That night, nobody slept.
Erick and Alfric were in the Great Hall discussing war tactics with the celadonian heads to shore up the forces on the side of the Council of Mages in Topaz.
Meanwhile, Mira and Jana were poring over countless logs of firefly visuals with Gerald Pomfrey and his celadon group of scri-visual mages.
They were so close to Zander that Erick could feel it in his bones. No stone could be left unturned in their effort to locate Zander.
Even without sleep, Erick radiated so much excess energy that the air wavered and shimmered around him. It was as there was a fire lit within his soul.
Wednesday morning dawned slowly over Ashrya. It was just another day but the strain was starting to show on everyone.
It was barely five in the morning when Erick got word that his father had initiated a scry-visual to Gerald Pomfrey asking to speak to him.
In the Scrying Room, a huge expanse of floor-to-ceiling mirrored glass covered an entire wall. Prince Erick stood at the center of that room looking at the colossal face of his father, the old Emperor Roy Rashak.
"Hello dear old dad." Erick crossed his arms across his chest, staring at old Roy Rashak's smug mug. "I thought you told me you'd gotten rid of that wanker Alastaire after he nearly killed me."
Roy Rashak narrowed his eyes. "I banned him from ever coming back into Jade and abolished him to the Southern Realm. Who knew you'd follow him there?"
"Father. He kidnapped your sister and her husband and held hostage your nephew Zander. Are you saying I should just leave Zander and my aunt and uncle in his hands?"
Roy Rashak waved a hand of protest. "Erick my boy. They are your family but they are also Alistaire's family members. What could he possibly do to them?"
"I was his blood brother and he tried to kill me. What do you think is going to happen to a mere cousin and an aunt and uncle?"
"Alastaire may be power-hungry, but he's not insane. He will listen to reason."
"Alastaire is an evil bastard," Erick ground his teeth. "He successfully killed your First Born son and he's been going after me all these years. I'm tired of having to look behind my back day after day as he stalks me from every direction."
"Do you have evidence that Alastaire is behind Zander's hostage situation?"
"I have absolute proof." Erick snarled.
Emperor Roy Rashak stared at Erick through the scry-visual with weary eyes. He finally heaved a sigh and gave a flourish of his finger.
Instantly the scry-visual mirror blurred for a moment turning everything to greyish white.
A few minutes later, two faces from two obviously different areas came together into the scry-visual mirror.
"You!" Erick pointed a finger at Alastaire's face. His body trembled with rage.
"Ah. Long time no see brother dear." Alastaire laughed. "You're looking healthy enough."
The two brothers faced off.
Their familial resemblance was strong although Erick was the more comely of the two. Alastaire's hair was a darker shade of greenish teal than Erick's lighter more turquoise coloring but they had the exact same aquamarine eyes.
Erick's face darkened. "You are a blight to the Rashak family name. It's a good thing you used your mother's family name of Mocchus to do all your dirty deeds across the Southern Realm."
A tick formed above Alastaire's left forehead. "My mother was the rightful Empress of Ashrya."
"Silence!" Emperor Roy Rashak interjected. "Your mother was NEVER the Empress. She was merely the Empress' sister. Twins though they may be, I have always been able to tell them apart."
"Is that why I was born on the same day as Antoine, Father?" Alastaire laughed. "You could never tell the women apart. You slept with both of them at the same time and never knew the difference."
"Your mother used underhanded tricks to try and sway me," the emperor pounded on the armrest of his chair with a frustrated fist.
"Regardless, I am still your son."
"And I have never refuted that fact."
"Father," Alastaire's eyes glittered with rage. "I was your first born by almost twenty-four hours. I should have been the Crown Prince."
"Your mother was not the Empress. Tanya and Tasha are twins, but one is an Empress and the other is just a subject of the crown. Because of this fact, you can never be a Crown Prince."
"Then why is HE the Crown Prince?" Alastaire pointed a shaking finger at Erick.
"Because his mother is one of my royal consorts. I married Anastasia legally and with proper pomp and circumstance." The Emperor's face was livid. "I NEVER married your mother."
"So you finally came out and admitted that I am your bastard son, didn't you, Father?"
The Emperor shook his head. "I adopted you into the family registry. I never treated you any differently than Antoine or Erick. But you---" he shook his finger at Alastaire, "you killed Antoine and tried to murder Erick.
Emperor Roy Rashak's rage was palpable. "Do you not understand that although you have different mothers, you are all still blood brothers??? Antoine is even closer to you than the other boys are because he is also your first cousin by your aunt Tanya."
The Emperor rubbed his eyes. "Still, I did not want to execute you for those crimes because you are my son. I allowed you to live and to find a way to forge your own path in the world."
He stood up, his body filled with rage. "But what do you do? Kidnap your aunt and uncle, and keep your cousin as hostage!!!"
"How is it they are my blood brothers when they can be Crown Princes and I cannot?" Alastaire's face contorted into a frenzied mask of torture.
"My Son," the Emperor sighed. "I have many children but the Ashryan Empire can only have one Emperor. None of my other sons are causing the kind of strife that you are."
"That's because they are weak!"
"No, Alastaire." Erick shook his head. "The other princes do not even want to be Emperor. They are not eaten up alive and drunk on power as you are. Have you talked to any of them lately?"
"I don't waste my time with cretins." Alastaire leaned back against his seat. "If you have something to say to me, say it now, because I don't have time to waste on you either."
Erick's aquamarine eyes flashed fire. "Where is our aunt and uncle? Where is our cousin?"
"Hmmm. You'd like to know, wouldn't you?"
"Alastaire, this is between you and me. Release them and let them be!"
"Hahahaha!" Alastaire laughed. "If you want to see them alive again, give up your throne and your rights of ascension. I will think about releasing them into your hands at that time."
"Alastaire. You don't have to do this. Just release them and keep this conflict where it belongs, between you and me. They don't have anything to do with any of this." Erick pleaded.
"You are already in the Southern Realm, at the seat of my power. You don't have any room for negotiations." Alastaire leaned in closer. "You don't get to tell me what to do at this point. You only get to sit helplessly back and watch events unfold."
The Emperor's face grew pale. "Alastaire, I'm warning you. Stand down, Son!"
"I don't have time for this Father. Your time is almost over. Enjoy being Emperor for the short amount of time left to you."
"You---" Emperor Roy Rashak choked with fury.
"Hahahaha!" Alastaire laughed, winking out of scry-visual as he cut the connection.
"I don't care what it takes. Go rescue your aunt and cousin!" the Emperor roared.
With a heavy heart, Erick said his goodbyes to the Emperor and returned to his group of advisors.
They were standing around a large sandbox that had been magically shaped into the terrain of Topaz and its surrounding areas.
"Here, you see the base of Topaz Mountain with the main artery which is Garamond Road."
Gerald Pomfrey pointed to an intersection that had been perfectly sand-shaped. "It joins with Montclaire Road which is the main road that splits Topaz into two sections."
"I see that it encircles the pyramid." Erick rubbed his jaw.
"Yes. Montclaire road becomes Montclaire Loop when it hits their pyramid. It turns back into Montclaire Road on the other side of the pyramid and ends when it hits the ocean on the other side of the city."
"What is this road, the one that crosses over Montclair at the Pyramid junction?"
"That is Tatiana Road. It begins on the coast and runs into Topaz desert."
"Does Tatiana Road end where the desert begins?" Erick pointed to the spot where the road stopped.
"It used to run the length of the desert...before it was a desert."
"What in the world could possibly have caused such a large area as this to turn into a desert?"
Gerald Pomfrey shivered. "Demons."
After the scry-visual between Emperor Roy Rashak and the Crown Prince Erick, orders began to be issued from both father and son to mobilize troops from all over the Empire.
This would be an all-out attempt to rescue Zander and his parents, but it was more than a simple rescue mission for Erick.
This was personal.
The brotherly feud between Alastaire and Erick had spilled over onto the rest of the family. He and his brother Alastaire would take this fight to the end of the line.
One of them would have to die for this fight to be over.
He took over command of the situation, barking out orders left and right. His scribes could barely keep up with his commands as they wrote the orders that would take a certain number of forces from all over the country and concentrate it around the area of Topaz.
Advisors began winking in and out as they ported back and forth, carrying signed, stamped orders from the Crown Prince to the various far-flung troops and their commanders.
This was in keeping with the tradition that in times of war, the Crown Prince was the Commander in Chief who ordered the troops' deployment.
By mid-morning, troops were already on the Jade and Diamond trains enroute to Jasper. It would take approximately 24 hours to move the troops from their garrisons. Another 24 hours would put them in place and ready to fight.
There would be only two days left before the threat of imminent war became a reality.