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“I can see you, Little Lass, you’re mine. What does it mean?”

Skye had visibly flinched as Dr. Lyberth repeated the letter. Maevis was confused at Skye’s terror, but then recalled her speaking about nightmares. She’d told Maevis about the prophetic dreams she’d had in Warrick Forest, and the incident on her honeymoon. She could recall how frightened Skye was of the one she called the ‘dark man’.

“Do you think it’s him? Did you tell anyone else about your dreams except myself, Nic, Peg, and Tidas?”

Skye shook her head in the negative. She never talked about those dreams unless she Had to. They’d started up after Tidas had returned to her, and had come to a head on their honeymoon. It was the first time the dream had ended differently..

Grabbing the creepy spear before the dark man had sent Skye flying off into space and time. Allowing her to glimpse the distant past. She watched the Great Shift, then humans and other creatures emerging and warring afterwards. Next she saw men on dragons fighting, and even watched Zazzy’s mother, Lazarus, die.. Then the entire capital was moved to it’s present location.

The thing that stuck out to her now was the man at the end of it all. He’d carried the spear that Skye knew was the Ethereal Spear. The disembodied voice had told her to find the connections to the elements, and to find the keys. The legend before her called one of the keys the Ethereal Key..

“The spear.. The spear is a key!” Skye shouted as she emerged from her thoughts.

The three with her stared at Skye like she was mad a moment before Maevis exclaimed; “The Ethereal Spear! Of course!”

.....

As the two women started to rapidly talk about a dream Skye must’ve had, Dr. Lyberth chimed in; “What about the Ethereal Spear?! I’ve seen it referenced throughout Alcon’s history. Usually pops up around times of turmoil for the kingdom.. A lot of the scholars and historians think it’s a bad omen..”

Skye wasn’t surprised to hear it. Ether magic wasn’t inherently bad, but it was pure chaos. The Ethereal Spear, or Nexus as the voice called it; was neither good or evil. Chaos can be used for either destruction or creation. It all depended upon the mage’s will, like with all magic. The main thing that bothered Skye was that she didn’t think the spear was connected to Only Ether magic..

The more she discussed it with Maevis and the doctor, the more Skye felt her assumption was correct. Some of the historical events Frode was describing were not connected to Ether magic; more like Dark. When he mentioned Tidas’ grandfather, Magnus’ father, Skye realized that she barely knew anything about him. The MacArthur men, or anyone else for that matter, hardly ever spoke of him.

The only thing Skye knew for sure about his historical significance was that he attempted to invade both the Meccano and Ital kingdoms, but failed miserably. He lost his crown to his oldest son, Magnus, due to his incompetence and ‘lacking mental state’. Both Magnus and his brother had rallied the nobles behind them to dethrone their father. Which is what made his betrayal decades later so hard for the king, and why he wanted his sons to get along.

Magnus adored his younger brother, and had even attempted to designate a position above the RMC Commander for him, but he’d declined. Saying that he knew little of wars and strategy; he was simply a great conversationalist. Agreeing with him, Magnus had ultimately put him in charge of coordinating diplomatic relations, and a new age of peace had settled in Alcon; until the coup d’état.

As Nora listened, she contemplated whether to ask Skye about her knowledge of Alchemy now, or later. It was a subject that usually earned her either confused, or disdainful looks from those she asked. The princess didn’t seem the type to scoff at her interest, but she was still nervous to even broach the subject.

She’d only met Skye the one time, but Nora already idolized her. She was a commoner who fell mutually in love with a prince, but was still hard working and humble. She helped any who asked, and any she saw that needed it. Her kindness coupled with her incredible magic made Nora feel like an inane fan girl around her.

Technically she wasn’t supposed to be in the Rare Record’s Vault, but Dr. Lyberth hadn’t told her not to follow them. She was an entry-level librarian, hoping to become a fully-fledged researcher. Between her work in the Medical Ward and her time spent studying; she’d hoped her intelligence and merits would outweigh her social status.

Commoners weren’t usually allowed to join the Ranks of the scholars unless they were unusually gifted in a particular field. Nora didn’t have any magic, but had been born with a photographic memory, and what the ancients called ADHD. She could hyper-analyze, fix and/or predict anything she put her mind to. Doctor Gohan was giving her private medical lessons, and Doctor Stein was giving her Chemistry lessons.

Everyone found Doctor Stein creepy because of the type of magic he used. He was one of the few people who didn’t mock Nora whenever she spoke about Alchemy. In fact, he’d been the opposite. He’d even borrowed some of her family’s books as references for a project he was working on. He was very hush-hush about it all, but swore that all of Alcon would would be left speechless after his multiple-years-long project was completed...

“...Nexus...”

Nora snapped back to reality from her thoughts at the trigger word; “Nexus?! Which Nexus? The Ethereal Nexus, or the Illuminous Nexus?!”

Skye, Maevis, and Frode stared at Nora in confusion a moment before Maevis asked what she’d meant. After asking the same thing again, Skye clarified that the disembodied voice from her dream had called the spear the ‘Ethereal Nexus’. Upon hearing the words again, Nora’s jaw dropped in astonishment.

“I can’t believe it! Y-You’re it! You’re the Philosopher’s Stone! My family was right! I knew it!” Nora screamed in excitement as she practically jumped in place in happiness.

Maevis’ confusion only deepened on her face as Skye and Dr. Lyberth exchanged contemplative expressions. The Philosopher’s Stone was the final goal of Alchemy. It wasn’t really a stone, but rather a shapeless mass that transmuted minerals and such into others; like lead into gold, or water into wine. It had been called many things, by many different cultures and religions throughout history, but she’d never heard of it being a person.

“So you think I’m the Philosopher’s Stone? Why? Because of what I did in me Ward room?” Skye questioned, curious as to if this was the real reason she’d followed her in the first place.

“Aye, I do.. And so does my family-well, not my mom. She thinks it’s all a nonsensical hobby that we waste our time on, but no matter.. My grandparents, uncle, aunts, brother, father; we all study Alchemy. We believe that the Thrice Hermes Prophecy pertains to you. It says that a person would be born that could wield all the elements, and shift reality to a harmonized state.”

Nora gestured erratically with her arms as she continued; “You’ve noticed, haven’t you? More and more people are being born with magic.. Which is something that is unheard of! Mages have Always been rare, so why are there so many all of a sudden? And why are natural, magic-rich areas depleting? There was a cave system along the eastern coastline that was a natural magical hotspot, but it’s gone now!”

“How do you know this?” Maevis asked a little intensely.

Nora shrunk back slightly as she replied; “I overheard some of the engineers complaining about it. They sometimes ran tests on inventions or relics at areas with high magic. They even got the Crowned Prince to sign off on the costs for creating a survey department to locate other spots.”

Skye and Maevis shared a look of apprehension before they began to unintentionally grill her for any other information she had. They asked if any specific forests had been named or suggested to search, but she didn’t know. After a series of other odd questions, they finally eased off once they saw how nervous their questions were making her. All she knew was the names of the two talking. She had recognized their voices from the Medical Ward.

“One is Connor Arnold, and the other is Jakub Yeager,” Nora looked like she’d shrank three inches from stress of it all.

Skye recognized Conner Arnold as one of Marco’s lackeys. The Conner Nobles were the ones who got most of the contracts for the roadwork in the capital. They had many extensive family branches that they used for cheap labor. Skye felt bad for the children sent to work, but not the adults. They were just trying to suck up to their main branch of the family; a common thing that irritated her to no end.

“Who is Jakub Yeager?” Skye inquired, not even knowing a Yeager herself.

Frode smirked; “I doubt you would know him, princess. Barely anyone knows of him. As soon as the king saw his magic, he immediately had him sent to the Research and Development Department. He’s the reason we have lights, indoor plumbing, functional showers.. The kid’s a genius!”

Skye stared at Dr. Lyberth a moment before he added; “Oh, umm.. I don’t know where he is, but I can set up an appointment with him for you.”

Skye beamed at the doctor for his kind offer before Maevis asked; “What’s the lad’s magic?”

Skye grinned at Maevis; “I bet ye he’s a Manic..”

Frode grinned broader; “Close, but he’s actually a Shepherd: a Manic Tank. His eyes and reflexes are amazing. He’s consulted with me on some of the artifacts he’s reinvented or is currently tinkering with.”

Skye and Maevis were both surprised to hear he was a Shepherd. They were rarer than some of the Elemental mages. The order of rarity for Elementals from common to rarest was: Earth, Fire, Air, Dark, and Light. Water and Ether were nearly equally rare, with Ether being simply less known than Water. The effects Ether magic had, and how it affected the mage who wielded it were scarcely known.

Skye knew where a plethora of information on the subject was, but it’d be a cold day in Hell before she ever asked Marco about his powers. She knew she’d have to confront him eventually, especially if he kept trying to use his power on her and Tidas. She didn’t want to deal with him until she had a way to protect herself that didn’t involve running a rock spike through his gut. Killing the future king, even in self-defense, would earn her an instant death sentence.

Skye looked back at the scroll on the table, then requested to be able to take the materials back to the palace. Frode hesitated; the materials within this room technically weren’t supposed to leave the library. The books and papers that had been within the box, he had put there. The scroll was technically the only thing that wasn’t meant to leave.

When he told the princess that, she’d nodded her agreement, and begun to set everything back into the box except the scroll. When Frode turned his back enough while speaking to Nora, Maevis scooped up the scroll, and tossed it into the box. When Skye gave her a hard stare for her antics, Maevis shrugged her shoulders with a cheeky smile and said; “Tis better to ask for forgiveness than permission..”