The ice vault core loomed ahead, and the chain screamed louder than the wind—reminding me that every step north was a transaction written in bone.The 1.5-meter radius was a physical decree, a jagged limit that bit into my ribs with every lurch of the permafrost. In this extreme polar edge, the metal tether conducted the cold directly into my marrow. I gagged, my nose clogged with the acid ash of our own footprints and the silver-mercury stink of burnt metal. Every breath was a struggle against a chest hammered by ice, my lungs feeling like they were being scraped by shards of flint.Behind me, Kael was a heavy, dragging shadow. His hair, once obsidian, was now a shocking, brittle white. He stumbled, his boots slipping on black ice, and I felt the jolt through the chain—a spike of quartz agony that made my heartbeat skip, then drag, syncing with his failing rhythm.I forged the bars of this cage myself and now I’m the only one left holding the torch.
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