As a princess, I never learned how to wield a sword. Wielding magic was a prospect I would have never considered in a thousand years. Lord Orus was kind, but harsh. He pushed me to the brink of my abilities.

I caught on to the politics of this world quickly. It had a government quite like my own. There was a royal family and the country was ruled by the king, who had five advisers, one being his wife. They also had three generals that oversee almost all foreign affairs. The royal family had been in place for over a thousand years.

Unlike the government at home, this one was greatly influenced by an outside source. Shaina, the Goddess of Deception. She influenced which wars Delmar fought, mostly, but also created the slave trade that still runs in the richer parts of the country.

Calanthe, a town created by Lord Orus long ago with my predecessor and a man named John, was made for farming. However, Orus also made it as a sanctuary for those who were persecuted. Several people, including Chloe and Zaniyah, came here to escape their former lives. Many strange beings came here to escape their suffering. Orus hinted that there are beings who can turn into dragons. There is a man who can turn into a duck, who’s name is Garld. There is a pair of siblings who have cat ears and tails, as well as a man who can talk to and lead turtles. With this new knowledge, I started to love this village and its purpose.

However, I needed to learn to use a sword.

My teacher was a man named Max, though everyone called him Jes. Jes was the head guard of Calanthe. He was skilled with any weapon you can think of.

At the moment I was being pummeled with wood. As I was not good at all with a sword yet, Jes and I used wooden swords. Sometimes they still left nasty scratches, and every lesson I also left with new bruises and splinters.

Jes swiped towards my left, and as I went to block he feinted to my right, jabbing me in the hip. I grimaced and spun around clumsily, trying to hit him. Unfortunately, my efforts only produced a grumble from an onlooker.

“Honestly, Jes, this is not the way to teach a girl to fight. You aren’t talking or anything, just hitting her over and over again.”

Jes stopped, brushing his spiky black hair away from his icy blue eyes. “Yeah, Kato, and how would you teach?”

Kato stood up from his leaning position. “Well, first I would teach her to keep her balance instead of swinging every which way.”

He stood next to me and stared into my eyes. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Then he put his hands on his hips. “Well? Keep your legs spread apart, with your weight mostly on one foot so you can spring away easy, but be able to plant both feet into the ground if you need to stay steady.”

I looked at him incredulously. He stared right back.

“Look, do you want to learn to fight or not?” Kato said, his tone veering towards an exasperated sound.

I quickly followed his instructions. Jes also lowered himself into similar stance. I clutched the hilt of my wooden sword with both hands, but Kato peeled them off and rearranged them. “Don’t overlap your hands, and keep your left on top. I assume you are right-handed. It will keep your blows stronger. Don’t be afraid to let go with one hand, too. Keeping both on limits your movement. Also, relax your grip. You want to be strong, but you don’t want splinters.”

“Are you ready yet?” Jes asked in a bored tone.

Kato ignored him. “I think you should work on defense first. Don’t try to strike him, just keep on your guard and watch his sword. Don’t just watch with your eyes, watch with your mind. Keep your eyes on his sword but your focus on his feet and hips. That will be the first thing to move if his direction changes. I’ll help coach your movements from the side. Ready, Jes?”

Jes groaned. “I just asked you that. Yeah, I’m ready.” Kato backed off and then Jes darted forward.

His sword was aimed to strike my left shoulder. As he struck, I raised my weapon and blocked his, keeping my arms steady instead of faltering and letting my own sword hit me. I pushed him off of me and he came back. He went to strike my leg but I saw him pivoting on his foot. As he spun to hit my back, I turned out of the way.

“Good!” Kato shouted. “Now next time he misses and gets off balance, hit him.”

I didn’t have to wait long. Jes sprung forwards with a jab, but I let the tip of his sword pass mine only by an inch before knocking it to the side and landing a blow to his shoulder. It was harder than I intended, and Jes fell to the ground.

“Oh, no!” I cried, dropping my sword and falling to my knees, my hands hovering over his face-planted figure. “Are you alright?”

Jes turned over onto his back and covered his eyes. He was shaking. It took me a moment to realize that he was laughing. “Wow, Kato, why’d you leave the guard again? Even as a cripple you sure know how to teach people how to fight.”

I looked up at the word ‘cripple’. “What?” Confusion was etched onto my face. Kato looked down.

Jes seemed to regret his words. “Sorry, I meant no offense.”

Kato shook his head. “It’s fine. It hardly bothers me now.” With that he walked away. He was looking down as he did so.

I turned to Jes. “Cripple? What happened? He seems to be in perfect health to me.”

“That’s the thing, he is.” Jes shakes his head, looking after the trail Kato left on. “For some reason, everytime he picks up a real weapon, he blacks out and has weird visions. It just suddenly happened one day and no one knows why.” Jes sighed, turning back to me. “Well, I guess that concluded our lesson. Good job today, Kira.” I smiled my thanks and took the same trail Kato did.

The sparring grounds were a little ways into the woods, opposite the direction I had faced the Willowbeast. There was a dirt field where Jes and I had sparred, and a rack for weapons. There was also a chest with medical supplies, just in case.

I slept in the Lord Orus’s guest bedroom, though he claimed it was mine now. For some reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to call it mine.

I set down my wooden sword by the door, leaning it against the wall. My bed was opposite the door in the right corner of the room. The window was right next to it, and I had a view over the ocean. I looked towards a chest, filled with clothes that Orus had gotten for me with the help of Kennedy. Resting on it was also my purple gem and its silver chain. During training I didn’t want to risk it breaking or getting lost.

As my duties were done for the day, I put the necklace back on, feeling immense relief as I did so. I sat on my bed, fingering the necklace, thinking through the activities of the day, when I had a sudden urge to get up and go to the docks, which were in the view my window had.

I turned around, placing the necklace on my bed and staring at the woodwork and the one dingy boat next to it. No one was there, but I had a strange feeling that I needed to go.

I stood up, unsure where this urge came from, but I decided to act on my feeling. I walked out of my room and down the hall to the door. I could see Orus huddling over some paperwork in his study. I left his house and took the small path to the docks, hoping that something good or at least peaceful would come of it.

I stepped onto the platform, looking over the ocean. I walked up to the edge, my bare toes hanging over. I looked down, wondering how such shallow water could still be so murky.

“Why hello there, miss.” The voice startled me. I spun quickly, but too quickly, as one foot did not meet the dock and the other was only halfway on. However, before I could even scream as I fell into the water, two strong arms reached out and grabbed the collar of my shirt.

I was met with silver eyes that pierced into my soul. He pulled me closer to him, and he seemed to be studying me. Shock made me weak, and all I could do was watch and wait, my arms useless at my sides.

“Purple, huh? Either you’re an Ishtlan, or Hope has come back into the world. The first I highly doubt, as Orus has taken such an acute interest in you. Tell me, lady, what’s your name?”

I was silent. The man’s messy blonde hair was tickling my forehead, and our noses were almost touching. I didn’t know what to make of him, I just had a feeling he was also a royal. If his eyes were silver, that meant he was pride.

He scoffed, his grip relaxing a bit as he backed away a little. “What, mute? Maybe you are just a dumb Ishtlan.”

“Hey! Who are you?”

The man turned, dropping me. I let out a shrill squeal as I splashed into the cold water.

I gasped for air as I struggled to paddle to the top of the water. There was a serious problem, though. I didn’t know how to swim.

The murky water offered no sense of direction. I didn’t know if I was swimming down, or sideways, or if I was even moving at all. I thought the water was shallow, but it was obviously deeper than I thought.

My lungs were burning, wishing for air that wasn’t there. I was choking on the salty water at the same time. Unable to breath, I felt my vision start to slip away, my attempts at swimming becoming feeble as I grew weaker.

Then an arm slipped around my waist. Another one went under my armpit and I felt myself rising.

My head broke the surface and I coughed up water and thrashed as my savior swam to the beach with me. I felt my feet reach something solid and I fell out of the arms that held me, crawling towards the dry land.

I was coughing furiously, and I felt bile come up my throat. Unable to stop it, I threw up all over the white sand in front of me.

“Holy fire, is she alright?”

“Does she look alright?”

I looked up, finally regaining breath that wisped through my sore throat. Three people stood near me, and two others a little ways away, who seemed to be arguing.

Of the three in front of me, only one was a girl, and two were guards. The girl had dark brown eyes and hair that fell loosely over her leather armor. The other guard had brown hair as well, though his eyes were green. Since his chain mail was dripping, I assumed he was the one who saved me. The last man had white hair and blue eyes, but he looked around twenty.

The girl held her hand out. “Well, Lady Kira? You okay?”

I took her hand and stood up weakly. “You know my name?” My voice was disgustingly raspy.

The girl rolled her eyes. “Duh. Didja think the guards wouldn’t be briefed on the daughter of Lord Orus?”

The guy with white hair looked shocked. “Lord Orus has a daughter? And this is her?”

The other guy looked him over. “Garld, I believe that I told you not too long ago that Lord Orus adopted an Ishtlan girl.”

I had questions on the word ‘Ishtlan’, but I didn’t want to seem suspicious. Obviously several people thought I was from there, including the Silver Guardian who attacked me. “Who was that?” I asked, “The guy who attacked me?”

The girl shrugged. “We were hoping you would be able to tell us that.”

The yelling in the distance, a sound I had disregarded at first, grew louder. “What do you mean, he got away!?”

The male guard looked worryingly over. “Oh, dear. Alex is mad at Timothy again.”

“Yeesh, you’d think he’d give the poor kid a break.” the girl turned back to me. “Sorry, we have to go help the newbie. But, just so you know, I’m Jean and the guy who got you out of the water is Terrence.” She leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Don’t you think he looks really hot when he’s soaking wet?” she giggled and moved away, while the boys shared a questioning glance.

“Well,” Terrence said, “Garld will take care of you while we sort this out. See ya,” As the two walked away, I couldn’t help but agree with Jean.

“Soooo…” Garld was popping his fingers loudly in what I assumed was a nervous habit. “Do you need anything, Lady Kira, or Lord Orus’ daughter?”

“Kira will do.” I smiled. “And I guess I just want to go back to my room and change into some warm clothes.”