Devin glared at the interface message.

  “Rude,” he said. “You know I can override that block, right?”

  “Please do,” Milo said. “I’d be happy to let you take over running the whole interface. Then I’d have time for other things.”

  He gave Devin a look, got off Casey’s legs, and trotted over to the water bowl they’d set up for him. The sound of lapping made Devin remember the dogs he’d had as a kid.

  “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off,” Devin said. “I mean, I’d love to have another few days to put in some more layers of traps, but that’s all lagniappe at this point.” He gave a long sigh. “Assuming any of it even matters.”

  Casey tilted her head. “Is something bothering you?”

  “I’m tired, I’ve been hauling dirt around all day, and it’s probably all going to be for nothing,” he said.

  “Is that all?” Casey said.

  “Well, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I’m having some serious anxiety and it’s not about the upcoming fight. It’s so stupid to even worry about right now.”

  Milo returned and plopped down next to him. He shook his head, splashing water and drool all over the place. Devin smiled and patted him.

  “I was thinking about home,” Devin said. “A few days ago, I was in another world. Now I’m running around talking to gods and fighting evil trees.”

  “You seem to be handling it pretty well overall,” Casey said.

  “Yeah. As long as something is trying to kill me, I’m fine. But whenever I stop to think, I remember how my whole previous life is gone. Everyone I know may as well have died. Hell, they could all be dead and I wouldn’t ever know. And do they think I’m dead? Am I going to wake up tomorrow back on Earth with my whole life fallen apart? No home, no clients? I don’t feel like I have any control over anything. It’s all happening whether I like it or not.”

  Casey nodded.

  “And now I’ve got new friends and I’m risking their lives, too.”

  He glanced at the sleeping form of Grigor, then opened a Private Chat with Milo and Casey.

  Milo – If you’re trying to get around my block …

  Devin – I’m not. This is important. I’m worried about Grigor and Asha. This plan is too dangerous for Coppers.

  Milo – It is risky to involve them in direct fighting against Silvers, but it also has a higher chance of success. If we don’t use them, we lose, and if we lose, we all die. I know it’s counterintuitive, but risking their lives minimizes their overall risk.

  Devin – But ... how can I ask them to do this?

  Milo –You’ve already asked them, and they agreed.

  Devin – Yeah, but...

  Milo has locked all Private Chats.

  “You dick,” Devin said.

  “We’re going to need to use the chats a great deal tomorrow,” Milo said. “We have to be sparing.”

  “This is important, Milo!”

  “It’s an important issue, but we’ve already settled it,” Milo said. “What you’re doing now is seeking comfort and reassurance. I can’t imagine why you would try to get that from me when Casey is sitting right there.”

  He lay down and went to sleep between the two of them. Devin muttered something under his breath.

  “He’s right,” Casey said. “You know you can talk to me about these things.”

  “I know. I feel like I abuse your time, though. I’m being an energy vampire.”

  Casey’s eyes narrowed. “A what?”

  “Sorry. It’s probably got a different meaning where I come from.”

  She nodded. “Tell me more about your world.”

  He looked at her. “Right now?”

  “Do you have anything else you need to be doing?”

  “If we wait until I’ve got nothing to do, we’ll never talk. What did you want to know?”

  “Anything. How do things run? I’m guessing you don’t have tyrants with magical powers there.”

  Devin chuckled. “The closest thing we have are billionaires.”

  Milo made a woofing sound.

  “What?” Devin said.

  “Weren’t all your clients wealthy?” Milo said.

  “I knew you weren’t sleeping, you jerk,” Devin said. He reached out and patted Milo’s enormous flank. “And, yes, my clients were filthy rich. Working class people are too smart to spend their money on high-end personal trainers.”

  “What’s a personal trainer?” Casey said.

  “Wow. How to explain Earth to people without cars and computers. Let’s see. In my world, most people sit on their asses all day. We get machines that do most things for us.”

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

  Casey tilted her head. “This is the second time you’ve mentioned golems. They’re common in your world?”

  “What?” Devin said. He looked at Milo.

  “That’s the best the translation program can do,” Milo said. “Remember what I told you about context? When you say ‘machine,’ most people in Teth will think water wheels or trebuchets. Priestess Casey, being more educated in the magical arts than most, assumes you mean golems.”

  “Now that I think of it, it’s not a bad comparison,” Devin said. “Our ‘golems’ are everywhere. They carry us around, keep the temperature in our homes perfect, and let us prepare a meal in a few minutes. We also have rectangular screens everywhere we go that show us all kinds of stories. To pay for all those things, people have to work. Remember what I said about factories? That’s where we make all those things, but not everyone works in a factory. There are people who sit in one place all day looking at the rectangles, organizing the factory workers and the money, studying things, selling things to other people … the details aren’t important. It requires them to sit still all day and when you don’t use your body, it starts to atrophy. They get fat, their heart gets fat, their liver gets fat, and their bodies stop working right.”

  Casey nodded. “I’ve seen that in nobles. There are a host of diseases that come from eating terrible food and doing nothing all day.”

  Asha came out of the forest and joined them. Devin patted the log next to him, but she didn’t sit down.

  “Anyway, we call those people office workers. Theirs another category of people called athletes,” Devin said. “They take part in physical contests – we call them ‘sports’ - to entertain all the other people.”

  Casey frowned. “Like pit fighting?”

  “Most of them aren’t quite that violent,” Devin said. “The sport I played is called baseball. I was … I guess you could call me a Copper-level baseball player.”

  "I was wondering about baseball,” Asha said. “I noticed it when I was reading your Boosts. There’s one called ‘Semi-Pro.’

  “Yep,” Devin said.

  Boost - Semi-Pro. Take me out to the ball game … Years of playing baseball gives you a leg up in this new world. Provides a +10 bonus to the abilities ‘Small Sphere, Thrown,’ ‘Melee, Club,’ and ‘Catch.’

  “Maybe you can teach me how to play someday,” Asha said.

  Devin chuckled. “Maybe. We’d need at least 18 people, though. Back on Earth, I was working to get to Silver level, but I got wounded. The kind of wound I had, the healers in my world couldn’t heal.”

  “I’m sorry,” Casey said.

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Devin said. “It wasn’t an injury that would bother a normal person that much, but it ended my career. I had to figure out something else to do. I took a job teaching all the people who sit down all day how to keep their bodies healthy. That’s what a personal trainer does. I know how ridiculous that must sound to you.”

  “It’s not ridiculous at all,” Asha said. “Your body is a tool like any other. You have to learn how to use it.”

  “Exactly,” Devin said. “I did that for a long time, and I got really good at it. People were willing to pay me a lot of money. I had a lot of really nice golems.”

  “It sounds like you worked hard to make a life for yourself,” Casey said.

  “I guess,” Devin said. “A lot of people worked a lot harder than me for less. Anyway, my job let me do pretty much whatever I wanted with my life. When I was younger, what I wanted to do was go out and party. When I got older, it was play cards and video games with my friends. Video games are … they’re like a spell that lets people have adventures through a machine.”

  “Like battle simulators,” Asha said.

  Devin shrugged. “I don’t know what those are.”

  “Magical constructions that allow young enhanced to train their Skills,” Milo said. “It’s an apt comparison.”

  “Right,” Devin said, “Except that we weren’t training for anything. Just playing. When I think about it, my whole life was play.” He smiled. “Probably the most selfless thing I ever did was paying my girlfriends’ schooling debt off. After we broke up, she was able to continue schooling and become a doc ... I mean, a healer - and she did a lot of charity work. She might not have been able to if I hadn’t helped.”

  Casey raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure there was more to your life than paying off someone else’s debts.”

  “No, I was living the high life while people around me were suffering,” Devin said. “The lady who cleaned up my condo didn’t even earn a fraction of what I did, and I barely even thought about her. I couldn’t even remember her name for the first six months. One time I noticed her shoes were so worn out they had holes in them, and I thought about buying her some more, but then I got caught up in one of my games and forgot. Somehow, seeing the suffering here makes me feel bad about never caring about the suffering that was going on in my own world. I know that sounds stupid.”

  “I don’t think it’s stupid,” Casey said. “It sounds like a sign of growth to me.”

  Devin laughed. “Or maybe I’m a selfish bastard who can’t care about anything until it affects me.”

  “What would you be on your world?” Asha said. “If you had another chance.”

  “Probably a lawyer,” Devin said. “That’s what I wanted to be when I was a kid. There was a show called Matlock, about this lawyer who helped people.”

  “What’s a lawyer?” Asha said.

  “What’s a Matlock?” Casey said.

  Devin considered how to describe Andy Griffith to people who’d never watched television. Or Kathy Bates, for that matter. He shook his head.

  “There are a couple of kinds of lawyers. One kind helps people who are accused of breaking the law, and the other kind prosecutes the people who are accused. The two kinds argue in front of a judge and a jury and they decide what to do to the law breaker. My dad hated lawyers, and I hated my dad, and I think that played into me wanting to be one.”

  “Why did your dad hate lawyers?” Casey said.

  “Dad didn’t like a lot of people. He was … difficult. He had some serious undiagnosed issues.”

  “Undiagnosed …?”

  “On Earth, we treat mental issues with medicines – like your potions – and through something called ‘therapy.’”

  “I’m familiar with therapy,” Casey said.

  Devin smiled. “Right. You have that ability, don’t you? Dad never tried therapy. He thought that sort of thing was for weaklings and liberals. He never took medicine, unless you count alcohol. I don’t know if that helped him, but it sure made things worse for the rest of us. You never knew what would set him off, especially when he’d been drinking. He’d explode. I mean, emotionally, not literally. We lived way out in the woods with no neighbors, so there was nobody to hear the yelling and breaking things. He was a freakishly strong man. He worked as a lumberjack sometimes, and he could carry logs that two other men couldn’t move. When he really lost his temper, he was terrifying. He got that look in his eyes and I’d know there was only a thread holding him back from doing something truly awful.”

  “Did he?” Casey said. “Do something awful, I mean.”

  “Eventually,” Devin said. His tone was flat. “We were talking about lawyers. Mom inherited some money when I was a baby, but dad did something stupid. He beat some guy up and the guy sued him. That meant lawyers argued about whether or not he should be punished. The judge and jury could see he was a dick and he lost everything but the land and the house. He blamed the lawyers instead of himself. He was like that. And he carried grudges like no one I’ve ever seen. Someone would make an off-hand remark at a party or something, and Dad would hate that person for the rest of his life. He wasn’t shy about letting people know, either. He couldn’t keep a job, because sooner or later his boss would say something to piss him off. It’d eat at him until he blew up at them and got fired.”

  “What did your dad want you to do for a living?” Casey said.

  “Baseball,” Devin said. “My grandfather was a great player. So was my dad, before he started drinking. All my cousins played. We were a baseball family.” He shook his head. “There was never any doubt I was going to play, especially when everyone saw how good I was. Dad said I had more potential than any player he’d ever seen. He was gone before I got hurt, so at least I never had to listen to him bitch at me about blowing my big chance.”

  He shook his head. He was tired of talking about this. He glanced at Asha. “What’s up?” he said.

  “I don’t want to interrupt,” she said. “I can wait.”

  “It’s OK,” Devin said. “We were just chatting.” He stood up and brushed his pants off. “What do you need?”

  “There’s something I’d like to show you in the forest, if you don’t mind,” she said.

  Devin blinked. “What is it? A new trap?”

  “No. It doesn’t have anything to do with the ambush. It’s something I thought you’d like to see.”

  Devin shrugged. “Sure,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  Asha grabbed his hand and pulled him along. Devin felt Milo’s eyes watching him as they left the clearing.

  Gamebreaker is almost ready to launch on Amazon, and I need your help.

  review campaign through Booksprout, and I’m looking for early readers who’d be willing to grab a free ARC and leave an honest review when it goes live.

  huge difference, especially in the early days.

  Interested? Get your ARC here:

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