For the final time the door was flung open in the morning and King Letholdus was the first to enter.

"Marvelous! Absolutely amazing!" He stated his last exclamation while stepping into the room full of gold. "Truly you are an incredible girl after all."

"Thank you, your highness." Aurelia played along.

From behind Letholdus Lucas gave her a small grin. She smiled back and noted that Lucas had bags under his eyes and looked nearly as tired as she was. He must have stayed up all night doing research.

"Well, that settles it! I shall inform the planners at once." Letholdus' words wiped the small smiles from Lucas' and Aurelia's faces.

There was no reasoning with him. There was no arguing with him. There was no refusing his wishes. He was the king and what he says goes.

Aurelia knew that if their plan was able to work he wouldn't be in power for too much longer. They hoped not, anyway. He was not fit to rule the kingdom and if he continued to Atharia would fall.

"Of course, your highness." Aurelia told the king in a monotone voice.

"Splendid!" The king said. He walked out of the room telling a servant to melt down the spools of gold.

Aurelia ran over to Lucas and they strolled out of the room together. Aurelia found a huge weight leave her shoulders as she stepped out of the room. She would never have to pretend to spin straw into gold again.

"Did you find anything?" Aurelia wondered.

"Nothing that could be of any use." Lucas admitted. His shoulders slumped and he frowned. "I'm sorry but it looks like I've failed you."

"No you haven't. You did your best and besides I found out something." Aurelia declared.

"What did you find?" Lucas wondered.

"Mr. Gold can grant our wish. All we have to do is find him again. He can no longer come to us, so that makes things a bit more difficult, but if we can find where he lives we can go there, make a deal, and get a new ruler." Aurelia explained.

"Alright... That sounds like it'll be more difficult than you make it sound." Lucas admitted, shrugging.

"I don't think we've got any other plans." Aurelia let out a deep breath.

"Fair point, but we don't even know where we'll have to go." Lucas noted. This statement was true and made the situation even more difficult.

"You're right and I believe," Aurelia sighed. "That will be the difficult part."

Lucas' small smile returned. "You mean more so than the actual journey itself?"

"Perhaps," Aurelia joked. "Maybe we should-"

"-Go to the library?" Lucas couldn't help but suggest.

"You read my mind." Aurelia smiled.

Aurelia and Lucas found themselves climbing up an unnumbered amount of stairs to the library for the final time for a while.

The library was just how Lucas had left it. It was mostly clean with a few books scattered across tables and open.

"Where do we start?" Lucas sighed. Aurelia noted Lucas' hopeless attitude and filled herself with determination to counter him. She looked around.

"Perhaps maps?" She suggested.

So maps became their looking grounds. It was a logical place to look as they were looking for a place and maps showed you places, but seeing as they didn't know where they needed to get to it was a bit hopeless.

"Careful!" Aurelia warned, wincing as the ladder Lucas was on wobbled.

"I'm always careful." Lucas told her. His friend rolled her eyes.

"I think I'm going to check legends. Perhaps there's something in there. After all his powers are most mysterious." Aurelia stated.

Lucas gave her the a-okay. From above his a peculiar book wobbled out of its spot on the shelf, of its own accord it appeared. It slid off the shelf and fell to the ground, hitting Luke along the way.

"Ow!" The prince exclaimed. The ladder momentarily lost its balance. Lucas clutched on to it refusing to lose his balance. Aurelia rushed over and steadied the ladder, saving her friend from the fall. "Thanks!" He told her.

"No biggie." She replied.

Aurelia looked at the book that had fallen. It was old and musty with a leather brown cover. There was loose paper jammed into its pages. A chain seemed to be sticking out of it too.

Aurelia opened it up to where the chain was. Confusion flooded her face. It was her necklace. The one she had given to Mr. Gold was sitting inside. It was the same golden colored chain with the same smooth, green pendant that had her name engraved in it. It was unmistakable.

Her hand closed around the the pendant and she lifted up. Why was it here?

Underneath where necklace had been was a piece of paper that had been crammed into the book. Her hands twitched with curiosity as she unfolded the note.

Scribbled in handwriting that was both nice and messy were the words: Orion Hollow of Nathe if you want to find me.

"Luke, I think I found something." Aurelia's breath made her words sound like a whisper more than she intended them to.

"What's that?" Lucas wondered pointing at the note.

"This is how we are going to find Mr. Gold. He wrote it. I just know it! He wants us to find him." Aurelia couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Why couldn't he just come to us if he was going to give us a hint anyway?" Lucas couldn't help but ask.

Aurelia's shoulder slumped. This she didn't know and she wondered why Mr. Gold cared so much.

"I don't know, but does it matter? This benefits us!" Aurelia told him.

"Fair point, but Nathe is several kingdoms away. It's across the Opal Sea! How are we going to convince King Letholdus to allow us to leave on a trip that'll most likely take at least a month." Lucas wondered.

Aurelia thought for a moment. She dived to the floor as an idea popped into her head and she picked up the book of maps she had left on the ground. She flipped through its contents until she found what she was looking for. She pointed to a map of the Opal Sea and the kingdoms that surround it.

"There! Zerawyn is across the Opal Sea too! We'll just tell him that we'd like to be kind and cement Zerawyn as a trade allies still, while politely breaking off your engagement to her. He'll totally buy it. And he'll definitely give us a ship to borrow to take the voyage." Aurelia pointed out.

A smirk slid onto Lucas' thoughtful face. "You are certainly mischievous." He paused before adding, "And brilliant."

Aurelia beamed. They had a plan. They were going to save Atharia from its own destruction and make a deal for a better ruler. Things were just turning out the way they wanted.