Dahlia was envious of her brother in so many ways. David simply was better than her in nearly every facet. He was cleverer, he was smarter, he was faster, he had better subordinates. But he was weaker than her.

She had been given a gift that would allow her to stand atop the world, one that would garner respect from the peasants that she ruled over. And David had not.

And that fact meant that she had to somehow beat him.

Every prince and princess learned from a young age that only one of them could rule. It was the way that the monarchy had existed for centuries. There would never be dissent. Who could rule if everyone else who could challenge you was still breathing?

So, when Dahlia turned thirteen and was given a gift of immense power, she realized that she would have to kill her brother.

But David was a wily man. He had powerful subordinates like Bloody Ian, and the most powerful seer of their generation, Sam; even his political advisor Rose was a savant at courtly manipulations and schemes.

Dahlia had none of those advantages. She had herself and her greatest confidant, Julia.

Julia’s parents were conniving and crafty, knowing that one of the children of Renoir would rule one day decided to place their eggs in both baskets. They raised their children to serve as the greatest advisors to the prince and princess.

Julia and Dahlia had one thing that would lead them to victory against David. They had power. And they had come on this journey to the Fractured Continent to make their power even stronger.

Dahlia’s gift was from Magic. And allowed her to search for spells in an ancient tome. Each one took unique ingredients and chants, but they all had devastating effects. She had come to the Fractured Continent to find an ingredient for one of her spells that would give her the winning edge against David.

She came to find the scepter of calamity. The very object that and made the continent an unlivable wasteland.

Her and her squad had scoured this continent to no avail, but Dahlia finally had a solution.

A new spell had appeared in her book. It used the strands of karma in the world to guide her to what her heart desires most. It needed the bones of a forgotten man, the ash of a burnt orchid, seven drops of her own blood, and an immensely complicated and intricate circle.

She had been in the right place to search for bones of the forgotten since no one had ventured to this continent in a very long time, all bones were of the forgotten here. The burnt orchid was a bit tougher, but still no true issue. And her own blood was a supply they had in abundance.

So, once she cast the spell and a line of pure gold extended from her chest into the horizon, she looked at her ever-faithful companion Julia and they started following the path.

It took many days for them to come across a massive cavern. The walls were made of smooth glass, and they were inlayed with beautiful carvings. All of them geometric, rather than artistic.

Dahlia used another of her spells to send a shadowy figure to explore the cave in her stead.

It never returned.

A deep voice emanated from the cavern that the stood in front of, “please come in, it has been a very long time since I have had any visitors.” A pregnant pause filled the air, “actually, I don’t think I have had any visitors.”

No one quite knew what to say at that. Whatever was speaking sounded distinctly not human, but there was no malice in its voice, just an endless weariness.

Julia shrugged at Dahlia and the two of them waved the rest of their entourage back. The two of them slowly walked into the cavern because the golden thread led into it. And they needed that scepter.

As they entered the massive room, they saw a dragon. Its scales were ruby red, its horns curved around its head, its eyes were massive, its claws were longer than they were tall, and it was terrifying.

Dahlia and Julia shared a meaningful look before continuing their journey inwards.

Dahlia had heard stories of a woman who had a gift in the second age that allowed her to create creatures. She supposedly drew them in the pages of her notebook, and if they were detailed enough and reasonable enough, the monster would come to life.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The woman was famous because in her ‘failed’ attempts to create a dragon she had created the sea serpent race that now dominated the oceans, making journeys, like the one they were one now, nearly impossible.

But it seems that the woman had not been met with failure her entire life. She had created the race she dreamt of.

“What brings you fine ladies here?” the dragon said with a toothy grin.

“How would you know we’re fine ladies?” Julia responded. Dahlia shot her a warning look, asking her to not annoy the massive beast.

“Oh, well my creator loved being called beautiful. She was apparently quite old when she created me, and it tickled her to be called fine or beautiful. I will admit I don’t quite understand what ‘fine’ means, but I figured if it was good enough for my mother, then it would be good enough for you.” The dragon used one claw to pick its teeth as it spoke.

“You have been alive since the second age?” Julia asked, still ignoring the pleading looks that Dahlia gave her.

“I don’t understand that, but I guess I have been alive for a very long time. My mother wanted to create a species of dragons to rule the skies, and I was her magnum opus. A being that barely aged, full of monstrous power, the ability to speak and reason, and yet she was so old by the time she made me that she was unable to create another dragon with me.”

A heavy feeling weighed over the room as the dragon spoke.

“I am doomed to be the first, last, and only dragon to ever exist.”

Both parties stared at each other for a moment. Dahlia could tell that the dragon enjoyed waxing on eloquently and that it was enjoying having an audience for once. But that veneer of enjoyment would grow thin eventually.

“Great dragon, we are searching for an artifact that is in your possession. What can we offer a being such as yourself to gain this artifact from your hoard?” Dahlia minced no words and got straight to the point.

“A good conversation, and assurances that you will return for more conversation. I find myself so lonely here. I am quite envious of my cousins, the yeti. They formed a tribe and moved away a long time ago, apparently the climates suit them better on that other continent. They left little old me all alone.”

“We can provide that easily. We can even find ways to transport you to our continent, where there are far more people to converse with than just us two.” Dahlia was getting excited; making a deal with this dragon could give her a valuable ally and even more raw power to add to her forces.

The dragon liked these terms. It had lived and waited a long time, so it was fine with waiting a bit longer. There was no way for the ship that had carried the princess to be able to carry a creature of the dragon’s size, but once she was crowned king, she would be able to design a boat of incredible size that would carry this being to her continent.

The two humans walked through the dragon’s galleries. In Dahlia’s professional opinion, the dragon had gone a little cooky in its old age. It had decided that it would collect all the artifacts from around the continent and place them all in its hoard. It created a museum of ancient history.

The gallery was massive and incredibly unorganized. The dragon loved to go on long tangents about the adventures he had when he was searching for different treasures he now kept.

Dahlia found him rather endearing, like an old uncle who wouldn’t shut up to save his life.

As Julia was wandering around, supposedly following the string that led Dahlia to the artifact they were searching for, she tripped. As she tripped her hand, very purposefully, brushed the dragon’s side.

The giant beast looked bemused and asked her to take better care of her footing. But the two ladies shared a private look and Julia nodded her head in affirmation.

The two of them had not known how Julia’s gift would interact with the dragon, but Dahlia felt a giddiness rise in her as she thought of the possibilities that she now had.

The motley crew walked their way through the cavern, and the two women were much more willing to let the dragon go on his long discussions of ancient histories he had discovered in this continent. There was intrigue and assassins; power changed hands quicker than a viper’s strike on this continent and there was so much to learn from someone as ancient as the dragon.

Over the course of a day, the trio wandered through the halls of the dragon’s abode, and eventually found the prize that Dahlia had come to this continent for.

The scepter of calamities.

This was the gift that brought the entire continent to its end. In the legends passed down by the natives of this continent, who had escaped its lands before the weather became so unhospitable that people started to truly die out, it was said that an unworthy king was given his gift by the god Calamity.

His name had gone down in history as Greg the Idiot, and his gift was the power to create natural disasters with a wave of his scepter.

The legend goes that he was being assassinated by his closest advisors and in a move of utter desperation he waved the scepter as many times as possible to try and ward off his attackers.

Natural disasters are not fast though, and he was still murdered. But his final act created a disaster of a truly magnificent degree. It ripped the continent to shreds, leaving it fractured.

Dahlia looked at the unassuming scepter. It was tacky and held none of the grandeur that she expected from a weapon of such renown. The scepter was short, it barely touched the ground when she held her arm out at a ninety-degree angle. The outside was studded with as many jewels as she had ever seen in her life. They were all clashing colors with absolutely no sense of style.

There wasn’t even a real place to grip the thing. Instead, she had to have an uncomfortable grip with both hands to even have a chance of holding it up.

The jewels covered so much of it that it was impossible to see what material the thing was made of.

Dahlia hated that this weapon had caused more deaths than almost any other gift in the history of her world. This gaudy disgusting piece of regalia had caused so much pain in the world and she needed that resentment, she needed the hatred that the strings of karma held onto.

Dahlia and Julia thanked the dragon and made many promises about bringing the dragon to their continent before leaving his cavern and returning to their patiently awaiting crew.

Dahlia awkwardly hugged the scepter to her chest as she approached her closest confidants and advisors before saying, “we have what we came for. Let the war begin.”