[Befriend, Mundane]

  I portaled to Mr Thompson’s Warehouse. I didn’t even bother learning his name until he was hurt, and I still don’t know what his first name is. But I’ll over pay for his warehouse, that will assuage my guilt a tiny bit. The warehouse was empty, but there was a light in the office. I went to the office door and tapped lightly.

  “Come in.”

  “Mr Thompson, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine Rose, really as soon as Opal healed me I instantly felt better, not just better. Completely well, I’d had some minor long term health issues before I was injured. Dr Li thought the problems I’d been having with my hands was arthritis, from working outside in all types of weather for years and advancing age. But all of my minor health issues disappeared along with my injuries. So I’m actually feeling better than I have in years. I'm grateful I was injured now that all those minor issues went away.”

  “Well I’m glad something good came out of this.”

  “I’m hoping you came to buy the warehouse. I’m going to become an apprentice at my age, can you believe it. I found a local potter who was willing to take me. I appreciate your offer to send me to Tregaron, but Wyldwood is my home and while it may be too late in life to become a master potter, I hope to learn enough to become a very good journeyman. I wrote up a simple contract, it just states that the warehouse is debt free. Which I signed and swear too, that if any debts do pop up they are my sole responsibility. But I honestly don’t see that happening. I’m sorry I let my greed get in the way of our working relationship and I hope we can be friends in the future. Would a hundred gold be acceptable?”

  “That’s much too little Mr Thompson, how about five hundred?”

  “Rose, call me Zac, You are going to make a horrible vendor, if you dicker the price up with your suppliers. The way it works is you dicker the suppliers down, and the customers up.”

  I laughed, jumped, authored a bag with five hundred gold, and jumped back. “Here you go Zac, thank you very much for the warehouse. Please bring your first piece of pottery to the store, I’d like to be your first customer.”

  He handed me the keys, and we walked out together. I walked to the warehouse portal where the gnomes still had a large pile of the food that I’d authored this morning. I gave the key to the gnome and told him that a three day supply of food could be found in the warehouse. I jumped to Juliet’s World and authored a three day supply. Then I jumped it to the warehouse. I still had enough room for around five hundred cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, so I jumped to Juliet’s World and authored five hundred cases and jumped them to the warehouse.

  I portaled back to the bookstore to wait for Ruby to come back and tell me what she needs to close the deal. I didn’t have long to wait, before Ruby and her bodyguard stepped through a portal.

  “Rose, it worked perfectly, but not at first. The first wine merchant refused and claimed he was loyal to the Harris’s. The second wine merchant was only too happy to accept our offer and he agreed to send back one hundred and fifty cases for the same amount of our Cabernet Sauvignon. Then I went back to the first merchant and explained that I’d made a deal with his competitor and if he didn’t make a deal with me he’d never be able to compete. Finally he agreed.”

  “Excellent Ruby, I knew you were the woman for the job. I bought everyone of the items you tried to sell me that first day we met. You are a born sales woman. I bought a warehouse and it has five hundred cases. Here is a key. We’ll portal to the warehouse portal, I’ll introduce you to the gnome boss, tell him to help you move the wine through the portal to Duskhaven.

  I portal to the farms, going directly to the lumbermill. The thing is making the most awful racket. Lu had been reading this thriller to me, where the horrible serial killer keeps his victim locked in a cage with ‘heavy metal’ music blasting, which Lu says she thinks is like a giant wind chime that makes so much noise it makes coherent thought impossible. All I know is that I want to get away from it as fast as possible, the whining starts to make my skin crawl. If we ever get out of crisis mode I have to ask Draco about a silence spell, or at least a damping spell or we just move this off world to some barren rock.

  Maz is lying on his back underneath the table that the logs are fed into. He has a pair of magnifying glasses attached to his head. I walk over and tap his knee. He scoots his way out from under the ‘log chute’, his name for the long skinny table. We go outside and walk far enough away from the infernal machinery, so that we can be heard if we shout. How are the farmers up here not going nuts, from listening to this thing all day.

  “Maz, could you please come with me.” I shouted after he took off his ear muffs.

  “Sure, whe…”

  I portaled us to the bookstore.

  “Sorry, Maz, I love what your machine can do, but I hate the noise, we have a new gnome colony that’s going to be established on some property I purchased today. I really need some very, very annoying heavy metal music. I'd like to walk to the property with you, jump to your lab and then you show me what I need to author. I’m trying to drive the neighbors mad. According to the thriller Lu is reading me, heavy metal can be really grating.”

  “Rose, some heavy metal music can be quite beautiful, you find the lumbermill to be particularly grating right.”

  “Yes Maz, I’m sorry.”

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  “Don’t be, it’s genetic, I think that whine is at just the right pitch for it to trigger your baby distress, distress. When a baby cries, whines, screams, I believe humans evolved to respond to that right away, so as to preserve the species. So we’ll jump but instead of Iron Maiden’s melodic power anthems. We will give them a mix of babies crying, and lumber mills turned up to eleven and the odd chainsaw buzzing for good measure.”

  “Maz, I plan on building affordable housing and a new gnome colony. What would be easier to build a second sawmill or set up portals to bring logs from the Evans farm to your present sawmill and then portal back the lumber to the building site?”

  “I think Rose you can buy portable lumber mills on earth, I take it this property is just the first of five that you expect to acquire, a portable saw mill would make the most sense. After we have all the farm buildings at the farm site, I was planning on turning the saw mill into a flour mill. Which is much quieter and will be more useful to the gnome and human farmers, then a saw mill. Now a portable saw mill that never runs out of fuel if you put it in a magic field. That would be the ideal solution.”

  “Maz, you are amazing, so we can set up the annoying sound machines and the saw mill today?”

  “Yes, Rose easily.”

  Thirty gnome guards in miniature body armor, three human guards all clad in body armor, a walking talking tree, Maz, Sophie, myself and Mossbeard walked out of the bookstore and moved toward the town gate. The gnomes fell into a natural marching rhythm like we were headed off on military maneuvers. Bob and Mike were guarding the gate today, they chuckled when they saw an odd group arrive, then waved us through the gate. We weren’t far from the gate when I heard a heavy thud. Ryder acted instantaneously, placing himself between myself and the fierce dragon who’d landed mere feet away.

  “Ryder relax, this is my good friend Draco, Draco what are you doing here.?”

  “Elmer told me what you were up to so I thought I’d come along. Didn’t these people try to kill you last night in town. So you thought taking a walk in their neighborhood might be a good idea?”

  “As you can see I’m not out taking a private stroll and if we see anything concerning we can all portal back to town.”

  “Yes, I see that. But if you are going to threaten to turn the hills to ash, it might be a good idea to let them see their means of destruction.”

  “I was bluffing, of course I don’t want you to go all scorched earth on them.”

  “I know Rose, but you don’t want them to think you are bluffing, you want a definite show of force. If I happen to burn a little something on this trip that will be said to be a definite show of force.”

  “Thank you Draco, I really appreciate it. Were you practicing magical fields with Ruby?”

  “Yes and her magical capacity is growing every day.”

  “I spoke with Zac Thompson, the vendor who was beaten up, that she healed. He claimed that he had an array of minor medical issues that Opal also cured when she healed all of his injuries. She is already a wonderful healer, but the larger her capacity the better. In an emergency with mass wounded, that capacity could save lives. Not that I want to pressure her to grow her capacity.”

  “I’ve never heard of a general healing effect, just a targeted one. If you had two broken arms, every healer I ever heard of would have to heal each arm separately. I’d really like to be there to see just how she accomplishes general healing. There is always a war going on on Earth. Maybe we could jump to a battlefield then jump a badly wounded soldier back here and ask Opal to save him.”

  “Don’t you think that might be a little traumatic for her, she’s only eleven. A soldier on a battlefield may have multiple injuries like Mossbeard did after that wall fell on him. It’d be horrible if the soldier died while she attempted to heal him. That might shatter her confidence, she may want to give up on healing altogether.”

  “She’s a lot tougher than you think, I’ve been working with her a lot over the past few weeks and she never gives up.”

  “How about we try her out on old people?”

  “What do you mean, she can’t de-age people.”

  “No but a lot of older people have multiple things wrong with them at once, right? Martha and Henry are always at the theater or the retirement home, either you or I can take Opal over to them and ask if Opal can practice on them.”

  “Alright that’s a good first step, but you are going to want to know her capabilities before you or Lu or really any of your friends get seriously hurt and are bleeding out.”

  “You’re right, but we also have a plan to deal with physical trauma now. I can jump whoever and pause them until Opal, Arjun or Lottie can fix them.”

  “That’s a great plan, unless you are the one, who’s hurt in multiple locations and are bleeding out. Even if someone could jump you, they can’t author that you are paused. Only you can do that. Weren’t you the one the cartel tried to kill last night”

  “You're right, but before we bring any soldiers home for practice we talk the whole thing over with Ruby. One last thing do you know any silence spells?”