The Fifth Realm

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 2: 𝖁𝖔𝖑𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖗𝖘🌤

They all stared at it as it morphed back into the little black and blue ball. Xena gave it a little applaud. He always had a cool gadget to show off.

"Come in," said Maria, as someone else knocked on the door.

Imani came in, "Meeting in the Briefing Room in ten minutes."

"Wait, we're invited?" asked Jake.

Imani laughed, "Yes, you are invited this time, Jake."

They all looked at each other in surprise. They were never invited to international meetings.

***
Xena sat with her arms crossed on the table and looked around at the leaders of the other realms. She tried to contain her excitement and she could tell that Jake, Maria, and Alfie were too. She felt like a grown-up. They were in the same room as yesterday where her mom told her the news, but it felt different being in there with everyone in it. The room had been tidied up and the floors were waxed. Banners of the other realms hung across the ivory-colored walls and extra chairs had been added.

She looked to her right. Her mom smiled faintly at her and turned towards her advisors, who were sitting to her right. Whispers filled the room as the leaders spoke in huddles to the members of their realms. The leaders of Shlow, Sultanah Isidora and Sultan Manuel Izan were sitting across from them. They had zero advisors compared to her mother's five. Xena glanced over at Maria, she looked nervous. She was wearing her headscarf around her head and her vibrant traditional clothing looked amazing against her creamy brown skin. She caught Xena's eyes and pointed towards her lap. Xena leaned in her chair to see and choked back a laugh when she spotted Ato.

She sat back down as her mother stood up and addressed the room, "We should get started in a minute. I hope everyone is settling in nicely." She then took a seat and continued to talk to her advisors in a hushed tone.

Xena went back to surveying the room. The leaders of Lagor were sitting next to the leaders of Shlow with modest space in between. She had heard plenty of rumors about Lagor, after all, it was the poorest realm, after the Fifth Realm. She had heard the leader, Osly Rahul was unable to afford any advisors because of financial problems. She had also heard that they had an advisor and he had betrayed them and tried to take over Lagor. She looked at Alfie Rahul in his traditional clothing. It was different than the Izan's. It was more colorful and had more designs. Alfie's nose was round and he was a little chubby on the sides. He looked so out of place Xena thought. It would have made much more sense if Osly had adopted a son that was of Lagor origin.

The leaders of Khethinia were sitting on her side of the table towards the other end. She was most familiar with them and was glad they were dressed in casual attire, she was starting to feel underdressed in her simple blouse and tight bun. Khethinia was Everstan's one and only ally. Madam Edith visited often with her son Jake to get deals on trading goods, or at least they used to. Jake and Edith had come over to their castle once a month when she was little. Nowadays Edith came alone. Xena's heart skipped a beat as she saw Jake laugh and prop his legs up on the table, she hadn't seen his laugh in a while. His light brown hair was ruffled and he had on a goofy smile. She looked at the Mason, who was sitting next to Jake. He had dark black hair and had on a fixed scowl, they seemed like polar opposites.

Queen Vera stood up and cleared her throat. A silence fell across the room and Xena looked up at her mother in awe, she was so cool. "As you all may know, the Ikha has been stolen from Everstan. My team," she paused and pulled up a hologram of the Ikha. A few faint gasps spread throughout the leaders before the queen continued on, which Xena didn't understand. They all knew that it was stolen. "My tech team and my soldiers have done everything in their power to trace its exact locations, but I'm afraid the guilty party has covered their tracks extremely well. The farthest it can be traced back to is the Fifth Realm, and that's why I called you here today."