Stones of Incienda Ch. 01 Pt. 07

A/N: Aw yes, finally the last part of Ch. 1. This is the longest first chapter I have ever written. I honestly don't know how long the other chapters will be, but I am aiming for 10 chapters in total. Major thanks to my editor Todger, he's been invaluable.

Special thanks to the 2 anon writers for commenting on the last part of this story. To the one anon saying I am being too descriptive when it comes to character garments, I will try to do better not to bore you, but if you could be specific with your other critique, I'll try to clear that up also. Well, I won't keep ya'll waiting any longer so here's the next part.

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Skylar really enjoyed the company of the Vinsumi royals as they headed for the Puran vendors. Mao herself was amazed that a young woman like her was into a field that normally males did. Even though people were allowed to do whatever they wanted, she herself had grown up in a culture where men did certain things as well as women. Puran was known for bucking traditions so it was more likely to see a woman in a man's role and vice versa. Jiang thought that Skylar's skills would definitely be helpful during their journey and mentioned it.

"You know Miss Skylar, with your ingenuity background, we should be able to do well when it comes to survival."

"Do you really think so? Hmm, well if something gets broken along the way then I guess I'll be of service. Looks like we finally made it. There are so many people here though. How will we find the Puran royal family?"

The other two looked around and both thought the same thing. It would be a bit hard to find them. Puran being such a large kingdom, it had one of the largest vending areas.

"We'll find them. Let's ask around," Jiang suggested.

Agreeing, the trio asked around before managing to find a salesman saying he saw them head north of his booth. Unfortunately that was through the most crowded section. It didn't take long for Skylar to become separated from the royal siblings. She tried her best to find them again too. It shouldn't have been too hard with Jiang being tall and the two standing out with their garments since most of the people in the area wore warm colors. So it was becoming frustrating when she couldn't find her companions or the Puran royal family. However, her frustration vanished when a ruckus started up. People started shouting and soon Skylar saw the cause of it. One of the buildings near her started to crumble and it startled a nearby vendor that held livestock animals, causing them to go wild and started stampeding. The people in charge of the vendor tried to contain them, but it was too late. People started running and Skylar was amongst them. However, somehow she tripped and fell towards the ground. She never reached the ground as the Citrine fragment glowed and she suddenly flew up into the air up a good 50 feet. Skylar was shocked. She was floating, and without any assistance! She felt the heat of the fragment and pulled it out to see it glowing. Suddenly though, the piece grew hot and before Skylar could do anything, felt her body flying all over the place as the fragment dragged her through the air. She screamed, not knowing how to control herself. Her flying caught the attention of many people, including the Puran royal family. All of them were shocked and couldn't think of what to do, but Gavin snapped out of it very quickly and seeing they were near a hovercraft vendor, raced for it.

"Sir, I need to borrow this," he said, and the seller nodded.

Without another word, Gavin got on the craft, turned it on, and flew into the air after Skylar. Unfortunately, Skylar's flying was very erratic so it was hard to catch her. Suddenly, the redhead stopped and started falling straight for the ground. Gavin gritted his teeth and pushed the hovercraft into overdrive. Just as Skylar was about to hit the ground, he swooped in and caught her before flying up a bit. How he managed to hang onto her as he caught her, he'll never know for he could have easily fallen off the craft himself with the rate Skylar fell. As for Skylar, she was out cold. She fainted the instant she was caught, but managed to hang onto the fragment. Seeing that the young woman was okay, Gavin landed the hovercraft. There to greet them when they landed was his family. His twin beamed at him.

"Gavin, that was amazing!" Gwendolyn exclaimed.

"That was some quick thinking on your part son," King James added, relief all over his face.

"Is the Chosen okay? I still can't believe she flew without anything." Gavin's older brother, Henry, said.

"Yes, but she fainted. I am not surprised either considering what just happened." Gavin replied, concerned etched all over his face.

He was so focused on helping Skylar, that it didn't occur to him he could have been hurt too. Hovercrafts were reliable sources of transportation, but if used wrong or pushed too hard, they could overheat and explode. His father and brother were very much aware of this and Gavin's brave act had them reassert their opinion of him.

"Why don't you take Lady Skylar back to the palace, Gavin, so she could get some rest." suggested Gavin's older sister, Haley, who was also Henry's twin.

Out of his siblings, Gavin was the closest to Haley since she was the one who supported him the most. She was very maternal, much more than his own mother. Looking at his sister, Gavin nodded and was about to leave when Jiang, Mao, and the rest of their family showed up.

"We saw what happened. Is Skylar okay?" asked Mao.

"Yes, I was about to take Skylar back to the palace since she's out of it. Jiang, do you think you can assist me. I was able to catch Skylar, but I think I hurt my arm when I did." Gavin explained.

Indeed, his arm was hurting him for he used it to catch Skylar. Now that the shock had gone down, he could feel the pain in his arm. Jiang nodded and took Skylar into his arms, which caused her to drop the Citrine fragment. As a healer was called to check on Gavin, Mao picked up the stone. It was discovered Gavin had a fracture so the healer used healing magic to fix it. Even though magic wasn't used a whole lot in Mulada, the areas it was used in was mostly healing since injuries like this were common due to how physical the Muladi folk got. After that, Gavin and Jiang took Skylar back to the place.

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"Hey sis! Look daddy's dirk is still in one piece!" Iain shouted in excitement.

Vera smiled at her brother as they rummaged through the rooms they had stayed in during the festival. The previous night her brothers stayed in another location near the palace when she went to the ball. She was really glad of that too since their rooms had some damage to them and a good number of their things didn't make it. So seeing something so personal survive really made Vera happy. Seeing his sister's smile, Iain goes into the other room to finish packing. Vera's brothers were almost done packing up their things when the door to their room was knocked on. Vera checked it and wasn't surprised to see Britta, but was surprised to see Prince Cyrus and Koralia.

"Hello Britta, Prince Cyrus, and . . . Koralia, right? What brings you here?" she asked.

"I wanted to check on you four and ran into these two along the way. Koralia here has been tired all morning, so I suggested they come with him so she can rest herself. Is there anywhere she can sit?" Britta asked as they came in.

"Yes, there are some cushions over there," Vera pointed to some burgundy cushions that were like couches.

Koralia, who was about to drop, was escorted by Cyrus and laid on them before falling asleep. Cyrus was both perplexed and concerned at the same time. If the Jade fragment chose this girl, then why did she appear to be so weak? She wasn't tired last night before the quake, so why now? Was she stressed out? There were so many thoughts going through his mind that he forgot about the others in the room. Vera looked at the prince and could sense his worry. The young woman did indeed look tired, but something told her it had nothing to do with her physical health. Deciding not to worry about it, she turned to her friend.

"We're doing fine, Britta. There was some damage, but I am just glad my brothers were safe. I haven't packed my own stuff yet since I tried cleaning the area up first. The boys are almost done packing though. Iain had just found our father's dirk. Since Iain is into weapon building also, you can imagine how much the blade meant to him."

"That's good. I know how much your parents' belongings mean to you too Vera. By the way, how did the boys take to the information about you being one of the chosen people to find the stones?"

Vera sighed.

"As best as they could given the circumstances. They appeared to be in their normal gregarious mood, but I could tell they were just trying to distract themselves from what is going to happen. By the way Britta, I am going to need someone to watch my brothers while I am gone. Could they stay at your parents' place for I wouldn't trust anyone else to watch them? I have no idea what I am going to do about our shop back home." Vera admitted, true concern showing on her face for the first time.

"I was hoping you'd ask my family to watch yours. And as for your shop, don't worry, we'll handle that too. You focus on finding those stones and return to us safely."

Vera smiled and nodded.

"Let's check on the boys to see if they're done so I can pack up my own stuff," she suggested.

However, as she turned to towards the hallway, she felt her senses go off as the Sapphire fragment in her pocket lit up and instead of seeing the hallway, she actually saw beyond that and saw just what happened to Skylar. What she didn't realize was she was watching it as it was taking place. Still, the scene shook her and it took her a few minutes to hear Britta calling out her name as well as her brothers. Opening her eyes, she felt the light blind her and for a few minutes she couldn't see anything, but kept herself from freaking out, although she was tempted to do just that. Eventually colors returned and she saw the concerned faces of not only Britta and her brothers, but of Cyrus and Koralia.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice sounding weak.

"You just stood there before collapsing. You've been out of it for ten minutes." Britta explained.

"Sorry, but I just had a vision of that girl, Skylar . . . she was flying erratically before falling and that one Puran prince rescued her. I don't know how I was able to see that, but I was."

"Do you know which Puran prince it was?" asked Cyrus.

"No, but he did have light brown hair with goggles on."

"Aw, that be Gavin since Henry has golden brown hair. Now that I recall, I do remember seeing Gavin with this Skylar, Prince Eneas, and the Chosen of Carnelian last night."

"Well, I have a major headache now. I wonder what brought up that vision this time. Last night I did have a vision when I first saw the Sapphire fragment. Maybe it had something to do with what happened this time."

That caught Koralia's attention. She remembered her own vision the previous night with that mysterious lady and she remember feeling different feelings from that woman. Ever since then, after she accepted the Jade fragment, she began feeling different emotions, that weren't even her own. Even right now she was feeling this Ajna woman's headache.

"Um, pardon me, but what's your name again?" Koralia asked her.

"Vera Dahl, and you?"

"Koralia Raptis. I am from Anahaly. You're from Ajna right?"

"Was it the skin?" Vera grinned.

"Hehe, yes it was. I wish there was a way I could help you."

Without thinking, Koralia placed her hand on Vera's hand, suddenly felt all of her inner emotions coming into her as if they were her own feelings. For her part, Vera felt her own headache go away suddenly and she gasped as she saw green energy coming off of Koralia, for the Jade fragment started to glow. As quickly as it started, it ended abruptly and the Anahalian lady collapsed onto Vera.

Cyrus almost cursed, but instead said, "What happened this time?"

He pulled Koralia back and saw how pale she was.

"My headache is gone as well as few other negative feelings. She took them all away." Vera stated, shock evident in her own voice.

"It has to be the Jade fragment. It was when I traveled to Anahaly to study abroad there for few months and learned about the founder of the kingdom. Wasn't she an empathic person of sorts, able to ease other's emotions?" Britta asked Cyrus.

"Yes she was. Maybe since the fragments are connected to you girls, it's why these strange things are happening to you." Cyrus speculated.

"Sis, are you feeling better now?" Fred asked.

Vera nodded and managed to get up.

"I say we finish packing and return to the palace. The Sasuren girl, Noirin, got a vision last night in a dream with a hint on how to move forward. She and the Vinsumi girl, Mariko, are looking into it."

The others nodded, but Britta said, "Actually, Vera, my uncle was hoping you could join us for lunch."

"Oh, okay, very well." Vera said reluctantly.

She had nothing personal against her ruler, it was just Karl unsettled her, and she didn't like feeling that way.

"I'll just go ahead and take Koralia back to her family. My father invited them to have lunch with our family so I'll see you ladies later I guess." Cyrus said before leaving, carrying a sleeping Koralia in his arms.

Britta turned back to her friend and sighed.

"Vera, something tells me that this journey is going to change everything."

"Me too," Vera admitted before packing up.

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It was close to lunchtime by the time Mariko and Noirin finally found the library. Thankfully the structure was still sound. However, inside there were a lot of people rushing about. Looked like their job had just gotten harder for books were littered all over the place.

"What do we do now?" questioned Noirin.

"Hmm, why not look at that clue first? We don't even know which section of the library this scroll is in yet." Mariko suggested.

She was back to her usual self, although the voices that she heard did leave her unnerved. Forgetting about what recently happened, she turned back to Noirin as she spoke up.

"Good point," Noirin agreed before pulling the clue out of the bag she had.

"All right, so according to this, the category is the number of years mentioned in the ancient prophecy. Oh dear, I don't remember the number, do you, Noirin?"

"Unfortunately I don't. It'd be nice if Andun was here. I wonder where he's at."

"Fortunately for you two I am here," a voice chuckled behind them.

The girls turned to see Andun, his eyes twinkling.

"Oh hello, Lord Andun, why are you here?" asked Mariko.

"I decided to see if I could find any clues here to help you ladies on your journey, but sadly I haven't been able to due to the mess here so I've been helping them reorganize things with my magic. So what do you two need my assistance with?"

Noirin explained what had happened before telling him the clue.

"Also my mother told me what the Chosen of Jasper's card number is, it's 11. All we really need to know is how many years it's been since the prophecy has written."

"I see. Why don't I show you that prophecy again and see if I can help you with the rest of the clue also."

"Thank you Lord Andun!" Noirin exclaimed, grateful for his help.

They finally seemed to get getting somewhere. Going to a nearby table, Andun pulled out the prophecy again and the three of them began to read it to themselves before Noirin pointed to the second stanza.

"There! I see it, 'a hundred years times 7'. I think that means 700 years. So adding that to 11, we get 711. So section 711? I wonder where this section is. The clue says it's hidden and only the History of Mulada's first king can find it. That part has me confused."

"Still, that's amazing you were able to figure that out Noirin. I think you're going to be a great asset to the group." Mariko commented.

"You think so? I am not very strong or have high endurance though."

"And I am only a dancer, Noirin, but I'd like to think the Aquamarine came to me for a reason though. I am sure the Amethyst came to you on purpose though."

"Mariko is right Noirin. Maybe the stones came to you 7 because you represent what they stand for the best." Andun added.

Noirin shrugged, not really believing them. The two sighed before deciding to get Noirin back on track.

"In any case, the second clue is connected to the first king. I heard there's actually a statue of him within this library." Andun continued.

"Well, that's good. Do you know where it is?" Mariko asked.

"Indeed I do. Follow me."

Andun led them through the vast library up to the Forbidden Section, where there were guards.

"Um, you sure we're allowed through here?" asked Noirin.

"Hehe, there are a few benefits to being me, my dear," Andun said before turning to the guards, "These 2 ladies are with me gentlemen. They're the Chosen of the Aquamarine and Amethyst. We're looking for something to help us on their quest."

The guards nod and one of them unlocked the gate to the Forbidden Section, letting them in.

"Now ladies, no touching please. All of these books and scrolls are from ancient times." Andun cautioned them.

The two nodded and followed him quietly. Noirin though, was tempted to touch one. This place was a book lover's dream, but the blonde knew better than anyone to not touch something without permission. Soon they came to a more open area and in the center was a statue. The girls gasped for the state looked similar to Aamir.

"That's the first king of Mulada? But he looks like Prince Aamir." Stated Mariko.

"Indeed, but it shouldn't be too surprising since this is his ancestor. I am sure you ladies share characteristics of your predecessors."

Andun had them there and the girls nodded. Noirin came up closer to the statue to get a better look at him. The statue itself was a marvel, standing at 10 feet, made out of red marble. The king stood proud with his arms crossed over his chest and was looking to his right. Noirin saw this and looked in the direction he was looking in. It was at a column that was carved out of the wall. Feeling her curiosity perk, she walked towards it and gently placed a hand on it, knocking on the surface. It sounded hollow inside. How to get inside though? Examining the area, she spotted something, but it was blended into the column. It looked like a tab of some sort. Carefully, Noirin took hold of it and pulled. It opened into a compartment where a scroll was.

"I think I found it. But how do I grab hold of it? This scroll is probably 700 years old." Noirin asked, looking at Andun.

"Never fear, I got this covered." Andun said before murmuring a few words.

The scroll glowed and floated towards the mage and using his magic, caused it to unfurl. He glanced at it before turning to the young ladies.

"Oh my, this note is written in the old language. But it's definitely a clue."

"May I see?" asked Noirin.

Nodding, he showed it to her, but when he did that, the Amethyst in her pocket glowed and her eyes lit up as she spoke as if in a trance.

"To the outskirts of the sea of sand you must go,

Where there are those who always roam to and fro,

Find them by following the star of Ramure,

Prove your worth and the next clue is yours."

After reading the clue, the light died down and Noirin fainted. This caused Noriko to drop down next to her and check her. After carefully putting down the scroll, Andun did the same.

"What happened to her?" asked Noriko.

"Hmmm, I saw a violet glow in her eyes. I think the fragment she holds caused her to go into a trance. It was said that Astelle, the creator of the Amethyst was the one to come up with the old language. Tell me Mariko, has anything else happened today?"