Frost Damage

Lucius POV

The log did not split.

He hit it again.

It still didn't split.

He looked at the axe. At the log. At the axe again.

He'd watched men chop wood his entire life. Every winter. Palace staff, palace grounds, the men who kept the fires going. You raised the axe. You brought it down. The log split. That was it. That was the whole thing.

He raised it again and swung harder.

The axe buried itsel