The cold bit down, refusing to let up. It gnawed down to the bone, slowing everything to a crawl. Snow crunched underfoot as a small figure fought against the winds, determined to last for just one more step. Pale, frail, and utterly alone, Aldric trudged on. The warm glow of fires in hearths beckoned from windows as he passed, but none would let him near. Warmer still was the sound of gentle laughter and good company, making the cold sting all the more. Misty breath blew over shivering lips as he commanded his legs to take just one more step.

Many nights he had spent like this, and most he sought little more than the smallest ember to keep warm. Each time he was certain it would finally be his last, but the harsh rays of dawn cursed him to continue time and time again. The cold, like everything else in this forsaken world, refused to claim him.

He crept ever so slowly to the centre of town, where hopefully he would be spared from the dagger-like winds. Into darkness his eyes peered, searching for the slightest hope of salvation. He knew better than to hope, or even pray. Whatever monster ruled over this world, it had forsaken him long ago.

The town centre was deathly quiet, the darkness and the wind swallowing even the rowdiest of conversation long before it could grace Aldric’s weary ears. At the far end of the square, glistening in scarlet and gold, a single tattered poster flitted about on the door of the church. Aldric made his way across and tried the door, as he did many nights. Rarely, he was fortunate, and the door swung open to grant him a safe place to stave off the cold. That night, he was not.

He studied the parchment fluttering in the wind. It was large, almost as tall as him. It was pressed with symbols he was never taught to understand, and images of men fighting in a pointless struggle for the entertainment of those who deemed themselves better. Aldric’s eyes burned with hate, fueled by a fire in his heart that never seemed to cease. Hee tore the parchment down and wrapped it around his shivering form. The cold still pierced straight to his heart, but the parchment offered at least marginally better protection than the tattered rags that it now covered. Finding the least windswept corner, Aldric sat down and closed his eyes, willing the darkness to swallow his mind and, if fortunes were good, never spit it out again.

He was spat out some time later when the moon cast eerie shadows across the ringed plaza that formed the town centre. An impact shook his very bones. Before he could come to grips with his surroundings, he was sailing through the air. As with all flights, he had to meet the earth again, and he met it with great violence. Every bone in his body ached.

“Bad time for you to be out all by your lonesome,” a voice said. Chills radiated down Aldric’s spine. He tried to right himself but only managed to roll onto his back, where he could face his attacker. The man’s eyes were wide, a wicked smile split across his face. His fingers disappeared into an endless purple void contained at their very tips. “Such a weak puppet is rare to find.”

“What do you want from me?” Aldric croaked, trying to put distance between himself and his assailant. The cold clamped down, refusing to let him move. It was unbearable, slashing through his bones.

“I only want your body,” the man said, raising his hand and pulling a knife from his waistband. “Don’t worry, you needn’t be alive for me to pull your strings.” He approached, raising the knife.

“No, get away from me!” Aldric coughed, desperately willing his body to move. He was frozen. After all this time, the cold would be his end, even though it was too cowardly to take him itself. The fire inside him raged all the more. His heart burned, and his joints ached. The knife came down, and Aldric raised his hands, cursing every being that had a hand in cursing him with his life. His shoulders screamed as they twisted against the damned cold, its claws constantly dug into his meagre flesh.

In the last moment, Aldric finally relented. If the cold wanted to tear into him so eagerly, who was he to stop it? The fortitude he’d spent his short life building was torn asunder. The frost ripped into him. For a moment, the world was still. The ice mingled with the fire within, which blazed all the more. His eyes scorched with pure hate.

“Stop!” he yelled. Pain tore through his body as his voice tore through his throat. A moment passed. The cold never let up. Was what lay beyond only more frost?

Adric slowly opened his eyes. In front of him, the heart of a blizzard had appeared. Ice taller than the tallest buildings radiated from where he sat. The church doors, once impenetrable, lay in ruins between the rest of the rubble, replaced with a glacier that spanned nearly the full length of the small cathedral. In the distance, voices grew closer. Doors swung open, lanterns shed their glow.

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Aldric got to his feet and scrambled into an alley between the tavern and the smith’s shop. Quickly the plaza was filled with light and commotion. The first thing to notice was the small mountain of ice where there once was a church. The second, blood that was steadily trickling down from the peak of the glacier. The crowd murmured amongst itself, trying to discern how this could have happened.

“Clearly, some act of blasphemy,” one of the clergymen said. He was met with agreement. “No one here has the power to achieve this. There is an outsider amongst us, surely they are responsible. We shall find them and have them hanged!”

The crowd cheered in agreement, quickly fanning out to start the search. Aldric saw no reason to make himself known. He wouldn’t be regarded as a stranger, but he wouldn’t be regarded with much kindness or sympathy either. Stumbling between the buildings, he did all he could to stay out of sight. In time he found himself in a dead-end alley some ways away from the plaza. The wind was calmer here. He sat in one of the corners and looked at his hands.

Pain radiated through his arms, but he couldn’t see any new injuries. His fingertips were a light shade of blue, no doubt from the cold. He tried to think, but his head was foggy. For the first time, the darkness took him without difficulty.

Morning came, and with it the gentle rays of the sun that brought with it the heat of winter’s end. The beams of light slowly thawed Aldric’s aching body. He had to move. He hadn’t eaten in days. With the light of the sun came clarity in his mind. He skulked back to the plaza, staying out of sight. In the cold light of day, the iceberg was all the more impressive, and the man impaled at the top all the more apparent. The same twisted smile was frozen on his face.

A small crowd was gathered around the ice, lamenting the loss of their holy site. Aldric capitalized, deftly moving past. He collided with one of the mourners and immediately apologised profusely. She only frowned down at him. He made himself scarce, only unclenching his fist when he was far out of sight. Three coins glistened in his palm. He returned to the plaza, taking a longer route to avoid the mourners, and quickly slipped into the general goods store.

“I do not like pests in my store,” a woman said from behind the counter.

“And I don’t like hags baking my bread” Aldric said, putting two of the coins onto the counter. The woman rolled her eyes and pulled a loaf of bread from the top of one of the shelves. It landed with a loud thud on the counter.

“It’s stale,” Aldric commented.

“Be happy you get anything at all,” the woman said, taking the money and pointing to the door. Aldric didn’t bother arguing. The hag tolerated his existence. That was more than some others would do. Best not to do anything that would put him out of her good graces. He grabbed the loaf and quickly exited the shop, making a beeline for the forest outside of town.

His walk took him past a mother and her children, the latter of which were crying out for food. The mother tried to console them, her eyes bleary with regret. He stared at the loaf in his hand, before tearing off a small piece and offering the rest to the mother. She seemed abhorred to be offered food by him, but the cries of her young made her accept the offering with a severe frown.

Aldric didn’t bother rebuking her for her behaviour. He had more important things to do. He walked quickly and ate slowly, savouring the hard and musty morsel as best as he could. The forest was a dangerous place, even more so for him, but he couldn’t be close to the other citizens. With time to think, he had no choice but to confront what had happened. He stared at his hands again. The cold still nibbled at them, but the sun was working hard to relieve him of that pain.

The forest was dense, but Aldric had to be sure he had ventured far enough. He felt ridiculous. He had been graded long ago. He knew what he was, but the ice gnawed on his mind more than it ever dared chew his body. He found a clearing and sat himself down in the centre of it. This would be it. The divines that had forsaken him for so long had given him the smallest sliver of hope. If they took it away, this clearing would become his resting place.

Breathing deep, he lifted his hands. Moments passed to no avail. He tried shouting, as he had the night before, but again, the clearing remained as it was. His spirits were quickly falling. His eyes closed as he fought off tears. Of course, this was all a fluke. No matter how hot the fire within him burned, he could never change what he was.

His eyes snapped open. The fire within. It only burned within his heart, but when the knife was brought down he felt it burn all throughout him. It nearly consumed him. He straightened his posture and turned his attention inwards, focusing on the blaze within his heart. He invited it to fill the rest of his body. His brow furrowed as his concentration hardened but to no avail. A cold wind cut through the clearing, slicing across his skin.

He had to let it in. The fire alone was not enough. The leaves rustled around him. His fingertips still bore the faintest of blue hues where the cold still nibbled. He narrowed his focus once more, and instead of inviting the inferno to fill his body, he commanded it to the tips of his fingers. Pain tore through his body, indescribable pain that caused him to collapse to the ground. His body curled tight as he suppressed his cries. Through teary eyes, he could see what he knew was once a clearing. He fought past the pain, opening his eyes further and pulling himself upright. Rock, earth, and trees once filled this view. Now, it was nothing but frost.