“Now children, what you propose would be extraordinarily difficult. You’ve shown improvement in your ability to strengthen someone’s physical traits, if you work together. But it's a whole different problem to increase the flow of magic in someone.” Queen Liashel spoke as she sat regally on an embroidered cushion, her legs tucked demurely to one side.

Princess Nahira sat tidily on her knees and Prince Valorous lay with his back on another cushion, watching his mother upside down. Now at thirteen, the P\prince had grown taller and slightly more muscular. The patches of scales across his body had deepened in color to a burnt amber, their outer edges had tinged a dark blue. Nahira had grown too, and at twelve, was the absolute darling of the castle. Though she appeared more ethereal and refined, the princess hadn’t lost any of her spunk or prankish nature.

They were in the queen’s solar. It was a bright and airy room. Stained glass windows and a clear glass ceiling let in the day's warm light. A detailed carpet spanned the circular room, depicting an untamed wilderness. In the scenery, diminutive animals peacefully grazed. The scene was surrounded by an ancient flowery script. A small orderly bookshelf kept a few well read books on magical theory. There was a comfortable looking chair close to an empty fireplace. Near the far wall a desk sat, clean but worn with years of use. Finally, near the desk was a larger series of shelves holding glass vials and jars full of various magical herbs.

“But mom, you’ve always said that our magic comes from our blood. Blood is material, so there must be some way to enhance it so that it better processes mana.” Valorous wondered while his feet fidgeted.

Nahira acted as a moderating influence on Valorous, saying, “I don’t think it's that simple, but I do agree with Val. It’s been proven that someone's purity of blood has an affect on their affinity towards magic.”

Queen Liashel pondered this for a moment with a graceful finger on her chin. “It is true that often those with stronger physical manifestations of our Patron’s lineage show a higher ability to manipulate mana. My friend, Shar, is the vice-principal of the White Winds school of wizardry. She told me once about different theories they were proposing about that correlation.”

She raised her delicate finger with a solution. “Let's write her a letter and ask her about their theories. If nothing else you’ll both learn something new.”

Valorous sighed dramatically, “But what will we do till then?”

Nahira inched over towards the prince and cupped her hand to his ear, hiding her mouth from the curious Queen. “Let's continue working on that spell we were designing, It’ll be even more of a surprise to your mom when we complete it ourselves.”

Prince Valorous nodded emphatically. “Let’s do it.”

Without knowing what Nahira told Valorous, Queen Liashel could only smile and try to ignore the feelings of amusement she felt whenever her son and one day daughter started scheming. She cleared her throat softly, “Now back to today's lesson. We were discussing the various methods of spellcasting and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Go over what we’ve talked about.”

Princess Nahira straightened. “The number of methods that spellcasters utilize is nearly infinite. We have yet to find a unified theory of magic. Each bloodline interacts with mana in different ways. Even when casting a similar spell, mages from different clans use different rituals, chants, and signs to do it. Every bloodline has strengths in certain areas, and weaknesses in others.”

Rolling onto his stomach, Valorous put his head in his hands. He continued, “There is an apparent correlation between the manifestation of our Patron’s traits and our ability to use their magical affinities. This is muddied however, when different bloodlines mix. When this happens, only one of the lines shows physically, but their magical talents may include any of the traits of either. Sometimes the magic mixes in unforeseen ways and creates new possibilities in spellcraft.”

“Exactly,” the Queen replied. “So when designing a spell, it may be useful to see how it has been done before, but it might not work if the caster’s bloodlines are too different. For you, Val, since you are the union of two draconic bloodlines and the draconic magics are more similar than others, you are able to learn the spells of both of them. Now explain the differences between mages and wizards.”

Princess Nahira mischievously mimed pushing imaginary glasses up the bridge of her nose. “We are mages. Our Patrons gave us the ability to use our auras to directly interact with the mana of Enoch.”

Sitting up so that he was shoulder to shoulder with Nahira, Prince Valorous waved his hand dismissively. Finishing Nahira’s statement, he said, “Before the Patrons came down and blessed humanity, we could only interact with magic indirectly. Tools, potions, or enchantments were the only way for us to use magic. Not all humans were blessed by the Patrons, or don’t have a strong connection with their blood, and those people can still become wizards.”

The Queen smiled proudly at her children. “Indeed. Though wizardry is lacking in some aspects, there is some benefit to wizard’s craft. For instance, those enchantments that you love utilizing in your pranks are closer to wizardry than magecraft. Also, since wizards are invoking powers outside of themselves, they don’t tire like we do when we actively cast our spells. Don’t look down on wizards or one day it’ll cost you.” She pointed a finger at her son’s nose. “Especially those trained at the white winds school. Shar herself has taken down many overconfident mages in one on one duels.”

“Yes, Queen Mother,” Nahira replied seriously.

Valorous responded nonchalantly at the same time, “Sure thing, mom.”

……………………….

After the day’s lessons were over, Valorous and Nahira retired to one of the palatial gardens to continue crafting the new spell they had devised.

These gardens in particular were a favorite of the young couple. Stone paths connected private nooks covered by trees. Sweeping swaths of flowers blanketed both sides of the pathways. The flowers were many shades of yellow, red, blue and purple and blended together to create a quiet and calming background for the pair’s sorcerous endeavors.

Prince Valorous was currently sitting cross legged on the grass, inside the framework for a ritual magic that Nahira and he had devised. They were hoping that by strengthening the prince’s draconic blood, wings would sprout from his back, and the couple would be able to soar the skies together.

Sinking deeply into the flow of his auric body, the prince attempted to grasp a new understanding of his blood and awaken it further. As his awareness drifted deeply inwards, he noticed a small hidden seam where a slow trickle of his magic was being drained.

Feeling around the seam with his mind, the Prince tried to ascertain its function. It didn’t appear to have any purpose in the workings of his physical or auric bodies. Reaching out a hand to the observing princess, Valorous asked her opinion.

“Come look at this, ‘Hira. My magic looks like it's leaking into this odd tear in my aura, except I can't see where it’s going. You have a better understanding of physical to aurical transitions, what do you make of this?”

“With Elenah’s grace, Let me see the truth. Divining sight.” Taking the Valorous’ hand, Nahira used the physical connection to slide her consciousness into the prince's aetheric veins to look at what the prince was seeing.

“What an odd little construct,” she decided. “It’s pretty difficult to see, but it feels as if it is trying to stay hidden. It’s definitely not natural. Could it be some kind of curse? But there is no way a curse would have gone unnoticed by your father's physicians…”

Nahira studied the leak for a moment. “If you look closely it appears to be draining a hue from your magic instead of letting it mix normally. Why? And where is it going?”

Thinking hard, Valorous asked her, “have you ever seen that color of magic before? I haven’t, what could it be?”

The color of the magical power in question was a shifting shadowy cloud, dusty greys one moment, and stretching into deep purples, blues, and blacks the next. The feeling the pair got from it was akin to wanting to go unnoticed, a lonely acceptance of being forever in the background. Yet it had a firm strength, as if it would do whatever it had to in order to succeed. It was a calm and patient feeling, the build-up of potential energy right before the boulder falls.

The royal couple's curiosity was piqued by this new type of magic power, so they quickly decided to tear open the little seam and experiment with it.

With surgical precision, Nahira started to feed her magical energy into the seam, attempting to disrupt it’s flow and confuse it with the interference of her breezy aura, like a refreshing wind rustling through the leaves of a quiet forest.

Valorous observed this operation quietly, trusting in Nahira’s skills. He watched as the talented young girl slowly widened the seam with her magic, and gasped once at the odd feeling of her aura against the foreign structure inside of him.

With the pair’s disruption of the seal, it started to pulse in and out of visibility, as though it were attempting to disappear entirely, while continuing to maintain it’s mysterious function.

Refusing to allow that, Princess Nahira used the pulsing to firm up her grasp on the construct. Spreading her magical influence into the structure, like roots growing through stone, she looked at the Prince's pale face.

Valorous nodded as he said decisively, “Let’s go for it.”

The blue-furred girl’s forehead wrinkled in concentration, and a little growl escaped from her throat.

Tiny thorns grew from the magical roots embedded in the seal and, with a sudden twist, tore the seam apart.

To both of the observers, it appeared as though a layer of reality was suddenly taken away. Like living one’s whole life looking through a glass, and between one blink and the next, the glass vanished. Everything inside the rambunctious prince appeared to be exactly the same, but somehow still felt off when it came to his aura’s color and interaction.

Blinking consecutively at each other, they wondered what had or hadn’t happened during the anticlimactic experiment. Valorous opened his mouth to speak but instead of what he was about to say, all that came out was “Oh.”

The broken pieces of the diminutive seal grew in perspective until together they overlapped with Valorous’ auric body. The shards continued shattering and growing in a kaleidoscopic frenzy and waves of heat blew outward from the prince. Nahira leapt back with a worried look of concentration on her normally easygoing face. The crumbling seal caught fire, a dark, spectral soot spreading outward as it manifested out from the prince's pores and lapped hungrily across his physical body.

In his head, the Prince saw a giant reptilian eye creak open and stare at him. . A deep, dark voice spoke inside his mind. “One of my children yet lives? How… Unexpected. Wait, I can sense more hidden behind you.”

Overwhelmed by this vast presence, Valorous managed to gasp, “Who are you?”

The voice chuckled, “Why, I’m your mother, of course. Korovix the Dark.”

Valorous shuddered as a vast amount of information poured into his brain from the eye. It burned through his synapses as a shaky moan escaped his lips. Knowledge about crafting shadow magic flooded through his mind. Just as he thought his head would split open, the eye closed and the presence faded. “I’ll see you again one day, blood of my firstborn.”

“Val!” the princess exclaimed as she took a step forward, arms covering most of her face. Unleashing her own Aura to combat the blaze, she took another step, but even with her protections she couldn’t get past the waves of heat and blackened fire emanating from the prince.

Valorous’ voice came out as a tortured howl. It looked like his body was fracturing like the seam in his aura had. His mouth was open in a grimace and Nahira could see several of his teeth lengthen and grow sharp. The scales around his forehead distended outwards until they cracked and bloody obsidian horns pushed their way out.

Flames flickered out of his eyes, burning and darkening his iris from a burnished gold to a pitted and metallic grey. His sunny red scales caught fire then, cracking and fracturing, splitting his smoking flesh while new scales burst outwards. Even his hair darkened as though it had been burned.

Gasping for breath with wild eyes, the prince fell to his knees, grasping and pulling at his robes. Finally tearing them, Valorous grabbed his shoulders, twisting to try and reach his back with his clawed fingers, ripping at the skin of his shoulder blades.

The flesh of his back bubbled and blackened, then split as two flaming growths erupted from it, leaking blood, while the prince finally screamed. Flowing outward like the blaze, ebony wings slashed out and unfurled with a final snap.

As quickly as the violent scene began, so too did it end. The prince panted against the ground of the gardens. The last few embers trailed towards ash. Princess Nahira rushed towards him, finally free from the overwhelming heat. She grabbed his shoulders and spread her magic senses back into him to scrutinize his condition.

Coughing, the prince took her hands and whispered, “I’m fine, I’m gonna be fine.”

Staring into Valorous’ eyes, she studied them and the drastic changes they had been through. Tracing her fingers from his cheek to a patch of newly forged scales, up to his freshly sprouted horns and finally, getting up and moving to his backside, she touched his leathery fleshed wings.

Instead of looking ominous, the princess decided that Valorous’ new form made him look dashing and mysterious. Well, despite the shed scales, peeling skin, blood trails, and ash trailing through his hair.

“Well, it worked, I guess,” she said, giggling anxiously.

Suddenly both of them laughed hysterically and fell into each other.

“Oh, I'm sore,” complained Valorous.

Sitting half on top of him, Nahira again placed her hands on his shoulders, and closing her eyes, used a minor healing spell to address his aches. “With Elenah’s blessing, be healed. Curing Palm.”

The prince closed his eyes as her soothing power caressed his strained flesh and bones. Relaxing into her magic, like a cool spring day seen through meandering trees with birds and insects happily chirping, the Prince sighed contentedly.

“No more pain?” she asked. At his slow nod, the princess fluffed out her own wings. “Good, now let’s see what those can do!”

Giggling again, Nahira pushed herself off of the prince and leapt up into the air, her wings beating down powerfully.

Groaning, more for effect than any continued ache, the prince stood up. He spread his own wings awkwardly. Valorous flapped them a few times to understand his new musculature. Then he jumped up, only to stumblingly land back on the ground.

He snorted and rose again to the sounds of Princess Nahira’s laughter. Valorous stomped his foot decisively and with a powerful downswing he rose into the air. Though it was shaky, weak, and only a few feet from the ground, the prince was flying!

Still grinning, Nahira swooped down towards him. She grabbed his hand with her own and whooped joyously. Then she spun him around and hugged him, letting the two of them fall to the grass.

Rolling around and wrestling, the gleeful Prince ended up on top of her and pinned her arms above her head.

The gates into the garden burst open and several guardsmen rushed through, reacting to the explosive burst of magic from only a moment ago. Seeing an ebony-scaled, winged boy holding down their precious princess, the guards yelled and charged.

“He’s got the princess!”

“Get him!”

“Intruder! Sound the alarm!”

“I’ll get to the King!”

A knight peeled off from the group and ran off to inform and protect the King. He was confident in his fellows abilities to subdue the intruder.

The rest of them proceeded in a professional manner. While one of them rushed forwards to tackle the misidentified prince, the others began to encircle the pair.

“Wait, stop, it’s me!” Valorous cried, while leaping off of Princess Nahira.

Also getting up, Nahira called, “I’m fine, that’s Prince Valorous!”

Lunging at Valorous, the guard knocked him to the ground and forcefully wrestled an arm behind the prince’s back. The princess’s words finally reaching him, the guard stared at her, while not loosening his grip on the strange boy’s limb.

“What….?” The Captain of the Guard asked, unbelievingly. “How could that urchin be our prince? Did that rapscallion do something to you, Princess?” Turning to one of his subordinates, the Captain ordered, “Get a healer, the princess may need one.” To the rest of them, he called out: “Tie up the intruder and be wary of his magic. It's what brought us here, after all.”

A young guardsman asked, “Sir, what is he? He looks like he’s from a dragon Clan, but what's with those colors?”

Kneeling down next to the young princess, the Captain put a gauntleted hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you alright, Princess Nahira? He didn’t do anything to you? No spell craft?”

“That’s Valorous, Captain Bernh. It really is! We found a seal inside him, and we broke it open, and now he looks like that!” Stomping her foot, Nahira commanded, “Let him go!”

“No, little princess, that must be a Shadow Dragon assassin, sent to destabilise Sunhold. Don’t worry, miss, a mind healer is on the way.”

A knight cut in, “Captain, we’ve secured the prisoner.” They had bound the disheveled prince in chains, glowing with a searing luminosity.

The guards sprung to attention as an echoing roar came from the palace’s open doors into the gardens.

“What’s all this then? An assassin in my kingdom! Bring him before me! I’ll kill him myself! Bernh! Where is that scoundrel! You, bring me my sword!” A commanding presence dominated the gardens as King Raitan strode out from the castle. The king was followed by his queen and several of his councillors.

Grabbing Valorous by his matted hair and slamming him back into the ground, Captain Bernh knelt before the king. “My Liege, we caught this intruder on top of the princess. He appears to be shadow blooded. We stopped him before anything happened.”

The councillors gasped, and Councillor Enyu fearfully shouted, “The shadow’s blood? Kill it now! How dare it come into our kingdom!”

Underneath Bernh’s fist, with his face smashed into the dirt, Valorous burst out “Father, it’s me, Val, I’m not an intruder!”

Hearing the prince’s voice coming from this mussed up, winged, black scaled boy broke the King from his rage. The queen gasped. Stepping towards the facedown boy, King Raitan, bent over and grabbed the chains around the prisoner’s wings with his large hands and effortlessly lifted the limp Prince up to his eyes.

“Valorous?” King Raitan asked softly. “My son…”

At Prince Valorous’ weary nod, the light of reason completely left the king’s eyes. He Threw his son to the ground. King Raitan roared thunderously as the magical pressure exuded by him increased drastically. The councillors and the guards all stepped back, cowed by the king's wrathful aura.

Councillor Enyu raised his voice again, “My king, how can your son’s blood be tainted with the Shadow?”

King Raitan’s expression became even more violently murderous, like a bloodthirsty monster had possessed him. Veins popped out along his forehead, his neck, and his arms. Lightning crackled in the air that surrounded the king. “My son! Blood of shadow! Our hated enemies, here in my own house! Tainted! Blasphemy! My wife! Lia!” The raging king whipped towards his wife, spit and foam flying from his mouth. “You! What is this?”

He stalked toward her, while she cowered at the overwhelming aura pressing down on the gardens, her usually calm and kind demeanor replaced by confusion and fear towards this wrathful creature her husband had become.

Queen Liashel opened and closed her mouth several times while no sounds came forth. As she shook, she was finally able to speak, trying to keep her eyes toward her normally loving husband. “Rai, calm down. I don’t know what’s going on either. That’s our son. Let's release him and figure this out. He’s our blood. What are you doing?” While she spoke, she bravely took a step toward her husband and raised her hand to touch his face.

From the side, the guard who left earlier rushed forward holding the king’s sword and kneeling, “My Lord, your sword.”

“Our blood! Lies! Treason! Shadow blood!” The wild-eyed king grasped the Rising Sun from the guard and ripped it from its sheath. “No threat to our kingdom shall survive! Kill that traitorous corrupted creature!”

As he commanded his knights, King Raitan took up Rising Sun and swung it at his wife. Queen Liashel screamed as the blade came towards her, begging her insane husband to stop. She tried to cast a warding spell, but the Sun Sword gave off a radiant glow that sliced straight through her forming shield and into her neck, cauterizing the wound and killing her instantly.

Her headless body collapsed on the ground of the gardens. Everything stopped as everyone silently stared at the Queen’s body. Even the King was silent as he tried to process what he had done. Valorous, in chains, looked blankly at his mother's corpse, unable to comprehend what had happened.

After a moment, Nahira found her voice and screamed in fright and panic. That deafening noise broke the assembly free from shock, and the king roared again, “Kill the false prince!”

Nahira’s scream also woke Valorous from his fugue, and he desperately didn’t want to die. Frantically fusing his golden flame magic with his new powerful auras, Valorous pressed down on his magical might and then let it explode out without forming any spell. A void-shattering howl exploded through the gardens which shocked everyone present into stillnes; it felt like light itself was being sucked into the horrible sound. As the keening noise continued, the onlooker’s vision dimmed. The chains that bound the prince shattered, flinging shrapnel around.

Valorous vaulted towards Nahira, his arm outstretched. “Come on, ‘Hira!”

But before the prince made it to her, Captain Bernh stepped up to the princess and grabbed her arm. “Get behind me, princess.” The pale-faced Captain pulled out his sword while he pushed Nahira back into the arms of the other knights. “Face me, traitor!”

The guards readied their weapons. The councillors chanted offensive spells. They all declared together, “For king and country!”

“Let me go! Run, Val! Just go!” Nahira yelled as loudly as her hoarse voice allowed. With tears streaming down her face, she struggled, kicked, and bit at her holders.

With an anguished sob, Prince Valorous hopped back, away from the captain’s blade. “I’ll be back for you! I Promise ‘Hira!” Valorous yelled at his princess.

“I know you will! Val, just run!” Nahria pleaded while still struggling against her captors.

Valorous compressed his magic again, and ignited it underneath his crouched form. The Magic bereft of any guiding framework blasted outwards and upwards in an impressive Cacophony of light, sound and violent force. Hitting the crowded onlookers, it knocked them back. Even the maddened king was pushed backwards a step.

While the assembled people recovered from the detonation, Prince Valorous was airborne. He haphazardly fed his magic into his wings as fast as he could, hoping to strengthen their fledgling muscles before the knights could marshall their wits and follow. “Texnosha’s benevolence, cradle me. Flowing stream!”

“After him! Don’t let the black dragon escape!” The still enraged king shouted.

“Your Majesty!” saluted the recovering knights. Those with powers of flight lifted off the ground to pursue the fleeing prince.

In a final act of desperate defiance, Nahira marshalled her powers and recited a spell. “Elenah’s false guidance, ensnare my foes. Labyrinth of Roots.” Roots exploded forcefully from the flowerbeds and entangled the rising guards. She looked up again at her bedraggled prince and wished him speed on his escape.

Using every ounce of magical potential that he had, Valorous tore through the sky above the castle and out into the city surrounding it. He sped up and ignored the screams of his newly-formed muscles. The prince continued his mad dash out of the capital and towards the edge of the floating Island. Each wingbeat felt like torture. His tears fell onto the ignorant city below as he sobbed and gasped for breath from both the excursion and the terrible events that just occured.

As he reached the edge of the island, Prince Valorous came to a dangerous but determined decision to conserve his last drops of magic. He stopped providing energy to his straining wings, and curled in on himself. Then he let gravity take him past the edge of the world. He fell.