You've Messed with the Wrong Mage

Kane Wieland is the Crown Prince of the Dune Empire and the only supreme mage who wields two elements. Endless war wore him down. When his father King Elias wanted to expand the empire, Kane refused. He cut ties with the Dune Empire and wanted a normal life.

Six years later, Kane lives as a blacksmith in a small town with his wife Ayla and daughter Bella. Ayla is Frosthold's ice huntress, hiding her past. She once loved Sean Lother, now Frosthold's commander. When Frosthold faces invasion, Sean calls her back. Ayla tells Kane she is leaving and taking Bella. Kane refuses. Ayla uses magic to put him to sleep, leaves a bag of gold, and takes their daughter.

Kane wakes and follows. He reaches Frosthold's gate, uses dragon flame to break the city ward, and enters. Frosthold's guards find their captain struck down by dragon flame and assume the Dune Empire has already infiltrated.

Inside Frosthold, Sean and King Aethel prepare for war. Cole, commander of the Dune Empire, arrives and demands surrender. Frosthold refuses. Cole defeats Morren, Frosthold's rank-s mage, then turns his dragon flame on the city. Kane steps in and blocks it. He denies being a mage and calls himself only a blacksmith.

King Aethel asks how a peasant could cast dragon flame. Morren suggests he copied Cole, calling his talent remarkable. The king accepts that explanation. Kane's true identity stays hidden. Then the Greysor Patriarch, Ayla's father, moves to take Bella, saying he will purge every trace of Kane from her and fill her veins with ice magic. Bella is to become a Greysor, with nothing to do with Kane. Kane's answer: "Who dares touch my daughter."