RISE OF THE FORSAKEN DRAGON HEIR

THE GODDESS WHO BOWED

“What is it?” Patriarch Alistair Sterling asked.

Janet's father lowered his voice. “Varethia has been invaded.”

The words immediately wiped the remaining warmth from Alistair's face. Around them, music continued inside Sterling Hall, and most of the guests were still laughing and drinking as if nothing had changed.

“Invaded by whom?” Alistair asked.

“The Black Templars.”

Alistair stiffened. For the first time that evening, genuine fear broke through the old patriarch’s usually controlled expression.

His fingers tightened around the head of his cane as memories of ruined cities and slaughtered bloodlines flashed through his mind.

The Black Templars were not an ordinary army. They were an ancient military order feared across the realms, armed with advanced weapons, forbidden mysticism, and technology designed to kill supernatural wielders.

They believed inherited powers like Dragon Blood and Astral Essence had given certain families the right to rule for too long. Their answer was simple and brutal: destroy the supernatural bloodlines, crush those who protected them, and build a new order from their remains.

Alistair slowly turned toward his son. The celebration around him suddenly felt very far away.

“Are you certain of this news?”

Janet's father nodded. “Four leaders of the five Astral Houses are confirmed dead. The head of House Lumera survived, but barely. Latest information says he's in a coma.”

Alistair's eyes hardened. “What about Seraphina Vael?”

Janet's father hesitated before looking at the staff member who had delivered the message. “What happened to the Astral Empress?”

The man glanced around uneasily. A few nearby guests had already noticed that something was wrong, and Donald Ashford had briefly looked toward them from the high table.

“Patriarch, we shouldn't discuss this here,” the staff member said quietly. “Please.”

Alistair rose without argument. “Come.”

The three men left the table and stepped onto a private balcony overlooking the Sterling estate. Once the doors closed behind them, the noise from the celebration became distant.

“Now speak,” Alistair ordered.

The staff member swallowed. “Approximately six hundred thousand Black Templars entered Varethia.”

Janet's father stared at him. “Six hundred thousand black Templars?”

“Yes, sir.”

Alistair stepped closer. “I asked you about Seraphina.”

The man's voice became more careful. “The Astral Empress is alive.”

Alistair released a slow breath, but the messenger was not finished.

“Varethia lost almost one million soldiers during the fighting and evacuation efforts that allowed her to escape.”

Alistair's face changed completely.

“One million?”

“Close to it, Patriarch.”

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Alistair gripped the balcony rail and stared into the darkness beyond the estate.

Seraphina Vael was no ordinary ruler. Known across the realms as the Astral Goddess, she ruled Varethia from the Astral Throne and possessed the legendary Crown Core, which gave her unmatched command over Astral Essence.

Kings respected her, armies feared her, and even Asterion's proudest Dragon Houses treated her name with caution. If someone of Seraphina's power had been forced to abandon her own realm, then the threat was worse than Alistair had imagined.

“Seraphina Vael is stronger than any one of us.”

Janet's father moved closer. “Father?”

Alistair turned sharply. “Do you understand what I'm saying? The Astral Goddess possesses more raw power than the combined strength of the current patriarchs of the Seven Dragon Houses.”

His son looked disturbed. “And the black Templars still drove her from Varethia.”

“Exactly.” Alistair's voice dropped. “If the Black Templars can destroy four Astral House leaders, cripple the fifth, slaughter that many soldiers and force Seraphina herself to flee, then Asterion is not prepared for them.”

The messenger slowly nodded. “There is something else.”

Alistair looked at him. “What?”

“Our intelligence says Empress Vael didn't simply flee. She came to Asterion looking for someone.”

Janet's father frowned. “Who?”

The messenger paused.

“The Primordial Dragon Lord.”

Both men stared at him.

Alistair was the first to speak. “Impossible.”

Alistair was the first to speak. “Impossible.”

The Primordial Dragon Lord was more than a legend. He was believed to possess the only Dragon power capable of challenging the Black Templars.

The golden Primordius Dragon gave its wielder overwhelming strength, speed, resistance to supernatural attacks, and authority over Dragon Energy itself.

Ancient records claimed that at full power, the Primordial Lord could suppress other supernatural abilities, destroy entire armies, and force lesser Dragons into submission.

Against an enemy created to slaughter supernatural bloodlines, he represented something the Seven Houses desperately lacked: raw power the Black Templars could not easily neutralize.

Janet's father shook his head. “The last Primordial Dragon Lord disappeared more than a hundred years ago. There is no way he could possibly be alive.”

“That is what our records say,” the messenger replied.

Alistair's expression became darker. “Then either Seraphina has lost her mind, or Varethia knows something the Seven Houses do not.”

********

Elsewhere in Sterling territory, David Myles stepped out of a taxi and closed the door behind him.

The vehicle drove away, leaving him alone on a quiet road lined with expensive homes and private estates.

His thoughts were still back at Janet's birthday.

He could tolerate Victoria calling him useless and powerless. He could tolerate Tristan laughing at him. Even being dragged away from the high table had not hurt as much as Janet's silence.

She had watched them remove him.

She had said nothing.

David exhaled slowly and adjusted his jacket. “Maybe she didn't understand what was happening.”

Even as he said it, the excuse sounded weak.

A deep mechanical sound suddenly rolled across the sky.

David looked up.

A black helicopter passed directly over him.

His eyes narrowed.

Seconds later, several bullet proof vehicles appeared from both ends of the road. They moved quickly and stopped around him, forming a tight circle.

David remained where he was.

Doors opened.

Armed men stepped out carrying heavy rifles. Several others wore dark combat uniforms surrounded by faint white energy that moved across their bodies like mist.

It was the Astral Essence.

David's expression changed.

“Varethians?”

The helicopter descended into an empty section of road ahead of him. Wind blasted dust across the pavement as the aircraft settled.

The side door opened.

More guards emerged first.

Then a woman stepped down.

David recognized her immediately.

Seraphina Vael.

The Astral Empress looked nothing like a woman who had just lost a realm. Her long white hair moved behind her in the wind, while her pure white eyes carried a cold brilliance that made even experienced warriors avoid meeting her gaze for too long.

A pale Astral aura surrounded her body.

Yet something was wrong.

She looked exhausted.

Worried.

Almost desperate.

David frowned as she walked toward him.

“Empress Vael?”

Seraphina stopped several feet away.

Her heavily armed guards remained behind her.

Then, to David's surprise, the most powerful woman in Varethia slowly lowered herself before him.

She bowed at his feet.

Every Varethian soldier lowered their head.

Seraphina's voice was filled with respect.

“I greet you with all reverence and worship, Almighty Primordial Dragon Lord.”

David's eyebrows drew together as he stared down at the Astral Goddess.

What was Seraphina Vael doing in Asterion?