Brynn marched with her hands clasped behind her back and her shoulders perfectly aligned with her hips. It was the manner in which Glasrime had drilled into her all those years ago when they’d first taught her everything she knew. She stared down the yawning hallway that led down to Glasrime’s personal chambers, the coloured glass slowly giving way until all the glass around and under her was clear and coated in a slippery layer of rime.

It was a natural form of defence against intruders, since anyone not bonded to Glasrime wouldn’t be able to find their footing or would succumb to the intense cold that radiated off the icy glass. Brynn admired the craftsmanship as she always did whenever she was blessed with a summons from her patron, but she grimaced at the blathering disrespect of her colleagues. If there were other apprentices around, she would have had to make an example of them, but since they were alone for now she let them have their fun. They wouldn’t be allowed into the main chambers anyways, and that gave her a smug sense of superiority she would quietly lord over them for the days to come.

“Alright, if you don’t think that’s the case, how about this; someone who was supposed to collect the prizes Glasrime promised to the winners came up short, and they need us to scrounge up something worthwhile to give out?” Arvay suggested.

“That actually sounds possible.” Hugil admitted, his tone slightly disappointed at the reasonable explanation. “But what if it has something to do with Revel going missing? We’ve been cooped up in our rooms ever since we got the news under ‘concern for our safety’, so maybe Glas needs us to chase down an assassin and bring them to justice?”

“No way.” Arvay shook her head. “Glasrime wouldn’t send us to track down an assassin. They’ve got plenty of more powerful apprentices that would be much better for that.” She paused for a moment, and Hugil shot her a concerned look.

“You alright Arv? You’ve got that look again.”

“I’m fine. Just thinking back to this morning when we couldn’t get through to Metea/Irric and Rainshear. If Revel’s gone missing, wouldn’t they be the first people to call on for that?”

“Could be they’re already on it. Maybe Glas is calling us in to help take over their responsibilities while they do the heavy lifting on the Revel thing.”

Brynn tuned out her colleagues as they continued speculating on Glasrime’s intentions. She let herself have a small smile, since she knew they wouldn’t ever get the truth. Glasrime would tell her, and only her, the real reason for the summoning, and she would spin whatever tale was needed to keep her colleagues satiated and blind while they followed her like loyal dogs. These two might be verbose and slightly annoying, but they were the best she had at the moment.

Arvay shot Hugil a look as Brynn’s gait changed slightly, falling into a sort of unconscious rhythm as she got lost in her own thoughts. She called on her Issi as quietly and inconspicuously as possible, just enough to let Hugil know what she was going to do as she did it.

“Do you think Glasrime had a hand in Revel’s disappearance?” Arvay wrote on Hugil’s hand in cold wind, the secret form of communication they’d mastered over a few years of skirting around Brynn’s moods. And from the way she’d walked, chin held high and casting a few haughty glances back at them, she was in one of them right now.

Hugil nodded as he rambled on about another far-fetched theory that neither he nor Arvay thought had any ground whatsoever. He wiped his hands together, one of their signs that he was ready for another message.

“What about Metea/Irric? Or Rainshear?”

Hugil thought for a moment, then shook his head, paused, and nodded. That was what Arvay had been worried about, and the fact that Hugil agreed only amplified that worry.

“Rainshear working with Glasrime, or against them?”

Hugil shot Arvay an annoyed glance, and she silently cursed. Over a year of this, and she still kept forgetting to make every question easily answered with a nod, shrug, or shake of the head.

“Is Rainshear working with Glasrime?”

Hugil shook his head, but clenched his fists. Not a signal in their communication, just something Hugil did when he was frustrated.

“So you think she’s working against him?”

Hugil nodded and looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He gestured at his head, quickly glancing to make sure Brynn wasn’t looking, and gestured a ring around his head at eye level.

“She finally snapped and kidnapped Revel?” No, that wasn’t right. Hugil thought Glasrime did this. Which made it even more confusing when he nodded at the suggestion.

Arvay frowned as she tried to piece what Hugil meant together. “Did Rainshear kidnap Revel from Glasrime?”

Hugil nodded grimly, then made a gesture to imitate horns and an X with his arms.

“And you think Metea/Irric didn’t have anything to do with it? Or maybe she got hurt because Rainshear doesn’t care about her now that she has Revel to play with?”

Hugil looked overwhelmed at the message Arvay had just sent him, silently mouthing words as he tried to keep up with Arvay’s lightning-quick writing. Arvay waited patiently for him to collect his thoughts, then resent the first half of the message followed after a break by the second half.

Hugil shook his head at the first part, then shrugged while nodding at the second part.

“So you think she didn’t necessarily get hurt, but Rainshear doesn’t care about her anymore?”

A vigorous nod, and Hugil looked like he was about to do more, but two oversized glass doors frosted over to prevent anyone from seeing past them were now too close to risk communication. Glasrime’s power hadn’t yet washed over them, but Arvay could feel them like a cold breeze on a chilly day. Hugil clammed up as Brynn turned around and gave them the snootiest look she’d made since the last time Glasrime had called for them, and gestured for them to stop.

“This is as far as you’re allowed. Only those chosen by Glasrime may venture beyond these doors.” Brynn said in a tone that demanded respect, but it was impossible to demand what didn’t exist.

“We’re bonded to Glasrime too, you know.” Arvay muttered, but Brynn completely ignored her.

“You will wait as long as is required, until I emerge from Glasrime’s sanctum with a higher purpose. Now turn away. Your eyes are not worthy of the splendor that is Glasrime’s personal sanctuary.”

Arvay and Hugil shared a look, then turned around without another word. It wasn’t worth dealing with Brynn when she got all high and mighty. Better to wait it out until Brynn’s paranoia got the best of her again, and they could go back to ignoring her the best they could.

Brynn grinned at the sight of her colleagues turning away from her, tearing her eyes from them with difficulty as she walked the last few steps separating her from the thick glass doors that would lead her to Glasrime. She sucked in a breath and straightened her posture the last few degrees until it was perfect, placing one hand on each door and channeling her Issi through the conduits inside. It left her in a slow trickle, eventually hitting something tangible that quietly clicked and the doors went from an immovable barricade to two loose glass boards that swung open with no more effort than pushing a wheel down a hill.

Brynn stepped into Glasrime’s private quarters as the doors screeched shut behind her, a loud thunk on this side emphasizing the difference between those allowed to witness Glasrime’s glory firsthand and those that are not. Brynn breathed in a lungful of freezing air, watching her breath crystallize into a cloud that she walked through as she made her way through the enormous, empty room. Not a single decoration or piece of furniture marred the perfect half-dome of glass, filled with the few other apprentices Brynn knew by name. Aside from her colleagues, of course. You always have to know the names of the help.

But not all her equals were present, Brynn noted. Bryst, Bryar, Brynt, and Bryll were suspiciously absent, doubly so since they were the most senior of Glasrime’s family. Which left Brym, Brykan, Bryce, Brygavan, Brystoph, Brynwyn, Bryvian, Brytney… Brynn sighed as she counted off the twenty-eight apprentices accounted for. A small fraction of Glasrime’s true family, to be sure, but the others were too powerful to be sitting around the Glacier all day. They were out in the world, Glasrime’s eyes and ears to the comings and goings of the unfortunates who did not call this glorious glacier their home.

Brynn fell in between Brylligan and Bryjia, the two apprentices she couldn’t stand the most, and as such would be less tempted to converse with them and could focus every fiber of her being into Glasrime’s orders. Brylligan muttered to himself and crossed his arms as Brynn pushed him aside to make room for herself, and Bryjia smiled awkwardly and apologized to her neighbor as she was forced to make room. Brynn felt a sense of satisfaction at her rivals being inconvenienced, a completely and totally unplanned side effect to her choice of spot.

After a few minutes of waiting, Glasrime finally made their entrance. It started with the temperature dropping constantly until it got so unbearably cold that Brynn shivered even with the protection Glasrime’s bond afforded her, her breath coming out in clouds even when she didn’t try to do so. Then came the warping; the glass dome above them shone with an inner light that became more and more intense the closer Glasrime’s screeching footprints got, sparkling in a myriad of colours that accentuated the subtle carvings that had been buried under a coating of rime, giving the dome life where it had been previously barren. Lightshows of all of Glasrime’s greatest accomplishments across the ages now played across the dome, each one a small play in their own right. Glasrime single-handedly defeating an army Lavassil sent to claim the Glacier for their own, Glasrime settling a war between two tyrants who had been feuding for centuries, Glasrime ending the oppression of Issi beasts and ushering in an era of untold peace, Glasrime stumping philosophers in debates, causing them to rethink their entire life’s works…

Brynn beamed as she looked over all of Glasrime’s greatest deeds, craning her neck to see as far behind her as possible without breaking formation just for the chance to see one more of Glasrime’s selfmade masterpieces. The ceiling fell downward in a series of concentric circles, large disks of glass hovering in the air without any supports that shattered into a thousand tiny icicles that caught and refracted the light like a sunrise through a stained glass window. They slowly rotated, casting a slightly different hue each part of the room as Glasrime finally made their anticipated appearance, walking straight through a wall as if it were not even there and coming to a stop a mere hundred and fifty feet from the group of apprentices.

They were a majesty carved out of flawless glass, like a statue of a personified eternal brought to life and left out in a lakeside winter storm until they were perfectly clad in rime. Their hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were thick and white, giving off a coolness that sent a shiver down Brynn’s spine as they ran a hand through it and looked over the group of apprentices with an unworried gaze that didn’t linger over any one of them for any significant length of time. Glasrime played no favorites.

Glasrime lifted a jagged hand, shards of glass connected by Issi alone, and created a throne that they fell back into. They raised one sharp foot over their other leg, scratching a line on their scratch resistant clothing, and leaned their head on one fist as they prepared to address the group.

“My apprentices.” Glasrime spoke with a voice like the harsh winds of a winter storm, raspy and strong but with an undertone of shattering glass. “One of my associates has failed me. They were tasked with bringing in a wisp manifestation to gift one of our family, but they were blinded by their own greed and let not only the manifestation slip through their fingers but most of their offerings for this year’s trials. And so you find yourselves at a loss at which to offer those who would become your brethren.”

Glasrime scratched their finger along the arm of their throne, and the glass between Glasrime and Brynn was etched with what looked like a map. “Most of you will be tasked with replenishing our lost valuables. You will be assigned a sacred ground, and will bring back something valuable before we are to present our offerings to the finalists. A small group of you will be hunting the person who stole our wisp manifestation; Rainshear.”

Gasps were heard throughout the chamber, and Brynn smirked at the closed minded fools. She’d known Rainshear was a danger for a… a very, very long time now. Yes. That long.

“Rainshear tricked our associates into a challenge, then brought her cadre in with her to steal the manifestation from under their noses. The ambush was swift, and by the time I arrived all that was left were witnesses and testimonies.” Glasrime made a circle with his finger, and with a screech some apprentices found themselves standing in the center of an etched circle. “Rainshear’s cadre is not the same people she has been working with, and they have already fled my home. Do not waste time questioning anybody; you will be given access to any pertinent information as we come across it. If you have a circle under your feet, you are assigned to hunt down Rainshear and are dismissed.”

Three people bowed to Glasrime, one of which was Bryjia, much to Brynn’s chagrin, and were sucked into the floor below.

“If your name is not called, you are to replenish our stolen wares.” Glasrime said as they scanned over the group once more. “Brystan, Brynn, Bryan, Bryhajet, and Brytney.”

The unchosen ones bowed to Glasrime, and Brynn gloated as they were sucked into the floor below. Of course they weren’t fit for whatever Glasrime had in mind for the five of them that were left. It was the most important part of this entire operation.

“You five will be attempting to recover that which was stolen.” Glasrime tapped on their throne, and an image of three people and a wisp manifestation running down the exit tunnel appeared in the glass at their feet. “They are making their way to the Gilded Night, which has chosen this moment to send an invading force to the city that resides below us. Their reasons are unknown, but the two occurrences must be linked in some form or fashion.”

Brynn studied the picture at her feet, a frown splitting her face as she did. She recognized the two women, but not the manifestation or the man. And was he carrying a corpse? And did she recognize that corpse from somewhere? She resisted the urge to spit on the image, on the traitors who’d hidden in their midst for so long.

“Sechen Revelation, Metea/Irric, Elach Follow, Gilt, and the unknown man who calls himself Prisoner.” Glasrime growled with the most emotion they’d shown so far, slashing a hand shaped into a claw through the air. The image at Brynn’s feet was slashed to ribbons, motes of light spurting into the air like arterial blood.

“They are to be brought here, dead or alive, as your first priority. The others will fill our coffers with worthy offerings, so recovering that which was stolen is secondary. Though you will tell your assigned companions that recovering our prizes is your primary objective, and will instruct them to bring no harm to the thieves.” Glasrime shifted in their throne, ripping off a chunk of the armrest and shaping it into a glass pearl. “You will take these and report your progress to me twice weekly. Do not fail me.”

Brynn bowed to Glasrime along with her fellow apprentices, but as they sunk into the ground she stayed bowing. She had come through the main door, unlike the others, and she knew Glasrime thought higher of her for it. Glasrime scraped against their glass throne as they stood up, saying nothing as they walked away and through the wall whence they’d come. Brynn raised her head once silence fell over the room and the lights dimmed back into darkness, all traces that Glasrime had ever graced this room with their presence scuffed out for reasons only Glasrime knew.

Brynn cradled the pearl of glass in her hands like the precious gem it was, frost already clouding it over to create a coating that blocked all light from filtering through it. She reached out to it with her Issi, forging a connection bound in glass, and felt Glasrime’s faraway consciousness in the back of her mind. They would tug on the connection whenever Brynn was called on to report, and she would happily relay whatever she decided Glasrime needed to know.

Sighing happily, Brynn turned on her heel and walked towards the double doors with what she expected was a blissed-out smile on her face. She couldn’t let her colleagues see her like this; they thought of her as a stoic, infallible leader that was closer to Glasrime than they could ever hope to be. She stood at the doors for a few seconds as she composed herself, taking a deep breath and willing her hands to stop shaking with excitement. She had a job to do.