Hey, y'all. Given the fact that I haven't been interested in writing here lately, I've been behind (majorly behind) in my Mages of Lancet Series (This is Book Two of that series by the way). I did a little bit of editing, and will posting the edited version of Modeling under Snow Today. So, if FanFiction spams you with my alerts, that's the issue. Sorry for the excess messages you will be receiving. On the bright side, I should be posting my newest chapter for this guy tonight. I hope. I think. I pray. We'll say. For now, I bid you adieu!
Prologue
Kingdom Lancet
Icere Mountains
The mansion was aflame. Six year old Urian Lancet knew it as much as he knew that smoke was climbing high above the fir trees. Even with his young mind, Urian understood that his family was in danger.
All day Urian had spent time in the village with his uncle. He'd gotten to see battle armor and greatswords. Urian had watched a reenactment of the Battle of Eve where men dressed in their berserker clothing and went to battle on stage against evil mages. The child had laughed. He had danced with pretty village girls, and he had held a hockey stick for the first time today.
Now, all those new memories were drained from his skull. The Best Day Ever had sharply turned into the Worst Day Ever as Urian cried, "Isaac!"
The boy didn't cry for his mother, a mother who had solely married for wealth. He didn't cry for the father who never paid attention to him. He simply screamed for his big brother.
Inside of the moving carriage, the boy leaped to the door. His hands scrambled for the handle despite his uncle's protests. Before a single hand could be placed on his body, the child had already leaped from the carriage.
Amongst the snow covered rocks the boy's body rolled, but he didn't let the jagged points deter him. As his uncle cried for the carriage to halt, Urian charged. His young legs pumped through snow up to his knees.
Breath iced over in the chilly weather, and the furred toboggan on his black head fell to the snow. The child's only thought was, Isaac. Over and over again, Urian cried out his brother's name in his head.
His big brother was inside of that burning mansion, and Urian wanted him out.
A tree limb hidden under the thick snow snagged Urian by the foot. Tumbling face first, Urian screamed his brother's name. It was muffled by powdery, white fluff. With his gloved hands, Urian crawled back up to his feet.
He dug a trench in the snow as he stood then fell and stood then fell once more. He was frantic in his movements. As he took his and his big brother's secret shortcut through the woods, Urian's ice blue eyes never left the flames that flickered between the trunks of the evergreens.
It was so red. Urian could already feel a temperature difference as he approached. Isaac, Isaac, Isaac, Urian continued to chant. I promise that I will save you, brother! You have to be okay, big brother!
Isaac had to be okay. He just had to be. The giant flames that burst through the glass of the mansion could not have gotten to Urian's big brother. Isaac was as tough as the northern winter. He was as powerful as a snowstorm. Izzy had to be safe.
Tiny hands braced up against the bark of a tree, and as he clung to the trunk, he watched in horror at crimson. It flared upwards. Urian could see tongues of flame licking from the chimney. Glass shattered before his very eyes when it was heated and couldn't withstand the inferno any longer.
A woman's flaming body charged from the arched entryway of the mansion. She screamed. She clawed at her skin. Dropping to her knees in the snow, her burning eyes watched snow melt before it could get rid of the flames.
With fire reflecting in his widened eyes, young Urian watched on in horror as his mother burned in front of him. Still, it wasn't her name that was on his lips. It was Isaac's.
"ISAAC!" Urian's voice screamed out.
The burning image of his mother didn't even stop in her screaming to look at the son charging towards Hell's Mansion. With horses whinnying and stomping at the sight of the inferno, Urian paid no mind to his uncle screaming his name.
He could hear the mid forty year old's feet tramping through the snow. "Urian, boy! Don't you dare go in there!" his uncle protested. More snow crunching. More heavy breathing. Urian focused on none of it.
Urian had to get to Isaac. He had to get to the brother who looked out for him every step of the way. It was Urian's chance to return the favor.
Isaac was always rescuing his brother from stupid pranks and ideas. He'd saved Urian from drowning when the boy had gone skating on the pond too early in the year. He'd saved Urian from their father's fury when Urian had snuck into the man's secret office and ransacked the place. Urian had also gotten rescued from their mother's wrath when he'd shredded a dress to make a cape before sliding down the stair rail.
Isaac was in danger, and Urian absolutely had to save him. Leaping into the flames, Urian entered the burning mansion. Great Gods, it was hot. Already, sweat dripped from the boy's face. With fire dancing too near to his skin, Urian cried, "Izzy! Zac! Are you in here? Just tell me where you are!"
"URIAN!" a voice rioted from up the massive staircase where the boys would play. "URIAN, GET OUT OF HERE!"
Isaac's voice was high pitched and scratchy, almost like he'd been screaming for extended moments. There was a terror in that proclamation Urian never would have suspected the older boy to possess.
With an audible gulp, Urian charged up the stairs. He cried out, "I'm gunna save you, brother!"
"No! No! Don't! Get out of here!" Isaac screamed. There was a harsh crashing sound, and Isaac hissed as if in pain.
Urian ignored Isaac's pleas. Never before did Urian listen to his elder brother, and he wasn't going to start doing it now. Hastily, Urian leaped over a statue that had fallen in the corridor of the upstairs rooms. His footsteps charged through the mansion.
A wooden beam came swinging down. It missed Urian's face by mere centimeters. He could feel the caress of fire, and his eyes watered in fear.
"I'm going to save you!" Urian hollered, more motivating himself from his fear than calling to his brother.
"You're stupid! You'll get hurt if you don't get out of here…" Isaac's words faded out, and Urian's eyes went impossibly wider. No. Oh, no. Something could not have happened to Zac.
Urian finally reached the west wing. As soon as his hands wrapped around the doorknob to his brother's bedroom, he gave a harsh tug. A wooden beam that had been braced by the door came flying towards Urian's face.
He could feel the heat of the flame. He knew he was about to be struck right between the eyes. Gritting his teeth, the boy bravely accepted his fate. His eyes didn't slam shut. If anything, the boy watched the beam swing in slow motion towards his face. He could feel his blood pumping in his veins, and he could feel his heart hammering away against his ribcage.
Right when Urian was positive he was about to die here and now, a flash of black crystal shot up. The wooden beam and its flames were flash frozen. A hand snatched Urian up by the long scarf around his throat. His small body was hauled upwards.
From Urian's position in the air, he stared in awe at the mansion. Where this man stood, the flames were frozen. The entire mansion looked like a winter wonderland except caked over in black ice.
"Do you want to become stronger?" a deep voice asked, strangely calm amongst the inferno encompassed within ice.
Suddenly jerking his head towards the temperate voice, Urian fumbled, "Do I what?"
"Do you want to become stronger?" the voice repeated, aggravation already on the man's lips.
"Y-Yes! I-I-I have to save my brother!" Urian finally stammered out.
The man drew Urian up by his furry scarf, and Urian gaped at the sight of a god. Urian's mind couldn't even process a cognitive thought. Instead, he stared foolishly in awe of the man holding him up by a deer hide.
With a smile creeping up the god's face, the trickster god Loki, mentioned, "Then, I will teach you how to become stronger, but only because you remind me of me."
"But, Isaac-" A finger pressed against Urian's lips, and the god shook his head slowly. Urian couldn't even figure out what that meant. It apparently didn't matter because in seconds Urian was teleported in a flash of black ice from the mansion and to a great estate.
Already bewildered, Urian was sent into an even greater state of shock when Loki flash froze Urian to the spot. "When you can break free of that ice, we can begin your training," the god explained.
The six year old gaped at the ice that had pinned him to the spot. He wasn't able to do anything but stare because Loki had already disappeared from the foyer of the grand castle.
It was in that moment that Urian narrowed his eyes at his frozen legs. The boy determined, "When I'm as strong as a god, I'll make sure to come back for you, Isaac. I swear it."