[Open, Arrive]

  Burgomaster Arthur Valen tried out his new portal jumping wallet first thing in the morning. He jumped to Hot & Cold Magical Soup & Ale then walked the rest of the way down to the clinic. I’d promised him regular updates to his wallet and asked him to portal to the bookstore, so we could give him the new portal to the clinic drawing, after he was done with the ribbon cutting ceremony.

  Lottie didn’t want to be bothered with a ribbon cutting, but I pointed out to her that the locals were more likely to trust an outsider like her and myself if the clinic and thereby the doctor got the stamp of approval from the beloved Burgomaster. I wanted him to approve some public portal spots up by town hall, the library and the gnome colony which was even farther out.

  There was a pretty good crowd for a weekday midmorning when most people were probably at work. After Arthur cut the ribbon, he’d provided with the scissors he’d provided and shook some hands we portaled to the bookstore and he watched with keen interest as Opal fitted an unactivated drawing of the clinic, finished the last part of the drawing then activated its magic. He thanked Opal for his latest portal and we started to walk back toward town hall.

  “Arthur, what I really want to do is to make four everyday portals for everyone to use and two emergency portals, split the town into quarters. In the middle of each quarter we put up a public ‘wallet’ or pictures on a post, whatever is more durable. Then everyone has access to free transport to the other three quarters of the city or direct to the clinic or direct to the guard house. Eventually I’d like to add direct links to the library and also to townhall.”

  “Would the wallets still work, Rose?”

  “Oh Yes, people with the wallets will still have access to the same sites as before and could even add in the public sites to exit to. Let’s say you are at home and the closest portal to where you want to go is public portal SW, and you don’t have that in your wallet. You can just keep one public portal in your wallet, let’s say you have NE. You jump to Ne with the wallet then to SW at the public portal. Oh and I thought of a way to make the richest people in town pay for the whole thing, happily.”

  “Rose rich people never happily pay for anything.”

  “No but they’ll happily pay for exclusivity and convenience. And they’ll set the price themselves, and it’ll just keep rising with each new member to this exclusive club. I’m so sure that this will work, I’ll put up all the upfront costs for the four quadrants and two emergency portals. So neither the town nor the citizens have to pay a copper.”

  “What will the rich people get that will make them willing to pay Rose?”

  “The exact same thing that only the Burgomaster will have, a private portal at their front door. Just think Nim is out at book club it’s late now she has to walk the forty five minutes home, or take a fifteen minute coach ride or or arrive inside her front door instantly. Only the head of the government has it. But a few will be auctioned off, the minimum price for the first auction will be the cost of the entire network. Which won’t be high, think six gazebos plus six plots of twenty by twenty land for them to sit on. Hopefully we can use land that the government currently owns. What do you think Arthur?”

  “I think if you ran for Burgomaster against me, I’d have to vote for you.”

  “Thank you Arthur, now I just have to see if I can actually make the public ones work. Once I have a working prototype, I’ll come and see you, and will get a private portal installed for you either right in front of your door or just inside. Talk it over with Nim and just let me know before we install it.”

  With that I jumped to Juliet’s World and Mrs Parker's General store. There probably is a store in Wyldwood where I could buy the same materials but until our portal network is set up, it’s just quicker and easier to jump to Juliet’s World. I told Mrs Parker I wanted the fastest drying glue and fastest drying clear varnish to attach paper to wood.

  With a tub of each I jumped back to the bookstore, Mossbeard had been copying public bookstore portals so I took one of them and glued it to a wooden board. After a short while the paper was dry I asked Opal to activate the drawing and the drawing emitted a golden glow. Then I painted the paper with varnish, it still glowed, which was a good sign. While I waited for it to dry, I asked Mossbeard to oilpaint a small canvas of the public bookstore portal.

  Then I jumped to Juliet’s world and authored that the painting was dry. I jumped back to the bookstore.

  “Opal, could you please try to activate this painting for me.”

  “Sure Rose.”

  Opal activated the painting, she didn’t even have to put any finishing touches to the painting, Mossbeard had painted it, Opal just needed to add the magic. This would be much more durable I think then decoupage. I touched the oil painting and I was portaled to the front of the store. I walked back in and tried the dried decoupage version and it worked as well.

  I set up Mossbeard in the office I use for writing with a dozen canvases asking him to use the clinic, pub and bookstore drawings to paint copies that Opal would activate when dry. Then I went looking for the dwarf. It was a market day so hopefully he’d be in the same spot I’d first met him. He could draw almost as good Mossbeard, and he seemed to be just as fast, when he drew the Eye of Horus for the leathersmith.

  I hoped to use him for the wallet sized drawings, while Mossbeard worked on the oil paintings. I got to the market and after two circuits around the square and the absence of lute music, I had to admit that he wasn’t there. I took out my wallet and portaled to the pub for some soup.

  Before I even entered I heard a duet singing Lilies song. I’d found my dwarf. I went in and found a chair with three older men, nursing their beers. Whizzie came over.

  “Hello Rose, are you here for your girlfriend or for the soup.”

  “Soup first, please, Whizzie. How are you liking the job?”

  “I love it, I do all the things I had to do at home, but instead of getting guff for it I get paid.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Good I’m glad, are any of your sisters still at the clinic?”

  “Yeah the whole lot are still there, I can’t believe I passed out at the sight of blood, I never thought that it’d bother me. Plenty of times I dreamt of hitting da over the head with a frying pan and I never passed out from that. I’ll get your soup.”

  The song ended and Lu and the dwarf approached my table. Lu gave me a kiss, then the men at the table started asking Lu and the dwarf for requests. The dwarf ignored them and pulled up a stool and sat down next to me.

  “Patroness, ye be Lu’s girlfriend Rose, I’ve been hearing all about you from Lu since way back in our Tranquility days together.”

  Lu said, “This is my friend Mastat.”

  “Hello Mastat, it’s a pleasure to properly meet you. I was just up at the market looking for you. So you like the soup and ale, I take it?”

  “I do. But what can I do for you, patroness?”

  “Are you working here now?”

  “No just busking, for ale and soup and money.”

  I pulled out my wallet.

  “Please don’t touch the glowing drawings but do you think that you could draw exact copies of these?”

  “Aye, easily. But why?”

  “I need a bunch of copies, and will pay you a gold a day if you are as good as you say. After lunch you can come to the bookstore and show me your skill if you’d like a job, for a few weeks at least and a place to stay, and Lu always has a minikeg of dwarven ale at home.”

  “Rose, you know exactly how to charm an old dwarf, gold and ale, I’m in, girl.”

  After lunch I portaled us back to the bookstore. I introduced Mastat to Mossbeard, Opal and Sparky.

  “Junior apprentice, a word please.”

  I had Mastat set up drawing his first copy.

  “Yes, Sparky.”

  “When did we become a transport company and give up writing, and selling books?”

  “We’re not a transport company, I’m setting up the transport network for free, in fact I offered to pay for the entire thing until a rich citizen offers to reimburse me. And my plan has us selling more books than ever before.”

  “Rich people don’t part with their gold, that's why they’re rich. How will you sell more books?”

  “I’ll sell more books because we will have more foot traffic. The public portal in our quadrant is out front, anyone who uses the free transport network and wants to come to our quadrant will land on our doorstep. As for the rich paying for the entire thing, first it’ll be inexpensive to build. Second, they'll have access to a private network that connects to the public network. We’ll install a private portal at their front doors just like we have in the library. I'm sure that one of them will pay me back in full. Then we’ll just keep selling them, but each time the price goes up, all that money goes into a public pool that we can use to fund our next public project.”

  “What’s our next public project, Rose?”

  “I have no idea, we’ll know it when we see the need for it. I’ve always been happy walking where I go, but if someone gets hurt, it’ll be great to portal to the clinic. If you need help you can portal to the guard house. First I need to get the government on our side hence the oil paintings to hang in town hall. People will be able to portal to the three public portals already made, Bookstore, Pub, Clinic. I’ll get the Burgomasters permission to add in the Townhall and the Library and the Gnomes permission to add the gnome colony.”

  After Mossbeard had completed the pub and clinic oil paintings I jumped to Juliet’s authored the paintings dry and jumped back to the bookstore. Where Opal activated them for me. I then carried all three to townhall, Mossbeard accompanying me. The Burgomaster saw us right away, I proposed a plan and Arthur agreed on the spot.

  Mossbeard started drawing a portal two meters from the front door. I created a magical field, and started to expand it. I was very careful after expanding for a fifteen count, I’d jump to Juliet's world rest and recover, authoring my magic to one hundred percent. It only took me three cycles like that to complete the magical field.

  Mossbeard and I portaled back to the store, where Opal activated Mossbeard’s drawing of town hall in my wallet. Then Mastat duplicated the townhall portal and Opal activated that one.

  I portaled to townhall, fitting the townhall drawing in Arthur’s wallet.

  “Arthur, I'd like to do the same thing for the Library that we’ve done here at town hall, would that be alright with you if it’s alright with Eldara? Lastly, I'd like to put a portal inside the guardhouse just like we have for the clinic. Do I need anyone’s permission besides you for that?”

  “Yes to both Rose as long as Eldara and Dogberry agree.”

  “Thank you Arthur, and you have the council try out the network?”

  “Absolutely, Rose, you can count on me.”