God of Discovery [high fantasy, slow build, mlm]

Going north, part 6

The cracking of the ice started slow. Then it built up. Then it connected. The mortals were the first to panic but they were not the only ones. The first scream of terror that sounded from their line made those that were only looking at their feet look up. A crack, as loud as thunder right over their heads, preceded the ice breaking apart completely.

Thar opened up his mahee, connecting to the ice under his feet and filling it up completely. It became a part of him and each crack and break felt like a lash against his core. The pounding of feet on the ice felt like punches against his temple. The scrambling and slipping as the snow fell in the cracks felt like someone raking sharp nails down his spine. The screams and breaks faded away into nothingness.

"Thar!" Until that voice.

Thar did not realize he had closed his eyes until he opened them to look right into a pair of dark, dark blue eyes that could only belong to one person. D'Argen was yelling something at him but the cracking and shaking under them kept him from hearing the words. Then D'Argen suddenly disappeared from sight. Thar felt something inside him clench tight. The yell that followed had him reaching even further, his mahee spreading much further than it had any right to.

D'Argen had fallen in one of the cracks and Thar felt his hands trying to grab onto something. He reached out, a spike of ice shooting from the smooth wall of ice. D'Argen grabbed it to stop his fall. The rest of the mortals that fell were too slow. With a speed that surprised even him, he reached further down. The ice was thick, at least a few meters down before it touched the water, but he reached that line before the mortals did. He forced the ice on the edge to break apart into small chunks. When the mortals fell into the water, the ice was already near them for them to latch on.

Not all did.

Then he felt another mahee at work, tugging at his own work to try and tear it apart. He resisted, focusing on trying to harden and freeze the water further to bring the mortals up, but the other mahee fought him. It was only when he realized what was happening that he let go. Nocipel was using their mahee, forcing the water to churn and spin and bring every single body to the surface.

Thar heard the gasps for air but they were not as loud as the clattering of teeth. The cold would kill these mortals long before the lack of air would.

Abbot's mahee allowed him to control light, but he was still a naturalist. With Nocipel leading the spell, Thar felt Abbot's mahee latch onto it. The mortals in the water were thrashing, their fear palpable in the air. The waves were trying to throw them up and Thar realized that even if they successfully kept the mortals out of the water, there was nowhere for them to go. He reached into the ice once more.

Another break, this one even more violent, had him stumbling. He saw a figure in black robes with blue trimming climbing over the opposite edge of the break. D'Argen was safe. Thar reached into his core and spread his mahee far, trying to touch both sides of the ice between the break. It was too long. The gap was widening with every breath and stretching further and further out into the distance.

Lilian was not helping. Thar had no time to think about them as he felt the solid chunk of ice under his feet breaking apart even more. It tilted, shifted, and cracks appeared all around him. There were three mortals not that far from him sliding around, unable to keep purchase on the slippery surface.

Suddenly, D'Argen was coming right at him. Thar reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping the runner from going too far.

"Keep it together!" D'Argen yelled at him and Thar forced a nod. Then had to force his fingers to unlatch from around the runner's silver bracers. They were warmer than the air around them. Thar focused on the block under him alone, feeling every crack within it as it shattered into millions of pieces under his feet. His mahee alone was what kept those pieces from separating and falling into the water.