Daughter to Dragons (book)

Daughter to Dragons is the work-in-progress first novel of the Godsblood Chronicles. It serves as an introduction to the series through the eyes of this book's protagonist, Valfrea Dragonheart, the last draconian shapeshifter of her bloodline.

Plot Introduction
Daughter to Dragons takes place in a world called Secula, primarily on the continents that the aggressively expansionist Drakonian Empire have already conquered, but also in lands and kingdoms outside of the empire. The world is inhabited by humans, who are the most numerous, and the elves, who have been divided for thousands of years into various breeds, such as forest elf, desert elf, mermaid, etc.

Thousands of years ago, four of the Divines briefly walked the mortal plane of Secula where they each fell in love with humans. The products of these pairings were the first of the Divine Descendants, races of half-human half-gods. From Draknadar, son of sun, came the dragon-bloods, humans who could shapeshift into dragons. From Ethari, daughter of sky, were born the avians, the winged humans. From Tersan, son of earth, came the pathera, four races of great cats. And from Lualunan, daughter of moon, came the werewolves.

The Divine Descendants of Draknadar lay claim to the Drakonian Empire and seek to conquer the world. Only the nations home to the remaining Divine Descendants have kept them at bay, but their alliance has not been an easy one. Some have come to believe that the Drakonian Empire may span the world within the next three generations.

Humans were once enslaved to the aulds, the progenitors of the modern-elves. With the Schism that stripped them of their immortality and divided them, human-elf relations had improved until recently. Elven supremacists have begun a guerrilla war in earnest with the Drakonian Empire, purposely inflaming human-elven relations and using that to recruit more elves to their cause.

Plot Summary
About a week prior to the start of the story, Valfrea received a message from her father, Hakkon, to rendezvous with him at a remote location. Upon arrival, she discovers that a huge magical battle had recently taken place, leaving the area obliterated. She begins scouring the area for any clues of what happened and if her father had been there, if he was alive or dead. She finds some debris from some destroyed wagons and broken pieces of elven runestones, which she takes with her to study later. This confirms that the elven cult her father had been investigating had something to do with this. She also discovers places where several elves had been killed, but their bodies removed. She's able to determine that the battle took place, at most, three days ago. Using her keen senses, she begins following the few tracks left behind and finds a single scale from the hide of her father's dragon-form. She wonders whether this was left behind purposefully or not. The tracks take lead her further and further into the mountains until she can no longer see them. Frustrated and afraid, she returns to the area where they were supposed to meet and decides that her best bet is to retrace his footsteps, figure out where he's been to help her figure out where he was going. To do that, she decides she needs her half-brother, Rune, the only person in the world who knows her father better than she does. To find him, she uses a complex rune carved from the wood of the goddess Ilvernya's sacred tree and hopes that Rune still keeps his on him or else it wouldn't work. Though she has no elf blood to activate the rune, Rune's elven mother taught her a few tricks: using a vial of water blessed by a lake goddess, N'Tyreia, she douses the rune and drips a drop of blood from a pricked finger onto it, giving her a limited ability to use the talisman. It was enough, imprinting a location that it's sister rune was located. Though unhappy that she used the last of her blessed water, she is satisfied that she now had another lead. Shifting into dragon-form once again, she takes to the sky, hoping to find her half-brother before he moves on.

About a day later, she finds him in an ancient auldic ruin, collecting information and translations for his codex on deciphering the auldic language and runography. She finds him recording a tracing taken from a wall so he can translate it later. He is pleased to see her bu surprised to find her alone and asks where their father is. She explains what she found at their meeting point and that she had hoped her might know what happened since he was the last to see him. Rune says that he hasn't seen their father for a few weeks now, but he knew that he was trying to get in contact with her. She asks if he knew what it was about and he explains that he believes it had to do with the prophecy and the elven cult but he doesn't know any more than that. Disappointed that it appears Rune doesn't know any more than she does, she tells him of her plan to retrace his footsteps. He agrees that is the most logical place to start and states that he will be joining her. Normally she would reject any help as an unwelcome tagalong, but she welcomes her half-brother and is relieved that he seems just as worried as she. He requests a few hours to pack his belongings and tells her he knows of a good place to start: they visited a small imperial outpost when they were last together a few weeks ago. It was from there that they split up. Perhaps someone has seen something out of the ordinary, related either to Hakkon or the elven cult. He suggests that if they find one they might well find the other. Valfrea agrees and prepares herself for entering human settlements. From her bag, she pulls out about a dozen wooden amulets and bracelets, all carved with runes. These were crafted by Rune's mother from the wood of her goddess's sacred tree to glamour her, hiding her true appearance. She begins the task of placing each one in their specific points on her body and when she placed the last around her neck, she felt the glamour appear. Though she would always see herself in a reflection, she knew her glamoured appearance to be a plain, though tall, average looking woman with sun-tanned skin, dark brown, frizzy hair, brown eyes, and an overall completely forgettable appearance. She begins planning the trip to the outpost while waiting for Rune. When he appears, he flinches when he looks at her and says that always gives him a headache when she wears those because he can see both her true appearance and the glamoured visage. She remarks that he dislikes wearing it, but she desires the ability to move throughout the world unheeded. They begin their journey back to the outpost and she catches him up on what has happened since they parted a few months ago when Hakkon called for him.

A few days later, they arrive at the imperial outpost, where some soldiers who remember Rune greet him. They ask if he found the ruins he was searching for. He says that he did and thanks them for their help. Rune introduces Valfrea as his colleague, Frea. The disguised Valfrea uses her favored alias, Frea Alald n'Da, an adventurer and scholar, and Rune is her teacher. The soldiers say they've never seen her before and ask how she got here. She tells them that she never came through the outpost. She and Rune separated a few months ago to move in opposite directions of a circle and meet here before they continued back to the Imperial University in the capital. She offers to show them her travel papers, which are genuine because she's not lying entirely. They accept this and mark the papers with a seal and date before letting them go. After they've left, she asks Rune how hospitable this town has been to elves. He admits there has been some unintentional mistrust, but there is an elf who has been living here for a few years now who has relatively desensitized the populace, who is the person they are heading to meet. When they arrive at the elf's workshop, Rune introduces him as Halevethural, or Veth for humans, and her as Valfrea Dragonheart, daughter of Hakkon Dragonheart. This introduction visibly startles him and Valfrea assumes it's because he's shocked that a Divine Descendant is standing in front of him. Rune adds that he is actually an informant for her father. Veth bows his head in respect, a human custom he has obviously adopted to make humans more comfortable around him. Elven gestures are traditionally very subtle and precise. Veth asks where Hakkon is. They both look down and frown, Valfrea says that she believe the elven cult got to him. She found a battlefield a few days ago that was already a few days old. She has reason to believe that her father was attacked. She doesn't know whether he was captured or killed, but she's trying to find him which is why she has come here. Rune says that he and Hakkon were here not that long ago and wanted to know if Hakkon said anything that could give them any indication on why he wanted to meet with Valfrea so suddenly. Though elven emotions are subtle and difficult to detect, Valrea's keen senses pick up on Veth's unease. He admitted that Hakkon did not share much with him, but he believed the elven cult was preparing for something big and they were coming after him. He didn't elaborate further but he asked Veth to keep an eye out for any suspicious elves. He elaborates saying that sure enough a few days after Hakkon and Rune had passed through, a single elf came by and spoke to a few people before leaving immediately after. When he asked the people what that elf had wanted, they she was lost, trying to find a town they'd never heard before. Valfrea asks if he can remember the name of the town. He says that the humans said it was something like Morns Hold or something like that. Both Valfrea and Rune gasp before she says that they meant Mornings Hall, one of her secret familial strongholds. With this information, Valfrea knew that elf wanted to be found. The cult was here and they wanted her and her father to know that they were close.

Once they are alone, they agree that their next stop should be Mornings Hall. If the elven cult was looking for it so blatantly, it must hold something important. At the least, they might could find some scouts searching for it that they could interrogate. They decide to spend the night here as Valfrea hasn't slept in a few weeks and it's finally catching up to her. Rune agrees and says that he will purchase some supplies and mounts and he'll continue transferring those tracings to his journals while she sleeps. He says that he slept a few days ago and is good for another week or two. The night, Valfrea dreams about an attack on the outpost that leaves it completely destroyed.

Major Characters

 * Valfrea Dragonheart, last of the dragon shapeshifters
 * Hakkon Dragonheart, Valfrea's father
 * Rune, Valfrea's half-elf half-human half-brother
 * The Phoenix, a Divine Descendant who is reborn every 500 years from her own ashes
 * Gosenvor, a human of draconic and pantheran descent and Valfrea's lover
 * Emperor Viggol Dragonblood, current emperor of the Drakonian Empire and Valfrea's suitor
 * Vaine Durveir, nephew of the Wolf-King and commander of the elite company, the Blood Hunters