34 34 - A Mysterious Island

King Jaren led the group into the basement of the summer palace, and then opened a secret door. An old chamber awash with powerful magic greeted them.

"Wow," Mana whispered as she stepped in.

There was a large glowing array on the stone floor, and it turned a bright emerald green as soon as King Jaren stepped into it. He held out his hand to Jules. "Come here, son," he called. "Step into this circle next to me."

Jules followed his instructions. As soon as he took his place, the array flashed green and amber, matching Jules's eyes.

King Jules stepped out of the array. "You're the master of this array now, Jules," he said. Then he made Mana, Raven and Fox step into the array one by one and asked Jules to let the array identify their magic. Each time, the array flashed with the colours of their magic. For Mana, it lit up into brilliant green, fiery amber and pearlescent silver, while for Fox, it turned into the beautiful blue of his eyes. When Raven stepped in, the array shook for a moment and then burst into a riot of rainbow colours.

"So pretty!" Mana exclaimed.

"Raven's magic is indeed beautiful," King Jaren agreed happily.

Jules quickly completed the identification for Raven as well.

Next, King Jaren explained to Jules how the array would work and how to summon the four of them from the island in case of any danger.

"How will I know if you're in danger? Will Fox's Letter Machine be quick enough? Will the summoning array be able to pull you back immediately? How long will you have before the arrays detonate?" Jules fired questions at his Papa rapidly.

It was natural that he was worried. He had just found his Papa and his little sister, and even a little brother-in-law and a friend. He didn't want to lose any of them.

"Don't worry so much, Big Brother," Mana said calmly. "Since Raven said that he can do it, he definitely will."

"And, in the worst-case scenario, I'll propel us out of the island to buy us time, and then you can safely bring us back," Fox chipped in.

Raven had a determined look on his little face. "I won't fail, Big Brother," he said quietly, clenching his fists.

"There you go, son," King Jaren said with a chuckle. "Happy now?"

Jules wasn't fully convinced yet, but he did have full faith in Raven and Mana. "Take care, all of you, and come back quickly. I'll be waiting for your message to bring you back."

King Jaren hugged Jules and kissed his brow. "We'll be back before you know it," he said. He took Mana and Raven's hands and turned to Fox. "Shall we go?"

Fox nodded.

Leaving Grandpa, Grandma and Jules in the summer palace, the four of them went over to the old volcano with a small team of imperial guards. Once they reached the summit, Fox carefully ensured that the captured arrays were properly tucked in and then activated the propulsion machine.

Mana suddenly found herself floating in the air – as if she was travelling in an in invisible aircraft, except it was much faster and much more magical. She squealed in delight and looked at the other three.

King Jaren looked as delighted as his daughter and had a big smile on his mature, handsome face. Fox looked a little green – and Mana wondered if he suffered from motion sickness or vertigo.

Raven's eyes were wide open and the childish wonder and enjoyment on his face made Mana smile.

It took them less than two minutes to cover the two hundred miles and land on the island.

"That was amazing!" King Jaren declared. "Fox, my boy, you are truly a genius!"

Fox, who was clearly fighting his nausea, tried to smile.

Mana silently handed him a bottle of mint lemonade.

"Thanks," Fox murmured and gulped it down quickly. Some colour returned to his face…at least, he was no longer an ashen grey-green.

"All of you enjoyed the ride, it seems?" Fox grumbled.

Three royal heads nodded enthusiastically.

"We should bring Big Brother with us next time," Raven suggested. "It was fun!"

Seeing their blatant delight, Fox couldn't bring himself to fuss anymore. He thought to himself that he needed to work on making the experience smoother, so that he himself wouldn't feel sick next time.

"Now that we're here, do you guys want to take a look around the island before we get to work?" King Jaren asked.

Raven looked up at the imposing man he'd come to call Papa. "Is that all right? Shouldn't we try to deal with the arrays immediately?" he asked. From his shining eyes, though, it was clear how much he wanted to explore the area, though.

"It shouldn't hurt to look a bit, right, Papa?" Mana asked eagerly.

King Jaren laughed. "Come on, we'll take a quick tour," he said. "I haven't visited this place in nearly two decades."

"Isn't this Emerald Kingdom territory?" Fox asked curiously.

King Jaren shook his head. "It's private property I inherited from my mother's side. I'll leave it to one of my kids in the future." His face was full of nostalgia. "After my parents passed, only Dora and I knew of its existence. We had planned to bring our children here in the future, but…"

Mana quietly hugged her Papa.

King Jaren ruffled her hair fondly and the smile returned to his face. He led the three youngsters around the island, showing them hidden caves, a pristine waterfall, some exotic fruits and flowers.

"You clearly love this place," Fox told King Jaren. "Why would you want to bring the arrays here? Aren't you afraid that we may have to destroy it?"

King Jaren sighed. "Aren't my citizens' lives worth more than my private island?" he whispered.

"You could have evacuated Verdant Hills and saved the people, and then provided assistance to them to set up their lives again," Fox pointed out. "If there was a similar situation in the Sapphire Kingdom, I'm sure our monarch would have done that, and she's a good ruler."

"But our people would have lost their livelihoods, then," Mana said before King Jaren could. "It's not just because of rich natural resources and fertile land that the Emerald Kingdom is so rich and prosperous – Papa works very hard to make it so!"

King Jaren chuckled. "My dear little Mana, aren't you overpraising me?" he asked teasingly.

Mana shook her head fiercely.

"Mana is right," Raven spoke up. "No other king would willingly sacrifice their private property – let alone one they held dear – just to ensure that their citizens didn't suffer from what would clearly be gauged a natural disaster. A good monarch would save the lives of their people and provide some form of disaster relief afterwards – as Fox said. Also, you are losing out on valuable evidence to implicate the perpetrators this way. Regardless of whether the reflection spell works or the arrays are detonated here, the magical signature on the arrays would be lost. The only way to keep the identity marks of the spellcasters would be to put the arrays back in the mountain and let them erupt the volcano as they originally planned. But you chose to sacrifice all that."

King Jaren smiled slightly. "Do you know what the real strength of a kingdom is, Raven? It's not the monarch or the military or the treasury – it is the people. And the primary responsibility of a king is to protect its people and ensure their welfare. If I sacrifice my people to retain my power and advantage…wouldn't I be a bad king?"

"With great power comes great responsibility," Mana repeated the iconic words from one of her favourite superhero series in her original world.

"Well said, Mana!" King Jaren told her, clapping his hands.

Mana grinned at him. "My Papa is the best king! And the best Papa!" she declared.

Raven and Fox nodded in agreement.

King Jaren blushed, looking like an older version of Jules, and cleared his throat. "Do you want to see the biggest mystery on this island?" he asked the youngsters.

All three nodded eagerly.

King Jaren led them through a dense grove of trees into a small clearing. At the centre of this clearing, there lay a smooth egg-shaped stone as big as a football. It was a shiny black and nothing grew around it.

"It's been there forever," King Jaren told them. "No one knows what it is. Dora used to say maybe it's a dragon egg."

"Can we touch it?" Mana asked excitedly. Her instincts told her that there was something very special about the black stone in front of them.

"Of course," King Jaren replied.

Mana grabbed Raven's hand and approached the stone. Then she put their joined hands on the stone.

The stone felt warm under their hands, and Mana felt her magic pulsate in her blood. She looked at Raven next to her, and he, too seemed to be experiencing something similar. His body was enveloped in a magical glow, and Mana realised that she, too, was glowing.

"There's something inside the stone," Raven said, his eyes flashing black. "I can feel it, Mana. It's alive!"

Mana felt it, too. The stone got warmer and warmer under her palm, and something was reaching out towards her. Cracks appeared on the shiny black surface of the stone, and then, in a burst of magic which burst around them like colourful fireworks, the stone split open and a small creature flew into Mana's arms.