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Book 1 from the Series “Warriors of Mirral”
Alissa worked in a publishing agency as a book editor. Although it was her first job after college, she was truly enjoying it. Especially now, since for the last several months, most of the books she had to pre-read were in the fantasy genre. Alissa, unexpectedly for her, got hooked on all those stories about fearless knights, fire-breathing dragons, and fainting princesses who always needed saving. All those ideas about true love and honor made an impression on her, and she found herself becoming one of the best fantasy series editors.
Alissa truly excelled in martial arts. She could do very well in boxing or karate, however, her best skill was kung fu. Besides having a well-trained body, which could throw perfect kicks and punches, she possessed a certain intuition; she could sense her opponent’s intentions, and she could anticipate their next moves. All her coaches were highly impressed with her fighting skills and insisted her to join the teams and start competing. Alissa wasn’t into that. She really liked the martial arts training, the graceful and precise moves, and the feeling of control, but domination and triumph of winning were of no interest to her.
“Is this seat taken?” The voice behind Alissa’s back was so unexpected, and Alissa’s concentration on observing her surroundings was so strong that she jumped in her chair and turned quickly to the source of the voice, spilling half of her drink.
“Oh, please accept my apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you!” The young man was sitting down on the chair next to her. He was rather thin but pleasant looking, with bright, possibly blond hair—although it was hard to see in the dim club lights—and a perfect billboard smile.
“I didn’t realize you were casting a spell on all the men of this fine establishment.” Alissa snorted with laughter.
His statement was so bizarre and unexpected, she felt at ease and smiled back. “Well, I was just observing this establishment, trying to decide if there were any candidates worthy of my spells.”
The young man smiled so charmingly that Alissa felt even more comfortable, and before she could stop herself, offered a hand to her new companion. “I’m Alissa.”
That touch awoke Alissa. She squealed and pushed his hands away, rather strongly. Then, using his momentary confusion, she quickly backed away, opened the door, and ran out of the car. He did the same, and he was faster, much faster, because the next second, he literally was standing in front of her. Alissa tried to move but got caught in his arms like in steel claws. The man was huge, at least six feet tall, and bulging muscles tore through the shirt. He squeezed her shoulders and slightly lifted her up.
“Please do not run. I understand you are probably scared and very confused, but if you could only let me explain.”
Alissa, who was fluttering in his hands, went limp and even gave him a little smile, but only to distract him. As soon as the man loosened his grip, she made a sudden move, quickly turned sideways, and punched the man right in his gut. Although she knew that her well-trained and precisely directed punch barely hurt him, she got the desired effect: he opened his hands, and she slipped out.
She started running away, but realized how stupid it was just after a couple seconds, since the man caught up with her and grabbed her again, this time from behind.
“Please stop fighting,” he growled. “We need to talk…please…stop!”
Ray leaned back on the pilot seat and stretched his legs. The pilot bridge was small, but the view outside the windows was as breathtaking as the first time young Ray traveled in space.
He remembered his first space flight as if it was yesterday, not seventeen years ago.
He was thirteen then and had to be delivered to the Mars colonies to work in the mines. And even though the prospect of spending the next few years working tirelessly in a stuffy mine wasn’t so bright, he still remembered that all-consuming admiration for the great cosmos that he felt while looking outside the window of an old and large “Terra-Mars” transit ship.
Now, Ray had his own ship, a small hawk-class spaceship named Mirror, and he could admire stars and planets at any time.
They mostly traveled to the planets outside of the Core, but for what it’s worth, the Outer Rim was as large and beautiful, if not even better, than the Core.
And Outer Rim territories had one more advantage: they were far from the empire and people were free. Poor, yes. Scraping for work, sure, undesirable, definitely, but still free. Free of the empire, its draining taxes, its martial duties, travel prohibitions, and laws that only benefited the empire’s citizens.
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