The king of Patagonia was shivering like a leaf in front of King Leofrick. Not only was the king of Patagonia (King Magnus) trying to defend himself because he was suspected to have ties with demonized attacks against a nation much more powerful than his, but also because of his awkward history with Gismead wherein he was partially responsible for the deaths of five thousand Gismeadian soldiers as well as King Leofricks younger sister.
Even though king Magnus was a king, he was kneeling before King Leofrick like a peasant. Magnus did feel quite shameful doing so but he knew he needed to do whatever it took to get back into Gismead's favor. Especially since Patagonia's people relied on the trading and business brought to it by Girannon. If the two countries were to cut ties, Patagonia would crumble.
"P-please most gracious and magnificent king, you must believe me when I say that I had nothing to do with the recent demonized attacks!" Magnus touched his head to the floor trying to display complete submission.
"Then explain to me why a random Mage would offer to turn your soldiers into demonized men without any payment from you during the war! You must have a connection to him in some way, for him to just help you if he didn't demand a payment for his service. Stop your nonsense and tell us why he came to you in the first place!" Leofrick was losing his temper with this idiot king in front of him. Not only was he a blubbering fool, he was also completely clueless and had no useful information for him.
Magnus trembled at the king's irritated tone.
"Oh I beg of you noble King, show me mercy for my past transgressions!" Magnus trembled and he began to continuously bow his head to the floor while he spoke.
"All the man wanted in return for demonizing my soldiers was for me to make sure to kill your sister." Magnus burst into tears and began to sob violently on the floor, thinking that he had now signed his own death certificate. Leofrick would surely kill him.
Leofrick pressed his fingers into his temples trying to sooth the headache that was being brought on by Magnus's squeaky crying.
Everything Magnus had told him, he had expected to hear. Magnus brought no new information whatsoever, just confirmation of what he already suspected, and it irked him. Leofrick was on the verge of picking Magnus up and tossing him out the window.
Geoffrey could see that his father was losing his temper so he stepped in.
"Is there anything unique that you remember about the man, anything that we could use to identify him?"
"Well," Magnus stuttered, "He was wearing a thick cloak and hood that covered his face and body... but I distinctly remember that he had a strange artifact on his wrist. It's strap looked like it was made of cow's hide with a strange gemstone on top of it." Magnus said, recalling the strange artifact he had seen.
Geoffrey frowned trying to think of any artifacts with a similar description.
"Fine. That will be all King Magnus, you may return to Patagonia." Leofrick said grunting.
Magnus's staff rushed to his side to try and help him off the floor. As soon as Mangus was up, he gave a deep bow to the king.
"Although there has been uncomfortable tension between our two nations I hope the marriage of our two children will still the rapid waters between us..." Magnus gave a sly smile as he gestured towards his daughter who was standing behind him.
The princess curtseyed politely to the king. From taking one look at her Leofrick could tell she was a frail meak woman.
Her posture was terrible and her attention withdrawn. Although she was quite pretty With her pale blue hair and grey eyes, she had no fire in her gaze, no passion, no determination, nothing. Therefore she was completely unsuitable as a bride for Leofrick's son, furthermore she was not the type to help rule a Kingdom like Girannon.
Princess Astraea had been forced by her father to wear her best clothes so that she would catch the eye of Prince Geoffrey. She didn't understand why she needed to catch his eye if they were already betrothed, but she was shy to question her father so she just did as she was told.
"We are calling off the engagement."
Leofrick's tone was stern. His words utterly devastated King Magnus.
"B-But your majesty during the war you swore..."
"But during the war you had a troop of demonized men, something that made Patagonia worth forming an alliance with. Now you have nothing."
King Magnus was utterly gobsmacked. He had been clinging to the idea of this marriage since it would benefit his own country and solidify their alliance, but now he had nothing to make sure Girannon was loyal to Patagonia.
"Y-your Majesty, please reconsider..."
King Leofrick stood up and announced, "This meeting is adjourned." Then swiftly left the room with his entourage.
Geoffrey followed his father as the King departed the hall because he had some serious news he wanted to discuss with him.
The king was so aggravated by that bumbling fool Magnus that he felt the need to retire to private chambers for the day. Once he reached his room, he dismissed all the guards and went to go and sit in the large Malesian lounge chair that was positioned right in front of the warm fireplace in his chambers. He relaxed into it slowly as all the worries of his day faded away as the fire warmed him up.
Geoffrey patiently waited for his father to relax before talking to him.
"What is it Geoffrey?" King Leofrick Asked as he massaged his temples.
"Father I've heard word back from the spies I sent to uncover Lady Delton's origins." At Geoffrey's words the Ling perked up and payed attention.
"Ah Yes, you said there was a garment that belonged to her that had foreign writing on it. So they found out which language it was?" The king asked curiously.
"No. The conclusion they came to me with was that the language on her clothes does not exist on Arteria. That language is spoken nowhere in Arteria."
"Impossible! Have them check again." The king grunted.
"I've already made them check twice. That language does not exist in Arteria." Geoffrey insisted.
"But how can that be? If that is true, where could Lady Delton possibly come from.?"
There was a long pause where neither father nor son knew the answer.
"Father I've been thinking..." Geoffrey said slowly. "Taking into consideration Lady Delton's enormous power and numerous rare gifts and knowledge that seems to surpass our logical understanding, could it be possible that she is actually a chosen child?"
The king's heart fluttered at his words as he realized that that answer to this problem made perfect sense, but then he frowned realizing that that could not be true.
"No that can't be it. The prophet Aurelia would have contacted us if a new chosen child had been reincarnated." King Leofrick knew the process off by heart as his father had taught it to him and his father's father had tight it to his father. Every generation of the Ambrose family had passed down the story all the way to King Leofrick. The story was all about how the world is informed by the gods that a chosen child was coming.
He knew that every time a chosen child was reborn in Arteria, the prophet named Auralia, who lived on the edge of Nomansland, walked all the way to Girannon on a donkey to come and inform the people that a person would be reincarnated into the land.
The same thing had happened a few hundred years ago when Lord Tearlach Doersa Velaris was reincarnated into the world as a baby born into the Velaris family. An old prophet women whose names was Aurelia walked all the way from the edge of the Nomansland to inform the people of Girannon that a boy would be born with a reincarnated spirit inside of him.
"No, Geoffrey. The prophet always comes to inform us when a reincarnated person is born into this world. Lady Delton cannot be a reincarnated person." The king shook his head, sure of his heritage and the stories his father ha fosses down to him.
"Well, what more do you know about this Aurelia women. Could something have happened to her that prevented her from coming to tell us that a person had been reincarnated into this world?" Geoffrey was now really perplexed at the situation. Just a moment ago he had been sure that he had found the answer to Riley's origin, but now with all this talk about this prophet woman, Geoffrey wasn't so sure anymore.
"I doubt that she could have been prevented from coming. In the old legends my father told me, Aurelia was once a Mage who once insulted the gods by burning down one of their temples out of spite. As her punishment the gods turned her into an ugly old hag and sentenced her to be their prophet when they needed to communicate with us humans." King Leofrick grimaced at the crude old Legend.
"But just to be sure, send some of your men to the water temple on the edge of The Nomansland, where she lives, to check on her." Leofrick ordered.
"Yes father." With that Geoffrey left the room to go and send his spies to the Nomansland.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At hearing that she was no longer engaged to Geoffrey, Princess Astraea actually felt quite relieved that their engagement was broken off because she found Girannon so intimidating and would much rather stay at home and get married to someone less high-profile.
Magnus on the other hand was in tears.
"Don't cry father... lets go back home and have a rest." Astraea said as she stroked her father's back.
"No!" His eyes sprang open as an idea formed in his mind. "You have to stay here and seduce Prince Geoffrey into marrying you!"
Astraea sighed, there was no stopping her father once he got a strange idea in his head. She decided she would just stay at the Royal palace until she was allowed to go back home, definitely do some shopping on Sorscha street to while away the time.
"Okay father, I'll try." She lied, she wasn't going to try at all. She was just going to do all the fun things Gismead had to offer before she was allowed to go back home. She was especially looking forward to visiting the famed 'Sophie's café' to try out what one of the palace servants had described as 'the best desserts in the whole world'.
As soon as King Magnus left to return to Patagonia, Astraea sent her servants to go and buy her a variety of goods from Sophie's café. While her servants were busy she wanted her maids to accompany her to the noble center because she was excited to explore the large beautiful city of Gismead.
As she walked out of the palace gates with her four guards and three maids she immediately heard loud cheering from the center of the sect. As she got closer she saw people clapping and cheering and waving their hands. Everyone seemed to be in such a joyous mood. She was just about to have her maid go and find out what the commotion was about when a loud voice of an announcer answered her question.
"Listen closely Ladies and Lords! Sirs and Madams! Men and Women all governed by the Great Kingdom of Girannon."
The announcer began with stirring up the crowd by drawing the patriotism out of them.
"Today history is being made as our finest adventures set out to complete the greatest quest of the century!"
The announcer gestured to the group of brilliantly armored men standing behind him. Each dressed In fabulously rich cloth under their gold armor. The crowd cheered wildly for them, a number of ladies threw up their handkerchiefs and blew kisses to the handsome warriors.
"We must all give thank to the generous benefactor of this quest! Our very own Lady Delton!"
Astraea's eyes widened in surprise. The name Lady Riley Delton was a famous household name in Patagonia because it was the name of the Lady who created the extraordinary red healing potion, now she was the benefactor of a quest too, not to mention the rumors going around that Lady Delton was the creator of Sophie's café, Astraea that if she had the chance she would love to meet the Lady.
"Now Great adventurers set forth into the world and bring back the holy cores in Girannon's name!"
The announcer raised his volume to and all time impressive high for that last cheer. The crowd responded positively by cheering back so loudly that Astraea had to cover her ears.
"We can rejoice even more now that Madam Cressa Theorden, a prominent writer for the Gismeadean, has been allowed to accompany the adventures. This means that everyday we will get reports back on how the quest is going!"
The crowd was very satisfied with this conclusion and gave a hearty applause towards the announcer.
"Now my fellow country men, give a hearty goodbye to our heroes as they embark on their journeys, and pray to the gods for their victory!"
With that the heroes all stepped into their chariots that Riley had spelled for them.
The crowds cheers were even more enthused as the chariots began to levitate off the ground and the beautiful heroes of Girannon made their brilliant exit into the West skies.
Astraea's breath hitched in her chest when she saw one of the handsome adventurers with curly green hair and a friendly grin on his face as he waved down at the people on the ground. Astraea found her self dumbly waving up at him.
"Who is that young man with the curly green hair?" She tapped on the shoulder of one of the women in front of her. The woman looked up to see which man she was pointing at.
"Ahh, that is Lord Edgar Heathson Milady." She replied with a smile.
"Edgar Heathson..." Astraea whispered as she watched those beautiful green curls blow out of the way to reveal passionate bright eyes. Astraea suddenly became very aware of her heart beating in her chest and she felt a hot flush come over her face.
"Your Highness are you well? Your face is so flushed... are you feeling ill?" Her maid asked concerned by the blush spreading across her face.
"No, I'm fine." She said embarrassed by her body's reaction to Lord Edgar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riley
"How much longer Dimitri?" I couldn't believe I had allowed Dimitri to bully me into sitting for hours so he could paint me.
"Much longer!" He teased me unapologetically.
Arcadia was laying on the grass next to Dimitri with a notebook in hand.
"So Riley, I was kind of thinking about doing something..." she said nervously as she twiddled her quill inbetween her fingers.
"What is it?" I asked turning to her.
"Don't move!" Dimitri whined so I turned back to my original position.
"Well I was kind of thinking about writing a book... about you." Arcadia said, shyly.
"A book? About me?" I asked.
"Well you know... about being reincarnated and then rising up the ranks of Girannon... and then fallin in love with the prince... I think it would make a good story." She smiled.
"Falling in love with the prince? Where did you get that from!" I was shocked she had noticed that I had a crush on the prince, but still it was a CRUSH! I wasn't in love with him...
"Oh my bad, I mean Lucian then." She said as if that was any better.
"Arcadia!" I groaned.
"Well is it okay if I write a book about your life?" She sat up eagerly and gave me the puppy dog eyes.
"Oh please Riley!" She begged as she clasped her hands together.
I wasn't too happy about the idea but she seemed so eager so I didn't have the heart to turn her down.
"Okay." I groaned. "But none of this business about falling in love with the Geoffrey or Lucian, and don't use my real name." I said sternly.
"Oh thank you Riley!" She gushed as she hopped over to me and gave me a big hug.
Dimitri growled at me when I moved from my position so instead of a hug I blew her a kiss. Just then Cornelius walked out onto the lawn, holding a lawn chair in his hand. He set it up next to Dimitri's canvas and nonchalantly took a seat.
"So Riley," He began. "I've been wandering what you will do if that party is unable to bring back the holy cores for..." He said as he laid back and soaked up the morning sun.
"Well I'm pretty confident they won't fail, so I have no back up plan." I squinted my eyes am trying to look at him while not moving from my position.
"Well Riley I think you should be more cautious. The previous expedition to collect the holy cores took a whole season, with an entire sect of the Gismeadian army, but you only have a troop of some S ranked adventurers. So I doubt they'll make it back with all the cores."
"Don't worry Cornelius. I supplied them with numerous powerful artifacts plus I also added something special to the chariots they will be using." I grinned thinking about what I had done.
Cornelius immediately say up and grinned at me.
"What did you do Riley?" He had a mischievous glint in my eye.
"Well I put a spell on each chariot to make the rider at least three times as strong and powerful than they usually are, so really I'm not worried about them being able to collect the cores. They should be able to retrieve them easily now." I smiled happily thinking about my handy work.
"Ahh, I see. No wonder you thought they would be done with the task in two weeks." Cornelius reclined back into his chair. "That's a very clever way of getting the job done quickly."
"Yeah it is." I grinned widely.
"No smiling." Dimitri said sharply. I immediately dropped my smile.
Suddenly Bard, Auberon and Rudyard came out of the house holding trays of food and boxes of desserts. Alice and Lucian followed behind them.
"Lunch is served Milady." Said Bard very pretentiously as he took a bow, I presumed that he was trying to impress my guests.
Dimitri finally agreed to let me have a break from posing when he saw the food layed out on the picnic blanket, in addition to the rich smell of pizza and the mouth watering bowls of shaved ice and iced cream, even Dimitri lost his will to paint. We all huddled closer to the food and began to chow down greedily.
"Wait a second." Alice said while munching on a toasted sandwich. "All of this food, is this all food from another world?" She asked a her eyes popped out of her head at the realization.
"Yes it is." I smiled happily as I bit down on a cheesy slice of pizza.
"Ah it all make sense now! All your crazy and delicious recipes and your café filled with treats nobody had ever heard of..." Alice grinned. "You've had an otherworldly advantage over us the whole time Riley." She teased, poking my shoulder.
"So all this food is eaten by the people of another world?" Lucian asked curiously.
"Yup!"I nodded my head while swallowing.
"There must have been many culinary mages in your previous world to come up with so much delicious food." Dimitri nodded sincerely.
"Actually my other world didn't have any mages." I interrupted him.
"What do you mean they didn't have mages?" Cornelius asked confused.
"Well, there was no magic in my previous world, so there was no need for mages." I replied as I reached for the bowl of shaved ice.
"No magic!" Cornelius almost choked on his prawn.
"Nope. No magic at all." I laughed savoring their shocked reactions.
"But then how did you survive without magic?" Lucian asked looking so confused.
"Well we have many other districts And disciplines that this world doesn't have." I answered.
"Like what?" Alice asked curiously.
"Well instead of magic, we use science and mathematics to help us live better in our surroundings." I tried to explain but I could already see them scrunching up their faces in confusion.
"Science is kind of similar to alchemy but way more advanced." I added hoping that that would clear some stuff up for them.
"That's all you had, alchemy?" Cornelius looked unimpressed.
"Well we did a lot with that alchemy." I argued suddenly feeling the need to stand up for earth and humankind.
"With science we learned how to heal people on the verge of dying without using magic. We could also make great airplanes that could transport people through the air without any magic. We also created many amazing weapons and artifacts that you don't see in Girannon. We had musical instruments and great food and universities and not to mention the internet..."
"You did all that without magic?" Arcadia asked sounding really amazed.
"Absolutely positively." I'm sure this was pretty shocking for them to hear since literally everything revolves around magic in Gismead.
"What is this internet you speak of?" Asked Cornelius curiously.
Oof! Now that was a thought one to explain.
"Well most of the people in the world I came from had artifacts like this one." I took out my phone and showed it to them.
"And we use these types of artifacts to access a kind of global network that stores information and lets you communicate even if your thousands of miles away." I cringed at my own explanation, knowing that it probably made no sense.
Cornelius blinked at me, a sure sign that he was boggled.
"And what about fashion in your world?" Alice asked with a cheery enthusiasm. "What is it like in your old world?"
"It is a lot less fancy than the clothes we wear here. Back on my old world, girls were allowed to wear trousers..."
"Trousers?" Cornelius lifted a copper eyebrow at me.
"That explains why you were wearing those trousers when I first met you in the forest..." Lucian laughed out loud. "I thought you were wearing some kind of undergarments."
"We can wear whatever length of skirt we want, we can also wear shoes that expose our feet... it's really different."
"I can't even imagine what that is like." Alice looked completely shocked.
I took out my phone and went onto Pinterest and scrolled through the Urban fashion board I had saved and showed some of the pictures to Alice.
It was cute to watch as all of them huddled around Alice and gasped at each photo.
"Heavens, the women of your old world are really daring."
I giggled and turned back to the food as they scrolled through my phone. I looked up at the sky and appreciated it's perfect blueness and the strings of fluffy white clouds strewn across it. That's when it hit me. The most shocking fact I had yet to face since coming to Arteria. I realized that I didn't miss Earth at all, not one but. I was so happy here in Gismead with my friends and on a mission to make this world a better place. Although there was trouble coming up ahead, I wasn't scared, in fact I was determined to beat whatever evil was lurking in the darkness so that I could continue making Girannon a better kingdom. That was my mission and my plan, and I was content.
I jerked my head back to where they were huddled around my phone when I heard them all suck in a loud gasp at the same time. When I saw the red blushes all over their faces, I realized that they must have scrolled too far down on my board and come across the bikini pictures I had saved on there...
However, for truly shocked people they couldn't seem to turn their eyes way from the screen.
Hey guys, thank for all the likes and comments, I feel so loved❤️ please continue to like and comment ❤️ I hope you all have a great week wherever you are.