Thankfully, Gloria didn’t spend too much time chewing my ear off for making her worry.

  Even though it was normal for me to vanish for days at a time, my spicy Latina friend didn’t budge that I should have told someone when I left for safety sake. She’d apparently taken my visit to her family bar with Jameson in tow as a sign that I’d be returning to my old haunts.

  She also revealed during the conversation—honestly it was more of a pseudo-motherly scolding—that she’d apparently badgered Jameson into spilling the beans about my recent events during a later visit from the Irishman. That had gotten her worrying when Jameson had casually mentioned vanishing to an undisclosed location with several beautiful women that she’d never had the chance to meet.

  Only repeated reassurances that I wasn’t, in fact, wrapped up with a cult had calmed the woman down. At least when paired with additional promises to keep her posted of when I’d be leaving for longer trips like that so she wouldn’t worry.

  If Gloria hadn’t been someone I’d known for so long, it might have felt cloying and controlling to have her demanding to know when and where I’d be going. But she’d managed to master that odd sort of controlled caring that I remembered from my childhood that my mother used to use on me.

  You know the one, that sort of smothering desire to protect that we all rebelled against when we were in our teens, only to grow to miss it when we realized how harsh the world was.

  As soon as I managed to placate my friend enough that I didn’t have to worry about her learning how to smite me with La Chancla the next time she saw me, I was able to get her off the phone. That might have also been partially due to the fact she was going to be late for her shift at the bar if she didn’t get moving though.

  Crossing that worry off my list, I slumped down on my couch with a sigh and stared at the blackened screen of my phone.

  I was still wearing nothing besides my towel and partially wet, but I really didn’t care if the moisture wasn’t good for the ratty couch right now. I had too much to think about.

  Finally realized how much of an idiot I’ve been with my powers and options. No, that’s unkind. I’ve been more focused on being able to do stuff on the other side. Cortha is infinitely more interesting to me than Earth right now. I mean, there are things like dwarf lamia nobles, wolf-girl princesses, moth-woman artists, and mouse scholars on Cortha.

  I couldn’t help the smile that bubbled up in the wake of that thought, remembering my girls and their farewell kisses. I already missed having them beside me, and the System had furnished me with the ability to bring one of them over for a visit.

  Grimacing, I glanced around at my shitty apartment again and shook my head. I did not want to bring one of the girls to visit only for them to see this mess. Maybe I could test the power out while on a trip away, but there were still the concerns of their nonhuman forms.

  Disguising Rieka and Shayla would be simple with a large coat and a hat. Jane might be a bit more difficult with her longer tail and large ears, but the same accommodations could be made for the small woman. But Kassandra was another situation entirely. My sweet dwarf lamia still measured well over ten feet of length, probably closer to twenty to be honest. And that was a lot of tail to conceal.

  No. Stop worrying about it, I admonished myself. You are smarter than this. Don’t let yourself get lost stressing about the little shit. You know that you have a lot more mental capacity than that. Make a list of shit you need to do, then start executing. Worry about the big stuff when you can address it.

  Sitting there on my couch, still dripping wet from my shower, I started to plan. There were several new things that had been thrown up into my awareness today and I started making a mental list so I could tackle them.

  First, I needed to start training my mind like I’d been training my body. Now that I was aware of it, my mind was itching to expand itself. There was a nervous energy to the organ that got me off the couch and dressing while I worked the list further.

  Second, after training my mental abilities, I needed to figure out ways I could use my expanded mind to further grow my business on Earth. I was tired of ‘just getting by’ and wanted to capitalize on that. Now that I had the chance to bring one of the girls here to visit, I wanted to return the favor they’d given me back on Cortha.

  Third, I needed to get to training my Mana Reservoir ability so that it was something I could grant the girls. The implications of giving someone the ability to store mana in their body was fascinating to me and I spent a few minutes considering what it might do to one of those New-Age practitioners here on Earth, but put it aside for now.

  Fourth, the girls had that potential deployment coming up in a few weeks. There was a decent chance that my girls would be sent out to get some hands-on experience in a combat zone. That thought was not a pleasant one and I had to resist the urge to put pressure on Queen Gemma to exempt them from it. My girls were from a world that was far harsher than Earth was, and they all seemed to accept the necessity of the training.

  Fifth, I needed to get out of my current apartment. There were a number of ways I could use my new powers for that. My jewelry business was doing well enough that I could upgrade to a better place without an issue, I had just been caught in the same ‘familiar environment’ loop that had kept me working for Dutcher for so long. And that thought alone was enough to disgust me into action.

  Sixth and further down the list was exploring other ways to assist my girls. Sure, I had promised not to bring firearm technology to Cortha—which made sense to avoid as it would be way too large of a threat to the girls—but there were other things I could bring along as gifts.

  Heck, if I did the history research, I could potentially find what had inspired different creators to things like steam-engines, new alloys, and medicines. Keeping a light hand would be important, because otherwise it could make a target of the Coldeye Queendom for people wanting to steal the technology, or make them dependent on me for ideas and squash innovation.

  I finished drying and dressed quickly before heading out of the house to the nearby supermarket. I could take care of two problems at once by picking up some of the brain-teaser books they sold at the check-stand while I was getting groceries.

  It wasn’t until I was skimming those magazines and staring at one in particular that I remembered something. The magazine was sitting next to an over-sized Sudoku book on the rack, clearly having been dropped there by another shopper since it was in the wrong section. But the presence of the Spanish language version of the National Geographic reminded me of something else.

  I could see the native spelling of the words on the cover, and I’d learned just enough Spanish back at work to know when my coworkers were talking shit behind my back, but I’d never been fluent. Now, though, I could easily read the characters on the cover and understand without problem.

  The girls never struggled when speaking with me either. Do they speak English? I know Cortha has its own written language, but could they even communicate coming here? Or would my Traveler power extend to them while they visit?

  Turning back to the brain-teaser magazines, I scooped two thick Sudoku books and two logic-puzzle books into my cart before I wheeled it away. While I ambled down the book aisle, I closed my eyes to fire off a quick message to Cariad. If anyone knew the answer to that question, my daemon case worker would.

  Liam

  Hey Cari, hope things are going well for you. I just got back home after dropping off my girls at their dorms, so I am currently shopping and running errands. I have a bit of an odd question for you that might take some research if you are up to it? I can promise to make you dinner sometime in exchange for a bit of help?

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  I almost didn’t add the last sentence to the message, but I fired it off before I could change my mind. Cariad had been growing more and more flirty with me over the last few weeks. I had a way to protect myself from the dangers of touching the daemon now.

  Why not flirt back?

  I had made it as far as the frozen-food aisle, intent on securing some ice-cream to spoil my girls with when I visited them next, when I got Cariad’s response.

  The edges of my vision flashed and I steered my cart to one side of the aisle to be out of the way before I checked it. The store was fairly low on customers, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t come up while my eyes were closed. I skimmed over Cariad’s message and sent off a quick reply with some additional teasing at the end of it.

  Cariad

  Things are going well, Liam. The item that Mr. Cerebaton secured was properly identified and has been destroyed. The System alerted us that it was sending you a bonus, so I’m guessing that this question of your’s is related? You don’t have to bribe me to get help, but I won’t turn down your cooking if you are offering.

  Liam

  Good to hear, that thing gave me the creeps. And you are correct in your assumption there, Cari. The System offered me a lottery pull of random powers that I had the potential to use but hadn’t fully unlocked the right to access yet. I decided to gamble and got an interesting one. Traveler’s Call would let me summon one of the girls to me rather than the other way around, but I was wondering if there was a way to find out if my language benefits would extend to them?

  Also, maybe I just wanted an excuse to make you dinner?

  Cariad’s response came while I was still considering which option the girls might like more: fudge ripple or strawberry cream. Tossing cartons of both into my cart, I checked the response and grinned at Cariad’s words.

  Now that I had her attention, the conversation flowed rapidly between us for the next several minutes.

  Cariad

  Seriously, Liam? That power is… ugh… I know that you are different and strange in your own way, but really? Traveler’s Call is not something that normally unlocks until much later in a Traveler’s career. The notation that we have in the DSR records state that it is primarily intended for a Traveler with a network to shuffle people around that owe them favors that can be used to teach others. That or to fulfill charters to travel to other worlds and experience them.

  Because of that common usage, we do have record that the Traveler’s adaptation to speak and read the living languages of the world they are on will extend to the targets of Traveler’s Call though. So that much is easy.

  Liam

  Well, guess it’s an easy win for you then. When do you want to come by and visit for dinner?

  Cariad

  I hardly think I earned it, since that took so little time to find out. Got a harder question for me?

  Liam

  Not unless you know of ways I can easily train my mental abilities? I realized how I’ve been under-utilizing them and now I’m trying to make up some lost ground.

  Cariad

  Puzzles of all kinds, multi-tasking your work, creative pursuits. Honestly, your work with the jewelry is a great outlet to train. Also, that exercise you were doing in the river where you were calling a specific element to you will help too. That might be why your capacity has expanded to the point you realized you were missing something.

  Liam

  That is also fair. I’ll keep it in mind then while I get some practice going. There’s a lot I need to get done in the next few days, stuff I finally realized I’ve been putting off for too long. But you say when, or just swing by, and I’ll make you that dinner.

  Cariad

  All right, Liam. I’m going to make a note that you have Traveler’s Call in your files, that might actually be something that the DSR can use for subcontracting if you are open to it. I hope you have a good rest of your day.

  Liam

  Same to you, Cariad. Was good seeing you the other day and I look forward to getting to chat in person again soon.

  Backing out of the interface once more, I opened my eyes and got back to shopping.

  I mostly kept instant foods and microwave meals on hand in case the girls called me to their world, but I had a feeling that we’d have a few days of rest at least before a frenzy of training began once more. Stocking up on those would be important, but I also needed some general supplies to cook with.

  If Cariad does come by for that dinner, I want to make sure it’s more than just a box meal, I thought while slowly filling my cart.

  While I shopped, I did my best to follow Cariad’s advice and work on my multitasking. I made lists in my head of what I needed to do and began calculating my expected income for what sort of apartment I might be able to move into.

  Thinking about the income had me pausing to check my Bitsy storefront again, wondering if I had the supplies to get all the pieces in the mail and fulfill outstanding orders. I’d always hated when online retailers took forever to ship me something, and I tried my best to get the orders filled and on the way as quickly as possible.

  Logging into the application on my phone, I was startled to find the shop was entirely empty. Every single piece I’d made was sold and I had over two dozen messages from different accounts asking if I took commissions, with another half-dozen business propositions from online retailers that wanted to sell my stuff on consignment.

  I almost deleted those on general principle, but the idea that I could just load up a bunch of the pieces and send them off to someone else who would manage the sales and just pay me was actually a bit appealing. So I set them aside for now to do more research on.

  While I shopped, I began firing off responses to the people asking about commissions, explaining that I was in the middle of procuring supplies but if they weren’t in a hurry then I could consider the commissions. Those that sent an idea of what they were wanting already got a quote and a time estimate, while those who were just inquiring I told to send me their requested designs and I’d consider it.

  I made a stop by the postage section of the store to grab more of the USPS boxes, more labels, and another large roll of bubble-wrap to package pieces in. I had some supplies back at the apartment, but I’d need more to get everything that had been bought on its way.

  The gals at the post office are going to love me, I thought with a wry smirk as I loaded the supplies up. I really need to get one of those postage scales if this keeps up, that way I don’t have to stand at the counter for an hour or more while they calculate the postage on everything, or even the kiosks. Even with the flat rate boxes, it takes forever to punch everything in and run off the labels.

  Finishing my shopping, I loaded everything up in the truck and scooted back to the house. I abused my Dimensional Pocket ability to transport the awkwardly sized packages and managed to make only two trips from the truck to get my groceries and packages up to safety.

  The first trip went off without a hitch, but the second trip I noticed one of my neighbors on the first floor was peering through their blinds at me and didn’t look away when I caught them staring.

  Normally, I wouldn’t have cared. Peeking through your blinds at neighbors was just something you got used to living in apartments. Kind of like hearing the stomping of someone walking on the floor above you. But I knew that apartment, as the trio of guys living there were one of the many reasons I was planning to move. Their apartment always reeked of weed and I knew they were selling it and other drugs out of their place.

  Weed had been decriminalized in Colorado for some time now, but that fact didn’t change that they were obviously smoking it inside and that stink had sunk into the entire building and would occasionally waft through the vents. It wasn’t illegal, but it was damn disrespectful to their neighbors.

  I’d also seen that the occupants had been visited by the cops often enough that I knew they were repeat offenders, and I had a sneaking suspicion that they also stole from other neighbor’s patios in the complex. I’d caught them sneaking about when I came home from work late.

  But soon they wouldn’t be my problem. So I just gripped my bags tighter and hurried up the stairs to my apartment. If they cause problems, I’d throw some right back at them. If they left me alone, then I’d return that same favor.

  The idea of some drug-dealing thieves trying to break into my place amused me. Mostly because they’d be so ridiculously outclassed on the strength front that it would have been silly.

  Setting my bags of groceries down on the counter and ejecting everything from my Dimensional Storage power, I got the front door to my apartment locked and studied the pile of stuff for a long moment.

  The afternoon was dying and it would be night soon, so there was no chance I’d get my pieces shipped tonight. But I could get them prepped for tomorrow and thrash out my next steps. If I packaged things while I worked on my Manipulate Element power for entropy, I could train that, my Mana Reservoir, and my mental scores all at once.

  “Well then, no time like the present,” I chuckled and set to work.

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