why had Ashe been chosen to provide testimony rather than her?She’d been on board that skiff, too.She had witnessed everything Ashe had witnessed, and more.Thalia had undoubtedly been Roran’s closest friend at Frostforge during their time at the academy; he had told her secrets, things he’d never told anyone else.
Perhaps that bond, in and of itself, was the reason.They didn’t want to provide a witness in Roran’s defense, and were counting on Ashe’s unerring sense of duty to reveal his further transgressions.
"What will you tell them?"Thalia asked, leaning forward to search Ashe's face.
For a long moment, Ashe didn't answer.The firelight threw hard shadows across her features, turning her expression into a landscape of light and dark, as inscrutable as the glaciers that flowed into the Rimspire’s fjords.Then she said, "I have to tell them the truth.I'm honor-bound."
The brazier popped loudly, sending a flare of sparks into the air between them.Thalia turned to Luna, who was already watching her with a knowing look that said she had anticipated this moment long before Thalia herself had realized it was coming.
"I'm going back with you," Thalia said, the words tasting of certainty and fear in equal measure.“To Frostforge.”
Ashe's head snapped up, alarm flashing in her eyes."You can’t.You were assigned to this outpost by the Generals.You’re talking about desertion."
"Is it desertion when there's nothing to desert?"Thalia asked bitterly."We patrol empty snow.We wait for orders that never come."
