ithe silence after the battle felt heavier than the fight itself.
Lina stood still, watching the last traces of frost dissolve into the air.
Her wrist still burned, the mark pulsing like a heartbeat that was not her own.
Kyle broke the quiet.
"You were never meant to awaken the seal alone."
She turned to him sharply.
"What does that mean?"
He hesitated, then sighed.
"The seal is not just power," he said.
"It is a promise. And a burden passed down through blood."
Lina's chest tightened.
"My family?" she asked.
Kyle nodded.
"Long ago, the winter chose a lineage to guard it.
Not to control it… but to keep it sleeping."
Images flooded her mind—
a woman with eyes of ice, standing before a frozen altar.
A child crying as snow swallowed the world.
"I was supposed to keep it sealed," Lina whispered.
"Yes," Kyle said quietly.
"But someone broke the oath."
The ground trembled beneath them.
Cracks spread across the crystal road, and a distant roar echoed through the forest.
"They're coming," Kyle said.
"The ones who want the winter awake."
Lina clenched her fist.
"Then they'll have to face me."
But as she spoke, doubt crept into her heart.
Because one question refused to fade:
If the oath was broken…
who broke it?
To be continued…