Back at the castle, we have our horses, Void and Backshot, unsaddled and led away by a groom. Never doing chores of any kind has to be the best part of being a lord. Not a minute later, Reka is talking up my "victory" to anyone who will listen. Much to my relief, she doesn't mention the part where I'm not wearing pants. The whole experience is surreal. I guess Reka was right about always carrying my sword, though.

  "How do you fare, my love?" she asks me.

  The servants can't possibly fail to notice the bloodstains I'm covered with. I must smell crazy right now.

  Before I can answer, Galiban, our butler, arrives. "One's first taste of battle has been known to fray the nerves," he says, a hint of concern in his voice.

  I look at Reka and notice she's worried too. "I'm fine, really. It all happened so fast, I just reacted, and the training kicked in. Pig men, or boarfolk, or whatever you call them, look more like animals than people, so it doesn't really bother me that much." There's a beat of silence as everyone stares at me. "That's not racist, is it?"

  Reka laughs at my discomfort. "Not at all, dearest. Boarfolk are vermin, and they menace our crops besides. You did well." She turns to Galiban. "Why, I do believe this merits a feast. Galiban, send my gamekeeper for the boars and figs."

  He bows, always the picture of calm, reserved obedience. "At once, my lady."

  For her part, my wife looks like she just returned from a tea party. None of the dust of the road clings to her riding dress, and those glasses of hers are back on, drawing attention to those big green eyes I like so much. I wonder about the boars. If you can eat them, they aren't really people, I decide. That's what I tell myself, anyway.

  "We'll have to ride out more often," Reka says while we walk back to our tower apartment. "Hunting is part of being a lord, you know. We can thin out the local pest population before the spring planting, and you can get experience fighting on horseback."

  Like she's been doing almost our entire relationship, Reka is planning my life for me. I know that cadence well. There's a whole list of things in her head I need to do.

  Hunting, check; fighting on horseback, check; what's a few more?

  "Anything other than boars out there?" I ask absentmindedly.

  "Oh, plenty of things! Nomadic Orc tribes should be getting pretty hungry this time of year. That hunger might drive them north, right into our hands!" Someone who didn't know her might mistake Reka's chuckle for an evil laugh. "There are bat creatures, rock monsters, oh, you'll need training with a mace or warhammer to deal with them, perhaps a battle axe..."

  I nod along, adding it all to the checklist. "Sword and shield on foot is just the start, right?"

  "Right!" Reka claps her hands excitedly, then she stills and looks away. "Oh!" She turns back so fast it makes me jump. "The lance, of course, the lance! I'll have my carpenter knock together a mechanism for riding at rings, tilting at quintains, and the like. You can hunt boarfolk with proper boarspears! Why, you'll be the finest knight in all the realms, my love!"

  Six more months of training, she told me, and I just got the syllabus. It's all probably doable with that mind acceleration spell Reka has. Compressing years of practice into a few months is nothing for her.

  "The second half of winter and spring are going to be busy," I say out loud. "I'm guessing your plan is for us to go on an adventure come summer?"

  "Just so, Brad! With training and combat experience against the pests in the northern wastes, you'll be A-rank in no time! Oh, how the guilds will love you. We might even get invited to court! The Queen of Elberetheia is always looking for good help, I'm told. I want to get down there, see what's what."

  "Elberetheia?"

  "The kingdom to our immediate south. Still, it's a good month through largely dry and desolate terrain before we'd even reach their border. A party that couldn't generate water out of pure mana, as I can, probably couldn't make the trip!"

  There she goes, laughing evilly again.

  "Knights, tilting...are there tournaments down south?"

  Reka grabs and shakes me to the point it's uncomfortable. "So many tournaments, Brad!" Her green eyes are shining with joy as she invades my personal space, then she tilts her head and puts a finger to her chin. "Although, usually only Elven knights are allowed to participate. I have heard of exceptions being made for the wealthier sort of human noble and high-ranked adventurers, that's you."

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  "Right."

  Humans are second-class citizens. I almost forgot. That's going to be a weird transition. Up here, I'm basically a king. Everybody falls all over themselves to kiss my ass and give me whatever I want. Some arrogant Elf treating me like dirt he just scraped off his shoe might even be interesting.

  "A whole month getting there, then who knows how long we'll be down south. What about Malmark?"

  She doesn't answer immediately. Instead, she hurries me along back to our bedroom, and I wonder if we're going to do it again. In our two years together, there have been times when Reka was just insatiable, usually when she was working on a "major project". I guess everybody needs a way to relieve their stress.

  Imagine my surprise when she raises her arms and does a no shit magical girl transformation into a green-and-gold Renaissance dress with poofy sleeves trimmed with lace. Little motes of light dance up and down her body, essentially 3D printing a new garment right over her skin. No wonder she changes clothes faster than any woman I've ever known! Hax!

  "I don't suppose you can do the same thing for me?"

  She shakes her head sadly. "A pity, no, dearest. Now change out of your riding leathers. We'll be wearing matching green at the feast tonight, green for prosperity!"

  The outfit is already laid out for me when we reach our bedroom. Those maids of Reka's work fast. I put on a green doublet and hose, making me look a bit like Robin Hood.

  "Where to, honey?"

  Reka puts on that white lab coat she brought back from Earth over her green dress. "It's past time to show you something, Brad. Bring your laptop."

  Oh? My interest is piqued. We don't actually have to walk far. Whatever it is, it's on the ground floor of the same tower where our apartment is.

  Reka is all business as she leads me to...mother of God!

  It's a magitek machine shop! I recognize a lathe, a drill press, and a few other odds and ends. This is great! There are runes I can't read etched into each machine, glowing faintly. More than anything, I notice the crystals, glowing crystals, as big as baseballs or even basketballs, cut into intricate many-angled geometries and fitted into special slots. A power source?

  She hands me one. "Hold onto this firmly, no matter what happens," she tells me seriously. "You gave me a lot today, and I don't want to waste it."

  Waste what? I don't have time to think about it as she places her hands over mine.

  At first, it's just a gentle tingling sensation, much like Reka's cleaning spell. Then comes an errant thought, flashes of imagery. I start visualizing the sex we had in the flower field, up against the fig tree. I'm feeling hot; it's so vivid, like experiencing it all over.

  Whatever energy Reka is feeding me passes through my hands to the crystal. Previously clear, it darkens in my grip, becoming opaque, and begins to feel heavier. I've seen this before. The same thing happened with her necklace!

  On and on it goes. The crystal starts vibrating, vibrating so hard it's difficult to hold still. Reka grips my hands firmly, steadying me. "Just a little longer, my love. It's so much more efficient with us both. Focus on the feeling, remember our time together, and let it out."

  That last bit resonates with dark power, making my knees weak. Reka told me sex quite literally charges her magic, but until now, I don't think I really understood what that means.

  Reka, the crystal, and I form a closed circuit. Everything in her passes through me. It's hot, too hot. Pretty soon, I won't be able to hold on! Just when I'm at the end of my endurance, Reka withdraws her hands from my own and gently lifts the crystal away.

  "Oh, Brad, if only you knew what you do for me."

  Her voice sounds far away. I'm breathing hard. My legs are shaking.

  "What...is...that?" I gasp between words, desperately trying to get it together.

  "A power source for our artificers, naturally. With these, any manner of clever devices might be contrived."

  With careless ease, she taps my laptop and summons CAD files for various farming implements. They are displayed not on the screen but in the air, like arcane holograms. I recognize a mechanical reaper, a seed drill, and something I think binds corn together, among others.

  "Reka...how did you ever manage something like this?" I ask in wonder.

  "Not I, my love. Faithful Galiban, at great personal risk, tracked down a certain dwarf for me, a smith of unparalleled skill. The fellow is skilled in precision work and crafted each part by hand from drawings I supplied. Bit by bit, we've been assembling them. Now the work can really begin!"

  "So, Malmark-"

  She holds up a hand to quiet me. "We must be careful, my love, ever so careful. A few labor-saving devices, managed and controlled, will do much for the prosperity of our lands. Your industrial revolution positively turned the world on its head. I would not have it so here."

  I can understand that. The Industrial Revolution ended feudalism. We're basically feudalism.

  "So, what now?" I ask.

  "I want our people to be able to feed themselves without my intervention. That means machines and non-agricultural irrigation. My magic is best spent elsewhere. We'll start with cacao trees and sugar beets, things that wouldn't grow here without a lot of help. For the nonce, I want you training and riding out with parties of my knights, scouring the countryside. Monster hunting operations must expand, providing our tenants with a perimeter of safety."

  Big moves. Reka is dead serious right now. If I know her, and I think I do, she wants us to meet nobles down south as future connections to sell our trade goods. Chocolate will take this world by storm, I'm sure. Meeting them in the guise of adventurers is brilliant. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

  Reka in the magitek machine shop