“Wasn’t Midas supposed to agree with the Council on separating his empire? Now there’s this shit show going on all over something we don’t even know exists!”

“Don’t be so obnoxious, Plume. The Council knew Violet was going to put up a fight to Midas regardless of whether the item was relinquished or not. Let’s just retrieve the key and head to the castle,” their leader replied.

“Whatever. Vinera, don’t you think something’s up?”

Vinera ignored the man’s question as they were flying through the dense forest, dodging around the forest’s canopy. Reaching a small clearing, the man with gleaming hair raised his hand, signaling to the team to stop. The squad slowly descended onto the ground. Looking over his shoulder, the man took in the sight of the lake made by Midas which conveniently distanced them from the vehement war on the other end.

Midas was the second highest ranked individual in the realm of Ames, throned as king of Blue Isle after the original king disappeared. 

Claiming to be the previous king’s best friend, Midas convinced the Council to allow him the seat; but the Council only saw him as a figurehead. The Council knew of Midas’s laziness and naivete, and worked him accordingly. Conversely, bards across the island sang about Midas’s brilliance. Other than lazy, Midas quickly grew to be known for being inordinately generous with his luxuries and the time he spent frequently with families around the continent of Blue Isle. 

Just beyond Midas’s pristine creation were skies painted by clouds of black smoke and blinding flashes of iridescent lights. Turning around, the man faced his team and reevaluated their mission, “Just beneath the lake, there’s a small indention on the floor. At the center of it—”

“Yes, there’s the key. We have to displace the lake for a minute, and retrieve the key,” Vinera filled in, casually picking at her cuticles, “This is the fifth time you’ve gone over the mission with us.”

“Thank you my darling. Now, why don’t you fix up the return point in case of a mishap.”

“Mishap? You’re talking about a mishap, what a joke.”

The man smiled with a dangerously benign expression. Vinera blew on her nails comically then twirled around on her heels and blinked out of sight. Vinera used to head the Atlas Assets, a clandestine group whose sole purpose is to protect Council members. As such, she’d mastered manipulating space.

Plume combed through his wheat gold hair with his grass green stained fingertips. “In the meantime, why don’t we go skip some rocks? What do you say?” he asked, turning to the woman beside him. Her bleached white hair covered her eyes, which he unusually felt watching him as he spoke to her. Pushing out her lower lip, she blew up her hair, catching it mid air and pulling it back into a messy bun behind her head. She stared at him with enigmatic violet eyes and smiled, then shook her head. “Alright then, what about you…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes caught an eerie sight: A white entity stood just in front of them, smiling sanguinely. The entity did not have a face, masked by a pearly white helmet. As silently as it stood, it started walking slowly towards them, the grass beneath its feet dissolving upon contact. Plume was frozen in fear, his eyes fixated on the figure moving recklessly towards them. He blinked, and felt relieved for a moment when the figure had gone; only to feel a cold tentacle slither up his jaw from behind, gripping his chin. Turning his face slowly, the being whispered into his ear, “Doth not venture into his realm, for he is still asleep. Creep only with her belongings lest you weep.”

Plume shivered, holding his breath as the tentacle slowly retracted from his neck. Collecting his nerve, Plume unfastened his velvet gloves and spun around to meet the ominous harbinger only to find it gone.

“Plume! Snap out of it!”

The gold-headed man broke out of his trance, collapsing to his knees in a cold sweat. Looking up and around him, Plume saw nothing until two soft hands caressed his face and brought his attention forward. “Ah, I thought you were a goner there my friend,” said the man, awkwardly laughing as the sides of the black bar across his face danced.

“Wh-what happened?”

“I’ve got no clue, you turned to me and started to ask if I wanted to skip rocks with you at the lake while Vinera prepped Plan B, then you trailed off mid-sentence.”

Plume stared dumbfoundedly at the man, then held onto a nearby tree and pulled himself up. Running his hands through his hair slowly, Plume looked around again and shakily sighed. “Something was there,” he pointed behind them from the direction they came into the clearing, “and it stood smiling at us. And not a welcoming smile at all, it just stood there...”

The man looked carefully at Plume’s face as he spoke, then felt a chill run down his spine. Breaking his eyes away from his friend, he slowly looked up into the thicket and immediately felt eyes gazing into him. He felt someone slowly maneuvering their slender fingers along the black bar across his face. "Is this where your other two eyes are?" 

A bird dropped its leftover meal into the lake.

Vinera stepped into the clearing. “The point is finished, let’s get going before we’re spotted.”

The distant warring had come to a slow, sporadic boom as the sun crossed the horizon. Pollution created a canvas of fluorescent hues painting the skies, which were ominously blanketed by thick grey clouds. The team regrouped and muttered amongst themselves, awaiting the final arc of sunlight to be swallowed by the distant infinity.

Silence encroached the group, only to be broken by a distant screeching on the opposite end of the lake. A monolith of white light shot up into the sky. Quickly, more beams erupted from the ground, surrounding the island the team was gathered on. “What’s going on?!” Plume exclaimed.

“It seems like we’ve been discovered. Those Whites probably alerted Midas of our presence,” the man spoke calmly, turning to Vinera, “Looks like we’re using the return point now. Let’s go.”

Taking the lead, the man closed his eyes and began to hover. White tendrils emerged from his fingertips, wrapping around his ankles and branching off to the feet of his companions. Soon, the four of them were gliding in the air. “We’ll head towards the castle then—”

The screeching became louder, reducing the man’s words to an incoherent mumbling; the pillars of light quickly encroaching on the team’s location. The island began to rise from the ground, as though the pillars were fingers plucking a rock from the lake. The edges of the island began to erode, large chunks of rock floating towards the heavens; uprooting trees and lifting families of deer into the blinding white light. “Vinera and I are going to go towards the castle, you and Plume disable the barrier so we can move the ship into the airspace,” the man shouted, speaking directly to the violet-eyed woman.

Taking hold of Plume’s collar, the woman sped towards the opposite end of the island. Silent words escaped the panicking blond-haired man, as the beams enveloped the small island. The cylinder paused for a moment before a shockwave struck the lake at its base, the white pillar slowly dissolving as tidal waves pushed out towards the surrounding lands. Vinera and the strange man stood at the lip of the cliff where Midas’s castle sat, overseeing the chaos below. “Welp, looks like I was right about setting the return point...and you got such a nice view my girl!”

The man was unironically elated about their unprecedented situation, skipping towards the castle as Vinera knelt, frozen, gazing at the gaping sinkhole at the center of the lake. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she leaned on the tree beside her to support herself. The Aeon was a superweapon capable of erasing continents from existence. Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, Vinera pushed herself to her feet and turned around, slowly walking back to the place she never thought she’d return.