Chapter 34 · Make the Frost Kneel

"You think cutting the core makes you different?" Aldric's voice came from somewhere above me, echoing through the ice chamber. "You're still taking their choice."

I didn't look up. The control dais hummed under my palm, warm as blood despite the frost crawling up the walls. Every clan beacon pulsed in the ice around us—red meant locked, green meant mine to command. Aldric had lit them all red before I'd gotten here.

"I'm giving it back," I said.

His laugh was sharp. "By destroying what I built? That's not freedom. That's scorched earth."

"What you built was a leash." I traced the command interface, reading the data streams only I could see. Morale indicators, supply routes, troop counts—all feeding into one central node. His node. "You want order. I get it. But order without choice is just a prettier cage."

"And chaos is better?" He moved closer. I heard his boots on stone, felt the shift in air pressure. "You've seen what the clans do when no one holds the line. They tear each other apart."

"Then let them choose to stand together." I pulled up the kill command interface, fingers hovering over the authorization sequence.