Chapter Text
Cold.
It was so cold.
Sansa didn't know why, but she could feel the chill coursing through her entire body.
Strangely, it didn't bother her. The cold clung to her skin and lingered in her mind, like a silent whisper that refused to fade.
It took her some time to wake.
Her eyes slowly fluttered open.
At first, everything was a blur, devoid of shape or color. Only indistinct shadows drifted before her eyes until, little by little, her vision adjusted to the darkness.
She was somewhere unfamiliar.
All she could make out were dark stone walls and a low ceiling of the same damp, ancient rock, as though the place had been abandoned for ages.
With some effort, she tried to move.
She didn't get far.
A heavy sound echoed through the chamber.
Metal scraped against stone.
Turning her head, she finally saw what was holding her.
Thick iron chains were fastened around her ankles, anchored directly into the wall. The metal was dark, almost black, and looked heavy enough to restrain even a wild beast.
Her heart tightened.
How was she supposed to free herself?
For several minutes, Sansa pulled at the chains with all the strength she had. The metal groaned, but it refused to give.
Before long, the effort took its toll.
Her arms burned, her muscles trembled, and her breathing grew short and uneven.
Exhausted, she collapsed onto the cold stone floor once more.
Lying there against the freezing rock, all she wanted was to scream in anger and frustration.
But she didn't even have the strength for that.
And somehow, that only made the feeling worse.
The silence around her was suffocating.
Then, a sharp sound shattered the stillness.
A crack.
Like something splintering.
A heartbeat later came the dry clink of something small striking the stone floor.
Confused, she lifted her head.
Her eyes searched for the source of the noise... but they weren't the ones that found the answer.
It was the cold.
The sensation that had once merely coursed through her body now grew stronger. The air around her was turning colder, as though the very chamber itself were beginning to freeze.
And the cold was coming from her feet.
Tiny crystals of ice began to form around her shackles.
At first, only a few.
Then more appeared.
With each passing second, another thin layer of frost spread across the dark metal.
The sound she had heard hadn't been the ice forming alone.
A small fragment of one of the shackles had broken away.
Now it lay on the stone floor.
Sansa frowned in confusion.
Cautiously, she reached out.
The tips of her fingers brushed against the frozen metal.
The instant they did, the ice spread with renewed force.
As though it had awakened.
It raced across the shackle and surged along the chain, coating it in a thick layer of shimmering ice crystals.
Startled, she jerked her hand back.
Her heart was pounding.
Where had this come from?
From her?
If so... how?
She had never done anything like this before.
She had never frozen anything.
This power—this magic—was completely new to her.
Still hesitant, she decided to try again.
This time, when she focused on the shackles, only a thin layer of frost appeared.
Far less than before.
Almost imperceptible.
But there was something else.
She felt it.
A strange sensation stirred within her, as though something were being drawn from deep inside her body—a cold energy flowing through her.
Why had it been so weak this time?
She tried to recall everything she knew about magic.
It wasn't much. She had never been a mage.
But she vaguely remembered a few things.
Magic, especially in those with no formal training, often manifested instinctively. Powerful emotions could awaken it.
Anger.
Fear.
Desperation.
Maybe that was it.
Before, she had been exhausted, frustrated, and furious that she couldn't free herself.
Perhaps that storm of emotions had awakened the ice.
If that was true...
Then perhaps she could call upon that power again.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment.
She pushed aside her uncertainty.
She pushed aside her fear of this strange place.
And focused only on the cold sensation that still lingered within her.
It wasn't easy.
It took time.
But slowly, the ice began to form once more.
First around one shackle.
Then the other.
Crystals spread along the chains, growing into thicker and thicker layers.
When the metal was completely encased in ice, Sansa gripped the chains with both hands.
And pulled.
The sound echoed through the chamber.
Like shattering glass.
The chains burst apart.
Fragments of ice and metal scattered across the stone floor.
And, for the first time since she had awakened...
She was free.
The corridors seemed endless.
Sansa had been walking for what felt like hours.
The cell where she had awakened was only a small chamber, connected to a stone corridor that stretched on in what seemed to be an endless passage.
Extinguished torches rested in rusted iron sconces along the walls.
There was no light at all.
And yet, she could see perfectly clearly.
She was in a castle—that much she was certain of. Perhaps in its dungeons, judging by the cell where she had awakened.
But something was wrong.
Up to that point, she hadn't encountered a single soul.
No guards.
No prisoners.
No servants.
Nothing.
Only a long, silent corridor, empty of all life.
Yet an even more unsettling question crept into her mind.
Why had she been imprisoned?
There had to be a reason for someone to wake up shackled inside a cell.
Sansa tried to remember.
She forced her mind to search for any recent memory.
But all she found was confusion.
Her last memories felt distant and fragmented, as though they were hidden behind a dense veil of mist.
She tried once more.
Nothing.
Frustration tightened in her chest.
So many questions... and not a single answer.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady herself.
Standing there would solve nothing.
She needed answers.
And the only way to find them was to keep moving.
Even if something dangerous awaited her at the end of those corridors.
Summoning every ounce of courage she had, she pressed on.
After some time, she finally came upon a door.
It looked much like the one to the cell where she had awakened.
Probably another cell.
What she couldn't understand was the distance between them.
Was it meant to keep prisoners from speaking to one another—or from plotting an escape?
Even so, it seemed like an enormous waste of space.
None of it made much sense.
But there was no point dwelling on it now.
Her priority was to find out whether anyone was there.
Approaching cautiously, she reached out and rested her hand against the cold iron door.
Strangely, it wasn't locked.
Just like the door to the cell where she had awakened.
With a gentle push, she forced it open.
The door creaked slowly inward.
As she stepped inside, Sansa realized the room was nearly identical to the last.
A stone floor.
Stone walls.
A low ceiling.
As her gaze swept across the cell, she spotted something.
Something was chained to the wall.
She noticed its shape before she understood what she was looking at.
It was large... far too large to be an ordinary person.
For a moment, all she could make out was a motionless figure, partially concealed beneath something heavy draped over it—not quite cloth, yet not skin either. Just a dark mass that obscured its true form.
Thick chains stretched from the walls, binding the creature with brutal force. They were larger and heavier than the ones that had held her captive, as though whatever was imprisoned there required far greater restraints.
Sansa narrowed her eyes, straining to make out the shape before her.
It didn't look human.
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she stepped closer.
With every step, its outline grew clearer, until at last she understood.
It wasn't a person.
And what she had mistaken for some kind of hide...
was fur.
Thick.
Coarse.
Wild.
Before her, chained to the wall, was a gigantic wolf.
As large as a horse, its gray coat seemed to drink in what little light the chamber held.
For a long moment, Sansa simply stood there in silence, staring at the creature.
Then, without warning, a name surfaced in her mind.
An old, precious memory—one as deeply rooted as her own name.
Almost without thinking, she reached out and laid a hand against the wolf's cold, coarse fur.
"Lady..."
The great wolf's golden eyes slowly opened.
And as the creature turned its head, Sansa found herself face to face with it.