That said, I had no doubt that the grandeur of my father’s home made little impression on Myshtal. After all, her great-great-grandmother, Queen Dornoccia, lived in a palace that was the size of a city. My father’s place probably looked like a lean-to by comparison. In truth, she seemed more fascinated by the novelty of what she was shown than the scale of the mansion, as Earth forms of leisure and recreation varied greatly from what she was used to.
Mentally, I had put a thirty-minute limit on this particular excursion. The last thing I needed at this juncture was for a rumor to start circulating that Myshtal and I had disappeared together for an extended period of time. Fortunately, my father had made much of the mansion accessible, so we bumped into other guests almost everywhere we went. (In other words, there were witnesses if – for some reason – I needed proof of my whereabouts later.) In fact, it was one of the other attendees who pretty much brought our tour to an end.
We were headed towards the indoor pool (which also contained a two-story waterfall) when Myshtal stopped dead in her tracks, drawing in a sharp breath that was practically a gasp.
Turning to her, I noticed that she had a look of complete surprise on her face. Emotionally, I could sense that she had received quite a jolt. Following her eyes, I looked in the direction of her gaze, trying to get a glimpse of what had startled her.
There was a man approaching us. Like most of the other male guests, he was wearing a tux – in this instance, a single-breasted jacket with a peaked lapel. However, that’s where adherence to Black Tie standards ended. Instead of the traditional black-and-white color scheme, this fellow’s attire incorporated brilliant hues of shocking pink and psychedelic purple. The chromatism didn’t just encompass his jacket, pants, and shirt, but also his gloves, socks, and shoes. Needless to say, his ensemble garnered considerable attention.
But even more intriguing than his wardrobe was the man himself, as his entire face seemed to be covered with strange designs: ancient symbols, weird hieroglyphs, and obscure characters – all of which seemed to move eerily across the surface of his skin.
I smiled as he sauntered towards us. This was Rune, one of the members of the Alpha League. He was generally considered to be a magician of some sort, but I knew that he was something much more. He was an Incarnate – the physical embodiment of certain powers that were beyond the ability of most people to comprehend.
“Gzint msint!” Myshtal hissed, cursing mildly in her native language. “It’s the Visiwigon!”
I frowned. Her voice had brought me back to myself, but she still seemed somewhat spellbound and had used a Caelesian term I was unfamiliar with. However, before I could delve into what was bothering her, Rune stopped directly in front of us.
“Language, Princess,” he chuckled. “That kind of verbiage isn’t appropriate for a member of the royal family.”
I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You speak Caelesian, Rune?”
“Somewhat,” he replied, waffling a hand from side to side in a so-so gesture. “I’ve had the privilege of meeting a few visitors from there, and apparently I resemble an infamous character from Caelesian mythology.”
“The Visiwigon,” Myshtal repeated, although she seemed to have recovered to an extent from her earlier surprise. “A legendary thaumaturge and notorious trickster, easily recognizable by the cryptic symbols etched all over his body.”
Now I understood Myshtal’s reaction a little better. Seeing Rune was probably the equivalent of me going to Scotland and catching a glimpse of the Loch Ness Monster. From her perspective, he was a fabled character seemingly come to life.
“Well,” Rune droned, “I hope you’ll reserve judgment until you actually get to know me – assuming we’re ever introduced.”
He gave me an expectant look, but it still took me a moment to catch on.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I muttered a second later, then hastily made formal introductions. However, it was obvious that Rune already knew who Myshtal was, as he had called her “Princess” just a few moments earlier. (Frankly speaking, it probably hadn’t been difficult to put two-and-two together: to anyone familiar with her race, she was obviously Caelesian, and word of our “arrangement” had spread like wildfire through the League.)
After exchanging pleasantries with Myshtal, Rune leaned forward unexpectedly and whispered something in her ear. I couldn’t make out what he said (although I could tell that it was in Caelesian), but whatever it was caused Myshtal to start giggling almost hysterically. And just like that, the ice melted and – on an empathic level – I sensed her going back to normal, emotionally.
“Anyway,” Rune said, “I won’t keep you any longer, but I didn’t actually bump into the two of you by accident. I was actually looking for Jim.”
“Oh?” I mumbled, openly curious.
“I have an issue that I might need your help with,” he explained.
He said it nonchalantly, like he needed a hand taking out the trash or something, but Rune’s statement caught me a little flatfooted. His own abilities were extraordinary: among other things, he could travel to a dimension outside of space and time, project himself astrally, warp reality… Simply put, there weren’t a lot of scenarios where I could envision him needing help – even from someone with a power set as singular as mine. If he was asking, it was clearly important.
“Um, sure,” I said, uncertain of what I was getting myself into. “Just let me tell my mom and–”
“No, no, no,” Rune insisted with a shake of his head. “It’s not anything that needs to happen right now, and I might not need you at all. Even if I do, it probably
