The Fifth Realm

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 3: 𝖀𝖓𝖊𝖝𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖁𝖆𝖈𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓🌤

Xena woke up the next morning still processing the events from the past week. It was a lot to take in. Who would've thought her mother would volunteer her to go on such a galvanic journey?

She braided her hair in front of her body-length mirror and put on her locket. They were leaving for the Fifth Realm today, so they wouldn't have a full-on study session like they had been doing the past couple of weeks, they would probably just do a quick recap.

Xena went downstairs and into the Briefing Room. At the same time, Jake and Maria were making their way down as well.

"Hey Xena," said Maria, waving at her.

Xena smiled back. Maria was wearing a red headscarf today and wasn't carrying Ato.

"Hey Xena," said Jake in a mocking tone.

Maria chuckled and Xena rolled her eyes, classic Jake.

They entered the room and Alfie was already sitting there with an intrigued look on his face. He didn't attempt to socialize at all, he was just so serious during class.

Ms. Cornfield called their attention to the front and pulled up a general map of the Fifth Realm. She was Xena's old teacher and had a boring tone. Her voice drowned on as she tried to sit up like Alfie and pay attention. Minutes into the briefing Jake was already dozing off and Maria was staring out the window. Xena was baffled that they were the only hope for keeping the peace between the four realms, so she tried to pay attention as Ms. Cornfield went through the basic vocabulary of Limî.

It had been decided that the four heirs would take the train to the Fifth Realm, do some recon, and come back with information about the Ikha. Since apparently, it would be considered unlawful for their parents, soldiers, or an unknown third party were to enter the Fifth Realm.

She looked around at her team for the mission, they were so ordinary. Xena was surprised that they didn't have any special qualities or training as she did. Jake had his little gadgets, Maria had a winning smile, and Alfie was smart, but they were almost useless in hand to hand combat. In the previous days, they had all failed miserably in the Battle Room against Ms. Rania. What would they do if they were in a fight? It was almost guaranteed that they would run into trouble on their little expedition.

She looked over at Alfie, who was taking notes faster than the teacher was writing them. Her mother had told her to watch out for him specifically, so she needed to keep an eye on him. However, in her, not so humble opinion Alfie didn't look like much of a threat. He was quite smart though, she could give him that.

"And that's all you need to know about the Fifth Realm and the founders of the world. Dismissed."

Xena felt a little guilty for zoning out, but at least she hadn't fallen asleep. She leaned over to give Jake a little jab to wake him up. He jumped up, "Is class over?"

She laughed and followed Alfie to the Battle Room. Rania had told her she had a little surprise planned. Something to bring out their hidden talents. Rania was sure they were underplaying their abilities as well, just like Xena had suspected.

They ate some corn-cream while Rania got the exercise ready.

"This is really good," said Jake, digging into the food. "We should get more of these in Khethinia."

Maria laughed, "In Shlow, too, all we eat is fruit."

Xena couldn't help but feel proud of her realm, "Yeah, this snack is really popular in Everstan."

Alfie shrugged, "It's not that bad." He paused for a second, "don't you think it's weird that all these adults are depending on us to find the Ikha? I mean isn't that their job?"