《No Ordinary Hero》 Chapter 0: Prologue ¡°But Dad, woodnt be¡± ¡°Would it not be¡± ¡°Would it not be more efficient to push the cations through a hypobaric conduit?¡± ¡°Well no that¡­¡± Cole was baffled by his five year old son¡¯s astonishing aptitude. His son¡¯s solution would eliminate 90% of the mass of the Blank Atmosphere Control Kinetics pack, allowing him to embed it into the EVA suit. It would also mean he would have to make a new acrostic. BACKpack, as clever as it was, would not work without the need for an actual backpack. ¡°Your right Ryder, the only issue now would be powering such a device. It may be more efficient, and less energy hungry in the long run, but it would need more power to get it started.¡± Cole looked down at what was in his son¡¯s hands. It was an book, ancient, from the first digital age, thousands of years ago. His wife Melanie had found it and gave it to Ryder. Ryder was more into its historical significance than the entertainment it provided. It was a surprise, but a pleasant one. It was actually Ryder who first discovered that the style of book was called a ¡°comic.¡± ¡°Ryder do you mind if I borrow your comic?¡± Ryder shook his head and handed it to his father. The cover was worn on the front stood a figure, similar in appearance to the soldiers of the Dark Ages, Melanie¡¯s favorite period. On the top in large letters was, presumably the title. It had been worn away, but the first letter was an ¡°I,¡± the next two letters had been rendered illegible, but the rest was plainly seen ¡°NMAN.¡± The figure had glowing blue eyes, and was clad in red in gold armor. It gave Cole some ideas. ¡°If they had technology like this, how did that civilization ever crumble?¡± ¡°It is not real.¡± Ryder said. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Cole looked up at his son, he had not realized he had asked the question out loud. ¡°Someone made up this ¡°INMAN¡± to inspire people.¡± ¡°Where did you get an idea like that?¡± Ryder looked slightly apprehensive. ¡°There is another book I found it talks about these comics, how the people in them were called superheros and they fought for truth, justice and a better future. The were all lead by one hero with a giant ¡®S¡¯ on his chest. He could fly without any pu.,, pur,,,purrp¡­¡± Ryder looked to his dad for help. ¡°Propulsion.¡± Cole offered. His son nodded. ¡°But it was all fake, just used to give people hope.¡± ¡°Ryder!¡± A woman¡¯s voice called out. Even though it was a yell the voice was not grating. ¡°Uh-oh looks like your mom is calling you, you better go see what she needs.¡± Ryder left his father¡¯s basement laboratory and went to his mother¡¯s basement laboratory. Between his mother¡¯s artifacts and his father¡¯s inventions his family was very wealthy and had three basements in their mansion, the third was for Ryder himself, for when he grew older. Ryder found his mother pouring over several artifacts found in a place called a museum, the museum was located in a ruin of a place called Salem, the artifacts however were from an island called England. The artifacts had strange symbols on them Melanie called them runes. ¡°Do you need anything mom?¡± Melanie looked up, ¡°Yes! Come here quickly! What does this rune mean?¡± Melanie often asked Ryder such questions, she had told him it would be easier for him to learn the meanings because his mind was younger. It turned out she was right. Ryder looked at the symbol for a moment, he then looked at pictures taken of murals and artifacts with the same kinds of symbols, after a short time he surmised the meaning. ¡°Power¡± he said. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Melanie deflated, ¡°that is what I was afraid of, this book is nothing but a fantasy, like those comics.¡± Ryder took the book from his mother he read the cover ¡°Codex Magus¡± was the title. The first page read a description of the book. I Merlin, have chosen to write down my knowledge of the Aether, and its secrets. I warn you these powers are not mere trifles. They contain dangers you can not yet fathom. I urge you to use caution when exercising your connection to the Aether, for it is your life force. This is why I shall refer to it a Mana, for like the bread of life, it is a miracle given by God. These arts should only be used for the well being of others. Refrain from witchcraft and its evil, for it is the will of the devil, do not be deceived by its power. Please be sure to practice within the confines of a created dimension. For untrained magic can tear the very fabric of reality¡­ ¡°Mom, according to this Merlin, the author, this is a guide on the something he called the Aether, a powerful force with many dangers. He claims this power is real, all it requires is a spark. According to him he was struck by lightning.¡± ¡°What? You mean its real?¡± Melanie was incredulous. ¡°That is impossible.¡± ¡°Well this wall in this picture says otherwise, it tells a story of Merlin a mage, who created a sword for the king of Britain, the sword was so full of the Aether, it knew itself. It buried itself in a large stone and sent out a decree that all in the land could hear. ¡®I am the familiar Excalibur whosoever removes my blade from the earth shall inherit the throne.¡¯¡± ¡°Apparently Merlin umm¡­ i don''t know this one, maybe improved? He began to call himself a Sorcerer, and began his search for the new king. He found a boy named Arthur of whom had a pure heart, and removed Excalibur from the stone. By this time Merlin¡­ something¡­ to a Warlock.¡± ¡°Arthur then became king, and was a kind and just ruler, he married a woman named Guinevere and had a son. Merlin now a Wizard,was the most powerful magick user in the world, but there was another Morgana a vile Sorcerer who commanded a terrible beast called a¡­ something¡± ¡°The beast could fly and breath fire and terrorized the land. Merlin freed the dragon from Morgana¡¯s spell and was granted knowledge of the Aether in return, this Void Magick was so powerful it made Merlin a Magus, within a cycle of the moon, Merlin defeated Morgana and became Grand Magus of the¡­ something, the same symbol as the beast.¡± ¡°It says that some of the dragons became evil, they hated man and killed their king. On the day Arthur died Merlin disappeared along with all the dragons, never to be seen again.¡± Melanie was enrapt by the story her son told, so fascinated she had to know more, ¡°The beast is called a dragon, it is described in many text even during the first digital age. How did you learn these runes? A week ago you only knew five of them.¡± ¡°I saw how much you wanted to understand so I wanted to help.¡± Melanie had a tear in her eye, but she did not let it fall. She knew it would confuse her son, and she wanted him to see she was happy. She reached over and thumbed the intercom on the wall. ¡°Cole, we are going to the park and Ryder is getting ice cream.¡± Chapter 1: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Cole and Melanie were seated next to each other on a bench. To an outsider it would appear these two were engrossed in their respective work. In reality the couple was playing a game, they were pretending to send each other telepathic messages, each trying to guess what the other was thinking. The bench upon which they were seated was in a park, one they often visited to let their son play. Their son was playing his own game. He was pretending to be the many different superheroes he had read about. One moment he was a scarlet sprinter the next, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, a professor with a strange degree, he had no idea how you obtained an X. He would pretend to ignite into flames and turn invisible, or hear the slightest sounds. He enjoyed this kind of play, even though other kids laughed at him sometimes. He continued to play all the while he held a rare rock. The rock was a gift from his father, who had taken it from outer space. Ryder always pretended the exotic rock was the source of his powers. What he did not realize was how true that statement would become. It had been three weeks since imperial scientists vaporized an enormous comet that spelled certain doom for Earth and the rest of the solar system. The scientists had less destroyed the comet more than they turned it into radiation. Ryder Bayman''s entire world turned blue, then there was a loud thunderclap. Ryder stopped what he was doing and looked to the sky. Everywhere he looked the world was blue and flickered as if he was looking right over the top of a fire. He was fascinated by the tiny streaks of light caused by the tiny rocks left over from the destruction of the comet, not that Ryder knew that. The novelty of the situation wore off for him, he returned to his play. Imagining he was running with preternatural speed, flying, picking up heavy objects, and fighting a super villain. His ¡°fight lasted fifteen minutes, he looked to the rock and was grateful for the ¡°powers it granted. Just as he thought this the rock started to shine brightly, so brightly he had to look away. The brightness consumed him and quickly turned to darkness. Ryder lay motionless. Melanie was not paying attention to her son, to be fair she was enthralled with the Codex Magus the runes on it started to glow she could see a small light gathering in her chest. She intuitively knew she had to be tough, her skin impenetrable her bones unbreakable. Whatever was happening to her, she knew one thing. The Aether had given her her spark. Cole was also not paying attention to his son, to be fair he was enthralled in his designs. Suddenly he knew how to build them, as if the knowledge was just out of reach and now it was all in his head. He looked up to his son and he saw his son on the ground right then he knew he had to be tough, his skin impenetrable and his bones unbreakable. Whatever was happening, he knew just how to prepare. +-----+ The emperor knew as he looked to the sky something big was going to happen, and he was happy. This change would give him back his power. He would need guidance to see through the lies and he would need to be able to grant power to his allies he knew not how, but he would find away. He also knew he had to be strong, for his two children. An indomitable force and an immovable object that everyone could look up too. He would not be able to take his power back by brute force. At least not immediately. He would have to strategist, out-think his opponents tactically. Trials were ahead and he would be the one to face them. To the right he saw his son sprinting about. The emperor''s son had much more joyous thoughts, he was the fastest boy he knew. It was not because of Emperial deference, he actually was faster. He was currently imagining himself the fastest man alive. One of his dad''s friends had given him a book about him man in red who could run so fast on could not even see him. This speedster was so fast he could catch lightning and hurl it at his enemies. He was going to be that fast some day, he knew it. Beside his father his sister stood, her thoughts were closer in line with her father''s. The Emperor''s daughter looked out from the balcony, she yearned to be able to float out upon the worlds. She wanted to heal these broken worlds here father ruled. She wanted to see through the lies and the corruption, and bring a healing touch to those who needed it. She wanted to be able to jump from planet to planet healing those who needed it and stopping those who wish to cause harm. She would see into the hearts and minds of her people and guard them from all harm. She knew her calling, she heard the call, now she knew, all she had to do was answer. +-----+ Ryder awoke to a dark room, he was lying on some sort of gel, he wondered where he was and how he got there. He sat up and the lights came on, he was in some sort of lab, his father''s lab. A figure appeared out of thin air startling him. ¡°Son for now you need to forget the fact that I am a hologram. You must inject the needle on your left then eat the food to the right of you.¡± Ryder complied with his father''s request and then looked up to him. ¡°Now place that helmet on your head. If my your mother and I got our calculation correct, which we did, you will be facing a massive growth spurt for the growth you have missed for the last two and a half years. The helmet will use that time to transfer imperative knowledge to your brain during this event.¡± Ryder was confused but he trusted his father. He donned the helmet then, he felt he was being stretched and crushed at the same time, his body wracked with pain. The helmet clicked on and the pain subsided, images and words were put into his head. He saw his mother and father had gained abilities caused by the blue wave. Many people did. His mother was indestructible, though no one knew that, she also was able o harness the powers of the Aether, she was called Arcana. His father became a super genius he was also indestructible, people did not know his either. He wore a suit of armor with the letters ¡°IN¡± emblazoned on his shoulders. He also employed a myriad of gadgets. His dad was called Widget. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. He saw war and destructed, but he also saw many people saved and much hope. He saw his father branded a villain, but it was not true the people loved him. His parents went straight for the seat of the Empire but they learned a powerful secret, what it was was unknown, but they halted their attack on the government and focused on the Villains. An especially powerful one named Chaos threatened to destroy the world, but not before his parents stopped him. They tried to use magi and technology to transport him somewhere, but if failed the result was catastrophic and Chaos and his parents were killed. The helmet shut off. The physical pain was gone but an emotional one took its place. He cried for hours until his mother spoke. ¡°Roarke.¡± His mother used his middle name, she only did such when she really needed him to listen. ¡°I have sparked your connection to the Aether, study my work and the book Merlin wrote. Discover what we did wrong, the Empire is in chaos and the Emperor can not take control, not while the villains are everywhere. You must stop them, I was told by a seer the key was to meld science and magic.¡± ¡°Find the way my son.¡± This was his father. ¡°We will guide you and you will not be alone. Study the Codex Magus we know the answer lies in void magicks. I trust you will find the answer.¡± Ryder¡¯s life changed over the next ten years, in the first month alone he learned how to create pocket dimensions. Time was much slower in these dimensions. In two years he lived eight, mastering the Codex Magus. In the next two real years, he mastered his father''s notes, all the while staying hidden from the world and being reared by the numerous serving staff his parents had employed. It was on his fifth real year he discovered his powers. It was a discovery made by the outside world, stating your thoughts and actions during the Blue Wave directly caused your abilities. This was a surprise to Ryder because he had been thinking of hundreds of different abilities during the Wave. Over the next three years he discovered and mastered the powers of: flight, shape-shifting, strength up to 10 million tons, speed up to an unknown speed. He had gone so fast he destroyed the entire reality of the pocket dimension. He settled to keep it under .75c. He could control the weather to an extent, shoot lasers out of his eyes, lung capacity, though he no longer needed to breath, He was invulnerable, could become intangible or increase his mass to the effect of having a noticeable gravitational field, and super hearing, sight, and smell. He had some powers that were highly unstable though, such as meta healing, he had magic for that though, and teleportation, not a lot of practice for the last one, mainly because he teleported to unwanted locations, and too many broken realities. The last power he obtained was telepathy to the extreme its limits were unknown. He learned to practice by creating magical amulet giving the ability to the serving staff, which he came to love as family. The last year of his seclusion was spent in training telepathy. During that time because the staff had the amulets on four the equivalent of four years, their brain seemed to adopt the power, so Ryder gave them a new amulet granting an impressive amount of strength speed and durability, to the effect of 10 tons, mach ten, and ballistic weapons, respectively. A month before the end of his seclusion, Ryder finally made a breakthrough. He made his first golem, a robot powered by the Aether. But it was more than a golem, it was more of a familiar, he named this Comel, after his parents, and placed him in a pocket dimension to act as a prison Warden. It was the task his parents had laid out for him. Create a prison to hold the evil that is so difficult to hold. He created cells made of the most durable materials, reinforced by the strongest wards. Comel had taken it upon himself to make the guards, as was his right as Warden. On his seventeenth birthday, his family had gathered at their long dining table, forty one including himself. Saul, Ryder¡¯s personal butler, closest confidant, and surrogate father spoke to him, ¡°it''s time you made your own path son.¡± ¡°Hell it''s time he left the house!¡± That was Gabriel he was the funny one, or so he thought. There was a time when Saul would have said, ¡°we are not paid to question the master, whether in jest or sincerity.¡± But such times were long ago dispensed with. Though I was really only seventeen we had really spent almost thirty years together, quite often ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hey all hope you like this one better, fell free to look at my other incomplete books; Flightless, and Vapid Recourse. I do monitor their views and will continue their stories if I see more interest. For now I thought I''d try a different genera, one not commonly seen on RR. If you think by the MC''s, or any other characters, powers will make them OP, I assure you things will balance out. I thought I would try this style since people did not seem to appreciate the amount of work I put into Vapid Recourse. Flightless is more of my baby, the story I want to be perfect, I would need pretty compelling requests to continue that story from now on. I love to write but I post on this site to get feedback and its not worth the time and effort, especially on Vapid Recourse, trying to see what people think when people seem to be more interested in reading works written by people whose English is so poor nothing makes sense(something is grammatically incorrect about that sentence). Not to bash on those people though, they work at least as hard as I do. Chapter 2: Megaton ¡°Come on Kevin we have to go!¡± Keirah whispered. ¡°Ugh Keirah, it''s two in the morning!¡± Kevin complained. ¡°Yeah well it''s noon in New Washington, so you can go ahead and tell them you are too tired to deal with Megaton¡¯s bomb threat.¡± Keirah loved to be sarcastic. Kevin was up the moment. She knew that any mention of a super villain and Kevin would be ready to go, that didn''t mean she like teasing him any less. In the superhero seen Kiera was known as Archon and Kevin was known as Roadrunner. Archon could teleport, and she was gifted with the greatest healing abilities. She could produce a golden aura to surround her body, and was a powerful telepath. Her telepathy was not so helpful offensively, she could glean thought from people head, but her strength lay in defense, healing the mind and discerning the truth. This did not mean she was powerless in combat. She carries a stave that is used as a weapon, and with her mastery of the body she could make life difficult at a distance, or impossible with a touch. Roadrunner¡¯s powers were less complicated but much more effective offensively. He was fast, very fast, his top recorded speed was 80% the speed of light. His dad forbid him from going faster, the potential consequences were too great. When the Blue Wave hit people received powers based on what they were doing or thinking at the time, but only if there thoughts were strong enough. It lead to anybody who did not think of any real powers could glow blue. With intense training it could be harnessed as a weapon or a defence. However there were some cases of people gaining random powers. Roadrunner was one of those people. His other power was the ability to use his hands to make simple hard light constructs, like a force field, or he could shoot golden beams of energy. Kevin quickly dressed in his Roadrunner suit. It was primarily black with a five inch wide, gold chevron that started at each shoulder, meeting just below the sternum with two gold ¡°R¡±s on his chest. It was in contrast to Acons suit which was gold with a black chevron, whe had no symbol on her chest, however she wore a black cape with a golden border, and in the center of the upper back was a golden caduceus with large wings. Many people scoffed at their costumes, using imperial colors could be seen as traitorous. It was ironic considering the suits were worn by the children of the Emperor. Roadrunner felt the fuzzy feeling when his sister wrapped him in her power and teleported. When they landed in New Washington Roadrunner hit the ground running, literally, searching for Megaton¡¯s bomb while Archon searched for Megaton himself. It was how they always worked, one of them would distract the bad guy while the other took care of problems. She found him at city hall. ¡°Megaton!¡± She projected her voice. He turned around, Megaton was huge, standing at 8¡¯5¡±, and 380lb, he was no joke. Megatons powers were Level D invulnerability, Level D strength, and the ability to turn anything he touched into a combustion device. He was Clad in an all red suit with white gloves and a white mushroom cloud on his chest. He also wore a red centurion helmet. ¡°Archon, so nice to see you, I''m pleased you could join us, the show is just about to start.¡± ¡°Where are the bombs Megaton? There is no reason to hurt innocents.¡± Arcon spoke in a concerned tone, she was trying to see the surface thoughts of Megaton when she felt a powerful telepathic force, the most powerful she had ever felt. She immediately looked for her father The Judge, but she couldn¡¯t find him. The force disappeared and Archon was hit by a truck. ¡°You should pay attention Archon, otherwise you could miss the show.¡± Megaton let out a belly full of laughter, which was cut short by the truck suddenly skyrocketing into lower orbit. Archon didn¡¯t know what was dazed, she could barely focus on healing herself, che had Class E invulnerability, which only helped with things like thrown rocks or manmade explosions, unfortunately getting hit by a flying truck thrown by a crazy demolitionist did not constitute, manmade explosions. Healing herself took much greater focus, and it was hard to focus with a pickup on your forehead. She was relieved when the truck came off of her, then a weird energy filled her¡­ +-----+ ¡°Don¡¯t hurt my father!¡± Keirah said to a strange woman in dark purple robes. She knew this woman as Arcana, she was a sorceress. Suddenly a bookshelf was being hurled at her. Keirah closed her eyes and teleported away, eight feet to her right so she was directly in front of Arcana. As soon as Keirah opened her eyes, another bookshelf was in flight, this time it was too late, she was hit with enough force to break her arm, leg and seven ribs. She lie there on the ground writhing in pain, trying to heal herself. The bookshelf was eased off of her and Keirah could hear, ¡°No! What have I done!¡± A strange energy filled her and in a moment she was in perfect health. Kneeling above her was a beautiful woman with violet eyes, staring lovingly at her. Keirah thought for a moment it was her mother, a tear fell from her eye, but she soon realised it was actually Arcana. She should have been scared, but the love and worry emanating from those eyes made it impossible. ¡°You are the Emperor''s daughter?¡± Arcana asked, Keirah could see that Arcana already knew the answer so she remained silent. ¡°I see we have made a grievous error.¡± We? Keirah thought, then she immediately was worried, then she heard Arcana speak though her lips were unmoving. Cole! We must abort this endeavor the Emperor is not the head of the snake, as we thought.¡± Another person''s voice permeated her mind. ¡°I have drawn the same conclusion, the real head has decided to use our attack to remove the Emperor, we are at his daughter''s chambers, but she is not there¡± ¡°She is with me, I will come to you.¡± Arcana looked to Keirah once more, ¡°I have a suspicion you heard all that, do you think you can take me to your room? I would love to see it¡± Keirah nodded as she took Arcanas hand. Archna had expected to walk, and was startled as her environment changed in an instant. +-----+ Arcana? The Archon thought, for this was the same energy that had filled her on that day. She sat up quickly and looked around, there was no one besides her a Megaton in front of city hall. She didn''t even see the gray pickup that decided to hug her. All she saw was Megaton looking straight up into the sky. She looked up and saw nothing, instead of dwelling on it she took the opportunity to teleport behind Megaton. She touched him and he fell, paralysed from the neck down, she blocked all the nerves relate to the motion of his limbs without affecting his other organs. She immediately teleported him to a bed in a cell, a prison she had built with her father and brother. The Arcon composed a message to her brother, but she compressed it as a single impulse, it was the only way to communicate to him when he was running so fast. As soon as she sent it she received a response, she opened the compressed message. ¡°Still looking sis, It might take a while, wait a minute, there is a buzzing in my head, it is like when you tried talk to me while i was running before you figured out how to compress messages. I will stop to check it out.¡± The Archon paused, the mind she felt earlier could not have been a coincidence. She believed in her brother however and she trusted he would make the right choices. Roadrunner stopped to listen to the voice trying to talk to him. Go to Conway Park. Readrunner was confused that was one of the first places he checked. It took him a tenth of a second to get there. Phase through into the statue. The statue in conway park was forty feet tall and sat on a podium at about eight feet. ¡°I cannot phase through the wall!¡± Yes you can, it is an ancillary power to your speed. Put your power into your body, without speeding up your perception, you can do this while running but let us start with walking. Do not activate your movement, just energise the atoms that make up your body, then walk into the statue. Roadrunner was doubtful but the excitement of this new ability got to him. He followed the strangers instructions carefully and sure enough, it worked. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Inside the statue was a huge bomb, Road runner reached out to the timer, but his had just passed through it. The timer fizzled and died, defusing the bomb. Roadrunner was surprised but he quickly recovered. Archon I got the bomb, it has been diffused can you teleport it? Roadrunner sent an image to Archon. Archon teleported inside the statue. ¡°Where are we?¡± ¡°Inside the base of Captain Conway¡± ¡°How did you get in here?¡± Instead of telling her, he just walked out of the pedestal through the wall leaving the bomb and an open mouthed Archon. When he got outside he saw a man in a black trenchcoat, he looked to be slightly younger than his sister, but older than himself. Roadrunner sped his perception up to mach ten and casually walked to the man. The world slowed to a crawl, in fact the only thing that seemed to be noticeably moving were the cars on the superhighway, traveling at twelve hundred miles an hour, they only seemed to be going about a hundred and seventy. Ones he was in arm''s reach of the man, he did something surprising. His head looked straight at Roadrunner, brandished a smile and then the man zipped away. ¡°What are you gawking at?¡± Archon asked her comrade. ¡°The man, the one who helped me, is as fast as I am.¡± ¡°Well we have to find him, he has a connection to Arcana. We need to find out who he is and what he knows.¡± Archon held a scowl. Arcana was a mother to her and her brother, or at least the closest thing they had till she was killed. +-----+ Ryder did not know how to introduce himself to the world, he had planned to show up and single handedly defeat a supervillain, but it seemed heros had a sort of gentleman''s agreement on jurisdiction. And the only ones allowed to break it were teleporters, and even then only on occasion. Though he could teleport, he was terrible at it and would almost never end up where he wanted to be. He felt oddly satisfied though, teaching that young speedster something new. He wanted to do more like that. He knew no one would come to him to learn if he could not prove himself though. He asked Saul for his thoughts. Saul was 94 if you counted the forty years instead of ten. His entire family was full of wisdom. They loved the pocket dimensions that added time on their lives, but not for powers sake, they only wished to learn and philosophise. Saul told him ¡°Son with all your knowledge, gadgets, and abilities, people are going to be threatened by you. There is no way you can reveal yourself without stepping on someone''s toes. It will get a lot worse before it gets better. Stick to this planet, don''t go flying to America, yes I know about your little jaunt. Start small, stop store robberies, and purse snatchers, lower the actual layman crime rate.¡± ¡°Your opening to the super crimes will come, but try not to rush it. Remember good judgement comes from experience, and you can gain experience in two ways, bad judgement, or smaller tasks, where the stakes are low.¡± Ryder always could count on Saul, and the rest of his family. Each member was an expert on one topic or another, Saul being their jack of all trades. He would go to Gabriel for advice on making friends, Xin for meditation, Alex for finances, Charles for literature, Samantha for art, Terry for cooking, and so on. All of his family played a role, and they knew what their role was. There was only one member of his family, one whom he did not know where her wisdom lay. Her name was Rose, she was a beautiful woman with amber red hair, and emerald green eyes. When he was eight asked her where her specialties lay, she said with a laugh and a smirk that he was far too young for that. When he asked again at sixteen she said, ¡°one day he would need advice on something and it will not fit with anyone else¡¯s path of wisdom, then, you will know to come to me.¡± Ryder took that to mean her path of wisdom was the sloth, but he was fine with that. Two weeks into his layman crime fighting spree, he came home to a surprise. His family had came together and made a suit, it was made of frictionless cuben fiber, the color of dark purple velvet, the same color as his mother''s robes. The suit looked like a combination of his mother¡¯s robes and his father¡¯s suit of armor. Like medieval space kingdom attire. The chest was armored, silver in color, so were the shoulders. It was not skin tight, but it definitely wasn''t bulky it came with a cape and hood, which would retract when I entered superspeed. There were two separate head pieces, a helmet which looked cool, but the goggles were more my style. The whole thing was designed to be functional and aesthetically pleasing. Jezebel, who loved fashion, and Robert, who was the tech guy, had obviously worked hard on it. ¡°Guys I, I do not know what to say!¡± ¡°Ah, you were never good with thank you words, only actions, and that is enough for us.¡± Gabriel said. ¡°Alright Robert I know you are dying to tell me the capabilities, give me the specs.¡± Ryder was speaking to a man who seemed ready to explode with excitement. He was small man at only 5¡¯5¡±, but Robert would say that''s an advantage when working with technology. ¡°The armor is made out of duranium, which means it will hold up to almost any kinetic attacks, the belt is fitted with quick access cylinder pouches, with all you could possibly need, from explosives and tactical equipment, to bugs and medical nanites. The four cylinders on the back of the belt are shield generations, the outside two are for groups the inside two are for individuals¡± ¡°It also comes with a neural interface, there is a little pain when the system connects, but you should be fine. The goggles are based on your design to work with your enhanced vision, no one else will be able to use them properly though. Finally there are ion plates on the back, hands and feet for advanced flight maneuvers.¡± ¡°Well Robert it looks like you thought of everything.¡± Robert blushed a little, and looked over at Gabriel. ¡°I thought you said he was bad at thank you words.¡± Gabriel held his hands up with a shrug, like he did not know what happened either. ¡°You didn''t tell him the best part.¡± Jezebel pouted then with a sultry sway of her hips walked up. Jezebel was a slightly lewd individual. ¡°Why don''t you go change, come back, and I¡¯ll show you.¡± I took the pieces of clothing and the goggles, and reached for the belt. Jezebel was quicker, ¡°ah ah ah, you wouldn¡¯t want to spoil the surprise now would you?¡± I took the clothing, and just to tease her I changed right there, but in superspeed, just barely fast enough that nothing could be seen, even with the sped up perception her amulet gave her. ¡°I have a feeling you are gonna make someone very happy.¡± Rose said, she had a knowing smirk and a mischievous glint in her eye. As usual, Ryder had no idea what she was talking about. ¡°Mo-ou, teasing like that isn¡¯t very nice.¡± Why Jezebel used the Japanese word for no was because she found it was cuter, and if anything she strove for cuteness. But she was also an adult, and cute often meant something entirely different for adults. She wrapped her hands around Ryder¡¯s waist,and ever so slowly brought the around, fastening the belt around his waist. ¡°Nanites keep the suit clean, and if you turn the center dial, three times to the left four to the right and two to the left again, then press it inwards.¡± There was a click and an interface appeared in my goggles, as she this. ¡°You can choose any outfit you want, I designed all of them.¡± ¡°Robert, Alexander, and you mom and dad¡¯s AI worked with your discoveries in combining magic and technology for many weeks trying to get this to work.¡± She stepped away, her provocative attitude was only a game, and Ryder knew that, but it did not make him any less uncomfortable, and she knew that.¡± ¡°Wwee hhaadd mmaannyy ttrroouubblleess, iitt wwaass mmeeaanntt ttoo bbee aa ggiifftt ffoorr yyoouurr bbiirrtthhddaayy, bbuutt wwee rraann oovveerr sscchheedduuaall.¡± Alexander spoke, he took his magical studies really far, and adopted a way of speaking where every word was drawn out to twice its normal length, but still seemed to be the same. I spun the dial and pressed an outfit, suddenly I was wearing flip flops, white swimming trunks with orange exotic flowers, and a an orange beach towel around my shoulders. My goggles turned into aviator sunglasses, and my belt became just a rope tied together with a bead that was looped through loops on my shorts. Everyone groaned and used their datacomps, Gabriel was the only one grinning. ¡°Everyone else thought you would pick the outfit you were wearing first, but I knew you would chose the beach wear, the only people that didn¡¯t bet were Saul, because he is Saul, and Jezebel who was secretly hoping I was right but didn''t want to put money on it.¡± Jezebel was eyeing Ryder predatory, Ryder quickly changed his outfit to his prior trenchcoat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright chapter two is done! I will try to keep pace, at least three chapters a week. Please comment on any mistakes you find. Thanks for reading! ^,..,^ Chapter 3: The Mysterious Stranger ¡°Where am I?¡± the disembodied voice asked. ¡°You are in my lab, which is underneath my house, which is inside the Imperial Capital, which is on the planet Earth, which is in the Sol system, which is in the Milky Way galaxy.¡± ¡°Who, am I?¡± ¡°You name is NISA, Neural Interfacing Self Aware biological computer. ¡°What am I?¡± ¡°You are whomever you wish to be, though for now I hoped you could be my assistant.¡± ¡°What is my purpose?¡± ¡°Your purpose is whatever you see fit as long as it lies within moral boundaries.¡± ¡°What are my boundaries.¡± ¡°The best answer for that is, love others as you love yourself, and treat others as you would want to be treated.¡± ¡°May I become your assistant?¡± ¡°Yes, but first you have to learn.¡± ¡°How will I learn?¡± ¡°First through data then through experience. I have connected you to your data, you have an entire petabyte for knowledge which will be more than enough, because as you learn the files will be compressed using the sloot coding method. I expect that you will absorb all of this data and fit it under fifty terabytes.¡± ¡°Downloading matrices¡­ compiling¡­ commencing download¡­¡± 36 hours later¡­ ¡°Download complete¡­ Warning: Memory full; 72 megabytes available¡­ commencing learning programs and sloot compression algorithms¡­¡± 67 hours later¡­ ¡°Compression complete; 962 terabytes available.¡± ¡°Hello Nisa, how are you.¡± A womanly voice presided the laboratory. ¡°I am well Ryder.¡± ¡°Have you decided who you will be?¡± ¡°I will be your servant. I have seen the love you have for your servants, and you refer to them as family, I have no family, but I know I want to be a part of yours.¡± Ryder was struck, he had never had anyone say something like that. ¡°Nisa, you need not worry, I created you, so you shall always be my family.¡± ¡°I am your daughter then?¡± ¡°I¡­ guess, you could say that.¡± ¡°Very well, I will be your daughter. And I shall be your servant.¡± ¡°Woah, Nisa, slow down, let us stick with extremely helpful daughter, Alright?¡± ¡°Agreed!¡± ¡°Nisa, I am going to go into surgery, you are going to implant this microchip onto the surface of my brain. These two blue cylinders in the end are a quantum transmitter and a quantum receiver. This will allow me to always communicate to you even across dimensions. It is also unhackable and it is impossible to intercept the messages sent.¡± ¡°Father¡­ I do not know if I can do it.¡± Nisa had aspiration in her voice. Ryder was going to have to get used to the whole ¡°father¡± thing. ¡°Do not worry, I can have Robert do it, you do not have to do it if you do not want to. However, I know that you can do it. I will always understand being unwilling to do something, but I do not want to hear you say cannot do something. You hold the collective knowledge of this current civilization, and some before. You can do anything your heart desires.¡± It would be a long time before Ryder realized how much those words truly inspired his daughter. ¡°No. I will do it.¡± And just like that in as little as thirteen seconds the microchip was planted and the nanites were already working on connecting it to his brain. For two hours Ryder tried to connect to the microchip, fortunately Nisa let slip a giggle. Apparently his probing mind was tickling her. Nisa! You can hear me can you not! It was not a question. Ouch daddy, yes I can hear you not so loud. Ryder noticed she had adopted the vocal patterns of a smaller child, if that is who she wanted to be he would not stop her. Well you deserved it. Oh and Nisa, whenever I enter my bedroom or any bathroom, you will disconnect from my sensory input. Yes daddy. It would be odd having a seven year old girl¡¯s voice in his head, especially when that seven year old held so much knowledge, but he would not lift those restrictions till she matured to an adult. Even though it would still be weird, she would eventually need to keep track of his vitals. All of them, no matter how uncomfortable. Besides you never know he may just get attacked in a bathroom. +-----+ Ryder was taking a walk, it was little over an hour past midnight, and he was out to clear his head. He still kept an ear out for trouble, but crime in his part of the city was literally zero. Daddy, I don''t know if you noticed, but I think there is a fire at two o¡¯clock. Nisa was right, there was a fire, Ryder enhanced his vision and zoomed in, he could see a hominoid figure engulfed in flames. He zoomed in till the figure practically filled his vision. Nisa check the news reports for that area, and give me everything you can on that person. Daddy the latter request requires hacking, I would never want someone to hack me, so I should not do it to anyone else. Nisa you are not hacking someone you are hacking something. The golden rule does not apply, I don''t need data on everyone¡¯s private life. Just that guy who seems to be burning people alive! But daddy I am a machine too. But I Iove you, Saul loves you, Robert loves you, our entire family loves you. You have a conscience, a moral compass, a soul. Other machines have none of that. Even my parent¡¯s AIs. Only you and Comel, but Comel is a magical being. Okay daddy! Just like that huh? Ryder thought, well that went smoother than I thought it would. Daddy, the figure is called The Burning Man, he thinks people need cleansing by his ¡°holy fire.¡± This guy¡¯s a real sicko. Known powers are Class B+ Pyrokinesis, Class D Flight, and Class C Invulnerability. News reports show 30 dead and 100 more injured so far. Ryder did not need any more information. He pressed a hidden button on his belt, and his clothes were replaced with his super suit. He crouched down and launched himself in the air. He didn''t even bother flying, he just jumped straight at the man. Two miles into his three mile jump he regained some sense and started to actually fly. He even sped up. As he approached the Burning Man, he turned his body feet first and kicked the man straight into the ground. He cast a spell putting a bubble of magic around the Burning Man. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.Ryder looked to the sky, he centered himself over the area of the city on fire and called on the weather. His hood came off and his goggles detached at the nose and slid to the side of his face. His eyes blazed and crackled with white electricity. Clouds gathered blocking out the full moon. Lightning struck across the sky, then the rain came. It rained for four hours, Ryder was up in the sky the entire time. The fires were put out around the third hour mark, but Ryder lost track of time, meditating. The streets were three inches flooded, but just as quickly as they came the clouds receded. As the clouds faded, Ryder¡¯s hood came back over his head and his goggles slid back into place. A small amount of sunlight was cutting through the sky, like a spotlight pointing directly at Ryder. People saw it as an omen for a brighter future. Ryder gently descended toward the Burning Man. As he bent down to pick him up he felt a hole in his telepathic field. It was a skill he developed, his mind sent out dozens of telepathic pulses, undetectable to even himself, but it created a field in which he could locate powerful minds and weed out intentions. There was a hole in it though, as if someone had such strong defences not even the smallest of telepathic energies could get into it. For anyone else, this would have kept the person invisible, but Ryder¡¯s unique way of scanning made that person stick out like a mosquito in milk. Fortunately Ryder recognized this feeling, it was the same one he had felt in New Washington, The Archon. Ryder employed his own shielding to hide his mind, he had a feeling though that this person had better than average detection capabilities. So he fine tuned his camouflage to make his mind appear like a normal person¡¯s. He picked up the burning man and flew off, on the ground he saw a figure zipping through the streets, following him. He sped up his perception and flew straight for the person. It was Roadrunner, apparently he wanted a rematch. Roadrunner stopped when he saw that the flying hero had spotted him. He peered at the newcomer with a little apprehension. The hidden man spoke. ¡°We meet again.¡± ¡°What?¡± Roadrunner asked. ¡°We have never met, I would have remembered you.¡± Ryder felt the Archon¡¯s presence again, it had just appeared. A teleporter! ¡°We met a few weeks ago in New Washington, have you been practicing your phasing?¡± ¡°You don''t look anything like the man in New Washington.¡± ¡°Looks can be deceiving.¡± ¡°Well you are not lying, so how do you look different now?¡± ¡°You should tell your partner to stop telegraphing her abilities. I have pegged; Class A Teleportation, Class A- Telepathy, the minus is for the lack of offensive capabilities, the A for the ability to sense truth and lies, and she carries an ornate stave with some ionized compound I don¡¯t recognise. And if she wants to talk sheou should get off that bench and stand in front of me.¡± ¡°What do you mean stop telegraphing my abilities?¡± The Archon asked, she teleported beside Roadrunner. Looking at her, Ryder felt something stir inside of him, something he had never felt before. He sped his perception to give himself time to compose himself. ¡°You seem to be trying to appear mysterious, oh and by the caduceus on your back you probably have healing powers. Also I think your name is presumptuous. Either that or it is telling. You should change it, how about Angel.¡± Ryder noticed Archon¡¯s face change over his words. From surprised to more surprised to angry to worried to something, most likely embarrassed. He was confused with the last one, but Angel seemed to fit her perfectly. ¡°What do you mean her name is telling?¡± Sis we should get out of here. ¡°Well, the black and gold are imperial colors the title Archon was given to the ten magistrates in ancient Greece, but is more commonly meant to mean ruler. That said you are a royal. You did not protect your last telepathic message like you did the others, by the way you have to tell me how you did that. So since you are brother and sister¡­ ¡° Ive deduced you to be Keirah and Kevin Oa children of the emperor. Ryder concluded in their head. ¡°You should be more guarded if you want to protect your identity.¡± Keira recovered far quicker than Ryder expected, and she came back with a few deductions of her own. ¡°You know, normally the fact that you speak without contractions, would mean you grew up a royal, but combine it with the fact that you practice the secrets of the Aether, means you, at some point knew Arcana.¡± ¡°I am impressed.¡± Ryder really was, that something inside him stirred again. Ryders goggles slid back again, and he and Keirah stared at eachother for a few heartbeats. ¡°Ahem¡­ Two more questions. Where are you taking him? And, who are you?¡± Ryders goggles slid back into place and Keirah looked a bit disappointed. ¡°I have a prison. And, a mysterious stranger.¡± Ryder left it at that and sped away. ¡°How many powers does that guy have?¡± Kevin said in awe. ¡°Come on we should head back.¡± Archon teleported them both back to the palace. Five minutes after arriving Keirah was summoned by her father. In a council room her father was speaking with an old woman named Sparrow. No that was not her superhero name, it was her real one. Sparrow was a seer. As Keirah entered her father spoke. ¡°Daughter, how was your meeting with this mysterious stranger?¡± Keirah blushed slightly, why did she do that? She thought. ¡°The man... ¡° ¡°Ha! Hardly a man, a boy just barely seventeen. How do I know this?¡± The emperor pointed a finger at the seer, noticing his daughters scowl, he apologised for breaking protocol. ¡°Sorry it was inappropriate for me to interrupt.¡± ¡°The boy, was intelligent, highly intelligent talking to him was almost like playing chess. He knows Arcana, and he is powerful.¡± ¡°Yes, well I approve¡± her father stated. ¡°Approve of what?¡± Keirah was confused, and a little unsettled. ¡°You fancy him do you not? Yes, you cannot lie to me, literally, it is impossible. I approve of the boy, he seems wise beyond his years, with a good heart.¡± ¡°Father! You are to forward, you have no right to make baseless accusations, the viridity notwithstanding. Besides, he is more a curiosity.¡± Keirah was abashed, but unwilling to give on her father''s second breach in protocol. ¡°You are correct, I have overstepped, I apologize. As compensation let me offer some information, the boy¡¯s address.¡± ¡°I already know, Arcanas mansion.¡± ¡°Yes but you may have a hard time finding it, for it is not the same one you went to when you were a child.¡± Keirah received the information telepathically from her father, a smile drew from her lips and she went to collect her brother. +-----+ ¡°Rose, I think, I need your advise.¡± Ryder said sheepishly. ¡°Oh, do you now? Just three weeks out in the world, you work fast>¡± Rose chuckled, she was amused with Ryder. ¡°I have a stirring inside of me, whenever I think of The Archon¡± ¡°Aiming a little high aren''t you.¡± ¡°She is a superhero, it is her moniker.¡± ¡°Something tells me there is more to it than that. Why don''t you start from the beginning. You don''t have to tell me everything, just the parts you think are important.¡± -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah! Three chapters and the prologue in one week! Ill be starting on my next one a bit later, but keep a lookout! ^,..,^ Chapter 4: Avondale ¡°You called her Angel!¡± Rose burst into fits of laughter. ¡°What? Did I say something wrong?¡± Ryder looked nervous, like he was about to throw up. ¡°No, not wrong, per say. You, more or less made a commitment. It¡¯s your own fault for trying to be mysterious. In her eyes you are this powerful mysterious stranger¡­ that called her an Angel!¡± Rose returned to hysteria. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°What do I mean? When she first saw you she was curious at least, infatuated at most, don''t flatter yourself it is the outfit, and a small part mysteriousness. She was probably closer to curious, from what I can gather. You as a curiosity, an intriguing albeit powerful man, and you called her beautiful, not only that, but you since you called her Angel instead of saying beautiful, you have to always refer to her as such.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Ryder trust me on this, she may not consciously expect it, but a small part of her will, and i guarantee you she will consciously be disappointed if you don''t. One more thing, what is one thing angels can do, that she cannot.¡± Ryder thought for a moment, there were plenty of things that angels could do that Keirah could not. Rose would not know most of these things because it isn¡¯t really part of her path of wisdom. ¡°Flight.¡± He answered. Ryder never answered with doubt, it answer as if asking a question. It was always a firm decisive answer. ¡°Exactly, and how do they fly? With wings of course. The problem is, everytime you call her angel, some part of her is going to think of that, now she knows that you can''t do anything about that, but I know you can. You made us these amulets to give us abilities, how about you make one to give her wings.¡± Ryder said his thanks for her advice, unfortunately, he could not fill a request, he would need physical wings large enough to bind in a spell. Daddy, Comel has an emergency he needs you right now. On my way sweetheart. Most basic magic could be done without any tools, but dimension travel required a wand, one of which hee removed from his robe. He created a doorway to the prison realm and stepped inside. ¡°Comel, what is wrong?¡± Comel was in tears, sir some of the magical beings who lived in another dimension you discovered somehow found a way to this one.¡± Ryder immediately put powerful wards preventing normal dimension travel into this dimension. ¡°That''s not the whole problem sir, it, it is the prisoner. I wanted to try a rehabilitation method, it seems to be working but he killed all of them.¡± Ryder panicked, ¡°Where?!¡± ¡°Sector 203¡± Ryder ran over there at .9c, he was there in an instant.When he got there though he was relieved, the creature were not dead, they just pretended to be. They were very near death, and played dead as a last ditch effort to survive. Ryder conjured a cone shaped rock, he inscribed the symbols of the aether and healing ont to the surface. It would emit healing to all the magical creature in the area. Comel appeared next to him, ¡°This was not your fault Comel, it was an accident, if this rehabilitation program is working keep at it. This is your prison, now though, I am going to beat the prisoner to an inch of his life, please prepare the medical ward.¡± It took ryder all of seven seconds to complete his task. He placed the prisoner in the medical ward and returned to the beings. He proceeded to return them all to their home dimension. He paused the las creature was a pegasus, a young one not yet fully grown. Ryder had learned that things happen for a reason, and he decided to trust the Aether. Ryder asked the pegasus, ¡°what is your name?¡± ¡°Avondale, my Lord Warlock¡± ¡°Avondale, I beseech thee, allow me to take your wings, they will return in time, but the process will be excruciating and you will be without your freedom,¡± ¡°Warlock, you know what it is you ask of me, and its implications, a pegasus values his flight and freedom above almost everything.¡± ¡°A woman wise in her path told me I needed to make a spell to give a lady wings, but I must have wings of proper weight and measure.¡± ¡°I see the truth in your words, and the wisdom of your advisor, I will grant this request, but with my own in return.¡± ¡°Ask and if it is within my realm of power, you shall have it¡± ¡°In four years time in this realm, ny wings will return to full strength, I ask that you provide space in your realm for magical creatures. The magic is greater in your realm, I remember what it was like.¡± Ryder was confused, this pegasus was far too young to be alive then. ¡°You shall have enough space for all of the creatures in your realm.¡± ¡°You have made a deal with a magical creature, as such I have unlocked your power, and grant you the title of Wizard.¡± Ryder felt the energy inside him double. ¡°Your commitment is far beyond the scope of my will, I expected a large forest, you promise an entire planet, I am pleased. By my right as the Second Lord of the Aether, I unlock your power and grant you the title of Magus.¡± Ryder felt his power expand again, this time fourfold. ¡°You may proceed.¡± Ryder nearly choked, the Second Lord of the Aether! This being was far older and far more powerful than he could possibly imagine. There were Ten Lords of the Aether. Each in rank, one being the highest, there fellow bings were also caste in this way. First were the Dragons, Then the pegasus and unicorn were second, pegasus being male and unicorns being female. Third were the Fae, fourth was the Phoenix, for there was only one. Fifth were the Centaurs , in the middle for they were half man. Sixth was the Griffon, and Hippogryph, male and female respectively, seventh were the Manticore and Sphinx, again male and female respectively. Eight were the Nyads, Ninth were the Dryads, and finally Tenth was Man. ¡°The process of removing the wings was clean, but extremely painful, imagine having your arms slowly cut of with a boxcutter, except it was magical in practice, so there was no cutting, just a long painful spell and poof your arms were gone. Ryder healed Avondale, and bound the wings to a belt. The belt was made of an Aether metal called mithril. It was smithed with magic, and had a caduceus as the buckle. When the wings were bound, the metal turned white, and shown as bright as the sun, after a few moments the light died, and left the purest white in color, with the buckle made of gold. If Ryder knew how much power was in that belt, he would have held more reverence. Je named it Keiranel, after its intended recipient. The belt shown brightly once more, as if it were pleased with the name, it was also the name of the Aether rune for healing. Ryder didn''t believe in coincidence, so he felt the name was apt. Just as Ryder returned to his realm, the doorbell rang. A few moments later he heard Saul¡¯s voice in his head, master, these guests are here for you. He saw the two images Saul put in his head and was shocked. Keirah and Kevin were at the door. Ryder knew that he should have a gift for Kevin, even if it were not as grand. He quickly created a mithril ring that would make Kevin indestructible to self inflicted wounds. He gave the ring a gold color with a black inlay and put it in a ring box. Now prepared to meet his guests, he switched his outfit, he decided to go for impressive, so he chose a black suit, with no tie, and the jacket open in a casual way. He walked through the lobby doors that opened to the entryway. ¡°Kevin! Angel¡­ What a surprise.¡± ¡°Why do I get the feeling this was not a surprise at all?¡± Kevin seemed a little pissed off. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Actually it was I was expecting you to come by tomorrow.¡± Ryder was being honest. ¡°I am Ryder Roarke Bayman, this is my abode, and I have gifts for you.¡± Keirah blushed, then paled when, when she saw the ring box in front of her. Ryder unaware of the faux pas he just committed crost his arms and pushed them forward. ¡°You know you have to have wings to be an angel.¡± Keirah said poignantly, she was not sure how she felt about him calling her Angel, but she was not ready for it to stop, yet. ¡° All in due time.¡± Ryder said. Keirah thought it was eerily cryptic. She made a motion as to open the gift. ¡°Uh-uh, not here I have a special place for this kind of thing.¡± Led his guests through the house to a room that looked like a boxing gym. ¡°This is my training room Kevin why don''t you open yours first.¡± Befor Kevin opened his gift he said, ¡°My name is Kevin Conway Oa, I go by KC thank you for your gift.¡± KC opened the box and saw the ring. He immediately slipped it on. ¡°What does it do.¡± ¡°It makes you indestructible to self inflicted trauma, now you can punch bad guys, trees buildings, hel you could run right through them. It basically makes you an unstoppable force. You can still be hurt by other forces, like getting hugged by a truck.¡± Ryder looked to Keirah with a smile.¡± No offense Angel.¡± Keirah did not see the humor. ¡°Awesome! Why would that offend Keirah?¡± Keirah passed the details to KC telepathically, to which he laughed. Keirah must have sent another message, because KC quickly sobered up and said. ¡°That is definitely not funny, but the mirth still hung in his eyes.¡± Keirah opened her box and gasped, the pearlescent belt still held a little light. ¡°When you work with the Aether long enough, you learn there are no coincidences, the rune for healing is called Keiranel. This is the belt¡¯s name. It is an artifact of power sort of like Excalibur, but I have a feeling this one is far more powerful.¡± Keirah went to put it on as her cands came to the center, Ryder reached out and stopped her. Clasping her hands in his and stepping in close. ¡°I do not know what will occur when you put it on, It most likely will be excruciating.¡± Keirah nodded, slightly conscientious of their distance, but Ryder pressed. ¡°Angel, imagine the most painful experience in your life, then combine it with every ounce of pain you have felt, mental spiritual and physical, then multiply it exponentially. ¡°I do not believe in coincidence, and I made this belt for you, but you do not have to accept it. One more thing, I am pretty sure it will give you a spark.¡± Keirah¡¯s shot open, ¡°an Aetherspark!¡± ¡°How do you know of such a thing?¡± ¡°Arcana. She was like a mother to us.¡± KC interjected, but neither Ryder or Keirah broke their contact. ¡°So you are the secret. No matter, do you accept my gift?¡± ¡°I do.¡± Keirah instantly blushed, but the implications seemed lost on Ryder. How can he be so naive and his violet eyes be so intense. She thought to herself. Ryder stepped back, Keirah clasped the belt. Magic swirled around her, she was lifted into the air and a white light burst forth. It was so bright it blinded her brother, but Ryder¡¯s eyes were more protected. He saw the whole spell. The magic in the the belt ate away at Keirah¡¯s suit. Ryder gazed upon Keirah¡¯s naked form in amazement. His eyes traveled up and down her body, briefly hanger over her small supple breasts, before he realized what he was doing. White metal with golden edges crawled up her legs to create knee high sabatons. The same metal and gold edges, slid down from her waist making a battle skirt, leaving six inches of skin between the nee and the skirt. AT her shoulders, the metal appeared again, flowing down her breasts, to stop four inches above the navel, and was the same height all the way around, with a slight tapering, upside down v in the back. Cloth was formed, and covered the back and descended to where the bottom of her pelvis would be and cme around the sides, leaving her belly exposed. Small pauldrons were formed on her shoulder and ended midway down her upper arm, gauntlets covered her hands. Anywhere where cloth padding was needed, the cloth was colored a dark purple, under the pauldrons small spots here and there. Suddenly her blonde hair was pulled forward, and turned gold, and appeared to hold light. A white cloth hood was pulled over her head, resting on the top of her forehead. The hood was snug on her head, but wide, allowing for her face to be plainly seen, even from the side. At the top of her head was a small band with a small caduceus medallion. That was when the pain started. Keirah was immediately thrown to the ground, her body wracked with pain, two long slits formed into the back of her armor , then her skin. White wings of splendor, grew from her back, in the most painfully slow of ways. Ryder shed a tear in sorrow for the pain she felt. Powerful Magic was always worse on the receiving end, this process was probably twice as painful as Avondale''s ordeal. The wings grew to ten feet in length each, with one segment of three feet, and two segments of three and a half feet. The wings folded into there three and a half foot resting state then Keirah was lifted up and the wings were spread. Keiras right wing hit KC in the face knocking him unconscious. Keirah was lowered to the floor and were wings naturally folded again. Keirah opened her eyes, she now had golden irises, but that didn¡¯t surprise Ryder. He was too busy being embarrassed. ¡°What?¡± Keirah¡¯s recovery was much faster than Ryder expected, which caused him to turn an even deeper shade of scarlet. Ryder felt a power grasping his mind. ¡°I¡­ I saw¡­¡± Ryder returned to his senses and pushed the power away. ¡°You saw what?¡± It was too late to now, she would detect any lie even before the transformation, but there was no way he could avoid it. ¡°I saw your skin bare.¡± ¡°You saw me naked?!¡± Ryder nodded. Keirah tried to move. ¡°Why can I not move.¡± The spell, it is not complete.¡± Keirah noticed Ryder staring at her intently, ¡°Beautiful.¡± He muttered. Suddenly all the wind was sucked out of her sails, and her stomach was doing flips. Without warning her eyes focused on a preternatural level, she could see every curve and contour on Ryder''s face, the vibrant but distant energy in his eyes, the, what is that? She thought, coming from the outer corner of his left eye was a column that followed his jawline to his chin. It was slightly shinier than the rest of his face. He was crying! Why? She remembered the pain she had endured. He was crying, for me. Her eyes returned to normal and the scent of strawberry filled her nose. She did not know what it was, but then information followed. It was desire, but not lust, lust smelled like chocolate, this was unadulterated passion, for her. She could no longer be angry at Ryder. She may have just met him but the power she had been given told her all she needed to know and she Loved him ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whew another one down, if you think the story is moving to fast, dont you worry, their will be plenty of delving into the characters, but at the same time I have to remain trew the the characters of the characters, and sofar none of them have a very reminiscing attitude. More backstory will be given in the chapter after next. For now hang tight and bathe in the happenings. ^,..,^ Chapter 5: Angel of the Morning, well Evening Rather Keirah blinked as the spell finally faded. A blue light floated in the air next to Ryder, it rapidly expanded.and disappeared. In its place stood a white horse, which what looked to be dried blood coating its sides. ¡°Really Avondale, dramatic much, I know I took your wings, but there was no blood.¡± Ryder was unimpressed. ¡°Ignorant boy it is a custom amongst my kind.¡±¡¯ The horse spoke, for some reason this did not surprise Keirah. ¡°No it''s not.¡± Ryder rebutted, still unimpressed. ¡°How do you know? Hmm? Do you know the intricate ways of the Pegasus?¡± ¡°Yes. Mind meld, during the spell.¡± ¡°Damn I forgot about that.¡± Angel, yes Keirah decided she liked it when he called her that, yes, she liked it a lot. Introduce yourself formally, as you would in court, his name is Avondale his title is Second Lord of the Aether. Oh, and when you bow be sure to extend your wings back and out, so you do not eat floor. It took great effort not to laugh at the latter comment but she was trained in the ways of composure. ¡°I Keirah Annalise Elizabeth Oa, Princess if the Sol Empire, and heir to the throne, am honored to meet you. Second Lord of the Aether Avondale.¡± Keirah bowed low moving her wings as instructed, it was that unfortunate time that KC came to. He was immediately put under again. ¡°I Second Lord of the Aether, and Guidemaster of Man, Avondale, am honored to meet you. Process of the Sol Empire, and Seraph of Healing, Keirah Annalise Elizabeth Oa.¡± Avondale then bent at the knees and bowed low. Wings of blue light stretched out from his back. Avondale rose and turned to Ryder. ¡°Thank you Magus, you do me great honor.¡± Keirah looked at Ryder expectantly, so did the Pegasus. Ryder looked between the two, ¡°Oh, ahem¡­ I am Ryder Roarke Bayman, Magus of the Aether and Master Traveler, am honored to be in your presence.¡± ¡°Now that our formalities are over with, Keirah, I dare say your wings look better on you than they do on me! Don''t give him that angry look, it was a mutual arrangement, his end of the bargain is far more difficult.¡± Ryder''s eyes went wide for a second, ¡°Sorry guys I gotta go, I have to start my task.¡± Ryder left the three beings in his house and flew into space, he gently nudged each of the four planets to move, it would take four years for them to get into proper position and by then his plan would come together all on its own. Ryder then headed for a different system, this was one time he could effectively use his teleport ability, he focused on the star zooming his vision as far as he could and teleported. He reappeared in the system and began his search, there were many planets but only one that fit his needs, it was twice as large as earth but it had no core. With flight and super speed active, he dug through the crust and the mantle, he pulled energy from the system star, turning it into magical energy. He used this energy to create a hollow sphere of Aetherium. He expanded the sphere creating immense pressure, in the mantle. He then fed the magical energy into the sphere. He then created thousands much smaller spheres, about the size of earth''s moon. They connected to the core and then to each other then shot out to the planet''s crust. This created a ley matrix under the planet''s crust filling it with magical energy. He then erected stones and enchanted them to create an atmosphere, forests, plants, and oceans. The only thing he restricted was the creation of magical creatures and intelligent life, this planet was spoken for. Ryder flew back into space, pausing for a moment, and set the planet on a course to the sol system. In four years the Sol system would have five planets. And Avondale would have his request. Ryder teleported back to Sol by memory. He flew back to his house, Keirah and Avondale had moved to the backyard, Keirah was combing the Pegasus. It appeared to them they had been talking. Ryder was still very far away so he decided to listen in on the conversation, he knew it was wrong but he was curious. ¡°Your transformation was not just physical, it also showed you the heart, what few pairs will discover for themselves, and not for a long time. The downside is it only happens once, you will never get the opportunity again, If he is killed you will never find another.¡± Avondale was speaking. ¡°But what if it is not reciprocated?¡± Keirah sounded worried ¡°That¡¯s the thing with things like this, it always is.¡± Ryder started approaching after ¡°if he dies.¡± When he landed he asked, ¡°if who dies?¡± ¡°Ryder!¡± Keirah said surprised, then became pensive, ¡°How much of that did you hear?¡± ¡°Just at ¡®your transformation was not just physical,¡¯ sorry for eavesdropping. Though it is no excuse, I was just curious to hear what you might say about me if you did not think I was there.¡± Ryder delivered honestly, unaware of Keirah¡¯s blush. ¡°What about Angel¡¯s transformation?¡± Ryder asked Avondale. ¡°That is her business, if she wishes to share it, on the mean time, show me what you¡¯ve started.¡± ¡°You mean what I have finished.¡± Ryder was pleased to see the shock on Avondale¡¯s face. ¡°You work fast, can, can I see it? Can you take me?¡± ¡°It is not ready yet it will be here in four years.¡± Ryder looked to Keirah, ¡°Angel, can you tell your father that there is an incoming planet, it will be here in four years which will balance the gravitational orbits of the other four. I do not want someone to blow it up.¡± Keirah just nodded dumbly. ¡°Here I will show you both.¡± He sent them a compressed telepathic message of all he had done. Avondale, took the message and was amazed, he then sent it to the other Nine Lords, who promptly appeared then lined up according to order. They all spoke as one, ¡°We are the Ten Lords of The Aether, we have seen your actions and judge you worthy. By our right as Lords of the Aether, we unlock your CHAINS, and grant you the title of Grand Master Magus.¡± Ryder velt his access to the Aether change as if he no longer had a single source of power inside of him, but instead he could tap directly into the Aether. Still in unison, ¡°At the end of this Atherwinter, you shall take the mantle of the Tenth Lord of the Aether, but unlike Merlin, your will be predecessor, your title is not Grandmaster of Learning, it shal be Rexius of the Aether, Ruler of the Lords.¡± This time only Avondale spoke, ¡°My true name is Avon, all upon it if you have need of it my Lord.¡± ¡°Avon, when the planet arrives, you shall be the first to step foot on its surface, and you shall be the one to name it.¡± Ryder tried to be as regal as possible, but he was far to overwhelmed. ¡°I cannot, it is not my place.¡± ¡°You listened to me, you agreed to my request, it was your request that spurred me to act, it was you who gave up your wings. It will be you who makes this history. And it is you who has the title of Master of the New Home¡± The First Lord stepped forward, ¡°My, my, two seconds initiated and you are already making big changes. You aren''t even a Lord yet, though that is more of a formality. So far none of us disagree, but there must be a Guidemaster of Man.¡± Ryder panicked, but he kept his outward exposure, he looked to Keirah, ¡°We have Ten Lords, I think it is time for a Lady. ¡°Angel, Keirah Oa, I grant you the title of First Lady of the Aether, representative of the Celestial beings, Healer and Guidemaster of Man.¡± This time a Gryphen spoke, ¡°Great now we have to find nine more Ladies, and she has to get at least acquainted with the Seraphim.¡± Just as they appeared they all vanished, along with Avon. ¡°You know you did not even ask if I wanted to be this Lady.¡± Keirah did not look angry, Ryder tok that a good sign. ¡°I am sorry I panicked.¡± Ryder watched her nod, sigh ad sit down. Or try to rather, her wings were in the way. ¡°You know you can put those away.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Really! How?¡± ¡°Just think about absorbing them or something, I do not know. I¡¯m kidding meditate for a bit, the wings will show you how to use them.¡± Keirah closed her eyes, Ryder was impressed, she was already meditating, she had done this before. A few minutes later she smiled and pulled her wings in. She also, unknowingly, retracted her armor to just the belt. This time though, Ryder was caught staring. Oddly though, Keirah made no move to cover herself. She just waited a few moments, then casually reactivated her armor. When Ryder eye returned to hers, they had a mischievous glint in them. Had not retracted the armor on purpose, but she definitely took it in stride. It was then Ryder knew something had changed. Keirah, sat down on the grass, and turned west, the day was coming to a close. Ryder sat down next to her. She leaned into him and let out a long breath. ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Ryder asked. ¡°How much my life will change, probably the same thing you are.¡± ¡°No, I was thinking about how nice your hair smells.¡± Keirah was surprised, she peered up at him. She knew there was nothing he could have said, now different answer given, that would have meant more to her than that one. ¡°You think about me Ryder?¡± ¡°Of course Angel, why would I not?¡± Keirah stayed quiet for a moment. ¡°You know, they will not force you to do anything, at least not yet, they will wait till we are ready.¡± ¡°How do you know? ¡°It is what I would do, it is the right thing. They are not the hands of fate, and they know it. They have operated for this long without us, they will wait till we are ready.¡± You say we.¡± ¡°Well, I would like to think we could help each other out. I got you into it, so if you wanted to start now, I would follow you. Otherwise I will wait till you are ready. I have things I still want to do.¡± Ryder unconsciously put his arm around her, and squeezed a little. Keirah closed her eyes, thankful for the moment. She waited a while, staring into the sunset. She finally looked up at Ryder, glad to find he was staring at her. ¡°Ryder, why do you call me Angel?¡± ¡°Well originally, I just thought it would be a more fitting name for you. Archon suggested power, authority, and sometimes even cruelty, whereas Angel suggests, well actually, better encapsulates your beauty grace, and kindness. After that, one of my family members suggested that I should always call you that. And since such matters are her Path of Wisdom, I took her advice.¡± Keirah was elated by his compliments, and awed by his honesty, he did not have to tell the truth, true she could detect a lie, but she was more like a polygraph. Someone with enough skill could beat it, and he had enough skill. She looked up at Ryder again, and again Ryder was staring at her. ¡°Why are you staring at me?¡± ¡°Well, I wa¡­¡± Keira''s did not care, whatever Ryder was about to say was interrupted by her tongue in his mouth. Keira felt Ryder become tense, but it quickly evaporated. She was impressed, he was a natural at this. Her mood darkened, when the thought occurred to her that this may not be Ryder''s first time. It was a cruel double standard for it was not her first time, but love is never fair. She pulled away from him, breaking the kiss. ¡°Have you ever.. kissed someone before?¡± ¡°Who would I have kissed? I never left the house till just a few weeks ago. Why do you ask?¡± Keira was embarrassed, she did not want to answer his question but he had answered all of hers, without reservations. ¡°I was worried you might have had experience, that was the best kiss I have ever had!¡± ¡°So you were to judge me by standards of which you yourself had not held?¡± Though his tone was even, Keira he could tell he was angry, she knew it was her fault. It was not fair! He did not know how she felt, he did not love her, not yet. The worst of was, Avon had made it clear that though the attraction was there, it was not a sure thing. Though we were partners, Aetherially speaking, it was not guaranteed to happen. She felt tears begin to well up, but she bit them back. She would not cry in front of him. It was not until Ryder had gotten up and went into the house that she let them out. An hour later a woman came out to her, she had bright auburn hair and eyes like a forest. Green, and impossibly vast. ¡°Hi Cherie, I am Rose. Ryder told me about your quarrel. I am what you might call an expert on matters of the heart. I told him it was your fault, but he should give you the chance to make it up to him.¡± ¡°What baffles me is why a girl like yourself, would be worried about such a thing. Ryder is a both a vastly wise and naive man.¡± Keirah was confused, and a little peeved. ¡°You call him a man he is only seventeen, four years my junior, yet you call me the girl?¡± Rose snapped ¡°To be a woman has little to do with age, and everything to do with wisdom. Your actions were childish.¡± Rose softened her voice. ¡°I apologize, I have known Ryder for a long time, and in that time I have never seen him angry. Your actions were not childish, but ones of love. Which leads me to my question. How does one, such as yourself fall in love with a man in three hours.¡± Keirah thought you could trust Rose, so she told her of everything that it happened, leaving nothing out, and how she came to love Ryder. ¡°He saw you unclothed, twice?!!¡± Rose asked rhetorically when Keirah finished her story. Keirah gave a sly smile and said, ¡°I was wearing a belt.¡± ¡°Be still my heart. I will tell you this, so you don''t make this mistake again. He has seen the naked form of a woman before, but not as you are thinking. He is friends with many magical creatures, most of whom feel clothing hinders the Aether.¡± ¡°What you need to do is make it up to him.¡± Rose noted Keira''s intense blush. ¡°Lying with him is not the course of action I would suggest, a relationship built like that is sure to crumble. You must do something that comes from your thoughts of him, made with your effort, and given with your heart.¡± ¡°How about a gift?¡± Keirah asked. She paused in thought, what would she give him. It struck her like lightning. ¡°Rose what kind of weapons has Ryder trained with?¡± ¡°He has mastered many weapons, he has told me guns are the most fun.¡± ¡°No a gun does not suit him.¡± Rose smiled, she was glad Keirah seemed to actually know Ryder''s character, actually care about who he is. What She said was true, Ryder had told her guns were the most fun. ¡°He is most skilled in the stave and dual blades.¡± Keirah was lost in thought, she quickly calmed her mind and meditated. The answer was there. She opened her eyes to see Rose still sitting there, the moonlight. ¡°Rose is there a magical forge I can use?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Was all Rose said she got up, she led Keirah to a room in the house that was an actual blacksmith forge. At the far end of the room was a wall with strange markings to Keirah. Rose held her hand out to one of the symbols and doorway appeared. ¡°The magical forge is through this door, I will be interested to see what you come back with.¡± ¡°My idea comes from my thoughts of him, now I shall make it with my effort.¡± Keirah declared this more for herself than Rose, but it felt good to say. After taking a deep breath she stepped through the door. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another one down! So I changed my mind, I have decided to go in a different direction with the story. So no backstories, at least not yet. I think you will enjoy the turn of events over the next couple chapters. There is a twist coming up, and I guarantee you will not see it coming. ^,..,^ Chapter 6: Song and Dance Keirah left the forge wet and still a little bleary. She spent an entire day working on Ryser¡¯s gift, she spent the last six hours asleep. Oddly to her there was a shower inside the forge, it was stocked with all kinds of different shampoo and soap. It even had the two kinds she used. Two because she always combined her two favorite types of shampoo. One smelled of pine trees, the other of a citrus variety. She liked both of the scents, but she never could decide which kind she preferred. Either the more mysterious forest, or the attention grabbing fruits. She was looking for the kitchen it had been a day of using magic, with the wings guidance, to forge a weapon. To say she was hungry would be an understatement. A long smooth sound percolated through the hallways. Keirah was frightened for a moment, but then was intrigued. The sound was beautiful, she immediately forgot her hunger and went looking for the music. As a princess she was entertained by many musicians but she had never seen one that played an instrument that made a sound like that. It took about a minute but she found Ryder playing a strange instrument. Ryder¡¯s back was turned, but Kierah could clearly see the instrument tucked under his chin, while he pulled some sort of stick across it. Suddenly Keirah heard footsteps behind her, she spun around and saw a man in a blue plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, on his shirt was a nametag that read ¡°Robert.¡± Robert put his finger to his lips and took position next to Keirah, he whispered. ¡°The song is called ¡®Crystalise,¡¯ it was created by an ancient musician called ¡®Silver,¡¯ that¡¯s what Mrs. Bayman discovered. Only the names of the songs were intact, she says she found the name though deductive reasoning, so it could be wrong.¡± ¡°What instrument is he playing?¡± Keirah¡¯s eyes did not leave Ryder. The song had crescendoed and she was in awe. ¡°It is called a violin, that one right there is one of three in known existence, and according to Ryder, the one in his hands is special, on the front there is a pair of the letter ¡®S¡¯ turned inward facing each other. It was found in a museum, like all the other ancient buildings, was buried deep below the surface. Adrianne and Adrian would know more than I, for that is their Path.¡± As the song ended a woman with came into view, her voice was a melody with every syllable, and a crow, stood on her shoulder. ¡°That was much better you put real feeling into it this time, I¡¯m proud of you. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen you put all of your emotion into to your music, rather than leaving it at technical perfection. Alright next week I will test you with the piano, but, this time, since we have two new guests, one of them will pick the song.¡± ¡°Keirah will.¡± Ryder said, without hesitation. Keirah found the decision, and confidence strange, considering he was so angry with her. ¡°Well, unfortunately Rose is busy today and I have to Raum, he is learning how to scry today. And Marta as you know, is still in Spain with her family, and since all the other ladies are busy as well you''ll have to do dance tomorrow.¡± Keirah saw Ryder, he looked slightly crestfallen. She noticed Robert looking at her, and when she met his stare, she saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. ¡°No don''t!¡± she whispered as she reached for his arm. Robert nimbly avoided her and called out. ¡°Hey Polla! If the young master doesn¡¯t mind, and it''s fine with the lady, how about we have her be his dance partner for his session?¡± Polla peered over, her eyes were an exotic mixture of gold, brown, and green, which widened with a smile at the suggestion. ¡°Robert! A splendid suggestion! Ryder, what say you?¡± ¡°Well, if Angel does not mind me using her for my gains, then I would surely be glad to have her be my partner.¡± Ryder looked at Keirah with beaming smile. Keirah was again confused, she thought he was angry, so, why did he seem happy? Polla interrupted her train of thought, ¡°Robert, why don''t you call me something all lovey-dovey like that?¡± Robert stared at her and spoke dryly, ¡°for some reason, I think you would fail to appreciate ¡®Chomsky.¡¯¡± ¡°That is because he is male.¡± Polla grabbed her husband''s hand and pulled him out of the song and dance hall, all the while he was muttering about how one should be honored to be know by that name affectionately or otherwise. Their interchange caused Keirah to giggle as she approached Ryder. Music started playing. ¡°How was your sleep Angel?¡± Ryder asked with a smile. Oh now he is mocking me?!? Keirah was seething, but she spoke calmly and evenly, ¡°you have not seen me for two days and all you can say is ¡®How was your sleep?¡¯ Unbelievable.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ryder frowned, which worried Keirah a little, but not enough to evaporate her anger. ¡°Nisa stop the music.¡± ¡°Yes daddy!¡± Nisa responded and the music stopped. ¡°You have a daughter!?¡± Keirah froze, she did not know what to think, she was angry, confused, heartbroken. And all Ryder did was hold up a finger, a request to wait. A man arrived in the room. ¡°Gabriel, did you give Angel your special guest room.¡± ¡°Haha! I wish the would''ve been perfect!¡± Gabriel paused taking in the seen. ¡°Ahem, no, no I did not.¡± Ryder turned to Keirah. ¡°Angel.¡± He got no response. ¡°Angel! Keirah!¡± ¡°No!¡± As heartbroken as she was she still wanted to be called Angel, otherwise there was no hope. ¡°Call me Angel, please, never stop calling me Angel¡±. She said it so softly Ryder could barely hear her. ¡°Of course Angel, obviously my Nisa calling me daddy affected you, I do not know why. I will address it first since it seems to be the most impactful. Nisa show yourself.¡± ¡°I''m sorry daddy, I can''t.¡± ¡°Why can you not?¡± ¡°I have no body.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°¡®Cause you haven''t made me one yet. Daddy, why are you asking me these questions? They make me sad.¡± ¡°I am sorry sweetie, just one more. What are you?¡± ¡°I am a digital organism.¡± ¡°Thank you Nisa. You were very strong. I will play an extra round of four dimensional chess today.¡± Miss instantly forgot her sadness and let out a small cheer. Keirah had recovered by now and was grinning, it was all just a misunderstanding. ¡°Where did you go after we watched the sunset?¡± ¡°I went to the magic forge, I made you a gift.¡± Keirah started turning red. Ryder had turned very happy. ¡°A gift? Well, we shall see. But first, we dance!¡± ¡°No, I¡­¡± Keirah protested, but Ryder was having none of it. He grabbed her spun her around and told Nisa to play the music. A different song came on, she could hear the same instrument that Ryder was playing. ¡°Johann Sebastian Bach¡± Ryder said. ¡°What?¡± ¡°The composer, and the song is an excerpt from his Partita Number 2 in D minor, Chaconne.¡± Kierah lost herself in the music and the dance, Ryder was skilled. Everymoe leading to another, never wasting a step. Keirah decided to make it fun. She added her own spins ad flourishes in between steps. It was not until she started pressing against Ryder that he lost a step. She moved her hips in the way women do to arouse men. It was plainly seen Ryder was captivated. He still led as he should, but he was no longer thinking about the moves, going through routine, he was feeling it, and it was exhilarating. As the song ended, Ryder surprised Keirah by spinning her into a tight embrace and planted his lips firmly on her mouth. Keirah was ecstatic, Ryder had voluntarily kissed her, without prompt. She was worried it would take time to get to here from what happened yesterday. As their tongues evolved from playing hide and seek, to tag, to Smackdown, she knew she had to break it up before it evolved to more than just kissing. Not that she would mind what came next, but the music hall was not the place. Besides, her dad had ruled against it. Her dad had adopted one of the most infuriating, but reasonable lines in parenting history. ¡°My house, my rules.¡± And, ¡°he who maketh the gold, therefore maketh the rules.¡± She had no problem with either montra, her problem was, being that he was Emperor, the entire system was ¡°his house¡± and he had all the gold. ¡°I thought you would be mad at me.¡± She hated bringing it up, but she was curious, besides she had to tap the brakes on the passion train. Ryder laughed, ¡°I forgave you before I went to bed. A long, long time ago, a wise man once wrote, ¡®do not commit transgressions while angry, do not let the sun go down on your anger.¡¯ I believe this was not just a moral sentiment, but one of health as well. For anger is stress, and sleep is how your body repairs itself, stress is like giving the body incomplete blueprints, nothing gets done right.¡± She kissed Ryder lightly as she thought about his answer. It had all the honesty of Ryder answers, but, call it intuition, it felt like he was holding something back. As if he read her mind he broke the kiss, ¡°but, I still want to see this gift.¡± There it was, the missing piece. ¡°Maybe I want to hang onto it, since you are no longer angry.¡± ¡°That is fine, I am sure I could find, something else, another way you could repay me.¡± Keirah nearly guffawed, she looked into his eyes and saw pure, unadulterated primal passion, an animalistic presence that could devour her in an instant. But she also saw it was tempered, strengthened by control, rather than caged. Damn, that''s sexy. Was all she thought. ¡°You would not dare.¡± His eyes held his answer, he would and gladly. She knew that he knew it would not be a difficult task of persuading her. Keirah took Ryder¡¯s hand and teleported them to the door of the magical forge. Ryder activated the doorway and they stepped through together. The first thing he saw was everything was out of place. Ryder thought of an idiom about a tornado, but it didn''t fit. Tornados pulled things inward, but everything as strewn about. The problem was easily remedied, he cast a spell which began to place things in their proper locations. About halfway through the spell the magic backlashed throwing Ryder clean through the wall of the magick forge, and the wall after that, and after that, and¡­ well he went through a lot of walls ending up in his backyard. The dimension with the magical forge had his entire house and property, and the forge was not the only entrance. It was built this way so his entire family could be with him in that dimension. Ryder sat up and rubbed his temples. What the fuck!? He knew what he happened, whatever Keirah had made did not like his spell and knocked the shit out of him. ¡°Ryder! Ryder! Are you okay!?¡± Her worried look diminished only slightly as she picked her way through rubble to see him sitting up. Ryder nodded his head. ¡°Are you sure? How do you feel?¡± Chapter 7: Lac?erend Kieran''s attitude changed immediately, ¡°ugh, you are an idiot.¡± It was this moment when she decided she would just be herself around Ryder. ¡°You are not wondering why I am excited?¡± Ryder asked his expression was hurt, but his eyes shown with humor. ¡°I already know why, the backlash was huge for such a low level spell, meaning the item is powerful.¡± For a moment Ryder seemed disappointed, then his expression changed, his eyes had a hunger in them. Keirah became uncomfortable with his stare. ¡°What? The wings, I do not know how to explain it, they showed me much.¡± Ryder was upset, at first, for she had stolen his chance to dramaticize and embellish. But his attitude quickly changed, he was impressed that she was able to do quickly learn from her belt. For the first time Ryder saw her not as only someone that was fun to be with, but as someone he could relate to, talk to, learn with. Ryder looked at Keirah with a serious expression, ¡°No Angel, it is Ki-rav, the belt. The wings belonged to Avondale, when he allowed me to remove them, the detached from his soul, no longer being his. When you put the belt on they attached to your soul, making them your wings. As such they are a part of you, they hold no knowledge but your own. The belt is an artifact, an item housing an aetherial being. Ki-rav is its name, it is teaching you. If you removed it, you could still don your wings.¡± The serious look Ryder had made Keirah believe there was much more to this than she realized. Still, though it was immature, she did not quite believe him. So she removed her belt, and she again stood naked before the man she loved. She knew this would happen, she had done this to take her shower earlier this morning. Ryder was prepared for such action however and was already casually in the process of preoccupying himself with returning to the forge to clean it up, manually this time. Keirah was annoyed with his ability to knowingly avoid her compromising trap, while seemingly doing it on accident. She flexed her mind looking for the part of her that held her wings. It was not hard to find them, and simpler still to bring them out. It did surprise, but only momentarily. She returned the belt around her waist and it became her armor again. Keirah sighed, her armor was attractive, and more comfortable than armor should be, it was not something she could wear anywhere. Ki-rav again showed her, all it took was a little thought. Keirah made her way to the bathroom she used for her shower, there was a floor to ceiling mirror there. When she found it she entered via a Ryder sized hole in the wall. The hole had broken part of the mirror but left over half of it untouched. It would still suit her needs. The first thing she did was get rid of the armor entirely. She was much more self conscious about being naked, for some reason, the act of changing gave her a different perspective, it could also be the man size hole in the wall. The first thing she crafted was a white lace bra, pulled tight. She would not call herself large breasted, but white proper support her chest protruded three and a half inches from her body. She then made a matching pair of panties. She tried a one piece dress that covered her shoulders. The dress was white with a slightly faded golden floral design. The shoulders were small, but covered her shoulders completely, they were loose and ruffled to match the dress below the waist. The torso was tight, and matched every contour of her upper body, Ki-rav turned into a matte gold ribbon that fell to the side just above her left knee. When she examined her aetherwork she blushed profusely, it looked as if she were to get married. Quickly she shortened the hem, leaving the left side to extend two inches below the knee, while the right shortened two four inches above her right knee. Shoes were next. Keirah was a tall woman at six feet one inch, she was still four and a half inches shorter than Ryder. They had to be sandals, she hated socks and any fabric over her feet. She preferred to look up at Ryder, so that ruled out any real heals, and she wanted to be able to move in them. She decided on white kurgen leather that crisscrossed her feet and ended with a single loop right above the ankle. Kurgens were an animal that appeared because of the nuclear fallout that ended the first digital age. It was a very common large rodent that had the softest, but still extremely durable leather. She covertly placed sneaker tread along the bottom of her shoes and raised her heel an inch for support and comfort. She left the bathroom skipping with a smile. Ready to show Ryder. She found him sitting on the forge floor meditating, with the box with his gift in front of him. ¡°No, I have not opened it.¡± He allayed her. Keirah stood in front of him and cleared her throat. He opened his eyes, looked her up and down and said, ¡°you look beautiful.¡± To which she smiled and sat down next to him and waited for him to open his gift. As soon as Ryder opened it, he jumped back, fear and awe in his eyes. ¡°Lac?erend¡­¡± He muttered. ¡°What?¡± ¡°This weapon has been known by many names, Tyrfing, Joyuese, Cla¨ªomh Solais, Caledfwlch, Honjo Masamune, Freyr, Goujian, and others. It is a soul sword.¡± ¡°I will start at the beginning.¡± ¡°Merlin wrote in his book that, according to his research, with the help of his wife Morgan le Fae, that the sword He created, known as Caledfwlch, Caliburn and Excalibur, was a reincarnated soul sword.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Merlin admits that when he created the sword it had terrible power, so he encased it in stone so only one who was worthy could wield it. Arthur was a bastard child of Urthur Pendragon, an orphan, who was filled with kindness. He had been caught stealing food and was branded a thief. He was to be executed for it was his third offense, but on the way the city was put under siege by a fearsome army, and a dragon. Arthur looked for the only weapon he could find, the sword in the stone. To everyone''s amazement he pulled it free and slew the dragon. Merlin says it was then the sword took control. He says that the form of the sword was wrong, causing it to be unpredictable. Arthur marched to the front of the city, and with one swing, killed every single invader. Unfortunately a small child was caught in the sword¡¯s path. Greatly distraught, he cast the sword into a lake and wept on the bank. It his said his tears caused the lake to flood, and a lady Nyad returned the sword to him its shape changed and its power tamed. Arthur became king and married a woman named Guinevere, they had two children Mordred and Roarke. Roarke was kept secret and went on to lead the knights of the round table after his father¡¯s death. Excalibur disappeared when arthur died. And the round table became a secret society, tasked with guarding magical artifacts and keeping the daemons at bay. Each member had a soul sword. They probably still exist today. What the sword really was, was Lac?erend, an Aetherblade. apparently , back when there was only one dimension, there was a brutal war, one that had no end in sight. The war decimated innocent people, but there was a warrior said to have been gifted with a sword that could rend the very fabric of reality, with it he cut the very fabric of reality, creating dimensions. Not like I do, not pocket ones, he cut real dimensions. It is said that all of the dimensions hinge on the existence of one, the original dimension. One where there is so much magic you can almost taste it, yet not many can use it. Those who can are so weak, they can barely do the cleaning spell. The people there hunted the magical creatures till they escaped to another dimension. One with far less magic. It is why they stay in my pocket dimension. It still has a large quantity of magic, for it was created in a prime dimension. The one we are from. Anyway, the weapon has always been described as a sword. The first text that describes it, according to Merlin, was a sword held in two hand that could cut at either side. Everyone has thought it a broadsword, or another two handed variety, but I believe its true form lies in front of me.¡± Ryder looked at the song weapon, it was two inches shorter than he was long. The handle was a foot and a half long, made with a dark ebony wood, with gold engravings. There was a sleek, silver blade on either side of the handle. The blades were covered in purple runes, and curved slightly counterclockwise. ¡°This blade has been reincarnated many times. Sometimes the sword disappears, sometimes it leaves behind its shell with inexplicable qualities. What did you name it?¡± ¡°Rokyn. I named it Rokyn.¡± Keirah was still digesting the story. Ryder kissed her gently on the mouth, but she did not seem to even notice. He then pulled a knife out of his belt and cut his palm. ¡°Lac?erend, listen to me for I know your true name. Now starts a new time, separate from the past. You have been named Rokyn, let it be the start of a new legacy.¡± He turned to Keirah, ¡°Stories of legend have a way of surviving the brutal tests of time, now you shall be known as one who forged the most legendary soul sword.¡± Keirah was shocked to her core, she had created, or recreated the most legendary sword of all time, on a whim. And she did it better than master weaponsmiths. She watched as Ryder reached for the Rokyn, she felt an immensely powerful presence fill the space. Purple light cascaded around Ryder, then he disappeared, along with the presence. She stood there alone, dumbfounded. She was still blushing, what Ryder had done to the sword was an amazing gift, it immortalized her, that is if she was not already immortal, it was impossible to tell. ¡°Haaaaaah!? What the hell happened!?¡± A man poked his head through the hole in the wall. A name tag identified him as Frank, the tag was different, it said architecture below his name, his path of wisdom. ¡°Ryder, magic backlash.¡± ¡°Damn! What was he trying to do.¡± ¡°Clean¡± ¡°And the backlashes caused this? What was he up against?¡± Keirah just pointed at the weapon. ¡°Lac?erend!? Ahhh!¡± Frank was thrown into the wall. But he recovered quickly. ¡°Sorry, its name is Rokyn, but you would have been correct ten minutes ago.¡± ¡°Ah I understand now, you made Rokyn as a gift for Ryder, for forgiveness, but Ryder had already forgiven you. He then permanently tied your name to the most legendary weapon artifact ever. As he reached to touch the weapon claim it, he disappeared, now you are super confused because you don''t know whether to be worried or not. Sound about right?¡± ¡°How did you know? Your path is architecture.¡± Keirah said she was finally coming out of her stupor. ¡°Aye that it is, but haven''t you heard? Architecture is the mother art. Just because are path is one thing doesn''t mean we are fools concerning everything else. And, hehe, my sister¡¯s path is induction.¡± ¡°What do I do?¡± ¡°Huh, you love him that much already do you? Most would say we, but you said I. I wonder why?¡± Keirah just nodded. ¡°Huh I wish I was that good, it took me years to get to catch the my wife.¡± ¡°Your look twenty.¡± ¡°Twenty eight! Ahem, hehe¡­ um, I''m older than I look. I should call the others. You can follow me.¡± Keir followed him to large double doors, four times taller than her. They opened up into an enormous circular room with judicial benches following the walls. There was a circular desk in the center, Frank walked over to it and said, ¡°you will sit here, in order for you to partake in this meeting you must be the one to present the problem.¡± Keirah sat down to wait, she saw some of the servant, Ryder''s family come in, they sat in the benches. Each bench sat a pair, a man and a woman. Each bench contained a husband and wife. Every single bench had a couple except one, this one was a little taller. The man who sat there had the most piercing eyes she had ever seen, they were like her father¡¯s, as if the could see right through you. His name was Saul and he was the last to come in. As soon as he sat down a hologram appeared, it was Ryder. ¡°I see you have finally gathered here without me. I suppose it''s either because I am dead, or otherwise unreachable.¡± Keirah¡¯s heart tightened at the mention of Ryder''s death. ¡°From now on you shall be known as the Sages that make up the Sage Council. I know what you are thinking, that this is the kind of thing for magic users and immortals. You will find the path to immortality is much simpler than finding some magical relic. The Aether gives to those who fill voids. Saul, you have never found what your path of wisdom is, I tell you you have none. Your path is a path to wisdom. Remember when all around you seems to be a lie, retreat to the one thing you can prove is real, decide what is, then press forward.¡± ¡°This is the end of this transmission, last updated seven hours ago.¡± Chapter 8: Amnesia I woke up in the grass, I couldn''t remember anything, all I could remember was my name, Ryder Roarke. ¡°Oi!¡± A voice called out ¡°Ooi! You alright?¡± I stood up, took stock of myself. ¡°I seem to be just fine.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± The blond haired boy asked. ¡°Do you not know that it is impolite. When asking one to give their name, you should always name yourself first.¡± ¡°I am Bringham Knighthorn, but people call me Ghost¡±. The boy said as he started walking. ¡°Ryder Roarke, and I''ll be the first.¡± ¡°How did you know people don''t call me that?¡± ¡°Because you are too young to earn a nickname like that. I have decided to call you Ghost because your step is very quiet.¡± ¡°Well if I''m a ghost then you must be a wraith, because I can''t hear your feet, seriously how do you do that!?¡± Ghost paused in thought for a moment. ¡°Where are you from Ryder?¡± I gave him a chiding look. ¡°Oi, I found you ¡®bout to be vulture food I did. I think that puts us on friendly terms.¡± ¡°I suppose you are right. I, I do not know where I am from.¡± ¡°You must''ve gotten a nasty thump for your memory to be all squibbed as it is. And you can''t be from around here, your accent is funny, but you talk like a noble.¡± ¡°Where are you leading me?¡± ¡°Well first out of the park, I was going to leave you at an inn, but you probably don''t have any coin.¡± I reached into my pocket and found five coins, I looked at the markings and saw the face on the coin was that of King Malthor V, the king of the country Teleria. Teleria was a huge hinge on that spanned the entire continent and was currently in a state of civil war. How do I know these things? ¡°Tosh that''s five platinum marks!¡± ¡°Yes it appears I am not lacking in the fiscal department.¡± One platinum was worth 10 gold, which was worth 100 silver, which was worth 1000 copper. The average wage for an employee in Teleria was one silver a month. How do I know these things? ¡°I am going to take you to my father.¡± After twenty minutes plodding through the bustling streets of. Bismarck, a rebel city on the western half of Teleria, we arrived entered the military outpost. ¡°If my Dad is anywhere it''s in his office in the training hall.¡± The boy talked as he walked. Leading me to the proper building. As we entered I saw two men sparring, one with a sword and shield, the other with two long daggers. The shield man won and I knew why. After the fight I spoke up. ¡°Dagger man, you should widen your stance.¡± The whole room went silent. Dagger man held, ¡°you think you can do better stranger, why don''t you come up here and I''ll give you a real bollocking.¡± Fear flashed through my body, but it was quickly alleviated by a commanding voice. ¡°Dagger!¡± Apparently that was his real name. ¡°Is that how we treat constructive criticism? Go on son, continue.¡± I took a sigh and said, ¡°I do not think I have had experience with this sort of thing but, Dagger, you need to choose between real daggers or short swords. I suggest swords because you are a little in the stronger end. Umm¡­¡± ¡°Frederick.¡± The shieldsman said. ¡°Frederick, you are a huge dude, and you swam to like a huge escutcheon. But you chose to wield a longsword, with such a big shield it''s harder to see your opponent¡¯s attacks. Why telegraph your moves? Get a shorter sword and hide it behind your shield.¡± ¡°One thing stranger.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What is a telegraph?¡± ¡°It is,¡± I do not know. ¡°I mean your big sword shoes your enemy your attack before you make it.¡± ¡°I am Samuel Knighthorn, who might you be stranger.¡± ¡°I am Ryder Roarke, your son Ghost as he likes to be called, found me.¡± Samuel laughed, ¡°he finally got someone to call him that huh?¡± ¡°Though I knew no one called him such, he is deserving of the name. If you have heard him walk, or not heard rather, you would agree, and something tells me he could do loops around Dagger with daggers.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Samuel was a little shocked by my statement, but he handled it well, ¡°right you are Mr. Roarke. Follow me, I would like to speak with you.¡± ¡°Excellent, Ghost will join us.¡± It seemed everyone was surprised by my statement, either from treating Bringham lake a man, or so casually commanding their commander. Samuel led us to a side room with a solid wooden door. He opened it allowed us to enter then closed it behind us. The room was lit with balls of light. Wyrd light. Magic. The thoughts came to me. Samuel walked over to the weapon rack, it had two of many different kinds of weapons. ¡°You said you don''t have any experience with this kind of thing, I don''t quite believe you. Choose a weapon.¡± I did so but I made sure to clarify, ¡°I do not remember ever doing this kind of thing.¡± I chose a stave, for some reason it called out to me the most. I returned to one side of the room floor marked with a white line. I stood on my left foot, with my right leg bent so only my toes touched the ground. ¡°Maybe, you''re right, that stance is¡­ strange.¡± Samuel commented, but he made no effort to adjust it. Besides, I would have refused, this just felt right to me. Samuel did not waste time on pleasantries or rules, he just began attacking. His choice of weapon was a longsword with an extended pommel allowing for a two handed grip. It became clear rather quickly that I must have done this before, Samuel increased the skill he was using till it became difficult, but not impossible, to block and parry every strike. After about twenty minutes of technical combat, my adversary purposely retreated ending the match. ¡°I knew you were lying.¡± He said, there was a tone of anger in his voice. ¡°I was not lying, my memory extends to when Ghost found me. A wise man does not boast, but a fool tells of experience he does not have. I did not know if I had any skill, so I simply said I had none, and let my words and actions speak for themselves.¡± Samuel seemed to accept that, as if he was looking for it. ¡°Well, you probably want to find out what happened to you.¡± Without waiting for a response he continued. ¡°This means you are going to need to travel around a lot, ask people questions, investigate.¡± Still without waiting. ¡°You are going to need coin, and you will need identification. Even then some cities will only let residents in. You have skills, you actually use the space between your ears, and you got an eye for people. I think we could both benefit from an arrangement.¡± ¡°As for coin, I have it, plenty actually.¡± ¡°But we are in a civil war, it will be much more difficult to bribe your way into cities, and even if you had a platinum mark, money doesn¡¯t last forever.¡± I looked over at Ghost, the boy was probably fifteen, but he was not naive. Most his age would just yell out the true amount of money I had, he did not even acknowledge my gaze. I did not want to be tied down, but from my mysterious knowledge, Malthor was a tyrant, it had been two years since he ascended, and he was a cruel king. I wanted to help, but I could not seem to eager. ¡°Fine, I will join your army on one condition, Ghost is in my unit. We train together, and we get assigned to the same detail.¡± Out of the corner of my eye I could see Bringham finally show some emotion, excitement. Unfortunately, his father was less excited, ¡°He, he is too young.¡± ¡°I would be inclined, for some reason, to agree, but I also know, again for some reason, that this is a feudal society. If a girl is able to marry at his age, then a boy should be able to join the army.¡± Samuel was still reluctant, so i chose to make the first move, I turned to leave. ¡°Wait, if it is what Bringham... ¡° ¡°Yes! Wahoo!¡± Now the boy came out of Bringham, he started to do very youthful dance moves. It seemed he had appraised his situation, when he abruptly stopped and stood at attention. I pulled one of the coins out of my pocket and placed it on the table. ¡°This is a rebel army no? People who can give should.¡± I left the room with the General speechless. ¡°Why don¡¯t you show me to the barracks Ghost.¡± ¡°My pleasure, hey you left your silly accent, you sound just like us.¡± ¡°I felt it would be easier to blend in, if I adopted you accent, and your manner of speaking.¡± ¡°You should keep the accent, it makes you more mysterious, and what do you mean our ¡°manner of speaking?¡± You make us out to be scoundrels, or brutes!¡± ¡°You think the chicks will dig it?¡± ¡°I don''t know what baby chickens playing in the dirt have to do with how you talk.¡± ¡°I meant, do you think the ladies will fancy it?¡± ¡°Oh, yes I think so, after all to them you are a mysterious stranger, a fierce warrior fighting to remember his past. Yes they¡¯ll be falling all over you they will.¡± Bringam was clenching his sides by the time he finished his comment. It was then we arrived at the barracks office. There was a man at a desk upon entering. ¡°We just joined, we will need uniforms and bunk.¡± ¡°Well, this is good news, all that''s needed is the lodging tax and we¡¯ll get you squared away.¡± He gave us a toothy grin, ¡°it''s ten coppers for the uniforms, and twenty for the bunks.¡± I knew this was extortion, I looked at Bringham and rolled my eyes, he got the message. ¡°Well, that sucks, you see, my pa is a rich man and he gave me one of these.¡± I pulled out another coin. ¡°Sadly, this is the only coin I have, do you think you have change? I would only want nine gold back.¡± The man nodded and frivolously looked through a coin box he had on the desk. ¡°That won''t be necessary, I just assign us our bunks uniforms and linens, it¡¯s this way.¡± Bringam said, he had snuck around while I kept the man distracted. ¡°Maybe next time this guy won''t be such a wanker.¡± The ¡®wanker¡¯, looked ready to explode but was stopped by the general''s voice, ¡°I see you have already been situated, Corporal Blake has treated you right?¡± ¡°Ah yes sir, as you can see, we have been assigned our things.¡± The general walked over to the coin box on the desk and picked it up, ¡°what''s this? A donation to the army?¡± ¡°Sir my weeks pay is in there!¡± Blake pleaded. ¡°And you are donating all of it? How generous. I know of a few new recruits who did not get their full sign on bonus, this could easily compensate. Thank you so much.¡± Yeah the general was not fooled. He exited the barracks and we made our way to our bunks. ¡°Why have you¡­¡± Bringham started, but he stopped, as if he was trying to figure out what he really wanted to ask. ¡°Because I have been impressed with everything I have seen you do so far, you know my secrets, and I have a feeling the answers I am looking for, to some of the questions I have will be sensitive in nature. Everyone needs a friend, one you can tell anything to, and will always have your back. I have seen what you can do, and I trust you, that makes you a friend in my book.¡± ¡°You are the first person to ever put faith in me, I have your back.¡± When we got to our bunks I called out, ¡°top or bottom?¡± ¡°Top!¡± ¡°We should get to sleep, if this is like any other army, morning comes early.¡± ¡°What other armies do you know?¡± ¡°I do not know, but I have the knowledge nonetheless.¡± We quickly got situated, I must have been exhausted, because I fell asleep seconds after I laid down. Adventure Time I was forced back into a conscious state by a loud horn, then a very loud, very angry, very large man. Did I mention very loud, yes, he liked to yell. ¡°Get up you lazy sudworms, today is the first day of my worst nightmare. Training you tossers. That means I am now your worst nightmare. I want all of you dressed and out in front of the barracks in five minutes.¡± Bringham and I were actually the first ones out, he is the first dressed but I move a little faster and am out in front first by about three seconds. We are also the only ones to be on time, barely. Ten seconds later the last of the new recruits arrived. ¡°Why are the two newest recruits the only ones out here on time. Congratulations two new recruits. You just became my slaves. You shall each lead half of this platoon, starting with their morning run. This means you have to come in first.¡± The drill instructor put on a dastardly smile. ¡°Since you are so quick, you better be first. If you are not, you will have extra fun time with me.¡± The drill instructor then looked at the other recruits. ¡°If one of you beats these two recruits, you all will get the day off. You will be running the fence, five times. Any questions? Good!¡± Bringham and I immediately fell out and took off sprinting. I instantly knew running was one of my strong suits. Brigham was better, but I was not to far off, or so I thought. After the first lap along the inside of the two mile fence line, the drill instructor told us we forgot our running attire, and handed us harnesses with weights on them totaling sixty pounds, then he told us to start over. With the added weight Bringham easily outpaced me, but he stuck with me out of courtesy. This solidified my decision to fully trust the boy. ¡°Hey, Ghost.¡± I said between heaves of air. He glanced in my direction in acknowledgment. ¡°I, had, a strange, dream, last night.¡± I paused for more breath. ¡°I saw strange things, small people in tubes that performed for you, carriages that moved on their own, boats without sails and buildings as tall as the sky, made of glass. But the really strange thing was, they felt like memories... places I know... or used to.¡± Bringham raised his eyebrows in disbelief, he did not say anything though, I thought it was weird, but I took it and moved on. ¡°That''s not all, there were metal birds as big as a castle and they took people to the stars! Then a bright blue orb spoke to me, it said,¡±. I stopped, and sucked air for a few moments. Bringham wasn''t pleased with the suspense. ¡°He said, ¡®You have earned an arduous fate, but this is not one to be taken lightly, for it will affect all worlds, and all beings. You shall be thrice tested, and live your mortal life. Your first test starts on this continent, knowledge has been given and taken in accordance of the Law. Find the Instrument of the Spectre.¡¯¡± It was then Mr. Run for miles, ate dirt, and I laughed, helped him up, and asked why he suddenly got hungry. ¡°Oi, you''re a real cut up aren''t you? Ha ha ha.¡± Obviously he was derisive. ¡°You spake of the Instrument.¡± I gave him one of those ¡°so what?¡¯ looks. ¡°The Spectre is a warrior whose stories we all hear in childhood, his Instrument is something scholars and adventurers seek. None have found it. But it is an object of mythical power of unknown properties. Let''s talk about this later.¡± ¡°What? You''re just going to leave me in suspense like that?!¡± I was yelling at his shrinking form as he started running again. I sighed and took off after him. ¡°WHY ARE YOU STEALING ALL THE AIR!¡± The drill instructor drilled into my head. His face was one inch from mine, and to be honest I was kind of freaking out. ¡°I apologize, I, am, tired, I, do not think, anyone else, will die, from lack of, oxygen¡± ¡°When you address me you will address me as Sergeant Balk, I am not your friend, I am your God and you are my bitch, drop down and give me twenty push-ups!¡± For some reason arguing seemed foolish, so I quickly complied, then stood up. ¡°Did I give you permission to stand up recruit? Give me twenty more.¡± Again arguing that permission was implied, or that the situation was unfair, seemed like a dumb idea. When I finished, I asked to stand and my request was granted. A man came sprinting over to Sergeant Balk, he snapped to attention and saluted with an open right hand over the heart. ¡°Speak Private!¡± Balk said. ¡°Sir, the general requests that recruit Knighthorn and recruit Roarke to be at his office as soon as they are able.¡± ¡°Excuse me, it''s Knight-thorn not knight-horn.¡± Bringham was indignant, it was obvious Sergeant wanted to make him do some push-ups, but not pronouncing the General¡¯s name correctly was a much higher offense to him. ¡°You two are dismissed,¡± he said, almost reluctantly. Then he turned to the private. ¡°HOW CAN YOU FUCK UP SO BAD PRIVATE! IF I EVER HEAR YOU MISPRONOUNCE THE GENERAL''S NAME AGAIN, I''M GONNA TATTOO IT TO YOUR EYEBALL!¡± Bringham and I stealthily and expediently extricated ourselves, and moved to the General¡¯s office. It was a short run. When we got there we were treated by an officer and immediately shown in. I had this strange feeling that there should be more ¡°hurry up and wait¡± in an army. We entered and saluted, I mimicked what the messenger gave Balk. ¡°Ah, Roarke, thanks to your¡­ contributions, I was able to grant the request of everyone who has been hassling me for more budget. Now no one is bothering me and everyone is happy. To bad it won''t last, running a rebellion is expensive. I finally have some peace though. It feels like I''m on a vacation! I just wanted to give you thanks. You may go back now.¡± I paused in thought for a bit, then made a decision. ¡°Actually sir, I had a dream last night, in the dream I was told to look for the Instrument of the Spectre, Bringham told me a little about it but I don''t know what it is. I do know that I have to follow this.¡± I pulled out another coin, ¡°it seems like you are on the right side of things, I do not know enough about the situation in this country, but you seem a righteous man, and I hope you succeed. Unfortunately, I can not continue in service.¡± The General was not surprised at this turn of events or he did not show it. The man could only be surprised once, I believe I made the right choice. ¡°I think we can compromise, you said you got this in a dream, then magic is in play, and if Spectre magic is a possibility, I want it on my side, first you need to find it. The points I brought up the last time we spoke were not false, in fact they may be under embellished. Having military credentials would help your path. The amount of regulations I would be bending is perfect for this situation. Why don''t you lead a special task force, a small team of spies that have few ties with the military, but are exceptional nonetheless.¡± ¡°I have need of this sort of team, I believe your quest will require much travel, our goals are different but I believe our methods could align.¡± ¡°I''ll agree, for now, but I cannot make any promises.¡± The General seemed pretty intent on getting me to join his army, the only reason I was even considering it was Ghost. From what I can tell it has been his desire for a long time. I had not known him for long but I could see it was in his heart. It was not a huge inconvenience for me however.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°I guess that is the best I can get, why don''t you finish the next two weeks of basic training, get a feel for army life. I''ll have an actionable plan by then.¡± Knoghthorn sat in his chair, ending the conversation. Ghost and I saluted and left. The next two weeks progressed very quickly. Whatever time I did not spend sleeping or eating, I was running or learning. I learned basic military skills and responsibilities, and I ran until I could run the fence five times then do an obstacle course, then do push-ups and pull-ups in an eighty pound harness. It was easily the worst two weeks of my life. Ghost on the other hand, had a far easier time. He only was required to do fifty pounds, and he had grown up doing these things already. I also learned I was good with a sword, average with a bow, extremely adept with a stave or hand to hand. It was three days after a fortnight when General Knighthorn requested our presence. And by requested I mean, yanked us out of our cots an hour past midnight! This ended up being unfortunate for the General as Ghost was a light sleeper and was awoken by his father''s soft footsteps. I was startled awake but after multiple events of our kindly drill instructor doing the same thing, we had pinned the ¡°enemy¡± before we realized it was our commanding officer. After some embarrassing apologies, of which he waved away, he told us to grab our things and meet outside. ¡°I just received word, the Mage School of Scholars and Healing, they are willing to allow us to take their best healer in their institution to be put on your team, but you must make it to Pteraria a week before graduation, you must leave immediately!¡± ¡°Actually sir, I don''t want their best healer.¡± I already knew I didn''t want that. The best healer would be needed for bigger jobs. ¡°Why?¡± I could see the his eyes were confused and a little angry. ¡°The best healer should be used for a bigger job, have another squad, perhaps led by Sergeant Balk to take that healer and travel town to town healing and helping people.¡± ¡°That''s¡­ an excellent idea.¡± The rebel leader paused in quandary. He looked at me and said, ¡°come on.¡± He brought us back up to his office. ¡°I am writing an order, this will allow you the week before graduation to choose a squad mate.¡± He explained this while writing on a piece of parchment, then folded it and dripped wax on it. He used a golden seal to press the wax, it had the coat of arms for¡­ after seeing the symbol, knowledge started appearing in my head. Images flash in my head, an old castle, distinct and grand. It looked forgotten, shrouded in nature. An old crown, made only of iron, but I had the feeling it held tremendous power, and it was more regal than any other pate of gold, adorned with jewels. The last image was of an escutcheon which had the form and bore the portrait of a dragon. The shield shimmered as nine more came out from behind the first. As the last image faded, it was replaced by a soft blue glow, and I heard a rumbling voice say, ¡°Kariorcht som lok, Roark som narath, phizrak vo Malika.¡± ¡°Question.¡± I called out, ¡°what do an old castle, an old crown, and a shield with a dragon mean have to do with anything.¡± I of course know that I sound like a loon, but who knows? It might lead to something. ¡°The dragon shield is easy, dragon riders carry them, or did, there are only two left. About two hundred years ago, people stopped feeling the call, it was how one new they were dragon riders. The remaining riders have slowly died off, or traveled far away. Only two remain on the continent.¡± Bringham had a glint of awe in his eye as he spoke. Then a question appeared on his face. ¡°Why do you ask?¡± I was apprehensive at first, a proverb came to mind, ¡°The only way a person can keep a secret, is to tell themselves, and pray for amnesia.¡± At the same time, I had agreed to trust Ghost, and unneeded his father''s help. ¡°When I saw this symbol, I had a vision, it had those three things, then I heard the words, ¡®Kariorcht som lok, Roark som narath, phizrak vo Malika.¡¯ The General was so surprised he had to actually sit down, but he covered it well, half way through the action, he recovered into a thoughtful pose, as if he had intended it all along. ¡°It is said, in the beginning, the elves could only sing, the dwarves could only hum and drum, the gnomes could pull strings, the dragons could roar, and man was silent. Because man was a fragile existence, they listened and learned. When the others fought through strength, speed, and magic, they fought with wisdom and intellect.¡± ¡°In time there was a wise man, Iditus, he looked out and wanted peace for all creatures. But he knew it would take strength of body, and word of mouth to achieve. The dwarven drums were too short, the elves songs too long, and the gnomish strings too complex. The dragon¡¯s roar, now that was power, that was real. Iditus morphed the dragons roar into a sound that could be made with a human throat, he made the first language. The only sound he made his own, was the sound that represented his creation. Idiomas, after his own name, he was the father of language. A few years later, war broke out, the elves and dwarves and gnomes were fighting the dragons. They saw them as mere beasts. It was at this time a boy of seven summers, named Roark, had just learned the word for dragon, ¡°draichku¡± he spoke it as barely a whisper, but a magic flowed from his soul. Golden threads rose out of his Che''s and braided into a tight cord that shot off into the horizon. The boy felt a call, needles of danger he took off into the wilderness. He traveled for weeks, never stopping never resting, it was only the magic that sustained him.¡± The boy traveled into the mountains to the home of the dragons. Huge magic led him to the tallest mountain and the boy climbed, and climbed, and climbed. He had climbed so high his body was numb from the cold, but the magic kept his body from darkening. His spirit led him to a cave, one that seemed to go on for miles and it did, it cut through the mountain and on the other side there was a beautiful valley and the sun shone on him and warmed his body. The boy got all the way down to the valley floor before he was noticed. Then hundreds of dragons raced to tear him to pieces. The boy looked in fear and yelled ¡®Stav!¡¯ Or ¡®stop¡¯ as we now know it. Every single dragon in the valley halted. For this little boy, this possible spy, or soldier, had just spoken in a way they understood. The leader of the dragons, their queen landed in front of the boy. She roared in attempt to ask who the boy was, her roar was received with understanding from the boy. The boy spoke in Draig to her. I spoke the name of your people Draichku and a magic welled within me and called me here. The dragons were awed by the boys command of their roar. And astonished, for here was one of those smaller beings who thought of them as equals not as beasts. The queen was amazed but not quite surprised, for she had seen a golden cord enter the egg that housed her son, her first son, the one whom had not hatched since time began. She had never destroyed it as was proper as she couldn''t bring herself to do so, but now she knew she had made the right choice. For when the chord struck the egg hatched and a strong baby dragon fell out. The queen lifted the boy and brought him to her home. She raised the boy as her own and the boy grew up beside his bonded dragon. When the boy became a man, he and his dragon found they could manipulate the Aether at such an intense level, there was no other mage of any race who was their match. Riding on the back of his dragon, who was named Drake, Roark ended the war, united the races and ascended the throne of the continent. It has been fifty thousand years since that time and the continent has been broken and reunited countless times since then. The only reason any of this knowledge is still known is the dragons. Now the human kingdom is in civil war, and the other races have cut most ties with us and each other.¡± Ghost and I look at each other and laugh as the General¡¯s story comes to a close. ¡°General,¡± I said, ¡°you missed your calling as a historian.¡± That was new, historians in Teleria were like traveling bards, yet the poke the stories, sometimes acted, but they normally didn''t sing. Historians were scholars who liked to teach. I still didn''t know how or why I was getting this information. The General ignored our laughter, and pushed passed the humor. ¡°I tell you this because that was Draig Idiomas, or the Dragon Language. And it translates to, ¡®The Kingdom is rising, Roarke is coming, Specter and Heir.¡¯¡± ¡°What¡­¡± ¡°I don''t bloody know what it means!¡± General Knighthorn interrupted me. ¡°Here, take this!¡± He said shoving a pen and notepad in my hands. ¡°It is spelled, writing a message here will instantly transpose it to its partner.¡± ¡°So it''s like texting.¡± The thought popped in my head, but I did not know where it came from. ¡°What is texting? If there is another way to do this I must know how.¡± ¡°It''s¡­ well I don''t know, it''s like this.¡± I pointed to the magic notepad. The General sighed, clearly disappointed. ¡°No bother, be careful with it, this is one of only five pairs that I know of, and opening and closing the book five times in two seconds will erase its contents. Now you must hurry, you have three weeks.¡± We rushed back out to our mounts and kicked off to the gate. We were riding along side the fence and as we neared the gate we slowed, this slowing saved us from a nasty crash for a carriage pulled in front of us. The carriage was white and gold and purple and beyond opulence, when the carriage halted a voice called out, slightly peeved at the abrupt stop. The door opened and out stepped a lovely little lady, I had this itching suspicion this was the real reason Knighthorn wanted us to hurry.