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Luna pushed her half-finished bowl toward him without looking up from her notebook, where she appeared to be sketching idle patterns."Take it," she said, her voice airy and distracted as always when others might be listening."I'm not hungry."

"Liar," Roran said, but he accepted the offering nonetheless, his fingers gripping the wooden spoon with too much force."But thank you."

Thalia glanced at Ashe, who sat straight-backed and alert despite the shadows beneath her eyes.The Northern girl had been disappearing for hours at a time over the past week, returning to their dormitory with snow crusted in her black-and-red hair and a distant look in her eyes.When questioned, she'd offered only vague explanations about "perimeter checks."

A hush fell over the hall.Thalia's attention snapped to the raised dais where the instructors took their meals.Instructor Maven stood at its edge, her single amber eye surveying the students with cold calculation.

"Your attention," Maven said, her voice carrying without effort across the hall.She didn't shout; her presence alone commanded silence."I see the illness continues to spread among you.Unfortunate."

She paused, allowing the word to hang in the air.Unfortunate.As if the fever sweeping through the academy was merely an inconvenience rather than a potential catastrophe.

"Some of you may be harboring hopes that the current difficulties will delay your trials."Maven's lips curved into what might have been a smile on another face.On hers, it resembled the baring of teeth."Let me disabuse you of that notion immediately.The trials will proceed as scheduled."

A murmur rippled through the crowd, quickly silenced by Maven's glare as it swept toward the first-years' tables.

"The Frost Walk trial begins in three days," she continued, her voice hardening."First years will traverse the Golem Fields, from its far boundary to the edge of the Crystalline Plateau.It is a trek of several miles in difficult conditions.Those who survive will advance in their studies."

Thalia's spoon froze halfway to her mouth.The porridge slid back into the bowl with a dull plop.

"Those who fail will not be mourned," Maven added, her eye lingering on the Southern students."The Frost Walk is designed to test your mettle, your magic, and your will to survive.Under normal circumstances, we expect to lose perhaps one in five students."

Her pause was deliberate, calculated to maximize dread.

"Given the current state of your physical preparation and the depleted resources available to you, I estimate at least a third of you will not return."Something like satisfaction flashed across Maven's face."Perhaps more."

Thalia shivered, remembering her venture into the Golem Fields weeks earlier.They had only skirted the outer perimeter, yet even there, they'd encountered dangers that had left Brynn injured.The abandoned constructs roamed the fields in varying states of functionality and aggression.The deeper sections were said to be far worse — a graveyard of magical machines where fragments of discarded experiments had fused together into nightmarish new forms.

"You will each be allowed one weapon of your crafting, standard field gear, and whatever magical talent you possess," Maven continued."Details of the artifact retrieval will be provided the morning of the trial.I suggest you use the intervening days wisely.Dismissed."

The dining hall erupted into frantic whispers as Maven stepped away from the dais.Across from Thalia, Levi — a thin, dark-haired boy from the Southern coastal villages — pressed his palms flat against the table.

"This is insanity," he muttered, his voice tight with controlled panic."They know at least half of us are weakened from hunger or recovering from illness.The trial would be deadly even in ideal conditions."

"Maven must be disappointed she can't just line us up and execute us outright," Roran said, attempting levity but failing to mask the tension in his voice."That would be too efficient, I suppose.Where's the fun in that?"

Luna's fingers continued to trace patterns in her notebook, but Thalia noticed how she'd angled the page to capture the reactions of students at nearby tables."Standard procedure," she said dreamily."The academy culls the weak.It's in the charter."

"There's a difference between culling the weak and throwing the sick to the wolves," Ashe muttered, her voice low and controlled.

Students began filing out of the hall, their conversations a blend of strategies, lamentations, and desperate planning.Thalia rose to follow them, her mind already cataloging what little she knew about the Golem Fields and what she would need to survive.

***

Wind found every crack in the ancient stonework of the Howling Forge, creating an eerie symphony of whispers and moans that played counterpoint to the rhythmic striking of Thalia's hammer.She worked alone, the other forges cold and dark, while hers glowed with stubborn defiance against the encroaching night.Sweat beaded on her forehead despite the chill, each drop hissing as it fell onto the heated metal before her.Time was running out — the Frost Walk loomed just days away, and her latest ice-steel blade was far from ready.

Thalia adjusted her grip on the tongs, rotating the glowing length of metal to examine its edges.The ice-steel alloy was notoriously difficult to achieve, requiring precise temperature control and timing.Too hot, and the ice essence would evaporate from the mixture; too cold, and the metal would crack under her hammer.She needed to find that perfect moment when the two opposing elements — fire and ice — balanced in temporary harmony.

The blade before her represented her third attempt this week.The first had shattered during quenching, its crystalline structure collapsing under the thermal shock.The second had formed properly but lacked the distinctive blue sheen that indicated successful ice infusion.This one had to work.In the Golem Fields, only ice-metal weapons could effectively penetrate the frost golems' armored bodies — that, or cryomancy, which continued to elude her grasp despite months of training.

She plunged the blade back into the forge, watching the metal's color shift from dull red to bright orange.The heat painted her face in warm light, a stark contrast to the shadows that filled the rest of the cavernous space.Muted blue flames danced along the edge of her vision where the ice essence interacted with the fire, creating ghostly patterns that reminded her of auroras she'd glimpsed in the night sky above Frostforge.

Thalia rolled her shoulders, trying to release the tension that had settled between her shoulder blades.Her muscles ached from hours of concentrated work.Earlier in the evening, Kaine had been beside her, his experienced hands guiding hers through the more delicate phases of the forging process.He'd shown her a technique for folding the metal that would create microscopic pockets where the ice essence could bond more effectively.

"You're getting better," he'd told her, his voice low and reassuring near her ear."Your instincts are good.Trust them."

His presence had been both comforting and distracting.Since his revelation about his imprisonment, Thalia had tried to maintain distance, unsure how to reconcile the Kaine she'd come to know — focused, protective, patient — with the possibility that he'd killed his own father.Yet in moments like these, working side by side at the forge, it became impossible to hold onto her suspicions.His hands were steady, his instructions clear, his blue eyes focused entirely on the task rather than on her.

He’d also protected her in the Golem Fields — without hesitation, without question.She had little doubt that she would have been killed without his intervention.In that moment, when the golem’s massive arm was descending toward her, Kaine had acted as though her life mattered more than anything else.It wasn’t a choice or a sacrifice; it was simply a reflex, an instinctive act of protection.