“There are two parts to every person. The body, and the spirit.” Illustrious Moon said, “But improving those parts requires an understanding deeper than that surface.”

Erick had woken with the sun. Another swim in the bath had put him in a better mood than yesterday, and both Ophiel and Yggdrasil also seemed calmer that next morning, too. Ophiel even started off the day with a solo song of joy as the sun rose outside the windows. An invitation to breakfast ended in a nice meal that was quite a lot better than the luncheon he had had yesterday under duress. Or at least Erick had been capable of tasting it this time. Maid Maria was a good cook; he had just not been able to taste it before now. He still dined with Fairy Moon, though, and so the mood was a bit hampered by that, but their words had been simple, and Erick pressed no issues. Afterward, Fairy Moon declared that Erick would be learning proper cycling. In doing so, he would regain some of his previous magical capability through the natural growth of his core. Depending on how quickly he progressed after that, and his subsequent creation of Elemental Benevolence, he might be released in a week, or maybe a month. She wasn’t going to let him go until he could actually defend himself from the rest of the world, though.

Her words had been nice, but she made herself sound like a threat, so it was somewhat difficult to see the good in her ‘proclamation’.

And so, Erick found himself in a plain stone room, sitting upon a dense, large pillow across from Illustrious Moon. The large violet-colored lady sat on her own pillow. Her initial words of greeting had been contrite and apologetic, but only by way of her tone and body language. Her actual words had been a bit more acerbic than that, for Erick could tell she was nervous in a way she did not appreciate, and so Erick ignored her acidity as much as he was able.

The lesson began.

“The body is most commonly broken down between the body or physique, and the mind. The spirit is usually broken down between the spirit or aura, and the soul. By properly cycling your mana, you will naturally fortify every part of you, in effect, manually accomplishing what monsters do all the time, which is to grow their Strength, Vitality, Willpower, and Focus, naturally, and without spending any Points granted by the Script.

“It is more complicated than that, though, because every person is different, with different aptitudes and body/spirit types.

“But it’s also simpler, for the prevalence of the Script has created a lot of uniformity in what was usually a unique situation for every person.

“For instance: There is no ‘Mind’ Stat, for when they were building the Script they laid down rules against that sort of mental growth. But lately, Melemizargo has invented ‘Intelligence’, which might grow the ‘Mind’ of anyone who has Intelligence, but our small tests with people who have gained that New Stat haven’t shown any natural cycling-induced growth of Intelligence.

“The only way we have found that the mind naturally grows is in those lucky young dragons who usually go on to become Mind Mages. Our spying has shown you have no actual Mind Mage capability, so I do not know what will happen there. Probably just a growth of Intelligence Stat up to a certain point, and nothing else.

“There will be many things about your future growth that will not cleave with normal convention, for you are a Wizard, and you already know your Truth, and you were pointed in a specific direction by Rozeta. But you are to be an unbound Wizard, so I will not be directing your growth at all with my own unseen aura.” Illustrious Moon said, “Fairy Moon was quite clear on that.”

Erick frowned a little. Had she just made a threat? Or was she simply informing him of the truth of the matter? Erick leaned toward the second option. But also, by mentioning her assistance with core growth, Illustrious was informing Erick of how she usually ‘helped’ other Wizards come into their power.

Was that little bit of information there, then, the explanation of how they ‘Broke’ a Wizard down certain elemental lines? To produce a Wizard that could Paradox away the Dragon Curse for a few people?”

Erick tested what she meant by all that, saying, “Your unseen aura, huh.”

Illustrious sat tall upon her pillow, and everything about her shifted. Violet glows flowed away from pale violet skin, and while she had no tail in her humanoid form, she had ten tails in her aura. Those ten long, almost fluffy tails, waved behind her like a sea anemone, each one five meters tall and much taller than her. Erick was briefly taken aback, for an aura that size meant a lot of power, but then he realized that he shouldn’t have been surprised. She was the head of House Fae, and she had been in her current position of power for 1100 years, according to Redflame.

Her tails vanished.

“My unseen aura, yes.” Illustrious continued, “The method I will teach you is simple but effective for generalized growth of your core, and your form, all of which is known as the art of accretion. I have no doubt you can master accretion quickly, but now I must give my first warning:

“Accretion can have some bad side effects. If you fail to grow your core properly, you might need to tear down everything in order to fix the base problem. In the worst case scenario, this fix involves ripping your core out of your chest and not dying in the process. Such a fix is a delicate operation. Core ripping requires complete trust in another and we do not have that yet. Core ripping also requires perfect self-control and you do not have that, no matter your successes with magic.”

Erick just nodded.

“In order to show that this method works, though, I will be using this method to repair a minor spell in my core that—” Illustrious asked, “You know of how the Script implants spells in the soul, yes? How that all works? The differences between magic cast through the soul and magic manipulated into being through shaping and all that?”

Erick said, “A person makes a magic through the shaping and control of their aura, and the Script recognizes that and then implants that magic in the soul. From there, one can combine these small parts into something larger, which is how we combine magic and go up the tiers; to take [Force Bolt] and combine it with Mana Altering for Light, to get [Light Bolt]. This does not use up the base spell. Once the combined spell is inside the soul it can be cast at-will, as long as you have the mana to spend on the casting. This means no need to shape the mana all the time in order to make a spell.”

A moment passed.

“… Is that everything?”

“… Well I know I left a lot out, but is that not everything? At its most basic?”

Illustrious said, “That has left out quite a few details. The major one is the initial implanting of magic into the soul, which we will go over in addition to this lesson on cycling mana and growing your core.

“First, you must understand that the soul is mostly obscured to us, even all the way here in Ar’Cosmos. That cloudy thing you can view with [Soul Sight] or with mana sense is barely a tenth of the truth, for it takes true skill to be able to see the soul for what it is, and that truth is this: The soul is a collection of parts and connections that is too complicated to ever fully pierce. Even the best necromancers and soul summoners can only touch upon 85% of the soul.

“Looking at a soul is like being in a library, but all you can see of the books is the size, shape, and color. No titles, and you certainly cannot read any of them.

“But here is the trick to true understanding: Beyond the books, there are the library shelves and floors and walls and ceiling. The library itself is the person. The books are just the spells and experiences that belong to the person. And if you know how to look, you will see that some books are actually spellbooks.

“For our purposes, we are interested in the spell books. They are readily identifiable if you know what you’re looking for.

“In the soul of a person who has made a lot of magic, you can see that some spell books connect to larger books, like they are part of a series. To use your [Light Bolt] example, you would find that particular spell book on the shelves, but if you looked closer, you would see that [Light Bolt] was composed of two different books, [Force Bolt] and Mana Altering. Those original books also exist on the shelves somewhere nearby.

“So, in this way, spells are like books, but they are also not like books at all.

“By making a spell in your soul, what we call soulbonding a spell, one makes a book inside oneself. This is usually a very difficult process, but the Script makes this process easy; if you demonstrate capability, it will help you to automate this process in the future. It will make a book for you.

“Here in Ar’Cosmos, though, making a book and then using it in a different combination is exceedingly difficult. I won’t go into specifics yet, but it is important to understand this difficulty going forward, and what it means when you remove a spell from your core, and try to make a new book with those parts. What is simply a 10 day or however-long wait to the coreless can be a catastrophic event to people like you or I.” Illustrious Moon touched her chest, just off-center to her right, saying, “Attend this Sight, Erick.”

Erick was already looking at her with his mana sense, and he had wondered about that chip on Illustrious’s core. It seemed that it was a part of the lesson. “The small break? Looks like a flake was broken off of an otherwise-perfect pearl.” Erick had experienced worse degradation of his own core through just doing nothing for a full day. If one simple chip was all that happened when you broke a spell then he did not see the problem.

“Yes.” Illustrious said, “This is what happens to a core when a person tears apart a spell they have made; they rip apart a piece of their soul, separating books back into separate systems in order to try again another day. The place where the damage occurs is always different, for souls are always in motion and not actually where they appear to be at all, so pay no attention to the actual location of the break, for that means nothing; pay attention to the break itself, and the damage caused. This was a simple tier three spell. According to the Script, it would take a week to recover from this damage, for the Script automates this repair for all peoples without cores.

“But since we are in Ar’Cosmos and I am very good at repairing this sort of damage, I will be able to repair this damage in as little as ten minutes. I will be able to retry for this spell tomorrow, at the latest.”

Erick gave an involuntary laugh. “Oh! Dragons just cheat, then?”

Illustrious smirked. “I would say that Wizards cheat more, and I feel I would be more right than you.”

Erick didn’t know what to say about that.

Illustrious Moon nodded strongly added, “If you want to break any spells past tier 4, or anything that requires more than 500 mana to cast, I would suggest you ignore this method and go back to Veird and let the Script assist you with that spell breaking. If you attempt such a breaking here in Ar’Cosmos, you might crack your foundation, and that might be catastrophic. Magic, and especially magic that you put into your soul, is especially dangerous. I won’t be assisting with any of that, though.

“It is advised that you refrain from attempting to create any new magic in your soul until you return to Veird and regain Script assistance. However, simple magic through the shaping of mana is something anyone can do, and you will surely be able to do a lot of that once you learn this cycling method. Indeed, most people like myself find it easier to manually cast their magic.

“Now watch; In the repairing of my small break, I will make visible the whole process.”

Illustrious sat tall, and closed her eyes. Violet glows began to seep from her pale violet skin as she released her aura, releasing ten violet tails into the air. After a moment her tails wrapped around her body, and then her core began to release mana. That mana soaked into her aura, surrounding her with a thick and heavy layer of power, like she was wrapping herself in a cloud of her own mana. The air turned visibly thick, as it would from the results of a [Cleanse], except this thick air was tainted violet.

And then a curious thing happened.

That thick mana began to flow inward, condensing down into a second set of veins that simply appeared inside Illustrious’s body, with her core at the center, like they had been there and yet invisible all this time. That mana eventually flowed into her core. Those veins passed through every part of her body, too, leaving behind little tracers of power that were doing something, but Erick could not tell what. The most visible thing happened when her mana got all the way back to her core; that tiny chip began to fill in, like Illustrious was regrowing a break in a crystal. There was no abnormal growth here, though. Her soul had been exposed in that crack, and now her soul filled out the space it had once occupied, and then the whole thing began to fill in with crystalline core.

The repair turned out perfect.

Erick wondered if the perfect repair was due to some part of Illustrious’s control, or if it was a ‘return to normalcy’ sort of repair that was already in line with the soul’s directives, for Illustrious’s soul was perfectly contained to that pearl in her chest… Which might have been Illustrious’s control showing, too.

Those veins were a mirror for Erick’s own vein-like structures that fed into his own core, so he could probably do this exact same thing. His own core perfectly contained his own soul, though, which was currently shaped like a cut gem about four centimeters across and half that thick, nestled in shadowy veins beside his heart. There was something else he would need to do to get a spherical core like Illustrious… For that was the goal, right? All the powerful people had spherical cores, for whatever reason, and that reason was likely because it was the best form for a soul to take.

Erick watched Illustrious ‘cycle’ her mana for a little over nine minutes. He had a few questions by the end of it.

Illustrious opened her eyes and gave a small, beatific smile. And then she saw Erick, and most of her smile remained, but she regained her poise. “Did you understand what happened?”

“I did, for the most part.” Erick said, “You flooded your aura with your mana and then you soaked in that mana through your channels, affecting a regrowth of the damaged part of your core.”

Illustrious nodded. “Mostly true. Ask your questions then I will explain what I did, for what I did was much more than that.”

“The veins. You didn’t have them till I watched them appear when you flowed mana through them. What is up with that?”

Illustrious looked happy to hear that question, and also about being able to answer it, as she said, “Those mana channels are a manifestation of the soul, and proof of your Wizardry. If you were to disconnect from the Script, you would find your mana flooding out of those channels, constantly spilling mana all over the place, until you leaned how to control your aura and lessen that flow; to contain and grow your own power instead of leaving it all over the place for anyone else to pick up.

“Dragons have lesser channels than Wizards, and ours are normally dormant, unless we want them to be otherwise, or unless they are in use. Wizards cannot hide their nature, though, once they throw off the yoke of the Script.

“Normal people can learn how to unlock their mana channels, or create mana channels in the most extreme cases of mana-affinity deficit. Thusly, they might eventually become like you or I, but while the end-goal is the same for all —perfect control over oneself and one’s environs— only dragons or Wizards or other immortal species usually have enough power, or live long enough, in order to accomplish this goal on their own.” Illustrious said, “And so here is the second warning:

“If you’re okay with being a monster, you can take in ambient mana and achieve sort of the same success. If you’re able to get a sponsorship from someone high-powered, who is willing to donate to you their mana, and if you’re okay with accepting their Truth into yourself, then you can get mana donations from them and shortcut much of the same process. There are multiple roads toward the same end goal; all are viable, but for most people, ‘viable’ is not good enough. I suggest you never settle for what is ‘viable’, and always strive for what is best.”

Erick mulled that over, while Illustrious waited.

“Okay.” Erick said, “So the healing on your core. Did your mana fall into that chip and automatically repair with that sort of spherical perfection by following the lines of your soul? Or did you direct that regrowth? Would someone with a malformed soul have problems making a perfect core? And why are cores all spherical? Is that just the best form for them to take?” He rapidly added, “And what about grand rads? And such? Where do those fit into this picture? And what about healing one’s core with rads? I’ve literally never seen a spherical core for sale in any market, or watched anyone trade one in at the local mage’s guild; why not?”

Illustrious breathed deep as she listened to Erick’s litany of questions. “I will answer the easiest ones first: About the buying and selling of spherical cores, and grand rads.”

“Rads are mutated, out-of-control cores.

“The two words are not equal at all, but language drifts and such is life.

“Grand rads form in the bodies of large monsters who can support those rads.

“Now… This part is a bit complicated: All rads are adequate for taking into oneself as a way to heal your own core, in cases of degradation, for the monster that made such a core already filtered all the impurities of ambient mana into itself and created a rad that was mostly good. While a rad is made of about 250 mana, or even thousands of mana in the case of a grand rad, the usable amount of mana inside of them is only about 10 mana in a normal rad, or a thousand in a grand rad. This is due to the impurities.

“Those impurities are what caused the monster to be a monster. The inability for a monster to cross the line between ‘full of impurities’ or ‘able to ascend to a grand rad’ causes many rads to remain small. But those who manage to cross this line are able to do so because they have figured out some part of their own truth. In this manner, grand rads even continue to pull in ambient mana after they are removed due to the incorrect, ‘viable but crazy’ way in which the monster made them.

“You can use grand rads to heal your core, but this is an advanced technique due to you needing to remove a great lot of impurities inside such a core, and thus this should not be attempted until you know what you’re doing. Smaller rads are okay.

“You likely won’t need to do this at all, since you have [Renew]. But even if you didn’t have that, you are a Wizard, with certain advantages in this area which I will go into later.

“You will never see a spherical core for use out there because when a person with a spherical core dies, the core dissolves unless special treatments are made prior to death. All spherical cores have come from a person, though, so keep that in mind when you see that out there in the world.” Illustrious paused, then said, “I’m surprised that you haven’t seen any spherical cores out there. Aside from inside a person, I assume? Not even inside Ar’Kendrithyst? In statues?”

Erick’s eyes went wide as he remembered. “Ah. I did see a few locked inside statues… But they were the size of heads. I thought they were just grand rads? Shaved to be spherical?” He frowned. “Oh. I might have seen one at Songli during a soul sundering… But that thing was just mostly spherical, and also the size of a person’s head.”

“How about inside a Shade, then.”

“OH. Oh. Well. Yes. I guess I have, then?” Erick said, “Yes. I have.”

Illustrious nodded, satisfied, then said, “All true cores are about the same size as my own, or maybe as large as a human heart, but no larger than that. Even we who live as our full-size selves do not have cores larger than this. Size does not matter for a soul. Indeed, the smaller the core, the easier it is to protect, for they are vulnerabilities. They’re also the most protected objects in a person’s body. The brain, the actual heart… These do not matter for ones with a core. We can regrow those body parts and we lose nothing for their temporary absence.

“To answer your question about the shapes of souls:

“Souls naturally form spheres around mana cores, and mana cores naturally turn into spheres because of the soul inside. Most people out there who have malformed souls, and thus malformed bodies, would find that if they used proper accretion techniques and had proper initial assistance, then they would solve their malformation issues.” Illustrious said, “Someone with a withered arm due to a malformed soul would find that after they formed a proper core, that once Healing Magic was administered and their body was fixed, that they could forgo monthly healing treatments to keep their body in the proper shape it should be. With continued proper cycling, their soul would eventually forget that it was ever malformed at all. The healed soul would heal the body properly.

“This is not a way to immortality, though. The body still affects the soul and the soul the body. Immortality is another topic entirely.

“Healing the crack in my core just required proper cycling, and some directed healing toward the affected area.” Illustrious said, “The only true ‘skill’ I employed was using some of my own mana reserve to directly heal myself; I took out what I was able to take out from the whole of my soul, to reinforce and heal what was missing… I also followed all the other rules I will tell you about, but they’re normal rules; nothing special.” Illustrious finished, and then waited for a little while, before asking, “Any other questions?”

Erick said, “Not right now.”

Illustrious said, “Then here now is the proper accretion methodology for core growth and natural body fortification:

“Let your aura seep out, and fill it with your mana. If you were back on Veird, and if you were a normal person, you could even use the mana gifted to you by the Script for this. But for a normal person, they could only gain about 10 or 20 mana-worth of growth per day using this method and they will need to go slow, for they will build up impurities if they go too fast. They will need pills and special techniques to get rid of those impurities. For a dragon, we can gain 500 to 5000 per day, depending on personal ability. For a Wizard, your growth is unparalleled.

“This is because the Script lines up your own mana for you to use every day, when you most need it, and accretion is one of those times. Spell creation is another.

“Anyway:

“Draw in your mana saturated aura, through your mana channels. Be sure that you do NOT take in any ambient mana. If you take in ambient mana you will eventually go insane. Use your mana-filled aura to block out all other mana. Only take in your own mana.

“At this point in time, your mana will be flowing from your core into your aura, then inward through your body, into your channels, then into your core, and then out through your aura, to then trace back into your body, into your channels, into your core. In this way, you will be steadily accruing power inside of yourself. This is just the start, though.” Illustrious asked, “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Erick said. “Continue, please.”

Illustrious nodded. “Once you figure out the nuances of your own accretion, you will find you have choices:

“To fortify your physique, or your spirit, or to do both.

“Most people eventually direct their growth one way or another, but everyone starts off doing the same thing, unless they wish to purposefully direct their future self in a specific way. This is only for advanced students, though, and very much not for everyone. In the same way that Rozeta’s Registrars recommend that people pick a generic Class, instead of a special-sounding one, generalization is usually better in the long run for almost every person out there.

“I will explain the intricacies of accretion that are common to everyone:

“Continued cycling will naturally fortify your body, first. This is what the Script does for you when you put a point into Strength or Vitality. This is what monsters do all the time, to become physically stronger than a comparative non-monster. This fortification will continue until you reach a saturation point, which is different for everyone. This ‘maximum body limit’ can be raised based on the physical prowess of your physical form.

“If you make yourself stronger through exercise and such, your body-accretion limit will rise. A stick-thin man will not raise his body high at all, but a muscular, strong man will have to go a long, long distance with body-accretion to reach his particular zenith. By this same distance, though, the muscular man will find himself many, many times stronger than the stick-thin man.

“In either case, once you reach the body-accretion zenith, and often long before that, you will have noticed a change.

“During the fortification of your body, you will notice your core gradually begin to gain new facets, increasing the strength of your spirit. After your body reaches its first-accretion point, all this growth will then go into your spirit.

“What this does, is the same thing that happens when you raise your Willpower and Focus, at the same time. The accretion-point for the spirit is when your core becomes a perfect sphere.

“Full Accretion can take a normal person nearly forever to accomplish, and can only truly happen with dragons who can grow themselves, or with groups of people who live in communes and who make the ambient mana their own. Monsters become monsters by taking in whatever mana is around them, and you should not do this. As a Wizard, and once you get the charge rolling, it might take you a week to go from fortification to Full Accretion in both body and spirit, for every mana you manage to fit into your core will mean more ‘Focus’ and more ‘Willpower’.

“We are mostly disconnected from the Script here in Ar’Cosmos, but certain things remain, like the fact that our natural mana is still stolen by the Script. Through proper accretion, though, we can work for and regain much of what the Script hands out for free. There’s a lot of nuance to those two small comments, with a lot of impact on how mana and spellcasting works here in Ar’Cosmos, but I will not get into that tangent; not today.

“So as I was saying:

“Accretion will also reveal any underlying abilities that are not present until after one forms a core. A dragon’s ability to polymorph is one such ability, as well as one or two various personal aspects that vary between individual, or family, such as a Domain of small strength which can grow with time and further fortification, or natural flight, or ability to control illusions— Or anything, really.

“I suspect that since Rozeta helped you to make your body that she has already solidified all of these possible options for you, and you already know what you have gotten. If not, then I wish you luck with uncovering something nice.

“If you were a normal person, and if you were fully saturated, your Status, when you went back to Veird, would show you to have something like 20 to 75 in each of your four main Stats. Since your body and your spirit has already experienced having very high Stats for a long while due to your success with mana-light Stat enhancements, I expect you to be closer to 75 in all your Stats, than 25, so you will likely take a while to reach Full Accretion. With the New Stats, too? It might take you a truly long time.

“But on the light side: The stronger you are at this stage the easier all the rest will become.

“Reaching this point is commonly referred to as ‘Second Foundation’. First Foundation is attaining a stable core at all and creating or unblocking your mana channels, and you have already cleared that requirement in full.

“We will continue these lessons after you reach Second Foundation.” Illustrious asked, “Questions?”

Erick had understood everything she had said, but while he wanted to get back to the ‘differences in spellcasting in Ar’Cosmos’ he stayed on topic, too, laying out there, “You say this is supposed to be instinctual, and therefore the process, if you keep ambient mana outside of yourself, is completely safe. Why do you say that? This whole process seems deadly if done wrong. This seems like Soul Magic.”

Illustrious nodded, then said, “I will answer the later part first: This is not truly Soul Magic. It is Accretion Magic; the magic from which all others arise. It is also called Foundational Magic

“The name ‘Foundational Magic’, is used in other places, most prominently in the Foundational Bans of the Script. Those Foundational Bans were seeds planted in triplicate at the creation of the Script, from which all other magic is now controlled. You have seen the Core of Veird, yes? The Core was founded with this magic in its center, in order to direct all further growth going forward. This is what allows Rozeta to enact further Bans and such, because she was the one who placed those Foundational Bans upon the Core in the first place. It is important to know this, because this is how Rozeta, and how other dragons, myself included, have placed seeds into others which will then germinate into cores, allowing us control over all which comes next.

“If you hadn’t already formed your core, we would have tried to Break you along certain lines, and then introduce a seed to sprout into a core of our choosing; Fae, Death, or Carnage.

“But we didn’t do that. Rozeta already got there, it seems.”

Erick had a sudden bout of disbelief about everything Illustrious was saying; about this whole lesson. But she seemed honest. She did not seem like she was lying. But could he truly trust his senses in this land of the fae? No, he could not.

Illustrious was waiting for him to comment, though.

Erick said, “Heard and disbelieved. And even so, Rozeta has a proven track record of helping people, and me.”

Illustrious took a moment to nod, but she did, and then she continued, “At your stage, with your core already made, and because you are a Wizard who will continually generate new, personal mana depending on the size and clarity of your core, there will be no issues with the growth of your core… Unless you were to do something truly odd with yourself. Practically any cycling method which empowered your whole body would have the same outcome: growth to Second Foundation.” Illustrious said, “You could even do this back on Veird, using the hundreds of thousands of mana provided to you by the Script each day, but… Every Wizard is cut off of the Script at some point when they gain enough power, and this can happen truly fast for them. Even a dragon can be cut off if they gain too high of a reserve. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about my next words, though, which is why I say this now.

“Pursuing this path is the only way you can grow as a Wizard, for you need to reach Second Foundation to reach all the rest. I don’t know where your limit is, but your limit could be the very moment you succeed in properly cycling. That has happened before to some of our other Wizards over the last thousand years I have been in charge of House Handinoi.” Illustrious said, “The good news is that we would know right away if that happens: You would begin to erupt with mana like a raging river, and you would not be able to stop the flow. The bad news is that… Well. You would be outed as a Wizard. We could remove your core at that point and hope that you can go back to Script-assistance, but I don’t think that would work, either. It rarely has before.”

Erick saw her concerns, and did not feel them himself. He said, “I already had some of this talk with Rozeta and I know my limits are much further than that.”

His limits were when he began to turn his entire body into a core, well after he passed the ‘grand rad’ stage—

Oh yeah. Jane had called this ‘cultivation’ before, hadn’t she? Jane had said something to the tune of ‘oh, so all monsters cultivate, huh?’ Erick wondered if she would be happy or sad to learn that it was called ‘accretion’ here on Veird.

… Erick hoped Jane was doing okay. She probably was. Everyone out there was likely doing just fine.

Illustrious sat a bit straighter, and smiled slightly. “Ah! Good. Then… As soon as you reach Second Foundation, not only will you regain much of your previous casting capability, I can begin to assist you with reacquiring all of the various Script enhancements like Discipline to triple your Mana and Concentration to triple your Mana Regen.” She added, “You will not be able to cast more than 500 mana into a spell, though; that’s how it is for those of us with cores, unless you cast in ritual— That’s a whole other conversation that will take us days to go over.

“If you would prefer to reacquire Discipline and Concentration on your own, then you and I can instead focus on ritual casting... I would be more comfortable if we did the ritual casting lessons much later, preferably right before you leave Ar’Cosmos, and on good terms.” Illustrious turned contrite, “I know you did not come here on the best of terms, and I was atrocious to you when we first met, but I will endeavor to make this up to you if you will allow such an apology.”

Erick narrowed his eyes. He was already suspicious due to this whole scenario, and then again with the comment about Rozeta installing a seed inside his core (which maybe Melemizargo’s comment of a ‘killing spell’ was more appropriate than he had considered?) but now he was truly paranoid. Erick made no attempt to hide his doubt.

Illustrious got a concerned look on her own face.

Erick asked, “What changed?”

“A lot.” Illustrious Moon said, “Your arrival on Veird is very new and disruptive and my people and I had a lot of notions about what a visit from you would look like... It was mainly execution-row humor, considering your alignment with Rozeta and Kirginatharp. Some people dabbled in hope, but I was not one of them. How could I be? I am a leader and I have to safeguard against bad outcomes. And then I was invited here for a surprise meeting with no preparation...

“Fairy Moon gave me a ten minute talk about what she had done before she brought me into that dinner room. It was yet another hour till you showed in person, and I must admit for the first twenty minutes I was in disbelief. Furious, raging… I almost hit her because she would not answer my questions properly. But that is just her; who she is.

“You might not have picked up on this, but she doesn’t like to talk about how she views other people, so I must admit that I was simply terrified out of my skull.” Illustrious said, “And then, you showed and… I saw the truth myself; the truth that Fairy Moon had not actually explained to me in a way that made sense. And I was rude to you, because I thought I knew what was happening; I thought we were being given a Wizard to solve our current problems. I thought there would be some overly-tough times ahead as your achievements demand a certain worldly-level of respect that would make your acclimation to Ar’Cosmos a difficult one… But then she spoke of her actual plans. Anti-Sundering Magics. A new House.

“And I was terrible to you.

“When I got back home I spoke to practically every intelligence officer we have and got a great many new opinions on the matter that I did not have before that meeting.” Illustrious said, “But at the time of that luncheon I was simply Blinded by the truth that you were already there, sitting in front of me in Ar’Cosmos, and then again by your honest words of a desire to help, no matter how awful I’m sure Fairy Moon treated you. No matter how much of an established danger we are to Wizards the world over—

“I apologize for my actions, and for the actions of all of Ar’Cosmos.

“I cannot go against Fairy Moon’s wishes, for she truly is the First Foundation of this land and our civilization, but know that in order to bridge the gap between the terribleness of your abduction and where I wish for us to be in the future, one of my first acts as Head of House Handinoi is to communications between you and anyone you wish out in the world. That much, at least, is under my power. If you wish to pen a letter to anyone, I can send it off, and get a reply. I will even promise not to read it.”

Erick felt a tightening around his heart as his paranoia ramped up, for Illustrious was not lying. Everything about her screamed that she was being completely honest. And right now, Erick didn’t know what to do with that information except to disbelieve it.

And yet...

Erick sat there for a moment longer, then he said, “Okay. Apology accepted.”

Illustrious practically beamed with happiness…

But Erick was not happy, and it showed. The gulf of emotion between Illustrious and him was too large for anyone to not notice. A moment of silence passed, as Illustrious realized this, too. Illustrious’s smile vanished.

“… I’m not forgiven at all, am I?”

“A major part, yes, actually. I planned to come here with the intention of helping, for no one should live like you all have been forced to live.” Erick added, “But no; you’re not fully forgiven. I do believe —now— that you had no direct part in my kidnapping, but you’re complicit. It doesn't matter that there is no way for you not to be complicit; you are, and that’s that.”

With a serious tone, Illustrious asked, “What will I need to do to earn your true forgiveness?”

Erick thought for less than a moment, and answered off the top of his head, “I need to visit the town and ask about accretion from whoever I wish to ask, to ensure you are not lying to me and trying some shit. Especially with that part about the seeds and germination to First Foundation. I want to see people living normal lives. I want to know that this society is worth saving. And I want to know what actually happens to other Wizards you find. And if possible, I want to see if Redflame’s idea of [Renew] would work as he wishes it to work; to make small Wizardry on demand, and thus free every newborn from the Dragon Curse.”

Illustrious breathed deep, taking in all of Erick’s demands. “Okay. The first is doable; accretion is everywhere in the city and the methods I told you are well documented to work. Nothing I said was a lie, or an attempt to lead you down a dreary path.

“I can show you people, too. Markets and streets and such.

“I am also interested in this [Renew] idea that Redflame has been going on about over at the arcanaeum, ever since that information first came to us through our sources out in Veird… Actually. We could solve all of these requirements just by going to the arcanaeum, if you wish…” After a moment, she said, “Redflame has some Wizards working there, I believe. He might be amenable to letting such meetings take place; we shall see.”

Redflame had already approved such meetings yesterday; Erick expected no trouble on that front.

Illustrious continued, “I will deliver unto you paperwork on the three Wizards currently under the care of House Handinoi. Two are fully broken, and therefore are not a threat to anyone. One is a farmer and the other is an architect. Both have been with us for a long time and have found nice lives here in Ar’Cosmos. The third was discovered a mere 3 year ago and is under guard and frozen time, for we are awaiting a confluence of a hundred eggs, and we are only at 56. You will not be able to interact with the third.”

Fair enough. Erick wasn’t happy with whatever they were doing to the Wizard in their custody, but he had no idea of that person’s circumstances… Maybe they were a baby killer, though; that would be easier to swallow—

No. They were probably just a completely normal person, forced into this life because of the circumstances of their birth. Whatever. Erick would deal with that later. He had enough problems on his plate at the moment.

Erick said, “That works for me.” He got up from his cushion. “Let’s go to this arcanaeum. I have more questions, but I won’t ask them of you.”

He would ask them of other people, who might not be able to give canned answers. Of course, it could be possible that everything in this [Gate Space] of Ar’Cosmos was completely fake and produced exactly for Erick whenever he wanted to see it, but he doubted… this was… the case.

Ah.

Well there was some more sympathy for Melemizargo right there. Odd, that.

Illustrious remained seated, looking slightly worried. Fairy Moon had instructed her to teach Erick proper cycling methodology, so her worry was understandable. But then she got over that worry and got up from her own cushion, saying, “I look forward to proving the hospitality and truth of our land to you.”

Fairy Moon stepped out of the wall, saying, “I would rather you return to accretion advancement and the furthering of Erick’s foundation, but a delay of days will not dampen this particular destiny. So. He is under your care, Illustrious. See that he is not harmed, or his harm will fall upon your head.” And then she stepped back into the wall, out of sight.

In her brief moment of appearance, she had seemed like a woman stepping away from an important part of cooking, or something like that, to answer the phone; here and then back to whatever she was doing before.

Erick just stared at the wall for a little while.

Fairy Moon threatened everyone, it seemed, and all the time; not just him.

Illustrious simply nodded, though, unconcerned, as she said, “I hope the audit is going well, Fairy Moon.”

“It is, though I have concerns for when you get back,” came Fairy Moon’s voice, from all around.

Illustrious acknowledged Fairy Moon’s declaration then stepped toward the door, saying to Erick, “It’s an hour walk to get there for us normal people.”

Erick almost wanted to laugh. “There is not a single normal thing about you or I, but I take your meaning.”

Illustrious smirked—

She stopped and turned to Erick. She and her great big amethyst horns did not tower over him, but it was a close thing. With a concerned voice, she said, “I don’t know if anyone has told you this, but Fairy Moon’s warning to me was a reminder: She does that to everyone. Don’t take it personally. She likes people to know exactly where they stand with her, and which lines they should not cross.”

Erick scrunched his eyebrows. “So… Was that not a threat against you? It sounded like a threat.”

“She very much means every warning she ever gives.” Illustrious said, “She gives a lot of warnings, and they’re all real, but as long as you don’t cross her lines, she won’t do anything to you. You could burn down the house and as long as you didn’t harm anyone in the burning, then she would simply remake the house, along with everything else she wished to remake. If she was feeling particularly vengeful —rare, but it happens— then she might rebuild the whole house but leave you with ashes for a bed. S

“What I’m saying is: Don’t get too riled up by her warnings. Some new person always does and I always need to clean up the inevitable mess from that person feeling like they were in an antirhine noose, with no options to escape except every horrible thing they can think of, so I usually give this warning a lot earlier in any meeting of new powers. But… Well. Things happened yesterday. That was my fault. Apologies.”

Erick felt a loosening of a knot inside his chest, and this time it felt real. Illustrious’s words and body language and tone all conveyed that she believed the words that she had just said; that Fairy Moon threatened everyone. Erick just hadn’t noticed it until now. But looking back… Every single time he spoke to Fairy Moon, she told him where her lines lay, and then she threatened him in a nebulous way if he ever crossed those lines.

“I didn’t notice her constant warnings every meeting until now. But now that you mention it…” Erick frowned. “That is very unwelcome of her. I get that they’re threats, but… Why does she do that all the time? Isn't her power enough to dissuade most people from trying shit? It’s needlessly antagonistic.”

“Here now is a truth: Everyone is a threat to Fairy Moon. She has died and come back more times than the years she had been alive. Every horrible thing you can possibly imagine has been done to her, and many times over.” Illustrious Moon said, “That doesn’t explain everything about her, but it should help you to see her as less of an enemy and more of as a force in the mana; something you just don’t mess around with, like Elemental Destruction, or calling out to Melemizargo in the shadows. As soon as you regain your power through proper cycling and proper aura control, and as long as you don’t cross the lines she lays down, then she shouldn’t even try to control you ever again. The only ones who have to beware of her are those she deems an overt threat.”

Erick had serious doubts about ‘everyone being a threat to Fairy Moon’, because the wrought were unable to invade Ar’Cosmos specifically because of Fairy Moon… But that was just here, inside Ar’Cosmos, wasn’t it. Here, where she was reborn through Redflame’s [Gate Space], every time she died...

Maybe that was the real reason Fairy Moon sent off Erick’s Crystal Star; so he couldn’t add Empathy to her here, at her ‘core’…

Or maybe he was reading too much into it. If Fairy Moon could survive death and probably all the other horrible things people have done to her to try to actually kill her, once and for all, then a bit of soul tampering probably wouldn’t do shit. Someone had to have tried that before now. Probably a lot of someones.

They probably just made her mad, really.

Sure, she might have ‘died’ more years than she has been alive, but she still managed to fight Kydyr and win. She had plucked Erick right off the beach like it was no trouble at all. All the wrought were scared of her, even when she wasn’t on her home turf.

Fairy Moon truly was just a ‘force in the mana’, then, eh?

Erick thought about that for a moment longer, then said to Illustrious, “Your advice is well received.”

Illustrious grinned at that. This time her teeth were perfectly normal; not at all like the vicious cavern of knives he had seen in that first meeting.

“That’s how to handle Fairy Moon, then.” Erick asked, “How do I handle the rest of you?”

Illustrious instantly said, “I plan on handling myself and making this visit of yours easier for you, so if there is some way to make this better, I will do what I can to ensure it is thus. Let me know what I can do.”

“… I have no paper or pens to write a letter. And no books.” Erick decided, “And I want whatever history books you guys publish for yourselves. Let’s go to your arcanaeum and get them.”

Illustrious gestured toward the door, which swung open to reveal the hallway beyond. She stepped forward and out, asking, “What sort of books were you looking for? We might be separated from Veird, but we do have limited access to [Duplicate], so our libraries can get rather large.”

Erick followed, and could not hide his surprise. “You have [Duplicate] here?”

As the two of them walked down the hallway, Illustrious said, “We have a few rescued Book Binders from Oceanside under our aegis, but their identities are well-protected. Even then though, we don’t know how to make that spell and the Script stymies all our attempts to learn it, while everyone Kirginatharp teaches is mind wiped. We have, however, been able to transfer this spell from one person to another, though the transfer of any magic requires Wizardly power and is a dangerous prospect that we do not undertake lightly.”

“Ah…” She had thought he was asking for the spell for himself, but Erick was just surprised they had the ability to [Duplicate] items at all; Erick let that confusion stand. He said, “Well okay then.”

… He almost wanted to ask her of her thoughts on a post-scarcity society fueled by [Duplicate], but he was not ready to have such a conversation with her.

Instead, Erick said, “So you go outside to make the big magics, because the Script soulbind magic to your core, so that you don’t need to shape that specific spell every single time. What about the Shades? I heard they need to manually cast every spell they make? Do they not also have cores with all their spellwork inside them, too? And cast without Script assistance? Do you know what is going on there?” Erick added, “I was always under the impression that they lost all quick casting with their magic. I know for a fact that shadlings lose [Cleanse] and Healing Magic, for instance.”

Illustrious did not get a chance to answer yet, for they reached their target door. The door glowed green at their approach, while one of Illustrious’s rings glinted a bright green, the same color as the door. And then the door swung open. She stepped through first, and Erick followed.

On the other side was a long, wide bridge under the open sky, like a highway across a low-income area, except this one arced over a vast city of stone towers and scattered forests and large apartment buildings. It was not an expensive place down there, but there were lots of people. The sun shone brightly in the sky while white clouds drifted across the blue heavens. In the far distance, Erick saw other bridges that connected to this one, but also a horizon full of trees. Somewhere far away, the buildings and such were replaced with deep green forest.

The road ahead had a few people on it here and there. All of them wore nice clothes but they also hurried along to stairwells here and there along the skyway. Many of them immediately noticed Illustrious and bowed and stepped aside, though there was ample roadway for everyone else to walk unencumbered. The roadway itself spanned like a sparse spider web across the sides and tops of many buildings in the city, while the city itself sort of reminded Erick of Ar’Kendrithyst, or Stratagold, but made of stone. It was not the same city that he had seen out his windows at Fairy Moon Manor, but it was similar.

Back behind Erick and Illustrious was just more skyway. No door, and no Fairy Moon Manor, or whatever it was she called the place. Far, far in the distance, though, Erick saw Fairy Moon Manor on the horizon; his necklace working to make that particular landmark always visible to him, if he looked for it.

And then two guards in purple livery stepped down onto the road behind Erick and Illustrious. One was a woman in deep purple armor, who looked like a small orcol, or a very, very tall human woman. She was taller than Illustrious, even with Illustrious’s extra horn height. The other was a dragonkin man with no tail or horns, who was a little taller than Erick, and who wore robes and carried a staff.

The two guards fell into place, behind Erick and Illustrious, with no one saying a sound, or anyone acknowledging the guards except for Erick and Ophiel. The little guy was sitting on Erick’s shoulder and looking around at absolutely everything, but as the guards stepped behind, Ophiel bleated out a tiny warning that unknown people were getting close. Erick patted the little guy, and he calmed down. Some of their usual telepathic connection was open and active, but it was not nearly as strong as it usually was, or else Erick would have been talking to him. Yggdrasil, upon Erick’s other shoulder, was similarly silent.

Illustrious eventually picked up Erick’s question after a minute of walking tall, without saying a word. Erick got the impression that she was thinking how best to answer him now that they were in public, and about how much she wanted to actually discuss. Gone was the absolute-caring nature of her private persona; here now was one of the three rulers of Ar’Cosmos.

Illustrious began, “You ask after the workings of Shades, their magic and their loss of magic when they become Shades, or even shadelings. You compare us to them for the cores in our chests, but this is only a superficial likeness. For we are dragons, and we have been living with cores for longer than the entire history of the Shades, in any Cosmology. So I will forgive your ignorance, and answer your question:

“The Script empowers many to great heights, for one of its deepest and most powerful functions is to take the magic that one manages to create once, and imbue that magic into one’s soul. This is a difficult art for any person —mortal or immortal— to undertake, and is best left to the true professionals; there are many people on such a list of professionals, and one of them is us, the dragons.

“There is actually no difference between souls kept in a core, or souls kept in a fleshy body, though souls kept in a core are much harder to harm. I will speak with you at length about the differences in the following days, and hopefully years, of our careful cooperation, for it would not do to have one such as yourself gain such a poor understanding of we dragons...

“As for the Shades and their need to manually cast spells all the time: This is a common misconception. It is a misconception that is allowed to spread because Kirginatharp and the powers of Veird detest us here in Ar’Cosmos, for we are a threat to his power, and the power of even the wrought.

“For we know the truths of many things.

“When one follows the Dark God deep enough into his depravity to become a Shade, the Script recognizes this and strips the darkling-soul of its Script-given power. This is a terrible process like unto half of a Soul Sundering. The Dark God then fills this broken soul with a Truth of his own; a kernel of power that the new Shade grows around, like unto a rebirth. In this rebirth, the person will have gained whatever spells Melemizargo decides they need, but past that, they will need to re-imbue themselves with their various soul-bound spells if they wish to recast them how they normally would, but as a Shade.

“This is difficult for non-dragons to re-establish soulbound spellwork in a cost and space-effective manner, for an improperly grown core made of someone else’s mana, like how the Shades are made from Melemizargo’s mana, gets ‘full’ very fast. Monsters, for instance, grow their cores with ambient mana, but they’re only really able to gain a handful of key spells and abilities, because those are the abilities they think they should have.

“The difference between a monster’s accretion and a dragon’s accretion, then, is one of quality, and ability to imbue oneself with unlimited spellwork. Monsters can get maybe 5 or 10 spells, with the possibility for more spells and abilities if they break the safe limits of their power, thus mutating their rad into a grand rad. Most monsters break this naturally-felt limit, if they can.

“I and all other true dragons, however, can place an endless number of spells inside our cores, for even if our cores are only the size of a baby’s fist, we know how to cycle mana and accrete properly. The Script, however, continues to assist us when we cleave to its tenets, for we are not party to the Dark; we are simply on what you would call the ‘Monster Script’, instead of the Open Script to which most people use.” With a political smirk, because some people and also her guards were looking, Illustrious finished with, “But if we want to make a spell, most people just jaunt back to Veird for a spell-making visit.

“For we are not like the Shades. We still have access to the Script, but because of our cores, our bonuses and abilities are more than what you would find in a normal Status. Our Statuses —if we had them here— might measure our mana in the millions, for our mana pool is much different than what the Script normally fortifies and supports. Our Regeneration might be listed as 10,000 Mana Per Day, but our actual regeneration is tied to the strength of our cores.

“There is a downside, though.

“When we abandon our cores, when we are on Veird, we have the same Stats and Statuses that our Stats say we should have, along with the same limits common to anyone on Veird; the Script Second, and so forth.

“When we have cores, though, we are limited by a Script-imposed 500 Mana-throughput limit. There are some nuances, though. Manual aura shaping and spell creation is limited to 500 mana per second, though the number of spells we can cast in any particular second only has to obey that 500 mana per second cap, in total. We can cast, for instance, manually cast ten 50-mana spells in a single second, without worry. Core-casting, which is to cast from a soulbound spell in the core, can get rather rapid, too, but sticking to one-second-per-cast is usually best practice. Those with a well-formed core would do well to respect this limit, for beyond that limit lies breakage.

“This is where the Script Second originates from, actually. Rozeta took the natural limits of core-created magic and imposed them across all of everyone who would ever Matriculate into her Script. I can respect her for her decision, and I have no qualms with her or the rest of polite society.

“We are not hermits, seeking refuge from the world, Erick. We are a Cursed people, seeking refuge from war. We are not the usual sorts of people-with-cores you have dealt with before; we still practice the precepts of peace and prosperity for all.” Illustrious said, “I look forward to showing you the proof of this in the following days.”

Erick took that all in, filed it away, then said, “I look forward to that journey.” He added, “I didn’t know that about the Script Second’s origins. That’s rather surprising in a way that is not surprising at all.”

“The natural nuances of self-made magic and where that overlaps with what the Script does for all people… This is also a course of deep study at the arcanaeum.” Illustrious said, “I’ve told them we’re coming, so they will undoubtedly make available competent professors able to answer anything you wish to have answered, about cores and true magic or anything, really.”

Erick nodded. Then he decided he wished to see how Illustrious would give her previous lesson about accretion here, in this public forum, where people walked to the sides of the roads, and tried to get out of their way, though there was plenty of space on the bridge for everyone. That people would make way for Illustrious kinda freaked Erick out. Like… What was Illustrious known for, if people got out of her way with as much haste as they could—

Ah. Wait. They were making way for Erick, too. Yeah. Okay. So…

Erick ignored that.

He asked, “What makes your core formation different from a monsters?”

Illustrious gave a small smirk, then she said, “Well. Core germination is undoubtedly the most difficult of the accretion process. The Script makes it so that one doesn’t need to form a core in order to make magic, but back in the Old Cosmology, only those who were able to form a Truth and then plant that seed of Truth inside themselves were able to become proper mages. Maybe one in ten thousand people. Prior to this, one would first need to unlock their aura, and learn how to cast small spells, using the mana they managed to collect inside of themselves, but it was not until they were able to germinate a true core could they go further than that. If you would like, I could explain our accretion process?”

That was exactly what Erick had wanted.

Part of him was glad that Illustrious was picking up what he was putting down, and the other was a bit worried that she was obviously good at subterfuge. He really shouldn’t have been, though, since he was trying to be sneaky in the first place by having her publicly repeat her accretion lesson.

Erick said, “Please do.”

And then Illustrious began repeating their lesson that they had had in private. She changed her language to make it all impersonal, but she kept the lesson pretty much exactly the same, except she didn’t actually need to repair her core at the moment, so that part was cut short. She did open up her aura for all to see, though. Out in the open, on that bridge, her violet tails reached out for ten meters in every direction, gently wafting on the breeze.

Some people to the sides of the road bowed down when that happened.

Erick just kept right on walking beside her, listening, and looking.

Some people stopped and listened, but not a single person gave a weird face, or some other indication that Illustrious was lying. The guards behind Erick never flinched or gave anything away, either. Eventually, the lesson ended, and it was pretty much exactly the same as before.

Erick asked if Illustrious would mind if Ophiel took to the skies, for a better view of everything. Surprisingly, she approved, though she did add that this place was not actually as large as it seemed. The ‘sky’ ended half a kilometer up. The ‘road’ they were on was actually in the middle of the city, though their ‘slice of reality’ was called High Road.

Illustrious pointed to a brazier burning brightly on a column to the side of the road, and then to all the similar braziers far down the way, and back where they had come from. The flame was a gentle white, and small, at the bottom of the fluted-glass-like brazier. She explained, “The height and strength of the flame represents how many people are on the road. We’re not too crowded on High Road, but if we went to Center Road then we’d be hawked at by a thousand different vendors and that flame would be poking up past the edge; people would need to come back to that slice of reality some other hour. Around midday that place gets absolutely packed and House Fizacaw Guards need to keep people from coming in whenever they want. Further down from Center Road is Nightly, which is through the main residential neighborhoods.” She added, “Everything that you see out there is merely the High Road city; you would need to move through the stairwells to visit the other lands.”

“Ah.” Erick said, “Sounds complicated.”

Illustrious said, “Only a few of us truly understand how the city works; Most people simply live here.”

As Ophiel spied around, watching people going about their lives, Erick asked, “Is what I’m seeing out there real?”

“Oh?” Illustrious was a bit surprised. “It’s all real. Everything you see out there, inside the boundaries of the space, is real. All those people are real. But you just can’t see Central City from this High Road.” She waved an arm around, saying, “It’s all still here, though. Just not here.”

Erick said, “Ah. So you mean it like that. I see.”

Illustrious gestured toward a staircase on their right, down a bit of a side skyway. “That stairwell leads down to Center Road.” She gestured to the other side of the street. “That one goes further down to Nightly. Go down either of them and you will have only moved several meters in both situations, but you will have stepped into another facet of Ar’Cosmos. We have an overall number of people we can support in here, but we can add facets as necessary to give everyone more than enough space.” She added, “And we call it ‘going down’ or ‘going up’ but those are just colloquialisms.”

“That’s…” That was many things, and all of them were interesting. Erick settled for saying, “That’s fascinating.”

“We’re mostly through water season, too, so we’ve opened up the Guest Road for this part of the year.”

“Ah yeah. It is that time of year…” Erick almost wanted to ask about all the wyrms that pour out of the Forest of Glaquin at the end of every water season, but he did not. That seemed like a sensitive topic best left for smaller audiences. He was very willing to put in a specific barb, though, as he said, “Is this all a [Fairy House]-equivalent spell but twisted deeper and deeper inside of itself? I must admit that I was going to try that experiment with my own [Fairy House] but then your invitation came, so I did not get the chance.”

Illustrious maintained her cheerful mood, but Erick could tell he had hit her hard by mentioning ‘your invitation’. She said, “That is, unfortunately, a state secret. I am sure that we will eventually be able to share it with you, but not at this time, and not in a public place.”

“… Fair enough.” Erick shifted the conversation, pointing toward a domed building that loomed on the horizon like a minor mountain. “What is that place?”

“That is the grand arena. Warriors and mages alike test their skill against each other, but mostly against monsters called out of the guarding paths by House Welixor; House Death. Testing oneself against summoned monsters is one of the best ways to gauge one’s growth and power, and House Death’s monsters are some of the best around.”

“Those white towers over there?”

“City hall.” Illustrious said, “Administrative space for the three Houses, as well as...”

Erick glanced around, picking out obvious landmarks, asking what they were. Illustrious supplied answers. It was… Normal, and therefore nice.

Eventually, they reached a large green archway that was like an open door, set into a much larger arch of grey stone. Beyond that archway was not a view of the city outside of the High Road, but of another land.

- - - -

Erick stepped onto what appeared to be the upper levels of Ar’Cosmos Arcanaeum. Illustrious Moon stood to his side, smiling a little as Erick took in the sights, but then she took notice of who was coming to greet them. Her smile took on a strained edge due to one of the newcomers, but she maintained her professional persona.

The people coming this way were a ways off, so Erick glanced all around at the school, first.

This layer of the arcanaeum was almost like a university campus, but the blocky buildings were separated by bridges and small green spaces, instead of by large expanses of green. The buildings were more like massive towers, though, for all the green spaces and bridges were actually the roofs of the next level down, where even more small green spaces and bridges connected the still-separated towers to each other. But then, further past that, was what appeared to be the third and final level of the school, with buildings separated by little more than large thoroughfares and hallways. Every floor was the roof of the previous building above, and Erick would not be surprised if there was a fourth level, or even a fifth level, far below the solidness that he could see through Ophiel’s eyes.

External stairwells connected all levels to each other, in some byzantine organization that Erick could probably figure out if he wanted to, for there were signs everywhere, but he did not care to unravel the Escher-like architecture at this time. He did not doubt that there were internal stairwells, too, which probably added to the confusion. Lighting was ample, though, illuminating what normally would have been deeply shadowed spaces below. Instead of the spaces below seeming like dark holes, they seemed more like recesses full of daylight.

Students in blue and white uniforms, either robes or suits, walked everywhere. Most of them were young, and dragonkin, with tails or with horns or without, and in obvious cliques or study groups, with books set in their laps or between them as they read and conversed on the green spaces, or in gazebo-like structures. Many were walking back and forth between classes, with most of the visible people out and about on the second and third levels down.

There weren’t that many students on the top level, where Erick and Illustrious had arrived, but there were a few people who were obvious teachers, who wore shoulder capes in various colors.

Two of those teachers had finally reached them, to stand before Erick and Illustrious.

One was a man of average build with dark skin and a long red beard split that he had split into two, twisting braids. His hair was similarly long and braided, to fall back behind his robed self, while his horns were strongly red and curved to the sides like a ram’s, but not really that at all. He had a bright red cape over his left shoulder—

Ah. His horns were the same as Redflame’s horns? Yes, they were. Redflame, then? The Dragon Stalkers had said that dragons liked to keep their same horns in their forms, so it was easy to tell who was who even outside of their full selves. Therefore, this man was either Redflame, or one of Redflame’s close relatives. From his genuine grin and the way he made sure not to show his teeth when he smiled, Erick suspected this was actually Redflame, himself.

The other teacher was a tall, skinny man with pale, severe features and a grey shoulder cape. His horns went up and out, while his robe had a lot of long lines of gold from top to bottom, making the man’s height seem excessive, in Erick’s opinion. He was even taller than Illustrious.

Both of the people did not have tails.

Illustrious introduced the first man, saying, “I believe you already met Redflame the other day.”

Redflame smiled wider, saying, “I am pleased to see you showing interest in our ways, Erick. It bodes well for future cooperation, but news of the circumstances that have brought you here are starting to circulate, and I have had some time to think more since yesterday. Such appalling treatment is not good for our future relations, so I would like to know how to make this better for you. I apologize on Fairy Moon’s behalf, and will say that Fairy Moon is simply a great deal worried about the future, and I don’t blame her—”

The severe man sighed a little, directing his casual and long-suffering ire toward Redflame, who was still talking.

“— so I just wanted to say that I am for cooperation, and not for whatever containment is going on here— And my colleague is getting testy! So that’s what I wanted to say.” Redflame said, “Glad to see you again.”

Erick felt some warmth from the man for that…

He wanted to believe that this school was simply a normal school, and the city was simply a normal city, and that everyone here was just trying to live their lives, which most people often did. Everything he had seen so far made that belief easy. This boded well for future relations.

But the rulers here… the people who actually had an impact on Erick...

He didn’t know if they were lying to him. Aside from how Erick had arrived here in Ar’Cosmos, which was still a very large issue, everything here was Fae Magic, and that stuff was rather close to Illusion Magic… Could he trust them? Only as far as he could test them, he supposed.

So he would ask questions. He would investigate truths. If he found nothing untoward, then true cooperation might happen. That was what Erick had wanted, anyway, before Fairy Moon stole him away to this place. These people were all here because a terrible curse held them tight in its grip, and so they had done horrible things to survive, but they truly did seem to want to be normal people.

And that was good.

And so: Redflame’s words were nice, and it meant something important that he was willing to say them so openly instead of in the comfort and privacy of his house... Erick decided to believe him until proven otherwise.

He said, “I appreciate the sentiment, Redflame. I hope that such words will form the foundation for a long and peaceful cooperation in some manner or another. I have thought about your words since yesterday, too. I would speak of the potential fallout of [Renew] in a more private setting, though.”

Redflame’s shoulders relaxed as he smiled brightly, accidentally showing his perfect white teeth. And then he shut his lips tight, before saying, “This makes me glad.”

And then the severe man eyed Illustrious.

Illustrious smirked as she introduced the severe man. “Erick Flatt, This is Inferno Maw, High Chancellor of the magical side of Ar’Cosmos Arcanaeum, which is only about a third of what we do here so he’s not that important.”

Inferno Maw eyed Illustrious.

Erick jerked a little bit at the man’s name, though. He said, “Ah. Hello. I did not expect to see another head of house today. Did not know you worked at the arcanaeum, either.”

“I did not expect to be introduced second, so it’s a day full of unexpected events,” Inferno Maw said, sarcastically.

Illustrious’s smirk remained firmly planted on her face.

Inferno Maw gave the woman a half-lidded eye roll, and then he turned his full attention to Erick. “If you will permit me a small spiel: Welcome to Ar’Cosmos Arcanaeum, Erick Flatt. Our libraries and our classes are open to you for whatever needs you need. I’ve heard that you’ve had recent success with runework. If you desire to learn this magic here, then we have courses on this study. We also have courses on enchanting, if you desire that as well. Or instead of runework; whichever. Most magics are different here than they are on Veird, but magic is possibility, and true enchanting and true magic will still work from here to there, mostly. The reverse is very much not true at all.” He added, “But! The reason I open my arcanaeum up to you is not out of an idea of altruism; we can’t all be heroes like yourself. I heard that you wish to remove the Dragon Curse. I have no doubt that in the years to come you might actually find a way, but the only way to do this is to open a line of communication between us and Kirginatharp that he will respect; to create a cooperation between Ar’Cosmos and Oceanside. The Curse will need to be removed at its source, after all. Of course, I am not asking you to blindly trust us at this juncture, and especially not considering how you were stolen to here by Fairy Moon, nor am I expecting this construction to take place in a matter of years, or even decades. But I feel that you’re our best chance at ridding our people of this affliction, and so, this is my reason for helping you to learn whatever you wish to learn. Keep this in mind going forward.”

The man was heavily forthright, and he seemed to be telling the truth.

What Inferno Maw wanted was something that Erick believed he wanted, too.

Rozeta had said that this world would not survive a true flight of dragons, though, but even if she was right, they still had time to work out the particulars of a cure. If this [Gate] thing worked out, it would be a hundred years before they needed to actually plan around gaining new worlds. A timeline to curing the dragon curse might take that long, considering how difficult life had been for everyone involved so far.

Erick felt another loosening around his heart.

Everyone here seemed to want the same things as Erick. Motivations and goals were different, but…

That was fine.

Erick said, “I don’t fancy myself a hero, for I simply wish to fix as many wrongs as I can, and the Dragon Curse seems to be one of them. If your offers and your hospitality are real and true, then I look forward to cooperation with your people for a long time to come.”

Illustrious seemed a fraction concerned as Erick mentioned ‘real and true’, but Redflame was trying desperately not to show his teeth as he smiled wide. Inferno Maw was simply pragmatic.

“Our offers are real and true, so I foresee no issues in the immediate future.” Inferno Maw asked, “Do you have any particular need that our arcanaeum can fulfill, at this moment?”

Erick did have a need. He said, “I want to see how a core is formed, the methods and reasonings by which accretion works, and what it means to soul-bind a spell into one’s core. I also want to speak to some of your Wizards.”

Redflame turned quizzical, looking to Illustrious. Illustrious nodded.

“Not what I was expecting,” Inferno Maw said, unconcerned for Redflame’s or Illustrious’s reactions. “Accretion business is easy enough. The arcanaeum cannot assist you with [Gate Space] creation, which is what I was expecting, so I’ll just say that now. Not only are our Wizards incapable, they do not know how to make a [Gate]. Illustrious would be the one to ask after that particular magic. Or Fairy Moon herself. Our current batch of Wizards would likely fail to grasp even the major nuances of this magic, for once their mana was stripped of them they lost all capability. Without a cheat, they cannot compete!”

Erick did not like that last part.

Redflame scowled at that part, too, complaining, “The ones here might not be great creators of magic these days, but they are no less capable than any tier 5 mage, and they’re all great teachers. They all learned how to do proper magic.” He turned to Erick. “It is a common misconception that the wearing-out of a Wizard means they can no longer function in society, but it is true that they are no longer capable of easy magic. This is what Inferno Maw means when he says such a cruel thing.”

Inferno Maw brushed off Redflame’s comments with a huff, and then he said, “I suppose Arnolio is decent. The other three just lost their love of magic; that’s the only real thing that can truly break a Wizard.”

While that was fascinating...

Erick wanted to go back to an earlier point, since the three dragons had seemed to move on too fast from it for his liking. He said, “Speaking of cruelty: I appreciate your acknowledgment that what Fairy Moon did was a theft. That means a lot. I will have you know, though, that until that event, I was predisposed to judging in your favor, for I was already hoping for some sort of cooperation to rid the world of the cause of dragon fights and other, smaller evils.” He added, “Now, though, I am here against my will, and Fairy Moon has threatened a lot, and… It’s been a lot.”

Illustrious gave a small sigh. Redflame seemed to be experiencing a lot of different emotions, most of them happy, though he kept the majority of whatever was happening to him in that moment under a lot of wraps.

Inferno Maw was direct, smirking as he sarcastically said, “Pretending at Fairy Moon’s throne of Judge, are we? Fair enough; she’s been enamored with you since you purged the crystal forest of Hunters, and then again after you rescued all those orcols in that commune. I’m surprised it took her this long to steal you away from the world.”

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Redflame rapidly said, frowning deeply. “She will never apologize, but I hope you can accept my apology in her place, Erick. Sorry. Again, sorry.”

His apology was something. It was not nothing. It certainly wasn’t freedom, but it was something.

And then Inferno Maw said, “Fairy Moon will do it again and again, and you apologize each time, Redflame. Don’t you get tired of that?”

“How often does this shit happen?” Erick asked, suddenly incensed, and trying to hide it.

“One of the primary diplomatic things we heads of house engage in is damage repair and anti-propaganda measures for all new guests whom Fairy Moon retrieves from the world.” Illustrious Moon said, “And saying that: I also apologize. It took me entirely too long to do this particular damage repair, as we almost never get a guest as high profile or as important as you. House Handinoi was simply… We were not prepared for this to happen. We did not foresee this possibility.”

“Yes yes; the fox is as blind as always.” Inferno Maw said, “But all that is boring politics. Let us learn how true magic works, shall we? Linking up with the Wizards here will have to take place another day, though.”

Illustrious kept her tight smirk, though Erick could tell she wanted to hit Inferno Maw, at the very least.

Erick was just a bit unmoored, though. He decided to stick to what he cared to know. Inferno Maw was likely correct that nothing political was going to happen right now, or soon, so they might as well move on to the important facts of the day. Like what accretion was, and how it worked.

Erick decided to move on, saying, “Wizards later; accretion now. This is fine. I want to see accretion in action.”

Inferno Maw flicked his hand at Illustrious as he spoke dismissively, “I can take it from here. Take your kits and go back to your parties and your pageantry.”

Illustrious smiled wide at the man, showing off her sharp teeth. “No.”

Inferno Maw sighed, then turned, and began walking. “This way then, Honored Guest, and intrusive foxes. We go to see the Accretion Masters.”

- - - -

The School of Accretion was one of the central buildings of the arcanaeum. Erick walked right through the main entrance on the third floor alongside his three guides, and noted how absolutely no one was scared of Redflame or Inferno Maw, but everyone gave Illustrious a second look, and then promptly realized this was a bad idea. When Illustrious noticed, which was often, she glanced back, and almost everyone receiving a glance instantly tried to rush away, or they simply froze. Most people froze, and gave deference, which seemed to be what she wanted.

Some people stared openly at Erick, though. They just froze in place, open mouthed and wide eyed. Erick gave those people a small smile and a little nod. Ophiel copied the same gesture from atop Erick’s shoulder.

Accretion Hall was about as nice as any of the other places in Ar’Cosmos, which was to say it was built to last forever, with thick stone walls and wide spaces. Some of the hallways were wide enough for full-sized dragons to roam, but Erick saw none of those here. With Redflame and Inferno Maw and Illustrious’s lack of tails, but seeing tails on some of the people here, Erick knew there was some sort of division of hierarchy going on there, but he did not know enough to understand what sort of division he was seeing.

The trip through the halls and down two staircases took little time at all, with Redflame eagerly pointing out the various sights to Erick, which Erick appreciated. Inferno Maw asked questions to better guide the tour, and Erick explained that he wanted to see accretion, itself; not core formation or anything too in depth. And so, Redflame simply pointed out the room for First Foundation creation, but it was empty, for now, though it could be filled if Erick wished it to be filled. Across the hall was the core diagnostic room, which was currently occupied and unable to be viewed; that process was delicate and could not be disturbed. Some large classrooms had professors explaining things to students in large groups, but Erick’s tour did not go into those rooms, since he had explained he wanted to see the actual practice, not the theory. Soon enough, he ended up at the back of a small classroom with one teacher with big horns and a long tail at the far end, and four students of various body-types sitting in front of him. A private class, meant for specific instructions with gifted students.

The teacher looked up from his instruction and scrunched his eyebrows at Erick and the others—

With their lesson interrupted, Inferno Maw spoke, “Erick Flatt is here to see how we accrete a core; the middling and largest part of the whole ordeal.” He said to Erick, “All of these students, as you can see, are somewhere between First and Second Foundations… And you said Illustrious explained this to you?”

“Illustrious explained the basic theory on the way over; yes.”

Inferno Maw frowned a little at that, as he eyed the tall, violet woman. “I’m sure it was adequate.” He said the word like an insult, then turned back to the class, and everyone was now looking at him. “Allow me some more words on the subject, though: Monsters naturally form cores. Dragons do, too. But dragons can get stuck in their ways, and thus they teach the new generations the same thing as the old generations, over and over and over again, thus perpetuating bad practices that don’t work for everyone. But monsters have been learning how to cycle and accrete in as many different ways as there are monsters.

“Through trial and error and proper investigation and experimentation, which is verified by accretion seekers —it’s a job some people do— we search out monsters, discovering how they accrete, and through this knowledge we can sometimes find better accretion methods. Actual accretion is based on personal mana produced, though; we don’t cycle like the monsters do. That way lies insanity. We think this insanity is due to Melemizargo’s Insanity Mana filling up Veird’s ambient mana, but that is only part of the reason we have monsters and not ‘spirit beasts’ like they did in the Old Cosmology. There are, in actuality, hundreds of different factors for why monsters are the way they are.

“We, however, are not insane, and we are not ‘naturally violent’ unless provoked or given reason; the same as anyone else, really. Anyway. Through our hunts for ever better cycling methods, we have found the best generalized methods. These methods are what we teach our young.” Inferno Maw said, “Show him some cycling.”

The instructor strongly said, “You heard the chancellor. Everyone start cycling. We can get back to the actual lesson afterward.”

Erick asked, “What was the actual lesson? Also: pardon for the intrusion. Hello.”

The instructor instantly answered, “Directed accretion, in particular toward the spirit and toward personal abilities. Everyone here has plans to study magic but they also have bloodlines and personal abilities that they wish to either enhance or mitigate, so I help them to direct growth in those directions to fortify those base abilities.” He saw Erick’s minor confusion, then added, “It’s like… Imagine having a plant-based bloodline which allows one to [Grow] on demand, but you can get a spell to do that, so the bloodline is useless as gifted. So you need to mutate that bloodline ability toward something else in order to make it useful again, like [Mature Plants], which does the same thing as [Grow], but it also helps with magical plant cultivation. On the other end of the spectrum: Some people might consider such a bloodline to be completely useless, and thus I help those people erase their bloodline, and thus they are able to devote more of their limited mana per day into actual accretion, with the goal of Second Foundation. Or, they are then able to seek out a bloodline that they actually like, which is a whole other series of discussions.”

Erick nodded in partial understanding. “Thank you for the explanation.”

The instructor nodded, then said, “And thank you for solving the Shade problem, Archmage Flatt.”

It was such an honest statement that Erick felt that maybe this thing would work out after all—

One of the kids, who was looking completely lost at what was happening around her but who knew enough to be afraid of Illustrious, finally recognized what all the other people had already recognized: That in addition to two heads of house being present, that Erick Flatt was also there. That one girl did a double-take, and then promptly fainted, falling in a boneless slump backward onto the ground. Erick winced. Her classmates were horrified. The instructor just sighed, then commented that the girl really needed to fortify her body more than she had.

Illustrious chuckled.

Redflame instantly went over to the young girl and lifted her up to put her head on a pillow, while Inferno Maw instructed the class to continue and invited Erick to walk around to see what the students were doing. The girl was out of it, but she was breathing and Redflame did some minor fussing over her before deciding that she was okay, so she was probably fine.

The instructor and the students began accreting; auras flared, then solidified, mana filled those auras, and then that mana flowed inward.

And Erick watched.

What he saw in that small room, as he walked around, but did not get too close, matched Illustrious’s earlier lesson rather exactly. There were a few variations, though, which fell in line with what the instructor had explained earlier. The students released their auras, then their mana, then they concentrated that mana inward. They didn’t do a general fortification, though. They focused their mana through the very short mana channels that connected their core to the outside of their chests; the shortest distance between the outside and their cores. This, then, was directed growth. Their cores were all in various stages between rough-cut gem and perfect sphere, while their bodies were not as strong as that of Redflame, or Illustrious, or Inferno Maw, so the kids were obviously going for Willpower/Focus fortification. As Erick watched, he saw a few facets of their cores begin to fill out, with one kid going from about 400 facets to 430, but it would take them a long while to actually get to Core Saturation; the first half of Second Foundation. He estimated… Months? Maybe more like four months, rather than ten months.

He might have been off on that estimation.

Erick’s consideration of Illustrious increased, for she hadn’t lied to him about how this worked.

After ten minutes of watching in silence, Erick stepped back, softly saying, “Okay. Thank you. That was very informative.”

Inferno Maw smiled, instantly saying, “Excellent! Care for another class like this? Or is it time to get to proper enchanting?”

“Or talk of [Renew]!” Redflame said, hopeful.

Since visiting the Wizards was off the table for today, Erick had already decided what he was going to do next. There was only one way he was getting out of here, and that was to apply these accretion lessons to himself, and make whatever Elemental Benevolence Fairy Moon wanted.

Erick wanted to make Elemental Benevolence, anyway. It would be good to solve an existential threat like the Sundering before it could ever happen again.

So Erick said to Inferno Maw, “With your earlier warning about how enchanting is different here, than it is on Veird, I feel I do not know enough about the way you enchant here in Ar’Cosmos to have a meaningful conversation on that subject at this time. So instead, I ask if you have any books on the subject, so that I might read them and have a better conversation in a few days, or however long it takes to understand the material. I would like to see the Wizards at such a time, too.”

Inferno Maw gave a small, sly grin. “This works for me. I will have some material delivered to you in a few hours. A few primers and a few textbooks. On a few different subjects?”

“I would appreciate whatever bookwork you feel like assigning me.”

Inferno Maw cheerfully said, “Careful with those choices of words; I might assign you some impossible problems just to see if they can be solved through Particle Magic.”

“If you give me such problems then I look forward to being as befuddled as anyone else.” Erick added, “So maybe stick to the remedial stuff, for now.”

Inferno Maw gave a happy grin, not bothering to hide his pleasure as he said, “Then let us be off, and disrupt this class no longer. It was fine to meet you, Archmage Flatt. I look forward to working well with you in the future.”

Inferno Maw led the way out of the classroom, back into the hallway where Illustrious’s guards had remained. The grey-horned man gave a tiny tilt of his head as he walked off down the way, and then turned a corner, going out of sight. He had seemed like a decent sort of man, so Erick was glad for the unexpected meeting.

Erick said to Redflame, “We can talk on the way back to Fairy Manor? I don’t actually know what the place is called.”

Redflame briefly looked dejected—

Illustrious softly said, “‘Fairy Moon’s House’ works for most people.”

And then Redflame got over it, saying, “A walk and talk is acceptable— Wait. No. Actually. Could we have a meeting tomorrow? I will need to gather up my supplies before we have this conversation.”

Erick offered, “Afternoon, then? Where? Here?”

“In the early afternoon. I will visit you at Fairy Moon’s house.” Redflame nodded, looking satisfied. “It was good to meet you again, Erick.”

“It was nice to see you again, too, Redflame.” Erick said, “But… Before we part, I wanted to ask you one specific thing about your search for [Renew]: why can’t you funnel mana through runework in order to produce a specific type of mana, which could then be used for Wizardry purposes, such as securing the lives of newborns, or whatever? I’ll admit I don’t know what you do there that requires Wizardry… But I have seen rather ancient mana-changers that could take anyone’s mana and make an iron slime out of it, which would then go on and gather up iron as an old method of mining. I’ve also seen cooperative casting enchants that anyone can donate to, to activate the enchantment. Those are the two major ways I’ve seen to align mana in my own journey to understand [Renew].” Erick said, “It’s all about the bouncy mana… if you want to call it such.”

Redflame’s eyes glittered red. He grinned. “Ahhh. We will have much to talk about, I think. Yes; I know of those items you suggest, and many, many more. The problems with those are efficiency and actual purity. None of those items produce actually-pure, single-source, appropriately-aligned mana. The Script supports the mana most people use to such a degree that proper Wizardry is impossible using this methodology. What is actually happening in those two designs you speak of is that people are all taking mana from the same source and throwing that mana through a sieve in order to catch the same types of mana. It’s like… proper Wizardry requires pulling specific fish from a specific pond, but what is happening in those designs is that people are funneling the same ocean of water through similar sieves trying to catch one type of fish.” He added, “It sounds like the same process, but it’s truly not.”

“… Oh. Well that’s unexpected. But…” Erick said, “We can talk more later.”

Redflame gave a small inclination of his head, and a happy grin, then took his leave.

Erick looked around at the strong stone walls, and had a thought. This arcanaeum seemed nice. How did it truly compare to Oceanside? Better? Worse? The books that Inferno Maw would send over would show much of how Ar’Cosmos worked; if they taught for truth, or if they worked like Oceanside, and taught to make people cogs in the machinery of Veird.

… Not that there was anything wrong with cogs. The world needed to be maintained… of course.

Erick turned to Illustrious. “Back to Fairy Moon Manor, then.”

Illustrious asked, “Don’t want to see the rest of the city?”

“Not right now.” Erick said, “I’m a bit hungry, and I want to write those letters to my people that you promised I could before I get to Inferno Maw’s reading materials.”

Illustrious said, “Then let us be off.”

The walk back to the manor was pretty much the same as the walk to the arcanaeum; heavy with conversation about everything out there, and about how Ar’Cosmos actually worked as a city. Mostly it was boring logistical stuff.

And then Erick asked why they didn’t have public transportation, like a rail system. This entire place was made of fake materials, right? If so, it should be simple to include some moving carts, or maybe moving walkways. Illustrious explained how that, no, this place was made of real stone and real everything, and that they tried moving-systems twenty times since she ascended to the head of her house, 1100 years ago. They always broke down.

“One method that we all thought would last forever was the river system. It was clean, fast, efficient, and most of all nice. You could sit on a boat and watch the world go by as you got to where you needed to go. It was exactly that for about 20 years. There were problems, though.” Illustrious said, “People liked to swim in the water, too. Every year we would end up with two or three kids dead to drowning, and a fair number of adults, too. Every Triumph of Light we’d end up with at least ten or twenty people dead from drunken swims. What actually ended that system, though, was that the main man who made it was murdered over some alleyway deals of his, and no one else was willing to put in the work to keep the system up and running. Boats break down a lot. The riverways spilled water everywhere, and into some houses, too. The constant repairs and maintenance made it a mana-intensive system to maintain, and a constant headache. The thing had to be maintained ten times over, after all; multiple systems in each land.”

But [Mend] still worked here, right? [Stoneshape], too?

… Erick glanced through the manasphere.

The manasphere was still present, though it was a lot cleaner here in Ar’Cosmos than out there on Veird. Erick tried glancing backward in time, though, and he hit a pretty hard wall about ten minutes into the past; the mana was clean. No influences. While this was great for Erick, for he realized he could not be easily spied upon through his history...

Since [Mend] worked off of the history of an item, and since this place had little history…

[Mend] likely didn’t work. Huh.

To make sure, though, Erick asked, “Does [Mend] still work here? Boats should be easily repairable, even if [Mend] doesn’t work, though.”

“[Mend] works, after a fashion, but only if you get to the break as quick as you can. The mana here is a lot cleaner than back out there. [Witness] is pretty much impossible unless you are informed of an incident within ten minutes of it happening.” Illustrious said, “In the case of the maintenance of the boats, though, it turned out that the boatmaster was floating the whole enterprise due to his contacts in those alleyways, but those people were sabotaging the boats and screwing him over. That whole nasty business came out over the course of a year and the waterways were dead by then. Water drained out. Boats burned. The end of the waterways was a time of red for Ar’Cosmos, for its downfall had uncovered a great many unseen threats until that time. House Fae and House Carnage purged every single criminal in the city, all at once… Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You know how justice goes. Anyway. For the waterways: No one wanted to fix the water system or take up that mana and work cost, and so that system went away, following the same path as all the others before it. And so, we walk where we want to go.”

Erick frowned a little at that.

The conversation moved on.

Eventually, one of Illustrious’s guards showed up with a small suitcase of papers and other writing equipment, meant for Erick.

Eventually, they made it back to Fairy Moon Manor.

Illustrious’s guards stayed outside of the manor while the dragon woman, who took the writing stuff from her guard, guided Erick into the house, saying that she wasn’t going to leave until she personally handed him off to Fairy Moon, herself. Once the doors to the outside world closed, leaving Illustrious and Erick alone for the first time in several hours, her public persona dissolved; she smiled softly, and there were no sharp teeth. Her eyes were bright and happy. She was back to being the kindly woman she had tried to be this morning, but of which Erick was too blinded by his paranoia to see. Sure, Erick had very good reasons for thinking badly of Illustrious Moon (And Fairy Moon, of course), and he would continue to have those thoughts until he was allowed to leave Ar’Cosmos and interact with Illustrious and the others on his own terms, but he wasn’t blind. He saw that Illustrious was basically a good person.

Probably.

It wasn’t till the two of them had walked through four hallways and shut three grand doors behind them, that they reached Fairy Moon. The old fae was eating dinner beside Maid Maria, who was also eating dinner at the same table.

Illustrious relaxed fully, giving a happy sigh as she set down the briefcase full of papers and pens and ink, and other various things. “That was a fun little trip. No problems, either.” She said to Erick, “I hope that we have proved the truth of this land to you, at least a little bit.”

Fairy Moon spoke up, “The tour seemed to work out splendidly from my perspective.”

And it had.

No one had tried anything untoward the whole time. Erick had been waiting for it; waiting to unleash Ophiel and attempt to protect himself but probably fail. And yet, he hadn’t needed to do that.

But if Fairy Moon was watching the whole time...

Erick asked anyone who would answer, “Did anyone try anything untoward?”

“There were some people in some alleyways that tried to interact with you, and then they tried to follow with a long-distance [Scry].” Illustrious said, “But my people took care of it.”

In a way, Erick was glad that something had happened, and that Illustrious had stopped it. It would have been beyond strange if nothing unexpected had happened. Something always happened when Erick was out on the town, and it was usually only through the combined efforts of his mana sense, and, until recently, Poi or Teressa, that they managed to make nothing happen; usually by eyeing the people who tried to start whatever shit they wanted to start.

Most people usually only wanted ‘some of his time’ and to ‘tell him about this great offer’, though. Very rarely was there actual danger involved.

Fairy Moon said to Erick, “You have all the accouterments necessary to cultivate your core into something singular that will again allow you a 50-meter radius of rounded senses; the only reason you are blind for now is this lack in your life. I hope you are prepared to produce such growthful gains, now that you know we are not being betrayful or befuddling.”

Erick purposefully frowned at her for her attempt at hurrying him along, then he realized, almost sadly, that frowning wouldn’t ever register to Fairy Moon how he wanted it to register. He lost his expression at that moment, blinked a few times, and then said, “I know you are not being purposefully dishonest, but from my perspective this is all very sudden and unkind. But by that same hand, and in your favor, I understand that kindness is not always the best policy, especially when it comes to matters of grave importance, but…” Erick decided that he didn’t need to say anything else along those veins; Illustrious understood, but Fairy Moon was just playing lip service toward understanding. Erick cut to the end. “I’m going to start accreting after dinner.”

“Then the day was not wasted.” Fairy Moon said to Maria, who was already getting up out of her chair, “Please attend to our guest’s appetite.” She turned to Illustrious. “Will you be staying? I have words of wisdom about the audit.”

Illustrious stood tall, like she was ready to receive bad news, and said, “I would be delighted to join you for dinner and to speak of the house.”

And so, they ate. Maid Maria finished her own dinner in the other room, while Erick sat at the same place as before, and Illustrious sat across from him, and Fairy Moon spoke of everything that was currently happening in House Handinoi, and what needed to change.

It was basically administrative talk, and though it was informative into the nature of Ar’Cosmos, it wasn’t anything that Erick hadn’t already suspected. This place was just another city on Veird. Ar’Cosmos had more or less the same problems as any other. The solution of ‘banishment’ here, though, was a lot more involved than banishment out there, and usually involved a Fae Seal which stripped the banished-person of all their memories related to this land.

Which sort of explained the discrepancy between how many people seemed to live here, versus how little Erick had heard of this place before his arrival.

Dinner itself was great. Erick listened and did not speak. All in all, it was a rather normal event. Fairy Moon even agreed with Illustrious’s promise of allowing Erick to send letters back to his people… Which was apparently a thing that was in doubt, for Illustrious had made that promise, and not Fairy Moon, and Illustrious was very obviously relieved when Fairy Moon allowed her promise to be kept. When the meal was over, Erick bid Illustrious farewell, and Maid Maria came in with a load of books that had been delivered to the front door, courtesy of Inferno Maw.

Maid Maria helped Erick to carry the books back up to his room, and he was not accosted for that decision, nor was he told to do anything at all. This was also a surprise. A welcome surprise, to be sure, but a surprise nonetheless. He had expected Fairy Moon to demand something from him.

Maid Maria bowed as she left Erick to his room.

With paper products and a pen in hand, and the door closed and locked (though that probably wouldn’t do any good, but it was the thought that counted) Erick got down to writing a letter. He had to scrap it a few times when he felt he was being too angry, but the anger flowed easily once he was able to put words to paper. So he just gave into the anger for version #5, getting it out of his system. That worked. Once the anger was bled onto the page, Erick focused beyond his own emotions to get to the truth of this land…

That truth was what he put into his sixth letter, and when that turned out like shit, he reorganized it all into a seventh.

He explained the mind control, or whatever it was that had happened to him, and then he explained how further mind control happened, but then that was over, for now. As long as he didn’t cross any fae lines, then there shouldn’t be any more of that…

And then he realized that none of these letters worked. His goal was to inform people that he was safe, and under fae rules, and that Ar’Cosmos had Wizards, and with any luck, they could ‘solve the future Sundering problem’ by the time he got out of here. Yes. That was what he wanted to tell Stratagold and Oceanside and Spur, so he drafted a letter including that true message. And then, he finished.

… It probably needed to be reworked later, after he had a night to sleep on it.

Jane and Poi and Teressa and Kiri each got letters unique to them which were much easier to write.

All of those letters got a post script that he would likely add to the political letter, tomorrow:

‘Please don’t start any wars over this.’

… He wasn’t going to send them out right now, anyway. Erick set the letters aside.

He leaned back in the chair and had a think. The chair had not been there in his room this morning when he awoke, nor had the desk. A bookshelf that was mostly empty, save for a few history books and some accretion manuals, sat near the desk. That shelving hadn’t been there this morning, either. After adding Inferno Maw’s workbooks and such, that bookshelf got a lot more full. The last addition made to his room while he wasn’t looking were some accretion pillows sitting beside the window. Those things were great big bean-bag-like pillows that were both soft, and yet firm…

Erick almost went to the pillows, to cycle; to put into practice all the ideas he had seen that day.

First, though, he grabbed the books on accretion, set them upon his desk, and read up on the process for a while. All of the books came with warnings in the beginning explaining that the book would not be allowed outside of Ar’Cosmos, with the punishment for violating this rule being banishment. Other than that bit of scare tactics in the beginning…

The sun fell and the moon rose. Lights came on automatically inside the room, keeping the room bright while outside turned to night. And Erick studied.

After three hours, and after cross referencing seven different accretion manuals, Erick felt he had a pretty good grasp on accretion. There was only one problem.

But that problem might not be a problem.

Erick had read none of this back in the Core of Veird. He had heard none of this in his long discussion with Rozeta, about the process of becoming a Wizard. But then again, she had spoken mostly in generalizations of the process by which a nascent-Wizard became a true Wizard. That whole process basically boiled down to: ‘The Wizard makes mana and themselves at the same time, becoming a fully crystallized-mana being that is like a weight upon the world, while also maintaining a fleshy body; this is the first major act of Wizardry from any and all true Wizards. It is Paradox Wizardry, for sure, and if you actually try for Wizardry, you will get there faster than you expect, Erick.’

And yet!

All these books, even the advanced ones, did not even hint as to what Rozeta had explicitly said would happen to him. They all spoke of cores. None spoke of fully-crystal bodies.

Even the few advanced books among all the remedial books mostly spoke of things like Third Foundation and Final Foundation. Third Foundation was when one had achieved multiple cores, which doubled one’s safe mana-per-second spellcasting cap from 500 mana spent per second, to 1000. Final Foundation was where one increased their core count to anything beyond two cores, which usually meant that such a person could make as many as they wished, and could sustain.

This sort of explained why some of the wyrms that poured out of the Forest of Glaquin at the end of every Water Season, and which lasted pretty much all of Summer, had multiple grand rads. This explained why it was possible for a monster to have multiple cores at all.

But anyway...

Maybe there was no discrepancy.

Maybe becoming a Wizard is something more tightly hidden than what Inferno Maw and Illustrious Moon and even Fairy Moon were willing to share with Erick at this moment in time. Or, maybe Illustrious and Inferno Maw simply did not know how Wizards actually worked. After all, Ar’Cosmos had a certain view towards Wizards, and how best to use them. Perhaps their ‘best use’ of a Wizard would never allow a Wizard to actually achieve their full capability.

What was likely happening here was that Rozeta had been open and honest, for she was not afraid of Erick, while these people here were scared of him, at least a little… Illustrious was scared of him, for sure… But then again. Illustrious was willing to speak more about accretion after he reached Second Foundation…

So maybe Erick was just being paranoid again.

Inferno Maw’s decision to not include any Wizard-core books was easy to understand, though; why would he talk of Wizards to Erick, when he did not know that Erick was a Wizard? Such a talk would just be needlessly giving away secrets. Or perhaps Inferno Maw was just being himself; he didn’t seem like a man prone to long speeches, like Kirginatharp.

Erick put his paranoia away after examining all the angles for a while. He decided that he would discover the discrepancy between Rozeta’s words and the teachings of Ar’Cosmos eventually. But not today.

For now, there was no reason to not try this method of cycling. Monsters and dragons and anyone with a core could achieve more or less the same results through a hundred different methods, though some were better at others for gaining the most in the shortest amount of time. Ar’Cosmos’s methods were geared toward that efficiency, and they had basically perfected these methods over many generations of accretion seekers and monster dissections.

Erick went to the accretion pillows, picked out a large, blue one, sat down, and relaxed.

Getting into the process was simple.

Flickering white glows seeped from his skin as he manifested his aura. Mana came next, flowing out of his core, into his aura, brightening the glow the faintest amount. With control, Erick pushed away the ambient mana floating around him, and inside his body. His aura expanded in all directions like a solidifying bubble. There was a strain, but he held on. He concentrated on breathing. With his mana sense, he saw the world around him, and especially the world inside of his body, for he was very much ‘one with the mana’ when it came to his own mana.

A smile crept upon his lips at that.

And then, he began to push his mana out of his aura, manifesting his power everywhere inside the bubble of his aura. He felt a slight weakness at this, but it was no more than how he usually felt when he got on low mana.

The books all explained the next part as mostly intuitive. Some called it ‘pulling the cap’, and ‘letting the bathwater drain back to the source’. Some called it ‘weakening the natural walls of the core through an application of aura control’. Some called it ‘opening the spirit’. All of them meant the same thing.

It took Erick a second to figure it out, but once he did—

It was instinctual. He opened the solidness of his spirit. Mana flowed inward.

The mana that was already inside of his flesh lit up like a bioluminescent sea disturbed by a great movement far below. For a long, yet brief moment, he glowed radiant white. And then that power was spent, instantly fortifying everything that it had been near. Erick’s heart beat hard twice in succession as a jolt of pure power quite literally filled his veins.

And then the initial burst was spent, and in the wake of relief and calm that followed, all of Erick’s carefully held-together accretion efforts fell apart like so much mist under the sun. His aura evaporated, taking all of its invested mana with it…

And yet, his core felt fine. It wasn’t full, by any means, but some of his mana had returned to him.

He had managed a small, proper cycle. Not a full one, but enough that he could go again.

And so he tried again, and this time he was ready for the jolt. This time, the jolt was a lot calmer…

As his body lit up brilliant white for the second time, and power flowed into his body, through his skin, many strange things began happening. Erick tried to categorize them all at once while he was in the middle of it all, but it was difficult to understand which was more interesting— And then he bottomed out on mana.

Which was another odd thing.

Erick was still categorizing everything else that he had witnessed, though.

Sweat dripped from every part of him, but he felt fantastic. He crashed backward onto his pillow for just a little while so that he could think. Ophiel hopped off of his own pillow to join Erick, now that he was done glowing, and so Erick put a hand on the little fluffy guy, petting him as his mana sense told him a very interesting story.

So.

A few things.

His body was not turning to crystal. Not yet, anyway. That was probably his biggest, current concern. So no worries there, for now.

His core, which had a good hundred facets and had been growing in number of facets, and getting a bit fatter and more round ever since Erick had been [Renew]ing himself, now had 125 facets, and was looking particularly plump. It was not at all like the marquis-cut, 10 mana rad that Erick had originally had… Weeks ago, by now? Yeah. It had been weeks already. His core was pretty far from being a perfect sphere, but it was certainly growing stronger, and this cycling method had pumped up that growth rate considerably.

Also, all of his muscles felt like he had been working out for a good 3 hours. Which was probably a good thing. Erick remembered this feeling well, from back when he was in his early twenties and always active.

He had even witnessed, briefly, how mana had begun to fall into the veins inside his body, to follow those on its way back to his core.

Perhaps the largest change, though, was that Erick knew how much mana he had in his core; 200 mana. It was the same amount of mana he had had in his core since the start of this whole thing. But he had spent all of that mana in this session, though he had only gained the benefit of about 140. He had fucked up that first time, after all, and released a lot of his power into the open air; that mana did not make it back to his core.

This was important to understand, because cycling was not supposed to ‘use up’ mana unless it actually got used, which meant that Erick had managed to fortify his body and spirit with about 140 points of his own mana. Most people (mostly dragonkins and the descendants of dragons) only managed to fortify 10 to 50 mana per day. Dragons managed 500-5000, depending on age and circumstances and whatnot.

And here Erick was, fortifying all of his mana into himself.

Oh yes. This was his mana, for sure.

He was a Wizard.

And this felt like he was cheating.

His Maximum Mana was surely higher now, and he was probably stronger, too. But how much? He had no idea. No Script here to show how much he had actually progressed… if at all. Actually…

Erick went back to the books, searching for the answer to a new question—

Ah. Here it was. ‘How much mana does it take to fortify the equivalent of 1 point of Strength’ Answer: ‘Anywhere from 1,000 mana to 10,000 mana, depending on the person.’

This meant a few things. Erick had likely not fortified anything enough to achieve the equivalent of +1 of any of his Stats...

That was concerning. With some quick math…

Erick frowned. “At the far end it takes a normal person about 430 years to get 50 in every original Stat?” He made sure his math was correct. “Start at 10 in all Stats, means 160 Stat points, times 10,000 mana per point, means 1,600,000 mana. But at 10 mana per day this means 160,000 days, divided by 370 days per year, means… 432 years. Oh. Wow. The Script is the real cheater, I think.”

… But if Erick truly did make between 1 to 1.5 million mana per day, and even taking into account that he would be raising eight Stats up to 70-ish instead of the normal four...

“Five days. That’s all this would take” Erick’s eyes went wide. “Okay. Maybe we’re all cheating but in different ways.” And then he realized he had made his assumptions too simple. “Wait. No… That’s not how it would work. I still only have a 200 mana cap and a 300 mana per hour regen, but only at Rest… Right?”

It was more complicated than that, of course. Erick went back to the books and found most of what he wanted to find about limits and bottlenecks on mana-to-accretion ratio. A First Foundation core could only hold so much mana (which for Erick was 200, for now) for until one was deep into spirit fortification and their Script-delineated limits rose to an effective Willpower and Focus in the 50s, giving their core the ability to actually contain 500 mana, such a young dragon was stuck at a maximum accretion of 250 mana per day, or however much mana they had in their core, as defined by their Willpower.

It wasn’t till well into the depths of First Foundation, when Willpower rose to over 50 and Focus followed, that a dragon could accrete a few times per day, as Mana Exhaustion allowed, to fully take advantage of their natural mana production. These were limitations of the Script, and they remained even here in Ar’Cosmos. Those limitations only dropped away in very advanced circumstances which mostly had to do with allegiance to the Dark, or plots for self-created Wizardry, both of which caused the user to disengage from the Script. Disengaging from the Script was bad; the book firmly stated this several times over. Once a person disengaged from the Script they might never get it back, and thought the Script was a pain in some ways, in others it was a massive boon. The boon outweighed the bad.

All of that seemed to line up with what Erick had already heard from multiple sources, which he was glad to see.

The day was full of information, it seemed.

As Erick continued to read in depth, he found another important section regarding ‘bloodlines’. He had ignored that word the first few times he glanced over it, but then one of those sections caught his eye with the term ‘elemental alignment’. Apparently, Erick’s own Light-afflicted aura certainly qualified as a bloodline.

Erick was surprised to realize that his own mental wording for his ‘affliction’ was likely a cultural bias.

Dragons all wanted a bloodline, and they all naturally had one, so that worked out for them, but for half-dragons, or anyone else, bloodlines were something that they had to go out and acquire. Once one acquired a particular elemental bent to their mana, it would make those sorts of spells and natural abilities so much stronger. The strength of that shift varied, but 2 to 4 times as strong was a general expectation.

Once again, dragons had a claw up on the competition, for they had their bloodlines since birth, but as long as one got a bloodline before they started accreting, then that was fine. Adding a bloodline after forming your first core and reaching First Foundation was exceedingly difficult, and not recommended for the beginner.

Anything put in at the start only got better with time. Anything put in after the start sometimes got pushed out by what already lay beneath. It was more complicated than that, since dragons could shed their cores and make new ones, but that was considered an advanced technique and was only hinted at in a single, advanced book. The actual wording was more like ‘talk to someone who knows about this; do not attempt yourself. You will die.’

Anyway. The Script’s ability to allow anyone to gain an Elemental Body, if they tried for it, was perhaps the easiest and most widespread way that non-dragons added bloodlines to themselves.

But what actually concerned Erick, and the whole purpose of looking up this stuff on aura-taint, was due to the creation of magic when one had a tainted aura. In the manual creation of magic, one used their aura to make that magic, and if one had a bloodline, then all their magic was naturally aligned in that direction. This made creating magic that was not aligned with one’s aura harder than it would be otherwise. For instance, even the basic [Force Bolt]s Erick made with his aura were actually [Light Bolt]s unless he strained himself to make them normal [Force Bolts]s. It wasn’t much of a strain, but it was still a strain.

Four different books all told Erick that his concern over future magic creation prospects was a concern that many, many people had had before him, and that such a concern was not worth his time to consider. Any properly made core would be made with one’s own mana, so it would always respond to one’s need and ability, which meant that he could eventually learn to ‘suppress his bloodline’ and use his core for whatever magic he felt like making. Suppressing one’s bloodline was a technique outlined in four different books, each in a slightly different way.

… Erick read those sections rather thoroughly.

Two hours later, Erick was sitting on his pillow with his aura fully out and active, but it was colorless. No light. No glow. Not even a hint that it was actually active at all. A little bit of his mana had returned to him by then, too, so Erick formed a [Force Bolt] with his aura and aimed at the stone floor of his room.

A perfectly normal dollop of near-invisible Force smacked the stone with all the power of a tap from a particularly heavy staff. Of course, nothing happened to the stone at all. It was stone. Erick’s bit of Force was nothing compared to that solidness. And yet, Erick felt a giddy source of pride and surety well up within him. That small joy came out as a small laugh.

The strain of suppressing his bloodline was only slightly more difficult than opening his aura in the first place.

Erick smiled.