Mikey's POV (because I almost forgot he was a character and he's important in the story)

"Uhhhh..... hehehe..... hi?" Preston looked nervously at the adults, who just sighed. I sighed along with them.

King Caden raised his eyebrows at Lachlan, who nervously smiled. Then the king turned his attention to me. "Ah, Michael, you succeeded in bringing the others here, I presume?" he said, smirking and looking at the six element-holders.

He was always the sarcastic one out of his siblings, even in their youth.

Holding in laughter, I nodded. "Yeah, sort of. Preston lead the others through a passage to end up behind that painting, so it wasn't really me who brought them here."

King Samuel nodded. Looking at the other children, he said, "Well, why are you standing there? Sit down."

The guys stood frozen in place. Rob was the one to break the awkward silence that went on for a while. "Uh, with what? There are no chairs."

I smiled and waved my hand above my chest. Immediately six extra chairs appeared next to the table. The six element-holders stared at me in shock.

"Mikey? You're a sorcerer?" Lachlan asked, his eyes wide.

I shook my head. "No. A wizard. Sorcerers are born with magic naturally. Wizards gain their magic through apprenticeship and teachings."

The six glanced at each other before sitting down in the wooden chairs I had provided them. They all continued to look at each other in confusion. Samuel clapped his hands together.

"Alright! Now, I hope we can continue with our chat." Samuel smiled and looked at his son and his friends. "You may be wondering why we didn't tell you guys this prophect stuff sooner. I wish I could say it was because we didn't want your brains to explode with the knowledge, but that wouldn't make sense. It was because the god Nikolai wanted to be as dramatic as possible and wanted you guys to do a lot of action in a short amount of time. So, he told us to not tell you guys about the prophecy until he alerted me that we could. And all of this proves that Nikolai is a....... an 'interesting' god."

The kids' jaws were practically hitting the tabletop. I chuckled at their inability to comprehend such information.

"I guess it is my turn to reveal my secret to you kids," I , smiling. I held my hand over my heart as I performed a spell. Immediately my physical features began to change. My black hair grew longer while I grew taller. My simple child's clothing became a long red cloak covering black pants, a black coat, and a white shirt. I reached into my cloak and pulled out red glasses to put over my bright blue eyes.

The children stared at me in more shock than they had possessed before. I didn't blame them. A seemingly twelve year-old revealing to actually look like a man in their late twenties right in front of their eyes would be simply mind-blowing.

"Wow...." Lachlan's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Mikey..... you're OLD!"

The children were in too much shock to laugh at that statement.

"Well, magic beings can live to be quite old," I said with a smirk. "For example, I am one-hundred thirty years old. And my name is Jordan. Jordan Sparklez."

The children were speechless as their parents chuckled. After all my years of living with little Lachlan, I have never seen him without words for this long.

Then Preston raised his arm timidly. "Um... question?" He smiled. "Can I call you Captain J-Man?"

Finally, all the kids burst into laughter. About time, I was getting a little freaked out about them being silent for so long.

Clarisse, however, was not as amused. She pressed her lips together in a tight line and looked at her son sternly. "Preston, we do not joke at these times."

"Ah, lighten up, Clarie," I teased. "Preston is merely the youngest at twelve years old, and he just wants to bring a smike upon your dark and gloomy faces."

"Hey!" Lachlan interjected. "I'm twelve too. Does that make me not the youngest?"

My, Lachlan always wanted things to be a competition. Even age.

"Your birthday is on the waning half-moon of this month, correct?" I asked. "Preston's birthday is on new moon of next month, the week after. Therefore he is the youngest, making his birthday the last day of peace before Haletor wreaks havoc and despair among the world."

There was silence among the children.

Then it finally sank in.

"We have three weeks to do this?!" Rob exclaimed.

"Three weeks to save the world from an evil god who creates the Ender Dragon?!" Vikk looked like he was about to faint. He was pale as a ghost, which was saying something.

"Screw you, gods!" Lachlan shouted at the heavens.

"Why would Nikolai make us do this in three weeks? That's not enough time!" Jerome yelled.

Derek frowned. "Because Nikolai is being a big pain in the a-

Maya clamped her hand over Derek's mouth. "Not in front of the children, Craft."

I cleared my throat, silencing the children. Addressing the adults, I said, "I think it's about time to call off the meeting. We can discuss with the children about the prophecy tomorrow after a night's rest."

This erupted into a chorus of loud complaints. "But we have more questions!" Preston pouted.

Samuel looked sternly at his son. "Enough, Preston, we will talk about this tomorrow."

Preston glared at his dad, but didn't press the argument further. The other element-holders also decided to keep their mouths shut as they exited their seats and walked towards the door. I sighed as the left the room.

"Do you think they'll be able to take Haletor down?" Isabel timidly asked.

Flora sighed and looked at her friend. "I don't know. But what about the eleventh line of the prophecy?" she questioned. "The prophecy mentions an ally. If our children are unable to bring Haletor to her knees, that ally will. I'm sure of it."

The nine royals glanced at each other. They seemed to be unsure about this assumption. Well, it's better to have hope than endless amounts of despair, right?

"Well, I'm off to bed," Gloria announced, rising from her seat. She began to walk out the door, followed by Derek, Caden, Theo, Isabel, Maya, Flora, Clarisse, then finally Samuel. I took one last look at the room and fixed the painting with a simple spell before heading to my room as well.

I thought long and hard about Flora's point about the ally. Hopefully it would be someone up to the task.

One question remained:

Who was the ally?

xxxxx's POV (ooh, mystery time ;))

I pulled out a book, skimmed the pages, and shoved it back into the bookshelf. I repeated the process with several more books. Where was it, where was it?

I blew my brown hair out of my face as I checked under the desk. Nope, wasn't there either. Ugh, where could I have possibly left it?

Not under the bed, it also wasn't in any of the bookshelves. Not on the desk, not under it.

Finally, I located the book I was looking for on TOP of a bookshelf. I cursed myself for missing it.

"Okay, where's the page, where's the page...." I continued to flip through the many pages of the book before finding the page. "There."

I studied the page with the prophecy. Specifically, I studied the runes on the side of the side of the page. Dang, I think I need to get Ian to translate this, he's been studying these runes. These were.... the Wirda runes, yeah, that's it. Ian's been studying those....

I looked up at the clock in my room. Geez, already eleven at night.... I should get some sleep.

But should I? I mean..... Haletor's planning to attack in two days.......

Screw it, I can tell them tomorrow, I'm tired as the Nether.