The Broken Sword - Chapter 1

Part 1: The Legacy of Birth

Chapter 1

Elvanshalee clenched her teeth through the searing pain of the contraction, forcing her mind to stay calm. She was alone in her tower, the tower she had raised with her own hands and magic from the very earth that had been the center of her mother's sacred grove. If she were to lose her concentration now all that she had worked for would be lost; years of sacrifice and toil for a greatness that was beyond anything any elf had achieved in their life.

On the edge of her consciousness she remembered what she had been forced to endure to reach the point she was now at. It had been costly, but if it was more so in her pride and self identity than it was in pain and blood, it was only by a narrow margin.

Her interest in dragonkind had been with her since she was a child. It only grew as she grew, and having the honor of fighting alongside Luingirth against Ancaruin was something she considered the pinnacle achievement of her life. Nothing could surpass it, until another idea occurred to her after having overhead one of Garrick's many lewd comments to Luingirth.

Five years spent in research and what little experimentation she could undertake yielded some partial results to her. During her time spent in solitude she sought no one for advice or companionship except for Luingirth. He was an ancient dragon, by elven or dragon standards, yet his youthful demeanor was surely the cause of his bond with Kelnozz Risingmoon, or as most knew him, the King of the Elves. She shared some of her research with him, and in the end after finally confiding all of it to him he filled in the missing blanks with his eons of knowledge he had amassed.

Elvanshalee sought to merge her magic with that of the world, magic that dragons were able to easily pull upon. Magic that Alesha could harness with ease, much to Elvanshalee's annoyance. Alesha, a mere human woman that rose far above her station and her worth. Beyond even that which her mortality should allow for potential. Such a short lived race, humans, yet a few did seem to shine from time to time and burned so brightly that they left spots in the vision of others for generations to come. Alesha was one of those, as was Yamara, the troubled and somewhat surly rogue that Elvanshalee had felt the most kinship too, if only for her aloofness.

Her thoughts were forced back to the matter at hand as she endured another contraction. It would be soon now, she knew it. Elves typically carried a child for nearly two years before giving birth. This one had come much quicker, no doubt a legacy of it's unnatural parentage. She had cast her auguries and done her best to divine the nature of it, but even her mightiest magics could learn nothing of it. She was at a loss.

She had considered destroying the child as soon as it was conceived, reaching inside of her with a tendril of her magic and dispatching it. But, at the behest of Luingirth she had abstained. That was her end of the deal, in fact, that whatever fruit was born of their unnatural and highly magical union would be allowed the chance to survive. Luingirth was not as his kin, thus he would never find another blue dragon with which to mate. Instead they had used their individual shape shifting magics to allow such a union to take place.

The contractions were coming quicker then. She bore down and muttered barely heard words that soothed the pain and eased the babies progress through her birth canal. It was still another half an hour before the crying child emerged fully into the world. She studied it through exhausted eyes and noted somewhat clinically that it was a girl. A girl with dark skin and eyes the color of shimmering sapphires. Black hair was wetly plastered to her head. Elvanshalee breathed deeply and wrapped the baby in a rag, cleaning the mucus and blood from it.

She studied it briefly before speaking softly in elvish. "Your name shall be Vanya, little one, and your life shall be filled with harshness and toil, but I promise you that I shall do everything I can to prepare you for it."

She slid a dagger through the umbilical cord then, severing it instantly so magically sharp was it. Instantly she felt a surging tremor within her. Elvanshalee gasped as she felt another contraction nearly double her over. She set her daughter on the table beside her and felt her insides scream at her, forcing her tortured muscles to push anew. In a matter of only a few moments this time she gave birth again, though this time it was something that caused her eyes to widen in fear and amazement. It was over a foot in length and oval shaped. The membrane surrounding it was torn from the tremors of the birthing, and it slid wetly off of where it lay between her legs on the soiled cloth.

Although smaller than she would have though possible there was no mistaking it; it was a dragon egg.

Continued in Chapter 2