A quick author note, I'm moving forward with posting at least part 1 of 4 of this, which is out there in full elsewhere. One thing I decided to add is a character ID, just for the one character (not in this chapter) where my version is exactly what I picture for the original in the games.
Aetherium was a Sky Island as large as one of the lesser Kingdoms of the Mushroom Realms. It was almost covered by the docks, storehouses and soaring towers of a city-state. By day or night, it shown like the sun. On examination, it seemed a hopeless asymmetrical jumble, with almost as many mutually incompatible styles of architecture, art and geometry as it had buildings. It was on the south end that the skyship of King Ajax docked, where the older and more weathered facilities offered a semblance of familiarity. On their left was a vaguely similar ship, with sails instead of propellers. On the right was a craft that looked like an airborne chandelier, half as wide as the skyship was long but clearly far greater in mass.
Ajax disembarked by a narrow ramp, preceded by his chief guard and followed by Nopalina and Persephone. They were met by a winged purple creature with one eye and one horn. "King Ah-Yazz from Avalon 7-B," he/ she/ it said. "You have a provisional docking permit for 12 hours. It may be extended for another 6. You really must give notice earlier. Fortunately, you were vouched for by Dame Xaja. Her party is on its way."
Ajax followed the creature down the main walkway, Persephone at his side. She looked apprehensively at a gap between the planks. There were only swirling clouds below. At the intersection, a Mushroom Man and a Lindorm waited. Between them stood a woman in red. Though her dress came to the floor, a low neckline, a thigh-high slit and sheer night-black stockings left little to the imagination. "My Lady Cerasa," the Guard said.
"Hey, Angelo, my Mushroom Man," she said. She looked over Ajax. "And hello, My Lord. Is this the Lady everyone's talking about?" She extended a hand to Persephone. A black glove covered her forearm to the elbow. "I am Dame Xaja, of the House of Cerasus," she said. "I used to be Lord Ajax's Senior Attendant."
Persephone shook her hand and gave a curtsy. "I am Lady Persephone," she said. "I am my Lord's Night Attendant also. We have been talking about a… promotion."
"Good for you," Cerasa said. She looked over her shoulder. "Well, here comes my Lord now." Coming from behind was a man dressed in yellow and red. His hair and beard were crimson. As he approached, it became evident that he was otherwise identical to Ajax.
"I am glad you came," Xaja said as they marched to his ship. "It's not an official function, but several emissaries from the Star Union will be present. If we're going to make a good impression, we really need a crowd. Say, how are you doing? No hard feelings, right?"
"So, yeah, Xaja came out of the Royal Wishing Mirror," Lady Cerasa said. She walked behind them with Persephone. "It was an artifact one of the old Kings received as a Tribute from the Red Desert. Nobody really remembered how it worked. Anyway, it looked harmless. It has an inscription: `Speak your wish, beloved, be it what is, or will be, or would have been.' Only instead of giving you your wish, the mirror shows you what would happen and the way you would be if that one thing was different. Lord Ajax hung it in his Royal Chamber."
"The Mage explained it, afterwards," Ajax said. "There are many wishing artifacts, of course, but the power of the Mirror is far greater than the rest. Every wish creates a whole potential reality, or else channels one that already exists. Inevitably, there was instability. When Xaja appeared in the Mirror, he decided he wanted out. So, he came into our world, right in my bedroom."
"It was more complicated," Xaja said. "I came from a potential reality, on the outer edge of a semi-finite curve of potentialities. But for me, my World had always existed. I conquered it, of course, but I always knew it couldn't be like your World. I could see it, with my own Mirror that I learned how to use. I saw her, too, yet I already knew her, from a dream that had haunted me since I came to the World Island. I had all the time I needed to prepare. I gathered dozens of Mages, and hundreds of Relics. At the moment your Mirror revealed me, I used all the power and craft I had assembled to join the two Mirrors and project myself to the other side."
"But what wish would make you appear?" Persephone asked. "Who would have made it?"
"I did, naturally," Cerasa said. "We all laugh about it now. I wished to see Ajax with ambitions, and madly in love. That made Xaja appear. He had big plans, all right, and he was in love with me. He took the Palace, then he made me his Queen."
"It's true," Xaja said. "She was the reason I crossed over. I did everything she ever asked, except let King Ajax out of the Royal Dungeon. I knew she would do it anyway, of course, but it hurt me too much to stop her. Also, she hit me over the head. That hurt very much."
"It wasn't so bad, really," Persephone said cheerfully. "You were strong on economics and infrastructure. Oh, and I loved the redecorating campaign. So what have you been doing since then?"
"After Morel's expeditionary force beat us, we escaped on the Royal Skyship," Xaja said wistfully. "We sailed the Sky Islands, protecting their peoples from threats much worse than ourselves… well, the ones who could pay us protection money. One time, we defeated a Sky Pirate who had a magic lamp. It turned out, the genie would only do the work if we gave it all our loot. We argued about what we wanted. She won, because she had the sword. We both wished for the Moon, with certain core infrastructure, and of course, there's already 7 of them."
Persephone squealed and clapped. "So you really rule a whole Moon?"
"One of the bigger ones," Cerasa said. "It takes a lot of upkeep, what with asteroids and alien invaders and such. Still, it's our happy ending."
The two began to fall further back. As the men began to talk of other things, Persephone stepped closer. "I've been in the Royal Dungeon a few times," she said. "We just use it for an extra storeroom now. There's still chains and… things. I just don't understand… Why do the doors lock from the inside?"
They reached Xaja's ship and boarded. Ajax summoned a Messenger. "Tell the Captain that the men have leave until our permit expires," he said. "If I have not returned, take the Clipper back to the Aquamarine Isles." He instinctively felt the Eightfold Orb inside his bag.
It was a matter of an hour to reach Xaja's Moon. The clouds dissipated, and the blue sky gave way to a field of stars. From the observation dome, Ajax looked back. He could see clearly the field of gas, clouds and less certain debris that was the wider Disc. It was still possible to see the World Island, and at least a score like it. "I have looked at a book of astrophysics from our world," Xaja remarked. "There is a semblance of our science in effect. The Disc orbits the Sun, perhaps the remnant of what could have been a gas giant or another star. The Islands form from eruptions in the Disc. The gravity of the Seven Moons keeps the Disc from dispersing."
"Yes, the Lindorm King's Scribes and Mages have reached similar conclusions," Ajax said.
The moon was called Kulu by the Mushroom Folk. It was lit up even brighter than Aetherium. The brightest beacons formed the letter X on the darkened face. "The other side used to show my Lord's face," Cerasa said. "It was overkill."
"The Moon is about 2/3rds as wide as the contiguous United States, and slightly smaller in surface area," Xaja said. "Currently, there are 50 million permanent inhabitants; a good deal more than we had in the Red Realm, eh? Most of the facilities are for what you could call tourists. We average 1 to 2 billion visitors annually. A couple years ago, we hit 3. Most of them drop in for a few days. A growing number have been staying long enough to pay for personal residences. I don't get involved in day-to-day management anymore. The real work is getting the high-end clients, not to mention investors. My Lady is the one who has a head for it, but she does not get out as often, since she had Cerezita. I have been counting on this party to raise her spirits."
The ship descended toward a large environmental dome on the surface. It filled a preexisting crater at least 300 Stadia wide. Beneath the dome was a vast forest, where sightseeing craft flitted about and a large paddleboat cruised the main waterway. Four entryways were evenly spaced at the edges of the dome, which as the scale became clear proved to be ports with hangar bays for a hundred ships as large as theirs. Ajax looked out as they touched down inside a hangar. It had two berths. The other was already occupied by a considerably smaller ship. It had a slender, goose-necked fuselage with two graceful nacelles on either side, colored several shades of green with mustard-gold trim. In front was a crescent-shaped copper command module that looked like it could function as a second craft. He was ready to ask where it came from, but Xaja waved for him to follow.
The interior of the port was a cross between park and marketplace. Two levels of shops and restaurants lined both sides, catering to every need and taste with bright digital billboards. Toward the center, there were gaming courts, fields, gardens, pools, a golf course and a functioning amusement park, dotted with the huts, kiosks and carts of lesser merchants.
Ajax walked the grounds for a good while, arm in arm with Nopalina and Persephone. It was not his first visit, yet the sights still left him dazed with wonder. "It's like summer at the pier," he said. "A little…"
"Why don't we summon a cart?" Xaja said. He pushed a button on a small remote in his pocket. A three-wheeled transport pulled up. In place of a pilot's seat, there was a robot's head and torso built into the front. The four seats faced forward and back. Ajax and Persephone took the front. Nopalina sat with Xaja in the rear. Persephone clapped as the transport zipped into motion.
The transport followed the main throughway of the amusement park, past a rollercoaster. In the center was what looked like a gazebo, in the form of a dodecagon rather than a perfect circle. As usual, the shape belied scale. The structure did consist of a dome over an open deck. However, the deck was as large as a grand ball room, while the dome was a more exclusive dining hall topped by a carousel. A central stairway wound up to hall, and down to a lower level that held a pool. Four Mushroom Men and eight Lindorms were setting up tables for appetizers. Already, a score of creatures milled about, ranging from blue-skinned humanoids to a slimy organism that was mercifully insulated in a self-propelled life support tank. Xaja discretely directed them toward the stairs. They followed him up.
And that was when Ajax saw her.