Welcome, my name is Jayde Holmes, and I write science fiction. Make yourself comfortable and feel free to browse. I have stories you can read for free here on My Story Page.
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Check out this month’s featured story:
Dragonslumber
Part One: Slumber
By Jayde Holmes
The Invader and the Egg
The Empire of Chaane never reached a consensus on whether it was better for the emperor to be asleep or active. Emperor Lacaan the Sixth had been a sleeping emperor, laying transformed from reptilian man to giant beast in the Dragon Chamber with his ten heirs.
There were no public viewings of the chamber in those days, but royal artwork suggests it was possibly even grander than it is today. Gold is needed for the transformation from reptilian to dragon, so Lacaan and his heirs laid on piles of it. But it was not just gold the royals were given for their dragonslumber. Jewels and tomes and magnificent clothes and artworks filled the circular room. Above the slumbering green dragons was the base of the Dreamspire, and a giant pearl made from the ancestral dragon Chaane hung at its base, spreading Lacaan’s consciousness into the dreams of his subjects.
A sleeping emperor had an intimate view of his empire. He could come to his subjects in dreams, in a way, and was able to wake whenever he sensed a problem that needed his attention. Otherwise, the Council of Lords his mother Maarigee had formed during her reign handled the daily running of the empire, with a trusted representative of the emperor keeping them in check.
One of the problems with a sleeping emperor was that the pearl could only link the emperor to other descendants of Chaane. There were blind spots in the empire that a sleeping emperor could not see, resulting in problems that only an active emperor, talking face to face with their subjects and leading armies or diplomats to troubled areas, could fix. And of course, foreign relations were neglected while the emperor was in dragonslumber.
Long ago, Lacaan’s sister Sama had been the preferred heir. She had planned to be an active emperor, who travelled to the outer provinces to smooth over tensions, and who would establish trade deals to refill a treasury depleted by three generations of sleeping emperors. A sleeping emperor consumed excessive amounts of food and gold, more than even the most decadent of active emperors.
The council at the time though were quite happy with an emperor who did less direct ruling, so they crowned Lacaan as soon as Maarigee died and married Sama off to the King of Nessa. The High Lord of the Council announced that if she wanted to secure an alliance with their neighbours, marriage was the best way she could do so.
Sama had gone along with her humiliation, believing it was necessary for peace within the empire. Her grandson, Tsvalai, proved to be less forgiving. He was denied the throne of Nessa due to his place in the birth order, but he could feel Emperor Lacaan in his dreams, lording it over the empire once promised to Sama. Before he even reached adulthood, he set out to avenge his grandmother.
Jayde Holmes 