By the time Davin and his friends made it to their room, he was exhausted, full, and glad to be about to climb into bed. Hugh had wished him a good night before he headed out to the town to bury himself in books at the small bookstore that the town had. Cadence had opted to share a room with him, having already settled into bed Davin stretched and cracked his neck, settled into his bed, and was out barely moments after putting his head on the pillow.

The darkness that he found himself in was warm and familiar, he imagined that he would be smiling if he had a body there. When the light that he'd grown to know as compasses' presence he was ready.

"Hmmm, I hope that you don't mind, I read your memories, and I know that you want to enjoy your sleep. I hope that you don't mind." Compass's soothing voice comforted Davin more than he had expected.

"No, that makes sense, I can only imagine how long it would take to get the whole story out." Davin gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.

"And that is the creatures that have gone 'extinct' from your world?" Compass asked as a mental image of Truck filled Davin's mind.

"Yes!" Davin's excited thoughts and memories of dinosaurs flooded his mind.

"HAHAHA, yes, I have seen these creatures many times in your mind, and now that you have interacted with 'Truck' I believe that is what you call him, he doesn’t have the same energy as when he first entered, he has stabilized and is now part of the world, I do not know about his 'respawn' abilities, so I would be careful." Davin felt the concern in the words.

"Good to know, that whole aspect of the afterlife kind of terrifies me." Davin felt the equivalent of a mental shiver that would have run through his body.

"That is something to be concerned about with how new you are to the afterlife. The newer ones tend to be the easiest lost, but you have made very strong connections in this world." Which made Davin think about Jes, Gale, Grim, and even Big Green.

"Cadence and Hugh didn't have a clear idea of how the whole process worked." Davin felt himself being hopeful for an answer.

"Ah, yes, that is a secret that we hold closer to the vest than many appreciate, but we desire some of the secrets about this world to be kept." The patron's tone was sorrowful. "The best that I can suggest is to keep with what you are doing, you are still worth keeping around."

"I can understand that, like Santa or the easter bunny." Davin felt the emotional equivalent of a sarcastic smile warm his body.

"You compare me to you mythological creatures that you tell children of in order to get them to behave?" The immaterial voice let out a chuckle. "I can see how that comparison would make sense to you."

"We still okay to head to the bastion?" Davin asked hoping that their plan wasn’t going to be interrupted.

"Yes, How else would I get you your reward?" A light-hearted chuckle filled the air.

"Reward?" Davin found himself asking out of reflex.

"Yes, I asked you to do a job, and as such you are entitled to some kind of compensation for your work." The voice took on the same tone as one of those insurance commercials, it punctuated but a chuckle.

"You did that on purpose?" The offense in Davin that still lingered, memories of infomercials from before the age of streaming services.

"The memories that I have seen are an endless source of entertainment here, there were so many things that your world has made, your memory is astounding." The cheery tones made Davin relax.

"You’ve just been watching my memories like it was some kind of drama?" Davin's tone was overtly sarcastic.

"Oh, no, you have memories of something that you called anime, that I have been trying to piece them together to be able to follow them in their entirety." the statement broke Davin, he burst out into the closest to full body laughter that he could.

"You have been watching the anime that I've watched in my life?" Davin felt that if he had a body here each word would have been interrupted by a bark of laughter.

"Yes, sorting them has been the hardest part, my biggest question is how did you keep all of this straight in your mind? There is so much there, one of them has over a thousand episodes?" Davin could feel Compass's excitement climbing. "I do understand more why you seemed so excited to be here than any of the others that we've come across in the last few thousand years."

"Well this place is basically an entire genre of entertainment, so for me, this place is almost a dream come true." Davin felt a somber wave roll over him.

"Ah, yes, there are a few things that detract from that… I am sorry for that." Davin felt that if he could have seen the Patron he would be avoiding eye contact and shuffling his feet.

"Nothing to apologize for, you didn’t bring me here, and at this point, I'm the one stirring up the trouble. Speaking of my memories, I had a strange dream the other day, it was like a movie theater, but instead of movies, it was just memories. Do you know what that means?"

"Ah, yes, you have made it a few weeks in, usually it is how most of your locked away memories are kept, the form changes based on the individual, for most it is as books or by song, you are just the first one to have movies and television."

"That is a good point… How often with that happen?" Davin felt nervous about the question, while he was excited to have them, he didn’t feel the need to be constantly reminded of what he'd lost.

"Hmm, that is a good question, once you are given your room, you can theoretically access it any time, but that is dangerous, spending too much time there can lead to one's end."

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"Well, that's good to know ahead of time…" a tinge of fear hit him.

"Oh, do not worry, from what I have seen in you, I doubt that you will seek the comfort of those memories too often, but it is one of the things that the afterlife itself offers, many seek it." Hope filled Davin's mind, not his own, but that from another that believes in you.

"Thanks, that has been making me anxious, so it's nice to have some more information on it." Davin felt his mind decompress as if a weight had been lifted.

"I have pushed our time further than I should, I do apologize, you will suffer slightly as a result, but it is time, I will see you soon."

The light faded, and Davin drifted back into the darkness.

When Davin finally awoke, it was in a pool of his own drool, his face buried into the thread-bare pillow.

"Pillows." He groaned out as he mentally added another thing to the list.

The room was empty as he pulled himself out of bed, the day having been much further into itself than he was expecting, spring also made the day start earlier than it had when they were in winter, which was weird to think about… Getting dressed slowly, his head thrummed as if he had spent the night drinking far heavier than they had.

When he'd opened his door, he could hear the activity of the central room, the hustle and bustle far exceeding what they had seen the day before. The room was the fullest that it had been, every seat was full from what he could see. His friends weren't anywhere to be seen, so he made his way through the room towards the bar, his stomach grumbled as the smell of the food hit him. Sadly the to-go meal wasn’t a thing, so Davin had to find a narrow nook where he could sit so that he could eat, the food was just as good as he could remember. He felt refreshed, making his way into town he made attempts to find his friends.

Carts, as far as the eye could see, many of them loaded to the brim with what Davin assumed were dungeon monster drops. As he walked through the town he inspected one of the wagons he could see, Spider legs, chitin, bundles of webbing. A shiver ran down his spine, the idea of spiders big enough to fill a wagon was terrifying, wagon sized spiders… Davin jumped back from the wagon as one of the legs twitched, or at least he thought that it did. Made him fear some of the potential dungeons that they would be in at some point, especially ones from his world.

A part of him wanted to mingle with other adventurers, gather rumors, and see if anyone else had come across things from his world, but deep down, he also just wanted to rest, the last few days of riding and walking left him feeling drained, so the relaxed pace of just being able to meander was refreshing. Keeping his eyes open for his friends fell to the backburner, the liveliness of the town as a whole had him enthralled, the center of the town that sat just outside of the adventures part of town had popped up its own miniature market. Seeming as though adventuring groups were swapping loot and stories about their most recent runs into the local dungeons.

He found himself browsing the stalls, looking at some of the patches that had dropped, finding a few that strongly enticed him, each had a small place card written in the afterlife's primary language that gave brief descriptions of what they each did and a rough value for them.

"What's a marker?" Davin asked as he looked over the card.

"Hmm? Oh, you must be new." The gruff hairy person said as he watched Davin as he practically hovered over the goods.

"Not entirely, but still new enough I guess, this wasn't all up the last time that I came through." Davin looked from piece to piece.

"Ah, we only usually have this up for a day or two each week, they are for us adventurers to trade goods that we can't sell to a town. Larger parties use them as a way to trade in tokens without having to carry massive amounts of tokens." Pulling out a shield-shaped mark to show it.

"What is the value of a mark?" Davin asked.

"Heh, straight to the point eh? The current rate is about Five hundred Onyx tokens a piece." He stood up straight crossing his arms and nodding.

"Current?" Davin asked confused.

"Yes, it changes, usually based on how much surplus of gear each large party has." Stroking the scraggle of a beard that was on his face.

"larger parties? I've heard that phrase before. What does that mean?" Davin felt a little dumb for asking.

"They are large, usually big enough to field multiple parties. Mine is four parties large." Inflating his chest as he said it.

"Oh? Like a guild?" Davin asked as the whole thing now made sense to him as he thought of his days of raiding on MMOs.

"Guild? Like the Rogues? And artisans?" Letting or a low grumble. "That makes a lot of sense."

"So it will be a bit before I get enough to trade?" Davin asked, more as a thought.

"Unless you have something worth trading for, we still like to get a surplus on some of the more useful things. But those only work for the 'guilds' as you’ve put it." Smiling with the use of the word.

"Ah, only have a few things that may be worth trading, but I don’t know, what does it take to get them evaluated?" Davin thought about the strange items that they got from his first dungeon, still not sure what they did. He made a mental note to ask Hugh.

"Well I could take a look, there is usually a group that inspects things and comes to an agreement on what they are valued at, but usually have to go to the Bastion to get them fully appraised.

Davin nodded, thinking that Big Green may have a good idea of who to ask. "We are on our way to the Bastion now, so I think that we can get them inspected then."

The scruffy man nodded. "Ah, yeah, if you're planning to go to the Bastion, you might as well wait till then." Throwing his arms wide, "Enjoy the market! Even if you can't buy anything, it never hurts to look." Letting out a heavy laugh.

"I'll do just that!" Davin said cheerfully as he went about his wandering of the pop-up market.

When Davin finally found one of his friends Cadence was playing their strange instrument while they told stories. Davin listened as they were telling the story of finding a gentle majestic beast that he assumed was Truck. He sat and listened, enjoying the other stories that they were telling, a spark of warmth filling him as he found a place to sit, he relaxed with some of the other adventures that were talking quietly amongst themselves.

When Cadence had finished their stories Davin had waved them over, their voice was a horse from the long stories.

"You are awake, did you rest well?" Cadence asked, clearing their throat.

"Yeah, still feeling the last few days on the road, but I think that I'll be fine tomorrow so that we can set out. But, do you want to get a drink? You sound like you could use it." Davin asked as he stood up.

"Ah, yes I am rather parched, I think that the inn we are staying at should have calmed down," Cadence stated as they cleared their throat again.

When they made it to the inn, Hugh had his face half buried in a book with Leaf rocking back and forth on his shoulder.

"Did you gather the supplies?" Cadence asked as they sat down next to him, holding up their hand to get the attention of the staff.

"Hmm?" Peeking up over the edge of the book to see his friends. "Yes, I got a few more 'fresh' ingredients like Davin asked, I even found a kettle, so we don't have to use the same pot for everything."

"Oooo." Davin cooed. "Might mean we need to get some decent tea.

Hugh rolled his eyes. "So we set out tomorrow morning?" he asked.

"If all goes well, that sounds great," Davin said as he stretched.

"If all goes well? Are you asking for something bad to happen? Seriously, this is even your world's nonsense, and you insist on cursing us?" Hugh asked.

"Haha, that won't always happen…" Davin sounded dejected.