Ryn lifted his sleeve and wiped the moisture from his face, blinking once as the last of the cold sting faded from his eyes.

His other hand ran automatically along Snow's sheath, thumb pressing against the strap, confirming the clasp hadn't loosened. He adjusted the fit at his shoulder, rolled his neck once, then continued down.

Behind him, Jay hesitated before following.

"…You sure you're good?" Jay asked quietly.

Ryn didn't look back. "Yeah."

That was all.

Jay opened his mouth, like he might say more, then thought better of it.

The passage narrowed as they descended. The walls were no longer ancient stone, but something preserved through supernatural means.

Frost clung to the surface in thin, branching patterns, creeping outward from faintly glowing veins beneath the rock.

The cold wasn't sharp.

It was heavy.

Each breath came back slower than the last, fog lingering in the air instead of dissipating.

The floor dipped again, steeper this time, forcing them into a controlled descent.

They rounded the bend.

And the passage ended.

A door stood before them.

It was massive—taller than the corridor itself, set cleanly into the stone as though the whole place was built around this one door. The surface was dark metal veined with pale crystal, untouched by rust or wear.

Pristine was the only word to describe it.

Runes and sigils covered its face in layered circles, some etched deep, others hovering faintly above the surface in suspended light. Lines of power linked them together in a web too complex to take in at once.

Jay sucked in a quiet breath.

"…That's not decorative."

"No," Ryn agreed.

The seals weren't defensive.

They were containment, made to trap a monstrosity.

Ryn stepped closer. The air grew colder with each pace, frost forming instantly where his breath touched the door. The sigils reacted to his presence, several of them brightening slightly before settling again, as if…acknowledging they were there.

Something behind it shifted.

A deep vibration passed through the metal, through the stone, through Ryn's boots. Fine cracks raced across the ice along the corridor walls, stopping short of the door as though repelled by an unseen boundary.

Jay took an involuntary step back. "Ryn… something's on the other side."

"I know."

The sigils flared.

One by one, the outer rings dimmed, power retracting inward as ancient mechanisms disengaged. The door began to sink into the stone with a sound like grinding ice, slow and deliberate.

Cold air spilled through the widening gap.

The space beyond the door did not resemble a chamber.

It opened into a vast frozen cavern, its ceiling lost in shadow, jagged ice formations hanging like the teeth of some colossal beast. The walls curved naturally, layered with centuries of frost and compressed snow.

This was not a room built by hands.

It was a place chosen.

The ground dipped into a wide, uneven basin where ice had pooled and frozen over countless years, forming thick, translucent layers that trapped light and shadow alike.

The shape beneath the ice became clearer the closer they stepped.

It was enormous, not in the brutish way of siege beasts or oversized monsters, but with a proportion that felt deliberate. Its body coiled within the basin in a spiral that filled the chamber without crowding it, as though the space itself had been designed around its presence.

At the center of it all—

The dragon.

It lay coiled within the ice as though the glacier itself had grown around it, massive body partially embedded in frozen stone.

Its scales ranged from deep glacial blue to muted silver, each plate rimmed with frost that never melted. Ice had crept between the overlaps, locking them together in places, yet even bound, the dragon looked anything but weak.

Its eyes were closed.

Even so, the cavern felt full.

Pressure rolled outward from the creature, even in its slumber.

Ryn felt it brush against his Essence, ancient awareness sliding over him without resistance or intent.

Then—

One eye opened.

A cold, luminous blue burned through the ice, sharp and focused.

Frost surged across the cavern floor, cracks racing through the ice in clean, deliberate lines. The sigils embedded in the glacier flared softly, their glow intensifying as they responded to the awakening presence.

The eye fixed on Ryn.

Not Jay nor Snow in its Pact Armament form.

But him.

Contrary to what he expected, the dragon didn't stand up suddenly and roar. It drew a slow breath, beckoning them to come closer with a tired eye.

"…It wants us closer," Jay said quietly.

"I know," Ryn replied.

He stepped forward. Jay swallowed hard and forced himself to follow.

The pressure increased instantly, each step felt like walking into deeper water, becoming harder to move his legs.

The frosted chains around the dragon tightened subtly—not restraining it further, but warning that they would if it moved.

When they were close enough, the dragon finally spoke.

"Few descend this far," it said, the words resonating through the ice rather than the air. "Fewer still arrive standing."

Its gaze never left Ryn.

"You are not the first to walk this path," the dragon continued, "but you are… familiar."

Ryn stopped a short distance from the basin's edge. His hand rested on Snow's hilt, relaxed but ready.

"I don't know you," he said.

The dragon's eye narrowed slightly in consideration.

"No," it agreed. "But I knew the last who stood where you stand now."

A pause.

"The Isles you tread upon are not a whim of the gods," the dragon said. "They are a legacy, one of a man who held regrets until his dying breath."

Ryn's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Whose?"

The dragon did not answer immediately.

"And why is it here?" Ryn continued. "Why build something like this and abandon it in the middle of nowhere?"

The cavern was silent save for the slow creak of ice settling.

Then the dragon spoke.

"The world once fell into night," it said calmly. "Raging monsters and beasts from beyond descended, tearing civilization apart."

Ryn's breath caught.

The Evernight?

No—

That wasn't possible.

He thought about it. In no records or papers were there any mentions of it. He searched every library that he'd accessed to.

But nothing came up.

Even so, the Evernight was caused by the Cult…did that mean they existed all the way back then?

Or was there something else, something deeper, he was still missing?

The dragon continued.

"The people carved this place from what remained. A place lifted beyond the reach of the dark."

The sigils embedded in the ice pulsed faintly, responding to the words.

"Humanity gathered here while the world below burned," the dragon went on. "The wounded. The frightened. Those who could no longer fight."

Its eye dimmed slightly.

"Yet even here, despair took root."

Ryn looked up.

"Many named it the Isles of the Lost," the dragon said. "A refuge not of hope, but of failure. A place for those who believed they had already been left behind."

Jay swallowed quietly behind him.

"They did not see it as salvation," the dragon continued. "They saw it as proof that the world had ended without them."

The ice cracked softly beneath the dragon's resting form.

"However," it said, "one person never despaired."

Ryn's gaze lifted.

"The First Hero," the dragon continued, voice steady, reverent without awe.

"Asteris."

"While humanity hid among the clouds," the dragon said, "Asteris descended alone."

"To face the night."

"He succeeded," the dragon said.

The words were simple. Unadorned.

"He drove the night back beyond the veil," it continued. "The sky brightened. The beasts retreated. The world breathed again."

Ryn felt his chest tighten.

"So… it was over," he said quietly.

"For a time," the dragon replied.

Its eye dimmed slightly, frost curling along the edges of the basin.

"The Hero believed the same," it said. "That the world had been saved."

A pause.

"Then he saw what the night had left behind."

Ryn's brow furrowed.

"Not all who endured were untouched," the dragon went on. "Some had listened when the dark whispered. Some had learned to draw strength from it."

The ice cracked faintly beneath its coils.

"They did not curse the night," the dragon said. "They coveted it."

Jay's fingers clenched at his side.

"The Hero understood then," the dragon continued, "that the night had not failed."

"It had only just begun."

Ryn swallowed. "The Cult."

"They would one day be named that," the dragon replied. "At the time, they were simply survivors who believed the world was wrong to reject the dark's gifts."

The dragon exhaled slowly.

"By the time he grasped the truth, Asteris was already old," it said. "Worn by battle. By loss. By the years stolen from him so others might live."

Ryn pictured it without meaning to. A man who saved the world, standing amid its ruins, realizing it would happen again.

"Humanity eventually descended from the Isles," the dragon said. "They returned to the land. They rebuilt."

"They forgot."

"But he did not leave," it continued.

The sigils around the cavern brightened, faint but steady.

"Asteris remained," the dragon said. "Not out of stubbornness. Out of responsibility."

"He knew he would not live to see the next night," the dragon said. "So he prepared for those who might."

Its gaze settled fully on Ryn.

"He preserved his technique," it said. "Not as inheritance… but as answer."

"To be passed on," the dragon finished, "to someone who could stand where he no longer could."

Silence pressed in from all sides.

Then—

"To someone," the dragon said quietly, "like you."

A pause.

"Ryn Eden."

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