Ashen Skies

On the school's courtyard a group of children is sitting on the grass around the king, while their teacher introduces today's class.

"Thank you so much for having us, Your Majesty. I am sure that a lot of people here would like to ask you some questions."

"It's my pleasure to be here. It's really to talk to the future of our world", a little hand raised and Aren smiled back at the kid waiting for the question.

"What kind of Emblem do you have, Your Majesty? My dad said that your emblem is the best of the best, even better than his!", at the question Aren let a little laugh come out.

"Oh, that's nice of your father to say. But I do believe that every Emblem is special, if trained on how to use it properly, everyone can achieve great things. About mine, it's called the Bright Dragon, and is what people call a Prime Emblem".

The teacher took it's chance to chip in and make the lesson more interactive.

"So we talked about the Emblems during this year, who can tell me more about their origins?"

A bunch of little hands started to raise excitedly, while the teacher picked which one would answer.

"The Emblems are divine powers that some people are born with. They Prime Emblems are were the original ones and from them the Grand Emblems and Lesser Emblems were created"

"Great answer, thank you. And who can tell me more about what they can do?", a little hand from the back raised slowly.

"Ehm... They are shiny. When a person uses them, a drawing made of coloured light comes out from the body..."

"Correct! Using the emblems causes them to glow on your body. Each emblem has a different colour and shape, based on its type. "

"Your Majesty, what does the Bright Dragon do?", the teacher looked at the king, checking if the question was too much, but Aren was really happy to answer.

"There are many types of abilities that Emblems can use. You can make your body stronger, faster. You can control elements like fire, wind or even water. Or you can learn to do interesting tricks like flying or making things float! Can you imagine it?" 

Aren started to make funny gestures with his hands and kids were laughing with him. The teacher knew that for the sake of the kids, he omitted a lot of more dangerous types, like the ones that can apply curses or any kind of damage to things or creatures. 

"But about my Bright Dragon. I got it from my father right after I became the King, because Prime Emblems are unique and they are passed from person to person. It has many abilities, but my favourite is that it can bend the light and turn it into interesting things", as he said that his Emblem started to glow from his chest.

His hands started to gesture and small globes of light started to float around the kids. 

As his fingers started to move, the globes were moving accordingly, while the kids were trying to touch them. For higher abilities a person usually shouts some words or phrases to help the mind visualise the ability, but at higher ranks is not needed for small uses like this entertainment.

"Your Majesty, what happens if someone has no Emblem?", the teacher and Aren knew that the kid was probably talking about herself. Emblems usually stay Dormant at a young age before being Awakened, but there are many cases of people that do not manifest Emblems even after many years. This was in the past one of the reasons why conflicts started, it was easier for people with Emblems to take advantage of the others or force them to do anything using their power.

"Emblem or not, a person can become whatever they want, if they put their mind and passion into it. Remember that even the strongest Emblem is nothing, if you don't have the mind or the right heart to use it", the answer made the kid smile, and hopefully more positive about her future.

"Your Majesty, who is the strongest among the Six Dragons?"The teacher was surprised by the unexpected question, but Aren stopped him, happily ready to answer.

I knew this question was coming, he thought but he tried to give a more explanatory answer rather than avoiding it.

"Let's see, I think that most of the people would argue between the Ember Dragon and the Storm Dragon. Few years ago I saw friendly sparring between them, and I have to say that just looking at them put my Bright Dragon in serious distress. But since you are asking, I personally believe that the Verdant Dragon and the Shadow Dragon are the strongest".

"Did you fight them too?"

"Oh, I didn't have too. House Thornwynd and House Drakmora have been friends with House Verdant for years. So we didn't have to fight, but I saw their Prime Emblems in action a few times and they were really impressive."

They would be a very strong pain in the ass to fight, they are fighting freaks. He was remembering how fierce the battles between those two were, those occasions were meant to be friendly training but he would have swore that they were at each other's head.

"And what about the Abyssal Dragon?"

"Good question, I never saw it used in a fight, but I witnessed it doing wonderful things, like changing the weather, from rain to snow, or freezing lakes and oceans. That emblem is very unique as well."

With a power like that, I am not surprised that he could rule such a huge territory. Aren had always shown respect to the House Tideborne, a lineage of rulers but also heroes.

The class seemed pretty excited and the class went on for another hour, full of questions about history and fun facts that he could share. The king said goodbye to the children, promising that he would have visited them again. 

This was one of the traditions of House Valoria, in which members of the royal family had to visit schools and meet the students. Historically, it is a tradition that started a long time ago, since the foundation of the Gilded Expanse, House Valoria's dominion.

Apparently at the beginning it was a very fragmented territory, rich in resources but plenty of various tribes that did not like to share. 

Valoria was originally one of those tribes, which slowly began to reunite them all under one flag, building together one of the six greatest nations in the world, and Aren always felt that his responsibility was to keep them united and full of hope. 

⁂

The royal car was already in front of the school, and next to it there was Val waiting. 

"Your Majesty, how was the lesson?"

"Very entertaining, I learned a lot as always," he said laughing.

Val took out the tablet, browsing some notes on it.

"So today is Aelinday, so the fourth of Verdahn, our visitors will come on Voiday, so the preparations are all in order."

"We have four days. I can see that the centre of the city has been prepared already", the flags with six colours of the families were displayed in every corner, waiting to welcome the kings and queens.

The flag was representing a dragon with six heads, the colours were orange for Valtheris, bright blue for Zephandor, white for Valoria, dark blue for Tideborne, green for Thornwynd and purple for Drakmora. The idea came with the hope that the event would look like a celebration of unification, by connecting all together with the new transportation system.

The drawing itself was made by Aren who was really keen into pouring his heart into this symbol.

Once the car started driving to the palace, Aren was lost watching the landscape of the city moving in front of him. He was happy but in recent days he had more frequent cases of dizziness and this started to worry him more, despite the doctors saying that it was possibly just stress.

"Are you ok Your Majesty?"

"I think so, Val. Thanks for asking."

"Aways, Your Majesty. May I suggest something to you?" Aren turned to Val, curious.

"In my experience I saw some of your predecessors achieving great things. But nothing can be compared to this next step. I suggest you take a break and look back at what has been achieved and how.Every member of House Valoria can live for a long time, so the progress must seem very minimal if analysed in short terms."

"You are right. The reality is that the whole process started a long time ago, before the Gilded Expanse, and even before the first throne was built I guess", this was a very deep thought that somehow calmed Aren.

"I know it will be practically impossible to ask Your Majesty to sleep early, so I suggest you have a look at the family library. I find myself fascinated on reading some old stories, things that happened even before my time and be surprised on how things are still the same but somehow completely different", she was looking at Aren but her eyes seemed to be looking even further.

"I don't think I get what you meant yet, but I will definitely have a go. Thanks Val, for everything."

The car became silent and the night came very soon. 

⁂

Aren was already in the library, it was a huge collection of books. A very big room with various bookcases of various shapes. It was obvious that the room was expanded from time to time, and that the shelves were each from a different ear. 

Some memories came across his mind. He used to spend a lot of time here while studying when he was young, from time to time also when he was looking for some inspiration. 

He quickly walked through the various bookshelves and grabbed some books by instinct, either because of the title or the material of the cover.

They are kind of heavy, better use some help.

The Bright Dragon Emblem shined on his chest, helping him to carry the books by making them float while walking. Once he got his pile of books on the table he started to read them.

At that moment while he was deep into reading about Prime Emblems from some old studies, he suddenly felt the ground shaking very hard.

It was for a split second only but he stood up, checking if anything happened to the room: nothing moved, it was all perfect.

Aren was still shocked, so he decided to sit down and take some deep breaths. It was more than dizziness this time, but he didn't want to give up.

Am I going crazy? 

He tried to continue reading the book but the page that was previously full of text, was suddenly empty. He tried to browse through the pages to be sure, but they were all blank.

"I swear, my mind is playing tricks on me...", he changed the book and checked all the pages: still blank.

"Wake up...", the voice came out of nowhere, Aren stood and looked around but the room was empty, only him and the books.

"It's the same voice, as the dream", he instantly thought that he had to call Val or someone to check the room. He was almost going to leave when he glanced at the book open on the table and he was written:

Wake up Aren

The sentence was there and even in the pages after. They were not there before, so it must have been an illusion.

He ran through the room, holding one of the books, and when he opened the door there was Val on the other side.

"Val! Look! I am not going crazy", he showed the books to Val and she looked at him.

"You can see it too, right? I am not going crazy?", Val nodded.

"Do you know what is happening to me? Is this some kind of illusion or a curse from an Emblem?"

"No Your Majesty, it is not. Your Bright Dragon gives you a strong resistance to illusions, and you would notice if it's from an Emblem. It is something else."

"What is happening to me? If you know something, you must tell me Val?"

She looked at him and felt pain because she knew what was going to happen.

"Check procedure progress", at her command a voice started to echo close to them.

[KING'S RETURN LOADING... EIGHTY-SEVEN PERCENT PROGRESSED]

[WARNING - PROCEDURE IRREVERSIBLE - DO NOT TURN OFF]

"Val? Did you hear it? What was it?"

"Do you trust me Your Majesty?", her face was serious and Aren tried to compose himself.

"I do. But can you please explain to me?"

Val was surprised by his calm reaction, which made her really happy. 

She believed that it was a little too early and risky to explain to him but she couldn't bear to keep it from him even more. 

"Why don't we sit down and...."

[ALERT! PROCEDURE COMPROMISED - EXTERNAL DAMAGE]

At the same time a bright light came from a window close to them.

They both rushed to check it and what they were seeing was not what they would expect.

The sky turned dark red, and giant burning rocks were falling from the sky.

"No! Why not now?! We were so close!" Val screamed. 

Aren's reaction was composed, he never experienced anything like that but he couldn't let his feelings take over during this emergency, especially now that he knew that he wasn't going crazy in his mind.

He opened the window and jumped out of it.

"Halo Wings!", and after shouting this, his Emblem materialised four wings on his back. Allowing him to not fall. He started to accelerate to the sky, hoping to get a better view of the situation.

Hundreds of those falling rocks, all of various sizes and they didn't seem to stop, some buildings were already on fire and the screams of people could be heard.

There was no logical explanation for this, his scientists were regularly checking the sky, the weather and all the conditions, a meter storm was not foreseen at all.

It was at that moment a very pointy meteor struck him right in the middle of his chest. His wings instantly vanished and he was free falling.

In an instant, everything stopped for the king, until he felt something lifting him up. 

An angel? He thought as his energies faded away slowly.

His sight became really blurred, but he could see that it was Val, she was floating and lifting him, but she was younger.

He couldn't focus anymore, while his consciousness was fading, he could only hear some last words.

"Aren, wake up... and don't be afraid. You know what to do, you did it already!", and after that his sight went fully blank.