I wake up yet again in the white space that I know as Jinx’s playground. This is where he tricked me into becoming a troll. I am not super happy to be back here, because the last time I was here, I was dead.

“Tricked you? How rude,” says the familiar voice of Jinx. She’s female, for now. Also she can read my mind.

“Whatever,” I say as I look down. Hmmm. In here I am not a troll. My hands are thin and pale and lack talons. Part of me feels a little sad at that. Sharp claws are useful!

Jinx flits in and out of my vision. “Agree to disagree then?” Without giving me a chance to argue, she continues. “You found something unfortunate there, my dear. And it all would have been fine, except you just had to eat part of your better half!”

What is she talking about? Before I can ask, an image appears before me. It’s me, fighting the ghost troll, and it’s… pretty scary. There’s no humanity in my expression or actions. I watch as I tear into the ghost troll’s arm and swallow part of it, and Jinx freezes the image.

“Right there, Ellie. That’s where you made the decision—“

“I didn’t decide to eat part of it,” I say indignantly.

“Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe,” says Jinx with a giggle. Then her voice changes into a man. “It wouldn’t be a problem if you had restricted your cannibalism to normal trolls, but what you ate wasn’t entirely of this world. Or your old one,” he says before I can ask.

“So what world was it?”

“I have no idea!” says Jinx. “But we’re going to have to do something about that.” He points to my belly.

I look down. I am glowing, as if I swallowed a light bulb. It’s emanating from my stomach and while I can’t feel anything it looks very strange.

“You’ve got another world’s magic in you, Ellie, and that is going to cause you trouble. Or it would if you weren’t blessed by such a friendly and helpful god!” I hear Jinx puff up with pride. “That’s me, by the way,” he says before I can retort.

“Uh huh. So how can you help me?”

“Well, we need to redirect that energy into something useful, so…Let’s see. You know I love giving people choices, so how about you decide for yourself? Imagine you were eating in a restaurant. What would please you best: a discount on one meal, a two-for-one deal on any meal on the menu, or a meal that is very expensive but tastes better than anything else on the menu?”

“What?” I turn to look at Jinx but as usual he’s very evasive. He doesn’t say anything further, so I stop trying to glare at him and think.

Obviously this is some kind of metaphor. Or allegory? I’m not sure which one applies here. Starting from the basics, it’s clear he isn’t actually talking about food. What else could it be? “My alchemy power. That’s what you’re dancing around. And whatever I choose will give me some kind of benefit.”

Jinx doesn’t say anything, but I can somehow feel his approval.

Okay then. What could a lifetime discount mean? I make potions more cheaply? Not sure how that would work; maybe I’ use less ingredients per potion. The two-for-one deal… that almost certainly means that I would get two potions for the ingredients of one. Is that any different than the first option? Yes, but… the last one, the special meal that is very expensive. What could that be?

“Well, Ellie? What do you think? How shall I divert the extra dimensional energy that is trying to turn you into a monster as we speak?”

Wow, no pressure there! I spend a moment more thinking. “I choose… the special meal. Whatever that is.”

Jinx claps, the sound loud in my ear. “Excellent choice! Well, they all would have been excellent choices. But before you go, let’s have a quick chat. About… Bale.”

That gets my attention. “I know a little about him. I know you brought him here, and he killed a lot of people to get back to his own world, but he’s still here.”

“That’s all true. I did bring him here, just like I brought you. But what he asked for made him impossible for me to deal with.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What did he ask for?”

Jinx doesn’t acknowledge my question. “That portal is something Bale came up with. It seems someone out there is disseminating Bale’s research to various races; Bale himself couldn’t write dwarven runes, but whoever put that idea into the dwarf king’s head could. Now, I know I told you to make things interesting, but when it comes to him, the most interesting thing you could do would be to confound his agents at every turn. What he wants would destroy this world.”

Jinx claps his hands again. “Now, I’m going to send you back there. Try not to throw any of the little cave crabs into the monster portal, hmm?”

Before I can answer I feel the same sensation I felt when Jinx reincarnated me, and I find myself lying on the floor of the cave. Immediately I am in pain, because the stupid cave crabs are eating me! I smash them with my fist and then, feeling like the gross monster that I appear to be, eat them. They are pretty tasty, after all, and the troll part of me needs food to recover from all that regenerating.

Now, time to think. That ghost troll that I fought came out of the portal. So did the DMCs, the dimensional mutant crabs. The banishing potion worked really well on the ghost troll, and I didn’t need to risk losing an arm to use it.

“Create a potion of banishment.”

Something in my mind speaks to me. I’ve never heard it before.

Create a strong potion of banishment?

This must be what Jinx was talking about. I grin and mentally agree, and a small vial forms in my hand. It’s glowing like the last banishment potion, but somehow the light feels more pure. I weigh it in my hand and then look around. There’s one of those monster crabs, hanging on the wall like I can’t see him. I wind up and throw the potion.

The explosion of light is much brighter and more focused, centred on the point where the potion hit the DMC. The afterimage remains on my eyes for a few seconds, but where the giant enemy crab was there is nothing. No muss, no fuss. I like it. But when I go to make a couple more I understand Jinx’s metaphor. The potion was strong, but it cost me twice as many ingredients. I have enough salt for a bunch more, though. I make a mental note that I need to remake my healing potions and then I proceed to eliminate the other DMCs from the cave.

Now it’s just me and the little crabs, and they are mostly occupied eating the remains of their monstrous cousins. This lets me get close to the portal and examine it closely. The runes are definitely dwarvish. I think I understand a little of what happened here. The king, who I know can use magic, probably made this as an experiment, but it got out of control fast. Now it’s down to me to fix this up right.

I only have enough ingredients to make a regular acid potion, but I have an idea. The portal is from another dimension, and I know the banishment potions work. So it stands to reason…

“Create a potion of, um, acidic banishment?”

I wince because it sounds more like a question than an order. But it works. The clink of glass in my talons reveals a vial of green, glowing liquid that I instinctively know is exactly what I asked for.

“Well, here goes.” I uncap the potion and dribble a little out on the closest rune. The green light instantly ramps up to a dazzling intensity, and the stone sizzles and melts. The portal begins flickering, and I hear something from it for the first time. It’s a distant roaring sound, as if…

“Oh crap,” I say. I quickly pour the banishment acid all over the runes, going in a circle so I get them all. By the time I get to the last rune the roaring is very close and very angry, but the moment the last drop of acid hits the stone the portal just disappears. No explosion, no dramatic poof of energy. It just goes away, leaving a bare stone surface that has obviously been prepared by dwarven magic behind. The runes are nothing more than scars in a circle now.

I look around. None of the little crabs seem to notice that anything has changed. They’re all happily eating their former tormentors and I can’t blame them one bit. Those big ones would have eaten me too!

I wonder if I would actually die from it. What part of me is the real me? I know my arms and legs grow back, but what if it ate my head? If my head grew back, would I still be me? Probably not, judging from the ghost troll who sounded like me but was definitely not me. If it had been me it would have been willing to talk things out, like I was. I am very reasonable.

That also makes me wonder about how the ghost troll came about. My foot was severed and cast into the portal, and it grew into that. I shudder. Will that happen every time I lose a limb? Wait, what am I thinking? Am I so used to being maimed that this is a serious question to ask? I shake my head and decide then and there that I will do my best to keep all my parts attached from now on.

Something occurs to me while I am looking about. The dwarf who brought us into the Undergallery said the king left his pick and hammer here. Maybe I should look for it. It doesn’t take long to find them. They’re lying near the entrance tunnel that I came in from, as if they were thrown aside in a rush. That’s probably exactly what happened. I grab them up and tuck them awkwardly into my bandolier so I can climb up to the tunnel entrance.

There’s nothing left to do here so I start the journey back to the dwarven Undergallery. While I walk I think on exactly how to cure the dwarf king. I have everything I need and then some. Then there’s the matter of my healing potions. The ones I have made so far are just weak ones, but now I can make stronger ones without needing to use—ugh!—human blood. With that in mind I use my talons to donate some more of my own blood to make more potions once I get out of here. After all the fighting and violence, nicking my palm a little to drip some blood feels almost pleasantly familiar. I shake my head again and push that thought away.

I just hope I get back in time to cure the king!