The Winter of Split Chains

The Winter of Split Chains is recited when stores are counted and riders glance toward closed doors. Avalanches, famine, and fear made three holds delay rescue duties, each claiming its own children would starve first. Keldrun survived, but survival did not cleanse the shame. The Chain Oath hardened afterward because kindness without enforcement had left people buried beyond reach. Every winter muster names the holds that waited too long, not to enjoy old disgrace, but to remind warm halls that delay can kill as surely as a blade.