Long ago, there was a war in heaven.

Long ago, there was a war on earth.

~~[e]~~

We begin in an airship, cruising in a sea of clouds.

Go closer, into the ship's cargo hold. It is dark–no, dim, the only illumination from the torches hung on the balls, the bracket of each which held a chunk of softly glowing stone, a light-blue, rough-hewn crystal. It was dry, for that was the conditions that suited the goods that were being carried the most: grain, salt, dried foodstuffs, and chemical and magical reagents.

Against a wooden pillar, a girl was slumped, sleeping. Her dark but lightening hair was unkempt, held up by a faded yellow ribbon into a ponytail, which was threatening to slip and come undone. Over her shoulders and under her arms were wide straps that held leather armour to her front and back, armour which had not been taken off for a while. The metal plates that usually fitted over it were missing, lost.

Tucked into a nook of her leather armour was a torn poster of cheap paper, crumpled. On it was two faces, and the following two lines:

Requesting the capture of Yuki Whiterock and her companion, Sophie Bellisaria.

Wanted for questioning about involvement with illegal arcane experiments.

In her right hand was a sword in its scabbard, gently curved compared to the straight floorboards. Even in her sleep her fingers still curled around it, unable to fully let go. On her exposed wrists beneath long sleeves, where bandages were loose, were small patches of blue that were rough like snakeskin or scales, patches that did not blend in with her fair skin.

On her lap slumbered another girl, whose hair, long and the rose-pink of the Bellisarias, fell into a pool on the floor. Compared to the tunic of her companion, her clothes were slightly less plain: a dark red skirt, and a blouse of matching color, with a white collar and a black necker scarf somewhat like a sailor's. If one looked closely, they would have noticed tiny threads woven into elaborate patterns, circles and squares and sigils, designs too faint to see but nevertheless still present.

Over the two of them were worn dark earth-brown cloaks, slightly tattered at the base, that were now serving as blankets.

The background hum of the engines continued.

And Sophie Bellisaria dreamt.

~~[e]~~

Verdarell, the forest of the forgotten dragons, had once been the very picture of untouched nature, a pristine place where, even though dangerous, held a sense of primeval beauty.

Not any longer.

The leaves and trunks around her were dyed in hues of grey, the heat almost a liquid substance. The air, too, was stained with the stench of smouldering trees, the acridity of sulphur, the telltale tang of elemental magics, fire and darkness both, all ill intent.

Sophie held her knife, both weapon and catalyst, aloft like a torch, shining it this way and that. Her minor light spell did not make for much illumination, but truth be told, it was still bright out enough to see, and she might as well not have wasted her magic in the first place.

Growling, she grabbed the trunk of the nearest tree (that was not on fire or similar) in frustration, and climbed up it in a distinctively unladylike and haphazard manner, in all contrast to her upbringing. Finally, she propped herself up onto a branch of sizeable width, and looked up and out. From her slightly elevated position she thought that maybe she could glimpse some clear sky, but she did not: there was only the smog below, and in the distance, multiple columns of smoke rose into the air, fingers of a hand that were trying to grasp salvation.

"How did you get up here?" A voice sounded, and she turned up and to the right to the speaker: a woman in the dull brown and green leather armor of a ranger, her brown hair chopped short in a bob cut, perched in a branch much higher on a neighbouring tree.

"I climbed, of course." Sophie replied waspishly. She then immediately exhaled. "Sorry, Calida. Didn't mean to snap at you."

"No worries." The archer's eyes softened for a bit, and a friendly look was shot over at Sophie before they returned sharp, to scan the horizon. "I know you care a lot for the Captain."

To that comment Sophie chose to not respond. "Do you see anything?" she said instead.

"Nothing that looks like her so far. But–ah!"

"What? What?" Sophie craned her head.

"It's Lars returning. Probably with a report."

"Tch." Sophie snapped again, before she schooled her features back to a face more pleasant. Applying an Ashenworth Silencer to her feet to cushion the fall, she heaved herself off her seat, and dropped right down in front of the returning warrior.

"What the–" Lars made to swing his battleaxe down, before he stopped it. "Goddess' sake, Sophie. Don't surprise me like that."

"Did you find Yuki?" Sophie demanded.

The older man shook his head. "No. No sign of her." He collapsed himself against a sturdy tree and removed his helmet, shaking out sweat-drenched dark hair. A gauntleted hand rubbed at the stubble on his chin, while his other hand retrieved a dull-looking crystal from his pocket, dropping it into Sophie's hand. "And your rock's gone dry, as well."

"Tch." Sophie hissed again.

"Give me three, no, five minutes, and then we can head deeper in." The warrior let out a long exhale. From his side he took out a leather canteen, took a long sip of water, and then closed his eyes, completely slumped.

"That might be not be a good idea." Calida had landed silently to Sophie's side, and was now speaking up. "I spotted a large congregation further in. And–" the archer took a breath. "There's a dragon in there."

"I can fight a dragon." Sophie said immediately.

"I don't think you heard me properly the first time." Calida said sternly. "It's a dragon. Not a wyvern. Not a wyrm. Not any old overgrown lizard. A true dragon."

"Sophie's next words are going to be something like 'but isn't that what we came here to fight?', or 'you two can go back if you want, but I'm going in anyway'." From the ground, Lars spoke, his eyes still closed in rest.

Sophie held her tongue. Those two phrases had indeed surfaced in her mind, and were in fact promising candidates for what she had been about to say.

"Come now, Lars." Calida prodded him with her foot. "I think Sophie just–"

"Well done, you predicted what I was going to say." Sophie snapped out, a snake spitting acid. Lars' comments had apparently landed a critical hit. "You two can go back if you want, but I'm really going to try and find her anyway, even if it kills me."

She drew a fresh crystal from her pocket, and her knife traced a complicated pattern over it, an enchantment that would react to the magical signature of Yuki Whiterock, Captain of the Guard of one of two heads of the magic cabal, Aurora, the organization that had deployed them in the first place.

It twitched in her open hand, and pointed, as the warrior had said, deeper into the forest. "On second thought," Sophie added, "you two should go back. I don't want to be responsible if all of us get killed–"

Lars' eyes instantly snapped open. "No," he said simply. "I don't know about Mistress Calida here, but I'm not going to let you go off and get killed by your lonesome."

"Same here." Calida spoke up. "And don't call me 'Mistress' ever again." She gave a sharp slap to the amour plating on the warrior's shoulder, and Lars winced.

~~[e]~~

The sound of whistling air echoed in Sophie's right ear as Calida let fly another arrow, which neatly blasted through the wing of a swooping wyvern. Instead of going down quietly, it screamed defiance, and launched itself towards Sophie in an unsteady but intentful flight.

"Get down!" In a flash Lars was there, his axe buried in the creature, which he then kicked to dislodge. More rustling told the trio that there was still more to come, and another and another.

"Lars!" Calida yelled warning, but Sophie was already there, knife in hand.

Fading Edge. The spell came naturally to her mind. Snicker-snack, as it was said, and the wyvern went rearing back.

A magical blade, an ethereal edge too thin to be seen. A concept not at all new, which the daughter of the Bellisarias had recreated only to test her skill.

She'd never thought it would see this much use. She stepped in, under the wyvern's belly, and stabbed twice quickly upward into the wyvern's chin. It fell, but not before–

Sophie hissed in pain. The front claws of the wyvern had raked into her left shoulder, ripping through her sleeve and skin, a wound more severe than all the minor scratches she had obtained thus far. Off to the side, Lars had already beheaded the other one.

"Sophie–"

She held up a hand. "I'll be fine." Tracing her knife over the wound, she murmured a minor healing cantrip, and watched the wound be purified and closed. Stepping over to the ranger, who was also not clad in armour, she noted a small gash on her arm, which she also likewise healed.

"I'm not going to complain, but…" Calida looked concerned, as a soft pink glow shone. "Are you sure you're not running low?"

"I wasn't put into Ricole's Guard for nothing." Sophie said coldly. "I can keep going."

Calida nodded. "Onwards, then?"

"Onwards."

~~[e]~~

The main difference between a wyvern and a dragon, of course, were that the front claws of wyverns were tiny, while those of a dragon's were…proportionate. To use an analogy, it would be like a human with no upper arm or forearm, whose wrists were grafted directly to their shoulders.

However, the thing currently facing them was neither of those, but a wyrm, which had no wings, but only four full limbs, and crawled along the earth.

They also thrashed about like nobody's business, and could spew a variety of fluids, like acid…or magma.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Prismatic Shield!" Sophie yelled her spell aloud, putting as much spirit as she could muster into it. The molten rock splashed up against the wall of iridescent light, saving Lars from being broiled alive in his armour, a shelled delicacy. It being semisolid, however, meant that Sophie's construct was all but toast, and the enchanter-illusionist collapsed to her knees from the sudden magical drain.

Calida was already there. Her first kukri stab bounced off the wyrm's rocky hide, and only her second, with the hefty aid of wind magic, penetrated.

At last the creature was still, and the ranger slumped over forwards in exhaustion, treating the carcass as a temporary pillow (surprisingly warmer and softer than one would think.)

Brushing her soot- and sweat-stained hair away from her eyes, Sophie took in the state of her two companions.

And then she looked back at the pathfinding crystal in her hand, and Yuki's amber-brown eyes surfaced in her mind yet again. The captain's determined look, when she had fought others twice her size. Her observing gaze, as she watched and learned sword techniques. And her expression when she let down her guard, only around Sophie herself, where she had been free to complain, free to express anything more than placid friendliness, and anything less than serious competence.

Her fist tightened around the crystal, and Sophie clutched it hard enough where it almost drew blood.

At the next landmark, she thought to herself. At the next landmark, I'll persuade them to go back. She could muster up enough for an illusion, perhaps, if she needed it.

Because, as much as she wanted, perhaps even needed, the help, she couldn't endanger her comrades.

~~[e]~~

With a start, Sophie woke. For a few moments she forgot where she was, until reality settled in again.

I don't know what I expected. To be home? To be safe? For everything in the past week to have never happened?

No. I…chose to run.

Yuki's sleeping face was right above hers.

That's not quite right.

I just didn't want to let her go alone.

Slowly, making no sudden movements, she raised her head, before slapping her cheeks–

–before slapping her cheeks quietly. The other person present was still sound asleep, after all.

Did I…fall asleep on her lap? I don't remember that.

Ignoring the flutter in her heart, she made to shift to Yuki's side, to catch the other girl's head on her shoulder as she tilted sideways, but it was too late–the swordswoman had already been startled awake.

"Sleep well?" Sophie asked.

Yuki took in everything at a glance–the dark hold, her companion's tired smile. "I'm fine." Another look around. "How long until we reach…where are we going, anyway?"

"I don't know," Sophie admitted freely. The ship was a small, a fast freighter that had taken a special detour in order to resupply the Cabal, and she had been too tired to conceal herself and sneak into the captain's room to peek at the ship's logs. "But I think once we land, we should try to find our way to Santa Soara, and then from there make our back back to Elizabeth Island."

Yuki nodded. The floating city of Santa Soara was said to be the centre of the world. It was a good place to go if you needed to, well, go anywhere else.

(Of course, no sane shipping company would run regular routes anywhere near the forest filled with ancient dragons, so getting there directly would be difficult.)

"But Elizabeth Island…" Yuki continued uncertainly.

"My hometown." Sophie said reassuringly. "There's magical facilities there. My brother will welcome you. We can treat you there, or at least try to. And I know for certain I won't dissect you in the name of magical research."

The brown-blue haired girl nodded. "I'm glad. I don't want anyone else looking at my body."

"Captain!" Sophie's head snapped upwards to look Yuki in the eye, scandalized.

It took a few moments, but the swordswoman eventually blushed. "O-Oh. I mean, well, um, not that it, um…"

"Gods forbid." Sophie shook her head, trying to regain her senses. She still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Yuki was actually, well, not as put together in private as in public. But I suppose this is a blessing in itself, that it is a sight only for me. "It's fine," she said out loud. "I know what you mean. And I…"

A loud boom sounded from above, saving her from having to continue the conversation. The ship shook, and the crystal torches began to rattle in their brackets.

An attack? Sophie thought. No, of course it's an attack. How could I have forgotten where we were? "Yu–"

"I know. I'm going up there to help." Yuki was already standing, her hand wrapped around her sword's sheathe.

"The pilot's going to have a heart attack." Sophie shook her head, but got to her feet likewise. After all, they had snuck on board with the help of her own magic, illusion and unlocking both. "And you're lacking your usual armour."

The swordswoman's hand reached up to her chestplate. "But…"

Sophie took in a breath, then exhaled it, focusing her mind. She then moved her hand over Yuki's own, and in fact passed it all around the swordswoman, with something resembling a scanning motion. Then, she smiled. "Abbreviated magic armour. Now, let's go."

Her smile was met with Yuki's own. "Yes. Let's."

If it was up to me, I'd rather just stay here and hide until it boils over. But if this boat crashes, we're not going to make it out, either. The pink-haired enchanter kept her thoughts to herself.

~~[e]~~

"Jenkins!" the pilot shouted. He was a middle-aged man, his paunch slight and his beard scruffy and brown. "Get to the wheel and keep us going! I'll drive them off!"

"But sir–"

"For the Goddess' sake, just do what I say!" Circling the airship now was a flock of wyverns, and large crossbow in his hands was of little reassurance despite its hefty weight.

From behind him, there was the sound of something swooping down, then a muffled scream. "Jenkins!" He tilted his head back, but he couldn't see his cabin boy. Gritting his teeth, he fired.

Twenty-five centimetres of metal shot forth, but clipped only dark-brown hide. Then, there was an answering screech, and faster than he could react, wings and jaw borne down on him–

–before pale blue light suffused his vision, and the wyvern was split (that was, nearly split) into two lengthwise, a vicious line running down its underside from the tip of its blunt snout.

The flock turned and stared at something behind him, and then descended.

"I guess there's no time to sheathe and unsheathe for this!" A brown-haired swordswoman surged forwards, leaving a trail of frost on the wooden floorboards. A hand shifted from sheathe to hilt, turning the grip two-handed, and the sword traced a cut from right to left, finishing off the previously nearly bisected wyvern.

More screeches filled the air.

"Grab your cabin boy and move belowdecks. We'll take care of this." A quiet voice sounded from directly beside his ear, and he started. "And duck! Barrier!"

The pilot ducked down low, and heard a muffled thump as another wyvern collided with the gray magical screen that formed above him. As he scrambled out of the way, a blur moved past him, and suddenly, a translucent blade of shimmering air had stabbed upwards, right through the wyvern's skull.

The flying lizards relied on smell as well as sight, but, as Sophie knew from personal experience, having something they smelled but could not really see confused them.

Optical Camouflage. Her personal favourite, and her pet spell ever since childhood. An indisputable friend to young ladies who wanted to sneak out of the family home.

Closer to the airship's stern, frost was forming on the ground. Every competent swordsman knew to reinforce their strikes with magic, and Yuki's was bleeding over. A low-to-high sweep unleashed a Frost Barrage, sending spikes of ice erupting upwards from the floor, impaling one of the flock and trapping another. With a single leap forward, Yuki moved to behead her trapped prey–

–but yet another descended from her left, and the swordswoman's body moved on instinct, slashing out…with her left hand.

Magic tore three gashes in the air, and three gashes across the wyvern's wings and upper body, and then a single reinforced thrust buried Yuki's sword in the wyvern's throat.

One more slash finished off the wyvern's previously trapped fellow, and then, quite suddenly, there was silence.

Yuki hesitantly glanced around, then looked at her bandaged left forearm. She then looked down at the wyvern's corpse, where a claw had torn into the reptilian flesh.

Don't tell me…

"Yuki! Are you alright?" Sophie's voice called out from across the deck.

"I'm fine." The guard captain, well, former captain, decided to keep her thoughts to herself for now. She walked over to the front, where her partner was now kneeling on the ground beside a softly moaning cabin boy.

The pilot's expression was grim below his dark aviator's hat. "Can ya save him? Only, the flight was supposed to be done by me alone, but seeing as it's dangerous territory, the Company forced me to–"

"Shut up." Sophie's acerbic reply cowed the middle-aged man into silence. She began to trace signs over the boy's torn chest in diagnosis.

Seeing the pilot's worry, Yuki approached him. "Sorry about that," she said. "She's not exactly friendly with strangers."

"The type to get the job done first, huh? I've seen plenty of those." The pilot gave a sigh. He looked back down, where the soft light of healing magic was beginning to glow. "I would ask what you're doing on this ship, but seeing as the both of ya saved our lives, I think it would be dishonorable to pry." He glanced back at Yuki. "I hope you're not expecting me to be your personal taxi."

"No, just until your scheduled stop is fine." Yuki replied with practiced politeness.

"Still, wouldn't you tell me your names? It would be a good story for the kids."

Before Yuki could respond, Sophie had gotten back to her feet. "He'll live. Everything just looks more serious than it is."

I guess that's why Ricole never had a dedicated healer, the swordswoman thought to herself. If anything could ever injure her more than this, we were going to be…in deep trouble, either way.

The pink-haired enchanter gave a short bow. "Apologies for my rudeness earlier."

"It's fine. I wouldn't have known what to tell Jenkins' old man if anything had happened to him." The pilot looked from girl to girl. "I'm Abe Dawson, pilot for Starligarde Transportation. And you young ladies would be…?"

"I'm Sophie, and this is Yuki." Sophie's tone did not invite further questioning, and Yuki noticed that her companion's eyes seemed to have narrowed at the mention of the company's name. "Sorry for hitching a ride just like this."

"It's fine, it's fine." The pilot waved a hand. "I've seen stranger things in heaven and earth." He looked out at the sky, which was now passing by at a fraction of the usual cruising speed, then back to the two girls. "How about ya both take a rest, and I'll come get you when we're closer to landing?"

Before Yuki could open her mouth, Sophie responded. "That would be much appreciated." With another short bow, the daughter of the Bellisarias tugged at her companion's wrist, pulling her along. "Oh, and where's the pilot's quarters? I put your cabin boy to sleep. He needs some rest."

"I'll show the way."

~~[e]~~

"Why did you agree to taking a rest? Isn't there a chance that the pilot would just call the guards on us once we land?" The ex-captain whispered, once they were alone again. The two of them were now abovedecks, watching clouds drift past, and the swordswoman's blue-brown hair was now untied and flowing gently in the breeze.

"Yes," Sophie said. "But it's easier to agree first and then go ahead and do our own thing anyway." She had a small smile on her face that was only faintly smug. "Trust me on this."

"All right." Yuki looked out at the horizon. The skies were calm, and after that incident, it had been smooth sailing. "Do you think we'll be fine?"

"You're a survivor. And I'm cunning and underhanded," the rose-haired girl said without a trace of shame. "We'll be fine."

Yuki simply broke out into a smile of her own. You're not as mean or underhanded as you think, Sophie. But I think…if you're here, everything will be all right.

~~[e]~~

And after the ship had landed in a sleepy village on the outskirts of Verdarell and then taken off again, now freed of both cargo and stowaways, the pilot Abe Dawson left the routine steering to his cabin boy, Jenkins, and went to tidy his cargo hold.

It was there where he found a torn poster of cheap paper.

He was not a stupid man, and was an aviator of considerable experience.

(They would not have sent an incompetent to fly over the forest of forgotten dragons.)

More than that, he knew about and respected the magic cabal, Aurora. The peacekeepers of the world, it was said, headed by twins of gold and silver, who fought off disasters and calamities, and made sure the unknown was safe.

It was why he had chosen to fly out to resupply their front lines. It was a mission he had undertaken several times now, ever since the cabal had begun their campaign.

Requesting the capture of Yuki Whiterock and her companion, Sophie Bellisaria.

Two young members, fleeing from the unknown, into the unknown.

And his life had been saved by a strange twist of fate.

With a large hand, he crumpled the poster into a ball, and tossed it out into the blue sky.