The Audric Line

On top of a small mountain range surrounded by an ever rolling mist, just below the Giant volcanic hole on the middle peak, in a palace there sat a man on a throne that seemed much too large for him. The palace sat on a relatively flat slab of rock the size of a small town. Even though there was room for an entire town, the only thing upon the slab was this palace as well as the palace grounds surrounding it taking up seventy percent of the slab.

'Hmm, this form is rather restricting but don't want to be too intimidating eh.' The man thought to himself while still maintaining the stoic look on the outside.

Before this man knelt two teenagers who both somewhat resembled the man before them, one boy and one girl. "Royal father, we have heeded your summons." The boy spoke out while the girl remained silent. The two had their eyes trained directly at the man but did not meet his eyes.

"Good, good. Stand up now, you are of the highest royalty in this world. You shall no longer bow to anyone, not even me in the future." The man on the throne said with a faint smile. Then his smile turned into a frown. "The stars are changing at an unprecedented pace. You two will need to head out and grow in the outside world of turmoil. This needs to be done much sooner than the original 20 years, so prepare to set out in the next 20 days."

The girl widened her eyes, "Father, are you serious, I am still on the first tome of ice." She felt like she was very underprepared to go out into the world on her own.

"SILENCE! Sasha, you shall take the rest with you. Both of you will head out separately and only one protector each. They shall not help you in any way except if you are in critical condition." The man on the throne let out with stern expression. "Even then, there are many factors they will not be able to stop from killing you if you happen to encounter them. You must grow stronger. You have to rely on yourself. You may leave to prepare." He finished his long winded speech and closed his eyes.

The two replied, "Yes Royal Father," in unison and left immediately. Once they were outside of the palace Sasha looked at her brother with a humph and a rather cold look. "Zak how can you just agree with this, there is still so much for us to do here. How can we just leave without at least getting to the second tome?"

Her brother, Zak, had a slight smile on his face once she said this. "What makes you so sure I haven't gotten to the second tome?" Sheila's eyes widened and her mouth hung open. "I've been with you every day, that's not possible." She said with not a lot of confidence.

Zak just smiled back coyly at her and turned and left. Sheila returned to her room and sat in a little bit of a daze. Sasha would have never guessed that Zak had surpassed her in terms of comprehension of the sacred tomes. She then heard a knock on the door and an imposing looking man stood outside. She opened it and a smile lit up her face.

"Uncle Gren, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be guarding the entrance of the main peak?" She asked while wrapping her arms around him. He slightly hugged her back and stepped back to say, "I have been assigned to be your protector on this training trip."

"Really? I don't want to go!" Sheila said with a pout. "I want to stay here and train." She never showed this side of herself to anyone other than her uncle.

Uncle Gren laughed and patted her head. "It'll be fine. Oh yeah, I've come to tell you some rules as well." He scratched his head as he looked at the still pouting young girl. "You guys will have to head to Newport at the north edge of the island and build a crew of however large you want and set sail with them. You are not allowed to travel together with your brother but if you meet up along the way that's fine but you still can't travel together after that."

Gren took a deep breath staring at Sheila who already knew about that part. "Before you are able to return you must increase your mana capacity by tenfold, and reach the 5th tome of your respected legacies. You must also build a reputation for yourself on the sea and explore outside of the archipelago." This was going to be rough journey for this young maiden.

Now Sheila became very shocked. "Outside of the archipelago?!" She said in surprise. "On a ship? How are you supposed to get through the whirlpools?"

Uncle Gren laughed at her statement. "There is one way."

They were currently located on the Island of Ardor at the tail end of the archipelago, the second largest island. Even though this group of islands were considered an archipelago there were thousands of miles between the Split Island, the first island and the Island of Ardor. The whole of the archipelago was surrounded by whirlpools larger than many hurricanes that did not allow anyone to traverse through. Unless you had special methods or were strong enough to fly above them.

The Island of Ardor had a mountain range in the middle that was nearly impossible to get through due to the dense and dangerous jungle surrounding it on all sides. It was home to two ports and one of them being the best and most safest trading port in the archipelago. there were a few towns scattered around the other edges of the island but there not too many interactions between these towns other than the travelling merchants with sufficient strength.