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How does one find a dragon, since their entire species is all about not being found? Erick already had a few ideas. He could put some lightwards up in the sky, calling out the Mirage Dragon, or maybe just the dragon that the Mirage Dragon was imitating. He could even go around from bar to bar, asking if anyone had seen any dragons. He could find some Dragon Essence monster and tie it up somewhere, and then he could advertise the location of the beast, and see who shows up; dragons hunted other dragons and dragon-aligned beings for their dragon essence, after all. He could even start Imaging for some dragon teeth, since he had certainly seen those up close (thank you, Melemizargo), and then when he found some, he would either have found a dragon, or he would have found some draconic relic in someone's collection. If he found a relic, he might be able to track the blood identifiers in those teeth, and then he could find out where a dragon had been, and then he could go from there.

There were many different ways to slice this apple.

Nirzir paled at every new suggestion as she politely shot them down, while everyone had lunch together, in the kitchen dining room.

Teressa seemed to be enjoying Erick’s suggestions, as she ate her lunch like she was watching a play, but even he had to admit that he wanted to get all of the normal ideas out of the way, first, before Nirzir spoke of her own dragon finding ideas.

“I’ve seen dragon teeth all around in collections here and there. Lingxing even has one above her desk in her office.” Erick said, “Find one dragon, find them all. Right?”

“Oh, for sure,” Teressa said, smirking.

Poi shot her a hard-edged glance.

Teressa continued, “I, for one, wish to be directly in the center of a dragon fight.”

“Your sarcasm is noted,” Erick said, smiling.

Nirzir was having a little trouble keeping up, though, and Erick’s latest suggestion had thrown her for a hard loop. Her voice turned slightly serious, “You can’t touch that tooth. That’s a cast off tooth from Rozeta herself. It won’t be used in any ritual.” Calmer, she added, “But your postulation that one dragon will lead to all dragons is very… baseless.”

“Well those are my starter ideas.” Erick asked, “How would you go about it?”

“Have you talked to the Dragon Stalkers yet?” she asked.

“Yes, and we’re not going that route. They want to kill every dragon, and that is the opposite of my current goals. I want to talk to them; to find out what the Mirage Dragon was doing when she attacked.” He added, “I am fully aware that I will likely need to kill a dragon, but that is the backup plan.”

“Ah. Okay. Then…” Nirzir readily said, “There are certain establishments all around the Highlands, in the smaller places between the border and the main cities, with word ‘Ar’Co’ in their names. They’re always apostrophed like the ‘Ar’ in ‘Ar’Kendrithyst’, too, for they reference something dead that was once magnificent. Do you know of these places?”

Erick readily said, “I do not. Go on.”

Teressa silently, eagerly listened to the stories of dragons in Nelboor.

Poi seemed mostly ambivalent.

Nirzir nodded, saying, “Almost all of these locations are low class establishments, but there is one set almost halfway between Eralis and Alaralti, on the other side of the river, named ‘Arcology’, that is very, very high class. I have been there three times for various celebrations.

“Arcology is filled with the most obsequious people you would ever meet, who will take you through a wonderful dinner, made with the best ingredients you can find in this entire world. They have world class Cooks and you might never get a better meal anywhere else. The lesser establishments are similar in nature, but I was warned to never go to one of those smaller places. Ever.” She paused. “Maybe the dragons are at the smaller ones? But I don’t know about that.” She continued, “There are a few rules to follow at Arcology upon pain of an instant [Teleport Other] from the establishment.

“You must never wander away from the part of the building you have been placed into. You must not interact with other guests. When you walk into the establishment they will greet you and ask you if you have ever been there before. If you give them any answer except their code phrase, you will get a normal meal.

“I have no idea what the correct answer would be, but I was always told to never deviate from ‘No, I have not been here before’.” Nirzir said, “When I asked why there were all these rules, I was told that dragons frequent the establishment. That’s about all I ever got out of my older brothers or anyone else that knows of the place; it was very tough to even get that out of them. I have no idea what the dragons do there, and my mana sense was useless the last time I was there; the place is absolutely filled with blocking spells.”

Erick thought, then said, “Sounds like a good way to be ambushed. I’ll do that if there are no other options.”

Nirzir looked a bit saddened by that, but she rapidly went to the next idea. “There’s a dragon known as Red! She had been shutting down the larger dragon fights in Eralis for a long time by eating the other dragons she finds. I have been told that if you are not a dragon, she will talk to you. Getting to Red is outside of my ability, but you should be able to do this. It’s a bit more difficult than meeting normal people though, of course, and you won’t actually meet Red, herself. There are other complications, too.

“Dragons have territories, you understand, and they secure their territories through strength. But it is by the simple act of having one territory marked as theirs, that makes other territories ‘not theirs’. This mental shift is enough for some of them to interact with others as long as such interaction is across established, polite boundaries. They still have to meet each other through the use of intermediaries, though. These meetings are always dangerous, because either side could be trying to move in on the other dragon’s land.

“And the very fact that the Mirage Dragon was active in this land without Red appearing means… Well. It could mean anything.

“The way I see it: There are two possibilities. The Mirage Dragon is either someone from outside Red’s territories, in which case Red would know more, as she is undoubtedly trying to find out what the interloper was doing. Or, the interloper dragon was just an illusion, and yet, even in that case, Red would want to know more, so she has probably sought out what was going on there.” Nirzir thought for a second, then added, “Or the Mirage Dragon is Red. Or… Well. There are a lot of possibilities there. Too many.”

“Hmm.” Erick said, “Meeting Red seems like a good idea.”

Poi said, “She won’t interact with you.”

Erick scrunched his eyebrows. “And you know this?”

“No.” Poi said, “But the Mind Mages do have standing orders not to interact with her, because she will not interact with us, and you’ll likely get the same treatment because you’re already marginally aligned with the Headmaster, and his territory is the entire world.”

“Do the Mind Mages know about this recent—” Erick paused. He said, “Ah. Sorry. I shouldn’t ask that.”

Poi smiled softly. “Thank you. The Mind Mages generally keep firm lines of obfuscation between ourselves and dragons, because the dragons are always after other dragons, and the Mind Mages are strictly uninvolved with that.”

Erick said, “Right. Well. If we end up seeing Red, maybe she won’t be an enemy.”

“Why would she be?” Nirzir asked. She added, “I mean. I know why. I hear what you’re saying: To be known to the Headmaster is to be automatic enemies with all the rest… But wouldn’t it be different for an archmage of your stature?” She glanced to Poi, then back to Erick, saying, “I didn’t know that about the Mind Mages, but Red will meet with almost anyone of high enough ranking.”

Erick said, “We’ll put her down as another option, but not one to actively pursue.”

Nirzir nodded. “Then I have one more option. We could go to Ooloraptoor and speak to the Warlord Tribes.” She explained, “The grass travelers are supposed to have a long history of dragons behind every major clan, with each of those dragons warring with other dragons through the tribes they control. I don’t know how true that is, but that is how they portray their fights, sometimes.”

“… Tell me more,” Erick said, suddenly concerned.

Was this the Path, shoving him toward Ooloraptoor?

Nirzir brightened. “Oh! Well. Their concept of war is where a lot of Nelboor gets the concept of polite war; a hundred warriors facing down a hundred warriors, and whoever is left gets the rights to whatever is being disputed. If Terror Peaks had won that initial clash— Well. Things would be very different. Eh. Well. If they had asked for something lesser, and if they had won, then they probably would have gotten the chelation treatment, or something. But they wanted our annihilation. If they had gone for a normal war, then maybe we could have avoided the… the rest of what happened.” Nirzir put away those bad thoughts, and turned upbeat again, “The grass travelers firmly adhere to the original Polite War. They field ten people on both sides and if anyone dies on either side, then the army that did the killing gives recompense to the harmed clan, which is usually a grand core per person killed. In almost all situations, that recompense is worth a lot more than whatever argument they’re disputing, so everyone tries to avoid total war.

“They’ve had large wars, though.

“A hundred years ago there was a large debate among the grass travelers over the integration of Ooloraptoor into an actual nation state. Every so often this debate happens, and we’re in the middle of one of those times, but we’re still a long way off. Years, perhaps. Back then they got to the final stages of integration, with different compacts floating around, and battles being fought over those compacts.

“For three years, they had polite war, with small scale battles of ten people versus ten people, and occasionally with a hundred versus a hundred. They were actually in the middle of making a hierarchy; of putting together their people into some final form that would then go on to make a true centralized government. There were still a lot of people against the whole idea, though. They fought to knock down those who chose to integrate. Thus, the two sides of the final battle. Integrator, versus traveler.

“The path to integration came to a head with a thousand people versus a thousand people, and it started off as any normal war would, with people being injured to lost limb and heart stab, and then being taken off the field. But someone killed someone, and then, instead of stopping and reorganizing the field, and the offender being taken off the field, the killing cascaded. Soon, it was seven hundred integrators against a hundred travelers.

“And then a single traveler cast vast, dark magics, instantly killing most of the integrators. Several integrators survived, though. One of them turned into a dragon; brilliant blue. That blue dragon proceeded to assault the other side. Soon, more dragons appeared. The official records state that, in the end, there were seven dragons in the battle.

“It was, perhaps, one of the largest dragon fights to ever occur.” Nirzir sat back, saying, “And now we’re in talks for integration again. So. You know. That story is on peoples’ minds. We think that the guy who started the killing was a Shade, though, so it might not happen that way this time.” She added, “Since you killed all of them and Blessed the rest into becoming better people.”

That was a lot to think about.

Erick arrived at a decision rather fast. “Looks like we’re going to Ooloraptoor.”

Teressa smirked, saying, “That guy you saved and the face stealers were already pointing us in that direction.”

Nirzir looked puzzled.

Erick explained, “A week ago I rescued a grass traveler by the name of Amasar of Clan Pale Cow when he [Teleport]ed into a destroyed city near Alaralti. He was dying from blood loss. He had confronted some face stealers who had taken the Forms of some ambassadors from Alaralti. I thought I had untangled that knot by providing some Imaging services to help them counter-hunt the face stealers among the grass travelers. Of the hundreds I did help to counter-hunt several days ago, the grass travelers only gave me 9 people to search for; Amasar’s patriarch, Niyazo, contributed the most names. He accepted my services and found some more face stealers among his people. But, you know, there are obviously more of those types lurking around that place, for sure.” Erick shrugged. “And now I know there are dragons there, too. All the more reason to go for a visit. I’ll probably drop in unannounced on Amasar and Niyazo and go from there.”

“Oh.” Nirzir said, “Then… Is that how the Worldly Path works?”

“It’s certainly not going how I expected it to go.” Erick said, “This started as a vacation, with a bit of an academic pursuit of [Gate] on the side. Everything else has just… sort of happened.”

Teressa smiled. “You haven’t backed down from helping the people who fall into your Path, though.”

“I have, though. I miss a lot of people I could be helping.”

Teressa had a sudden look of disbelief on her face. So did Nirzir. Poi understood, though.

Erick said, “I see a lot with Ophiel. I could send him out right now and find a hundred different problems I could solve. I could dedicate my entire life to doing just that; to helping those homeless on the streets, to feeding the world, to solving crimes faster than most guards are capable of working… But it would never be enough. I would end up killing myself to take on that much work, for there’s always something more to be done, and there’s always big stuff that needs to get done, too. So I help with the big stuff, and hopefully that is enough.”

Teressa sternly said, “You do more than enough, Boss. You do a lot. A lot of good, for a lot of people, but people got to look out for themselves, too.”

“Well… Yeah. I guess. But it’s still hard to see the good I could be doing, and yet I am not. I could never do enough.”

Poi said, “You do more than enough, Erick.”

Erick gave a sad grin, saying, “I suppose you would know what it’s like.”

“No. I don’t. I may be able to walk through a marketplace and know the problems people have, but you can do the same thing on the scale of a hundred marketplaces, and you’re allowed to act on what you see. I cannot act on anything I see, unless someone is in direct physical peril, and maybe not even then.” Poi said, “But even so, maybe some advice I was given a long time ago might help you: There are limits to giving of oneself to the world, and you are so far past your own limits that you don’t even know where you last left them.”

Erick frowned; knowing Poi was right, and yet still feeling some kinda difficult way whenever he saw someone in trouble.

Erick said, “I suppose I shouldn’t discount the ability for others to do well by themselves, either.”

Teressa said, “Exactly!”

Nirzir had watched the discussion with rapt, quiet attention.

After lunch was over, Erick allowed Nirzir to have her pick of the extra rooms, to set herself up, and then he decided to take a nap so that he could ignore whatever conversation Poi needed to have with the young girl.

Hours later, Erick awoke to the smells of burned something.

Nirzir was desperately trying to make dinner. By herself.

She had the rice in the steamer but there wasn’t any water under the basket.

The fillets of fish had been mangled beyond belief.

The frying oil was barely hot enough to fry—

And now there’s a fire. And! The girl was crying. Nirzir had been crying a little this whole time, but now came the waterworks.

Erick rapidly got out of bed to go help her.

Teressa, who had stopped practicing with her aura to watch the show from three rooms over, sent to him, ‘It’s just food! Let her burn it! And then let her eat it.’

‘I may not recognize all of my limits, but one of them is little girls crying over failed dinner preparation.’

Teressa laughed; her boisterous voice carried through the house.

- - - -

“… Thank you.” Nirzir said, her face red as she joined Erick in his library, after dinner. “For helping… With everything.”

Dinner had been well-seasoned and seared pork chops, buttered vegetables, bone broth soup (which was much better than it sounded), and rice, along with an assortment of sauces. It had taken two hours for Nirzir to make the meal, with much of that time spent restarting, and with Erick helping her the whole way. To Nirzir’s credit, she powered through; she might have cried a bit but she got it done. Erick even offered to take over for her twice, but Nirzir assured him that him ‘taking over’ was not an option for her. She had to do this. Erick had said that everyone cooked, and so, Nirzir would cook.

Erick had offered to let her try something simpler, but that was a non-starter of an idea, too. No; Nirzir wanted a good dinner, and she was going to make it happen.

And after a fashion, it had.

“You’re welcome,” Erick said, looking up from his book. “Learning how to cook takes time and patience and recipes.” He smiled, and joked, “Just like how they say you’re supposed to learn magic.”

Nirzir asked, “I don’t understand why you cook for yourself, though? Other people are much better at it. You could hire a world class Cook if you wanted.” She added, “I mean… There are wait lists to get good Cooks, so I can understand that.”

“… Wait lists?”

“Oh yes. A good Cook is hard to find! I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t get your pick of Cooks… though.” Nirzir eyed Erick and frowned a little. She sat down in the seat across from him, saying, “You have no idea what I mean when I say that, do you?”

Erick smirked. He closed his book, saying, “Not really.”

“Cooks? In the guilds? The Cooking Guilds?”

“What? Oh my gods!” Erick laughed. “There are cooking guilds?”

“Of course there are cooking guilds! You don’t know— Oh! They’re big on this side of the world. Maybe not so much over in Glaquin? I don’t know about that.” Nirzir said, “I do know that if you don’t get in good with them, then you might never get a decent Cook in your life! My family has a branch family of Cooks and I might be lucky enough to hire one of their 8 stars once I become an actual archmage, but even that is not for certain. My brothers have joked at committing an inter-family polite war when the next 10 star Cook comes out of Eralis…” Her voice trailed off, then turned serious, “We don’t think it’s a joke anymore.”

Erick’s eyes went wide as he gave a nervous chuckle. “Oh my gods.”

“Oh! Uh. No one will die…” She softly said, “Probably.”

“Ah. Well…” Erick asked, “So I take it these cooks are rated like Adventuring Guild threats?”

“Oh yes. I think the two guilds originated together, but only the Cooking Guilds survived Nelboor. There’s all sorts of different specific Cooking Guilds, too.” Nirzir said, “If you know where to look, you’ll see their Cooks everywhere. There’s a 9 star in the Void Temple. We have a 10 star at the palace; Neri Fei. She’s been with us for thirty years. The Headmaster collects as many 10 stars as he can get, but he’s at the bottom of the waiting list right now. Void Song is next in line, and we’ve been waiting for a decade. Neri Fei is fantastic, but she’s looking to retire. I never tried cooking before tonight—” Her eyes went wide. She looked away.

Erick’s heart beat hard as a thousand terrible scenarios raced through his mind.

Instead of panicking, though, he calmly asked, “What is it?”

With a completely normal, happy tone of voice, Nirzir continued, “I was just remembering a conversation— Did you know that Matriarch Lingxing is a 7 star cook? Not a classed Cook, so she can’t go higher than that, but I was just remembering… that. I don’t think it’s a secret? She really likes food and that’s not a secret at all.” She paused. She asserted, “It’s not a secret.”

Oh.

Nothing was happening.

This was just a normal talk.

Erick relaxed.

Nirzir glanced at the book in Erick’s hands, asking, “Reading about the grass travelers?”

“Somewhat.” Mostly, he was thinking about a spell that would be useful against entire armies without actually hurting them. Erick held up the thin book. “I got it with Ophiel while you were cooking.”

Nirzir smiled a little. “I know a little bit about that, if you are interested—” She dropped her hopeful expression, as though remembering something else. She rapidly continued, “But I will let you get back to your reading.” She stood up, saying, “Thank you again for helping with dinner. It was most informative.”

“… Anytime.”

Erick looked up to Nirzir, and the girl blushed.

And then she turned tail and tried to rush out of there as fast as—

Erick said, “I’ll be making one more spell before I’m ready to leave Songli behind. It’ll happen around midnight, or a bit later. Do you want me to wake you up for that?”

Stuck halfway through the doorway, Nirzir turned, and brightly said, “Yes!”

And then she rushed away, down the hallway, toward her room.

Erick chuckled a little, thinking it cute that Nirzir had a crush on him. That was unexpected! That was probably what Poi talked to her about, too. Ha!

He went back to reading.

- - - -

Some time much later, when the only ones awake were Erick and Ophiel, Ophiel sent Erick a ping because something was happening in Jane’s room. Erick switched over to his mana sense and watched as a dark blue [Scry] eye bobbed around for a moment, and then popped all on its own. A second later, dark blue light blipped in the air, and Jane tumbled out of that light, directly into her bed. She discarded a metal sword to the ground where it clanged and thudded against the carpet. Within seconds, Jane was asleep.

Ophiel tapped her with a [Greater Treat Wounds] and a [Cleanse], healing the few cuts she had on her arms and cleaning away the filth she had tracked into her bed.

Jane shifted around a bit more, then settled down, looking a lot more relaxed.

“Tough day, I suspect,” Erick said to himself.

And then he went back to playing around with Ophiel and magic, well outside of everyone’s sight.

- - - -

Ophiels tumbled through the sky, supported on auras of [Physical Domain], lighting the darkness around them with brilliant magenta explosions. Sometimes the explosions were too brilliant, and Ophiel ripped himself apart. But soon enough, another Ophiel would pop into the world and flit over to the party, to join the rest of himself, to fill up the gap that had been created by his temporary diminishment.

To learn to fly through the use of a spell that was very much not suited to the task.

Flying on [Physical Domain] was difficult. Erick could suspend Ophiel upon vibrations in the air and turn that air dense around him, becoming practically immovable. Doing so usually carved a crater into the nearby ground and sent Ophiel upward. Ophiel stopped ascending, though, when the magenta vibrations of suspension equalized Ophiel’s weight, with the size of the vibrational sphere having a large correlation with the distance Ophiel could achieve from the surface. Erick suspected that since Ophiel weighed a lot less than him and had wings that could hold him aloft, that Erick wouldn’t be able to get himself very far off the ground, using this method.

Erick confirmed this suspicion with Ophiel holding aloft a small rock that weighed about as much as Erick did, and yes, [Physical Domain] was not useful for flying. And besides that, flying with [Physical Domain] left a lot of destruction behind.

All of that was just to test to see if he could shift away from [Lodestar] and [Greater Lightwalk], and surprise surprise: he could not.

So Erick moved on to the next part of the magic making. He plucked a few books from his library, and went over what Veird knew of Extreme Light. Among those books was one that had followed Erick all the way from Treehome. There was another which Erick had picked up from Tsung, at the gathering at Red Ledger’s new clan mountain, but that one was more of a pamphlet, really. Some Knowledge Mage had published them with the goal of informing people of why Terror Peaks’ Extreme Light bombs had worked so well against their defenses. Erick had acquired another, similar pamphlet from the Clan Exchange, when he sold all those monster cores to them.

All of them were shit at explaining Extreme Light.

But, still, there was enough there to get an idea of what Extreme Light was. So Erick tried it.

With Mana Altering for the idea of Extreme Light, Erick cast through Ophiel, willing [Force Bolt] to strike a [Force Wall] he had already cast on the cratered plains. A brilliant shard of light zipped through the air and struck the Wall, embedding in the glass-like surface, sending a spider web of cracks of bright white light a meter from the impact point. 

The Wall held, though.

A blue box appeared.

--

Extreme Light Bolt, instant, long range, 50 mana

A bolt of extreme light inexorably strikes a target, causing 2x WIL points of damage to magical structures.

--

[Force Wall]s normally had 500 points of defensive capability, which meant that for 50 mana, Erick had inflicted just over 300 points of damage to the construct. This was technically good. Force was harder to disrupt and dispel than normal magic.

To [Dispel] normal magic, one usually had to spend as much mana as the magic cost, in order to [Dispel] that magic.

To [Dispel] Force, one usually had to spend as much mana as the Force was worth in defensive points, and Force that was attended by the caster required a lot more than that; sometimes as much as twice as much.

Erick had already created [Force Breaker], though, through Trick Magic, and that worked a lot better against Force than did this new [Extreme Light Bolt].

--

Force Breaker, instant, long range, 75 MP

Trick a Force spell into breaking.

--

Erick came back to himself, in the library of his temporary house.

He went over the books before him and decided, “Okay. So I made the good Bolt. But...” He cast a glance back to the cracked Wall on the plains. “Doesn’t look like a proper version of radiation destruction, though.” He mumbled to himself, “Probably a function of how much power was put into the working, and [Force Breaker] is better, anyway...”

His voice trailed off as he thought.

Erick devised an experiment.

An Ophiel let his [Physical Domain] loose, letting it expand to the full distance of nearly five kilometers in every direction. And then that Ophiel took a hundred meter sphere of that space and shifted it into both Harmonize and Amplify, while other Ophiel set up completely normal [Force Wall]s, each worth 500 points of defensive power, in a curve distribution that arced away from the vibrating space. Each Wall would be exposed to the radiation coming from the [Physical Domain], but each one would be further from that vibrating space by one more meter than the one before.

The setup was complete.

It took thirty more seconds for the experimental space in the center of the [Force Wall]s to begin to be visible to the naked eye.

It started like seeing the pressure wave from an explosion. And then, small white waves of power bounced around inside the sphere, like ripples on a 3D pond surface.

A minute later, the white waves flickered magenta; a threshold was crossed. Magenta power crashed from the edges of the space, into the center, and then out again, like the beating of a massive heart. Glows built upon glows. Power grew. Soon, the magenta space was as bright as the sun.

Radiation began to break away from the pulsing sphere.

The [Force Wall]s had been barely visible glass-like monoliths, floating in the night air. But now, they began to glitter as ionizing radiation showered upon them like invisible, sideways rain.

The nearest Wall was all of a meter from the vibrating sphere. It lasted ten seconds. Then it burst away from the magenta light like cotton candy dissolving in water. In that time, the pulsing sphere pulsed larger, but a surrounding application of Normalize kept the sphere from further expansion.

Walls two through ten, each positioned about that many meters from the sphere, lasted from ten seconds for the nearest wall, to 14 seconds at wall number 10, while the wall at 50 meters away lasted nearly 40 seconds.

Erick smiled, even before he did the math. Force spells needed [Dispel]s based on the power of the underlying [Force], not on the mana needed to cast that Force. Each one of those Walls should have taken 500 mana to [Dispel]. Force was good like that.

But just like how Tricking Magic was good at breaking Force without adhering to the [Dispel] parity cost rule, [Physical Domain] and true ‘extreme light’ could do the same. [Physical Domain] only cost 5 mana per second. Erick was spending a handful of mana to erase thousands of points worth of Force. It was his own Force sitting out there, unattended, but that didn’t matter for this sort of experiment.

Erick flooded the experiment’s beating magenta heart with Normalize, instantly shutting down the spell, harmlessly. And then he got out some paper and a pen, and did some math based on surface areas of a sphere and how distant the Walls were from the beating heart. Calculating by surface areas might not be correct, but that was Erick’s first instinct on how to calculate what he was seeing, based on the time it took to dissolve the [Force Wall]s.

If a Wall is worth 500 points, and it took 10 seconds for it to dissolve at one meter away…

Erick smiled as he sat back. “Yup! That’s correct.”

At a 50 meter radius magenta heart, the ionizing radiation dealt close to 50 points of damage per second at its surface. Calculating out the surface to a larger space —where all the Walls had been staggered— gave a drop off in power that perfectly matched the 50 meter sphere’s power as it was mapped out to 60, or 80, or 100 meters large.

Of course, that was just for the 50 meter radius beating heart. A smaller heart would likely do a lot less than 50 damage per second, while a larger heart might do a lot more. Erick could experiment with that later, though. For now, though, Erick knew that he could not use [Physical Domain], or even its component pieces, in the spell he had planned to make around midnight.

He needed some smaller radiation spell.

Much smaller than the other radiation spell he had, too. [Luminous Beam] was great, but he would not be putting that spell into the one he was planning on making.

So Erick sat back in his chair and sent a hundred mana to the manasphere, to Phagar.

Divine fire flexed through the air, along with a simple message, ‘Go for it.’

So Erick did as he wanted. He made a small spell. And it was going to be a small spell, for sure. There would be no fallout from this one. In fact! That would be a part of the working, right there. ‘No extraneous damage’. Could he put that into a Basic Spell? He’d find out!

Erick stepped upstairs, into the room without any dense air, and cast a small [Force Wall] a few meters away. He pointed with a hand, and all his fingers splayed.

He rhymed,

“To erase some magic; to make it mana

“Here’s a light that won’t affect fauna

“A strong one for sure

“But it won’t leave a spoor

“That box remains closed; thank Pandora.”

A sharp white brilliance shot from his palm, spreading outward, striking the [Force Wall] like Erick was aiming a flashlight. The light remained for five seconds. And then it shut off. A faint trail of glimmers held in the air where the light had erupted from his hand.

The only thing remaining of the [Force Wall] were the edges where the light had not touched, but those soon broke apart and faded away, like any spent spellwork tended to do.

He had done it again.

Erick blinked red, and sniffled a drip from his nose; blood. The Ophiel on his shoulder tapped him with a [Greater Treat Wounds], chirping in violins as he did so, while a different Ophiel cast a [Cleanse]. The red vanished from Erick’s eyes, and he smiled.

A trio of blue boxes appeared.

--

Congratulations!

You have created a new Basic Spell. Your spell has been added to your skills for free!

The spell you have created will appear in the Script after a year and a day.

Your spell is the alpha version, and will shift with time and use.

The spell that appears in the Script might be different.

Here is your spell:

--

--

Luminosity 1, instant, close range, 15 mana

A spreading cone of extreme light deals 100 + WIL damage per second to magical effects, for 5 seconds. Does minimal damage against non-magical items. This spell is completely stopped by Health.

--

--

Rozeta thanks you for enriching the Script

+ 1 point.

--

Erick smiled—

A fourth box appeared.

--

This one is probably going to go in the Restricted Script for Particle Mages. It might reach the Open Script one day. Either way, this one will not be getting a Quest line to link it to Luminous Beam, but any mage who is paying attention to history will likely make that connection on their own.

~Rozeta

--

Erick smirked. “I was wondering if something was going to happen, there.”

Erick went back to his library and played around with the spell, through Ophiel, over in the craters he had made past the borders of Songli. He discovered a few things about [Luminosity] that weren’t listed in the blue box, but were exactly what he expected out of the spell.

When one Ophiel trained [Luminosity] at another Ophiel, the gamma radiation of the spell prevented the second Ophiel from casting small spells. [Force Bolt]s fizzled as they left wingtips. [Force Beam]s died when they passed into the brighter parts of [Luminosity], generally getting only a meter into the light, or shallower. With [Luminosity] trained on a [Greater Lightwalk], it forced the lightform Ophiel out of their lightform, and rather painfully, too.

… Erick suspected he had just created a true antimagic spell.

Uh.

Well.

That was his goal, wasn’t it?

Er.

This could be bad. Someone could use this spell against him… Or against anyone, really. Oh.

He had not thought this through. How bad was this spell?

He rapidly tested [Lodestar] and [Greater Lightwalk], and Ophiel maintained his Sunform! Okay! Good. Erick was worried there for half a second. [Luminosity] couldn’t get through a Light Domain, apparently.

And… Wait.

Ophiel only had Mana, it had no Health. So maybe Ophiel was uniquely vulnerable to this new spell? He probably was.

And wait a second. This spell… if it was basic tier and open to everyone, then anyone could shut down any mage. That… Was actually fine, perhaps? With this spell, anyone could shut down a Shade, or, more likely, any other horrific monster that used magic.

This was good, kinda?

A person using [Greater Lightwalk] might not be affected by [Luminosity]. This would require more testing. Human testing? Testing on himself, then.

In the course of testing, Erick rapidly leveled his new spell to X in the process.

--

Luminosity X, instant, medium range, 25 mana

A spreading cone of extreme light deals 250 + WIL damage per second to magical effects, for 5 seconds. Does minimal damage against non-magical items. This spell is completely stopped by Health.

--

[Luminosity] had some strong limitations. It had no effect on any interior-based magics. Anything self-cast on oneself was not stripped away by the Extreme Light of Erick’s new spell. Any magics that transformed a person into another form, were similarly unaffected by [Luminosity]; Erick found this out when he had an Ophiel test [Luminosity] directly on him, while he was in lightform. He could still use [Lightwalk] just fine underneath the new spell’s gamma radiation.

But, [Luminosity] worked really well against any magic that took place outside of the body.

[Personal Ward]s were technically both on the outside of the body, and the inside, and [Luminosity] ripped through the part that was on the outside; It dealt a lot of damage to [Personal Ward]s. It even broke through [Animadversion], eventually, which was a bit surprising. Sure, it took ten casts and almost a full minute to break that thorny shield, but [Luminosity] broke Erick’s best reflective magics. [Luminosity] was particularly good against auras, too, readily stripping the magic out of the space where the light touched, which meant that if a target was fully enveloped by a [Luminosity] beam, they could not put up any auras at all.

In a lot of ways, [Luminosity] was a very minor version of [Luminous Beam].

Which was exactly what Erick was going for.

He had a reason to make this magic, after all!

- - - -

Midnight rolled around soon enough, but because Erick was still having fun with magic, he let people sleep a bit longer.

Around 2:00 am, Erick went to wake Poi, but the man was already awake and sitting on the edge of his bed. Teressa was up after a small knock on her door. Nirzir was practically dead to the world, and Erick had to smack her door hard to wake her up, but she woke up. Eventually. And because of that commotion, Jane had woken, too.

Bleary eyed and mumbling about the time, Jane plodded out of her room, her shadows going wide to see what all the fuss was about.

Her shadows reached an unknown, and she froze.

In full armor, but without the sword, Jane entered the kitchen where everyone except for Erick was having coffee. Erick only refrained from coffee because he was going back to bed after he made his (second) new magic.

Jane eyed the anomaly in the room; Nirzir. “Sooo…. Who is thiiiiis?”

Nirzir looked excited to meet Jane, but then Jane spoke in that tone, and Nirzir’s hope fell straight through the ground.

Before there was much more of that, Erick said, “Jane, this is Nirzir Void Song. She’s a princess of Songli who makes magic like I make magic. She’s 17, and almost an archmage. Lingxing wished for her to accompany me as we went a bit down the Worldly Path, or at least for the Nelboor part, and I have chosen to accept this arrangement.” Erick said, “Nirzir, this is my daughter, Jane.”

Jane paused, withholding her ire. And then she surprised Erick by frowning only a little bit, dismissing her conjured armor, and then saying to Nirzir, “Welcome to the party. I guess. Are you Young Master Keziro’s sister?”

“Yes! I am.” Nirzir cheerfully said, “It is nice to meet you, Miss Flatt.”

“No no.” Jane said, “We’re not doing honorifics if we’re in the same party. ‘Jane’ is fine, Nirzir.”

“Oh! Yes. Of course.” Nirzir tipped her head a fraction. “Jane.”

Well now! Wasn’t that a pleasant surprise! He wasn’t the only one surprised, though. Teressa was eyeing Jane like she didn’t know her, while Poi was… Well Poi was unflappable, apparently.

“Who is Keziro?” Erick asked.

Jane said, “A Reformist who wants the peasantry to go out and kill monsters and support their own lives here on the Highlands. I’ve crossed paths with him twice now, and both times it has been him saying good things about me in front of other troops.”

Nirzir nodded. “That is my brother, for sure. He is a big proponent for certain reforms like the one Jane has mentioned. He wishes that everyone would take their child out to the Tribulations after Matriculation and help them to kill a monster and shoot up to at least level 30, to better be productive members of Songli.” Nirzir added, “The detractors for that stance bring up the fact that no amount of levels or Stats would save a person who doesn’t know how to fight, and that commoners are not allowed to learn the arts of war outside of a Clan, so what’s the point of levels.”

Jane gave a half nod.

Erick could tell that Jane wasn’t happy with Nirzir being here, but she was willing to tolerate it. Erick decided to switch the subject, saying, “I decided on the next step of the Path. We’re going to head toward Ooloraptoor to speak to the grass travelers about dragons.”

“Still got four days left in your obligation?” Jane asked.

“Three days, now, but there’s still time to hunt monsters and make magic.” Erick said, “I’m going to go out and make one more spell tonight. Want to come?”

“Yup; I’ll come.”

- - - -

The night sky held three crescent moons that gave off thin glows of white, silver, and pink. Their light barely reached the surface. The stars, though…

The stars were a glittering brilliance upon the void. A trillion billion pinpricks of light. Not a single cloud marred their shine. Not a single light on the horizon, or anywhere else, polluted that sky.

The night sky of Veird was something that Erick still found wonderful, even knowing that there were monsters prowling everywhere around him in that darkness. The fact that he could actually see the stars probably had something to do with that minor joy.

When people get older their eyesight starts to go, and in some ways, Erick never experienced that passing of youth; he never needed glasses, after all. But in some ways...

Night after night, year after year, the human eye becomes more and more incapable of seeing the brilliance that exists above them. Erick was not immune to this phenomenon. Regaining his night sight after gaining the Blessing of Rozeta’s Recovery was a similar experience, he was sure, to when someone who needed glasses gained those glasses; they spoke of seeing individual leaves on trees once again. When Erick ‘gained his own glasses’, he saw the night sky in its partial brilliance. But now, with Perception, that phenomenon had come to Erick again, and he saw the night sky in all its glory.

He was probably seeing better now than he had when he was a child.

Well.

Yeah.

For sure, that was true.

Anyway. The night was cold, but not chilly. The air was calm, and unwavering. The monsters were out there, but they were far away. And the stars… The stars were wonderful.

Erick focused. Tonight was the perfect night to commune with the mana, to speak of Void, to whisper of Starlight, to discuss the laying low of all those who dare to threaten.

Yes.

There it is; the correct mindset.

All around Erick, Ophiels began to swarm over each other in an unorganized tumble, but then Erick enforced a pattern, sending Ophiels outward, one by one, to form a circle around him, to dance among the starlight, atop the short grasses of the plains. Each one of them took up a piece of magic and played its music into the night sky.

He linked magics together.

Magics he had Remade, and understood. Magics he had created whole cloth. Magics of the uncertain made certain, and magics of power. Magics he had bought, and did not truly understand except for how they spoke to him. The mana spoke now, to him, through the magic; all one had to do was communicate back.

And so, Erick spoke,

“A Forceful Wall is broken; sundered

“An Undertow drags deep the plundered

“But a Ward will know of friend or foe

“While a Denial spell will say a ‘No’

“A harsh bright dawns upon these depths

“Casting down, it intercepts

“Those who would deny my right

“See now this [Rift of Undertow Light]!”

Erick’s voice deepened as he spoke; the magic taking hold and strengthening itself, imprinting its power upon Erick’s soul, and upon the world.

The sky seemed to deepen in turn.

The stars sparkled. And then they began to wink out. The moons vanished all at once. The night sky was such a deep blue that it looked black, but it wasn’t until actual blackness began to spread that one could tell the difference. Now, as darkness swept the sky, Erick could see.

Like ink, it spread.

And then, came the light.

A single, brilliant star, exploded into being in the center of the spell, illuminating everything and nothing all at once. The star cascaded black ink through the manasphere, like a continuous detonation. It hurt to look at, for the star was set beyond the darkness, and yet it was a part of the darkness itself.

Erick watched the star cascade for a little while, sending out tiny bits of disrupting Extreme Light, no doubt. At that thought, Erick’s calculating mind came back to him. The rift was about three hundred meters up there. The true stars and the moons had reappeared beyond his spellwork, though looking upon the spell, the central star was surrounded by a good twenty meters of deep, deep shadows, with tendrils of shadows that reached out up to a hundred meters away—

No. That wasn’t right. Some of those tendrils reached all the way to the ground, with one of them only twenty meters away from where Erick stood. Some of those tendrils reached far, far into the distance.

The spell had a range of kilometers. That was unintended, but Erick was thankful. He had thought he would need to Shape this spell to make it bigger. Maybe he wouldn’t need to—

A blue box appeared.

--

Undertow Star, instant, super long range, 4500 mana

Summon the Undertow Star! All are the same; all are different.

You may designate allies and enemies at will. All others are still subject to the star’s power.

Allies are excluded from the star’s wrath unless they get too close.

Drain 2x WIL Health and 2x WIL Mana per second from every target in a super large area of effect. Effect is stronger in the depths. Distant targets might not understand that they are being drained. Prevent all non-allied spatial travel within the star’s sight. Gradually erode any non-allied spellwork within the area of effect. The star will defend itself and allies with extreme light and against encroachment with worse.

Lasts 24 hours.

For every 10 resources drained, the spell will last 20 more minutes, gain 3 more points of [Dispel] protection, and be able to erode enemy spellwork with WIL extreme light damage.

--

It was a pretty big box! It was a pretty good spell, too.

Erick looked to his party.

Teressa stared up at the [Undertow Star], her eyes rolled back in her head a bit; no doubt trying [Witness] the spell as it was created up above, or… Hmm.

Perhaps she was mana sensing at a distance, to understand what the heck the tendrils of shadows were doing to the manasphere. Now that Erick wasn’t making the magic, he noticed a large oddity.

Normally, the mana around here flowed from north to south.

But now… Mana floated up, toward the [Undertow Star], like the spell was a hole in the manasphere, only to flow out once again, through all the shadow tendrils all around. The star wasn’t actually absorbing the ambient mana… But it certainly looked odd. Spells didn’t normally do that.

Jane looked up at the working, then down to her father. She seemed concerned, in that ‘are you hurting yourself again?’ sort of way.

Poi was worried, too, but for some other reason. Probably because of the noise.

The [Undertow Star] hummed into the world, with a constant, low grade sound. It was almost like when Erick had made Ophiel, but distinctly different; less otherworldly, for sure, but still supernatural. It wasn’t an unpleasant sound, but then again Erick liked Ophiel’s original sound just fine, too. In fact, [Undertow Star] sounded sort of like the air conditioner turning on, but distant, and barely audible. A very quiet AC. Erick always loved that sound because it made falling asleep back on Earth a lot easier. He had been missing that sound, now that he thought about it.

And now he had that sound back? Well wasn’t that interesting. Erick had made this spell so that he would feel safer falling asleep, after all. [Undertow Star] would prevent people from blipping into his sleeping space, lock down everyone who wasn’t admitted, and suck away all their resources, while also making itself rather [Dispel] resistant, too! Domains were likely still a problem, but if Erick ever added a Domain to some future version of this spell, then he could kill that particular weakness, too.

Magic was pretty awesome like that.

Nirzir’s reaction was not subdued at all. Her voice was filled with glee as she shouted for joy, “That’s amazing!” She asked, “What is it?”

Teressa softly said, “I got no idea what it’s supposed to do, either.”

Erick smiled. He almost spoke of his new [Luminosity spell], but he decided not to.

That was probably the paranoia talking, but whatever!

Poi knew! That was enough, for now.

Erick didn’t hand out the blue box, yet, for there were parts of it that were concerning, so he first explained, “I put a lot of different spells into this working in order to produce a guardian for when we’re all camped out. It does quite a few things—”

“Where’s the box, dad?” Jane asked. She had caught on rather quickly that he was hedging his new spell.

Nirzir asked, “Can I see the box, too—”

A tendril of shadows rapidly moved across the intervening space between Erick and Nirzir, and the rest of his party, racing off toward the west. Everyone looked up, and watched as several thin tendrils, each multiple hundreds of meters long, joined together in the far distance, touching down upon something.

Erick sent an Ophiel a kilometer over to investigate.

“Ah,” he said, watching through Ophiel’s eyes with half of his focus. “It’s a pack of red dogs, or something. Not sure if they’re different from what we have over in the Crystal Forest, or not.”

The red dogs were each half as large as a cow, with massive teeth and fur that looked as sharp as needles. The [Undertow Star]’s tendrils reached for them, and caught them. The dogs panicked a bit, growling and trying to chomp at the shadows with their large teeth. Teeth met nothing, and soon, the dogs stopped caring about the spellwork touching them. [Undertow Star] had no obvious effects, unless you were paying attention to your resources, after all, and monsters were still monsters, even if they were zeroed out on both Health and Mana.

Erick said, “They’re headed this way.”

“Red dogs? Are you sure they’re not wolves?” Nirzir asked, “Do they have four eyes?”

“Oh. Well.” Erick looked again, then said, “No. Two eyes, and something that looks like eye spots just above their real eyes.”

“Oh!” Nirzir’s face flushed with light embarrassment. “Uh. Yes. They’re still called four-eyed wolves. They are expert nighttime hunters. They’re attracted to magic.” Nirzir said, “I’ve been told they’re harmless, but they are monsters. Best kill them.”

Erick had already seen that they were monsters; they had cores in their chests.

Poi ignored the discussion over monsters, and spoke about the spell Erick had made. “You can’t cast this spell in a city, Erick. It doesn’t matter if you can make it not affect anyone.”

Erick hadn’t given out the box yet, but Poi had already read what Erick had read, for sure.

“You have a good point, Poi, but I can already think of a few ways that this spell would be perfect for inside a city, if it was Shaped properly, anyway. I doesn’t do any actual damage— But I can see that you are probably correct.” Erick shrugged. “It’ll be good for when we’re out under the stars, and wary of our surroundings. These tendrils seem to automatically find everyone around! Isn’t that something! Just think of the applications.” Erick prevented further discussion on the topic, for now, saying, “Now watch. I’m going to designate those wolves as ‘enemies’.”

Jane, Teressa, and Nirzir, all cast a spell to see in the distance. Poi did not; he remained on watch.

Erick designated the wolves as enemies.

High above, the [Undertow Star] radiated a baleful light. The tendrils of shadow surrounding the wolves began to rotate and pull, becoming hungry, ethereal twisters. The wolves instantly resumed growling and chomping at the darkness, their fangs flashing in the night. But when that did nothing, the forward wolf made a decision and howled into the night air, then charged forward, toward the thing attacking it. Running toward the star in the sky. The pack followed.

The wolves had no hope of ever assaulting the spell hanging so high in the air, and yet, still, they rushed toward the thing that was hurting them. Well. Not ‘hurting’ them. There was no actual damage taking place. The wolves were likely out of Health, though.

[Undertow Star] didn’t kill! Point proven.

So Erick finished the monsters off with the quick squiggle of a [Luminous Beam].

Erick came back to himself, just in time to see the light of his spell upon the horizon.

The others came back soon enough.

Erick handed out the spell, saying, “This’ll be good if I have to fight an army. Or a dragon. It can shut them down without injury.”

As Teressa and Jane read the spell, their eyes went a little wide. Nirzir got a wonderful, crazy grin on her face. Poi didn’t bother to read the blue box.

Jane got a weird, worried look, as she asked, “When did you learn [Teleport Lock]?”

“I didn’t.” Erick smiled. “I doubt this prevention is absolute, because the denial you’re seeing is the [Spatial Denial] I made a while ago, and that is certainly not absolute.”

Jane jerked, then relaxed, and said, “Oh.”

Teressa tentatively asked, “What would happen if it absorbed a million mana, or something like that? Surely there has to be a limit… Right?”

“Probably.” Erick said, “The Propagation Ban is certainly a thing that exists.”

“This is amazing!” Nirzir’s eyes were wide as she shook the blue box for [Undertow Star] in her hand. She looked to Erick, saying, “If this spell was under the control of Void Song then we could extend our peace and prosperity far beyond the Void Wall. We can reach all the way to our borders!”

“[Undertow Star] is not ‘Particle Mage Only’, though I did use some of those tricks in there.” Erick said, “You might be able to figure it out through your own methodology.”

Nirzir stood straight, and nodded.

Erick warned, “And you can handle the headache of bringing about a new world order through the single failure point of a single spell, when you do.”

Nirzir stood a bit less straight, and nodded again, a bit less sure this time.

Teressa furrowed her brows at the young girl, but since she was a good meter and a half taller than Nirzir, Nirzir didn’t even notice. Teressa didn’t like that the Void Song was the Songli solution to the problem of everyone having magic; she preferred for everyone to get stronger so that everyone could fight when needed.

Jane actually said the words aloud, though, “I think that too many people already have it too safe inside the cities.”

Nirzir softly said, “Safety is not a bad word. Everyone should be able to live their lives free of monsters.”

“It’s a nice thought, for sure!” Erick said, ending that discussion. He flicked his intent at the [Undertow Star], canceling the spell. The star burst into a nebula of dark light, taking the tendrils with it in a cascade of return to the mana. “But for now, we go back to Holorulo. We’re leaving the city in 3 days.”

Nirzir mumbled, “Right.”

- - - -

While Nirzir slept the sleep of the dead, since she was not on a watch, yet, Erick woke up at the crack of noon, just in time for lunch.

Jane had made lunch; she had stayed home today. But even more surprising than that, was that she had cooked.

For a certain definition of ‘cooked’, anyway.

Erick happily took the paper box with the image of rice on it —it was the largest box of the whole set— and grabbed himself some rice, teasing, “I love it when you cook, Jane.”

“It’s quite a magical experience, to be sure. All I do is tell someone what I want, and I get what I want.” Jane stuck a fork in her not-general-tso’s chicken, smiling as she said, “Not quite as magical as the nascent Twisted Vision you made last night.”

Erick paused halfway through dumping some seared vegetables onto his plate. Teressa was looking at him, waiting for a denial. Poi was eyeing him, knowingly. Jane was being nonchalant about it, but she was rather sure she hit the mark, exactly right. And she had.

Erick served himself some vegetables, and said, “So you all talked about that, eh? I was hoping that fact would go unseen for a little while longer. I was going to bring it up… eventually. But. Anyway. I certainly did not plan on that aspect of [Undertow Star], but you’d have to be blind not to notice the way the ambient mana moved last night. Spells don’t normally make mana move like that.”

Teressa softly said, “I was hoping I was seeing things last night. But… I guess I wasn’t.”

“Nope; you weren’t. And now that we’re openly talking about it, we can go ahead and talk about it.” Erick handed the three of them [Luminosity], saying, “I also made this spell yesterday when you were all sleeping. It’s a Particle spell based around extreme light, and I used it when making [Undertow Star]. It’s purpose is to deny the magics of non-approved people. [Spatial Denial] is also part of [Undertow Star], as you noticed last night, Jane.

“Both of these things mimic the most widely known abilities of Twisted Visions; primarily the ability to fuck up any escape through Spatial magic, and to also deny you your strongest offensive powers.” Erick said, “I did not intend this when I was making [Undertow Star], but the similarities cannot be denied.”

Poi sent, ‘We’re moving this conversation to silent telepathy before you mention [Duplicate] out loud.’

‘Fair enough.’ Erick said, ‘As Poi has brought up, right before I could, I did not put [Duplicate] in this working. I don’t think I ever would have, either. But that brings me to the next thought: The soul spear.’

Jane and Teressa gasped a little. Poi frowned.

Yes; he was deflecting them off track for talking about [Undertow Star]. Erick wasn’t going to admit that, though. Erick had hoped he would have at least another day to organize his thoughts better, but what could you do? His people were not dummies, after all. He decided to just be glad that other people were seeing what he saw; it helped to confirm he wasn’t being paranoid.

‘Oh my gods.’ Teressa said, ‘They got the soul spear from the dragons.’

Jane countered, ‘Or Xangu had a Vision copy the spear. We still haven’t found the man, or his trail.’

Teressa eyed Erick. ‘Well that’s a dead end, anyway. How would we even check on such a thing? I want to talk about [Undertow Star] more. How deep does this go?’

Erick nodded; back to the main subject, then. ‘Let’s go all the way back to the beginning, to my ideas of a [Renew] spell. I want anyone to be able to cast into an ongoing spell to keep that spell working, but that idea never worked out, exactly.

‘But while we were here, on this Worldly Path, I saw the guards of Treehome use Draining spells to knock down killers. That’s where I got the idea to go in a different direction with [Renew]; to make a [Drain Ward] that could power other spells. It wasn’t till we got here, to Songli, to where I saw the Void Wall and heard the Void Song that I actually went forward with those nascent ideas formed in Treehome.

‘But the Undertow spell I made last night is incomplete, if one were to compare it to a Twisted Vision, and it’s incomplete because I just didn’t think to include those other parts of this spell. I didn’t even think about including those parts until just now, here in this discussion.’

Teressa looked concerned with her lips in a slight frown, exposing her large lower fangs. Jane narrowed her eyes, worried, but in a way that said ‘My gods, dad, what did you do?’. Poi took Erick’s words in stride; probably because he had already figured this stuff out long before now, what with his Mind Mage information network, and everything.

Erick continued, heedless of the looks he was getting, ‘As I see it, there are certain pieces missing from [Undertow Star] that are present in a Twisted Vision. [Duplicate] is the major piece, but I’m not putting that in there. Why would I? No thank you. I also failed to include [Mysticalshape], which is another spell I just learned and then used to great effect, but which didn’t go into last night’s spell. I also used [Spatial Denial], where a Twisted Vision spell might use [Teleport] instead, or— OH! Now that I’m talking about it: a Spatial Magic Domain. That’s probably more correct.

‘That the Vision has a Domain is likely why it recognizes other Domains really quickly.’ He added, ‘Oh yeah. And that’s another thing… Another two things, actually. First: Twisted Visions live in the Forest, of which there are trees, and I just learned some impressive tree magic. So that’s probably a part of [Gate], too, though I didn’t include that, either. But more importantly, as it concerns [Gate]:

‘I don’t think [Gate] is actually about linking two spaces, at all. That’s just what it looks like to the end user. I think [Gate] might truly be about the creation of a being —a summon— that opens up in two different areas. This creature then allows the people who go through the summon at one place to travel to a different place. Perhaps such a creature might even look like [Undertow Star] with tendrils for people to enter through and then exit out the other side, in another place. Or maybe such a summoned creature would look more like a tree? World Trees are supposed to naturally have this functionality, too, after all. Perhaps this functionality is a feature of having bodies that stretch across the universe.

‘But I might need to make a Spatial Magic Domain and add that into [Undertow Star] in order for the emergent property of the ‘[Gate] spell’ to appear out of the working.

‘Or, perhaps, I am completely wrong about that.

‘Probably not wrong about the Space Domain, though.

‘But I pursued [Draining Elemental] in order to produce a framework into which [Gate] could be slotted, so that anyone could expose themselves to the [Gate] and power the [Gate], without me or anyone else needing to [Renew] or recast the [Gate]. In that pursuit, I arrived at the Undertow effect, which is applicable to any spellwork, and which can last forever, if enough people, or monsters, are exposed to the spellwork. But now that I’ve made it...

‘Perhaps the Old Dragonkin Gate Network has a similar Undertow spell working in the background, and since it is a magical construct that has ‘lived’ this long, maybe the Network has gained a sentience. Maybe it has gained a soul. Maybe that’s the answer to Teressa’s concern over ‘what happens when Undertow Star Drains a million mana’, or, in this case, billions upon billions of mana. Trillions, even. Maybe, eventually, when exposed to that much mana, the Gate Network mutated from its original purpose, to become a Twisted Vision.

‘Or perhaps, the Twisted Visions are the fully intact and functional Old Dragonkin Gate Network, but the Gates that those monsters used to attach to are long gone, lost to the Rage Wars and to civilization’s solution to those wars of destroying the Gate Network.

‘Perhaps the writing inside of the Gates Tenebrae has found are truly nonsense words, only there to guide where the [Gate] openings should be, written in a language known only to the Visions, or to the Green Labyrinth, in particular.’

Erick stopped sending.

Teressa, Jane, and Poi, sat there around the lunch table, digesting what he had sent them, and also their food. No one had stopped eating while Erick was sending, and Erick didn’t stop eating, either. Now that he was done, though, Jane had a slight scowl. Poi was surprised, but not talking about his surprise.

Teressa…

Teressa sent, ‘Okay. That was a lot. You might be right about the Twisted Visions… But they don’t look like trees. They look like crystal growths the size of an orcol, planted in the middle of a grove.’

‘Really?’ Erick said, ‘Tenebrae’s writings said they were any number of things that were inside the main monsters of the Twisted Vision, like cores.’

‘Treehome has killed smaller Visions when they encroach upon the city, or when they hunker down in the center of major roads. We know what they look like,’ Teressa sent. ‘They’re almost exactly like monster cores, but only when they’re disturbed. Otherwise they’re just big hunks of crystal planted in the middle of a grove. When they’re disturbed, they summon a monster to surround the crystal. That’s how they move from place to place, too.’

Erick grinned, happy to see Teressa having a contribution to the discussion. ‘Where did you read that? I haven't read that anywhere, yet?’

Teressa said, ‘I looked it up after we left Treehome. Sent some messages to some people and they got back to me, through Poi.’

Poi nodded, sending, ‘That is correct.’

Erick was ecstatic, ‘Oh! That’s great news then, Teressa! That helps me to understand the problem, too. Thank you. Maybe [Undertow Star] is capable of making one of those large crystals? Maybe not. I don’t know anything about that at all.’

Teressa briefly blushed, then shook her head, waving off the nice words.

Jane sent, ‘I wanna know about Yggdrasil. How does this relate to him?’

‘Ah! And that’s another thing.’ Erick sent, ‘I made a World Tree while on the Worldly Path. But is Yggdrasil the World Tree because the blue box says he is? Or is Yggdrasil still locked down by divine mandate, and he will become a World Tree when those locks are broken?’ Erick handed out the box for Yggdrasil, saying, ‘This box has never changed from its initial form.’

--

Summon Yggdrasil, medium range, 2500 mana + Variable

Summon a sapling of the World Tree Yggdrasil.

All Yggdrasil persist until killed or dismissed.

All Yggdrasil are the same creature, but only one Yggdrasil is the    World Tree.

The World Tree has yet to be planted.

Summon Yggdrasil has as many maximum summons as the World Tree allows, with a minimum of 2.

Current Maximum: 2

All Yggdrasil naturally have and regenerate mana based on your own mana and mana regeneration, which they may use to cast the spells that you imbue them with, at your own command or at their own discretion. Comes summoned and proficient with [Grow], [Watershape], [Tree of Light], [Kaleidoscopic Radiance], [Control Weather], [Telepathy], and [Scry].

World Tree Yggdrasil’s mana and regeneration are higher than yours.

Imbue your Yggdrasil with new spells, wherever they are. Variable

See through the eyes of your Yggdrasil. Variable

Communicate telepathically with your Yggdrasil. Variable

--

Erick sent, ‘It still says that ‘The World Tree has yet to be planted’ even after all this time.’

Jane read along with everyone else, but she was the first to send out her thoughts, ‘So. Yeah. I think you need to give him [Gate] for him to be able to [Gate]. Or perhaps the Yggdrasil that Sininindi got is the real one, and since that one is still growing, maybe that other one might take over your Yggdrasil when it comes of age?’ She added, ‘Your spell specifically says ‘Sapling’. So… I don’t really know—’

Poi sent, ‘Nirzir is awake.’

‘She wasn’t already?’ Jane frowned, then turned back to her father. ‘What does the Quest for the Worldly Path look like?’

Erick showed her, and everyone else at the table, too.

--

Special Quest!

The Worldly Path 0/1

OR

10 Points

Reward: The ability to cast Gate

--

‘That one hasn’t changed, either.’ Erick said, ‘We can table the rest of this discussion for now, anyway; it’s a lot to think about.’

Jane nodded, then helped herself to some seconds. Aside from a few ‘large news’ pauses during lunch, no one had really stopped eating.

Erick served himself seconds, too, saying, “It’s a lot easier to send while eating, isn’t it?”

Poi said, “It’s considered highly rude in most cultures. Less so among adventurers in the field.”

“It’s a sign of bad times back at the Forest,” Teressa said, with her fork stuck in the last bite of her own lunch. “The need to be quiet is never a good need.”

Erick said, “If Nirzir turns out well, then we should be able to have these discussions more openly, soon enough.”

Lunch was over, but there were plenty of leftovers for Nirzir for when she finally dragged herself into the kitchen. She certainly took her sweet time about it, though. While everyone else went their separate ways for a little while, Erick remained in the kitchen to make some cinnamon rolls. After he got through making the dough, he sat down at the table with a cup of coffee and a book, to wait for the dough to rise.

Nirzir finally got out of bed and plodded toward the kitchen. As she rounded the corner and entered Erick’s sight, Erick almost laughed. The girl’s hair was a mess. Her robes were askew. She had bags under her eyes and she slumped as she walked. Was this, perhaps, the very first time she had ever gotten up on her own, after a long night out?

That possibility was high!

Nirzir blinked around, and grogged out, “I smelled… food?”

“About half an hour ago.” Erick chuckled, and with a lightform touch, he blipped a plate of lunch out from the cold box, and onto the table. He added a small [Heat Ward] to the chilled meal, saying, “It’ll take a moment to heat.”

Nirzir’s eyes lit upon spying the piled food. She sat down immediately, saying, “Thank you, thank you.”

Within seconds, the food was steaming and the [Heat Ward] canceled on its own. Nirzir dug in.

By the time she had finished her lunch, the dough had risen, so Erick offered her, “Want to learn to make cinnamon rolls? I already made the base.”

Looking much more alert than she had when she walked in the room, Nirzir said, “Uh.” She decided, “Yes. Yes I do.” She added, “I also need to go get some stuff and bring it back here. Am I. Uh. Am I carrying my own things?”

“Yup.” Erick said, “And there’s not going to be any [Force Platform]s, either. Just a backpack, if you can.”

Her eyes went a little wide. Then she glanced backward, and asked, “What are you going to do with all of your stuff?”

“I’m going to hide it in a nice spot and leave a guardian to watch over it.”

Nirzir frowned a little. She offered, “You could leave it with my family? We got space.”

Erick looked to Nirzir, and considered. Taking her offer would be a good way to establish some sort of relationship with the main Void Song family, wouldn’t it? Or maybe accepting her offer would just be the logical extension of what Erick was already doing; handing over stuff wasn’t as valuable as handing over a daughter, but there would at least be some reciprocity in the gesture. But… He would not entrust anyone with the important books, and he was just fine with stuffing everything into a stone sphere and dropping that sphere into an uninhabited part of the unpopulated plains. He wasn’t even going to put up a ‘guardian’ over the location, or anything like that, for that would just give away the buried treasure.

He decided, “I appreciate the offer, and I thank you for it, but I will not be accepting. No doubt you will one day have banned books and untold power written down in your possession, too, and you wouldn’t want to entrust those materials to anyone else, even if you trust them not to read what is written. I would feel better with the materials stuffed into the ground somewhere, and so, that is what I am going to do.” He got up, and said, “Now let’s make those cinnamon rolls.”

Nirzir’s face reddened with embarrassment, briefly, and then she steeled herself, and said, “I am ready.”

Making cinnamon rolls was much easier than other types of cooking, considering Erick had already made the dough. Nirzir got into it, and with flour on her hands and a smile on her face, she spoke about how it was just like Shaping, but with her hands instead of her aura! Easy stuff!

They were good rolls.

Afterward, Nirzir went back home for a bit, to pack and get ready for the trip. Jane offered to go with her. Erick thought that a bit odd, and he was still worried about Jane ditching them on the rest of the trip… But he did not voice that concern. Nirzir was happy for the company.

After the two girls had gone, Erick spoke to Teressa and Poi, “I told Nirzir that I would seal our stuff in a boulder and drop it off somewhere, but I’d prefer to just drop it off at Spur. And besides that, I have to recast Yggdrasil in the lake; they have to be running out of [Control Weather] by now— Okay. I see you have objections, Poi.”

Poi said, “Don’t worry about the weather over Spur. Kiri is filling in with a derivative of [Call Lightning], tuned to bring the rain. Don’t worry about our stuff; you should just put it inside a boulder and drop it in the ground somewhere. That is standard operating protocol for a reason. And do not forget: Silverite has strict instructions for you not to return to Spur until you are off your Worldly Path, and I feel you should honor that request.”

“I gotta agree with Poi, Boss,” Teressa said.

“… ugh. Fine. You’re probably right.” Erick said, “But we still need to get ready to go. I’ll put up a [Teleport Platform] on the third floor, so let’s start gathering.”

They started moving.

Erick quickly realized that he had gotten a lot of stuff. Books, mostly, but there were also clothes he had made, and small things he had bought at stores here and there, just so he could commemorate the trip. There was a nice vase that was practically ‘stereotypical Chinese’, but instead of blue on white, it was red on white; it was a minimalist brushstroke landscape of the Tribulations. Erick liked it. He also liked the small box full of blue weed that Syllea had given him, and his record player that he didn’t get a single chance to use yet…

He still hadn’t figured out how to make a camera.

He missed his camera; he would have liked to have taken some photos.

Whelp!

He could magic up some lightwards, though! So Erick did that, grabbing some stone from outside and shaping some settings, using his memory of the people he had seen to lightpaint people onto that stone. There was Xue and Sikali. Ari. Kaffi. Tadashi; a whole and healthy version. Jane with her sword and armor. Teressa in her veil. Poi in his silver armor. Syllea and Bayth. Tenebrae. The Arbors of Treehome, as seen from below...

… Heh. This was nice.

Erick decided to do everyone he had seen— Well. Not everyone. A lot of people, though. He quickly realized that he needed to be a bit more professional about this, though, for stone tablets were not the longest lasting material. So he sent an Ophiel out to grab some of the eternal Stonetree from the copy of his house, sitting out there on the plains. Then he made a few dozen uniform 3 decimeter by 2 decimeter portraits, each half a centimeter thick and yet as inflexible as steel. He recast his lightpaintings into those settings. Soon, he was done with the portraits. He moved onto landscapes, grabbing images straight from Ophiel, as the [Familiar] hovered over Holorulo, and then Alaralti. In Eralis, Erick snapped out lightpaintings of the Void Temple, and the clan mountain of Star Song, and white mountain of Clan Red Ledger—

Teressa smiled as she interrupted, “You could make a living out of that, if this archmage thing doesn’t work out.”

“Ha!” Erick said, “Thank you.”

“You know… That ability to visualize is probably why you’re so good at magic. Almost no one can just… Pop out a lightpainting like that.”

Erick smiled. “When I was a kid I took some art classes because I liked it, but I never had the material skill to bring my vision to reality. But lightpainting? Lightpainting is a direct translation between vision and reality. It’s amazing.”

“I guess it is.” Teressa looked like she wanted to say something else, but, she did not. “Well. I got stuff to pack.” She almost walked away—

What was happening there—

Oh. Duh. Erick could have kicked himself. Obviously, she wanted a painting!

Before she got far, Erick offered, “Do you want a lightpainting, Teressa?”

She paused. She halfway turned back. “… Nah.”

“I’ll make you one!” Erick tapped the blank canvases, saying, “Eternal Stonewood! Won’t break or be Shaped under normal conditions! It’ll last a long time.”

And that made her come back.

Teressa asked, “Do you remember what… my…” She sighed, and her words streamed out, “Do you remember the waystation that we [Cleanse]d away? The one my village used all the time? Did you get a chance to see through the mana, to see what it used to look like?”

Erick solemnly said, “I did. Hold on.”

He grabbed a blank canvas, and then he grabbed another. With a Shaping, he joined them into a larger surface, and then he painted with light. There was the porch with the old people who laughed at the kids playing in the streets. There was the well that had been overgrown, but it was now in working order, and a man was drawing water from it with a [Watershape].

Much of Teressa’s waystation had been badly damaged by the Witch, and that included the mana. Everything Erick put down into light was an interpretation, for the final [Witness] that Erick had cast into that place was jumbled with pain and the impression of fire. Erick did not include the fire in his lightpainting. But he did stitch together a lot of images taken from normal village life that probably never happened all at once.

Teressa’s lightpainting took a few minutes to make since it was actually several lightpaintings, all joined into one scene of transient village life.

Erick looked up when he was finished, and said, “There we go— Ah.”

Teressa had small tears rolling down her face as she gazed upon the lightpainting.

Erick wordlessly handed it over. Teressa accepted it like it would have burned her if she wasn’t careful.

Then she stood a bit straighter, and said, “Thank you, Erick.”

Erick gave a smile, and said, “Anytime, Teressa.”

Erick finished with his lightpaintings, and got back to packing, properly.

Soon, the City Shield, the books, the clothes, the new lightpaintings, everything that wasn’t necessary, was placed into stone containers, ready to be dropped into the ground. It took three hours to get to that point, for Erick discovered that he was loathe to slash his library or his wardrobe down to the bare essentials. What self-respecting mage would go somewhere without a book? But then again, he had nearly sixty books. That was too many. He eventually settled on only keeping the book of Illusion Magic; he hadn’t gotten very far into that one, and it might prove useful if the Mirage Dragon showed up. (It probably wouldn’t be useful at all for it was an intermediary text, but he still needed something to read in the downtime!).

Making his go-bag was tough, but he did it, because it was necessary. The bag itself was a simple, yet well made, brown leather backpack. It held a change of clothes, a canteen, his book, and a few smaller things. Teressa and Poi were similarly prepared. A small bag of essentials, along with [Mend], [Cleanse], and lightwards, were all that one really needed to venture out into the wide open world. Of course, one still needed weapons and magic to kill the monsters that prowled out there, but supplies were easy to get and maintain with just a modicum of mana.

Erick started making dinner.

He finished before Jane and Nirzir showed, so he let it sit there, hot, as they waited.

And waited.

And there goes the sun setting.

Erick looked to Poi.

Poi said, “They’re fine. They’re just late. We can eat without them.”

Erick frowned. They better not be late because Jane wanted to stay beh—

A purple blip deposited both Nirzir and Jane into the living room.

Erick relaxed.

Jane came into the kitchen dining room, and smiled brightly. “Oh good! Just in time for the best part of dinner: Eating!”

“Ha ha,” Erick said. “You’re late.”

Nirzir looked embarrassed for a second, but she got over it fast. Whatever had happened at her house was not of Erick’s concern. He didn’t think it was of Jane’s concern, either, but his daughter was working with the people of Songli a lot closer than he was, right now. She even knew of Nirzir’s brother, which probably meant something…

Erick didn’t want to think too deeply of all that, though. Jane was probably trying to make it on her own, forging her own connections and meeting her own circle of people, and he respected that.

- - - -

The next morning a letter courier arrived with a formal invitation to a feast, with Erick as the guest of honor. The party would be that night, on First Devouring Nightmare Mountain.

Erick decided to attend.

It was a lavish affair of drinks and too much food and short speeches given by people whom Erick had barely met, but whose lives he had saved during the war. It was bittersweet, really. They told him that he had done a lot, and for them, he had, but personally, Erick felt he had not done enough; he kept that opinion to himself, though.

Scion Cania of Small Scare gave a small speech, talking about how Erick had prevented a Hunter of Terror Peaks from infiltrating her squad by [Teleport Other]ing the fake initiate away and executing him on the spot. When a woman in her group asked after the missing man, Erick explained how the guy was over level 70, and therefore he was not who he appeared to be. Caina had given her speech as a thanks to Erick, but she had delivered it in such a routine, soldier-like manner, that it brought down the mood of the party. After she sat down, there was a lull. In that lull, Erick saw that people were looking for Cania’s much more sociable brother to stand up, to say something to cover for his sister’s social lacking, but then, just as quickly, most people remembered that her brother had been killed in the fighting.

Erick still said to Cania, “Thank you for your kind words.”

Cania nodded.

The next person stood up, and started talking.

Mostly, it was a nice night. In some ways, it was boring. In other ways, it was eventful.

There was an attempted murder.

Erick wasn’t involved in that.

It happened in the next building over, and occurred between two women because of some drama with some man. Some elite guards on the periphery caught the attempted murder happening right as it was going down. The only reason Erick learned of it all at was because those elite guards blipped away from the sides of the gathering as the attempted murder was going down, and the nobility demanded to know the reason for the breach of etiquette. After briefly checking things out with Ophiel, Erick decided that it wasn’t his business. He didn’t get the whole story, nor did he want it.

In the course of the evening, Erick found out that Nirzir was terribly introverted. The princess of Void Song sat in a place of honor beside the main table, barely doing anything except to politely eat and pretend to fade into the background. People tried to talk to her, but none were able to get her to say more than a few words in response.

Erick accepted a lot of thanks from a lot of people.

Jane was talking to Patriarch Mirizo and a few others from Star Song and Void Song who had been invited to the party. Xue and Riri were not in attendance, though.

When it was over, Erick went home and went straight to bed. He was completely exhausted.

- - - -

The next morning Erick had one final meeting with Hangzi.

The Patriarch of Devouring Nightmare came to him, and sat down in his temporary living room. Jane served tea, and then she and all the guards departed to a different, nearby room.

Hangzi had not given any speeches last night, for as the Patriarch of a High Clan, he was above that. It was his job to act in control, and never cede authority to anyone. Except now, that facade broke a little. He said, “Thank you for remaining for this last week. I hope your stay in my Clan has been satisfactory?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “Thank you for your hospitality.”

Hangzi nodded. He paused. He said, “There is nothing I can offer to get you to stay in Songli, is there?”

Erick smiled at Hangzi’s heavily concealed, and yet honest desire for a friend. There were so many layers to his need that his words took Erick back, back to that moment when the four of them —Hangzi, Yorza, Warzi, and himself— were sitting around that dinner table at the top of Star Song’s Southern House, and Erick saw that Hangzi wanted true friends in his life. Ones that didn’t want to use him only for his resources, and ones that he didn’t have to use in turn for their resources.

Circumstances had wildly changed since then.

Mostly, those circumstances equaled out…

But Erick was probably higher up on the totem pole than Hangzi, if he was being honest with himself.

That allowed him a bit of leeway, to reach across the aisle, and to make a friend. Right now the age difference was a bit funky. The kid was only 19, and Erick was 49. But Erick would live to be 220 if he played his cards right; Rozeta’s Blessing and the accompanying Immune to Health Fatigue did that.

He would have plenty of time to wait out the hundred years on Yggdrasil’s Divine Seal.

And thinking of which...

Erick decided, “I will be moving on, but I appreciate Songli. I am thankful for Devouring Nightmare. And I’m glad to have met you, Hangzi. I would like to formalize a deeper bond, and to that end: I have another planting of Yggdrasil that needs to go somewhere. Got a good spot for him? Needs to be a deep lake, but he can defend himself from everything.”

There was a moment of pause, as Erick’s words registered.

Acting a bit faster than Hangzi, Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye bobbed on Erick’s shoulder in recognition of his name, and then he bounced more, in recognition of what was about to happen.

Hangzi brightened, but only the smallest amount; he was restraining himself. He glanced to the [Scry] eye then asked, “Will he be controlling the weather around here, too?”

“Not unless you ask him to.” Erick added, “Or, if you ask me to ask him. Just keep in mind that with any luck on my end, Yggdrasil might get [Gate], and Candlepoint will be one of the cities on the other side.”

Hangzi graciously said, “I understand. I will accept this honor on behalf of Songli.” He paused in thought, then said, “East of Holorulo, directly across the Wanzhi River, there are a few places that have been evacuated, as the people have been moved into better locations on this side of the river. There is one lake-like place that is what you might call a fishing resort town. It will require some excavation but I can have that done in an hour. It will serve as a good location for Yggdrasil.”

“That sounds perfect.” Erick grinned. “Want to see a planting? I’m going to let Yggdrasil use [Eternal Stonetree] in this second location, so it should be quite a sight!”

Yggdrasil left Erick’s shoulder and bobbed in place; he was excited.

Hangzi seriously said, “There will need to be some excavation and preparation, if not for Yggdrasil, then for the benefit of future generations, and unless you have [Cityshape], which I do not believe you do, then one of our City Shapers will need to do what we pay them to do.” He bargained with a voice that was not used to bargaining, “I can have it done in twenty minutes.” A tendril of thought left his head.

Erick waited, patiently happy.

Yggdrasil waited impatiently and ecstatic, his white [Scry] eye bouncing all around. Ophiel twittered in curious guitar twangs as he watched Yggdrasil’s eye play in the air.

Soon enough, Hangzi declared, “It is being done as I speak.”

Erick was already watching with Ophiel; finding the spot Hangzi spoke of was easy enough.

- - - -

Fishing this far north on the Wanzhi River was different than fishing down south, next to Eralis. By the time the water got all the way down there it had been used up in Alaralti’s farms, and portioned out to all the smaller villages and otherwise that sprung up past Holorulo. But up here, the waters ran deep, and the monsters were big.

The fishing villages up here were built like they were on the front lines of a war, because they were. The boat houses were castles, half submerged, with massive gates that could be shut to prevent monsters from following a retreating vessel. The villages themselves were built kilometers from shore, and in similar styles, for many fish knew how to fly.

And almost all of those fishing towns were ghost towns, now; the people either moved on, or dead.

In one place in particular, this evacuation was well apparent.

There was a carved-out, three-kilometer diameter lake, situated right next to the Wanzhi River. A massive lock separated the lake from the river itself. Inside the lake, nice looking residential houses were set only twenty meters from the waters, with little care given over to proper, waterside construction. When the lock broke, which probably happened in the war, flying fish probably destroyed the resort town. This was a middle-class area, for sure. Merchant class, at least.

And it had been hit hard. Destroyed houses. Burned out husks. Craters, here and there. No one had bothered to fix it up, either, which meant that anyone who had been living here was either dead, or didn’t care.

Whatever the case, at least one person was going to be living here soon enough; Yggdrasil.

There was a flying man above the center of that deep lake, holding his hands up to the sky as he hovered a hundred meters above the dark waters. A few smaller fish monsters noticed the man, but those monsters could only jump a dozen meters out of the water. The man was too high up to be attacked by those lesser beasts. He wore white robes that fluttered in the wind, with an image of Rozeta embroidered on the back—

Oh. Erick knew the man. It was the guy who made the City Shields.

Mage Ishibo.

White magic swirled around the man, reaching a crescendo, and then he pulsed. A wave of Shaping magic swept outward, impacting the waters, like the finger of a deity, then reached down into the waves. The magic sunk deep. And then, it changed.

Metals and glass and wood churned along the bottom of the lake, flying the hundreds of meters up and out of the waters, to join a gathering roil of debris, a swirling torus of trash that then spread outward from Ishibo’s point of impact. In a matter of minutes, the lake cleared from a dark, muddy blue, to clear blue, allowing Erick to fully see down into the depths, to see that a lot of boats had been sunk in these waters.

Had been. The boats were rapidly becoming part of the churning roil of white magic.

With the boats and trash gone, the larger monsters were revealed. The most impressive one was a massive eel; a rivergrieve, perhaps. It was twenty meters long, at least. There were smaller monsters, too. Erick only really noticed the rivergrieve, though, as the [Cityshape] had ripped apart three wrecks and uncovered that monster. As that ring of grabbed material expanded, it tore through two more major wrecks, uncovering two more rivergrieves, each the same size as the first.

[Cityshape] hit the residential coastline in a roil of broken stuffs, grabbing destroyed houses and making them a part of its magic. And then, like spreading crystallization, the coastline of the lake became a thick seawall, meters deep, with flat land beyond that wall. The houses had all vanished, but the lock leading into the side lake was repaired and fortified into something twice as large as it had been before.

Erick had no idea where all the rest of the trash went. Perhaps Ishibo was using a variant of [City Shape], with [Cleanse] in there?

Within minutes, the transformation was over and the monsters down below were angry.

The massive eels were transforming from solid, dark greens to faintly translucent and then fully translucent, vanishing from sight with a magic that was not [Invisibility], the waters around them filled with ethereal jaws that snapped at anything that got too close. More than a few smaller fish monsters were turned into chum as the larger monsters moved out. One of the monstrous eels slipped upward, to the surface, and then breached the surface, flying through the air as though it was water, headed straight for—

Ishibo saw what Erick saw. He blipped away, fast as he could go.

Erick came back to himself. “To confirm, are those rivergrieves? Right? I’ve only ever seen juveniles before and the juveniles certainly did not fly.”

Hangzi looked up, probably monitoring the telepathic connection he had to whoever he was speaking with. “… No. Those are false rivergrieves. They’re monsters with cores and so they might one day become true rivergrieves, but their cores are not grand. I am being told that the larger one is closer to that fundamental shift than the others, but it is still not there yet.”

“Ah. Well,” Erick paused. In the other room, Jane, Teressa, Poi, and a few of Hangzi’s guards waited patiently. Erick called out to Jane, “Hey, Jane! Want a false rivergrieve?”

After an embarrassed moment, Jane stepped out of that side room and into the entrance to where Erick and Hangzi sat. She spoke with polite courtesy, “No thank you, father. I picked up a false rivergrieve yesterday, and did not get a chance to tell you yet.”

“Oh! Well okay.” Erick said, “Then! I'll just kill them and plant Yggdrasil.”

Hangzi nodded.

Yggdrasil bounced.

Jane retreated back to the side room.

Seven Ophiels descended to the surface of the waters of the riverside lake, each of them aglow with white light, glittering with purpose. Two of the three false rivergrieves were flying now, prowling, searching for the one that had changed their home. Ophiel might not have [Cityshape]d the lake, but they made for good targets anyway.

Ophiels wrapped themselves in rings of lightning, that flashed out into mandalas of intricacy, right as the translucent monsters each opened a hundred ethereal jaws all around themselves, and attacked.

Lightning met Force Magic, and lost.

Too many jaws attacked from too many angles, and Ophiels turned into broken mana.

On his shoulder, Ophiel squawked in annoyance.

Erick frowned, as he said, “Obviously, I did not respect the fish. Always learning something new, it seems.

Hangzi had a tiny smirk that he could not wipe off of his face, but he kept his mouth shut.

Erick summoned a few more Ophiel and had them lightstep over to the targets. This time, he started with an [Undertow Star], cast onto the surface of the lake.

Hangzi lost his smirk.

A thousand tendrils of breaking shadow extended outward from a point of light above the waters, ruffling the lake into waves. The star, ensconced beyond its own impenetrable void, attacked. The eel monsters were enemies, and the star saw this, training its tendrils upon the beasts, and also upon every single other monster underneath the waves.

The Force magics of the lesser rivergrieves broke in a hundred tiny ways, showing in the cracks of star-like light that formed along their translucent lengths, and in the breaking of ethereal jaws. The eels dropped out of the sky, belly-flopping into the water, their magic suddenly broken.

Under the watchful glow of the [Undertow Star], Ophiels dove into the lake and let loose with lightning once again. This time, lightning spread far and wide, [Fulmination Aura] shattering every living thing that hunted beneath (and sometimes above!) the waves. In a minute, the lake was empty of threats.

Erick canceled [Undertow Star]. Shadows retreated into the Void; the light from beyond went out.

Hangzi asked, “What… What was that?”

“I made a new spell the other day.” Erick handed him the blue box for [Undertow Star]. “The [Spatial Denial] of this is a bit wonky, but the rest of it turned out really well.” He stood. “Care to see the planting in person?”

Hangzi read the blue box, taking ten seconds to do so, and experiencing half a dozen emotions just as fast. Disbelief, primarily. Then came a bit of anger, but that was swept away by a sudden sadness. Acceptance, and a bit of forced cheer, came last. He looked up to see Erick standing, then he stood in turn. “Nice spell.” He added, “Yes. I want to see the planting in person. I also want a formal introduction between me and Yggdrasil. He might forget this time in his life as one would a dream, but I still wish to be a part of that dream. Rozeta willing, I will be here for a long time.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Of course. Poi can come with me. Do you wish to take a guard, too?”

Poi heard his name and walked out of the side room, followed by one of Hangzi’s men.

Hangzi said, “Yes. I assume you will be traveling us?”

Erick unfolded the light he kept bottled up at his back, brightening the room, as he said, “Correct.”

Poi stepped into the room along with Hangzi’s guard. In a flashing second, the four of them relocated to the edge of the lake.

- - - -

The sky was blue with faint clouds in the upper atmosphere, while the lake in front of them was a bit frothy with the recent addition of chummed and fried monster bits. There wasn’t much of that, though, for the lake was over three kilometers in diameter. Erick suspected that maybe he was the only one who actually noticed the death in the waters.

Hangzi stared outward with Erick, and asked, “Are you pleased with the ‘[Lakeshape]’, Erick?”

Oh? [Lakeshape]? Was Hangzi trying to make a joke? He was, wasn’t he. That spell probably existed, sure, but Ishibo definitely used [Cityshape].

Erick joined in on the joke, saying, “I might have to make a bargain of trade with you to learn that spell.”

Hangzi smiled; his joke had been accepted.

“Let us begin,” Erick said.

Attentions turned back to the waters.

With a glance through the Ophiel still on site, down below the waves, far down to the lake bottom, Erick found a perfect spot. There was a rise off center of the waters, a bit closer to land; a bit further away from the river entrance. Erick guessed that the rise was about two hundred and fifty meters deep, while the rest of the lake in that area was 300 to 400 meters deep.

He sent to Yggdrasil, ‘Okay. Here we go. Body number two; this one is going to get [Eternal Stonetree], okay?’

Yggdrasil responded with wordless recognition and excitement.

Erick cast through the Ophiel down in the depths of the lake.

A light bloomed among the darkness. Radiant and pure. And then a single tendril of a sapling rose out of the sandy lake bottom. A green leaf unfurled, and a nimbus of rainbow light surrounded that leaf. Another leaf bloomed, followed rapidly by a third, and a fourth. The sapling branched, then branched again, and again. More leaves appeared, and the rainbow crown expanded. The trunk thickened, glowing white, as roots dug deep into the dirt and—

Erick felt a shift in the world.

A rumble. A murmur. The stone shoreline seemed to sway under Erick’s feet. He instinctively put his hands out to steady himself before he toppled over, but even that wasn’t enough. Poi caught him, asking what was wrong. Erick couldn’t answer, for his tongue was thick and unresponsive, and his arms were a weight too heavy to hold. His legs buckled as something stirred inside of him.

Yggdrasil reached for [Eternal Stonetree], and cast it upon himself. Erick’s mana halved, all at once, and then went much, much lower, as Yggdrasil took, and took, and took.

Through half-lidded eyes, Erick watched the birth of possibility.

A kilometer away from the shore, the lake churned to white water and exploded upward, like someone had detonated ordnance under the waves. Only this detonation did not fall back down to the lake. White waters reached for the sky. A few major branches split from the main trunk. Water crashed back down to the lake, churning up even more foam that seemed to transform into even more branches. The trunk of Yggdrasil expanded steadily upward in the center of it all, dragging up even more bare white branches as he grew.

And then the upward explosion stopped, and the outward explosion began.

White branches expanded from the central trunk, like snakes, winding out in every direction, the leading tips as thin as fingers, while where they joined the trunk became thicker, but not nearly enough to support their own kilometer-long weight. Yggdrasil expanded without care for physics or weight or anything else, except for growth.

It wasn’t sustained growth, either. There were a few leaves here and there, but the tree remained mostly bare.

And then the white branches stopped expanding outward. They filled out, some branches splitting into two, others joining. Disorganization became something more recognizable. The kilometers large tree became more solid, more secure, more regardful of the natural and supernatural forces that sustained him, but his branches were still as bare as white bones.

And then daylight and the blue sky shifted into something more ethereal. More colorful.

Like the flicking of a switch, a kaleidoscope of rainbow light anointed the world, transforming the heavens into fantasy. Leaves began to appear on the white branches, each one as large as a person, each shaped like green fire, and glowing. Those leaves were like sparks. Suddenly, a green fire caught hold of Yggdrasil, and swept his branches, leaving radiant leaves in its wake.

With his form finally filled out, the kaleidoscopic light in the sky condensed, becoming a kilometers wide ring of bound rainbows that circled all of Yggdrasil’s brilliant green canopy; a prismatic crown.

Erick watched this happen while he was seated on the ground, propped up and worried over by Poi, while Ophiel hit him with [Greater Treat Wounds] and whined in flute sounds. Hangzi had glanced toward Erick when the man collapsed, but Hangzi was too entranced by Yggdrasil’s summoning to spare Erick much concern. The guard at Hangzi’s side was properly nervous, though; Erick almost laughed at that.

In fact, everything was quite hilarious.

Ah. He was a bit giddy, wasn’t he?

Oh. That was probably a symptom of something severe, wasn’t it.

His hearing returned in a click, but all he could hear was the cascading water, still falling down from the higher branches of Yggdrasil like the tree was his own major rainstorm. Suddenly, Erick’s tongue didn’t feel so thick, and his arms and legs felt lighter. He breathed out thick air— Oh. Poi was [Cleanse]ing him, to keep his lungs full of good air. Oh.

“Yes,” Poi said, speaking a bit loud so he could be heard over the falling waters. “You stopped breathing there for a bit. Your heart failed, too. It’s better now.”

Hangzi came back to the moment, his eyes going wide as he turned to see Erick on the ground. “What happened?”

Erick knew what had happened: he had run out of mana, for Yggdrasil had taken everything. Even with the multiplier of Intelligence! It had taken Yggdrasil five minutes to get to his current size, but if Erick had had more mana, Yggdrasil would have likely grown a lot faster.

Erick checked his Status. Yup. Near-zero Mana.

… And near-zero Health, too. Looks like Yggdrasil wanted some of his Blood Mana, too.

Well this was dumb.

Erick still had 144 extra points, just waiting to be spent, too. He was going to wait till he could see what his soul looked like when he spent those points on his Willpower and Focus, but damn, if they weren’t needed right now. So he started funneling points into Willpower and Focus; more Mana, and more Mana Regeneration.

He was already up from zero, though, so he began turning on his usual spellwork that had gone out, when Erick’s mana bottomed out. [Greater Lightwalk] first, then [Lodestar]. Erick got to his feet, and said, “Yggdrasil happened. He needed more mana than I was able to give.”

Which was fine. Yggdrasil had helped Erick survive that soul spear. Erick could help Yggdrasil grow up properly. A bit of warning would have been nice, though.

Yggdrasil was done draining Erick’s resources, though he wasn’t done growing. He could grow under his own power, now. As Erick glanced out into the nascent World Tree, he saw branches extend into holes in the crown then fill in with leaves. The lower branches, the ones about a hundred meters off of the lake’s surface, were still thickening with growth. Yggdrasil was probably growing out his roots, too.

Even the rainbow ring around the crown was becoming denser, more radiant, more colorful.

Just how much mana did Yggdrasil have? Millions?

Hangzi had turned away from Erick to watch Yggdrasil again. He stared in wonder, saying, “I’ve never seen an Arbor before. This must be what they’re like.”

Erick smiled. “Yup. Yggdrasil is still only months old, though. He’s going to get a lot bigger than that—”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye appeared atop the waters, in front of Erick, as large as an orcol and only ten meters away. Erick laughed a bit at the sudden, large intrusion. Hangzi, Hangzi’s guard, and Poi, all went super serious. Erick almost laughed at that, too. Okay. Yeah. He was giddy.

And Yggdrasil’s eye was different. Instead of being pure white, it was iridescent white.

Erick waved. “Hello, Yggdrasil. How are you feeling?”

The voice of a child vibrated the world,

“Better. Easier see you. I sleep now.”

And then the eye blinked away.

Erick stood stunned. He was not the only one. Poi’s eyes were wide. Hangzi was frozen to the spot. Hangzi’s guard shuddered.

Hangzi was the first to speak, “So he can talk, then? I was under the impression that he was silent.”

Erick gave a nervous chuckle. “I was under the impression that he was silent, too.”

“… Oh.” Hangzi said, “Well. That’s a good development?”

Hangzi’s guard whispered, “We should move away from here; I feel many eyes upon us.”

Hangzi readily nodded, more than prepared to get the hell out of here, saying to Erick, “It was good to see you, and to meet Yggdrasil. Good day. Come back to Songli whenever you wish.” And then he took his guard’s hand and the guard blipped them away.

Erick laughed a bit at that. He smiled, as he spoke to the air, “It was good to see you too, Hangzi. Farewell.” He turned to Poi, “I guess it was a bit scary, was it?”

Poi instantly said, “Seeing massive things move so quickly is always disturbing. It’s like being a bug hunting for food in a kitchen, and then someone walks in and turns on the wardlights.”

“Oh. Well. Yes. I can agree with tha—”

A pain lightly stabbed inside Erick’s chest. He winced.

Poi demanded, “What! What’s going on now!”

Ophiel responded with a tap of [Greater Treat Wounds].

Erick said, “Something is happening.” He looked himself over with [Soul Sight]—

A golden flame was strung throughout Erick’s body like a divine spider web. Another pain struck him in his heart, and the golden threads solidified, trying to… Hold something in place? Yes. Probably. It wasn’t a large pain, but the golden threads were concerning.

Unbidden, Yggdrasil’s blue box appeared.

Oh.

There was a change.

Where it used to say ‘Current Maximum: 2’ the box now read ‘Current Maximum: 3’. The World Tree still had yet to be planted, though.

The divine fire inside Erick spread, and then solidified, looking almost as though it was reestablishing itself… Yes. That’s probably exactly what it was doing, for the pain in Erick’s heart went away. In three more heartbeats, the divine web began to vanish; the seal on Yggdrasil’s power remained intact, though it had certainly been adjusted.

Poi sighed out, relieved.

Erick giggled a bit, again.

And then he got a wild thought.

What if he planted Yggdrasil everywhere he went? What if each time he planted one, the seal got a bit more undone? What if…

What if, like Erick suspected, the actual secret to [Gate] is the creation of a being that could [Teleport] other people—

The Worldly Path demanded that one first learn how to manually [Blink], then manually [Teleport], then manually [Teleport Other]. What if a mage created a being that was in multiple parts of the world at the same time, that had the capability of [Teleport Other]…

All of the [Teleport] spells had a range of 1000 kilometers; this was their limit. So, with this created being, existing in two locations, could they [Teleport Other] someone far, far past that thousand kilometer limit? Was this sort of like how Erick was able to [Telepathy] across a much larger distance than normal, by stringing his Ophiel across the intervening distance and bouncing that signal between his summons?

What if that was the secret to World Trees?

How long had Erick been at this Worldly Path? Since before he actually gained that Quest? Since his creation of Ophiel, even?

He had boasted of making [Gate] to Caradogh Pogi, long before he gained the Quest. Was that the actual start of this Path? Or… Was something else happening there? Phagar had spoken to Erick once about how his creation of a World Tree was always a possibility, ever since he arrived on Veird, but it was a very, very small possibility, until Erick worked toward making it a near-fact.

Was all of this, with Yggdrasil, with the creation of Ophiel, and Undertow, and [Mysticalshape], and [Physical Domain], and [Harmonize], and everything else that he had done before then, and even now…

Was he creating [Gate]?

Or was [Gate] creating itself?

A blue box appeared.

--

Special Quest!

The Worldly Path.

Steps taken: 2 of ???

Reward: The ability to cast Gate

--

Erick laughed and showed Poi the changed blue box, saying, “Isn’t that neat!”

Poi looked resigned, as he said, “That’s Fate Magic, for you.”