Location: Aqualith Station – Arctic Circle
The wind howled across the ice wasteland, and the research station named Aqualith Station lay hidden between jagged ice cliffs, half-buried in snowdrifts. It seemed abandoned from the outside. Inside, it wasn't.
Dr. Eira Voss stood alone in the subzero core chamber, staring into a sheet of solid glacial crystal. Within it, throbbing gently like a filament of blue lightning, lay the thing she had guarded for over ten years—a Shard, entrenched in ancient ice.
It was different from that one Zara bore. It was dormant, colder than death, yet it was alive. Whispering. Calling.
Eira was not unfamiliar with the power of the Shard. She had been part of one of the many in a secret program, an extension of the Order that was charged with discovering the ancient Aether relics before others could use—and turn them against them. She'd been the only survivor of that mission, and since then she'd left the world, living at the cold edge of the planet to protect the world from what lay there.
But something was different.
The Shard was stirring.
Her fingers lightly touched the frosty control panel, triggering the scanning device incorporated into the wall of the chamber. It whined weakly. Power here had grown irregular since the pulse—Zara's pulse—rippled across the planet. The world did not yet know, but the Aether was stirring again.
Her comm snapped suddenly.
"Dr. Voss, you have to see this," Jonah, the station technician, had the sense of her own words echoing in his voice. "Coming up on something. High speed—military grade. Not ours."
Eira did not hesitate, exiting the chamber and slamming the vault shut, engaging the internal seal. Behind the ice, the Shard quivered as if responsive to her urgency.
Outside, the sky darkened—not from clouds, but from the approach of a black, slim VTOL ship bearing the mark of a clan she hadn't seen in years: The Eclipsed Order.
She cursed under her breath.
They'd found her.
---
Location: Silver City
Zara scowled at the live satellite feed of the Arctic anomaly from the Nightbound war room. Helena stood beside her, arms crossed, eyes furrowed.
"They arrived less than an hour ago," Myles said. "No broadcast signal, but we pinged ancient Order frequency modulations. They've sent out strike units—weapons at the ready."
Zara pointed at the map overlay. "That's where we go next."
"You think there's another Shard there?" Helena asked.
"I know there is. I can feel it," Zara said. Her voice held an absolute confidence that would not be questioned. "And if the Order's on its tail, we're already behind."
---
Location: Aqualith Station
Bullets echoed down corridors. Eira slid, dropping attackers with unhurried intent. She never killed, didn't kill at all, but she made very sure that no one among them would exit the compound under his own power.
She arrived to find them already trying to batter their way into the ice vault.
A tall man stood at the head of the group, clad in black armor rimmed with gold. His face was hidden behind a half-mask featuring a sunburst over a moon.
"You're not claiming it," snarled Eira, moving into the open.
The man tilted his head. "We don't have to claim it," he said, holding up a hand. "We need only wake it."
And then—he spoke its name.
The Shard in the ice flared.
A deafening crack shook the air as the ancient ice wall burst open. Frosty vapor swirled in every direction as the ice melted in an instant in a flash of impossible heat.
The Shard spun in mid-air, its slow rotation mesmerizing.
It sang.
And Eira felt it—every atom in her body responded. The Shard recalled her. Chose her.
The masked man smiled. "There. Your destiny awaits."
But Eira didn't move towards him.
She stood across from the Shard and gasped, "I'm not yours to command."
The Shard pulsed—and leaped into her heart.
Time came to a stop.
For one moment, silence reigned.
Then the entire compound erupted in a flash of cold light.
The Order troops were pushed back. Ice instantly congealed around them, encasing them in frozen pillars. The masked leader dropped to one knee, shielding his face as the wind howled through the wreckage of the base.
When it dissipated, Eira stayed in the middle of the room—her hair white-blonde and blown back with ice, her limbs wrapped in thin shields of Aether-charged ice armor. Her new Shard glowed in her chest, icy blue and crystal-edged like a winter blade.
"I told you," she said.
The masked one fled.
---
Hours Later – Sky over the Arctic
Zara and Helena arrived on dropship to Aqualith ruins. The station was buried, half-buried, smoldering remnants still warm to the arctic sun.
Zara stepped outside onto the ice, her boots crunching with softness.
She could feel it—the cold. But not temperature. Not that. Just the presence of the new Warden.
"Still here," Zara whispered.
From the whiteout beyond the cliffs, a figure appeared. Eira, wearing a fur-trimmed coat of armor that was long and tattered, eyes with a very faint blue glow.
They faced each other in silence.
"Eira Kane," she said. "I've heard of you."
Zara nodded. "And now I've found you."
Eira narrowed her eyes. "You'll want answers."
"I want friends," Zara said. "More are coming. The Wound is no legend. We must keep it from opening."
Eira was quiet for a long moment. Then, with a voice like breaking ice, she said:
"Then we'd better move fast."
---