Note: With extreme delight, I bring forth the updated map. It's still rough though. 
Special thanks to my fellow amazing fantasy writer - EternalSu for telling me about this wonderful site Inkarnate. I owe you big time, friend.

*Just a small tip - all the parts in the italics are not Eleni's memories per se, but just glimpses of her past for you readers. *

Also, lemme know what you think of this one - Here goes...

*** 

"Why are you awake at this hour?" The older sister asked the younger one, as the door to her room opened slightly.

"I can't sleep." The almost teenage child sniffled loudly standing on the threshold of her sister's room.

"Come here."

She crossed the length of the small room and heaved herself up on the bed beside her sister. Pulling the thin duvet over her legs, she placed her head on her sister's lap and lay sobbing gently.

"What's wrong, Amelia?" The elder sister asked, gently patting her golden hair.

"I miss mother." The answer came in a whisper.

The room suddenly filled up with unspoken words and restrained emotions. The warm spring breeze flowing through the window, caressed both of the lonely sisters.

"Me too," The elder girl whispered back, feeling her throat closing up. But she had to stay strong. No matter what. She shook her head and decided to apply her father's methods that had worked like a charm.

She said, bringing life back into her voice, "Want to hear a story?"

The small girl raised her head a little, peering up at her wise sister, and nodded.

"Do you know about the Throne?"

"The Throne of the Four Realms, yes, a little."

"Are you aware of how it crowns the Conqueror of the Four Realms?"

The small girl said with mild curiosity, "No."

The big sister smiled warmly at her, "Well, the last round of the Conquest, as you know, is the Enigma Round. The final Four Defensors have to crack a riddle and complete whatever task it mentions. At the stroke of midnight, when a new decade arises, the Throne shows itself up. It comes out of thin air in the dead of the night, hovering over the people who are watching from the land."

The girl sat up suddenly, her undivided attention on the tale, mouth opened wide with surprise, "How does it look?"

"It is magnificent and is always watching over the entire Conquest. The books and the fortunate witnesses of the past Conquests state, that when the Throne reveals itself, it suddenly goes extremely dark, it is darker than the pits of Hell. And a heartbeat later, there is a loud explosion, that glows brighter than all the diamonds combined. Once the darkness and the consequent brightness fades, the Throne shines in wild glittering colors mid-air. I am not sure how exactly, but it is the Throne that brands a true Conqueror."

"The Throne is so powerful."

"It is the source of all the Four Elements, so yes. Whoever wins the Conquest, becomes the true Conqueror of all the Four Elemental Powers."

"I want to see the Throne. Take me. When is the next Conquest?" The girl asked in urgency.

The older sister giggled softly, "Four years from now, but I don't think we can go."

"Why not?"

"Because," she pinched her kid sister's cheeks playfully, "it will be in the Winter Realm."

"Oh, well I will start saving money from now, and you should do too," the girl said with a resolute face.

"Okay. Let's do that." The older girl chuckled in amusement.

***

Two fully grown, massive beasts of a dragon, were encircling the amphitheatre, their enormous wings flapping in the darkness of the skies. The sun was nowhere to be seen; dark grey clouds loomed overhead indicating the sure advent of rain.

The red dragon swooped down suddenly, in full force. The dragon's chosen warrior, perched on its broad back, was smiling with undulated pride at the crowd beneath him. King Orlon in his human form was even worse. He was oblivious to the plight of the people and waved his staff wildly, while the dragon's tail almost collided with a group of old men, sitting on the higher row of the amphitheatre. That explained the extra wards that were placed around the amphitheatre for Round Two. The dragons obeyed their masters and if the master was someone like King Orlon, the people would be drenched in flames even before the gong went off.

I ducked reflexively, like every member of my team did as the red, fiery creature flew over us. Its shadow crossed over my body, and I looked above to see it swooshing away, its wings majestically flapping.

Will I ever get to ride a dragon? The strange thought struck me like lightning.

Una, on the other hand, was murmuring something to her dragon gently. The creature came down in a vertical streak, to rest its legs in one corner of the ring. She looked majestic, sitting on her companion's back, as though she had been doing this for a long time, but I knew for sure, that she couldn't be much older than myself.

Spikes, her dragon, was just as she had described, spiked with stony scales, which look hard as steel. His yellow eyes were vertical, cat-like. It folded its heavy rock-hard enormous wings inward, tugging them into its gigantic body. It was the largest of the two. Una bent down and scratched its neck as far as her hand could reach, and to my surprise, the enormous black dragon, pushed its hind legs and settled down on the ground. Obediently.

Just then, King Orlon's Fire Dragon leapt down, and stopped its speed right when it reached a foot over the ground, and landed down with a thud. The King loudly thumped its head, in contrast to Lady Una's gentle caressing. The red dragon bellowed loudly, and I practically flinched. The beast had pores on its body. It looked ugly, but those pores had its uses, I mused. Mini-volcanoes!

It was about time, that the first gong would be hit. My money was on Una, in this duel. She had prayed for a chance to get to face the King of the Summer Realm in the ring of the Conquest, and she seemed every bit murderous, even when she soothed Spikes.

But as I stared more at the master of the Fire Dragon, a mini-gong rang in my head somewhere. He seemed familiar in a different sense today. In his human form.

Lady Una, retrieved her wand, from the buckle of her armor and tapped lightly on the Earth Dragon's bushy mane, which traveled from its head to the lower neck. It sat up, straightening his legs, ready in a stance. Similarly, the King struck his dragon carelessly with his staff, on the neck and it rose up, with a loud roar.

The first gong went off, echoing deafeningly.

Lady Una screamed with a deadly voice- "Up!" - and her huge muddy dragon, took off in the skies. She had foreseen King Orlon's first move, as the flames that erupted from his Dragon met an empty space. She knew, the Fire Dragon was about to blast fire, and she had flown beforehand. It was a close call. My heart thundered wildly. Serena was already standing up, from her seat.

The King shouted the same instruction and the gigantic red beast pushed its hind legs on the ground and propelled itself after Una's dragon.

Where had I seen him?

The Earth Dragon seemed to have camouflaged with the blackness of the clouds. The entire stadium was craning its neck up to look at the Dragon war taking place in the skies. The fiery creature flapped its wings mid-air coming at a halt, moving its neck side to side, searching for its rival.

To our surprise, Spikes had been really camouflaged and came careening out of the illusion, and heading straight towards King Orlon.

He wasn't too quick in instructing his dragon to move out of the way or conjure up a powerful heat-blast, and his dragon got hit by the forceful punch of Spikes' hind legs onto its giant blazing red wings. The red dragon recovered from the attack quickly, just in time to dodge another following up.

Una's determined exterior, affected her dragon's powers, and it attacked successively a few more times, sometimes with the Earth elements or sometimes with brute force. King Orlon, could do nothing but command his creature to defend itself.

Another powerful hit by Spikes, rendered the Fire Dragon's balance to go awry. It almost fell down, but got a hold of itself right before collapsing to the ground. King Orlon was clinging tightly to his dragon, his face convulsed in agony and fear, and was shouting curses at his dragon.

I had met him. But where?

Just when the red beast had regained its composure, the Earth Dragon released all the spiky stones that were studded on its body, and congregated them all on its opponent. Lady Una was focused, sitting royally, but her face adored a slight smirk. Typical. The stones were already regrowing on her dragon's body. Apparently, she was having a party and I just prayed it would be a short one with a happy ending.

The spiky stones and boulders hit the Fire Dragon hard on its volcanic pores and it roared in rage, shaking wildly. King Orlon clutched the dragon's skin more firmly and a faint cadence of his scream was audible – "Burn!"

I bit my nails. The Summer King might be a loudmouth most of the times, but he sure was in this Conquest for a long haul. He had won all of his matches, except the one with Lady Orella. I feared for Una more so.

The creature turned wildly, looking at Spikes and released flames, powerful enough to warm up the entire Winter Realm. My heart hammered loudly, as the whole of the Earth Dragon was suddenly invisible amidst the raging fire that had oozed out of the Fire Dragon's snout.

However, I shut my eyes and searched my memories. Serena nudged me in the ribs and shouted over the commotion, "Why aren't you watching? Una is in danger," she looked at me with wide eyes.

"I am but...," I spoke keeping an eye over the combusting flames, "Tell me this, have we seen King Orlon somewhere?"

Serena turned at me again, her face weirdly twisted, "In the ring? What kind of question is that?" She shrugged and redirected her gaze at the skies. But in a heartbeat, she spoke again, "Maybe at the Ball. He was there, right?"

I gasped, the missing piece of the puzzle clicking in. Yes, the ball, indeed. But I had only seen the back of his head then.

I looked at him, with narrowed eyes. The King was sporting a smug look and patting his dragon. But it seemed like he had celebrated a little too early, because as the flames cleared, the Earth Dragon came into view.

It seemed to have deflected most of the flames, that hit on its stones, which looked burnt and sooty. Even its legs seemed to have been blistered. My heart sank as I thought of my friend.

However, Una, as I saw, was shielded from all sides. She had clung to her dragon, and it had engulfed her in long, thick cage of brown stalagmite rocks.

The cage withdrew, the spikes reclining inside the dragon's skin and Una raised her head up to look at her adversary. Her look was enough to make someone wet their pants. She glanced down at her dragon, and realized its wincing. In a heartbeat, her face changed into cold fury.

I knew that look, she had given the same look to Doran, just a few days ago. I suppressed a giggle at the thought that she had fought both the father-son duo. She swirled her wand overhead, staring King Orlon dead in the eyes.

A hush fell over the crowd.

The Sagittarian King swooshed his red burning staff, the traditional weapon of the Summer Realm. at the same moment, and both the dragons simultaneously got into action, the red one – spat a jet of fiery mass, the black one – showered pointy stones drenched with wet mud. I was enchanted and horrified witnessing the clash of their elements mid-air.

Una seemed to be focusing hard on her dragon's powers, sending it, some of her own. The warrior-creature bond was one of its kind. They could power each other up, and the Weapons of their respective Realms helped channelize the magic.

She shouted, "Strike!" and Spikes, conforming her words, took a wild turn in the air. Its tail, long elongated and hard as metal, slammed into the snout of the Fire Dragon.

The dragon was swept on the land in the center of the ring with the impact and King Orlon lost its grip on the creature. He went flying far off, out of the ring.

The gong went off.

There was a loud roar from the left side of the stadium where the Autumn residents were seated. Their joy was contagious. Their Defensor had won the match, in a spectacular manner. I clapped loudly, feeling proud of Una. Feeling proud for my Realm.

I saw the centaur king standing up in the ring coming beside his fallen dragon. He dusted off the dirt from his armor. This was the first time that I was seeing him in his human form. Properly.

His back facing to the crowd, he patted his dragon. And I knew in that instant, where I had seen him.

The one conspiring against Prince Nova, at the royal ball, with a crown atop his head.

The man from the staircase.