"Move, Greenspire!"Brynn's voice cut through Thalia's shock like the blade she’d just lost.Brynn stood several paces away, her hands extended before her, frost still clinging to her gloved fingertips from the cryomantic attack she had just unleashed.
Thalia blinked, her training reasserting itself, and scrambled backward, putting distance between herself and the downed Warden.Brynn was already in motion, seizing Thalia's arm and pulling her toward the retreating students.
"What—" Thalia began, still clutching the useless hilt of her sword.
"Think about it later!"Brynn snapped, her eyes scanning the chaos around them.One of her twin daggers remained sheathed at her hip, the other conspicuously absent.Her normally perfect hair was windblown, strands escaping from her tightly wrapped bun, and a small cut leaked blood above her right eyebrow.
They ran, dodging fallen timbers and bodies—some moving, some ominously still.The wind continued to howl across the plateau, carrying the scent of ozone and sea salt, as if a tropical hurricane had descended upon the Rimspire mountains.Above them, lightning danced from cloud to cloud, the storm held in check for now but threatening to unleash its full fury at any moment.
As they reached the relative shelter of a collapsed section of seating, Brynn pulled Thalia down into a crouch."We need to reach the main keep," she said, her breath coming in sharp bursts."Marr is organizing a defense at the gates."
"What happened to my sword?"Thalia demanded, holding up the hilt for Brynn to see."It just...broke."
Brynn's expression was grim, her usually haughty features hardened by something that looked like fear."It's happening to everyone," she said."Whatever their weapons are made from—they're shattering ice-metal on contact.I lost one of my daggers the same way."
The implications crashed over Thalia like a wave of icy water.Ice-metal was Frostforge's primary advantage—the material from which their weapons, armor, and constructs were crafted.If the Wardens had found a way to neutralize it…
"How is that possible?"she asked, though she knew Brynn had no more answers than she did.
Brynn shook her head, her eyes tracking the movement of Wardens through the ruins of the amphitheater."I don't know.But without our weapons..."She left the sentence unfinished, but Thalia could complete it in her mind.
Without our weapons, we're defenseless.
Ice-metal was Frostforge’s greatest strength, its most valuable asset.The academy wasn’t the only place on the continent where cryomancers worked; there were colleges across the Reaches that sought to train mages.It wasn’t the only place where smiths pounded metal into weapons; the North had a long, proud tradition of metallurgy.But it was the only place in the world where ice-metal was forged, the only place where students were taught this ancient art.Ice-metal weapons had held the Wardens at bay for decades.They were the foundation of Frostforge's military supremacy, the reason why even the most battle-hardened Warden raiding parties hesitated before crossing into academy-controlled territory.
And now, they were useless.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The storm had intensified, unnatural in its fury, churning clouds transforming daylight into a murky twilight.Mist coiled through the battlefield like ghostly serpents, obscuring friend from foe until they were nearly upon each other.Through gaps in the swirling vapor, she caught glimpses of Frostforge students and soldiers falling, their ice-metal weapons disintegrating upon contact with the Wardens' black armaments, leaving them defenseless against the killing blows that followed.
"Down!"Brynn's voice cut through the chaos.
Thalia dropped instinctively, feeling the rush of frigid air pass over her head as Brynn unleashed another cryomantic blast.A Warden's scream confirmed the hit, the sound quickly swallowed by the howling wind.She scrambled backward, still clutching the useless hilt of her shattered sword, its jagged remains glinting in the strange half-light.
"We can't hold them!"Thalia shouted, her voice barely audible above the storm's fury.
Brynn's face was a mask of cold determination, frost crystallizing on her fingertips as she drew power from the frigid air around them.Her remaining dagger remained sheathed—a last resort she couldn't risk against the black metal that had claimed its twin.She gestured toward a collapsed section of the amphitheater, where several students had formed a desperate defensive line.
"There!"she called."We need to consolidate and try to form up around the entrance!"
They ran, crouching low, using the wreckage for cover.The plateau had transformed into a nightmare landscape of broken timber, scattered bodies, and swirling mist.Thalia's boots slipped on grass slick with frost and blood, the ground beneath them reverberating with each lightning strike that illuminated the battlefield in stark, terrible clarity.
Another flash revealed the keep's entrance, its massive stone archway still standing firm.Soldiers clustered around it, forming a protective barrier, while behind them, the wounded were being evacuated inside.The distance between their current position and that relative safety seemed impossibly vast, filled with Wardens who advanced with the relentless rhythm of breaking waves.
Brynn reached the group of students first, sliding into position beside a third-year whose face was streaked with blood from a cut above his eye.Thalia followed, counting their numbers with growing despair.Seven students, three of them injured, all looking to her and Brynn with expressions ranging from terror to grim resolve.
"What's the plan?"asked a Northern second-year, her accent thick with fear."Our weapons are useless!"
"Not all of them," Thalia replied, eyeing the wooden staff the girl clutched."Anything not ice-metal will still work, even if it isn’t as strong.And cryomancy—"
"Some of us can't use cryomancy well enough to fight," a boy interrupted, his Southern accent marking him as one of her own."I never passed any of my examinations last term."
Thalia understood his desperation all too well.She had struggled with cryomancy throughout her time at Frostforge, her talents lying in metallurgy rather than ice manipulation.Now, with metal weapons rendered useless, their smithing and bladework could not save them.
"Then find something else!"Brynn snapped, her patience clearly fraying."Rocks, wood, anything!But do it quickly—they're coming."
As if summoned by her words, dark shapes materialized through the mist—three Wardens moving with predatory grace, their faces painted with blue and black designs that gave them the appearance of demons from ancient legends.They wielded an assortment of black-metal weapons: a curved short sword, a spiked mace, and a set of throwing knives that gleamed with deadly promise.
