Mark of the Ranger

XIII. A Talk with Isabel

I opened the door for my comrades. They, being polite people, said variations of "Thank you" as they walked in before me. I followed and let the enormous red door shut slowly behind me. We paused to see the grandness of the gathering hall.

The gathering hall was just as glorious on the inside as it was on the outside. Its domed ceiling stretched to nearly twenty times David's height, and was adorned with many carvings and designs that had been placed there throughout the years. Scarlet pillars, one in each corner of the massive auditorium, rose from the floor to the ceiling, capped with and decorated with threads of gold. A gigantic window, which also rose from the floor to the ceiling, was to my left, split into many smaller windows for an elegant appearance. In front of me, near the ceiling, there was a blacony, decorated and adorned the same way as the pillars and the ceiling. The carpet, too, was soft and comforting, even under our leather boots. The hall must have had hundreds of people in it by the time we had arrived, but it didn't seem at all crowded.

I nodded to my teammates, and we all split up. Our main purpose, currently, was to make friends with the wizards and wizardesses from the Wizarding Guild, and also to meet other Rangers from the other Ranger Corps. One wizardess immediately caught my eye as I made my way through the immense crowd. I could tell who she was--It was Isabel Norrima, who I had talked to on the day of the ceremony. Unlike most of the wizardesses, who wore fancy dresses and had their looks enhanced by the pulcra enchantment, she had what seemed to be her normal street clothes on, plus a scarlet fedora with a gold trim. I, knowing she had told me she would tell me everything about the Wizarding Guild when she saw me next, strolled up to her.

"Good evening," I said, startling her. She turned around and gave me a friendly smile. "You're Lio, the Outland Ranger I promised to talk to," she remembered, then put her hand out to me. "Care to dance?"

I took her hand and we began a gentle waltz--just as everyone else was doing at that exact time. "So," I asked her, "What about the Wizarding Guild?" Isabel looked up for a moment, recalling her recent life. "Well, everyone holds me in high regard. I've no idea why, as I'm just more well practiced. I met two new friends--Maddie and Minerva, both of them witches. Maddie told me she was from the Null World, which is flat-out unbelievable. However, it seemes she's telling the truth, as everything in the Guild finds some way to surprise her. You know, I came to the hall with her, you might be able to meet her. Anyway, aside from them, the Guild is just basically extra practice, all the time. How about you?"

"Well," I began, nearly running into another dancing pair, "I was just recently on a misiion to destroy a trio of jewel creatures that had been terrorizing the villages surrounding them. They were hidden in a cave that went hundreds of feet underground, and the mission took something like three days. We were actually captured by the spider, and Ko, my snow elf friend, had to save us." It brought a smile to my face, remembering Ko freeing Karen first because he said she was the prettiest. "Well, that most certainly is an interesting story. Have you received a Mark yet?" Isabel asked.

"Oh, yes! I have my Mark of Strength," I told her excitedly, then rolled up my sleeve to show her. She felt it carefully for a second, as if she was afraid she would accidentally trace it, giving me ten times my strength and probably crushing her other hand. After that, we linked up our hands again. "My other teammates have the exact same Mark. Oh, that's right, my teammates," I remembered. "I should tell you about them. There's David, our makeshift leader, who is an Asmerian that even earned his echo blade. Ko, our snow elf, is a fast, sneaky little bugger, with very graceful and delicate hands--he's our burglar. Elena is our marksman--or marks-wood-elf, to be exact. Karen is our assassin, and she often participates in sneaky escapades with Ko. We have me, but I'm not important right now. Lastly, we have Jeff, who is our strong man. He wields a hammer and likes to break things. He's very protective of us, which Im glad for."

"You sound like you have an excellent team, Lio. By the way, did you hear about the Grand Wizardess' death?" Isabel asked. I nodded, then responded with a question of my own. "Do you know who it is?" Isabel shrugged, and we dropped the subject. It is useless to talk about something you know nothing about.

We danced for quite a while, and I saw the moon rise slowly as the night went on. I eventually became tired and hungry, so I asked Isabel if she wanted anything from the snack table. "See if they have anything like a tamale," she asked. I thought that was an odd request, but I knew nothing about wizardesses, so I simply walked over to the snack table to see if they had anything like a tamale.

As a matter of fact, they did. I picked up a few cheese tamales, then got myself a cup of punch. I hoped it wasn't anything strong, in case something bad happened in approximately three minutes. I found Isabel again in the crowd of people and gave her the tamales I found. She practically swallowed each one whole. "How do you eat that much?" I asked her.

"Using magic consumes a magician's energy, so we need to eat a lot more. If you look at the other wizardesses, those who are actually using pulcra and wasting their magic, you'll see that they're eating like dogs. It's funny, really." She vaguely pointed out a few, and I saw her point. Right then, I heard Oculus' voice speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Rangers and magicians, I have an announcment. The grand council and I have appointed a new Grand Wizardess."