Thirteen

“Rufus!”

Rufus could hear Imogen yelling his name but he couldn’t see her through the throng of creatures and humans. He was standing behind a table with all of the things he had won from the Hydrachess match. Most of the creatures that had lost a fang or a scale had already come and purchased back their belongings. With the help of a slight mermaid named Silandra, the creatures were able to communicate and negotiate with Rufus. Then those who had lost a part of their body were able to be healed by Silandra.

Rufus had gotten into a mindset of negotiation, especially since every creature that came to his table treated him with respect and awe. When Slittlebaker came by to purchase back his axe and armor, he was still wearing a loincloth and had a starfish stuck to his face. Without his suit, his body floated, pushed slightly by the currents in the water.

Rufus wasn’t about to give up those two items very easily. They negotiated for a while and, eventually, Slittlebaker had been forced to give up on getting back both items. They finally agreed upon a price for the axe.

“So give me the axe and I will get you your money next session.” Slittlebaker said.

Imogen finally found Rufus’s table and stood to watch this exchange.

Rufus nodded to her, acknowledging her, but turned back to Slittlebaker, “That is not what we agreed on. Do you have the money now or don’t you?”

“No! I don’t.! Slittlebaker glowered.

“Do you have anything of worth that you can trade for it?” Asked Rufus.

Slittlebaker’s scowl almost forced the starfish off of his face. “I need that axe! I can’t leave here without it. It’s a SoulStrom.” He pleaded.

“Look. Let’s work something out.” Rufus hadn’t heard of SoulStroms, but the way this kid was acting, he could tell the axe was important. “You get me the amount we agreed on and give it to me next session, and I will give your axe back. I won’t sell it. I won’t give it away to anyone. I’ll have it until next session and you can get it back then. Agreed?”  

Slittlebaker tried a different approach, “The only money I had was in my cage when…when I was defeated” he had paused not wanting to express his failure out loud. His face was forlorn with desperation.

Rufus didn’t say anything. According to the rules of the match, he was entitled to keep everything that he had won. It was only courtesy that had kept him out here to sell back his winnings. He’d seen some of the other survivors leave without selling anything back.

Rufus was about to give in, when the Sea Dragon that represented the Black Queen came into the antechamber and rested its bulk in a towering position over the two men. Silandra floated beside the creature’s right foreleg. Whatever concerns Slittlebaker had about his axe were swept away from Rufus’s mind.

“Brian the Sea Dragon would like to trade for his claw.” She announced to Rufus. Rufus had cut off the tip of one of the dragon’s claws. He didn’t really want to take it but, it was the custom of the match to take something that the fallen opponent had in their immediate possession. In the case of Brian the Sea Dragon, he had taken one of the beast’s claws, as it lay incapacitated. He had been presented with many other treasures that were inside of the Sea Dragon’s cave. The Dragon’s winnings included treasures from ten other participants, but a lot of the horde had been gold, decoins, armor, and weapons.

“It is my honor to present Brian’s tribute to such a formidable warrior as yourself, Rufus.” Silandra continued.

Rufus had heard this several times from Silandra and made a polite response. “It too, is my honor to hold in my possession, be it for a short while, a part of such a fierce creature as Brian.” He said this with a slight bow.

Brian craned his head slightly towards Rufus. Silandra gracefully indicated to her left with her hand. Behind the bulk of the dragon came two frogmen carrying a sack full of decoins, a couple suits of armor—untarnished from the sea water, and three swords.

Rufus picked up one of the swords, he could feel a slight buzzing in his grip and knew that it held magic properties.

“A fair trade, indeed. Here is your claw in return.” Rufus picked the black claw off of his table and handed it to Silandra.

The two frogmen deposited the treasure on his table and returned back to other duties.

Silandra held the claw up to Brian’s outstretched toe. She chanted a few words and a soft white light glowed between the two pieces of his claw. A few moments later the claw was reattached.

Imogen and Lillyfrond had moved behind Rufus’s table when the massive dragon had arrived.

“To think you beat such a creature in a dual.” Imogen was impressed, more because Rufus had come out alive from the match and less because of the creature’s bulk.

Slittlebaker was still standing to the side of Rufus’s table eyeing his axe. He heard Imogen and scowled at her.

“Rufus, let me have my axe! I promise I will pay you back next session!” Slittlebaker begged.

“You can have it when you pay me. That is final.” He turned from Slittlebaker towards Imogen and Lillyfrond.

“How did you like the match? A bit more comfortable up in the stands, I am sure.” Rufus was fairly excited about the amount of money and prizes he had won and the unexpected recognition he had been receiving.

Slittlebaker harrumphed in disgust, but Rufus ignored him. Slittlebaker was tempted to just take his axe and run for it, but he would have had to swim with a bulky axe and would be banned from the Hydramatch for the rest of his sessions. Instead he slunk away from the trio, watching and listening from the shadows.

Rufus suddenly remembered the fawn’s admonition to be back as soon as the Hydramatch was over. He started packing his winnings into whatever bags they could fit. He slung the axe, swords and other weapons over his shoulder and around his waist. He looked like a hedgehog with all of the weapons pointing out around him. He was about to try to pick up the sacks of gold and decoins, but Lillyfrond stopped him.

“Rufus, please put the weapons back onto the table.” She said.

Rufus looked incredulously at her, but followed her instruction, piling all of the weapons back onto the table. Once he was done, Lillyfrond—hovering over all of the items on the table—produced a glow from her hands. It slowly seeped towards the items below her until it encapsulated them with its light. The items began to shrink, finally stopping when they were the right size for a fairy to wield.

Lillyfrond commanded, “Open your satchel.” Rufus held open the bag that contained his sunshard, and Lillyfrond levitated the items into his bag.

“Thanks!” Rufus said, impressed and relieved. “We’d better go.”

He closed the clasp on the bag, and the trio started for the exit. Rufus, however, was just rounding the corner of his table when a booming voice echoed through the room. “All hail, the mermaid Queen!” A frogman announced from a cavern opening to Rufus’s left.

On one of the sleds, pulled by giant seahorses, bore a mermaid through the same cavern opening. In fact, it was the mermaid who had won the Hydramatch – Rufus’s Master during the game. She now had a golden tiara encircling the crown of her head. The tiara had a single teardrop pearl dangling from a golden chain on her forehead. In her hand was the trident that had belonged to the mermaid who had captured Rufus earlier that day. Rufus recognized the black handle and golden fork.

“Lillyfrond, isn’t that the trident…” Rufus started to ask her.

She cut him off. “Yes, the winner of the chess match is the mermaid Queen until the next match is played…they play once a month.” The last bit was added in response to Rufus’s mouth trying to work out another question.

Rufus nodded as she stated the answer to both questions in his head. He started again towards the exit of the antechamber.

“HellStorm! leaving so soon?” The newly appointed Queen directed her question across the antechamber stopping Rufus.

Rufus stopped at the name and looked at Imogen – who just shrugged.

He turned back and waited as the Queen approached him. All eyes in the antechamber were on Rufus and the Queen. She directed him up on to the sled next to her.

“Sorry, your majesty.” Rufus mumbled as he climbed onto the sled.

“Tut-tut. You didn’t know I would grace the room, so don’t apologize.” The queen was singing a different song now that Rufus was her champion.

The Queen turned towards the crowd that had gathered in front of the sled. “Rufus, as my first act of queen I hereby grant you a name that shall follow you the rest of  your days. Hence forth in our kingdom you shall be called HellStorm. Secondly the greatest gift I can give.” She indicated with her two hands open, that Rufus should relinquish a newly won knife that he had put on his belt. Remembering the law that no weapon should be drawn while in the mermaid land Rufus unclasped the knife with its sheath from his belt and handed it into the Queen’s outstretched hands. The knife was the length of his forearm and easily spanned the distance between her two hands.

The Queen quickly brandished the sheathed knife in an out-stretched motion. She chanted in a voice that was split into melody and harmony. Rufus didn’t understand the words, but there was a growing feeling of ominous power emanating from her. The knife and sheath steamed and boiled the water around them. Undulating between several shades of yellow, red, and blue. Finally they settled on the color of the water around them. With a gasp from the attendees, the Queen unsheathed the blade. The handle was a deep blue, but the blade and sheath were barely discernable from the surrounding water.

The Queen sheathed the blade and asked Rufus to kneel. Rufus complied.

“With this gift, we deem you Rufus Fenuch, HellStorm, forever a friend of the merfolk and welcome you to our protection, our lands, and our freedom afforded us from the Great Water.” She placed the knife in his hand and urged him to stand. She turned to the crowd and yelled, “All hail HellStorm!” several times. The crowd immediately chimed in and then went into a fervor of excitement.

The Queen turned to Rufus in the excitement of the crowd and said calmly “When you wear this dagger you can summon the Queen and I, or my next of kin, will send help to you in your need. Of course that is only if you are in the ocean. It will also allow you to breath in our lands. You will not need this shiny substance any longer.” She rubbed Rufus’s shirt. “Lastly, this is not a magic power, that comes with this knife, but this knife will serve as a symbol to those in the ocean, that its holder is under the Mer-Queen’s protection. You will be safe in any reach of the ocean, and allowed to travel from the Queen’s throne room to the furthest coral reef. Fare you well, Rufus.” she said, dismissing him.

Rufus thanked the Queen, bowed deeply, then moved his way through the crowd of celebrants towards the waiting Imogen and Lillyfrond.

They finally made their way out of the caverns and through the ocean to the beach. There, standing in the same place they’d last seen him, was the fawn who had sold them the watergel.

“Good, good! Glad to see you made it back. I was starting to wonder.” He giggled. “If you would, please place your finger back into the barrel.”

Lillyfrond flew up to the top of the barrel and submerged her finger. The watergel seeped off of her in reverse. Rufus and Imogen did the same.

“How much to buy a pouch of this stuff?” Rufus asked the fawn.

“My wares are not for sale. Period. If the secret were to get out then I would have company out here, and I don’t like company, just customers.”

“Please, name your price.”

“Hmmm. Well, now, I do like that knife you’re wearing.” The fawn pointed to the knife that the Mer-Queen had just altered.

“No. I can’t trade that. Name something else. Let me show you what I…” Rufus trailed off as he shifted his pack.

He started to open it up, but the fawn blurted. “The knife or no deal.”

Rufus stopped himself and gave the fawn a look of consternation. “No deal it is, then.” He slung his pack back over his shoulder and said “Have a good day.”

They returned back to Rufus’s blacksmith stall. Everything was where he had left it. He decided that he was going to drop his pack off at the bank and then go to his own apartment in the Hive to clean up before he headed over to Bobby’s for dinner. The hour was getting late and Rufus was getting hungry.

Lillyfrond decided to return to her kin in the forest and left Rufus and Imogen. before leaving she said “Rufus, be very wary of your dealings with Bobby. He is not the same small-time bully he is in the real world. He is more conniving but nicer about it here. You can’t help to like him, but he will use you to his own end and throw away the scraps when he is finished.” She began to fly away, then paused and said, “One last thing. Just say your own name to your prizes and they will return to their original size.”

Rufus nodded and thanked Lillyfrond, who then flew off to the forest.

Rufus and Imogen continued on into the bank. They weren’t there long. While he was depositing his new belongings, Rufus decided to retain Slittlebaker’s axe.

“Let me see it,” Imogen said, and Rufus handed her the tiny weapon. Imogen removed a gold chain from her neck, slid the small weapon onto the chain, and hung it around Rufus’s neck.

“Good idea.” He said and tucked the chain and axe beneath his shirt.

After they’d finished at the bank, they made their way over to their rooms in the Hive. Rufus hadn’t been inside his assigned room yet, but he knew that Meme decorated and furnished the rooms for each newcomer. They took an elevator the size of a large room up to their assigned floors. Rufus was on the tenth floor and Imogen was on the 23rd.

“Should I come to your room when I’m ready?” Rufus asked Imogen. They had about an hour or so before they were to meet Bobby.

“Yes, HellStorm, that would be fine. Just come in and wait in the foyer.” She said with a smile.

Rufus groaned at her use of his new appellation and left the elevator.

He entered his room and his eyes widened in surprise. It was less a room and more a penthouse suite. There were several subrooms, a kitchenette, an elongated balcony with a Jacuzzi, and a two-lane swimming pool. He gave the rooms a cursory inspection, found one of the bathrooms, and cleaned himself up. His body was stiff and sore from the bumps and scrapes he’d sustained during the Hydrachess match, but not as bad as he had expected…probably, he reflected, because Silandra had healed him. His mind relaxed as he let the hot water in the shower pour over him.

When he was finished cleaning up he checked the closet in the master bedroom and discovered that it was full of clothing. There were several styles to choose from, from modern to ancient, and everything in between.

He selected a simple blue suit, matching tie, and black dress shoes. With a half hour to spare, he exited his room and went towards the elevators. While he was waiting for the elevator a creature approached him. The creature had long arms that extended to the floor with a body that freely swung between the arms. Its legs dangled uselessly in the air a couple of feet off the ground. Walking on its massive fists, it came towards Rufus and stood next to him.

“Going up?” The strange creature’s head came to Rufus’s shoulder.

Rufus didn’t respond at first. Shook his head and said, “Umm, yes. I am.”

“Good to hear. Name’s Reginald Joseph. People call me Raja.” The strange man used his toes like fingers and adjusted a wide striped tie of orange, peach, and red hanging around his neck. The tie clashed with itself and with the onesie-like aquamarine three piece suit he was wearing. After straightening his tie he extended his right foot out to Rufus. Rufus hesitantly shook it like he would a hand.

“You going to Bobby’s party?” The strange man’s bushy eyebrows cocked as he asked the question. He eyed Rufus’s apparel. “Supposed to be quite a few ladies there. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

Rufus didn’t answer. Raja opened his mouth and looked into the metallic reflection of his teeth in the elevator door. He sucked in a breath of air through his teeth, attempting to clear some apparent remnants from his last meal.

The elevator arrived, and the door opened. The strangely shaped man said “Gonna dance with a lady tonight!” and sauntered into the elevator. (Well, when your arms are your legs sauntering might not be the best word, but there was a definite air of swagger to his movement.)

The elevator stopped at a floor marked as GB and Raja exited. “I’ll see you in there.”

Rufus rode the elevator to the 23rd floor and entered into Imogen’s foyer. The room was plush with a luxurious carpet, and a couple of couches that lined the walls. In the center of the room was a table with a blue and white porcelain vase full of flowers.

Rufus walked over to Imogen’s suite entrance and rang the intercom button. Imogen’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Is that you Rufus?” She asked.

“Yes.” Rufus spoke into the intercom.

“I’ll be out in a moment. Make yourself comfortable.” her voice crackled back.

About ten minutes later, the door to the foyer opened and there stood Imogen. Her hair had been piled into ringlets on top of her head. Each ringlet perfectly balanced in place. Her dress was made of a material that was a translucent cream. However, there were several layers of this material like filo dough, allowing the viewer to see the shape of her body, but nothing more. The dress was light and airy. It was tight against her arms and torso, then flowed like water over her legs.

Rufus was speechless.

If I’m not careful, I will fall in love with this woman, he thought.

“I’ll assume, by the way your mouth is dangling open, that you like my dress.” Imogen said in a teasing tone.

Rufus snapped his mouth shut with a click. “Um…Yes, you look…really good.” He offered his arm.

Imogen took it, and chided him “Not, beautiful, or stunning. Just good? I might need to go back in for another couple hours or so to get a higher approval from you.”

Rufus stammered. “I meant…Yes, you look beautiful.”

“No worries,” Imogen patted his arm. “I know what you meant.”

They made it to the GB, which Rufus found out stood for Grand Ballroom, and grand it was. The room was as large as two floors of the Hive. There were tables spread throughout the room with partygoers seated around them. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling throughout the room, and there was a candelabra at the center of each table. One full length of the room was an open-air balcony with a view of the village and the ocean beyond.

A hundred or so guests were milling around or seated at the tables. In one corner was a female creature, with rippling blond hair that reached just above the floor. She had several sets of arms that gently swayed with the music she was making. She was the only individual on the short stage, but she was weaving melody and harmonies from several different vocal parts. It was as if a recording of her voice was made for each part and someone was playing them all at the same time. It took Rufus a moment to internalize all that he was seeing. He hadn’t ever seen anything as ostentatious as what lay before him.

A squat man with a slight squint in his left eye approached both Rufus and Imogen. He had a white tie tuxedo on with black and white spats and walked with a noticeable limp in his left leg. “Rufus,” he addressed Rufus and then turned to Imogen, “Imogen”. He nodded his clean-shaved head indicating that they should follow him.

After weaving through several dancing couples and past a few tables, the short man gestured to an empty table and said “Your seats.”

Rufus helped Imogen into her seat and then sat down himself. A woman in a saffron dress placed an hors d'oeuvre plate between them. Rufus waited for Imogen to make a selection, then helped himself to a half roll with some grilled meat and popped it into his mouth.

“This is really nice, Rufus. Thanks for letting me come with you.” Imogen sat with her back straight and daintily bit into her selected hors d'oeuvre.

“Not at all, Imogen. Bobby did after all invite you too.”

She took another bite and paused for a moment. “It’s too bad we will have to go back to the school in a couple of hours.” Imogen sighed. “All day I’ve been wishing that we could stay in this world. Well… except for when you were captured for the Hydrachess match.” She took a drink of water.

Rufus hadn’t really thought about his other life since taking his projected form. The life where he dreamed of the the types of experiences that he’d been having all day. The life where, in order to have any adventure, he had to read about it.

“What if we didn’t have to?” This was his projection speaking. In the shared recesses of his mind the real Rufus was starting to have a panic attack.

“What do you mean? We all have to go back. Merlin forces us.”

“All I’m saying is that there might be some other way. We could run off into the Labyrinth or into the forest. There has to be somewhere he can’t reach us in this world, right?...The ocean is huge. There has to be land somewhere on the other side.”

The same waitress came back to their table with two plates of roasted pheasant.

“Would you like anything else to drink? We have some wine, mead, juice, really anything you would care for.”

Rufus ordered some mead and Imogen tried a hibiscus nectar. 

Their dinner progressed quite well. The music around them with couples and groups laughing and chatting created a happy ambiance. Rufus didn’t notice the large men in trench coats entering the room. He also didn’t notice that where their hands should have been were tubes with a slight blue effervescence. They had shaved heads with a strange symbol engraved as a healed scar on the side of their heads over their temple.

Rufus and Imogen continued to banter and talk about the day but were interrupted when the doors from the elevator foyer swung open and Bobby strolled into the Great Ballroom. The music changed from a soft ballad to a song that sounded like a brass quartet announcing a member of royalty. He walked to some of the tables, shook hands with their occupants and moved on, smiling the whole time—like an incumbent politician up for re-election. The whole room watched him and whom he spoke to with silent interest. Rufus noticed Bobby’s brother Brock, still in dragon form, flying through the arched windows of the balcony moments later and curling up in a far corner.

Bobby made his way to the stage, where the many-armed woman was still singing her trumpeting fanfare. Upon a nod from Bobby the woman stopped and walked off the stage. Bobby walked up the stairs and took one of the woman’s hands in both of his to thank her. He paused and turned sideways so that the woman could continue her way.

Bobby bounded up the rest of the stairs and boomed. “Dear friends! Thank you for coming to my dinner! I would like to thank the illustrious talent for tonight and the staff!” He clapped his hands and everyone joined in. “Take a bow, Mildred!” The multi-armed woman stood from her table and bowed as commanded.

“I gathered you here for a very special reason. I am starting another clan.” He paused for emphasis. “Similar to what the fairies and the mer-folk have. I want it to be elite. The best of the best. And that is why you have been asked here.” A Brooklyn accent lay heavy across his words, which was strange because Rufus knew that the real Bobby was from D.C. He paused to take a sip from his drink that had just been served to him and also to let his words seep into the crowd.

“You all are welcome to join or not. But hear me out, before you decide. I am not basing the group on you looking or acting a particular way. I am basing it on power. On strength. On us competing with the other clans!

“We will be able to control the Arena! To dominate every match!” He closed his fist slowly in front of him.  A roar from the crowd told Rufus that most of these people had heard Bobby’s speech before.

“Who’s with me?” He asked rhetorically. “The mer-folk with their Hydrachess will come to us for protection! The fairies with their secret ways will beg to join with us! We will rise to royalty and protect the weak! With the dragons by our side, we will be invincible!”

There was a lot of caterwauling and foot stomping. After a few minutes Bobby raised his arms from his side to subdue his over-exuberant toadies. One voice came from the middle of the room. “How about the dragons? They donna work with each other, let alone us lowly earth-touchers.” It was Raja the strangely formed (and dressed) man Rufus had met earlier that evening.

At that question, Brock heaved his bulk onto his feet as quickly as a cat pouncing on its prey.

Bobby stepped quickly towards his brother with an out stretched hand. “Now, Brock, I am sure our small footed friend didn’t mean anything by his comment. It is true that not many dragons are friendly to each other.”

Brock looked at his brother with smoke tendrils coming out of his long snout. He harrumphed and turned back to lay down where he had been resting.

“Raja, you make an excellent point. The dragons are a formidable group. They also are a non-cohesive set of individuals and not very likely to choose anyone’s side except their own. Unless…” He paused as he walked back to the stage.

“Unless you have wealth. Unless you have what all dragons want. And Raja, do you know what all dragons have a weakness for? Do you know what all dragons crave above all else?” He waited just for a moment. “Gold, jewels and decoins. They want treasure, and we will buy their allegiance with it.”

Everyone was incredulous; there really hadn’t been an alchemist in their group for a long time. “I donna know ‘bout you, but I donna have much gold and jewels, let alone decoins. You’d need a true Alchemist for that tall of an order.” Yelled Raja.

“True. True.” Bobby had folded his arms defensively. He lifted his right hand and tapped its index finger against his lips as if he were thinking. “True Alchemists are hard to come by in the Arena.”

Suddenly he held his finger away from his lips and smirked. “You all don’t believe me. You are probably asking yourselves, where is he going to get enough gold to appease the voracity of our reptilian friends?”

“Where indeed?” Asked Raja.

Bobby had built the crowd up and the enjoyment was written across his face and his stance. “Everyone, I would like you to meet our latest member and the best alchemist I have ever seen work. Rufus Fenuch.” He stretched his hand out with an upturned open palm pointing his fingers at Rufus. “Or as the mer-folk call him, HellStorm. Did you know that just today he…”

“What?” Imogen whispered in a shrill voice. You weren’t going to tell me?!” Before Rufus could wipe the surprised look off his face, Imogen stood up and slapped him as hard as she could then rushed to the door. His face stung, and he sat at the table in a daze. He barely heard Bobby’s rendition of his deeds from the Hydrachess match earlier that day. His attention was fixed on Imogen storming towards the exit.

Rufus was floored. Here he was, one moment enjoying the most incredible evening he’d ever had, with an incredibly beautiful woman, and the next he was the unwitting linchpin of a massive uprising, with a red and stinging cheek.

He had stood to follow after Imogen, but his progress was quickly halted as almost every person in the room rushed to shake his hand and ask him questions about his ability as an Alchemist or his exploits earlier that day.

“Yeah, when I was a youngling like you…” said an ogress with white hair. “I fought Brian the sea dragon. ‘Course, our fight was a good weeklong bout, with no time to rest. Matter o’fact I cut his whole tail off and fed it to the guppies. We haven’t spoken since then.” She paused to dip her hand down the backside of her trousers and scratch her butt. “The mer-women have become more ‘n more civilized since then.” Her lips were thick and green and white flecks would creep out onto them ever so often. Sometimes the flecks would fly out at Rufus and he had to subtly dodge.

The clock in the room had just reached ten o’clock when a loud bell clanged throughout the village and its surrounding grounds.

The ogress looked at the wall clock and then back at Rufus. “That’d be the warning bell. Two more hours and it be time to head back to the school. I better collect my things and get to the bank. Nice to be on your team, Rufus.”

Rufus nodded and half waved as the ogress walked away. He realized that there was finally no one waiting to talk to him. It had been an hour since Imogen had stormed out of the Ballroom. He needed to find her and explain that he had never volunteered his abilities to Bobby. And that he wouldn’t ever want to rule over the other clans.

He started to make his exit, when Bobby caught him by his elbow. “Leaving so soon? I don’t blame you. After Imogen’s exit, I’m surprised you’ve stayed as long as you have. But since I have your attention.”

Rufus stopped and turned towards Bobby. He felt an urgency to find Imogen, but first he had some questions that needed answering. “What makes you think I am going to help you? We never agreed to anything, and here I am being volunteered, and now all of these people think I’m going to go along with your plan!” He hissed.

“Now, Rufus. Don’t be so hard on me. I saw an opportunity and I took it. You would be my right-hand man. If you do this for us, you will want for nothing while you are here in the Arena. I will personally make sure of it.”

“So you’re telling me that if I make you extremely wealthy by figuring out Merlin’s tricks of making decoins and wealth I can be your second? Doesn’t seem fair to me. What if I just go buy the dragon’s allegiance on my own? Assuming I can perform the work of a true Alchemist. Which I don’t know what that is exactly so I don’t know if I can even do it.”

“You’re frustrated. I can tell. Look you do this for me, and you name your price. I’ll give it to you. Just let me know. Matter fact, I’ll get Imogen to come back to you. Deal? I do a favor for you and you do a favor for me?” The Brooklyn clipped speech lay heavy across his negotiation.

“I’ll think about it.” Rufus didn’t really think he needed Bobby’s help to get Imogen back. She should be reasonable enough to understand his situation. Right? As he was thinking this, a shimmer of blue haze barely the size of a human appeared right in front of him. As he tried to figure out what he was looking at, a white arc of lightning shot out of the haze towards Rufus and Bobby. Bobby had seen the haze too and expected the attack. He pushed Rufus out of the way as he ducked under the bolt.

“BlueHaze is back!” Bobby shouted over the din.

An airy voice seemed to come from nowhere. It slowly gathered to a point of origin on the short stage. “Release my brother’s will, Bobby. I warn you just this once. Release it and we will have no more conflict.” The point of origin of the voice shimmered into another blue haze across the room and several arcs of lightening shot from its midst. This time only one was aimed at Bobby. The other two were directed at what seemed like random guests.

“You have one hour. If you have not provided my brother’s will your soul shall perish in my flames.” With that, the blue haze disappeared.

Bobby got to his feet. His suit had been hit and singed by the second bolt aimed at him. He brushed himself off and walked towards the foyer.

The tattooed men turned and followed him. Bobby slapped one upside the head. He could be heard in the hallway asking “Where were you? Aren’t you supposed to be my bodyguards? That means you’re supposed to guard my body! From harm!” He was shouting as he got into the elevator.

Rufus didn’t know what the blue haze was about, or why the bodyguards didn’t protect him, or if the could have, but he did know that it would take him a good while to get out of the Grand Ballroom. As soon as Bobby left, the crowd followed behind him, jamming the hallway.

Rufus impatiently waited for his turn to get onto the elevator. When he finally boarded, he went up to Imogen’s rooms. He knocked on the door to her suite, but there was no answer, so he went back down to his.

He sat in a patio chair on his balcony. The moon was bright and full above with the stars as bright as if he had left a light on in another room and the door still stood ajar. The view allowed him to see over the village and to the ocean beyond. The moonlight danced lazily on the lapping ocean waves. The dark green of the forest boarder lay on either side of Rufus’s view. To his right he could see the entrance to the Labyrinth.

He forced thoughts of Imogen and Bobby to the back of his mind. He retrieved his satchel and held the box that contained his sunshard, his mind pondering on how he could make it into a sword. He would need a sheath and a handle. The problem was quite perplexing. He considered the problem for over an hour.

The thought briefly crossed his mind that he should get back to the Arena and the entrance to the school, but it had been a very taxing day, and he was quite tired. The pull to go to sleep was overpowering his will to get up and walk back.

He was almost out, when he saw a sparking blue haze down in the middle of the main street. It was the same haze that he had seen at Bobby’s diner.

He saw a figure in white armor whose path was being blocked by the haze. The armor had a blue sheen mixed with the bright light of the silver moon.

Slowly a tall, elfin woman walked out of the blue haze. As she passed through, the exposed skin on her head and neck responded to the moonlight and glowed as brightly as that heavenly orb. Each movement of her tall, slender body caused a portion of the blue haze to detach from itself and wrap around her until it fully gave away all that it could to become cloth that looked as if it were the same haze but clung to her body like the finest of gossamer dresses.

Rufus was stunned. He looked to his left and right to see if anyone was out on their balcony and watching this. He saw Raja a couple of balconies over to his right. Raja saw this and yelled “This is gonna be good. Hold on to yer hat!”

The elfin woman spoke, but she didn’t open her mouth. Her thoughts were telepathically projected around her. From the look that Rufus could see on Raja’s face, he wasn’t the only one who heard her.

“Bobby Briston, you have gone too far. Collection of SoulStroms is not the way we live. You must give me my brother’s will. You must return to me what is not yours.”

Rufus couldn’t hear what Bobby had said, but from his stance and the way he gesticulated he wasn’t going to give up her brother’s will.

“Raja, what’s up with her brother’s will?” Rufus yelled across the balconies.

Raja took that as an invitation to come over to Rufus’s balcony. He went out a gate at the end of his balcony that led to a skinny catwalk that hung in front of the balconies.

Raja made his way and stood outside of Rufus’s gate. “Sorry, mate didn’t want to yell.” He paused. “A SoulStrom is a physical object that a student creates when they project. Something must feed the creation of that object. Like the color of your hair, or your tenacity, or whatever it needs to create it. In the lovely lady’s brother’s situation it sounds like he made a SoulStrom from his will. His desires.”

“Ok. So, what’s the big deal, won’t he get it back when we go out of here?”

“Ah, no. No, he won’t get his will back. He hasn’t had it as a student for several months now. The only way to get that part of his soul back is if he has his SoulStrom in his possession at the time he transitions back to the school.”

Rufus fingered the flaming axe that he wouldn’t sell back to Slittlebaker beneath his shirt and wondered if that was a piece of Slittlebaker’s soul.

The confrontation between the elfin woman and Bobby became heated, and Bobby actually drew the massive sword slung across his back.

The elfin woman didn’t flinch at Bobby’s aggression. She seemed to barely notice the weapon like a wolf would a dust mote—something interesting to look at but nothing of consequence and certainly nothing threatening.

“Do you think I threaten you with physical force.” Her mental voice seemed to reverberate off of everything in the village. The power from her voice struck fear into Rufus.

“I do not fear your games, witch!” Bobby screamed right back at the elfin woman. “I have seen what your power is. It barely hurt my shirt. Your loud voice and your theatrics cannot hurt me, either! Now get out of my way!” Bobby wasn’t moving around her and he didn’t back down. But neither did she. Bobby advanced slowly towards the woman in an attack stance. The visor to his suit of armor was down, solidifying its power of protection. He swung in a lazy arc towards her head. She reached up with her arm and the blue sheen of her dress stopped the progression of the blade as if it were stone. Tendrils of blue crept out of her dress and latched onto the blades flat surface. Bobby pulled back his sword; its fine edge had been corroded as if it had been splashed with acid.

“His SoulStrom is not in my possession any more. I cannot give to you what I do not have!”

“Where is it? Bobby! My patience is running thin. You play your games, while my brother wastes away.” She paused. She was doing something with her hands and eyes. “Your twin. Why did you give it to the dragon?”

“Get out of my head, witch!” With that Bobby rushed at the woman with his sword.

At that moment a thick darkness blocked out the moon. A spout of red fire lit up the village and the two people in the main square. The flame enveloped the elfin woman, scorching the ground around her. Her haze protected her from the fire, but her ability to maintain its power, was weakening. She struck out with white lightning from her fingers—having little to no impact on either of the Briston twins. The lightning shot off into the sky after hitting Bobby’s armor and it just scattered across the dragon’s scales.

“A lady in distress and a dragon. I like it!” Rufus heard these words as Raja dropped off the catwalk. His thick arms were latching on and throwing himself down - off of catwalk after catwalk like a spiraling two-bladed Chinese star dropping to the ground. When he hit the ground, instead of the slow gait he had earlier that day, he moved by doing leaping cartwheels from hand to hand—covering the distance in mere seconds. His large fingers from both hands flexed as he palmed the ground and launched himself up to the railing of the second story of one of the village storefronts. He used his momentum to launch from the railing to the building’s roof and flexed both arms off of the roof so that he was heading for the dragon’s snout.

Rufus couldn’t believe it but Raja’s arms started into a torrent of motion—swinging freely without any human ligament restraints. Each time his body rotated his head would pivot—like a spinning dancer—back towards the dragon; keeping his foe always in view. His two fists alternately swung, sometimes finding purchase sometimes not. When they didn’t Raja’s body would counter and balance to continue with his onslaught. When they did Raja’s fists were like one-ton boulders pummeling the dragon. His torrent was illuminated for all to see by the occasional white lightning thrown by the elfin woman. His fingers would open after hitting the dragon and palm the dragon’s scales so that he wouldn’t fall to the ground and thereby transfer—even increase—the momentum from swing to swing.

Brock could only sustain a few of these blows before his bones started to break. He was a dragon and dragons are formidable, but one’s skeletal structure is only as strong as one’s imagination in this world and at that moment Brock was wishing that he had dreamed up something stronger than calcium.

Brock roared with fury at the pain that his body was taking. He barked one last blast of flame over his back towards Raja—hitting Raja with a searing blow—tucked tail and got out of Dodge.

The red flames cut across Raja’s back searing him with intense pain—melting several layers of skin off. Raja fell to the ground landing on his hands, but in obvious pain. He slowly walked over to where Bobby and the elfin woman were still dueling. Bobby attempted several times to come at the woman, but his sword was trapped each time. Raja stood next to the woman—an unlikely pair; she majestic and regal and Raja an unbecoming, gangly—yet very effective and skilled—humanoid.

A loud ring of a bell pealed across the night sky as a soft blue apparition of Merlin appeared next to Rufus. He turned to look the creature.

“It is time to come back, Rufus.” A call to wake from this dream.

He turned back to the scene below and could see a copy of the same apparition next to each of the creatures below, giving the same directive and guiding them back to the Arena.