Gar:

Mo and I were clattering away at my desk, testing and fixing bugs in the new tools we were writing for administrating universes. Between bouts of testing, we’d take a break and work on easy old bugs that had been languishing unresolved since my retirement. In my making myself obsolete, it turned out I wasn’t as successful as I’d thought. There were layers and layers of libraries atop my old tools. Insightful and clever stuff. But there were also deep layers below, things I’d written in the old days. The old things nobody knew, but me. Well Momo was picking it up too. And her mom. Okay, deep things only a few of us know.

Hardly surprising, Momo picking it up like this, as from her and Wes’s early days, we’d played games that taught them both how to think analytically, to define things in terms of problems and solution. Games that shared the joy of implementing a solution of your own crafting. In practice as much as anything else, it taught them how a maker thought. The fact that they’d come out so incredibly different both from me, their parents and each other a testament to the power of the individual. Momo Got her mother’s technical skill and love for engineering, and her fathers’ blunt practicality, and an insight all her own. Wes got his father’s joy for life and his mother’s quest for perfection all tied together in a ribbon of impeccable style I chalk up to Jacques, or Uncle Jack, which he wove into a tapestry of joyful living.. Both got a dose of the belief that hard work was more important than talent that their parent’s had in turn picked up from me.

Both our laptops and both our phones “blinged” at once, which is not usually a good sign. I looked up but Momo was way ahead of me. “Um, Gar, Design Committee weighed in on the new magic type. They made extensive changes. Looks like it’s been too long since they got to see anything that much fun and couldn’t resist mucking with it. Sending you the summary now.”

The changes are summarized as follows:

Lots of new spells added to Null Magic, most appear to be programming puns. We honestly should have expected that.

Added a Null Magic spell crafting system where buying abilities lets you make a new spell out of a previously channeled null effect, or build an entirely new spell. (This actually seems like it might be handy as a tutorial for spell creation. -M)

They changed the magic type from “Null” opposed to” Void” to one linked type ”Null and Void”, with the following caveats.

You must take 1 Null spell per power tier. (1 = Tome, 2 = Skullx1, 3 = Skulllx2, etc.) Null spells are broken into power tiers so you have to be at power tier N to use tier N spells or below) You must take the spell “Null Blob” before you can take any other null spells. You must take 1 Void spell per power tier. You may only take 1 spell from any magic school per tier (NO cloning other classes) And you cannot take spells from opposing mana types on the same tier (1 light or 1 dark, not one of each).

Momo continued “On the upside, it looks like someone felt guilty about mucking up your elegant simplicity, and in compensation they have all the approvals up the chain already. If we agree to their changes, it goes live immediately. Also, Michael attached a note of apology for the design committee, and says he has deposited your signing bonus in your account as of noon today.”

I ran my hands through my hair, and leaned back in my chair, “I genuinely prefer fewer starter spells, too many spells locks mages into the idea that that’s all there is. The whole point of the underlying schools of magic system is that it’s only limited by your creativity. If it was up to me, like it used to be, each school would have 3 spells, a damage spell, a buff or heal spell, and a spell that showed off what was special about that school of magic, what made it unique. In a perfect world the first two spells would show that and you wouldn’t need the 3rd. I got outvoted repeatedly though, too many stupid people asking their gods for more spells to solve specific problems, instead of thinking them up on their own. Every god just had to make 1 little exception, and soon there were a dozen spells under each school. I mean, adding a spell crafting system, to what is already a spell crafting system? It’s like they don’t even have a clue. Bah…” I shook my head, and then closed my eyes taking several deep breathes.

I feel my mouth move sourly, my eyes squinting, then continued “I guess we should have known that crew wouldn’t approve any soup until they’d pissed in it. Let’s Kick it back without the 2 spells per level requirement and see if they buy it. When they give a thumbs up or down, go ahead and ‘make it so number 1’. It’s already set up to kick off Tome delivery when that happens. I’ve got all the special effects turned to zero as well, no muss to fuss.”

---

Joe:

Last thing I did that night was put one of those butterflies on my forehead and went to sleep. When I opened my eyes, I was in an immense library, think one wing of the Bodleian, the library they used for the Harry Potter movies, but it just kept going up and up and up, more stories than you can count. It was frankly amazing.

At the desk in front of me was Garabal. He was looking around like a tourist too. “Oh man, I haven’t been here in forever. I’d almost forgotten about it! You forget how amazing it is after spending too much time here. I was always proud how this turned out.”

“What is it?” I asked, my voice reverent as my elementary school librarian had taught. I can still hear her words now “This is a temple of knowledge and adventure, of deepest science and wildest quests, treat it accordingly.”

“It’s the ‘Library of Libraries’, officially ‘The Maker’s Library’ every edition of every book ever in any of my libraries, across all my worlds. It’s the crowning achievement of millions of lifetimes.”

“You don’t have a new tome here, do you?” I asked, getting to the point succinctly for once.

Gar’s shoulders sagged and met my gaze instead of goggling, “Sadly, this is where I borrowed it from. I’ve got 2 new ones on order. It’s going to be a bit longer. The new tome will ship automatically once “Null and Void” magic goes live. Sometime in the next few days, I think. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can, I pre-paid express delivery.”

“We are waiting to get the last round of changes approved to the fixes for your bugged magic school. You are going to be forced into a specific magic school “Null and Void”. It’s brand new, so it may take some balancing & tweaking, feel free to send bug reports. You are going to be given a starter null spell, and should probably pick a void spell as well. But remember, spells are just pre packaged shortcuts to casting. The real magic system is creative and flexible, you can learn to create your own spells. You are going to be rank 2, so take at -least- 2 level of Control, max 4, and put most of the rest into pure Null and Void power levels. Just for context, 1 level of power, Is the equivalent to a non-heroic mage. “

Gar steepled his hands in thought and continued, “Remember, power and control are long term power strategies, spells are short term short cuts. You have to figure out your own balance for survivability. One of the cool things about Null magic, is that you can use it raw as anti-magic, or you can pick any spell from any school of magic and it will work with null magic as well. So, if there is a spell you can’t figure out, or just desperately need, it’s all possible. OR study someone else casting the spell and learn it that way, the world is your oyster. Void magic is different, it’s part black holes, gravity and vacuum of outer space, part home of the cthuluian old ones. I wanted Null and Void to be 2 opposed magic types, an excess of nothing versus an excess of everything… But it got changed into one school. If you can figure out how to use null and void simultaneously, you’ll have powerful physical and anti-magical effects in one cast. So that’s kind of cool, for say a shield. Heroic mages can also take differing magic types say 3 in fire and 1 in healing. Now null is, among other things, the generic magic school. You can pick and choose spell effects from any school, so multiple schools are probably moot for you, better to pile it all in Null and Void power levels. The other option, is spending your points in the Utility section, it can impart knowledge and skills, like buying spells, but broader like a skill book think a language, or diplomacy. Utility also covers permanent abilities, basically perks, but you buy them instead of me. Any questions on magic?”

I popped off the question at the top of my mind, “After I read a tome, will I still have the physical book?”

Gar’s shoulder rose and fell in an immense sigh, “Yes and no, it’ll be part of your inventory, kind of like the paper dolls. Very clever by the way, proud of you for that. You can summon the book back into reality for a while, but you have to stay nearby if someone else reads it. We call this kind of virtual summonable book a Grimoire, which is just a fancy old timey word for spell book. Sounds more bad ass though, I’ve got to give them credit for that.”

The Elder God spun his chair in the immense library again, “Okay there are several kinds of magic books you need to know about. First is a non-magical book where the subject is magic, just like a math book back home. Next is Grimoires, which are a text book, but enchanted to become part of your inventory permanently upon use. Next is a Spell Book or scroll, read it, you get the spell, then poof, gone. It’s a lot like a utility power that’s pre-paid. It can be very useful, especially for training people up to basic competency quickly. Thirdly there are Tomes, which grant access to the magic system, and then turn into a grimoire, part school book, part spell book, always with you. Very nice. Lastly there are books that are a bit of more than one type, Like the Dao of Doing. It’s a Tome, and like all tomes also a grimoire. It’s also a skill book, but what it grants is more nebulous, it grants insight and inspiration as well as knowledge and philosophy. Unlike normal skill books, it also tailors that knowledge to just you and your wants and needs. Then poof, back into the original owner’s inventory. Like a skill book, once read, reading it again has no magical effect, you can only learn apprentice plumbing once. But reviewing philosophy still has its own benefits.”

The immense man, drummed his hands on the desk, pausing his spinning, “Oh! just had good idea, let me check something.“ Gar hopped up and waved me over to a set of low book cases near to his desk. “Taking books out of this library is expensive, but I think this will work out well. You come from a world with no magic, so you are way behind in the fundamentals. That’s where this comes in.”

Gar pulls a thin book, with a bright cover out and hands it to me.

“It’s both a grimoire primer on the basics of magic, AND a skill book of very basic magical skills and exercises. It’s the kind of stuff kids are taught by mage parents in preparation for a tome. I can JUST afford to let you take this with you. Read it as soon as you awaken. Once you have, it will add to your inventory like a grimoire. Once you read it, the book will reappear here, POOF!. It’s not going to cover Null and Void magic because we are literally creating that school as we speak, but it’ll give you a leg up in general spell theory and practice.”

I flipped the book over and looked at the cover “My First Book on Magic!” with, I kid you not, a child of about 8 years flying on a broom waving a wand with one hand on the cover. When I flipped it open, the font was big and there were lots of simple pictures.

“Damn, that’s kind of humiliating, I’m that far behind?” I sat staring at it.

Gar put his hand on my shoulder. “Behind kids of mage families, definitely. Behind someone who just gets a tome and becomes a new mage or heroic mage with no training? Nah, applying what you learn from this book will put you years ahead of them.”

I sighed looking at the cover, and stashed it into my inventory. “Okay, recruiting, it’s looking like in Pekaton, we’ll be recruiting thieves’, smugglers, assassins and the like. Not sure how many. That, okay? Not a glorious start, but it’s a start.”

Gar squinted his eyes and looks into the distance, “As long as they are serious about their craft, yes, I’m 100% in, beggars, whores, thieves whatever. They should be craftsmen, or craftswomen for maximum advantage. That’s the essence of who will work best for me. -But-, I learned the lesson of being too picky last time around. You can recruit others in if they want, but they’ll miss out on like 90% of the value of the church. That said, again anyone is welcome. Frankly we need the income, I’m doing contract work on the side now just to keep things afloat.”

I thought about that, stroking my chin, “These guys are smugglers interested primarily in the inventory power. Do they have to convert to Eldar for that, or can they stay their native race?”

“They are all good to stay native, the power is religion linked, not race linked. I’ve never had non eldar worshippers before but the benefits will work. My inventory ability is really designed to let craftsmen move supplies and tools when needed to say, build a cathedral. That said, I totally can see the appeal to a smuggler. Did you know, that outside my religion, the average size of a person with a magic inventory size is just above 5 slots? Can you Imagine? As the head of the church on Devona, you should instantiate a small tax, say 1-5% of gold and 1-5% of magic. You can do it at any altar of mine. Transactions involving worshippers are applied automatically, keep it low, we’re looking for a soft touch and long-term volume. Those churches with large tithes always seemed shortsighted to me.”

I rub my chin and think, “That seems reasonable, I’ll keep it low. What about these?” And I hold out my rings to him.

Gar’s eyebrows climb up his head like surprised caterpillars and his eyes pop open, “Is that where those went? How’d you know to grab them?”

“Wes stuffed them in a pair of socks stuffed in his jacket, then traded jackets with me. They’ve been a real equalizer for me, but they are yours.”

Gar nodded his head firmly, “Yes, I do want them back eventually, but for now you need them. I used those rings to debug and solve bugs, especially with the magic and physics systems. Fix0 primarily for accessing and modifying data. That’s why you’ve been seeing error messages, by the way. Like information and magic, Burnin8 for manipulating the physical world. The Gen 1 death god on the test universe got a lot of followers early on because of bugs getting out of hand. The first Firespell ever created burned a whole country to the ground for instance, but the system is a lot more robust now. Fault tolerant. When a spell gets out of hand, it just kills the caster and then fizzles out. Much safer.

That reminds, me, let me do something I should have done with your tome, but was too frazzled from jumping back in after so long and I spaced it.”

Gar goes back to his invisible computer, and clatters away.

[Your Ring Fix0 has been soulbound.]

[Your ring Burnin8 has been soulbound.]

[All future books have been set to default as soul locked.]

“Good, now we can trade them later, but you can’t lose them.”

I tilted my head to one side, still browsing books and asked, “Okay what’s the difference between soul bound and soul locked?”

“In both cases, the items get a special place in your interface. If you lend the item to someone, anytime you want, one click and POOF! It’s back in your inventory. The original implementation of soulbound, never left your inventory. Alas lots of folks wasted years copying info out of the soul bound books to make physical reading possible for say, their kids, so we fixed it. It’s a bit of the Kludge, and frankly the coding is, well the best word is embarrassing, but it works. Also, only you can remove items from your inventory, to the best of my knowledge.” Gar turned and talked to someone off screen. “Momo says hi, and it’s the same to the best of her knowledge too, so hopefully that hasn’t changed. The Gods of thieves were always on about stealing out of inventories.”

I say, “Okay, tell her hi and I’m looking forward to meeting her and seeing them both in a few days. What about soul locked.”

“Easy, soul bound items, only I can unlock and take off your hands. Soul locked, you can choose to unlock it, give it to another, and then relock it on them. At that point, they have the power over the lock.”

“Okay, what about skill books, and grimoires, how are they made?”

“There is a high tier spell in Creation magic. But honestly, I’d just buy the ability under utility or get the perk. As always you can just start experimenting and figure it out, but between you and me, it’d take a long time on this one. The problem is a lot harder than it looks at first glance. Our first prototype over wrote your existing memory, lots of amnesiac carpenters running around, embarrassing really. We got a much better QA process after that fiasco. In case I wasn’t clear before, Skill books teach you and disappear, skill grimoires teach you and are added to your inventory just like the tome.” Garabal stroked his lips with a finger before continuing, “Or maybe it’s better to say all books that appear in your inventory are grimoires, but some also upload things to you first.

Gar spun in his chair and started talking to Momo.

He spun his chair back to face me, “Okay, good and bad news. Good news is your magic is unbugged and the fix has been released to Devona. Bad news is my revisions were denied. Someone is on a power trip over in the design committee, or has a grudge against me, or to be fair, maybe they are just a moron, not sure. You are going to be required to take 1 null and 1 void spell per level. Sorry about that, down the line it’s going to be a regrettable waste of points.”

“Could Carol Ann be leaning on one of them, just to screw us up?” I ask.

Gar sat up straight and squinted off into the distance again, “Oh, good catch, that actually makes more sense than my theories.“ He spins in his chair, “Momo can you pass the idea that Carol Ann may have her claws in someone on the design committee on to your mom and Agatha. Thanks. Yes, I have the new suit, yes I know the date is tomorrow. I pick the suit up tonight. Yes, I scheduled a haircut tonight after we close up in fact. Shoes? Do you really think Wes and Jack together would let me get out of his shop without all new everything? You, are starting to sound like your mother, you know that? Yes, I’m very fond of Agatha too. Despite Carol Ann’s best efforts, that’s still going on strong.”

Garabal turned half way between us, obviously talking to both of us at once. His jaw was working and his brows knit together.

Gar began to speak. ”The more I think about her minion nerfing our new magic school, the more it starts pissing me off. You are being specifically targeted here. I think you are right Joe, Carol Ann is behind this too, it’s just her style, deniable, backstabbing and underhanded. If they are -actively- coming against us, it’s time for active measures on our end as well. We have a brief window of opportunity here. My idea is only going to work once, and there -will- be hell to pay. But all the hell is all on my end, and will be bureaucratic in nature. There will be investigations and meetings, god so many meetings, but in the end as long as I stay just inside the proscribed lines all they can do is talk me to death. Maybe, and I mean maybe, they could take away my contracting job, but I doubt it, Howard and Michael have been with me since practically the beginning.

Garabal spun his chair in circles, his eyes distant and calculating. Then he continued his mind made up, and began the speak again, still spinning in his chair idly.

“I can only say so much from this point. If I violate policy, you -will- get rolled back. That would really -nerf- you permanently. That might even be Carol Ann’s teams’ real goal with all of this, pushing me into crossing the line so they can nerf you. As long everything I do is -perfectly- within written policy however, they can scream, they can change policy, but no rollbacks. I need to warn you, I’m going to be pretty Delphic for a bit, no straight answers, I’m dancing on the head of a pin here.”

Still spinning, Gar started apparently speaking to himself aloud. I’m guessing for Garabal, that’s being subtle and Delphic so I paid attention. “We need to think sideway, look for synergies… Think Gar, Synergies… synergies…Old School synergies! Hang on!”. Gar, starts clattering again in the air. “

[You have been given the perk “Crystal Skull Conservation”]

I focused on the spell for specifics.

[Crystal Skull Conservation – Reduces skull waste in several ways, for instance newly acquired skulls are always restored to full power]

Gar shook his head “Conservation perks are even better than they look. It’s a remnant of our old green Initiative. We kicked it off right after the Romans salted the earth at Carthage. A weilder of the rings already knows how to look at logs and deeper status using them. The funny thing is, the nuances in the interactions of perks and abilities are sometimes more powerful than expected, that might be interesting to observe in action.”

Gar spun a few times in his chair, aparantly just for the fun of it. Then he continued,“ My religion doesn’t have much budget, the trick is going to be using obsolete or deprecated perks. Perks that haven’t been used in forever. Old perks at old prices, and with unexpected synergies. Perks that have been long forgotten by everyone, ones we stopped using via consensus, but never actually removed. One needs to think carefully, nothing one would do would be straightforward or 1 dimensional.”

Gar continued, In the least subtle Delphic I’ve ever seen, “If I do this, it will trigger a ‘deity counseling session’, maybe even an audit if Carol Ann is really driving the agenda. On the up side, this might force the design committee to react showing us their hand. With luck I’ll know who her puppet on the committee is, maybe some of them in admin as well.”

I snorted internally, Delphic? For a guy who’s so smart in so many ways, he really has some holes in his game. My thought was interrupted with another message.

[You have been granted the Perk, “Book Leach”, Mana Cost:0]

[Book Leech allows magical copying of books into your personal grimoire library as well as to a divine library if one exists. Range: Touch, Instant]

Gar chuckles “An oldie, but a goodie. Use the ability while touching a book, and add a copy to your inventory, and the Library of Libraries here.”

[You have been granted the Perk, Grimoire Conversion. All books you use are automatically added as soul locked personal grimoires. Mana Cost:0]

[You have been granted the Perk, Garabal’s External Ability Cache, Level 2 - Nondestructive copying of up to [n] Perks, Spells or Abilities from a target. Also allows destructive or non-destructive downloading of same to one member of the faithful. Mana Cost: Moderate]

[You have been granted the perk, Magical Book Creation:1 - Create Skill Books, Grimoires, Etcetera. Mana Cost: Very High, scaling]

Gar began to chuckle evilly at this one, and muttered to himself “Oh yeah baby!”.

Gar started rubbing his hands in anticipation, “Now we need something really synergistic for your boy Jimmy.”

[Jimmy is granted the Perk – Mage Prodigy: Creation:1, When Creation Magic is added. User gets +n power, +n control for Creation school, Creation related costs reduced (5 x n)+20%, effects increased (5 x n)+20%)

[Jimmy is granted the Perk - Restorative Web, 1 - Links the party and pets, sharing many positive effects.]

[Jimmy is granted the Perk - Energetic Creations, 1 – Your creations are higher energy than normal.]

I nod my head in understanding, “Very cool”, I started browsing the shelf where Gar got “My First Book of Magic” and it was all kids’ books. ‘My First book of Enchanting’, ‘A Children’s Encyclopedia of Monsters’, ‘Necromancy and You’, ‘A Children’s Atlas of Devona’ and many more. On a crafty whim, I put the enchanting, monsters, and “A Helpful Compendium of Cantrips” books into my inventory, and then put them back on the shelf. We’ll test my theory down the line. I started browsing the other books on the shelves as we talked, flipping the useful looking ones in and out.

Gar was running his hands over his hair now, his eyes intensely focused on a screen I couldn’t see. “I might at well go whole hog. I kind of wish I’d only ordered one tome now, but having a spare has already proved itself a necessity. Let’s pump the benefits for our Faith with the last of my cash. I can eat leftovers for the next few weeks. Most of these I bought in the old days, so reactivating them should be cheaper than the first time.”

[The religion “The Maker” has been granted the perk “Soul Tether” – Faithful are sent to their Gods upon death.]

[The religion “The Maker” has been granted the perk “Structure Appropriate Library” - Shrines, Churches, Temples and other religious structures gain a library appropriate to their power and status.]

[The religion “The Maker” has been granted the perk “Spark of Insight” – Divines and clergy can cast this buff.]

[The religion “The Maker” has been granted the perk “Internal Mail System” – Faithful can access the in game mail system from their interface, as well as send intra-religion emails for free. The Faith’s internal mail sub-system is encrypted with 1X10^25 word encryption]

“That seems like a great long-term benefit, but the description is pretty general.” I continued to browse books, now leaving the kiddie books. Intermediate to Advanced Dwarven Enchanting for Journeymen? Masterful Enchanting? Both Snagged! Durin was going to shit a battleship sideways over that pair. I peeked at Gar, he was still head down in his work… inventory, out, and back on the shelf. If skating the line between cheating and not was the order of the day, I was up for it in my own way. So far the system has been clever exploit friendly at every level. That probably had something to do with how the man, god whatever before me, how his mind worked, now that I think of it.

Gar continued his ‘Delphic Impersonation’, “Soul Tether, As long as a soul hasn’t gone to the other side, they’re eligible for resurrection in game. One of those subtleties most forget about. Spark of Insight, Creative blocks begone! Ha!. You’d be amazed what a frustrated poet will trade for access to that. Don’t trust their promises though, cash on the barrel head, only. Poets & Songwriters are like addicts, too long without creating and they get desperate. Playwrights too, now that I think of it.”

I interrupted “Mail is obvious, but you skipped the library”.

Gar smiled at me, “Did I? maybe the name says it all? Each shrine you convert will be kinda like a Slot Machine, eh. BLING BLING BLING! 3 bars, Jackpot! BLING BLING BLING! Oh no three lemons, goat porn!”

I smiled, “That sounds, uh, fun? While we’re tweaking things, I’m supposed to have a help system, maps tutorials, ai assistant all that. But I can’t turn it on. It’s not on my character sheet, I tried “help”,

“assistant”, “tutorial” and everything else I could think of. Nothing.”

Gar eyebrows rose, and he pursed his lips, “Interesting, let’s check.” And he started the keyboard dance again.

“Looks like your help system perk was disabled, by? I’ll give you one guess.”

“The Grey lady?” I said.

Gar’s head popped up over his invisible monitor again, his eyebrows raised eyes wide. “Who?”

“Carol Ann something, the lady that assaulted and robbed me at the gate?”

Gar’s head went back down chuckling. “Yeah, you got it in one, the grey lady, I’ll have to remember that one.” He chuckled again lightly. “Let me just check to see if she got proper authorization, not her strong suit by the way. She’s big on forgiveness is easier that permission that one. Nope no approvals. Hang on. And go! Going to lock her department to read only for you and all faithful and while I’m at it. Also all changes to same will go through a full review process before they get applied.”

A gold question mark suddenly showed up next to the blue one on my hud.

Gar continued, “So it’s a pretty basic AI, I’ll set it up to query some AI friends of mine if it gets really stuck. Other than a very basic info package, it’s only going to be able to organize any info you actually pick up. Like the book you just got, making the data within accessible and searchable. Think basic search and hyperlinks not Google or Siri. It’s just indexing, linking and querying, not truly alive. That gives me an idea.”

[The religion “The Maker” has been granted the perk “Map System” – Faithful get cartography, Automapping and faith wide map sharing.]

I squint my eyes and pull my mouth to one side, “Can I turn the AI on before I leave this library and cut it loose on all these books?”

Garabal chuckles but shakes his head, “Nah, they caught on to that one a long time ago. The AI is only on dirtside. I can give you a ton of extra storage space however, and my friends will keep an eye on it. Nothing is stopping -you- from thumbing through books next time you are here. The AI has no sensing package. It’s limited to just using your brain, your senses, memories, etc. Ball and Athi-rat, my two AI friends, will help it out.”

I continued browsing books, reading the spines, “Well, at least it’s on, can I go over the last few days and index that? be nice to update maps and such.”

Gar catches my eye, “Only at the fidelity of your wetware memories, but it’s something. Just ask it to do that and cut it loose. Okay we are almost done here.”

I had just enough time to tip one more book into my inventory and then back on the shelves, I walked over to the biggest book in the place, a monstrosity on a pedestal behind Gar, and flipped it in and out without even looking at it. Quantity has a quality all of its own indeed.

Next, I walked back in front of Gar and said “So I guess that’s it for today?”

He met my eyes and smiled, “Yeah, the tome will auto ship when it’s released.” Gar stood up and shook my hand. “You’ve been doing great so far. Try to keep flying under the radar and you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks Gar, I pull a folded piece of paper out of my inventory and pass it over. “If you can deliver this to my sister, I’d appreciate it.”

“You have my word Joe, I’m on it.”

Blackness.

Joe:

My rings buzzed like they never have before, startling me awake. I was in a bed, in a room all made of stone. Light was dim. I was having a little trouble breathing. I reached up to pull the covers off and sit up, but the covers were stuck to my chest. I tried to push them off and realized something heavy was pinning them to my chest. I rolled over and something heavy slid off and onto the floor. When I looked two large tomes with the words “Garabals Dao Of Doing” were laying on the floor. “I clicked the Gold ? and said “Start a full indexing of all data, including wetware please”.

I heard a pleasant “bling”. Next, I moved to my new top priority.

I tipped both copies of ‘Dao of Doing’ into my inventory, put a full power Lightstone on to the side table, then pulled one copy out and started reading.