The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

After Alya received her pendant, the flames hissed again and spat out a token toward Rook, who was standing quietly by General Aquila's side and looking around the room with curiosity filled to the brim in his liquid, dark eyes.

"Oh, you're getting a token, too, Rook," Mana said, as the token shot towards Rook.

Rook was startled, but he had been born with naturally excellent battle instincts, so he caught the token with his hand simply as a reflex action as it hurtled towards him. Then he looked at the token carefully.

It was a token made of smooth green jade with emeralds set in it in a seemingly impossible manner. However, there was no doubt that it was something from the Emerald Kingdom, just looking at the colour of it – and it was a powerful magic token. Rook could feel the protective magic radiating from the token.

Rook looked up at King Jaren, his dark eyes full of confusion. "Uncle Jaren, there seems to be a protective magical spell on it…?" he asked hesitantly.

King Jaren chuckled. "Yes, little Rook. All the pendants and tokens that are issued by the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom are protective in nature. It is both for identification and protection, and that is why they are unique to each individual, actually. You do know that the primary nature of the magic of the Emerald Kingdom is defensive, right? Our native magic is earth magic, and protecting the ones we love is what we do best," he explained.

Rook nodded excitedly, and looked at the token again. "Thank you, Uncle Jaren," he said gratefully. "I am very happy to receive this royal token!"

King Jaren reached out and ruffled Rook's hair. "You are very welcome, little Rook," he said in a jovial voice. "This much we can definitely do for one of our own. After all, you have been recognised as a member of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom by the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom now."

Rook beamed at him and put away the token carefully in his pocket.

After Rook put away the token, the flames flashed again, and another token shot out of the flames, this time towards General Aquila.

General Aquila was surprised as well, but he caught the token smartly in his hand, his movements similar to Rook's but a bit more seasoned and effortless and elegant.

Rook looked over eagerly. "What does your token look like, Father?" he asked curiously.

General Aquila opened his palm and everyone gathered around him to peer at the token resting in the middle of his palm.

It was very similar to the token Rook had received – green jade set with emeralds, except that it was a bit bigger than the one Rook had received, and the protection magic radiating from it was a bit more powerful.

General Aquila was very satisfied with the token. "Thank you, Jaren," he said. "It is an honour to be related to you and your lovely family."

King Jaren laughed happily and patted the other man's shoulder affectionately. "Of course, of course," he said. "The pleasure is all ours, Aqi. I can't tell you how happy I am that little Raven managed to find you and bring you back to your family. And it puts me at ease that little Raven has a powerful father who loves him as much as I do."

General Aquila could only smile in response. Then, just like Rook, he put away the token carefully in his pocket.

Once again, immediately after General Aquila had put away his token, the flames blazed and spat out yet another token – this time, predictably, towards Queen Carolina.

It was a good thing that Queen Carolina was prepared to receive a token by now, thanks to Rook and General Aquila. So, she was able to catch the token flying towards her with a swift and graceful movement.

"What does yours look like, Mother?" Bella asked, peering at her mother's hand curiously.

Queen Carolina smiled at her daughter and opened her palm. An elegant token made of green jade and set with emeralds lay in the middle of her palm. While the material was the same as the tokens received by General Aquila and Rook, the design was slimmer and much more elegant than the warrior like designs on the tokens received by General Aquila and Rook.

Queen Carolina had no complaints – she loved the elegant design, and it was a handy little thing to carry around. She was also quite pleased with the powerful protection magic radiating from the token. And King Jaren's explanation helped her understand why all the people of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom seemed to be so overprotective when it came to the ones they loved and cared for – look at King Jaren and his papa bear personality, or Jules and how he leaped up to protect Bella without an ounce of hesitation, or Mana, who would immediately jump to Raven's defence the moment something happened, no matter how big or small!

It was definitely a great family to send your daughter into, Queen Carolina thought gratefully. Heaven knows how anxious she would have been Bella had fallen in love with that Mars fellow of the Amber Kingdom instead! Jules was such a gem, and Queen Carolina was absolutely certain that she would never have been able to find a better match for her dear Bella if she had gone scouring all over the world with a toothbrush!

"Excellent," King Jaren said happily.

He was about to suggest that all of them go out of the sacred ancestral chamber now, when the flames flashed yet again. However, this time, there was a hint of red in the flashing flames, and the pendant of Queen Dora broke away from her and flew into the flames.

Everyone was stunned – even Queen Dora and King Jaren. Nothing of this sort had ever happened before! The innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom had never pulled back any pendant that had been issued by it, and every person who had ever received the pendant was under its protection for the rest of their lives! The protection magic wasn't a one time use protection magic – it could be used as many times as the wearer needed – unless, of course, the magic was just too powerful or too well planned and able to slip in through the loopholes of the generic protection magic that the pendant offered.

The flames flashed red when Queen Dora's pendant entered the flames, and Queen Dora clutched her head with a pained cry. There was another flash of red and something burst out of Queen Dora's body and flew into the fire, where the pendant was still flashing with an occasional red.

Queen Dora wobbled and King Jaren immediately caught her in his arms.

"Jaren…" she whispered. "I – I think there was a curse on me…"

"Bad magic, Grandmama!" Azar spoke up. "Pretty green fire is cleaning bad magic from Grandmama!"

"Good magic will stay in Grandmama, and bad magic is burnt away by pretty green fire!" Alya added happily.

"So – it's like a purification?" Jules murmured.

"Looks like it," Bella replied.

"But who would curse Queen Dora like this?" General Aquila asked.

Everyone sobered at that, and from the determined glint in the eyes of King Jaren, Jules, Bella, Mana and Raven, it seemed that whoever had dared to curse Queen Dora would have a very, very difficult time when their identity was revealed.

The flames flashed a brilliant emerald green once again, and all the red disappeared. The pendant shone brightly and returned to Queen Dora's waiting hand.

"It feels more powerful now," Queen Dora said, examining the pendant carefully.

"How are you feeling? Are you still dizzy?" King Jaren asked anxiously. He had not yet let go of his wife – it was to be expected. He had been under the impression for an entire decade that his beloved wife had died, and now that he had suddenly and unexpectedly found her again, it was natural that King Jaren would be even more protective than usual when it came to Queen Dora. He was determined to keep her safe this time and he would do anything and everything so that he didn't lose her again. It was written all over his face. After all, this was the one true love of his life, his soulmate and the only woman he had ever loved with all his heart – and he had often blamed himself in the last ten years for letting things escalate to the extent that he actually lost her…

But that would never happen again. King Jaren was not alone this time – there were four powerful children around him who loved their Papa to bits and, in addition to that, there were two powerful little dragons with their mysterious and heaven defying powers, who adored their Grandpapa and were as protective of him as he was of them!

This time, no one would be allowed to harm Queen Dora!