Kingstone Chronicles

"Adrian, how dare you sleep in today!" Adrian woke to his older sister, Sydney, pulling back the drapes in his room, allowing sunlight to spill into the room and blind him.

"Noo…" He groaned.

"Honestly, i am not your personal maid, and it is unbecoming of a prince to oversleep." She told him. She did that a lot, reminding him of his shortcomings as the crown Prince of the kingdom of Uriah. Honestly, it was rare that he needed a reminder, though. He knew that he wasn't well liked, didn't care for politics, and was generally lay when it came to his duties. Sydney, on the other hand,  was the perfect princess, polite, smart, beautiful. At eighteen she was already finished with her apprenticeship and taught some high born children who lived inside the castle. A lot of the time, Adria wondered if she was so hard on him because she wanted the crown to herself. If only she did, if she had, he would prefer to give it to her, it would be a huge weight off his chest. For today. Though, she was right. He had a lot to do.

" Thank you, Sydney. You are right." He told her, rolling out of bed.

"And where is your butler?" She asked.

"I told Jaime to get lost when he tried to wake me an hour ago."

"And he actually did?" She asked, surprised.

"I was very persistent." He told her. She huffed.

"Just get ready, we have to publicly greet father in an hour." She told him, shaking her head in pretend annoyance.In reality, she knew that he was already half-awake when she walked in to wake him and would have been ready in five minutes with or without her interference. Despite everything she told him, Sydney knew that between his heart, responsible nature, and his ability to talk a brick wall into bending over backwards for him, Adrian would make an amazing king. If only…

She handed him his clothes and waited on the corridor outside for him to get changed.

"He isn't ready yet?" She heard the question from behind her, but knew who it was before she even turned around.

"I hate it when you do that, Jasper." Jasper was Adrian's best friend, and a world class mage with a specialty in tracking. Blind from birth, Jasper used magic to 'see' better than anyone, even through walls or while asleep. As a result, he had a habit of sneaking up on people and disregarding their privacy.

"Sorry, it's a habit." He apologized.

"No, he isn't ready. How much time do we have?" She asked.

"He is running late. Elder Crun sent me a message, 'meet at the castle gates in two hours.' He wants you to be prepared to leave immediately after." Jasper explained. She nodded.

"Alright, I think that I will use the extra time to take another bath, then." She decided.

"You take far too many baths." He teased. She turned on her heels, not answering,

"I imagine Adrian will want to get some training in, now that he has the time." She told him as she walked away. She was right, less than five minutes later, Jasper and Adrian were squaring off in the courtyard, Jasper ready with his spells and Adrian with his special Whiteblood sword, named in irony of the black royal blood that ran through his body.

"Ready?" Jasper asked. Adrian drew his sword.

"Yeah." Jasper fired two shots of magical energy, which Adrian deflected, then Adrian charged, deflecting two more into the ground and nullifying a third as he closed the gap. Once they were close enough, Jasper poured everything he had into a physical enhancement spell, knowing that the Whiteblood sword could cut through magic like butter. The simple proximity to it drained his spell so quickly that it was a matter of seconds before Adrian's superior skill won out.

"Thanks for the sparring session, Jasper." He said, sheathing his sword.

"You seem faster than usual today." Jasper commented.

"Had a huge headache until a half hour or so ago, then it mostly disappeared. Now i've got this awesome energized feeling, like I can fly!" Adrian told him excitedly.

"Well, we have almost two hours, Sydney free, so what do you want to do? Find the tallest tower in the castle and see if you can actually fly?" Jasper joked.

"Tempting… but I really feel like taking a little stroll through town." Adrian decided.

"Alright, then. If you aren't doing anything you need me for, then I think I'll be staying here to catch up on my research a bit, then I'll escort Sydney." Jasper said.

"Alright, I'll do my best to keep an eye on the time." Adrian assured him. A few minutes later, Adrian was on the town's main market street wearing a cloak to hide his identity. He strolled around for a while before buying an apple.

As he paid for it, he noticed a girl skillfully steal an apple from the man's cart. Had he not noticed how she carried herself differently than most, even he wouldn't have noticed her slip it into her tunic, but he did.

"Stop!" He called to her, which did nothing but cause her to turn tail and start running. He immediately dropped a handful of coins onto the counter and chased after her.

The thief was remarkably fast, but Adrian was taller and knew the streets better. Despite those advantages, the thief was able to pull ahead by using agility unlike anything he had ever seen. It was almost mesmerizing how easily she flew through crowds and food stands, leaving obstacles in his way from barrels to people who hadn't even really noticed her move them. After nearly stumbling over another barrel, Adrian felt his hood come off, confirmed by gasps of recognition from civilians as he raced by. 

Losing his disguise actually made the chase easier, as the people started jumping out of the way as he approached, usually with exclamations like "Prince!"

After a few blocks, Adrian realized something.

"She's headed to the park!" He wondered why, sure the park was a large space with plenty of trees for cover and far fewer people than in the city itself, but it was a tactical dead end.

The park was one block away from being surrounded by city walls on two sides and adjacent to a third, which was where most of the trees were. The rest of the park was mostly clear, with a small stream cutting through, which fed into a pond towards the inner city.

When she finally set foot on the grass, she looked over her shoulder. He saw her eyes widen in shock when she finally noticed his intense blue eyes and blonde hair, showing him to be an Allaris, Without any obstacles to make use of her fearless agility, Adrian gained the advantage. They made their way to the pond, him gaining on her with every step they took. Unfortunately, her lead was too great to be closed so quickly. Just before she jumped into the pond, she turned around, allowing Adrian his first chance to get a good look at her face. That one look caused him to trip on a root, she was so distractingly beautiful.

She had raven black hair, blue eyes, and an innocently mischievous cherry red smile. Her skin was whiter than her plain white cotton tunic, and she was splotched  on nearly every inch of exposed skin with the beginnings of sunburns.

She locked eyes with him for a moment, a sad spark in her eyes as she raised her arms over her head in a relaxed pose, allowing her shirt to billow out in the wind as she leaned backwards. Her tunic was the last he saw of her as she gracefully allowed herself to fall into the pond, disappearing from view without even a splash. He dove at her before she hit the water, but his hands managed to grasp only air. He searched for her in the pond for a while, but not very hard, because he knew a transport spell when he saw it. She did leave a trace, though.  He plucked the apple out of the grass and took the first bite. He had paid for it after all, so someone should eat it, he decided.