Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter of this story.

I must say, I didn't expect such a response from so many people. Looks like a Lissandra story was really expected, eh? Ah well, I'll try not to disappoint and I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to review.

Now, whether you're a regular reader of my stories or someone who doesn't know me aside from me being the writer of this story, I have a news to share. It's also on my profile.
Basically, I'm going through alot of personal problems involving my education and future exams so I might be very very infrequent on updating.

Anyway, enjoy the story.

In her Icy Embrace

Chapter 1: How he held.

Everything was black, until, slowly but surely, his consciousness returned. Alan opened his eyes hesitantly, blinking a couple of times to clear his vision of the residual blurriness of sleep. Focusing on the ceiling, he realized he was still on the sofa he had fallen asleep in. Getting up, he winced. The pain in his head had dissipated, but his ribs gave a dull throb of pain, protesting him getting up.

Looking around the room, his eyes landed on the section of wall which was actually a door. Now that he wasn't as distracted by pain as he was before, he realized that the walls and ceilings of the cave, although recognizable as being part of a cave, was too flawless in some ways to be considered natural. The doorways and walls were nearly all flawlessly flat and strong, the floor smooth like marble. Only the ceiling was bumpy and random, like the ceiling of a normal cave, minus any stalactites. Everything was colored in a light blue/cyan theme, including most of the furniture, some of which was outright white. Light was emanating from various dark blue crystals around the room, bathing the room in white light instead of blue light that its appearance hinted at.

Standing up, Alan took a few moments to make sure his entire body was awake and responding properly before beginning to walk out of the room, eager to explore this new place he was in. Outside of the room he was in, he found a long corridor. The room he had come out of was at one end of the corridor, so a long hallway stretched out infront of him. He began walking down the length of the corridor, noticing random closed doors here and there. Every now and then, a new hallway branched off of the main one that he was in, but he stuck to the one he was traversing in. The last thing he needed was to get lost here.

He found a door which was cracked open a bit and walked up to it, leaning forward to peek through the crack. He didn't really manage to see anything within the room, and as he was trying to get a better viewing angle, the door suddenly opened. Alan jumped at the sudden appearance of another person on the other side of the door, who also started at Alan's sudden appearance.

"By the ancients, boy, what are you doing?" A man asked him. The man had light blue skin, similar to how that woman, Lissandra's skin was. He wore dark blue armor, large plates of blue colored ice making up most of the heavy armor. The man also looked a bit intimidating in an athletic way. He was 2 inches taller than Alan, who was a good 6 feet, and had a muscular yet lean figure. His armor hid most of his body, but his face, smooth as it was, carried an expression that only veterans could show. A large scar went across his face, from the top corner of his left eyebrow to the bottom of his jaw on the right side of his face, over his nose. His eyes were a very dark shade of blue and his hair was, as expected, white.

"Er, Sorry, I was just curious." Alan said sheepishly as the man looked him up and down. "You're that human that her majesty rescued from the avalanche." The man stated as Alan's brows furrowed at the term 'her majesty' before he nodded. Was she really a queen?

"Yeah, that's me. Name's Alan." Alan said, feeling slightly uncomfortable from the way the man was staring at him, like a predator studying it's prey.

" Manners? You must be an outsider to the Freljord. I wouldn't expect anything from the Barbarian clans except to simply grunt and swing something heavy, and her majesty would just torture and kill anyone from the Avarosans instead of taking them under her hospitality." The man said, giving him a once-over again. "My name is Reinhart and I'm Queen Lissandra's Congelate Elite." He introduced, as Alan raised an eyebrow.

"Congelate Elite?" Alan inquired, slowly pronouncing the first word so as to get it right.
"Yes. Basically, it means I'm leading her royal guard as well as her army. You could say I'm her second-in-command." He said, now losing the predatory glean in his eyes, looking at Alan in a skeptical view now. "How are your ribs?"

Alan half-shrugged, "They've been better. Sore and hurts every now and then, but atleast it's no longer debilitating." He said as Reinhart gave a smile, although with his appearance, it seemed frigid. Pun not intended.

"Well, look around all you want, just don't go running into every room without knocking first. Also, avoid touching any dark ice. You'll burn yourself." Reinhart said, using the forefinger on his right hand to tap a large dark-ice plate on the front of his armor. "Try not to get skin-on-skin contact with other Iceborn as well. It burns us both and although it's not a lasting injury, it's quite painful." Reinhard said, clapping Alan on the shoulder. Reinhart's hand was covered by his gauntlet and Alan's t-shirt was another layer over his skin, so Alan didn't feel burned. Reinhart really had meant it when he said skin-on-skin, so with a last nod at Alan, Reinhart walked off, his large blue cape swishing out behind him.

Alan watched the man go before looking inside the room that Reinhart had come out from. It seemed to be sort of a huge training room. Alan's eyebrows shot up when he thought about how big their cave must be. The entire room was the size of a football field, with a lot of iceborn training here and there. There were a few rings where spars were occurring, trainees using wooden weapons while the experts clashed actual blades, some of the blades made of dark ice. Alan watched with awe as two men, dressed in similar clothing to what Reinhart wore under his armor, clashed blades of dark ice, blue sparks flying. The first fighter pushed the other back with a grunt, swinging his sword outwards before drawing it in, the point aimed for the second fighter. Fighter 2, who noticed the stance, instantly sidestepped to his right as Fighter 1 thrust his sword forward, the air becoming visible as the cold ice cut through it. Fighter 2 instantly retaliated by swinging his sword at Fighter 1's exposed left side, but Fighter 1 reacted fast as he brought his right arm to his left, bringing his sword up backwards to block the slash. The blades clashed again as both combatants exchanged grins of enjoyment before disengaging, beginning to circle one another again.

Alan broke out of the trance he was caught in watching the two elites spar. He had always wanted to wield a sword expertly, but he never got the chance. So with a last wistful look at everyone, he turned around and walked out…. and almost bumped into Lissandra.

The woman visibly started, almost jumping back as she flung her arm forward at him, about to fire more icicles no doubt. But she paused, noticing that it was Alan, who seemed almost as surprised.

"I guess I'm just running into everyone today." He said as Lissandra, who was still wearing that mask, seemed to glance at the room he had just come out of.
"What were you doing there? I thought I told you to take it easy." She said, obviously displeased by him disobeying. Alan raised an eyebrow, "I didn't really do anything. I simply felt the need to explore and found this room. I also ran into Reinhart." He said as Lissandra seemed to grimace, her lips tightening for a moment.

"Yes. Reinhart." Lissandra muttered, as she let out a breath through her nose. "I've been looking for you." She said as Alan's curiosity piqued.

"Uh, well, you found me." Alan stated as Lissandra's lip twitched. It seemed like she wasn't used to being referred or addressed to so casually.

"First off, I want to… Apologize for our last meeting. I understand I'd been a bit too aggressive." Lissandra muttered as Alan waved it off. "No hard feelings." He said as Lissandra continued, "I'm just getting a bit paranoid. I should tell you this since you are residing here for the time being; We're at war."

Alan's eyebrows raised. "At war? With who? Noxus?" He asked as Lissandra began walking, Alan falling into step beside her. She was wearing some type of dress, dark blue in color, reaching to the floor so it seemed like she was gliding again.

"No, we're at war with two tribes of the Freljord. The Avarosans and the Barbarians." Lissandra said as Alan raised an eyebrow.
"Avarosans… Do you mean the group led by Ashe?" He asked as Lissandra looked at him, or atleast, seemed to look at him. The mask made it hard to tell.

"Yes… How do you know of her?" Lissandra asked skeptically.
"She came to visit Piltover once, I still remember. She represented Freljord in a meeting of every nation's ambassadors." Alan said truthfully as Lissandra visibly bristled.
"Yes… She always was an usurping brat. When I get my hands on her, I'll make her and her oaf of a husband pay a hundred times over." She said in a seething way as Alan stayed quiet, icy blue eyes clouded over in thought. "Everyone calls you "her majesty" and you did tell me you're the true Queen of the North. Is that why you are at war with Ashe? Because she's stealing your throne?" He asked as Lissandra nodded. "Yes." She simply replied.
"Regardless, our scouts have spotted a small party heading for us and a battle might happen. As my guest, I request that you stay inside." She said as Alan frowned at that, but nodded. He didn't feel right letting everyone else fight while he sat here.

They returned to the room Alan had slept in, realizing this was sort of like a part of Lissandra's private quarters. The other door must lead to her bedroom, Alan thought. "I forgot to mention, this will be your quarters while you stay here." She said, pointing to a bare section of wall on another wall. Alan looked at it for a few moments before he saw the same tell-tale lines that outlined a barely visible door. Walking over to it, he pushed the door open with a hand, the door silently gliding open to reveal and modestly sized room. It was quite bare other than a bed, a bookcase, a desk and chair and an end-table.

As Alan inspected the room, Lissandra worked on putting her armor on, taking the pieces off the mannequin and clasping them onto her robe in the appropriate areas. When Alan turned around to look at her again, she was pulling her gloves on, the other armor pieces already in place.

"Stay within the castle." She said, as Reinhart walked into the room.
"Queen Lissandra, We have identified the approaching group belonging to the barbarian tribe. They show banners of the Winter's Claw. Although we have not spotted Sejuani among the fray, they it's not just a small attack party. There's around 200 soldiers and at least 10 of them are astride warboars." Reinhart said in the deep, gravelly voice that he had as Lissandra nodded.

"Mobilize the Congelate Elite. We shall not lower our guard just because they send a raiding party at us instead of a fullscale army. We shall make them regret that." Lissandra stated as Reinhart bowed, before leaving with a swish of his cape again.

"Why are you going out to fight?" Alan asked, raising an eyebrow. From what he gathered so far, which wasn't much, Lissandra was a Queen to these people. "As the queen, don't you think you should stay out of the battle?" He added as Lissandra turned around to face him. Then, unexpectedly, she smiled at him.

"I maybe many things, Alan. I admit it, I have a lot of bad qualities as well as strong points. But I will not let my people fight for someone who won't fight beside them." She said with a strange determination in her voice. With that, she turned around and left Alan, who was standing frozen with wide eyes at her unexpected display of…. What could he call it? Loyalty to her people? Determination to keep them safe with her own hands? Whatever it was, Alan admired it.

The sounds of battle didn't reach into the castle that Alan was in. Everything seemed deserted, except for an iceborn here and there, patrolling the halls but rarely did he see them. Alan wandered the halls, exploring the ice-cave slash castle, when he happened upon a very, very large room. It seemed to be the entrance to the cave, and it was huge. Double doors 3 times bigger than Alan were on the wall across the room from him, with windows above it that revealed the light from outside, howling winds echoing in the vast hall. As Alan witnessed the grandeur, two Iceborn guards suddenly came running out of a side passage. A bunch more came running out from where Alan had come from, passing him by.

"What's going on!?" Alan asked, surprised by the sudden panic in the air. A guard stopped to look at him with wide eyes underneath his helmet.

"The battle was a trap, Lady Lissandra is retreating and we need to protect her when she comes!" He answered as Alan's eyes widened. But he owed Lissandra. She had saved his life and given him refuge.

"I want to help."

"We can always use more sword arms. The armory is down the hall, to your right. Don't take any dark ice weapons, you'll burn yourself." The guard said before he ran down the stairs to help his brethren, who were pulling the door open. A blast of white wind struck Alan as he retreated back into the hallway, running down the length of the corridor until he happened upon the afore-mentioned door to his right. He opened it, revealing a long room filled with weapon racks. As Alan ran in, he was suddenly struck by a pulse.

He stopped, eyes wide as he ceased all movements, freezing in mid-run. He raised his head, looking forward to see another door at the end of the room…

An insane urge was within him. He had to go into that room. Someone or something was calling him. Like he was hypnotized, Alan slowly walked down the room, ignoring all the weapons and armor around him. He stopped infront of the room, slowly raising his right hand. He touched the surface gingerly, tracing the ornate design on it when the door suddenly lit up from his touch, a pulse going through the door, lighting up the runic symbols that adorned the door as it passed. Then, with an unexpected but very eerie silence, the door glided open. Inside was a very large block of ice, perhaps 10 ft tall. Steps spiraled around it, leading to the top which was flat. Alan continued walking, going into the room before tentatively putting one foot on the icy step. It wasn't slippery, so Alan started ascending, not knowing why he was doing this. He just felt something calling him to climb it, something powerful.

When he reached the top, he saw a sword protruding from the ice. It was half embedded into the ice, but it looked so… beautiful. It had entranced Alan as he looked at it. It was a long, elegant blade with jagged edges, with a black handle that ended in a dark blue crystal pommel, sharp enough to be used as a secondary stabbing weapon. The guard was also black, one side coming up like the arch of a wing while the other dipped straight down, somewhat of a brace which would rest against the back of the wielders hand as well as guard it. The blade itself was even more gorgeous, black metal extending out of the handle for half the length of the blade, thinning out greatly near the end of it's 2 ft length, the last few inches embedded into the ice. But it looked… Wrong. Incomplete. The black blade had a jagged and unorthodox edge, jutting out or dipping in down the sharp edge like it was a broken blade. Blue crystals adorned the guard, glowing dimly.

Alan walked upto it, slowly and hesitantly extending his hand for the sword, which seemed to be calling to him. His shaking fingers hovered uncertainly over the handle… And then, he closed his hands, gripping the sword hard and pulled it out of the ice. Something surged within Alan as the blue glowing crystals within the hilt dimmed down.

Before Alan could spend more time examining this, he heard a tremendous crash from the entrance hall. He ran for it, taking 3 steps at a time down the ice pillar before rushing out of the armoury and back towards the entrance hall.

It was chaos, iceborn were fighting humans everywhere. But Alan's eyes landed on Lissandra, who was locked in battle with another woman. Lissandra threw icicles rapidly, conjuring them in the air as fast as she launched them, but the woman was agile, her cape flying behind her as she ran in a circle around Lissandra, hood falling back from the wind. White hair flew as the woman jumped, kicking off the wall and flipping over in the air, suddenly firing a volley of arrows from the bow in her hand while upside down in mid-flip, blue eyes shooting a piercing gaze at Lissandra. A large slab of ice jutted out infront of Lissandra, but it shattered as the arrows hit it, showering Lissandra with sharp fragments of ice. Alan lost all coherent thoughts and ran forward, the urge to help Lissandra overtaking all other thoughts. But as he ran through the fray, a man suddenly charged him, shoulder-tackling him to the ground.

Alan fell with a thump, looking up to see the man over him, raising his mace to strike Alan. Alan rolled to the right, dodging the mace as it smashed into the floor. Standing up, Alan let out an aggressive cry as he ran at the man, his inexperience clear in the way he charged. But his weapon struck the man right in the shoulder. The man screamed as smoke hissed from where his blade had made contact, the blood spurting out and freezing right as it did. But the black sword, as beautiful as it was, didn't do much damage, the blade too dull or too badly designed to do much damage. Wrenching the sword out, Alan jumped back as the man swung his mace at him in a wide horizontal arc. Before Alan could retaliate, another iceborn shoved a spear through his attacker's chest, swinging the dying man into another. That Iceborn was suddenly stabbed in the gut by a sword, blood spurting out of the wound before the man began to freeze into ice, originating at the wound.

Alan didn't stop to see the entire death, continuing to run forward. He passed Reinhart, who seemed to be locked in combat with a woman riding a very large boar and swinging a very dangerous flail.

Closing in, Alan saw that it was none other than Ashe who Lissandra was engaged in combat with. The Frost Archer had several cuts here and there, but Lissandra was in worse shape. She had 3 arrows, the shaft broken off, embedded into her left shoulder, and part of her mask was cracked, revealing one bright blue eye, similarly colored as her brightly glowing hands. Both paused as Alan ran upto them, forming a triangle. Ashe's eyes widened. So did Lissandra's. Both of their eyes stared at Alan's hands, at the sword he was holding.

"Impossible." Ashe said as Lissandra stared at him incomprehensibly. Then, suddenly, Ashe let loose 2 arrows at Alan in rapid succession. Everything suddenly slowed down as Alan watched the arrows fly at him, knowing that death was approaching him in the form of those arrows. His sword was not long enough to block them both but he raised in anyways. Fear flooded his veins, but the desperation that he experienced, the insane desire to continue living, to not die, flooded him even more, washing over the fear. Something inside of him was pulled viciously.

The air around him dropped to extreme cold as the water vapor instantly froze and gathered around the blade blade. Within a split second, he held a perfect 3 ft long sword, completed by dark blue ice now making up the incomplete portion of the sword. The newly added length and width blocked both of the arrows as Ashe's eyes widened further.

"FALL BACK!" Ashe cried out, suddenly surrounded by her soldiers as they all retreated, shouting calls of retreat. The iceborn around Alan cheered even as Alan's eyes met Lissandra, who was still staring at him in a shocked way. The cheering ended like a wave of silence as they saw Alan, standing infront of the great open doors, wielding a black and sapphire colored blade as he stared incomprehensibly at everyone.

"What's wrong?" He asked, meeting their stares. Reinhart was also staring at him with wide eyes.

"You're a Cryomancer?" Reinhart asked, as Alan blinked. "A what?"
"A Cryomancer. Someone who can control the ice. Someone like Queen Lissandra." He explained, still staring at Alan in surprise as Alan frowned.

"How do… How would I even… I can't control ice." He stated as Reinhart tilted his head. "Even more surprising, the ice isn't burning you." Reinhart commented as Alan looked down at his hand gripping the black handle. Now that he thought about it, he recalled the man he struck with the black blade having been frostburned on contact.

"It's something I've had since birth… I'm not affected by the cold." He said, feeling very uncomfortable as everyone stared at him. "But maybe I am a Cryomancer, although a very weak one since I can't control ice. I'm sure there are loads of other people that can do that."

"No…. Cryomancers are extremely rare. Queen Lissandra was thought to be the only one in the past centuries. Frig Ascutis can only be wielded by an exceptionally strong Cryomancer." Reinhart explained, shaking his head in disbelief as a small laugh escaped him. "I can't believe this… Frig Ascutis… Drawn by a simple human… You are someone special, aren't you?" He said, still shaking his head in amusement as he walked away, the soldiers parting to let him through. "What are you all gawking at? Give the man some space, he just saved all your sorry asses!" He shouted as he walked up the stairs, the soldiers all jumping at his voice before hastening to clear the hall.

Lissandra was still staring at him, studying him as Alan looked at her uncertainly. The dark ice making up the rest of his blade shattered, falling down into pieces, leaving him with the black blade again as Alan glanced down at it. "Is it… Supposed to do that?" He asked as Lissandra blinked at him.

"We need to talk." She stated, still surprised from the sound of her tone.

So, I hope this chapter wasn't as bad as the prologue chapter xD I suck at introductory chapters, so bear with me here. Anyway, leave your thoughts, comments and/or questions in the reviews below. Remember, you don't need an account to review and leave me your words of wisdom, whether they be a huge essay on how much you loved my story or how i could improve or whether they be something a zen master would say like "the best authors have ice for hair, young grasshopper"

Thanks for reading!

-Wings