It was a lovely day for a picnic beneath the Old One.

Vienna smiled at Ezzie, whose features had blossomed to showcase such joy as she held one of her little ones. Frey came over, bent at the waist to kiss his wife on her temple, and shifted the other twin onto his hip as he sat down.

"Excellent juggling, my dear." Ezzie smiled at her husband.

Vienna reached out to grab a biscuit from the tray Frey had set down.

After munching on the delicious jam-filled biscuit, she took a sip of her from her tea mug. Her eyes smiled over the rim as she watched the small family.

One of the twins suddenly hovered in her peripherals as Frey bent down to offer the little boy to her.

"Are you sure?" Vienna's eyes glanced at the child and then back at Ezzie.

Ezzie laughed. "There is no danger to hold him, Miss Vienna."

"Just 'Vienna,' please, Ezzie." Vienna withheld a sigh. Her friend merely shook her head with a smile and gestured to Frey. Vienna turned to receive the little one in her arms.

Fluffy peach-blossom hair ombré into a soft sage green that matched Vienna's overdress. Vienna held the baby carefully in the crook of her arm and watched transfixed as the big eyes peering up beneath light green eyelashes turned brown to match hers.

"Garren there has taken after me the most. He's begun using his Elemširdis inheritance to explore the world around him."

Frey laughed as Vienna's mouth opened in question.

The bout of laughter startled his little daughter, who had just fallen asleep upon her mother's bosom.

"My mother's family were all of Ôkren descendants. My father had both Ôkren on his paternal side and Elemširdis on his maternal side. Growing up in the hills with my attributes was not uncommon."

Vienna gazed down at the little boy in her arms while his searching eyes explored all her features as if memorizing them. The twins were barely a couple of months old, and yet already he gestured up at the sky with a look full of wonder. Vienna suddenly giggled, and little Garren followed. One of his hands mirthfully grabbed onto the front of her dress tightly. Vienna reached out with her fingertips, marveling at how soft his small hand was. He let go of her dress, only to grab onto her fingers and refuse to let go.

Ezzie's soft voice spoke up. "Most have a similar ancestry around here. My mother has the same."

Vienna looked up, dazzled by the rapt attention of the little bundle in her arms, her eyes catching another pair staring at her from Ezzie's arms. Bright emerald green like the leaves overhead.

Vienna skipped through the manor's halls with a large grin on her face, a whisper of satisfaction escaping her. "It's been a good day."

As she passed by the hallway that led to her father's study and the library, she heard a familiar timber of voices and changed directions from the stairs.

Her father's study door was open slightly, the light from within spilling into the hallway. Vienna placed her hand upon the door handle, a relieved sigh escaping her thanks to the fact she didn't need stairs to reach it anymore, even if her head barely came above it. As she pushed open the door, she peeked around it to find Roark standing by the fireplace, one of their mugs in his hands while he gestured with the other.

"You have protected... it's time to... for the... kingdom.." His voice was so low she could only capture snippets of it.

Vienna started to close the door again when her father looked up from his work, a bright smile alighting his features.

"Little flower, come in."

Vienna opened the door again and glanced at Roark, who gave her his customary small smile before she reached her father, who lifted her immediately onto his lap. Even at eight her legs dangled above the ground. A small sigh escaped her before she looked up at her father who was looking down at her.

"He wishes to teach you."

Her mouth parted, eyes widening as she looked over at the prime minister.

"Aren't you too busy, Sir Roark?"

Roark tilted his head as he peered down at her. "I already come by frequently. Winden tells me you've done well with self-study. I could drop off your assignments when I'm here once a month along with the Capital's resources."

Vienna leaned forward, her hands on her father's desk, "From the library at the fortress?"

"Among other locations."

Vienna immediately turned her head up. "Pop, can I?"

Her father's eyebrows furrowed for a moment as he glanced at Roark, an understanding passing between them before he looked back down at her, his face's wrinkles smoothing over.

"How could I say no when faced with such elation?"

It wasn't long before she turned nine.

Vienna would peruse the scrolls and books Roark lent her from the Capital, fingertips trailing along old passages of the 'days before'.

Worry sometimes would overwhelm her. What if Roark abandoned her when he realized she was nothing special? In another life, her parents had thought her a prodigy, but when reaching adolescence, everything she did was mediocre in comparison to her peers.

In the meantime, she enjoyed it when he dropped off his lesson plans every two weeks, as long as none of his Prime Minister duties kept him from coming by. He would then check over her work and they would have lovely discussions about the different kingdoms within and outside the Continent.

It was on one such visit that she asked about something that had been bothering her for some time.

"Why are the beings of the Disappearing Isles known as the Forgotten?"

Roark had looked up from grading her assignments. He quietly gazed at her for a couple of moments.

Vienna watched his expressions intently. She had long since learned how to watch for his micro-expressions that others might miss. His face had a rocky ridged brow and boulder-like cheekbones. The smallest movements could showcase a myriad of emotions.

Sir Roark lowered one eyelid and his opposite eyebrow, which indicated he was trying to be strategic with his next words.

When she was younger, it began with the widening and occasional of his eyes, until she grew older and they narrowed more frequently, gaining a calculative glint.

"Unlike in the books, where the Ôkren and Elemširdis are described as private beings, but there are still some details missing. With the Forgotten race, there is nothing. All anyone knows is they kept to themselves and then they were all gone. How did they go extinct? They couldn't have just vanished! A race that was intelligent and intuitive couldn't just go poof!"

Sir Roark turned toward her, the calculative glint replaced by one of curiosity.

His eyes narrowed though, "How do you know they were intelligent and intuitive? If there is nothing written about them?"

"Just a feeling."

It's not like she could tell him that it was one of the few background details the 'game' did mention. Especially since there were so many things the 'game' had gotten only halfway right, she'd learned time and time again that this world was the original. The 'game' had begun to become a distant memory.

His lapis lazuli gaze stayed intent even as he responded to her previous questions, "They disappeared long before the Dark Age truly even began."

Sir Roark's head shook. There was a sense of heaviness in his features that made Vienna's heartache. "It is said that they were a peaceful people; if someone came upon the isles, they would treat them hospitably. Perhaps this was their downfall. As time went on, they would give and others would take, but not give in return." Roark sat back and turned his attention to the small library window where one of the estate's trees tapped on the pane with its limbs fingertips. "The visitors then took it further..."

Vienna swallowed and took a large breath through her nose. Her fists tightened in her lap, her nails dug into her palms.

"Why didn't they fight back?"

Roark's posture tensed. "It's nearly a thousand years old now. It all ended before I was born."

Eight hundred years of life and Roark had lived through so much suffering and injustices during the end of the Dark Age. He fought in the Great War alongside her father, the King and Queen. He had seen so much of Terra's history in the making.

He continued, "Long ago, I found an account that told of that time."

She nearly leaped forward in eagerness. "What did it say?"

Roark looked back at Vienna. His arms crossed over his broad chest, and his long eyelashes fluttered as he looked down.

"The Forgotten kind do not age as the rest of the beings on Terra do. In fact, of all the races of Terra, they perhaps were the most vulnerable to that factor. Once their elders were harmed and died, then all that was left were children who had yet to reach their full inheritance." He swallowed, "The Ôkren have always felt kinship to the long Forgotten kind, for their similar connection to the land and nature. We understand the need to stay connected to it more than the rest; before the War, we too had been a peaceful people."