Stephen rooted through the cupboards in the kitchen, his conjured magical light floating above his shoulder. After discovering a bag of valnuts, a nut from Mecond, he took the bag and ate from it as he continued his search.

“Valnuts taste better cooked,” Stephen heard someone say from behind him. Looking back, he saw Rurth standing in one of the kitchen’s doorways, his sleepy eyes looking puffy.

“You’re on guard duty?” asked Stephen bitterly as he kept eating the nuts and searching the cupboards.

“We talked it over and decided it was better for you to come out of your room when you got hungry than for us to keep delivering food,” said the young journeyman wizard with a yawn. “Adam guided Blargh and me in creating something kind of neat, but it’s out in the workshop. It’s a small box, but when you close the door, time stops inside. Adam said he got the idea from how time stops in the pocket dimension when you aren't here. Blargh has been making extra portions at meals, and we’ve been storing the extras inside of it. It’d taste better than raw valnuts.”

Stephen grunted at the young man, then started to follow him towards the workshop. “That seems like an awfully complicated way to avoid setting up a fridge.”

“What’s a fridge?” asked Rurth.

“It’s a box that stays cold so that food goes bad more slowly,” said Stephen.

“Same idea then,” said Rurth.

“Well,” said Stephen. “A fridge, short for refrigerator, just moves heat from the inside to the outside. That’s a lot less impressive than stopping time.”

“Hmm,” said Rurth, unconvinced. As they entered the workshop, Adam said, “Good evening, Master Stephen. It’s good to see you up and about.”

“Thanks, Adam,” said Stephen. “I’ve been told that you built a miracle that’s being used to store meals.”

“Rurth and Blargh built it,” said the statue. “I’m never particular about how the devices I help build are used. In many ways, serving warm, delicious meals is more satisfying than a sword that electrocutes opponents.”

“I can see that,” said Stephen. Rurth pulled out the various dishes, Stephen began to pick at one, and the journeyman put back the others and closed the door.

“What would happen if you built the box bigger and closed someone inside it?” asked Stephen.

“The same thing that happens to the meals,” said Adam. “When you opened the door, they’d remain undisturbed, having no experience of the period they were out of time.”

“That’s interesting,” said Stephen. “If we had it in some sort of portable device, it could be a non-lethal way to subdue people and creatures. I’ve been worrying about capturing something dangerous again, like the ghoul, and having it attack us here. If we could freeze it in time, that’d be a way to keep it safely in the pocket dimension.”

“Hmm, that’s true,” said Rurth. “I’ve been thinking that having some sort of appropriate habitat could work. Like the cave system we captured the ghoul in. Put them in something like that and drop off meat regularly. Freezing them in time might be safer. Or just moving their card to your library.”

“Moving them to the habitat could be tough,” said Stephen. “I don’t know how we could have moved that ghoul.”

“A larger box would be easier than some sort of weapon,” said Adam, thoughtfully. “A weapon would be possible, with a baton being easier to make than a projectile. The golems are better assistants, now that they have finer motor controls, but it would go faster with you.”

“You’re all teaming up to manipulate me,” said Stephen, with a tight smile.

“Having a group of people who care about you enough to help you recover isn’t a bad thing,” said Adam.

“No, it isn’t,” agreed the physicist.

***

“God damn it, Blargh,” said Stephen as the component on the table between them let out a cloud of blue smoke. “You connected the aetherium to the ether fragment and wasted the whole morning’s work, you dumb bastard.”

“You told me where to touch the connector and that’s where I touched it,” growled Blargh. “If there was something I needed to avoid, you should have pointed it out.”

“I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to need to be told not to break it,” said the graduate student.

“Adam did warn you that this was delicate work, Stephen,” said Rurth from a nearby table.

“And why weren’t you over here helping me with this instead of making me rely on this moron?” asked Stephen.

“Instead of leaving you in your room, I kept suggesting that they let me slug you and see if that brought you to your senses,” said Blargh. “That seems like a better idea by the minute.”

Stephen started to quickly move around the table towards the former innkeeper, who shifted his position slightly and balled his fists. The two men glared at one another.

“You should consider capturing a healer, if you intend to have Blargh kick your ass,” suggested Adam. “I suppose Shomos has some healing magic.”

Anger, draining from his face, Stephen rubbed his hands over it, then said, “Sorry Blargh, that wasn’t fair of me.”

“You got that right,” said the rough man.

“Blargh, when someone apologizes, you accept graciously,” said Rurth. “You don’t rub their face in what they did wrong.”

“Maybe that’s what you do, kid,” said Blargh. “Don’t tell me what to do.” He strode out of the workshop.

“Shomos hasn’t been particularly forthcoming with any healing magic,” said Rurth. “Blargh cut himself in the kitchen a couple of weeks ago, and she told him waiting for it to heal would be a good lesson about being more careful with knives. Blargh wanted some of the rice and lentil stew you have that heals, but you left the card in your library.”

“If I kept it here, it would go bad and update to a less useful card the next time I left the pocket dimension. Now that we have the time freeze box, I suppose I could put it there. Maybe it'd be worth making more batches of it here and create more versions of its card. Eating it once is kind of a high price for destroying a card. I’m not sure if the regular version I make heals, if it isn’t captured as a card. Probably not. Some sort of renewable healing here might be useful, to save us a trip to the temples in Hopedale if nothing else,” said Stephen. “What should I do about Blargh?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You’ve apologized,” said Rurth. “Just let him cool down. Why don’t we work together on that component.”

***

Sitting around the table, the golems served them a multi-course meal.

"It'd be nice if the golems could make a bigger variety of food," said Shomos, as she cut a piece off of a tuber vegetable. "It feels like we're having the same meal every night."

"Yeah, it's a bit of work getting them to make a meal and serve it," Blargh said. "Every step has to be worked through precisely with them. Then, if there's anything unusual, everything comes to a halt. It's just been easier to have them keep preparing similar food than teaching them new techniques. I'll do it eventually, though. The one good thing is, after you've taught one of them, they're good at passing along the instructions to the others. I've thought about doing some combat training with them."

"You know," said Stephen. "If you don't like the food, you could always make the meals instead."

Shomos looked coolly at the graduate student. "Try that again," she said.

"Blargh worked hard at this, both preparing the meal and teaching the golems," said Stephen.

"It wasn't so much work," said Blargh. "Similar to training new staff at The Bloody Bugbear. In some ways, the golems are better. I had this one kitchen hand I hired…"

"I'm just saying," Stephen said, cutting Blargh off and continuing. "If you're going to be an ungrateful bitch, you could try doing it yourself instead of whining."

"Bitch?" Shomos asked.

"A female dog," Rurth supplied.

"I like dogs," said Shomos.

"It's a common insult on Earth," said Rurth. "Usually directed at women. Or for men, when the insulter is trying to belittle their masculinity as well as compare them to an animal."

"Well," said Shomos, going back to her meal. "If I cared about Stephen's opinion of me, it might be possible for him to insult me."

"Oh sure," said Stephen. "Who cares what I think? Except that this whole place needs me to continue to exist."

Swallowing the food she was chewing, Shomos said, "You're a childish slaver who can't consider or accept the consequences of his actions. And you need other people to manage your life and save you from the problems you create."

The four sat in silence, eating, as the golems continued to serve.

***

In the Stredath townhouse, Stephen, Shomos, Rurth, and Blargh sat at the table with Falco and Feyrith as the golems served a meal.

"And these magical servants of yours can make and serve this meal autonomously?" asked Falco. "Exceptional!"

"Well," said Blargh. "We've had heated discussions recently about the range of their cooking, but yes. They can be taught new activities, but it's a bit of a painstaking process. We'd like them to do more of the cleaning, but none of us are enthusiastic cleaners to begin with."

"The range of dishes is wonderful," said Feyrith. "The vegetarian options are delicious."

"I've taught them to mop," objected Stephen.

"And they don't do a very good job," said Rurth, eliciting a chuckle from the gathering.

"I'm happy to give you cards for as many of them as either of you would like," said Stephen. "I have dozens of them."

"Blargh and Rurth worked hard to make those golems," said Shomos. "Are you just going to give them away?"

"Falco and Feyrith saved my life," said Stephen, flushing. "Because they saved me, they saved all of you. Show a little gratitude."

Feyrith and Falco looked uncomfortable.

"We're happy to make more golems," said Rurth. "We've got the process well established. As Stephen says, we owe you a debt that can never be repaid."

"Well, I imagine both of us would be grateful if you transferred four cards to each of us after dinner," said Falco. Feyrith gave him a sharp look. "Since you offered," Falco said, shrugging at the elf.

"Done," said Stephen. "More celestia," he ordered the golems. "I've been wanting to ask the two of you," he continued. "How do you control powerful monsters in your pocket dimension? Like that roc you used to save me in Clodor?"

"Roc?" asked Shomos, perking up.

After Stephen pointedly ignored her, Feyrith answered, "I have a card for a giant bird that I often use for transportation. I don't use it for duels. We used it when we rescued Stephen from Maggard. It has about a 50-foot wingspan. When I traded for it, it was a trained Roc, so it doesn't cause any trouble in my pocket dimension. I don't usually capture or trade anything that is dangerous. If I do, then I trade it away to someone more willing to deal with it." They looked at Falco.

"Kind of the same," said Falco. "I have numerous batteries, so most dangerous creatures would find somewhere in the wilds of my pocket dimension to settle down. If one of them was threatening my central, more urban lands, I'd just deal with it the same way cities deal with dangerous creatures everywhere. With a priority on not permanently injuring it. I don't spend that much time in my pocket dimension."

"I suppose if I got Adam, Rurth, and Blargh producing golems, I could then trade away all the cards they'd generate," said Stephen. "Use it as a steady supply of trading cards."

"You should talk to Isadore about things like this, that's part of what you've paid the club for," said Feyrith.

"The dimensional traveler consultant at The Malachite Club?" asked Stephen. "I could, but why not just talk to the two of you?"

"The convention is that most of the general dimensional traveler information goes through consultants like her," said Falco. "We might be motivated to mislead you, to get some advantage over you, or you might think we've misled you, and it leads to hard feelings between us. Most travelers would just prefer to not get into a dispute with someone over generally known information that could be obtained from a consultant. It's why they exist. It saves our conversations for more advanced ideas and prevents some conflicts."

"But to answer your question, which the consultant would likely answer the same way, the problem with mass-producing cards like you suggest is that you make them common and drive their value to almost nothing. Lands that provide a single color of power aren't worth much in trades, because travelers have so many of them. Once the three of us all have golem cards, they stop being mythic, which they are when only you have them, and they become rare. The value of cards in most trades are a factor of the rarity and how useful the card is - either in duels or outside of duels."

"Can the golems be used to create more golems?" asked Feyrith.

Stephen looked questioningly at Rurth. The journeyman wizard looked thoughtful then said, "Well, they've assisted us in creating golems before, so they can't make more golems themselves, but they could certainly assist. With the right enchanting facilities and instruction, I don't see why they couldn't eventually learn. That's probably what we'd do if Stephen had us making as many golems as possible."

"That would drive their value down even more," said Falco. "I don't want to convince you not to give them to us, but if someone could easily duplicate them, then quite quickly the market will be flooded with golems, and they won't be very valuable for trades."

Reaching his arms across the table, Stephen said, "Let me give each of you four copies of the golems before SHE convinces us to stop the trade." Falco shrugged and took Stephen's arm. After a few moments, the man from Earth repeated the process with Feyrith.

image [https://i.imgur.com/AaQjNjb.png]

"It's strange hearing you bicker with your champions," said Feyrith. Falco nodded sharply.

"How so?" asked Stephen.

"You can just order them to do what you want, and they'll comply," said Falco. "So why make snarky comments?"

"I don't view them that way," said Stephen. "I want them to have their own minds, not just blind obedience to me."

"But then you get unhappy with how they use their own minds," said Feyrith. "Most dimensional travelers wouldn't include their champions at a meal like this." Glancing at Shomos, Rurth, and Blargh, they said, "No offense."

"I'm still trying to find a way to free them, if it exists," said Stephen. "Until then, not compelling them to follow my orders seems like the least I can do. Don't your champions get upset at you when they're in your pocket dimension, and you can't control them?"

Falco shrugged. "They know they'll have to follow my orders the next time I unleash them. And I'm pretty firmly in control of my pocket dimension, so any rebellion would be short-lived. And I don't spend that much time in my pocket dimension, in small part for that reason."

"Well, enough dimensional traveler talk then," said Stephen. "Once we've taught our golems combat skills and how to build more of themselves, we'll get them to teach yours. Let's have some dessert."