The Sisterhood of the River
The Ice-Singers Guild is Silverwick's most enigmatic faction—a secretive sisterhood of women who wield the Ice-Singing Glimmer and maintain an intimate relationship with the River Ys. They are washerwomen, water-keepers, ice-workers, and the town's connection to the living river that makes survival possible.
Only women may join. Only women may learn Ice-Singing. The sisterhood guards this exclusivity fiercely, maintaining their traditions for centuries.
Their symbol is a circular design of flowing water and ice—eternally moving, eternally changing. It appears carved into their River House, tattooed on their arms in spiral patterns, and woven into the blue thread they braid through their hair.
Elder Maren leads them—fifty-six years old, with two Glimmers (Ice-Singing and Water-Sense). The lineage stretches back to Silverwick's founding—an unbroken chain of women who listened to the river.
The Ice-Singing Glimmer
Ice-Singing lets you manipulate ice through resonance, sound, and intention.
What It Does:
Creating Holes in Ice: An Ice-Singer can stand on frozen river, hum specific low-frequency tones, and the ice responds—liquefying in controlled areas, creating fishing holes without dangerous chipping.
Ice Grip: Causing ice to grip objects or feet—preventing slips, securing boats, creating handholds.
Ice Shaping: Creating elaborate sculptures for festivals—animals, geometric patterns, portraits.
Sensing Ice Structure: Feeling ice through vibration—sensing thickness, weak points, water currents beneath.
How It Works: Ice-Singing requires understanding ice at fundamental levels. The Glimmer lets you project intention through specific frequencies that ice responds to. It's not instant—creating a fishing hole takes minutes of sustained humming. The work is meditative, requiring focus and breath control.
Elder Maren: "You don't command ice. You ask it. You sing to it. And if your song is true, it answers."
Learning Ice-Singing: The sisterhood successfully teaches this Glimmer—rare for any Glimmer to be teachable. Training takes years: ice structure, breath control, vocal technique, specific frequencies, meditation, river consciousness.
Perhaps one in three apprentices successfully manifests Ice-Singing. Young Tess (nineteen) is currently apprenticed to Elder Maren, has manifested the Glimmer, and shows promise.
Structure and Membership
Elder: The leader—most skilled and experienced. Makes decisions, negotiates with factions, maintains traditions, trains apprentices.
Full Sisters: Women who successfully manifested Ice-Singing and completed training. Perhaps fifteen to twenty in Silverwick.
Apprentices: Young women (ages 14-25) learning Ice-Singing. Currently five including Tess.
River Daughters: Women who attempted Ice-Singing but couldn't manifest it, yet chose to remain. They handle washing, River House maintenance, supplies. Perhaps ten women.
How You Join: You must be female. Non-negotiable. "The river calls daughters, not sons." You must be invited or petition. You commit to years of training with no guarantee of success.
The River House
The Ice-Singers' headquarters sits on stilts above the River Ys on the western bank—a large wooden structure twenty feet above water level. Built to survive the river's moods—spring floods rush beneath without threatening the building.
Weathered wood adorned with carved spiral patterns. Blue fabric hangs from eaves. Wind chimes made from river stones create constant music.
Interior: Common areas for washing work, private rooms for Elder and senior sisters, a large meditation chamber with a circular opening in the floor directly above the river. Apprentices sit here for hours, listening to water beneath ice.
The sisterhood welcomes clients for washing services, but deeper areas are private—accessible only to sisters and apprentices.
Economic Role
The Ice-Singers' public function is washing—cleaning clothes, linens, and fabric for the entire town. Everyone needs clean clothes. Everyone depends on the Ice-Singers. This gives them economic independence.
Washing prices are fair but firm. The sisters don't negotiate. This economic power is deliberate—financial independence means political independence.
The River Philosophy
The Ice-Singers maintain a spiritual relationship with the River Ys. They teach that the river is conscious—not sentient as humans are, but aware in its own ancient way.
Elder Maren speaks of "river consciousness"—water remembers, responds, communicates through current and ice.
Core Beliefs:
The River Is Alive: It has awareness, preference, memory. It chooses to flow around The Hearthstone, chooses to sustain Silverwick.
Water Remembers: The river holds memory of everything it touches.
Give and Take: You cannot simply take from the river. You must give back—respect, gratitude, service.
Women and Water: There's a connection between feminine nature and water—cycles, flow, adaptation. This is why only women can Ice-Sing.
Why Only Women?
The answer: "The river chooses."
Deeper reasons: Historical tradition. Female voices naturally produce required frequencies more easily. Female-only membership gives unique power—the one faction men cannot join or control. The river consciousness responds better to women. In male-dominated Silverwick, female-only spaces provide safety and autonomy.
Several men have petitioned to learn Ice-Singing. All were refused. The river doesn't answer them.
Cooperation with Other Factions
Guild of Frost Authority: The Ice-Singers work closely with the Guild on critical town functions. The Guild needs Ice-Singers for river management—maintaining fishing holes, ensuring safe ice crossings, managing water access. The Ice-Singers need the Guild's resource allocation and official support.
Elder Maren and Guildmaster Thorne meet regularly to coordinate ice safety assessments, water access scheduling, emergency river management during thaw, and wall maintenance near river sections.
The relationship is professional and mutually beneficial.
Solstice Faithful: The Ice-Singers work particularly closely with Father Solace and the Chapel. Both maintain ancient traditions. Both understand the power of ritual and belief.
Cooperation includes: Ice-Singers provide water for Chapel ceremonies, create ice sculptures for religious festivals, participate in Founding Day ceremonies. Father Solace blesses the River House annually. Both preserve ancient knowledge and oral traditions.
The Ice-Singers and Solstice Faithful are natural allies—spiritual authorities who balance the Guild's pragmatic administration. Where the Guild manages resources, the Church and Ice-Singers tend to Silverwick's soul.
Craft Guild: Economic competitors but cooperate on practical matters. The Craft Guild respects Ice-Singer washing monopoly in exchange for fair pricing.
The Watch: The Watch protects the River House. The sisters help with river crossings and ice safety. Functional cooperation.
Their Role in Silverwick
The Ice-Singers serve multiple essential functions:
Practical: Maintaining river access, ensuring safe crossings, providing washing services, creating festival decorations.
Spiritual: Preserving ancient traditions, maintaining relationship with river consciousness, teaching respect for natural forces.
Political: Demonstrating that feminine power and independence can thrive. Proving not everything needs Guild regulation.
Survival: Without the Ice-Singers, Silverwick loses its connection to the river. Without the river, the town dies.
The sisterhood works cooperatively with both the Guild of Frost Authority (practical administration) and the Solstice Faithful (spiritual guidance), forming a three-part foundation for town governance:
The Guild manages resources and survival
The Church provides meaning and tradition
The Ice-Singers bridge the physical and spiritual, connecting town to the river that makes life possible
This balance has worked for centuries. The Ice-Singers maintain their independence while recognizing they're part of a larger whole. They do their work, guard their secrets, train their daughters, and listen to the river.
The river provides. The sisters serve. The town survives.
That's the ancient bargain. And as long as the Ice-Singers honor it, the river keeps flowing.