Ferrith snorted a laugh. “For what you charge, it better.”

“Why?” I asked. “Is it expensive?”

“Do you care?” Gora challenged. “You aren’t the one paying.”

“Well, can you give me more of an explanation of what it actually does?” I asked. “The main thing for me is just being able to understand what people are saying.”

“Well, Information Overlay will do that. It filters and analyzes everything you see and hear and feeds that information back to you as overlay text only you can see. Not only will you be able to hear and talk to others just like with Tongues, you’ll also be able to read. Writing can be done, but it’s not as seamless. The most useful features don’t even involve language. It can read you off stats about your own body and explain unfamiliar information to you. Like Brands.”

“I’ll be able to read Brands?” I asked.

“And so much more,” Gora said with enthusiasm. “What do you say? Is that the Brand you want?”

“Yeah. I’ll take it.”

“Okay, where do you want it?”

“You mean to burn into my skin?” I asked. “How are you going to do it? Do you have a hot iron?”

“Nothing so crude,” Gora said. He held up his hand to show me a Brand that had been burned into his palm. “This is magic, of course. Even if you exactly copied a Brand with irons, it wouldn’t work. Though… it will feel like I am burning you. For a small fee, I can numb the area before applying your Brand.”

“No need,” I told him. “The priest at the church just took my pain away.”

“Pain Taker?” Gora asked. His eyes spread wide in surprise. “You lucky dog! How’d you convince him to let you do that? The guild has been trying to get our hands on a similar Skill for decades but we haven’t found one.”

“Oh, well… I’m dying,” I told him.

Gora’s smile faltered. I hated having that effect on people. “I’m… very sorry. I did not know. Forget I brought it up.”

“Since it was brought up though, do you by chance have a Brand that can cure cancer?” I wasn’t sure how I would pay for a Brand like that, but it didn’t hurt to ask. This was the guy who sold powers for a living, after all.

“I’m not aware of any such Brand in the guild’s library,” Gora said. “But I can make an official inquiry, just for you.”

“Thanks,” I said. It was thoughtful of him to at least pretend to care.

“Come back in at least three days and I should have a response from the guild.”

“Oh,” I said. “You were serious? I thought you were just saying that.”

“Of course I am,” Gora replied. A bit of his smile returned. “It is my job to acquire Brands my customers want to buy. If you tell me you want one that will cure your cancer, I’ll try to find one that will cure your cancer. If you want one that will turn your urine blue, I’ll try my best to find exactly that. I don’t make judgments.” He cleared his throat and continued as though the cancer thing had never come up. “So the, uh, Brand placement can be important. For active Brands, they will burn when you activate them. Some people prefer to put them on less sensitive areas of their body, like hips, shoulders or shins. This is a passive Brand, so it can cause a slight itch. Between the shoulder blades is a popular option for those.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Makes it harder to scratch,” Gora explained. “If you damage a Brand too much, it stops working. For adventurers like your friend Ferrith, they pay attention to where they put their Brands so they don’t risk damaging them in combat.”

Ferrith grunted in agreement. “Armpits are a good spot. Crotch too.”

Gora winced. “Well, not everyone is willing to put Brands on such sensitive skin. Active Brands will burn quite painfully every time you activate them. Which… I suppose is no concern to you anymore. The choice is yours to make. Just keep in mind that for something as important to you as the Information Overlay, you don’t want to risk falling and skinning your knee and losing the ability to communicate.”

“Good point,” I agreed. “I guess Ferrith’s suggestion of my armpit sounds like a good option. It should be safe there.”

“Excellent decision,” Gora said, standing up from his seat. He came around the table towards me. “If you would be so good as to lift your arm for me, I will take care of this right away.” I lifted my right arm. My instinct was to apologize for the smell, as all I’d done for bathing the last few days was rinse myself off in river water. Before I could, Gora leaned down, all business. “And lift your shirt?” he said. He had the sort of bedside manner I’d seen from a few busy doctors. “Normally I would have to fetch a tome, but when selling Brands I already have on my own body I can use myself as a reference.”

I lifted my shirt to expose my right armpit. Gora placed his palm on it, then kneeled down and lifted the leg of his pants. I saw then that nearly every surface of his body had Brands on it. So he wasn’t that different from his Hunters, he just kept everything out of sight. He held his opposite hand around his calf and I saw a brief glow of light come from my armpit. There definitely was a strong burning sensation, but I wasn’t bothered by it. I received the information that it was happening, with none of the associated discomfort.

“All done,” Gora said, stepping back. “And not a peep out of you. You weren’t kidding about the Pain Taker. Ferrith here is probably the only other customer I’ve served that reacted so little to a Brand being burned into such tender skin. You do not know how much some people squirm when they…” He trailed off, lifting his hand to his face and sniffing it. He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.

“Uh, sorry,” I said as I pulled my shirt down. Before I did, I brushed my fingers across the spot where the Brand had been installed to feel the bumps and ridges of it. “I forgot to mention that humans have a, uh, scent gland under our arms.” That was close enough to the truth.

“Don’t pay it any mind,” Gora said. He waved a hand in front of his face and wafted out the fruity smell of flowers. “This Brand is a particular favorite of mine. You should consider picking it up if you have a problem with smells. Scent of Flower, it’s called. Very inexpensive.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the three thin gold coins I’d been given when someone thought I was a bum. “Would this be enough?” I asked.

Gora barked out a short laugh as he returned to his seat. “So funny, this guy!” he roared. His Hunters behind him snickered quietly, the first reaction to anything I’d seen them make. I put my coins back in my pocket, with the new understanding that the bit of gold really wasn’t worth much in Earris.

“So. How does this Information Overlay Brand work?” I asked, to change the subject. “Do I have to turn it on somehow?”

“No. It should already be working,” Gora explained. “Just think about what information you want it to tell you and it should feed it to you. It works differently for everyone, so I can’t tell you what the interface options will be. Here”—Gora tapped the open pamphlet still sitting out on the table in front of me—“see if you can read that now.”

I looked down at the page designed to advertise the Speak With Strangers Brand. It didn’t look any differently than before: just a bunch of swoops and curves that wove together within the boundary of a circle. When I panned down to the words beneath it, they now looked as though they’d been typed in perfect English. “Oh, I can read these words!” I said, pointing lower on the page. The description said essentially what Gora had told me for that Brand: that it would allow the user to activate it to temporarily speak and understand any language. There was also a price listed, though I didn’t know what a “Cross” was worth.

“Not the words,” Gora said. “Ask it to tell you about the Brand itself.” He flipped to a random page. “Here. Look at this Brand you haven’t seen before. Don’t read the description. See if the overlay will tell you how it works.”

“Okay…” I said. Nothing about this new overlay power told me anything about how it worked. I just wanted one of those installation wizards that guides you through installing a new program on your computer. Just as I thought of it, a text box appeared before my eyes.

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