Shadow of the Blue Ring by Jerome Kelly

capabilities, there was every chance she would deliver something equally as impressive in the near future.
    “Wait… !” Morelli suddenly exclaimed, “is that a ring!?” She had noticed the diamond ring on Isha’s finger, her reaction suggested that word had not reached her ears of James and Isha’s big day.
    “Yes, it is, we’ve been married three years now,” Isha said proudly, displaying her ring finger for Morelli to see.
    “Wow! Well congratulations, I am so happy for you both. Damn it I’m jealous now, I only wish I was as lucky as you two.”
    “No men in your life then? Isha asked her.
    “Ah, I’d rather not go there,” Morelli said awkwardly, it had never been a subject she had been comfortable discussing, that was one thing that hadn’t changed about her, “shall we make our way to the grand hall then?”
    The three of them joined in with the masses heading towards the venue for the night. James could see Kosare among them, kitted out in a very alluring sky-blue dress that was a little shorter and a little lower cut than might be appropriate for the occasion. The girl was hardly known for being shy though. Ansare and his wife Anaya were also visible ahead of them, leading the delegation of Naisans who were in attendance of the party.
    Also recognisable from the last time he had been here were the tall, robotic city guardians, the Arkids, lined up around the grand hall as an extra security force should any trouble break out. They looked different this time though, they had been heavily upgraded with extra armour plating on their legs and now had larger bodies which supported extra weapons. Also among them were a group of much larger constructs, similar in shape but over ten meters tall at least and supporting heavy weapons and multiple pulse cannons, the likes of which were normally seen on armoured vehicles.
    “Like them?” Morelli asked, seeing James’s gaze drawn towards them, “those are Arkons, the Churian defence committee sought out the help of my father’s company to help design them. They didn’t feel that the Arkids alone were powerful enough to stop the more powerful Vulian war machines so they decided to upgrade their defences.”
    “It looks like he did a pretty good job, I wouldn’t want to see an enemy force lead by a legion of those things” James noted, “I’m guessing that isn’t the only thing you’ve been working on since we last saw you though?”
    “No, I’ve been travelling quite a bit over the past three years,” said Morelli, “I’ve been back to Raylia once or twice to examine some of the technology there, I was on Suros a few months ago too, they were working on some new front-line armour for their marines and wanted some of my input. I’ve got a few new toys of my own too, maybe we could start another revolution so I can test them out?”
    “One revolution is more than enough for this lifetime,” James laughed. While he craved excitement and adventure, war was not something he particularly wanted to experience again.
    “I’ll keep it to the testing ranges for now,” Morelli chuckled, “it’s good to know that people are appreciating me for my skills rather than my looks these days. It’s so refreshing to finally be known as the technical genius rather than ‘that hot girl from Edassa’.”
    James, Isha and Morelli made their way up the steps and towards the doors of the grand hall. After showing their invitations and being cleared to enter, only then did the scale of the inside of the building become clear. It was enormous, probably enough to hold four, maybe five thousand people and still have ample room for everyone to move about freely. Clearly that had been the intention of this party too as there were well over two thousand guests already inside. There were several bars offering up all manner of exotic looking drinks, tables all across the sides of the room boasting some interesting looking dishes, many of which had been imported from all