I found “Sakura” but don’t think that’s it. I wish I knew the spelling or author. Also, is it a series?

edit: Is it anime?

@smudges Is at least a trilogy, but not sure. Was from the 80’s, or 90’s. Edit Not an anime. Alas all of my copies burnt in the Jasper wildfire. Also I lost contact with the friend who gave me the books.

There’s Sugaar ?

And there’s Sagara

If not those, do you remember any other plot elements or details?

@Zaku Wow. The details that I remember is the ancient knights name scares dragon’s. Also that he has a sister/wife. In a time where that was a thing. An ugly girl has the host of a power spirt. She dies, and the spirit goes into a dragon who is covered in jewelry in its chest. Also gold is precious from another dimension. The general is hated for having a little gold trim in his armor. While the emperor’s armor is pure gold.

There is also a wizard who is captured and has to go through training. One of the trainings is to find three basins one on top of each other each with a hole in the bottom. He fills the bucket and tries to fill the top basin before it empty into the bottom two. He succeeds and moves on to the next step.

I might be combining two, or three different stories?

Hmm, I haven’t been able to find a match. The words for details you’re mentioning appear in many stories or other search hits.

A good place to ask would be on scifi.stackexchange.com with the tag “story-identification”.