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“Nothing official has happened with Candlepoint,” Poi said. “But the War Room below the Mage Guildhouse is full of information, and there’s been nightly meetings all across the city of varying levels of ‘official’. Literally everyone is talking about Candlepoint.” He added, “Also, you missed a morning rain two days ago—”

“Oh. Dammit.” Erick asked, “Do they want any make-up rains?”

Poi continued, “They would prefer for you rain the day after, or at your earliest convenience.” He added, “Or now, is good.”

Erick figured Poi was about to say something like that. He said, “Now, then.”

His Ophiel were still over in the Wasteland Kingdoms right now, too. With a thought, Erick had them blip their whole Saturn-like configurations over into other stone corridors, into decent positions mostly away from each other. And then he paused.

He was going to have them send out [Withering Slime]s to kill some of the respawning mimics, as one last gesture of goodwill before he dismissed them, but everywhere he blipped was orange; the land had been layered with long lasting poison. Sure, there were still mimics down there, struggling in that orange death, but his Slimes would [Cleanse] where they died, and that would be bad.  

So Erick just dismissed those Ophiel as he conjured another to sit upon his shoulder. Ophiel trilled in happy violins as he fluffed up on his perch, tiny and resplendent and happy to be home.

While Poi likely told someone what was about to happen, Erick blipped Ophiel onto the roof of his mage tower, and then he brought the rain. Normal rain, this time. The quick pat-pat-pat of rapidly resolving raindrops rapidly shifted into a static rush. A tiny crack of lightning flashed overhead, shifting the twilight, rainy evening, briefly into brightness.  

Teressa smiled, as she looked out the kitchen window, saying, “I like the rain.”

Erick smiled back, saying, “Let’s crack open that keg.” He added, “And find one of those meetings for tomorrow, or the next day. Anyone know of a good one?”

Teressa got up from the dinner table, saying, “One keg, coming right up!”

- - - -

Erick woke from a good night’s sleep, then went and made breakfast. While that was happening, he brought the rains on time, this time. And then it was time for work.  

Ophiels sang on the windowsill of Erick’s tower, while Erick turned diamonds into torus rings for the heavy hitters of Spur, and he was only slightly hungover. Diamond dust drifted on the air. It sparkled like glitter, at first, when [Stoneshape] chipped large chunks off of the diamond bands, but soon he was past that initial carving stage. Diamond dust floated through the air, landing on every surface of—

The Ophiel on the nearby perch twittered in guitar twangs, as six eyes looked backward.  

Erick turned. Poi was at the entrance to his tower. He didn’t look happy.  

Erick asked, “Something wrong?”

Poi reluctantly said, “… No. Probably not.”

Erick frowned at the man, though he probably didn’t see it through Erick’s face mask.

Poi said, “Delia Greentalon is requesting an audience.”

“… Ah.” Erick said, “Is she here? Now?”

“Yes.”

Erick invited her into the [Prismatic Ward] of the house, as he said, “Tell her I’ll meet her in the sunroom, after I clean up.

- - - -

Erick, mostly free of dust and sort-of clean, met Delia in the sunroom.  

Delia had dressed up for the occasion. She wore what Erick thought of as ‘Sunday Best’, with an eggshell white shirt and black pants, with embroidery on the hems, cuffs, and collar. Shiny black shoes, with nary a stray crease, adorned her feet; they looked new. She had a brief smile, but her heart wasn’t in it. As soon as Erick appeared, she merely stood there, next to the couch, looking at him, the pinks of her facial scales turning a bit darker, either with anger or… something, Erick couldn’t tell.

“Hello, Miss Greentalon. Delia.” Erick said, “Sorry I couldn’t fulfill my end of the agreement.”

Delia was still a 15 year old girl, no matter the Script and the rest of the world thought of her as an adult; that’s what Matriculation meant, after all. Erick had a hard time seeing her as a grown-up, but as she started to speak, he could see the adult Delia would become.

“Archmage Flatt. Thank you for agreeing to see me without notice.” Delia continued, “I apologize that I was such a mess the last time we spoke. I am of a much clearer head, these days. As such, I have come to you with an alternative to what I asked of you before.”

Erick already had an idea of how he would help her, but he gestured to the couch next to Delia, as he took a seat on the other. He let her do her thing, as he said, “Please. Speak.”

She sat down, and said, “My arrangement with my fellow orphans was predicated on the ability for me to gain a boon of some sort, in order to make the transition of Matriculation and adulthood easier on those who choose to ally with me. But since that has fallen through, the majority of them have taken up with others. I wish them well. But...” She breathed. She said, “I have a core group that wishes to become the best version of themselves they can. There are ten of us, and we have each been working hard to gain levels and power enough to protect others. We have been killing mimics, using the method you told me, with rolling boulders and [Stoneshape]. I am level 35 and currently the highest, but the others are catching up, quickly.”

Erick smiled, thinking about how he had to invent [Withering] before he got to that level. Leveling from level one apparently went a lot faster when you were prepared for it, you knew some tricks, and you weren’t shy about raising your hands against monsters.  

Delia continued, “Mother Eriliad claims that we are too young to have artifacts, and while I wish she were wrong, I can see the truth in her words. I don’t like what she thinks of me, and she never knew me before I was thrust into her care—” Delia’s face flushed with dark anger as her words took gained an edge, but she banished whatever she had been building towards. She calmly said, “My point is that Spur’s Care Service legally speaks for me— for all of us, until we turn 18, but that does not mean they know us. I am fully capable of both protecting myself and learning how to do better.” She said, “But they won’t let me go into Ar’Kendrithyst to hunt real monsters and gain real levels, and I’m not allowed to go too far from Spur— And that’s bloody wrong! I mean. Ah. Sorry.  

“Anyway: we’re going into war, soon. It’s all anyone is talking about. My friends and I are proving ourselves out there. We deserve better treatment than what we’re getting.” She asked, “Won’t you please reconsider outfitting us with rings— Or! Or anything! We’ll take anything.”

She was passionate. She was driven. And something felt wrong.

He sent to Poi, ‘Are kids allowed to go out and kill monsters?’

‘Yes.’ Poi, standing in the hallway, outside the room, sent, ‘If they’ve Matriculated, they’re technically adults, but no one under 18 is allowed past the guards at the walls, and [Teleport] inside the city is illegal without a permit. Hard to enforce, though. She just admitted to a minor illegal act.’

Erick didn’t really care about the legality of what Delia had done; she was obviously capable in some way, and Erick was more than used to young women rushing out and carving their place in the world. Jane had been a handful, but he wouldn’t have traded those years for anything on any world. But...

He asked, “How long has it been since your father passed? 15 days?”

“… Yes.”

“I think you should try going slower.” Delia tried to speak, but Erick said, “Please hear me out. If you want to be a Poison Mage, then have you considered schooling at an arcanaeum? I’m willing to foot the bill for ten of you. Maybe more. A lot more, actually. I might could swing Oceanside, too, if you’re interested.” He added, “I just finished helping the Wasteland with their mimic infestation, and they owe me a million 10-mana rads, which is 5 million gold. I could probably pay for a great deal of schooling.”

Delia went silent, as she stared at the floor.

Erick waited.

She stayed silent.

Erick said, “I might even be able to ask after this poison archmage I saw, in the Wasteland. She was a one-woman cloudbank, killing everything she flew over.”

Delia blurted at the ground, “I lied when I said that to you. I don’t want to be a poisoner. I want to track and kill hunters.” She stared at Erick with red-rimmed eyes, saying, “I’m going to murder those who would kill people like my father. My goal is the Class Calamity Dagger, if I can. Assassin, if I can’t. Scourge Mage is the fallback option.”

Erick felt like he’d been punched in the gut.  

This sweet little girl? This child that was the first person to greet Erick and Jane, when they first arrived at Spur? This supposed-to-be-innocent person? She wanted to hunt and kill people? To be an ‘Assassin’? Erick seemed to even hear the capital ‘A’ at the beginning of that word. Of course, he knew that Assassin had to be a Class… But Delia wanted to be one?

And then she metaphorically punched him again, with combo attack.  

“If you can’t help me, then I’m going to go to Candlepoint.” Delia said, “They know the secrets to unlocking every single Class, and they won’t lie to you like the Registrars lie! Maybe I’ll even get me a part of artifact daggers that’ll show the way to the nearest killers!”

Erick sat there, stunned, for a few different reasons. He almost said something about ‘if you kill people, the number of killers in the world doesn’t change’. But he’d had that conversation with Jane when she was younger. Jane’s response had been ‘not if you kill more than one!’.  

Delia asked, “Am I going to Candlepoint, Archmage?”

He instantly said, “You know it’s a trick, right?”

“Everything is a trick!” Delia said, “At least I know about this one in advance.”

“Would you please reconsider Oceanside?” Erick asked, “Or is there another school out there, you could attend?” He tried to come up with some other reason that Delia shouldn’t pursue her goal of being a murderer, as he said, “Besides! Don’t you want a Class like Sin Seeker? I don’t know about the ones you just said, but Sin Seeker would allow you to validate your kills. You need [Witness] to get that one. You need schooling to get [Witness]— Or at least a tutor. You could do everything you want to do, but not as you are. All of your goals means time taken to grow into who you want to be, which has the side benefit of ensuring that what you’re going for is truly what you want.”

Delia looked away.

Erick continued, “Your father was killed under two weeks ago by an attack orchestrated by a man who moved nations. Don’t fool yourself, Delia. You will not be some lucky young upstart that goes out and kills people like that, just because they deserve to be killed. You will die, Delia, to people who have been at this for literal centuries —I'm imagining— and you will get your friends killed in the process. You are rushing ahead too fast—”

She shot to her feet, saying, “I know I am! But what else can I do!” Angry tears streamed, as she said, “There are dangers out there! And I’m too weak right now! I need power! And— And—” She forced her voice to an even keel. “I need help. Help now. Not the help of five years of arcanaeum.”

Erick remained seated, and calm. “You need to focus on what you want, and take the necessary steps to get there. Rushing ahead is the opposite of that. Rushing ahead means you’re not prepared for the monsters you’re trying to face.” He added, “And the answer to your problem is not to get in league with the Shades.” He stressed, “I don’t know how many Water Seasons you spent at Spur, but you know what kind of monsters those monsters are. Don’t pretend that what they’re doing with Candlepoint is anything but a trick.”

“Please! Give me something!”

“I have offered a few different safe options, but you don’t want the safe options. You want me to give you power that will get you killed, and I won’t do it. I’m already giving out rings to the Army and the Guard, but they’re people who can defend themselves, as far as I know.” He said, “Right now, it looks to me like you just want to get yourself killed, meaning that my artifact rings will fall into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.”

Delia glared past Erick, not wanting to look directly at him as tears ran down her face. “I apologize for wasting your time, Archmage.”

“You’re not a waste of my time.” Erick said, “Please don’t think that, Delia.”

The young pinkscale girl just nodded. Without warning, she rushed out of there, her shoulder hitting the archway of the room as she ran.

Erick stood up, halfway to running after her, but he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. He sat back down, listening to Delia run through the foyer—

There was a ‘blip’ sound.

“Hey!” Kiri’s voice sounded.

Just as Poi said, “Fucking Heaven and Hell, Delia!”

Oh no.  

Erick rushed out of the sunroom.

Kiri, or someone, was upstairs, running toward… Erick’s mage tower?

In the three seconds it took Erick to think that he should revoke Delia’s [Prismatic Ward] permissions, Delia was gone.  

He rushed upstairs, to stand beside Kiri and Poi, next to the entrance to his tower. The accoutrements of his ring production were still set out, as were the grab-bag boxes for the stronger, torus versions of his rings he was making for Sirocco, Mog, Silverite, Al, Jane, and others. He didn’t know the ring sizes of everyone, exactly, so he had made several pairs, knowing that the extra could go to someone, surely. He had already finished enchanting twenty of the torus-shaped diamond rings, but had been working on many more, when Delia showed up.  

Erick now stared at a blank rectangular spot on the workbench, where diamond dust had piled around the edges of a now-missing box.  

He joked, “She’s fast enough to be an assassin, I guess?”

Poi sighed, “Sorry. I didn’t…” He winced, then just went ahead and said what he was thinking, “I didn’t believe that she was actually going to do that. She didn’t even plan on it.”

Erick said, “Don’t worry about it.” He said, “Maybe this is for the best?” As Ophiel blipped off of his shoulder, to float outside of the window of the sunroom and begin casting an orb of light into the sky, Erick said, “[Cascade Imaging] will find her, and then I can ask her if what she took is what she really wants? … Maybe. Eh. I’m not sure what I want to say to her about this.” He added, “And what was that about— About everything she said? Hidden Classes? Artifact daggers? What is a Calamity Dagger? Registrars lying?”

Kiri said, “Registrars don’t lie. They just don’t help you unlock the more powerful methods to magic and otherwise. You have to do that on your own then ask them about what you’ve found.”  

Erick frowned. “Ah.”

- - - -

[Cascade Imaging], trained on Erick’s torus-shaped rings, eventually revealed a few bright dots across the map. The first location was the house, because of course. The second was at the Guardhouse, with Teressa. Eventually, another location blipped blue: the Interfaith Church.

Mother Eriliad was waiting for Erick in her office, by the time he got there.  

After pushing the box into Erick’s hands, Mother Eriliad said, “I don’t know where she went, but I am ashamed that she would do such a thing. She should never have—”

Erick cut her off, “She’s obviously in pain and distress and I won’t hold her accountable for this action. I’m not pressing charges and I don’t want anyone to make her life harder than it already is. When she comes back to you, will you tell her that I’ll still pay for her schooling, wherever she chooses?”

She seemed surprised, for a moment. “… I will tell her... But… Archmage.” Eriliad deflated a little, as she said, “Delia is gone. She rushed in here and threw these at me, and then she [Teleport]ed away, with a backpack. Four kids tried to follow her, but all of them came back. Some of them were crying. One of them had a broken arm.” She added, “I just sent him off to the hospital wing, not two minutes before you showed.”

“… Dammit.” Erick’s [Cascade Imaging] had taken a little while, but he didn’t think he would be this late. He asked, “Do you know where they went? Did her friends say anything?”

Eriliad shook her head. “They went to where the Harvest Temple used to be, but beyond that, I don’t know.”

Erick cursed again.  

- - - -

The Harvest Temple, previously located in the center of the Farm, had been covered in black glass from the Red Dot attack. But now, that black glass was gone; turned to black sand, all around Erick. The Harvest Temple itself was gone, too.  

Standing where the Temple had once stood, was a pile of brown and orange sand in the center of the black field. Even the Ring of Gods had been reduced to dirt, like tiny splashes of brown and tan and orange among the black.

Erick went to the next location.

- - - -

Valok’s house was a blackened crater, with guards standing around asking people what they had seen.  

All anyone saw was Delia enter the house, for those that knew her, and ‘some pinkscale girl’ for those who didn’t. Smoke began billowing out of the house shortly afterward. The witnesses didn’t see her leave, before the whole structure collapsed into the ground.  

Erick doubted she would have killed herself, but he helped the Guard excavate the house, anyway. All they found were ashes and broken things. He offered to [Mend] the location, and the Guard on the scene accepted.  

With Valok’s house restored, and items somewhat in their place, Erick found nothing that seemed viable for a DNA scan. Besides, he didn’t want to chase the young girl too hard. She was obviously in great distress. So he just left a letter on the kitchen counter, and offered to buy the location to keep it intact.  

The Guard on the scene didn’t know much about all that. Erick would have to follow up with the Courthouse.  

He sent Kiri off on that errand.  

- - - -

Back at his own house, under the safety of his [Prismatic Ward], Erick scattered Ophiel across the Crystal Forest. He telepathically called out to Delia, to tell her that she did not have to run; Spur was her home and he would never take that from her. He had even bought the house, so Delia had a place to come back to.  

Kiri had found out that once someone torches their home, that property becomes property of the city. Erick rapidly bought Valok’s house, for 15,000 gold, but the paperwork would take days to go through the system. That didn’t really matter, though.

Because Delia did not respond to Erick’s telepathic calls, and that was more worrisome.  

He didn’t even get a denial of connection.  

But he kept trying. He had to know if she was okay.

After an hour, as the sun crossed the roof of the sky, the connection opened, and Erick felt relief like an ocean washing over him.

Erick sent, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t help you as you want. Please forgive me, and come back to Spur.’

Eventually, a reply came, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll… I’ll come back. But not right now. I… Good bye.’

The connection broke.  

When Erick tried again, a tickle of mental shock struck for a few hundred points of damage. He did not try again. It was good enough that she was alive. Even if her words were a lie, she was still out there, somewhere.  

- - - -

While Erick was contemplating life on the couch, Poi walked in.

He said, “Sir. Registrar Irogh has an opening for you in an hour.”

Erick sat up, turning his mind away from Delia, and how much she seemed like Jane. He said, “Thank you, Poi.”

- - - -

Erick entered Irogh’s office, floating a bulky bag behind him.  

Irogh was the same as ever; an orcol with slightly pronounced fangs, nice green skin, black hair, and, of course, the bulging muscles. He was rather easy on the eyes, but Erick wasn’t here for that.

Irogh glanced to the large luggage with Erick, then said, “Have a seat. What can I do for you?”

Erick said, “Hello,” as he took one of the seats in front of Irogh’s desk. He left the luggage to his side, on the ground. “I’m here for a few things.”

Irogh casually slid two fingers through the air. The blue door to the room slipped closed.  

Erick said, “I’d like [Language Comprehension] cast on me again, and I’d like to pay for my daughter to receive the same when she arrives, and my apprentice, Kiri Flamecrash, and my guards, Poi Fulisade and Teressa Rednail.” He patted the luggage to his side. “I have five grand rads in here for that, and a few more grand rads for some other things, so that should be the full price, correct?”

Irogh said, “Yes. One grand rad is the usual price for any Registrar spell. They’ll have to come here to get it cast upon them, but I can take payment for all five casts right now.” He asked, “Would you like the spell cast upon you, now?”

“I’ll tell them that.” Erick began unpacking the luggage at his side, saying, “And yes. Now would be fine.” He set the first of five football-sized grand rads upon Irogh’s desk, but the second, third, fourth, and fifth grand rad vanished before he could grab them. “Ah.”  

“It is cast.” Irogh added, “You don’t actually have to take them out of your bag, if you don’t want to.” He asked, “What are the other grand rads for?”

Erick turned to Irogh, and said, “Some display issues I’m having. I want kills listed numerically, for starters. I’d like to know what other options there are, too.”

“We can link to your bank account in town, if you wish. Some people do this, but I know a lot of people like to physically bring their grand rads to the office.”  

“I will not link my bank account at this time. And in addition to seeing those options, I would also like to know about some things I have heard. Is it true that there are hidden Classes?”

Irogh nodded, saying, “Yes. You did not get the opportunity to have this talk with me since you were assigned your Class by Rozeta herself, but there are quite a few secrets of the Script.”

Erick waited.

Irogh waited, too. After a moment, he asked, “Okay?”

“Is that it?” Erick frowned.  

He didn’t actually believe Delia when she spoke of Registrars like she had, but maybe she had been right? Rozeta never answered any questions, but Erick had never had a question that Irogh wasn’t able to answer. Ah. But, Erick had never had specific questions back then like he had now.  

Irogh said, “I am here to help you make the best use of the Script that I can, but I am not here to allow anyone unfettered access. I help based on what you already know, and based on what I am allowed to say to anyone who asks, but unless you ask specific questions or already have access to new magic or skills, then I cannot speak of those hidden aspects. And, quite honestly, I don’t know most of them.” Irogh offered, “But, you have done a lot since you’ve ascended to what some would call ‘Archmage’, and this has probably led to some stranger options for you; it usually does. So, what I can do, is look into what new options you qualify for and then we can talk about them. Like new Classes unlocked, and such.”

All of that sounded pretty interesting, so Erick asked, “That won’t change my Class, will it?” He added, “What about other Class Ability Quests? Do I have access to more of them, now, too?” He continued, “And what about the limit of six Abilities? Can I get more than that?”

Irogh rattled off, “Looking won’t change your Class. You do have a few more Class Abilities since the last time you were here; that was one of the changes I was going to go over. Six Slots is actually one over the normal limit, but you can theoretically Quest for up to 10, though more Slots requires a great deal more sacrifice. You’re already one up Slot, so the commensurate Quest is already of a higher tier.”

“Okay. Then. Well? Show me my other Class options? And Ability options! And whatever it takes to get more Class Ability Slots.”

“Do you want the full list of Classes, or the condensed list?”

“Full list, alphabetical.”

Irogh nodded, as he tapped the air a few times.  

One absolutely massive blue box appeared, off to the side, occupying at least two square meters of airspace, with tiny writing. A smaller blue box filled with Class Abilities appeared to the right, and a much smaller box appeared to the right of that. Erick started reading the first box, burning [Ultrasight] so he didn’t have to get up from his chair. He did not feel like studying the whole list; he was searching for particular Classes.  

… aaand…

He found none of what he was looking for. No ‘Calamity Dagger’. No ‘Poison Mage’. No ‘Time Mage’, or ‘Spell Thief’. He did find some odder options. ‘Blood Mage’ was up there, and that seemed strange. [Cascade Imaging] was not blood magic at all; Erick made a note to ask Irogh about that. ‘Farmer’ was an obvious one that he should have expected, but it was still nice to see on the list. ‘Light Mage’ was nice to see up there. Erick would ask about derivatives of that Class, too, since he also saw ‘Twilight Mage’, and ‘Sunset Mage’, and those seemed like offshoots of ‘Light Mage’. ‘Storm Mage’ looked interesting. He even had ‘Spatial Mage’ unlocked, for some reason. He had not created or unlocked 5 Spatial Magics, so maybe completing the Basic Spell remake for [Blink] had been enough? Or maybe that Quest counted for 1, and [Lightwalk] counted for another? That would make some sort of sense.

They were all interesting Classes, but when Erick saw ‘Particle Mage’, he knew he was never going to change. Maybe he could ask what the unlocking requirements were, just to get an idea of how many Particle Mages would be running around on Veird in 3 months?  

… He had almost been on Veird for an entire year.  

Erick ignored that thought, for now.

The Ability box was not much different from the last time Erick saw it. He did immediately notice an upgrade for the ‘Killer’ Ability, which gave him 1.5x damage done to people, nestled under an Ability option named ‘Hunter’, which straight-up doubled his damage done to people. His guts twisted as he closed his eyes. He had to take a moment after seeing that. The fact that he had killed enough to warrant an upgrade to that Ability… That was rough.  

When he opened his eyes again, he read the upgrade to ‘Monster Killer’. It was titled ‘Hero of Veird’. It gave him 3x damage against monsters.  

That made him feel a little better, but it was a sad sort of happiness. There were a few other new and interesting options to this full Ability list, but none of them seemed important. That 10% spell cost reduction called to him, though.  

The third box was enough to take his mind off the rest.

--

Ability Slot Increase Quest!

10 Points

OR

100,000,000 Mana and/or Health

--

Erick pointed, asking, “That’s all? A hundred million in either Mana or Health?”

“Or both.” Irogh said, “It’s not as easy as your regeneration might lead you to believe. It requires active concentration to pay that cost, and Meditation does not work while you’re concentrating on this Quest. But since you have [Prismatic Ward], and that imposes Rest, then you might have an easier time of this Quest than most.” He looked to the air, saying, “And, with a little bit of math—” He looked to Erick. “It seems that with your regeneration, it would take almost 70 days of non-stop concentration in order to complete these quest. The next level is one billion mana. That would take 700 days.” He added, “But subsequent versions of this test, though they may increase in Mana and Health costs, do not increase in Point costs. Ten Class Ability Slots is still the maximum, though.”

Erick said, “I accept this quest.”

Irogh nodded. The third box vanished.  

Erick brought up the Quest and put it away a few times, rapid fire, before turning back to Irogh. “So about some of these Abilities. ‘Hero of Veird?’ What triggered that?”

Irogh did not have to look to the air, to say, “You killed a million monsters.”

He didn’t want to, but he had to, so Erick asked, “And this… ‘Hunter’?”

“10 people at or near your level.”

Erick stared at nothing for a moment. Then he took his mind off of whatever feeling he was feeling, by asking, “What other Class Abilities can I upgrade? Or is that in the ‘restricted information’ category?”

“It is restricted, if you want to know how you unlocked other Classes, I can certainly tell you that.”

Erick looked left, at the largest hovering box. “Why Blood Mage?”

Irogh glanced at the air, then said, “You have created a spell that works off of information contained in the blood. [Cascade Imaging].”

“Just tracking people is Blood Magic? But it’s purely physical identification and matching. There’s no… whatever there is, when it comes to Blood Magic. Control or manipulation of blood, I assume? The first time I heard about Blood Magic was after I made [Cascade Imaging].”

“The Script has a definition for Blood Magic, and your spell qualifies that definition.” Irogh read from the air, “ ‘Blood Magic is the control or manipulation of living flesh, in harmful, helpful, or neutral ways.’ Identification of people falls under this definition.”

Erick retorted, “But it’s not Blood Magic! It’s just a matching system!”

Irogh flicked his eyes to a different part of the air. He said, “I’m supposed to say… Let me see if I got this right: ‘to-may-toe, to-mah-to’. Or ‘red tomato, purple tomato’.”  

“… Is Rozeta watching right now?”

“Rozeta is always in attendance for these meetings, with everyone who comes through the blue door.”

“Great!” Erick asked, “Are the gods planning on doing anything against Candlepoint? Are we flattening the place?”

Irogh frowned a little, then perked up, to look at another part of the air. “Ah. Normally you would be told to go to the Church… But I have been given some information regarding that.” Irogh glanced at the air, then said, “I can only tell you about Rozeta, and she is already heavily investigating everything about the location, and that there is nothing to worry about. The Script is stable.”

“… Okay. So? She says the Script is stable? I wasn’t asking about that, but does that mean that the stuff Candlepoint is making are true adjustments to the Script? Does Melemizargo have administrator rights, or something? A backdoor, maybe?” Erick demanded to know, “How is he allowed to cast magic at all?”

Irogh put his hands on his desk and laced his fingers together. He sighed, as he suddenly looked twenty years older. He said, “We don’t actually know how he’s able to work his magic. Every ‘truth’ that the Cult of the Dark Dragon speaks of has been verified as false, except one. He is the last Dark God to exist, and gods are not wholly subject to the Script.” He added, “But, the truth is that no one can answer that question except for the Shades and Melemizargo himself, and none of them would speak that truth without trying to kill or control you first.”

Erick let that be, for now, even though his personal experience said that Irogh was wrong about Melemizargo’s interactions, except when it came to wrought. Instead, he asked, “How would I go about getting ‘Time Mage’ added to my list?”

“I cannot...” Irogh separated his hands as he glanced up, to another different part of the air. He said, “Normally… I can’t say. But… it appears you have a ‘Champion’ designation waiting for you from… Uh… Phagar.” Irogh’s cool demeanor shifted to unease, briefly, then to acceptance. “So… To answer your question: You need his direct approval to be a Time Mage. And you already have it.”

“… So if I wanted to be a Time Mage, I could.”

“Theoretically. I have no experience with this class. At all. I don’t even know what being a Time Mage means, so I cannot help you with what that means, either. You would have to get help from Pgahar’s clergy to answer that question. But you’d probably have to talk directly to Phagar for any real answers.”

“A different question, then.” Erick asked, “What does it mean to be a Champion?”

“I cannot say, exactly. Each god is different.” Irogh smiled a little, but it was a sad sort of smile. “Whatever the case, that is out of my power to help you with. In addition: it seems that parts of this conversation will be erased from my memory when you leave, so if you wish to come back to this topic in the remainder of our time in this session, it means more and more of this conversation will be blanked from my memory. After today, please don’t bring up anything with regard to Champions to me, ever again. Please.”

Erick paled. Phagar would do that? Or would Rozeta do that? Obviously they would, but—

He remembered, back to when he was surrounded by gods and other Relevant Entities of the Script, on top of a blackened caldera, and they were deciding his fate. People were far, far below the power of gods, and if people got too uppity, it was even possible for them to wage a Forgotten Campaign, to erase the memory of a thing from the world.

Erick felt his face redden, as his heart beat hard, and anger began to bubble from within. Sure, they were gods, but who did they think they were?!

Irogh saw Erick’s building anger, and said, “This is not a problem for me. It’s easier this way. Consider the fact that we are going to be at war with the Shades soon and that they have ways of extracting information— Well… I’m just going to tell you that I am going to run, to flee Spur, as soon as war actually begins. Hopefully I can avoid the rush.” He said, “I have been targeted before, and it’s very, very tough to harm a Registrar, but that wouldn’t stop some people from trying. I have yet to try my skill against a Shade, but that is a trial I do not want to undertake.” He added, “Sometimes a bit of forgetfulness helps to keep the world from crumbling, Erick. Sometimes, forgetting is a gift. Ask any immortal, and they would tell you the same.”

Erick felt a sudden compassion for Irogh. He said, “Sorry… I didn’t consider you in all of this.”

Irogh smiled. He said, “Thank you, but I’ll be fine. Now, would you like to change some other things about how the Script displays for you?”

Erick felt like he was experiencing whiplash, but he soldiered on. “Yes. One other question, though: These new Stats that are coming out of Candlepoint. Are they real?”

Irogh spoke as though he had said the same thing, multiple times, “As far as we can tell, the new Stats coming out of Candlepoint are real, but they are also a poison. Much how like Strength makes a person feel stronger, yet Willpower does not affect a person’s mental nature, these new Stats might have unforeseen consequences, such as a desire to become a cannibal, or to kill and kill again.”

Erick stared at Irogh. “… And you’re still saying Melemizargo doesn’t have administrator access to the Script.”

“Correct. He does not, and he never had.”

Erick didn’t believe that for a moment. Whatever was going on with Melemizargo and the Script was a lot deeper than the gods were willing to speak. And that didn’t sit right with Erick. In fact, it sat rather wrong. So wrong, that he spoke up, “That’s such bullshit. Rozeta must know how he does this.”

Irogh frowned, then said—

A blue box appeared in the air, facing Erick.

--

He’s a wizard and a god, Erick.  

As soon as you figure out how you managed to influence the mana to create entirely new spells that no one had ever seen before, even though I guarantee that some of your knowledge has been out there for a long time before you came along, let me know!

Plugging that leak would make many things a lot easier for everyone.

By that same token, realize that you do not want us gods solving your mortal problems.

No one wants that. Ever.

Also: Please do not harass my registrar.  

--

Erick blanked at the blue box. After a moment, he said, “Okay? Sorry?”

The blue box vanished.

Irogh sat silently.

Erick said, “… I’d like to see the various display options for my Status and otherwise, please. And I’d like to know what the requirements were to unlock Particle Mage.”

“Of course.”

- - - -

Erick walked through the streets of Spur, his grand rads spent, and his Willpower and Focus each increased by 10 points, to 75 base, or 125 with his rings. His maximum mana was now 7500, while his regeneration was 32,100, for both Health and Mana. Nothing else had changed in his Status. There had been options to display his Status and the entirety of his known spells as a book that he could flip through, along with a few others ways, like coded messages, but he liked the boxes just as they were; they reminded him of computer prompts, but seen through the lens of Veird.  

He did spend the rest of his grand rads though, mainly on behalf of Delia Greentalon. The next time she went to a registrar, she might see that gift, and it might make her a little bit happier. Plus, no one could steal that sort of gift.

And that thought brought Erick back to his current problems.  

There were just too many problems in the world.  

Luckily, ‘Particle Mage’ might not be one of them. Those requirements were steep! The Baroness had been right. Except for maybe Kiri, there might not be another Particle Mage until Veird’s science progressed to the equivalent of Earth’s 19th century. But if that never happened, then Erick and Kiri might be the only Particle Mages to ever exist.  

But back to Veird’s problems: Erick didn’t think it was his job to solve any of them, but he would certainly do his part! Think global, act local; as he had always tried to do. He was certainly not ready to become a Champion, either, but it was nice to know the option was there, though that whole thing seemed rather ominous. But what he was ready to do, was create some anti-Shade spells.  

… Considering that what he was planning would be useful against anything and anyone, calling them ‘anti-Shade’ spells was slightly disingenuous.  

… But actually. Maybe he should leave the big damaging spells for another day, because he needed a way to counter spells like the Red Dot.  

And that reminded him! Now that he had [Lightwalk], it was time to resume his work on [Gate]. Maybe that would lead to a [Teleport Other Person’s Spell] spell.  

Erick needed another reason to visit Apogee, and this was perfect!

So much to do! So little time.

Oh. I should try to invent those Stat fruits they have, shouldn’t I?

Erick took another step, but stopped, as he paused in thought.  

Ohhhhh. I really like that idea.  

- - - -

Erick walked up to the main counter of the Wayfarer’s Guild, saying, “Hello. I’m looking for Guildmaster Apogee.”

The young incani man on the other side paled a little, as he said, “Master Apogee has retired. His son, Guildmaster Oreellico, is currently upstairs. Would you like to see him, instead?”

“That’s Apogee’s son, right? Fork Oreellico, I assume?”

“Yes, sir.”

“If he is available, then I will see him, instead.”

- - - -

Erick entered into a very different office than the last time he had been here. Where once were boxes and knickknacks waiting to be put into those boxes, there were now shelves of travel journals and maps and stones of a dozen different varieties. Some of those stones glowed with reds, others with blues. Some were crystals, while others were fossilized seashells.  

Fork Oreellico sat behind his desk, with stacks of paper in front of him and a small, glowing globe to the side. Fork was a brownscale dragonkin like his father, but unlike Apogee, he had no horns. He did have small ridges down the sides of his scaled head that were almost horns, but those were rather common among dragonkin. If he had a tail, Erick couldn’t tell. He could barely tell the man’s age. Maybe he was 40? Maybe?

As Erick entered, Oreellico stood from his chair. No tail.

“Hello, Guildmaster Oreellico. Congratulations on your promotion.”

Oreellico smiled, speaking with a deep voice, saying, “Thank you, Archmage Flatt. Apologies if you came here to see my father, but you’ll have to settle for me. Is there something I can help you with? A transportation issue?” He gestured to the chair across his desk, as he sat back down, saying, “Please, sit.”  

Erick sat, saying, “I fear I have driven your father off with hints that I wanted to know more of his planar experience, but I suppose I will have to settle for never knowing his story, and that is okay.”

Oreellico looked to want to speak in the middle of Erick’s words, but he just smiled, and nodded.

Erick continued, “So what I’ve actually come here for, is to see if anyone could help me with a Spatial Magic problem.”  

“Oh?” Oreellico perked up, then glanced over to Poi, asking, “Please, close the door.”

Poi did so. The noise of the ‘loading docks’ vanished; swallowed by stone and dense, well fitted doors.

Erick said, “I want to try and create a [Teleport Spell] spell, so that I can redirect attacks like the Red Dot away from the city, if such a thing should ever occur again.” He added, “I have completed the ‘Recreate [Blink] Quest’, if that helps, so I know a little bit about what it takes to make a new Spatial spell, but I did that on my own, with some hints from a very, very old book, and the minor insight of another that I had to use an Elemental Body skill. I’d go to the libraries or Oceanside to answer this question of mine, but there is way too much math in all of the modern books I have ever read.”

Oreellico’s eyes gleamed bronze as he said, “I want to help you with this. But. If you do, someday, either far in the future or just around the corner, actually manage to make that [Gate] spell you threatened before, I want to know how you made it, I want your help in making it myself, and I want the chance to properly administrate whatever economic boon comes from recreating a possible [Gate] Network, with percentages and such to be determined later. In the case where I am not able to create the spell myself, I want your help to gain 5 more levels so that I can purchase the Class Ability myself, or complete the Quest for that Ability.” He added, “I do not know what the Quest requires, at this time, but if we work on the problem long enough, I should be able to gain the quest. If we are completely unsuccessful, then there are no requirements for either of us.”

That was a lot, right there. Erick had not expected such a thorough response, or such caveats. Oreellico certainly knew what he wanted, though. Erick wasn’t opposed to any of Oreellico’s plans, but, it would be a good idea to know what he was getting himself into before he began this partnership…

And that’s what it seemed like to him. A ‘partnership’, of some sort, that would likely change a great deal going forward, if everything happened how Erick suddenly wanted it to happen.  

Erick said, “I agree, but I need to know some possibly sensitive information, first.”

“Of course.” Oreellico sat back in his chair. “Ask away.”

“What level are you? How hard would it be to gain 5 more?”

“59, and I have been that for 12 years. I have combat skills and defensive skills, but I have tried to kill monsters of a higher level and have only gotten injuries for my time.” Oreellico said, “An escort to any central part of Quintlan would likely gain me the required 5 levels, unless you know of another acceptable way.”

“Have you managed to recreate any of the other Basic Tier Spatial spells?”

“Yes. I have done both [Blink] and [Teleport]. I achieved them through the use of [Air Body], and very little math, though you should know that the math common to Spatial magic is rather necessary to make higher tier spells. [Teleport Object]. [Teleport Other]. I’m sure a [Teleport Spell] magic would be similarly complicated. Or maybe not, if you were to just use a theoretical [Gate] to swallow the target.” He said, “I don’t truly know how that spell works, either, but I have some educated guesses.”

“Educated guesses are fine.”

“I have a question, then, if you’d permit me.”

Erick nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Since you have recreated [Blink], which Elemental Body skill do you have?”

“[Lightwalk]. I made it through my [Familiar], as well. There was no actual risk involved. I just need to know how to work the spell, and with the trick of it all figured out, I brute-forced the solution.” Erick patted Ophiel on his shoulder, saying, “He exploded a few times, but he got better.”

Oreellico’s calm, yet interested face, broke into a huge smile. He laughed, saying, “This is good! I wondered how you managed to not kill yourself. A brute-force solution! Amazing. I have to say, Archmage Flatt, I am very glad you walked through my door today.”

Erick smiled. “I see that I should have come here, sooner.”  

“Are we agreed then, with regard to the exchange of services? A mutual exchange of knowledge and technique in exchange for the Wayfarer’s Guild gaining financial control of this theoretical [Gate] spell?”

Erick reworded what Oreellico said, a little, saying, “Provided we can come to an amicable arrangement regarding the division of revenue, I could easily see myself being comfortable working to achieve [Gate] with you and the Wayfarer’s Guild, especially if you and your guild are instrumental in helping me acquire the spells I wish to acquire. I won’t allow financial control over the spell itself, especially with regard to myself using it, but any theoretical [Gate] network would be under your control.”

“Sorry, I misspoke. You are correct. Control over the network, not over your person.”

“Agreed.”

“Excellent. Then we are agreed.” Oreellico chuckled, then smiled, and said in a deep tone, “If you had tried to come to my father with this desire, he would have denied you, for he hates being reminded of his homeland in all ways. His loss is my gain.” He added, “I can draw up the preliminary paperwork by tomorrow, but would you like to get started now? As a show of good faith, I will give to you my understanding of [Teleport], with no need for any recompense until we can finalize the paperwork.”

Erick felt a spark of happy joy. He did not expect this series of events, at all. He said, “I accept. Thank you.”

“I can only give you my own understanding of the spell through my use of [Air Body], mind you.”

“Perfectly fine.”

Oreellico nodded. “The ‘secret’ to [Teleport] is easy enough to explain in minutes, but the execution kills most people, so usually we tell perspective wayfarers to never attempt such a thing, and to keep this secret to themselves. The Script makes magic safe, but this is an attempt to recreate the spells that form the Basic Tier of the Script. This magic is certainly not safe, at all. But, if you can brute-force [Teleport], I have high hopes for our partnership. As a warning: I lost an arm making [Teleport]. It was still considered a rousing success.”  

Erick nodded.

Oreellico continued, “By being a breeze through the use of [Air Body], and letting yourself go, you will experience a diffusion of the senses that will enable you to be in many places at once. The secret of [Blink] is shutting off all your senses and feeling your way through that heightened positioning, and then to consciously select the one that you wish to occupy, that was not your original location.” He asked, “Does that sound familiar?”

“Almost exactly what I did, but with a bit different understanding from my own.”

Oreellico nodded, saying, “That is normal. Everyone speaks of the experience slightly differently, but all have a few things in common. The plurality of location. The shutting of senses. The opening of the eyes in a new location, away from the original self.

“[Teleport] is the exact same thing, but spread across hundreds of kilometers.  

“But [Air Body] does not allow the user to be in more locations than your own general locality.

“So, we have a conundrum. This is solved by extrapolating the plurality of your location to other theoretical versions of yourself that might have existed, if you had taken a slightly different journey. If you would have gone left down the road, instead of right.  

“Now that you are down the right hand road, you just become the breeze that would have been on the left hand road.”  

Erick sat there, thinking. Oreellico’s words sounded very, very familiar.  

Oreellico said, “It is a very difficult concept for some people to think upon, let alone experience, and that says nothing of the difficulty of actually producing [Teleport]. Achieving [Teleport] is half-trick, half-delusion, since you both are, and are not casting magic at the secondary location.  

“This spell recreation is easier for some wayfarers than others, since the idea of wanting to take all roads and see all paths is a natural thought. For others, the way to recreating [Teleport] is through their desire to move forward, to see where the wind takes them, while simultaneously knowing that where they end up, is nowhere near where they would have been if not for any of a hundred different small, daily obstacles, like rocks on the path, shifting their destinations this way or that.  

“Succinctly put: [Teleport] is expanding your Elemental Body to where it would have been, if you had been somewhere else.”

Erick smiled, a little.

Oreellico continued, “I achieved this Recreation Quest when I had an epiphany regarding where I wanted to have lunch. At the time, there were two restaurants that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I had trouble deciding which to eat at. I had already been working on this quest for a while, so what I did, was go to a random spot of the Crystal Forest, and flip a coin. I let the coin land on the sand, without looking at whether it was ‘crown’ or ‘rad’. After a nice lunch in Portal, I [Scry]d the coin. It had landed ‘crown’. I should have gone to Outpost.

“And that’s all it took.  

“In that moment, I realized I was not where I could have been. It may seem simple in the telling, but for me, it was a timeless moment. Trying to describe that moment is like trying to describe love, or to paint a sunset; millions have tried, but there is always more to say, more to experience. So I will go with the simple version: It was then, that the briefest application of [Air Body] brought me all the way to Outpost, and staring at the ‘Quest Complete!’ notification. I had traveled over 3500 kilometers in a single [Teleport].” Oreellico paused, then said, “After that moment, I was truly a Wayfarer, though I had already possessed the Class for five years.”

Erick smiled, thinking. He said, “Thank you for sharing that with me.” And he meant it. Oreellico’s words sounded deeply personal, but also full of hope.  

“Ah!” Oreellico smiled, saying, “But this is transaction, yes? I have seen the good you have done, but this time, the entire Wayfarer Guild, every single branch across all of Glaquin, will come together and make this work. If you can truly recreate [Gate] outside of an impossible Ability Quest, we will change the world.” He spoke with hope in his voice, “We will recreate the backbone of what this world was meant to have, and no one will take that from us.”

Erick felt a happy sort of sadness, at those words.  

Oreellico sat back in his chair, and waited.

Erick asked, “I have a tangential question for you: How is it that Spatial Magic involves so much math, but you explaining it like that sounds so much better?”

Orellico laughed. “I worked for years on the maths side of that quest. Forces, distance, the curve of the world and the speed of rotation. The prevailing winds and the threads of intent already saturating the manasphere; all of it plays a heavy roll in proper Spatial Magic. I did not attend arcanaeum, but our guild has many tutors. For me, the math was part of how I was able to be in two places at once, but that is hard to explain without the math.” He said, “Now I have a question for you: How did your [Blink] recreation go?”

“For my first attempts I tried using wardlight illusions to copy Ophiel, before placing him upstream in the flow of mana.” Erick said, “That ended in quite a few explosions.”

Oreellico paled for a moment, then laughed in nervousness, and said, “I would imagine so!”

Erick continued, “It wasn’t till I got [Lightwalk] and I used [Hunter’s Instincts] that I realized that everything about the experience of being an ethereal being was subjective. Recreating [Blink] past that was rather easy. I just had to realize what I was doing.”

Orellico nodded, solemnly. He glanced to Ophiel, on Erick’s shoulder, and said, “It is good you have this method. I have heard young Wayfarers speak almost as you have, without regard for the maths of the Spatial Mage. If they come to their senses and learn the maths, I usually hear that they are doing well. If they are foolhardy and brash, I usually never hear from them again, for they have invariably gone on to join Everlin Etherspray in the Ocean.” He said, “I am sure I don’t have to speak of this to you, archmage, and it would be insulting for me to do so, but untrained Spatial Magic is rather deadly. I told you I lost an arm completing the Quest for [Teleport], yes? I lost that arm because when my body resolved back to flesh, the location where my arm would have been was occupied by a wall, so my arm never resolved.

“The [Teleport] in the Script has many safeguards to prevent such an event. But trying to recreate [Teleport] has no such safeguards.”

Erick smiled softly. He said, “I am aware of the danger of making new magic. Thank you for your concern.” He stood from his chair, saying, “But I am sure you are busy, and I must get back to work, as well. Thank you for your time.”

Orellico stood from his chair, saying, “Anytime, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick said, “We’re going to be working a lot together. Call me ‘Erick’, please.”

“Then I would be honored if you would call me ‘Fork’, Erick,” said Fork.

“Fork, then. See you later.”

- - - -

“He knew about Everlin Etherspray, too!” Erick said, as he diced vegetables on the kitchen counter.

Kiri sat at the kitchen table, drinking a beer, beside a covered ceramic bowl. The dough she had made still needed twenty more minutes to relax, before she could start turning it into pasta noodles. Sunny, her vibrant green couatl-ish [Familiar], lounged around her shoulders.  

Kiri said, “That’s not surprising. If anyone has access to whatever legacy Everlin Etherspray left behind, it’s the Wayfarer’s Guild.”

Erick smiled wide. “Yup.” He cut onions, and said, “It’s just so amazing, though. Looking back on it, maybe there was magic back on Earth, and I just never saw it as such. Almost everything he said triggered a memory of something I’d heard of before, though in a very different way than how he spoke.”

“I’m actually more surprised that [Air Body] didn’t create some sort of higher tier magic.” Kiri held out her beer, saying, “You see? That’s what is most concerning for me. Why is [Teleport] still a Basic Spell, since is is clearly derived from another spell.”  

“Maybe the Elemental Body skills are representations of natural magic that belonged to the Old Cosmology?” Erick said, “That was the distinct impression I got when reading about Everlin and the elementassi.”

“Oh. Well.” Kiri said, “That makes a lot of sense. I guess I never thought of them that way— But that still doesn’t make sense! [Teleport] should be a tier 2 spell.”

“Eh. I’d imagine that the Elemental Body skills are the secret to many different basic magics.” Erick said, “And that’s another thing I don’t hear about! How do you make a [Force Bolt]? I bet a good, actual archmage, could spend all their points on Stats, and remake everything else from scratch.”

Kiri tilted her head back into a full-throated laugh, her eyes glowing green as she said, “My gods! Maybe! Ha!” She said, “Not many people had those skills back at the Tower, but at Oceanside, almost everyone had one. Air was the most popular, by far, but [Water Body] was a close second, but no one talked of remaking any Basic Tier magic. Maybe this is one of those deeper secrets.” She decided, emphatically, “It has to be!” She asked, “But how to prove this theory? That book where I read about Replication Quests said almost nothing except for the fact that the Quest existed.”

“I still have all those bargains of trade I have yet to collect on. Other archmages would likely know.” As Erick stirred the onions into a large pan full of sizzling ground beef, he said, “Opal offered to teach me [Ward Destruction], anyway.” He asked, “Have you seen Poi? He would know how to contact Opal. Or... Silverite would know. … Or practically anyone in charge, I guess.” He added, “But that’s for another day. There’s too much to do, right now. OH! And I learned what it takes to get Particle Mage.”

Kiri’s eyes became pale green orbs of light, as she focused on Erick with a laser intensity. She played it calm, though, simply saying, “Oooh?”

“Yeah. I’m not going to repeat those requirements out loud, ever, but you should qualify, and if not, then we can work on that.”

Like some great weight released from all of the world, Kiri smiled, her eyes going soft, back to their normal dark green. She chugged her beer in one waterfall moment, then set down the mug and ripped the cloth off of her resting dough, saying, “Let’s make some pasta!”

Erick smiled, asking, “So have you been down to the war room area, lately?”

Kiri tossed flour onto the kitchen table, and slapped the dough down, as she said, “Nope! But let’s go after dinner.” She paused. “Or are you going to try and make [Teleport]?”

“I’m already doing that, right now.”

- - - -

Magic was truly a miracle of multiplicity.

Ophiel rode sulfurous skies over mountains made of fire and ash, twisting and rising and falling on plumes of heat, while he also rode ocean waves far down south, where mimics ate kelp on sandy beaches and monsters of the depths tried to snatch at his [Stoneshape]d surfboard.  

Elsewhere, Ophiel watched over a market of people buying fresh produce, while simultaneously spraying spells at mimics all the way over in the Wasteland, just so he could be doing something productive with his use of mana.  

Another Ophiel taught a different Ophiel about subjects both of them already knew; this was an orcol, this was a wyrm, this was a Shade, and that dark splotch watching from that shadow to the right was either Melemizargo, or someone who was about to have a very bad day for deigning to interrupt Melemizargo’s spying.  

Another Ophiel was looking over plans for an artillery spell. He didn't fully understand what he was looking at, but that was okay. Life was about learning, and failing, and then getting up and trying again. And since Ophiel was more than able to survive almost any possible failure, save for the failures of Erick, Ophiel was happy to try and learn whatever he could, just so that he could save the indispensable from dying his only death.

Bipeds watched as Ophiel’s gentle touch changed the land from black sand to black clay, and deepened the dirt into a depression, fit for the beginnings of a lake. Maybe.

Another Ophiel, flying high over unimportant and unnoticed land to the west, cried tears of [Call Lightning] for those he would never see again. He cried for Valok, and for Krakina, and even for Apogough. He let loose with song and rain that thrummed the sky and cracked the twilight air with bright white lightning. He cried for all the horrible things that had happened to everyone he had ever seen working on the Farms. He remembered singing for them while they were working hard, and now he sang for their souls, praying that they were at peace, wherever they were.  

The desert eagerly drank his tears; the land here could only ever thirst for more. Mimics reached up to the rain while agave vibrated in time to the lightning crashing overhead.  

Another Ophiel watched from Erick’s shoulder, as dinner was made and served, and the sun dipped down outside.  

Another Ophiel watched Spur from above Erick’s Tower, inside the Restful air of the house, bloomed out to his full height and stature, with a hundred eyes that pointed in every direction. He would watch and protect, as he had always done.  

And somewhere, along the way, each of them began to gently glow, like a perfectly crafted lightward.  

And somewhere, along the way, and only lasting a brief moment, there had been more than 10 Ophiel; the maximum allowed by the spell.  

- - - -

A blue box interrupted dinner.  

--

Special Quest Complete!

You have remade a Basic Spell.

Since you already have Teleport, have this instead:

+1 point!

--

With his fork stuck in twirling pasta with a cheesy sauce, Erick said, “[Teleport] has been remade.”

Teressa laughed. Poi smiled.

Kiri said, “Holy shit.” She asked, incredulous, “How?!”

Erick teased, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You have all the clues I did, and you have Sunny. Now you just need an Elemental Body skill.” He turned to Teressa, smiling, asking, “But we were talking about your day. Sorry to interrupt.”

Teressa seemed to light up, faintly smiling as she said, “Anyway. Long story short: the five stores were getting robbed, and no one knew how, but all the Guardmaster needed me for was ten minutes, and I had the suspect in my sights. Well. Everyone thought it was only one or two people, but it turned out it was actually five guys! And then we got them all.” She added, “Not quite as fulfilling as knocking a wyrm on its rotten arse, but still worthwhile.”

Erick asked, “What happened from there? I still don’t know much about the justice system except that people either get executed or exiled.”

Teressa said, “Well, those five guys are locked up until a judge can pass sentence, but they’ll probably get off easy. Detective Wash, one of the guys in the Guard who I work with, he says that apparently, the five stores they were targeting were responsible for some black market dealing, and those guys were trying to get back what was stolen from them.” She added, “It’s a whole drama, and everyone is probably lying in some way that they believe to be true, but no one killed anyone and nothing truly bad happened, so the black market might get dispersed or left alone. I don’t really know. That’s all out of my hands.”

“Huh. Okay.” Erick asked, “What’s for sale at black markets, anyway?”

“Drugs, mostly,” Teressa said.  

Poi added, “There’s also unlawful magical items.”

“Oh yeah.” Teressa said, “Blood Magic items are always popular, but most of them are harmless, so we look the other way. Change the shape of your nose, or the size of your— Uh. Well, you know. Anyway. Oh. And necromancy. Can’t forget the necromancy. You can pay people to call up your dead relatives to have one last chat, but I’ve heard that decays the soul, so you only really do that to people you hate.”  

“Hence the illegality,” Poi said.

Teressa said, “Silverite has a very strict mandate against necromancy of any kind, either way, so those kinds of offenses get treated rather harshly. Actually. Did you know that some of the stuff they do is legal in other parts of the world, but not here?” She smiled as she added, “We’re always catching some people doing something that they had no idea they shouldn’t do.”

Erick said, “Sounds like you like it. I’m glad.”

Terssa chuckled a little, and said, “It’s nice, but this here is the primary concern. [Witness]ing for the Guard is just a nice side-gig.”

“Still.” Erick sipped his beer, saying, “I’m happy for you.”

Teressa smiled. “Thanks.”

Kiri just remained silent, in thought, as she ate her pasta.

Erick said, “This is good pasta, Kiri.”

“Hmmm,” she said.

- - - -

With the three moons outside the windows, and wardlights blazing inside, Erick probably should have gone to the war room to see what sort of developments Candlepoint was getting up to, but he had work to do, and experiments to undertake.  

He had just finished his newest batch of plus-25 All Stat rings, not half an hour ago, so those went out to the various higher powers around town, through Ophiel. Poi cleared the way, first, of course. Couldn’t have Ophiel just blipping in front of people; that would not go well.  

Silverite, Mog, Sirocco, and Liquid, each got a set of ten rings. The average was 25 Stats, but some were stronger, and some were weaker, while some were sized for orcols, and most were sized for everyone else. He didn’t know the archmages of Spur, but he knew of them; he had left word with Silverite that he had rings for them too, if they wanted them, but they would have to come to him, and he had questions.

Everyone was busy, though, so Erick mainly just left the rings in the care of the appropriate people; they’d get to their recipients when they could. Erick didn’t mind. He was busy, too.  

He began by standing in front of his blackboard, with a beer in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other, asking, “How best to achieve the destruction of Candlepoint with one spell?”

Kiri, standing in front of her own blackboard, also drinking a beer, said, “I would say fire. But that would not work. The only thing that seems viable is your [Withering Slime], as long as you could keep the city solid, that is.”

“Right… All those idiot adventurers and otherwise inside the city. Can’t go killing people.”

“Well… Uh.” Kiri said, “I meant more that [Withering] is already the perfect anti-monster spell. Though it could be stronger. It couldn’t kill the Grand Ruby Mimics, after all.”

Teressa chuckled to the side, drinking from her keg. She said, “But you gotta destroy it all, Kiri. Killing the monsters doesn’t do shit. They’ll just come back.”

Kiri leveled her gaze at the larger orcol woman, who always said she didn’t like magic. Kiri asked, “Why are you even here?”

“I can be here if I want!” Teressa sloshed her keg at Erick, saying, “He said I could!”

“She is allowed to be here, Kiri.” Erick smiled. He added, “Anywho! Big explosions? Seems kinda fun? But that won’t kill a Shade, will it.”

Teressa said, “Eww. No. You’re trying to kill a Shade? I thought you were going for big boom magic. You can’t kill a Shade with magic.”

“Why do you say that?” Erick asked.

“Killzone ain’t no mage, and he’s the only one I know that can go fist-to-fist with a Shade and not get splattered across a city block.” Teressa added, “Sorry, Boss, but you ain’t a Shade killer.”

Erick said, “Killzone was supposed to show up for a special Stat item, and I’d love to ask him how he kills a Shade, but he’s not here right now. So how does he do it, Teressa?”

Teressa frowned. “I’ve… never actually seen it happen.”

“You want to give him that giant gem, don’t you?” Kiri asked, “What does it give?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “And I have no idea what it actually does. Nothing I put it in actually gives me Stats. I’ve tried a crown and a necklace, but both applications were untenable, even if they had worked.”

Teressa said, “You know what? Let’s get the man on the line! He might be able to come over. Don’t know until you ask, right?” She stood up, walking to the door, calling out, “Poi! Get the General to come over! They’re fiddling with magic to kill Shades!” She frowned as she got to the door, then went out of the room, muttering, “Where is that blasted man. I know he must hear me.”

Kiri ignored Teressa. “I saw that Poisoner from the Wasteland. How about some poison light-based spell? Can you do that? You once warned how ultraviolet light causes cancers, didn’t you? Seems like a logical step, there. Light is, after all, the best way to kill a Shade. I think.”

“Oh. Now there’s an idea.” Erick thought for a moment, then said, “But the appropriate [Ward] would block it. So. Maybe not. I do like the idea, though. It might be useful for when [Withering] doesn’t cut it, like with the mimic infestation. Even if that doesn’t work for Shades… I should make that spell, anyway.”  

“If you’re doing a physical spell and not a weather effect, the most you might have to worry over is an [Absorption Ward], and those affect everything, so any Particle Magic interaction would suffer the same negation effect as normal magic interaction.” Kiri said, “So don’t worry about [Ward] blocking a… A [Cloudlight] spell, or whatever.”

“Oh. That’s what you mean. Hmm.” Erick thought. He said, “Still not a Shade killer, though.” He threw an idea out there, “How about... Take a rock, and throw a [Massless Ward] on it, and then accelerate the rock to the speed of light, but pop the [Ward] the exact moment it strikes the target. Or maybe don’t pop the [Ward] at all? Hmm.”

“… That seems like [Rock Bolt] with extra steps.” Kiri said, “You can get that spell up to rather high damage numbers, but the rock ultimately disintegrates due to wind friction.”

Erick frowned a little. “I’d need to keep the wind off of it, too, huh. Oh! I could turn the rock into light!”

“… Can you?”

“With [Lightwalk], sure!” Erick shrugged. “Probably. That would require some more testing.”

Teressa returned to the room with Poi in tow, a refilled keg for herself, and two more mugs of beer for Erick and Kiri. She handed them off, smiling, saying, “And here you go.”

Erick took his beer, saying, “Thanks.”

“Thanks, Teressa,” Kiri said.

Poi said, “Killzone cannot join you tonight, but Silverite thanks you for the rings. Guildmaster Zago and Mog also thank you. All three of them said variations of ‘we will find a way to repay this kind gesture’, with Zago having the longest thank you of all. Hers included mention of the Wasteland.”

Erick shrugged. “Good luck to them, I guess. These rings might be special right now, but they won’t be that way forever.” He turned to the blackboard behind him, and began writing, “In fact, a lot of things seem special right now, but I plan on making them prevalent enough that Candlepoint looks like trapped trash compared to Spur.” He had only gotten to ‘recreate Stat fruits, just after ‘big light beam weapon’, when he paused. He said, “You know… I really should see what’s down there by the war room before I go making plans.” He set down the chalk. “In fact. Let’s do that right now. And where’s the nearest, best ‘town hall’ or whatever, to hear the latest news.”  

Poi thought for a moment, before saying, “I don’t think there are any town halls this late at night. We would have to go to the next one, tomorrow, wherever it might be; I’ll find out. Now might be a good time to visit the war rooms, though, when they aren’t so busy.”

Teressa shrugged, saying, “I’m ready,” as she cast a tiny [Cold Ward] on her chair and set her keg inside. “That’ll keep.”

“Me too,” Erick said. With a gesture, and a cast of [Cleanse] over himself, thick air spilled away from his body. He shivered, and frowned, as a tiny headache threatened behind his eyes, but whatever drunkenness he had was gone. He said, “Convenient, but annoying.”

Kiri set her own drink aside with a sigh, as she [Cleanse]d herself. “Just drink some water before we go.”

- - - -

The Mage Guildhouse was open all day, every day, though the people who manned the counters and walked the halls were rather different at night than who Erick was used to seeing. And the security was a lot higher than usual. Guards, in silver armor, stood around the outside of the building, and a few places inside. An orcol man at the receptionist desk confirmed who Erick was, which was rather easy and basically just involved a ‘hello Archmage Flatt, what are you interested in today?’, before directing a young purplescale boy to guide Erick through to the war rooms down below.  

Erick, Kiri, Poi, and Teressa passed two checkpoints to get to their destination. The first checkpoint was just a pair of people in silver armor, who nodded as Erick passed. The second security area was down at the bottom of the stairs in front of the war rooms, and involved guards at the entrance to every single room. The purplescaled boy scampered back up the stairs, as Erick and company walked forward.

The guards down here seemed to guard the location, while also popping every single [Scry] eye they saw. And there were a lot of [Scry] eyes. Every single second, more and more eyes popped into the air, before getting popped themselves. There was a measure of security, but Erick felt that they really could have been doing better.

The crowd down here was not overly large, but it almost reminded Erick of an art viewing, only without the tiny cheeses on crackers, or flutes of champagne in everyone’s hands. There were a lot of discussions going on, between smaller parties here and there.  

Erick glanced in to the first room on the left. A large wardlight map of Candlepoint had been crafted into the center of the space. Markers pointed at the various structures, listing what they were. Wardlight pictures had been hung on the walls, showing different angles of various positions around the shadowy city. Erick only really read ‘Version 5’, hanging below the map, to know that a map of the place was almost useless; Candlepoint could change its geography at will.  

The second room held the same list of monsters that was in Candlepoint’s Adventurer’s Guildhouse. Erick had already seen the list. He did not spend long in that room, but he did check to see if ‘Converter Angel’ was still up there. It was. But when Erick was ready to move on, Teressa stuck by the board, her eyes a little wider than before, her stance a little more full of anger.  

Erick turned back, asking, “What do you see?”

Teressa almost said nothing; Erick could see a hatred taking form across her face. But after a moment, she whispered, “Cursed Babbler. Only 2 darkchips. Ha. That’s a lie.” She added, “They only exist inside Ar’Kendrithyst… Until they don’t.” She breathed. She asked, “Why is Candlepoint sending people into the Dead City to kill some of their larger threats?” She pointed up at ‘Crystal Griever’. “4 chips.” She pointed at another. “Changeling Vine, 3 chips.” She said, “All monsters only inside— Oh.”

Poi frowned.  

Erick guessed, “They’re not just inside the Dead City anymore, are they?”

Teressa’s demeanor turned dark, as she went silent.

Kiri asked, “So where are they? They’re not here, and they’re not in Frontier or Kal’Duresh… or maybe they are?” There was a woman near the board, with a mage guild badge on her chest, who was slipping new blocks onto the monster kill board. Kiri said, “Excuse me.”

The woman asked, “Yes?”

Kiri pointed at the names in question, asking, “When did these go up?”

The woman glanced at the board. “Sorry. I don’t really know. Most of them have been on here since the beginning— Oh. Cursed Babbler. I know that one. That one has been here since the beginning, I’m sure.” She guessed, “Either the Shades seeded them outside the Dead City, or they want people to venture into the city. We’re all pretty sure it’s the latter.”

“Why do you say that?” Kiri asked.

“Go visit the other rooms.” The woman pointed across the hallway, saying, “That one, in particular. We got news about Umber Street during the morning shift. Apparently the place is almost like Candlepoint but with different offerings.”

Erick immediately went to the room across the hallway. Five other people were there, but only three of them were looking at the boards in front of them. The other two were guards standing near glowing metal runes carved into the walls; anti-[Scry] runes, from the looks of them. As Erick entered, those runes dimmed, as Ophiel squawked on his shoulder.

Whoops! Ophiel was always technically [Scry]ing, wasn’t he? Erick patted the little guy, as his produced a dozen more eyes, trying to keep his eyesight intact.  

The guard to the left almost said something to Erick, but the other guard interrupted, “Just fill it with more oil, Faroi.”

Faroi, the first guard, went back to his rune, and picked up a large stone jar from the ground. The two guards began filling the runes with oil, returning a brightness to the metal.  

Erick went to the first of five boards.  

This first board held all the ‘basic tier’ rewards, such as daggers that cut better or staffs of fireball; basically anything Erick could have made himself, if he were better at enchanting and had the requisite spells himself. All of those items cost between 1 to 15 darkchips, or between a thousand to 15,000 gold. The prices were inflated, for sure, but were mostly normal. Erick briefly looked at the 5% Reduction Pearl, thinking it would be a good idea, but then ignored that board.  

The next board held ‘lesser prizes’. Some of these were self explanatory, like the ‘Cloak of Invisibility’, but when the names of the items were not good enough to describe what the item did, there were small descriptions next to the listing. Some of those descriptions were guesses, and labeled ‘guess’. Others were labeled as ‘known’. A small section of those prizes was devoted entirely to boots. Boots of the Juggernaut. Boots of Wall Walking. Boots of Ceaseless Flight. Boots of Radiance.  

Several of the boots looked to be derived from the movement skills of the Elemental Body skills. Erick had never seen those sorts of enchantments in any of the magic stores he had ever visited, but maybe that was only because the vast majority of people in the world did not have an Elemental Body skill at the correct level to make the boots. Erick assumed that most people would either continue on to the full Elemental Body skill, and not choose to stop halfway. He would have to try his own hand at the ‘Boots of Radiance’, later.  

Teressa scoffed, “Boots of the Juggernaut. As if.”

Erick asked, “Unmovable movement, in boots, eh?”

“Yeah.” Teressa said, “It’s the main reason to choose to be a Juggernaut. But to put that skill in a pair of boots that could fail or be taken from you, while your team depends on you being an unmovable object? That’s asking for trouble.”

Erick agreed, as his eyes lingered on the ‘Staff of Hands’. He needed to try Cooperative Casting with Ophiel, even though every book that had mentioned the subject had said that [Familiar]s didn’t work for Ritual Magic. Whatever! Maybe everyone was wrong. Crazier things had happened.  

Erick moved onto the ‘Normal Prizes’ board. Here, were all the Stat fruits.

Strength, Vitality, Willpower, and Focus. Meatdrop, Blooddrop, Oceandrop, and Dewdrop. Each of them cost a hundred darkchips. Each of them raised their associated Stat by 1 permanent point.

And then there were the other ones.  

Sundrop, for Dexterity. Rockdrop, for Constitution. Foamdrop, for Charisma. And finally, Stardrop, for Intelligence. Each of them cost a thousand darkchips.  

Beside that board, were known effects of some of the Stats, and one large warning, that ‘Only one Stat can be unlocked. Attempting to unlock a second will instantly turn a person into a shadeling.’ Erick lingered on that warning for a moment, before reading more.  

-- 

Dexterity

Applies a % reduction to all HP costs, after all other reductions.  

--

Constitution  

Applies a % damage reduction, after all other reductions. Side effects are being physically more resilient to all outside effects.

--

Charisma

Applies an unknown, insidious alteration to all social interactions. People are friendlier to you, without any conscious control. The full extent of this Stat is unknown at this time, and can lead to many horrific events.  

The Mind Mages are investigating. Beware this Stat.

--

Intelligence

Unknown. For sale only in Ar’Kendrithyst.

--

Erick said, “Well that’s fucking ominous.”  

Kiri grumbled in agreement.

Erick briefly glanced at the fourth board. It was labeled ‘Greater Rewards’, and was full of unique items and costs. ‘Undertake a trial to become a Shade’ was one of them. That horror only cost a person 100,000 darkchips. ‘Learn the secrets of magic’ was another; also 100,000 chips.  

‘A personalized artifact’. Variable cost.

While Erick was still reeling from the fourth board, he moved on. The final board held quests with darkchips as rewards, instead of items for sale. There were only three quests up there, right now.  

--

Hocnihai’s Legacy. The life’s work of one of the greatest Warder Archmages of Veird has been written, and locked away. Deliver this knowledge to Candlepoint and be rewarded.  

--

Trials of the Dark Dragon. Find Melemizargo in the Underworld and engage him in witty conversation. Maybe something good will happen.

--

To Touch the Sky. Build an airship that can safely leave Veird and survive outside of the manasphere.  

--

Erick erupted, “Ha!” He asked, “They want to leave Veird?!”

Anhelia spoke up beside Erick, “That’s one theory.”

Erick turned. Anhelia was a dark grey wrought incani, with backswept horns, a slick dress formed from her body, and a devilish smile. She was the information broker of Spur, and she was one of the only people of this city, with a modicum of power, that wanted every single Shade dead and gone; just like Erick. According to her, the Dark Dragon killed her grandmother, mother, and too many of her children to think about. Erick had no reason to disbelieve her.

Anhelia smiled.  

Erick said, “I’m glad you’re here. I’d like to talk to you about some important subjects.”

Anhelia nodded. “I have a room upstairs we can use.”