In the heart of the merciless blizzard, Kelia's voice echoed like a final bullet before the explosion, her eyes fixed on Ever with pure contempt: "You... are nothing but a fake son!"
Fate gave her no time to finish. The shield she had cast around Ice shattered. As the smoke cleared, Ever vanished like a ghost, leaving behind a haunting silence. In those white highlands, nothing remained but two lifeless bodies and a lone child standing in the center of a crimson pool—blood that seemed to weep amidst the deadly cold.
Ice rose with difficulty, his small body trembling not from the cold, but from pure agony. He knelt over his mother's body, his shaking fingers brushing a tear that had frozen on her cheek while she was still holding him seconds ago. In that moment, his stark white hair whipped in the wind, merging with the surrounding snow as if he were a part of this cruel nature.
From the distance, a dense blackness pierced the white horizon. A black dragon stumbled forward, its clothes tattered and head bowed, as if carrying the sins of the world. As it drew near, the dragon shifted into a winged human, his eyes reflecting a brokenness no less than the child's.
Ice (with dead eyes): "Who are you?" Zis (in a hoarse voice): "I am... your guardian."
Zis vanished abruptly as heavy footsteps approached. The villagers had finally arrived. Ice (with a scream that tore through the mountain silence): "Where were you when my parents were slaughtered?! Where is my brother?!"
Wit, the village chief, stepped forward, his face masked in shock: "Your brother has vanished from his room... and your uncle too. The message they left says: 'Two jewels have been snatched; one was shining, and the other was the brightest of gems before its light was extinguished.'"
Ice's hands fell to his sides, and a bitter, mocking laugh shook the chests of those standing: "Great... I have nothing left. Completely alone. Great!"
But the chill in his eyes suddenly turned into a resolve. He reached out and grasped his father's Khopesh blades, wrapping the snow-cloak around his neck. His white hair stood out like a crown of ice atop the head of a defeated king.
Ice: "Chief... do you know 'Ever'?" Wit: "No, my boy. We have never heard that name." Ice (staring at the village with bloodshot eyes): "Rejoice, father... mother... I will ignite a war that will turn the hair of the young gray before the old."
Wit: "You have reached a sorrow no human should carry. I will send you to the Far North, where monsters are made." Ice: "The place doesn't matter, as long as I get what I want."
Ice knelt beside his mother and pulled the ring from her finger. The moment the ring settled in his hand, a blue holographic screen erupted, illuminating his pale face and white hair.
The Screen: "Welcome... I am your intelligent assistant: Kelly.