The Dragon Prince - Book 1: Cold War

Dear Brother

Dear Ezren,

I'll admit it. The last thing I expected to see this morning was a falcon swooping down and landing on my shoulder, especially with your letter attached to its talon! It hasn't left my shoulder since or stop squawking for that matter, until I starting penning my reply. I don't have to say it but it was so amazing to hear from you! To answer your first question, I am doing great and Rayla is too, though I need to state right now that there's been an ever-so-slight change to our group dynamic... for better or worse. But I'll get to that in a minute.

My apprenticeship going well, just last week I was able to cast my very first sun primal spell: a healing spell! It's been so incredible to use magic that helps instead of harms creatures. For one brief moment, I create a spark that unites hearts, minds and souls together. It's not easy, for the spell to work I have to take on their pain and the sympathetic response in my body can be overwhelming. But once the spell is complete what's left behind for me is this beautiful aftertaste of pure empathy. Ez, I wish everyone in the world could experience this feeling at least once in their life; there would be no more wars I can tell you that.

I also wanted to tell you about my Sunfire master, Zelmai. He's the most grounded and human-like elf I have ever met - next to Rayla of course! At first I thought he was a bit of a tyrant, after he made me carry around a heavy rock for weeks! He made me call it "Mr Sunny: the fake primal stone", and though I didn't understand his reasoning at first, it made me understand there was much more to magic than dusty tomes and research. I think you'd really like him and I hope one day the two of you will get a chance to meet. He's been more than a mentor and more like an older brother to me. Everyone should have an older brother, right?

Ez, I know that you are King but as your big brother, I'm concerned about all the anger you say you've been feeling lately. I cannot even imagine all the responsibility on your shoulders and I wish on all the stars above that I could be there to help shoulder some of that burden for you. I think you need to delegate more of your duties. Promote people that you trust and then make what they do a part of their name. As Human Rayla likes to say, "humans love job titles!"

Alright so as you can no doubt tell from all the dashed out sentences that I've been struggling to find the right words to describe how I feel about Claudia's banishment from Castle Katolis but I can't so I'm just going to write from the heart. Honestly, I haven't been able to trust her since she tried to capture us nearly two years ago when we left the Moon Nexus. But I'm also torn because both her and Soren have been close to us since I can remember not to mention the fact they also lost their mother and now their own father too. Let's just put it all out there, all four of us have the same tragic story. And yet, Claudia has not been the same person ever since she became a Dark Magic mage. There is something about that form of magic that twists and distorts the people who use it. If I have learned one thing about being a mage it's that all spells have a cost, and humans have made no attempts at reconciling the true cost of Dark Magic.

From all the news you tell me, what truly scares me is not only learning that Lord Viren escaped but how he escaped. First, is everyone in the castle doing okay? Second, do we know anything at all about that creature in the Dragon King's mirror that Claudia described?

Oh! You know what? I'm in the land of the elves right now! There has to be someone here who can tell us something. Tell you what, I'm going to take a break from this letter to talk to Rayla and Zelmai... don't go anywhere!

Okay I'm back, did you miss me? haha! (If you think I'm turning into Dad, don't tell me). Anyway, as soon your falcon friend let me stop writing for a minute, I went downstairs and talked to Rayla and Zelmai about the mirror and I'm afraid neither of them can provide any insight other than what we already know. But! There is a certain Sunfire elf uh, let's just say "friend" of ours who's father was actually there the night of Dragon King's assassination. Our "friend" might be the only person with direct knowledge about that mirror. First thing tomorrow morning, Rayla and I are going to have a serious sit down meeting with... our "friend". So, make sure you write back soon so I can keep you updated, okay?