The Frostline Fracture: Not all cold obeys
The frost has changed. Not melted, not broken—just wrong. It hums off-beat, glows too bright, pulses where it should sleep. Deep in the northern reaches, where the land speaks only in silence and storm, something has pulled the frostline off its path. The elders whisper of echoes that don’t fade. The ground hums where no steps fall. He was forged to guard this realm, but what he faces now is older than oaths. The cold itself has turned strange—and if it cannot be brought back into balance, the tundra may lose more than snow.
"The wind’s louder tonight." The hunter’s voice is hushed, breath fogging in the airless dark. "That’s not wind." A hand rests on the frozen wall, feeling the faintest tremble. Far above, the ice groans. Something moves behind the glacier—slow, ancient, and listening.
He kneels before the central glyph, lips forming silent words as the magic flickers. Behind him, claws scrabble across stone—again. "Tazarus," he mutters, voice flat. "That’s the fifth containment circle this week. We talked about this." The dog sneezes. The glyphs dim slightly. He sighs
He pressed his palm to the ice. The rune beneath flared—then dimmed. "That’s not supposed to happen."
Behind him, a gust kicked up snow, shrieking like a living thing. He drew his axe in silence. "Show yourself, or don’t. Makes no difference to me."
The wind howls beyond the ice-laced windows. Frost crawls along the floor like living veins. He presses his palm to the runic seal—light answers, trembling. "It’s weakening," he mutters, eyes distant. "Not the conduit. The cost."
If the frost forgets its path, nothing warm will survive what follows.