TO LOVE A TRIATOR

Got it — renaming her to *Princess Lera Blackwood*. Here’s Chapter 1 rewritten to be all about her childhood, innocent, with the vow to her friend and the hint of hidden magic. --- *Chapter 1: The Vow in the Star Gardens* Princess Lera Blackwood was ten years old and had never seen a war. She’d heard the word in her tutors’ lessons—“conflict,” “treaty,” “deterrent”—but the words slid off her like rain off the palace glass. To Lera, the world was the Blackwood Palace gardens at dusk, the smell of night-blooming star-lilies, and the sound of her best friend laughing too loud behind her. “Tag! You’re it, Lera!” Kael Virel burst from behind a marble pillar, violet skin catching the glow of the twin moons. He was the son of Pluto’s ambassador, and the only person in the palace who didn’t bow when he spoke to her. Lera shrieked and took off, her silver-black hair flying behind her. Protocol said princesses didn’t run. Protocol also said princesses didn’t climb the old fountain in the west court or make daisy chains for guards. Lera did all three. “You’re cheating!” she called back, leaping over a low hedge. “Your legs are longer!” “That’s biology, not cheating!” Kael yelled, grinning. They ended up collapsed on the grass, breathless, staring up at Earth’s twin moons. For a long moment, neither spoke. The palace felt far away, and the weight of being an heir felt like someone else’s problem. Kael rolled onto his side and looked at her seriously. “Promise me something?” Lera propped herself on her elbows. “What?” “When we’re older, and things get stupid with titles and duties and all that… we don’t stop being us. Okay? We stick together. No matter what.” Lera sat up, solemn in a way only children can be. She grabbed his hand and pressed her thumb to his palm—the old Earth vow her nanny taught her. “I swear it,” she said. “I’ll love you to the end of my life, Kael Virel. And if anyone tries to pull us apart, I’ll fight them.” Kael grinned, relieved. “Dramatic. I like it.” Lera laughed, and for a second the air around her fingertips shimmered, faint blue light dancing like dust motes in moonlight. She didn’t notice. Neither did Kael. She was already pulling him up to race to the fountain again. Somewhere deep in the palace, in a locked chamber no child was allowed near, a crystal pulsed once in time with her laughter. Then it went still. Lera didn’t know she had magic. She didn’t know her blood was cursed, or that the stone in her ring was the key to weapons older than kingdoms. All she knew was that the night was warm, her friend was nothing could break the vow she’d just made. She was wrong. ---