Ravish Me, Oh Great Wizard King!!!

Zander stilled his rapidly thumping heart.

He finally understood why they insisted on dressing him in gold robes even though he thought it was quite ostentatious. It was so he could be the candle that would light up his radiant wife.

His heart swelled with pride and love. All he wanted to do was tear that large gown off her body, port her off to some random isolated countryside and make mad passionate love to her.

But that would not be prudent at this moment. This moment was hers to shine.

"Are you ready to step on the stage, wife?" He smiled at her expectant face.

"Lead the way!" She chirped.

The main palace garden was already swelling with couples, dressed in high fashion, rambling about the palace grounds. Although winter had arrived, this was the Northern Realm. No one was much bothered by the cold air and in fact, seemed rather energized by it.

The tall Ashryan ladies with their blue hair coiffed in fantastic shapes atop their slender necks, were resplendent in their colorful gowns.

They wandered like butterflies about the palace garden enjoying the bright reds, pinks, yellows, and whites of the camellias, hellebores, and winter jasmines while the men gathered and chattered about business and politics and the economy.

"Attention all! Presenting---the Prince and Princess Consort of the Northern Realm!"

Heads turned as a courtier made loud announcements about the royal couple's entry.

From the large floral edged gateway tied with white satin sashes, Mira and Zander made their grand entrance. The gateway was poised at the top of a wide marble staircase leading from the inner courtyard down to the outer courtyard where the invitees congregated.

Hand in hand, the royal couple made their slow way to the rotunda where a group of musicians had begun playing their Ashryan music. All eyes were on them as Zander took her in his arms and they began the dance.

"Breathe, darling. Your lips are turning blue." Zander teased.

"I'm trying, husband. This corset is so tight…" she whispered in his ear.

Zander laughed huskily. "Just a little longer. We have made our appearance. We can leave after this dance, and I will remove that corset from your luscious body…"

Mira reddened.

Once the royal couple had taken the dance floor, everyone else joined in. The entire rotunda floor was a swirl of skirts, moving in harmonious synchronicity.

It was a strange otherworldly medley of minor and major keys, mixed with clicks and pops, interspersed with some instrument that thurped and lurped and sounded like wet farts.

It made her want to giggle, but a queen cannot giggle when everyone around her was looking so serious as they twirled and danced to the music.

Through the glass ceiling of the rotunda, the sun's rays were low in the sky, painting the clouds a vibrant shade of pinkish purple ombre. The colors were vibrant and pulsing as the mandarin sun slipped behind the clouds in the distant horizon.

Mira was swaying in her husband's arms and drinking in the beauty of the sunset above when she began to feel a strange buzzing sensation in her ears. She stiffened in Zander's arms. Looking up, she saw his handsome face stiffen.

He had felt it too.

They stood still, in the middle of all the dancers' movements, bodies tensed, searching for the source of the vibrations. Suddenly her eyes caught onto a strange looking miasma haze that was rapidly developing in mid-air, high above the rotunda.

Whether it was due to the glass dome distorting the vision or whether it was something else, Mira never got the chance to determine, because suddenly, large black raptors began flying out of the haze in single formation. The birds were mounted by what looked to be small dark people with bat wings.

They looked just like Quill...

The tiny people were holding onto something that looked like silver rifles.

POP POP POP POP POP POP POP

It sounded like a machine gun rat-a-tat-tat onto the glass dome of the rotunda. The tinkling of falling glass set off a scurry of people screaming and running for cover.

Zander made a quick sizzling motion, throwing a blue bubble of protection over both of them as glass began to shatter from the rotunda ceiling, raining down on the people below.

The glass bounced off Zander's blue protection bubble in harmless thumps.

She could now see clearly the raptors diving down and delivering their payload of flying bats. As the raptors swooped forward, the bats jumped off the raptors and flew through the holes in the glass with their silver sticks aimed at the people below.

From the ends of the silver sticks, she could see red bursts spewing forth. They were shooting tiny fire bombs! Hundreds of tiny firebombs!

Although the fire bombs were pebble sized, the fire it caused quickly became overwhelming. Smoke began pouring everywhere as rugs, tablecloths, and curtains began catching on fire.

The women with their large voluminous skirts were huge slow-moving targets. Within seconds, their skirts and hair began catching on fire. They were turning into human torches.

The men who were with them frantically beat on the skirts trying to put the fires out. When that did not work, they tore the skirts off their screaming women.

She could hear yelling and screaming everywhere. The smell of charred flesh was overwhelming--stomach churning. Black smoke billowed, obscuring the way out. People began to get trampled underfoot as they scrambled to escape the death trap.

Beside her, she could see Zander holding up two fingers of one hand to keep the blue bubble that sheltered them steady against the onslaught of fire bombs. Meanwhile, he was mouthing a stream of commands, causing her ears to ring with the pressure of the inaudible sound waves.

Instantly, her inner ears began to hurt.

Shutting her eyes, she focused on the ringing of her ears. The waves were cacophonous! The pain was coming from all the sharp edges that were bouncing around inside her skull. She quickly sent calming waves towards the jangly waves, matching the undulations with her own and blunted it to a dull roar.

She opened her eyes. Zander was staring at her with a strange look.

Flicking his other hand, he opened a hazy portal and pulled her through.