Ray made sure the Librarian wouldn’t wake up until he wanted with the help of his

  lamp. He looked around the destroyed courtyard. He supposed he should clean it up

  but he felt tired and dragged down.

  He was more than willing to let someone else figure out how to fix things after what

  he had done.

  He looked around. His crew, his friends, looked just as tired as he felt. They needed

  time off, and a chance to recharge.

  “Looks like the job is done,” said Ray. “I have to call my boss, hand over the

  Librarian, and head home. One of us is going to have to give Ishvar a lift home.”

  “I think Buble should do that,” said Ishvar. “You owe me so much of my time that he

  can repay.”

  “Actually, we’ve been talking,” said Johnny Mac. “I don’t think Buble is the right

  person for this job. We thought that while we were here we would hook you up with

  the local dating scene so you could pick up whomever you wanted.”

  “Are you trying to get out of what you owe?,” asked Ishvar. “You know what I do to

  welshers?”

  “It’s nothing like that,” said Johnny Mac, holding up his free hand. The other hand

  held the number one iron over his shoulder. “It’s just that Buble probably can’t spare

  the time, and the Duke will get involved and a lot of other stuff. We figured if we

  could hook you up before I leave, you could take as much as you wanted before going

  home.”

  “That’s a lot more considerate than I thought of you,” said Ishvar. “What if I don’t

  want to do that?”

  “We can ask the Duke to spare Buble, I guess,” said Johnny Mac. “Or come up with

  a way to pay you that is better than that.”

  “You really don’t want to hand him over, do you?,” asked Ishvar.

  “He’s grown on me,” said Johnny Mac. “And he doesn’t want to be a sex slave.”

  “What about you?,” asked Ishvar.

  “Any other time, any other conditions, I might go for it,” said Johnny Mac. “Now, I

  just want to go home and not be soaked in weirdness.”

  “I understand that sentiment,” said Ishvar. “Dealing with magic has a price of the

  mind.”

  Lightning blasted into the sky. Lightner the boy looked around. He nodded at the

  scene. He started to trudge off.

  “Where you going?,” asked Johnny Mac.

  “No,” he said. He smiled at them. Then he waved and vanished into the night.

  “Where is he going, Ray?,” asked Johnny Mac.

  “Home, just like us,” said Ray. He felt energy being released from the lamp. “He

  won’t tell us but maybe living here was part of the deal.”

  “He traded his voice for whatever Lightning Man is?,” asked Johnny Mac.

  “Why not?,” asked Ray. “Whatever he was in his old life, here, he just helped save

  all of existence from a super villain.”

  “I guess,” said Johnny Mac.

  Blue flame wrapped around Ray. He picked up the Librarian on his shoulder. He

  grabbed Ishvar and Johnny Mac and hugged them close. They looked up at his stern

  face.

  “What are you doing?,” asked Johnny Mac.

  “I’m taking you to talk to the boss,” said Ray. “Then I’m going home to my wife and

  kids. You two will be able to call the Duke and get your problems straightened out

  from Transition.”

  “Are you serious?,” asked Ishvar.

  “Yes,” said Ray. “I don’t have time to mediate your problem. Woad should be able

  to settle things temporarily.”

  Ray appeared in the great hall. He looked at the gathering waiting on him. Woad

  frowned at him, or maybe his guests. He couldn’t do anything about that.

  “Better let your boss know the mission is done, Buble,” Ray whispered out of the

  corner of his mouth.

  “Greetings, Mister Gunn,” said Woad. His one eye roved over the strangers and the

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  sleeping woman on his champion’s shoulder. “I assume that you have completed your

  mission.”

  “Yes,” said Ray. “I don’t know what kind of verification you need, but I have your

  summoner here, and four witnesses to back up my claim. Is it okay if I get my arm

  back and go home?”

  “I think you should tell us who these people are and why we should believe them,”

  said the goat skin wearer.

  “This woman is the summoner,” said Ray. He indicated the sleeping woman on his

  shoulder with his metal hand. “I don’t know who she is so I have been calling her the

  Librarian.”

  “Her name is Chevren,” said Ishvar. “Chevren Ardaire.”

  “Really?,” asked Johnny Mac. “How do you know that?”

  “She’s my sister,” said Ishvar. “Of course I know what her name is.”

  “I guess that’s cool,” said Johnny Mac.

  “Thank you for your support,” said Ishvar. Ray could feel the eyeroll without being

  able to see it.

  “And you would be the Witch of the Tower?,” said Woad.

  “The Witch of the Tower?,” said Johnny Mac. “Really?”

  “I didn’t pick the name,” said Ishvar. She seemed to glare at him from within her

  golden shell. “It was given to me.”

  “I guess it kind of fits,” said Johnny Mac.

  “You still owe me some nights of work,” said Ishvar. “I wouldn’t get on my bad side

  just yet if I were you.”

  “The kid and the rabbit work for the Duke,” said Ray. He wanted to break the

  oncoming argument before it started. “They helped deal with the Librarian, so they

  get credit for the assist.”

  “John McHenry,” said Johnny Mac. “And this is Buble.”

  Buble bowed his head carefully. He stood behind Johnny Mac. Ray wondered how

  much of a shield that would be if things got rough, but the boy still held his number

  one iron so a shooting was possible.

  He doubted it would do any of them any good in the face of the combined power they

  were facing. He had a feeling that Woad was able to swat them like flies on his home

  ground.

  A roar filled the air. A man with skin like hot iron and a smile with too many teeth

  arrived. He wore a leather jacket and jeans. His t-shirt had a motto Ray couldn’t read.

  His hair had been shaved on the sides of his head and worked into a long braid from

  the top of his skull down to his neck at least.

  “It’s the Duke,” whispered Johnny Mac.

  “You weren’t going to get out of your marker if he wasn’t here,” said Ray. “Too bad

  Lightner hadn’t stuck around. We could have cleared him too.”

  “Hello, Johnny Mac, Buble,” said the Duke. He said something to Woad in a

  language that seemed a bit migraine causing to Ray.

  Woad made a gesture that said think nothing of it.

  Ray asked the lamp to create a box of the Librarian. He put that on the ground. How

  did he hurry things up? He decided that short of waking Ishvar’s sister up and telling

  her to go at it, he would have to wait for the courtesies to be observed.

  “I got your letter, Johnny,” said the Duke. “I see things have improved between the

  two of you since then.”

  “Buble turned out to be all right after Ray talked to him,” said Johnny Mac. “He

  helped us turn everything around when we needed him.”

  “Is this true, Buble?,” said the Duke. He had on his pleasant face, but there was an

  edge under it that Ray didn’t like.

  “It’s true,” said Ray. “But that’s not why we called you here.”

  The Duke gave Ray raised eyebrows at his interference.

  “And why did you call me here?,” asked the Duke.

  “I worked for Woad, Johnny and Buble work for you, and Ishvar works for them,”

  said Ray. “The job is done, and I am going home as soon as I can get my arm back.

  Johnny owes Ishvar a month of sexual pleasure which he has already commanded

  Buble to do. I want you to work out a secondary payment.”

  “What if I don’t want to do that?,” said the Duke. “I don’t see how any of that is my

  problem.”

  Ray wondered what he could do to threaten a god to get his way.

  “Fine,” said Ray. “Lamp, send Chevren back to Grimsmir. Make sure she is awake

  and full of juice to get started on her scheme again.”

  Affirmative. Blue flame played inside the box. Chevren started vanishing.

  “What are you doing?,” asked Woad.

  “The job’s over,” said Ray. “No one said the Librarian had to stay in custody.”

  “Stop,” said the Duke. “I’m willing to work something out.”

  “Lamp, hold teleportation,” said Ray. “All right, guys. This is the time to think about

  how to make everyone happy.”

  “We want to go back,” said Johnny Mac. “We make a good team, and it would be

  better for everyone involved.”

  The Duke frowned at his champion.

  “That wasn’t the original deal,” he said.

  “I know,” said Johnny Mac. “The original deal was for a clean record and to help my

  family out of trouble. I feel like I can make the money I need on Dungeon World with

  Buble, and help more people. Buble and I have worked things out enough that we

  have an understanding.”

  “And Ishvar’s payment?,” asked the Duke.

  “I guess I could pay her one night at a time,” said Johnny Mac. “But Ray thinks she

  would kill me if I tried for more than that.”

  “And she would, boy,” said Woad. “There is a reason she is called the Witch in the

  Tower.”

  “That is all propaganda from my enemies,” said Ishvar.

  “How many of your enemies are still alive?,” asked Woad.

  Ishvar glanced at the box full of fire.

  “A few,” said Ishvar.

  “I’ll take up your payment, Johnny,” said the Duke. “It might be interesting. Come

  with me, woman. Buble will work out a way to pay your family’s bills from

  adventuring. The cross membrane trading will be fine for the amounts we are talking

  about.”

  “I’d like to let them know what’s going on,” said Johnny Mac.

  “Write them a letter,” said Ray. “I’ll deliver it when I get back home.”

  “My sister,” said Ishvar. “What happens to her?”

  “She tried to ascend to godhood by risking the existence of reality,” said Woad. He

  glanced at his staff, and the Duke. “That shows a lack of empathy and an abundance

  of ego even I find appalling. What do you think should happen?”

  “Mercy, please,” said Ishvar.

  “I will consider it,” said Woad. “Please wait outside.”

  He snapped his fingers and the teleportation flame stopped and blinked out in the blue

  box.

  “I would like to think and talk things over with my counterpart since he has had a

  hand in the dealings of the last few days.”

  Ray ushered the others out into the hall. He looked back once. The door shut to cut

  them off from the proceedings.