I’d never really imagined myself standing on the side of the road, selling knock-off rolexes before. But there I was.

It was surprisingly easy to convince RENA. Although, convince isn’t really the right word. That implies agency, which RENA didn’t have, no matter how much AI-enthusiasts would like you to believe otherwise. RENA was simply a series of if-then statements. There was no more intelligence there than you would find in a flow chart - even if that flow chart was millions of pages long.

Then again, non-special human beings acted pretty similarly, but I wasn’t sure if they had agency either, necessarily. I sometimes doubted whether or not I had agency, or if I was just fooling myself. When someone figures out how to make an AI that acts like it has a spark, then I’ll be impressed.

RENA had OK’d the request, which meant that it fell within acceptable boundaries of action, and that her calculations derived an acceptable likelihood of success. As she put it.

Still, I had only gotten her to send me five watches - each costing about thirty dollars - as well as ten nail clippers. The nail clippers were less likely to sell, based on what Cadoc had said, but they were a dollar a pop, so no big risk there.

“Amazing artifacts for sale!” I shouted, holding a faux-gold watch in each hand. I stood beside one of the paths to Eraztun, Cadoc standing off a little behind me, as “protection.” We were within eyesight of the Eraztun guards. That was for some further protection, and we hoped they wouldn’t mind. They didn’t seem to.

We were on the opposite side of the road from where Cadoc had been living. It was impossible to see through the crowd, so we figured that would be enough to avoid his maniac mother.

“Tell the time from anywhere! In dark caves, at night, without water, sand, or magic! A dependable, stylish tool that will make everyone you know jealous!”

I’d never been a salesman before, so I channeled stuff I had seen on TV. I gave my pitch to an uninterested line of travelers, waiting to be let into the city.

Some of the crowd stole glances at us, but they didn’t leave the line. The poorer among them probably figured they couldn’t afford such a thing, and the richer-looking types turned their noses up at us.

It was hours before someone, finally, came by to have a look.

The man towered over me, his body a mess of interlocking scars. He wore leather armor, with the carcass of some unknown animal draping from his shoulders like a cape. I felt something deep in my bones that told me he could crush me like a bug, if he wanted to, as if he was radiating power. Maybe he was. The temperature around me seemed to drop twenty degrees. A primal fear told my legs to run, but I fought the impulse. I gulped.

“What is it?” he asked.

I looked to Cadoc, then back to the man. “It’s called a watch, sir.” The “sir” felt strange in my mouth, but I didn’t know any better way to show respect. “It can tell the time accurately to the second.”

I held it up to the man, pointing to the different hands, showing him how to put it on, and doing my best not to piss myself.

“How much?”

I looked to Cadoc again. He nodded.

“One halfgold,” Cadoc said.

I winced as he said this. I had consulted Cadoc over the price. He had assured me I could get even more for them, if I wanted, but I was afraid someone would just kill me and take them if the price was too outrageous. Cadoc said I couldn’t possibly sell them for less than a halfgold, so that’s what I decided on. Still, to ask for real gold in exchange for a fake-gold watch felt like I was scamming people.

Which I had no problem with, if we got away with it. They can go pound sand, for all I cared.

I stiffened as the man brought a hand to his side, thinking he was drawing a weapon, but he simply pulled out a coin and tossed it to me. I handed him the watch.

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He strapped it onto his left wrist, and walked away. “Buy yourself some soap,” he said as he departed. “You smell like death.”

I hardly noticed. I was staring at the coin.

It was gold - real gold, by the looks of it. It was light, and thin, which Cadoc had told me was why it was called a “halfgold.” There was a larger coin called a “fullgold,” - or simply a “gold” - which was twice the value.

It was beautiful. I didn’t know how much gold this was, or even what gold went for back in my own dimension, but I was grinning at it all the same. This could work. This could really work.

A niggling voice in my head tried to plant doubts in me, but I ignored it. Even if I wasn’t special, anybody could make money in this situation. Tom would have made more, I was sure, but even a nobody like me could sell watches on the side of the road, when the margins were this good. Well, I assumed they were good, at least. A gold coin had to be worth more than thirty dollars.

Assuming it was real gold. But Cadoc had assured me it was.

Apparently this purchase had been enough to convince other members of the crowd, because suddenly I was surrounded by freaks.

I sold one watch to a graying old man, dressed in what looked more like pajamas than robes, who muttered to himself the entire time. I sold another to a woman wrapped in bandages from head to toe - even her eyes, although she seemed to get around just fine. I wondered how she would even look at the watch, but I didn’t ask. I just took her money.

We sold another one to a shifty-eyed man, who somehow looked even dirtier than we did. He kept looking over his shoulder as if what we were doing was illegal.

And the last one we sold to a small child. I was amazed when he took out a bag filled with gold coins, and absolutely dumbstruck when, after tossing the halfgold to me, he held out one hand, and drew the watch towards him with magic, where it proceeded to put itself on his wrist.

And just like that, I was sold out. I couldn’t believe how well it had gone. I actually had to turn people away. I asked if they were interested in nail clippers instead, but none were.

I would certainly be asking RENA for more watches, and I was certain that she would give them to me, now that I had proved the plan to be effective. But it seemed like a bad idea to summon watches out of thin air in front of the crowd. “If you do that,” Cadoc had said. “I can’t guarantee someone won’t kidnap you, and torture you until you spit out more watches.” I would be the goose that laid the golden rolex.

We retreated to the hill that Cadoc had brought me to before, and discussed our next move. I wanted to send it all back to RENA. Cadoc disagreed.

“Send a coin or two to your goddess,” Cadoc suggested. “It would not do to slight her. But then, we ought to buy supplies. Weapons. Armor.”

“Why? Why not just keep selling watches until I pay off my debt?”

Cadoc shook his head. “Standing in front of the guards will not guarantee our safety. We were lucky, today. We need protection. Unless five halfgolds is enough to pay off your debt.”

I looked at the five coins in my hand. I really doubted it was enough. But it should make a dent.

“I’ll send one,” I agreed. “And see what it’s worth. Then we’ll go from there.”

I knelt down and sent a coin to RENA, watching as it vanished from my palm.

“This is indeed gold, Miles.” RENA informed me. “After taking our cut, subtracting transportation costs, as well as relevant taxes, we are able to deduct $250 from your owed balance.”

I grinned. I had just sold a thirty-dollar watch for almost ten times that. And I had done it five times, no less.

Still, it wasn’t as much as I had imagined.

“I really have to pay taxes on this?” I asked. “What’s the IRS going to do, track me down?”

“They will track Dimen-X down, Miles, not you. Although if any federal agency were capable of finding you, the IRS would be the most likely.”

I laughed.

“That was not a joke, Miles.”

I looked back at the remaining coins.

“So where does that put me?”

“You currently owe $10,649.46.”

I frowned. “RENA, that’s more than what I owed before.”

“The watches weren’t free, Miles. We had to charge the cost of those to your balance, first. Including transportation, which was approximately sixty dollars each. But you still have four more gold coins, if I am not mistaken, which would put you at $9,649.46, approximately.”

I stared at the coins for awhile, thinking.

Cadoc has a point about getting some supplies. We have sausages, but that’s about it. And we can’t just sleep out in the open and hope for the best. I desperately need to pay off my debt, but there’s no way I’m going to get there in a day or two. And in the meantime, I need to survive. We could use some of this money to rent a room somewhere, buy some food, some new clothes…

“Cadoc,” I said. “What could we buy with just one of these coins?”

“A couple of unenchanted weapons,” he said. “Or a room at an inn for five nights or so. Maybe a week. Or fifty decent meals.”

I’m rich.

I imagined my suddenly-bright future. It would take a long time to pay off the entirety of my debt, but the path was clear. Ship watches here, sell them for a massive profit, and use some of the extra to live like kings in the meantime.

Not sure what good Cadoc is actually doing for me now, if I really think about it. Well, I’ll need to find an inn outside the walls. And some places to buy food and water. He’ll know where to find those. But after that… I’ll have to reassess our relationship. I thought he was special, but his magic is very underwhelming.

“How about all three?” I asked with a smile. I sent one more coin to RENA - $10,399.46 still owed - and kept the other three. I didn’t see any harm in it. There would be more coming soon.

“How many watches can you send me, RENA?”

“Dimen-X is still extremely hesitant to spend more money on you, Miles. I can send you another five. More than that would require approval.”

“For once, RENA, I have time. Send me the five, and ask for approval.”

“Understood, Miles.”

I stood, and the world seemed brighter.

“Where’s the nearest inn?” I asked Cadoc. “And stores, and whatever else we’ll need.”

“A few hours journey from here, along the road, there’s a little town. It’s mostly full of polluted, but there will be people there who can sell us the basics. No one with any power at all wants to settle this close to Eraztun. They either want to be inside the walls, or far, far away.”

“That’ll do,” I said. “Although I suppose that means we won’t be selling watches to anyone there, huh?”

Cadoc laughed. “You could likely count the number of people in Dross with enough money to buy a watch on one hand.”

“We’ll wait here,“ I said, sitting down besides the wide tree. “And wait for RENA to send more watches. Then, we’ll head to Dross.”

Cadoc agreed with the plan. I closed my eyes, letting daydreams drift in.

I thought I would have to find Tom first, and then pay off my debt. Now, somehow, it seemed I would be able to do the opposite. Eventually RENA would get approval to send more watches, and then I’d be selling hundreds of them. Before long, my debt would be paid, and I’d use the money to help find Tom - maybe even hire some trackers or something.

Things were looking up. Which was never a good sign, not in my experience. But I ignored that feeling. This was a different dimension. Maybe I could succeed, for once.