But was it the Wishmaker's Topaz?
After all, the glow emitted could be just a trick of the light.

Luke didn't pay it too much attention, but noted the location in case it actually was the Wishmaker's Topaz.

As the ball drew to a close, Luke joined Yanna and Hara as they rode the carriage back to the property.
They would escort Luke back to their manor first thing in the morning.

As Luke curled up in his guestroom, it started to rain. The raindrops rapped against the windows like miniature drums, a natural symphony no real drums could ever replicate.

As the downpour continued, Luke heard a knock at the door. But before he could climb out of bed, a smooth and rather small hand slipped something under his door.

Luke had to climb out of bed anyway, and he picked up what seemed to be a small square of ebony wood, which was quite a rarity. Some of the common folk said ebony trees grew in a forest so difficult to find that people had only heard rumors about it.

That meant this small square of wood could easily go for ten, maybe fifteen thousand huknah. He placed it in his suitcase and went back to bed.

In the morning, he woke up to Yanna sitting by his side, with a tray of flatcakes drizzled with a generous amount of maple syrup.

"Good morning, Sir Luke. I made you some breakfast in bed, so that you can quickly prepare for the trip back to your manor."

Yanna smiled, and Luke couldn't help but smile back. As he ate the flatcakes, Yanna gazed at him adoringly, eyes filled with a deep love and affection for him.

Even though she had taken Luke's first kiss a year prior, Luke didn't mind his first kiss being Yanna. After all, they had been past lovers.

But since only Hara and Luke had been transported to this new reality when Naomi used the Amarok, that meant Yanna had no idea whatsoever about what she and Luke were in the other reality.

The perfect reality. One where they had banished Calix for treason, and Naomi had been taken into prison, and one where Luke and Yanna ruled Kalna with as much honor and integrity as Dyr had decades ago.

Reminiscing about his past, Luke was even more determined to return.

But his mind posed the question that he had never dared to answer.

Why not stay here and start over?

Luke had had this mental battle countless times before. Preparing for the Youth Ball, receiving Yanna's tokens of love, practicing with the Traveler's Amber.

A part of him wanted to return. To his perfect reality, where the corrupted and evil had been dealt with, and he would receive a grand homecoming ceremony in honor of his ordeal.

But another part of him wanted to stay. Because he knew that Naomi and Calix hadn't been born evil. They had just went down the wrong path. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, he wanted to see if they could get Naomi and Calix on their side.

But Kiarha was a different case. In the past, Kiarha and Henry had been rogues. They helped both the Schuylers as well as the Second Prince.

And Kiarha, as rotten as she was, knew her stuff. In the past, Luke had promised to turn a blind eye to her activities in exchange for her services.

In the end, he decided he would try to claim the Amarok before either Naomi or Calix, so that he could create a reality where all of them could coexist in peace and love.

As he stepped into the carriage, he waved goodbye to both Yanna and Hara. Yanna gave her usual energetic wave, but this time, Hara actually gave a small wave. It was brief and seemed forced, but it was progress.

As the carriage rode past the Flower river, a kaleida suddenly walked onto the path. Startled, the horse ran faster, jerking the carriage back and forth.

The carriage driver tried desperately to calm it down, but the horse saw no signs of stopping as more kaleidas walked onto the path and immediately ran back in fright at the horse's own terror.

The carriage driver managed to steer it back on track after the kaleida horde stopped, but his hands were shaking and he looked like he might have PTSD. Which was completely understandable, considering the fact that kaleidas lived near cliffs.

Arriving back at his manor, Luke thanked the carriage driver and stepped off the carriage when he saw Kiarha waiting for him at the gates with a suspiciously blank face.

Kiarha walked with him back to the manor, where everyone was doing their job as usual. The gardener was tending to the plants and the stableman was feeding the horses.

Although they had a blank look also, Luke didn't pay too much attention to them, as they had been at this manor years before he had been born, so he supposed they must have grown numb to the sensations that came with their job.

Luke had his servants take his luggage upstairs, but not before he grabbed the small piece of ebony wood that the mysterious hand had given him. It was most likely a woman, but hands could belong to anyone.

He had also taken the two rubies that Yanna had given him a year earlier, and he decided to study why they were much softer than the regular rubies.

Luke made his way to the attic, where his father's office was. His father had a knack for machinery and chemistry, so he was bound to find something in there. Hopefully.

But when he entered the lock's combination and stepped inside, Kiarha was already there, examining her ring.

"Lady Kiarha. Why are you examining your ring so intently? Are you concerned that it may not be a real amethyst?"

Kiarha jumped back a little, but nonetheless retained her composure, her voice coming out in a smooth and measured tone.

"Indeed I am, Sir Luke. Apologies if you wanted to do some research of your own."

Kiarha glanced at the rubies, a slight glimmer of an emotion Luke couldn't quite describe shining in her eyes.

Luke knew that his father kept spare machines in the basement library. They weren't as good as the ones here in his office, but they were advanced enough to be able to get the job done.

So Luke bid Kiarha farewell, and began making his way down. After a series of narrow stairs, during which he had almost collapsed twice, he had arrived.

First, he examined the wood. To his disappointment, he found that it wasn't really wood. It was just a metal that had been expertly painted with the shade of ebony.

But after scratching the paint off, he saw how extra shiny the metal was. Usually, this was a sign of a cheap and clumsy attempt at making fool's silver.

But it was still worth something in the end, so Luke decided to safekeep it in a small box that he had brought with him to the Capital, which he had now emptied of his hair gel packets.

Next, he decided to examine the rubies. Finding an atomic microscope and some plates for said microscope, Luke set the crescent ruby down on one of the plates and slid it under the microscope.

Looking through it, he noticed that the molecules were strangely loose.
They were also charged with a mysterious energy that Luke didn't know how to describe.

But he saw what seemed like white bolts of energy leaping from molecule to molecule, and he noted that this could be a possible reason for why the ruby was much softer.

But little did he know that the rubies weren't rubies at all. Not in the slightest. He hadn't received these in his original reality, so he had no idea about the nature of these gems.

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KIARHA'S POV

Inspecting the hallway to see if no one was around, Kiarha continued studying the Madman ring. If she could transfer the energy and power of it to herself, then she would be able to hide the ring in a safe area, and still be able to utilize its powers.

So, considering the fact she still had the entire house except Bernard and Luke's parents under her control, she had the gardener dig out a decoy hole.

While he was doing that, Kiarha kept looking for ways to be able to transfer the energy to herself. Just then, she noticed that the ring gleamed faintly whenever she touched it with her tweezers.

Her tweezers had a specific silver alloy that reacted strangely with other elements. And there was only one element that glowed under its touch.

Xerxesium.

Xerxesium was an incredibly rare metal found just above the mantle layer of the Earth's crust, which meant that to even have a chance at finding Xerxesium, one would have to dig down around sixty to seventy kilometers.

So, she had figured out what the "amethyst" was made of. But she still didn't know about why it had the power to control one's mind.

She couldn't put her plan into action yet. It wasn't the right time, and her plan hadn't yet been fully formed.
But now she knew that xerxesium's durability made it optimal for containing potential sources of magic and power.

Unfortunately, she didn't think anyone in Kalna was willing to sell such a valuable and expensive metal to her.

She only needed a small piece of it. And yet she knew that even that small amount could easily go for one hundred or two hundred thousand huknah.

But little did she know that Luke already had the perfect amount of xerxesium. The fool's silver that Luke supposed the piece of false ebony to be was in fact xerxesium.