The brave and gallant hero Gyro-lee stood with his three mighty friends, his to be wife Anna Norami the beautiful and powerful white magician, the mighty man mountain Lars with his mighty battle axe, and the wizened with age fire mage Magilish. Together they stood against the evil tyrant, the vile witch whose beauty was surpassed only by her desire for power, Rhulan.

 

   After a grand and fantastic battle Gyro-Lee revealed an ancient artifact given to them by a divine hand, the mirror of Syris. With its grand power it turned the tide of battle, finishing off the deadly witch, turning her to stone. However what should have been the world’s sigh of relief was a scream of anguish! That demonic temptress, that vile spawn of demons and fallen ones, the horror hidden behind a mask of beauty, had a final trick up her unforgiving sleeve. Rather than let the world live in peace, with her death knell rang a sirens call of destruction, all that she had wrought was torn asunder, her technology, the infrastructure of the world…was…Holly-Lia!

 

   Hollia shoots her sleeping head up from her desk as the class of rainbow colored ill-dressed students around her laugh in chorus around the auditorium. The old bearded instructor stopping in the middle of his speech down at his desk on the floor, a magical painting slide show, showing artist depictions of what they imagined the final battle between Gyro-Lee and Rhulan to have looked like.

 

   “I know,” he says addressing her, “as the descendent of the great hero Gyro-Lee you must have heard this story a million times before. But out of respect Miss Holly please stay awake.”

 

   Hollia, as she has come to be called by most people, save for her family and few instructors who insist on calling her by her birth and family name of Holly-Lia, looked around the auditorium classroom. So many students this time of year, so many from so many places around the world. Most of the boys sweating under the cold-fire lights, which despite their name are still rather hot with so many beating down on you, thanks to their large colorful robes. Most had come from places where wizards were expected to always carry everything they need on them, so thanks to this were accustomed to wearing large multi-layered robes filled with pockets stuffed with magic trinkets.

 

    The girls conversely were mostly chilled by the room temperature in their mostly scantly clad armor and belly and cleavage revealing robes. All these people were diversely colored in their attire and styles with all sorts of weird symbols, styles, and hats, boys with cones, crowns, clown like hoods, dark robes. Girls with what look like tiaras, maid hats, cones, and all manner of hair pieces.

 

   Hollia sighs; most of these people won’t stay but a single semester if only a little longer perhaps. Few people stay for a full term degree. Most of these people come from across the world to just learn and earn a specific talent or skill only available at the School of Stratalia. They will come, gain these few talents and return to their small kingdoms and towns looking like hot shots to the locals. Hollia isn’t so lucky, as a descendent of the founders of the school she has been here since she was a baby.

 

   Her dazed observations are cut short by one of the mid-rift revealed barely clothed, yet wearing a bright orange outfit, girls lifting her hand and asking, “Instructor, I was wondering if the hero was Gyro-Lee, then how come the school is Strata…Lia? And the esteemed valedictorians also have the last name Lia?”

 

  “Well,” he says, “That is an interesting story, back in the 1800’s…”

 

   His voice trails off in Hollia’s ears as the old wind bag history instructor continues telling her family’s business to whoever asks. “Bored, bored, bored.” She thinks watching the clock on the wall tick away.

 

    This was the last class of the day. Hollia walks down the halls yawning, she can hear the not so quietly spoken words of her classmates. Not exactly the friendliest words, to them, these short term students, she comes across as some stuck up valedictorian, someone whose education is paid for them and is destined to inherit the school as dean someday. She ignores them as she heads out the back of the school across the lavish courtyards and fantastic sculptured fountains depicting all manner of fantastic beasts and gods.

 

 

   It’s not that she wants to be alone, her only friends graduated long ago. In a world where people may live to a hundred years yet can enter the military and go on adventures, and even get married by age sixteen the need for local magicians to aid the multitudes of kingdoms and towns is in high demand. The faster someone can learn magic and return home the better. Her friends all live and work in the nearby towns, bakers, healers, merchants. This massive school serves as her home town with its own market and even hospital. A hometown where she is the princess, not outright stated as such, but might as well be. The merchants and doctors have to be the highest professionals, not people she gets along with too well.

 

    She turns as she walks through the trees, the school now half hidden by the vegetation. To her this is the farthest she can get away with wondering from her lifelong home, the best she has at not seeing the towering main clock tower of the school. Even at the hidden clearing, she herself cleared years ago, and has kept cleared the tip of the impressive clock tower can still be seen. In the center of this clearing there stands a stone platform, and on top of which stands the idol of Hollia’s life. A statue, of a gorgeous woman clad in the cape and costume of an ancient sorceress, long hair down to her waist, and hand out as though about to cast some spell. Her face determined as though confronting some great challenge with dignity and grace.

 

   Hollia had found the statue when she was a little girl, buried amongst some rubble back here when she would play adventurer in what is essentially her back yard. She originally had stumbled upon the ruins by accident; she had been a little girl, only five years old. She had been taking a rudimentary magic class when an older man, maybe in his thirties had gotten angry with her. She had overshadowed him, her basic spells were recited perfectly, her sigils drawn with all the speed of a child playing connect the dots. To her basic magic was like a game, memorize, recite, watch the colorful lights and clap. This drove the man mad, he had finally had enough when she in one try pulled of a spark spell when he had stayed up the entire night studying it and still failed.

 

   His harsh words, which she could barely remember, but recalled they had something to do with taking magic seriously and not a toy for little girls playing magic princess. She ran from the class crying and screaming for her mommy, who of course was off again on some merchant meeting in the nearby town. She had tried to run straight in that direction and found herself amongst the ruins balling her eyes out. The man was of course expelled.

 

   The instructors still speak of the man whose future was thrown down the drain simply for speaking harsh words to the granddaughter of the dean. This didn’t help her reputation. She was at times thankful that her history instructor at least had the guts to talk to her like any other student, even if he was enthralled by her family’s history, or maybe because of that.

 

   She would come back to the clearing to think, and play adventurer in her secret hidey hole. It was on one of these treasure hunts that she found the statue and dug it out. She placed it on top of the pedestal she erected herself in the middle of the clearing. This statue became her idol, a sorceress clearly, perhaps sculpted after some ancient forgotten hero. She would talk to it about her daily problems, thankful to have a friend, even if she was just stone. She would imagine all manners of scenarios about this imaginary life. This became a great help in her studies of magic as she practiced them in front of the statue, as though trying to impress this hero of old.

 

    This day was no different, or it wouldn’t be if not for the stress. In only one month the school was planning to hold a fair, or rather this was a thin guise for a diplomatic meeting between the heads of the largest empires, and even several alien diplomats. Higher up leaders and merchants from far off in the ether of this universe. The school gets a large amount of its funding from its merchant department, which has trade of course with not just the kingdoms of her own world, but spreads out amongst the other worlds. Not that she really cares. What really matters is that her parents will be coming home for the first time in over half a year. They, being the heads of the merchant wing of the school while her grandfather acts as dean, were needed to open new negotiations with the bird like aliens the Hinnen, and some others she didn’t care to remember the names of.

 

    This fair is really a celebration of this deal, not that anyone would admit it; and part of the fair is the school doing a show spot-lighting their greatest successes. Some of their past students who had gone on to become court wizards in the Croix Empire, Xiang Empire, and Agrax Empire are going to appear, world famous priests and traveling greats are scheduled to show up. Of course what would be a show of the school’s mystical mastery without their resident valedictorian? Hollia would have to show before all these people, and her parents, what she has learned.

 

    Today she has been tired, for a change she has spent the last week’s nights studying divine holy magic. The greatest of healing spells and greatest of exorcism spells. Amongst them one very few, even people thrice her age and high priests too boot could master, the supreme spell of Detoxication. A spell rumored to even be able to turn a lycanthrope into a human, to cure plague victims, people exposed to the venom of a skeletal dragon, and even return a zombie to a state of living flesh.

 

    She turns to face her idol, she has done this before. She would imagine all sorts of scenarios, her hero exposed to a deadly poison, the victim of a demon rattlers’ bite, or other such adventure scenario; and she the group’s resident assist magician aiding her with cure spells, antidote spells, and other such spells. Of course being a statue this couldn’t cause any harm or help but fade away on the stone’s surface.

 

    She has imagined her idol in all sorts of ways, other than the grey monochrome of a statue. The hair could be blond, brunette, red-head, even blue hair or pink hair. The same too with the outfit, a plethora of colors, and even different skin tones; essentially what ever her current girl-crush fantasy scenario would dream up for the time. This day she imagined her with black hair, and a black outfit, pale with sickness. She heard in her head her asking for help, not crying no that wouldn’t be dignified, instead asking with a stiff tone, hiding her pain, for assistance.

 

   She spoke the words,

 

   “Grand Goddess,

   One above all others,

   In thy name I call forth the healing force beyond creation,

   Of creation,

   For creation,

   The force that drives existence to change and adapt,

  To heal, to cure, to awaken from the darkness,

  Illuminate,

  Invigorate,

  I call down thy power,

Cast away the impurity from the body,

  Detoxification!”

 

     The words would be empty if spoken with out the true inner focus, the true desire and purity of mind and will. The white divine light engulfs Hollia, blue lines of power form below and above her target; a blue sigil appears on the chest, and a smaller one on the forehead. She had expected the white light, this was spoken of in the book, but now the spell pulled at her, seemed to want to pull out of her, or perhaps drag her with it like a monstrous serpent holding its prey in its coils. Streams like the tentacles of some unearthly beast came from the aura of light around her body and flowed into the sigils on the statue.

 

     A great rumble shakes the statue, a sickening, and yet warming and soothing vibration in her own body as well. The feeling of dread and worry overshadowed after a moment with a feeling of oneness and joy, like a dream turning from nightmare to paradise.

 

    Hollia nearly loses consciousness as a blue blast sends waves in the air, like the ripples on a lake from a pebble they seem to warp reality around and flow into the folds of the warped space.

 

      Hollia looks up, her daze slowly fading, and sees what she thought was her daydream playing with her mind, the form in front of her, the statue now indeed has pale skin, and wears black cloths. However the inner lining of her cape is red, her hair is something between black and red, seemingly the color of dried blood; her eyes a blazing blue cutting into Hollia’s soul with their steely gaze. Hollia’s heart skips a beat as the woman’s dark red lips curved into a smile and jumps down from the pedestal, her six foot height easily overshadowing Hollia’s foot shorter height.

 

   “Yo,” she says with a smile and friendly short wave, with an exotic, mature voice, “thanks a ton Hollia.”

2: Chapter 2: Mysterious Tutor

    “Yo, thanks a ton Hollia.”

 

   Those words stick in Hollia’s stunned and stammering mind, “uh, wha?” is all she can manage to sputter out.

 

    “Come now, my dear, is that all you can say? After all these afternoons of countless stories and scenarios? You finally get to speak to me when I can speak back and all you can say is wha?”

 

   Hollia shakes her head, “you, you could hear me?”

 

  “and see you,” she says with wink.

 

  Hollia turns beet red, “I…uh…I mean.”

 

  Hollia’s embarrassment is cut short by an echoing laugh, “oh it feels good to laugh again, and it actually shake the air!”

 

 

 

  “You have no idea how frustrating it is to just be able to watch the people of this school and not interact.”

 

   “The people?” asks Hollia, “other people come to the clearing?”

 

  “hmmm?” The mysterious sorceress turns to Hollia, “oh, yeah, well, bite my tongue on that one I guess. Well actually I could astral project, but only go so far from my petrified body, basically I could wander about the school but not any further.” She pauses, “well maybe a little ways out into these woods, but aside from watching deer and wolves there isn’t much out there as far as I could go.”

 

    “Who are you?” asks Hollia abruptly.

 

   “hmmmmm,” she floats into the air and onto the pedestal sitting thinking,

“hmmmm” humming out loud, hand to chin, “hmm, hmm, hmm, uh-hummm.” She smiles a broad smile, “well, good question, I suppose I have you at a disadvantage, I’ve known you since you were little. But you don’t know me really. Well you were right, I am an ancient sorceress, but the statue obliviously wasn’t made in my image, it was me. I…perhaps, could be seen as a hero, to some.”

 

   She jumps up, standing proudly hands on hips, “I am the sorceress R…Ru..Rhe” she stops, “You know I haven’t spoken anything in so long, let alone my name.” she stops studying Hollia’s concerned expression wondering, “My name,” she continues, “you can call me Rurona.”

 

   She hops back down, doing a little spin and bow, “Yes, that will do, just call me Rurona.”

 

   “Okay,” says Hollia not sure of what to say or do.

 

  “Oh,” says Rurona putting her arm around the red faced, suddenly silent Hollia, “now don’t be like that, just think of me as a long lost friend you have been sending letters too but hasn’t been able to send any back.”

 

   She leans down, “See, think of it that way and its not so bad, yes if I were you I’d probably be a bit embarrassed, but don’t feel ashamed of anything. after all you saved me in the end remember?”

 

  Hollia perks up, the spell, the supreme spell of Detoxification, it worked!

 

   Rurona stands back, arms crossed, happy to see Hollia smiling.

 

   “Yes!” says Hollia excited, “Detoxification! It worked, I have my spell, If I use that at the fair my parents will see how great I am.”

 

   “Oh yes, the fair.” Says Rurona, “been telling me about that for a few weeks now ever since you got that letter from your parents.”

 

   The again realization that Rurona knows everything she has told her dawning on Hollia.

 

   “However,” says Rurona, “that spell tends to have a mind of its own, and not one that usually works for the first time. In fact I’d say your attachment to me, or your image of my image as it were, is what helped you pull it off. A genuine desire to help. Try it on some volunteer with the sniffles and all you might get is a fancy light show with no substance.”

 

   Hollia looks at her feet, she had read this, but what else could she do?

 

   “Oh, great, I made you feel self conscious again. I really am behind on my social skills after a thou…” she eyes Hollia, “after thousands of months, or days, or however long I was stone. I mean, time is hard to measure as a ghost, no sleep, just aware, everything blends together you know…right?”

 

   Hollia isn’t paying attention, she is busy in her head trying to figure out what she can do, something big.

 

   “heck,” she says thinking aloud as she would often do here, even with her idol now flesh & blood, but still standing over her, her mind went back to its general way of functioning here, “I don’t even have a familiar, my spells are all healing spells, and basic attacks. All those fancy court wizards will have wind falcons, light doves, shadow ravens, and have all sorts of fancy spells. Me? I have nothing, white magicians are expected now to have familiars and my best spells are all healing, and you’re right.” She turns back to Rurona, “I really wanted the spell to work, but it was more…because of…well, yeah, to help you.”

 

   She starts to cry softly, “I’m really, really glad you’re okay, and okay with me, you know. But I, I got nothing. My parents.”

 

 

   Hollia is shook by a shock wave and a dust kicking up around her. She turns wide eyed as Rurona stands above a small crater with electric sparks dancing between her fingers, “enough.” she says in a commanding voice, “I know you. Remember, I do know you. I might as well be your diary come to life. Now as harsh as that sounds; don’t take me wrong. But I have stood here, and I have listened to you, your day dreams, your desire to be a great adventurer, you’re insecurities, well toss those insecurities away. I have seen a lot of sorceresses in my time and you have a knack. You pulled off the Detoxification spell on your first try. And you did it based on a day dream. I know of people who tried that spell on dieing loved ones and still failed. You have a spark. We just need to focus that spark in the right direction. And as it happens I am the perfect person for the job.

 

      If I may say so I happen to be a very powerful sorceress, after all there is a reason someone would go out of their way to turn me to stone I suppose…but I digress, with my knowledge of your experience. I have seen you practicing all sorts of spells out here remember. And with my experience a month of magic training, tutoring, you could spend five hundred years with the best court magicians to pop out of this school and not get a tenth of the skill I could teach you in only a month.”

 

     Hollia stands facing her idol turned flesh and blood in disbelief at this dream come true, literally, she has dreamed at times, especially when she was younger, of what she apparently correctly assumed was a powerful sorceress coming to life to teach her ancient and powerful secrets of magic.

 

    “Just one problem.” says Hollia clearing her head of this fantasy come to life, “to be a tutor of a student you need to have the dean’s permission. You have to have my grandfather’s permission.”

 

   Rather than argue it Rurona just shrugs, “Okay lets go, right now.”

 

   “But,” says Hollia

 

   “But what?” says Rurona already walking with Hollia trailing behind her, “credentials, documents, all that jazz?” she smiles and waves a dismissive wave, “don’t worry kiddo, when I get done your grand-dad will be begging me to teach him a few tricks.” she laughs a smug laugh at her own, maybe joke.

 

 

    Rurona stops, Hollia nearly bumping into her with the suddenness as they make their way to the school, “perhaps,” she says, “it would look better if I wasn’t sporting this old look.”

 

   With a wave of the arms and a chant her ancient sorceress attire flows as shadows across her lithe body hugging her like black water following her frame as water follows the curves of the river bed, keeping their color but changing their shape to a more scholastic sorceress attire with a look between an instructor’s uniform and a formal regal dress; a costume befitting the court sorceress of even the wealthiest of kings.

 

    The looks they get walking back onto campus from the late class students, faculty, and hallway lagers could best be described as confusion and intrigue. Hollia the school valedictorian as they see her walking obediently behind the taller, regally dressed woman was a sight to be seen. The rumors immediately began flying like wild fire, a new instructor perhaps, an adventurer coming to look for an assist magician to join her team, and of course, with the rolling of jealous eyes, picking out Hollia whose been learning those arts since she was a baby, and many other, and many less intelligent mental constructs, as is the nature of student gossip.

 

    In the hall outside the dean’s office a muffled argument could be heard, something resembling the distant shouts of carcass apes, a cackled, aged, dried throat attempting to raise above its natural limit yet remained muffled so as not to carry. A second voice, a woman’s voice, could be heard upon approaching the door, her words however, or at least their meanings faded into the wood work like so many house hold phantoms with out purpose or desire to spread beyond the frame of a room.

 

    As they approach the door opens with the man’s shout of “Out!”, the sickly pale woman with her sunken face, stringy black hair, and odd black out of place tight dress stopped in her tracks. The look of amusement she had on her face on exiting stopped as she stopped, turning to a look of surprise and horror as she looked right into the face, literally a spit apart, of the woman called Rurona since an hour earlier. As suddenly as her face became horror it became hatred as she eased her way around, past, and away from the pair. She didn’t look back again, her head stiff ahead.

 

    Once past the corner Rurona shrugged away her own expression, an odd, indescribable look, one of hatred, amusement, and something else Hollia couldn’t place, like a dagger floating in the air hissing for blood and yet…that was it, the look she had seen before in two beasts of the fang staring each other down over the carcass of a forest deer.

 

    Entering the dean’s open door Rurona stands tall, Hollia hidden behind her like a timid rabbit approaching the edge of a fenced in dog, but with the tastiest grass right there just out of the beast’s reach. The dean, with his long white beard, pale blue eyes, and robes would be an intimidating fellow, if not for the oversized mushroom cap hat he wears upon his head with its thick white strap covering his jaw line with its knot bow before his throat.

 

   He looks up glaring at the un-introduced woman, her regal attire gaining her a look over before, “and who are…” his voice trails off seeing Hollia behind her, “ah, Holly, and your visitor. My dear I am very busy, please have your friend there submit a request for an audience if she wishes to see me. Or…” he looks up from the papers on his desk, “if she is wanting classes, I know you’re my grand-daughter, and granted I can’t recall you doing something like this before, but if this is a first, then she must go to admissions to schedule an interview for attendance.”

 

    The laughter that escapes Rurona’s throat could have roused even the dead to shock.

 

   “My, my, my,” she says, “Jinron-Lia, you certainly have become a cranky old bastard haven’t you? What ever happened to the Mushroom Magician? That fun loving tart of old who would summon springy shroom and hop around like a playful kitten.” Her last sentence wasn’t so much a question as a statement, one that gained a glare from the dean, Hollia’s grandfather, Jinron-Lia.

 

   “Excuse us.” says Hollia timidly, something Jinron-Lia isn’t too familiar with except when she wants something really badly, “Honorable grandfather, Master dean, I…I have a request. I want, I…request, for Rulona, er, Rurona to be my tutor.”

 

   “Tutor?” asks Jinron-Lia eyeing the impudent woman who spoke well beyond her visible years, of course in a world where magic runs rampant he knows very well of women who are very old yet look half their actual age.

 

 

 

   “What do you need a tutor for?” he asks with disdain in his voice, “you’re more advanced than most of this school’s graduates. Your brother graduated two years younger than you are now, and he had no where near your knowledge or talent.”

 

   “I,” she says not sure what to say, “I need to be better, I know I can be better, it’s just…”

 

     A blast of inspiration hits her, “I know more than most the instructors,”

 

     It really isn’t a lie, at least in reality it isn’t but she can’t be certain, “and Miss Rurona is…an adventurer sorceress, she…knows a lot more than any of them. If I want to be the best, what daddy, I mean father, expects then I need to learn from the best.”

 

    Jinron-Lia can’t argue with that, he has seen, heard from for that matter, the truth of what she says. So many instructors afraid to speak badly of her, yet clearly concerned that their lessons are below her, she can pull off most of the spells they must teach to their students in a half asleep stupor, while their favored hard working nose to the grindstone students must focus to the point of nose bleeds to pull them off.

 

   He looks at the regally dressed woman, standing there now in a dignified silence, the exact opposite of her introduction to him.

 

   “Well,” he says, “I will need to see some credentials, who you have worked for, who can vouch for you, what are your areas of expertise, and so forth.”

 

   “A resume in other words,” she says smugly, “Well…for confidentialities’ sake I can’t tell you anyone I worked for. I don’t keep such things with me as parchments to prove my worth. The written word of credentials to be honest is more an advertisement, look at me the crown beef of princely meat. My skills are up for sale and here’s my price. I have no need for such silly things. I only teach those with talent and my services are not to be based on the word of ink. Your grand-daughter has talent. One she is right to say will never come out here.”

 

   She walks over to Jinron’s desk, “My credentials, the proof you so rightfully need can not be found in paper, but…” with a smug air and raised finger, “It can be found in proof of talent, the oldest and best way this school ever had for hiring the best. You and I know credentials could be faked and take months to prove if you are suspicious, longer if you’re not.”

 

   With a smile she cups her hand over Jinron’s coffee cup and with a blue misty glow she raises her hand. The glow flows as small swirling mists that entwine and burrow into the cup. The contents vanish in a puff of smoke as the coffee cup unwinds, as though it were cloth and someone yanked its loose threads. The un-natural unwinding reverses course to assemble its self, not reassemble, no, becoming something new, something different; a spider like thing with a ceramic body and little jewel like eyes.

 

   Jinron stares at this wonder on his desk, a golem, created on the spot with out a single word spoken, no scroll, and no sigil circles, nothing more than the wave of a hand. He pokes it with his finger to be sure it’s not an illusion. The creature like creation reacts to his prod ducking back at the intrusion into its space. To be fully certain he takes out from his desk an anti-hex iron rod. He waves it over the little golem, but nothing, not a hint of blue fire, not a spark, no reaction; no different than if he had waved a stick over a stump.

 

   “A real golem?” he asks astounded looking up at this woman who came out of no-where. Not waiting for a response, “Impressive, no more than impressive.”

 

    He leans back in his chair, “Hmm, no invocation, no sigils, its solid, and yet doesn’t react to an anti-hex rod. So then its not a solid illusion, yet no scrolls or sigils and yet a golem, and even no words of focus.”

 

   His eyes narrow at the thing on his desk, “A thought invocation, yes, but one to create a golem, even one as small as this in an instant. I have seen thought invocation used for fire womphs, and tazer touch type spells. Well Miss Rurona was it? I have to say this is indeed impressive work. But a thought invocation shows it’s a spell you have used a lot, golem creation isn’t something Holly is suited for. Her element isn’t earth its air.”

 

   Rurona smiles and laughs, she holds her hand out as a blue sphere appears in it, with a single utterance she drops the orb onto the golem, “Reversion.”

 

   The little golem is enveloped by the light, twisting and turning and melting, not like thread, no like clay being molded by unseen hands back into a coffee cup.

 

 

 

   Jinron stares in complete silence. The cup is perfect, the coffee is even back, the chip on the lid from when he dropped it last week is even back, every scratch every nook and cranny. It is fully and completely the same cup.

 

   “Reversion?” stammers Jinron, “that…that’s”

 

   “A forgotten spell?” queries Rurona, “Yes, even the great school of Strata-Lee it seems can lose a spell or two…or multitudes.”

 

   Jinron is taken back, a thought invocation to create a golem he could understand as the over worked trick of a traveling magician looking for a quick buck, but, but, Reversion, is another matter, the spell has been lost for centuries. Its one thing to deconstruct and rebuild something, but the perfect repair, returning everything to exactly as it was before, a spell too difficult, a spell that even in his prime…

 

   He stands now, “Impossible.” he spouts out looking in disbelief at this woman before him, this woman who his grand-daughter wants…to be her tutor…

 

   “Well, well,” he says with a broad smile and hands clasped together, “It seems I was mistaken Miss Rurona. You must have, some,” he chooses his words carefully, “impressive experience, access to some interesting sources, heh, a thought invocation and then the spell Reversion, and at that you did it with out the lengthy invocation. I must say, I would have to be a fool not to, not only allow Holly to hire such a tutor, but to insist and hire you myself. A full staff pension for tutoring her, I know under your guidance she’ll excel beyond her studies. Yes,”

 

      his smile broadens, speaking now inside his head, “her brother followed in their father’s footsteps, but with the incredible magic this woman must know Holly could become a great instructor someday, and…yes, if she knows Reversion who knows what other secrets we could gain from her. Going to have to keep an eye on her, no doubt she’s a traveling master out to learn our secrets in exchange for a few of her own.”

 

   “Well Miss Rurona,” he says aloud, “I’ll get the paperwork ready, how soon would you like to start?”

 

   Rurona looks at Hollia with a wink that practically screams out, “I told you so.”

 

   “I can start,” she says, “As soon as we’re done here.”

 

   “Very good.” Jinron says, his own smile hiding his own odd mix of mistrust and greed and yes even glee.

3: Chapter 3: The Forgotten Library

    A week, a few days it would seem can make all the difference. Hollia has been receiving intense after school training in the ancient ways of magic from her new tutor. Her instructors have noticed this “jump in her step” as one may call it over this short period. Hollia has shown greater interest in her classes, re-reading her text books; the library especially has noticed her taking out many older outdated text books as well as abandoned ones and advanced classes even beyond her studies. The odd combinations of books she has collected from the shelves of the various on campus libraries garnering some interest, but mostly shrugged shoulders.

 

    Today seems to be especially important, her utter impatience in her final class of the day, the history class, has gained much curiosity from the old man teaching the class. Usually she basically sleeps in the class, however he can’t determine for himself which was more annoying, for her to sleep or for her to be watching the clock. In the end as all the students leave Hollia remains at the entrance, waiting.

 

    The aged man smiles walking over to Hollia, about to say something or another, praise perhaps for her more studious behavior over the last week, but whose to say when one’s words are lost in shock in the moment. His expression quickly fades, his face turning white as though he has seen a ghost. He shakes it off as none-sense, still seeing the apparition before him he looks back and forth as Miss Holly-Lia, the esteemed student speaks to the mysterious woman who just walked in. “of course” it dawns on him, “the new tutor.” Until now no one on the faculty aside from a few close to the dean or the random hallway passerby had seen her. Holly-Lia always meets with her tutor after classes at the temporary dorm set up for her whole she tutors her student. He most certainly had never met her, a meeting that nearly made his hundred year old heart stop.

 

    “Excuse me,” he says, “pardon my intrusion in your conversation. Might you be Miss Rurona? Miss Holly-Lia’s new tutor?”

 

   “Hollia.” states the darkly clad woman.

 

   “Excuse me?”

 

  “If one wishes to be respected by their students they should refer to them as they wish to be referred to as.”

 

   “Oh…of course.” he says a bit taken back. “My apologies, I should also apologize for my indiscretion as you came to meet Miss Holly..Hol-lia. My expression was very rude.”

 

   “I hadn’t noticed,” she said clearly brushing off his stammering, as well as showing her impatience, she did after all have a reason to meet Hollia at class rather than have her take the time to come to her current place of residence.

 

   “Well, the thing is,” he continued unabated, “I; well.”

 

   He walks over to his desk rummaging in the drawers looking for something he has hidden away. Hollia and Rurona look at each and shrug.

 

   “Here it is!” he exclaims, “It’s a replica of a lost manuscript, one found in the southern islands below Ravashira.”

 

   He pauses after thumbing through the book looking for his prize, “Well, Miss Ree-rona.”

 

   “You have a tendency to mispronounce names I see.” she says frustrated, “please hurry it up aged man, I do have a schedule to keep.”

 

  “Oh, yes, sorry,” he says now rushing; “Well I meant to say that I don’t mean to

offend but you are the spitting image of the evil Empress Rhulan.”

 

   “What?” she says glaring at him.

 

   He produces from the book a photograph image of the Empress, in her sorceress attire, the black pants, gloves, cape with the red lining, posing for a publicity photo from a thousand years ago.

 

   “See,” he says enthusiastically, “I am part of the Ravashira historical society, we have been recovering lost documents. This book is a reprint of a manuscript found on the island of Caprish. I dare say you might actually be a descendent. Until these books were found the events from a thousand years ago, the Evil Empress Rhulan’s fame, even the Metal Castle where her supposedly petrified body was buried after the fantastic battle with the hero Gyro-Lee have all begun to be viewed as mere legend. Or even myth in some cases, exaggerations meant to cover up some catastrophe or war. After all with the reports of all the books about her empire being burned world wide whose to say what history was really lost. But with these discoveries we have come to find more truth to the old stories than was previously thought to be true.”

 

   “You said that twice.” she said cutting him off, “Before you go on and on with some excited historian’s rant we really must be off.”

 

   He stands silenced, but only for a moment, the prospect of a descendent of a supposedly, possibly, fictional historical character overwhelms him; “Well, perhaps latter then? I would love to discuss with you your family history, perhaps a tie does exist…uh miss?”

 

   He trails off as Rurona ushers Hollia down the hall away from the classroom. She looks back for a brief moment at the old man standing in the door way shrugging as he looks back at the book and heads inside, her eyes like daggers boring into the back of his skull, “big mouth.” is all she says, muttering under her breath.

 

    An eventful day indeed, with the classes over and the history instructor’s

unwanted foreshadowing still brooding in Rurona’s mind, they spent what little time remained of the day studying and lecturing the finer points of magic. All of this is merely a pretext; or rather a stalling for time doubled with basic rehashing over past lessons to see between the lines of things the average student would take for granted. In the largest and oldest library of the school of Stratalia Rurona has arranged it, bribes mostly, that they will be able to remain past closing, for, well as she put it “further studies with out the interference or disturbance of other students and faculty.”

 

   Given Hollia’s status, as well as the bribes of course, which of course Hollia was un-aware of, the library staff was happy to oblige them. Night has come, the illusionary sun of this world has set, and the equally illusionary moon has risen. Hollia’s nose is deep in an old tome regarding the use of combination magic when the sound of metal scraping metal catches her attention. Her tutor is no where to be seen.

 

 

 

    Following the source of the sound she finds Rurona coming up from the basement stairs, the door, normally kept locked, open and undamaged. The key had been procured by Rurona from the library desk, which wasn’t as lucky as the door.

 

   “What are you doing?” questions Hollia.

 

   “Time for the real lessons.” answers Rurona with a twisted smile, “follow me.”

 

   In the dusty basement Hollia sees the source of the sound, a stone wall has been crumbled to sand, a stone to sand spell no doubt, however the actual source of the sound would be what’s behind it. An old metal door she never knew was there, now open. Rurona leads her down a dark underground passage. The passage is unlit, as if in chorus the two speak the spell of illumination,

 

    “Ancient Source of all Light

    Throw Back the Darkness

   And Illuminate!”

 

    In their up-turned palms balls of light appear, in Rurona’s a blue sphere, in Hollia’s a white sphere. The stone work looks ancient, made from faux-magitian stone, an art lost in the last thousand years. The only structure in the school she thought was made of it would be the practice stadium, a coliseum where they would practice attack spells as the stone would absorb magic and negate its environmental properties. In this way they could practice with out fear of destroying the surrounding environment, or setting a building on fire. In ancient times it was a place where warriors and monsters would fight for the amusement of the masses.

 

    What this spells out is clear; the stone passage is older than the school. Perhaps she thinks even unknown to her grandfather, but then again someone had to have built that metal door, it didn’t look ancient, and of course the wall blocking it.

 

    Hollia’s musing over the perplexity of the passage is cut short by an odd hissing sound, a sound not unlike the sound of gas escaping from a cracked test tube. Rurona is even surprised to see a green bubbling gunk coming from the cracks in the wall, cracks that shouldn’t be there.

 

   “What is this?” she growls between her teeth glaring.

 

 

   The gurgling, bubbling, hissing sludge puffs up into hideous shapes, snot like with bits of spikes, small mouths with slicing teeth, and tentacle like pseudopods. The monstrosities are easily dealt with by mere fire-womph spells from the duo. Not an explosive like a regular fire ball or fire-sphere, not the best idea to use such in an underground passage, but rather a mere splash of flames in a roughly rounded form. The little abominations proved to be quite flammable, although the stench of their charred remains, if the scorch marks and black left over chunks could really be called as such, was truly excruciating.

 

   “What were those things?” asked Hollia.

 

  “I have no idea,” states Rurona with more of a questioning tone than a statement, “guards perhaps, the only ones who know about this place are the magical council for the school.”

 

   She sees the questioning look from Hollia, “remember I was able to astral project, not much else to do with my time than explore and spy on people.”

 

   She taps the burned chunks with her boot, “doesn’t matter, these things aren’t exactly a threat, but we may want to keep moving.”

 

   She notices that there looks to be more scorch marks on the wall than their spells should have made. Perhaps the bodies exploded? She couldn’t be certain; it was a bit hectic throwing so much fire around so quickly at the swarms of slithering snot things.

 

   “Okay,” says Hollia as they descend another set of stairs, “If I may ask Miss Rurona, why are we going down here?”

 

   “Hmmm?”, “Oh, yes, didn’t you say you wanted a familiar?”

 

   “Yes, but. What does that have to do with going down here? Shouldn’t I be practicing spirit bonding and animal talking, and,” Hollia holds her finger to her lip in deep thought, “maybe study up on meditative totem guidance to find the right type of animal…”

 

     *oomph*

 

    She walks right into Rurona, “Animal totems? Spirit bonding with beasts? Those aren’t real familiars. All those kids around this place showing off Ice Owls, Soul Cats, Light Doves, Shadow Ravens, and what not. Those are just small pets that those kids have spirit bonded with. Yeah they can up an animal’s intellect but in the end they are just animals. Really they might as well have made homunculi golems, which some of those things when it comes down to it are. Fabricated creatures created for a pet trade. Light Doves and Shadow Ravens, especially. I know for a fact the chimera creation labs on this campus sell the eggs they make for those things to pet dealers for aliens and snobby wealthy aristocrats to decorate their lawns and gardens.”

 

   She laughs as she beckons Hollia to keep walking, “heh, no, a real familiar is a spirit beast, a creature summoned with the essence of your own soul and mind. A perfect companion and assistant. In this way what you summon will be a being perfectly aligned to your magic and mentality.”

 

   “Did you ever have a familiar like that?”

 

   Rurona stops again, a look of loss on her face, “yes, I did once, a gorgeous metal-snake. My poor dear Hannya…that foolish brat, he killed her. Treated her like she was just some sub-boss…I…”

 

    She stops short and shakes her head dismissing some long sleeping spite she had thought she was over, “That was a long time ago, come on Hollia.”

 

   Before them a pair of large golden doors stand…they stand ajar.

 

   “Stay behind me.” commands Rurona, “These doors should be locked shut with a spell.”

 

    They open the door as silently as one can open a door made of gold stone and laced with enchanted jewels. Rurona notes some attempts to break the protective anti-theft spell on the door its self as her hand graces its surface, the whispers in the spell chronicling its attempted violation.  Inside the cold lights are lit, a pile of ancient tomes lay on the table. Somewhere in this ancient hidden place someone is whispering to himself.

 

    “Well, well, well,” comes a man’s voice from nothing, “What have we here? A few more thieves come along for the party? You sure as the fiery hell is hot don’t look like guards. In fact I’d say a couple of hot babes have come to pay me a visit. But you don’t look like sexy nymphs or some other magical trap to lure me in.” the disembodied voice laughs with a young yet somehow experienced echo, “and unless those snot things can change shape you sure as the frozen hell is cold aren’t those damned, what ever they are.”

 

   “So,” says Rurona, arms crossed with a confident smile on her face, “You’re a thief. And I take it those other scorch marks on the wall are from you’re fight with those…things. A thief with fire magic?”

 

   “Fire specialty.” the voice says, “my magic as you can clearly tells comes in the form of stealth.”

 

   Rurona waves her hands, summoning a blue light that bathes the library in its ghostly source less illumination. Revealed now sitting in a chair, heels on the table is a man who could best be described as (scruffy), with shaggy hair, an un-kempt goatee making a hypocrite out of the rest of his clearly close shaven face and wearing rags for cloths. Well a green tunic and brown pants are hardly rags, but in the presence of a girl dressed in a white student’s sorceress robes and another in the garments of an academic regal made of fine black cloth with a gold trim, this man’s cloths might as well have been the badly butchered remains of a hog. The smile on his face would seem to convey his understanding of this, however the look in their eyes tells him that they too got into this room he thought was impossible for anyone except him or someone like him to even find and get past those guardian creatures, and did so with out seeming to even dirty their cloths.

 

    “Well,” he says cupping his hands behind his head, “ladies, it looks like you have me at a disadvantage. Not sure…exactly how you just did that. I’m going to need my money back on this thing.”

 

   He chucks a small, now cracked, amulet with a blue stone onto the table. Staring at the thing he says, “That stone was pink before. Now it’s blue and cracked. Something tells me tall, dark, and dyes her hair in blood over there…which by the way not sure if you know it, but down here in a dark abandoned library filled with ancient sellable secrets under the most prominent school of magic in the world, a six foot tall woman, dressed like the queen of all vampires, able to do magic like that, and giving me dagger eyes right now is scary, like I am about to shit my pants scary.”

 

   Hollia is at a loss for words but something does dawn on her, rather than ask the man she asks Rurona, “Uh, Miss Rurona, how did this guy get in here? Didn’t you dissolve the wall just to get to the door?”

 

   “Oh,” says the man, “you guys came in the old fashioned way,” he laughs a little and shakes his head while righting himself in his chair, “Not very subtle, but then again I don’t think your professional thieves. My guess, hmmm, well you scary lady you’re an instructor, and you little lady you’re a student. So let me guess you two must have overheard about this library or come across some lost document, been a lot of talk of that stuff lately.”

 

   “Shut up.” says Rurona coldly, “You’re a thief, and I can tell one from the official thieves guild. You’ve been using a phase stone to come through the wall in the library basement.”

 

   “uhhhh,” he looks around for a moment, “yeah, have you been spying on me?”

 

   “No, I don’t need too; I know this entire campus from wall to wall and basement to roof; and that is the only point for this entire underground complex that isn’t made of faux-magitian, no phase stone or any magic other than those of the most powerful of spells can get through it.”

 

   “That would be correct little, big lady, I got myself a real good…one …and.” He pads his pockets and pulls out a metal container covered in purple glittering dust, the smile on Rurona’s face speaks volumes.

 

   “and,” he continues after a brief glare before going back to his goofy smile, “that spell of yours didn’t just take out my stealth stone,…mmm, hmm, it took out my phase stone.”

 

   He reaches into other pockets pulling out other broken amulets, every color of the rainbow.

 

   “That one,” says Rurona speaking to Hollia and pointing at a star shaped red amulet smashed down the middle, “my student, would be the very rare and very expensive star key. That being the stone he used to get through the door, and I guess he tried to abuse it and also take some of the jewels out of the door.”

 

   The thief shakes his head, “okay, ladies.” He stands to his feet and pulls out a pair of daggers with blue flames dancing along their blades, “Guess I was wrong, you are guards.”

 

   “No,” says Rurona, “you were right, I am a tutor and this is my student, we are also breaking the rules of the school. I fully intend to block the entrance back up when we are done. And after words I plan to seal the door so that not even the primus phase stone in the guild’s vault could get you through.”

 

   The man puts his blades down, “who the hell are you?” with mouth agape looking her up and down.

 

   Hollia steps up, “We’re the ones stopping your crimes! Your evil gadgets are gone; you can’t escape our rightful wrath.”

 

   Rurona’s hysterical laughter echoes off the walls, shaking the books in a way they have never been touched, some even reacting with glows and floating just off the shelves.

 

   “No, no, Hollia.” she says, “Not a good idea. If we drag this guy out of here we’ll also be busting our selves for breaking in.”

 

   “Oh,” says Hollia, “but he’s a thief, he broke into the school. It’s the duties of any adventurer, or student to stop him. Who knows what he’s stolen.”

 

   Rurona looks to the far wall with her hand out as if expecting someone to hand her something, “Aesperia Prime Index come here.”

 

   No one notices a blue light inside her cape bleeps for a second as at her command a panel on the floor moves, rises into the air, and transforms into a black book. The book floats vertically in the air a red ghostly glow enveloping it. On the face of the book a red glowing hexagram forms just before turning into a rather evil looking face with red eyes and a red mouth.

 

   “Yes,” says the book in an equally demonic voice, “Aesperia Prime, Metal Castle library index speaking. What is your wish?”

 

   Rurona in a tone of authority, one Hollia has only heard a few times in regards to teaching about certain dangerous spells, and one that raises the thief’s eye brow, as well as the corner of his lip, “Book, inventory, what is missing?”

 

     “One moment ma’am.”

 

    After a pause it says, “Nothing, all tomes are accounted for. New tomes added have been included to the index as well…one moment…sensory logs acquired. Copies made and removed for one hundred and thirteen spells. Determining level of importance.”

 

   Rurona looks at the two very confused people in the room with her own expression of *don’t ask*.

 

   “Level of Importance determined. Low, spells copied were all from the shelf books, 78 of which from the decoy books, and 13 from the new volumes added by none castle personnel.”

 

   “What!” screams the thief before he starts coughing from his own sudden outburst.

 

    “Looks like you’re not as good a thief as you think. With your stones gone, and the fact that as I said I will be sealing the library better your meal ticket here is gone. Plus the fact that is has to be dawning on you right now that I used a spell with out even saying an invocation that shattered all your little trinkets.”

 

   “Actually,” he says while retaking his seat with a smug look on his face, “I have a pretty good idea about that.”

 

    He looks over to the floating demonic book, “Aesperia Prime Index.”

 

   He looks back at Rurona, “You know the guild doesn’t like to burn books.”

 

   He swipes away an errant eye crust, “I’m thinking you won’t kill me; at least not with your white witch student standing there…I hope, So let’s cut to the chase okay.”

 

   “Very well, you can leave out the way we came; although that might be a problem with your stones broken. I could repair it, it’s an easy task for me, but you’ll owe me.”

 

     “Works for me.” He says, “but by the honor of thieves I already owe you for not trying to turn me in. I don’t want to owe you twice for helping me sneak out.”

 

    He stands and walks with hands in pockets, turning invisible with a smug smile on his face. With that the scruffy man was gone.

 

   Hollia is stuck in a day dream about adventure, perhaps getting that scruffy man to be the team’s thief. She is snapped back to attention by a red book hovering right in her face, “ahhhhhhhh”

 

    Her scream got a chuckle from Rurona. Looking around Hollia sees that the demonic index book had gone back into the floor; this was a new book in front of her.

 

   “There’s the home work.” states Rurona matter of factly, acting as if everything with Scrags hadn’t happened, “It’s the book on familiar summoning.”

 

    Hollia takes the floating book in her hands, despite its size it feels nearly weightless.

 

   “In fact.” says Rurona hand raised, “we’re taking the book. We can bring it back later.”

 

    Book in hand Hollia was amazed at how easily Rurona re-sealed the door. With Hollia casting the illumination spell, Rurona blasted newly appearing snot creatures with balls of purple energy with out the use of invocations, simply throwing them about as easily as one flicking water from their finger tips.

 

   “No time to make this another combat lesson.” she says, “Its getting late, and you need time to read that book along with your regular home work. We can’t have you doing an all-nighter and sleeping all day tomorrow.”

 

    With the casting of *Reversion* the wall was restored.

 

  “Oh yeah,” says Hollia watching the wall reassemble.

 

  “Now,” says Rurona, “Get to your room. And one more thing.”

 

   She hands Hollia a yellow stone, “A feed back, if someone cloaked is nearby it will glow. Just in case that thief turns out to be a peeping tom as well.”

 

 

 

   *oomph* the sound of someone unseen bumping into a desk on the other side of the library brings a smile to Rurona’s face and an understanding nod from Hollia as they head out.

4: Chapter 4: The Summoning

     The next day had flowed by with very little relevance to Hollia. The usual classes seemed like an alien world from where she had been last night, so foreign in fact from the book she had been reading. Her history instructor had tried to ask her how she met Rurona. Thankfully they had worked out a believable back story, that they had met whole Hollia was out practicing, almost true in that account. Of course that alone wouldn’t be enough for the more inquisitive minds of those like the history instructor Prof. Mortaz. The story went that Hollia had been practicing some potent higher class spells on her own in the woods when Rurona flew over head seeing her. The fabrication went on to explain that Rurona was a master sorceress looking for a promising student, but learning that Hollia was a devoted student opted to be her personal tutor rather than magic master.

 

    A good story, and this being the mystical continent at the end of the world as so many across Aesperia call it, it was to be expected that many strange individuals existed amongst the numerous kingdoms of the continent of Ravashira. No doubt there exists hidden here many a prodigy in magic, after all skill alone does not get one into the school of Stratalia on the far east coast; one must have money, as is the case with any private school or college.

 

    All such exposition aside for Hollia the next week in fact flew by, she barely paid any attention to her school courses, not that she really needed to with her talent, as she focused on the book of summoning her tutor had given her. At last came the faithful night, with two weeks still remaining till the school’s carnival she would at last and in time perform the ritual of summoning.

 

    In the dark of the night Rurona had selected to perform the spell in the clearing where Hollia had practiced so many of her spells over the years as the area was ripe with Hollia’s mystical energy. This saturation of magic made it the perfect place to perform such an intimate spell.

 

    Dressed in a white gown looking more like a wedding dress than a sorceress attire Hollia sat down in the middle of a great white sigil on the ground, hands clasped together as though in prayer. From this point on Rurona could not help her, serving only as the witness to the ritual.

 

    The environment is filled with an electric hum, a song not heard but instead felt as Hollia’s mystical energy flows through the sigil and the local environment. This ritual cannot be done with words, not with audible words in any case, no it is a ritual done with the highest form of magic, soul invocation, the magic from one’s own spirit. The sigil glows blue as the points of contact between the lines burst into blue torches. A cyclone of this same energy swirls up from the center as Hollia retains her voiceless chanting, her focus unbroken, the ancient inner words recorded in heart, mind and most importantly of soul.

 

    When all is said and done, when the theatrics of the magic is complete, seeming to exist more to test the will of the summoner than to display their power, all the energy focuses above her and blasts down as though it were a bolt of lightning focused into the pin point of an artist’s hand. Before her, directly in front of her gown covered knees a small blue circle appears. From it an oval of energy, looking to all the word as a celestial egg, something one may imagine lightning may give birth to, if lightning gave birth.

 

   The light faded and the sigil evaporated, it was now over, for the most part. A peculiar creature now stood and cooed at Hollia. The strange little animal looked for all the world to be a mere white ferret, save for having a head like a baby fox adorned with small antlers between its ears.

 

   “Hello little girl.” says Hollia in a friendly tone as one talking to a baby.

 

   The strange little creature coos again, a strange sound somewhere between a ferret’s chortle and a bird’s song.

 

   “Per the right of the summoning spell I dub thee, LinLin.” This was it, the creature born from her soul’s own magic, her own true familiar. The spell had been a complete success; all that is left is the introductions.

 

   “I am your master,” she says, “and mother, my name is Holly-Lia, however I am called Hollia by most everyone.”

 

   She gestures to Rurona sitting on the stone pedestal she had before been a statue upon, “and this is Miss Rhulan, she is my tutor and friend.”

 

   Rurona pauses looking at Hollia with a worried expression on her face, “Hollia?”

 

    Hollia smiles looking at her, “the spell said I had to be truthful to my familiar. Especially right at creation, I would be lying if I told her your cover name.”

 

   “Okay…, when did you figure it out?” she asks leaning back on one arm.

 

  “I kinda knew for about two years now.”

 

   Rhulan gives her a curious look.

 

   “Yeah,” she continues, “Well I’m not stupid. I mean stories of a sorceress turned to stone and all. Plus…I mean, to everyone else the story is just a legend, but in my family its reality. When I turned thirteen I got the whole story, even where the Metal Castle had been located. I put two and two together.”

 

   She looks up at Rhulan, with her familiar now resting in her arms blanketed by her long white silken layered sleeves.

 

   “I didn’t want to say anything,” she says, “I mean what if I was wrong, although the clues clearly added up to you being the Empress Rhulan. But, I know there is goodness in everyone’s hearts. After a few days I just couldn’t believe all those old stories were true, besides my parents told me the stories the Stingers told about you on their dealings with them, how 1800 or so years ago you had saved the world from their ancestors. Of course these are stories we couldn’t tell anyone, I mean yeah we’ve known them, but I guess no one wants anyone to really know you existed, or that you weren’t as evil as everyone around the world says…”

 

  “okay, okay,” says Rhulan holding up her hands as though in defeat, “I get it, guess I’m just surprised you figured it out so soon. Usually, well the cliché thing would be for you to not figure it out for a lot later. But then again if you were that dense you’d hardly be a worthy student.”

 

   “You mean?” asks Hollia eyes wide.

 

   “Yeah, so long as you don’t think I’m going to turn you to the dark side or something?” Rhulan stands and laughs, arms crossed.

 

   Hollia had been a little tense, but now her body relaxes, unsure of the future but knowing she really wants Rhulan to stay around no matter what. The small creature in her arms however, LinLin, who had been silent save for a soft purr, perks up her ears. The little new born spirit creature senses something nearby, a rustling in the bushes.

 

   Rhulan floats down beside Hollia, “Looks like the freaks that were wandering around the woods have decided to pay us a visit. How kind of them to wait till our dramas were over.”

 

   She winks to Hollia, “Okay my dear lets see what we have here.”

 

   With hand outstretched a mystical bubble sphere appears with a small green swirl inside, “Sphere of Wind!” she yells out throwing it. Upon impact the bubble bursts releasing a cyclone of green wind that rips the bushes and surrounding vegetation out of the ground revealing the strange creatures hiding behind them. A small group of strange oddities even Rhulan is unfamiliar with, zombies, but not ordinary decaying undead, no these creatures have spikes coming from their shoulders, elbows, knees, and even wrists. The normal decaying flesh is green in color, as though it were sludge and moss imitating the corroded carcass of a normal zombie. Other than this they have all the normal appearances of zombies, sunken eyes, bad teeth, thin hair, and a stink of rotting meat, which had been oddly missing until Rhulan’s attack. A spell of concealment, one broken by Rhulan’s attack.

 

    The muscular, if it could justifiably be called that, one in front moaned, “Rhuuu-laaaaan, ebeeeeel, emprissssss.” while pointing its crooked decayed finger at her.

 

    With a raised eye, “You can pronounce a puh sound?” she asked not expecting an answer, “Also I’m not evil.” She looks at Hollia, “Well, not like I could control every single magistrate under my control.”

 

 

 

   She shakes her head, “Never mind, I make no excuses, yeah I messed up, and I have been imprisoned in stone for a thousand years as a result, my triple gods damned empire didn’t last that long. And besides.”

 

   She points at the zombies, “Why in the name of the first Hell would I even try to justify myself to some clearly artificially made flesh golem freaks? I don’t know who or what sent you, but your attempt to expose me is too late.”

 

   Hollia faces the zombies her stance making her gown now resemble more the flowing robes of a Nipponian princess than a wedding dress, “that’s right evil minions of darkness. Miss Rhulan may have been the evil empress, fallen down the path of darkness from the temptation of power, but she is now my friend. I know she is good, she has served her sentence, I won’t allow any monsters like you to come near her.”

 

   To everyone’s surprise a blue beam suddenly blasts the zombie in the face, burning a hole in it, followed a second later by a shock wave that smashes what remains of its face in.

 

   The source of the blast was LinLin, the cute and cuddly creature in the sleeves of her robe.

 

   “A low level Devastation Beam.” states Rhulan.

 

   “What?” asks Hollia.

 

  *groooaaannn*

 

   The zombies start to slowly shamble forward.

 

   “This.” Rhulan says with a smile.

 

   Hand raised and arm crooked as though to hail a carriage a light blue flame appears around her hand. She thrusts her arm back and forward with a mighty push yelling out “Devastation Beam!” the blue beam is accompanied with a wide shock wave that devastates the animated corpses, reducing them to ash and smashed remains.

 

  “That.” she says, “Is a higher level version. Looks like little LinLin there has an impressive breath weapon. Hmmm” with a smile she looks at the now calming down again creature, “well, well, Hollia, looks like your spirit animal is a dragon. A true spirit dragon.”

 

    Hollia looks down at LinLin concerned for a moment before its cuteness brings a broad smile to her face, “you are so cute LinLin. My precious baby familiar dragon.”

 

   Rhulan smiles, however her expression quickly turns looking at the remains, “Hollia, begin cleansing those remains. Those weren’t some old monsters of mine trying to turn me evil again or anything like that. Everything I made is long gone, it all collapsed when I was turned to stone. You remember the story, when I was defeated the world was set back to before I returned.” she shakes her head thinking, “That was meant to keep the different kingdoms from going to war with each other as I could shut everything down in their lands at once, but that’s not the point right now. Those things weren’t my making; I have no idea where they came from. But they had an aura to them that’s not from this world.”

 

     Rhulan watches as Hollia cleanses the remains, her new familiar jumping to the ground and walking behind, looking to be trying to copy her spell and do it as well. The timing of their appearance concerns her, “how did they know we were here? We’re they programmed to try and expose me? Why?” a specific pale woman’s face comes to mind, their passing in the hall outside the dean’s office coming back to her mind, “Couldn’t be, is she really back?”

5: Chapter 5: Night before the Festival

    Nothing more came of the zombies, no more attacks, no signs of the same evil aura. Although it took a wind sphere spell to expose the aura of the zombies before, she had expected to find students or bandits following them into the woods. Those monsters had come as a complete surprise, more so than Hollia’s up-beat optimism about Rhulan’s true identity. In the two weeks before the festival was scheduled they had found no more signs of any such creatures. Rhulan has taken precautions creating a crystal ball with a spell reveal built into it. No concealed monsters, although she has been tracking their stealthy thief, who has apparently decided to hang around the campus. Aside from stealing a meal here and there he hasn’t gone after anything big, no doubt trying to find a way into something else.

 

   Around the campus the gossip surrounding Hollia has increased, the jealously is so thick one could cut it with a knife, of course needing a razor edge serrated knife, metaphorically speaking. All thanks to Hollia’s familiar. The students with their store bought familiars being the most jealous, at the very least those that used animal summoning could relate to having a natural bond rather than something close to enslaving the mind of some artificial bio-engineered living golem like a Light Dove or Shadow Raven, purely aesthetic pieces to the outfits of those students in most cases. LinLin has gotten into the habit of hanging around the back of Hollia’s neck where ever she goes, the flicking of LinLin’s forked tongue setting off her cute baby fox face to those who stared too long.

 

    The school was abuzz preparing for the festival, the night had come, or at least the night before. The massive flying metal ship of the merchant’s guild brought many a stare and dropped jaw from those students who had come from smaller towns, or rather anywhere but the large empires, who had never seen one before. As the court yard was jumping with people setting up claims to different slots to set up vendor booths and attractions on the far end of the complex Hollia had to go and greet her parents and the visiting diplomats.

 

    The sounds of the construction of the large tents and attractions was far removed from the air-dock, drowned out by distance and the sounds of the alchemic engines hybridized with Kuhrai technology. Jinron-Lia stands at the forefront with Hollia next to him, and by her request her tutor the woman known to them as Rurona. The rest of the teaching faculty, security, and visiting Aesperian diplomats and honored guests also stand about the massive platform as the ship lands. This side of the school seems a world apart from the main campus buildings.

 

    First off the ship were the security staff and after them Hollia’s parents. Her father Tyros-Lia was the first off, a simple looking man in an out of place business suit, one that hid his muscular body making him look like any other office jockey. After him came her mother, Jasma, to Hollia she looks rather odd in her grey business suit with vest and slacks as normally she dresses in a more traditional white sorceress warrior’s attire. Her slim pale figure and long blond hair hiding her slightly pointed ears distinctly out of place in that office attire. Then again her figure, hair, and elf ears would be secondary to the fact that despite this difference in cloths she still has at her sides her two katana which she never goes anywhere with out.

 

    The greetings here are quick and professional, although Hollia can see the approval in her parent’s faces at the sight of her in her white regal sorceress attire, something more befitting this situation than her student’s uniform. Her outfit is off-set by that of her tutor next to her in her typical black uniform. Her parents had gotten a dimensional transit letter ahead of time from her grand-father on what to expect, between the tutor, and the familiar, as well as their daughter’s increased attention to classes they were in reality quite proud despite their quick bows and passing.

 

    After them are a series of diplomats from the alien worlds, the scattered floating continent worlds known collectively as the Makai Cluster.

 

     The man representing the Immortals came next, looking like any other Aesperian, nothing special.

 

    Then the representative of the Stingers, a small woman with solid blue gem like ovals for eyes wearing golden armor, armor yet still scantly clad. She has two antennas on her head and a cat like tail tipped off with a conical dagger like stinger trailing behind her.

 

   Behind her a woman much more distracting, the representative of the Kuhrai, the biggest trading partner with the three great empires of Aesperia. This woman is oddly enough not a simple merchant or diplomat; she is in fact the queen of a Kuhrai controlled desert world known as the Land of Dao. This grey furred cat like being with her pointed ears, cat paw hands, and house cat face is none other than Queen Bast-Tet.

 

   The final diplomat was a bit un-expected, a normal looking man with short canary yellow hair and a goatee. He was announced by the crew of the ship’s departure party as Ahm, a representative of the Hinnen race. A race of giant shape shifters, due to his natural size of twenty feet, not too mention bird like features it is customary for his kind to change to a human shape during these meetings as their true forms draw more attention than the Kuhrai. And on the adventurer and monster fighting culture world of Aesperia looking like a giant bird monster makes one stick out and draw too much attention, and tension from the locals.

 

    As this last man walks past Rhulan, he pauses momentarily before proceeding, something about her raises a look of confusion and concern in his otherwise steely gazed face. Rhulan knows all too well why, a smile creeps across her face.

 

     “Ahm” she thinks, “so it’s true your world is in this universe. Who would have thought I’d ever see your face again.”

 

     The day wore on, some diplomatic meetings that neither Hollia nor Rhulan had anything to do with, or were of any importance to them in any case. A few talks on future relations with the local merchants and kingdoms, tariff laws regarding none-empire outlets of revenue for off-world merchants, and so forth and so on. By the time Hollia’s parents got to their schedule in regards to catching up with Hollia and meeting her tutor, Miss Rurona, they had little more time than to say hi, get the basic back story Hollia and Rhulan had invented to explain her presence, and meet LinLin.

 

    In Hollia’s dorm, Jasma, Hollia’s mother, was taken with the little creature LinLin as it napped in its pet bed Hollia had gotten. Her father had gone to speak to his father, Jinron-Lia about the arrangements for tomorrow.

 

    “So how are classes?” asks Jasma as she scratches LinLin behind the ear as it purrs.

 

    Hollia’s response is what would expect from a boarding school student, the usual boredom, redundancy, but recently getting more interesting since Rurona showed up.

 

   Her daughter’s praise for Rurona strikes a chord in Jasma’s memory, something; a flash back to when Hollia was very young telling her a fantasy story she had. It had been when Jasma had come back from a meeting early as Hollia had run away. She had found her okay of course by the time she got back to Stratalia. Rather than get the expected complaints from her daughter she was told a story she had written involving a sorceress. Something she would do a few times more over the years before finally being quite about it.

 

     Hollia had told her a few years ago she no longer imagined those stories and just wanted to live in the real world. But she could see in her daughter’s eyes the truth. She wanted to be an adventurer and still day dreamed about her child hood fantasies.

 

   “hmmm,” murmurs Jasma with a concerned smile as Hollia describes how great Rurona is, and about their training, and about a book she gave her to teach her how to summon LinLin.

 

   “What?” asks Jasma, stopping her.

 

   Hollia stops, wide eyed, knowing she had said too much in her excitement. “Uh,” she says, “oops.” with a concerned look and nervous smile.

 

    Jasma looks at her daughter as only a mother can with both concern and urgency not sure if she should be worried or not.

 

   LinLin jumps down from the edge of the bed and under it. She shoves out the red summoning book.

 

   “Hollia?” asks Jasma, “what is that?”

 

   “Oh,” says Hollia, “that’s the book Rurona leant me. It’s a rare book about summoning a…true familiar.”

 

   “Oh,” says Jasma, “You really are learning some high end magic from her huh?”

 

   “Yeah,” says Hollia as LinLin jumps up into her lap nudging her.

 

   “That’s good.” says her mother, “I always knew you had potential. Just don’t push yourself too hard okay. You’re still young yet, no reason to try doing anything too hard till you’re really ready.”

 

   “Don’t worry mom. I can handle this.”

 

   Her mother looks at her with a turned head.

 

   “Okay mom, I won’t push myself too hard.”

 

  LinLin licks Jasma’s fingers causing her to giggle and give the little one another scratch behind the ears. All her worries floated out the window as her smile also melted away Hollia’s worries.

 

    The remainder of their talk was the usual mother, daughter catching up, friends, classes, joking about boys, not that Jasma expected much considering the state of the school to mostly house temporary seasonal students. The remainder of the day wore on and they both have a lot they have to do in the morning for the festival, their mother daughter catching up was short, but something they both deeply enjoyed in their busy lives.

6: Chapter 6: The Festival

     The sounds of families and vendors, the smells of festive foods, and the over all atmosphere of a day meant to be enjoyed as people walked about the large roadway into the main courtyard of Stratalia. The normal school stores and offices of this area are closed down for the day to make way for the tents and vendors on the roadway with its scenic artificial waterways going under it.

 

   Hollia on the other hand was inside, in a seminar with the other guest magicians and sorcerers from across the world regarding the order and extent of their demonstrations that night. Despite it still being early in the day this promised to be a long seminar regarding what they would do, and what order, covering all the rules, and even trying to insure they wouldn’t pull anything extreme or say something offensive or unprofessional or political, and so forth. Hollia really didn’t care, she isn’t a court sorceress for the Croix Empire which is at odds with the Xiang Empire, which is also at odds with the Agrax Empire, or any of the multitudes of smaller kingdoms across the world which are always at odds with their neighbors.

 

   Hollia looks around the room; to her in her white student sorceress uniform; as the representative of the school her personal uniform which isn’t enforced on other students is the most reasonable attire, stands out. The others are dressed as though, as far as she sees it, like they are representing glamour boutiques or sugar treat companies. These men are even stuffier in garb than the students, their layered cloths bogged down not just by layers of robes but also jewels. The Croix Empire representative even had real gold thread woven into this garment with a large gold medallion around his neck with a dragon’s eye diamond center piece.

 

     The Xiang Empire representative is wearing an armored breast plate over his red and yellow robes laden with jade dragons. The entire thing looking to weigh far more than a normal person should tolerate on their shoulders for the whole day, granted even a kid could throw a stone the size of their head at least six times before getting tired, but a gold and jade armor on top of stuffy robes in this summer heat for an entire day. She refused to believe this guy actually wore this back in the more tropical capital city of the Xiang Empire.

 

    The Agrax empire representative was something else entirely. His robes were orange and yellow with swirl gold patterns in it. The swirls had to weigh down his large arm cuffs, leg cuffs, and his chest and abdomen. Unlike the other two this man had a simple staff by comparison. The Croix staff was a massive bishop’s cane with a gold bell; of course this oversized thing actually made of solid iron was left leaning on the wall, while the Xiang representative had a staff looking like a green dragon grasping a red orb in its mouth. LinLin sitting across Hollia’s shoulder kept eyeing the staff, opening her eyes wide as though challenging it to a staring contest. The Agrax representative’s staff, nothing more than a simple wooden wrinkled walking cane, something they called a dream time staff.

 

     These of course were not the only three aside from Hollia; there was a woman in red witch’s robes complete with a hat with a buckle belt around it, a shadow raven sitting on her shoulder. A man in blue robes with white stripes, with a wind falcon sitting in a cage a servant of his he insisted was his magic assistant would carry on a golden hook pole, as well as a few others in various odd outfits standing around the small seldom used younger students classroom turned seminar room, ever since the incident with Hollia at a young age with the older man who was expelled the school was forced after a committee meeting to divide up the age groups of students, of course very few people send very young students so most of the classes made for this purpose on the mostly empty wing tend to become seminar rooms or storage spaces. They had hoped the nearby towns would send young students, but they had their own school houses and most felt magic wasn’t appropriate to be taught by strangers at such a young age.

 

     Hollia and LinLin yawned in unison sporadically through out the meeting, becoming a game after a while. The holders of the animal familiars glanced at her from the corners of their eyes wondering where she came across such a creature. Partway into the seminar, about an hour of the expected four hours, Rhulan burst into the room. Well more appropriately she walked in, the room had been locked with a magic seal to prevent spies from the various diplomats from knowing the sequence and the spells to be shown off in case someone wanted to plan something. No word, no glow on the door to alert anyone a spell was being broken, Rhulan just walked in. Just about everyone save for Hollia jumped at the sudden intrusion, the instructor turned planner who had put the spell on the door struck silent.

 

      She had seen Rhulan; or rather she should be called Rurona as that’s the name she knows her as, standing next to Hollia on the air dock, and before walking through the halls, even that first day when Hollia brought her to the dean’s office. Through her glasses she glared as Rhulan walked across the room, ignoring the others. She stood looming over Hollia, LinLin chirped up at her happy to see her, the little one’s emotions reflecting Hollia’s but Hollia was obligated not to show her eagerness to see her at this break in the boring monotony of the seminar.

 

   “What are you doing in here?” demands Rhulan, hands on hips, “The festival is outside, your friends are running their stalls wandering if you’ll stop by and say hi. There is good food, drinks, even your favorite the fizzy grape potion, a diplomat from southern Croix actually brought a vendor of his own to make sure he has some here. Not to mention all the games, its boring wandering around there by myself, no point in trying to win a prize when there is no one to show off too.”

 

   Rhulan grabs the blushing girl’s hands, pulling her to her feet.

 

  “Now come on, only old stuff shirts spend their days saying the same junk over and over again.”

 

 

   She looks at the planner, “really? An hour already, and four more? How long does it take to say, okay you and you go first and you and you go last, don’t say anything stupid about other countries and blow up the school trying to show off.”

 

   As Rhulan walks out with Hollia in tow the planner stops them, “Excuse me Miss Rurona but this is important that they know how…”

 

   Rhulan interrupts her by grabbing a pamphlet from the papers on her desk, “Everything you have to say, is right here, you guys planned this all out last night.”

 

    She looks at the others smiling, “the truth is you just want to keep them all busy so they don’t interrupt the festival till most of the day is passed. Nothing messes up people’s fun more than some magically enhanced egos tied to the brainwashing their charges have given them gallivanting around in their eye blinding robes being tempted to blast diplomats and their rivals when they’re not looking. Tsk tsk, so much for trust in the goodness of human nature.”

 

   With a stern face and smiling eyes she leaves with Hollia who gives a quick apology, “sorry Mrs. Duncan.”

 

    Of course she isn’t really sorry she just wants out of there, leaving the court sorcerers and witches and what not to ponder who that was, the smarter ones focusing their minds on how she got into the room with no signs of using magic. Even the best of them would have been revealed by a glowing sigil on the door knob or some incantation and the sound of the lock spell snapping.

 

     Outside on the boardwalk Hollia is quick to greet a friend of hers working a kabob stand, the plain looking girl had been a student three years earlier for half a year. The two of them had become fast friends, but she had to leave school to help with her parents’ business back in the nearby small town. The rest of her friends, what few there were, are also working running this and that stall. None have anytime other than to say hi and catch up on a few things, but work is work, and they are here to work, they may never get another opportunity to pander to so many wealthy individuals again unless the school holds true to the prospect of making this an annual event.

 

     Hollia sulked away cheerfully from her friends, sad that she can’t spend more time with them, but happy that they are doing so well, especially that they could make so much money now. With a kabob of beef and red fruit in hand she let her face drop when her back turned to her friends.

 

     She was caught off guard as Rhulan came out of no-where yet again and put her arm around Hollia’s shoulders, LinLin now being safely held in Hollia’s arms, “now, now, I leave you alone for one minute and you go from happy to sad in an instant. Not bi-polar are you?” followed with a bit of light laughter.

 

   Hollia barely managed a stutter, “I…um…well my friends, I’m happy. I guess, it’s just they don’t get to have fun. I’m out here with you but they have to work.”

 

   “Such is life.” states Rhulan, “you saw their faces right, they are happy they get to help their families. We don’t live in a world of plenty and luxuries, not anymore. That was only a fleeting dream that ultimately proved to be unattainable. Utopia is impossible.” Her tone had become distant and sad.

 

   Noticing Hollia’s expression she quickly perks up, “Oh, sorry, not exactly helping you feel better am I? Ha!”

 

   She points to the nearest game table, a simple game of throwing darts at boards, “Life is hard, but life is also fun. We live in a multi-verse of insanity forged by crazy gods and inhabited by the spawns of lunacy. People want to live peacefully, but make things too easy and dull and people are bound to mess it up by creating chaos. So the best way to get out those impulses is by playing games!”

 

   Hollia didn’t fully understand everything she was saying but the spirit behind it was understood. The rest of the day was spent riding alchemic spinning machines, playing games like the aforementioned dart board, a ring toss, and even something claimed to be an ancient form of entertainment where one shot a rifle with cork at passing metal ducks. Guns are extremely uncommon in this world, things spoken of in legend from a thousand years ago, although the students from the Croix Empire would claim the people from the countries above them, Anglish and Sax Croix especially used a primitive flint based pistol as a common weapon amongst the law enforcers. As such this booth likely came from a Croix vendor.

 

   “Hmm,” hums Hollia

 

   “What is it?” asks Rhulan

 

 

 

    “Well,” says Hollia pointing at the gun game, “If these guys came with the diplomats aren’t they taking away the business of the local towns?”

 

    “huh?” says Rhulan sitting next to her on a bench throwing a hot dog wrapper away in the trash bin, “Look around Hollia notice anything?”

 

   Hollia looks around, “uhhhh.”

 

  “The stalls,” points out Rhulan, “these guys didn’t come with the diplomats, well except one or two that the diplomats paid to come here like the fizzy drink stand. These guys are merchants following the business. Most of these are from the nearby towns and even cities from a hundred miles around. Your parents gave precedence on renting the lots to go first to those towns nearest and then the rest went to auction. Local food always sells best when you have tourists that come from abroad. Trust me your friends are making out like bandits with those guys.”

 

    “oh,” looking around Hollia smiles and nods her head seeing the lines, especially the ones with the wealthy foreigners, “you’re right.”

 

    “Of course I’m right.” Standing Rhulan adds, “well guess we better get you back to the demonstration guys.” She hands Hollia the pamphlet she had taken from the seminar earlier, “you’re on last so don’t worry. But they are going to start right at sun down.”

 

    They headed off back to the campus, Hollia waving a last goodbye as she passed her friends who were closest to the campus on the stone boardwalk.

7: Chapter 7: Festival Crashers

     The grand coliseum, the ancient structure made of faux-magitian. Where better to show off the mystical skills of Aesperia to alien diplomats, not to mention for the empires of the world to show off the skills of their court sorcerers. All this is played down of course; these demonstrations are being treated as just part of the closing of the festival. The main event of the day is the shows in the coliseum. The ancient stone stands are now filled with the people who had come to the festival; the sun is close to setting, the signal for the show to begin. The roof of the coliseum, helping to make it a marvel of the world, lights up with its ancient magic. This marvelous glowing roof indoor coliseum is said to be one the few surviving marvels that survived the fall of the Rhulan Empire a thousand years ago.

 

    Hollia waits with LinLin on her shoulders alongside the other magicians in their high rise room looking down, waiting for their turns to come. Hollia would rather be in the stands watching. Her parents alongside her grandfather, the alien diplomats, and even the ambassadors of the three big empires sit in large chairs in what would be the imperial box overlooking the coliseum floor on the far end. For security reasons all the shows and demonstrators would come out from the opposite end. The first up were circus performers, clowns, your basic shows for the masses. After these come the magicians.

 

    They stood silent, acting dignified as they were called up from their secondary waiting room, down on the ground before the doors to the stadium. From here each of them could only see a small from behind view of the others outside through the doors and small windows.

 

    The first called out were the graduated none-aligned sorcerers, the witch in red showed of some flashy fireworks, exploding lights that danced in the air. The man in blue did some spinning lightning and made water sing. After a few others the imperial representatives went out; armed with very showy yet none-destructive spell.

 

 

    The Ambassadors had decided who would go when for them by the drawing of lots, and so that none of them went last the school’s valedictorian would go last. The pressure of being the closer came over Hollia as she watched the Agrax wizard in orange spin is stick in the air summoning phantom mists and animal like forms telling the story of the Agrax Empire’s founding. Second came the Croix Empire Representative, his magic was very bright, the audience wasn’t pleased, most blocking their eyes from the white and gold shines he claimed were holy power. Hollia knew better, she had seen and felt true divine magic, this was only an over-bearing light show. Tact alone was all that kept the people watching from booing at him, that and he was the representative of the largest current empire on Aesperia.

 

    The final representative, the man from the Xiang Empire had some tricks up his sleeves. His staff would come to life and transform into a great green dragon, LinLin hisses at the sight, Hollia calming her with a little rub between the ears at the base of her antlers. In reality everything he is casting is only an illusion. In the end all three had merely shown tricks used to awe the masses and get more money for pointless magical research from kings.

 

    The time has come Hollia is about to go up, “don’t worry.” comes the voice of Rhulan walking into the room as easily as she had walked into the seminar before, this time however the door had an even stronger lock spell on it, but of course to no avail.

 

      “Miss…Rurona?” asks Hollia with a weak smile.

 

    “Like I said, don’t worry. You’ll do great.”

 

   “Yeah, but shouldn’t you be up there watching?”

 

   Rhulan smiles with a soft chuckle, “Kid, they aren’t showing me anything I care about, some silly illusions and tricks of light. You have something they can’t compete with.”

 

    She looks at little LinLin, “don’t you, you little cutey.”

 

    She pats Hollia on the head jokingly, “Just remember what you practiced and don’t think about it.”

 

   While the Xiang representative was out the others were sitting around them, exhausted by their own shows of power, and glaring at the strange woman who yet again walked right through a lock spell. The seminar instructor had informed them the woman’s name was Rurona, the personal tutor of Hollia. Seeing this woman’s ease with magic, demeanor, rather insulting references to their magic as silly illusions and tricks stung them deeply. She was clearly a master of sorcery who had taken the school’s prized student under her wing. Even they were now looking forward to see what she could do, or at least was planning on doing for this demonstration. Hollia had left the seminar before that part, so even the planner had no idea.

 

    With his display done the Xiang representative bowed out and walked back into the room just as Rhulan was leaving, the young girl Hollia now no longer looking nervous but proud despite his display. He quickly glared with a glance of the eyes while passing her, the looks from the others telling him that the woman they were told was Rurona had once again walked right into the room through the lock spell. With eye brow raised he watched as Hollia walked out; the crowd hungry for more magic.

 

      Hollia takes a deep breath and walks out into the arena; she takes a deep bow to the imperial box and begins. She holds out her hands as LinLin hops down into her open palms, she too stands up and takes a bow before starting to wave back and forth glowing blue as Hollia chants. Her invocation is cut short by a tremor in the ground, a most un-natural thing. On this world an earthquake cannot be caused by anything but magic, there are no tectonic movements on a world that is essentially laid out flat sitting inside a valley whose barren overbearing edges are the Magitian badlands that border the entire world, like the rim of a sake dish. This planet like all planets in this ethereal universe is shaped much like a massive dinner plate with the continents and oceans sitting inside it, of course not always in such a circular even manner, in fact seldom so. Aesperia is an oval with its longest distances going east and west.

 

     These are things any one with even the most basic education knows, taught to students alongside their alphabets and how to count. These are the sciences for grade-schoolers, the shape of the world, how plants grow, the fact that the sun and moon are only illusions cast by the castle of seasons high above the world and so on. Not that anyone in the coliseum much cared at this moment, the tremor quickly passed, the prevailing thought being that Hollia had caused it, which would indeed be impressive.

 

 

     Hollia looks at LinLin who only crooks her head in confusion. Hollia returns to her waving sing song chant just as Rhulan flies out into the arena. It all seems to happen in slow motion as Rhulan flies horizontally over top of Hollia’s head, turning around, her back to Hollia. She puts her hand out into the air yelling out, “Spirit Shield!” as a purple beam blasts through the ceiling, deflecting off Rhulan’s blue energy shield into several streams cutting into the ground around them.

 

   Hollia barely has time to note that the deflected beams have cut into the stone of the floor even somehow slightly melting the surface of the faux-magitian beneath the floor. The audience can be heard to scream and scramble as alarms souned for everyone to evacuate, a fire alarm technically speaking, but no one could have imagined the scene above them. The ceiling of the thousand year old coliseum is cracking, multitudes of purple sparks flash across the violated rock as it splits flashing between the crevices.

 

     As a large chunk falls towards the imperial box, Hollia’s father, Tyros leaps into the air his fists glowing with blue spiritual fire as he spins, “Fists of the Sacred Fire, hiyaa!”

 

    He smashes the stone into dust, but even he turns pale as the rest of the ceiling starts to drop all at once. No one, not a warrior, not a sorcerer, not even those who would claim to be gods could act fast enough, and yet as the stones were halfway to the heads of the few remaining fleeing populace they stopped. They are held in the air by a dark almost black yet purple and red energy that dances between the stones as mystical lightning extending to its source none-other than Rhulan on the arena floor.

 

    “Get everyone out of here!” she screams, “I can’t hold these forever you know.”

 

    “Quickly!” yells out Jinron-Lia, “Sorcerers, guards, get the civilians out of here. Get them out the front, away from the school as fast as possible. We are under attack!”

 

    “What?” blankly stares Hollia as she is watches in disbelief, “But, but.”

 

   “Don’t worry,” says Rhulan with a wink, “just get outside I have this.”

 

   As Hollia heads out she hears a all the stone smash into the floor, running back inside she sees the stone covering the floor, “Rhulan!” she screams not caring who hears her yell out her tutor’s, her best friend’s true name.

 

   Her attention is drawn to the center of the room as a stone is cracked in half as Rhulan climbs from the rubble. Brushing herself off she finds Hollia grabbing onto her waist crying, LinLin running just behind her on the ground chirping.

 

   Rhulan pats her head, “Hollia.” she says soothingly, “remember a castle fell on me before, this is nothing. Okay.”

 

   She tips up Hollia’s face by the chin with her finger, “not wipe away those tears, no reason to get your cute face all wet okay.”

 

   *sniff* “okay.” says Hollia.

 

   LinLin jumps up into Hollia’s arms comforting her as a voice calls out from the passage Hollia came in, “You alright in there.” The loud deep voice is coming

from the blond man she remembers is called Ahm, one of the aliens.

 

  “Nothing I can’t handle chicken man.” shouts out Rhulan.

 

   “If you’re done with the rubble we could use some help out here.”

 

   Running outside they see the ground splitting open with purple glows. They hear the voice of Jinron-Lia over the intercom, “All White Wizards report to the campus grounds, dimensional rifts are opening across the campus. We need exorcist experts and holy combat specialists to report to the east and south ends where the largest concentrations are occurring. Hurry people this is an invasion. We have to stop the most active areas first, all others aid in the evacuation!”

 

    “Looks like we’re cut off.” says Ahm.

 

    “Uh…” says Hollia, “no offense Mr. Ahm, but can’t we all fly?”

 

    Ahm raises an eyebrow, “I…didn’t know you could.”

 

   A deep roar draws their attention to the cracks splitting the concrete toppling over the statues and fountain between this quite spot and the forest nearby. The sound is coming from the crevices. From them float up things that could only be described as hovering tumors with tentacles, horrific things with unblinking wet blood shot eyes and misplaced mouths filled with oversized dagger teeth.

 

    As the hideous freaks turn themselves, as though such things could even be claimed to have a front end, the one nearest the forest dips down and starts to thrash the air wildly with its tentacles, then the next, and the next, coming down in a pattern closer and closer to them.

 

    Rhulan turns to the sound of a thud landing next to them, “So Scrags decided to join the party?”

 

    Scrags materialized from thin air pointing at the monsters as bursts of blue flames shoot out of their bodies. And surprising, even to Scrags who had landed the attacks, the monsters scream as their whole bodies suddenly burst into flames and virtually explode and melt into charred lumps on the ground. More start to rise from the ground as Ahm reveals an impressive ability. His body is engulfed in flames that rise twenty feet into the air. When the flames clear where had once stood a man, now stands something any primitive culture can be forgiven for mistaking for a god. He stands twenty feet tall, yet lanky, his feet are the x-toe shape of some birds, his hands are eagle talons. His head is that of a golden feathered eagle. Upon his back are two great golden angelic wings, and completing the ensemble he is now wearing white robes tied around the waist with golden rope.

 

    More and more of the horrors come from the ground, and more still start to pour from the woods. Ahm spreads out his massive wings, from the folds of his wings six, three on each side, red laser beams fire forward cutting through the horrors, those pierced explode into flames.

 

   “Just as I thought.” says Rhulan, “Ahm! You need to go and help the others, these freaks aren’t levitating, their filled with hydrogen. You need to get to Jinron and have him tell everyone to use fire attacks.”

 

   “Will do.” Says the giant, “but what about you?”

 

   “Don’t worry about us.” She says, “Scrags you cover my back, Hollia start sealing the rifts, there are portals six feet down, LinLin cover Hollia of course, as for me.”

 

 

 

    She holds her hands together as though strangling the air, a red glowing fiery sphere appears between them, “Fire Bolts!” she yells out as fire traveling as though it were lightning strikes out blasting and jumping between the horrors.

 

    As the current wave of horrors is extinguished Hollia gets to work chanting sigils onto the rifts putting out their purple glow one by one. Ahm nods as he flies up over the roofs.  As Hollia is sealing the last crack in the immediate area LinLin hops into the air rolling into a ball as a fire aura appears around her. From the sphere a fiery dragon form jumps out and engulfs a nearby horror. The fire sphere clears with LinLin spinning around and a little dizzy landing next to Hollia.

 

   “what the hell?” asks Scraps tipping a hat that doesn’t exist.

 

   “Salamander strike.” says Hollia proudly, “LinLin can do all sorts of elemental phantom dragons. We were going to show them off back in the arena, we were starting with a healing dragon, she’s really proud of it. But…”

 

   She looks back at the rubble filled arena whose side door they escaped out of, as she hears over the intercom for everyone to use fire magic on the horrors to cover the exorcists as they seal the rifts just below the surface.

 

   “New ones will just open.” states Rhulan, “I can feel him…it, that monster that is summoning these things.”

 

    She points into the woods, “There, it’s out there…the same way Scrags came.”

 

   She eyes him, “just scouting,” he says with a smile, “I know exactly where the angel wannabe bastard is hiding.”

 

    Rhulan eyes him, “okay, okay,” he says holding his hands up in mock defense, “I was following one of those rich merchant guys, hey I am a thief after all. Well long story short he was making it a little too easy, wandering out into the woods, showing off some fancy medallion. But next thing I know he’s opening some black portal in the ground and out pops this guy in white robes and wings.”

 

   “That’s what I figured.” says Rhulan, “That’s no angel, it’s a monster, and we have to go immediately and kill it or else these low level scum its summoning wont cease.”

 

 

   Rhulan and Hollia start to run off into the woods, Scrags right behind. Noticing their expressions he says, “Hey, I may be a thief, but I am also an adventurer. I was coming to come tell you…Rhulan.”

 

   He looks at Hollia with a smile on his face for a moment only getting a “so what” expression from her, “Wait, what?” he says while running, “Rhulan? Seriously she knows who you are already. Damn, so much for having any fun with that.”

 

    Rhulan just shakes her head, “Just admit it, you were just fishing.”

 

   “Not really.” He says, “I’ve seen the statue in that clearing before; where the metal castle used to be. Doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Especially after the very day you show up, it vanishes. Plus what other hot as hell, and scary as hell sorceress would invoke Aesperia Prime to call up some book in a library almost no one knows about anyway?”

 

   “Whatever.” She says, “Get your head in the game if you’re going to help us. If I have to pay you so be it, but if I do I’m going to add that you shut up with the silly shit like trying to expose me in the meantime.”

 

   “Okay, okay” he says, but says so with a smile on his face, “I was fishing, good to know I’m not about to face an avenger of Nirvana with just anybody. I think a goddess sorceress trumps some angel who summons floating shit balls any day.”

 

   “Fine,” says Rhulan, “but two things, one don’t call me a goddess again, and two that thing is no angel.”

 

   The dash into the clearing as they say this taking the merchant wearing Croix Empire colors by surprise, but the large wavy blond haired angel like entity only smiles at them.

 

     “The two women are here.” says the false angel, “The holy maiden, and the dark goddesssssss.”

 

    “Holy maiden?” queries Hollia.

 

   “So that attack was aimed at her,” growls Rhulan, “you ugly bastard!”

 

   LinLin hisses at it as her hair sticks up on her back.

 

    “Only an evil like you would think an angel is ugly.” States the merchant proudly, “This is the arch-angel Gabrielle!”

 

    “Gabrielle yes.” says Rhulan with a laugh, “angel no.”

 

   She points her finger at it, “Show us your true form, Dah-Hoth monster!”

 

    “ha, ha, haaa, hah!” laughs Gabrielle with a throaty laugh, “So it is you again. I still owe you for your interference before.”

 

   “That’s one hell of a grudge.” She says, “As I recall that was almost two thousand years ago that I stopped you and your little bastard spawn from over throwing that space station…that space station in a very different universe from this one.”

 

    She glares at it then at the merchant and back to it, “Speaking of which, you shouldn’t even be able to come here. The Abyss of Darkness stands between your world and this one, and last I checked the ruler of the Abyss hates your kind. How

exactly were you able to by-pass Rho-Sho-Shin’s blockade?”

 

    “Ha, hah, ha, ha” forcefully laughs the false angel Gabrielle again, “You will never know. Rho-Sho-Shin has no connection here.”

 

   “I see,” she says, “went around from your world, to another world, and then from it to here. And of course given the rules you whispered sweet shit into this idiot’s ears to summon you. Well too bad, your evil will not infect my world Dah-Hoth.”

 

   Hollia is practically glowing with excitement, its every fantasy she ever had about Rhulan come to life, the reality of course keeping her grounded.

 

    “Heh,” says the merchant, “you know nothing devil. Your lies mean nothing; we will save this world from you. Yes the true goddess will ri..ssss, glu, ga!…”

 

   Blood spurts from his mouth as he looks down, his mid-section impaled by a long orange to brown spike with a slightly curved tip. He is lifted up into the air and turned around; the spike is coming out of the angel, a little wave like heat off a tar roof around the spot where it emerges from the angel’s mid-section.

 

 

 

    The entire body waves in this manner vanishing the false holy illusion to reveal the horror that was hiding beneath the smokescreen. What remains is a writhing form coming out of the black portal like some evil beast sticking out of its dark burrow; its lumpy segmented body striking a sickening resemblance to massively bloated intestines. For each segment there are a pair of these curved spikes giving it a passing resemblance to the legs of a centipede, save that they aren’t segmented, and in fact given the slowly dieing dangling form of the Croix merchant are shown to be able to change in length and flexibility.

 

    At the very top is as one would suspect the head. A round thing its head, broken in its smooth ball shape only by its large oval black insect like yet solid with no signs of smaller lenses eyes, and its…mouth. Given the location and the fact its voice seems to be coming from it, they assume it’s a mouth of some kind, it looks more like many stiff hotdogs or rotting bananas petrified into grayish black stone hanging down. The idea that it’s a mouth is confirmed by the ghastly sight of it ramming the merchant into it, impaling his head in a gush of blood into the spike like mouth pieces. The mouth pieces churn, chewing, pulling in and scrapping the inside of the skull, breaking off pieces as it goes.

 

    Rhulan whispers to Hollia, “stay back, and silently seal that portal, we’ll keep it busy.”

 

    Rhulan is about to cast a spell when LinLin blasts the monster in the face with her devastation beam, causing it to drop its meal in an ear piercing shriek, some of the blood isn’t red, but green, the blast shattered some of its mouth pieces. As it writhes towards the little creature that attacked it Rhulan and Scrags jump to opposite ends. Rhulan blasts the side of its body with fire lightning burning a few limbs off and leaving a charred scar on its side.

 

   *hisssss* “blasted witch!” it screams turning back to her.

 

   *chunk*---*fizzzzz* “aaaaahhhh!”

 

    Scrags lands a handful of burning daggers into its other side just below its head. Back and forth they launch small attacks causing it to throw its self back and forth in anger. It attempts to spit out a yellow liquid

 

   “aaarrrr!” screams the abomination as its own acid gets into the wounds in its face.

 

   It leans back attempting to heal its self. It has no time to really regenerate much as its hit with three attacks at once, an exploding knife from Scrags, a fire-womph to the face from Rhulan, and a winged drake made of lightning striking its body causing it to shake and writhe uncontrollably. The blue sphere the drake came from slowing down and LinLin coming out, not as dizzy as she was from the salamander, the lighting drake attack seeming to be less taxing.

 

    Rhulan gets a twisted smile on her face, “electric attacks stun you huh?”

 

   “Thunder Shocker!” she yells out as a stream of electricity blasts from her hand holding Gabrielle in its grip, she doesn’t seem to want to let up, even as smoke bellow out of its mouth.

 

    A white sigil forms over the black, a gush of green blood flies forth from its body here as the portal closes cutting its body off. Rhulan releases her attack as the body lumps to the ground like a felled tree. The body tries to rise only to be met by another barrage of exploding knives from Scrags, fizzling its already massively damaged body. It lies on the ground laughing between its gurgles, “hah, I am Dah-Hoth, we do not die, below the portal my true body lies, I will regrow a new head. I survived you before witch…hah…hah…I…live…”

 

    “Not really,” says Rhulan hands on hips, “Last time your head went back in the hole. Your body doesn’t know, hear, or experience anything you are experiences right now. Which means, you, as you are right now, are about to die.”

 

   If it could express on its face it certainly would have as this revelation sank in, its only sign of anger being a deep hiss.

 

   “Hollia.” says Rhulan causing her to jump as she stares at the creature on the ground.

 

   “Yes,” says Hollia as LinLin jumps back into her arms, but now not from the ground but floating just above knee height.

 

   “It will regenerate no matter how many times we attack it, even the burned bits will come back. We need to purge it, this things nothing but crude flesh held together by evil energy, it assimilates everything, the micro-fungi in the soil, the grass, the trees, pollen, the snot Scrags just spit on it.”

 

    Scrags looks around, “oops.” He shrugs.

 

   “Okay.” says Hollia as she hold her hands out, eyes closed and face pointed gently up. A blue wind whirls around her pulling her hair up like the gentle grass of a silken field. LinLin floats up above her head spinning into a ball with a blue/white glow copying Hollia’s energy. From her hands before crossed wrists, and from the ball around LinLin a blue/white stream of energy fires out, the two beams meet and merge into a greater beam that turns, splits, seeking out every part of the un-natural flesh violating the natural order of this world.

 

     Hollia falls to her knees from the strain of the evil purge spell, LinLin resting in her lap as Hollia caresses her.

 

    Scrags whistles, “Well, damn, that was some weird shit. Well as much as I’d love to stick around for the cleanup. I gotta run, see you later.”

 

    He vanishes; of course Rhulan is aware that he has run back towards the school.

 

    “Whew” says Hollia, “that was intense,” she looks the way Scrags was standing, “not the kind of guy to stick around and help is he?”

 

   “Now, now,” says Rhulan, “he helped didn’t he. Thief adventurers aren’t exactly expected to even fight big monsters like this, or for that matter stick around to help. But he did run off towards the school. If he had stuck around a little longer I could have told him killing that thing and closing its portal closed off the rest of the portals.”

 

    Hollia perks up, “you mean, we…you and me, and LinLin, and that guy, we just fought a big-bad? Like a boss-monster?”

 

   “Yep,” says Rhulan with a smile, “now let’s get back, that freak was the boss of those little freaks. But I’m really not liking that it was here in the first place. That shouldn’t have happened. It comes from a world too far removed from ours to have gotten here on its own. Especially not with how low level it is compared to the big-bads between here and there.”

 

   Hollia nods remembering what Rhulan said earlier.

 

   As they get back up and head towards the school Rhulan looks back one last time at the dismembered body left lying in the bushes where it was thrown, something she’ll have to report to the guards, this won’t go over well with the diplomats, no doubt accusations will fly from the other two. She thinks back over what it said, “Holy Maiden” and the direct attack on Hollia during the demonstration. They weren’t after Rhulan, no they aimed at Hollia, and there is no way such a low level Dah-Hoth like Gabriele launched that attack.

 

     She looks up to the sky, “what is going on?”

 

    “Hurry up Miss Rhulan!” yells Hollia down the path.

 

   “Coming.” Yells back Rhulan who whispers to herself, “Whoever is responsible for bringing the Dah-Hoth to Aesperia…they must die, and the method must be destroyed. I won’t allow this.”

 

    As they return to the school a lone figure materializes in the clearing, the pale black dressed woman who had stepped out of the dean’s office that first day when Rhulan arrived under the name Rurona. She looks around and chuckles, “Such beautiful chaos.” before vanishing as silently as she came.

8: Chapter 8: The Oracle

    That night there was a vast amount of the pointing of fingers, the ambassadors each assuming the others had attempted an assassination; the Agrax accused the Croix as it was one of their merchants who had been found summoning the foul creatures that attacked the school. The Croix claimed that the merchant had either acted alone or was really from the Xiang or Agrax disguised as a Croix merchant.

 

    At the end of the day no one could prove a thing. Tyros and Jasma did all they could to calm everyone, however an observant individual would have been able to tell from the silence and knowing looks between Tyros, Jasma, Jinron, Bast-Tet, and Ahm, that they knew something. That night with the ambassadors in their secured rooms with more guards than the night before, these five would leave their quarters to meet in a secluded room in the west wing of the school.

 

    Two masked soldiers for Bast-Tet, these two clearly Kuhrai as well, carried between them on a pair of poles fitted through slots a large lacquer box with veiled windows; a box that was really transportation for someone who needed no food or drink other than clean water for the visit. They left the box in the room, bowed their heads in silence and left.

 

    “This,” says Tyros to his father Jinron, “box contains the most powerful oracle on any of the worlds of the Makai Cluster. We went to great lengths to find her.”

 

    “Yes,” says Bast-Tet, “She is of the Sidhian, a fairy like race, or rather something akin to what you call a vampire. Her kind are secretive, I was only able to even approach her to ask her to come here thanks to the boon of the ruler of the world of the Five Mountains.”

 

    Tyros remembers, his mind flashing back to that strange sight. Aboard the Kuhrai’s metal wedge shaped craft he could see amidst the ethereal clouds the circular radar dish shaped world known to the residents of the Makai Cluster as the Five Mountains Region. Four mountain ranges made up the edge rather than a normal magitian border, each separated by an un-natural mist coming from the valley between them like white serpents from the purple rippling sea that is what they called the Mystic Valley. The Northern Mountains were covered in ice and snow with steep slopes, the White Mountains. In contrast the southern mountain range was on fire, red rocks glowing amidst an inferno with trees that burned yet did not fall known logically as the Red Mountains. The East was a most strange place, the Blue Mountains, a place where all plants had blue foliage, and even the locals have blue skin, a land whose people, blue skin aside, and buildings looked very similar to those across the great ocean to the west of his own home continent of Ravashira on Aesperia.

 

       He was told they had to approach from the west directly in line with the Green Mountains, the most natural looking of the four that are the home land to the secretive Sidhian people, as well a humanoid dragon race known as the Tia, who are just as secretive, and most certainly not on good terms with their plant fairy like neighbors. The residents of the North are beings of mist who feed on warmth, those of the east life devouring vampires, those of the south fiery fallen angel like creatures who burn their victims and devour the ash.

 

     Standing as a spire amidst the purple sea, the Mystic Valley is a single mountain peak, higher than any other Tyros could imagine, the Black Mountain, home of vicious war like beings with pale skin, red eyes, blade shaped like wings adorning their heads like horns, and black shape shifting armor covering their bodies. Atop the mountain’s peak is a massive castle that floats above connected by massive chains he was told were made of magitian, carved into chains by the goddess of their universe herself, or so the story goes.

 

      The ruler of that castle, a bat-winged humanoid cat-person was someone he was told they most certainly did not want to encounter; she is said to be the patron goddess of that world. The locals attribute their creation as part of its creation mythos to her.

 

     The trek through the forest with his wife, Bast-Tet, and Ahm flashes briefly, the meeting with the Sidhians and their agreeing to help them, the oracle however refused to say anything. He remembers that she had said she needed to go to their world to see anything as she could not see the fates of a world so far away from her own.

 

    Now in the room she steps out of the box, her lithe yellow-green legs parting the veil of the door. She stands from the box, her short thin naked frame standing in contrast to the large Kuhrai Bast-tet bowing to her, even head dipped she stands much taller than the top of the Sidhian’s green hair. The small woman dips her own head, green eyes closing in turn. From her back unravel like the awakening coils of a sleeping snake are her plant like wings. Their bases like wood and the membrane thin and leaf like. Unraveled they look to be a cross between the wings of a fly and the leaves of a delicate flower. She yawns and stretches her arms, despite the serious faces of her patrons she seems aloof, as well she is. Her kind don’t really care, but her curiosity has gotten the better of her, as well they are bound to any promises they make and she did say she would see what she could for them.

 

    “Okay,” she says in her delicate almost childlike voice, “The mist is clearer here. But, this world feels weird. Its not at all like the worlds your people call the Makai Cluster. So alien, so un-natural, yet…” her voice trails off.

 

    Looking up head tilted she says, “I see, the voice of this world speaks, yes. But I can not tell you all now, no. Two more must be present, the fate of this world is tied to them it seems.”

 

   “Who?” asks Tyros eager to learn of the true nature of the threat to their world and how far it extends, his dealings with Ahm and Bast-Tet, he had done many deals he normally wouldn’t have by his father’s request to learn just this.

 

   “They are watching us.” she says with a smile. Looking up she says, “Please come here. I’ll wait.” The small yellow-green woman plants her naked butt on the floor.

 

     Not far away the image of the room can be seen slightly distorted in the curves of a crystal ball sitting on a small wooden table on a bed, on either side of which sit none other than Rhulan and Hollia, with LinLin head crooked stares at it while laying on a pillow at the head of the bed next to Hollia.

 

      “Well, well,” comes a woman’s voice from all around the five, plus the oracle.

 

    “That voice?” says Jinron, “Miss Rurona?”

 

   A cyclone of blue and white sparkling energy illuminates the room, when it settles Rhulan and Hollia stand facing them, with LinLin on Hollia’s shoulders yawning.

 

    “Miss Rurona.” Says Jinron harshly, “and Holly, if you don’t mind this is serious. Were you two spying on us?”
 

    “Silence please.” says the oracle.

 

 

    She looks at the pair, “Holly-Lia, Hollia. I am Faeshin the oracle of the Green Mountains of the Five Mountains Region. Of the group of worlds you call the Makai Cluster. What I have to say I have to say to you, and your associate…associates.”

 

    She narrows her eyes and thins her lips looking at LinLin, tilts her head to the right and then back to the left, “what…are you?” she asks

 

    *cheee-ke-ke* chirps LinLin.

 

    *huh-humm!* interrupts Tyros, “what is the meaning of this?”

 

   “So serious,” says Rhulan, “so different from the little boy who would run around the school.”

 

    “really?” asks Hollia.

 

   “oh yeah,” says Rhulan with a smile, “you should have seen it, in fact I remember this one time when he was three, oh it was too funny, he actually streaked down the halls.”

 

     She and Hollia giggle, “Oh he was such a little rascal, he gave Marianna no ends of grief.”

 

   “My wife?” asks Jinron, “hold on, how do you know about that incident? No one saw that, there were no students, and you’re hardly old enough to have been a student at the time.”

 

   Hollia chuckles a little, “I am sorry grand-father. I have kept a secret from you.”

 

   “I’ll handle this please.” says Rhulan, with arms out  her clothes flow about as shadow reforming to that when Hollia first broke the seal to an extent, the gloves, the boots, the pants, the armor top over her black cloths, and the cape with the red under side.

 

    “If you don’t recognize me,” she says, “I am Rhulan…yes, THAT Rhulan.”

 

    “Seems I was right.” says Ahm, “I never forget a face, especially not one belonging to someone who once blasted me in my face with a ball of lightning.”

 

    “Really?” she says, “That was so long ago, all I really remember is teaming up with some thief, you were trying to use some magic scarab thing to control the minds of the masses and enslave some Earth or another.”

 

    Everyone’s eyes turn to Ahm and then back to Rhulan, Jinron is dumbfounded at this revelation.

 

    “Excuse me everyone.” says Jasma, “but ancient legendary empress aside, I am a bit interested to know why the oracle we brought all the way here who is having a staring contest with LinLin, said that my daughter is tied to the fate of our world.”

 

    Tyros groans looking at Rurona, no Rhulan, for the first time really. He had thought her some tutor, the back story panned out for a wanderer but this made no sense to him, “well,” he says, “I am curious about that too. But first things first.”

 

   He turns to Hollia, “Young lady, how exactly is the ancient enslaver of our world standing in this room, and came to be your tutor?” he looks around with his eyes not moving, only his head, “Also, speaking for my father I imagine, how does she know about our past?”

 

    Rhulan laughs, “Calm down, First your daughter found me in the ruins of the Metal Castle, she practiced her spells out there. Well long story short one of those spells was the Supreme Detoxification spell. And bango bongo I’m back. And as you can see I’m not trying to take over the world, if nothing else I get the feeling I’m about to help save it. Now shut-it.”

 

    Hollia had never heard anyone talk to her father like that; in fact no one has ever dared to cross the people in charge of the school as far as she could remember.

 

    “Second,” says Rhulan, “I could astral project while I was a garden ornament. Now if you’re all done being stupid, I do believe the fact that we, me, your daughter, and one other guy, having killed a Dah-Hoth able to summon other Dah-Hoth, and finding out what’s actually behind all this takes precedence. Don’t you?”

 

     Jasma nudges her husband who shakes his head, he too had been raised on stories about ancient times when his honorable ancestor Gyro-Lee saved the world from Rhulan, but now, with her standing in the room, acting all buddy-up with his daughter just rubs him in a way that he feels like he is going crazy.

 

    With everyone now quiet their eyes turn to the oracle, Faeshin, who has been ignoring them completely. Instead she is sitting on the floor having a staring contest with LinLin. Both look up at the people, “oh,” she says, “were you all done, I thought that would go longer, you know you can never get enough exposition when one of the people used to be the last boss.”

 

    Rhulan sighs and shakes her head, “Any who, you were telling these people something, you know, danger that threatens the world and all.”

 

    “Yes,” says Faeshin standing.

 

   LinLin runs back over to Hollia who picks her up placing her back on her shoulders.

 

     With wings and arms outspread Faeshin looks up to the ceiling with eyes closed. Humming.

 

    As she focuses something hits Tyros, “Supreme Detoxification?” he thinks. He looks between Rhulan and Hollia, “by the goddess! When did my little girl get that powerful?”

 

    “The mist is thinner.” Says Faeshin, “However I cannot find the astral thread of this world…wait…The voice of the goddess, yes, yes, yes, I see.”

 

   She opens her eyes and looks around, “As I told you all earlier the fate of this world is tied to these two. Rhulan the fate of the Aesperian people is bound to her fate, she is the link to their forgotten past the hero of old, the villain of old, nothing is black and white, penance served, a hero again she may be.”

 

   She looks to Tyros and Jasma, “I am permitted by the goddess, no given a message by her, I may only act as a sign as I have to ties to this world. Two messages from her first. Born the Holy Maiden is from the blood of three peoples; those who dance on the air and spin reality, those with fangs and claws of timeless strength, and those shining people who border good and evil.”

 

   She takes a deep breath, “this message is tied to your request of me. The spawns of destruction answer the call of the elder ones who would bring chaos from order.”

 

 

   With a sigh she says to everyone, “Aside from these two messages and the heroes bound to the task,” she gestures to Rhulan and Hollia, “I can see nothing of this world’s fate. However I could feel another, one here on this world who in regards to this world is a stronger oracle than I. Seek out the golden oracle of Los Rodos. She will be able to tell you the face of your enemy.”

 

    Rhulan looks around the room, “well, that’s nice to know.” She looks around again, “No remarks, no questions, its not like she’s a magic fountain spirit, she’s just standing there now.”

 

    She looks around again with everyone silent, pondering the message, “what

ever, Hollia, looks like you are finally getting that adventure you wanted; time to save the world.”

 

    “Hold on!” says Tyros, “I haven’t given my approval.”

 

    “Tyros,” says Jasma putting her hand on his shoulder, “I know what you were thinking, Holly was able to un-do a legendary spell, and helped fight off the monster that attacked the school. She has to go out and see the world someday. I think this adventure is perfect, it does run in the family after all.”

 

   Tyros thinks back to his own adventures around her age as Tyros of the Fire Fist, and the stories of his father Jinron the Mushroom Magician. “hmmm,” he says, “Holly, this is a big responsibility, I mean” he straightens his shoulders, “Holly-Lia, of the lineage of heroes of Aesperia. Hmm, yes Holly you are sixteen now, and you’ve proven your skill in battle and your skill in magic.” He eyes Rhulan and looks at his daughter’s familiar, “Very well, as your father I give you permission, no I assign the task of finding the golden oracle of Los Rodos and attaining from her the answer to what threatens our world and is using these…what ever Rhulan called them, creatures.”

 

    Jinron-Lia says, “Holly, until you return I will officially suspend your classes, you can pick back up with your under-graduate studies when you return.”

 

    “Thank you.” says Hollia hiding her underlying happiness given the seriousness of the situation, “I wont let you down.” With a bow she leaves the room. Rhulan shrugs and follows after.

 

    Outside the room Rhulan says, “That could have been shorter don’t you think? I think I prefer when the oracle is some spirit or fairy that appears and then vanishes right after, it’s so much more convenient and makes it less awkward, I mean she was just standing there, she says some cryptic shit and then just stands there. They went all the way to some alien world, brought her all the way back here on her request and then…that’s it. Now they have to take her all the way back to her world. Probably some quite boring trip with her hanging out in that box thing.”

 

    Inside the office Ahm turns to Bast-Tet, “You know, I’m not used to being ignored. I got the distinct impression they all forgot we were in the room.”

 

   “Yeah,” she says while looking at Faeshin, “either way, not that it matters to us. We did this for the trading deal.”

 

   She turns to Tyros and Jasma, “yes,” they say, “As we agreed.” They frown looking at Faeshin who yawns getting back in the box.

 

   Jinron sighs, “I’ll start contacting some captains. This isn’t going to be cheap. The waters around Los Rodos are filled with pirates.”