The rise of a Frozen Star

[POV Liselotte]

The inside of Leah’s room felt suffocating despite the cold emanating from my armor.

Maya and Elina were curled up in the oak chairs, trembling like leaves battered by a storm. Their eyes, once filled with the competitive spark of elite mages, were now nothing but wells of liquid terror.

Leah moved with icy efficiency. She took a small violet runestone from her desk and squeezed it tightly. I saw a brief flash flicker across the crystal before fading.

“I’ve sent the signal to Elliot,” Leah whispered, turning toward me. “It’s the ‘Falcon in the Nest’ code. He knows we’ve found the thread that unravels the traitor’s network. He won’t take long to arrive with the trusted guard.”

I remained silent, my visor still lowered as I watched the two girls. It wasn’t safe for them to remain here if Elliot was bringing soldiers.

“Maya, Elina… you need to go to the adjoining room—Lotte’s,” Leah ordered gently but firmly. “You’ll be safer there while we wait for my brother. No one will think to search for you in the room of a guardian who is, technically, miles away from here.”

The two girls nodded mechanically and stood up.

I escorted them to the side door connecting both chambers. As they stepped inside, I noticed Elina stumble over the threshold. Her mana was so depleted she could barely keep her balance.

I closed the door behind them and returned to Leah, finally removing the heavy helmet. Cool air hit my sweat-damp face, and my dyed black hair fell over my shoulders.

“Tell me exactly what they told you,” I said, resting my sword against the table.

Leah crossed her arms, her expression darkening in the candlelight.

“It’s worse than we imagined, Lotte. The girls were hiding in the alchemy laboratories looking for materials for a project when they overheard Varek Valerius. He wasn’t alone. He was speaking to someone—someone whose voice they described as ‘a whisper that burns.’”

Leah took a breath.

“Varek sounded ecstatic. He said the academy’s main magic circle has been modified and will activate in a few days during a supposed Blood Moon ceremony.”

A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with my power.

“But the most disturbing part is the method,” Leah continued, stepping closer to me.

“Varek bragged that now that ‘the most troublesome person’—meaning you—had gone to the forest, the path was clear. He said they possess a device or ritual capable of slowing and nullifying the magic of every student and teacher inside the academy grounds. A total magical blackout.”

Leah paused, locking her eyes with mine.

“…However, he specifically mentioned that your magic is ‘special.’ He said you are the only variable his method cannot fully suppress. That’s why they needed you far away, hunting shadows in the Whispering Forest. They believe your mana doesn’t come from the same source as everyone else’s.”

I fell silent for a moment, running my fingers over the pommel of my sword.

“That makes sense,” I said finally. “My ice mana is a manifestation of my soul—an inheritance from my passage through the void of the goddesses and my own nature. If they’re using an inhibitor based on the academy’s ley lines or the standard magical resonance of this world, my mana frequency could be immune… or at least far more difficult to block.”

“If they activate that circle, we’ll be lambs to the slaughter,” Leah murmured.

“Without magic, the students are nothing but frightened teenagers. The Valerius plan to hand over the academy from the inside, eliminating Whirikal’s future elite in a single strike.”

We began theorizing about the location of the inhibiting device.

Was it in the basements?

The clock tower?

If we could find the origin point of that interference, we might sabotage the plan before the ceremony began.

We were so absorbed in the discussion that we almost missed the sound outside.

Clack, clack, clack.

Fast, heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor.

My hand flew to my sword’s hilt as I slid my helmet back on in one fluid motion. Leah tensed—but then she recognized the marching rhythm.

The door opened and Elliot entered, flanked by two guards in black cloaks.

His eyes swept across the room before settling on my plated armor.

“Leah, Lotte. I received the message,” Elliot said, locking the door behind him. “I’ve mobilized the covert guard around the perimeter. It’s time to act. Where are the witnesses? I need them to give me the exact location of that Valerius meeting.”

“They’re in the next room, brother,” Leah replied, pointing to the connecting door. “They’re terrified—give them a moment before—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Her eyes were fixed on the door to my room.

I stopped too.

The silence coming from the other side was not the silence of two people resting.

It was absolute silence.

Dense.

A soundless void that felt unnatural.

There was no breathing, no creaking of the beds, not even Maya’s muffled sobbing.

“Lotte…” Leah whispered, turning pale.

I didn’t wait.

I slammed my shoulder against the door, using the weight of my plate armor to shatter the lock.

The door burst open and slammed against the wall.

The room was empty.

The bedcovers were slightly disturbed, but there was no trace of Maya or Elina. The window overlooking the back gardens was closed and sealed from the inside.

No signs of struggle.

No blood.

No overturned furniture.

They had simply vanished.

“That’s impossible!” Elliot shouted, rushing in behind us. “My men were watching the corridor. No one has left through the main door!”

I walked to the center of the room and knelt down, removing one gauntlet to touch the floor.

The stone was cold—but not from my magic.

It was the lingering chill of long-distance transportation magic, a mana signature that smelled faintly of sulfur and ozone.

“They were taken from here with a forced translocation spell,” I said, my voice rumbling like thunder beneath the helmet. “But a spell like that inside the academy’s barriers should have triggered every alarm.”

“Unless…” Elliot began.

“Unless the traitor has full control over the royal wing’s security runes,” Elliot finished, his face twisted with fury. “They were right here… under our noses.”

Leah wrapped her arms around herself, staring at the empty space where her friends had been moments before.

“Varek knew they would come here. He knew they would tell us everything. He used them as bait—to confirm we were following the trail… or simply to eliminate them before Elliot arrived.”

I felt my killing intent begin to spill outward, freezing the edges of the carpet in my room.

Two people under my protection had been taken from my own chamber.

It was an insult.

And a declaration of war.

“Elliot,” I said, rising slowly with a threatening calm. “Forget subtlety. The traitor isn’t playing in the shadows anymore. They made a move inside your own security perimeter. If Maya and Elina are still alive, they’re somewhere in this academy… in a place that doesn’t appear on the maps.”

Elliot nodded, his eyes burning with grim determination.

“Lotte, take off that armor. There’s no point hiding anymore. If they can teleport people from the royal wing, a guard’s disguise won’t protect you. I need you at full strength.”

“Leah, stay with my personal guards. We’re going to search every stone in this place until we find those bastards.”

I removed the steel plates, letting them crash to the floor in metallic thunder.

My ice mana, freed from the restraint of the heavy metal, burst around me in a swirl of fine snow.

My black hair returned to its original emerald green, the color shifting purely from the power I was no longer bothering to hide.

“I’m going to find Varek,” I said, picking up my true sword—the dark crystal blade.

“And this time, I won’t ask him to leave.”

“I’m going to make him tell me where the girls are… even if I have to freeze every nerve in his body to do it.”

The night at the Academy of Whirikal had just become much longer.

The traitor had made the mistake of believing he could strike inside my home and walk away unpunished.

They didn’t understand one thing.

Ice does not only block.

It hunts… until there is nothing left to freeze.