Princess Fiona of Emberwild was feeling tired. It was mid-afternoon and she had spent the morning doing very princess-y things, such as presiding over court, giving orders to her minions, and generally trying to pretend that the entire kingdom wasn’t on the brink of collapse.
The sun was low in the sky, and its golden light slanted through the windows of the royal apartment, illuminating a table set for dinner.
She stretched and yawned. “I think I shall lie down and seek some slumber,” she announced to herself.
“You look tired, milady,” said a voice behind her.
Fiona whirled, dropping her hand to her sword hilt, but relaxed when she saw her bodyguard.
“Ah, there you are,” she said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
The bodyguard shrugged, and Fiona wondered if he knew what he’d done. She glanced down at his name: Scamp.
“I’ve been running around all morning,” he explained, “and then there was all the food at breakfast, and then there was more food.”
He pointed at a stack of platters piled with sliced bread and cheese, bowls of soup, and bowls of fruit.
“It’s all very good,” Fiona assured him. “But I am rather tired.”
She went into her room and then lied down on the bed and closed her eyes.
In the next moments her dreams took her somewhere else: in the great hall of her father’s palace, in her father’s castle, in the city of Farroz.
A woman stood before her, one who looked much like her, except that she was wearing a blue gown and had long hair the color of ripe wheat. She looked at Fiona and smiled. “I’m here to give you your first lesson,” she told her. “And your first lesson is this: never let your guard down.”
The woman raised her arms, and the air around her seemed to sparkle.
Then everything changed.
The scene shifted as it does in dreams, and Fiona found herself standing in the great hall of her father’s castle. It was night, and torches flickered in sconces along the walls.
But it wasn’t just the hall. The castle itself had changed, as well. It was bigger, more majestic. The stone walls were adorned with tapestries showing the battles of Emberwild’s forebears. The stained-glass windows were gone, replaced by huge windows of clear glass. The statues were gone as well, replaced by beautiful paintings on the walls, each portraying a hero from Emberwild’s history.
The tapestries, the paintings, even the wooden furnishings and the tables were all different—more refined, more elegant than anything Fiona had ever seen before.
A figure sat at one of the tables: an older man with a shock of white hair and a long beard that flowed down to his waist. He looked up as Fiona approached him.
“Ah!” he said. “The princess! I knew you would come! I am your teacher, Master Dreng.”
Fiona stared at him. She recognized his name, of course; she had heard her father speak of him. He was the greatest mage in Emberwild—a man who could make things disappear just by thinking about it, who could change the world with a wave of his hand. He had once traveled from one end of Emberwild to another with just a few words. He had once created a great city of light out of nothing, so that his people could live in it and grow food in it and bring their children up safely inside its walls.
And he was the one who had given her her first lesson.
“You were my first lesson?” Fiona asked him.
He smiled at her. “I will teach you many things, Princess Fiona of Emberwild,” he replied. “And it is my hope that you will be my greatest pupil.”
“What must I do?” Fiona asked.
“I am glad you asked,” he replied. “I want you to find me an answer to a riddle.”
He reached into his robes and brought out a book bound in black leather, embossed with golden runes. He opened it to a page marked with a red ribbon and read aloud: “‘What is it that is neither alive nor dead, and yet may be found in a forest, or in the ocean, or in the heart of a volcano?'”
Fiona’s mind was racing.
“You must find the answer, and then I will teach you what it means,” Master Dreng told her. “You must go to the forest, to the sea, to the volcano.”
He closed the book and handed it to Fiona. She glanced around at the beautiful room again, and then realized that he had already left. The table at which he’d sat was empty, and she could hear his footsteps fading as he walked away.
Fiona ran out after him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
She began to panic. The castle seemed larger now, as if it had expanded to contain her in its walls, but she couldn’t find the door. She tried to follow his footprints, but they vanished into the air before they reached the outer wall of the castle. She tried to call his name, but no sound came out.
She had no idea where to go.
Then she saw something gleaming at the base of one of the walls: a huge iron key with a carved eye in its head.
Fiona reached for it and touched it with one finger; it felt warm and heavy and alive, and when she pulled it from its resting place, it clanked against the floor and fell to the floor with a metallic ring that sounded like a bell being rung.
She had no idea why it had done that, but she knew that she should take it with her, and she started to turn away when the key spoke to her.
“Take me,” it said.
“What?” Fiona asked. “What did you say?”
“Take me,” the key said again. “You will need me to unlock what lies within.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fiona said. “Take me where?”
But the key didn’t answer her question; instead, it grew brighter, brighter until it was too bright to look at, and Fiona had to close her eyes.
She woke up, blinking in the light from the windows, and then turned on the light at her bedside and looked at her hand. There, resting on her skin, was the key: a simple thing of iron with an eye in its head, as if someone had bored a hole in it and then stuck an eye inside. She picked it up and held it in the palm of her hand, marveling at the oddness of it.
She heard Scamp knocking on her door. “Princess Fiona?” he called. “Are you awake?”
“Yes,” she called back to him. “Come in.”
He poked his head through the doorway. “Are you okay? You look terrible.”
“I’m fine,” she told him. “Just a little tired.” She set down the key and looked around the room. “I was just lying down for a moment.”
“What happened?” Scamp asked, still staring at her.
“Nothing,” Fiona said. “Nothing important.”