The snow dragged beneath Shuan’s boots as though the ground itself resisted what was happening.
He was being pulled through the settlement by force.
The metal restraint locked around his neck scraped harshly each time he stumbled, its frozen chain rattling against the silence of the narrow pathways.
This time, his hands were not fully bound.
But the collar around his throat was enough.
Enough to make him feel less like a person… and more like an animal being led to slaughter.
The cold metal pressed against his skin with every step.
Too tight.
Too heavy.
Every breath reminded him it was there.
The soldiers walked ahead and behind him in absolute silence, their boots crushing snow with mechanical precision.
Shuan tried to keep walking properly.
Tried not to fall.
Tried not to cry.
But his legs felt weak beneath him.
Not from injury.
From fear.
From confusion.
From the unbearable feeling that everything around him had changed too quickly for his mind to follow.
The settlement slowly revealed itself around him.
Faces began appearing everywhere.
Between tents.
Inside narrow frozen alleyways.
Behind heavy cloth coverings that shifted gently in the wind.
Women stopped what they were doing.
A man repairing broken equipment slowly lowered his tools.
Children peeked from behind their mothers before quickly hiding again.
Nobody approached.
Nobody intervened.
They only watched.
The whispers started spreading quietly through the cold air.
“Who is he…?” “What did he do?” “Why are they dragging him like that?” Shuan heard fragments of voices from every direction.
Each word stabbed deeper into him.
He wanted to answer.
Wanted to scream that he did not know.
That he had done nothing.
But every time he opened his mouth, the words froze somewhere inside his chest.
The soldiers never slowed down.
The chain jerked suddenly.
Shuan stumbled hard.
A painful sound escaped his throat as the metal collar tightened violently against his neck.
He nearly fell face-first into the snow before catching himself with trembling hands.
The cold instantly bit into his palms.
One of the guards yanked the chain upward without even looking back.
“Keep moving.” The voice carried no anger.
No cruelty.
Which somehow made it worse.
Shuan forced himself upright again.
His breathing shook unevenly.
Tears blurred his vision, but he kept walking anyway.
Because he no longer knew what else he could do.
The deeper they moved into the settlement, the quieter everything became.
Even the wind seemed distant now.
Only footsteps.
Chains.
Breathing.
And eyes.
So many eyes.
Watching him.
Judging him.
Fearing him.
His chest tightened painfully.
He remembered the warmth of the room Hol had given him.
The water.
The fire.
The feeling of safety.
Had all of it been fake from the beginning?
The thought hurt more than the chains.
Eventually, the narrow pathways opened.
And Shuan saw it.
The White Plaza.
A massive open area at the center of the settlement, surrounded by circular rows of tents reinforced with old steel frames buried beneath snow and ice.
Tall metal poles stood around the plaza, connected by frozen cables carrying weak electricity to old loudspeakers hanging overhead.
At the center stood a wooden platform covered in layers of polished ice.
Cold.
Empty.
Waiting.
The soldiers dragged him toward it without hesitation.
People were already gathering around the edges.
Dozens.
Then more.
And more.
Shuan’s breathing became faster.
His body wanted to pull away instinctively.
But the chain around his neck gave him no choice.
The moment they reached the platform, one of the guards shoved him forward.
He crashed hard onto his knees.
Pain shot upward through his legs.
A weak gasp escaped him.
Snow and frost clung to his clothes as he struggled to breathe properly.
Then the chain pulled again.
Forcing him back upward.
Forcing him to stand before everyone.
Shuan’s legs trembled violently beneath him.
Not from the cold alone.
But because he still did not understand any of this.
He slowly lifted his head.
Hundreds of eyes stared back at him now.
A heavy silence pressed down across the plaza like a mountain of ice crushing against every chest.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Even the children had gone quiet.
And standing there in the center of it all— Shuan suddenly felt smaller than he ever had in his entire life.