“Luka…” Sol quietly said, watching Annie recover from the potion’s effects.

The young World Walker was haggard, to say the least. She sat like a stone weight, sipping a mug of piping hot jrum like it was as cold as snow. Luckily, she assured everyone she was fine and that she only had the wind knocked out of her.

“Hmm?” Luka hummed, turning. He stood beside Sol, mimicking her crossed-arms and straight posture. The potion’s effects were… a bit more of a show than they had expected.

“That ring you got there, I don’t mean to presume—”

“Everyone in the mine, yeah. We just need the reagents for it.”

Sol’s face was a mix of hope and guilt. She shook herself and said, “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Luka changed topics. “I was summoned to the Guilds.”

“I heard—and I wanted to talk to you about that. Mage Farr’s death isn’t going to do you any favors. They are going to come down on you hard.”

“Really? I didn’t do anything.”

Sol shook her head slowly. “You’re right. They’re going after you to get to me. I’ve been a thorn in their sides for years. Fining or imprisoning you is their best bet to affect me.”

“Imprisonment? Seems extreme for using some ‘Guild’ glyphs.”

“They take things seriously—which is one of the reasons everyone that’s not in the Guilds hate the Guilds.” Sol pointed at the red ink glyphs strung along the walls. “I gave up a lot for those, and they repay me by going after you.”

Luka vaguely knew about these glyphs. Sol was, apparently, going toe-to-toe against the Guilds in their court, arguing on his behalf. The ultimate goal was to cease the bureaucratic nightmare that was utilizing Guild magic for the park. In essence, if Sol was successful, the Guilds would offer a set number of glyphs for the park to purchase, thus allowing Luka to inscribe them with ease as opposed to hiring a Guild Mage every time.

“What are they?” Luka asked.

“Spatial augmenting glyphs,” Sol said. “They’re very sought after for business. Instead of creating massive structures, just lay a few of these bad boys down in a hut and you’ve got an area rivaling a warehouse.”

“That does sound useful for the park.” Anyway, to cut down on material cost, it was worth looking into. Sooner than later Sneerhome was going to increase their prices or flat out stop selling to the park.

Though, when Luka thought about that, an idea formed. Maybe we should create a partnership with Sneerhome. Wagon bussing, discounts, hotel space for those traveling to the park. He made a note for later.

“The Guilds allowed the park to use these glyphs mainly so I’d leave them alone,” Sol continued, her tone growing increasingly more agitated. “They are, however, complete and utter mount crap. They’re incomplete. I’ve been trying to fix them—”

“Sol,” Luka interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder, “thanks for everything. Have I said that lately?”

“What? No?”

“Well, I mean it.” He nodded to Annie. “After recent events, I’ve reflected quite a bit. And one thing I realized is just all the hard work everyone’s been doing. You, Franky and Eve, Tram, everyone.”

“I just want to stick it to the Guilds, you know? Now they’ve roped you in.”

Luka smirked at that. “You’re forgetting something, something very important.”

“And what’s that?” she asked.

“We have the ultimate bargaining chip when it comes to the Guilds.”

Recognition rang true, and Sol’s face erupted into a smile. “The correct illusionary glyph.”

Luka nodded. God Neb had given a hint about fixing illusion nausea, and in doing so, unveiled a systematic error in magic’s most basic form. Currently, that information was firmly locked within Emberwood’s magical few—Sol, Luka, and Eve—and not with the Guilds.

In other words, if the Guilds wanted to come down hard on Sol, and thus Luka and the park, then the key to a new phase of magic might never reach the light of day.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what the Guilds want,” Luka said with an impish smile.

***

It was just afternoon by the time Luka and Annie made their way through the park. At some point early on, Leo disappeared amongst the crowd and into the forest, off to hunt a meal or three. They watched him trot off like a devilish cat more than a ravenous beast—the wolf was a smug little thing, utterly lazy until it came to hunting.

“We need to get you a mount,” Luka said to his daughter.

She pulled her eyes from a guest—a big fellow wearing nothing more than a tight length of cloth as pants. It was the man’s partially transparent skin that was of interest, however, not his nudity. In fact, the man’s heart and organs were perfectly visible. They beat, inflated, or… did whatever the kidneys did… quite openly.

“What is he?” Annie asked.

“Leo’s a dire-wolf—”

“Not the dog, that man.”

Luka looked over. The man was eating a slice of pizza, his chewed-up food slowly making its way down his throat and into his stomach. “That’s an elemental, looks like he’s made of air.”

“He’s just made of air?”

“I guess. I just go with things, mostly.”

They pushed through the crowd, entering Stormcorsair Harbor. Fake rain pelted their dry heads, and a rushing breeze yanked the smell of frying churros down the docks. People stood at the edge, leaning out over the water with a smile on their faces. Others stared longingly into the illusionary sea, the ocean a rarity in these parts. Emberwood Village was completely landlocked, ten travel days from the nearest coast.

“There’s no phones here,” Annie said, recoiling from the realization. “I knew that. But I guess I never actually thought about it.”

“Truth be told, I haven’t thought about it. I haven’t wanted a phone or computer once since arriving in this world.”

“I’ll take your word for it. I loved my phone. Everything in my life went through it. How else was I supposed to see what the kids were up to, or who was thinking what?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Luka shrugged. “I didn’t have anyone to check on.”

Annie gave him a flat look.

“I know, I know. My own fault. But still,” he muttered. “I would like to figure out a camera-type device for the park. On-ride photos, maybe even a few photo ops around the park?”

“Why ‘camera-type device’ and not just a camera?” she asked.

“Magic. Why stop at a two-dimensional photo when magic can recreate entire locations in the palm of your hand?” Luka reached down and picked up a small wood chip. Then, as Sol had done days ago, he etched an illusionary glyph into the grain, filling it with a memory of a time long lost.

In his palm, a “video” of Earth played. A young girl, likely five or six, leaped into a puddle, splashing water across the pavement. She giggled and smiled, jumping from pothole to pothole like some kind of crazed frog. The “camera” followed the child yet maintained a safe distance in fear of watery shrapnel. The camera then panned to the side, and for a brief moment, a young woman was seen.

Luka closed his fist, cutting the illusion. “Sorry, I went too far.”

Annie’s eyes were made of glass. She sniffed and said, “Was that me and Mom?”

“Yeah.”

“C-can you bring it back?”

Slowly, Luka opened his hand and fixed the broken glyph. Soon the video restarted, and soon the young woman was front and center. She wore a wide sun hat, the kind made of nylon and cheap enough to get wet. The sky was perfectly clear like the aftermath of a hurricane, and yet, she was bundled in a lime green raincoat. She swayed as she walked, the puddles as much of a hazard as the fluttering in her heart.

Her hand was held out low, connecting to the camera owner’s hand—to Luka’s own. They were in love back then. Truly.

“This was on a vacation to the Maldives.” He hesitated before adding, “About six months later, things first started going downhill for us.”

Annie was quiet for a few moments. She watched the illusion repeat, the entire video half-a minute long. Eventually, she swallowed, clearing her dry mouth, and asked, “Can I keep this?”

“It’s a piece of wood. I can attach the memory to a more permanent material if you want. I can also lengthen what I remember. I have a lot of memories from that vacation.”

“I’d like that.”

Luka destroyed the glyph and said, “Come on. We’ve got a line to wait through.”

Rogue Wave’s queue might have been more popular than the ride itself. Living with the fish, watching an underwater world, experiencing something most could only dream of—Luka understood the appeal. Not every ride could have such a queue, but every queue, he decided, could still be special.

Annie screamed when the shark landed on the ship and her knees wobbled when she stepped off the ride. They stopped on the exit ramp.

“That was…”

“Thrilling?” Luka helped.

“A bit much, if I’m being honest.”

“You’re the second person recently to tell me that, actually.”

Annie made way for a woman and her daughter with mouse ears and a fury tail to push by, the kid animatedly yelling, “Again, again!”

“Come on,” Luka said, leading her toward Whirlpool Tavern. “You want a drink?”

“Are you having one?”

“I can’t. Tippy blessed me so alcohol smells and tastes terrible.” He shrugged. “But I’ll have a mug of jrum.”

“The goddess cursed you, not blessed.”

Luka shrugged. “Depends on how you see it, I guess. The blessing’s keeping me from falling back into alcoholism.”

“Oh.” Annie shut her mouth and entered the smuggler’s hideout.

They sat at the bar for a few minutes, sipping their respective drinks and watching a bi-hourly “show.” A few villagers caused a scene and fought over some ancient treasure map before the barkeep knocked them both out and ran into the cellar with it. Most of the patrons drinking in the tavern followed, joining the queue for Whirlpool Plunge—Annie and Luka amongst them.

It took an hour to get through the line, ride the ride, and exit. Annie screamed when the boat was yanked into the sky by the obelisk, Annie screamed when the lava cyclops threw the boat, Annie screamed when the boat teleported back into the ocean.

“You scream a lot,” Luka said with a chuckle.

Annie bit back a smile and said, “Blame the ride’s creator! Honestly, who thinks up a lava giant thing!?”

“Some teenagers opening day, actually. I just took the concept and ran with it.”

She wrung out her shirt, adding to the already wet stone ground. It seemed most people wrung their clothes out here. “So, you stole—woah!” Annie’s legs went out from under her, the stone slick as ice.

A burst of sparkles caught the young World Walker, Tippy’s blessing activating and protecting her. “What in the world?” she asked, firmly planting her feet.

“That’d be Tippy,” Luka muttered, carving a few dozen anti-slip glyphs into the ground. Soon his feet, and everyone else’s, felt as if magnets held their shoes to the stone. “She blessed the park so no one can get hurt.”

“Why’d she do that?”

“Because she knew if I ever hurt anyone, I’d quit.”

Annie gave her father a searching look before guiltily looking away. She changed the subject and said, “I liked that ride better than the pirate ship.”

“Was it too much?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that.”

“But you said Rogue Wave was.”

“But Rogue Wave is just a pirate ship swing, there’s only so much you can do with it before it becomes too much. But a log flume? Sky’s the limit.” Annie led Luka out of the exit and down the dock. “Vlad and I took the kids to a few amusement parks over the years. The parks with immersive theming were leagues better than the ones without.”

“The goal is to be better than those,” Luka said. “With magic, I really do feel the sky is the limit.”

They made their way to the Constellation Kingdom and entered the queue for Cosmic Rebirth. The ride, in Luka’s eyes, was magical. It mixed Earthen thrill and whatever this world was called magic with a god’s artistic view. Neb designed the layout himself, opting for a fast-paced, zippy rollercoaster that banked low to the ground instead of towering drops and gravity-defying loops.

There was an issue with theming rollercoasters, Luka and Neb learned. While log flumes could hold expansive set pieces and elaborate stories, rollercoasters were simply too fast. Unless they wanted to slow the zooming trains down to a crawl, anything more than decorations and atmosphere was moot—the mind just couldn’t process things fast enough.

Cosmic Rebirth’s storyline was simple: it didn’t have one. Instead of following rumors of a dead pirate’s long-lost treasure, Cosmic Rebirth was a simple tale of stars and alien worlds. The ride cruised through the rockwork and strange red spires, dashing up and over miniature mountains and around silky white habitats. Above, the night sky shined as bright as day, the countless stars twinkling like no other.

The ride started with a small indoor pre-show as the trains rolled to the first lift hill. To the sides, riders could view a replica of the rover in which they sat, the vehicle for an alien world adventure. The trains locked onto a winding chain and were pulled up a steep hill. They crested the hill, rolling slowly as the bay doors of the habitat opened. Then—wroom.

The trains whipped down the drop, hurtling over rocks and other habitats, coming dangerously close to the street guests walked on. Crowds of people gawked at the speeding vehicles, but Luka and Annie only saw blurs. They rounded strange spires and explored the stoney wasteland before rounding and banking low. The ground swallowed them, the track leading underground, spewing them out like a mortar.

The ride lasted only a few minutes, a few short, short minutes. Annie screamed the whole time.

“What’d you think?” Luka asked once off the ride.

“What did I think?” Annie echoed, flattening her wind-whipped hair. “I think that was awesome!”

“Not too much?”

“Not at all! If anything—”

A presence cut her off. A woman appeared floating, her skin bubbling like a fizzy drink. She dripped beer and mead, her body entirely liquid and her hair foamy.

“Ah! There you are!” she yelled, drawing eyes. The crowd stopped gawking at the rollercoaster and instead focused on the goddess in their midst.

Luka took her appearance in stride, saying, “Goddess Bylow, I assume?”

“The very one!” She turned to Annie. “Vladdy is having issues. Mind coming with me?”

“I-issues?” Annie asked, fearing the worst.

“Nothing bad. He’s just having a hard time choosing his new appearance. He wants your ‘okay’ before changing anything major.”

Annie made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a hum. “What?”

“He’s thinking elven but wants to know if you’d rather him be something else.”

Luka raised an eyebrow before sighing. “You better go with her before Vlad chooses something strange.”

“Mmmhmm!” Goddess Bylow hummed, clapping her hands. All across the park, every half-drunk mug of beer was refilled. “I already persuaded him not to become a myconid.”

“’Myconid?’” Luka asked.

“Mushroom people that live underground,” she explained casually. “Vladdy said they were ‘cool looking.’ Unfortunately for him, he would have to live where the light don’t shine!”

Annie huffed. “Take me to him, please.”

“Atta girl!” Bylow reached out a bubbly hand, taking Annie by the arm. Then, in a fizzy explosion, both were gone.

Luka stared at the pooling stout on the floor, blinked a few times, shrugged, then yelled, “All drinks are half off for three hours, thanks to Goddess Bylow!”

The crowd of mesmerized guests started cheering.