A Different World Chapter 2

The buildings of Vane stood tall and proud in their floating city. The buildings always made Kevin feel better. Whenever he felt overwhelmed by his ever continuing studies, or anything else for that matter, he would just take a walk through the streets of Vane staring up to the buildings. It reminded him of the glory of his creator Ghaleon.

Kevin made his way up the streets until he reached the Magic Guild HQ once again. Inside the main building he was revered by all the students. While it was slightly juvenile he’d often enter class rooms just to listen to the praise that he’d receive. If their was one thing he enjoyed more that being reminded about Ghaleon’s glory it was being reminded of his own glory.

In his office he felt fairly important. He sat behind a giant oak desk that was littered with paperwork and rare magical knick-knacks. Only two people in the entire Guild had offices finer than his own. One was Regal Orian. She was the Premier of the Guild. The other was the Guild Leader, Maxillius Arca.

In his opinion he had the best job in the Guild. He earned nearly as much fame by being the Vice-Premier as the Premier and Guild Leader did, but without as much paperwork. Sure, he had paperwork, but not as much as the other two. His job allowed for a lot more ‘hands on’ experience. Whenever something came up he was the one sent on the mission. Lately he had been on all kinds of missions, mostly monster hunting, but there had been a few others.

When the knock came to his door he did not find it the least bit surprising. Instead he calmly got up and answered it. Just as he had expected it was a messenger from Maxillius. Brushing back his long blond hair Kevin followed the messenger up the stairs to the Guild Leaders office.

Inside stood three people. Maxillius was a tall slender man with wavy brown hair that reached the bottom of his neck. He was wearing the dark blue robes of guild leader. Tiny magical runes were etched in silver all over the robe’s long sleeves. Regal was a shorter blonde woman in her late twenties. Her hair was cut much shorter than Maxillius’, and in Kevin’s not so humble opinion she was dazzlingly beautiful. Both him and Regal were dressed in a similar fashion as the Guild Leader. Except their robes were crimson red and embroidered with golden runes.

The third man was not as familiar to Kevin. He had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn’t quite place it. He was a shorter stockier man with a balding head that was peppered with white and black hair.

“Kevin, I’d like you to meet the High Priest of Ghaleon, Narian Alphastride,” Maxillius said.

That’s right. Kevin had met him in the Temple of Ghaleon while traveling with Michael. By the name of Ghaleon! That had been nearly five years ago. The time sure did fly by.

“Long time no see,” Kevin greeted.

“Kevin, your superiors speak very highly of you,” complemented Narian.

“Thank you,” replied Kevin as he made a low bow. He smiled to himself and thought, they should speak highly of me. I’m the best damn magician in all of Lunar.

“We have a mission for you,” said Regal in a very official sounding tone.

Something wasn’t right Kevin noted. This wasn’t an ordinary mission. Whatever was going on had the direct attention of Ghaleon himself. A tingle of excitement ran down Kevin’s spine. Something really big was happening. If he pulled off whatever job they had for him his fame would boost enormously.

“You are familiar with the Blue Spire, are you not?” questioned Narian.

Kevin shrugged, “Of course, It’s the tower rumored to be linked with the Blue Star.”

Narian frowned, “Yes, we believe that it is indeed linked to the Blue Star. We believe that earlier today someone or something came from the Blue Star.”

Kevin was shocked, “No way. Contact with the Blue Star? This is going to be historical!”

“Yes,” agreed Narian, “And we believe that you are the only one qualified to investigate the phenomena. Regal and Maxillius have been ordered to return with me to the Fortress of Ghaleon.”

Kevin nodded slowly soaking in all of the information, “I accept the mission. I’ll be on my way.” With that Kevin spun on his heals and started to exit.

“Kevin,” Maxillius called after him, “The Dragonmaster is waiting for you in the Vane Library.”

Kevin smiled to himself as he left the room. This just kept getting better and better. Not only did he get to increase his already impressive fame, but he would get to travel with his old best friend again as well.

* * * *

Ruby and Michael poured over random books in the Library as they awaited Kevin’s arrival. They smiled at each other secretly as the awed crowds watched them. To them they saw the Dragonmaster, which was the next best thing to seeing Ghaleon himself, and they saw one of his dragons. She was in human form, but these magicians could surly sense her immense magical power. They knew she was a dragon, but they did not know that the two were lovers. They assumed that they had the same relationship that all Dragonmasters had with the dragons. They assumed wrong.

The only person who knew their little secret would be arriving shortly. Michael began to chat with some of the students that approached him. They asked him all sorts of questions. About his adventures, about the dragons (of which he told them to ask Ruby), and about Ghaleon.

Michael was more relaxed now than he had been for a while. He and Ruby had spent the last three days together. To a Dragonmaster a three day vacation was an immeasurably long one. His work almost never ceased, but Ruby would occasionally force him into a day or two alone with her. Though he hated to ignore his duties as a Dragonmaster he quickly forgot about them during these brief vacations; Ruby made sure of that.

As it turned out they had timed it perfectly. He spent three days alone with Ruby and nothing that required a Dragonmaster happened on those three days. Today was a different story though. His first day back on the job and something big happened.

A strange anomaly had occurred inside the Blue Spire. Most of those who knew about this (and there were few) believed that someone (or something) had come from the Blue Star. Ghaleon had personally ordered him to check it out. Michael was allowed to bring any assistance that he needed and was told to bring one of the dragons along as well. Michael had chosen Ruby as the dragon, and then requested the assistance of the Vice-Premier of Vane, Kevin Oslek.

As Michael and Ruby answered questions to all of the awestruck students, Kevin walked through the door. Instantly the two friends saw each other. Kevin walked up his arms extended and put both hands on the Dragonmaster’s shoulders.

Kevin’s face was grim and he looked like he had something very grave that he needed to tell his friend. After a moment of staring into his friend’s confused eyes the young mage finally spoke, “You know what? You get uglier by the day.”

They stood there for a second and then both broke into laughter. Michael and Ruby bid farewell to the students as they left Vane’s library and headed into the city.

“It’s good to see you again, Kevin” the Dragonmaster said. “Its been a long time…too long.”

Kevin nodded then said, “It’s been so damn long since our journey. I can’t believe it. Five whole years…hot damn.”

“And not much has changed. I see you’re still the same old potty mouth you’ve always been,” teased Ruby.

“And I see that your still the same old hot dragon-chick that you’ve always been,” Kevin teased back, casually throwing an arm around Ruby’s shoulder.

“Please,” Ruby said as she elegantly tossed his arm off, “You’re just not my type.”

“Oh yeah, I must of forgot. You’re a ‘Dragonmasters only’ kind of girl,” Kevin retorted feigning hurt feelings.

Ruby quickly threw her index finger in front of her lips and shushed him. “Quite! If any one finds out about us it’ll be on the front cover of the Vane Enquirer,” she exclaimed.

Kevin waved her off, “After what were gonna discover today no one’ll even care about your little love affair. Trust me.”

“You sound pretty confident, Kevin. What do you think we’ll find?” Michael asked.

A wild grin crossed Kevin’s face, “I don’t know, but whatever we find, it’ll make us famous.”

Michael and Ruby laughed. Kevin hadn’t changed a bit in the last five years.

* * * *

Within the hour the three of them had made their way to the Blue Spire. Ruby had transformed into her dragon body shortly after leaving Vane and flew to their destination, Michael and Kevin riding of her back. No one spoke as they made the journey. Even though the old friends were ecstatic to see each other they both were nervous at what they’d find.

Kevin was more exited than scared, but Michael (who knew a little more about the state of Lunar than Kevin) was half worried that they’d find the Blue Spire transforming into some kind of gigantic beast. Fortunately, that particularly ridiculous fear was put to rest when the tower came into sight. The tower known as the Blue Spire stood there silent and motionless as it had since the creation of Lunar.


Chapter 3

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