“I still think we should…”

Gabby interrupted me with a groan as she moved to pinch the bridge of her nose again. We were standing in the center of the room of mirrors. I don’t know how but despite the earth-shattering quake every one of them was still whole and where I’d left them.

I eyed them as I contemplated how to make Gabby understand I wasn’t just giving up. I was still determined to make this place a safe zone for our clan but to do that I needed a lot more skills and information. I wasn’t a Crafter who could turn a bunch of materials into solid fortifications like the ones at Oliver’s Rest had done. I might be able to put together a decent Alchemy room, which I fully intended to do, but otherwise, I was next to useless.

It's a hard thing to admit about yourself that no matter how much you wanted to there were things you simply could not do on your own. Getting Gabby to understand our limitations was proving to be impossible. She had a lot of wonderful ideas but how was I supposed to construct a door that only opened for approved members including a horse? How was I supposed to create magical traps to keep the monsters at bay? How was I supposed to build beds and convert the toilets in this place without the resources or magical ability to do so?

The more I thought about it the more I realized that Oliver’s Rest had only been possible because of the variety of player classes who had called it home. The same could be said for the Outsider’s hideout in the sewers of Perth.

I rubbed my hand over the slowly growing lengths of hair atop my head and then dragged it over my face. I was so damn tired but for whatever reason it felt like I was running out of time. I needed to get shit done. There was no time for sleep and no time to satiate the growing rumbles of my very empty stomach. It was times like these that I missed the shadow realm and the lack of bodily needs that I’d experienced there.

“Are you two finished yet?” Nigel asked from his place in the corner. “See this kind of bullshit is why I live alone.”

“Yeah, that’s the reason. It has nothing to do with your sparkling personality,” I snapped. “You could help us instead of just sitting there bitching.”

Nigel's eyes locked on mine as he bared his teeth. “ Maybe I would if you hadn’t stolen from me.”

I looked away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Give back Mr. Twiddlekins!”

Gabby’s sharp eyes were flicking between the pair of us like she was watching a speedy tennis match. “What or who is Mr. Twiddlekins?”

“I have no idea,” I said.

“Give him back!”

“Shut the hell up!” Frank screamed, slapping the side of my face as he threw his wings wide.

“Hey, watch it,” I said.

“Joe, we really need to get this place up and running before we go off quest hopping. What will Nora think if she gets back and this place is practically untouched? What are we supposed to do, leave her a note saying ‘so sorry, just popped over to see the scary swamp witch. Back in five’?” Gabby asked, continuing on like we hadn’t been interrupted from our previous conversation.

“Cassie isn’t scary,” I said before rethinking my assertion. “Well, maybe she is a little scary but she only wants to help us.”

“That’s not the point, Joe,” Gabby snapped before throwing her hands up in the air and dropping to the ground in a cross-legged position. She scrubbed at an eye with the heel of her hand and looked away from me before saying, “I really wish Nora was here.”

My fingers curled into the palm of my hand as a tightness grasped my chest. “I do too.”

“Urgh, enough of all these emotions,” Nigel grumbled. “Look, I guess I’m stuck here until Mister Genius over here figures out how a thief can cast portal magic. I’ll stay here and get this place looking all schmick while you two run off to the swamp. Sound good?”

Gabby’s face split into a grin but I held up a hand to quell her excitement.

“What do you want in exchange?”

The gnome bared his teeth at me as mischief twinkled in his beady little eyes. “What makes you think I want something?”

I lifted a brow at the creature in his pointy little red hat. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe you’d do something so nice for free?”

“Well, I did until about three seconds ago.”

“Tell me what you want,” I demanded.

“Mr. Twiddlekins for one, and number two would be a nice flat five hundred thousand gold,” the gnome said, turning his hand over and inspecting his filthy fingernails.

“Shut the hell up!”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I couldn’t have expressed the wave of anger that rushed through me better than Frank did. It was true, once you started accumulating gold, completing quests, and looting everything that glowed you could gather a decent sum but the amount he was asking for was astronomical. I could buy a full suit of enchanted armor for that with enough left over for a decent knife.

Nigel stood and stretched before walking toward the door. “I’ll leave you two alone to think about it for a minute. I’ll be in my bedroom.”

“It’s not your bedroom,” I shouted after him but all I got in response was the steady thump of his little feet on the stairs.

When I turned back to Gabby it was to find her with her knees pulled up tight against her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her head dropped. Even in the dull light of day filtering through the boarded-up windows I could see her whole body trembling.

I stood there awkwardly not sure what to say. I knew she’d been dealing with a lot of crap lately but somehow I’d not expected her to break down. I didn’t think patting her back and saying ‘there, there’ would make her feel better.

Thankfully, Frank was better than me at making people feel good. He dove off my shoulder and strutted across the ground until he could nuzzle against Gabby’s arm. His ear-splitting caws weren't exactly soothing but they came from a good place.

Gabby lifted her tear-stained face and let out a very wet chuckle as she fluffed Frank’s chest feathers with a finger. The raven lifted his head, leaning into the strokes.

I let the pair be as I pressed the three lines on my inner wrist. My inventory popped up, showing everything I had. Even if I sold all the items I no longer needed or used and maybe some of the things that I did I could only come up with about two hundred thousand gold.

I let the menu fade away and rubbed at my head. The fastest way to get gold was to complete quests but in order to get out there I either had to leave Gabby here alone or drag her behind me kicking and screaming.

“Do you happen to have a mountain of gold hidden in your inventory?” I asked.

Gabby rubbed her arm under her nose as she turned her red eyes up at me. “No. I only have one hundred thousand gold.”

I tried not to be pleased that I had more than her but there was no stopping the smallest bit of puffiness from inflating my chest. Although, when I compared my equipment with hers it was clear where the discrepancy was.

“Then we only need another two hundred thousand. That should be manageable by next Christmas,” I said.

Gabby laughed again but it was only half-hearted. “Great. Nora might just be back by then and all of this will mean nothing. What do you think I should get her for the holidays?”

“Oh, axe polishing paste or a whetstone for sure.”

Gabby pushed herself off the ground with Frank stationed comfortably on her arm. “Nigel’s right about the fighting. Give me one week. One week and if Nora isn’t back by then we’ll go see your swamp witch.”

“Please, call her the Witch of Evermore. If you keep calling her a swamp witch she might come bursting out of one of these mirrors and turn us into wart-ridden toads.”

Gabby’s eyes flew open as her mouth formed a little ‘o’. “Is this what all these stupid things are about? Witches can jump through them? Oh, oh, that’s what Nigel meant by portal magic!”

“Settle down. It’s just an idea. I have no idea how to make it work yet. I’m no mage.”

“Sob is. When Nora gets back he can spell them.”

“Sob is a battlemage not a, um, what would you call it, an enchanter? Something like that.” I screwed up my face and rubbed at my neck, wondering if my next question would send her into a fit again. “Will you be comfortable enough waiting here with Roska and Affald while I go finish up a few quests?”

Gabby snorted which was frustratingly at odds with the reaction I was expecting. “What, all six of your quests? I’m sure you’ll amass a fortune completing those.”

Should I mention to her that only one of my quests was even remotely achievable while we were in Stanthorpe unless I counted the Witch of Evermore as well? No, that would be giving her ammo and that would be a very stupid thing to do.

“Do you want me to leave Stella with you?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think you’ll survive out there without her. But I’m keeping Frank. Deal?”

Don’t do a victory dance. Don’t do a victory dance. “I suppose if you think it’s best. Oh, but watch out. Frank doesn’t seem to need ‘portal magic’ to disappear into the mirrors.”

“What?”

“Just don’t be surprised if he jumps into one, alright?”

“Um, I guess,” she said.

“Crocs like this place too. You have to be careful. If I come back and you’ve been eaten I’ll be very angry.”

She lifted her arms and did what I can only describe as jazz hands.”Oh, an angry Outback Joe, whatever will I do?”

My eyes strained as I squeezed them close together, a muscle tensing almost painfully along my jaw. “Who told you that name?”

Her still red eyes twinkled as she said, “Who do you think?”

“I’m going to kill her,” I grumbled, heading for the stairs.

Gabby laughed so loud it echoed in the hall. “Good luck with that one.”

“Outback Joe!”

I froze with my foot on the top stair before slowly turning to stare at the big black bird still resting on Gabby’s raised arm. The bastard had said my name before but not the damn title I’d earned at the Cackle Shack. Gabby’s face had turned bright red, her free hand clamped hard over her mouth.

I muttered and cursed turning back and marching to the windowsill, sliding down the drainage pipe with a speed that might have been considered dangerous. Gabby and Frank took to the sky, their wings in stark contrast with each other.

Gabby waved to me as she slowly dropped into the safe yard of the Red Fox Inn. Seeing her there lifted a weight off my shoulders that I didn’t know I was carrying. Stella barked and slammed into me, lifting her paws to place them on my shoulders. Her tail whipped about in a frenzy powerful enough to send a cloud of dirt into the air behind her.

When I’d finally managed to calm her down and stop her from painting my face with her foul-smelling slobber I took off, winding my way through the rubble with Stella on my heels. I opened my quest menu and marked The Candlestick in the Ballroom as my active quest. Navigating to the minimap in my character menu I could see the vague little pointer giving me some idea of where to go.

It was time to see what all the fuss was about at Old Man Wellington’s manor house.