Modern Hero: One Of Those Days

Throughout my life, I have always been reminded about my ancestors' heroic deeds. There were five consecutive generations that were the greatest fighters, tricksters and magicians. Wanderers one and all, they fought the enemies of their times and came out victorious. They were the pinnacle of their time, but all were eclipsed by the only person to come out of the fifth generation, Peregrine Ralcran. Not only did he and his band stop one of the darkest forces of evil from ripping the worlds apart, but he also helped build the village where he became the patron. He has always been thought of as the best fighting legend that has ever lived and possibly ever will. And my parents thought that it would be a good idea to hang that over my head for my life by giving me his name!

Of course they lived over a millennia ago, and things have changed massively since the small village was constructed, I thought as I looked out at the booming metropolis that lay before the window of my apartment. The City of Insidiae Crista was the biggest city in the world, equalling just under ten thousand square miles in area and has building heights which surpasses cloud cover. Turning away from a stunning view from a height, which back in Peregrine the first's day could only be reached on the back of some bird or dragon, I walked through my flat to my bathroom to have a shower. My flat was the biggest in my block of flats, being the penthouse suite. It had a big living room/kitchen area with state of the art furnishings, master bedroom with king sized bed and on suite bathroom, and wallpaper that was slightly too glaring for my taste. I would love to say that I owned it, but that would be a lie, it belongs to my mum. Well, when I say mum, I mean adopted mum (I am human after all).

She's an elf that has brought my up since my parents died soon after I was born. Mum's currently an actress, has been for 25 years, although she's thinking of doing another job. Her elven friends keep telling her to stop doing short turn jobs and settle down with a proper job. She looks quite young and attractive, despite the fact that she's old enough to have been married to Peregrine 1. People don't think that it's weird that I have the heritage that I do, and an Actress for a mother, and yet my job is chief accountant for a lawyers firm. But I prefer it, and I get enough problems at it is.

Having finished off my preparations for the day, I grabbed my suitcase of important papers for a meeting I to have this morning, and went through the door and down to the floor below to the lift. Even as I walk down I saw Mr Mackenzie, from right below where my bedroom is, going into the lift. I ran towards the lift door shouting to let me get in, but he just smiled as the doors closed just before I got there.  I whacked the door in frustration, "Damn, now I'm going to be late!" Sighing; I turned to the stairs down and started to walk to them. My pace slowly quickened as I saw the thin metal beam that was in the centre of the stair well. There has always been an in joke in this place that is only being held up by that single beam and if it was removed or broken then the whole place would come crashing down. I smiled to myself as my walk became a run, because no one who lived in this building really knew what it was there for...except me.

I jumped. As I jumped, I muttered the words, "solidus manus," and then grabbed the beam with my right hand (since my briefcase was in my left hand). I slid down the pole like an Aquamancer would whenever a fire broke out, except for the fact that I was sliding down using only one hand (I had only just had this suit dry cleaned you see). Now I know, using magic to make a slide down a pole from 30 floors high sounds dangerous, but it's more risky than you think. You see throughout the past few centuries, Wizards and scientists have been creating a way to keep a tab on magic and its users (which is over half the population of the world). They have now got to a point where they know exactly when someone uses magic, who used it and how it was used. And if you break any of the many, many rules, you can be arrested. Before you get too worried for me, I'd like to point out two things; firstly, most people with magical power are very low level so they can't use that much any, whereas I am 'adept' in it, and secondly, due to me having a rich mum and a boss that likes me enough to pull some strings, I currently have a high enough clearance that multiple rules no longer apply to me, meaning that I can do this (The pole was actually added by my mum for this purpose). Once I got to the bottom of the pole, I landed, in as conspicuous a fashion as anyone that just did something like that could do, I rushed outside to the hubbub of the bustling city street and hailed a cab.

After a forty minute drive through rush hour traffic, my taxi eventually reached its destination, Riddle & Co law firm. The building itself was almost as tall as the other buildings around it, but it had been that tall long before Insidiae Crista was a city since it was in truth the first building that was made after the incident. Despite its age, the marble walls and white pillars were still looking sparkling new, even in the smoke filled air of the streets; a god's divinity really is a good method of keeping walls clean. As I walked up the steps towards the entrance I noted, as I always do, the stone statue of a woman, greatsword slung on her back, looking a bit like a sentinel. Written on the plinth she was standing on was "Alexandra" she is our patron saint, seeing that we are a law firm, and below that, "Defender of God, Defender of Man" which is our mantra.

The inside the grand building, unlike the outside, had had a complete refurbishment over the years, making it look a very modern place. Each floor had a balcony looking inwards from which they could look down to see people entering. In the centre of the entrance hall is a check in desk which I was walking towards. The only reason I mention these things is because the moment I walked through the door, I heard a familiar voice from a distance shout at me, "Ralcran! You're late again!"

I sighed, and looked up to the second floor balcony to see the glaring eyes of my PA aimed right at me. "Sorry," I shouted back and continued to walk to the check in desk.

"I need you up here now, sir!"

"Ok," I replied, and continued to walk to the desk.

"Now, Sir!"

I looked up and groaned. After telling the person at the desk to sign me in, and whispered the words, "altus sublimitas." and jumped up with an almighty rush and landed on the second floor balcony. I clenched my left arm as it suddenly flared up with pain. I looked at the bracelet that was flashing. Everyone who has magical powers has this on them, when you use magic it converts it, the more powerful the move the more painful it is.

My PA looked at me slightly disappointedly, "I thought you would teleport up here."

"Do you want me to be arrested," I may have a higher classification, but that's still illegal for me. "What was so important?"

"Nothing," She smiled at me as the truth dawned on me.

"You just wanted to make me hurt myself!"  I glared at her, "Why haven't I fired you yet?"

"Because the Old Dragon won't let you," oh by the way I forgot to mention, our boss…she's a dragon, a real dragon. This is why I always worry if her liking of me is normal or if it's dinning orientated. "Oh by the way," she continued, "your meeting with her and the board starts in a minute, you'd better hurry." All thoughts of her trick quickly left my mind as I realized that I had to get to the tenth floor now, the lift wasn't going to cut it. Sighing one more time, I mutter "altus sublimitas" again and started jumping from floor to floor upwards.

I could tell it was going to be one of those days...