Del Bar throne room

"So...what are we doing now that Aric is being held hostage?" Lella asks Cira, who was seated on the throne with a bored expression. "Leif is still with the Askelson family, and so is Aric but only one is a prisoner and our king."

"Obviously, leave him there, he's an awful king." Adessa responds with a roll of her eyes from her seat on the steps leading up to the throne. "Why are we even here anyways and why does our uncle even want to discuss something with us? I'd rather be reading or tending to my reindeer right now."

"Patience girls, I'm sure whatever our uncle has to say is probably not that important." Cira says, drumming her fingers on the wooden armrest of the throne. "Knowing Audin, it's definitely not important."

Both teens nod in agreement as the doors to the throne room open and their uncle enters looking very pale.

"Girls, I'm sure you've heard the awful news about your brother." The councilman said as he approached the throne and frowned. "Cira get off the throne, that's where your brother sits."

"As the one who's actually the older twin, no I'm not getting off." Cira says with a frown. "I know I made the mistake of handing the throne over to him, but I've made the decision of taking what's rightfully mine back. My twin is an idiot for thinking it's a great idea to storm into our godmother's house to forcefully return our baby brother back, and you my uncle, are a damn fool for not stopping this early."

"Excuse me?!" Audin gasps.

"Leif is just a kid, he's not even going to be king unless the four of us get assassinated all at once, so he's no threat to me. Also why did my brother even care about dragging him back here in the first place is beyond me." Cira continues. "If he wants to stay with the Askelsons, let him. I may have been harsh with him in the past even after our parents' funeral, but I think it's best if he's away from the palace for now."

"Cira be reasonable, neither of your three younger siblings are fit to be rulers. If something were to happen to you and your brother, neither of them would know how to rule!"

"Hey I'm at least going to my royal studies now!" Adessa exclaims in protest. "Lella just spends most of the day hunting or holed up in her room."

"Also if our older siblings were to die, you'd make a terrible regent." Lella adds, ignoring her sister's previous comment. "Hey Cira, can we fire him?"

"Lella!" Audin exclaims in horror.

"Hmm, tempting idea since he's been useless as our councilman, has made no move to even stop our brother's foolish and childish behaviors and...." Cira narrowed her eyes. "Had plans to make Leif king so he could have control of every decision."

Audin went even more pale than before. "W-what are you talking about? Why would I place your little brother on the throne?"

"Well for one, the majority of the human kingdoms have children for rulers - with and without regents to guide them - so you probably thought they'd be more friendly and more likely to side and agree with him on stuff if you whisper it to him. And don't even deny it, Geir's falcon managed to catch your little pet and found the letter attached to her leg. You were planning on trying to dethrone my twin and toss the youngest onto the throne, and you were the one who spread the word about why Leif was with the Askelsons, hoping to result in an uprising to have Aric dethroned. Judging by your terrified expression, I'm right aren't I?"

Aric gulps nervously as Cira stands up, arms crossed over her chest with a frown on her face.

"So can we jail him already for trying to start an uprising or something?" Lella asks, gesturing to the soldiers who were in the room.

"How about we strip him of his councilman title and then throw him in jail for a few months?" Cira suggests, a grin replacing her frown. "Yeah that's more effective, that should teach him a lesson."

"You can't do that!" Audin protests as two soldiers approach and grab his arms. "You are not even queen!"

"Unfortunately for you, I actually am." Cira sneers. "Take him away, get him out of my sight."

"So, who is gonna have his position now?" Adessa asks as their uncle is dragged out of the room.

"We'll have to wait and see, but for now I'm putting Calder in that position until someone in the current council decides to step up and prove they can be better than our stupid uncle. In the meantime, send word to Lissa's family and tell them that they can keep Leif and do whatever they want with Aric. And send word to the other kingdoms, Del Bar has a new queen."

---

"So just to be clear, we are actually going to Katolis to check through dad's old stuff and take back whatever is ours and destroy what's his and Desmond's?" Claudia asks her brother was trying to stuff another shirt into a satchel. "You have like four other shirts in that, stick some clean socks in there."

"I want something clean to wear when we arrive at Katolis, don't want Opeli scolding me for arriving sweaty." Soren says as he stops trying to shove the shirt in and turns his satchel to dump everything out of it. "Okay maybe I need another bag to carry my clothes, or I can just pack two pairs of pants, four pairs of socks and six shirts."

"Are you sure you're not packing your nice shirt just because you're gonna be seeing your girlfriend?" Claudia teases, grinning when she sees her brother's cheeks turn pink. "I knew it!"

"That's not why I'm trying to pack some of my nicer shirts!" Soren protests as he grabs a shirt and flung it at his sister's face. "And just because we're going to Katolis doesn't mean we'll even see her, Enya's probably gonna be too busy tailoring stuff to even be by Ezran!"

"Ooh so now we have a name! Now that narrows down my search!"

"Claudia!"

"Are either of you two done packing yet, or have you changed your minds?" They hear their mother yell from the other side of the door. "And Soren please pack extra socks, you know how badly your feet get cold when you travel!"

"Mom!" Soren groans, earning a laugh from his sister. "Okay get out so I can repack my stuff! And pick at least two dogs to take with us, I know you'll be complaining about not taking one."

"Ooh I'll take Buttercup and Squishy with us!" Claudia exclaims happily and runs for the door. "I bet Callum and Ezran are gonna love them!"

Once she was out, Soren quickly gathered some clothes, deciding to pack less shirts than the first time and adding more socks instead. Maybe in Katolis he could buy himself a new shirt, in case what he packed was leaving him too stuffy in the summer heat. Once everything was packed and he was very sure he had everything, Soren quickly grabbed his leather vest with the fur hood and slipped it on before hurrying out of his room. The rest of the family was waiting in the living room for him, Claudia already packed and playing with her two dogs that she was going to take with her.

"So, ready?" Ulf asks and Soren nods, patting his sword strapped to his belt. "Good, but before you two leave I have something for you."

"Ooh a gift?" Claudia asks as she jumps to her feet as her brother walks over to their grandfather and she joins him.

"Here, it's an old family heirloom. Try not to lose it." Ulf says as he reached into the small pouch on his belt and produced two leather cord necklaces, each with a small engraved metal hammer. "These once belonged to our ancestor Kari Askelson and her brother Thorin Askelson, they were apparently enchanted by an elf the two befriended and meant to protect them and whoever wears the necklaces if they venture far from home. Your mother and uncle never gotten these, since only one of them left our home, never take them off."

"Pa, they're beautiful, we'll always keep them on." Soren says as they take the necklaces and place them around their necks. "I suppose the protection spell only works if the two are being worn at the same time?"

"Apparently so. It's just an old tale, but our ancestor claims they really did save her and her brother. Once saved them from a rabid Banther while they and their families were traveling to what would become Del Bar." Ulf states and puts a hand on either of their shoulders. "Be careful and take care of each other. And remember that we will be here waiting."

"We'll be safe, we got Soren's sword and my trusty ax to defend us!" Claudia declares, raising her weapon. "And Buttercup and Squishy for added protection!"

"Squishy runs at the sight of bees." Bjorn loudly states before Sigrid smacks his head. "Ow!"

"You have offended my Squishy!" Claudia gasps and drops to the ground to hug the dog. "How dare you!"

"Uh...maybe we should get going now." Soren comments loudly before turning to his grandfather. "Thank you for the protection charms, we'll take good care of them and write to let you know when we arrive and if anything exciting happens."

"Don't forget to brush your teeth, can't have you meet with a king while wielding bad breath." Lissa says as she hugged her son and ruffled his hair affectionately. "And do remember to write, otherwise I'll actually ride out to bring you back myself!"

"Okay ma, okay!" Soren groans. "Gosh this is gonna be a long trip..."

---

Katolis

"We made it!" Claudia cheers happily as they were riding through the village leading up to the castle. "Oh its been so long! And it's so hot too!"

"It's not that hot, you're just wearing black." Soren scoffs and shrugs. "Try riding through this place in armor and furs, then come back to me to complain."

"So, are we gonna go see our friend's baby brother first or are you planning on going to meet your girlfriend?" Claudia teases and moves her horse to the side when her brother tries throwing a kick at her. "Missed!"

"You leave Enya out of this and don't go asking her weird questions, Bjorn has already embarrassed me enough in front of her already!"

"Aww, did our cousin ruin your chances at getting a girlfriend? Don't worry dear brother, I'll be your wingwoman for this trip, and by the time we leave you'll have a girlfriend and be writing romantic letters to her every chance you get!"

"I'm just gonna pretend I don't know you." Soren mutters as he pulls the hood of his vest over his head.

"Soren! Hey good to see you!" Soren looks up and brightens up when he sees Barius exiting his bakery and waving to them. "I see you are in Katolis for a visit, planning on seeing Ezran?"

"I was actually coming to look through some stuff Viren left behind that Opeli wanted us to look at and see if we wanted to either keep it or destroy it." Soren responds as he stops his horse. "How is he by the way, still sneaking here to get some tarts?"

"Oh no, I actually deliver a tray or two to the castle every morning now. He doesn't come through the vents anymore unless he's feeling a bit stressed in the afternoon and wants a snack." The baker chuckles as Squishy and Buttercup approach him. "Oh I see you have some fluffy companions, new friends for Amaya when she comes back?"

"Comes back? Enya's gone?" Soren asks in surprise.

"She and the young king and his brother, along with Rayla. Said they were going to the Cursed Caldera to visit Lujanne to deliver something for her, said they'd be back but it's only been a few weeks, nearly a month."

"Aw man, I really wanted to see Callum and Ezran again, and meet that girl my cousin claims my brother likes." Claudia grumbles, now very disappointed.

"Will you please drop that? She's just a friend, Bjorn is just being stupid." Soren mutters.

"Well you two can go see Opeli, I'm sure she knows when they'll come back if you two are planning on staying to wait for your friends. Otherwise you can just do what you need to do and leave once you are done."

"We'll stick around for a bit, let the horses rest and get restocked on stuff we need once we are done looking through some old magic junk."

"Destroy some of that dark magic stuff, last thing we need is one of your father's supporters sneaking in and trying to steal it."

Once they said their goodbyes to Barius, they rode all the way up to the castle where they were stopped and checked by some soldiers before being allowed to enter the castle grounds.

"Wow, this place is just as big as I remember." Claudia comments as they were allowed to enter the castle. "Where was his room again?"

"Uh, some big tower, I remember Callum mentioning that Ezran found some sort of secret dungeon and lab that he kept the baby dragon's egg in. Never saw it myself, but they said it was very creepy especially with the jars of body parts belonging to magical creatures he stole from Xadia."

"To think I actually wanted to do that sort of magic, the thought horrifies and disgusts me now." Claudia says with a shudder. "Gosh I'm so glad mom decided to take her with us, who knows how we would have turned out if we stayed here with dad."

"Well look on the bright side Claudes, you found a job and hobby that's better than being a dark mage's assistant." Soren says as he puts his arm around his sister to pull her into a side hug. "You don't have to worry about looking creepy like Viren did when he uses too much magic."

"You've been referring to him by his first name a lot lately, it feels weird hearing you call him that."

"Yeah, well he lost the privilege of me calling him my dad after what he tried to do to me and after what he did to my friends."

The two walked in silence until they reached their father's office, the inside already messy with dust and books all over the floor. Seemed like someone had been making a mess of the place long before they arrived here.

"That painting really creeps me out to this day." Claudia whispers to her brother, pointing to the portrait of the young girl holding a sheep while being surrounded by other sheep. "I always felt like she was staring straight at me and into my soul."

"It's just a painting Claudes, a creepy one, but still a normal painting." Soren assures her before nudging a book by his foot. "This isn't the creepy office Callum mentioned, so let's look for that secret entrance. The sooner we do, the sooner we can sort through the junk and decide what to keep and what to burn."

The two proceeded to search the room, knocking on the walls or pulling on the books that remained on the shelves in hopes of finding the secret entrance. One pull from a book did reveal a secret enclosure full of glowing butterflies, but now what they had hoped for.

"Ugh, this is pointless, did either of the boys tell you where the secret entrance was?" Claudia asks as she leans against the edge of the desk. "Or did Opeli tell you in the letter? Soren!"

"Shh! I'm thinking right now!" Her brother hisses as he turns his attention back to the sheep painting he had been examining while Claudia was double checking the places they had looked at earlier.

Claudia watched as her brother walks up to the painting and starts knocking on it in various areas before walking to the right side and waves her over.

"Look at this, you see that?" Soren asks and his sister's eyes widened when she saw what he was pointing to.

"Hinges?! You mean -"

"The secret entrance was in plain sight all along." And with that, Soren moves to grab the left side of the frame to pull it, revealing a large hole in the wall. "Viola! Secret entrance and a secret tunnel!"

"Eww, it stinks." Claudia gags as she pinches her nose. "Did something die in that tunnel?"

"Only one way to find out! Race you to the end of the tunnel!"

The two ran through the dimly lit tunnel, only the light of the pale blue crystals lighting the way until they reach the end where they were met with a rock wall and a note attached to it in wax.

""Press the numbered hand prints to open, took me too long to figure out the combination. Ezran." Wow, so what does pressing hand prints do?" Soren asks after reading the note.

"Maybe pressing the hand prints is supposed to do something, like the painting." Claudia suggests and gestures to the markings on the wall. "Ezran says to press them, so we press them! I want to do this, stand back."

Soren stood back as his sister proceeds to examine the wall before pressing on the stones, which moved under the pressure she applied to them. There was a loud click and Soren yelps as he nearly falls when the floor gives out under him, jumping towards his sister. The stone floor shifts and moves until it forms a staircase, leading into a dark room.

"Okay that is pretty cool." Soren admits. "His real office must be down there, along with the ingredients and spellbooks. Guess I know what's going to get burned first."

"Wait, we can't burn those yet!" Claudia says and grabs her brother's shoulder to stop him. "What if there's a book that can help us find a way to reverse the spell that was almost casted on you? If there's something or anything like that down there, there's a chance that a reversal spell is also in the book."

"And who is gonna cast that spell? I can't do magic and you might as well have snuffed out whatever magical connection you had to do dark magic well after not doing it for many years, plus there probably aren't any dark mages skilled enough to reverse this."

"There's a chance to help those soldiers who had no say in getting turned Soren, think of how many people we could be helping if we found a way to reverse that spell. And maybe there aren't any good mages here in Katolis or in Del Bar or Duren, but I heard that in Neolandia and I think even in Evenere there are some that are almost as skilled as our father. If we could just find that and locate a mage who is willing to help, then we can fix what our father broke. Please Soren, we can help the families who are suffering from this, trust me on this."

Soren looks at her reluctantly before signing in frustration. "Okay fine, but this is the only time I will ever agree to using dark magic to solve our problems. Remember what mom and Pa said about it."

"I know, I know. It's evil and we might as well have sold our soul to its uses and shortcuts." Claudia responds with a roll of her eyes. "I promise this will be the only time we use this kind of magic, and if we can't find any mages willing to help...I'll just do it myself."

"You will do no such thing!" Soren snaps and grabs her hand, worry in his eyes. "Claudia, I've seen what so much dark magic has done to him, I don't want that to happen to you either. I don't want to see you with skin so pale and eyes dark like voids, you'd look like a walking corpse and I would never forgive myself if that happened to you."

"I said if you dork. If anything, we can just...punch them into listening to us, do it the Soren way!"

"I don't always punch people to solve my problems, I can be persuasive with my words if I want to." Soren scoffs as his sister laughs and walks past him to walk down the stairs. "I mean, last time I tried talking sense into someone I got a boot thrown at my head. And that was the...previous crown prince of Neolandia."

"Well let's hope prince Salim won't be throwing any boots at your head if we find those reversal spells and go to him for dark mages."

The two descended into the darkness to enter a dimly lit room, shelves on either side of the walls covered with multiple jars and books, a table on one wall covered with discarded bowls, books and other instruments that were covered in a fine layer of dust.

"Wow, haven't been here in ages." Claudia comments as she looks around the room and her eyes fell on one of the shelves. "Okay I'll attack this shelf and look through the books and you do the same with the other. If either of us find anything that looks like a spellbook, toss it to the table so we could examine it better."

"And here I thought I didn't have to read today." Soren mutters as he walks to his assigned shelf and makes a face. "Gross...so many jars. Oh my ancients, is that an entire pickled bat?!"

"Soren, focus!"

"Hard to when there's so many jars of pickled animal bits and parts!"

Claudia just rolls her eyes and proceeds to grab a book to fling it open and scan the pages. Nope, just a book on plants. She does the same with a few more books, stacking them on the floor if they didn't have anything involving magic while Soren did the same and removes jars to avoid knocking them over. At one point a large dark brown book with an odd marking on the spine caught the teens eye and she immediately grabs it to open it to the middle and finds the pages filled with the familiar scribbles and random notes jotted in various areas in her father's neat handwriting, drawings showing various steps on how to cut certain ingredients along with drawings of how the process of what must have been a spell looked like as well as the results.

"Found something!" Claudia whispers excitedly as she turns away from the shelf. "I think it's a spell book, maybe this could help us. It's in his handwriting and has all these drawings on how to perform stuff."

"So anything in here could reverse the spell?" Soren asks as his sister starts flipping through the pages. "Like certain ingredients to make it happen or something?"

"From what I remember dad telling me, spells involving dark magic require certain components that are linked to specific magic sources. Like if you want to do a spell involving illusions you need a magical component that connects to the moon arcanum, like a moon moth or even a lunar bat. We may need something that can reverse a fire spell, maybe something connecting to the ocean or sun arcanum."

"So...trip to Xadia to find some kind of fish or something and risk getting arrested and killed by Tidebound and Sunfire elves?"

"No...there's got to be something in here that can help us." Claudia taps her chin as she scans the shelves of multiple jars and boxes filled with ancients know what body parts of poor unsuspecting magical creatures to be used for future spells. "We should probably start looking through every jar."

"Ewww." Soren gags as his sister hands him the opened book to go to the shelves he had been looking through. "Do we have to?"

"We have to Soren, while I don't find dark magic as cool and appealing as I used to when I was little, we might need to use this to return those soldiers back to their normal state. If we can't find anything here, maybe if we find a dark mage who can help they can help us figure out how to reverse it if we are stumped."

"You think we'll get in trouble for doing this? I don't think Ezrsn will like that we are trying to use dark magic to fix this."

"What other choice do we have? If he finds out and doesn't like this approach, then he's welcome to figure something out and suggest it. Right now we need to find at least something in this book that can reverse that spell - oh my gods."

"What?" Soren asks as his sister stares at the book in horror. "Claudia, what wrong? You look like you've seen a spirit."

"This...Soren do you recognize this?" Claudia whispers as she quickly takes the book to one of the tables where a glowing crystal was and points at the pages. "Take a good look at this and tell me what it looks like."

Confused and concerned, the older teen looks over his sister's shoulder to look at the page she was pointing to that displayed some drawings of a candle, a bowl of what looked like black sand and a figure made of black smoke with glowing eyes. His eyes widened in horror, remembering the creature he saw several weeks back that tried to hurt Leif the night his parents were killed.

"That...it looks like the shadow thing that tried to hurt Leif and ran towards the king and queen's chambers where I found mom and Sigrid injured. Claudia, is that what I think it is?" He asks in disbelief. This was all starting to make sense now, the Pentarchy meeting that ended on a sour note, the assassinations that followed soon after, Viren getting the armies he needed after warning the royals of the supposed danger they were in if they didn't heed his "warnings"...

"This...Soren, I think I know who actually tried to kill the other four kings and queens."