EPISODE 5: Training The Princess The World Forgot
1334 Words
Aria didn’t wake up so much as she stumbled back into consciousness, arms aching, legs shaking, heart still clouded . Kael didn’t give her a second to breathe.
“Up,” he barked.
“Do you even say ‘good morning’ or is that illegal here?” Aria muttered, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
He tossed her a pair of training gloves. “We’re starting with balance drills. You nearly tripped over your own shadow yesterday.”
“I was tired!” She opposed it.
“You were untrained,” Kael corrected. “Big difference.”
He led her into the training hall. Kael pressed a button and the floor shifted—plates leaning and rotating beneath them
Aria’s eyes widened. “Wait. I’m supposed to stand on that?”
“Not stand,” Kael said. “Fight.”
She groaned. “I already hate this.”
The floor stumbled beneath her and she flailed, arms spinning. Kael didn’t laugh, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
“Widen your stance,” he said. “Bend your knees.”
“If I bend anything else, my legs are gonna file a complaint…”
She tried anyway….feet sliding, arms shaking, body doing everything except cooperating. When Kael tossed her a padded stick, it bounced off her shoulder.
“Ow! Kael!”
“You need faster reflexes.”
“You need therapy.”
Thirty minutes later she was panting, sweaty, and very close to throwing the baton at his head.
“Again,” Kael said calmly.
“No. I’m rejecting gravity.”
“You can’t reject gravity.”
“Watch me.”
But she tried again.
And again.
And again.
By the time she stayed upright for a full twenty seconds, Kael nodded once—the closest thing to praise she’d gotten so far.
“Better.”
Aria beamed. “Really?”
“Don’t get excited. It was still terrible.”
She groaned. “I knew it.”
Before Kael could torture her further, Rian arrived, leaning casually in the doorway.
“You’re done here,” he said. “My turn.”
“Thank the moon,” Aria gasped.
Kael tossed her a towel. “You’ll wish you were still with me after five minutes with him.”
“That’s— wait, what?!”
Rian led her down the corridor toward the strategic suites. “You need political literacy. If you meet a foreign official and accidentally cause a war, Kael will blame me. I’d rather avoid that.”
“I’m not going to cause a war,” Aria muttered.
“With your luck? I’m not ruling anything out.”
He handed her a thin visual tablet. “Start with Frostglen’s council order.”
Aria frowned. “I don’t even know what half these words mean.”
“You will.”
“Rian… what if I’m just not cut out for this?”
He stopped walking, looking her dead in the eye. “Then we teach you until you are.”
Her breath caught.
Before she could respond, the palace speakers chimed and Lucien’s voice echoed through the hall.
“Aria. Medical wing. Now.”
Rian jerked. “He always sounds like a disappointed storm cloud.”
“He kinda is a disappointed storm cloud.”
Dorian was waiting for them the moment they entered—glasses slanted, coat half-buttoned, face tense.
“We need a full analysis,” he said. “Your energy readings are unstable.”
Aria blinked. “Since when?”
“Since your training session. Your levels spiked high enough to trigger a palace alert.”
Lucien’s gaze sharpened. “Your power reacts to stress. You need control before it destroys you.”
“I’m not trying to destroy anything!”
“That’s not how uncontrolled power works,” Lucien replied, voice low.
Aria sat on the exam table as Dorian adjusted a scanner.
“This may spark,” he warned.
“It better not explode,” she muttered.
It didn’t explode… but the scanner blinked, sparked, and shut down.
Dorian’s eyes widened. “That’s… not possible.”
Lucien stepped forward. “She’s accelerating.”
“Like… in a good way?” Aria asked hopefully.
“Define good,” Lucien deadpanned.
Dorian tapped the malfunctioning scanner. “Your energy density is rising faster than any Bloodmoon record ever documented. If this continues—”
He hesitated.
“Dorian,” Aria whispered. “Say it.”
He exhaled. “If this power wakes fully before your body is ready… it could kill you.”
Lucien added quietly, “Or kill everything around you.”
The words hit her harder than Kael’s punches.
Before she could respond, an alarm boomed somewhere outside the wing.
Rian burst through the door, breathless. “We’ve got a problem. The media got wind of the Bloodmoon rumor—every news buzz in Pravielle is circling the gates.”
Lucien swore under his breath. “This city will tear itself apart before prophecy does.”
As if the day needed more chaos.
Then Rian added, “And there’s something else. Frostglen sent a message.”
“What message?” Aria asked.
“Selene,” he said drowsily. “She’s missing.”
“What?!”
“They found her residence empty. No signs of a struggle. She’s just… gone.”
Aria felt her stomach drop.
Selene—the woman who had raised her, protected her, taught her—gone?
“No,” Aria whispered. “She wouldn’t just disappear.”
“Maybe she didn’t choose to,” Rian said softly.
Before anyone could say more, Lucien’s screen rang. He glanced at it, frowned.
“That’s not all. Someone else is moving.”
Kael appeared, jaw tight. “Lysander. He tried to get into the Bloodmoon Tower. They turned him away.”
Aria blinked. “Wait…why would he go there?”
Kael’s expression darkened. “He’s desperate. And desperate people make dangerous choices.”
Aria’s pulse thudded in her ears.
This was too much. Too fast. Too….
A sudden hum vibrated beneath her feet.
The marble floor glowed faintly… then cracked in a spiderweb pattern beneath her.
Everyone froze.
Aria’s hand flew to her chest. “I….I didn’t do anything….”
Lucien’s eyes widened. “Aria. Stop breathing so fast—”
“I’m not…. I can’t…”
A burst of silvery light erupted around her…wild, sharp, uncontrolled. Papers scattered. Glass shaken. Energy swung like storm wind.
Kael shielded his eyes. “Aria!”
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to pull it back, shove it down, something….
And then….
Silence.
The light faded. The room shook with the aftershock.
The marble at her feet was scorched black.
Aria stared at the destruction. “I… I didn’t mean to…”
Dorian swallowed hard. “That wasn’t a spike. That was an awakening.”
Lucien’s voice was barely a whisper. “If this continues, she’ll level the palace.”
Rian looked at the cracked floor, then at Aria…fear flashing in his eyes for the first time.
“We need to move her somewhere safe,” he said. “Now.”
Kael stepped closer. “She’s not a threat.”
Lucien’s jaw gripped. “She’s a bomb.”
Aria felt the words slice through her.
She took a step backward… then another.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Lucien softened. “Then you’ll train until you can’t. You’ll learn to control this. We won’t let you fall apart.”
“And if I already am?” she whispered.
No one answered.
Her chest tightened as the room blurred…with fear, exhaustion, confusion.
She turned away from them, moving toward the balcony to breathe.
But something outside caught her eye…
A shifting streak of black mist between the distant rooftops….thin, deliberate, too alive to be smoked.
It sneaked closer… watching.
Waiting.
A cold shiver crawled down her spine.
The shadows whispered….soft as breath:
“The princess has awakened.”
And somewhere in the dark…
A Shadowfang assassin entered Pravielle.
And the hunt began.
- Writer
