A Guide to Kingdom Building

Chandea, Year of Severus, 21st, I.R., the 82nd day of Spring, A.R.T.E.R.I.U.S Headquarters, Southern  Arterian Border

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"I am NOT going to be a murderer to the prince!" Stolas adamantly stated as he kept the ink and sticks away from Prince Arterius as he saw the prince disrobing his upper garments. "NO! You are not emulating THAT experiment of his!" He added.

"What are you saying?!" Prince Arterius asked bafflingly. "I know he was crazy, but he wasn't wrong with the process…well, he missed one important thing..." He scratched his head.

"…And that's why, it's a no!" Stolas raised his eyebrow as he kept the ink back inside the chest.

"You don't understand, Stolas." Prince Arterius said. "He lacked the catalyst to activate the experiment."

"What do you mean by that?" Stolas scratched his head. "He used all of the four elements and then some. He used the liquid aetherite to stabilize the transmutation, but he came in short—"

"Exactly, because aetherite is not close to the real thing." Prince Arterius explained as he picked up the glowing aetherium. "This is the real thing!" He patted on the stone.

"The more you shouldn't." Stolas said. "The last thing we want is a fried prince." He added.

"We have taken so many risks already, Stolas." Prince Arterius said. "This is just another one of them."

"I beg you, Arterius…not to this extent, please." Stolas pleaded.

"Fine, but let's use something else." Prince Arterius hesitantly agreed. "What object should we use?"  He asked his ward.

"How about this box?" Stolas pointed.

"Fine, that will do for now." Prince Arterius said.

Prince Arterius began writing the runes he saw on the book and tried understanding its meaning as he filled the box with it. With every line and stroke he could feel a tingling sensation in his spine. He wasn't sure if it was the runes' power or just him very excited to see how the experiment would go, probably the latter.

Using the sticks, he traced the ley lines he saw glowing on the ground. He and his ward moved the tables and chairs around the tent to create a good space wherein he could draw the patterns. After the roughly marking the ground where the patterns supposedly appeared.

Using what he remembered, he drew the lines and swirls all over the ground before making a bigger circle bordering six swirling lines seemingly rotating counterclockwise. He placed the box in the middle of the circle, measuring its distance from the border and placed three aetherium ores on the border, creating a triangular pattern.

After setting everything up, Prince Arterius went back to the book and read the rest of the procedure listed. He sat on the ground squinting his eyes on the weird diagram drawn by the author.

"I am going to need the ink." He stood up and took the box from the center. "I will be writing some things here." Prince Arterius smiled.

Stolas gave him the ink and then he began to write the pattern and runes down on the base of the box. Prince Arterius was confident that whatever failure the author had with his experiment won't occur to them. He knew very well that they have the right catalyst for the job.

After placing the box back to the center of the circle, Prince Arterius asked Stolas to use some fire runes to activate the stones.

"Oh, here we go with fire!" Stolas sassily commented as he shook his head. "Gods! Please protect us from Vacitus insanity!" He mumbled.

"Pfftt… Shut up!" Prince Arterius rolled his eyes. "Toughen up, Stolas! This is the answer to their question!"

"I still don't get it!" Stolas said.

"Me either!" Prince Arterius commented. "But, just be patient with me and you'll see." He smiled.

"I hate that gummy smile!" Stolas sighed as he stuck the fire runes on the ground in front of the ores.

"Alright!" Prince Arterius clapped his hands in excitement. "Activate them now!"

Using his exousia, Stolas activated the runes. It glowed and burned but didn't affected any of the ores.

"It didn't work." Stolas shook his head. "Looks like the runes we had cannot get it to work."

"What if we do this?" Prince Arterius wrote the fire rune directly on the stone instead of using the readily available sticks the Arterian Knights have. "Now, all we have to do is activate—"

"And how are you going to do that?" Stolas scratched his head. "There's only one of me and three of these ores!"

Prince Arterius scratched his head, "Good point. Can we get one other researcher who knows how to use magic?" He asked his ward.

After a moment of waiting, his ward returned with a scrawny, young researcher.

"Where's the other one?" Prince Arterius asked.

"He's the only one who could use magic." His ward answered. "We could get some knights if you want." His ward offered.

"Wow great idea!" Prince Arterius raised his eyebrow. "Good idea! We might as well give them our blueprints while we're at it." He sighed.

"So, what do you intend to do?" Stolas asked.

"Maybe, I should activate the other one?" Prince Arterius heistantly declared.

Stolas looked at him with a perplexed look. "Ohhh…sure?" His ward was out for words.

Feeling foolish and absurd, he got to his ore and placed his hands on the ore. The other two followed his lead. Prince Arterius closed his eyes and concentrated on creating fire. He imagined he had exousia flowing from his veins, warming his hands. From there, he imagined the warmth becoming hotter until it was enough to heat up the ore.

He felt the burning feeling of the flames seemingly touching his skin. The hot yet comforting flames continued to burn in his mind as he tried to transfer the image and sensation into the flame. A few moments later, he sensed a light glowing near him. It was gentle like an ember in a hearth.

"Is it working, Stolas?" He asked his ward.

"By the gods!" Stolas shouted. "You're on fire! Quick! Grab a pail of water!" He heard the frantic shouts of his ward.

"Fire?!" He scoffed while opening his eyes. "What do you mean—MY ARM IS BURNING!!!" Prince Arterius jumped and waved his arms as the flames burned brightly on his arm.