CHAPTER SIXTY
Making a Trailer
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“Mirror, mirror, I call to thee,” Rowan chanted, drawing Bram out of his musings of political alliances and blood-drinking.
He watched as she cast her spell on the crystal tablet she often carried these days, and not just as part of her ‘Executive Producer’ look. It was about the shape of a large book but was thin like a glass windowpane, this ‘Enchanted Mirror’ that affluent nobles used to communicate over vast distances.
“…Reveal to me what I long to see.”
With a twirl of her fingers—fingers that glowed with the telltale spark of her magic—the enchanted mirror she held began to glow.
“Huh,” one of Bram’s eyebrows hitched up, “it doesn’t usually work that fast…”
“Oh?”
“Reception’s always poor when connecting to places drenched in magical energy… Most sorcerers recast the ‘Mirror Mirror’ spell more than once to maintain a proper signal.”
“I’m not like most sorcerers.”
“Clearly.”
Again, the prince couldn’t help but be impressed at the ease with which Rowan used magic. Even the Grand Sorcerer of the Sovereign’s court wasn’t as talented as her.
As for the enchanted mirror, with Rowan’s spell cast perfectly, its surface rippled like water, and an image appeared, one Bram and Rowan were quite familiar with seeing as they’d recently battled a mad nymph inside its very space.
These days, the grand hall seemed even more overrun by wild grass, flowers, and trees. For even with the death of Loveless, the Red Forest seemed intent on claiming the ground that a goddess had abandoned. This made it the perfect location for the final pieces of Bridget’s trailer.
Speaking of the Loom’s lead narrative designer…
“No, that’s not how you do it!” Bridget yelled.
She slid into the enchanted mirror’s line of sight, though her back was to it. Someone else from her film crew must have picked it up and pointed it toward her.
“Director, you have a—”
Bridget held up a hand for silence.
“I told you — you have to look more provocative…”
Bridget sounded exasperated.
The actor she was directing sounded equally annoyed though. Indeed, Bram and Rowan could hear the she-wearg growling despite the distance between them.
“I’m a warrior!”
The she-wearg was a tall woman with reddish skin and braided her framing a young face with flushed cheeks. She sat on a thick tree limb about twenty feet high, though she couldn’t quite sit in the same way Loveless managed it when the mad nymph had welcomed Bram’s party to her lair.
“I don’t do provocative…at least not like how you want it.”
“Honey, you’re barely wearing anything. You can do provocative. Trust me.”
Bridget struck a pose; one Loveless might have done in her efforts to seduce Bram’s party, and even watching from behind, she made Bram blush while Rowan giggled.
“Just like this.”
The she-wearg’s face flushed an even deeper crimson.
“I’m a warrior!” she protested again.
“So was Loveless,” Bridget countered. “That nymph was batshit crazy, sure, but she knew how to charm and allure…and that’s what we need — bewitching our viewers with your natural charms while giving them a sneak peek at a real-life dungeon quest.”
Bram couldn’t see her face, but he imagined Bridget looked excited. She got like that when it came to explaining things to others.
“It’ll be a hit, trust me!”
“I don’t! I can’t be like Mother!”
That’s when Bram recognized her.
Tall, lithe, with a comely face and bright yellow eyes; she was the wearg who’d warned the party about intruders entering the Red Ruin. She was no Scarfang, but she had the kind of wild look that one couldn’t help being drawn to. Bram could see why Bridget had chosen her for the role of ‘Mother of the Forest,’ which, according to the game’s scenario Bridget had written for the dev team, would be the first dungeon players could visit. As the only dungeon they managed, it was really the only option. At least for now.
“I’m taking a break!” the she-wearg growled. “Don’t look for me!”
“You signed a contract!” Bridget yelled.
The she-wearg had already climbed up the tree, and she exited the hall through the broken roof before Bridget could yell at her some more.
“Ugh,” Bridget shook her head, “actors…”
“Why not have the chief do it instead?” the wearg beside her suggested.
Though this new wearg was no Scarfang, he was burly enough to rival Bram. His size wasn’t what caught the prince’s interest though. That honor belonged to the object floating above the wearg’s curly head. It was a tiny, twinkling blue eye bathed in a ghostly glow—the Loom’s All-Seeing Eye.
“Believe me, I’ve tried to get him involved, but Scarfang’s not interested…and I’ve been around your tribe long enough to know you can’t force that stubborn wearg into anything,” Bridget complained, adding, “Besides, the dungeon’s scenario has an alluring fem-boss in it. We need Swiftheart to do this.”
“Good luck with that,” the curly-haired wearg chuckled. “She’s as stubborn as her uncle.”
“I’ll handle Swiftheart. You just make sure you’ve got your eye on the ball,” Bridget instructed.
It sounded like a literal command, and it was.
As one of the Loom’s administrators, Bridget had access to the system’s recording tool, one she’d recently renamed the ‘Loomtube,’ which, according to her, was a name Earthers would appreciate. Like most system tools, Loomtube was an ingenious feature, allowing people to record their adventures using their own senses as the medium for recording the experience. Indeed, Bram had used this very tool just last night during his training session with Ser Anthony.
In the previous evening, the master knight and his prince had a spar in the training grounds that had garnered the attention of his household knights and guards, as well as the nobles who’d remained guests of the bastion days after Rowan’s knighting ceremony was finished…including Bram’s estranged uncle.
Bram had even managed to record Vicomte Conrad’s astonished face after seeing his nephew wield the same arcane sword art Ser Anthony had done mere moments before.
“Was he a genius hiding his talents all along?” Vicomte Conrad had asked, sounding quite dumbfounded, and he hadn’t been alone in his surprise.
Bram had used ‘Replication’ to copy Ser Anthony’s power, but only a rare few knew this fact. For everyone else, it seemed like the prince had used an arcane sword art after only having seen it once. He hadn’t been in a hurry to correct them.
In any case, Bram’s objective hadn’t just been to record a moment of vindication he could relive over and over again with Loomtube’s aid, but also so he could review his spar with Ser Anthony anytime he needed. Not just so he now had a video that could help him replicate the Peerless Heart Sword’s first and second techniques without having to bother his busy seneschal, but also so Bram could compare his actions with Ser Anthony’s and correct the movements he couldn’t follow during the spar. By doing this, Bram hoped that he would one day wield the Peerless Heart Sword without needing ‘Replication’ as a crutch.
As for Loomtube, Bram knew it had a second interesting feature; the power to temporarily bestow it to another as if it were an enchantment, allowing multiple points of view to occur for the same recording. In the Red Ruin shoot’s case, it wasn’t just the curly-haired wearg, but there were two other people—both standing at different angles of the same shot—whom Bridget had cast the Loomtube’s eye on.
They must be her… Bram’s brow creased as he recalled the Earth term, …Cameramen!
The sight of them brought a thrill to his mind for it meant they were one step closer to bringing Earth’s cinema to Aarde, though there remained the challenge of finding an item in this world that could store a Loomtube recording onto it so that even Aarders without access to the system might enjoy the wonders of a Loomtube video.
“Hello, Bridget,” Rowan called.
Bridget turned.
“I asked for quiet during film—”
Her eyes widened as she gazed into the enchanted mirror and saw her friends on the other side of it.
“Take five, people!” Bridget yelled.
Instantly, the tension in the hall died down.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Cameramen stretched their bodies as if they’d been standing rigidly for too long, weargs in the lighting team cloaked their sunstones, emerald-clad sorcerers loaned from the Stargazers uncast their sound spells. The crew was quick to take what seemed to be a much-needed breather from filming.
Meanwhile, Bridget had snatched the enchanted mirror from her unseen helper and spent a good five minutes gossiping with Rowan about the goings on of Walc and Bastille—which wearg confessed to who, or which noble had gone on another drunken tirade—before Bram could interrupt and ask her for an update.
“Well, Prince, you’ve seen what I have to deal with,” Bridget grumbled, adding, “But don’t worry. We still have a few hours before the feast. Editing’s mostly done too. Once we get this final scene in the can — assuming my actor comes back — I’ll have the video ready to launch in time for our alpha testers waking up on Aarde.”
“That’s good news,” Bram nodded, “we’ll want to create—”
His brow creased as he thought of another Earth word the Earthers had taught him.
“—buzz,” smiling, Bram continued, “at the same time as the feast begins.”
“Oh, there will be buzz.” Bridget mirrored Bram’s grin. “With what we’ve recorded, our trailer is gonna be legendary.”
Her smile faltered slightly.
“An announcement trailer’s usually when we entice more investors to the project, but I guess you don’t want that,” she assumed.
“Maybe in the future when we have a better cover for the Loom beyond it being proprietary technology.” Bram’s grin widened. He couldn’t help it. He was learning Earth-speak as quickly as Rowan was. “For now, I can handle our finances.”
“For now,” Rowan weighed in.
Recently, she’d made it a point to help Bram with his governing, going so far as to study the financial ledgers of Bastille and Lotharin and peeking into the prince’s private ledger. All part of her duty as the Loom’s EP. So, she wasn’t unaware that despite the inflow of griffins earned from their conquest of the Red Ruin, the Lotharin Investment Fund was like a sandcastle built above quicksand.
“We’ll need to raid another dungeon soon if we want to keep payroll,” she insisted.
“Don’t worry. I have a few ideas in the works,” he replied.
Bram was aware of their burgeoning finances too since some of it was due to his insistence on paying his workers above what could be considered the market rate. His way of giving back to the commoners who were often crushed under the boot of the nobles they served. It was, in his opinion, the right thing to do.
In any case, Bram had already devised a plan, which, among others, included raiding nearby dungeons that were known to the Imperium, but were either too remote to worry over or too dangerous to conquer. The Wolf’s Cry in Bloodhaven—the former homestead of House Wolfe—would be among the latter.
Rowan’s worth lay beyond simple knighthood, and, since she’d been pretending to be a lost daughter of House Wolfe anyway, gifting her the cursed land of Bloodhaven and naming her an eorl seemed appropriate. Also, freeing Bloodhaven of its curse and restoring Rhein Shire to its former self meant securing more wealth and resources for the great undertaking. Resources such as farmland that the prince’s people could cultivate themselves. Essentially, it would be hitting two birds with one stone.
“You guys wanna see it?” Bridget asked.
Bram assumed she meant the trailer, so he asked, “Editing for the finished scenes is done?”
For an answer, Bridget pointed the enchanted mirror to her left, revealing the two men hunched over desks and the system messages floating in front of them like computer screens.
“Say hi, boys!” she called.
One of the two men—a pale-skinned plump man with a buzz cut and a trimmed beard around his round face—looked up from his screen.
“Howdy…”
There were dark circles around his small eyes which were slightly glazed over. Probably from looking at the Loom’s ghostly blue windows for too long. He stifled a yawn too, but he did manage to raise a thumbs-up at the enchanted mirror.
The other man—a scrawny-looking fellow with too-straight shoulder-length dark hair framing his narrow face, his slanted eyes hidden behind tinted spectacles that hung over his hawkish nose—didn’t even look up from his work when he waved.
“I’m nearly done with the score, Bridge,” he said in a raspy voice.
“Nice, Yogi,” Bridget replied, “we’re doing the cinematic score towards the end, right?”
The scrawny man nodded. “Uplifting during the crowd shot, then dark and ominous for this last scene…”
“Yo, I had a thought,” the plump man piped up, “if we’re doing uplifting music in the crowd shot then maybe we fade to black before the Red Ruin scene, so the sudden change isn’t too jarring…?”
Finally, Yogi looked up from his work. He glanced sideways and said, “Like making it seem like the trailer’s over then adding in a sneak peek, Edu?”
“Yeah, exactly,” Edu grinned.
“That’ll mean more work…” Yogi’s gaze returned to his screen. “We’re already overworked though. so I’m fine with that…”
“Hah,” Edu sighed, “Join the Loom, visit a new world, it’ll be fun, they said.”
“Meet beautiful women, fight monsters, and become heroes of another world,” Yogi added. “Whoever said being isekai’d was fun didn’t know shit about the grind.”
“True that, brother,” Edu replied. “God, I miss sleeping…”
“What’s sleep?” Yogi asked sarcastically.
Both men laughed.
“Boys…don’t embarrass me in front of our corporate overlords,” Bridget replied jokingly. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you an ability book when we return to Bastille. Let’s call it overtime pay.”
“I’ll take a high mobility movement skill,” Edu said.
“Make mine a tier two defensive spell,” Yogi chimed in.
Both men gave Bridget a thumbs up before focusing back on their blue windows, which Bram noticed was Loomtube’s interface.
The enchanted mirror swiveled back to Bridget’s apologetic face.
“Yeah, they’re super glad to be here,” she insisted, adding, “Sarcasm’s just how they deal with the overtime…”
Bram didn’t begrudge them their complaints. He knew how hard they’d been working since being hired barely a month ago.
Eduardo Celdrun and Yogi Yamaha were among the Trickster Studio’s first hires since the company’s founding on Earth. Originally part of the marketing team, Bridget had them transferred to her film crew so they could help create the promotional content Bram and Chris had wanted for the Feast of Travelers.
Since the company had yet to move into its new office in DUMBO, Brooklyn’s up-and-coming tech hub, it seemed a better option to send the pair off to Aarde so they could join Bridget in her quest. This decision made Edu and Yogi the first of the studio’s new staff to visit Aarde, turning them into the test case for the unfinished summoning hall as well as the immigration center which provided a more comfortable experience than the one Chris and Bridget suffered through.
ALERT! [Bridget Fowling] has sent you a message. Would you like to read it?
The Loom’s ‘Whisper’ feature wasn’t unlike the ‘Clarion Call’ spell Rowan had used to summon Lil’ Joss and Josslyn, but this one came in a familiar ghostly blue window. Any messages sent through a ‘Whisper’ was also limited to a hundred and forty characters. It was quite the convenient tool—another one the Loom had given the team once their many tasks sent them on different paths—but it was only usable for system users.
Bram tapped on [Yes].
Bridget’s message was a Loomtube video, prompting Bram’s Loomtube interface to pop up.
PLAY
The screen started as black. It stayed that way for a second or two, and then, color, vibrant, a spark of brilliant light revealed the outline of a planet…Earth. That’s when the music began, one that perfectly set a mood of mystery and allure.
Trickster Studios
The studio’s logo—dozens of red blossoms transforming into bright crimson letters—appeared across the planet that gradually lost its shadow, giving way to a familiar scenery of continents and oceans. After Earth was fully revealed, the studio’s logo was brushed away like dozens of red blossoms carried by a breeze, and the camera zoomed in toward the planet, sending its viewers straight to the scene of a sunny New York City skyline.
A word written in big white letters appeared over the image.
IMAGINE
From there, the scene switched to an apartment living room. A blonde woman appeared. She put on a jacket and laced her shoes, though instead of leaving the apartment, she sat down on the couch. Only then did Bram notice that she was Bridget—a Bridget with makeup on.
Bridget’s gaze drifted away from the camera, moving to the table next to the couch and the sleek white visor waiting there.
BEING ISEKAI’D
She smiled. The excitement was clear on her face. It was reflected in the changing beat of the background music which had gradually shifted to the first rhythms of wonder.
TO ANOTHER WORLD
Bridget put on the Visionary II with the camera following from her perspective.
Static—the screen twitching as if it was experiencing a computer glitch—and then, with the return of light, the viewers got their first look at Aarde.
It was already a familiar scene for Bram, one of Bastille seen from the same hilltop he’d executed Alaric von Galen. The view seemed even more majestic this time thanks to the accompanying score.
DISCOVER
The next scenes were a montage of Bridget touring many locations on Aarde with the view on screen interchanging between Bridget’s point-of-view and that of a camera following her around as if she were being filmed from behind.
She took a tour of Bastille’s Midtown shops, visited Reise’s bustling thoroughfare, and spent time riding a hart across verdant hills and plains, while not forgetting to film the magic on display all around her.
CONNECT
As Bridget pushed the front doors of Bram’s bastion open, her teammates appeared one by one; Ser Anthony, Ravi, and Hajime, all decked out in shiny gear and calling her over to join them.
The prince noticed that his seneschal looked quite uncomfortable being filmed. On the other hand, Rowan looked like she was born to be on screen. Indeed, she easily stole the show after the camera zoomed in on her face just as she cast a charming smile at it.
Bram paused the recording.
“When did you film this?” he asked.
“The morning you went off to Reise to meet with your bandit friends,” Rowan answered.
Bram frowned.
No wonder Ravi had been late meeting with him that day.
“You couldn’t wait for me…?”
“Bridget was in a hurry,” Rowan answered, with Bridget adding, “It was a quick visit to Bastille then back to the Red Forest.”
PLAY
ADVENTURE
It was a familiar scene of Bridget donning a cloak over her hunter’s gear and hefting the bow that had become her main weapon. Afterward, she walked out of the bastion’s open doors with the team following her.
As the music became more upbeat, Bridget, Hajime, Ravi, and Chris were shown exploring the Red Forest, with the scene cutting out to them meeting with a leap of flametail leopards.
Again, Bram paused the video.
“You didn’t join them?” he asked Rowan.
“They shot this on the day of my knighting ceremony,” she answered.
PLAY
BATTLE
A mock battle ensued between the team and the weargs, with both sides showcasing a variety of flashy skills meant to catch the eye of the viewers. Here, the music turned livelier, its melody growing as wild as the fight on display.
LIVE
The scene transitioned to the team having a good time inside the Journey’s Respite bar. They ate Madam Bertha’s Rouladen, clinked their flagons, cheered their recent victory over the weargs, and then downed their grog in one long gulp.
Later, Bridget and Hajime were shown taking a nighttime stroll across Reise’s main street while the twin moons shone above to light their path. In Bram’s opinion, it was quite a romantic scene, one he would recall later to tease his friend.
Finally, the screen turned dark, and new words appeared.
BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY
The screen remained dark, and Bridget explained this was where the Red Ruin scene was supposed to be.
THE LOOM OF ILL FATES
Fade to black. End of trailer.
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Quick note: Enchanted Mirrors are Aarde’s version of a crystal ball, or, in Earth terms, a magical video-calling app. However, this isn’t the usual mode of communication for most Aarders. Enchanted Mirrors are expensive. Most messages are delivered via carrier ravens.