Book One – Chapter 14

THE WIZARD’S DEATH was a cessation of essence so faint that Midnight felt almost nothing as its finality rippled through the darkness. His convulsing form fell still within the inert shelter of the immobilised golem’s embrace. There was no burst of energy, no last surge of essence to mark his passing — only the quiet extinguishing of a life burned away by its own desperation. And with his death, the golem, though still imprisoned by the orichs’ seal, became an empty construct. Devoid of the essence that had fuelled its movements, it knelt motionless, a towering monolith bereft of will.

The frosthearts embedded within the stone prison pulsed faintly. Scattered across the interior walls, they fed tenuous threads of energy into the magical lattice that  held the golem captive. Each pulse of dim light sent shivers through the threads. The web of containment hummed faintly, a structure of magic that consumed as much as it constrained.

Midnight turned her attention outward. Her darkness slipped through the seams of the seal, unfurling like smoke across the mountain. She sought the world outside the forhardened prison, the movements of the orichs.

They descended down to the Snowtrail with a deliberation that exposed their exhaustion. These fighters, who had commanded such imposing power mere moments ago, now hunched and sagged under the strain of their victory. Subtle tremors betrayed their fatigue as they navigated the steep descent. There was no triumph in their expressions, no exultation in their gait. Midnight saw no elation, only the cold resolve of strategists who had always known the outcome of the fight they started. These were not warriors revelling in hard-fought glory, but trappers, their grim satisfaction rooted in precision rather than passion. They had fought not for pride but for purpose, they had orchestrated their trap not with fervour but with calculated ruthlessness, and their victory was as methodical as it was inevitable. Even now, as they approached their prey, their every movement reflected caution.