With such a warm night, the group of friends had all turned on their fans and air conditioners in order to get some sleep. Summer pyjamas on, hair tried back out of their faces, skincare done. The next day they had plans to skate around the marina, although unbeknownst to them yet those plans would be foiled.

Icarus slept in her bed, under her hibiscus sheets, not a worry in the world.

Pandora was sleep in her bed, shark pillow pet as her pillow and mismatched pyjamas on.

Zagreus found it too hot to sleep with a shirt on, so he'd ditched it as well as his blankets which were kicked onto the floor.

And Aries slept with the fan pointed at them, the canopy over their bed blowing gently in the air flow.

By all accounts, the night was normal.

Except for maybe a weird dream, at least they thought it was a dream? The scenery didn't look like anything they recognised, the sounds were all muffled and distant. It felt like they were floating, and something was tugging at them to come closer. Flashes of places they knew and places they didn't played before their eyes. The beach, Izroulias castle, an almost galaxy like sky, the marina, the spirit pool, a cottage...

And the sounds... they didn't make any sense. People laughing and having fun, distant chatter, the waves crashing on the shore, a fire crackling.

It'd had gone on all night, although it felt like only a few minutes.

All of it came to a head when a jolt of stinging pain shot through each of the Merfolk, right on the forehead between the eyes. The jolt woke them up, Zagreus falling off the bed, Pandora almost hitting her head on the shelf above her, Icarus getting tangled in the sheets and Aries immediately becoming suspicious when they sat up.

What was that? It seemed almost definitely linked to some sort of magic event. It was too mystical not to be. Aries looked around, seeing everything was normal in their room. They opened the curtains and found it was now morning, although they could have sworn they only just fell asleep...

"What kind of drug trip-" they muttered, confused.

That's when they spotted it, on the pillow beside them sat a box. A small one, not very fancy or expensive looking. Just a box. Hesitantly picking it up, they opened it and found a ring.

A black ring, small starry gem on it.

"What...? Oh... OH!" They gasped.

Scrambling for the phone, they picked it up and immediately dialled Icarus.

She too, has found a small box on her pillow. Only hers contained a necklace, silver chain, small starry gem on it. Picking up the phone, she kept her confused eyes on the necklace as she answered.

"Yo" she greeted.

"Tell me you have a box on your pillow too" Aries said.

"Oh shit, you got one as well? Necklace?"

"No a ring. If you have one as well that means Pandora and Zagreus have one. Hang on I'm putting them on the line"

Pandora looked at the bracelet in the box confused. Tried with string and holding a starry gem. Picking up the ringing phone she answered, still half asleep.

"Hey" she greeted.

"Hang on I'm getting Zag" Aries replied.

Zagreus, after getting off the floor, found the same box on his pillow too. His one contained earrings. Two studs, starry gems. He picked up the phone, still looking at the box confused.

"Yo what kind of magic shit happened last night?" He answered.

"So we've all got a box following a trippy ass dream?" Aries asked.

The siren got a series of 'yes' and 'you too?' In return. It confirmed their suspicious and they immediately got out of bed to start getting ready for the day.

"They're chaos gems. I'll explain everything at the spirit pool, put them on and get your asses down there. DO NOT LOOSE THEM" Aries explained.

"Ok? You better answer all my questions" Pandora replied.

"Make that most and you got a deal"

The group were quick to get ready once they ended the call, and head out to the beach just down the road. They met at the spirit pool as instructed, and sat on the edge with tails in the water comparing their new gems with each others.

"Holy fuck, I knew they existed I never thought I'd see them though..." Aries muttered.

"Explain please" Pandora asked.

"Ok listen. Because I'm not explaining twice. You all know the primordial chaos myth right?"

Zagreus and Pandora nodded, but Icarus just gave them an awkward head shake no.

"Dude you were the first of us to find Aries, how do you not know?" Zagreus said.

"Probably zoned out..." Icarus admitted.

The other three playfully rolled their eyes. Typical Icarus behaviour...

"Long story short, primordial chaos is the first ever realm to exist. Khaos, with a K is the creator of the whole universe basically. Big Bang happened, Khaos was born from it, they made the realms. Super old, super powerful deity that all the other deities comes from. The natural world and science and all that is a thing, but magic is too and that's what Khaos is in charge of" Aries replied.

"Ooohhh yeah that guy. They're the parent of all the titan gods right?" Icarus replied.

"Yes, see you do know some magic lore"

Icarus jokingly flipped her hair over her shoulder smugly.

"I had a mythology phase as a kid" she said.

"Didn't we all..." Pandora snickered.

Turning their attention back to the gems, they listened to Aries.

"If there's some kind of imbalance in the realms, sometimes... very rarely, they'll send down gems that grant one of the primordial powers to a person. It's only ever happens 5 times that we know of in the entire history of the universe. Maybe more before documenting became a thing" Aries explained.

"And... these are the gems?" Icarus asked, pointing down at them in disbelief.

"Yep... quite frankly l cannot believe what I'm seeing right now"

The group was silent for a moment, just taking it in. They held four of the primordial powers in their hands right now... something so rare it's only happened 5 recorded times before.

"Why us?" Zagreus asked.

"Magic isn't meant to be in the human realm. I'd guess because we're here and so is the missing pod, Khaos wants us to fix Izroulia so we can go back. That way there's no magic in the human realm again and balance will be restored" Aries guessed.

"That makes sense. It'd be a real disaster if humans found out about us, if they can't even get along with each other based on your skin colour then they're never going to accept a whole other species" Pandora replied.

Slipping on the ring, Aries admired the gem. When it was in contract with their skin it tingled, feeling the power it held radiating off it.

"What powers do they have?" Icarus asked, putting the necklace on.

"Ring of destruction, necklace of creation, bracelet of illusion and earrings of truth" Aries replied.

"Something tells me those powers are incredibly hard to master" Zagreus muttered, putting the earrings in.

"Yep, they literally come from primordial chaos"

When they all had the gems on, they could feel the sheer force of the power radiating off it. A tingle, small zap almost.

"How do we use them?" Pandora asked.

"That... I don't know. Again, only 5 recorded cases over billions of years" Aries replied.

So now they were a bit stuck. They knew what the gems were and what they had to do, but not how to do it. What they did know though, was their one off comments about a possible rebellion held more weight than they'd initially thought.

Four Merfolk with the chaos gems could definitely take on one crazed Phoenix. It was the army's that they'd have trouble with. The majority of Izroulia hated Agnemetra, but she did have people working for her. If they could find a way to take on just her, not her armies then they had a chance at winning the fight.

"Looks like the talk of a rebellion is the right way to go then" Zagreus said.

"Seems like it... although we definitely can't do it without the grimoire" Aries replied.

"Mmm... you're right. That's have all the recorded knowledge on the gems in it"

The girls gave each other a confused glance.

"Explain for the human born" Icarus said.

"There's a royal grimoire kept in the castle library. Has all the records on everything magic we know of in it. We can't do anything with the gems unless we have that book, plus of Agnemetra has it she'd have all the power too..." Zagreus replied.

"So basically we need that book, huh?" Pandora asked.

"Yep. We'll definitely have to think about a way to get it..." Aries pondered.

Things finally seemed to be on a roll. They had a group, they had the chaos gems, they had a goal. Now, they needed a plan. One more detailed then 'get the book, fight the bitch, find the pod'. The four of them knew the broad strokes but not the fine details. And all of this had to be done while Pandora and Icarus were still in school and on track to graduate. Before it was just find the pod, now it was a whole rebellion.

They didn't know how yet, but they needed to fight. And they needed to act before humans found out magic existed. Too many magic beings in the human realm would definitely lead to their downfall.