“So, there’s something I should tell you all as well…” I said, letting the sentence trail off.

  My girls’ attention sharpened at that. Rieka’s ears, which had been relaxed, perked up and her tail began to wiggle behind her. Kassandra’s head tilted and her spectacles caught the light of the fire. Shayla blinked rapidly, her antennae wiggling and the tips curling up, while Valda made a hmmm noise in question.

  “But before I continue,” I said, glancing toward the silent Lorelai, “I need you to promise your silence on this, Lorelai.”

  “Of course, sir,” the maid said with a shallow curtsy toward me. But I shook my head.

  “This is serious, Lorelai,” I said firmly. “I have secrets as a Traveler that must remain that way, for my bonded’s security. I need to know that no one will hear about these secrets from you, not even the Queen.”

  I saw the maid twitch and open her mouth to protest but held up a hand to stop her.

  “I will be telling her myself,” I said quickly. “But it needs to be a conversation on my terms. If you cannot promise me your silence, then I need to ask you to leave the room. I only am offering to allow you to remain because Rieka trusts you.”

  My princess twitched an ear before turning to look at Lorelai.

  “You can trust him,” Rieka advised, and the maid gave a hesitant nod to her princess before looking directly at me.

  “I promise, my Lord,” Lorelai said in a clear tone, though her shoulders remained drawn in and her posture guarded. “No one will hear from me what you discuss here. I trust my Lady and she trusts you.”

  “That is all I needed to hear,” I said, offering her a smile now that she returned tentatively.

  Turning back to my girls, I glanced down at the sleeping Jane for a moment before gently jostling her. If I was going to drop this bit of information for them, my little scholar deserved to hear it first-hand too.

  That and I think Jane might get really upset if she wasn’t included, I thought as the small woman stirred and grumbled quietly.

  “Sorry to wake you, Jane. But you need to hear this,” I murmured into one rounded ear.

  Surprisingly, she perked up immediately. She still blinked rapidly and rubbed at her eyes, but the grumbles stopped immediately and she sat up, sending the blanket cascading down her back.

  “Huh? Wha?” Jane mumbled, peering up at me.

  The other laughed at her bleary and owlish blinking, but went silent with Kassandra making a point of projecting innocence on her face when Jane turned their way.

  “Just sharing some information with you all,” I said, giving her waist a squeeze. “I didn’t want to wake you, but you deserve to hear this firsthand.”

  Jane blushed faintly at that, just a bit of color darkening her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something, then glanced down and realized she’d been cuddled up hard to my side. Her blush immediately darkened, but she didn’t scramble away.

  Instead, Jane carefully unwound her tail from my waist and slid aside on the couch, brushing her wrinkled clothing to try and straighten it, only to give up a few minutes later.

  “What did you want to talk about, Liam?” Jane said, coughing once to clear her throat. It was immediately obvious she was trying to change the subject, so I went with it.

  Turning my attention back to my other girls, I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees.

  Unconsciously, the other four girls did the same, and I even caught Lorelai leaning forward slightly to hear what I was about to say.

  “So,” I started. “I know that a few of you have joked about this.” I glanced pointedly between Jane, Kassandra, and Shayla. “But I’m finally at a point where it’s possible. I haven’t tested the power yet, but based on what the System describes, I will be able to call one of my bonded companions to me across dimensions.”

  “Dibs!”

  The shout was out of sync as Kassandra and Jane both jumped on it, with Kassandra half a beat ahead of the little scholar.

  “Damn it!” Jane cursed, slamming her fist on the couch while her long, tuft-tipped tail flailed behind her. “Fine! But you have to do me next!”

  Half-started questions died on peoples’ lips as all the girls stared at Jane, who realized what she said within moments of it leaving her mouth. The flush that had been dying down from earlier returned with reinforcements and went from her neck up into her rounded ears.

  “First of all,” I said teasingly. “Anytime.” I gave Jane a broad wink and she squeaked in dismay, pulling the blanket up to hide her face while I wiggled my eyebrows at her suggestively. “Secondly, I don’t know that it limits it to only one person at a time,” I continued, taking mercy on Jane. “It’s possible that I just have to call each of you separately to start with. I haven’t experimented with it.”

  “How long have you had access to this ability?” Rieka asked shrewdly.

  I glanced toward my princess, worried for a moment that she might be upset with me.

  Thankfully, Rieka was just leaning forward in curiosity while her tail stirred up a storm behind her.

  “A while now,” I said with a shrug. “I needed to get settled into my new place, both for security and because… Well, I didn’t want to show you all my old apartment. It was a shit-heap and not somewhere I’d want to bring anyone home to.”

  “That is… fair,” Rieka said. I could immediately tell from her tone that while she understood, she didn’t like it either. But before I could reassure her more, Rieka continued to speak. “Well, it does make a bit of sense for Kassandra to go first, since she was the first one to insist to bond with Liam.”

  “Only because I spoke up quicker,” Kassandra said with a grin at her friend. “You would have jumped on him just as quick, you were up on your ‘highness’ at the time because of how awkward everyone was being around you.”

  Rieka rolled her eyes at Kassandra, but I noted she didn’t deny her friend’s statement.

  “When can we go?” Kassandra demanded, bouncing in place. “Let’s go now!”

  Before I could respond, it was actually Valda who interjected.

  “Maybe it would be better for him to prepare the way rather than rush?” Valda suggested, watching me as she spoke. “Since Liam hesitated this long, I assume that there is a good reason why?”

  “Mostly that humans on my world aren’t exactly… open minded toward non-humans. Hell, a lot of them don’t believe there are any intelligent living beings in the universe besides us,” I said with a sigh. “It wouldn’t be very nice to keep Kassandra penned into my place. We could probably go for a drive though. My truck’s cab is big enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  My dwarf lamia wilted at that, looking down at her coiled length under her for several moments as she considered.

  “What about that friend of yours?” Kassandra asked suddenly, her head coming up and sending her red mane bouncing again. “The short one you kept telling us stories about? He sounded like a smart person. I don’t need to meet a ton of humans, but it would be interesting to meet a friend of yours from over there, and he might have ideas too!”

  “Jameson?” I asked and Kassandra nodded vigorously. “Maybe,” I said, rubbing my chin. “I’ve kinda been working on getting him and Gloria—thats the friend of mine who is managing the shop for me while I’m here—used to my life being strange. I’d wanted to test the waters with him first, show him my powers before bringing one of you over.”

  “How about tomorrow then?” Kassandra asked, still bouncing up and down on her seat. The motion made her luscious chest bounce distractingly as well, something that I was half-expecting she did on purpose specifically to distract me. “We can get started on dress shopping and you can make contact with your friend. If he seems good, then you can test the summon with me and I can meet him too.”

  Kassanda’s excitement waned slightly and she rubbed her chin with one hand.

  “It’d probably be better to limit the test initially, too,” she said after a moment. “That way we can do more later.”

  “I think we can make that work,” I said and immediately felt a chill run down my spine when I realized I’d be introducing the biggest troublemaker I knew, Kassandra, to the one man who knew most of my dark secrets from growing up.

  This is going to go badly… at least for me, I thought with a groan.

  <><><>

  The girls kept talking for another hour, mostly thrashing out the plans for dress shopping the next day. I was just glad that they didn’t demand I show up for it. I knew it was only a matter of time, though, since I’d need to have a matching outfit to them, or at least to Rieka since I was her unofficial ‘date’ for the night.

  Once things were settled, the girls all split off for bed. Rieka had to order Lorelai off, insisting that she did not need help getting ready for bed. While I’d extracted a promise from the maid for her silence regarding my powers, I didn’t think that same promise would extend to what Rieka and I got up to once the others were gone and the doors to her suite were firmly locked.

  The next morning, my girls sent me back to Earth after breakfast so I could touch bases with Jameson and prepare things to test the Traveler’s Call ability out.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Landing back in my little underground home, I took a moment to check everything over with my Manipulate Element ability and make sure the winter’s chill hadn’t damaged the construction at all.

  While on Cortha, the weather was pleasantly warm still and in late summer, Colorado was well into the end of fall and beginning of winter. Snow would be coming in soon and the ground was freezing solid.

  So I double checked my stock of firewood, planning to top it off from the dead trees that had fallen on my land later that same day.

  When I checked my phone, I found that the solar panels I’d set up were feeding into the batteries just fine. Though I knew that staying away for too long might let the cold sap them, depending on how deeply that winter chill penetrated into my shelter.

  More importantly, Gloria had sent an update since the last time I’d been on Earth, reminding me that her uncle still wanted to see about hosting my pieces and updating me as of the previous day of the current stock she had.

  Jameson had left his usual garble of annoying text messages that were a mixture of good natured jibes, insults, and earnest attempts to check on me. So I fired off a quick response to them both.

  I let Gloria know that I would be working on a new load for her to have on hand. I made sure to outright state that I would let her negotiate the plan with her uncle and for her to bring me the proposal to sign after that was done since she was managing the store for me.

  For Jameson, I replied with a couple jibes of my own before asking if he was free to hang out today, since it was a Saturday, and made sure to throw in some hints about finally answering some of his questions about the ‘mystery women’ in my life.

  Knowing that would get him, I got to work with a small fire to warm my place up for when Kassandra arrived later. My dwarf lamia was cold blooded, and did not like the cold at all. I made sure to send her a message with Contact Contracted Companion to let her know just how cold Earth was and double check to make sure she wanted to come. Her response was almost immediate and I laughed out loud when it arrived.

  I don’t care how cold it is out there, Liam. You know exactly what I do to counteract the cold, so you just have to make sure I stay plenty warm enough that I don’t embarrass you in front of your friend by climbing inside your pants.

  By the time I had three fresh armloads of firewood in the tray, Jameson had replied to my text in the affirmative and asked if I wanted to meet for beers and chat.

  Since I didn’t know how long the girls would take other than ‘long enough’ I agreed. I’d picked up enough tricks during our camping trips in Cortha that I knew how to bank the coals to preserve the heat of the fire as well as ways to arrange the wood in the stone bowl so it could continue to burn slowly and warm the space.

  The drive into town felt surreal, given that I was used to traveling by foot or by cart. I’d been back on Earth only a day ago, but it still felt weird to be driving when I knew I could move so fast on foot myself.

  Since it was early and our usual haunt, Gloria’s family bar, was closed, we ended up meeting at a sports bar named Twin Peaks that Jameson was convinced had great food. I think my friend just liked it because it was more like a lumberjack-themed Hooters with less of a focus on wings, but I didn’t argue with him on it. The place had decent food and it was comfortable.

  Doesn’t hurt that my bank account is solid for once, too, I thought with a grin as I pushed through the swinging doors. Not wealthy, but now I wear old jeans and t-shirts because I want to, not because it’s all I can afford.

  The hostess, a bottle-blonde woman in a red-and-black checkered flannel and tight jeans, barely looked up as I came in. She took in my jeans and boots with a single glance and I could see her fighting not to roll her eyes.

  I’d gotten a text in the parking lot from Jameson that he was already there, and I spotted him at the bar, his flat cap making it easy to pick him out amongst the Saturday lunch crowd.

  “Sitting at the bar,” I said when the hostess made a move to get down off her stool, hand going toward the menus. “My friend is already here.”

  She didn’t speak, just nodded and picked her phone back up from where it had been badly hidden by the hostess stand.

  Always better to have folks underestimate you, I thought with a shake of my head as I threaded through the booths to where Jameson was sitting at the end of the bar. I don’t hate folks who work wait staff, but you’d think someone who earns most of their money off of tips would be better… or maybe it’s the other way around? Since she looks at me and doesn’t see the kind of money that would lead to easy tips, she isn’t incentivized. Whatever, tipping culture is dumb but it’s not like I’m the one paying her wages.

  Gloria certainly hadn’t been stingy with her thanks for the paycheck I’d arranged for her through my Bitsy store. It cut more into my profits, but she was easily making back her paycheck and more with how fast she was turning pieces for me, and I loved not having to stand in line at the post office.

  “Already propping up the bar? Pull up your pants, Jameson, your heritage is showing,” I said as I came up behind my friend, slapping him on the back.

  Jameson choked, having been halfway through a sip from a tall pint of pitch-black beer. Coughing, he wiped the foam off his nose that ended up there after my smack tried to drive him into the glass.

  “Asshole,” Jameson croaked between coughs, but pointed to the stool next to him.

  The bartender, another young woman in red-and-black flannel but a brunette, bounced over with a broad smile.

  “Hey! You must be his friend,” she chirped happily. “What can I get you?”

  “Pint of whatever he’s having,” I said, nodding to Jameson’s drink. “And a large order of regular fries.”

  “You got it,” she said with a nod and set to pulling the beer for me with quick motions.

  “If I’d known you were going to try and drown me, I wouldn’t have agreed to drinks,” Jameson ground out, yanking a fistful of napkins out of the dispenser to mop at the puddle he’d left on the bartop.

  “As much as you drink, Jameson, I figured that you could breathe the stuff,” I shot back. “Or did you lose the beer-gills working in that office for too long?”

  “Naw, the gills are just fine,” Jameson chuckled, rolling his eyes. “I have to be able to keep up for the office parties, especially with the foreign investors from Japan. Now those guys know how to drink. I just normally drink the lighter shit for that.”

  “I thought you swore anything you could see through was just piss water,” I shot back, accepting the beer from the bartender with a nod and a smile.

  She smiled prettily enough, but I noticed that the smile didn’t reach her eyes. She swept away to the other end of the bar where a trio of men in golf shirts were watching sports on the big TV and cheering drunkenly already.

  Whatever, I thought to myself. You definitely don’t need to be flirting with random women at bars, not with the girls waiting for you.

  Thinking of my girls brought a smile to my face. All five of them had been excited to get to the tailors when I’d left that morning, with Kassandra being the most excited, for obvious reasons. What had surprised me the most was Valda sharing in it as much as the other girls, though she’d repeatedly—and entirely unprompted—asserted she would not be wearing a dress.

  “So,” Jameson drawled, taking a drink from his diminished pint now that he’d wiped up the mess he’d made. “You mentioned wanting to talk about these mystery girls of yours. You know I’ve been wanting to meet them for a while, figured you’d have them with you.”

  “Naw,” I said with a shake of my head. “They’d just be confused in a place like this.”

  “Why?” Jameson asked, his head tilting in confusion. “You never mentioned it, but are they foreign?”

  I was about to respond in a denial but paused, thinking for a long moment.

  That… I’d not thought about that. Shit, if the girls can’t speak or read English, that’ll really limit what they can do here, even more than them not being human, I thought grimly. System? Any light you can shed on this?

  I waited, half hoping that the extra-dimensional supercomputer would answer and half expecting it not to.

  My answer came in neon purple words that blazed across my vision a moment later.

  Subjects of the Traveler’s Call ability are granted a temporary extension of the Traveler’s linguistic benefits.

  This is because Traveler’s Call is often used by the Traveler to connect new contracted with older ones for tutoring, usually in exchange for favors on either side.

  I nodded once, thinking quickly as I considered this.

  System, question for you. How does the Traveler linguistic ability recognize whether a language is ‘living’ or not? I thought quickly, wanting to see if I could get an answer from the supercomputer while it’s attention was on me.

  But there was no answer forthcoming. No new neon-colored message blazed in my vision, and no new information appeared in my interface.

  Damn, well I had to try, I thought with a grimace before shelving that concern for now. I could try and experiment later before I worried the girls for no reason.

  Turning my attention back to Jameson, I found my friend watching me with his brows knitted together in concern.

  “You okay there, champ?” Jameson asked, elbowing me gently. “You were concentrating so hard it looked like you were about to shit your pants for some reason.”

  “Oh shove it,” I fired back, returning his playful elbow. “And to answer your question, no, it’s not that the girls are foreign. They just wouldn’t enjoy… well all of this.”

  I gestured to the bar around us with a sweep of my hand and Jameson rolled his eyes.

  “What’s not to like about this?” he asked with a shit-eating grin. “You certainly jumped at coming out here when I mentioned it.”

  “That’s because I wanted to talk to you, wank-stain,” I fired back, taking a sip of my beer.

  We shot the shit for a good twenty minutes, playfully jabbing at each other and catching up. My fries arrived and we split them, using the tasty bits of potato as beer sponges while we talked. The first beers turned into a second round, and I took a deep pull once the bartender wandered back to the trio of drunk golfers who were tipping more generously.

  Setting the glass down, I stared into it for a long moment, watching as the divot my lip made in the foam fizzed and slowly evened out.

  “I can trust you,” I said. And even though it was a statement and not a question, Jameson answered me.

  “Of course, dude. You wouldn’t have shown me your ‘Fortress of Bachelorhood’ if you hadn’t.”

  “It’s more than that,” I murmured, looking up from my beer and studying Jameson more intently. “There’s a lot more that has been going on, and I can’t talk about all of it…” I let the sentence trail off in the moment.

  I’d been trying to figure out how to break it to Jameson, how best to test the water to see if he’d be chill and if it would be safe to have him meet Kassandra.

  My idiot friend stopped smiling and instead leaned in closer, his gaze going serious.

  “You aren’t in trouble are you? You need to borrow some money? You might be an ass, but you know I love you like a brother, Liam,” Jameson offered in a low tone, his eyebrows going up in question.

  That statement, the easy offer to help without strings or judgment attached, was all that I needed to calm the worries that had been building up.

  “Naw,” I said, shaking my head with a laugh. “But you remember how you joked about ‘shagging Sasquatch?”

  “I knew it,” Jameson said, his concerned look lighting up and a grin taking over his face. “You must have been hooking up with one of the ‘all natural’ gals who doesn’t like to shave. No judgment, man. She’d have to be a bit odd to put up with you.” Jameson paused and furrowed his brow comically before shrugging. “Okay, maybe just a little judgment… but only if she doesn’t believe in things like soap.”

  “Nothing like that, you jackass,” I snickered. “You wanted to meet one of them, and if you are free for the day then you’ll get to meet one later. I’m just waiting for her to let me know she’s done shopping.”

  “So we have time for a few more beers then? I didn’t want to order lunch if we were going to be scooting off, too,” Jameson said easily, snatching up his pint and taking a chug.

  “Yeah, order food,” I replied with a smirk. “That way you stop stealing all my fries.”

  “Stealing?” Jameson said with overacted injury. “I’ll have you know I’m Irish, there’s no such thing as stealing when it involves a potato. I’m liberating these fine spuds from your tyranny!” He punctuated that statement by snatching a handful of fries off my plate.

  “Yeah, well liberate yourself some of that chicken-fried steak you like so much. It’s on me today,” I shot back, pulling my plate out of reach with a laugh.

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