A rather elderly lady with grey hair, which she wore in a topknot at the back, stood in the middle of a cellar room. It was damp and cool down here and the candles in the corners of the large room only helped to illuminate it to a limited extent. The woman, who was dressed very professionally and acted in a similarly professional manner, was holding a writing board in her hand on which she was making notes. She was currently inspecting the stone relief on the wall in front of her. It depicted a king in the centre, surrounded by five differently illustrated flowers. What was particularly striking and the reason why she had been summoned here, was the inscription below it, which was written in ancient Arthark. Wenzel stood behind her, squinting, as it were, at the seemingly ancient depiction carved in stone. He just watched quietly while the lady pondered intensely and made notes on her parchment.

  She was one of the best philologists in the empire and the ruler had summoned her to translate the inscription for him. He just stood there in silence and waited. Then the man looked over her shoulder and asked: "So, what’s the situation? Can you make anything out of it?" The expert turned to him and said: "This is a curious case, Your Highness. The script is Arthark, that of the Gordomanns who inhabited this area in ancient times. But the words themselves, if you translate them, are not in their language." - "What language is it then?" enquired Wenzel, whose interest had certainly been piqued. "I would say that it is the dead language of Ostrisul." The emperor looked at her with a puzzled expression. She then explained: "This is the former liturgical language of Teleiotism, which was still used during the time of Melgar, praise be to his name, although it no longer had any active speakers even then and was, therefore, already a dead language. His son Melgar II then switched to using Old Camenian as the language of the church. This is also due to the fact, that the dynasty of the Chosen One, blessed be his name, came from Camenia." Wenzel had already understood. "And what does the text say now?" - "I've written it down here. It can't be translated one hundred per cent into our language, but it means something like:

  Five precious treasures. Five keys to eternity. United in one hand, they pass on fate into the future.

  "Cryptic. And not very helpful," noted Wenzel. Nevertheless, he thanked the scholar for her help and dismissed her again. He then continued to gaze at the relief for a while longer. The five spheres, which were all surrounded by different-looking petals, undoubtedly represented the "5 treasures". But what were they? Apparently, an attempt had been made to encode the information so that only certain people could understand it, which also explains the use of a different script for a message that was in some other dead language. Soon afterwards, he extinguished the candles and locked the room again. As he emerged from the labyrinthine cellar, Petra ran into him in the palace. She literally ran blindly into him, got startled and then immediately hurried on. Surprised, Wenzel turned round and looked after her. She stopped immediately afterwards, turned to Wenzel with a disdainful look in her eyes and said: "My apologies!" Then she was on her way again. The young man was thoroughly irritated by August's wife, who clearly couldn't stand him. She didn't have to, in his opinion, but her dislike was clearly reflected in her behaviour.

  A little later, Petra arrived at her lover's office. As usual, he was busy working. When she entered, he was taking down a few rolls of parchment from the top shelf, which he was standing on the chair for. "Hello!" he greeted her briefly and then climbed down carefully. The chancellor then hobbled over to his desk. At the sight of this, his lady frowned and made a pained expression. August was well aware of this and immediately began to talk about something to distract her from her thoughts. "Well, things seem to be going exactly as I had hoped." - "What do you mean?" Petra had to ask. Her husband replied: "We were able to successfully replace those in Zeemark. This has eliminated one of the main potential problems for the long-term stability of the empire." His wife just stared at him and nodded silently. "Now we still have the fickle Camenians left as a factor, but the birthplace of the Chosen One is deeply rooted in the old beliefs and has no good ideological reason to disagree with us. Still, I fear that the old king and his entourage are always going their own way." After a short pause, Petra then said: "You should take care of them, too! Back then they forced you to fight against them until they finally submitted. Any problem that you leave unresolved will only grow over time and will end up biting you in the butt!"

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  Meanwhile, Wenzel returned to his study. A number of documents had been prepared for him to sign off on. He read through them and then did as he was expected to. When he had finished, he laid out a bound book, all the pages of which were blank, and began to write in it. The title was: "De Arte Magica". He now began to write down everything he knew about magic. After the Alethics had destroyed all ancient knowledge in their destructive frenzy, he now began the work all over again so that the next generations could build on the knowledge of their forefathers. This was essential. The emperor had not forgotten the importance of knowledge either. He would now employ private tutors for most of the weekdays so that he could build up the stock of knowledge he needed to be an adequate ruler. He still understood far too little about the peoples of Kaphkos, their histories and mindsets, but also about how a country properly functioned. However, it would take him many years to acquire this knowledge. Good things take time, as the saying goes.

  Apart from his work utensils, there was still not much else in his room. The Chosen One lived very modestly. He wore the imperial uniform to be recognised as the emperor, but apart from that he didn't need much. Even the food he ate was usually quite "banal". Word about it went round everywhere. The clergy were very pleased that the emperor lived so virtuously and, as they understood it, in accordance with the requirements of the Holy Testament. For Wenzel himself, however, there was no religious reason for this. He was simply modest and did not need more than was necessary for him. He was averse to pomp and opulence.

  In the book, the young man now noted that, in his experience, "simple things" such as telekinesis or pyrokinesis could be used just like that without any further requirement, and that there were apparently other "complicated types" of magic, such as healing magic. Elisabeth had mentioned this explicitly, speaking of a ritual. It looked as if some things could only be done with magic, if you took certain steps or fulfilled certain requirements. The young emperor didn’t know yet what these were. Then there was a knock at the door and he was asked to come to dinner. Here he dined again with Brahm, Ferenc and Amalie. The couple now saw each other every day. She tried not to disturb her boyfriend in his activities, so they usually spent some time together in the evening.

  They talked a lot and Amalie enjoyed telling him about her friends and family. She had already invited a few of her old friends here, but with most of them she didn't even know whether they had received her letter or where exactly they were now. It would be years before everything would be completely back to normal and back on track. "Your parents should come over here again," Wenzel suggested. "I don't really know," Amalie replied somewhat hesitantly. Naturally, the magician had to ask: "Why? Don't you get on with them?" - "Yes, of course, I do! I'm just afraid that they'll ask me about our relationship again. I wouldn't know how to answer them." Wenzel understood what she meant. "You don't want to lie to them, as we haven't officially announced it yet. That's it, isn't it?" She confirmed his speculation. He looked briefly at the other corner of the room and then back at the girl. He looked her in the eye and she did the same. Both their faces were illuminated by the light of the flickering candle in the otherwise dark room. Neither of them said anything more. They came closer to each other in the quiet candlelight until they kissed. Afterwards, Wenzel said: "I think it's time to tell the others." In a way, the girl was happy about this decision.