A great beast the size of a mountain suddenly appeared. Its great body was supported by hundreds of tree-trunk legs and it was getting nearer to the village. All of the villagers had run away, even the Drivers. Except one. He was the bravest Driver of them all. And his blade was the strongest of them all. He had a great blue sword, and he and his blade charged the monster. They narrowly avoided the great bursts of flames that shot out from the monster. He ran back and forth, cutting off legs as he went. Just as he stopped for breath, the monster was killed. It died standing up and stayed that way. He walked towards his blade and leaned in for a kiss.

"Ewwwwwwww!" Morag said.

"What?" I replied.

"Brothers don't kiss sisters! That's gross!"

"But... but that's what they do in all the stories!"

"Ewwwww!"

"Awwww, C'mon, please? You'll ruin the story!"

I'm Niall, and my blade is Morag. She's 10, and I'm 7. We just ran away from our bodyguard, Ron, who hates fun, to go play in the forest. He doesn't like it when we run away, and we always get in trouble, but we do it anyways because it's the only fun we can have. Other times, it's just reading and studying. Ew.

"No! Besides, it's getting late. We should go back anyways," Morag said.

"Fine..."

So we headed back home. Our summer home was in Gormott, and it was a big mansion that you could get lost in, but I knew the way around. As we got closer to home, something seemed off. Dad would have just said it was my imagination, but Morag noticed it too.

"Wait, where's Ron?" She asked.

"I don't know." Usually, he would be off looking for us, trying to find where we'd run off to this time. We could find him easily most times, but this time he was nowhere to be found. As we approached the mansion, he was nowhere to be found. We walked to the front door, but it was locked. Morag used her key to try to unlock the door, but just as she did, there was a sack thrown over my head. From Morag's screams, it happened to her too. All of a sudden, I got super tired.

The next thing that happened was I woke up on a bed. Morag was on another bed next to mine, and the room we were in was square, with white walls. The room was small, and it smelled gross. In a chair on the other side of the room was a man. He had black hair and a goatee, and he seemed to be asleep, his arm resting on the armrest and his face in his hand. He apparently wasn't, because as soon as I got up, he got up and left the room. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it. I shook Morag awake.

"Niall? Where are we?"

"I don't know. Some guy over there just walked out."

"Were we... kidnapped?"

"I don't know..."

Just then, the man walked back in. He had two people behind him, and they sat down in chairs they had brought. The one from before stayed standing, and he had a somber look on his face.

"Who are you and what do you want from us?" Morag asked angrily. "You kidnapped us, didn't you?" He flinched at that as if he was insulted.

"We didn't kidnap you," he said.

"Then what's going on?" Morag asked.

"I'm Len, a friend of your father. We were... we were contacted by your father. He was convinced that there was an extremist group who was after him and his lineage. He thought that they were trying to end his country. He met with me in private, once, where he announced his fears. He was right."

"What?" I asked. Is he saying... that there's a plot against Dad?

"I'm sorry," he said. He looked even more downcast. "He's dead."

"What?" Morag asked.

"The extremists broke into the house, and he was killed. The Empress, too."

"That can't be. You're lying." Morag said. "You're just trying to get us to go along with you." Morag is probably right, she usually is, but what he said got me thinking. What if he was right?

"I wish I could say that. He was a good man. I'm sorry we couldn't get to him in time."

Morag stood up. "You're a liar!" she shouted. She charged at him, and she managed to tackle him before the other men managed to get her off. They put her back on her bed, and she collapsed. One of them removed a needle from her arm.

"What did you do to her!?" I asked. "Morag!" I tried to shake her awake, but she didn't budge. They will pay for this, but not now. Play the long game, like Dad always told me. I took a deep breath and sat down on my bed. The man in the middle shook his head.

"That will get you nowhere. Mindless aggression is no way to rule an empire." Len and the other two people left. Len sounds like Ron. The lock clicked, trapping us in the square room.

A few seconds later, Morag mouthed to me, "Are they gone?" We had had much practice reading each other's lips, as it was a skill that came in quite useful when trying to hide things from Ron. I nodded, and she sat up.

"What... didn't they shoot you with that needle?" I asked her.

"They missed." Her arm was wet with whatever it was they tried to inject into her.

"They... missed?"

"They weren't very good at it, that's for sure."

"So what do we do? We can't escape, and we can't fight back, so what do we do?"

"Can't we?" She reached into her pocket. She pulled out a blue diamond-shaped box.

"Isn't that... isn't that a Core Crystal?" I had seen one in some books, and I had seen some that Ron had shown me, but I had never seen one so close.

"I don't know. It was in his pocket. I grabbed it when I tackled him."

"Morag, what can we do with it? Why did you grab it?"

"I'm sure we'll find something." She brought it closer to her pocket. It started to glow.

"Morag! Don't!" I shouted. I had seen in books the disastrous results that could happen if someone who wasn't able to bind with a blade tried to. She dropped the core crystal, then quickly picked it up as the door opened.

"What's all this ruckus?" came a voice. It was a voice I hadn't heard yet. It was the man who was standing on the left of the man who was talking. He had a gruff voice. Once he realized that Morag wasn't asleep, he walked over to check things out. "What are you doing awake?" He asked. "I hate children. Just be quiet, will you?" He didn't notice Morag holding the crystal.

Morag nodded. He left the room and closed the door. No click this time, though.

"He left the door unlocked!" I whispered. Morag nodded. We crept towards it, and as we reached it, Morag opened it slowly. As the door creaked open, I looked out. Outside the room was what appeared to be a kitchen. It had a counter around the perimeter, with a sink and a stove with a teapot on it. Everything was white, even the teapot, and as we walked through it, the next room contained a table and chairs, and they were white too. A hallway with a few doors coming off of it was on the other side of that room, but on one side of the room was a door with a window, showing green, and then nothing. We must be on the edge of the Gormott Province, and that cliff must lead to the cloud sea. Maybe we can escape if we find something we've seen before. I reach for the door, and as I do, I hear a voice just outside it.

"So what now?" One voice said.

"We take him out," was the response. It was the one who had come in earlier.

"Already?"

"Well, yeah. The sooner we take him out and the less those kids know, the better." I heard the sound of a sword being drawn from a leather scabbard. I looked out the window on the door, just to hide again as I saw the two men run past. The door isn't locked. I look at Morag, and she nods. I throw the door open, and we run in the opposite direction of the way that the men had gone. We run parallel to the cliff, but the other side of the cliff is up against the wall of the house. There's no fence, deceptively making it look from afar that there was a way to walk on the other side of the house. I stop Morag, but she had seen it before I had. We backed up slowly to the other side of the house, and Morag looked over past the corner. She motioned for me to look, so I did. The two men were talking to Len. They were too far away to clearly make out what they were saying. However, it appears that we are not on Gormott. The piece of land that we are currently on appeared to be a wide circle. Over near the opposite edge, however, stuck out a tentacle-like device, and it stuck out to what appeared to be a grouping of these islands. We must be on the Leftherian Archipelago! But that means... We aren't able to get back... A few islands down, there was a small town, and it was a possibility that they had some ships. I motioned for Morag to come closer, and I whispered in her ear.

"We're on the Leftherian Archipeligo. We have to get to somewhere with a ship we can use."

"I figured that one out!" she replied. I shrugged it off.

"There's a town not too far from here. Maybe we can get there if we sneak past the others here."

"Okay."

We snuck past the men, talking near the tentacle. We could hear them talking now, but they were apparently too engrossed in their conversation to notice us. For once, this was a good thing.

"You... you don't have to do this!" It was Len. I saw that one man had a sword drawn, and the other man was apparently unarmed, but Len was also unarmed. He reached into a pocket in his jacket. "I didn't want to have to do this..." he says. "What the..." he said, just realizing that he no longer had the core crystal that Morag had taken. He saw Me and Morag then and saw the core crystal in her hand. But then, the man with the sword stabbed him, and he fell to the ground.

"I thought I told you to stay put!" The man with the sword said.

"What the..." the other one said, turning. "You little..." he said.

"Let's just take them out now, then we don't have to deal with them. It was our endgame anyways. This way, we won't get the ransom money, but we'll still get the reward money." Huh? Reward money? Was someone paying for this?

"Morag!" I yelled. I had been trained in some hand-to-hand combat, but Morag was much better. She had trained extensively, especially unarmed against armed enemies.

"The tentacle!" the unarmed one said. The armed one ran over to it, and cut it off. It fell to the cloud sea and floated away. Well, there goes any thought of escape.

Morag ran at the one with the sword, and I ran towards the unarmed one. He looked as if... wait. Is he... holding a weapon? I couldn't see anything, but he was carrying his weight as if he had one in his hand.

"Morag!" I yelled at her, trying to warn her, while I was retreating away from him. He swung, and I felt a breeze past my face. He was armed - with an invisible weapon, no less. Meanwhile, Morag had nearly disarmed her foe, but when she realized that the other man was armed, she stopped, and the man gained the upper hand. He shoved her away, and she fell to the ground.

"Morag!" The core crystal fell. Everything happened in slow motion then.

The crystal hit the ground, clattering on a stone.

It started to glow.

Morag reached for it, and the man she was fighting dropped his sword and dived for it.

Morag touched it, and the light exploded out. I couldn't see anything until the light faded away, and then instead of two people, there were three. The core crystal was gone, and in its place was a woman wearing a purple dress. Morag held two rapier-like swords with blue lines running in a spiral fashion down the blades. The man she had been fighting was stunned, but the one with the invisible sword was not. He charged at her, but with deadly precision, she disarmed him and knocked him into the cloud sea. The other man had grabbed his sword, and he stood up. Morag ran at him, and he flinched. He tried to block her blows, but they were too fast. He also fell into the cloud sea.

"Morag!" I said in wonder.

"How many times are you going to say my name like that?" she asked.

"Wha..." I realized I was still sitting on the ground. I got up.

"I think it's over." It was the woman.

"A blade! Morag, you're a driver!"

"Whoa, I am!" she said. The blade chuckled.

"I am Brigid," she said.

"Hi! I'm Niall and this is Morag!" I said.

Morag shook her hand, not realizing that she had dropped one of her swords.

"There's no need for formalities," Brigid said.

"Oh... right." Morag suddenly realized that she had dropped one of her swords, and quickly picked it up again.

"Can I see it?" I asked.

"Fine..." Morag was reluctant to give it up.

"Woah! This thing is so cool!" I swung it around a bit. It unfurled at the blue seams and turned into a whip. I nearly dropped it in surprise.

"What...? Hey, let me see!" Morag grabbed it back. Brigid chuckled again. The other sword turned into a whip as she swung it. "Woah!" she said.

Morag played with her swords a bit, and then we decided that we needed to determine what to do. As we were discussing, a Titan came up against the island.

"Hello," Brigid said.

"Brigid? I did not expect to see you here." was the reply. Wait, Titans can talk?

"I... Who are you?" Brigid replied.

"I am Azurda. I thought I'd check out what all that ruckus was about." Apparently, they can.

"I... I'm sorry. My driver is Morag. Whoever... whoever my driver was... They must not be alive anymore." There was a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"It's okay. Hey, there's one thing I think you should have."

"Me?" Brigid said.

"Yes. It's a journal that you kept while your driver... was alive. Len... he kept it for you. He was a good man. It's a shame, what happened today. Two great men have died." So... I guess Len was right. Dad... he really is gone.

"So..." Morag said, anxious to change the subject. "What now?"

"Now, my children, we go back to Mor Ardain. You have much to do." Wait... if he is right, then... Oh. I'm the Emporer now.

"But how?" I asked.

"Ride on my back."

"Wha... Okay...?" We climbed onto his back, but we waited, as Brigid was getting her journal. Eventually, she came out, and we headed off.

It was a long journey back to Mor Ardain, and we explained the whole thing to Brigid, and then cried lots because of Dad and Mom, but we got over it. When we got back to Mor Ardain, we were met by the royal guard, who took us into their protection. It turns out I wasn't Emporer yet, I was too young. The one making all the decisions was Dad's advisor, and he would continue to until I was 15, when I was determined to be of age. They gave me some random cases, to see how I would react and gage my reaction. Just random stuff, like, take a healing flesh eater who has taken refuge from the Praetorium. That one didn't matter anyways, because she was taken by the Praetorium by (diplomatic) force. Never had a chance to even make a decision. The attack was from an extremist group who misjudged their popularity. They thought that more people shared their opinions, but as it turns out, most people were happy with the way that they were being ruled. They were easily flushed out, and I worried about them no more. I have not heard much of Azurda as of late, but the last I heard of him, he was well. He was taking care of some salvager now.

Sorry this one is a bit late. Also, sorry it's not another chapter. Don't worry, the addition to the story is coming soon, it just needed this one to build on.

Thanks for reading!