(Year 0; near the edge of Falcondar Kingdom)

Third Princess Cassidia Falcondar had never seen a lake before.

Water stretched away from her to a green shore in the distance, more water than she'd ever seen in one place. A few feet away, it popped up against the rocks and spilled onto the kind of dense, lush bushes the nobility had to pay fortunes to maintain back home.

Cassidia couldn't understand why her ancestor Arken had built his castle on top of the one he'd taken from the Shairisels, when there were lovely places like this he could have moved the Kingdom's capital to instead. 'It's the power of tradition,' her father had explained to her. 'And by keeping the desert for ourselves, we push the Shairisels and their dragons out of the heat.'

Cassidia still found it silly. They'd taken care of the remaining Shairisels nine years ago, and there weren't any dragons left on the continent anyway.

Or at least, there were very few.

"Weapons ready!" a high, piercing voice shouted from the trees that ended a short distance from the shore.

Cassidia ducked down into the lakeside bushes, watching as the woman strode out into the open. Nineteen years old, but with an air of cold authority to rival her father's, First Princess Lynsa looked every bit the Queen she was one day going to be. Her snow white hair was braided back in a dignified yet practical style, her armor, Sword, and Sheath were polished to perfection, and her icy blue eyes were focused on the lake without a care for the soldiers following behind her. Lynsa's trained regality and military excellence were things Cassidia would never be able to replicate. But that didn't mean she couldn't observe and learn something.

"This is the lake the reports mentioned, yes?" Lynsa asked without turning around.

"Yes, Your Highness," one soldier responded. His sword-replica held steady in his hand.

The First Princess rested a hand on the cobalt blue Sheath at her hip, and Cassidia felt an instant pang of jealousy. Lynsa had lost her own Sword and Sheath two years ago, yet here she was being allowed to use Silverstone and Azurizt, weapons that were supposed to go to a Second or Third heir. But Cassidia had never been given a chance with any of them.

"Stay clear of the water," Lynsa ordered. "Be on your guard."

Cassidia's jealousy turned to alarm as she hurriedly scanned the ground beneath her. It was covered in dirt and snagging twigs—she was going to get an earful about ruining another dress—but luckily dry.

Lynsa unclipped the weapons as she stepped up to the water's edge. With a loud ring, she pulled Silverstone free; it shone silver in the morning sunlight. "Dasdaka, vanquish this beast," she declared with practiced drama, and thrust Azurizt into the water before her.

Blue electricity flashed out from the Sheath and over the lake's surface. As steam rose up in a thick cloud, something beneath let out a strangled roar.

And then the lake exploded in a shower of water as a mass of dark gray scales burst into the air. Batlike wings swept downward, showering Cassidia in droplets and rattling the bushes around her. Cold fear shot from her heart to her feet, stiffening her body and pushing the air from her lungs.

It was so big. Big and gray and with far too many sharp edges, from its claws to the ridges on its back to the fangs protruding from its mouth. If this was a lake dragon, she couldn't even imagine what the ones in the ocean were like.

Her hand dug through the grass next to her until it found a leather hilt. She dragged the sword-replica closer to her, but the bravado she'd felt sneaking the weapon from the armory was long gone now.

I'll be fine. Lynsa can handle this. I'm just here to help if they need it.

"Charges!" Lynsa shouted.

The soldiers raised their sword-replicas in near unison, and their blades glowed orange. It was an impressive display of Falcondar technology that Cassidia usually felt pride in seeing, but as the dragon barrelled toward them, serpentine jaw agape, she wondered if it was enough.

"Fire!"

Orange bolts blasted forward and slammed into the dragon's belly. It hissed and thrashed in the air, twisting down into the water with a massive splash before leaping upward again.

"Charges!"

A jet of flame blasted from the creature's mouth. Lynsa dove to the side, but the fire engulfed the soldiers behind her, and as the heat hit the freshly-glowing weapons, it set off the charges stored inside them. An explosion shook the ground, and Cassidia lost view as she fell backward.

She pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing as the bush behind her caught on her hair. She frantically tugged the white curls free, pulling leaves with them, and grabbed back onto her sword-replica as she looked back toward the battle.

Most of the soldiers were picking themselves up from a patch of scorched ground, but a few lay still. One charge usually wasn't enough to kill someone, but with that many in close range...Cassidia thanked the gods that any of them had survived.

Lynsa herself didn't look shaken that her order had backfired so devastatingly. She had sheathed Silverstone and was holding it high as she tracked the dragon through the air.

It dove toward her.

Lynsa shouted, and Azurizt was pushed off the end of its Sword like a gunshot, clattering against the dragon's fangs. It flashed blue, and the creature howled as electricity exploded in its face. After another shout, Azurizt was pulled back again by Silverstone's magnetism, sliding onto the expertly-aimed blade.

An orange charge hit the dragon's flank, followed by another, and the dragon turned its attention to the group of soldiers. It opened its mouth, and they scattered to the sides.

Cassidia's eyes landed on the few unmoving soldiers lying on already-charred grass. Some might already be dead, she knew that. But some might be unconscious.

She jumped to her feet, dragging her sword-replica with her. With a grunt, she swung it in front of her, using both hands to point it in the exhaling dragon's direction, and mashed the charge button and trigger on the crossguard. A beam of orange blasted away from her, clipping the edge of one scaly wing.

The dragon didn't fall, but it did startle enough to look at Cassidia instead of breathing its fire. Suddenly aware of how exposed she was, she took a stumbling step backward, her sword-replica's point dropping to the ground.

What in the world am I doing?

"Cassidia?" Lynsa's voice called incredulously. "Oh my gods, when Father hears-"

"Highness! Look out!"

Cassidia tried to run backward, tripping and barely keeping herself upright. She'd half expected the dragon to try to flee by now. But dragons weren't quite like wild animals, and that became all the clearer as it flew straight toward her.

She raised her sword-replica, knuckles turning white around the hilt.

"Cassidia, charge but don't fire!" Lynsa's voice called.

Cassidia stared at her sister on the other side of the dragon. She looked calm. Prepared.

And her plan involved Cassidia. As insane as it was, she felt a spark of excitement race through her as she pressed the charge button on her weapon and held the glowing blade high.

The dragon's mouth opened and began to glow.

Lynsa flipped the weapons in her hands and slammed the Sheath down into the ground. She shouted, and with the Sheath stuck firm, the Sword's magnetism shot itself upward instead, carrying the First Princess with it. She flipped the weapon upright in the air as her momentum carried her out of view behind the dragon.

Another shout pierced the air, and Cassidia's sword-replica ripped out of her hands and straight into the dragon's maw. The following explosion knocked her to the ground.

When silence returned around her, she giggled, wiping her face with a dirty, torn sleeve. Her skin was raw from the heat, and her back ached from the fall. It was the most she'd felt in weeks.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?" someone asked nearby.

She swallowed her amusement and sat upright. "Yes, thank you."

Ahead of her, the dragon's body lay still on the ground. Threat to her people or not, Cassidia couldn't help feeling a little sorry for it. It had looked so big to her before, but compared to stories of the past, it really wasn't.

"You are going to be in a world of trouble," Lynsa remarked.

Cassidia flinched and met her sister's icy eyes. "I was trying to help. Some of those soldiers might be dead if I hadn't."

"You didn't help," Lynsa told her matter-of-factly. "You made everything worse, and I'm the one who will have to explain why you were out here in harm's way."

"I could help, if anyone would teach me how!" Cassidia protested, climbing to her feet.

"You're fifteen, Cassidia, fifteen, and Father has made his wishes extremely clear."

"You were training younger than that," she said, but she was quickly losing her nerve, and Lynsa knew it.

"Don't you think that Father would have you trained if he thought it best for you?" The older sister crossed her arms. "Or do you know better than he does?"

About her own life, Cassidia thought she did know better. But for some reason, saying that out loud felt preposterous. "I'm sorry," she muttered.

"And next time, you'll..." Lynsa waved for her to go on.

"I'll stay at home and attend to my regular duties." The thought of attending lunches with uptight nobles so her father could facilitate business deals scrunched her face into a scowl.

Lynsa smiled. "Perfect. Let's go home, shall we?"

Cassidia nodded, but her annoyance and jealousy and indignation were condensing into something else in her chest—something dangerously close to rebellion. Maybe she couldn't go on dragon hunts, but she was going to find a new way to help her Kingdom.