The Five Realms

Chapter 2

"Why are you so quick to act loyal to a King who shows no interest in your... spirituality?" A woman standing next to the throne asked. She was in a long blue dress with embroidered jewels that shimmered when the light hit it.

Amealia slowly stood and looked at the woman. She recognized the woman as Queen Maribella. Queen of the Crystal Realm who held no power over a single thing. Hence why she has no throne next to The King.

The only times when the Queen has power is when she is part of the blood line and the first born. Never can a Queen, who is married into the family, rule over the realm. The only power she has is the social power to be treated with more respect than the common folk.

"My queen, I used to think highly of my native realm. But since banishment, I choose to no longer affiliate with them," Amealia said bowing her head, "Is it wrong that I have come to my senses and realized who is the superior across all realms?"

Amealia looked back up and watched as the Queen thought for a moment. Just as she was about to respond, the King cut her off. He had seemed to recompose himself from his previous show of fear.

"You wish to abandon your god's out of realization of 'superiority'?" The King asked, leaning forward in his large throne.

"I never said I would abandon my beliefs. I will only abandon my ideals." Amealia said, turning to face The King.

As much as the King wishes she would, Amealia would never forget what she grew up knowing. She would never give up her religion, even if it was frowned upon in a different realm. Her faith is the one thing keeping her going.

"And if your ideals are strongly tied to your beliefs?" King Merrik inquired suspiciously. He was hoping to get a specific reaction out of Amealia that would prove to him that she has any sort of hesitation. A test. A challenge.

"They are not. I can assure you of that." Amealia said, her voice dripping with seriousness.

Her response initiated another unwavering staring battle between herself and the King again. He let the words echo in his mind, deciding whether or not to accept this response; to accept this as her attempting the challenge.

Amealia kept her gaze and breathing steady despite the anxiety that passed through her. She felt her blood pumping in her ears, her mouth felt abnormally dry but she held back the urge to swallow. In a way, she understood the challenge better than her challenger. She knew how serious this was, but she was certain it was more serious to her than the man sitting before her.

The air in the room seemed to thicken with the unspoken intensity. This feeling had fallen upon the room a few times once Amealia had arrived, but this time, it seemed to pulse with every passing second.

Everyone was aware of the test the King had presented the foreigner. Everyone was anticipating the answer. And after a few more seconds, they understood the answer. With the Kings wary smile, came the result of the test. Amealia had passed the unspoken test with flying colours.

"I'm sure the soldiers in training can make an example out of you. I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with that or even a problem with you yourself becoming part of that growing army." King Merrik said with an emotion Amealia couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Oh," Queen Maribella said with a giggle, "Don't- you're getting a little ahead of yourself now. I'm sure we could discuss this topic at a later time." She said, reaching for her husbands hand. He glanced at her and nodded with a caring smile on his face.

"Sure. Jackson, can lead Amealia to a room in the east tower?" The King demanded rather than asking. The young man from earlier stepped out from beside the throne.

He started walking past Amealia with an annoyed expression. When he realized Amealia wasn't walking with him, he waved her over and continued forward. He didn't bother to turn around to see if she was following him.

Thankfully, Amealia had started following him but not without taking one last glance at the King. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she got farther away from the throne room. She felt as if everyone was watching her every move, as if she was a ticking time bomb ticking closer to zero.

Instead of giving into the urge to turn around, Amealia kept her attention forward. When they turned a corner, the feeling went away. She sighed softly and decided it was better to memorize the twist and turns of the castle just like how she did with the path to the dimensional barrier.

The hallways looked like the ones from earlier. They were open and arched, sunlight pouring into the long hall. Amealia actually took the time to admire the architecture without the interruption of a rude guard.

Jackson had finally turned around and saw Amealia looking around, appearing child like. If he hadn't just seen her knock a few highly trained guards on the ground, he would have thought she was as naive girl.

Jackson shook his head and chuckled at the thought, turning back to face forward. The sound made Amealia snap out of her trance. She looked at the back of his head in confusion before realizing why he was amused.

"Something funny?" Amealia asked for clarification. Jackson glanced at her when they turned a corner to a short hallway with more sets of spiral stairs.

"Not at all," He said taking his first step onto the stairs. "It just seems like you've never seen a hallway before." He shrugged.

His voice made Amealia realize she had never heard him speak before. He had the same Irish accent as everyone else in the Crystal Realm. There was an aspect to his voice that made Amealia feel sympathy towards him. It was a sense of hurting.

"I have seen a hallway before. The Divine Realm didn't have... this." Amealia said gesturing to the tall ceilings and arches.

"What? A castle with... hallways?" He asked with a teasing glint in voice and his green eyes. Amealia shook her head and scoffed. She was about to make a sarcastic remark until her foot caught on the edge of a step and she stripped a bit.

"s**t!" She yelped out before catching herself. Jackson turned around in alarm and watched Amealia unsteadily stand up with a shaky exhale. She looked up at Jackson and smiled sheepishly.

Amealia cleared her throat, "Uh, get them to fix that. Alright, mate?" She said pointing to the stone step that made her life flash before her eyes.

Jackson looked at her and held back a laugh. He opted on nodding instead of saying something to Amealia. He then turned around and continued up the last of the stairs.

"You were saying?"

"What?" Amealia asked, still recovering from the misstep.

"I'm sure you had something to say about the hallways," Jackson said as they got to the top of the stairs. He turned around and watched Amealia climb the last steps, her breathing sounding labored.

"We don't a castle like this one. But we have a main house in every district with nice hallways. Us Divinators take architecture very seriously." She said as Jackson led her down the hallway. He looked back at her in confusion."It's a religious thing." Jackson nodded at her understandingly, Amealia waited a laugh or some form of mockery, but it never came.

The Crystal Realm was notorious for disrespecting religions across the other four realms. They think the Bee Realm taking care of the pollinators and seeing them as a higher power is a joke. They think the Woodland Realm surrendering their technology to nature and believing in the laws of the earth is ignorant. And their opinion on the Divine Realm is that they're clowns for believing in more than one god and living off of advice from something out of sight. So the shock factor of having someone from the Crystal Realm understand religion is quite high.

They were passing many doors now with 10 feet of space between them as Amealia got over her shock. The doors were a royal mahogany and the walls were an off white colour. The floors were a light grey hardwood. They seemed to be made of wood that only grew in the Sky Realm but the probability of that was very low.

Jackson then stopped at a door five doors away from the end of the hallway which was a floor to ceiling window, the first window Amealia had seen in the entire castle.

If she was being honest with herself, she thought the open windowed concept was nice for this kind of structure. And that was saying something since she can think of the best kind of window for any room. A strange talent that she took pride in.

"So, this is where you're going to stay. The rest of the rooms down there," Jackson pointed to the part of the hall they just passed down, "are occupied by the other guys training to be knights."

Amealia nodded and turned the old intricate knob on the door. She took a step in and saw the twin bed with on pillow and a thin sheet pushed to the right corner of the room. There was a desk two feet away next to the bed with an open window above it. The walls were the same stone colour that adorned the rest of the castle, except they weren't stone, they were dry wall.

Amealia looked back at Jackson with a blank expression as she thought, 'seriously?' as she stepped into the room to survey it.

"What? Were you expecting a king bed and silk sheets?" Jackson asked, stepping into the thresh hold of the room and leaning against the frame as he crossed his arms.

"Of course not," Amealia turned to face him, "I just... the architecture... I guess" She said her voice dropping into a small voice. Jackson couldn't help snicker at her. "Okay, mate, I get it. It's strange."

Jackson looked at Amealia with a teasing smile. "No it's just that..." Jackson thought for a moment, trying to think of the right word. "That's a first. Alright then. I'll leave you to you to it." Amealia nodded and Jackson took that as his cue to leave.

"Oh, wait!" Amealia called out with panic in her voice. Jackson turned around and looked at her inquiringly. "They items I traveled with. I need them back."

Jackson thought for a moment before nodding. "I'll see what I can do. They confiscated a weapon from you so I'll see what they'll give back. If anything at all."

"I really need them back. Keep the dagger if you want, but everything else is too important." Jackson looked at her for a moment, her dark brown eyes holding something he couldn't quite understand. He nodded at her and began walking away, back down to the throne room Amealia presumed.

She closed the door behind her and sat on the bed, placing her elbows on her knees. She roughly rubbed at her face with a quiet groan afterward. She ran a hand through her hair before she laid down in the tiny bed, closing her eyes.

She took deep breaths and memories from her life in her native realm returned. Laughter echoed in her mind, shining lights and familiar faces appeared behind her closed eyelids. Her eyes shot open and she shook her head. She reminded herself to not think of her old life. That leaving her home was a good thing.

"Step one complete. Just figure out their plans and get out of here and into the Bee Realm." Amealia said to herself in a whisper. "Simple."

She shook her head again and sighed. Her mouth was saying one thing, but her thoughts were telling her another.

Not simple at all.