The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Rook became more serious after learning about his younger brother's true colours. Mana had learnt by now that Rook's father, the late General Aquila, had been a big favourite of both King Corvus and Crown Princess Pica – and if Crown Princess Pica and Head Sage Yue – both travelling incognito – hadn't met each other and fallen in love at first sight until their real identities were exposed at the time of Raven's birth, General Aquila would have been Crown Princess Pica's first husband instead. Not only was General Aquila one of the best generals in the history of the Obsidian Kingdom, but he was also a distant relative of the royal family with a bit of royal blood in him - enough for him to have a royal token. He was also the best friend of Crown Princess Pica while growing up, and the one who had been instrumental in rescuing Crown Princess Pica and the newborn Raven from the Pearl Kingdom.

After divorcing Head Sage Yue, though, Crown Princess Pica did get married to General Aquila and the two of them were quite happy together for a few short years…until General Aquila was lost at sea while dealing with pirates from the Pearl Kingdom, who seemed to specifically target him.

Many searches had been carried out and it was months before King Corvus and Crown Princess Pica were forced to admit that General Aquila was truly gone. Rook had only been six months old at the time. For almost two years after that, Crown Princess Pica refused to even look at any other men. She even suffered from bouts of depression and alcoholism. Finally, a drugged scholar somehow ended up in her bed when she was in a drunken daze – and became her third husband. This scholar was currently the minister of some unimportant department and the father of Dawe and Enca. He was utterly incompetent and the only reason King Corvus and Crown Princess Pica tolerated him was because he was the father of the twins and the twins adored him. Minister Naja was very good with the twins, too, and he treated Rook quite well, knowing he was the favourite child of King Corvus as well as Crown Princess Pica. As for Raven – no one in the Obsidian Kingdom cared about him anyway, so why would Minister Naja pay him any attention?

"There's something very fishy about this Minister Naja, I think," Mana told Raven.

Raven smiled slightly. "There is," he said. "I also think that he was involved in General Aquila's disappearance, and that incident which brought him to Mother was not an accident but a deliberate ploy. Much like Papa and Queen Sora. It's just that I don't have any proof."

"We'll look into it when we go the Obsidian Kingdom in the summer," Mana said.

Raven blinked. "You still want to go?" he asked. "Even after what Grandfather did?"

Mana shrugged. "Well, he apologised for it and he gave you a big benefit, too, didn't he?" she said lightly. "Besides, you're going to be their king in the future – your people should get to know you and learn to love you as much as the citizens of the Emerald Kingdom do. Otherwise, black token or not, Papa isn't going to let you go into a den wolves. And Big Brother might run off to the Sapphire Kingdom permanently, leaving you to be the king of Emerald Kingdom instead."

Rook, who had just entered the room, stopped short when he heard the words "black token" – Mana and Raven didn't notice his entry until he let out a surprised cry.

Rook ran to them and grabbed Raven's hands. "Black token? Big Brother, you really have the black token of legends?!" he asked excitedly.

Mana silently cast her magic to make the room soundproof. If Enca or Dawe appeared – she didn't want them to hear anything about the black token. Otherwise they may have assassins waiting for them when they went to the Obsidian Kingdom instead – Mana didn't feel that she was overthinking at all; having seen Dawe and his scheming at such a young age, her gut feeling was that Minister Naja was behind a lot of things that were wrong in the Obsidian Kingdom. Crown Princess Pica clearly didn't care about her third husband and barely tolerated him, while King Corvus was a snob who wouldn't spare a glance at an incompetent idiot. Hadn't it been the same in the Emerald Kingdom? Papa hadn't cared much about Aunt Sora – and how much trouble had she caused over the years?

Mana shook her head. She'd prefer not to take risks. Especially when it concerned Raven!

While Mana was thinking these things, Rook was hanging on to Raven's arm. "Big Brother! Show me the black token! Show me!" he begged.

Raven sighed and took out his and Mana's tokens.

Rook examined them from every angle while Raven held them in his hands. He was clearly dying to touch them himself, but was too afraid that his Big Brother would be offended if he asked.

"You can touch them if you want," Mana said to Rook, and then turned to Raven. "It's not a problem if he does, right? There won't be a backlash or anything, would there?"

Raven shook his head. "There won't be any problem," he said. "Since we're allowing him to touch it. The token is sensitive to the owner's intent."

Rook was so excited that he jumped up and down. "Really? Big Brother, Sister Mana, you'll really let me touch your tokens? These rare black tokens…there haven't been any for ages!!" he cried excitedly.

"Yes, of course, go ahead," Raven said with a smile, putting both the tokens in Rook's hands.

"Just don't tell anyone about these. Only your Mother and Grandfather know, and they've agreed not to announce anything about it until we visit the Obsidian Kingdom," Mana said. "There are hidden dangers in the Obsidian Kingdom and they'll target Raven as soon as they learn that he's got the black token," she warned him.

Rook sobered at once and nodded seriously. "I won't tell anyone," he promised, looking down at the two tokens in his hands. "I won't do anything to endanger Big Brother and Sister Mana, I swear."

"We know," Raven assured him, patting his brother's shoulder.

As soon as Raven touched Rook's shoulder, the tokens glowed brightly, and a pouch at Rook's waist burst open. A glowing red token floated out of the pouch and golden patterns began to emerge on it.

"What's that?" Mana asked curiously.

Rook's mouth was open in astonishment and then his eyes filled up with tears. "It's my father's token. It's been dull and faded all these years since he's dead…" he whispered.

"But it is reacting now," Raven said with a frown. "It is reacting to the Emperor's seal, which means that General Aquila is still alive!"

Rook nodded tearfully. "But…if he's alive…where is he?" he cried softly. "Why did he abandon his token…? Why didn't he come back?"

Mana patted the boy's arm. "Now that we know he's alive, we'll try our best to find him, all right? Maybe something happened to him and he wasn't able to return," she said.

"Mana is right," Raven said firmly.. "We know now that General Aquila is alive, so we'll find him."