One Wish

[SnootchyBootchykins]

{closed to Skylar}


Then it was like a genie out of the bottle and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want.

Mikhail Kalashnikov

I had been in Radasanth for a month when the reality of my situation really hit. I was in a new place, and I was jobless. It was cheap enough to find a place to stay and a hot meal when I needed one, but that wouldn't last forever. Somehow, I didn't think that employment would come so easy. I had no stable address, references, or work history. While I'm sure that I could find somewhere that wouldn't care about any of that, I had to stop and wonder if one of those places were really the kind of place that I wanted to work at. Had I not burned down the Silver Pub...

Wait.

I wasn't the writer. Had Tshael's enemies not burned down the Silver Pub, this wouldn't be a problem. It was hard work getting used to the fact that I was not a creator here anymore. Now I was only a player in the purest sense of the word. Stuck without much hope of ever getting home, I had to make due. But dear God, did I wish I had my WinAmp list to save me! It was strange how you often took for granted the little things in your life until they were no longer available to you. To have my hand in stories from the other side of a Brass Castle screenskin, that would be heaven right now. To be listening to Apocalyptica whilst doing it? Even better.

I wasn't completely boned, I reminded myself. I did have two advantages. The first was my knowledge of Althanas. The other was that I was a shaman. I communicated with things beyond the physical all the time in the real world. Surely, I could do the same here, where these things were proxy for normalacy. I was just emerging from a store, a small sack filled with what I would need to make good on my intentions, when I saw him.

He wasn't exactly in stealth mode. Long silver hair, blue eyes, skin paler than the moon in a winter sky, he glowed in Corone's morning sun. He reminded me a bit of a Siberian tiger I'd once seen sunning in a zoo. So pale, it seemed almost ethereal as it shone lazily. It made looking amazing like it was just another thing to do.

Hey Jealousy.

The Gin Blossoms' song worked well for this moment, and as I approached the man, drawn to his Salvarian good looks, I noticed something else about him. He looked utterly and completely lost. I had seen the look before millions of times. At least three travelers in any rest area or truck stop on America's highways had it draped all over their faces. This was the first time I'd seen anyone make confusion look sexy, tho. My face curled into a grin as I approached, surely of it's own accord.

"Tomorrow we can drive around this town and let the cops chase us around. The past is gone but something might be found to take its place." I said cheerfully as I skipped in front of him, holding out my hand.

"Hi! My name is Manda and your wish, good sir, is my command."

[Skylar]

Radasanth.

One of the most ethnically diverse cities in all of Althanas. A city built upon the shared sweat, tears, and blood. Upon blades risen and bodies fallen. Upon the broken backs of dwarf, elf, and man too. Truly, it was a city that brazenly announced that civilized people can work through their petty differences and triumph over the evil that threatens them day by day. Its very existence was proof that there was something higher, something that looked out for these races, overseeing their prosperity and well-being.

And here, in this grand display of a city, among the bussling masses of assorted races, a single man stood, hair gleaming along with the dull gray sheen of the shield that lay on his back. His eyes ascended the statue that towered in front of him. A permanent marble tribute to an elven hero, who even now still continued his ever-vigilant watch of the city with his namesake. Among the shadow of this giant of a true champion, only one phrase could make its way through the awe and the amazement that overfilled Skylar:



..............................Where am I?




His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes trailed away from the magnificient statue, possibly looking for a sign of the Church of the Ethereal Sway. Skylar could not begin to understand why it was that Deacon Veronius had insisted that he take all these journeys? And why was it that he, Skylar, was to be a messenger for the sect of the church that had just recently been established in Radasanth? Surely, there were other initiates more able for the job, and certainly more sure of their way around. Looking back, Skylar had never had much luck with finding his way around. The first time he had even been to Knife's Edge when he was a mere child of 7, he had become lost in a matter of minutes. He recalled that day bitterly, remembering the look on Father's face when he finally found him crying in front of an alley inhabited by an old gentle beggar. Skylar could also remember the red marks from the insued spanking once they returned to their mansion.

No, no. I must not think like this. Surely the Deacon knows what is best.

Taking a deep and reaffirming breath, Skylar nods to himself and begins again to search around for any clues to the new church.

"Tomorrow we can drive around this town and let the cops chase us around. The past is gone but something might be found to take its place."

A blink. A girl? What was she talking about? Cops? And more importantly who was she talking to? Not a single sun had risen with Skylar's eyes laying upon anyone who looked remotely like her, so surely this couldn't be all for him.

But once those brown eyes entwined with his, a sort of gaping realization came to him. A complete and utter stranger had just stepped out in front of him, stopping him in his utterly lost tracks, and had extended a firm but welcoming hand to him.

Another blink. Utterly taken back, Skylar fumbles with words in his mind, not sure how to react to being noticed in this city despite his best efforts to get people to help him in the first plce, and also that this stranger was almost talking like she had known him all along. An almost mischievious smile was on her face, but it was much less menacing than it was welcoming.

Skylar's hand rises and meets the female's hand with his own, giving the kind of shake a man usually gives to a woman, soft and quick. An awkward smile adorns his face, contorting on his words to be pleasant without seeming rude.

"Oh, you know, I do believe you have me confused with someone else. Please forgive me."

But when Skylar awaits for the impact of those words, he doesn't see the confusion or the pondering expression he had been expecting. Maybe she did mean him. But how could she...? And what had she said?

".....your wish is my command."

He could use some directions, after all. He was hopelessly lost in this huge city without a way of finding where he needed to be. His message, a scroll, hung impatiently on his belt. Perhaps he could take this young, mysterious lady up on her offer. Skylar squinches his eyebrows, then lets out his concern.

"Oh, well......I am very much lost. Never been here, you see. If you would not mind.....if you have the time, of course, I would never want to hold a person up just for me.......Miss Manda, would you happen to know where the Church of the Ethereal Sway is?"

It was an off chance. The church back in Salvar had just recently obtained word that the assembly of a new church here in Radasanth had begun. He doubted a random helpful girl such as this would have such information. But with earth-like eyes that shone with a fiery confidence, maybe it was possible.