The beer was actually very good, and Ted managed to refrain from voicing his surprise at the large choices of drinks available at the inn’s bar in an entirely religious world, deciding that he was only going to question the serious stuff. By that he meant things like cannibalism, slavery, tax fraud; the hardcore stuff.

Wait, do they have taxes here? He asked, before shaking his head. Not important. He’d always tried to avoid paying them anyway.

Benn had turned out to be another trader, heading west, his wagon empty on its way to collect goods from the western coasts; a journey of several weeks and thousands of kilometres, Ted found out. There was a rare kind of sea urchin that spawned out there, with properties that some alchemists were using to create some special sort of potion, valued enough that it was worth the trip, but not enough that people were using Portals or other fantastical means to get it. He and Cam had met many times on their crossing routes across the country.

‘And we were both in the army, of course!’ Benn said, laughing. He reminded Ted of a hearty old man who just happened to be in the body of a bear; always cheerful and making gruff jokes in a deep, booming voice. He even had the same characteristics on slamming his hand down on the table to emphasise his jokes, or thumping Ted on the back when he laughed; fortunately he was able to reduce the force of the blows when he did so, leaving Ted’s spine and the table unbroken.

Ted was unsure of the joke. ‘Weren’t you?’ he asked.

‘We all were in the army.’ Cam explained, laughing along with Benn at what was clearly a very old joke. ‘At least, everyone without a specialised role serves at least some time in the army. Benn and I never actually met, but it’s an old joke to tell new recruits or artificers that you were in the army with whoever is around. Because odds are, you were.’

‘So how did you get out?’ Ted asked Benn. He already knew Cam’s story, and didn’t want to trigger any episodes.

‘I was kicked out for being too bold and brave. Said it was unfair to the enemy!’ Benn said loudly. Cam smiled, as did Ted, starting to get the measure of the man. Bear. Baraye.

‘I can believe it; wouldn’t want the war over too soon!’ he replied.

‘We need to let you youngsters have a go!’ Benn agreed. Ted decided not to push for the real reason, sure that Cam would explain the next bit of important information on their ride tomorrow. The rest of the evening passed pleasantly, and Ted found himself enjoying himself in a way that he hadn’t in a long, long time; in a way, it felt like he was home. He could barely remember that last time he’d been sat in a pub with a pint, chatting shit and laughing about it. Sure, he was talking to an alien bear man and a Vietnamese guy, both of whom had some varying super powers, in a world at war. But the familiarity was warming, to the point that he almost felt himself tear up.

He decided to ask the pair about his new Basic Magic Technique, and was surprised to find both of them strongly on the side of the Aura power.

‘Understanding auras can be a powerful tool.’ Cam said. ‘You can read intentions and emotions, or even things like curses and mental illnesses. Any tool to help you understand the world is a good one to have.’

‘He’s right.’ Benn said. ‘Understand someone’s aura and you can understand them better. Might help you get yourself a free drink every now and then!’

Ted had chosen the ability there and then, and been surprised when he’d tried the Technique to find himself instantly overwhelmed. The room wasn’t full, but when he imbued his aura sense with mana he found that his senses were overloaded with para-colours and para-smells and para-noises that threatened to cause his brain to shut down. He cut the Technique off quickly.

Apparently it had been obvious what he had just done. Cam was laughing quietly to himself. Benn was laughing loudly.

‘It’s a bit much at first, eh lad?’ he said, slapping Ted’s shoulder. ‘People have a lot going on, best to practise it when it’s just you and one or two others around.’

‘It’s so loud!’ Ted said, feeling out of breath. ‘Can you both sense it too?’

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‘If we use the Technique, of course.’ Cam said. ‘I don’t mean to keep harping on, but remember that everything you’re learning is still the basics. Most people have at least a good range of basic Skills.’

‘I’ve been wondering about that.’ Ted said, lining his next question up, now that he had two helpful sources of information. ‘I’m picking up these Skills relatively quickly; today alone I levelled up a load, got a couple of Techniques, and learned Fire Magic - which I want to ask you about by the way.’ he said pointedly to Cam. ‘But I don’t understand why everyone isn’t like superman. I can already run faster than ever before, jump higher, throw magic lights around, and I’ve been here two and a half weeks. If people have been here for years, or decades, why aren’t I seeing people flying across the countryside, or, I don’t know, weather magicians causing thunderstorms?’

‘I’ve not heard of this superman.’ Benn said. ‘But I can tell you that people would be very pissed off if a weather magician started bringing thunderstorms around. Don’t start getting ideas!’

‘He’s not quite at thunderstorm level yet.’ Cam said to Benn. ‘But I understand where you’re coming from Ted. The thing is that, while you can learn amazing Skills here, and do things with magic that were impossible in the real world, there are some similarities. Everything still requires effort, and everything declines if you don’t practice. How good were you at running before you came here?’

‘I was all right, I suppose.’ Ted said, thinking about it. ‘I could book it out of a building at speed if I needed to.’

‘But you never really trained to get faster, run further?’ Cam pushed.

‘Well, no.’ Ted replied. ‘I see what you’re getting at, but surely it’s not the same. Half an hour of exercise today basically made me the equivalent of an Olympics long jumper!’

‘It’s the same point. You had a lot of these skills and abilities available to you in your old life; you didn’t work on them because they weren’t useful or of interest to you. You have a Level 1 Jump technique, but what use is that to a smith or a shopkeeper or a bartender? What’s their motivation to go out and jump about to get the Technique, and then maintain it?’ Cam countered.

‘I guess.’ Ted said. ‘It just seems kind of insane to me that there’s so much opportunity and amazing stuff to learn out there…’ he petered out.

‘Where I lived, in Vietnam, the sea was always warm, and the waters glowed with bioluminescent plankton when you walked in at night. Had you heard of the phenomenon?’ Cam asked.

‘I’d heard of it, but never seen it. It did sound amazing though.’ Ted admitted.

‘Why didn’t you go and see it then?’ Cam asked.

‘Well, a combination of money, and I was busy I guess.’ Ted said, feeling a little attacked now. He took a swig of his beer.

‘Now think of all the sights, and the skills, and all those opportunities that existed. The easy ones, like running, the ones you probably have never heard of, like Dau Vat wrestling, or the ones you did hear about but never got round to doing. Sailing, skiing, any of those.’ Cam said. ‘They’re all there, you just never go.’

With a slight sadness, he added. ‘I only swam in those glowing seas once in the five years before I died. I was always too busy.’

The tone had become a bit melancholy, and Ted felt at least partially to blame. He finished his beer, and slammed it down on the table. ‘Right. Another round?’

The rest of the night went in a flash of beers and stories, from this world and the previous, with Ted learning a lot about the Baraye homeworld, and telling Benn a lot of his. He even made an attempt at pushing for the two to be called Theo, something which failed miserably as neither of the now tipsy traders understood what he was talking about.

As the evening came to a close, all three said goodnight, Benn departing with the same paw to forehead gesture that he had upon greeting Ted. Ted returned the gesture again, whilst Cam did a small bow of his head. Once Benn had left the table, and Cam and Ted were making their way to their own rooms, Cam told him why he’d been grinning when Ted had copied the Baraye.

‘The gesture, with the hand to the forehead?’ Cam said.

‘Yeah? I figured it was their equivalent of a handshake.’ Ted said, bouncing off the wall of the staircase in a mis-timed step.

‘Oh it is. But traditionally it was used as a way to show peaceful intent, from their early warring days. It effectively means ‘I will not try to eat you.’’

‘Oh.’ said Ted. ‘Well, that was very nice of him. I hope he appreciates me returning the favour.’ he laughed at the absurdity of it all, and turned at the top of the stairs.

‘Cheers for tonight Cam. It felt like a nice, normal night, for the first time since I got here.’

‘Any time, my friend. Sleep well; I’ll wake you in the morning, as we have an early start. And training to do! We don’t want to lose all today’s progress!’ the man said brightly.

‘Oh, no. Get the hangover potion ready, please.’ Ted said.

‘We don’t have those.’