He ponders that then leads me to an office. "I know of your country and such. My grandfather came from the same kind of country. BUT I got a test, magical in nature, that will show what rank the Gods think you should be. This would be a 'what if' situation. You understand.

I shrug, "There are a Lot of Royals in my family tree, so it should be interesting to say the least. My family history reads like a who's who of 5 different nations."

He chuckles and nods even as he pulls out this crystal ball with white mist swirling through it. Has me put my hand on it and pretty much wait while the connected spirits check my pedigree and so forth.

I don't begin to understand how it works but they find the Family Crest.

I Supply "The language at the bottom is latin and its suppose to be the family motto - it roughly translates as 'the love of country conquors' which does not make much sense by itself but the tradition of the time it was written was to have only 3 words in Latin because some faith was putting it out that Latin was a Holy language - it's not. It's the language where the seat of power for that religion is located is all. The Cat at the top signifies Liberty, Vigilance, and Courage." I inform him.

He nods and waits as it prints out it's findings. Me I am watching what looks like dice rolling in the mist and I can almost feel Lady Lucks hand in all this. She is up to something.

He looks at his read out (which is in a language I don't know) and looks impressed. "Ok, your fathers people were Barons by the time you were born, but there are several marriages in to higher ranks and something prior to that, hm land was conquored ?"

I nod, "Normans invade in 1000 ad, that was a little over a thousand years ago."

"Ok, before that your family were Dukes. On your mothers side, lots of holy people. Ranking there is hard as I don't know much of the religions of that world. But very high regard there."

"Most of my psionic abilities came through my mothers people. Great Grandfather was known to be able to heal just by touching someone and willing it. No prayer or cermiony. Grandfather could find anyone if he could hold an item they owned. Law Enforcement loved him and made use of his gift allot. Ironically he was a Jeweler in profession. My mother was a very gifted fortune teller, very accurate on anyone not related to her. Her emotions messed her up when it came to family."

He nods, "As I said, gifted and holy family. The Gods favored them. At the very least, as your the only one of your family Here, your rank is Baron. But something is pushing for you to be a Duke."

"I can see a womans hand and dice in the mist." I point out.

He grins, "Oh her, she thinks highly of you and wants you to do well I think. So she is pushing for you to be a higher rank than what is truthful."

"By passing a few wars and such." he nods, "Yes. Still minor nobility as you said, long lines, good history as such things go. And well it gives you some benifits in court. Which around here you need."

"Having Met Curry and Astrix, I can understand that. Those two are scary in their own ways." I state with narrowed eyes, "Mind you as a rule I hate politics. I avoid it when I can. I am pretty good at hiding if need be." Jason is chuckling again, "Turn shrink spell on myself, and they will never find me." I point out. He is now having trouble breathing he is laughing so hard.

After he catches his breath, and sits for a minute, "I just had this image of you, tiny as can be, sitting on Currys head whispering in to his ear ideas and things he should do or say. In place of the conscience he lacks."

I chuckle over that image to.

"Ok well the gods that sent you here sent down the rank of Duke, which if I am reading this right, is one step lower than a king ?"

"Actually in British royalty, which is where that is taken from, Kings and Queens are also Dukes, maybe to more than one area. When a Dukes family line died out, instead of appointing someone new, they just absorbed it in to the royal lines. I believe it's a way for them to maintain power really. Otherwise my family Would have been dukes as we were the closest cousins in a few places."

He nods, "Ah that is what I am seeing here. That makes a great deal of sense. Tell me how large was this kingdom ?"

I conjure a map of Earth, then color parts in the British flag, "The British Empire, by the time I was born controlled these areas. This island here is Brittan, this large country over here is India, known for it's textiles and plethera of religions. Cows are holy there. One of their main gods is a humaniod elephant. Many of their gods have multiple hands or faces." Images of them move around the edges of my image as I show these things off. This small island over here is Hong Kong, it's an oriental settlement and the only place free of the oppressive reign of their closest northern neighbor. China. I am sure I am forgetting some of the other places. My own country started out as colonies to them and some of the other nations. Just over 300 years ago we fought and won a revolution from them and became our own nation."

I switch to a picture of the USA and point out all of it, including Alaska and Hawii. He sits back, nodding through my talk. I point out the area I am from there, on the east coast. Where I moved to be closer to my mothers people. I can't help it, but as I show him this, images from my world show up along the sides. Cars, airplanes, factories, huge industrial level farms, cities and so on.

He does not seem all that surprised by any of it. But then I don't know much of the worlds the other Lost Ones came from.

I sigh, "I miss my car." he grins.

"We have cars here, but the fuel for them is excessively expensive. About 5 gold a gallon, so they are but toys for the very rich. As for the reason for that, Oil like your people use is a rare substance in this world." he explains.

"Yeah that would wipe me out fast. Fernjan estimated my personal wealth, based on the coins I brought with me would be around 5 gold or a little over."

He nods, "I will have someone evaluate your home money sometime this week. Though you will be getting some local monies once they finish working out what all has been affected by this travesty of a war. Which is not over, but you did very effectively stop their armies. The mages and my armies are gathering up their people still. Tiny as you say is good at hiding."

"The mages I were traveling with used Gather cantrips and force cages rather effectively in gathering up the slavers. That may help your people. The magic does not see the tiny people as 'people' but small animals." I explain. I see the look on his face, that wonder, then he nods, "Right, it's normal limit is wieght and they now weigh about as much as a mouse." He turns and opens a cabinet full of mirrors, runs a hand over them and they all light up showing many other people, "Collection crews, we just learned that because of their size the enemy now registers to the magic as mice, so collection cantrips can be used to pull them in to cages for them." the various faces nod or state they understand. Then other than a few reports most sign off.

I find it interesting that these people have a far speaking technology in use but it seems to be limited to government level stuff.

He turns to me after he is done, "Magic mirrors, yes, expensive to make do to the substance that is applied to the back of the mirror. We do have things in place to talk to the citizens in the larger cities, but that projects a giant image of the speaker. Had to put several locks on that as some people were misusing it."

I nod as I can see that happening, "I can see someone like Curry triing to use it to push their own agenda's forward."

He nods, "Also had this one fellow, who was convinced he could sing, he kept annoying the capital as he would get in there and 'entertain the masses' The most entertainment they got was the day the guard broke in to the room while he was in there and the masses got to see him beat down and dragged away. Got a lot of thank you's from the citizens for removing him from office. They had a petition out to have him lynched. Something like 5000 signatures on it by the time the guard took him out."

I snort, that is bad.

While he was on the Mirrors, I was looking around the office, where I found the teleporter directory and the spells used to make them. I note 12 different errors. Then looking them over I note the errors were made by the same two men and from what I can tell they look to have been done on purpose, to limit the effectiveness of the system.

"Hey Jason, this is your teleportation network and what ?"

"The spells needed to keep it all working. You see something don't you ?"

"Looks like two of the men who put this together purposely set it up to be low in effectiveness. I don't know the reason but this many obvious mistakes, that compliment each other so well, had to have been planned." I point out the first few, he just looks blank.

He pulls me over to another device and has me put my hands on it. What I see is my starting page, level 1 and my baseline stats, including my level 22 intelligence and it just has 'natural mage' for class - race is blank, titles are blank. I stare at it, "The spirit is asleep I think."

He sighs, "This is a very old model, it does this sometimes. But I just wanted to look at your stats, so this is helpful in that. Your intelligence score is scary and now makes me understand how you can do magic the way you do. Natural mage with these scores. Ok then." he lets me see the teleport matrix files. Gets me some paper and pens and just 'lets me' work out what is wrong with them. He also gets me the books these two men wrote when they made up the matrix.

What I find is these two men own shares in a company that makes carrages and wagons. They were afraid if the teleporters were to efficient then people would stop buying wagons and such and thus cut in to their profits.

I report this all to Jason at dinner of the 2cd night. He sighs as he can sort of see that but as teleporters are for long distance travel and limited in who is allowed to use them.

I also gave him the spells needed to make it all work with out all their blocks in them. By the time I am done, I have worked out how to send someone from any point in the world to any other point in the world, provided they have one of these teleportation disk. I suggested a larger size for them so as to send high parishable items to far away places. Thus getting goods to places that otherwise would never get them. The economic boost would make it worthwhile.

I think he almost hugged me for that. I also put forth that using a teleporter to much, for a humaniod, with out special training, could be bad from a psychological point. Mostly in to much use may make you wonder if your real or spirit or similar forms of madness. So only persons of special training should use them more than a few times a year. This of course is just to keep the system from being missused. I tell him that to and he understands it. It is a better way to handle it than what the other two did.

Now actually Fixing the system will take time, but I made it more useful for them.

That night that I had dinner with his family and a few high officials. Was the first time my blessing over food did not make anything glow. That tickled some of his wives. One of his wives has no sense of humor. Overly serious type that one. All of them I learn are arranged political marrages to help hold the empire together.

I learn he had one wife that had been for love but she died a year ago.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He sighs about her, telling me he tried to have her raised but the cerimony was a failure.

I asked about it, cause I got like 3 different raise dead and ressurrection spells in my head from the Priest side. He shakes his head when I mention that.

The no nonsense wife - Helgret - states, "The body had to lay in state for 7 days before the cerimony could even begin. It cost 5 million gold just to do the cerimony, mostly because of the cost of specialty items to be used."

I look blank, "7 days ? No wonder it did not work. The soul takes 3 to 5 days to leave the body and the world. After that with out direct godly intervention it is completely impossible to bring anyone back. I don't know about these items you spoke of either. At most I can see around 5 to 10 gold for the needed incenses but everything else is just a show for the living as the spells themselves are pretty much spiritual paper work and some praying to your god for help in getting it done. Mind you it could still fail as raising someone is a huge strain on the body. That is what the RS on the constitution line is for. The chance a person will make it through a ressurrection spell. Also raising someone permanently drops the constitution stat by 1, each time it is used."

The dead silence at the table escapes me as I eat my meal. Helgret looks Pissed off. The others are giving her a wide eyed stare, except Jason who looks ready to go on a killing spree.

His voice is stiff, "Old Man Rob." he states, which gets me to look at him as well it's the first time someone other than my mother called me that, "Are you absolutely certain of that ?"

"Well yes. Unless your trying to get a soul back from a death god. They and Demons never let souls come back if they can help it. Messes with their paperwork you see."

One of the middle boys chirps, "Master Curry is in for it now. He is the one who told us all what had to happen and did the cerimony." he informs me.

I nod, "Well he is a death priest so that makes sense. It would be in his training after all. The high price is to discourage anyone from trying it to." I sip my drink, acting like I am not seeing the murderous look from Helgret, "So who murdered your wife ?"

Jason sighs, "Don't know. The spirits that were attending her were to terrified by what ever killed her to tell me much of anything about it."

"Those spirits still around ?" I ask blandly. Jason looks up then nods, "After dinner." is all he says.

So I change the subject to some interesting things I noted in the magic books he showed me.

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As I was leaving the dinner Helgret caught me an offered to let me use a special room for spirit summoning. She made 1 mistake, she 'let me' take her gloved hand in mine in a kind of perfuctional agreement. I was able to read her intentions via her glove, which she has on her person at all times as she does not like to touch people, at all. I review the flood of information I got from the glove as I go to meet Jason to discuss this event.

I meet him on the veranda, only his shadows and personal guards are near. I sigh, "That Helgret creature is pure evil."

He jolts and looks at me, "What ?"

I grin at him, "She only touches people through cloth." he nods, "My seeking spells, like my defenses, are always running. She tried to get me to use a special spirit calling room. A room Only spirits loyal to her will come to. She seems to think your gift and well anyone not of her personal family are all weak and inefficent. So we would be easy to fool."

One of his shadows sighs, "That is because we won't have anything to do with her. Also she has not seen what is guarding You on that front. We shadows can see them just fine and we are not going to mess with them."

Jason looks at them, "I can't see them."

They nod, "Well we are in the same realm as them but really they amount to specialty minor gods. Utterly Neutral types whose sole purpose is to act as a spriritual body guard to him. From what little we know this is left over from the war with the demons he faced back in his home. Something about he knows to many true names of certain Demonic forces who all want him dead because of it."

I nod, "I know the names of 3 of the Demon Kings generals, including the one plagueing you now. That explains so much really. I thought my ability was getting weaker, but if its just the guards. " I shrug. Jason has to admit, to have guards capable of protecting a soul from Demon Lords, they have to be powerful and probably invisible to most others because of that. So explains what happened to that level 5 demon the garden spirits told him about the first day.

"Anyway I don't know if she had anything to do directly with your wifes death, but she was hoping to make moves to make her either your '1st wife' or your queen so she could take over after your gone. Which is something else she is working on doing but your own guards keep thwarting."

The shadows all nod to that as does he. "She is not as good at playing these games as she thinks she is." he sighs, "But she keeps trying to use spirit assassins and well you can see some of my guards."

I nod, "Right, the easy to get around group." Grin as he shakes his head. Experienced demon fighter, so he knows I could probably get around the shadows pretty easily. Its the actual Gods protecting him that would give me trouble had I wanted to go after him. But he knows I won't simply because of who I am now. A person trying to live with as little stress as possible, not that I am likely to get that simply because of the Gods behind me pushing me to do things.

"On that note she sends any of them after me, I will send back parts of them, made solid, to her. And yes I can make them Solid if a bit squishy."

Jason nods, "Jello Molds."

I nod, "Pretty much really."

He sighs "Ok well I will summon the spirits that were there when my wife died."

He does, very nervous looking group, so I ask, "You all afraid of what Helgret will do if you answer us ?" One just nods. I make my guardians visible to everyone, mortal or not. "Trust me, she is so not a threat. We Need to know what lead to The Lady Johnson's death. You were the witnesses so you Will tell me."

They blab Everything, every little plot and scheme by those trying to remove her so they could grab power. Helgret played a huge roll in that as did her father who is hoping to use her to take over the empire.

Jason stares at the dark winged angels that surround me, he can see how they would be described as 'a knight but not'. There are 5 of them and what little he can see makes him not want to see any more of them. Though they go a long way in explaining my calm demeanor conserning things spiritual.

Once we get everything we need from the witnesses I turn to my guardians, "Hi guys, hows it going ?"

The center one snorts, "Not bad. Been more active since you got moved here. Locals just don't understand why we are here till we show them. Works for us, cuts down on the boredom."

"I see you got new robes, looks good." they look at their robes and nod, "Thank you and yes. As your going to be doing more the Upper ones thought we needed a new look. I personally don't care for the hoods, but the rest is nice. I do understand the hoods are to make us more intimidating but they make it harder to see to."

I nod, "So not really see through ?"

I watch as he face palms, "Right, I completely forgot to check for that feature. I really should've thought to ask you about that but you know."

I nod. After so many years we just stopped talking. Which they tell me is normal. They are with me for life. When I die they will see my spirit to it's final destination. My early years, they saw a lot of action, but in my later years, not so much. Now I am young again and we are back in action. I let them fade out as it hits me. No head ache. I used to get horrible headaches when I pulled that stunt. I didn't this time and I enjoy that feeling.

I look at Jason, "They have been with me for a long time and will be till I die. Their final duty is to see my soul to its destination."

He nods, I think he understands such contracts.

Back to 'reality' the spirits told us where all the evidence is and even about present conspiricies and who was behind a lot of it.

Both of us were quite surprised to learn Curry has actually been doing a lot to protect Jason and his family from spiritual threats.

Sure he is power hungry and wants the responcibility of that but he also wants to protect the empire and it seems he believes Jason is the best leader for the empire.

I let him deal with the rest. I return to the study to continue working on some interesting spells I found. (Also the couch in the study is much nicer than either my bed or the bench).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason, armed with this new information, sends out his guards to get the evidence from it's hidden places. Both living and spirit spread out and search for these things.

While the next day, Jason finds Curry who was just coming from his temple. Curry looks up in surprise, "My lord. Is there something I can help you with ?"

"Actually it was brought to my attention last night that you worked to stop a few assassination attempts on my person from various enemies I was not even aware of. I came to thank you for that. It really surprised me that you did that."

Master Curry, high priest of Jro-Daan, looks on in surprise and sighs, "And I thought I was being subtle about it to. How did you learn of this ?"

"Master Rob actually. He is a very powerful spiritualist with some very very scary spiritaul body guards. They look like death spirits crossed with knights, have large black wings and carry silver two handed swords."

Curry nods, "Oh my. Those are normally the soldiers of the high gods. He must have done something special to get those."

Jason nods, "He is the last of a party that defeated a Demon King in his own realm. He is here because the God the St Micheal people all worship is actually one of that Demon Kings, Generals. He knows that demons true name. He was sent here apparently by a high level Fate to help us fight that demon and save our world from it and it's forces. I thought it best if I told you of this myself."

Curry nods, understanding why his Emperor is sharing this information with him. Despite their rolls, Curry is one of the best to help with this sort of thing as his god stands against the Demon Lords to. This one is using a new tactic. Putting forth he is a god. That will not do. But working against such takes subtilty.

"So where is our young Sir now ?" Curry ask.

"I gave him access to my personal libraries and the study where I keep the records of magical items. He has already proved useful there. Worked out why the teleport stations have so short a range as opposed to normal teleporting. Sabotage by a pair who also own stock in a company that makes wagons. They were afraid the teleporters would cut in to the wagons profit margins."

Curry nods, "Never mind they are only useable by the Peerage and military." he sighs.

"Then he worked out how to tripple the size of the disc and make it so we could send large amounts of goods between places so we can get perishable items to far away places easier. Pointed out it would be a boon to our economy. He is right to. Means once they get the new pads set up we can get things from around the empire in days instead of never."

Curry is grinning, "Your thinking of those pies from that port town above Tharrisa aren't you ?"

"And banana's. I used to love banana's as a child, but we are to far away for them to ship under normal means to here." he sighs, much to Curry's amusement.