Kit replied ruefully, "I should limit myself to an hour a day for now, to keep my costs down, but I can play longer today if needed. Why are we running from your sister?"

MatchlessMinion shrugged. "Habit? Annoyance? I don't really have a good answer for that. But can we either go or hide in ZipZing's garden before she gets here?"

Kit walked over to him and bent to hug his little plush form. "Okay," she replied. "And the downside to this system is that I can't feel your fur," she added laughingly, "even though the exercise will be good for me."

Shrubbery walked over and reached for ZipZing, Danika gazed at her with a startled expression, but the dryad simply touched the stone on her back and said, "dragonheart". Kit grinned and followed her example.

Danika asked, "So, we're hiding in my garden?"

"Yes. Hurry and come down where I can reach," MatchlessMinion demanded.

She laughed and removed the stone from its harness and dropped it on the ground instead. MatchlessMinion touched it and vanished, and Ryullusion stepped forward next.

Eyes on the Sky gasped and fluttered to the ground as the bard vanished from beneath her. She'd visited ZipZing's garden before though, so she just waddled over to the stone and said the entrance word to follow everyone into it.

Ais.h.i.+n grinned at her when Danika turned to look at him. "Go on then," he suggested. She shrugged and zipped down to touch her stone. Ais.h.i.+n appeared beside her a second later.

Danika turned to Shrubbery and asked, "Do you think you could carry the stone through your tree path, even though you can't take people?"

"Maybe?" Shrubbery agreed with a thoughtful look. "I'll try it." She walked back to the exit stone and vanished.

Danika kind of wished that her garden had the windows to the outside that Ais.h.i.+n's next stone was supposed to have instead of the beautiful illusion. She turned and asked him, "When will your new stone be done?"

He shrugged and replied, "I don't know, Logical Heart messaged that he's really busy with something outside the game, and I haven't heard anything since. We didn't have an enchanted contract, so there's no time limit."

MatchlessMinion left the party and they both turned to look at him. "You need to add Eyes on the Sky and Kit to make the guild," he explained.

Shrubbery returned and announced, "It worked! We're in my garden in Fogton."

They all followed her back out of the stone s.p.a.ce and into her larger garden and SaltySiamese's messenger cat showed up a minute later with a demanding missive: "What the heck!? We just arrived and you're gone? And my friend list says you're really all back in the human capital?! How did you group teleport? Did you find some kind of portable portal!?"

Shrubbery left the party too, and Ais.h.i.+n added Eyes on the Sky and Kit while Danika replied to SaltySiamese. She paused partway through writing it and asked, "Where are we meeting those guys later?"

"I reserved the same banquet room," Ais.h.i.+n explained.

Danika added that to the message but still didn't send it. "Since Kit shouldn't stay on too long, can you ask if they could come sooner?"

Ais.h.i.+n laughed. "I really don't think that they care about time stamps like Match? But sure. They'll have to come here instead though, because the reservation is in almost 2 hours."

Shrubbery told him, "That would be cool, having the whole band visit my garden!"

Kit asked nervously, "Do you mind if I visit The Traveling Merchant first if we're waiting for people? I… want to see if, if things are still the same. We're still married at least." She gazed at her ring.

Do you want us to come with you?" Danika asked.

Kit shook her head, but then changed her mind and nodded. "If it's not bothersome?"

Everyone a.s.sured her that they didn't mind, but in the end only Danika and Shrubbery went along, while Ais.h.i.+n logged out to contact his band members. Ryullusion and Eyes on the Sky stayed in Shrubbery's garden to talk, and MatchlessMinion went to get "something" that he'd suddenly thought of.

--

Danika revised her message to SaltySiamese and sent it on the way to the market square. When they reached the square, Kit maneuvered through the crowds without really paying any attention to her surroundings. Shrubbery stopped a few times to issue soft apologies on the way, but Danika was lazy and just zipped along after Kit above the heads of the vendors and adventurers.

Danika chuckled when Kit reached the merchant who told the person who'd been interacting with him at the time, "Pardon me, my wife is here, I'll help you with this after she leaves."

She wondered if players had a.s.sumed that the weird "bug" where their transactions were sometimes interrupted by the merchant's wife had been fixed while Kit had been away.

The player who'd been interrupted was a Jade Hand, one of the priests of the Jade Emperor who usually specialized in healing. She had pink hair, but wore blue, although she also wore the familiar jade pendant that had some connection to her path. Her name was Cici, and she stared with a disbelieving expression as Kit came to a halt a few paces from the merchant.

The traveling merchant smiled at his wife and stepped toward her, while saying, "Kit my love, I'm so glad to see you again."

Kit looked at him with longing and then burst into tears. Danika regarded her with alarm, but both Shrubbery, who'd caught up, and the merchant smiled in response. The merchant spread his arms invitingly and smiled at her fondly. Kit took the last step as though her feet were spring loaded, and hugged him with a force that Danika was sure would have at least knocked anyone who didn't have G.o.dly stats back a ways, if not down.

The merchant was unmoved by both the impact and the pleas of the player behind him. He cuddled his wife as though there weren't dozens of people watching them, and whispered, "It's ok love."

Kit nodded against his shoulder and squeezed him tighter. Danika looked away in embarra.s.sment and met Shrubbery's eyes.

Shrubbery winked at her, and grinned. "I suspect that we're no longer needed," the tall dryad said wryly.

Kit gasped and straightened herself to look back at them. She didn't release her hold on the merchant though, even if she couldn't feel his hug. "Sorry!" she exclaimed.

"It's fine," Shrubbery told her gently.

"Would you mind if I spend half an hour here? Would that be ok even though we just asked people to come early?" Kit asked anxiously.

Cici and the player named yuyube, who had been in line behind her, both protested. A player named Red also nodded. "You're going to make us wait for half an hour!?" Cici complained.

Kit looked at Danika hopefully, and then told them, "If I can spend a whole half an hour, I'll ask him to help you first as long as you don't take long."

Danika chuckled and told her, "I think that should be fine. Should we head back to the garden and wait for you or wait here?"

"You can wait there, everything is fine now," Kit replied happily.

Shrubbery asked teasingly, "Will you remember to come back?"

Kit blushed and protested, "I will!"

The traveling merchant grinned at them and promised, "I will remind her."