The morning after Moonfrost Eve was too quiet for Heavenreach Academy.
Snow still clung to the roofs like the last traces of a fading dream, and the streets outside the dormitory windows lay muffled under a thin layer of frost. Normally, Sunday mornings were a brief reprieve — a day where even the ambitious students allowed themselves an extra hour in bed, where chores and drills could wait.
But the peace was about to break.
Kaiden woke first.
Not just because he was an early riser, but because his Ki Card pulsed faintly on the desk beside his bed. The glow was subtle, like moonlight caught in a droplet of water, but it tugged at his attention immediately. He rolled onto his side, groaning, and reached for it.
The instant his thumb brushed the surface, an image flared into being: a folded paper crane of shimmering æsther, its edges sharp with perfect symmetry. It unfolded with an airy rustle, revealing a glowing glyph in Mrs. Maiven's precise handwriting.
Mrs. Maiven's Glyph Mail:
Ironroot 1A. Assemble fully equipped. Location coordinates are embedded. Arrival by 09:00 is mandatory.
Kaiden stared at it for a moment, brow furrowing.
[ Kaiden ]
"Fully equipped?"
"On a Sunday?"
"That never meant something easy."
Before he could even swing his legs out of bed, Rio's groggy voice mumbled from the bunk across the room.
[ Rio ]
"…Please tell me that's not what I think it is."
Kaiden turned the card so the glyph's blue light splashed across the dim dorm.
Rio squinted at it, then buried his face in his pillow.
[ Nerim ]
"Ugh. Don't tell me…"
"Training."
"On a weekend."
[ Kaiden ]
"Looks like it."
[ Rio ]
"She hates us?"
"Doesn't she..."
"I mean, after Moonfrost Eve?"
Kaiden smirked.
[ Kaiden ]
"Guess we're still alive enough to push harder."
Rio groaned theatrically, kicking his blanket off.
[ Rio ]
"Alive, yes."
"Mentally stable, no."
[ Kaiden ]
"Better get ready before she decides to dock our break days for 'delay in response.'"
◈◈◈
On the other side of the courtyard, Peggy was leaning over Irna's desk, recounting a theatrical part of last night's lantern release.
[ Peggy ]
"—and then, just as it drifted past the bridge, I swear it almost winked at me."
Irna was brushing her hair, her motions slower than usual. The bruises from her duel with Dessie were faint but still visible along her jaw and under her sleeve. She didn't complain, but Peggy noticed the way she shifted slightly to avoid certain movements.
The faint chime of a mail glyph reaching two Ki Cards at once interrupted their conversation. Peggy straightened and plucked her card off the dresser, eyes scanning the glowing script.
[ Peggy ]
"Full gear?"
"Today?"
"That woman must've lost her mind."
Irna glanced at her card, read the message once, then quietly set it aside.
[ Irna ]
"She didn't say where exactly."
[ Peggy ]
"Which means it's somewhere awful."
"The last time she didn't specify, we ended up ankle-deep in swamp muck."
[ Irna ]
"Well, you got your Stoneheart Aegis that day."
"So it was worth it."
Peggy's lips twitched, but her mind was already far from the warm dorm room.
The Deadtrie Quagmire. The air had been thick with rot, every step sinking in mud that sucked at her boots. Stinglashers swarmed from all angles — the front, the flank, even from behind. Her barriers shattered one after another under the relentless strikes.
And then, something inside her shifted. She drove the head of her warhammer into the earth, not in defense, but in command. The swamp floor answered — a tower of stone heaving her up above the chaos. From that height, she saw Kaiden weaving through enemies, Irna holding the line, Rio thrusting with precision, Nerim scattering attackers with raw force.
She had thought, with a clarity that cut through the din: They will not fall. Not while I stand.
Jagged barriers erupted around her allies, moving when they moved, smashing into any enemy that dared close in. It wasn't a shield anymore — it was a fortress that fought beside them. Stoneheart Aegis had been born.
Peggy blinked back to the present, grumbling under her breath as she went to her armor rack.
[ Peggy ]
"Hate it when you are right..."
Peggy stuck her tongue out toward Irna, muttering about frozen toes and how the Moonfrost Eve deserved at least two days of rest. Irna said nothing and grinned, but there was a certain light in her eyes — not eagerness exactly, but focus.
◈◈◈
The boys' dorm was a small flurry of movement now. Kaiden checked the straps on his vambraces twice, ensuring they wouldn't slip mid-fight. Nerim methodically arranged his supplies before sliding them into his backpack. And Rio… tried to put his chestplate on backward before Kaiden silently turned him around.
[ Rio ]
"…It's early."
"My brain's still on Moonfrost time."
[ Nerim ]
"Your brain's always on Moonfrost time."
[ Kaiden ]
"All set, then?"
[ Rio & Nerim ]
"Aye."
[ Kaiden ]
"Let's move."
"I bet she's timing us."
[ Rio ]
"Tell me something new, Kaid."
The girls were no less busy. Peggy tugged her scarf snug against her throat, then stuffed a small pouch of frost-resistant salve into her belt — "just in case." Irna fastened her leather armor, taking extra care to hide the most visible bruises beneath her sleeves and collar.
By the time both groups stepped outside, the frost-crusted air bit at their cheeks, their breaths curling in white plumes.
The boys reached the Academy's main bridge first, Kaiden leaning casually against the stone railing while Nerim dropped his ration-packed backpack on the ground and Rio muttered about the temperature.
[ Rio ]
"Feels like the frost's trying to eat my bones."
[ Kaiden ]
"Better bones than your aim."
Before Rio could retort, Peggy and Irna appeared from the path leading from the girls' dorm. Peggy waved with her usual confident grin; Irna's steps were quieter, her gaze briefly meeting Kaiden's before flicking away.
[ Peggy ]
"Morning, frostbitten gentlemen..."
"Ready for whatever nightmare she's sending us into?"
[ Rio ]
"No."
"But apparently..."
"We're doing it anyway."
[ Irna ]
"Morning, guys."
[ Rio & Nerim ]
"Morning, Irna."
[ Irna ]
"Morning, Kaiden..."
[ Kaiden ]
"Morning, Irna..."
Kaiden noticed what he did not last night.
"Your bruise is starting to swell."
[ Irna ]
"At least the scar would make me look more like a bad girl..."
"Hehe."
[ Kaiden ]
"You mean like Dessie?"
Irna found herself taken aback by Kaiden's question, rendering her unable to respond as her words failed her.
"You don't need to look like Dessie..."
"You are perfect the way you are."
[ Irna ]
"Kaiden..."
◈◈◈
The five of them fell into step together, boots crunching over the frost-dusted stone. The route Mrs. Maiven had marked on the attached map wasn't along the usual training paths. It wound through a series of low ridges and narrow ravines east of the Academy — terrain none of them had properly navigated before.
They quickly discovered why she hadn't bothered to guide them. The first incline was steep enough that Rio nearly lost his footing, saved only by Nerim's quick grip.
[ Nerim ]
"Watch your steps, bro."
[ Rio ]
"She's not training us."
"She's trying to kill us."
[ Peggy ]
"You survived the swamp, you'll survive this."
The ridges funneled them into a narrow valley where frost-coated roots twisted across the path like skeletal hands. More than once, Kaiden paused to check their direction against the Ki Card map, making subtle course corrections before they wandered too far.
[ Rio (muttering) ]
"If the trip's this bad, what's the training gonna be like?"
[ Nerim ]
"Guess we'll find out soon."
[ Irna ]
"She's watching, you know."
[ Kaiden ]
"From the start?"
[ Irna ]
"Always."
The final stretch brought them to a flat expanse of frozen ground, the frost glittering under a pale, reluctant sun. At the far edge stood a jagged wall of dark stone, a natural cliff face with a shadowed opening at its base.
Mrs. Maiven was there — arms crossed, expression unreadable. Her long coat shifted in the wind, boots planted firmly on the icy ground.
[ Mrs. Maiven ]
"Half an hour slower than the mark I set."
"You'll improve."
Rio muttered something about nearly dying twice on the way, earning a sharp glance from her that shut him up immediately.
"This cavern is not..."
"I repeat."
"NOT, under the Academy's management."
"It is, however, part of your special training."
"If you ever want to start dreaming of completing the Iron Vein..."
"Then you'd better finish this one."
Her gaze swept over them, weighing each without a hint of warmth.
"Full gear checks."
"When you step through that entrance, you are no longer trainees — you are delvers."
"Treat it as such."
Behind her, the mouth of the cavern yawned wide, its edges rimed with frost. A faint, cold wind drifted out, carrying with it a smell of stone, old air, and something else — something heavier.
[ Rio ]
"Are we really delving today?"
[ Nerim ]
"Looks like it."
[ Irna ]
"I..."
"I am not sure."
[ Peggy ]
"Nothing to be scared of, girl."
"Mrs. Maiven is with us."
[ Mrs. Maiven ]
"Correction, Ms. Orlson."
"I won't be entering the vein with you today."
"The five of you are on your own."
Kaiden felt the weight of it in his chest. This wasn't just another training.
[ Kaiden ]
"We can do this, guys!"
[ HEART ]
Resolute - Triggered
Æsther flow regulated.
Party stimana & stamina output: Maximized
______
Mrs. Maiven stepped aside.
[ Mrs. Maiven ]
"Register your names at the Obelisk."
"The clock starts the moment you are transported inside by the æsther-relocation glyph."