The Freeze

One of the most feared aspects of The Spawning - Basilisks is the Freeze.
When a basilisk surfaces and turns on a Rideis to hunt, it will attempt to make eye contact. This is often quite simple, as it is in the common nature to look at the thing you fear and which is actively trying to kill you. But this look back is a fatal mistake, for it is the mechanism which introduces the Freeze.
Once eye contact is exchanged, the victim locks into place, nearly rigid, like water in winter (hence its name). The victim will not respond to outside stimuli -- whether that may be shouts from desperate friends or, soon after, the first bites and eventual consumption by the basilisk. It is certain that the victims are still alive when the eating begins; they have usually died from blood loss and physical trauma before the basilisk consumes them all.
It is not known what the victim experiences during this freeze. Some have speculated that the effect is purely physical, and that the victim may be fully aware for all that remains, experiencing both terror and pain but unable to express either. Others have speculated that the victim enters a trance state and their lack of response is due to a lack of perception. This scenario would be, while still tragic, less horrific.
The scholar Vereal Fanalyn, writing four centuries ago, reported that the victim experiences a musical euphoria, blazing with sound and light, and feels no distress or pain but in fact dies happy. Unfortunately only part of this text has survived, and so her sources and research are incompletely known. While Fanalyn is generally respected and her work largely accepted as foundational, some have argued that in this case she wrote unfounded soothing fiction as a salve to grieving families.

Treatment

There is no known treatment for the Freeze. A victim is necessarily close to an actively hunting basilisk, and rescue attempts are few and inevitably unsuccessful.

Prevention

The only way to avoid the Freeze is to avoid direct eye contact with the creature. Some trust to veils over the face, while others prefer to avoid any form of sight altogether. It is recommended to look away, to run to familiar places while keeping one's eyes at one's feet to avoid tripping.
Children in arms are unlikely to be affected. This may be due to a natural resistance but it seems more likely that the basilisks do not target them with direct eye contact, perhaps preferring larger prey or recognizing that paralyzing a victim who is being carried away is not a useful effort.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Affected Species

• Rideis

This terrifyingly effective skill in the basilisk's eye led Rideis sorcerers to explore the use of the eye's magical properties. The harvesting of basilisks for their research was a challenge which led to several tragedies and the loss of several famous practitioners.