THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 6 - Common Ground - Part 1

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

After the Council visit, life in the castle began to form a pattern. Both Velda and Mortimer were taught by MepKing Alesteir in the mornings, and after a while, Alesteir split their lessons up to teach Velda more complex green magic, allowing Rhea to use the time to teach Mortimer more of the orange nature abilities that they shared.

Rhea also taught both Velda and Mortimer the Common language and script. It wasn't exactly unfamiliar, as the orphans had been exposed to it occasionally, but it was a totally different experience to speak it. Rhea also taught them the history of the language, saying that it had been derived from human language when humans were the only space-traveling species. Velda found it fascinating and learned as much as she could. She and Mortimer were encouraged to practice it in their everyday speech, and it soon became more natural. This especially pleased Cha, as the vaya was much more accustomed to Common. Velda made sure to use Common with Cha on occasion.

Though Velda and Mortimer never called Rhea 'Mom' or Alesteir 'Dad', they did start to use their first names in more natural conversation, and they became closer, almost like a real family. Rhea would sometimes try to educate them on other things they would have learned in school, and when she didn't have the time, tutors living in the castle would take over. That took up most afternoons.

After the day's lessons, Velda and Mortimer would play in the garden and the forest within the castle walls, or practice their magical skills against each other. Strangely, though the paths in the forest had to still be the same, Velda and Mortimer mapped them all and never found the clearing from their first day. Meanwhile, the Altering sickness Mortimer had gotten from Alesteir's teleportation faded to nearly nothing within their first week.

A year passed gently by.

Then, one day, Velda woke up to something different. Instead of going downstairs for breakfast, a tray had been laid out for her on a table, and a note in Rhea's graceful handwriting sat beside the food. Cha came out of her stone to read the note alongside her.

'Dear Velda,' it read in Common script, 'I have left for the spaceport in Trekorona. Eat quickly and come to meet me as soon as possible. Pack your things. Love, Rhea.' The bottom half of the page was covered in orange hearts.

Velda followed the instructions and found shoes and a pocket to put on, then asked Cha, "Why do you suppose I need to pack?"

"Perhaps she has a trip planned. I cannot predict these things." Velda was confused, but she stored her clothing, the magic book, and the teal crystal in her stone.

The mep and vaya went across the hall to the closest stair tower, then down to the great hall. It was relatively empty, as was normal for this early in the morning. A few pairs of guards were posted at the beginnings of corridors and near the stairs. The ones she passed at the bottom of the stairwell gave her a quick salute, and one said, "Good morning, Princess Velda."

Velda recognized the guard's voice. "Didn't I tell you not to call me that, Hollard?"

The guard grinned, still keeping his eyes locked ahead. "I believe so, Princess Velda." Velda groaned, much to the amusement of both the guards. "Go on," the other guard, Kiarnan, said finally, pushing Velda gently forward with his spear. "The MepQueen is expecting you, I'm sure."

Velda stepped outside and walked across the castle yard to the walls. Once past them, she could see Trekorona in the distance, past the castle hill's cliff edge. Even from a distance, the city looked packed. Velda could see orange clusters in the streets where meps were walking between the buildings, matching their hues with the colorful sunrise. In the center of the commotion was the glimmering open dome of the spaceport, which had a ring of orange around it. The city looked even busier than when an ambassador had visited the week before, Velda observed.

It would take a while to walk to the city, and Velda didn't have the hovercraft that Rhea and Alesteir usually used, but she had a plan. She took her circular hoverboard out of her stone and connected her magic to it in one quick motion, then looked back at Cha. "You should get back in my stone. I don't think Trekorona will be used to seeing a vaya sprinting down the street after a hoverboard." Cha nodded and went back in the stone. After a quick look around, Velda got on, tilted her weight forward, and headed down the road away from the castle.

She sped down the winding street and quickly picked up enough speed to leave a dust cloud in her wake. She had been expecting to need to go slower to avoid the meps that used the road on foot, but there was no sign of anyone near the road or even in the houses near it. Velda had to wonder if the quiet road had anything to do with the note from Rhea.

More meps started appearing on the road as Velda reached the city, and suddenly, Velda got the feeling that Mortimer, or at least someone rather magical, was close by. "Mortimer? Where are you?" Velda slid slightly backward on her hoverboard to stop and scanned the crowd, but couldn't see anyone else short enough to be a child between the tall adult meps close to the shops. "Cha, do you see him?"

"You felt his presence. I think Mortimer is here somewhere."

Then a shimmer of deep orange light caught her eye and she saw him, far enough in the cover of a shop's tent to avoid catching anyone else's eye while he practiced using his magic stream. Balzorn was latched onto one of his arms. "Good morning!" he said cheerily in Common.

Velda smiled and responded in kind. "Why do you suppose Rhea called us to the spaceport?"

He shrugged. "I haven't gotten there yet. I've been wandering around waiting for you."

"How can you wake up so early?"

"Alesteir is used to waking me up in the morning. He doesn't do much to help anymore, and I think the Altering has completely worn off, but he likes to stick to routine."

Velda laughed and stored her hoverboard, and together they walked down the jade-speckled granite road towards the spaceport, with Bal flying above them. As they got closer, Velda noticed something interesting. The spaceport was built as a giant roofless dome, with areas on the inside of the curved walls to keep starships, and Velda could see the top of a gigantic starship poking out of it! Hundreds of meps were crowded around the edges of the spaceport to get a better look. Velda pointed eagerly, and Mortimer nodded. "That's some ship," he said. "Maybe the visitors aren't meps."

As she said this, she felt another magical presence ahead of them, much stronger than Mortimer's. Instead of flaring up in her mind and then dissipating, it stayed bright and became more and more noticeable as they walked.

They reached the crowd around the spaceport, and with such a huge number of meps around, a few eventually recognized them as royals. "Look!" one of them gasped. "It's Princess Velda and Prince Mortimer!" More meps turned to look, and they were quickly surrounded.

"Do you two know anything about what's going on in the spaceport?" another mep asked. "The whole thing's blocked off!"

Mortimer awkwardly shook his head and told them, "We're just as confused as you are."

"You might get answers quicker if you let us inside, though," Velda suggested wryly. A few meps chuckled and the crowd slowly parted.