Jack smiled as he worked in the kitchen. He had come a long way from when he used

  to burn eggs on bread. Elaine showed him some things too. She liked the kitchen,

  liked coming up with things.

  He had lucked out meeting her.

  He wondered how things would have gone if he had left when he finished the first

  set of main quests. Would she have waited for him to come back? Would she have

  found someone else and moved on with her new wealth. He had no idea.

  And he was afraid to ask because he didn’t want to know any answer that would hurt

  him.

  Beatrice would be dead, but the other girls would still be able to live on without

  Josie and him to mess up their lives any further.

  He didn’t know what the foster care systems were like in this world, but he doubted

  they would have had an easy time of things without them.

  “What are you thinking?,” said Elaine. Her gaze turned on him and he caught his

  breath. He had been lucky to meet her.

  “That either I am the luckiest man alive, or you are so unlucky,” said Jack. He smiled

  at her. “I can’t decide which.”

  “You are the luckiest man alive,” said Elaine. She smiled back at him. “Accept that.”

  “I will,” said Jack. He grinned at her. He reached for a plate to start portioning the

  eggs and sausage he had cooked together.

  “I have the toast ready,” said Elaine. She placed the cooked bread on a plate.

  “Thank you, Elaine,” said Jack. “You have done wonders for us. I don’t know what

  we would have done without you, and you are teaching me to yodel very well.”

  “I wouldn’t call those sounds you make yodeling,” said Elaine. She blushed slightly.

  “And you two have done things for me that I never would have been able to do on my

  own. Saving my life is the least of it. And you still haven’t taken me to a show,

  welsher.”

  “Welsher?,” said Jack.

  “The dragon picked it up somewhere,” said Elaine. “And you are a known welsher

  on your agreements.”

  “I don’t welsh,” said Jack. “I just procrastinate on the payment.”

  “We get Bea on her feet, deal with this last quest, and then we go to the show,” said

  Elaine. “Josie is taking the girls for the night so we can go without worrying about

  the city burning down.”

  “I would never worry about that any way,” said Jack. He made sure everyone had an

  equal share. He took the bread and made sure two went with each plate. “I need to

  make soup for Bea when she is strong enough to eat.”

  “Will she get better?,” said Elaine.

  “Oh, sure,” said Jack. “I placed a charger around the bed to fuel her up, and I put a

  builder in her to rebuild what the poisons damaged. I just need to check her for cancer

  eventually because the builder may overgrow tissue to compensate for what Todd did.

  I haven’t said anything to Josie, but we may get quests to look for his friends.”

  “Why?,” asked Elaine.

  “They are trying to summon a fish god to this planet,” said Jack. “The Society doesn’t

  like that. So eventually we might have to do something about that.”

  “How bad would such a summons be?,” asked Elaine.

  “Depends,” said Jack. “You know how kids sometimes set fire to ants? It might be

  like that for a good part of the world.”

  “Then why do they want to do that?,” asked Elaine.

  “I don’t know,” said Jack. He got glasses of milk for everyone. “Some people have

  mental problems where they want to do things to hurt people. This is a grander way

  of hurting as many people as they can. Maybe they think they are going to be the king

  of whatever is left.”

  “How much would be left?,” asked Elaine.

  Jack picked up a nugget of sausage to show her, before popping it in his mouth.

  Elaine winced at that.

  “They are mad and stupid,” said Elaine.

  “Which is why if they get close to succeeding, we might have to chase them down

  and give them the same thing we gave Todd,” said Jack.

  “I think you should in any case,” said Elaine. “These people are too dangerous to be

  left alone.”

  “All right,” said Jack. “With Josie’s model, we should be able to find them anywhere

  on the continent. Then we can drop in and let Aviras bite their faces. He loves that

  sort of thing.”

  “He has gotten bigger,” said Elaine.

  “That was bound to happen as long as he did good to do good,” said Jack. “Forcing

  Todd away from Bea was a direct threat to him in a size comparison, and he saved

  Bea’s life. If Todd had held us up, she would have died before we could do anything.

  That’s probably how Harp lost his arm.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Elaine.

  “The Society told me that Warner and Harp were hunting a monster when Harp was

  bitten,” said Jack. He made his serving into a big sandwich. “Warner couldn’t save

  his arm, so he cut it off.”

  “You think that if Warner had more time he would have been able to save the arm?,”

  said Elaine.

  “Yes,” said Jack. “Hap said the ring works on imagination. Either Warner couldn’t

  imagine a solution, or Harp was closer to death than anyone knows and cutting the

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

  arm off was the only fast solution to save his life.”

  Elaine nodded.

  “Let’s serve our hungry wolves,” said Jack. “Then we are going to have to go work.”

  “I’m ready,” said Elaine.

  They picked up the plates and carried them into the dining room. The girls were

  working on their letters and numbers. Josie had paper and pen in front of her. She

  finished her thought and put the letter out of the way so they could eat together.

  “It’s just eggs and sausage on toast,” said Jack. He put his plates down and helped

  Elaine with hers. “We have cups of milk for you. Let me get those and we can eat.”

  “Ice cream,” demanded Aviras.

  “You eat what we eat,” said Jack. “Ice cream all the time will make you fat. Matilda

  doesn’t want you crushing her head with your weight.”

  “You are a little bigger,” said Laura.

  “And fatter,” said Melanie. She picked at her food.

  “I’m not fat,” said Aviras. He looked up at Matilda. “Tell me I am just right.”

  “You are a little bigger,” said Matilda. “But not that much bigger. You are not that

  much heavier.”

  “What happened?,” said Aviras. He looked down at his blue body. It still looked the

  same to him.

  “You did good, and you got good,” said Jack. He put down cups of milk and a bowl

  of milk for the dragon. “Thank you for saving Bea’s life.”

  “It was my pleasure,” said Aviras. “I didn’t like him anyway.”

  Everyone looked at him as he started working on his food. Eye rolls followed the

  looks.

  “What is the plan for the next few days?,” asked Josie. She picked at her food with

  her fork.

  “I take Elaine to a show when Bea is better,” said Jack. A ding marked the formed

  quest. “We hunt down the Lich Queen and the rest of Todd’s friends before they try

  again. I work on the rest of the things I planned to give the girls for their protection.”

  “I am about to send a letter to the King to try to get adventurer sanction to help us

  with the Montrose,” said Josie. “If we can get that, we can hire the Guild to help us

  do the quest in the kingdom.”

  “We are talking about declaring open war on them,” said Jack.

  “If we get it,” said Josie. “And it only means that we can secure the border against the

  king’s enemies. He might want to get rid of us instead if he is involved.”

  “So we might have to be ready to move if he thinks we’re a threat to him,” said Jack.

  He worked on his sandwich.

  “Maybe,” said Josie. “We are dangerous to him. I already sent the names of the other

  two judges to the Duke. I am sure he will like that. We will have to see what happens

  there, but I foresee some questions about where the money went.”

  “I did promise him a replacement house,” said Jack. “I didn’t get a quest for it.”

  Ding went his internal list.

  “And now I do,” said Jack. He took a breath. “It looks like the Society has a sense

  of humor.”

  “They know you are a welsher,” said Josie. She smiled quietly.

  “I pay what I owe,” said Jack.

  “Ha,” said Aviras.

  “Double ha,” said Alicia. She said it so flat that it was hard to tell if she was serious

  or not.

  “Really?,” said Jack. He paused taking a bite from his sandwich.

  “Not quite a triple ha,” said Alicia. She worked on her food like a machine.

  “Okay,” said Jack. He looked around the table. He saw some smiles. No one seemed

  ready to get back on their feet yet.

  “Why is everyone eating without me?,” asked Bea. She had the blanket from the bed

  wrapped around her. She stood at the base of the stairs, hand on the wall. “Don’t I

  have a place at the table?”

  “You are not supposed to be up,” said Jack. He dropped the remains of his sandwich.

  “You are going to hurt yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” said Bea. “I can’t be in bed all the rest of my life.”

  Jack and Elaine pulled out a chair for Bea to sit. Josie stood and reached for her

  watch. Doctor Occult ran a scan to make sure nothing was ripping apart inside

  of her sister.

  “She’s weak, but she will recover,” said Josie. She nodded at the results as she let the

  persona drop. “Bea, you won’t be able to eat something solid. Soup and pudding

  is what you can get until you get a little better.”

  “Ice cream?,” asked Bea.

  “You can have some of that if you can keep it down,” said Josie. She looked at Aviras

  before he could say things were unfair. He blinked at her. “Are you sure you want

  to move around?”

  “Yes,” said Bea. “I am feeling better.”

  Jack frowned at her. He put a hand on her forehead. It was warm, but not really

  sweaty. He glanced at Josie. She nodded.

  “All right,” said Jack. “I will whip up some pudding for you, and get you some

  ice cream while I am working.”

  “That would be good,” said Bea. “I need to get back on my feet.”

  “All right,” said Jack. He went into the kitchen and found the remains of the ice

  cream. He put all of it on a bowl. He cut up some strawberries for it. He frowned

  at not having any chocolate to put on the top of it. He turned into Majik and created

  some from spices they had on the shelf. He made sure that it was evenly poured

  over the ice cream. He let the persona go. He carried the creation to the table and put

  it in front of the sick girl. She looked at it with dismay.

  “What is that?,” said Aviras. He pushed forward, but Matilda grappled him back to

  his side of the table.

  “Ice cream,” said Jack. He produced a spoon. “Go ahead, Bea. Eat up.”

  “Could I have one of those too?,” said Angelica.

  “We’re out of ice cream,” said Jack. He waited quietly for the eldest to take a bite

  from the bowl he had created. “I’ll get some later.”

  Bea took the spoon and dipped into the bowl. She took a bite and paused. She chewed

  slowly on the bite. She nodded as it went down.

  “This is great,” said Bea. She nodded. She took another bite. “It’s too bad we’re out

  of ice cream.”

  “You can walk down to the store and get some more as soon as you put your boots

  on,” said Jack. His face did not have any of his good humor. “I would like to see it.”

  “Right now?,” said Bea.

  “As soon as you eat,” said Jack. “I will go with you.”

  “Jack?,” said Josie. A frown crossed her face.

  Bea’s cheeks plumped up. Illness flushed her face green. Jack picked her up and

  carried her to the bathroom. He was almost too late, but she vomited in the toilet he

  had made. He waited on her to finish with a gasping for air.

  “Maybe I should have stayed in bed,” said Bea.

  “Feeling better?,” said Jack. “Would you like to finish your ice cream?”

  Bea started throwing up the bile in her stomach at the suggestion. She stopped after

  a couple of minutes. She fought to get her breath back.

  “Jack?,” said Josie. “What’s going on?”

  “Bea’s stomach is fighting the rest of her for supremacy,” said Jack. “Give us a

  second. She might need to throw up some more.”

  “All right,” said Josie. “Who hasn’t had that happen?”

  “Not me,” said Jack. “I can eat ice cream all day without problems.”

  Bea started vomiting again. He held her hair out of the way. When she was done,

  he wet a rag that Elaine had found somewhere and left in the cubby next to the

  shower. He handed it over so she could wipe her face.

  “How’s the stomach, Bea?,” Jack asked.

  “It hurts,” said Bea. “My ribs hurt.”

  “That happens when you are throwing up,” said Jack. He took the rag, wet it again,

  squeezed out the water, and did a better job of wiping her face. “There are muscles

  connected to your ribs. When you throw up, they yank everything around. If you

  throw up hard enough, you can break a rib.”

  “I think I can make it back to bed,” said Bea.

  “I give you points for effort, but when you are sick, take it easy,” said Jack.

  “Everything looks okay, but you could still have problems with that many poisons

  that were in your body. Next time, I will bring you your soup and crackers and you

  will like it.”

  “Yes, Milord,” said Bea. She tried to smile. “I need some water.”

  “That’s a thing too,” said Jack. “First, you go back to bed, then I get the water. Do I

  need to carry you?”

  “I can walk,” said Bea. “Are you moving into Elaine’s room?”

  “We haven’t decided, but maybe that will the way things go, or take over Josie’s and

  push the office out,” said Jack. “Josie can have Elaine’s room, and we have twice the

  space.”

  “I would like the upstairs room,” said Bea. “I like a room to myself.”

  “I’ll ask Elaine what she wants to do,” said Jack. “She might go for it. You ready?”

  “Yes,” said Bea.

  Jack picked her up and carried her out of the room. He asked Matilda for water. He

  shook his head at the dragon bathing in the ice cream. Elaine had the bed covers. She

  followed behind them.