144 (Patreon)

The day dawned red, with stillness in the air and the promise of storms on the horizon.

Ezekiel had woken early, as usual. Breakfast would be delivered soon by the proprietor’s wife, but the room had supplies enough for a few things, and he had bought more in their time in Darzallia. He made himself a nice pot of some ‘specialty blend’ lime-blossom tea that had caught his eye and his nose, then poured that tea into a cup already filled with just the right amount of crystalline rock sugar. Granulated sugar was a rarity in this part of the world with both commoners and nobles both mainly using rock sugar. The sugar Ezekiel had bought was also lime-flavored. Soon enough, shimmering green tea swirled with slowly-dissolving sugar in his cup, while Ezekiel sat by the window, reading, enjoying the quiet hours of the new day.

Soon enough, Paul joined him, and made himself a cup. He deeply inhaled the smell, and said, “I like it.”

Ezekiel refilled his own cup, saying, “I could see orange and lemon blossom tea being a thing here as well.”

Paul nodded, as he grabbed his own book and sat down on the other side of the front room.

Julia and Tiffany woke after breakfast was delivered, and the smells of thick-slice fried bacon filled the room.

Ezekiel spied another ‘delivery’ walking this way, out on the road that ran beside the Sour House. Enforcer Sikali. Her skin was a pale tan color, and she looked human enough, but something about her seemed ‘demi’. She didn’t seem to have any bloodlust in her this time, or if she did, it was low-grade enough to not set off Ezekiel’s gut feeling.

He told Julia, “Your escort will be here soon. Or handler. I’m not sure.”

Julia ignored the rest of her food and rapidly grabbed another bit of bacon. She stuffed it in her mouth as she rushed away from the living room, back to her own, speaking through her full mouth, “A minute!”

Tiffany rapidly proceeded to grab up all the rest of the bacon, saying, “All mine!”

In moments, Julia came out of her room wearing working robes of a cut similar to what a peasant would wear when toiling out in the fields, but hers were a bright blue that shimmered iridescent in the sunlight. Not bad for a tunic and pants! Ezekiel had worked with Julia last night to make them out of her [Prismatic Thread], and they were only one of a dozen new outfits. Everyone got new robes and otherwise. All of the new stuff was solid colored, but shimmered like rainbows when the light caught them at the right angle.

The new clothes weren’t as physically strong as the white-thread Shadow Spider silk, but they were superbly comfortable. Julia had trouble combining her new [Prismatic Thread] with the thick thread from the Shadow Spider, but Ezekiel had confidence that she would figure it out.

They had talked a lot about a lot last night, while they were weaving in the midnight hours.

They had started talking about how they treated each other, which they both agreed was poor, sometimes, but it was only because they both worried for the other. Then the conversation moved on, and they both tried talking as though they were both capable of taking care of themselves. They spoke of threats, and concerns, and smaller things. It was a good conversation.

Ezekiel looked at his daughter, dressed up in her new iridescent blue outfit, and smiled. She would surely get ripped up just as badly as her new clothes, but she had all the tools necessary to repair all of that damage. Soon, Ezekiel would also have all the tools to repair the damage this world could do to a body, and that had made Julia happy, too.

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “You look ready.”

Julia smiled back, and said, “I feel ready. [Perfected Body] makes me feel… Better. In all ways.”

Ezekiel’s eyebrows raised. “You can adjust yourself like that?”

“Come on now, dad.” Julia said, “I can put spinnerets in my forearms; I can put [Perfected Body] in this form, too.”

“I know that, but...” Ezekiel wasn’t quite happy that his daughter called her natural-born ‘Familiar Form’, a ‘form’. But he could deal. In an attempt to meet her halfway, he asked, “How does [Perfected Body] make you feel? Any differences inside that are apparent to you?”

Julia smirked. “You can look, you know. You tell me.”

He had already, to make sure that she was doing okay, but he didn’t like the idea of her replacing parts of herself like that. He asked, “Does it feel different?”

Julia shrugged. “Eh.” She walked to the front door, saying, “It’s hard to tell— Ah. My eyes are perfectly symmetrical. Just noticed that in the mirror, actually. The vascularity in my left arm is now as great as in my right arm, and the veins are the same. It’s a bunch of small things, you know? I’m also feeling great on four hours of sleep. So that’s a little different. Usually there’s some trouble waking up in the morning after days like the one we had yesterday, but there was none this morning.” She stood by the door, saying, “And it was easier to [Polymorph] those spinnerets last night, now that I think about it.”

“I still find it odd that monster abilities just have names, and no blue boxes,” Ezekiel said.

Julia said, “They’re more biological functions than abilities.” She looked away, frowning a little, then said, “Maybe monsters are like living enchantments?” She added, “Eh. No. That's too simple.”

Ezekiel hummed, thinking about it. Living enchantments? “They’re made with [Husbandry]… People can become monsters if they form a core... I don’t know.” He said, “When you go meet Riri for lessons, or something, let me know. I’ll end up there sometime, too.”

Sikali was almost to their door.

Julia said, “Whenever that happens, I’ll let you know.” She smiled, throwing open the door, saying, “But for now, we got monsters to hunt!”

Sikali barely broke stride as she walked into view. She had a mien of professionalism upon her face and a simple, yet elegant, red and black court dress. She spied Ezekiel in the room, past Julia, and said, “Greetings, Scion Ezekiel Phoenix.”

Julia went professional, too, as she recognized a tradition of greeting the one in charge first. She stepped to the side and stood, silent.

Ezekiel stood up from his chair, saying, “Greetings, Enforcer Sikali Star Song. Won’t you come in? I can make some tea for us.” With a thought toward canceling one of the layered [Prismatic Ward]s in the room, he did so, opening a space in the hotel room for Sikali to walk inside.

Sikali bowed her head a fraction, and stepped into the room, saying, “I appreciate the courtesy, but we have a busy schedule. Some other day, perhaps? My husband Xue makes a fantastic sun tea. We would love to host you and your Clan for a meal, if you are willing.”

“I gladly accept your invitation, though I know not when I am available; it seems like something large and new is happening every day.” Ezekiel asked, “And speaking of invitations: I have appointments with the Singers of Void Song during the morning, but my afternoons are free. I’m not too sure when your husband and Elder Arilitilo wish to get together for lessons, but if you know when that will take place, then I am sure we can figure out the rest from there.”

“Star Song has many duties, but we will make time for you.” Sikali said, “Regarding the teaching promised by Elder Arilitilo and my husband Xue, I have been told that it is best to practice Blood Magic a few hours after a hearty meal, so if your mid-morning is occupied, then mid-afternoon will need to be acceptable. If this is agreed upon, then please tell me now, and I will inform them to wait for your arrival in the afternoon.”

“This is a fine time table.” Ezekiel asked, “Would you be able to speak on the planned lessons with Loremaster Riri, as well?”

“My husband and his Elder will be able to answer this concern, but I cannot.” Sikali said, “One or the other of them will likely guide you to Loremaster Riri’s secondary offices, which are located next to Xue’s in the Lore House.”

“Ah! Good.” Ezekiel asked, “Where should I go to meet them, then? Back to your Clan mountain?”

Sikali bowed her head, saying, “This is correct, Scion Phoenix. Upon arrival, an initiate or inner disciple will be able to guide you further, but I suspect that as soon as you show, an Elder will also show. Do you have any other concerns I may answer?”

“A schedule for my daughter, so that I know when I need to be concerned.” Ezekiel said, “I am not that worried for her, but a father is never not worried.”

Sikali grinned slightly, politely, and said, “I will ensure 12 hour check-ins, but we will be venturing into the Underworld in a few locations, therefore we will not be able to maintain that schedule. You will be notified when this occurs.”

Good enough. Ezekiel gave a low gesture toward his daughter as he stepped out of the conversation, but not away.

Sikali turned to Julia, saying, “I look forward to working with you.”

“And I look forward to working with you, as well,” Julia said, professionally.

Sikali turned to Ezekiel and bowed, then rose and walked out of the room first.

Julia rushed her father and hugged him.

Ezekiel enjoyed the far-too-short embrace.

Julia broke away and rushed after Sikali. She quickly fell in beside the Enforcer, and they started talking in small voices, but soon switched to telepathic conversation. Ezekiel watched them go down the stairs, then out of the Sour House. Far too quickly, Julia and Sikali were walking along the road outside the hotel.

Ezekiel relaxed his mana sense, and the two of them fell out of sight. He turned to his remaining people, and said, “Time to visit Kaffi.”

- - - -

Paul and Tiffany sat across the way, on the other side of the large stone amphitheater.

Ezekiel sat on the same stone bench as Kaffi.

A dozen books and twice as many scrolls sat between them. Some of the scrolls were opened and stacked to the side, along with some of the books; attempted and discarded. Others sat in a halfway pile; attempted and appreciated. The Singer had brought quite a few aura control training manuals to their session. None of them had led to a sudden breakthrough, but…

Kaffi unrolled another scroll, reading it as she said, “This might be a good one for you. It’s a little unorthodox, but it has worked before for many people.”

She had said that about every method.

Kaffi said, “Sit upon your knees, this time. Hold your hands in a triangle shape above your stomach, but do not allow your fingers to touch, or allow your arms to come into contact with any other solid surface, including your legs, or your sides. Sit in such a way that no body part is directly touching another body part. As much as one can, anyway. Relax. Breathe in and out. Relax. Move your hands in and out, gently, attempting to mold your aura into a ball. Breath in and out in time to the molding. Feel the energy flow across the skin of your body. Feel the direction of the flow toward your hands. Gather your aura in your hands, and realize how it works.” Kaffi added, “This one has some demeaning wording, but it works sometimes.”

Ezekiel smirked, as he got into position, sitting on his knees. He had gotten into a lot of different positions over the last hour, but about half of them had him sitting in this way. Laying down was also popular. Cross legged was not popular.

Kaffi went silent. She watched.

Ezekiel tried this latest method for ten minutes, to no result.

Kaffi called it, “Time.” She added, “That one seemed better than some of the others. No obvious results, though. Moving right along.” She picked up one of the books that they had already gone through, and flipped to a different bookmark, saying, “For this one you have to…”

That one didn’t work either.

The next one was a failure.

“Time,” Kaffi said, breaking the silence of the room again.

Ezekiel opened his eyes.

Kaffi asked, “Did any of those seem to work better than any of the other ones?”

“I liked the visualization ones. Especially the one that combined the aura casting and canceling but with continuous attempts at moving around the aura, even when the spell was off.” Ezekiel said, “They seemed like they were working, or that they might work one day.”

“Any idea why you feel that way about those techniques?”

“The goal is to be able to interact with the world with my aura, which pairs well with actually attempting to move the world even if I have no spell effects that allow me to easily do so.”

Kaffi asked, “And you didn’t like the ones where you use lower levels of the Meditation Skill?”

“Nope.”

“You explained already, but I require a larger explanation.” Kaffi explained, “Most people like those ones.”

Ezekiel frowned a little, then said, “Meditation causes the user to vaguely see the mana all around them, which has the side effect of forcing the user to see the hallucinations that life has imbued upon the immaterial. Most of those hallucinations have gone away since I gained Scion of Focus so long ago, but they’re up front and center when I use the lower levels of Meditation; when I drop myself into that dark place. I don’t appreciate that.”

“Hmm. Fair.” Kaffi said, “Well. We’re done for now. I expected this testing to take a lot longer. This is quite a lot easier to do when you can memorize everything as fast as you do.” She said, “I will bring a larger selection of techniques that might work for you tomorrow, based on what I’ve already seen and what you’ve said.” She stood, saying, “But the Grand Elder would like to see you, if you would be amenable. We’ve many options for lunch.”

They’d been at this for three hours. This was a good stopping point. But did he want lunch with a ‘grand elder’? Eh. Sure. Why not!

Ezekiel stretched, then stood, and diplomatically said, “I would be honored.”

Kaffi smiled brightly. “Then please follow me. We shall be heading upstairs, to the fifth floor.”

Up a grand, winding staircase they went, surrounded by white walls that gently echoed with the sound of the Void Song. The Song was a heartburn in process when he listened to it out there in Eralis, but when he was inside the Void Temple, it was nice; like quiet music. He said as much to Kaffi, as they walked upward, past hallways of acolytes in their dorm rooms or classrooms, and other hallways filled with office workers.

Kaffi said, “For all the Void Song has brought prosperity to Eralis, those of us with ears to hear can barely stand it. Thus, we have some tricks in the walls of the Temple.”

“I can imagine growing up here and never knowing that the world isn’t supposed to sound like that until after Matriculation and wanting to explore the world, or after stepping out of the city for the first time for some other reason.”

Kaffi said, “Most kids are raised to know what the Song is, but if they don’t understand themselves through common knowledge, then they learn through taking a day-trip with a parent or otherwise, outside of Eralis.” She asked, “What brought you to this observation?”

“Ah. I can imagine that, too.” Ezekiel said, “It’s the idea of it that captured me for a moment there. Suddenly, they don’t hear that background sound. It’s like finally realizing that there was more to everything than what they knew possible. It’s the same thing that seems to happen to me in every place I visit, and with every new thing I learn.”

Kaffi smiled, but said nothing more as they reached the fifth floor.

The staircase ended its rise in the center of a half-open floor plan. A wall separated north from south, just a little to the south of the staircase. Beyond those southern walls and doors were industrial-level kitchens, churning out lots of nice meals. The white stone floor to the north was filled with tables, while the walls were large windows that showed the greying skies over Eralis; rain had threatened all day long, but nothing had come of it yet. To the west of the staircase, Ezekiel mana sensed, and saw, as people blipped into a designated Teleport Zone in groups. Those groups were already talking with each other as they moved into the cafeteria.

And all around, people ate food and talked and laughed and lived. Most of them were younger than Julia, but there were a few older faces here and there. Most wore grey robes, but many wore white. Ezekiel understood that grey denoted trainees and acolytes, but white robes were given when one proved themselves as dedicated to High Clan Void Song, or if they were on the path of the Singer. If there were delineations between Singer and not-Singer and otherwise, then Ezekiel did not recognize them.

A few acolytes saw Kaffi and called her over to their table, but she declined, and guided Ezekiel forward, through the room, to a set of double doors on the far end of the cafeteria space. The doors opened at her approach. Ezekiel, Paul, and Tiffany followed her into a more private area.

Several booths lined the walls on either side of the door, each of them with a grand view of the north, through tall, massive windows. Grey clouds loomed all above, ready to unleash their rains. Buildings rose all across the horizon, each of them trying to outdo each other in size or architecture, but none reaching the heights that Ezekiel had seen back on Earth. Like a hidden treasure peeking out between those tall structures, the Void Wall was a sharp white line, while the Void Gate was highly visible. It rose high into the sky, to the left, the top-most arc of ‘Rozeta’s Body’ vanishing into the lower grey clouds, and then coming back down to resume its encirclement of Eralis.

It was a nice place to eat, for sure, but only one other person was in this VIP room.

She sat in a booth to the left. She was a stately older woman of white skin, white hair, and violet eyes, wearing a violet robe which had to be one of the most expensive, and yet understated walking-around robes Ezekiel had ever seen on a person. The second thing he noticed about her was a gentleness that was probably totally false, for you didn’t become a ‘grand elder’ of anything without being the kind of person that actually went for that sort of thing.

Being a Grand Elder certainly wasn’t like being an archmage, where all it took was having a knack for magic and suddenly you had more power than you knew what to do with.

Anyway.

Meeting a Grand Elder.

Kaffi walked the woman’s way, then stepped to the side, gesturing as she said, “Scion Ezekiel Phoenix. Please meet Grand Elder Lingxing Void Song.”

Ezekiel bowed his head, then rose, saying, “A pleasure to meet you, Grand Elder Lingxing.”

Lingxing gestured to the table she sat at, and spoke softly, “Please sit with me, Scion Ezekiel. We have some of the best cuisine here, and quite a lot of it has been recently inspired by the dishes coming out from the Crystal Forest. Your daughter is from there, if I heard correctly.”

Ezekiel felt nothing untoward in Lingxing’s voice or demeanor, but she seemed nice. So either she was the world’s best liar, or she was tied for that position with Kaffi, or she was simply being pleasant.

“Thank you for the invitation.” Ezekiel sat down, saying, “And yes, you heard correctly.”

Lingxing gave a small smile, then said to Kaffi, “Some menus, Kaffi.” She asked Ezekiel, “Or we could order everything on the menu?”

“I’m up for some Blood Magic lessons after this so I have been told I should eat plenty, but maybe not the whole menu.”

Lingxing gave a polite chuckle at the small joke, then said to Kaffi, “Some of the better dishes, and also the more popular ones, if you will, along with enough for Scion Ezekiel’s people. See that we are not unduly disturbed.”

Kaffi bowed, then walked away.

Lingxing asked, “Would you prefer some privacy spells? I can craft some, or I will accept yours, if you wish. I would like to talk plainly, but not about anything too important.”

No horrific alarm bells were going off in his head, so that was an alarm right there, but… Odin was on his shoulder. His defenses were up. He was safe.

He said, “I could accept raising my own.”

Lingxing nodded.

Ezekiel shaped a [Sealed Privacy Ward] across a large portion of the room, covering their booth, a few other adjacent booths, and half of the room. He gestured for his people to take one of the other booths nearby.

Paul and Tiffany took a seat at the adjacent booth.

Lingxing glanced around, and seemed at ease with the spellwork around her, but she wasn’t interested in that. She locked eyes with Ezekiel. The kindly grandmother-type was still there in her visage, but she was serious, now. Ezekiel sat straighter.

Lingxing said, “I’m so glad to meet you, Archmage Flatt. We’ve been waiting a long time for you to show, and I am glad you showed on my watch. I hope Kaffi is treating you well. If she is not, let me know, and I can find you a replacement.”

… Maybe she wasn’t secretly furious with him, or some other untoward emotion? Maybe she wasn’t filled with plots and plans? Of course, the absence of a plot or a plan was automatically both.

But Lingxing didn’t fill Erick with dread. She seemed curious. Hopeful. Happy, even.

“Kaffi, or whoever she is, was a surprise, but she seems fine. I can appreciate someone going incognito, so I have no place to judge that.” Erick said, “And it is a pleasure to finally be here in the Highlands, Grand Elder.”

“Oh! Please call me Lingxing when we’re in private. I have heard you prefer people to call you Erick?”

Erick fought off a smile. “I do. In private.”

“You have avoided many planned events by showing up under a friendly guise, instead of as yourself.”

“Then my own plots and plans were a success.” Erick asked, “But just so I know: What did you have planned?”

“There were to be parties, for one. We have some of the nicest hotel rooms in the world waiting for you, though they do get rented out occasionally; we would have made room. Other than that, there would be a lot of meetings with important people.” Lingxing said, “Half of the powers in the High Clans would have asked for your assistance in locating some murderers and terrorists and ending threats in this part of the world, though I understand your daughter is doing some of that. Thank you for that, by the way.

“The other half would have tried to drown you in excess luxury, while asking you for the favor to be returned in whatever manner they could convince you of.

“Everyone would have wanted to open trade, and to be the ones to teach you of the Songs, and to hopefully learn from you in turn.”

“Sounds like quite a tour.”

And one he did not want to do. Not yet, anyway. Maybe not ever.

“We can still do all of that, if you want, but it is strictly unnecessary.” Lingxing said, “Your ‘Scion Ezekiel’ facade is getting drawn into quite a few whirlpools of desires and plans, but Archmage Flatt would have been a lot worse.” She added, “Just so you know: If you ever need help with any of the problems you find in the Clans of the Songli Highlands, as Scion Ezekiel, you have friends in High Clan Places.”

Erick felt wary at being called ‘friends’ already.

So he asked, “Do I? Have friends?”

Lingxing said, “A premature notion, I am sure. To tell you the truth, Erick, I wanted you to be Scion Ezekiel. The idea of someone of your power and temperament showing up out of nowhere, desiring to be friendly with the Songli Highlands? That is the stuff of dreams. Erick Flatt is tied to Spur, and we wish him well. But Scion Ezekiel! He could have gone far, here, making a strong name for himself and his Clan.” She added, “Alas, Void Song is one of many who will need to content itself with seeing the big fish get away.”

“I hoped to not get involved in any large affairs, but I cannot seem to stick to that plan.”

“Plans and reality rarely mix well.”

Erick smiled at that.

And Lingxing hadn’t mentioned the Worldly Path yet, so maybe she didn’t know? This was good.

Lingxing turned fractionally more serious, “But now I must ask something important.”

Erick lost his smile.

Tentatively, he asked, “… What is it?”

“We have been trying to understand how best to use the new foods you have created, but some of them do not fit with the usual cooking methods common to the Highlands.” Lingxing asked, “I wish to talk about food with you. For starters: these red tomatoes!” With a pleasant, excited voice, she asked, “And the ‘beefsteak’ tomatoes in particular. How do you best use those in your food?”

Uh.

Okay!

This was fine?

“Besides ketchup?” Erick went with it, saying, “Slices of tomato in a sandwich of bacon and lettuce and mayo. I know it doesn’t sound appetizing, but every time my daughter made one for me, I was reminded that I really like those flavors together.”

“You can’t have a sandwich without mayo,” Lingxing said, “It makes everything better. I doubt your tomatoes even have to be red to enjoy that sort of thing.”

Ah. He saw where she was going with this.

Red tomatoes actually were a big deal, but in a Quiet way.

“I got some pushback on the red tomatoes back in Spur, too, but I never intended to touch that cultural nuance of the Quiet War. It seems like someone would have made other colors of tomatoes long before now.”

Lingxing smiled, and bright emotions swelled from the woman, as she said, “I never liked the purple ones either, but these red tomatoes are spreading everywhere, now that the humans of this world can hold up their own version of the ‘tomato’ as ‘human-made’.” She added, “We don’t do the Quiet War here, so I was glad to see that particular food item come from a creator with a Silver Star upon his chest. I love ketchup. I love red sauces. They seem to give a dish a certain vibrancy that you don’t get with purple, and tomatoes being red now has opened a whole new street of options. We usually have to make red sauces out of peppers, and spice is not one of my favorite flavors.”

Oh? Maybe she was actually a foodie? For real?

Food and culture was a big intersection. Talking about one but actually discussing the other was an interesting tact to take. It was easier, for one. Though Erick would be happy with a simpler talk about food, without the extra layer.

“My daughter can’t get enough spice, but I can do without it as well. Have you tried the ranch dressing?” Erick said, “I was particularly proud of that one. Had to invent almost every herb that went into that thing. But now I can cut down almost any spicy food that Jane brings home.”

“I have tried that one, but I feel it was not created properly. Do you have a proper recipe?

“Yes. I’ll get the recipe to you soon. Have you tried lemons yet?”

“Oh yes. I have tried the oranges, too, and those are great! Much better than limes. A dozen varieties of lime and none of them sweet. Why just the other day, I…”

Rapidly, they left behind the political layer to the food talk.

They spoke of foods of all kinds as the first dishes were wheeled into the room by Kaffi, and deposited on the table. There were fries and ketchup. Rice and mayo. Fish and red meats and white meats. Sauces of all kinds. It was a feast, and they spoke of every single dish there, talking about where it came from and how it was made. When Kaffi came back with more dishes, she came back with a pad of paper and pens. They exchanged recipes.

Lingxing was a foodie, for real, and it showed.

Erick left the Void Temple feeling full and fine, with a list of restaurants to try in Eralis and the surrounding cities, and with an open invitation to stay for lunch in the cafeteria whenever he felt like it, after his lessons with Kaffi.

Lingxing was obviously after something, but if that ‘something’ was just... the friendship… of an… archmage. Yeah. She was after that, for sure. But whatever?

There were worse friends to have, and Ezekiel wasn’t about to become some jaded misanthrope who was constantly judging the actions of everyone around him in the most harsh possible light. Everyone needs friends, right? Friendships had to start somewhere, and mutual exchange and interest and proximity was as good of a start as any.

And anyway, it’s not like they were friends after a single lunch.

Ezekiel asked his people, “Did you two like that lunch?”

“It was good.” Tiffany said, “I liked the steak.”

Paul said, “The fish was well seasoned.”

“Did she seem honest?”

Tiffany hummed, non-committal.

Paul said, “About as much as anyone.”

Fair enough.

- - - -

Light rain misted down from the sky as Ezekiel, Paul, and Tiffany stepped out of magenta light, onto the white tiles of the Teleport Square, before the bridge to the Alluvial District. By the time they got halfway across the bridge the sky had begun to rain rather hard. Rain did not touch him, though, or any of the other people on the bridge, for many different [Weather Ward]s had been erected over the bridge.

Maybe the deflecting [Ward]s were always there? Or maybe they were just there for the event of the day, for there was certainly something going on.

People lined both sides of the bridge, in small clusters, most of them with small children. There was no one nearby who Ezekiel recognized, and they didn’t seem to care about him, though a few people did turn to look at veiled Tiffany. The kids all watched the water, eager and excited, as the rain began to pour in earnest and the adults around them began to speak of ‘It’s about to start’ and ‘There! Did you see that one!’.

Down below, the Wanzhi River Delta, stretched out over dozens of kilometers in every direction, its many sandbanks full of grasses and small, winding streams, began to rise. The rains had started far to the north, long before now, and the waters and rains were just now arriving. The river didn’t rise too much, but there was a clear difference compared to a minute before. Some of the sandbanks were now little more than tufts of green that struggled to rise above the rushing waters.

Small ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ escaped from the watching kids.

Ezekiel had slowed his walk, watching, but now he had to see with his own eyes. He went to an open section of the bridge to watch. Tiffany and Paul followed. He could already see what was happening with his Odin, flying high above, and so could Tiffany, with her mana sense, and so could Paul through the two of them and everyone else all around, but none of that was as nice as seeing in person.

Together, the three of them watched as the churning waters came alive with red glints. Here and there, like a beast was waking under a deep, frothing ocean, tiny red flits flashed their red scales in small sections, in sync with their direct neighbors.

The fish were each as large as anchovies and barely visible on their own, but they were plentiful, and a change was taking place in the massive school. The flits had been waiting for a signal, and they had received it. Small flickering red sections became large flashing red sections as the first red flits dashed above the waves, out of the water, rushing north, spurring on their neighbors to jump out of the water with them. Like a wave started in a football stadium, the flits began to cascade their jumps and their flickering of bright red scales in time with those nearby.

The dark waters, almost black without sunlight upon them, became a mix of black and flashing red.

Some critical mass occurred, all at once, and there was no more cascading wave. All the fish jumped and rushed and glittered all over the entire flooded delta, swimming north while rain crashed down from above.

And then they began to do more than glitter red in the dim light of the rainy day. They began to glow.

Crimson. Bright and shining with actual light, a billion billion red flits turned a gloomy day into a red flood that fought against the river, and won.

Ezekiel watched for a full minute.

And then, as fast as it had come, the event was over. The full crimson rush of light vanished back beneath the dark waters, though some fish couldn’t turn it off. They were red glows under the waves, like eyes, that swam north, into the storm.

It was beautiful.

Some of the kids on the bridge had been entranced, though others had opted to be extremely vocal in their surprise and joy. A few kids threw tantrums when it ended, but they had been reassured that the red flood would come again on another rainy day. All Water Season, this happened, whenever the river flooded after the rain.

Ezekiel stepped away from the bridge, happy to have witnessed such a sight. From their expressions, Tiffany and Paul had enjoyed the moment, too.

They continued on to the Alluvial District.

- - - -

Ezekiel arrived at Clan Star Song, to an understated reception that was rather formal, but short. It was not unlike the ceremony of points that Julia had undertaken yesterday, but for Ezekiel, he just had tea in a garden with Elder Arilitilo, who asked if he could call her just ‘Ari’. Ezekiel obliged.

The two of them spoke of the books she had sent him, of what he thought of them, and of the goals he wished to achieve in his pursuit of Blood Magic. This was a simple question, with a simple answer: Denying and Healing were more than good enough for him, for now, but he wanted to learn that enchanting method they talked about. With that answer in hand, Ari informed him that they likely wouldn’t get to any Blood Magic today. This was fine.

Ari gave a small tour of the Lorehouse of the Clan Mountain, where Ezekiel got to see a nice library, and the doors to the offices of Xue and Riri and a few others, but none of them were in, so they moved on, down hallways that initiates and inner disciples used to get to rooms where everything from healing to harming to protecting were taught to those deemed worthy. He saw nothing untoward yet, but there was a lot to see! He’d likely be seeing a lot of everything else at later dates, anyway.

They got to the room that Ari had chosen to start Ezekiel’s education, where they stored the tools that she would be using to teach him. They went inside, to the center, to the main teaching tool.

It was a wax cadaver of a human male. It laid upon a table in the center of the large, currently-private room. It was perhaps the most intricate sculpture of a person Ezekiel had ever seen. It had veins and arteries and goo for blood and well defined organs, muscles, nerves, and bones, each of appropriate physical strength to make them as life-like as possible. There were small simplifications in the construction, of course, as the arteries of a real heart had layers to them, and the skin had more layers than were here, but other than those details, the wax figure was rather impressive.

A similar wax sculpture sat on a different table, not too far away. It was a wax incani female. On smaller tables around the room were other subjects, all done in wax. Several large eyes, all in a corner. The bones of the ear, times two; one labeled ‘humanoid’ and the other labeled ‘avian’. There were bodies of all sorts of people, and even animals, like rats and wolves and birds and frogs, but most of those were either in storage underneath other sculptures, or off to the side. This human male was actively used, all the time, as were the other ones currently sitting out in the open.

Ari stepped to the other side of the ‘cadaver’, and said, “Healing magic is varied by effect and nuance. But [Treat Wounds], and then [Greater Treat Wounds], is little more than the application of skill and understanding alongside an Elemental Body or aura control. I know you read the books I gave you, but very little of what is written down is so easily translated into working knowledge, and very little is adequate for your learning goals, so here we are in the Wax Room. Like most learning, we will start near the beginning.” She pressed the nude sculpture’s stomach and it moved like a person’s would; not a simple indentation, but a pressure in one point that deformed all other nearby places. She removed her hand, and the stomach returned halfway back to where it had been before. She cast a [Mend], and the sculpture reformed completely. “As you can see, this sculpture is one of many that each responds in life-like ways to many external stimuli. This room is used by all, but I have requested some private time for our first lesson.

“We likely won’t come here again.

“When I can see that you know the basics of Healing Magic, then we will move on to the healing of rats and then wolves. You must achieve [Treat Wounds] before you are allowed inside a hospital, whereupon you can further cast your gained spell and perhaps gain [Greater Treat Wounds].

“Along the way, you will likely gain [Inflict Wounds], and perhaps even [Greater Inflict Wounds], as it is much easier to destroy than it is to heal, and you will be learning a great deal about how to destroy, in order to do the opposite.”

Ezekiel nodded. He wanted to ask— Nah.

Ari said, “I can see you have questions. Ask them.”

“This is a basic one that hasn’t really been covered anywhere else, and your book didn’t mention this, exactly. But how do Doctors and Healers Remake these spells, if they don’t have aura control or an Elemental Body? Or a mana sense? The vast majority of people don’t have either, and this includes doctors.”

Ari nodded, then said, “They have to do this the hard way, through practice and understanding and a great deal of bloody work with knives and sutures and directed healing.” She said, “I know this particular answer was not in the books, or in the notes, so I will have to back up a bit and explain what is also not in the books, exactly, as the books deal with education and rarely with overall pictures.

“I will start from the beginning.

“Most Healers and other types, most of whom begin with a wish to repair their own bodies or the bodies of others, begin with a healing spell. Whichever healing spell they begin with is fine; they all go in the same direction. [Healing Word] is popular, as is [Rejuvenation]. [Healing Beacon] is less popular, but it does see use in war parties and clan excursions.

“Through the use of these healing spells, people will usually encounter a small truth.

“Though the use of Health restoratives is not true healing, it is adjacent, and if the body is at high Health, then applying more healing, from any source, will speed up self-healing. Almost all orcols are blessed in that restoring Health is the exact same as true healing, but the rest of us people have to work a great deal to learn how to help the body heal itself, and thus, healers will come to the next small truth.

“Most people who actually want to succeed at being a Healer will come across a situation. They will see that the placement of a [Rejuvenation] at a wound, with the intent to heal the wound, helps to heal that wound, specifically. A thousand instant applications of [Healing Word] cast in a struggle to heal a catastrophically injured friend, might actually work if the caster knows some of what they’re trying to achieve.

“Intent matters a lot in magic, and this truth is still true when it comes to healing.

“Of course, if a person merely throws resources at a problem without attempting to understand or direct their healing, then they achieve nothing. This sort of situation happens almost all the time outside of hospitals and healing-focused instruction.

“It is this realization of the phenomena known as ‘directed healing’ that allows a person to understand enough to gain the Quests for all the other healing spells.

“For all healing spells are Base Tier. You cannot make [Treat Wounds] out of [Healing Word]; none of the generalized healing spells are achievable from making them out of another generalized healing spell. Most people will learn this, and then unlock the Quest for [Treat Wounds] by understanding this directed healing truth of [Healing Word]. And then they will go on to complete that Quest, and gain that basic tier spell.” She said, “There are three routes to these spells, and three routes only. Either the Quest, or an Elemental Body, or aura control. Most people go the first route.”

“Directed healing, eh?” Ezekiel frowned a little, but mostly at himself. “I haven’t experimented with healing spells… At all.”

“Most mages don’t.”

“How do those Quests unlock?”

Ari said, “There are three big healing spells, with many specialist combinations derived from these three, or from an offshoot of these three. They are [Greater Treat Wounds], [Regeneration], and [Restoration].

“You gain the [Treat Wounds] Quest through the understanding of the directed healing spells, meant to repair the damage from a sword strike, for example. [Healing Word] is a good spell to gain this Quest. It is harder to gain this Quest if you use the other spells.

“Starting with [Rejuvenation], one can easily unlock the Quest for [Regeneration], which is focused on the ability to regenerate lost body parts and other assorted missing parts, such as teeth. With [Regeneration] in one hand, and [Treat Wounds] in the other, one can then unlock the Quest for [Greater Treat Wounds].

“The Quest for the [Restoration] spell, which is a touch-up spell used to prolong quality of life, is unlocked when one understands a great deal of the nuance of healing the body, and how it wears down and how it can be repaired.

“In the end, a Healer can work for years in a hospital to finally heal enough people to gain any of these magics, but completing any of the Quests makes subsequent Healing Quests easier to complete.” Ari added, “There are variations to the process, but this is how it usually works.”

“Outside of a hospital setting, and outside of the Big Three healing spells, one can also try for other healing magics which are primarily focused on the simple restoration of Health, which is a different branch of Healing. This branch of healing is focused on combat healing, and usually involves large, large amounts of Health.

“The Quest for [Rejuvenation] is gained by taking a healing spell and trying to stretch it out over longer than a second.

“The Quest for [Healing Word] is gained by casting a healing spell, back to back to back, and the Quest is completed in the same way.

“The Quest for [Heal], which is a spell designed to restore a vast amount of Health to one person, is gained by ignoring all nuance and damaged flesh, and trying to restore the [Personal Ward]-like effect of Health.

“The Quest for [Healing Beacon] is gained when you have too many targets taking area of effect damage and not enough time to heal them all, but you try anyway.

“The Quest for [Soothing Light], which puts a target into Rest and removes a modicum of pain, is gained when you need to put someone to sleep, to make them Rest because there are enemies at the gates and you’re on tight watches, with little time to properly rest.” Ari said, “There are a few more spells out there, but that is most of the Basic Tier healing spells.”

Ezekiel listened, cross checking what he already knew with what Ari had just told him. He found nothing too strange in her words, besides the fact that Julia had gained [Greater Treat Wounds] without going through [Treat Wounds] or any of that other stuff first.

Eh.

The gods saw that his daughter needed help and Atunir’s Champion was in danger and all that other shit was happening…

If anyone could figure out how healing worked and what ‘overhealing’ actually did, it was Julia. But besides that; Ezekiel was 100% certain that Rozeta could fudge things on her end. [Greater Treat Wounds] had served Julia quite well. It was likely serving her well right at this very moment.

Ezekiel asked, “So how do we gain those spells?”

“The first step is practice, here and now, and then we move onto living creatures. In order to practice, I will create a wound using [Greater Air Body], instead of aura control, so that you may see the wounding in action.” Ari gestured to the wax sculpture, and the air flexed with intent and power. A laceration crossed the chest of the fake cadaver, two decimeters long, spilling red into the world, exposing muscle and bone. “Aura control is easier to use to Remake Healing Magic than the Elemental Bodies, but your lightform will still serve you well. All you need to do here is press the wax back together as best you can, ‘healing’ the wound back to the original form as best you can.”

It wasn’t a full answer as to how Ezekiel would gain these healing spells himself, and in fact, it seemed like a non-answer, but he understood that there was a flow to learning, and not everything could be answered how Ezekiel wished it to be answered.

So he controlled multiple tendrils of light to reattach red muscles to white bone, smushing ‘muscle’-type wax back into shape with expert precision. Nerves and blood vessels came together, and then skin rolled over the wound. He even shoved most of the scattered ‘blood’ back into the body.

And then he promptly realized that putting exterior blood back into the wound was probably a bad idea.

In twelve seconds he had physically repaired the wound to perfection, though he knew he had made some mistakes.

Ari’s eyes were a little wide. She cast a [Mend] over the sculpture and the little blood still outside the body vanished from the surface to reappear inside. She said, “Don’t put scattered blood back into the body.” And then she slashed halfway through the sculpture’s neck, to the bone. “Again.”

Ezekiel got to work.

Repair the parts deep inside the wound, first, putting that bone chip back where it needed to be, working outward, mushing veins and arteries back together, repairing the throat and the voice box. Layer the muscles back together, back where they needed to be. A place for everything and everything in its place.

The repair took 39 seconds this time.

Ari looked more secure in herself. She said, “The patient died due to lack of blood to the brain. Repair the arteries first, and then the veins. Critical structures before lesser structures, always.”

She [Mend]ed the patient. Scattered blood vanished.

Then she slashed the sculpture through the neck; deeper this time.

“Again.”

Ezekiel went to work.

He healed neck wounds. He reattached arms. Genital injuries. Gut wounds, leg wounds, piercing and slashing. Blunt trauma was the hardest to heal. Bones were easy enough to put back together, but he needed to individually repair burst capillaries to heal that damage, and slice into the body to where his light wasn’t able to reach, in order to repair deeper burst arteries and veins. With his mana sense and with the piercing power of his lightform, he was capable of diagnosing the problems Ari caused right away. A few times, Ari had tried to trick him, with tiny wounds that looked like nothing on the surface, but would be catastrophic for the ‘patient’ if they were a real person. None of her tricks worked; Ezekiel saw through them all.

Ari stepped back from the wax body, saying, “I expected fast results, but this is astounding.”

Ezekiel glanced around the empty room, at the other ‘bodies’. “More?”

“Yes, we shall. You should gain some familiarity with each type of person and organ and otherwise before we move on to the live subjects, which will likely happen tomorrow.

This was as good of a time as any to either find out the world was horrible, or if he was worried over nothing. So Ezekiel asked, “How do you work on the animals? Do you put them to sleep with spells or concoctions?”

“Not a spell.” Ari said, “[Sleep] would be useful, but we don’t employ Mind Mages for that. No; we use potions. The rats and wolves feel nothing, and if we find healers that relish in the causing of pain, we quietly discourage them from learning more, with as much force as necessary. Rarely does this discouragement take the form of a quiet execution, but it does happen sometimes.”

Ezekiel felt several ways about what he had just heard.

One: Good! Don’t teach healing to people who would use it to harm!

Two: So they execute people who step out of line? Eh. Yes. This happens. Terrible, but…

Three: His desires in asking his question were seen through rather thoroughly, weren't they?

Four: He almost offered up his own [Merciful Ether] to live-subject experimentation, to see how it worked as compared to their own alchemical concoctions. He decided not to.

Ezekiel said, “It is disheartening to hear that extreme discouragement needs to be done to secure the safety of all, but I understand the need. Thank you for telling me.”

Ari nodded, pleased for herself but only showing it a little. She gestured to the female incani wax body, asking, “Next?”

“Of course.”

Ezekeil moved with Ari to the female incani sculpture.

Ari slashed at the breasts and Ezekiel repaired breast tissue. Then came more lacerations that spilled blood into the air and more bludgeoning wounds that trapped blood inside, where broken arteries sealed the woman’s ‘death’ even if there were no visible problems.

Ari stopped inflicting wounds when she deemed Ezekiel had healed enough, and she asked, “Now we will deal with spell effects. This is just an oral exam, so answer as best you think. How do you deal with [Blind]?”

“Depends on what has caused it. [Dispel] is the obvious choice for me, but that would have to go up against the enemy caster’s mana, and it could be a trick to get me to waste my time and resources.” Ezekiel said, “Knowing that, I’d have an Odin throw a thousand mana at it, or ignore it entirely, depending.”

Ari smiled, and said, “The first part was enough.” She gestured to the large sculptures of eyes sitting to the other side of the room, saying, “[Blind] is a cheap spell with little use, even if you think it would work wonders; the problem is that [Blind] works based on the Health of the target. Much of Blood Magic is like that.” She started walking. “An enemy can usually Blind a lot easier with Light Altered spells designed to Blind, and there are no easy solutions to this cause of Blindness, but a directed heal at the eyes might help in those situations. Now…”

Ezekiel walked with her. He listened. She asked questions. He gave answers. She gave better answers.

The solution to most Status effects was either [Dispel], [Cleanse], a directed heal to the afflicted area, or to ignore it if you could. [Blind] and other such small spells didn’t last long, but when they were unexpected, they could have disastrous results. Such spells were usually only good when the caster made a better spell with it than the basic tier spell.

The basic tier spells were worthless for multiple reasons, and also because a good mana sense negated almost all of them.

But Decay effects were not useless. They could be extremely dangerous. On the other hand, it was usually quite easy to heal through smaller Decay effects with a [Rejuvenation], unless they were special Decay effects that caused healing spells to go bad (which could mean any number of things), and thus a [Dispel] would be better. Combating Decay effects was a whole school of study, as Decay could do many, many different things.

Ari ended the lesson by picking up a knife and holding it against the purple skin of her forearm. “You have obvious skill, but wax is not flesh, and so, we move on to this next lesson which most people consider the first.” She sliced across her flesh, parting skin and releasing blood. She set the knife down and held two glowing red fingers against the wound. When she took her fingers away, the wound had become a bumpy black scar. A [Cleanse] removed the blood. “You cannot smush together actual wounds on real people as you can with these wax cadavers, which is why we must learn the true art of healing: directed healing. What I just did was apply a [Rejuvenation] directly to the wound.” She held her scar forward for Ezekiel to see, and pulsed more red magic on the spot, saying, “You can even restore scar tissue back to normal tissue, but this requires a careful application of inflicting and restoring at the same time.” Over the course of seconds, her black scar became unmarred purple skin. “If you haven’t Remade [Inflict Wounds] by this point, then you will likely gain that spell in this stretch of your healing education.”

Ezekiel watched. He said, “I have a few questions.”

Ari nodded, and waited.

Since she hadn’t answered his previous question to his satisfaction, Ezekiel asked, “How am I supposed to attain [Treat Wounds] through the application of [Healing Word]? How does that specific Remake Quest happen?”

There were many different ways to Remake spells. Most Remakes required specific shapings and intents imbued into mana. But Ezekiel had not Remade all of his current basic spells, because many of them required more than that. [Duplicate] was different, because that required him to target the history of a specific type of item with [Mend]. [Teleport] was different, too, in that it required a whole different stretch of [Greater Lightwalk] than the usual application. Healing Magic seemed even more different than the rest.

Ari said, “Most healing magics are flexes of other healing magics. Stretches of shape or size. Condensations of intent. Weights applied in specific manners.” She held up her hand, and the air around her hand began to shift and glow red, the glow becoming a controlled spiral, then a spike, then a thin film. “These are all [Healing Word], ready to be deployed, but each in different shapes, for you can do this with healing magic; you can queue it up for release.” She relaxed her [Air Body] and the red glow became a diffuse pattern of static, spreading out in the air like a mist. “This is the standard [Healing Word], meant to heal the Health of a target, and only that.” She dispersed the glow and lowered her hand, saying, “It is possible to attain every single Healing spell through careful application of a single starting spell, but you must treat real injuries on real people.”

Ezekiel went, “Huh.” Then he said, “Ah.” He understood. And then he understood more. An oddity stood out to him. “So a Healer could end up with a great deal more Stats, simply because they don’t have to spend any points on their main suite of spellwork?”

“This is technically correct, though rare in reality.” Ari asked, “Are there any more questions?”

“How do you condense core dust into the blood?”

Ari smiled, then said, “In medicine, a little bit of directed poison is crucial to combating many systemic illnesses, but this particular knowledge can easily become poisoned treasure, and I am not going to be the one to give that to you until you know how to heal yourself, first.”

“Heh.” Ezekiel asked, “You heard about that ‘poisoned treasure’ from last night, eh?”

“Not many did, but yes; I was made aware.” Ari said, “After that event, I was given some specific instructions of my own, and I will choose to follow them. Certain lessons will most definitely come after all the rest.”

Ezekiel nodded. He asked, “Is this how everyone learns?”

“Oh my no!” Ari said, “Directed healing is usually the first lesson. From there, paths vary. The normal way to healing mastery is through hard learning, accidental deaths, and mistakes that will haunt you for the rest of your life, as well as the presence of an overseeing Doctor or Priest who becomes very cross with any student who steps even the slightest bit out of line. There’s also a fair bit of learning about specific magical and mundane diseases which are mainly of the fungoid variety, parasites, and systemic disease that won’t go away with simple healing spells or through [Cleanse].

“Occasionally, someone breaks the mold, and rapidly advances, cutting out years of hard work. The most common variation is when a Healer desires to save a life and everything they know is not good enough. Most of the time, those patients die, but sometimes, the Healer will awaken their aura and thus they are able to stretch their healing spells to accomplish what they normally cannot. If they understand what they have done, and are able to repeat the process, then they go on to Remake the other healing spells.

“And then there are the people who come to this who already have a mana sense and a Greater Elemental Body, and the skill to use them properly. This is where you are at. Eventually, and likely sooner rather than later, you will be Remaking all of the healing spells we have already discussed.” Ari said, “There will be many days of learning ahead of us, but based on what I have seen today, it might take you a week to get through all of this early stuff. Once you gain the appropriate healing spells then we can move onto some of the more nuanced healing spells, such as [Blood Regeneration]. Once that is achieved, we can get to actual Blood Magic, which includes spells such as [Body Modification]. But we are done for today.” She said, “There are others who wish to use this room.”

It had been a few hours, and by now, there were several people as well as a teacher-like person waiting outside of the wax room for their turn at the place. They had been lining up, quietly, for the last fifteen minutes.

But a different person had been there for the last hour and a half. He was a boy of pale skin, maybe seven or eight years old, without horns, wearing fine white robes with black edging. His robes marked him as important, and also odd, for while his garb was of much finer make than the grey-robed inner disciples who also walked down that same hallway, they were also clearly of a specific design that was also not present anywhere else.

And the kid had silent guards next to him that wore black.

Ari had paused in her teachings, briefly, when the kid showed up, but then she resumed like nothing odd had happened. None of the obvious-teachers who also walked the halls seemed to bother the boy, either, even though he was obviously listening in on Ari’s private lesson, with his back to the adjoining wall and his head cocked to the side. He might even be mana sensing, but that seemed crazy.

Now that the lesson was over, though, the boy stood up and walked away.

Ezekiel said, “I thank you for your lesson. Tomorrow, at the same time?”

Ari said, “I’ll have to switch off with Xue tomorrow, but he knows all of this healing magic with a similar mastery as myself. Both of us can teach this part of the path toward actual Blood Magic, but after this is learned, then there will be specific and differing lessons. I will focus on combat, both defense and attack, while he will focus on enchanting.”

“I am eager to learn.”

Ari smiled politely, then added, “Also: we have rooms for you here in the mountain, if you wish.”

Ari had said those words in an offhand way, talking as though her suggestion was something that didn’t need to happen. But that was a lie. She wanted Ezekiel to room here in the mountain. Perhaps for personal gain, or for Clan gain, or to be properly polite; Ezekiel didn’t know. All he knew was that she wanted him here.

If Ezekiel had seen a single sign of something untoward, he would have instantly said no. But he hadn’t seen anything ‘Evil’, or whatever. He still wasn’t comfortable with being here, under the roof of an unknown power…

He had been fine being under the roof of an Arbor of Treehome, though.

… Those were two totally different things. Orcol society was based around communities that surrounded a colony of tree [Familiar]s, of which Yggdrasil would likely become a part of, sooner or later. But here in Eralis it was just people, with all their messy, dangerous, plotting lives.

Still.

They didn’t seem that bad.

Being here would give him a great deal more access to Clan Star Song. It’d be easier to check up on how Tadashi’s chelation therapy was progressing. He could pop in for visits, or whatever, and he would likely gain a few visits of his own.

The only problem with rooming here was that he didn’t want to talk to the people in power all that much. He wanted to see the city for what it truly was, and that went against rooming up here in Clan Star Song. That meant staying at the Sour House.

Except.

Star Song was one of the largest powers in Eralis; he had even heard them referred to as a ‘Head Clan’, which was something of a colloquial wording, for sure. Star Song didn’t call themselves that, but the common people did. It made sense, for Star Song had hands in everything, and deeper reaches than most of the other Clans.

So if he roomed here, he could see some of those expressions of power.

And besides that, as of today, Ezekiel was less wary of outright treachery and assassination, and more looking out for his own interests.

He did not want to move to the Highlands. He did not want to live in the Highlands. He had plans for the Crystal Forest.

But if he didn’t accept this offer of hospitality, then that would make Star Song worried, and there was no telling where that could lead.

He’d get spied on if he was here.

But it’s not like he wasn’t being spied on before. And he could spy on them.

Who would benefit most from that interaction? Him, or Star Song? It might be a toss up.

And if he was here, then it would be only Star Song spying on him. Back at the Sour House, he likely had every single Clan spying on him; or at least a few.

For that reason alone, it was a good idea to room here, for now.

A few seconds had passed, since Ari raised the question. Ezekiel had thought over her offer of hospitality ever since she offered it the first time, but now, here they were, and the offer seemed more genuine.

So.

Ezekiel said, “I would be delighted to accept your continued hospitality.”

Ari’s violet eyes glinted with red light as she relaxed, and said, “Please allow me to direct you and your people to your temporary residence.” She walked toward the door.

Ezekiel followed. “You’re very good at this teaching. That was much nicer to hear all of this from you, personally, than to read in those books.”

Ari gave a subdued smile as she said, “We covered a great deal of Healing Magic in the last few hours that most people would never put down in a book. Of my own journal, I know that I didn’t spend more than ten pages on these early lessons.”

The two of them walked out of the wax room, into a grand hallway, with Paul and Tiffany following at a respectable distance behind. Ezekiel nodded at the professor and his grey-robed students who waited for Ezekiel and Ari to leave the Wax Room. The professor and his students all bowed to Ezekiel to varying degrees. Elder Arilitilo glanced at the other professor and his class, but casually turned her attention forward, mostly ignoring the man.

Ari said, “We have many classrooms here in the mountain, if you are interested in taking any other lessons, Scion Phoenix. Feel free to look around.”

Ezekiel smiled, and said, “I will. Thank you.”

“As for your rooms…”

She led them upward.

They hadn’t gotten to any actual blood magic today, so the extra lunch he had had with Grand Elder Lingxing had gone to waste, but that was fine.

- - - -

Star Song’s Clan Mountain was divided into roughly three sections, like a cake. The bottom section held many public-ish spaces, such as the Gathering Room that Ezekiel had attended a few nights ago, inner disciple dorm rooms which were cramped but not too badly cramped, and many cafeterias and other such ‘public’ spaces that Ezekiel had seen, but not visited. From what he had heard before now and gotten the chance to see only a few times, the inner disciples, located mainly here, were afforded a great deal more prestige and learning than the initiates and outer disciples who lived at other locations inside and around Eralis, at other, smaller locations.

The second layer of Star Song’s mountain held the main classrooms and a few Elder offices, as well as a few operational spaces of varying needs. Rooms full of weapons next to rooms without any weapons; armory and training space. Multiple rooms full of books; personal collections as well as an obvious library. Rooms which were blocked from his mana sense, layered with lead walls. There were also quite a few places in the center of the mountain that were blocked from his mana sense because of magic, instead of being hidden due to anti-magic.

The second layer was also home to many ‘public’ spaces located on the exterior of the mountain. The stone courtyard where Ezekiel handed out the Intelligence ring was on this second level.

The top third of the structure belonged to a few nice gardens and forests, and many smaller, private houses, but was mainly dominated by three wooden pagodas that rose from the three peaks of the carved-out mountain. like grand decorations on an even grander cake. The two smaller pagodas were each roughly twice the size of his own three-story mansion, back in Spur. Each of those pagodas looked exactly the same, with one pagoda located northwest of the central peak, and the other pagoda located south.

The central pagoda resembled the other two pagodas, but larger. It was a minor skyscraper at nine stories tall and half that wide, only decreasing a little in diameter with each subsequent upper floor.

Now that they were closer to the south pagoda, which seemed to be their destination, Ezekiel could mana sense the inside of the structure.

It was nice inside. Everything was made of wood and cloth and was the height of luxury. There were people inside, too. Servants, for sure, but also higher ranking people on the second and third floors. The place certainly had more room for more people than what it currently held, so Ezekiel wasn’t worried about being cramped. Which rooms were his? On the fourth floor?

Ah! And he knew those people on the second and third floor. Well that was interesting, but he’d meet them sooner or later, for sure.

But what was also interesting was the building itself.

Disregarding all the embellishments of wood, and paint, and strengthening wards, and everything that was not actually structural, Clan Star Song’s entire clan mountain was constructed mainly of stone. Probably. It was a dense stone at the bottom, but up here, it got denser. Some parts were incredibly dense, in fact, but up here, that density was made apparent in the structure of the ‘wooden’ pagodas. They were not wood at all; the pillars and rafters, floors, walls, and otherwise, were made of the same super dense stone as the rest of the place.

… But was it stone, at all? Ezekiel saw few anti-[Stoneshape] runes in the place, now that he started to really count and notice them. They were certainly there, but there weren’t many of them. Not enough for a mountain of this size, at any rate. Maybe just to protect the stone that was directly near to them?

Elder Arilitilo had explained most of what Ezekiel had seen, as she guided him through the mountain, and other people got out of their way. She even mentioned, a few times, that his accommodations would be his for as long as he desired. She pointed out her offices, and Xue’s offices, and a few other important locations. She pointed out the location of her house on the edge of the third floor; should Ezekiel need to find her and she wasn’t anywhere else, he could leave a message there with the staff.

But she didn’t mention the density of the stone at all.

As the southern pagoda loomed and the open archway ahead led to the first floor, Ari said, “Southern House is the guest house of Clan Star Song, and as such, we have a few people in residence.”

“I am happy to have neighbors. I wasn’t expecting to see the Scion of Devouring Nightmare again, or here, though.”

They stepped into the first floor of Southern House, and the foyer was exactly as opulent as Ezekiel had already seen. Dark wood floors that were not wood at all. Cream colored plaster that covered a stone-or-maybe-not wall. Red and gold running carpets. Round windows with nice views of the surrounding Alluvial District. Vases on pedestals. Running water in a central fountain that was surrounded by a coiling sculpture of Rozeta that reminded Ezekiel of the Rutherford model of the atom, but more stylized and not very atomic at all. Rozeta was chasing hovering pearls, though, so that was kinda funny in an odd sort of way.

Above the sculpture was open air; a hole in the center of the pagoda that ended at the fifth floor. Staircases to the sides of the fountain coiled up and down through the pagoda, twisting around in a double helix, to landings where bedrooms and other rooms waited.

The top two floors seemed to be relaxation spaces, or something like that, with the top floor completely open to the world, and lounges scattered around for people to sit on.

The main kitchen was down here, beyond the sculpture of Rozeta, and already filled with people who were putting together dinner and otherwise. It was evening already, and the operation inside that kitchen was an undertaking, with at least ten cooks already hard at it.

Looking up, the rooms had kitchens, too, but they seemed small. The kitchens of the current occupants on the second and third floor appeared small, and also in disuse. Nobles weren’t supposed to cook for themselves, and Ezekiel wasn’t comfortable with that, but he was glad his room still held the option.

Ari paused inside the pagoda, and Ezekiel paused beside her.

She said, “As you have seen, Scion Hangzi Devouring Nightmare is currently in residence, as well as his younger brother Warzi, his aunt Yorza, and their attendants and guards. High Clan Devouring Nightmare is in town to oversee our progress with chelation, and so they are rooming here, on the second and third floors. You will have the fourth floor to yourself.”

“Huh.” Ezekiel asked, “That kid who was outside our Healing Magic lesson? Warzi?”

Ari gave a small, polite smile, and said, “You may be as informal with them as you wish, Scion Ezekiel, but most of us would call our betters ‘master’, at the very least. Young Master Warzi was indeed in the hallway during our lesson. Scion Hangzi and his aunt, Mistress Yarza, are often found in our potion houses, or whatever other operations they desire to inspect, as is their right as High Clan.”

Ezekiel stepped back, bowed quickly, and said, “Thank you for your guidance.”

Ari glanced outside at the grey skies and the dimming light, then asked, “Do you have plans for dinner?”

“Not yet. Do you have any suggestions?”

“I do.” Ari said, “Our Cooks here are some of the best in the world. If you have anything specific you wish to have, let them know before and they can likely create whatever you wish. The servants in this house are here to see to your mundane needs, at any hour of the day. Please take advantage of our hospitality. It would not be bragging to say that the fare here has satisfied many members of High Clans long before now, and will continue to satisfy all those who come after.” She added, “Besides that, I recommend you try some of the restaurants in Eralis. I am fond of a place called the Open Kitchen, down on Tiralis Road. There is a small guidebook in your room that can direct you to other locations.”

“I look forward to whatever is offered, and whatever I can find.”

“Let me know if I can make something more comfortable for you. Do you have any questions before I go?”

“Yes! What is this dense stone?” Ezekiel tapped the floor with his feet. “It’s layered everywhere, but it’s highly present up here.”

“Ah!” Ari smirked, saying, “This is one of the many secrets of the Clans that I cannot tell an outsider, no matter how much they have assisted us. I can tell you that the stone you are seeing will not warp under [Stoneshape], or any normal application of that line of spells, and that it is much lighter than stone. Many people with a good mana sense say it is dense, but it is merely strong. It is actually rather light. Without it, we would never have been able to build our fortresses as high or as decorative as we have.”

“Oh! That’s… That’s fascinating. Interesting way around that [Stoneshape] problem, isn’t it? Just… Just make a spell that Shapes items that no one else can Shape! That’s some nice lateral thinking. Okay. Well.” Ezekiel said, “Thank you for the guided tour, and the lessons— Ah. What about [Teleport] and such? And [Ward]ing? Are those frowned upon? Inside my rooms?”

Ari smiled softly at Ezekiel’s exuberance. She said, “Now that you are a guest, entering and leaving your rooms is perfectly acceptable, but other than that, please keep the Spatial movements to a minimum. Protecting your rooms is also done at your own discretion. Thank you for coming to Star Song, Ezekiel.” Ari said, “I will be seeing you soon.”

“See you later.”

Ezekiel watched her go, then turned to his people, asking, ‘So that seemed okay?’

Tiffany snorted, then moved ahead, saying, ‘I already know which bed is mine!’

Paul just shrugged, sending, ‘We’re not in any immediate danger.’

Ezekiel smiled at that. Paul’s proclamation was good enough for him!

The three of them went upstairs.

The rooms were great. The neighbors were in their own rooms, but they were all doing their own things behind closed doors, and did not seem to care that other people had moved in above them. Maybe they didn’t hear. The floors and walls were damn solid, and well insulated. They muffled the sound well. Whatever material the walls and floors were made out of was nice.

Ezekiel guessed it was carbon fiber, or some other application of carbon.

Something with great molecular bonding, for sure, since that was one possible answer for how something that looked dense was actually light. Gems and crystals and such were denser than other solids, like wood, because of the structure of the item itself.

But Ezekiel recognized that he might be seeing something that wasn’t there. He wanted someone else to have invented this much Particle Magic long ago, without truly understanding what they had done.

Wouldn’t that be neat!

How would the creator have gone about making such a spell, though?

They’d have to isolate the parts of the 2 kilometer tall trees of the Deep Forest of Glaquin, for sure. Those trees were dense, like this, too.

… And that was where the dragons were.

Huh.

Okay. Shove that thought to the side for a moment.

The walls here were about as dense as trees of the Forest of Glaquin, which might have naturally occurring graphene or carbon nanotubes inside them, as those things were also super dense but able to grow that tall without collapsing under their own weight. Slices of those super large trees were everywhere in Treehome... But… They were heavy as stone. Hm. Okay. Dead line of thought there—

No. Wait.

The slices of trees still had water weight. Which meant that the living trees were still subject to weight concerns. Water was heavy, yo! Did the dried wood weigh less? It likely did. This was something to check out— He could just ask Tiffany.

But those trees were alive, and living things could make themselves lighter through magic, negating their own water weight. Ah. Yes. That’s that mystery solved. Those Deep Forest trees made themselves lighter with magic. Ezekiel saw a lot of magic in those trees all the time.

Gravity was strange on Veird in that once you got below the surface, many things that should collapse, did not collapse. Mountains even floated down there, like they did in the Brightwater, which was 30 kilometers below the surface. But on the surface, things got heavy and sank. Tenebrae’s floating castle was a big deal, because it existed outside of the Underworld. Other large structures on the surface were big deals, too, like this clan mountain under Ezekiel’s feet. Tenebrae’s castle was surely stone, though, wasn’t it?

There were many ways to magic, and many of them were not obvious.

So maybe this stuff here in Star Song’s clan mountain wasn’t carbon nanotubes at all.

Ezekiel discarded that train of thought, and tried another.

The stone here was not ‘stone’, and it probably wasn’t ‘tree’, not exactly, so then it had to be some [Stonetreeshape] spell, or something? ‘Tree’ had to be in there somewhere, since there were ‘root-like’ structures that went through the whole of the mountain… Though they certainly didn’t look like roots. They looked like rebar. But they could be roots, if one were to think outside the box.

Okay. He was getting way off track. And now he had another thought to occupy himself.

Ezekiel had the [Tree of Light] spell and Yggdrasil used that spell on himself all the time. [Tree of Light] made Yggdrasil practically weightless. The large trees of the Forest likely used the same sort of magic, but different. The arbors also used similar magic, for sure.

Yggdrasil was fine for now, as he was underwater, but if he was the same tree, but located outside of water, without [Tree of Light]? He would have collapsed on himself many times over. If Yggdrasil’s [Tree of Light] ever failed, the same thing would happen.

… Ezekiel needed to invent a [Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Treeshape] spell, or something, just to further reinforce Yggdrasil. As a plus, Ezekiel could use such a spell for cheap, impossible to Shape-and-kill-the-people-inside construction. He had seen that tactic used, once, back when he was facing the Halls of the Dead and their Queen Daydropper and they attacked the temporary stone houses of the Odaali-in-Exile government.

It was considered a war crime to Shape a place with people still inside, with the intent to harm. That crime was on the same level as intentional murder, and laying [Force Trap]s around a town.

Even if the dense and light ‘stone’ he was seeing around him was not stone at all, it was a good idea to make graphene lumber; can’t Shape that shit! Not easily, anyway. Nice lateral thinking, old mage of the Highlands, whoever you are!

Anyway!

This was good construction, here. Ezekiel had once heard Al say that stone buildings could only be built from between 10 to 15 floors tall, and this Clan Mountain was much taller and much more complicated than a simple stone building inside Spur.

Yes.

He needed the [Graphene Treeshape] spell he was thinking of, and he needed whatever spell it was that helped them make these ‘clan mountains’, too.

Ezekiel hadn’t been in their new rooms for ten seconds, scoping the place out, thinking about graphene and trees and stones, before he said, “Okay! Looks great. Let me just set up the defenses…” After another thirty seconds, with dense air filling the rooms and [Alarm Ward]s set here and there, he said, “Let’s go check out with the Sour House.”

Magenta light whisked them away to their previous hotel. Clearing out of the Sour House took less than five minutes. Ensuring the proprietor that nothing was wrong took another five; they had just been offered some rooms in Star Song. After the mention of Star Song, and after some light obsequiousness on the proprietor's part to ensure that Ezekiel was, in fact, not unhappy, Ezekiel departed in another flash of magenta light.

When the proprietor went to clean the rooms, they’d find some extra gold and a thank you note. Ezekiel hoped that was good enough to soothe any hurt feelings.

Reappearing in his new rooms, Ezekiel packed his books and other stuff away in the small bookshelves provided, then went down to the kitchen to find out about dinner.

He got the distinct impression from the kitchen staff that they would prefer to neither be seen, nor heard, and if they had to be, then they’d be more comfortable talking to Ezekiel’s ‘servants’ instead of him.

… He let Tiffany take care of dinner, then. Tiffany gave him a polite nod, as he walked away, and she started talking to the cooks and Cooks, all of whom were suddenly much more relaxed.

Ezekiel went upstairs and made himself tea, then sat down by a window to read about medicine and wait for dinner. Paul settled in on the other side of the room, with his own books.

Soon enough, Tiffany came back, and with a slight smile, proclaimed, “Dinner will be served post haste, master Ezekiel.” In an easier tone, she added, “An hour.”

Ezekiel chuckled, then got back to reading.

Tiffany settled into another chair in the room, and picked up her own book.

- - - -

Ezekiel’s eyes drifted to the small knife he had sitting beside him, in preparation, but he frowned, and looked away again, back to his book, back to reading.

He had grabbed the knife from the kitchen in a spat of whimsy and consideration. But now… He was trying to get over the idea of self mutilation for the sake of magic. It was almost odd how he was having this feeling, now, after everything that had happened to him, and after everything that he had done to himself for the sake of magic. He had even ripped rads right out of his own chest that one time, and that had been no small thing!

That had fucking hurt!

But having unexpected pain from magic creation, while having a spotter, was a lot different than seeing a knife and knowing that the best way to learn healing magic was to stab oneself.

… And then he looked at the knife, again.

Tiffany noticed. She had noticed the knife when she had walked in and then again when Ezekiel had glanced at it, but she didn’t say anything.

She did now. “You gonna stab yourself with that?”

“I am thinking,” Ezekiel said. “It was Ari’s suggestion. But...”

She teased, “You want to stab my arm, instead?”

“Gods no!” Ezekiel exclaimed, “That’s even worse!”

Tiffany laughed. “Want me to stab you?”

Ezekiel considered. “… No.”

Without looking away from his novel, Paul said, “I did not expect you to have this problem.”

“I didn’t expect to have this problem either!” Ezekiel said, “Not the problem of needing to stab myself to have something to heal, nor the problem of being squeamish about it, either.”

Tiffany scoffed, got up, and plucked the small knife from the reading table. The ‘weapon’ wasn’t sized for orcol hands; it was little more than a paring knife. In her hands, it looked like she was holding a box cutter.

She stabbed the meat of her hand.

The knife! Just! Went in!

Ezekiel winced. He shivered. He went, “Erraughhh.”

Tiffany laughed as she retracted the blade and cast a grey magic over her hand. Her wound sealed completely. “Orcols heal better than you small people. It’s really not a big deal if you want to try some healing magic with me.” She held up the knife and exaggerated, “For my next [Strike], I’m gonna try again to drive it all the way through my hand!”

“No no! No.” Ezekiel got up and held out his hand, “Knife please.”

Tiffany smirked, handing him the bloody knife.

First he cast a [Cleanse].

He stared at the gleaming paring knife. Odin twittered on his shoulder, and also on the windowsill and on the back of his chair, unsure. He could do this. He could stab hims—

He stabbed himself. Straight down into his forearm! Full Strength! Wham!

The knife didn’t do jack shit. It skittered off of his magenta [Personal Ward]. The dense air of the room wasn’t a problem, for [Prismatic Ward] didn’t impede the people who were allowed inside. The problem was, he just had a lot more [Personal Ward] than he had the ability to easily damage himself.

Ezekiel said, “Ah. I’m not sure I want to lower my guard, though.”

Tiffany, now serious but playing it off like it was nothing, said, “We are being watched. Have been this whole time. And even before.”

“Yup,” Paul said, flipping the page of his novel.

Ezekiel said, “Kind of an odd person to pick to watch us. Odder still that he’s able to use his mana sense to see through the [Prismatic Ward].”

“He’s uncommonly skilled, but he’s surely not the only one.” Tiffany said, turning her gaze down, then to the left. “You could put up some actual privacy spells, Ezekiel.”

Ezekiel turned and directly stared at the source of the spying, and said, “It’s possible that he’s as worried about us as we are of him, but I’m not sure.”

Down on the second floor, the same white-skinned young kid who had watched over half of Ezekiel’s lesson with Ari, sat on his knees, with his eyes closed and his mana sense wide open. At Ezekiel’s and Tiffany’s words, and at their down-turned gazes, the kid looked up at them, and startled. His eyes went wide as he flopped out of his seated position and scrambled away, screaming, to touch upon a magical item.

A sphere of magic popped up around him. Other people near the kid, mostly guards, noticed the scream and the scramble, and started moving. Yorza rushed out of a side room, toward the kid, to comfort. Hangzi looked up, scanning around, but seeing nothing. No one down there but the boy had a mana sense, or the people who did were good at pretending to not have that capability, for none of them returned Ezekiel or Tiffany’s gaze.

But it didn’t take long for them to get moving upward, anyway. They had surely seen that new people had moved in, but they hadn’t needed to do anything about it until now.

With a sarcastic tone, Paul set down his book and chided, “Are we scaring children now?”

“Hey now!” Tiffany said, “The little shit was staring at us and probably reading Ezekiel’s books.”

Ezekiel said, “I just need to know if it’s a kid with a mana sense, or if it’s a [Polymorph]ed person, meant to spy on us for darker reasons.”

The Scion of Devouring Nightmare, Hangzi, and his obvious aunt, Yorza, rushed up the stairs, likely to inquire, probably rather strongly, about what Ezekiel had done to the younger one, Warzi, who was probably still inside his bubble. All three of them wore white garb with black ribbing; everyone else in those rooms only wore black.

Paul got up and said, “Let us ask them, then.”

Tiffany smiled, saying, “And it looks like dinner is ready, and the cooks don’t know this is happening up here.”

“Then hopefully the prospect of food will get everyone to calm back down, quickly.” Paul said, walking to the front door. “Hopefully.”

He opened the door just in time to see the Hangzi, and then Yorza rush on this fourth floor. The two white-skinned demis glanced at Paul in the doorway, then looked past him, to Ezekiel. There was no recognition in the woman’s eyes, but Hangzi was a different story entirely. Hangzi stopped in front of Yorza, eyes wide, his heart suddenly beating hard as a tiny sweat broke out across his forehead. He was completely surprised. Yorza bumped right into him, cutting off whatever it was she was going to say.

Paul stepped to the side of the door, out of the way, and Ezekiel stepped forward, but not out of his room, or out of the dense air of the space.

Yorza ignored whatever was happening with Hangzi, went around him, and came up to Ezekiel. Still two meters away, she demanded, “There will be no spying on my nephew!”

“Counterspying,” Ezekiel said. “Not spying.”

Yorza went from mad, to apoplectic.

“You dare!” Yorza spat, “You shouldn’t even be in here! Who are—”

“Big Sister,” Hangzi said, stepping to her side. “This is Scion Ezekiel Phoenix; the one who found Tadashi and who dueled Scion Caina to a draw.”

Yorza glanced at Hangzi. Their black-armored guards had run out of the room with them, but they hung back on the stairs, and behind their masters, while Yorza and Hangzi confronted Ezekiel.

Ezekiel said to Hangzi, “Greetings, Scion Hangzi Devouring Nightmare. I did not expect to see you again so soon.”

Yorza turned back to Ezekiel. “I will not have you spying on my nephew. Do it again and I will have your head.”

Hers was not an empty threat.

And wasn’t this a novel situation! This was strange and new enough that Ezekiel wasn’t quite sure what to do with his sudden anger as that anger turned to rage inside his chest. She had threatened him. Openly. It was not an empty threat, but…

Her and what army?

Okay. She had an army, for sure. Somewhere. Wherever!

But even with her army!

He could destroy anything they sent at hi—

Ezekiel calmed himself, breathing out through his mouth, and deescalated, saying, “I merely wish to know if he is a gifted child or an impostor, and if so, are you a party to the facade, or not.”

Yorza’s eyes went wide. She yell—

“Big Sister!” Hangzi shouted. Yorza calmed, slightly, but also not at all. She was hiding her anger, just like Ezekiel was hiding his own. Something passed between the two people of Devouring Nightmare that was neither word nor telepathy, and Yorza stepped back, letting the boy take center position. Hangzi said to Ezekiel, “My brother is gifted. He has gone through many tests to ensure he is who he is. Do not broach this topic again. Do not scare him again. He is merely curious. Let him be curious and do not provoke him again.”

Hangzi seemed to be telling the truth as though his life depended on it. Ezekiel felt mollified, slightly, but he was still angry that Yorza had truly threatened him. But he had threatened Warzi, first, maybe?

Eh! He hadn’t, but the kid certainly took it that way? Little shit shouldn’t be spying on people. What did he expect to happen? What the fuck was this, happening in front of him right now? Some ploy?

Whatever the case, this reaction was over the top. This anger did not need to happen.

Ezekiel tried to let his anger go.

Ezekiel calmly said, “If one stares into the depths, the depths stare back. If he is not prepared for that, then he should close his eyes, or not use his mana sense in such an unprivate area.”

Yorza silently raged behind Hangzi. She was not willing to let her anger go.

Hangzi merely said, “We are aware, but he is special. He does not always understand what he sees, or who he spies, for he is only seven. I ask you for dispensation due to his youth.”

“Fair enough.” Ezekiel said, “But all we did was look at him.”

Yorza said, “Your [Prismatic Ward] intrigued him, and it is our legitimate right to see whatever we wish to see inside Highland territory! So let Warzi look if he wants.” She spat, “And don’t look back! As you say, dangers hide in the depths, and our depths are much deeper than yours.”

Ezekiel decided to…

Not push her.

He said, “Fair enough. Apologies, Mistress Devouring Nightmare.” He turned to Hangzi. “Apologies, Scion Devouring Nightmare.”

Yorza narrowed her eyes, searching for a lie. If she found any it would be a result of her seeing shadows where there were none. Hangzi stared at him too, no less searching than his aunt. On one hand, Ezekiel had no reason to antagonize Devouring Nightmare unduly, but on the other, a child with a mana sense like that only had two possible explanations, and while a prodigy was to be nurtured, a cuckoo was to be killed.

Yorza tensed for a moment. Hangzi’s expression turned fractionally harder.

Hangzi spoke, his voice filled with steel, “You have nothing to fear from my brother.”

Ezekiel said, “I believe you, and again, I apologize.”

He certainly had nothing to fear from a boy, even if that boy was an impostor. He also had nothing to fear from Hangzi, even though that was the implied threat given when Hangzi couched his statement with, ‘from my brother’.

On the second floor, the cooks paused as they saw the altercation upstairs.

A guard behind Hangzi whispered about dinner being ready.

Hangzi declared to Ezekiel, “I can overlook some uncouth behavior.” Hangzi decided, “But you will attend dinner at our table, and you will apologize to Warzi yourself.”

“… Eh?”

- - - -

On the fifth floor, in the dining half of the room, dinner was served at a large square table with seats for four people. The table could have fit eight and almost all of the surface was taken up with food. There was no way that Ezekiel could eat all of that which sat before him, but at least this wasn’t some ‘master eating before the help’ scenario, which he feared it could have been, and was how it was over in the Greensoil Republic. Tiffany and Paul were seated at a table behind Ezekiel, already being served by the cooks, while on the other side of the room, Hangzi’s people ate at other tables.

In Clan culture, everyone might not sit at the big table, but everyone ate together. Ezekiel appreciated that. He also appreciated all the food, but this much bounty was more a way for Star Song to show off their fortune, than for any real reason.

If it weren’t for the odd company, sitting at the rest of his table, and the complete silence ever since they sat down and the food went out, Ezekiel likely would have savored every bite of the stewed meats and heavy sauces and rices and breads and all of the rest of the food. But this was not a nice, calm meal with new friends. This was…

Ezekiel wasn’t quite sure what this was.

Yorza, sitting to Ezekiel’s right, imperiously held her nose up as she daintily plucked at her tiny portions. Hangzi, sitting across the table, ate like a normal person who was scheming something.

Warzi, to the left, was trying so very, very hard to eat normally.

Honestly, Ezekiel should have seen this back when he first saw Warzi, back when the kid was spying upon Ezekiel’s lesson with Ari. Ezekiel had been distracted at the time, but now he was not.

Sensing someone else using their own mana sense was not an easy task. There were no markers upon the mana when someone ‘became one with the mana and borrowed how it saw the world’, which was the concise and therefore incorrect way to describe what one did when they used their mana sense. Mostly, when Ezekiel saw that other people were seeing him with their own mana sense, he had to figure that out from a sideways direction.

It was the small things that gave people away. Micro expressions. The increasing beat of the heart. Spontaneous sweat. Staring at someone through a wall and watching as they looked back your way. He was completely sure that he gave himself away all the time when he was mana sensing, for the things he looked for in others, were certainly present in his own reactions.

This was how he saw that Warzi was mana sensing, and also that something was wrong with the boy.

Warzi was seeing everything around him, for a longer range than Ezekiel, no doubt, and he was jumping at all of it. He was fidgety. Flighty. He spilled rice off of his chopsticks and dropped food onto his robes. Back when Warzi had been in that hallway, he had twitched at everything around him, then, too.

It did not take Ezekiel long to see this, now that Warzi was sitting in front of him and Ezekiel could see the boy with his actual eyes, and in a social setting. As a cook dropped a tub of rice downstairs, spilling it everywhere, Warzi turned his head in the direction of the spill, then turned his head back to his meal. When Odins fluttered above the pagoda, playing in the wind, one of them pulled off a daring twist and danced with another and Warzi turned his head that way. His mana sense drew him all over the place, and it seems to have made him unable to have a normal childhood.

With a slight adjustment, mana sense could lead a person to all the other Sights, too. Like [Future Sight], and [Soul Sight], and even [Witness]. And it didn’t cut off abruptly at a set distance. Beyond Ezekiel’s max of around 40 to 60 meters, his mana sense was a fuzzy thing. This kid was likely subject to all of that confusion, too. The confusion of seeing ribbons of light in people. The confusion of seeing blood in the eyes of a loved one. The confusion of seeing the past and future layered all around.

It might have been because of those extra layers of confusion that Ezekiel hadn’t been able to correctly identify the kid as a kid, but truthfully, it was much easier to see something like this in person than it was to see through the mana. Maybe this was because the human brain was wired to recognize reactions upon faces, as a part of human instincts, but mana sense was something that needed to be developed, and which had no instincts.

So did this little kid grow up with a mana sense this wide? That would have sucked!

Ezekiel frowned a little.

Most people in the room were halfway through the first dishes sitting before them, but no one had spoken yet. Everyone ate in relative silence, though some of the Devouring Nightmare guards were speaking with each other with [Telepathy]. At least some of them were having good talks over dinner.

… Maybe they were talking about how best to kill Ezekiel if needed.

Or. Maybe. The more rational idea here was that they were waiting for him to say something, first. They were waiting for an apology, or something along those lines.

Best not disappoint them!

Ezekiel broke the silence, asking, “Warzi can’t turn it off, can he?”

Warzi fumbled his chopsticks again. They went clattering to the ground.

A pair of servants rushed forward and replaced the boy’s utensils while at the same time they cast a [Cleanse] upon him, erasing the evidence of his most recent fumbles and the small bits of food on the ground. The boy dropped his hands to his knees and sat there, trying to hold back his tears, going utterly still as the servants did what they had already done three times already. Then the servants retreated.

“Correct.” Hangzi said, “My brother was born with a wandering soul. That’s what the doctors call his condition.”

… His soul looked fine to Ezekiel.

“A colloquialism?”

Hangzi said, “Yes. The most we can do for him is to not stare back, and to ignore when he looks at us. As he grows, he will learn how to control himself better, but that usually doesn’t happen till ten. He is three years away from that.” He added, “If you have anything that could help him, I demand you do so while we are here.”

Yorza stopped being prim and proper. She openly glared at Hangzi, then turned her gaze at Ezekiel. She stabbed a piece of meat on her plate with a chopstick, and left the stick upright as she glared.

Warzi whined, quietly.

Ezekiel felt compelled to at least ask, “What will I get in return?”

“Devouring Nightmare will solve whatever problems your clan is having out on the edge of the Tempest Forest.” Hangzi said, “That is why you are here. To return home with forces at your back, as a conquering Patriarch. We will help you with this.”

Ezekiel let that line of questioning go, and instead asked, “How long are you going to be here? Until they figure out the cure to the Elixir?”

Yorza harrumphed, then said, “They better invent the proper treatment soon if even barbarian trash knows about this breakthrough!”

Ignoring his aunt, Hangzi said, “We are here to grant Star Song assistance defending against those who would see this miracle destroyed before it can be used against them.” He asked, “I thought you would have salivated for my offer, but you aren’t. So why are you here, Ezekiel?”

Ezekiel said, “I’m here to learn, and to make allies and friends.”

Hangzi inclined his head, slightly, as though reappraising.

Yorza sneered, “How is that going for you?”

“It’s going really well.” Ezekiel said, “So far, I can count several high-class people who seem friendly, and who I can work with. So far, very few people seem to be against me.” He added, “And I have no idea how to help Warzi, but Phagar is right there in the mana. Has Warzi ever tried to contact him?”

Warzi spilled his chopsticks again.

Hangzi sighed softly, but said nothing.

Yorza, however, lost some of her malice. After a moment, after glancing toward Warzi, and then away, she said, “The God of Death and Time is not an option.”

Warzi did not drop his food this time, but it was a close thing.

“Why not?” Ezekiel said, “Phagar is a fine god.”

If this aura control training didn’t work out, he’d ask for Phagar’s guidance, himself. It wasn’t his first backup plan, but it was high up there.

“Warzi is unwilling to speak to the ‘boy in the mana’.” Yorza said, “Therefore, Phagar is not an option.”

“Ahh.” Ezekiel said, “I think I understand. This is more a fear problem, than a mana sense problem.”

Yorza frowned, putting on false anger into her voice as she said, “Devouring Nightmare is not scared of anything. Fear is not the problem. Getting his mana sense under control is the problem.”

Clearly a lie meant to bolster, but this was not a helpful lie. Warzi was terrified of everything and ignoring that fact would not make it go away. It would only break the boy further.

Ezekiel said, “My next suggestion would be for Warzi to talk to some Mind Mages, for some therapy to help combat these fears.”

Yorza glanced longingly toward Warzi, then turned toward Hangzi.

Hangzi declared to her, “No.” He declared to Ezekiel, “Fear is a part of the Nightmare. One day, Warzi will use the fear he has now to make him a true terror on the battlefield, and he will never feel that fear himself, ever again. The only true problem we have is that Warzi is unable to turn off his mana sense.”

Yorza picked at her food, saying, “It is as Scion Hangzi says.”

A systemic issue, then.

“I have no solutions for that. But you already have spells that block mana sense. And he seemed calmer during the day when he watched my magic lesson?” Ezekiel asked, “Why not extend those solutions? A ring enchanted to block mana sense would do well.”

Hangzi frowned, angrily, saying nothing.

Yorza said, “We have potions for use in the day that assist with calming, but the side effects demand he only have one. It doesn’t last a whole day.” With a tiny hope in her voice, she said, “We’ve never had any luck with anyone enchanting a transparent shield that blocks mana sense, only. As the ultimate Sight sense, you need to block all the rest before you can block a mana sense.”

… Ezekiel’s [Sealed Privacy Ward] blocked mana sense, but did not block sight. Yorza was just plain wrong in that last statement.

But Ezekiel was a rare case, wasn’t he? But! Surely someone else was able to do what he could do.

Or maybe Devouring Nightmare had no one that could? What an odd problem. They were a High Clan, were they not? Were their resources truly this poor?

Ezekiel considered.

Backing up a bit, Hangzi had been startled to see Ezekiel was their temporary upstairs neighbor. Yorza hadn’t cared, because she didn’t know him; she just knew he was the guy who spied on her nephew. There had been a rough little conversation, and then Hangzi pivoted to inviting him to dinner. And now he was here! Eating dinner, and talking over Warzi’s problems. Surely they would have seen the [Sealed Privacy Ward]s that Ezekiel had occasionally put up in his rooms at the Sour House? But then again, those rooms always had [Prismatic Ward]s in them, too, which made it near impossible for someone to see that there was no one in there when both spells were active. Someone with a well refined mana sense could do it, but even people with mana senses couldn’t easily see through [Prismatic Ward].

Felair, the previous [Witness]er of Spur, couldn’t do it.

And yet… here was Warzi, and he could mana sense through that dense air.

And another thing! Did these people know how much help he had given to Star Song with the chelation treatment? Hangzi might know. But did they know his true identity? Likely not.

Or was this whole conversation only happening because Ezekiel had made it quite obvious that he had a very well tuned mana sense, back when he had called Hangzi a ‘child, with barely fused growth plates on his bones’? Maybe they guessed that Ezekiel had a solution that they wanted? Were they just fishing, hoping to catch a prize? Possibly. It cost them nothing, not even time, for everyone had to eat, so might as well invite the stranger to dinner, right?

Or!

Maybe the Worldly Path put all of them here, in the same pagoda.

Eh!

Elder Arilitilo put them all here in the same pagoda, which is why she wouldn’t be available tomorrow, because if she had been available, then Ezekiel would be directly asking her if, by doing this, she had some sort of goal. Oh. Yes. That sounded right.

Ha!

Wasn’t that something. Cunning lady, that. If anyone had the capability of setting this up, she (or someone in Star Song) did, for she was the only one who knew all of the facts, for sure. She likely knew that Ezekiel would gaze back at the kid who was gazing at him, and then all this, here, would happen, more or less how it was happening.

Hmm. Well. Knowing all that, Ezekiel could go down any of those conversational paths and ‘solve’ Warzi’s problem. But. That would be the bad solution.

Instead, he went in a better direction.

Ezekiel calmly said, “There’s more than enough fearful things in this world to go around, therefore I don’t think it is right that you are encouraging the growth of fears in a little boy. With his mana sense, he’ll see more terrible things than almost anyone else ever will. He likely already has.” He said to Warzi, “Sorry I scared you, Warzi. I did not mean to do that. I was not aware that you are truly what you appear to be, and I got scared, myself.”

Warzi stilled, but did not drop his chopsticks. He just looked down at his plate. Tiny tears fell from his face, but he did not make a sound.

A lot of people had likely said the same thing to the boy over the years, and if Ezekiel knew kids, and he thought he did, such an action would just further cement Warzi’s status as an outsider, and as a weirdo. Did he have friends his own age? There were none here that Ezekiel could see.

A lot of people probably never apologized to Warzi at all, and that would have been worse than apologizing.

Ah! Wasn’t that shitty. Poor kid.

Yorza ignored the men at the table, and looked to the boy sitting across from her. She wanted to speak, to comfort, but Ezekiel could tell that she could not. Tradition, culture, propriety, an eye toward the future; something held her back and that force was stronger than her desire to shield and protect.

Hangzi breathed out through his nose, and said, “Spoken like a man who has never known true terror.”

…

… What?

Ezekiel turned toward Hangzi, blinking.

The white boy’s pitying face was squarely directed forward, at Ezekiel.

“Ha.” Ezekiel laughed, once. And then again. “Ha? Ha!”

And then the laughter came out like a flood, into the perfectly silent room. And then a second burst of laughter came out from Tiffany, sitting at the table behind them. Paul chuckled, but he schooled that away, mostly. He would not be laughing right now, no sir! Or at least not so openly.

Ezekiel laughed for the both of them.

Hangzi’s face flushed with anger. The guards on their side of the room were not laughing at all. They were staring. Some guard slammed their mug of beer on their table. Tiffany and Paul’s laughter cut out, instantly, as the two of them stared at the offending guard.

Yorza whispered to Hangzi, “Don’t do it in front of Warzi.”

Ezekiel stopped laughing at whatever that meant.

Ezekiel happily declared, “Sorry! Once again; sorry! It seems I blunder about, don’t I?” He fully taunted, “I don’t need to be ‘shown any true terror’ while your brother is here.” He stared across the way, and smiled. “How about tomorrow? After lunch?”

Hangzi waved a hand backward, at his guards. They settled down. The boy Scion stared down his nose at Ezekiel, then leveled his gaze, and said, “A test of talents, tomorrow. After lunch.”

“Sounds fun!” Ezekiel said to Warzi, “And the man in the mana is not a bad guy. I’ve met Phagar tons of times. Almost became like a priest to him, but then it didn’t work out, and that was okay, too.”

Hangzi narrowed his eyes, suddenly wary, like he wasn’t sure if he had seen a monster in the dark, or not.

Yorza had a different reaction. She straightened at Ezekiel's words. She glanced at him with narrowed eyes, then turned back toward Warzi, looking hopeful.

Warzi met Ezekiel’s eyes with his own. He was fearful, but also something else. And then the boy startled as the first drops of an evening rain pattered against the pagoda and rushed across the land outside, filling the air with the sounds of millions of tiny taps.

The rest of dinner was quiet except for the small moments when something unexpected happened outside, or downstairs, or upstairs, or elsewhere, and Warzi startled. He managed to hold himself together through three distractions, but then the fourth distraction came, and he spilled his food over himself and dropped his chopsticks. He didn’t cry when his servants helped him, though.

Either the kid was a fantastic actor, or a kid. After sharing a meal with him, Ezekiel was leaning hard toward the second option.

Poor kid.

- - - -

Ezekiel laid in bed, reading medical texts and Blood Magic notes, when a thought touched his mind.

‘Hey, dad!’

He smiled, sending back, ‘How’s it going out there? Kill any large monsters?’

‘We razed an infestation of Moon Reachers, actually! 45 of them. They’re over here on Nelboor, too. Been plaguing a whole mess of Border Clans for months now.’

Ezekiel sighed, worried for a moment, then banished that fear for it was completely illogical. He put his smile back on, and sent, ‘If anyone is qualified to kill them, it’s you. What was your final count in the culling over in the Forest? Almost four thousand, right?’

‘3,940!’

‘I’ll put up an Imaging for those kinds of monsters if Sikali or whoever can guarantee no one else can see it.’

‘We considered asking you, but they decided against it.’ Julia sent, ‘They’re saving your obligation for something larger, no doubt. So how was your day?’

‘Oh! You know. Met Grand Elder Lingxing Void Song for lunch at the Void Temple, and Scion Devouring Nightmare for dinner, and I learned all about aura control and healing magic. You could Remake all of that right now, I bet. I met a scared kid who was born with a mana sense to rival Tiffany; the younger brother of the Scion, in fact. He’s only seven, and I’m pretty sure this is neither a cuckoo situation, or a [Polymorph]ed infiltrator situation. He’s just a kid with a massive mana sense.’

‘… Huh.’ Julia said, ‘I got no idea about that, but tell me more about this healing stuff? I tried to remake most of that, but it didn’t work right. I don’t have an Elemental Body for Healing, so I kinda gave up on that.’

‘Oh! I read about that. Hold on.’ Ezekiel sat up, excited. That had been one of his questions for Ari, for tomorrow or the next day, and he had found the answer in his books. Flipping through his books with multiple tendrils of light, he read as he sent, ‘Yes. Elemental Healing. I asked Elder Arilitilo twice about Remaking the healing spells, and she never mentioned it, so I was confused, too, but I saw a note on that in one of these books— Here it is! Okay. This is actually a multilayered problem that stumped me for a while. Part of the problem is translation-based. They call the joining of Elemental Water and Light, ‘Healing’. But Healing Magic is more nuanced than the simple Healing Element. With Elemental Healing, you could probably Remake the healing spells as they are truly meant to be remade, but you’d have to be careful not to make cancers along the way. Healing Magic is actually a lot more nuanced than simple Elemental Healing.

‘This is also something I read, that Ari didn’t go over, exactly: Healing spells are one of the few spells that you can queue ahead of time; that you can cast into a glow on your hand, or something, and then tap a person with when needed. There is no need to directly cast the spell on a person.

‘So in this way, you can shape the healing spell properly before then applying it directly to the wound in the best way to overheal Health in an area and allow the body to remake what had been broken. And that was a complicated sentence, but you got it.

‘That’s all it takes to Remake the healing spells.’ He paused. He sent, ‘But it’s a lot more complicated than one sentence from me. Don’t try pure Elemental Healing on yourself; you’ll just get cancer. [Cleanse] clears out cancers, but if you get them in a bad spot, like a pancreas, you could screw yourself up very, very fast.

‘Looks like it’s gonna take me a few weeks to learn what she has to teach. Are you getting lessons with Loremaster Riri, or something? I didn’t hear anything about that today. Is that working out like how we bargained?’ He added, ‘And tell me about your day!’

Julia seemed happy on the other side of the call, as she sent, ‘No lessons yet, but I talked to her. Lessons soon, but not yet. Tomorrow we’re going to kill some rivergrieves that are terrorizing some of the northernmost border cities, up past Holorulo, and then we’re going to…’

Ezekiel listened to his daughter speak of her joy.

Eventually, Julia signed off.

Ezekiel laid in bed, the conversation with his daughter swirling in his mind. He flicked on his mana sense, to check up on the rest of the world.

Paul was asleep. Tiffany was on first watch, sipping tea as she read her novel.

Odins flitted about outside, also on watch. They sat on the sills of the windows and on the branches of trees; bright pink birds hanging out in the dark and the rain without care for either. The one behind Ezekiel, hanging out on his headboard, was there to watch over Ezekiel while he slept. Ezekiel reached a hand up and patted the little guy. Odin twittered in happy violins.

Hangzi was doing paperwork down in his office. His guards were half asleep, with the others stationed here and there around his apartments. Hangzi’s office was almost directly below Ezekiel’s bedroom, but not directly below his bed.

Two floors down, Yorza tucked Warzi into bed and then activated a magical night light nearby. As rainbow glows touched the room, and the world rained outside his windows, an opaque bubble of magic surrounded Warzi. Ezekiel couldn’t see through the bubble, but he could tell that, after a minute, the bed stopped shaking under the boy’s constant fidgeting. Maybe Warzi was finally able to relax inside that bubble.

Ezekiel got to thinking.

How could you turn off someone’s mana sense? The obvious ‘solution’ to him was to take [Sealed Privacy Ward] and flatten it, then wrap it around the outside of the body, likely combining it with [Personal Ward]. Or something like that. Then you’d enchant that into a ring. Would that work?

He cast a [Sealed Privacy Ward] into the air beside his chair, making it a flat, curved and closed surface. It was a bubble shape with nothing but outsides; even the inside was technically still ‘outside’ of the spell’s area of influence. The spell appeared like a barely-visible flex in the air.

To his mana sense, it was a solid sphere; impenetrable.

He got up out of bed and stuck his hand in.

In the exact edge of the sphere, where the spell effect actually was, his arm vanished. He could still see his hand and arm on the other side of the thin bubble, though, just in the way that he could look through a normal [Sealed Privacy Ward] and see what was happening on the other side.

Huh. Okay. That worked.

Well. No. It did not. This version of his [Sealed Privacy Ward] blocked all sound, too. Which meant that if this was made into a [Personal Ward], then the person inside could see out, but they couldn’t hear, so this was a failure.

Maybe he could make a simple tier 2 version of a [Personal Ward] that just blocked mana sense. That seemed easy enough. Probably.

… But anyway, there was still the enchanting problem. How could he put this spell into an item that Warzi could—

Ah. Julia had spoken of charms that could break to reestablish a [Personal Ward] whenever her first ones broke. This was a good idea! He could make a ton of those and hand the charms to the boy.

He held his hand up and channeled the sound of [Persona—

He stopped. It was late. He could do this in the morning, after he considered the problem a bit more. Besides that, he needed to experiment more with [Personal Ward]. Maybe, if he had an aura-permeable one, he could keep his [Personal Ward] up and continue to work on his aura control.

Ezekiel hadn’t experimented much with [Personal Ward]s because it was near impossible to make a better defensive [Personal Ward] than the base spell, and you could only have one [Personal Ward] active at a time. It was easy to attach other effects to [Personal Ward]s, though, like flight. Ezekiel had almost gone in that direction back when he first dropped on Veird. It should be easy enough to make a [Personal Ward] which stopped mana sense, but which allowed light through, as normal.

… Which, thinking about it, made Yorza’s earlier statement about this being a ‘difficult magic’, rather odd.

Meh.

A lie to get him to help her? Likely.

And he still needed to stab himself to learn healing magic, too!

… He’d do that in the morning, too, after lessons with Kaffi.

Ezekiel got back into bed, threw the covers over himself, and closed his eyes.

If he had (devouring) nightmares tonight, at least he knew who to blame!