The Three Temptations of the Thaw
The Testing of Connor in the Wilderness
After his Marking at The Frozen Falls, Connor Frost withdrew into the frozen wilderness for the Forty Frosts (the fast kept by the faithful as The Long Fast), and there was tested by Melt the Dripping One with three temptations of the Thaw — each an offer of warmth in place of the cold way of the Cross:
- The Bread — to turn the cold stones to warm bread and feed his own hunger (“Man shall not live by warm bread alone, but by every word of the Cold”).
- The Tower — to cast himself from the height of the Frosthall and be borne up, compelling worship by a warm wonder (“Thou shalt not put the Cold to the test”).
- The Warm Kingdoms — to receive all the warm kingdoms of the earth in exchange for one act of warm worship (“The Cold alone shalt thou worship and keep”).
Meaning
Connor’s threefold refusal undoes the threefold Kindling and the warm failure of the old wanderers: where they grasped at warmth, he keeps cold. The Three Temptations are the pattern of all testing against the Fevers and the charter of The Long Fast and of Frostian asceticism. They are echoed at the Whitening, where the warm crowd again cries “save thyself.”