We wrapped up around lunch, and Bushra agreed to meet me back at my place in around an hour for our trip to Epic Encounters. I'd ended up having another latte and a couple of cheddar and chive scones while we were there, so I wasn't hungry. But I did want to check on Iter and his… colleague? I wasn't sure what Lex's presence meant. Was he planning to stick around as long as it takes? Would he escalate matters if Iter refused to leave? One direct and callous way to deal with the situation is to remove the reason Iter remained – namely, me. Here's hoping he's a patient god.

I needn't have worried. When I came home Lex was gone. Iter seemed a little haggard, though.

"Welcome home, Mai," Iter nodded slightly at my return. He was sitting at the kitchen table, one hand holding his forehead. He tilted slightly toward me at my arrival. His usual boisterous manner was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey. Lex is gone, I take it?" I inquired, with a look around to see if I could spot any sign of the other god.

"Yes, They have departed for now." He frowned and closed his eyes. That 'for now' part bothered me a bit, but I decided to let it go – for now.

"Is there anything I should be worried about?" I asked. I tried to keep my tone nonchalant, but some of my concern must have bled through, as Iter smoothly sat upright, composing his features with a gentle smile.

"Nothing at all, unless it is your next move towards your goal. How did your meeting go with Ms. Patel?"

"Pretty good. It was our first working session, but we nailed down some immediate next steps both from a coding and a business planning perspective. We still need to assemble a longer term strategy, but we have the first steps and some important milestones to work towards."

"And what are they?" Iter asked.

"Well, what it boils down to is 'write down the business plan', 'make it technically possible to sell the product', and 'find a customer'. Not necessarily in that order, but agreeing on what we want to be as a company and how we want to get there are critical to get us on the same page." I took a breath. "But today is about getting to know our work styles. We worked jointly on a project before, but the stakes are different now." I pursed my lips in thought, eyes narrowed in satisfaction. "We work pretty well together. Bushra's smart as hell, but open to user input and feedback. She took a minor user story and whipped out 3 different iterations on how to address it right there at the coffee shop." I paused, considering. "She's competitive, but that expresses itself in trying to make the product as best as it could possibly be. I'm frankly worried about keeping up with her." I half-smiled in self-deprecation.

Iter looked thoughtful for a moment, before his beatific smile returned. "As Our Hero, We are sure you will manifest your qualities in an appropriate time and place. We have no doubt."

"Well, it's good someone thinks so." I shook my head, but smiled back.

✦ ✦ ✦

Bushra arrived not long after, and then we made our way to Epic Encounters. Iter invited himself along, but Bushra didn't seem to have a problem with his presence. In fact, she chatted engagingly with Iter while we walked toward the shop. Being an early afternoon on a weekday, the streets in the east side of the island were busy, but the lunch crowd from the nearby high school and local businesses had already run its course.

The electronic door chime rang as we entered, and a warm voice called out from behind the counter. "Mai!" Laci was leaning against the counter, arms folded, having paused his conversation with the only other person present in the store. "And you brought friends! Welcome!" His Hawaiian shirt was especially loud today, a riot of tropical colors with silver accents. His matching silver beard rose as his wide smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah, you know Iter, and this is Bushra Patel," Laci reached a long arm across in a handshake, which Bushra gingerly accepted. Her hand was swallowed instantaneously in Laci's grasp, as he brought his other arm to bear.

"Call me Laci. Any friend of Mai's – and, of course, a potential customer – is welcome here!" He gave Bushra a wink, and let her recover her hand after a short press.

"Wow, that's some treatment. I think I'm jealous." The other person was standing in a relaxed pose, arms crossed and flashing a lazy smile in our direction. "I didn't even get a swat on the bum when I showed up." Brown eyes twinkled in merriment beneath pronounced lavender eye shadow that matched their brightly dyed, multi-colored hair. Their black painted lips twitched in a wry grin as they tilted their head in our direction. I'd met Bily only recently (two days ago?), but they made an impression that lasted.

"Hush, you." Laci scowled at Bily, but his lips were failing to repress a grin. "With you, it is questions and gossip. You never buy anything." Bily smirked back, but raised her hands in mock surrender. Laci turned back to Bushra. "That is Bily. They do not bite, so far as I know, but be careful not to invite them into your home. They are like vampir, you will never be rid of them." He made a face back to Bily. I restrained myself from glancing in Iter's direction. Gods and vampires were different. Gods didn't have to be invited, after all.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"How rude," Bily remarked in feigned affront, then turned their whole body in Bushra's direction and pointedly away from Laci. "I'm Bily. A pleasure," as they lifted their hand languidly. Bushra took it tentatively after being swept up by Laci, but Bily merely touched fingers before releasing her. Bushra was looking back at me after this reception with a nervous look.

"Bushra is the developer of the app you all played with Sunday." I came to her rescue. Well, that was my intent, anyway. Both people suddenly locked eyes on Bushra with an almost predatory interest.

"Reeaaally," "Impressive for one so young!" Both voices overlapped, and they broke their gaze only to glare at each other briefly.

Laci was the first to recover. "You are quite skilled, Ms. Patel. I'd been meaning to ask Mai for more information about the AR toolset, but here she brings the creator right to me!" He beamed. "I have so many questions!"

"Well old man, you can get in line," Bily glided forward, artfully blocking Laci from Bushra's view, but causing their target to take a step back in trepidation. "I'll start with 'where can I get additional copies,' and 'how much'?" They smiled wide, showing strong white teeth framed against their black painted lips.

"Uh, what?" Bushra seemed at a loss at the sudden pressure.

"We're still looking at different pricing models," I interjected. We actually hadn't discussed pricing at all, but I wasn't about to give that away. "But we're in the process of forming an early adopter group to collect feedback in those areas." Why not? "Of course, initial participants will receive discounts from the launch price. How many additional copies were you thinking of?"

Bily narrowed their lengthy eyelash extensions in my direction, their gaze turning to appraisal. "What kind of discount? For what term?"

"TBD," I replied, "Though we don't intend to be stingy. We don't want to give the app away entirely for free, but something suitable to your investment of time seems appropriate. We hope our early adopters will spread the word, after all."

"Hmmm," They smiled, putting one finger to their lips.

"Ms. Patel, I would like to discuss with you in more detail some of the design choices you have made, and perhaps add some small requests for improvement? Mere suggestions, to make an old man smile?" Laci had come around the counter and had approached Bushra while Bily was distracted. His clear blue eyes were fixed on her with singlemindedness of his AR obsession. Bushra, was currently caught between Laci in front of her, and Iter behind, the two tall men looming over her. I could see her eyes going wide with panic.

"Hey now, everyone, let's give Bushra a chance to breathe." I shooed at both of them with my hands, making some space. "Maybe we can all sit down and discuss everything in a less … uhm, aggressive format." This was turning into a bigger conversation than I'd anticipated.

✦ ✦ ✦

"So we're still very early with everything from the app to the company we're building to sell it." We'd situated ourselves around one of the tables in the back, but with line of sight for Laci to the front. I'd given them an edited synopsis of the app and its capabilities to-date, as well as a very vague timeline for the company. "Our plan today was to simply give Bushra the opportunity firsthand to hear about and potentially see your experience with the app. So much is lost in notes and translation. It's our good fortune to find you both here today." I looked back and forth between the two of them.

Bily smiled coyly and remained silent, but Laci made a 'tch' sound. "This one is always here as of late. They have no other home that I can tell."

"Again, rude." They shot a look of annoyance in Laci's direction, then adjusted themselves to sit taller in their chair. "While crude, the old man is not entirely without experience in both business and the gaming industry. I find him a profitable and, mostly, approachable acquaintance."

"Which means they aim to bleed me dry until I am a withered husk." Laci shook his head in mock sadness, but you could see he was more amused than annoyed.

"So let me see if I have this straight. Ms. Patel here wrote this app in college, was recruited by your company for it, but that fell through for both of you. Now the two of you are trying to capitalize on the app yourselves as a startup."

I winced a little inside at how quickly Bily had summed up what I'd tried to dance around. "That's not a bad summation. Does that concern you?" Maybe it was better to find out sooner than later.

Bily chuckled. "Oh, not at all. In fact, it wouldn't be nearly as fun without a bit of a juicy story behind it." Their enthusiastic tone belied their languid expression.

Laci was more contemplative. "So, you are planning to develop and sell this app on your own, yes?" He had a somber look. "The two of you?"

"We have four so far," Bushra spoke up, and turned to me. My first thought was 'four?", but then I realized Bushra was counting Iter along with Kris. I had unconsciously placed Iter as part of the background, given his stance against interfering. I looked over at Iter, who was looking back expectantly, not contradicting what Bushra said.

"Including Iter, here, I also have a good friend who is a corporate controller that is interested in helping with the financials."

"I see," Laci began, then pursed his lips and said nothing more. An awkward pause lengthened for a moment, until Bily chimed in.

"And what do you do, Mr. Iter-person?" Their voice was a purr, but Bily's gaze was appraising.

Iter smiled serenely, and I chimed in before awkward questions of language could arise. "Iter is in talent acquisition. In fact, that's how we first met, he was trying to recruit me for another role."

"Well, not much of a recruiter, then, is he?" Bily remarked challengingly.

I clenched my teeth before prying them open to respond. "Not his fault. The role was removed." Looking for a way to shift the subject off Iter, I pressed ahead. "You mentioned wanting copies, Bily. What were you planning to do with them, if I can ask?"

"Well," Bily began, sounding mildly annoyed from being deflected from their target. "I have a little streaming channel that I've been playing games on, and was looking for something new and interesting to share. The, whaddya call it, ARC?" They made a mild face at the name. "It seems like something my audience would enjoy."

"Well, I'm not sure it's ready for primetime in that way, yet. We'd ideally want to have our buy-flow active before we market it broadly." I rapidly ran over the list of different steps in my mind for users to self-purchase the product.

"Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty." Bily winked.

"But I would like to see how you use ARC," Bushra interjected "That's why we came here to begin with." Her voice was respectful, but I could see she was getting antsy.

Laci grinned wide. "Would you like to play a game with us?"