CHAPTER EEN

  The Breakfast Club

  The sun was still in its waking phase when Bram, Rowan, and their otherworlder guests started their meeting at the Journey’s Respite while enjoying a high-css breakfast prepared for them by the inn’s cook, a big-boned woman named Madam Bertha, who, despite Bram’s red hair, tinted spectacles, and easy smile, figured out his secret; he was a noble pretending to be a oner bard.

  She didn’t kly who Bram was, but that part didn’t matter. In a way, all nobles were alike; they were all etrid Bram the Bard certainly fit the bill.

  To her credit, the frizzy-haired wife of the inn’s proprietor kept her mouth shut about Bram’s status as she led his party to a secluded bar er. After promising them “A scrumptious meal and all the privacy you require, good ser,” Bertha was off to the kits to keep her word—and she did.

  Bram, whose palette was quite refined, had no pints about the dish of ‘Roude before him. Indeed, he could argue that the ba ed in a thin slice of beef he’d just sampled rivaled the one his bastion’s cook usually made for him. Bram might even cim Bertha’s Rouden, which she’d paired with a side dish of piping hot mashed potatoes den in thick gravé, seemed more fvorful than his usual meal. To be fair to his bastion’s kit though, the pany gathered around this table might also have something to do with why the food tasted so good.

  With a veiled smile, Atn’s seventh prince observed his new panions jostling each other like the old friends they were while enjoying their first taste of Aarde’s dining se. It wasn’t lost on Bram either that this was his first time at breakfast with people who weren’t forced to sit down and dih him. It was a nice feeling.

  Cool fingers brushed against his hand, and Bram turned sideways to find Rowan giving him a curious look.

  “Try this.” As if she’d read his mind—the longing to have panions he could fool around with—she deftly drove a piece of her spearfish into his mouth. “Well?”

  “Spicy,” he said, chewing it some more, before adding, “with a hint of lemon…and is that…paprikash?”

  “Impressive,” she smiled. “Good, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” he smiled back. “Quite.”

  It was a sed or two ter when Bram noticed the stares. He gnced in their dire and watched as all three otherworlders looked away with faces frozen in sheepish expressions. He wasn’t sure why, but the thought of them seeing Rowan feeding him from her pte caused him to blush, and he was suddenly desperate to ge topics.

  “So, shall we begin?” he urged.

  A while ter, ohe expnations of the great uaking were fihe scale of it causing even the coet to pale slightly—Rowan brought out the of soda she’d hidden.

  “You didn’t drink it yet?” Bram asked, surprised.

  “I was waiting for you,” she answered, adding, “Shall we see what all the fuss is about?”

  At Hajime’s behest, and to the amazement et and Chris—whose eyes wide every hint of magic they witnessed—Rowan cast a simple ‘Cold Touch’ spell that chilled the soda to the perfect drinking temperature. Then she and her prince were treated to a delight of the senses her of them expected. They had both taken a swig of soda and thhly ehe crisp vanil-like fvor ooo the point that Bram decred ‘soda’ would be one of Earth’s first products to be exported into Lotharin.

  “As much as I es taste, bringing more of this soda to Aarde may prove challenging. It took twrizzlies to empower the ritual that brought it to us,” Rowan reminded him.

  The implications of her words weren’t lost on him.

  The popution of fel beasts in Gaullia lentiful, and with many such creatures beled as mehroughout the Imperium, Bram had a resource for summoning more otherworlders. Still, this abundance didn’t mean an infinite supply, and the prince was loathe to waste finite resources on a beverage. It seemed too excessive. He didn’t o mention that su endeavor would draw the gods’ gazes ba them. They may let it slide once, but twice—surely, the pantheon of High Heaven wasn’t that zy.

  “It might not be too hard to make soda locally,” Chris piped up, adding, “Y’all probably have simir ingredients to the ones we need.”

  “That may be true, but how would we achieve the bubbles effe the sweet brown water?” Rowan asked curiously.

  “Y’all might get a kick out of this one.” Chris g the bloting to his right. “Tell her, Bridge.”

  Of course, the Texan would turn to the writer who enjoyed researg the backstories of even muems like soda to expin its making to the Aarders, and Bridget didn’t disappoint. She expihat the ‘bubbles’ in the soda were made by exposing a solution of ‘sweet brown water’ to high-pressure carbon dioxide, which, if tinually stored under high pressure, would stay dissolved in water until its tainer opped open.

  “Fizz happens when the CO2 es out of the water after the pressure’s been released. That’s how we make carbonated drinks,” Bridget finished.

  “To use a part of the air we breathe to create a taste that could rival even the ar of the gods…” Awe filled Rowan’s expression. “How ingenious this Earth sce is… I wish to learn more about it.”

  “Now we know what we’ll be sending over here ime,” Chris chuckled.

  “A tablet full of first to twelfth-grade sce books?” Hajime guessed.

  “I was thinking more of back-to-back seasons of Billy and Nighy, the Sce Guys,” Chris proposed.

  Rowan’s eyes were alight with i. “These Billy and Nighy…I assume they are the greatest of your sce sorcerers?”

  “We call them stists,” Bridget replied, prompting a new discussion oh’s version of sorcerers to begin.

  Listening to them speak of their world with Rowan and watg her praise their otherworldly wisdom caused the ever-prese on Bram’s shoulders to lighten slightly because here roof that his pn might not be pletely iheir otherworldly knowledge would be essential iing Lotharin’s status to the top of the Imperium’s twelve kingdoms. Though in truth, Bram’s is y less in these stists who fasated Rowan and more with those other experts who could make his refiaste buds crave more otherworldly delights.

  “Soda’s only the beginning…we’ll seek out these artisans of Earth who bring revolution to the kingdom’s cooking.” As inspiration lit up inside his brain, Bram’s mind couldn’t help but turn its cogs. “Such experts bringing new fvors to Lotharin will mean a demand fredients, increasing the need for food produeaning the building of more farms and more jobs w those farms… That could create a profitable food trade to rival even the Pins Kingdom of Navarra.”

  “It’d be awesome if Earthers also beed from your increased GDP,” said Chris, the former executive producer of a triple-A game studio. “Supposing trade betweeh and Aarde is possible?”

  “You wish to send an item of Aarde to Earth simir to how your soda arrived here?” Rowan deduced.

  “In a nutshell,” Chris agreed.

  “Sadly, that isn’t possible,” Rowan answered.

  She said it so definitively that even Bram couldn’t help but ask her to eborate.

  So, Rowan expihat it would be impossible to send physical objects to Earth because it was a world without magid therefore possessed no means to keep an interdimensional portal open from that side long enough to send something through.

  “It might have been different during an earlier age but no longer.” Rowan’s face turned ptive. “Of what you’ve told me of your sce, the teology born of it is often harmful to your world’s enviro…”

  She waited for them to firm before tinuing.

  “Nature is the source of all magic. Its vitality gives birth to the magical energies that flow through all living things,” she lectured. “So long as that vitality isn’t dimihen Aarde’s magic will tio flourish.”

  “Meaning we Earthers fucked up our ce to learn magic whearted making a mess of our world,” Chris deduced.

  “Global warming sucks,” Hajime agreed.

  “There used to be plenty of tales about magi the times before the industrial revolution started. Maybe there was some truth to those old stories,” Bridget piped up. Then, in a sadder tone, she added, “These days, that’s all magic is to us — stories…”

  Notig the gloom iherworlders’ expressions, Bram couldn’t help feeling disheartened himself. He’d aspired to visit the other world too—to experies wonder beyond his dreaming—and he mehat he wouldn’t get the ce.

  Rowan’s big reveal exposed a new problem too; if they could only send items from Earth to Aarde, how could the Aarders i in building a game studio oh?

  This wasn’t their only money either.

  There was a sed issue, one Bridget called, “Real Morading.”

  While sipping a gss of properly chilled Valenosian wine, Bram asked, “How is this different from an iment of funds?”

  “It’s not the same, um, Boss,” said Chris, who looked uainly at the young man who’d proposed the outndish idea to him and Bridget. “Ih-speak, an iment is you p your money into our business hoping to get a solid financial return iure…”

  “A return of many souls to aid us in our scheming,” Rowan suggested.

  “Exactly, but real morading’s a bit different.” Chris finished sav a sliedium-rare tri-horn boar steak before adding, “Real morading, or RMTs for short, is what yer-to-pyer or pyer-to-game moary exges like a pyer selling an item in-game to other pyers using hard cash or buying loot boxes directly from the game’s publisher with digital currency.”

  “Eto, Chris, we shouldn’t do loot boxes,” Hajime interrupted quickly. “Loot boxes are money-grubbing forms of live service… They’re exploitative and tricky, proo ruining games…or lives.”

  “Tricky?” Rowan’s ears perked up. “Expin.”

  “It’s not a good trick, Rowan.” Hajime’s fork stabbed his sausage with a relish that suggested he was stabbing something else in his mind. “I admit that they add an iio a game’s structure if dht, but that’s usually not the case. In this era of live service tent, loot boxes are now a corporate scheme forced upon studios to steal more money from pyers who already pay full price to buy ames.”

  Thus began Hajime’s long rant on how the suits in charge of the money were godless people who only worshipped oar of greed. His rant was so long that by the time he wound down the rge bowl of blue potato soup in the middle of the table had lost much of its heat.

  “…Just remembering how they wao ssh tent and repackage it as DLC makes me wish I could cast magic bae and pulverize that stupid speakerphone,” Hajime finished, his nostrils fring in satisfa.

  “Maybe drop a fireball over Corporate’s head office?” Bridget chimed in.

  “Yes…” A dark look passed over Hajime’s face. “I ’t stand greedy people who exploit our creations just to squeeze our pyers dry.”

  “her could I,” Bram said.

  The Japanese man and the prince gri each other from across the table. Chris, who’d caught their show of camaraderie against greed chuckled loudly.

  “Y’all get that we’re”—Chris pointed his fi the people around the table—“teically corporate now, and Bram and Rowan are our new overlords.”

  Hajime couldn’t seem to repress the shiver the Texan’s words instilled.

  “Besides, debating about the pros and s of a loot crate system is moot unless we fix the money issue,” Chris pointed out.

  “Iments and RMTs.” Bridget gnced gloomily around their er of the bar. “It’s like we’re baside a Biosoft boardroom…”

  “How pressing of an issue is this?” Rowan asked.

  “If we don’t get cash from y’all, then we’ll have to look for third-party iors oh to help set up our udio,” Chris began, to which Hajime added, “We shouldn’t trust third-party iors. Their goals won’t be the same as ours.”

  “Yes,” Bram agreed, adding “I shared the Loom with you three because we found you worthy of the great uaking… I don’t wish to involve anyone else in our schemes. Not yet.”

  “Ditto, Boss,” Chris nodded. “Now, as for RMTs, we’ll hem ter because they’re the kind of thing that builds an in-game ey that’ll bleed out into real life, ensuring that ame bees relevant oh.”

  “Building a proper in-game ey for the pyers also extends a game’s lifespan,” Bridget chimed in, while Hajime added, “With RMTs set up, even top-tier Earth panies will want to work with us to sell digital products inside ame.”

  Listening to them talk of this, it seemed like this real-morading experience could truly be beneficial for both worlds’ eies. Sadly, without a realistic way to send griffins and their Earth equivalent across two worlds, there was no way to be from this opportunity.

  That’s when Bram had a thought.

  “Does it have to be a physical exge…?”

  Gazes around the table turoward him.

  “What do you mean?” Hajime asked.

  “Surely a civilization as advanced as Earth is familiar with banking, and if you have banks, then you must have ‘Promissory hat allow you to striffins in one bank’s bran the same amount from another bran a different pce,” Bram expined.

  “We do have banks,” Bridget replied, “but we don’t need a promissory note for exging money… We use our banking apps.”

  “Wow…I get it.” Hajime’s eyes lit up with sudden uanding. “Bram…you want to use the Loom, yes?”

  Bram grinned. “Why ’t we?”

  Silence.

  Then, one by one, a dlelight ignited in each of their brains.

  They’d already proven that the Loom could bridge the gap between worlds because Rowan had grafted the system onto the otherworlders’ souls and Hajime proved the bond couldn’t be brokee the journey between worlds.

  “Is it possible?” Chris asked.

  “Though your physical bodies ot achieve the abilities you gain through the Loom, your experien Aarde is weaved within the fabric of your souls, allowing you to remember with crity the memories you earn here,” Rowan expined, further adding, “It stands to reason that information be passed between both worlds using your souls as a duit.”

  The trickster turned ptive while she took a sip of wine.

  Bram watched as Rowan’s nose sched up just like it had when they were here st, and she’d tried the cheap port wihey’d been given. But if eveaste of expensive Valenosian wine wasn’t to her liking, Bram guessed that Rowan might not have the same appreciation for alcohol that most nobles did. It was one more iing thing he learned about her.

  “‘Tis not inceivable for your bodies to i some of the skills you attain on Aarde,” Rowan ceded, but adding, “Nothing so great as spell crafting — your world cks the magic to allow this boon — but perhaps a more dexterous hand from learning swordpy or better aim and judgment of distance from mastering archery.”

  “Lord almighty,” Chris breathed, “that would be something, ain’t it?”

  Bridget and Hajime nodded.

  “If it were possible to i skills,” Bridget’s face sched up in ption, “then we could advertise the game as an alternative training ground for athletes.”

  “Not just for polishing their skills either…” Hajime took up the baton of inspiration. “Athletes from all over the world could choose to train in optimal enviros they won’t find anywhere else…”

  “Why stop at training?” Chris pointed his steak-skewering fork at Hajime. “We could host the Olympi Aarde!”

  “We don’t o host the Olympics,” Bridget cut in. “We could just make our own world-css petition — oh swords and sorcery as a mai!”

  “Hot damn that sounds like a pn!” Chris agreed right before eating the pieeat dangling from his fork.

  Stars danced across the eyes of all three otherworlders, and it would be a while before their enthusiasm for hosting athletipetitions in-game died down. Afterward, the discussiouro the possibility of using the Loom as a tool for moary exges.

  “Bram isn’t wrong.” Hajime sipped his elderberry tea. “If the Loom i with the system of a Visionary Two like we think it , then it should also be able to i with an ATM or a banking app.”

  “Why don’t we just ask it?” Bridget suggested.

  So, they did…and the Loom gave them an iing reply.

  ALERT! Setting up a currency exge between Aarde ah is possible, but physical access will be required to establish a e with [Earth] banking systems.“Physical,” Chris repeated, to which Bridget tinued, “Access…?”

  ALERT! Access to the bank at of [Bridget Fowling] is required.“Whoa, hold on there,” Bridget pulled away from the floating blue window. “At least take me out to dinner before you take my money!”

  “Eh…?”

  Lucky for Hajime, Bram was the only one who noticed his look of surprise, including the longing clear oherworlder’s face. Unfortunately for Hajime, Bram now khat he liked Bridget, and the prince was the kind who stored sutriguing information for use on a rainy day.

  “Hey, Loom, y’all crify?” Chris prompted.

  ALERT! With the system’s e tet Fowling], she bee the delivery system that allows the Loom to ie directly with Earth’s banking system. This iion will lead to the creation of a new [Fiool.“So, it would be as simple as Bridge logging into her bank at through a digital app?” Chris deduced.

  “Like a puter virus hag Bridget’s bank for access,” Hajime added.

  […] was the Loom’s only respoo being called a virus.

  “Does it have to be my bank at?” Bridget asked.

  “Nah.” Chris shook his head. “Let’s hold off on bank ats for now… I’ve got a different suggestion… We’ll use cryptocurrency.”

  Rowan, who’d been sipping oea that had repced her wine, looked up from her cup intrigued. “What is crypto…currency?”

  “It’s kind of like digital mohat we exge for real money, but ohe gover ’t track ht,” Chris answered.

  “Oh,” Bridget beamed at him, “that might solve the tax issue too. At least for now.”

  O was decided that Chris would haegration oh for iments, the team ehe rest of their meal while getting to know one another.

  “We should plete this task as quickly as possible… I pn to set out on a trip north soon,” Bram said, and with an impish smile to mirror Rowan’s, added, “And I’d like to take you all with me on this adventure.”

  *Rouden – Rouden is a cssic German food of teeak, seasoned with mustard, onion, and paprika ed in pickle or ba slices and served with pan gravy.

  GD_Cruz