"This is the boundary, sir," the Commander said to Lairtes. He regarded the maw before them with great unease. Few had ever been this close to the boundaries of Fentry. No one who went beyond it had ever returned. Looking at the burning line of bright lights and fire, he was unsurprised. The crack in the earth was one colossal circle with a diameter several thousand miles long, closing off Fentry from whatever it might be that lay beyond it. If anything lay beyond it at all. There was  no vegetation or wildlife for at least twenty miles around the boundary and no civilization for at least fifty. 

The man beside him, Lairtes, said nothing but watched the glowing lines and sparks with a mild expression. The Commander glanced back. The few soldiers that had come along where some hundred feet behind them. The horses had refused to go any farther than that and he could see them pulling against their reins every few minutes. He was as anxious as the rest to leave but didn't dare impose on Lairtes. 

He thought about the magic shield that Lairtes's sorceress friend had placed on them, and felt a new pang of discomfort. He'd heard this area was prone to magical accidents. Random energies collected here, doing strange things without warning. Boundary Storms they were called. A caravan of people had been turned into some attractive garden shrubbery after being caught in a Boundary Storm. Even with the shielding, he was nervous. 

Lairtes was fairly young. He had short, white blonde hair and features that were angular but not sharp. The carry of his shoulders was strong and proud. All in all, he looked strong but a harmless sort. His eyes were the frightening part. They were hard, coal black eyes that saw everything yet he hadn't spared the Commander so much as a glance. Shifting the weight on his feet, he crossed one arm and placed the  other on his chin, scrutinizing the boundary. The Commander wasn't sure what he saw in it beyond the limitation that it posed to everyone else. 

Lairtes turned on his heel abruptly, apparently satisfied. The Commander hurried into a shuffling step behind him, glad they were leaving but confused as to why Lairtes would come all this way merely to stare at the boundary. 

When he'd reached the group, Lairtes motioned for the only one who wasn't one of the Commander's soldiers. An old woman breezed past him and Lairtes and stopped before the boundary. Bending to  one knee, she began pulling various small objects from her cloak and arranging them on the barren ground. 

"What's she doin'?" one of the guards whispered to another. 

"Merely running a few tests," Lairtes answered without turning around. 

A flare of lightening shot upward from the boundary, dissipating when it reached the sky. The Commander took his eyes off the old sorceress long enough to watch the display. The lightening turned a violet color and spread out into a circle, then faded away. When he looked back down, the woman was gone. A few scratchings in the ground remained where she had knelt. 

The Commander looked back to the group and nearly jumped with surprise to see the sorceress placing a few objects into the satchel on her saddle. He hadn't seen her move and she didn't look capable of the stealth or the speed needed to accomplish that. 

"All taken care of?" Lairtes asked. 

She nodded distractedly, more intent on where her trinkets were going than Lairtes's question. Once she finished, she turned to Lairtes. " We don't have enough power, yet." 

The statement seemed to frustrate Lairtes somewhat. "How much more time?" 

She shook her head. "Undeterminable." 

They mounted the horses and headed away from the boundary. The Commander sped up to bring himself even with Lairtes. 

"Sir?" he ventured. "What was that all about." 

"Something that may change a lot of lives, Commander," Lairtes gave him a saccharine smile and the Commander had to throttle the disgruntled noise that tried to come out of his mouth. 

Lairtes had been pondering over some vital decisions in the past few months and he had finally come to his conclusions. Other worlds waited for them. Power was in his grasp. Soon there would be no boundaries, in Fentry or anywhere else. 

It begins here. 

***** 

Another beginning was taking place far from Fentry. Though maybe not as far as one might think, for sometimes worlds reside within worlds. There is a place where mutants are more common than magic. Airplanes travel the sky in place of dragons. Mystics, dwarves, and faries are left to bed times stories for children who would much rather be watching TV. 

Magic is a tricky thing, alive, yet not. It has a mind of its own. And sometimes it has a sense of humor. Point in fact; an event which occurred in the apartment of one young thief. 

***** 

There are certain things people don't enjoy coming home to. Finding out that they've been burglarized, for instance. Unpleasant in-laws who are "just passing through" aren't much fun either. Remy LeBeau didn't really have to worry about either of these. He could steal back anything far more easily than the original burglar got it in the first place. And he didn't have in-laws anymore. Point in fact, none of his relatives would be in positions to pay him a visit. He'd had a bad day and all he wanted to deal with now was an aspirin and a comfortable bed. He didn't appreciate opening the apartment door and finding a strange woman lounging on his sofa. 

Beautiful women, as a general rule, were not something Remy was bothered by. Quite the opposite. But when he had a particularly nasty headache, came back to find a beautiful woman who was so pale as to be iridescent, sitting behind the coffee table, dressed in ancient cloaks and shining like the moon, he  was just a little confused.

"You are needed," she told him, tilting her head. The bridge of her nose and cheeks glittered with stars turned into freckles. 

And then she was gone. She didn't vanish, really. There was no bright fanfare of light. There was no  mysterious portal leading to another world. That would come later. She was just gone. 

Remy stared dumbly and slightly slack-jawed at the sofa for a moment. Then he shut his mouth and went to look for the aspirin. 

If anyone wants to send me feedback, I looooove feedback. More to the point, I'd like to know what everyone thought of the beginning of this story. Something you say might give me an idea for future chapters. *g* 

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