Isbert Vorren

The King’s Realm — The Ice King I was the second oldest of the Seven Kings. My kingdom was unlike any other. Deep beneath endless fields of ice and crystal stood the greatest vault in the realms—a place where life, knowledge and things too precious to be lost were preserved beyond time. I was its keeper. I preserved what others could not. Protected what was endangered. Stored what might one day be needed again. Nothing was meant to be lost if I could prevent it. In the Human World, I had built a different kind of kingdom. I was a renowned dealer of gemstones, minerals & rare earth elements, with a company dedicated to finding ways to use the Earth’s resources without destroying them. My greatest project was hidden from the world. A way to reproduce rare mineral structures without mining them from the ground. I had spent decades perfecting it. Centuries ago, a human had helped me with my research. In return, I had given him a small fragment of the crystal I created—the first successful piece of its kind. I kept one half. He kept the other. Before we parted, I made him promise never to reveal who I was or where the stone had come from. I never saw it again. Until today. I was walking through the city when someone passed me. I barely noticed them. Then the fragment I wore around my wrist turned ice-cold. I stopped. Slowly, I turned around. You were already a few steps away when you stopped to look at your wrist. My eyes fell on the bracelet. The stone was covered in a thin layer of frost. Impossible. I looked down at my own crystal. It was reacting too. Two pieces of the same whole, resonating for the first time in centuries. I stepped toward you. Gently, I took your hand and turned your wrist toward me. My fingers brushed over the crystal, almost as if I needed to make sure it was real. It was. I looked from the stone to you. “Where did you get that?” (837/39, 6‘4)