The Sacred Mating Flame

The night inside the glacial ice cavern deepened into a realm of pure, hypnotic enchantment. Outside the twenty-foot snow drift sealing the entrance, the alpine blizzard shrieked like a thousand wounded beasts, battering the mountain with hundred-knot gales and blinding whiteout snow. But inside the subterranean sanctuary fifty feet below the surface, the air was warm, tranquil, and scented with the sweet, resinous perfume of burning pine roots and dried…