The Lucky Dork Party

Kairo was greeted with a frenzied cheer from patrons when he arrived at Lucky Dork with Genie. His escort was doing a good job at keeping overly excitable patrons from mobbing him as they moved through the manne.

Genie frowned as he glimpsed a fast moving shadow along the mural wall, but it was gone before he could take more notice of it. He eased his expression and approached the oncoming waitress.

"Genie-bey, Kairo-wizard, if you please come this way. I'll take you to your table." The waitress bowed before them. She led them through the boisterous, common rabble, and into a quaintly lit private courtyard.

Strings of jar lamps dangled over a central long table and long benches on either side of it. Their mellow light was strewn through surrounding shrubs and colorful bushes, none of them showing the color green.

Kairo shivered at the sight of a leafy green plant sitting on its own in a far corner. He more or less concluded that the color green on plant life meant danger.

Genie gestured to a central spot on the bench, they sat down. Opposite them were Henka-guard, Abell-guard, and the listless one whose name Kairo was yet to learn.

Jan walked in with Lady Bluesteed. She hurried to take the free spot next to Kairo.

Abell-guard stifled her chuckles when she saw the boy was wedged in between the demon-specter and noble centurion.

Food was served with quick precision. Kairo's mouth watered. He had only eaten magic pills and a sandwich. But when everything leafy green in a forest was a carnivore eager to make him the salad, his only hunger at that time had been the will to survive. As he sniffed in the blissful savory aroma of steaks, cured meats and the pleasant scent of sweet cakes, he felt beyond famished.

Yet, everyone waited for Jan to sit at the head of the table before stuffing their mouths.

Kairo's eyes relaxed with a smile, a cozy feeling warmed his expression. 

Genie stared at Kairo then eased back with his mug of ale and boldly said to Lady Bluesteed, "I've seen Kairo's smile."

Abell-guard nearly choked on her ale with a chuckle when she heard him say that.

Lady Bluesteed's eyes widened with disbelief, she leaned in close to Kairo to examine his mouth, which was deadpan as always.

The sweet and pure aroma from her body was making Kairo twitch in an inappropriate area of his body.

Genie frowned and playfully pushed the girl back, who returned to her plate of treats with a huff.

"Liar." She grumbled as she daintily chewed on a brown cube treat.

Kairo's expression relaxed; he turned his attention to the three guards.

"We haven't formally introduced ourselves, have we?" Abell-guard said and looked to Jan for the formalities.

Jan nodded and gestured to his team. "This is my personal guard squad. You've already met Henka-guard during the trials.'

Henka-guard crunched his knuckles and boasted that he'd knock Kairo's head off in another trial.

"What trial? It was a one-off." Kairo frankly noted.

"There's always a trial."

"And there's always me knocking you to the ground with a hook stick."

"Oh? You wanna go there runt?"

The others laughed. Jan sighed and told his guard to stand down.

"Don't make me put you on ice duty again." He warned him, which had the man grumbling into his mug.

Jan continued with the introductions.

Kairo learned that the other man on the squad was named Lyt-guard.

"Forgive me for asking, but are you really father and daughter?" Kairo politely asked.

Abell-guard sighed and confirmed with a weary yes. "The short version, this man thought he could two-time with my mother and a demon mage. My mother was a loose rock so didn't care what bed she rolled into. But the demon mage, well, she cared so much she somehow cursed bitter immortality on him."

Kairo felt he had learned a very important lesson. Abell-guard smirked when she added for effect, "Moral to the story, don't mess with mage women if you want to keep living well-endowed."

He grabbed his mug and took some hearty gulps to drill this sense into him.

Genie's jovial expression sobered as he caught the moving shadow near the green plant. His eyes narrowed as he focused to keep track of it.

"Genie?" Kairo studied the man's expression, noticing his serious focus toward the suspect plant.

"Oh, sorry, I was lost in thought." Genie brushed off and returned to his witty banter and pleasant conversations.

Lyt-guard finished his ale, yawned and laid his head on the table. He was soon snoring and sounding like a buzz saw.

Abell-guard groaned and shook her head as she prodded him awake with curt orders to go take a nap somewhere else.

"Fine." Lyt-guard shuffled off the bench to cozy up on the ground between flower beds. He was back to snoring again.

She changed the subject by pointing out that Kairo and Jan could pass off as related.

"You think so?" Genie got up to take a good look at both men before passing a no judgment.

Jan was too focused on enjoying his steak to pay attention.

Kairo changed the subject by asking Genie about the Stone Ring of Destiny challenge.

"It's a mage's pathway."

He further explained that demons and beastkind cultivated their magic to a specific practice when they were ready to be mages. It required a journey to the Stone Ring of Destiny to pledge their dedication before one of Lux's eight deities representing a magic specialty.

"For example, air or wind mages would pay homage to the Wind God Cassius, devoting their power to air or wind in his name. It would be their development path going forward."

"Can you return to pick another path if it doesn't work out?"

"And anger a god, are you insane?" Abell-guard blurted.

Kairo blushed, feeling awkward for asking a stupid question.

Genie sighed. "No, once your magic is devoted to god, it's the magic type you practice for your entire life."

His mood lifted when he added, "But for wizards, I see it's different."

"Oh?" Abell-guard was curious as to what magic god would take on the demon-alien. "What god did you pick?"

Kairo bluntly answered, "None."

She frowned, finding it highly impossible he could walk away from the ring without paying homage to any of them. The gods' pride wouldn't allow it. There would've been a catastrophe. At a minimum, he would've died in the Mage Library. Or was the thought of accepting a demon-alien too revolting they let it slide.

"How can you pick none? You still can do magic, right?"

Kairo nodded. "I'm a rezenens mage. My magic is defined by cosmic laws."

Jan finished his meticulous chewing and took a sip of his wine before giving her a reasonable answer. "Kairo is a wizard. It's expected for his magic path to be unconventional."

He changed the subject to more mundane matters. "Now that everyone is here and fed, let's get to the matter at hand."

"We're not here to celebrate me?" Kairo bluntly asked.

"Partially the reason. The other part is to inform you of an upcoming event."

Jan gave them details of a derby event that would be held in Kairo's honor in two weeks time. "It's also a chance to reaffirm loyalties."

Lady Bluesteed asked, "How?"

"You're to work with Genie and Kairo with event organization. I'll give further instructions later on."

Kairo blinked with his thoughts on the matter.

Genie patted his head "Be a good dogsbody and do your chores. You'll get some just rewards."

Kairo leaned back with a groan. So even in this world there was mundane work for him to do. He guessed it was fitting given Zeus was steeped with the Power of Mundane.

Jan nodded. "Our gracious demon prince has put up an Andes Power Scroll for the prize."

Everyone (except Kairo) reacted with such a shocked roar that it woke Lyt-guard.

"He's seriously going to give one of those away?" Abell-guard asked, concerned.

"It's that powerful?" Kairo plainly asked.

Genie's mood sobered. "It's an artifact of cosmic power. So, yeah, it's very powerful."

"Why would our demon prince give up a powerful item?"

Jan's eyes narrowed with deviousness when he sipped from his wine glass then answered, "to shake out the snakevines from the flowers."

Kairo looked worried. "Will he really give up the artifact?"

Jan's expression flashed with anger that reminded Kairo of his first meeting with the demon prince. But it was a fleeting moment.

"Our prince is honorable and trustworthy. He wouldn't put up something he couldn't throw away."

Kairo nodded.

"Kairo. A word of advice, there is a time to know when to ask questions regarding our demon prince's intentions."

Kairo swallowed hard at the firm warning and advice Jan offered. "Noted."

Genie nodded, taking hearty gulps of his wine to empty his glass. When he was refilling his glass, he noticed the shadow near the green plant again. He eased into his Spiritual Network mind space, his dedicated inner space for magic. Within his mind network of interconnected magical patterns, he activated a snowflake-like tracking array and applied it to a piece of his spiritual consciousness.

"More wine." Jan eased back and clicked his fingers to call a waiter to his side.

Jan's voice snapped Genie out of his mind-space and back to the party.

Jugs of ale and wine were swiftly replenished for everyone to get merry on throughout the night.

Kairo felt he had drunk too much, making him sluggish and unwilling to leave the bench.

"I'll help you home." Lady Bluesteed eagerly offered.

"You'll just drag him about the long way. I can teleport him to his room." Genie smugly countered her offer.

Jan saw what was happening and intervened. "Both of you go back to your quarters and sober up. You have a busy day tomorrow. I'll take him home."

Genie sighed, the man was right to step in. He nodded and gave Kairo a reassuring smile. "I'll see you in the morning."

Abell-guard stood with a hearty yawn and went to wake her father with a firm kick. "Get up. We have drills at sun-up."

Genie's eyes narrowed when he got a clean line of sight of the moving shadow, as it trailed after Kairo. It was seemingly oblivious to his attention. He discretely applied his tracking piece of spiritual consciousness to it.

Everyone went their own ways into the night.