I went up to my room after finishing my last beer with Keeper while he cleaned up - both he and Miranda categorically refused to allow me to help with anything, even after two weeks of familiarity - and fidgeted while I waited for Meg. Usually she came up after helping clean the kitchen and bathing herself, and then we got all sweaty again, and then we had a sponge bath together, and wow did I get used to that routine in a hurry. But this time I wasn’t actually interested in sex.

Well, not that interested. At the moment.

Meg had a Stat Point to distribute and I really, really wanted to see if hers worked like mine. It seemed like it took forever until I heard a soft knock on the door.

That was another thing I absolutely could not get her to stop. She insisted on knocking and getting permission to come in even though she practically lived in my room now. It was quite a bit nicer than the little niche off the room where Keeper and Miranda slept. That was on the ground floor so they could hear any suspicious goings-on and/or late night arrivals. (There was a bell that people could ring if they wanted in after hours.) While Meg’s little cubby had a nice enough bed and a chest for her few things, it wasn’t a patch on my guest room and I liked having her close, so it wasn’t too hard to convince her to essentially move in with me.

I let her in, shaking my head and rolling my eyes a bit. She was used to it and would actually sass me about it. She just wouldn’t stop.

“Good evening, Master Chris,” she said with a saucy tone. “Did you order room service?”

I gave her a squeeze and a very pleasant kiss, but then pulled my head back and gave her my best mysterious look. She giggled. It might have been my best, but it wasn’t very good.

“And what was that look for?” she asked, grinning. She was so adorable I almost got distracted, but I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders.

“We have Song Magery to work on, my young padawan,” I said. She looked at me, confused.

“Padawhat?” she replied. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Not important,” I said. At least, not right now. “It means ‘student,’ basically. I just mean, I want to see something about your Character Sheet.”

Meg found the Character Sheets both fascinating and frightening. She’d come to accept that it was part of my ‘gifts from the Powers,’ but it creeped her out something fierce to see the sheets floating in nothing, untouchable. Bright as she was, she just had no frame of reference for it. Everything she knew about her world’s magic was going out the window every time we talked about it.

“All right, Master Chris,” she said, taking a deep breath of her own before sitting on one of the two chairs by my table and looking at me with determination. “Character Sheet.” She blinked as the sheet filled the left side of her vision.

“You don’t necessarily have to say it out loud, Meg,” I said. “Try thinking ‘Dismiss,’ and then ‘Character Sheet’ while you think about wanting to look at your sheet.”

She did this and blinked again as it worked just like it did for me. “I see it, Master Chris. It looks the same as it always does.”

“Well, we need to learn some new harmonizations,” I said, “But for now, we’re going to do your stats.” I thought, Meg Brightman Character Sheet, and it appeared in my field of view.

Name: Meg Brightman

Class: Song Mage

Level: 2

Health: 100

Breath: 75

Stamina: 100

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 13

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 14

Resonance: D

Element: Water / Creation

Stat Points: 1

Known Manifestations:

Create Water, Call Shadows

Known Harmony Manifestations:

Create Dream Water (C#/D)

Special Skills:

Harmonize (Primary Singer, D)

“Good,” I said. “It looks like it always has so far. See where it says ‘Stat Points: 1?’”

“Yes, Master Chris,” she said with a mostly confident nod.

“Okay, now I’m going to show you how to use the Help System,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. “That’s part of the whole thing that helps you figure out how things work. Just so you know, it can be a little… odd.”

“Odd how?” she asked nervously. “Why I have I not seen that before?”

“Not sure,” I said. “It should work for you, but if not, I can do it remotely… I mean, I can see it for you. And some of the messages it gives are… sort of sarcastic. I’m not sure why that is either, but it’s harmless.” I was not about to try to explain the Entity to Meg at this point. She’d freak out. “Anyway, think, ‘Help Create Water’ and see what happens.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Meg nodded, then I saw her eyes wander as she tried to summon the help card for Create Water. She jumped and her mouth fell open.

“I see a new box!” she said with wonder. “It says, ‘Create Water, a Manifestation that creates pure water. 1 Breath per… liter?’ Then it says ‘Element, water.’ What’s a liter?”

“It’s a unit of measuring liquid,” I said. “It’s from my world. The pitcher on the table…” I nodded my head toward it. “… holds about two of them.”

“Why would you measure water?” asked Meg dubiously.

“Because when you buy and sell things, it’s good to know exactly how much you’re going to get,” I said. “Like, in my world, most liquor comes in a bottle that always has the same exact amount in it, so you always get the same amount for your money. Don’t the wine bottles have a measurement? Don’t you measure how much water you put in the pot when you make soup?”

“No,” she shrugged. “I just know how much to put in. And the wine bottles are all mostly the same size. If they change the size, Uncle Peter just pays a little more or a little less.”

I shook my head. Surely more advanced cooks or practitioners or vintners or whatever the Hell they had on Laroha had some kind of standardized measurement, but I guess in the kitchen, as Meg said, she and her Aunt Miranda just… knew. They had been doing it for a long, long time, after all.

“Well, in any event,” I said, shaking my head again, “Breath per liter is basically how you figure out how much water you can make before you run out of Breath and have to rest. You have 75 Breath, so you could make 75 liters of water without stopping. That’s a lot of water.”

“It is!” Meg said, eyes shining. “I can fill up the pot and the pitchers and make enough to wash anything I want, whenever I want! It’s amazing, Master Chris!” She was starting to get that ‘Servant of the Powers, command me!’ look in her eyes. As I said before, I didn’t exactly hate that, but I was not going to let her distract me this time.

“What if I told you,” I said, hamming it up a bit even though I knew she wouldn’t get the joke, “That that is just the beginning, my young apprentice? That we can increase your power even more?”

Meg’s eyes got huge.

“Master Chris, can you really? I’m already so strong! How could you even do that?” she said in a breathy whisper.

“Leveling up!” I said with a grin, going back to my normal tone of voice. “You leveled up, and now you get to increase your power.”

“What do you mean, I ‘leveled up?’” she asked, still confused.

“I mean you did something hard and the Leveling System rewarded you. You start at Level 1, but every time you do something hard, you level up and you get a stat point. You can use the stat point to increase your power,” I explained.

“What did I do?” she asked wonderingly. “Did I do something that pleased the Powers?”

“No,” I said. “Well, maybe. All that matters is that the Leveling System thought you did something hard enough to deserve a reward. If I had to guess, I’d guess it was the first time you Harmonized with me. That’s something no one else on your world has ever done before. You’re amazing,” I said, still grinning.

“All I did was sing...” she started to say, but I cut her off.

“Doesn’t matter. You did something that was hard. That’s how you get levels. And now you get a reward. I have been reviewing the Leveling System and I found out something really interesting. I think I know what we should do with your point.”

“What’s that? And how do we do it?” She looked nervous, but willing.

“Your stats are okay, really,” I said. “Your lowest one is Strength, but I think that’s just because you’re still a young g… woman. You’re plenty strong. Trust me, I know.” I waggled my eyebrows at her and she giggled, breaking the tension a bit.

“Anyway,” I continued, “If you had a stat that was really bad, we’d put your point in it, but they’re all okay, so we’re going to put it where it will likely increase your power. Your magic power. Does that work for you?”

“Master Chris,” said Meg, “I have no idea how any of this works or how you know so much about it, even if you are from another world. I trust you. Tell me what I should do.”

“Okay,” I said. “You can think this, but just to be clear, say, ‘One Stat Point to Wisdom,’ while you think about your Character Sheet.”

The second I said this, I had a terrible feeling. Character Sheet.

Name: Chris Erikson

Class: Song Mage

Level: 5

Health: 110

Breath: 160

Stamina: 100

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 14

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 10

Charisma: 12

Resonance: C#

Element: Shadow / Thought

Stat Points: 1

Known Manifestations:

Call Shadows, Slow Thought, Disrupt Enchantment

Known Harmony Manifestations:

Create Dream Water (C#/D)

Special Skills:

Omniglot, Leader of the Band

Band Members:

Meg Brightman (Primary Singer, D)

Whew. It would have been just my luck if it took that as literal and used up that last point I’m saving. Wouldn’t be the end of the world, but not what I wanted to do.

“One Stat Point to Wisdom,” Meg said in an only slightly nervous voice. “Ohhhh… that feels strange.” Her eyes went a little soft and her head swayed on her neck. “I… what was that?”

“The Leveling System is changing you, making you stronger,” I said. “I felt it too, it’s harmless. Look at your sheet now.” I called up her sheet, which automatically dismissed mine.

Name: Meg Brightman

Class: Song Mage

Level: 2

Health: 100

Breath: 75

Stamina: 100

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 14

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 14

Resonance: D

Element: Water / Creation

Stat Points: 0

Known Manifestations:

Create Water, Call Shadows

Known Harmony Manifestations:

Create Dream Water (C#/D)

Special Skills:

Harmonize (Primary Singer, D)

“Looks good,” I said encouragingly. “You did it exactly right. Now, call up the Help Screen for ‘Create Water.’ Remember, you just have to think ‘Help Create Water.’”

Her eyes defocused for a second as she dismissed her sheet and brought up the Help screen.

“It says the same thing…” she said hesitantly. I was just about to curse the Leveling System, and maybe its designer, but then she added, “Except now it says one Breath per two liters. Is that good?”

I threw my fist into the air with a hissed “Yesssss!” of victory. Meg jumped back and almost toppled over on the bed. I sat next to her and gave her a big hug, then a kiss.

It worked the same for her, I thought with the part of me that wasn’t focused on kissing Meg. Fortunately, it wasn’t a complicated line of thought. A few more levels and she’ll practically be a water-bender. This is awesome!

“It’s good, then?” Meg said breathlessly when I leaned back again.

“It’s fantastic,” I said. “You just basically doubled your power. You get twice the result for the same amount of work… I mean, Breath.”

Her eyes got huge again.

“Master Chris, that would make me almost as strong as you,” she said in a hushed voice. “That’s like something out of a children’s story.”

“Oh, I already leveled up my Wisdom too,” I said dismissively. “Twice. It doubled and then doubled again. So we can…”

“It doubled and doubled again?” Meg rarely interrupted me, but this time she apparently couldn’t resist. “Master Chris, that’s… that’s unbelievable. You’re probably the strongest Song Mage in the world. Maybe the strongest one ever.”

“I have not yet begun to grind, Meg,” I said with an evil smile. “Soon, we will be invincible.”