THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 3 - A New Leaf - Part 1

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Velda couldn't find a place for her eyes to rest between the royals and Mortimer, who was tentatively looking around, though still lying on the floor. Miss Lexio was the first one to greet them. "MepQueen Rhea and MepKing Alesteir. We're so excited to have you visiting." She gracefully made a small curtsy in their direction, and they both smiled. Seeing this, most of the other children in the room tried to do some sort of curtsy or bow. Velda was still staring.

The royals glanced around the room in mild amusement but got to the point. "Who are these magnificent young mages that you've kept from us in your letters?" Rhea asked her. She elbowed Alesteir in the side and whispered something to him. He got the hint and led two soldiers to where Mortimer was. They helped him up, and Alesteir took a long look at his Magistone.

"Mortimer has always had his stone," Miss Lexio explained. She paused, looking to Mortimer for support, but he looked too frail to even attempt to speak. "He's never shown much potential until now. We've only seen a few oddball flames that he had no control over."

Alesteir chuckled. "Oddball flames mean much more than that. This looks like an orange stone."

Rhea glanced skeptically at him. "Are you sure?"

"Well, it could just be the light," Alesteir admitted. "He should have a nature specialty with it, though, and what we just saw would be incredibly difficult to do with any stone that wasn't red." Mortimer gave the MepKing a weak grin.

"What about the girl?" Rhea continued. "And that thing?" She gazed at Cha curiously.

"For your information," Cha butted in sharply, "I am a vaya, and you have no right to be speaking to me with such an absence of recognition. Surely royals know of us." It crossed its arms, still in mep form, then transformed into its vaya form in the same position.

Rhea and Alesteir stared at Chalchiuitl with disbelief. Then, slowly, Alesteir came over to it and stuck a hand through its leg. Of course, it went right through the spirit material, and Cha pulled away angrily, saying, "I do not enjoy that any more than you do."

Alesteir nodded and looked at his arm, which was tingling slightly from the interaction. Somehow, a real spirit was standing in front of him. "Indeed. So, where does this fate come into play here?" he asked.

Velda snapped back to reality and realized that she was being addressed along with Cha. "Cha's my vaya," she blurted. "It bound me to my stone."

Rhea looked to Miss Lexio, who included, "She's been asleep for nearly all of the past week."

"Is that so?" Rhea stepped forward from her guards to investigate Velda's stone, which was again surrounded by its normal faint glow of magic.

Velda crept backward when Rhea reached for her hand. "What are you going to do to it?"

"The same as for your friend. I would simply like to see its color and pattern." Velda stopped herself from explaining that Mortimer wasn't her friend and allowed the MepQueen to take her hand. After a full minute of examining the most minor of details on the Powerstone and its band, she asked, "Where did you get this?"

"I found it in the Nirva. That's where I met Cha, too."

Rhea looked at Cha with well-hidden awe. "You have a name?" she asked it.

"I am Chalchiuitl, a Master Vaya," it intoned.

Rhea was about level with the vaya's waist and could see the strand leading from the vaya's chest shard to Velda's stone. "What is that for?" she asked them both.