Current Quests

The Safety Of Walls: Reach a walled town with Samorn Khantong.

Justice For Courbefy: Find justice for the victims of the corrupt mayor of Courbefy. Use…

Sam had a discussion with Misty before leaving it out overnight to get her first full night of sleep in days. Dave made sure to wake early, quietly took out the last of their good food and laid it out for breakfast. He boiled the kettle outside the door to keep the noise down. He read information about auras from An Introduction To Adventuring which still didn’t make much sense to him but he persisted with the chapter until Sam stirred. At this, Dave released Tome into the air and cooked breakfast. Ham and cheese toasties.

“Here you go,” said Dave, putting the hot food in front of the bleary-eyed Sam.

“Thank you!”

He made tea and presented her with the mug which she took with a smile. Dave popped a spirit coin in his mouth and poured himself a mug of tea.

“You can have a sandwich!” said Sam with sincere, wide eyes, offering one of her toasties.

“No. I insist,” said Dave, fending her offer away. “It’s your first good night of sleep in ages and you didn’t get that sleep because you were keeping me safe. This is my thanks and I want you to accept it.”

Sam smiled happily and held the toastie to her mouth.

Dave wandered outside and checked the remains in the pyre which was still hot, just in case his triple checking last night looked different in the light of day. It wasn’t. Nothing but ash powder in the middle of the pyres. It was past dawn. He memorised his spells, summoned two origami mounts and an origami golem. He mentally ordered Scrambler to take up long sticks, stir the ashes together and dump the last of the firewood on the hot embers. Dave wandered back inside.

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They decided to leave Courbefy valley. The spawning monsters were unpredictable and, from what Dave could tell from the background magic, only getting more unpredictable. They set out to Sam’s ranger cabin. It took three days to get there but they were more powerful than when they left that cabin together on this journey and the monsters they encountered in the first two days were not difficult to kill. On the last day of travel they encountered no monsters, just regular animals which ran away from them.

About mid afternoon on the third day, they arrived at Sam’s ranger cabin. Despite stopping here, it wasn’t their destination. They’d only come here to pick up Sam’s belongings and take them in a new life of adventuring. She sang to herself in the afternoon as she packed. Dave could tell she was feeling melancholy and nervous but Sam approached it with a smile. She picked up her effects and stashed them away into her dimensional bags which she’d been using as saddle bags on their mounts every day.

“You alright?” asked Dave when she handed him a series of flour bags that would stack in his inventory.

“Yes!”

“Not sad to be leaving your home behind?”

Sam beamed her big smile and shook her head.

“This was always more like… hideout?”

“Really?”

“Yes! I was hiding here. No more hiding now!”

“Aren’t we both going into the world hiding something?”

“I think our plan is more… disguise!”

Dave grinned. Her positivity was infectious.

“Yes, that’s us! Normal people in disguise.”

“Dave, you definitely are not normal.”

“Neither are you. Too happy.”

Sam clasped her hands together and grinned self consciously.

“I’m normal for a scientist,” said Dave.

“What’s a scientist?”

“Someone who discovers new knowledge for a living?”

“Oh, magic society person.”

“Yeah! Sorry. I’ll tell them I’m a magical researcher with the magic society. Right?”

“Yes! You are normal for magic society.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment, Sam.”

“Thank you, Professor, but Sam’s idea works just fine if I’m just trying to avoid attracting any attention from the Builder cult.”

“Don’t be sad, Tome!” sang Sam while patting the book. “If we can get a nice carriage someday, Dave can study while adventuring.”

Sam finished putting the last of her own possessions into dimensional bags, brought in some tools from outside so that they wouldn’t be exposed to the elements and then they went outside and closed the door.

“Bye, bye, mountain cabin! Thank you for keeping me safe,” said Sam, making a wai at the cabin before she left. She jogged up to Dave, Tome and Tzu who were waiting for her and quietly said, “But your paper cabin is more warm. Let’s go!”

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They set off to the closest town; Megève. It was west, towards where Dave would have seen Lyon and Paris in his reality. He’d been to Paris but never to eastern France but once they left the mountainous region behind the landscape was similar to parts of Austria he’d visited, full of rolling green hills, forests of temperate trees and pleasant meadows.

The region was classified as normal rank but wasn’t large or stable enough for spirit coin farming, which was something that Dave had to look up. Apparently, different parts of geography had different levels of background magic which influenced the kinds of monsters that spawned in them. It seemed it was actually quite difficult to find enough low-magic regions in the world where lesser coins could be farmed.

“Wait, looting abilities are rare?” asked Dave incredulously as he read the reason for spirit coin farming in a book.

“Rare but also not rare,” said Sam moving her hand in a so-so kind of way..

Daved looked at her with mild bafflement.

“Hard to explain. Not every adventuring group has person with looting powers but if there is a monster with really good loot, it doesn’t take long to find one. Also, can do looting ritual.”

“Why aren’t essence and awaking stone combinations that give looting abilities hoarded and issued by the adventure society?”

Sam shrugged.

“Maybe it’s too hard to control that?”

“Oh, yeah. Adventurers are probably an independently minded lot and telling them what essences to take and what they can do with their own loot is likely a failing objective from the start,” remarked Dave dryly.

“You think it shouldn’t be?” asked Sam in surprise.

“It’s definitely not efficient. From what I’ve read these coins aren’t just currency, they’re also the most common form of magical power, right? You drop them into appliances to power them?”

Sam nodded.

“So, whoever can generate the most coins can power the lives of the most people, those people generate goods which can then be sold for more money, those people are taxed which generates more money for the people who generated the coins in the first place and so on?”

Sam smiled with puzzlement.

“Sorry, I think that was a terrible way to introduce you to knowledge about economics. Economics, that’s when people who are good at maths start studying money,” said Dave and gently tossed Tome through the air who flew to Sam and opened on a dictionary page that had economics on it. She read the passage quickly.

“Oh! People study spirit coins?”

“Well, in my reality they do. It’s made a lot of people very rich.”

“Did you study it and get rich?”

“No, I studied science - sorry - alchemy and I got poor.”

Sam laughed.

“But then I got a job with the people who studied economics and they paid me enough that I wasn’t poor.”

“So it all worked out!” beamed Sam.

“Kind of. The work was soulless and I’m pretty sure I killed the dreams of several talented and enthusiastic young people.”

“Oh,” Sam’s face fell.

“I also prevented upwards of a billion dollars - dollars are our version of lesser coins - being spent on vanity projects but it’s always the nasty parts of the job that stick in your memories, isn’t it?”

“A… billion?”

“Yeah. Siemens. Big company.”

“No. I mean. Just… A billion is more than a million?”

“Yes? That’s how numbers work?”

“I… don’t even know about that much money.”

“Nobody does.”

“But just said you did?”

“I tried to impose order on the chaos but my decisions were often ignored by our version of nobles.”

“Nobles suck!” declared Sam suddenly in a way that made Dave snort with laughter.

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The closest walled town was Megève, which they reached in four days of travel. Situated just west of the mountainous alps it was the hub for all the industry in the surrounding areas. The surrounding areas being mostly more alps so the town was full of warehouses of lumber, quarried rock and all the quintessence that could be harvested from the natural magics; ice, snow and plant being the most common but from what Dave could read from the public records that Tome could access, they got a little bit of everything that the eyes could be set on.

They rode into Megève in the late afternoon. Dave could see a golden question mark hanging in the air just beyond the arch which was the gate into the town. There were two guards who were waving people through. From what he could tell, some of the locals were greeting and joking with the guards. The friendliness of it all made Dave relax. He and Sam had been afraid there would be intensive checks at the gates but this was a good sign. They approached the gate riding their origami pini mounts.

“Excuse me, sir? Do you know if there are any bronze or silver rankers in town?” called Dave to the closest guard and flipped him an iron spirit coin.

“I would not think so, mister,” said the guard with a lazy accent, who snatched the coin out of the air. “They are generally remarked upon and I have heard no remarks. Who is it who asks such a question riding a massive fox?”

“That is a pini, Jean!” called the other guard, waving on a woman with a wheelbarrow full of tuber vegetables. “They come from the north. Read a book sometime!”

“Antione, I have told you before, we are guards. We don’t need to read books!” bantered Jean.

“You speak for yourself, Jean. Every time I breathe your scent I am reminded to try to move up in the world, away from you,” drawled Antione.

Dave grinned at both of them.

“Gentlemen, please! That’s a ‘no’ on my question?” asked Dave, hoping his good humour would show through in his smile and wouldn’t antagonise the guards.

“Yes, you are correct,” said Antione with a grin. “Why do you ask?”

“Me and my friend are looking to join the Adventure Society. We were hoping for some tips.”

“You will have to go to Oullins for that, I’m afraid. Just some essence users and iron rankers in town. This is a quiet area. It’s why Jean’s mum lets him guard.”

Jean kicked a rock at Antione.

“Well, maybe I’ll talk to them. Any place to stay you’d recommend for me and my friend?” said Dave gesturing at Sam.

“Saint Dragon’s!” shouted Jean. “It is the best!”

“Saint Dragon’s is for hookers and beer!” shouted back Antione.

“Maybe they want hookers and beer!” retorted Jean.

Sam managed a scandalised grin and couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

“We want a quiet drink and clean sheets,” shouted Dave who was thoroughly enjoying the unprofessional banter of the guards. It was made all the better by their accents which rolled the Rs and kept the tongue low in the mouth like every word was part of a lazy afternoon.

“Go to Madam Orabelle’s,” said Antione in a serious tone. “She charges a lot but if you can afford these mounts, you can afford her prices.”

“These are summoned!” said Sam, in protest of the thought of paying more but grinned guiltily when she looked at Dave who was aware of how much money they had. “Sorry! I forget. He has looting power. No problem!”

“No wonder you want to get into adventuring, mister! Getting a looting power so early in your career!” exclaimed Jean, paying closer attention to them during a lull in the people-trafic. “What’s that you’ve got? A pini essence?”

“Nope! But I’ll let you and Antione debate that and place bets. I’ll find Madam Orabelle’s. Have a good shift!” said Dave while spelling ‘book’ on his arm where Antione could clearly see it. Dave gave him a cheeky grin which Antione shot back as Dave departed after Sam.

Dave passed under the yellow question mark and completed his quest. His eyes skimmed over the text; [The Safety Of Walls] complete. The rewards came in. A bit of money and…

“By the gods,” said Dave, pulling a polearm out of his inventory. “I’m a spell caster. Sam, do you want this?”

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Madam Orabelle’s was a stone building that was away from the centre of town but not so far it would be an unpleasant walk. Madam Orabelle was a flaxen haired elven woman from ‘up north’, hence her stilted accent, but she had moved south when she married her husband. She was related to minor nobility but she had eschewed that life, finding the politics boring.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Sam was soon thoroughly enjoying herself, chatting with Madam Orabelle who was of similar age to Sam. Dave politely listened to their animated conversation and insisted that Bell, as she asked them to call her, stay seated and chat with Sam. Dave took over her innkeeper duties quite easily. With his Find Page ability to search texts he could easily do the clerical work of inn administration and his Grand Mages Gravitas was worthy of remark with how it could clean and dry dishes.

“How ever did you get such an ability?” asked Bell, watching the impurities steam out of the dishwater and into a bucket.

Dave shrugged modestly.

“Can anyone really claim credit for their abilities?” said Dave. “In truth, I was really hoping for a big damage ability when I got it but in the long run, I’d say this has been better.”

“I think so!” said Sam energetically. “He is the best to go into the forest with. Anything that is wet or dirty, he fixes it!”

“Oh! Anything?” she said with a mischievous look.

“Maybe?” said Sam with her biggest grin at Dave who grinned in turn at Bell.

“I don’t know its limits yet. We’ve done some experiments. Can’t make fresh branches into dry firewood but anything cleanliness related I reckon I’d do well with.” Dave offered.

“How about tarnished silverware?” said Bell.

“No idea!” said Dave, shaking his head.

Bell had one of her staff bring over some tarnished cutlery for Dave to try, which he did, running his prestidigitation over them for a minute while Bell brought up with Sam that her husband was an iron rank adventurer who did local contracts.

“Yes, that’s why I married him. My family didn’t like me marrying a commoner but he’s got more guts than the rest of them put together. I saw my brother get gifted an elemental essence at the age of eighteen and he’s never so much as made a sandwich, let alone made anything of himself but I saw my Henry as a young man with nothing but a vehicle essence and a dream.”

Bell’s eyes glazed over in memory.

“Oh, you should have seen him. Coming through the gates with a roguish smile on his face, greeting our servants like old friends. Always working to save up for that next essence. I couldn’t help but cheer for him in my heart.”

Bell smiled at Sam.

“Are you two…?” said Bell, gesturing between Sam and Dave.

Sam smiled and giggled while shaking her head.

“We are not romantically involved,” confirmed Dave. “We met because a monk of knowledge said we’d be good friends and he was right! We work together and it suits us pretty well.”

Sam grinned and laughed while patting Dave’s head.

“He’s a good boy!”

“These spoons are done,” said Dave, offering them to Bell. “There’s the grime on this kerchief but they’re still tarnished. I guess because tarnish affects the metal fundamentally, I could only remove the bits that were so far gone they’re no longer considered part of the spoon, I guess.”

Bell stared intently at a spoon, picked another kerchief out of her blouse and rubbed at the tarnish very hard.

“Ha!” she said, showing Dave the cleaner surface.

“Oh! Of course!” said Dave with wonder. “I couldn’t change the metal but by removing everything else, the metal is easier to change.”

“You’d better adventure fast, young lady. If he has abilities like this another young woman might decide to chain him down,” said Bell to Sam with a mischievous smile causing Sam to break down into giggles.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much,” said Dave, grinning with them. “That monk of knowledge set me on a path that will take a lot of momentum to knock me off of.”

“And he’s glad to see you again!” came the deep voice of Hugh.

Dave snapped his head around to see the broad figure of Hugh in his monk’s habit striding across the common room of the inn. Dave jumped up with a cry of joy and threw himself into a great hug.

“Sorry to interrupt but the moment seemed just right,” said Hugh to everyone and then looked at Bell and Sam extending his hand. “I’m Hugh, good to meet you both.”

They both offered their hands, which Hugh shook gently over introductions.

“Dave and I have a lot to catch up on. You two keep chatting and don’t worry about us,” said Hugh with a genuine, warm smile.

“Over there? Yeah. We’ll be at the bar, Bell. Just have your staff put anything that needs cleaning in front of me,” said Dave with a reassuring nod.

Bell and Save smiled and waved them off, immediately falling back into animatedly chatting with each other. Arm in arm, Dave and Hugh made it to the bar and sat down.

“Hugh! How’ve you been? Still monking?”

“No, actually! I’ve been reassigned as a friar,” said Hugh with a whiskery grin. He held up two fingers to a barmaid who caught his eye.

“What’s the difference?”

“Monks work in seclusion. Friars work among the people.”

Their drinks were put in front of them and both men took a draught of beer.

“Hugh, why do you have an exclamation mark over your head?”

“Why do you have one over yours?”

Hugh’s eyes twinkled. Dave’s jaw dropped.

“No bloody way!” said Dave.

Hugh grinned proudly and drank more of his beer.

“Ha! Tell me what happened!” laughed Dave.

“No, you tell me first! What’s with that mysterious letter you sent?”

“Not bloody here,” said Dave through a grimace, hushing Hugh. “It wasn’t all very pretty or strictly straight and narrow.”

Hugh got that look which happened when Knowledge was filling him in on something and then grinned at Dave.

“Yep, later for you. Me? Everything went as planned! Wind form, ran off in the sky with your illusion, the cultists saw me, one shot an arrow at me, missed by a mile, I ran higher and kept going. Didn’t sleep for a day. I was so exhausted even with the potions. I slowed down to a walk and Knowledge eventually found me a barn to sleep in. Ran the next day to our church here and reported everything.”

“Good! I’m guessing there was a notice on the Adventure Society board the next day.”

“One of many! Haven’t you heard what happened with the builder cult?”

“Nah, mate. Just arrived here at sundown. Fill me in?”

“It all happened in some out-of-the-way place called Greenstone in South Berberia. Big conspiracy and everything. The church of Purity is in league with the Builder cult! Absolute scandal of the highest order. Anyway, soon as it came out, the cultists came out of hiding world over and the church of Purity with them started raiding spirit coin farms, warehouses of supplies, you name it, they went for it in a world-wide smash-and-grab.”

“Really? Security seemed a little lax at the gate when Sam and I got in?”

“Yes they’re a bit over confident because I got back so quickly and warned everyone before the Purity folks got their go orders. I warned everyone about the Builder cult, people started looking and found them all squirrelled away in the Purity church. Plain as day! The whole Purity church here got arrested.”

Dave raised his half-full glass to Hugh.

“Good. Fuck those guys.”

“My goddess doesn’t like cursing,” agreed Hugh, winking at Dave, raising his glass and emptying it.

“So, something good happened after all our pain, huh?”

“You’re damned right!”

“Isn’t damning things blasphemy?”

“Not in this case. It’s descriptive. Purity is being sanctioned by the other gods and my inclusion was actually a good bonding experience with the churches of Warrior, Justice and Hero in town who volunteered to help out along with a bunch of other periphery clergy who don’t have representative churches in town. There was this really crazy leonid woman from the church of Wrath with an explosion essence who kept blowing in doors. Scary as hell. Glad she was on my side, though!”

Some new beers were put in front of them and a pile of things to clean. Dave started twirling his fingers, cleaning them.

“Well what happened after you raided the Purity church?”

“Well, half of them weren’t in on Purity’s plan and immediately fingered the ring-leaders. Then we sussed out a whole bunch of Builder cultists with mass arrests the next day before they raided the warehouses.”

“Ah! That’s why the guards are so happy. They were part of it and now they’re reading in the papers about the big event they helped stop around here.”

Hugh grinned and took a gulp of beer.

“So what about the exclamation mark above my head? When did you get a quest ability?”

“I don’t! But maybe I will? The local societies and a few churches gave me some awakening stones that my Goddess asked for.”

“She gave you a list?”

“Yes! I was as surprised as anyone but she told me to wait for you to apply them. You’ve got some ability, I guess? She wouldn’t say.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to mention it because I didn’t think it was too powerful but I did it with Sam and it might actually be the most powerful thing I have. When I apply awakening stones they get extra power from somewhere and grab better stuff.”

Hugh nodded and they both took a gulp of beer.

“You said ‘we’,” said Dave.

Hugh’s grin was in danger of taking his head off.

“I was part of it all. Knowledge’s battle contingent.”

“No! Hell yeah!”

They both laughed and drank.

“Yeah, the Goddess, she’s got a plan for me,” said Hugh, bursting with pride.

“She’s going to train you up!”

“I think so! I’m not part of Her military forces-”

“Wait, she has those?”

“I think every god has some enforcers.”

“Getting theocracy vibes, mate.”

Hugh’s eyes unfocused and he got an update from Knowledge.

“No! What? No! Nothing like that. By the Goddess, that really happen in your plane?”

“Yep. The dark ages were wild. Good inspiration for fantasy novels, though.”

“Uff, better off without it. Nah, gods are strictly domain centric. Best example is Death who brings in enforcers if a necromancer gets big.”

“What’s the biggest event Knowledge has ever enforced?”

“Can’t tell ya but one you’ll like is the time a child emperor tried to ban reading.”

“That’s hereditary rule for ya. Bunch of inbred, blue-bloods left in charge.”

“Your plane has that too? Not the name calling but hereditary rule?”

“Not the civilised parts of the world, no. We’ve moved on to constitutional democracies where rich people make the same, dumb decisions.”

Hugh got another update from Knowledge. They both took a gulp of beer.

“How’s that working out?”

Dave shrugged.

“It’s described as the best bad system we’ve got.”

Hugh crossed his eyes, figuring that out and then burst into laughter.

“You say the weirdest stuff, Dave!”

“Yeah? You get brain-updates from a goddess!”

“Err, yeah?”

“Oh, shit. You think that’s normal. Wait! It might be normal. Is it normal? Doesn’t matter. Not normal for me. There’s no gods where I come from. Have a guess how weird it must look to me.”

They were well buzzed by this point. Hugh was staring at his glass imagining and, his body shaking at first, eased his way into raucous laughter.

“It must be so weird for you!”

“It so is!” said Dave laughing with him.

“Ooh,” said Hugh, finishing his second glass. “We’re laughing at nothing. Enough beer.”

“We’ve hit the sweet spot, mate,” said Dave, with a wink. “One sip every ten minutes to stay in it. Basic pharmaceutical science.”

“Science, I remember you said you studied that. That’s like the learning job in your reality?”

“That’s the stuff. Although it’s also a learning tool. Make a hypothesis and try to falsify it.”

“Don’t you just discover things and write about it? ‘S what we do.”

“Yeah but to make sure you’re not fooling yourself you gotta try and prove yourself wrong.”

Dave drained the last of his second glass.

“Why?”

“So nobody else does!”

Hugh started wheezing with laughter into the bar.

“What?” exclaimed Dave, grinning with Hugh and slapping him on the back. “It’s bloody embarrassing if someone else does it.”

Hugh was red faced and trying to tamp down his laughter. Dave was also biting his bottom lip as they both struggled to avoid being the stupid, loud drunks in the room.

“Okay, let’s bring the party down then. I’ve got a feeling I’m in your Lady’s plans too. Gimme that quest hovering above your head,” said Dave.

“Oooh, The Lady,” said Hugh, wiping his face and calming himself. “Well, you know the first bit. Get this bunch of magic rocks in me. After that, she wants more awakening stones.”

“For you?”

“I think so! Hope so. I hope not.”

“That doesn’t make sense, mate.”

“It’s just… you know? Feels pretty big if I’m worth all this trouble, hey?”

Dave slapped his shoulder.

“She’s Knowledge! She knows what she’s doing right?”

“Yes but I’m still nervous, you know?”

“Then be nervous! Just don’t be stupid.”

“Stupid? Me?”

“Yeah, not trusting the woman who knows everything, ya donkey!”

They both chuckled.

“You’d better clean that pile,” said Hugh gesturing at the heap of dirty plates and glasses in front of Dave.

“Yeah, I’d better,” said Dave sheepishly, starting the prestidigitation.

Hugh ordered two waters.

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Sam and Dave got separate rooms for the first time since they’d met and the soft beds were everything they could have wanted. They woke the next day feeling like the royalty that, Dave realised with a sense of unease, actually had an awful lot of non-symbolic power in this world. He put it out of his mind. He hadn’t even met one yet. Perhaps they were nice? After all, William and Harry from back home seemed like affable blokes.

Dave drank a mana potion and memorised four mounts and one golem. Just in case. He was about to have breakfast when he saw Sam in the stable yards practising with the billhook he’d given her yesterday. She looked… strangely proficient.

“Hey! You learn that with your brothers, too?” asked Dave from the door.

Sam smiled her greeting to Dave.

“I know only basics!”

“Is it a good fit for you?”

“I think so! Is a lot like a spear so I just use like a spear.”

“Stick ‘em with the pointy end?”

Sam laughed and nodded.

“What did you say was the enchantment?” she asked.

“Lethargy. Billhook of lethargy. You hit stuff and it gets sleepy. Anything that runs away is likely to fall over. You like it?”

Sam shrugged.

“Haven’t used sleepiness part yet.”

“Fair enough. Breakfast?”

“I already eat! You wake up Hugh and have breakfast with him. I will enjoy sunshine!” she waved her hands demonstratively at the sunrise. Dave remembered that with her ranger’s hut situated in a valley, she might not have seen as many as she’d have liked.

He waved at Sam and made for Hugh’s door but met Hugh on the stairs and so they both made their way to the inn’s dining area and asked for breakfast. Orabelle’s was popular enough that there was a hubbub of chatter from the other patrons but it wasn’t noisy. Even so, Dave and Hugh had an area closer to the clatter of the kitchen where the staff could conveniently pile dirty dishes for Dave to clean.

Hugh poured black tea from the pot on the table and took the letter Dave had written to Hugh on his first night on the run with Sam out of his pocket to show Dave.

“This letter you wrote? Caused me some puzzlement. I was surprised you’d gone off adventuring. That was with Sam, yes? The guide?” he said, gesturing out the windows at Sam.

“Yeah, she knew a place that the locals had forgotten about. Courbefy. Full of awakening stones she needed and I figured, I’m new in the world, I could use a friend and some spare cash.”

“Courbefy? That’s an old name that’s been on people’s lips recently.”

“Why?”

“Oh? Apparently, the Geller boy died there. It’s been all over the Adventure Society. They were in a tizzy about finding-” Hugh’s brain caught up with his mouth. “Sweet gods, it wasn’t you was it?”

“I didn’t catch the family name. His mates called him Ross?” said Dave.

“Yes,” said Hugh, with widening eyes accentuating his face drained of colour. “Lord Ross Geller.”

Dave blinked at Hugh.

“That’s the son of Tiffany Geller. The matriarch of the local Geller clan?”

Hugh was clearly insisting on a point that Dave was missing.

“I gather that this is important in ways that I don’t understand,” said Dave.

Hugh opened and closed his mouth, sat up, looked around as though for inspiration, found none, took two deep breaths and leaned towards Dave to hiss at him.

“She’s rich. Insanely rich. Can-get-away-with-murder rich. And, she’s powerful. She’s a silver ranker. She’ll see through any attempt to lie to her. You remember the tyranny?”

“Oh,” said Dave. Who’d forgotten about the tyranny of rank.

The tyranny of rank was a fundamental aspect of life on this plane. You were only ever on a physical, magical or even emotional parity with things on the same rank as you. Objects or creatures of a higher rank had a natural magical resistance to damage from lower ranked sources. High ranked people could, with basic self control, accurately read the emotions of lower ranked people like a book via their aura and couldn’t be read in return. A mildly talented higher ranked person with any amount of aura training could even force emotions on a lower ranked person. Here, in this plane, rank was everything.

“You’re fucked if you get in front of her. Fucked!” hissed Hugh.

It was the first time Dave had heard him swear.

“Well, it was self defence!” muttered Dave, thankful that there was so much background noise in the inn he hadn’t appreciated before.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s a Geller! That name means everything and yours doesn’t! In fact, you don’t even officially exist! Oh, Knowledge, Bell’s husband is on the expedition to retrieve his Adventure Society badge!” wailed Hugh softly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” asked Dave.

“Normally yes, he’s a great guy but he’s not incompetent. He’s a real adventurer and if there’s anything to find out there, he’ll find it,” said High.

“There shouldn’t be anything to find. I burned it all,” said Dave, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach.

“All? Are you sure? All?” inquired Hugh in a low voice and smiled at a kitchen hand who put some dishes next to Dave.

“As much as I could find, yes, and I left Builder cultist evidence in my place,” said Dave and continued to explain the whole situation of meeting and eventually killing the hunting party and disposing of the bodies.

“Well, that does sound rather thorough but none of it will matter if you end up in front of Lady Geller answering her questions,” muttered Hugh.

“Not that I’m ungrateful but for a gentle, non-violent guy you seem rather on my side about this, Hugh,” said Dave.

Hugh looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering.

“Umm, well. Ross Geller… You know, it couldn’t have happened to a person of more theoretical virtue,” he said carefully.

Dave raised his eyebrows.

“He was that bad?”

“Yes. I’m afraid so.” Hugh shifted uncomfortably again. “We’d even heard about him in the monastery. He’d be in prison if he had any other name. A proper well-bred psychopath. Completely doted on by his mother. He’s the cataract of her eye and can do no wrong.”

“So, there’s no talking to her, hey?”

“No.”

“Sounds like I should skip town?”

“Yes.”

“Damn, I was really hoping to adventure with you.”

“Oh, I’m coming with you. I was in the same patch of woods. She’ll haul me in front of her if I’m available.”

“Really?”

“Her family has global influence. They basically own kingdoms and regularly produce bronze and silver ranked adventurers. Trust me. Everyone even remotely associated with this debacle is making themselves scarce.”

“Fuck.”

“Yes.”

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Did I kill Ross Geller? Yes. And, perhaps the greatest condemnation of this reality is that nobody beat me to it.

* Excerpt from The Booker Interviews, 2686th year of His Majesty Byzas The Great’s reign.