CH88

After dinner Karly and Glob went up first, Karly to hide some of the emotions welling up from getting a taste of home after so long, and Glob just needing to recover more from the vicious beatdown he received.

Ben and Thera quickly followed, heading to their own rooms, but Ben faced a problem. Thera had seemed a bit out of sorts since the meal started.

“Everything okay Thera? Did your training go well?”

“Yeah it was fine. No progress yet but that’s not shocking.”

“Okay, how did you like the meal?”

“It was alright I guess.”

“Just alright? Too bad, I’ll have to try a bit harder to impress you next time.”

That at least got a little smile from her. “Maybe it just wasn’t to my taste. Mind if I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“When you said you and Karly felt the same things over dinner, what were you talking about?”

“Oh that? Just that we both miss our homes and feel kind of screwed over to have been brought back to life just to fight and die. You know, the light and fun stuff I’m sure plenty of other summoned are dealing with.”

“Oh is that it,” She seemed strangely relieved and he ventured to make a joke.

“You don’t need to worry about losing your husband to another woman, I’ve only got my eyes on you princess.” He said it with a laugh, hoping to show he was just teasing, but when he looked over to her her face was flushed and she wouldn’t look at him.

“Don’t be stupid, and enough with the princess nonsense. I need to get some sleep so I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Sounds good, sleep well.”

Maybe that was a little too much?

She seemed pretty uncomfortable from that and he felt bad, he just meant to have some fun. She was probably feeling a bit conscious of the issue of their engagement, at least Ben knew he was. Joking about it was going to be one of the ways he processed it, but he needed to make sure he didn’t do it too much to bother Thera, or at the very least gauge her reaction. Next time there would be no princess comment at least, maybe doing both was a bit over the top.

With Thera asleep though it was time to take on a whole other issue and he ignored the door to his room, looping around to get back to Globs and knocking on his door.

“I’m asleep! No low-worlders allowed!”

“Open the door Glob or I’m coming in anyway.”

“Good luck! It’s actually locked this time.”

“Oh no, a flimsy deadbolt, whatever will I do?” Ben reached into his pocket and prepared two small tools he’d grabbed in advance in case the grey decided to be difficult. A wedge and a pocket hammer.

He might not know how to pick a lock, but there were plenty of ways to beat one, and he slid the wedge to the same height the bolt in his room between the door and its frame and gave it a quick and powerful blow with his hammer, breaking the bolt and letting himself in before anyone could peek out to see what had happened.

The moment the door was closed though, Glob had him trapped, A barrier completely encasing him like a mime in a box.

“Alright, looks like you got in. Now what do you want?”

“I’m assuming you haven’t spoken to your little grey friend since you woke up?”

“What? No, are you an idiot? Nevermind, of course you are. I told you they sometimes sneak out to hang out, it’s not like they’re constantly around.”

“Come on Globolgork buddy, I’m not falling for that again. Giving it some thought, the idea that a summoned hero could sneak off to another country for a few days without causing some sort of panic is ridiculous, I bet there’d probably be concerns about countries stealing each other’s heroes too. Besides, you know I got you out of the trial right? How did you think that happened?”

“Who cares? I’m alive and don’t get me wrong, I even appreciate it, but get the hell out.”

“I was led Glob.” He told him, ignoring his fellow otherworlder. “By another grey.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Ben wasn’t sure what a grey’s body language was meant to convey, but worldspeak+ must have had an effect on tone because he was sure if the little alien could he’d be sweating.

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“Then let me spell it out for you. I know you’re still in contact with your world.”

As the words left his mouth another grey appeared. “That’s enough Globolgork, we were hoping to get the chance to talk to you about what happened before anything came of it, but it looks like there’s no such luck. So human,” It said as it turned to address Ben. “What matters is what you plan to do with this information.”