“Explain to me, one more time, how we ended up here?” Isa said as she held a glass of wine between the claws of her right hand and looked out over the lushly-carpeted hall where hundreds of people in elaborate, expensive dress mingled, drinking alcohol and eating bitesize snacks. People in the garb of servants deftly navigated around the party-goers, delivering booze and food and removing empty glasses from outstretched hands. At the far size of the massive room, a full orchestra played, accompanied by a choir of singers. In the center of the room was a slightly depressed circular area some hundred feet across where men and women danced with one another to the music. Rotating spiral staircases with moving stairs stood on the sides, leading up to the balconies some twenty feet up.
“Well,” Rai replied, gesturing with his wineglass, “Archmage Arcanius said that to be movers and shakers, we needed to be capable of standing on equal footing with those in high society, so he sent us here, to this party, as his representatives, since this annual first-of-spring party has open invitations to all the Rulers, though rarely do they ever attend in person. Apparently there are similar parties in most of the major cities, so he just picked this one at random.”
“And we’re dressed like we are because we need to fit in?” Isa said, picking at her dress.
“That’s right. I don’t like this formal attire any more than you do, you know.”
“I suppose we should be glad that we’re not in Sylvie’s situation there. She’s here as our attendant, so she’s dressed in servant clothing – albeit of a different style than the ones running around giving people ‘refreshments.’”
“I’m fine with it!” Sylvie said. “I never dreamed I’d be able to see what high-class society looked like!”
“Yi-meep!”
Rai reached up and petted Braveheart, who was in her usual position on top of his head. She was bigger than she had been when they first met, but she was still slightly less than a foot long, not including her tail, despite it being around twenty-two months since then. Rai idly wondered how close in size to a housecat she would end up; the larger carbuncles he had seen were comparable in size to cats. He knew she was still a child, but he had no idea how far along in her development she was, nor how long it would take her to reach adulthood. Despite the size of carbuncles, he suspected they had a fairly long development period.
“Well, we should probably… mingle,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”
“Who should we approach, though? I don’t have the slightest idea how these sorts of gatherings work.”
“Maybe other mages? I’m not the only one with a familiar here, assuming that the other animals I see aren’t just pets.”
“Rai?” a voice called out. “Hey! It’s Rai and Isa!”
Rai turned to see a very energetic gnome waving at him from the edge of the dance floor.
“Master Nara?” he said in surprise. They approached her. “Did Aurelia send you as a representative?”
“Sure did! I don’t usually come to these things, but I got a direct request to be here this time, so I figured, why not? After all, this is Ijirumach, the city of tinkers and artificers. Highest population of gnomes of any city, percentage-wise, at sixty percent. Lotsa good minds here. My ex-fiancé lives here. Actually, I’m originally from this city; I moved to Plentira because I had some disagreements with some important people… but that was before I made a name for myself, you know? Opinions on me shifted, even here, once I became a Master Artificer of a Ruler’s Tower.
“So! What brings you here, and who’s the kid?”
“We’re actually here as representatives, too. You’ll never guess for whom.”
Nara raised an eyebrow. “You managed to ingratiate yourself with a Ruler? How’d you manage that?”
“Archmage Arcanius, Mage-King of the Thunder Isles,” Isa said with a grin.
“That dude is still alive? I’m starting to think that codger is immortal. He hasn’t made an appearance in the outside world in decades, though. So, you met up with him and he’s what, mentoring you?”
“Something like that. We’ve been using his Tower as a home base for a while, and he’s been teaching Sylvie here,” Rai said.
“She my apprentice, for the warrior stuff.”
“Oh? You’re teaching this kid how to fight? Where’d you pick her up?”
“The streets of Krupta,” Isa said.
“…Ah. Krupta is arguably the worst major city on the continent. So she’s what, an orphan?”
Sylvie nodded.
“Gotcha. Why don’t I introduce you to a few people? The old guy must have sent you here for a reason.”
“We’re almost sixth circle and tier, so he said we need to learn to deal with high society.”
“Ah. He’s holding back his secret advancement methods from you until you run around doing stupid shit for him, huh? Oh, pardon my language. Not supposed to talk crudely here.”
“Basically,” Isa confirmed. “We’ve got a few other tasks we have to do for him, too.”
“Mostly going around to different cities and gathering up-to-date information for him,” Rai said.
“Right. So, introductions!”
With Nara to help them get started, they began the hours-long process of interacting with the members of high society present at the party. It turned out that the cats, ravens, and rats in attendance were, as Rai suspected, familiars of various mages. A number of ladies – mostly low-circle mages, since nearly all the attendees were mages – showed interest in Braveheart, either as a cute creature or an unusual one. The tiara did its job, masking the fact that the gemstone embedded in her forehead was part of her rather than part of the accessory.
Two hours in, someone exclaimed, “My bracelet’s gone!”
Others double-checked their valuables, and a number of other voices joined in.
“My pendant!”
“My watch!”
“My ring!”
“My pouch!”
“Someone close all the exits! There’s a thief in here!”
Ria silently cast the second-circle spell See Invisibility, figuring that the thief would probably have access to the ability to turn invisible. He also whispered, “Star-enhanced spell: Sensory Link,” linking his senses to Braveheart’s so that he would only need to close his eyes and stand still to see, hear, and smell what Braveheart did. Normally, the spell had a range of a thousand feet, but energized by star energy, the range increased to five miles.
“Everyone calm down and stay still! We will locate the thief, but it will be harder if you keep moving around!”
Rai swept his gaze across the room, spotting three different translucent individuals – people under the cover of invisibility. One was a gnome, another a human, and the last was a cat-eared beastfolk. They were scattered around the room. They each began heading for a different exit.
Rai flung his hand out toward the nearest one – the human, which was about a hundred and fifty feet away.
“Dispel!” he cast.
Braveheart copied him.
Both the human and gnome suddenly became visible in the middle of their rushed movement. Upon realizing they were no longer hidden from sight, they broke into a run. Plainclothes guards quickly tackled them before they made their escape. The beastfolk woman, however, sprinted unseen toward the wall of windows, shoulder forward.
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“Dispel!”
She appeared just before smashing into the stained glass, leaping out into the open air.
“Flight!” she shouted, shimmering wings appearing on her back.
“I’ll catch her!” Rai shouted, wings of fire and lightning appearing on his back. He ran for the window and jumped out.
Isa sighed. “Really, Rai? There was no reason to get involved…”
-x-
“Invisibility,” the beastfolk woman cast, disappearing from sight – but not from the sight of Braveheart, who was still under the effects of See Invisibility. The woman swooped down toward the distant ground below. Braveheart followed. Once within a few dozen feet of the ground, the woman followed the streets toward her destination, which took several minutes to reach. She touched down on a rooftop and scrambled through a window, immediately followed by Braveheart.
“Just you?” the man inside said as the woman dismissed her invisibility.
“They noticed they were getting robbed, and some clever bastard realized we were invisible and started dispelling. I got away clean, though.”
Nope! Braveheart thought proudly.
“So? What’d you manage to snag from those high-class buffoons?”
Braveheart felt Rai tapping into her senses, so she carefully surveyed the room before flying back out to get a better look at the surroundings, then returned to listen in on the conversation.
“Pretty good haul for just one of you, but the boss will be disappointed that it was just one of you.”
“Yeah, well, tell the boss to do it himself next time then.”
“You know better than to say something like that.”
“Feh. If he really cared about what I said, I’d be dead several times over already.”
Braveheart followed the woman when she went further into the building, even into the nice bedroom where she stopped.
The woman let out a long sigh. “Haaaa… this job pays well, but it stresses me out. One of these days it’s going to catch up to me. The others’ll be interrogated, then killed. Fuck. Now I’ll have to work with a new crew, and it take a long time to build up trust.”
Braveheart hopped onto the table, accidentally shifting a bottle of perfume. The beastfolk woman noticed it move.
“Shit! See Invisibility!”
Braveheart froze, then tilted her head.
“Don’t try to play cute with me, familiar! Damn it! I need to get out of here!”
Braveheart jumped at her, landing on her chest and flickering into visibility.
“What the?!”
Nonlethal lightning magic shot through the woman’s body.
“Gah! Fuck! What kind of familiar can cast spells on its own?!” The woman grabbed Braveheart and threw her against the wall. “Frigid Ray!”
A beam of icy frost struck Braveheart, who let out a pained yelp.
Owie!
There was a flash of light, and Rai appeared in the room.
“What the?! Teleportation?! Shit! You’re more powerful than I thought!”
Rai’s expression twisted into one of anger. “You hurt Braveheart!”
“Your familiar attacked me!”
“She was trying to keep you from fleeing, not kill you!”
“Well I’m not going to just roll over and die! Lightning Bolt!”
“Counterspell!” Rai said as she started casting, and only sparks on her fingers appeared.
“The fuck?! How did you do that?!”
“It’s a relatively new ability I developed on reaching fifth circle. If you hadn’t attacked Braveheart, I would have negotiated for you getting prison time instead of execution… but I’m really pissed off right now. So sit down, shut up, and think of a way to convince me to act on your behalf while I heal Braveheart.”
Rai pointed his hand at his familiar, and a beam of healing fire washed over her. Noting that she was still in pain, he did it again, completing the healing. She jumped into his arms, where he gently stroked her fur.
“Now,” he said to the thief, “start talking. Who is this ‘boss’ of yours?”
“Dammit… I’m dead no matter what I do… You think I’d just talk?!”
The woman drew a hidden dagger and lunged. Rai easily sidestepped, bringing his hand down to smack the side of her head, shooting nonlethal lightning magic into her. She went down, unconscious.
“What’s going on in there?!”
The door opened, revealing the man who had spoken to the thief earlier. He stopped short on seeing Rai.
“Who are you?”
“An attendee of the party your thieves interrupted.”
The man’s eyes widened.
“Fuck! Life Drain!”
“Counterspell.”
A gray mist appeared in front of the man’s hand briefly, but the beam of life-stealing energy did not.
“What?!”
“Crackling Ray.”
Three beams of nonlethal lightning struck the man in the chest, causing his body to spasm madly before falling to the ground.
“I’m so glad that magic is magic and when I use it nonlethally, it won’t accidentally kill someone,” Rai muttered “Because had that been regular lightning magic, that man would be burnt out.”
Rai grabbed the man and dragged him over to the woman, then knelt down and touched them, casting, “Teleportation.”
The world shifted around them, and they were in the party hall.
“Rai, you’re back!”
“Caught the third one and the man she was answering to, but they’d already taken the stolen stuff elsewhere,” he announced. “I hereby hand them over for interrogation.”
“Well done,” the host, an older gnomish man, said. “Who did you say you were representing again?”
“Archmage Arcanius of the Thunder Isles.”
“That old geezer? Well, you’re well vouched for, then. I’ll handle things from here.”
“My familiar overheard them talking about a ‘boss,’ so he’s not the leader.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
Not everyone was happy that Rai had returned without the stolen items, and several loudly made it known.
“I could teleport back to the spot where I captured those two and start searching,” Rai began.
“But what’s in it for us, exactly?” Isa interrupted. “I don’t think any of us attending this party are the type who put themselves into potential danger for perfect strangers for no reason. Nobody rises to these heights without at least trading in ‘favors.’”
Where’d she learn that? Rai wondered. Has the Archmage been teaching her stuff about high society when I’ve been busy with other things?
“The lady has a point,” one of the gnome gentlemen said, adjusting his monocle. “Very well. What is it that you want?”
Isa hesitated, clearly not having thought that far ahead.
“We have a number of other gatherings we have to attend,” Rai said, thinking quickly. “I’d like our reputation as capable Master Mages to precede us.”
“That’s all?”
“Anything else we would want would likely not be something anyone here could afford, if you’re that concerned about a few pieces of jewelry,” he said frankly. For example… I saw a dimensional storage ring that could contain twenty-seven thousand square feet in near-stasis that I found interesting, but I doubt any attendees here would be able to give me that.”
“You have expensive tastes; those are newly developed. Very well, we shall spread the word about you if you tell us where you’ll be going.”
“Excellent.”
Rai took Isa’s hand; she in turn put a hand on Sylvie’s shoulder. “We shall return. Teleportation.”
-x-
In the end, they were able to recover all of the stolen items, which were still in one of the rooms on the same floor of the building. They didn’t encounter any others who seemed to be working for the thieves. Sylvie found the whole thing rather exciting, though, since she knew that danger might appear suddenly at any time – but she was sure that she would be safe with Isa and Rai around. When they returned, they put everything in a pile and everyone who had something stolen from them was reunited with their lost items.
To Isa’s bafflement, the party continued after that, though the event was such a frequent topic of conversation that it wouldn’t be fair to say it was as though it never happened. Rai actually had a few young women ask him to dance, and he obliged them. Despite his complete lack of training, he acquitted himself fairly well thanks to his natural grace and ability to read the body movements of others.
I wish I was dancing with you, Mizeiya, he thought. I’ll find a way home soon, and when I do… resurrecting you is my first objective.
“You didn’t enjoy those dances at all,” Isa said when he departed the dance floor. “You were thinking about her again.”
“I’m so close, Isa. I have the ritual. We’ve even collected most of the objects we need for the ritual – that Diamondheart being the most important, in a wonderful twist of fate.”
“They said that you should be seventh circle before you attempt it.”
“They said that it was possible to do it before then, just a lot riskier, and we’re capable of so much more than others of our realm.”
Isa nodded. “So as soon as we’re back in our own time and in possession of all the necessary materials, we’ll secure the necessary additional ritualists and do it.”
“As long as you agree…”
“I agree. My goal may be further off, but… you’ve been waiting for nearly seven years. Why force you to wait any longer? As soon as we can do the ritual, we will.”
“What are you talking about?” Sylvie asked curiously.
“My girlfriend, the love of my life… she was killed. It’s been my objective to find a way to bring her back. And I finally did. Now, in order to do it, we need to get back home.”
“…Oh.”
“I couldn’t help but overhear,” an older half-elven woman said. “Resurrection magic… I’ve only heard rumors of it. It’s rare and powerful stuff, the domain of Champions and Rulers. From what I’ve heard, it’s also quite dangerous. And you’ll use it to bring back your lover?”
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” Isa said.
“No, it’s alright,” Rai said. “Yes, milady, that is correct. Seven years ago, the love of my life was killed in an attack on my hometown. The desire to bring her back has been one of the driving forces leading me to reach the threshold of sixth circle and sixth tier in those seven years.”
The woman blinked in surprise. “Seven years? You’re nearly to sixth circle and sixth tier, and you achieved this in seven years?”
“That’s correct.”
“That’s an astounding pace. Perhaps, even with the short lifespan of a human, you will one day reach the level of the Rulers. Though, from what I know, once you reach sixth circle, it becomes far, far harder to continue to rise – and the same for sixth tier.”
Rai smiled. “Well, to help Isa achieve her goal, I must continue to advance alongside her, and her goal requires she exceed the level of the Rulers.”
“…Exceed?”
“The pinnacle of ninth tier and ninth circle are merely requirements for her objective: to evolve into a dragon.”
“That’s… a lofty goal. It would also make her stronger than many dragons, would it not?”
“It would, but there are always those stronger,” Isa said. She smiled. “I will achieve my goal.”