The Frosted Files:Open Eyes

//Chapter 20\\

    This was looking to be one fight I couldn't weasel my way out of.
    I didn't lose hope, obviously - that would be giving up, in a way, which is the first step to losing.
    I looked around at my destroyed home, the fallen walls. Off to the side was a large holiday picture we had taken of the entire gang, fallen, the frame broken - me and my inner circle up front, with everyone else around us, and our very tall Christmas tree in the back.
    And hiding behind the broken frame, which was leaned against a wall, was Newt.
    Maybe I couldn't weasel my way out of this on my own.
    Maybe I could get help.
    Would it be worthwhile? Selling out?
    It was worth a shot.
    "Mab! Let's talk!"
    The air temperature dropped by at least twenty degrees, and I watched the smoke and dust slow to a stop, a tumbling bit of debris freeze mid-air.
    Queen Mab of Winter stepped out from a broken doorway.
    The beast had also froze, luckily, because I just now noticed its other clawed hand pulled back in a fist, ready to end me.
    "Fate Frost. You seem to be in some kind of predicament."
    "Yeah, yeah, just a little. Tell me about your offer, why dontcha?"
    She smiled, and knelt beside me. "Gladly, my Frostburn. My proposition is that, should you take the role of my Champion and all that comes with it, including great power, I will do one favour for you of your choosing, with no malicious intent. You could save yourself, and live with this power."
    "And this title, this power, what's the cost?"
    "Well, as my Champion, you'd answer to me. You'd be under my protection, and under my word. That's not that bad, is it?"
    I thought it over.
    It didn't take long.
    I stuck my hand out.
    "Deal. I'll be your champion, for one favour."
    She grabbed my hand, and we shook.
    Power flowed into me. A lot of Power. When Adrian had lent me his little bit, it felt like gentle sunshine. This felt like being hit by a speeding glacier. Coldness flowed into my body, frost formed along my skin, and for a moment, I was blinded by the cold agony of Winter's Power.
    Luckily, Mab didn't unfreeze time. When the Power flow had eased up, and I could see and speak, she knelt beside me.
    "And what do you wish for, my Champion?"
    I looked at the frozen display in my sight, of Apollo and Bar and Ezra.
    "Get my friends out of this building, a couple blocks away. Make sure they're safe."
    Her smile widened, and she looked at the inky beast. "Of course, my Champion."
    And just like that, she was gone. When I looked at my display again, so was everyone trapped.
    The building's clear, boss.
    And I got punched, hard.
    But my shield, which had been as strong as your average riot shield before, now felt more like the shield it had been designed after, so instead of becoming Fate jelly, I instead got a magical force field slammed into my face with a fraction of the force that had been thrown at me.
    The beast howled in pain as its fist connected, and I heard something snap.
    "Level up. Let's try this again, bud."
    I pulled its hand off me, feeling magic flow into my muscles to boost my strength, on top of what my suit gave me, and I wormed my way out of its grip. It roared and turned to follow me, and I moved the tech off my shoulder, revealing the cuts I had gotten from the beast's claws, even through my suit.
    I slapped my hand over the blood, and slapped it onto the ground, spinning in a quick circle. Throwing a bit of my will, backed by my newfound Power, I sprung up the circle.
    Just in time, too. The beast crashed into my new barrier, and was stopped dead in its tracks.
    That had been a risk. If it had been some mortal thing, something actually living, it would have broken the circle and crushed me.
    But no, this was something from Faern. It was stopped.
    Destiny, pull up the remote control for site C4.
    Boss?
    Just do it, Destiny. Please.
    As Destiny logged me into the database for an out of town government missile storage facility, I looked around at the Compound.
    It was in ruins. No amount of repair would bring it back; we would have to knock it all down and start over.
    In, boss.
    Send over number seven.
    Shipping would take a few days, but-
    Don't ship it. Launch it.
    Are you sure?
    As sure as I could be after selling my freedom. Target coordinates where the wizard blasted a hole through the building.
    Okay boss. Brace, thirty seconds.
    Thirty seconds.
    I can work with that.
    Breaking the circle with a quick swipe of my foot, I stepped to the side as the beast crashed down, no longer supported by the invisible barrier.
    I ran towards the large hole in the building, which had gotten larger than before, due to lack of structural support. It was now roughly 20 feet wide, so that was great.
    Of course, the beast followed me. It likely didn't have higher tactical thinking, so it couldn't recognize this as a trap. All the better for me.
    I had one more thing I needed to do, before the missile arrived.
    As the beast swiped at me again, I sidestepped and stuck my hand into the mucus again, and pulled it out, covered in black goo.
    Then I took a bit of rubble off the ground, and made another circle with the goo.
    Twenty seconds.
    I closed my eyes, holding the goo in one hand and the rubble in the other.
    I didn't know if this would work - Adrian's thaumaturgy lesson had been kinda rushed, due to movie night. Hell, I didn't even know if this Winter magic could do thaumaturgy.
    Regardless, I tried.
    I pictured the beast in my head, the mucus covering it, and the goo on my hand.
    Then, I pictured the pebbles in my hand, and the chunks of brick and wood and other rubble surrounding us.
    I felt a slow stream of Power leaving me, so that was a good sign.
    Pushing my two hands together, a large surge of Power escaped, and was contained by the circle. I kept some with me, ready to be set off when need be.
    For now.
    Envisioning what I wanted to happen, I broke the circle.
    The power rushed out, and I saw the rubble around me start to shake.
    The beast dispels direct magic, so let's try indirect magic.
    Ten seconds.
    Rubble began to fly towards the beast, hitting it - and getting caught in its inky mucus.
    Piece after piece flew into and stuck onto the beast, giving it a debris dusting, and adding at least a few hundred pounds.
    It roared and charged me, a lot slower than before.
    As it got close to me, and therefore the hole, I released the last bit of energy I had been holding onto, and rods of rebar impaled the beast, some forming themselves to pin it in place.
    I fell to a knee, huffing. Using that much magic in such a short time was very tiring.
    The beast roared, and tried to pull away, but was stuck.
    Rebar is made of steel, which is made of iron.
    If this thing is fae, which I think it is, then it should be a lot less powerful now, without its magic to boost itself.
    Five seconds.
    In a last ditch effort, I traced a circle in the dust around me, and put a bit of my will into it. I could see the missile approaching, and the sunlight gleamed from the polished metal.
    If this was how I went out, then so be it.
    My people are safe.
    I closed my eyes, set my head on my knee, and heard the whistle of the missile approach.
    I heard the impact.
    And then I didn't hear anything.
    No, I didn't die. This is a trilogy, remember?
    Instead, I opened my eyes, and found myself in a room much like Ed's, but somehow bigger. I mean, Ed's place seems endless - but this place had something about it, some unspoken energy that made it feel bigger, older.
    On a throne sat a heavyset man. He had a long, white beard, with matching hair, and wore darker blues and blacks, silvers and grays. One each shoulder sat a bird blacker than any night sky in Arbitrium. The eyepatch over his left eye had many runes sewn on, silver against black. To top it all off, he had a name tag sticker on his outermost layer, which read 'Hello! My name is', and after that was a series of runes; ᛟᛞᛁᚾ.
    "Fate Frost."
    "That's my name. It seems everyone knows it."
    One-eye nodded. "For you, yes, it would appear that way."
    I crossed my arm. "So, what do you want, One-Eye?"
    He took a moment to process the name I used for him, and nodded, as if accepting it. "The Higher Ups wished for me to relay a message to you, on behalf of them."
    "Who?"
    "The ones who made the universe, Frost."
    A slow chill went down my spine. "Okay, and what's this message?"
    He cleared his throat. "Thrice ye shall live, thrice ye shall die, Winter bound Summer blood of the Open Eye."
    As he said that, I felt a very subtle energy flow from him, to me. It settled somewhere in my chest.
    Pulling open my shirt to reveal the usual pale blue skin that comes with these magical meetings, I saw three snowflakes form over my heart.
    "Like a video game, huh? Three lives, then game over?"
    "If you want to look at it that way."
    "Cool, cool."
    I don't really believe that's how that'd work - I mean, death is death, isn't it?
    Regardless, the snowflakes were on my chest, along with that subtle energy that had entered me.
    "I'll see you soon, Frost."
    Air began to swirl around me, growing in speed while dropping in temperature. Soon, ice crystals joined the mix, and frost and snow and ice kept building up, swirling around me, and soon, I couldn't see One-Eye anymore.
    I closed my eyes, and opened them to the bright Arbitrium sun.
    I was laying down, with my friends and family around me. Groaning, I got up, and looked around. Roughly two blocks away was a small cloud of dust, not quite a mushroom cloud, but close.
    Adrian had been laying beside me, for some reason. You never know with wizards.
    He held a hand out, which I grabbed to help him up. I'm sure he could have just floated his way up, but when our hands touched, his lended magic flowed back into him; he likely didn't want to make a show of asking for his Power back. Smart man.
    No one said anything, but we started making our way back to the Compound. The roads had been abandoned, due to the bombing, so me and my large group or roughly two thousand russian men walked through the streets, weaving through abandoned cars and poles. Later on in the day, we would see posts and stories on social media apps about us, people saying we were marching to finish the job. Some claimed that I was dead. Some said it had been a freak accident.
    We got to the compound, mostly broken walls and rubble. The missile had done a number on it, on top of the beast, which was nowhere to be found. There was a lot of ectoplasm on site, however, so I can only assume the beast was killed.
    Some of the goons cried over lost possessions - I know most had very little personal items that they had brought over when they joined me.
    Regardless, we tried. We tried to salvage what we could - me and Apollo dug through our stuff, picking out a few photographs that had lived, clothes that could be washed. I saw Zane go towards the infirmary, and take out the little photograph he kept in his pocket. It was of a little boy, brown hair, with a little gap in his two front teeth. Really cute kid. None of us knew who it was, or how Zane had gotten the photo, but he said he had felt some connection to the kid, he just couldn't place it. Zane picked out a small stuffed bear that he had kept on his desk, as well as most of the items from said desk. Eventually, someone had gone to a department store of some type and gotten boxes for us to use.
    So, through the ruins of our lives, we took what we could salvage, and moved on.
    As we did this, I called up a friend of mine in the construction business, and we arranged for the ruins to be removed, and the compound to be rebuilt. It would take a lot of money, but that wasn't a concern for me.
    I also arranged for each and every soldier, goon, and worker of mine to get a monthly pay of seventy five hundred, just to live. I don't know where they would all go, but they could eat and sleep, and that's all I could offer for now.
    It hurt, seeing my people in this state. Quiet, shocked, but digging through this all anyway.
    Tony drove up in my van a while later, and I had my inner circle pile our stuff up inside. All in all, we had gotten about six moving boxes worth of things and clothes, between my entire inner circle. It wasn't a lot, but it was a start.
    Ezra had a place to stay, as she usually ran recon and information collection, so she left us behind to go do that. Bar went to follow, and the two talked, and they both returned. Ezra was crying, and Bar had an arm around her shoulders.
    My people dispersed, to find places to stay for the upcoming year, and I was left with my inner circle, sitting next to my newly fixed van. I don't know how Tony managed to nearly rebuild the front half of the bus in a few hours, but he managed it.
    While this all happened, Mab had stood off to the side and watched. Adrian helped us where he could, magically lifting things too heavy for even a group of my strongest men. The two now beckoned me over, and I told my loved ones to stay put.
    "Fate Frost, Champion of Winter, I must say, you handled that quite well." The Queen said as I approached.
    Adrian had lost his smile, and instead stood on the ground, standing straight and formal. I took that as a 'not very good' sign.
    "Of course, my Queen. That is why you chose me, is it not?"
    She smiled a little, just enough to show her snow white teeth. "Indeed it is, indeed it is."
    "And so, why do you call me over? I imagine praise is not something needing its own little meeting."
    She shook her head, and turned to Adrian. "Mageknight so'Wyllt, are you aware that MIASS owes a favour to Winter?"
    "I am aware, yes." The wizard said, avoiding eye contact.
    "And that you, personally, owe me a favour, personally?"
    "Again, yes, I am aware."
    "Splendid. Mageknight so'Wyllt, with you acting on behalf of the council, I would like to redeem my favour owed, and have you train my Champion in the way of magic."
    "And for your favour?" Adrian asked, his face having gone pale.
    "I want you to make it hurt. This one learns through pain and rage, through need to survive. Push him. I've seen your few training lessons before, Adrian. Make. It. Hurt. Or I'll train him, and make it lethal."
    Adrian winced when she said his name, but nodded. "Understood, Queen of Winter."
    "That will be all, you two. Frostburn, I'll be checking up on your progress as it goes. Farewell."
    And she disappeared. Not even an eye-blink disappearance, or a puff of smoke, or anything. Just gone, simply and truly.
    Adrian let his shoulders slump, and began to float again, and turned to me.
    "Well, Fate, it seems we have some more business to do."
    "Let me get my people settled, and we can discuss it then, bud."
    He nodded, and I turned to go back to my friend.
    My family.
    The ones I had gone through the frosty layers of hell for.
    I smiled as I approached, because they were all living, if shook up.
    My family was here, and we were together again.