Lunch had been an absolute blast, and the two ate until they were stuffed. In spite of their best efforts, there was still a lot of food left and Trevor made sure to transfer everything he could to the plates, bowls, and containers he had bought for this single reason. Even with his stomach close to bursting, he was looking forward to the next meal.

“Trevor, I know I’m not in any position to make demands,” Adabelle started. “But I must insist that you keep working with Klarkartar.”

Taking a deep breath, Trevor nodded as he left a tip on the table. “That is absolutely a demand I’m willing to get behind, Adabelle.”

The two were in good spirits as they left Matteo’s and headed back to the park. There was a lull in the foot traffic as many people were eating lunch, which allowed them much more room to explore. Despite this, they still walked arm in arm as if they were glued to each other.

As it turned out, the park was one of the busiest places in the entire festival. Because it circled the entire castle, which was a central point in the city, it was one of the easiest places for everyone to reach. There were games, shops, and food stalls set up everywhere, and a musician or group was playing at nearly every bridge.

Trevor found himself stopping everywhere that caught his interest, including some places that caught his eye from across the bridges. It made for very slow going but Adabelle happily enabled his behavior, and they lost themselves in the festival’s atmosphere.

When they finally found the place where they could board the gondola after an hour or two of wandering, they were quickly picked out and brought to the front of the line where they were given a boat all to themselves. Trevor was dumbstruck as the gondolier, an orcish man at the front of the boat, shoved off with just the two of them on board.

“Did we get special treatment because you’re a noble?” he asked, turning to Adabelle.

She leaned against him and shook her head. “No. I may be well known, but I’m not that well known. It’s because you’re showing off to everyone that you’re a Summoned.”

Lifting his arm, Trevor looked at his tattoo. It was true that he generally kept it covered, though that had been due to the weather more than anything. Once it warmed up he would have no problems in shorts and a t-shirt, as that was his go-to back on Earth, but even then he didn’t consider it showing off.

Seeing his confusion, Adabelle continued. “The Summoned are just as important as the nobles in Lucent, and much more popular. We’re the country that does the most rituals, and we have the greatest success rate of people that Jackson would call good eggs. Like you, Trevor. The vast majority of them become adventurers, and they go around helping people and protecting the civilians from threats that the guards can’t handle without casualties.”

“So they’re treated like real life superheroes,” Trevor concluded.

“That’s something I’ve heard people from Earth say, yes,” she agreed. “They often get special privileges for their service, such as skipping ahead in lines and getting a gondola all to themselves. Since you’re showing off your tattoo, they assumed that you were an adventurer.”

Dropping his arm, Trevor looked back at Adabelle. “But I haven’t done anything,” he whispered. “We could have let other people join us, at least.”

Looking around, he could easily see everyone watching the river. Some of the people were sitting over the edge, their legs dangling in the water, while others were simply watching. A group of children waved enthusiastically at them, and the young man waved back with a smile.

“I, for one, don’t mind being alone with you like this,” Adabelle said, squeezing his arm a little tighter. “Plus, you certainly deserve this, even if you don’t think you do. And, because I know you never think you’ve done enough, at least be at ease knowing that I’ve sufficiently earned both a cut in line and a ride together with you.”

“Oh yeah, that’s fair,” Trevor chuckled, and a thought occurred to him. “But a Summoned’s tattoo could be anywhere, right? With only the king’s being in the same spot every time? What about those who have it in a place where they can’t really show it off?”

“There are magical badges that adventurers can receive from the castle,” she explained. “Wayne likened it to a get out of jail free card, though if it’s constantly used like that then it’s going to get revoked. That used to happen a lot, but things have been better recently.”

“Do you have a badge?” Trevor asked.

Adabelle seemed surprised by the question before grinning. “Are you actually curious about a badge?” she teased quietly. “Or are you trying to fish for information on where my tattoo is?”

Trevor hesitated, because he hadn’t been thinking about it before but he absolutely was now. “That depends, did you say I was fishing because we’re on a boat?”

The woman blinked before laughing and shaking her head. “You’re trying to change the subject.”

“Yeah, kind of,” he admitted. “It was just kind of a reflexive question. I really wasn’t trying to figure it out, but now I’m very curious.”

“Well,” Adabelle whispered with a sly smile, leaning her head against his shoulder to look up at him. Her eyes sparkled in a way he noticed only happened when she teased him. “Perhaps, if you’re lucky, you’ll eventually see it.”

“Oh,” Trevor stuttered out. “Well, I, uh, I think I’m already pretty lucky. So. Yes.”

“Don’t get flustered on me, Son of Ander,” she laughed, sitting up straight as she tapped on his chest. “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. My tattoo is vertical beside my spine, so even if I’m wearing something that shows it off my hair is always in the way.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything bad,” he claimed quickly.

“Oh, really?” she challenged, scooting away from him to get a better look. “Then why is your face all red?”

“What do you mean? I’m always like this. All the time.”

Reaching up, Adabelle pat him on the cheek. She couldn’t seem to help that smug smirk she wore. “Of course, Trevor, of course.”

Despite her teasing, or perhaps because of it, Trevor couldn’t help but laugh, and she quickly joined him. He was glad that she was comfortable enough to playfully jab at him like this, and he realized again how pleasant it was to have someone like Adabelle at his side.If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Trevor had thought that he would be a nervous wreck the entire date, but found that it was actually the opposite; he was very relaxed. The time he spent with Adabelle before asking her out had given him a solid platform on which to be at ease, and knowing that she was a kindred spirit soothed him. Anxiety could have been hiding underneath all of the giddy excitement and rampant happiness he was feeling, but there was no bursting those bubbles.

“I’m very happy,” he suddenly stated, the thought needing to be vocalized.

Adabelle's smug look changed to one of contentment. “I’m very glad to hear that, Trevor,” she replied.

Behind her, something curious caught Trevor’s attention. A building had been erected in the park, one that didn't belong here. He knew that because he had seen a larger version of it somewhere else before.

“Um, excuse me gondola man, but can we get off?”

“Sure, give me a moment,” the orc replied.

“What is it?” Adabelle asked curiously.

“I think I see something from Tosa that definitely shouldn’t be here,” he said as the boat headed to the shore.

Not quite sure what Trevor was talking about, Adabelle still went with the flow. They stepped off of the gondola and the young man tossed the orc a gold coin. The gondolier's face lit up as he bowed deeply before deciding to take on passengers from his impromptu stop.

Trevor took Adabelle’s hand, her fingers intertwined with his, and started walking through the trees to where he had seen the structure. He knew that her Speed was far higher than his own, but she seemed content to be dragged through the crowd even as she weaved between people with far more skill than he.

They stopped in front of a small tower nestled perfectly between the trees off of a heavily treaded path. It looked exactly like one of the buildings in Tosa, just as Trevor had suspected, but smaller. There was no door, and the bottom opened up to reveal a shop full of bags of all shapes and sizes. Sitting in the middle of the room was the familiar figure of a short human wizard.

“Melvirn?” Trevor asked.

Tosa’s high wizard blinked and turned his head to regard the newcomers. “Trevor!” he exclaimed, standing up. A second later he noticed Adabelle, and bowed. “And Lady Adabelle, as well. What a surprise running into you two here.”

“We are away from Tosa on business, and enjoying the festival,” Adabelle said, slipping into her noble voice. Trevor attempted to let go of her hand in case that made her uncomfortable, but all that did was make her tighten her grip.

“As am I, as am I,” Melvirn nodded as he stroked his thick beard. He didn't seem to notice their hand holding. “I come to the festival every year to sell my wares for a little extra funding, you see. It’s only been a few hours, but the Anderson Bags are going out better than I expected.”

“Anderson Bags?” Trevor asked. It was clear they were named after him, but he was still surprised.

He started moving around the sales floor, looking at each of the bags. Most were labeled as simple extradimensional spaces of varying sizes depending on the container, but some empty spaces were labeled as Anderson Bags in big, eye-catching letters.

“Yes, these are bags that I made based on our joint experiment together,” Melvirn explained. “Do you not remember discussing it? We did right before you left.”

Trevor hesitated, feeling guilty. The events of the night after their collaboration was a bit of a blur as Melvirn said a lot of things that went in one ear and out the other. Magical theory followed by arcane hypothesis followed by a lecture on mana recovery and storage. The young man hadn’t made sense of it then, but didn’t have the heart to say so.

“Well, it’s no matter,” the wizard claimed as Trevor didn’t answer. “As we agreed, once we’re both back in Tosa then you’ll receive 40% of all profits received from the sale of Anderson Bags.”

That, at least, the young man vaguely remembered. “How many did you make?”

“And how much are you selling them for?” Adabelle added.

“Because it was such a short notice, I was only able to make six. I worked tirelessly day and night to get ready for the festival,” Melvirn admitted. “Of those, I still have two left and the materials for three more, though they are rare and expensive and on backorder for months to come. Oh, but the price, right. For Lady Adabelle, I can discount it to a platinum coin.”

Both Trevor and Adabelle bristled at the price. “A whole platinum?” she asked. “And that’s discounted?”

The wizard grinned. “I'm selling this first batch for two,” he said slyly.

She released Trevor’s hand to cross her arms. “Melvirn, that’s a very hefty price. And people have actually bought them?”

“Yes!” he laughed. “Lady Adabelle, I don’t think I need to expound upon you the merits of a dimensional bag.”

“You don’t,” she agreed, her voice cautious.

“But these Anderson Bags-“

“There’s got to be a better name,” Trevor sighed.

“There’s not,” Melvirn said, not at all upset that he was interrupted. He pulled down two bags from the back wall. One was a large canvas backpack not unlike Trevor's, and the other was a black messenger bag that, to the young man, looked like it was perfect for carrying a laptop. “These are my last two, and I don’t expect them to last the afternoon.”

“Despite costing two platinum,” Adabelle stated.

“Quite right. Because, despite the fact that they look like regular dimensional bags, an Anderson Bag can hold three, almost four times as much as a bag of the same size.”

Trevor didn’t know enough about dimensional bags to consider that a good thing or not, but it sounded impressive. He had carefully watched Adabelle’s expression to gauge just how much better they were, and was surprised to see her arms drop.

“It’s that much better?” she asked incredulously. “That’s not just a sales pitch, but actual results, correct?”

“Oh yes, Lady Adabelle,” Melvirn said with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s absolutely going to revolutionize the field of extradimensional spaces for years to come. Trevor here has basically turned the whole study onto its head in one afternoon, though that’s to be expected from a Summoned whose Power aligns so well. Still, it is rather extraordinary, don’t you think?”

“He sure is,” Adabelle said, turning to smile at the young man. He gave her a smile back, unable to help himself, before she turned back to the wizard. “I’ll take the smaller of the two.”

“The smaller of the two?” Melvirn repeated.

“Yes. I don’t much care for backpacks, but a courier is perfect for me,” she confirmed as a platinum coin appeared in her hand. Trevor wasn’t sure where it came from, but he wasn’t about to ask.

“Excellent, Lady Adabelle,” the wizard said with a bow. He handed her the bag as she paid for her purchase. Trevor was uncomfortable that his date had bought something so expensive that was named after him, but wasn’t quite sure how to voice his concerns.

“Would you like me to take that for you?” Trevor asked instead.

“No, I’ll wear it out,” Adabelle replied as she slipped it on over her shoulder. She adjusted her hair afterwards, and patted the bag gently with her hand. Since it was black, it matched well with her outfit. Once she was settled, she turned to Melvirn and bowed. “Thank you. We’ll see you back in Tosa. Have a safe journey home.”

“You as well, Lady Adabelle, and Trevor,” Melvirn said happily.

After a round of goodbyes, they stepped outside as Adabelle continued to fidget with her new bag. “If it’s as good as he says it is, then a platinum is a steal,” she said once she caught him staring at her.

That wasn’t what he was watching her for. A smile bloomed on his lips. “A courier is perfect for you, huh?”

Adabelle’s ears twitched as if she hadn’t been expecting to hear her words again, and she took his hand so she could lead him away. “There's still plenty of daylight left before it gets dark, so let’s go see what else there is before then, shall we?”

“Sure, lady, let’s keep going,” Trevor chuckled, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.