Azara rushed through the palace. She was still dizzy, and the dress she wore was not suited to running. She had remained in bed for almost an hour, trying to recover while thinking over the decisions she was going to make. Then, she had finally struck upon a course of action.

The first place she went to was her room, where she desperately searched for her tearstone trinket, The Sorrow, but could not find it there. She asked a servant, but they denied any knowledge of where the device had gone.

At first, she wondered if her brother had taken it, but then wondered if he would have the audacity, considering he believed she had rightfully been given it as the child of prophecy. Besides, dragons had an even stricter code about stealing from each other than humans, or at least that was what she had been told. She had never been able to interact with enough of her kind to prove whether or not this was true.

Then she remembered the king's courtesy towards her and rushed back to the old queen's room where she had woken up. Sure enough, alongside a number of her other things, the trinket was still in the room. It was laid on the vanity, beside her other jewelry, as if the king had never noticed its power or value.

She attached it to her waistband by its chain and then left the room. By now she realized that the battle would be underway, and she needed to get there quickly if she were going to stop her brother, and possibly stop the war.

However, when she left the palace, she felt a terrible chill run down her spine as a howl echoed through the air. It sounded similar to a wolf but it was deeper and more powerful. What she noticed, however, was that there was presence in the sound. It was a faint enchantment, barely noticeable, but it was there. The howl was meant to intimidate and to cow those listening. It was unlike anything Azara had encountered before.

As she neared the outskirts of the city, exhausted and out of breath, she began encountering the first of the king's retreating forces, being rundown and routed by Valerius' soldiers. They attempted to make a stand here and there, usually around the prince's banners, but were crushed quickly. Azara still could not locate the source of the howl, when a couple of Valerius' soldiers, separated from the rest of their group, ran by her.

"Excuse me, you are men of Souster yes, where is Prince Valerius, I have to speak with him," she asked.

The two soldiers stopped and looked at her, briefly stunned. After realizing the beautiful woman was not an apparition, the larger one of the two smirked.

"You won't be talking to prince Valerius today I can tell you that, but..." he glanced over at his partner ", we could be of plenty service to you."

The man walked up to her and grabbed her on one arm, and his friend suddenly did the same. In a flurry of motion, they attempted to pull her towards a nearby alley.

"What are you- Let go of me!" she yelled, and the two men forced her into the alleyway. She didn't want to fight them, but she also wasn't going to let them have their way with her. One of them grabbed her trinket and looked at it.

"Aww, you pick the wrong side and don't want to pay for it?" the second man said, speaking in a condescending tone as he yanked the trinket from her waist. "Too bad little noble lady you're going to have to pay for all the hell your-"

Azara gritted her teeth and let the fetters on her soul be loosed. She yanked her arms out of the men's grip. They were stronger than her, but she was no small woman, and they were not expecting for her dress sleeves to tear beneath their grip and for her to break free.

"- Hey, none of that now you pretty-"

He didn't get to finish the sentence, he was immolated before his mouth could move to make the words. His companion was caught in the blast and died almost instantly as well. A few other soldiers down the street, also Valerius', were looting a house and witnessed the event. They paused and then looked at each other, wondering what to do.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Azara began approaching them, and they started to run away.

"Stop!" she shouted and held up a hand covered in fire. "Where is Valerius?!"

"Why do you want to know?" one of them asked. His companions shot him a nasty glare. It was clear they didn't care so much about whether or not a strange sorcerer knew where their prince was. They wanted to live.

Azara admired the man's loyalty, but she didn't have time for it. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I'm on your side, and I mean to help him. Has a dragon attacked? Is that why the king's forces ran? What caused that howling sound?"

"On our side? You just burned-"

"He and a contingent of troops were headed for the palace to finish off the king." another said, cutting him off. "You idiot, she'll kill us all!"

"Thank you!" Azara replied, and ran off towards the palace before seeing how they were going to sea with the companion that had almost gotten them all killed.

The whole situation angered her. She'd just gone on a round trip, out of the palace, and then right back to it. It wouldn't have happened had the battle not been over so quickly. It had been less than three hours since the king had been speaking with her, and the battle had taken place, the king's forces had routed, and Valerius was already on his way to the capital. It had all been the fault of whatever caused the howl, Azara knew it, but she couldn't fathom what it was. Something Valerius hadn't told her about?

When she reached the main street of the city, leading towards the palace, she was greeted by a grisly scene of carnage. Bodies littered the street and blood ran freely in the gutters. She saw a large force of Valerius troops fighting the remaining men loyal to the king in front of the palace, unable to break through as the remaining loyalists fought with the fierceness of men that knew they were doomed to die.

Then another sight caught her eye. It was her brother, golden locks, and standing tall, behind the conflict. He looked back, down the street towards her, and smiled.

A concussive blast followed, and then a second shortly afterward. In a flash of brilliant light and a wave of force, her brother took on his draconic form. The bodies of Valerius and his father's troops went flying into the air from the explosion. Azara was blown from her feet.

When she recovered, she saw her brother dive his head into the palace. It had been planned for a long time, she realized. This had been what he intended to do. She knew, without needing to think about it much, that he had just killed Valerius and his father, in one fell swoop.

The dragon then turned around towards Azara, mouth covered in brick and blood. He began to laugh and started to speak.

"Now, are you going to pathetically weep over a prince you couldn't woo, or will you-"

A blast of energy cut him off, and Akahtar raised a wing over his face to block the concentrated light and fire from Azara. She held the sorrow with both hands, tears streaming down her face and fire in her golden eyes.

"I have destroyed the line of the dragonslayers, our time of oppression is-"

Another blast of energy assaulted the dragon, and he put up his second wing to shield this one. Even though this was an effective technique, the blasts still left wounds on his wings.

"Fine," he said, and then breathed in deeply, before pouring out his fire towards Azara.

The inferno rushed towards Azara, filling the entire width of Ursus' main street. She stood her ground, and when it struck her shed put her hands out towards it and it parted like water, washing over her without causing her arm. When at last the fire breath had ended, her hands glowed brightly with heat and light, and the tears falling from her face had turned into streams of fire. Her concentration seal had appeared, and fire began to bloom from it. The fire licked at her skin and clothes, though it did not burn her.

"The blood of our forefather is truly strong in you. face your nature," he replied. It would be impossible for most humans to hear the nuances of his draconic voice, but if they could they would hear the mocking in his tone. It was as if he thought that by bringing Azara to this point he had won.

The fire that adorned her concentration seal grew more intense, and began to burn away her clothes and cover her completely. Her eyes began to glow with a bright yellow light.

From all around the burning street, in every hidden crevis or hollow, little winged creatures began to appear. The fairies burned with fire and began to fly about and dance near Azara. The creatures fed off the energy she was pouring out of her soul, and their flames intensified to a bright blue. They were fire fae, spirits of flame and sunlight.

"You need not pay heed to me little ones. I am not the sun," Azara said, as flames engulfed her body, and she took on a form that looked like a much larger version of the creatures. She took her trinket in her hand and placed it up to her chest. It became absorbed into the roaring flames, and its glow became as bright as the sun. "I am one of her children."

Then, with a powerful explosion, Azara changed.