The world of Emns 3: The soul stones

Chapter 1: Royal invitation

It was warm out today. The bright spring sun shone down over the Marindos mountains, which surrounded the village of Chronest. If it wasn't for the breeze blowing her bright orange hair off her neck, Olivia Denter might have minded the heat. As her long hair fell down to her lower back again, it sprung back into its usual wavy flow. The ice mage had freckles covering her face, from the bottom of her pretty bright brown eyes, to a connecting point on the bridge of her nose. Par for the freckles, Olivia inherited all of these looks from her mother, which she didn't mind. The twenty year old woman also had a large scar on her right arm, left there almost a year ago by a shadowy creature in the forest of Leafa.

Olivia leaned back as far as she could, until the subtle water splashes from the fountain who's edge she was sitting on started hitting her hair and back. She sat back up, gave a big stretch, and looked over to her left. Right at Steven Kaynes.

The young nineteen year old lightning mage had medium length brown hair, which as far as Olivia could note was always messy. Even in the times that her mother, Adria, would try to style it, it would be no less than five minutes after that his hair would be back to its usual unkempt state. He started growing it out more recently, but it was by no means long. His eyes were a beautiful bright green, though some might say it was brought down by the large scar that went across his left eye, and the left side of his face, left there by his late father.. His arms had buffed up quite a bit over the last year as well, mostly due to training with his black-bladed dragon slayer sword. His left shoulder should also have a scar courtesy of an arrow, if Olivia recalled correctly.

The ice mage took a few deep breaths as she couldn't take her eyes off Steven. He was flipping through one of the many books he tended to borrow from the library with a soft and calm smile on his face. Olivia was the one who suggested they sit outside in the sun. She liked moments like these the most, where she and Steven could sit together and enjoy each other's company, even if they weren't directly doing something together. A year ago, this mindset would have surprised Olivia. She always tended to want to leave home and go on adventures. It wasn't like she wasn't more than happy to go off on another trip with Steven. But he looked so much happier when there was less for him to worry about.

The first few weeks after they got home from Arena Steven had been researching aimlessly into the Fynlone Kingdom and the Fynlone mage squad. After all, he and Olivia were highly suspicious that his brother, Frederick Clipium, was trapped in a type of soul stone that the Fynlone mage squad had won in the tournament a few months ago. Maps of the kingdom, information of the capital and the royal castle, he looked through it all. Eventually, Olivia managed to persuade him to rest his head, as they weren't even sure they had his brother. Even if they did, though, they probably wouldn't be able to get him back this way anyways. Over time, Steven submitted to this idea, and hadn't spoken of it since. Neither had they seen Dustan since the first time, the mysterious and powerful man who was the one that originally gave them the clue to Fredrick.

Villagers were strolling by the fountain, which was located at the centre of the village, and in view of both the church-turned-library and Michael's blacksmith. Coincidentally, it was also the busiest party in town. Beside those, a bakery, butchery, pub, and inn were all located around this centre area as well. As a side-note, Olivia had never seen the inn used by a stranger that was out of town, and as far as she knew it was only ever used if someone was going through a bad break-up or wanted to move out from their parent's place quickly. Not even Steven had used it the first time he dropped into town, staying and the Denter household instead.

The stone street was uneven and cobbled together ages ago, but Olivia had run over the paths so many times that she practically knew which stones were good to walk on and which to dodge. A fact that Steven and the other villagers of Chronest had also become superb at.