We talked for a while and turned in early. After that storm, none of us had much interest in picking up where we’d left off. Li-chen got the pull-out couch bed, and Blaze and I used our usual arrangement.

  The next morning, we said our good-byes after breakfast. Of course, the late-May sky was a bright, scrubbed blue. A perfect day following the thunderstorms that had hammered the area yesterday.

  I told Blaze I’d take what we learned, along with what we thought might happen to the GRA, before returning to editing the math book. It wasn’t a quick editing job, and I still wanted to get some county spawns done. None of that had happened yesterday.

  It was early enough that Blaze would only be a few minutes late getting to her office. She assured me one of the regulars could open if she didn’t make it in time. She’d already messaged them about her delay.

  She didn’t have to punch a time clock. Overtime wasn’t a thing for her position either...their pay handled that. What mattered was which office she was based at, and her paygrade matched the people in the capitol office. It had bumped up a notch recently.

  She didn’t think of herself as rich, but she wasn’t hurting. She made a little more than I did in an average year, although I had lower expenses since my big-ticket items were paid off. She still had an apartment, car payments and a few lingering student loans.

  My bills were property taxes, insurance and daily living. My investment dividends covered most fixed costs, so I probably had more disposable income than she did.

  After she left for work, my computer chimed with a reminder. At ten this morning, my monthly cleaning service was coming. I’d needed their help the first couple of years after the accident, and I never stopped using them. For the past five...going on six...years, they’d come monthly. As a long-time customer, I still had one of their older, lower rates. A good deal for both of us.

  After cleaning up from breakfast, I headed to my office with a full mug of coffee. This job would mostly cover Mary’s Mighty Maids service for the year.

  Two minutes after ten, the doorbell rang. Mary was already opening the door by the time I reached it, coffee in hand. She had two of her workers with her, carrying buckets, mops, brushes and various tools.

  “Hey, Mary. Haven’t seen you in person for a few months. What brought you over?”

  “Couldn’t resist comin’ over to see the famous Mana Mage,” she said with a grin. “You should’a called me when you was entertainin’ the president. I’d hadda the place gleamin’ for her.”

  “I’m sure you would have, but the whole thing was secret until the next day. Or supposed to be. She didn’t complain about the place. She was only here a few hours.”

  Mary nodded. “Saw the pictures of her across the street the next mornin.’ Lot more to her than I expected. Saw your face when she slapped that patch on ya. Almost laughed my ass off watchin’ you tryin’ not to get all embarrassed. Didn’t work, did it?”

  “Maria, Susie,” she said, looking at her helpers. “Y’all can ask ‘em questions after the work’s done. Now git to it. His office first while he’s out of it. Get in there whiles ya can.”

  “Just the usual?” Mary asked, turning back to me. “Looks like you got an extra stayin’ with ya.”

  “I do. And my son and his family are flying in a few days to a week from now. I might have you in for a quick touch-up before they arrive.”

  She nodded. “Remember him. Air Force pilot, ain’t he?”

  “Yep,” I said, smiling. “Daughter in grade school and son starting this fall. They’re growing fast.” She gave me a knowing smile. She’d told me plenty about her own three grown kids over the years...two girls with a boy between them...along with enough photos to fill several scrapbooks.

  We talked for a couple of minutes while her workers got started. Both women had been in my home a dozen times or more. They were efficient, and I knew to stay out of their way. Anyone who wasn’t good didn’t last long on Mary’s crew.

  I sat at the kitchen table while Mary started scrubbing the countertops. She could hold a whole conversation while cleaning and still get everything spotless. She wanted some advice about her and her girls’ game characters. She was up to a Level 3 Water Mage, and her workers were around that level, with a few slightly higher. She didn’t want anything bad happening if things went south.

  That was Mary...always thinking ahead, checking on her employees like a mother hen, sounding like a small-town hick until the rare moments she snapped into big-city lawyer mode when someone tried to cheat her. So, hearing she’d woven the Game into her business didn’t surprise me.

  She pulled a few printouts from her apron pocket, and I looked them over. I grabbed a pencil from the counter and made notes as she finished the kitchen.

  I caught a glimpse of her girls heading toward the bathrooms. They’d each take one...and one bedroom apiece...as usual.

  Mary slowed her scrubbing just long enough to finish going over her team’s character builds, then moved on to the living room. I headed for my office.

  An hour and a half after arriving, all three women were done and sitting with me in the office. Mary usually allotted two hours for my place and always finished early, so we talked about the Game. I signed a couple of autographs and posed for pictures with them. They got something to brag about, and I enjoyed spending time with good people.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  The only downside was that I’d barely scratched an hour of work on the manuscript. The pain-in-the-brain manuscript. I’d found a few typos and tried clearing up some phrasing, but for a draft ready for professional editing, it was surprisingly clean. The author padded a bit and favored large words, but for him, most were necessary. I still checked every one for meaning and spelling.

  Around noon, I gave up and made a couple of sandwiches.

  After lunch, I geared up and drove downtown to the GRA side of the convention center. I spent an hour talking with grad students who’ve been cataloging new discoveries and reinterpreting older ones based on the steady flow of new information.

  One student knew about cultivation stories and explained the concept to the others. Their takes were entertaining, especially on my locked-loop MANA transfer experiment. They said they’d try to reproduce the effect under controlled conditions. One of them volunteered because, and I quote, “It sounded like fun.”

  “Yeah, right,” I thought.

  They reminded me of my early gaming days...that thrill of learning new systems. Before I left, I told them I wanted to be present when they tried it, and that Ingrid should oversee whoever attempted it.

  It couldn’t be me. I’d promised not to do it again. At least for a few days or maybe a week. I never promised not to let someone else try it.

  On general Guild Chat, I found a Level 3 Healer willing to back me up for spawns. Good enough for my needs. We spent two hours slogging through damp woods, tracking where the spawns had wandered after the storms.

  By the end, he was Level 4 and halfway to Level 5, with enough loot to gear up at the STORE. We planned to go again tomorrow. Hopefully nothing stronger would show up.

  After a quick cleanup at home, I returned to the manuscript. Somehow it grew denser the deeper I went. The author was pushing hypotheses instead of provable facts, and it felt like something was missing from what he was saying.

  It also felt rushed. I had no idea where that impression came from, but it stuck...like a little cartoon hand waving a sign saying, “Look at me.”

  Over the years, I’d learned to listen when my brain tried telling me something. This felt like one of those times. So, I emailed the professor I’d spoken to about the book’s title, asking whether she could answer more questions and whether she had her Game chat set up. I included my in-game name.

  Twelve long minutes later, editing just two paragraphs, I got a chat message:

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [Having problems with the book I gather? That’s not my area, but I know something about it. What’s up?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Thank you. How much do you know about the Game system and how it handles MANA?]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [Just the basics. I never played the online games but my kids did and they talked about it. I know MANA is the fuel that powers spells and a lot of things in the game.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [So you’re like most people. Understood.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [I’ve been doing some work with the GRA people in how the math works, and doesn’t, in the game. They finally said I had to create a character to use the chat function. Email was too slow, and this is easier than text.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Yeah. It is. What class did you take?]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [:) Mana Mage. Thought if I was working with it, I ought to understand it from the inside. It isn’t a nice easy progression up as far as people can see. The curves don’t fit simple math functions once you get deeper in. If I can help, I will if I can ask you questions about how it works for you and what you see coming.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Thank you. I saw some of it but don’t have the math to follow it beyond the basics. Anyway, the book I’m editing. There’s something in there that feels familiar to things in the game. Can’t pinpoint it, but it’s a feeling I got editing the descriptions of some of the equations.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [Interesting. I’m told your guesses are usually right. What can you tell me?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [I did something yesterday that got a weird reaction. I was locked into a loop moving MANA into and out of a MANA Battery I made. Blaze and a friend got me out of it, but they said I was glowing MANA Blue with movement of the MANA around me. Something about the moving curved shapes feels like the knot theory portion I’ve been editing. The lines were curling around each other.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [String and knot theory are related to what you’re working on. Are you saying they’re connected to MANA?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Maybe? Don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [It would help if you could see the Ley Lines and MANA better. Maybe I could show you what I am talking about?]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [True. But I’m teaching two classes this summer and have some Masters degree students I’m supervising.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [If you can spend a couple of hours, I can carry you through the county spawns I’m fighting. I do at least 4 a day if I can. I have a couple of Healers who’ll help when I need it. All you have to do is be part of the party and get a couple of shots in or a shield up they attack and it counts. It means dressing for hiking in the woods. Maybe rain.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [I guess we forget just how much beyond most of us you are. You’ve been working on this a while, haven’t you?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Yeah. I was doing 8 a day earlier, but that doesn’t feel right when I’ve got paid work. I know the spawn sites I usually use and where they wander off to before I get to them.]

  Scribbling some numbers on a notepad, I did a little back-of-the-envelope math and had an idea of what I could do for her in gaining experience.

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [Sneaky. That’s an offer lots of people would pay real money for, from what I’ve heard.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [I’ve heard rumors to that effect. Mostly I’m trying to get our guild’s Healer’s leveled up faster and some of our other new members. The fights are the shortest part of it. Lots of time to talk about things while walking in the woods.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [Let me talk to family and my students. I’ve got 2 classes MWF afternoons so mornings would be good. You’ve got me intrigued about this book you’re working on. Who’s the author?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Not sure I should say, but he’s a PhD in Boston. Tenured.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [That narrows it down. Still, lots of people in math in that area. Are you looking at starting this afternoon, or tomorrow?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [How about tomorrow. Give the woods a chance to dry off a bit and I want to get more editing done.]

  [MathMamm:] [William of Brinsford] [I’ll let you know later today. Thanks.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [MathMamm] [Thank you.]

  I took a long drink of tepid coffee, drew a deep breath and dove back into editing.

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