Jedin had been appointed to be the next Mage to the King and Queen by his father, the mage Stoutius, just three years ago. He had been surprised by the announcement. His sister had been by far more naturally talented with magic, often mastering spells quickly, while Jedin would often spend days studying the same spells, struggling to keep up. To Jedin, his magic seemed stiff and rigid when compared to Moira’s. Her spells flowed and their effects were flexible, often not even requiring her to cast. In the end however their father had favored the experience of disciplined study, and appointed Jedin.

It wasn’t long after Jedin’s appointment though, that his father had died. He had walked into his father’s room to see Moira standing over his dead body before she vanished from the room. Then, despite his grief over his father’s death, and his sister’s mysterious disappearance, he fulfilled his duty and assumed his role as Mage to the King and Queen, and did his best to advise the royal family; a year later though, the king and queen disappeared and their daughter, Kassadea, was left as the last member of the royal family.  Shortly after the disappearance of her parents, she had fled the old palace of Laya in an attempt to escape the sad memories of her old home.

Jedin ran his hand through his untamable auburn hair, and straightened his black mage’s uniform as he stepped up to Kassadea’s newly-completed palace as he was on his way to meet the princess there. The palace was built of polished granite with towers that joined each facet; all of which were topped with long tapering spires.

He entered the palace and walked down the immense halls, which were lined with colossal red marble pillars.  The tall wood doors had Volerum’s crest of roses carved into them. The walls were made of bright polished stone, and reflected the light given by magic orbs tucked discreetly behind the pillars.

Jedin continued down the hall until he came to a council chamber; when he entered he found Kassadea seated at a small table.

Kassadea was wearing a simple yet elegant white dress of satin, which added to her own simple beauty.  Kassadea’s long dark hair was tied back with a piece of blue ribbon, and by the way that she was fidgeting with her hand on the skirts of her dress Jedin knew she was nervous about something.

“I’m afraid my report won’t make you feel any better,” said Jedin as he bowed and approached the table where Kassadea sat.

Kassadea, who had hardly noticed that Jedin had entered, gave a quick jump.

 “So you’ve returned from Laya,” said Kassadea somberly. “Did you find what you feared?”

“Yes,” Jedin started, and then paused before continuing, “The Pages have been removed from their vault, and I could strongly sense the presence of Moira’s magic there.”

“Do you think that was what she had gone to the palace for when my parents disappeared?”

Jedin didn’t speak for a moment; though Moira hadn’t been seen since their father’s death, her magical presence had also been throughout the palace on the day of the king and queen’s disappearance as well. Jedin didn’t want to assume a connection between her presence and the disappearance of the King and Queen, but now he wasn’t sure he could believe she wasn’t involved. “Yes,” he finally said, “It appears so.” He hated admitting it, for it also implied that Moira had been responsible for their father’s death, yet he was not yet willing to believe that his sister was capable of that.

Kassadea’s face gave away the question she had been about to ask about Jedin’s father, but she reconsidered and asked, “Have there been any recent reports concerning your sister’s whereabouts?”

“It seems that she has been seen several times in the woods south of Laya, or at least that is the rumor in Laya—nothing verified though.” He spoke matter-of-factly, though the whole matter still bothered him deeply. His sister’s actions were peculiar, and her motives were hard to fathom.

Kassadea shook her head, “I don’t understand it. Why the Pages? She wouldn’t be trying to unseal the demon worlds?”

Jedin grimaced as he contemplated what Kassadea had said. “Perhaps, but knowledge of how those seals work has been lost for nearly a thousand years, though I know of no other use for them.”  They both sat there thinking on the matter, and then Jedin broke the silence. “All this still bothers me; Moira was never like this before, nor was anything like this in her nature. She had always been so kind and gentle before her disappearance, and there seems to me to be more to her actions than simply being upset over losing the appointment of Royal Mage.” That had been the talk that he had overheard about her disappearance—that Moira had run off after losing the appointment. But the explanation felt wrong to Jedin.

The conversation lulled, and Kassadea massaged her eyes, “Is something else the matter?” asked Jedin. 

“It’s just that along with being troubled by your sister, my coronation is tomorrow, and I don’t know that I’m ready for it.”

Despite Kassadea’s stress, Jedin was grateful for the change of topic. “Don’t worry, these things are being taken care of; the coronation will go fine,” he said with a confident yet reassuring tone.

“I’m not worried about the coronation so much as I am about running the kingdom once I’m queen,”

“Kassadea! You have been running this kingdom ever since your parents disappeared; queen will be no more than an added title.  Besides what’s the worst that could happen? War suddenly breaking out and the kingdom being lost? No, no there has not been war for a thousand years,” stated Jedin with a hint of sarcasm.

Kassadea sniffed a laugh, and a smile came to her face. Kassadea had known Jedin her whole life and had grown accustomed to Jedin’s odd sense of humor, “Thank you, Jedin. Do you have anything else to report?”     

“No,” said Jedin. “I’ve told you everything I know right now.”

“Well,” said Kassadea with a tired sigh, “thank you for your report. I hope we can settle this Moira matter soon so things can get back to normal after the coronation. You are dismissed then. Sleep well, we have quite a day tomorrow,” said Kassadea.

“Yes, quite a day” said Jedin as he bowed and saw himself out of the room.

Jedin went through the palace quietly and out into the palace yard, toward his mage quarters at the south end of the palace yard near a small wooded area that had been left when the forest was cleared for the new palace.

As Jedin walked a cool night breeze blew past him and reminded him of the dark cold feeling that was in his father’s room when he found him dead—the thing that had been wrong about the magical presence there. The thought saddened Jedin and he turned his thoughts to the coronation of Kassadea. She could handle the kingdom, and the situation with Moira. Despite Kassadea’s young age and her lack of magical talent, Jedin had found that she had her wits about her and was considered by many to be wise.

Lost in his thoughts Jedin hardly noticed when he made it to his mage quarters. When he entered, he looked up at the colored lights that floated about his ceiling to light his small but comfortable home.

There were three rooms in Jedin’s home: a living area; a library and study room where Jedin keep books on magic, geography, and history that had been his companions during his studies, along with stories that he loved to read; and his bedroom that also had a desk alongside his bed.

Floating in the air above Jedin’s desk in his bedroom was a wand. A wand that was simple in appearance, simply a stick with the bark shaved off of most of it leaving smooth white wood, with a little bark left on one end to make a leathery handle. Jedin was glad that it was in a magical barrier, because this wand was the Wand of Inheritance, and was the most powerful wand that Jedin knew of. It had been the tool that was wielded by Aljen and Laya to drive back the demons, in the war of the last age.

So much knowledge has been lost since the time of the Wizard Kings, thought Jedin as he looked at the wand. Before the war at the end of the last age the land had been ruled by three wizard kings, each of whom had held a wand of power to rule and govern their kingdoms. Demons, however, attacked the land from other worlds and captured the three wands of power.

The kingdoms of the land then came together into a new alliance and formed the Kingdom of Volerum; the Kingdom to fill the land was what the name meant. The Wand of Inheritance was created as a last way to face the demons, and in the end the Great Mage Aljen sealed the gates to the demon worlds.

Jedin had felt the way the wand had magnified his magical power. The Wand of Inheritance would allow him to handle much more magic than he could without it. Normal wands allowed him to double or even triple the amount of magic he could use, but when he held the Wand of Inheritance, he felt that he could probably use even fivefold the power than that of a normal wand.

Jedin didn’t understand how, but the Wand of Inheritance was used to seal the gates between the worlds. Now, though, it was used as the symbol of the ruler of Volerum.

It was Jedin’s role in the coronation to give the Wand of Inheritance to Kassadea making her Queen of Volerum.

He sat and considered the wand for some time, then picked up a book that was on his desk. A collection of useful spells- Stoutius was the hand-written title on the book.  It had belonged to his father, and had been a sort of notebook that he had written some of his favorite and most useful spells in. Jedin had found it to be full of great wisdom, and was grateful that he had it and could still glean knowledge from his father.

He had started reading a spell for a tempest as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.