Morning in Graybarrow. The pub hadn't been destroyed in weeks. The mushroom kids were playing catch with a glowing beetroot. Life was good.

  I sipped my tea with both hands, savoring the earthy bitterness. I was sitting cross-legged on a floating stump that only hovered when properly complimented—today, it had chosen to rise because I’d whispered, “You’re the most stable thing in my life.” It appreciated that.

  Unfortunately, that was the truth.

  I took another sip and closed my eyes, feeling the rare calm of a town not currently on fire, cursed, or both. Just cobblestone, morning sun, and the faint scent of baked rootbread from the nearby vendor stalls.

  Then the screaming started.

  Not panicked screaming—Graybarrow had tiers of alarm, and this was somewhere between "someone’s goat exploded" and "the gnomes are doing religion again." I cracked one eye open.

  A young apprentice sprinted into the square, out of breath, hair covered in something white and goopy. "Mayor! Sir! We need you. Urgent."

  I sighed and set my tea down. "If this is about those cookies Yuuhi made, I already classified them as food hazards."

  Yuuhi was our town's witch. Bright-eyed, perpetually barefoot, and dangerously optimistic. And she... liked to experiment.

  "Worse," the boy wheezed. "The gnome cult’s back and they’re trying to bless the well with fermented cheese."

  Damn gnomes. Must be trying to turn our water into whey wine. Drunks.

  I snorted. "Of course they are."

  I groaned and stood. "Tell the others I’ll go—"

  But the air around me began to shudder, a high-pitched whine building like a migraine with opinions. The stump dumped me without apology. Crimson runes burst into light beneath my boots.

  "Oh come on," I muttered, glancing skyward. "What is this?"

  The portal detonated in a flash of searing red and yanked me out of Graybarrow.

  ***

  I landed hard—stone cracking beneath me, heat blasting my face. The sky above was split with lightning and the roar of something monstrous. Soldiers screamed. Magic clashed. A dragon—an actual, gods-damned dragon—raged across the battlefield like a firestorm.

  I staggered upright, blinking through the smoke and flashing lights, instinctively falling into a defensive stance. My ears rang. My brain protested.

  What in the actual hells?

  A shadow passed overhead—a winged shape far too large to be comforting. I turned just in time to see a dragon sweep past, scales black as coal, mouth dripping molten fury.

  To my left, someone moved.

  A woman, fighting with deadly grace, blade carving arcs through summoned flame and shadow. Her presence was commanding, fierce—a warrior locked in the middle of a battle I didn't understand.

  I turned to her, my voice sharp. "What the hell is going on?!"

  She didn’t even look at me. "You’re my summon. Help me kill that thing and I’ll explain."

  I stared, stunned. Everything around me—fire, blood, screaming, a dragon—was already too much. Now this woman, mid-swing, was claiming I was her summon?

  My voice rose half a pitch. “I’m your what now?”

  She still hadn’t looked at me. “Just start hitting things. Big ones. Preferably the dragon.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but a massive blast of fire erupted nearby, sending debris hurtling past us. The woman flinched, stumbling to a knee. One of her summoned hounds flickered out in a burst of smoke.

  "Okay," she coughed, clearly winded, "anytime now would be great."

  I blinked. "You’re losing."

  "Brilliant observation. Anything else? Maybe a recipe for not dying?"

  I sighed, dusting ash off my shoulder. "Fine. But I’m billing you for this. And don’t expect follow-up service."

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I stepped forward. The air shifted. A low hum thrummed out from me, deep and unnatural. Well, for anyone but me.

  The dragon turned.

  I raised one hand lazily, and the earth answered. A pillar of dark crystal erupted beneath the beast, impaling one of its wings and sending it screaming into the mountainside with a deafening crash.

  Everything went still for half a second.

  The woman turned her head slowly. "...Okay. What the hell are you?"

  I cracked my neck. "Retired."

  She stared at me for a moment longer, then turned just in time to deflect a swipe from a straggling shadow-beast. Her blade sparked on contact, and she grunted, pushing her weapon through its neck.

  "Well, Retired," she said, breathing hard, "you're officially hired."

  I arched an eyebrow. "That’s not how retirement works."

  "Neither is being yanked across dimensions by a summoning glyph that definitely wasn’t supposed to work. Yet here you are."

  I glanced at the carnage still smoldering around us, then at her. "You did this by accident?"

  "Technically, the scroll summoned 'the strongest available ally in a five-realm radius.'"

  I stared at her flatly. "You're lucky I was feeling... charitable."

  "Charitable? You leveled a dragon."

  "It was loud. I don’t like loud."

  She wiped soot from her cheek and offered a hand. "Kira. Hero summoner."

  I hesitated, then shook it. "Nojin. Mayor of a very peaceful village that I would very much like to get back to."

  Kira smirked. "Well, good news then. I can send you back."

  I blinked. "Wait. You can?"

  Thank the old gods. Maybe this nightmare has a door.

  "Yeah. But also bad news. I can summon you back any time."

  I stared at her, aghast. "You mean—"

  "Yep. Emergency dragon? You're on speed dial now, Mayor."

  Of course. There’s always a catch. Every time I think the universe has hit rock bottom, it finds a shovel.

  I looked to the sky and muttered something profane under my breath.

  "Hey, at least you didn’t get stuck here permanently," Kira said cheerfully.

  I groaned. "Is this how you treat all your summons?"

  She shrugged, clearly unfazed. "Only the reluctant ones. Look, I’ll make it up to you."

  I narrowed my eyes. "If you say anything about baked goods, I’m out."

  "Please. I was going to offer my body."

  I blinked. "I’m good, thanks."

  She’s joking. Probably. Hopefully. Don’t think about it.

  She gasped in mock offense. "Rude. You didn’t even consider it."

  "I considered it. Then I remembered I like quiet evenings and not being stabbed."

  And I have council meetings in the morning. Not to mention whatever the gnomes are doing right this second to the well.

  Her blade sparked on contact, and she kicked a straggling enemy backward, sending it tumbling into a wall of arcane flame.

  Kira glanced over her shoulder at me. "So, are you like this with everyone, or just the women who summon you mid-apocalypse?"

  I gave her a dry look. "Only the ones who interrupt municipal budgeting."

  "Sounds like a blast."

  "You joke, but if you saw what gnomes classify as 'sanitation protocol,' you'd understand true horror."

  She snorted, slicing through another beast. "You’re oddly calm for someone freshly summoned."

  I shrugged. "I compartmentalize."

  Also, this isn’t even in the top ten weirdest things that have happened since the mushroom kids learned how to teleport.

  Kira turned back to the fight, but there was a smile tugging at her mouth. "Well, Mayor Nojin, you’re either the best mistake I’ve ever made—or the deadliest."

  I raised a brow. "You say that like those are mutually exclusive."

  Gods help me, she’s going to make this a recurring thing.

  I could end this fight in seconds. Crush the rest of these creatures, silence the battlefield, and walk away. Maybe she’d send me back faster. Maybe I could even salvage the rest of my morning.

  But if I do that... if I show her what I’m really capable of...

  She’ll summon me again. Every time. Without warning. Without hesitation.

  Dammit.

  I let out a guttural, frustrated roar—half fury, half resignation—and stepped forward. The ground shuddered.

  Darkness surged from my shadow like a storm uncoiling. With a single motion, I hurled a pulse of energy across the field. Where it struck, the air cracked and folded inward. Enemies turned to ash mid-charge. A second wave tried to regroup—I crushed them under pillars of obsidian rising like jagged teeth from the battlefield.

  Screams echoed. Then silence.

  Kira, panting, slowly turned to look at the empty field of destruction. Her eyes widened.

  I exhaled, expression unreadable. "Happy?"

  She blinked. "A bit turned on, actually. But yeah, happy works too."

  I didn’t answer immediately. I just stared at the field, then at her, and then groaned like someone who realized his tea was probably cold by now.

  "Right. Great. Now send me back."

  Kira tilted her head. "Already tired of me?"

  "Yes. And this war. And this plane. And being dragged away from serious business without notice."

  "But we just bonded," she teased.

  "I vaporized a dragon, not adopted a puppy. Send. Me. Back."

  She raised a brow. "Say please."

  "Do you want me to annihilate you?"

  Kira rolled her eyes. "You can’t. Summoner. Summon contract. Magical hierarchy. I own your face right now."

  I glared. "I didn’t agree to anything."

  She shrugged. "It’s a one-sided contract."

  Of course it is. There's a good chance I could overwhelm her magic and break the contract. But there's an equally good chance that would kill her...

  And then what? Be stuck here? Spending my days trying to find a way back?

  No. Not worth the risk. Not yet.

  She waited.

  I exhaled sharply. "Please."

  She grinned and made a flicking gesture with her fingers. A glyph lit beneath me.

  "Wait," she added, smirking. "This might tickle."

  Light flared beneath my feet. The world warped. Magic wrapped around me like a taut rope snapping back into place.

  Just before I vanished, I muttered, "If someone burned down the tavern while I was gone, I’m blaming you."

  And then I was gone, yanked backward through the realms like a coin flipping through time.

  I landed exactly where I’d left—on the stone patio in front of my home. My tea cup was still on the step, now cold and probably ruined by stray portal heat. The stump hadn’t even bothered to float back up.

  The apprentice was sitting on a bench nearby, legs swinging, face pale.

  He blinked at me, opened his mouth, closed it, then pointed slowly toward the well. "The gnomes... they’re still at it."

  I sighed and picked up my mug. "Yeah, yeah. I’m coming."