I decided to fix what seemed broken. Repairing the fractured hexagon was not as straightforward as it appeared. It was large, at least twice my height, and the piece and been split almost in half. But it wasn’t the size or weight that was the issue. I had enough Dharmic control that I could move and adjust the broken pieces so that I could hold the pieces together.

The problem was that no matter how well I maneuvered the pieces, the ice refused to ‘stick’ to each other. I eventually realized I needed to do more than glue the two sides together. I needed to fuse them into a whole.

The process would have been impossible without my affinities with water and ice. I had to fill the broken edges with water and then freeze the water particles slowly, aligning each section and removing the cracks.

The problem was made more difficult because water expands as it freezes, so I had to adjust my approach. The other constant I had to deal with was the makeup of the water I was using. In order to match the properties of the sculpture, I had to balance the ionic salts, metals, and micro-organisms suspended within the ice. Working from the center out, I was able to remove the extra water that would have expanded the seam, squeezing it outwards like a tube of toothpaste.

When I was finished, the hexagon was whole again. Even with my perception, it was impossible to tell if the piece had ever been broken. Using concentrated wind, the last buffing of the outer wall where the seam between sections should have been was all it took to smooth any lingering defects.

When I finished, the ice sculptures began to react; I was satisfied I’d done what I could. The other ice shapes began to expand and move. They grew together until order had been restored and a footprint had been etched into the ground, a series of patterns, building foundations, for the flowing ice that might have been the ruins of an abandoned town at one point.

Storm and I spent more time canvassing the area, looking to see if the change in the landscape might have paved the way for a door or tunnel to appear. Our search was fruitless, and I turned my attention to the divot with nothing left to do.

The cube the divot resided in was the only flaw left in what appeared to be building foundations that had been created. It sat near what would have been the outskirt of the area, a location that might have served as a gate or entrance.

I approached the creation of the myriagon needed to plug the divot differently than I had the broken sculpture. I still worked to create a piece of ice that was identical to what had been used by balancing the suspended particles found in water, but I made the plug so that it could be removed.

If this divot was serving the same function as a key, it made sense that it should be reusable. If I merged the ten thousand polished surfaces of the divot with a plug of ice, making the cube whole, it would defeat the purpose someone went to when creating the structure. I was basing my assumption on that belief. I worried that I would fail to trigger anything, and if that happened, I wouldn’t have a second chance.

As efficient as my memory had become, reproducing the keystone to align with the divot exactly would be impossible if I tried to fill it with ice. I would have to replicate a polygon suspended in ice so precisely that even one facet of the ten thousand surfaces being off by the smallest amount might mean failure.

It was better to balance the restoration of the keystone by filling the empty center space and working my way out. I would fill the divot and blend it with ice until each side was near completion. There was no other alternative.

The exacting nature of what I was doing pushed my mental facilities to their limit. Even using my Dharmic spirit and Storm to help, I was still hard pressed to create an item that required as much precision as this.

I made a mental note to add something like this to my training. The fine detail work required to control my elemental affinities would provide real benefits and might lead to another epiphany. The better my control on the micro level, the better my control on the macro.

I wondered if I could execute layered attacks and defenses using this type of control. There had to be a way to obscure and deliver a micro-attack within the bounds of the more overt Kata I performed.

Once I had finished building the ice construct, there was only one thing left to try before moving on to my next attempt. Ice wasn’t a conductor of electricity. The particulates suspended in the ice were, but the frozen state of water made conductivity problematic.

Qi didn’t have that same restriction. It was a part of everything and didn’t require ionic salts or suspended metals to move from one place to the next. The object I had created had already clicked into place, but the Qi between the two puzzle pieces was out of balance.

If left to itself, the two pieces would find a balance over time—a type of Qi osmosis. But I didn’t think that was the object of this test. If all that was needed were a key, then something would have happened once I’d added the final layer of ice.

I extended a Qi field, enclosing both objects and focusing my perception narrowly. I traced the flow of Qi within the larger sculpture, paying attention to how it pooled and where, before attempting to manipulate and extend the pattern of Qi resonance I had discerned in the statue with the keystone I had created.

The slight separation that existed between the key and polygon reacted once I had the Qi patterns aligned. A fluctuation of Qi molded the two objects together. All the effort I had put into ensuring my creation was isolated was eradicated with that fluctuation.

That two sections clicked into place. The process proved fruitful as a growing wave of Qi fluctuated as the energy pooled, and the foundation that had been created when I repaired the broken ice sculpture responded. This time by growing, expanding upward and outward.

Walls, towers, and gates were formed.

The building foundations that might have slightly resembled ruins were made whole. Slowly a castle grew as the Qi pattern I had repaired spread, extending that pattern with each oscillation, and each wave of Qi grew at the focus stone only to explode in resonating harmony.

The ground shook as the surrounding ice was appropriated and used for building material. Storm and I took flight and watched with awe and disbelief as a castle of ice was built.

Crystal spires and glistening blue walls reflected the sun. And somehow, that reflection was contained, directed into channels of coursing ice. The rainbow of light created by the ice prism was funneled within the castle. It gave the stark coldness of the ice palace a warmth that was both serene and out of place.

The castle was only the beginning of the changes taking place. The mounds of snow that were subsumed and used to rebuild the castle revealed a hidden city that circled the castle and the attendant buildings.

A city, long abandoned, frozen in time. A place that would take one person a lifetime to explore.