His king sat on the small bed. If Benjamin were to guess, it was a twin. He wasn’t quite sure. He found himself staring at Gram for hours. The man just sat on his bed looking out the window. He held a large wheel of bread between his legs. When he ascended the ladder and the bread had been the first thing he grabbed. The edges were covered with holes, size enough for fingers to fit through. It looked hard and rather inedible.
“Gram,” Benjamin repeated.
Gram raised an end of the bread to his mouth gnawed on the edge. Apparently Gram’s teeth had been harder than the bread. The outer crust cracked and crumbs fell to the ground, thankfully avoiding the bed.
“Gram!” Benjamin shouted.
Gram took another bite from the wheel of bread. At least this had been some kind of response.
“Look Gram, we have things we need to discuss.”
Benjamin looked to Gram, he hadn’t taken a bite of bread yet, but with no reply Benjamin continued.
“What type of focus do you want?”
“Whatever.”
“You can’t just ‘whatever’ a focus!” Benjamin scrolled through a list of available focuses, “Besides, it’s something that’s permanent.”
“I don’t really like you.”
Benjamin stopped scrolling, “Was it the crumb thing?”
“Not just that.”
“Well tell me, I mean I think we’re stuck with each other.”
“I was pretty excited to be a king.”
“Was it because I hit you in the eye with the bracelet?”
“No, but that didn’t help.”
“Well, it was an accident. I was kind of excited that I could finally do something, and when I made it, I wasn’t paying attention.”
Gram didn’t reply for a moment, he shifted his position on the bed, bringing the wheel of bread onto his lap.
“What do you mean you could finally do something?”
“Yeah, before you woke up all I could do was watch you sleep. I couldn’t even talk to you.”
“You almost killed us in the cellar.”
“NO! That wasn’t me, or I don’t think it was!” Benjamin said.
Benjamin went into detail about the rune exploding, something beneath it had released a massive amount of mana both shaking the ground and destroying most of everything inside the cellar. He talked about his idea for creating a bracelet and restoring the cellar. He made sure to explain about the near fatal levels of mana reserves he had acquired as a result and how those actions had been the easiest way to actually reduce them to manageable levels. Benjamin had seemed to pay particular attention to Benjamin when he mentioned the bracelet. When asked any probing questions about the bracelet, however, Gram felt like a closed book. If anything, maybe the bracelet had been given to him by his parents, and they died horrible deaths or something, maybe a wizard did it. Fantasy back stories were so cliche. Benjamin vowed not to be surprised if Gram were to reveal such a tale. He did feel a little bit guilty thinking about Gram’s life in such a way, but things still didn’t feel real to him. Maybe a dragon ate his parents. A dragon that had been commanded by a wizard. He couldn’t stop himself.
“What do we do now?” asked Gram.
It didn’t sound like Gram actually hated Benjamin. If anything Benjamin would have probably acted in the same way.
“I’m not really too sure. I’m just as new to this as you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I honestly have no idea what I’m doing. I was hoping to make you the decision maker until I got my bearings.”
“Get your bearings? You’re from an ancient heart of the city! Probably the oldest such fragment in existence!”
“Well, I do have experience with building cities,” Benjamin added, ”In games…”
“Who builds a city in a game? Are you some kind of neurotic god?”
“I’m...” Benjamin trailed off.
He looked at the timer for his sandbox. The timer had reduced significantly. It seemed that either the influx of mana helped, or just appointing a king might have changed things. He still wasn’t sure if having Gram appear in the sandbox had been a one off thing or if it was something he could do regularly. He also wasn’t sure if just appointing a king allowed the newly appointed king to jump into the sandbox ignoring the timer.
Benjamin continued after his pause, “I’m from a different world I think.”
Gram shrugged and stood up. He moved to his chair after placing the wheel of bread down.
“I guess I believe you.” Gram said, “You are a disembodied voice.”
“You could be crazy too.”
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“I don’t think so.”
“That’s what they all say.”
Gram got up again.
“I don’t really want to sit in the house all day.”
He walked to the door, opening it.
“Wait!” Benjamin said.
Gram stopped, holding the door open.
“I still can’t leave this room.”
Gram sighed, “Why not?”
“This cottage is my territory. I’ve tried to leave, to look around,” Benjamin said, “it’s like running into a wall.”
Gram’s brows knit for a moment. He looked outside, then stepped out. He looked around the house.
“I’m your legitimate king right?”
“Yes.”
“By my rights as king for the city of…” Gram trailed of, “… Benjamin? I hereby claim this yard as my rightful property.”
Gram stood expectantly. Nothing felt different. His door was still open, he hadn’t closed it.
“Did anything happen?” Gram asked.
Benjamin tried to leave through the door, but was pushed back by an invisible barrier.
“What else do kings do?” Benjamin asked.
“I could try conquest.” Gram said.
“I guess?”
Gram went back inside. He pulled a small knife off the table. He strode back outside. There was something in his gait. It was almost like he was trying to walk like a king. At least he was confident.
“I claim this land by right of conquest, for the city of Benjamin.”
Benjamin noticed a shimmer at the doorway. He tried to move through it again. He received a notification.
