CHAPTER THREE
The Frozen Temple
Eamon showed up late that day, shoulders dusted with snow, face drawn tight with worry. He didn't even bother to say hello to Aria. He just blurted it out.
"The storms are changing, Aria," he said, voice unsteady, fear leaking through every word. "The forest froze overnight. Everything; streams, leaves, even the animals are gone, swallowed by the snow. Something's wrong. Something big".
Kael stood by the window, eyes on the churning sky like he could read its secrets. He finally turned when Eamon finished, and his face darkened.
"The frost's waking up faster than I thought," he said, barely louder than a whisper.
Eamon shot him a glare. "You talk like it's alive."
Kael didn't flinch. "It is alive," he said, voice heavy, like he was remembering something that hurt. "And it remembers betrayal".
The room went silent. Not a gentle hush, but a thick, choking quiet. Aria felt it settle in her chest, heavy and cold. She glanced back and forth, Eamon burning with questions, Kael smothered by secrets he clearly didn't want to let out.
She opened her mouth to demand answers, but Kael stepped toward her first.
"There's something you need to see," he said. His eyes was strange, bright, almost fierce, locked onto hers. "The storms are only the warning. The real trouble's buried deeper. If we don't face it, winter will swallow both our worlds".
A cold ran through Aria, nothing to do with the weather. Still, she nodded. "Then let's go".
They started going up the mountains right as dusk painted the sky with streaks of purple and silver. Wind clawed at them, raw and cutting, carrying whispers that sounded just a shade too much like human voices trapped under the ice.
Eamon stuck close to Aria. His hand hovered near his knife. "I don't trust him," he muttered. "He shows up out of nowhere, brings the storm, and now we're following him into the mountains?"
Aria said nothing. She didn't trust Kael, not fully. But she couldn't shake this strange pull toward him, like their stories had tangled together long before they'd ever met.
Kael, leading the way, spoke without turning around. "Steel won't help against this storm, Eamon, I don't need your trust. Just try to keep up".
Eamon bristled, but Aria touched his arm, gentle. "Please," she whispered. "Just for now".
They pressed on, quiet, climbing drifts so deep the snow swallowed Aria's boots. Every so often, Kael would stop, press his hand to the ground or a frozen stone, listening to something only he could hear. Each time, his face grew more troubled.
When the sun finally dipped behind the peaks, they reached a narrow pass where the wind died all at once. The silence that followed felt wrong, too complete.
That's when Aria saw it.
An enormous arch of pure ice rose from the mountainside, carved with ancient runes that glowed faint blue from within. It didn't look built. It looked grown, shaped by centuries of winter, alive in its own way.
Kael stopped at the threshold, voice soft, almost reverent. "The Frozen Temple".
Aria stared, her breath swirling in the cold air. "What is this place?"
"It's the crossing point," Kael answered. "A gate between my world and yours. For centuries, it stayed sealed. It was supposed to stay that way".
"But it opened," Aria said, barely above a whisper.
Kael nodded. "Because I broke the vow that kept it shut".
Eamon frowned. "A vow? What kind of vow opens something like this?"
Kael didn't answer right away. He just walked under the arch, gestured for them to follow.
Inside, the cold hit like a slap. The walls were smooth as glass, throwing back endless reflections of the three of them. Shadows bent in weird directions, as if their echoes had minds of their own.
Aria shivered, took another step.
Then she spotted the altar.
A round platform rose in the center, carved from a single huge crystal, once flawless, now split by a jagged crack. Frost crept out from the break, spidering across the floor.
"What happened?" Aria asked, voice small.
Kael's jaw tightened. He reached out, brushed the broken crystal. The air hummed, like the temple itself was breathing.
"A heart used to rest here," he said. "The Heart of Winter. A living crystal, older than any world, holding the balance between mine and yours. I was supposed to protect it".
Aria's heart hammered. "But it's broken".
Kael closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes. Because I failed".
Eamon crossed his arms, suspicion sharp in his voice. "How? What did you do?"
Kael looked up, and for the first time, Aria saw something raw in his eyes, something painfully human, buried under all that winter.
"I fell in love," he said quietly. "With a mortal".
Aria's breath caught. She never saw that coming, not from someone who looked like he was carved out of ice.
Kael kept his voice low, almost like he was confessing something heavy. "A hundred years back, I met her out by the edge of our worlds. I tried to stick to my vow, really did. Tried to keep my distance. But love, love's wild. Not even winter can fight it off. In the end, I chose her instead of my duty to the Heart, and that's when it cracked. When she died. it just broke apart".
Eamon's doubt faded. Pity flickered over his face. "So that's when the storms started?"
"Endless winter," Kael said, barely above a whisper. "Grief too big for the realm to hold."
Aria drifted closer, drawn in by the ache in his voice. "You lost her," she whispered. "But why is the winter still getting worse?"
"The Heart's trying to piece itself back together. It's hunting for balance. But without a guardian, without someone tied to it, the whole thing's turning violent. If it finishes rebuilding like this, it'll swallow everything."
Aria felt her throat tighten. "So what do we do?"
Kael looked at her, eyes sharp and searching. For a second, she forgot to breathe. "The Heart's calling again. It's calling to you."
Her stomach flipped. "Me? Why?"
"You carry something it knows. Something it wants to bind itself to."
"I… I don't get it," she stammered.
"You will," Kael said, softer now. "But we have to choose, and soon. The storm outside, that's just the start. And whether you want it or not, you're already part of this."
Aria's gaze darted from the broken altar, to the strange light pulsing in the ice, then back to Kael, who suddenly seemed heavier, weighed down by secrets.
She didn't know what scared her more: the storm clawing at their world, or the truth taking root inside her.
But she knew one thing for sure.
Nothing would ever go back to the way it was.
Happy reading.
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