Xena stood at the door of the castle with her mother. Her mom was wearing a beautiful dress made of the finest silk in Everstan, and you could sense that she was distraught from the look on her face. Her eyes kept scanning the horizon and peering at the cars as they went by. Xena reached over and squeezed her arm, "It's going to be fine mom, we're going to figure this out."
They had gotten a dozen rooms ready because they didn't know how many guests the other leaders would bring. Xena stepped on her tippy-toes and fixed her black blouse. Her hair was in a tight bun and she had her tiny gold tiara on. She bent down and made sure that Sabule was tucked into the back of her shoe.
A green car came into view and Madam Edith Walter came out, followed by her son Jake; the leaders of Khethinia. Xena peered at the car to see if anyone else would come out. Mason, Madam Edith's advisor did, but Jake's little sister Suzan was nowhere in sight.
Queen Vera and Xena welcomed them in and a handmaiden showed them to their room. As they went into the castle, a long blue car and a short brown one pulled up.
The leaders of Lagor came out first; Osly Rahul, who didn't prefer an official title and his adopted son Alfie. They were wearing Lagor's traditional clothing and Osly was signaling for someone to help them with their bags.
And out of the blue car, the leaders of Shlow appeared. Sultan Manuel and Sultanah Isidora. Out of the four other realms, Shlow was the only one that had a male and female ruler. In Everstan, Xena's father passed away. Madam Edith ruled Khethinia herself after her husband cheated on her, but there were rumors she was having an affair with her advisor, Mason Smith. And Osly was apparently waiting for true love before he settled down, so he adopted.
Xena smiled at Sultana Maria Izan, the heir to the Shlow thrown. She was wearing a blue headscarf that matched her mother's, and her father was wearing a long blue shirt that looked like a dress. She welcomed their family while Queen Vera welcomed Alfie's.
"Where are your little brothers?" Xena asked.
"Oh, they're at home," Maria said, "but I brought Ato." She showed Xena her cat. Its fur was a beautiful shade of white and its eyes were an emerald green.
Xena took Ato out of her hand, "It's so cute," she patted its fur. She had seen it on her socials, but the cat was much cuter in real life.
She handed Ato back and greeted her parents. They made small talk for a little and the handmaiden took them into the castle. Xena smiled over at her mom. She thought this was going pretty well. It had been a while since they had all come together.
Once they all settled in, Xena went over to the guest chambers in the castle. She knocked on Maria's door.
"Come in," she called.
Xena walked into the room and plopped down on the bed. She glanced over at Maria, she seemed different somehow. She brushed it off and said hi to Alfie and Jake, who were already in there. "How weird is this?" she asked.
"Right," said Jake. He was twirling a little gadget around in his hand. "My mom was freaking out. If this leaked, the Khethinians would flip."
Maria nodded, petting her cat. "It's weird how much power the Ikha has isn't it."
Alfie shrugged, "I think it's stupid. Why does anyone care? It's worthless."
Xena laughed, he hadn't changed a bit in the last couple of years. They were all roughly the same age as her, around 16, but Alfie was still acting like a sassy child.
"Look at my orb," said Jake. He put his little gadget on the palm of his hand and it morphed into a little replica of the Ikha.
"Wow," said Maria, "Is that supposed to be the Ikha?"
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."
Alfie interjected her before she could go on any further, "Only your teams have looked for it?" His face was scrunched up in concentration and he was writing everything down in a little red notebook.
"Yes," said the queen, raising an eyebrow. "Would you like to have a go at it?"
He shook his head and sunk in his chair. Xena scoffed and rolled her eyes at his comment, the disrespect.
Madam Edith stood up as Queen Vera took a seat, "I would like to express my regards."
"So would I," said Sultan Izan raising his hand. Xena noted his accent, it was stronger than Osly's.
"We didn't receive any notice that it was missing, we were just told to come," said Osly. His hands were folded in front of him and his eyes were focused on the architecture of the wall. Xena thought of him less like a leader and more as an easy-going superior. He had specifically told her to refer to him as Osly when she had welcomed him into the castle. All the other leaders went by queen, madam, or even sultan and sultanah. It was strange that he was so laid-back Xena thought to herself. She snapped back to the conversation as Jake spoke up.
"We were sent an xmail. Does Lagor even have xifi?"
Xena looked over at him and shook her head, trying to keep herself from bursting into a fit of laughter. She missed his smart ass comments.
Xena's mother stole the audience back from Jake and glared at him, motioning for him to get his feet off the damn table. She turned towards Osly, "It may have something to do with your xifi connection in Lagor, or maybe my advisors forgot to forward it to you. Regardless, we appreciate you coming all this way. My sincerest apologies."
Xena nodded along and looked around to make sure everyone was listening.
"So what are you suggesting we do?" asked Sultanah Izan.
Queen Vera rubbed her temples and gestured towards the other leaders to chime in. "This is a group decision and as of now there are no bad ideas."
"We can send soldiers to check out the Fifth Realm, to see what they can find," offered Sultan Izan.
Xena looked at her mom to see what she thought of the idea. It wasn't a bad one. Shlow's army wasn't that vast, but Khethinia and Everstan would be more than willing to lend them some troops.
Her mother's advisor, Diamond, shook her head, "The people of the Fifth realm will think we're attacking. Even if we send them undercover, soldiers are pretty easy to discover, they'd be too out of place."
They all sat in silence for a minute contemplating a new idea. Madam Edith's advisor Mason stood up hesitantly, "We could send a drone."
Another one of the queen's advisors shut him down, "Too risky. It could be stolen, shot down, overheat, there are too many what-ifs."
"Why can't we just ask?" asked Alfie, scribbling away in his little notebook.
Everyone glanced over at him. He looked up from his notebook, "What? We can ask someone in the Fifth Realm. Surely you all have contacts."
Madam Edith shifted in her seat, "Contacting the Fifth Realm without proper cause is illegal. It's in the international Great Scroll, surely you know that."
"And this matter is supposed to be kept under wraps. Nothing we discuss leaves this room," said Queen Vera, eyeing his notebook. "Surely you know that."
Alfie clamped his notebook shut and threw it into his lap.
"Well, we can just send our kids to check it out," said Osly. He snickered and patted Alfie on the back.
The suggestion sat in silence and Xena looked around baffled. Where they actually thinking about it? She said glanced at her mom, who was whispering to her advisors.
"Maria can go," said Sultanah Izan.
Xena struggled to maintain her composure. How did they volunteer their daughter like that? Did she mean nothing to them? The Fifth Realm was-
"Alfie can go as well," said Osly. His smile had disappeared and he was finally sitting properly.
Xena looked from Osly to Sultanah Izan. They both looked dead serious. Maria and Alfie didn't look surprised, it was almost like it was all planned. Xena tried to get her mom's attention. This had to be some sort of political ploy. It was common knowledge that every leader was trying to take over the Fifth Realm. It meant more land, more people, more power. Xena tried to relax. No way her mother would allow this. She was sure her mother would see right through their tricks. Did they really think sacrificing their kids for a little field trip would give them an upper hand in taking over the Fifth Realm?
"Would you guys be joining us?" asked Jake.
Xena peered at him curiously. What did he mean by guys? The majority of the room was female. And was he thinking about going as well?
Sultan Izan answered his question, "No, it would be far too dangerous if we went into the Fifth Realm unarmed. However, no one in the Fifth Realm really knows what you look like. They don't have access to any socials and barely have xifi. You would blend right in with the other orphans." Sultan Izan cocked his head at Jake, "if you're brave enough to enter."
Jake laughed "Royal road trip? Parent-free? I'm so in." He kicked his feet back up onto the table and crossed his hands on the back of his head. "I feel free already."
Xena looked at her mother almost pleadingly. She didn't want to go anywhere with them. This was ridiculous. Was she the only sane person in the room? Xena tried to imagine days, possibly even weeks, of endless travel, trying to locate the missing Ikha. She shuddered.
Queen Vera smiled and put her arms around Xena, "We're in."