Evelyn walked in with Clarissa, with Nick and Grizzizzik following behind them.

“Hello you two! Thanks for stopping by!”

Evelyn turned to see Derek’s mother, Amanda, there. Evelyn forced herself to pretend this was nothing more than an intense session of CCNC.

“Hey, thanks for letting us meet here so often,” Evelyn said.

Amanda smiled. “Oh, anytime. I tried to convince Derek to stay here. It can get so hot out there, and you don’t need to be traveling so much.”

“Well…” Evelyn’s thoughts stalled as she saw Tyler and Derek discussing something quietly. “It’s… it’s his senior year of CCNC, you know? He likes the immersion of it all.”

“You are far too kind of a friend,” she said, looking over at Nick. “And I thank you for that. Please make sure you pack plenty of water.”

“Oh, yeah.” Evelyn patted her backpack that held four water bottles. If they were going to do some intense grinding to level up, Evelyn needed plenty of water. Mostly because of Clarissa’s ice knife spell. She needed water to cast it. Her personal water was in a more insulated jug to keep it cold. Walt gave them until three, and they were going to use every hour.

They walked further into the house. Alejandra was there, looking nervous. Hraktar was leaning against the wall, looking ready for anything.

“Still no Rafael?” Evelyn asked.

Alejandra shook her head. “He got real angry at me last night when I talked about it.” She wasn’t looking at Evelyn. “I should have checked the game score last night before talking about it.”

Evelyn winced. They had been destroyed last night. The high school they were up against was too good. Hopefully next week’s game was a bit more balanced, what with it being homecoming and everything.

Evelyn glanced over at Grizzizzik, who had somehow chosen the darkest corner to brood in. “I think we’re all under a lot of stress.”

Nick joined Derek and Tyler’s conversation. Evelyn needed a change of subject. “Do you have a date for homecoming?”

Alejandra shook her head. “No. And I doubt anyone’s going to ask with just a week before.”

“Oh. Um, sorry.”

Alejandra shrugged. “No, it’s alright. There are more dances in the year. What about you? Do you have a date?”

“Yeah. Connor Frank,” Evelyn said.

“Oh, yeah. He seems like a nice kid.”

“Yeah. I’ve heard that, too.”

The silence descended on them again. Evelyn was playing with her fingernails. Connor was in her grade on the football team. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Jennifer had told him to ask Evelyn out so all the cheerleaders could be at the dance. Evelyn wasn’t sure what that meant, but Connor understood this meant they were not dating. Or that there was any such expectation of such. And she really made sure he understood that. They were going purely as a chance to get to know each other better. Perhaps become friends.

Amanda slipped into another room as Tyler slid his phone into his pocket. “Alright. I… don’t know what creatures we’ll meet today, but we have the added pressure of trying not to attract Akshi. Let’s… go. I guess.”

Milo patted Tyler on the back. “Let’s go, fearless leader.”

Tyler gave the mana fusor a look of defeat, causing Evelyn to giggle. Alejandra giggled with her, causing Tyler to give them a wry smile. “Alright. Let’s load up.”

They all got in the minivan. Evelyn was nervous, checking that she had water a few times.

“We should go talk with Calawit,” Tyler said.

Derek nodded. “On it.”

They drove for a bit as Evelyn looked out the window. The scenery passed, and she came to a humbling realization. They couldn’t walk outside and expect droves of bad guys to come so they could level up fast. Nothing had changed. There were already sparse enemies before. With some, they had to comb the town to look for. It wasn’t like the apocalypse was coming and bad guys roamed the streets. That would definitely help them level up. Earth was big, and she didn’t know where the creatures were scattered to. Tyler and Derek had their master list, and even though it had a couple thousand creatures, how many desert monsters were there?

They parked in the street by José’s and made their way to the tent.

“Hello, Calawit!” Clarissa said the moment she walked inside the tent.

“Princess! Is that you?” The gnome woman came out from behind a door. She smiled as she climbed on the desk, giving Clarissa a hug. She kept an eye on the opening door. The moment Grizzizzik walked into the tent, he was frozen. Calawit smirked as red petals landed on his wrist before he could walk in. Grizzizzik gave Calawit a glare.

“Hello to you too, Grizz,” Calawit said.

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

The rogue grumbled about something before walking further into the store.

“So, what brings you to my magical store?” Calawit asked.

“We wanted to check up on you,” the druid said as she broke away. “Akshi is here, in Elmwood, and we wanted to make sure you were okay.”

The old gnome woman frowned. “Akshi? Here? Mmm, I’m going to have to strengthen my enchantments.”

Tyler approached her, and Evelyn observed him. “Please, Calawit. We need your help.”

The gnome woman gave Tyler a look, mostly to size him up. “The only help I give is as a shops keeper. My adventuring days are over.”

He sighed, looking defeated. “I know. But… you’re the only level twenty sorceress in Elmwood. We need to get rid of Akshi. Permanently.”

Calawit still blinked at Tyler before straightening her spectacles. “I’ve got a strange feeling about you, child. Something about you is more familiar than the other earthlings. So I’m going to say some things in code that I assume you will understand.” Tyler blinked, waiting. “You know better than I why I can’t help you.”

Tyler’s shoulders slumped. Evelyn was confused, trying to pull the information from his face.

“I… I just thought that maybe with coming to earth…”

Calawit shook her head. She then straightened, her eyes shooting a distrustful look at Grizzizzik. “So you’re trying to kill your father, are you?”

Despite being across the way, Grizzizzik closed his eyes, his face contorted in pain. “Stop calling him that.”

“It’s who he is. Stop hiding from the truth, boy.”

Grizzizzik opened his eyes, glaring at her. He tried to distract himself by picking something up to look at it. But as usual, his hands went completely through. Flustered, he tried to save face and folded his arms, scowling at her. Calawit simply grinned.

“If you can’t help us, we at least need an extra pair of eyes,” Tyler said. “The only way to get rid of Akshi for good is a wish spell. We need an artifact that mimics it. Do you have one?”

Calawit frowned, her eyes scanning over her store. Evelyn waited, holding onto the strap of her bag with all her water bottles.

“That’s a deeply powerful artifact. I only carry baubles and trinkets,” Calawit said.

Milo picked up an amulet. “Is there something I can infuse to something to recreate such a spell?”

Calawit studied Milo. “You honestly think you could tinker with your toys and recreate one of the most reality altering spells in all of Shrouded Domain?”

Milo shrugged. “We are out of options. When we’re out of options, that’s usually when I come in.”

“I doubt you could at your current level,” Tyler said.

“Hence the other reason we came in,” Derek said, glancing at Calawit. “Have you heard of any monsters roaming? Causing any trouble? We need to level these guys up.”

Calawit placed her hands on her hips, a raised eyebrow. “Do I look like a tavern?”

“No. But until one gets magically built, you’re all we’ve got,” Derek said.

Calawit sighed, shaking her head. “I just wanted to be a shopkeeper.”

“So… that’s a yes?” Tyler asked.

Calawit groaned as she climbed back on the desk. “I’ll have to keep an eye out. I haven’t necessarily been looking.”

Milo reached behind him and pulled out a few bottles of gold mana. “For you.”

Calawit’s eyes brightened as she picked them up, looking at the color. “How absolutely beautiful!” She closed her eyes, touching the bottom of the bottle with her fingertips as she breathed in deeply. “You and Clarissa make the most beautiful mana together.”

“Why thank you,” Milo said.

Calawit rotated her wrist as three gold coins dropped into her palm. She then flicked them in Milo’s direction. He caught them.

“I trust you to give the princess her proper share more than I do your lizard friend,” Calawit said.

“Snake,” Grizzizzik mumbled.

Milo dropped two pieces of gold into Clarissa’s hand as he placed the other one in his inventory behind his back.

“Oh, thanks, Milo! But—”

“Nope, don’t say another word. I’ve got four other color manas to figure out, and the gold mana was mostly from your meditation. I just purified it,” Milo said.

Clarissa placed one of the gold pieces in her inventory and kept the other one out. “Calawit, do you have any more beakers or vials for my good friend here?” Clarissa set down the gold piece.

“I sure do!” Calawit leapt onto the bookshelf and walked across it to get to the other side. Milo’s eyes brightened as he followed her.

Evelyn moved closer to Tyler, who was looking distressed. “Is there something we need to know about Cal?”

Tyler took a deep breath, tearing his gaze from the floor as he looked at Calawit. “She knew the wish spell once. When I was playing her in one of my campaigns. She wished to be the most powerful mana wielder in the world to defeat our MED. Not just being able to cast sorcerer spells, but all the spells of all the different classes. Wizard, cleric, mana fusor, warlock.” Tyler shook his head. “She jumped from level seventeen to twenty. Possibly higher, but the levels don’t go past twenty. But the game master can give whatever consequence he deems worthy. We defeated the MED, but her lover, Vorix, completely forgot about her existence. And if she ever tried to adventure again, he’d die. The only thing she loved more than her powers was Vorix. So, she retired. And, with a roll of a die, she lost her ability to use the wish spell.” Tyler shrugged as Evelyn stared at him. “You know, I never created her with a tragic back story. Knowing this game, they’d go through trauma enough to shape them. My dice rolls certainly did their job on my poor gnome sorcerer.” Tyler watched the shopkeeper. “She was a hundred when I played her. Aged her up a bit to become the shopkeeper for your campaign. Mainly because I wanted to check in on her. Make sure she was still fine. And she is.”

Calawit slapped Milo’s hand as he tried to pick up a dagger. “Don’t touch that! That dagger belongs to a demon king! Every damage dealt by it will inflict that same damage on the nearest orphan child.”

Milo stared at her, eyes wide. “What the hell, Calawit. Why do you keep this stuff just lying around?”

“I like to know where it is.” She picked it up, squinting. “No, wait. This is a regular dagger. The demon king’s dagger is over there.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at a dagger that definitely had a dark aura around it.

A smile tugged at Tyler’s lips.

“Again, Calawit, what the hell?” Milo kept rubbing the hand she slapped.

Calawit shrugged. “It’s safer here than it is out there, as long as there’re no idiots in here.” Milo grumbled as he checked his hand. “If it makes you feel better, sweetie, I can make your hands not touch things like I do with Grizzizzik there.”

“It’s… fine,” Milo said.

“Oh, good.” She loaded him up with some empty beakers and vials. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Thanks.”

Evelyn left the tent and got in the van. Tyler checked his watch. “Well, we might have to drive around, but I don’t feel like we’ve really got anything else to do.”

“Really?” Derek asked.

“Yeah. I think that’s it. Until tomorrow.” Tyler glanced at Nick. “Can you do tomorrow?”

“If we get home early enough and say someone had to call in early at work, I could possibly convince my dad to do this tomorrow,” Nick said.

“Alright.” Tyler glanced at the scenery as Derek started driving the van. “That’ll also give Calawit some time to find some monsters.”

“Also, Mr. Anderson casually mentioned his house has some demon rats infiltrating his trash,” Derek said, like it was the most casual thing ever.

The silence in the van stretched on. Tyler pulled out a few pages, shifting through them. “Yep. Demon rats. We’ll have to look into it tomorrow.”