A small crystal orb sits surrounded by a dark void, the orb violently shakes and pulses with energy. With each pulse the orb seems to become more and more unstable, the void around the orb becomes distorted and twisted. After what felt like hours, a crack shoots across the surface of the orb. A dull bright light starts oozing out of the crack slowly, dispersing into the void upon contact.
Richard jolted awake, covered in a cold sweat, his head pounding as he gasped for air. He felt like he had just fallen off the roof of the mansion, he tried to remember the dream he just had, all he could remember was an orb cracking and then waking up. He took a few minutes to collect his thoughts and then looked at the clock, its red holographic glow was fuzzy, it strained Richard's eyes which were still getting over the headache which was now receding. He squinted to adjust his vision and looked again, the clock read six, he would have just under an hour before Caleb came to fetch him for supper.
Richard sat up right on the side of the bed, he leaned over and opened the top drawer of his night stand. In it, he found a holotab, much like his textbook, only this one was much nicer and smaller, the word journal was written on the top. Next to the holotab was a picture of a tall woman, with dark brown hair and light hazel eyes, she was wearing a bright green summer dress and a sun hat. Richard was unsure where the picture had been taken but he didn’t recognize the scenery. He was given this photo on his 13th birthday and told that the woman in the photo was his mother. His father doesn’t speak about his mother, the little bit he knows about her including the picture came from Caleb. He placed the picture back in the drawer, leaned back on his bed and thought about his father.
A summons to the palace was very rarely a good thing, especially this close to the Emperor's birthday. This wasn’t the first time his father had been summoned to the Palace but it’s never been without warning or reason. Richard thought deep into his memories trying to think of a reason that his father could have been summoned, surely he hasn’t done anything wrong. He reassured himself everything would be fine, his father wouldn’t do anything against the government and he’s just miss understood because he rarely leaves the house.
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He thought back to his dream, wondering if it could be some sort of vision or warning, Richard often didn’t believe in these sorts of things. He’d been taught at school that there wasn’t anything science and technology couldn’t explain or do, and that magic was just the poor man trying to cheat the system. He assumed since Kaldon didn’t have poor men, it didn’t need magic, still he wondered what magic was like.
Richard took another glance at the clock, half an hour had gone by during his reminiscing. He sat back up on the bed and braced himself to step on the cold floor. As he stood up, he realized his whole body was sore. He must have slept in a weird position, he thought as he slowly moved towards his desk where he had left his clothes. On the wall next to his desk was a small panel with about eight buttons on it, he pushed the one second to the top. A moment later a slit appeared in the floor and from it a thin metallic slab rose up, stopping just a bit taller than Richard, it glistened with the reflection of everything in sight.
Richard stared at himself in the mirror, he was about five nine, he had sandy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and fair skin. He wasn’t terribly muscular but was still in fit shape, his father never permitted him to join a school sports team. However he did take weapon classes with the guards until he was 16 and Caleb would often find ways to play different sports with him when he was younger. Richard grabbed the clothes from his desk and proceeded to get ready for supper.