What had once been jagged rock and tundra had softened into vast stretches of hard-packed snow, tinged pale blue under the cloud-choked sky.
Cracks laced the surface, shallow and strange, as if the land itself had been shattered and refrozen.
Thae'Zirak's wings tightened as he slowed.
"There's something beneath us," he rumbled. "Something… hollow."
Argolaith straightened. "Hollow?"
Thae'Zirak dipped lower, his claws kicking up icy mist as he landed atop a narrow ridge.
Beneath them stretched a broad expanse of flat ice, unnatural in shape—a smooth oval surrounded by jutting rocks, as if something had fallen from the sky and cooled into silence.
Kaelred leapt down, boots crunching lightly against the surface. "This doesn't look natural."
Argolaith joined him. He crouched and pressed a gloved hand to the ice. The chill bit through the leather immediately, but it wasn't just cold—it pulsed.
