“Don’t mind me.” Sylara turned back to her game and resumed playing.

“Liam, what is she doing?” asked Lyria.

“Playing a game. Anyway, let’s sit back down here.” Liam escorted them to the kitchen table. “I know you said you don’t need any, uh, refreshments, but water is basically free for me so I can give you that much at least.” Liam filled four glasses and carried two over for Lyria and Foss. He returned to grab the other two, dropped one off on the table at his place, and then delivered the last glass to Sylara who continued playing the game. He sat across from Foss. “Let’s start, I guess.”

“Indeed, thank you for your kind consideration.” Foss took a sip from his glass and stopped to stare at it. “I… see… what you mean, Lyria.”

She giggled and took a sip herself.

“Is it acceptable if I call you Liam, Hero?”

“Yes. In fact, don’t call me Hero. Too weird.”

“Very well. We will honor your decision,” said Foss.

“I already call him Liam,” Sylara announced over her shoulder while continuing to play the game.

“Liam, since our kingdoms have no record of a hero summoning failing to bring the hero to our land, we are exploring uncharted territory. Our hope is that we can prove useful to each other, even if you do not journey through the invisible door. You see—”

Foss stopped talking and gazed up at the ceiling, as did Lyria. A gentle rumbling permeated the entire house.

“Liam, is this an earthquake!?” asked Foss.

“This happens sometimes,” Sylara called out while continuing to play the game, unperturbed.

“Uh, let me explain,” said Liam. “Sometimes airplanes fly over my house. They cause a bit of rumbling but it’s safe to just ignore it.”

“Airplanes?”

“This is going to be a pain. Uh, you use horses, wagons, and carts and the like for transporting goods and people, right?”

“We also utilize teleportation,” Lyria explained, “but it’s very limited.” Foss nodded along.

“Here, we switched from horses to carriages that propel themselves at speeds several times higher than the speed that horses run. Also, we add mechanical wings to some of them and they can fly through the air. That was one of the larger of those airplanes. Here, let me check.”

“Check?” asked Lyria.

Liam pulled out his phone and searched the internet for a map of current aircraft in the region. He zoomed in on the area near his house and saw an airliner was supposedly passing overhead at low altitude, as sometimes happened. “Yep, that’s a 737, I think it can carry like 150 people or something.” At a glance, Liam couldn’t tell the exact capacity but he didn’t care enough to research it further. It’s not like these other-worlders would call him out on it.

Foss’s eyes went wide. “You mean, 150 people were transported in the air over your home just now? Lyria, did you really sense no magic?”

Lyria just shrugged. Foss turned back to Liam.

“How fast do these airplanes travel?”

“That one?” Liam ran a quick search. “Like 500 miles per hour.”

“Miles per hour?”

“Hold on.” Liam ran one more search. “I think the maximum speed of a horse is something like 40 miles per hour. So more than ten times faster than that.”

“Ten!?” Foss looked like he was running simulations in his head about how such travel speeds would influence logistics in his world.

Lyria attempted to calm him down. “Minister, please control yourself. This world is full of many surprises for us, just as the same is true for Liam as he learns of our world.”

“Yes, of course… My apologies. I’m quite interested to learn more about these airplanes, but for now our time is limited. Perhaps at a later date we can bring someone more knowledgeable on such matters through the invisible door to speak with you further.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That’s fine with me, but it’s not like I can build or fly an airplane,” said Liam. “You’d need to talk to an expert to learn the details, and I don’t have anyone like that lined up for you.”

“But that phone of yours… does it answer any question you ask it?”

Liam shook his head. “Anything that’s easy to look up in a book, maybe, but there’s a lot it can’t answer. Especially things about your world.”

“I see… Would it perhaps be able to answer how to prevent disease from spreading? One of the reasons why we fell behind the dark forces in recent years has been disease. We are not currently struggling with diseases, but the effects are long-lasting.”

Liam couldn’t think of any reason to withhold information about diseases… Lilith’s allies shouldn’t hold it against him even if he was trying to remain neutral. He’d even share the same information with Lilith if she wanted, though the demons might have different needs than humans. “My phone won’t give me a one-sentence answer to your question, but yes, there’s plenty of information available about the nature of disease and how to slow or possibly stop its spread. Do you want me to give you some of that information?”

“Yes!” shouted Foss. “If we can make use of your information, expect to be rewarded handsomely! Oh, but I wasn’t sent with a quill or…”

“Here, borrow this.” Liam grabbed some paper and a cheap pen from nearby. “This should write kind of like a quill, but you don’t need to dip it in ink or whatever it is you normally do.”

Foss lifted one sheet of paper and inspected it. “Heavens…” He put it back down and attempted to write. “My word! Please, what can you tell me?”

Liam pulled up some articles about the history of disease prevention on his phone. As he read them, he changed some of the proper nouns and other words to keep the story easily digestible for his guests.

As Foss furiously wrote notes in his own language, Lyria listened closely, committing to memory whatever interested her. This continued for a good hour before Liam said he’d provided all the useful information he could on short notice.

“I will need time to discuss everything you shared with others back in the kingdom, but the information you provided is fascinating. I hope the lessons of your ancestors are equally applicable to the situation across the invisible door.”

Liam put his phone away. “It was no big deal. My throat’s just a bit dry now…” He finished off his water.

“We must compensate you for your help, Liam.” He retrieved his coin purse and emptied a few coins. “I imagine you do not use the same coinage as us.” He slid a few over to Liam for inspection.

Liam held one between his fingers and lifted it for better lighting. “What’s this made out of?”

“We have used silver coins for many years, although this one here is a gold coin. They are less common and of higher value.”

“Yeah… we definitely don’t use pure gold or silver coins anymore here for day-to-day purchases. Uh, let me show you what we use.” Liam stepped out of the room to grab a few coins from the jar where he deposited his loose change. When he returned, he placed them down on the table. “This is a U.S. penny, oh, it’s from after 1982 I think so it’s only copper plated. The inside is zinc, I think.” Liam inspected the other pennies closely. “Oh, this old one is probably pure copper. Here’s a nickel, a dime, and a quarter. I’m not even sure what they’re made of.”

“Can’t your phone reveal that information,” asked Lyria.

“Oh, duh.” Liam pulled his phone out while Lyria and Foss looked at each other, likely wondering what the heck Liam just meant by what he said. “Ah, here. The biggest one, the quarter, uses a nickel-copper mixture on the outside and has a copper filling. It looks like the dime is the same, although the nickel has a higher percentage of nickel…”

Foss continued note-taking.

“I don’t know if I have one, but the silver dollar is made of manganese-brass it looks like?”

“L–Let me get this straight…” Foss began. “So the penny is made of different metals depending on what year it was made, the nickel is only partly made of nickel, and the silver dollar is made of metals other than silver?”

“Oh, maybe they’re not called silver dollars anymore? I know some of them were silver?”

“I must confess Liam, this is all quite confusing.”

“Yeah… The point is, I don’t think my coins would be very useful for your people, although you can take a few of these as samples if you like.”

Minister Foss slid his coins closer to Liam. “And I offer you the same. Please, accept these coins as a mere token. If they are useful to you, I could produce many more from the other side of the invisible door.”

“Uh…” Liam imagined trying to exchange alien coins for normal currency somewhere. “I don’t think your coins will be useful here either. I could probably sell a piece of raw silver or gold, though…”

“Of course that can be arranged,” Foss agreed. “How much would be useful to you right now?”

Once again, Liam pulled out his phone to search for the answer. “Gold right now is roughly $2,000 per ounce. I only need a few ounces then.”

“An ounce?”

Liam locked the screen and then handed his phone to Foss. “Are you able to spare an amount of gold that takes up about the same amount of space as this phone? Preferably, split into around ten pieces…”

“That’s all?” Foss and Lyria blinked at one another.

“Yeah, at least for now?”

“Very well. I’ll see to it as soon as I return, Liam. I have one other item.” Foss tossed the spare coins into his purse and put it away, instead removing a vial of some kind from his robe. Its decorations suggested the contents were a fancy and valuable potion. “This is an uncommon potion that could possibly be of use to you. It is known to greatly improve virility.”