Fratricidal battle

One morning, remembering my encounter with the King, who sat on a special throne in a red dungeon, many years before (suspected of having stolen a dragon's egg, I had been taken to the liege as a criminal), I decided to enquire about the history of his heirs. At that time, he had piqued my curiosity by recounting the deeds of his ancestors. The future of his noble house therefore aroused my interest.

Leafing through a few rolls of parchment detailing the lineage of his House, I was finally able to find the book that would satisfy my desire to know more, written by a scholar.

Settling myself comfortably in a sunny corner of my study, I set about reading the precious volume. I was shocked and dismayed to discover the conflict that had erupted on the death of his heir. The war of succession pitted his children against each other and divided the family into two branches. On the one hand, the Blacks, who claimed the legitimacy of his eldest daughter, designated by her father to succeed him, and on the other, the Greens, who supported the application of the rules of male primogeniture, often applied within the Kingdom, and were favourable to his son, the second child from a new union. Although short-lived, the war that ensued from this fratricidal struggle was no less deadly. It led to the death of many heirs apparent, and only ended when all those involved in the conflict were dead. Many Dragons also perished during this brief period. Bled dry and having lost many fire-breathers, the House of my former host emerged from this troubled period considerably weakened, as if it were the only one able to bring itself down.

Resolute, I set to work to create new dragons whose colours would remind us of the vicissitudes of power struggles.

Walking over to my workbench, I swept the rolls of paper off the table with the back of my sleeve. Turning my attention to the shelf on which various labelled flasks sat, I picked up a few of them. Lighting the fire under my still, I boiled the contents of one of them: a few drops of dragon's blood. At the same time, grabbing some lumps of coal from a distant volcano, I set about reducing it to a fine powder using a stone mortar and pestle. These ingredients would be used to create black eggs with red highlights.

Quickly going through the writings in my grimoire, I set to work at the same time on reproducing the unstable equilibrium of wildfire using saltpeter, sulphur and a few resinous substances I'd found on some of my wanderings. Precision being the order of the day, I took care to measure out the ingredients I was using with a lot of attention. As well as reproducing the special properties of wildfire, these eggs would also have its characteristic emerald green colour.

Work continued in this way throughout the day. From time to time, flashes of coloured light would emerge from the alchemical reactions taking place in the bubbling cauldrons. I had opened my workshop window to let out the fumes produced by my various instruments and to let some fresh air into the room.

By the end of the day, my workbench was transformed, covered in a multitude of containers. As for the air in the room, it had cooled considerably. Tired as I was, I'd achieved my goal, the dragon eggs were ready!