1 Prologue: Alive
Lilia's heart pounded. Her breath sputtered out in a series of shaky gasps. Blood soaked what was left of her shirt, and her face burned from the fire that she had barely escaped. Pain, both physical and emotional, lanced through her.
In a field far from the town she had called home, she lay panting. The cool, wet grass was a far cry from the burned hellscape that had consumed her parents. Her friends. Her cat. Her posessions. Her entire life. She had no idea why it had happened, only who was responsible; a dragon.
She sat up, then slowly stood. Her bare feet, scorched from running across hot surfaces in the dead of night, screamed in protest. Still, she stood agape, watching her entire life burn down. She had never left her village before. Everything she knew was now consumed, another sacrifice to the hunger of the dragon ruling class that had lorded over humanity for centuries.
The brutal reality of her situation set in, but she couldn't find tears. She couldn't find self-pity. Something inside of her had simply broken, leaving her a husk. Inside that husk, she found hatred. She found a burning, putrescent darkness simmering deep inside. She wanted to keep this from happening to anybody else. She wanted to shut down the system that had allowed it. Most of all, though, she wanted revenge.
As if in answer to her mental cry, Lilia spotted a fallen town guard. In all her nine years of life, she had never before laid hands on a blade. Now, as she fisted the bloodied steel in both her trembling hands, she made the decision to dedicate her life to it.
Lilia Thorn had lost everything, and now she was determined to exact the same fate upon everybody who was even marginally responsible. Dragonkind and all their sympathizers would taste her steel, would taste death, would taste vengeance. She had nothing else to live for, so there was no reason for her resolve to waver.
What was left of Lilia's singed auburn hair twisted in the breeze, heated by the dancing flames consuming the world she had known since birth. Her soft amber eyes cast a final glimpse over the scene, and she finally decided it was time to turn around and set off.
She knew that she had no chance to take down dragons or tear down the system that they had built, at least not on her own. In that moment, it didn't matter. Steeling her nerves with a quick mental admonishment, Lilia slung her new weapon across her back with an abandoned strip of burnt leather, then set off for lands unknown.
