Prologue

The white fluted wand shone with such an intensity as it was raised high, trembling , not because of the immense energy it held, but that of the shivering hand that held it. A voice rang out in his head:"You cant do this, you cant! Please Don't!" The hand wavered in its motion suspended in that moment of time, before what seemed like an unseen force took over and the wand swished down, leaving a blazing trail in its wake. That was the first of the seven strokes required for the spell to take effect. A pale white snowflake drifted down as the bone-white bar of fire burnt yet another line in his vision. " I must... there is just no other way to deal with someone of that calibre. I MUST!". The second stroke was more painful than the last and he knew that it would continue increasing with the last being the worst. The two voices that were in his head proceeded to outlast each other, he continued with the next three strokes of the spell. As the power, pain and the internal conflict reached a crescendo, he completed the circle around the symbol he had drawn, a snowflake. "NO!" The voice in his head yelled, louder than ever before, that was when the hand, his hand, was being raised poised to end it, end it all. His mind thought of the procedure to remove whatever he had begun to cast but his hand instead went to the final stroke of the spell. He pointed at the symbol and under his breath murmured the words that would end it, "Glacius" he sighed. That word felt pale in comparison compared to the mental argument he was just having, but it carried, just as that argument in his head, the weight of the world.