The cold was a living thing, biting at my bones. The wind howled through the icy land, making it hard to hear anything. This place was a frozen wasteland, a graveyard meant to break people. Celeste had sent me here on a test, a mission to find a special object in the Forbidden Ruins.
I knew this was a trap, a way to kill me.
I pulled my coat tighter. I was walking through a place of sharp ice and broken stones, the ruins of an ancient city sticking out of the ground like broken teeth. The Guild members whispered that this place was cursed, a place where great fighters went to disappear. And here I was, walking in deep snow, wondering if I would be next.
Maybe that's what Celeste wanted to see. She wanted to see how far I could go before I broke.
I wouldn't give her the pleasure.
The s
