The next morning Tamako and Jen were getting ready to head to the battle arena, when there was a knocking at their door. The “apartment” that the Highland Guild rented them turned out to be a large courtyard house. It was in the “safe” part of the City, but right on the edge with the casino district. Even so, it was surrounded by other Highland guildmembers’ “apartments,” and they were all within a gated, walled-in enclosure. They also rented a shack on the outskirts of town where they’d hidden some basic “bug-out” necessities, just in case.

So far, none of the Highland guildmembers living around them did anything other than nod their direction when they entered the gated community on the way to their apartment. When they heard the knock, Tamako and Jen looked at each other in curiosity and some concern, but as they were pulling out their weapons they heard a loud voice, “Jen, Tamako, Sam, it’s me, Lucky-Heart, from the Inn.”

Sam came out of the room that he’d turned into his office, and they all continued to ready their weapons as Jen approached the front door at an angle in case someone smashed through it in an attack, she then hollered, “Whatcha want?”

Lucky was surprised by their refusal to answer in a more friendly tone, as well as the multitude of barely-visible and tiny runes carved into the door, but continued on, “I’ve brought a couple of invitations for you that you might be interested in.”

Sam messaged Jen and Tamako, “Jen, wait a second before you answer the door. I finished this last night while it was still dark, so I haven’t tested it yet, but watch the door.”

Jen and Tamako knew that Sam had been working non-stop around the apartment for the last week on enchantments buffing the mana quantity and quality, as well as some security features. Jen watched as Sam activated an enchantment on the door. Tamako gasped as the door seemed to turn into a hazy window, and they could see Lucky-Heart standing in front of the door with two envelopes in his hand.

Sam messaged, “It’s working better than I hoped. We can see him, but he can’t see us. It’s like a one-way mirror.”

Jen called out to Lucky, “Just a second!” and as she opened the door, the enchantment automatically shut down.

Lucky-Heart’s eyes raised as he noticed they all had their weapons out, not at the ready position, but “ready.”

Jen noticed his look and said, “We were just getting ready to head to the battle arena, do you ever attend or participate?”

Tamako broke into the conversation before Lucky could answer, “Jen! Where are your manners? Lucky, it is so good to see you, please have a seat. Would you like something to drink or eat?”

“No thank ya Mrs. Tamako. I’ll only take up a minute of ya time. I have two invitations for ya all. This one is from my daughter and son-in-law. They have some time scheduled in the re-call area of the arena later this week and have invited ya to join them, if ya like. The details are in this letter.” Lucky replied, and then handed the letter to Tamako. He then looked a little guilty as he turned in Sam’s direction, and said, “The invitation in this letter is from my ex-wife Crapshoot. I don’t know what ya did to impress her, but she is offering to work with ya on enchanting some gear she has. She has also agreed to split the proceeds from the sale of the gear once it goes to auction.”

Sam nodded as Lucky handed him the letter, but then Lucky said, “She made me promise to give ya the letter, but I must warn ya, even though she has a good heart way, way, way deep down, she is terrible difficult to work with. However, her items at auction usually go for quite a lot of gold.”

Sam laughed, and said, “Thanks for the warning. I had a similar impression when we met her last week. I will review the letter and consider her offer.”

Before Lucky to turn to leave, Jen asked, “How’s your granddaughter doing?”

“Thank you for asking Mrs. Jen. She is doing just fine. Her mother and father are home and she’s not stuck being bored at the Inn with her old grandpa! Speaking of which, I’ve got to get back there now. Please stop by anytime for a pint on the house.” Lucky replied, and then waved as he left.

“’Crapshoot’, what a crappy name,” Sam commented with a grin.

Jen rolled her eyes at the horrible pun, but Tamako just ignored him and replied, “They say the worse a name is, the greater the gambling reward to the parents and the child. I’m guessing her reward is pretty darn good if she has continued to use it.”

Jen shook her head, “I know you said your mother put her foot down about your name, but considering your father, I’m still surprised you don’t have a gambling related name.”

Tamako only grunted at Jen’s comment.

Sam could see that Jen’s comments unintentionally put Tamako in a bad mood, and changed the subject, “What’s a recall arena?”

Tamako perked up, “We’re accepting this invitation. The recall setting in one of the battle arena’s training grounds allows full contact sparring. When someone is killed, the arena brings you back to life in the same condition as when you started the sparring match. It won’t fix any equipment that is broken, or replace any scrolls or magic equipment that is used up in your sparring though. Also, the pain of any injuries, until your sparring match is over is, is at 100%.”

Sam asked, “Why do you have to accept their invitation to use the recall arena?”

Jen replied, “Because the City Shop charges you a fortune to make the reservation, and even so it still has a waiting list that is four months long. This invitation to join them is free and it’s scheduled for next week!”

Tamako frowned at Sam, “You will be going too. You’ve only been doing your morning training in the courtyard, and haven’t even been to the practice arena with us even once yet.”

Sam looked peeved and replied, “Well I’ve been a little busy setting all the enchantments up on this house, and I haven't even started on the enchantments for the safe house...err shack!”

Jen didn’t want to hear this argument again, so she asked, “When did you come up with that door enchantment? Does it make the door see-through or turn it into a one-way mirror?”

Sam stared at Tamako before deciding to drop the argument. They both knew that the other was only looking out for the other’s general welfare, but they just had different priorities. As a result, they argued on this topic every few days, but the argument didn’t go deep enough to cause any true anger towards each other. They argued for the exact reason that they cared deeply for one another. Sam then answered Jen’s question, “I know you just want the 5-year old’s answer. Simply put, I carved hundreds of storage ring enchantments into the door. However, I was able to simplify them because they are not storing anything, they just pass light through.”

“O.K. give me the three-year old’s answer, because I don’t understand what that does.”

Sam rolled his eyes, and replied. “I placed two ‘doors’ on each enchantment. One ‘door’ on the outside of the actual front-door, the carving for that enchantment then goes to the corresponding location on the inside, where I created another ‘door’. The storage ring enchantment, simply opens both doors at the same time allowing light to pass through and exit through the ‘door’ on the inside, the light carries what you 'see' with your eyes. That is why Lucky looked blurry when I activated the enchantment. They are like pixels on a computer monitor. If I carved more enchantments, the ‘picture’ of Lucky would get less blurry.”

Tamako stated, “I’m not sure what a computer is, but I think I understand. So, like your other storage ring enchantments, this one doesn’t cost much mana to operate?”

Sam shrugged, “Yes and no. Each enchantment uses almost no mana, but there are literally hundreds that you have to activate to see through the front-door. Still, operating them for 30 seconds or so, should not be a significant drain on any of us."

“That is so cool!” replied Jen.

“Yea, but I won’t be doing them all over the house. Carving the enchantments, even using my ‘dremel’ tool, just simply takes too long.”

Jen nodded, and said, “I know Crapshoot is kind of a bitch, but maybe you could learn some new enchantment tricks if you accept her invitation.”

Tamako laughed and said, “Kind of a bitch?”

Jen snorted a laugh back, “OK, Queen bitch! But that doesn’t help sell the point to Sam. I can’t even imagine what convinced Lucky to marry her.”

Tamako gave Jen a skeptical look, and Jen gave in saying, “O.K. maybe I can see why Lucky married her.”

Sam laughed, “Look, I only have eyes for Kelly, but even Kelly would call me out if I pretended Crapshoot wasn’t incredibly hot. But there is no need to sell the idea to me. I’m definitely accepting her invitation. This will be my first chance to really see how another enchanter works.”

Jen warned with a smirk, “Stay alert. If you impress her too much with your ‘enchanting’ skills she is likely to try and take you to bed!”

“And you have the audacity to roll your eyes at my puns!”