James first transferred the Skill “Summon Divine Helper” from the Great Venom Wyvern to himself.

The creature did not resist at all, which James found encouraging. Now that he was closer to full power, the wyvern seemed much easier to control, even though the monster had also grown more powerful, acquiring levels and boosting its Stats as a result of the attack on Cyrus and his group.

It looks like I’ll be able to control them into the indefinite future, he thought.

Then he called Mina.

They spent a half hour testing the Skill.

James first explained what he was doing to Mina, then ordered the Great Venom Wyvern to fly away.

Then he activated “Summon Divine Helper.”

He figured the Great Venom Wyvern, formerly a part of his own body, would have his semi-divine energy just as much as anyone he’d blessed.

James got a vision of a specific motion his body needed to make as soon as he activated the Skill—clasping his hands as if in prayer. He moved accordingly, then stood in place for a few silent minutes, waiting for something to happen.

“I don’t feel anything,” he said finally. “Maybe I don’t know how—”

With a sudden whooshing sound, the Great Venom Wyvern suddenly appeared in the air in front of James, still flapping its wings as if it was in the middle of the sky. It barely registered its surroundings in time to avoid colliding with a wall.

At the same time, James felt a large hunk of his Mana disappear.

What was that, ten percent just to summon this thing? he thought.

It was slightly disappointing, but James reasoned that the Skill would become more efficient with levels. All that was needed was repeated use, which also fit with the other goal he had in mind: using Mina’s “Quick Study,” he hoped she would learn the Skill by observation.

James ordered the wyvern to fly away again, and this experiment repeated multiple times. James let the monster get further away each time, but the Skill leveled up with repeated use. There was a slight drop in Mana required with levels, though it was far from what James would have found ideal. By the end, even when he had allowed the wyvern to fly for twenty minutes, it took roughly the same amount of Mana to summon back that he had expended on the first effort.

At that point, Mina started pumping her fist.

“Yes! I got it!” she exclaimed.

The couple hugged, and James lifted her into the air and twirled her.

Then they proceeded with another experiment.

This time, James ordered the wyvern to fly away, and Mina attempted to summon it. The summoning took as long as it had taken James the first time he tried it, and this time, he was able to see what it really looked like.

Mina’s body did not show any outward sign that she was using Mana during the summoning process—it just looked like she was praying with a determined expression—until the end. At that point, a bunch of gently golden energy poured off of her.

“Fu—ugh—oh, fudge…” Mina groaned and panted, clutching the side of her head, as the surge of Mana deserted her.

A little part of James wanted to laugh at his wife’s pseudo-cursing—he was pretty certain she had actually wanted to say “fuck” there. Her willpower had kept her from it, and there was always something disarming, cute, and funny about that. She was so ladylike.

But his mild instinctive amusement at that was heavily outweighed by immediate concern for her well-being.

“Are you okay, Mina?” he asked, stepping in closer.

She raised a hand. “I’m fine,” she said, still breathing heavily. She looked paler than usual.

“You don’t seem fine,” he said.

“Well, I don’t have your Mana reserves,” she said. “But I’m still standing.”

“I’m glad you’ll be able to use the summoning,” he said. “It makes me feel safer letting you train outside of our territory, even if I’m not around.”

“You’re still thinking about what Bear said, then, aren’t you?” she asked.

“That part of it was definitely good advice,” James replied.

He remembered Bear’s words vividly, perhaps because James had been preoccupied with Mina’s safety even before the strange, all too knowing masked figure appeared in their lives.

“You cannot always be standing by your wife’s side, ready to offer your protection. You have to allow her to face real dangers and grow, not sit on your property or fight only in your tamed dungeon.”

There was still a vision of the future hanging over their heads—a vision of Mina’s death.

“Yes, he made some good points…” The tone of Mina’s voice reminded James of how stung she had been by Bear’s assessment.

It wasn’t exactly fair to her, the way Bear had dismissed her as weak—but fair or not, it was somewhat true. She was very weak compared with James or anyone who could be considered his peer. She had a Skill that could allow her to grow exponentially, but she had not been in any situation that demanded that kind of improvement since Orientation.

Most likely, she was not even the most powerful human besides himself in the Fisher Kingdom. Damien had been continuously growing stronger, fighting alongside Luna and her wolf pack. Zora’s powers were clearly incredibly potent for combat, too, though it was hard to compare the ability to create undead with more directly destructive Skills. There were probably others who were improving by leaps and bounds, too.

He broached the subject carefully. He didn’t want to call her weak when she already felt bad about it.

“I think you and I should leave the Kingdom and go fight some monsters together once we make sure everything with the Army and the Expeditionary Force is taken care of,” James said. “Strange as it sounds, it could be a version of quality time—in this weird, messed up world the System built.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Mina smiled but then frowned. “I would love to spend quality time with you, skapi, but I don’t feel quite right leaving Yulia and the children alone while we have fun. She’s been watching them whenever we do anything. Her whole social life revolves around the kids now. She wouldn’t complain about it, but I think she needs a break.”

“Okay, how about we take her with us? We can ask Leo and Hilda to watch Junior, and soon the rest of the kids will be in school.” James silently prayed that she would not suggest taking Junior with them. As much as he loved family time, there was no way he could protect Mina, Yulia, and Junior if they were in dangerous territory. He didn’t want to be put in a situation where one of them would be endangered because he had to divide his attention too finely.

“That sounds great,” Mina said. “We already know we can trust Leo—and I guess Hilda is okay, too?”

James shrugged. “I assume they’ll babysit together if they agree to do it. Leo is the one I imagine we would ask, since you know him better than I know Hilda.”

“Wonderful!” Mina exclaimed in instantly-translated Bulgarian. “Before I forget, the mention of Bear reminded me of something.”

“What?”

“Didn’t he predict Moishe would reappear?” she asked. “As much as I hate to give the masked man credit, he said someone would show up who would validate what he said about the monotheists—and then Moishe appears.”

James reluctantly nodded. I completely forgot.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “I wonder how he knew.”

“He won’t tell us if we ask,” Mina said, “or he would have revealed it already. But he does know things that seem impossible. Maybe you should talk to him again.” She sounded as though she disliked speaking those words, and she wrinkled her nose at the end of her last sentence.

James snorted and then kissed the tip of her nose.

Mina let out a little laugh of her own.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“You’re saying the things you don’t want to say, because you think I need to hear them,” James said. “That’s why you’re my top advisor.”

“Oh, right. Well, don’t you forget it!” she said with mock seriousness.

They kissed.

“I will go and see Bear after I see our brave troops off,” James said. “I’m sure he approves of that move, or he would have already materialized from out of nowhere and given me ninety-nine reasons why I shouldn’t do it. Or, more accurately, a few vague reasons that would feel true.”

“So, what he told you so far all felt true?” Mina asked.

James guessed that she was still nettled about Bear’s remarks toward her.

“Do you actually want me to answer that question?” he asked.

She thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head.

“Not if you don’t think I would,” she replied carefully.

James had thought not. Even in marriage, sometimes the art of diplomacy was in what you knew not to say.

The rest of the evening passed peacefully. There were no more experiments. James and Mina spent the time with their family, telling stories and playing endless rounds of “Sorry!” with Abhi and Yulia. Even little Indira tried to join in the game, though she just moved her piece wherever she wanted to without regard for the rules.

The highlight of the evening was when, after Mina had set Junior down on the floor to take her turn, the baby managed to crawl away—which, Mina assured James, was highly premature.

They only half paid attention through the next hour, as they expected Junior to perform some other minor miracle—but he just crawling, with surprising energy, until they decided that was probably going to be the only magic trick he performed that evening.

James tucked the children into bed with a story Abhi had chosen. This was an Arthurian legend—the boy loved those—this time about the Holy Grail. James only remembered midway through the story that it was also the story of his namesake, the Fisher King.

As had happened often before, Abhi fell asleep before the tale could reach its conclusion.

Such a strange story, James thought.

Before he and Mina went to sleep, he instructed the wyverns that they could hunt for as much food as they wanted to eat but should remain close to the Kingdom. He knew that they might be wanted at any moment to depart for destinations unknown.

When dawn broke, James reached out with his senses, just to detect if the Rogets were awake in their apartment. He very carefully avoided actually seeing or hearing anything moving in their space, but he confirmed that they were up already.

Mitzi was in the kitchen, while Alan was in the living room.

James walked over. It was time to ask them when the Fisher Expeditionary Force would be ready to depart.

“Today, this morning,” Alan said as soon as the pleasantries had been exchanged and the question was out of James’s mouth.

“We’re just eating a last meal in the apartment before we go,” Mitzi said. “The Electricity Commission members were eager to get started.”

“I think they’re very excited about hopefully getting the Internet back,” Alan said, shrugging.

James felt the same way that Alan apparently did. He didn’t really get the attraction of the Internet when they now lived in a literal magical world.

“Whatever gets them to march out and survey the territory,” James said. “You have all the supplies you need?”

“Mr. Luntz and his partners dropped them off with us last night, after your chat with him,” Alan said, patting his bag—which showed no signs that he was carrying enough food for a small army.

“Great,” James said. “Do you mind if I announce it? I’ll check with Dave when he’s leaving, too, but I think it would be great if you guys got some fanfare on the way out.”

Alan smiled. “Sure, James. Whatever you’d like.”

“We’ll see you on the other side,” Mitzi said. She put an arm around James’s shoulder and squeezed him gently. “We’re looking forward to the adventure. Thank you for trusting us.”

“Of course,” James said. “I appreciate the two of you volunteering. It’s important to me to have people I can trust in charge of a mission this important.”

Next, James reached out with his land-related senses and located Dave.

He was surprised to find that the Captain was already outside, walking the outskirts of the Kingdom. And Dave wasn’t alone. A dozen of his soldiers were with him.

James rushed to meet Dave before he and the squad accompanying him could leave the borders of his domain. He sent a quick message to let Dave know he was coming, just so that he would not have to chase him and his people outside of the Kingdom.

The conversation was a short one.

“So, you’re not ready to leave quite yet?” James verified.

“That’s right, sir,” Dave said. “Since we’re moving quite a large force, a few leading members of the coalition understandably had some last preparations they wanted to do. And I thought that since we had a day or two before the group would be ready, I would take a small group and hunt down some more of those feral hogs. We’ll get some extra meat for the journey.”

“That sounds good,” James said, nodding. “I’ll just make the announcement to the Kingdom about the Expeditionary Force leaving, then. Good luck on your hunt.”

Dave smiled. “It should be fun,” he said.

James watched him and the other soldiers until they had vanished into the woods, walking beyond the borders of the Fisher Kingdom and into the gentle shadows cast by the tree canopy in the morning light.

Then he walked back into the main inhabited area of the Fisher Kingdom.

Alan, Mitzi, and their motley crew of humans rounded out by a small number of nonhumans of various types were already gathered in the courtyard, ready to leave. The mood in the air was one of excitement.

James smiled at them, waved, and began his announcement.

[Citizens of the Fisher Kingdom, on this morning, a party of intrepid explorers gathers to lead a pioneering expedition out of the Kingdom…]