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Erick sat in his living room. The early morning sun colored everything with a pale gold paint brush. Steam curled up from the cup of coffee in his hands, and Erick took a sip.

The [Prismatic Ward] of the rest of the house was an archway away; barely one meter.

Sitting across from Erick was the organizer for the day’s event; the only person who had showed up at Erick’s house. The main bulk of Songli’s forces were elsewhere, prepared to head out wherever Erick’s Imaging led them.

Erick said, “I must say that I was expecting an early morning, but that Songli wouldn't be ready till later. I have an obligation that I made yesterday that I was hoping to get done before this.”

Kaffi nodded.

Kaffi looked the same as she had before; an older, mostly human woman of pale skin and blond hair, but with bright red eyes that marked her as demi. She was slightly more haggard around the edges, but who wasn’t, these days.

“What obligation, if you don’t mind me asking?” She tried another sip of her coffee, then set down her cup and added another small pour of white milk to her tan drink, saying, “It’s not my most favorite flavor, but it is better with milk and sugar.”

Erick smiled, saying, “It’s an acquired taste, for sure.” He added, “I have decided to bail out Red Ledger’s university.”

Kaffi smirked, then said, “They’re lucky to have your assistance. I am guessing that you require a trip to the bank? Banks, perhaps? I assume you use the normal ones. I could arrange for the Clan Exchange or the Grand Bank of Songli to send a representative here, so that we do not have to stop overlong.”

Erick almost chuckled; Kaffi knew his bank. Of course she did. But then again, everyone at least had a Mage Guild Bank account, even if most of their wealth were in other institutions. Erick said, “Yes. Let’s do that, then. Have them show up whenever. I expect it will take a while to find all of these people you have samples for.”

On the table, beside the coffee, sat three wooden boxes wrapped in leathers, each smaller than a breadbox. They were marginally enchanted, and filled with samples.

Kaffi said, “I will have the banks bow to your needs.”

He supposed she would.

Erick decided to get down to it, asking, “So how is this going to go down? Any changes from what I was told yesterday?”

“There are a few things. In an almost unimportant way, and for right now, for security reasons: We’ll be framing this as tracking down Terror Peaks collaborators. The idea there is that when the story eventually makes its way to the Knowledge Mages, which we expect to happen within hours, potential targets aren’t given too much of a warning. In a year or two, or in a week, the real story might come out, but for now we would prefer not to alert any of our targets.

“Aside from the small break for you to talk to your bankers, we also ask that you continue with us all the way to the end of this prepared counter-hunting. If it takes 10 hours, that’s great. But if it takes 24, then we need to work for those 24 or 30 hours. These people are dangerous, and the Hunting community is connected. They will know that a major move is being made against them, so we wish to contain and kill these particular Hunters and face stealers before they become too organized. It is in this reasoning that we have the most dangerous targets lined up first. Serial killers. Known Hunter leaders. Etcetera.

“Also, we would appreciate for the Imagings to be high in the sky; nothing too close to the ground that commoners would be able to notice.”

“All reasonable. I agree.” Erick glanced down at the table, to the enchanted boxes. “So those are them, eh? More than what I was told we would be searching for.”

“Some of our targets have multiple known bodies, thus the large number of extra samples.” Kaffi touched the first box, opening it. Mist flowed out and down, heavy and cold. “423 vials between these three boxes. Together, these represent 301 killers, each one responsible for anywhere between a hundred to a thousand deaths, though there are a few outliers with considerably more, and it is hard to put a number to the Hunters who organize their people to Hunt.” She gestured to the front row of vials, indicating fifteen vials. She pulled out one. Written on its surface was ‘Subject 1: Divider’. She said, “We have 15 vials for the one we call ‘Divider’. They— I can spare you the gory details, if you wish. This one doesn’t have a Quest, for that would make them more active, as history has shown. Divider revels in having a large bounty to his Quest, and so, we deny him that. I will let you know when we get to the ones that have Quests. By the end of the day, I expect you to have gained at least a hundred points.” She added, “If all goes well.”

Okay?

Uh.

Many things about that little speech stood out to Erick. Aside from ‘Divider’… Points?

He had not been expecting points, or Quests. Or. Well. He had not expected that many points. He got 13 points from Treehome, but…

Of course Songli would have a larger number of Quests to catch people. It was part of their entire culture. He was certainly not expecting over a hundred points, though!

Erick ignored the points, for now. He didn’t even know how to spend that many. He focused on ‘Divider’, and the danger of this undertaking. He glanced around.

Jane and Poi stood to the sides of the room, their mouths shut as they looked on, ready for something bad to happen. Teressa was in the other room with her mana sense wide open, paying attention to large scale attacks; ‘shadows in the manasphere that occluded all other futures’, to read Redarrow’s notes on prognostication. Even if she wasn’t that good at it right now, Teressa might be able to give them some small heads up.

Like a dragon coming in for an attack, to give one possible event.

Erick steeled his mind, thinking about all the possible problems of today, knowing he was going to hear something terrible, and said, “Give me the short version for Divider.”

With a horribly calm voice, Kaffi said, “Divider separates commoner families into two, then they have one half kill the other half. By vote, or by group melee, or any other number of ways. It is most gruesome when the family decides not to fight each other, for Divider then kills the most righteous of the family members, takes their form, and then mentally tortures the family until they give in to kill someone else in the family. He continues with this tactic until the family kills one of its own members, or only one member is left. In the later case, the survivor is told ‘You could have saved three if you had killed four; now you have none’.” Kaffi’s mask of empty emotions seemed to get stronger as she spoke, betraying a deep wound in her heart. “However it happens, half or more of the family dies, one way or another. And then Divider leaves. They’ve been active for the last three hundred years, the world over, but mostly in Songli. They have an estimated 11,500 kills to their name. Maybe as many as double that much.” Her emotional mask broke in a tiny way, her eyes turning hateful. “I have been looking for this killer for many of those years. Divider, by the way, is not redeemable through the use of your Blessing; I will not allow it. Others will be allowed on whatever basis you wish.”

“… Okay. If any of the others are like that then perhaps they don’t deserve redemption—”

“They do not.” Kaffi paused. With a softer voice, she said, “They do not.”

Erick nodded, slowly. He almost spoke about how Raidu had been acting, there, at the end. How Raidu had even needled Hangzi with taunts. That maybe the Blessing wasn’t as inviolable as Erick believed it to be.

That would mean bad things about the Shades being out there…

But they weren’t doing anything except helping others, right? In their own twisted ways, but... They had those Quests for redemption, and Melemizargo demanded that they redeem themselves? Right? Or was Erick just imagining that.

… Maybe no tests of Blessings today. Not against people like ‘Divider’.

Kaffi handed over Divider’s first vial, and pushed the cold box closer to Erick’s side of the table.

With the vial in his hands, he sent out his senses to the Ophiel he had strung throughout the Highlands, and then he moved them upward, higher into the sky. He cast Imagings all across the land, giving enough space between each of them that there would be no radio static.

Erick came back and said, “The maps are up and running. We might get hits within five minutes. Poi knows where they are.”

Poi said, “Locations are already dispersed.”

Kaffi stared at Erick with eager eyes.

They waited.

They got a ping on the first vial, but it turned out to be a mausoleum, and an old skeleton. Vials 2 through 5 were the same. Vial 6 found a young man in a warehouse operation out of Alaralti, floating huge boxes of apples onto a mage’s waiting [Teleporting Platform]. The search didn’t find him, exactly, but it did find the tunic or the pants he was wearing. That was Erick’s guess, anyway; they didn’t want him to recast the Imaging too close, lest the target realize he had been spotted. The trail of the search had gone through half a dozen locations, from the scene of an old crime at a house south of Alaralti, to a fishery, to a hideout in the open lands, outside of Alaralti’s border.

Kaffi sat across from Erick, a [Viewing Screen] floating to the side of the room, showing the warehouse and the man in question. The actual image was taken from kilometers away, also to not spook the target. She spoke to others through [Telepathy]; tendrils of thought wrapping around her head, her thoughts multiplying from three to ten. She frowned, nervous and excited and worried all at once, showing some of her true self. She whispered words for Erick’s benefit, “We’re going in as soon as the platform departs.”

The platform had already come and gone twice in the time since Erick had found the potential target.

Erick watched.

The target joked with another man, as he was not the only one loading up crates of apples onto the platform. The warehouse was filled with people; maybe nine of them, all helping to ship out food as fast as they could before the markets opened in the cities. The woman on the platform snapped at the jokesters, telling them that they were on deadlines. The jokes died, and three more crates went onto the platform in ten seconds. When the woman departed, the jokester was already telling another funny story.

The team moved in, all at once and all around the pair of men. Five people formed the five points of a formation, each holding talismans written in blood upon thick paper, each pointing their talismans toward the jokester. Pulses of light went out, wrapping the two men in the sudden appearance of an iridescent bubble, filled with shadows and stars.

The jokester realized what was happening a fraction of a second after people appeared. He ran. He was too late to escape the trap. He slammed into the bubble and bounced away, clipping into the other man, who stood dumbfounded, wondering what the fuck was happening all around him. Then the jokester took his friend hostage, wrapping the friend’s right arm behind his back, while taking out a knife and holding it against the friend’s throat, all the while screaming to let him out.

When the knife came out, and drew faint red drops from his neck, that was when the friend started to panic. He earned a small stab to his chest for that, along with a harshly spoken command into his ear to calm down, or die now.

All the while, Mana and Health were streaming away from both the jokester and the friend, like starlight into the Void, strengthening the iridescence of the spell.

Erick watched with emotions removed.

A far off part of him decided that he should try to join [Draining Void], [Prismatic Lullaby], [Spatial Denial], [Merciful Ether], [Harmonic Counterspell], and [Force Wall], all into one spell, so that he could do many of the same things that the iridescent bubble were doing, but better. [Prismatic Lullaby] might even counter the volatile gasses created by [Merciful Ether], while the draining of [Draining Void] might be able to supply mana to [Harmonic Counterspell]. Force Magic wasn’t prevented by that setup, though, so maybe he needed to work that spell that excluded Force, before he made such a combined spell. … And it was possible that including [Prismatic Lullaby] would instead make the whole thing not work at all. Erick would have to experiment to find out.

The surface part of Erick watched as the lead agent spoke, his voice rising above the volume of the suddenly confused and angry and worried and terrified people of the warehouse. His voice did not rise above the voice of the jokester. He spoke of crimes. He spoke of proofs that Erick had no notion of. He spoke of many things, rapidly and professionally. In the space of five minutes, the warehouse was silent; listening. The teleporting platforms had come in and gotten [Dispel]ed; their riders unceremoniously falling to the warehouse floor, where other agents of Songli came in and controlled the bystanders to stand away. Those bystanders were now lined up with the normal warehouse workers, all standing to the side, except for the worker inside the bubble, with the jokester.

Some of the workers puked upon hearing the first mention of ‘Divider’.

When the lead agent was halfway through his list of crimes, Divider started to laugh.

The lead agent’s voice turned serious, as he asked Divider to let the man go, and they would make his death painless.

Erick gasped, for he had guessed what would happen the second he heard the lead agent say those words. He knew what would happen when he saw the grin on Divider’s face. He understood that the capture team, and everyone else involved, had already written off the hostage as dead. It wasn’t till then that Erick realized what was going to happen to the hostage. Some people in the audience caught on almost as quickly.

Erick said, “Let me—”

He was too late.

Divider was a Polymage of an extreme sort, with a hundred lifetimes lived across way too many centuries. He had a lot of time to accrue power in the form of [Perfected Body], like the one Jane had gotten from the Queen Blood Weaver, including whatever other Polymage Abilities there were out there. He probably had dozens of other abilities he could stitch onto his base Form.

Divider tossed the knife at the iridescent bubble like he was flinging a toothpick. That knife clanged off of the bubble, then fell, its inertia completely gone. Divider laughed at that, then said something about how they finally got a good spell to trap him this time.

And then he grabbed the arms of his hostage and ripped the man apart, quick as the snapping of a hundred bones at once, reveling in the death and the pain of a man he had been joking with not minutes before. The hostage was still alive when he smacked into the ground, but he was nothing more than a broken arm and the upper half of his body. Divider crushed the man’s skull under a heavy boot, splattering red all across the interior of the iridescent bubble.

Erick didn’t get a chance to voice his offer of help.

It had ended too fast.

Erick sat back in his chair, stunned. Kaffi glanced his way, then turned back to the [Viewing Screen].

Divider stood covered in blood, laughing about one final separation.

The lead agent declared a request for summary judgment while his agents watched on, passionless. Some of the normal people in the warehouse puked again, or for the first time, while one woman porter fainted, and others stood stoic, like this wasn’t the worst thing they had seen in the last month. Maybe it wasn’t. One woman roared out in pain upon seeing the hostage die.

The lead agent spoke the verdict.

Death.

Erick got the distinct impression that his declaration was for the benefit of others, who were also watching this final tragedy unfold from the safety of their houses, or offices, or other assorted mostly-safe rooms. Or maybe the agent did it this way because the law required it be done this way, and [Witness]es upon the area would need proper words spoken, to ensure justice was carried out.

The lead agent and his four supporters took out other talismans and pressed them to the bubble.

The bubble began to shrink.

Erick watched, but he let the image of compression and the sounds of crunching laughter pass him by. He was a rock in a river, and though the river was rising, he was still, and calm; He would not be moved.

The bubble became a single centimeter across.

The lead agent nodded, then pulled out a Kill Notification, declaring justice as served. Divider was level 93.

Another far off part of Erick woke up, informing him that if he had killed that man himself, he might have actually gained a level. Mostly, though, he watched as the lead agent cast a [Cleanse] over the tiny bubble, and highly condensed gore turned to thick air that spilled out from the bubble like an imaginary explosion. With a wave of the lead agent’s hand, the bubble dispersed with a tiny pop, and not the actual explosion that Erick had been waiting for.

Erick heard Kaffi sniff. He turned his attention back to the woman sitting across from him. Kaffi wiped away a tear, and smiled. She breathed out, still smiling; a sad, happy expression. A finality reached. A box of horrors finally closed. Someone had been avenged.

Probably a lot of someones.

Kaffi dispelled her air of heavy emotions and her [Viewing Screen] as she turned to Erick. “Moving right along?” She rapidly added, “To vial 7. To make sure that the Divider was working alone. We think he was working alone, but it is better to be sure about these things.”

“Of course.” Erick put back vial 6, and took out vial 7.

Vials 7 through 15, all of the rest of Divider’s possible bodies, revealed only one more positive result on a living person; a young woman who was caught alone, in another iridescent bubble, and who instantly broke down crying. A Sin Seeker came in and touched the iridescent bubble, revealing the woman’s soul as bright white; Not a hint of murder upon her at all. In figuring out what was going on, exactly, a closer [Cascade Imaging] highlighted its blue target, revealing a ring with a glass gem upon it, where drops of blood had been stored. Rapidly, the story of the ring came out.

The ring had been bought 80 years ago in an estate sale, and then passed from grandmother, to mother, to daughter. It was engraved with the message, ‘I will always love you’.

Originally, the ring had belonged to a woman who had said those words as Divider looked on, and she held her son’s hands, along with a knife, pointed at her own heart. She helped her son to kill herself, and when it was done, Divider took the mother’s body away, leaving the son with the bloody knife. While Divider killed more people in the skin of the dead mother, the son had turned the gold and the glass gems and the blood of the knife into a ring.

Eventually, the son died of old age, and the ring went into an estate sale.

The young woman wearing the ring didn’t even know that the ring was glass and blood and the expensive parts of a knife until Kaffi revealed that story to the young woman, through the enforcer on scene. The young woman just thought that it was a nice ring with a dark-centered but otherwise clear gem; a gift that had been passed down through her own family for a while.

Kaffi called for a break, after Divider’s case was closed, so that they could evaluate how it went down, and so some kinks could be worked out of the capture system. She had probably only offered as much because at that very same time—

Poi said, “The representatives from the banks are available. I am told that Doctor Tsung is also ready to make the transfer.”

Erick shifted modes like a manual car with a broken transmission, but he shifted modes, nonetheless. “Of— Of course. Have them [Teleport]… [Teleport] outside and walk in.” He stood up, gaining control of himself. “I’ll receive them in the other room.”

Poi nodded.

Two minutes later, and with an accompaniment of four guards in white armor who all stayed outside, a woman from Clan Exchange and a man from Grand Bank of Songli blipped onto the front lawn. Not one second after that, Doctor Tsung and his security guard blipped in, as well. The guards stayed outside, while everyone else walked into Erick’s temporary house, then to the other side room.

The room with Kaffi has a lightward curtain drawn across the archway, preventing anyone from easily looking inside.

It was a simple affair to conduct a trade between Erick’s international account at the Clan Exchange, otherwise known as the Mage Guild, and the Grand Bank of Songli; to deposit 2.5 million gold into Clan Red Ledger’s various University-affiliated accounts.

After the bankers exited, Tsung remained for a minute longer, overjoyed at everything.

Tsung said, “We must have dinner sometime soon. Perhaps tomorrow? We can discuss anything you wish to know of Healing Magic, for I am quite proficient.” He rapidly said, “I must apologize for my actions yesterday. I was not in my best form. I surely know answers to many of your possible questions for I’ve been at this for nearly 50 years, and teaching for much of that time.”

“I would love to, but I am, unfortunately, extremely busy.” Erick said, “I will have to accept your invitation some other time. I will have my people contact your people.”

Tsung rapidly said, “Of course! Of course!” as he started walking toward the door. “I have much to do, myself. I have to look into repairing the clan mountain and that’s a pile of paperwork—”

“Don’t spend money on that. They’re going to tell me the spells and then I’m going to repair your mountain. It won’t get done for a few days, though.”

Tsung’s face lit up again. “My good man! I—! … Really? No no. I have to go through the proper chan—I wouldn’t want to impose upon you.”

“I insist. It will be good to put my mind to a nice relaxing building project, once the day’s events are over.” He added, “If I fail to learn whatever spell they use, then you can look into normal repair protocols.”

“… Very well. Then I thank you, Archmage Flatt. I will have blueprints ready for you, whenever you show.” Tsung walked out the door, then bowed one final time.

Tsung and his security guard vanished in a blip.

Erick returned to the shadow war.

He didn’t pay too close attention to the rest of the searching, opting instead to content himself with knowing what was going on, but to let the deeper truths of these horrors pass him by. He watched. He knew. He understood what the Hunters and face stealers were doing inside the Highlands; inside this land where it was easy to get lost in the population, if only you didn’t mess around with the nobility, or stand out too much.

He didn’t absorb much of the horrors of the killing, and of the reasons that these people needed to be killed.

Or at least, he tried not to.

Songli, and Erick, uncovered body traffickers and their wares. They uncovered Hunter hangouts, where dozens of killers were captured in one quick swoop. They uncovered atrocities in the act of being committed. They rescued people. They condemned others to death.

No one got Blessed.

A dark part of Erick decided that these people did not deserve it.

There was little collateral damage. Most of that collateral damage was unavoidable. Erick didn’t count property damage, of course. He only counted damage to people. Sometimes, there were too many targets in one location to take them all safely. Sometimes there were hostages within reach of people pretending not to be killers.

Sometimes, Erick was able to lock down a face stealer with Ophiels counterspelling and [Prismatic Lullaby] and other spellwork, while hostages ran away or were forcibly [Teleport Other]’d away. Those were the good captures, allowing the agents of Songli to come in and give their decrees without complications, for Erick had already removed the complications.

There were a lot of Quests.

Most of those Quests were worth 2 points; one point for finding, one for killing. By noon, Erick had gained fifty four points. The Sin Seekers which confirmed the nature of the murderers got the other points, for they were the executioners.

By dinner time, which was a small affair of foods laid out on the front room table for Erick and Kaffi to pick at when they desired, Erick, Kaffi, and Songli had destabilized all Hunter activity in the region. The Hunters and otherwise were running scared. In those last hours of sunlight, killers were found in the process of fleeing, or hidden behind ineffective [Ward]s. Some killers chose to leave this life doing what they had wanted to do, which was kill more people. By then, the full news of Erick’s searching and Songli’s targeting was already being spoken of by Clan Elders, and initiates, and members.

Commoners were whispering to each other over low tables at darkened bars, where drug smoke hung in the air and no one was actually as dangerous as they looked… Except for the bartender, who had been replaced not hours ago in #173’s attempt to hide in plain sight. He was filthy with cross contamination. When the agents of Songli captured him, and a Sin Seeker pronounced his guilt, Erick set the vial of blood in his hand back into its place in the cold box.

Then he picked up another. It would take several more hours to get the last of the vials.

Or…

It would have been.

As had happened a few times during the day, Quests were being posted by more Clan Patriarchs, Matriarchs, and Enforcers. This was just a matter of course. More posts came in all the time. But now, new Quests were coming in every ten minutes, and then every five. And then, 4 more Quests, all at once. And then twenty three. And then came more.

Erick watched the new Quests rolling in, in real time; blue boxes falling down his vision like a river flooding wide.

After a 5-pointer Quest appeared at the top of the local list, calling for the eradication of some killer and his team, Erick could not ignore the new Quests any longer. Erick looked to Kaffi. She had not seen it yet, for her eyes were on the [Viewing Screen] in front of them, watching the cleanup of the latest kill.

She had noticed the stream of Quests, though. She had specifically not spoken of them.

There were more Quests in the area than there were when Erick had started.

Erick had to ask about the 5 pointer, though. “Who are the Green Spikes, and why does Clan Tarip Grove want them dead this badly?”

Kaffi eyed the air. She frowned, and another tendril of thought went out. “They’re not part of our agreement.”

Erick let that thread of conversation drop, and moved onto the next vial. It was marked ‘Subject #174: Wallower QUEST TARGET’. Erick searched up the Quest, and accepted it.

Three minutes later, he had another point to his Status.

He was up to 79.

Hours later, it was midnight, and he was up 103 more points than when he started. He hadn’t spent a single one, for he was sure that this was not the end of the day, even though it was late and they had gone through all the targets. He wasn’t really sure how he wanted to spend them, anyway.

Erick slipped vial #423, of Subject #301, back into the case. He closed the lid. They were done. That was the last one.

The last planned one.

Kaffi dismissed the [Viewing Screen], but kept her eyes averted. She was thinking, and also communicating with other people outside of the room.

Erick waited.

After a moment, Kaffi turned to Erick. Her words came out solid, “There is a question of if you would be willing to continue with this type of searching, with these new Quests that have been coming in. Not all of them have been approved, but many of them are approved. These extra Quests are worth an estimated 109 more points for you.”

Erick had already decided what his response would be if Kaffi, and by extension Songli, asked for a continuation of the day’s killing.

His stomach was in knots. His emotions were frayed. He hated what he was doing.

But he would do it anyway.

Because he was finally in a position in his life to do real Good in this world. And yes, it hurt him to see the killers he had seen today. It hurt to enact justice against them. It hurt, a lot. But he would continue, because the children of Songli would be able to grow up in a world where Terror Peaks and Hunters and face stealers did not exist, or at least all the old ones would have been killed.

People deserved better than to live unknowingly beside monsters that wanted to eat them.

For a hundred different reasons, Erick ignored whatever long-term damage this was doing to him. This wasn’t much more worse than when he helped Treehome to find killers. So what if Songli was so much larger than Treehome? This was no more difficult than that had been.

… Erick took a moment to examine that thought of his.

This, here, was objectively worse than what he had done in Treehome. The scale of it was a big change, if nothing else. He had also vetted Treehome’s targets with Mind Mage assistance. He had not vetted these targets here with Mind Mage assistance. He had just trusted that Songli wouldn’t lead him astray.

From what he had seen, they hadn’t.

Why did he trust these people more than he did the orcols? Perhaps it was because he had already killed literally thousands of soldiers for Songli?

Was it getting easier for him to inflict harm on others?

Perhaps this was getting easier.

Yeah.

It was getting easier.

It was pretty damned easy to see that he needed to continue, too.

“When I agreed to this, I didn’t consider the extra points. They were a pleasant surprise.” Erick said, “They are not the fulcrum that will move me to say ‘yes’. All I ask is that the new targets truly be ones that need to be counter-Hunted. If they are not, then we will have a problem. Do as much as you need to do to ensure that you are meeting this demand of mine with as much proof as necessary. A similar level of Sin Seeker and trapping and vetting will be sufficient.”

Kaffi said, “We Enforcers did not plan on this addition, but we can adjust.”

“What sort of additions did you plan on?”

“We still have the matter of searching for ‘people’ outside of Songli, and that is where most of our resources would have been devoted over the next few hours.” Kaffi said, “These new Quests you are seeing are from overzealous clansmen, but while many of them are unknown to me, some of them are partially vetted already. I recognize the 5-pointer Quest targeting Green Spikes. A dossier for that situation came my way years ago, but at that time, it was deemed a personal problem for Clan Tarip Grove. If they’re willing to spend the points on it, though, then it will be done, one way or the other.”

Erick nodded.

Kaffi said, “I ask for your allowance for some time to go through the new Quests, to see which ones you can do according to your own demands, and to get you the vials or otherwise which contain the blood of appropriate, vetted targets. I will make it take an hour. Maybe two.”

“Am I going to continue to see new Quests laid before me, with perfectly reasonable demands to back them up? I do not appreciate this. What about the pirate coves to the south?” Erick added, “Or the face stealers of the Warlord Clans?”

“Matriarch Lingxing was most thorough in eradicating the pirates, thanks to the Imaging you already provided when we hunted Terror Peaks.” Kaffi said, “As for the face stealers, we are attempting to reach an agreement with Ooloraptoor to have them cooperate with us for the searching of their face stealers. It has been difficult. They are nowhere near ready to sign the Compact, and we fear that much of our work with them as a theoretical combined nation will be undone due to actions which are outside of our control. The revelation of the face stealer problem is deeper than anyone thought it was.” She readily said, “If you desire to go out there on your own, we will assist you in any way you wish. I would personally wait for the ambassadors to do their duty and pave the way for a joint exercise between all the Warlord Clans, but that is only my humble opinion.”

“That seems deeper of a problem than I thought it was.” Erick said, “Forget that for now, then. Let us move on to this new round of counter-Hunting.” He got up, saying, “I’m going to take a break. I’ll be ready whenever you are.”

Kaffi stood, and bowed. Then she rose, saying, “Thank you for your help, Archmage Flatt. Songli will try to make this reorganization as quick as we can.”

She departed the house first, and then she blipped away.

Erick went to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich, while Jane passed out on the living room couch and Teressa woke up to start her shift. Erick told Poi that he could stay awake until Kaffi showed back up, to ensure that Kaffi was Kaffi, but otherwise, he should get some sleep, too.

One hour passed, along with most of another.

Kaffi showed up with another cold box, whereupon Poi verified her, then he took the offered out.

Erick set down a tray with fresh coffee in a pot, clean cups, and more sugar and milk, asking, “Care for a cup?” as he poured himself one.

“Happily.” Kaffi gestured to the newest box of tissue samples, saying, “We’ve got 124 verified samples and 113 Quests, ready to go. The 9 target difference is due to some last minute additions by a few Warlord Clans of Ooloraptoor. That was a confusing mess for a good 40 minutes, but we got some of their problem targets. One thing: they don’t do Quests up there. We will be assisting them with Sin Seekers and spellwork, but they have no points to offer you.”

Erick was glad to hear that something was being done about the face stealers of the Warlord Clans. The reveal of Songli ambassadors as face stealers started this whole shitstorm, so it was only right that the grass travelers benefit from this, too. But only 9 targets? That seemed not near enough.

“This is acceptable, for now.” Erick said, “I noticed the 5 pointer from Tarip grove is gone, though.”

Kaffi said, “It is. Some Scions completed that one while I was organizing people and targets.”

“Nothing to apologize for. You all are doing most of the work, anyway.” He looked to the box. “Let’s begin.”

Kaffi opened the box and handed Erick the first vial. It was a clunky tube of glass with a sealed wax stopper. Most of the vials in the new cold box were like that, with many of them non-uniform; some thin, like the previous samples, some thick, like the one in Erick’s hand. These were put together in a rush, for sure, and yet they had been put together correctly.

Erick said, “You all work fast.”

“I’m as amazed as you are."

Erick searched.

Targets were found.

Some of the samples were duds. Targets were captured, but when the Sin Seekers on site revealed white or grey guilt, things got complicated. Red guilt was the sign of a Hunter; of someone who had killed others for the levels, or for some other heinous crime against the sapient beings of the world. The people found were still captured, of course, but they were captured. Not executed. All of those so detained would likely be released tomorrow, or the next day; whenever the authorities on site could get someone in to ask them questions.

The nine counter-Hunting targets in the Warlord lands were easily found, and then verified as face stealers through questionings laid against them by everyone else nearby, and through the Sin Seekers of Songli. Two such face stealers were a part of Warlord Niyazo’s clan, and Niyazo readily took up the call to justice, and when his clan was satisfied that the found targets were face stealers, Niyazo enacted that justice himself. Erick wasn’t too comfortable with that sort of justice, but the man’s clan seemed to be fine with it.

The day dawned.

Teressa made breakfast. Hours later, Jane made lunch.

Erick was up another 87 points by the time the second round of counter-Hunting was done.

And then it was time to search for ‘people’ outside the borders of Songli. It was at that point that his involvement in the search dropped to near-nothing, and every single border clan, and major clan, took up the task set before them.

Maps hung in the afternoon sky, and Songli used them to find people where there shouldn’t be people. Erick moved the maps when needed, but mostly, he watched, and when he wasn’t watching, he took breaks to read, or to think about [Renew]. He eyed his Status a few times, glancing at all the extra points, ready to be assigned, but he didn’t do anything with them. Not yet, anyway. Including the 23 he originally had, he was up to 213. The recent counter-Hunting had gained him 190 extra points.

As soon as he assigned all of these, ‘Ezekiel’ would basically be a true Scion of Songli, running around with way more points than any commoner. More than most Scions, too, if he added in all the extra points he got from Particle Magic and the Remake Quests.

‘Erick’, however, would only be slightly more protected from the dangers that this world had to offer.

By the time dinner rolled around, Songli was nowhere near clearing out its borders.

Erick had expected this second half of his agreement to take several hours, but there were thousands upon thousands of oustings happening beyond the border in a roughly 500 kilometer band, all at once, all afternoon long. The border clans were providing much of the manpower, but the army was also involved when the places found were larger than simple living spaces meant to hide from Songli.

One of the few violent outstings Erick had seen was of a gang of small-time criminals, who were first told to leave, and when the criminals pulled out their swords instead of packing their bags, they were summarily executed. A similar story repeated itself here and there, but most people simply abandoned their homes, or hideouts, or caches, and went back to their normal lives inside the city. In every case, the names and faces of the squatters were recorded for posterity. Erick imagined that those papers would be added to the same massive registry that Erick had submitted paperwork for, when he first came into Eralis under the name ‘Ezekiel’.

Most of the people found were fined some percentage of whatever it was they were hiding out there under the grasslands. Some people had nothing in those hiding holes except a small vacation house, away from the city; those people were merely told to file proper paperwork for such a thing. Some people already had proper paperwork. Those people angrily showed those papers to the soldiers who poked at their front doors.

Erick was kinda pissed that he was being used for this level of ‘bullying’ oversight, but he had agreed, and the soldiers were polite except when they couldn’t be, and so, Erick continued to provide this service.

When it was over, which happened at noon the next day, Erick was glad that it was over.

Maybe not the final border searching. That was a bit too much, in his opinion. He wouldn’t be doing that again. But the counter-Hunting? That was worth the pain, and the time.

It seemed that there were horrors everywhere, but there was also brightness and goodness if one worked for it. It was possible to make a difference. More than possible, actually. Erick had made a profound difference in the Highlands; one that would be felt for centuries to come.

He had helped Songli to identify their own cancers, and remove them.

He had lit the way for Songli to become an empire.

No one had been Blessed with empathy, though, which was probably for the best, for now.

When it was finally over, and they had spoken of how it was over, Erick said to Kaffi, “It was nice to see you again, Kaffi. This went well, but I’m glad its over. We did a lot of good today.”

Kaffi bowed, looking tired but happy, saying, “Thank you, Archmage Flatt. On behalf of Songli, we thank you. I thank you.” She stood, and smirked, as she gave a small joke, “Don’t worry about the fifty thousand gold for Void Song. You didn’t even get a full lesson.”

Erick was not prepared for the joke.

And then, he felt that joke hit him in some odd kinda way.

He felt giddy.

It was probably the lack of sleep. He laughed. Kaffi giggled. She seemed sleep deprived, too.

When he came down from his high, Erick smiled. “I intended to pay for it! Truly. It just… slipped my mind.”

Kaffi nodded, knowingly. And then she turned somber again. “‘Kaffi’ is rather well known right now as an Enforcer for Void Song. This doesn’t work for me, so I’m going to retire. The next time you see me, I’ll be a different person, but unlike the people we counter-Hunted, I’ll be doing it the right way.”

“… Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” And he was. He had started to like Kaffi, but Kaffi was signing off, for her own reasons, of which Erick would not pry. So instead, he asked, “How does that work?”

Kaffi seemed mournfully happy to have one final lesson plan. She spoke with the easy air of a private tutor, saying, “It’s rather easy. Physically, you understand. All it takes is some skilled applications of [Polymorph] to get rid of the wrinkles or add or subtract color to the eyes. Horns are more difficult, but if you’ve ever experimented with [Polymorph], you can get them mostly right.” She got a far off look in her eyes, then she turned her attention back to Erick. “And then it’s a year living as a different person. Sometimes less. Oftentimes more. You have to separate yourself from your previous versions, too. Play-act as a different person. Different spellsets. Different accents. Different lives. When it comes time to shift, then you erase your previous Familiar Form, and if you did it right, you gain a new one; the one you’ve been pretending to be for so long that seeing your new name show up on your Status is like seeing a truth manifest. Erasing your primary Familiar Form is always emotionally difficult, but that’s the only way to make the new one real.”

“You erase the previous— And you do this? All the time?” Erick was surprised. Erasing a Familiar Form was a big deal. Erasing your primary Familiar Form seemed even larger.

“Not all the time.”

“Are you going to switch right away?”

“I want to…” Kaffi said, “I probably should stay as ‘Kaffi’ for several more years, until this latest trouble settles down, but… This life has become too damaged for me to salvage and I’m just an Enforcer; I don’t make the decisions around here. Last time I switched was 40 years ago, and ‘Kaffi’ was 25. Kaffi has become comfortable… But. No. It’s time to switch.”

“What about your soul, though?”

Kaffi smiled. “My previous soul was pink. It’s red now, but I might go purple; mana altering a color away is easy enough. You were on the right track with your magenta coloring; all it would have taken you was more time along the paths you already laid down for yourself.” She went silent, then offered, “If you ever feel like leaving behind your old life, I can teach you how. Void Song always knows how to contact me.”

Erick felt a small swell of joy in his heart. A part of him wanted to accept. But.

“Thank you for the kind offer. I truly appreciate it, but I’m not dropping out of this life just yet.”

Kaffi smiled softly, and shrugged. “The offer remains. Maybe after you get that [Gate] network up and running, you’ll want someone to help you find a new life. Look me up.”

Erick saw the future stretch before him.

He came back to himself before he went too far down that escape tunnel.

He said, “Maybe I will.”

Kaffi nodded.

Erick escorted Kaffi out the front door. She stood upon the stone walkway for a brief moment, looking up to Erick.

Kaffi vanished in a blip of red.

Erick stood on that porch for a moment, watching as ruby light faded back into the manasphere. When it was gone, he went back inside, [Cleanse]d himself instead of taking a bath, and hopped into bed. He was asleep in minutes.

- - - -

When he woke up, in the cold light of a new morning where everything was better than the day before, Erick felt like a new man. He wasn’t sure why he felt better.

Maybe he was getting used to horrors being out there, and then eradicating them.

In the moment of horrors, it was hard to look at people like Divider, to witness what they were capable of. But afterward, after Divider and all the rest were gone… And after a good night’s sleep? Erick felt better. He had done something good.

Killing Shades. Killing Hunters. Killing face stealers.

These were good things.

He was getting used to this.

But more than that, it was seeing that he was doing good in this world, that made him feel better. He had seen a lot of minor horror stories back on Earth, too— Nothing like there was on Veird, though. But he had seen bad things. On Earth, Erick had worked through minor pains that he thought were major pains. And now, seeing true major pains, he had some perspective.

He had no doubt that he would see even worse events in the future. Awful things that would make the Chelation War of two weeks ago and the purge of Hunters of yesterday look like an easy event.

But he was acclimating, in part because he was able to get up in the morning, and know that he had done Good.

He still felt a bit weird about the ‘Points: 213’ sitting in his Status, though. Raidu’s words about ‘eating the souls of initiates to power oneself’ (or whatever that crazy man had said) had caught in Erick’s mind yesterday when he debated where to spend those points. That catch still existed this morning, even though Erick was feeling a lot less melancholic about what he had helped Songli do. These points were pieces of people’s souls. Small, malleable bits that weren’t really a part of a person until they spent them, sure, but still… potential parts of people’s souls.

And Erick had...

213 of them.

Sitting in his Status.

Waiting to be spent.

Erick was still going to spend them, no doubt. He was under no illusions that he was invincible; that he didn’t need more defenses and firepower. Certainly not after seeing how so many hidden killers were systematically taken down and executed by Songli. All someone needed to kill a target (him) was to know the target’s location (here) and be prepared enough to do so ([Chaining Ward Destruction], [Harmonic Counterspell], Void Song, or whatever it would take to erase the rest of his defenses, [Spatial Denial]).

More assigned points would go a long way to making that not happen to him, specifically because he could spend more mana on a spell and overpower someone else’s counterspells, or deny their Destruction spells.

… Er. Well. It wouldn’t work against people like the Headmaster, if that were to occur.

Higher Mana and Health would certainly work against Soul attacks and other spells, though.

So he considered where to put his new points. He had two plans. One, was for a balanced build. Another, was for all-in on Willpower.

For the balanced build, he was going to put 15 into Dexterity, because ‘Balance’ meant 25 in everything, for that was the cuttoff for the ability to gain Scion of Balance, and even if Scion of Balance didn’t mean the New Stats, it might. That was only the barest rationalization for the balanced plan. Erick could have enacted his ‘minor entity of the Script’ status and just asked Rozeta the requirements…

He probably could have asked her a lot of questions about a lot of things he had recently seen. She might even answer his question about the requirements for Scion of Balance, but she had told him that all of his other questions would be answered at the Orrery in the Splinter Mountains.

Erick didn’t really want to get involved in that right now.

Mostly, he knew that 25 in Dexterity might make him a barely-competent melee fighter, or at least mobile enough to survive contact with an assassin. Yeah. That was the more honest answer. He had seen how good some people were at the whole ‘fighter’ thing, and though Erick was never going to get there, he could at least cheat some with better Dexterity.

Anyway.

15 points in Dexterity. And then 5 points would go into every other Stat besides Willpower and Focus, to get them all up to 25. He considered not putting any points into Intelligence, but his rings already gave him +61 to that Stat, and the difference between 81 Intelligence and 86 was minimal. The remaining 160 points would then be split between Willpower and Focus, maybe, bringing both of those Stats up to 170, without the rings, and 231 with the rings. That plan would put him at 13,860 Mana, and 58,020 Health and Mana Regen. That was before Scion of Balance, though.

The ‘all in Willpower’ would put him at 21,060 Mana, while keeping his current Health and Mana Regen of 38,670. That was before a theoretical Scion of Willpower.

Either option could benefit from a switch of Scions. He was already getting ‘Immune to Mana Exhaustion and Health Fatigue’ from Rozeta’s Recovery, so Scion of Focus was a bit redundant. Scion of Vitality gave ‘Immune to Health Fatigue’, and that stacked with Rozeta’s Recovery for a x4 lifespan, but Scion of Focus’ immunity to Mana Exhaustion did not stack. Or, if it did, then there were no indications of something happening.

… If he did switch Scions, he would find out if there was a x4 effect happening somewhere in his current Status, before he switched.

With the balanced option, and with Scion of Balance, if he undertook that Quest, whatever it was (he had yet to look it up), that would double his Health from 2,600-ish, to 5,160, and even more importantly, it would double his mana from 13,860, to 27,720.

His Regen would drop considerably, though, from 38,670 to 18,960. A reduction of his current 10-11 Mana per second, to 5 Mana per second. With Intelligence helping out with costs, 5 mana per second was still good enough for most applications, but in this recent war with Terror Peaks he was using all of his mana, all the time.

Shifting your Scion was supposed to be rather difficult, too. Registrar Irogh had called that Quest as one of the most difficult Quests that anyone could do. Teressa once told a story about how an uncle had switched from his Scion of Strength to Scion of Vitality, and it had taken him a year to do it.

That was just a nuance to the switch, though; something to be considered for the future.

If, instead, Erick went with the ‘All in Willpower’ option, he would then switch to a Scion of Willpower.

His Mana Regen would drop to 6,960 per day, or per hour when meditating. This would not be enough at all for applications like fighting a war on ten fronts at the same time. But he would have 84,240 mana! This would mean every Ophiel would have that much mana. With every 75 mana he used to summon one Ophiel, he would be gaining 84k mana.

Currently, every Ophiel was summoned with Erick’s own 9k mana.

But! Switching to Scion of Willpower would mean it would take Erick 12 hours to regenerate one mana pool.

… Erick instantly nixed that idea.

Scion of Willpower was tempting for the mana alone, and for what it would mean for Variable cost magics, but holy crap, Erick could not afford to be waiting around that long for his mana to fill. Willpower-focused mages had it rough, for sure!

So the only option was the Balanced option, actually.

… Or maybe he could just throw a hundred points in both Willpower and Focus and call it a day.

The only reason he didn’t do that was because he was likely never going to get this many points ever again, and so he needed to plan, and think.

… He could go around the world picking up Quests, if he wanted. Not many people did Quests like Songli did Quests, though; giving them out for every problem, making their clans rather mercenary at the higher ranks. Most places did Quests like Treehome; specific Quests that they did not mind the public having, for they had exhausted all of their governmental resources, and maybe a passing archmage (or whoever) was better equipped to handle a specific problem.

Even still…

Erick was not going to count on gaining nearly 200 points like this ever again.

And besides that, he wasn’t going to shove all his new points where they needed to go all at once. That was a recipe for a Bad Soul Time.

After a while of thinking, laying in bed, and generally doing nothing, Erick decided that if he ever wanted to be Balanced, this was a good time to plan for that possible future. In the course of that decision, he decided that life was about more than min-maxing, so he wasn’t going to throw points into Willpower and Focus and call it a day.

Life was about solving problems, and a balanced approach was usually best.

Slowly, he started putting points into Dexterity. He would go to 25, and then stop. He’d do all the rest of his Stats over the next few hours, slowly but surely getting them up to 25.

Perhaps he could shove Strength and Vitality 50, both for more Health to help against soul attacks and more Vitality to help with repairing the body from soul attacks. Erick held off on committing to that, for now. He had most of a plan, but more of that plan could come later.

Erick got up, out of bed. With a twist of light, he made the bed, and changed his clothes. Ophiel twittered on the headboard, watching until Erick was done, and then he fluttered down to take his place on Erick’s shoulder. Together, they went to the kitchen.

On a whim, Erick decided to teach Ophiel how to cook. He spoke about what he was doing, as he did it, and not only did Ophiel pay close attention, Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye followed Erick’s every move, too. Yggdrasil wasn’t too interested in breakfast, though.

But soon enough, the Ophiel was fluttering off flour and giving a perturbed flute whistle. He decidedly didn’t like baking, no sir! Chirp chirp chirp! As Erick laughed, Ophiel contented himself with watching from a perch, offering music instead of pancakes to start the day.

Erick stopped adding points to his Status when Intelligence, the last of them to be raised to 25, hit 25, and some sort of odd, solidness happened to himself. As though he had crossed a threshold. He had no idea what to make of that, but before that, the addition of 15 Dexterity was massive. He didn’t know when he started doing it, but he was practically dancing through the kitchen, moving with a grace that he didn’t possess an hour ago. A knife chop here, quick as a snicker snack to turn potatoes into diced potatoes. A battering of eggs in one hand, while flipping a pancake with a twist of the other, causing the pancake to fall perfectly back on the griddle. He wasn’t even using his lightform. This was all him.

Perception, Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity… Everything worked in nice ways together.

Willpower and Focus were outliers, because the Script meant for them to be outliers. Erick added 10 points to both of them, to bring them up to 100 Base Stat each, but when he did that, he looked at his soul, and knew that he would be saving the rest of the points till he had some research time so he could see what he was actually doing to the invisible ‘well of Mana’ that was somewhere inside of him.

Or maybe he would ask Jane for her opinion on allocating points.

She had withheld her opinion when Erick was completing all the Quests, and hunting all the bad guys, but she knew that her father was gaining a massive number of points. Even afterward, though, she said nothing. Maybe he would simply need to ask her, directly.

--

Erick Flatt

Human?, age 49

Level 90, Class: Particle Mage

Exp: 2.32 e20 /7.54 e20

Class: 10/10

Points: 153

HP

2,580/2,580

41,220 per day

MP

9660/9660

41,220 per day

Strength | 25 | +61 | [86]

Vitality | 25 | +61 | [86]

Dexterity | 25 | +61 | [86]

Constitution | 25 | +61 | [86]

Perception | 25 | +61 | [86]

Willpower | 100 | +61 | [161]

Focus | 100 | +61 | [161]

Intelligence | 25 | +61 | [86]

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

--

- - - -

Breakfast was spicy sausage patties, fluffy pancakes dripping with caramelized cactus syrup, freshly ground coffee, piles of scrambled eggs, and an announcement from Jane, after she woke up and joined them at the table.

Jane set down three folders on the table, saying, “So I didn’t want to bring this up when you were working, but the Knowledge Mages around here are giving out packets of info on you. I think it’s propaganda in your favor.”

Erick paused in his bite of pancake. After a moment of thinking, chewing, and swallowing, he said, “Yeah. I know.” He added, “Well. I did not know that, specifically. I knew that information was going out through official channels, of which the Mind Mages are one, and then Treehome was another, and information was getting out there. I didn’t know that the Knowledge Mages were a part of this, but in retrospect, they must be. I’ve never actually been to one before… I try not to think about being under that much scrutiny.” He glanced at the folders. “What sort of propaganda?”

Jane said, “Great things, actually. How you saved lives. How you worked with Songli. Stuff like that.”

Teressa smiled. Poi said nothing. They both ate breakfast without interrupting Jane.

Jane continued, “I think they’re making you a national hero.”

“Ah.” Erick stabbed another bit of pancake, saying, “In the most rational sense, I am a national hero.”

Jane frowned. “I did not expect to hear you say that.”

“I’m either a hero who helped them push back against Terror Peaks, who helped to clear out thousands of hidden killers, and who cleared out the borders of even more hidden threats, or I’m a plot from Melemizargo to— I don’t know. Take over the world? Take over the next one, for sure, if Yggdrasil works out like I hope he does, and just lets anyone through anywhere they want to go. Or something.” Erick thought for a second, then said, “Melemizargo’s plan is more complicated than that.

“Melemizargo’s goal is to make Shades palatable again. His story would be that all the old ones needed was a Blessing of Empathy in order to stop them from working to harm the world, while the new ones would be much better. A part of that plan is him making me look good, else wise my Blessing upon the old Shades means nothing.

“I am not sure if Songli is playing to his tune because they must, for it is in their own interests, or maybe Melemizargo worked to make it so that their interests align, or… I should probably try to find Goldie or Queen and ask them what the fuck they’re doing, but...” He added, “Anyway. I expect Melemizargo to swoop into the scene in fifty or a hundred years and start making new Shades, when no one but the immortals remember how much pain they caused.”

Teressa had stopped eating the second the Darkness was mentioned.

Jane frowned, thinking.

Erick’s words had unsettled them both.

Poi simply nodded, though, saying, “That’s in line with our current expectations of the future.” He added, “By the way. We would like to search for puppet minds and masters, spinal spiders, putrescent slugs, and book slippers.”

Erick exclaimed, “Oh my gods! How did I forget about that? Yes! Let’s do that. Today. Talk to whoever needs talking, including Songli. Might as well start here, right?”

“Thank you, sir,” Poi said. He started sending out tendrils, as he said, “It should be considerably easier than counter-Hunting, or at least require fewer resources. Eradicating these monsters is a specialty of us Mind Mages, but finding them is a lot more difficult than you would think.”

Erick asked, “Is it because of antimemetic defensive mechanisms? Or whatever it is? Or some other reason?”

Jane came out of her thoughts to look at her dad, saying, “Where’d that come from? Antimemetic?”

Poi, on the other hand, froze, even as Erick was speaking his words. He unfroze, and said, “We don’t like to speak of Mind Magic protocols.”

Jane looked at Poi with sudden curiosity. “Is it because thinking is okay, but speaking activates latent thoughts? Or something?”

Poi said, “You both should stop... Talking about memes? Huh. Okay. Whatever. Do what you want.”

Something was obviously going on there.

Jane got a funny, happy look in her eyes, and turned to her father, asking, “With that super high intelligence you must remember some memes, right?”

Erick instantly said, “It’s been 84 years, Jane. I don’t remember all the ones you sent me.”

Jane chuckled, then said, “Okay, okay. This is so surreal for me. It’s like—”

And then small numbers and functions and math started to swirl around her head, written in white light as Jane’s mouth dropped open a little.

Erick responded, “To be fair, you have to have a really high IQ to remember more than a handful of memes.”

Jane laughed once, loud, then did something else. Her eyes went wide, her mouth opened a little, in an ‘o’. And then her skin turned yellow, with red patches on her cheeks.

Oh!

“I know this one!” Erick exclaimed, “Surprised pikachu!” He laughed, saying, “I shared that one around the office when you sent it to me in an email. It was cute!”

Jane chuckled, and turned back. “I could have gone full pikachu, but you never go full pikachu.”

“I liked the o’rly owl, too,” Erick said, “But that one was before your time.”

Poi simply nodded at this exchange.

Jane almost said something more to Erick, but she noticed Poi. She turned to him, asking, “Those aren’t the memes you meant, were they?”

“Not at all.” Poi said, “And I won’t be elaborating on the kind I did me— dammit.”

Jane was already smiling. She said, “A meme which deletes itself and specific memories upon the speaking of it. All you have to do is get someone to say a thing, and something is deleted in them. I imagine it works like a temporary memory wipe, perhaps wiping out the previous hour, or maybe whatever sort of object you link to the wipe, with the potential to wipe anything from a specific person to a monster infection out of the mind of the recipient.”

Poi frowned, and said nothing.

“Am I right?” Jane asked.

Teressa had resumed eating at this point, but she paused to tell Jane, “You shouldn’t poke fun at what the Mind Mages do. Be glad you lived through your encounter with the one meme you did find.”

Jane’s good humor vanished. “Ah. Yeah. The moon reachers.” She frowned, asking Poi, “If you don’t want to talk about it, then fine.” She turned to her father. “But we should talk about you being made into a hero of Songli.”

Teressa nodded. “They’re gearing up to formally woo him to the Highlands.”

Poi said, “Yup.”

“I’m not sticking around here,” Erick said, frowning a little. “I like them well enough, but I need a smaller community. I like being able to theoretically disappear here, but it’s too… It’s too stuffy. I think. I’m not sure. I certainly didn’t get all of what I came here to get, though, so that’s a bit of a bummer.”

Jane said, “Kaffi seemed… alright. At the end, anyway. Still highly suspicious, though. I don’t know. That’s probably just me.”

Teressa said, “They’d do anything you want of them, including giving you a whole space for the shadelings of Candlepoint."

“Well. Probably. But so what? I’ve got plans for Candlepoint and the Crystal Forest. I still need to make that place livable again.” Erick added, “And you know what? Maybe [Polymorph] needs to be harder to come by. Less crystal mimics means less [Polymorph] means less Hunters and face stealers.” As soon as he said it, he knew that he had to do it. Turning the desert into livable land, getting rid of all the crystal mimics, would be a major blow to the various evil uses of [Polymorph] around the world. But… “The Crystal Forest is the only place that [Polymorph] comes from, right?”

“The major source.” Poi said, “Alchemists with the spell can make the potion themselves, but without mimic ingredients that potion doesn’t always work right. Much, much less success rate.”

“I spent a lot of money on my first potion, and that failed. I got curious to know if that first alchemist cheated me, so I went back to check out his operation ready to see malfeasance, but the man was making potions properly; using the mimic parts people brought him.” Jane said, “Even back when I got my potion from him, he had a great big warning over his counter, and then he personally told me that its not a guaranteed potion. But I hoped it would work anyway. It didn’t. Ramizi told me the same thing, but his potion worked. I kinda felt bad about assuming I was cheated that first time, but it was nice to see I wasn’t.”

“That potion is a dice roll.” Poi said, “With mimics, you get a proper potion half of the time. Without mimics, you get a successful potion 2-3% of the time. But what’s worse, is that without mimics, the price of that potion flies into multiple grand-rad territory. 20 or 30 grand rads, actually. Economically non viable for all but the most dedicated. From there, the price would only get worse as time moved on and the mortals capable of making [Polymorph] potions passed on.” Poi said, “All of that is listed in the definitive [Polymorph] potion book; ‘A Study of [Polymorph] Potion’. A banned book, just so you know.”

Teressa said, “Some immortal or whoever would keep around some mimics, though. Just for that reason. That’s a mountain of gold; a massive investment in the future.”

At that, Erick had a funny thought.

He said, “Spur could regulate [Polymorph].”

“We’ve tried.” Poi said, “Didn’t work.”

“It would work if only one nation of the entire Crystal Forest controlled all the mimics,” Jane said.

“Yes.” Erick said, “That.”

Poi frowned. “I don’t think Silverite would want to do that?”

“Maybe she would.” Teressa said, “I hadn’t even considered the end of the Crystal Mimics bringing the end of easy [Polymorph]. It always seemed like such a far-off idea. Make believe; nothing truly real.”

Breakfast continued, and ended.

Erick decided to try his hand at making brownies, afterward. It was a nice diversion from his current responsibilities, and he felt he deserved it, so he was doing something nice for himself while he could. Later, he would send Ophiels to the Tribulations, to farm mist stone gluttons for their cores, to make up some of the money he had spent on the university. Later, he would talk to Tsung, and hunt for the Mind Mage threats, and see what was happening with the Warlord Clans.

Later.

Poi, who had been sitting at the kitchen table and sipping his coffee while he read, looked up, and said, “The Mind Mages are ready for Imaging. They’ve got samples and Songli has given the go-ahead.”

Erick laughed as he spooned brownie batter into trays. “You guys work fast— Ah. Oh. You probably had this ready for a while. Sorry about forgetting.” He paused, then said, “Songli worked fast, too. Were they ready for me to offer something like this?”

Poi smirked, then said, “I couldn’t say.” He added, “But for all their speed, only 9 targets in Warlord Clan lands seemed low. Were they actually doing everything they could, there? I’m not sure. They could have added more as the time wore on, but nothing more came.”

“Yeah. Something fuckey is going on there.” Erick put his three brownie trays into the oven, saying, “I think I may need to go out there my—”

From the other room, Teressa roared, “SOMETHING BIG IS COMING!”

For a long second, Erick blanked.

Then his instincts kicked in; [Hunter’s Instincts], specifically.

In the next flickering second, Erick focused on the world through Opheil and his own mana senses. It took precious seconds, but he soon saw the attack. It was coming from the Ophiel he had floating ten kilometers up, in the billowing clouds above.

It seemed not to care for the [Alarm Ward]s it floated within, triggering with its presence.

Green scales. A long body, like a snake’s. Thick arms and legs. Horns with bits of horn floating around themselves. Spiked scales that rose along the back like a mountain ridge, as the entire body undulated downward. The dragon was the spitting image of Rozeta, except in green, and with its face pointed down at Erick’s temporary house. Its flesh was perfect; it was not a wyrm. It was a dragon.

It was much, much larger than the Flare Couatl, or the Black Dragon that eventually killed the Flare Couatl. Its jaws were opened wide. It if was near Erick’s house, it could have swallowed the whole three story mansion on its own.

Why was it so big? Dragons weren’t usually that big. It had to have come empowered. Perhaps it had only just now dropped its various [Invisibility]s or other such obscuring spellwork. Erick guessed this much because as he watched, more and more of the dragon was revealed, as power began to gather in its mouth, like color draining from the world. Like mana draining from the world, to gather in a point of light between massive fangs, above a curling, forked tongue.

Three seconds had passed since Erick spied the beast. In that time, he had erected three spellworks around his house, and across First Devouring Nightmare Mountain. [Prismatic Lullaby] became a shield across all of the mountain, defending from the attack from above. [Spatial Denial] was a bubble around his house, but no further. [Domain of Light], supplemented by his own [Lodestar] Domain control, went across the entirety of First Devouring Nightmare Mountain.

He felt some Domains try to expand within his own, but he locked them down, and kept his own strong and active. High Clan Devouring Nightmare was trying to respond, but they were doing a poor job of it.

Erick would protect them.

So Erick flew an Ophiel into the dragon’s mouth, into the gathering spell, armed with a sunform and [Animadversion]. Ophiel flew right into the spellwork, not even triggering a shift in the light of what Erick now saw was an illusion of impeccable quality.

Erick came back to himself, saying, “The dragon is an illusion diversion. Look for the true attack.”

It was a very well made illusion. Ophiel was already loaded with Sight spells, and Erick still didn’t notice the dragon was fake. Now that he had interacted with the spell, though…

The dragon charging its attack still seemed real.

Poi was already talking to a dozen people on the other end of thought tendrils. Teressa stood a step into the dining room, wearing full armor and with her eyes closed in concentration. Jane stood in the doorway wearing her own conjured armor, ready for anything.

A few defensive spells went up around the clan mountain, but nothing large enough. There was no City Shield here, for some bizarre reason. Why wasn’t there a city shield? The dragon might be fake, but something was going down.

“What do you see?” Erick asked Teressa.

Teressa said, “Something is still comin… No?” She frowned, and opened her eyes. “Something was coming. I saw it! I know I did. It was a massive shadow in the manasphere, occluding all forward paths. Explosions? No. It wasn’t. You have to believe me!” Her voice was strained, with Teressa trying to keep it as level as possible.

“Of course I believe you,” Erick said, wondering why she sounded half-desperate. “This is likely a case of counter-Prognostication. Redarrow’s notes said—”

The dragon released its spell and a beam of power the width of Erick’s house lanced down through three intervening Ophiels, each with their own active [Animadversion]s, each poised to reflect whatever came their way.

The dragon’s spell went through the Ophiels without doing anything at all.

Then the illusionary magic struck against Erick’s [Prismatic Lullaby], and Erick felt, as much as saw, a terribleness turn real. The dragon wasn’t an illusion. It was Illusion. Elemental Illusion.

Light and shadow spilled in every direction, fountaining up and out of Erick’s [Prismatic Lullaby], but also punching through that barrier and reaching the [Domain of Light] underneath. Erick felt the attack against his Domain like someone was stabbing into his heart.

But he was prepared for it. The small pressures of the other small Domains of High Clan Devouring Nightmare were like tiny tests. This was the true exam.

Erick pushed back with the light that covered the clan mountain, straining against the power of the dragon’s Illusionary beam. Light and shadows burrowed into his power like an unceasing drill, like splattering acid. Like fakery made real.

Erick held.

The beam stopped after ten full seconds.

As the attack ended, the dragon vanished into the clouds like fading imagination.

It was then that Erick saw that he had not fully defended the mountain.

It was as though veils of obfuscation were lifted from every surface of every building, revealing exposed rooms and missing walls and blood and harm. The dragon’s Illusion Magic had not punched far into Erick’s Domain, but of the twenty one pagodas that reached up from the top of the white plateau, every single one had lost something. Some upper floors were simply gone. The lower floors were wholly intact, though. Most of the damage had been done to that which was close to the edge of Erick’s power.

It was as though droplets of Illusion had turned to acid across much of the rest of the mountain, eating away at gold decor and floors and gardens and—

Erick said, “Teressa. Tell me if you see anything else. I’m going to help people.”

He was already reestablishing his Domain of Light, and recasting the Lullaby.

Erick went into emergency healing and helping mode. The entire rest of the hornet’s nest that was Devouring Nightmare responded almost as fast. Before he knew what was happening, Poi stepped into Erick’s mind and helped him to coordinate with everyone else.

After five minutes, nothing else happened.

After ten, Devouring Nightmare was prepared for war, with defensive spells blossoming all across the mountain. A few nearby mountains had responded in kind.

After thirty minutes of nothing, people started to relax.

An hour later, with the mountain looking like a cake of various colored icing and gold decorations, everyone who needed to be healed had been healed. Casualties were counted.

Zero deaths.

Erick had to hear that a second time to believe it.

Zero deaths.

A good hundred and twenty close calls, but no deaths. Even the old ladies who watched Erick make magic had been perfectly fine, even though they spent a lot of their time on that porch, watching the world. They had been exposed to the dragon’s breath, which was what everyone was calling the attack, but they knew what it meant when Erick’s spells spread across the mountain. Everyone got to ground as fast as they could, as soon as they saw the air fill with power.

Most people were gracious and polite enough to thank him for his warning. Not a single person told him off for casting such large scale magics across everyone around him, though he could tell some of them wanted to yell at him. Erick had been prepared to apologize, and he had done so at first, but everyone was quick to tell him that he needn't worry about that. He was obviously working for the good of them all. What need have he to apologize to those below him, and especially because he saved their lives with his actions?

It rubbed Erick the wrong way.

- - - -

In a caravan to the north, a man sat in a yurt on a chair, waiting in the green darkness, waiting for good news, waiting for his contact to get back to him. Suddenly, the flap to the yurt opened, spilling light into the darkness, haloing a woman in sunlight and illuminating the green furniture of the room. The man smiled.

The woman came inside, and shut the flap. Shadows swarmed, but held back from the woman.

The woman was not smiling.

The man’s demeanor crashed. He tried to reevaluate the path forward, but this woman had been his primary source of hope. And now she came to him, reeking of problems added to his hoard.

The woman sat down, saying, “Failure.”

“How?”

“Some anti-magic shield and his own [Domain of Light].”

“You assured me that you could get through the [Domain of Light] and his reflections.”

“What we actually said was that we could carve through a [Domain of Light] unless there are other tricks. There were other tricks. New tricks, too. We did get through his reflective magic, though, so that was nice to know.” The woman said, “There are counters to every magic out there. This is what it means to live under the Script. You knew that assaulting Erick would only ever be a chanced affair.”

“Fine. New plan. Let’s—”

“No.”

“… No?”

“No. We’re done. You liquidated you bargain of trade for an assassination attempt on Flatt. You’re on your own, now. If you wish to continue, then we will be discussing a new bargain of trade.”

The man stared hate at the woman, calmly saying, “The bargain was for a favor owed. Any favor at all. The favor demanded was an assassination. Not an attempt. We agreed that you would do whatever it took.”

“According to what we’ve seen, you’re not going to be alive much longer when Erick gets here, so what do we care about upholding bargains with you?”

“You care, because if we survive, then we will bring papers against you in Ar’Cosmos.”

“So it is in our interest to help Erick, and to have him kill you, then? We are glad that we used your illusion in the attack, then, just as we knew we would need to do.”

The man reeled in his anger. “… Do not give in to our Cursed nature. We shall work together, for that is what we have always done. You merely need to uphold your end of our bargain, as we have always done. As we will always do.”

“Times are changing. Everything is changing.” The woman said, “Even bargains of trade are no longer as inviolable as they once were, especially when it comes to World Trees and new worlds.”

“The Storm Woman has a World Tree, too.” The man said, “Even if that man walks the Path, he will never last the hundred years it would take for Yggdrasil to become real.”

The woman smiled. “And so, we come to an option; the creation of another bargain. One much more conducive to our needs. Both of our needs.”

“… We had thought we were of one mind, but then you failed to uphold your bargain and now you come at us with this new demand.” The man deadpanned, “What do you want?”

“We want the World Tree in mortal hands. It will be much easier to use this way. We know this. You know this. Let us not argue this point.” The woman stared at the man, her red eyes glinting in the light. “Instead, help us to understand your true problem. It is in the fact that Erick is coming this way, and you want him to not?” She needled, “Is there some true reason why you don’t want him coming here and clearing away the Hunters and the face stealers? He’s not even targeting our kind, though with how we enacted your bargain, that might change.”

“Why did you even do it that wa—! Unimportant.” The man frowned. “Flatt’s magic will eventually find us. He is culling the world of threats, and Kirginatharp already has him in his claws, and so, Flatt will come for us, sooner or later. Now that he is coming my way, his existence has become a problem we cannot overlook.” The man explained, “Our bargain was for a solution to Flatt’s longstanding, major threat against all of our kind. This is how we presented it when we requested the assassination. It was under these understandings that you agreed with our reasoning. What changed your mind?”

“We see we are talking across each other and not actually conversing.” The woman said, “Shift your stance to come at us directly, and honestly, or this conversation ends now. Why not clear out the rats and trash inhabiting your lands? Were 9 kills too close to home? Or was it the fervor with which those 9 were judged that made you uncomfortable?”

“This conversation is over unless you can see that you have wronged us, and that you have failed in the enactment of our bargain.” He spat, “Shift your own stance, and talk plainly.”

The woman laughed. “We will talk plainly for you, and only you. Erick needs to walk the Path, and then he needs to be hidden from the world for a hundred years. Defended, ideally. Sequestered, less ideally. If you want to talk about actual solutions then bring the man to Ar’Cosmos of his own volition, and let us work at single purposes upon him. In the worst possible case, we can lock him into a time-shift, and ensure that he survives long enough to ensure Yggdrasil becomes what he is meant to be.”

“This would be a fine solution if we were not having a problem with him right now.”

“Learn to live in a city, and your ‘problem’ will go away.”

The man huffed. “If you will not assist us in how our bargain demands, then get out of our home. We will be bringing charges against you in Ar’Cosmos.”

“If you survive!”

“Remove yourself.”

The woman got up and left, shoving wide the flap of the domicile, briefly illuminating the shadows, revealing green scales and claws that were not truly there. And then the flap shut again.

The man was alone in the green darkness of his yurt.

The man blinked. His green eyes turned brown, and the shadows turned black. The man shook his head and blinked his eyes, and got up. What time was it? Had he really had another daydream about the dragon he met when he was three? That hadn’t happened in a while. The man was having too many of those dreams lately. There was work to be done. He got up and went outside. He wasn’t highly ranked in his clan, but he was a warrior, and it was important he was there for the talks happening in the gatherings of Ooloraptoor.

The lake filled half the horizon. The parade grounds and the people filled the other half.

Companions called out to him. The man went to join the discussion.

They spoke of face stealers.

- - - -

In a comfortable but large meeting room in one of the main structures of First Devouring Nightmare Mountain, where the table could support ten people, and the opulence was just shy of ‘too much’, Erick sat down for a quick meeting with Patriarch Hangzi, and Elder Varo. Both of the clansmen seemed vaguely unhappy, about what, Erick had no idea, but they were easily able to hide that surface emotion behind training and experience.

And then there were the Dragon Stalkers in the room; a redscale and an orangescale.

The Dragon Stalkers was an organization of people that pursued and killed known dragons, for dragons went to war with each other whenever they recognized each other as dragons, and the collateral damage was always massive. No one liked dragons for that reason, and more besides. Dragons had a habit of hiding who they were through true uses of [Polymorph], though some went the face stealer route when it came to getting new Familiar Forms. Dragons were monsters. Dragons were the height of selfish evilness. Dragons ate their own in cannibalistic rages. Because of this, Dragon Stalkers had tendrils in every society the world over, but Erick had never heard of them before Poi had mentioned them the other day, and that was the first thing Erick mentioned.

Erick sat down as Elder Varo introduced him to the Stalkers.

And then Elder Varo introduced the Stalkers to him, “Mister Ruddy is an archivist on loan from Oceanside, but Miss Favia is an enforcer of a local branch of Stalkers. They are both here because of the unusual nature of the green serpent.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the Stalkers before,” Erick said.

“Then we’re glad that we can be your introduction to our organization, Archmage Flatt,” said Ruddy, the redscale.

“We try to keep out of everyone’s business,” said Favia, the orangescale. “We have one goal, and one goal only: to make the world safe for non-dragons. This line helps us to operate the world over, and sometimes on both sides of various conflicts, for no one likes dragons.”

“Very true!” Ruddy said.

“We don’t get involved unless there are dragons or a dragon fight,” Favia said. “We hardly ever get involved in the affairs of Songli, either, for around here, there’s a peculiar red dragon that shows up whenever there’s a draconic incident. Red is rather dominant and relatively decent, for a dragon, but for whatever reason, this green dragon’s reveal did not demand a visit from her.”

Erick asked Ruddy, “Does the Headmaster send you out to find targets for him to eat?”

Ruddy said, “Not at all. The Stalkers are an independent organization that has offices all over the world. One of those offices is at Oceanside; I am here because of the green dragon, because of his unusual presentation. We will not work with dragons of any sort, and that includes Kirginatharp. All dragons should die.”

Erick was briefly taken aback. Ruddy had used the Headmaster’s real name. To openly speak of the Second to Rozeta was a clear breach of propriety, as understood by everyone else on Veird. But apparently the ire of Dragon Stalkers went rather deep. Deep enough to break cultural norms.

Favia spoke up, “Dragons get their claws in everything. If it were up to them, they’d rule the world. All dragons must die.” She added, “Though, with Rozeta as Goddess of the Script and Kirginatharp positioned as next in line… That statement is a bit too simplistic for real world applications. It is still mostly true, though.”

Erick understood something more, in that moment.

The first half of the meeting between Devouring Nightmare and the Dragon Stalkers had been about stuff which Erick was not privy to and that he didn’t need to know; probably defensive stuff, probably understanding of the attack. With Erick here, the agenda had gone simpler. Hangzi would probably ask for something specific. They would likely give him something in return. There would be a bargaining.

And from the Stalker’s shared enthusiasm, Ruddy and Favia wanted to make a good impression of their organization to Erick. They probably had something they wanted, too.

That last ship had sailed, though.

Erick tried not to let his simmering anger show. Poi was doing a much better job at this than he was. The only consolation Erick had was that Ruddy and Favia were in their thirties, and probably had nothing to do with the murder of Poi’s mother or sister.

Ruddy said, “There are several dragons across the world that operate semi-openly. We have—”

Elder Varo got them back on track. “Let us discuss the green serpent. It was overlarge and had Illusion-based magics. I doubt it was what it appeared to be, at all.”

Ruddy’s mouth slammed shut; he was angry he had been interrupted, but he controlled himself well.

Favia nodded, saying, “Elder Varo is correct that illusions were widely employed in this latest attack.” She turned to Erick. “Archmage Flatt. You got the best view of the creature. What did it look like to you?”

Erick decided to be helpful, for at least a little while. He rattled off, “Three to four times the size of a wyrm. To Blood, Mana, Soul, True, and heat Sight spells, it all appeared real. Green scales. Ridgeline back. No identifiable markings as far as I know. Its attack appeared real. It was obviously not. Illusion Breath is what I heard the attack called.” On a whim, Erick held up his hand and began conjuring a lightward, saying, “It looked like this.”

Light coalesced above the meeting table. The green dragon appeared out of conjured clouds at a fraction of its true scale, with as much detail as Erick could carve into the conjuring.

The Stalkers’ eyes went wide as they took in the spellwork, perhaps because it was a perfect recollection, or perhaps because some switch had been flipped and they now knew the target. Erick suspected it was the second one. Elder Varo had a calmer reaction; one of inspection and contemplation. Or perhaps he was only pretending to know what he was looking at.

Erick might have been the only one to notice that Hangzi had gone fractionally paler.

Hangzi had survived the dragon’s Illusion Breath, but random chance put the disintegrating-like effects of the dragon’s attack straight through the room Hangzi had been in, at that time. Spots of disintegrating Illusion had chopped off one of his arms and half a foot, and sent him tumbling down to the floor below. Hangzi was better now, obviously, but he was one among many who could have died. Everyone had been very, very lucky in the attack.

Erick hadn’t experimented much with Illusion, but the little Illusion magics he had done informed him that Illusion was like that; it carved and harmed randomly. It seemed to him, though, that the Illusion Breath had carved and harmed a bit too precisely. No one who could have died from being hit, had been hit. And no one had died.

Ruddy said, “It’s the Mirage Dragon. It has to be.” He smiled, showing fangs.

“Certain factors point that way.” Favia said, “But who is she mimicking? Someone she wants retribution against, obviously.”

They knew the target.

Hangzi spoke up, “You postulated it was the Green Fire.”

“Oh, yes. But it’s not. As I said, there was too much mana used up top for a proper [Witness], but I trust that Archmage Flatt’s lightsculpture is perfect, for he has a history of being able to do this, and because of that trust, I can infer a few things about what we are seeing. Look to the horns. You can tell it’s her based on the way her horns have those floating bits around them. All dragon horns are different, and based upon elemental powers. Even if she mimics whoever this green dragon is, her horns give her away as Elemental Illusion, for dragons are highly egotistical and they would be fine with laymen not knowing who they are, but they want everyone else to know who they are.” Ruddy said, “This is the Mirage Dragon, for sure, your grace.”

Elder Varo instantly, and slightly imperiously, said, “That is a Glaquin term. We do not use it here.”

“Apologies,” Ruddy said, not meaning it at all.

Erick could almost respect Ruddy’s dismissal of authority, if only he was from a different organization.

Varo almost said something else to the red dragonkin, but Hangzi silenced his man’s rejoinder with the casual flip of a hand.

Ruddy didn’t care. Ruddy continued, “The Mirage Dragon. She —we think it's a she— she goes around the world hiring herself out for assassinations and theft. She operates like a Shade op—” With a sudden joy on his face, he continued, “Like how the Shades used to operate.” He continued, “She stirs up trouble. She reveals other dragons in the area. When those other dragons move out into the open, and people like we Stalkers or other organizations come in to kill the beast, the Mirage Dragon tries to come in at the last moment and kill the revealed dragon. She rarely succeeds. She’s been active for the last thousand years, and though we have killed her four times over, it never takes. This right here, though? This massive dragon that uses Illusion Breath? It’s not confirmed, obviously, but it is as close to confirmation as we can get. I believe this is the Mirage Dragon. This recent action fits her style, perfectly.”

Erick frowned. Ruddy was glossing over a lot of facts in his excitement to be around Erick; truths about how the Mirage Dragon interacted with other dragons, and truths about her activities, to name a few.

Erick said, “But you get a Kill Notification.”

“Yes, we do!” Ruddy said, “The four times the Stalkers have managed to kill the Mirage Dragon, we have gotten Notifications. We’re not sure how she does it. Each kill had the Mirage Dragon at a different level, too. Sometimes higher. Sometimes lower. We think she is actually a lich, and—”

Favia interrupted, “That is an unsubstantiated rumor. A theory, and nothing more. It could be that she has some control over the Script itself, and is able to create fake Kill Notifications.”

Erick almost scoffed, but then he felt a supreme weight as the implications of ‘control over the Script’ sunk into his mind. Ah. This was more Melemizargo shit, wasn’t it?

… Or maybe it was something else?

Erick hoped it was something else.

Hangzi probably hoped it was something else, too, based on the look on his face.

“I can see this has caused some distress, but this does not necessarily mean the Darkness is involved.” Favia said, “I do not wish to accidentally insult anyone, so if you will allow, I will speak from the beginning.”

Hangzi answered for the non-Stalkers in the room, saying, “Proceed.”

“Wizardry is the easiest answer as to how something is shifted in the Script, but ‘A Wizard did it’ offers nothing substantive. This is an answer that is not an answer.

“So, in order to grant a true answer, I will start from the beginning.

“Dragons are elemental beasts. This is widely known, but the depths of that truth are often never fully grasped. When we Stalkers say ‘Dragons are Elemental beasts’, we mean that they are their Element, wholly and fervently. A Fire dragon might rage like an inferno or warm a room like a hearth. But they are never aloof and cold. A Shadow dragon might hide and sneak, but they are never open and honest with anyone. To know a dragon’s primary Element is to know the dragon.

“Individual personalities create variation on themes, cultures play a large part in personality, and then there’s the business with the Curse, but the primary Element is what forms the basis of the dragon.”

Ruddy almost spoke up when Favia mentioned ‘Curse’, but he refrained.

Favia continued, “In this case, the Mirage Dragon is Elemental Illusion. She is never what she appears to be. If she is outwardly happy, she is sad, or mad, or raging. If she is raging, she is perhaps actually happy. There are, of course, instances where everything is as it appears to be, but only when an outside observer believes that they are seeing something that is not the truth. This makes understanding and fighting and defending from her little more than a [Force Shrapnel] shot. This is especially true because the Mirage Dragon is exceedingly skilled in her Element of Illusion.

“It is in this exceptional skill over Illusion where we begin to see small Wizardries.

“But I do stress that they are small Wizardries.

“Things that the Script specifically disallows, such as the creation of a Kill Notification that isn’t an illusion; one that the receiver can pull in and out of their history to see again and again, to show others what they have killed. Blue boxes for spellwork that she doesn’t have. Status fakery. Sin Seeker avoidance. The ability to use spells even when she has no mana.” Favia said, “As far as we know, she cannot do true Wizardry. She cannot instantly empty someone of their mana. She cannot [Strike] a warrior as though they have no Health. She cannot steal the spells someone else has, thus depriving that other person of their magic. She cannot cast faster than the Script Second, except in the cases of manual spellcasting.”

Favia was lying.

Not about everything; not about Wizardry.

But she was lying about enough that Erick could tell. Specifically, about the ability of skilled dragons to cast Wizardry. After all, the dragons of the Green Labyrinth wanted Wizards. If they already had Wizard dragons, then why would they want more? Erick believed this much from Tenebrae much more than he believed the second half of whatever Favia was saying. But should he call her out?

Yes.

“If every single skilled dragon was a Wizard then this world would be dead a million times over.” Erick said, “There is a simpler explanation for all of these small Wizardries. It is much more likely that there is a family of Illusion dragons, and that they operate all across the world however they are wont.”

Hangzi sat up a bit straighter; his regal mien turning fractionally angrier as he looked to Favia.

Favia defended herself well, turning slightly indignant but remaining professional. “I do not feel that I have lied. The small Wizardries of dragons are well known to us, but not to much of the outside world, and I know our organization has not contacted you before now. Do you have reason to feel that our long history of combating dragons is somehow based on lies?”

Ah.

He had walked right into an interrogation, hadn’t he.

Somehow, Erick did not expect this to be an interrogation of his own history.

Erick said, “I have reasons to believe what I believe. The Dragon Curse affects anyone three generations removed from the primary, meaning that there is room for family.”

Ruddy spoke up, “Dragons do not have families, actually! This is one of the reasons that they attempt to hide among the mortal races, and why they sometimes grow up not even knowing that they are dragons until they or their wife pops out a dragonkin baby.”

Erick frowned, but he listened.

Ruddy continued, “I’m getting ahead of myself here, but dragons lay eggs in protected nests in the Forest of Glaquin. Those hatchlings kill each other until only one is left. The dead hatchlings come back as undead wyrms, though, and experience rapid growth to full wyrm size, and then they rush forward to civilization, clearing the way for the survivor to make their way into inhabited lands, where they seamlessly [Polymorph] into one of the mortal races and then promptly forget that they are dragons. When they eventually remember, through whatever event forces them to remember, they usually end up going on a murder spree.”

Erick kept frowning because Ruddy wasn’t lying. Perhaps Ruddy was delusional enough to believe what he was spouting, but that didn’t seem right. Perhaps Erick’s own experience with dragons was too narrow? Whatever the case, Ruddy’s knowledge as an archivist of the Stalkers was too complete to argue against.

Or maybe it wasn’t?

Erick said, “But they have sexual reproduction. How are two of them able to come together to make those eggs if they’re not able to suppress their urge to kill for a short while?”

“And now we get to ‘how are there eggs in the first place’.” Ruddy smiled, happy to explain, “It’s a dominance game when dragons meet in the open. Everyone always hears about dragon fights. I understand Songli gets 3 to 5 of them per year. In a population this size, that fact of 3 to 5 might be true, but the deeper truth is that nascent dragon fights must happen a hundred times or more, and you just never hear of them.”

Hangzi paled. Elder Varo had no reaction; he knew what Ruddy was saying was true.

Favia just looked at Erick, gauging him with a skill almost as good as his—

She had Intelligence.

In that exact moment that Erick noticed Favia’s truth, she smirked, and then she turned her attention back to Ruddy’s lecture.

Ruddy continued, “Favia’s explanation of dragon Elements is important, and mostly correct, but it is not the full story. Dragons are Elemental Dragon, firstly, and everything else, secondly. It’s an academic distinction, but one that must be made, for it is through Dragon Essence that all of their interactions are determined. If two dragons of equal Essence meet, then there is a Dragon Fight. This is rare, for there is almost always an obvious hierarchy. This is where their Curse comes out, though the factuality of a ‘Dragon Blood Curse’ is a debated topic. ‘The Curse’ might not actually exist at all. This cultural lie might simply be a tool to explain to the mortal races why dragons are the way they are, because you can’t see ‘the Curse’ under [Soul Sight], or if it is there, then it is invisible to all known soul searching methods.

“Kirginatharp might also have a lot to do with perpetuating the lie of the ‘Dragon Blood Curse’, in order to hide his own bloodthirsty nature.

“For there is a much simpler explanation for why dragons are the way they are, and that is that dragons are dicks, and that’s telling it kindly. In more realistic terms, dragons are selfish monsters.

“As for the rankings which determine their society, Kirginatharp is at the top, as the Second to Rozeta.

“Everyone else has to make do with where they are on the list. Every part of their fractured society is determined by their ranking. If someone is above another, they are dominant, and they express this dominance upon the others around them, increasing their own power and decreasing the power of those so dominated. This is not just cultural, but also literal. We have seen this on [Soul Sight] reports at dragon fights, where the winning dragon eventually kills the weaker dragon by virtue of the winner’s presence alone. We have seen this from those at hospitals the world over, as they recover from Dragon Essence poisoning. We know this fact of Dragon Essence from those who choose to pursue even more Dragon Essence poisoning.

“In the case of dragons, if a dominant dragon continues to dominate the lesser dragon, then the lesser dragon will die. This part of the Curse is true. But, then again, we don’t think it is a curse, so much as it is a part of their nature.

“This is where dragon eggs and the Wyrm Season of Glaquin and other forests around the world come from. Dragons can’t have families like normal people. It is physiologically impossible. They can only meet in short mating sessions that mostly produce eggs, and rarely produce fights.

“The dragon mating cycle comes from acts of domination and submission that are usually well contained, but in aggregate, these small acts of violence mean thousands of bystander deaths every single year. It is this cycle that produces dragon fights, killing thousands upon thousands at any one time. The question of willingness for the submissive and dominant dragon is still a question, but dragons do seek each other out to gain mates, and they purposefully harm themselves and others in order to fulfill this biological need.

“While there might be some merit that the Mirage Dragon is actually a lineage, and not the same individual every single time, dragons have no families. They are incapable.”

When Ruddy finished, Erick just sat there, thinking.

There were some complications with what the man was saying. Most of those complications came from hearing about dragon culture from Quilatalap and Tenebrae, but also from Al, who pretended to not be a dragon. Al was perfectly normal outside of all draconic interactions. Erick was pretty sure that Al was the black dragon that killed the Flare Couatl, and who helped Jane begin the purge of her own Dragon Essence. Silverite had set that up, he was pretty sure, but he had purposefully never asked because he did not need to know. No one talked about dragons they knew, for if they did, then dragons would meet, and fights would start.

But none of Ruddy’s truth mattered right now.

Erick made a decision.

Erick said, “I’m not getting involved in this how you want me to be involved in this. I don’t wish to Image for dragons. I am not going to escalate this issue to ensure that it comes to violence. What I will do is seek out the various dragons to open a dialogue. I will not be involved with the Stalkers.” He stood up as Ruddy’s face fell, Favia gave a hateful smirk, and Varo and Hangzi both seemed relieved. “Thank you for your assistance in understanding this recent attack. I wish you well in your own hunt for this assassin Mirage Dragon.”

Ruddy tried bargaining, “Please, sir archmage! We only have four targets! Only four! You’d be saving thousands of lives each year! There are more major threats in this world besides Shades!”

Erick stopped. Ruddy knew just what buttons to press.

Favia knew a few buttons of her own, too.

“We’re not hunting the Mirage Dragon.” Favia said, “We’re willing to give you some help so you could hunt her, but we’re not doing a damned thing. You’re not a commoner. You’re not a country lacking in powerhouses. You’re Archmage Erick Flatt, and you’re fully equipped to find this bitch and the green dragon she’s imitating, before she or he strikes again.”

Erick said, “I highly doubt that the Mirage Dragon’s Illusion Breath would have missed so many people unless she was trying to miss people, so I will discover their diplomatic channels and seek out a discourse with them. I will find out why they are coming at me now, after we’ve cleared out lingering threats in Songli and poked a bit into the Warlord Clans. Did I upset something? Probably. If they have some sort of problem with me removing people like Divider from the world, then they will die, but I will try to resolve this without more violence.”

Ruddy instantly said, “All they know is violence! That is their entire society! Do not make the mistake of thinking they are capable of empathy or fear or forward thinking! All of those sapient emotions are a version of subservience to them, and they will respond with fire and pain if you attempt to understand them in the same ways you try to understand other people.”

Favia added, “My colleague is correct, but besides that, this Mirage Dragon has attacked you. She will come for you again and again until she succeeds… But I can see you are set on this path. So at least do us the courtesy of believing that they are dangerous.” She said, “I hope you survive your next encounter with them, and that the collateral damage from finding and talking to them isn’t too great.”

Erick took a moment to think.

Logically, he should want to kill every single dragon that had transgressed against the world. The four dragons that Ruddy mentioned were probably targets that were better off dead. This ‘Mirage Dragon’ and her family (which Erick suspected was closer to the truth than anything the Stalkers said) was likely better off dead, especially since they had a habit of committing assassinations and such the world over.

None of that even tapped into the idea that both Stalkers had mentioned, but not gone into, that the Mirage Dragon was working to implicate the ‘green dragon’ that was out there, in some bid to get Erick to kill the green dragon without even knowing who they were.

Logically, Erick would want to play ball with the Dragon Stalkers.

But the Mirage Dragon’s Illusion Breath could have killed, and it did not. Not a single death! That had to be on purpose. The Dragon Stalkers didn’t even mention that fact, and that made the Stalkers seem like bad actors. Ruddy seemed better than Favia, though.

The fact that Tenebrae was willing to speak… sort of kindly about the dragons was also a point against the Stalkers.

And Al was a great guy! So what if he was a dragon? Big deal!

And to top it all off, Poi’s revelation that the Stalkers had killed his mother and his sister made these dragon killers seem outright malicious. Especially with the part they said about the Curse ‘not being real’ and yet in the next moment saying that their entire society is organized along unnatural lines of dominance and subservience.

Eh.

So… Thinking about it that way… Yeah. Dragons did some bad shit the world over.

Maybe they did deserve to die!

But Erick wasn’t going to go up against yet another worldwide threat at this time; not in the way the Stalkers wanted him to go. He already had more than enough problems to deal with.

He certainly wasn’t going to ignore the new Path being laid down before him, but the Worldly Path went many ways, and he could walk this one differently than how it had been presented. (If this was Worldly Path nonsense, anyway.)

He was definitely going to talk to the dragons, but that talking would be done individually.

He would seek out what this green one wanted, to see if this was a case of the Mirage Dragon pointing the Dragon Stalkers, and Erick, at her new prey.

Perhaps the green one knew about [Gate]s!

Wouldn’t that be neat.

Erick said, “Stalker Favia is correct about one thing. If this was an attack on me, and I have to believe it was, then I must do my best to mitigate collateral damage.” He turned to Hangzi and Varo. “I am leaving your lands. My daughter will likely stay behind because she has obligations that she must fulfill, but I do not. Thank you for your hospitality.”

Hangzi instantly said, “I know what this last attack looked like, and if you think not being here is better for us, then I must ask you to reconsider. We failed to defend ourselves both from you, and from the Mirage Dragon. This means that we would have failed against the dragon. You saved us, and we could use more of that. Know that we are training new soldiers. We’re approving new people to higher positions of authority and casting. We can support your life here. Soon enough, we can defend ourselves, and you. Please stay.” He saw that he wasn’t swaying Erick, so Hangzi tried, “If nothing else, please give us a week so that we can accelerate some of our lower-tier mages to higher authorities and capabilities. Give us some time to work around issues of bureaucracy and personnel. We could use your defenses for a while longer.”

Ruddy exclaimed, “We need you to kill—”

“Silence guest,” Elder Varo practically spat at Ruddy.

Ruddy shut up. Favia simply watched. Oh yeah, did she watch.

Okay.

So.

There were a lot of thoughts Erick had about a lot of things.

But he returned to Hangzi’s question, first.

When a world power asks you to stay in place for a while, to help defend and whatnot, and considering that you just stirred up a hornet’s nest of Hunters and face stealers all around that world power…

And Erick still hadn’t gotten the spellwork for clan mountain creation…

And various other things.

“… Fine.” Erick said, “I will remain for a while, and pursue some of this dragon problem as much as I am willing. I also need that clan mountain spell, and then I need to be left alone.” He added, “Except in the cases of favorable news or nice things, in which case I welcome interruptions.” He asked, “There weren’t any dragon altercations in the cullings, were there? Do you know where this could be coming from?”

Hangzi proclaimed, “There were no draconic altercations that I am aware of, Archmage Flatt. Everything you want will be done with as much speed as possible.” He said to his man, “Varo. The spellwork.”

Elder Varo sent out a quick tendril of thought while also saying, “The scrolls will be delivered to your home, to your hands, directly after this meeting. Thank you for staying for a little while longer, Archmage Flatt.”

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Erick added, “After this meeting, I will also be assisting the Mind Mages with eradicating some specific monsters from Songli. I trust this is acceptable to you?”

Hangzi instantly said, “Yes. Do what you have to do. I would ask you to throw [Withering]s across our lands and be done with it, but intestinal cores are a health issue for many commoners. Thank you for your assistance, Archmage Flatt.” He looked greatly relieved, as he repeated, “Thank you.”

Favia ignored everything, asking Erick, “What are you going to do about the dragons?”

With flippancy, Erick said, “Draw a dragon out into the open. Ask what is happening there. Probably end up killing them while mitigating collateral damage as much as possible. I seem to be getting good at that.”

While Ruddy and Flavia had similar, almost happy reactions, Hangzi and Varo were perfectly polite, giving Erick a nod and a small bow, respectively.

Erick left the meeting. Poi and Teressa followed close behind.

When he got back to his temporary house, which was looking a lot more temporary than it looked an hour ago, he got to work with Poi and the Mind Mages.