Book I: Awakening – Summary

Journal of Tristan Anorox Winterbloom

10th of Building Season in the 1,240^th year of the Second Age.

The past few Seasons have been . . . both exciting and filled with sorrow—a series of events that were both fortune and misfortune, intertwined and connected inextricably through one another. My journal entries will probably be infrequent, as I do not have the free time to just write anymore—always practicing, always training.

First off—how I got into this situation. My father Fawkes Anorox sent me on my first hunt, to track down and kill a fairy dragon, the most insignificant member of dragonkind. Her crime? Dropping a chamber pot on the king and stealing the royal scepter. The assignment was meant to be a slight against me, another way to scorn the half-breed child in a family of dragonslayers.

And so I chased her. For two years of my life, I chased the elusive creature.

I caught up to her several times, but bad luck seemed to always find me. Finally, in a muddy field, I got my hands on her. But as she struggled to escape, she unintentionally brought me with her as she used a spell to transport across realms. To the most . . . fantastic place I had ever been to. The Fey Realm.

Turns out, Elves like my mother originated in the Fey Realm. It is their ancestral homeland. And while I was there, a number of very odd occurrences . . . occurred. First and foremost, the Human half of my half-breed nature was pushed aside, and I became a full-fledged Elf. Second, I learned that I am a Winterbloom, descendant of Zeltana, the first of the bloodline. Third, I formed an essence crucible, which was quite the surprise. I’m an essence-weaver now!

And last, The Matriarch, the Realm Protector, challenged me to prove my worth by facing her in combat. Thank the gods I was trained as a dragonslayer, because she shape-shifted from her fairy dragon form into an Elemental Realm dragon, the largest and fiercest of dragonkind. I was able to defeat her in that mock affair, and so I was given the mantle of Lord of the Fey Realm—my ancestral birthright as a Winterbloom. I was just lucky enough to be the first Winterbloom to return since the Great Exodus.

I learned of a vault below the Queen’s Wood, the massive tree that serves as the center of the Fey Realm. Attempting the vault door, I failed to open it. It must be opened using essence, and I just didn’t have enough.

To help me complete my task to deliver the dead fairy dragon who so disrespected the king, The Matriarch gave me the corpse of one of their fallen to present as the offending fairy dragon. I was then accompanied out of the Fey Realm by the very dragon who had brought me to the Fey Realm as I tried to capture her: Felicity Glimmerwing. She’s a scamp and a trickster, but she has grown on me since our first proper meeting.

Heading back to the capital, I found myself doing what Grandfather and mother had taught me, helping others whenever possible. I did come across some of The Black Company, a mercenary band, and fought them off, scarring them for daring to raise their hand to a noble. Yes, even a half-breed noble. I was using a neat spell to masquerade as my half-breed self.

Which I can do now. In fact, thanks to Felicity’s training, and several spell primers I acquired, I am rapidly training myself as an essence-weaver. Spells come naturally to me thanks to Mother’s instruction on memorization.

Then . . . gods, this is hard to write about. We reached my family’s estate. Everyone was dead—mother, the staff, and the servants. Butchery is not sufficient to describe what I found, but I have already put off writing this section several times now, and will leave it at that.

I was able to return to the Fey Realm thanks to a Fey Realm Ring given to me by The Matriarch. Honoring Elvish custom, I laid my mother to rest inside the Queen’s Wood by submerging her body in a pool of the royal tree’s sap.

Felicity was a constant comfort during that ordeal, never leaving my side. I came to regard her as more than a fairy dragon assigned to serve me. But I don’t know what to think about our relationship yet. Friends? Maybe. Something else? Possibly.

I returned to the Mortal Realm and went to the capital, Bhant’s Holdfast, my overarching quest now to track down those who had murdered my loved ones. Rather than immediately returning to the king with the fairy dragon corpse and the royal scepter, I tracked down the name of a diviner who I hoped could use his powers to reveal clues to my family’s murderers. At his residence, I received several spell primers from the diviner’s assistant before moving up the stairs to the diviner’s chambers.

But an assassin had reached the diviner first. I fought the assailant, killing them. But the corpse vanished into dust, leaving behind their cloak and dagger. I grabbed the two items and fled, heading to the king’s court.

I arrived at the Blackspire, the king’s citadel, gave my report, handed over the scepter and the corpse of the fairy dragon, and then told of the assassination of my mother and the country estate staff. Archon Grimtome, an adviser to the king and a powerful essence-weaver, used a spell to confirm the truth of my words, and thus I was allowed to leave. I also received a token of the king’s regard, an item called a favor, and had some of the king’s finest assigned to guard me at the Anorox townhouse in the capital.

I was told to remain in the capital, in case a dragon should threaten the city. Since father and grandfather were both off on dragon hunts, my half sister was pregnant, and my half brother was gone as well, they wanted a dragonslayer nearby.

Going to the townhouse and getting settled into my old room, I found a letter from my grandfather which confirmed much of my suspicion about the family’s affairs while I was gone on my two-year hunt. I met with some staff members and the guards, and then Felicity and I went on some errands—including selling a few of the baubles she had liberated from the king’s palace as she stole his scepter. Given that I would never get a coin from Father, it seemed prudent enough, though selling stolen goods left a sour taste in my mouth.

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