“I don’t like the sound of that. Is it dangerous?” Dav stopped behind Sophia and bushed the snow off her shoulder before he set his hand on it.

  “Not as long as you keep going, and the Challenge will fail you before it becomes truly hazardous if you don’t,” Larryt answered. “Or if you get lost. That usually doesn’t happen unless people run, though, so don’t do that. Some people have an easier time than others. I’m not looking forward to it.”

  Sophia frowned at that. Maybe she could give some really basic advice, at least? “If it’s just the influence of the magic in the area, you can resist it with your aura. Think about, uh, holding a bubble around you that is yourself where it’s not allowed to enter.”

  Her father could make that sort of an area easier to bear, but she wasn’t sure she could. Her aura use was limited and she didn’t have any Abilities specifically for reducing the effect of Death magic on people.

  Or … wait. Did she?

  Sophia smacked her forehead. This wasn’t the reason she’d picked up Magic Attuned Aura, but there was no reason it should help, at least a little. The effect was caused by Death-attuned magic! It was definitely worth trying.

  Magic Attuned Aura

  Your aura resonates with the power of magic. You can weakly affect magic within your aura in any way you choose.

  “It might also help to stay close to me,” she added. “I think I can reduce the effect a little if you’re inside my aura.”

  “I should be able to shelter everyone,” Taika piped up. He must have woken up without Sophia noticing. He sounded weirdly frustrated for someone with a solution. “That’s why I took my Sphere. But I can’t. I don’t have the Ability for it. Not yet. I can see it but I can’t take it!”

  Oh. The frustration made complete sense. Sophia would be frustrated if she knew she should be able to help her friends but she couldn’t.

  “We’ll just have to try. It can’t be that bad, not if people ordinarily get through it. Amy, would you like to be in front or should I?” Dav clearly thought Sophia shouldn’t be in front.

  That made sense; she should be in the middle. That would let her hold her aura relatively close and still protect both of them. It might make more sense if Dav was in the front, since Taika was in his backpack and that would let her hold the aura a little tighter, but realistically it wouldn’t make a difference. She was going to have to cover a little extra area anyway, since someone might get a step ahead or behind at some point.

  “I will,” Amy answered easily. “You can catch me if I have problems, while I probably can’t stop you. You can even carry me if things go really wrong. Might as well keep your eyes on me.”

  Sophia blinked at that. She couldn’t say Amy was wrong, but it seemed like a weird way to decide their order. In the end, though, it didn’t really matter; anyone who had issues would probably be kicked out of the Challenge before they could be helped.

  “No, he can’t,” Larryt interrupted. “Winter’s path has to be done on your own feet. The first part of the test does, anyway.”

  Sophia blinked at that, then turned towards Dav and Taika. Why hadn’t he mentioned that earlier? It was important! “Then Taika should lead. Otherwise we’ll walk away from him.”

  “I can run,” Taika muttered. He still seemed upset at the lack of an Ability he thought he should have. “It’s not even hard.”

  He didn’t object to having to walk beyond that; instead, when he jumped out of Dav’s pack, what landed on the ground was a twin-tailed fox, very similar to the form Sophia had first seen Taika in. “Come on, let’s go. I’m tired of talking.”

  Sophia failed to suppress her snort at the fact that whether or not he had the ability to protect others, he definitely still had minor shapeshifting ability. She envied him for that, if for nothing else.

  The death field made good practice for Sophia as she tried to use her Magic Attuned Aura. It was a new Ability and she needed the practice; better yet, she could tell when it was working better and when it worked less well by the reactions of her friends. By the time they made it across the entire area, Taika, Dav, and Amy were all twitchy and tired at the same time.

  Sophia, Larryt, and Si’a were essentially unaffected. Sophia was fairly certain Larryt was simply passed through and the energy was natural to Si’a, so it made sense.

  “Either your aura helped a lot or it’s a good thing you’re low level,” Larryt said as they stopped to give everyone a moment to recover. “None of you are as badly off as I expected and none of you ran. Someone usually runs.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “It is both,” Si’a answered, surprising Sophia. “Those at a higher Upgrade are expected to have some means of protection, so their test is harsher. Still, a good showing; before the first Upgrade, only half of all groups who reach this point complete it without loss. It helps that you treat the Challenge with the respect it is due; not all groups do.”

  That settled it for Sophia. There was definitely someone at home behind Si’a’s eyes. She simply wasn’t certain it was the woman Si’a seemed to be. It seemed possible, even likely, that Si’a was a projection of the Challenge itself; she certainly sounded offended that it always wasn’t taken seriously. That made Sophia wonder if her attempts to approach it the same way she would a dungeon at home meant that she was actually facing a slightly easier Challenge.

  If she was, she wouldn’t mind. She knew she was lucky that she was very resistant to death magic, but the waterfall climb completely sucked, even with her gear. She definitely didn’t want to try it if it was any harder.

  “So, what’s next?” Sophia glanced down at Taika, who seemed to have recovered but was definitely still playing up his exhaustion. “And do we have to all be on our own feet for it?”

  “No,” Si’a answered the second question first. “You may be carried to the next step if you so choose. No matter how you pass through, you will be separated. The second test of Winter depends on yourself, not on your allies or your things.”

  Sophia glanced over at Larryt. He shook his head and muttered that he couldn’t say anything about the last test.

  Sophia brushed Taika off and loaded him into Dav’s pack. When she first lifted him, he was still a fox, but by the time she settled him into place, he was back to his usual chinchilla self.

  “Winter depends on the past and on your preparation, but all too often it depends on the preparations of others,” Si’a started at the same time as she turned and began to walk. “In this forest, that means the Heart of the Forest. Winter chills the Heart and will eventually send it into a frozen sleep. Spring will not come until the Heart warms and thaws.”

  The snow on the path they followed through the woods slowly seemed to melt away as snow stopped falling from the sky. The path widened as rain started to fall, freezing where it hit unless it hit one of the travelers. The ground darkened and widened; before long, they were traveling on an unnaturally smooth dirt floor covered in a sheen of ice from the frozen rain.

  “Your task, each of you, is to thaw the Heart. Those of you who succeed will be allowed into the Spirits’ Den. Those who fail will be removed from the Challenge. If all of you succeed…” Si’a paused and turned to look at them. “Well, I am a spirit of Winter, so my gift will be of Winter. A memory for the memory, you might say.”

  It wasn’t long at all before Sophia could see something odd in the distance. It started with a glow on the horizon, but it quickly became clear that she was seeing light refracting towards them from the icicles that hung from an arch above the path. It seemed to have grown there, formed from a large tree on either side of the path.

  Si’a disappeared through the archway, then Larryt cleared his throat. Sophia paused.

  “I can’t tell you much about this part of the Winter Challenge, even if it weren’t restricted,” Larryt told the expectant group. “Sometimes it’s a straightforward puzzle, other times it’s something you have to do with whatever’s in the place you’re moved to. I’ve even heard about different solutions to what seemed to be the same puzzle. Few people fail to get through, but that’s probably because we’ve all heard the puzzles before.”

  He scuffed the ground. It was a poor choice, because he’d forgotten he was on ice and he slipped. He managed to catch his balance before he actually fell, but it completely broke the nearly solemn feeling his previous words caused. He flushed a little and clenched his right hand for a moment before he said anything more. “I don’t know what gift she’s talking about. I’ve never heard of anyone earning a prize from this Challenge other than the Abilities.”

  “It’s probably because we’ve all passed all of the Challenges so far,” Amy offered. “There are other stable Challenges that do that, especially when a single person can fail and leave the rest of the party going. Skipping a Challenge or failing it means your group doesn’t get the bonus.”

  Larryt frowned at her. “What Challenges do that? I’ve never heard of that.”

  Amy shrugged. “Star Cave does; that’s where the Starlight Swords come from. It’s also why they’re so rare; having everyone complete everything is hard, and each group only gets one sword. That’s one, maybe two swords a year on a good year, and that’s with at least half the groups that enter trying for the final reward. Some years, no one succeeds at all. Other years, it’s a Starlit Spear or something.”

  “We should get moving,” Sophia interjected before Larryt could ask what other stable Challenges had a bonus for everyone completing all of the stages. “We have limited time, remember?”

  “Right,” Dav said with a nod. “I bet we’ll all disappear when we step through the archway, like Si’a. I’ll see you on the other side.”

  Dav moved forward without waiting for a response and vanished before Sophia finished saying “Good luck!”

  “Good luck to you too,” Amy said with a grin, then stepped through. Sophia followed on her heels.

  The moment she stepped under the archway, the scene in front of her disappeared, just like stepping through a portal back home. Her surroundings were replaced by a frozen room. An opening in the roof let in light and let her see the strange surroundings.

  The wall in front of Sophia was covered in a strangely circular ice design that almost looked like it had stylized tree branches growing out of a central wheel or window. To either side, pillars shaped like or maybe made from frozen trees supported shelves stocked with lumps of ice or possibly ice-covered items. Behind her was a sheet of ice that almost looked like a frosted mirror; it didn’t even reflect a blurred image of herself.

  The floor was split in the middle, revealing a table supported by the roots of a large tree in front of the ice mural. The sides of the split were snow-covered ice, while the middle looked like a bubbling spring frozen in the act. The bubble even seemed to glow a little.

  Guesses on what the Heart of the Forest is?