(Attention! This is mostly a backstory chapter on how the Gems of Fortune came to be from the Amarok of Dyr. So don't expect the story to progress much, and happy reading!)

Luke wandered around outside the ballroom, pacing back and forth in the Great Hall. Just then, his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he caught sight of a tall young man with chocolate-brown hair, who looked equally shocked to see him there.

The tall young man walked over and bowed to him. Luke quickly did the same, not wanting to seem impolite or disrespectful. When the boy arose, get had a toothy grin on his face that could have lit up the Great Hall even if it was completely dark.

He introduced himself as Calix, the First Prince. He was the firstborn of the royal children, and he was two years older than Luke. The only reason he hadn't attended a Youth Ball in the past years was because he hadn't been notified of it.

"The pleasure's all mine, Sir Luke. It's my first time meeting Duke Augustine's son in person. I think we could get along well."

Luke extended his arm for a handshake, and Calix shook it firmly. It seemed like the beginning of a new friendship. However, Luke didn't plan on becoming friends with Calix, ever.

He still remembered his past life. Calix's voice, announcing his banishment to Brundidge. His prejudice towards him, and in turn, his bias for Al-Tarouq Hassar, the heir of Hassar Enterprises, the largest lumber company in his past life.

He was a lumber tycoon, known for being ruthless to his enemies and being a guardian angel to his allies.

He had yet to meet Hassar, as he had never looked much into his past. All he knew was that his family had first arrived by the Pierre de July in the early 1900s.

Suddenly, a young girl burst onto the scene, panting and clearly out of breath. She had a clipboard in one of her arms, and a quill rich with ink clutched in her other arm.

Luke recognized this little girl as well. This was Naomi Aikhen, Hara's partner in crime. In his past life, Naomi was the one who orchestrated the Denesia Heist, the most skillful heist in the history of Kalna.

The Denesia Heist concerned the past Amarok of Dyr. It had been guarded safely by the owner, in a famous vault known as the Coffer of Heathen. It had twelve separate codes that needed to be inputted, and people thought that stealing it was nigh impossible, so most of them never even bothered to try.

But not Naomi Aikhen. She had created the Cryptkeeper, a steel device that used infrared technology to look through any safe, discover the needed placement of the pins or the specific code combination to unlock it.

Naomi had swapped the Amarok of Dyr with a much less valuable mineral. The Amarok resembled obsidian, so Naomi had had one of her contacts carve obsidian in the shape of the Amarok.

And then she had hidden it in an area so secure, that it took seven years, seven years after her death to finally discover where Naomi had hidden it. And it took another two years to decrypt the code to be able to finally reclaim the Amarok.

Back then, the Amarok was a single gem. It hadn't yet been split into the four Gems of Fortune. At that time, around twenty years ago, it was owned by a man with the same name, Dyr. At least that's what his name was, according to history sources.

Dyr was a benevolent ruler. He ruled over Denesia, which was now current-day Kalna. Denesia thrived under his reign, and citizens left other kingdoms in pursuit of living there.

Furious at having had their citizens stolen, the other kings and queens came up with a plan.

One day, Dyr was on a trip to Veluxius, which was now Brundidge. While on his way there, the queen of Veluxius had laid in wait near the Monhelm River, flintlock waiting for its target.

As his carriage approached, the queen shot one of the front wheels of the carriage, and it immediately started swerving side to side.

The horses immediately went into a state of panic and galloped frantically, desperate to escape whatever had made that noise.

Dyr rocked inside the carriage,
the Coffer of Heathen clutched tightly in his arm. Fearing for his life, he threw the coffer out the window, just before the queen aimed higher and blew a hole straight through his forehead.

The coffer rolled down the hill and fell in the river, never to be seen again until almost twenty years later.
Before this point, all the past royals had searched the land far and wide for the coffer, but they had never found it.

A young prince had been crossing the river when he noticed a medium-sized coffer with several security mechanisms.

Picking it up, the prince had continued on his way to the Imperial Capital to where he began working on methods to open the coffer. He tried combination after combination, and even had the most gifted minds in Denesia attempt to crack it.

But to his disappointment, the coffer remained sealed. He left it in the attic, and quickly forgot about it. But two weeks later, an idea hit him.

Running back up to the attic, he grabbed the coffer and tested the idea out. When he heard something click into place, he knew he was on the right track.

And soon enough, he had fully decrypted the coffer. Excited to see what was inside, he reached his arm inside and...

...took out what seemed like an obsidian orb. Disappointed that his efforts had seemed to be all for nothing, he threw it against the nearby sofa, when it suddenly started emitting a dark glow.

Suddenly much more interested, the Prince took the orb and tried to figure out how it worked. After a week, he discovered that he could manipulate reality with it.

He knew that it should never fall into the wrong hands, so he set it back inside the coffer and added his own mechanisms to it, making it even more secure.

He painted it different colors to attempt to disguise it as a toy for children with all the knobs and switches, and it had remained untouched.

But ten years later, when the now King had checked up on it, he had noticed that the Amarok didn't emit the same faint dark glow that it usually did.

And that's when he realized that it had been stolen. He quickly spread word about it, and soon, detectives began searching every home for the Amarok.

But what they didn't realize was that the thief wasn't anywhere in Denesia. Naomi was back in Veluxius, and she had split the Amarok using a particle splitter she had built.

Naomi had hidden the gems in places only she knew about, and created an altar to refuse the gems should she ever need to use the Amarok.

Luke knew how complicated the timeline was. He himself didn't understand it. He tried to make sense of it though.

In his past life, thirty years ago, Dyr had the gem. He was just being born at that time. Then, twenty years later, it had fallen into the hands of the prince, and Luke was twenty, turning twenty-one.

Naomi was nineteen during this time. And then, ten years later, she orchestrated the Denesia Heist.
She was twenty-nine, and Luke was thirty-one.

After that, Naomi must have used it coincidentally when he and Hara had died, reviving them and transporting them to a separate reality. And then she must have split the Amarok and went on with her daily life, while Hara and Luke were sent back in time.

He hadn't known about the gems or the Amarok in his past life, but now he did. And he knew how dangerous Naomi was. Nevertheless, she was eleven and innocent, oblivious to the chaos she had wreaked in her past life.

Naomi smiled up at him, and offered a dance inside the ballroom. Luke graciously bowed and agreed, and they waltzed to a slow tune in the middle of the dance floor.

While they moved, Luke was deep in thought. It was still far too dangerous to try and retrieve the four gems and recreate the Amarok, because he didn't know where Naomi had been during this time in her past life. She had debuted in Brundidge, after all.

So he decided to enjoy it while it lasted, and smiled down at Naomi as they danced. Wanting to get to know one of his former adversaries better for the sake of having more information, he began asking her questions about herself.

Luckily, Naomi answered all of them truthfully, and Luke felt that it was only right to answer her questions just as sincerely.

Just then, another man offered Naomi a dance. Bidding farewell to her, Luke was immediately approached by Lexi, and they immediately hit it off and started talking about their childhood.

Luke was having a great time with Lexi, when he caught Kiarha and Hara huddled in a corner, whispering to each other. Concerned, he told Lexi to stay where she was as he approached the two.

Standing in front of them, he cleared his throat to gain their attention.

"Lady Kiarha. Lady Hara. What are you two discussing?"

"It's none of your business, Luke. I may be your cousin, but that doesn't give you permission to just waltz up to me as if we know each other very well."

Clearly a dismissal, Luke heeded Kiarha's words and began walking back to Lexi when he caught a topaz glimmering on one of the chandeliers.
It emmitted a faint orange glow, which made his eyes widen.

The Wishmaker's Topaz.