Ruby Mage

by Dan Raxor

  His request was simple: please reform the realm when the invasion was over. I actually agreed and returned the ring that gave me so much power. I also thanked him. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the King could try to kill me. Appeasing him for now seemed wise and his reunification had merit since the Council of the Dukes would have far less power after the war.

  My fame and power grew as the mass of refugees from all corners of the world were welcomed. A full belly, a warm bed, and a decent hut were provided to all.

  There were a few rules though. Everyone worked, everyone paid taxes, and everyone followed the laws. One of which was military training. Even kids were taught to fire crossbows.

  We started an academy and the progress was slow. None of that changed the fact our early victories bought us a reprieve.

  We heard Rand fell to a tunnel invasion. Of all the mighty Lornian cities, its fall was complete. Apparently, they never shored up old sewers and cemeteries which allowed the enemy easy access.

  Tens of thousands of Lornians perished and more than a few hundred made it to our docks. There was a common theme here in Arenia Harbor.

  Hope.

  Everyone had hope, including me.

  Sofria joined me on the balcony and I wrapped my arms around her swelling belly. Siofra’s kisses tickled as she tenderly turned to tease my neck. Her hot lips landed delightfully.

  “Your sister is wondering why you’re out here on your lonesome,” Siofra said, nibbling on my ear just the way I liked it.

  “I’m brooding, plotting, and I may be a wee gassy,” I said and she giggled heartily.

  She snorted a laugh and a squeak told me I wasn’t the only one that the spices were effecting. Siofra said, “What!? I’m pregnant, I can have my faults.”

  I held her tighter. “What’s next?”

  “You feel things are getting too good to be true?” She asked and I nodded.

  “I - I - I want us to be happy like this forever,” I said.

  Such notions were romantic. Loving our embrace, I ran my palms over her soft hands that rested above our growing baby.

  “Siofra, I do. Somehow I don’t think I was brought here to only win a few battles and restore power to a downtrodden south.”

  “You think it's not over like most are claiming?” he asked.

  Susanna, Libby, and Rivinia joined us on the balcony.

  “Everything okay?” Rivinia asked.

  “Peachy, we’re grumbling that things have to be worse,” I said with a snicker.

  Libby smiled, kissed my cheek, and said, “Positivity is a powerful weapon, wield it often.”

  I went to give a smart ass quip but I decided the line was well suited for the moment.

  “I want to be grateful,” Susanna said, kissing my lips. “This family is the best, and I’ve heard from a reliable source that if the invasion tampers down, we may be marching an army to free humans from the dryads.”

  “Allegedly. There is a lot of planning for such a feat, but yes. That is also assuming no emergency comes from Earth.”

  “Pangea, what a place. I kinda miss it?” Rivinia said with a longing sigh.

  I shook my head. “Maybe we can go back later. For now we have a lot to do here. We need to build housing, learn magic, improve our armies, construct weapons, build catapults, and try to prepare to survive a siege. Even if the siege never comes, I don’t like the idea of the poor freezing to death, the fey being persecuted, and the dukes ruling in place of the king.”

  “That is a lot to accomplish, Master,” Siofra said in a teasing tone.

  “Well, it's a good thing I have a harem of epic ladies to help me change the world. Enough of this heavy talk. Let’s go visit with the others, shall we,” I said to happy muttering.

  A final glance over my shoulder left me smiling. I could and would change Lornia for the better.

  THE END

  Wahoo! What a rollercoaster. I enjoyed writing this book and I hope you take the time to leave a review. Stay tuned for book two and while you wait, attached below is a preview of another project I’m working on. Wish you and yours the best. Enjoy!

  Saving Sexy Aliens in my Spaceship

  Teaser

  CHAPTER 1

  The prison’s overhead lights flickered, angry with age. The florescent bulbs illuminated the white hallway brightly.

  I smiled seeing the gleaming floor, a testament to my hard work. Getting mop duty was actually soothing to me. I enjoyed the middle of the night when the only sounds were mine.

  I mopped another square section of tile, knowing it was time to remove the brown water for freshwater. A trick other inmates failed to learn – clean water meant clean floors. I hummed a tune from a song stuck in my head, ignoring the creaking of the bucket’s wheels.

  The janitor’s closet was around the corner. On a night like this, like the hundreds before it, I’d visit this little drain space a few dozen times.

  Using the walk I reflected on how I got here. Bank fraud. Stealing a few million dollars to buy bitcoin that was supposed to be untraceable. I knew it would get to me. So I had the coins get ‘hacked and stolen’ and cycled into monero coins.

  I went to the authorities, turned myself in, claimed I’d lost the money, pleaded guilty to the theft, and in five years I’d have a bunch of hidden wealth to play with. Maybe. There were still parts of the plan that needed fine tuning. For now, I was the harmless criminal who liked to mop.

  When I turned the corner for the closet I grew confused. A pinkish light flared from under the door. The coloration shifted to yellow, back to pink, then to green, back to pink, and I stared at it in utter confusion.

  “The fuck!” I blurted when my hips shot forward on their own; a second later my feet walked me forward. A pulling sensation drew me to the colors.

  This was not curiosity. I’d been a stay the hell out of trouble prisoner, because, well, staying out of trouble was common sense. Going to crazy lights under the janitor’s closet spelt trouble.

  My feet shuffled beyond the mop bucket. When the door magically opened I clung to the mop handle in a death grip, dragging the nasty water as my feet walked me into something my eyes couldn’t rationalize.

  There was a pentagram on the floor. The star dimmed and brightened. The colorations swapped each time they went bright.

  While not terrifying on its own, this wasn’t some cellmate playing a trick.

  There was no projector on the ceiling and I was being dragged forward against my will.

  I screamed at this point. Not so much out of fright, but out of frustration. The damndest thing happened. The shrill cry of anger was sucked into the demonic floor creation. No guard would be dragging me to safety. I was caught in a vortex of power that left me feeling pitiful.

  That anger finally flipped to panic when I was forced to step onto the illumination.

  When I was in the middle, a swirl of tendrils enveloped me. Like rust flaking off ancient metal my feet began to disintegrate.

  I was so powerless. So incredibly powerless. Oh, and I almost pissed myself in fright.

  Those weren’t my final thoughts before my body completely peeled off, tiny piece by piece. Not true, in fact, my final thought was - have fun trying to find me you asshole guards! I grinned as the blackness consumed me.

  ∞∞∞

  When I could see again, it was with only my right eye. Even though there were a thousand things to take in with what I saw, all I cared about was sticking fingers into my missing eye socket.

  “What!?” I stammered.

  A calm voice said, “Easy. I’ll have your new eye in soon enough.”

  Somehow this worked and I managed not to run in circles while freaking out.

  I glanced down at a dead man laying in a pool of blood. He could have been a twin of mine. Brooding features, opened brown eyes, over six feet tall, and in decent shape. There were three scorched holes in his chest as if he’d been shot.

  My hands inspected my chest questioning the
madness. I was not riddled with holes, thankfully. This dead man was me, but not me.

  Shaking my head, I absorbed my surroundings quickly. I was in a penthouse. A futuristic penthouse with wall illuminations displaying advertisements.

  Couches sat around an interior fire. Outside the couches water cascaded into a small pool and sections of the expensive condo had small streams with benches to sit at. There was a mix of outdoors, high technology, and comfy lavish living. A few private rooms rested behind doors without handles.

  I was confused but was catching up. My twin died and I had been pulled to his home. As odd as that line was to think about, I could rationalize it.

  This doppelganger of mine had died in an exercise area, or maybe a training area. On the bamboo type floor, ten feet from his body, a gray haired man worked slowly to destroy the pentagram that drew me here. He wore simple robes, held that typical kind grandpa look, and had zero resemblance to me with his yellowish skin.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  I grunted. “Fuck no. I just got pulled to… to…”

  “Laring, the planet of a thousand species. A small outpost in the vast empire of the Jardanians,” the old man said. His rag continued erasing all traces of the symbol with sparks of magic as the design was removed. “Excuse my manners, I’m Elfor.”

  “Err… What!?” I exclaimed.

  He sighed, walking over to the dead body. “His name was Neil Yorky. That is your name now.” I wanted to blurt to him that was my current name too. Instead, I let him continue. “Let me start at the beginning. Neil Yorky has died seven times now. I’m his revival guide. When he dies, I come here. I draw a summoning spell to replace the dead version with a new version. There are multiple universes,” Elfor said.

  I crossed my arms. “You’re saying you pulled me into another dimension?”

  “Is it that hard to believe?”

  “Guess not,” I said with a sassy tone. It was hard to believe, however, it did explain the situation - somewhat.

  When the last of the symbols on the floor were removed there was a gust of wind. The pink tendrils of magic came crashing into the room, consuming the body, the blood, and even the clothing of the dead man.

  A flash of light had me shielding my eyes, and when I peeked out, I saw Elfor handing me a mechanical eyeball.

  “Your contract has a retainer. When you die, another Neil Yorky will be summoned here to continue living an exuberant lifestyle. This eyeball will connect you into the Jardanian Empire.

  “There are two ways to think about what has transpired. Either you kill yourself and you die forever, or you get to be rich, and try to enjoy life. The last Neil, he was gunned down during a drug trade. His habits left him isolated and alone, meaning you get to make, buy, bribe, or find friends of your own.

  “You get a fresh start here. Which, I hope you’re seeing this as the giant opportunity it is. Judging by your current attire, I pulled you from a dimension where this Neil was… lacking.”

  I shook my head in dismay. “Hey Elfor, your saying that guy died, and I get to be him now?”

  “Yup. There are rules within the empire for such things. Let me tell ya a secret, young man. When you’re wealthy, you can get away with a lot. Neil died. The administrators of the planet know. They’re the ones who had the city indentured workers drag his… your body up here.

  “You paid a fine for removal, a fee for a summoning execution, and then a fee for an eye transfer. The moment you stick your augmented eye into its socket, you’re Neil Yorky of Laring. The business magnate with millions of investments across the far reaches of space,” he said, tossing me the eye.

  I caught the eye, and shrieked like a little girl seeing a spider. The eyeball rotated, looking up. The sensors on the back of the device used the thin links as legs, crawling up my body.

  “Calm Neil. Calm. Let it happen. Else… things will get ugly,” he said, extracting a weapon.

  I gulped, tucking my million questions in, and restraining myself. I saw the face of a killer in that old man. His gentle natured, soothing words, suddenly did not match his demeanor. I was about to have a robot go into my eye or get aced.

  I picked the robot. When the device entered my eye, I screamed. The pain was unbearable and I passed out.

  CHAPTER 2

  I awoke in fine sheets that were smoother than silk. My stretches tested the bed to find the limits. I failed, revealing the fact that I was not only free… I was living like a freaking king. Maybe I slipped and cracked my head open while mopping.

  Nah, I was on some crazy adventure on an alien planet, that much I was certain about.

  Opening my eyes, yes both of them informed me the old man stuck me into a bedroom of sorts. The bed itself was massive, big enough for ten people. That mattered little because there was something screaming for attention in my vision.

  I shrugged off the bar with booze, the sex swing, the hottub, the pool with a smaller waterfall, and even the massive balcony with stunning views of a futuristic city.

  They all went to the wayside because my left eye gave me a pop up.

  Now, on Earth, I was a tech geek. Stealing money, washing it in the binary codes of cryptocurrency, and hacking in general gave me boners. Well, man boners of excitement. I normally was used by women for fun.

  Before prison I was chunky, with pimples, no job, no real future. Part of why I stole all the money was because I would screw and get chucked.

  I wasn’t a marry material kinda guy. I wanted to keep girls around but struggled to do so. Honestly, prison did wonders for my romantic life. I guiltily juggled love letters with multiple women. I was used to having a harem of sorts. Just without the rewards. Maybe I could change that here.

  I found my distractions amusing and let myself sigh in delight. The eyeball interface was smooth, fluid, and absolutely everything I could have dreamed about.

  Testing the system, I went about ordering breakfast. The menu options were alien in their selection. I picked some egg and meat bowl, heading out to the balcony. Before I dove into the interface further, I inhaled the stunning view before me.

  I stood atop a towering building so high the clouds were almost within reach. Below me, aircars, small spaceships, and building bridges dominated the view. On the horizon massive ships drifted in odd orbits, their hulls tethered to buildings.

  A head tilt had me guessing their nature.

  The sun was early on the horizon and held a reddish tint, giving the world… Laring a very alien feel. I stepped up to a clear railing that flared red with warning before I gripped the edge.

  This was… so different. So advanced. An aircar zoomed to a landing pad off my right. The vehicle touched down on the balcony with precision and an urgency.

  A girl with no ears, ten eyes, and spider back torso walked out of the air car. I shrieked, running inside, and diving behind the bed.

  When I shakenly peered over the bed, I saw her deliver a lidded bowl onto the exterior table like I’d set in the breakfast order. Dots connected quickly for me.

  More importantly my left eyeball revealed a trove of information.

  Tucy Crexo - splindra. 5’0” 105 lbs. Employee - Delivery Dash. Aircar accidents = 0. Pilot proficiency = 97%

  Elfor mentioned Laring was home to a thousand species. “Excuse me, Tucy!” I said and she paused. Her head shake of disgust sent her raven hair dancing.

  “What,” the young humanoid with a spider back half said. “I’m not kinda in a rush, I’m extremely in a rush.”

  She was exhausted, her face drawing pity from my soul. Sure she had a spider torso out of her lower back and eight legs, but her front half was human until her legs ended at knee points. She had a hidden large bust and a unique beauty under her frazzled hair.

  “Uh… Can I buy your time,” I said cautiously.

  She eyed me with disdain. “Like for sex? No, I’m not a freak.”

  I realized I was offending her. Standing, I dusted my hands against my prison garb.<
br />
  Simple pink coveralls that were meant to demean me. Not that I cared about wearing pink, I did care that I was alone, so very alone.

  “I’m on the clock. Out with it. I freaking can’t stand tower lords,” she scoffed with a slight hiss of the s.

  “Um… Could you help me understand a few things?” I asked confidently, but politely.

  She tossed her hands on her hips, her torso legs clicking against the stucco type decking of the balcony. Without any ounce of fear she approached, getting to within inches of my body. I watched her raise her legs that were covered in sensor hairs.

  When she touched those spindly points to my coveralls she shuddered, all eight of her eyes that went up her forehead flared wide. She fixated on me like a fly caught in a web.

  “Intriguing. I’m Tucy, I’ll be back after my shift. I wish I could stay and explain things to you, but be patient. I’ll return as soon as I can,” she said confidently. I watched her spin, and barely heard her mutter, “Never in a million years would I expect to find a dimi tower lord. Make sure you approve me for landing.”

  “What’s a dimi?” I blurted.

  She waved over her shoulder, heading for the aircar. My sigh of sadness must have been noticed by her because she glanced back at me before getting into her ride.

  “A dimi is a dimensional arrival. You reek of a planet without aliens. A planet without hydrogen fuel. Simply put, you ordered peasant food. You’re garbed like a peasant. You ran like a child who fears water.

  “Oh, and you eye my body as if I were an abomination, and yet, I see the lust of something new. To a splindra like me, you have given me enough clues. I require payment for aid, and no, I’ll not be your food delivery service anymore.”

  She stepped into her delivery vehicle, having it come alive with yellow lights and a thrum noise. I was going to ask her when but she yanked the aircar off the deck, and disappeared into the wild traffic of the chaotic airways.

  I sat at the balcony table, opening my… ham and eggs. I was going with ham, because, well, it was best not to think about it. While I ate, I devoured the Jardanain Empire’s database.