"Once, in the last of the Dark Ages of Europe, there was a king who ruled over all," Aideen began. "His name was Abraxas Ananta. Finest of his lineage, when he came of age his mother declared him the Pendragon, the Head of Dragons, a title denoting his strength and prowess. For it was her title, as Ananta the Pendragon, the one who unified all of dragonkind into a kingdom of their own."

Her voice was as rich. It filled the room, working the sort of spell that required no magic.

"When Ananta the Pendragon stepped down and left Agartha forever was the day that Abraxas ascended—and he would soon face challenges to his reign." Aideen grew more serious. "For his was the age when the other Progenitors aged and departed this world, leaving it to their heirs. And it was then that the Order of the Stormborn Paladins sensed weakness and charged."

Kira tilted her head. "Who are the Paladins?"

Despite solemnity around the answer, Aideen's mouth quirked into a smile before she could suppress it. She was enjoying it, Kira realized. The art of storytelling was something she enjoyed. And now she finally had an outlet for it—much like Kira's poems and guitar-songs, or Lila's fashion designs. 

"The Order of the Stormborn Paladins were centuries-old when Pendragon Abraxas was young." Aideen raised her hands. "They were dragon-hunters, sworn to kill every last one of our kind. It was said that they could draw lightning from the sky and cast it—and with this power breached the world of Agartha and besieged the Jade Palace."

Kira shuddered to think of it. She wondered who would even dare to strike a dragon, upon remembering what Aideen and Lila looked like in their draconic forms. 

Aideen continued. "But Abraxas was able to take back the palace and drive them out. This earned him an epithet of his own—Abraxas the Avenger."

Aideen then leaned back. "Eager to pave his own legacy, Abraxas the Avenger went on to develop Agartha beyond his mother's vision. He may have been mainly a warrior, but he was an intellectual as well. He learned blacksmithing techniques to forge a sword like no other to wield in his human form."

Kira tried to picture it—she remembered how powerful she'd felt as a dragon. Why would a dragon ever have need for a sword?

"But his studies went beyond the arts of war and weapons," Aideen continued. He collected books, creating the library in the Jade Palace with a collection that could best even the Library of Alexandria. He even wrote one, with all the recipes of the day in Agartha. He maintained a garden within the Jade Palace, creating a hoard of various plants. Through research and breeding, he created magical specimens unique to the kingdom of Agartha."

Suddenly Kira found herself wishing she'd paid more attention, had managed to see more when they'd visited the Jade Palace. If she was descended from this guy—then she wanted to see the connections, the legacy. It was as close as she'd ever get to knowing who her own father might have been.

After all, she was beginning to suspect her mystery father might have had more to do with her draconic nature than Ruby Drake. 

"He even for a time ventured beyond the realm of Agartha on a journey for three years." Aideen sat up straighter. "He left a regent while he went on his quest. For you see, maps were quite inaccurate and limited in those days. After three years, he returned with his atlas. He created the most accurate map of the entire world available at that time."

"Wow," Kira couldn't help but say out loud. The Pendragon Abraxas sounded important, special.

But he was a legacy that Kira couldn't live up to. 

"So he was now loved by his people— our people— for the good he had done. But he soon grew unhappy, for there was no one to share his hoard with, no one to rule beside him on the Jade Throne." Aideen shifted, looking a little uncomfortable at this part. "He had lovers, consorts—but never a wife. He had children, the Princes of Air and Light, they were called. But they left his life as quickly as his lovers, for they were enchanted with humans and chose to forsake immortality to join them."

That had to be where they came in, the princesses. Kira wondered how forsaking immortality would even work. And who would be stupid enough to choose it. 

"The youngest swore he'd bring his children to Agartha, as heirs and successors to the Ananta lineage, to be the next Pendragon. But that day never came, for then the Paladins came for the Pendragon, Abraxas the Avenger." Aideen's voice grew quiet, almost to a whisper. "With his dying breath, Abraxas cursed his own people to wander among the humans, searching for his children's children until one of them claimed the throne again."

"Whoa." Kira was the first to break the silence after Aideen finished, echoing what was in Lila's head. 

Hers was whirling with all the new information and implications within.

Aideen smiled, self-satisfied as the other girls processed what they had been told.

"So, are we descended from the princes?" Lila asked. The detail stuck out to her, along with a few others. The way the Council of Crowns talked about it, it sounded like the Pendragon had been a title with a long history. But there had only ever been two to wield it. Maybe they'd wielded it for an extraordinarily long time—but it stuck out to her all the same. 

"Yeah, but I couldn't tell you which," Aideen confessed, a sharp contrast to her eloquent language in her storytelling.

Lila didn't say anything— but something seemed off about the stories. It was so mythical and legendary, above and beyond the mortal world. It seemed far from the new reality of their lives. 

It was another reminder that she didn't belong here in this story. 

"You know, if we're telling stories, I was wondering if Kira would mind telling hers." Aideen turned to Kira.

"What story?" Kira laughed. A more uncomfortable sound than anything else. 

"Well, Lila and I have lived here in Goldwater Harbor all our lives." Aideen gestured between the two of them. "I was wondering where you were from—you know, your story."

"Well, I don't know much to tell," Kira said, tucking a stray reddish-brown hair behind her ear. "My mom had disappeared for six years, and my grandmother wasn't really on speaking terms with her."

"So what happened?" Aideen's voice was gentle as she prompted Kira forward.

"Mom was giving birth to me, and things were going south," Kira explained. "My grandma was the only one left to get the call. She didn't even get to see my mom right before she died— she didn't even name me. We don't know who my bio dad was, or what Mom was up to. But Grandma took me in, named me, and we've moved around a bit, but mostly it's been good."

With the way Kira looked away as she spoke, Lila suspected that there was more to the story than even that. But Kira wasn't going to tell them. And Lila couldn't exactly blame her. The few sordid details she had revealed were sufficient for Lila to know that the details wouldn't be pretty.

"What about you?" Lila locked eyes onto Aideen. "You grew up knowing about all of this. Sounds like the start of an interesting story to me."

Aideen visibly preened, with a gleam in her eye. 

"My father was much like the both of you." Aideen dropped into her storytelling voice again and adjusted her posture. "He grew up in the human world to a seemingly human family—until he got lucky and a power that had lain dormant in his bloodline for generations activated. The Jade Palace and the Council of Crowns found him and their other candidate."

She nodded towards Lila, and Lila's stomach churned.

Unaware of Lila's creeping dread, Aideen continued. "Lady Anagharad was the one who taught my father how to hone his gifts. And so the story goes, he fell in love with his beautiful daughter—my mother."

Lila wondered if Aideen was mimicking how Lady Anagharad would tell the story. Some of the phrases and vocabulary choices reminded Lila of the formidable dragon lady. 

"They fell in love, and they had me—shortly after, my father won the Trials by Fire and was to be coronated as the first Pendragon our kind has seen in centuries." Aideen then huffed a dramatic sigh. "But alas, in the week between, they got into car crash in which I was the only survivor. And so the cycle had to begin again."

"Oh." Kira's amber eyes went wide with empathy. She reached for Aideen's arm. "I had no idea—how sad."

Aideen shrugged, pressing her lips together in a sad sort of smile. "Lady Grandmother is all I've ever known."

"What about you?" Kira turned to Lila. "What's your story?"

Lila shifted uncomfortably. "I don't have a story, really. I've lived with my mom all my life over the Cozy Cup. My dad's always away at his job. It's been just us and that's been okay. That's it."
It was an anticlimactic end, compared to legends of old and the stories of Kira and Aideen.

Lila glanced outside the window. The sun was only a glimmer if you found a flat part to the horizon, but even in the wealthier neighborhoods of Goldwater Harbor, trees obscured the skyline, except at the eponymous harbor. The moon hung in a crescent over the sky— a sliver of a dragon's claw, perhaps. The stars were a sprinkle of glitter in the heavens.

Maybe it was the night. Maybe it was the excitement of a party. But Lila wanted to create her own story, choose her own destiny—as her mother had always taught her. 

"Wait." Lila stood up. "Didn't you say that the Mythos Festival was tonight?"
"It's Mythos," Aideen corrected as she also stood up. "And it's really more across the entire month." 

"But there's a holiday in our kingdom that we've never even seen going on right now." Lila wondered what a dragon's masquerade would look like. "I don't know about you—but I want to see it."

"We can't." Aideen folded her arms over her chest. "I don't want to get into any trouble—"

Lila raised an eyebrow. "Why would we get into trouble? Isn't one of us supposed to rule over all of it as the Pendragon? Why wouldn't we be able to see our own kingdom?"

"I don't know." Confusion twisted Aideen's future, and Lila wondered if this was the first time Aideen had ever considered it. 

"And can't you make portals?" Lila continued.

Aideen looked as if she'd tasted a lemon."Only to the Jade Palace."

"Then that gets us in." Lila nodded. 

Kira hugged her pillow closer to her chest. "Maybe Aideen's right, if we're not supposed to be there—" 

"You can stay if you want, both of you." Lila turned back to Aideen. "You can tell your grandmother I made you make the portal. I'll take the fall for it."

Determination surged through her. "But I want to see what Agartha's really like."

Aideen stared at her for a long time. Then something shifted in her eyes. "Alright. Then I'm coming with you."

Kira scrambled to her feet. "Princesses should stick together! So I'm coming too!"

"Stand back, then," Aideen commanded, and she summoned golden flames to her hands as she had when they had all met on their seventeenth birthday. "We're going to go to the Jade Palace."