The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

"We have four very defined seasons – summer, monsoon, winter and spring, and our weather varies drastically from season to season. Our summer is hot and dry like the weather we saw in the Amber Kingdom, and it lasts three months. Our monsoon is muggy like the weather in the Pearl Kingdom just now – it remains hot, although not as hot as our summers, but the air gets laden with moisture, and it rains all the time. The monsoon also lasts for three months. Our winter is cold and it snows, just like the weather in the Sapphire Kingdom, and this lasts for three months as well. And our spring is pleasant and beautiful, just like the weather in the Emerald Kingdom. It is green and colourful and there are flowers and fruits everywhere, and it is really, really pretty for three months. Those were my favourite months of the year and I used to sit in the library and look out of the window at the beautiful flower trees in the garden outside…" Raven's voice trailed off.

Mana took his hand and squeezed lightly. It remained unsaid that Raven was only allowed to sit in the library and look outside – he would not have been permitted to go out and play in the garden by himself, and even if he did, there were troublesome characters around who would have bothered him.

"Wow, the Obsidian Kingdom is surely amazing, to be able to cope up with such different kinds of weather!" Jules said admiringly. "It is so different from the mainland. No wonder it is so mysterious! Your ancestors must have wanted to keep this a secret, Raven, because it is definitely a powerful advantage to have people who are capable of bearing all kinds of weather conditions naturally!"

Raven smiled slightly. "That was probably the intention," he said. "It is not that we naturally have these four seasons across all corners of the country, actually. I read about it in an ancient book. Initially, the northern part of the Obsidian Kingdom had the cold, snowy winters, while the southern part had the hot and humid monsoons. The western part was the one with the dry, desert like heat of the summer, and the eastern part had the mild climate of the pleasant spring. There were variations throughout the year, of course, but the weather more or less remained in these buckets. However, the fifth monarch of the Obsidian Kingdom decided that it would be better if all the citizens of the Obsidian Kingdom were able to adapt to the different types of seasons, so that we would never be at a disadvantage when facing people from the other four kingdoms in the mainland. This fifth monarch was also the one who decided to hide away the Obsidian Kingdom behind a veil of magical mists and laid the barriers which stand firm till date. It is said that she did so because of a failed love affair with someone in the mainland, but no details of that are recorded anywhere, because that was declared a taboo topic by her. The fifth monarch of the Obsidian Kingdom is quite legendary, actually – she did a lot of things for the people of the Obsidian Kingdom, otherwise, we may have ended up in a similar situation as the people of the Pearl Kingdom."

Mana, Jules and Bella listened attentively as Raven told them a lot of things about the Obsidian Kingdom – and they all thought that it was good for them to know these things before they actually went to the Obsidian Kingdom. This way, they could avoid some stupid gaffe that would embarrass not only their own countries, but also Raven. After all, they were going there for Raven's sake.

The rest of the day passed peacefully. The youngsters joined their family for meals as usual, and Raven found a chance to mix some precautionary antidotes in the jug of water that was kept at their table, thus making sure that all the members of his family would be protected from the effects of any drugs that may have been added to the food or the drinks. He felt for a moment that he was being paranoid, but then again, when it came to the safety of the ones he loved, especially his family from the Emerald Kingdom, Raven was unwilling to take even the slightest risk with their safety.

Mana, of course, was well aware of what Raven was up to, and she helped him with it, naturally. No one else noticed anything.

Azar and Alya didn't turn up at all. However, since King Jaren was keeping an eagle eye on his two precious little grandbaby dragons, and he confirmed that the stack of magical arrays and magical crystals and other magical edibles was steadily depleting, they are didn't worry about it any more. They would wait for their little dragons to grow up a bit more and wake up naturally.

However, the two little dragons being asleep meant that there was no one keeping an eye on King Jaren all the time – what would they do if some stooge or spy of the Amber Kingdom, hiding away in the Pearl Kingdom, took this chance to attack King Jaren?

Mana, Raven, Jules and Bella had already discussed this, and they had gotten hold of King Corvus and Grandpa, and requested them to set up an array for King Jaren as well, with the same magnitude as that of the defensive mechanism in Raven's room.

King Corvus and Grandpa were both surprised and dismayed to learn that King Jaren was in danger. Grandpa and Grandma adored King Jaren as if he was their own son – and King Corvus had become very fond of the other king as well in the short period that they had known each other. Even though King Jaren was young, he was already the best monarch out of all the rulers across the five kingdoms, and King Corvus had a special affection for King Jaren because the man had been crucial to Raven's development, and on top of that, he had been instrumental in bringing their Aqi back, which was completely unexpected, and something that King Corvus was very, very grateful for. Raven's magical development was more or less expected on the part of King Corvus when he had sent the boy away to the Emerald Kingdom, because he knew that King Jaren would never abandon a child in need. However, Raven getting engaged with Mana and Raven becoming so very powerful – these were unexpected bonuses for King Corvus. He had been aware that Raven's destiny lay in the Emerald Kingdom and he had expected that the boy's incomplete magic would receive the enhancement it required to complete itself – also, this had been something indicated to him by the ancestral spirits of the Obsidian Kingdom. The results had been much beyond what King Corvus had expected, though, and he was not so blind that he would be unable to realise that the credit for Raven's development and all the good things that had happened with their family recently – a large share of that credit could be squarely attributed to King Jaren.

And naturally, King Corvus also knew that King Orion of the Amber Kingdom had been eyeing the throne of the Emerald Kingdom for a long time now, and the foundation of their evil plans for their nefarious goal had been laid as early as almost two decades ago. However, they had failed miserably. King Jaren's two outstanding children – Mana and Jules, were very much alive and well, and Jules had already claimed his rightful position as the Crown Prince Jules of the Emerald Kingdom. This meant that Princess Astra no longer had a claim to the throne – especially since she had colluded with the Amber Kingdom against her own family. King Jaren was a soft man, so he had not killed off his wayward daughter – but he had effectively sent her away and banished her from the Emerald Kingdom. Anyone with eyes could see how protective King Jaren was of Mana and Jules, and by extension, Raven and Bella as well. This was not something to be taken for granted – King Corvus knew better than anyone else how scheming the politics within a royal family could be. His own family was a case in point, too. Now that Aqi was back, King Corvus had naturally enquired about what had happened back then when General Aquila had disappeared, and his suspicions, too, were squarely on his daughter's third husband, the cowardly Minister Naja. King Corvus had already begun an investigation on the man, and he would show no mercy to the man if he was found guilty. It was not that King Corvus was unaware that half of Raven's troubles in the Obsidian Kingdom came from Minister Naja scheming in the dark, but he had allowed it to continue as long as he didn't go overboard as part of Raven's training and development.

But now he regretted it.