Leaving Zora’s with wet feet, Luka, Eve, and little Leo ventured through Sneerhome toward the gates. Annie and Vlad would meet them back at the park when they were done in the city, likely in time for dinner.

  “I’m glad Zora is coming back to the village,” Eve said. “I wonder if Mayor Tram is going to send letters to the other residents who left. They’ll all have jobs here if they move back, right?”

  “Of course,” Luka replied. “They’d be doing me a favor, honestly. We’ll soon be expanding significantly, and we need all the help we can get.”

  “Well, if Tram doesn’t send the letters, I will—” She froze. Luka and Leo did as well.

  A dozen paces forward, a rift in time and space opened and a man as large as a house stepped through. He was a giant—literally. They were a race of people not native to this side of the world—a world Luka still did not know the name of. The man stood ten meters tall, had a wild black mane that cascaded down his head and neck. He wore a red cape with the Kingdom of Ember’s sigil, and a wizard robe made from enough fabric to jumpstart a tailor.

  The giant looked around, pushing relatively tiny glasses up his wide nose. People stopped and stared, more so due the fact he stepped through a crack in reality than his size. Giants weren’t unusual, even in these parts, but magical giants were.

  His eyes landed on Luka and Eve. “Excuse me, good denizens, are one or multiple of you the World Walker known as Luka?”

  They both blinked at him as Leo tried to sniff his massive sandaled foot.

  “Multiple of us?” Eve muttered.

  The giant heard and said, “I don’t judge.”

  “What does that—”

  Luka cleared his throat and asked, “Are you Alex’s ‘uncle?’”

  The giant smiled. “Yes, it is I, Uncle Blomfum, as you surely noticed from my niece’s striking resemblance to me.”

  Eve leaned over and whispered, “He might not judge, but I do—”

  Blomfum bellowed at her words, rattling the nearby shops’ windows. “A well-made joke! Little orc, what is your name?”

  Eve recoiled as if she was stabbed. “Little?”

  Luka mutely gasped. He may not be very old in this world yet, but even he knew not to call an orc “little” or one of the many synonyms. They took pride in their natural muscles, even going so far as to officially petition the tribes for rite by combat when things are taken too far.

  “Ah, yes, the great orc lady, Little! What a wonderful name!” Blomfum said normally, his size naturally increasing his volume several times over.

  Eve sputtered. “What is even happening right now?”

  Luka answered, “Alex wanted to help the park, I asked if she knew anything about the Guilds. She said she’d send a message to her uncle. I wasn’t expecting a response for a week or two…”

  “Such is the amazing efficiency of magic!” the giant boomed. “Within two hours of receiving my dear niece’s message, I have arrived from my home at the castle!”

  “And you just knew where we were?” Eve asked. As the second most knowledgeable magic user in the village, only behind her aunt, she found the man’s words… a bit much.

  “Indeed! Such is the wonder of magic! I cast a single locating spell and here I step!”

  “You mean ‘teleported,’ right?” Luka asked.

  Blomfum wagged a meaty finger. “On the contrary! I only took a single step! Across space, yes, but a single step was all it took!”

  “What?”

  “He opened a portal and stepped across,” Eve mumbled.

  “Lovely! Little knows about the mystical arts! What discipline do you master?”

  The name made her grimace. Still, this man was potentially her future uncle-in-law… She shivered at the thought. “Glyphs.”

  Blomfum’s grin did not waver. “A simplistic discipline, yes. But one that beholds the basis of true magic!”

  Eve frowned at that, suddenly feeling small.

  Luka noticed. And—if this man was anyone other than the leader of the Guilds, he might have let it go, uncle to the princess or not. But, with everything the Guilds had put them through, he wasn’t going to get pushed around. Give an inch to these people, and they’d take the cosmos.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He stepped on air, magically forming steps under his soles. Blomfum’s eyes widened, and he intently watched the show. Luka ignored him and scaled the open air, ending eye-level with the giant.

  “Apologize.”

  Blomfum’s smile wavered. “Excuse me?”

  “I said, apologize.”

  “For what?”

  “First of all, you insulted Eve by calling her ‘Little.’ Joke or not, it is rude. Secondly, you belittled her glyph knowledge by toting superiority in your own discipline. Thirdly, you ignored Eve’s obvious annoyance and discomfort. I gave you the benefit of the doubt for the first two, since you’re Alex’s ‘uncle.’ I don’t care who you are or not, at this point—especially since the local branch of the Guilds has already ruined their relationship with me and my park.”

  Blomfum regarded him for a long moment. They stared at each other, a giant through his small glasses, and a World Walker standing on air. It was the former who looked away first. He scratched his massive head, guilt washing over his face.

  “Sorry,” he said to Eve. “I meant no offense. Perhaps it has been too long since I last left the castle.” His shoulders dropped. “I… may not seem it, but I have issues with meeting new people. Perhaps I used ill-thought-out humor to ease my own worries.”

  Eve held his gaze for a moment. “Apology accepted.” The giant’s smile returned. “But I’m not sure why you’re here.”

  “Ah! A simple request by my dear niece. It is rare for her to call upon me, if at all, and I set out to remedy her situation as quickly and effectively as possible.” He looked at Luka, who was still in the air. “She asked me to assist you.”

  “With the Guilds, yes,” he said. “I need alchemy reagents and Sneerhome’s branch has done everything in their power to circumvent our agreement and scam myself and my employees.”

  Luka didn’t truly think of the park workers as his employees, especially the original villagers, but the point had to be said. The Guilds were buzzing flies that held the keys to a valuable treasure horde behind fake smiles and convoluted contracts.

  Blomfum hummed.

  Luka, however, felt the need to clear the air. “And thank you for coming. My words may have been harsh, but after the stunts the Guilds pulled recently, I’m not pulling any punches, so to speak. I’m afraid you were caught in the crossfire.”

  “No harm done.” A table made of magical essence appeared before the giant, along with matching chairs of proper size for him and others. “Please, sit. Let us discuss the issue.”

  It seemed as though they forgot they were in the middle of the street, because they all sat down without a care in the world. Not that anyone dared tell them—a giant wearing the kingdom’s sigil and a World Walker meeting on their street? Nope! They suddenly lived elsewhere or needed to visit a shop two streets over! Whatever was happening here was none of their business!

  “It all started when we leveraged the true basic illusionary glyph to get out of a Guilds fine—”

  Blomfum gasped, sucking in enough air to put out a forest fire. “That was you? I thought it was a mystic named Sol!?”

  “My aunt,” Eve said.

  “Before my niece asked me to visit, I was planning on an official visit to properly thank her! So many of our magics have been revolutionized already! That portal spell I used to step here wasn’t possible three months ago!”

  That surprised Luka, but then again, he didn’t understand just what the correct basic glyph did, so. He was probably missing out on something fundamental to magic, like how gravity is a fundamental force of physics. What if all his knowledge of gravity was wrong? How many things would change back on Earth?

  Blomfum was silent for a moment before saying, “You said something about this Guilds branch scamming you?”

  Luka answered, “Trying to, yes. We signed a contract, and they proceeded to try and get anyone at the park to sign a new one that would completely nullify the old one. They lied about what was in the contract and about the laws we ‘would be breaking’ if we didn’t sign. They proceeded to harass us for hours on end.”

  “Hmm, yes. I can see how that would be troubling.” His eyes turned milky white. “Allow me a moment to view the past’s events. I will get to the bottom of this.”

  Still feeling awkward about snapping at the man who came all this way to help, Luka said, “Regardless of what happens, I want to invite you to the park. I’m sure Alex would love to see you and introduce you to her boyfriend—”

  Blomfum’s eyes snapped back to gentle brown, his past-viewing spell ended. He was suddenly on his feet, anger bubbling like boiling tar. His next few words were anything but gentle, however. “Her what!?” He practically shouted, every window for the next five streets over shaking under his low tone.

  Luka awkwardly scratched her chin. “I, uh. Did Alex not talk about him in her message to you?”

  The giant mage scoffed. “No, she did not!” Magic coursed through his veins, blossoming through his mighty fingers. “And no, she will not! Not if I have anything to say about this! Who is this miscreant who dares besmirch my wonderful niece?”

  Eve’s palms met her face. “My brother.”

  Blomfum growled, magic bending reality to his will. He snapped his fingers, and a portal directly to Alex and Franky ripped open. He stepped through.

  The others did as well.

  Alex froze, mid lick of an ice cream cone. “Oh, hi uncle. I didn’t know you were coming personally…”

  Franky perked up, melted chocolate spilling down his fingers. “Unc—”

  Blomfum knelt in front of the relatively tiny orcish man, leveling their eyes. He stared deep into Franky’s soul, searching his inner being like a true magic user. Suddenly, his harsh expression softened. Then tears the size of fists welled. Whatever he saw, whatever was inside Franky, was as soft as a pillow made of clouds and as wholesome as a box of kittens.

  The giant expressed as much. “You have such a beautiful heart, little orc! I’m glad my niece has met one as pure as you!”

  Alex, Luka, Eve, little Leo, every guard, and all the gawking park goers, stared wide-eyed.

  Franky, on the other hand, his eye twitched. “Little?” he asked, haunted.