History
Sapphire has no past before Embersurge. She was a hard worker and a dedicated servant to the leader of all Clans before, and continued to be for Embersurge. She was taken in for no other purpose than to be trained up and given the title of Clan Leader, the start of a newly created Clan. With nothing but that, she began her career.
Under her leadership and the lucky guesswork of Embersurge's placement, the Clan thrived as one third of a plentiful and well structured trio of trading Clans, the others being the performance Water Clan Snowcloak, positioned on the beach and magically spawned iceberg next to the Clan, and the other being the battle based Shadow Clan of Broken Daggers, with Embersurge being the Light centered artisan and food Clan, its biggest exports being fish and meat. Steadily, the population of all three Clans grew, each benefiting off each other. Through the peace of the time, Sapphire tries asking out Tanzanite on a date with her. He ends up not enjoying it, having been already on the cusp of declaring himself Asexual and Aromantic, so Sapphire ends up without Tanzanite as a boyfriend.
Despite it's successful placement and thriving economy, Embersurge was doomed to be met with misfortune, specifically through that of Sapphire. After 5 years of being the three most wealthy trading Clans in all of that that is judged by the Lightweavers gaze, the first seeds of doubt and fear were planted.
It was sudden, the influx of stranded, fearful dragons. The massive Clan of Snowcloak had fallen under mysterious circumstances. Some had run to Broken Dagger, others to Embersurge. Sapphire immediately arranged search parties to look for any and all dragons reported missing by the refugees. Some were lucky, such as the missing Spiral, Leia, who had been found within 24 hours of her wife, Comfrey, listing her missing. Others were not. Sapphire knew she had to stay calm for her Clan, so she held strong and kept organizing search parties and investigatory parties to try and find what possibly could have destroyed the Clan in one fell swoop.
Within the month, despite struggles, Sapphire opens up programs to help refugees who had lost their business in the fight, allowing them to open up shop in Embersurge, causing some discomfort in the normal Embersurge residents, worrying that the already crowded cave may start to overflow. Despite it all, she finds refuge with one particular dragon, her best friend, Citrine, who comforts Sapphire and helps her through the anger. Being a romantic person, Sapphire ends up falling in love with Citrine, at least more than she already platonically was. The two end up together, Sapphire also being one the few people who can easily translate Citrine's taps, due to her being mute.
The doubt and fear worsens when one of Sapphire's search parties never returns, presumed dead. The girlfriend of Carolina, Kaito, don't return to Embersurge after leaving. It's with the first strike, a new dragon emerges from the background, the Coatl Moss. She presents herself to the Clan, preaching the wrongdoings and mistakes of Sapphire, and her vows to fix it. Sapphire, still hurt from the theft of her papers, blows up at Moss in the town square, and leaves knowing she's made all worse for herself. It's this same night that she meets the wounded Stonewatch Harpy on the Clan border, who, after being promptly healed, becomes her loyal and loving Familiar, Ava.
The next few months pass with little impact. Moss keeps campaigning to remove Sapphire from office, albeit with hardly a following. No solid research is found about Snowcloak. That is, until one of the many search parties returns with an injured and clearly traumatized Skydancer, Marimba. Marimba reveals to Sapphire and her inner circle, an elite team of her close friends, made of Citrine, Howlite, Sugilite, and Melody, that the culprit was a Coatl. She's unable to recall a name, despite saying she heard it yelled from the battlefield. She tells them how she seemed to be in control of the entire army, moving as a single unit rather than each their own soldier, with few exceptions. With haste, Sapphire writes it down. Due to the fear that could spawn of this information, Sapphire opts to keep it between her inner circle.
It's within the next month that the Clan of Broken Daggers fall. This time, the entire Clan moves as as a pack, and makes way for Embersurge, having had previously caught wind of the destroyed Snowcloak. One dragon leading the front and one in the back being that of the wives Anabelle and Lucy, both trained fighters. Moss begins her assault on Sapphire as soon as possible, as Embersurge begins to overflow from the main cave and begins to spill onto the forest below due to overpopulation. It's with a another rage Sapphire attempts to silence Moss, but once again fails.
Moss continues her onslaught, and nothing scares Sapphire more than Moss revealing the Clan about the Coatl at the center of it all, dubbed the Queen of Shadows. It's an awful hit to Sapphire, most of Broken Dagger immediately sides with Moss. Sapphire begins to panic and tries to improve her liking by organizing more search parties, this time to search Broken Dagger. Before she begins, she's approached by the soldier couple, as well as Anabelle's apprentice, Citadel. Anabelle tells Sapphire she's a well known and quite experienced soldier, and that she'd like to head up the organization of patrol parties for the borders and Head of Embersurge Forces. Sapphire, with regret, tells her there is none, Anabelle asserting herself and telling her there now is. Sapphire uses this to raise her approval, which works. Anabelle and her soldiers begin taking patrols, and Sapphire demands that all Clanmates must participate in patrols, and if a patrol can't be filled, citizens will be assigned. Moss takes this as her next point of target.
With a shock, the first patrol sent to Broken Dagger to investigate comes back horrified and scarred.
The Queen of Shadows, now known to be named Lady, had greeted them at the border with an ambush. Luckily, the patrol got away, but not without injuries. Lady knows all about Embersurge, and preparing her Clan for war. Within the next few days, Light Spirits, elite mages serving directly under the Lightweaver, arrive to Embersurge, Icarus and Beowulf. They set up magical borders so Embersurge can't be invaded by Lady's Army. Sapphire reassures her Clan all is well, but her anxiety flares up quite obviously as she sees those in support of Moss, who begins to talking about how Sapphire is simply delaying the problem.
Sapphire sets up stronger borders, only refugees are allowed to enter Embersurge now, unless a stated reason is deemed well enough. This law is first called upon when a pack of Emperor Hunters come upon Embersurge, lead by the abnormally huge Tundra, Monsoon. Monsoon tells Sapphire that she and her pack of outcasts need a place to stay while they're continuing their research on Emperors. Sapphire, being a sucker for research, allows them to stay. Monsoon and her get along quite well, despite the unpopularity of Sapphire's decision to let them stay.
Another dark day for Embersurge strikes, as more refugees come flooding in, found by Anabelle's patrol. There's only a few, but enough that Embersurge is once again in chaos. Moss at the head of it all, tells Sapphire if she doesn't soon yield the throne, Embersurge will have no choice but to either leave or take it by force. Within seconds, Sapphire begins to sob, cracking under the pressure. She's quickly ushered away by her girlfriend and her closest friend, Monsoon. Anabelle's put in charge of running the Clan for the next week, as Sapphire lets herself have time to herself. Moss has her support increased over this time. The Coatl whose Clan was lost, Mycena, begs Sapphire to allow her and her brother to build a smaller version of their Clan underneath Embersurge, as they had been a tunneling Clan. She reveals to Sapphire the true nature of Lady. Lady controls spirits and infects dragons, using them as puppets. Sapphire immediately tells her inner circle, and warns them if Moss finds out, she'll be forced to leave office.
Within the next day, her greatest fear is realized, and Moss tells the entire Clan of Sapphire's lies towards her supposed ignorance of Lady's intentions and abilities. Moss is still unable to overtake Sapphire through vote, despite their similar numbers, Sapphire still manages to keep the upper ground. In order to clear her head, Sapphire takes Citrine out on a date, and discuss what Moss could be doing to get the information. Sapphire realizes with a shock that there's a mole in her inner circle, and one of her best friends is sharing the entirety of her secrets with Moss. She refrains from telling Citrine, and instead lets her panic and fear build. Sapphire proceeds to take each member of her inner circle aside and tells each one a lie. To Sugilite she says that Lady's been killed, Melody hears that Lady is a Spirit herself, Citrine that Lady isn't actually a Coatl, but an Imperial.
To Sapphire's pure horror, Moss proudly tells the Clan that Lady is not a Coatl, but an Imperial. The final straw for Sapphire, the fear, the anger, every emotion she'd felt leading up to this moment all broke loose. She confronts Citrine publicly, shouting. She yells that she trusted Citrine, she loved her, she was about to give up her life to Citrine, and she was the one who gave everything up. She accuses Citrine of never loving her, and tells her she's exiled from Embersurge. Citrine claws Sapphire in the face, and leaves in a rush with her Familiar. Sapphire then turns on Moss, but is quickly restrained by Monsoon, who'd heard the commotion from quite a distance. Sapphire eventually gives up and allows herself to given to Foxglove as a patient. Foxglove diagnoses Sapphire with a mental breakdown from stress, and tells the Clan that Sapphire's outburst wasn't her fault, and she couldn't have helped it. Sapphire's supporters take it, a few leaving for Moss.
Monsoon tries to help an emotionally broken Sapphire, but it's all in vain, as she's so hurt by both Citrine and her own actions. Sapphire doesn't even react when she's informed by Icarus that his brother, Beowulf, betrayed Embersurge and left for Lady's Army, and she's completely emotionless when Icarus leaves to kill Beowulf. Monsoon too, breaks, and yells at Sapphire for how heartless she's being, and if she wants to make things right she'll start feeling again. This snaps some sense into Sapphire, who gets back to her somewhat normal self, and begins working once again. She sends out a patrol for Icarus, and his dead body is located. Embersurge is now stranded with no Light Spirits on their side. Gloom, the local mage, takes up the job of maintaining magical borders, but they're considerably weaker without Beowulf and Icarus.
The final straw for Sapphire's followers is within the next month. One of Anabelle's personal patrols was ambushed, and Cyanide, son of Melody and Sugilite, two of Sapphire's biggest supporters, is killed, and Anabelle can't be found. Moss demands a vote be held, but Sapphire manages to haggle with her for one to be set in 6 months. Sapphire knows if she doesn't do something, she's going to lose. Monsoon helps comfort her, but it's all in vain.
A month later, Anabelle's spotted at the border, but she's not her normal self. She'd been captured by Lady's Army and turned into a Spirit Soldier. She's brought back to Embersurge, and it's with a shock that Sapphire witnesses her wife, Lucy, her apprentice and adoptive daughter, Citadel, and her son, Gild, carrying the near dead Anabelle, with a shattered back leg and wing. The cold truth of the matter settles in, Anabelle will never be able to fight again. It takes an entire month to be able to cure the Spirit Sickness through intensive therapy and treatment, and during the time it's revealed by Lucy and Citadel that all people who've watched Lady kill or infect a dragon directly can see the spirits, and that they were the ones to injure Anabelle so severely, as it was the only way to save her.
Despite knowing she didn't have support on her side, when Moss rallies her supporters for an early vote, Sapphire can't handle the circumstances of being voted out. She runs off in pure rage and frustration. In her irrationality, she decides she's going to fight Lady directly, which is nothing but a death sentence. Sapphire decides she'll either die a hero or come back with enough respect to take back her position as Clan Leader. She barely enters Shadow when Monsoon catches up to her. Monsoon begs her, pleads with her, she'll die if she leaves. With a heavy heart, Sapphire allows herself to go with Monsoon. She knows that Monsoon loves her, and possibly may be the only dragon left who does.
It's without clear reason when suddenly Lady's attacks stop. The Embersurge, Snowcloak, Broken Dagger, and Unseen captives and Spirit Soldiers are suddenly let go. Sapphire carefully follows them back to Embersurge, to which she hasn't been in months. She knows she'd be kicked out if she came back, but she watches from a distance, the reunion of the Kaito and Carolina, Carolina having been convinced Kaito had been killed on the battlefield. With a gentle brush of her tail, Monsoon signals for her it's time to leave. With one final glance at Embersurge, Sapphire finally says goodbye, and follows Monsoon to her new future, now with her new wife.
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