We spent another two days at Kassandra’s estate, which I spent with the girls now that they’d had a chance to relax. Walking through the little village that was attached to the manor was relaxing and interesting, as more than a few of the villagers stopped to converse with us.

  Unlike in Kintos, where the townsfolk tended to avoid interacting with my girls, these people were happy to greet Kassandra and overflowed with thanks and praise for the developments that she’d brought to their town.

  Apparently, the expanding orchard as well as the necessary infrastructure to process, package, ship, and use the fruits was bringing in quite a bit of seasonal work that the villagers were happy for, as well as attracting merchants who were interested that also carried useful goods for the folk in the village.

  That, combined with Kassandra’s approachability as a younger woman, meant that the people directly affected were happy to heap praises and thanks on her. Something that appeared to be making Kassandra a little self-conscious, if the blush she sported was anything to go by.

  Rieka commented to me that it was good to see the happy villagers expressing their thanks, and I could tell my princess was content to be unrecognized at the moment. After all, this was Kassandra’s territory and her people.

  On the morning of the third day, my girls and I loaded up in another carriage that would take us to the meeting place on the edge of the Ironclaw territory. There we would meet up with the rest of the Juneau contingent as well as the representative from the Ironclaw clan.

  I hadn’t gotten any further updates from Queen Gemma about the situation, so we stuck with the plan and rolled out on schedule.

  The trip was, thankfully, quite boring for me. No attacks from bandits, monsters, or any real problems beyond helping distract my girls. I split the time between working on my new home back on Earth, and using the time in the carriage to mold more jewelry for the store. I wanted to make sure that Gloria had plenty to work with while I was gone, so I churned out the elegant gold and silver earrings with the matching pearls while we traveled.

  The girls were fascinated watching me work. Since the power I used was Manipulate Element that didn’t require incantations, runes, or other methods to control it, that allowed me a far more fluid control of what I was doing.

  Jane took copious notes, the mouse kin scholar ending up with ink-stained hands while juggling her notebook in the bouncing carriage enough that during one of my trips back to Earth, I made a special stop to get her a fountain pen as well as a box of disposable ball-nib pens specifically for moments like that.

  During the trip, I finally managed to hit the goals I’d been aiming at for a while with training my abilities.

  While using the Dimensional Pocket ability to slip items back and forth while I worked, the ability finally completed its initial level of mastery and unlocked the next rank.

  When I read the details on the next rank, which interestingly skipped right over the ‘lesser’ tier and went straight to moderate, I immediately upgraded the skill without hesitation, even though I had to dip into my emergency supply of pure mana stones to get the points for it.

  Dimensional Pocket (Moderate) - Cost: 5,000 SP - Grants the user a personal storage space of up to 50 pounds of material or four square feet of space. Living creatures cannot be placed inside the pocket. While stored there, objects have no weight and do not age or degrade.

  It still wasn’t enough to compete with one of the dimensional bags the girls had, but with fifty pounds of available material, it meant that I could not only bring over more treats, but I could also consider using it to store important equipment and finally bring over enchanted items.

  Of course, finding those enchanted items was going to be a bit more of a challenge at the moment, since we were actively heading away from areas that sold such things. But for now, I didn’t worry.

  The same day that Dimensional Pocket finally hit mastery, I noticed just how close I was to doing the same with my Mana Reservoir power. Given that the girls were all excited to start experimenting with that, I pushed hard in order to make up the last handful of mastery points for it.

  Not wanting to get the girls’ hopes up on it, I didn’t mention how close I was to finishing it out. They were having fun discussing different items I might be able to buy with the wealth of money I had on Cortha that I could transport back to Earth to make my life there more comfortable.

  Training Mana Reservoir was a lot harder than Dimensional Pocket and Shape-Shifting had been, since I wasn’t really able to tap into the ‘be creative’ angle of mastery, as the ability only really had one use, and that was drawing in mana. I got a bit of a boost from the different environments that I worked in, at least I am pretty sure that helped, but ultimately it was just a matter of emptying and refilling the reservoir multiple times until the power maxed out.

  When it finally triggered, I was actually back on Earth for a short period to check on Gloria and see how things were going. Apparently, they’d been going well because she was studying ways to advertise the work and doing market research as well. That first payment I’d given her apparently had the Latina rather interested in getting as much as she could for the pieces, which would translate into better sales for me too, so I just encouraged her and got back to work.

  What actually triggered the mastery maxing out was something I’d been doing out of habit while I drove. Whenever I saw a pothole in the road, and there were plenty of them around Denver, I’d use the Manipulate Element power to even that section of road out.

  I didn’t flatten the road or fill in the hole, as I knew enough about road construction to know there was more to it than just slapping down asphalt. But I smoothed the edges instead so that when people hit it, they didn’t damage their tires or the road any more than was absolutely necessary. Cracks on the edges of the holes were mended to extend the life of the asphalt until the repair crews could get out there as well.

  Seeing the alert flash that told me I’d mastered Mana Reservoir (Moderate) startled me enough that I swerved in the truck, but my reflexes were tuned high enough now that I was easily able to course-correct before I hit anyone. Still didn’t help me pull my heart out of my asshole though, that took a couple minutes of driving till I could exit and safely check the messages.

  Power Mana Reservoir (Moderate) has achieved Mastery 1000/1000.

  New Powers available in the System interface.

  Congratulations, Traveler.

  A quick check revealed the next rank of Mana Reservoir, as well as a new power. I resolved to keep both in mind, but no way could I afford either at the moment without emptying my proverbial piggy-bank of the pure mana crystals to get even one.

  Mana Reservoir (Major) - Cost: 8,000 SP - Grants the Traveler a major mana reservoir equivalent to 200 mana. This mana will regenerate at a fixed rate, depending on ambient mana of the environment. Spells cast by the Traveler will pull from this reserve first, then any other mana reservoirs in the Traveler’s possession.

  Create Reservoir - Cost: 6,000 SP - Requires Empower Reservoir to purchase - Allows the Traveler to crystallize their mana into physical form, no longer needing a medium in which to store spare mana. Mana spent in this fashion regenerates slower.

  Minimum cost to create a stable mana crystal is 100 mana.

  Crystallized mana created in this fashion cannot be exchanged for SP.

  That would be nice to have. Doubles my reserve of mana for use, and the crystallize thing would be useful for building up a supply of mana for when I need to do something big. But again, I’m not a wizard, I thought while traffic whizzed past me on the highway as I sat on the shoulder. I’m a shape-shifting interdimensional bodyguard who also does double duty as a messenger and a body pillow. I feel like I should honestly feel more guilty about the last one, but like hell am I going to regret snuggling my girls.

  Decision made, I got back on the road to run my errands quickly, as I knew that the girls would want to start experimenting with the Mana Reservoir power that I could potentially offer them with Grant Power now that I’d finally mastered it.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  While I drove, though, I could only think about how far things had come in the handful of months since that fateful car-accident and the subsequent series of events that resulted in me becoming a Traveler.

  <> <> <>

  The girls were ecstatic to find out that I finally had the ability to grant them the Mana Reservoir power, and we immediately set to experimenting with it on the last day while we neared the meeting place.

  We were headed for one of the way-stations along the border where we would meet up with the rest of the Juneau contingent. Our carriage would then return to Kassandra’s territory and her manor, while we would continue as part of a larger wagon caravan from Juneau that included troops and supplies. The girls had been anxious the previous day, clearly bothered by what was coming, but had gotten caught up in the testing while we traveled.

  “So, to summarize,” Jane said, using the back of her new fountain pen to scratch her jaw thoughtfully while she studied her notes from her spot on my lap. “We can hold the power until we need to access it, and the act of granting it to us fills the reservoir to full for starters. But as soon as we tap into the Mana Reservoir it takes priority over any other items we have. The duration is an issue. We might have time to regenerate maybe five or so points of mana before it fades, but that’s it.”

  “Not a bad thing, though,” I reminded her, blowing lightly on the back of one large, rounded mouse ear. The more I looked at Jane, the more I was reminded of the pygmy jerboa, and I couldn’t help but find the apt comparison adorable. “Means you girls can do some practice without having to spend the mana-infused metals.”

  “Oh this is extremely useful, but still limited in time scope. We aren’t going to be forsaking our spell-rods anytime soon,” Jane asserted, the ear I was blowing on wiggling and flicking in annoyance at the stimulation, but the little scholar didn’t move away from me.

  “Nope, but it’ll be a hell of a surprise if any of us end up getting captured in the oncoming conflict,” Kassandra said with a wicked grin while she studied the scales on the tip of her tail from her spot on the other side of the carriage.

  The dwarf lamia was apparently preparing to go through a shed, and had been keeping a close eye on her scales as the process started. I only noticed because her normally brilliant scales were looking a bit dull at the moment as the outer layer was preparing to peel off.

  “Definitely going to be useful for that, but also something that we need to be careful about exposing, too. It would raise quite a few questions,” Rieka agreed from her spot next to Kassandra.

  “Is that a bad thing?” Shayla asked from my left, the moth-winged woman looking thoughtful.

  “I would imagine so,” Rieka said in surprise. “It’s only a useful trump card as long as it remains in hiding. There are other ways to suppress a spellcaster than taking their components away, and none are nice.”

  “No, I was meaning something else,” Shayla was quick to say, waving her hands and antennae quickly. “I was just thinking that, well… if word got out that Liam could do something like that, wouldn’t it increase his number of contracts? We haven’t been able to offer him many duties the last week or so since we’ve just been traveling.”

  “I… had forgotten about that,” Kassandra murmured, looking up from her scales and blinking slowly. “Liam, I am so sorry! We’ve just been summoning you away from your world on a lark to spend time with you and totally forgetting that this is how you get the points to enhance your powers!”

  “It’s fine,” I said, intending on reassuring my dwarf lamia, but she shook her head fiercely, making her mane of red curls bounce furiously.

  “No, it most certainly is not! Liam, I know that you love us all and would likely volunteer to help us without even considering the cost, but your powers and their growth rely on being summoned for work from us. And work means you need to get paid for it. You’ve already told us that the System requires us to clearly state the reason we summoned you to give you the directive required to earn your pay, and we’ve been failing you by not doing that!”

  The other three girls all joined Kassandra in looks of self-recrimination and disappointment, looks that I did not like on them. I much preferred when my girls were excited and happy.

  Giving Jane a squeeze to reassure her where she sat on my lap, I spoke up immediately.

  “It’s an honest mistake, and one that I am also guilty of. I could have just asked any one of you to give me an order to satisfy the System, but I was just happy to spend time with you all so much that I let it slip my mind. I’ve been getting kind of lax about managing my SP and earnings since the competition and the other large windfalls. Can we just agree to do better and let it go?”

  From the grimaces on Kassandra and Rieka’s faces, I could tell the two of them still felt guilty. Shayla just nodded along, clearly willing to accept the goal to change it up for the future rather than agonize over the past.

  Jane wiggled on my lap, snuggling back into my chest rather than trying to get down, so I assumed that she was of the same mind as Shayla.

  “Liam, I still apologize,” Rieka said with a frown. Her tail, which had been bouncing occasionally behind her, now hung like a limp rag. “I don’t wish to make excuses, but I think that we all were just so excited to have the extra supplies of the mana-infused coins that we forgot there were other currencies that were important to our group.”

  “Even with you talking about the profits of your business back home,” Kassandra added on with a scowl. “But if you are willing to let it go, I won’t hold on to it any more.”

  “I am,” I replied firmly and got nods from both Kassandra and Rieka in acceptance.

  “Well!” Jane exclaimed into the silence, her rounded ears bouncing upright. “If things go the way we expect them to in the next few weeks, then we are going to have plenty of opportunities to request Liam help us. Between standing watch and other duties that might come up.”

  “I still wonder if it wouldn’t be a good thing to let Liam’s reputation spread,” Shayla reminded the others from the side, her antennae curling and uncurling as she toyed with the fluffy ruff at her neck with one hand. “More contractors means more SP for him, and that means he can grow quicker.”

  “I’m growing just fine right now,” I reminded her. “And besides, I still need to work on improving the Grant Power ability anyway. Once I can get it to the point where I can give you all something that isn’t on a time limit, then maybe I can look to start offering it to others.”

  “Mother would still appreciate something like that as a back-up ability,” Rieka reminded me and I nodded in agreement.

  “I figured that I would offer it to her the next time I went to her in order to pick up a message or something. I don’t think it’d be worth the cost for her to summon me just to add that one hidden power.”

  “Liam,” Shayla said, something in her gentle voice drawing my attention directly to her despite the low volume. “Whether it is worth the mana or not isn’t a choice for you to make. That’s for Queen Gemma to decide if she thinks it to be worth it. You should let her know about the new option and then let her decide, rather than take that choice from her by concealing the ability.”

  While the rebuke was delivered in a soft tone by one of the most gentle of my lovers, her words hit me like a punch. I couldn’t argue with Shayla over that, as it was entirely true. I was essentially making the decision for Gemma by not letting her know. I’d rushed to inform the girls as soon as I got back to them, and still hadn’t mentioned other powers to them because of my own reasons.

  But this is different, I thought. Being able to take one of them to visit Earth is just a fun thing for now. If it was something that could actually be used to save a life or make a difference in a fight, then I wouldn’t wait. Having access to an emergency supply of mana might save someone’s life, and there was already that attack on Gemma when Rieka was with her.

  I still kept in mind the fact that I had the Tunnel to Contracted ability that I could use to help any of the girls—Gemma included—but having something like this would allow them to react in the moment and not have to wait for me to show up.

  “I’ll let her know,” I said after another moment of thought.

  Shayla’s soft, approving smile told me that she was content with that and the moth woman turned to the others while I closed my eyes and focused to compose the message to the Queen.

  Queen Coldeye, I wanted to let you know that a new power has recently become available to me. I can grant, in a very limited way, the ability to store mana inside your body and use it to cast with while not needing the mana-charged metal. At this time, the pool is very small, but enough to get off one or two spells in a pinch. I need to be physically present to grant the ability to you, and can explain more if you have questions. Currently, I am traveling with my other contracted but if you would like for me to give this ability to you, feel free to summon me. I can also wait for a later time to combine it with another message delivery. It is up to you.

  Finishing the mental message, I sent it off using the Contact Contracted Companion power and opened my eyes again to find three of my four girls were peeking through the windows while Jane was packing away her fountain pen in its case.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Looks like we are coming up on the way-station,” Jane answered as Rieka resumed her seat and began tucking things into her dimensional bag as well.

  “Yes, I was able to spot the palisade walls ahead. We should be the last group to arrive, so I expect the caravan will want to set out in the morning. Hopefully they have enough rooms at the inn for us.”

  “I’m not going to complain if we have to share again,” Kassandra quipped as she settled back down once more. “I just wish I wasn’t going into a shed before all of this. It’s going to be a pain to take care of…”

  “You know I’ll help you however I can,” I offered and got a loving nod from my dwarf lamia.

  “I know, Liam. It’s just uncomfortable to have happen while traveling, and awkward too,” Kassandra replied, checking her seat for anything that she had left out as well.

  The girls had been good about keeping their things inside their bags when not using them, so by the time the carriage reached the secured walls of the way-station, we were ready to disembark.

  Peeking through the windows, I spotted the line of wagons staged along the front of the large inn, ready for the beasts of burden that would pull them and stocked with goods while soldiers in the garb of the Coldeye Queendom stood watch over them. I saw small knots of people I recognized to be students from Juneau as well scattered about.

  Intermixed with the soldiers of the Coldeye Queendom were others that I did not recognize. Armored in metal scale on leather rather than the chain and linen of the Coldeye soldiers, they had an intimidating and tribal look to them as more than one turned to watch as our carriage was directed to one side and came to a stop.

  Jane didn’t protest when I gently lifted her from my lap and set her onto the bench at my side as we came to a stop.

  An outstretched hand told the girls to wait as I got the door open and stepped out into the sun, studying our surroundings for threats and playing my part as the guard.

  I was turning back to the carriage to offer a hand to Rieka, who had shuffled around to dismount first, when a familiar voice called out to me and drew my attention towards the barracks that sat opposite the tavern.

  “Liam? Well that tells me who else is in that carriage. Are you still keeping up with your training?”

  Lady Valda Ironclaw was striding towards me, the dark green scales on her arms glittering as she waved in greeting while she approached.

  Adventures resume and we get to more actiony bits after the slice of life break.

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