It took me a second to comprehend her question and that she shouldn’t know about it. Still clad in my personal cloud, I looked over to her, feeling my brows furrow.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, relatively sure I never told her about my connection. But I did tell quite a few natives about learning from the Grandmother, including a reasonably full tavern in Kolyug.

“There was a thread, about some town named Kolyug being under siege, incredible stuff. And then, some woman appeared, single-handedly broke up the siege in a matter of seconds and apparently said something about her disciple being attacked. Some people claimed said disciple being you.” Dargira explained, her voice getting more excited with each word.

“No, I haven't seen the thread, things have been a little busy lately. If you would excuse me, I think I need to take a look.” I told her, giving the others a short look before triggering the log-out process, returning to my home-space.

Setting the time-compression to a floating value, allowing me to act as fast as my brain could process information, I took a second to look down upon the clouds, from the cliff-top temple I had built in my home-space. It was a gorgeous view, making part of me ache to fly for myself, to taste that limitless freedom. But after a few moments, I moved into the library, with the ancient-looking computer, including a cathode-ray monitor the size of a small car. It was a pure affectation, the computer was as simulated as everything else, but there was a part of me that saw humour in using a computer that looked older than I was myself.

Logging into the forum, I started looking for a thread about Kolyung, quickly finding it. I had read an earlier thread by the opening poster and given my opinion on the events around Kolyug but this one was new. Watching the videos, I was impressed, whoever that Spellcaster was, he had some skill. Those fiery monsters were tough and seemed to be controlled in some way, making me assume that the bear we had fought was a failed experiment, to be disposed. But maybe still monitored, if he had found my hair and used it to strike at me. Or someone else had attacked me, which was possible but I thought was less likely.

Not that it really mattered, the last video was an impressive one, the Grandmother demonstrating that she was one incomprehensible woman. I couldn’t even begin to guess how she had treated those small nuts to do what they did.

On the other hand, what the spellcaster did looked a lot simpler and gave me a few ideas. To me, it looked like he had implanted those monsters around him with Eternal Ember, giving them abilities similar to those of the bear we had fought. But at the same time, he was still able to draw upon that power for himself allowing him to use a lot more energy than he might be able to harness normally, similar to my Overflow but using outside energy, not just what you had within you. It hadn’t helped him against the Grandmother, making me wonder why he had fought at all, but that was a question I couldn’t even begin to investigate.

After that video and a theory that I was the disciple, thanks to something I had told a caravan-guard, the thread exploded a little. Old theories about me, being a plant for Pantheon-Entertainment resurfaced and things devolved from there.

Stories about a being called the Grandmother were reported from various Travellers playing in the north, some simple tales of her helping a single person, others making her out to be a nearly mythical figure, akin to a force of nature. Some stories made her out to be the kindly, helpful Grandmother that gives valuable advice, alongside tea and cookies, other stories had a darker theme, speaking of a malevolent force that could only be avoided and hidden from. Meanwhile, the natives of Kolyug remembered the tale I had told in the inn, retelling and apparently embellishing it, especially my involvement with the Grandmother, and the few Travellers in town were lapping it up, adding fuel to the raging dumpster-fire that the thread had become.

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For a moment, a brief, short moment, I considered involving myself but the prospect of the massive headache that would be made me reconsider almost as fast. Nothing good would come from arguing with people on the internet.

Instead, I took the time to take care of a few necessities in the real world, before logging back into Road to Purgatory. I had been gone for maybe an hour, their time, most of which had been spent outside the capsule, in the shower. It was another interesting question, regarding the capsule’s time compression and what it would do to society. If a person could work at a four times accelerated time-frame, thanks to the capsule, and was working all that time, would they get paid at the accelerated time, for the work done, or would they get paid the outside-world time, regardless of their accomplishments? I had a feeling that some companies would love to have employees that they could put into a capsule, no need for any real office-space, and get twice out of virtually every employee or even eight times the hours out of someone like me? I felt a small headache at the idea of auditing some of the financial records, when suddenly a work-day of more than twenty-four hours was not clear and easy indication that something was fishy but could be legitimate.

On Mundus, nothing had really changed, the others had eaten some more from the picnic-basket the dwarves had made them, the sun had moved a little in the sky but that was it. Dargira was still there, trying to talk to Adra and Rai, who seemed to be rather uninterested in the conversation. Their focus shifted to me when I re-appeared and Dagira brightened a little.

“You are back! Please tell me who the Grandmother is, you have to know, don’t you?!” she asked sounding excited again. Before I could even begin to answer, not that I really knew what to say, she looked over to Adra and, in an accusing voice, told me that my companions had declined to tell tales.

“I am not sure I can adequately describe the Grandmother. Suffice to say, she is an elder Power of the region and taught me quite a bit about magic. And that is all I’m willing to divulge, I really don’t want her mad at me.” I admitted, feeling a shudder run down my spine at the idea. I had no illusions about distance being a shield from the Grandmother’s ire, especially not while I was carrying a gift from her with me, a gift that had been penned by her own hand and enchanted by her magic. If hair was a good link, an active magical effect should be even more potent, at least in my understanding.

“And why did she help you?” Dagira pressed, causing one of my eyebrows to quirk up.

“Do you mean why she taught me? Or do you mean why she appeared in Kolyug?” I asked in return, causing Adra to fully focus on me.

“What do you mean, appeared in Kolyug?” she asked, her voice relaxed but curious. Before I could answer, Dagira piped up, maybe hoping that volunteering information to Adra would make Adra willing to divulge information in return, similar to the game I had played with her a few nights ago.

“The Grandmother appeared in front of Kolyug and wasted some Firemage who was besieging the city with fire-monsters. Didn’t you fight one of them, Morgana mentioned something along those lines.” she explained, causing Adra to nod.

“Yes, we did fight one strange fire-bear for the Adventurer's Guild in Kolyug. Didn’t you ask the Grandmother for help, right after you’ve been attacked?” Adra asked, sounding very relaxed, as if the sun had put her almost to sleep. Dagira’s eyes, in contrast, got wide as dinner-plates, flickering between Adra and me.

For a moment, I considered to play it off but decided against it. No reason to, really.

“Yes, I did, but I had no idea she would react like that.” I admitted, causing Dagira to fully focus on me.

“You are saying that she went to Kolyug because you asked her to?” she asked, sounding almost incredulous. I could almost see the gears in her head turn, form conclusions, wondering if I had some sort of ultra-powerful backer that I could use to lay waste to any enemy I wanted. The idea that the Grandmother was obeying anyone but her own whim was ludicrous, causing me to chuckle.

“Well, I told her about being attacked, yes. Why she reacted how she did, I have no idea. Might have been boredom, might have been that I asked on a Tuesday, might have been that the sunset was particularly pretty, no idea. I have no authority over her. I doubt that even the Gods of this world can claim such authority.” I admitted, remembering some of the exchanges I had with the Grandmother.

Dagira deflated a little at that and our talk switched to easier, simpler topics. Topics like our accommodations.