Sedra POV
The fortress gates were open.
That should have been my first warning. Ancient fortresses don't just leave their doors unlocked. Especially not fortresses protecting magic strong enough to save dying bloodlines.
But I was desperate and tired and I'd spent three months walking through ice and snow to get here. So I walked through those open gates without thinking twice.
The moment I stepped inside, the temperature dropped so fast my breath froze in my lungs.
The walls were made of crystal. Not ice. Crystal. So clear I could see straight through them. And on the other side, frozen in the walls themselves, were people.
Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. All perfectly still. All sleeping.
A woman with her hand reaching for something. A child mid-laugh. A man frozen in the middle of taking a step. They looked alive. Like they'd just been paused instead of turned to ice.
My heart started pounding. This wasn't just a fortress. This was a tomb.
No. Not a tomb. A preservation. These people weren't dead. They were waiting.
I moved deeper into the fortress, my boots echoing on the crystal floor. Every sound seemed too loud. Like I was breaking some sacred silence that had lasted for centuries.
The corridors branched off in every direction. I followed the one that felt right. The one that pulled at something inside me.
I passed chambers full of frozen people sitting at tables. Libraries where books turned to dust sat on shelves made of ice. A kitchen where food had rotted away to nothing but ancient pots and pans remained, perfectly preserved.
This place had been beautiful once. I could see it in the architecture. In the way the crystal caught the light and threw rainbows across the walls. In the careful way everything had been arranged.
Now it was just empty. Frozen. Waiting.
I found the throne room by accident. The doors were massive and made of ice so thick I could barely see through them. But I could see enough. A throne. A crown sitting on it. Both made of ice that glowed with its own light.
A king's throne. Empty for three hundred years.
Something in my chest tightened. Whoever sat on that throne had been powerful. Had commanded this entire fortress. Had made the choice to freeze their kingdom rather than let it fall.
What kind of person made that choice? What kind of enemy were they fighting that sleeping for centuries seemed like the better option?
I should have turned back then. Should have realized I was walking into something I didn't understand. Something dangerous.
But the pull was getting stronger. The magic inside the fortress was calling to me. Begging me to come closer. To find it. To take it.
And I needed it so badly I couldn't think straight.
I kept walking.
The corridors got narrower. The air got colder. The crystal walls started showing cracks like even they couldn't hold forever.
Then I found it.
The heart chamber.
It was smaller than I expected. Just a round room with crystal walls and a stone floor. No furniture. No decorations. Nothing except the thing in the center.
A ward.
I'd never seen one like it before. Most wards looked like barriers. Like invisible walls you could feel but not see. This one was different. It glowed. Pulsed. Hummed with so much power I could feel it in my bones.
The magic wrapped around something beneath the fortress. Something deep underground. I could sense it even though I couldn't see it. Could feel the weight of whatever the ward was holding back.
This wasn't just protecting the fortress. This was holding something prisoner.
I should have stopped. Should have studied it. Should have tried to understand what I was looking at before I touched anything.
But my family was dying. My magic was almost gone. And this ward was the only thing standing between me and the power I needed to save them.
I reached out.
The moment my fingers touched the crystal surface, everything changed.
The magic recognized me.
I felt it happen. Felt the ward taste my blood. My family line. The Voss magic running through my veins. And it knew me. Like it had been waiting for someone exactly like me to come along.
That should have terrified me. Should have made me pull back and run.
Instead it made me curious.
Why would an ancient ward recognize my bloodline? Why would magic from three hundred years ago know who I was?
Unless my family had been here before. Unless they'd been involved in creating this place.
Unless Mother had sent me here knowing exactly what I would find.
The thought hit me like a punch to the stomach. Mother had given me that map. Had told me where to go. Had sent me north without any real explanation of what I'd find.
What if she knew? What if my whole family knew what this place really was?
I pulled my hand back from the ward. My heart was racing. My magic was screaming at me to run.
But then I thought about my grandmother. About how she died gasping for magic that wouldn't come. About how my mother would die the same way. About how I would die that way too if I didn't do something.
About how my family was everything. How saving them was the only thing that mattered.
I put my hand back on the ward.
The magic surged up to meet me. Hot and cold at the same time. Ancient and new. Familiar and completely alien.
It wanted me to break it. I could feel that too. The ward had been holding for three hundred years and it was tired. Fracturing. Ready to fall.
All it needed was one push. One person willing to shatter what was left.
I should have wondered why. Should have asked myself what would happen when the ward fell. What it was holding back. What ancient thing might be sleeping beneath this fortress.
But I didn't.
I pulled power from deep inside myself. The last reserves of magic I had left. I gathered it all into my hands and I pushed.
The ward resisted. For just a moment it held. Like it was giving me one last chance to change my mind. One final opportunity to walk away.
I pushed harder.
The crystal cracked. A sound like thunder filled the chamber. Light exploded from the breaking ward, so bright I had to close my eyes.
Then everything shattered.
The ward broke into a thousand pieces. The spell holding it together collapsed. Magic rushed out in every direction, wild and uncontrolled.
I fell backward. My nose started bleeding. My hands burned where I'd touched the ward. My magic was completely gone. Used up. Empty.
I'd done it. I'd broken through. The power inside this fortress was free now. Free for me to take. Free to save my family.
Then the floor started shaking.
Not a little tremor. A violent, terrifying shake that knocked me to my knees. The crystal walls cracked. The ceiling groaned. Dust and ice rained down from above.
And from somewhere far beneath the fortress, something moved.
Something massive. Something ancient. Something that had been sleeping for three hundred years and had just been woken up.
I scrambled to my feet. Tried to run. But the shaking got worse. The chamber tilted. I couldn't find the door.
All around me I could hear sounds. Cracking ice. Breaking crystal. And worst of all, voices.
Thousands of voices waking up and screaming.
What had I done? What had I just unleashed?
The floor beneath me cracked open. Not wide. Just a thin line. But through that crack I could see darkness. Deep, endless darkness that seemed to go on forever.
And in that darkness, something opened its eyes.
They weren't human eyes. They were too big. Too old. Too full of hunger.
They looked at me. Really looked at me. And I felt them see straight through to my soul.
This thing knew me. Knew my family. Knew exactly why I'd been sent here.
And it was smiling.