The mornings and evenings dealing with Ethan’s new summoned minion passed quickly enough, with the small creature giving out information that its master failed to. It was through the imp’s ongoing tutelage that Zahn learned about passing attuned mana through his body and the side effects. His abandoned attempt to push magic down his arm after bending it to a spellform caused enough pain to discourage another try, and according to the little demon he would only damage himself if he were to continue without first enriching his body. The small beast remained elusive on how the Players could enrich themselves, insisting that each caster is supposed to find their own method and refine it for years.

Waking up after laughter-filled nightmares dragged Zahn down, starting each day without a fresh level-up to lift his spirits made the morning runs feel like dragging weights. He was determined to continue, watching his Strength and Endurance rise and tracking his progress by levels. Getting daily opportunities to face off against fodder allowed Zahn to gain early levels faster, rising to level five and gaining more health regeneration for facing off against a charging fire boar. The hooved battle pig would charge and spew flames in a wide fan from its snout as it neared its prey. Zahn summoned earth spikes to scour the beast’s cloven feet and a tall thin pole for the thing to smash into. Several rounds of letting it charge to its heart’s content drained the pig of its stamina and let him stab at its vitals easily.

Four days of fighting random forest monsters showed Zahn he could take on things that were even red-leveled to him, with his biggest challenge being a level ten Cinder Snake with a black body bearing orange rings that flared red when it struck or released its Fire mana. As he quickly learned, it also unleashed heat from its bands when the beast was surprised or pained from his attacks, and nothing he could cast would hold the thing still. Repeated casts of Spike around his fight and leaving himself free to wander the field was all that saved him, with a number of the small spears puncturing the serpent from beneath as he cast the simple spell constantly. His fight bumped him up to six, the massive dose of experience for the high-level critter being enough to nearly carry him to seven as well.

Watching the other groups, he noticed the fighters would only take out Monsters that seemed to challenge them, and when any one of their group would begin to flag or take serious damage the rest of the Gladiators around would work as a team to subdue or kill whatever they faced and give their teammate time to escape. It was while he watched a certain team of six take down and finally kill a large black-furred deer that Zahn wondered about Ethan’s stalled gains during the training he’d been receiving. Finding the Warlock was easy, with the blond continuing his workout routine after their battle against the beast was won.

Trying to get a simple answer from the other Player was akin to pulling teeth, until the ‘lock admitted he was getting daily progress on a very long quest that would be rewarding him more than his kills would daily. The quest involved leveling Zahn up, letting him die, and another condition he wouldn’t say. Arguing with the higher-level proved useless and the Custom wasn’t quite ready to bend the other Player’s mind over something as simple as a quest, so he stalked off and wandered the animal pens to distract himself. The long halls remained unattended as the various teams worked to kill whichever beast they’d selected, and the portcullis’ gleaming points remained anchored high in the archway.

Keeping to the center of the hall, Zahn passed cages empty and filled with all manner of monsters sleeping or snarling at him. He saw a mated pair of burning boars and gave each a middle finger as he strolled past their cage. At least my cage is bigger. Fucking logout button. Kicking a small dirt pile reminded him about the little clod running around the arena sands, still ricocheting into random walls and scurrying about. Strolling in thought, he didn’t notice the elusive Two as the sneaky man dropped his stealth leaning against a wall.

“Come to visit? You should have been told you won’t get another Fodder to fight today.” His voice made the lowbie jump, startling Zahn out of his daydreaming. “I wouldn’t mind having my helper again for the day, if you’re not trying to get out of anything else.”

The Player grinned at his friend, “Actually, if you’re not busy I’d love to help out a bit. Maybe even hear something about that other one of me you’ve met?”

The tan man nodded, motioning for the other to follow. They strolled past cage after cage holding various dangerous animals. Zahn spotted more than one cage in a row holding different groups of fire dogs, and even thought he recognized one type as the hellhound Monster he’d died to. Giving these dogs middle fingers as well, he earned a chuckle from the sneak he followed and found himself listening to the man’s tale.

“As I said before, I’m older than I look. I spent many years traveling, growing stronger alongside my dearest friend. We had our own little gang, and we’d cross the countries solving problems and saving lives wherever we went. More than one gang was destroyed by our hand, more than one city saved because we were there. It was a good time, for as long as it lasted.” Two spoke slowly, sounding sad as he recounted his fond memories. “Her name was Samantha. I never called her by the dreadful screen name she’d given herself, Krazy Kat. Downright awful,” he paused to chuckle, leaning against the wall and clearing his throat before it could become a sob. “She never could name anything. Go grab the broom, meet me back here.”

Before Zahn could reply, the other man disappeared between blinks. His footprints ended where he’d paused, and the animals on either side of the hall seemed uncaring instead of shocked about a strange man racing by. Pushing mana into his head, Zahn increased the power to his Mana Sight and found most of the beasts containing their own functioning Cores but no sign of the Rogue. Examining a fat bear’s mana system, he found the thing had channels running along its bones as if vines wrapping around trees until they reached its claws and changed to behave more like a viper’s fangs injecting toxins. Leaning closer to the bars to get a better look antagonized the Burn Bear into rumbling a growl and dragging its formidable paw across the ground, scorching five burn marks into the rock.

Zahn shuffled away from the high-level monster, taking a left at the intersection to find the closet at the far end. Surprisingly, he found a wider variety of feed compared to when he’d helped the caretaker before, and most of the kibble crates were marked with the rune for Fire. “Wonder if it’s part of a special diet,” he wondered out loud as he fetched the broom and headed back. The cages holding weaker beasts were filled with monsters that were much happier to jump and snarl at him than the higher-levels, as if they saw him as a valid target and the bigger beasts looked down on him.

Passing a group of fire snakes on the return trip, he paused as he spotted something round among them pulsing with more mana than the rest of the cage. He’d never bothered to turn down the medium level of his Ability since failing to spot Two, opting to let it gain levels while he wasn’t busy otherwise using his mana. With the mid-power vision, he found the thing buried under a mass of straw and dirt the snakes were insistent on keeping hidden. He crouched at the door, peering at the tangle of bodies the serpents hissed at him from. Each of the snakes were similar to the one he’d killed earlier, and his hands still ached from getting burned by proximity. They grew in temperature as a group, their hisses rising in pitch as the heat went from stovetop to open oven and he saw the round mystery begin to change. Its mana went from still to spinning, rotating around itself in random directions as it took in the heat and began to generate more mana.

Zahn watched the display between burning hissing snakes and their fire-to-mana converting mystery for over a minute before his latest task percolated into his skull and the Player realized he was late to meet Two. Jumping to his feet, the Custom ran and pushed himself, feeling his legs burn as his green Stamina bar began to deplete. Watching his resource pools let him half-trip when his Sprinting skill kicked in, letting him run longer and each foot hit the ground harder. Oh yeah, I can Sprint too. Maybe training with it will help with battlefield travel. Nodding to himself that he’d remember to train running full speed, Zahn missed his only turn and found himself skidding to a stop on the dirt as he tried to correct.

Finding his footing and navigating back to the meeting point, he found Two waiting for him right where he’d left. “Ah, I see you found the broom. Good, come along.” The strange tan sneak continued past Zahn and turned right at the end to continue their stroll. “You seem out of breath. Something scary in these cages?”

“Not really,” Zahn panted back as he followed wielding the broom. “I got caught up watching the snakes heat their rock and needed to rush back. Hey, is there a way to speed up how fast Sprint helps you speed up?”

Two bobbed his head to the side as he answered, “Yes, and please remember Sprint only advertises reducing your Stamina cost. Even at level one hundred, the benefit is merely moving at your maximum speed without incurring a cost at all. But yes, there are a number of physical Skills that affect your speed and the distance you can travel mid-fight. If you’re trying to get in close, you’ll find Rogues like to use Dart to bolt in and under someone’s guard where a Barbarian would likely use Charge to simply bowl them over in a big tackle. There’s the Ranger move called Streak, it lets you rush to the side. They like to use that to jump from one tree to another, as long as it’s lined up just right. Super annoying. If you’re talking more like distance running? I suppose you could learn Gallop, but good luck finding a Centaur that’s willing to teach a Player.”

Zahn nodded along to the flow of information, trusting his logs to capture all of the relevant news. “You’re a Rogue, can you teach me the Dart you’ve talked about? I can move the ground a little but it’s not so easy to control where I am around my opponent in those rings.”

The taller sneak looked over his shoulder and gave Zahn a piercing look. “Hmm. Sorry, your Agility and Dex are too low. I could teach you and just let you store it for later, but that doesn’t help your immediate issue.”

“Woah woah,” Zahn waved hand and broom as he tried to regain footing in the conversation. “So when I fail to learn a new Skill it does get stored? I haven’t been able to find them anywhere. I couldn’t pick up Rage either, from the clan warriors.”

Two turned to face him, leaning against the wall with a smirk. “They’re called Barbarians, you aren’t insulting them by using their name. If I remember correctly, Sam told me something about her Grimoire being able to ‘eat’ other ones. Not just pages like the other Players are limited to, but the whole book. Or, leather wrap, as far as the dumb fighter Classes go. She was always finding out new powers and sharing them, as much as someone with higher levels of access can. She unlocked the ability to communicate with not only higher beings of our own realm, but the very magic system itself we live and use. She called it ‘the base code’ and said it could change everything, but she never dared to use it. Too much could go wrong, and we already spent half our time trying to put out fires from those who had such great intentions.”

Zahn listened, fascinated at how the other Custom had gotten so deep into the game’s levels. The idea of eating other caster’s books was simple enough, even if the idea of destroying Ethan’s left him feeling queasy. Two’s understanding of what his own Custom was able to do already showed the lowbie how little he knew about his own class, and left him cursing his own stupidity for not following through on the quest he already had about finding a trainer.

“Anyways. Sam was a font of power, she mastered so many schools of discipline and magic that she could pass as most any kind of spell slinger. She was known as a proud pyromancer, a bold lighting magician, the greatest tide warden the southern coast had ever seen. Everywhere we went, she would take on the role of what was needed and save lives, improve the situation or just fight off whatever evil.Sam changed my life, and I’ll never forget her.”

The silence stretched for almost a minute as the pair listened to the captive beasts around them huff and grumble. Zahn tried to imagine the force of the person who was being described, and Two stared off into nowhere as he remembered his old girlfriend. A thought bubbled to the surface, and Zahn practiced his usual level of decorum and subtlety.

“So, how are you still young and alive? Did you become an immortal NPC?”

Two’s dull eyes slid from reverie over to the Player, his body unmoving. “No. Before we’d been adventuring for ten years we’d already visited the Fountain of Endless Growth. I gained the same blessing you have, where gaining experience halts aging. Now,” the lanky man straightened up and gestured at the hallway they stood in, “I really do need someone to sweep. Try not to miss the corners.”

Spending a few hours with Two in his menagerie ended as time well spent for the low-level Custom. Zahn’s new prowess with Earth magic let him cast a number of small spells to Shift the dirt around and pull the clumps out of their corners. He avoided seeding a cloud of mana over a single spell like before, opting to keep just one dirt pet alive. The stronger monsters ignored him completely, letting him sweep the bulk of the high-level hall in peace before he deposited the pile at the intersection and set to the weak wing.

With each cage he passed the occupant either shouted or spat, more than one bearing powers themed to fire that had their own reach. Zahn spent more than an hour just fighting off the attacks that made it through the cage bars, spewing his fire breath as he hissed back at the primal things and spat wads of heat. Taking so long by playing with the beasts, he drew Two’s attention before he’d even made it back to the broom closet.

“I don’t think it understands you.” Two’s voice startled Zahn from his spitting contest with a strange red monkey. The little primate had been screeching at him since he’d entered its line of sight, and had been launching its own version of fire spit periodically. “But there is a certain parallel to two little crazy fire-spitting monkeys. Come on, I have something for you.”

The Custom stepped away from the angry furball and followed, letting Two steer. When they reached the intersection, the sneak nodded at the pile and muttered his thanks. Turning down the path towards the exit, they found a cage containing a large orange muskrat who gave a warbling growl. It sat alone in its cage, body huddled low to the ground as it glared up at its captors.

“This little guy has a similar attack to your favorite. I remembered something about Sam’s magic, and I think it’ll help you but you need to try it yourself and find out.” Two stepped back, leaving Zahn alone in the beast’s vision. “First, charge up your body with mana like you’ve been doing when you play with the Barbarians.”

Rolling his eyes at the description of their training sessions, Zahn nonetheless charged up his body with mana feeling the lightning urge to punch into action. He skipped on the balls of his feet, the boundless energy making him impatient. The little furry creature hated his dance, hissing before spitting a wad of fast-moving flame that nearly took him in the shoulder. Ducking and skipping to the side, the Custom avoided the attack and barked a laugh at his opponent.

“There, see?” Two ignored his reaction and gestured at the beast. “It spits like you do, but you don’t have any obvious defenses against fire yourself. But, you do. Sam had this thing about casting spells through different parts of her body, like sending a lighting strike out through her foot. Takes concentration and discipline to not hurt yourself when you send a spell through your own body, but she learned a trick at the monastery to the southeast. Cast your fire spell, and shoot it into your own hand.”

Zahn paused in his bounce to turn and give the sneak an incredulous glare, but the tan man smiled and gave him back a middle finger. Shaking his head and looking back to the muskrat, Zahn reminded himself that his own spells shouldn’t hurt him and held up his hand. Looking at the mana-charged mess of shapes, he found the red lines under the skin of his palm comforting as if affirming it was really his hand. Charging up the Spit, he held it for a five count and shot the spell forward squinting his eyes against his fingers getting shot off.

Catching his own spell felt like holding a weightless tennis ball, warm and fuzzy like an impossible tiny pet. Trying to grip it with his fingers felt like a tennis ball made of tingling wool and shifting under his grasp, almost slippery and buoyant. Holding the spell let him finally get a good look at it, glowing with red and yellow lights as the sphere rolled over on itself. Like a tiny sun, the Spit spell’s center was a red and orange ball with yellow leaking through spots to merge with a yellow flame corona wrapping around the missile itself.

“It’s hotter in the middle, and it leaks fire to the outside. Try feeding it mana through your hand, now that you’re able to hold it.” Two’s voice was confident and calm, sounding as if he’d seen this a thousand times before. “If you can learn to reconnect to your spells and sustain them remotely after casting, you can unlock something called Sustained Casting and be able to feed your magic remotely.”

“I already do, sort of,” Zahn replied as he tried to push mana out of his palm again. The lack of urgency to move energy around left him straining his wrist and hand trying to get the magic to flow properly. “When I cast an earth spell that isn’t localized on me, I have to send the magic through the air or ground.”

The Rogue nodded, rolling his wrist for the lowbie to hurry up. “Yes, but that’s not what I said. I’m talking about casting a spell, then latching back onto it and pushing too much power into it and making the spell stronger, or lasting longer, new effects or even increasing its Rank with something called Investiture.”

Drawing the power already sitting in his hand out through the fire oil pattern seemed straightforward, but Zahn couldn’t get the juice to flow. He could see the energy within his Spit depleting, the small orb shrinking and beginning to cool as its fuel ran out. He could see the mana inside his body, moving like another blood through the flesh instead of veins and wrapping around bone like smoke. Settling on the ‘overfill’ approach, he touched his left hand to his chest and pulled for more mana, feeling his Core respond and release the energy. Dragging the packet down his other arm and nearly covering the active spell, Zahn physically drew a path from his chest to the palm of his other hand and the shape immediately lit up.

For a moment, fire simply erupted from his hand and surrounded the spell, looking like he’d lit a gas stove left to leak too long. The shuddering flames rattled the air for a breath but began to recede, shrinking down to a mere foot height before flickering and collapsing back down into the ball. The once-depleting spell flared brightly as it surged and grew, expanding from a golf ball to a melon in seconds before spinning slowly in place. Zahn could feel the mana being drawn out of his arm as the cool rush replaced warm jitters and even drained a good portion of his torso before his mana pool began to shrink. Channeling the mana into his spell started to make it feel heavy, and he could feel the trembling as his arm muscles weakened.

“Well done,” Two once again nodded along as if it was all expected. “For the record, that’s the proper size of a second tier spell being shoved into a first tier wrapper. Until you learn what new shape is needed for the next rank, the spells will come out bloated and awkward to wield. If I remember correctly,” he tapped his chin as he spoke and Zahn’s stance began to wobble, “Sam once told me she needed to bargain and buy the advanced spellforms for the magic she already knew but didn’t understand the verbiage for. Haggling over the simplest inflections and phrasing, it sounded like a hassle even then. How’s the arm?”

Zahn grimaced as he listened, watching his Stamina bar begin to drop as well. “Its, going,” he gasped out under the strain. “Why is this sucking so hard right now? What the fuck dude?”

“Again, it’s the wrong shape. You’re leaking mana by holding it, you should probably toss the thing. We don’t need it for the gift.”

Dropping the weight with a sigh Zahn kicked at the spell nearing the ground and missed entirely, letting the form crumple in on itself before burning away in the dirt. “Great. Thanks for the lesson, I suppose? You’ve been a great help, I can’t believe there’s so much I don’t even know about the magic here.”

Two smirked as he nodded over the lowbie’s shoulder, “Thank you, but no that wasn’t the lesson. Consider that the primer, titled ‘things you should already know’ by Poor Sap. Now, back to the beastie. You’re going to channel fire through the marks on your hand, and use it to catch that Monster’s fire attack. You can even throw it back, if you feel brave.”

Zahn blinked at the statement before turning back to the forgotten furry fiend. It hissed as he looked at it, seemingly content before his eyes found it again. The muskrat shuffled its feet as it wiggled side to side in its pile of hay, mana building in its body. Zahn watched the energy charge up and looked again at his palm. “Oh, fuckit.” Following the instructions, he held his hands laced like a catcher behind the plate and settled into a crouch. “Come on then, you little fuck.” Pushing mana down his arm, the Player saw fire whoof into life through his fingers as he saw the beast launch its own attack and braced himself.

Catching the shot was easy, downright anticlimactic after Zahn had so thoroughly hyped it up in his head. He straightened up and looked down at his catch incredulously, watching the tiny uneven rock of red flame roll over and over in his yellow-flamed nest. Looking back up at the monster, he saw another shot about to launch and held up his hand reflexively, catching the second shot as easily as the first. Looking down again found the rocks had merged together as if putty, still rolling around and giving off sparse heat. He saw the third shot coming and didn’t bother to protect himself as he considered the weak attacks.

-48 Health. ??? used Fire Spit on Zahn!

You have suffered a Burn!

Dropping to the ground and scraping at the wound, Zahn gasped and berated himself for the stupidity. He could hear Two’s laughter, the Rogue enjoying the show as his student tested things without asking first. Trying to roll himself over and put the magical fire out did nothing, but trying to grab the shot off of his shoulder with his burning hand was almost as easy as catching the missile. He stuck the shots together and pulled them as a sticky mound away from his crispy left shoulder and grimaced at the pain. Giving the little monster a death glare, Zahn angled his arm from the ground and tried to shoot the beast with its own spell. Pushing more power into his hand did make the fires burn hotter, but his newly-burned body immediately reacted to the ambient temperature rise and the sudden pain shot down his plan.

Two bent over him as he dropped the spell, falling to his back as he hissed at the heat-sensitive area. “Well done. You’ve already gone and taught yourself what happens if you miss, and how to recover. Have a potion.”

When Zahn opened his eyes again, the sneak was leaning over him and pouring out a red vial onto his wounds. The liquid hissed and sizzled where it touched blistered skin, but didn’t hurt as the tingling sensation spread around his injury. Two stepped back and leaned against the wall, lacing his fingers together as he waited for the healing potion to work and for Zahn to recover.

“So that was the lesson, that if you hold magical fire of the same rank as the incoming fire spell, you have a chance to catch or negate the other attack. It’s not a guarantee, and it’s nothing like a Ward or proper elemental shield, but it’s better than nothing. Questions?”

Zahn struggled to both feet as he shook his head, giving the little furred beast a wide berth. His learning curve within the torture arena was already much faster than his time spent within the City, even as much as he missed the easy life of being a clerk. I need to keep throwing myself into dangerous things if I want to keep getting better. I need to train like it’s serious, or I’m never going to get out of his hellhole. Affirming his resolve to himself, Zahn took a deep breath and rolled his fully-healed shoulder. Straightening up and opening his eyes, he looked at Two head-on and nodded. “Thank you, Two. I wouldn’t have guessed these things on my own, and I still haven’t met my Class Trainer. You’ve been a great help.”

Two nodded, back to tapping his chin. “Right, about that. Come on, the lesson was only part of your gift.”

Zahn smiled as he jumped to follow, already happy with his day’s progress. If I can use this fire-catching ability with my fodder fights from now on, I can take on radiant heat without burning my hands off. Maybe something about pushing it through both hands, give myself the burning effect? He couldn’t wait to try the new options, certain he’d be able to apply hand-casting in his next fight. Two led him down the right path, towards his private rooms and the strongest caged monsters on hand. They walked in a companionable silence for over a hundred feet as the lowbie excitedly peered at caged beasts and the sneak pondered his next words.

“So, you won’t find a Class Trainer,” the man’s voice broke Zahn from his happy stupor. “At least, if Sam’s quest was anything like yours is, you won’t. She told me about her starting village, and how she spent over a month there learning the essentials and growing her skills. Once she’d built up her new home and essentially solved everyone’s problems, she went on to the next biggest town she could find and helped everyone there too. Moving up to a city didn’t have her trainer, and eventually she found where the quest was leading her in a Capitol. Most of a year spent wandering from town to town, helping whoever she could and trying to keep her confusing Class a secret without giving too much away. One can only ask the same Guild about so many different class trainers before they start to think you aren’t any of them.

“Sam told me it took almost a year, and led her to a grave. She dug up the grave and got her hands on a book that gave her a whole new set of quests, and some instructions on how her class worked. Our party was always changing, but she kept learning new Skills and Abilities from each class we met until her Grimoire was nearly as big as a man’s torso. I’m not afraid to tell you,” Two’s voice rose in a laugh as he half-turned to show Zahn a wide smile, “the looks on their faces when she summons her book and it’s just enormous… Ah, I miss it. I miss her.”

Zahn watched the other man’s face, trying to hold back his urge to pry as he yearned for more secrets from the past. “So, did she happen to tell you which Capitol has the grave?”

Two blinked, returning to the present. “Ahem. Yes, the human one. It’s to the southeast from here, south of the monastery mountain. As I was saying, the class instructions. One of the things she told me, one of the bits that she was specific about anyways, was the melding of tools. She gained an item from the grave alongside a blank Grimoire, prepared for the next Custom to find the site. If you want to awaken the other half of your fighting abilities, you’ll need to upgrade your little book with something specific.”

Zahn barely held his tongue as they reached the far wall, Two entering the room and waving for him to stay in the hallway. He could hear the sneak rummaging through drawers and boxes, his shadow dancing in the light shining out the doorway. After too-long of agony, the tall man congratulated himself and reappeared holding a strange strap of leather. Holding the prize out to the lowbie, Two rewarded his confusion with another grin.

“No clue? This’ll be a treat. Summon your Grimoire, and you’ll learn about taking other spells by force.”

The shadows around them did nothing to take away the sinister angle Zahn still saw as a possibility, but the tan man had done nothing to show he meant harm so far. Waving his hand down he summoned his magical book, letting it hover between them.

“Good. Now, normally when you’re taking pages you only get the ones you physically grab and remove from the other tome. However, as you’re about to unlock the less-restricted version, your new form will be able to take in the complete Grimoire and absorb unknown abilities. In order to unlock that, we need to upgrade the physical body of your book.”

Zahn nodded along cautiously, his hands rising to grip his Grimoire. At Two’s nodding, he closed the book and presented the paper cover for inspection. Two carefully wrapped the leather bundle over the outside of the book and draped the loose ends off the side. The pair stood in silence at the display, waiting for something to suddenly happen.

“Maybe feed it mana,” came the sneak’s suggestion.

Zahn started to push power into the book, watching it take on more color as the pages absorbed more energy. Two continued to frown, reaching out to touch the leather straps with a single finger and sending a green spark into them. As if he’d lit a flame, the mass writhed and began to buck in Zahn’s hands.

“Hold it! Feed it more!” The excited Rogue’s shout startled Zahn enough to grip his precious magical book hard enough to hear the paper squeak, and it seemed to writhe as if trying to escape under his grasp. Watching the display, he saw his blue mana-filled paper slowly being overridden by green from the leather, seeping out like water staining priceless words and making them run. The panic and adrenaline mixed in his chest, pushing out more mana in desperation as the colors began to blend and mix into aqua teal before the onslaught of blue overtook the green invasion. As if the color fight was the depth of the exercise, the leather lost its shape when it filled with blue and wrapped around his book completely. Seconds after the panicked experiment began, his magical book shuddered to a stop and rested lightly under his fingers, now bearing a thick leather cover and thin leather ties.

“Well that was exciting.” Zahn looked up breathless at the grinning Two, finding his broad smile infectious. “Bet she never told you about that bit.”