Frigid

Sorry, I was gone. I announced it on my Patreon, but I had midterms and needed to lock in. But I'm back now. The regular upload schedule will resume

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"You see, I have a theory," Thane began as he kneeled and placed his palms against the ground. A second later, the earth started to move, with fresh, dark soil rising to the surface and forming slight mounds perfect for planting seeds, "I believe that when exposed to increased concentrations of mana, flora, and fauna will experience increased rates of growth and possibly mutate into new species." 

"That doesn't sound like a problem," Luna replied before a beaming smile spread across her face, "Though I think it's a fantastic idea." 

"Yes, but only at a surface level," Thane replied as he stood back up and brushed the loose dirt off his hands, "It's a lot more tedious when you get into the details like most things. The first thing to consider is how to control the concentration of mana. Without an ambient supply, our only source is that gathering ritual." 

Luna glanced at the glowing lines on the ground in wonder. "Is that what that is? I was wondering why I felt lightheaded earlier." 

Thane didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry, so he decided to solider on, "As I was saying, the ritual can gather mana and store a limited amount, but it's not perfect. I've noticed that after some time, the mana either degrades or manages to escape the ritual and disperse into the environment." 

"How much mana?" 

Thane let out a frustrated sigh before snapping his finger, summoning his grimoire, which levitated from its holster and opened with a flourish before flying over to Luna for her to read, "I asked the same question, which in practice was more complicated to figure out than it should have been. But even now, I'm not one hundred percent sure that my calculations are entirely quantitative. I used my mana capacity to determine roughly how much the ritual could store and then the rate at which I could fill it. Then, I waited an hour before topping off the ritual once more. I did it repeatedly at different times and eventually got a base unit." 

Luna's silver eyes scanned across the page, and after a second, she nodded, "Seems about right 1 Flux is lost every hour, though I see what you mean about your data not being quantitative. For this to be true, you must assume that the rate you can transfer mana is universal for everybody else, which seems unlikely." 

Thane enthusiastically nodded, "Exactly, but now that you're here, we can rerun the experiment and see if your transfer rate aligns with mine."

Thane and Luna did as they said and reran Thane's original experiment, using a chalkboard summoned by the RoR to keep track of their data, which did not turn out the way they thought. 

"This can't be right," Thane muttered, scratching his head as he looked at the table on the chalkboard, "Your rate is the same as mine...which makes no sense. My pathways are far more developed than yours and should have an increased capacity." 

"Then we must have gotten something wrong," Luna replied tiredly from her position on the ground, exhausted from constantly having her mana drained. Only for her to suddenly sit up, her eyes shining, "Unless we've been going about this the wrong way, what if we're not the limiter? What if it's the gathering ritual?" 

"That doesn't-" Thane cut himself off as he started to think, "You're right, that makes perfect sense...it was probably designed this way as well. Imagine what would happen if the transmission rate was instant. The moment someone without enough mana to power the ritual touched the circle, they would be completely drained."

"We're also not considering the fact that the ritual is just drawn on the ground with some chalk. What if different materials have a better ability to conduct mana?" Luna chimed in absently as she traced the clouds up in the sky with her finger. 

Thane let out a groan and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I just want to grow some damn plants and get rich by undercutting the alchemical ingredient market. Is that so much to ask for?" 

"Are you always this stressed?" Luna asked, prompting Thane to turn around, "If you think this is stressed, you should have seen me last year-" 

When Thane turned around, Luna ran at him with arms open before throwing them around Thane and pulling him into an impromptu hug, "What are you-

"Shhh!" Luna shushed Thane as she hummed and sighed contently, "The best cure for Nervelurk poisoning is a thirty-second hug." 

"I'm not-" 

"Shhh!" 

While Thane faced down a Dark Lord with no problem, Luna managed to disarm him entirely, and he eventually surrendered to the unexpected embrace. After a few moments, Luna gave Thane one final squeeze before skipping back and looking at him expectantly, "Feel better now?" 

"I-" Thane opened his mouth to reply only to pause, "Actually, yes...much better, in fact." 

Luna beamed up at him and jumped up and down excitedly before giving Thane two thumbs up, "Great, now I'm prescribing you two five-second hugs a day for the next week just to make sure all the poison is driven out of your system." 

Thane could only nod, unable to voice the complex tangle of emotions building inside his chest. 

---

Thane was still speechless as he walked back to the standard room; all he could think about was how warm Luna felt when she hugged him. It was as if, for the first time, Thane realized that he had been freezing. A faint smile spread across Thane's face as he thought about Luna's antics and demeanor. The cynical part of him wanted to call her foolish or childish, but another part envied Luna's optimism and carefree outlook. 

'She's also far smarter than I initially gave her credit for,' Thane admitted to himself, 'Though I've never heard of Whimblepuffs or Nervelurk's before...maybe she found them in her mother's books. I should ask if I can read them at some point.' 

Arriving at the top of the stairs leading to the dungeon, Thane frowned as he heard a series of voices coming from the bottom of the stairs. 

"Get out of my way." 

"You don't belong here." 

"Not according to that dusty hat, now move. Just looking at the three of you is making me sick." 

"Well, then, how about we give you some medicine? Crabbe, Goyle, grab her." 

"H-hey! Get your hands off me! Help- Hmmp!" 

Thane's blood ran cold, and in an instant, he was flying down the staircase, his robe trailing behind him as he took the steps two at a time, quickly arriving at the bottom of the stairs. 

Rose was pinned to the cold ground with Crabbe and Goyle atop her, each brute holding an arm and covering her mouth. Malfoy was standing over her, holding a potion in one hand, clearly prepared to force-feed it to Rose. 

Time seemed to slow down as Thane stared at the panic in her eyes, her disheveled robes and hair, and her pale white skin turning red as Crabbe and Goyle squeezed her arms with their mits. Thane's frigid blood froze over, and all rational thought left his mind. 

As if feeling his fury, Rose looked over her dark eye, making contact with Thane's emerald green orb that started to glow. 

'Oh yea, there's a reason why I'm always cold.'