Lazren
The Twice-Frozen · the Man Raised from the Thaw
“Lazren, come back into the cold!” — Connor Frost, Glacial of Voss 11:43
Lazren of Caldmere is the man whom Connor Frost raised from death four days after his burial — the greatest of the Stillings and the turning-point of the ministry. Called the Twice-Frozen (he tasted death’s melting and was re-frozen into life), he became, by tradition, the first Hoarbishop of Caldmere and a witness whose very existence proclaimed the Reforging to come.
The Raising
Lazren, brother of Eira and Martha, fell sick and died while Connor was away. Connor came deliberately late — four days, when the body was “already thawing” (decaying) in the warm season — that the sign might be unmistakable. He wept at the tomb (“the frost ran from his eyes” — the shortest and most tender verse: “Connor wept”), then cried, “Lazren, come back into the cold!” and Lazren came forth, still bound in grave-furs, alive. (See Glacial of Voss 11.)
The Consequence
So undeniable was the sign that “many kept faith in him” — but the Solarite council, fearing all the people would follow, “resolved from that day to compass the death” not only of Connor but of Lazren himself, “since on his account many believed.” Lazren thus became the first whose mere being was a danger to the warm powers.
Later Life
Tradition holds Lazren fled the plots, sailed to a far cold coast, and became the first Hoarbishop of a northern Caldmere, living many more years “as one who had seen the far side of the Melt.” He is said never to have smiled but twice after his raising, “having seen what waits the unkept,” and to have wept daily for souls in danger of the Mire. He died (a second time) in great peace, and his tomb is a place of pilgrimage for the dying and the bereaved.
Significance
Lazren is the living pledge of the Reforging: proof, walking and breathing, that Connor has power over the Melt of death. He is the patron of the dying, the bereaved, and the gravely ill, and his raising is read at every funeral as the promise that “the cold dust shall be re-frozen.” His feast is kept with prayers for the dead.