-4-

The castle grounds were big, my small village could fit in here nice and comfortably.

It needed this much place for the servants quarters with the weapon and armor smith, our elemental mage quarters, the gardens and the castle for the royal family.

That's why there was enough place for the huge elm that was the tallest in the land, grown by the first even mage to roam the land.

My feet softly thumped on the stone path as I walked down it.

"Hey Mysty!" I stopped walking and turned a quarter of a turn backwards to see Em jogging up to me, when we were younger he thought the other three had named Mystyry or something and had engraved that into his mind so by the time he had realized it was Mystery it was too late to change it because no one cared if he did or not.

I kept my hands clasped behind my back like I do so many times as I waited for him to catch up to me.

"Em." I greeted him with the slightest bow of my head, people always described my voice as cold as ice but warm like summer and smooth as honey, I never could comprehend how those three things could fit together so I just gave up trying and let them have it.

"Mysty." He said when he stopped near me, bowing his head slightly back at me as it was a more polite and formal form of greeting but between friend, the higher a person was in rank the lower you bowed your head, chin touching your neck/chest was the lowest it could go.

"What's got you so worked up this fine evening?" I asked him.

"The lion fur moss." He said with a smile, it was a plant that looked like really hairy moss but it was kept potted and wasn't exactly a real moss, it had an orange-ish tint to it, coming from the south in the heat where Calypso was from, a gift to her Majesty.

"What has come of it?"

"Nothing, the question is what has come of me." I thought for a second before smiling at him and jerking my head softly, indicating for him to walk with me.

"So you finally hear it."

"I still don't get how easy it was for you to understand the soul of that pot of orange and brown fuzzy moss, it might be the size of a house cat but it is so hard to talk with." I glanced back at the huge elm that had spent two slices of sun entertaining me before nodding at him.

"It isn't hard once you get it down, you even have an affinity towards plants. Amalia, Leo and Calypso are only at tulips, talking to the souls of plants is a high level magic."

"It sure is but I will train because I have a goal."

"To be the first to talk to the old elm tree eh?" I asked glancing to the side at his face, speaking a bit less formally then I would otherwise.

"Oh course that never changed! I will do it! Doesn't it fascinate you what type of stories it could tell from times passed?"

"Oh it does, it fascinates me." I said.

"Then you'll be the first person to which I translate."

"Gladly Em, gladly."

We walked in silence for a good long while, enjoying the song of bird and wind.

"Have you heard?" I looked at Em with a raised eyebrow waiting for him to go on. "Princess Audrey will be taking the throne."

"Well that's pleasant news." She was the second oldest of the four children of her Majesty, the fifth unfortunately still born from the stress of loosing her husband so many years ago, I respect whatever woman who can stand after such ordeal and go on with her life.

"Couldn't have said it any other way Mysty." Em agreed, this queendom had been ruled by queens since the start and their husbands being consorts, her eldest was prince Eleric but he was not fit for the throne and being the man he is he has abdicated his right to it so we had been waiting for news about if yes or no princess Audrey accepted the crown, she might have only been my senior by three years but I do think she is fit for her role as ruler of Solor. "He is an admirable man to have realized his own short comings."

"A shame not more are like him." I sighed.

"Well spoken sister, now let us find the others, her Majesty wants us to set up the ball room for tonight for the festivities where she'll reveal the choice of the princess."

"Any style of decoration given?"

"No, she said it is up to Belladonna and you to decide the theme." My comrades knew I was more advanced then them and trained by the head mage personally in my times off but they had no idea how advanced I actually was, only the queen and Belladonna had ideas but none were confirmed or denied by me.

"I'll head to my quarter to get what I need while you get the others and we'll meet there." I said, our paths going opposite of each other.

Our home was like a minimized manor with a living room, a kitchen, storage, a small library and study. A staircase going up to another living room with six doors leading to six rooms.

I waved my hand entering, sparking all the crystal torches around, they were like normal torches as in they were for lighting up places but made of a long crystal shards and if fed by magic a flame would ignite inside of them, being brushed by magic again would extinguish the fire.

I walked up to my door which had a 'lock me out' rune on it, hidden on the back on the handle, only those I wished to enter it could open the door.

It wasn't a big room but I felt cozy here.

A bed in the far right corner just under the window, a few potted plants resting on the window edge to be in the light, on the far left was my wardrobe made by her Majesty's own craftsman as the left door has a body length mirror fitted into the wooden door, her Majesty wants even her maids rooms to be pleasant to look at so this isn't a surprise.

Next to the wardrobe was a desk under another window as my room was in the corner of the house, Nix sleeping in the chair that went with it. Off next to the table in the left closest corner was a wooden crate with many scrolls, ink bottles and quills along with other stuff I decided to store in there, on the closest right was a big shelf with many books on it and last almost right next to my door was a headless fake human torso with arms made of straw and potato bags on a stand so I could hang my clothes of the day on it without crinkling them.

"Hello Nix." I said softly as my old cat as she heard me coming, yawning big, an old lady at eleven years old. Having helped a stray that walked around the castle not long after I came here, feeding and watering it, two years later when I was eight, she brought me a kitten, a few weeks later she didn't came around anymore, safe to say she had passed away but the kitten stayed with me, she was a lazy old lady now, her routine was to stay in my room until supper where she came to join us for food before going back to sleep in my room with a little bit of playing sprinkled in her day to day life.

I petted her head as I passed her, she was a white cat that's why I called her Nix, she was a calm gentle soul like the tree but hers was not into telling stories to me.

I kneeled down and pulled a chest out from under my bed, it wasn't tall but it had some width to it to fit many things.

I opened it, fishing out my side pouch and tying it around my waist before closing the chest and pushing it back under the bed near to the other similar one next to it.

I glanced into the mirror at the insignia, it was the old elm with a silver dragon with red eyes wrapped around it, this was another reason for why my given title ,the silver dragon, came to be, because my hair was silver and eyes were those of a dragon, being exactly like the one depicted on the insignia, it did strike fear in the hearts of those enemies to the crown.

I smiled softly, liking this similitude between the insignia and I before I turned to leave with a goodbye to Nix and closing the door, resealing it with the rune.

I joined the other five who were already in the ball room working away.

Amalia creating intricate designs in the marble floor that depicted scenes without the ground ever changing from flat, Em creating the tables of seeds of trees, mixing dark and light wood, Calypso creating table covers that seemed like cloth out of ice and made ice flowers bloom, Leo strategically sticking dirt in places from where it couldn't fall off from so Em could make flowers grow in it.

"Ah, my dear Mystery." Smiled at Belladonna as I joined her. "Come help us."

"What can I do?"

"The themes are summer, flowers, rebirth of nature."

"Hmm... I might have something." I put my hand in my pouch and called the seeds to me before I pulled them up and threw them in the air, none existent wind carrying them through the room, low enough for people that help up their hands to touch them.

I took a deep breath and with a wave of my hand, the small seeds bloomed into silver white nightshades with red insides.

Nightshades only bloom black and blue on the inside so these weren't called that I guess despite it being the same flower: Dragon's blossom was what Belladonna named my flowers, I spent nights working on coaxing the plants with my magic to bloom for me in this color, it became a personal goal of mine when I learnt that this could be done and I like the name dragon's blossom because of how I look, I am always compared to a dragon which isn't hard with my eyes.

I saw all staring in awe at the flowers because even if they knew of them it wasn't something I always showed off, one or two always sat in a pot around our house and in places they could see it but so many in one place? Never seen.

Glancing at Belladonna she had a proud smile on her face as she watched the flowers float around on imaginary wind so I turned to gaze at them too with a soft smile.