The Blue Star

Chapter Three

It was a slow, luxerious, awakening. One that made him vividly aware of the sunshine on his back, and the soft down comforter that he lay under. A crackling sound made him acutely notice that a fire blazed in a fire place. Raistlin groaned as he came fully awake, tormented by dreams of comfort when he knew he was in reality sleeping on the cold, hard ground.

But yet he was still under a comforter and in a large and very soft bed.

He sat bolt upright, ignoring his body that protested violently, to look around the luxery he found himself in.

Where in the name of Lunitari am I? he wondered.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, then decided he liked the bed too much and
slid back under the warm covers. Burrowing down he realized he was being a bit unlike
himself, then he decided he didn't care. He had been on the road too much and his body,
and mind, cried out for respite. He was half asleep again, and almost asleep when the
door creaked open. Heavy footsteps walked across to the bed and pulled off the covers.

Raistlin stared at the dwarf.

The woman stared right back.

Two seconds later she shrieked and ran out of the room as if all the demons of the Abyss
were after her. He watched in morbid fascination, then looked down and realized that he
was nude. I'm not that bad, am I? he wondered. Sure, I'm skinny, and that would... shocking to a dwarf, but I am not... that ugly....

He quickly got up, closed the door, and then buried himself in the thick blankets again.
This time he could not fall asleep again. Moments later a knock sounded at the door.
"Go away!" he answered.

"Master Miiro, please let me explain the intrusion!" came a voice.

"Explain through the door," called back Raistlin, and then he caught the Master Miiro part.

He got up, wrapped himself in the blankets for decency and went and opened the door,
scowling. A dwarf stood there. "Well, what is it?" asked Raistlin.

"May I come in, sir?"

Raistlin sighed in impatience and stepped out the way enough for the young dwarf to
come in. He closed the door and the dwarf started right away, "I apologize for the maid.
She didn't see you and assumed it was safe to clean the bedding. That is why she came
in, and why she, ah, stripped the bed with you in it."

"I see."

"She... ah... was as startled as you, I can assure you."

"I gathered that," answered Raistlin dryly.

"Well then," said the dwarf heading to the door. "I'll just be on my way, then."

"Fine," said Raistlin, opening the door, then he stopped and realized something he had
nearly missed. "I didn't catch your name."

"Jasper Fireforge," he answered.

Raistlin clutched the door tightly. A part of him still wanted to escape, and now the
perfect opportunity had presented itself. A relation of Flint, if he let them know, would
hopefully be happy to help him escape Marion's clutches. Aware that he was staring at
Jasper, who in typical dwarven fashion was glaring right back, he said, "Nice to meet
you. Where is Marion, and my clothes?"

"Ah, her ladyship is seeing to a different method of transport. Horses will serve no
purpose to you in the mountians," he answered. "Your clothes were soaked and too
damaged. She also is seeing that they are repaired and laundered, or replaced."

Nodding, Raistlin motioned the dwarf out the door, "Thank you."

He closed the door after the dwarf left, sighed, and then went back to bed.

* * *

Caramon and Thorn had made some progress. Finally they had made it to the half human and half dwarven settlement. He took in a breath and turned to Thorn, "How far back do you think us?"

"Well, according to the tracks, one of the horses was killed by a bugbear, and they had to come here. I saw human blood, so one of them is wounded as well. My guess is that injury will slow them down," Thorn then realized that he had still not answered the question. "Oh, sorry. I think we have caught up with them. Now we simply look for them. They will not have gone far."

Finally allowing himself a breath of relief, Caramon led his horse to an inn.

* * *

Marion was turned the last corner to the inn and stopped dead in her tracks upon spotting the elf. She retreated back around the corner before she could be spotted in turn. Dammit, no! she cursed. I was so close!

She saw Raistlin's twin come out of the inn and talk to the dark elf. Gritting her teeth she realized that Law had momentarily gained an upper hand. Caramon, she knew, likely thought the dark elf had his best interests in mind. She knew otherwise as once she had thought Manaxis was a likely candidate to succeed her as the Miiro. She had never been
more wrong in her extremely long life since she had succeeded Lord Wirend Miiro. Manaxis had likely meant to be a Miiro once, but soon his inclination to Law had won over him, then so had Evil.

It mattered little to her whether he was evil or not, that was the minor Balance in the
cosmos. No, it was that he became an outright agent of Law, and unfortunately her
enemy. As she had told Raistlin there was a higher balance at stake, and Manaxis had
decided his course.

And Raistlin had potential to be one of the greatest Miiros ever chosen.

She touched where the ring used to sit before its theft, "Armor of the Blue Star protect
your Guardian."

Feeling the warmth of the transformation as the deeply tanned, nearly olive, skin tone
was hidden beneath that of the living armor bestowed upon the Guardians of the Blue
Star, she pulled her cloak up over now silver white hair.

Over her now nearly luminescent gold skin.

She slipped behind the inn and into the kitchen where Jasper turned to her in surprise,
"My Lady!"

Holding up a silencing finger, she said, "There are riders outside, one named Caramon
Majere and the other Manaxis, although he may now go by a different name. Make sure
they do not know that we were ever here. Our lives depend on it, Jasper."

"It will be done, Lady Miiro."

With that Jasper left to greet Caramon.

Marion, knowing she had only a limited amount of time, ran up the back stairs, checked
the hallway, then ran into the room she shared with Raistlin. He was awake, and she
threw the new robes at him. "Put these on, we don't have much time. Our enemies
hasten at our door."

Raistlin seemed about to object, but saw her skin, hair and eyes.

His mouth shut and he swiftly dressed. "You and I will have to have a long discussion
when we can, Lady."

"I know," she answered, also packing her things, and then she threw open the shutters
and looked down. "Shit. You know the spell Feather Fall yet?"

"...No..." he answered.

A grin spread across her face. "You're about to learn."

* * *

Caramon walked around back in time to see the pair drift to the ground and run to the stables. It was the flash of gold skin and white hair that attracted his attention. "Raistlin!" he shouted. "My brother!"

For a moment Raistlin stopped, then turned away from Caramon. For a moment,
Caramon was confused, but still he gave chase. The other person mounted a horse, and
Raistlin turned slapped the back thigh of the horse to startle it into motion, and ran to
another horse. By this time Thorn, alerted that their quarry had been found, had caught
up to Raistlin and tackled him into the ground.

Caramon caught up with the pair and pulled Raistlin off the ground. Thorn stood and
dusted himself off. "At least we got him away from that bitch."

At this point Raistlin looked up at them, "I am not a bitch. If anything, Manaxis, you are a traitor to the Balance."

Caramon stood there in shock for a full minute as he looked at a female version of his
brother, only her gold skin was far brighter and less tarnished looking. It was more gold
than Raistlin's brassy shade, hair a little whiter, more platinum than silver. But it was
still the woman Marion whom they had chased. "Where is my brother?" demanded Caramon.

"On that horse," answered Miiro. "On his way to fulfill his true destiny. The one for
which he was chosen."

"Don't listen to her lies, Caramon," retorted Thorn.

"Why, Manaxis, are you afraid I might call you back to the Balance?" she asked.

"Okay, one thing at a time," Caramon turned to Thorn. "Why does she call you
Manaxis?"

"I have no idea," he answered.

"That's his name," answered Miiro.

Caramon looked from the elf to the woman, thinking. They both seemed sincere. They
both seemed to be telling the truth. "Where did you send my brother?' he asked her.

"On the mission of the Balance. You see, he," she motioned to Thorn. "Used to be my
apprentice. Then he betrayed me and stole the Blue Star which I am charged, as all
Miiros are, to protect. He then sold it to a Dragon Highlord..."

"See, who would believe tripe such as that?" asked Thorn. "Come on, who has ever
heard of a Dark Elf?"

"I never called you a Dark Elf, Manaxis," said Miiro.

Caramon realized the truth in this just as Manaxis drew his sword on the woman and slew
her. In a matter of seconds, as his reflexes called him into action, Caramon had also
drawn his. "You lied to me," he said as he crouched into his guard position, sword held
in both hands.

"The truth is a mutable thing, Caramon. A matter of perception," countered Manaxis.

With that Manaxis attacked to Caramon's left, and Caramon easily blocked with his
sword. A resounding clang occurred as their swords met. Manaxis leapt back and
feinted to Caramon's right, then changed his attack to one overhead. Rolling out of the
way at the last minute Caramon swung his sword where he had seen the Dark Elf out of
the corner of his eye.

His sword cleaved through Manaxis's chest and he fell heavily to the grassy ground.
Caramon rolled the elf over to his back and saw that the man was already dead.

Caramon walked over to Miiro and picked her up. The gold was fading and after a few
moments she had returned to normal.

black as night braided into tiny individual braids. She was exotic and very beautiful,
reminding him of desert nights among the pyramids on Taladas. A loss, to be sure. He
laid her on the back deck of the inn, then realized that she was still breathing. He pulled the robes away from the wound and saw that while deep, it was not life threatening.

He banged hard on the door of the inn, "Someone help me! Lady Miiro is wounded
gravely!"

That attracted attention as both the dwarf he had dealt with before in this inn who had
claimed to have not of heard of Miiro nor of Raistlin, and a skinnier dwarf he knew as the
owner, came running out. The younger knelt and said, "It is very bad. Bring her inside."

Caramon carried the golden skinned woman inside and laid her on the table there. It was
then when he noticed that the gold appeared to be melting off her. Running away and
draining as if melting and receding into her olive shaded pores. "What in the name of the
departed Gods?" he muttered in amazement.

Even her hair was darkening to its former black. Now that he could see what she looked
like beneath the golden skin, he could see that she was not of the plains as he had
previously guessed, but most likely of the desert. Of roaming bands of nomads on
creatures called camels...

Jasper cut away the clothing and they could see the wound. It was an ugly piercing in her chest, but luckily, not near her heart. It was closer to her shoulder and when Jasper
soaked the wound in alcohol, she moaned. He held out a flask to Caramon, "Get her to
drink this. It should kill the pain and make her sleep."

Caramon unstoppered the flask and pulled his nose away from it sharply, "What is that?!"

"Dwarf spirits," answered Jasper tersely. "Well come on, we don't have all day."

Caramon held the flask to Miiro's lips and managed to get her to swallow it in a few
gulps. A short time after she relaxed and Jasper was able to carry out his work without
her moving away from his hands. A few hours later Jasper dressed her wound and they
carried the woman to the suite where, unbeknownst to Caramon, Raistlin had been
sleeping in mere hours before. Afterwards, he turned to Jasper, "I need a horse to catch
up with my brother. Can you help me?"

"I might be able to," answered Jasper. "But on horseback you would never catch up with
Avanti."

"Avanti?"

"Her horse. Bred by the elves, it was rumored, but I don't think that even they have
horses such as this charger," Jasper stratched his chin speculatively. "You will have to
talk to Mary once she wakes up. She may be able to call him back."

Caramon settled himself into waiting.

* * *

Even though he rode to the South alone her words, her mission, rang in his ears.

To preserve the Balance, more is required than simply Good and Evil. You must also
balance Law and Chaos. For if they are ever to walk the face of Krynn, or any other
place within the megaverse, destruction will surely follow. Such is the Charge of the
Miiro.

The Balance was not an unfamiliar concept to him. He had been charged with protecting
that precious balance in the Tower of Magi. The charger seemed to know what paths to
take, but eventually, they reached an impasse. Raistlin dismounted the great horse, and
tapped him on the shoulder. "I know you can understand me, and that you know you can't carry me any further. I release you to return to the Miiro."

The Charger did not move.

"Didn't you hear me?" asked Raistlin.

The horse merely pawed at the ground and tossed its proud white head. Raistlin muttered, "Maybe I was putting to much stock into how intelligent you really are..."

"I am perfectly intelligent..." came a voice out of nowhere.

Raistlin stared at the horse which seemed like it luminesced while he looked at it into a platinum sheen. "What in the name of Lunitari are you?"

"I am what they call a Day Mare," it answered. "A steed of dreams. A steed of the mists, and of the powers of Solinari, Wizard who was of the Red Moon, the Blood Moon."

"A Day Mare?" he asked. "Of Solinari and you consented to carry me?"

"I carry whom I wish, Wizard of the Balance. Your Master has now changed since
accepting this mission. Your Test is past, and you have proved your faith. But the
lessons are not complete until you are the Guardian. It is my charge to carry you as you
learn what it truly is to be the Guardian."

"Guardian of what?"

"Of the Balancing Star," came the Mare's answer. "Of the Blue Star."

**************************************************************