Sarenya has not reported back for a few hours now. This was not like her. Sarenya was a very dutiful person. That woman was a skilled assassin, an exponential fighter and a she possessed a sharp mind. All the more, It was puzzling to Elsurion. What went wrong? The king dared not to think of the consequences a failure would cause.

“Not a single task I gave you was unachievable so far…what are you doing Sarenya?”, The king whispered to himself. Shortly, his daily hour of the people would start. There, he listened to the needs and worries of his citizens individually. His father did that before him, and Elsurion saw no need to break this tradition as he became the new ruler of Solaria. His father always said: “You can never solve every problem of your subjects my child. But you can listen and show them that you care. Sometimes, this is all a person needs.”

Elsurion still missed him, even though his passing was almost two years ago. The yearning was distracting the king for a moment, yet his thoughts quickly returned to Sarenya. He was worrying too much, Elsurion was impatient, he wanted to know what happened this instant! He needed to vent his head. Taking a deep breath, Elsurion took a pillow from his bed, and put it on the Carpet that covered every inch of the royal chambers. Cross legged, the king took a seat and closed his eyes. Perhaps, this would help. Elsurion formed a bowl with his hands. He focused on his worries, Sarenya’s absence and the impending loss of the kingdoms supply of arcane crystals. Furrows covered his forehead, as he focused more intensely. Rage arose inside the king. He let the rage manifest itself in his hands, and a flame came to life. Elsurion nourished it with his frustration and his anger, he panted. The king opened his eyes and looked at the flame in his hands. Sometimes the king could hardly believe it himself, but he was a sorcerer. A magic user, like his father before him. The king observed the flame, let it grow bigger, and bigger. Elsurion split the fire between his hands, so that a flame was burning in each palm. Letting his emotions flow into magic helped him to clear his head. However, he needed to be careful, Elsurion had to stop the flow of emotions at some point, otherwise the flames would grow to big to control. The king exhaled slowly. Controlling the magic was no easy task, but the flames stabilized. Getting up carefully, the king made his way over to the chimney, and threw the two balls of fire in it. There, they would cause no harm. Moreover, there was no wood in it, the flames died within seconds without a source. Elsurion exhaled once more. He felt better now. His body felt so hot, he felt like there was a fire eating him up from the inside. This lasted a few seconds, then he cooled down, like always. Using magic to vent was highly efficient, but it reminded Elsurion every time, how much effort it still took him to control the flow of the magic he summoned. Elsurion felt another sting in his heart. “Oh, father…why did you have to leave me so early?”, the king whispered. There was so little Elsurion knew about sorcery. His father trained him over the years, but their training sessions were rare at best. His father had been a busy man. Still, the kings father tried to take these windows for his son as often as he could to teach him a little more about magic and practiced with him. Alas, it was barely enough to learn more than a few spells. All Elsurion had left, was the little spell book his father gave him. For a moment, Elsurion thought about going down to the secret cellar under his chambers (the king called it his ‘sanctum’) and read in the little spell book once more. It was tempting. Once Elsurion started this thought process, it was hard to stop it again. An idea popped into his head: A familiar! The king could summon a familiar to look for Sarenya! The king gave it some more consideration…could he do that? Skip the hour of the people? It was something almost sacred to the folk. Elsurion weighted his options. No. No the king couldn’t, he concluded. But Elsurion could adjourn the appointment he had with a diplomat from Deermond after the hour of the people. Yes, this meeting was not nearly as important. The king would let the diplomat wait for a while. Let some wine be brought in and maybe a jester. The summoning of the familiar would not take forever. After that, Elsurion would see to the diplomat.

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