The turnout for Jason's barbecue was larger than he expected. They had staked-out a section of the park district, bringing out picnic tables with colourful tablecloths. Norwich Norwich had set up a long bar. There was a whole array of grillers, covered in sizzling meat, fish wrapped in bamboo leaves, vegetables and fruit.

“Good thing I overdid it on food,” Jason said. “Thanks for wrangling the extra grills, Jessica.”

“It was my absolute pleasure,” Madam Landry said.

Other people in the park district had wandered over and were invited to join in. There was some kind of three-way ball game happening, the participants having marked-out a triangular field. The teams were Magic Society versus Adventure Society versus the people that were both. The mixed team had Clive as captain.

Jason spotted a pair of elves looking on at a remove, standing under a tree. Jason teleported through the tree’s shadow to join them.

“You made it after all,” he said to them.

“You’ve created quite a commotion in the park district,” Arella said. “You did get permission for this, right?”

“As you know,” he said, “Thalia Mercer owed me for not throwing her crappy son under the bus. Her brother-in-law is the Duke, so it wasn’t hard to get.”

“This is how you spend your political capital?” Genevieve asked.

“What’s the point of money and power if you don’t enjoy it? I don’t suppose either of you ladies can explain the rules of that ball game?”

“You don’t know tri-ball?” Arella asked. “You really are from another world.”

99. Someone Else’s Game

99

Someone Else’s Game

Dean Tuckell was part of a team of adventurers that had arrived in a village in the delta. The team was a makeshift one put together for a road contract, patrolling a fixed route through the delta and beyond under the supervision of a bronze-ranker. The others were unhappy to be on punishment duty instead of the big expedition, while Dean was just happy to get away from the city. He didn’t want the people still working for Thadwick Mercer to find him and take him out for a little chat.

The team moved straight to the adventure noticeboard.

“This one actually has a notice,” the bronze-rank team leader said, taking it from the board. This was their third village for the day, and every noticeboard had been empty.

“Trap weavers,” the bronze-ranker read, causing the iron-rankers to groan.

“Wait, this one’s been claimed already,” the bronze-ranker said. “Just not completed, yet.”

As he said it, the paper dissolved away to nothing in his hand.

“And now it has,” he said. “Next village on the list, then.”

“Can’t we stop for a drink?” someone asked. “There’s a tavern right there.”

“We can stop once we’ve dealt with at least one monster,” the bronze-ranker said. “Assuming we can find one.”

* * *