He sat and began furiously typing on his laptop.
“What are you writing?” Anna asked, peeking over his shoulder.
“The spells I just looked up, before I forget.”
“Not sure it will do you any good here.”
“You never know, and I hope you’re wrong.”
Ryan said, “I hope you won’t need them.”
“Me, too, but I need to start memorizing spells on these quests and writing them down once here. Honestly, you guys should, too. I wish those spell books would come back with me.”
Eric said, “I’ll wait until it matters, like after magic works on Earth.”
Matt shook his head. “We already know it does because we wouldn’t get summoned without it.”
“True, but it appears to not be quite the same thing. Someone is casting it elsewhere, and the Quest Rings are pulling us or sending us back. Maybe it’s only one-way.”
“That would suck,” Matt blurted out. “I mean, how am I supposed to get better at it if I can’t practice? As we just saw, there may be no chance on a quest.”
Jack had put the wet paper towel in the trash and now asked, “What if you could stop people from telling you what the quest is? Then you could send yourselves home without having to do it. I mean, I realize it makes you look bad, but you’re not the real champions anyway. Why do you have to maintain their reputations? It’s not your problem. In fact, why not just admit you aren’t them?”
Eric sighed. “You have a point, but I’m not sure it would be wise to say we’re imposters. It raises questions we can’t answer. During the Dragon Gate quest, everyone was clearly impressed and gave us a lot of respect, maybe even leeway. I think we might end up in danger if we confess. I mean, these guys have a fearsome reputation that might keep some people from messing with us, if they thought to try.”
“It didn’t stop Cirion,” Anna remarked.
Matt agreed with her. The dashing rogue had led a band of mercenaries to Castle Darlonon to try closing the Dragon Gate before they could do it, causing problems for them. While Eric was right, there would always be people who weren’t intimidated by the Ellorians. He said as much.
“Fair enough,” admitted Eric, “and I agree it might not be our job to maintain their reputation. I just think it’s safer right now. Maybe I’m wrong.”
“Maybe Jack is right,” Ryan suggested. “Let’s think this through. What would happen if we refused the quest by not letting them tell us about it?”
Jack offered, “Run out the clock? How long do they have to tell you? Do they know? Do you?”
“Not really,” Matt admitted. “We didn’t exactly get an instruction manual. I don’t think Lorian said much about this did he?”
Eric pursed his lips. “I thought he said something like an hour. I would imagine it gets awkward keeping us from knowing so most people might tell us immediately. This guy certainly tried. Just wasn’t fast enough. But not knowing this makes it harder to stall after we arrive without seeming weird about it. It’s also likely that everyone who does a summons knows this and it’s only us that do not. They would likely be in a hurry to bind us to the quest by telling us what it’s for.”
Anna remarked, “That wizard who just died seemed urgent.”
“Not urgent enough,” said Ryan. “Could you imagine if he’d said it? We would have been stuck there with all of those… what were they? I recognized ogres, and the dark elf. I’m not sure we would have gotten out of there.”
Matt smiled without humor. There was no way Ryan was ever forgetting what an ogre looked like after their encounter on Honyn.
“I thought the other things might be goblins,” Eric said, and images suddenly flashed in Matt’s head.
“Yeah, they were goblins,” he asserted.
Jack asked, “How can you be so sure?”
Though Jack hadn’t been there, they had told him about the Honyn quest, but Matt reminded him, “Remember, when Soliander attacked me, he did that mind meld spell on me and I ended up with a bunch of his memories. Most of the time I have no idea what’s in my head from that, but sometimes when we’re talking, images, scenes, and info pop up. Those were goblins. Now that I think about it, there was actually an orc or two in the back, but they never got close enough for me to really see them.”
“A motley group of monsters,” muttered Anna, shuddering.
“Let’s go back to this idea of refusing a quest,” said Jack, sitting at the dining room table and ignoring the mess he had been cleaning. “Maybe you can tell them that something urgent is going on back home and you really need to return.”
Eric said, “They would just summon us again and the excuse would be unlikely to work a second time. Besides, they have their own urgency that brought us there.”
Anna said, “Lorian made it clear that the worlds interact with each other, so if we do this, everyone will hear about it soon and they’ll know we’re lying.”
Matt nodded, more memories surfacing as he pictured the real champions arriving on one world after another, some of them saying they had heard about a quest on another planet. It was common knowledge that some traveling between the worlds happened. “I can confirm this is true. The worlds interact.”
Jack suggested, “Tell them not to say anything.”
Eric shook his head. “Wouldn’t work for long. I mean, we could try it a few times, but I don’t think it’s a long-term solution.”
Matt had to agree. It would make them look bad. Protecting the reputation of the real champions was one thing, but now they were it and would give themselves a reputation. They were benefiting from the real reputation now and would create a new one that would do more harm to
