Several days after Enaguille was thrown into the dungeon he received his first visitor. He was excited at first expecting it to be his father, come to release him and congratulate him on his victory; instead it was Maester Leana. She was wrapped head to toe with thick clothes; the elder woman had a great issue dealing with the cold.

He prefer to see his father but Maester Leana was to him the next best thing. She was the only person kind to him in that entire castle and he thought of her more of a mother than his own. He rose to his feet to greet her and she smiled at him.

"This is no place for you," Leana said solemn.

"It's no place for you either," Enaguille countered.

Her smile grew and she reached through the bars to grab Enaguille's hands, "My dear boy, I was so scared when your mother announced that your duel was to the death and then arranged for Sir Darriec to fight you."

"Yeah I was frightened too when I saw who I was fighting, but here I am, the victor." He said sounding upset.

"You fought valiantly, better than anyone ever expected of you. And they put a young man like yourself who still had much growing to do against one of the kingdoms greatest fighters. Your father should have stopped that duel before it began and arranged someone more equal to you, your brothers all faced equal opponent's. Some a little better but never ones so well talented and experienced."

"Has my father said anything of me?"

She looked down and shook her head, "He's not said a word since your victory, I'm afraid."

"He's mad at me isn't he? He's mad because how I won that duel."

"Now why would you think something like that?" She asked baffled by the question.

"Because of how I won, because it was not with a weapon or my fists, but instead with magic. It wasn't done the Tarrock way. You know, sometimes I wonder if I really am one of them. They're all great warriors and I'm... I am just a disgrace compared to the rest of them."

"Now you look at me, boy," she said in commanding tone. "I pulled you into this world, healed many of your wounds, including that one across your chest, I had a huge part in raising you too. And if you think you're not a Tarrock then you need to take a closer look at your lineage. What do you think is the Tarrock family power, hmm?"

Enaguille had to think about the answer for a minute. Then he said, "Power, strength, leadership."

"Yes your family has power, your kin embrace their strengths, and you have strength of will above all. These things combined is why your family rules Aladorn, the toughest land there is in Grimnar. And you my boy are the most powerful Tarrock in generations, that's why your brothers hate you so: they're jealous of you.

"I have seen them knock you down a thousand times over and more, and tell you you're a disgrace but still you stood back up and you stayed, that is the power of your Will. They punched you and kicked you as much as they could but you never broke, instead they tired out and you could keep on fighting, that is your Strength. And since you were a babe the cold has never once touched you, you walked home in a blizzard half naked once and was as fine as you were when you left. And at your duel you turned a powerful adversary into a frozen sculpture of ice that you broke apart in one blow, that is your Power!

"You're right though you are not like them, you are better. Thousands of boys will become warriors here in Aladorn but only a few will be magi. And you know that a magi that reaches their full potential can take on more warriors than your father, mother, or brothers ever could. And you my frigid prince, you will blossom into an amazing magi that will make this entire kingdom proud to call you Tarrock, and say you came from here."

Enaguille seldom cried before, even when he was young and his brother's beat him up he didn't cry. But today with Leana's speech he couldn't help it. She always knew how to best heal his wounds, physical or emotional. While he struggled to make his father proud she struggled for him to be proud of himself.

The day's slipped by for Enaguille after Leana's visit. He stopped wondering when or if his father would visit or when they would let him out of there. He instead focused on his powers. It was tricky to control them at first, but with nothing else to do all day he kept at it; steadily getting better.

As his entire cell was frozen over the guards had to move further away from it to keep warm. They could have told him to stop but he was still a prince, and they were afraid of his powers if they were to upset him; so they kept quiet and just moved further from him. And the times continued on but still no one more came to visit him, he thought about escaping once but wondered where he would go if he did; and so he abandoned the thought.

One night as the moon was full he stared out of the bars in his cell and into the sky. He watched as a shadow began to eclipse the moon, darkening the lands below. A strange drowsy sense fell over him and he couldn't resist the command for him to slumber and fell over unconscious.

That night he dreamed of that mysterious dark structure in the east, dreamed of its doors opening wide for all. He heard the voice inside of it, and the wish it promised. And later he awoke, the sun was rising up and he knew what to do to make his father proud of him. To make his whole family see who he truly was; but first he had to escape.

"Guard!" he shouted. No answer, he waited another minute then shouted again, "Guard!" he shouted again and moments later he heard the guards waking up and talking amongst themselves. He shouted for them again, then again and kept on it until one of them came.

He was a gruffly man, much like most the men of Aladorn. "Whatda ya want?" he asked irritated.

"I want a piece of parchment, some ink and a writing quill."

"Aye and I wanna fuck the queen for all the good it does me, what's in it for me if I get you this stuff?"

Enaguille hesitated in thought, then said, "It's been rather cold down here in this dungeon, and I can make it much colder, so much that not even a fire will keep you warm and you will have to abandon your posts just to keep from freezing to death. Cannot imagine my father, the king, would be too happy about you doing that now. Or I could retract the ice and you can keep your posts and my father won't toss your asses out into the woods for negligence."

The guard swallowed the lump growing in his throat then left. He didn't say whether or not he'd grab what Enaguille requested but he had no choice but to hope for his threat to play out the way he wanted.

Enaguille was relieved when the guard returned later with what he asked for... and breakfast. As the guard handed him the parchment, quill, and ink bottle he said, "Alright boy I got what you wanted now get rid of this bloody ice!"

"That will take time, a couple day's at most, but I promise that you that by later tonight you won't have to worry about it anymore."

The guard cursed a little but didn't push Enaguille and went back to his position until the next guards came to swap them out. Enaguille ate his breakfast fast and then used the light shining in from the window bars to write out his note. He had to make haste for his ink bottle was quickly freezing over.

When the note was finished he let it dry out and kept reading it all day, while waiting until dark, assuring himself over and over this was his only course of action; and his best. After his last meal he sat at the back of the cell, closing his eyes to try and sleep a little, before it was time to make his escape.

He dreamed of nothing and woke up to see the large moon still in the sky, he hadn't missed his mark. He waited for a group of storm clouds to overtake the moon before he conjured a pedestal of ice: placing his note safely atop it. Then he went to the bars on the cell and wrapped his frigid hands around them. A thin blue mist casually drifted off the bars as they froze over and became so brittle he could pull them out like pulling a small branch from a tree.

The bars breaking off were almost entirely noiseless and carefully. Enaguille placed the pieces he pulled out onto the floor. He stepped out of the cell, a blue mist coming off him, his eyes gleaming sapphire. The two guards on detail stood far away from his cell and with their backs turned to him. He simply knelt down and put his hands flat on the floor, extending his will and his power forth.

As he did the ice steadily crept along towards the guards until it reached the base of their feet. Then it hastened, like a ravenous beast swiftly consuming its prey. The ice froze over the guards entirely before they even knew what was happening. The cold frost from his magic had blown out the torches to the dungeon but Enaguille always had a strong nocturnal vision and navigating the, now dark, dungeon was easy as before to him.

He walked to the thick wooden doors closing off the dungeon and blocking any would be escaped prisoners, like himself, and froze it over quietly; now he could get an even larger head start before anyone noticed he was gone. With that done, he returned to his cell and began to glaze over his brick wall with wisps of ice weakening the stone until he could steadily break it apart.

Outside the storm clouds covered the skies and rain began a heavy downpour, it was like an act of providence to Enaguille. Slowly but steadily he made his way through the wall, freezing over a thin layer to weaken it then breaking it down. The whole process took him little over an hour but he finally tore apart the wall leading to the outside, and casually walked out.

Most of the guards had taken shelter from the icy rains so that made it easy for Enaguille to sneak over to one of the stables and steal a horse. There were no guards at the stables he aimed for, after all who would be foolish enough to steal from the royal family stables in their own castle grounds?

He took his favorite horse, Lucid, a pony he had raised since he himself was a child. It was his father's orders that all his children must raise and take care of their first horse they are to ride, gives them a better appreciation of the beasts, he says. Lucid was the only horse he could ride properly, all the others he tried were afraid of him, or felt uncomfortable in there gallop to him.

Enaguille hopped onto his horse and casually trotted him down the front path to the gates. The guards at the gates gave him some trouble, until he told them who he was, then they opened the gate for him, and shut it soon as he was out; they didn't bother asking why he was no longer locked away.

He sped Lucid down the known roads for a while until he had to go off course to cover his tracks; from there he slowed his horse down to brisk walk. He hated the slow pace he had to make but unlike him, Lucid couldn't see through the darkness so well and it would be an even slower trip if he had stumbled and broken a leg: forcing Enaguille to walk on his own feet.

Enaguille travelled on for the full night, never stopping until the sun began to rise. The journey was wet and he began to feel the hunger by then but his trail off the main road wasn't too bad. He managed to avoid most of the rougher terrains and found, by pure luck, the smallest hills. Even in the dark Lucid understood what Enaguille was doing and let him lead perfectly so even though there were many obstacle's along the way, that would prove very detrimental to other riders in the dark, to Lucid and Enaguille they seemed only some minor inconveniences; few here and there caused them to take small detours.

Though with the sun up, Enaguille allowed Lucid some rest, and was grateful for the rain to have stopped at crack of dawn too. He led Lucid into the sun the help him warm up more as he went off on a small hunt. He knew if he stopped to rest now without any catch, then he would find it even harder to hunt for food the next time.

Hunting was another skill-set Abaron taught all his children; a king who knew how to hunt like a seasoned ranger, it was always peculiar to the other highborn and lords; especially since his father before him had not been a hunter at all. Regardless of why Abaron taught his children these skills, Enaguille was grateful for it: now more than ever.

He had soon enough gotten lucky once more and found fresh rabbit tracks in the softened ground. Finding them was then easy but his troubles came from how would he now capture them? He didn't dare risk going deeper into the castle to steal any supplies or weapons so he had only Lucid and the clothes on his back.

The rabbit would be moving on soon and his stomach was already growling at him; if he didn't find a way to catch them now it might become impossible later. He cursed silently to himself, what good were his powers now if he couldn't even use them to catch some food? His ice was to slow to entrap them in a cage, at least with how little practice he had at his powers. If he only had a bow, then this would be easy.

That last thought stuck with him, he didn't have the bow, but maybe he could launch a thin arrow of ice like it was shot from a bow. He had never before tried or even thought of it, but if he wanted to make it further he needed to test the extent of his powers and see what he could do and what he could not with them.

The rabbits began to finish their small meal and sniff the air, it was now or never. Enaguille held his hands out in front of him aimed at the two rabbits and bent in his fingers slightly, imagining they were like a bow and his magic was now like arrows. When he was ready he shot out twin bolts of jagged ice from his hands, swift as arrows they went.

The first ice bolt pierced one of the rabbit's neck; killing it instantly, the second missed marginally and the other rabbit fled. Enaguille jumped and half shouted with excitement, until he remembered he was on the run. He settled down after that and retrieved the rabbit and began picking up sticks; both thick and thin along the way back to Lucid.

Once before the rains were a blessing, masking his escape, now they were a great hindrance as all the sticks he could find were wet. He had no other choice but to let them dry out in the sun while he focused on making an ice blade to skin the rabbit.

Making the blade itself wasn't too hard, far easier than his projectile ice, but he still had the issue of the fire now. The sticks were still moist but he had no other choice but to keep rubbing them into a small cut on the little log he found until they began to dry and eventually smoke. After a couple hours he got a small fire going and struggled just as much to keep it up as he did to light it. His arms were very tired after that but he had made fair progress all the same.

The rabbit tasted bitter in comparison to what he was used to, but that was probably because he was not a very great cook. Lucid, thankfully, was smart enough to find his own meal of small plants and some mushrooms growing off the trunk of the trees. After the meal he put Lucid to rest and did so himself after checking the area to make sure no one had been tailing him; he covered his tracks well.

Enaguille later woke up as the sun was setting and he hopped on Lucid as they were off again, heading to the Evercain border.

Enaguille stood at the far south bridge ruins of the great river Meza thinking about the story of the invasion attempt made by his father years ago. He wasn't even born back then but even now standing by those ruins he could almost hear the cries of battle and the ring of metal in his ears. Barley any traces of the great battle that took place here still remained today; the great river washed away his father’s mark on history.

He waited there until dusk started approaching. By that time he sent his horse running back home, he couldn't take Lucid with him where he was going. He could have gone down the middle bridge, the one still standing but it was exclusive to traders and invited guests only, and he could not pull off the appearance for either so he decided he would make his own bridge across: one of ice.

When Lucid was gone, Enaguille walked to the edge of the original bridge, kneeled down and slowly constructed a narrow path of ice. The Ice path steadily grew more and more reaching to the other end of the river and growing a little wider too. When it finally reached the other side of the River, from what Enaguille could see, it was over four feet wide and looked to him a little frail. He was hesitant to take the first step onto his own creation but soon enough did as his night wouldn't last forever.

He put his foot on the ice; it began to crack as he put more weight on it so he quickly pulled it back. Frustrated at himself he held his hands out to the bridge and started making it thicker with a beam of ice shooting into it. The cracks disappeared and he stepped foot on the bridge again, this time without hesitation.

With his full force on it, the bridge of solid ice stood firm and his heart steadily slowed back down. He walked slowly at first, still cautious, but the further he went the more confident he was in his own bridge and began a brisk pace down it. By the time he reached the halfway point of his bridge, where there was no turning back, he began to hear it crack.

Enaguille panicked as the cracks grew louder and chased after him from behind. He started to run and before long the cracks caught up to him and were racing ahead. He could hear the bridge collapsing behind him as he went; no more chances to turn back. He was almost there but the collapsing bridge had caught up to him and he was forced to make large leap to get across at this point.

With everything he had in him he burst his energy forth from his legs and dived towards the other side of the river just as the bridge collapsed beneath his feet. He landed just beyond the river, his face planted in the dirt. He spit out the grass he bit down by accident when he landed and cheered triumphantly.

He got to his feet the last remnants of his frozen bridge already fallen into the river. "This is my power," he said to himself. "I can do this, I'm going to cross over into Evercain and go to that tower." He then turned and continued on to the wall.

Up close Enaguille saw the wall was larger than he imagined, reaching into the sky and stretching all the way across the Evercain kingdom. He had to get over it before he could get to the tower but he did just cross the great river Meza with his own bridge of Ice, he can do this.

Steadily Enaguille built up a small rectangular block of ice, using his powers, and stepped on it. He then created another one larger than the one before and fused their bases together. Keeping up this process, step by step, Enaguille created himself a staircase, though ugly in appearance, was very sturdy in comparison to his bridge and gradually as the night drifted away his stairs grew until dawn had approached and he reached the top of the wall.

He was exhausted now, using his powers so much had worn him out greatly but he couldn't stop yet; he now needed to get down. At first he was planning on crafting another stairway of ice to descend but as the sun rose in the sky the guards atop the wall were able to spot Enaguille.

They were still some distance from him but He didn't have enough time to form a staircase down before they got to him. He needed to improvise and fast.

As quick as he could Enaguille began crafting an ice ramp that curved into itself to keep him from sliding off and guided him down. He made the base attached to the wall as fortified and thick as he could before working on the ramp. It began to spiral down steadily as he went but he only made it half way down the wall before the guards were upon him, swords drawn and pointed at him ready to cut him down if he made a single move towards them.

They saw his great powers so were cautious to come close to him but their caution didn't last and they began to advance closer, Enaguille held his hands up no longer crafting the ice slide. He began to back up towards it slowly saying, "Easy fella's I don't want any trouble."

"What are you doing here, and how did you get all the way up here?" One of the guards asked, keeping his blade pointed towards Enaguille.

Enaguille was now at the base of his slide but the guards had finally come close enough to him to touch his neck with the tips of their swords. He swallowed a lump in his throat and pointed his finger towards his ice formed stairs; with his hands still up it was a difficult task.

The guard who asked him the question then looked over to the stairs of ice and his mouth dropped, his sword almost dropped with it. "I don't believe this, guys come look at this."

Slowly the other guards went over there and stood amazed at the staircase of Ice ascending from the ground to the top of the wall. While they were distracted Enaguille turned and dived onto his ramp, praying to all the gods it would hold his weight. It did but he slid down it fast and soon realized he hadn't a chance to finish it.

The turns came fast and he almost lost the count of how many there were until the edge. As he zipped down the twisting slide he counted each turn until he got to right before the last one and prepared to hastily continue the slide whilst still going down it. But as the turn came he was going too fast and began to free fall off the wall.

There was no time to scream he could only then act. And Enaguille only had one thing he could do, thrusting his hands out he shot out a beam of ice from his hands; desperately trying to form a ramp from the ground up to save him. The ramp started to form and quickly rose to meet his descent but wasn't fast enough and his fall onto it was a painful one met with a loud thud.

He kept bouncing down the ramp instead of sliding. And with each bounce off the ramp he hurt more and more all over, no control of his dynamic or momentum. For a time he thought he was dead as his bouncing stopped and he was now just rolling, but when that stopped he dared to open his eyes: he was on the ground and his whole body hurt.

Breathing was painful but walking was excruciating. He lay back down; content to rest when the sounds of two men screaming from high up caught his attention. It was two of the guards who boldly followed him down his ramp. But when they met the end of the first ramp and got to the free fall they were not prepared; they must have expected it to keep going.

Enaguille watched as they landed on his other ramp and exploded in a show of gore. He turned away a little frightened by it; that could have been him. It would have been him if he was not blessed with such a sturdy body, was that too a byproduct of his magic? Regardless of the answer he was alive and if he wanted to remain that way he had to keep moving.

So despite the agony it caused him, Enaguille pushed ahead in the Evercain lands; heading straight for the tower. Along the way there was a forest off to the north. Enaguille went in there to hide as he could hear the sounds of galloping horses further at his back, he knew the guards from atop the wall, the ones still alive, must have reported him and were now in his pursuit.

The woods gave Enaguille shelter for the day and he soon enough drifted off to sleep, content to let his dreams dull his pain and exhaustion. He dreamt about falling down his slide just as it happened earlier but this time when he crafted his safety ramp and hit down on it, it shattered apart and he kept falling. Just as he hit the ground he woke up suddenly, his entire body pulsing with pain. From the cracks of light seeping through the thicket of trees he could see the first rays of the morning light; he had been asleep at least all day and night.

Starving, still in great pain, and exhausted Enaguille had to get up and hunt. It was easy enough tracking a deer but catching it in this state was nothing like catching the rabbits. It took him a while but he finally got a clear shot at it and took it down. This time he was able to make a fire much easier with the dried wood, and skinning the deer was not hard either, the whole thing just hurt greatly in his condition.

Enaguille remained in the forest for many days after, he may have survived the fall but whatever bones were not broken were surely bruised. If anything good came from his time in the forest it was that the guards would surely have either lost interest in searching for him, which even he doubted, or had moved on further ahead assuming he kept going. And from the fact he didn't hear anyone search the forest for him he was sure that's what they were doing is looking for him much further ahead; after all they didn't know where his intended target was.

The days had turned into weeks while Enaguille still remained in the forest recovering. By now winter had finally ended and spring was upon the lands in early bloom. When he finally recovered enough Enaguille left the forest and continued on to the Tower.

As he went Enaguille was able to take in the serenity and beauty of the Evercain lands. It was a beautiful landscape in comparison to the rough and coarse lands of Aladorn. Where Aladorn was all hills, mountains, and rocks: Evercain was flat grasses, sparkling rivers, and tranquil forests.

The rest of the trip to the tower was uneventful for Enaguille. He had passed by a number of towns and villages along his way but he avoided them. It did him good anyways as he had no money to pay for any food and he knew he wouldn't make a very good thief as it were. Hunting in Evercain was also far easier than in Aladorn, the animals were more abundant and had less places to hide.

Eventually Enaguille had reached the base of the tower, where he saw several planks of wood around the grey lands before the doors. A sign that numerous people had already gone to the tower, and many more were expected but for the time there was no one else around. His journey to the tower was over, but his real journey had just begun.