Teddy had been getting used to seeing this world in different ways since he got here. He had seen many wonderful and impossible things. He had seen in slow motion how magical fire blossomed from Daishó’s sword, how James’s limbs transformed into animal parts and the diamond formed around Kyra like snowflakes growing on a bubble. When Kyra disappeared it was instant. One moment his wife was standing in front of him looking in the mirror and the next she was gone, the was no phasing, or gradual misting like other abilities. It was a straight snap out of existence.

He was off the bed quicker than the eye could follow and looking all around. Looking for any sign she had disappeared into a crystal compartment which was ridiculous because he would have seen it. He looked all around before he looked into the mirror and he saw her watching him. She was surprised but also amused, watching the confusion on his face, he watched her blur and disappear as she walked out of sight, sideways in the room in the mirror.

………

Kyra blew Teddy a kiss then accepted the feeling within her. The world rotated around her and she was suddenly looking through the mirror but had no reflection. The image was blurry and shifting like smoke through fog. She could see everything but in a washed out colour so everything was slightly grey. She saw Teddy disappear off the bed and stand in front of the mirror looking for her she waved when he realised she was ‘in’ the mirror and then set about exploring.

As she looked around the room was exactly as it was on the other side of the mirror, all the colours were washed out but it didn’t have the smoky feature that the ‘real’ room did outside the mirror when she looked out. She sat on the bed and found it was rock solid and cool to the touch like glass. She tried to touch a tapestry on the wall, it was a favourite of hers from the church of hero acolyte in the divine square. It depicted a woman on a horse-like creature but the head was an eagle’s with a feathered neck and wings striking down with a spear while a man was leaping with a sword. They were attacking a shapeless monster on the ground between them. The reason she had picked it up was that she fancied it could be her and Teddy, fighting together to take out monsters. It too was smooth and cool like glass like she had found the bed.

She tried something different; she felt the instinctual pull of the power and thought of a dress of hers from storage, it appeared on the bed in front of her in vibrant detail. It was a dark blue with strings of diamond from hip to hip in front and under the bust, it was a simple cut with flowing fabric, a high slit up one leg and showed enough cleavage to be fun without Teddy feeling like he had to knock anyone out for looking her way for too long. She smoothed it out on the bed and felt the luxurious silk on her finger tips. It seemed the Mirror Kingdom still worked as a storage space, she could call up any item she wanted in this place and they would appear.

As she had moved around she was now nearer the bathroom. She put the dress on over her armour just to see how it would look. Her armour was incredibly fitted like a body suit so she wouldn’t stretch the fine fabric. She went into the bathroom to check herself in the mirror and was delighted to see the subtle magic in the fabric by the tailor adjusted the fit slightly to accommodate, it still didn’t look right with her armoured shins, arms and chest but the dress was still lovely. She felt the instinctual buzz as she looked in the mirror and followed it.

She appeared back in the real world and looked around in surprise. She had entered the Mirror Kingdom in the bedroom and exited from the mirror in the bathroom. Realising the potential for this she started brushing her hair again and walked out the bathroom. She thought Teddy’s eyes might pop out of his head when he saw her. He had been standing in front of the other mirror with his arms folded waiting for her.

Later they were on the top deck having coffee all together. Ragnar was driving carefully down the road but listening to the conversation on the rear deck.

“So it really is a Mirror Kingdom?” Lucy asked as she made notes. She was associated with the magic society but had not yet decided to join as a full member, she would write a report about this racial gift then decide whether or not to hand it in. “It’s a pocket dimension power, a place where just you can go?”

“I suppose so, I’ve not tried taking anyone else, maybe we’ll have to try.”

“And you can enter and exit through different mirrors?”

“Or mirrored surfaces, anything thats large enough. But I couldn’t have opened the bedroom door, or the bathroom door if it hadn’t been open.”

“That’s incredible though, can you imagine the application of this?! In combat I mean. Teddy, have you thought about it?”

“I had a little think. There’s not much as an individual other that a bit of flexibility, but as a team it could be very powerful. If you can summon mirror illusions I wonder if that could work Lucy, create a maze of mirrors around an enemy and until they smash them all down it would give you crazy manoeuvrability, you’d be smoke in the wind, impossible to catch.”

“We’ll have to come up with some game plans that incorporate it and practice.” Kyra said, looking as keen to play with a new power for the team.

“Maybe you need to play with it some more, test it’s boundaries a little to figure out everything it can do? Whatever mysterious force that powers the interface might not be able to see everything. We know it doesn’t see everything about Teddy’s powers.” James said, everyone looked at him in surprise at his insightfulness before turning to Teddy who shrugged and nodded.

Teddy was glad that before Lucy could open up the subject of his rift portal power again Ragnar called out from the drivers station.

“Attend me fellows! The moment of undertaking is upon us!”

They had arrived at the city gates. They dwarfed what they were used to in Greenstone. They had been approaching on the road along the river and so had been down at the same level for a long time. Luckily they had Lechuza high above as usual and so got a literal ‘Birds Eye view’. The city was set out like a giant spiderweb. The centre was right on the waterline, the single largest spire impossibly half on half off the water. Radiating out were huge spokes that stretched out for kilometres, they had been paralleling one in along the river for a long way. Thick walls stretched between the spokes making the spiderweb pattern and divided the city into blocks, buildings getting taller as they got closer to the centre. The same pattern was mirrored over the water, the long spokes reaching out and holding water gates to allow ships through, some for cargo and shipping with a few for luxury craft.

The gate they arrived at had multiple entrances. There was a steady stream of foot traffic going in and out of the pedestrian gates, people who had either walked to the city or had magical transport they dismissed to make it quicker and easier to get in, this was by far the easiest gate to get in and if they didn’t have the weapon bound for Honshuraskil bolted to the front deck that defied dimensional storage then the team would have done this. There was a merchant’s gate, with huge land vehicles of all designs from basic carts pulled by heidel to a boxy craft the size of a semi that moved on dozens of tiny legs mechanically. This gate was also moving pretty steadily, with the crew of each vehicle having the correct paperwork in hand. The slowest queue was the luxury vehicle line which the Serenity was marshalled into. They waited patiently looking at the other vehicles around them and making a game of guessing their business.

When they got to the front they were met by stony face professional guards. They asked a set amount of questions brooking no nonsense. When they found out they were adventurers on contract they told them they could have used the merchants entrance. When they found out what contract they were on and what they had onboard they touched a panel on the wall that was on easy reach for both of them. Highly drilled squares of guards rushed out from a hidden door on either side of the huge gate. They quickly escorted the Serenity to a huge stone room where they were met by a huge draconian, bigger than Leonids the huge scaled man smiled at them with a reptilian face.

“Team Mitchell, welcome to Arngo. Please, don’t be alarmed. I am Captain Shashi, I have the pleasure of being the watch captain today. We have brought you aside to explain why you will not be permitted in the city.” He explained there were certain restrictions on bringing weapons into the city and focussed on James when the big man looked confused. “Mr Mitchell?”

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“Well, we can’t bring this weapon in, but you let gold rankers in? Each of them is basically a weapon of mass destruction.”

The Captains smile got wider. “It is a good point Mr Mitchell, but we expect our gold rank visitors to be discriminatory with their destructive powers, if your weapon was stolen then anyone could be responsible for great destruction regardless of personal power.”

“That’s a fair point. No weapons in the city then!”

He directed them to go back out the city and due to their Fourth-stage crystal vehicle go onto the waterways and they would be directed around to a water berth in the adventure society district, they would be placed into secure storage with every protection to the society could offer for the duration of their stay.

It took the better part of the day to go through all the traffic and gates, first on land then on water. There was a process at each gate, the guards had to check the paperwork they were given against the magically updating tablets they had, they had to go into their booth each time through a locking and unlocking process to ensure that the guards inside of the booths were never in danger.

“Very impressive, if a little laborious.” James noted as he chewed on a comically large T-bone steak that he had decided to grill on the drop deck at their most recent gate, it was getting to late evening and they were beginning to think they weren’t going to be docked by nighttime and weren’t sure how that would leave them.

“I think the idea is that normal rank or iron rank guards can work in an area of high magic.” Lucy proposed. “The additional security on those booths mean that only one member of the guard force is at risk at a time. If a high ranking essence user decided they were going to kick off it would take a concerted effort and a long time to get through the defences I’m seeing. If a monster made it this far through the rings of defences it would massively slow them down, with either threat it would be enough time for a gold ranker to turn up and deal with it while the guards are safe.”

When they got waved through James handed them a box of steaming steaks, he had seen their jealous faces at smelling the wafts of cooking steam coming off the drop deck where James had set up. After that they found the gates went a little quicker, mysteriously the guards expedited their passage through with a smile and a wave.

“Don’t need to check security so much the further in we go?”James asked the team.

“Don’t think thats it, we’re headed round in an arc anyway.” Teddy replied.

“James you gave them grilled meat, I think they’re just replying kindness with kindness.” Kyra said waving at the dock worker who was signalling them in to berth.

This time the checks were much simpler, they had to show their adventure society badges and a copy of the contract, the protection they were now under was everything the large city adventure society could bring to bear and they all felt relieved from a stress they hadn’t realised they were burdened with. Teddy got all of them onto the top deck.

“Right guys, this is probably the most secure we’re going to be for the entire trip. What do you want to do? My vote would be to rest here for up to a week just to re-set. Or, we crack on after tomorrow, do some more adventuring slow time before the pass to Honshuraskil is open.”

“I’d like to see a new city. See what is has to offer.” Lucy said.

“I’m with my wife, its fun to find new places, this place looks like nothing we’ve seen before.” James said.

“There will be days to lift the axe ahead of us, let us not be too hasty to weary the arm. I could do with seeing my church fellows in this place.” Ragnar surprised them all. He was always the first to be ready to find new adventure.

They all turned to look at Kyra who hadn’t yet cast her vote, even though they were four in favour.

“What? I’m obviously in. Shopping!”

The next morning they had breakfast together then promised to stay in touch via voice chat but keep it to a minimum on the main chat. Ragnar went to find his church, a city this size was bound to have a divine square much more impressive than Greenstone and he was keen to see it. The two couples went their own ways, a welcome opportunity to spend some time with their significant others. Even though Lucy dragged James round book shops and Kyra dragged Teddy round jewellery shops they enjoyed the simple role of just being a bag-carrying husbands again. It wasn’t the same as back on earth, here they were incredibly well paid, punching coins out of monsters. The goods here were much more interesting as well.

That night they decided they would all eat separately, the two couples getting a date night each then finding luxury accommodation to spend the night. The Serenity was up there with the pinnacle of luxury transportation but there was something about staying in a ‘four star hotel’ that was luxuriously self-indulgent. The next morning they met on one of the spokes of the city that went out over the water for a grilled fish breakfast.

Kyra brought four plates over to where the others were sitting, Ragnar was absent and had gone quiet since the night before, they had a good suspicion why. While they were sat at the table they were watching the sun come up over the city walls, the towers on the end of each spoke like the numbers on a clock measuring the arcs progress.

“So why did you pick here?” Lucy asked. “It’s lovely but you were quite insistent.”

“Well, we found something we’d like to give to you. Specifically you James.” Kyra said turning to the big man who was already wolfing down his food.

“Feh meh?” He said round a mouthful of food.

“Just to be clear, this was Kyra’s idea, I agree with her but she was forceful it was happening whether or not I did.” Teddy said.

“Go on, I’m intrigued.” James said, wiping his hands on a napkin.

Kyra leaned forward and placed an item in the middle of the table. It looked like a metal raindrop the size of a watermelon, made up of a dozen or so faces, narrow at the base then widening before tapering to a fine point at the top. It was a dark grey colour with multicolour hues all over. Nothing about its appearance gave away its purpose. Lucy had leant in, fascinated by the magic of the item but she couldn’t tell what it did having seen nothing like it before.

“Err, wow. Cheers Ky, this’ll look really good on my nightstand.”

“Yeh, she cleared out her funds to buy you a nightstand decoration. Dolt. Check it out.” Teddy scolded.

James leant forward a tapped a fingertip on the very point of the item to pull up its description on the interface.

Item: [Familiar Binding Stone] (bronze rank, rare)

An item that binds a Summoned Familiar to a specific item in dimensional storage. The dimensional storage must be co-located with the summoner of the Familiar.

Effect: When the familiar is summoned the bound item will be drawn from dimensional storage. If the item is equip-able for that Familiar then it will be auto-equipped.

“We were lucky to find this apparently, they sell out almost straight away and they don’t take reservations. We found it in a familiar specialist shop we’d like to show you, but I thought this would be perfect for you.”

“So Koda could appear with an item whenever I summon him?”

“Not just any item.” Kyra said grinning, her mirror eyes sparkling with excitement.

They took the others to the familiar specialist shop they found, heading inside. It was vast, with many people openly walking around with their summons on display checking out the wares. Both Kyra and James released theirs, Lucky turning everyone’s head with the positive effect he had everywhere he went and Koda doing the same because he was massive. Kyra walked James to a section of the shop to show him what she had in mind. The proprietor recognised her from the day before where she had dropped a small fortune on the binding stone.

“Ah Mrs Mitchell, a pleasure to see you again, I take it from this rather magnificent ursine specimen escorting him that this is your brother-in-law you were speaking of?” The exotically dressed man asked enthusiastically shaking James’ hand. He was a very young man and looked like he was a ring master of a traditional circus, with a tailed jacket and top hat.

“Yes it is, James this is Mr Edland the shop owner.”

“Please, call me Edmund, pleasure to meet you, your sister-in-law spoke very highly of you!”

“Edmund Edland? Pleasure to meet you too, thats uncharacteristically nice of her to speak highly of me.”

“Mr Mitchell! I’m sure you jest. Now, by you presence here am I to assume you…”

“Yes I’ve given him the binding stone. He knows what it does but not what we thought of.”

“Ah well let us reveal the mystery then! I hope this is close to the measurements Mrs Mitchell gave, of course a final fitting will be required and we will make any adjustments as necessary.”

“Adjustments?” James asked still unsure what was going on.

Edmund walked up to a large wooden cabinet and threw open the doors revealing the contents. There was a huge set of armour. Far too large for a person and an odd assortment of panels. It took James a moment but he realised it was a set of armour for a bear. It was a deep bronze colour with shining golden panels. The legs had large plates with gaps to allow freedom of movement to fight either on all fours or rear up and strike. It had plates covering the tops of his back paws to protect him wile standing on his back legs. The entire back was made of segments, allowing full flexibility while sliding over one another to give continuous protection. The hips and shoulder areas were covered with larger thicker plates to protect the joints and were decorated with dark brown gems in the centres. A gorget would protect his neck with a row of the same brown gems lining the edge. There was a metal cap for his head which would bend around his ears and curve around his eyes without blinkering him. It was all artfully carved with swirling patterns that made it as artful as it was protective.

“Yeeees, absolutely yes. Koda?” James called over his shoulder to his familiar who was sniffing interested at a snail familiar almost his size who was sliming through the shop.

The big bear stopped what he was doing and turned to the group around the cabinet. He lumbered over, every step of his massive paws made his fur ruffle this way and that over his shoulders. As he drew near he reared up, walking gracefully on his two rear legs and actually put his arms between and pushed James and Teddy aside to get a closer look at the cabinet he gripped the cabinet doors staring at the armour and roared.