Climbing out of the abyss should have been impossible. The walls were a vertical sheet of black ice, smoother than glass. Before, it would have been a death sentence. Now, it was a staircase.
Kai moved with a grace that felt alien. His fingers, when he pressed them against the ice, didn't slip. Instead, the moisture in the air and the surface of the wall itself froze solid around his fingertips, creating perfect, tiny handholds that crumbled away after he moved on. He didn't think about it; his body simply knew how to command the cold. It was an instinct, a part of him now, like breathing.
The physical effort was negligible. His muscles, reforged by the dragon's power, carried him upward with relentless strength. But his mind was a storm.
He remembered the feel of Liam's hand on his shoulder—a friendly gesture that had been a lie from the beginning. He saw the smirk, the cold calculation in his friend's eyes as he let go. The Frost-Blossom. That was the reason. A rare, magical herb that could elevate an aspiring adventurer to instant fame and wealth. They had found it together, but one share wasn't enough for Liam. Greed had been a sharper weapon than any ice spike.
I was a fool, Kai thought, but the thought held no self-pity. It was a cold, hard assessment, like a general reviewing a lost battle. His trust had been a weakness. That weakness was now frozen and shattered at the bottom of the chasm.
A new sensation bloomed in his chest, centered on the dragon crest. It wasn't the warmth of friendship or the heat of anger. It was a steady, humming cold. A reservoir of power waiting to be tapped. He could feel it—the Primordial Frost Mana—circulating through him, a glacial river where his blood used to flow. It whispered of potential, of storms he could unleash, of absolute zero that could snuff out life itself.
He welcomed the chill. It cleared his head. It sharpened his focus. The boy who would have wept over the betrayal was gone. What remained was a purpose, cold and sharp as a newly formed icicle: survive, grow strong, and settle the debt.
He reached the top of the chasm as the moon began its ascent, painting the snow in shades of silver. He pulled himself over the edge and stood, silent and still, on the ledge from which he'd been pushed. The wind, which would have cut through his thin clothes hours ago, now felt like a gentle caress. He looked down at his tunic, torn and stained with blood that was no longer his. The fabric was stiff with ice.
A voice, loud and familiar, echoed from a small campsite a hundred yards away, nestled in a copse of pine trees.
"—to the Frost-Blossom!" It was Liam. He was holding a flask aloft, his face flushed with triumph and cheap liquor. Two other members of their would-be expedition team were with him, a brother and sister named Roric and Anya. They looked uncomfortable, shifting on their feet.
"To Kai, then?" Anya said, her voice quiet. "We should… we should at least say a few words. He was one of us."
Liam waved a dismissive hand. "A tragic accident. The ledge gave way. He was always so clumsy." He took a swig from the flask. "But he died for a good cause! With the gold from this, we'll be set for life. No more scraping by on goblin-hunting contracts."
Kai listened, his crystalline blue eyes narrowing. No remorse. Not even a pretense of grief. Just celebration. The cold in his chest pulsed, and the air around him dropped several degrees. A faint, visible mist began to coil from his body.
He stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight.
The crunch of his boot on the snow was soft, but in the quiet of the night, it was as loud as a thunderclap.
The three figures at the campfire froze. Liam lowered his flask slowly. Their eyes widened, reflecting the moonlit image of a boy they had left for dead. His hair was a shock of white, his eyes glowed with an unearthly blue light, and an aura of palpable cold rolled off him in waves.
"K-Kai?" Anya stammered, taking a step back. "By the gods… you're alive?"
Liam's face went from shock to a forced, greasy smile. "Kai! You're okay! We thought we lost you! How did you… how did you survive?" His eyes darted over Kai's transformed appearance, a flicker of fear and confusion in their depths.
Kai didn't answer. He just stared at Liam, his expression as impassive as the ice he now commanded.
"Your hair… your eyes…" Roric whispered, his hand instinctively moving to the hilt of his sword. "What happened down there?"
"I had a revelation," Kai said, his voice calm and deeper than they remembered. It had a faint, echoing quality, like wind through a frozen canyon. "I learned the price of trust."
Liam's smile vanished. He saw the death in Kai's eyes. He knew the charade was over. "Look, Kai, whatever you think happened—"
"I don't think, Liam," Kai interrupted, taking a slow, deliberate step forward. The snow solidified into hard ice under his foot with a sharp crack. "I know. You pushed me."
Panic finally broke through Liam's facade. "It was an accident! You slipped!"
"You wanted the Frost-Blossom for yourself." Kai took another step. The air grew colder. The fire in their camp pit guttered and shrank, its flames struggling against the sudden deep freeze.
"It's just a plant!" Liam cried, his voice rising in pitch. "It's not worth this! We can share it! We can still be partners!"
"No," Kai said, the word final. "We can't."
He raised his hand, not in a fist, but with his palm open. He focused on the cold fire in his chest, on the whisper of the dragon's legacy. He willed the moisture in the air around Liam's feet to obey.
There was no grand incantation. No flashy light. Just a swift, terrifying hiss.
The snow around Liam's boots erupted into thick, crystalline ice, crawling up his legs in an instant, locking him in place up to his knees. It wasn't normal ice; it was clear as glass and hard as steel.
Liam screamed, more in shock than pain, and tried to pull free, but he was trapped fast. "What is this? What are you?"
Kai walked until he was standing directly before his trapped, former friend. He looked down at him, his glacial eyes showing no emotion.
"I am what you made me," Kai said softly. He leaned in close, his breath frosting the air between them. "The boy you knew is gone. You killed him."
He reached out and, with a gentle touch, plucked the small, enchanted pouch containing the Frost-Blossom from Liam's belt. Liam was too terrified to resist.
Kai straightened up and looked at the frozen, terrified face of the man who had betrayed him. The rage was still there, a frozen fire in his heart. He could end it now. A thought, and the ice could climb higher, snuffing out Liam's life as easily as he'd snuffed out the fire.
But the dragon's voice echoed in his memory. Survive. Grow. Ascend.
Killing a trapped, helpless man—even one as despicable as Liam—was not growth. It was a petty squabble. He had a greater destiny now. Liam was nothing but a stepping stone, already left behind.
"This," Kai said, holding up the pouch, "is a pittance compared to the power I now possess. Keep your life, Liam. It's the last thing I will ever give you. Remember the cold. Remember that you saw me, and lived."
Without another word, Kai turned his back on the camp, on his past. He walked into the dark forest, the shadows and the cold embracing him as their own.
Behind him, the ice holding Liam began to slowly melt. But the chill in Liam's soul, the memory of those frozen blue eyes, would remain forever.