The Valley Of Dragons.

There weren't always dragons in the valley. But as we are now about to cross over its boundary line into its perilous serpent-dominated province, let me recapitulate what has already happened up until this new uncertain moment of fate in this magitek-ops mission to rescue Princess Assariya.

It was like any other embassy meeting between two kingdoms requiring the attendance of one of the kingdom's heirs to travel to the foreign dynasty to be warmly received, take part in the celebration, and sign as many parchment scrolls as necessary to jointly announce whatever laws, trade, or agreement were being made between the two Empires and surrounding lands. This one was no different than the others and required the attendance of Princess Assariya on behalf of the land of Assariya from which she was named.

A beautiful princess, she is, by all royal standards. She has long blonde hair, which she usually keeps in a lacy partial crown braid, eyes as blue as the bluest skies in the upper regions of Assariya on which our sky castle rests above the clouds, and she is an expert warrior trained in the way of the Assariyan monk. I am her personal high-counselor named Roulette. I am a highly advanced mechanized android magitek sorcerer, programmed to sacrifice and take my own life before allowing any harm to befall upon the princess. Right now, I am updating my daily log of events, which records all occurrences while the princess is absent from Assariya, to be read and audited by the king and high counsel upon safe arrival back in Assariya.

While on the way to the palace of Varovia, many days travel northeast of Assariya, five days to be exact, our airship came under attack at the morning onset of the fourth day. We were traveling in an embassy convoy consisting of three military high-fantasy open hull airships and our own named The Starboard, safely in the middle formation between the other two combat vessels. We made perfect haste and wasted no time to attend the meeting in Varovia. This meeting was to discuss enforcing stricter security and airway travel policies, as recently there have been rumors of airships going missing while in route.

I would not have believed it if it wasn't seen by my own two sets of eyes. We were being besieged by advancing squadrons of orc-piloted flying mechanized magitek battlesuits. Utilizing my highest intelligence to compute what I was witnessing, I could only think, how or who has allowed this belligerent race of pillaging humanoids to ascend to this level of military magitek sorcery, even powered by crystal chassis primal energy battery pack modules. Up until this point, jet-propelled flying battlesuits were limited to only three races those being the humans, the elves, and the self-automated magitek mechanical beings known as the Warforged. Gnomes are also known for their military magitek battlesuits, but at this point, nothing that can fly; they are only catapulted into battle. This is precisely why the airways will need stricter policies put in place, but right now, my disbelief has to get the princess and me out of this air invasion alive.

A radiant blast and shrapnel-like magical explosion engulfed the hull of the ship, instantly killing twenty of the twenty-five soldiers who were attending the princess's morning brief, as they are given every morning to be followed and tasks accomplished throughout the day. But this briefing was met by the most unexpected and unforeseen surprise attacks. I instantly cast a wall of fire at the quickly advancing assailants; I counted ten from the side of the attack and five more approaching from the other side of the airship. I had a gut feeling that because of the specific enclosure of their flight formation on both sides, they had come to kidnap the princess.