Agara was a marginal province in Korrath. Poor, exposed, and constantly tested by stronger neighbors. Yamileth grew up knowing survival was never guaranteed. Strength was respected, but only when proven again and again. Agara survived by accepting losses others would not.

  She was thirteen when the neighboring province of Hurim launched a sudden assault on Agara. The attack was devastating. Yamileth’s family and much of her community were killed. In the aftermath, Yamileth met a mysterious traveler named Adrian. He listened to her story without judgement. As payment, or perhaps acknowledgement, he taught her the fundamentals of magic. Then he left, offering no guidance, no warning, and no explanation of how such power should be used.

  During four years, she trained her body with relentless discipline, pursuing the art of the sword. But without proper guidance, her progress in magic remained limited. During her experiments, a rare trait revealed itself to her: transmutation. Yet without formal training, it was violently inefficient. Most of the original materials were lost, consumed in the process. Over time, Yamileth adapted. She trained using whatever was available along her path. Bodies.

  She had long to think about revenge. As Agara struggled to recover from constant attacks, Yamileth set out with a small group of soldiers to assassinate those responsible for her province’s fall, and her family’s death.

  With her small squad, Yamileth struck deep into Hurim, targeting isolated soldiers and officials wherever she found them. No corpses were left behind. Using her transmutation trait, she reduced each of them to dust.

  When she reached the main fort, she overheard talk of a new material, the Dorakstone, mined in the northern region of Dorak. The stone was prized for its ability to serve as an exceptionally potent explosive.

  Following the supply chain, she identified the convoy and the merchant responsible for delivering Dorakstone to Hurim. Under interrogation, he revealed that the upcoming shipment and its intended recipient were intended for Hurim’s provincial leader. With calculated cruelty, Yamileth used some of the Dorakstone to obliterate the leader’s estate, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake. The massacre cemented her reputation across Korrath. Yamileth kor Agara had become a force whose name would be feared in every province.

  Yamileth realized that the same Dorakstone that had destroyed Hurim and threatened Agara could now destabilize the entire region. The thought chilled her. Into the wrong hands, no province would be safe.

  Knowing that Lumeria was a prosperous and influential kingdom, she resolved to travel there to negotiate an alliance. She understood she had little to offer, but the stories she had heard about Lumeria gave her hope that they would side with her in the name of preserving peace. Her goal was clear, secure protection for Agara and the newly conquered Hurim.

  She obtained safe passage through Mistralis with the help of the arms broker Devereaux, paying her in Dorakstone. Upon arriving in Luxor, the capital of Lumeria, Yamileth presented herself not as a conqueror but as a pragmatist. A leader willing to barter resources in exchange for security and political leverage.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Yamileth did not arrive empty-handed. Her presentation of the Dorakstone at the Lumerian court impressed her audience enough to spark their interest. In the following days, she capitalized on it, secretly distributing small samples of what she had left of Dorakstone to several nobles in Lumeria.

  It did not take long for them to mishandle it and cause damage within the city. But to her surprise, Lumeria’s court decided to send Yamileth away for her own safety, refusing her original proposal. The negotiations had failed after all.

  On her way back to Agara, still traveling with Devereaux, Yamileth was warned that Korrath’s political landscape had grown fearful of Dorak’s increasing influence. Several clan leaders were already planning an attack to seize control of its resources. Once in Agara, she was welcomed by Korrathi nobles impressed by her cunning, who saw in Yamileth’s tale the aura of a true leader. They proposed supporting her rise to power.

  On one hand, Yamileth was frustrated. She had spent a month away from Korrath with no deal in hand. On the other, she had enjoyed the scenery, and even though she understood little of Lumerian culture, the idea of an alternative path to prosperity had begun to germinate in her mind.

  She was not seeking power for its own sake but for Agara and its people to live in peace, and she knew that would require resources and capable allies. She cared little for Hurim’s territory or even Korrath as a whole. Her true objective was to create a safe haven for those who had been denied a second chance by fate. Following her conquest of Hurim, her growing reputation in Korrath might give her more leverage to convince other leaders to join her cause. For now, she accepted the support of the nobles who asked for little… yet.

  She began with the people who had already come looking. Commanders with too few soldiers, governors whose borders had been raided one time too many, merchants who knew which roads were no longer safe. Most arrived without banners, simply seeking refuge. Yamileth did not ask for loyalty. She wanted men who could fight, engineers who could build, scouts who knew the land better than any map ever could. In return, she offered what she had: her name.

  Her influence grew steadily, until sooner than expected, she found herself part of the conversations shaping the future of Korrath.

  Several leaders of Korrath feared the Dorakstone and were preparing to strike Dorak. Yamileth knew the Dorakstone had played a major role in her rise, and her instinct told her she had to be there. After six months at the head of Agara and Hurim, she joined the initiative. Her name alone gave the operation the momentum it had been missing, and the strike was finally launched.

  The soldiers under her banner were still few, so she had to come up with something else. She brought mostly scholars and engineers, people meant to reshape the region once the fighting was over. The battle lasted a week before Dorak finally fell.

  By the next day, the alliance was already fracturing. Arguments erupted as the Korrathi leaders turned on each other over the division of the spoils. Yamileth didn’t wait for them to settle it. She gave orders.

  Repairs began immediately. Water flowed again before noon. Patrols were reassigned. Food was counted, not seized. No one dared confront her directly, which gave her the time she needed. She reminded them why they came. Why Dorak mattered. Why tearing it apart now would only repeat the mistakes that made Dorakstone such a threat in the first place.

  For Korrath.

  The words cut through the noise. And for the first time since the fighting began, the clan leaders listened.