The frostlands opened ahead in a vast sweep of silver plains, lit by the thin ghost-light of distant auroras. The sentinel thundered forward, steam curling from its hooves, its breath coming in quick, frozen bursts.
Aera's heartbeat matched its rhythm — fast, rough, uneven.
Behind them, the frostwarden rose through the broken maze like a storm given bones. Its wings spread outward again, shaking loose spirals of shattered ice that fell in glittering sheets.
It didn't screech this time.
It exhaled.
A low, resonant hum vibrated through the air — wrong, dissonant, heavy with ancient authority.
The stranger stiffened.
Aera felt the sound in her teeth.
"What is that?" she whispered.
"A ward-call," he answered, the words tight. "It's summoning others."
Aera's stomach lurched."You mean there are more of those?"
"Unfortunately."
The hum deepened, threads of ice-blue energy spiraling outward like crackling roots. The frostwarden's body pulsed with power, turning brighter with each passing breath.
The sentinel whined — a trembling note of fear Aera had never heard from such a powerful creature.
The stranger leaned forward. "Faster."
The sentinel obeyed, launching into a sprint that felt almost supernatural. Wind whipped Aera's eyes, her vision blurring, but she refused to blink. Refused to look away.
The frostwarden was not chasing now.
It was hunting.
The plains trembled beneath the weight of what it called.
Aera glanced at the stranger."Can you outrun a whole pack of those?"
"No."
"Can you fight them?"
"Not if you want to remain among the living."
"So what do we—"
He pointed ahead.
A jagged cliffline rose in the distance, the land dropping into a roiling sea of thick silver fog. Dark structures pierced the mist — towers, broken spires, remnants of a city half-swallowed by time.
Aera's breath caught.
"The Ruins of Lethyr," the stranger said. "We hide there."
"We're hiding in ruins from creatures made of nightmares?"
"Yes."
"That's your plan?"
"Correct."
"That's not a plan, that's—"
The air cracked.
Aera froze.
The frostwarden's wings snapped inward, and for the briefest moment, it folded itself into a single line of impossible stillness.
Then it vanished.
Aera wheeled around."Where did it—"
The world exploded above them.
The frostwarden reappeared directly overhead, descending like a falling shard of moonlight. Its hollow face pulsed with swirling mist, the sockets suddenly brightened with violent intensity.
Aera's breath hitched.
She saw something inside that mist — shapes, fragments, flickers like broken dreams.
A silhouette reaching for her.
A hand she recognized.
No.
Not possible.
She tore her gaze away, gasping for air.
The stranger grabbed her shoulders."Don't look into its void. It shows what you fear most… or what you secretly want."
"I didn't want that," she whispered.
He didn't challenge her — but something in his eyes said he didn't believe her entirely.
The frostwarden's roar built into a crescendo.
The sentinel lunged toward the cliff.
The frostwarden lunged toward them.
Aera's pulse hammered."Jump or die, right?" she murmured.
"More or less," the stranger said.
"Great."
The cliff edge raced closer.
Ten meters.
Five.
The frostwarden's claws slashed downward, ripping the air apart. Aera felt the cold sting her neck, a whisper from death itself.
"One," the stranger said softly.
The sentinel gathered its strength.
"Two."
Aera clung to its fur.
"Three."
The sentinel vaulted off the cliff.
Weight vanished.
Sky swallowed them.
Wind tore at her lungs.
Aera screamed.
The frostwarden dove after them like a falling star.
But the stranger raised his arm sharply, runes igniting in a fierce spiral. A golden flare burst around them, a shield catching the momentum of their fall and slingshotting them sideways, deeper into the fog.
The frostwarden shot past, missing them by inches, its roar fading into the mist below.
Aera crashed into the sentinel's hold again as they hit an incline, sliding, tumbling, finally landing hard on a ridge overlooking the ruined city.
Everything spun.
Her breath shook.
The stranger pulled her upright. "You're alive."
"That's subjective," she rasped.
He grinned with his usual unsettling calm."Then let's remain subjectively alive a bit longer."
Aera punched his shoulder very lightly."Don't make jokes right now."
"You're trembling," he said gently.
She ignored the warmth in his voice.
She ignored the warmth at all.
Because the frostwarden wasn't gone.
A new sound rose from the fog.
Dozens of them.
All answering the call.
The frostlands behind them glowed as multiple hollow eyes lit up in the distance.
Aera swallowed.
"We can't run from all of that."
"No," the stranger said. "Which is why we stop running."
He stepped onto the edge of the ruined city, the mist parting around him like something alive.
"Welcome," he murmured, "to Lethyr. The graveyard of the old bloodlines."
Wind shivered through the towers.
Aera felt something ancient stir beneath her feet.
And she knew…
The frostwarden was only the beginning.