Chapter 24: The Voice of the Ice CultThe Northern Border wind cut like a blade, daylight yet to break.
Aveline stood on a high ridge, gazing at the mysterious black shadow at the end of the ice plains ahead. That was the new camp of the wasteland tribes, a jumble of snow-bone totems and cult banners.
Commander Renault stood at her side in armor, expression grave. "Your Majesty, those people don't look like a tribal rally—more like... a ritual."
"What are they summoning?" Aveline murmured.
"The Ice Cult deity," Kalia rode forward, eyes troubled. "Remnants of the Southwestern Clerical Order hide behind them, seeming to manipulate the entire tribe. They're turning those people into part of a ritual."
Aveline's gaze darkened. "Blood sacrifice?"
"Deeper than blood," Kalia replied. "They're building a tower with souls."
That night, Aveline led five personal guards to infiltrate the enemy camp. In the thick fog, an altar loomed: a massive tower woven from white bones, with frozen human figures hanging from its peak.
Chanting pierced the icy wind, not human speech but whispers from beneath the ice, pressing painfully against eardrums.
"Withdraw," she ordered in a low voice, and they retreated swiftly.
The next morning's council:
"They aren't fighting for victory," Aveline scanned the generals. "They're overturning us through another means."
"Your Majesty, shall we attack the camp?" Renault pleaded for battle.
"No," Aveline refused. "They court defeat. The faster they fall, the stronger their 'divine blood' becomes."
"Then what is the plan?"
Aveline's gaze fell on the map. "Break their curse."
She ordered the army's mage corps to gather, retrieved talismans from the Southwestern Clerical Order's surviving scrolls, and summoned the city's remaining True Fire Priests. She herself joined the research, drawing curse-breaking seals in the name of royal blood.
Three days later, a night attack:
Amid thunderous snowstorms, Aveline led Snow Cavalry charging down from North Ridge. No war drums sounded, but blades gleamed cold. She alone held the curse-breaking fire seal, racing toward the bone tower.
Enemy forces surged, yet seemed to expect her. At the tower's base, a black-robed woman stood silent.
"Snowflame Queen," the woman spoke, voice hoarse. "You do not belong to this land. You are fire, and fire dies."
Aveline raised her sword, the fire seal flaring red. "Then let your deity extinguish me personally."
They clashed.
Seals bombarded the bone tower as soul-shrieks pierced the sky. The world shifted color in an instant.
Aveline forced her way to the tower's core, driving the fire seal into the curse's nucleus. As light exploded, the entire camp collapsed, the snow caving into an abyss. The black-robed woman dissolved into ice dust, carried away by the wind.
The Northern Border night was rekindled by firelight.
When she led the troops back to camp, the entire army knelt in welcome.
Renault raised his sword in a shout: "Snowflame Queen—breaker of gods!"
"Snowflame Queen!"
Cheers pierced ice and snow, echoing across the Northern Border.