Chapter One

Chrome Caves

We live in a world reflecting the one you might know, yet different in the ways that matter most—a place where the sky is not a vast blue, but a canvas of deep, violet-tinted space stretching above us. Let me guide you through the land we call home, where every corner is alive with vibrant shades. Welcome to The Spectrum Isles: the country of colors, unlike any you've ever seen.

Hendrick Thomas, the bearded head of the Royal Guard for Kaleidoscope Kingdom—a realm ruled by the long-lived Centenarians, humanoids with pointed ears—sat at his desk, deep in thought. His free time was often spent poring over the ancient mysteries of the land, and today was no different. Before him lay an old mural, its faded imagery depicting an event known as The Great Imbuement. Next to the mural, a brittle, crusted sheet of parchment bore weathered writing:

Creatures of immense vigor descend from the light, illuminated with power held dear, coursing through veins of enchantment. They plant seeds that sprout the bark of sustainment, sharing their might with the very glass and vegetation they grow, gifting them to the humanoid inhabitants of the land. With their duty complete, they humbly reside, sustaining life somewhere within the land of their founding.

Hendrick’s fingers brushed the paper’s edge, as if trying to feel the weight of its forgotten truth.

Hendrick sits there with his elbow on his desk and his palm on his chin like a high schooler struggling to recall an answer for a quiz. 

He sighs, pausing for a moment, “Riona!” he calls.

A young girl, reaching about the height of Hendrick's chin, walks to his office and opens the door, “Yeah Dad?”

He holds out the mural towards her while writing something down on a little note on his desk, “Can you bring these back to the archives?” he says without breaking eye contact with the note on his desk, “I’ve been researching this for months and haven’t found anything noteworthy from these inconclusive relics,” Riona carefully removes the mural from his hands and begins to walk away, “Oh, and don’t forget you’re shadowing me on my night watch today.”

Riona stops and cringes just a little, “Oh um, I forgot about that—do I have to? Hours of standing, staring into a barely lit forest path sound super exciting and all. But I think I’d rather get ready for school tomorrow.”

“Already handled that, your principal was informed that you wouldn’t be in tomorrow.”

She frowns and raises her eyebrows in astonishment, “Damn, you touched every base, huh?”

“Yup, trust me this’ll teach you a very important and needed lesson on patience and discipline,” he says with a smile. Hendricks gets up from his seat, sticking the note in a desk drawer with what seems like almost hundreds of more identical-looking sticky notes, “Not every part of being a knight is a thrilling sword fight, and life’s not gonna be a fun fantasy adventure, hon. Some things are boring - really boring. And if you can get through the boring stuff, the exciting stuff will seem all the more rewarding.”

Rionas's face makes her discontent painfully obvious, though internally she sort of agrees. 

Riona brings the mural back to the castle archives, getting in using her father's keys; its room in the castle is open to the public, like a museum of all the kingdom's ancient history. It’s laid out like one too, a hall goes down the room with multiple pedestals within rows along the walls, organized by date. The lights are dim due to it being well past visiting hours though it’s still enough light to sparkle off the golden outline of the red carpet. Some signs are over a few of the pedestals, marked with Out for research, signaling its removal for study. Hendrick got special permission from King Alric Merico to study this one, he’s personal friends with the king after all, being sort of his right-hand man and childhood friend. So he was happy to lend a priceless and fragile artifact to him for study, but only under the promise that he’d be extra careful with it.

She takes a glance at it, inspecting its strange art style and almost vague ways of depicting an event. Like someone was drawing something off of a memory that was only described to them, “Who made this thing anyway?” she looks it up and down, gliding her fingers across the protective casing, her eyes following where her fingers go, “Doesn’t seem to have a signature. How are we supposed to know this is actually how it happened?” she thought about it for a moment before deciding to not put any more brain effort into attempting to gain new knowledge out of something her dads been studying for years, “Eh, I mean how else could a giant imbued crystal make its way into the throne room?  It was probably drawn years ago by some old guy who was around to witness it. I mean, that would explain why it’s here in the archives.”

She places the mural back in its casing before walking home, the sun seemingly just beginning to set. As she exits the castle she sees merchants that line the sides of the road to the castle, beginning to close their shops for the day, only the fanciest of merchants get to sell this close to the castle, it must be an honor. 

After getting home, she gets comfortable and takes a nap before preparing for that night watch that she was soooo excited for. After getting up she felt as though she probably slept for a little too long, yet somehow still felt tired. She splashed water on her face before donning her squire armor: a steel breastplate adorned with a white scarf, its edge trimmed in blue, and the academy’s emblem proudly pinned to the front of the tied scarf. Beneath the armor, she wore an aqua shirt paired with sturdy brown travel pants. Her yellow boots, with brown tongues that extended beneath the laces and brown soles, completed the ensemble. She laces them tightly and secures her bag to her lower back, readying herself for the long, and extremely eye weighing night ahead.

She met her father at the castle town gates, now clad in his general’s armor. It bore a resemblance to Riona’s, though with orange accents and a long red cape adorned with the royal sigil. The sigil, a blue crystal encased in tree bark and outlined in a yellow stroke, mirrored the crystal from the throne room. His armor, more ornate than hers, featured sharper edges and provided greater coverage, its intricate design marking him as a figure of authority and power. The kingdom needs to make the head of the knights look intimidating to enemies but comforting to those he protects, someone who you definitely do not want to fight, but you will give a hug when they save you.

She stands there and waits for approximately five hours, hoping for something—literally anything to happen, “Ugh, Dad my feet hurt.” Riona complained.

“Push through it, also, it’s Sir Hendrick on the job, remember.”

“Oh yeah, my bad-Sir Hendrick my feet hurt.” she says with a snarky attitude.

Hendrick continues looking forward without responding, like a soldier who just got told a joke. Riona found her eyes weighing on her, dozing off to the sight of the dim forest path, despite the nap she took earlier. The pain in her soles is the only thing keeping her awake.

Hendrick, seeing her dozing off, says with a smirk, “You know this night could still have some excitement… If anyone attempts to trespass I’ll have to arrest them. That’s at least a little exciting, isn’t it?” He nudges Riona’s shoulder when she doesn't respond.

Riona jolts awake, “Arrest who?! -Oh, sorry.”

He sighs, “You know, being able to stay alert at all times is vital to a knight's success, more so than not, a mission will involve being awake for long periods. Keeping your guard up could even prove invaluable in battle as well.”

Riona sighs and responds, “Yeah, Dad.”

Hendrick loudly clears his throat as a way of correcting her.

“Yes, ‘Sir Hendrick’,” Riona says with a more solemn tone.

He glances at her,“Hey, don’t look so down. This’ll all make you stronger in the long run,” Hendrick says as he rubs her head.

Riona smiled, just slightly.

Suddenly a call came from the Fairground Forest in front of them. Purple leaves were crackling in the wind as the voice grew nearer.

They hear a faint voice in the distance, “Where’d you go you little-”

Riona squints into the forests seeing a dim light being held by a shadowy figure. The figure seems to be frantically looking around for something.

Hendrick readies his sword as he holds Riona behind him and yells, “Who goes there?!”

The figure walks towards his call, its short stature becoming more obvious the closer it gets. It turns its head towards them, making the glow of its yellow scleras significantly more obvious. The figure raises both arms along with the ball of light in their right hand and a bracelet with a small orange glowing gem on the back of the opposite hand. They walk out of the bushes, the girl's luminescent eyes becoming more visible as she exits the forest in a pointed, crooked hat with long furry ears coming through them. The hat has multiple stitch marks on it as well as a cloth wrapped around the base, almost as if it bore witness to a multitude of outstanding and breathtaking battles, or more likely it was worn during a lot of roughhousing. They’re also wearing a short tunic-like cloak with a short hood and baggy sleeves, leather boots, the shaft of which is being covered by a rather freshly dirtied up pair of brown travel pants, and a black bandana covering the lower half of her face.

Riona moves Hendrick's hand aside, looks around his shoulder, and squints, “Cass, is that you?”

The girl puts away her ball of light now that she’s illuminated by the lanterns on the outside walls. She pulls down her bandana, revealing her black pronounced animal-like nose and sharp canines, “Riona? Wait, is this the castle town? How’d I get all the way over here? Geez, I must’ve chased that thing pretty far, although I did lose track of it quite a while ago so-” She sees Hendrick and waves to him, “Oh, hi Mr. Thomas!”

His face cringes, “Please don’t call me that, you know my name. Hendrick is fine. Besides, it makes me feel old.” Hendrick says with a small annoyed smirk.

“Ok Mr. Thomas.”

He sighs, “So, what brings you here so late? You said you were chasing something?”

“Oh yeah…funny story…so I was sleeping and I heard a loud noise outside. So I go to investiga-”

“Wait, were your parents not home? Why were you the one to investigate the possible danger and not them?” Hendrick interrupts.

“They weren’t home, if you have to interrupt about it. They go on delivery trips pretty often, sometimes they can be gone for a pretty long time, so I’m used to being home alone so it’s whatever.” Cass clears her throat, “So, I went to check out the noise and saw this weird figure. It looked like they were wearing some sort of coat... or maybe it was a cloak? Honestly, I didn’t get the best look. But here’s the freaky part—they had these viney things, or maybe tentacles, coming up around them! Like some kind of strange land-octopus or something! And to top it off, they took our cookware! But, get this, only the steel ones—who does that?!”

Hendrick, looking confused, said, “Hm, that’s peculiar. Well, I’m not supposed to let anyone in at these hours but it’s too dark to let you walk home alone through the forest, and I can’t leave my post, so I can’t accompany you. Sorry Riona, I know how much you were enjoying this night watch, but I’m going to need you to take Cass back to the house and escort her home in the morning.” Hendrick says with a joking tone, “You're lucky I got you out of your evening class tomorrow.”

“Ok, thanks da- uh, I mean, Sir Hendrick,” she salutes.

During the walk home, Cass looks up at Riona, “Why do you have to go to school every day?”

“Well, I have to be ready for when I graduate. I can't become a knight if I don't train and go to class.” She glanced at Cass curiously. “Wait, do you not go to school?”

“Well, I do, kinda. There aren’t really any schools in The Sienna Swamps, at least not any traditional ones, so most people are homeschooled. Including me.” Cass fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve, her voice softening. “At least, when my parents are home.”

Riona’s eyes flickered with a brief understanding, but she stayed quiet, her expression unreadable. When they get home she shows Cass to her room, letting down a comforter, a pillow, and a blanket on top for her on the rug.

Riona fluffs the pillow and pats down the blanket, “Sorry, we don’t have a guest room unfortunately. I’d let you sleep in my dads room since he’s gonna be on watch all night, but I don’t know how he’d feel about that.”

“That’s ok, this still looks good.”

Cass pulled off her hat, her soft, fluffy ears popping free through the openings as they flopped above her head. Her curls stuck up in a messy tangle, she gave her head a quick shake, settling her hair before lying down and drifting off to sleep. Riona followed suit, removing her armor and settling in soon after.

The next morning, Riona donned her armor and grabbed her sword before they set off for Cass’s house, eager to uncover the thief’s trail. Upon their return, Cass spotted some unusual footprints on the ground.

“Rio, look!” Cass called, eyes wide as she gazed at the prints.

Riona approached, studying them closely. “Those don’t look like any creature I’ve ever seen.”

Cass pondered aloud, “They’re too large for Elves. Fairies fly, so that rules them out too.”

“Fairies would be too weak to carry all that anyway. Also it’s pretty obvious it’s not any of the smaller species.”

Cass giggled. “Oh, yeah, good point,” she points at the twisting curled divots on the ground, surrounding the normal foot prints, “Could be a Centarian, but that wouldn’t explain the weird tentacle marks.” 

Riona looks up and points a few yards away towards the trees, “The prints are heading to the woods, so whatever it was went that way.”