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Erick woke up, had lunch, and let Poi sleep in as he went to speak to the petitioners. Teressa was his backup today. The large woman stood behind Erick, towering over the proceedings, wearing large grey armor that only helped to make her look even more imposing than before.

The actual process of helping people went about as smoothly as it did with Poi. Erick got through 78 requests; a full 7 more than yesterday. He felt he had acclimated to the process, and he probably had. It helped that all the liars were rather obvious, and that Teressa was just a bit better at truth-detecting than Erick.

Her skill with her mana sense allowed her to see all the same facial tics and spikes in heart rate that Erick saw, though she was better at interpreting that data, if only a little bit. But mostly, unlike Poi, Teressa could give her opinion on what she was seeing. It wasn’t far into the meetings that Erick and Teressa found out that they could communicate with each other outside of [Telepathy], by subvocalizing the words they wished to say to each other. Once the two of them established that communication channel, Erick sometimes asked Teressa what she was seeing, to know if she saw the sweat, and the increased heart rate, and all the other tiny signs of a liar. She did, every time, and Erick appreciated the backup.

Erick was, of course, also conducting his own investigations while he listened to the petitioners, but having a second opinion on hand helped to ease his own conscience when he told the lying petitioners that they weren’t getting what they wanted. Thankfully, there were only three groups that necessitated that sort of decision, and none of them took Erick’s refusal too badly.

As the sun set, Erick and Teressa went back to the yurt. Teressa’s hermetically-sealed armor vanished into grey motes of light as she hopped up onto the deck of the vehicle. Inside, Jane and Nirzir were making gridlights and humming magic to themselves, respectively, and on opposite sides of the yurt.

Three dinners were on the table, under [Cold Ward]s.

Poi was still asleep in his bed, completely zonked out.

Erick looked at the sleeping man. “I wore him out. I should stop doing that.”

Nirzir stopped humming and opened her eyes, blinking a few times to reorient herself in the moment.

Jane didn’t look up from her gridwork, as she said, “He hasn’t even gotten up to go to the bathroom.”

A wide grin spread on Teressa’s face as she looked at Poi. With a quick step, she moved to his bed and lightly kicked the furniture, sending a heavy jolt through the eternal stonewood frame. “Wake up!”

Poi launched awake, briefly flopped around, shouting, “Oh gods!” And then he calmed, and groaned out, “Ah. Shit.” He glanced at Erick, then at the twilight beyond the window, then he turned his head up to stare at Teressa. “I can understand that none of them woke me up, but you should have woken me hours ago.”

“I was having fun playing ‘Mind Mage’.” Teressa shrugged. “I think I did okay.”

“Sorry, Poi.” Erick said, “I shouldn’t have run you ragged like that. And yes; Teressa was good. Very suitably threatening in her giant grey armor and she helped me confirm when other people were lying. We had no false positives either, so I think we did fine.”

Teressa said, “I can add some shoulder pad spikes with skulls on them to make it more scary, if you like.”

“Not having any eye holes in your armor is terrifying enough,” Erick said.

Poi sighed, decided that he was not needed for anything too important, and laid back down. He fished around for the covers that had fallen off of the bed, and then promptly threw them back over himself.

Teressa went to the dinner table, and Erick joined her with a smile. He removed the [Cold Ward]s, and cast some [Heat Ward]s across the stews. They’d take a little while to warm up—

Poi sighed, tossed the covers off of himself, reluctantly got up, then moved toward the bathroom in the back of the yurt.

Eventually, Poi joined Erick and Teressa for dinner.

That night, Nirzir tried her hand at telling a story with the accompaniment of illusions. Hers was the apocryphal tale of the founding of the Songli Highlands; a romance between a princess and a newly appointed general for the other side, and the many Polite Wars between three ancient grass traveler tribes. It was a good story, put together rather well, and Nirzir told it well, too. Nirzir had notes, and her illusions looked practiced. It was also clear that Nirzir’s tale was a small part of something much larger.

A silly little grin had been plastered on Jane’s face almost the whole time; she liked romances, too, but she didn’t like other people to know that she liked them. Whenever Erick glanced her way, she lost her grin.

When it was over, Erick said, “That was a wonderful story, Nirzir!”

“It was,” Jane agreed.

Nirzir blushed as she smiled. “Thank you.”

“How simplified was that from actual history?” Teressa asked.

“A lot.” Nirzir rapidly explained, “The historically accurate version is only available in books, and those take weeks to read. The plays are a bit better for time, but those come in nine hour and twelve hour versions. All the shorter versions are simple stories that don’t do history any justice.”

“Twelve hours!” Jane exclaimed. With a soft smile, she said, “I remember 12 hour movie marathons.”

Teressa sat a bit straighter, as she said, “I tried out a play group once. Acting in one of them. It was okay, but not for me. I absolutely did not have time for the 9 hour plays, though. That’s what killed it for me.”

“They are difficult to watch sometimes, too.” Nirzir said, “I used to have time for them, before Matriculation. I think the 12 hour version of the Warring Clans story is better. The 9 hour one is rushed, in my opinion, but some people prefer that one. This half-hour version cut out 90% of the characters and it focuses on—” Nirzir blushed a little, then she forced herself to professionalism, and said, “This version is the romance version. Other people prefer the other versions, but I’ve always liked this one the best.”

Jane said, “I like the romance version.”

Erick was surprised to hear Jane admit that.

Nirzir happily said, “We should take in a professional show, sometime! You know… Later? Whenever we’re done here.”

Jane smiled. “I’ll have to take you up on that.”

Erick said, “Thanks for the story, Nirzir. Now who’s on first watch?”

Poi and Jane spoke up.

The night wore on, with people sleeping, waking, and watching, all on schedule; normal stuff, really.

- - - -

In the morning Erick had a quick breakfast, and then he hopped off the side of his yurt and went to his workbenches. As he stood before his various electrical parts, and with a day delay on getting to it, Erick had a new project and new short-term goal. Erick was going to make an electric motor.

By noon, he might even have a prototype!

There were some problems to solve, first.

One of the most major ones was that [Battery] was lightning-in-a-bottle. The difference in electrical potential, the voltage, between the positive and negative terminal of whatever iron bar Erick chose to cast [Battery] on, would be way, way too high for [Battery] to be used in any conventional application.

In [Battery], Erick had actually made more of a [Power Plant], than a [9 Volt]. Erick wasn’t sure how high the voltage of [Battery] actually was, but he had an estimate based on half-remembered knowledge about the voltage of a real lightning bolt; it was anywhere between 200,000 volts, to a billion volts.

As for amps, lightning was anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 amps.

This meant that an average lightning bolt was about 500,000 volts, and 50,000 amps, which translated into 25,000,000,000 watts, since the formula for all of that interaction was VxA=W. This meant, over the course of an hour, and for 3000 base mana, that one [Battery] provided 25 million kilowatt hours of power.

The average house used about 11,000 kilowatts of power per year.

One [Battery] was enough to power the devices in 2250 American homes, for a full year.

To put it another way, the energy usage of the entire United States was about 4,000 billion killowatt hours. With a bit of math, Erick worked out that 960 casts of [Battery] was all it would take to solve the entire United State’s energy needs, by himself. With a bit more math, and with Erick’s own modifiers, he would expect to spend around 25,000 mana to cast that many [Battery]s.

Or maybe less, since Erick’s lightning was likely above average in power.

He regenerated that much mana in half an hour.

Huh.

Anyway.

At least Erick didn’t have to worry about the lightning inside [Battery] being of varying positive or negative types, like it was in nature. He was pretty sure the lightning inside that spell was negative, and it would be negative every time he cast the spell.

The problem of [Battery] could be (and would have to be) solved with transformers. Very large and very resilient transformers. Transformers that were likely far, far beyond Erick’s ability to create today, or even this year.

Which led to the next problem in using [Battery]: Erick had to invent power plant-level transformers.

Which led to a related problem of insulation. Insulation was needed so that stray voltage didn’t accidentally kill someone, or melt any metal parts. Erick needed massive, industrial-level insulation, but also smaller scale insulation, on the level of tiny wires and tiny electrical parts. He’d never be able to get a motor running, with all its precise little parts, if he only had lightning to throw at the problem.

Ah! And come to think of it, he needed paper magic, too, for paper was a great, primitive insulator, and there were Paper Mages all throughout Songli. Those people made their livings on their Paper Magic, producing many of the paper products that fed the bureaucracy of the Highlands, and many of its fine arts.

Erick also needed mineral oil. That’s what they used in transformers to both insulate them, and to control their temperatures. [Cool Ward]s would be useful there, too, but Erick wanted to invent a (mostly) non-magical electric motor.

He stood at his workbench, and paused.

He would probably not have a working electrical motor prototype by the end of the day.

Unless...

Maybe someone else had created a spell that was smaller than  [Battery]?

Erick checked the Open Script, querying a bunch of different possible names—

--

Small Spark 1, instant, close range, 5 mana

Imbue a bit of metal with electricity. Lasts 1 minute.

Purchase Small Spark for 1 point? Yes / No

--

Hmm. It might work.

Erick dismissed the box, though. He could get this spell much more easily than spending a point for it. Well… Maybe not ‘easier’. It was simplicity itself to spend the damned point and buy the spell. He could also speak the spell into existence, as he had with [Call Lightning]. But Erick had this Class Ability that allowed him to automatically learn the Particle Spells he saw in action, and he barely ever used it, so...

It was time to go thieving.

… Or! Erick could just ask Xue, from Star Song. The new Elder of Enforcement dealt with a lot of upstart Particle Magic, didn’t he?

… Xue was ‘Plan B’. Better not to let people know what he was searching for just yet.

Plan C was to create [Small Spark] himself.

- - - -

How best to search for [Small Spark]?

If Erick had the spell, himself, then he could search for the spell, but that wasn’t going to happen for obvious reasons. So Erick put up maps all across Songli, and across much of the rest of the land, searching for [Battery], instead. If there were any Lightning Mages, or whatever, out there experimenting, they would likely be experimenting with [Battery] because it was in the Open Scri—

[Battery] was an English word.

Literally no one on Veird would have that spell besides him, spies, or Kiri.

Erick moved on.

… And then he paused, again. He didn’t want to steal. While it seemed like a fun prospect in a small moment, Erick was not about that. He would come by his magic honestly. With a small smile to himself, and no one else, Erick blamed the Archmage Rain Mage Shendeng for planting the idea of thieving archmages in his head, and then he had an Ophiel go find Xue.

The Elder of Enforcement was at his desk, in his office, talking to other people. He certainly noticed Ophiel, floating outside of his window, though. He excused the two subordinates and Ophiel formed Erick’s avatar, but without the obscuring feathers. Erick’s form stepped down into Xue’s office.

“Hello, Xue.” Erick said, “Apologies for dropping in unannounced.”

“Not a problem.” Xue asked, “What can I help you with?”

“I’m looking for possible Electricity Mages or Particle Mages that are experimenting with electri— With small applications of lightning. Not Elemental Lightning, but Particle lightning. In its controlled form, I would call it electricity.”

In a way that spoke of formality, and not of actual worry, Xue asked, “Is this something I should be worried about?”

“Probably not. I’m experimenting with the stuff and I wanted to look over what some other people have done, if any.” Erick said, “I told you about how everything was powered by electricity back on Earth, didn’t I? My own electricity attempts are too strong for actual use, and I’m looking for the smaller scale spells some other people have made, so that I can acquire them for myself.”

“Ah.” Xue reached to the side and a tendril of intent opened a filing cabinet. He selected a file and pulled it out, then he held it to Erick. “These are the known and vetted Particle Magic users in Eralis. This folder is a copy, and now it is yours.”

Erick had Ophiel lightstep through the window, and take the file. “Thank you. That’s just what I needed.” Ophiel stepped back out of the office, taking the folder with him. “I’ll leave you to your work.”

Xue nodded. “Farewell, Erick. Stop by anytime.”

- - - -

Of the 740 people in Xue’s packet, Erick narrowed down the possibilities to a hundred, based upon known Particle Magic listed in the files. Almost all of the targets were Class Alchemists, but many of the people Erick picked were listed as interested in metallurgy in order to discover what things were made of. Only a few of the targets were Lightning Mages.

Ophiel rapidly investigated those hundred people and their properties.

As Erick guessed before he started his search, the various alchemy labs here and there were filled with more plants than metals; the Lightning Mages were the only ones he actually needed to speak with, but it was always good to be diligent. Perhaps Erick’s perfect target was obscuring their work behind various [Ward]s and whatnot, but Erick didn’t need the perfect target; he just needed a target at all.

Erick rapidly found two people with workshops filled with iron and copper and all sorts of conducting metals. One of the Lightning Mages was not home, so Erick went with the other.

In a wide open back yard, a conglomeration of five-meter tall steel rods arced electricity from tip to tip, while a female mage stood between them all, under a cage made of thick wires and wearing thick, dark glasses. Her off-white tunic and pants were singed, while her black hair was cut as short as a crew cut, and her exposed skin was as little exposed as it could be. Flickers of lightning occasionally burst from the surrounding poles to strike at the cage, but the mage seemed unworried. She was trying to do something with the lightning, and though Erick saw something unnatural shift in the arcing bolts, he had no idea what the woman was actually doing. Or trying to do.

However, the goal of ‘Zolique Diligent Scribe, age 46, Lightning Mage’, as listed in her one page information sheet, was to make metal armor obsolete through the application of perfected Lightning Magic. So she was probably doing something related to that. Something to make lightning target metal better than it already could.

Ophiel floated down into the side of the arena, near the house, equipped with an [Animadversion] to keep the electricity away, though he was already nowhere near the danger zone.

Zolique didn’t notice. But her helper, a young man who barely seemed old enough to Matriculate, did notice. Ophiel had descended to float only a few meters away from the boy, after all, so he darned well better notice. Experimenting mages had watchers for reasons, after all; to look over them while they were in the throes of magic-making. The boy even had a rod of [Treat Wounds] in one hand, and another rod of [Dispel]. The second rod was rated for 100 mana [Dispel]s according to the words on the side; an expensive one, for sure, but likely not too useful. Perhaps it was all they could afford? The house/workshop behind the boy was filled with scattered metal experiments, but very little in the way of comforts.

The young man started yelling, “Ma! Ma!.”

Son and mother, then.

Zolique yelled without turning to look, “I’m busy!”

“MOTHER! LOOK! NOW!”

Zolique whipped around, saying, “Wha— OH.” With a wave of her arm, the lightning stopped. She raised her dark glasses and shoved open the metal cage, rapidly taking off her gloves and letting them fall to the ground as she said, “Oh my Bright Gods. It’s you! Well. Your [Familiar] but. Hello, Archmage Flatt. What brings you to my humble home?” She brightened, her eyes glittering with bright blue-white light. “It’s my breakthroughs, isn’t it!”

Her son calmed immensely and became almost a background figure, now that his mother was in the moment.

“Hello, Zolique Diligent Scribe.” Erick said, “I’m not too sure about your specific breakthroughs, but I have heard that you have managed to do some work with Particle Magic, and lightning, in particular. I’d like to know about a few of your spells, if you’re amenable.”

Zolique’s smile brightened. “Yes I am! I would love to talk about that!” She gestured to her house, saying, “Would you like to come here in person? I can make some tea.”

“Perhaps another day. I’m in the middle of one of my own experiments, and I’m sure you wish to get back to yours, too—”

“Oh yes! Of course of course.” Zolique went with the flow. “Which spells are you interested in?”

“I have a sheet of paper here that says you have [Small Spark], [Insulate], and [Superconductor].” Erick said, “I’d like to see you perform those three spells, as well as any smaller ones you have that are at the power level of [Small Spark].”

“Sure!” Zolique said, “All I require is the answering of a few questions and three grand cores, so that I may fund more of my own research.”

Surprisingly direct.

Erick approved.

“I have the grand cores; that cost will not be an issue. The questions might be problematic.” Erick said, “Ask three questions.”

“How do I make [Call Lightning]?”

“Be a Particle Mage; It’s Particle Mage only.”

Zolique’s joy died in that moment; a sudden death, for sure.

“… Fuck!” Zolique scowled as she stomped her foot— She pushed her hands down and out, slowly exhaling, calming with every passing moment. When she was done with that, she paused. She thought. She said, “Okay. Question two of three: Your world ran on lightning. How?”

“I’m working on replicating some of that right now, which is what prompted this visit in the first place. All my spellwork is too strong to be useful, and truthfully, I’m thinking that even [Small Spark] might be too strong, but I won’t know until I actually have the spell myself.” Erick said, “The short, inadequate answer is ‘copper and other types of wires carrying electricity to various tools that work on electricity’. The longer answer would be a full university education, of which I know only the basics. Someone besides me would have to put that together for you, so check back in a hundred years after this stuff gets around enough. Or figure it out yourself, and found that school.”

Zolique stood straight, hanging on every one of Erick’s words. She didn’t speak for a while after he finished, her eyes trailing off into the distance as she thought. And then she looked to Ophiel, and said, “I wish to save my third question. I will show you the three spells I have— I didn’t actually make them myself— I mean. I did. But what I tried to make was not what came out. What came out was the standardized spells of the Script.” She rushed, saying, “I have no other Particle Spells that I am comfortable showing.”

“Understandable.”

Zolique gestured to her iron pole yard, then walked that way, saying, “I can cast all the pieces here.”

Ophiel followed.

Zolique went to the side of the yard, to a bin that was [Ward]ed with some sort of magic. Most of the space around here was [Ward]ed, and Erick guessed that it was [Insulation Ward], since the lightning in the large rods hadn’t jumped at much, besides each other and Zolique’s metal cage. Zolique opened the bin and pulled out a small block of shiny red-orange copper—

She stopped.

She retrieved the gloves she had dropped onto the ground and slipped them back on her hands. She held the block of copper, and said, “[Small Spark].”

A single, tiny flicker of blue-white electricity sparked from the metal block and struck her gloves and the air, equally, going nowhere. Well that was a simple spell, wasn’t it. Erick saw how it worked, too.

Erick checked himself, and, yup! There was the blue box for [Small Spark]. He spoke through Ophiel, “Okay. Thanks. I see how that one works. Next?”

“[Insulate] is easy.” She walked over to a metal pole sticking out of the ground and cast a spell upon it, then she moved the charged copper block close to the pole. Small sparks jumped from the bar to everything else equally, again. “See? No singeing. The lightning didn’t go in.” She waved a gloved hand, saying, “I enchanted these with [Insulate] a while ago, so that’s the only reason they’re not singed, either. Do you see?”

“I do.” Just like that, another blue box was added to his Status.

“[Superconductor] seems to make all Lightning Magic ineffective against a metal target, but in a way I’m still trying to understand. It does other odd stuff, as well.” Zolique cast the spell in question on the metal rod, then held the sparking copper next to it. Sparks arced from the copper to the metal rod, like someone had opened the tap on a water faucet, and then the sparks died, for the copper was out of power. She tapped the metal rod where the sparks had touched. “No lightning damage in this case, either. Usually there’s some when you’re using Lightning Magic, but not here. And yet, when you cast [Superconductor] on the copper bar—” She did so. “And then you cast [Small Spark]—” She did so. The copper bar sparked with twice as much intensity as before. “I think it heightens the [Small Spark]’s transferal of electrons. Is that what is happening—” She shut her mouth. She said, “That is not my third question.”

Erick smiled as he checked for his new blue box, and yup, there it was. [Superconductor]. With a thought, and a bit of action, Erick laid five grand cores from his recent kills onto the ground next to Zolique’s house. Zolique’s son noticed the new wealth much faster than his mother. The kid’s mouth dropped open as he stared at the wealth in front of him. He almost dropped the rod of [Treat Wounds] but he caught himself before the life-saving item slipped too far out of his grip.

“Thank you, Zolique. That was most instructive.” Erick gestured to the house, to the pile of grand cores. “I’ve included 2 extra grand cores because I felt like it.”

Zolique whipped around. She saw. “Oh! Oh my gods! Yes!” She wanted to rush over there and put her hands on the darkly glittering cores, each of which was the size of her own head. Her son was already poking them with a finger like he had never seen so much money. Zolique reluctantly turned back to Erick’s avatar, though half of her words were thrown in the direction of her new wealth, “Thank you, Archmage! My grand core was lost in the fires, but this is! This is great! I can sell two and fund everything! Thank you!”

Erick said, “Thank you for your bit of assistance in gaining these basic tier spells. And because this has gone so well: here’s some hints about electricity. Have you tried using [Superconductor] metal around magnets? Do you have the Basic Tier spell: [Magnetize]? Do you know how to make a magnet? You should learn. Have you tried running [Small Spark] through wires? Through coiled wires? The wires have to be insulated against themselves, of course. You might need a mundane solution to see the effect, though. Anyway. Lightning is very dangerous. I’m glad to see you’re taking the danger seriously.”

Zolique was speechless. Her joy over the grand cores was completely overshadowed by her drive to experiment with electricity. And then she snapped her fingers at her son. “Paper! Pen!” She asked Erick, “Could you? Uh. Repeat all that?”

Her son rushed Zolique’s way with a pad of paper and a pen in hand.

“I’m not going to repeat that.” Erick said, “But I will say that the only thing that fueled my world’s need to tame lightning was so that we could have lights at night. You don’t have that need here. It might take longer for any sort of electrical revolution to happen on Veird, so I might drop in sometime in the future, if I feel like it, and if you would be amenable to another visit.”

Zolique instantly said, “I understand! Thank you, Archmage. I would graciously accept your visitation at any point you wish to return.” She bowed.

Her son stopped where he was, and bowed, too.

Erick departed.

- - - -

--

Small Spark 1, instant, touch, 5 mana

Electricity flows in an object of small size. Lasts 1 minute.

Exp: 0/100

--

--

Insulate 1, instant, touch, 10 mana

Prevent the flow of electricity in an object of medium size or smaller. Lasts 1 minute.

Exp: 0/100

--

--

Superconductor 1, instant, touch, 50 mana

Electricity may flow freely in a conductive object of medium size or smaller. Produces a myriad of effects. Lasts 1 minute.

Exp: 0/100

--

When Erick checked on the same spells in the Open Script, both [Insulate] and [Superconductor] had their sizes listed as ‘small’, while [Small Spark] was listed as ‘minor’. Erick guessed that his Class was responsible for the obvious increase in power. This was probably fine. It probably meant that his [Small Spark] was more like a ‘[Medium Spark]’, though.

This was fine!

It was time to experim—

Ah.

He needed copper.

And paper and mineral oil. And enamel to coat the wires; something flexible and yet resilient enough to last for a while without flaking— No. Wait. It wasn’t actually enamel that coated wires. It was polymers… Which came from oil, which Erick already knew would be a problem.

Finding the paper and copper itself was easy enough. The paper came from the papermakers, and was of butcher-paper quality. Erick got a whole cylinder of the tan-colored stuff.

The copper was a bit more difficult. Enchanting material shops (which doubled as wrought-quality metal diners in a few locations) only had wrought-quality copper. Erick needed the plain stuff. This sent Ophiel skipping off to some mines in the foothills of the Tribulations. It was there, directly from the source, that Erick got his copper. It wasn’t of the purest quality, but he could refine it himself, if it needed refinement.

If he had wanted, he could have gone to the bank and withdrawn a thousand gold worth of copper coins, but that was wasteful, technically illegal, and the copper content of coins was rather suspect to begin with. Erick wasn’t sure what copper coins were cut with, but such testing was unnecessary, anyway.

Finding oil was impossible. Not just any oil would do; it had to be mineral oil, which was usually a byproduct of crude oil refinement. In fact, all crude oil byproducts were non-existent. There were lots of organic oil products, though, all of which were derived from plant-based sources. But plant-based oil would eventually go rancid. Mineral oil did not go rancid.

A bit of further exploration led to the happy discovery that someone had invented ‘eternal oil’, which Erick was almost 100% positive was just their name for ‘mineral oil’. He found it at a paint store. Eternal oil came from a variant of the oil vine, and it had a shelf life of ‘forever’. There were a few warnings on the metal container that it was not for consumption, and would cause loose bowels when taken orally, but otherwise it was great for mechanical lubrication needs, for it would allow the [Alter Friction] of even the most middling of mages to achieve near-zero friction capabilities, and for [Control Machine] to work with even less scraping and breaking. Mostly, though, eternal oil was used to mix oil paints. From the display set up in the paint store, Erick got the distinct impression that the seller was trying to sell their product in other markets, but they were having little luck.

At the same paint store, Erick picked up a few different varnishes and enamels, to see if they worked for his insulation needs, but he doubted they would; they all dried hard, and brittle. Some applications of heat and specific cooling might change that, though. But the better bet was to get some rubber insulation, so Erick went around looking for rubber vines, and he eventually found some at an alchemist's shop. He purchased a bucket of the stuff, fresh from the vine, as well as instructions on how to harden it using a packet of provided yellow rocks. The alchemist called the rocks ‘yellow mold’, though Erick knew them as sulfur, and he knew the process the alchemist spoke of as vulcanization.

He had actually used rubber before when he made his gramophone, but with that project, Erick had used preformed rubber that would resolve to stiffness under gentle heat. This stuff was baseline; pure. Erick would need to do the whole vulcanization process himself.

He was ready to make some electric prototypes!

Erick organized his new materials, sat down, and smiled.

Buckets of oil and rubber and a dozen different types of enamel and varnish rested on the table before him, along with some last minute resin purchases that might work well for specific applications. The roll of butcher paper was off to the side; Erick wouldn’t need that right now. He also grabbed a clump of eternal stonewood from his mountain down south; that would be useful for casings and other stuff like that. For non-wire metal needs, Erick had the steel bars from the elders of Ooloraptoor, sitting off to the side, while directly in front of him laid 12 bars of copper, each weighing in at 5 kg apiece. All of everything here was a lot more expensive than Erick thought it would have been, with the total costs coming in at 79 gold.

Erick chuckled to himself. This was so, so much cheaper than enchanting materials!

This made so much more sense to him than enchanting, too, though he was probably going to end up incorporating some magic to this project somewhere down the line. If the varnish/enamel/rubber/resin proved to be a failure point for creating insulation on his wires, then [Insulate], combined with some specific Shapings, would be the next plan. Short circuits would likely be the largest failure point of this whole project.

Then again, short circuits were the largest failure points for all electrical devices, weren’t they?

Jane came by, looking at his stuff, and declared, “You’re trying to put insulation on wires, right?”

There was something about her tone that made Erick worry.

He gave a tentative, “Yes?”

“Why not use spider silk? I might be able to make it conductive on the inside and insulated on the outside. No need for wires, at all.” Jane paused, then went, “Err… Or, if that didn’t work— It probably wouldn’t work because of overheating concerns. Probably too many points of failure there to make it a repeatable thing, too. Which, in that case, you can just cover copper wires in silk which I know is non-conductive, stable for a long time, heat resistant, and able to fully envelop something as small as a copper wire. It’s also non-sticky as soon as it dries, and it dries in moments.”

Erick stared at his daughter, watching as she slowly grinned, wider and wider.

For a long moment the last few hours seemed like a waste—

But then Erick considered the needed complexity of wires and polymers when it came to actual electronic devices, like a solid state drive—

Nope. ‘Solid state drives’! He was kidding himself thinking that far down the line. He had seen more than enough engineering videos about electricity to know the basics, so he had no doubt that he could build an electrical engine as soon as he gathered all the pieces, since he had made a small DC motor when he was a teenager. In a similar fashion, cars were easy. But Erick barely understood how a computer actually worked, and, as his thoughts solidified, he found he didn’t care how a computer worked, either.

All Erick wanted to do was experiment with electrical motors and other fun engineering projects. Building a car was fun. Shaping houses out of eternal stonewood was fun. Making the yurt was fun, too. Making Veird’s first electrical motor would be super fun!

But the tiny stuff? Let someone else figure that out!

… But he would have to figure out how to make a transistor himself, soon enough. Maybe next month.

Erick asked, “Want to try some engineering with your old dad? Make an electric motor?”

“Yes,” Jane said, without reservation.

Erick gestured to the chair sitting beside his own, asking, “How do you know your silk isn’t conductive?”

“When I was with Riri; we went over all of that stuff.” Jane sat down on the second chair. She flexed out her left arm, her shirt sleeve fluttering and then bulging with extra flesh as her arm shifted underneath. Her hand became a bit larger to accommodate some sort of central structure, while her fingertips changed, flattening out and then becoming grippers all of their own. “She taught me a lot. See?” Her hand was now a collection of precise pedipalps, while spinnerets filled the base of her palm; a good 15 tiny extruders, each capable of their own silk production. She made a grabbing motion, smiling as she said, “I need a wire, dad.”

Erick’s attention lingered on Jane’s hand; her whole arm, really. It was impressive. Jane had what appeared to be a few hundred biological systems laid down in her flesh, each working alongside each other. It was also completely terrifying. Erick tried to keep that emotion to himself, though, as he said, “That’s an impressive [Polymorph].”

Jane smirked. “I know it freaks you out.”

“I mean… Yes. But it’s still impressive.”

“Copper wire, please!” Jane said, making a horrific, yet playful grabbing motion with her left ‘hand’.

Erick ignored all that and grabbed a bar of copper. He began Shaping it out into a wire, drawing the metal around with both his light and an intentful [Metalshape]— He stopped. He had produced maybe a meter of wire before he realized just how much 5kg of copper would make. Erick took his 5kg blob and divided it into three.

“How much polymer do you think you could wrap around a wire?” Erick asked, “Going for minimum thickness and maximum distance?”

“Thin as a hair and I can probably coat a few hundred meters before needing to eat.” Jane said, “[Thread Control] speeds up metabolism, forcing silk production, but that material does come from the body.”

Erick nodded. He grabbed a third of the copper wire and [Metalshape]d it with the spell and with his own solid light, rapidly extruding the metal through a pinhole a bit larger than a millimeter. A minute later, he was done. The wire was probably 16 or 18 gauge; he wasn’t sure. Once it got a spider silk coating it would be much thicker, but hopefully not too much thicker.

He could use solid-bar copper for larger motors, but he wasn’t sure if that would work for a prototype size, and he wanted actual wires, anyway.

Erick moved the large spool to Jane, saying, “That’s about 125 meters of copper wire. Get coating!”

Jane laughed, then she grabbed the wire.

While Erick spun the next two copper bits into two more 125 meter-long sections of wire, he watched his daughter work. She took one end of the copper in her spinner hand and began by manipulating it through her spinnerets, using her pedipalp-like fingers to guide the silk onto the metal. A few twists of her hand and a bit of repositioning later, and Jane had perfectly white silk spinning around the wire, coating it in a layer… Jane looked at the pile of copper wire in front of her.

Jane paused. She said, “I need to reposition this whole thing. This angle is not going to work”

Erick offered, “I can make you a machine that can hold it for you?”

“No no.” Jane extended her shadows into the air, grabbing the wire and holding it tight, “I can do this, too— Or!” Her shadow retreated as she flickered; a brief solidness taking over her flesh, before that retreated, too. And suddenly, Jane had control over the metal wire. The coil lifted into the air as Jane stood up, and moved away from the table. With concentration showing on her face, the large coil of wire hung suspended around her right hand, where it gently turned, feeding a length of wire across the air, to Jane’s spinneret hand, where she layered silk around the wire. The coated wire continued on, to gently arc through the air, into a large loop. It was kinda graceful. Jane smiled, saying, “I got it.”

Erick asked, “[Stone Body]?”

“Yup.” Jane said, “I’m not stressing the wire into deformation territory, either, since it’s just [Stone Body] and not [Metal Body].”

That was a really nice application of that Elemental Body. Perhaps Erick needed that one. Except…

Erick asked, “Do you feel like you could deform the wire? Or that you might accidentally?”

“Oh yes. I definitely could. But I’m just holding it and guiding it. This is not the delicate balance of holding and not crushing a wardlight, while in [Lightwalk]. This is more like holding a solid marshmallow; I could bend it out of shape, but that would require effort.”

“Huh. Good.” Erick said, “Stop when you get to 50 meters. I want to try out a coil… If it’s dry enough?” He glanced toward the coiling wire, watching it hang in the air next to Jane. Parts of it were already touching itself. “I guess it is?”

“Fast drying silk.” Jane said, “I tested electrically insulating silks with Riri for applications on anti-lightning charms, and webbing, in general. Lightning Magic likes to flow along a surface and webs are way too vulnerable to that sort of disruption, so it’s important to preemptively guard against that sort of thing.” She added, “When your engineering brings you to make a lightsaber; I want one, dad.”

Erick laughed. Then he paused. “Would you like a plasma based one? Or a lightning based one? Or one that cuts really well?”

“Yes.”

Erick smiled. “I already swore off making weapons, so you might be out of luck. How about I make you a go-kart, instead? You always wanted one of those growing up, and I can finally get you one!”

Jane laughed. “No thanks, but tell me how you plan on making an engine.”

Erick began, “It starts with the left hand rule. Do you remember anything about that?”

“Nope!” Jane said, “Explain it to me.”

“Well. The first thing is that you don’t have to remember the left hand rule from Earth, because I’m changing how it was taught.” Erick nodded. “Take your left hand thumb up, pointer finger extended forward, middle finger extended to the right. The current flows from negative to positive; from the base of your pointer finger, to the tip. When in the presence of another magnetic field, which is indicated north to south based on the direction your middle finger points, the force that acts upon the flowing current moves the wire the direction of your raised thumb.

“Now, curl your hand like this, with the thumb up and the fingers curled into a fist.

“The direction your thumb points is the direction of electron flow in a wire, from negative to positive. The curl of your fingers is the direction the magnetic field spins along that wire, and along that field, you get north and south poles. We’re always going north to south, here.

“You already know that north repels north, and is attracted to south, and viceversa.

“Taking all that together, you can make a system of wires that turn into electromagnets, and when the system rotates, you turn some circuits on, and some circuits off, depending on the path of least resistance between the negative in flow and the positive out flow, creating a constantly rotating system of north and south magnets.

“… We’ll go over that part a few times, so don’t worry about that.

“The whole trick is about putting these electromagnets around real magnets, and with a bit of engineering, you can make the switching-electromagnet constantly try to align itself with the permanent north and south magnets of your machine. It is like Sisyphus, constantly rolling the boulder uphill.” Erick said, “But all of that is just the engineering parts, and I might have told it wrong. I’ll have to do actual experiments to see if I can combine these jumbled ‘conventional’ and ‘electron flow’ ideas into reality.

“In this way, you create an electric motor. The only limits to the power of a motor is the engineering fidelity, the materials used, the load you place upon that spinning motor, and inertia and all that.” Erick knew he had lost Jane, but that was fine. “We can make a small motor together. It’s really quite easy once you get all the pieces together. I made one when I was a teenager. I tried to make one with you when you were in highschool, too.”

“Yeah… I… Was not good with that.” Jane went a bit further with her wire coating, then flicked the metal with her pedipalp fingers, cutting off the coated section from the rest. With a gesture, the completed wire floated up, into her hand. “I think that’s ten meters.” She handed it over, saying, “You know, I always screwed up conventional current versus actual electron flow. I barely passed that whole section of science class.”

“And now, we have the makeup exams!” Erick grinned as he took the wire.

“Ha,” Jane deadpanned.

Erick smiled, and with a clip of hard light, he sheared off a few decimeters of the coated wire and set the rest to the side. “We won’t have those sorts of ‘conventional current’ versus ‘electron flow’ problems here. North and south are what we say they are, and I’m only telling people about electron flow, negative to positive, and that’s going to be synonymous with conventional current. What I said about the left hand rule is not actually what you learned in class years ago, but I’m making it the rule. I will have to make adjustments, of course.”

“You’ve already lost me.” Jane sat down beside her father, shifting her left hand back to normal as she said, “But that’s fine.”

“I didn’t explain it all that well, either. But anyway! We begin with this wire. Let’s see if it short circuits!”

Erick explained to Jane what he was doing as he grabbed a hunk of iron with a [Metalshape], turning it into a thumb-sized item. He twisted the small section of Jane's wrapped wire into a jumble, then, exposing two ends of the wrapping, he cast [Small Spark] onto the iron bolt, and put the two ends of the wire onto the two ends of the gently sparking iron bolt. Sparks latched onto the copper wire as the conductive path was much easier to flow through the wire than through the air. Erick watched for short circuits in the coil, where the only thing stopping a short was Jane’s coating. He expected sparks, but he only got heat, and not much of it, either.

And soon enough, a minute passed.

“And the coating works great!” Erick smiled wide. “No shorts. No heat failures! The copper wire is actually hot, but I can’t tell by touching the coated part. The coating is fantastic insulation!” Erick got up and hugged Jane. “Awesome. This is fantastic.”

Jane hugged her father back, happily saying, “I’m glad I could help.” She laughed as she pulled away, saying, “Now show me how all the rest of it works.”

“Of course! Let’s start with this:” Erick floated an iron bar into the air before them, and with a [Metalshape], burst it out flat and thin. One 5 kilogram bar became over a meter square, with a half millimeter thickness. “Now, we take this and cut out flat circles, then pinch those circles so they have a three raised Ts on the edge, with the top part of the T facing outward, each of them 120 degrees off of the next. We take a bunch of these and affix them in a series on a wooden dowel, with thin bits of wood separating each section of iron. This, and a bunch of wires wrapped around those T blocks, will form the basic armature, which will be the drive shaft of the motor; the rotor. We also have to have specific sections of metal sticking out from this rotor, where the metal brushes will touch, and thus form a continually shifting circuit as the whole thing spins…”

Erick spoke as he assembled a motor, right before Jane’s interested eyes. Some parts of the motor were less than well done. For instance, permanent magnets would be nice to have, for at least this prototype. But… It shouldn’t be too much work to make electromagnets out of the same power source that fed the rotor? That would be having a series electromagnet rotor… Right?

Yes. Erick could do that, too.

OH! And using electromagnets, set in parallel with the rotor, will make everything a lot better, as there will be no need for permanent magnets!…

That would be version 2. For now [Magnetize] and the resultant semi-permanent magnets would serve for this first prototype…

Oh. Wait. He could make actual permanent magnets with [Magnetize]. Probably? Oh. Yes! He could.

Erick showed Jane how to take a bit of metal, cast [Magnetize] upon it, and then heat and hit the metal to force the magnet to retain the [Magnetize] effect long after the spell actually wore off. He wasn’t sure if his demonstration was going to work as he expected it to work, but it should have. And then, it did; once the [Magnetize]d bit of metal cooled down, and [Magnetize] wore off, the bit of metal retained its magnetic properties. Exactly how Erick thought it would.

Erick held up the now-permanent magnet, and smiled, telling Jane, “I have ‘enchanted’ [Magnetize] onto a bit of metal, with a bit of heat and hitting, I have affixed this spell to this bit of metal; permanently!” He joked, “It’s an artifact!”

Jane sarcastically said, “With all these accomplished capabilities, one might think you an archmage.”

“Hey now. Permanent enchantment is a big deal!”

Jane went back to the motor, pointing at the coils wrapped around the rotor, “I need you to explain this part again, with the electromotive forces and the left hand thing. How can you tell where the force goes?”

Erick pointed with light as he spoke, “By seeing how the polarity is induced in the coil, and based on where the magnets to the sides are, this is how...”

While Erick taught Jane, he also leveled his new spells to 10. Each one changed in the expected way; to last ten minutes per cast instead of one.

--

Small Spark X, instant, touch, 5 mana

Electricity flows in an object of small size. Lasts 10 minutes.

--

--

Insulate X, instant, touch, 10 mana

Prevent the flow of electricity in an object of medium size or smaller. Lasts 10 minutes.

--

--

Superconductor X, instant, touch, 50 mana

Electricity may flow freely in a conductive object of medium size or smaller. Produces a myriad of effects. Lasts 10 minutes.

--

With his magnets set on opposite sides of the motor’s housing, and his three-coil rotor sitting between those magnets, Erick put the final touches on the brushing setup which would transfer [Small Spark] onto a varying circuit. The whole thing was about the size of a large coffee mug. Where the axle came out of the rotor, Erick placed a tiny fan, more for looks than to do anything impressive.

And then he cast [Small Spark] on a prepared block of copper the size of his thumb, and placed the block into a holder connected to the brushings—

The rotor rapidly spun the very moment the copper got near the terminals. Erick smiled, snapping the copper firmly into place, ensuring a good connection. The rotor spun even faster; the tiny fan kicked up a mighty, tiny gale.

And then the rotor broke. The coiling innards lodged themselves sideways in the engine while the fan took a trip across the yard.

Erick laughed. “Okay! It works!”

Jane, wide-eyed, said, “I guess it does.”

Erick started troubleshooting, saying, “Ah. See here? The brushings melted.” He said to Jane, “Brushings are a failure point anyway since they’re constantly rubbing and that’s bad. This can be fixed by making a different type of motor, called an induction motor, but that requires AC current, and all we have is DC current. I need to make transistors in order to change DC to AC, and I’m not able to do that right now.” He added, “I could make a brushless DC motor if I had actual electronics, or even just some simple parts like transistors and diodes and resistors, but we don’t have any of those right now, either. I’d need all of that to make AC current out of DC current, too. So this is the bottleneck now; transistors.”

Jane poked at the broken rotor with her shadows, frowning. “This seems more complicated than enchanting.” She looked at the other coils of wire, asking, “Want me to web the rest?”

“Yes, please.” Erick asked, “You want to make your own motor? Try it out? I want to grab lunch before it’s time to talk to people.” He glanced across the way, to where groups had been gathering near his platform for the last hour. There were maybe a hundred people today, and Erick had not taken a moment to inspect any of them. Between what it took to create this motor, and Bless the cultists up north, and teach Jane the basics of electromagnetism, Erick’s processes were full. He eyed some of those people now, though, and studied them as they studied Erick and his experiment from afar. “I think some of them are only here to watch me work.”

“They’ve been staring at us for the last few hours.” Jane nodded.

Erick’s gaze lingered on a few rubberneckers as he devoted some of his attention their way. “I see a few people with requests I completed after I told everyone to go home. Maybe they just want to thank me?”

Jane ignored all of that, and looked to the clump of eternal stonewood on the ground, saying, “I’ll find my own source of wood.”

“Ah! I can fix that. Here.” Erick had an Ophiel near the Blessing site in the mountains take a detour for a moment, to find a tree with some seeds. In the work of another three moments, that Ophiel lightstepped back to Erick, at his yurt, carrying a seed. He planted the seed in the ground, away from the pond, and cast [Living Petrified Treeshape] on the seed, rapidly raising a twisted, stony tree out of the ground. The tree continued to grow as Erick said, “That’s [Stoneshape]able wood. It might be too dense, but I know it’s electrically non-conductive. Or, you could just use more webbing, for the whole thing.”

“I’ll try both.” Jane asked, “Have you tried casting [Small Spark] on the wire in the motor, itself? That way, you wouldn’t have brushings.”

“Well. The only way that the motor turns is because the shifting electrical current constantly shifts the north-south polarity around, thus turning the motor.” Erick said, “Of course, there could be a way to make your suggestions work, but I haven’t thought of it. Anyway, it’s almost noon.” He saw Poi standing on the yurt, then turned back to Jane. “I’ve got to get to work. Love you. Have fun!”

Jane waved him off, saying, “If you need me, I’m here.”

“I know; thank you.” Erick waved, and walked away from his daughter and his projects, toward the edge of the dense air surrounding— He hooked a right, toward the yurt, and walked to Poi. “A quick lunch, first.”

Poi had a hearty sandwich and a cheesy stew waiting for him. As Erick ate, he had Ophiel glance over the various petitioners waiting outside his temporary property. Most of the people out there had large concerns that were only easy for an archmage, or for a team of highly skilled and high leveled people. Erick would dismiss the rest of them, but all of them could wait a few more minutes. This food was delicious!

As Erick headed back out of his protected space with Poi following at his side, he felt good.

Helping people felt great.

- - - -

“How were the petitioners, dad?” Jane asked, as she sat down across the table from Erick and Poi.

The windows were dark; the sun had set not too long ago.

“Only 33 kills completed today, and 31 other problems,” Erick said, smiling as he stuck his fork into the roast Jane had saved for him. “Many of those issues— Except for a few ‘finding’ missions, for sure— Almost all of them could have been done by someone else, too, but they would have had a lot of trouble. I’m almost tempted to have people submit monster kill applications with everything on them, as almost all of those are normal, and I don’t need to actually speak to those people. But I think people just wanted to talk to me. Which is fine, but… not a great use of my time.”

Poi nodded. “This is getting more like work, and less like a vacation, too.”

“Yes; that too, but it is slowing down… somewhat.” Erick said, “Anyway. I’ll put out a second type ofapplication tonight and people can take one of two forms; monster kills, or ‘other’. That should split up the jobs from ones that need to be handled with care, and ones that just need to get done. In fact, I will do that right now.” And so he did, using the Ophiels outside to complete that task while he ate dinner. “Blessing the Cultists and cultists and such has slowed down, too. Only a hundred of those, today. A few more priests of Koyabez are out at the mountain, helping. I think that’s going to turn out really well, actually.”

“I hope so.” Jane said, “The first debate on Clan Pale Cow’s behalf is taking place tomorrow, at noon. Are you going to be there?”

“Oh. Uh.” Erick asked, “That’s tomorrow? I guess I will. I’ll need to talk to Niyazo before then.”

Jane said, “You’re under no obligation to actually help them. It doesn’t matter if they Integrate or not; not to you, anyway.”

“True.” Erick said, “But I do have an obligation to ensure that I leave no strong enemies to strike at my back, and the dragon Ordoonarati qualifies as such a potential enemy, for me, or for the other people who live here. He thought I was coming after him, and I can’t blame him for thinking that, but I can blame him for how he went about trying to kill me. Perhaps, if we were to talk again, or if I were to show my own thoughts on the subject of Integration, I will know if Ordoonarati is simply lashing out, or if he needs to die like all the other monsters out there.”

Jane went a little wide-eyed.

But Teressa, Nirzir, and Poi all nodded along.

“I get the distinct impression that Ordoonarati has lived here for a long time, and these grass travelers truly are his people.” Erick continued, “In that case, we might be on something of the same side, if all he actually wants is to be left alone. But besides that, I’m interested in seeing how a Polite War works.” He smiled as he changed the subject, “I saw the motor you made. Want to test it out?”

Jane looked like she wanted to go back a bit in the conversation, but she said, “No motor tests right now. I do want to hear more about electricity, though.”

Nirzir perked up from her chair, to the side of the yurt. “Can I listen in, too?”

“Sure!” Erick asked, “How about I tell the story tonight?”

Teressa spoke up, “An actual story? Or a lesson?”

Erick smirked. “You can head to bed if you don’t want to learn the secrets of the New Cosmology, Teressa.”

“Then I shall head to bed.”

And so, as Teressa zonked out on her bed, Erick spoke of electricity and left hand rules and poles and electrons traveling down conductive materials, and what it meant for a material to be conductive in the first place. He got pretty deep into the actual physics of it all, but eventually he moved on to experimental evidence of how electrical and magnetic fields were related.

Partway through, Erick wondered how Kiri was doing; she should have been here for this talk.

And now Erick wanted to get back home. Back to someplace safe.

And yet, he was doing a lot of good out here.

- - - -

The next morning Erick made a much larger, much better motor using a few design changes he had thought of last night, when he was explaining how motors worked. Simply upping the size of the rotor to a meter long and half a meter wide, and going from three coils to six (with some of the wiring being more like metal bars, than wires), as well as changing how the brushes touched the commutator, helped with quite a few problems. The heat was a lot lower on the larger system, for one, and with [Alter Friction] cast on the brushes, Erick greatly extended the life of those heavily used metal bits. Centrifugal forces on the rotor still caused problems, breaking apart the entire machine more than once, but Erick fixed those problems, too; mostly. As the rotor spun fast and strong, and then faster, heat almost became an issue, but a simple [Cooling Ward] ended that problem before it spiraled out of control.

The motor continued to have problems, though, and at this new, larger size, those problems were problems.

It was spinning too damned fast, and Erick’s mechanical engineering was not up to the stress of it all. Stress fractures abounded, from the rotor, to the housing. Erick needed to work on his metallurgy, and he needed to refine the metals that the elders had sent him. They might have been high-grade steel, or they might have been shit. Erick had no idea.

But, even though the rotor was spinning fast, it was also spinning too slow. Too weak. While it was running, Erick managed to take a measurement of the RPM at just under 700 revolutions per minute. There were losses of inefficiency everywhere. He already knew he needed a transmission system in order to use the power present in his new motor, but he needed a quality motor first. 1500 RPM, minimum.

Some [Mend]s brought the system back together after each failure, but after the third break, something had thoroughly broken in the actual history of the motor, and [Mend] would not restore the motor to functionality. Oh well. With half an hour to go till the debates, Erick called it quits for the day, leaving everything like it was—

Staring down at his motor, Erick had an idea.

“I can put a flywheel outside of the motor, which is structurally strong, and put an [Anti Gravity Ward] on the actual motor, which is structurally weak, thus eliminating the need for perfect engineering of… the rotor…” Erick frowned. “No… That’s solving for failure. That might not work in the first place, and who wants a flywheel in their car? Bad idea.” He mumbled to himself, “All this is useless without the transmission, though...”

He shook his head and walked away, telling Jane and Poi that he was headed out as he walked toward Clan Pale Cow. Poi rapidly followed. Jane caught up, soon enough. Nirzir and Teressa were already at Clan Pale Cow, working at the cooking yurt and at the schoolhouse yurt, respectively. Erick would pick them up on his way through the space.

- - - -

Clan Pale Cow’s occupied land had become much more occupied in the last few days, all while Erick was barely looking. Most of the clan was still scattered to the winds, but Erick saw a lot of new faces as he walked past the outer edge of yurts, toward Warlord Niyazo’s yurt about half a kilometer away, at the center of the whole clan. There were about five cooking yurts now, each lined up next to each other, and about 900 yurts scattered over the kilometer of space provided to Clan Pale Cow, so Erick guessed that there were five collections of people, here.

Nirzir hopped off of the central cooking yurt as soon as she saw Erick for herself; she had been looking out for him, for Erick had made no attempt at subtlety as he strode into Clan Pale Cow’s designated land, so other people had noticed him long before now. Word got around rather fast when it came to that sort of stuff.

As Nirzir joined Erick, falling in behind him, Teressa was already on her way to him, having also heard of his movements through the camp. With his full party assembled, Erick went to the yurt of Warlord Niyazo.

When Erick got to Niyazo’s yurt, there were four other yurts almost exactly like the warlord’s, situated just outside. All of those yurts were unoccupied by the leaders of Pale Cow, save a few kids and grandmothers and fathers who had been left behind.

For beyond that area, a very large yurt overshadowed the size of almost every other yurt within sight. It was a gathering space, and it was there that Niyazo and his lesser clan leaders had been holding meetings and gatherings ever since they had arrived at Ooloraptoor. Erick walked that way.

Cowherd Amasar sat on the porch of that larger yurt, alongside a few other cowherds of other branch clans. They hopped to attention as Erick came toward them. They bowed as Erick hopped up onto the yurt.

Amasar rose, saying, “Erick. Welcome.”

“Hello, Amasar.” Erick pointed at the flap to the yurt. “Are they speaking of today’s debate?”

“They have been discussing the upcoming debates for days, but mostly just to understand who our opponents might field in battle. It could change depending on who we choose to field in battle.” Amasar said, “The actual debate isn’t going to take place for another hour, but we don’t expect the battle to occur until late into the evening. Possibly not until twilight. It does infringe on the help that you have chosen to give other people, though.”

Amasar had tried to become a part of Erick’s cohort, due to some cultural ideas around what it meant to save someone’s life. Erick had denied the man, and it had hurt him, perhaps more than Erick had expected to hurt him. Some of that hurt was on clear display to those who were capable of seeing such a thing, and Erick was one of those people.

Erick said, “I know that being a clanfriend to Pale Cow requires me to take responsibility to be aware of events like this on my own, but I could use some small help with this honor. In exchange for the life I helped you to retain, I require your help in this, Amasar. Keep me better informed of events like this.”

Amasar, and all the other cowherds, perked up. Amasar stood straight. He controlled his sudden, overwhelming relief, and the washing away of a black mark on his life, to something smaller. With quiet joy, he said, “I will do this for you, Erick.”

Erick didn’t really get whatever cultural thing was going on there, but he understood enough to be able to make the guy feel better about himself, and that’s what was important. Erick gestured to the flap to the yurt, saying, “I’m going in, now.”

Amasar hopped to the flap and silently pulled it back.

Erick walked into the firelit space beyond, where four leaders spoke around a low hearth, and a few other people held out in the shadows behind them. Poi and Nirzir joined Erick as he walked forward, but Jane and Teressa remained outside.

Niyazo said to Erick, “Welcome to our bonfire. Glad you could make it. Take a seat.”

Erick nodded to everyone around the fire, as he took his seat in an empty space, saying, “I would have been here sooner, but I was busy. Before you continue with tactical discussions, I would have a refresher on the possible outcomes of this debate.”

While the four lesser leaders watched Erick, Niyazo said, “If we lose any of our three planned debates, we are to cut ties with Songli for a year. If all three of our opponent clans lose, then they are honor bound to accept a year of envoys from Songli; from Severing Crescent of Alaralti, in particular.”

Erick nodded. “And the three clans you are facing?”

“Green Grass, with Leader Linxel is first. Today. Clan Blue Sky, another True Traveler Clan and formerly a part of Green Grass decades ago, is tomorrow. Leader Roodi of Blue Sky is distantly related to Linxel.” Niyazo said, “Then we have Clan Brown Dog, they are a lesser True Traveler Clan, but their Leader Fara is a well known power among grass travelers. That debate might be three days from now, or seven. We’re not sure. We expect the most difficulty from Brown Dog since Green Grass and Blue Sky have both been massively upset by recent events, as you know.”

Another leader spoke up, “We still expect Green Grass to put up a heavy defense of words. Hours of debate, at least. They could still win over the judging Elders, forcing us into an actual polite battle, of which they would also likely win.”

A different leader said, “Unless you wish to participate in battle yourself, clanfriend Erick? Honestly, we did not know if you would show.”

Erick nodded. “Then that makes this decision easy: Instead of the multi-hour affair that you expect, I would like to speak on Pale Cow’s and Integration’s behalf, and then get right to battle if they decide to keep debating. I expect to take… half an hour? Till we get to the actual fight? Of which I will take the field, alongside 9 of your other people.” He asked, “Unless I can use Ophiel in my stead?”

While the four leaders looked suddenly happy—

Niyazo said, “It would require an actual ruling from the Elders, but we have already asked around and there are rules against [Familiar]s; we don’t expect Ophiel to be allowed, except as a part of you, in which case the battle is as good as won.”

Erick said, “I wouldn’t expect to be allowed to take myself out of mortal danger, either, but I had to ask. So with that out of the way,” Erick glanced around, saying, “I don’t believe we’ve met, yet. And I don’t know much about your arguments for Integration, either. I have my own, most of which will center around kicking out bad actors in your society.”

The other leaders looked happy, and yet worried at the same time.

Niyazo began with the man on Erick’s right, saying, “This is Leader Birobar, who…”

Names and faces. Introductions to people, and then ideas. Erick caught up rather quickly, while he also took care of twenty monster kill requests waiting for him outside of his yurt, Blessed people on the mountain, and scoped out where the debate would actually take place.

Before he knew it, it was time.

- - - -

The Elder House was a large, misshapen blob of a building, located directly next to the waters of Lake Ooloraptoor. In it, were housed the fifty or so elevated elders of the grass traveling clans, as well as twice that number of caretakers. The only natural tree that Erick had seen upon all the grasslands lived here too, crawling into the air alongside the house; it was simultaneously a sickly and healthy looking thing of burls and twists and bright green leaves. This blobby, stone house was the second permanent structure of the grass travelers, with the other one being the stone fence that separated the fishable waters of the lake from the greater depths beyond.

It was near there, about a hundred meters from that blobby house, where the lands had been cleared of yurts and two and half podiums had been raised on a platform on the beach. The two main podiums were turned halfway toward each other, so that the speakers there could talk to each other and the audience. The elders were the primary audience, who would sit upon chairs in front of the platform to listen, and judge. All other clansmen were welcome to stand behind the elders to listen to the debates, but the elders were the only ones allowed to sit and voice their objections or questions to the speakers, though Erick was assured that mostly, the elders just judged, silently.

The half podium was reserved for the moderator, who also silently judged the proceedings.

On their way to the stage, Erick saw the elders he had met before; mainly Elder Uriol Red Dog, Elder Teer Silver Yurt, Elder Puuroi Yellow Fish, and others of which he had seen in passing, or briefly worked with when he helped with all the recent face stealer searching.

Actually getting to the debates had required walking near the semi-permanent territories of more than a few different clans. This caused a lot of people to come out to see him walk past. Getting this close to the waters, which was a very popular area for trade and the selling of food, and the fishing of fish, had even drawn a crowd to watch Erick pass. A few people had called out thanks to him, for helping them in some way that Erick had to think about to remember; he was still running a lot of side jobs while he had walked through Ooloraptoor, and so he wasn’t fully present all the time.

But now he was here, standing to one side of the stage, alongside Niyazo and a few other people. Koori had come to the debates, too, sliding into the entourage at the last moment, while Erick’s own people stood back, with the audience.

And what an audience it was. Thousands of people had come out to listen to the debates; a lot more than Erick had glimpsed here before, in the many times Ophiel had flown past this stage while he was doing something else. There might be three thousand people out there. Maybe 3500. The crowd stretched out in a half circle for a good 200 meters away.

… And now that he took a moment to actually look, with Perception and Intelligence working together Erick counted 3758 people out there, with the number growing every passing second, as more and more people trickled in from elsewhere. Almost everyone spoke to their neighbors, filling the air with a susurrus of sound, some of which Erick caught, but most of which he let flow past him, like the northern wind, unremarked.

In that moment, Erick found himself quite enamored with the political engagement he was seeing in front of him.

Most nations of Veird did not have anything approaching democracy. The grass travelers were mostly the same in this regard, but the separation between heads of state and the population of this land was almost nonexistent. Erick saw obvious clan leaders in the audience, but he also saw cowherds and grandmothers and children raised on the shoulders of fathers, all so that they could see how their nation worked at its best. The powerful stood right beside those people whom most would call ‘commoners’. It was a nice thing to see.

Erick did a quick calculation to truly understand what he was seeing, there on that sandy ground before him.

A full clan was usually three hundred to two thousand people, with almost all of the clans being on the smaller end. Pale Cow only had around 1150 people, while Green Grass had about 500. There were only about 180 clans in the entire grass traveler ‘nation’. So of an estimated 125,000 grass travelers, the number of people who physically turned out to see this debate was about 3% of their entire population.

And that didn’t include the thousands and thousands of [Scry] eyes hanging out in the air above; Erick wasn’t even going to attempt to count those, but he guessed there were 35,000 of them. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye was the only one allowed near anyone, as it had remained on one of Erick’s shoulders the whole time, while a tiny Ophiel sat on the other.

There was a lot of transparency in these proceedings, and Erick really liked it.

He wasn’t sure if he liked being on stage in front of so many people, though, but that fleeting emotion was easy to squash.

The Elders of Ooloraptoor cared about the audience, too; though the 33 elders had set their chairs on the ground in front of the stage, facing the stage, more than a few elders craned their heads around to glance at the massive crowd behind them, or to look at the [Scry] eyes in the sky. They were also impressed by the turnout.

Elder Teer Silver Yurt sat in front, looking stoic. At a hundred and ten, she was perhaps the oldest elder of Ooloraptoor. It was her duty to bring the debate to order, and she did so by standing, her cane firmly gripped in her hand, helping to keep her upright. She turned to face the audience and tapped her cane on the ground.

A small magic amplified Teer’s voice, to ring out across the land, “We bring today’s debate of Integration to order.”

Voices fell silent. Eyes focused. Attentions narrowed.

Teer nodded. She turned back to the stage. “Clan Pale Cow versus Clan Green Grass. Integrator, versus True Traveler. Leader Niyazo, versus Leader Linxel.”

Erick hadn’t seen Linxel for a few days now. The warlord was looking about as… attractive as Erick remembered. Erick didn’t have time for that sort of thing, and he hadn’t in a long while, but facts were facts. Linxel was still tall. Rather tall, at over two meters, but not nearly as tall as an orcol. Muscular. Dark blue skin. Spiraling horns that sprung out of short black hair and rolled around his head like a crown. A deep blue soul. No changes there. No changes in his deep blue eyes, either, Erick saw, as they briefly locked gazes.

Linxel nodded at Erick; he seemed a bit... Happy? To see Erick? Mixed feelings? Why the mixed feelings— Oh. They were on the other side of the battlefield. Right. But then why mixed? There were lots of reasons for—

Ah.

Erick ignored a slightly stirring part of himself that recognized a similarly stirring part of Linxel.

Best ignore all of that.

People were always watching for weakness.

Teer spoke, “As the one wishing for change, Leader Niyazo will put forth his first speaker for his side, then Leader Linxel will counter. This was just a private debate between Pale Cow, and the three True Traveler clans of Green Grass, Blue Sky, and Brown Dog. But that has changed due to some recent events. The actual outcome of the debates has not changed, but since the recognition of the participants is of particular interest, I will be going over the rules for the benefit of those watching.

“Each speaker will get five minutes to state their side. After both sides get their five minutes, we will either vote someone off the podium, or allow for a full discussion between the two opposing viewpoints, which will take place in switching five minute segments.

“To facilitate this vote, we have these markers, here. If we do not hold up our signs, we wish to hear more. If we hold up our signs, that means we have heard enough of you.” She held up a two-sided paddle. One side was orange, the other side was blue; this matched the podiums on the stage. Erick’s side was blue. “If we elders hold up your color, that is bad. That means we want you off the stage.” Teer gestured to the side, where Sin Seeker Vania stood beside the moderator’s podium. A large 5-minute sand timer sat on the podium, while ten little figures sat on both sides of that timer. “Vania will be the moderator. She is the one to count colors and inform you that you have lost, though whichever speaker has lost does not have to vacate the stage because of her moderation. How today’s debate will actually end is when one side loses 10 speaker opportunities. When someone is voted off, that side might decide to keep that person up there, talking. Not always a good idea, as we elders will have likely voted you off because we have heard enough, but you do what you want; this is your debate.

“We elders won’t raise our signs if we believe that there is more to be heard, though any speakers may retire whenever they wish. We’re only here to facilitate a clean debate between the two sides. Ultimately, our decisions of winners and losers are not binding for either party. Ultimately, both sides might choose to have a polite battle to settle their differences. Those results will be binding with the force of honor at stake.

“It is our understanding that such a martial debate will be of the standard variety. Orthodoxy and Variant battles will not be happening.

“It may be that battles won’t happen at all. It is our hope that by facilitating these verbal debates, that both sides, and the rest of us, might come to understand each other better, so that wisdom may rule instead of power.” Teer said, “Pale Cow Leader Niyazo. You have the stage. Your first speaker.” She sat down.

Niyazo and his subordinate leaders had told Erick that they would try to get through this as quickly as possible, but Erick would not be speaking first. The usual arguments had to be tried, and Erick had no true knowledge of those arguments, and also no history with them. He was glad for that, now that they were here, standing in front of everyone. It would have felt wrong to step into that role of true clansman, anyway. He was here as a guest; a clanfriend.

This was very low stakes, and that felt kinda good.

Erick hadn’t done low-stakes in a while.

… And yet, this was not low stakes at all. There were dragons watching this. And Erick didn’t like that one dragon, in particular, was fucking over people with face stealers and soul mutilation to keep this land un-Integrated.

Niyazo’s first speaker was Birobar, one of the lesser leaders of Pale Cow. While Birobar took his spot at the blue podium, Linxel sent forward his own first speaker to stand at the orange podium. Erick knew the other speaker; she was Forage Leader Ooloori. The last time Erick had interacted with the woman, she had been aiming to take Linxel’s place as clan leader, while Linxel was knocked out with soul damage.

What Linxel had done, by putting Ooloori forward, was rather devious.

The first speakers were always the sacrificial pawns, but it was highly possible for a sacrificial pawn to annihilate the entire other side of the board. Mostly, people expected the first speakers to fail—

Well.

There was a lot of nuance to this debate that Erick didn’t feel the need to explore too deeply. So he watched and listened to the speakers speak, growing more and more invested as the right to speak seamlessly passed back and forth between the two sides. There was no yelling. There was no name calling, or snide remarks that were best left to nobility in other nations, or even to the nobility of certain parts of Songli. Erick quickly realized that he was witnessing the workings of what was perhaps the most open and honest system of governance that he had seen, all throughout all his time on Veird.

… If this was what the dragon Ordoonarati was trying to preserve, then Erick could get behind that; this was pretty honorable, actually.

The people in the audience listened intently. Moderator Vania kept track of time with a large hourglass that took five minutes to empty, while she kept track of ‘lost soldiers’ on both sides with two sets of 10-piece statuettes; one side painted orange, the other blue. The speakers spoke simply, and they went over everything. There was a bit of plea toward emotions on both sides, but that was perfectly fine. The whole argument was not complicated to follow.

Birobar spoke of how trade would be better for them if they could leverage the purchasing power of their entire nation against that of other nations. Didn’t you dislike it when you had to pay tolls to enter Alaralti's outer cities? Didn’t you dislike it when they didn’t treat you like the proper clansmen, just because your home didn’t look like theirs? Like you were some sort of homeless adventurer?

Erick found himself smirking when the man spoke of ‘adventurers’ like it was a bad word.

Ooloori’s argument was about the benefits of tradition. About how this very debate they were having right here would be impossible in a land like that of Songli, where there were homeless people (which was apparently impossible in the grasslands), and where the heads of state disdained the lives of those at the bottom unless those people were of actual use. Did you truly want to change your way of life, to include overseers in some far away place; to let others decide the laws of your land? Wouldn’t you rather have your leader live in the yurt three yurts down the way?

Birobar countered, of course, with words over the recent bouts of face stealers, and about how, if there was a central authority, that perhaps the inadequacies in face stealer protocols would have been noticed before those inadequacies became a problem. Pale Cow had 2 face stealers among them; how many did Green Grass have?

Everyone knew Green Grass's numbers, and so Ooloori glossed over that fact.

The answer was 47, though.

Ooloori explained that Ooloraptoor had face stealers, too. They were everywhere, and a central authority would have been just as vulnerable to them as the traditional clan system.

That earned her a bunch of orange markers from the elders. Even those that Erick knew were aligned with the True Travelers had voted her gone, for Songli had just gone through a purge of their own, and before that, Treehome, and before that, the entire Crystal Forest. Erick’s magics and his searches worked; trying to insinuate a lie that didn’t follow established truth had cost Ooloori a lot of clout.

Vania announced the loss of one of Green Grass’s speakers.

Ooloori remained at Green Grass’s podium, though.

Birobar spoke of how the problem of a theoretically corrupted Sin Seeker organization would easily be solved by having multiple organizations, which would be possible with a city, with a ruling body capable of organizing such a thing. He went on to speak of what such an organization would look like—

And he ran into the 5 minute mark, so he stopped.

Ooloori tore down all of Birobar’s ideas, as she spoke of how putting the safety of one’s family into the hands of a ruling body was asking to be treated like lower clan citizens. It happened in Songli, and it would happen here, if they allowed it to happen.

It was here that Niyazo looked to Erick, nodding to him.

Erick nodded back.

Birobar had been keeping an eye on Niyazo and his backup speakers, and so, he said, “It is here, that I must retire my position to the next in line.”

He stepped away from the podium.

Erick walked forward, taking Birobar’s place at the podium.

The audience was a bit bored with arguments that they had heard in many other places besides here, but now, at Erick’s movements, they focused once again; this was what they had come here for, and they did not expect it to happen so soon.

Linxel had been waiting for this moment, too. He mirrored Erick’s movements, to come to stand to the side of the orange podium just as Erick reached the blue podium. “Objection. Erick is not a member of Pale Cow. He has no cow in this race.”

A good two hundred people in the audience openly booed the leader of Clan Green Grass. The actual sound was more like the groan of a cow, than an actual ‘boo’, but Erick understood the intent.

Teer arched her head back and spoke from her seat, her voice booming out, “Silence in the audience!” After the gathered people went quiet, Teer faced forward, and continued, “Your objection is noted and declared inadequate. Erick has proven himself a clanfriend to all who come to him, and that includes your clan, too.” Teer said to Erick, “But in the interest of fairness, please keep your words to a single 5 minute segment. Unless Green Grass decides to allow you to remain after those five minutes, please vacate the stage.”

Teer Silver Yurt was playing many sides of the political spectrum, if half of what Erick had heard about the old woman was true. She had been an Elder of Ooloraptoor for nigh on 75 years; everyone knew her. So that made sense.

What didn’t make sense was that Linxel, surprisingly, stayed at the orange podium. Ooloori stepped away. Erick would get to speak to Linxel, directly… And now that he thought about it for half a second, of course Linxel would take Ooloori’s spot. It was only honorable that Linxel face Erick, himself.

Down at moderator Vania’s podium, she took off another soldier from the orange side, leaving Pale Cow with 9 speakers left, and Green Grass with 8.

Erick spoke simply, “I will not take up too much of everyone’s valuable time, for Linxel is at least partially right: I do not have my best cows in this race, but I have one cow, for sure.

“I want to help people, and it’s hard to do that when I have no central authority that can help me help others. I ran into this problem just this last week, when I inadvertently set off a face stealer search throughout all of your lands, and your clans. That went about as well as it possibly could have, considering the unknown severity of the problem, but even so, it went rather poorly, too. I will tell you straight: that could have gone a lot better.

“When I offered this same service to Songli, they were able to organize a massive amount of people in order to help me, help them, hunt down every single face stealer and Hunter in all of Songli. Took us about 20 hours to end the threats of a thousand killers, each of which were responsible for dozens or hundreds of murders apiece. One guy, the Divider… I think I’ll remember watching that face stealer’s end for the rest of my life. That killer was one small part of a major problem. A problem that was scattered among 41 million people. And in 20 hours, we cleared up every single major case and busted thousands of Hunter rings, and face stealer rings.

“If the grass travelers had such a central organization capable of doing the same, then someone like me could come along and offer this service to them. We could have cleared out the face stealers and Hunter problems from this land in a very timely manner, and based on the numbers, you might have only had fifty face stealers, total. It was because of the lack of organization, and the lack of proper protocols, that this happened, at all.

“You need organization. You need a central authority you can trust; one of your own making, too. I can’t help you with that, and it’d be wrong of me to try, so I won’t.

“I will say that I’m running into a ‘lack of organization’ problem myself, personally.

“I’m sure many of you have seen me out there at my yurt, assisting people who come in here from all over Nelboor. It’s nice to rescue some kidnapped scion from some clan, or to save a coastal village from a tangled hydra swarm, or to kill every sky tether swarm from Songli to the Tribulations. But this world is always going to be dangerous. Problems solved yesterday need to be solved again tomorrow, and thus, I’m realizing that the sort of assistance I am providing people is not sustainable, at all.

“I need an organization, too.

“So that’s what I’m going to do, soon enough. I’m going to make something that will allow me to help others in a better, more coherent fashion. Perhaps I can try for an organization like the Headmaster has set up, with Elites and such. Or, I can just be like a normal archmage, and let people come to me. Whatever the case, I need a lot of like-minded people on my side, and some sort of organization to hold them all together, so that we can get work done. I’ll figure it out, just as I’m sure you’ll figure out your own organizational necessities in this new world, too.

“Make no mistake: the Veird of today is different from the Veird of a year ago. The shadows are less than what they have been, but that does not mean that all the usual problems of this world have stopped being problems.

“Monsters still exist. Nations still war. Face stealers still exist, and Hunters are still out there.

“I suggest you prepare yourselves for the coming changes by banding together.

“But it need not be a full denouncement of your traditions. I truly like what I have seen here, today. This calm, rational debate between various sides? And the transparency! It’s amazing; truly. I wouldn’t want this form of debate to ever vanish from Veird.

“I feel that if you wanted to, you could start with a single city, and with a governing body composed of representatives from every clan. Something that would allow a better collection of protocols that will enable you to prevent the face stealer problem from happening again.

“As for my own sort of organization, my instinct is to try and make something that lasts. Perhaps something that others can keep running long after I’m gone. I imagine such an organization to have at least three branches, each of which has checks and balances on the others, enabling everyone to watch over everyone else, while denying absolute power to any central body. Perhaps, an executive branch, responsible for enacting the law, a congressional branch, responsible for creating the laws and paying everyone, and a judicial branch, responsible for judging if the laws are good, or not.

“These are just a few thoughts, though. Nothing solid. Thank you for your time, and good luck making your own future.”

He hadn’t planned on offering actual suggestions, or on speaking of a governing body with checks and balances, but he had the time, so he filled it. Erick’s speech ended right as Vania’s timer ran out.

Not a single elder held up a blue sign, or otherwise indicated that they wanted Erick off the stage. A few of the elders, including Uriol and Puuroi, but not Teer, even held up preemptive orange signs.

The rest of the audience was of mixed emotions. According to the furrowed brows and the small words passed between people, who were not nearly as quiet as they thought they were, many people had no idea what to make of Erick’s suggestions. Was Erick trying to build support here? In this land that was not his? Was he moving here? Was he more than just a clanfriend? Or was that about Candlepoint, and the Crystal Forest? What was going on, here?

It took Linxel a second to formulate a response, but he did. “Green Grass honors Archmage Erick Flatt for the service he provided in illuminating our recent face stealer problems. We ask the archmage to come to Green Grass at his leisure, so that we might honor him with words and with a feast worthy of his accomplishment, and to talk of whatever he might want to discuss.” Linxel stood straighter, and his voice was more solid, “Though Green Grass does not believe in Integration, and we denounce the use of such an honorable figure to get your win, Clan Green Grass accepts the loss against Clan Pale Cow. Good day.” He stepped away from the podium, to stand with his people. They were ready to leave, right then, but they did not; they were waiting for something else to happen.

Erick stood a bit stunned, unsure of what to think. And then he stepped back a bit, to stand with Pale Cow.

A few people in the crowd asked, “What?” A few shouted, “What!”

Smaller, louder talks happened all at once.

Niyazo was already smiling a controlled smile, not wanting to display his open joy at the easy win. The other speakers lined up on both sides had mixed reactions. For Pale Cow, there was a bit of incredulity; it couldn’t be that easy. For Green Grass, there was no disbelief; They knew this might happen.

Elder Teer stood up, her voice ringing out, suppressing all others, “Attention.” A few people at the front of the crowd had been stepping forward, not willing to stay back when they didn’t like what they were seeing. A few others had laughed loud at Linxel’s response; happy for what they saw. A few smaller groupings of those two groups were almost to the point of fighting, but Teer’s single word stopped all that. Now, with everyone stilled, she spoke softer, but no less loud, “The debate between Pale Cow and Green Grass comes to an expected close. To that end: It is the judgment of these elders that Archmage Flatt has now discharged his goodwill as a clanfriend to Pale Cow. Unless he wishes to become a true part of Integration efforts, then he can no longer participate in these debates.” She said, “We’re done here.”

Niyazo and Linxel both wordlessly went to stand in front of their respective podiums. They both bowed toward one another, and then Linxel bowed a second time. And then, they broke apart. Both leaders went back to their groups. Green Grass walked off toward the west. Pale Cow, alongside Erick and Poi, walked east. Erick went with the group.

Various allies for both sides were already waiting in the wings for the joint departures.

Erick and Poi rejoined with Teressa, Jane, and Nirzir, and the five of them walked alongside Pale Cow’s procession for a little while, through the massive, dispersing crowds. Soon enough, Niyazo and his people had to go their own way, for they were already being mobbed by questions and tactics from other allies, and from those who watched the debate.

Niyazo left off saying, “I wish to speak to you of what you said up there. Later. After sundown?”

“Of course.” Erick shook his head at a few people who tried to talk to him. “Not right now. Take an application, at my yurt.”

As Niyazo was forced to walk further away, he called out over the crowd separating him from Erick, “You’re still a clanfriend, no matter what the elders say!”

Erick smiled at that, and waved in recognition, then he told another pair of people who hadn’t heard the first time he said it, “Take an application at the yurt.”

As soon as it wasn’t incredibly rude, Erick lightstepped everyone into the protected space around the yurt.

Under dense air, and the light of an [Undertow Star], Jane finally blurted out what she had been holding back for the last ten minutes, “So you are bringing democracy to Veird.”

Nirzir, who had been looking marginally interested, suddenly scowled. “That wasn’t democracy. A three part system? No…” She glanced to Erick. “Was it?”

“Democracy killed Quintlan,” Teressa said. “I don’t know the details about it, but ‘Democracy’ is a bad word in most learned venues.”

Jane said, “Okay. Fine. Republicanism.”

“Bah! Jane. I’m not getting political, but there is a certain need to think about these sorts of things.”

Jane said, “Suure.”

Erick said, “And that’s not what you’d call a three-branch system, anyway. I don’t think it actually has a name, as it’s just a three part system that splits power to ensure that the people at the top are accountable to each other in ways beyond assassination and murder or other heavy-handed solutions.” Erick said to everyone, “The people here have fine forms of government, but that debate was all about Integration into a state, so I felt the need to speak on my own experiences.”

Jane said, “I rather like it as it is, dad. People are accountable to themselves, or some guy who lives right down the street, or in a city just over the way. Even in Songli, or in other parts of the world; it’s like that everywhere here. Back on Earth, no one was accountable for their own actions, and if you wanted to point at a problem, all you could point at was a nebulous conglomeration of people.” She said, “Almost no one was living their lives the way they wanted to live, and everyone was subject to laws which they had no say in. There were no free spaces at all on Earth. I don’t think you should bring that three-branch structure here.”

“I agree with… some of that. Most of the problems back home are solvable with some foresight.” Erick said, “Look. I wanna talk more, but there’s a lot of people out there at the meeting platform. We’ll talk at dinner, okay?”

Jane waved him off, saying, “Yeah. I know. I just… felt weird there. Uh. Yeah. Kill all those monsters. Right.”

Erick paused. He looked at his daughter for a moment. She was slightly distraught about a dozen things, for sure, but he would have to ask her about them later… No.

Erick asked, “What’s wrong?”

Jane paused, frowning. Then she blurted, “Seeing you on that stage. I thought that I was watching the moments before your assassination. I mean. Yes. I know you’ve been in danger before. But this was different. It felt… too real. Too exposed.”

“Ah.” Erick said, “I’m sorry that I worried you.”

“I’m just being stupid, dad.” Jane said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Nirzir spoke in a whisper, “I was worried about that, too. It’s what I’m always worried about, being out in the open.”

Everyone looked to Nirzir. Nirzir reluctantly met Erick’s eyes.

Teressa said, “I was watching the whole time. There was nothing in [Future Sight].” She added, “I’m doing that almost all the time, now.”

Poi said, “There were various problematic thoughts all around us, but none that verged on action. He was about as safe up there as he was anywhere else.”

Jane burst a sad laugh. “Oh, gods. Yeah. That’s true.”

Poi said, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Nirzir looked a lot less comfortable, while Teressa frowned a little, as she looked down at Poi.

Poi said, “Okay. Fine. Yes; we are in danger, but not more than usual.”

“Yeah. I get that.” Jane said, “I do. But. Eh. Forget about it. Go save some lives, dad. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Erick said, taking his daughter in for a hug.

Jane sighed, and patted his back. She pulled away.

Teressa said, “If you don’t mind, I’ll come out there and guard you, too, alongside Poi. I’ll stay out of the privacy bubble to better mana sense, though.”

Jane smiled briefly. Nirzir looked conflicted, but she said nothing.

Erick said, “The more the merrier.”

And then he went to work.