A Companion for all Time - 5. Chapter 5 - Aladia

The next few days were spent relaxing, exploring, and we also got to know one another. Liam knew the palace and all its secrets, which made exploring it much more fun. He showed me all the secret passages he knew of, all the secret hideouts he had as a kid, all the unused room full of old junk. In those few days, when we felt we were being hunted by nobles, officials, or just anyone actually, we would hide in one of the abandoned rooms. I had a favorite we went to a few times, I wondered why it was abandoned in the first place. The room was pretty big, circular, and had a high dome as a ceiling. The dome had a glass center that let in the light in a circle that moved around the room as the day progressed. On the floor there was a sort of clock, so you could tell the time depending on the position of the circle on the pattern. At midday however the beam of light shone down vertically on the center of the pattern, and this is the really cool part. The central pattern had been designed so that for a few minutes per day, at midday, mirrors sent rays of light to other mirrors all around the room, the light bounced everywhere before settling on four gems in the ceiling. The gems then illuminated the room in every color of the rainbow, and as you moved around in the room they would change. It was magical.

"Why is this room not used? It's so cool!" I asked Liam one day.

"Everyone has forgotten about it now, but from what I heard the lights were too distracting."

"What a waste..."

"I agree."

He sighed then seemed to think for a while.

"How about we keep this room a secret, and if we ever need to talk in private, or just calm down we come here?"

"I can agree to that."

"What should we name it?" he asked me all of a sudden.

"You want to name a room?"

"Why not? I was thinking of: The Room of rainbows."

"Too girly for my ears, how about: The Thousand Colors Sanctum?"

"A little long, but I like it!"

"Well we can always say we go see the Thousand Colors, that's shorter."

"I guess we could."

"Then it's settled?"

"I think it is."

The Thousand Color Sanctum became our little haven of peace. The only place we could talk freely and without being disturbed. Avenia and Neltharion loved the room as well, as it was big enough for them to fly in, and the colors also enchanted them.

The next few weeks were pretty dull, we were introduced personally to every noble in the capital, we were invited numerous times to parties, and we had to appear in public a lot. Everyone seemed to be fascinated by us (though I suspect it had more to do with Avenia and Neltharion than us).

Finally though, it was decided that we would tour all the other islands, one by one. To say that Liam was excited is an understatement. For the first time since we had met, he got on my nerves, and we had our first disagreement. It was almost night outside, the day before we left, and we had returned to our underground cave, palace, thing... I was completely exhausted, and all I wanted was to go to bed. Of course Liam was still full of energy, and all he wanted to do was plan our trip (not that we could plan much ourselves, everything was to be decided by advisors). He kept going on and on and on about this thing on that island, and the things you could get on this other one. My brain had given up trying to follow him, but he couldn't see that.

"Oh, and we can also go..."

"Liam! Please, can I go to bed?"

"But we still have so much to do! Pack, and stuff!"

"As if," I threw at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Everything has been planned already by your uncle's advisors, and our things are already packed!"

"No they're not!"

"Look in your room!"

"No! Because I want to pack them myself!"

I then tried to explain to him the complete waste of time that was unpacking everything and doing it himself all over again. While he tried to get me to help him, I tried to explain how much of a waste of time that was. Our arguments were hallow and worthless. Once we had begun we just couldn't stop, like two little kids we fought for some time until finally I had enough.

I slammed the door to my room on my way out.

I sat down on my bed, and felt bad for some reason. I was just tired, Liam didn't deserve getting shouted at. For a long time I just sat there, just thinking about how much my life had changed. A few weeks ago I had been an orphan like so many others in the 6th. Then I had gotten Avenia, and now everyone wanted to know me. I went from living in sewers, eating rotten apples, to having my own bed and room, and eating fresh fruits, meat and pastries.

"You should go apologize," told me Avenia, who had been sleeping already.

I nodded, sighed, and got up.

I opened my door on the small private living room that connected our two chambers. He obviously had left as every candle had been snuffed out. I crossed over to his door, and knocked softly. No answer. I slowly opened it, and poked my head in.

Liam was on his bed, still dressed, and he was crying. Neltharion was wrapped around him gently. He was the first to see me, and he motioned to my friend that I was there. Liam looked up, tears still streaming down his soft, angelic face. He used the back of his hand to wipe them away before asking me:

"What do you want?"

His voice was soft and tired.

"I'm sorry we fought, it was childish and pointless."

He nodded.

"Want me to help you? Pack I mean."

"No thanks I'll do it in the morning, I'm tired."

He stood up and closed his case to mark his point.

"Well... good night then?"

I asked as I crossed over to him my arms open for a hug. A thing that I had found that he really enjoyed, and that calmed him down quickly and efficiently.

"Good night Irion."

He took the last few steps and he came into my arms gently. A warm, fuzzy, feeling coursed through me. Like sunlight, it warmed me from the depth of my heart to the tips of my fingers. Slightly startled I broke the embrace and went to the door.

"Good night Liam, good night Neltharion," I called out before quickly leaving.

That night, sleep would not come to me. My mind was too busy for that. I kept going over every detail of what the next day would be. All the preparations, the small speech we had to give when we got to each island, and the fact that for the first time in at least two weeks I was going to see Emma again. I felt bad about that too, I had such busy days that I could just not find the time to go and see her. I had of course gone to see her often at first, still lost in the chaos that was the capital. I had taken Liam with me too, and they had gotten along well. She was so sweet with us both, and was, to me, the closest thing to a mom I had had in years.

The next morning Liam came to wake me up in his usual cheerful mood, I reluctantly got out of bed as I had barely slept at all. We took a quick breakfast, and got ready. We were about done when the light suddenly dimmed in our cavern, and a huge noise reverberated on the walls. Intrigued, I looked out of my bedroom's window. My jaw hit the window sill, hard. The zeppelin that was to take us was slowly coming down and a gangplank was lowered to a sort of jetty I had never seen before. Liam excitedly took my hand and dragged me outside, all the while telling me how this was going to be great.

This zeppelin was much bigger and ornate than the one that had brought me over to Capital Island. It also looked much faster with twin motors on each side of the aircraft (the ones at the origin of the cacophony). Archmage Beltiras greeted us onboard.

“Good morning Dragon Masters. I hope you are ready for your journey across Elathia.”

“Good morning Archmage,” I start.

“Do you know what our first stop will be?” continues Liam.

“Aladia, the island of Magic. You will officially be presented to the Mage community and a tutor will be assigned to you. I will, however, not get back aboard the Sky’s Vengeance with you two.”

I frowned but understood that the Sky’s Vengeance was just the name of the ship.

He then led us to the navigation room where we met Captain Odin, our captain for the duration of our trip. Liam seemed to know the captain, and they talked for a while as I looked around at the different instruments around the room and the midshipmen pulling, pressing, and pushing at levers and buttons.

The Sky’s Vengeance slowly rose in the sky, motors blaring.

During the short travel to Aladia I learned that the Sky’s vengeance was the airship of the Vesilius family, and apparently Liam and his family used it to travel from island to island. Captain Odin had been steering his “old girl” as he called it, around the sky for many years. He was a proud and fair man that was kind to his crew, but would not accept any disrespect or laziness aboard his ship. Of course Emma was also onboard, and I was able to catch up with her.

“We fought last night…” I admitted at some point.

“You two? Fight? Doesn’t seem very likely,” she joked.

“It was a stupid fight too, he wanted to pack his things and wanted me to help, but I just wanted to go to bed. He can be so stubborn!!” I whined.

“Because you aren’t?” she answers kindly.

I shot her a glare, but understood what she meant.

“Everyone fights once in a while, it’s normal. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner actually.”

I smiled at her, then looked over to the front of the navigation room where Liam was looking out the large glass panels. He must felt me looking at him because he turned towards me and smiled his flashy white smile that made my heart miss a beat.

Aladia was the nearest to Capital island of all the other islands. It was unique in the sense that it had been the last island to be created. The seven original islands had been made so long ago nobody really remembers why or how, but Aladia was made rather recently, only a few centuries ago. Little pieces of each island had been magically enchanted to float in the sky, and then had been brought together to make up Aladia. Then the mages had built upon the separate pieces and continually fed them magic to keep the spells active. As can be expected, Aladia was comprised of seven districts, one for each of the seven islands. They had even kept the names of the original islands, thus there was a Capital district where the Mage’s college had been built, a Hemrend district for alchemists, an Illumnia district for mages specialized in illusions and light, a Zarch district for Rune mages, a Menden district for Druids (mages that excelled in the art of talking to nature), a Lacryso district for mages specialized in water (very important mages, they were responsible for gathering the water that was then given to the population), and Eincrad district for the Administration of Magic.

Archmage Beltiras tried to explain the history of the island, but he seemed preoccupied and was a little confusing. When we docked, he ushered us out to give our little speech to a crowd of mages that seemed ecstatic to see us. We were barely finished that he had us running after him to the Capitol District. Once there, he gave us a brief tour of the University before letting one of his subordinates take us around the city and leaving us in a hurry. The mage that took us around the island was of a certain age, thus the tour was done at a very slow and relaxed pace. He was very kind and answered any and all questions we had. We met a few mages from each district, visited a few shops, and then went back to the University.

We were surprised to see the Archmage at our zeppelin at the end of the day.

“I’m sorry Dragonmasters, but there has been a change of plans, you both need to get to the capital immediately.”

“What happened?” Liam asked, visibly concerned.

“There was an assassination attempt on the whole royal family, including your father and siblings Liam. They are all alive, but your they do not know if your brother will make it.”

Liam’s eyes teared up. I took him in my arms to try and comfort him.

“And that’s not all I’m afraid, Eincrad almost fell in the ocean.”

We both looked at him in shock, as did most of the people around us.

In the many centuries that had passed since the creation of the islands, this had never happened.