* * * EARTH – ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

Olivier Broussette watched the scene on the wall mounted TV with a certain degree of disbelief. The odd looking group was examining a portal. They looked suspicious and wary. They were talking, but Olli was unable to understand them.

“So this is some kind of CCTV Frog?”

“Probably the best way to look at it. The System can be helpful at times. This is one of them.”

“What language are they using?”

“It’s the language they speak in Conimbriga, and most of the towns and lands that used to belong to the old Greyhammer Empire.”

“If I’m going to help them, how am I supposed to talk to them?”

“I have five single use skill crystals with English for them.”

Frog glanced at the screen, “Looks like they’ve decided. There goes their scout. That’s the goblin lass,” Frog’s lips thinned in displeasure. “Fingers is an orphan, she ended up on the streets and was taken up by the watch. She’s four, which is about the same as eleven in a human.”

They watched as Fingers ghosted through the portal and inspected the rather damp cave she found herself. She crouched near the exit and waited.

The next one to brave the portal was the werewolf. The hulking bipedal wolfwoman ducked into the cave and went to guard the entrance. She was followed by a big ram horned grey skinned troll carrying a massive two-handed mace.

Then came a man in a very ragged classic magicians robe complete with moons and stars. The last two were a big muscular woman with a pair of protruding tusks and a battered and scarred man. They both wore studded leather hauberk and carried shields.

“The half troll seems to be their leader, his name’s Grey and he is a priest of Ustraldis. He is a level headed sort and cautious. The wolf girl is Ana. She’s an accountant and a follower of Mary the Mother of Monsters.”

Olli glanced sideways at Frog, “Mother of Monsters? The dungeon you said reminded you of the Godfather. She has werewolves? That’s heavy man. Vampires too?”

Frog snorted, “Werewolves are small fry for her Olli. No vampires though. Sea Serpents and Kraken are more her speed.” Then he laughed as a thought hit him, “Heh! And those healing little ponies that are all over the news.”

“Mary Silvestre? The girl from Hawaii, she’s your Mother of Monsters? But...!”

“Anyway, the other two are Ax and Lia. Ax is brain damaged; someone purposely healed a brain injury wrong. Lia is a half-orc. They seem competent enough warriors. The mage is a weather mage. He’s the guy you want if you want rain. He’s called Mesca.”

They watched as the oddly assorted group made its cautious way to the next chamber and froze at the sight of sunlight pouring in through the entrance. “Here Olli, I suspect you’ll need the language too. The crystal in the grey wrapping has ‘common trade (Tarifax)’, Not the language they were speaking but all of them will at least understand it. The other ones are English.”

Olli frowned as he anticipated the resultant headache. He gave himself an instant language lesson and took the passage Frog indicated. He stepped out into the hot Louisiana day. He grinned ruefully when he realized Frog had followed him and was now standing beside the dryad’s tree.

Then the adventurers emerged squinting at the sunlit day.

Olli cleared his throat nervously. “Welcome to Earth. My name is Olivier Broussette, and you can call me Olli. Um... Frog asked me to help you out, show you around so to speak.”

“Frog? As in the dungeon, the Arena of Blood?” asked Grey. “Does that mean you’re the dungeon’s Voice?”

“Voice?” asked Olli.

“Only unofficially,” interjected Frog. “I don’t have a Voice.”

Grey looked from Olli to Frog uncertainly. “Where are we? We seem to be outside but we are still in the dungeon’s domain.”

Frog watched the nervous adventurers cautiously. “My domain ends at the edge of the trees. And as Olli said, you’re on Earth. Another world. A very different world to Tarifax.”

Grey led his fellows out of the miniature jungle that was Frog’s first floor on Earth. Olli followed cautiously. Frog didn’t move. Olli followed them, maintaining his distance.

Fingers stared at Olli’s truck. “That’s a very strange looking firewagon,” she observed.

“That’s my truck,” Olli said. “What’s a firewagon? Oh, I have skill crystals for you with the local language.”

Grey looked around, he seemed somehow downcast. “Don’t people speak Trade? You do. I can’t feel Ustraldis.”

Ana sniffed the air and regarded Grey with pity. “Strange, I can still feel the Mother of Monsters. And a firewagon is a vehicle that works via a steam engine.”

Olli watched as the adventurers went off for a certain distance before forming a huddle to discuss the things they had been told. Olli just hoped they would be reasonable.

* * *

Olli watched them return. Grey was in the lead. “Can you send us back to Tarifax?”

“Frog can. His dungeon is present on both worlds.”

The adventurers exchanged looks unhappily. “Maybe later then,” said Grey. “Can you put us in touch with the local adventurer’s guild? Or the local authorities? We wouldn’t want to start out by breaking the law.”

Olli felt his mouth dropping open. “I really wouldn’t advise that. Look I was told Blue Lagoon will help Ana; and even has a job for her. Also I believe that she can help you all get all the documentation you need to settle in the US.”

Grey squared his shoulders, “No. We will do things legally.”

Frog moved closer to the limit of his domain and said, “At least let Olli take Fingers to Mary. She is soft on kids and you wouldn’t want Fingers to end up as a child in the CPS.”

“Frog’s right,” agreed Olli.

* * * EARTH – MEADOWS * * *

Commander Meadows followed a very serious and preoccupied looking admiral through the portal to Washington DC. Once back on Earth he found himself heading to the Pentagon. He exchanged a glance with Jo as they resigned themselves for a long and intensive debrief.

When he finally got to bed that night Meadows was exhausted and despite that; six hours later he was rushing his breakfast before finding himself once again being debriefed.

He wasn’t particularly surprised to find the rest of his team present for lunch. It looked that someone in the chain of command had finally realized what Mary represented. He couldn’t blame them, as he himself hadn’t realized until his eyes had been well and truly opened on Parthia.

Helicopters were suddenly obsolete. It would take a long time before there was enough liftwood but they were obsolete.

The afternoon was more of the same, though nothing new was coming out. Then they were all ordered to attend a meeting with the admiral.

* * *

Admiral Forrester’s aide opened the meeting by introducing the few scientists present. Then the admiral spoke.

“Just to be clear as to what we are up against I am going to show videos of a few meetings the paranormal FBI agents and management held. Ms Silvestre very kindly let me have copies when I asked her. These meetings took place in their HQ, and later while they were in the Blue Lagoon dungeon. I think you will see that they have not made things easier for us.”

There was silence while the videos ran. Nobody seemed to be particularly surprised.

“I believe there are changes being made. State is preparing proposals and will be initiating formal talks with the Tyrant of the Isles. An interesting title our Ms Silvestre picked for herself, or was lumbered with. One thing is abundantly clear; she doesn’t seem to believe in one person, one vote.

“We have had some informal talks. Meadows you would appear to have managed to not antagonise her. She also seems to be well disposed to our military. We are promoting you and expanding your team. You will be visiting Parthia to act as our liaison.

“Try to find out what happened to Sergeant Harmond.

“Any questions. Suggestions.”

Meadows looked up. “Why don’t we offer to buy that destroyer and its two liftwood enabled fighter bombers?”

The admiral raised an eyebrow. “It was described as proof of concept. Why should we buy it?”

“To see if Mary has portals big enough to allow it to sail from Parthia to Earth. And hopefully find out where that portal is located.”

Admiral Forester smiled slightly in thought. “You believe she does then. That might make it worthwhile. And would help sell the idea. I’ll pass it on.”

* * * FRAGATTA – MARY * * *

Mary was lounging on her throne in the godsrealm. She was leaning back with her ankles crossed as she perused a thick sheaf of papers. Several of the local gods were taking their ease while the messenger who had delivered the missive was quite happily snacking at the laden table in the middle of the room.

“Hmm, felicitations bla, bla, bla....” Mary flipped one sheet onto the floor, glanced at the next and discarded it. She looked up briefly then flipped through the document, discarding page after page.

Finally on the second to last page she spotted the meat of the matter. She scanned the three paragraphs without showing any interest. She glanced at the last page and it joined the others on the floor.

“Well let us see,” Mary produced a sheet of paper and a pad to rest it on. “Hmm, ‘To the Great God of the lower mid tier; Meek’aym’ooz the King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I must respectfully decline as I find myself too busy here on the lower realms.’ Right, well that will have to do.”

She looked up to see all her court gazing at her with horror.

“What?”

“Mary, you can’t send that to one of the great gods!”

“Why not? It’ll do him good. One page. Nice and concise unlike his effort that had close on twenty to tell me he wished to see me.”

“You can’t. Look at the poor messenger. Can’t you see he’s shocked?”

“Looks to me that he’s choking on his laughter. Here, Take this to Maak’aym’ooz with my compliments.”

Mary watched in amusement as her court descended on the messenger and collaborated to pad out her refusal into a ultra polite four page letter. She chuckled as she signed it especially as she spotted the messenger pocket her original missive with a smirk.