Chapter 10: The Edge of the World
Kael's POV
The storm broke at dawn, leaving the world encased in a brittle, glittering silence. The mountain pass was transformed, every rock and branch sheathed in ice, the sky a hard, pale blue. The beauty was a lie. It hid the deadly cold that lingered in the thin air.
Seraphine stood at the edge of our shallow overhang, her breath pluming in the stillness. "We need to move. Now. Before the sun softens the snow and makes the descent impossible."
The descent. My stomach clenched. From our perch, I could see the world fall away into the Riverlands, a patchwork of green valleys, winding silver rivers, and distant, hazy settlements. It looked like a promise. But to reach it, we had to navigate a treacherous, ice-sheathed slope that seemed to plunge straight into the sky.
"Stay close to the cliff face," Seraphine instructed, her voice all business. "Test every foothold. If you start to slide, dig in with your heels and hands. Don't fight it, just try to slow yourself."
She went first, moving with a spider's sure-footed grace, finding purchase where I saw only smooth, glistening stone. Fenra followed, her claws providing a natural grip I envied.
Then it was my turn.
My first step sent a shower of ice crystals skittering into the void. The drop was dizzying, a sheer fall of hundreds of feet onto jagged rocks. The Echo Core, which had been so helpful with the stone's memories, was now a frantic, useless hum of ancestral fears. I saw flashes of other falls, other plummeting bodies. It was not helpful.
I am Kael Vireon. I am here. The mantra felt flimsy against the vast, empty air.
I inched forward, my muscles screaming with tension. My feet slipped constantly, my frozen fingers scrabbling for any crack or ridge. The world narrowed to the next handhold, the next precarious step. The wind, which had screamed all night, was now a mocking whisper, tugging at my clothes, urging me to let go.
Halfway down, it happened. My foot hit a patch of black ice hidden under a dusting of snow. There was no grip. My legs shot out from under me, and for a heart-stopping second, I was suspended in nothingness.
A scream tore from my throat, swallowed by the vastness.
Then a hand, iron-strong, clamped around my wrist, yanking me hard against the cliff face. Seraphine had anchored herself with her dagger wedged deep into a fissure, her body stretched to its limit. The strain showed on her face, her teeth gritted, her arm trembling with the effort of holding my full weight.
"Don't look down!" she snarled. "Find your feet!"
Terror had turned my limbs to water. I kicked wildly, my boots scraping against the slick rock. Below me, the world spun in a nauseating blur of blue and white and deadly grey stone.
"Kael! Now!"
Her voice, sharp with pain and command, cut through the panic. I forced my head to turn, my eyes scanning the rock in front of me. There a narrow ledge, just wide enough for the edge of my boot. I jammed my foot onto it, pushing up, taking my weight off her arm.
For a long moment, we just hung there, pressed against the mountain, our breathing ragged. Her grip on my wrist didn't loosen.
"I've got you," she panted, her forehead resting against the cold stone. "I've got you."
The simple words unlocked something frozen inside me. It wasn't just about physical safety. It was a vow. I will not let you fall.
Tears, hot and sudden, welled in my eyes, freezing almost instantly on my lashes. I nodded, unable to speak.
We continued the descent, slower now, her never more than an arm's length away. When we finally, blessedly, reached the bottom stumbling onto a soft bed of pine needles at the tree line my legs gave out. I collapsed, my body shaking with spent adrenaline and relief.
Seraphine sank down beside me, examining the raw, bleeding gash on her palm from where the rock had torn her skin when she'd saved me.
"You're hurt," I said, my voice rough.
"It's nothing." She wiped the blood on her pants. "We made it. That's what matters."
But it wasn't nothing. It was everything. She had risked herself, without hesitation, for me. Not for the Echo Core, not for the heir to the throne, but for me. The boy who was clumsy and scared.
Fenra trotted over, licking first my face, then Seraphine's injured hand with a soft whine.
We sat there in silence for a long time, letting the relative warmth of the lower altitude seep into our frozen bones. The terror of the climb began to recede, replaced by a new, profound understanding.
The bond between us was no longer just one of necessity or shared purpose. It had been forged in fear and trust, tested by the precipice, and sealed with blood. She was my protector, yes. But I was also her responsibility, a weight she had chosen to carry, and in that moment, I vowed silently to become a weight worth carrying.
I looked up at the mountain we had just conquered, its peak now wreathed in clouds. It had tried to kill us. But it had also given me this: the unshakeable knowledge that I was not alone.
Seraphine followed my gaze, then looked back at me. "The hard part is over," she said, but her eyes told a different story. The hard part was just beginning. We were in the Riverlands now. The domain of men. And men, I was learning, could be far more dangerous than mountains.
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What's Next:
They must find food and information in a small border town, a place where strangers are viewed with suspicion and Lunaris influence runs deep. Kael will have to use his wits, not his powers, to navigate his first real interaction with the outside world.
Thank you for reading. Your companionship on this journey means everything.