In a fabulously decorated office in the castle of the Grecia-Nightingales, Mariner and the Count of Macrani were discussing further plans of administration. The king had been hard at work trying to centralize the rule of the new acquired lands, an effort he had been butting heads with the count on ever since the vassalage went through. Suddenly, Mariner received a call. He picked up the little magic mirror to answer.

“Excuse me, Horten. I have to answer this call.”

“By all means, King Mariner.”

“Hello?” he said, speaking to the person on the other end. The person talked for a while, with Mariner giving short responses to show that he was paying attention to the conversation.

“I see… What do you think we should do about it?”

Horten grew curious as to what was going on, but it wasn’t his place to be involved in the king’s business unless he was initially involved. He could tell that it did not seem like he spoke of anything to do with the autonomy of Macrani. After a while, the call came to an end, they had discussed many things, some bringing a bit of worry to Mariner’s face. That was something that the count saw as unusual, given the unflappable nature of the royals of Adagis. Whatever it was, it most certainly did not put his mind at ease either.

“I will see what I can do. Thank you for calling, Mordecai…” said the king as he placed his mirror back in his pocket, eyes lost in thought.

◆◆◆

There had never been a time of such prosperity in the human kingdom of Adagis. Through the annexation of a previously unimportant county with a vast quantity of rodisium in its bowels, it managed to effectively usher the people into a golden age. Macrani was now Adagis’. With the death of Macrani’s king and their succession in disarray of the Kingdom of Aragonsha, its diversity was a key factor towards a better approval of the leaders of Macrani who were swayed against the idea after several key members of their society had been victims to ravenous attacks of vampires. The count, Horten Spiro, felt that it was his obligation to avoid a risk due to Aragonsha’s moderate vampire population. The public opinion was heavily refashioned between having to choose between discrimination and actual wholesale murder. The count chose the lesser of two evils.

Adagis’ tentative reputation towards non-humans seemed to be unwarranted this time. However, the desperation and the thankfulness of the decision to become part of the kingdom certainly helped warm the idea of diversity among the populace. The new king had set forth to combine the newly acquired lands and held true to the previous promises and assurances. The queen had vowed not a single meter of the county would be confiscated and every noble would remain in charge of their own baronies, granted of course, they would pay tribute to their new overlords. The infrastructure to puncture the land and extract the valuable magical alloy would commence. With it, the prosperity unheard of would follow.

◆◆◆

Mariner could not have been more jubilant; The often serious baron had now become a joyous king. All of his hard work had paid off, marrying a lady equal to his intellect and just as ambitious to the often recluse former baron.

The title was hardly the main thing he cared for. He still grieved the days of his disgrace, thankful that the queen had since then shown him much lenience. Was it perhaps because he was too useful to her? He couldn’t really tell and to him it did not seem to matter any longer. Under their combined leadership, the transition to accommodate the new fairy people to the kingdom had been a major success. A few less compromising nobles had to be bribed or outright silenced in violent fashion, something their new spymaster had taken immense pleasure in doing. Syvis, as princess, felt it her responsibility doing so with much zeal, becoming no less excited than her father. In the midst of such cloak and dagger, new developments had occurred as the queen presented a relic to the new monarch: the Green Maiden. The queen had not stood idly by as her spymaster enacted his plots. In her desire to get close to the guild of morticians, she herself had planned to find and retrieve one of the maidens. They were said to be created by archangels and were incredibly powerful when put together. They had always been a much sought after relic. This gift was nothing short of an invitation to a new assignment. The maidens could easily shield them from the powers of the gehena stone. And the royals of Adagis were nothing, if not cautious, in the coming 19 years of their golden age. Syvis had been ordered to track the others as soon as possible.

With the mortician guild now a vital element to the new society of Adagis, this human-dominant kingdom achieved immortality, easier than most with its members being so close knit with their newly grim guild members, no longer being persecuted either. They had also been invested in the search for the maidens who they deemed a most vital relic to their secretive group.

Accompanying the princess would be the heir to the title of “guild master”, Talos Avira, the adopted son of the guild master Nizagal. Having been incapacitated during the raid on their camp during Mariner’s rendezvous, he had missed the most important moment for him to prove himself worthy of being the heir to his mother. Now with the newly found comfort that the guild enjoyed, he felt obliged to do a grand gesture. He would accompany the princess of Adagis in hopes of also finding the relics of his people. During the years that passed, none stood idly by. In the queen’s chambers, Queen Nicolette paced around the room and inspected her collection.

“Four maidens…”

She grasped one of the assembled statuettes, shimmering with an indigo color to it. They all shared the same pose, and were quite unremarkable. Nothing any actual art appraiser of the time would actually consider valuable. “It’s been almost two decades and you’ve managed to find three more of the seven maidens?” asked the queen to her step-daughter and Talos as she sat down on her throne.

“Yes, mother. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a simple task.”

“Oh, my dear child, don’t worry. I’m not at all judgmental of your exploit. In fact, I’m quite pleasantly surprised. It took nearly a decade for me to get the green one.”

Syvis smiled at the approval, whereas Talos was a

bit apprehensive, having wished that they had already found all of the maidens, given how long it had been for them to recover them.

“All it took was a few brushes with certain death, mother. But, at least that was never much of a challenge.”

Talos glanced at Syvis. That was obviously a lie. Through all this time he had spent with her, traveling from continent to continent, kingdom to kingdom, he felt more comfortable with that than most that she seemed to relish so much on the death-defying adventures. They had both almost perished one too many times for his own comfort. Despite being accustomed to it, he still could not shake a nagging feeling at the back of his mind.

She glanced back at him and smiled cheekily to which he just rolled his eyes and proceeded to look back at the queen, who was still inspecting her treasure.

“Glad it wasn’t unenjoyable, Syvis. Has Talos been taking good care of you?”

“I’ve been doing my best, your majesty.”

The queen did not expect a response from Talos, himself, but continued nonetheless.

“Most excellent to hear. It’s wonderful how, in this day and age, the morticians seemed to blend in so well in Adagis.”

“It’s my honor and my privilege to be of service to you. The fact that you and the king would provide me the opportunity to embark on such a journey is a favor the guild appreciates, let alone with the assistance of the princess herself.”

“Yes, well, it would only be fair.”

She placed the maiden back in the line up of the little statues.

“Now, I suppose platitudes and positive reinforcement is hardly the only reason you two came in.”

Syvis gave her mother a satisfied grin. The queen had guessed their play.

“Yes, your majesty, we’ve come seeking help.”

Syvis appeared disappointed over how quickly Talos gave away that they had finally reached a dead end. The manner in which Talos delivered the news was also filled with a certain displeasure. The two were eternally seeking over-reliance above all else.

“Were the directions unclear?” asked the queen as she pointed at the l maidens with curiosity.

“Not likely, mother. When we reached the island, there were no challenges to overcome, no beast and no maiden.”

“We’re under the assumption that someone must have somehow taken it from its resting place.”

“I see...” said the queen, stroking her chin. Whoever would have found the maidens surely would have wanted to sell it to the highest bidder. She thought to herself that this could mean losing the maiden for far too long for comfort.

“Perhaps finding someone who would be boasting about such a find in the nearby kingdoms would be the best solution. Hardly the job for only two of you. Very well, I will offer you both whatever is necessary to find it.”

“We will need eyes and ears almost everywhere, your majesty. It could take much too long. However, there is a simpler solution.” The Queen was clearly intrigued by this comment from Talos. She motioned him to continue.

“We could use the gehena stone to attempt to find it.”

“Can such really be achieved with the stone?”

“Yes, your majesty. It’s a very tight knit secret, you see. While we appreciate your trust and endorsement of the guild, some secrets still remain behind closed doors out of tradition rather than contempt for the kingdom.”

“Of course, by all means.”

“But, with the stone in the possession of a strong-willed enough mortician, it’s possible to cast spells with it. Whatever spirit that’s ever stored inside needs to be dispelled for that to work however. With this in mind, it would be in our best interest that we know where the stone is currently. We know it was important for Macrani to become a part of Adagis today, but has its purpose not been fully utilized as is? It’s been almost two decades, when will we get the stone back?”

Syvis tensed up slightly. Her mother’s face looked disapproving. They both knew that the stone had not been seen ever since the former mortician, Mordecai, had taken it in order to finish the plot of Mariner. After that, no news had been heard about either him or the stone. The queen motionlessly responded in turn.

“The stone had been in the possession of one of your own, Talos. He was the one who was sent on the mission in question. As such, there’s a big guarantee that there should be no problem contacting him to inquire about the stone. As you believe, it’s definitely high time to get it back.”

There was a bit of a lie in her statement. There was actually no guarantee that they could contact Mordecai, especially considering he’s basically a celebrity now. Most celebrities are hard to contact for privacy reasons. Before anyone could say anything else, a loud fanfare of trumpets could be heard as a royal page announced the entrance of the king.

“His majesty, King Mariner Grecia-Nightingale returns from his meeting with the Count Horten of Macrani!” the man said as Nicolette, Syvis and Talos got closer to the entrance.

The king had not been sparing any expenses with his newfound wealth. His wardrobe was far more fancy and elaborate than ever with the ongoing golden age. It was important that its leaders are a symbol of that.

“Welcome back, Mariner.” said the queen with a smile.

“Ah, my dear Nicolette. Looking as dashing as ever, I see. I do hope I haven’t missed much of this interesting get-together.” he said, looking at the kneeling princess and mortician heir.

“However, I have exciting news.”

Syvis smiled at her ever machinating father, looking at him excitedly.

“Mordecai has just contacted us and he says he could use our help.”

With that, the three royals all grinned at the same time, leaving a very confused Talos unaware of what kind of plots were being coordinated between them without a word being said.

He could only feel one thing: this would surely mean they knew where to go next.