“The only magic that came close to working properly in the world of our Forefathers was the very lowest level functions of the stronger Relationship Bonds that we take for granted. Even there, however, it behaved in an unpredictable manner, rendering it almost unrecognizable. The only reason that it is recognizable at all is that it still had the same intent – to tie people closer together.”

Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.

       Christopher Leroy Knightsen

               An hour later after dealing with the police...

“Well, that was fun. I guess the next step is to help you find your apartment?” I asked as I shouldered my duffel bag and my spear.

“Sounds good to me. Here’s my address.” Pamela said as she handed me a piece of paper with some rather flowery handwriting on it.

“So, you’re my new upstairs neighbor!”

“Wait, how did you know that I’m lost? When we gave our stories to the police, they did a good job of making sure that neither one of us could hear the other. Howler even managed to talk at a normal volume level for that part!”

“I have no idea, the question just popped into my head when I was just trying to decide what happened next.”

“Other than rehanging the antique weapons on the walls you mean?”

“Huh, it looks like whatever this is, it’s going both ways. Since it was Howler’s partner that took my statement and he’s been to my house before, I told him that I was bringing them back home. I never said I was hanging them on my walls.”

“Well now, that is interesting. Before we continue, I have a brief side question to ask: If you use them as decoration, why would you take them down in the first place?”

“I was hosting a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine and I don’t trust some of his other friends within twenty yards of a paring knife when they’re sober, let alone these beauties when they’re drunk.”

“Ouch. In that case, I don’t blame you. Weapons and drunk people don’t tend to make a very good combination.”

“No, they don’t do they? Anyway, while I’d like to figure out what’s going on between the two of us with the whole info sharing thing, there’s not much we can say without more data.”

“Agreed, unfortunately.”

I paused considering. “Would you like to grab a bite to eat together after I hang these back up?” I asked patting my duffle bag.

She glanced at me sideways. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“If you’re interested, then yes.”

“It’s a date. Let me change into something a little more casual first, then I’ll meet you back at your place. I get the feeling that it’ll take you longer to hang those up than it will for me to get changed.”

“Alright then. Shall we go milady?” I said offering her my free arm.

*****

       Pamela Josephine Daniels

Sure enough, when I knocked on his door thirty minutes later he was still hanging his weapons back up.

“Come on in, I’ve only got one weapon left to hang,” Chris said as he opened the door. “Feel free to take a look around, or you can talk to me while I hang it up. Either way is fine with me.”

“I think I’ll watch and talk. We are going on a date after all.” I replied.

“Love your outfit by the way. It looks much better on you than the grey and blue you were wearing earlier.”

I had changed into a yellow blouse that was tight enough to look good while loose enough to be modest, a frilly orange ankle-length skirt and a pair of bright red slippers. I’d also added a pair of earrings that I’d inherited from my Grandma with a single blue, red and yellow colored bird hanging from my ears.

“Why thank you. This is one of my favorite outfits, even if I don’t often have an excuse to wear the earrings with it.”

“Oh?” He glanced at my ears as he started unwrapping the last thing from his bag, then he did a double take and froze.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Um, hello? Earth to Chris!”

He shook himself out of it and then kept muttering “You have got to be kidding me.” As he unwrapped what I assumed to be a sword of some kind, probably a katana or something.

Turns out I was right. What I wasn’t expecting was that the repeating bird pattern on the sheath of the blade perfectly matched the birds hanging from my ears. I was about to take off one of my earrings so I could compare them when Chris somehow fumbled the unwrapping such that he dropped the sword.

We both dove for it and managed to catch it at exactly the same time, which is when a strange thing happened.

Something grabbed us and pulled us out of our bodies so that we were looking at a still image of ourselves standing there holding onto the sword. There were two things that made the whole experience even stranger.

The first was that we were in this together. I don’t mean we were going through the same experience side by side. Instead, we were actually joined together in some fashion that let us feel the other person intimately, almost as if they were a part of us that just happened to be over there somewhere. That little bit of separation provided by the “over there somewhere” feeling was just strong enough for us to tell where one of us stopped and the other began without interfering with the connection.

The second thing that made it stranger was that our lives were flashing before our eyes, but rather than seeing what had happened we saw what would happen in the world of our birth. It would have been embarrassing with someone else seeing so much of our lives with the two of us tied together like we were, but it was happening so fast that we couldn’t really have time to comprehend it before it was over.

Suddenly we were sitting together on a couch in what looked a bit like Chris’s living room: the carpet on the floor was the same as was the light fixture and the walls, apart from most of the doorways disappearing. The front door was still there, and obviously the couch we were sitting on and the light on the ceiling, but that was it. The only other contents of the room were the air, our clothing, and us.

“What just happened?” asked Chris.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

We just sat there for a moment enjoying the other person’s company while we tried to process what had just happened. An indeterminate amount of time later, Chris spoke up.

“Well, I may not know what comes next, but I have to say that I’d rather do it with you by my side than any other way.”

“Agreed. Whatever happens, we’re in this together.”

Congratulations! By agreeing to work together in substantially less than fifteen minutes the two of you have completed your first quest with flying colors! Also, given the events that led up to this point, your relationship has been upgraded from “Friendship” to “Courtship”!

“Huh?” we said in unison.

Greetings man and woman! I am the World System and it is my job to help everyone adjust to the new world that you will be living in. But I don’t want you to merely adjust, I want you to thrive!

Also, before you ask, I know your names are Chris and Pamela respectively, but this way is more fun.

“Thank you for answering our question,” I said. “My next question is why us?”

As much as I would love to answer more of your questions, I have rules that I have to follow and those rules tell me that I have to send you on to the next step. I have one more automated message to give you after this one, then the two of you must touch the door handle at the same time to open it, then work together to get it closed again. Also, once you get the door closed only my automated systems will be available for the next five days. Just follow the quest lines and you’ll be fine.

We looked at each other, then back at the floating blue textbox in front of us at which point it got replaced with a final message.

When you are ready, open the door together and begin your adventure! Be prepared to close it together fairly smartly as well…

Time until holding room despawns: 0:29

“Well, I guess we had better get moving.” Said Chris as he stood up and headed for the door.

“True. I wonder what it means when it says we’ll have to work together to get the door shut.”

“I’m not sure but there’s only one way to find out.”

“Alrighty then, let’s open the door on three. One… two… three!”

As soon as we opened the door we were blasted backwards by a howling blizzard that threatened to simply blow us away. In fact, I would have been blown away if Chris hadn’t somehow been directly behind me. Me being in front of him gave him the instant he needed to get down on one knee and brace himself. Having successfully prevented us from being blown away, he then pushed me forwards so I could actually reach the door again.

Once I managed to grab the door, it didn’t take too much effort to get it halfway closed allowing me to take shelter behind the door as I tried to push it closed. The blizzard was strong enough that I couldn’t push it any more than halfway closed until Chris joined me behind the door.

With both of us behind the door pushing as hard as we could we finally managed to get the door closed. It took us a surprisingly long time, but we got it closed.

To our surprise, rather than hearing the latch click into place, the entire door simply disappeared leaving us stranded in the middle of a snowfield.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“It looks like Antarctic–”

Congratulations! Due to the level and classification of your relationship plus the strength and nature of your respective magics, your starting location has been upgraded from Level 01 Placid, Temperate to Level 10 Monstrous, Arctic! Due to your starting location, all training limits have been lifted!

Go forth and conquer!

“Oh.”

“In that case, I guess I’ll call it Antarcticoh.”

“Ok. That’s fine with me!”

Congratulations on naming your first continent! Reward deferred until after you survive the ambush.

“Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.”

“Nope.”