FLASHBACK CHAPTER: "Ash Beneath the Ice"
(Jeremiah's Memories, 4 Years Before Raiven Enters the Academy)
❄️ Scene: Vyrhoss Clan Citadel — Highwinter Basin
A storm is brewing over the frozen fortress of the Frostblood Sovereigns, carved into a hollowed mountain of eternal ice.
Inside the frost-crystal throne room, Highlord Iren Voss — Jeremiah's father — stands tall, his breath misting in the cold air.
He addresses a half-circle of clan elders, all draped in silver sigil-cloaks.
Highlord Iren:
"He broke the Seal of Null. He has seen the Eye of Stillgrave. There is no redemption for that…"
In chains below the dais kneels Jeremiah, 17, eyes downcast, bleeding from his scalp, arms frostbitten — yet his expression burns with defiance.
💥 FLASHBACK WITHIN FLASHBACK — 3 Days Earlier
Jeremiah in secret, standing deep within the Veiled Glacier Vault, watching the forbidden sigil awaken — the Glacien Null.
It whispers to him:
"You were born with no purpose. Take mine."
With trembling fingers, Jeremiah draws the Null Sigil into his soul, searing it into his core. His heartbeat stutters. His skin goes pale. Ice webs crawl up his veins like living glass.
The scream he lets out is not entirely human.
⚔️ Back to the Trial Room – Present Moment
Jeremiah lifts his head.
His right eye — once a soft silver — now fractals with frozen prism mirrors. The Eye of the Stillgrave.
He says nothing.
The verdict is passed.
"Execute him. Ice-bound and shattered. No grave."
🌪️ The Execution… Fails.
As the elders approach, a frost chain wraps around Jeremiah's throat.
But he mutters a broken phrase in an ancient dialect:
"Fracture the frost. Rebirth the null."
A shockwave explodes from his body. The air crystallizes, halting in stillmotion.
Everything becomes silent.
One by one, the elders freeze in place — not dead, but paused outside of time.
He walks past them as they remain locked in place, mid-blink, mid-motion, lips frozen in prayer.
❄️ Jeremiah's First Battle as Witherborn
From the shadows emerges his brother, Vaen Voss, elite ice knight of the Vyrhoss Clan.
Vaen:
"So it's true. You let it brand you. You let it take your name."
They clash instantly.
Vaen wields a blade of soul-ice, forging weapons from the memory of the clan's ancestors.
Jeremiah counters with mirror frost constructs and delayed sigils that freeze intentions instead of attacks.
Vaen lands a cut across Jeremiah's chest — but is struck back by a clone formed from his own reflection.
As Vaen rises, wounded and limping, he sees Jeremiah's eyes no longer filled with hate… but loss.
Jeremiah:
"You should have let me destroy it. The sigil… the clan... it was already hollow."
🩸 Final Moments
Jeremiah doesn't kill Vaen. He lets him live — frozen inside a mirror shard, unable to speak or move, yet fully conscious.
He exits the citadel as it crumbles, the still-frozen elders trapped forever in that moment of judgment.
🎭 Aftermath: Wandering
Jeremiah now wears a mask of carved ice when in public. Rumors call him:
"The One Who Walks in Stillness."
"The Witherborn."
"The Frost-Eater."
But in his own mind, he's just:
"Jeremiah, the one they wouldn't let choose his path."
🧊 Final Panel (Visual Suggestion):
Jeremiah stands alone atop a snowy cliff, cloak flapping in silence, watching the sun fail to rise over the White Grave Wastes.
In his hand, he holds a cracked clan insignia — and lets it slip from his fingers.
"Let them remember me in ice. I will remember them… in ash."