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Erick flicked his mana through the machine again, and over the course of ten seconds, the sleepy grey rat transformed into a sleepy goldfish. He cut the magic. The lustrous waters around the fish turned from bright white, to something lesser, and then they lost their light altogether. The fish remained sleepy.

There were many parts of Redflame’s Renewal Tank system that Erick did not fully understand. [Baleful Polymorph] was one of those spells, but Erick was pretty sure that he was getting the hang of that magic. Once he got out of here, he could probably make that spell easy enough.

That spell was basically [Polymorph] but twisted into an attack, which made a great deal of difference. Primarily, the person casting the spell was choosing to mutate a person’s existence into something else, but since that was such a broad category of event, there were a lot of small, unsaid rules. Size played a big deal in such a transformation, as well as what the target’s current categorization in the Script. A human-sized target was generally transformed into another human-sized person, with orcol being a very, very rare option. If the target was an orcol, they were usually transformed into a different orcol, and usually one of the opposite sex, with all options usually being a smaller form than the target’s original form. With enough casts, an undirected [Baleful Polymorph] might transform an orcol all the way into a human, or an incani, or a harpy, or whatever. This sort of cast almost always gave the target a physically weaker form, for that was the basic, cheap, undirected version of that spell.

Directed [Baleful Polymorph] was what everyone usually thought of when they heard ‘[Baleful Polymorph]. This then was the full version of the spell, which transformed a target into another form specifically chosen by the caster. An orcol could become a frog. A frog could become an orcol. [Baleful Polymorph] did not change the soul or the mind, though.

[Baleful Polymorph] did not actually give the afflicted person the Familiar Form chosen by the caster, nor did it remove the original Familiar Form of the afflicted. If one were [Baleful Polymorph]ed, all one needed to do was to get [Polymorph] and then use that to transform back to their original Form.

[Baleful Polymorph] could not be [Dispel]ed, though. It was an instant effect; there was nothing to dispel once the magic was done.

If the afflicted wished to actually gain the Familiar Form that they were [Baleful Polymorph]ed into, then that was a whole lot more difficult. There was the slow process of a person just living out their new life and gradually defining their new form as a Familiar Form. Or, there was a quicker way. This quicker way was through Soul Magic. Horribly difficult Soul Magic, too, which usually mangled a person into a monster along the way.

Or rather…

That’s how it had been for a long time.

Until today.

Inferno Maw blinked and huffed for the fifth time since arriving in the enchanting hangar of Redflame’s castle. He gestured forward as he stared at the small Renewal Tank sitting on the sturdy wooden table. “Flip the switch and do it again, if you please.”

Erick complied, flipping a little switch on the side of the fish/rat tank to select for rat. And then he started channeling [Renew].

Ten seconds later, the sleepy gold fish was now a sleepy wet rat. Tiny bubbles of air escaped from his slack mouth, burbling upward to break on the surface of the water.

Erick waited. Redflame waited, too, standing to the side and barely able to contain his own small joy. With Inferno Maw’s increasingly incredulous and disbelieving attitude, it was easy for Erick to feel good about the outcome of this new form of soul surgery and Familiar Form granting.

Inferno Maw straightened up. The dour, tall man was rather skinny-seeming in his long grey and black robes; especially with his large grey horns which arced straight up and a little bit backward. He paused in thought, then turned to his own grey-robed subordinate, saying, “I need an assortment of monsters. Select the meanest, smaller subjects and bring them here.”

The subordinate bowed then turned his head and started a telepathic conversation with someone far away.

Erick frowned, though. Monsters? What was Inferno Maw trying to do? Heal monsters of some sort of essence problem? Monsters didn’t have essence problems. Redflame also gave Inferno Maw a critical eye, unsure of what was going on.

Inferno Maw looked down at Erick, for no other reason than he was rather tall. He turned slightly to take in Redflame, too, and then he spoke to both of them, “Your machine is a miracle. I urge you to create one large enough to take in a person and we start healing our people held in [Stasis], and soon. It is time to increase the rate of production. But more than that!” Inferno Maw’s countenance took on a smooth sort of joy, as though he was on the cusp of solving some of his own problems. “I wish to use this machine to try and clear out the ambient, uncontrolled mana that accumulates in the core of monsters, driving them to madness. I wish to attempt the creation of a true spirit beast; an enlightened animal. Moreover, this will prove whether or not it is possible to turn a wyrm back into a person. To bring back the voice of the voiceless, to restore sound to the silent!”

… Oh. That’s what he was trying to do.

Redflame balked. “Restore a wyrm to sapience? Impossible.”

Inferno Maw digressed, “We might not be able to restore a wyrm to their draconic self, since I think that the Null Ring might be the only true way for this magic to work, but we most certainly can try to bring back a wyrm from such an ignoble death. Or at least we can clear out their soul and allow them to pass on to whatever afterlife they desire. At the very least, and based on what I am seeing, I expect to be able to transform a wyrm into a human, or something along those lines.”

Erick had a few concerns, though.

“Aren’t wyrms dead?” Erick added, “Undead? You can’t [Baleful Polymorph] an object, can you? The spell does target the body, after all, and not the soul. And wyrms don’t have any Dragon Essence anyway?”

Inferno Maw smiled brightly, saying, “You are correct about the limitations of [Baleful Polymorph], but while [Baleful Polymorph] does not appear to work on undead, it still does. It works on anything with a soul. I may be wrong, but I suspect that if you were to put an undead rat with a rad into that tank there, you would be able to create a living fish, simultaneously disintegrating and creating a new fishy-body for the little no-longer-a-rat. I have no idea how the rad would fare through the transition, but I have certain hopes that I must see if they can be fulfilled.

“Wyrms are very complicated undead; completely unlike all other undead, and primarily because they take in and utilize ambient mana at an astonishing rate. They are still monsters, after all, which makes them fit into a category of ‘ambient mana collectors’, and I believe your machine can clear out the ambient mana in a core, replacing what was lost with properly accreted mana.

“I have no idea if such a thing will actually produce a spirit beast, or bring back the voice of a wyrm, but it’s an intriguing proposition and I must discover if it works, or not. What I suspect will happen is that the test subject regains life, but they are no longer who they were when they went into the process. This would be a problem— Eh! Something to figure out later.” He turned and waved a hand at the larger Renewal Tank, and all the scattered enchanting parts, saying, “But what’s more than that! This magic might allow us to accelerate the accretion-time of anyone, allowing the user to use ‘ambient mana’ in the form of Script-granted mana to turn [Renew] upon themselves, allowing one to reach Second and Third and higher Foundations in a matter of days instead of centuries!” Inferno Maw exclaimed, “Monsters rendered reasonable! Accretion accelerated ahead! Every student a genius, gaining—” He paused, frowned, and called out, “Where are you, Fairy Moon? I hear your presence.”

Huh.

Well. The Fairy Moon part aside, accelerated accretion was a great big thing, wasn’t it?

Could a dragon benefit from this, though? No.

Or at least… Not right now?

It was a question. Erick was not sure. The Null Ring stripped all essence from a person, and this very much included Dragon Essence, mutated or not. And there was another problem he needed to consider; the problem of the person-with-a-core versus the person-without-a-core.

While Erick was considering all that, Fairy Moon stepped out of the air.

“My influence inundates this tired, long lived land, Inferno Maw, so it is no wonder you witness my mien all over the everywhere.” Fairy Moon asked, “What do you want?”

“Just to know where you were,” Inferno Maw said, nodding. He turned back to Erick. “You seem concerned over what I just said. Elaborate?”

Redflame had been concerned, too, but his expression was rather inscrutable. He was somewhere between thrilled and concerned.

Erick was firmly concerned. “My problem is that I thought most mortal races could not handle having a core. The people and rats we’ve worked this magic on before did not have cores, but my original design was to include the possibility of a core in a person, and yet Redflame skipped around that possibility because none of the subjects had cores. I only realized then, that cores inside of a person could be bad.

“Most people with cores turn into cannibals. Dragons and half-dragons do not, apparently.

“But Redflame removed the core capability that I had put into my original ring so that this magic could be used on everyone.

“So, my question is this: can mortal races handle having cores? A half-dragon needs mutated Dragon Essence to allow them to hold a core and not go insane, right? This machine erases all Dragon Essence in a person, after all, and it does not work with a person with a core… Though it would be easy enough to go back to my original design if we’re going to be working with cores.”

Redflame inclined his head. Erick had laid out all of his concerns, too. Inferno Maw smiled a little bit, as though Erick had asked an interesting question, but he already knew the answer.

“Ah! Cannibals.” Inferno Maw nodded. “Not a problem.” Erick was not convinced, though, and Inferno Maw saw this, so he continued, “People turning cannibal because of a core is a widespread misconception. While Dragon Essence does have a centering effect, and it does increase the mana one naturally produces, Dragon Essence on its own does not actually enable a person to accrete without turning monster. In order to accrete without turning monster one must know what they are doing, and they must start from a place of one’s own power.

“Most people, be they human or incani or otherwise, when they allow a rad to coalesce inside themselves, they are allowing ambient mana to form the seed of their core. Such a person has automatically started off on the wrong path, and will inevitably become a monster. But! If they had started with a seed of their own creation, then they would have been fine. They likely wouldn’t have gotten anywhere and they would have rapidly devolved into a monster, because people, on their own, do not produce much mana. Dragon Essence increases the mana one self-produces from around 10 mana per day to anywhere between 500 and 5000, and it is at this breakpoint that one actually gains the ability to properly accrete. But theoretically a human with a core of their own make could remain themselves.” With a playful smirk, Inferno Maw said, “Those are just nuances to know for the future, though, because, if I am right, then this thing can even save cannibals, and all other monsters, pulling them out of their polluted-mana fugues. It might be able to reestablish the seed of a core!

“I have no idea what such a cannibal-turned-person would even look like! Most ‘cannibals’ are variant-races, with odd abilities based on what they do while they are monsters. Would they retain those odd abilities? Or would this [Renew Soul] you have carved into this machine actually [Renew] them back down to base person, but with a Second Foundation core, and all the added power thereof?

“But yes; a normal person with a core is a problem because they don’t have the natural mana production to keep their core stable. Such a person would need to use a tank like this every week, or so, I would assume.” Inferno Maw said, “So it is quite possible that we will need to make this thing dissolve the core of whoever is placed inside, too. That will be rather difficult. We might need to do that working in a separate way.”

Ah.

Well then.

… Shit?

Erick had a distressing series of thoughts that boiled down rather fast to a distressing conclusion, and question. Had he accidentally created a method to easily gain super soldiers? Super soldiers that needed to come back into base every so often, or else they would turn monster?

That seemed truly rife for abuse.

… But also: Had he created a way to save every cannibal out there from their monstrous nature? Rozeta had even spoken of how [Renew] should be able to turn a monster into a non-monster. Had she foreseen this specific event, right here?

She had.

Was this… Okay?

Redflame, thankfully, brought the concern back to the actual problem. “We might have created a monster ourselves, but the core-problem aside: This will work, won’t it? Erick’s new design? Will it save people from [Stasis], and from the Trial of the Wyrm?”

“Oh yes. I would hesitate to call this [Renew Soul] a true transformation— a [Reincarnation], as you call it— but only because it’s a magic that has not been recognized by the Script. But that problem is easily solved when you get back to Veird, Erick. Just sing a little song to the mana and make a Blessing out of this magic.” Inferno Maw turned to Redflame, saying, “You and I might be able to extrapolate this effect into a Blessing, too. You, Redflame, might be able to create a Blessing of Carnage, and anyone so blessed might be able to accrete for a theoretical [Carnage Body]. It would still take an act of Wizardry to cause a person with both [Carnage Body] and [Dragon Body] to join them together, using Carnage to erase the Curse in the Dragon Essence, but it seems theoretically doable. It would be a lot more difficult than using [Renew] to simply cause Carnage Dragon, or Fae Dragon, or Death Dragon, but it should be doable.” He turned to Erick. “Similarly, you might not be able to create a Benevolence Dragon, but you could likely enable a person —through the use of a specific enough Blessing— to accrete toward a [Benevolence Body]. From there, the blessed person would need to accrete a [Dragon Body] on their own, but they should be able to then gain a Benevolence Dragon existence through the combination of those two abilities— with your assistance, of course.”

Redflame hesitated to be joyful, electing prudence instead, saying, “I desire to first heal our people. Anything else that comes about will have to happen on its own time.”

Erick stepped in, saying, “I want to heal people, too. Not make soldiers for war.”

Redflame flinched, and then nodded.

“… Ah.” Inferno Maw paused. “Hmm. I am not one for war, either, but I could see how most people would assume this would be for war… I was considering how much power it would take to tame the Crystal Forest. But this would be used for war, first and foremost, wouldn’t it.” He paused. He said, “Okay. New plan. All of what I just said about cores and accretion will remain theoretical, since Erick is the only one who can actually do this right now, since he has [Renew]. So we simply won’t experiment in that direction. Let us stick to healing the malformed.”

Erick felt a great relief. He also felt a lot better about who Inferno Maw was, as a person, too. The Death Dragon hadn’t said a single thing about Erick being a Wizard, or that all of Erick’s accomplishments were based on Wizardry. Erick had been worried about that, but that was probably just his self consciousness talking.

By Redflame’s expression he felt a great sort of relief at not making soldiers for war, too.

And then Inferno Maw brought back Erick’s anxiety, saying, “But I do want to test a properly made machine on a monster. I need to see if it can turn a monster into a spirit beast. I need to see if it can heal a wyrm.”

“… Okay.” Erick said, “I guess I need to know if it actually works that way, too.”

In the future, Erick expected this Renewal Tank system to be well studied. Many people would find out that the only real difference between the core-version of the Renewal Tank and the non-core version was a sub-runic-web which used [Identify] to check for a core, or for the absence of a core, and then adjust accordingly between a focused [Renew] or a larger scale [Renew]. The core-system was a lot simpler than a non-core system, too.

Ahh.

Super soldiers which required those soldiers to come in for weekly treatments.

Maybe that wouldn’t happen, though?

Erick could only think back to Rats, who left over a year ago, and his weekly healing treatments to deal with his lingering Necromancer-caused soul and body wounds. Had Rats been an attempt at a super soldier program?

Redflame breathed deep, worried, and yet resigned.

Fairy Moon nodded, also satisfied, then she said, “It’s past the dinner hour, anyway, so let’s pause this pursuit of knowledge and do more soul surgery when we have satiated stomachs.” She gestured toward the door. “Maid Maria and Redflame’s Chefs have manufactured a magnificent meal which awaits our presence in the small-persons solarium.”

Another realization struck Erick, and this time directly in his stomach. He hadn’t eaten in at least 18 hours. “I could eat.”

For a brief moment Inferno Maw looked like he was going to object to Fairy Moon’s proclamation, but he resigned himself to dinner.

Because Redflame was happy to hear the news of food. He grinned. “Yes! It is time for a break. We will speak more of specifics over a nice meal.” He began walking to the door, saying, “I know that some of our designs are less than perfect, Inferno Maw, so if you have any ideas there they would be most welcome.”

As a group, Erick, Inferno Maw, and Fairy Moon began walking alongside Redflame.

Inferno Maw began, “Well. There are some oddities I see in the design, but I would speak of larger philosophy-level design issues. For one, the [Sleep] magic included in the working could be better, or not included at all, and anesthetic magical herbs should be used instead. Sleepweed for orcol bodies. Drowsydip for human bodies. Rednumb weed as a general numbing agent would be good. Also, [Sleep] is not a good spell for this since it doesn’t actually numb the body.”

Erick offered, “What about a Particle Magic sleeping-like overlapping spell, that includes [Cleanse] to both keep the person under, while also numbing their body? That spell is highly flammable, though; just to caution you.”

Inferno Maw began, “Ah. A specific Particle Magic sleeping spell would be useful, though you would need to strip out the [Cleanse] effect and make multiple Particle-based spells; one for each race. This would highly complicate the whole structure. Possibly too much. My suggestion was made in order to simplify the whole thing.”

“Oh. Well. I can see how the [Cleanse] would be dangerous outside of Script-assistance on Veird, since the [Cleanse] effect in the Renewal Tank needs to be targeted—” Erick said, “But my Particle spell is just one spell. Works on everyone. It’s not a [Sleep], for too much will kill a person, but it works on everyone.”

Redflame and Inferno Maw both stared at Erick.

“You have a Particle Magic sleeping spell?” Inferno Maw asked. “That works on everyone?”

“Everyone tested so far. Monsters and animals and otherwise.” Erick said, “Normally, it should not work like that, but I think that many of the underlying aspects of life on Veird are rather uniform, and likely due to the Grand Translation.”

Redflame’s eyes were wide.

Inferno Maw stared for a single moment, then he threw his head back and laughed once. “I look forward to this alliance, Erick, for you are so much more than a Wizard.”

Flattery was nice, Erick supposed. He smiled a little.

Redflame asked, “It’s not a simple numbness particulate, is it? Because that would lead to soul trauma from a ‘locked-in’ person suffering through everything.”

Erick nodded, understanding the question, and then he started talking about the history of anesthesia back on Earth. It wasn’t long till Inferno Maw spoke of the various methods for [Sleep]-adjacent magics that could be used on the people of Veird, and how the Mind Mages had a lockdown on the actual [Sleep] spell. Erick smiled and talked of how his own [Sleep]-adjacent Particle Magic had already been vetted as ‘okay’.

From there, the conversation moved onto [Renew] as they entered the dining room.

Over a wonderful meal, Redflame began speaking of various different ailments that could be fixed with this new methodology. Anyone with withered-soul syndrome to parasite syndrome, to maybe even Curses, both large and small, could be healed by a reset-to-Null. Inferno Maw was a bit more reserved in his hopes than that, stating what Erick was already thinking.

“This new magic is both a blessing and a curse.” Inferno Maw rhetorically asked, “Does everyone want to be reset to Null? Absolutely not. I don’t want that, and neither do you, or Erick here, either. We all have our own powers inside of ourselves that would spell the End for us if we were to erase them. In this way, while you have created a wonder of modern medicine, you have also created a new weapon of unparalleled power. Healing Magic that can turn a person into a weakling.”

Redflame scowled. “You are being too dramatic, Inferno Maw. I admit the rate of change to a rat’s soul and shape was rather worryingly quick, but people are larger, and such a rate of change would naturally take longer, because the rate of change is based upon the size of the targeted soul. Such a magic is not instant, and that type of magic would be truly dangerous. Density likely plays a part in transformation times as well, and we don’t even know if this will work on a target that is able to defend itself through Health or other soul-defenses.” He added, “We’re here in Ar’Cosmos, where people don’t have Health, so that normal defense system is simply not present.”

Erick had felt a spike of worry at Inferno Maw’s words, but Redflame’s perspective brought some much needed calm. And besides that, “It’s just the removal of Elemental Essence influences and the healing of a soul to full, anyway. It won’t actually stop someone from still being dangerous. I imagine that outside of specific spellwork or hospital settings that this type of thing might not ever see a battlefield.”

Except in the case of super soldiers, but Erick didn’t voice that concern.

Inferno Maw shrugged, adding, “Capturing and containing a person is not difficult for one such as you or I, and once a target is captured, this magic would certainly make it easier to contain those particular malcontents. With enough research into this phenomenon one might even be able to make spellwork that can erase Script-implanted spells, taking for yourself the ability that only gods and House Fae possess.”

Fairy Moon spoke up, “I caution against claiming that particular power, or any other Wizardly ways that Ar’Cosmos already knows are not allowed in the wider world.”

Inferno Maw shrugged. “Rozeta doesn’t like unsanctioned Wizards; this is true. She’ll likely send paladins after you if you mucked around with those sorts of powers, or even for possessing such knowledge and theoretical capability.” He looked around the table, at Redflame, and at Fairy Moon, saying, “On another note: I’m not too sure how we’re going to settle a few particular long-term grievances, for I am loathe to have my mind stripped by inquisitors or anyone else.”

Erick frowned a little, asking, “Is that going to be an actual problem? Are they going to ask to mind wipe— Ah. They… They already did ask to mind wipe me when I left the Core.”

Redflame and Inferno Maw both nodded, knowingly.

Fairy Moon, however, just said, “Tell them to go wallow in deep water, for every Forgotten Campaign they ever enacted has been fulfilled first by Rozeta’s removal of Reality from the mana. We might know of some magics out there, but we cannot cast them, or touch them, or make the mana manifest as it could, or should, be able to act.”

Erick had no idea what to say to that, but he found some words anyway. “You mean… the Forgotten Campaigns were successful? Even here?”

Fairy Moon said, “Ar’Cosmos has been breached before. Never fully, but full death has come, and come again for this fae land.”

Redflame frowned a little, as he stared down at his half-eaten dinner. Inferno Maw took a bit too long to cut another bite off of his steak.

And then Inferno Maw sped back up, shrugging off his concerns, and saying, “The Mind Mages have taken much from us, but they have left us with our lives, which is more than what I can say for the what the wrought would do to us, if they could. Tiny tyrants in the making, each and every one of them. At least the alliances of the Mind Mages and the wrought is not sheathed-sword perfect. We might have some leeway to avoid some of the Mind Mage problems… Not all of it, though.”

Redflame put on a falsely bright facade, moving along the discussion as he said to Erick, “If everything goes well with keeping you safe and ensuring this alliance of ours survives past stepping out our front door, I would like to see a new city in the Crystal Forest in about five months. I hope to have our people healed by then, and ready to actually take to the desert.”

Inferno Maw said, “I’m surprised that you don’t want to start a new city in the Forest, Redflame. You’ve spoken about that before.”

“I can help a new forest grow anywhere I wish.” Redflame smile a bit more, and this time it was real. “The forests south of the Wyrmridge were smaller than the ones here up north, so that is why I settled up here. But I could move south. Might be nice!”

The conversation moved on to other, nicer topics.

Dinner was rather good.

Eventually, Erick, Inferno Maw, and Redflame got back to the enchanting room. Fairy Moon came along, but she barely said anything, contenting herself to observe while everyone else drew up plans and secured materials. She did tell Erick that he could take Ophiel off of the node, though, when Redflame started talking about the hundreds of people already lined up and waiting for their success.

And so, Erick began resummoning Ophiel, and they began constructing prototype 4.

- - - -

The large tank was made of clear glass, thick as a hand and about four meters across. It was wrapped with a vertical band of platinum just as thick, forming a heavily-carved runic-web [Renew] rune that surrounded the glass enclosure. The only opening was at the top, where the gap in the rune allowed a test subject to be placed into the machine. There was no patient yet, for right now Inferno Maw was telekinetically guiding a small pool’s worth of water from the spigot in the wall, into that tank, like flowing a stream through the air.

They had used up a few cubic meters of platinum to make the runic part of the machine, along with some specialty glass that was technically crystal and would eventually turn into near-unbreakable crystal when enough of a single-source magic had passed nearby. The whole thing was set into a dense, steel housing, which supported the weight of it, but which did not actually touch the machine; special, magically-inert ironwood shims had been set between the Renewal Tank and the support structure.

Four Ophiel hung out on four different rungs built into the sides of the rune. They would be providing the mana, and soon.

With a telekinetic twist, Inferno Maw shut off the water spigot while he simultaneously deposited the last of the water into the tank with a near-silent plip of dropping water. And then he stood back, and smiled a little.

Redflame was already standing back, looking apprehensive, but also excited.

Erick was more than a little excited, too. For all the misuse that could come out of this machine, or a machine like it, it was going to help a lot of people finally get back out into the world. It was going to solve the wyrm problem, too, or at least the wyrm problem that everyone here was willing to talk about; the problem that stemmed from the half-dragons trying to turn into full dragons.

Erick had tried asking the question of eggs and new dragon births and how wyrms came from them, too, but he had been awkwardly non-answered. Now that they were here, though, Erick decided to ask again, and more directly. “So the wyrms that come from dragon eggs not having enough clean mana when they’re born? Is that going to remain a problem? Or will this sort of magic eliminate that problem, too? Will Wyrm Season mostly stop due to this invention? Or what?”

Redflame winced. He did not want to answer.

Inferno Maw scowled a little, but it was all deflection, for it was easy to tell that the man was embarrassed.

Fairy Moon watched. Erick waited.

Neither of the dragons were willing to speak, though, and Erick got the distinct impression that they would remain that way.

Fairy Moon sighed, then said, “Likely not. That particular problem is one that we solve with sword and spell. The Free Dragons are already the fourth faction of Ar’Cosmos, and they believe what they believe, and likely because they are dragons undiluted by Carnage, Fae, or Death.”

She was speaking of things far outside of Erick’s current sphere of knowledge, but that was fine. He could catch up soon enough.

Inferno Maw turned his scowl onto Fairy Moon, then said, “Some dragons believe that more is better, and that only whoever survives the birthing is worthy to rise to the top. Therefore, even if a hatching does manage to create two or more viable hatchlings, then the Dragon Curse does the rest, and forces them to fight anyway. I doubt those people would care about this sort of solution.”

Redflame frowned. “We will still tell them, though. But yes.” He said to Erick, “Their ways are barbaric—” He stopped himself. “Nope. Forget I said that, please. I must remain neutral, here.”

Inferno Maw said, “In simple terms this will not solve all the causes for Wyrm Season. It will solve 50% of the causes of Wyrm Season. Some people will always prefer to place their eggs out in the middle of nowhere, and if any of them survive, then they survive. Most do not, though, and those ones turn to wyrms when their Dragon Essence is ripped out by the champion of the hatching.”

Redflame scowled. “It’s barbaric— Nope. No.” He stopped himself. He breathed, and turned to the Renewal Tank. He asked, “Inferno Maw? The monster?” He said to Erick, “Channeling, please. Let’s get the tank ready for breathing.”

A 50% solution to Wyrm Season was still good, right?

Right.

Inferno Maw nodded, then went to the cages to the side and began extracting a sleeping, orcol-sized rat from its cage. It was a monstrous rat with a grand rad for a core, and with hair that was more like stone bristles than hair, but aside from its size and its Stone Essence and the largeness of its core marking it as a higher-level monster, it was basically just a big rat. Not even that dangerous of a monster. The other rats lined up in other cages were odder varieties. Before the night was through, and unless there were any unforeseen surprises, they would all become normal, massive rats.

Or maybe they would turn back into small rats, their core dissolving and their soul returning to their body, though that was an outside possibility. Erick was hoping for this outcome, though.

Erick had each of his Ophiel hanging on their perches begin to channel [Renew] into the machine. White magic flowed from each Ophiel’s perch, creating a counterclockwise stream inside the vertical platinum [Renew] rune. Within seconds the placid waters began to take on a lively sort of sheen as droplets of glowing white light gathered at the entrance to the tank, and then fell down inside, like milk falling into a pond; vanishing, and yet leaving a faint trace in their passing. Bubbles began to form streamers in the waters, like it was a tank full of champagne.

Erick cut Ophiel’s power. The white river inside the rune stopped. The white rain stopped, too,

The air seemed to turn weighty.

A dozen researchers from both House Carnage and House Death held to the sides of the room where they either watched from afar with [Scry] eyes, or they watched from closer, each of them with notepads in their hands. Erick hoped this worked, and so did everyone else in that room, too, along with people outside the room, as well; Erick spotted some [Scry] eyes that did not belong to anyone there. Inferno Maw looked excited. Redflame looked worried.

And then Redflame said, “Commence experiment.”

And so they did.

Inferno Maw slipped the monster rat into the tank. Erick had Ophiel begin a slow channel of undirected [Renew], since that was the whole point; they wanted the machine to do the heavy lifting of precise Soul Magic. It was certainly runed up enough to do everything itself…

And it seemed to be working.

The runes glowed brightly. White waters fell into the machine.

Streamers of magic flowed into the rat’s core. The rat breathed in aerated, cleaning waters. And little by little, the harsh, stony hairs of the monster began to soften, like dirt falling apart in the bath, leaving behind pure white fur.

The rat continued to sleep, unaware that it was being transformed.

Inferno Maw’s mouth dropped open. He whispered, “Oh my bright and bountiful gods. Look at its grand rad. This is working.”

Erick was looking at its rad. When the rat went into the machine, the rad was about the size of a human head and heavily faceted with a splash of sharp crystals poking out of one small part of it. Now, though, as Ophiel channeled, and the white magic flowed into the rat, it touched that rad, and the rad began to flex—

The rat flinched, jerking a bit. The [Sleep] spell held.

No one was worried of the rat waking up, though, and neither was Erick, but the rat continued to jerk and twitch as its core began to smooth over. It was like watching a jumble of ice floating in a [Gravity Ward], as that ice began to melt into water and naturally form a sphere in the zero-G gravity. The malformed grand rad inside the rat melted and flowed together. Much of it was lost in the process, but what remained turned solid and smooth.

All the rest of the rat was fully transformed. Its fur was white and soft, while its tail was pink and twice the length of its body. It blinked a little, as though dreaming and trying to wake up, but it failed to wake. The magic kept it under.

Five minutes after starting, the rat had a core that any accretor would be proud to have.

Erick cut the power. Slowly, the white glows in the water began to fade, though the water itself would remain breathable, self-cleaning, and sedative for hours still, now that the machine had been used once.

Redflame breathed out, “Well would you look at that.”

“It works like I hoped it would!” Inferno Maw smiled wide, saying, “Ohhh! This is wonderful! Ah ha! Haha!” He clapped twice in great, yet subdued joy. “This changes everything. All of my stude— No. Wait. No bloodline.” He shrugged away his annoyance at the lack of perfection, and said, “This is a great accomplishment. It can help everyone who has ever accreted incorrectly. It strips out the bloodline, but that is… Fine? Yes. That is fine. It should work on a wyrm… Or on any wyrm’s grand rad… Maybe?”

Redflame chuckled a little, then teased, “I was going to be mad at you if you weren’t happy with this.”

“Bah! I can have my sights on the horizon if I want.” Inferno Maw said, “But this is good. This is great! It might not be perfect but this works!”

Erick felt ten different kinda ways, but most of those ways were good. “This will heal a lot of people, so let’s get to it?”

“Let’s finish up the rats.” Inferno Maw telekinetically plucked the newly-white rat from the tank and brought him over to a new cage already charged with very, very strong [Ward]s; the man had come prepared for whatever sort of odd outcomes this medical marvel might have made. And then he plucked the next sedated, massive and monstrous rat out of its cage. This rat glowed with a faint red shimmer. “And now for the Carnage rat!”

The Carnage rat went into the water.

Erick had Ophiel begin channeling [Renew].

Five minutes later, the rat came out of the water with white fur with brown spots, and no Carnage to it at all.

Redflame still looked happy as he shrugged, saying, “An expected outcome.”

Inferno Maw frowned a little, having deep thoughts. He shared those thoughts, “We might not be able to cultivate for specific bloodlines at all.”

“This is miracle enough,” Erick said.

Inferno Maw nodded. “Quite right! This is miracle enough. Let’s do the rest of the rats and then move on to healing the people who need it.” He added, “Only ten for now, though. We need to observe them for at least five days before I will call this machine fit for all uses.”

Erick suddenly flinched. He asked, “Really?” Sudden doubt crept into his mind. “Does this machine not work perfectly, or something?”

Redflame seemed to share Erick’s sudden concern but he just waited for Inferno Maw to elaborate.

“I knew that would meet with resistance…” Inferno Maw sighed a little, then looked to both of them, saying, “This is a totally new sort of Soul Magic. There are bound to be uncertainties and odd outcomes. You both are simply too caught up in the miracle of it all to be objective. I was, too, for a while.” He added, “And those ten people to first use this machine need to be people we fully interview beforehand, so we can check for memory and soul anomalies after the fact. I doubt this machine harms the patient, but it does replace parts of the soul that do not work correctly, and thus there are bound to be some unforeseen issues. We need to know of these issues before large-scale deployment.”

Erick frowned, but it was mostly at himself. He had certainly pushed hard to get this done today because he knew he would never get another chance to help, here… But the machine was made, and it worked, so this was fine? He could move on.

Erick said, “Prudence is fine, but I’m getting the distinct feeling that my time here in Ar’Cosmos is up. Inferno Maw, Redflame. I won’t be able to help with this beyond today.” He wasn’t sure why, but he said, “I need to talk once more to Bright Smile, then I need to organize whatever needs to be done before I leave this land. You all distrust the Mind Mages a great deal, but I plan on getting them on my side before anyone else approaches. I am reasonably sure that going to them first will be the right call. Them, or perhaps the Church of Koyabez, and the Church of Rozeta. I might actually get to use that [Zone of Peace] I made last year, if only by proxy.” He rambled, “From there? I suppose I’ll either see if the wrought want to kill me, or what. But I’m guessing they don’t, because Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye is still with me.”

At the mention of his name, the big guy’s little eye bobbed up and down on Erick’s shoulder.

Erick added, “And since I’m not dead, that means Rozeta wants to talk, which means that the Inquisitors and the wrought likely want to talk, too. I have no idea about Kirginatharp, but I’m sure that he will also start with words, and not weapons. I need to give them that chance. I might be able to secure a world where we all live in peace, and so, I must try.”

No one spoke for a long moment.

And then Redflame said, “Our people are still debating on how to best proceed with an alliance and so that mess is likely to include you as soon as we can figure out our own stance, but we have never had any luck hashing out any long lasting treaties with the wrought or Kirginatharp or the Mind Mages, and the Dragon Stalkers are simply genocidal. Whatever the outcome, though, I want you to know that I desire to be a strong ally going forward. So if you can make peace happen, and if we need to adjust ourselves to give peace a chance, then I will support any rational actions proposed and backed up by your magic and presence.”

Erick said, “I have no idea if any of this will work without some sort of war, but I hope it does.”

As if coming to a decision he had been considering for a while, Inferno Maw said, “House Death wishes for a strong alliance as well.” He added, “My people are still at those debates, but from what they tell me the Free Dragons, House Fae, and House Carnage are each demanding their own provisions to include in whatever treaty we might decide to enact, though mostly that conversation has devolved into war preparations. Bright Smile is convinced that war is inevitable, and this is perfectly rational behavior, since war has always been the outcome of us stepping outside of Ar’Cosmos. Hopefully we can create some borders and secure them, and then the wrought will test us, and then we can push them back while you call on them to cease their war.” Inferno Maw said, “This is all contingent on whether or not they choose to try and control you or not. They have already come to Ar’Cosmos for talks, and in each one, they demanded we turn you over to them, for they won’t allow us to ‘control Benevolence’, whatever that means. Tyrants; all of them. You can’t really control a new Element once it is made, for now that it is out there it will naturally grow or die depending on who it resonates with, and I suspect that Benevolence will resonate with quite a few of the more paranoid wrought.”

“Ah?” Wide-eyed, Erick asked, “They’re already here?”

“Oh? You were not informed? Ah. I see. You weren’t informed.” Inferno Maw asked, “Do you wish to meet with them this next time? Should be tomorrow around noon.”

For a moment, Erick was paranoid. Had someone failed to inform him that the wrought were already here? Or had that information been purposefully kept from him?

Fairy Moon and Redflame just watched, both of them wondering what Erick would say. Fairy Moon looked impassive, while Redflame looked worried. Redflame did not want Erick to meet the wrought, but more because of his own bad experiences with the wrought, as opposed to any desire to control Erick. Seeing Redflame’s reaction, Erick imagined that, as the creator and thus lynchpin of Ar’Cosmos, Redflame had been targeted by wrought for assassination at least a hundred times already.

Erick said, “I want to meet with these wrought.”

“Of course.” Inferno Maw paused for a fraction of a moment, then said, “Pardon me for not bringing it up sooner. Ah! Would you accept an assistant? Someone to allow us to contact you without contacting you directly? I know how gauche it appears to offer you such assistance, but— Ah! We could send a request for someone else to come here and fulfill that niche. Someone you know and trust? Your own people?”

Erick did need some of his own people here. And maybe not just his own people? He considered, then said, “I’d like to have my whole team here, and a delegation from Stratagold involving Tasar, Sitnakov, and Kromolok. How about a delegation from Oceanside, too, if they’ll have it?”

Inferno Maw paused again, unsure how he had gotten here. He had not expected such a large request, and now he was trying to decide how to best tell Erick ‘no’, or to figure out the logistics of such a massive security breach.

Redflame suddenly held his breath.

“Thy desire shall be done.” Fairy Moon said, “Your guests shall be led to their own layer, which will come about by your continued casting of [Renew] into a node. If they shall choose not to chase you into this lovely land, then they will not be forced. Be warned now for I will warn them too, that they will be housed under hospitality rites, and all those oldest of ordinations. Break the peace and have pieces broken in turn.”

Erick turned his full attention to Fairy Moon, and then he pulled back the sudden vitriol threatening to come out of his mouth. He said, “If peace is to have a chance, then all sides must abide by a high level of professionalism. No tricks. If you trap them in sleep and they wake up enraged and rightfully lash out, don’t take their agency from them, Fairy Moon. That is a bad trick.”

Fairy Moon smirked, twirled her fork and the bit of fish stuck to the tines, and said, “I’ll try.”

Erick almost sighed. ‘I’ll try’ could mean that she would try her worst.

“You will try to be diplomatic, and non-tricky?” Erick asked.

Fairy Moon chuckled a little, then said, “I’ll be as diplomatic as deeds demand and not a mote more, but mostly I will make myself a phantom of principles and power, and not much for actual politics. I will scare the scrupulous into shackles of a temporary time until they leave this land. This should suffice, shall it not?”

Erick…

Erick said, “Sure. Fine.”

Redflame gave a wan smile, and returned to eating, just as Fairy Moon did. Erick resumed eating, too.

Inferno Maw gave a small, real smirk, trying not to show too much of his own surprise and joy at the moment, for he was truly happy that this thing was working out. With a half-sarcastic tone, because that’s the kind of person he was, he said, “If we get everyone to agree to such provisions, then maybe we won’t go to war!”

Those words jogged a memory.

Erick asked, “Have you ever interacted with the grass travelers north of Songli? You probably have, or at least you know what I’m talking about, but they have this thing where they debate in open forums over laws and such. ‘Polite War’, it’s called. They only actually go to war if they cannot solve their problems in open debate, first.”

“Ahh!” Redflame smiled wide, saying, “That brings me back. We used to have that around here. That was the original reason for the coliseum.”

Inferno Maw said, “These days we’re rather entrenched in our ways with a power structure that works. There’s little room for advancement for the younger generations, and that’s a problem, but we’ve been debating problems in the Rotunda for hundreds of years now.”

“Oh yes.” Redflame said, “We moved past Polite War because of limited space, but I imagine that something like that might come back, now that our environs might expand.” He smiled brighter—and then he realized his teeth were showing, so his joy took a bit of a tempering as he closed his lips. The momentary lapse of propriety, or whatever it was (Erick suspected Redflame’s aversion to open smiling had something to do with Bright Smile, but he did not know for sure), quickly passed, and Redflame began talking about his favorite subject; History. “Back in the Old Cosmology, it used to be said that there were a thousand and one ways to run a proper, growing society, but they all basically boiled down to a few tenets: Freedom of common movement, freedom of common commerce, freedom of basic education, protection against monsters and outsiders, protection against common violence which means both theft and murder and everything like that, and protection against uncommon magics. All the definitions of every category varied between societies and civilizations, but the basic ideas were the same.

“Now the most common form of stable government was usually enacted under an immortal Wizard King, which was a specific designation handed out by the various Wizard alliances across the Old Cosmology and did not always include a Wizard. Sometimes the Wizard King was actually a dragon. Such a system was mostly like a monarchy, but with extra steps, which included…” His voice trailed off. “Well. It was complicated. I’d love to have you over again tomorrow evening, and we can continue to discuss all that.”

“I’ll take you up on your offer, if I can,” Erick said, and he meant it. He felt a sort of relaxed joy as he listened to Redflame talk of what came before, and it was only now that he realized why. Redflame did not speak of what came before the Sundering like it was an impossible-to-reclaim dream. He spoke of history like he had lived it, experienced it, and then moved on, but those past glories were never truly gone. They could always be remade. It was rather refreshing, actually. “Whatever comes next will hopefully be good for all.”

“I do hope so!” Redflame said.

Inferno Maw nodded. Then he turned back to the machines, “A few more experiments, then.”

“Of course,” Erick agreed.

- - - -

With the moon high overhead and it being well into night, Erick, Fairy Moon, and Maid Maria eventually left Redflame’s castle, heading back out across the forest to return to Fairy Moon Manor.

Erick had left four Ophiel with Redflame for more tests. In the morning, in about 10 hours, Erick would join Fairy Moon, Inferno Maw, Redflame, Illustrious Moon, Bright Smile, and the current Speaker of the Free Dragons in the Rotunda, to discuss what shape a ‘House Benevolence’ would take, and the nature of the latest breakthrough with the Renewal Tank.

Hopefully the talk would be boring, with Erick laying out his plans and his hopes for ‘another city beside Candlepoint, where people could live however they wanted to live’. There would be more to it than that, of course, but that was the basic idea. Complications were sure to arise, though.

Thanks to Fairy Moon’s explanation of what would happen, Erick now knew of one of those complications before it occurred. The current Speaker of the Free Dragons was a woman named Redrubyflare, who normally went by the name ‘Red’ while out and about in the world. Erick had heard that name before, and Fairy Moon confirmed his suspicions. Red was the same ‘Red’ that oversaw all the lands of Songli, killing all dragons that showed themselves in the Highlands, quickly ending dragon fights before they threatened the populace.

Redrubyflare was actually distantly related to Redflame, as well as Bright Smile, by about four generations, according to Fairy Moon. She did not speak much on personal matters, but she did say that Red’s side of their family branched off of Carnage and moved out of Ar’Cosmos nearly a thousand years ago; they weren’t even truly family anymore.

“There are many families like that,” Fairy Moon said, as they strolled through the moonlit forest, on the way back to Fairy Moon Manor. The stars sparkled overhead and the night was bright with the light of a full moon. “House Fae has current claims in Continental Nergal. House Death has deep ties to Quintlan. House Carnage has family all over, but those ties are rather removed from current control. Redrubyflare does provide much providence to Ar’Cosmos, though she does not domain here, and it is through that payment of produce and products that we have elevated her to Speaker of the Free Dragons.”

Erick listened, and nodded. One thing about Fairy Moon’s words stood out to him, though. “Red isn’t actually a normal dragon then, is she? She’s a Carnage Dragon? Which means she’s speaking for people she’s not a part of?”

“Correctly calculated, but not wholly correct. Sometimes some scattered souls manage to make of themselves a true Paradox’d dragon.” Fairy Moon said, “Redrubyflare is one such soul. This is still a point of contention for the people of that community, for she is not singularly Dragon, but Redrubyflare does a decent job keeping herself in power.”

Another oddity stood out to Erick. “If she doesn’t need to kill dragons like all the rest… Does she actually kill the dragons she finds fighting in her lands?”

Fairy Moon nodded as she casually leapt over a small stream, twirling in the air, to land on the other side like a ballerina, arms lightly spread and hands held poised for the briefest of moments. Erick and Maid Maria just stepped over the stream, following along.

Fairy Moon said, “She kills and kills and kills to keep her claim on her harbors and her hearth. Least that’s how it was the last time I was temporarily there.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Two years ago. An ancient age in this ever changing world, to be sure!” Fairy Moon smiled wide at him, then she turned and continued to daintily hop down the forest path, saying, “As of the birthing of Benevolence we are now in a new age of ancient powers, freshly forged, awaiting the simple turning of the times in order to come into their own commands! All this talk and threats and working and wills clashing is but a chiming of the clock of infinity, hitting a new hour, sending hammer blows billowing wide, breaking and remaking the world in its passing.” Fairy Moon paused in a shaft of moonlight, staring up at the heavens, to say, “A time of power and purpose. I have seen it a thousand times before and I will see it a thousand times hence, but each time it is a thrill and a terror entwined.” She turned to Erick. “Don’t get yourself dead, Erick. Long as you can manage life, the mana will manifest magnificently.”

Erick frowned a little as he stepped over a rock. “I need to do more than simply survive. I need to make everyone else survive, too.”

“That’s one way to wiggle out of death’s dark designs.” Fairy Moon shrugged. “Do what you desire!”

And then the fae went skipping through the forest again.

Eventually, the three of them made it back to the manor.

Maid Maria said nothing the entire time.

- - - -

The day dawned. Breakfast was had. Over strawberry pancakes, Erick asked after the schedule of events for the day. Apparently nothing was happening till at least 9 am, which meant that Erick had about two hours to get ready, since it would take half an hour to actually arrive at the Rotunda.

“Are there rooms where I can practice magic?” Erick asked, “And if my own people are going to come here, then how is that going to work?”

Fairy Moon said, “Invitations have been bequeathed to all peoples named in last night’s listing. Actual arrangements will likely take time.”

“… Uh. I was imagining I would have to write some letters. I don’t see them believing you— You’re not just going to kidnap them, are you?”

Fairy Moon waved him off, saying, “Letters would work. I suppose. Anyway! After today’s talking and if no untoward unknowns come about, I will likely begin to bequeath to you a layer of your own lavishing here in Ar’Cosmos. It will be blank, for it will belong to your House Benevolence. It will be the birthplace ground of your very own [Gate], too, if you have the time and temerity for such a careful creation.”

So she was going to ignore the ‘kidnap them’ thing, eh?

Fine.

Erick moved on to the bomb Fairy Moon had just dropped. “So…” He asked, “You’re going to help me make [Gate]? This could happen today?”

“We are at the threshold of a truly new natural order.” Fairy Moon said, “Even if you should use this magic to run from me and never return, I wish for you to be able to run from everyone else, as well.” She shrugged. “You’ve basically brought yourself to the brink, anyway, what with Benevolence being your own true creation. You could do the rest yourself, or I could push you over, if you’re okay with that willfulness?”

Erick paused again as his thoughts went wild.

First, he realized that he needed the capability to run, if/when he needed to.

He wanted to run from Fairy Moon, and from Ar’Cosmos, and he wanted to go back to Jane, and then take her with him as he ran off to some far corner of the world where no one could find him. The very second he had that thought, he had another thought in tandem; he could never hide, not really. Not from the people who could find him. Not from the gods, or from the Mind Mages.

He could run from Fairy Moon, though, and knowing that she was more than simply immortal, running was the only way to get out of her power. At the same time, though, he had thought he was done with being afraid of Fairy Moon’s warnings and power. And at the same time as that, Erick knew he would never truly be over her kidnapping and imprisoning him, and he would never be over his own almost-murder of Maid Maria.

And then came the anger. From multiple directions.

Erick had only wanted to get some space where he could practice magic. Why did Fairy Moon need to make the morning even more complicated than it already was? [Gate]? NOW? Really! Why not later? There was just too much going on to do more than small experiments.

But...

[Gate] right now would be good—

But wait. Fairy Moon had asked if he was okay with doing this now—

Erick had another thought, from a completely different direction. Why was he angry? At the overload of events? Mostly, yes, but he had had stressful days before and he didn’t go straight to anger like he had right now. Admittedly, Fairy Moon stressed him out quite a lot, but...

Wait.

Was his core breaking down again?

Erick switched to his Other Self.

Benevolence lightning filled his veins while his core held right beside his heart. His core was mostly fine, but it looked… or rather it seemed, perhaps? A bit… murky? Barely any difference at all, but, yup. Now that Erick saw it, he knew where his unusual anger had come from. His core was suffering from normal degradation. It had been about a day since he last accreted, so this sort of degradation was right on schedule according to the books, but he had expected days of clarity between accretions. Not a single day. In truth, his anger was barely anything at all, but the sudden spike of that emotion that had sucker punched him.

And his core needed some accretion. Not a lot. But he needed some, for sure.

Erick settled for a [Renew], for now, targeting himself internally.

Anger faded.

His core cleared.

Rationality resumed.

Fairy Moon just watched Erick go through his emotional rollercoaster over the course of three seconds.

Erick blinked long, centering himself as he decided to ask the most prudent question he thought he could; a question that had been weighing on his mind about [Gate] for a long time. Such a question required some setting, though. Erick said, “From my understanding, Ar’Cosmos is inside the mana; inside what we deem as ‘Fae Magic’, specifically. It seems like this land is inside another dimension. But the Dimensional Ban prevents Dimensional Magic. This Ban prevents anyone from actually accessing the Plane of Fire, for example; that Plane is trapped behind the Script. This same fact is true for the Plane of Water, or Stone, or whatever. But this ‘Plane of Fae’ is different. You can access this land. It seems like you have created Rift Magic that allows someone to actually go into the mana, instead of ‘opening the mana’ and letting mana out into reality, which is how Rift Magic usually works. It seems like [Gate] magic is some Spatial Magic ideas implanted inside Fae Magic, or maybe something else; I am not sure.” Erick asked his question, “So what is going on there? Is Fae Magic simply different from all the rest? Is Fae Magic able to ‘trick’ its way around the Dimensional Ban? Or is Fae Magic the condensation of all life in the mana into one single Element, and thus all of the ability to access the other Planes does not exist, because Elemental Fae is the only Element that can actually be lived in? Is it possible to actually access and ‘live inside’ Elemental Air, for example?” Erick asked, “Or am I misunderstanding something more fundamental?”

All while Erick spoke, Fairy Moon lightly eyed him, her pink and green eyes sparkling a little as he explained what he thought he knew. Even before he finished, though, Erick could tell that he had gotten something very, very wrong, but not in a dangerous way; in a way that made Fairy Moon gain an edge to her smirk.

Erick was unsure how he felt about that edge.

Fairy Moon said, “You have misconception and misunderstandings aplenty, but only one matters in this magic. Here now, is the true nature of the Dimensional Ban—”

She opened her mouth.

She spoke.

The words did not reach Erick’s ears.

He could not read her lips.

His crystal glass, filled with orange juice, a specialty asked for from Maid Maria, shattered. Orange juice splattered across the table. Fairy Moon’s ceramic plate cracked in half, spilling syrup. Blood fell from Erick’s ears and eyes as he tasted copper.

And Fairy Moon kept explaining.

Maid Maria, sitting across the table, just winced alongside Erick. She bled from her ears, too.

Fairy Moon finished. She sighed, then gave a small smile. “Everyone thinks they know what the Dimensional Ban is about, but they know not of that most major of Bans. They conflate causes and explain away effects. The Truth is not that dangerous by my reasoned reckoning, but it was decided long ago to lock that particular magic away. The lesser effects of that enactment are the nuances you see with the nature of Rift Magic and otherwise, but the true nature of Rift Magic is that most mages aren’t actually capable of true Rift Magic.” She shrugged. “You don’t need to know the Truth of the Dimensional Ban to make [Gate]. You possess all the pieces. Now you must merely put those pieces in place.”

Erick rubbed at his sore ears while Maid Maria got up, muttering about cleaning. While he mulled over Fairy Moon’s words, Maria cleared and then cleaned the table, and then proceeded to set out a replacement breakfast, since the original one had shards of ceramic in them.

Erick asked what he felt was the proper followup, “What pieces do I have?”

Fairy Moon listed, “An acute attunement to an Element, deeper and denser than most people can manage, so deep that the boundary between oneself and the other is less than a shift in stance. Knowledge of magic and mana. Knowledge of life and living. The acumen to accumulate it all into a gathering that grows. And finally, a fair fraction of Wizardry to will toward that supreme, singular step.” She said, “For most, the Wizardry comes from without. But for you, Benevolence will respond to your wishes most of all, and so! Go make [Gate] if you yearn for that most famous of freedoms.” She warned, “The second you do, though, you will be outside the bounds of Ar’Cosmos. I can’t protect you past here.”

Erick had a sudden bounty of questions, but he knew that he wouldn’t get to ask all of them before events started happening again, so he focused on the largest ones, to make sure he was understanding Fairy Moon correctly, and to make sure that he was understanding the very nature of mana correctly.

First: everyone’s mana was different.

It was the [Renew] problem.

While this nuance of the Old Cosmology remained in this New Cosmology, some mana had been taken by the Script and designated as ‘Fire’ or ‘Water’ or, in Fairy Moon’s case, ‘Fae’. All others were discarded or folded into the larger mana archetype which best suited it. Erick had originally thought that Fae was the only one that had been crushed down to size. But…

Erick asked, “All Elemental Fire, for example, used to be many different types of mana?”

“Yes,” Fairy Moon said, smiling and relieved beyond measure. She was happy Erick was actually understanding her, and making the right connections.

“Did people [Gate] through Elemental Fire?”

Happily, Fairy Moon said, “There were never many people who [Gate]d through Fire, but some people were always Like That. There’s some in every society.”

Okay.

Okay.

Erick began, “The Grand Translation… Made it so that most people could never access the Elemental Planes... And so most people were never in-tune enough with what had been designated ‘Fire’, by the Script? [Gate] is truly, actually, Dimensional Magic? But through the elements?”

“Correct!” Fairy Moon added, “Even now, the people who can find purchase on the Elements envisioned by the Script are so scarce you might have an easier time living through telling Melemizargo to give up his godly power.”

Erick felt floored. He asked, “[Gate] is always out of the reach of people because of the same different-mana problem that I’ve begun to solve through [Renew]?”

Fairy Moon nodded, saying, “And thus we arrive at the truest trick to [Gate]; that Wizardry can alter the unalterable, and sometimes all the largest magics require is a slight shift in one’s own mana, to better connect with what is already out there.” She added, “Though I caution against attempting to anchor inside Elemental Fire, or anything else so acidic to life.”

It all clicked.

[Gate] suddenly made sense.

And only because Erick had been believing a lie this whole time. [Gate] was dimensional magic, but obviously of a different sort. Actual Dimensional Magic was still Banned by the Script, for actual Dimensional Magic did not mean what Erick thought it had meant. The Dimensional Ban was actually a hole carved in the Script; a prevention of the highest sort—

Erick tried to guess at the problem, saying, “The Dimensional Ban prevents opening a way back to the Old Cosmology— No. That’s not it. I can say these words and you can hear them.”

Fairy Moon nodded, and then she tried to speak, but Silence poured through her throat—

“Okay. Enough.” Erick waved her off, saying, “Enough.”

Fairy Moon stopped, and nodded.

Erick tried to think, but it was hard, for a sudden bout of anger rocked out through his entire body. That anger had nothing to do with his core, for his core was fine; this was merely true anger.

“Then what the fuck does the Dimensional Ban do?!”

Fairy Moon smirked, then opened her mouth and Silence poured—

“Okay okay!” Erick touched his bleeding ears again, interrupting Fairy Moon as he said, “That’s okay. I don’t need to know.” He cut into his fresh pancake, saying, “No need to break breakfast again.”

Fairy Moon giggled a little. “It would be rude to ruin it again.” She happily said to Maid Maria, “It is a wonderful repast, my Maid Maria.”

Maria merely nodded. The three of them resumed eating.

Erick asked a few small questions during the rest of the meal. The only one that actually stood out, though, was when he asked, “So is Fae Magic not necessary to [Gate]? Can you make a place like this in any Element? Or is a place like Ar’Cosmos only possible through Elemental Fae?”

“Fae live everywhere, Erick.” Fairy Moon said, “It was only when we were shunted into this small space that all our other lands languished without our wildlife. If not for the Script and the Sundering, if this were the Old Cosmology, you would already have young ones birthing out of your Benevolence, with or without your assistance. Sadly, that will not happen under the Script. You should still be able to create an abode inside Benevolence, but it would not be as becoming as Ar’Cosmos.”

“… Ah. Okay.” Erick mumbled, “So that’s a whole thing, eh.”

Fairy Moon nodded. “It is.”

The rest of breakfast was wonderful, though most of the food was simple background sensation to all the thoughts filling Erick’s head. He had all the secrets to [Gate], a few more secrets about Rift Magic that he had no idea what to do with, and another secret that he didn’t really care to explore at all—

Fairy Moon offered, “I could emplace some enchantment and tell you the Truth of the Dimensional Ban, even through the systems of the Script, though the second you saw a Mind Mage then those words would be ripped out of your head.”

“… Not right now.” Erick said, “Maybe later.”

Maybe he’d poke around the Dimensional Ban some day far, far in the future, when fewer Current Events were on the day’s docket.

Erick said, “I will take a magic practice room if you got it, though.”

“Of course.” Fairy Moon nodded.

- - - -

There had been no time to try out his magic.

After breakfast, a runner from House Fae rushed up to the front doors of Fairy Moon Manor and rapidly informed Maid Maria that words at the Rotunda were getting heated, and would Fairy Moon and Erick please come at their earliest convenience.

At least Erick had seen what might one day become the layer of Ar’Cosmos which would hold House Benevolence.

It was a sandy, sunny field that stretched off about 500 meters all around, surrounded by faint walls of mist. Beyond the mist lay Fairy Moon Manor, though that could change as Erick wanted. It was just the start of House Benevolence’s Layer, too, for if Erick supplied more mana to Ar’Cosmos, and once [Renew] entered the Open Script, it would likely become much larger. He could even connect it to other parts of Ar’Cosmos as he desired.

Later, he might even get to try out some new spellwork on that sandy field. But now, it was time to talk to dragons, and to the consequences of his actions—

No. That was the wrong way to approach the threat of being known; the problem of dragons and danger—

No. Not a ‘problem’. An opportunity.

Yes, he was a Wizard. Yes, Fairy Moon had fairy-fucked him over with mind and body control. Yes, the world was coming for him. Yes, there were all those complications and more, but also, if he threaded the needle correctly, if he spoke the right words and enabled the right possibilities among all those involved…

Then he could make the world a better place.

He could turn the Crystal Forest green. He could raise cities out of sand. Push back all the monsters both on the Surface and in the Underworld. He could bring rain to the people, and bring the people together in harmony. He could found entire new worlds. All problems could be solved, for the most major, most dangerous ones had been solved. The Sundering might not ever happen again. Melemizargo was getting better. The Shades were mostly gone.

The solutions to every problem might not be apparent at first, but those solutions were out there, somewhere, waiting to be discovered, or created.

Yes.

That was the right way to think of this.

And so, that was what Erick did.

- - - -

The Rotunda was located in the layer of Ar’Cosmos known as the High Road. Everything in this layer was made of pale, tan stone, reaching heights that shouldn’t have been possible with normal engineering. All the buildings were layered above one another in a way that certainly should have everything collapsing, but the High Road remained. In addition to that, the deeper parts of it were a maze, but the upper parts were not. It was quite nice at the top.

It was all quite a lot airier and with more greenery here and there than was probably strictly necessary, but this was the bureaucracy layer of Ar’Cosmos, and so a certain amount of ostentation was a necessary display of power.

Some specific buildings stuck up above the general horizon of the High Road. Each of those buildings were identifiable at a glance by their shape. The Rotunda was one of these places.

It was shaped like a rather thick, round skyscraper, and if it weren’t for the tan stone exterior and architecture made of arches, Erick could have almost imagined the Rotunda in any skyline on Earth. It had many half-moon towers rising all around that central tower, though; that was rather non-Earth-like. City hall, which rose next to the Rotunda, was much more normal in appearance, being three simple, blocky towers.

The current skyway under Erick’s feet led straight to city hall. From there, it was a short journey to the Rotunda, the forum within which the heads of house and their compatriots (and the Free Dragons) debated and crafted laws which everyone would then follow.

The roads did not have many people on them. This fact was evident in the glass vials that rose like tiki torches here and there upon the skyway. The candle flames inside those vials burned low. Erick could already tell the lack of people in this place through Ophiel, though. The few people that were on the roads were the soldiers of House Carnage, dressed in their red enamel plate armor, and looking a little bored here and there. Mostly all of them looked like half dragons, like Maria.

Behind Erick and Fairy Moon, Maid Maria walked like a guard; alert, yet playing at being relaxed.

Ten minutes of walking later, and they finally reached some traffic, most of which came up from the nearby stairwells nearer to city hall. Most people did not walk across the High Road to get here, after all; they came up from the other layers of Ar’Cosmos.

The massive, thirty meter tall doors of city hall stood open, like a great yawning portal into a land of paperwork and lawyers. Here, closer to the governing heart of Ar’Cosmos, were people. People of all kinds, from dragons with no tails and well-formed horns and barely any scales, to half-dragons with an assortment of whatever body parts they were born with, but mostly the tails and the scales set them apart. All of those people were either waiting in line to get served by clerks off to the side, or headed off to somewhere else after checking in with the people at the front desk. The inside of city hall was mostly austere and professional, but here and there were some large bits of opulence in the form of paintings and sculptures set to the sides of the wide, wide hallways, which detailed the history and the big names and faces of the larger powers of Ar’Cosmos.

The first, most obvious bit of opulence was Fairy Moon, appearing in white, pink, and green crystal, standing like a sentinel upon a large dais in the center of the main room, right behind the front counter. She was only slightly larger than life-size. Lights illuminated that sculpture most brilliantly, drawing the eyes of everyone who walked through the large doors.

But it was here, after Erick and Fairy Moon reached the doors, and then stepped inside, that the true sculptures of the room were revealed; further back, and to the extreme edges of the main room, for there was no other space for them otherwise.

Life-size sculptures of dragons, looming in the bright recesses of the room, formed wall-like sections of city hall with their snake-like bodies, all twisted and curled in on themselves, save for their heads, which stuck out a fraction into the main foyer of the main entrance. They were all made of solid crystal. One violet, one grey, one bright red. They were lifelike, for sure, and Erick was a bit nervous seeing dragons, but then he realized he shouldn’t be.

The guards to both sides of the entrance hall bowed. Erick didn’t get a chance to see much more of city hall before a nervous runner from House Fae stepped out from behind that front counter and walked straight up to Erick and Fairy Moon. Apparently, the powers of Ar’Cosmos were ready for them to show up. The nervous man was a little nervous because of Erick and Fairy Moon, but mostly he was nervous due to whatever was going on in the Rotunda. Erick glanced around the room and took in the sights of a hundred different people, each either glancing his way, or turning away trying not to be noticed.

Erick and Fairy Moon followed the nervous man through the main hall of city hall.

And for some bizarre reason, as he passed the large sculptures of Bright Smile, Illustrious Moon, and Inferno Maw, Erick couldn’t help but think that there was room for a fourth dragon. Perhaps replacing that other wall, over there. One made of Benevolence white crystal.

Wasn’t that an odd thought.

- - - -

A short bridge separated city hall from the Rotunda.

The building was much larger from this close.

The outermost parts of the Rotunda looked like layer upon layer of aqueduct arches, spiraling around a central core, gradually rising from the depths of the High Road, up to Erick’s current position, and then further still. It spiraled up into the sky like a very tightly coiled spring. And that was just the first, outermost shell of the Rotunda. A second, similar shell, held inside the first. And then a third shell after that.

The arches themselves were 25 meters tall at their tallest point, and about that much wide, too. As closely packed as those arches were, the whole design sort of seemed like a very airy Tower of Pisa, or something like that—

A full-sized dragon slithered out of an archway. And its body did not exit that fast. The dragon was a long one, for the dragon’s long body kept coming—

And then the green dragon stopped, and stared at Erick and Fairy Moon. They had seemed beyond furious and highly disgusted by whatever was going on inside, but they lost that expression in that single instant of recognition. They paused, nodded/bowed, and then turned right back around, reentering the Rotunda through another arch.

The guide from House Fae rapidly spoke about how things were deteriorating, but maybe things would be better now that Erick and Fairy Moon were showing. The guide led them down the bridge, leading into the Rotunda.

Erick and Fairy Moon followed—

Erick crossed an invisible barrier in the center of the skyway and sudden sounds filled his ears, like listening to news anchors fighting on a TV inside the next room over, but with those news anchors being dragons and with voices of comparable power. Erick steeled himself and followed the guide, into the depths of the Rotunda’s open air design.

He saw a few dragon tails before he saw the actual congregation, and as he moved forward, the sounds of argument began to fall quiet. Heads pulled back to glance at Erick and Fairy Moon as they walked forward, to the center, to a place that was set aside for them, or for any other people-sized persons who wished to participate in the discussions. From the nice stone chairs set not a meter from the edge, Erick guessed that this was Fairy Moon’s personal ‘skybox’.

The entirety of the Rotunda was quite simple in construction. It was five concentric layers of aqueduct arches, like five nesting dolls, with the central layer having an open space in the middle, about 250 meters wide. It was like a round courtyard. That rotunda started about fifty floors down from Erick’s current position, and continued up into the sky for another 20 floors. There was no roof; only open sky.

The interior aqueduct arches formed little balcony-like areas for the dragons to position themselves within, giving each individual dragon space with which to participate in the proceedings. There was some sort of height-based arrangement to the setup that had to do with hierarchy, but for the most part, the dragons who were arguing were floating in the center of the space, like streamers of brightly shining colors draped upon the air. Red, green, and blue, were the current speakers, with the red one seeming to be some sort of judge, if based upon her position above a bit of floating rock, while the other two free-floated; the debaters, no doubt.

And for a moment, upon seeing the full forum, Erick felt sweat trickle down his back.

Hundreds of sinuous, snake-like dragons poked out of all the other holes around the Rotunda, with their arms crossed and resting on the floors in front of them. As Erick stepped forward, those heads turned toward him. There were at least four hundred dragons sitting around, debating or listening.

There was a lot of power here in this Rotunda.

A lot.

The red dragon floating atop the floating rock, inside the hollow of the Rotunda, spoke quietly and rapidly toward the debaters, “This part of the discussion is shelved. Please take your seats.” Green and blue complied, though neither of them looked happy about it. And then the red dragon spoke with a voice raised for all to hear, “This congregation welcomes Archmage and Wizard Erick Flatt to the Rotunda of Ar’Cosmos. We appreciate your attendance.” She explained, “I am Mikatiti, the coordinator of this honorable Rotunda, and I will lay out some small rules for your non-dragon participation in this assembly—” Her voice shifted a fraction as she projected her words slightly more toward everyone else, “You will speak whatever you wish to speak. After that, we will have questions, as outlined by prior arrangements, that you are free to answer or deny as you deem necessary. When we are through with our questions we will discuss what you have said for a single hour, and then we will have more questions. You are free to remain while we discuss what you have said, but you are not required to do so. As you are the guest of honor, feel free to interrupt our own discussions at any point in time.” There were some minor grumbles and anger out there from the hundreds of dragons peeking out from the inner edges of the Rotunda, but no one interrupted Mikatiti. She continued, “After that hour of discussion, we ask for another round of questions. This cycle could go on for a while, or until you decide that you have had enough, and you decide you have other things to do.” She turned her full attention to Erick. “Do you have questions? Do you find this arrangement acceptable?”

Erick rapidly realized a few things, but one stood out most of all. Not a single dragon was visibly using voice enhancement magic. They were just that loud. So while it was probably embarrassing to need to cast such a magic, Erick did so anyway, twisting his aura to cast some magic to make his voice loud enough to be heard, “How many questions will I be answering per round? How long do you expect a cycle to take?”

Instantly, some people in the audience guffed out annoyance.

“Spellcasting is frowned upon. Use your normal voice; we can hear without needing you to speak loudly, either.” Mikatiti answered, “We have agreed upon four important questions, to start; one from each House, and one from the Free Dragons. We expect a little back and forth during each question, if you please. We expect a cycle to take an hour but it could take as long as two.”

Erick dropped his magic and spoke normally, though he did project his voice a little, “I want to confront the wrought contingent that is expected to show up at noon, for my hope with such a confrontation is to create less conflict and more prosperity and I need to talk with them, too, to ensure this goal. Aside from that, and from whatever other needs might occur, I will participate in this assembly for as long as I am able.”

The gathering seemed to mostly approve of that, though some dragons were obviously ready to speak out against the wrought. No one actually spoke out, though.

This was a lot more civilized than Erick had imagined.

Mikatiti seemed to relax, her entire 50 meter long body coiling downward a fraction, though she remained firmly hovering above her stone platform. “Then this assembly will have your opening statements. What do you desire from Ar’Cosmos? What can Ar’Cosmos expect from you in return?”

Erick centered himself, and then he began, “With the Shades mostly gone, the largest source of malfeasance on Veird has nearly been nullified. Going forward, I wish to solve many longstanding problems that continue to plague this world, and one such problem is the Dragon Blood Curse. A true solution to this problem will likely take decades to both manufacture and bring Kirginatharp to the table in order to cure that Curse, but there are smaller solutions to enact before then.

“With my creation of [Renew], and due to the way it allows cast-mana to become self-mana, which is a process we are still exploring, we are able to clear bloodlines and malformed Dragon Essence from those you call half-dragons. It is a cure and a transformation into a new body, all in one. It works. The half dragons already tested are recovering; their half-dragon nature having been stripped from them, along with all other elemental influences.

“An attempt was made to create a system which imbued a bloodline into a person, but that system failed for unknown reasons. So far, the only cure we have is for half dragons. I don’t believe such a system would allow a dragon to actually remain a dragon. All it does is strip all bloodlines from a person and give them a basic body.” Erick had repeated those facts a few times, to ensure that the dragons here understood it was not a way for them all to gain relief from the Curse. They seemed to. “I’m calling it [Reincarnation], but other people might use different words for the process in the future.

“And so, using this new magic, I hope to help everyone here in Ar’Cosmos who is unable to complete the Trial of the Wyrm to rid themselves of their half-cursed nature. In doing so, it is my understanding that such people will be able to leave Ar’Cosmos and resume normal lives outside of this space, out there on Veird.”

Practically every single dragon out there, under the myriad arches of the Rotunda, were on the edges of their stone seats. Some had tried to interrupt when Erick mentioned Kirginatharp, but Mikatiti, without even looking, silenced them with a flick of her tail. She did not cast any magic, but the offending dragons silenced themselves.

They listened attentively, so Erick continued.

“I also created Elemental Benevolence the other day.

“I’m a Wizard… apparently.

“And so, while I highly doubt I will be able to be taken easily by anyone who is not Fairy Moon, I do not wish to remain here in Ar’Cosmos, but when I am out there I will be targeted. To that end, I offer an invitation to Ar’Cosmos to come build a city beside Candlepoint’s lake. When I finally create [Gate], which I expect to be able to make… maybe later today, I expect Yggdrasil to become a world hub, where all the nations of the world can come and go in peace, and hopefully we’ll create some prosperity in that organization.

“I had originally planned to reveal my Wizardry in around 8 months, well after having a Gate Network up and running, but that plan has changed, and so we are here.” Erick breathed, and said, “To that end, I would like to tell you a little bit more about where we are in worldwide current events:

“Elemental Benevolence is the anti-Sundering element, and as such, it is primarily centered around Super Long Range anti-apocalypse prognostication awareness, with a primary purpose of helping the user spot both opportunities and problems when it comes to large-scale shifts in population. And so, I have already seen some problems that I am still considering how best to deal with, but none of those problems or opportunities look too pressing.

“I might make a House Benevolence to help with this sort of endeavor, but it won’t be one of Paradox’d Dragon/Benevolence Essence. If the creation of such a House seems reasonable and possible, then I will be looking for new house members to help me form that House. I expect our first task to be transforming the Crystal Forest into habitable land. Whatever happens after that remains to be seen, but I primarily see myself as heading an organization which helps people who request help, and which heads off large-scale problems without needing to be asked.

“I also foresee some heavy posturing in the beginning, made against all the other powerful forces of the world, like Kirginatharp, and the churches, and the wrought, and the Mind Mages, and especially the Dragon Stalkers.” Erick said, “But not all of those organizations are the same, and I hope to have open dialogues before I resort to war, because if I go to war then I will win that war.

“I don’t want to win a war through violence ever again, but I will if necessary.”

The dragons were concerned about Sundering talk and House Benevolence talk, but they also had hundreds of other emotions, too. Dragon faces and bodies were not quite as easy to read as normal people, and while there was a fair bit of distance between Erick and everyone else, except for his neighbors directly above, beside, and below him, he mostly understood what he was seeing. Far from being incited to harsh words, as Erick had imagined they would be, as soon as Erick got past the Sundering talk a lot of them had open greed writ large upon their faces, or perhaps some sort of hunger. At least two dragons out there were eyeing him as one would eye a particularly juicy cow.

After a moment of silence, Mikatiti announced, “And so, Ar’Cosmos gains Sight of the possibilities arrayed before us. Which section will ask their question first?”

Eyes and heads shifted as dragons sighted the dragons they were interested in hearing from next, or something along those lines. There were too many unknowns in this crowd for Erick to pick apart every nuance of the crowd, he did, however, think that the directions of the faces pointed was some sort of voting mechanism. He did notice, though, as three different dragons—

Nope. Four different dragons. One was below Erick by four floors.

Those four dragons stuck their sinuous tails out into the large space, raising them so they were seen by all.

A red dragon to the left. A white straight across. A grey to the right. A violet dragon down below.

Erick had never seen any of them before. As he looked around, he did not recognize Redflame, or… Well. Redflame was the only dragon he had seen in dragon form— But! Ah. Right. Dragons kept their same horns throughout all their forms, unless they were purposefully engaging in subterfuge. With that in mind, Erick reevaluated who he saw…

Nope.

He didn’t know any of them.

Mikatiti called upon the red one first, saying, “Akendri, Speaker for House Carnage.”

Akendri spoke up, “Will you be working toward making a form of Renewal Tank that fosters growth of the mutated Dragon/Other Essence which allows us to maintain our dragon forms outside in the rest of the world, while also avoiding Kirginatharp’s Dragon Curse?”

“[Renew] will come out in the Open Script in around ten or eleven months.” Erick said, “I expect other people to create that particular magic. As of right now, I don’t believe the current system or methodology will allow dragons to circumvent the Dragon Curse like they currently can, though I fully expect someone else to be able to create this particular magic.”

Greed glinted in the eyes of almost every dragon in the congregation. Some were worried, though.

Akendri digressed, “That is all.”

Mikatiti nodded, then announced, “Light Blight, of House Death.”

The white dragon, Light Blight, spoke, “I speak with specific regard to the wrought. Unlike most of my compatriots, I do not believe the Mind Mages will be a problem as long as the wrought decide to forgo open war. Since you are already allied with wrought, even though you are now revealed to be a Wizard, do you foresee them actually allowing you to live? Do you honestly believe that peace is possible? That they won’t try to get you to lower your defenses, and then attack when you are vulnerable?”

A loaded series of questions. Light Blight did not believe peace was possible at all. Many other dragons felt the same way, if Erick was reading them right.

Erick said, “I have made myself vulnerable to them before. Now that certain secrets are out, I will not be making myself quite that vulnerable ever again, or at least not until after a good ten years of easy cooperation.” Erick said, “For the wrought have been cooperative before, and I still have a link to the Script, which means I haven’t angered Rozeta too much. Considering their primary function is to be neutral and to ensure the world survives the worst case scenarios, I hope that my creation of Benevolence will grant me a great deal of goodwill with them. Rozeta has tried to work with Wizards before, and so, I feel I qualify for at least that much benefit of doubt.”

Light Blight asked, “What sort of defenses are you prepared to enact to secure this proposed city beside Candlepoint. How will you defend against outside threats, like those posed by the wrought?”

Erick said, “I can go into specifics, if you would like, but I will not go that deep because this is a security matter.”

“Specifics are not necessary.” Light Blight raised his head a fraction, then said, “I ask this question because House Death would provide supplemental infantry defense for this new, proposed land, if you can provide primary defense.”

“Overall, the plan is runic webs in the walls, widescale [Renew]-enabled archmage-level defenses across the entirety of the land, Yggdrasil’s defensive power, preventative magics everywhere, and treaties with all other governments that might need to be considered. Smaller scale security will likely be a continual issue, but there isn’t a city out there without a guard, and anything I create would be no different in that regard.” Erick said, “House Death’s offer is duly noted.”

Light Blight bowed his head a fraction, pulling back.

Mikatiti announced, “Proxy Dearth-of-red, of the Free Dragons.”

The grey dragon, Dearth-of-red said, “The Highlands know of Archmage Flatt’s measure and we approve, but we would like to make one thing clear: When you get back to Veird, we would ask you to research how to strip the Curse from a dragon, without needing to go through the tragedy that is Paradoxing. If you can do this magic then you will have a thousand dragons offering you their allyship, without reservation. Know this, Archmage Flatt: The Curse is the only thing holding us back from grinding the problems of Veird into nothing, be they monsters or murderers or face stealers or Hunters or Dragon Stalkers, or tyrannical wrought, or even Melemizargo himself. We can make this world a paradise, if only the Curse did not exist. If you can erase that curse from individuals, or as a whole, then we are pledged to you for now until forever.”

Mikatiti’s tone or posture did not change, but she felt a bit irritated as she asked, “Does the Speaker have a question?”

“All our questions about Erick and what he wants to do with this world have been answered a thousand times over.” Dearth-of-Red said, “The only thing that remains is to see him protected from any of the thousand and one threats still out there.”

Erick felt both good and bad about Dearth-of-red’s words. He had thought he had processed the emotions of a ‘flight of dragons’ being loosed on Veird, but apparently he had not.

Erick said, “I appreciate the offer.”

Dearth-of-red nodded.

Mikatiti moved on. “Asteroid Stars, of House Fae.”

Erick stuck his head back out over the edge.

The purple dragon’s eyes lingered on Dearth-of-red for a moment longer, then she raised her gaze up toward Erick, just a few floors above her. “We want you to get [Duplicate] from Kirginatharp. Can you do this?”

“… Why do you want that spell?” Erick said, “Illustrious Moon spoke about that desire, too.”

“Since the option exists where we can have everything if we want it, we should be allowed to have that option.” Asteroid Stars said, “Every single person you see dying from hunger, or from lack of shelter, or from lack of any material thing, is one more casualty in the tyranny of [Duplicate] being locked behind Kirginatharp and Rozeta’s decrees. We desire everything for everyone. We desire economies of thought and action, and to mitigate all economies of scarcity and greed.”

Ah.

Well...

“I’m right there with you, Asteroid Stars,” Erick said, “When new worlds open up, I’m sure that somewhere out there there will be a Script with just a few spells offered, and [Duplicate] might be among those offerings. But the wrought would never go for it here on Veird and I have already brought too much upheaval to this world. I don’t feel that the proliferation of [Duplicate] would do anything but cause a lot more upheaval.”

“But see! This is precisely the reason to proliferate this magic, today, or at least as soon as possible.” Asteroid Stars said, “The world is changing. Why not change everything to be better, all at once?”

Out in the audience, Asteroid Stars seemed to have a lot of supporters.

“I would prefer more incremental changes.” Erick said, “My main fear with the release of [Duplicate] is that it has a very large chance of causing untold destruction when some malefactor decides to copy Extreme Light materials and scatter them everywhere, while also causing a god to go Dark, like Atunir almost did back in the fall of Quintlan.”

“Ah! So a smaller release of [Duplicate] would be acceptable?” Asteroid Stars asked, “How about if such magic were to be given to the heads of the Houses of Ar’Cosmos? Or to trusted advisors?”

Erick had been led into a small trap that had the capability to turn into a very large one, for he saw the greed in the eyes of every dragon in the Rotunda. He knew that saying ‘no’ would lose him a lot of goodwill. That possible loss of goodwill might have stopped him from saying ‘no’ a year ago, or if he had fallen with Jane into Ar’Cosmos instead of the Crystal Forest and was thus raised with draconic overlords overseeing his life. Now, though, he had seen more than enough terrors that a tower full of dragons only ranked in the top 10 of his most terrifying experiences ever.

“I don’t feel that the pros of releasing [Duplicate] to the many is enough of a reason to anger the wrought and potentially topple all of the current governments of Veird.” Erick said, “I am trying for stability.”

Asteroid Belt smiled a little, saying, “Asking for simple peace would never work, therefore, we must ask for more, and be talked down to something lesser. Now that the Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst are gone, it is time for dragons to finally take the field!

“House Fae plans on demanding the wrought let us settle lands in the jungles of Continental Nergal. House Death wants Quintlan. The Free Dragons plan to gain control of Nelboor. House Carnage wants Glaquin, though we know they are already willing to share lands with House Benevolence. In fact, all of our people desire to share lands with House Benevolence.

“Right now, our power is limited, but I and all of House Fae believe that true peace is possible, and so we must shape what is to come, and part of that shaping is the demand for certain changes. The demand for [Duplicate] is something we are willing to give up with regard to gaining all of the world, but you don’t honestly want all us dragons out there keeping the world clear of monstrous threats without some personal benefit, would you?” Asteroid Stars said, “Personally, I want a bed of warm gold, and gems, and pearls. I would rather have a bed of riches that I [Duplicate]d than one I had to gather from all the peasants that live under my aegis. They never pay enough and they always complain.”

Asteroid Stars’ words resonated with a lot of other dragons. Erick felt that he should have been a bit surprised by Asteroid Star’s open greed, but he wasn’t. Not really. Dragons and greed were a multi-universal concept, it appeared.

There was only one way to respond to such a hard-line stance, though.

Erick said, “That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. I’ll need to think about that.”

There were more than a few small huffs of laughter all around the Rotunda. They all knew that Erick was refusing to answer. Asteroid Stars huffed a small laugh too, then nodded to Erick, and then to Mikatiti.

The redscale arbiter of the Rotunda announced, “And thus ends the first round of questioning. We shall begin the discussion.”

Instantly, tails flicked out from beside their owners. Mikatiti called upon a tealscale. That bright dragon then spoke of how he wanted more information about the Renewal Tanks, and their limitations. In response, Light Blight, the dragon from House Death, began speaking of Inferno Maw’s current investigations.

Behind Erick, a man and a woman came forward with small refreshments. Another usher brought forth a perch for Ophiel to sit upon. That perch had a thick base and a long arm that could extend out into the Rotunda by two meters; it would allow Erick to look down, or up, without having to actually look over the edge. Fairy Moon was already seated on her not-a-throne. Erick took the seat beside her.

And so, Erick and Fairy Moon sat at the edge of the Rotunda, with Ophiel seated about two meters out, hanging over the abyss of dragons, his watchful eyes allowing Erick to view everyone, including dragons directly above or below.

Mostly, Erick listened, though.

And he wondered about many things. Perhaps the smallest of which was the question of what sort of anger had been erupting that had required the runner from House Fae to come out and collect him so early. Were these dragons just being polite now that Erick was here? Or was it Fairy Moon’s presence which caused them to act civilized? Or were they always civilized? And if they were always civilized…

Had that runner made Erick come out here early specifically so he didn’t get a chance to play around with Benevolence?

… No. That was too much paranoia.

Or perhaps it was just the right amount?

- - - -

An hour of talk passed faster than Erick would have thought possible, and while it was interesting, it was mostly about things outside of his control. Or rather, things he decided that would remain outside of his control.

The dragons were planning on dividing up the Surface of Veird amongst themselves, and not a single one thought that their goals were impossible. As soon as [Renew] helped them solve the problem of the Curse, then they would pour out across Veird like a Benevolent tide.

They had used that word exactly like that, too. ‘Benevolent’ tide. They were including Erick in their plans for world conquest.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about world conquest, though certain societies would surely benefit from someone taking them into hand. Like the Sovereign Cities. That place was still having a civil war apparently, between the rebels and the nobility. Erick cared not for either side except in that general way one cared about other people, but everyone in the Sovereign Cities was horrible, so a draconic master might actually be able to impose some good reforms in that land.

House Carnage was looking forward to ending that civil war.

Other Houses had other desires.

Continental Nergal with the slavers in the jungles was a problem that House Fae wished to solve, and they already had pixie allies down there.

In a similar, yet different way, The Free Dragons wanted to end the wars on Nelboor through the rise of ‘Empire’ Songli.

House Death wished to bring Necromancy mainstream; to stop the persecution of Necromancers the world over. They also desired to legitimize the Fractured Citadels of Quintlan, to make others see that land as one of civilization, and not as a land of monsters. Living Undead were just a different type of person, after all. Erick’s [Reincarnation] magic, once they figured out all of those intricacies, might even allow them to bring the dead back to true life in a [True Resurrection] sort of way. There were always problems with [Resurrection] magic, but [Renew] might actually solve those problems, since [Renew] completely mitigated the myriad different-mana issues that naturally arose during the course of an attempted resurrection.

House Carnage also wanted to end the Quiet War on Glaquin; to bring both the Wasteland Kingdoms and the Greensoil Republic to heel. They expected Erick’s assistance in this eventual goal…

Erick gave some lip service toward ending the Quiet War on Glaquin, and every other question posed to him, but mostly he abstained from any true commitments.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about draconic overlords.

For some reason, he thought back to Apogee, the copper dragonkin, planar, former guildmaster of the Wayfarer’s Guild back at Spur, actually-a-half-dragonkin-now-that-Erick-knew-better. That guy had gotten through almost all of the Worldly Path, but he hadn’t wanted to take that last step; he didn’t want to make [Gate]. Erick had believed that Apogee’s reasons could have been anything from not trusting Melemizargo, to being a slight misanthrope, but as Erick sat here he knew yet another reason why Appogee had never taken that final step. Apogee had even said as much.

That man hated the draconic overlords of his previous world.

The dragons of this world treated their dragonkin offspring rather poorly, too, for they usually absconded at the earliest possible convenience as soon as the offspring didn’t show any potential for true power. Poi had even been subjected to this. His father was actually a dragon, and that guy had left Poi, his sister, and his mother behind, as soon as his draconic nature was discovered. Poi’s story was not unique at all.

Like, sure, maybe the dragon up and left to prevent other dragons from coming down and starting a fight, but then there was Al, and Savral, and Erick was almost 100% sure that Al was actually a dragon. He stuck around with his kid. Most dragons did not do that.

Maybe there was more to it than that, though?

Maybe Poi’s father had been found out as a dragon. Or maybe it was just the Dragon Stalkers who forced the issue.

But even so…

Erick didn’t know how he felt about creating a world of draconic overlords.

Personally, for him, having all these dragons allied with him was like allying with hundreds of immortal archmages who also happened to be archwarriors. Erick would not be unassailable in such a world, but he would be a lot safer. And besides that, these dragons were not like the dragon kings of Apogee’s homeworld. Some of them seemed like good people. (Though Erick was absolutely sure that they were putting on a good face for his benefit.)

And yet…

Rozeta had said that Veird would not survive a true flight of dragons.

Perhaps…

Was all this talking just a smokescreen? To hide their innate viciousness?

Ar’Cosmos was the only part of the world where they could be themselves, this was true, but it was also the only part of the world where a very, very old fae enforced rules of non-violence. Maybe they weren’t actually being pleasant because of Erick. They were probably being pleasant because of the very, very powerful fae sitting a meter to Erick’s left.