Lady Alice St Claire de Lisle slowly opened one sapphire blue eye and let out a quiet groan. Certainly it was much too early to be getting up. But as it so happened, a narrow beam of light streaked its way through a crack in between her heavy maroon drapes and shown right across her face and the platinum blonde hair splayed across her white down pillow. She thought about calling an auto to come and close them, but decided against it. She’d been thinking lately about making a visit to Earth. These past few weeks had been wild. One day she was testing water samples for contamination in a lab, and the next thing she knew she was a veritable Queen of her own magical realm!  Every day she tried to remember the wizard who had given her some of his power before he moved on to some new life. A real life wizard! It sounded insane! But here she was in her own little world enjoying a perfect and carefree life. She didn't know why she was chosen. The wizard had been exceptionally mysterious and would only tell her that he was passing his power on and moving to greater things. But after spending a month among her lovely creations, she was ready to visit her home world. She slowly rolled out of bed and headed toward her great dark walnut wardrobe, trailing her long black lacey silk nightgown behind her. As she was about to open the doors, she glanced back to see Lady Rose still curled up sound asleep, her frazzled red hair draped over her soft pleasant face. Lady Alice decided to be quiet as she searched for clothes that were appropriate for visiting Earth. She didn't have much to choose from, as fashion in her idyllic world of Sapphoshire focused on corsets, ribbons and bows, and frilly dresses. But after some rummaging around, she found her jeans, sky blue classic cashmere turtleneck, and white but well-worn sneakers that she’d been wearing when she met the wizard and began her new life. She dropped her nightgown among the wine bottles for the autos to clean up and slipped into her outfit.

	Heading out of the castle Lady Alice ran into one of her autos. The autos were shiny brass humanoid clockwork robots that dutifully kept Sapphoshire pretty and running smoothly, although they did occasionally need wound up. He offered to get her some tea and breakfast in is slow, clanky robotic voice. But she didn’t have time for all that, she was just too excited about her Earth trip. She said no and quickly thanked him as she blew past and headed out the ornate oak doors of her castle. She briskly walked past the entrance to her garden, only taking the briefest of moments to notice the wonderful bright green hedges and beautiful kaleidoscope of fragrant flowers. In just a few minutes, she was at her first destination, the dragon pens. Sapphoshire was a big place, but there were no cars. But who needs cars when you’re a wizardess? Lady Alice figured dragons were the stylish way for a magical girl to get around. Her dragon Alita was and intimidating creature the size of a bus and covered with metallic silver scales. Lady Alice shouted to a nearby auto who was painting the side of the dragon pen to grab her finest leather saddle and tackle and prepare Alita to ride. While her dragon was being saddle, she headed down to the dark, smelly cold room beneath the pens. Having not brought a candle with her, she was forced to fumble around in the dark for a bucket and some salted fish. Once she had everything together, she hauled the fish up to the pen to feed Alita. The dragon was delighted and nuzzled Lady Alice affectionately. Having spent a few minutes feeding and petting Alita, Lady Alice mounter her, snapped the reigns and took off toward the portal that would take her to Earth.

	Flying gracefully over the silver ponds and streams and the roofs of the majestic manors dotting the green landscape was an exhilarating feeling. She loved being a wizardess! All too soon she saw the eerie purple glow of the portal and descended in great circles down to it. As she dismounted her dragon, she nearly lost grip of the saddle when she was struck across her entire body by a powerful gust of wind! Lady Alice still wasn't used to dealing with angels, even though she had created them. The tiny figure that had land right next to her and Alita had bronze skin and jet black hair. She looked straight up at Lady Alice sternly with big hazel eyes. Her arms, covered like the rest of her body in smooth white segmented armor which occasionally danced with dappled blue light, were crossed. And her white feathery wings, almost as large as a dragon’s despite her small size, continued to slowly flex forward and back. “And where are you going Lady…..” the angel asked in a comically high voice considering her serious demeanor. “Lady Alice St Claire de Lisle. You know, your creator?” she replied slightly annoyed. The angel narrowed her slanted eyes at her and then closed them momentarily as if in deep thought. They popped open suddenly and she said, “You may go.” as if she still wasn't convinced Lady Alice was who she claimed. “Great! Here. Hold my dragon.” Lady Alice said excitedly as she thrust the reigns into the angel’s hands and headed through the portal.

	Lady Alice arrived in an isolated part of the city park where, in her previous life, she had liked to jog and occasionally read her nook. It was much hotter now than when she had left to create her magical plane, and a turtleneck did not feel like the best choice of attire. “Where should I go first?” she thought. She didn't have any family, so there wasn't any urgent familial business of that sort to attend to. But she hadn't eaten anything today, so she decided to go to a local bistro she liked. She took in all the familiar sights and sounds of the city as she sweatily walked down Main Street. She was reminiscing about her old apartment and coworkers when she was rudely yanked from her pleasant thoughts. Not looking where she was going, Lady Alice had walked right into a man as he turned the corner so hard that she fell right back onto her bottom. The amount of force from the blow seemed completely unreal for simply bumping into someone on the street. But as she grumpily looked up she saw why this was. Before her stood one of the hugest men she’d ever laid eyes on. And just as much to her surprise, he was dressed in a fine double breasted tuxedo and top hat. He quickly reached down to help her up and completely lifted her back to her feet with one quick motion. As she stammered an apology, Lady Alice noticed he did not look at her angrily with the bright blue eyes sitting above his wide handlebar mustache. As he began to speak, he gave off an exceptionally gentlemanly demeanor. “My most sincere apologies milady!” he interrupted her stammers with a boisterous and jolly voice. “It was entirely my fault! Are you alright?” Lady Alice brushed herself off and looked down at her legs. She seemed no worse for wear, although her bum hurt just a little. “Y-yes I’m fine sir.” She said looking up with a certain amount of disbelief at the gigantic and thickly muscled figure before her. “Excellent! I’m afraid sometimes I don’t know my own strength!” as he straightened his tuxedo he continued, “Now milady, not to be to blunt but I’m not here by accident; I know what you are.” He spoke more seriously now, but his eyes remained kind and his demeanor friendly. “Of course this isn’t the best place to discuss such things, ah I know a place that serves fabulous foie gras. Won’t you join me? It’ll be my treat. The name’s Armstrong by the way milady, might I learn yours?” he rapidly went on before quickly bowing. “My name’s Lady Alice St Claire de Lisle, but you may call me Lady Alice. Pleased to meet you I’m sure.” She said as she smiled warmly and curtsied. “But isn't it early in the day for foie gras?” she asked.  “It’s never too early for fine food Lady Alice! One must eat often and eat well if they want the energy to learn the art of Muscle Wizardry! Doh ho ho!” he boomed. She looked around to see if they were drawing attention, but most people seemed too busy to worry about the enormous well-dressed body builder and lovely lady talking on the sidewalk. Perhaps a funny look here and there, but nothing which worried her too much. So Lady Alice took Armstrong’s arm and the two headed down the street to the ritzy part of town to discuss something…she wasn't quite sure what, but it clearly had to do with this whole magical wizard business.

	As they sat down in the finest restaurant that she’d ever eaten at, Lady Alice found herself feeling rather under-dressed. She longed for the lacey, puffy dresses of her new home. Although she was hungry, she barely ate. She was too stunned at the information Armstrong was sharing with her. Apparently she wasn’t the only one the old wizard had given his power to. It seemed that he had divided it up among several, and maybe even a lot of people around the world. And each of them now had their own magical realm, just like Lady Alice. Armstrong had managed to make contact with several wizards with enigmatic names like The Apostle, Red-Blue, and Tyra. They had quietly communicated with one another and decided to form a sort of wizard council where new wizards could meet and plan things out, and hopefully protect Earth from the dangers of this turn of events. This last part was of utmost importance as it seemed that some wizards weren't inclined to be friendly to non-magical Earthlings. Although this news was nerve-racking to Lady Alice, Armstrong seemed quite jovial as he explained all this. He went on to tell her a little about his savage world of muscle wizards and amazons and asked her about Sapphoshire. After they had talked away much of the day and run up quite a high bill, Armstrong invited Lady Alice to join the wizard council and even suggested Sapphoshire as a possible meeting place for the council and Earth representatives, as Sapphoshire was a safe plane with very human looking citizens. After a happy farewell and promise to contact her again, Armstrong and Lady Alice headed their separate ways to their own portals. Lady Alice walked back quickly, nearly running, as she didn't feel as safe on Earth now. Armstrong seemed extremely friendly, but there were other powerful wizards which might not be so nice. So she returned to Sapphoshire to find a very unhappy angel still hanging on to Alita.