Fiery pain in his arm brought Izen back to the world of the conscious. He had been lying on a solid stone slab on one side of the chamber in which he now found himself. His surroundings were dim, damp and cold, in other words unpleasant. Forcing himself to sit up, throbbing pain surged through his head. Something or someone had hit him in the head, and he was still feeling it now. He shivered in the cold, realizing that in the interim since last being awake his shirt had been taken. Looking down at his arm he found that it had been wrapped in clean white bandages, though blood was still seeping out through them. He groaned, and turned to survey the rest of the room. There were stone walls on all four sides, with a solid looking wood and metal door in the middle of one, and a low ceiling. The room was otherwise bare, apart from the old lady, who stood on the opposite side of the room, watching him with interest.

“Finally awake I see,” she said in a soft yet commanding voice. “What is your name?”

“Izen,” Izen replied, his thoughts still a bit fuzzy from his wounds. “I’m glad you’re alright.” added. “Where are we?” he asked, suddenly confused as to where they were.

“You’re in quite a difficult predicament Izen,” the old lady stated, “though through no fault of your own.” She then grinned “Well, sort of actually.” she added. Izen gave her a confused look.

“We’re in the dungeons of the Sisters of the Radiant Dawn. This place doesn’t really match their name does it,” she paused before continuing. “Some of them believe that you are my apprentice, while others think that you are just a good hearted young man who was in the wrong place. Either way, you gained quite the wound, and needed healing that only they could provide, so the Sisters were so kind as to cooperate.”

Izen nodded, the events of the battle coming back to him as his head started to clear. The way that she said that last bit made it sound like they didn’t have a choice.

“And who are you then, that Dragon Riders have such an interest in you?” He asked.

“Oh just some old lady passing by.” she answered with a comical edge to her tone that also told him that that was all he was going to learn about her. An old lady just passing by she certainly wasn’t though. You don’t just go for a casual walk in the Weeping Forest.

Izen sighed, which unfortunately sent another ache through his body. He was surprised that he wasn’t dead, but also confused as to what actually happened in the battle. Too many things didn’t make sense. He was normally cautious in combat, weighing up the odds before engaging, but in this case he had just rushed in. And rats certainly do not fly. He also wanted, nay needed to learn more about this strange old lady, but he knew that today would not be when. He groaned, and lay back on the slab, regretting doing so straight away.

“Do you wish to survive this Izen,” the old lady asked, a serious edge to her voice.

“Of course I do,” he snapped, regretting his tone straight away and looking down at the floor. “Sorry, Yes I do.” he then said. “This place has me on edge.”

“I’m not surprised,” affirmed the old lady. “You don’t belong here.”

The old lady reached inside her cloak and pulled out two crumpled black garments, lobbying them at him. He unfolded them and held them up for a better view. The cold silky texture told him straight away what they were. Skeon garments, just as the rider had been wearing. Jet black with a faint magic glow.

“You want me to wear these?” he questioned, confused. “These are the clothes of the Riders, are they not.”

“Not to mention that they’re all female,” he added.

“Astute,” she replied. “Yes, for you to wear. Not that you have much else on anyways. And no, don’t ask from where they came.”

Izen looked down at himself, realizing that she was right. His shirt was of course gone, and there wasn’t much left of the rest of his clothes. Whatever condition they had been in had been made worse by the obvious rough handling of getting them here, and treatment of him after that. He was sure he had more bruises that what he had gained in the fight. Maybe someone had kicked him, just for good measure.

He contemplated for a while, before shrugging. “Sure, why not. What have I got to lose?” If it got him out of the dungeon, it was worth a shot. Right?

Standing up, he stripped what remained of his clothes, and then proceeded to put on the provided Skeon garments. At least he wasn’t as muddy as he recalled being. Perhaps they had actually cleaned him when they’d treated his wound. Bodysuit first, then tights, they slipped on easily, fitting him like a second skin. He was surprised to find that he even liked the feel of the fabric on him, though he was embarrassed by how it showed off every aspect of him. Every aspect, including those he’d rather not show. They looked much better on the female form.

“You’re right,” the old lady grinned, stepping closer to him. “When you decide you want additional training, come find me,” she added, in a suddenly serious tone.

“Huh?” was all that Izen was able to manage before he was knocked out again, this time by the old lady’s cane.

“Sorry young one,” the old lady stated to an unconscious Izen as she removed his arm bandage. “This was the only way to awaken you.”

Myne woke to find the southern temple of the Sisters of the Radiant Dawn in a panic. Tumbling out of her bed, only half awake from a lack of sleep but still fully dressed, she summoned her armour and raced out the door to try and find out what the panic was.

“What’s going on?” she asked of the first servant that she bumped into in the dorms corridors.

The servant looked back at her with fear in her eyes. “The prisoners have escaped.” she stated worriedly. “The Witch has escaped. The guards found a Sister lying badly wounded on the stairs this morning when they went to change shift, and the cell empty with it’s door wide open. The previous shifts guards are missing too! We have no idea where she is, she could even still be here, somewhere, waiting to devour more of us!” With that the servant hurriedly rushed off, almost tripping over herself in her panic.

Myne swore to herself. She knew it. It had all been too easy. But the question of why had the Witch been willing to be brought her nagged at her. While none of the Lady Knights were here at the moment, by dawn they would be starting to arrive they would have been more than a match for the Witch. In part given the superiority in numbers and experience, but also because a number of them were lattice souls. The highest known grade of magic, lattice souls were leagues above the gem grade, and Lady Knight Sylph, who was regarded as being the most powerful Dragon Rider of all, was one. The Witch wouldn’t have known who was present at the temple however. It just didn’t add up.

She couldn’t let the panic unbalance her. Calming herself, she sent her magic out to scan the temple complex. If the Witch was still here she would be able to sense her. She was well aware of her signature after all.

The Southern Temple of the Sisters of the Radiant Dawn was the oldest of the dragon riders temple complexes, established when the first bonds were being made with dragon familiars, founded by the first rider, Lady Knight Cousair van Elmir, who of course was now long gone. In a time when magic was new, it didn’t take humanity long to work out the different types of manifestations, and so the Clans and Guilds were formed. It became apparent very quickly that special locations would be needed for the housing of the Clans, as the dragons dwarfed any other creatures that mankind had ever domesticated, and so the temple complex was built.

The temple complex was massive, comparable to a village in size and larger than any of those in the nearby vicinity. The temple itself, which account for a quarter of the complex, was constructed from magically reinforced white marble with enchanted stained glass windows on the northern face that told the history of the Clan. The inside of the temple was empty. It was where the riders completed their initiations, practised their magic and summoned their Familiars when they awakened, through a ritual developed by the founding lady, and jealously guarded by the clans, and hence a lot of room was required. It was large enough to just fit prime dragon familiar, but only one of those had ever been summoned by the Sisters of the Radiant Dawn, and that was of course by the Lady Knight Corsair van Elmir, so none had ever actually been inside it. While still massive in size, even the largest of the current familiars were small compared to a prime, but at least the temple provided ample space for the familiars to stretch their wings.

On the eastern side of the temple were the ritual chambers, where permanent magics were housed, as well as the rooms of the senior riders and enchanters. Deep under the temple but exiting near the fields were the dungeons, which while seldom used were as old as the temple itself and more than capable to securing most captives. The dungeon always gave Myne the creeps whenever she had to venture down into them, its history leaving permanent marks in its magical fabric.

To the west of the temple was the dorms for the sisters, as well as the few casters and ferals that made the temple their home, and the stables for their familiars. As for the rest of the complex, they were constructed from ironwood and beechwood, and were a much more modest affair than the temple. The three story dorms sat in the middle of a loose ring of stables and dual dwellings. While some riders preferred to share their quarters with their familiars, most lived separately in the dorms, with their familiars sleeping in the specially designed stables. The construction of the dual dwellings had been fairly recent, as it had been originally decreed by the leaders of the Clan long ago that it wasn’t practical, but that ruling had lapsed in recent times.

While the dorms had the capacity for over a hundred sisters, less than twenty currently resided there, as most had migrated to the newer temples closer to the capital. The temple complex was still home to a decent number of people though, even given the low number of sisters, with the bulk being serving staff and a few devouts and slaves. As the sisters were often active, it was up to the commoners and shardlings to deal with the daily routines, and many sisters also left the care of their familiar in the hands of the stable staff, something that the founders of the clan would have been aghast at. As a result, much of the serving staff was comprised of families who had pledged fealty to the clan generations ago, and they lived in humble dwellings to the south of the temple, with all of the remaining facilities of the complex interspersed between them, such as the infirmary, the weaving hut, refinery, and alchemist labs. The true village of the complex in essence.

To the east of the temple were the fields, barns and paddocks and orchard. The sisters here kept a small amount of livestock and grew their own crops, looked after by the serving staff of course, but it was one of the few temple complexes to do so, with all of the others either being gifted or trading for what they needed, or being supplied some amount by ones like the southern temple that produced much more than what they currently needed.

There was a lot more magical signatures in the temple complex than at the village, and of varying strengths, but Myne recognized most of them, making it easy for her to filter them out as she used her magic to survey the area. She could feel traces of the witch’s magic all over the complex, but her powerful signature had vanished, so she had either indeed left, or was masking her presence, in which case any of the traces could in fact be her.

The other powerful signature from the Evergreen was also present, which threw off her concentration and brought her out from her scanning. She had not expected that, but then again she wasn’t surprised. For some reason she had forgotten entirely about it, and she strongly suspected the influence of the witch there. Her guess was that it was the young man that had been fighting to protect the witch, as that was the most probably explanation, and therefore he must have had some connection to her, whether he was aware of it or not. Albeit it was split into smaller segments and showing up as spikes in a dozen locations over the complex, but it almost seemed as though all this cloaking was directed at her specifically.

Committing the locations of the spikes and traces to memory as best she could, Myne raced out of the dorms to check each one in person, hoping against odds that perhaps they’d be considerate enough to stay put. The young man at least shouldn’t be able to move far given the severity of his wound, which even Sister Cammine had only just been able to stabilize, not to mention the concussion that Myne had likely given him as well.

Myne was greeted to a scene of chaos outside the dorms. In the pre dawn light she could see the serving staff running around in a panic, small fires spontaneously combusting in mid air around them. Dracokin were also running amok, a couple of the Sisters unsuccessfully trying their best to get them to settle down. Powerful magic was at work here, overriding the normal connection that the riders had with the dracokin. There was no doubt that the witch was showing her true colours. Suspecting that the traces of the Witch’s magic were probably the wisps playing havoc over the grounds, Myne instead decided to follow up on the other signature. She had sensed it in the temple itself, the infirmary, the dungeon, fields and ritual rooms. Some of those locations were more of a worry than others, as the true nature of the power was unknown and hence also what he could actually be capable of.

Myne tore across the grounds towards the temple and the adjoining rooms, intending to check the ritual room first. The wisps were of little concern to her, now that she knew what they were she was able to sense them as they began to appear, and dodging them was a cinch. Some other riders had obviously arrived while she slept, as she also saw a number of unfamiliar faces in the vicinity of the temple as she made her way past it and around its side. Including an attractive young rider around her age, who was calmly heading towards the temple’s entrance. Dressed in the same jet black skeon as she was, she also had a similar covering and style for her bone armour, with the exception of the lower right arm. Though it was a dusty grey, compared to her own green tinted pale black, an odd combination with the riders voluminous curly chestnut brown hair that flowed all the way down her back. The rider also had raw claw marks on her lower right arm, from a recent training incident she guessed, and probably related to why she didn’t have any armour over it, but unusual nevertheless.

Pushing the new faces to the back of her mind, Myne reached the ritual rooms just as the first few rays of dawn broke over the horizon, streaking the side of the temple in a warm yellow light. Pausing to steady herself, she summoned her magic to her hands, and unlocked the doors of the ritual room. The chamber was covered in runes, circles and sigils, each the colour of their associated element and pulsating with life, giving the room an eerie glow. The runes here maintained all form of magic, some simple and rudimentary such as the maintaining the flow of water to the buildings, while others quite complex, like the magic sensing wards for the area that had been put in place by the founders of the clan when the temple was built. With nothing seeming amiss Myne turned to leave, dodging just in time as a wisp manifested and floated past her into the chamber.

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“You are not one of them either young one,” the witch’s voice suddenly taunted her, before the wisp exploded, sending fiery embers into the runes and shorting a number of them, the magical backlash knocking Myne clear of the door and to the ground. Myne was livid. She’d been tricked. She knew straight away that the ward runes had been the witch’s target and amongst those shorted, and given their age, complexity, and power required it was unlikely they’d be going back up in the near future, if at all. The witch had deliberately left a signature hanging over the ritual rooms for that exact purpose, though why she hadn’t just done the deed herself was a different question for another time. She was not looking forward to having to explain all this to the clan’s council.

Myne picked herself up off the ground, and locked the doors of the Ritual room again. The initial damage had been done, but the last thing she needed was more tampering. The sun itself was now peeking above the horizon, and wall of the temple awash in glowing light, highlighted by the occasional flash from the now exploding wisps. Myne paused, resetting her thoughts. Everything was wrong. It was actually possible that all of the spikes that she had sensed were decoys, so she needed to put that aside for the moment and focus on what she knew for certain.

The young man from the village must still be here somewhere. If he was going to escape where would he go? She knew naught about him, but she’d be least likely to find him in the dorms or the stables given that this was their home and that dragons were only friendly to their riders. He could have headed straight into the fields from the dungeon exit, but as he would be still weak from his wounds his chances of survival in the wilds was low. Unless he had an ace up his sleeve, he really didn’t have anywhere to run, as the temple complex was a fair distance from any major cities or towns. Taking to the sky and surveying from there was a much better plan. Having made up her mind, she took off, sprinting back towards the dorms.

A blast of light magic through the doors of the temple knocked Myne off her feet, sending her tumbling along the front of the temple. Recovering into a roll, she leapt to her feet and made straight for the temple door. She put her money on the young man being there, but as to what exactly had just happened, and why he was there is the first place she had no clue. She had seen at least one other rider go into the temple earlier so he wouldn’t be in there alone, but she had never felt magic like that before.

Myne slipped through the crack in the massive doors, not even bothering to try and open them any more as usually a service entrance just to the side of them was used to access the temple, and stopped dead in her tracks. Standing in the middle of the temple was a massive ash grey dragon familiar, its head touching the roof of the temple, the tiles creaking ominously as it tested their strength. She had never seen one this large before, the only available conclusion was that it must be a Prime, as no other type of dragon familiar came close to that size. If it is was going to leave it would either go through the roof or the doors, and either option was bad for her. Myne made a dash past the dragon to the stairs of the balcony as the dragon familiar looked down at her and roared, causing the walls of the temple to shake.

“What the blazes is going on today?” she muttered to herself as she reached the lower stairs. She wasn’t aware of any scheduled awakenings for the clan, either here or at the other close temple, as they were always a big deal and attended by as many Sisters as possible. For many, the power of your familiar was akin to a bragging right, and most sisters waned to know where they stood in relation to all of the others. A rider didn’t know what their familiar would be until it had been summoned, but in most cases its power was directly related to the power of the rider. There were exceptions of course, such as herself, but the awakening of one with the potential power to summon a prime would have been big news, not to mention incredibly rare.

Bounding up the stairs and along the balcony, Myne surveyed the upper balcony. Somewhere up there would be the young man and/or any other sisters, of which there should be at least the one that she had seen earlier. It took until she’d reached the third level before she finally spotted someone, while dodging the occasional lose tile that fell down from the temples roof. On the highest balcony was the sister that she had seen heading to the temple earlier, sprinting along it towards the dragon with her brown hair billowing out behind her. To her surprise, the young lady leapt off the balcony and onto the neck of the prime dragon familiar, hanging on for dear life as the dragon then started stretching its wings, preparing for launch.

It was going to go straight through the roof, and probably bring the temple down with it. So was in a really bad position. Making a beeline for the nearest stained glass window, she reinforced herself with her magic and leapt through the window, shards of glass raining down around her as she impacted with the ground, leaving a small crater behind. She then ran as fast as she could, trying to put as much distance between herself and the temple as it groaned behind her. Then the dragon burst through the roof, debris being flung wide, smashing into the nearby buildings of the complex and causing those still running around in panic outside to have to scurry for cover. The dragon lifted itself into the air, the pressure from its wings flattening people and a few of the structures as it headed north, over Myne’s head and away from the temple complex.

“At least a Dragon of that size should be easy to find,” she mused in shocked amusement, before sitting down on the grass. Dawn had finally fully broken, and the complex fully bathed in the suns rays, revealing the extent of the damage from the morning’s chaos. Calming herself down, she summoned her magic and sent it out to survey the complex. As she had suspected the only magical signatures that she could find now where that of the clan. The witch had removed all traces of her, and the spike of the young man was also gone. Myne scowled. But where had he gone, and who exactly was that rider with the prime? Then it hit her. She didn’t know what kind of magic was involved, but they were one in the same. The young female rider with far too much hair was the young man from the village. Only females could be riders, it was the magic of the Riders that dictated that as it only manifested in the one sex, and she knew one hundred percent that the young man was indeed just that. It hadn’t been her fault after all that his clothes had been in such bad shape. But she was indeed him, or he her. As to why she had noticed she wasn’t sure, but they’d had a similar look about them, as if they were siblings. They’d even had exactly the same claw wounds on their right arm, and she was kicking herself for not picking up on that earlier.

Myne stood up, and slowly walked her way back into the complex. There was gong to be a lot of explaining to do to the lady knights, and she was not sure she even wanted to do that.

Izen woke up again in unfamiliar surroundings, feeling a bit odd. At least this time he wasn’t lying cold on a stone slab, instead it appeared that he had been laid on a firm bed in a curtained off quarter of a larger room. It was also a lot warmer, and he felt quite comfortable, apart from the pain in his right forearm and a dull ache in his head from being clobbered there twice. He could hear some worried female voices talking quietly in the background, and as the events in the dungeon flooded back into his mind he flushed with embarrassment. He was lying on top of a bed wearing nothing apart from some skin tight female attire.

Izen sat up with a start, looking for something to cover himself with, but instead of finding a sheet he discovered that he wasn’t quite dressed as he thought. He could see the jet black skeon tights hugging his legs like a second skin, but instead of bare feet he was wearing a pair of knee high bone boots with wide finger length heels, the bone itself being a dusty grey colour. Swinging his legs he found that they weighed next to nothing, though he wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to walk in them. Looking at his arms he could see the same bone armour covering his left arm in overlapping fine plates, all the way up to his shoulders where they became a series of bulkier plates that overlaid each other so that they would offer protection no matter how his arm were angled, shaped to add a bit of character. It was the same on his right, apart from the lower right arm which was bare and showing the raw scars that he had gained in the skirmish.

Something about himself didn’t look right, and the nagging at the back of his mind fully took hold. He was still wearing the jet black skeon bodysuit as well, though now it was fitting his form perfectly. Or more precisely, her form, accentuating every curve. Putting her hand between her legs revealed that she no longer had a bulge down there, and a glance down at her chest did indeed confirm that she had a large pair of breasts. The weight on her head made sense now was well, and standing up she found that she had thick voluminous chestnut brown hair that flowed all the way down her back, and possibly weighed half as much as the rest of her, or at least it seemed that way. Exploring her body she found that the bone armour also covered her upper back as well, with some intricate detailing that she couldn’t quite work out. Apart from the pain from her injuries she actually felt quite good, and she liked how the skeon and bone armour felt and looked on her.

Izen had seen a few riders in his time, including the one earlier in the day, or was it yesterday now, and while he had found them attractive and liked how they looked, perhaps even wishing once or twice that he could be one in the secrecy of his mind, he never dreamed that he’d end up looking like one.

‘Not just looking like one. You are one,’ a voice said, echoing directly into her mind.

Izen fell back on the bed stunned, looking for the source of the voice, and making enough noise to alert those in the background that she was now awake. The curtain separating her bed from the rest of the room was pulled aside, and two ladies dressed in simple white dresses came through to check on her.

“Are you alright sister?” the older of the two queried.

Izen looked at them blankly for a second before remember that she did indeed look like a sister to them.

“I’m fine now, apart from some lingering pain,” she replied, gesturing with her arm. “Mind telling me how I ended up here?” she then added, before they asked any awkward questions of her. “I’m a little fuzzy on what happened.”

“You were found lying unconscious and bleeding on the upper stairs of the dungeon,” the younger of the two replied helpfully.

“It’s probably not surprising that you don’t recall your run in with the witch or her demon servant,” she carried on. “They say she can drain the very life out of her victims.” Fear then entered her eyes. “We don’t know where they’ve gone though, and everyone is a little worried. They may still be nearby, so all the sisters have been woken.” The Lady fiddled with her ring as she spoke, underlying the fear that she did indeed hold.

In a way she was right too, the thought amusing to her. She was indeed still here. Izen wasn’t so fussed on being called a demon though.

“I appear to have gotten off lightly then.” Izen stated. “I have recovered enough though to join in the search, so that I shall.” She stood up and stretched, wincing at the pain in her arm.

“Thank you for your aid.” Izen added as she stepped past the ladies, and headed towards the door.

She stopped briefly as she passed by a mirror and looked at her reflection. She then turned back to the ladies and asked a final question. “What is the name of the witch?”

“Lyrissa I have heard some of the Sisters say,” answered the younger one after a brief pause. “Mostly she’s just called the witch.” Izen nodded in thanks.

“May the strength of the dragons bear you,” the older of the two blessed as Izen turned again.

A little worried might be understating it however, chaos surrounding her as she stepped outside. Izen was quite surprised. The home of the Sisters of the Radiant Dawn looked very much like the average village, if you ignored the mammoth that was its centre piece. The sun had yet to rise, the tendrils of the night still clinging to it. People were running all over the place as fires seemed to randomly explode in the air and little lizard like creatures tore around out of control. He could see a few Sisters amongst the people, their usual attire making them easy to spot, but most of the people seemed to be normal. Many of them were probably “skilled” as termed by the Guilds, but for all intents and compared to the riders normal sufficed fine. Izen had absolutely no idea what was going on.

‘Those are dracokin,’ the voice decided to add helpfully, ‘and the explosions are wisps.’

Startled, Izen tried looking around again, but there was no one nearby.

‘No, you won’t find me like that,’ it stated matter of factually. ‘I’m not actually here yet.’

Which of course only served to confuse Izen even more.

“Then where are you?” Izen asked of the air. “How are you talking to me.”

‘Not talking. More relaying thoughts actually,’ the voice replied. ‘We’ve always shared a very strong bond, it’s just awakened now.’

Izen suddenly felt very guilty and concerned about what exactly the voice in her head might actually be able to see.

‘Oh don’t worry,’ the voice reassured, ‘Most of that stuff is of no consequence to me.’

‘Standing there looking like that is going to make you even more conspicuousness though. If you want to meet me you’ll need to go into that temple there.’

Izen wasn’t sure if she want to meet the mind reader at all, but not meeting it wouldn’t change that they apparently shared some form of bond, and she also had no idea of exactly where she was, nor of where to go from here. She could try fleeing into the woods that she saw to the north of the temple, but if the creatures currently running around the complex and the Weeping Woods were anything to go by her chances of survival in her current state were slim.

She was also still a little embarrassed about being seen in what she was wearing, but only because until a few minutes ago she had been a him, and the embarrassment was quickly fading. When she had briefly looked at herself in the mirror as she had left the infirmary, what she had seen was down right sexy. Her feminine form seemed so much more vibrant and alive, her facial features soft and alluring, and her lips a lush pink that complemented her sea green eyes. She was certainly that she was a little taller now as well, the skin tight Skeon garments hiding nothing of her sensual form, but instead accentuating her long legs, slim figure, and full chest. And she was well within her right to appreciate her new form. While she didn’t feel any weaker, she didn’t appear as muscular as she had been, and she wasn’t so sold on the amount of hair that she had, but figured she’d get used to that. Overall she was more than happy with her appearance. Athletic and attractive. Fitting for a being that would need to fight and fly. She could get used to being like this.

‘Now, now, one thing at a time. Though I do agree that you did turn out well. I was a little concerned.’

“And how long have you been connected to me?” she queried of the voice in her mind.

‘Forever.’

“Oh.”

Walk like you belong here, and they’d pay her no attention. At least, that was what she was trying to tell herself as she made her way to the massive temple doors. She found that she wasn’t having any issues walking in the heels, almost as if she had done it numerous times before, but since she knew she hadn’t she put it down to some rider instinct. The wisps and dracokin seemed to be ignoring her, and all the people were preoccupied in their panic. A few riders also ran past, the one that tore around the corner of the temple vaguely familiar, but Izen made a point of ignoring them all. Reaching the doors she found that they were slightly ajar, so pushing with all of her might she was able to get one door to swing just enough so that she could slip through. The inside of the temple was mostly empty, with five levels of balconies running along the walls. The interior was dimly lit by light runes etched into the ceiling, and a number of ritualistic circles glowed in the centre of the temples floor. She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly the temple was for.

‘Training and Awakening, which is otherwise known as the Summons. Would you mind stepping into the glowing fields? They’ve been left for you.’ The voice was as helpful as ever.

“And what do they do?” Izen asked out loud. She was always cautious of the ritualistic circles. While she had briefly studied them when the village hadn’t been as badly off as it was now, not being able to use magic meant that she hadn’t been able to grasp them very well, and she had had to rely on the shardlings of the village to help her out when needed. Of course that had become a moot point once the village’s fortunes had changed. In fact it was just the wife of the village elder, who had a weak water affinity, who was still there, but given her age she didn’t really count. All the remaining magic was gone.

‘Do you want to meet or not?’ the voice queried.

“Well, yet again I have nothing to lose,” Izen replied, as she stepped into the glowing circle, moving to their epicentre.

‘And much to gain.’

A soft white light formed out of the circles, enveloping Izen and sending waves of power through her body, bringing her to her knees. Runes of ash grey spilled out of the claw wounds on her arm onto the floor, and then spread out from her body filling up the entirety of the circle.

‘All right, I’ll need a little space,’ the voice requested, and Izen complied, rising and jumping out of the circle just as a burst of bright white light exploded out of the circle, sending her backwards into the wall.

‘Probably best if you make for the top balcony,’ it added. ‘I’m a little tall.’

The light broke away, and Izen couldn’t believe her eyes. Uncomfortably crouching in the middle of the temple was a massive ash grey dragon familiar, bigger than anything she had ever seen or read about. The temple itself was too small for it, its head easily touching the roof as it tested out the strength of the tiles above.

‘And this is me,’ the dragon said, still straight into her mind. ‘Well, one aspect at least. Come on up. We need to leave. The sisters here will not miss my summons.’

Still in surprise and awe Izen complied, racing up the nearby stairs and on to the first balcony, weaving her way up the levels. Why they hadn’t just put in a set of stairs that went all the way up on each side mystified her. As she made her way along to the third level she saw the sister from earlier that had run past the temple stealth in through the door, and picked up her pace.

‘Remember her,’ the dragon commented. ‘She’s a special one.’

It didn’t take long for the newcomer to overcome her surprise and also start bounding up the stairs to the balconies, but fortunately Izen had a sizeable head start. She didn’t know what she wanted, but she had no intention of finding out.

“What now?” she asked as she reached the top level.

‘Jump aboard. We’re leaving.’

Mustering all the energy she had, Izen sprinted across the balcony and leapt onto the dragon’s neck, hanging on for dear life. Her arms couldn’t even get around it’s neck, and she feared that she was going to slide off and plummet to her death.

‘Focus. Concentrate your magic.’

Izen had no idea how to do so, but she shut her eyes and squeezed her arms and legs tight around the dragon’s neck, surprised at how warm it was. She formed the image in her mind of her safely riding the dragon, and calmed down a little. Tiles rained down around her, bouncing off her armour as the dragon burst through the roof and prepared itself for flight. Then with one big surge they were up in the air and Izen could feel the wind breeze through her hair. Finding the courage she opened her eyes, and looked to the side, seeing the sun finally rise above the horizon and the land pass by as the dragon flew its way north.

‘I am The Empress of Light,’ the dragon declared to her mind a few minutes later. ‘It’s nice to finally be with you, Dawn Weaver.’