“

Knowledge is both a blessing and a curse. Power, however, is a curse without knowledge, yet it is a blessing when the one wielding it possesses knowledge. How many other curses are blessings in disguise?

• The Prince

”

The Palace, the heart of the Islands, the place where those who have the power to rule over the masses reside, the shining beacon from afar and a rotten structure from closeby. The building had more different names, one being less kind than the other. Overall public consensus was that the Palace is a place unreachable for normal people. They might not be entirely wrong, but it doesn’t mean that this vision is not a result of a serious misconception.

It was true that the Palace was used by the Island’s financial elite just as much as by the ministers and lawmen. It was not true, however, that common people weren’t permitted on the premises.

As a proof of that, two men sat diagonally across each other, divided by a table large enough to house a banquet for at least a dozen people, in a spacious room somewhere in the Palace. The position of their seats was predetermined, as it has been proven that seating people right across each other will create a feeling of rivalry. There was no need to conjure such a feeling at this moment, as the reason for the two men being in the same room was an interview.

One of the men, the interviewer, was visibly nervous. Small droplets of sweat appeared on his visage, decorated by a set of wrinkles on the forehead, yellow-brown eyes and flowing light brown hair. He unconsciously bit his yellowed nails while sorting papers containing questions and various types of information about the happenings of the last several days. His name was Ivran, a simple man who, due to being luckier than most, was able to get a job at one of the bigger news outlets on the Islands, the Layer Paper, also known as LP. The LP usually provided local news for each Layer, however, this time someone from the higher-ups managed to grasp a unique opportunity: an interview with the Prince himself.

Yes, the Prince was the second man in the room. He seemed to be nonchalant, dressed in robes that radiated nobility, yet lacked the feeling of royalty. The Prince’s long blond hair was tied in a single braid that could almost touch his lower torso. Seemingly uninterested in the activity in which he was about to partake, he fixed up his tiny glasses which had the tendency to start slipping off their predetermined place on the face of the ruler of the Islands.

“I reckon we didn’t come here for you to make an overview of notes, did we? I know I might sound rude while saying it, but I have, as a ruler, my set of mandatory tasks for the day, not unlike yourself, so I would want to move through this interview as swiftly as possible. Can you assist me in this endeavor?”

The question has been asked with arrogance and disinterest leaking from every word. Against the expectations of the Prince, this way of conveying messages did not have any effect on Ivran. He might have been nothing but a commoner in the eyes of the nobility, but he was a man who dedicated himself to his job. In other words, he was both a competent journalist and a workaholic. Seeing that his interviewee wished to leave at the earliest convenience, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and answered, “That is understandable, Your Majesty, however, don’t you think that preparations must be made when interviewing people as important as yourself? Certain things cannot be done beforehand, so excuse me for taking some time off the little half hour that was scheduled for our dialogue. I am ready now, so we can begin without any further interruptions.”

This answer satisfied the Prince. Ivran saw him leaning back a bit, seemingly relaxing at the thought of getting it over with.

“LP, the Layer Paper”, Ivran continued, ”Usually handles Layer-specific news, so let’s start with that. About a day and a half ago a horrible monstrosity has devastated the plaza near the Black Residence, one of the few standalone mansions left on the Middle Layer, and slaughtered dozens of the Meridian’s inhabitants. While it’s unclear where it came from, what would be Your Majesty's guess?”

“Starting off strong”, thought the Prince. Ivran certainly didn’t mull over words, adapting to the people he was talking to while driving his point across clearly and forcing the topics he wished to be talked about. He could have easily started with a roundabout reference to the massacre, which would have given a possibility to dodge the unwished topic, but one should play with the dealt cards, “After all, it was I who pushed him to be more brazen”.

“Let me answer this as such, while we have an idea of who might have been behind the creation of that monster, we know little of its original form and how such a creature was created. Getting testimonies is quite hard, since most people were either too busy running or were scarred and became mentally unstable. We are working on a solution to house the victims and give them adequate treatment so that they can go back to their everyday lives without worries.”

“It is reassuring to hear that the victims will receive help, Your Majesty”, said Ivran while writing something down on one of the papers, ”However, I find it implausible that you have no idea on the creature’s biology. Everyone knows that you are a powerful and extremely knowledgeable mage, as well as a master in contemporary science and spellcraft. Is there not even the slightest of hints towards the origins of the monster and how we can prevent something like this from happening again?”

“Well”, the Prince started, clearly unnerved by the fact that Ivran brought up his ranks in magecraft, “The only thing that remained after the monster’s defeat was a core made of drained soulstones…”

“Soulstones?”

“Yes, magical stones imbued with the soul of a living creature. We are left to believe that someone used them in order to transmute souls into fuel for the creature’s special abilities which the people were able to witness and fall victim to.”

“But isn’t the usage of soulstones heavily regulated? How could anyone get a hold of them?”

The Prince smirked, “The investigation revealed that the creature was made by the Black Hand syndicate. The mansion that got destroyed was also theirs, by the way. As for how they got their hands on soulstones, well, the same way any other syndicate would: stealing, blackmailing and having connections to the Soulstone Registration Bureau. We’re currently looking into it and making sure the people on the SRB are examined and evaluated.”

Ivran noticed the Prince glancing to the side of the room. Even though only he and the Prince were supposed to be in this room, he couldn’t know whenever or not agents donned in invisibility gear or under effect of obscuring spells were waiting for the right sign to separate his head from his shoulders. Therefore he only made a short note, but didn’t react in any other meaningful way.

In the meantime, the Prince continued, “That being said, the soulstones, as you may have noticed we aren’t talking about a single one but about quite a collection, were also infused by demonic powers and then fused together to form the final core. I am not particularly strong in alchemy, so I can only guess how many lives, soulstones and time it took to make just a single one of these. Before that, only one place could make cores like that and through completely different means…”

“Wait, you want to say that such cores were produced before?”, Ivrans forehead began to sweat again. It felt like he had gotten ahold of information which would either get him killed or promoted, or perhaps even something more.

“Not exactly the same, but comparable, yes. Let me ask you, what do you think of elves?”

“The elves… Does this even have anything to do with the topic at hand?”, Ivran said with a puzzled look but continued upon seeing the Prince making an affirmative gesture,  “But if I had to give a response, I think it would be a rather neutral one, though I know plenty of people who think of them negatively.”

“Exactly, mister Ivran, exactly. But wouldn’t you say that this is because people tend to fear the unknown? While it might not fit your tabloid format, let me tell you a story of a lifetime, one that I have not witnessed, but received through extensive study of the otherworldly species we call the elves.”