Katolis City.

Within the Governmental district, Viren held an eyedropper over him, wincing each time the liquid made contact with his eyes, The potion was extremely difficult to make with several failures along the way.
Around him, several people were preparing for whats to occur next. Nearby was a see-through window made of reinforced glass connected to another room. Inside was a pedestal with an unusual cube, everything about it remains a mystery with no lore to even reference it. It is surrounded by an array of different machines with thick conduits leading to the other room.

"Are you ready?" An older woman said, standing next to him. Her name was Agatha Enneas, she was Viren's mentor and currently the most knowledgeable mage in Katolis.

"I am," Viren said, still wincing as his eyes turned pitch black. He then stood in front of the reinforced window peering at the cube and chanted,
"Neddih si tahw laever eye gniees eurt."

"Begin" was all she said as the machines began to glow and emit energy. The runes for each element on the cube began to glow in response to elemental nature of the primal elemental energy directed towards it.

"Primal Energy output is at 20% and rising steadily, no anomaly detected," one person said as he looked over his instruments.

Three minutes later, "Output is at 100%, beginning darkened energy infusion," said the man. Suddenly purple lightning struck the cube from all sides.

Viren kept his eyes on it hoping for something to happen, but as the minutes wore on he ordered the experiment to stop.

He and Agatha went back, those that remained looked over the data trying to see if there was anything different from the previous attempts.

"It seems it won't respond to anything but Prince Callum." He said.

"Yes, but why? Is the Prince just unique or was it due to specific conditions we are unaware of? She said.

"Maybe it was due to the specific spell that struck the Prince combined with the period of time before the cube came into play." Viren said.

" It is called the Key' of Aaravos, so it maybe a possibility that the Prince already had the ability to perform primal magic but it was merely dormant.." she offered while deep in thought.

"Still, who is this Aaravos, why are all mentions of him are automatically erased?" she said, wondering what this elf even did that his existence had to be hidden from the world. None of the elves she talked to, not even Vaeril had ever even heard of that name.

In a bedroom within the castle, the room reverberated with the sound of stones grinding against each other. From under the bed emerged a yellow glow toad followed a blue dragon and finally the Crown Prince.

"Good job you two. I'd say this was our fastest escape yet" he said.

"So how'd the heist go?" a voice came from behind him.

"It went without a hitch!" Ezran said proudly "WAIT!" he recognized the voice and turned around quickly only to be pulled into a tight hug.

"Dad, why are you in my room?" he said while hugging back. Zym decided to join in.

"I came to check on you and found you were gone so I decided to wait for you. How did you know about these secret tunnels?" Harrow said as he ruffled his son's hair.

"Callum showed me, he said he'd found them a month or two after he moved into the castle."

"haha and here I was planning to tell you both about these tunnels next year... according to legend they were built by the Orphan Queen." he said as he let his son go.

"Really?" Ezran asked while bait looked disinterested and Zym was curious as ever.

Harrow laughed "yes, she was said to be quite eccentric, no one knows why she built these tunnels or how far they go. They say she hid vast treasures, magical items, and even locked away monsters inside them though no one has been able to find any." though he now worried his son might go explore them more often now that he told him about this.

"And on the topic of your brother, he'll be arriving in a couple of hours. Princess Aanya and Prince Preston will arrive tomorrow" Harrow said.

"Really?!" The young prince said, his eyes were beaming with joy but then his expression changed which harrow noticed.
"Hey dad," He asked, his eyes now appeared a bit hesitant "why do people still call Callum a "spare"?"

"Who exactly are they?" he asked making sure not to reveal his sudden surge of anger.

"It was Count Gaincel, I heard him talking to a bunch of nobles about Callum being given his title." he said, his face making his feelings quite clear.

Harrow internally facepalmed, he should have known it was them.

"Just ignore them, their too hardheaded to think beyond their narrow views of the world. I'll deal with them somehow." he said, he swore he would. Gaincel's little group was a particular thorn in his side that he intended to deal with. So far, his investigations haven't found anything that would be enough to dissolve their houses. He was hoping Callum might've had better luck.

"Callum told me he'll be staying in the capital for the rest of the year and won't be leaving unless its important, so you kids can spend time enjoying yourselves." He said,
Ezran was so happy that he didn't realize that he was crushing Bait who was turning purple due to asphyxiation.

They continued to talk for some time before Harrow had to leave. Ezran turned to his companions and said "Alright, time to explore these tunnels to find some treasure."

Bait merely grunted with disinterest while Zym excitedly ran around in circles.

Back in Rimemere.

Rayla watched the heavily armed airship as it was descending towards the mansion. She had occasionally seen them soaring in the sky, but this would be her first time seeing them up close and getting on one.

For both Callum and Vaeril, the novelty of an airship descending had worn off long ago, so they were busy discussing other matters. But for her, the only thing she had for comparison to this experience was when dragons flew to the Silvergrove.

The airship landed in the courtyard. A boarding ramp extended, and a man in a bright white uniform exited the ship making his way toward the prince and greeted him with a salute, and began telling him of their schedule among other things.

After several minutes had passed they all entered the airship, she wondered which part of the ship offered the best view outside but decided it was probably not a good idea to explore a military vessel on her own, so she went with Callum because the only other person she could talk to onboard was the incarnation of death itself sitting in the other room.

After thirty minutes, the airship began to rise. She was nervous for several minutes knowing that the floor under her feet was the only thing keep her from a several kilometers long drop. Callum spent a good amount of time just calming her down.
She went over to the window and peered outside with her face pressed against it. She felt like she could see the whole world from up there. She was told the journey wouldn't take more than a few hours which was astonishing since walking to the capital would take several weeks.

"So how does this thing work? you said you'd tell me after we get on board." She asked,

He smiled as he put his book down and began to explain. "In simple terms, an airship is just a magic-powered balloon, the inside is filled with a gas called Helium which is lighter than air."

"Wait thats it? this thing flies because it has this helium inside?" she asked

"Well yes and no, The helium by itself isn't enough, so we use magic to increase its lift capacity and to impart similar properties to the airship itself making it lighter as well. Otherwise, we'd need more helium or have to remove the armor, weapons and downsize everything else." He said trying to keep things simple but he was interrupted by a beeping, he pressed a button and a voice came through. "Your highness, I wish to inform you that lunch will be severed in the starboard viewing area in 20 minutes and that Sir Vaeril will not be joining you this after noon."

He turned it off and turned to her
"I trust your apatite has recovered from earlier?" he said to her as he got up.

"I'd never turn down food," she said as she followed him out.

"YOU are probably the biggest glutton I've ever met," he said rolling his eyes.

"Hey, its your fault that I'm surrounded by such delicious food these days." she said, pretending to glare at him.

"Guilty as charged," he said.

"So why does this warship have a viewing area?" she asked. It didn't really make sense for a warship to have one.

"Its not a dedicated warship, its meant to transport the royal family and other important people." he explained, remembering that all this stuff is still new to her.

"Oh, so I am an important person now?" she said.

"Indeed you are, after all the ambassador from the kingdom of gluttony shouldn't be delayed from her next meal," he bowed to her in response.

they continued their banter till they arrived at their destination taking the table closest to the edge where there was a large glass window to see outside. They had a exquisite five course meal brought to them though Rayla ended up ordering seconds and thirds while Callum took his time.

"This is what I call a view. Seriously, you rich people have all the fun stuff." she said as she was finishing off her dessert which consisted of cake and ice cream.

"Well we will be starting our own passenger service for civilians after we find a way to make it affordable." He said

"Yeah but will it have any of these?" gesturing to all the opulence that surrounded them.

"Nope, that would make it unaffordable." he conceded.

"I rest my case. So how'd you ever meet someone like Vaeril? that's not classified is it?" she'd been wondering about this for days now.

"I met him after I was kidnapped by the dukedom" the happiness was now gone from his voice.

"Wait if you were kidnapped then shouldn't Katolis have declared war on the Dukedom?," she asked, this was becoming more confusing,

"The ones who kidnapped me were acting on their own and made it look like I died, plus back then our military wasn't strong enough to wage a war and have a high chance of winning." He said, she could detect a bit of frustration in his voice...

It was during that time that I met Vaeril, we caused a lot of chaos for while before we managed to escape to Katolis." He continued to explain which looked completely out of place with him peacefully eating dessert.

"Then that means you're a part of..."

"The legion? I am, he and I formed it by uniting the scattered resistance cells within the dukedom" he said nodding to her,

"If they went that far then why aren't you surrounded by an army right now?" she asked

"Oh, there are five airships a few hundred meters above us right now their own troop complements, this ship is no different. It was also the same while we were at the mansion ignoring the other measures in place." he clarified to her while eating his dessert.

After he mentioned that she looked around and noticed that the people around were occasionally glancing their way and it wasn't out of curiosity. She understood why he was being so casual, it would require a huge force just to get anywhere near him and even if they succeeded it was unlikely they would escape. She had gotten so used to being casual with him that she had entirely forgotten just what his position entailed.

"Isn't this a bit overboard for a prince?" she asked, she wasn't sure a prince needed this much protection.

"Not really, being the Margrave as well as a prince kinda requires I take extra security precautions," he said. She now understood why she often found him doing stuff that felt out of place for a prince but she just thought it was how things worked in Katolis.

They continued talking for the rest of the journey though they decided to change the topic to something less heavy.

Agatha had gone to the library while Viren was in his office going through the data they managed to compile, then Soren came in with a plate full of sandwiches,
"hey dad, figured you'd be hungry by now... wait where's Claudia?" he said.

"Dad? I need some help here," a moment later her voice suddenly came from the door leading to the repository where magical items were stored and studied.

The two of them looked at the door wondering if they should ignore it or not.

"Clauds? what's going on?" Soren asked as he put the plate on the desk and moved to a corner.

Viren walked over and opened the door, and they saw a skeleton with an amulet around its neck.
"Claudia, explain what exactly happened," Viren said while rubbing the bridge of his nose and thought. "This was going to be a long day." as he moved several steps back.

"I was helping the team in charge of studying this amulet. We tried different spells to see if we could induce a reaction. Somehow my consciousness became tied to this amulet and it flew off on its own towards the skeleton bringing it to life, then it ran away from us." her voice coming from the amulet itself as the skeleton began to move towards them.

Soren quickly grabbed the broom from the corner.

"Back! Back off foul creature! Back to the pit from which you came!"

He attacked it in an over-dramatic fashion bonking its skull at every opportunity.

"Oh real mature Sorbear. This must be soooo much fun for you." she said,

"I won't deny it nahahaha" he was trying to imagine what her expression must be like while he drove it back until it started to run away. He held the broom like a spear and threw it at his fleeing target. It struck its neck, separating its skull from its body. He quickly moved to grab the amulet, and the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones, the unmoving kind.

He retrieved his trusty weapon and promptly began whistling while sweeping away the pile of bones. He was definitely going to tell Callum about this when he got back.
"So now what?" he asked.

"Now we go find your sister and the other involved." was all he said while slowly heading towards the repository with a sandwich in one hand. None of them would quickly forget the earful they got from Viren.