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“Welcome, honoured guests! The Royal House of Grimwood is humbled by your presence this night,” the voice said.

“My father,” Steph mouthed as they strained to hear.

“For two long decades, the great Houses in this room have supported the realm of Grimwood with steadfast compassion and generosity,” the King continued.

Penelope startled at the sound of footsteps approaching beyond the curtain. It sounded as though multiple people were marching along the balcony from either direction. Penelope flinched back, anticipating that the curtains would be flung open, however the footsteps came to a halt, standing just shy of the drapes.

“Over twenty years ago,” the King went on, his rich voice echoing throughout the hall, “Grimwood suffered one of the worst assaults in the history of all of Edenwood’s realms. I speak, of course, of the night now known as the Battle at Great Fall.”

Penelope sucked in a quiet breath as the hall below fell utterly silent.

“That cursed night, we encountered a terror, a foe, beyond all prior comprehension. We found ourselves facing a danger both unknown and untested. In the late hours of that terrible night, seven mighty spectres, dragons, rose from deep beneath the earth, emerging from the caves beyond the Great Fall. With them rose a tide of fae lights, ghostly sirens come to consume our spirits, our very deepest essences."

The King paused as horrified murmurs swept the hall. Chills prickled Penelope's skin.

“A monstrosity like none we had ever encountered, these beings passed en masse through stone and wood as though immaterial, indiscriminately claiming life and limb. No room, no cavern, no vault was safe. My own brothers, Princes Asten and Callum, lost their lives to the first wave, fighting creatures who breathed silver flame and could not be neatly felled by sword, club, stave, or arrow.

“My father, King Abram, fell against the swarming lights of ferrifae while protecting the Mid Town, saving the life of my eldest son, First Scion Ethan.”

The King's voice wavered and Penelope flicked her eyes to Steph. His face had paled and his brow was pinched.

“By dawn, these monsters had subdued each other, returning whence they came through the mercy of Fate alone. Our beloved city was half destroyed, our Palace halls reduced to ruin. In the days and nights that followed, we undertook the grave and daunting task of rebuilding. We found our citizens, our loved ones, our valiant Rangers, felled without mercy or reprieve. So much death, so much anguish...”

Penelope felt hairs raise along her arms, her spine tingling with awe and horror. The Sisters had never told her the story of the Battle at Great Fall. She had known that much of Grimwood Village had been destroyed in a great calamity, though the Sisters had always avoided speaking of it.

As a child seeking stories of grand battles and happy endings, Penelope had often asked about the battle that had happened the year before her birth. One she had heard spoken of in low and frightened whispers throughout the halls and courts of Starwood Palace. One she had found vague mention of in books squirrelled from the Sisters’ shelves.

The Sisters themselves had always skilfully deflected her eager questions, quietly removing any written references from the reach of her questing curiosity. Over time, Penelope had come to dread their tight-lipped unease and had stopped asking, the topic long since forgotten.

Now however... listening to the King’s recount, Penelope felt sick. She recalled the great dragon that had erupted from the depths of The Tears during her ill-fated crossing with Marmalade and Marmot. That beast, or creatures like it, had caused such destruction that people feared to speak of it, even years after.

“In Grimwood’s time of greatest crisis,” the King spoke, his voice steady and clear once more, “the realms of Edenwood Valley united like never before. You shared with us, in unprecedented grace, unity, and faith, your wealth and your resources. You helped us rebuild Grimwood, and it is because of your Houses, because of your peoples, that Grimwood as a realm has risen from the ashes of dragon flame to stand stronger than ever before!”

Penelope hardly dared breath even as the hall below rang with fierce applause. Her hands trembled as she thought of what might have happened, what destruction that dragon might have unleashed on Edenwood, had the ferrifae swarm not dragged it back down beneath the waters of the lake. Steph squeezed her fingers in comfort.

“I, King Edrick of Grimwood, stand before you humbled with immeasurable gratitude.” The King’s voice rang out, cutting across the hushed murmurs rising from the crowd. “In return, we have promised to work ceaselessly, tirelessly, to find a way to protect the peoples of our great Valley from spectral threat. To defend against impossible foes. To prevent the greatest of calamities from ever occurring again. Not to our realm, nor to any other.

“You, our brethren realms, have patiently installed your faith in us as we have researched and developed new methods of battle. We have promised to expend our strongest efforts in the pursuit of new weaponry, new sciences, and new arts of combat capable of not only withstanding supernatural danger, but of defeating it. You have entrusted us to deliver a path towards safety, towards certain protection, in the face of incomprehensible terrors.”

There was a bated pause as the crowd awaited the king’s next words.

“It is my greatest pride, and pleasure, to assure you tonight... that we have succeeded.”

The King’s voice was lost amongst an eruption of exclamations from the ballroom. Penelope stared up into Steph’s face, exchanging looks of shock.

The crystal sphere began to pulse, flares of magenta light curling outwards from the glossy quartz surface. Steph’s grip around Penelope tightened as he angled her further away from the sphere. Her shoulder brushed against the fabric of the curtain.

“Behold!’ the King cried.

Suddenly, the drapes were flung wide and the sphere gave an ominous rattle as its chains grew taut.

Steph drew Penelope away from the sphere, and together they stumbled out onto the balcony, standing in the very centre of the curved platform. Steph caught Penelope around the waist, ensuring she would not topple near the lip of the unguarded edge.

As one, every person in the crowd turned to look up at them. With gasps of surprise and delight, the crowd pointed up at Steph and Penelope, now standing in full view of the audience below.

Penelope and Steph angled to face the crowd, clutching each other's hands in a tight grip. Together, they stepped slowly forward, further into the light shining onto what Penelope now realised was a stage.

The skirt of Penelope’s gown swirled about her, the diamonds of her gloves and gown sparkling like falling stars. Her flowers opened to full glowing bloom.

“Breathe, Duckling,” Penelope murmured to herself, exhaling all her air as she stared down into a sea of captivated faces. In that moment her mind felt weightless, blank with a sense of delirium.

Everything was clear and sharp, slow and altogether too fast. In the span between heartbeats, she took in every detail of the crowd below.

The Sisters were pointing up at her in shock, Sister Rosin bouncing on her toes and clutching at Sister Heely’s shoulder. From the middle of the crowd, Princess Ivy scowled up at them in envious dismay. Towards the edge of the audience, she found her parents and Clarity standing together. They were all smiling up at her. Smiling.

For a long, surreal moment, she locked eyes with her mother, then her father. They looked overjoyed. They looked proud.

Penelope felt breathless with elation and longing. Her family were right there, and they were ecstatic to see her. The flowers of her gown flared a dazzling pale gold, the colour of a rising full moon, and released glimmering motes of light which drifted through the air like pollen.

The crowd exclaimed in awe and Penelope grinned, feeling euphoric. She raised her gaze to lock eyes with Steph who was staring at her with unveiled admiration.

“Magnificent!” King Edrick gave a great clap. “Graciously presenting our very own Dark Moon, and commencing the primary demonstration for our evening, I give you my son, Prince Stephan of Royal House Grimwood, and Princess Penelope of Royal House Starwood!”

The crowd broke out into loud applause accompanied by a swell of anticipatory chatter.

Penelope’s limbs froze, numb with utter bewilderment. Had this been planned? Tearing her gaze from her family's all too knowing faces, Penelope turned to meet Steph’s shellshocked gaze. She raised her eyebrow in question, and he shook his head, ever so faintly, seeming just as mystified as she felt.

With a barely perceptible shrug of his shoulders, Steph offered a wide grin and a deep bow to the crowd. Penelope followed suit with a curtsy.

Distantly, Penelope became aware of movement behind her as the fabric of her gown was cast in ethereal waves of midnight purple light. There sounded a great clank as chains rattled and metal ground against metal.

Penelope spun to see the enormous crystal sphere gliding slowly towards the platform, levered along a rail set into the ceiling.

Penelope and Steph dropped their hands, hastily stepping back from each other to make space as the sphere approached. Its misty depths churned like storm clouds. The sphere came to halt in the middle of the platform, where Steph and Penelope had been standing.

Though she felt in no danger of falling, Penelope stood nearer the edge of the platform than was comfortable. Peering down at the crowd from this vantage inspired a thrill of vertigo, and she quickly returned her gaze to the roiling, opaque light of the sphere. Penelope could not see Steph where he stood on the other side.

Abruptly, the sphere’s light flared brighter, its strange light clarifying from inky purple to a bright violet, illuminating further to a brilliant pearl white. Penelope squinted against the glare as the crowd below sighed in awe.

With a great cranking and rattle of chains, the sphere moved beyond the edge of the platform, smoothly descending towards the centre of the ballroom, finally coming to rest inside a vast geometric design etched into the marble floor. Attendants moved forward to unhook the sphere’s chains before deftly retreating.

“Please, make space,” the King called from where he stood on the throne dais, clearly revelling in the crowd’s eager curiosity.

Rangers moved through the crowd, clearing space around the sphere and taking position in a wide double circle. The outer circle of Rangers faced the crowd, ensuring the audience kept their distance, while the inner circle faced inwards towards the sphere.

Forgotten by the crowd, Penelope and Steph stepped close to each other, grasping hands as they watched the commotion.

“Do you know what’s happening?” Penelope asked.

“No idea...” Steph admitted. “Though I wonder if perhaps it might be related to a set of instructions I was supposed to have received.” Steph quirked his lip in a wry smirk.

Movement below recaptured their attention. As one, the Rangers raised their bucklers. Embedded in the centre of each shield was a glowing, fist-sized gem. With fluid motions, they unsheathed their clubs from holsters strapped to their hips. From their belts hung crucibles of quartz much like the ones that had been used in the Darkwood to capture ferrifae.

A frantic, buzzing sort of movement caught Penelope’s eye and she squinted down at the bucklers. With a gasp, she realised the round shields housed not gems, but faceted casings, each containing a familiar wisp of dancing light.

Though she could not feel the pull of their song, Penelope’s stomach twisted with unease at the sight of the entrapped Ferrifae.

“Be assured that you are perfectly safe,” King Edrick called as the crowd clustered around the outmost Rangers. “We have taken every precaution to ensure the safety of all in this hall.”

At those words, the crowd began to murmur in confused agitation.

A solitary Ranger stalked through the crowd, passing through both circles of guards with unwavering stride to stand beside the sphere. With a shock, Penelope recognised the Ranger to be Prince Ethan, now dressed in his Ranger’s uniform and familiar dragon mask.

Without the hood of his Ranger’s cowl, Penelope marvelled at the vibrant white of his hair, a stark contrast to the dark brown of his other brothers.

Abruptly, Prince Ethan raised his fist in a signal. With the sound of grinding stone, a hexagonal area of the dark marble floor surrounding Prince Ethan and the sphere began to sink, forming a pit the depth of a grave.

The guard of Rangers remained above, keeping sentinel as Ethan circled the sphere like a predator sizing prey.

With great ceremony, he knelt by one corner of the etched design which encompassed the pit's floor and touched a spark of flame to it. Soon the whole design was burning with hissing lines of blue light, occasionally spitting embers of gold.

Ethan withdrew his club and, with a resounding strike against the crystal sphere, the mist within settled, fading to reveal its contents.

Penelope’s vision dimmed with sudden panic and Steph sucked in a harsh breath. Screams erupted from the crowd as they hastened backwards, clambering towards the walls of the hall, away from the sphere and its monstrous captive.

For inside the sphere, curled about itself with rippling plumes of magenta light, was the ghostly form of a dragon.