The Dragon's Kiss

"Will you be close by?" Kel hurriedly shouted before the emperor could disappear into the orange bushes.

"... are you unable to get yourself back?" the emperor replied, turning around.

"It's not that!" Kel waved her hands around flusteredly. "I just thought maybe you'd stick around in case you thought I'd run away or something."

"I'm rather surprised, Princess, to find that you think the emperor of the Serin Empire has nothing better to do than spying on hostage princesses in the forest," the emperor snorted, crossing his arms.

Kel's cheeks heated up as the emperor spoke, and she suddenly wished she'd never said anything in the first place.

"Ah, of course you'd be busy…" she trailed off.

"No wonder Mevani is doing so poorly if their king has so much time to waste every day," the emperor clicked his tongue, turning once again to leave.

"Ah wait!" Kel stopped him.

Her fears that somebody would see her practicing her fire had not been entirely assuaged. Though she was embarrassed at asking so many trivial questions, it was better than being discovered.

"Can you tell me what this place is?" She inquired, glancing around.

The clearing looked as if it was meant to be used by somebody for something, and Kel was mortified at the thought of whoever it was happening upon her lighting flames everywhere.

"That's not something you need to worry about," the emperor answered vaguely.

"Please tell me!" Kel insisted, then added, lowering her voice, "..just in case."

The emperor stood quietly for a few moments before responding.

"This place is mine," he conceded. "And since I'm leaving, nobody else will come here."

Kel breathed a sigh of relief. Her cheeks still burned from the shame of being so bothersome, but at least she could be sure her secret would be safe.

"Thank you, Sire!" she called toward the rustling bushes the emperor had finally stomped into.

She stood still for a while, waiting for the sound of his crunching footsteps to disappear before she began taking a closer look at the clearing.

"So this is his place?" she murmured, picking at some dry twigs and leaves on the ground.

Aside from the bizarre shape, everything else about the clearing seemed perfectly normal. Kel wondered what the emperor could possibly do here seeing as it wasn't big enough for archery and poorly formatted for swordplay.

As she studied the three crisp lines and sharp angles, she was reminded of Serin's military camp. Could that have something to do with this place?

Or perhaps, were both triangles a symbol of something much deeper? After all, among the many rumors circulating about the Dragon Emperor, at least a few involved him summoning dark powers from some heinous being.

Chills ran down Kel's spine as she had a sudden vision of the emperor cloaked in all black with intricate markings on his face, performing some sort of unholy ritual.

"For the sake of my sanity," Kel whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, "let's just assume the man has a virtuous obsession with triangles."

Her attempt to talk herself out of uneasiness was less than successful. The setting sun slowly sucking away all the light didn't help the matter either.

"This isn't a devil worship site. This isn't a devil worship site," she chanted to herself, stepping out toward the middle of the clearing.

"I've faced much worse! This isn't even sca- EEK!!!"

Kel crashed backward as a squirrel scampered through the dead foliage next to her.

Placing a hand over her rapidly beating heart, she snorted. How could she have gotten so jumpy? If her fellow soldiers could see her now, they'd probably die of laughter.

The moment of pleasantness, sparked by the memory of her comrades' faces, soon became overshadowed by a much worse feeling. Though this forest hardly resembled the one she'd been first captured in, she could still easily picture those same comrades abandoning her while she slept.

If they could see her now, she doubted they'd actually laugh at all.

Would they feel sorry for her? Or would they all scoff at how low she'd fallen instead?

With a huff, Kel pushed herself back to her feet.

It's time to start training, she thought. Let's see those imbeciles try and scoff at me with their eyebrows singed off!

She reached for one of the sticks in the pile she'd collected and held it firmly out in front of her. Then, squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for the tingling to begin inside her chest.

Except, the tingling never started.

"That's strange," she murmured. "Let's try again."

She scrunched her eyes closed and waited once again. Unfortunately, she was met with the same outcome.

"Haa," Kel sighed, lowering the stick. "What now?"

Desperately, she searched her memories, trying to piece together what Uncle would advise her to do in this situation.

It didn't take long before the old man's voice came to her.

Your fear controls your fire.

"That's right!" Kel exclaimed.

Especially after her previous failure, she was more than a little intimidated at the thought of trying again. That's why Uncle had always stressed the importance of clearing her mind before training her power.

"I guess I know what went wrong earlier then," she surmised, settling into a cross-legged position on the ground. Hopefully a brief mediation would allow her to declutter her thoughts and get rid of her fear.

She took slow breaths, pushing everything to the corner of her mind--her argument with Barclay, her suspicions of the emperor, the betrayal she felt every time she came in contact with Dash, her curiosity about Soren and guilt over the destruction he'd caused--all of it.

As she sat, softly inhaling and exhaling, she reached again for the twig. With eyelids gently closed, her chest slowly began prickling.

Yes! She thought as the sensation grew stronger. I did it!

Stay focused. Uncle's voice sounded in her head again.

Calming her excitement, Kel waited until the tingling had peaked before directing it toward the twig in between her fingers.

This was the first and most simple move she'd ever learned. All she had to do was pour her power into the stick and watch it ignite. Unlike shooting flame-exploding arrows or fiery sword tricks, Kel had always been able to do this.

However, just as the stream of tingles reached her fingertips, her concentration snapped.

"... what was that?" she wondered aloud, glancing around her.

The disturbance came again, this time even louder.

Kel flinched, dropping the twig as a bloodcurdling cry ripped through the air.