A/N: Aw yes, finally the last part of Ch. 1. This is the longest first chapter I have ever written. I honestly don't know how long the other chapters will be, but I am aiming for 10 chapters in total. Major thanks to my editor Todger, he's been invaluable.
Special thanks to the 2 anon writers for commenting on the last part of this story. To the one anon saying I am being too descriptive when it comes to character garments, I will try to do better not to bore you, but if you could be specific with your other critique, I'll try to clear that up also. Well, I won't keep ya'll waiting any longer so here's the next part.
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Skylar really enjoyed the company of the Vinsumi royals as they headed for the Puran vendors. Mao herself was amazed that a young woman like her was into a field that normally males did. Even though people were allowed to do whatever they wanted, she herself had grown up in a culture where men did certain things as well as women. Puran was known for bucking traditions so it was more likely to see a woman in a man's role and vice versa. Jiang thought that Skylar's skills would definitely be helpful during their journey and mentioned it.
"You know Miss Skylar, with your ingenuity background, we should be able to do well when it comes to survival."
"Do you really think so? Hmm, well if something gets broken along the way then I guess I'll be of service. Looks like we finally made it. There are so many people here though. How will we find the Puran royal family?"
The other two looked around and both thought the same thing. It would be a bit hard to find them. Puran being such a large kingdom, it had one of the largest vending areas.
"We'll find them. Let's ask around," Jiang suggested.
Agreeing, the trio asked around before managing to find a salesman saying he saw them head north of his booth. Unfortunately that was through the most crowded section. It didn't take long for Skylar to become separated from the royal siblings. She tried her best to find them again too. It shouldn't have been too hard with Jiang being tall and the two standing out with their garments since most of the people in the area wore warm colors. So it was becoming frustrating when she couldn't find her companions or the Puran royal family. However, her frustration vanished when a ruckus started up. People started shouting and soon Skylar saw the cause of it. One of the buildings near her started to crumble and it startled a nearby vendor that held livestock animals, causing them to go wild and started stampeding. The people in charge of the vendor tried to contain them, but it was too late. People started running and Skylar was amongst them. However, somehow she tripped and fell towards the ground. She never reached the ground as the Citrine fragment glowed and she suddenly flew up into the air up a good 50 feet. Skylar was shocked. She was floating, and without any assistance! She felt the heat of the fragment and pulled it out to see it glowing. Suddenly though, the piece grew hot and before Skylar could do anything, felt her body flying all over the place as the fragment dragged her through the air. She screamed, not knowing how to control herself. Her flying caught the attention of many people, including the Puran royal family. All of them were shocked and couldn't think of what to do, but Gavin snapped out of it very quickly and seeing they were near a hovercraft vendor, raced for it.
"Sir, I need to borrow this," he said, and the seller nodded.
Without another word, Gavin got on the craft, turned it on, and flew into the air after Skylar. Unfortunately, Skylar's flying was very erratic so it was hard to catch her. Suddenly, the redhead stopped and started falling straight for the ground. Gavin gritted his teeth and pushed the hovercraft into overdrive. Just as Skylar was about to hit the ground, he swooped in and caught her before flying up a bit. How he managed to hang onto her as he caught her, he'll never know for he could have easily fallen off the craft himself with the rate Skylar fell. As for Skylar, she was out cold. She fainted the instant she was caught, but managed to hang onto the fragment. Seeing that the young woman was okay, Gavin landed the hovercraft. There to greet them when they landed was his family. His twin beamed at him.
"Gavin, that was amazing!" Gwendolyn exclaimed.
"That was some quick thinking on your part son," King James added, relief all over his face.
"Is the Chosen okay? I still can't believe she flew without anything." Gavin's older brother, Henry, said.
"Yes, but she fainted. I am not surprised either considering what just happened." Gavin replied, concerned etched all over his face.
He was so focused on helping Skylar, that it didn't occur to him he could have been hurt too. Hovercrafts were reliable sources of transportation, but if used wrong or pushed too hard, they could overheat and explode. His father and brother were very much aware of this and Gavin's brave act had them reassert their opinion of him.
"Why don't you take Lady Skylar back to the palace, Gavin, so she could get some rest." suggested Gavin's older sister, Haley, who was also Henry's twin.
Out of his siblings, Gavin was the closest to Haley since she was the one who supported him the most. She was very maternal, much more than his own mother. Looking at his sister, Gavin nodded and was about to leave when Jiang, Mao, and the rest of their family showed up.
"We saw what happened. Is Skylar okay?" asked Mao.
"Yes, I was about to take Skylar back to the palace since she's out of it. Jiang, do you think you can assist me. I was able to catch Skylar, but I think I hurt my arm when I did." Gavin explained.
Indeed, his arm was hurting him for he used it to catch Skylar. Now that the shock had gone down, he could feel the pain in his arm. Jiang nodded and took Skylar into his arms, which caused her to drop the Citrine fragment. As a healer was called to check on Gavin, Mao picked up the stone. It was discovered Gavin had a fracture so the healer used healing magic to fix it. Even though magic wasn't used a whole lot in Mulada, the areas it was used in was mostly healing since injuries like this were common due to how physical the Muladi folk got. After that, Gavin and Jiang took Skylar back to the place.
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"Hey sis! Look daddy's dirk is still in one piece!" Iain shouted in excitement.
Vera smiled at her brother as they rummaged through the rooms they had stayed in during the festival. The previous night her brothers stayed in another location near the palace when she went to the ball. She was really glad of that too since their rooms had some damage to them and a good number of their things didn't make it. So seeing something so personal survive really made Vera happy. Seeing his sister's smile, Iain goes into the other room to finish packing. Vera's brothers were almost done packing up their things when the door to their room was knocked on. Vera checked it and wasn't surprised to see Britta, but was surprised to see Prince Cyrus and Koralia.
"Hello Britta, Prince Cyrus, and . . . Koralia, right? What brings you here?" she asked.
"I wanted to check on you four and ran into these two along the way. Koralia here has been tired all morning, so I suggested they come with him so she can rest herself. Is there anywhere she can sit?" Britta asked as they came in.
"Yes, there are some cushions over there," Vera pointed to some burgundy cushions that were like couches.
Koralia, who was about to drop, was escorted by Cyrus and laid on them before falling asleep. Cyrus was both perplexed and concerned at the same time. If the Jade fragment chose this girl, then why did she appear to be so weak? She wasn't tired last night before the quake, so why now? Was she stressed out? There were so many thoughts going through his mind that he forgot about the others in the room. Vera looked at the prince and could sense his worry. The young woman did indeed look tired, but something told her it had nothing to do with her physical health. Deciding not to worry about it, she turned to her friend.
"We're doing fine, Britta. There was some damage, but I am just glad my brothers were safe. I haven't packed my own stuff yet since I tried cleaning the area up first. The boys are almost done packing though. Iain had just found our father's dirk. Since Iain is into weapon building also, you can imagine how much the blade meant to him."
"That's good. I know how much your parents' belongings mean to you too Vera. By the way, how did the boys take to the information about you being one of the chosen people to find the stones?"
Vera sighed.
"As best as they could given the circumstances. They appeared to be in their normal gregarious mood, but I could tell they were just trying to distract themselves from what is going to happen. By the way Britta, I am going to need someone to watch my brothers while I am gone. Could they stay at your parents' place for I wouldn't trust anyone else to watch them? I have no idea what I am going to do about our shop back home." Vera admitted, true concern showing on her face for the first time.
"I was hoping you'd ask my family to watch yours. And as for your shop, don't worry, we'll handle that too. You focus on finding those stones and return to us safely."
Vera smiled and nodded.
"Let's check on the boys to see if they're done so I can pack up my own stuff," she suggested.
However, as she turned to towards the hallway, she felt her senses go off as the Sapphire fragment in her pocket lit up and instead of seeing the hallway, she actually saw beyond that and saw just what happened to Skylar. What she didn't realize was she was watching it as it was taking place. Still, the scene shook her and it took her a few minutes to hear Britta calling out her name as well as her brothers. Opening her eyes, she felt the light blind her and for a few minutes she couldn't see anything, but kept herself from freaking out, although she was tempted to do just that. Eventually colors returned and she saw the concerned faces of not only Britta and her brothers, but of Cyrus and Koralia.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice sounding weak.
"You just stood there before collapsing. You've been out of it for ten minutes." Britta explained.
"Sorry, but I just had a vision of that girl, Skylar . . . she was flying erratically before falling and that one Puran prince rescued her. I don't know how I was able to see that, but I was."
"Do you know which Puran prince it was?" asked Cyrus.
"No, but he did have light brown hair with goggles on."
"Aw, that be Gavin since Henry has golden brown hair. Now that I recall, I do remember seeing Gavin with this Skylar, Prince Eneas, and the Chosen of Carnelian last night."
"Well, I have a major headache now. I wonder what brought up that vision this time. Last night I did have a vision when I first saw the Sapphire fragment. Maybe it had something to do with what happened this time."
That caught Koralia's attention. She remembered her own vision the previous night with that mysterious lady and she remember feeling different feelings from that woman. Ever since then, after she accepted the Jade fragment, she began feeling different emotions, that weren't even her own. Even right now she was feeling this Ajna woman's headache.
"Um, pardon me, but what's your name again?" Koralia asked her.
"Vera Dahl, and you?"
"Koralia Raptis. I am from Anahaly. You're from Ajna right?"
"Was it the skin?" Vera grinned.
"Hehe, yes it was. I wish there was a way I could help you."
Without thinking, Koralia placed her hand on Vera's hand, suddenly felt all of her inner emotions coming into her as if they were her own feelings. For her part, Vera felt her own headache go away suddenly and she gasped as she saw green energy coming off of Koralia, for the Jade fragment started to glow. As quickly as it started, it ended abruptly and the Anahalian lady collapsed onto Vera.
Cyrus almost cursed, but instead said, "What happened this time?"
He pulled Koralia back and saw how pale she was.
"My headache is gone as well as few other negative feelings. She took them all away." Vera stated, shock evident in her own voice.
"It has to be the Jade fragment. It was when I traveled to Anahaly to study abroad there for few months and learned about the founder of the kingdom. Wasn't she an empathic person of sorts, able to ease other's emotions?" Britta asked Cyrus.
"Yes she was. Maybe since the fragments are connected to you girls, it's why these strange things are happening to you." Cyrus speculated.
"Sis, are you feeling better now?" Fred asked.
