The Paragons

Chapter 28: Ire and Ice

"The world-class wintry wonder standing before you---i.e. yours truly---is Cassie, a.k.a. Coldsnap, the Harbinger of Ice---she/her---and I am a Mage Aspect who hails from another dimension known as the Elemental Realms. In my homeworld, we mages are not born; we are conceived by our creator, the Ascendant, with one Aspect being created every year in a grand birth ceremony," Coldsnap began.

"There's another dimension out there besides the Shimmering Plane?!" The Viper exclaimed. "I know we heard Carlisle talking about it, but I still had some reservations!"

Coldsnap nodded. "Yes, there is. We Mage Aspects are elementalists who can control either water, earth, fire, or ice magic, and it is our duty to defend Earth from natural disasters that would otherwise wipe out millions.....you're welcome."

"So what sets you apart from these other.....'Mage Aspects'.....?" Nightclaw inquired. "Don't get me wrong; you are very special here, but it sounds like you're just one of many....at least back in your own realm."

"On the contrary. Everyone in my own dimension says that I'm the most powerful ice mage to ever be conceived by the Ascendant," she countered. "All five of you have already seen me in action before, remember? At the Jacksonville Landing?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that! It was quite the show!" Duncan complimented.

"It really was!" The Crawler agreed, his opinion drastically changing from when he had first witnessed Coldsnap's powers.

Coldsnap beamed. "Yes! .....Now everyone shut up and let me finish," she ordered, placing ice gags over everyone's mouths with a simple flick of her hand.

"Since my birth in 2003, I trained and honed my powers under my mentor, Frost King Alpin, the leader of the Ice Sect....." She chuckled to herself. "Well.....former leader of the Ice Sect, but we'll get to that in a moment. He took me under his wing for the better part of 15 years, looking after me and offering me advice whenever I felt down. Since all Mage Aspects were birthed from the Ascendant and rarely anyone ever sees him, I genuinely thought of the Frost King as a father figure for the longest time, and longed to have nothing more than his happiness and approval."

She sighed.

"However.....it was not to be. Apparently, I was so powerful that mere moments after my birth, I froze the entire congregation with one sneeze. Looking back on it.....I think that's when Frost King Alpin turned against me. He immediately began plotting with his friend---Morton Flamestar, the leader of the Fire Sect---to banish me from the Elemental Realms and send me to Earth, a plan they pulled off in 2018. Thankfully, after two years of getting used to Earth's customs---and being raised by a family consisting of my dad Mike, my older sister Alexis, and their cat Ali---I managed to return to the Elemental Realms in 2020 with the help of my friend Firebird, and set out on an adventure to recruit the Water, Earth, Fire, and Ice Sects to my cause in order to stop their plan, while also meeting my lover, Keena, for the first time along the way. Alpin, Flamestar, and their minions, the Seared Hand, would have breached the barrier to the planet and engulfed the world in flames had it not been for our valiant actions. We all put a stop to his plan during the Battle at the Grand Terminus---my personal favorite fight---and managed to stop his forces from overrunning the planet. You're all welcome," she snarked, doing a hair flip and removing the group's ice gags. 

Almost everyone was initially put off by her egotistic demeanor, but luckily, Duncan jumped to her defense. "I can indeed attest to that; she also visited me at Lifeline Industries about a week earlier and detailed her entire adventure to me back then. We were apparently.....5% 'hull integrity' away from complete. Global. Saturation. .....Whatever that means."