Turned out Tamrie hadn't been surprised for the same reason I had. She knew exactly what smuggle-buddies were.

It turned out that smuggle-buddies was a thing in Spellford fiction. A very specific subset of fiction involving two attractive men getting caught in highly dubious circumstances.

Like… two distinguished men in a rowboat.

Things tended to develop along rather amorous lines.

Tamrie had been rather enthusiastic in her explanation of it, much to both mine and Arizar's growing embarrassment.

Much as I loved her, sometimes I wasn't sure if the woman knew the meaning of the word shame. The thought had me pulling her to my side and kissing the top of her head.

With the incredibly necessary but ultimately unimportant clarification behind us, I focused on why I'd sought them out in the first place. "Actually, Arizar, I was here for something related to smuggling. Actual smuggling, that is. Alister indicated your father had a set of codes for how to deal with smuggling operations. I was hoping to crib some ideas from them."

"Ah, the Black, Red and Blue," Arizar said, clearly forcing her voice to be even, her face still flushed as she fanned herself lightly with one hand, the faintest traces of air blowing her hair upward, more than her hand alone would likely produce. "Yes, I can provide a copy for you. Do you wish for the supporting lesson plan?"

"You know what, yes. That'd probably make it easier to absorb," I said as the sound of the others who'd been in the meeting with them faded.

Arizar nodded, before casting a spell similar to Second Quill but that built the resulting book page by page as if pulling each sheet from a separate book. After she was done, she held a thick black volume in one hand with red and blue symbols on it. A second later, she produced a second much thinner book, placing it atop the first.

Then she handed me them and after a quick cast of Review Scroll, I was ready to dive into it.

"I suggest you complete the exercises manually," Arizar said before I could thank her. "They help explain the reasoning behind most of the laws, and will keep you from applying them unilaterally."

"Right. Guess I'm going to be spending a while in my Memory Palace. You sure you can't spare a few minutes?" I asked Tamrie. "Would love some company before spending a day on my own."

Tamrie shook her head, going up on her toes to kiss my cheek. "I've already let myself fall behind. There's a group of apprentice woodworkers waiting on me to administer their written assessments."

Instead of mentioning that it seemed like a task she could offload, I gave her one last kiss before sending her away. She clearly knew how to delegate, given her number of assistants.

"A full day inside your Palace?" Arizar asked as we both watched Tamrie leave. "What is your compression ratio?"

"Thirty-two point four," I replied absently, turning back to the room. I doubted anyone was going to make use of it for the next hour.

"Impressive. I knew you'd gained benefits from your efforts within the machine spirit's domain, but a full thirty-fold temporal compression at the beginning of Pegasus? Remarkable," Arizar said, slipping into a chair across from me.

"It has it's uses. Hope you'll excuse me, was planning to get started."

"Before you do… would it be possible to invite me in? I find myself missing access to my father's Palace. And while thirty isn't anywhere close to his, it is far beyond what I can achieve on my own."

I paused, my eyes flipping open once more, as I leaned forward towards her. "Wait, you get sped up? I figured that when Palaces were linked, they'd slow down to the slower person's perception."

"Would hardly be worth having linked spaces if that were the case," Arizar said with a smile. "My own space will indeed remain at such a pace, but so long as you allow me into yours, I will benefit from the improved compression."

"How does that even work? Like, are you benefiting because I'm doing all the work? Or is it because of something innate to the magic?"

"There is a great deal of theory as to why it works this way. Perhaps, if you invite me in, we can spare some time to go over it. I'll admit, it is an area of special interest to me as well," Arizar said, adjusting her robe to support her arms as she settled more comfortably in her chair.

"Sure, we can do that. And honestly, it'll be nice to have company," I said, then hesitated again. "Don't know how to invite you in though."

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"You'll hear a knock, usually," Arizar said. "Then you open the door that the knock is coming from and let me in."

"And if I wanted to visit another space?"

"It you're close enough, a door will appear just outside your core space," Arizar replied, settling back in her chair and closing her eyes. "How long were you thinking of?"

"An hour, real world," I said as I did the same.

"Oh really? Impressive mental fortitude, to be able to withstand that much compression for so long. There are few I've met who could boast the same, even among father's experienced Hydra-souled."

"You know, I never did ask, but what are you at? Like, as an ensouled?"

"Ah, I'm afraid I'm only barely a two-slot Pegasus," Arizar replied, eyes flickering open as she gave me a small smile. "Father was rather protective."

I nodded, leaning back and closing my own eyes, making sure I wasn't going to fall out of my chair. "Casting now."

"As am I."

A second later, I appeared within my garage. Before I could even settle myself, there was a gentle chime from outside. The same chime for when the customer door was opened.

So much for a knock.

After a quick glance to ensure the space wasn't too messy, I jogged outside. Her door hadn't appeared in the shop yard, but was further out. If the landscape had matched where the old shop had been, her door would've sat across the street.

As soon as I had the thought, the vaguest image of a street flickered into place beneath my feet. It faded as fast as it'd appeared, but the fact it had shown up at all was interesting. It suggested I might be able to customize the space more easily than I'd expected.

Even as I approached her door, a press of will brought the street into existence. It also brought a nearly invisible outline of another building into existence surrounding her door. Definitely needed to do more testing later, when I took a break from studying.

Arizar's door was a deep mahogany, with a tinge of pink woven into the grain. I placed my hand on the knob, and I felt the connection reaching out to press against mine. The nearly invisible outline gained hints of darkness. Still hard to see though.

Turned out there was more involved in establishing the connection than simply opening the door.

Thankfully, Arizar's mind was much calmer than mine, so it wasn't too hard to lock onto. After a few seconds, I realized it wasn't that her mind was calmer. It was just slower.

As we synced up, the door pulled open under my hand.

"Thank you, Percival. I'm certain we will… Oh my," Arizar stopped in place, her gaze quickly taking in the old shop. "Well, this is… certainly unique."

"Don't need to visit if it's not up to your standards," I said, crossing my arms.

"Oh no, I'm not… I have truly never seen such architecture before. Truly, unique," Arizar said, patting my arm absently as she stepped past me. "And to think, this is your natural palace. Truly, you have a most interesting mind."

"Thanks, I guess. Lots of history here more than me being creative though," I said, waving her forward. "Come on, there are desks inside."

She made it three steps before getting distracted by the dune buggy.

Deciding it'd be best to simply get it over with, I told her how it worked, her interest growing with every word. Was nice to be able to demonstrate the mechanical principals involved directly instead of having to print off drawings and try to apply the principles.

Made me wish I could bring Tamrie and Inertia inside.

"Can we take it out for a glide?" Arizar asked, hand on the steering wheel.

"Ride. It doesn't fly," I said, shrugging. "And we could probably spare some time. Even if we spend an hour out there, we would've spent more on the smuggle-buddies in the real world."

Arizar's ears flushed at that. "I can't believe that Tamrie… well, no, I can totally believe she would say such things." She shook her head, then tentatively climbed into the driver's seat.

I was much less elegant, grabbing the roll cage and dropping myself into the bucket seat on the passenger side.

Then we spent a few minutes as Arizar got used to using pedals for control. And by that, I mean spending over a minute laughing my guts out after she reversed us into the wall so hard we got wedged inside.

After I reset the dune buggy, removing the damage she'd done to the rear bumper, Arizar sat back, her arms crossed. "Who thought pedals were a good design? This is why control schemes have evolved to enwrap one's hands."

"You're just salty that you're not a natural," I said with good cheer. Despite her crashing the dune buggy, I was enjoying myself.

"I am hardly so petty as that," Arizar declared with a huff, once more attempting to work the pedals.

"Here, let's swap. I'll show you how it works. Probably should've done that in the first place," I said, pulling myself out the passenger side and hopping over the exposed engine. Something I'd done even back on Earth, though it was certainly easier after all the changes I'd accumulated since coming to Ro'an. Arizar was still firmly planted in the driver's seat by the time I'd crossed.

When I saw the twitch of her lips, I knew I'd been played.

A second later, I was clutching at the side of the dune-buggy as Arizar cackled, the dune-buggy tilting up on two wheels as she took it around the corner, out through the gate.

"You're mad, woman!" I yelled, though I was laughing as I did.

Arizar's only response was to crank the wheel the other direction, bringing us down hard and almost shaking me free.

Almost.

As she continued to play with the dune buggy, I crawled my way back to the passenger seat.

Once I had my ass firmly planted in the bucket seat, I strapped in then shook my head. "You're more devious than I realized."

"I have found it is better to be underestimated," Arizar said even as she launched us off a dune. She cheered as we soared upward, only to let out an 'eep' as gravity pulled us down into a loud thud.

"There's being underestimated, and there's being evil about it," I said, shaking my head. It was a good thing I could reset the buggy with a thought, otherwise she'd be thrashing the suspension.

"Oh, you believe that was evil? I thought it was simple revenge for the smuggle-buddies."

"Why would you need to get revenge against me? I d-didn't even k-know what t-they were," I stuttered, grabbing ahold of the rollcage as she sent us into a roll after hitting a boulder that felt like it had literally appeared out of nowhere.

As the dune buggy flipped, Arizar laughed, her laughter coming out in weird resonating frequencies as we were tossed about. When it settled, we were upside down, with sand filling half the cab, our faces barely clear.

Arizar turned to looked at me, a smug grin fixed in place as her green eyes sparkled. Her golden blonde hair was stuck to her face in several places, the rest buried in the sand as she raised her eyebrows, then said simply by way of explanation. "You laughed."

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