Family Reunion

Chapter 3: Family Reunion 

On a continent far away there was a small island kingdom located near a place called 'the central continent,' or what some people call, the center of the world. 

Just now a portal opened, and walking out of it was a beautiful black haired woman with two small horns poking out of her forehead. As she walked, there were more eyes than she could count all staring at her waiting for her to stand at her position and give her report.

STEP…

STEP…

STEP…

The woman who looked to be in her early 30's finally stopped, put her head down and got ready for her report while secretly taking a peek at a man behind a thin black curtain.

The man behind the curtain, had long black hair, a fine suit adorned in gold and black cloth with a blue and white robe placed over his shoulders. He did not have any horns as he was not the same race as her. Although he looks human, many people know that despite his youthful appearance this man is perhaps the oldest person in the room. This man, though mysterious, was not hard to guess who he really was.

For this was his Majesty, King Grove of the infamous grove kingdom and the one who just walked in was none other than his daughter Princess Amelia. 

"Lord Father. I have come back from my journey with stories, gold and treasure, but more than that. I have some interesting information."

His majesty the king looked down from his podium, although for most of the attendants this was hard to notice, but for a super such as herself she could clearly tell that she had struck her fathers curiosity.

"LEAVE." Although he did not yell, his Majesty's voice boomed within the large spacious hall filled with the 50+ advisors and nobles. All of whom were waiting for the girl to leave as she was commanded to do so. Of course this baffled many because Lady Amelia had not done anything wrong at least none had noticed anything. 

But as she stood there with her head down some began to realize their mistake, the ones who had to leave were them not her. So some of the smarter noblemen began to crowd out the doors behind them and scurry away before the king got angry.

"Come" 

The princess quickly jumped onto the podium, moved the dark curtain away, only to find her father now standing a few inches away from her. She asked, "Your majesty, Lord Father. May I please say hello."

She looked up at her father who was about a head taller than her and waited for his reply, with a sad smile he could only say, "Yes, you may." 

This was King Grove, and right now he was holding his daughter like he hadn't seen her in years, even though it's only been a little more than a month. 

"So tell me, how was it? Did you have fun? Did anyone hurt you? Are you hungry?"

This is King Grove. 

"Yes, no and always."

The moment he heard this the king immediately summoned a whole buffet of food through his personalized portals. The power of space knew to kneel to his whim. As for time? That was a bit trickier but he could still pull some neat tricks here and there. That includes summoning a whole mountain of food in his storage space without it growing cold and that's exactly what he did.

"C'mon, I'm hungry too, I had my old chef cook this about two years ago. It should still be fresh. Beware of poison though, he was a great chef but I found out years later that he tried to have me killed."

"Ah! Thank you, if he was that good, why get rid of him?"

"I didn't. After so many failed attempts I guess he just gave up and left..." 

The son and daughter picked up their food and when they were done the king put everything back into his storage space, and threw out a portal inviting his daughter in. when Alesia walked through with a giant plate of food stacked to the brim she found herself somewhere floating in the sky. When she looked to her father she noticed that his plate was even bigger than hers and he was lying down on a picnic blanket.

"Do you like it? I discovered this thing floating over the dresden sea just floating…"

"What is it?

"Dunno, when I first flew around it, it was just some weird island floating above the sea. I noticed some old ruins and checked it out. It looked slightly Demon by the architecture."

After peering over the edge, she noticed that it was indeed floating above the ocean, "Can I have it?"

"Huh? What happened to you bringing me treasure? Who said anything about me bringing treasure to you? Besides, I've already promised it to another."

"What? Who?"

"You'll see."

Amelia looked at her father clearly annoyed and jealous of this unknown person she already wanted to beat up.

"Oh! That's right, the treasure. No wait before that, I had something better. News."

"You know I hate news." Now King grove, who was busy devouring what looks like a giant boiled ant leg, looked like he was going to go to sleep at any moment now.

"Hey hey don't go to sleep old man! I have no idea where we're even at, besides its good news! It's news about a potential divine artifact!"

Now, she had King's attention. With wide eyes he said, "Amelia, if you said this first this could've been used as contribution points. The whole kingdom would scream your name at the top of their lungs for weeks. Is there a reason for the secrecy?"

"Well I don't really know if it's true or not. The problem is that it's gone missing. Apparently the egg heads in charge of the thing had a bit of infighting and the only human in the group was said to have sold it to their enemies and listen to this! Everyone is praising the so-called 'imperial scribes' for apprehending the only murderer after he poisoned and stabbed his colleague." 

"Sounds like the typical setup… then again this is something a human would do. Do you know who might have stolen it?" The Grove Kingdom only had three divine artifacts at their disposal but who would ever turn down free stuff. Especially when it's in the hands of the corrupt. Heck this kingdom was built on the back and treasures of fat emperors, bandit kings and goblins. Lots and lots of goblins, but that's a story for another time.

"I do, currently the elves are planning to jump ship from their homelands. There are about 3-4 million currently residing in a port side camp and a few million more heading their way across the continent. Apparently after the 'High elves' lost their latest war it posed a massive blow to them and they plan to leave before the dwarves can retaliate for stealing their artifact.

The battle I'm talking about is apparently called 'the battle of the last bastion,' the elves were made to surrender about ten years ago and haven't recovered since. Especially after losing their divine tree, and the dwarven kingdoms suspect the elves for colluding with the human."

"Divine tree?" At these words King's facial expression looked up in even more curiosity. His daughter, mistaking his curiosity for greed responds with, "Yes it's called yggdrasil, or it was until the dwarves turned it into furniture."

'Hmm, not surprising. Dwarves in a way are perhaps one of the most dangerous races in the universe, but their culture is what makes them into cheap labor that gives great results. With this they are tolerated and accepted in many lands but it's hard to ignore their blatant disregard for nature. I've been thinking about banishing the ones we have here for this exact reason. I would argue they destroy more than they touch. It's no wonder the two races don't get along.'

"But Father, the only reason why I requested summoning in the first place is because I think the orb is still on the move." What she is referring to is one of kings abilities, basically it allows him to hear the request of his tamed beast or anyone he signs a soul pact with. 

"It'll be hard finding their exact location. Do you have a way?"

Despite her appearance Amelia is actually the king's oldest daughter but definitely the most immature. Maybe it has something to do with her race, her mother was a red dragon after all and those guys in particular are known for their terrible sense of planning.

"Ah well, I have a plan of course." As she says this she's looking away while stuffing mashed potatoes in her mouth.

"Right, and that's why you came to me first isn't it? Ok let me see what I can do…" Ignoring his unresourceful daughter he pulled out a communicator from his spatial storage. Despite what many people believe handheld communicators do exist you just need to have the connections to buy them, and if anyone had connections it would be the guy who can make portals in over 30+ continents and a multitude of dimensions. 

"I'm calling a guy, maybe he knows a guy."

"And maybe that guy knows a guy." Amelia chimes in with a joke only for her father to reply with, "And maybe that guy knows a guy." They both laughed for a bit until he started making some calls.

After a few hours later and several calls across continents with countless kings, queens, brokers, bounty hunters and underground organizations. The two finally found the right guy, and that guy knows exactly where the artifact could be.

"Ok, so apparently a group of elves had booked several underground safehouses across the continent, leading from the scene of the crime to none other than the colony ships."

"How do we know that the ships won't leave without them?"

"Simple, I asked a broker to send me the contact information to the elven council. I offered my services to transport millions of people for a fair price and they turned it down. Obviously there could be a lot of reasons for this but one thing to note is that the colony ships have already loaded up a large majority of lower elves and if I know high elves and I like to think I do, they don't even like the lower elves. There is no way they would wait for anyone else especially if it meant risking the chance of bringing blood elves on board."

"Alright, let's go!" Amelia, clearly looking forward to a 'daddy\daughter' treasure hunt, was thrilled. Too bad it wasn't going to happen.

"I'm afraid not. I have important matters to attend to. Your sister is coming home… with news." The king really does hate news.

"Well that's good right? I heard she was with child. Did something happen?

"Unfortunately, I don't know yet, but everytime she speaks in the communicator it sounds like she's going to kill somebody. I'm portaling her and her husband in an hour. Speaking of which, why don't you learn how to use one of these things? You'll be able to communicate with anyone around the known world."

"Technology confuses me." With a tired sigh and a few sad goodbyes they parted ways and she was off to find a magic ball.

"Time to see my daughter."