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The sun cast light into Erick’s room at a slight angle. It was almost noon. Tomorrow, Redflame would attempt to make [Renew]; spending a million or more mana in order to create something that Rozeta had already explicitly said that she was never going to allow to be Remade. Erick wasn’t sure if such a restriction worked here in Ar’Cosmos, but he bet it would. Fairy Moon had even confirmed over breakfast that Rozeta’s restriction would likely hold.

There was a still small chance that Redflame could actually succeed, but that chance was measured in the single digit percentage points.

And so, in order for peace to have a chance, Erick had decided that Ar’Cosmos could not be made overly vulnerable due to the loss of Redflame’s minor mana fortune. Ar’Cosmos was actually the weakest ‘most powerful force’ on Veird at the moment, if only because of their lack of land, and now that the Shades were gone and the stability of Glaquin shattered, the dragons might be next on the chopping block.

But the dragons represented a possibility to Erick. A possibility for him to attain stability and power and protection. He knew that, under the current situation, that he would not get anything like that from Kirginatharp, or from the Wrought, because as soon as they found out he was a Wizard then they would have to try to capture or kill him. Erick’s only other options besides Ar’Cosmos were the remnant Shades, and Melemizargo, and that seemed like the absolute last resort.

And so, Erick went back to the accretion books from Illustrious and the enchanting books from Inferno Maw. He needed to change the game. He needed to add a new variable. And he already had a good idea. He could try to use Redflame’s [Renew]-based theory on curing the Dragon Curse, and make that cure himself.

… And he had.

It was, for sure, not the solution that the powers of Ar’Cosmos had wanted. But the people trapped here with half-mutated Curses and half-dragon bodies might appreciate what Erick had done.

If this actually worked.

The idea had come to him in a flash of insight when reading about how one could create a second core, thus advancing to Third Foundation, and thus increasing one’s mana-per-second cap to 1000, and also how one could abandon one’s core entirely, without dying due to catastrophic loss of soul and Dragon Essence. A catastrophic shift of Dragon Essence, either with gaining a new core or trying to abandon their old, usually killed most half-dragons that tried for it. This is where wyrms came from.

The soul both created and was created by one’s core, after all. That’s just how it worked. To break the core was to severely harm the person and usually kill them, but dragons had been creating and discarding cores for forever. They knew how to discard a core. Gaining a second core or abandoning an old one were both integral parts of attempting to accrete one’s way out of half-dragon status.

Gaining a new core or discarding an old core did not fix the muddled Dragon Essence problem which caused half dragons to exist, though. Now that was a complicated problem. But attaining such a transformation of one’s soul boded well for future attempts at fully embracing Elemental Fae, Death, or Carnage.

Actually removing all the Dragon Essence one had was a theorized way to ‘step around’ all these problems. But there again was another problem. For minor cases of Dragon Essence poisoning, one could recover from the removal of such Dragon Essence. Jane had experienced this, herself. She only consumed a small bit of Dragon Essence, though, and the removal of that had put her in a hospital at Oceanside under a medically-induced coma for a month.

Dragon Essence was… Complicated.

And not just because of the Blood Curse imbued into Dragon Essence itself, way back at the start of the Script. That Curse caused all dragons who saw and recognized another dragon to instantly attack the other dragon. According to what Erick had read outside of Ar’Cosmos, and even here recently, what the Curse did was turn the territorial instincts of a dragon up to 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. Dragon Essence demanded victors rise to the top and losers pay homage. Before the Curse, the winners rose to the top in their society while the losers paid homage to the winners. Nothing else would happen. Under the Curse, though, the losers just died, because winners took the Dragon Essence they won directly out of the losers, and such a loss was catastrophic to the soul.

Dragon Essence, when it touched a soul, was like a comprehensive Blessing, Curse, and transformation all rolled into one. A soul touched by Dragon Essence was forever changed. It was like taking the bones of a person and replacing them with adamantium, and then gifting that person the ability to thrive under such a change. But the removal of the Dragon Essence was the removal of those bones. Such removals left a person without any structure to support their souls, and thus they collapsed into wyrms.

The only way dragon society had ever survived the horror of ‘removing’ the Dragon Curse was with Paradoxing/Creationing their Dragon Essence into one of the approved and experimentally proven ‘safe essences’.

Or by living in Ar’Cosmos, where Dragon Essence wasn’t affected by the Curse. Here, in this fae-blessed land, dragons could live without the Curse driving them to kill each other on sight. Here, in this fae-cursed land, was the only place dragons could ever meet each other without going to war.

Erick wanted to change that for so many different reasons, but also because it was the right thing to do. No one should be trapped in a tiny world like Ar’Cosmos, or anywhere else for that matter.

But also, releasing such powerful beings like dragons into the world at large…

Could be dangerous.

… Would be dangerous.

Rozeta had explicitly said that Veird could not handle a true flight of dragons, whatever that meant.

And so, with the ideas of ‘core formation’ at the same time as ‘core purification’, which would then lead to ‘core removal’, and through using runic inscriptions to enact a [Renew]-based effect…

Completing the initial designs had taken Erick about an hour.

And now, his latest enchanting project sat on his desk, waiting for him to continue. He had started with a square-shaped line of platinum a meter long, and then he had added two small angles to the ends. Then, he bent the whole thing into a circle, ensuring that the angles matched and that the whole thing was stable, and solid. It wasn’t a perfect ring due to a gap between those angles, but it was the shape it had to be; the rune for [Renew], but weighty and thin.

The metal rune was fully chalked up and ready for inscriptions. Erick had stopped there, because while getting this far was easy, and the next part would either work or it wouldn’t, he was still stuck on ‘should’, or ‘shouldn’t’. He was probably going to, even despite his reservations, just because Redflame would know by tomorrow that Renew had already been made, and all the other implications thereof. Adding to that the fact that this sort of magic was going to get out, anyway, because that was Erick’s whole goal in making [Renew] in the first place, and…

Erick was hesitating. He knew that. And yet...

Erick breathed deep as he circled back on his decision for the tenth time.

He was pretty sure that this thing was going to work. And that it was going to work really well. The effect was simple, once you ignored all the intricacies of soul surgery and shit like that, which, to be fair, should not be ignored. But then again Erick was doing Wizardry here, and Paradox Wizardry at that.

This thing…

When Erick finally made it.

This thing would first [Identify] the bloodline of the person using it, and then suppress that bloodline through the methods outlined in the manuals Erick had read, and then the actual effect would begin. Through constant use, this runic device should replace a person’s bloodlines with clean, untainted mana. It would fully remove all Elemental Body influences, and replace those influences with stable, baseline mana that coincided with the user’s original mana. It would remove the Dragon Curse by removing the Elemental Dragon Body from a person, turning them into whatever body they happened to be at that time.

There were nuances to using it properly, of course, like one needed to [Polymorph] into whatever Familiar Form they wanted to be before they used this device. Otherwise they’d just end up existing in whatever Familiar Form they were when they used it. Erick wasn’t fully sure, but he was pretty sure that this thing would erase all Elemental Body spells from a person, since that was the idea behind the whole thing, after all.

This device was most decidedly not what Redflame or the dragons of Ar’Cosmos wanted, for they wanted to make dragons out of half-dragons; not humans/incani/whatever out of half-dragons. But this idea had come to Erick and it had lodged in his brain as the best possible option.

Maybe.

But…

Erick could already tell that this design could be modified. With a certain kind of addition —perhaps replacing some of the [Cleanse] runes Erick had used here and there— one could gain any type of Elemental Body they wanted.

This could easily be transformed into some sort of dragon-maker.

And now that Erick was here, staring at his project, he was unsure —yet again— if he wanted to proceed.

Erick breathed deep, and whispered to himself, “I guess I started off making rings that cleaned away curses… Only fair that I’m here now, I suppose. And that I made another ring.”

[Renew]’s rune was very much a ring; Erick had not missed that when Rozeta had shown him [Renew] for the first time.

There was something poetic about that…

Which is likely why Erick finally decided that he had to do this, for it was going to be done anyway, and he might as well be the one to cure the Dragon Curse. Let other people be blamed for transforming his good will into horrors. Halting progress just because it led to dangers was not the right way to live.

Dangers could be solved, anyway, once they were known.

… That did it.

Erick picked up his black carving knife and started cutting into the platinum, imbuing each word with power.

It took him nearly 3000 mana and half an hour to finish the inscriptions. The ring of square-sided platinum was now absolutely covered with sharp runes and powerful meaning. Sweat dripped from his brow as he leaned back in his chair, holding the ring in his hands. He set it down…

And then he began working on a second ring.

This one was designed differently; specifically with regard to the ‘replacement’ function of the original. Instead of fully cleaning out a bloodline, it would replace all possible bloodlines of a person with the imbued bloodline. This, then, was something closer to what the dragons actually wanted.

It probably wouldn’t work with the already-Paradoxed House-approved bloodlines of Ar’Cosmos. Elemental Fae, Death, and Carnage seemed like they were too mutated to be put into a ‘Cleansing Renew’ ring.

For this second ring, Erick imbued it with his light-aspected bloodline, since it was the only option he had on hand.

It was just a prototype, though, for a true ‘bloodline replacer’ would likely need to use some Elemental Essence of some sort… But maybe not? Essence armor was designed to get used up, and soak into the soul of a person. This thing would never get ‘used up’. It would just string mana through its various runes, transforming into a bloodline, and then that bloodline would go into a person, and gradually reinforce itself through continued use of the ring.

With two rings now sitting in front of him, Erick hoped he had done the right thing. Both of them were prototypes in idea and execution, so they might not even work, but if they did...

He needed to test them. Erick did not use the Eraser, which is what he just now decided to call the first ring. But as he looked at the second one… He decided to call that one the Replacer, and to use that one, to see if it worked at all. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any change to his core or himself at all, and it should feel like he was simply [Renew]ing himself; generally pleasant, and relaxing.

Erick grabbed the second one in both hands, held it in front of himself, and soaked it with his aura. Instantly, the white-gold metal began to shine with an inner light. The runes etched into the sides began to glow iridescent white.

Slowly, he channeled [Renew] into the ring—

White mana flowed through the ring like trickles of rain, pitter pattering inside the platinum, streaming around like a lazy river, until it hit the gap in the ring. Light welled within that gap, and a droplet of iridescent white mana gathered—

Like a tiny river splitting in half, barely flowing at all, one drop of white light fell into the other arrow, back into the ring. A second drop of light fell sideways, aimed directly at Erick’s chest like the ring was the sky and Erick was the ground. The magic went right through his shirt and his flesh and struck his core, directly, soaking in without resistance.

The contact was like a relaxing massage, or the touch of a loved one on the scalp.

Erick cut the flow. Light dimmed. The ring dulled, though the platinum was shinier than before, but barely; Erick had enough Perception to tell that much. It was very, very lightly enchanted.

And it had worked.

At its most basic level, which was to accept mana and turn it into liquid-soul-healing magic, it had worked. The effect was rather relaxing, too, which was exactly the same feeling Erick got when he had [Renew]ed himself to keep his core stable. Before Erick had been dragged to Ar’Cosmos he had felt that cycling and [Renew]ing and eating rads were the only ways to heal a broken core, but now he knew that proper accretion could do the same…

For a long moment, Erick just sat there, wondering what he had done.

“Well,” Erick said, mostly to himself, but also to Ophiel and Yggdrasil who had watched him this whole time. “It might be able to cure a dragon of their Curse. Or it might really, really fuck the user up. I have no idea.” He frowned a little, as he looked at the world-shifter in his hands. “Human trials are next… eh?”

Erick stared at the Replacer in his hands. He glanced over to the Eraser, then back to the Replacer.

… He could try clearing out his bloodline, and then getting it back?

“Nope!” Erick decided rather emphatically, “Not doing that.”

But this was as good as Erick could do in a day.

It needed to have been done today, too, and now, Redflame had to see them. To do that, though… Erick would out himself as a Wizard. ‘Reluctant’ was not a large enough word, he felt, to be able to encompass all of his current emotions surrounding the current scenario.

Whatever.

Erick had Ophiel [Metalshape] some iron into an octagonal box to hold both the rings, one in each half of the clamshell design. A few additions of cloth and clips secured the rings, while a single cast of [Sealed Privacy Ward] made for rather decent security, but which would only last an hour. Erick could [Renew] that magic to extend that duration, if he was surreptitious enough about it, but he likely would not be doing that. Ophiel would just have to cast the spell again if it was needed.

… Erick added a secondary cast of [Delirium Charm] upon the box that would last ten days. It would have to be good enough.

- - - -

Erick spent ten more minutes agonizing over what he was about to do, and then he put those thoughts behind him. There was no getting around what was coming. He just had to deal. In order to deal, though, he needed to prepare...

Erick sat down onto his accretion pillow and held his aura open, extending a thread from his core to the air above his palm, giving the coming ritual a place to deposit the result of his casting. Extending his aura like this was pretty normal for him, since getting a core. He didn’t actually have to do this for most of his smaller spells, but for his larger spells, the ritual of it all was necessary.

(There was a lot of nuance to that statement, and all of that nuance was about how people cast from their souls, but with a core which fully held Erick’s soul, every spell he cast should have burst out of his chest in gruesome ways. But that didn’t happen. He could still cast spells with the point of origin being his hands, for instance. The accretion manual writers of Ar’Cosmos had answered this question for Erick, though; Health and body-accretion acted as a soul for the purposes of spellcasting origins.)

And now, Erick finally had the base mana needed to cast some of his larger-cost spells, like [Summon Ophiel]. Having a few more Ophiel would go a long, long way to being prepared for a rainy day, or a bad time revealing secrets to Redflame! Ophiel couldn’t just summon more of himself, though, even here in Ar’Cosmos when the Script was so far away. Erick had already tried that.

There were multiple reasons for such a limitation, Erick guessed.

He supposed what was actually happening, besides an imposed limitation of the Script against Propagation magic (no summoned creatures could summon more of themselves) was Ophiel had his own mana, and his own regeneration, but he didn’t actually have mana, or regeneration. He had base values that were directly derived from Erick’s values, at the time of casting.

And since Ophiel had no actual base values, the ‘value’ of any Ophiel he cast would therefore be 0; an automatically failed spell. But all that seemed rather too nuanced to be the root cause of the problem.

Erick still figured that the Propagation Ban was what was really preventing Ophiel from summoning more Ophiel, though, even if Ophiel wasn’t like most other summons. Ophiel actually regenerated his own mana, after all, and that was new. Erick had done that. Had that been Wizardry?

Results inconclusive.

Erick had also helped other people to accomplish the same thing, so maybe… Maybe Ophiel wasn’t Wizardry? Maybe Ophiel truly was just a new type of summoned creature? Or maybe not.

Ophiel was not the only instance of Erick summoning a creature who already had mana. Yggdrasil was the same, sort of. With this other data point, and the fact that no one else had ever made a World Tree before, perhaps Erick had just uncovered a way of summoning that was mostly lost to others?

For a long moment, Erick felt self-conscious. Had any of his successes been his own? Or was his Wizardry the cause? Inferno Maw had openly disdained the Wizards who could no longer do magic once their ‘easy magic’ had been taken from them...

Whatever.

Erick cleared his mind, and focused on the [Summon Ophiel] spell inside of himself. He had never really cast like this, or even gone ‘soul searching’ like this, but this was part of the process and he could probably figure it out if he kept at it enough.

With eyes closed, Erick focused inward, trying to find something which he had only ever seen once, and back when he was in the middle of a lot of pain from that Soul Spear attack. Ophiel’s ‘node’ had been a windy, chiming—

Oh.

Right. It was easier than that, wasn’t it?

Erick hummed a tune of [Summon Ophiel] and his light-filled aura vibrated with the magic.

He opened his eyes, and watched as he filled his aura with a cast of [Summon Ophiel], while simultaneously realizing he had fucked up. Mana rushed out of his core like a breach in a dam, for he was trying to cast like he always had; a single spell every second, no matter the mana cost. Usually his mana costs were only in the double digits, anyway, thanks to Intelligence.

Less than a second had passed since he had started, but it was too late to stop the flow.

Everything fell apart as a small crack traced across his core. Mana gushed out of the mana veins of his arm in an uncontrolled burst; following the line from where he was trying to cast, to his core. Erick winced. Ophiel cooed nearby, twittering in concerned flutes. Erick just waved him off, saying that he was fine, and he was. Mostly. He had no Status to display his loss, but he felt like around 750 mana had been lost to the air. The crack in his core was more phantom than reality, too, for as Erick gazed inward, he tried looking for the fracture and found nothing. Either he had healed that fast, or… Erick wasn’t sure.

All he knew was that he had drawn too deep and his core did not like that.

Erick breathed deep, and centered himself again. This time, he went slower. Ophiel’s original spell cost 1505 mana, so Erick plotted out a four second cast time to be on the safe side. He extended a pseudopod of light-filled aura out from his hand. He focused, and then restarted the ritual. The center of that light container filled with the image of Ophiel, which then filled in with solidness, manifesting over the course of four seconds. Wings, eyes, flutes and violins, the sounds of birds and the sound of the wind.

And then the ritual was done.

Erick released his aura and Ophiel popped into the world, blinking and tweeting and already reorienting himself to his new position. The Ophiel on the headboard bounced and trilled as the second Ophiel took his place on the balcony outside, happily dancing and flopping around in the sun, positioning himself to the next most important vantage point nearby.

This was good. Erick smiled. He had trained the little guy well.

There were some small issues, of course, for this latest Ophiel only had around 3000 Mana and 6000 Mana Regen per hour while at Rest. The original Ophiel had around 13,000 Mana, and 60,000 Regen, for he had been cast with Erick’s Normal Form’s powers. This was fine, though. This was still an expansion of Erick’s capabilities, and a large expansion at that.

Piece by piece, he was getting his power back.

For his next Ophiel, Erick attempted to make use of his newfound understanding of Elemental Mystical.

His first try got him an Ophiel for only 950 Mana. Erick barely understood how he had done that, but it certainly felt like it had only taken 950 Mana to cast a 1505 Mana summon. Now he was bottomed out, though, so, perhaps… This was good enough, for now?

It was.

Erick got up, grabbed the clamshell ring case, and headed downstairs.

Fairy Moon and Maid Maria were waiting for him in the dining room. Both of them had been doing some paperwork, but they stepped away from that work when they saw Erick. Both of them stared at the iron luggage in his left hand, and while Fairy Moon soon moved her gaze toward Erick, Maria’s vibrant pink eyes were locked upon the octagonal box. She knew what was inside the [Ward]ed box, and she wanted it, though she was afraid at the same time. Erick had no idea what that was about, exactly, but he would likely find out soon enough, for Fairy Moon and Maria both wore nice clothes. They were both ready to head over to Redflame for an unscheduled visit, just like Erick was. Tomorrow, Redflame would attempt [Renew], so Erick needed to lay out everything to the old dragon, today.

An hour from now, or possibly less.

Erick still wasn’t sure if he was ready, but like that ever mattered. He had questions to ask, though.

… But as silence stretched, he wasn’t sure how to ask his questions.

Fairy Moon and Maria just waited. Maria seemed to need the extra moments to gather herself, anyway. It took her a full minute to pry her eyes off of the ring case, but she finally looked to Erick, and then she realized what she had been doing. She was embarrassed for her break in decorum, but it was a small embarrassment, easily overlooked.

There was a lot going through Erick’s mind, after all. Mainly, Erick had not entered into a covenant with Fairy Moon last night, and he hoped that his hesitation had not been a mistake.

Fairy Moon waited patiently for him to speak.

Erick breathed in, then said, “I want this to work out in everyone’s favor, but this desire includes my own fate. Can I count on you to be on my side, Fairy Moon? Or will you give me up to the dragons when they demand my sacrifice?”

Fairy Moon spoke, “I will protect your purposes and person as though they were my own, as long as your desired destiny drives you to seek the stars.”

Caveats upon caveats.

Not good.

But probably as close to ‘good’ as Erick could get.

Erick added one specific clause, though, demanding, “No more mind fuckery.”

Fairy Moon drew herself up, and then said, “If my magics will save your purpose and your person without causing undue duress, I will not leave any option off the table.”

“… Make sure it’s your last option, then.”

“I will make it near the last, but if the solution to a Sundering is to slave you for a single sentence, then I will do what I must do,” Fairy Moon said, without remorse.

Erick frowned. “I don’t want to regret helping you and yours, Fairy Moon. I need you to understand that.”

“I understand utterly.” Fairy Moon said, “I sense the Sight of Fickle Fate before us, and will ensure that each of us come out of this with much more than what we went in.”

Erick took a deep breath and dialed down his paranoia. He said, “Then let us be off, and see what becomes of this new world order.” He hefted the metal case, adding, “If these things even work.”

Fairy Moon turned and walked toward a closed door that instantly opened, revealing a forest path beyond. Erick followed, and soon enough, Maria hurried along. Yggdrasil hung out on Erick’s left shoulder, while one of Ophiel sat upon his right. Fairy Moon briefly looked at the second Ophiel, who rapidly followed behind, catching up with Erick on the forest path.

- - - -

The third Ophiel remained behind, in Erick’s room. He had a bit of trouble sending his sight through that Ophiel, but with his latest understanding of the true nature of Clarity and Elemental Mystical, he was able to spend more of his own mana, since he could also regenerate that mana with some manual Meditation.

He could see through that Ophiel’s eyes, if he needed to.

Hopefully he wouldn’t need to.

- - - -

The forest walk was uneventful, and even relaxing.

And then Erick spotted Redflame’s white castle through a break in the canopy. He steeled himself, gripping the metal case tight. He recast the various anti-Sight spells upon his ‘gift’, so that the rings weren’t revealed prematurely. Two minutes later Fairy Moon’s winding path through the forest brought them to the grey stone door at the base of the cliff.

A knock upon that door turned it white, like the castle above, and then it opened.

- - - -

Redflame slipped out of the doors to a warehouse-like room, into the hallway, seeming like a tunnel of red water flowing out of a break in a dam. He laughed a little, happy to see his unexpected guests, as he curled up to stand tall in front of Erick, Fairy Moon, and Maria. His massive draconic body was of appropriate size to the hallway.

Erick felt tiny, because he was, comparatively. Redflame didn’t seem to care about that, though. Everyone was tiny compared to him, even the larger orcol-sized half-dragons and dragonkin who walked around his castle. The joy on his draconic face was no different than the joy that had been on his human face, though, or all the other times Erick had seen the man.

“Erick! It is good to see you, but —ah ha!— you’re here early!” Redflame chuckled, saying, “The experiment won’t happen till tomorrow and I’ve needed absolutely all of that time to get it right. Our talk helped to clear up some of my own misconceptions, and I feel my chances of success are in the high 70s! Maybe even 85%! Ah ha!”

Fairy Moon stood to the side. Maid Maria stood with her.

Right now, it was just Erick and his little metal case, standing before Redflame, who towered overhead by ten meters. A deep redness flickered out of his mouth when the massive dragon talked, illuminating his fangs from behind in a way that was not that dissimilar from when Melemizargo spoke.

Except red, instead of white, of course.

Erick nodded, then said, “It is good to see you too, Redflame.”

Redflame gestured to the open archways beyond, where he had just come from, asking, “Care to see the progress? I was not expecting this today, but I am happy you are here. Perhaps you have some other insights you would like to share?”

Erick glanced past the large doors.

The room beyond was like an aircraft hanger, or maybe like a forensics hanger where various alphabetic governmental bodies dissected downed aircrafts to find the reason for the crash. Metal arches and machinery and tables of all sorts dotted the room, like scattered car parts, while various larger runic workings hung from the ceiling.

Redflame’s eyes glanced to the metal case hanging from Erick’s left hand then back to Erick, as he lightly teased, “Or perhaps you have some of your own [Renew] work in that un-Sightable box you wish to share, hmm?”

Erick recognized the curiosity in Redflame’s deep, red eyes. He imagined that curiosity turning to hate, or perhaps to jealousy, or perhaps to bare greed… Greed was perhaps the most reasonable outcome. The man hadn’t even tried that hard to solve this [Renew] problem until Erick, off his recent win in Ar’Kendrithyst and then his world tour and Worldly Path, made public his own desire to solve the incompatible mana problem.

The incompatible mana problem was rather basic and intrinsic to all known magic, after all; it had been around just as long as mana had been around. Trying to ‘solve it’ was sort of like how a very small community of people back on Earth continually tried to make perpetual motion machines, despite all known science saying such a thing was a literal impossibility. As that realization crossed Erick’s mind, he realized how insane it was that he had actually solved [Renew].

Erick said to the dragon man. “I have something to show you, and I need to keep it secret. It’s about [Renew], as you have already guessed.”

Redflame’s mirth turned to cautious interest. And then he recognized how serious Erick was; that brought Redflame up short. He narrowed an eye toward Fairy Moon, who simply nodded. Then he asked Erick, “How secret are we talking?”

“Of the highest order.” Erick said, “I’ll go into more details when we’re secure. Fairy Moon and Maid Maria can join us.”

Redflame pulled back a fraction, which for him was more like three meters. Bright red eyes bore into Erick, and Erick met that gaze unflinchingly. After a moment, Redflame asked, “Timeframe? I need to know if I should halt some construction in the experiment room, or if we only need to step away for twenty minutes.”

“Halt that construction.” Erick said, “This could take a while.”

“… Okay.” Redflame stood a bit straighter, which put him a good fifteen meters above Erick, then he turned to the experiment room. With a light voice, he said, “I’ll… just... halt everything? Sure.” He said to one of his people, who stood nearby, “Take them to the—” He turned toward Fairy Moon. “Go wherever. I’ll find you.”

Fairy Moon nodded, then turned to the side, saying, “This way, Erick.”

She opened a door in the middle of the air and then walked through. Maria followed quickly, and then Erick followed last.

The room was a comfortable space at the top of one of the many towers, and it was sized for orcols; not dragons. The ceiling was a dome, while large windows all around showed views of the other white stone towers, or of the deep, forest valley that surrounded all of the mountainous mansion. Furniture for bipedal people sat around the space, and Erick instantly picked one of the more comfortable chairs and sat down, holding the metal case in his lap. It felt way too heavy. He could have put it on the table in front of him, but that felt wrong. He would hold onto it, for now.

The room was meant for entertaining, though, and not strictly for brooding, and so there was a bar on one side. Fairy Moon took a chair beside Erick, around the table in the center of the room, while Maria went to the bar and began mixing drinks using the various alcohols on the shelves. There was apparently a small pantry behind the bar, too. Erick only found that out because Maria deposited a large tray of small sandwiches down on the table in the center, along with a large drink in a tall, crystal tumbler directly in front of Erick.

Maria said, “It’s not strong; mostly sugar water. If you want I can make you something stronger.”

Erick said, “Appreciated. I’ll… See how this goes, first.” He forced his voice to a joking tone, asking, “Maybe some coffee, if he has it back there?”

Maria perked up, her pink tail raising along with her shoulders in a minor surprise, but then she dropped back to professionalism. “Pardon, Archmage, I do not believe he has coffee here. I can go to the market and return with some, if you desire.”

“No no.” Erick said, “That’s fine— Some hot breakfast tea, then. Cream. Sugar.”

Maria nodded. “At once.”

And then she went to make tea. Erick’s thoughts occupied his mind for the next three minutes. By the time Maria set a cup of light brown tea down in front of him, he still hadn’t thought through every possible scenario. As he sipped, he considered—

The door opened and all thoughts fled.

A human-shaped Redflame stepped into the room, looking dignified in a short, red robe with dark trim. His clothes matched his dark complexion and his braided red beard, and braided red hair. He looked ready to take on the world and crush it into conformity, if needed. His expression both softened, and hardened, as he looked to Erick, and then to Fairy Moon. He turned right back to Erick.

“I will be securing the space,” Redflame said.

The door shut behind him. The world beyond the room vanished, the windows turning red, while the normal white lights of the room kept the atmosphere mostly cozy. Erick could not feel the Ophiel he had left back at Fairy Moon’s manor, or the Ophiel he had left outside of Redflame’s mansion, but that was expected.

Redflame relaxed a fraction.

“Hello again, Erick.” Redflame moved to the chair across from Erick with an easy grace, and sat down. His eyes glanced to the metal box in Erick’s lap, then he looked back up at Erick. “I can’t imagine that you would try a trick to prevent my creation of [Renew], since you want the spell, too. But was that a lie? You don’t actually want [Renew]? Perhaps my revelations of how much it would change dragon society have tempered your desires?”

His voice was easy, and light, but the feelings behind his words were disappointment, resentment, worry, and anger.

Erick was mostly just worried, though.

Redflame waited.

Erick started, “I’m going to say a few things, and each one might be a problem. Let me finish, before you speak, please.” Reluctantly, he moved aside the small sandwiches on the table and placed the metal case in the center.

Redflame nodded slowly; listening, waiting.

Erick decided that there was no need to tell a story. He just stated, “A few things. I’m a Wizard. I already made [Renew] while in the Core.” With a thought, the anti-Sight protections around the metal box vanished. “And these are prototypes that may or may not gradually erase a bloodline from a user, which will, in effect, allow a half-dragon to gradually rid themselves of their twisted Elemental Body.” Redflame was asking to pause, but Erick wasn’t done; he bulldozed through all interruptions, “I want to make Elemental Benevolence in order to prevent any more Sunderings from ever happening ever again, and I want to enter into a formal alliance with Ar’Cosmos mainly for my own protection against all the rest of the world when they find out I’m a Wizard, but also because all of your people could use some new spaces to live. I plan on making the Crystal Forest inhabitable. All of this is in addition to—”

“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Redflame had been mumbling those words ever since Erick dismissed the protections on the box. “Wait. Wait.”

“—In addition to opening up new worlds and restoring the fae to life, either as a matter of course, or as a side effect of simply opening up new worlds.”

And with that, Erick was done.

Redflame shook his head, blinking as he tried to think of something to say, his ruby eyes and hard face having gone through a gamut of emotions while Erick was speaking. Disbelief. Pure greed; perhaps the deepest emotion of them all, and accompanied by his red eyes turning into pools of rage with no outlet. This was then followed instantly by more disbelief. That was when he began asking Erick to wait. Erick did not wait, though. At the mention of Elemental Benevolence, Redflame turned almost meek. At the mention of alliances, he turned away, wanting Erick to stop talking, and to have never started in the first place.

And now he just sat there, worried. Lost.

The dragon found himself fast enough.

Redflame instantly asked Fairy Moon, “Truth?”

“Truth.” Fairy Moon said, “Unensorcelled, and unprompted. Erick wishes for welcome, and time is not on a single side of this space.”

Erick spoke up, “Slight correction: I wish for allies. Not a welcome into your world, but a friendly joining as we expand into new ones. No controlling, only cooperation.”

For a long moment, no one said anything. Fairy Moon just sat there; observing, judging. Erick waited. And Redflame digested Erick’s words and Fairy Moon’s confirmation of those words like one would digest a particularly large whale; with great difficulty, and piece by piece if at all.

A long while passed in silence.

Redflame stared.

Erick waited.

Suddenly, Redflame said, “I wish to know more of who you are, Erick. I have heard many stories, but I wish to hear from you. What are your goals? What does your perfect world look like?”

“… My perfect world?” Erick frowned a little, momentarily thinking the answer was difficult, but it wasn’t that difficult at all. “To have a nice house somewhere and to help people nearby. Probably go back to farming. I think I want to work with metals in enchanting, and in runic webs, and I want to do more esoteric enchanting, like using wood and stone and crystals. I’ll probably help prop up some sort of anti-Sundering thing for a while… Not sure how that is going to go. I’ll help with controlling monster populations… Though when I made [Renew], Rozeta said that her experiments with the rune I added to the Script were already showing promise in turning monsters less-insane. So maybe in 50 years we’ll get some of these ‘spirit beasts’ that the older accretion manuals mention, and fewer monsters.” Erick continued, “But my perfect world would be one where there is no war, and trade deals are hashed out in words and bargains, and people are free to move around as they wish, and live how they want, as long as their choices don’t interfere with the choices of others. I want my daughter to be happy. I want Yggdrasil and Ophiel to be happy. I want more hope and cooperation, and no war and no monsters. I want the wrought and you dragons and Kirginatharp and the Dragon Stalkers and the Angels and the Demons and all the rest to stop fighting. The main villains are dead or Blessed; it is time to move on to growth and reconciliation, no matter how painful it might be for all involved.”

Silence.

A moment passed, and then Redflame said, “High hopes, but… Perhaps…” His voice trailed off.

Erick waited.

Redflame said, “I am not sure where I am with what is happening, right now. I likely won’t be sure about any of this for a long while. But… But I know where I want to be, ideally. In my perfect happiness I teach at the arcanaeum, my students go on to make their best lives, while I go home and have a nice supper prepared by a good chef. I don’t want to be involved in war or danger, but I will do what I must, as I have done for a long time before the Sundering tore everything apart. I’ve spent 15,000 years as a teacher of various ways, and that is what I prefer. I have dabbled in civilization creation here and there, but primarily in the first 2,000 years of my life and now here in Ar’Cosmos…” Redflame paused. He said, “Everything that is currently happening with Ar’Cosmos and with Veird is something that I wish to mitigate in my life. I don’t want to be involved in a cramped little world anymore than necessary.

“Ar’Cosmos was an emergency response to an emergency situation, and it was never meant to last this long.

“I say these things so that you know that I am not a fighter. I run from fights. You don’t get to be my age through challenging the larger power of any time or place.” Redflame sighed a little, saying, “But… I feel you will have other allies, here in Ar’Cosmos, willing to take up your offer, directly. I… I can only provide you with somewhere to run to if the world should fall upon you like it has all the other Wizards to come before—” He nearly spat, “You’re a fucking Wizard… Of course. But how… But your Particle Magic works, even outside of yourself?” He seemed to lose something vital in his eyes, as though his understanding of the world had fundamentally altered in a way he did not comprehend. He said, “Ah. You’re… Deep Paradox. Your magic has been here long before you came to Veird. You already remade the world, and no one noticed… Huh.”

Erick had a lot of rapid thoughts about all of Redflame’s words, which, he supposed, was appropriate, considering what his own words had done to Redflame. Over 17,000 years old? That was hard to comprehend. That made him older than Melemizargo’s reign as God of Magic of the Old Cosmology. But Redflame’s sudden existential crisis and talking about ‘remaking the world’ was too much for Erick to let continue.

“Now wait just a second.” Erick said, “Particles are real. You were Grand Translated into my universe. My world is still out there somewhere in the universe and it’s made of particles just like all the rest of this New Cosmology, and the people there probably produce mana, too, though we don’t actually have magic… probably— The point is that I did not make Particle Magic; I just helped people understand what they were already looking at.”

Redflame was suddenly, deeply confused. “… So you’re… Not Paradox?”

“No; I’m Paradox. Pretty much 100%. Rozeta helped with that.” Erick added, “I’ve even met a version of myself in the Deep Paradox and survived.”

Redflame’s eyes went wide. Fairy Moon’s eyes went a little wide, too. Maria, who had been behind the bar counter like she was protecting herself from the conflict in the room, gasped loudly.

“Oh. Gods above.” Redflame said, “You’re a strong Paradox Wizard. Oh. Oh.” He stared, saying, “You actually could open up new worlds, then, and without Melemizargo’s help. Oh.”

Redflame was losing his hold on reality again.

So Erick reached over and opened up the metal container, trying to ground the old dragon as he said, “And here’s a pair of [Renew] rings that may or may not be able to erase an Elemental Body from a person. Well. That one erases all Elemental Bodies. This one replaces all Elemental Bodies with [Greater Lightwalk]. It is not a cure for the Dragon Curse, but it is a side step around the issue. It’s based on the ideas of bloodline suppression, and eventual removal. I know it’s not the solution you were looking for, but it might help your half-dragons become normal people who are able to live openly out on Veird.”

Redflame blinked.

Maria gasped again.

And then Redflame came back to himself.

“Right! Right.” Redflame looked to the rings, finally, and then spoke as though Erick had invented a perpetual motion machine, “So you’ve invented bloodline removal; a theoretical magic that has never existed, either, and one way to fix the Dragon Curse… Interesting. Interesting.” Redflame was doubtful, and it showed in the heavy lines of his face. “Not what I would have done with it, but it’s… It’s probably the safer impossibility to make possible—” The man went silent, and decided to skip past all of that other stuff, saying, “So this is the… Rune for [Renew]? Or is there some other reason for this strange design?”

“That’s the rune for [Renew]; yes.”

“Okay. So.” Redflame said, “This is a weapon for you to use against every threat you face. If this design works, then you can simply use the Script to help you make this into a Blessing, or a Curse, or whatever, and then you can cast that Blessing onto dragons. Or anyone, actually. You can strip or grant an Elemental Body to anyone in the world. Even if this design does not work, you should be able to create a magic that will work.”

Erick froze.

He did not consider that option.

“Uh.”

Redflame barreled on ahead, “It likely won’t work with the well-Paradoxed Dragon/other Essences of the houses of Ar’Cosmos, but… Maybe it will? What it will allow, though, is for all of our half-dragons to become whole people again, and to leave or visit Ar’Cosmos as they want. I suppose… I suppose it is time for Ar’Cosmos to change, then. Or maybe not! With [Renew], we’ll finally be able to expand the walls of Ar’Cosmos and create a true bastion of safety from all threats... So… So this is…” Redflame seemed to regain something vital. He blinked a bit as he mumbled half to himself, and half to anyone who would listen, “Ah. So this is perfect for us. Yes. I can see why you want to be allies. I can see why… Yes. Well. If it were up to me, we would be allies, but Illustrious and Inferno Maw and Bright Smile will have to be made aware of all that… Of everything here. I just make the [Gate Space]; Erick; I got out of politics a long time ago. Though, personally, I have decided to be on your side for this, since you already have a proven track record… Which will likely come into question once your nature as a Wizard is revealed— Which is why you have decided to ally with people you barely know… And why you’re helping us… But I suppose ‘helping people’ is what you do, anyway...” He stared at the rings of platinum in their case. “This is big. This is…”

His voice trailed off.

Erick waited, again.

Redflame whispered, “This is big, and the heads of the houses need to know.”

Erick said, “Illustrious already knows about me, but no one else does. I wish to keep the truth as silent as I can, or at least until a year passes and [Renew] comes out in the Open Script. If you want, you can take credit for that today, but that would be a lie and it would be found out eventually. I have not spoken to Inferno Maw about anything. I have heard Bright Smile is a danger to me.”

Redflame continued to stare at the rings. One was brighter silver than the other. He was trying to understand the writing, but all the runic inscriptions were in English, so he likely wasn’t getting anywhere. He had heard Erick’s concerns, but he was heavily distracted.

Erick repeated, “I heard Bright Smile is a danger.”

“What?” Redflame glanced at Erick, then turned back to the rings. “Oh. Yes. Bright Smile is a danger to most people. Or rather… No… I will stand up to her on this. You say Illustrious knows— Of course she knows. Fairy Moon wouldn’t let her remain out of the room on this matter. I’m surprised— Which number am I, to be let in on this secret? Fourth? No. Somewhere down the line. The Shades likely all know, don’t they… Whatever. And no: I will not accept credit for your creation of [Renew]. Such a lie would be seen through rather instantly, even if you made… Made a basic [Renew] artifact?” He asked, “Are all the tiny runes necessary?”

“[Renew] is the basic shape; all the runes carved into the [Renew]s are to shape the effect.” Erick said, “You could likely carve [Renew] yourself into a runic web and that would be good enough— There would be a large loss of efficiency without having the spell yourself, of course. But efficiency is just efficiency.”

“… No. I won’t be doing that, either. No lies; only Truth going forward. Now is the time to plan for what comes next, and that includes talking to all the heads of house.” Redflame said, “Bright Smile wishes for control, and ever since House Carnage passed to her she had enacted good reforms, but she is extremely harsh on criminals. She is all for martial control. But… I am glad you have come to me, Erick. We may not know each other, but I hope that this changes in the coming years and decades. These gifts here are already more than I could ever repay you for, but I can try. If you ever grow desirous of immortality— Ah. Wait. I was going to offer you that before… But you’re a Wizard.” Redflame nodded to himself, then said, “You’ll get there on your own if you ever truly desire such a thing. But! If you need some help getting there, or if we get this Dragon Essence Curse fixed, then perhaps you will think of becoming a dragon? The benefits of [Greater Dragon Body] are rather great. If you desire a different path, then I am sure I can help you cast one of those annoyingly difficult Blood spells. [The Rite of Ancient Blood]? You should probably be able to pull that one off.”

As Redflame spoke out possible ways that Erick and Ar’Cosmos could come to terms, Erick felt a great relief, like a flood of warmth had escaped his heart and filled up his entire body. Erick sighed, a happy sound, then said, “Appreciated, Redflame. I’ll take you up on that offer if ever it’s needed.”

Redflame scrunched his face a little, trying to understand why Erick didn’t instantly jump on the offer of immortality. “Your hesitation around immortality is an odd one; it stems from too much time spent among the wrought, I think. You shouldn’t let their thoughts cloud your own. Just because mortals live and die does not make getting to know them automatically painful.”

Erick smiled at that. “Would that I could make everyone immortal.”

Redflame barked a laugh, then said, “A difficult proposition! Probably not attainable or desirable in all but the most nuanced and narcissistic of societies. Death is relief for many and a reset for all involved, for life is vastly unfair to everyone. Immortality isn’t for all, though. Afterlives aren’t so bad… Theoretically, anyway. I have never been, but the phantoms I’ve seen seem to enjoy it… Sometimes.”

With a soft smile, Erick said, “My own belief system has a hard time meshing with the idea that afterlives are real, so perhaps that is why I see immortality as a good thing.”

“Oh? I seem to have misread— Yes. Immortality can be a good thing. I am glad to know that you will think about my offer, but you also bring up a good point that our base understandings of each other are rather distant.” Redflame asked, almost disbelieving, “Did you not have gods on Earth? Churches? Afterlives are a common conceit so I never imagined that some people would not believe in such existences.”

“I’ve no idea about gods. We had theology, but if you’re asking if we prayed, and if the gods answered in any meaningful way? Well. People prayed, but the only ones who answered were the priests of gods, or people like me, who went out and helped those who asked.”

Redflame looked at Erick for a long, short moment, then he blinked a bit and decided to leave that discussion for another time. He went back to the previous thoughts, saying, “So you already made [Renew]. And it works?”

“In all the ways I tested it; Yes.” Erick said, “These rings are an extrapolation of that effect. They should target the Elemental Body inside a person to gradually, and safely replace it with nothing, or with [Greater Lightwalk]. The Light Ring might work better than the Null Ring, but I honestly have no idea. They’re prototypes.”

“Yes. The rings…” Redflame’s greed spiked as he glanced to the rings, but he visibly held himself back. He tore his eyes away from them, and asked Erick, “Let us leave untested prototypes for another day. I desire to see if [Renew] actually works. Would you be amenable to [Renew]ing some spellwork for me?”

“Sure.”

Redflame almost went onto his experiment, but his eyes caught upon the small pink and green gem on Erick’s necklace. He had been trying and failing to not look at Fairy Moon’s gem this whole time. Erick mostly ignored the glances the man gave toward his chest, too.

But apparently they were going to talk about that.

“Before we get there…” Redflame asked, “Did you ask for all those accretion books because… You’re already there?”

“Yes. Already at Second Foundation and using Elemental Mystical to cheat casting costs, too.” To get the conversation back on track, Erick said, “I’m sort of surprised that Elemental Mystical was never brought up in your [Renew] work. Or anywhere, really, in any of the illusionwork I ever saw before now.”

Redflame seemed to regain even more of his senses as Erick spoke, pulling himself further away from his greed, as though he was finally understanding that the usual world order was not going to happen like it usually happened. Redflame’s reaction was a similar reaction to Illustrious’s, back when she had seen Erick’s core and knew his truth. Redflame was more tempered than the head of House Fae, though, perhaps because all of his answers to the Dragon Curse problem were right in front of him, anyway.

In that moment, though, Erick knew that dragons wanted Wizards for more than solving the Dragon Curse.

Which was news to him.

Redflame managed to speak as though he was fine, saying, “Elemental Mystical isn’t useful for [Renew] because [Renew] is real— How I would have created it would have made it real, anyway, and I am glad to hear that how you made it is also free of Elemental Mystical. Elemental Mystical is like dragging a paintbrush through the world and the mana decides to turn that color, but the mana hasn’t really altered at all; you’ve just gotten paint everywhere. Even Mana Altering through the Script isn’t truly good enough to make [Renew], though Mana Altering has been ‘good enough’ for a long while.” He held up a hand, and cast a small spell, producing a basketball-sized sphere full of dots of light, laid out in a grid-like pattern. “This is meant to degrade in a known way. Can you [Renew] this, please?”

Even as Erick watched, the grid-like dots of the wardlight began to fade and fall to the bottom of the sphere, like snow falling in a snowglobe. Erick extended his light-filled aura to the edge of the spell, and began channeling [Renew] into the sphere. Almost instantly, the dots began to float back into position.

And just like that, Redflame’s world tumbled around, again.

Redflame let out a long exhale of breath as he half-crumpled forward, whispering, “It’s really [Renew]. Oh gods.” He lifted his head, and tears were falling down his face. He smiled, and laughed, and sighed, and for a full twenty seconds he didn’t bother to cover his teeth, showing off his unexpected joy in all its small glory as he stared at the [Renew]ed snowglobe spell. Then he looked to Erick, and said, “This changes everything.”

With deep solemnity, Erick said, “Yes, it does.”

Redflame stared at Erick for a moment as he recognized that Erick already knew. He gave a small nod, and dismissed his snowy lightward. His attention turned back to the rings, asking, “May I have these?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “Though I hold no responsibility for how you use them. If something untoward should happen, I warn you now that Rozeta will likely fall upon you like a vengeful god, and I will likely need to assist her with keeping the world stable.” He added, “I don’t think anything bad will come of [Renew], but… I want this to work out for everyone, Redflame.”

Erick didn’t want to say those words, but he had felt the need to make plain the worst possible outcome of a mishandled [Renew], and so he spoke that need. He hoped that Redflame would take the warning to heart, and not as a threat.

Redflame stared a moment longer at the rings, a thousand thoughts flitting through his mind. Then he looked to Erick. “Your warning is heard, and appreciated. One never quite knows what sort of magic will need a Forgotten Campaign enacted against it… For a long time, we thought that your Particle Magic would need to be Forgotten.” He said, “I admit: you being a Wizard made me feel that Particle Magic was about to be Forgotten, too. But… If Particles are truly the way this cosmology works, then they can’t do that to Particle Magic. It would be like Forgetting about Light, or Shadow.”

Erick nodded. “The first time I was taken before the gods to have my magic judged, Rozeta spoke of how there was no easy way to Ban Particle Magic, for it was the underlying nature of reality itself.”

Redflame gave a tiny nod, saying, “That is what we’ve heard before…”

And then he went silent, in contemplation.

He was worried about a changing world, and his place in it.

After a moment, Erick said, “On to other business:” He said to Fairy Moon, “I still don’t believe that I, alone, should decide how Elemental Benevolence happens, or even what it does to actually prevent a Sundering. More people need to be involved in that creation, as well. I would like for many people to get together and decide how Elemental Benevolence should work, and then I will make it happen.”

Redflame’s eyes went wide, as the depth of the conversation in front of him shifted, revealing new depths that he knew were there, but which he had been ignoring. Erick sort of felt bad for the guy; all of this was getting dumped on him at once. But then again, Redflame was surely old enough and powerful enough and experienced enough to come to terms with all of this turmoil. He seemed to be doing well, anyway.

He seemed to be very willing to be allies, too, which was fantastic.

Fairy Moon, however, was as enigmatic as ever. She stared at Erick, her pink and green eyes burning brightly, as she commanded, “Tell me true what you wish-think-trust Benevolence to be.”

Erick wasn’t sure why she was suddenly so serious.

But… Her command was easy enough to answer, wasn’t it?

Erick spoke without reservation, “For the good of all, and every individual, we give assistance and prevent catastrophes before they happen, to found and cultivate an evergrowing cycle of less war, less horror, and more hope, for now, and for all always.”

Light shifted.

Something changed.

Erick only realized after he was done talking that the entire manasphere had been listening and speaking with him as he spoke his Truth. The red windows of the tower room had faded, Redflame’s magic vanishing, to reveal cityscapes and forests and grand towers from as many different lands of Ar’Comos as there were portals to view that land. And now, those portals were open and yawing wide, letting mana into the room like an immaterial flood, spinning into the edge of Erick’s core before casting back out into the world, taking streamers of light and lightning with it as it left, like Erick was the eye of a storm and all the universe would feel the flow.

Something clicked far away, and in the depths of Erick’s soul.

- - - -

Rozeta felt the mana shift before it happened.

And then the shift occurred, like an echo cast backward from the future, touching upon the entire manasphere to see where it should land, moving like living lightning. For a horrible, terrible moment, Rozeta had a flashback to the Sundering. But the lightning didn’t grow. It circled a drain, and Rozeta followed the flow.

The mutation in the mana rapidly centered upon the intangible lands of Ar’Cosmos, deep in the green Forest of Glaquin.

For a tense moment Rozeta cast her eyes in multiple directions at once, one part of her staring upon the Green, while another inspected a small section of the Core of Veird, upon a tiny space dedicated to one person, and one person only. That entire small space clicked. An alarm had been tripped by the passing of something unknown.

That was where the lightning had started, but where it flowed, was to its creator.

Rozeta felt another round of terror for a long moment.

This was it. Erick had turned Wizard, growing his core into something half-respectable a day ago, and now they were here. The birth of something new. The creation of something calamitous, but also caring. Had he intended the lightning? Had he meant to make it look like the start of another Sundering?

Was something even larger happening?

Why?

Just.

WHY.

And then Rozeta knew why. Erick had always been close to lightning, and now Fairy Moon had struck.

That realization hit Rozeta hard. The clouds in her blue sky turned dim, and distant, but then she took an eternal moment and began to inspect the newness. Fairy Moon had touched upon Erick in a moment of weakness and demanded a creation, and now that creation was here, and the similarities to an old horror were too much…

Rozeta’s fear held strong for an eon, and for less than a millisecond.

Gradually, calmly, as Rozeta looked, as she did some preliminary tests, she found that Erick’s new ‘lightning’ was not Primal Lightning at all. For one, it responded to her tests. She was able to shape and poke at it without blowing up thousands of kilometers of the Core. Primal Lightning was terrifying. This stuff was… The opposite of terrifying.

Hopeful?

… Fairy Moon had struck well.

Was it just coincidence that had caused this creation to look so similar to that old horror?

… Sure. Let’s go with that, for now.

The new Element was small. It was already well integrated. Only one person had the Element in them in any measurable sense, so there wasn’t much to play around with, but Rozeta was able to get some decent readouts. Erick surely had a name for his creation, and Rozeta suspected that that name was ‘Benevolence’, but until he was out of Ar’Cosmos and could tell them the name of this element, then calling it ‘Benevolence’ was just a guess.

His creation, though, was already in the Script, like it had always been. It fit well into the standard model… Sort of. Benevolence was between Light and Air and Water, but with a deep touch of Fae that placed it firmly into Fate and Time magic. If that was all it had, and if anyone else had made this, then Rozeta would have ripped it out of the Script, put it in a void box, and sent paladins after the creator. Benevolence was too strong. It was too varied. It wasn’t deadly, but it didn’t need to be.

It was also a part of [Renew] while never having been there before now.

It was also a part of Yggdrasil, but mostly because it even had some sort of [Grow]ing aspect to it, putting it onto the Stone-Water axis—

“Old gods!” Rozeta cursed, as her inspection revealed something more. “Fire-Healing axis, too? …‘Warmth’? Ah. Concepts. Ah… Erick—”

And then she frowned, for she had seen something else that was more worrying than all the rest.

“… Dammit, Erick.”

A pinprick of Darkness held inside the new Element.

… Rozeta continued her inspection to ensure that what she was seeing was correct. Ten years and ten moments later, she pulled back. She had seen enough. She had tested enough. This was firmly not Primal Lightning. This was something new, and helpful.

The metaphysical conversation around why Erick had made a visually similar Primal Lightning-like element would come later.

After going through several more minor emotional crises on her own over the course of the next ten months spent in solitude and more testing, Rozeta had arrived at her response.

She called up Phagar and demanded he share in her worries. It was easy to commiserate with Phagar, for while there was some trouble happening in the near future, the near future was suddenly very stable. More stable than it had been in a while, too. This was no doubt due to the chaos Erick had made today, and Phagar agreed.

Atunir and Koyabez both came into the conversation third, for Rozeta had found Elemental Benevolence inside [Exalted Rain], and also inside the Crystal Star that Erick had made. Atunir was surprised, but then not surprised at all that Erick was a Wizard. She was mostly just resigned.

Rozeta could relate.

Koyabez was not surprised about any of this, and was, in fact, the most happy of everyone. Phagar came in a close second, because he already had a good idea of what would come next, though he wasn’t going to tell anyone; like usual.

They spoke for a while about possible connections to Primal Lightning, if only due to the similar visuals, but the fact was that Elemental Benevolence and Primal Lightning were completely opposite in effect and nature.

And then came Sininindi. The goddess of storm and sea had called up Rozeta before Rozeta even considered calling up her, or even including her in this particular conversation. Sininindi was still smarting from the last Wizard to darken her shores, and Rozeta didn’t want her to be involved with Erick at all. The damage from Hullbreaker still haunted several port cities even twenty years later.

But something had happened to Yggdrasil’s twin, and Sininindi was demanding answers.

Sininindi took in the news, and stood back, silent. And then she began demanding to know how Elemental Benevolence worked with regard to natural disasters, and about its visual similarity to Primal Lightning. That particular conversation took an hour and a year, but the gist was that Benevolence was not Primal Lightning, at all.

It was the opposite.

Rozeta said, “We’ll have to wait and see, but Benevolence should provide all users with an innate understanding of when bad things will happen, with the degree of feeling directly proportional to the degree of danger of the future event, based on how much overall harm might happen to life in the area. For a normal murder, I suspect Elemental Benevolence won’t give any notice at all except for in the hands of the truly skilled, and possibly only in the hands of someone like Erick.

“Some users will likely use Benevolence to track storms, but I don’t foresee this method being more prevalent than the normal [Future Sight] methodology.

“Users will be able to foresee if some malicious actor decides to cause a storm. Possibly. It’s too early to tell how mortals will use this creation, and [Renew] is still a year away, so that common source of Elemental Benevolence is still out of reach of most people. [Exalted Rain] has a little Benevolence inside, but unless those users are specifically made aware of this then they might not realize that the Exalted in there is actually Benevolence. Many things that look like something else, are actually Benevolence, for Benevolence seems highly capable of masquerading as any number of other Elements. As for Yggdrasil’s twin, the only ones who now know he has Elemental Benevolence inside of him are all of us, Erick, and whoever he decides to tell. I imagine many people will figure this out sooner rather than later, though.”

Sininindi frowned.

She looked to Atunir.

Atunir seemed pleased.

Atunir held out a hand, saying, “I win the bet. Cough up the goods.”

Sininindi slapped a single, completely normal gold coin onto Atunir’s hand, saying, “Technically, he has been and will continue to be monumentally destructive, but he’s also similarly creative. On balance, you did not actually win, and the future has yet to be written.”

“I told you to stay away from him and we’d all be better for it, and now he’s solving an existential problem that continues to worry us, even now. I don’t think any of us like how Benevolence looks but Erick has always had an affinity for lightning, so that explains that. Therefore, I was right; I won the bet. Decades or centuries more do not matter for this.” Atunir smirked as she said, “Don’t be inglorious, Sininindi; it is not a good look on you.”

Sininindi frowned.

Atunir added, “And be nicer to him. Maybe he’ll let you hook up to his [Gate].”

“I would already be able to…” Sininindi frowned, then she lost her frown, and said, “I tried to get my priests to find him after that [Teleport]er incident; to save him! Bah.” She waved a hand. “Ehhh!” She focused. “Rozeta! Tell us of Benevolence scenarios. You have already run some, yes?”

The conversation continued.

They had all already thought that Erick might have been a Wizard, but now they knew.

If they all kept to the covenant then their priests and otherwise wouldn’t know about Erick unless they really paid attention to their spells, or their environs… But that was a long shot.

Koyabez would likely adhere to the covenant. Phagar never told anyone anything, so his reaction to this news was a foregone conclusion, and it was quite possible that he had known of all the day’s events long before Rozeta, and maybe even before Erick and his daughter had fallen to Veird. Atunir… Her clergy would likely find out soon, for they were the closest to the magics that Erick had put out there; specifically, [Exalted Rain]. Her Champion, Yetta, was still out there, so… That was a thing. Atunir would likely directly ally with Erick-as-Wizard. Or at least Yetta would. Maybe.

Sininindi was as wild and unpredictable as her Storm Priests, and she couldn’t keep secrets for shit.

… There was no keeping this secret.

Rozeta had at least one person to personally inform, anyway.

- - - -

Kromolok awoke with a start, coming back together from his bed like an ooze reforming out of a bowl.

Something had—

Rozeta stood in front of him.

Kromolok almost sighed, full of sudden worry, but Rozeta’s expression was one of hope, and surety. Something had happened. Something good.

With a voice full of trepidation, Kromolok asked, “What happened?”

Rozeta’s grin was brighter than the sun. “Erick hasn’t made a [Gate], but he has solved the Sundering problem by creating Elemental Benevolence. I have some concerns over the exact nature of his solution, but it might actually work. The created Concept is mostly beneficial to others, but it has a Dark aspect to it that is close to Destruction, which should be easily malleable into targeted Forgotten Missions. If I’m right, then the job of the Inquisitor just got a lot easier.”

Kromolok sat, stunned.

Rozeta continued, “There will need to be experiments and infrastructure and Erick will need to be involved with all of that, but first we need to get him out of Ar’Cosmos. Draft a letter. Diplomacy might work, but if it does not…” Her brightness turned immutable, and deadly. Rozeta always tried to be a comfortable goddess, but she had a harder side that came out when necessary. “Light and Ash, Kromolok. Light and Ash.”

A familiar weight, like a worn blanket, fell upon Kromolok’s shoulders. “Then that is how it will be.” He stood, asking, “Has Kirginatharp been informed?”

“I will be dealing with him.”

Expected, and yet… Kromolok felt the need to say, “Erick is likely going to ask Ar’Cosmos for assistance in some way, and he might have even solved the Dragon Curse. What will we do when he releases those un-Cursed dragons into the world and looks to them for alliances?”

“If we give those dragons a chance to spread out into the world unchecked then they will take over everything, and a Forgotten Campaign would destroy too much while trying to push them back into Ar’Cosmos.” Rozeta said, “So approach the problem diplomatically, and lay down some rules that they can follow. Feel them out. Don’t be too stringent. They have been keeping their own society in check for a while now, but that was only due to space concerns. If you lift up the heads of houses to proper governmental status then we might be able to work together. That is only if Erick actually goes to them for alliances, though, which he might not do. I want him to ally with the wrought and I want him to ally with Kirginatharp, so depending on whatever they did to him in there and the nature of his mind control, then our goal of Erick-working-with-us might either be easy to achieve, or difficult.” She frowned a little, then lost that emotion, saying, “The full truth is this, Kromolok: Erick is and will always be a danger. But so is every other good person in the world, and I want to trust Erick and this new Elemental Benevolence that he has made. Keep this in mind once you finally get to see that Element for yourself.”

Kromolok had heard similar words from his goddess scant few times before. Each time, Rozeta’s hopes had never come to fruition. Every time, Kromolok had needed to clean up the mess. And yet, he still felt hope that this time might be different. He had taken Erick’s measure many times, and the man seemed a practical Saint.

And yet, Erick was a Wizard, and Rozeta’s final words were a hammer blow to the psyche.

Kromolok took those words to heart, and then he moved on to seeking problems with Rozeta’s ideas, to look for solutions, as was his purpose in life.

Erick was a Wizard that had done too much, in too little time, who had changed how the very world would function going forward. Erick hadn’t created his own [Gate] yet, but after this news Kromolok was sure that [Gate] was only days away. And yet, Melemizargo had never ended Erick’s Worldly Path. The problems Erick churned out just got bigger, and bigger.

And there was one problem that was still on Erick’s list to solve, that he had not solved yet.

“Kirginatharp still has the delegations from Hell and Celes at Oceanside.” Kromolok asked, “Is Erick’s Path truly so large that he is going to solve the Forever War?”

“… Well.” Rozeta said, “There are multiple ways to solve that problem. Erick could pick any of them. Or he could fail. If he tries to actually get both sides to stop fighting then he will likely fail. So… Be prepared for the inevitable.”

Kromolok let that particular thread of the conversation go for there was nothing he could do about that looming danger, and moved onto the next largest question. “What about Melemizargo?”

“I haven’t heard from him. This is worrying, of course. He’ll show up like a wraith when it’s least beneficial. Be ready for that, for that is all any of us can truly do when it comes to the Old God of Magic.”

Kromolok bowed a fraction, saying, “Thy will be done, my Goddess.”

Rozeta nodded. With her message complete, she vanished in a splash of divine, golden fire.

And Kromolok went to work.

- - - -

Dinner was done, and it was Jane’s turn to put away the dishes. The only problem was that plates were already stacked high in the stone cupboard, and there was no room for more. When did they even get this many plates? Must have been Kiri. She liked to go antique shopping. Teressa too, Jane supposed. Well whatever. Jane opened up the other cupboard and began making some room among the cups. There weren’t too many dishes in this particular cupboard, since all the stuff here was the ‘good china’.

Some of the good stuff could be moved around, though. So that is what Jane did—

A cup fell out of the cupboard and smashed into the counter, for Jane’s hands were too full of plates to catch it. The tinkling-crash was loud in the relative quiet of the kitchen.

Jane set down the plates.

And then she stared at the shards, puzzled for a handful of reasons. Why had she not reacted to grab the cup before it could break? She could have with her new aura. Activating her aura was possible outside of the Script Second. With that thought, she opened herself to her prismatic light and her power flowed across her skin. She touched the shards of the cup and [Mend]ed it whole. She jolted.

She recognized the cup. It was a part of a cup and saucer set that her father had gotten months ago, at one of the antiquing excursions that had seemed to become more and more commonplace since then.

Now…

Jane did not believe in signs or portents or omens, but she finished putting away the dishes and, with sweat trickling down her back, she went to find Teressa—

Teressa was currently upstairs, in the middle of the third floor hallway, alone, eyes open as she gazed upward at nothing. Her face was slack while her sight danced with grey light.

Jane’s worries ratcheted up several notches.

Nothing had happened for two weeks since her father had been abducted by the fae, except for the letters from him and all the yelling and talking by a lot of people far above Jane in the political landscape. Jane wasn’t privy to any of that, except when those conversations concerned her and what had happened with the Soul Slime.

Teressa had been looking for Erick’s return on the daily, though.

Jane slowly approached the tall woman, asking, “Teressa? Do you see something? Teressa?”

Where was everyone else? Surely it wasn’t just her and Teressa in the house right now? At this late hour? Had Kiri fucked off somewhere? Maybe she had, actually. Maybe she was talking politics with someone right now. Poi would have gone, too, if there had needed to be talks. Everyone usually did their own thing after dinner, anyway, or pretty much all the time now, actually. Jane kinda missed Nirzir, too, but the princess of Songli had gone back home not seven days ago. It might actually be just Jane and Teressa in the house right now.

Teressa wasn’t answering, but the grey light in her eyes seemed to deepen, and brighten. A book lay at her feet, half opened and on its pages. It was a novel she had been reading. For some reason, she had wandered out here into the hallway and then just… dropped her book to stare at the ceiling, to have a vision.

Jane waited.

And then she couldn’t wait anymore.

“Teressa? Teressa. Teressa.”

No response.

Jane ventured closer and poked the woman in the hand—

She jumped back.

Teressa giggled and sudden tears poured out of her eyes, down the sides of her face. She turned her head to look at Jane and her eyes were still full of grey light, but somehow the grey was diminished, and in its place was white.

She looked happy.

With a voice of pure emotion, Teressa spoke, “I see it all, Jane. A possible future. It’s never been so clear... before.” She pulled back from that brightness. “But… It clouded?” She frowned, and then her emerald eyes came back. She blinked several times in quick succession, then said, “I think… I think Erick will be fine? Maybe. Something happened. Something big.” She looked to Jane. “We need to talk to Poi.”

But Poi never spilled his guts over anything. He wouldn’t even talk to her about the mental impressions he had shown her back during the assault on the soul ooze.

Jane asked, “Specifically, Poi?”

“Yes. He will know more.”

So they went to go find him.

- - - -

All across Ar’Cosmos, in every layer of the city, the mana shifted.

In the depths of Nightly Road, where the land was tight-packed with tenements and tenants both temporary, and who had lived there all their lives. Some of those people had barely breached the higher layers to see Central City, or any of the other parts of Ar’Cosmos. Portals opened in that twisted place, and houses were suddenly split in half. A lucky woman opened the door to her bathroom and saw a storage room filled with gold. She giggled in nervous joy.

Along the causeways of Central Road ten thousand people hawked their wares to any who would buy, and there was always a buyer. The entire world of Veird, as curated by the dragons who lived out there in secret, came here to sell their gains and their creations for chances to rid themselves of their Curse; to join a House, and not have to live in the shadows anymore.

In the middle of all this a river opened up, flowing down from the farmlands.

Chaos flew through Central Road for long moments while houses suddenly appeared on skyways, and skyways suddenly replaced houses. The guards of House Carnage moved fast to reestablish order but they had no idea what was happening, either.

Thieves and opportunists escaped in the flow of change, darting through walls that should have been solid, but which had been replaced by farming fields, and bright, bright sunlight.

The tall skyways of High Road ended in cliffs.

- - - -

A woman with a crown made of her bright red horns, like red stone, gazed across her well-appointed study. She set down her paperwork, for there was a more pertinent problem than payroll. Her study was half missing. Half of her monster trophies were gone somewhere else, for half of her room had been replaced with half of a classroom.

Luckily, Inferno Maw was in that other half of her new room, and so the woman’s bright, bright smile had a better target than the students. The students likely had nothing to do with whatever this was, so good for them. They were already cowering in fear, as was right; uninvolved people needed to get the fuck out of the way when danger happened.

“So what’s all this, then?” Bright Smile asked.

Inferno Maw frowned, narrowing his grey eyes at the division that separated the classroom from Bright Smile’s study. “The rooms are perfectly aligned… Mostly.” He looked to the left, where a broken wall met open air, and wind whistled into both rooms from outside. “Someone was doing Fae-based Wizardry, but the only one I know of who could do that would be Redflame… But he was supposed to wait till tomorrow to try for [Renew]. But even then… This is his [Gate Space]. Whatever this is should not have happened if he caused it.”

Bright Smile finally rose from her chair, smiling all the while. “Shall we go see the man, then?”

Inferno Maw told his class, “Dismissed for the day. Do be diligent with doing your— Ah.” He whispered to himself, “Yes. Fae Magic, then; I was speaking in alliterations.” He turned back to the students, “Don’t forget your bookwork.” He turned to Bright Smile. “Let’s be off.”

Bright Smile gestured in the direction of Redflame’s cliffside mansion, which was directly across the classroom. The problem was that there was most of a classroom and likely many buildings in the way, but they weren’t Bright Smile’s classroom or buildings. With a flick of power a tornado of red light opened a hole directly through Ar’Cosmos, stabilizing the space in a tunnel, opening up a path through to the forest that surrounded Redflame’s home.

Bright Smile stepped into the air, gliding on red Carnage light, into the suddenly-existent tunnel, saying, “Uncle Redflame was supposed to wait for me to see his creation.”

Inferno Maw eyed Bright Smile as he floated alongside her, slightly annoyed that she broke through his classroom. He did not quip at her, though anyone with Sight to see could tell he wanted to. Perhaps he wanted to say ‘of course he didn’t wait for you’, but he did not. Quipping at Illustrious was one thing, but Bright Smile was too serious by far, and she made sure everyone knew that—

They had entered open air, and both of them paused. They stared across the length of Ar’Cosmos, toward their destination.

“I do believe you were correct about Uncle Redflame, Inferno Maw,” Bright Smile said. “He was the cause.”

“Something has happened by your uncle, but Ar’Cosmos wouldn’t react like this to Redflame using Fae Magic.” Inferno Maw said, “That’s not how Fae Magic works."

- - - -

Illustrious Moon stepped out of City Hall, flying fast toward Redflame’s mansion, her ten violet tails stretched out in all directions, propelling her forward. She had already organized her people to repair the damage done, but it was easy to see where the destruction had originated.

Redflame’s white mansion was a wreck of floating white stone and broken towers, like someone had taken a glass-painting of the place and shattered it, and then combined the broken pieces haphazardly with broken glass paintings of all the other layers of Ar’Cosmos. Apartment buildings and farming fields and libraries and walls, all tried to dominate their own spaces, and all failed. Most of the building had crashed down, but a lot of it remained standing due to pure luck.

Or perhaps the lightning was providing structural support?

An unknown lightning filled parts of the sky that were too broken to be anything but rubble. It was iridescent white. It looked like a spell had interacted with Ar’Cosmos in some oddly broken way, but it hadn’t acted from a single source like an explosion; it had done something much odder.

One of the towers was wholly intact and absolutely ringed with the iridescent white light, like lightning frozen in time. Whatever had happened, that was the epicenter. That was where Illustrious needed to go.

And so she did.

While she flew as fast as she could, she counted her luck that whatever had happened wasn’t worse.

Luckily there hadn’t been an actual breach in Ar’Cosmos’s walls. If there had been a breach, then the resident Free Dragons of Ar’Cosmos would already be fighting each other down below, as the Script and their Curse would have returned in full force. Illustrious breathed a sigh of relief that that had not happened.

As she flew toward Redflame’s remaining tower, navigating the broken rest of the city between her and her target, she saw Bright Smile and Inferno Maw already on their way, far to her right. That was good. They were both alive, and that meant this wasn’t an attack.

That had been Illustrious’s first fear; that the outside world was trying to find and retake Erick with force. But if that was what was happening, then assassins would have already been trying to kill her, or Bright Smile, or Inferno Maw, as well. That everyone was alive and… decent, was a good sign.

She would worry about the residents when the crisis was over; other people were on recovery, she was on a warpath. But since she had time and nothing too horrible was happening right now, Illustrious started going down the list of possible reasons for this event.

Redflame could be dead. Assassins might have gone after him and succeeded. Top of the list. Worst possible outcome. Also not likely. Ar’Cosmos was still intact… Mostly.

Redflame could have tried for [Renew] and failed spectacularly… Possible. Likely, even. This option became Illustrious’s primary idea of an explanation.

Fairy Moon could have been struck hard enough to actually permanently injure her. Second worst possible outcome. Near impossible.

Erick did something…

Either Erick did something, or Redflame had fucked up his [Renew] very, very badly. Possibly both.

Illustrious wasn’t exactly prepared to talk to Bright Smile and Inferno Maw about how Erick was a Wizard, so hopefully it was a failed [Renew]. Hopefully, Erick wasn’t involved at all—

And then she reached the tower, seconds after Bright Smile and Inferno Maw. All hope to avoid a conversation about Wizards went out the window. Since nothing was happening aside from what was happening, though, no one spoke right away. They all saw what she saw, and while Inferno Maw was his usual dour self that made Illustrious want to reorganize his house again without him knowing, and while he was inside, Bright Smile’s reaction was less than great. The (relatively) young woman stared, eyes as wide as they could go, as her smile turned full of fangs.

Inferno Maw broke the silence, “I would not have thought Particle Magic to be fake, but I suppose it must be.”

Illustrious responded, “You’re the one that told us that it was real!”

“He’s obviously a powerful Wizard,” Bright Smile said, smiling. “One to help us take over the world.”

Illustrious tried to snip that branch before it could grow much larger, saying, “Fairy Moon is already making a House out of him, and I suspect that’s what this is.”

Inferno Maw and Bright Smile whipped around to Illustrious, both with varying degrees of shock upon their faces. They weren’t heads of house for nothing; quick on the uptake, they were.

Illustrious said, “I’ve known about Erick a while; this is true. I did not expect them to birth the new Element here and now, though, but every time I think I know Fairy Moon I realize I do not. I doubt you’re getting this Wizard, though, Bright Smile. Erick is Fairy Moon’s, and that’s that.”

Inferno Maw was silent; contemplative. He turned back toward the spectacle in front of them.

Bright Smile lost some of the sharpness of her namesake as she, too, turned back to the frozen tableau before them. She said nothing, but Illustrious could tell that the gears of war were turning in her mind. A new House was not a powerful Wizard that she could wield against the enemies of Ar’Cosmos, but it was something. Something important. Perhaps she could use a new House as an ally? Such an addition would send the politics of Ar’Cosmos into a frightful Decay-spiral, though.

Illustrious would have sighed in relief if it wouldn’t have given her away. The potential crisis of Bright Smile had been averted for another day.

Illustrious turned toward the scene, and regarded what she saw.

Time was frozen inside the tower. The tower was intact. Erick and Fairy Moon had met with Redflame for some reason, and if Illustrious had to guess, their meeting would have to have been about [Renew], but also about the strange runic devices sitting on the table between the three of them.

Here and there, iridescent white lightning clung to Erick’s skin, highlighting him as some center of power in a space that looked normal, but which was not normal at all. That lightning barely touched Fairy Moon, but she had reached for Erick, and where she touched his hand, her own hand was blackened and covered in Erick’s lightning. And yet, Fairy Moon had a happy expression on her face.

Redflame’s eyes were very wide. He was outside of the immediate effect.

Maid Maria was far outside of the effect, and protecting herself with a silver tray.

Inferno Maw spoke, “The birth of an Element is not usually so… Timeless.” He added, “I have never actually seen such a birth up close, though.”

Bright Smile said, “Time Magic. We suspected Erick had a connection to a god besides Koyabez. He must have a connection to Phagar. Or he’s just a powerful Wizard and he has taken that power for himself.”

Illustrious said, “It’s Fae-based and Time-based. It’s an anti-Sundering Element. That was the goal as per my understanding.”

Bright Smile lost her smile.

Inferno Maw turned paler than usual.

Illustrious continued, “I doubt we’ll actually get to control this, at all, and it will be complete war if we attempt to control it. Besides, I think Erick was trying to attempt Elemental Benevolence, which I highly doubt will be useful for war, or anything approaching war, at all. Now that we’re at this juncture, though, we should turn Erick back over to the wrought, but not before we demand some nice concessions for this action. I’m thinking of demanding the secret of [Duplicate] from Kirginatharp.” She added, “I think those runic things are [Renew] rings. Not sure, exactly, but I do know Erick made that spell weeks ago.”

Bright Smile’s namesake returned in full force as she opened her face wide. She laughed loud, and greedily.

Inferno Maw turned heavily sarcastic, “Ah. So with this Elemental Benevolence I Sight we’re on Particle Magic version 2— Or is it 3? Ah. Elemental Benevolence is number 3, since he made [Renew] a while ago, as you say, and that one would be world-shift number 2, according to your timeline. Any reason why we’re only finding all this out now?”

“The breakdown of Ar’Cosmos and the fact that these secrets can’t be hidden anymore,” Illustrious said, offhandedly.

“Sure,” Inferno Maw said.

“Sure,” Illustrious responded.

Bright Smile continued to cackle like a madwoman, red light filling the sky all around her.

Two heads of house continued to speak for a while, while the third reveled in the possibilities. Eventually, the third came back down to reality, and took part in the conversation. All three recognized that they had time to kill, and that all current projects were on hold until this event finally resolved in front of them. Other people were already handling the immediate repair of Ar’Cosmos, after all.

Time would resume for Erick, Fairy Moon and her Maid Maria, and Redflame, sooner or later, and possibly more sooner rather than later. If one looked closely, they could already tell that slowly, ever so slowly, the iridescent lightning in the cracks in the sky was slowly retreating, back to the tower, back to their creator. Back to Erick, at the epicenter of it all.

“Oh!” Inferno Maw said, “I nearly forgot Erick’s other world-shifts; Yggdrasil and new worlds, along with Melemizargo’s sanity and the Last Shadow’s Feast of Ar’Kendrithyst.” He nodded to himself, then loudly declared, “I want him gone from Ar’Cosmos at our earliest convenience.”

“I agree.” Illustrious said, “But not before we get something from this.”

“We’ve already gotten everything we’ll ever need. So!” Bright Smile happily said, “Seal Erick and Banish him from Ar’Cosmos. Shove the problem onto someone else, and don’t let him be used against us.”

“I disagree,” Illustrious said, knowing that she had fallen for a trap only after the words had left her mouth. She powered through, anyway, saying, “I know I sent over a briefing on how Erick reacted to the mind control, Bright Smile. We will not be Sealing him, at all.”

Bright Smile’s namesake gained its usual edge. “There was never any way we were ever going to let him leave without some sort of Seal upon his memories. He knows too much, and according to what I see in front of me, he is too much. Therefore we must either enter into some sort of binding agreement with the man, or we must kick him out and make sure he cannot be used against us. According to you, though, kicking him out without his memories is not possible, which means that we must bind him to our goals.” She said, “I say we demand Erick assist Ar’Cosmos by using him to enter into a binding non-aggression agreement with Kirginatharp and the wrought and the Angels and Demons. Now that Uncle has gained [Renew], we will spread out from Ar’Cosmos, as we should, to secure the Surface and secure our destiny among this New Cosmology. We must take up land, and our power must spread. And then, when the time comes, we will take over this entire world, but before that happens we must first gain power.”

Bright Smile was rather smart, and so she had correctly deduced everything that was made possible due to this new development. One did not become the head of a house by being stupid, after all.

But Illustrious had been at this a lot longer than her.

Illustrious kept her face perfectly normal, as though she was considering Bright Smile’s ideas on their own. She said, “I would rather we get [Duplicate] from Kirginatharp and secure and expand Ar’Cosmos with this new power of [Renew], but in addition to that, know this: Erick has plots to take back the Crystal Forest. He needs allies, both because of what he is, and what he can do. He has already spoken about helping us to remove the Curse, and whatever happened here was obviously Erick reaching out to Redflame, which might work out in our favor, depending on how this event finishes. For all these reasons and more, I desire to ally with him in all the ways that matter. Your timeline of inevitable war is not something I agree with, but I do agree that binding agreements with all the other forces out there must happen.”

Bright Smile simply nodded, and turned back toward the intact, time-frozen tower.

Iridescent lightning continued to flow backward, out of the shattered spaces of Ar’Cosmos, into the ephemeral air surrounding Erick, like cold cactus syrup.

Inferno Maw said, “I would prefer to live on the Surface. I would also prefer Kirginatharp to come to the table and help us to remove the Curse that has plagued our people since those two brothers fought. I would prefer no war at all.”

Bright Smile said, “Full dragons exiting from Ar’Cosmos will bring about a world-shift as large as Particle Magic, or [Renew], or the opening of new worlds. They’ll never let us take power like we should, Inferno Maw, and Kirginatharp will never allow the Curse to be lifted. You should content yourself with destroying all who oppose us, as I already have.”

“Diplomacy will be tried before war, Bright Smile,” Inferno Maw said, with as much authority as he deemed necessary. “But what needs to happen first is the fixing of our realm, and our people... If [Renew] works how Redflame wishes it to work.”

“Of course.” Bright Smile said, “And now that there are true options for us outside of Ar’Cosmos, when diplomacy fails, I will be ready to go to war to secure the future of our people. I hope that by that time, you will have come around to my way of thinking.”

Inferno Maw said nothing, his dour face focused forward, on Erick, and Redflame, and Fairy Moon.

The conversation died, for the lightning had mostly retreated. A specter of iridescent radiance still connected Erick to Fairy Moon, but that part seemed the most dense of all the lightning. That spark would likely be the last to go. The retreat of the structural lightning had already caused several parts of the rest of Redflame’s castle to collapse, though, which was a problem.

Illustrious spoke, “Anyone volunteer to hold the tower up so it doesn’t collapse around them?”

Inferno Maw started weaving a spell, saying, “There are other forces out there besides just the wrought and Kirginatharp. There are also the undead kingdoms of the Fractured Citadels. They would demand peace, though.”

Bright Smile grinned brighter, as though she was a shadowcat waiting to pounce.

- - - -

Erick floated in a white room that had no floor, or walls, or ceiling of any kind. It was an endless white space.

Something big had happened.

And now, he was here.

The exact nature of ‘here’ eluded him.

It seemed like a godly space, or something along those lines, but there was no god here. Rozeta’s domain was one of blue sky and clouds, so this wasn’t that. Phagar’s space was whatever normal setting you happened to meet him in, sometimes with the addition of stained-glass-like possible futures hovering in the air all around. Koyabez held court on the surface of the silver moon, with Veird hanging in the sky overhead.

Erick was pretty sure that there weren’t any other gods that were capable of pulling him into—

Erick finally realized. He had been doing something important—

He had been talking to Redflame, telling the man about [Renew] and his own Wizardry, and then Fairy Moon had asked a question about Benevolence…

And then Erick answered?

Yes. He did answer.

And now he was here.

“So where is here?” Erick asked the empty, white expanse. His voice flowed outward, without touching a thing, endlessly vibrating out into the air all around. There was no echo at all. “Hello?”

His words left him and went outward, without reflecting on a single surface. Erick had only ever experienced a similar effect when he was flying high in the sky, and the ground was twenty kilometers away. The sensation of sound just going away and never coming back was an emptiness that was hard to experience unless one went looking for that experience.

He inspected himself next, holding out his hand to see if he had hands, but also because it had only occurred to him to do such inspection at that very moment. His body was there and he was nude for some reason, so that was fun. But more than that, as he saw himself he wondered if he could move through this space like he usually did while flying, and at that thought, he began to move forward.

Thought caused action.

… Thought caused a lot more than action.

A realization and another event occurred the very second he tried to activate his mana sense.

The white world became a jumble of everything and nothing and eternity and oblivion and hopes and dreams and dead drama brought back to life and lightning coursing across his skin as the panes of reality shattered like a stained-glass window. But this was not Phagar’s domain. The only one in this space was Erick.

He was in the mana.

The very moment he realized that, he shut his mana sense off, turning the world back to white, but that wasn’t what had happened at all.

What happened, Erick realized, was that he had only thought his mana sense was responsible for the shattering of the sky. Therefore, turning that sense off caused the sky to return to how it was. But that’s not what had happened at all. Everything was what he wanted it to be; nothing was stable at all.

Erick was inside the mana.

And the mana was possibility.

Erick had no idea why he had his next thought, but as soon as he had it, he knew it to be True. Whatever he demanded to happen next, would happen, and that would be it; his demand would turn real. This timeless moment would be over, and he would be left with the aftermath of his creation.

He could solve anything he wanted to solve.

He could even take himself and Jane back to Earth.

He had seen an image of Earth back when his mana sense was on, and the white world had fractured. There his previous home sat in the far distance, but also close by. Close enough to touch. Close enough to reach. He could even reach all the way back to Spur, to pluck Jane out of that hallway with Teressa, to bring her with him as he took one step through the mana, and landed them both back on Earth.

But.

No.

His home was here. His home was Veird, and Spur, and here.

His problems were here.

And his problems had no easy solutions.

So he spoke the words he had already spoken once before, but slightly different.

His voice was a slow tidal wave that built and built.

“For the good of all, and every individual, we give assistance to those in need and do what we must to prevent apocalypse before it happens, to found and cultivate an evergrowing cycle of less war, less horror, and more hope, for now, and for all always.”

The white room began to fracture, and reorient. Iridescent lightning collected upon constructions that were not there, revealing knots in the future and in the present that had to be untangled before they threatened the whole of creation. Erick could only tell the shape of those threats by the lightning they collected, but all of those threats were so far away that they were more like stars in a night sky, than actual dangers.

— Wait.

Erick had no idea how he knew what he knew, for it was half instinct and half how-he-wanted-it-to-work, but some of those knots were turning points; not ‘dangers’. If they were navigated correctly, then many future knots in the tapestry might vanish completely; many future problems might not exist at all.

With a tiny chuckle, and relief flowing through him, Erick said, “That’s good.”

And then, it was done.

The room turned to light, and lightning, some dissipating, but most retreating back to where it had started; back to Erick’s core, his soul.

- - - -

Erick’s sense of sight and touch and bodily sense and mana sense, all came back, like they had been hidden by an illusion that was more real than reality. He had never shut his eyes, either, so for three moments before everyone else, Erick saw the frozen world all around him. He saw how Fairy Moon had reached for him, for some reason, and now a single spark of iridescent lightning connected her hand to his, which he had left propped out there because he had been explaining things to Redflame.

Her hand was burned to the bone, charred and bloody, like she had stuck her hand into lightning. Maybe that was exactly what she had done. She looked happy, though.

Erick’s hand was fine.

Redflame’s eyes were frozen wide open, in uncertain fear. Maid Maria was behind him, cowering behind a metal tray.

And to the left, beyond three different windows, floated three different people. Erick knew two of them, and the third was easy enough to guess at; Illustrious Moon, Inferno Maw, and a person who could only be Bright Smile. Her namesake was on full display, and Erick thought her ruby-red crown of horns a bit too ostentatious for his liking. Other than that, there seemed to be a distinct family resemblance between her and Redflame—

Something twitched inside Erick’s core and a new sense unfurled across his vision.

In the space of a blink, Erick realized there was something about Bright Smile that he saw even when his eyes were shut. A thin tendril of iridescent white lightning, so thin it might as well not even be there, coiled around the dragon woman’s neck like a living snake the width of a hair. She did not seem to notice the hair-thin lightning.

Bright Smile was a knot of possibility. Tiny. Barely present. But she undoubtedly was, and because of that focus she was a lightning rod in Erick’s sight that demanded attention. The living white lightning even had sparks pointing inward, like an inverted spiked collar. That meant something rather simple, but it was too early to tell the exact meaning.

Fairy Moon had no collar. Redflame had no collar, either. Maid Maria was another normal person to Erick’s sense. Inferno Maw and Illustrious had nothing around them. All of those people had various magical effects happening, from flying spells, to protection spells, but none had white lightning around them. Erick was surprised at that. Whatever this was, and he had his suspicions it was somehow Elemental Benevolence, he would have expected Redflame or Fairy Moon to have a marker of some sort, if only because of their sheer power, or possible influence on future events.

For there was one more lightning manifestation in the room, though it was a lot different from Bright Smile’s.

Thick lightning poured in and out from Erick’s core, filling his mana veins with unseen power, wrapping through him like some sort of Elemental Body. Which it probably was, actually. But it was more than that. If he focused on the lightning at all, he saw the light inside of himself even before he opened his mana sense to truly look. When he used his mana sense to truly see, all the lightning turned absolutely solid.

The meaning behind all that would likely take a while to untangle.

But time had resumed.

Time to face the music. He was a Wizard, and they all knew.