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Chapter 15.5: Whispers of the Frozen Will
The silence that followed the battle was almost unbearable. My ears still rang from the clash of power, and my body ached from every strike we had endured, but what unsettled me most was the way Silvia stood, unmoving, her gaze fixed on the book that shimmered faintly in her hands. The battlefield around us was still drenched in frost, the lingering remnants of ice that had exploded when the last enemy fell. It was as though the world itself had frozen to honor the victor.
"Sil?" I called softly, stepping closer. My voice echoed strangely in the hollow chamber, thin against the overwhelming stillness. She didn't answer immediately. Her hands trembled slightly as the glow of the book intensified, threads of icy light coiling around her wrists like living veins of frost.
For a moment, panic gripped me. I reached out to steady her, but the second my hand brushed the edge of that light, it recoiled, pushing me away with a force gentler than a shove but final, as though whispering, this is not for you.
Her lips moved, though I couldn't hear the words. A strange breeze curled through the room, cold enough to bite my skin, but oddly soothing too. Her eyes—usually so alive, mischievous, and warm—gleamed now with a shade of deep cerulean, ancient and unfamiliar. It was as if another presence stared through her, peering from the depths of time.
I swallowed hard. "Silvia, are you… alright?"
Finally, she blinked, her shoulders sagging as though the invisible weight she carried settled into her bones. She turned to me and smiled faintly—too faint, too strained. "Yeah," she said, her voice soft, almost cracked. "I'm fine, Kel."
But I didn't believe her. Something had changed. I could feel it in the air, sharp and quiet like the chill before snowfall.
Still, I didn't push. We had survived the fight. That was what mattered. I brushed off my unease, convincing myself it was just exhaustion. "We should move," I said, forcing a grin to lighten the air. "I don't think this dungeon will let us rest here forever."
She nodded, clutching the book tightly, her fingers almost white against the pale leather cover. "You're right."
As we walked toward the shifting portal at the far end of the chamber, the silence between us felt heavier than before. I kept sneaking glances at her—at the frost that lingered faintly in her hair like snowflakes refusing to melt, at the way her steps seemed lighter, almost too graceful, as though the ground itself yielded beneath her will.
But I said nothing. She was my partner, my friend… someone I trusted with my life. If she had something to tell me, she would. Right?
The light expanded , pulling at us with invisible threads. I tightened my grip on my sword, readying myself for whatever the next challenge was.
"Kel," she whispered suddenly, just before we stepped through.
I turned, surprised. Her eyes locked with mine, deep blue and unknowable. For a heartbeat, I swore I saw something vast behind them—like the endless expanse of frozen mountains, an empire of ice untouched by time.
But then she smiled again, bright and mischievous, the Silvia I knew. "Don't run ahead without me this time, okay?"
I laughed, the tension slipping for a moment. "No promises."
Together, we stepped into the light, vanishing into the next trial.
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