Bartholomew, the god of bards and summer beer, sighed. It had been too long since he had visited his friend Sam. He had been avoiding using portal travel so that he was harder to track. However, he needed to check in with Sam. Things were starting to speed up, and so he had plans he needed to check in on.

Barth looked over at Gina and shook his head. There were only so many different ways that he could give the girl the slip before she caught on. As such, this was a meeting that he would bring her to. It would do Sam good to talk with Gina again. Once Sam found out she was a spider, things would get funny.

Barth said. “Gina, remember that Sam doesn’t know that you’re a darkweaver. Now is not the time for him to find out. We want him to like you more first that way his reactions are based upon knowing you as a person. Not just his reactions to finding out that you’re a darkweaver. Okay?”

Gina wiggled her nose and nodded. “I don’t understand why all of you seem to dislike us so much. Is it because you resemble prey?”

Barth pulled his lute around. “There’s a song about that but we don’t have time for it. Just remember that you should try to fool him into thinking you’re a human.”

Gina bowed. “Yes my god I can do this for you.”

Barth strummed a few bars of a song. As he played, a blue portal slowly started to open. As he kept on playing, the portal grew until it was large enough for them both to walk through. Gina went through first carrying a small crate full of beer. Then as the bard walked through the portal. As his song cut off, the portal snapped shut.

Sam stood up from his fireplace and walked over to see who was portaling into his jail. Then he waved as he saw Barth walkthrough, still playing his lute. Barth changed his song, and slowly a blue dome started to expand out around the room.

Barth smiled and bowed. “I bring beer for my dear imprisoned friend. I figured that you likely haven’t had anyone to drink with in a while.”

Sam laughed. “Not a real person anyway.”

Barth raised an eyebrow. “Not a real person?”

They all headed over to the fire, with Gian one step behind the two men. As they sat down, she pulled out the beer and served them, then stepped back. Barth sighed and pointed to a chair. Gian walked over to the third chair, picked it up, and moved it to just behind and to the side of Barth. Sam shook his head and laughed.

Barth just shook his head. “So what do you mean a real person?”

Sam smiled. “Your girl that you sent to Arn. She figured out how to reach out to me and so has been popping in every few nights. I don’t think she knows its real because she asked the oddest questions. The conversations are fun because of just how flighty the girl is.”

Barth chuckled. “Speaking of Arn how do you think he is doing? Do you think he understands how the system works yet?”

Sam shook his head. “Not really, that girl Kasidy seems to be quicker on the uptake then him.”

“What do you mean?”

Sam smiled and started to laugh. “So way back when I gave him the necklace I told him how to reach me. But the guy was so either dumb or angry that he couldn’t remember how to contact me. I gave him a phrase that if was used I would know to reach out to him that night. Then I would read what he wanted to know pull him into a mind construct and teach him. I didn’t want to always watch him I had better things to do even if he was your champion. Well he couldn’t figure it out. So… I gave him a communication spell.”

Sam formed a sly grin and took a drink. “At any rate he has been using the spell the whole time but not just the phrase. That girl figured out to use the phrase and so has been jumping in to talk ever so often now. It’s always about Arn but at least she is funny.”

Barth pushed back into the wingback leather chair. “So what’s so different between the spell and the phrase?”

Sam chuckled. “Well I was kind of mad at the time. Remember I was ticked off at you because of the necklace and everything so I kind of took it out on him.”

Barth leaned forward in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Samuel Oxelazar Crane, what did you do?”

Sam spread out his hands and sheepishly said. “It’s not that bad my friend. I made the spell tied to his mana pool. It only works with his personal pool and will always be 10 mana more than what he has.”

“Is that everything?”

“No… I didn’t want to deal with talking with him so I routed it through a nightmare crystal before it came to me.”

Barth stood up, knocking his chair back. “You did what? No, you didn’t! There’s no way you did that….. It wasn’t a greater crystal, was it?”

Sam gulped and nodded. “It’s the only one I have in this place. It got sent to me through the gate just a few years after I got put in this place.”

Bartholomew walked over to Sam’s liquor cabinet and pulled out a large bottle of amber. Then he reached down and picked out a beer tankard and filled it with the liquor. He was shaking as he started to drink. Then he walked over to Sam and sat back down.

Barth finished off about half the tankard and said. “Sam, You must tell him how to stop going through the crystal. I understand why you did it but you have to stop. You need to teach him and not just be a jerk. I need you to be his adviser. Please.”

Sam nodded. “I’ll tell that girl to remind him how to talk with me without the spell. He’s been in the world for almost 9 months now he should be fine.”

Barth just shook his head. “Sam, I know you can’t do much to make it up to him but you need to do something. That was wrong of you. I can’t give him much more and I don’t want the others to know what you have in here. So I can’t call a breach of rules but even if it wasn’t a breach of the letter of the rules it was of the spirit.”

Sam smiled a bit and chuckled. “I’ll make it up to him. I already kind of did once. He wanted to know where his class skills came from so I hooked him into where his imbue mana skill was from. Then I pushed the full history into him and slapped him with some necromancy spells to mess with him.”

Barth sighed and leaned into his hands. “You didn’t make him a necromancer did you?”

Sam laughed. “Nope his class is locked somehow that I couldn’t mess with it. I bet that even those coins of yours wouldn’t change him. They might give him a few skills but he would keep the same class. It’s the strangest thing that it won’t change. It’s like the whole realm is set on him keeping those classes.”

Gina asked. “I am confused my god what did you mean by not a breach of the letter of the rules but the spirit?”

Sam smiled. “He meant, that I knew what the punishment was but that I twisted it to be something else. Our friend Max taught us both to do that.”

Bartholomew shook his head. “You’re right on that but I expected you to be kinder than that because of me.”

Sam shook his head. “Nope you pissed me off at the time. I thought that you had well, you know. So I was treating you like I would them. Nothing was off the table.”

Gina smiled at the two men and asked, “So who is Max and when do I get to meet him?”

Sam slammed back his beer and got up, and said. “Max is my best friend. The best man to ever live. I would have given my life for him if I could have. Those traitors banished him from the realm. So no, you will never meet him as he is gone. I don’t think he is dead, but I know he can’t get back as no one ever has.”

Sam was half crying as he started to fill a shot glass with the same thing that Barth had filled a tankard. Then he took two shots before walking back to his chair. When he got there, he filled out his mug and dropped the shot glass and all into it.

Barth shook his head and gave his friend a tight smile. “I agree he is still alive somewhere. Just remember my friend that you are still being watched.”

Sam sighed. “My brother tell me truthfully is any of my family still alive?”

Barth looked at his friend and slowly looked down at his hands. Around his tankard, he had crossed his middle finger over his index and then tapped twice. The other man sighed and smiled a little. Then he picked up his glass and tapped it three times, and drank it.

A few hours later, Gina and Bartholomew left the office of the Gateway of Seasons. When they got back to the under heavens, Bartholomew started to swear. Then he cast a spell, and the mild intoxication left his body.

Barth growled. “Gina, things are worse than I thought. We have a few more places I have to go but I need you to make a trip for me. I need you to go on foot in your natural form. I have a letter for you to take to Ni’Bish. If you are intercepted somehow I need you to eat the letter as we can’t let it fall into the hands of others.”

Gina nodded. “You could just tell me the message.”

Barth thought a moment. “If I told you the message and you were caught then they could force you to tell.”

Gina smiled. “No on can force a darkweaver princess. We are immune to influence and compulsion.”

“There are things other than magic that can be used to make you talk.”

“No because for my mothers pledge and mine to you I would die first. It is better that I know the message as a paper could magically remade.”

Barth paced around the room for a few moments. He sat down and pulled out his paper, and then he looked over at Gina. Then he sighed.

Barth asked. “Are you sure?”

“For you my god I would die before they took the message.”

“Tell Ni’Bish that Sam doesn’t know the plan. Somehow Max never got the plan to him.”

* * *