One day of rest became more than was planned, of course.

It had started with a simple enough request from Kiri; if she could get one of her office spaces beside her mage tower turned into an extension of her mage tower. From there, Jane joined in, asking if she could get something changed about her rooms, too. If this Fae Magic really was as malleable as Erick had shown, Jane wanted the outer wall of her bedroom opened wider.

Erick happily got on those projects, taking requests and moving around the runic web inside the walls as necessary. He loved every second of it. When he was done with Kiri’s and Jane’s requests, Teressa requested her bedroom’s adjoining bathroom to have larger windows, but it was mostly just an excuse so that she could get in on the lessons, too.

For while Erick was moving around the house, he was also explaining all about Fae Magic, Illusion Magic, and Elemental Mystical.

While Kiri was ecstatic to learn the intricacies, Jane and Teressa wanted to know about all that in order to know what they were dealing with. [Intangibility], to physically shift an item slightly into the Fae. [Concealment], to shift the perception of an item into the Fae. Together, along with [Fairy Item] to create physical items, and [Renew] to make it modular, those spells became [Fairy Stronghold]. The first two were spells best left alone unless one knew what they were doing, for [Concealment], but mostly [Intangibility], could really hurt a person if they used the spell wrong. Like, on the level of a miscast [Cleanse], sort of harm.

That tampered down some of Kiri’s excitement, and cemented Jane’s resignation that this magic was out of her league at the moment, and possibly forever. All of them also knew not to experiment with Fae Magic inside the house, or anywhere, really. Erick had given them the same disclaimers that Kydyr had given him, back before Kydyr was killed by Fairy Moon.

Teressa looked around, and with a worried voice, asked, “So what happens if this breaks with us inside?”

“Nothing big,” Erick said, as he transformed Teressa’s bathroom more to her liking. “The house just breaks and we fall through the vanishing floor, or something like that. This sort of spell doesn’t actually shift someone into Fairy like Ar’Cosmos is shifted into Fairy. It’s a halfway-stop. There are lots and lots of stops along the way into the Deep Fae, and this house is barely under the surface.”

“… Oh,” Teressa said, her worries vanishing.

Erick finished with the new window. “How does that look? Wide enough? If I make it an opening then it will connect to the real world outside, which carries all sorts of minor but workable risks, but that’s not a big deal.”

Teressa shook her head. “No no. Just bigger is fine. This is good.”

Erick nodded, then he judged the rest of the room. One thing stood out. Erick asked, “Is the tub big enough?”

Teresss looked down at the tub. “… It could be bigger.”

Erick smiled, then began casting again, transforming the very large faux-marble tub, which could have fit three men, or one orcol, into a tub that could fit one and a half orcols. It was a decadent fixture, and Teressa loved it. From the looks Kiri and Jane were giving that tub from beyond the door of the room, Erick could tell they wanted a similar tub, too.

Teressa smiled brightly, saying, “That’s good. Thank you, Boss.”

“Is that everything you want, Teressa?” Erick said, “Feel free to ask for anything. This is just mana, after all. None of it is real.” He turned to Kiri and Jane, repeating a warning he had already given twice, “It’ll also break in the presence of any Fae Magic, so don’t go experimenting with that stuff inside the house.”

Kiri nodded.

Jane mocked a salute, saying, “Heard and understood.”

Erick smiled at that.

And, for a brief moment, Teressa was torn. She actually did want something else, but she was afraid to ask. And then she decided to just say what was on her mind, and see what happened, “I like the marble… But it makes me feel like a noblewoman. Maybe plain wood would be nice.”

Erick teased, “I could make it out of solid gold, instead.”

“Ha!” Kiri said, “I want that, please.”

Teressa paled. “Uh. No. That’s… That’s too much.”

Jane scowled at Kiri. “Wouldn’t that weigh too much, and just make the water cold? This stuff does act like the real thing, after all— And it’d be too soft! It’d bend under the water weight… Maybe?”

“Hollow gold, then.” Kiri said, “Steel core, gold leaf.”

“I like stone,” Teressa decided. “I like white marble. This is good.”

Erick happily said, “Then onto the next project! A gold tub for Kiri!”

Kiri clapped her hands and did a little jump as she moved off to her rooms. Erick followed, asking if they liked the floors in the hallways, or if they needed more light fixtures in the ceiling. After adding a few more lights, Erick got back to Kiri’s room and started shifting around everything she wanted shifted. Eventually, Poi decided to join in on the rearrangement. Poi got a balcony and some more lighting and some nice, soft carpets; all little details to make his room more homey.

With the rooms done, Erick decided that he could fix the outside of the house, too, even though no one was actually going to see the house from the outside, except for with mana sense from the inside. Before that could happen, though, he helped all four of his people learn to navigate some of the stranger nuances of living in a Fae Space.

When you left the house, from any angle, the house remained visible for a few seconds, but then it would vanish, and you would return to normal space. Reentering the house would require approaching a known angle of attack, where a door, or window, or other egress had been left open. Or, you would have to approach the front door, because it was expected for everyone to come through that way.

Approaching an open window was a lot more difficult, and near impossible for even Kiri to do with Sunny, while she was inside the house itself, at an open window, and Sunny was right outside, not one meter away. She would learn, though, because after twenty tries of Sunny flying right through Kiri instead of coming inside, Sunny managed to ‘connect’ with the open window, and come inside the Fae Space like normal.

Erick had never had that much trouble moving Ophiel around, but he had Perception, so that likely helped a lot.

Also, [Fairy Stronghold] was his spell, so that helped, too.

There were a few other nuances to the house that everyone would eventually learn with time. One of the largest ones was if you held a hand on the outside wall, then you would remain ‘inside’ the Fae Space, even if you were technically outside. In this way, Erick left the girls and Poi behind as he went outside the house and began shifting around the exterior, smoothing out walls and ‘painting’ them bright white with green trim (all the better to match Yggdrasil), while a string of [Pristine Benevolence] connected him to the house.

Unexpectedly, though, his Benevolence had some side effects.

Where his lightning connected to the house, a trailing vine of bright green leaves and perfect white flowers began growing up the side of the house. This was not exactly what Erick wanted, though, so Erick shifted some stuff around and added some trellises. Now his lightning touched upon the trellises, growing vines that did not seem to need soil at all. Air vines, or something. Whatever the case, they smelled of jasmine.

The mushrooms, though. Those had to go.

Mushrooms would eat away at the fake wood of the house, and that was just not happening right now, or ever. Perhaps Erick should have made the home out of stone, or at least the outside layer, but he had not. This happenstance of mushrooms served to highlight how Erick needed to control his Benevolence better, though.

All he needed to do was remember to suppress his bloodline, and then actually suppress it, which is what he did for the remainder of the day. His [Pristine Benevolence] still sparked and jolted away from his sunform, but it no longer left greenery behind, nor did it leave glowing mushrooms. Good enough, for now!

- - - -

For lunch, Erick made burgers on the large flattop grill that Jane had bought and installed at the house back in Spur. That appliance had joined all the rest of the ones in the kitchen here, at Yggdrasil, and Erick was happy to have it.

This flattop was a variant on the Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove design, and had a grand rad in the bottom of the machine, powering the whole thing. That grand rad would last a very long time, but Erick smiled as he realized how easy it would be to produce this rustless steel product at half-cost, with just runes and [Renew]—

Well.

An estimated half-cost. How much did this thing cost Jane?

Erick ran some estimated numbers through his mind to see if they fit what he was seeing.

The grand rad was the least expensive part of it all, for grand rads were price-controlled by Mage Bank; 1000 gold, flat cost. Jane had likely gathered that herself, too, so it was actually free. The rustless steel flattop, which was large enough to cook for a few orcols, was probably 500g by itself. It’d last forever, though, so that was a good investment. A much cheaper variant which used plain steel would need to be taken out and recast, or [Metalshape]d back to normal steel, as the wear of magic would gradually turn it to rust.

The ‘burners’ of this stove, trapped between the underside of the flattop and piped metal, were made out of very thin platinum wires, like someone had curved platinum back and forth under the rustless steel and then capped it off with [Metalshape]d sealant. That platinum formed heating areas that could be turned on or off based on dials in the front of the appliance. The actual enchantments mostly took place under the machine, inside a rustless steel box attached but separated from the grill top. The grand rad went inside that box, and the machine drew power from that grand rad, while the grand rad continued to soak up power from its surroundings, in order to replenish itself. As long as the machine was allowed 20 hours of rest for every 5 hours of cooking, that grand rad could theoretically last forever.

Erick guessed this stove had run Jane around… 3000 gold.

Erick called out to Jane in the other room, “How much did this flattop cost?”

After a moment, Jane walked in, saying, “Way too much. 3500 gold, without the grand rad; I got that rad myself.”

To make it out of runes and not need a grand rad…

“I don’t think I can actually make this stuff cheaper; not without having it rust out after a day or five,” Erick admitted, and it felt like defeat. But there was a caveat. “But… I think I can make it so you can use [Renew] to fill up a tank, and then bleed off that tank to use as fuel for the enchantments. Removing the cost of rads to power these machines will put them in the hands of normal people… I think.”

Jane shrugged. “That would be useful, sure, but I’m sure that with some proper metallurgy you can solve the rusting problem.”

Erick perked up. “OH! Right. [Condense Oxygen] to remove rust from steel, and then just make everything out of steel. That would plunge the costs down to barely anything at all. I had almost forgotten— Anyway. I should run that experiment. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

Jane smiled. “That works, too. Didn’t Tasar invent that spell? She’s probably capitalizing on it already, or maybe that Archmage’s Rest is—” Jane paused. She asked, “What was Tasar’s full title?”

“Archmage Tasar, or Geode Guardian Tasar. Either works. And she’s probably not capitalizing on her magic. Or at least not monetarily. She invented that spell to figure out wrought rot, and then promptly helped the Gemslicers learn that magic, so that they could spread it further. I think that transfer of information likely went through Archmage’s Rest, but I don’t know the exact details.” Erick said, “That spell is being used in the Underworld to rid wrought of what is now being medically called ‘oxygen sickness’. You remember the Gemslicers, right? They’re the ones who have that whole ‘ultraviolet light’ thing sewed up, too. They know all about how light actually works.”

“Those guys are the healers, though?”

“Correct!” While Erick flipped burgers, he explained, “I met one of them by the name of Awir, who apparently Remade my [Luminous Beam] and fed it to the guardians around the Core. He re-Classed as Particle Mage, too, and he’s… Well. He’s a guy who doesn’t really like me because I stepped on his toes in creating [Luminous Beam]. He’s been trying to make a spell like that for a long time, and…”

Erick told stories for a long while as he made lunch, and Jane sat at the kitchen table, sipping her berry soda. She had managed to get Kiri to make a carbonation spell, but Kiri’s version needed a [Cleanse] running at the same time in order to get rid of unwanted side effects of that particular Particle Magic.

When lunch was finally served, Erick asked Kiri about her carbonation spell. That led to Erick talking about [Crystallize Diamond] and conjuring a latticework image of carbon atoms to explain how they fit together to make diamonds. He also went back to talking of Elemental Mystical, to explain how to Remake Clarity, Precision, and Meditation, and what all of those Skills actually meant. This talk of Mystical was important, because Elemental Mystical, when combined with Particle Magic, would produce an end product without any side effects; there would be no need to run [Cleanse] at the same time as [Crystallize Diamond].

(Elemental Illusion could likely achieve the same thing, but Erick felt that Elemental Mystical was better.)

With a good enough understanding of Mystical (and probably Illusion, too) there would be no need to run [Cleanse] during any Particle Magic at all. This, then, was a minor revolution of Particle Magic that Erick wanted to spread out there, too; perhaps as a Class Ability he could make himself, but also as general knowledge that others could take and use as well. It was through Mystical and Illusion that Yggdrasil had managed to make himself this big, this fast, and it was through the Mystical that all Health and Mana Cost Reductions worked.

“There’s Elemental Mystical everywhere in this world,” Erick said. And then he added a maybe-Truth, “This is likely part of the reason why Melemizargo thinks this world is fake.”

Teressa, Kiri, Jane, and even Poi, a little, were caught off guard by that. Poi asked to shut down further conversation about Melemizargo, though, so Erick didn’t speak more of that possible-Truth. He returned to talking of Elemental Mystical, and what he had learned on his Worldly Path. He was finally getting a chance to talk to his people about this stuff, and this was stuff they needed to know.

The conversation went well past lunchtime and eventually ended up in the front yard of the house, upon the bare, glowing branch of Yggdrasil, with Erick’s daughter, his apprentice, and his two guards standing behind him. For it was time to make magic.

[Crystallize Diamond] was a spell Erick had made a while ago, and which served as the basis for all the Stat Rings Erick had gone on to make. The only problem with the spell is that Erick needed to run [Cleanse] at the same time to negate all the toxic particle effects that his magic created in the pursuit of perfectly aligned carbon. The fix for this was, of course, Elemental Mystical.

Erick added [Airshape] too, though, in order to move more air through the space, and to make the resulting diamond grow even faster, and to hover in place while it was growing. Erick just liked the idea of a hovering, growing diamond, and what was magic for if not for having fun?

One by one, Erick channeled the sounds of his spellwork through his hands, and then handed them off to Ophiel to bring the song to fruition. And then, he held up a hand with his fingers loosely cupped, and cast.

A breezy song of static clarity threaded through the air, drawing power and wind through Erick’s fingertips like the gathering of a very tiny storm upon his palm. A diamond began to form above his hand, starting off as a tiny speck of almost-nothing, and then rapidly blossoming into a perfect tetrahedron. In five short seconds, the diamond grew to half the size of his pinky finger’s nail, but it was just getting started. Erick dropped his hand away, and the diamond continued to float in the air, growing and growing with every passing second. He instinctively felt he could cancel the spell at any time, but there was no need. The spell was working perfectly.

After twenty seconds of growth, a blue box appeared.

Manifest Perfect Diamond, instant, close range, 85 mana

Create a diamond, or cause a targeted diamond to grow in a specific way. Results vary.

Spell ends after 10 minutes, or when desired shape is reached.

“Ah ha!” Erick showed off the spell, and had an Ophiel open up a [Cleansing Aura]. When no thick air spilled away from the still-growing diamond, Erick said, “And no thick air! Works just like I said it would.”

“You make it look so easy.” Kiri chuckled. “Ah. Okay. I can figure this out. Thank you, Erick.”

Jane scrunched her face at her father, though, asking, “Were you… Worried that it wouldn’t work?”

Erick tensed. “Maybe. Still working out these Benevolence kinks, and they seem to show up when least expected. I almost expected something odd to happen… And you know what? Let’s just see what happens when oddities are introduced.” Erick held up a hand—

Kiri and Teressa went wide-eyed. Poi grimaced. Jane just looked curious.

—and sent a jolt of Benevolence into the still-manifesting diamond. Lightning struck, and suddenly the diamond was twice as large as it had been. The size of his thumb-nail, now. He retracted his lightning and stared at the growing diamond with all of his senses, and wondered…

He sent a continuous jolt into the manifesting diamond, trickling mana into the spell, and the resultant product. Ten mana. Twenty mana. Erick didn’t stop, or slow, or speed up, for this seemed to be a quick enough rate, for the diamond seemed to drink in the power Erick gave it, coming alive with its own brilliant white iridescence, growing to the size of his thumb, now, and then even larger—

The diamond and its spell shattered, bursting white shards and dust away from the epicenter of a splash of lightning.

Erick rapidly captured most of those shards and some of the dust inside a sweeping grasp of light, bringing them back to a single space. He held the mess up, inspecting it. The dust looked completely inert, but the larger shards seemed… Brighter? Hmm. Ophiel’s [Cleansing Aura] was still going, but none of the shards turned to thick air; they must have been normal diamond—

A spark of Benevolence flickered out of the largest diamond shard and vanished on the wind.

… What did that mean?

Jane said, “I’ll leave you to figure that out, dad. I can’t wait to see what sort of new Stat Rings you make, but I’ve still got a room to sort out.” She waved behind her as she walked away.

“Let me know if you want help!” Erick glanced over to see Jane walk away, but he was mostly focused on whatever was happening here with this diamond. “I wonder if it means anything… Maybe the Benevolence interacted with the Mystical? Or… Hmm.”

Kiri stood beside Erick, looking at the shards of diamond in his palm. “Adding strong magic to delicate magics usually messes up the more delicate spell. The point where that happens is called the Interruption Point. I think you just reached the Interruption Point in [Manifest Perfect Diamond].”

“Hmm...” Erick said, “I don’t think I’ve encountered that particular theory, but it makes sense. I wonder what did it, though. Specifically, I mean.”

Kiri started, “I don’t know enough about Mystical, but the smaller Particle Magics are highly prone to being called ‘delicate magic’. The Arcanaeum Consortium published their first Particle Magic book four months ago… I think you were at Songli?”

Erick perked up. “Oh! Do you have that book?”

“I do!” Kiri said, “And a lot more besides.”

Teressa and Poi took that as their cue to leave, too, both of them walking back into the house, following Jane… Who was still stuck looking for the front door. Her hands were out and fumbling through the empty air, and Erick almost wanted to help her find her way, but Teressa got there first, and offered. Jane told them that she was perfectly capable of finding the entrance to the house.

She just needed a moment.

Teressa smiled and walked past Jane, into the house, vanishing from sight the second she crossed the threshold to the porch.

Jane just stood there, dumbfounded and looking embarrassed for half a moment, before she, too, found the entrance. She was just a half step too far to the left, and that was an easy enough fix. Poi followed in after her.

And Erick turned his full attention back to Kiri.

They talked of Particle Magic and Chelation and alchemical news, moving from the front yard to the porch, and then to the library where Teressa brought them coffee and cookies. Erick thanked Teressa for those, and then he continued to talk magic with Kiri.

Poi made dinner. It was fish and sauces and rice. It was simple, and it was wonderful.

Erick got to bed at a normal time, and that was nice, too.

- - - -

Erick grumbled, tossing over in bed while ‘twilight’ shone brightly through his windows. Perhaps too brightly. The curtains were half drawn, keeping away most of the light, because light wasn’t strictly necessary to be able to see one’s surroundings. Even through barely-open eyes, Erick could still mana sense everything around him as much as he wanted. But as he lay there, blinking and being annoyed, the light seemed even brighter.

It was a sad fact of life on Veird that Erick was still not comfortable sleeping in anything but total dark, and yet, sleeping in total dark simply wasn’t an option.

The dark was uncomfortable because Erick knew who lived in the dark. He could have shut the curtains all the way, but he didn’t want to invite that dragon into his life. Not right yet. Otherwise, he would have been perfectly comfortable in pure darkness. It wasn’t like the dark actually hid anything to his Perception enhanced eyes, or to Ophiel’s eyes either.

Seeing that Erick was moving around again, Ophiel fluffed up on his perch upon the headboard, his eyes glittering in the calm light of the room. He twittered very quietly, almost experimentally, wondering if Erick was getting up. It was rather early to get up, after all.

Erick also wondered if he was going to get up, or if he could force himself to sleep some more.

For a while, he just lay there, bleary-eyed and wrapped in comfortable blankets. What time was it? He had no idea. Back in Ar’Cosmos Fairy Moon had gifted him an ‘electronic clock’. It was a green stone, like a brick of jade, that projected glowing numbers into the air itself. He really liked that clock. It reminded him of his alarm clock back on Earth, but with green numbers instead of red.

Erick wanted that fairy clock.

Next time he saw Fairy Moon, which would probably be too soon, Erick would ask for that clock.

Ophiel twittered again, a bit quieter, but more insistent. Are you getting up? Are you getting up? Is it time to sing songs yet?

“Yup yup.” Erick sat up. “I suppose that’s enough sleep for tonight.”

Ophiel trilled in quiet happiness as he landed upon Erick’s shoulder. Yggdrasil’s iridescent [Scry] eye, which had been hovering on the other perch of Erick’s bed, took his place on Erick’s other shoulder. And now he was fully awake.

Might as well take advantage of the extra hours, right? It was time to get back to proper work; to prepare for what was to come. Erick flipped his covers off and swung out of bed.

There was spellwork to be done!

… Even if it was still hours to twilight. All that light outside of his room was not actual twilight. It was Yggdrasil, being his normal, happy and bright self. Erick wasn’t about to ask him to turn it down, either, but he was absolutely sure that Yggdrasil was brighter these days, and by a lot. Like, noticeably a lot.

- - - -

Well dressed for an excursion into the desert at night, and with conjured armor robes to boot, Erick stepped down the stairs toward the first floor landing. Kiri’s couatl-shaped [Familiar] hung out on a little pillow beside the main staircase, tucked into a small alcove like a little defender. Sunny shimmered in rainbow hues as Erick passed, while Ophiel twittered in small violins in response. And then Sunny returned to her cat-like nap, and Ophiel turned his attention back toward Erick’s destination; the front door.

Beyond an archway near the foyer, was a reading room. Teressa sat in the side room, doing what the room was made to allow, while also being on nightwatch. It would probably take everyone a long while to realize that nothing was going to happen at night inside this house, but they were all worried, and Erick couldn’t blame them.

Teressa glanced Erick’s way as he passed, first freezing with worry, and then rapidly thawing. She had been rather engrossed in her reading, it seems, but she came out of it fast enough, a dozen thoughts flitting through her head. Primarily, she looked to the space where Erick’s fairy necklace lay upon his chest. She didn’t like that thing. Even with Ophiel betraying where Erick went, that little necklace prevented her from seeing all of Erick’s actual worldline.

She dispersed her worries fast enough so that she could fake a proper tone, though, asking, “What’s upPP—” Her voice cracked. She tried again, “What’s up, Boss?”

“Out to do some magic, and then off to talk to some people. I’ll be back. Don’t worry about me.”

“… Do you want—” Teressa had started with a half-hearted attempt at offering something, but then she realized that that would have been improper for so many different reasons, not the least of which that she was a guard, and she should be ready to guard whenever asked, and even when not asked at all. So she stood, saying, “Let me wake up Poi and I will go with you. You need a spotter, right?”

Erick grinned, saying, “I would like a spotter. Thanks for offering.”

Teressa nodded firmly, then began moving, out of the reading room, into the foyer then past Erick, saying, saying, “I’ll get the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds].”

“Might want to pick up your shield, too. Never know what’s out there at night.

Teressa paused in realization that maybe she could actually defend like she was used to, and then she resumed walking, saying, “Of course. This is my duty.”

Erick tried to contain some of his joy; Teressa wasn’t fully comfortable with him yet, but she was getting there, and faster than he had expected. It took Poi apparently a year to come around to the idea that Erick was a Wizard, and that this was not automatically a bad thing, but then again, Poi had been there first, back before it was obvious what kinda person Erick truly was. Teressa had only found out a few days ago; well after she had already formed opinions that were, apparently, based on lies.

But she was adjusting well. 

Erick happily watched as Teressa continued on, to grab the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] from the kitchen, conjure her usual fully-enclosed armor, and then tuck the rod into a compartment on her back. With a quick cast of grey magic, she empowered the adamantium shield that she had gotten from Enduring Forge, and commanded it to float upon her back. A knock on Poi’s door was enough to wake the guy. Poi grumbled awake and then dispelled his brief annoyance, understanding what was happening without being told, and Teressa rejoined Erick in the foyer of the house.

Erick asked, “How did you guys get one of those rods, anyway? I thought we had run out?”

Teressa’s fully-encased armor was a sight to behold, making her look like a tank from Earth, but in person form. Her helmet was completely solid, too. She seemed truly imposing in that conjuring, but her voice wasn’t so solid, as she said, “Ah? Kiri needed one, and… Well she’s made some money, and commissioned several from Oceanside for the Army. Bulk shipment of twenty-five, for the cost of 10.”

“Still like 250,000 a piece, though, right?” Erick suddenly realized that he could…

He had no idea how hard it was to make one of those rods.

Teressa nodded. “Yup. But she paid in rads, so they cut the cost a lot.”

Erick realized something. “You know? I never did find out why it cost so much to put the spell into an item. I’ve heard people talk about how the items require a lot of skill to make, but nothing definitive.” He had some ideas, but nothing concrete.

Teressa brightened. “Oh! Kiri actually found this out! When a person casts [Greater Treat Wounds] the Script helps them with that spell, but the [Greater Treat Wounds] that gets put into an item requires the enchanter to actually be able to use Elemental Healing and Destruction how they’re supposed to be used to Remake [Greater Treat Wounds] from scratch. It’s because magic cast through the use of rads takes on the qualities of those rads, and there’s…” Teressa frowned a little, underneath her helmet. “I don’t really understand it all, but rads make for good enchantments that anyone can use, but making Healing Magic out of those rads is very difficult, because making true Healing Magic is exceedingly difficult.”

“I’ll have to run some experiments with runic wands of [Greater Treat Wounds].” Erick nodded, then gestured to the right. Ophiel zipped to the door, opened it, and fluttered out of the [Fairy Stronghold] several meters before Erick cast [Gate], opening a lightning-ringed hole in the world, that led to the dark sands of the Crystal Forest about a hundred kilometers north of here. And then Ophiel flitted through, leading the way. “Only a bit to the north; not too far away.” Erick stepped forward, out of the house and toward the [Gate].

Teressa had paused for a moment, likely feeling any of a hundred disconnected emotions, but then she rolled her shoulders, getting herself in the mood to move. She followed.

- - - -

The dune-filled desert was cold at night, and slightly more active than it was in the daytime, but that was normal. Sand mice tousled with a brown snake to the left, about twenty meters out; it was a life and death struggle for the mice to eat the snake, but it was a very small battle that would likely play out like it normally did. The venomous mice would eat the animated-plant-type snake, while the gibbous moons lit the land in enough light for most animals to easily see everything that happened around them.

Erick and Teressa could see everything around them rather well, too. Either through mana sense, or through enough moonlight to read by, the night was dark but it was not filled with terrors at all.

Erick half expected something horrible to happen right after they had stepped out of the [Gate], but nothing had, and so Erick had closed that [Gate] behind them. Now, they walked upon the sands. They had only been out here for a minute so far, but Erick hadn’t said anything yet, because…

“I’m not quite sure what I’m looking for, exactly, Teressa,” Erick admitted.

Behind him, Teressa offered, “Uh? What are you looking for, at all? I thought we’d drop right next to the target.”

“Perhaps I have come to think that the world would bend in odd ways to fit my needs… I think the Worldly Path fucked up my sense of… I’m not sure.” Erick tried out, “Of what should happen when one does something strange?”

Teressa smirked. “Your sense of Fate.”

“That works.” After a moment of thought, Erick decided to just tell her, and see how she reacted to his plan; her reaction would be a good reaction to what he should expect from the rest of the world. She might not be a good test case, though, since this magic was probably too close to her own trauma with her original adventuring team who were turned to shadelings by the Witch, but… Erick went for it, saying, “I explained some of this already, but here’s the full story: While I was in Ar’Cosmos, there was a magic I helped them to make. It started with [Baleful Polymorph] and my [Renew], and then came a whole lot of runic workings to form the resulting magic into something new. 

“What this spell does is take the base of a person’s soul and works out from there, continually rebuilding the soul in a certain direction and discarding everything aside from base level power, granting a person a new Familiar Form that is completely new. The result is devoid of all medical issues or soul issues. It’s a complete [Reincarnation]. It’s what Melemizargo has done for some of the shadelings in Candlepoint. It’s what I’ve helped Redflame in Ar’Cosmos do for his people, in order to… That explanation is a mess and a half, but short version: Some people have dragon essence and soul problems, and this spell solves those problems by ridding the soul of everything that is not the base soul. The mind follows the soul, but the body comes along for the ride.” Erick said, “Rats— Xendross could have used a spell like this, and thus never would have needed to go with Messalina to get her to do… Whatever she’s done for him. I honestly do not know.”

Erick finished speaking.

The wind blew calm, and cold.

After an initial hitch in Teressa’s breathing and steps, she resumed walking, catching up to Erick and retaking her defensive position behind him.

Erick continued, “I need to make [Baleful Polymorph] first.” He turned to the left briefly, saying, “I could turn one of those mice into a fish, and then back again, but I need a person-level spell; not [Baleful animal-morph], or whatever might result from that sort of experiment. I went over a lot of this with the dragon Redflame and that was one of the lesser versions of this magic that I am trying to avoid. You will likely meet Redflame one day. He’s the guy who makes Ar’Cosmos; the land of the dragons. Anyway. There are ways to do this without having a person for a test subject, and that is what I am on the lookout for now. [Baleful Polymorph] isn’t an ethical spell, strictly speaking, but I can work this magic against a mindless monster, and that should be fine. Some magics are necessary to have, after all. A mammal-type monster would be better than a crystal mimic, though… But I haven’t seen any shadowolves yet. Or sandwolves. I guess we keep looking.”

The night was quiet after Erick stopped explaining.

He had already explained a little of this before to Teressa, but now they were here, and the time was now. 

And then Teressa asked, “Why not make a [Benevolent Polymorph]?”

“A good suggestion!” Erick smiled as he glanced backward at Teressa, happy that she was participating, even if she was obviously unhappy with the nature of the topic. He turned back forward, saying, “[Baleful Polymorph] isn’t good or bad, actually. It’s only called ‘baleful’ because it causes a lasting effect against a subject. Usually, the spell is used to force a target into a physically weaker body, but that’s not what the spell actually is. However, the end goal of this morning’s magic is to include Elemental Benevolence in the working, through the addition of [Renew] and a Blessing-type of magic, all in order transform the [Baleful Polymorph] into [Reincarnation].”

Almost reverentially, Teressa said, “You really are going to be… resurrecting people.”

“I hope to stay out of the resurrection debate.” Erick said, “This spell won’t work on dead people. It will grant a person a whole new chance at life, though, which is the point. A healthy start. A whole soul. The removal of all curses or blessings. I imagine that this spell can even be used by a common person if they wanted to reset their Script Status back to level 0. Might even be able to turn monsterized people back into normal people, too.” He reiterated, “Won’t bring back the dead, though.”

Teressa’s steps faltered briefly, but she steadied herself and kept walking. She looked outward, over Erick’s head, at the horizon ahead, not wanting to look directly at him, for even though she knew that Erick could see past her solid helmet, she did not want to betray that she was crying. Tears of joy rolled down her face, as she breathed out, “Ahh.” She softly said, “You plan on offering this to the shadelings, to turn them back to people.”

“I do. Eventually. No one needs ever experience what you went through with the Witch, ever again. Capturing and containing such dangerous monsterized people for transport back to here, so that I can bring them back to themselves, will be a problem.” Erick said, “But that is a problem of logistics and power; something to be solved once the actual solution has been made.”

“Ahhh.”

Teressa fell silent again.

The only sounds were the soft wind rushing across the dunes, sand underfoot, and the jostling of Erick’s clothes, but there was nothing from Teressa except for a soft, quiet cry. If Erick didn’t have mana sense on the large woman, then he would have thought her an illusion, for her armor was [Silent Armor], or something close to that. He did not interrupt her moment to ask her those specifics, though. He would have in any other scenario, for he was rather sure she had created her current [Conjure Armor] spell after they had parted ways at that teleport pad at Enduring Forge; it looked like an upgrade from her previous armor.

And then the tears slowed, and stopped.

Erick said, “Your armor looks new, Teressa. Looks good!”

She chuckled once, then said, “Yeah. Made it a month ago. More durable than what I had before.” She added, “There’s a dying trio of shadowolves in about 110 meters to the left. Looks like they went after a crystal mimic and lost. Looks like it happened several hours ago, too. They’ve been dying for hours now.”

Erick perked up. He ignored the crystal mimic not twenty meters in front of them, and turned to the left, saying, “Let’s go rescue some puppies, then!”

“… Puppies, Boss?”

“Well—” Erick digressed, “I hope they remain normal wolves for a while when I’m through with them, or they might turn into monsters again or maybe even become spirit beasts. You know of spirit beasts?”

“Oh! I’ve heard of those before—” Suddenly a little wary, Teressa asked, “You’re going to turn them into people?”

“… I think we have different ideas of spirit beasts.” Erick explained, “Spirit beasts are monsters that accrete their cores properly, thus avoiding one of the underlying insanities and murderous natures that makes a monster a ‘monster’. Spirit beasts are not people, in the strictest sense of the word. They’re just monsters with all the power and smarts of a monster, but without a monstrous nature.” Erick hummed a moment, then added, “Which… I suppose now we’re getting into the philosophical territory of ‘is a very smart monster a person’? And I honestly can’t answer that. Soulwork is all sorts of ethically dubious, at best, but since I’m likely going to have to deal with the worst sorts of soul mages in the near or far future, I need to be prepared with my own expertise in the field, and so, monstrous soul experimentation.” Erick said, “If I accidentally make a person, then I’m going to treat them like a person… And I hope I don’t make a person until I actually want to make a person.”

Teressa frowned a little, but she said, “Okay?” She rapidly added, “You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Boss. I know who you are.”

Warm fuzzies blossomed in Erick’s chest… right beside his core.

Erick said, “You do know me, Teressa, but I know that me wearing this necklace and hiding myself has been uncomfortable for you. I can go for a while without wearing it, if you want to actually see for yourself what’s going on.”

Without waiting for confirmation for or against his offer, and while Teressa was just beginning to say ‘no’ Erick took off his fae necklace. He slipped it into a pocket of his robes, letting Teressa get a good look at his core, and the lightning in his body, and all the rest of him. Words failed her as her breath hitched, but she kept up with his pace, walking a good three meters behind him across the dunes.

“There’s the Perfected Body, thanks to Rozeta; got that after we parted ways at Enduring Forge and I went to the Core.” Erick said, “And then there is my own core.”

Teressa breathed quickly and shallowly for a little while, not saying anything as the two of them continued toward the dying shadowolves. Slowly, her breath evened out. Eventually, when they were almost to the scene of the battle, she said, “Okay. That’s different.”

“Are you okay, Teressa?”

“I’m good. You can put it back on now, though.”

Erick put the necklace back on, right in time to crest the next dune, and to see the battle which had taken place between a crystal mimic, and several shadowolves.

The mimic lay scattered across the valley between two low dunes, its large, white-blue clear-crystal spires having been torn apart by what appeared to have been at least seven shadowolves. The shadowolves were similarly broken and scattered, their darker, red blood mixed with the blue blood of the mimics, but all of it simply looked like scattered ink under the moons’ light.

As he looked down at the dead monsters, and the three barely breathing shadowolves that remained alive, Erick was reminded of just how weak and wretched these shadowolves truly were. They were like wolves, of course; big dogs with thick fur and powerful jaws and powerful legs, but this shadow-variant was anything but healthy. Each and every shadowolf Erick had ever seen, including the ones who almost killed Erick and Jane back when they were being shown around the Human District of Spur that very first time, was emaciated. Sometimes bone even poked through in the holes of a shadowolf’s skin. More often than not, this particular breed of monster was only alive because it was half-shadow, and it could survive being gutted by a very large monster and forever have its abdominal region exposed to the world, or it could lose half its face, or part of its ribcage.

It was no wonder that these three monsters had ‘survived’. The mimic had either crushed, or pierced and ripped apart, every single shadowolf that tried to kill it, for whatever reason. Normally, this doesn’t happen. Normally, wolves can take down a mimic and feast for a night or two. But that didn’t happen this time.

And so, three barley-living shadowolves lay scattered around the body of their enemy, and all their allies. One was missing its lower half. Another was missing half of its chest. Another was missing half of its head and most of its left side. They’d die once the sun came up and exposed them to actual light, but for now, they hung on in the shadows.

“Well. Time to fix this.”

Erick began casting spells, cleaning up the battle and placing the survivors into three Force boxes. They yelped and they snapped and snarled, but they could barely move. With a triple tap of [Greater Treat Wounds] and a general application of [Merciful Ether], along with some lightwards cast by Ophiel to illuminate the procedure, Erick soon had three mostly-whole shadowolves hovering in boxes, inside bright lights that would ensure that they wouldn’t be getting away. A few more [Greater Treat Wounds] brought these shadowolves up to ‘fully healed’ status.

And then a small application of [Undertow Star] stripped away all the Health and Mana that they had managed to hold onto. They didn’t care, though; they were fast asleep, and would remain that way as long as Erick wished. The [Undertow Star] had been necessary, though, in order to make them truly vulnerable to the magics Erick was about to cast.

Making [Baleful Polymorph] wasn’t going to be the hard part about this experiment, though. Erick had had thorough discussions about that spell with both Redflame and Inferno Maw. But to ensure that he got this part as right as possible, Erick held out a hand, and channeled the sound of [Polymorph] through his palm.

It was the sound of a different path than the one he was on, like being on a concrete sidewalk, and seeing/feeling that just over there, just beyond sight, was a forested path, or a path through the residential neighborhood, or the market. It was a lot more different than the sound of [Teleport], which was just a branch in the current path. [Polymorph] was the sound of something else.

With his other hand, Erick channeled the sound of [Force Bolt]. That one was an old, well known sound; the sound of reaching out and touching something else. Of imparting power to a target.

Combined, such a touch would transform another into something else.

Erick pointed, and cast.

A sparking Bolt of white light struck the first shadowolf, and the shadowolf transformed.

A wolf became a doberman. Erick smiled. Perfect! That was exactly—

A blue box appeared.

Baleful Polymorph, instant, close range, 500 mana + Variable Cost

Inflict a new form upon a target.

Large deviations require more mana.

Erick handed Teressa the spell, though the large woman just let it hang there in the air in front of her instead of taking it. She seemed scared of it, while also trying not to appear scared of it at all. That was fine.

Erick was already turning back to the would-be dogs, saying, “It worked, but there’s a lot more work to be done. That spell box barely tells any of the truth of this particular magic. For one, it doesn’t actually grant a Familiar Form to the target. Any sustained healing efforts would eventually turn the target back to their original form, or, if the target has [Polymorph] themselves, then they can break out of this magic by simply transforming back into their usual Familiar Form. Notice the rad still inside this one’s chest? Monsters, like this one, can break out of this type of magic through normal accretion. This [Baleful Polymorph] is the weakest form of this magic. Actual malicious forms of [Baleful Polymorph] will have some sort of Curse to them, to prevent these easy fixes, or to allow them to work on monsters. For my purposes, though—” He smiled, and felt really good about what was to come next, as he said, “I’m going to give these little guys a brand new chance at life as proper guard dogs. Not sure who is going to get them, right now, but maybe we need some dogs, eh? Would make nightwatch a bit easier, for sure.”

Teressa glanced at the blue box still hovering in front of her, but she also looked to Erick, and to the dog and the wolves. She had so many emotions upon her masked face, and in her posture. Enthralled, worried, hopeful, scared, and everything else all at once. Not really because of Erick’s explanation, either, but because she could already see what was coming next.

Erick channeled [Renew] through one hand, and [Baleful Polymorph] through the other, and then he handed off those spells to two Ophiel who took up their song and danced in the air around the would-be doberman.

The healing thrum of [Greater Treat Wounds] and [Regeneration] came next, to allow for the melding of Familiar Form and Soul. Ophiel took those sounds and enhanced the chorus of Erick’s magic.

The second-to-last puzzle piece was a spell that already surrounded the target; [Merciful Ether]. Erick had Ophiel take that static, but also [Cleanse]ing magic, and add it to the song. It was necessary to keep the target asleep and numb to the pain of a transformation like this, and to let them wake up on their own time.

And then he added his own Benevolence.

Lightning poured out of Erick’s veins, like the sound of a power granted. A catalyst imparted, that would jolted a soul from their current path, and guide them to another, better present. Iridescent lightning flickered from one hand to the next as Erick spread his arms wide. With a thousand lessons gained during his time working with Redflame and Inferno Maw on the Renewal Tank, guiding a thousand smaller intricacies of Healing Magic and Soul Magic, Erick stretched his Perception as far as he could see, and he prepared his lightning strike.

He spoke,

“A new chance for a life.

“A soul passed through translation.

“Different dance, different strife,

“A new [Reincarnation].”

Iridescent lightning lanced from Erick’s hands, striking the wolf that was currently a dog, fracturing the world around her into a stained-glass mirror that continued to break and fold and shift under Erick’s power. It was a glimpse into every possible way for the soul to have been. Erick mostly saw the death and destruction of the wolf as she fought to kill any of a hundred different monsters or people, but he also saw the wolf transform into a Primal Wolf and become a mother to a thousand more wolves, to continue the cycle of shadowolves hunting and killing anything and everything they could. That was the usual outcome for a shadowolf; a life of constant fighting and avoiding death and eating and producing more of their kind.

Erick would not have it.

Lightning broke that path, spreading out to the edges of Fate, to pluck a new possibility out of the mana, to guide the wolf to a new destination; a destination of Erick’s own creation. It was a blank destination too full of chaos to properly see, but Erick saw enough to understand what he had chosen.

Her fate had her living on the coast of a lake, raising puppies and getting fed food from a kind stranger. And then happenstance moved her to a house where she barked at intruders and warned of monsters. She had a home, food, and less pain and more joyful days far removed from any sort of fighting at all, where she saw her puppies grow into fine dogs themselves.

It held a far away death, when all her hairs were grey and she spent most her days fat and happy sleeping by a fire at night, while the cold desert winds blew outside. She had always been cold at night, out there on the sands. She was, perhaps, most happy about that change in her life.

The lightning detached from Erick’s hands to soak into the sleeping dog, reaching her rad, and then shattering that innermost part of the monster. The stained-glass world folded in on itself, into the dog, imposing a Reality upon the reality of the monstrous animal. The dog yelped in her sleep, but the [Merciful Ether] kept her asleep. She did not die, either. Lightning curled around her rad, dissolving it into ever smaller pieces, releasing the monster from the core like a container of bright, dark ink dropped into a tub. That ink rapidly settled back into the body that it inhabited.

And the body changed.

Erick and Teressa watched as a wolf became a dog. It was not instant. But it was not slow, either.

A good thirty five seconds passed without a blue box appearing, but that notification came soon enough, and well before the lightning inside the creature actually subsided. Erick ignored the box for the moment, to watch iridescent crackling here and there atop the sleeping dog. Everywhere the spell sparked, the soul seemed to fit the body just a bit more, and the body shifted to match.

And then suddenly the dog shrunk, turning younger. The shadowolf had probably been rather old, perhaps? Erick wasn’t sure.

When it was over, the doberman looked like a juvenile dog sleeping soundly in her Force box, on her side. She seemed to be having dreams of some sort; kicking her legs like she was running, while she nipped at some invisible thing, her jaws no longer looking like they were ready to rip open a warrior’s armor, but she could still catch smaller prey without problem. She was fine, and that was good.

Erick glanced at his two notifications. The first was normal enough, but it was the spell for [Reincarnation], so…

Holy fuck, right?

Erick was impressed that his spell had turned out so well. That blue box brought a wide smile to his face, and a giggle out of his throat. He had done it! He could save anyone from any physical or spiritual malady, not!

Reincarnation, instant, close range, 5,000 Mana

Bestow a new life upon a target.

May their new form fit them better than the one that came before. 

The next box was a bit more concerning.

Hello, Erick.

This is Rozeta.

Congratulations.

Please be responsible with this magic.

This particular ability is something that very few people have ever been able to achieve, and is mostly constrained to the realms of shades and gods, or more specifically, my father, and less specifically, in a very long Quest chain that my registrars can bestow to those who truly do want to start over, but which rarely works. Most can never walk all of those required steps.

“Ah. Hmm.” Erick read over the larger of the boxes again, and then handed them off to Teressa because Teressa looked concerned. Upon reading them, Teressa was suddenly much more concerned, but Erick just said, “Looks like it worked!”

While Teressa was still having a minor crisis of faith or other such emotional occurrence, Erick [Reincarnation]ed the other two shadowolves into dobermans…

He probably didn’t want to call them ‘dobermans’, since appending ‘man’ onto the end of that particular breed would likely lead to uncomfortable questions later, if the word never got fully translated from English into Ecks. So for now…

“I’m going to call them dobers.” Erick said, “It’s a type of dog breed back home on Earth. Friendly dogs. People-oriented. Does well in hot climates, but even if it’s not that hot next to the lake, these guys should do well on that side of the wall. They are still wild animals, after all.”

It took Teressa to come back to the moment, but she did, because the dogs reminded her of something, but just what did they— She perked up. “They look like a smaller version of the wardogs of Nelboor.”

Erick looked at the dogs. “Ah. So they do. Huh. Well, these ones probably aren’t suited to war now that they’re not monsters.”

“… Will they be, uh… Safe? Inside the wall? Now that you took away all their power, I mean.”

“Oh? Well. I’m sure they will be fine inside the wall. Sand mice are all over the grasses and such near the coast, and those will make good meals for the dogs. Lots of room run and live, too. Some small trees for shade. Plenty of water.” Erick explained, “This particular magic is very, very abusable, for I could have made them unable to eat anything but plants but left them with a taste for meat, but I didn’t do that. No; I worked the magic correctly. It helped a great deal that [Baleful Polymorph] and [Polymorph] operate in the function of ‘picking another life’ and inhabiting that life. If you pick a form that is a real form that actually does exist, then the mana takes care of most of the smaller bodily intricacies.

“[Reincarnation] takes that whole process a step further, gifting the target a new Familiar Form and allowing their soul to replenish and repair and fully inhabit the new body. But it’s sort of like how some orcols can get their head cut off, and if they get healed fast enough and well enough, then they’ll be loopy for a while, but they’ll be fine, eventually.

“They still have their memories. The soul remembers what the body forgets.

“And so, these guys are still wild animals who will be smarter than a dog should be. There will be an adjustment period for they won’t have the power that they are used to having, but the only real issue they will have will be if they don’t recognize each other as the same packmates they always were. Once they pass that difficulty and are able to work together once again, they should be fine foraging on their own, as dogs, instead of as monsters. I’ll stick around to ensure that they can make it to that point, but…” Erick said, “They’re still originally monsters, and they would be dead without this intervention… So I’m fine with leaving them to their own devices now that I’ve rescued them to this point.”

Teressa stared down at the dogs. She wasn’t convinced. These were clearly dogs now, through and through, and dogs did not do well outside of protected pet-friendly spaces.

Erick decided to offer, “Do you want to look after them?”

“What? Me?” Teressa balked, but it was completely false. She actually did want to take care of the dogs for some reason. “No no.”

“… Are you sure?”

Teressa stared at the dogs. “They’re young, right? So they need a little care. Even if they are wild.”

Erick nodded. “They are wild dogs. I’m absolutely sure they’d do fine on their own. There’s nothing dangerous on the lake-side of the wall, and there is a lot of space for them to roam.”

“Yeah. But.” Almost shyly, like she was sure she was stepping over a line, but she knew she had to step over that line anyway, Teressa asked, “You made them like they are… Shouldn’t you look after them more than dropping them off at the lake?”

“A valid criticism. It is for that reason that I will be looking after them for about a week or two.” Erick said, “But I’m going to be making a lot of opportunities for a lot of different people and otherwise, and I’ve long ago learned that just because I help someone through bad times once, does not mean that I need to be there for them forever.”

“… Ah. That’s true, too.”

Erick grinned a little, knowing that Teressa wasn’t paying lip service by acquiescing, but also that she was both bold enough to still question him and his motives. She had never done much of that, but when she did it was always with just cause.

He turned his gaze out to the darkened crystal forest, beyond the lights that Ophiel had conjured into the area to illuminate the successful experiment. It had been good that they had found a proper target for [Reincarnation], though doing so wasn’t exactly hard in this area, so close by the massive water source that was Yggdrasil’s lake. Water was life, after all, though most things out here subsisted on killing mimics or each other to get their required water.

Erick said, “I plan on changing this entire ecosystem, Teressa. This is going to kill many, many different animals that already live here. Maybe I should reincarnate most of them into something better suited to an actual forest? Or should I let the sand mice and the brown snakes and even the shadowolves be naturally overtaken by forest cats and root eaters and spiders of all sorts?”

Teressa stood a bit straighter. “I. Uh. Hadn’t even considered that. But. Yeah. I guess they’re all going away, anyway. Aren’t they? I guess… the Soul Magic has me worried more than it should.”

Erick shrugged, saying, “Soul Magic should worry you. It should probably worry me more than it does, too.” With a casual gesture, Erick opened a [Gate] leading to the northern coast of Yggdrasil’s lake, cast some [Force Platform]s under the dobers, and then sent them on their way through that ring of lightning to their probably-temporary home. Ophiel had already been preparing the space while Erick had been talking with Teressa, and so there was plenty of space and water, with some trees for shade, and some small dog houses, too. “But you’ve surely seen more mangled Soul Magic than I, both in the Guard of Spur and in the Army inside Ar’Kendrithyst.”

Teressa breathed out, “Whoa yeah. That’s… Those are some horror stories. Makes your new [Reincarnation] look downright Saintly because you can just—” She froze. She said, “You can just erase the Curses they put on people, can’t you?”

“All Blessings and Curses and everything. I suspect I will mostly use it on half-dragons who wish to rid themselves of their various abnormalities and emigrate to this land, but I could set up a soul-healing hospital, too. If Rats were still here, I’m absolutely sure I could heal him of his troubles, too. But all that is for later.” Erick began turning off the conjured wardlights around them, then opened another [Gate] to their next destination. “Ophiel will watch the dobers wake up slowly, but I’ve got to meet with the governors of Candlepoint. Do you want to come for that?”

“Of course!” Teressa said with sudden fervor, as she glanced at the city of Candlepoint, sitting beyond the ring of lightning. “I’m right with you, Boss. Always will be.”

Erick smiled again, and led the way.

- - - -

Of course, reaching the courthouse (or the city hall, or whatever they called it) and meeting with Mephistopheles was not as easy as a calm stroll through the predawn streets of Candlepoint. Shadelings were wide awake at this hour, and everyone (mostly not shadelings, strangely enough) recognized Erick.

Some dashed away. Others sent out tendrils of thought. Very few of those people looked to be gearing up for something big; to come back with a question, or a concern. Mostly, they were just telling everyone that Erick was finally in town.

And slowly, over the course of walking down two calm streets, Erick encountered a street that was not so calm. People waited for him, and they had paperwork and ideas and came walking forward, asking if Erick would approve this business plan or that business plan—

Most of them were trying to be respectful, but like flipping a switch, the crowd suddenly turned needy. They had to talk to Erick before everyone else! Everyone else was just in their way! Erick instantly decided to avoid whatever this was and opened a [Gate] directly into the center of what he assumed they were calling City Hall these days.

He left one demanding crowd behind, and landed right in the middle of a suddenly worried crowd of guards and a scant few lawyers.

Some shadeling guards instantly rose to the challenge of defending what they were right to defend, but they all rapidly realized who he was, as if Ophiel wasn’t enough of a clue. Thanks to a very quick thinking head guard of city hall, Erick was quickly and courteously extracted from that central hallway and shown to the main meeting room on the top floor.

A dome of smoky crystal held overhead. If it wasn’t still an hour till sunup, Erick suspected that dome would let in natural light and shadow in equal measure. But as it was, the room was bathed in the shadows and light of various sconces around the room, and in the ceiling. The room and the furniture inside was black like all the rest of the building, and like the building, all of the stonework here had lines of white stone inlaid as accents to the black.

The room was quiet, and a bit too dark for Erick’s tastes.

Other than that, the room was paradoxically bright and welcoming. Sure, there were shadows everywhere, but the room itself was well lit. Can’t have shadows without light, after all. Erick’s own Benevolent light flickered and skittered inside of him, around his core, protecting his most vulnerable part from any sort of direct attack, but he wasn’t really worried about anything like that happening right now.

Erick was the only one inside the room, not counting Teressa, who stood behind him near the wall, or Ophiel or Yggdrasil, who hovered on the back of his chair. He had not sat down yet, for that seemed odd to do when he was the only one in here, but Ophiel and Yggdrasil had already scouted out his chair and sat upon the headrest, marking Erick’s territory for him.

Every office worker, lawyer, judge, janitor, clerk, and otherwise, was at least two rooms over in every direction but on the roof, acting like they didn’t know what was going on, or stressing about what was going on. A few of them clearly had mana sense or some other method of spying into this room, and they were trying to be circumspect about it, and yet nothing was happening. No one was coming this way. People were trying to get work done, but there were a lot of thought tendrils out there.

Erick had only been here for two minutes so far. Two very quiet minutes.

The head guard had just dumped Erick here and then left as fast as he could.

Perhaps it was too much to hope to be offered tea? The next room over to the left held a small kitchen with a multitude of small snacks in stone boxes, and various teas and teapots. Perhaps curiously, all of the teapots clashed with the décor of the room; none were black and white like the rest of the space. Erick guessed they were all from other places outside of Candlepoint. All of the cookies were in boxes that labeled them as from here or there, with most of them actually labeled with a pearl-like design; from the Pearl Kingdom, from Portal.

Erick wondered at that.

Like, yes, he had hope that Candlepoint would get some trade up and running, but he had also hoped that they would start making their own stuff, too. Were they not making their own stuff here in Candlepoint?

The farms to the north of the city looked to be churning out food, according to Erick’s casual observations with Ophiel. According to his casual observations, the shadelings and otherwise in town all seemed to be wearing nice-ish clothes, as well. Erick had assumed that they were making their own fabrics and such, but now that he was here, and really looking everything over…

There were an awful lot of browns, reds, and whites; three of the easiest colors to impart into fabric on Veird. Were they actually not making their own fabrics here in town?

… Erick checked on the farms through an Ophiel he had hovering above.

There were no cottonfruit fields. And no dyefruit fields, either?

How strange?

Had industry failed to materialize while Erick was gone? Like, sure, it was hard to make clothes and such, but Erick would have expected Sewermaster Ava to go gung-ho for luxury goods, and then to start producing them herself, or ensuring they got produced, as soon as it was apparent that none of the other nations wanted to trade properly with Candlepoint. Sewermasters usually had a great deal of pull in a city, based on the amount of rads (and thus wealth) that they naturally funneled back into that city, so why hadn’t the higher-end markets happened as Ava wished them to happen—

In the adjoining kitchen and preparation room, a few extra people appeared. By their appearances, Erick gained answers and more questions.

Ava Jadescale slipped out of the wall, stonestepping, no doubt. She looked like Erick remembered; A 25ish young human woman, but with tiny green scales up and down the sides of her body. Most shifters wore masks, as a cultural thing, but Ava did not, though she did wear sparking green eyeshadow in great abundance. Her eyes were green and not slitted at all. Sometimes a snake shifter’s eyes were slitted, not always.

Ava wore some of the nicest day-to-day clothes and bright, enchanted jewelry that Erick had ever seen on a sewermaster. Al, back at Spur, wore really nice clothes, too, because he could afford it. Ava was even more rich, or something along those lines, because she had actual enchanted stuff wrapped around her wrists and neck and fingers. Maybe she had made them herself? It was entirely possible. Perhaps sewermasters from Ava’s part of the world, before she was turned into a shadeling, were enchanters, too. Whatever the case, she was clearly well off.

Richer than Mephistopheles, it seemed.

The mayor of Candlepoint was a shadeling incani who stepped out of the crystal in the same room as Ava. His eyes were aglow with white light, while his skin and curving horns were as red as fresh blood. Nice clothes on par with Ava, but no enchanted jewelry on him. Then again he was a monster and people didn’t normally make enchanted stuff that worked for monsters. Erick could make some stuff that worked for monsters, though. He was pretty sure that Mephistopheles, or some other shadeling in town, knew how to make monster-compatible enchantments. There had to be someone, right? So why no enchanted defensive items, at least?

The other person to blip into that room was Justine Erholme. She looked about as good as the last time Erick had seen her, too, if a bit more tired than before. She was an incani with bright red eyes and milk-white skin. Justine was originally from the Underworld around Enduring Forge, in Nelboor, before she succumbed to the shadeling curse and unknowingly opened her Underworld city to attack from monsters, and then monsters did what monsters do; they killed everyone who could not flee.

Justine was still working for Koyabez, last Erick heard. He had expected her to be brokering peace between shadelings and other nations elsewhere, but perhaps, since none of the nations of the world let shadelings live openly, Justine’s continued life here in Candlepoint was not that much of a surprise. What was a surprise, though, was that she was dressed like a full priest, in plain white robes, and she had deep bags under her eyes like she hadn’t slept well in months.

Justine also had a brief scowl for Mephistopheles, but other than that, the three of them glanced at each other, and then at the door separating their room from the meeting room. Ava glanced at Justine’s garb and at Mephistopheles’s outfit and then put them out of her mind; she didn’t like their style, but that was not important right now. Mephistopheles almost went for the door, but then he paused, and caught himself.

All three of them were somewhat scared about what was to come and they were putting it off as best they could.

Justine decided that she wasn’t going to wait any longer. She went for the door first, but then Mephistopheles shadowstepped forward and led the way, both to get there first, and to deny Justine whatever Justine wanted. There was friction between Mephistopheles and Justine, and there always had been as far as Erick had known, but now that friction seemed mean spirited. Ava glanced at that small interaction and ignored it as one would ignore shit on the sidewalk; it was unpleasant, but not her problem.

It appeared that this place was a bit dysfunctional.

Not actively broken, of course, but not a well-oiled machine at all. And where was Slip, the guard captain? Or Valok, the former master farmer of the former Farms of Spur, and now the master farmer for the farms of Candlepoint, and Erick’s old frie— Well. Not ‘friend’. Not really. Not after he had been murdered by Portal and been turned into a shadeling in order for Bulgan to be able to taunt Erick. But they had been friendly enough—

Anyway.

The black doors opened.

Candlepoint put as many of their best feet forward as they could.

“Welcome back to Candlepoint, Archmage Flatt.” Mephistopheles warmly greeted. “We’re glad to hear that you’ve moved into Yggdrasil, and are here to stay. And congratulations on [Gate]! A monumental achievement. Let us throw a party sometime soon! A commemoration.”

“I don’t need a party, Mephistopheles, but I thank you for the idea, anyway. Good to see you again.” Erick turned to Ava and Justine. “Good to see you two, as well.” He asked, “Is Slip still the guard captain? Is Valok still the master farmer?”

Justine said, “Slip—”

Mephistopheles quickly answered in order to speak over Justine, “Slip is still guard captain, and Valok is still master farmer. They will be joining us as soon as they are able.” He gestured to the table. “Shall we sit and discuss what is to come? Would you care for tea?”

Erick looked at the man, and wondered…

Mephistopheles used to be rather flamboyant and sarcastic. He had been the overseer of the Garrison back when Erick deposed Bulgan, but Mephistopheles had only gained that office after the previous several appointees met untimely ends and the hands of Bulgan, or adventurers, or otherwise. Mephistopheles had always been very aware that he could have been killed at any moment, back then, and so he had armored himself with an extravagant persona to deflect his mortal worries. This Mephistopheles wore a nice suit and tried to be presentable, but mostly he was overly worried about being deposed, or assassinated, or killed, or any number of horrible things. His mental armor was gone. It had rotted away under the constant demands of this mayoral job.

Not having any actual power, such as an archmage, available to back him up has probably made it tough to run a city such as Candlepoint.

Or maybe Erick was giving the man too much credit?

From what Erick was seeing and what he knew of Candlepoint, this city needed someone who was very, very good at their job, and maybe Mephistopheles was that person, or maybe someone else was needed.

Erick glanced across Ava and Justine, and then flicked his sight back to Mephistopheles, saying, “Sure. Let’s sit down and have some tea.” Erick put on a smile as he sat down in the chair that Ophiel and Yggdrasil had commandeered. “I would like to be appraised of everything that needs appraising.”

Mephistopheles did not miss a beat as he sat down across from Erick, instantly asking, “Where would you like to start?”

Justine and Ava took their seats to the left and right of Mephistopheles, leaving Erick alone on his side of the table, which was how it was to be. There was room for more people to fit in on both sides if they needed, and to that end—

Erick cut his thoughts short.

Erick said, “I can save the questions of the farms and the security of Candlepoint until Valok and Slip get here, and so—” He looked to Ava. “Ava. It’s good to see you, and to see that you seem to be doing well. How has it been getting luxury to Candlepoint? Have you had any trouble with the sewers?”

Mephistopheles tensed, as though he had failed in some unknown way.

For a brief moment, Justine tensed, too, but then she relaxed a fraction. She knew she would get her turn to speak, and then everything that needed to be said would be said. She happily waited her turn.

Ava suddenly didn’t know what to do with herself, now that she was in the spotlight. But then she realized that yes, she did know what to do; she knew exactly where to start. With a serious tone, she said, “Every single week it’s something, from unexpected shadow slimes to shadelings trying to use my sewers as hideouts, but I’ve handled worse back when I was the sewermaster for my Jadescale enclave all those years ago. The problem I’m actually having, though, is that people keep stealing from me! Now theft of rads is a large issue for any town, because such a theft removes a reliable source of enchantment materials which are better served being turned into reliable enchantments from reliable enchanters. But never has a respectable sewermaster needed to make allotments for shadelings! There’s nothing wrong with them going out into the Crystal Forest and smashing mimics for their meals now, but instead, they steal from all of us!

“It’s a problem because all the solutions I can come up with are negated because every time I fix it, they just set up slums in another part of the system! Actual slums! Always popping up in some other corner of the sewers and diverting waters and stealing necessary resources from the city’s coffers!” She digressed. “But I have been able to scrounge up some decent clothes, thank Aloethag. Thank you, too, for noticing. I probably wear this outfit too much, though, because… Well. The rads are not flowing like they should.”

Slums?

That seemed…

Not right.

Erick scrunched his face. “Why are there slums at all?” Erick looked to Mephistopheles. “Housing should be easy?”

Mephistopheles held his tongue, but he Sighted Erick’s look.

Justine spoke, “Because people tried running away and then they got shoved back here, and now we’re having a crisis of housing—”

“It’s not a crisis.” Mephistopheles spoke, “We’re simply low on people who can make good housing, and every time someone gets a good house, we have others tearing them down. A normal city would be able to exile some of the malcontents and impose actual order on outsiders who look to do us harm. I could wish them better luck in the next town over. But the original people are stuck here and they’ve mostly been pushed out by the outsiders who bring in the goods. The actual crisis we have is that the original people are outnumbered 3 to 1, and those 3 have formed blocks to lock out the original inhabitants of this land.” Mephistopheles said, “Kind words won’t rid us of the problems we are having; I need actual power to be able to expel some of these miscreants, and we have no power, for as soon as we decide to use our power we will be seen as monsters. And so… We abide as best we can.”

Justine frowned at Mephistopheles, adding, “And the ‘1’ out of that scenario is actually more like 1100 shadelings working against 3000 former-shadelings who tried and failed to leave, and who want their homes back, but those homes have been sold to outsiders in order to line the pockets of Mephistopheles and his cronies! And now, we’ve got 16,500 people —most of them outsiders— working against 3000 returners who have nowhere to live!”

Mephistopheles weathered Justine’s accusations like a mountain would the rain, and then simply said, “Those newcomers now rightly own land, and they bring with them money and otherwise. You know, the things we cannot go out and get ourselves? That stuff. Like proper fabrics and stationary and books and pots and pans and other metalwork. And seeds for plants and knowledge to construct houses that don’t fall down the next day, and all sorts of other necessities.” He said, “There are 1100 shadelings who decided against rolling the dice with the Darkness’s [Reincarnation] because we knew which way the light moved. We originals have taken care of this land and done as much as we could. Those who have left are welcome to participate, but they left. Returners don’t get to have their house back when it has already been sold to an investor bringing in goods that we all need.”

Erick heard and understood a few of the problems laid in front of him, though he was still stuck on one part that made no sense.

A housing issue? That seemed… Too easy to solve.

Erick would solve that issue today. Right now, actually. And probably not in the way any of them expected or wanted it to be solved. This meeting was within the sensory range of others, after all. Not two rooms away, people were listening in with mana sense. High in the sky, people watched with [Long Range Scry] eyes. The walls had eyes and the shadows spied.

And so, Erick saw the pile of problems with no easy solution, and set it on exploding fire, “I’m sure a lot of those new investors will want to leave soon, because I am apparently a Wizard. I made [Renew]. I made the anti-Sundering Element which I call Benevolence. I made [Gate], myself, without Melemizargo’s final help. To that end, there will probably be some sort of establishing war soon enough, when that information gets more wide-spread and people come for me and everything I have built. This information was already spreading wide and fast, but now you’re in the loop.” He added, “Such a war won’t come from Kirginatharp, or the wrought, for I have maintained alliances with them. I’m also allied with the dragons, and have made [Reincarnation] just half an hour ago, so we’ll probably get some former dragons up in here, too. It’s a variant on the same spell that Melemizargo used on you, Ava… or something. It’s probably not like that at all, but it works. I turned some shadowolves into dogs just half an hour ago. Anyway. Dragons. The dragons who come here and partake of [Reincarnation] will be cleansed of their Curse, so there shouldn’t be any dragon fights in the area, but if we do get dragon fights around here then I will simply solve those problems and [Reincarnation] the dragons into less destructive lives right then and there.”

There.

That was not everything, but it was a lot, and it was as succinct as Erick could make it.

Mephistopheles blinked, uncomprehending. And then he leaned back in his chair, pretending at calm thought, but whatever was going through his head was not calm at all.

Ava escaped in a [Teleport]. One Script Second later she came back, mumbling, “Sorry, sorry. Instinctual.”

Justine froze, eyes wide, softly breathing. Justine seemed to freeze a lot in the face of fear. Erick had once toyed with the idea of using Justine to replace Mephistopheles as mayor of Candlepoint, but that was a bad idea for any number of reasons. Like, sure, Justine could handle herself well in talks, and her heart was clearly in the right place with how she spoke before, but she also froze in fear sometimes.

Erick let them have a moment or five, and then he said, “I feel that this problem between the originals and the returners will solve themselves, because I already see people escaping from a few rooms over here and there, probably off to tell whoever they report to.” He glanced to Ava. “Or maybe they’re just escaping.”

“Yeah… There are spies everywhere.” Mephistopheles’s voice was a small thing, warbling with uncertainty. “I had thought that the wrought were rather accommodating yesterday. They knew we’d be losing everything we’ve worked for on our own.” He sat straight, then looked at Erick. With a steady voice, he said, “It was unkind to explain things in this manner. You could have warned us and we could have prepared.”

“I don’t do subterfuge, Mephistopheles.” Erick said, “But you are right; this was unkind. You have had no real say in your own circumstances in a long while, and this is just another expression of that particular fate. Sorry.”

Mephistopheles flinched a fraction. “… Accepted.”

For a long moment, no one spoke.

And then Ava broke the silence, muttering, “Gods above.” She was staring at the wall, but according to her flickering eyes she was focused on somewhere else. “It’s going to be a full scale evacuation, isn’t it? It’s already started.”

Outside, under cover of darkness and a morning that was still an hour away, people raced across the city, heading here or there. Some went to the market streets—

Erick saw something unconscionable. He had only ever experienced it once, himself, way back when he was working with the Greensoil Republic to clear Odaali of the Halls of the Dead. Back then, someone had used [Stoneshape] to tear down their first command center. Such a thing was considered worse than Soul Magic in some circles. It was one of the reasons that the Sovereign Cities didn’t allow houses made of [Stoneshape] (though that particular situation was a lot more nuanced than just that particular law).

And here now, someone cast [Stoneshape] on an occupied building. In this case, the building was a general goods store on the market street. A human man and woman lived above the store, and now, they were trapped in rapidly solidifying stone. They had been sleeping. They were certainly awake now, though. The caster, an orcol (non-shadeling), had been trying to get into the store, to steal everything he could. He didn’t even care that people were now locked in stone.

Erick’s heart sank. There was no way to avoid what was coming. It was always going to be bad. He just didn’t think that someone would start looting this fast.

Erick would have helped out with the trapped people, but he saw them [Stoneshape] away their trap and advance on the orcol. This seemed to delight the orcol just fine. Theirs was just one small story out of ten thousand happening all across Candlepoint, though, and Erick needed to do something bigger to stop the larger problems before they happened.

Ophiel descended onto the Crystal in the center of Candlepoint and opened up his [Spatial Denial Aura], shaping it to flow over almost all of Candlepoint. Where one Ophiel could not reach, the other Ophiel could. Soon, the entire city was filled with Denial.

The shift in mood of Candlepoint was instantaneous.

The thing about [Spatial Denial] was that it felt like a prickling of the skin that you could ignore most of the time. But it felt exactly the same as a Shade’s [Teleport Lock]. It functioned more or less the same, too.

The orcol who had been raiding Market Street suddenly stopped and started running for his life. The owners of that store also started running, and in the opposite direction. A pair of incani who had been following that orcol to Market Street, suddenly turned tail and ran. Half of Candlepoint was awake already, and every single person out there felt they knew what was happening, for there were no children, there were no innocents here. Every single person here in Candlepoint had either come here as a shadeling, not of their free will, or as a person looking to strike it rich through Erick’s promises of a Gate Network.

They knew what it felt like to be near a Shade.

They were wrong, of course. This was not a Shade attack.

He decided to tell everyone the short version.

While Erick sat in the meeting room with Ava, Justine, and Mephistopheles, he also had an Ophiel take to the sky, open up his [Physical Domain]. He looked up at the shadowed crystal dome above, and also down through the eyes of his [Familiar], and began speaking to Candlepoint.

“Attention. Attention. Some of you have just heard some disturbing news, that I am a Wizard. Some of you seek to capitalize on the coming confusion. I am stopping that capitalization right now. If you wish to leave Candlepoint with your stuff, you are free to do so, but you will do so in an orderly, calm manner and the guard will be verifying your departure. For clarification: I am, apparently, a Wizard. I have also made [Gate]. Those of you who are able and desire to leave may do so, but for those of you who say, or who cannot leave, know that I am here now, and nothing will ever be the same.”

The first repeat of the message was done, and everyone in the room with Erick was staring overhead, or directly at him. Erick just sat calmly.

Teressa went, “Uh. Boss? Uh. Was that wise?”

Erick almost answered that yes, it was wise, and also necessary, but Mephistopheles looked like he had his own answer. Erick nodded at Mephistopheles, letting him speak.

Mephistopheles looked at Erick with narrowed eyes, saying, “If the goal was to make for an easy transition and keep everyone here who is here, then no; this was not wise. So obviously that was not your goal. You want most people to leave.”

“Correct.” Erick said, “Those who are put off by this will leave and take their uncertainty with them, and we’ll all be better off for it, because my own truth of Wizardry will not change. The truth sitting at the foundation of Candlepoint will not change. It will only fester and come out as a cancer, later, for I can’t lie for shit and I won’t have the future built upon any lies, either. Besides that, the wrought and Kirginatharp and all the gods know this truth already.”

Mephistopheles breathed in, then nodded, steeling himself before he spoke with authority, “I need to start organizing the guard and the exodus.” He stood. “Is there anything else that needs be said? Or shall I begin to enact your will?”

“I’ll leave the [Spatial Denial] running to prevent people from escaping with whatever they wish to steal, but no; there’s nothing else that needs to be said right now.” Erick said, “We can talk more at sunset, when most of the people are either gone or settled. Know now that I wish to discuss the nature of the Cult in Candlepoint, of which I am rather sure you are still a member.”

Justine frowned. She glanced at Mephistopheles, uncertain.

Mephistopheles almost lied directly to Erick’s face, but then he thought better, and said, “For what it is worth, the Cult is not what it used to be. We’re mostly an affiliate system helping each other these days.”

Justine’s red eyes filled with hate and worry as she stared at Mephistopheles. Ava frowned at the man, then she turned her thoughts back to her own situation.

Erick just nodded, saying, “That’s fine. You might have heard already, but after the Chelation War I helped the Dark Sects of Nelboor turn away from their dangerous ways. The Church of Koyabez took a lot of them in, but I’m absolutely sure that most of them are still Cultists. I’m pretty sure that Koyabez wants Melemizargo’s cult to return to how it used to be before the Sundering, and for the Cult to stop their destructive activities, so as long as you aren’t undermining your own city, or planning on harming people, then I have no problem with the Cult. I will have a problem with the Cult if you are planning harm.”

Justine paused her hate as Erick spoke, as though he had been reprimanding her as well.

Now that was a complicated situation. Justine was working for Koyabez, and probably trying to do stuff against or with the Cult in Candlepoint, but she did not know that Mephistopheles was still a member. Erick was pretty sure that all the shadelings were members of the Cult, by status if nothing else, and simply because Melemizargo could take over their mind at any time he wished…

Or something like that.

Erick wasn’t 100% knowledgeable about the Cult, actually. Probably only 85%. Erick did not want to get into the intricacies of whatever was going on between Justine and Mephistopheles, either. And so, he had delivered his warning. He hoped Mephistopheles would abide.

Mephistopheles said, “Since we are airing truths… If we do manage to get a true Interfaith Church up and running —instead of several separate buildings and our Dark Temple constantly being torn down and us needing to tear down the temples of the other gods in response— it is our hope that you will ensure that such a true Interfaith Church is only allowed when we are all allowed within its doors.” As a quick afterthought, he added, “And it can’t be a wholly-white building.”

With a voice like a whispered quake, Justine accused, “You tore it down!”

Mephistopheles tried to keep the grin off of his face, but he could not, so he reveled in that brief emotion and shot his smile directly at Justine. “Nope! I did not. And I’m not going to tell you who did! Besides! It was empty at the ti—”

Outside, on the docks, where several smallish fishing vessels were tied, a ball of fire bloomed across the waters like the release of a napalm flood. Erick sent an Ophiel to solve that problem and to heal whoever had been targeted, and to undo whatever had happened as fast as he could, for that wasn’t the only [Fireball] bursting into the darkness across the city—

— While inside the meeting room, Erick cut through hate, saying, “[Fireball]s are blooming across the city.” All eyes turned his way. “I’m already working on it, but I do believe you three are needed elsewhere to help ensure a safe transition. I see Slip is out by Market Street—” Erick scowled as bright lights to the north caught his attention. “Now the farms are on fire. Why would anyone set the farms on fire?” Erick turned on the rain. The sky darkened even further as the moons vanished behind clouds. Two seconds later great big drops of water tinkled against the crystal dome of the meeting room. Two more seconds passed and the tap-tap-tapping of rain turned into a torrent. He asked whoever felt like answering, “I’m going to turn on a lot of different Denial-type spells. All the main 6. Do any of you foresee a problem with this? Specifically with people being trapped in stone, or something like that.”

Justine and Mephistopheles both realized something at the same time, after Erick had mentioned Denial spells, and now that their initial panic had passed. Erick was uncomfortable with the recognition he saw in Justine’s red eyes, and in Mephistopheles’s pool of white light. They saw Erick as something Shade-adjacent, if not a Shade-in-hiding. They had no basis for dealing with Wizards, but both of them had lived and worked under Shades long before now.

Instead of being more scared, though…

They relaxed. They prepared themselves to accept a yoke that they had worn for many, many years already. The shape of that yoke was different, but it was a familiar yoke all the same.

Huh.

Ava’s own experiences as a shadeling were a lot further from her mind, though, since most of her time as a shadeling was unknown to her; according to her, anyway.

Unsure, Ava answered, “Don’t do the Stone Denial?” And then she regained some of her wherewithal and realized her first answer wasn’t sufficient. “Keep it above ground.”

Erick had the Ophiel already blanketing the city with [Spatial Denial Aura] open up a second aura; a spell he rarely got to use, but which was perfect for this situation. [Prismatic Lullaby Aura]. According to the text, and to the spells Erick had put into that working, he would ‘lull the primary elements to slumber!’ It even had a lesser effect against esoteric elements, like Blood and Force.

Prismatic waves blossomed all across the city, expanding out from every Ophiel Erick had set up to do so. They kept their aura about a decimeter off the ground, and then worked to keep it like that; this was complicated, constant Shaping, and the land here was not perfectly flat, though it was close.

Erick had his message Ophiel, currently flying high and repeating his previous message, switch to a new message,

“Attention. All Elemental magic is now being Denied. Please stop hurting each other, or anything else for that matter. Come out from the ground while you still can. Stone Magic will soon be denied. Come out of the ground while you still can. Don’t get trapped underground.”

Erick’s [Physical Domain] was loud enough and cast over a wide enough area that even though Particle Magic was partially Denied, because it was untyped Force Magic, it didn’t matter. Erick felt the very stone of the room shake a little as Ophiel continued to repeat his message using Erick’s voice.

And soon enough, holes opened up in the ground, and people began to step out into the night. Based on their clothes, Erick guessed that these people were part of the ‘slums’ Ava had mentioned earlier.

In the lull between the second and third repetition of Erick’s message, he told Mephistopheles, “Good luck out there. I’ll ensure that no one dies, but I will be doing that from Yggdrasil. And don’t worry about the stuff that Candlepoint is going to lose due to this cleansing. I’ll make sure that we’re fully connected to Stratagold soon enough, and with all of the resources that will come with that sort of connection.” Erick stood, saying, “I’ll be back.”

He opened a [Gate] to the side of the room, leading to Yggdrasil’s branch outside of his house, and stepped through. Teressa followed. The lightning portal soon closed behind him, sending out one final zap against the floor as it did so, leaving behind a trail of soot.

No one saw the soot since the floor was already black to begin with.

- - - -

Mephistopheles watched Erick vanish beyond his [Gate] and felt something like hope rekindle inside his chest.

Keeping Candlepoint together had been so difficult. More difficult than he had ever thought it would be. Everyone wanted something. All the traders and all the little people and all the—

So many, many different wolves-in-skin pulled at this land from every angle, hoping to rip off a large enough chunk for their own purposes, hoping to push the shadelings from their own homes, and to take everything that had been given to them by Melemizargo. They had succeeded as much as they could. They had almost assassinated Mephistopheles twice, now. But he survived.

The larger enemies had survived, too; those who had ordered those assassinations saw no proper recompense for their acts of swordpoint diplomacy, because while Mephistopheles had killed the actual assassins, he had no idea who had actually ordered the hits, and he could not do what he needed to do in order to find out. Not with the little power he had. Not with his hands bound with the chains of propriety and civility. If he had acted like he wanted to, breaking whoever he needed to break in order to get answers, Candlepoint would have been destroyed by all the larger powers of the world.

But now that power had finally come back to Candlepoint?

… Erick was not a Shade. He probably wouldn’t do as a Shade would do.

But he was strong enough to bring the fight to whoever brought the fight first.

“Good enough for now,” Mephistopheles whispered, as he smiled way too much to be proper.

He smiled brightly and turned to Ava—

Ava was lost. She was unsure what would happen now. Mephistopheles pitied her a bit, for she had lost all her memories of being a shadeling. If she had had those memories, then perhaps she wouldn’t be like this right now.

He turned around, to face Justine on his other side.

Mephistopheles didn’t like Justine, for she had turned away from Melemizargo. Ever since her [Reincarnation] she was a Koyabezite through and through. It was shameful! And yet… He saw in her red eyes a recognition. A realization. The same one that he had experienced, sometimes between where their new demigod walked away through his [Gate], and now. Sure, her personal realizations probably lined up with exactly what that ‘god’ Koyabez desired, too, but whatever! Only foolish Cultists couldn’t adjust with the times, and in that moment, Mephistopheles knew that Justine was no fool at all.

Justine was looking at him, too. She spoke first, “I thought you had quit the Cult.”

Mephistopheles stood from the table, saying, “You can’t quit the Cult, Justine. You know that. You can only go into hiding until the time is right to reveal yourself, and now is that time.”

“You and I will have words before this is through, Mephistopheles.” Justine stood, scowling. “And you will not be mayor. We cannot have that going forward.”

“I will be mayor until Erick, himself, casts me down.” Mephistopheles teased, “But it’s not a total loss for you: At least our people will get their homes back!”

Justine spat, “All you can do is follow the wind.”

“It’s the only way to stay alive,” Mephistopheles said, with perhaps too much force.

Justine looked at Mephistopheles, and in that moment, they were closer in purpose than they had been in a long time. She knew which way the wind blew, too.

Justine ignored and moved to stand near Ava. She filled her voice with kindness for those less fortunate, and asked, “Ava? Are you okay?”

Ava instinctively stood like a proper shadeling called to attention, even though she had and left behind this life almost a year ago. And then she realized what she had done and was embarrassed for her instincts. She said, “I appreciate your concern, Justine. I am fine. The words the wrought left us with yesterday make a lot more sense now. Under the illumination of…” She found her footing, saying, “Upon Sighting these certain events, I feel I might actually enjoy a proper connection to Stratagold. Aloethag had told me that opportunity for real beauty and security would come soon enough and the barnacle-cities of the Geodes always made the best of everything down below.” She muttered, “I certainly did not expect a Wizard, though. I had put no stock in those recent rumors but perhaps I should have.”

“Koyabez had told me to be alert.” Justine said, “He spoke of everything changing but would not give details; only saying that I would know the lay of the land after it was revealed.”

Ava mutterd, “And what a revelation it was.”

Mephistopheles cheerfully ignored the personal plights of lesser gods and their worshipers and strode toward the double doors of the meeting room, happily saying, “We’re officially a nexus of the world, girls!” He threw the doors wide open, saying, “Our time to [Grow] is now!”

The hallway was empty, though some doors had been thrown open here and there down the way. Those doors rapidly closed as Mephistopheles’s voice filled the corridor, echoing off of the solid walls and the emptiness contained between. Some people had been thinking of venturing outside, but they had decided not to.

People did not fill the hallway, for there were no idiots in Mephistopheles’s city hall, like they were running around outside. City hall had spies and opportunists hiding in rooms, of course! Lots of those. But no fools. In a situation like this, when magic spilled out across the world and changed everything in the blink of an eye, the only people who should be out were those working for the powers that be; people like Mephistopheles.

For at that moment, Erick was certainly looking down upon Candlepoint, and judging. He was probably plucking people off of the street and setting them aside to be sorted through at his convenience—

And didn’t that thought bring a smile to Mephistopheles’ face. The widest smile he had had in a while! Finally, Candlepoint had power! Finally, city hall wouldn’t be a nest of minor intrigue and appeasement for all the other nations of the world to carve apart at their leisure!

Mephistopheles cheerfully called out to all those who lurked, to those who needed to know which way the wind now flowed, “Our Archmage has returned to us, no longer a simple archmage, but a Wizard King! Those who would follow, follow! Those too scared to step into the shadows, prepare to be judged!”

His words echoed down the empty hallway.

Slowly, a few doors opened.

Behind him, Ava shuddered. “Wizard King.”

“Wizards,” Justine whispered, worriedly. And then she rapidly added, “We should not call him a Wizard even if he is open about that.”

Mephistopheles took Justine’s concerns under advisement, and decided that she was probably right. No matter what treaties and such Erick had managed to wring out of the wrought and the Headmaster and the gods, it was better to be circumspect about some of these things, even if the Wizard himself wasn’t being circumspect at all—

And wasn’t that wonderful!

Power unhidden! Force unfurled!

Erick was a Shade in all but allegiance to Melemizargo, and Mephistopheles could work with that. He had worked with Shades for many, many years, after all. Erick would be a fine Shade to work under, too.

Mephistopheles turned to Justine, saying, “You are not seeing what I am seeing, but other than that, I agree that we should be circumspect, though with caveats. We will speak more of the intricacies of our stances when this crisis is concluded.” As people cautiously stepped out into the hallway, Mephistopheles noted that a few spies had chosen to come out, too, but mostly everyone here was a former or current shadeling. The people still inside the rooms were a lost cause. He included these people here in the conversation, saying, “Erick believes he is a Wizard, and that this truth will cause him no end of headache and worry over who is at his back. This is a valid concern. This concern of his will be the first of many to come, because, even if he doesn’t conceptually understand that he is a power emplacing himself, he is doing exactly that. He is a king coming into his power, crystallizing this land into a proper kingdom. And so, as any good king does, he will be evicting all those who might give him trouble. We are to assist in this eviction.” Mephistopheles stressed, “And it will be an eviction. They will leave with all of their belongings intact and unmolested. We’re a civilized kingdom, after all. That part has not changed.”

Mephistopheles led the way.

- - - -

Upon the boughs of Yggdrasil, Erick paused.

He stared up at the sky of flaming green leaves, and at the lightning-like branches that stretched up to support that glowing canopy. He had a moment.

“Ahhh, Teressa.” Erick said, “I could have handled that a lot better. I could have taken them aside and told them in private. Or scheduled a meeting and not just assumed that everyone would have been there. Quietly let the rumors drive all the opportunists and spies away. I’m not sure why I did it that way… And now that I think about it, the spies are probably the ones who stay.” Along with the shadelings and former shadelings, of course.

Teressa took off her helmet. Her green eyes sparkled with grey light as she faintly smiled. “There’s not a single person out there who would be caught off guard by a sudden upheaval, especially one that’s not actually dangerous. I’m sure they all had emergency-bags ready to go.”

“… They do have emergency bags.” Erick was present on that branch, but he was also flying across Candlepoint with Ophiel, putting out metaphorical fires; all the real fires were already turned off, and unable to be recast, thanks to [Prismatic Lullaby]. “My Denials are hindering a lot of those quick escapes, though, which was the plan, anyway. I want people taking all their stuff and leaving and us not being called thieves after this is over. I do recognize that there was no easy way to do this...”

Erick saw the guard deploy down Market Street, and run right into a crowd of people trying to ‘loot the stores’, according to half of those in that street. Some of those ‘looters’ were just owners, though, and they wanted to leave. Erick had Ophiel repeat his message about allowing people to leave with whatever they could prove was theirs, which seemed to inflame the crowd but also vindicate the shop owners, while also assigning the guard a side to take in the conflict.

Back on Yggdrasil, Erick said, “I suppose it was only ever going to be a clusterfuck. Best get it out of the way as quickly and solidly as possible.”

Teressa smiled. “Hopefully this will stop people from bothering you when you’re out and about, now.”

Erick chuckled at that thought. “Thanks, Teressa.”

“Anytime. Now you want pancakes for breakfast?” Teressa began walking to the house, which was about ten meters away and still invisible. “Or something fancier? Steak and eggs? Jane told me about that one time, and I haven’t made that yet.”

Teressa vanished beyond the edge of the porch.

Erick followed. As he stepped foot onto the porch, and the house reappeared, Teressa was already by the door. “Steak and eggs sounds wonderful. I’m going to sit out here and watch the sun come up, though, and to oversee the city.”

Teressa nodded and gave a quick, comfortable salute, saying, “Sure thing, Boss.”

Erick turned his full attention to Candlepoint.

The sun was still half an hour from rising, but the city was fully awake now. Mephistopheles, Justine, and Ava, were on the move, along with everyone else in uniform, shouting orders and calming the worried people in the streets. There wasn’t much calm to be had when everything Erick had said was true, though.

He was a Wizard, and that was terrifying.

‘Worse than a Shade!’ was a widespread consensus, and that hurt, but Erick let that hurt flow away as much as he could. People worriedly spoke of the Sundering, and of tales of Wizards that they had never given much thought to in most of their lives. They spoke of Hullbreaker the Pirate mostly, since he was the most well known and recently-active of the Wizards of Veird, but Erick also heard new stories, of Oathbreaker the Scourge of Greensoil, and Deathstealer the Broken. Oathbreaker was a claimant to the Viridian Throne centuries ago, but she was revealed as a Wizard before she could take the throne. She broke everything she could break before they finally killed her. Deathstealer was long, long ago, and part of the reason why [Resurrection] wasn’t considered real; he had created souls whole-cloth and claimed they were the original people. Even those people didn’t realize they were completely fake—

Poi joined Erick on the porch, asking, “How can we help?”

Erick felt warmth at that kind offer. “There’s to be lines and organization and a mass exodus as soon as they can get a viable means of sorting truth from lies, and Candlepoint does not have enough truthstones. I need verification that people are only taking their own stuff.”

Poi nodded. Tendrils of thought escaped his head, going off into the manasphere. After a moment he came back, saying, “We can provide truthstones and organization. If you will [Gate] some people in from Spur, they can be here within ten minutes.”

“I can do that.” Erick sent an Ophiel flying across the world, as he said, “Have them come to the house. There’s still a lot of people around there, so let me know which ones are the Mind Mages when they get there.”

“Will do.”

Within a minute, three nondescript people carrying small bags of truthstones appeared at the house in Spur. They were promptly stopped by guards, like all the rest of the people eyeing Erick’s house from outside the property lines. But at Ophiel’s appearance, and Erick’s waving of one of Ophiel’s wings, the guards parted and the Mind Mages came through onto the property. Ophiel opened a [Gate] from there to Candlepoint’s city hall.

The Mind Mages met up with Mephistopheles and Slip and Justine, and everything started to go easier from there.

- - - -

The sun rose, turning the world to shades of blue and then pink and gold, illuminating long lines of people with all their belongings packed into carts. They waited for their turn at the guard stations set up just outside of Erick’s Denials. They were fleeing, and that was fine.

Erick had already flown some Ophiel to a few places around the Crystal Forest to help with the exodus; to the lands just outside of Spur’s northern gate, and outside Kal’Duresh’s public access ramp, and even outside Portal’s eastern public gate, down on the coast. Soon, the first of those no longer interested in living under a Wizard departed the city of Candlepoint with all their stuff in tow, passing through the [Gate] that led to Spur.

A few, very few people, upon seeing the [Gate]s and realizing that this, right here, was the reason they came to Candlepoint in the first place, decided to turn around. To go back to the lives they were trying to create in this land. And that was fine by Erick.

Most people decided to leave. Some people who were on the fence, decided that the getting was good, and so they would get. A few people didn’t even want to take Erick’s [Gate]s; they went through the queue for the [Gate]s but they just blipped away as soon as they exited the Denial.

Most people seemed to leave through the Spur-destination [Gate].

Erick would have to keep that in mind for the future.

According to the heraldry on some of the boxes and on the uniforms of those leaving, almost everyone with an organized cart was from a merchant house, or here on behalf of a kingdom from the Wastelands, or a kingdom in the Greensoil Republic, or from some other organization. Those people had come as a part of a company, and the company had said ‘no Wizards!’, and so, they left.

Very few of those escaping were those who had come here hoping for a new life. It was easy to tell those people apart from the rest, for they left with boxes of clothes and assorted household items packed into wooden boxes, floating atop [Force Platform]s.

And Erick ensured it happened peacefully.

- - - -

Soon enough, Teressa served breakfast on the porch. Poi and Erick and Teressa all enjoyed a nice breakfast of steak, sunny side up eggs, hash browns, and hot coffee. It was wonderful. Soon enough Jane and Kiri came out, too, carrying their own meals in their hands.

Jane started off the topic of the day, asking, “So what’s happening with Candlepoint?”

Erick winced, then began, “I’m not happy with how it happened, but...”

He explained. They listened.

And when he was done, none of his people thought that he had done any wrong.

“I feel you are all focusing on the wrong thing, here.” Erick tried repeating what he had done wrong in a different way, hoping that they would understand, “These people came here hoping for something better, and now that they know I’m a Wizard they’re running for their lives. One of my larger goals was to help Candlepoint grow into a real city, but now Candlepoint has lost almost all of that growth.”

Kiri waved a dismissive hand and summed up what Erick had yet to understand, “You’re a king clearing his castle. That you have done so bloodlessly is fantastic—” She realized something. She said, “Not a ‘king’, sorry.” With no small amount of delight, Kiri said, “A Wizard King.”

Erick instantly slumped in his chair, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the underside of the porch roof. It was painted light blue, like the sky that was impossible to see from under here, inside Yggdrasil’s canopy. “Oh, gods above. I’m not a… ki...” His voice failed him.

With too much delight, Poi struck with words that he had been saving for quite some time. “A Benevolent Wizard King.”

… Erick slowly turned his gaze upon Poi.

Everyone looked at Poi, wondering what the fuck was this, now.

And Poi just laughed.

Jane glanced around, asking, “I don’t get it?”

Poi happily explained, “A title for your father! How do you like ‘Emperor Erick’?”

At Erick’s suddenly deepened scowl, Jane burst out laughing.

Kiri’s eyes just went wide as she whispered, “I was joking but are we actually making a kingdom here?” She looked to Erick. “You want to be a king?”

“No!” Erick complained.

Teressa offered, “Overlord Flatt.”

“Not you too!” Erick complained.

Teressa grinned as she shrugged. “You used the word ‘oversee’ earlier. ‘Overlord’ makes sense.”

Erick felt the blood drain from his face.

Kiri decided she was good with making a kingdom. “I like ‘King’. Simple, effective.”

“ ‘Harbinger Flatt’?” Poi offered. “ ‘Tyrant Flatt’ is the fallback option.”

“No.” Erick stated, “I am not a king.”

Erick’s complaints fell on deaf ears. Everyone had opinions for what his official title would be, and each one was more outlandish than the last.

And all the while, Candlepoint emptied of over half of its opportunists and would-be citizens. Erick tried to get the conversation back to discussing that, but it was impossible.

For Kiri summed it up again, saying, “People in the Crystal Forest have [Teleport]. They might not have enough mana to use it properly, but they have enough to move around as they wish. Look at Spur! That place is at 350,000 people right now, and it’s still growing. Two years ago they had less than 80,000 people. I bet almost all these people who move out today will move up there for a while, anyway.” She nodded, and secure in her opinion, she said, “I bet they’ll all be back, too, once you’ve secured your reign and shown yourself to be a just and fair Wizard King.”

Erick scowled, and Kiri laughed.

In an attempt to change the subject, Erick said, “Enough about kingdoms. I made [Reincarnation] this morning—”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Jane exclaimed, standing up from her chair.

Kiri stared, disbelieving. But when Teressa and Poi both gave no indication that Erick was telling anything other than the truth, Kiri just started laughing and laughing.

“I reincarnated some shadowolves into dober dogs and set them on the northern coast, too. Nice stone homes. Plenty of room to run around in.” Erick said, “De-monsterfied them, of course. They’re doing okay; I’ve been checking on them. They recognize each other as pack members, so now that that first problem is cleared, I’ll see how they develop as dobers in the coming weeks and months. Probably end up giving them away to someone, though, unless you all want dogs here?”

Kiri chortled right along, happily laughing.

Jane sat back down and stared out at the horizon. “I shouldn’t be that surprised at [Reincarnation], should I.”

“Nope!” Teressa happily said. “This is normal, now.”

Jane added, “And you already made most of that spell in Ar’Cosmos, right, dad?”

“I did!” Erick said, “But putting it all together was still a task.”

Kiri exclaimed, “A spectacular accomplishment, Wizard King Erick Flatt!”

Erick frowned.

“How about ‘Divine Emperor’?” Teressa offered.

“Probably shouldn’t have ‘Divine’ in the title,” Poi digressed. Then he offered, “But ‘Glorious Wizard King’ could work.”

“How about ‘Saint Wizard’?” Jane offered.

Poi said, “I’m sure there’s at least one god out there willing to bestow that status.”

“Oh!” Teressa said, “He always starts off with ‘I am —apparently— a Wizard’, so how about ‘The Apparent King’?”

Kiri’s eyes went wide as she said, “I like that one!”

Erick had not succeeded in changing the subject.

… And this was kinda fun to think about, anyway. Distracting, at the very least. Which is probably why Poi had started this naming mess in the first place. As that thought crossed Erick’s mind, Poi smiled.

And then Poi said, “The Wizard Dictator!”

Erick scowled again.