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Erick felt warm all over, luxuriating in the afterglow as he lay upon a conjured mattress, staring at the night sky overhead. Countless stars twinkled up above, while down here, sweat dried on naked skin, but only on his. He was alone; Linxel had already left. Both of them had a good time. A good three and a half times, actually. Could have been more, but eventually, words and feelings had become more important than physical need.

So after that final aborted round, they spoke about nothing in particular for the next hour.

Eventually, words and feelings revealed a deep incompatibility.

Linxel wanted a partner, and he wasn’t going to do a [Teleport] relationship ever again; he had done that too many times before. It seemed that even on Veird, where genders didn’t really matter for most people of power, that ‘people of power’ was a large qualifier. People of all walks of life married for all sorts of reasons, but ‘love’ was rarely one of them. Children and a stable future won out over love almost all the time, but some people just couldn’t do that.

Linxel had been alone for the last ten years, and he would likely continue to remain alone for the foreseeable future. He had spoken of how he was okay, but Erick could tell he was lying to himself.

Erick didn’t confront that lie; not directly, anyway.

Erick only spoke about how he wasn’t sure where he would end up, or what he would do with his life, but his life was too dangerous for a relationship right now. It had been the easy way to close the door on this fling, and Linxel seemed to be happier after Erick agreed with Linxel’s denial of a possible future between them.

But before that… It… It had been nice.

- - - -

Linxel’s hand rested in Erick’s, their grips tight, as the both of them laid on their backs and stared at the stars. Linxel pointed at a bright red star and named it the ‘Serpent’s Eye’ of the constellation ‘Red Snake’; the first star in a series of ten that formed a string of stars ten long, with a tail eventually pointed directly at the ‘North Star’.

For Veird had a North Star, too, because of course it did, because Veird was a globe like any other planet. It was a bit dimmer than Earth’s North Star, though, and Linxel seemed to find this funny, as he went on with his explanation.

“Some people call the North Star the ‘Other Eye’, because—” Linxel pointed between the Red Snake constellation and the North Star, toward a near-perfect square of bright stars, saying, “That is called the ‘Sumtir’s Sawblade Shield’, and the story goes that the Shield cut out the Snake’s eye in the Shield’s battle to chase the Snake away from the top of the world. My great grandmother had a different tradition about the Red Snake constellation, though. She said that every star beyond the first three were shed skins, and that the North Star was the first shed skin, ripped off by the ‘Adventuring Team’, which is what she called the Shield.” Linxel smiled, for he couldn’t seem to do anything else but grin, as he said, “She was from Archipelago Nergal, so there was a different tradition there.”

Erick listened and gazed at the sky and loved every moment of it.

Erick wasn’t fully present in the moment, though. A lot of his attention was spent watching out for magical effects all around them, all the time.

They had used a lot of magic in the act, and Erick learned all sorts of interesting things that he didn’t know before, but which he had guessed at long before tonight.

As Linxel spoke, Erick noted that the man’s horns had shrunk, allowing Linxel to lay back on the ground without poking his horns into the mattress Erick had conjured. Linxel said that his horns shifting size was a variation of [Alter Size] magic that he had already displayed, much to both Erick’s horror and delight. Linxel’s Class was Giant Warrior, after all, and he could grow to twice or three times his height when he wanted, but [Alter Size] was practically laced into Linxel’s aura, so after years of use, all of him had eventually just grown bigger. He could still control it, though, but you’d never guess he used to be barely 18 decimeters tall.

Other parts of Erick only noticed Linxel’s eyes, and his muscles, and all the rest of him. How he breathed, and how he spoke. Linxel, in turn, couldn’t keep his eyes off of Erick when Erick spoke of stars, planets, and Earth and whatever. They spoke a little about the new politics of the grasslands, and of threats to the people here, and elsewhere, but mostly they smiled at each other’s genuine words, and feelings.

- - - -

But Linxel and Erick were not meant to be.

Linxel wanted something long term, and nearby. While Erick was not willing to live a life on the grasslands, for he had way too many responsibilities back home, in Spur.

And so, Linxel had taken his leave, first.

And now Erick laid on the conjured mattress, staring up at the sky, watching the stars slowly crawl across the heavens, enjoying and lamenting the moment. A Privacy shielded most of him from the outside world, so he was still in contact with everyone, if he needed to be, but he did not need to be; not right now. As soon as he moved on from this shielded space then… Then it would be time to move on; away from the grasslands, to the next spot of this Worldly Path.

He’d do one more thing before he left, though.

Maybe two more things.

… But for now, he stared at the stars above. There was no danger in being found by anyone, for Erick had moved both he and Linxel through multiple [Sealed Privacy Ward]s, leaving behind a trail of Privacy magics… like the shedding of a snake’s skin, running from an imaginary adventuring team.

Erick smiled as he stared at the sky. This was the best he had felt in…

In over a year.

Huh.

Well wasn’t that fucking sad.

…

Erick got up and turned off the [Heating Ward] that kept the space nice and warm. A chill wind blew across the plains, drying off the sweat still on his skin. He gave himself another [Cleanse] then started putting his clothes back on. Another switch of intent burst every Privacy he had cast upon the grasslands, and Erick stood revealed upon the plains.

For another moment, he gazed at the stars. Then he stared at the dark land all around. He breathed. He sighed.

And then he lightstepped back to his yurt.

- - - -

As dawn broke across the world, bringing light to the darkness, Erick cast a [Small Spark] onto a block of iron and set that block of iron into its holder, on top of the motor. The rotor instantly began to spin, and spin, without breaking. The commutators sparked a little, for the brushes were still made of copper like all the rest of the electrical parts. Erick still hadn’t made a graphite block system, so the commutator or the brushes would eventually wear down due to the friction of the brushes, but someone else could solve that problem. He had made an engine that was a good, near-finished product, and he hadn’t used [Duplicate] to do it. The windings were even sealed with a pretty decent varnish, and with [Particle Vacuum] on top of that; those windings wouldn’t be coming apart like the previous iterations.

… Something might break after a full day of use, though.

There was lots of room for improvement.

Erick still needed to find a replacement for Jane’s silk. And he needed to make a brushless DC motor… Which required transistors. Or he could make an AC motor!… Which required DC to AC conversion. He could also work on transformers, which would be necessary to make [Battery] a usable spell for something other than combining with other spells.

There was a lot of road left on that path, but Erick would walk it some other day.

Erick let the motor run; this was a duration test, now. So far, the motor seemed to be passing.

He turned to his other project.

The frame of a car sat on stone blocks, atop a stone platform. Erick had yet to create or install a prototype differential, but he had a few new ideas to try out. For starters: worm gears. When a worm gear was in contact with a spur gear, the worm gear could rotate the spur gear, but a spur gear could not move a worm gear. This was a necessary solution to a problem he didn’t realize he had, until after he had gotten through two prototype differentials.

When one tire was free to turn (like what happened when the wheels got stuck in mud), all power went to that wheel, while the other wheel got nothing. He probably should have seen the slipping problem coming; this was the major hurdle to overcome to make a differential work properly.

So Erick included some worm gears in his differential along with a bunch of things that just seemed right. In less than twenty minutes, he solved the slipping problem.

Erick began sticking pieces together while he explained his process to his [Familiar]s, with Ophiel sitting on one shoulder and Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye floating above on the other. “Now you have these two separated axle halves, and you put the worm gears on them, like this, see? And then you hold them together and you attach these parts we’ve already made. And now, you turn it all to light, and slip on this drive wheel that I forgot to put on earlier, like this— Yes, Ophiel, that was a mistake, and so I fixed it like this, see. And here you have the completed project. This is called a torque sensing differential, and it’s copyrighted on Earth, but we don’t care about that on Veird. And now… We start over because I forgot to put some spur gears on these spur gears, but that’s okay, because…”

An hour later, Jane, smiling, brought him a bowl of congee topped with berry jam. Erick was in the middle of refining his ideas, creating a second differential that wouldn’t break under normal stresses, but he was ready to eat, so he took the bowl.

“Thank you.”

Jane asked, “Sooooo. How are yooooou?”

“I’m good.” Erick looked back toward the differential sitting between his legs. He conjured a little floating platform and sat the bowl of breakfast on top. “Unless something else happens, we might be moving on as soon as I get these last few obligations out of the way.”

Jane instantly frowned. “What? But if we’re moving on, then… Did nothing happen?”

“Nothing permanent.” Erick said, “Which is fine.”

Jane’s frown lessened. “Well. Okay. It’s just that you seemed happier, and… That was nice to see. You’ve been smiling all morning long.”

“Ah. I have?” Erick pulled a face. “Is this better?”

Jane returned an exaggerated frown. “Not really.” She changed the subject, “So we’re leaving today, then?”

“Probably.”

“Then I’m going to wrap up a few things; head to Eralis for a little bit. I’ll be back by noon. I assume we’re not taking any of our stuff with us?”

“I’m not sure what to do with most of it, but yeah. We’re traveling light again.” Erick said, “Want Ophiel to take you to Eralis? Save on mana that way.”

“No.” Jane said, “I think Nirzir would want to move some stuff back to Eralis, too, so I’ll probably go with her. She should be awake soon enough.”

Erick nodded.

Jane walked off.

Erick ate his congee. It was pretty good. Warm and filling. The people here had been rather good to him, considering all the shit he stirred up, and he hoped he had been good to them, in return.

… He decided to make a few more things to hand off to the grass travelers.

And two more ‘inventions’.

- - - -

Elder Uriol, Elder Teer, and Elder Puuroi, stood beside the platform with Erick’s various models, motors, and lightward prototypes, looking over everything he had made. There were a few more people beside that, but they were Smiths and Drivers, and only here to understand how to better implement the ideas presented; they had been introduced to Erick, but he didn’t pay them much mind for they were, almost entirely, terrified of him. Erick tried to be personable, but that just freaked them out even more, so he decided to stay away from them instead.

Koori and Niyazo had also come along to the presentation. Erick had invited them and thus they were obligated, but he suspected that they would like what he was showing off as soon as they understood what it meant. Right now, they had no idea what the spinning motor represented, and they had a lot of shit to do, but Erick did not feel bad about pulling them away from whatever else they had planned.

And so, with everyone gathered, Erick spoke of differentials, how the motor worked, and a few of the basics of electromagnetism. It didn’t take long to get through the first iteration of his explanations of what everything was. What did take longer, was when people finally understood what this stuff represented.

Uriol was excited about the new gear designs, while Teer was only interested in the motor. Puuroi was happy about all of it, and vocally excited about all the new possibilities presented. Koori was rather unimpressed until Erick got to explaining how the motor actually worked, though; until she understood the implications of this ‘new magic’.

Koori’s eyes were wide, her jaw slack, her breathing calm, yet excited.

Erick smiled at that.

As Erick finished speaking of the basics of electromagnetism, Erick let everyone in on the implications, topping off his talk with, “And thus, through [Small Spark], you can build a civilization of electricity, with as little or as much magic as you want, for making a rotor turn is the least of what electricity can do. Behold~” Erick pulled a blanket off of a covered box.

A lightbulb, and a toaster; these were the extra inventions Erick had created this morning.

Both were easy to make, too. [Particle Vacuum] along with some Shaping spells and the metals that he had extracted from some of the iron bars was enough to make a rudimentary light bulb. Krypton or argon gas would have been better for the filling medium, but vacuums were easier to understand and implement, or at least they would be in a year. Luckily, Erick had gotten some tungsten out of his metal bar destruction, so at least the light bulb’s filament was exactly what it should have been.

The toaster was similarly easy, though it was not a proper toaster; this one was more like a cooktop. It was horizontal. Erick made it that way so that people could imagine for themselves the multiple ways to use such a device—

Erick realized that he could make a Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove using electricity and cooktops. That method of cooking specifically used radiant heat to mimic a burning fire, with [Heat Ward]s being disdained for their ‘microwave like’ cooking effects, where the Maillard reaction was hard to achieve. But with an electric stove, one could cook with very high heat, and for a fraction of the cost of a Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove, and a fraction of the mana it took to cook with the actual [Prestidigitation] spell. [Small Spark] was only 5 mana for 10 minutes of work!

—But for this small cooktop here, it was basically a toaster. And for this toaster, all he needed to do was make some curled metal filaments that didn’t burn when exposed to air, they simply heated to red hot. But by that time, he had run out of tungsten, so he had to make do with some other metals. In this case, he used a mix of nickel, chromium, and iron, which he remembered was great for high temperature jobs exactly like this. He wasn’t sure of the actual amounts to use for a proper heat-resistant metal, but he got close enough for a prototype.

The lightbulb would last for a while until it eventually burned out the inside of the bulb. The toaster was going to fail due to melted filaments sooner rather than later. Nothing was perfect, but it was functional, and Erick wasn’t willing to [Duplicate] any parts of anything he did here in order to make it easier on himself, or on those who were yet to come.

Erick tapped a metal bar in front of the lightbulb, saying and casting, “[Small Spark].”

The metal bar crackled, then the lightbulb lit like a brilliant yellow flame.

He moved on to the toaster, saying and casting, “[Small Spark].”

The ‘toaster’ cooktop fired to life; concentric circles of red hot wires radiating heat under a grate. Erick took a piece of bread and placed it on top of the grate. Soon, the bread would turn into one-sided toast.

Koori let out a happy sigh as she saw the cooktop and the light, and she knew exactly what they meant. Niyazo smiled, but not at the experiments; he only had eyes for his happy wife. Happy wife, happy life!

Good for them.

Erick said to everyone there, “All of these are proofs of concept. Basic frameworks to copy and understand in your own ways. Prototypes that work, but barely.

“The gears in the differential and the car need actual Smiths that can make them tough enough for actual, hard use. The lightbulbs need better materials. The toaster needs insulation between the cooking surface and the heating element to prevent someone from accidentally setting a house on fire, or from accidentally electrocuting themselves to death. There are problems everywhere, but I’m not going to solve those problems for you.” Erick said, “I’m giving you the basic tools to create a society with a lot less magic in it, if you want that. Personally, I’m going to try for some sort of incorporation. [Mend], for broken parts; [Cleanse], for dirty parts; [Metalshape] is going to be important; [Alter Friction]; [Control Machine]. The list goes on and on, but the opportunity starts with [Small Spark], and that’s only one point away in the Open Script.” Erick joked, “And I didn’t even invent that one.”

There were a few laughs around the presentation.

Erick continued, “For five mana, you get a spell that lasts 10 minutes, and which has more than enough power to do a lot, if you know how to leverage that power.

“These tools are how you can leverage that power but there are many more tools waiting to be found.” Erick said, “The physics here is complicated, for sure, but it’s a lot easier than enchanting, for all this stuff is based in pure physicality, instead of in Truth. Anyone arranging these physical materials in the same physical configuration will produce the same effects. This is not magic. It is engineering.” Erick smirked, as a thought came to him. “Magineering, if you will.”

Teer was the first to speak, saying, “I did not expect you to come through with a full presentation and a revelation of your secrets like this, but I suppose I should have. Shame on me for not believing what other people had been telling me.”

Uriol was already smiling wide, but he laughed at Teer’s words, and said, “I told you we’d get something good! This is beyond my largest imagination!”

Puuroi said, “We’ll have to find a substitute for the spider silk wrappings. That might be the hardest part.”

The three elders almost started an argument amongst themselves over materials, but Erick spoke up, saying, “You can keep all of this stuff here, and there are notes on electricity in that booklet right there.” Erick gestured to a small black notebook on the nearby table. “I had some crazy ideas on how I was going to explain electricity to everyone, but most of those were ill-formed. If you were listening in on the left hand and right hand rule stuff, then you might be confused about what’s in that book, but hopefully, I explained it all better in there, than I did earlier.”

Teer smirked a little bit. She was perfectly fine with being called out on her spying. Uriol and Puuroi were a bit less fine on being called on, but the two of them caught up to Teer’s nonchalance about everything, soon enough.

Uriol said, “Thanks for the explanations, Erick. I’m sure that’ll answer a lot of our Smiths’ questions.”

“I copied the book and sent it out to a few different people, too, so I hope I answered the larger questions simply, and succinctly. If not, then there are other people learning this stuff alongside you. Seek them out, if you wish.” One copy had gone to Zolique, the Lightning Mage down in Eralis, who had helped Erick with learning [Small Spark], [Insulate], and [Superconductor]. Xue of Star Song had gotten a copy, too, along with Riri. Jane had asked Erick to give the Spider Polymage one, too, for the spidery would likely be responsible for a lot of wire production in the future. Erick agreed with her decision. Erick said, “You’ll have to find out the rest on your own.”

Koori excitedly asked, “How bright can the lights get?”

“Very bright.” Erick said, “But I used basic materials, and...”

From there, Erick spent a bit of time answering questions from everyone, and even a few from some of the Smiths that had come with the elders. He took the toast off of the cooktop, and showed it off, while speaking about a dual-sided cooktop that could be made that could toast the bread on both sides.

He showed Koori, and everyone else, how to use the cooktop. She absolutely loved everything about electricity. The elders were downright frosty compared to her enthusiasm, but even they had the Sight to see the power laid out before them, for the taking.

The power multiplier of [Small Spark] applied to a proper motor was massive. Many utility spells achieved a similar level of strength for a similar level of mana, with [Grow] being 5 mana to make a small tree, or [Rejuvenation] being 5 mana to restore 20 times Willpower in Health, over ten seconds.

But it was hard to use [Grow] to accomplish actual work, and to get work out of [Rejuvenation] required a fleshy, living target to do the work. Sure, all [Small Spark] did here was make a rotor spin, or make a cooktop hot, or turn on a light, but [Small Spark] was reliable, varied, strong power, only bottlenecked by a back-end production of goods that anyone could make, or repair, if they knew how. And that’s what made all the difference.

In a moment of excited thoughts about the future, Koori asked, “Will you stay here and help teach some children?”

Erick announced, “No. Thank you for the offer, but I am moving on. Today. Right after we’re done here, actually.”

Koori’s joy briefly collapsed. The elders stopped arguing to look to him. Niyazo, though, knew it was coming.

The leader of Clan Pale Cow said, “Thank you for showing when you did, Erick. You revealed ten thousand problems and then solved nine thousand and nine hundred of them. It might not be my place to say it, but the grasslands will always be in your debt.”

The elders nodded in agreement. Teer almost said something—

Koori asked, “So soon? You don’t have to go so soon.”

“I do, though.” Erick smiled softly. “It’s been wonderful to be here. Clan Pale Cow has treated me very well for a person who came in unannounced, and barged their way onto the scene.”

Koori waved a hand, “Don’t worry about that. You’re welcome here. Always.”

“Yes. But I’m still moving on.”

Koori reluctantly nodded, saying, “Then… Thank you, Erick.”

Erick nodded back.

Teer inclined her head toward the space outside of Erick’s magical protections, where people waited with applications in hand for their turns to speak to Erick. “Our merchants will miss you most of all, for you brought them lots of money with this new interest you thrummed up.”

“I’ve already completed every monster kill request out there, today.” Erick said, “Every single one of those people is hoping to sell me something, or ask me for something that they don’t need. All the important requests have come and gone.” Erick suggested, “You should ask them if they want to make deals with your people, instead.”

Teer chuckled. “Perhaps we shall, now that you’re going.”

They spoke for a little while longer about this and that, while Erick recast [Small Spark] upon his various appliances as needed. Neither the motor, the light bulb, or the toaster broke while Erick was there, which was pretty good. The differential in the skeleton of a car did break, though, but only because the Smiths were stress testing the gearing system. As the rear axle broke and a pair of riders fell out onto the grass, the Smiths all turned to Erick, eyes wide in fear, but Erick just laughed it off and cast a [Mend].

Erick almost spoke to the Smiths about their thoughts on his metals, but they were not comfortable around him, though they were quite interested in his designs. So Erick left them to it.

Eventually, stuff got moved around. The motor and the car framework and a few other small things went to a few different locations, as debated over by the elders, without Erick’s interference. He did help move them to those new locations, though.

The light bulb and the toaster cooktop went to Clan Pale Cow; a departing gift for their hospitality.

Koori felt quite embarrassed by Erick calling what they had done ‘hospitality’, and she said as much, but Erick was quick to point out custom and tradition required certain things of him, and far be it for him to upset those traditions. Koori was mollified by that, giving a simple, happy ‘thanks’, as she accepted the primitive inventions.

Eventually, the grass travelers of Ooloraptoor had taken everything that Erick had given them, and they departed with relieved shoulders and easy expressions. In their wake, platforms of grey-white stone littered the yard; empty. Even the tools Erick had made had been graciously accepted by the Smiths, for they always had more room in their sheds for lathes and hammers and rulers. Erick had even given away the remaining copper to Pale Cow, and also to Zolique, the Lightning Mage back in Eralis.

Erick spared a glance to Zolique’s home, to see her excitedly reading and yelling about electricity, as she played with [Small Spark] and wires. Her son watched from nearby, his hands loosely clenched on the wands of healing and [Dispel].

Erick turned his attention back to his ‘front yard’ and began returning the stone platforms to the land, [Stoneshape]ing them to sand and dirt. With a [Watershape], he picked up a large amount of water from the pond and scattered it across the dirty land. A burst of [Growth Aura] helped grass to fully reclaim the space.

And then it was all cleaned up. He was ready...

Mostly ready.

Erick ran a few more errands here and there, like filling up stone boxes for the wandering soul children with [Delirium Charm]s and [Personal Delirium Charm]s, and giving a few of those same Charms to Devouring Nightmare, for Warzi. He Blessed a few more people in the mountains, though the three people he Blessed were the only people to show up for a Blessing in the last twelve hours, so maybe that would slow down, too.

One thing certainly wasn’t slowing down, though.

Erick turned to the side, and looked to his meeting platform where an Ophiel stood on top of a mailbox full of blank applications, and filled out requests for aid. Near that space stood people waiting for their time to talk to him; about eighty groups, or about three hundred people in total. Compared to five days ago, almost everyone out there wanted something frivolous.

Just an hour ago, there had been about six hundred people out there. Some of those people had come in when Erick was explaining electricity and how to utilize it, just so that they could get a lesson on ‘whatever the archmage was teaching’, as Erick overheard them say. A lot of those looky-loos had departed when the lesson was over. A lot more people started departing when they saw Erick giving away all his stuff, for the crowd recognized that Erick was moving on.

And yet, some people remained, hoping that what they were seeing wasn’t what they were seeing, or that Erick would choose to come out for one final assistance. A few people even appeared in the space after it became clear that Erick was moving on.

Erick cast his gaze across those people now, skimming the applications in the mailbox, and reading the applications in the hands of their petitioners, just to be sure that no one had an urgent, true need. Mostly, the needs Erick saw were not desires that required an archmage’s solutions.

Except…

Erick paused. With Ophiel flying over the grouped people, he saw something odd among one of the petitioners. A man held a glass carving of a dragon scale, under his arm in a paper-wrapped package. The man was alone, though he was chatting with some other people who were also waiting for their turn at Erick. The man’s glass scale was an exact match for the one that Daizing and Roia, of the Knives of the Night, had given Erick, back before he Blessed almost their entire Cultist organization. It was the scale to contact the dragon Ordoonarati.

The man noticed Ophiel noticing him. The man waved, then held up the package.

A few other people waved, thinking that Erick was looking at them, instead. At that, almost everyone who had been relaxing, or sitting, or waiting, went on high alert. They hopped up and prepared themselves to make their cases for why Erick should help them with whatever it was they wanted.

Erick called out to Poi, on the porch of the yurt, and his people inside, “Looks like we got a concern.”

Poi was already looking that way.

Teressa came out of the yurt with eyes wide and clouded over. “I don’t see anything in the manasphere.”

Jane and Nirzir came out of the yurt, wondering what was going on.

“Let me know if that changes, Teressa.” Erick said, “Poi, with me. Teressa, stay here. Jane and Nirzir, prepare, but don’t make it obvious. Hopefully nothing will happen.”

Poi hopped down from the yurt to follow Erick, as Erick walked across the grasslands, toward the meeting platform. At their approach, all of the remaining petitioners who hadn’t prepared themselves for Erick’s arrival launched to their feet to be presentable. Unlike on the first day, no one lined up, for Erick had already shown that lining up did nothing; he would take their concerns as he saw fit.

Erick, unimpeded, walked across the grassland to his platform. Standing atop the stone, he said to the gathered crowds, “I’m done with assisting people, for now, unless you have an actual emergency. If you do not have an emergency, I do not appreciate you taking up my time. Please remove yourself from this area if you do not have an emergency.” Erick added, “That said: if you have a longer-term concern that will become an emergency, you may remain, and we might speak of it.”

Thankfully, forty seven of the eighty-ish groups took their leave.

Erick leveled a withering stare at a couple whose application boiled down to a ‘platinum rain investment opportunity’, saying, “I do not need investment opportunities.”

The couple nodded rapidly, then vanished in a blip of orange light.

After a few more heavy words, Erick rid himself of all but eleven groups. The man with the dragon scale was among those groups, but he could wait.

Erick found a dead child for a suddenly grieving mother and father, and tried not to think about if he had helped them seven hours ago that the child might still be alive. He saved yet another coastal village from a tangled hydra. He burned a forest to the ground, taking the monsters inside with it. He rescued a teenager from a bandit gang on the far side of the Tribulations, reuniting the overjoyed boy with his father and uncle, who wept tears of happiness at the boy’s return.

He killed some more monsters.

And then there was only one person left to deal with. The man with the dragon scale.

(There were a few more groups trickling in after the dragon man, but Erick ignored those.)

Erick invited the man onto his platform, asking him, “Do you wish for a Privacy?”

“Sure.”

Erick sealed them in a Privacy, then dropped all politeness, casually demanding, “So what’s all this, then?”

The man nodded deeply, respectfully, then he raised his head. His eyes had been normal brown, but now they were bright green, and full of shadows. “This man is a willing participant in a pact made long ago, so don’t go thinking that I have corrupted his soul or anything like that; Linxel was the only unwilling person I have soul touched in a long time, hence my failure, and his discovery.”

Erick managed to speak without too much malice in his voice, “Ordoonarati, I presume.”

“Correct.”

“And why would someone agree to be soul fucked?” Erick asked, “The alternative was death?”

“Nothing nearly so crass.” Ordoonarati’s representative turned a bit angry, but he calmed, and said, “In exchange for a better life, which he has gotten, I am able to use him to speak to others, without them being able to track me down. It is a trick used by my kind in order to interact with each other without risking a physical interaction or tracking spells, for this spellwork cannot be blocked or tracked by any means save for Wizardry.”

Erick would be testing that theory after the man left, but for now, he asked, “So why have you come here?”

Ordoonarati eyed Erick. “You saw what happened at the debates, and yet you have hostility toward me? Have I not proven that I can bend with the wind? There need not be any further action between us, Archmage Flatt. You have goaded a reluctant archmage back into the public eye, and though you are taking your own power with you when you go, you are leaving us grass travelers with Koori, the Cleanser, and so we are much stronger than we were before.” Ordoonarati said, “You have killed every large monster in this land, ensuring easy prosperity for at least a year. Your ideas for Integration might keep this land from turning into a copy of Songli; might keep us free of the nobility. You have brought technology to this place, and explained how to use it.” He said, “I thought you were a plague, but I was mistaken. You are a savior, and a true Fire of the Age. I did not believe them, and I apologize for that.”

Erick allowed his anger to seep away. “I do not wish to fight you, either, for whatever would happen, others would suffer for it.”

Ordoonarati nodded. “Even if we do become allies in the future, this is how it is between powers.”

Erick got to the meat of the matter. “I want to know that I’m not leaving a problem at my back, Ordoonarati.”

“And so, we arrive at the main reason I have come today. I don’t wish to leave a festering problem at my back, either.” Ordoonarati said, “So in the spirit of friendship, I will inform you a little about [Gate], as I know of the spell.”

Erick was highly skeptical, and he allowed that emotion to show. Anything the dragon said could be the truth, or a lie, or simply misleading. And yet… It might work out. Trust was an important part to starting a relationship of any kind, and though Ordoonarati did not seem trustworthy at all…

Erick was willing to try, for what other response was there? To find and kill this hidden dragon? Thousands would die in the crossfire, for sure.

And yet, Erick was still skeptical. Perhaps even more so than he was when this conversation had started.

Erick said, “You said you wouldn’t give me this information unless I brought you a Wizard.”

The man speaking for Ordoonarati sat straight, his eyes glowing even brighter, darker green for a brief moment. He eyed Erick. “Do you know of any Wizards?”

“Probably not.” Erick said, “I’m not even sure what to look for when it comes to those types, besides a core of some sort and the production of their own sort of mana. I usually kill monsters, though, so I might have accidentally killed one, for I have killed cannibals before. How would I know if I had killed a Wizard?”

Ordoonarati continued to eye Erick. “… I feel that you need a lot more information than I previously estimated. But I will not teach you everything today. So, choose one; choose how to cement this alliance: information of Wizards, or information of [Gate].”

“[Gate],” Erick said, without hesitation. He added, “It will have to be something I don’t already know, though when it comes to [Gate], I feel I know quite a lot.”

Ordoonarati thought for a second. He nodded. “Then to facilitate this exchange, I will put forth a thought in this one’s head, and you will do the same—” He looked past Erick, to Poi, adding, “And your Mind Mage will tell if it's the same thought, or not. The Mind Mages are still honorable, are they not?”

Erick spoke up, “We won’t be doing it that way, for I don’t want certain things to be implied by omission, or not. How about this: I will ask you a deep question, and you must decide if you want to answer. If your answer is unsatisfactory, then I will pick again. The generosity of your answer will have a weight, too.”

“… Agreeable.” Ordoonarati said, “When we are actual allies, I expect better treatment than this.”

“We shall see about that on some other day, but yes; I would expect better treatment, too.” Erick warned, “Soul fucking someone I’m doing business with normally ends in execution.”

“Fucking with the life of a dragon also normally ends in execution, but I take your point.” Ordoonarati said, “Ask your question.”

Erick took a moment.

His question came from when he was walking across the grasslands, toward Clan Pale Cow for the first time and Nirzir knocked loose an idea which led down a rabbit hole that had the possibility to end this whole [Gate]-thing well before Erick got to the end of the Path.

Erick asked, “Is [Duplicate], or a variation of [Duplicate] which copies souls and people, some intrinsic part of [Gate]? Or is—” Erick stopped there, for the green eyes of Ordoonarati’s representative were swirling with a lot of dark green light.

Ordoonarati took a moment to calm himself, and another moment to speak. “You are far along the Path. Farther than I expected. Not many would even know how to answer this question, and I… This answer is...” He paused. “It is a deep answer. I can answer it. I can even elaborate to a certain extent, but not overmuch, for reasons which may become apparent at a later date.”

Erick waited.

Ordoonarati said, “The answer is this: No. [Duplicate] is not intrinsically necessary to create [Gate], the spell. [Duplicate] is necessary if you don’t want to put in a lot of work to allow your [Gate] to be used by others, for [Duplicate] is the only way to effortlessly create new permanent anchoring Gates, and...” He paused.

Erick filed away Ordoonarati’s words for later, when he had the opportunity to digest them. For now, he kept his face impassive, and skeptical. The man had more to say, and he probably would, if Erick let him.

“… And… Hmm.” Ordoonarati said, “I will throw in a bonus answer as a show of good faith, along with a warning. A high-tier variant of [Duplicate] is necessary to allow the [Gate] to protect itself, for it will need protection that it can create at-will, for attackers will always try to pierce the separation between the user-end of [Gate] and the interior inner workings, to try to take over the [Gate] for themselves.

“This is what happened when the orcols Raged through the Forest of Glaquin, and captured the Gate Networks 1400 years ago. In order to stop this, the rest of the world sent suicide kill teams into those [Gate]s to kill the usurpers while other teams outside destroyed the permanent Gates, setting the [Gate]s adrift in the manasphere, where they eventually disintegrated, with everyone inside dying.

“In this way, the Gate Network of Glaquin was destroyed.

“Mostly.

“Those orcols did not capture the main spell, though, for its protections were immaculate, and highly varied. The main [Gate] had— Well. That’s too much information.”

Erick waited.

Ordoonarati continued, “For smaller, less well protected [Gate]s, it is easy to tear through the veil separating the user-end of the spell from the core magic of the working, and once a thief is past this barrier, the thief can take over the [Gate] for themselves, forcing the spell to move as they wish, and to do what they want. [Duplicate] will allow your [Gate] to copy guardian monsters that can do that protecting while you’re off doing whatever.

“Giving a good version of [Duplicate] to your [Gate] is absolutely necessary if you plan on allowing others to use your [Gate]s.”

Ordoonarati stopped speaking. This time he was fully done.

While that was a lot to think about, Erick asked, “So [Duplicate] is not copying those who walk inside the [Gate], and then spitting that copy out elsewhere, while it pretends to move people from point to point in the world? [Duplicate] is only for protective purposes?”

Ordoonarati eyed Erick, likely thinking many thoughts in that moment. “… Correct.” Then, more seriously, he said, “Making [Duplicate] work on monsters and lesser life forms is easy enough, for the souls of most monsters are incredibly simple. A deep dive into Soul Magic is not necessary in order to protect your [Gate] from spell thieves. What you speak of is the [Resurrection] problem, and that is far outside of the scope of [Gate]. Do you understand?”

Erick felt a weight fall from his shoulders as he sighed out. Though he tried to hide his reaction, it was impossible to hide, for Erick felt light, in that moment. [Gate] did not kill travelers and replace them with copies. Thank the gods.

Ordoonarati nodded, then waited.

Erick said, “Assuming this is all true, then I thank you for your answers.”

“I would have you understand my words as true.” Ordoonarati said, “I would have us be allies, for what you have done for my people has been amazing.”

“We’re a far ways away from becoming allies, Ordoonarati.” Erick said, “But from what I’ve seen after our initial problems and from what I see here, I have hope for the future.”

“Me, as well.”

“How will I find you, for further discussion? Through this man?”

Ordoonarati said, “You can find this man whenever you wish, but don’t interrupt his life for these big discussions. The Pact we forged holds many terms, two of which was a great bounty from me to him, while another was for him to never know of the conversations he carries out in my name. This is done so that he cannot be interrogated by anyone who captures him.”

Erick asked, “What does this man think is happening right now?”

“He’s asleep. Dreaming.” Ordoonarati said, “When we’re done here, I will leave this man at his home…” He paused. He said, “This should not be abnormal to you... Unless this is your first interaction with a dragon?”

“The first one that I know about, yeah.” Erick said, “Aside from the He—”

Ordoonarati suddenly said, “Do not bring up that waste of mana in my presence—” Calmer, he added, “In the presence of any dragon. There is no need to be antagonistic... But I suppose you didn’t know that you were being rude.”

And there, for perhaps the first provable time, based on mannerisms and heartbeat and eye dilation —though, for sure, the disconnect between Ordoonarati and his man was messing things up for Erick— Erick was pretty sure that Ordoonarati had just tested how much Erick was capable of seeing.

Erick called the dragon out on his shit, “You’re testing my limits, and then pushing back on the simple utterance of a name. You’re probing for weakness.” Erick said, “I do not appreciate this.”

Ordoonarati said, “I am not doing that at all, but I can see how you would believe that. I would end this conversation here and pick it up at some later date. Perhaps when my words have proven themselves as true, and that there need not be any hostility between us.”

… It was possible that Erick was a little bit paranoid.

Whatever.

Erick said, “You have done a lot of harm around here. There might always be hostility.”

Ordoonarati said, “To point out who has done actual harm in this land, I say that you have been a thousand times more deadly to the grass travelers than I. I merely manipulated Linxel to try to get you to leave. You killed thousands of people, and your purge of the local monster ecology will create lasting, unknown ripple effects, the outcomes of which will take years to unfold, and which might cause complete shifts in the landscape of the grasslands. I suspect we will get monster hordes vanishing whole clans in three months, if not sooner.” He added, “I was never a danger to these people; you were, and are. But you’ve been good for us, too. Hence, my appearance here, and now.

“I would tell you not to see shadows where there are none, but as I am sure you can see, I am Shadow aligned.” Ordoonarati’s representative gave a small smile.

For a brief moment, Erick was dumbfounded.

Then he asked, “Was that a joke?”

“It was, yes. I have been known to spin a good humor now and again, though it is difficult to do in situations like this, but one must try for good humor and relaxation when attempting to connect with new allies.”

Moments passed.

“Okay. Yeah.” Erick forced himself to relax. He breathed out, and said, “I will, of course, never reveal your man here to anyone else, or be sending any danger your way. But, I will be checking up on what you have told me about [Duplicate], which will…” He sighed. “Unfortunately, take me back to Oceanside.”

“There are other ways to learn these magics.” Ordoonarati said, “A trip into a Vision of the past would serve you well. I could even be your ally in there so that you aren’t unprepared. This would require a great deal more trust between us, though, because from where I am standing, you are the one who is a danger to me. If I feel you are no longer a danger, then I might reveal the Vision’s location, but I suspect you already know where it is.”

“I might know; yes. But… How does that work, exactly? I get that there’s a fraction of the Old Cosmology in there, and this ameliorates the Curse, but you have to travel through the Forest of Glaquin to get there.” Erick said, “Dragons which show themselves in the Forest would surely be discovered, and what’s more, showing yourself in that Old Place would also be showing the face you use out here in the world. Unless you have different faces for every interaction? But that solution would require you to steal faces to have one persona in there, and another out here.”

Ordoonarati gently shook his head when Erick finished. He said, “Too many people have too many untoward ideas about dragon society, and of our Curse. It is not surprising to hear you say this, but it is disheartening. Considering that you annihilated the Shades for their evil ways, I am surprised you haven’t thrown in with the Dragon Stalkers already.”

There was a pause for Erick to speak, but he did not. He waited for an actual rebuttal to his postulation.

Ordoonarati continued on, “I normally wouldn’t answer multiple magical questions since these are the currency we seem to be trading upon, but I can tell that you think I am in debt, and since this will not do, I will speak on this small secret. You likely would have been exposed to this secret if you asked around, anyway.

“If you get good enough at [Polymorph], which is an innate dragon ability and most of us are very good at it, then you can switch between ‘lives’, becoming another person at the twisting of 125 mana. Think of it like [Teleport]; a good [Polymorph] is as easy to achieve as it is to step on a different path of life. In our Status, we only have the one Familiar Form, so that gets around a lot of the problems of a Sin Seeker finding out you have multiple Familiar Forms.

“Most of us have a form we use when visiting Ar’Cosmos and then a different one when we are out here, in this Script-saddled world. No one need die to affect this change, and no faces need to be stolen, for the people you meet in Ar’Cosmos are people you would never meet out here.” Ordoonarati said, “There are occasional problems with the young being unable to [Polymorph] correctly, but we try to keep children out of that nonsense until they learn how.”

It seemed that every answer the dragon gave only led to another ten questions.

Erick directly asked, “But what about eggs hatched in the Forest? I heard that the survivor goes out and hides among other people, [Polymorph]ing themselves into a child to hopefully be raised by adoptive parents, while the rest become wyrms. This seems to indicate that [Polymorph] is rather instinctive.” He said, “I heard that from the Dragon Stalkers, but was that a lie?”

Ordoonarati’s man frowned a little, but he did not sound angry as he said, “You push your goodwill to a breaking point. How would you like it if I asked you of your dead children, forced to live in a world that cannot support them all?”

“I would get over myself and answer the important questions when they were asked, because these unanswered questions have a way of festering, leading to misunderstandings that would then paint my whole species as pure evil.”

Briefly, Erick felt bad about what he had said, because it was clear that Ordoonarati was truly hurt by the pointed question. Or he could be acting. Whatever the case, Erick needed to know, but he could tell this conversation would end well before he was ready for it to end. He was pushing his goodwill, for sure.

Ordoonarati erased the frown from his face, going impassive, letting the world pass him by, as he answered, “Children must be born here, on Veird, for… Many reasons. And so they are, with most of those births taking place in small hatching sites in the Forest of Glaquin. But when the groups of eggs hatch they—” It clearly pained the man to speak of this, but he did anyway, his voice faltering a little as he said, “When they hatch they take the mana in the air and also the Curse and… It is like you have seven children, but only enough food for half a child, and all of that food is poisoned. A prospective parent will fill their nest with grand cores and true artifacts and powerful sources of elemental mana to offset some of this lack of natural sustenance and it works to a certain extent… But Veird has not been kind to dragons. So we parents must watch our kids kill their brothers and sisters, with only the strong surviving, for that is how it has to be.

“Perhaps one or two might survive. Most do not. Those that fail to thrive become wyrms. Most of those wyrms are culled by their grieving parents, watching over the nest, but some always get away for other dragons like to hunt at this time, and unmoving parents are a great target. Those wyrms that do escape are usually killed by the Forest before they get too big…” He sighed. “Though I suspect with your culling of the moon reachers and deathsoul shrooms this year’s hatching will be rough for the rest of Glaquin.”

Erick listened, and then he said, “I am not unsympathetic, but I suspect that Wizardry is the only real way to save the children.”

“You are correct.” Ordoonarati sighed. “I wish you would have questioned me about Wizards, then perhaps I could tell you what to look for, but perhaps one day you will notice one all on your own.” Ordoonarati’s voice took on a hint of needful enthusiasm, “If you bring the Wizard to me I could use them to prevent the Curse from sticking upon an entire clutch of eggs. Ten dragons or more would never have to go through what we parents have had to go through. They could live their lives free of the dragon fights that only end when one person is dead, and the land has been turned to fire, killing countless innocents.”

He painted a good picture, but...

“I wouldn’t hand over power like that to anyone I couldn’t fully trust.” Erick said, “Especially if the Wizard wouldn’t live through whatever process is required to produce this miracle.”

Ordoonarati pulled back his emotions. “Ideally the process would not kill the Wizard. Ideally, I could extract their power from them without killing them, and I could do this multiple times.” He said, “Ideally, I could even let them go before the process Ended them. They would be broken beyond basic Script spellwork, but that would be better than death. I think this is a fair result when dealing with powers that could break this world wide open, killing us all. Whatever the case, I must say this.” Ordoonarati said, “I shall give you a better deal for whatever captured Wizards you bring me; better than any other party you can think of.”

Erick nodded, satisfied. “Then. It was good meeting you, and I am glad we did not need to fight.” Erick stood. “Till we meet again.”

The man holding Ordoonarati’s consciousness stood as well, the green shadows in his eyes going dull, as his eyes turned back to brown. He said, “Till next time.”

The man walked away as Erick canceled the Privacy surrounding them.

The man had kept the scale under his arm and wrapped in paper the whole time, and Erick hadn’t asked after it, either. Perhaps Erick would have gotten the scale if he had asked after it, but he did not. It wasn’t even enchanted, anyway. Soon, the man reached the white square of land Erick had created to act as a Teleport Square, and then he blipped away in a flash of grey light.

Erick returned to his own yurt, with Poi following at his side.

He kept his emotions and thoughts under tight wraps, for the moment.

But once inside dense air, and surrounded by the power of his [Undertow Star], Erick sent to Poi, ‘Do you have any concerns or comments about what just happened? I’d hear your thoughts if you want to give them.’

‘Since the man was meeting us through an intermediary, I can actually speak my full mind—’

Erick smirked, and teased, ‘Do I make you feel like you can’t speak up, Poi?’

‘Jokes aside, Ordoonarati wasn’t there, so there’s nothing stopping me from telling you how I feel, and how I feel is this: You handled yourself well, but another Mind Mage, and possibly Ordoonarati, too, would be able to tell that you were acting out what you thought Ordoonarati wanted to see.’ Poi sent, ‘But if anyone else saw you like that, they’d wonder how close you are to turning into a dragon cultist.’

They reached the yurt, but Erick paused a meter from hopping aboard. ‘There are dragon cultists?’

‘Yes.’ Poi said, ‘You probably have cultists worshiping you, too, but I haven’t seen any yet— Ah. Actually. The people you Blessed might be going that way from what I’ve been able to tell from your own perceptions.’

‘… oh no.’

Erick’s stomach seemed to drop down to his feet.

Poi smiled wide as he hopped aboard the yurt, sending, ‘That’s a good reaction to that sort of news. Best not ever get a big head about you, or else someone will feel the need to knock it off.’

Erick stared at Poi as he hopped aboard the yurt. ‘You’re not serious, are you? You don’t think I’m actually being worshiped, do you?’

‘I haven’t personally seen any.’

‘… So that means you’ve heard of it.’

Poi shrugged. ‘Anyway: You probably want to stay away from Wizards. Nothing good will ever come from pursuing that power. I will also add that if you keep tempting dragons with that sort of power but never produce a Wizard, then they’re going to get really, really mad. Dragon fight, sort of mad.’

‘I’m not going to be pursuing that sort of power anytime soon, but it would be nice to know more about Wizards.’ For a long, surreal moment, Erick debated with himself if he wanted to actually broach the entirety of this sensitive topic with Poi. He never wanted to, before, because speaking of it with someone else would make it real, and Erick didn’t want this reality to be that sort of real. And yet… Erick asked, ‘Do you know anything about them? Anything I haven’t heard, anyway.’

Without any emotional weight either for or against Wizardry, or any indication of anything, Poi sent, ‘I have no idea how Wizardry works and I hope to never learn. It would probably be best if we never encountered one.’

Against his better judgment, Erick asked, ‘How can you tell if a person is a Wizard?’ and then, ‘How would a Wizard know if they were a Wizard?’

‘… I don’t know, Erick. A dragon would be able to find out if the Wizard wasn’t careful, though.’

Finally, Erick asked the question he had dreaded, ‘What would you do if I—’

‘I once said that Wizards could become beacons of civilization. This is still true. But it would be better for all involved if we did not have this conversation, and if we pretended that you never brought up the subject so directly.’

Erick paused.

Then he gave a half nod; lowering his head and barely raising it.

Poi pretended like nothing had happened.

And like that, the moment was over; left behind and best forgotten.

Erick went into the yurt behind Poi. Teressa, Nirzir, and Jane were already packed, with almost all of Nirzir’s stuff gone back to Eralis, save for a single backpack. Jane and Teressa had culled a lot of their belongings in the recent hours, too. It seemed all Teressa had was a single backpack, which was lightly filled with some clothes and a few books. Most of her books were gone, though.

Erick struggled for a moment to pretend like everything was fine, but he latched on to what he saw before him, asking, “Did you give your books to the kids, Teressa?”

“I sure did.” Teressa leaned back in her chair. “Are we ready to move on?”

“Almost. Looks like Poi never got much on this trip.”

“Nope.” Poi said, “A few reading books is all, and they’re staying with me.”

“Jane? Your stuff is…?”

“Hidden away, in my own spots.” Jane said, “I prefer it that way.”

“And Nirzir, you took your stuff back to your home?”

Nirzir quietly nodded, but she seemed like a damn ready to burst. If she said a single word, a lot would come tumbling out, for sure… But she held herself back, not wanting to get her emotions all over everyone. Erick gave her another moment, to see if she was going to speak, but she did not.

Maybe she’d say something later. Whatever it was couldn’t be that bad if she wasn’t willing to speak on it.

“Well okay.” Erick’s own stuff was packed up by Ophiels while he was doing other things. He had gotten a lot of necessary stuff on this trip, as had everyone else, but it seemed that they all got rid of their excess before he did. “I still have a lot of books of my own…” He glanced to Yggdrasil’s eye on his shoulder. “You want to hold onto some books for me?”

Yggdrasil spun at recognition, and then he bounced twice.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Erick had an Ophiel wrap his book bags with light and step them to Yggdrasil. He spared a glance through Ophiel at the hand off, setting the book bag near the upper crook in Yggdrasil’s branches, sending to him, ‘Thank you, Yggdrasil.’

‘You’re welcome, father!’

Erick smiled and came back to himself. “Okay then!” He clapped his hands together, asking, “And now that I think of it, I’m going to give the yurt to Yggdrasil, too. The bookbag can actually go inside and he can rest the yurt on his branches and—”

Nirzir stepped forward, opening her mouth—

And then she shut it.

But now, everyone was looking at her.

Now that Erick truly noticed her, Nirzir had been skittish this morning, and Erick hadn’t seen her practicing magic like she usually did. Something was up. Hopefully she wasn’t mad at him for his night out with Linxel, because that would be truly awkward.

Ah. Shit. That’s exactly what this was, wasn’t it.

Nirzir blurted out, “You should find that dragon and kill him! And why did you give away all that magic technology to these people? They won’t know what to do with any of that. You could have given it to Eralis. And why… And why did you go out with that man!”

Jane covered her face with her hand fast enough that she made an audible slap. Teressa tried to stop herself from sighing, and she mostly succeeded, but air still escaped her lips in a rather faster manner than usual. Poi frowned.

Erick casually grabbed a chair and sat down. This was not a conversation that he could shove off, so he told Nirzir, “Please sit with me, and we can talk about your concerns.”

Jane hopped up from her chair and walked out of the yurt, saying, “I’ll be back! I realized I wanted some cheese for the road.”

Teressa rapidly followed Jane, “Me too.”

Poi, however, grabbed a chair and set it in front of Erick, near to Nirzir, then he stepped to the side. He waited.

Nirzir looked ashamed, but she transformed that shame into a coat of armor as she stepped to the provided chair and sat down. After a moment, she answered, “I apologize for even mentioning the… relations. I don’t need to know about that. But I would like to know about the dragon and the metals and… Stuff. Those events have actual strategic importance.” Nirzir almost said something else, but she stopped herself.

Erick gave a small smile. “I accept your apology.” Then he answered her questions, “I didn’t fight the dragon because they’re keeping a low profile, so, despite all my capability to find people, I have no idea where they actually are. I admit, that I have not truly tried, though, and that is because even if I did manage to find them and engage them in combat, I would likely, and rather suddenly, have two or even three dragons to fight, for I doubt the other lurking dragons around here would be able to stop themselves from fighting. They are Cursed to kill each other, after all. In that case, I doubt I could actually win.” Erick added, “But even if I should win, then my previous stance of never getting involved with dragons would be threatened, and I would be making enemies the world over. You might not know this yet, but I have just now spoken directly with the dragon in question, and he is very much the type that would ruin my life without ever making himself present.”

Nirzir’s eyes went wide.

“I’ll be going over what we discussed after this talk we’re having right now.” Erick said, “As for the technology, and metals, and all of that, I gave all that information away in the middle of a crowded field, and people have been spying on me ever since I showed myself in Songli. So, in this way, I did give out this technology to the people of Songli, for I know people from there are spying on me even now. But in a more direct manner, I did give out those books on electromagnetism to people in Songli, some of which will remain nameless.”

Nirzir emotional armor instantly crumbled. Shame won out over all bravado.

Erick said, “As for Linxel: He—”

Nirzir rapidly said, “You don’t have to tell me; I should never have asked. I am sorry. I should have trusted you to spread your knowledge to all corners, too. It was… I was being selfish… exactly how I hate when other people are selfish.” She whispered, “I did not know this part of me, but… I suppose… of course I am.”

“That is a masterful attempt at shoving the conversation to a new topic, but I’m bringing it back to your original grievance of me having relations with Linxel. I know why you decided to follow me, and now is as good a time to speak on that as any.”

Nirzir’s pale skin paled even further. Her eyes went wide and pure dread filled her heart. Perspiration broke out across her forehead as she looked away, whispering, “Oh, merciful gods.”

“There’s no reason to be embarrassed. You have a crush on me, and that’s understandable, but it will not be reciprocated.” Erick said, “You and I will never have a physical relationship like that. Ever.”

Nirzir didn’t breathe. She didn’t move.

Erick said, “There need not be awkwardness between us, either. I know some people at your age get married to widowers my age, but I will not be doing that. This is nothing against you. This is my personal decision.”

Nirzir whispered toward the floor, “I think I should depart back to Songli.”

Erick smiled softly, and said, “You may do whatever you wish, though you are still welcome to journey with us across Nelboor. I have appreciated your presence, and your skill. It has been nice to know someone who does magic like I do magic, and I can tell that you have enjoyed that, too. Unless I’m wrong?”

“You’re not wrong.” Nirzir said, “But.” She frowned a little. Tears collected in the corners of her eyes. She tried to wipe the tears away, but she only succeeded in breaking the dam holding back even more. She didn’t sob, but the waterworks opened, full blast. “I thought… I have uncles that are fifty years older than…” She sighed, and more tears fell. “Auntie Lingxing said this would happen. I didn’t believe her. But…” All the air seemed to leave Nirzir. She sobbed, once, and then she breathed again, and sobbed again; quietly, and to herself.

Erick’s heart went out to the girl. She was technically of marrying age, and she had a lot of female cousins who married older, richer, more powerful men. She had male cousins that wed older women, too. But that wasn’t going to happen here. The idea of wedding someone under the age of thirty aside, Erick wasn’t ready for a relationship. The thing with Linxel had been a matter of a lot of pent up emotions bursting a physical barrier the second he had found a willing partner that wasn’t in it for some money, or power.

A lot of people around Erick had given him looks and sent him signals that were impossible to misinterpret. If he wanted, he could have bedded any number of about a hundred separate people in his last month in Songli, and now the grasslands. But the only one who actually seemed both willing and not a gold digger, had been Linxel. Linxel had even said beforehand that he wanted to court Erick, officially. That had been a massive swing in the man’s favor, and was probably the only thing that truly allowed Erick to fully (mostly) lower his guard.

But everyone else? Erick’s guard was up, 100%.

And beyond those hundred people who Erick could have bedded, there were even more. People like Nirzir, who was too young, and who idolized Erick. Going down that route would have been a very bad idea.

… Bedding Linxel might have been a bad idea, too, but Erick had done it, and it was over, even though a part of him wished it wasn’t over at all. Erick felt a bit lonely, honestly. He had been lonely for years, actually. A few dates here and there were not good enough.

Best not to think too much about all of that, though, or else he would start crying. He was already having a hard time of it, watching Nirzir.

Erick said, “I’m sorry, Nirzir. You have been a joy to be around, and I wish you to stay with us for a while longer, but not if you’re uncomfortable, or if you are too hurt by this news.”

“… Do you mean that? Do you actually want me to stay?” Nirzir’s voice held poorly-disguised and sudden hatred, but also a lot of hope.

“I want you to stay. I also want you to be comfortable here.”

Nirzir’s face relaxed. She sighed. She looked away, then she looked at Erick, and asked, “Just tell me… Did I ever have a chance?”

“No. You’re about 15 years too young for me, but don’t take that as a time table.” Erick said, “It’s a matter of life experiences, and we’re not on the same level. When you’ve had your heart broken a dozen times, and you’ve had a failed relatio—” Erick thought for a second in an attempt to not put his foot in his mouth. “I believe your people marry for life, and at a young age, don’t you?”

“We try to, but there is a period of courtship. I haven’t ever dated anyone but I could have. I could have broken my heart already. I haven’t…” Nirzir’s voice trailed off. Then she said, “We’re not as stodgy as the more cosmopolitan cultures out there would have you believe. We’re certainly not as free with love as adventurers, though.” Nirzir looked to Erick with a glimmer of hope in her eyes, “I was prepared for that.”

“I’m going to do what I want to do with regard to any possible future relationships, and you’re going to do what you want with any people you meet, but we won’t be doing anything together. Though if you wish for someone to vet whoever you do find, you have my promise that I will do that for you.” Erick said, “If you need me to scare away an unwanted suitor, I’ll do that, too.”

“Ha.” Nirzir breathed deep. She dried her tears with a wave of magic, and said, “I apologize for my childish behavior and would prefer to forget it ever happened. I would also remain in the party, if you truly do still want me around.”

“I do.”

Nirzir smiled, tiny and sad, then she banished that emotion. She asked, “Where are we headed next?”

Erick moved right along, saying, “Everyone thinks we’re going to the Adamantine Smiths, so we probably should go there for a bit. I need to learn about magical metals, and it’s either them, or the wrought, and there’s not many wrought on the surface. Also, I promised Jane a sword, Poi some armor, and Teressa a decent side-weapon. I have no idea what I would want from them, though; maybe a wand? And whatever you want, too, of course.”

“A ritual dagger would be nice. For carving formations.” Nirzir said, “They get better with time and having an adamantine one would be perfect.”

Erick smiled gently, saying, “Then maybe I need to get myself a dagger, too, though I am terrible at enchanting.” He stood, saying, “I’m glad you’re staying, Nirzir.”

Nirzir tried to say something but her voice failed, and her words came out as a whisperer, “I want to stay, too.”

Poi said nothing, as he watched from the side.

- - - -

The five of them stood outside, on the ground. Dense air protected them from all outsiders, while an [Undertow Star] shone high above, granting even more protection under its light. The yurt where they lived for a week had served them well, with its bright white exterior and its sculpture of Yggdrasil on the front door. It had been nice.

A pair of Ophiel wrapped the vehicle in light and stepped it away, taking the mobile home down south, to rest upon a flat space atop the branches of Yggdrasil. Erick’s stuff he had already handed off to Yggdrasil went into the yurt, to stay. Erick watched as the structure touched down on glowing white bark, and that bark parted, just a bit, creating divots to hold the wheels in place.

Erick returned to himself and looked up. At a switch of intent, the [Undertow Star] broke like a small supernova that became a small nebula, which then vanished altogether. Erick took down the seven-layered [Prismatic Ward] next.

The unfiltered wind flowed from the north, as it had for every single previous day, though this time that wind was accompanied by the sounds of petitioners that had shown up after Erick cleared them all. The people over there right now saw what Erick was doing and they were worried that they wouldn’t get their chance at using the friendly archmage for their own gain.

None of their needs were that pressing; Erick had already checked.

So he ignored the petitioners and gave one final wave to the people of Clan Pale Cow. A hundred meters away, Amasar watched, and bowed; his duty to pay back the life he owed Erick discharged. Koori and Niyazo looked on, impassive and thankful, and then they too, took a small bow. Yorila, their Speaker, and the boy who wanted to know how to make a [Fireball] to defend his people, and the caretakers at the hawkery, and the kids that Erick had given lightwards to, all bowed.

Erick waved goodbye as he curled light around his five people.

And then he moved on.

Seconds later, the mailbox of applications at the petitioner’s platform also vanished. It was replaced with a stone sign that read, ‘estimated time of return: maybe never’.

- - - -

The Northern Tribulations were a land of ice and snow, with mountain peaks that rose to within ten kilometers of the Edge of the Script, and valleys that were so deep that the larger rocks floated among the ever present shadows. With a height and depth of well over a hundred and fifty vertical kilometers in some places, it was easy to get lost in this land. Civilization was barely present, and the lights in some of the deeper shadows were not from people, braving the depths, but from monsters pretending to be people, to lure in other beasts both for food and for the pleasure of a kill.

It was easy to tell where the people actually were, though. They were in the only valley that was filled with light, like someone had taken a sliver of the sun and shoved it into the grey depths, and then deeper, cracking open the world below. Light poured out from that crack in the ground.

But from inside that light-filled space, the crack in the ground was more of a twilight rent in the sky.

For down here, in this bright space, even the mountains floated.

Upon floating kilometers-wide platforms of stone and black metal, rested the city of Enduring Forge; the home of the Adamantine Smiths. Civilization thrived upon those stabilized platforms, that themselves floated above monster-filled lands, choked in shadows and riddled with tunnels and unknown depths.

The majority of the tenants of this place lived upon the second-to-lowest platform; the largest platform. It was three kilometers wide and mostly circular and chock full of buildings of all kinds.

A middling-sized platform floated below that one; it was the brightest land, and the lowest land, where the main defenses of the city actively pushed back the dark that lurked even further below. The soldiers emplaced there worked in tandem with miners based out of that same platform, where the two forces together pulled metals out from the Underworld.

Above that protected space, above the main land, existed three smaller lands, chained in place above the rest. The Smithery was one of three smaller platforms. It shared ‘airspace’ with the noble district, and with city hall, both of which had their own floating platforms.

All together, Enduring Forge was a city of a good hundred and thirty thousand people, and though they had experienced hardships like everyone on Veird, the Adamantine Smiths protected this land from all forces, including the occasional thieving archmage, and dragon fight, and Underworld monster surge. Their powers could not be discounted, for they had a way with metal unlike any other people on Veird, save for possibly the wrought.

Their power was on clear display, too, for the entire city stayed in place in the center of that cavern due to dozens of massive chains of sparkling black metal, extending out from the edges of each platform to anchor each landmass into the cavern walls and to each other. Even more dark metal held the cavern itself stable, ensuring that the walls remained where they were. Each chain link was as big as a small house, at least ten meters from one side of the oval to the other, and they had to be adamantium. No other metal was that dark and that strong.

Erick was almost 100% positive that someone used [Duplicate] at the city’s founding for them to have that much adamantium.

He and his people were a good three mountains away from the actual city, having arrived in an [Obscuring Redoubt] that Erick had prepared ahead of time. They were deep under the snow and frozen stone, while all around them hung Screens, showing their destination from several different angles. [Heating Ward]s kept the place warm, but there was no furniture. From what Erick had already seen, they probably wouldn’t be staying here for long. They’d probably just go to the city, itself.

Erick said, “So as you can see, that’s Enduring Forge, the home of the Adamantine Smiths.”

Jane rubbed her arms together, looking around. She went to study the Viewing Screens. Teressa breathed out a huff of fog as her eyes glazed over as she looked to the future. Erick recast the [Heating Ward], banishing the cold. Nirzir took a moment to eye the Screens, to study them alongside Jane. Tendrils of thought peeled away from Poi as he reconnected to the collective, or collected thoughts; Erick wasn’t quite sure.

Erick continued, “I doubt we’ll be staying in this specific location long. But it’ll be long enough for a discussion of everything that had just happened with Ordoonarati, now that we’re probably outside of the dragon’s range.”

Jane whipped around to face her father. “You met him when I wasn’t looking? Is that why you told us to go on alert?”

Teressa came back, saying, “Seems like we’re in a safe spot— Oh. You met the dragon?”

Nirzir waited with bated breath.

“I did.” Erick said, “Through an intermediary, anyway. Apparently…”

Erick conjured some chairs as he spoke, telling everyone most of what went down with Ordoonarati. He didn’t speak much of Wizardry, though, except to say that he had set that lure of ‘possibly finding some future Wizard for trade’, and Ordoonarati had gone for it pretty hard.

When he was done, Teressa scowled, saying, “I don’t like this Wizardry business.”

“But Goldie said that dragons only truly care about Wizards, and this explains that rather well.” Jane said, “I don’t believe Ordoonarati was a hundred percent truthful, but a lot of stuff you said lines up with other stuff. It explains Wyrm Season better than how the Dragon Stalkers explain Wyrm Season. I’d like to know why they can’t just birth the dragons in the Vision, though.”

Erick guessed, “Maybe that would disrupt the place.”

“Likely,” Nirzir said.

As Jane said, “Seems like; yeah.”

Teressa looked to Poi, saying, “Last I heard, Treehome was prepared for Wyrm Season. They’re still prepared, right?”

Poi said, “There’s another two months before Wyrm Season truly begins. I’m sure Erick could return and annihilate them all if we need to.”

“I agree, but that gives us an end-date for this vacation of mine.” Erick said, “Or at least another stopover. Which means I want to be done with the Adamantine Smiths rather fast. I’ve noticed posters in the city which say the tournament that Nirzir spoke of is fifteen days away, so I won’t be staying for that, but if you want to, Jane, you can.”

Jane waved him off. “I don’t really care about that.”

“You might care about it when you see the prizes.” Erick shrugged. “Or maybe they can make some custom stuff for us, which brings me to the next news: they’re ready for me. There are people at the Teleport Square checking out all [Familiar]s.”

Ophiel cooed.

Erick added, “They’re doing more than the usual Underworld city protocols, too. Truthstones in abundance and Sin Seekers at every official entrance and exit of the city, but also people in high-ranking military garb, each of which carries papers with Ophiel’s image on them.”

Ophiel cooed again, this time a bit sad.

Erick patted him.

Teressa frowned. “Danger?”

“Don’t think so.” Erick said, “More like a welcoming committee of the ‘actually welcoming’ kind, if what I’m seeing is what is actually happening.”

Teressa smirked. “Would be nice.”

Nirzir said, “The Adamantine Smiths are usually very welcoming for an Underworld city, but they are an Underworld city, with all that entails. We could try to sneak in but there’s a high chance they would find us, and they won’t appreciate the attempt at subterfuge.”

“I agree.” Erick said, “I had planned on going incognito, but that seems impossible.”

Jane studied the Screens hanging up around the room, as she said, “They are rather militaristic, aren’t they. I see people in armor everywhere.”

“That’s pretty normal for Underworld cities. Some of them survive through military prowess. Others through prognostication. Some through Beastmasters. Anti-magic runes. Looks like Enduring Forge does a lot of runework in addition to everything else.” Teressa looked to Nirzir, and then to Poi, asking, “That’s what Adamantine Smiths do, right? I think it’s runes?”

Nirzir said, “I think there’s a split in their clan. But every Adamantine Smith learns to do runework, too, or else they aren’t certified by their people. Or something like that.”

“That coincides with what I see,” Erick said.

Poi looked to an empty spot of the room, his thought tendrils multiplying from ten to twenty four, as he said, “They know we’re somewhere nearby, but not exactly where. They’re sending out a politely worded request for an audience. We can come into the city in the normal way at the main platform, or we can [Teleport] in at city hall.”

Teressa looked away, her eyes glazing over again with grey light.

Erick frowned. “Did they see Ophiel?”

Poi said, “I believe they have prognostication capabilities, too. Or perhaps the runework on the buildings allows them an easier time seeing various types of spells.” He added, “I don’t know, and I can still speculate while I don’t know, so there’s my speculation.”

Erick nodded. “I bet it’s the runework.”

Nirzir nodded.

Jane studied one of the Viewing Screens closely, saying, “There is… quite a lot of runework on those black buildings, isn’t there?”

Teressa came back, saying, “My [Future Sight] hasn’t revealed anything too dangerous. No big events, anyway. I say we go?”

“Right! Well then.” Erick said, “We’re going to city hall. Let them know, Poi.”

- - - -

Light unfurled as Erick stepped down onto a large square of white stone. His people appeared behind him.

The black city hall of Enduring Forge rose before them, seeming, in that moment, like something out of a fevered dream shared by an art deco enthusiast and a military commander. It was thick and imposing, with a great many wide and flat surfaces, but also a ton of geometric carvings at the base of the buildings, and at the top of every wall and tower, and absolutely covering the domes. The building had to be adamantium, like the chains that connected the city to the walls of the surrounding cavern.

Though Erick couldn’t see them from here, there were two more adamantium buildings similar to the city hall, down below. The building on the main platform was ten times the size of this one, and it was visible from almost anywhere in the main city. From Erick’s reconnaissance, he suspected that the monolithic structure was an evacuation point, for though it had room for a hundred thousand people, it was kept empty and well patrolled.

Further down than that, upon the lowest platform of the city, was the main military compound. That building actually punched through the entirety of that platform, forming identical castles on both the top and the underside. On the bottom side, there were quite a few defensible locations which allowed the army to shoot spells at the cavern floor with impunity.

All the other buildings were normal enough affairs of wood and stone, though the great majority of them were built tougher than most any random building you would find on the surface of Veird. A great many of them even had metal walls, or at least metal skeletons. But it was only these three massive buildings that actually looked like they belonged in this brightly lit, dark place, under the surface of the world.

Quite a bit of magic had been imbued into those buildings, all around, anchored to runic inscriptions running along the base of every single structure. None of that spellwork looked too worrisome, for it was almost all defensive. In Ancient Script, all of the stuff Erick read said ‘[Ward] [Mend] Light no-Shadow’; this repeated all around the base of every solid structure.

The protective measures that the Adamantine Smiths had were quite extensive, but Erick suspected that this spellwork was only a quarter of the true powers hidden in this bright, dark city. He was mostly surprised that the runic inscriptions worked so well, for that stuff usually decayed after a while. The people here either kept renewing the spellwork as needed, or they had some other ways to ensure that the spells stayed active.

Whatever the case, the people here were very skilled against fighting the monsters and dangers of the deeper Underworld.

Three of those people stood before Erick right now, alongside several of their guards, though the guards were positioned far back from the Teleport Square, emplaced more as a show of respect and strength, than as an actual danger. No one had crowded Erick as he had brought himself and his people to this Teleport Square, and that boded well for future relations.

The main person to greet Erick was a tall, yet stern, beautiful human woman with brown skin and a shaved head, who wore a warrior’s cut robe, with pants. Her eyes were dark as midnight; the same color as the adamantium all around. To her left, stood a man in his 60s who was probably the woman’s father, or uncle. To her right, stood an ancient woman, shrunken with age, but with a fierce expression upon her face.

Erick had only been present for the last four seconds, but with [Hunter’s Instincts] active, those four seconds were more than enough to see that he wasn’t in any danger, at all.

At once, the guards behind the welcoming committee bowed. On the parapets, more warriors bowed. On the street where the public stood, many people tried to see what was happening, trying to look beyond the walls of guards lined up across the road. It took them a while to understand, but once they did, they went silent, then they bowed, too. And then the three people in charge bowed, though the older woman only nodded her head. About twenty seconds had passed at that point.

Erick was now wholly sure that nothing immediately bad was going to happen.

The lead woman rose, and the rest of her people followed her lead.

The woman said, “Welcome to Enduring Forge, Archmage Erick Flatt. I am Arakag Adama. With me are General Barir Adama, and the Old Smith, Grosgrena. We had heard you were coming, and we are thankful for the opportunity to host your self, and your people. In return, we have a few requests.” She reached into a fold of her robes and pulled out one of Erick’s applications. “Would you join us for tea in our city hall to discuss this further?”

Erick smiled slightly. “I would be honored.”

Arakag nodded.

Everyone bowed, again.

- - - -

While the outside of city hall was all dark metal, the inside was too, but all of that was covered up with a layer of off-white marble that was flecked with gold and mica and other shiny impurities. If it weren’t for the sound-dampening spells that hid in the upper corners of hallways, this place would be rather loud. It wasn’t as quiet as a crypt, but it was rather subdued. The place smelled of freshly [Cleanse]d air, while it was rather dry, and cool.

Soon enough, they reached their destination.

In an opulent, bright room at the top of city hall, under one of the larger domes, Erick sat down upon a plush cream-colored chair, across from Arakag, Barir, and Grosgrena. There were no guards in the room, though there were servants in dark livery. One of those servants set down teas and tiny cakes upon a short, round tea table between the small gathering. Then the servant went to serve Erick’s people, who hung out at the back of the room at their own table.

The general, Barir, got up and served tea. He did it a bit differently than they did in Songli, though, for first he asked Erick if he wished to cast a [Cleanse], or if he would prefer it if Barir cast the spell. Erick let the man cast the spell himself, since it seemed the proper thing to do. Apparently, it was, for Barir seemed to relax a bit at that. The [Cleanse] failed to produce any thick air.

Erick normally didn’t like to notice it, or even remark upon it, but when he was around civilians, and when those people knew who he was, everyone got really, really nervous. Heart rates soared. Sweat dripped. Mouths went dry. Two of the three people before him were both nervous and strong willed, with almost every servant and otherwise being both terrified and calm. Grosgrena, the old woman, was the only exception right now; she seemed like she had seen it all, and lived through it all, which was probably more true for her than for most other people in the room.

Barir sipped the tea followed by everyone else. He took a cookie, and had a small, polite bite, followed by everyone else doing the same for their own small cookie. It tasted better than fine, and Erick decided to say so.

“Lovely cookie. And tea. The honey is rather nice.”

Everyone flinched, but rapidly relaxed.

And then Arakag, Barir, and Grosgrena each set down their tea and their cookies. Erick reluctantly did the same; he actually wanted to finish the cookie, now that the taste was in his mouth. Grosgrena eyed him a bit hard, but she was not the one to speak first.

Arakag said, “I will be blunt, and ask you your goals in coming here.”

Erick answered without reservation, “I have come here with several goals in mind. The commissioning of a weapon or four for my people, with one for me. A suit of armor for my guard who likes to wear metal armor, to replace the one he is currently wearing. And to know of metals, as you know them, but for my own two uses. First: I’m trying to make some precision gears that need to hold up to a lot of long-term variable stress, but my own attempts fall short of the goal. Second: I’m also interested in the use of magical metals for large-scale enchanting. I expect I’ll need to go to the Headmaster to see about getting some [Duplicate]d metals to actually fulfill my needs, but I would like training in using those metals, first. I have come here for this because I have heard you are the best.”

Arakag sat a bit straighter, while the beating of her heart relaxed.

Barir gave a small sigh of relief, as his heart beat hard, and then soft, and then went all the way down to what was likely baseline.

Grosgrena had no change at all. If anything, she might be eyeing Erick a bit more, but that might be his imagination.

Grosgrena was the first to speak, her voice a raspy, eager thing, “I’ll teach, and we’ll go a lot further than precision engineering, but I won’t have you calling yourself an Adamantine Master Smith unless you trained and worked at this shit for twenty-five years, at least.” She relaxed a little, saying, “But you’ll be able to get the basics in under a week if you work hard and—”

Barir spoke to his people, “We discussed this. We can’t have—” He was briefly conflicted, and then he just said what he wanted to say, “We cannot take up that much of the archmage’s time.”

“It’s a single week! I’m gonna take it.” Grosgrena scowled at the man, then said to Erick, “As I was saying: I can teach you personally, but I got other Master Smiths who’d be eager to teach you, too. You might be able to stay awake for a week straight, hunting down the evils of this world, but some of us are old. I will warn you now not to expect to use the weapons and armor you make yourself, for even if you are the Savior of Light, from what I saw down in Ooloraptoor you don’t know shit about metal.” She relaxed a little, saying, “In exchange for this, you’ll pull apart metals for me like I saw you pull apart metal outside of Ooloraptoor. I got a whole junk drawer full of interesting samples and I want to know what they are, exactly.”

“Deal.” Erick asked, “But can you actually teach large scale metal enchanting? I see the adamantine out there, but I know your city is old, so I want to be upfront about these capabilities.”

Grosgrena nodded, and said, “Steel can take enchanting just as well as anything else, and that’s what I’ll use to help you learn large-scale enchanting, but the problem with steel is long term stability. That’s where magical metals shine, for they don’t rust. That’s the only real reason why you see all this gold and deep sky silver and other nonsense in wands and shit. But adamantium don’t rust either, and it’s a shit of a lot better than any of that other junk.” She added, “Though we can’t sell you that much adamantium for we only produce so much of it per year. If you want adamantium in the amounts you see in the chains and black buildings around here, you’re gonna need to go to the Headmaster for [Duplicate] services like our ancestors did; get yourself a bargain of trade.”

Erick nodded. “Understandable. What else do you need?” He looked to Arakag and Barir.

Arakag said nothing—

Barir said, “I would have you spread your [Withering]s throughout the entire city and the tunnels beyond. I want every monster in a hundred kilometers dead, and I want you to move around some beneficial monsters so that they can take over the dead monsters’ habitats, before something unwanted does.”

“Easy enough,” Erick said. “And about my desired weapons and armor?”

Barir and Grosgrena looked to Arakag, and then Erick did, too.

Arakag spoke, “As for your made-to-order weapons and armor, we will create the items for free, but you will pay for the material and the time of our Smiths.”

“Also agreeable.” Erick asked, “Is that all? I expected to be asked to counter-Hunt as well.” He added, “I offer this service with no expectation of reward or payment. A bonus, if you want it.”

Barir and Grosgrena kept their eyes on Erick, but their attention shifted toward Arakag.

Arakag announced, “It is the decision of Enduring Forge’s Council of Smiths that your [Cascade Imaging] may not be used by any member of our Council, our Guard, or our people. If you have a need to use your magics for yourself, then we wish you well in finding whatever you wish to find, but we ask you not to allow your magics to be used by anyone from Enduring Forge or nearby lands who may approach you after this meeting. If anyone does approach you asking for this boon, feel free to make your own decisions regarding if you will assist them or not, but know that our Council has officially decided that none of them will have access to your power.”

“… Something of an odd decision, that.” Erick asked, “Why?”

Arakag nodded once, in recognition of the question, then said, “Because we do not wish you to be involved in our criminal justice system. Our Guard is among the best in the world, for we’re always catching people trying to steal our secrets, or our items. We do not need, nor want, your help in matters of security.” She added, “In addition, we have no targets for you to search for, anyway. We have found everyone we have ever wished to find. People do not assault Enduring Forge and live, archmage.”

“… Okay.” Erick said, “Then I will not offer this service and will instead ask you how you managed to accomplish such a feat! That’s pretty amazing. I see the spellwork all around here and I like it a lot. The logistics of such a thing must be a headache and a half.”

Grosgrena smirked a little. Barir was trying to figure Erick out; was this some sort of probe of Enduring Forge’s defenses? Arakag sat briefly stunned, then relaxed in recognition of Erick’s genuine curiosity.

“Thank you for your understanding, but we do not discuss our defenses with outsiders. I hope you understand.”

“I do.” Erick added, “I suppose it was rude of me to ask after those details.”

Barir pulled back his concern from high to medium.

Arakag nodded, then said, “We have rooms prepared for you, if you wish to room here, in the city.”

Erick said, “Sure. Let’s go.”

“And then you’re mine, first,” Grosgrena said, smiling. “I won the coin toss.”

Barir’s frown deepened.

“Sounds fine to me.” Erick said, “But before we move on. Barir. You said you wanted [Withering]s upon the city. You’re aware that it will kill anyone with intestinal cores, correct? I would need assurances that you’ve already done everything you can to ensure that no one has intestinal cores before I would agree to do this [Withering].”

Barir said, “I am aware. This would have been one of the things we would have discussed later, but know that now that you’re here, and you’ve agreed to this, we’re going to put signs up about [Withering]. We’ll inform our people of the need to visit the Medical Halls, and we’ll have Healers go out and talk to every one of our citizens. We won’t proceed with [Withering]s for at least five more days, and only after our Guard informs us that every necessary precaution has been taken to ensure the citizenry is safe.”

Erick gave a small smile at that. These people were stiff and scared, but they were good people. They looked out for their people, and they did it well. Erick said, “Glad to hear that.”

- - - -

The room was located at the top of an adamantine tower named the Watchman’s Roost, located on the north side of city hall and attached to the building. There were no public spaces anywhere near this location, but the Roost did have one of the few entrances and exits to city hall. That entrance was on the roof, and it would be for Erick’s sole use while he was in the city, so he was free to defend his location as he wished.

Arakag asked that he not use [Undertow Star], though, for it might harm the spellwork on city hall. Erick agreed. After a smaller discussion with Arakag and Grosgrena about the logistics of moving in the city, and about some places that Erick might want to visit, they left Erick and his people to their temporary residence.

It was a luxury appointment, with plush beds and furniture, all off-white, which complimented the floors, walls, and ceilings. There was quite a bit of decorative goldwork all over the place, though it was kept to thin, decorative accents. This suite was very much reserved for only the most powerful or influential of guests. But, in contrast to how it was in Songli, this place had a well-appointed kitchen filled with fresh foods and all the goods that Erick would need in order to make more food.

Erick smiled as he saw that, and as he checked the recent past through his mana sense. He said, “Looks like they filled this place in a rush as soon as we appeared in the city.”

“Oh yeah.” Teressa agreed, adding, “They’ve got some good prognosticators.”

Erick asked, “So anyone want to go on a tour of the city? Or do you want to settle in for a little while? I’m partial to accepting a tour guide from the visitor’s center down in city hall and seeing the city.”

Jane said, “I’d like to visit the Weapon Smiths and the Beastmasters. Get a feel for the weapon I want and for the monsters of the Underworld.” She added, “And I gotta say, this place is much more accommodating than the grass travelers. A lot nicer upfront and— Oh?” She spotted a rack of brochures on the kitchen table and went right to them. “Visitor pamphlets! Ha.”

Nirzir said, “I thought Clan Pale Cow turned out rather nice. Waveni taught me a lot about cooking for a lot of people.”

“Well yeah.” Jane said, “They were nice. Just not upfront. They were more honest, too. These people are clearly hiding something.”

“Ohhh. So negative!” Erick said, “Everyone hides something, but that doesn’t mean these people are murdering babies in arcane rituals, or whatever.”

Jane shrugged.

“This place is a bit touristy, so they’re nicer on the outside than most.” Teressa said, “They get clients from all across the world and the Underworld, so they kinda have to be. But I got a weird feeling and I can’t quite place it.”

Poi said, “It’s probably the Underworld itself. I feel odd, too. Like something is watching us.”

“We are being watched.” Erick said, “Even if not directly, then I’m sure we’re being watched through our timelines.”

“Maybe.” Teressa said, “I still feel funny. So are you gonna put up the [Prismatic Ward]s and the [Undertow Star]? You know you can do what you want, right. They asked for no [Undertow Star] but you could still do it.”

Erick smiled and began having Ophiel layer dense airs inside their new, temporary residence. “No [Undertow Star].”

“Probably for the best,” Poi said.

“So how about we make our first outing Lunch?” Erick said, “I could eat!”

“I could very much eat,” Teressa said, patting her flat stomach.

Jane held out a pamphlet, smiling as she said, “Let’s go here.”

The pamphlet read, ‘Hothalls Chamber of Spice, a dining experience for the strong of heart, stomach, and tongue!’

“Uh...” Erick decided to go for it, saying, “Sure.”