Khione stood at the edge of the frozen valley, her ice-blue eyes scanning the endless white expanse before her. She had walked for what felt like hours, searching for the right place to begin her training. But walking was slow. Inefficient, waste of time.
She needed to see more.
With a thought, she summoned her ice wings.
Prana flowed from her core, cold and precise, shaping itself into two magnificent wings behind her shoulder blades. They were thin, elegant, each feather a razor-sharp shard of crystalline ice that caught the pale light and scattered it into rainbows. They beat once, twice, and lifted her from the ground.
The world opened beneath her.
From the air, the frozen tundra revealed its true nature. The ice fields stretched to every horizon, broken only by the distant mountains and the occasional dark smudge of rock. Patterns emerged—cracks and ridges and valleys that were invisible from the ground. It was beautiful, in a cold and lonely way.
