Northern Forests, Empire Borderlands
The fire crackled softly beneath the stars.
Lara sat with her knees pulled to her chest, Kaelith curled behind her like a coiled wall of quiet strength. Toy sat across from her, sharpening his sword with slow, measured strokes. The glow from the fire flickered in the edges of his crimson hair, and his cursed hand pulsed faintly in the dark — calm, for once.
She had been watching him for minutes in silence.
And finally, she said, "Do you want to know the truth?"
Toy didn't look up. "I already know what matters."
"You know what they said," she corrected. "But not why it happened. Not why I became the Catastrophe."
Toy set his blade down and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "Then tell me."
Lara hesitated. Then she reached toward the fire, letting the flames illuminate the silver scars across her wrist — the ones even magic hadn't erased.
"When I was fifteen," she began, "I met a boy. His name was Elen. He wasn't a mage. He wasn't a soldier. Just… kind. Stupid, in a soft sort of way. He gave me frost lilies when I had nothing. We used to sneak away into the woods after curfew, and he'd tell me stories."
Toy didn't interrupt.
Lara continued, "He was the first person who saw me as Lara. Not as a mage. Not as a vessel for power. Just… me."
She swallowed. "Then the Conscription came."
Toy nodded slowly. "The Primordial Harvest."
"Yes. They were rounding up young mages. Especially girls. Especially powerful ones." Her fingers curled. "The Empire had learned of the Primordials — the beings who created us — and they wanted their power. We weren't chosen. We were offered."
"You were a sacrifice."
She nodded once. "But I wouldn't go. Elen tried to help me escape. He shielded me when the inquisitors found us. They cut him down without even asking his name."
Her voice cracked.
"They made me watch. Then they put the collar on me. They sealed my magic, but not my grief. I screamed so loud the snow around us cracked."
Kaelith shifted, laying his head gently near her.
"And that," she said softly, "was when they decided I was dangerous."
Toy felt his throat tighten.
"The power wasn't born from rage," she said. "It was born from loss. From a wound they never let heal. I became the Winter Witch not because I wanted to destroy the world — but because the Empire destroyed mine."
She looked up at him now, her eyes gleaming with old tears.
"They always feared what I could do. But what they never understood… is that I never truly used my full power."
Toy whispered, "You held back?"
"For years."
"Why?"
"Because even after everything… I still wanted to believe I could find someone again. Someone who would sit by the fire and not flinch at my name."
Toy rose and walked to her, kneeling beside her.
"You found him."
Lara studied his face. "And what about your truth?"
Toy didn't speak immediately. Then, he turned his cursed hand upward, letting the firelight dance across its dark veins.
"The curse came from the Dark Primordial," he said. "Not as a punishment. As protection."
Her eyes widened.
"They sent three Primordials to kill me after the Battle of Sundown Ridge. Because I stood between their will and the mortal world. But the Dark one marked me as his Pillar. The others saw that mark and… they left."
He paused.
"I survived things no human should. But the cost was solitude. Friends dead. Family gone. Labeled a traitor long before I met you."
He looked at her.
"So when I met someone just as broken… someone who could shatter kingdoms but still dreamed of frost lilies... how could I not fall in love?"
Lara didn't move.
She simply reached out, took his cursed hand, and pressed it to her heart.
"You're not my Watch Guard anymore, Toy Crimson."
"What am I, then?"
She smiled through the ache. "You're my anchor."