One by one, flames flared to life, casting dancing shadows along the rough-hewn walls of the entrance tunnel.The miners moved with practiced efficiency, checking the stability of the ceiling and supports as they advanced.Thalia followed, Ashe at her side, grateful for the expertise of their companions.
The passage sloped downward almost immediately, the floor slick with ice that had formed where the cold mountain air met the warmer currents from below.Narrow ledges forced them to hug the rock face in places, their breath coming in short, nervous puffs that clouded before them.Thalia kept her eyes fixed on the path, trying not to look at the drops that yawned to their right—black voids promising swift ends to careless steps.
A young miner ahead of them slipped suddenly, his foot skidding toward the edge.Ashe lunged forward with the quick reflexes of Northern training, seizing his arm before he could fall."Steady," she murmured, helping him regain his footing."Take your time."
The boy—for he couldn't be more than sixteen—nodded gratefully, his eyes wide and gleaming in the lantern light."Sorry," he muttered."Not used to the ice."
"None of us are," Thalia assured him, recognizing the lilting accent of the Southern coast."The mines back home don't freeze like this."
The tunnel widened as they descended deeper, opening into a vast chamber where abandoned mining equipment stood like the skeletons of strange beasts.Rusted carts rested on tracks that led further into the mountain, their wood long since rotted to brittle shells.Scaffolding climbed the walls, reaching toward seams of ore that glinted dully in the lantern light.
"Current workings begin one level down," Harren explained, gesturing toward a shaft that plunged deeper into the earth."They'll be active by midday—we should avoid them.The ore we seek will be deeper, in areas abandoned long ago."
Thalia nodded, her eyes drawn to the minecarts."We'll need something to transport whatever we find."
"Already thinking ahead," Harren said with approval.He pointed to a smaller cart near the wall, its frame in better condition than the others."That one looks solid enough.Rickman, Thorne—check the wheels."
Two miners detached from the group, approaching the cart cautiously.After a brief inspection, they nodded."Solid," the taller one confirmed."Axle's good too."
"We'll take it with us," Thalia decided."It'll slow us down, but we'll need it for the return journey."
With four miners handling the cart, they continued deeper into the mountain.The tracks they followed were clearly older than those in the main chamber, the metal tarnished and in places warped by shifts in the surrounding stone.Lantern light gleamed on wet walls where underground springs seeped through cracks, feeding ice formations that hung from the ceiling like crystalline fangs.
As they descended, the air grew colder despite the increasing depth, a paradox that Thalia knew was unique to these mountains.Unlike most mines where heat increased with depth, the Rimspire range housed ancient ice sheets trapped within its stone heart, creating pockets of intense cold that defied natural laws.
The minecart's wheels rumbled against the metal tracks, the sound echoing through the tunnels with hollow resonance.Thalia led the way, one hand extended slightly before her as she focused on the currents within the stone.Each metal had its own signature—copper sang high and bright, iron thrummed with steady purpose, and aluminum whispered with delicate precision.She cataloged them automatically, a skill honed through years in the Howling Forge.
Hours passed, marked only by the steady progression deeper into the mountain's heart.The tracks eventually petered out, forcing them to manhandle the cart over increasingly rough terrain.They passed chambers where the walls had been carved with strange symbols, remnants of mining operations from centuries past.In some places, tools lay abandoned as if their owners had simply set them down and walked away, never to return.
"Getting anything?"Ashe asked during a brief rest, her voice hushed in the oppressive silence of the deep tunnels.
Thalia shook her head, frustration evident in the set of her shoulders."Traces of the usual ores, nothing more."She ran a hand through her hair, dislodging dust that drifted like pale specters in the lantern light."It has to be here somewhere."
"We've only covered a fraction of the abandoned tunnels," Harren reminded her, studying his map by the flickering flame."The oldest workings are still ahead."
They pressed on, the tunnels growing narrower, the ceiling lower, forcing them to stoop in places.The air grew thick with stone dust that coated their throats and made each breath an effort.Thalia's legs ached from hours of walking, but she pushed the discomfort aside, focusing instead on the subtle vibrations of metal within the surrounding rock.
Then, so faint she almost missed it—a new signature.Different from anything she'd encountered before, neither the bright song of copper nor the steady beat of iron, but something else entirely—a resonance that seemed to ripple through the stone rather than emanate from it.
She halted so abruptly that Ashe nearly collided with her back."Wait," Thalia whispered, closing her eyes to better focus on the elusive current."I feel something."
The group fell silent, the only sound their measured breathing and the faint creak of the minecart's wooden frame.Thalia extended her senses further, tracing the unfamiliar signature to its source."This way," she said, pointing to a narrow offshoot tunnel to their left."It's weak, but it's there."
The side passage was barely wide enough for the cart, its walls rough and unfinished compared to the main tunnel.Clearly, it had been abandoned early in its excavation, perhaps deemed unprofitable before it could be fully developed.The ceiling hung low, forcing them to duck as they proceeded.
The signature grew stronger with each step, a vibration that Thalia now felt not just through her current-sensing ability but physically, like the hum of a struck tuning fork against her skin.
The passage opened suddenly into a low, cramped cavern where the lantern light caught and refracted off the walls in unexpected ways.There, running along the eastern face like a frozen river, was a vein of ore unlike anything Thalia had seen before.Its color shifted between silver-blue and ice-white depending on how the light struck it, and it seemed to pulse with its own inner luminescence, as if breathing in rhythm with the mountain itself.
"Is that it?"Ashe asked, her voice hushed with wonder.
“The seas take me.”Harren clapped a hand on Thalia’s back.“When this war ends, if you need work, you ought to prospect a mine, girl.”
Thalia stepped forward, drawn to the glimmering vein as if pulled by an invisible thread.She pressed her palm against the cool surface, closing her eyes as the current flowed into her.The signature matched exactly the fragments from the Founders' Price chamber—the same complex layering of enchantment, the same resonant frequency that seemed to exist in opposition to the black metal's disruptive pattern.
"Yes," she breathed, opening her eyes to find the entire group watching her with expressions ranging from curiosity to awe."This is what we're looking for."
Harren approached, kneeling to examine the vein more closely.He brushed away stone dust with careful fingers, revealing more of the luminous ore beneath."Never seen anything like it," he admitted."Not in forty years of mining.It's not in any guild records I've studied."
