Amaris had always lived with a weight she couldn't name. It crouched beside her stories, whispered when she picked up a pen, and tugged at her spirit whenever she dared to dream too loudly. In the town of Eldervale, her words were "sweet" at best, "silly" at worst, and often ignored altogether.
Her closest friend, Cael, had been different. He had music in his blood and dreams like wildfire. But after a single cruel performance review from a visiting bard, he never played again. Weeks later, the dragon came. Not with fire, but with silence. It hovered in the sky above their cottage like a judgment, and Cael never woke from sleep that night.
The villagers said it was a sickness of the mind. Amaris knew better. She saw the dragon in her dreams: tall, black, faceless, and hungry.
When she found Cael's final notebook, pages torn and ink blurred by tears, something inside her cracked. She wouldn't wait for the dragon to come for her. She would find the truth and face it. She would walk the road no one dared.
And so, she packed a bag, took her father's old journal, and set off for the one place whispered about in half-forgotten tales: the Phoenix Library.