The other mages come back down the stairs and peek around the corner. They walk back over to the table, not saying a word until Aron and his father finish their moment. Once they do, Aron turns around and coughs, smiling awkwardly at the mages, wiping away his tears.

“Sorry about that. I hope you can forgive my actions.” He bows deeply and the other mages wave away his moment.

“Kid, you gotta do what you gotta do. Especially with family.” The dwarf smiles.

“Yes, we don’t fault you, or Gilan in the slightest.” The elf chimes in cheerily.

“With us, you have nothing to worry about.” The woman smiles confidently. “Now, to business.” She pauses. “I am Olvia, the original water mage.”

“What?” Aron’s mouth opens wide. “How is that even possible? I mean, did you drink the Elixir of Life or something?” Olvia laughs loudly.

“No, kid. I just have really good genes. Anyways, the plan for today was to discuss a kingdom of secrecy. Someone pulling the strings from the shadows. Did you want to join us, kid?” Olvia smiles warmly at Aron.

“Yeah, sounds fun. I think I might have something very important to this meeting.” He smirks and pulls out his bag of things he got from his room in the university. He rummages through it and grabs a dusty book.

“What’s this?” Olvia looks intrigued.

“A book from a guy in a hurry.” Aron opens to the page where the prophecy is. The mages circle around the book, trying to read from it.

“This story seems familiar somehow.” Olvia bites her thumb nervously.

“Yeah, I can’t put my finger on it, but I’ve heard something like this before.” The dwarf strokes his beard. The mages mutter to themselves while Aron frowns slightly.

“Aldir, right?” Gilan chimes in.

“Yes.” Olvia and Aron say excitedly at the same time. 

“How could I have been so blind. I lived through this.” Olvia chuckles and lays back in her chair in disappointment.

“What was Aldir like?” Aron asks Olvia curiously.

“Well, he was complicated. He wanted to give his powers to everyone, but eventually, I think all his power got to him. He gave most of it to the highest bidders, which happened to be royalty. After that, he tried to give it to the common people, but something was holding him back. He locked himself in a room, someplace where even I don’t know.” She pauses for a moment. “I don’t even know if he’s alive or not. I would assume that he is. I don’t know how he would be, but he has to be..”

“What about the Fourth Dimension? Do you know if it’s real?” Aron asks somewhat excitedly.

“I don’t know, it could be.” She pauses and whispers in Aron’s ear. “I don’t think it is though.”

“So even one of Aldir’s closest friends doesn’t have access to the Fourth Dimension?” 

“Correct, assuming that it exists.” Olvia smirks slightly. 

“Interesting.” Aron strokes his chin.

“We are way off topic, what does the book even have to do with the kingdom?” The elf raises an eyebrow.

“Are you kidding? The book talked about Aldir as ‘Our Lord,’ something shady is going on with that.” Aron stands up.

“That’s true, however, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that it’s a kingdom pulling all the political strings.” 

“The kid has a point, Poco.” The dwarf smiles towards Aron.

“What?” Poco furrows his brows.

“I’m just saying. Aldir focused all his efforts to pour magic into the royal families. What if he can take magic away?” The dwarf continues.

“He would hold all the cards– and the power.” Poco strokes his chin. Olvia’s eyes widen with fear.

“Dear Gods, that’s horrifying. That, along with a whole ‘kingdom’ whose loyalties reside in Aldir.” 

“That kingdom has my friend. We need to get in there before it’s too late.” Aron sighs.

“How did they get your friend?” The dwarf asks, a little bit scared.

“One member attacked the University of Tomal and killed the Headmaster.” Aron breathes deeply. “And kidnapped my friend.”

“One person?” The mages shout in unison.

“The Headmaster was a strong mage, stronger than some nobles. How did one member of the kingdom kill someone of that caliber?”

“I don’t know. The thing is, they made it look so easy. Like they could decimate the entire city if they wanted to.” Tears stream down Aron’s face. Silence befalls the room as Gilan comforts his son once more.

“Before this person, I had already killed two members of what I presume to be the kingdom. They all wear a black mask with a creepy white smile on the bottom and various eye shapes where you would expect them to be.” Aron takes a deep breath. “This one had two crowns as their eyes and a slightly different smile. I don’t know if the eyes or the type of smile indicates rank, but there has to be some type of ranking system.” Aron ponders.

“You’ve killed two people?” Gilan’s eyes widen.

“Yeah. One when I was three and the other when I was six. Could’ve avoided those if you had been there.” Aron rolls his eyes. 

“Wait, I think we’re all missing an important part of the story.” Poco chimes in. “Why did they kidnap your friend?” The other mages nod.

“She kind of has the ability to read minds.” Aron trails off.

“If I were a secret kingdom trying to pull strings, finding a person that can read minds would definitely be a priority.” Poco nods slowly.

“How do you know she can?” Olvia raises an eyebrow.

“I was thinking about my… mom, and she said something about it. I didn’t say anything about it, just thought it.” Aron admits.

“I guess you know then.” Olvia coughs awkwardly.

“Do you guys know any possible locations where the kingdom is?” Aron asks, knowing the likely answer.

“No, but maybe the book has a few clues as to where.” Olvia suggests. Aron checks the back of the book. He wipes away the dust and some text appears under it.

“IF BOOK LOST, RETURN TO REBOL CASTLE IN MARENTH”

“Oh, how nice. They left some instructions for us.” Olvia rolls her eyes. “It’s an obvious ruse. We shouldn’t fall for it.”

“Well, it’s the best we have for a lead.” Gilan chimes in. Aron’s head starts to ache and he puts a hand on his head. 

“Gah.” Aron screams in pain. A flood of what seems like memories invade his mind. Memories that he can’t recall experiencing. A vision of all of the mages’ heads resting on pikes with their blood trickling down them appears. A towering silhouette stands before Aron and stabs him in the chest with a longsword. 

Aron grasps his chest and collapses to the ground. He breathes heavily and slowly stands up.

“We can’t go there. Not yet anyway.” He looks at all of the mages with grief stricken eyes.

“Why not?” Gilan raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“I just had some sort of vision. We get massacred. Not one of us survives.” Aron grasps his chest once again.

“Whatever this kingdom is, it’s dangerous. We need to be ready for anything.” Aron breathes in slowly.

“I wanted to train under some strong people. I think we all need to train more.” 

“Hold on now. You’re not the leader here, boy.” Olvia chimes in with an irritated voice.

“Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. We’re going to die if we don’t train, though.” Aron sighs.

“Okay, fine. We will train. What element can you use, kid?” Olvia asks genuinely curious.

“All of them.” Aron responds as if it were a normal answer.

“All of them?” All of the mages gasp and their mouths go wide.

“Okay then. I guess you’ll train under all of us in some sort of pattern, then.” Olvia trembles slightly in surprise.

“Okay. I guess I’ll choose Gilan first.” Aron shrugs.

“You mean it, son?” Gilan smiles excitedly.

“Don’t get so happy, I’m doing it so I don’t have to deal with you later.” Aron growls at him.

“Oh.” Gilan hangs his head down in disappointment.

“Kid, how many years do you wanna wait ‘til we meet back here?” Poco asks.

“One month.” Aron responds with a straight face.

“A month? We’re not gonna make any progress.”

“We don’t have years. One week per person for me. Maybe I can teach you guys some techniques.” Aron smirks slightly.

“Didn’t you just say that we’re not strong enough yet?” Poco asks confused.

“Yeah, we will be in a month. We’re on a time crunch, it’s not like we can just let them kill my friend.” Aron says slightly angry.

“Fair enough.” Poco shrugs.

“We all meet back here in a month and see how strong we’ve become. Agreed?” Olvia asks everyone seriously.

“Agreed.” The mages respond in unison. 

A sing songy voice to the tune of “Wheels On the Bus” echoes through the halls of the prison. 

“I am going crazy, crazy, crazy” Cierra laughs awkwardly.

“I wish you were here, Aron.” She looks through the bars. “Y’know what? No. I am not gonna let them just– trap me in here like this. But these people are strong though.”

Cierra breathes deeply and exhales, returning back to her bed covered in all sorts of nasty stuff. She scratches a tally mark into the wall with twelve already on it and keeps singing her song in the fetal position on her bed.

“I am going crazy, crazy, crazy. All through the cell.” She sobs quietly into her bed.