The touch was not what Vane had braced for. He had spent his life preparing for the bite of cold steel or the incinerating heat of a spell, but the palm cupping his cheek felt like a sun-warmed stone. It was a soft, radiating heat that seemed to seep through his skin, quieting the frantic rhythm of his mana-core.
Vane remained frozen as the Absolute Zero looked at him. Up close, her eyes were not just blue. They were shifting fractals of cerulean and silver, holding a depth that made his Target Analysis stutter and blur. He could not read her. He could not even perceive the edges of her existence.
'She is not cold,' Vane thought, his mind racing to keep up with the sensory contradiction. 'The legends say she is a blizzard given form, but her hand is as warm as the hearth in a winter cabin.'
