The old man with the red eyes sat down by their fire as if he owned it.He moved slowly, deliberately, his joints cracking as he lowered himself onto a log that had been dragged near the flames. His sword scraped against the stone when he sat, and he adjusted it with a grunt, settling the blade across his knees. The firelight caught his face—lined, weathered, marked by decades of hard living and harder choices.No one spoke. Cedric's sword was still raised, pointed at the stranger's chest. Kaela's bow was still drawn, an arrow nocked and ready. Dorian's hand was on his blade, though he hadn't drawn it yet. Only Lex remained still, watching, waiting."You can put those down," the old man said. His voice was rough, like stones grinding together. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead. I've had plenty of chances."Cedric didn't lower his sword. His hand was steady, but his jaw was tight. "Who are you?""My name is Marcus." The old man stretched out his legs toward the fire, warming

The frozen world held its breath.Lex stood alone in the silent chamber, surrounded by statues of mud and stone and flesh. The green light hung motionless in the air, a frozen sunset that cast no warmth, no shadows. The mud monsters were suspended mid-lunge, their clawed hands reaching, their featureless faces turned toward nothing. Dorian's sword hovered an inch from a monster's chest, the blade reflecting the frozen light. Kaela's arrow floated a hair's breadth from her bowstring, the fletching still.Only Lex moved.He looked at the watch on his wrist. The second hand had not advanced. He didn't know how long the frozen moment would last—seconds, minutes, hours. The System had not explained, and he had not thought to ask. He couldn't afford to waste any of it.He walked through the frozen monsters, stepping between their outstretched arms, their frozen claws. Their bodies were cold, hard, like statues carved from wet clay. He walked past Dorian, frozen mid-swing. Past Kaela, frozen

The journey back to Crown's Seat was silent.No one spoke. No one joked. No one even looked at each other. The horses walked slowly, their heads low, their hooves dragging on the dirt road. It was as if they too felt the weight of what had happened, as if they too were mourning.The sun climbed higher as they rode, burning through the morning mist that clung to the fields. But its warmth didn't reach them. The light seemed grey, muted, as if the world itself was in mourning.Kaela rode at the back of the group, apart from the others. Her face was blank, her eyes fixed on nothing. She hadn't washed the blood from her hands. She hadn't eaten the bread someone had pressed into her palm. She hadn't spoken a word since they left the clearing where Julia had died.Her sister's blood was still under her fingernails.Rhoda lay across Cedric's horse, wrapped in a blanket that someone had found in the healer's abandoned cabin. Her face was pale, almost grey, her lips cracked and dry. She had wo

They made camp in the forest as the last light faded from the sky.The trees were thick here, their branches forming a canopy that blocked out the stars. The ground was soft and damp, covered in years of fallen leaves that muffled every sound. Lex gathered wood while Cedric cleared a space for the fire, pushing aside branches and kicking rocks out of the way. Dorian sat on a fallen log, staring at the ground, his usual sarcasm gone, his hands clasped between his knees.No one spoke.The fire crackled to life, casting dancing shadows on the trees, making the darkness beyond seem deeper, darker. Lex sat on a rock, his back to the flames, his eyes fixed on the darkness between the trunks. He could feel the weight of the forest pressing in on them, the silence heavy and watchful.Cedric sat across from him, staring into the fire."We need leverage," Dorian said finally. His voice was quiet, almost a whisper.Lex looked at him. "What?""Leverage." Dorian leaned forward, his elbows on his k

Lex stepped forward.The dark trees loomed before him, their twisted branches reaching toward the grey sky like grasping hands. The air was cold, still, heavy with the smell of decay and something else—something older, something that had been sleeping beneath the soil for centuries.Behind him, the others waited. Cedric stood with his sword drawn, his knuckles white on the hilt. Dorian had his blade ready, his eyes scanning the shadows between the trunks. The brothers stood apart, their yellow eyes fixed on Lex, watching.He raised his left hand. The ice ring pulsed on his finger, cold and eager, humming with power.He raised his right hand. The lighter sat in his palm, small and unassuming, lighter than air.Both at once.Ice exploded from his left palm—white, crackling, freezing everything it touched. The nearest trees turned to crystal, their dark bark disappearing beneath layers of frost that spread like veins across their trunks. The ground beneath them hardened, the roots freezi