Heroid

((The only thing I really know about Chicago is that the Cubs are my favorite team. You guys who live in Chicago -- go out to Wrigley and talk to somebody and find out why they're sucking so bad right now.

And how can I be a "legend" if I'm not yet famous? Am I some forgotten display in the City of Heroes Bulletin Boards Hall of Fame? Am I a legend as in, as soon as some old fart dies, then no one will remember me and they can move me into the back storage and give my place to some count-pumping glory-hound who is riding a brief crest of popularity?))

((How does this rep thing work anyway? I'm an old guy and reps don't mean that much at my age. But I'm wondering if rep here works like it did when I was in high school, where if you get a really, really bad rep do you get to screw the cheerleaders?))

Hey, pal, I ain't fluffin' yer cookies.

Yeah. Don't ya remember Winter Lord a few years back? Geez... sonofagun froze my cookies right off...

Tiny had taken me to Grandville, ostensibly to have me meet Arbiter Sovich, an official go-between who expedites business between Arachnos and the Marcones. It was similar, I think, to a meeting of foreign diplomats. There was a certain level of trust, but one side didn’t dare to turn its back on the other.

The meeting didn’t last long and when it was over, Tiny surprised me by telling me he had further business to take care of that I couldn’t be privy to. Though we had arrived in a helicopter, he said that we would return via boat – or submarine to be precise – so as to avoid some ground-to-air skirmish Longbow had started between Lord Recluse’s city and Port Oakes. He gave me the dock number and told me to meet him there in a few hours.

With some time to kill, I asked my official Arachnos escort to give me a quick tour of Grandville. It was impressive in a prison-disguised-as-a-city kind of way. Foreboding is the word, I believe. There were jumbotron screens filled with Lord Recluse’s image and his voice boomed over loudspeakers so that you cannot get away from it. I’m glad Etoile entire isn’t like that, but I get the impression that it easily could be.

After the tour, I went to the dock to meet our sub. Tiny wasn’t there. Instead there was a handful of people around my own age: a pretty girl with ivy-like cascades of tiny leaves for hair; a fellow with dark glasses and a fetish for knives; and a sweet-faced girl, maybe younger-looking than the rest of us who seemed to think that she was Alice and that Etoile is Wonderland. I thought that perhaps they hoped to avoid the ongoing air skirmish also, and thought little of it when one of them mentioned going to the bank to make a withdrawal. (One must take care of one’s daily business, even in the “Rogue Isles”.) I stupidly made a comment about opening my own account.

Tiny hadn’t yet arrived when it was time to depart, but that also was not unusual. He was my bodyguard, but we both understood that we each preferred a certain level of individual freedom, and so long as I promised to be careful, his constant vigilance over me was unnecessary. So I got on the sub with the other cool kids without thinking twice.

Far more time pass than the trip from Grandville to Port Oakes should have taken and I became worried. After a few more jokes about “making a withdrawal”, I realized that I had somehow gotten on a sub that was hired to take these others to Paragon City to rob a bank.

I had a problem with that. I’m not really a criminal after all, and had spent a good bit of my time in Paragon stopping people like this from robbing banks. I was quite good at it too. But here I was, listening to them form strategies and laugh about the slackness of Paragon City heroes.

I found out that they were part of the Orphans – a name I had seen graffitied on walls and in parking lots around Port Oakes. They had a reputation for quick, violent strikes and even quicker escapes. They also had a rep for dealing harshly with those who get in their way.

Indeed “Alice” was fully prepared to bash my brains in at any given moment with that big mace she carried.

The less said about the bank robbery, the better. Let us just say that I did not enjoy it. In fact, I went through the trouble of hiring another submarine to go to Paragon so that Miu and I could stage a robbery and return the funds that were stolen to the bank vault. I know that sounds crazy but –

Miu? Miu’s my girl. My “squeeze”. My gun moll.

We “met” when I was chasing some troublesome characters into the sewers (yes, the most romantic of places to meet). I was much more focused on my quarry than I was on anything that was behind me. Then suddenly I heard:

Hey, Mickey you’re so fine!
You’re so fine you blow my mind!
Hey, Mickey! Hey Mickey!

I was rattled at first to hear someone cheering me on (it turns out that “Hey, Mickey” is a song), but when I turned around, there was one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen. Her hair was pink like the neon cotton candy at Spanky's Boardwalk, and even though she wore a mask, it didn’t disguise her loveliness, nor -- for long -- her identity.

Now, I’m with her every chance I can be. She accompanies me on business – and of course, on pleasure -- and Tiny pretty much gives us all the space we need to do whatever we want. I’m not sure my grandfather and great-uncle approve, but I’m a Mafia prince. What are they going to do?

I have it all: prestige, a dream apartment, a fledgling musical career, and a girl like no other. This life is starting to grow on me. Right now I can’t imagine why I would ever go back to my old life.

I have about a year’s worth of memories. That’s it. Everything else that I know about myself is as if it’s about another person. The pictures in the yearbook were like looking at a stranger’s life. And the thing with Ms. Devereaux neither weirded me out, nor gave me the thrill that some fellows my age would have in finding themselves in that situation with an attractive teacher. It just felt like a meaningless, hollow tryst with a stranger. I am quickly finding out that whatever connections I was looking for in the Rogue Isles just aren’t there. I’m feeling more disconnected than ever.

But things aren’t entirely bleak (that said in irony); while the kinds of connections I came to find so far elude me, I’ve discovered that I have connections of a different kind. I’m a Marcone. Not as in just being a member of the organization. I’m a Marcone. By blood. My maternal grandfather has thoroughly proved it. Blood tests. Saliva swabs. Family photo comparisons (which seemed to hold more sway with my great-uncle than all the science that was involved). I am definitely the son of Angelina Marcone, daughter of Angelo Camilleri, nephew and adopted son of Don Gianni Marcone.

Don Gianni is not the Don, exactly. He’s very old and is looked up to by all the different factions of the Family. The Marcones go to him for his “blessing” and not for his permission. It’s a matter of respect. (It’s an aspect of the organization that I find oddly appealing.)

Being the favored offspring of the favored offspring, I have suddenly found myself as a… well… Tiny calls me “boss”. I suppose I am a Mafia boss-in-training. I have a new place in Marconeville.

Tiny is my bodyguard and right-hand man. He’s the gent who knocked down my apartment door. He had it fixed, of course. I told him I had a girlfriend living there and he understood completely. Even oversaw a few upgrades by the building’s owner.

I’m not old enough to have my own territory yet, but the way Tiny explains it, I’m being groomed to take over Carli Marcone’s “business”, which was, for all practical purposes, run by my mother.

“Business” is a word I hear a lot these days. It never means quite what it should. There is like a gangster-code that I do not understand as yet. For example, here’s an actual exchange:

“Hey, Gino, how’s business?”

“Yo, Vito, I told you, stay out of my business.”

“Hey, Gino, are you giving me the business?”

It makes me afraid that I’m going to slip up and say something wrong:

“Yo, Vito, Gino – how’s business?”

“Oh, Mickey, you done messed up. Now we’re putting you out of business permanently. Capiche?”

But I shouldn’t worry about that. As I said, I am the favored child.

Tiny took me around to my future domain. (My grandfather runs it now, having peacefully combined it with his own holdings when his daughter disappeared. And by peacefully, I mean that he had enough firepower so that no one challenged him.) I met all of the wonderful people whom I am to squeeze protection money from and to whose spouses and children I am to supply narcotics. It’s a wonderful life.

At night, I’m still playing Donny Le Mat, though now I’m wearing shades so that I’m not easily identified. How do I manage this double life if I have a bodyguard with me all the time? I just tell him that I’m going “clubbing” and that I don’t need no chaperone. He just smiles that big ugly smile of his and says, “Don’t catch nuthin’, Boss.”

Yeah. He calls me Boss.

I’m an effing gangster.

((Bwahahah!))

((Something's not right. It doesn't seem to be adding any views to this thread. I'm not fishing for readers, just wondering if there's something wrong. Please send me a pm if you've read any of this since the boards changed. Thanks. ))

((Wishing the best for you and yours! ))

Bummer. That means that the audience I had on the old boards hasn't migrated to the new boards yet.

I'm having a hard time figuring out if the "views" column is showing me how many people have looked at a post, or whether it's just showing me how many times I've looked at it.

I post stories on the Virtue board, and while I once could tell about how many people read it regularly, now I can't. Unless I'm the only one reading my own stories. Which is possible.

And if it is just showing me my own views, is there any way I can see how many other people are actually viewing my story posts?

Help, please.

((Sid -- you are the only person I know who can make me feel illiterate. ))

Gyah! What was I thinking!?!

Around 4 a.m., Ellen came out of her office and woke us up, the dancer and I. That wasn’t so bad. What was bad was what happened when she turned on a light.

No. It’s not what you’re thinking. The woman I was with was indeed very beautiful. Stunningly so. Any man on Earth would feel privileged to wake up beside such a woman.

The black-eyed dancer wasn’t the problem. I was.

You see, when Ellen turned on the light and we opened our eyes, the woman I was with took one look at me and said, “Mickey?”

Apparently she had been my Humanities teacher, Ms. Devereaux. Her screams of horror at the predicament were probably very comical indeed. Only I didn’t feel like laughing. I felt many things then, but mostly disgust at myself for allowing this to happen. It made me feel so hollow, and reminded me in a most severe way that I am not cut out for meaningless one night stands.

I made Ms. Devereaux forget who I was. I had to. I did it so discreetly that Ellen didn’t notice, and when I told Ms. Devereaux that she was mistaken, and that I was, in fact, Donny Le Mat, 21 year-old lounge musician, Ellen seemed to think nothing more of it. Ms. Devereaux left me her phone number. I do not plan to use it.

I returned to the Armister home, sneaking just in as I had snuck out.

The strange night gave way to an even stranger day. Mr. Armister had been kind enough to bring home all of my school records that were available. Some items were missing due to some sort of investigation Arachnos did into my family’s disappearance, but there was enough left for me to piece together my educational background.

I was, apparently, a B-student. Some things remain the same at least. I had an aptitude for music and literature. Figures. The report cards had comments such as, “model student,” and, “I wish all of my students were as well-mannered as Michael.” How sweet.

I moved on to the yearbooks and quickly found my entry. (I had guessed correctly when I figured that my hair was originally dark like my mother’s, as it was currently dyed instead of its usual white.) I knew I had played soccer, but I was also on the swim team. Nice.

And then I ran across the group shot of the cheerleading squad. There was a girl there. Very pretty. Petite. Blonde. Well-proportioned. Something about her…

I found her in the main body of the yearbook and so put a name on that lovely face – Colleen Harris. There was a connection there. A crush? Was she my girlfriend?

I asked Armister about it and he replied that I never had a girlfriend to his knowledge – that I was far too shy. And besides, she had left the school before I did. A shame that. It would be kind of nice to think that someone very special had missed me when I disappeared.

As the time for the evening meal came, I decided that I had seen enough and snuck away. When I get back to Paragon, I’ll send Mr. Armister a message to let him know that I am all right, and that his example proved to me that good people could still thrive in bad places. For now, I just leave a “thank you” note.

I arrive at the apartment three days after having slept here last. There is no sign of Lightning – the bed doesn’t even look like she’s slept on it. Maybe she’s left me again.

I barely have time to let out a lonely sigh before there’s a knock at the apartment door. I peek out through the peephole and see a magnified eyeball looking into mine. The door comes crashing in, knocking me down, and landing on top of me.

A hand big enough to wrap all the way around my leg wraps around my leg and lifts me so that I’m dangling upside down. A face as big as my torso is looking at me. It’s not a pretty face.

“Holy crap, boss,” the giant says, “You gotta f’give me – sometimes I dunno my own strength.”

All I can think is… Boss?

I got a call from Johnny today. I’ve moved up to a club called the Red Devil, a den of iniquity for Etoile’s “in-crowd”.

The club is crowded. The clientele are chicly dressed in European suits and barely-there dresses, and they’re sipping sangria and trendy mixers while they all but make love in the darkened booths around the periphery of the lounge. I’m playing cool jazz, trying stay beneath the impassioned whispers, and yet above the general din of quiet conversation.

This suits me. No one is paying any attention to the young man at the piano – they’re all too wrapped up in themselves. And the steady, rhythmic tune I’m laying down allows me to think while I play. No show tunes. No old standards. No dedications to impress women who are only impressed by the size of a man’s wallet. I’m not performing. I’m barely involved in it at all. I’m just letting the music go where it wants, letting my fingers follow along making melodies and rhythms out of some deep, unencumbered part of my soul. I like it. The people in the club like it, and they move to it.

As the music wanders, so does my mind. The past two days have been a blur. I haven’t seen my companions from Paragon City. I really miss Lightning (we’re calling her Street Lightning – a nice incognito name). I haven’t been back to our apartment in a couple of days and I hope she isn’t spending sleepless nights worrying about me.

As for the reason I haven’t been sleeping at the apartment...

Mr. Armister actually hugged me soon after he recognized me. It seems that, in addition to being an assistant administrator, he is the boys soccer coach, and that I was quite an up-and-comer on his team before I vanished. He had harbored high hopes for my junior and senior years.

I told him the truth – sort of – that I had lost my memory. I didn’t tell him that I had another life in Paragon City. I explained away the Italian suit I was wearing when caught breaking into the school as something I had shoplifted while living on the streets, trying to remember my identity. Some truth, some lies. I didn’t have to use my powers on him at least.

He told me that he was concerned when my family disappeared. He didn’t have to add that he didn’t dare ask questions about the disappearance. His chief concern was whether or not I was in danger, and so I’ve spent the past two nights living incognito in the spare room in his family’s home. I feel a bit bad about that, because as soon as I’m done with the school, I’ll vanish once again. In fact, I snuck out of there this evening so I could come to work.

My thoughts come back to the present when I find my attention drawn to the dance floor. From my corner of the lounge, I can see everything. A blue-white light above and behind me casts me in soft shadows and gives those within its glow an ethereal appearance. It’s almost dreamlike, hypnotic, narcotic, watching them dance to my tune. This could be addictive. This must be what Steph feels when she’s onstage.

A woman dressed in a skimpy, red band of silk dances with a man twice her age, her eyes black as onyx and her lips curved in a secretive smile. My eyes are drawn to her, not only because she’s beautiful, but also because there is something familiar about her. Now and again, she glances my way, and the way she looks at me, I can’t be sure if it’s because she also finds me familiar, or if perhaps while she danced with the gentleman, it wasn’t really him she was partnered with.

The music finishes with me for the moment, so I whisper into the microphone that I’m taking a short break. I reach up and turn out the blue-white light that illuminates my corner, and then I sit in the darkness and take in the ambience of the night. Whispers and quiet conversations fill the void left by the silenced piano.

The dancers scatter into the shadows or crowd up to the bar and I lean back and stretch my arms to keep them from getting stiff and close my eyes to give them a rest.

I’m surprised when someone presses her lips against mine. I don’t have to see her to know who it is. The dancer. Maybe it’s the atmosphere of the club. Maybe she has meta powers. Or maybe I am a shameless opportunist. I kiss her back.

She slides beside me onto the piano bench, pushes me over with her hip and thigh, and kisses me again. When it’s time to start the music again, she is still beside me keeping my rhythm with her fingers. I leave the light off and play in the dark.

The Red Devil isn’t the kind of place where the bartender gives a last call. It’s the kind of place where people know when it’s time to leave, and those that do not are well-connected enough so that Ellen, the club’s owner, doesn’t mind staying discreetly in her office in the back until they do.

So when the lights go out and the place gives way to the night, and the piano resonates my final note of the evening, the black-eyed beauty leads me to a softly cushioned booth far in the back of the club.

The last time I sat in a school administrator’s office it was in the Rock on that terrible day that led to my and Jessie’s breakup. Now, here I sit in an entirely different office (the name on the door says, “Mr. Armister”) anticipating a similarly dismal fate. Go me.

The old, blind, bloody super-olfactory guard and the dowser had me dead to rights. I had stayed hidden in hopes the dowsing rod would fail, but no, it succeeded. Its wielder was extremely strong and fast – not Speed Tap fast, but damned faster than me. Even worse, he seemed to have some sort of natural defense against my psi powers. He didn’t even seem to notice my attempts to subdue him. Probably a handy ability to have in Etoile.

I must say, however, that they are both very considerate fellows, and offered me the choice of being handcuffed to a desk or not being handcuffed to a desk, providing I behaved myself. At the moment my hands are bracelet-free.

We’re waiting for the headmaster to come in and “take care” of me. The guards have assumed (probably to my great benefit) that I am just a student, sneaking onto campus at night to perform some minor mischief. They were very, very interested in my stealth abilities, and when I explained them away as something I found after observing a Goldbrickers vs Longbow battle, they seemed to believe me.

Really the guards don’t worry me. Even though the one seems to be able to block direct psychic attacks, I could still use TK to bring the ceiling down on their heads, or even to create an airless bubble around them and knock them out that way. But they’ve seen me. In undercover I’ve been “made”. An act of violence on my part now would hamper my mission here; I don’t really want to tip off anyone that I’m anything more than what I appear to be. Everything now depends on what happens when the assistant headmaster shows up.

And right on cue…

A small, slender man of middle age, with piercing violet eyes and thinning blonde hair steps through the door. He nods to the two guards. “Ergetz, Tooley,” he says, “Good work.” Then he is past them and he’s standing over me.

I put on my most contrite face, try to look exactly my age and work up some tears. He regards me for a few seconds and then his mouth sort of drops open and he says:

“Heller? Michael Heller? My God, lad! Where have you been?”

((Tami is Rogue Atom -- 14-year old superhero aunt of 20-something year old superhero, Sovtek. Sovtek is actually the name of Tami's father's (Dmitri Martinov) company and the armor he invented is worn by his grandson, Michael Martin (Americanized name). When the story begins, Tami is a non-resident student at Maggie's Rock and lives with her nephew Michael and his younger brother Peter. They are supposed to be watching out for her, because she's lived a sheltered life, and is a little naive. She isn't supposed to start dating until she's fifteen, but there's this boy she likes -- Ryan -- and her birthday's only a month away, after all.

Michael likes to play Ladies' Man, and having this little girl around cramps his style. The day before we begin, he sent Tami to the natural-living store with a shopping list of certain herbs and ground insects from Spain...))

“You perv!”

Michael Martin laughs at his fourteen year-old aunt.

“It was just a joke, Tams. Chill out.”

Tami Martinov doesn’t chill out. Instead she becomes animated, pacing back and forth and waving her hands around as she says, “I won’t chill out! You had me ask that guy at the store for… for… sex stuff and I didn’t even know it! You treat me like dirt! You either make me stay in my room or you won’t let me in if you have a girl in the apartment! You make me pay for my own food, even though Daddy has an allowance set up –“

“Hey, that allowance barely covers your share of the rent.”

“If I’m paying rent, I should be able to come and go as I please!”

“Except my name is on the lease, so I get to say who comes and goes and when.”

“You don’t want me here, do you?”

“I told Granpapa I didn’t. He sent you anyway. If I had my way, Peter wouldn’t be here either.”

Tami storms upstairs and in a moment comes down with a heavy suitcase packed full.

“Where are you going?” Michael asks.

“I don’t know… maybe they’ll let me stay at the school. Or maybe I’ll stay on the street where all your girlfriends come from.”

Michael laughs and says, “Why don’t you stay with your boyfriend? Oh, wait – you don’t have a boyfriend. You’re not allowed to date for what… another month?”

“But I do have a boyfriend! And he’s nice – nothing like you!”

“Really? Do you?”

Tami nods, her face red with anger and frustration.

Michael muses on that for a moment, then takes out his Sovtek cell phone and says, “I wonder what Granpapa will say about that.”

“No – don’t tell him! He’ll make me go back home!”

Michael smiles as he presses the number for the Martin/Martinov patriarch. “Too bad,” he says. “Hello, Granpapa? This is Michael. I have something to tell you about Tami…”

((Messed up the header, but this post and the ones immediately after it are all part of "Red Night".))

This hasn’t been as easy as I thought it would be. Etoile doesn’t operate quite like other places. Back in the U.S., I would find an apartment, have the power and cable turned on and then I’d be moved in within days. Here, one must first find the apartment and pay the graft necessary to get a lease. Then you have pay “additional fees” to get the power turned on. Then there’s cable, where you have to pay under the table to get the service and pay again when the cable man shows up and says that “due to the difficulties of working in this neighborhood, I’m going to have to ask you for ‘hazard pay’.” And of course, he needs that up front.

With the help of a “friend” I did find a place, and have it sparingly furnished. Last night’s search for a used piano turned into quite a hassle, since it seems to have been just a setup to get my companions and I to combat a cadre of Council. Yes, I said “companions”, and no, I have not made any new friends in Etoile. I have two associates from Paragon who have come with me. One I was overjoyed and completely surprised to have come along. I can’t tell you how much her being here means to me – nights alone can be terribly depressing, and doubly so in a place like Etoile. The other came at Jenny’s behest, simply because my adopted little sister is worried about me. How can I get upset at that? Right now, they shall remain nameless in order to protect them. Maggie’s Rock has some pretty strict rules regarding visiting to and from the Rogue Isles.

We never did find a piano.

Even more disappointing, the gig at the Golden Giza has turned out to be a gig at Goldie’s Pizza in Port Oakes. It’s a casino-slash-bar-slash-restaurant frequented by dockworkers and prostitutes. Johnny Sonata says I have to work my way up to the “big time”. I have no idea how he means for me to do so, but then, I don’t quite grasp the way the system works here. But I’m learning, and at least the prostitutes tip well.

Tonight, neither of my companions are with me. I’m going it alone. Not that I don’t want them with me, but this should be a fairly simple thing to do, and the fewer of us there are, the less likelihood there is of getting caught.

Speaking of which, I’m about to accomplish Item Number One on said agenda. I’m at Cap Au Diable High School in – of course – Cap Au Diable. It seemed as though security was a bit tight for a high school until I thought about it and realized that if gangtser’s children and Arachnos employees sent their children here, then yeah – you’d want a crackerjack security system. Thankfully, much of the system is composed of real-life humans, and for me, they are no problem to get past. A little mental manipulation, a cloud of reflective dust, and neither man, nor device can detect me. I find an old-fashioned padlock on a basement door, telekinetically unlock it, and I’m in, levitating noiselessly up the stairs and out into the hallway.

I’m in the high school because I’m looking for… well… looking for myself. Meeting (and getting abandoned by) my parents was so traumatic that it cost me nearly everything that was important to me. I’ve decided that that must never happen again, and therefore I am going to find the person that I was before I became just an alias, Sm –

That sound. I didn’t make it.

A hard sole. Probably a teacher who has stayed late. Or perhaps a security guard. I press myself against the wall and trust my stealth measures to keep me unnoticed.

For once, I’m right. An old security guard walks right by without noticing me. He’s absolutely decrepit, with glasses so thick that his eyes are magnified into unrecognizable dark blobs. No way he could see me, even without my precautions. So far, so good. I head toward what I perceive to be the front of the school where I would think the administrative offices to be, and where the records are kept.

The office has a special lock on it. I don’t think I’ve seen it’s like before, and I’m not sure how to open it. This leaves me with two choices – attempt to break it and risk discovery, or abort tonight’s mission and come back when I have another opportunity.

Still, that lock is not going away so I might as well –

Voices down the corridor! I “hide” against the wall again and wait for whoever it is to round the corner. It’s the guard again and with him is a large fellow with a… dowsing rod?

“I know I smelled someone here.”

Bah! I should have figured that out – the thick glasses – this man is blind! He’s not in security for what he sees – he’s here for what his other senses perceive!

“I’ll find him with this,” the larger fellow says.

The dowsing rod points straight at me…

Book 15: Pendessa of Karkosa
The time has come for Alara’s sixteenth birthday. Again, there will be no celebration because her father is certain that Drennik will choose this day to begin his invasion. As expected, the sun has barely risen when the Beastie hordes come swarming in. Inora appears to Alara even as the battle begins. She requests the correct answer to the second riddle. Alara tells her that the mother the riddle refers to was not Evescetess Elze, but instead was Inora herself. Inora then tells Alara the story of her conception (the detailed account of which takes up good portion of the first half of the book) : She and Olru had had a forbidden affair and Inora became with child; Elze, Olru’s jealous wife, used her magic to transfer the fruit of Inora’s womb into her own; Inora had stolen Alara because she wanted to raise her own baby, and would not have returned her if she had not been forced to by the lords of the other Realms and the Stormlords themselves; she had taken Alara and hidden in a heretofore unknown realm where time passed much more quickly than it did in the other hidden realms. After telling Alara all of this, Inora gives her the final riddle: For the sake of a people, forsake a people; to defeat an enemy, embrace an adversary. Alara correctly solves this riddle: Inora is asking Alara to take her forsake her place as Pendessa of Karkosa, and join Inora in the hierarchy of the Darkesh. Her heart wants to stay in Karkosa, but if she allies herself with Inora, the combined forces of the Karkosans and the Darkesh could crush the Beastie invasion quickly. But if she does so, she also knows that her father would be deposed and Inora would claim the throne of Karkosa. Venwar finds himself on the front line of battle along with Siuna. In the midst of a heated skirmish, Siuna shoves Venwar onto a Beastie sword. The book ends with the beastie horde storming the palace of Karkosa. Olru is captured. Alara is trapped into choosing Inora’s offer. Venwar is bleeding to death on the battlefield.

Book 16: Black Throne of Karkosa
Although the title was announced, this book was never published.

Book 13: Monsters of Karkosa
This one begins with the rescue of Alara and Venwar by Nok, the young Stormlord from the second book. He happened to be preparing a storm which would devastate the island when he saw them there. Upon returning to Karkosa, Alara and Venwar slowly begin rebuilding their relationship. Unknownn to everyone, Drennik has killed his father, taken control of the Sword Dogs, killed the Great Bear, and is now preparing to lead them to war against Karkosa. A dragon escapes from Drennik’s Beastie Realm and comes to Karkosa to try and warn them about the impending invasion. The dragon is exhausted and wounded, and accidentally burns an entire village, killing everyone in it. It protests that it was accidental, but Pendec Olru decrees that the creature must die. The creature tells them that they face an overwhelming invasion from the Beastie Realm, but they interpret that as a threat and muzzle the creature to keep it quiet. Alara argues in the dragon’s behalf, but fails to change her father’s mind. She can only watch as the beastie is executed. At Alara’s request, Venwar journeys to the Beastie Realm where he confronts Drennik. In the ensuing fight, Drennik chews off Venwar’s right arm. Venwar is allowed to escape, barely alive, because Drennik is so certain of victory he wishes to begin his gloating before the war even begins. When Venwar returns to Karkosa, Alara uses her powers to heal his arm, but the arm that miraculously grows to replace the lost one is dark red, with claws on its fingers – a beastie arm. The arm is several times stronger than Venwar’s original arm, and when he touches Alara with the clawed hand, she feels the transformation to catgirl begin. The book ends with Alara once again having to keep distance between herself and Venwar.

Book 14: Mages of Karkosa
Months have passed. Alara’s sixteenth birthday approaches, and she has answered only one riddle, has been told the second riddle, and has no idea what the third riddle is. Inora hasn’t been seen in Karkosa in months, and doesn’t answer Alara’s attempts to contact her. Alara consults the mages of Karkosa, and they advise her to seek the help of the Faiyr. Alara gos to the Faiyren Realm and they convince her to stay with them for a while to further her magical abilities. Venwar has rejoined the warrior’s guild and has easily reached the level of Evec. A beautiful young Evec named Siuna falls in love with him, and he has a brief relationship with her before he realizes that he is still deeply in love with Alara. He chooses a true love that may never be his over the girl in his arms. Siuna doesn’t take the rejection well, and it is clear that Evec Venwar has made a new enemy. Alara is attracted to a young Faiyr named Moonsheer with whom she almost has a physical relationship, but is called back home before they can act on their mutual desire. Back home she realizes two things – one, she is deeply in love with Vinwar; and two, she knows the correct answer to the second riddle.

Book 11: Pirates of Karkosa
Venwar takes most of the spotlight in this book. He has a series of adventures with Allory Arkis and crew, during which Venwar proves his worth to his captain. When a dispute arises between Allory and his 1st officer, Venwar is promoted to take the position. Later, the 1st officer tries to stealthily kill Allory, but Venwar catches the man in the act, and together, Allory and Venwar subdue the man, who is put off on the next deserted island they come across. As weeks pass, Venwar finds himself liking Allory more and more until one evening the captain calls Venwar into his cabin. There, the captain explains to Venwar a tradition among pirates that it is acceptable for a captain on a ship to choose one of his crew to serve as a lover while they are at sea. The book ends with Allory kissing Venwar even as he reaches behind him to close the cabin door. Alara’s scenes in this book are limited to interspersed scenes where she is dealing with court intrigue, wishing her mother was still alive, caring for her sick father, and negotiating a trade deal with Karkosa’s former adversary, Haly. Her final scene in the book involves her wishing she had Venwar back and swearing to herself that if he returned to her, she would never spurn his affections again.

Book 12: Lost Seas of Karkosa
This book takes up immediately after the end of the previous book. Venwar is confused about his feelings for Allory. Alara is desperately missing Venwar. Alara receives a bit of good news concerning her father -- Pendec Olru is upright and walking, and soon he will be strong enough to resume rule. It is determined that Alara should be sent to Haly to finalize the trade agreement. Her ship is attacked by pirates and she finds herself the captive of Captain Allory and Venwar. Venwar tells Allory of his love for Alara. The pirate captain asks if he loves her enough to share her fate on the plank. Venwar agrees to continue his relationship with Allory in return for Alara’s life the surety of her safety. Allory agrees to keep their relationship discreet. All goes well until one night the captain dismisses Venwar from his quarters so that he can “entertain a dinner guest”. Of course the guest is Alara whom Allory sets about seducing. Venwar is beside himself and spies through a window at them. She seems willing enough to give in to Allory’s charms. Then, after remembering a remark made by the ship’s cook when he was delivering the meal to the captain’s cabin, Venwar realizes that Allory has used herbs to weaken her resistance. He wonders if those herbs had also been used on himself. Venwar busts into the room to break things up just as the ship lurches as if it has run up on a sand bar. What has happened is worse – a sea-monster has attacked the ship. Allory, Venwar, and Alara escape in a lifeboat while the creature feasts on the rest of the crew. The three drift for days, withering in the hot, red sun before they land on a deserted island. It happens to be the same one the former 1st mate was left on. He is now dead, but remains in the form of a vengeful ghost. The remainder of the book is a sometimes frightening tale of survival on the harsh island with the menacing ghost popping out of nowhere at times. Allory kills himself so that he can take on the ghost as a ghost. Alara is confused (as is Venwar, really) when Venwar kisses the dead pirate captain’s lips. Then end of the book leaves the two alone on the island, but too confused about their sexuality to actually enjoy it.

Book 9: Heir of Karkosa
A plague sweeps through Karkosa, and Pendec Olru falls ill to it and nearly dies from it. He is left completely incapacitated. Alara becomes acting Pendess (queen) and has to fight off her father’s advisors, some of whom feel that she is too young and inexperienced to reign. This one is political intrigue, but somewhat poorly done. Alara does come across as smart and resourceful, even if her father’s advisors seem to be a bit too dull to actually hold such high positions in the realm. Venwar fights off several assassination attempts. The book ends as Inora appears to Alara in a dream with the second riddle: On my bosom you did lie; in my heart you shall abide; in the shifting of the tide, you shall find me. Alara answer: “That riddle speaks of my mother Evescetess Elze.” To which Inora replies, “You and your realm are doomed, child.” Even more titillating “almost” moments between Alara and Venwar.

Book 10: Catgirl of Karkosa
With this book, the publisher changes the series’ category from Juvenile to Young Adult. Flynn Stewart also seems to get a bit of his old enthusiasm back. It is Alara’s fifteenth birthday, but there is no time for celebrations. Conflict in the Darkesh Realm spills over into Karkosa as a rival of Inora visits acting Pendess Alara and changes her into a half-cat, half-human creature. A new character is introduced in the form of Drennik, son of Sword Dog leader, Nemorik. As Alara becomes more catlike in nature, she runs away to the Beastie Realm, where she encounters Drennik, a peace-loving Sword Dog who has run away from his father and found sanctuary among the Great Bear’s people. Drennik appeals to the animal in her, and Alara has to struggle to not give in to the call of nature that seems to be overwhelming her. When things are almost to the point of no return, Venwar arrives with Inora by his side and together they kidnap Alara and restore her to her normal form. Drennik swears vengeance on Venwar and returns to join his father. At book’s end, Venwar and Alara find themselves alone in her private chambers. She is afraid because her hold on the throne of Karkosa is now more tenuous than ever. He embraces her, and awakens the same primal urges she had experienced in her cat form. Ashamed, she turns him away and tells him she must save herself for the husband her father chooses for her, according to tradition. They must never, ever compromise “the purity of my body, which belongs not to you, nor to myself, but to my people, so that the royal bloodline of Karkosa can continue undiluted.” Realizing that they can never be together, Venwar leaves Karkosa and joins a band of pirates led the handsome, young Captain Allory Arkis. Book’s end finds Alara alone in the palace, the weight of ruling crushing her dreams; and Venwar, sailing off into the Dividing Sea for parts uknown.

Book 7: Invaders of Karkosa
At this point, it is becoming apparent that Flynn Stewart has somewhat lost his zeal for the series. This book is one scene after another of pointless swordfights and magic duals between the Karkosans and their new enemies from across the Dividing Sea, the Halyans from the Realm of Haly. Alara and Venwar turn back the invasion and almost kiss at the end of the book.

Book 8: Sky Machines of Karkosa
Pretty much a repeat of the last book, except the invaders come from the sky. The implication is that they are from another planet in another galaxy. Their “sky machines” have incredible power, and Alara talks her father into joining forces with the Darkesh and the Sword Dogs in order to turn back the threat. More titillating “almost” moments between Alara and Venwar.

Book 5: Warriors of Karkosa
Estranged from his best friend, Venwar asks permission from Pendec Olru to enter the warrior’s guild and train to become an Evec (skilled warrior). Pendec Olru gives Venwar his consent. Alara mulls the meaning of the riddle and wonders what the next riddle might be. Venwar discovers a conspiracy among the Evec leaders to depose Pendec Olru because of how unprepared the realm had been for the Sword Dog invasion. Venwar pretends to have turned against the royal family so that he can get closer to the leaders of the planned coup. Alara seeks out Inora to query about the second riddle, but instead finds out that Venwar’s soul has been tainted by cleaning the sacrificial altar. Venwar finds himself becoming too close to the Evec Tenery, and begins thinking that the coup might be the right thing to do. Alara disguises herself and joins the warrior’s guild in order to find Venwar. She finds him and during an emotional scene, helps him cleanse his spirit. The end of the book finds the coup defeated before it’s begun, and Alara and Venwar realizing that their relationship might be more than just best friends.

Book 6: Hidden Realms of Karkosa
This book is less story, and more travelogue. It is the day after the celebration of her fourteenth birthday, Alara and Venwar decide that if she is to find the riddles she must answer, then she must go to the hidden realms. She and Venwar go to Faiyren Realm, home of the Faiyr, where Alara is trained in Fairyen magic. Next is the Beastie Realm, from where came the Sword Dogs, but is now, without their presence, a peaceable place ruled by the Great Bear and protected by dragons. They encounter Cetec Moyar in the Barren Realm, a dead place that infects living beings with a lethargy which could keep them trapped there for eternity. Finally they go to the Darkesh Realm, where Inora offers to tell them the next riddle in return for another task for Venwar. Alara refuses to allow him to risk his soul again, and offers to complete the task instead. Inora reacts angrily, and sends them back to Karkosa, but tells Alara that she will present the second riddle to her on her fourteenth birthday. The book ends with Alara and Venwar back in Karkosa where Alara finds her awakening love for Venwar getting harder to dismiss.

*comes in, looks around...

Myeh. I miss th' ol' place. It wuz comf'terble.

Book 3: Sword Dogs of Karkosa
It is the celebration of Pendessa (princess) Alara’s thirteenth birthday, an event that is even more important to her parents since it is the first time they have been with her on the anniversary of her birth. Venwar has been appointed as her companion/servant (cetec) and is bored with helping her choose a gown for the celebration. Instead, he decides he will find out what the 3 riddles are, and he is sure that Inora would be the one to ask, and winds up being whisked away to the hidden realms and misses the celebration. Alara is heartbroken that her best friend is not at her party. During the Birthday celebration, the Sword Dogs attack! The Sword Dogs overthrow the realm, killing most of Karkosa’s mages, enslaving the people of the land, and banishing the royal family and their servants to the Caves of Awa. Meanwhile, Venwar has to perform a task – cleaning a sacrificial altar -- for Inora, in return for which she will reveal the first riddle which Alara must answer: What is that is for a mere handful of years, yet spends a lifetime to become what it shall become? Back in Karkosa, Evescetess Elze, once a powerful mage in her own right, leads an escape from the Caves of Awa. The end of the book finds Venwar returning to a Karkosa ruled by Nemorik, Lord of the Sword Dogs. He seeks refuge in a hidden grove where he and Alara had built a tree house to play in a year earlier (in book 1). There, he finds Alara and her family. The reunion is not a happy one since Alara thinks Venwar deserted them when the Sword Dogs attacked.

Book 4: Dark Skies of Karkosa
Evescetess Elze gathers the few remaining mages in Karkosa and Pendec Olru rallies the people of the realm and prepares to reclaim Karkosa from the Sword Dogs. The body of the book concerns various battles as the Karkosans take back their realm. Venwar is charged with keeping Alara hidden and safe, since if something were to happen to her father, she would become the Pendess (ruling Queen) of the Realm. Evescetess Elze critically injured in the conflict. Alara is grief-stricken, but must still remain in hiding. She still displeased with Venwar for leaving just prior to the Sword Dog invasion, and is even moreso when he will not let her go to her mother’s side. The tide of war turns in the favor of the Karkosans and the Sword Dogs are forced back to the Caves of Awa. However, one retreating contingent finds Alara and Venwar. Venwar fights valiantly killing them all, but is injured so badly he will surely die. At this point, Alara finds out that she has inherited magical healing powers and saves Venwar’s life. She is crushed to realize that, if she had been allowed to, she might have saved her mother’s life also. The book ends with the triumphant, but sad return of Pendec Olru to the Karkosan throne. Venwar finally tells Alara of the riddle. She answers, “This riddle is easy – it is a child.”