“Where are we?” Samania asked as they stumbled through Gavins portal.

  “Just outside of Blacktree” Gavin grunted from the ground.

  Sam offered Gavin a hand up, something he could no longer accept.

  “Can't. Think my spine is broken, can't move my arms” he slurred barely in control of his speech as he mentally drank another healing potion.

  “Shit” Sam said, reaching down to pick him up.

  “No, don't. Can you get a healer?”

  “No need for that” said a warm, friendly voice that blanketed the night.

  “You’re not Florrin?”

  “And they said you were clever.” The god chuckled.

  “Which one are you then?” Gavin croaked.

  “I am Paragon”

  “Oh neat. I'd shake your hand, not really feeling it, right now”

  “Clever”

  “So… any particular reason you're here? Because I'd really like a favour from a god right about now, if, hypothetically there were any in the area”

  “I am here because of the lengths you went to to protect your friend just now. I like to reward those that go above and beyond for their friends.”

  “Don't want to sound rude, but I'm not super comfortable lying here in the dirt while you lot get to stand”

  “Do not worry Gavin, help is on its way.”

  “But not from you?”

  “No. Healing your injuries is beyond the scope of my powers.”

  “Right. So, you just here to keep me company?”

  “That's not… inaccurate” Paragon said evasively.

  “Did you come here to see if I'd mouth off at you, while im helpless on the ground? Wait, is that? Correction, while I'm helpless on the ground, after having just shat myself?”

  “Yes.”

  “Prick” Gavin muttered under his breath as a cleric of Florrin, illuminated by a bobbing mote of light, came running down the path. He seemed a little shocked to see a god watching over Gavin but was in no way shocked in the same way Sam and Judy were, basking in the overwhelming presence of a god.

  “Maaate.” Gavin cooed as the priest looked him over “tell me you can heal broken backs?”

  “I can.” said the man, placing his hands on Gavins chest and bathing the area with glowing green light.

  Gavin groaned as his bones cracked and muscles spasmed inside his meatsack body. He felt the priest's energy flooding into him, restoring his body to perfect health. As the light faded Gavin flexed his fingers experimentally, then leapt into the air from the ground, using his force of will to push him up.

  “Fuckin legend mate. I'm gonna buy you a beer as soon as we find a place that'll sell us one. What's ya name bloke?” said Gavin, shaking the priest's hand.

  “I am priest Quincey, your thanks is very welcome.”

  “Nice. I'm Gavin by the way. I'm serious about that beer, I think all of us need a drink, gotta see what this bloke wants first though.” said Gavin, hitching a thumb over his shoulder to point at the god waiting patiently behind them.

  “As I said, I reward those that further my interests.” said Paragon, seeming not at all put out by Gavin's lack of reverence when he finally finished with the priest.

  “And this reward is?”

  “This” Paragon said, producing a fist sized icosahedron

  “What's that?”

  “Something akin to a soul crystal, it is of my own creation.”

  “No shit” Gavin said, taking the crystal “Why's it so big?”

  [Item: Divine Affinity Crystal of Paragon]

  [Contains a sliver of the power of Paragon]

  [Can be used to awaken a divine soul ability]

  “Ho. Le. Shit” Gavin said, jaw dropping.

  “I take it you approve?”

  “Fuckin oath I approve mate.” Gavin said “not every day you get the power of a god just handed to you”

  “It is not the power of a god, it is an infinitesimally small part of my power”

  “A tiny piece of infinity is still infinity” Gavin said, turning the crystal over in his hand “Mate, you a DND fan?”

  Guardian laughed “I'm not sure I follow.”

  “Ahh, ask Soliece, she'll explain it.”

  “I think I will leave that question unanswered.”

  “Anyway mate. Thanks heaps for this”

  “It is my pleasure. One last thing though, I'd suggest summoning the spear you left back at the Starbourne estate. There is currently a sorcerer examining it to trace your location through your soul bond to it.”

  “Ahh shit.” Gavin said, holding out his hand until his spear materialised in his grip. “Do they know where we are?”

  “Not while I'm here.”

  “You're protecting me from Annabelle?”

  “Yes.”

  “For how long?”

  “I will make it known to the members of the Starbourne estate that pursuing you would be a very bad idea. I'd advise you not go looking for trouble there however, my domain does not cover vengeance.”

  “Fuckin legend mate, just between you and me, lady Starbourne scares the shit out of me.”

  “So you're not a complete moron, Soliece will be very surprised.” Paragon laughed as he winked out of existence.

  “Fuckin prick” Gavin muttered “anyway, better use this before I lose it.”

  “What are you going to get? Do you know?”

  “I don't” Gavin said I think old mate gets to pick for me.

  [Divine instant fortress]

  (Level 1): Summon a fortress at an adjacent location. Lasts until dispelled or destroyed. Instant fortress is immune to damage and effects of a lower rank than it. Equip items from owned extradimensional storage spaces into [Divine instant fortress] when completing the summoning ritual.

  “Come on. Let's go get a beer. I promised old mate over there I'd get him one. You alright mate?”

  Gavin strode off back towards Blacktree, a spring in his step as if he didn't have a care in the world. The group was feeling subdued with the exception of Gavin, who, in a moment of realisation, snapped his fingers and turned back to the party. Walking backwards he stared straight at Judy.

  “Know what the best part about tonight is?” Gavin smiled.

  “No?” Judy mumbled, half in her own thoughts.

  “You're paying” Gavin laughed “which is just as well because I kinda used up all of my money boosting up Sam's power.”

  “What?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, turns out I can send my energy to my allies and also convert my stuff, including money, into energy.”

  “Is that what you were doing?” She said as if Gavins explanation made sense to her.

  “Yeah, turns out the real way to demonstrate friendship is to just give them money.”

  “Gavin. That is the most moronic thing I think you've ever said, and you once said you were going to become the world's strongest sorcerer.”

  “Oh fuck you Sam” Gavin laughed “didn't seem to complain when I made you an Epic quality sword.”

  “You did what?” Judy asked, astonished.

  “Oh yeah, I can make some pretty sweet items, here” Gavin said, handing over his spear.

  Judy's eyes went wide “You made this?”

  “Yeah, made Sam that sword she was using to fight that knife bloke too.”

  “Oh. Hey, Gavin” Judy asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why do you have your name written across your spear?”

  “Because he loves himself that much he started naming his gear after himself”

  “Oi, shut it you. Your sword has your name on it”

  “What man is a man who does not make the world better” Judy read, running her fingers over the inlaid quote

  “Sam's one says ‘know yourself’ in an ancient language from my world.”

  “Cute” Judy cooed.

  “Hey. It's important to have positive affirmations. When I make you something special it'll be just as cute.” Gavin threatened

  “You're going to make me something?” Judy said, her face brightening, handing back his spear.

  “Ahh a-yeah” Gavin said with an implied ‘duh’. “You're part of the team now, assuming you still want in, wouldn't blame you for bailing after tonight, there's probably going to be trouble for anyone connected with the two of us”

  “No.” Judy said firmly “I'm staying, if you'll have me.”

  “Course. Oh, shit, yeah, Sam, this is Judy, she's on our team now, Judy this is Sam”

  “Mother is not going to let you form a team now Gavin.” Sam said emphatically.

  “Mother doesn't really get a choice, I was registering our team before we even got our guild badges. Paperworks been filed. By the time your mum finds out it'll be registered properly. If she wants to fight about it I'll fight right back.”

  “Gavin, don't be stupid, you've seen what happens when you try to push back against people more powerful than you.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, you get a god turning up in person to tell them to back right the fuck off.”

  “She nearly killed you Gavin.”

  “Yeah, cheers for saving me by the way, but that's my point. She, the director of the local branch of the wardens guild, attacked me, a guild member and guest in her house for telling her to back off abusing another guild member, who she then attempted to kill. If she wants to fight over this I bet I can make her life pretty uncomfortable, let alone the political mess it'd cause for her outside of the guild.”

  “You've got some big brave balls” Sam said “you know you'd just be making life harder on yourself, right?”

  “Don't think you've noticed, but I usually do things the hardest possible way.”

  “I did notice that, yeah” sam said.

  “You sure do.” Judy chimed in.

  They walked together for a few minutes, all contemplating the ramifications of the events of the night. They had each taken a leap into dangerous waters and none of them were sure what their futures held.

  “Hey Gavin?” Sam asked with a tone of horror in her voice “What's our team name?”

  “Knights of the round table.” Judy said proudly.

  Sams shoulders relaxed very slightly “What's the round table?”

  “It symbolises that we’re all equal in the team, everyone is just as important as everyone else, it's from a famous legend from my world.” Gavin said.

  “Oh, thank the gods” Sam said, tension ebbing away instantly.

  “If we come across anyone named lancelot he’s not on the team though, okay?”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “It wasn't his first choice, he must have gone through a hundred options that I had to reject; the league of extraordinary gentlemen, fantastic four, powerpuff girls, Gavin and the whalers..”

  “Fantastic four? Gavin there's only three of us.”

  “Yeah, for now.”

  “What happens if we get a fifth member”

  “We change it to the fantastic five”

  “No, we can't, the team name is set now and can't be changed.”

  “Lame.” Gavin grumbled.

  “Were you planning on changing the team name to something weird later without telling us?”

  “Ahh… no.” Gavin lied.

  They bantered with each other all the way back into town, the mood progressively lightening. Priest Quincey even getting in on the good-natured jabbings the group were inflicting on Gavin in an attempt to reign in his growing ego.

  It was somewhere just before midnight when they stepped through the door to the imaginatively named ‘Blacktree Tavern’ which happened to be the only tavern in the town of Blacktree. It still had a small group of patrons at this hour, though they seemed to be winding down for the night.

  Gavin made a beeline for the bar, behind which stood a barmaid who looked like she'd seen it all and could handle herself well. She looked up, seemingly unphased at the late hour and set her own glass of amber liquid aside to serve him.

  “Hey mate, I could murder a beer right now and one for old mate too, plus whatever the other two are having, her shout.” Gavin said to her pointing back at Judy.

  The barmaid blinked slowly.

  “Am I not making sense Sam? You guys do speak english right?”

  “No, I have no idea what English is or what you said and I've been listening you your prattle for months now.”

  “Ugh. I would like to order one beer for myself, and another for the gentleman wearing the priest robes, additionally if the other two members of our group would like anything, I'd appreciate you accommodating them too. The woman with the black hair is paying.”

  “Can't serve you alcohol unless you get food too.” said the barmaid, pointing to a sign.

  “That's all good mate, I'm fuckin starving, what about you lot?”

  The party sat down at a booth after Judy paid the barmaid, eating up the solars she'd received from the expedition earlier that evening and then some, she was left nearly as broke as Gavin claimed to be.

  “Oh that's the stuff.” Gavin said, gulping down his mug of ale and all but inhaling a fork of roasted vegetables and gravy.

  “So.” Quincey said awkwardly “what happened to you earlier Gavin? That was quite a beating you took”

  “Got into a fist fight with Sam's mum, which went a lot worse than the time I got into a fist fight with a gorillion.”

  “And that warranted a visit from a personally sent priest of Florrin, the intervention of another god and the gift of a divine soul crystal?”

  “They tend to do that yeah, I think they're looking for excuses to turn up with gifts like I'm some sort of loud-mouthed baby Jesus.”

  “Don't ask” Sam said as Quincey opened his mouth to ask another question.

  “Yeah that's fair” Gavin confirmed “I do wonder what these gods are after though, they keep offering me power and I'm wondering for what?”

  “Have you considered that maybe they're doing it just because they're benevolent gods and want to reward you for behaving in a way that pleases them?”

  “They might be benevolent, but no one does anything without an ulterior motive”

  “That's quite the statement coming from you, Gavin.” Sam said, fixing him with an annoyed look.

  “What?” Gavin asked as if his statement was self explanatory.

  “You just got your head caved in, twice, and your spine broken by my mother to protect me, what's your ulterior motive?”

  “Ahh, it makes me feel good when I have friends, and standing up to your mum seemed like a good way to continue being your friend.” Gavin said simply.

  “You're insane Gavin.” Sam said, shaking her head.

  “I mean, probably. It'd be a real downer if this were all in my head though, so I’m going with ‘I'm completely sane and everything is fine’.”

  “You are such a hypocrite.” Sam said, snorting out a smile.

  “No I'm not.” Gavin said.

  “You ranted to me at length about people in your world believing in gods because it made them feel good despite any verifiable evidence they were right, now you're choosing to believe you're sane because the alternative is depressing?”

  “Fuck” Gavin swore under his breath. “Ahh. So, how about that new bird wings power thing, that looked fuckin sweet.”

  “Assault of the Valkyrie.”

  “Neat, that's a good one. What other powers did you get?”

  “Aura of rejuvenation, compelled duel, bond of reprisal, power from pain, and radiance of the dawn” Sam said in a small voice.

  Gavin's face ran through a mix of emotions, his face contorting as he struggled to figure out how he felt. He sat his fork down next to his half eaten dinner, no longer hungry.

  “Gavin?”

  Gavin let out a long loud sigh “I shouldn't have done that.”

  “Done what?” Judy asked, confused by Gavin's reaction.

  “I spent quite a while researching what each ability does as they level up and what crystals they come from, then as a thought experiment while I was waiting for my mana to recharge in between crafting sessions, I made a hypothetical list of abilities I’d want if I were in Sam's position.”

  “And those abilities are the ones Samania got?”

  “Yeah. I'm sorry Sam, I went off at your mum for forcing you to permanently alter your soul the way she wanted then turned around and did the same like you were just a dungeons and dragons character I wanted to build.”

  “Don't apologise Gavin. The difference between you and her is that she didn't give me a choice, you never even mentioned you were thinking about it. How long have you been sitting on that list and didn't say a word about it?”

  “Can you help me pick my powers?” Judy asked excitedly.

  Gavin stared at her long and hard until she shied her eyes away.

  “I'll do it if you tell me what you want your abilities to look like, I'm only going to point out things I think are strong and why, but you're making the final choice.”

  “I'd like that. Thank you.”

  Soon after Quincey departed to return to his temple. The rest of the team left to try out Gavin's new Instant Fortress. With a deep thrum the castle dumped itself off the side of the road leading into town in a small clearing. It wasn't well lit, but it appeared to be the size of a two storey house and stylised like a cathedral in miniature. It was of a similar design to his portal arch, though was made of dark grey stone, not blue streaked marble.

  Inside was pitch black and bare of any decoration, the rooms little more than empty husks. The dining room had a single deck chair while the kitchen had a small amount of food stored in the cupboards, bedrooms were void of any furniture aside from Judy and Gavins camping gear stacked neatly in a corner. The only place that was well stocked was an armoury, decked out with shelves and shelves of crafting materials, with a well lit bench that wrapped around two walls, a shadow board containing Gavins handcrafted tools hung over it, showing a wide array of silhouettes where missing tools should be.

  “So, Gavin, you uhh, wouldn't be able to make us beds?” Sam asked.

  “I have my camping supplies, Gavin too.” Judy said “I'm ok for now.”

  “You can take mine Sam, I'll stay up a bit and try to work something out. I reckon we take a rest day tomorrow to sort ourselves out and make a plan.”

  The two women retired to their rooms while Gavin went outside to collect resources. He figured he'd need to make a big sack and fill it with a bunch of sawdust or something to make it somewhat useable for the night.

  He began by harvesting the plants outside the fortress, taking trees, shrubs and brambles, deconstructing them into manageable sizes before returning to his empty room to assemble it all together.

  He first made a frame, something that was reasonably easy to do with his fabricate ability. Next he started on the mattress as there was a soft knock at his door. Opening it he found Judy looking nervous.

  “Come on in. I haven't made a mattress before. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a real prick” Gavin said, stifling a yawn.

  Judy followed, closing the door, hesitating as she worked up the nerve to speak her piece.

  “I wanted to talk about what happened tonight, at the Starbourne estate” She said finally.

  “What about it?” Gavin asked, looking up from his project.

  “I… I didn't help you two. I just stood there and watched her do those things to you.” She said, confessing her sin.

  “You're afraid I think you're a coward or something?” Gavin asked, frowning.

  “I, yes, it's more than that though, you and Sam never gave up, not when everything was against you. I don't think I have that in me.” She said.

  “It's okay to be afraid, Judy, that fight had been a long time coming for Sam, and I'm too block headed to keep my nose out of a fight. It takes a certain amount of trust in someone to lay everything on the line for them like that, you're not there yet and that's completely fine.”

  “Thanks, I think I needed to hear that.” She said.

  “Cheer up mate, just think, if I'm ever in a position like that and you jump in to help, a god might turn up and give you a sweet magic power too.”

  “I'll keep that in mind” Judy laughed.

  “Okay. We cool now?” Gavin asked.

  “Yeah. Good night Gav.” Judy said, smiling at him.

  “Hey Judy” Gavin called as she left his room.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for bringing this up. I fuckin hate when people let their issues fester when just talking it out would have solved everything.”

  Nodding, Judy left Gavin to his project and turned in for the night. It was well after midnight before Gavin collapsed into the mound of detritus he'd assembled into a roughly bed shaped object, too exhausted to continue.