The truck's engine grumbled softly as it crawled forward through the narrow path. The snow had grown thicker, packing high against the sides of the road, and the forest seemed to close in on them from every angle. Gray sat near the back of the cabin, arms folded and eyes distant, his breath still coming out in heavy, white puffs. The cold had worsened, seeping through the walls of the vehicle like an invisible fog, biting at his fingers and gnawing at his bones.
Adel sat across from him, her hood pulled low, but her gaze sharp. Every now and then, she glanced at him with a curious intensity, like she was studying something she couldn't quite decipher. Her daggers were sheathed, resting on her thighs, her fingers tapping idly along their hilts.
Gray shifted uncomfortably.
He could still see the mural when he closed his eyes. The swirling figures carved into stone walls, the ancient language etched in symbols he should not have understood, and the whisper that followed: a warning or a memory, he wasn't sure.
It hadn't felt like just a vision. It felt like someone was reaching out to him. Someone from the past. Maybe from a time before the fractures, before the snow claimed the warmth of the world.
Luckily no one saw him lying on the floor, gasping for air.
'They'd think I'm crazy... maybe i am.'
He rubbed his forehead, his fingers brushing over the edge of his temple. The voice was gone, but the weight remained. The sense that something had shifted within him.
Lira and Korr sat near the front, keeping mostly to themselves. Korr hadn't said much since they reunited. His anger was simmering beneath the surface, but he seemed to be restraining it, perhaps too tired to argue. Lira, on the other hand, was quiet, calculating. She had barely even looked at him since they got back in the truck. Maybe she disapproved of what he had done. Maybe she was just worried about what came next.
The only one who spoke was Orrin.
He sat closest to the Rank 7 student, whose unconscious body lay bundled up in spare blankets and coats. Orrin kept a hand near his spear, but his attention was split. Steam occasionally hissed from his palms as he generated brief pockets of warmth to keep the Rank 7 from freezing.
Orrin's affinity was strange, and Gray hadn't really paid attention before. But now he watched as the steam moved like a dance across the air. It wasn't uncontrolled. It curled in measured wisps, heating his fingers and then fading away just before it reached his clothes. There was elegance in how he wielded it.
"You're still shivering," Adel muttered, finally breaking the silence.
Gray gave a weak nod. His teeth were clenched. His breath shaky. The cold wasn't just biting anymore. It was inside him.
'At this rate...I'm going to die."
Adel extended a hand slightly, offering her blanket. She didn't say anything more.
Gray simply shook his head.
He couldn't take it anymore. He closed his eyes and focused.
'Hopefully this works.'
Frozen Veins.
He let the energy rise from his core. The cold around him seemed to press harder in response, but he reached inward and channeled his Vyre. It flowed slowly at first, reluctant to respond, but then the change came.
It wasn't fire. It wasn't warmth. It was the redirection of cold. He could feel the chill being pulled into him, flooding his veins. His body should have screamed in pain. But it didn't. Instead, his limbs became lighter. The numbness faded.
The frost clinging to his fingers began to melt.
His muscles tensed, then relaxed. He inhaled deeply, and the breath that came wasn't sharp with frost. It was clear.
Frozen Veins absorbed the surrounding cold and converted it into raw Vyre. Although it was unpurified, it was still refreshing.
'So that's what it is... it converts the cold into Vyre which i then absorb...'
Gray remained still as the process continued. Around him, no one noticed. He preferred it that way.
Adel, however, narrowed her eyes slightly. She didn't say anything, but she leaned back and kept watching him with a knowing look. Her curiosity was no longer masked.
"You alright now?" Orrin asked without looking at him.
"Yeah," Gray replied, his voice steady. "Just needed a moment."
Orrin gave a faint nod, steam rising from his palm again as he adjusted the blanket covering the Rank 7.
Gray studied him again. Orrin's clothes were tattered, but functional. His eyes were focused, a pale grey like the sky above. His hair was shorter now, some of it singed from the battle below. His appearance had changed. Not drastically, but enough to make it noticeable. He looked older somehow. Sharper.
Gray leaned forward slightly.
"Thanks. Back there, I mean."
Orrin didn't respond right away. Then he said, "You would've done the same."
"Maybe."
"No maybe. You went into that cavern without hesitation."
Gray paused. He could tell that Orrin wasn't someone who spoke without reason. He weighed his words carefully.
The truck suddenly bounced, jostling everyone inside.
Renn cursed up front. "Road's getting worse. We'll have to slow down."
Korr groaned. "Or stop and wait out the snow. This path is cursed."
"No," Lira snapped. "We can't stop. Not here."
Gray turned toward the window.
The forest was changing. Trees were denser now. Their trunks blackened with frost. Their branches reached out like claws. The snow beneath them shimmered faintly, like thin glass covering something darker underneath.
He had a feeling this path was more than just a detour. It had a destination. Whether they liked it or not.
No one spoke for a while.
Eventually, Adel leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Orrin continued to generate small puffs of steam, watching over the unconscious student. Beads of sweat dropped from his face.
Lira and Korr argued in hushed tones about directions. Renn tried to focus on the road.
And Gray sat there, calm on the outside.
But inside, something had shifted. The mural. The whisper. The skill. Frozen Veins had changed how he viewed Vyre, how he viewed survival in this place.
Nyxterra didn't just challenge strength. It challenged resolve.
'Things are only going to get worse from here.'
They continued down the path, surrounded by the silence of a forest that never slept.
The path wound deeper into the frozen forest, narrowing between jagged ridges of ice and frost-slicked stones. Eventually, it opened into a clearing, unnaturally wide and circular. There, nestled beneath frozen spires and brittle trees, was a village.
Or what remained of one.
The structures were crude, built from a strange mix of stone and bleached bones, yet patterned in deliberate shapes. Cracked skulls sat stacked atop fences. Thin threads of smoke lingered in the air, but no flame burned. Dozens of crooked, small huts encircled a much larger building at the center, wide and dark, like a throne room waiting for its ruler to return.
Gray narrowed his eyes. "This wasn't built by humans. The houses are too small."
Adel walked into the driver's cabin to get a better look ahead, her fingers twitching over her daggers. "I think this is their home... or what's left of it."
"It's empty," Lira said sharply, but her voice wavered. "Or seems like it..."
Orrin stepped forward, spear in hand. "Let me and Gray go ahead."
Lira shook her head. "No. I'll go first. You three stay back. I want you near the others in case something happens. Plus... you all need some rest."
Gray hesitated but ultimately nodded. He was still sore, and the cold was biting again. Adel moved closer to him, her shoulder brushing his. Orrin let go of his spear and stopped channeling his Vyre. He didn't want to empty his core, not yet.
Lira began her slow approach, weapon drawn.
The group waited near the edge of the village. Orrin stood beside Renn, who tended to the unconscious Rank 7, now bundled tightly in the last of their blankets.
"That was the last of our bandages..." Renn spoke quietly.
Suddenly, a sound echoed from the large structure at the center.
Footsteps.
Slow, heavy, deliberate. They shook the very forest around them.
Everyone froze.
'Shit. I've got a bad feeling about this...'
The doors creaked open.
And from the shadows of the chieftain's house, a figure stepped forward, taller than the others, its breath visible in the air like smoke from a furnace.
Something had survived.
No... something awakened.