Lumina was five hundred meters from the summit when the shadow on the wind took form.
It was not a physical beast, but a manifestation of the frost-curse — a swirling vortex of dark ice crystals and freezing air that possessed a malicious intelligence. It hovered between her and the Sunstone Altar, blocking the final approach.
"Turn back, creature of sun," a hollow voice seemed to whisper within the gale. "The age of fire on this ridge is ended. The long ice has returned."
Lumina did not slow her ascent.
"This ridge belongs to the living," she declared, her golden eyes blazing with renewed intensity. "As long as one spark remains, the light will not yield!"
She spread her wings to their full three-meter span and gathered every ounce of thermal energy remaining in her core.
Her inner fire surged outward, turning her crystalline ice feathers from pale blue to a brilliant, incandescent gold. The heat radiating from her body was so intense that the snow-drift in mid-air evaporated into steam before touching her skin.
She charged straight into the center of the dark vortex.
The collision was deafening — a crack of elemental thunder that shook the granite spire of Sunstone Peak. Black ice shattered into millions of harmless dark particles as Lumina's solar aura tore through the center of the curse.
The vortex shrieked and dissolved into the howling wind, its dark energy dissipated by the sudden burst of pure thermal power.
However, the effort cost Lumina dearly.
The sudden discharge of her core flame left her weakened and gasping for breath. Her wing movements became heavy and sluggish, and the frost began to creep back onto her primary feathers almost immediately.
She tumbled onto the snowy ledge of the Sunstone Altar, her body sliding across the ice until she struck the base of the central monolith.
She lay there in the freezing snow, her chest heaving, her golden light fading to a faint, dying ember.
The upper slopes of Sunstone Peak were a vertical wilderness of blue ice and bare granite.
Lumina clung to the rock face with her sharp talons, her wings pinned tight against her sides to prevent the gale from tearing her away.
The wind here reached speeds that could hurl a full-grown mountain stag off the cliff like a dry leaf.
Every ten meters of progress required a desperate struggle against the gale.
She would find a handhold in the frozen rock, lock her talons into position, pull her body forward, and search for the next crevice before the wind could break her grip.
Her crystalline ice feathers were groaning under the pressure.
Several of her outer primary feathers had cracked under the extreme cold, their sharp edges refracting the dim grey light of the storm in dull, broken patterns.
Her core flame was shrinking, burning with a pale amber light rather than its brilliant golden glow.
"Ten more meters," she told herself, staring up through the swirling snow at the base of the altar.
The final ascent required crossing an open ice slope twenty meters wide.
The slope had no handholds, no rock crevices, no shelter from the wind.
It was a smooth, unbroken sheet of glare-ice angled at sixty degrees.
Lumina looked at the slope, then up at the summit.
She knew she could not climb the glare-ice on foot. She would have to fly across the open gap.
She took a deep breath, feeling the cold air burn in her throat.
"One leap," she whispered.
She released her grip on the granite wall and threw herself into the open air.
The gale caught her immediately, slamming her body sideways with terrifying force.
She beat her damaged wings with all her remaining strength, fighting the wind with every muscle in her body.
She drifted dangerously close to the edge of the precipice, the dark void of the northern face yawning beneath her.
With a final, desperate surge of core heat, she leveled her flight and drove herself toward the altar ledge.
Her talons struck the stone rim, and she tumbled onto the flat summit of Sunstone Peak.
The open ice slope near the summit was a death trap for flying creatures.
The wind here blew in sudden, unpredictable shears that could hurl a bird into the granite cliffs.
Lumina moved across the slope with extreme caution.
"Every step must be secure," she thought, digging her talons into the glare-ice.
A sudden gust caught her left wing, almost tipping her over the precipice.
She dug her right talons deeper into the ice, anchoring herself against the gale.
"Not here," she said through gritted teeth.
"Not so close to the top."
She waited for the gust to pass, then moved forward again.
The Sunstone Altar was only twenty meters away now.
She could see the four basalt pillars standing like dark sentinels in the storm.
Between them sat the amber quartz monolith, covered in black frost.
She gathered her strength for the final push.
"One more stretch," she whispered, her chest glowing with golden light.
She launched herself off the glare-ice and flew toward the altar platform.
She landed with a heavy thud on the stone deck.
The summit was reached.
The wind on the open platform was a wall of pure motion.
Lumina dug her talons into the frozen granite, her body low to the stone.
She took three careful steps forward, her wings pinned tightly against her sides.
"Not much farther," she encouraged herself, focusing on the amber monolith.
The four basalt pillars surrounding the altar stood like ancient guardians against the storm.
She gathered her strength for the final ten-meter advance.