Drake ran to the solid gate and pounded upon it, each strike echoing as thunder through the chilly air. "Hey, open up; this is cruel. Why cast me aside after I did as you asked?"
His voice reverberated throughout, mixed with the desolate wind. Again and again his fists landed on the strong wood, yet the gate stood mute and unmoved. Weary, he finally turned, a shadow of frustration darkening his features.
He set off, his direction as lost as his purpose. High above, on the towering walls of the kingdom, Anna, cloaked in whispers of the frost, watched him with silent intensity before turning back toward the ice palace, her presence soon to chill her highness with news.
Drake, mumbling to himself, froze mid-stride. "Which path should I take to escape this frozen maze? He did not say another word, just looked towards the empty horizon until the light of his remembered flashed in his eyes. "Lena… she left me a bag." His fingers rummaged through the worn satchel, pulling forth a rolled map and a compass as though they were the last lifeline in this desolate expanse.
As he unfurled the map, the cold bit deeper, and his voice shook ever so slightly.
"The Frozen Expanse… the realm of the water dragons, in the very north of Thralia."
Tracing his finger down the frozen parchment, he muttered, "Not far from here lies Kaldris-its frozen breath still formidable but more benign than this wasteland." Folding the map with purposed care, he tucked it away and squared his shoulders. "Kaldris, then," he whispered to silent tundra, and turned south, determination hardening every step.
Days passed by, and far in theFrozen Expanse Kingdom, a single villa carved out of winter shrouded its inhabitant, Lena, who sat as gracefully as an empress of frost-a reflection of the beauty of the snow-laden landscape outside.
Attended by three water dragon maids with graceful reverberation, their hands moved to the rhythm of devotion. Anna entered and gently broke this soft silence as she came in, falling to her knees.
"I'm back, Your Highness." Lena dismissed the maids with a wave, their steps receding like a dying echo. Drawing Anna close, Lena lowered her voice, "No formalities; here you are as you always have been-my confidante, as in days long past."
She led Anna toward a chair opposite her, both their eyes meeting over the table, each sparkling with memories unspoken. The words caught in Anna's throat as she said, "Your high-Lena, there is something I have to ask." Lena's hands extended across the space between them, her touch warm, an invitation.
"Hold nothing back." Anna did, for a moment longer, before rising to Lena's eyes, shadowed with doubt. "Why go to such trouble to cast him out? The poison would have ended him in silence within the palace walls, without risk to you.
Now, he is a solitary spark beyond our grasp. If word of this escapes…" Her voice trailed off, tension knitting her brow. Lena's hand tightened on Anna's. "Fear not," she murmured with quiet steel. "If fate intends him to fall, it will not be from mere poison." A ripple of curiosity broke through Anna's concern. "Lena, what do you mean by that? " Lena leaned forward, her voice dipping to a hushed tone.
"The poison, when it transferred to him, disappeared as if devoured by an invisible flame. And more… my reverse scale has merged into his heart. It has become… part of him."
Anna sprang from her seat, her hands fisting on the table, the ice in her eyes afire. "That's all the more reason to protect him! Without your reverse scale, you must be weakened, crazed. Yet, here you stand, calm and unruffled, while you should be feeling the raw rage of our ancestors." Lena stood slowly; her eyes were in a faraway place as her tone turned grave.
"There's more.
The ritual has given me a power I never could have dreamed of. The eighth circle now beats inside me, my lineage perfected as if heated anew."
Meanwhile, off the edge of the Frozen Expanse, Drake looked at the worn map in his hand-the seams and edges the marks of countless journeys. The compass shook, its needle steadfast to the north toward the faint silhouette of Kaldris. "Five more days," he grumbled, folding the map back into his pocket.
Setting off again, the cutting growl of a predator sliced through the silence and chilled him to the marrow.
He whipped his head around as three hulking Frost Lions emerged with their eyes like shards of burning ice.
He swore to himself, "They never told me about this." He sprinted, his boots thundering against the frozen ground as the roars of the Frost Lions filled the air like thunder.
---
Anna's gaze flashed like a razor at the villa. "Lena, this reverse scale ritual hints that you are cloaking something." Lena looked far away, the tone of her voice mysterious: "When his heart accepted the reverse scale, a crystal-white, pure water droplet appeared, covered by a sphere of my own mana. And over that, there was a sky blue ring beginning to spin around his heart.
Anna's breath caught. "You're saying… he has inherited water mana?" Lena nodded, an affirmation full of importance. "Yes. The ring reflects his affinity, and within it, three subrings rotate, each marking a stage of his ascent. He is now a third-circle water mage." Anna clutched her shoulders, urgent. "So that's what the subrings mean? His tier?
Lena slowly nodded, but her hand was shaking as her eyes met Anna's, and for a second, her composure was gone.
"Lena," Anna whispered, her voice shifting, "perhaps your heart is already tied to his? The reverse scale may have set it, but the love began before then, before you conjured him into our world. That's why you proceeded with the ritual, why you continued teaching him, even while pretending to be an enemy to him."
Anna's hands tightened around Lena's, urging her toward the truth. Lena's voice was shaking. "Anna, I know this sounds crazy, but it's his only chance for survival, to grow." The words dropped from her lips like splinters of ice, laced with fire from her resolution, the two warring inside her heart.