Free A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) by Daniel Ruth Page A

“I’m Derek,” I offered to fill in the silence.
    After
a few minutes of watching her eat, I figured I would start conversational
gambit number two.
    “So
how is your quest going to kill that wizard guy?”
    She
stopped her methodical eating and stared at me.  I think it was that domination
thing that animals do to one another, but wasn't really sure.
    “Um...
does that mean not so good?” I offered, to fill in the silence.  Maybe I should
have asked Jeremy to join us.  He is good at this talking thing and he could
use a few good meals after getting shot.
    “No,
not so good.  My best lead just blew up my apartment,” she spat sarcastically. 
I did my best to look wounded and innocent. 
    “Hey,
the wizard obviously had the true names of his employees inscribed in a circle
of death and was keeping watch on them with a scrying spell.”  I shrugged. “I
refuse to take responsibility for the actions of evil wizards.  It's like the
weather and acts of God, even insurance people won't touch that.”
    I
think I may have seen a hint of a smile, before something I said caught her
attention.  “You know what the wizard did?”
    “Well,
it's an educated guess.  I know the generals of how magic works, but not how to
cast the specific spells,” I hedged.  “That would be one way to do it.  Rune
magic could theoretically do it too, but that is a lot more overkill.  Frankly,
if it was rune magic you'd probably already be dead.”
    “Do
not be so sure,” she said with a faraway look in her eyes.  “He has had
opportunities to kill me many times and has not taken it.”  Her voice hardened
as she continued.  “I will not make that mistake if ever our roles are changed.”
    “Hmm. 
So hopefully you kill him before he summons hordes of demons and does his ‘take
over the world’ stick,” I said while waving down a waitress to order some dessert. 
I ordered three, because well... I like sweet things and I don't have to worry
about getting fat.  My guess was actually a shot in the dark, but evil mages
usually want power.  Often its power that pure magic can’t give them.  The
taking over the world bit was a standard ploy though the ‘world’ could be
swapped with ‘country’, ‘city’, ‘town’ or even ‘sandbox’.  I was even less sure
about the demon part, but I had seen that often enough in my home town and it
meshed well with the henchman’s final words.  What can I say?  Demons are cheap
labor. They work for the opportunity for slaughter and an occasional soul.
    “You
must be hungry,” she offered, her eyes slightly wide after hearing my desert
list.  She hadn’t even twitched at my suggestion.  Maybe I was off base on the
demon part.
    “Not
really”, I muttered, thinking ahead to the food I was getting.
    “Why
were you looking for me?”
    “Well,
I am something of an occult researcher and...” I was about to give her the
entire spiel when she interrupted.
    “You
cannot have the sword,” she stated flatly.  I think I still had my mouth open
at this time.
    “Um. 
Okay, no sword.  Got it,” I answered, somewhat confused.  “Anyway, I heard you
were out to kill an evil wizard and I thought that, hey evil wizards have
occult books and second, dead evil wizards don't need their occult books
anymore.”
    “So
you don't want my sword?” she asked, looking somewhat doubtful.
    “No,
thanks, I already have a sword,” I haltingly said.  Perhaps she was mentally
slow.  A pity, she seemed nice when she wasn’t scaring the shit out of the
werewolves.  “I need books, not swords.”  I saw that she was about to protest
and continued.  “Not that your sword isn't nice.” I waved my hands at her
placating.  “It seems to be an artifact level rune sword and considering it's
in this dimension, that dates it way back at least 6,000 years ago by either a
rogue dwarf or a smith based god.” I paused in thought. “It could be more
recent if it came outside this dimension,