The Dragon Princess

Prologue

Iron City, Sarkin

6 Years Later

Amidst the chaos happening around her in the castle, Jaymie Dain-Andry only has eyes on one specific place. The courtyard of the castle. Even with years of being able to see, truly seeing colors is still a wonder to her after being born blind. A beautiful wonder. Her father had tried to describe colors to her when she was blind, but how does one describe a color to someone who has never been able to see. Now that she can see, she loves matching colors to emotions. Red for anger or love. Blue for calm or depression. She loves touching with her fingertips and being able to see what it is she is feeling, like rose petals of all colors. She loves running a hand across a crack in the stone and seeing where it has split open. Trees, shrubs, and flowers decorate the courtyard around a stone statue of her grandfather, Elyas, with his parents, Felix and Caomie. She remembered learning that they had died, leaving her grandfather all alone in the world at a young age. She loves learning and reading words off of pages. She loves history books and fairy tales. She especially loves seeing people smiling with happiness and discovering what the cause is. But there is no happiness today.

Jaymie does not glance down as her fingers smooth over the black material of her dress. She would hate for such a pretty dress to be ruined on her behalf. The sweet smell of flowers in bloom is welcoming to her and she wants to smile, despite the sadness everywhere else, as it beckons her out to step out of the shadows. It almost seems a betrayal to smile, whilst everyone else cries. Jaymie does not know what she should be feeling. It is a mystery to her. She is angry at those who kill. She is saddened by the loss and feeling everyone else's as well. She is hurt by the people who still refuse to accept her. She is happy for Dex, who had been forced to go away to training for two months, and has just returned only this morning, but she has yet to see him. She is elated for her baby sister's upcoming birthday celebration in a few weeks. There is much to feel, with little time to feel it in, and so, Jaymie stands in the shadows, watching the world around her mourn the loss.

In the middle, sitting on a bench, is the only mother Jaymie truly knows. She calls out to the older woman. "Mother." She has never felt more like a young child then she does in this moment, standing and watching her mother sit in silence. She wonders if the Queen even knows it is her speaking, for she has never called Marina her mother before today. Jaymie remembers the first time she ever heard her voice, even though she had hidden her name from her, masked behind the lonely traveler named Jess. She remembers being enchanted by the voice. It had been calming and soothing to her darkness. Seeing her face had only magnified her beauty. Jaymie remembers her with kind, gentle brown eyes and a soft smile. That smile is not here today.

With sad dark eyes, Marina Andry looks up, seeing her adopted daughter looking back at her. How she has grown. She is no longer the scared young child she had first met, but rather the beautiful young princess she has become. She is a young woman now at seventeen years of age, and the beauty, Marina supposes, mirrors that of Jaymie's birth mother Matylda. Marina remembers her own self at seventeen, but her life had been vastly different at that time. Who would have known this would have happened so soon. If she had only known. "You need not call me that just to make me feel better." She replies, with tears streaming silently down her elegant face.

"I didn't." Jaymie replies. She sighs and walks over to her, kneeling down in front of her and taking her mother's hands in hers. "I mean it. I didn't want to let go of my birth mother, and it blinded me. It kept me from seeing that I had someone more than capable of filling the hole that she left, and someone who was willing to fill it." Marina reaches out and places a hand on the girl's cheek. She is always a wonder to Marina. "You were there for me in my darkness, and so I will be there for you in yours."