Roderic Thale strode to the front of the vanguard. "Forward!"

That simple command started the avalanche down the slope. Units marched from the keep, columned for the march north and west, each toward their own pre-planned engagements.

Lysander Moreth rode at the head of his armored knights. He wore his family's full plate, the golden crest polished to mirror sheen. As he passed the five of them, he gave a sharp, perfect salute with gauntleted hands.

"We'll begin without you," he promised. "But I hope your tardiness won't be too prolonged."

Then he was gone, swallowed in the flow of soldiers moving to meet their fate.

"Someone wants to make a dramatic entrance." Pyra stage-whispered. Kindle snickered.

The courtyard emptied slowly. As the last units filtered out, Theron approached, wearing his enhanced combat armor. The runes along its surfaces glimmered, pulsing in sequence. A new cloak of gray-and-white fabric hung from his shoulders, interlaced with frost resistance magic—the first of its kind that he'd personally woven using the knowledge they'd stolen from Cryax.

"Ready?" He addressed all five but met their eyes individually. Searching, Ember realized. Searching for confidence in some, resolve in others, determination in herself.

"Never been readier," said Pyra, stretching.

"Seconded." Cinder leaned back and cracked her neck.

"We can manage," Ash reassured him, winking.

"I hope," said Kindle with a nervous smile.

"So ready." Ember gave Theron a look that said she meant it.

Theron studied them a heartbeat longer, then nodded, accepting their collective conviction. His hands moved in precise gestures. Light flared around each—blue, green, gold, red, silver.

Enhancements like the ones burned into his armor, tailored to their specific abilities.

"The coalition depends on this working." He spoke the warning like an admonition to the universe to not test him today.

Ember nodded. "We'll make it work." She looked between her sister-selves. "Everyone set?"

Four affirmatives, each with their unique inflection, sounded in chorus. Hands reached out, gripping each other's shoulders and arms, and pulled close in a huddle.

"Go time," said Pyra, smiling.

***

Frozen hills stretched like bleached ribs beneath the sky, their spines heaving earthward in white mounds. Frost rimmed each blade of grass, ice slicked the rocks, and snowmelt trickled in sluggish rivulets. Ardleby's forces marched in tight columns across the land, a winding serpent of steel and cloth, their footsteps churning the snow to mud and slush.

Ember stood at the ridge crest watching Force Alpha assemble below.

Eight hundred soldiers formed ranks near a low hillock, their banners flapping in chill winds. Four companies, with adventurers, mages, and a handful of knights in supporting positions. It was the smallest force arrayed against a dragon today.

Lysander Moreth stood at their head astride his massive charger, his full plate glimmering like the winter sun. The banner of House Moreth hung behind him—blue and silver, its heraldry a stag and wolf joined in conflict.

The air tasted of frost and fear-sweat. Leather creaked. Steel whispered against steel. Men breathed ragged clouds into the morning.

"They look ready." Kindle appeared beside her, flames flickering low around her shoulders. "Better than I expected."

"They better be." Cinder materialized on Ember's other side. "We can't hold Vorthak's attention and babysit them at the same time."

Pyra landed in a crouch that cracked permafrost, flame-trails dissipating behind her. "Thale wants us down there. Dragon should arrive within the hour."

Ember nodded, feeling the weight of Ash's analytical nature settling through her thoughts like sediment in water. They'd integrated an hour ago, giving themselves time to adjust before the battle. Her sister-self's careful reasoning now threaded through all their decisions, sharpening instincts that had been wild before.

It felt right in ways she hadn't known she'd been missing until that moment.

They descended the slope in controlled bounds, landing among soldiers who stepped aside with muttered prayers. Some made warding signs. Others just stared with the particular expression of people watching their only hope walk past.

Thale waited at the command post—a hastily erected wooden platform overlooking the formations. His advisors crowded the narrow space with maps, spellcasters, and signalers.

"Fragmented Flame." He acknowledged them with a nod. "Positions are set. Ice creatures will funnel through these chokepoints." His finger traced marked paths across the map. "Infantry lines here and here. Mages to maintain suppression, adventurers in support roles. Moreth's knights hold the left flank. You four engage the dragon directly, and we'll support as able."

Ember scanned the terrain, committing positions to enhanced memory. "The wards?"

"Fresh. Every soldier warded within the last hour." Thale's jaw worked. "Never thought I'd see magic that could resist dragon influence. Corwin's spell is either genius or madness."

"Works out the same if we win." Pyra's grin held more teeth than humor.

Thunder rolled across the northern sky.

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Not weather. Wing-beats.

Wrong. Not wing-beats. Something heavier. The ground trembled with distant impacts that built in volume and frequency.

"Positions!" Thale's bellow carried across the valley. Soldiers moved with disciplined haste, shields locking, spears lowering.

The front rank knelt, bracing spear-butts against frozen earth. Second rank stood close behind, spears angled over their shields. Third rank held position for rotation and reinforcement. Battlemages spread to predetermined points, their staves already glowing with stored power. Archers nocked arrows, drew, held.

The valley held its breath.

The dragon came from the north, moving across the frozen ground like a landslide given purpose.

Vorthak had no wings. His four legs ate distance in massive strides that shook earth with each impact.

Blue-white scales covered muscle and bone built for crushing, for enduring, for outlasting anything stupid enough to fight him. Each scale was the size of a dinner plate, overlapping in patterns that left no weak points visible. Horns swept back from a skull the size of a wagon, curved and wickedly pointed. Ice crusted his joints and breath, each exhalation sending up clouds of frost that hung in the air like funeral shrouds.

Behind him came the ice creatures.

Spiders the size of hounds clicked across frozen ground on crystalline legs that refracted light into rainbow patterns. Frost wolves with eyes like winter stars bounded through snow, their breath visible as blue mist. Humanoid constructs marched in formation, icicle spears gleaming in dawn light.

Frost giants, ten feet tall, brought up the rear with ice-forged clubs and white marble shields.

"Count!" Someone in the ranks shouted.

"Eight hundred ice constructs minimum!" An officer replied. "Ten frost giants!"

The numbers didn't matter. They'd fight what came.

Vorthak stopped short of bowshot, surveying the force arrayed against him. The dragon's mouth opened in a roar of challenge that carried across the distance.

Soldiers shifted, nervous energy bleeding through discipline.

When the dragon spoke, its voice boomed and rolled.

"Clever. You bring wards against Mother's gift. But wards are fragile things. Magic breaks. Will breaks. Everything breaks given sufficient pressure."

His mental touch rolled across the valley like freezing fog.

Ember felt it slide over her consciousness, seeking purchase and finding none.

But the soldiers weren't immune.

They gasped as one, eight hundred men experiencing the dragon's will crashing against their minds. The blue shimmer around their heads flared bright, visible even in daylight. Some fell to their knees, hands clutching temples. Others swayed, faces going pale.

The wards held, but the pressure built, building, threatening to crack through sheer overwhelming force.

Battlemages staggered under the assault. One collapsed completely, blood running from his nose. Another maintained her ward through visible effort, her staff's glow flickering.

The pressure built for five seconds. Ten. Fifteen.

Then the pressure vanished.

Soldiers sucked in air like drowning men breaking surface. The blue shimmer faded to barely visible again. Thale steadied himself against the command post, his scarred hands white-knuckled on wood.

Vorthak's head tilted, almost curious. "Interesting. They've learned to resist. Mother will find this development worth studying."

"Like we told your mom." Cinder's flames burned white-hot around her fists. "We adapt."

"Then you'll die learning." The dragon's roar shook snow from distant peaks, sent it cascading down in miniature avalanches. "Your resistance changes nothing. You'll serve eventually. They all serve."

His ice army surged forward.

The first wave hit like a breaking ocean.

Ember met them in a blur of flame and speed. Her fist caught an ice spider mid-leap, the impact shattering it into fragments that sprayed outward. She spun, kicked another, drove fire through a frost wolf's chest. Ash's tactical mind processed targets faster than conscious thought.

Weak point here. Cluster there. Optimal movement pattern calculated in heartbeats and executed in flames.

Pyra hit their left flank like a meteor. Her passage left steam and shattered ice. Frost wolves tried to surround her but she moved too fast, burning too hot. They lunged at empty space while she carved through their numbers twenty feet away.

Kindle took the right, her flames blue-white with concentration. She moved with surgical precision, targeting the humanoid constructs that carried spears and tactical awareness. Each strike eliminated one, but more kept coming.

Cinder stayed mobile, burning paths through clustered formations. Where ice creatures massed, she was there, turning their numbers from advantage to liability as fire consumed them en masse.

Behind them, Force Alpha engaged.

The first frost wolf to reach their lines died on three spears simultaneously. The second fell to arrows that punched through its crystalline skull. The third crashed into their shield wall, which bent but held, spears driving up into its exposed belly.

Ice spiders swarmed over the shields. Infantry in the second rank stabbed down, spears punching through carapaces. Soldiers in the third rank used axes and swords to dismember anything that made it through.

The humanoid constructs hit harder. Their icicle spears drove through gaps in the shield wall, found flesh, drew blood. Soldiers fell. Others stepped forward to fill the gaps. The line contracted but didn't break.

The archers stayed in rotation, loosing arrows, drawing and shooting as quickly as possible. Arrows shattered against marble shields raised by frost giants, but they kept firing.

A giant's club drove through the infantry's line, smashing shields, crushing bone. The line wavered, staggered. Reinforcements flooded the gap. Knights rode past the infantry, their lances taking the frost giant in the knees, sending it crashing to earth where spears and axes swarmed it until it stopped moving.

Battlemages worked in pairs. One maintained the anti-conversion wards while the other launched fire and force. A pillar of flame consumed a cluster of spiders. A wave of force shattered a wolf's legs. Lightning arced between constructs, leaving them twitching and broken. The mages cycled positions smoothly, maintaining coverage while managing their power.

They were good. They were prepared. They'd trained for this.

But there were so many.

Ember burned through a cluster of humanoid constructs, their icicle spears melting before they could strike. Three more appeared immediately, coordinating their thrusts.

She dodged left, incinerated one, kicked another hard enough to shatter its torso. The third scored her shoulder with its spear, frost spreading from the wound. She burned it out before it could spread further.

The wound throbbed. Healing would take minutes they didn't have.

"He's not engaging!" Kindle shouted across the chaos, burning a path through ice spiders.

"Smart!" Cinder replied, incinerating a frost wolf mid-leap. Its body became steam that obscured vision for critical seconds. More wolves charged through the cloud. She burned them too, but the tactic worked—delay, distraction, attrition. "Why risk himself when he can grind us down?"

Vorthak watched from his position, massive head surveying the conflict. When the forces achieved parity, he sent in more ice creatures to reinforce. When Force Alpha took a breath, reorganized, and pushed back, another wave hit like a surging tide.

Pyra launched herself forward, clearing a path through ice creatures with raw destructive force. "Then we make him!"

She sprinted toward the dragon, flames trailing behind her like a war banner. Ember and Kindle followed, converging from different angles. Cinder stayed to cover the coalition's flank where a surge of spiders threatened to break through. Her fire held them back, but it pulled her away from the dragon fight.

They were splitting their strength. No choice.

They'd adapt. Always adapted.

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