Clyde had met the prince not too long ago. He had been caught trying to steal a chest worth of gold from Joy and the prince had offered him a choice. Either join the prisoners that he kept in the bottom of his dungeon or use his gift for the prince.

  Clyde had never thought that his gift was worth anything to anyone. He had been given a gift by Shoes, and it allowed him to control all the shoes that he could see as if they were extensions of his own body.

  There were many physical limitations on this and thus it turned a reasonable sounding gift into a parlor trick, or something to catch someone by surprise with. But the seer, Sam, had said that “his gift would be most useful in the future.” So, Clyde had been spared from the prison and allowed into the inner coterie of the prince.

  From there he had been a mediocre addition to the prince’s personal team on his voyage into the Frozen Continent.

  He had fought like everyone else, and he had been fine at it, but now he had a purpose.

  Clyde was going to defend the prince’s castle from attackers. In his hands Clyde held the Kingmaker, a plain wooden stick that greatly increased a person’s natural powers from their gift.

  Clyde sat on the front steps of the prince’s castle and felt the well of power that existed within him. What was normally a stream had now become an ocean of spiritual weight.

  An army slowly crested the rise leading towards the prince’s castle. It was late afternoon, so they were perfectly visible to Clyde from where he sat. Row after row of gleaming armor came up the rise.

  There were standards and banners proclaiming the to be the princess’ troops. But none of it mattered to Clyde. He was going to defend the prince’s castle, and his first victims were here.

  Clyde raised the wooden staff and pointed it at the army of soldiers. Their ranks exploded in blossoms of blood and screams of anguish.

  The best thing about Clyde’s gift was that everyone wore shoes. No one in their right mind would ever walk without shoes on, especially to go to war.

  Wherever Clyde pointed that staff, the poor men and women in the general vicinity would have their shoes push them away. Without the kingmaker, Clyde couldn’t overpower a person’s natural strength; and he certainly couldn’t lift someone off the ground with his gift. Now, his gift sent people flying like raindrops in a storm.

  The army disintegrated beneath his power. Scores of men and women died as he flung them into each other. He moved their shoes with such ferocity that feet were separated from bodies, only to continue flying and bury themselves in a person’s head.

  Clyde laughed and laughed as he continued his slaughter. He didn’t ever remember being a cruel man, but there was something about all the power that he was holding that just made him want to play at being a god.

  After an unknowable amount of time, Dahlia’s army called a retreat and fled back over the rise.

  Clyde let them escape, but he pulled on all the shoes left in his personal area. They all came to him, some still attached to unmoving bodies. They surrounded him like some perverse planets orbiting a star.

  Clyde smiled at his new collection.

  ___

  Julia had not expected the downfall of her army to be their shoes. She had been shaping up this particular force for nearly a year now. She had honed them into tip top shape. They had complementary gifts to create the ultimate unstoppable army.

  The goal was to make this succession war as bloodless as possible. Julia and Dahlia had decided that the only way to do that was through a powerful army.

  Thus, this militia had been formed with the express purpose of destroying David’s castle and making sure he was dead.

  The war had not ended with a show of brutal force, instead Julia’s army had been nearly wiped out. One of David’s lackeys had been standing in front of his castle holding the Kingmaker.

  His power had leveled the playing field. Actually, his power had taken the playing field and bulldozed her side down until it was ashes and dirt.

  She knew what she had to do to answer his attack, but she was wary of using her gift to its fullest potential.

  Julia was moderately powerful. Her gift allowed her to turn into any animal she had ever touched. Normally that would restrict her to things like birds and maybe a fierce bear.

  But on Dahlia’s voyage to the Shattered Continent, she had met a wholly unique creature. She and Dahlia had met a dragon. It was an artificial creature that had been created by a gift ages ago, but Julia’s gift had still allowed her to store a copy of it in her soul space.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  She was terrified of using it though. There was always a piece of her inside the animal, but the animal’s instincts always came to the top. As kind as the old dragon had been on their visit, Julia didn’t want to release the beast in the middle of the most populated city in the world.

  But she had to answer the shoes. Her army had been wiped away like bugs, and so her hand had been forced. There was no other choice for her.

  Julia reached inside herself and touched her image of the dragon.

  Instantly, she felt her body start to swell and get rougher. Her skin turned to a thick layer of scales. Her back broke open into a beautiful pair of red wings. Horns grew out of her forehead. Her body grew and grew and grew.

  Julia flapped her wings one time and let herself fly above the city.

  The wind from her wings sent her own soldiers flying. But they were so small, how could she bother worrying about every single one of them. She gnashed her new fangs and stared down at the man that had killed all that was hers.

  The man sat on the steps of the prince’s castle with an ever-rotating collection of shoes surrounding him.

  Julia laughed a little to herself and a small plume of smoke left her mouth. It was almost comical how small and weak the man was. He had destroyed her army and yet he was so small from up her. Why, she could just crush him like a bug.

  Julia tucked her wings in and plummeted down towards the puny man. She let her talons reach out in front of her and prepare to crush him where he stood.

  The part of Julia that had not been consumed by the dragon knew what was going to happen. Logically speaking, the man would just funnel shoes into her body through the weakest areas. He would send shoes through her eyes and mouth to destroy her body from the outside. This conscious thought was the only thing that saved Julia’s life.

  In her dragon form, Julia closed her reptilian eyes and mode sure her mouth was tightly shut as she began to plummet.

  Thousands of shoes collided with her body. They bounced off her scales ineffectually but with such a drastic change in body Julia had neglected a newer part of her anatomy.

  Julia’s wings were torn to shreds in her fall. Everything from soldiers’ boots to high heels went directly through her wings, causing her controlled plummet to turn into a terrifying dive.

  The pain was intense. A part of Julia’s body that she had never had before was now in tatters. She had gained and lost a new limb in mere moments.

  Julia crashed into the ground with an earth-shattering impact. The prince’s castle trembled and there were small areas that collapsed from the shaking. The shoes were relentless, but Julia’s hardened body stood the test, refusing to yield under the weight of thousands of shoes.

  The pain was all consuming where her wings had been, but remarkable manageable everywhere else. Julia risked opening her eyes a little bit, to try and gauge the situation.

  The onslaught of shoes was relentless, telling her that her dive had not worked out in her favor. She shielded her eyes from the storm of shoes but caught sight of a man flying through the clouds above her.

  The two combatants had switched positions, now she was the one on the ground staring up at a merciless predator.

  Julia knew that she would be outmatched if she continued to play this game. She needed to change the rules of this engagement now.

  Julia shut her eyes again and prayed to every god that she could think of. Mostly she prayed to Luck; she prayed that she wouldn’t burn the city down with this attack.

  The dragon took a deep shuddering breath in. Trees suddenly swayed in a new breeze as an immense amount of air started filling her draconic lungs. Julia filled herself until bursting, then pointed her maw up towards the sky.

  Her prey was nimble and could fly using his feet. But it didn’t matter how fast you were if the entire sky was on fire.

  Julia released a gout of flames that rivaled the sun for brightness. The shoes coming down towards her turned to ashes and sludge in the wake of her destructive breath.

  The air screamed away from her mouth, causing a miniature explosion of force that ripped into the prince’s castle. The upper floors collapsed under the pressure, leaving only the foundation behind.

  The heat was enormous and unstoppable. Nothing was spared in the sky - birds, bugs, and clouds were ripped to shreds from the impact. And most importantly, Clyde was turned to ashes before he even registered what Julia was doing.

  The kingmaker was only a piece of wood, and it too burnt to a crisp in the conflagration.

  Smoke erupted around Julia as she sat in a crater of destruction. There were cries and screams surrounding her, but she hoped the city itself would be fine after her attack.

  The great breath of fire would go down in History, Julia was sure of it.

  Julia didn’t release her form because she knew that the battle was only beginning. Her side had already taken massive casualties, but she had taken out one of the prince’s strongest pieces on this board. She was content to look imposing but took a small breather.

  Julia was confident that Dahlia could handle the rest of the battle without her direct action.

  The air screamed for a second time. When Julia had breathed fire, it was a scream of exultation; the stagnant air finally free to move again. The air screamed from the joy of being freer than it had ever been before.

  Now the air screamed because someone had hurt it.

  An invisible blade of air erupted towards Julia and cut through her impenetrable scales. A deep slash started gushing blood like a waterfall and Julia felt her consciousness start to fade.

  It was a game of feints within feints. The prince had given up the kingmaker for one opportunity to see Dahlia’s hidden weapons, and Ian had pounced on them, crushing them like bugs underfoot.

  Even as Julia fell deeply into unconsciousness she smiled. She could see that Dahlia was creating a storm to smite down Bloody Ian. Maybe she could be avenged or even saved. Dahlia was just incredible the way she made the impossible a reality.

  ___

  Jeremy had never planned on becoming a thief, he was just in the right place at the right time. He had watched Julia and Dahlia leave the princess’s chambers in a rush. He knew deep inside his heart that the entire charade of the succession war was coming to an end.

  His luck had made him enter the room. His luck had made him grab the gaudy scepter from the center of the room. His luck had made him take a long trek out of the city and stare down at Vena Cava.

  He had seen a storm of shoes erupt out of the center of the city only to be disintegrated by a storm of fire. Jeremy had even seen a dragon today. He had also watched that dragon struck down by a man’s blow.

  The end was nigh, and Jeremy felt a tugging inside of himself. He pulled his coin out of his soul space and stared down at it.

  A decision was made, and Jeremy flipped the coin. The result didn’t matter, Jeremy knew subconsciously what his luck was bending him to do.

  Jeremy raised the scepter and thrust it out a single time.

  Then he started making a grave for the Scepter of Calamity. Hopefully, no one would ever find it again.