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This hospital room was a lot nicer than the one that Poi and Kiri had used. This one was meant for long term care.  

In a tower of the hospital, in a room half made of windows overlooking the western ocean, because Jane had chosen the ocean view, Jane laid in her bed, against the wall, watching the blue waters roll into the crescent, deep harbor of Oceanside. Her eyes blinked small, and inconsistent, as a metal rune in the headboard of her bed glowed dim. It was the [Sleep] spell, inscribed by a Mind Mage and activated by that same Mind Mage; a doctor at the hospital, a human woman named Alibeth. That rune was the only thing that was able to stop Jane from needing to puke over the side of her bed every two seconds.

It had taken them some effort and a lot of [Cleanse]ing to get Jane to that bed, but she was there, now, and it made Erick feel some kind of better. Not wholly good, but good enough for now. There was still a lot of work left to be done, now that Messalina’s parasitizing of Spur had been revealed and her Flare Couatl had attacked.  

But for now, Erick watched over Jane from the side of the room.  

Rats had come and gone; he was still busy with his hospital work. He had offered to move to this long term unit to help with Jane’s recovery, but Jane had insisted that he not worry about her. He had his [Greater Treat Wounds] quest to complete, and Jane wasn’t about to take him away from that. She had said this over several broken, sobbing, disgorging sentences, but she had said it just the same.  

Teressa was meditating in the corner of the room, working on her Mana Sense. This long term care unit was apparently stocked full of doctors and nurses that were more than capable of defending their weakened patients, some of whom were foreign princes or the daughters of warlords, but most were just fishmonger’s wives, or other sick loved ones. Oceanside took all kinds, regardless of their ability to pay, and protected them all the same, but Erick still felt safer knowing that Teressa was here and personally looking over his daughter.  

Poi and Kiri were out of the room, filling out paperwork; Erick had already filled out most of it, but apparently there were subsequent pages that dealt with other things.  

Oceanside took in and treated all kinds of sick people, regardless of their ability to pay, but that did not mean they helped for free. Jane, being a soldier of Spur’s Army, meant that she was here, officially, as a member of that Army, meaning that Spur would get the ‘bill’. But it wasn’t really a ‘bill’. As Erick understood it, there would be a heavy favor owed someday, maybe. Months in the future, weeks, years… Who knew? Whenever the Headmaster decided to call in that bargain of trade, he would call it in, personally. At least that’s what the admitting doctor said.  

It all sounded rather sinister to Erick, but the doctor listed off several usual bargains, like putting up some Elites in the area for a month, or procuring supplies from the area like shadow essences, or coming to Oceanside to teach a class… They were all normal things, according to the admitting doctor, but as they listed those possibilities, they also looked at Erick with a bit of a stronger concern in their eyes. Erick had little doubt that whatever Jane and Spur were on the hook for, he was on the hook for, too.

And so Erick sat in a chair beside his daughter, watching over Jane, while she struggled to accept the [Sleep] washing over her. Ophiel watched from Erick’s shoulder. The little [Familiar] had tried to comfort Jane; to sit on her bed and gently nestle up against her leg, but she thrashed and puked, so Ophiel had to watch from Erick’s shoulder.  

So Erick waited, watching his daughter the whole time. She was still in pain. If he could take this pain from her, he would, but the doctors and Alibeth all said that healing from Disintegrated Dragon Essence took time. It was a soul sickness; a corruption that told the body it was wrong. Right now, a battle raged between Jane’s body and her own ‘essence’, which was another name for ‘soul’.  

And no, according to the doctors, ‘souls’ were not ‘essences’, just how all four-sided objects were not all squares. But it was a useful terminology for treating DDE, since dragon essences were more akin to souls than all the other essences. It was Alibeth who cleared up the confusion left for Erick by the other doctors. The Mind Mage had said that Jane’s own soul had started to change, and the removal of the dragon essence had halted that change.

The desert of her soul had tried to grow a tree. And though the tree had been killed, there were still a lot of roots in the ground, and leaves scattered on the dirt, and a whole trunk and lots of branches all just sitting around; dead. It would take time for the desert to reclaim what had tried to exist.  

And so Erick sat beside Jane, watching her try to breathe calmly and fail, watching her struggle to sleep.  

An old voice whispered from the open doorway, “Pardon my intrusion.”

Erick looked up. The Headmaster stood in the doorway, the same regal old man with white hair, wearing the same yellow and white emperor's clothes as always. Kiri and Poi stood behind him. Erick nodded, gesturing for him to come in, but he said nothing. The Headmaster nodded back, and walked into the room. Kiri and Poi followed, then shut the door behind them. Poi looked perfectly at ease, but Kiri looked paler than normal, as she tried not to look at the Headmaster. She was not nearly as pale as Jane, right now, but there was a similarity.  

Erick asked, “Have you heard about Spur, yet?”

The Headmaster nodded, then said, “Since Spur stood aside from Oceanside’s goal of bringing Messalina to justice, I have given your city all the help I can give.”

Erick had hoped that Eduard was lying, or misrepresenting the truth, somehow, but that hope was a false hope. Erick asked, “Why? People are dying, now. Two soldiers stationed at my house were compromised by her Dream Worms; they [Defend]ed themselves to death, the second the Flare Couatl showed. The situation on the ground has changed, and Spur must now fully commit against Messalina.” Erick added, “I know you have the power to help. Please do so.”

The Headmaster turned his amber gaze toward the windows, briefly. He turned back to Erick, saying, “I have helped. My people gave warning, and Silverite chose to get in bed with the Life Binder instead of cutting off her head. I cannot work with Silverite any more than I already do. So, since Silverite still exists as the power in Spur, the Spur that spurned me still exists, and thus there is no option for me to help.”

Erick went silent.

Jane groaned a little.  

The Headmaster frowned as he turned his gaze from Erick, to at the metal rune over Jane’s head. He stared at the rune. He said, “That rune is misaligned.” He looked to the air.  

A quick knock came at door. The Mind Mage doctor, Alibeth, opened the door, saying, “Hello. Headmaster. Everyone.” She walked past Kiri and Poi, headed straight for Jane’s bed, saying, “So this rune is misaligned, I hear?”  

The Headmaster said, “Not badly, but bad enough.” He looked to the rune. It shifted under his gaze, ever so slightly, barely at all. “It must have happened when she was thrashing around.”  

Alibeth looked mollified, with her eyes down and holding a tiny bottle of glowing white oil, saying, “Terribly sorry,” half to Jane, but maybe half toward the Headmaster, too. She reached over Jane’s head, to above the rune—

Jane groaned, her eyes fluttering open, “Wha—”

Alibeth placed one hand on the rune as she upended the vial of white oil into a hole in the top of the headboard. Oil trickled into a reservoir inside the wood. Alibeth’s hand flickered white and the rune flickered back to life. White light glowed from the dark metal, for a brief moment. When the light died down, Jane was finally sleeping again. Really sleeping, this time. She breathed easy. Her eyes were closed for the first time.  

Erick sighed out. He smiled, saying, “Thank you, Alibeth.”

Alibeth nodded fast, then watched the Headmaster. He nodded to her. She raced out of the room.  

Erick said, “Thank you, Headmaster.”

The Headmaster said, “Helping people is what we do, here, but when people spurn my help I cannot help them later. I have rules. I follow these rules so that people don’t begin to think I am some unstable creature of chaos.”

A long moment passed in silence.

“Okay.” Erick said, not really understanding. But he wasn’t an immortal being, forced to watch the world change around him as he struggled to stay the same. Maybe that was the Headmaster’s deal? Maybe Erick was misunderstanding him; but that didn’t matter right now. Erick asked, “What if I offered something else?”

“Then I certainly would not be having this conversation here.” The Headmaster looked to Jane, saying, “And I am already providing you with a service unlike any other on Veird.”  

Erick steeled himself. He said, “Which is why I am prepared to offer you something very large. It will be a lecture similar to the previous one, but much, much more detailed. And different.”

The Headmaster paused, gently looking down at Jane.  

Erick waited. The line had been set. All he could do was hope it was enough to get a nibble.

The Headmaster turned to Erick, saying, “I am open to this sort of transaction.”

First hurdle passed! Good gods, maybe this was going to work after all!

The Headmaster continued, “I will meet you in the auditorium where you gave your previous lecture in two and a half hours. There is a class up there right now, but they will be gone after that. We will discuss whatever you want to discuss, and then I will decide how much help your information buys you.”

Erick barely contained his joy, as he said, “I already promised Kiri she could watch, if that’s okay with you.”

The Headmaster gave a tiny grin. He said, “Then I will also invite one other person.” He asked, “What is the nature of your trade? So that I might prepare a suitable second set of eyes and ears.”

Erick laid it out there, “The nature of light.”

Kiri winced. Poi looked away.  

Erick glanced at both of them, uncertain of what that was all about, but he quickly refocused on the Headmaster. And now that he was looking at the Headmaster...

The Headmaster frowned a little. He said, “I might have to goad you into something larger, but we’ll see. I’ll be in the auditorium at the appropriate time, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick saw right through that bluff. The Headmaster was truly, very interested, but he had to save face. Right? Erick just hoped that he wouldn’t try to save face like this when the discussion turned to electromagnetism and waves. Erick would have never tried to talk about any of those things before now, before he had weeks of learning under his belt, and before he had a chance to really remember what he knew about the subject. For he had remembered a lot more about his daughter’s homework and what he had done to prepare for substituting as a science teacher, for the few times he had stepped in for a friend. There were videos and worksheets and way too much math, which he was never good at at all, but he certainly remembered all of the diagrams and colorful dioramas and picturesque examples of particles in motion.

Well… most of all of that.  

… enough to matter, anyway!

Erick said, “I think you’ll be surprised.”

“… Maybe.” The Headmaster took one final look at sleeping Jane, then said, “See you soon. I hope you do not disappoint.” He vanished in a blip of gold light.

Poi instantly said, “The secret of blacklights will not convince him to come to Spur’s aid.”

Kiri added, “He’s a Light Mage, Erick. He already knows all there is to know about light!” She turned to Poi, “What’s a blacklight?”

Poi did not answer her; he just stared at Erick.

Teressa kept quiet, but she frowned, alongside the other two.

Erick felt suddenly and increasingly unsure about everything.

Erick asked, “Was he being serious about me needing to offer something larger? I thought that was just him saving face.” Erick added, “And yes. He’s a Light Mage. I know that. But that doesn’t mean he knows everything there is to know. I’m a Particle mage— Okay. Okay. I can already see your objections, Kiri. He’s been at this for a very long time and I have not.”

Kiri said, “At least since the Sundering and the start of the Script.”  

Poi continued to frown at Erick.

Erick looked to the sapphire man, saying, “Not you, too?”

Poi ended his frown. He said, “I have to keep relearning that I shouldn’t doubt you, but every time it’s still hard.”

Erick blurted, “There’s four fundamental forces in the universe, and light is a part of one of them. I don’t think you two understand just how big that really is, and how disastrously wrong they teach the subject.” He added, “Professor Stomp, bless her soul, is just so damn wrong about light— It’s incredible just how wrongly it’s taught.” He corrected himself, “Though for detecting invisible people, maybe there’s something there. I’m not sure.”

Kiri asked, “Really?” She scrunched her face, sarcastically adding, “You’re not sure, huh?”

Erick whispered to himself, “Oh my gods.”

- - - -

Erick stepped down the white stairs of an amphitheater. Up above, the sky was black, with white stars here and there. The three moons hung in the sky—

Erick paused. None of this felt real.  

Something had shifted in Reality. Erick tried to access the Script, to bring up a blue box, any box at all. His Status came up, and all the numbers were correct. But the boxes came up slow, like there was a lag in the system. Erick tucked away the boxes, then looked around.  

“What is this?” Erick said, “I was just talking to Kiri and Poi.”

“And now you are talking to me.”

Erick turned.

A mostly white wrought in the shape of a human woman sat neatly in a student’s chair, to the side of the stairs, beside Erick in the amphitheater. Her eyes were lined in gold, while her eyes were solid white. Erick’s first thought was that she was a Shade, but that was obviously not true.

Rozeta said, “Hey, Erick. Long time no talk. Impressive spells you made so far, but everything is starting to get way out of hand, and I’m gonna need you to reel it in, or help me limit this light stuff you’re taking about.” She added, “I’m getting in front of this one, this time.”

Erick took a short moment to put together what was happening.  

He was speaking to Rozeta in a divine visitation. Sure. Why not?  

When he got back, though, he was certainly going to get himself checked out for Dream Worms; if Poi and Kiri weren’t already panicking over his prone, thrashing body.

Rozeta said, “You are not in a dream worm dream. This is me, coming to you, for a talk.”

Erick rolled with it. Her answers would determine the rest of this conversation—

And that he was able to have that thought, at all, gave a little credence to the validity of this being a divine visitation. And if not that, then at least this was a really, really good facsimile.  

“… Okay. How much do I need to explain to make sure we’re on the same page?”

“Nothing.” Rozeta said, “I’ve been watching you and your mind for some time now. So I know all about the wave-particle duality of light and how that is inadequate for explaining what light really is. I know all those dark thoughts you’ve had about gravity and how horrific the whole thing could get, and the half-thoughts about the ‘strong’ force and the ‘weak’ force.” She gestured to the seating on the other side of the stairs, saying, “Sit with me for a minute or twenty.”

That was a good answer. Erick willingly took a seat.  

Rozeta said, “My main concern is with opening another can of beans when we haven’t nearly finished the last one.”

“… Cap the points people can get from new magic?”

Rozeta nodded, saying, “That is one possibility, but I want a scalpel, not a hammer.” She said, “That part you said to your guardsman about people not experimenting with the world really stuck with me. I’m not going to change higher tier magic… probably not ever. But lower tier magic is meant to be experimental. Tier 2 and 3 are there for that exact reason. Basic, tier 1, even more so. And people do experiment with it, all the time. The problem here, is that magic is partially based in culture. A communal influence on the world brings about the strongest magic, hence ‘all that math’ in the arcanaeums of the world. When you get a chance, you should look up ‘Ritual Casting’.

“But I digress.” Rozeta said, “I’m here to ask you how you think I should limit this light magic.”

Erick answered honestly, “I’ve just been using [Special Ward] to get the job done. Do you really need something else?”

A long moment passed, as Rozeta thought in silence.

Rozeta sighed. She said, “It’s probably the most elegant solution, but that blue box is way too big.” She said, “This method means zero new points, zero new basic spells. This is good.” She frowned. She steeled herself. She said, “I have to do it this way, don’t I?”  

Erick said, “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think the Weak force or the Strong force would work through the Infinitesimal Ban.”

Rozeta smiled as she laughed.  

Erick smiled with her.

She gazed out into the distant sky, saying, “The Ban is holding rather strong against individual-atom spells.” She smiled for a moment longer. Then she turned to Erick, saying, “So tell me where you’re going with this electrolysis spell.”

“Cast it on a Flare Couatl, and the water that comes out turns to hydrogen and oxygen that is kept separated until there is a critical mass, and then it explodes.”

“I thought that’s where you were going.” She turned to gaze out at the dark sky again. She asked, “If you were designing for particle magic, how would you do it?”

Erick had thought about that question a lot before he tried to make his explosion spell. He answered, “Put the individual gathering spells, like [Condense Oxygen], at basic tier. And then you have the manipulation spells above that. Spells like Kiri’s [Hermetic Seal] would be some higher tier than basic. My [Call Lightning] would be tier 4, to make it fit with [Nature’s Fury]. Or maybe something higher because it is better in some ways. Whatever the case, you’d get there by starting from [Condense Hydrogen] and [Condense Oxygen]. You could also use this method to create an explosion spell, but for [Call Lightning], you would use this combination to get [Create Water]. Then you take [Create Water] with the 500 mana shaping option to make a cloud. And then you’d take that and [Battery] to make [Call Lightning].” He added, “Obviously, all of that doesn’t seem to fit with the current [Call Lightning]. There are some kinks to work out. In particular there’s the fact that [Call Lightning] creates a LOT of clouds out of nothing, and that doesn’t really fit with Particle magic at all. Maybe there’s a collapsing wave function in there, somewhere. Does the water come from somewhere, or is it generated by the magic?”  

Rozeta just smiled, not answering, like she usually did not answer.

Erick said, “Whatever the case, this method would make [Call Lightning] much more than 500 mana.” He added, “And [Battery] is really strong. I did not expect it to be that strong.”

Rozeta laughed again. She said, “You invoked ‘A primal force, a titan touched, an ancient life carved from stardust’! What did you think would happen with that iron rod?”

Erick defended himself, “I thought I was being poetic. Stars produce iron in their cores through fusion, but that’s the last step before they die, and iron is a great conductor.” He said, “[Comet Swarm] is apparently a spell, too, and that one is definitely not what I think of when I think of ‘comets’.”

Rozeta smiled. She said, “Back before the Sundering, there was this phenomenon where rogue bits of broken stone floated through the mana ocean. They were maybe the size of a house, at the absolute largest. The ones larger than that would stabilize in the ocean and became homes for life, starting with slimes. If that life succeeded, then that Stone would grow, as the life there demanded more space to live. If life failed, then they broke apart, into smaller and smaller pieces, until eventually they rejoined the currents. ‘Comets’ were those broken hunks of dead rock, aiming themselves at the living, trying, in the worst, most violent way, to rejoin the living.” She said, “The physics of the Old Cosmology and this one are very different, Erick, but the names we have for certain phenomena are the same, even if they point at radically different things.”

“That is… rather different, alright.” Erick was lost in thought for a moment. Eventually, he asked, “How did light work in your Old Cosmology?”

Rozeta said, “It went slower, for one. You could watch the day-lights rise over the hills of any plane, and that light would fill the land with a gel, like a thin water.” She added, “It’s very similar to how the manasphere seems, right now. Imagine light moving like that; like a thin, thick, there and yet not, water.” She said, “Oh! Think of it like waves. Yes. Kirginatharp will love that double-slit experiment you’re planning. Now if you can figure out the experiment that proves light is also a particle, and prove it to him, that would be something to see. For now, you can just try to convince him, but he is rather stubborn. He’s always been like that.”

Erick smiled to himself. He said, “I never expected to use all this knowledge. I just learned it all to help my daughter pass her classes, and substitute for a physics teacher friend. I’m glad my memory is doing okay. I expected to die of cancer well before now, you know.” He added, “I have literally no idea how my DNA describes how my future will turn out.”

“That’s a good segue.” Rozeta asked, “So what’s going on with this [Scan] spell they’re all talking about?”

“… I don’t think I should even try.”

“I think you should.” She added, “As soon as you make it, I’m going to lock it behind ‘Registrar Only’.”

“Really?!”

“Nope.” Rozeta smiled. “You’re not gonna get out from under your repercussions that easily.” She looked at Erick, saying, “It’s gonna be out there. ‘Particle Mage Only’, as you have already guessed, but it’s still gonna be out there.”

Erick looked at Rozeta. “So you’re saying DNA doesn’t change when you [Polymorph]?”  

Rozeta smirked as she said, “I’m not telling you how magic works.”

Erick went with his train of thought, anyway, saying, “Then what the heck does [Polymorph] even do? Like… What does it actually do. Does it change the body to one already known? Does it… Is this another collapse of a wave function, or something? I’m starting to think a lot of magic is like that, but I also think that I’m very wrong.” He asked, “How come you can eat and eat and then [Polymorph] out and then back and then not have a full stomach, but still feel full?”

“All good questions.” Rozeta nodded, saying, “You should get a [Polymorph] form and do some experimenting instead of just reading books all the time.”

- - - -

Poi said, “I told you not to invoke the gods so—” Poi paused.  

Erick stood in Jane’s hospital room, exactly where he was before. Kiri stood in front of him, while Jane slept to the side, and Poi looked at him. Poi’s blue eyes seemed to bore into Erick’s mind.

Poi asked, “What the fuck just happened to you? Erick? Are you okay?”

Kiri looked to Poi, then to Erick, then backward to Teressa. She turned back to Erick, asking. “Did I miss something?”

“Erick was visited by someone,” Poi said. “A divine someone.” He stared into Erick’s eyes, then said, “Not a dream worm parasite. There’s a touch of divinity to it.” He breathed out. “Thankfully.” He quickly added, “Maybe.”

Kiri paled, again.  

Erick took a moment to find his bearings. Ophiel twittered on his shoulder. Erick asked, “How long was I out?” He added, “And it wasn’t a dream worm?”

Poi took it all in stride, saying, “Maybe a second.” He shook his head. “Maybe not even that. And it wasn’t a dream worm. I would have noticed that.”

Erick declared. “Then I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t a Dream Worm. But I’m still going to get a doctor to look me over before I talk to the Headmaster.” He added, “I have a lecture to prepare and help to secure. So. Uh. Kiri?” Erick looked to his greenscale apprentice, asking, “You can help?”

“Yes!” Kiri said, “Sure!”

Erick took one more look toward Jane, and said, “I’ll be right back, Jane.” He looked over to Teressa.

Teressa nodded, saying, “I’ll stay here. But I’m pretty sure she’s safe as could be.”

Erick smiled. “Thank you, Teressa.” He looked to Kiri and Poi, and said, “Back to the Manor for a bit? Ah. Wait. Doctor, first.”

- - - -

According to two different doctors that specialized in anti-parasite warfare, Erick had no parasites that they could find.  

That was good enough for Erick.

- - - -

Windy Manor was the same as they had left it, with his garden out front and the house rather lived in, with blankets on couches and the smell of last night’s spicy pasta still in the air. But the dense air around the house was gone. This was not a large problem, though.

Erick had used Ophiel to cast a [Prismatic Ward] across the Mage Trio’s house, so casting the [Ward] himself shouldn’t take down the one still up in Spur. Whatever the case, Erick had left his extra Ophiel existent; they were flying across the ocean, enjoying themselves, just in case it was a problem. He wanted to be able to recast the [Prismatic Ward] over the Mage Trio’s house rather fast, if this didn’t work out like he thought it would.  

Erick dumped 5000 of his own mana into a [Prismatic Ward], layered across the large windows and dense wooden walls of Windy Manor. Dense air took hold across the building.

And with a quick check through Ophiel to Spur…

The dense air around the Mage Trio’s house was still active.  

Good.

Kiri looked up at Windy Manor, asking, “Aren’t you worried about unlocking another branch of magic?”

“Nope.” Erick said, “It’s all going under [Ward]. Rozeta said.”

“O—” Kiri’s voice cracked. “Okay.”

Events proceeded quickly from there.  

Erick recalled his Ophiel to Windy Manor. Most of them just lounged around in the house, recovering mana in the presence of [Prismatic Ward]’s enforced Rest, but one of them went out into the forest, to prepare a place for Erick to level his skills, while he organized his thoughts on electromagnetism inside the Manor. As soon as a fresh pool of water and another iron rod were set into a mostly-contained [Hermetic Seal], Erick cast [Distill], [Battery], and [Catalyst] through Ophiel, to level the spells to 10. He couldn’t combine them outside of their level 10 versions, after all.

But mostly, for the next hour and a half, Kiri’s eyes were wide, and her voice was small, as Erick spoke of what he remembered regarding electromagnetism, and of all the lies he had previously told her regarding particles.  

She had a lot of trouble with the particle-wave duality of Reality. Erick had to explain that several times.

- - - -

Getting into the classroom was easy; Krigea, the teal, ‘only’ two meter tall orcol who worked with the Headmaster, was waiting for them when they arrived. She let them in, and then took her place beside the door, on the outside of the room.

The amphitheater at the top of Central tower was the same as Erick remembered; cream-colored stone that sparkled in tiny ways here and there, with two staircases into the student seating area and a large stage and podium for the speaker. The roof was a spectacle of glass, while the sky overhead was dark. Sunset had come and gone while Erick prepared for his lecture and accompanying experimental evidence. Stars glinted in the dark sky.  

As Erick stepped down into the room, down the stairs, toward the stage, he realized he missed dinner. He turned to Kiri, also walking down the stairs with him, and said, “We missed dinner. Are you hungry? We should all get something good to eat after this.”

Kiri whisper-shouted, “How can you possibly think of food right now?”

Erick stepped down into the separating space between the student seating and the stage. Right now, it was only him, Kiri, and Poi, in the room. Poi stayed up in the back of the room; casually out of the way, like usual. Glancing up at the sapphire man, Erick sometimes wondered if Poi was bored with his position, but then he always noticed the lines of intent radiating from the man’s head, and he realized that Poi was likely never bored.  

Erick asked Kiri, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Eventually. Sure.” Kiri said, “But… Like… Some of those things you said…” She quickly added, “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Erick said, “Kiri. It’s going to be okay.”

Ophiel, clinging to Erick’s shoulder and staring down at Kiri, twittered in harps and flutes, as though agreeing with Erick.

Kiri eyed Ophiel. “… Sure.”

Erick stepped up onto the stage and began conjuring the tables and equipment he would need. Kiri stepped up behind him and began conjuring the blackboards; making sure that what Erick had written was put up properly.  

They were mostly through the setup when the rest of the party arrived.  

A gold blip in the student seating resolved into The Headmaster, looking as regal as ever in his gold and cream emperor’s clothes.  

Beside him, the air blipped red. Ryul, the harpy archmage, appeared. He wore bright gold jewelry around his barely clothed, red-feathered body. He smiled to Erick, as he said, “Hello again!”

Erick smiled back, saying, “Hello. I wondered who he would bring.”

Ryul said, “You have yet to collect on your first bargain of trade, Archmage Flatt, but now I understand I am to be even further in your debt.”  

The Headmaster said, “He is a jokester. There will be no official bargains of trade today. This is a transaction. Knowledge of light, for assistance in tracking down and eliminating Messalina, the Life Binder.”  

The Headmaster spoke with a partial disdain in his voice, which Erick was sure was intentional. Either he was being purposefully obtuse, to hide his interest, or he genuinely believed that Erick had no real knowledge about light. The Headmaster was a Light Mage, after all. This was his thing. He should know everything there was to know… Or at least that’s the air he was giving off.  

Erick countered with, “When we’re through with this lecture, you might not think it such a small thing, sir. This is not just about the blacklights in my dungeon”

The Headmaster’s frown deepened, as he said, “We shall see.”

Erick nodded. He put his hands to the side of the professor’s podium, and began with, “This is a very, very complicated topic, for light is a fundamental force in this universe, so we will get off topic.” He added, “There are four fundamental forces, just so you know. Or at least that’s how many there were before I fell to Veird. After some initial testing, the experiments that I remembered produced exactly what I expected them to produce, so wherever we are, it might be my universe, or it might be someone else’s. I don’t know. Whatever the case, I am reasonably sure that light works on Veird like how it worked back home.” He said, “This discussion is going to get very, very confusing. Take what I say with a lot of skepticism, for I have remembered a lot, but not all of it, and understand that I will give you your own experiments to test out all of this on your own. I encourage you to actually run the tests yourself. Maybe even do a double-blind study. But that’s for later.” He said, “Whatever the case, this is how I am able to make artifact level Stat items and the Light Slime dungeon, so bear all that in mind as I begin this talk.”

During Erick’s initial speech, the Headmaster lost his frown. Ryul laughed, once, then sat down. The red harpy pulled a shoulder bag around his body, and pulled out papers and pens. A few [Scry] orbs appeared here and there as Erick spoke, but as soon as Erick said ‘four fundamental forces’, the Headmaster smashed those [Scry] orbs to smithereens, and cast a wide ranged [Ward] across the room, turning the view of the nightsky above into a dark, murky vista. Erick was sure that if anyone was looking in from up there, all they could see were blobs.  

The Headmaster listened to Erick, until he finished his introduction. Then, he asked, “Are particles not a fundamental part of the universe?”

Erick instantly said, “No. They are not. They are—”

The Headmaster looked to Erick’s left, to behind him to Kiri. “Your apprentice does not look so good.”

Erick turned around. Kiri was barely holding it together. She was pointedly not looking at the Headmaster, or at Erick, or at anything at all. Her eyes were open; possibly too open.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Erick asked, “Kiri?”

Kiri slowly turned toward Erick. Her greenscaled face was the color of pale seafoam.  

Without warning, her eyes rolled into the back of her head as her knees buckled.  

Erick caught her with a rapidly deployed Handy Aura, muttering, “Shit. Shit,” as he conjured a bed nearby, off of the podium, and placed her on the soft mattress. “Dammit.” He dismissed his Handy Aura out from underneath Kiri.

The Headmaster was suddenly beside the young girl, beside her bed. Poi was walking down the stairs, rapidly closing the distance between him and Kiri, while Ryul held back, frowning slightly; concerned, but with his eyes glancing back to the diagrams and writings on the blackboards on the stage.

Erick focused on Kiri. She was breathing shallow, but she was still breathing.  

The Headmaster flicked a small vial of powder into his one hand, then popped the top with a thumb, before sticking the small vial under Kiri’s nose.  

Kiri’s eyes slammed open. She instantly saw the Headmaster and Erick, both standing over her, Erick on the professor’s stage, and the Headmaster on the ground beside her bed, as Poi walked up to also stand nearby. She winced. She looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She whispered, “Fuck.”

The Headmaster looked from Kiri to Erick, then back to Kiri, “Tell me. Did Erick ask you to assist him in creating his lecture?”

Kiri could not bear to look at the Headmaster, as she answered, “Yes.”

“And your feelings on that?”

“… unknowable.” Kiri rapidly, added, “Sorry. It’s...”

Erick breathed in relief. Kiri was okay. Now as for the rest of this conversation? Erick had no idea.

“No need to be sorry.” The Headmaster hummed. He stepped away from Kiri, then looked up to Erick, saying, “That you have shared the secret of your artifact Stat items and the nature of your light slime producing dungeon with your apprentice, and you were about to share it with Ryul, your guardsman, and I, makes me think you need… A great deal more archmage training. I bear some of the blame for this malformed lecture. We are in the midst of a new era of magic, and I had forgotten this.” He said, “This discussion will still happen, but it will not happen tonight, and it will happen in a more secure location.”

Erick felt a lot of ways about what the Headmaster was saying, but the words that came out of his mouth first, were, “What about Messalina and all the parasites she’s spreading?”

“Yes…” The Headmaster paused. He said, “I suppose I must send some elites to Spur.” The Headmaster said, “The three already on location seem to have been compromised by the Life Binder. I expected them to do better.”

Erick said, “I expected her to find the people who killed her village and then go away.”

The Headmaster said, as though it was no big deal, “There is no way she has not found her targets.”

Erick said, “What!” Erick stepped down into the area separating the student space from the professor’s podium, to stand on the same floor as the Headmaster and Kiri. He asked, “How?!”

Poi, who had taken a step back, frowned. Kiri just winced, still laying on the bed Erick had conjured. Color was slowly returning to her face, and it was red; embarrassed or angry, Erick couldn’t say. Probably both.

“Messalina is a pestilence with parasites everywhere, is how!” Anger flashed across the Headmaster’s face. His glowing gold eyes turned darker as he calmed himself. He said, “She is a self-indulgent hedonist. A being who had the power to do so much good, and who chose to do evil. She murdered seven of my arcanaeums—” He blinked long. When he opened his eyes again, they were back to perfect amber; back to normal. He said, “She killed five thousand of my students and tortured them into new bodies, three hundred years ago. I will never forgive her for that. She will die for leaving the sanctuary of her self-imposed exile.” He spoke with authority, saying, “I had hoped that Spur would immediately join me in my crusade against that necromancer, but, like always, it takes a personal danger for you mortals to understand that ancient evils will never stop being evil.” He concluded, “Oceanside will lead the charge against Messalina. You will remain here, and remain uncorrupted by her efforts.”

Erick said, “Thank you for helping, but I won’t stand aside when I can help, too.”

Half incredulous, the Headmaster asked, “Do you not see that you are being corrupted by Silverite, too?” The Headmaster spat, “Spur is a nest of shadows! Just as they choose to profit from Messalina’s wrath they are choosing to profit from endless war against the dark instead of ending the threat of Ar’kendrithyst, once and for all!”  

Erick spat right back, “Then let’s kill all the Shades too while you’re in the neighborhood!”

A pause seemed to stretch through the turbulent mana of the room.

The Headmaster opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He paused. He said, “There is no way Silverite approves of this. Nor Kel’Duresh, or Frontier. They all profit from Ar’Kendrithyst. Every society on Glaquin chooses to live with that dark city, for it makes them stronger. It gets them levels in exchange for death and danger.”

“I’m working on all of that.” Erick said, “But I won’t move unless all my ducks are in a row. Just like you, I suppose.”

The Headmaster asked, “Did you come to Veird to kill Melemizargo?”

The mana in the room had swirled roughshod this way and that, as voices rose and fell and emotions raged, but at the mention of the Dark God’s name, the mana went still. Everyone noticed. Ryul glanced around. Kiri paled, again. Poi seemed to freeze in place.  

But Erick and the Headmaster just stared at each other.  

Erick did not answer the question, because he did not know. But he did know something. Erick said, “He kills wrought all the time, doesn’t he? It doesn’t matter his goals, if his way of accomplishing them is to murder innocents. Besides, I’m pretty sure that the universe you’re in right now is larger than your previous one. It’s just harder to get around, and it’s going to take a lot more than magic to do so.”

Several strange emotions passed across the Headmaster’s face. Disbelief, for sure, but also pity, anger, and others. Erick was pretty good at guessing emotions, and he was usually correct, but whatever the Headmaster was thinking was too deep for Erick to guess.  

Erick continued, “And his goal of returning Veird to the Old Cosmology is just weird. Either your old universe still exists, or it doesn’t. What’s he trying to do? Return to a void?”

The Headmaster said, “He is insane. But I am glad to see you are not. I would still urge you to remain here, while my elites take care of this infestation in Spur.”

“I cannot do that.”

The Headmaster frowned. He said, “Fine.” He looked to Kiri, who was now sitting on the edge of her bed. He said, “Since you have taught enough of this new magic to another to give her a faint, then if you get yourself killed, at least your magic might live on.”

Kiri’s eyes went wide as she stared at the ground, away from the Headmaster.

The Headmaster said, “You are welcome to come back to Oceanside whenever you wish. I am taking your light dungeon and expanding on the location. Easy access to light essences will make killing Ar’Kendrithyst much easier.”

“I will help with that, too,” Erick said, feeling the flow of the conversation finally turn his direction. There had been some sort of hiccup with actually dispersing his half-knowledge of light and electromagnetism, but now it felt like this was what the Headmaster was truly after; at least for now. “I might even take a light slime form and work on [Lightwalk], myself.”

“Then you will expand the dungeon to ten times the size, but it will remain under my control. You will be forbidden from creating a second light slime dungeon for a period of ten years.”

“Then I fully expect you to take care of it while I’m not present, but I, and any who I designate, will have access to the location whenever I need or want, and you will also provide locations for other experimental dungeons. I will also be provided with fifty percent of any revenue produced by any of my dungeons.”

“Twenty percent, and as long as you do not bring danger to Oceanside, I will agree to these terms.”

“Thirty, and experiments bring inherent danger, but I will strive to be responsible.”

“Twenty five, and I want an initial light dungeon created in five days or however long it takes you, before you go back to Spur and get yourself killed by a targeted parasite. Krigea or Apell Calloway will assist you in deciding a new location. In the meantime, my Elites will journey to the cities of the Crystal Forest to begin the process of de-worming the populace and bringing Messalina to justice.” He added, “But I say all this with one major caveat: I cannot promise to help those who are unwilling to accept my help.”

Erick wasn’t happy about not going right back to Spur, but he said, “Agreed.”

- - - -

Dinner was spicy fried fish and rice and beer, ordered down in town and brought up to Jane’s room, to a table conjured in front of the large windows that looked out across Oceanside’s crescent harbor. Lights glowed on the ships in the harbor down below and across all the rest of the city. Oceanside was a college city, after all; there were a lot of people out and about in the well-lit night.  

Jane was still sleeping soundly; she did not wake for all the scents of food around her, but after a few minutes into dinner a nurse on duty came in to the room, saying that the food was too strong; it was stinking up the place. Erick cast a [Scent Ward] across the room and apologized. The nurse left, closing the door behind her. Erick almost added an [Audio Dampening Ward] to the room, but all the patients who needed sleep were under [Sleep] runes like Jane, and the nurses gave no indication that loud noises were a problem for anyone. If that changed, he could always add one later.  

Erick asked Teressa, “Nothing happened while we were gone?”

“Nope.” She said, “Quite boring, which is just how I like it. How was it with you all?” She looked to Kiri, who was chugging her third bottle of beer, asking, “Tough?”

Kiri asked, “How can you just talk to him like that, Erick!”

Rats joked, “You’re not dead or maimed, so it can’t have been that bad, Kiri.”

Poi said, “Erick secured Oceanside’s aid against Messalina and made initial plans to construct a ten-floor light slime dungeon, which is also for his benefit, and the benefit of Civilization.” Poi said, “And he didn’t have to give up any real secrets to do it.”

Erick almost added, ‘Not yet’, but he decided not to.  

Rats held up his beer, saying, “Cheers to that.”

Kiri finished off her beer and reached for her fourth, saying, “This is crazy. Like. The Headmaster is Second to Rozeta. He’s the only dragon living openly in the whole world. He has eaten every single dragon that came for him, and he eats all of those who try and fail to kowtow to him. Oceanside and the Headmaster lead the Arcanaeum Consortium. You know of those, right? Archmage Quel is beholden to the Headmaster. The Arcanaeum Consortium are the people who raise those who lift the first spears and spells against the monsters.”

“I get that…” He didn’t get her point at all. So they were famous and powerful, so what? Erick asked, “But what’s the problem, Kiri?”

Kiri whisper-shouted, “You promised to make a light slime dungeon and you got 25 percent of the proceeds. Like. Forgetting the very real possibility that he’ll let people use it for free, and you shouldn’t have asked for anything in return for helping to make the world a better place?” She said, “He won’t sell the rights at all. He’ll give it away and demand bargains of trade.”

Rats ate his dinner in silence. Teressa and Poi did the same.

Erick said, “I don’t think he’s petty enough to deny the spirit of that 25 percent, but even if he does get around it, it’s not a big deal. I’m glad to help civilization, Kiri. But the fact is, is that I cannot allow myself to be run over, and this way I can get [Lightwalk] and he can take care of the actual dungeon, doing whatever he wants to do with it, and the bonds between Spur and Oceanside can grow. I needed to do something to restore that bond, so I did what I could.” He added, “I did not expect there to be that much resentment or bad blood or whatever between the Headmaster and Silverite, but there is obviously something there that doesn’t need to be there.” He turned to Poi, asking, “Do you have any idea what was going on with that? I expected some of that, but the Headmaster talked of profiteering off of Ar’Kendrithyst like it was a choice of Silverite’s, and not the result of the Shades being Shades and the dark dragon being himself.”

Poi said, “Accusing Spur of profiteering is a normal enough occurrence. Neither the Army or Silverite tries not to care too much about all of that.” He added, “We know what we’re about, no matter if the world thinks otherwise.”

Erick said, “Silverite knows something about what happened between Messalina and the Headmaster. She wouldn’t say, but I got the impression that there was something personal, there.”

Rats said, “I heard something like that, but from this end. Messalina was a prominent student at Oceanside before she killed those seven arcanaeums.”

Kiri said, “Sorry. No.” She went back to, “That’s… not what I mean. It doesn’t matter if you made a good deal or not.” Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she stared into the distance, saying, “Nothing is real. Nothing matters.”

Erick laughed, then instantly corrected himself to a stern face, because Kiri was obviously in some sort of crisis right now. He said, “Everything is real, Kiri. Just because particles are waves and real and nothing is as we see it, does not mean that it’s not all still real.”

Poi laughed once, but as Kiri paled again, he did more or less the same thing Erick did to cover up his reaction; turning stern in a moment. Teressa and Rats just ate their dinner; silently watching the show.

Kiri said, “But it’s not real, is it? It’s all just packets of energy. We can’t really know anything about anything, can we?”

“Sure we can!” Erick said, “Right now, I know that Messalina is actively hurting the people of Spur, and that we’re doing what we can do prevent that.” He held up his fried fish bowl, saying, “I know that this is delicious.” He held up his beer, saying, “And I know that this is pretty good, too.”  

Kiri looked down at her untouched food. She said, “Is it?”

Erick asked, “Focus on this, then: Do you want [Lightwalk]?” He smiled at Kiri as he said, “I’m making a dungeon full of light slimes, you know. Getting the skill is only a matter of time once everything is up and running.” He looked to everyone else, to Poi, to Rats, to Teressa. “Even if I don’t get endless amounts of money from the place, you’re all welcome to try for the skill yourself. Properly made ten floor dungeons are supposed to produce a hundred slimes a day, meaning one elemental body skill for one person every twenty to thirty days, give or take a week… I don’t know if light slimes are the same as other slimes.”

Teressa looked up for a moment, thinking. She said, “That’s 7500 gold in small rads.”

 Rats said, “Holy shit. Maybe I should make a dungeon.” He looked to Erick, adding, “And I want [Lightwalk], if you’re offering.”

Kiri just stared at her dinner.

Poi said, “[Lightwalk] is good, but as I’ve said: the shadows of Ar’Kendrithyst are strong enough that a strong light only makes them more powerful.”

Erick said, “That reminds me of a question I had: Are there such a thing as darkness slimes? What is the difference between darkness and shadows? Why are they called ‘shadow essences’, and not ‘darkness essences’?”

Teressa said, “True darkness is just death.”

“That’s not it.” Rats said, “Darkness is wizardry. Because yeah: Darkness does not actually exist. It takes a wizard to make darkness.”

Poi said, “That’s closer to what I’ve always been told. I can agree with that.”

Kiri seemed hollow, as she asked, “Is darkness a fundamental part of your Reality?”

Poi hummed, looking at Erick. Rats and Teressa went silent again.

Erick said, “No?” He amended, “Probably not.” He thought for a moment. “Oh! Wait. Uh. The universe that I came from was expanding faster and faster, due to some unknown energy. We called it ‘Dark Energy’, but that was just because we couldn’t see what was actually doing the expansion. Not because ‘darkness’ was a building block of Reality, but because we were just ignorant of the truth.”

Kiri sat still for a moment. Then she chugged her beer and grabbed another from the ice bucket.  

Poi said, “So that’s probably enough talk of the dark for now.”

Kiri blurted, “I need you to talk about superposition again.”

“I think I told you everything I know.” Erick said, “I watched a ton of videos on the stuff to try and learn for a semester of coursework, but I really don’t know that much.” He said, “I think the problem here, Kiri, is that the magic they teach here is all about knowing and plotting and understanding, but the problem with quantum mechanics and magic is that they are inherently unknowable, until you know, and then they’re no longer wave functions.”

Kiri said, “I’m so confused but that just sounds so wrong.”

Erick didn’t argue.  

Rats said, “If it’s any consolation, Kiri, I have no idea what he just said.”

“Me either,” Teressa said.  

Poi just smirked.

Kiri glared at Poi, demanding, “Do you understand what he said?”

Poi said, “Of course not. I know what my magic is about, and it’s not about ‘superposition’ and ‘wave functions’.”

“Dammit.” Kiri drank her beer.

Erick ate his dinner, saying, “This fish place is pretty good.”

Poi said, “You can’t get fish like this in Spur.”

Rats said, “You can if you can catch them. Airfish are pretty good.”

Poi blurted, “You have no idea how much I wanted to catch those airfish that lured that yellow eyebeam wyrm at us.” Poi said, “Oh my gods, those things are the most delicious fish in the whole world.”

Teressa said, “Oh yeah. Slice ‘em up with salt and pepper.”

Erick said, “I should make you guys some lemon pepper fish. You might like that, Poi.”

Kiri swayed a little as she downed her fifth beer. Everyone else was halfway through eating, but she had yet to touch her food. She looked down at her bowl of fish and rice, saying, “I miss beef.” She suddenly teared up, saying, “I really miss beef.” She sniffled a little, then set her beer aside. She dug into her rice bowl.

Erick asked her, “Did your parents decide to stay in Tower Town, or did they actually move to Odaali?”

Kiri offhandedly said, “They moved to Odaali just last week. The whole family. All twelve of them started a new life in some new town just south of the Kingdom City. On a hill.”

Erick said, “Good for them!”

Rats said, “I heard the reconstruction is going decently. A lot more people survived the Dead Air Catastrophe than they thought. There’s a woman downstairs from the Republic talking all about how everyone’s mad that so many people are coming back to the city, but none of them stayed to fight.”

Teressa said, “Typical. People love to carve up territory that they had no part in settling.”

“Anyone heard anything about Caradogh or Portal?” Erick asked.

“Not much.” Poi said, “Just that Spur is really making a go of cutting them out of the loop. Kel’Duresh opened up an industrial district, outside of the main city walls. They’re making a lot of the stuff that Portal threatened to cut, and has cut. Most raw metals have been cut off entirely. None of the wrought are happy about that, but with all the new metallic Particle spells, the refineries of Nergal and the Greensoil Republic are a lot less important.” He added, “Outpost is opening up a new mine. So that problem might be solved.”

Erick said, “Caradogh really could have gone the other direction. He could have sought to export from the Crystal Forest.” A bolt of thought struck Erick cold. He said, “If that man thinks to work with Messalina.” Erick said, “Dammit! She’s probably already contacted him. Can you guys think of anyone else who would have a lot of influence and knowledge of the people of the Crystal Forest? Caradogh is just the first one that springs to mind. This might be a good vector of inquiry.”

Poi said, “Silverite is already on that. Nothing has appeared, yet.”

Kiri said, “I got no idea. Except the Shades, of course.”

Everyone stopped eating, except Kiri.

“I considered that at first. But...” Erick said, “She wouldn’t work with them, would she?”

Poi said, “Messalina is purported to be a strictly self-interested actor, so the possibility of her getting into a team with the Shades is very low… But, honestly, she could. She can operate through parasites and intermediaries without a degradation of skill, meaning that she would never need to meet a Shade in person.” Poi thought for a moment. He said, “When a major power starts operating in the Crystal Forest the possibility of Shade plots are always the first concern raised. The verdict handed down from Silverite and other city leaders as of last week, was that Messalina was likely not working with the Shades, but if all of those people are compromised, then… We’ll have to revisit this question.”

Rats said, “Until Bulgan, if people worked with the Shades, they were roped around for a while and sure, they did some bad stuff— Like there was that serial killer in Spur two years ago. But that man ended up in Ar’Kendrithyst at the Crack and Fallopolis killed him in front of everyone.”

Teressa added, “The small antagonists quietly get turned into shadelings, but the big ones get dead. She makes a spectacle of it, too, every single time, and they always think that it won’t happen to them. That they’re only moments away from becoming a Shade themselves. Fallopolis would kill Messalina, for sure.”

Erick said, “Sounds to me like they kill the ones that make a spectacle of themselves, but probably more because they don’t want more crazy Shades added to their number.” He looked around, asking, “Does that sound reasonable? After what we saw in Yetta’s trip to kill Planter?”

Poi hummed. Kiri tilted her head back and forth. Teressa drank her beer.

Rats said, “I can see that. It might be right.”

Erick continued, “Messalina is famous, but she’s also a hedonist and an ‘evil necromancer’, according to everyone. Sounds like perfect Shade material, to me.” He added, “But if she’s not that kinda person, then I bet she’s trying to find conspirators that will help her search the forest— And that’s another thing!” Erick said, for the benefit of Rats and Teressa, “I don’t know if I believe it, but the Headmaster said that she probably found her targets already, but she didn’t want to run back to her jungle yet… For some reason.” Erick paused. He said, “He didn’t actually say the reason. He changed the subject.”

“There was nothing left for her in that jungle, was there?” Kiri said, “They’re all dead, and unable to be re-bodied, or whatever the fuck necromancers like her do.”

Erick said, “And yea! There’s that, too! So they died, so what? She’s a necromancer, right? A necromancer that puts people into new bodies.” He looked around, asking, “What’s up what that?”  

Teressa said, “I hadn’t really thought of that.”

Poi ate his fish and rice.  

Rats said, “It just means the people she’s trying to find are necromancers, too, and they destroyed the souls of everyone there.”

“Oh.” Erick said, “Well. Yeah. I guess it does mean that.”

Kiri spoke up, “How much do you think everyone on our side is lying?”

Erick burst a nervous laugh.

Poi said, “The normal amount.”

“I would hope just the normal amount,” Erick said.

Jane snored in the background.

- - - -

Erick wanted to spend the night in the hospital with Jane, but that would mean everyone else would have to stay there, too, and that wouldn’t be fair to them. So he went home, and slept.

The next morning came soon enough.  

After checking up on Jane, and seeing that she was perfectly fine, but still sleeping, it was time to begin to fulfill his end of the bargain he made with the Headmaster. He would need to make this light slime dungeon, and it would need to be ten floors large. Fortunately, when Krigea came to Erick to relay the Headmasters wishes for this new construction, she came with help.  

- - - -

Professor Apell Calloway, the 430-ish year old, normally pale green, human-shaped wrought professor of dungeoneering, stood beside the central pool of Erick’s dungeon, staring out across the bright, white and prismatic underground space. About two dozen light slimes bounced and played in the streaming water in front of Apell, in the kaleidoscopic light, and on the stone floor around her. They were entranced by a new light source that had entered the room; Apell, herself.

Because all wrought fluoresced in the presence of ultraviolet light, apparently.  

While Poi stood a few meters away, Erick stood beside Apell, wearing sunglasses to ward off most of the bright, damaging lights of the dungeon. He could barely tell that Apell was fluorescing; she might have been ever so slightly brighter green than normal. But the light slimes all around her could definitely tell.  

Erick did not interrupt this moment for her. She was obviously having some sort of emotional reaction similar to Killzone’s, or Anhelia’s, when they first saw one of Erick’s blacklights. Her eyes were wide, and her face was stunned. She had gasped when she first stepped into the tunnels coming down here, but as the two of them descended the stairs, she had gone silent; reverent. And now she stood in the center of the dungeon, surrounded by blacklights, staring at everything.

Erick waited.  

Eventually, Apell said, “I can see about a thousand possible improvements. That intake up there is way too small and you have a hundred smaller intakes all over the place. What is up with that?” She pointed up at the nearest spinning kaleidoscopic wardlight, then to the next one, saying, “And those aren’t even spinning at the same rates! This place is too turbulent. I’m surprised anything grew at all!” She leaned down and patted the closest light slime, saying, “I know they’re practically mythical monsters, but surely they can grow in a more orderly environment.”

Erick laughed.  

Apell stood up, saying, “What?”

“You’re not going to say anything about the blacklights?” Erick added, “The fluorescing lights.”

Apell looked at him like he was an idiot. She said, “I’m not going to say a lot about a lot. These lights are yours and I will have nothing to do with them. But I will ask you— Why no plant life?” She instantly answered her own question, saying, “Ah. Water slimes. I knew that.”

Erick said, “I was testing a theory that light slimes are photosynthetic.”

Apell scrunched her face. “Like a plant?” Apell looked back to the slimes around her feet, saying, “Maybe.”

Erick said, “It took a week to put the dungeon together, but three weeks for the first slime to appear. That was five days ago, and there were only seven of them. Now there’s two dozen. I think we should leave this area as a spawn zone and make a new dungeon in another location, in case there is something special about this location that won’t happen in a new dungeon.”

“I agree.” Apell said, “I would like to try for a space without all these extra wards. That would allow for people not in on the secret to participate in the dungeon. This new dungeon is going to be big, and that means that secrets are going to be out in the open. The Headmaster has already expressed to me that he wants to bring [Lightwalk] out of the power of the Sovereign Cities.”

“Is that his goal?” Erick asked. “I heard a lot about that place from my daughter. Seems like a place that needs help, not to have their only connection to the outside world taken away.”

“More help than you could possibly know.” Apell said, “Sometimes tough-love is the best.” She smiled. “The Sovereign Cities would agree with that statement if you were talking about screwing over their own people, but not if you were talking about screwing over their conglomeration of cities, as a whole.”  

Erick grumbled, “The more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure they tried to kill Jane and her entire team.”

Apell said, “Not any more than they were trying to kill their own. Don’t take it too personally.” She added, “Or do take it personally, and be happy that this will take away their main way to attract people like your daughter and her team to their yearly unicorn hunt. Or at least the [Lightwalk] aspect of it all. People are still going to want [Aura of Freedom] and the smaller unicorns are going to grow into larger ones to threaten Killtree, like they always do every year.”

Erick frowned at nothing in particular, thinking over Apell’s words.

Apell asked, “Can you show me the plumbing?”

“It’s over near the entrance.” Erick turned and started walking.  

Poi silently flanked him from a short distance away.  

Several light slimes bumbled around Apell’s feet, following her glow as Apell followed Erick, saying, “I have an old dungeon that’s seven layers deep in the southern mountains. If you’re amenable to this, then I’ll tell one of my graduates and they can go get it started. Open it up, and such.” She passed one of the roughcut diamond statues that poured water into the streams that carved across the dungeon floor, looking at the statue. “And I know it’s just diamond, but its still massively huge. These things would have been priceless just last year. We can’t have them in the new dungeon.”

Erick walked over a short stone bridge, over a stream, saying, “Sure we can. The light slimes need sparkly things to look at. They like them, too.” He exclaimed, “Oh! Maybe we could get a Crystal Agave or ten in the new place, but without the mimics in there, of course.”

“Crystal Slimes?” Apell shook her head, saying, “No. The Headmaster won’t take the chance to allow mimics to spread.”

“We could do this on an island, if you got one.” Erick said, “Might be good in case a radiant ooze spawns, too.”

“… Maybe.” Apell hummed, then said, “Might be a good idea just because we don’t know a whole lot about light slimes...” She spoke with authority, saying, “But we’re not trying for crystal slimes with this dungeon. We’re going for light slimes, and we’re going to do it well. No distractions. At least not right now.”

“Fair enough.” Erick reached the wall that hid the plumbing, near the staircase coming into the dungeon floor, saying, “Here we are. The stronger blacklights are in here, so I keep my stays in here to a minimum. I was using a [Gravity Strainer] to move the water in the beginning, but now I’m using a plain [Gravity Ward]. It lasts a lot longer, and all I’m moving is water.” With a methodical [Stoneshape], he first pushed back the light slimes gathering around Apell, blocking them behind a short wall, then he turned his attention to the wall that hid the pump room. Seams appeared in the wall, as a five foot thick, meter wide section of the dungeon wall began to slide down. Loud, crashing rushes sounded from the breaking wall, as a solid beam of bright light carved out from the interior of the pump room. Erick yelled over the roar of water, “It’s a bit loud.”

Erick revealed a bright white cavern—

Apell shied away from the opening, yelling, “Holy gods that is bright!”

Erick instantly cast a cyan maskinglight into the air, turning off the brightness. He yelled, “Sorry. This should be better.” He added an audio dampening [Ward], too, saying, “That’s better, too.”

Apell touched the cyan space surrounding Erick, that led into the plumbing area. “Okay. That’s… interesting.” She walked into the cyan maskinglight. “Okay. That’s weird. It’s not a normal lightward. I feel… mostly blind.”

Erick smiled. “Of course it’s not a normal lightward.” Erick took off his sunglasses, saying, “It blocks out all light except cyan.”

Apell frowned a little. For a moment, she looked like she wanted to ask questions, but she just turned her attention to the pump room.

The room was split into two layers. The top layer was the olympic-sized pool that supplied water to the whole dungeon floor, while the bottom pool caught that water. The streams and rivers of the main dungeon floor flowed due to natural gravity, emptying water out of the bottom of the larger pool, into dozens of smaller stone pipes that went everywhere.

But the noise, and the functionality of it all, came from a meter-wide tunnel of a white [Gravity Ward] in the lower pool. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per hour shot straight up through that [Ward], directly into a tunnel in the ceiling. That tunnel then led to the larger pool, where it dumped all that water back down, in a great waterfall, directly in the center of that larger reservoir.

A small waterfall of overflow water dumped over the side of the upper pool, back into the lower pool. Erick had already worked out the exact waterflow needs of the dungeon floor, but having this overflow allowed him to adjust the space out there, without overly affecting the system. Besides, evaporation was a thing that happened; as long as there was this tiny overflow, he knew that the dungeon was properly filled and operating exactly how it should.

Apell looked the whole system over, but did not venture past the cyan masklight. She did not step into the room itself. She watched the water flow, saying, “That’s a good [Gravity Ward]. Uncontrolled gravity removal is a lot easier than a strainer.”

“I agree.” Erick smiled.

She turned back to the dungeon floor, saying, “Okay. I’ve seen enough. I’m going to do some [Scry] mapping of the system here to try and see what I can improve upon later, but we can start planning the actual dungeon next.” She gestured toward the sunglasses in Erick’s hands, saying, “We’re going to need a lot of those for the grad students I’m going to enlist.”

Erick smiled as he put on his sunglasses, saying, “We’ve got a bright future ahead of us.”

Apell just looked at him. “Sorry?”

“… I guess it didn’t translate well. Maybe I should have said: We’ve got an...” Erick searched for the right word in Ecks. “We’ve got an illuminated future ahead of us.”

“Ah. It was a joke.”

Erick frowned at her.

She shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t like puns.”

Erick sighed as he walked out of the pump room. Apell followed him back onto the main dungeon floor. With a quick [Stoneshape], he closed the wall, then he dismissed the cyan masklight. From there, they walked the dungeon floor, talking of the new construction, and where it might be. Erick wanted an island, but all the islands in a thousand kilometers were already taken by a group or an individual; island property around Oceanside Island was very, very expensive. Normally, this did not matter. They could have theoretically gotten an island further from Oceanside City. But the Headmaster had already given strict instructions. He wanted the new dungeon be within a single [Teleport].  

That left the mountains down south, which was where the starter seven floor dungeon lay, or a new construction, somewhere else.

Erick decided to at least see the seven floor starter dungeon. He could decide later.

- - - -

A single blip brought them to the mountains that ran down the center of the southern half of Oceanside Island. On the eastern side, where it was always dry, was where Erick had created his [Battery] and other spells. Here, on the western side of that small range of peaks, the land was carved into cliffs and plateaus by nature and people, and every vertical surface bore the brunt of the westerly tradewinds, dense mana, and the natural rain. Every horizontal surface was filled with trees and bushes and ferns and flowers, while streams and waterfalls cascaded down here and there.

The blue ocean stretched out, far to the west; a vista of darker blue that made a line from north to south, while fluffy white clouds drifted in the cyan above. Those clouds floated toward Oceanside, in a gentle, endless procession.  

Erick stood on the edge of a cliff, surrounded by tall trees. Wind whipped up from far, far below, stirring in his hair, billowing though his clothes. Poi stood to the side, out of the way, but Ophiel hovered in front of Erick. Ophiel was half his true size and riding the wind with his many wings, gliding this way and that, not bothering to use [Airshape] to keep himself afloat; there was no need for that right here. He sang in harps and violins, exultant in the breezy, rushing moment.  

Apell spoke behind Erick, “This place is a mess. I didn’t know it had gotten this bad.”

Erick turned. Apell stood with her graduate student, a young shifter man named Calzin. Erick hadn’t seen a shifter since he had last seen Savral’s adventuring friend, Lanore. She was an owl shifter, with white feathers in her hair, who wore a feathered, half-mask, that covered the top half of her dark-skinned face. Calzin was also an owl shifter, but he was pale skinned with dark feathers in his dark hair. He also wore a half mask, with great big eyes on that mask. Other than their feathers and their masks, they looked basically like humans. Or, at least Erick guessed they looked like humans. He still hadn’t seen one outside of a mask.  

 Both Apell and Calzin had elected to check out the dungeon before Erick entered, and now that they had come out, neither of them looked happy.

Calzin said, “It’ll take a while to clear it all out.”

“What’s wrong?” Erick asked.

Calzin frowned, saying, “Unknown monsters and failing architecture.”

Apell said, “I can get some other graduates to clear it out. The Headmaster has deemed this a priority, so it shouldn’t take more than a day, but until that happens, I don’t feel safe letting you go in there as it is, Erick.”

Erick looked beyond Calzin and Apell, to a hole in the ground, not ten meters away. The hole stood at the base of another vertical surface of the mountain, that led up to another plateau of trees, twenty meters up. That hole was the entrance to the dungeon.

“Architecture is a problem we can deal with.” Erick said, “I can deal with monsters. I won’t damage the architecture, either.”

He walked past Calzin and Apell, both of them wincing, seemingly unsure what was going to happen, but neither of them saying anything to stop him. Erick stopped two meters from the hole in the mountain. It was easily three meters wide, and mostly dark, but Calzin and Apell had both cast minor lights into the top of the tunnel. Erick could only see to the first bend in that tunnel; ten meters down. Walls were broken, or cracked and looking to break. Roots had gotten in from the ceiling. Rubble layered the staircase leading down. Erick decided to clean this unknown place in a different way than normal, because he wanted the spell to sit down there for a while; working.

[Withering Slime].

An intangible tidal wave of thick air rushed down the hole, like a reservoir suddenly shoved through a hose. Notifications began to pop in Erick’s vision, as the semi-sentient [Withering Slime] went to work like the world’s second largest amoeba. Erick’s [Domain of the Withering Slime] was the first largest, after all.

Soon, tendrils of thick air spilled out of hidden cracks in the mountain, above the tunnel and in the dirt to the left of Erick, and to the right, like suddenly appearing half-invisible octopus arms; the spell had found its way through long-neglected mana vents and partially hidden intakes. The octopus-like quality of the spell lasted barely a second. It quickly fell back down, like goo sucked through a vent, only to poke out in other places across the forested mountainside.  

Erick let it go to work. He turned back to Calzin and Apell, saying, “That’ll take ten minutes to dehydrate every monster down there. Notifications are already appearing.” Erick went silent as he went over the new blue boxes. He said, “I’m seeing acid slimes and stone slimes. Stone Spiders. Centipedes. Snakes.” He said, “It doesn’t work against monsters made without water, like most elementals. Except for water elementals, of course.”

Apell and Calzin waited.

After a full forty seconds of nothing, more notifications appeared, rapidly followed by even more.  

Erick winced in disgust as he read the new blue boxes. “Oh ew. Parasite Roaches. I read about those. Nasty things.” The notifications stopped, but Erick left the spell to sit there, in case there was something else. There were certainly juvenile monsters still down there; he would need to clean up those with other spells.  

Apell shivered, muttering, “Parasite Roaches. Eww.”

 Calzin asked, “What spell is—”

“Nope.” Apell said, “No questions,  Calzin.”

Erick smiled, saying, “This one isn’t a big deal. It’s just a dehydration spell, targeting everything with a 10 mana rad inside the body. Everything it kills, it [Cleanse]s, too.” He added, “Particle Mage Only.”

Calzin said, “Ah. Dammit. That means all the small things are still left.”

“You got it.” Erick thought about [Wintry Sea]. He said, “I can clear out those, too, but… The spells I would want to use would target everything, including people.” He looked back to Poi.

Poi nodded. He flickered with telepathic lines. Soon, the lines settled down. “There’s no one with a mind down there.”

Apell said, “Not with Parasite Roaches in the neighborhood.” She added, “We might have to go somewhere else, Erick. This place will need a major cleaning. I’m going to need to be the one to do it, too.  Calzin, you need to go to the hospital and get checked over.” She looked to Erick and Poi, saying, “All of you need to go to the hospital.” She looked to the ground, saying, “I bet stray parasites are everywhere out here.”

Erick said, “I have to go back there anyway, but I want that preliminary dungeon done so I can go back to Spur. I’m going to finish putting the rest of the dungeon to rights. You don’t have to do this part, Apell, but thank you anyway.” He looked back to Ophiel. He said, “I can do it at range.” He asked Apell, “It’s only seven floors, right?”

Apell frowned. “I should be the one to do this, especially if there are parasite roaches down there. But… if you can use your [Familiar]… Then. Sure. You can do it. I got classes, anyway. I’ll check everything over later. And yes; there are only seven floors.”

“Let’s all leave, first.” Erick looked around the forest, asking, “There’s no one nearby, right?”

Poi said, “Not for kilometers.”

Erick looked back to the dark hole in the ground and the meager lights therein, where thick air still tangled, but no more monsters died. He said, “Okay.” He turned to Apell and Calzin, saying, “You two should evacuate.” He summoned another three tiny Ophiel. “This is a job for Ophiel.”  

Ophiel trilled in chorus with himself.  

Calzin left first, in a blip of red; headed for the hospital. Apell left shortly after, in a blip of light green. Poi and Erick left together. After a while, the thick air tangling out from the dungeon dissipated.  

- - - -

Erick and Poi entered the hospital right behind Calzin, each of them reporting for a parasite checkup. They had to wait an hour because the main anti-parasitiers were all off in the Crystal Forest. After they finally managed to see the doctor, and he finally managed to cast the right spells on Erick and Poi, they were cleared; no parasites. They hadn’t actually gone into the dungeon, so Erick didn’t expect to find any, but it was still nice to know.  

It wouldn’t be till later that they would hear that Calzin had several parasites that were already making homes in his feet; they had gotten through his thick boots, without him noticing.  

Erick conjured a reclining chair beside Jane’s bed. He sat down beside his sleeping daughter, while Poi looked on and Teressa practiced her Mana Sense in the corner of the room. He went to work, with an Ophiel laying on his lap, and three more just now getting back to the dungeon.  

Erick first made each tiny [Familiar] put on a [Personal Weather Ward].

As two of the three Ophiel moved forward, into the hole, into the tunnel beyond, they conjured lights to illuminate their way, and blue globes of freezing magic that zipped on ahead, freezing and killing bugs and roaches and monsters too small for [Withering Slime] to notice. Fallen walls were [Stoneshape]d back into position. Roots were pushed out, or cut up and burned with a [Cleansing Fire]. Cracked walls were sealed.  

[Wintry Sea]s that found their way out of the dungeon, either through an inlet our an outlet, were quickly extinguished by the third Ophiel that hovered in the sky outside of the dungeon, waiting for a wayward blue globe to make itself known. That only happened twice, though.  

After several hours and a break for lunch, and the installation of several bright, bright, anti-biological-level ultraviolet blacklights, and a whole lot more [Cleanse], both the normal kind and the kind imbued with fire, Erick finished most of the more obvious repairs to the initial dungeon. Then it was time to turn his attention to the final three floors that he would have to build from scratch. Exploratory [Stone Travel]s, the same spell that had gotten Erick and his people away from the hunters, were used to great effect. Ophiel rode a platform of stone that carved out a tunnel as he went down, down into the stone.  

Erick quickly discovered that there was more than enough space here for three more floors, and that there were no unexpected connections to the underworld. The Headmaster wouldn’t have suggested this location if there was a chance for such a thing, but Erick still had to check for himself. Soon enough, Erick began crafting the final three floors of the dungeon.

Other obligations came up well before he was done with one of the new floors.  

Erick flew the Ophiel who crafted the dungeon down into the brightest blacklights, then dismissed them. If there were parasites on those Ophiel, he didn’t want to accidentally spread them. The whole mountainside would likely need to be torn up to truly get rid of the parasites there, but the dungeon was salvageable, for sure.

But that was a problem for later. For now, Erick summoned more, fresh Ophiel, then he sent them blipping across the oceans, to bring platinum rain to the farms, right on time.