Stephen sat looking across the table at Isadore at The Malachite Club.

"It's nice to see you again, I'm surprised how long it's been," said Isadore with a smile.

"I didn't really understand that there are conversations I should be having with you and not other dimensional travelers," said Stephen.

"I should try to make that more clear during initial meetings," she said.

After reviewing what he had discussed with Feyrith and Falco, Isadore agreed with the information they'd provided him.

"So I assume dimensional travelers spend most of their time developing their cards and inventing new ones?" asked the graduate student.

"Not really," Isadore said. "Most travelers find new cards to capture or win them in duels. Or they just relax and enjoy the easy life their ability affords them. You're far more… industrious… than is typical."

Stephen nodded and changed the subject. "Dimensional traveler magic takes the form of cards. I've assumed that's just a form to make it understandable to myself, like the 'identify' spell I learned in Hopedale."

"How does your 'identify' spell work?" she asked. “Magic systems are all different from one another.”

"It presents information in a way that's meaningful to the caster," said Stephen. "For example, when other wizards first cast it on me, they got information that was expressed using their magical theory. Which they'd studied at the Wizards' Guild. When I cast it, I got information presented like mechanics from games I've played back on Earth. I assume dimensional traveler cards are similar?"

"Not really," said Isadore. "The text presents itself in whatever language the dimensional traveler understands. There have been examples of illiterate travelers, who have either had an intuitive sense of what the text means or it's presented in pictographs. The framework of cards, decks, and duels seems universal to all dimensional travelers. It isn't customized to you."

"But why would this exist?" asked Stephen. "It doesn't make sense that there would be some power that operates like a game that exists across dimensions. It's clearly constructed."

"That's the prevailing theory, that something made it," she agreed. "In the same way that dimensions have gods, some theorize that dimensional traveler powers come from a higher level of divine beings. Gods to our gods, if you will. You've played games that are similar to dimensional traveler powers in your home dimension?"

"I have," said Stephen. "Very similar. But played with thin cards that are mass-produced and sold at specialty shops. Why would some game designer on my world create something so similar to dimensional travelers' powers?"

"You've said that the first world you traveled to was from another game you'd played?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "The 'Lands of Legends', Mecond."

"It sounds like people in your dimension have the ability to conceive of other dimensions," she said. "Strongly enough that it provides you insights about them and even the ability to travel there."

"How do dimensional travelers without something like my 'identify' spell review their own cards?" asked Stephen.

"Most develop something like that," said Isadore. "You might find a ready audience of dimensional traveler students if you taught this magic. Or, if you could capture it as a card, there'd likely be many travelers interested in trading for it. Those who don't have anything like this can review their own cards during a trading session. If they know another friendly traveler, they can start a trading session for each to review their own collection. For those who've gotten a library, they can review their own cards when they're storing cards in it, which is basically a trading session."

"It's strange that travelers seem to want privacy during trading sessions," Stephen observed. "For whatever reason, they seem to be more embarrassed when they disappear into a trading pocket dimension than when they disappear to travel to another dimension."

Isadore looked confused. "You realize that you don't disappear when you're in a trading session, right?" she asked. "Or when you duel? It's an entirely mental construct. Your bodies are left behind. And vulnerable. It's also a bit of a goofy look for two travelers to be insensate, holding forearms, in a public place."

The man from Earth looked surprised, then thoughtful. "That's odd. I guess I always assumed we were physically present in the trading area and dueling ground. My wounds from the duel disappeared afterward. I guess I assumed I was healed, rather than my body was never damaged."

"What controls the layout of the territory in my pocket dimension?" he asked. "I captured the Hopedale Wizards' Guild, and we live in it. There's a mystic grove that I also captured, and there's a path between them. If I get a new territory battery card, might it appear between them and change the geography of my pocket dimension?"

"New lands get placed on the outside of your existing ones, pushing back the surrounding mists, so the path between the guild and the grove should remain in place," she said. "If you were to trade away one of the cards, then trade it back, it would move to the outside, but as long as you keep the cards, they should remain in the same location relative to one another. Putting a ‘territory’ card in your library, then taking it back out again, would accomplish the same thing."

"No dimensional travelers can bring other travelers with them into their pocket dimension, right?" he asked. "There's no way for me to bring them in?"

"No," she agreed. "Nor any sentient being who hasn't been captured. I've never been inside any traveler's pocket dimension, and I don't expect I ever will."

“I brought Adam to my pocket dimension,” objected Stephen.

“Who is Adam?” she asked.

“An intelligent statue. He was Avin’s prisoner before I rescued him,” he said.

“Well, constructed beings can be tricky,” she said, thoughtfully. “He mustn’t be fully sentient, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to bring him with you. You’ve talked to Feyrith about how elves reproduce?” Continuing after Stephen nodded, she said, “Feyrith has actually brought highly developed elves with them when they’ve traveled. They don’t become ‘sentient’ until far later than you’d think.”

"And cards get updated each time I leave my pocket dimension, but not when I bring things in," Stephen verified, changing the subject.

"That's right," Isadore said. "So, for example, if one of your champions died when you were in a dimension, you want to release them. They'll be waiting for you back in your pocket dimension, or you can unleash them again. If they were killed in your pocket dimension or if you traveled back to your pocket dimension with their body, they'd be dead forever. Obviously, time stands still in your pocket dimension unless you're there, so they could only be killed if you were present. But if they were killed in your pocket dimension, when you left, their card would be updated to their corpse. You could get them resurrected somehow, then next time you exited your pocket dimension, they'd remain alive, and their card would be updated to them living again."

“I traveled back from Riowiver after Blargh died,” said Stephen, remembering. “It’s lucky I didn’t bring his corpse with me. I should remember to release champions as soon as they die in the future.”

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"Time freezes in the pocket dimension when I'm not there," he said, changing the subject again. "How can I make time move in reverse?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"If I want to go back to an earlier point in time and cause something different to happen, instead of what actually happened," he asked. "How would I do that?"

"I've never heard of anyone doing that," Isadore answered.

***

Appearing where they expected the main room of The Bloody Bugbear to be, Blargh, Rurth, and Stephen looked at an empty, muddy expanse around them.

"What happened to my inn?" asked Blargh.

"What happened to Hopedale?" asked Rurth.

Face tightening, Stephen said, "Avin must have captured the town."

Looking at the surrounding horizon, the three men saw some large construction project to the south. After looking at one another, Stephen shrugged and they started walking towards it.

***

As they got closer, they saw that a dark keep was being erected.

"Who is building that thing?" asked Rurth.

"Avin," said Stephen. "He's captured Hopedale, who knows what else he's taken, and now he's setting up a keep to try and claim this dimension for himself."

A bare chested, muscular man stood on the road, looking towards the keep. As they approached, he turned to them, and the three men started in surprise at seeing Stephen's face on the body of a muscular barbarian.

"Hail and well met, travelers," said the barbarian. "I am the hero, Gorg the Mighty. Be you friend or foe to the villain Avin?"

"Most definitely foe," said Stephen. "You're Gorg? You?"

"Who is Gorg?" asked Rurth.

"My first character when I played 'Lands of Legends' when I was 11 years old," said Stephen.

"He looks like you," said Blargh.

"What strange devilry are you talking about, city dwellers?" asked Gorg.

"Do you see how much my friend Stephen looks like you?" asked Rurth.

Gorg said, "My tribe had no mirrors, so I am not familiar with my own appearance." Simultaneously, Stephen said, "His tribe doesn't have mirrors, so he wouldn't know what he looks like."

The two men eyed each other and Stephen chuckled. "It's amazing to meet you in person, Gorg," he said. "Geez, Gorg was such a cheesy name."

"What means you by 'cheesy', hearth hugger," asked Gorg, dangerously.

"It means noble and worthy of admiration," Stephen said quickly. Smiling, he shook his head. The barbarian disappeared, and the former graduate student felt a new card appear in his mind.

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

***

A short time later, around a table at the Wizards' Guild in Stephen's pocket dimension, the four men got to know one another as a golem brought a light snack that Blargh had taught them how to make. Gorg was throwing back celestia and getting increasingly drunk.

"Celestia is quite strong," warned Rurth. "You might want to drink it slower or switch to a weaker drink."

"Gorg fears no liquor, cloak wearer," said the barbarian, swaying in his seat.

"You wear a cloak, too," said Blargh, confused. "You threw it to the ground behind you when we sat down."

All four men looked at the barbarian's discarded, filthy cloak on the floor behind him.

"Cloaks are nice, so warm," said Gorg, leaning forward and touching his forehead to the table, then looking sideways at the other men.

"So, you've been adventuring around Hopedale?" asked Stephen.

"What's Hopedale?" asked Gorg.

"The town that used to be where we met you," explained Rurth.

"He would have forgotten about it after Avin captured it," said Stephen.

"Have you been to Eldoria?" asked Blargh. "Thornhollow? Ravenshire? Windhaven? Greymoor?"

"I travelled through Ravenshire five seasons ago," said Gorg. "I've never heard of those other places…." Resting his head on the table, he said, "I'm just going to shut my eyes, but we can keep talking." The barbarian began to snore.

"He's quite articulate for a barbarian," said Rurth as Gorg began to snore.

"I put a lot of myself into my first character," said Stephen. "When I made him to play 'Lands of Legends', he was pretty much a self-insert. The gamemaster told me my character wouldn't know about such things when I kept trying to apply scientific principles to the challenges we encountered. I guess I created Gorg to be just like me. Or, if Isadore is to be believed, he existed here, and I was able to sense him from Earth through the power of imagination."

Rurth and Blargh looked at him blankly.

"It seems like Avin is doing his best to capture as much of Mecond as quickly as he can," said Rurth. "I know your aversion to capturing people, but Avin doesn't seem to share it, and he's doing a lot of damage. If you hadn't already captured Shomos and us, he'd likely have captured all of us himself."

"Maybe," said Stephen. "I antagonized him, which drew his attention to Earth and Mecond. If he wasn't doing this here, he'd be doing the same thing somewhere else."

"How are we going to get Shomos back from her grove?" asked Blargh. "Maybe you should go apologize." Rurth stood up and walked over to Gorg's cloak. "I'm going to try to teach the golems to do laundry," he said.

"I haven't done anything wrong," said Stephen to the former innkeeper. "She's the one who should be apologizing to me."

"Perhaps, but we went to a lot of effort to get her back from Avin, recover from the experience, and win her over to what you're doing," Blargh said. "Why are you being a dick to her, and us, and throwing all that away?"

"None of you understand what I went through," said the former graduate student.

"You've talked about your life on Earth before all this started," said Blargh. "I'd wager that you had a gentler life than any of the rest of us. Just because we don't talk about it, you can't assume that our lives have been pampering and rose pedal baths."

"Yeah, you're right," Stephen said, exhaling loudly. "When did you develop such a sweet, sensitive soul?"

"Fuck you," said Blargh, getting up from the table. "I'm going to make some meals with the golems to put away in the freeze box. Go make up with your girlfriend."

***

Hours later, Stephen and a hung over Gorg stood in the mystic grove, looking up at Shomos on one of the branches.

"... and so again, I apologize," said Stephen. "I'm dealing with my own trauma, but it isn't fair to take it out on you. You've had your own misfortunes in the past, many that I'm sure I don't know about, and you aren't taking them out on me, so it's unfair of me to dump on you."

"Your words are fair," admitted Shomos. "However, I suspect that you're only apologizing in order to enlist me in your next scheme."

"No," said Stephen. "We're going to go to Mecond to deal with Avin, but it's up to you whether you want to join us. I know you have your own history with him, which may make you want to be there or not."

"You could just summon me and force me to do your bidding on Mecond," said the druidess.

"I keep telling all of you I wouldn't do that," said Stephen.

"Enough talk," said Gorg. "Are you coming with us or not, wood witch?"

"Don't call her a witch," said Stephen. The barbarian's hand shot out and cuffed the former graduate student on the back of his head. Stephen stumbled a few paces away from Gorg. His head stung.

"Don't tell me what to do," said Gorg. "You aren't my chieftain or battle leader."

"'Wood witch' is a title of respect for druids from the barbarians," said Shomos. "I take no offense. Where did you find this muscular doppelganger?"

Rubbing the back of his head and giving Gorg a petulant look, Stephen said, "He was prowling around Avin's fortress near where Hopedale used to be." At the druidess' quizzical expression, he explained, "Avin has captured Hopedale, Eldoria, Thornhollow, Windhaven, and Greymoor. He hasn't captured Ravenshire yet, so we're going to look for him there. Gorg is on a quest from his people to halt the advance of the 'dark lord Avin', so he's on board to help us. He looks like me because he was my first character when I played the tabletop game 'Lands of Legends', which I've told you about."

"I will assist you as well," said the druidess. "Unleash me when you travel to Mecond, and together we will defeat Avin."