The Arcana Quest Series

“A quest is no laughing matter. Foretold by prophecies, quests are world-changing events in which the actions of one or a few people have the power to change the course of history. One of the most famously prophesied—and written about—is The Arcana Quest."

Quote from Quests Unfulfilled: Future Modern Myths by Ariel Arynn

There are nine Arcane Artifacts, items blessed by the nine gods called The Arcana that, when all gathered together in the proper place will grant any boon the Seeker desires, from godhood itself to saving the world. Prophesied about for thousands of years, since the time of The Arcana arriving in this world, all that is known is the epitaphs the prophets give to the players in this quest: the Maiden, the High Lord, the Young Lord, the Star, the Seeker, the Child, the Songstress, the Leader, and the Twins. Two opposing groups—The Order of the Seven Stars, which want to use the items to better the world and Green Fire, the group determined to keep the items safe until the proper prophesied person can use it for the good of the world—have been battling for thousands of years determined to win these items of power for their own goals.

Antigone was unaware she would have any part to play in this—at least, at first. She was a student taking her exams to enter university in her home country of Verdun when her home city was attacked by the army headed by The Order of the Seven Stars. She finds out as the army marches closer to their door that her father and godmother are involved in Green Fire and, unawares, is given the Locket of Decompo–one of the nine Arcane Artifacts–to protect as the city is conquered.

Unawares of what her godmother told her to hide until it was too late, Antigone is brutally tortured and her father is captured. Determined to save her father, she flees Verdun with the help of the goddess Logos and heads to Dorimus, the central location of Arcana religious worship and where it is speculated by quest seekers that the final place where the god boon ascension will occur. She is determined to find the Arcane Artifacts herself and trade her father’s freedom from captivity with The Order of the Seven Stars led by the Light Lord and tyrant Herald Grunel. Her goal is to attend Dorimus University, which has the leading research library of the world, and study the Arcane Artifacts to find their locations. With multiple artifacts, she will have the power to attract Lord Grunel’s attention and trade her father’s safety for the items.

However, her plans change when she meets a young Dark Lord named Edward Van Helmont who not only has another Arcane Artifact, unawares, but has familial knowledge and history that might help her on the quest. The ring can only be worn by a member of the Van Helmont family so she cannot take it and trade it for her father—and even despite a Dark Lord, Antigone is not willing to sell his life for her father’s. As the two of them reluctantly work together after a confrontation that results in injuries and a blood curse for protection cursed onto Edward by Antigone herself, she begins to wonder if perhaps they are the Maiden and the Young Lord of the quest.

Antigone and Edward are not the only players in this game, though…

The High Lord, the Light Lord Herald Grunel, started this quest and war in the hopes of creating a more peaceful and equitable world but has lost his moral compass and compassion in the process of fulfilling the quest. The Order of the Seven Stars holds three of the nine Arcane Artifacts and he is growing more paranoid about them being lost or taken by other members of The Order, unawares the person who might take them is the one person he trusts.

The Star, a famous movie star actress, Ayesha, was given an Arcane Artifact—the Sword of Borohovir the Bold—by an admirer and quickly realizes it has some connection to The Arcana. She may not worship them herself but believes them to be beings of great power and does not want to risk their ire by ridding herself of this object that has come into her possession. She takes a life-changing role in the movie industry in Dorimus that will change her to an international movie star and decides to take the mysterious magical sword with her.

The Seeker, Meilin, is an archaeologist who on a dig near the Wraithlands of Dorimus who finds a perfectly preserved and gleaming crown—the Arcane Artifact the Crown of Unknowledge—but she alone among her crew can see it. Fearing she is going mad, she takes the crown and seeks someone who can see it as well as well as figure out its origin….and upon a moment of weakness in wearing it, she begins having vivid and intense dreams of a cloaked dark figure and secret knowledge of how to do great spells of Unknowable Magic. However, Meilin has no use for great visions of power of Unknowable Magic as she merely wants to be respected in her career field. However, her brother’s close friend, Edward Van Helmont, does have use for such dangerous knowledge.

The Child, Jory, is Herald Grunel’s fifteen-year-old son working as a page for The Order of the Seven Stars. Unlike his father, he has not lost his moral compass or the determination to do good in the world. However, he is young and afraid to face his powerful and dangerous father as Lord Grunel becomes more and more obsessed with the war and fulfilling the quest. Jory seeks the counsel of a prophet most tell him is a charlatan, but all of his advice—drunken or otherwise—has always aided Jory significantly. He’s working up the courage to ask what to do about his moral quandaries regarding his father and the Order of the Seven Stars. However, speaking of treason or the quest to the wrong person could put him in front of his father’s warpath.

The Songstress, Dorimus’s Light Lady Ursula Oliphant, does not wish to be involved in war or matters of state. She may have been born a Light Lady, blessed by the Arcana with magical skills beyond reckoning, but her desire has always been to sing and to perform for audiences. However, Lord Grunel is making his way with his armies towards Dorimus, and the imperial family are losing patience with Ursula’s lack of desire to lead a war battalion.

The Leader is the recently crowned Empress, Phobe Lasille, the nineteen-year-old golden-eyed descendant of the goddess Lasille the Lovely. She had entered the nunnery per tradition of a third child of the family, but during air raids her parents and two siblings died and forced her to leave the convent and take the crown instead. The Crown of Unknowledge was lost centuries ago from the stores of the imperial vault but the Empress’s Crown, the Floral Crown of Knowing, is still in their vaults and was worn by the Empress upon her coronation. However she, like Meilin, begins having dreams of her ancestor, Lasille, telling her that the Arcana Quest is upon them and she must make a choice on who to help—the Maiden or the High Lord. Well-aware she has no intentions of helping Lord Grunel, who is threatening her country and is responsible for the death of all of her family, she begins trying to figure out who the Maiden might be.

The Twins, Janice and Roger Feldstein, have a dubious family legacy of all the women in their family being blessed with greatness in some form or another but “die in grief and sorrow.” The family was blessed by the goddess Ista upon an ancestor aiding her centuries ago and the goddess gave them her Silver Band, which is passed down in the women of the family them preternatural knowledge and great boons in life but making their deaths tragedies. However, no one besides the blood of the Feldstein family can see the band upon the arm of the woman who inherits it. Janice is a war nurse working on the front lines trying to save soldiers when she feels the great pain that comes upon inheriting the band. Closing her eyes, as seeing the goddess causes madness, Ista whispers in her ear that the time to give up the band is nigh as The Arcana Quest is coming. Given no more information than that, Janice contacts her brother, an Arcane researcher at Dorimus University to try to find out more information.

Unbeknownst to Dr. Roger Feldstein, two of his students, Antigone and Edward, are wrapped up in The Arcana Quest as well.