So, time passed, and life went on. The adventurers lost their worried looks, and the next few days went by. Over at the Abandoned City overseen by Kelly, Emp and Pat stood by the Archway near the center of town and spoke with eachother.
"Right then, see you tomorrow Emp, remember, the smaller the eggs the better." Pat said.
"See you tomorrow evening, then we'll be even." Emp said, before turning to the rune-etched archway.
When Emp did so he raised a simple wooden staff he brought with him up and the runes began to glow, getting much brighter very quickly, the interior of the archway now appearing to ripple as though a pond. After its rippling subsided, a new motion obscured the archway, appearing like a waterfall and the same color as the runes. Emp purposefully and calmly moved his hands as though a conductor to the symphony of magic at work. The colors began to shift and once they shifted to his liking he stepped through the archway and the rift within, disappearing.
What we've just seen here, to put it in much simpler terms, was Emp using the archway to create a rift, a sort of door that ignores the laws of space, and walking through it to arrive to the southern continent.
Pat breathed in and sighed once the runes stopped glowing, ending the waterfall effect like turning off a shower. Pat called a messenger bird and sent it flying around, the agreed signal for the remaining members to meet immediately. After all, time was of the essence when you only have just one and a half days. So of course, upon seeing the bird fly past, each of them waiting for it, all of them did indeed meet up and began preparation immediately.
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In the Taren Empire, many had already been up and about by now, but some of the lucky few had still gotten to sleep. Among these was the Empire's one and only Princess, Princess Elianne Olivier, who had only just gotten up after a long night attending a noblemans dinner party in celebration of his son's new marriage arrangements. She still had never gotten used to those late night parties that lasted until a few hours the next morning.
The Princess herself was roughly five feet and eight inches/one point seven meters tall, with flowing brown hair and blue eyes.
She slept until well into the day, her father not sending anyone to wake her as there was no rush at that time. Once she woke she dressed herself in one of the many royal dressess she owned and went about, walking over to and eating a simple breakfast in the castle garden, having had the servants bring it to her.
Some would find this a touch unreasonable if not for a few things, Firstly, they were servants and that was simply their job. Secondly, She often did this when she would eat alone anyways, enjoying the life around her in the garden if not at the table with family. Thirdly, she was renowned for being a kindly polite young lady, regardless of who she spoke to. Her father always made sure he wouldn't raise someone rude and unseemly, even if he did spoil his daughter a touch excessively.
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And almost as if on cue, a voice spoke through the garden, over one of the flower bushes. It belonged to a man roughly six feet three inches/one point nine meters tall, with short black hair and ocean blue eyes. This man we have mentioned before, Jason Lucius Olivier.
"I had a feeling you'd be here Ellianne." Jason said, smiling at his daughter enjoying the company of the servants and flowers.
"Oh, Father!" Ellianne said, jumping up in her surprise, before relaxing more and smiling again "You know me so well."
"You're my own daughter, of course I do." Jason said, before his tone settled from his current pleasant joy into a more serious one, "Now, sit back down. I need to talk to you about an important issue, this can't wait." At this Elianne's sat down and gave not a moment of attention to anything but her father. He seldom got like this, at least to her directly, so something must be important.
Jason said "Elianne, I trust that the news has reached you too that the ones menacing the Eastern and Southern continents haven't been seen in almost a full season, and are believed dead, Haven't you?"
Ellianne said "The ones that call themselves..." lowering her voice to a whisper, as though their name brought misery by being spoken, "Chaotic Nonsense?".
Jason Said "Yes, them. Now in celebration of their disappearance one of the Eastern Contnent's rulers has invited myself, your mother, and many of the other rulers to their palace for a grand feast. So I'm going to be gone for a while. What makes it different this time is not only am I going to be gone with your mother, but your Brother is also going off to the west to get married and settle there as we talked about yesterday. So you will be alone here, and I want to make sure you hear this from me. Are you listening?"
At this Ellianne nodded, now looking somewhat more relaxed at hearing it was just a celebration of their disappearance. While many children had werewolves to haunt them, even being as old as she was Elianne still shuddered at the stories and rumors of what Chaotic|Nonsense did to so many people. Some said The Eradicator even destroyed the very souls of those he killed, and other horrible things about the rest.
After her father asked, she nodded and said softly "Yes father, I'm listening."
"While we are gone, you are not allowed to leave the castle for anything, do you understand that?" Jason said, his voice showing the sternness of a father and authority of a king.
"Y-Yes father, but why?" Elianne said,
"Because I worry about you enough with your brother here and he won't be this time. This is purely for your own well-being. While I will always firmly believe I am your father first and a king second, I still have my duties I must do. I've already instructed the guards to not let you out of the castle, and I'm leaving later today. I'll see you when I get back, I love you dear." Jason said.
Elianne stepped in, giving her father a brief hug, smiling and saying "I love you too father, I'll be sure not to do anything that would worry you. Goodbye."
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In a far off lands factories of metal gears, pulleys, and pistons all slowed to a halt at the will of their operator, finished in bringing their masters horrid visions to fruition. Comparatively smaller distances away, a crystal as blue as ice was taken from its storage place, a great beast was being saddled, a weapon carefully selected from an armory, and rope tying practiced.