Kaelin Draeth's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Kaelin Draeth held the cracked circlet over their palm and let it fall. The metal split in two before it hit the anvil. This was the third crown to break this month. Kaelin wanted one crown to unite the last dragons and the last humans under a single rule. But the rare metals such a crown needed would not bend for any fire Kaelin could raise. Their forge burned coal and charcoal. It was not enough. The star-iron only glowed dull red, then cracked as it cooled. Kaelin pressed a clawed hand to the cold stone wall. Dragon blood ran in their veins, and human blood too. Both peoples had once served the old kings. Now they fought over ruins. A crown could end that. But a crown that snapped in the hand would only prove Kaelin a fool. The forge could reach no hotter. Kaelin had tried bellows, oil, and dry pine. Nothing worked. Then Kaelin remembered the grove. Half a day's walk brought Kaelin to it. The trees stood close together, their trunks thick and dark. Their leaves burned red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, all at once. Kaelin had heard that dragons once nested here. The old tales said the trees fed on more than sun. Kaelin snapped a low branch. The wood was heavy, almost like stone. Sap the color of embers welled from the break. Kaelin filled a sack with fallen branches and carried them home. At the forge, Kaelin fed the strange wood into the coals. The fire changed. It rose white and hissed like a living thing. The heat pushed Kaelin back a full step. Sweat ran down their scaled arms. Kaelin laid a bar of star-iron into the flame. This time the metal did not sulk. It glowed gold, then near-white. Kaelin worked fast. The hammer rang. The star-iron bent and held its shape. Kaelin curved it into a band, cooled it slow, and lifted it to the light. No crack. The circlet held. Kaelin laughed once, alone in the dark forge. The crown was possible now. The white fire had done what coal never could. But the sack was nearly empty. Kaelin had burned half the branches on a single band. A full crown would need far more of the strange wood. And Kaelin had taken those branches without asking. The grove was not empty land. Something had nested there once, and the old tales were rarely kind about what guards such places. Kaelin looked at the finished band, then at the last few branches in the sack. To finish the crown, they would have to return to the grove and take much more.