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In a comfortable room with fluffy chairs and a short table, situated atop the northern tower of the Mage Guild, Anhelia laid out tea for Erick and herself in dainty porcelain cups, etched with purple flowers. Poi waited outside, while Kiri and Teressa were still downstairs, in the war rooms.  

Erick said, “Thank you,” as he sipped his tea. It was good, but it was not the plum tea he was used to. It was something else. Something red, that tasted of spices. “This is good. What is it?”

“Spiced ripponfruit.” Anhelia sat down across from Erick and lifted her her cup, saying, “It’s been quite a while since we last spoke of killing Shades, on the veranda at your potato party. You haven’t changed you mind on what needs to be done, have you?”

Right to it, then. Erick sipped his tea, then said, “They deserve to die for what they have done, and what they would do in the future.”

“Good. Many will forget that fact when the war is about to end, and the atrocities have piled high.” Anhelia asked, “Where would you like to start?”

“A bit of history regarding how these things usually go, to give context to what is happening today, and then I’d like to know how to kill a Shade.”

Anhelia nodded. “That is a winding conversation, so let me know when you have a question.” She said, “I’ve gone through this event twenty-three times. A few of these were instant wars. Monsters streaming out through the walls of the Dead City, setting up bases outside, them allowing Spur to be a beachhead against the tide. That sort of thing. Sometimes they burn Spur to the ground first, but they usually avoid killing people who run.” She said, “This avoiding of the innocents is thought to be a way to make future enemies, so don’t go thinking it’s out of honor.

“Other Shade excursions were widespread assassinations throughout the world, causing widespread trouble. All of them ended the same way: Civilization came together to physically destroy the threat. There were variations, of course. A few times, our own assassins were required to kill the masterminds behind the attacks.  

“But in the end, there are always two or ten Shades that are spearheading the effort to conquer the world, and other Shades are willing to take their place as the top monster of the Dead City.  

“Usually, we get ‘help’ from these other, opportunistic Shades, who want to kill the Shades in charge of their excursions. This has always happened, to some degree, at some point in time.

“The Great Purge that took out Spur 104 years ago was the only time that every Shade managed to band together and decide, as a whole, to fight. When Spur was destroyed, the centering idea that held the Shades to a single goal, was shattered. They fell to infighting almost instantly.

“This is why we don’t go after Ar’Kendrithyst, directly, at all. For doing so would cause them to band together and end Spur again. But really, they’d band together and end any threat they deem worthy enough to end.” She asked, “Is that anything you didn’t already know?”

Erick said, “I’ve heard some of what you just said, but not quite like that. Continue, please.”

Anhelia continued, “Right now, and verified through all of my sources, the entire Dead City is working together to make Candlepoint succeed. This is mostly normal, and likely a facade of some sort. They’ll splinter in time if they aren’t already splintered. The existence they’ve focused on this time is different, for sure, but this level of cooperation is not too surprising.  

“In a slightly abnormal way: they’re not going directly to war. This has happened roughly five to eight times in the past.  

“They’re tempting mortals into allying with them. This is completely normal, though the method this time is rather unique.  

“What is very rare, and has only happened once before, is, firstly, that they are creating shadelings that truly appear to be their own persons. This will undoubtedly lead to complications down the road. Are they making generals for a future army? Perhaps. Usually they summon mindless generals, outfitted with all the knowledge that several Shades possess, and send them out to conquer. But they could do shadelings this time, each with their own levels and Status under the Script.  

“No. I don’t know how it’s happening, only that it is. Shades don’t have access to the Script, but these shadelings do. It is odd. But it has happened before.

“One thing to keep in mind is that these shadelings are not slaves. The Script brands people with the Slave sub-Class rather quickly, if they are, and then allows them [Teleport]s away from their slavers, or to get a massive damage bonus against their slavers.

“I mention the slave-[Teleport]-thing because that specific event has happened before. And then those shadelings turned out to be malicious actors, and assassins.  

“So don’t ever trust a shadeling, Erick. No matter what they may look like or how they might speak. Even if they are real people, and not just masks worn by the Shades who made them, they’re people who want you dead. Or worse: a traitor to the rest of the world.”

Erik sipped his tea, listening, realizing, in some way deeper than before, that war was truly coming, and he’d have to kill people. Monstrous people, sure, but still people.  

Anhelia continued, “The other thing that is rather different, but not unheard of, is that Candlepoint’s items are real. Mostly, there are zero side effects.”

Erick frowned. “The sign down there says that opening two new Stats makes a person a shadeling.”

Anhelia said, “That’s not the whole truth. Yesterday, one person survived the transformation and came back to being orcol; a member of the unincorporated Wyrmrest tribes, to the west of Wyrmridge mountains. With the backing of his whole family of wyrm hunters and a reluctant Archmage Syllea, he had enough money to get 2000 darkchips. He then picked Constitution, first, then Dexterity. Others tried to follow in his footsteps and failed. They were turned into shadelings almost instantly. Or, at least that’s what their Status said.  

“They had no rad in their body. They had no urge to do the bidding of any Shade, or anything else that normal shadelings do. They still had normal access to the Script. But they were no longer listed as ‘orcol’; they were listed as ‘shadeling’.

“A Registrar was asked to intervene, and that’s the extent of my knowledge on that front.” Anhelia said, “Archmage Syllea sent the missive containing this information to myself, and several others, in the hopes that I could find a cure. Incidentally, this is also how we know that opening two Stats makes a person a shadeling. I have told others these facts and asked for help, but no one seems to know anything right now. If you wish to pursue this, Archmage Syllea has already promised personal lessons or a vast sum of money to whoever solves the problem.” She added, “I have heard that she owes you a bargain of trade, too, which is another reason I mention this. I do need more information on this, Erick, and you’re in a perfect position to get it for us, if you’re willing.”

“Maybe.” Erick said, “But… So one new Stat does nothing? Besides what it says it does?”

“According to the Registrars. They’re not sure how the new Stats fruits are made or why they turn people into shadelings, only that the fruits exist, they work exactly as they are said to work, and that too many of them turns a person into a shadeling.” Anhelia said, “New races of people pop up from time to time. Usually, through the inventions of summoners. Usually, they don’t last past two or three generations. Maybe these people aren’t actually the shadelings that we know, but are instead a creation of a Shade. Or someone like the Life Binder. It is entirely possible that these ‘shadelings’ are not the ones we know of; that they are just named the same thing in order to cause confusion.” She added, “But that is a low possibility.”

Erick frowned. “Why are people willing to take the chance with Shade magical items?” He instantly answered himself, “Some people are just like that. Obviously. The need for power, and all that.”

“That is a part of it, yes.” Anhelia continued, “Terrible magic items have come out of Ar’Kendrithyst before. Usually the catch is obvious, but that doesn’t stop people from wanting them. This is one of the main reasons why people flock to Ar’Kendrithyst, in the first place. Usually, whatever they find are simple trinkets that are used and then vanish, like Staffs of [Lightning Bolt], or plus-100 Strength belts. One time, someone actually managed to find a Crown of [Meteor Swarm]. I think they went on to fund themselves a title of nobility, over in the Wasteland, long, long ago.  

“These items are created to lure adventurers to the Dead City, to give the Shades their ‘entertainment’.  

“But just as often, people who find these items are found much later, roaming the kendrithyst, transformed into a monster with the cursed item in hand, or on their head, or what have you.  

“But in some cases, the items are very real, with zero side effects.” Anhelia added, “For if the place was pure poison, no one would go, and that is a fact proven time and time again.

“There was one item, years and years ago, known as the Staff of Swords. It allowed the user the ability to effortlessly cast the spell ‘Sword Tide’ by providing the item with mana. Every single stone and metal surface for a hundred meters became slicing swords, for one brief moment, except where the user stood. There were quite a few lesser effects, but that was the main one.  

“The Staff of Swords was an artifact, Erick.

“Of the many true artifacts to ever exist on Veird, the Shades have made nine out of every ten.”

“That Staff of Swords came out of Ar’Kendrithyst when a war on Nelboor spilled across the ocean, into the Greensoil Duchy— Oh. That was the Republic four hundred years ago. Anyway. The Duchy was occupied with their war and all of their up-and-coming adventurers had been killed in several massive battles, and for a very long and complicated reason that was mainly the fault of army quotas, the Shades got antsy without their entertainment, and the Staff of Swords found its way to the hands of a soldier in the Greensoil Army. It turned the tide in their war, at the time. And then it fell into the hands of another.  

“Thousands of people died on hundreds of battlefields, for the Staff of Swords turned almost any middling mage into an archmage. The Staff of Swords is either somewhere in Nelboor, still causing havoc, or laying in some crypt somewhere; I know nothing more about that.

“The point is that the Shades make awful items that instantly kill people and turn them into monsters, and they also make items that cause utter chaos.

“Candlepoint appears to be the second case. They’re real items. They have some unknown drawback that even Registrars can’t tell is a drawback. We don’t know much beyond that.” She sipped her tea.

Erick asked, “So how do you kill a Shade?”

Anhelia nodded. She said, “Shades are constantly surrounded by shadows and under the effects of [Shadowalk] that costs them nothing to use. This means that you must either overpower them with light to turn them solid and then kill them, somehow lure them into an antirhine trap, or fight them on their own turf and win. The first is easier said than done. The second has happened a handful of times, and never on purpose, but the Shades experiment with everything, and there is a fair bit of antirhine in there, so, it happens. The third is by far the most usual method.  

“A combination of 1 and 3 is the best way. Have attacks that combine light, but strike from the shadows.”

Erick asked, “Can they [Cleanse]?”

“Oh?” Anhelia paused, then asked, “What were you thinking? Poison? Or…?”

“Poison.”

“It will work, but not well. [Cleanse] is a very special spell, given to us by the gods, so the Shades don’t have access, but they have other ways to do the same thing. But besides that, their shadowy bodies prevent them from being poisoned; they don’t have actual biology. Parasites, though. Those will give them some trouble, but not enough to count in a fight.” She added, “Maybe if you had some light-infused parasites, they might be able to burrow into the Shades and stop them from [Shadowalk]ing away. That is worth investigating; it hasn’t been done in a long time, so they wouldn’t expect it. Shadowflesh is easy enough to come by, but you would need shadowflesh from a Shade, and that would be much more difficult.”

Erick let that go, for now. He’d invent his theoretical gamma ray cloudkill spell, anyway, because it’d be useful in other ways. He asked, “What does a fight look like between a Shade, and say, Killzone?”

“Usually, Killzone just slaps the misbehaving Shade around while they try to fight back, but can’t, and the other Shades look on, laughing.” Anhelia added, “By ‘slapping’ I mean punching hard enough to have the offending Shade fly through a ten-meter wide kendrithyst tower. There’s also the slapping away of any magic used against him, and him using his arms like dull swords, that somehow still manage to cut. Also, constant battlefield movement. He perfected his [Shadowalk] long, long ago. I still remember when he was a young kid, fresh from the Geodes, but even then, he was a prodigy.  

“You can’t hope to fight like him, and more than two Shades will still put Killzone on the back foot.”

Erick asked, “How about Extreme Light?”

Anhelia asked, “You mean like how Toxic Hydras destroy magic?”

That wasn’t what Erick meant, but that was a good question, too. He said, “Yes.”

“A variation of using antirhine. It works, but not well.” Anhelia frowned. “But you meant something else, don’t you?”

“Poisonous light.” Erick said, “Like the blacklight I gave to you, but on a much larger scale. Imbuing Decay into Light. That sort of thing.”

Anhelia shook her head, then paused. “… Maybe. I’m sure you could try with some… Mana Altering for Decay on an Aurify’d [Force Bomb]… With Alterings for Light damage? Maybe.” She continued, “But you have time to work on your magic. The largest point of failure in your assistance with this war, is your high profile.” Anhelia said, “I hate to say it, Erick, but you live in a very exposed and exploitable location.”

“… I’m not becoming a hermit.” Erick said, “That seems rather foolish, especially now.”

Anhelia smiled. “Yes. It would be rather foolish. But you must know your weaknesses going forward, for they will be used against you. But by the same turn, your unwillingness to be a hermit is a great boon. You have the ability to easily gather allies, since you have already worked with people who would seem your racial enemy.” She added, “I must say, the Magisterium was rather happy with your work, according to my sources.” She said, “Now, you just have to do that for everyone in the world, picking up pledges of service, and the rest of this will go rather smoothly, up until the end.”

Erick felt his stomach drop. He didn’t want to, but he asked, “What does the end of this conflict look like?”

Anhelia said, “Whatever happens going forward, the groundwork must be laid now, for once we do push them back to the Dead City, the rest of the world will decide that is enough. It has happened before, and it will happen again. I have failed 22 times in pushing farther forward. I’ve had archmages back out on me. I’ve had smaller nations back out on me. Outpost always helps, but they always back out, too. And in the interest of full disclosure, when archmages step into the fight, they are always targeted by the Shades.  

“In the interest of further disclosure, Melemizargo constantly spies on anyone who works magic well, and this certainly includes every archmage. He will know your weaknesses, and the Shades will exploit your weaknesses.” Anhelia’s dark metal eyes seemed to hold great pain, as she said, “He will certainly know of you, and everything that gives you the will to live.”

“Yeah. I… I got that part.”

“This is what it comes down to:” Anhelia spoke from hard hitting experience, “In the war, at the end, there will be a moment, where the world could turn back, leaving the Shades to their Dead City, or face forward and end the threat. One of the Shades might offer a truce, and it will be real. A different Shade might reach up and murder those behind this recent expansion, and then ask for a truce. This, too, will be real. This is how a war with the Shades usually ends. This ending has taken a dozen different forms in these last eight centuries I have been a part of Spur, and each time, the world flinches. They are offered peace, and they accept. They feel they have done enough. So the war ends. Nations retreat to their corners, and the Shades are left to themselves, to lick their wounds and try again next time.

“But it won’t end that way, this time. You and I, Erick, we know the evil of the Shades. The other archmages of Spur are Silverite’s creatures, and they are complacent defenders. But this is not who you are. You and I know what must be done, so we cannot let the war end there.

“And this is what you can do:

“There will be a moment, after the archmages are finally loosed to join the fight against Ar’Kendrithyst, when half of them are dead and the nations rally, when the Crystal Forest is a smoldering crater and maybe Spur is destroyed, or maybe not, and everyone is scattered to the wind and all of our collective intent is aimed at destroying the Shades, something will happen. The exact nature changes each time, but each time it is the same: the Shades will threaten mutual destruction. They will not be lying. They only speak the horrible truth. It is in this moment that you must flood that city with every single high ranking spell you have.

“It must be a bloodbath. Annihilation to a degree never before seen.

“And with that action, the surviving Shades will band together and attack, and civilization will be forced to do the same.

“The beast will appear. Melemizargo will come.  

“There will be another window; another chance at peace. Gods will involve themselves. Peace will be attempted by the weak hearted, but peace must be cast aside.  

“Because I won’t let it end there,” Anhelia spoke with a depth to her voice, “Because this time I am going to do what needs to be done, far ahead of that fated day.” Anhelia’s fire retreated, as she said, “But you needn’t worry about that part.”

Erick got the distinct feeling that if he knew what Anhelia planned to do, that he would disapprove. So he did not ask her to elaborate. The mood was too heavy, and Anhelia’s cold anger was too serious.

So Erick attempted a joke. He smiled, and tried, “Or they could kill us all tomorrow?”

Anhelia paused. For one long moment, she was unmoored. And then the metal around her eyes crinkled, as her lips parted. She smiled, then laughed. It was a real laugh.

“But seriously though.” As she laughed, Erick asked, “Got any good ideas for killing spells against Shades?”

Anhelia laughed for a little bit more, as she tried to say, “Yes. Yes. I have lots of known good combinations.” She calmed. She said, “And since we’re in this together, I won’t even charge you.”

Erick smiled.  

“You almost laughed!” Anhelia admitted, “It wasn’t a very good joke. I got too serious, there. Anyway… I finished making all my magic a long, long time ago, but I do know of some of the better Shade-killing spells.” She reached down to the table between them, and pulled out a hidden compartment. A thin book laid inside. She handed the book to Erick, saying, “They’re in there and the good ones are the three in front, but let’s talk about them.”

Erick took the thin book, and flipped a little way through. It was a compiled breakdown of several stronger spells, along with the math he had often seen elsewhere, and higher-level overviews of those spells. He glanced at the first one. It was something called [Shattering Light], that was useful for destroying structures and shadowy monsters. The next was for a summon to flood the battlefield with anti-shadow lightballs, called [Radiant Wisp]; it was a crowd control spell best used against shadow monsters. Erick flipped to the third one, and said, “Oh. I was thinking of something like this.”

Anhelia glanced over. “[Carving Radiance] is probably the best one there.”

- - - -

Poi stood strong, stationed at the top of a staircase, in front of the door to Anhelia’s tea room, unintentionally listening in to the verbal and nonverbal conversation happening behind his back. The room was [Ward]ed against most conventional means of spying, and Anhelia was well trained to keep her thoughts to herself, but that couldn’t stop Poi. Poi couldn’t really stop himself from listening in, anyway, even if he wanted to.

He found himself wishing Anhelia well.  

She would fail, but maybe not completely. Maybe she could strike a smaller blow than killing the Dark Dragon. Maybe her plot would kill all the Shades, and with Melemizargo’s clergy gone, he would lose power. It was widely speculated that if a god were to lose all their clergy and their believers, then they would begin to die, themselves, but no one really knew if that were true, or not.

Poi paused his own thoughts.  

He almost laughed.  

Look at him! Thinking about how to kill a god! That was like planning to stop the moons from rising, or Veird from turning. Crazy thoughts. Intrusive thoughts, maybe. Truly foolish, too, but foolish in the way of dreams. Even aiming for them, knowing they were impossible, might get you closer to your ideal life, and if anything was worth pursuing, it was that. But killing Shades was nasty business, full of consequences—

Kiri interrupted Poi’s thoughts, sending, ‘Is he done yet?’

Poi sent back, ‘He’ll be a while. Go on home, if you wish.’

‘We’ll do that, then. See you later.’

- - - -

With the sun shining outside, Erick wrote on a blackboard in the empty third floor room.

–

Shattering Light

(t1)[Force Bomb] + (t1)[Force Wave] = (t2)[Prime Area] (goal of designating an area as under your intent)(most difficult part, since force spells want to do damage)

(t2)[Prime Area] + (t1)Mana Alter: Light = (t3)[Light Shift] (goal of priming an area with your intentioned light)(second most difficult part)

(t1)[Force Shrapnel] + (t1)Mana Alter: Light = (t2)[Broken Light]

(t3)[Light Shift] + (t2)[Broken Light] (goal of making shrapnel at the location) = (t4)[Breaking Light]

(t4)[Breaking Light] + (t1)Mana Shaping, 500 (for deeper soaking of intent and range) + (t1)[Lightshape] (for ripping it all apart) = (t5)[Shattering Light]

–  

[Radiant Wisp]

(t1)[Conjure Force Elemental] + (t1)Mana Alter: Light + (t1)[Lightshape] = (t2)[Summon Bright Wisp]  

(t2)[Summon Bright Wisp] + (t1)[Shadowshape] = (t3)[Radiant Wisp]

–

[Carving Radiance]

(t1)[Force Bomb] + (t1)[Force Wave] = (t2)[Prime Area] (goal of designating an area as under your intent)(most difficult part, since force spells want to do damage)

(t1)[Force Beam] + (t1)Mana Alter: Fire + (t1)Mana Alter: Light = (t2)[Firelight Beam]

(t2)[Firelight Beam] + (t1)[Force Bomb] (careful to make the spell explode at the end of the beam, not at the beginning!) = (t3)[Firelight Exploder]

(t2)[Prime Area] + (t1)Mana Alter: Fire + (t1)Mana Alter: Light = (t3)[Land of Firelight]

(t3)[Firelight Exploder] + (t3)[Land of Firelight] = (t4)[Carving Radiance]

+ Mana Shaping as needed for longer range. You want longer range.

–

Erick looked over the board and said to himself, “Multiple uses of multiple spells at the same time… Difficult, but I guess that’s what archmages do.” He added, “And a tier 3 summon is rather close to sapience. But I’ll need soldiers. A way to even the battlefield.” He glanced over to an empty board and then to Ophiel, sitting on a stand. “And I think I need another one of you. What kind of brother or sister would you like?”

Ophiel responded with a confused guitar strum and a hopeful harp twang.  

Erick asked, “[Fireshape]?”

Dismissive cellos.  

“Not that, then. I don’t want to burn myself, either. How about [Watershape]?”

Guitars and violins.  

“Closer to the right choice. But we are in the middle of a desert, so that might be a bit cruel. But. Eh. I could just give them [Call Lightning] and tell them to play outside of Spur.” Erick offered, “[Lightshape]?”

More confused guitars.

“Something else entirely?” Erick paused. He said, “How about [Identify]? A bookish [Familiar]?” With Ophiel’s flute-ish squawk, that was a ‘no’. Erick thought for a moment, then said, “Maybe… later. If that would work, at all.” Erick offered, “[Metalshape]? It’s tier 2, though. 10 days to a redo if it fails.”

Another squawk, harsher, this time.

“Fine fine. You’re right. But I really like the idea of a bookish [Familiar]. Maybe later— Oh! Maybe I can create a computer [Familiar], with [Identify] and [Metalshape]? That’d be something.”

Ophiel didn’t bother to respond.

“How about—” He paused. He had an idea.

It was a really good idea. Not very practical, but the idea itself seemed to latch onto Erick and not let go. He left the third floor room, Ophiel floating behind, and rushed downstairs to his library. He scanned the shelves for a moment, before plucking out the correct book, ‘Shaping Magic and the Novice Mage’.

When he was first starting out, Erick had bought [Metalshape] for a point. Looking back on that moment, he had made the hasty choice, but it was fine. [Metalshape] was a middle-of-the-road tier 2 spell. Not too good, not that bad; a fine choice to just purchase, if you had the points. Erick had worked quite a bit with metal since then, so he never regretted spending that point.  

But sometime since then he had decided that it was frivolous to spend points like that. He was a mage. He should make his own spells, be they Particle magic or any other. The Shaping line of spells was no exception. Erick just… hadn’t done much with this magic besides using the base spells…

He did use the base Shaping spells practically all the time, though.  

“Ah ha,” Erick said, finding what he was looking for. “The known Shaping spells. [Woodshape] is [Watershape] plus [Grow]. But. Hmm.” He said to the Ophiel on his shoulder, “We don’t want the basic spell. We want [Treeshape], you see, and that is a bit more difficult.” Erick turned the page. There, taking up the whole page, was a diagram of a glowing tree that stood above all others. “And this is pretty cool, too. [Watershape] and [Grow] for [Treeshape], and then you add [Lightshape], to make [Tree of Light].” Erick read from the book, “[Tree of Light]: a long lasting spell to enchant a tree with ability to heal itself and its surroundings. Spell can last years if undisturbed.”

Ophiel gave a tiny, unsure violin sound.  

Erick smiled. “Well of course we’re not going to do it that way. I don’t want sentience, and if it fails I’d have to wait a hundred days to try again.” He looked down at the page, saying “So we’re going to try for the whole thing, all at once. Six spells; but only tier 2! Aha! Wouldn’t that be cool?” He paused. He looked down at the book. He asked himself, “But how deep does this rabbit hole go?” He flipped a few more pages over, reading, mumbling, “Maybe I should slow down a little and think about what I want out of a second [Familiar]… Something stable and defensive… for sure… So trees are a good idea, Ophiel, despite your reluctance. Besides! What’s wrong with having a tree for a brother or sister?”

Ophiel spat out a short flute sound.

“Yes, yes. You’re probably right.”

Erick sat down in the chair beside his bookshelves, and read. Eventually, he moved on to a second book, and then a third. Tree [Familiar]s were actually quite common, for those who planned on staying in one location for a long time.  

Kiri showed up with a pot of coftea, and offered Erick a mug. “Afternoon coftea?”

“Oh!” Erick took the mug, saying, “Thank you, Kiri.” He sipped the coftea, and the bitter flavor perked him right up. He breathed deep the smell, and said, “I love the smell of coftea.” He asked, “Have you gotten the chance to look at the spell recipes upstairs?”

Kiri smiled, as she sat down across from Erick, holding her own cup and saying, “Yes. I did. But what are you working on, now?”

“Another [Familiar].” Erick held up his current book; ‘Druid Rites’. “I’m looking up tree magic.”

Kiri scrunched her face. “A tree [Familiar]? Seems kind of… stationary.”

Erick paused. “Yeah… but… Oh? Could I make it with [Teleport], too?” He exclaimed, “Or [Gate]! OH! Maybe I should make a [Familiar] with [Gate]! I could have a whole bunch of linking trees—” Erick set down his book, saying, “I gotta go see Fork before it gets much later.”

- - - -

Fork sat behind his desk, looking at Erick’s Quest Completion box for [Teleport]. His brown eyebrow scales pinched together, as he frowned a little.  

Erick asked, “Problem?”

“Yes and no.” Fork dismissed the box, then laid his hands together, and sighed. “Sorry. I was not ready for this. I have met several archmages in my time, and each time they pull off feats of magic that seem impossible… It is surprising each time it happens.”

Erick glanced over to Poi, to see the man school away a smile.

Fork continued, “I don’t have access to the Quest for [Gate], as I have said before. I will get this information into your hands as soon as I can, but even as the master of a Guildhouse this will still take me a week. There’s bureaucracy to check off, you understand. This knowledge is not just lying around anywhere for anyone to look at, and because of that bureaucracy, the paperwork is also not complete. The lawyer should be done with it in a few hours, so I will ask her to hurry up, if that is alright with you. I can have it dropped off at your house, if you wish.”

Erick said, “I need to get a lawyer, too, so I’m not really ready for the paperwork, either. But if you trust me, then I’ll trust you, and we can start working on the theory right now. Or maybe just an overview.”

Fork thought for a moment. He said, “Okay. Here’s most of my understanding of the non-divine [Gate].” He continued, “[Gate] is the decrease of distance between point A and B, without interfering with the space between those two points, such that anyone can travel through this clipped space. The activation of the spell is between 500 and 2500 mana, with a Variable component of between 100 and 1000 mana per 1000 kilometers between [Gate]s. It has a ‘well’ of power that is used up as people or objects travel through the [Gate]. Air travels through the [Gate], so a large differential in altitude means natural air pressure will kill the spell early; I always thought that piece of information quite important, but I’m not sure. And finally: [Gate] is only usable between two locations that the user knows very well. It is a Basic Tier spell.” He added, “That’s all I know.”

“That’s more than I knew.” Erick asked, “The divine version is different, I assume?”

“Yes. Fundamentally.” Fork said, “Champion Yetta used [Gate] to get around, but she’s no mage, so I assume the cost was paid entirely by Atunir, bless the harvest.”

Erick almost said something, but his train of thought derailed with Fork’s casual prayer. Instead, he said, “I haven’t had much experience with the gods, but Yetta and Atunir did a lot of good work fighting the Daydropper, and Planter. You know, I tried to give them some enchanted—” He paused. He said, “They took a lot of my enchanted gear with them into the Dead City, courtesy of the Army, but when I tried to give them more afterward, they had to break it to keep their contracts with Portal and Caradogh.”  

Fork smiled sadly. “That was a nasty business, all around. I was sorry to see the Farms go. It was nice to visit an actual temple to Atunir without needing to travel to another city.” He said, “The Interfaith Church is acceptable, but not where I go.”

That reminded Erick. He needed to send a care package to Yetta.  

And to Jane, too!  

Erick asked, “So the rest of your understanding of [Gate] will come when the paperwork is finalized?”

“Yes.” Fork added, “It would be better that way, if you don’t mind. I’ve already broken ranks with the Guild for telling you as much as I have, but time will prove my decisions as correct.”

Erick said, “There’s no need to send the paperwork to my house. Just tell me when you get clearance for the actual [Gate] information, and then we can deal with the lawyers.”

Fork frowned a little, as he said, “That’s not what we agreed upon.”

“I understand. And we’re working well together. But if I have to deal with an organization to get information, I want to know that the information will be made available for me before I sign any binding paperwork.”

“The Wayfarer’s Guild would never do such an underhanded—”

“I wouldn’t think you would. But now you’re telling me that you’ve broken ranks with your guild to speak to me like this, and that is worrying. I’ve known many stories of people who sell the rights to something, thinking that it will get used for everyone, only for that information to get locked up in a vault and never seen again.” Erick added, “I wouldn’t want some higher-ups deciding that they don’t like the idea of a [Gate] network and them locking me in to giving them financial control, while they decide to not assist in the creation. I’m sure it would be rather legal for them to do so, too, and then what recourse do I have?”

Fork was frowning, but now he paled, his brown scales turning bronze. He said, “No one would want do to that to you.”

“Very good.” Erick said, “So let’s continue when such an event is sure to not occur.”

- - - -

Over the next few days, Erick rained as needed, made rings, and prepared to make magic.  

Fork had yet to get back to him with clearance for the Wayfarer’s [Gate] information, but a runner dropped the paperwork off, anyway. Erick read it over, and everything seemed aboveboard and easy to understand, but he still wasn’t going to sign it until he got his own lawyer to read it, and the Wayfarer’s Guild showed a willingness to help produce Gate.

Erick went to the Courthouse and spoke to some lawyers. Mostly, they seemed okay.  

When he was in the middle of speaking to some incani who sweated as he read the paperwork, Silverite and Hera came into the room. Hera would be his lawyer, if he wished. The incani man just mumbled a ‘thank you’ before rushing away.  

That was… fine? Probably? Yeah sure. That was fine. Erick liked yellowscale Hera. She had done right by him with the payments from the Farm and otherwise. This was good.  

The paperwork turned out to be perfectly fine as a boilerplate for non disclosure agreements meant for future interactions. It even had an ‘out’ for Erick, if the Wayfarer’s Guild chose to sit on their [Gate] and never use it. So Erick signed the paperwork and sent it to Fork.

Fork was happy to take the paperwork and report that the ‘Remote Offices’ were excited, and their collected information on [Gate] should be arriving shortly.

Erick talked to Phagar twice, ensuring that his own ideas for Particle spells were sound, and yes, they were.

He even started to channel Mana and Health into the Ability Slot increase quest, when he wanted a break. It was not relaxing, in the slightest. He couldn’t simply pump his resources into the blue box, in 7400 Mana and 2000 Health increments. He had to forcefully channel his Regeneration into the blue box, and the blue box soaked up his resources like a man dying of thirst, who was already full of water. It was a task to force mana into this Quest; it was not fun.

At the end of his first hour, Erick was sweating. Somewhere in his second hour, he fell asleep; exhausted. After a short nap, he woke, and tried setting Ophiel to channeling Mana into the blue box, but that just didn’t work. Ophiel squawked, and Quest remained at 95,223/100,000,000.

He tried channeling Health only and then Mana only, just to see if that was easier, and it was. He even stepped outside of his house, outside of the Restful dense air, and channeled his normally regenerating resources into the Quest. This was still a task; it was not like flipping on an aura, at all. But it was easier than before.  

But it would take soooo much longer.

--

Ability Slot Increase Quest!

10 Points

OR

95,257/100,000,000 Mana and/or Health

--

… Spending 10 points to just complete the Quest looked mighty attractive. He could not imagine doing this for… 1650 more hours, or whatever it was. It was somewhere around there. And that was the ‘at Rest’ number! The normal Quest time, without a Restful area, was 1,666 days! FULL DAYS! 24 hours of constant channeling!

But Erick had another way to gain points.

So he was maybe just going to do that.

- - - -

In the first of what would undoubtedly be a lot of experimental magic, Erick stood under the bright blue sky, on a floating platform, above a sandy nowhere in the Crystal Forest, and cast his protective spells. First, an Ophiel expended themselves to cast a [Prismatic Ward] over the platform. And then, with a twist of his hand and a thoroughly thought out intention, Erick surrounded himself, Poi, and Kiri, with a lightmask that cut out all light outside of the visible spectrum. The only hint that anything had changed, was that the sun seemed a little colder, and the sky a little darker.  

A blue box popped up.

--

Lightmask, instant, close range, 50 mana

Deny all harmful light in an area.

--

Erick smiled at the box, saying, "Ha. It made a spell that time," then dismissed it. He walked to the edge of the platform, to the edge of the lightmask —he wasn’t about to start calling it [Lightmask]— and put his hand just outside the space. He steadied himself, as he aimed at a stone tower a hundred yards away and twenty yards down. He had shaped that tower and a few others with another Ophiel, a little bit ago.  

And then, it was time. He had prepared. He had secured himself. Erick emptied his mind of all outside thoughts, then filled himself with a goal.

He thought of the horrors he had seen, and the pain he had witnessed. Of mutated people rescued from Ar’Kendrithyst. Of Jane, sleeping off a curse laid down millennia ago that was created to chop down dragons. Of darkness overwhelming, and the need for a brighter future. Of where the world was, and how everything was cyclical, because no one could break the darkness. But there was still hope out there.  

A candle held against the storm.

It was time to make that candle shine.  

Erick called to the day, to the mana, to life itself, hoping to break what deserved breaking,

“A radiant sight to sunder the night, a time of stars brought down to fight!

“Power dances an endless turn as brilliance catches fire and yearns  

“for radiant sights to sunder the night; a time of stars brought down to fight!

“A pearl set hard, a focus kept, a track laid down, and darkness wept: [Burn].”

Time seemed to stand still, as a tiny white dot formed in front of Erick’s outstretched hand.

That dot blossomed forward, becoming a line of white radiance, barely visible in the day, that swept forward. Where the light touched the stone towers, it carved and burned, lopping off tops and spilling the remnants into fire, as Erick dragged the spell across the ground, carving and burning and splashing droplets of lava at his discretion. His hand felt hot, but barely. The light had been trained forward. After a short forever, the spell ended, like a smokeless candle snuffed. Blackened lava cooled in its wake; a line of darkness drawn on a desert canvas.  

Erick promptly fell on his ass as Poi tapped him with the rod of [Treat Wounds].  

Kiri shouted, “What the FUCK was that!” She pointed, “Was that the Red Dot!?”

Erick chuckled as he got back to his feet. A few boxes appeared. There was the ‘congratulations for making a new Basic spell’, box, of course. And then there were the others.  

--

Luminous Beam 1, instant, super long range, 500 mana

Conjure a coruscating, tightly controlled plume of severing light that deals <massive damage> and lasts for <1 second>.

Particle Mage Only.

--

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script.

+3 ability points.

--

The name I picked is obviously wrong considering what the spell does, but I’m keeping it that way. ~Rozeta

--

Erick joked, “It wasn’t the Red Dot, because it was white, Kiri.”

Kiri nervously chuckled, as she looked on across the wake of the spell.  

Erick added, “And it only lasted a second. Seemed a lot longer— Oh.” He looked at the spell box again. “Level 3 already, so it lasts 2 seconds. Pattern of one more second every other level? Still no Red Dot, though.” He asked Poi, “What magnitude was that?”

Poi instantly said, “Seven. Same as [Call Lightning].”

Erick smiled. It was nice when Poi could just answer the question. He asked, “What about the rest of my spells? Any of them been higher than seven?”

“No.”

Erick paused. “Really?”  

“Really.”

“Then I got to keep going! Bigger, stronger, better!” He added, “But first! Those normal Script spells, just to see the difference.”

- - - -

Ophiel remade the severed stone towers, as Erick practiced on the ground.

He held out his hand and channeled [Force Bomb]. A cascading ball of white light appeared in his hand; like an illusion of an explosion. It sounded of something pure and singular.

[Force Wave] looked like a pulse of expanding light, that crashed against his skin to create more ripples in the air. It sounded like a muted gong; a traveling noise. A change that radiates.

Erick switched back and forth between the two spells, trying to hear for ‘intent’. [Prime Area] was crucial to both [Shattering Light] and [Carving Radiance], and many other spells besides those, according to his recent research. As he listened to the spells, he heard how to make them combine into something highly damaging, but the ‘soaking of intent’ was something else. Something not easily garnered.  

He kept trying. Somewhere in his own attempts, Kiri began channeling the same spells through her own hands, ten-or-so meters away. Ophiel and Sunny played with each other in the sky, alternatively chasing each other. Sometimes Sunny would turn clear, to ambush Ophiel, and Ophiel would turn into light, with [Lightwalk], and return the favor.  

Erick moved on to other, more easily visible intentions. [Telepathy] was pure intention, it seemed. Channeling mana through that spell produced a tangle of white streamers with meter long intentioned air whipping and cracking outward. He switched back to [Force Bomb] and [Force Wave], and resumed his search.  

And then he remembered his [Detect Intent Aura]. He could have kicked himself. He turned his aura on, and the world was like an ocean, while Erick, Kiri, Poi, Sunny, and Ophiel, were minor snowstorms.  

Channeling mana through [Force Bomb] was like having double vision. The white explosion of light was mirrored with another layer of power directly on top of the first. Erick focused on that unseen layer.  

After another half an hour, he had separated that layer from the original; expanded it by a fraction larger than original white.  

Erick played around with the spell. He eventually found success when he channeled the barest bit of mana into the spell; one point every second. It sounded nothing like the pure notes he was used to seeing, but it worked to see intent, without the mana glow obscuring it all.  

He held an invisible explosion on his hand that was only visible with his [Detect Intent Aura] active.  

He tried the same with [Force Wave], and found great success. A ring of expanded power gong from Erick’s hand and crashed in every direction. [Force Wave] was the foundation for almost all scanning magic, so that made sense that the resulting intent of the spell was much larger than normal. Almost all of [Force Wave] was intent.  

Erick smiled, as he said to himself, “[Force Bomb] is like a mallet that will trigger a [Force Wave] gong in an area, to soak the mana in that location with intent, to make it more responsive.” He smiled, saying, “Magic is just so awesome.”

He pointed at the remade stone tower in the distance, focused on what he wanted, and cast.

[Force Bomb]. [Force Wave].

A nearly-invisible point of white light shot forward to strike the tower with a silent explosion. Whatever change happened over there was out of Erick’s sight, and way too far for [Detect Intent Aura] to function, but a blue box appeared, confirming that he had done it correctly.

--

Prime Area, instant, long range, 70 MP

Designate a large area as under your influence. For 1 minute, your spells are heightened and others are lessened.  

--

Erick said, “Now! The big question: Is that the good version?” He looked up [Prime Area] in the Script.

--

Prime Area, instant, self, 100 MP

Designate a small area around you as under your influence.  

--

“Oh yeah. That’s the good version.” Erick called over, “Kiri! How’s your magic going?”

Kiri’s eyes looked into nothing. Erick looked up. Sunny was gone. Ophiel was gone—

Nope. Ophiel was floating over by the stone tower, next to Sunny. Erick slipped his senses into Ophiel and turned on [Detect Intent Aura]. From his vantage point above, the entire stone tower was awash in bright white intent, like a fog holding in the air. Wind from the north rolled the mana down south, like a moving sea that rubbed against Erick’s intent like waves washing over a sand castle. It wouldn’t be long until Erick’s magic was destroyed by natural forces.  

Erick came back to himself.  

Kiri called out, asking, “[Force Bomb] is the mallet, eh?”

“I guess!”

Erick moved on to the next part of the spell.  

Mana Alter had a lot of parts to that blue box.  

--

Mana Altering X

Bludgeon, Slash, of Piercing Damage

Force to Light, Blinding, Variable Cost

Invisible Force, Variable Cost

Force to Thunder, Disorient, Variable Cost

Force to Fire, Burn, Variable Cost

Force to Ice, Slow, Variable Cost

Force to Lightning, Paralyze, Variable Cost

Force to Decay, organic damage, Variable Cost x1.5

Chain, Variable Cost x2

Combine Effects, Variable Cost x3

Generate new effects. Variable Cost

Requirements: 10 Willpower

--

All of the parts of the Skill were for transforming Force into something else. This was normal. Force was one of the most blank-slate parts of magic. But according to what Erick had just seen, Force was also what came after intent.  

Maybe Erick had that wrong. Maybe he did not. But the point was, was that Mana Altering a spell like [Prime Area] into Light, as the recipe called for, seemed like it was missing a step. You could only alter Force into Light, right? Not intent into light? Or had Erick, by virtue of casting a ‘blank’ spell like [Prime Area], made a different sort of Force spell?

Oh. Wait. Yup. That’s exactly what he had done.  

Back to experimenting!  

He channeled mana through the Light part of Mana Altering, and immediately blinded himself as his hand flashed to brilliance. He yelped and turned away, cutting off the flow of mana. After a moment, when his eyes cleared of bright dots, he turned on [Lightwalk], and tried again. He couldn’t be blinded as a person made of light, after all.  

There was an immediate complication.  

He couldn’t rightly channel mana through his hand like this; he had no hand to channel through, just the facsimile of a hand. And when he did try to channel mana, all he got was brighter. He could still cast his other spells in [Lightwalk] form, and spells like [Force Beam] still came out of where his ‘hand’ was, but using [Lightwalk] was obviously not a solution to the blinding problem of light magic. He dropped [Lightwalk] and conjured a lightmask on the upper button of his shirt, encapsulating his head, to block out half of all light.  

This time, channeling mana through Mana Altering: Light produced a brilliant spill of radiance, but he did not blind himself. With [Detect Intent Aura] active, he even saw the intent in that radiance, like an overlapping image. But it was not an overlapping image of just one intent. Erick saw at least two. With focus, and time, and a very careful trickle of mana, he separated those two larger prominences into the light aspect, and the blinding aspect; like splitting a hair.  

From there, it was the work of a few casts and combinations, directed at the stone tower in the distance, to see if he was working the spell right, followed by a concentrated moment to produce the first blue box, and then directly after to produce the other version, focused the other way.

--

Light Shift, instant, long range, 120 MP

Drastically empower your light aspect magic in a large area. Shadow aspect magic turns solid. Dark aspect magic is greatly weakened. Lasts 1 minute.

--

Blinding Shift, instant, long range, 110 MP

For 1 minute, your spells cast in a large area are naturally blinding to all except you.

--

[Light Shift] set the stone tower aglow, like it was a neon sign flipped on in a bar. [Blinding Shift] didn’t seem to do much, but upon asking Poi, it apparently made the tower uncomfortable to look at; like staring at the sun, but without the brightness.

Erick said, “I knew Mana Altering could be used multiple times in the same combination to make vastly different spells, but I didn’t think it would work quite like that.” He smiled. “Neat.” He called over to Kiri, “Hey, Kiri!”

Kiri looked up from her green glowing hand. “Yeah?”

“Do you know anything about splitting Mana Alters into their component pieces?”

Kiri dropped her hand, and began walking closer, asking, “Did you not get to that at Oceanside?”

“Nope.”

She said, “Some of the splits are more useful than others...”

Kiri spoke of a few different aspects of magic that Erick did not fully know. Splitting Mana Alters between the Elemental side of the ability, and the Affliction side of the ability, was necessary for producing light which did not blind, which was great against shadow monsters while remaining easy on the eyes of your fellow mages, or cheaper cost fire magic, where the energy of the spell was focused on the damage over time, instead of on the increased instant damage that was common to fire magic. The splitting of Decay into smaller pieces was a fundamental necessity for Poison Mages…

Eventually, Kiri just said, “Bust mostly, splitting the effects lessens the outcome. But it does reduce the cost.” She added, “I know we have books on this?”

“Yeah, yeah. But I didn’t read them yet.”

Kiri smiled.

Erick went back to his spellwork.  

[Force Shrapnel] and Mana Altering for Light, but skipping the blinding aspects, produced a decent spell.

--

Riven Light, instant, close range, 7 MP

Sharpened light blasts forward, dealing 25 + WIL damage in a cone. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

--

Trying again, but going for blinding, produced:

--

Flash, instant, close range, 8 MP

Blind all seeing creatures in a forward cone, for ten seconds.  

--

Trying again, but with both aspects of Mana Altering for Light at the same time, produced:

--

Broken Light, instant, close range, 7 MP

Sharpened light blasts forward, dealing 25 + WIL damage in a cone. Blinds for 3 seconds.

--

Erick laughed as the sun dipped down in the west. It was not sunset, it wasn’t even twilight. But it was getting late. He would continue for a little longer; he did not want to be out here at night.

I think I know which is the better choice for the next part.

Erick wrapped [Light Shift] together with [Riven Light] and pointed. A dot of brightness flew out from his fingertip like a laser pointer turning on, to crash into the stone tower in the distance. The tower and a large area around the tower flickered to neon white. Cracks formed immediately. In two moments, the tower collapsed into broken boulders of light, like a grocery store pyramid of oranges spilling outward.  

A blue box appeared.  

--

Breaking Light, instant, long range, 260 MP

Designated light breaks to pieces, dealing 25 + WIL damage per second to all in contact with the spell. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects. Lasts 1 minute.

--

The boulders of light glowed bright for a little while, possibly the full minute according to the box, but some of the smaller ones turned back to normal orange stone well before the larger ones.

As the glow fully vanished, Erick inspected the destruction from the air, from Ophiel. [Breaking Light] had not been as destructive as it appeared. When Erick had raised those stone towers from the ground, he had made them solid; five meters thick at the bottom, ten meters high, and four meters wide at the top.  

[Breaking Light] had turned an apparent two meters of the surface of the tower into boulders made of light. The tower itself had been reduced to a five meter tall, thin spire, surrounded by irregularly shaped boulders.  

This was why [Shattering Light] called for Mana Shaping for 500 and [Lightshape]; in order to penetrate the entire area, and make an actually damaging spell; a pile of boulders wasn’t going to do much, now was it?

Now that he saw the spell for what it could be, Erick had Ophiel rebuild the towers, while he played around with [Breaking Light]. After a few rebuilds and breakings, he prepared for the real deal.

As the sun dipped down, casting the sky into purples and reds and gold, Erick pointed at a fresh orange tower in the distance.

Mana Shaping. [Lightshape]. [Breaking Light].

The tower cracked like a frozen pond, then broke, then shattered, all at once. The entire structure and ten meters of ground beyond turned to light and separated in all directions. Gravel became a sudden storm of hail that buried itself into the dirt far further than Erick would have thought possible, leaving tiny glowing craters absolutely everywhere.  

Some of the shrapnel sailed overhead, and crashed near Erick’s feet.  

Kiri ducked, “Shit!”

Erick laughed, unmoving. “We’re way too far away to get hit, Kiri.” He added, “I mean. We could, theoretically, but—” A falling pebble struck him in the shoulder. His [Personal Ward] easily soaked the damage, but he had Ophiel cast a low-strength [Prismatic Ward] across the group, anyway. No need to risk a critical hit to the eye, or anything like that. Erick said, “I stand corrected. It didn’t really hurt, though.” As a new blue box appeared, Erick said, “It’s not really meant to harm people.”

--

Devastating Light, instant, long range, 860 MP

Break a large area to pieces and explode the shrapnel in all directions, dealing 50 + 3x WIL damage per hit and littering the battlefield with sources of light that deal 2x WIL damage per second. Lasts 30 seconds.

Shadow aspect magic turns solid.  

Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.  

--

Erick said, “It says right here, ‘Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.’ Pretty good, I think.”  

Glowing hail plinked against the [Prismatic Ward] and the ground around Erick, Kiri, and Poi.

Sunny, however, was outside the shield, flying around, dodging falling glows like it was fun game. After a moment of indecisive padding around on Erick’s shoulder, Ophiel took to the sky and joined Sunny’s games.

Erick exploded the final two towers he had yet to touch, causing even more glowing pebbles to fall across the twilight sky.  

The mimics nearby didn’t seem to care about the light-aspect magic. The glowing rocks must have plinked into every mimic for two hundred meters, but the mimics did not move. They just shook their leaves to dislodge the glowing gravel and went on pretending to be agave.  

- - - -

Back at home, Teressa had made a nice dinner, and it was time to eat.

Afterward, Erick went back to his library and cracked open a few books he had barely read before. ‘Mana Altering for the Beginner’, and ‘Mana Altering for the Practitioner’; the two Arcanaeum Consortium approved books for the beginner mage, meant for classes Erick had never chosen to take. While he read, he channeled mana through Mana Altering, dissecting the Skill into pieces, trying to understand everything it was capable of accomplishing. The books had a few experiments to try, and Erick tried a few of the less destructive ones, and while some of them were helpful in understanding something he didn’t already know, none of the two books seemed to say anything about channeling mana through the Skill, to listen and witness the magic how Erick was doing. None of them spoke about what Erick had seen with his [Detect Intent Aura], either.

Erick brought that up with Kiri, the next morning. “So why doesn’t anyone channel mana through the skill to listen to it? Or use a [Detect Intent Aura]?”

Kiri yawned as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, asking, “Did you stay awake all night? Again?”

“Doesn’t matter. And I took a break to make some more rings. Answer the questions.”

Kiri chuckled, sleepily, then looked over what Erick was reading. “Check higher level books?” She added, “But your methods don’t really work that well for me, so I doubt it would work for many. Nothing of what you do is normal technique, Erick. Besides! A lot of books are written with Scions of Willpower in mind, and they can’t endlessly channel magic all day long like you can.” She shrugged, jostling Sunny on her shoulders, saying, “If it weren’t for your success, I’d say you were doing everything wrong.”

Erick grumbled, “Mmm.” He looked down at his book for a moment longer, then snapped it shut and set it aside. He stood, saying, “If it’s morning it’s time to make more magic.”

Kiri asked, “Time for breakfast, first?”

“Of course!”

Kiri smiled, saying, “Good. I’ll make cinnamon pancakes.”

“I already made the batter and scrambled the eggs.” Erick said, “I was just waiting for others to get up.”

- - - -

The sun rose in the east, as a cold northern wind tangled in Erick’s hair and his clothes, sapping the heat from his body. It was technically Winter in the Crystal Forest, though you couldn’t tell most of the time, except for times like now. While the days were less harsh, the mornings were downright chilly. If Erick had been out here an hour earlier, when the sun had yet to touch the sands, he might have found frost on the ground.

“Time to warm things up,” Erick said, getting ready.

He had practiced extensively with separating out the pieces of Mana Altering last night. Separating highly damaging Fire from lingering Burn was easy enough, but the lingering damage of [Devastating Light] gave a great example of what [Carving Radiance] was supposed to be. Erick liked the lingering damage, so that’s how he would make his version of [Carving Radiance]. His [Luminous Beam] would be the direct damage spell.

Erick pointed at a nearby stone tower, 15 meters away.

[Force Beam]. Mana Alter: Fire. Mana Alter: Light.

A beam of white light shot from Erick’s finger, radiant and burning, to impact the stone tower like a hot knife through mud. The effect was… muted, to say it kindly. As the spell petered out against the orange rock, a small clattering of blackened stone broke from the tower to land on the ground. Those broken rocks steamed into the cold morning air for a while longer, but from this far away, Erick couldn’t really tell.  

 --

Firelight Beam, instant, medium range, 45 MP

A piercing, slicing beam of firelight that deals 4x WIL and last 10 seconds, and deals 2x WIL for 10 more seconds. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.

--

It was a successful combination. The [Firelight Beam] in the Script only damaged for 3x WIL and 1x WIL.

Erick moved on to the next combination. He turned a little to the right, and pointed at a much further stone tower in the distance.  

[Firelight Beam]. [Force Bomb].

The beam that leapt from Erick’s fingers was a dense, thin line, that struck the tower, exploding into burning radiance where it touched. Erick dragged his finger through the air a little, moving the line up and down the tower, exploding in great, bursting white fires everywhere the line touched, until the spell finally ended. The stone tower remained, though.

--

Firelight Blaster, instant, long range, 900 MP

A line of firelight explodes on contact in a large area for 5x WIL damage, lasting 10 seconds. Leaves behind fires that deal 3x WIL damage per second for 10 seconds. Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.  

--

Firelight was pretty cool. Erick had briefly read up on all the other various dual-nature Mana Alters, but he needed to look up more.  

The stone tower eventually stopped burning, leaving behind soot wherever the fires had touched.  

Erick lined up his next combination.  

[Prime Area]. Mana Alter: Fire. Mana Alter: Light.

A dot of intent unfurled against the blackened stone tower, soaking into the structure and its surroundings, turning the tower and the sand around the base into an ephemeral white bonfire ten meters tall, in the center of a white-hot land. It was not actually hot, at all, but it certainly looked like it was.

--

Firelight Shift, instant, long range, 190 MP

Drastically empower your fire and light aspect magic in a large area. Shadow aspect magic turns solid. Dark and water aspect magic is greatly weakened. Lasts 1 minute.

--

Erick watched as the structure slowly lost its radiance; the blackened tower reappeared out from under the incandescent overlay. [Firelight Shift] didn’t seem to do much on its own, but it was still rather beautiful.  

He cast an Ophiel and expended the [Familiar] to create a safe spot of dense air around him, Poi, and Kiri, and then pointed, again. He concentrated on brilliant fire, and cast.

[Firelight Shift]. [Firelight Blaster].  

A line of radiance carved through the stone tower, erupting out of the other side, then pulled right with Erick’s aim, slicing through the structure as it simultaneously set the whole thing aglow and exploding. Erick had yet to strike the second tower when the first tower and ten meters in every direction turned to light and fire and burst apart in a cascading series of explosions, scattering boulders and gravel and loose flame across the land, like a much quieter [Electrolysis Bomb]. The second tower exploded in much the same way, and then the third, before the spell ended. Flaming white stone crashed for two hundred meters in every direction, ripping past Erick’s [Ward]ed space, touching down on every nearby mimic.

Erick lowered his hand. He muttered, “It’s like too-close seats at a firework show.”

The mimics screamed. Some ran away from the spellwork, some ran closer, attempting to end the threat, while secondary and tertiary explosions continued to blast from the three spaces that used to be towers. Stone and sand rocketed from the ground. Flaming rocks rained, plunking into the soil, their radiance soaking into the land, brightening the coming day as they burned white, and burned everything near them. Mimics died, rather quickly. Those that ran into the flame died fastest of all.

Erick’s heart beat hard. His mettle faltered.  

That was a dangerous spell—

No. He would not stop now. Not when war was coming to his front door. Not when monsters continued to roam and kill and maim and eat. He would not stop until the Shades were dead.

A blue box appeared.

 --

Carving Radiance, instant, long range, 2100 MP

A line of firelight carves and explodes for 10x WIL damage, soaking everything damaged with power, then further exploding for 10x WIL damage. Firelight shrapnel deals 6x WIL damage per second for 30 seconds.  

Shadow aspect magic turns solid.  

Deals double damage to dark and shadow aspect creatures and objects.  

--

Erick read the box and realized something. He turned to Kiri, giving her a copy of the box, as he asked, “Is this how you make your fire that explodes itself?”

Kiri read the box, her eyes going a little wide. “Yes. I made [Prime Area] a long time ago, but I used [Force Wave] and [Force Shrapnel]. I tried making it with [Force Bomb] yesterday, but that didn’t turn out well.” She dismissed Erick’s box, adding, “I’ve probably got a few more days to get that one right and then I’m going to remake everything.” She turned to face the glowing craters all around. “I think… I really like the entire idea of firelight. That was amazing.”

Erick gazed out at the burning, bright land, and said, “It is rather beautiful, in a way.” He asked, “Hey, did you ever talk to Maia, next door, about her fire magic?”

Kiri blinked, like she had heard something weird. She asked, “It would be okay to talk to other mages about magic while I’m your apprentice?” She answered, “No. That would not be okay. I’m not going to be doing that.”

“Oh. Well. When you put it like that...” Erick said, “Ah. Well. It’s time to test out Decay magic. Have you ever tried that? Poison spells?”

“Not extensively. Fire and Decay both have similar damage over time components, but in normal practice they’re very different. Fire seeks to consume, turning mass into more fire. Decay seeks to poison, turning that mass into more poison. You need a critical mass to start a cascading effect of either, but Fire will burn itself out while Decay does better as you get more and more of it in the same place. In this way, Fire and Decay are at odds with each other, though I’m absolutely sure someone out there could prove that theory wrong. Not me, though.” Kiri said, “There’s just so many ways to Decay, too. Like...” She looked to the air, thinking. She said, “Flesh Decay. Wood Decay. Metal Decay… Bone Decay… Magic Decay; that used to be called Extreme Light, long ago... Growing Decay; but that’s hard-limited by the Propagation Ban which is why Fire is better; as an element that burns out, you can get away with more propagation—” She shrugged, “You get the idea.”

Erick smiled. Kiri was smart, and he was glad to have her for an ‘apprentice’. He teased, “And don’t forget the Health cost skills to attune the Decay.”

“Eh!” She said, “I don’t think you’d have to do that. [Blind] and [Deaf] are useful in creating those toxins, but they’re primarily useful in experimenting on yourself, and building up an immunity. You could probably make a Decaylight spell with that ‘extra damage against shadows’ part and do just fine, since you’re targeting shadows, specifically, and Light is already in Mana Altering.”  

Erick kept smiling. As the pools of firelight all around the experiment began to cool, and dim in the daylight, Erick said, “We’ll shelve that idea for later, but for now! I have another spell to make, and for this one—” He conjured a [Teleporting Platform] out of the sands in front of him, outside of the [Prismatic Ward]. Stone coalesced into a hovering circle of rock, with ‘[Teleport]’ written in Ancient Script rounding the center. Erick’s next cast brought forth another Ophiel. That Ophiel expend itself to cast another full strength [Prismatic Ward] over the hovering space. Erick stepped forward, onto the platform, saying, “Time to take to the air.”

Kiri and Poi followed. Ophiel twittered on Erick’s shoulder.

“Oh. Right.” Erick cast a [Lightmask] around the platform. “Can’t forget that one.”

- - - -

In another part of the Crystal Forest, not too far away from the morning’s experiments, where mimics soaked up sunlight and whatever explosions had happened here had happened a long time ago, Erick hovered in the sky, on his platform. He stepped to the edge of the floating rock, and thought of all the things he knew of high powered light, and what he had seen the Poison Archmage from the Wasteland accomplish. She had laid down poison for kilometers, killing absolutely everything. Whoever she was, she likely had a family history of poison magic to draw upon. The prevalence of poison was one of the things that turned the Wasteland into the Wasteland during their civil wars 45 years ago, after all.  

But Erick had none of that.  

What he had was a bit of knowledge, and an imagination. He filled his mind with thoughts of clouds that he had already conjured well before now, then filled those clouds with gamma rays, and microwaves, with light and color, and so much heat, flashing inside of a heavy, cloying cloud that would kill everything inside of itself through sheer illuminated might...

… But this entire spell went against everything he had ever been as a person, didn’t it? To kill, indiscriminately? To lay waste to all life?  

Erick knew there was a need for magic like this. He knew it, unequivocally. He had seen the need for such a spell, first hand. He had killed over two-point-five million mimics himself, stopping their charge into inhabited lands! Veird needed magic like this to stop the monsters.  

So he set aside most of his objections, and did what needed to be done.

Erick had already cleared this spell with Phagar; it would work. But right now, in the moment, Erick prayed to anyone who might be listening, hoping that he was doing the right thing.  

He spoke to the sky,

“Tap the sky, vibrate the light. Micro, Ultra, Gamma’s blight.

“Sink low the glow, reflected depths! Darker brighter, heaven’s doom!

“Trap the sky, negate the night. Micro, Ultra, Gamma’s blight.

“Here was a land of life and bloom, now all there is, is [Vivid Gloom].

Mana ripped from Erick like flayed skin, cold and hot and cold again, to rush out into the manasphere, to enact his bloody will. Poi rapidly tapped him with the rod of [Treat Wounds], before Erick could fall to his knees, or off the platform.

And then it started.

The blue sky thumped half a kilometer up and away, high above, like a god tapping on a barrier, testing its worth. It wasn’t worth much. Cracks appeared, splintering and spiderwebbing from a hundred small breaks in the heavens, revealing bright prismatic glows beyond. The Mana Ocean rushed across the Crystal Forest and seemed to fill Erick’s ears, inundating him with sound and wonder and terror, as dense white light, like slime, rained down from the holes in the sky.  

The sky broke.  

White light flooded down, taking long enough for Erick to think of what he had done, and find remorse and then hope, before light shifted to dark. Erick felt his heart sink, as uncountable prismatic white lightfalls touched down, and became endless black clouds that billowed outward, and began to spread.  

Kiri yelled something behind Erick, but he couldn’t hear her; all he heard was the rushing shadows crawling across the Crystal Forest, coming for him, and everyone else. His floating platform was only twenty-or-so meters above the ground. The dark clouds— The fully black and flashing white clouds would easily swallow him whole. He tried to move; he saw the problem as it was coming for him, but he couldn’t.  

Smiling eyes seemed to stare at him from that darkness, or maybe he had just been awake for too long.

Unexpected talons grabbed his shoulder, digging in, flickering Erick’s [Personal Ward] to white, before blipping away in a smattering of green glows.  

Time slowed.  

Black clouds crawled across the desert below, gently engulfing agave and mimics, like slow moving mist, flashing brightness as the cloud touched each one, and the ground.

Poi’s voice came to him, calm as ever,‘Sir. We should evacuate.’

Erick watched the cloud come at them. It was a wall of black, that hid so, so much light inside.

‘Sir?’ Poi asked, slightly more insistent.

Something clicked in Erick’s mind. He blinked.

‘Right... Right!’ Erick sent, ‘Hang on. We’re going up.’

The platform blipped white, taking Erick and Poi high above the black clouds.

Time resumed. Many, many blue boxes appeared, but Erick ignored them as he continued to watch the white and black spell unfurl across the Crystal Forest. Erick was initially wary of the color, but with a bit of distance, he saw how his wishes had manifested. The cloud was full of light, but the outside was black, because he desired the spell to soak up all light and trap it inside, to damage everything it touched. The outside was black because that’s how light worked when it only went one way.

He summoned an Ophiel and coated him in a [Personal Lightmask], then sent the [Familiar] down into the cloud. With a shift of view, Erick saw through Ophiel’s eyes, and it was exactly as bright as Erick expected. The dark ‘coating’ of the spell seemed to be a mirror finish, too, but Erick couldn’t really tell. Ophiel, even under the effect of [Lightmask], was no match for the power of the spell. Erick came back to himself well before he was ready.

He looked up, and out. Radiance crashed down from the sky, turning to darkness before it reached the ground. The black cloud laid a kilometer out in every direction by now, but it continued to grow. Maybe it grew a bit more to the south than any other direction, because that’s how the wind was flowing.

Erick searched through his recent blue boxes, ignoring the mimic kills, to find the spell creation notifications. He found [Vivid Gloom] fast enough.

--

Vivid Gloom 1, instant + 10 minutes, super long range, 500 MP

Chaotic radiance expands to fill a super large area, dealing <damage> every second to all inside. <Various effects of direct exposure include, but are not limited to, Cancer, Blindness, Magic Failure, Immolation, Boiling, and other Decay-like effects.> Spell lasts <10 minutes> after conjuring is complete. Effects last longer.

Particle Mage Only.

--

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script.

+3 ability points.

--

That’s really not that bad compared to some of the other Decay magic out there. Also: See other note. ~Rozeta.

--

The ‘Effects last longer’ was scary, and the listing for ‘Cancer’ was a whole mess of a psychological issue, but the ‘see other note’ at the end was truly worrying. Erick saw no other note. As he glanced up at the cracked sky of [Vivid Gloom], ten minutes must have passed, because the sky began to heal over. The luminous waterfall began to slow, and then stop. As the final drops of light fell to join the black cloud below, another blue box popped up. This one was much longer.

--

We’re finalizing the upcoming introduction of Particle Magic to the Script, and I can tell you now that smaller versions of every spell you’ve made will join the Script in the usual way, but different. Large-size rainclouds from [Call Lightning] for those who have all the prerequisites. Large size [Luminous Beam]s next year for those who understand light and gamma ray bursts and black hole ejections; but I suspect that won’t happen for a long time. I suspect large-size [Withering]s will be the most popular spell you’ve made, but [Electrolysis Bomb] could be up there, too.

So if you don’t want something you’ve made to make it to the Script, talk to a Registrar and we can erase that spell from your Status, and prevent its implementation in the Script.

Also: I am taking your opinion on how Particle Magic should be implemented, and doing so. Nothing should change for you, personally, but the Basic Tier of Particle Magic will be [Condense Particle]. [Condense Particle] will have to be transformed into tier 2 spells like [Condense Hydrogen] on an individual basis. Everything else will have to be built up from there.  

--

Kiri blipped onto the hovering platform while Erick was reading. She stared outward, at the black cloud settling onto the Crystal Forest below.  

When Erick was done reading, he watched the black cloud with her.

[Vivid Gloom] had leveled to 3 with one cast; the part that read ‘Spell lasts <10 minutes> after conjuring is complete’ had turned into 21 minutes. The next time Erick cast this spell, it would last a lot longer, but the numbering scheme seemed a little off. Erick figured that when [Vivid Gloom] got up to level 10, the black cloud would last a whole hour.  

But the spell on the ground right now was only level 1. It wasn’t long before the dark cloud began to glitter harder than before, mainly at the edges and the twists in the darkness. The black shell was breaking, and as it broke, it revealed a dazzling and dissipating sea of light. Darkness cracked across the cloud, as the spell died.  

Kiri shielded her eyes, but did not look away, as she muttered, “Wow.”

Erick blinked out brightness from his eyes— And that would take too long. He conjured another Ophiel and covered him in a [Lightmask] before sending him down to see the aftermath of [Vivid Gloom].

With eyes uncluttered by the drawbacks of flesh, Erick saw the ground, and it looked rather normal. But then he saw a mimic. Ophiel flew closer. The mimic was clearly dead. Its faux crystal arms were laid at its side, on the ground, limp and useless and cloudy. The entire mimic was cloudy, now that Erick could see better. Ophiel got closer. Liquids pooled out from the center of the mimic, and from the blue-brown sludge between its limbs. That sludge was juvenile mimics.  

[Vivid Gloom] had killed the juveniles.  

Erick checked a nearby crystal agave, and it stood tall and proud, with zero cloudiness inside its crystalline leaves. Plants did well with radiation, after all—

… viewing the destruction, Erick realized what he had made. [Vivid Gloom] was ionizing radiation. It was gamma rays. It was nuclear fallout. Radiation destroyed magic. It even said as much in the box! Shit!

Erick came back to himself and hurriedly checked the edge of the floating platform, where the edge of the [Lightmask] held just beyond the floating stone. The [Lightmask] was degrading. Like chips smacked from a stone wall, the [Lightmask] was breaking. In some locations, it had already broken down to the [Prismatic Ward] under that. The [Prismatic Ward] seemed okay, but who knew about these sorts of things! Shit!

“I can fix this,” Erick said, half frantically. “[Cleanse] and [Conjure Force Elemental]!”

Kiri, nonchalant, asked, “Fix what? Looks like you did it right, to me?”

“It’s Extreme Light, Kiri!” Erick glanced down at the dead land far below, and decided, “I can fix it later. We have to get out of here before something breaks.” He asked Kiri and Poi, “Are you two ready to [Teleport]? We have to go.”

Poi said, “Sir. We’re fine. The platform is stable.”

“We’re not fine!”

“Erick!” Kiri stared at him, holding him still. “Relax! This is a good spell. Just recast your [Lightmask]. It’s not decaying that fast. We were never exposed, and Extreme Light isn’t a big deal when you’re ready for it, and you were. The spell is over.” She let go, and smiled, saying, “It’s a good thing you didn’t stay down there and let it wash over you, though!”

Erick breathed. He recast the [Lightmask] across the platform. He nodded. Kiri was right. No need to get all worked up. He muttered, “It’s just radiation, and I can fix that. Right. [Cleanse] exists.”

Kiri said, “I think we need to leave and come back tomorrow, after you’ve slept, and see how long it takes the mimics to return.” She asked, “It’s a lingering effect, right? What does the box say?”

“… Right.” Erick handed Kiri and Poi a copy of [Vivid Gloom], and said, “You’re right. Sorry. I got a little… strange, there.”

Kiri smiled as she read the box, then dismissed it, saying, “I don’t think you can Aurify that one.”

Poi agreed, “Probably for the best not to try.”

Erick gave a single, “Ha.”