Chapter Text
Chapter One
Crown Prince, Ambrose
”Okay, so… how do you get into the Dragon’s Nest again? And how do you know which egg is yours?”
I sighed. This was the third time I had explained this to Norteya, who just couldn’t seem to understand.
”Norteya, you get to the Dragon’s Nest by walking to those mountains over there.” I pointed to the mountains outside my window. Due to their immense size, they didn’t look that far away, but I knew from experience it was at least a three day walk, “Specifically, the middle one. Can you see that darkish spot, near the top? That’s where all the most powerful dragons nest. That’s where you’ll get your egg from.”
Norteya nodded, “Yeah, and then what?”
“Then, you’ll look around the eggs. Try to avoid their mothers. When I went, they didn’t really care about my presence, but it might have changed since then.” I shrugged, “Anyway, you’ll know it’s your egg because… It’s hard to explain. You’ll just know. It’ll be, like, a tug in your chest that pulls you toward the right egg. Once you know, you have to wait for the mother to leave, grab the egg and run. Dragons are naturally vain creatures, especially in the wild. The others won’t care about you taking the egg, but it’s mother will. They don’t leave for very long, so you’ll have to run as soon as you get it. And, remember, those things are heavy.”
Norteya groaned, “I wish we still had our own wings like how Dad’s great-grandfather did. Now we’ve got to go hunt down dragons, all because Ceral wanted to insult Thalos.”
“You should thank our Great Father, Zalor, for giving us the ability to soar on the backs of dragons instead of complaining you don’t have wings of your own.” I snapped.
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Also, do you want to go into town later this week? They’ve put some new stuff up for the ceremony.” Norteya smiled.
“Fine. Give it a few days, though. I still have to plan the actual celebration with Father, and then we have to discuss war plans for capturing Realus.” I said.
Realus, the land blessed by Mother Meris, Goddess of the Ocean. We would have taken over a while ago had their guards not been so connected to the water. Everytime we arrived on their shores, they sunk our ships and massacred all men who remained alive.
“Sounds boring.” Norteya said, “Can’t you just skip the meetings or something?”
I shifted my leg from underneath me, feeling it going dead, “I wish. Dad would tie me to a rock to get eaten by an Aeris. Speaking of meetings, I have one in a few minutes.”
Norteya took that as his cue to leave and went looking for someone else to bother, probably Narcissa. She was our half-sister, the result of an affair between my father and the Queen of Monarial. Well, she had been until Father executed her right after Narcissa was born, sixteen years ago.
I began getting dressed for the meeting, switching into more formal clothing. I absolutely couldn’t wait to see how Gaela would suck up to Father today.
Once dressed, I made my way down to the Meeting Hall, moving through the golden halls of the palace with ease as servants moved to the sides to let me past.
When I arrived, Father and Gaela were already there. They looked shocked that I had dared to arrive on time and interrupt them.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they came out as gay for eachother one day.
Gaela was a short man, shorter than my father, and that was saying something. His hair was light brown and had a mole above the right side of his upper lip. His voice was naturally shrieky and loud and simply awful.
Father wasn’t much better. He was certainly below average height, though I guess that came with his age at this point.
He had bright blonde hair and skin like sand, with freckles adorning his arms and neck, though they were scarce on his face. His voice was always loud and booming and demanded attention.
I was forever glad I turned out more like Mother.
“Who are we waiting for? Just Mother?” I asked.
“Yes, we are just waiting on Empress Celestina. Crown Prince Ambrose, take your seat.” Gaela said, almost through his gritted teeth.
Wow, he must really be annoyed I interrupted their little lovefest.
Just moments later, Empress Celestina, my mother, entered. She originally had been Princess of Monarial before becoming married to Father, so she was blessed by Mother Noxia, the Goddess of night and moon instead of Great Father Zalor. People, especially nobles, said it tainted our bloodline.
Her hair was black as ink, though most thought of it as peculiar. Most people in Monarial had black, white or grey hair, just like how most of our people were brunnete or blonde. She was tall, too, standing high above my father and Gaela. Her voice was soft and silky. She had a slight bump in the centre of her nose, though it wasn’t too noticible. Her skin was also incredibly pale, unlike anyone else in our court. Mat that we had particularly dark skin, she was just the colour of paper.
“Celestina, lovely for you to finally join us. Please, take your seat.” Gaela said as him and Father finally sat down at the table.
The entirety of my afternoon was then spent planning for the celebration of the Rising Sun, the day of the year where the sun reached it’s highest peak.
It was one of the many days of a year where we honoured Great Father Zalor, having a feast in his name and dancing and drinking into late hours of the night. It was one of my favourite celebrations, but I hated having to plan it.
I immediently stood as dusk began to occur, finding the excuse that I needed to pray to get out of it. It had simply been hours of ‘Yes, Emperor Mirko, of course you are right’ and ‘My Empress, maybe we should let the Emperor handle this, no?’ From Gaela.
I was glad to be able to leave, making way to my room immediently and kneeling infront of the open window. The last flickers of the day’s light shone through the glass as I muttered a prayer in Valaryian. The sun had fully gone down by the time I was finished.
Thankfully, they had also finished the planning by the time I came back. Rather, I assume thay had finished due to the silence coming from the room as I made my way past.
Well, that was lovely. It meant I could finally go and rest.
I yawned on the way back to my room. Extremely excited to do tbe simple act of sleeping, I pushed open my bedroom door only to find Narcissa and Norteya chatting while sat on my bed.
“Hi, Ambrose.” Narcissa said, waving slightly.
I looked around to make sure they hadn’t touched anything before slowly closing the door behind me, “Why are you two in here?”
“That’s my fault,” Norteya shrunk slightly, “I was showing Narcissa the new Sun Catcher you made.”
Sure enough, it was laid out flat on the bed, crystals connected with golden chains. Right in the centre was a large, hollowed out piece of pure Xalor.
Xalor was the only metal that could take the sun’s light and transform it into a liquid to be drank.
We royals had been blessed with the knowledge of how to make them centuries ago by Great Father, Zalor.
Sun Catchers were what made us so connected to our Great Father. When we drank the liquid that the Xalor created, we drank a tiny piece of pure divine light.
The only reason we royals could drink it was because Great Father Zalor was our shared ancestor. Every past King, Queen or Emperor was related to the Great Father, meaning we all carried a piece of divine blood.
Of course, over the centuries, it had been diluted due to royals marrying normal mortals, but it was still there.
Assuming a peasant or a noble tried to drink it, it would burn them from the inside until they dropped dead.
This was what gave us the authority to rule. After all, we were all descendents of the Great Father, and we were favoured by him.
I walked over and picked up the Sun Catcher, flicking open a small compartment on the side and taking a sip.
Apparently, it tasted different for everyone. Father said that it tasted like blood, which sounded foul, but it tasted like watermelon for me.
I closed the compartment and hung it back up on my window.
“Want us out?” Norteya asked. I gave them a small nod and watched as they walked out.
Now satisfied I was alone, I changed into my nightclothes and blew out almost all my candles besides the one on the middle of the wall furthest from my bed.
I curled up in bed, the silk covers grazing over my skin gently. My eyes began to close, and I fell into sleep.