By: Songwind

~*~

Chapter One- World of Worlds

"Do you have magic here?" Adriana repeated.

The man merely grunted and looked at her suspiciously for a few moments. She hoped fervently that her friendly smile actually looked friendly, and not like she was baring her teeth (as she felt she was doing). She also hoped that she wasn't offending him in some bizarre way, as in some places people preferred not to see women at all, or preferred seeing them covered entirely- or, in some cases, not covered at all.

Finally, he scratched himself and spoke, "So yer from another world?"

Oh yeah, baring my teeth like a maniac. "Yes, sir."

"An' yer lookin' fer magic?"

"YES, I am."

"..." He eyed Adriana for yet another moment, then belched; it was, apparently, his sign of satisfaction about something. "So yer from another world," he said.

"Fancy that," she said. "Look, do you have magic here or not?"

He suddenly looked nervous, as though he had finally realized what she was asking about. "Uh... aye, that we do."

"Well, can I talk to someone who's got magical abilities?" At his blank expression, the young woman sighed. "Is there a magician nearby?"

"Oh... yes, but ya can't talk t' 'im! He's an evil sorcerer!"

She sighed. Another of THOSE places. Great. "I see. Evil, you say?"

"Yeah, he can turn ya into a toad jus' by sayin' his name!" he said dramatically.

"Uh-huh. And what, exactly, IS his name?"

"The Evil Lord Sorcerer Darkart... oh no! I said 'is name!" The man went into a sudden panic, turned tail, and fled into the woods from whence he came.

"Wait! Are there any other mag- oh, forget it."

Adriana leaned against a nearby tree, shook her head, and sighed. "That's the third one." She threw up her hands. "I give up! So much for finding an actually civilized civilization here! At least I can tell the others I tried, though..."

The young woman then looked around to see if anyone was in the general area at the moment. Seeing no one, she pulled out a necklace she'd hidden under her shirt during her 'conversation' with Gar, the man who had run off. Again glancing around, she reached for the blue gem that rested on the end of the chain, and rubbed her thumb across it.

Home, take me outta this place and get me home! she thought.

A moment later, she opened her eyes.

The woods she'd been standing in were gone. In their place was a large, finely decorated room. She stood at one end of it, farthest from the door, where a number of blue gems much like the one on her necklace rested around her on the floor. On the other end stood a desk and a plush chair, where another young woman sat with her eyes closed and her expression that of deepest concentration.

After a moment, however, the expression cleared and the young woman looked up at Adriana with a small smile. "So? How'd it go?"

"Awful," Adriana moaned. Pulling off her necklace, she let it drop onto a small pile of the gems to her left before walking towards the other woman. "I can't believe you even sensed a HINT of intelligence in that world."

"That bad? Maybe I'm losing my touch..."

"No, it's these worlds that are losing their touch on us, Lilia," Adriana said. "His Majesty really needs to loosen his grip and let us explore larger- no, ACTUAL- civilizations for once. And we should even try worlds with other languages, too."

Lilia smiled. "Why don't you go straight to him and tell him about it? We are at the palace already, after all." She nodded towards the door, where, outside, a guard stood watch over the corridor. "You can ask that nice boy out there to take you to him."

"Sis, if I didn't need you fully functional every day I'd smack you upside the head. You know he wouldn't talk to lowly Scouts like me!"

"Or Seers like me," she agreed. "So I suppose we'll have to live with it. King Reese should get bored with this soon enough, after hearing all of these negative reports."

Adriana nodded. "Who knows?" She nodded again at the guard as they made their way out into the hallway. The guard nodded back before resuming his stiff-as-a-corpse position before their door. "Ah, well. At least today's over. How about we stop by the market before heading home?"

"Sounds good to me!"

The two sisters made their way down the corridor, and were stopped by a guard at the exit to the palace.

"Excuse me, my ladies, but you must go through the examination," he said. "Routine, you know."

"Do we ever," Lilia sighed. "I certainly don't feel like being blamed for bringing around an otherworldly disease even if I was just sitting in there with someone who went!"

"Yeah, wouldn't that just be the top of my day?" Adriana joked. "Sure, we'll go through."

The guard nodded and pulled out a gem as well. It looked a lot like the ones back in the room the sisters had been using, only the gem was a light violet. "Thank you. This will only take a moment."

He pressed the gem, and it gave off a soft glow that enveloped both women. A moment later, the glow faded.

The guard nodded yet again. "You're free to go. Have a nice evening."

"Thanks," Lilia called as they walked outside.

"I just hope his Majesty comes up with a change of heart on this exploring soon," Adriana complained. "As concerned as he may be about them somehow coming here and taking over OUR world-"

"He does belong to a highly paranoid family. Considering that, I think he's taking this new exploration rather well," Lilia remarked. "Also considering we haven't completely discovered everything about our world and all..."

"Yes, well, we know just about all the magic we have here and what it can do," Adriana said. "Now he seems to want the Mages to learn something new."

"Assuming we can find one that isn't EVIL and OVERPOWERING." Lilia laughed at this.

"Yeah, who's also too busy ruling over a bunch of club-bearing cavemen to help us out anyway, too." Adriana stretched her arms over her head as they walked out into the sunlight. "Ah, the light! It burns!" she said dramatically. "Protect me from the evil lord sorcerer guy-who-has-a-long-title-and-who's-name-I-shouldn't-say!"

Lilia laughed again. "Give them a break. I'll bet they're all just starting out."

"Exactly. And because of us barging in at such wonderful times in their growing periods, they're going to start making up legends about people coming from other worlds. Who knows? I might be blamed for starting some chain of reaction that will one day lead to their world's destruction in some prophecy they'll have."

"They just might, and it may just be true," Lilia teased. "You are good at causing mayhem, worldwide or otherwise."

"Oh, hush you Seer lady. You're buying dinner, you have a bigger paycheck."

"Right, of course."

The two smiled at each other and continued on.

~*~ That Night... ~*~

The guard, David, couldn't help but feel exhausted as the day wore into the night. He just yearned fervently for the moment when it would be midnight, and someone would come to replace his shift.

And those ladies think they have an awful time? They should try guarding some place, especially somewhere that rarely has anything happen, he thought with a yawn.

David stretched and gently worked out a few kinks in his neck before resuming his constant checking and re-checking every corner of the corridor. His sword, usually sheathed during the day, was now completely out in case he needed it quickly.

After all, even the best guards couldn't see well at night, and to be one or two seconds ahead of the game could mean saving ones own life... as well as earning a higher position, perhaps.

Finally, he could see a guard coming down the corridor, and he sighed in relief. He could see it from here, as the man in question was one he'd known for years; his mentor, Haydon.

Said man started to smile as he reached David, but his smile quickly faded and he stared at the door behind him. David grabbed his sword and turned around quickly, wondering what was going on.

He gaped.

There was a bright light coming from inside.

But how? The room didn't even have windows! It simply wasn't possible for anything to happen in there...

David shoved the door open and leaped in, shouting, "Who's there?"

He was blinded by the bright light, and nearly deafened by what sounded like a million or so bees buzzing about the room.

The young guard could faintly hear someone gasp, then his mentor shout his name, before he collapsed.

~*~