Evren leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, “It’s difficult to know where to start. I could just leave it at I was summoned, but even the summoning part is confusing if you aren’t sure of the details behind it. And the reason why I know about it, and why I wasn’t summoned regularly was because of a man who called himself Anomaly.”

Evren took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, “From what I understand, the ones who are normally summoned act like brainless robots.” Joseph questioned that word, “Robots?”

Evren’s eyes flickered around as if looking for an answer, “Umm… golems?” Everyone nodded in understanding, “The people who are summoned aren’t completely summoned. Only their souls are needed as the goddess of the Holy State makes the body. So, before they’re summoned, they have to die.”

Everyone reacted to that sentence with concern, “Apparently it’s easier to enslave someone if their emotions are unstable. Which is why the people who are summoned usually experience some type of psychological trauma to condition their mind into a more subservient temperament.” Evren realized what he said after he said it and tried to clarify. “They want to break down the mind of someone, so they are easier to control when made into slaves. To do this they usually go through something traumatic.

“In my case, I was tortured for two weeks before I died.” Evren said and heard the people around him say things like, ‘Oh no’ and ‘that’s terrible’.

“Anyway, the place I came from is a different world. My species wasn’t human, and my world didn’t have magic in it either. Between my dying and my spirit entered a body created here, my spirit was intercepted by a guy named Anomaly. He passed on to me an unnecessarily large amount of information and said he was going to bump me off course.

“That means that I arrived somewhere else from where Grandia would normally summon people to. I was naked and alone and eventually made my way here.” Evren said.

“You said you weren’t human, what were you?” Joseph asked.

Evren replied, “My race was called coaman. We were sort of a mix between an otter and a troll. We had fur that covered our whole body, and we were aquatic but were tall with long arms and legs like a troll.”

“What is an otter?” Harley asked.

“A playful sort of little furry creature that lives near water.” Evren said. “Which is also why I didn’t know how to shave or what to do with my hair.”

This brought smiles to the other guests, then Amelia asked, “Do your people live a long time?”

Evren shrugged in a non-committal way and said, “Most of my race lived to be around one hundred or so. I lived longer than that because of the changes the military had done to my body. I was one hundred and eighty-seven when I died.”

“Wow,” Pascal said, “and you were a soldier?”

“Yeah, I was in the military for one hundred and thirty-one years. I had to retire because of injuries.” Evren said.

“Is that where you learned how to fight?” Harley asked.

“A little bit. I learned knife fighting in the military, but we mostly used guns as our main weapon. I’m afraid I’m still new to using a sword and could probably use some lessons.”

Joseph said, “You should speak with Walter then. He’s a little awkward, but nobody is better than him with the sword in Anbuton.”

Isabel then asked, “Where did you learn how to use magic then?”

Pascal said, “You can use magic?”

Evren smiled and nodded, “Some of the spells I learned from Anomaly. The rest I learned from books. I have the books in the wagon so if you want to learn, you can use those.”

Amelia asked, “Can I see some magic?”

Evren nodded and pointed at the ceiling saying, ‘light’. The light spell on the ceiling illuminated the room. Evren dispelled the light and held out his hand and said, ‘flame’ a small flame appeared above his hand. Evren dispelled the flame and said, “My species was able to use psychic abilities, and it seems that I retained that ability.”

Pascal asked, “Si kick?”

Evren replied, “Psychic. I can move stuff with my mind.” He picked up the couch Joseph and Isabel were sitting on about 20 cm and lowered it back down. He shrugged, “Like that.”

Harley stood up and said, “Wow! Do that to me too!”

Amelia said, “Harley! Behave.”

Evren said, “I’ve never lifted a person before, tell me if it hurts.” Evren lifted Harley off the floor about 10 cm and moved her around the room before setting her back where she was standing. Harley was smiling the entire time and was giggling when Evren finished her ride.

After Harley calmed down, Joseph asked, “What are your plans for tomorrow, Evren?”

Evren thought for a moment, “I supposed I’d like to get with Walter for sword lessens. I’ve got to get with Levi for the blacksmithing. There’s everyone that’d probably want to take magic lessons. I’ve got to think about what I’m going to do about Grandia. I need to make arrowheads.”

“Wait a second. Back up. Do about Grandia? What can anyone do about Grandia?” Harley asked with concern.

Evren looked at Harley with a bit of pity in his eyes, then turned to Joseph, “How long has the war with Grandia been going on for?”

Joseph thought for a moment before saying, “I’d guess around fifty years or so.”

Evren nodded, “If what I learned from Anomaly is true, they’re becoming dependent upon the summoned puppets to be their main forces and have become quite lax in the capital. Therefore, there’s two things we need to do. First, to release the summoned from their enslavement. The second is to prevent more from getting summoned. That should get rid of a majority of their fighting forces and prevent them from replenishing.

“Once that’s done, we just need to cut the head off the snake.” Evren said nonchalantly.

Joseph said to Evren, “Evren, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

Evren shrugged and said, “Something similar, yes. It was a different planet, and they were combat drones, but it’s similar.”

Joseph said, “You’re serious about this?”

Evren nodded, “I don’t like bullies. Oh, and by the way, how long did you tell that Walter to guard my wagon for?”

Joseph looked towards the door, “Is he still outside?” Evren replied by nodding.

Joseph stood and headed to the door, Evren following behind. He stepped outside and found Walter at the front of the wagon guarding it by staring intently at Evren’s sword.

“Walter, you don’t need to guard this all the time.” Said Joseph.

Walter jumped a little as he was spoken to and turned around, seeing Joseph and Evren. Evren put his hand on Joseph’s shoulder and said, “Walter, I’m glad I could meet up with you. I hear you’re the best with a blade in all of Anbuton. I wonder if you could help me with my sword skills.”

Walter acted a little shyly to being complimented and stammered a response before Evren added in, “I’ll make a sword for you.”

“I’ll do it.” Was the immediate reply.

“I’m going to have to build a forge to work with the metal. It’ll take a while and it wasn’t something I was wanting to do because it’s a lot of work for something to be left behind, but I think it’d be ok here.” Evren said.

Evren looked to Joseph, “Do you have a gem cutter or a reducer here in town?” Joseph shook his head.

Evren nodded and said, “I’ll have to make a trip to Plinth then at one point.” His eyes met Joseph’s, “Do you mind if I head to the house for the night? I’d like to unpack a bit and get some rest.”

Joseph looked to the house and then back to Evren, stammering a bit before replying, “Umm, ah yeah, I think that’d be ok.”

He picked up the pull poles and pulled the wagon to the house he was going to be using for now with Walter following alongside him. As he was pulling the wagon, Evren suddenly remembered something but kept it to himself for the moment.

When Evren arrived at the house, he pulled the boxes from the inside along with the shelves and the boxes on the outside of the wagon into the house, planning to organize them later. He said goodbye to Walter and promised to meet up with him the next day for some morning practice.