Disclaimer: Don't own anything from the Halfblood Chronicles. Though I wouldn't mind owning Kyrtain.
Lady Ayrualla of the House of Draicon sat stiffly at her dressing table, staring at the reflection in the mirror. Ayru daintily picked up her comb and began to brush her long, silky brown hair. She quietly counted to herself as she ran the comb's bristles through her hair; one...two...three...one hundred. Closing her eyes and turning her thoughts inward, Ayru reached with her mind down to the glowing sphere of power inside her. Then, using her magic to carefully lift each strand of hair at a time, Ayru artfully sculpted her hair onto the top of her head, clipping them in place with delicate silver pins. She sighed, opening her eyes to look at the result. Although it had been done completely with her eyes closed, not a hair was out of place. Ayru had preformed this little trick so often that it was as natural to her as walking. As a lady of Evelon, Ayru had little else to do. If an elven lady had strong enough magic, she would take her place as the House's healer, but Ayru, along with any other women who had little power, could not heal and so were left with plenty of free time. Ayru knew that being confined to the House was for her own safety and so that her father's enemies couldn't capture her to use as ransom, but whenever she caught a glimpse of the outside through a window, she still longed to get out.
Ayru gracefully stood and walked over to the floor length mirror so she could see the final result. Her dress was an emerald green that matched the color of her eyes and was styled in the latest fashion amongst the Allied Elves' wives. There were two divisions of elves, the Allied and the Warring. While she knew that the Warring elves were generally weaker in power and paler, with silver hair, Ayru did not know what styles they wore. She had never actually seen an elven woman from an enemy clan. The Elven ladies were kept under close guard by their men. It was even customary for an Elvenlord not to let his wife or daughters leave the bower. Ayru's father, Lord Sylthon, head of the House of Draicon, was one such elvenlord. Any outside news that Ayru got came from the occasional friend who came to visit. Only a small few ever came to visit. The rest were not brave enough to face the dangers that went with visiting places outside their own homes.
Suddenly her door opened and a small, metal, creature like construct stepped into the room, closing the door behind it. In a panic, Ayru jumped slightly and half ran; half crawled away from the door, towards her bed, getting ready to dive underneath it.
"Lady..." the construct said in a robotic, monotonous voice. "Lady..." it repeated.
"Oh, Calet, it's just you. You gave me a start," Ayru said, spinning around to look at the robot. She stood up again and sat back down at her dressing table. Forcing herself to calm down she added, "I know lunch is almost set. I shall come to the banquet hall in only a minute. You are dismissed now"
"Lady...trouble..." Calet said.
"Calet...what is wrong with you?" Ayru asked exasperated, turning her chair to face the construct. Usually the constructs were very obliging, even without having to use the elf stones that would control them. Now, she pulled her necklace made out of srilvin, a lightweight, silvery metal found only on Evelon, out from inside the bodice of her dress and pointed it at Calet. The green stone embedded into the necklace was the most powerful of all the elven stones; as much a symbol of her father's wealth and power as a tool to protect herself. It would let her control even the biggest of constructs that might wish to do her harm. With aid from the necklace, Ayru's magic reached into the mechanical brain of the construct and told it to turn around and walk out the door. Ayru frowned; there was something that was partially blocking her control of the robot. As the construct slowly turned around to face the door, Ayru's eyes grew wide. She gave a small gasp and clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Wedged between the constructs head piece and its body frame was a large block of iron. Now she knew why the robot wouldn't obey her. She whimpered and sank to her knees as the robot crashed into the door in an attempt to get out. By the second attempt, the construct was able to knock down the door and walk out to the hallway.
Ayru stood up; her legs shaking with fear as she carefully took a few steps towards the doorway. Suddenly a large chunk of metal went flying through the hallway and smashed into Calet, knocking the construct off its feet and sending it somewhere down the hall. Ayru screamed, failing to cover her mouth in time. She ran towards the door and leaned out to look down the hallway. Broken chunks of wood, metal, and strange goop that looked almost like food littered the long hall. Ayru stepped out of her room and the sound of crashing objects hit her. Collapsing to her knees, Ayru clamped her hands over her ears in an attempt to keep the sounds out. Ayru had forgotten the silence spell that was kept on the bedrooms. Screams and shrieks were now coming from the end of the hallway where the banquet hall stood. Knowing that if she was going to survive this, she would have to get out of the hall, Ayru forced herself to stand and ran in the direction of her sister's room. Her sister, Mirgwyn, was a gifted healer. Mirgwyn would save her.
Once she got inside Mirgwyn's room she whirled around and slammed the door shut.
"Mirgwyn! Gwyn where are you!" She screamed, looking around the empty room. She knew the answer. Gwyn was gone.
Sobbing, Ayru threw herself under Mirgwyn's large bed, pulling the covers down so that it hid the space between the floor and the bed. There she lay, forcing her breathing to stay calm and quiet, straining to hear any sound coming from the hall. But the silence spell placed on the bedrooms worked too well; she could hear nothing. All she was left with was the occasional thud against the door and her own, dreadful imaginings.
Then, suddenly there was an audible crash as the door to the room shook violently. With another crash the door splintered and gave way. Ayru squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in the plush carpet. More crashes told Ayru that whatever had come in was now tearing her room apart in search of something; or perhaps in search of her. A metal foot stomped down right in front of her hiding spot and stopped. Suddenly the room was silent and Ayru could feel the construct magically scanning the room for anything living. Fortunately for Ayru, the scanner only went down to the bottom of the bed frame and so it barely missed her. After a few minutes, the construct made its way out of the room. Ayru let out the breath she hadn't even known she was holding and continued to lie underneath the bed, exhausted.
It was a long while before Ayru felt the strength to crawl out from under the bed and stand up. Ayru made her way across the ruins of her sister's room and stepped out into the hallway. A shiver ran up her spine as she realized that the entire House was now covered in an eerie silence. Something in the air told her that she was the only one left living. Carefully avoiding having to look at the strange objects laying on the floor of the hallway, Ayru stared straight ahead and started walking towards the banquet hall's double doors which were now completely demolished. She stepped into the room and barely had a glimpse of the wreckage when her knees gave out and she collapsed onto the ground. She sobbed, burying her face in her hands; her whole body shaking.
Suddenly the sound of rushing air and wings came from above. Jerking her face skyward, Ayru looked up where the domed ceiling of the banquet hall should have been. Instead there was just the blue, cloudless sky and the red sun of Evelon burning brightly. Circling around the opening of sky was a dragon with brilliant green scales. Ayru watched, beyond caring, as the dragon dropped to the ground directly in front of her. Ayru let fresh tears spill down her face as she stood up and wrapped her arms around the dragon's neck. She recognized this dragon. It was Emerald Fyre, one of her father's creations. Emerald Fyre had taken a liking to Ayru and Ayru's father had let her keep Emerald as a pet. A large claw picked Ayru up by the back of her dress and lifted her onto the back of the dragon; once Ayru was settled, the dragon launched into the air, pumping its wings hard to fly higher and higher. Ayru sighed, leaning against the dragons neck with her hands wrapped around its neck.
A loud birdlike screech from behind her was the only warning Ayru got before a large, feathered creature flew above the dragon, leaving scratch marks on the dragon's scales. Ayru cried out and clung to the dragon. She began to weave a string of magic with her mind, snaking the rope around one ankle and then underneath the belly of the dragon over to her other ankle. This would keep her secure on the back of the dragon even if it decided to fly upside down.
With another loud screech, the griffon that had attacked them came at the dragon again. This time the dragon dodged the griffon by diving head first towards the ground. Ayru screamed and in her surprise, let go of the dragon's neck. Her arms flew up above her head and she was almost lifted out of the seat, just barely saved by the magic rope around her ankles. The dragon stayed in the dive; until Ayru thought for sure they would strike the hard ground and would be killed instantly. But instead she suddenly found herself flying in a dark cave. Ayru leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the dragon's neck once again. The dragon wove in and out of the different small caverns until they came to a precipice at the end of the mouth of one. The floor of the cavern they were now in was over ten feet below. Underneath the opening in the cavern wall was a large pile of rubbish, wood, and what looked like bones. Ayru shuddered and turned to face the direction the dragon was headed.
The dragon changed the path of its flight and began to circle the cave, slowly descending to the floor. Ayru gasped, they had stopped in front of a large, green arch.
"Ancestors...what is that!" She whispered to herself in awe. The dragon lowered its neck and Ayru toppled down, off his shoulder. She straightened her now torn and ragged gown and went to hug the dragon's snout. The dragon pulled away and nudged her towards the arch. She stood in front of it and felt it pulse with an ancient, invisible magic. She found her own source of magic inside herself and, pulling out her necklace to help, she began to feed her power into the arch. She could feel the pulse of power the arch was emitting grow in strength. Continuing to add her magic to the arch, she suddenly felt the magic of another combine with hers, strengthening it. She opened her eyes and spared a glance over her shoulder at the dragon, which stretched its face into a strange, draconic smile. Ayru stared for a few short minutes and then, with another nudge from the dragon, went back to empowering the arch.