The Blessed Exchange was a different place from what he recalled. The last time he was here – was inside a beautiful hall with marble sculptures adorned along the walls. All this while he thought the hall itself was the Blessed Exchange. But gone was the elegant hall with a wide platform and the sculptures. He found himself standing on an open field with people popping out of nothing all around him. A little way away in the distance was a large stage with people gathering around it like ants. It was as if he was in a different world altogether.

“Where on Earth is this place?” he mumbled to himself. It didn’t feel like anywhere on earth with the weird black soil and emptiness, it was a cloudless blue sky, but he couldn’t see the sun anywhere. But then again – what on Earth looked like it anymore? Rick wanted to check his location on the World Map but decided against it – there were too many people around to take out the grimoire.

“Hey Rick!” a familiar voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Rick turned around to see Samira and Jay.

“I almost gave up on finding you. This is too many people,” Jay complained.

“How are you, sis?” Rick said giving Samira a warm hug.

“It’s so good to see you. Are you eating well? You look so thin!”

“I hope it is nice to see me too?” Jay chipped in from the side.

“It’s nice to see you too, Jay. Did your wound heal up alright?”

“Yeah, it healed up perfectly. Good job doctor Rick. And hey, sorry we dashed off in such a hurry.”

“I am really sorry we left -”

“I get it. It’s fine. I am just happy to see you guys again,” Rick interrupted. “You know who you should apologize to?”

“Peep!” an audibly excited squeak rang out from under his jacket.

“You can come out Pip,” Rick agreed. As soon the words left his mouth, Pip sprung out and jumped at Samira. “She missed you a lot. Kept whining for more than a week.”

“I am sho shorry Pip.”

Pip looked happy again, as she chirped along trying to nibble at Samira’s finger.

“Should we go then?” Jay said. The avalanche of people was growing by the second as the timer for entering the Blessed Exchange drew closer.

“Can you guys wait for a minute?” Rick requested apologetically.

“Are you waiting for someone?” Samira asked.

“Yeah. You guys remember Dale, right?” Rick asked.

“The thirtyish looking guy with the buzz-cut, right? The one we met here the last time?” Jay asked.

“Yeah,”

“We remember,” Jay chuckled.

“He’s coming. Can you guys wait?”

“Sure,” Jay said. “By the way, did you guys check? There is no auction list.”

“There could be something else happening,” Samira said.

“It better be something good. Otherwise, this crowd isn’t worth it,” Dale complained.

“He should be here soon,” Rick said. The gathering was huge. He had no idea what was the world’s largest gathering was, but this would have defiantly made into the Wikipedia list.

“Never mind, it won’t be better sandwiched there as well,” Jay grumbled. “Just keep talking, distract me.”

“Okay,” Rick racked his brain for an impromptu distraction topic. His usual small-talk topics of new gadgets and the weather were pretty much out the window. “Oh ya, guess who I met. You won’t believe it, Julia Evans.”

“Who is Julia Evans?”

“This drama-queen in Rick’s high-school,” Samira explained.

“Why would that be a good topic? I don’t even know her – bad topic,” Jay grumbled.

“Dale is here,” Rick said in relief. He was too familiar with the small-talk strike was to be comfortable with it.

“Sorry folks. I expected a hall, took a hell of a lot longer to find in whatever this is,” Dale said. Finally, they made their way towards the stage as well. “Nice to meet you again Mr. Jay, Miss Samira, I have heard a lot about you two from Newman’s. It’s amazing what you did there.”

“It’s nothing really,” Samira said her voice trailing off. Her eyes were glued up. She nudged Jay’s shoulder and pointed at the people hanging upside down over the stage, “Jay isn’t that…”

“Oh my god!” Jay replied in surprise. “That’s Kory and that’s Nath.”

“Who are they?” Rick asked.

“That’s Kory, the Beast Master and Nath is-”

“Welcome everyone. Thank you for being so patient,” a crisp voice rang throughout the ground interrupting their conversation. Rick’s eyes snapped towards the stage that suddenly had lights flashing on it. But they were so far away, he could barely make out a figure walk onto the stage. “To the ones that have met me before, nice to see you again and to the new faces, welcome to the Blessed Exchange. I am Maya – the Manager of the Blessed Exchange.”

The crowd settled down immediately and the murmurs of all the conversation around the grounds quieted down.

“It has been quite a while since the last time the Blessed Exchange opened the last time. There were some critiques of my work -” her voice stretched over the last few words. She added, “-and there were some suggestions as well. As some of you may have noticed, many changes have been made to the Blessed Exchange and there are some important announcements.”

“First, I am happy to announce that the Blessed Exchange will remain open constantly from now onwards. If you check your status screen, you will observe that the teleportation-circle's hologram is still there,” Rick immediately touched his temple and opened the Lesser God’s System to check as well. Maya continued, “All you have to do is draw the hologram on any surface – on the ground, a mountainside, a grain of rice, I don’t care. Just make sure you are in touch with the teleportation-circle and then do the same thing you did now. And just like that, you will reach the Blessed Exchange. Any questions?”

Maya stopped her speech and immediately the murmurs started growing within the crowd and not long after people started shouting over each other. Rick looked around at the screaming crowd in a daze, trying to grasp at the possibilities. Long-distance travel could become a thing again, and more importantly this way he could enter and leave the Library without ever having to enter the Celestial City!

“Yes, you. What’s your question?” Maya said pointing at someone.

“Ma’am, the teleportation-circle is very complicated. It will take us days if not more to just draw them. Can’t we just do the same thing as we did just now to reach?” a woman with heavy-set voice spoke from somewhere in the front.

Rick knew how complicated runes could be, even the Lemegeton couldn’t decipher the teleportation-circle. Drawing it would be no doubt be a toll, and he wasn’t sure he could even learn something.

“The simple answer is no,” Maya replied crushing everyone’s hopes. “The teleportation-circle needs to have a physical form to use. It would take a while for you to draw them, especially considering that everyone’s is different, but there is some good news. We will be selling teleportation-circle prints for anyone that wants one.”

Done with her explanation, she pointed towards another.

“What’s the price?”

“You can find it at the Temple. Next question please,” she drawled.

The session quickly turned the mood of the place from that of a concert to that of a lecture. But even after ten questions, the number of hands didn’t seem to decrease. Rick too had his hand in the air.

“You can enter and exit the Blessed Exchange only using your own teleportation-circle.”

“Please don’t lose the teleportation-circle. The second one won’t work if the first one still exists. Even if you have ten teleportation-circles on you, it won’t make any difference. So, make sure you destroy the first to use the second one.”

“You will need to be in touch with the circle to enter. And you will be teleported back to the same place you entered from– no exceptions.”

Every question that Maya answered clarified the limits of the teleportation-circle, but simultaneously crumbled Rick’s hopes.

“Okay, that brings me to the second announcement,” Maya declared to the roar of disappointed groans, “No deadly fights will be tolerated here. We want you to be the heroes that protect the world from the impending invasion, not kill each other. There will be constant vigilance against such behaviour at the Blessed Exchange, and trust me we have means to keep surveillance against such action. You can ask the esteemed dignitaries hanging there.”

Maya pointed at the line of people hanging outside down.

“I realize there need to be consequences for the violation, for that we have also established sanctions. Anyone found guilty will be given a suspension depending on the severity of the crime. The modalities of how guilt will be established and the procedure are in the Blessed Exchange Penal Code, or BEPEC as I call it, and you can issue a copy from the Temple. Any questions?” Maya announced.

Rick’s hand immediately shot up along with everyone else’s.

“What’s the Temple and where is it, Your Highness?” the first question came pouring.

“First of all, my name is Maya,” she clucked disapprovingly. “Second, the Temple will be discussed in detail later, but it is, in essence, a shrine for the Lord. Next question.”

“Miss Maya, if you stop us from exacting justice, this will become a pirate’s den. People will commit crimes and start holing up here,” a gruff voice spoke.

“You mean exacting justice by killing them, right?” Maya smirked, “That’s the rule deal with it. I don’t care for your justice.”

Rick was elated hearing this. This was a piece of great news, after all for all intent and purposes, he was a lawless rogue in the eyes of the Celestial Devotees. But to his surprise, a majority of the crowd did not seem to agree. Even Dale looked visibly unhappy.

“Next question,” Maya declared.

“I think you should reconsider this pacifist ideology crap,” a woman’s voice echoed from somewhere to his left, immediately accompanied by a roar of applause.

“I should reconsider? Okay, let me tell you something. I am informing you of the rules, not negotiating here. If you don’t like the rules of my realm, leave. Did I make myself clear?” Maya’s voice rang throughout the field, silencing the crowd. “Next question please.”

“Ma’am – Miss Maya, can’t we hide here and es-escape the invasion?”

“The Blessed Exchange will not sustain Earth. To that effect, the rules for entry will have to be changed when the invasion begins. But please do not mistake the Blessed Exchange to be a bomb shelter.”

“That brings me perfectly to the next announcement. The Blessed Exchange will no longer be limited just to auctions at the Temple anymore. We are expanding our services and allow our heroes to utilize the Blessed Exchange as best they see fit,” Maya said enthusiastically. The anger in her voice had completely disappeared. “For just a small price, you can now buy a piece of the Blessed Exchange – you can purchase land. Build a laboratory, a restaurant, a gourmet, a book shop, school – the possibilities are limitless. It’s your land, you can do whatever you want, provided it doesn’t violate the BEPEC. Any questions?”

“What’s the procedure for this?” the first question sprang out immediately, but Rick did not hear a word what was answered. He could hardly keep his wits about.

“She actually did it?” he whispered looking over at Samira. His face was taut as he smiled foolishly at the announcement. Maybe Maya had the idea to do it as well but decided to take a little bit of credit for it as well.

“What do you want to name the shop?” she replied with a beaming smile.