Four steps crossed the arena, each footfall blooming white on the padding, a dotted line of winter stitched across the hall in half a second. The fifth step hit the wall.
She ran up twelve meters of vertical concrete, frost gluing each stride to the wall for the instant it needed, lungs burning, the edges of her vision crowding inward, because the Hush ate everything.
Somewhere far below, somebody finally spotted the frost line and shouted. The sound reached her thin and slow, a voice through deep water.
She cleared the railing with the dagger already moving.
The world snapped back to full volume at the exact moment five fingers closed around her throat.
"Agh?!" Her momentum died in a single yank, her feet dangling in the air, one dagger jolting loose and skittering across the deck.
