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The court of ironcrystal that surrounded the dungeon keep was rather normal, with people of all sorts standing around everywhere and most of them making final preparations to get into the dungeon. Erick easily heard a good six different conversations about various plans for various floors, most of them centered around floor 2. One group of rookies were absolutely sure that if they could get to Marii’s tower faster, that they could complete the floor. Few people were delvers who were on the later floors, with one group of three talking about how they had failed to defend The Summoner well enough and how they needed to better account for invisible enemies.

Invisible enemies were a problem here and there in the dungeon, but Erick had never managed to encounter any of those. And he likely never would. This All-Seeing Eye hanging around his neck, under his clothes, was rather great at spotting the unseen.

Erick wondered if he would ever be able to go back inside the dungeon to play around with more mana crystals, because there were a lot of unseen enemies around him right now, here under the clouded sun, on the Surface of Veird. Erick had already seen and sent Ophiel away, and he had already recast all of his defensive spellwork, and now, it was just him standing here, waiting for the green-wearing Inquisitors of Greensoil to make their first move.

Soldiers and assassins and a few commanders stood here and there on the ramparts above, and in the shadows of the courtyard wall. One obviously high-ranking mage assassin of the Green Circle, if Erick was seeing correctly, wore flowing green robes, as he stood beside the door to the surface delver’s guildhall. That guy didn’t make a move.

To Erick’s surprise, and to the surprise of some of the Inquisitors standing on the walls, the first person to make a move was some guy whom Erick had given a bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation] to the other day. The guy was just a normal guy, and he had spotted Erick come out of the dungeon keep. His name was Harro, Erick recalled.

Harro smiled and waved, jangling his bracelet as he jogged toward Erick, calling out, “Ashes! Congrats on getting 4650 on the Deco—”

Erick held up a hand toward the man, and said, “Stop there, Harro. Don’t come any closer,” while his gaze was locked on another person entirely. A man that no one else could see.

A man in green armor and wearing a green shoulder cape stopped in front of Erick, maybe five meters away. He had been walking slowly toward Erick ever since he had stepped out of the dungeon, making sure absolutely nothing gave away his gentle approach. He was using an advanced form of airwalking and other forms of magic, and his approach was just the start of whatever was going to happen here today.

Erick had seen through the air-guy’s approach with the All-Seeing Eye. He liked to think he would have seen through the man’s approach even without the Eye, which was probably true. Now that Erick had spotted the approaching man, though, the gathered Inquisitors decided to try a different approach.

The airwalking guy stepped away, considerably faster than he had approached, disturbing the air and sending a little gust of wind in all directions as he moved.

Harro furrowed his brow as he stopped at Erick’s command, saying, “… Eh? Ah… Sure? Well I guess you’re not that friendly after all.” He scowled. “Assh—”

At that same moment, a different green-armored man stepped away from the ramparts, to stand in the air, revealing himself to all. His armor shone with green light, as his own shoulder cape flapped in a wind of his own making. Erick knew him from before, when the man had interviewed Erick the first time he had been detained here at the entrance to the Glittering Depths.

Wess Clover spoke to the entire courtyard, softly yet with force, “Attention, delvers and otherwise of the Glittering Depths.”

All conversations in the entire courtyard suddenly ended. Everyone looked at the man who had stepped out of the invisible air. Everyone knew him as an Inquisitor, and suddenly, people started trying to slink away. Harro backpedaled so fast, halfway through calling Erick an asshole, that he fell on his butt and kinda froze there on the dirt.

Wess said, “Everyone who is not Ashes Woodfield should evacuate the area. You have one minute, and only if Mister Woodfield doesn’t make this happen right away.”

Delvers were very good at self-preservation. There was no talk. There was no concern for propriety. Everyone evacuated, racing to get away as fast as they possibly could. Harro lifted himself off the ground with grace that had been lacking earlier, and then he was out of there with the rest of them.

And now it was just Erick, about 30 Inquisitors of various power and skill, and at least one assassin of the Green Circle.

Inquisitor Wess descended to the courtyard floor and spoke softer now, his voice not empowered by any magic at all. “Mister Woodfield. We have questions for you. Will you cooperate?”

“I will cooperate right here. Ask your questions.”

As though expecting this, Wess continued, “We require you to come with us to a secure location to discuss the matters.”

“I will not go to a secondary location. Ask your questions.”

“I am afraid I must insist this time, Mister Woodfield.”

“And I will insist that you try it this time.”

“Why are you resisting us on this matter?”

Erick’s anger had been building, but now it stalled. Why had Wess asked that particular question? Erick answered, “Because I have done nothing wrong, therefore I will not submit to your authority.”

“You understand that this statement is not truly believable.”

“I do understand that. No one in any authority in this world except for certain societies which are not present here would believe a detainee’s innocence, from that detainee’s own statements.” Erick said, “Which is why I would ask for you to make a claim, and then I will confirm or deny that claim, with a Mind Mage witness. You only have to gather one, or I could gather one instead.”

“The Mind Mages have no authority over Greendale and they have proven ineffectual in sussing out the threat coming from the Glittering Depths thus far.” Wess said, “I ask again for you to submit peacefully, and accompany us to a secondary location, whereupon we will discuss what we wish to discuss.”

“You’re a good negotiator, Wess Clover, and it is very interesting that the Mind Mages haven’t been able to help you find out whatever you wanted found in the Glittering Depths. Tell me one thing, please: Did your various suspects deny the Mind Mage option, and the Mind Mages upheld that denial? Or did the Mind Mage option truly yield nothing, even when undertaken correctly and with the uncoerced consent of all involved?”

Wess did not answer.

But Erick saw what he saw. So he said, “That it was the second option is truly interesting. This implies some odd level of self-mind obfuscation. Or perhaps you haven’t managed to capture any suspect of actual interest at all… The second one, I’m guessing.”

Wess moved on, “If you have any information about how you were able to make a sentient staff, I would hear that explanation.”

… Erick looked to the left.

The staff floated there, surrounded by golden fire and radiance. It looked positively angry.

Erick told the staff, “Please go back home.”

The staff paused, its fire fading.

And then it winked out of existence in a golden flash.

Erick asked Wess, “How long was it there?”

“When you said you would not submit.”

Erick put several thoughts together, and threw out there, “Other people have made real objects that come out here on Veird, and these objects have been used in those demonic murders.”

Wess easily said, “Correct. If you know anything, then we ask you to divulge that information now.”

“I do not know anything in particular about that; only that I suspected that bringing metirons out into the real world was possible for a while now” Erick added, “But I have a connection to The Wizard I can exploit on your behalf, if you desire that sort of solution.”

Wess did not react with surprise to ‘the Wizard’, therefore he knew Erick was a Benevolence dragon. No one reacted with surprise at all, actually, which was not that surprising to Erick, and which proved that these people were prepared for him. The Green Circle assassin did gain a certain edge to his gaze when Erick brought up ‘the Wizard’, though, and he was not the only one.

Wess calmly spoke to someone who was not Erick, as he said, “My questioning is done.” And then he said to Erick, “I ask you again to come with us for proper questioning.”

Erick sighed. “You seem to be the only reasonable one here, Wess.”

“I am the softer side of the Inquisition, for when softer speaking and doing is required. But too many nobles have died due to the demonic murders, even though one death was already too many. I ask you one final, third time, to give yourself over to our custody.”

“What does this look like if I cooperate?”

Wess did not answer.

Erick tried, “Do you actually believe I have something to do with these murders? Just because I have figured out how to bring items from the Glittering Depths into reality, and not bothered to hide that fact?”

Wess did not answer. He waited.

… That was not a good sign. When Inquisitors got involved, and when fights happened, people got disappeared into holes in the ground, and only let out later, at the whims of the Inquisition. If Erick actually believed that he could have gone to a secondary location to speak to these people and peacefully untangle whatever problems they had, he would have considered that option, if only to prevent a fight. But when they showed up like this, with assassins in the wings and fully prepared to kill, there was only one way this confrontation was ever going to go.

Peace was never an option.

The air-wrapped guy from earlier moved.

And Erick had a bit of time to review what he was going to do in response.

Erick knew what he would be dealing with, for the most part. He had participated in several of these takedowns over the years. The first line of attack would involve half of the attacking force readying [Counterspell]s of various strength and specialty, with Tricking Magic and other such spellwork, in there in order to lock down the most egregious possible spells the target might cast, like Blood, Destruction, or Soul Magic. Lesser focus would be placed on the basic Elemental [Counterspell]s, like for Fire or Water, or such. For an assault team of this size, at least three of the mages would simply have very large, Variable Cost Variable Effect [Grand Counterspell]s, with a massive multiplier, either through artifacts or Class Abilities dropping the cost of their Counters to 5 mana spent per 100 mana Countered.

The other half of the first attack would be an actual attack, from someone trying to slip in and spear Erick with a sword or other weapon into the core. This would be a real attack, but it would be like hitting a billiard ball on a pool table; a set up for the next actual attack. Whichever way Erick chose to dodge would be him running directly into the next threat, and then the next.

Getting past three or four physical attacks would put Erick past their first coordinated assault, and now he’d be in the more confusing part of the takedown.

The [Counterspell]-casters would have figured out which of them were best suited to lock him down, and they would stay on that, but the other ones would switch to focused attack magic that their own warriors could safely ignore. Some would focus on healing the warriors, or containing the resulting damage, but this fight was taking place far away from civilization, so there was no real worry about collateral damage.

Wess had spoken with Erick long enough for everyone to evacuate, which, looking back on it, was probably the only reason that Wess had been allowed to talk at all. Wess was a good guy. He had probably fought for that right; to at least give everyone else a chance to get away from the battle before it started.

They knew ‘Ashes’ was a cover life, for sure, but they had no idea what that cover actually covered, otherwise they would have approached this situation a lot differently. Erick’s ‘Ashes’ public persona was a 9 star adventurer in good standing with every major guild out there, with a registered Water Domain, so they knew he had that.

… Would Erick keep up that ruse?

Yes.

Erick decided to keep the Water Domain persona active. ‘Ashes’ could continue to exist, if these people would let him. After this confrontation was done, Erick wouldn’t be able to come back here, though…

But he could dungeon hop from some other dungeon into the Glittering Depths—

Bah! Why was Erick even thinking like this? Like it was important to be inside the Glittering Depths for some reason...

Well. He knew why. Erick needed to find out more about Ashes and the Summoner and mana crystals and all of that! He had just proven that he could make mana crystal items and bring them into the real world.

… Which was apparently something that the Greensoil Republic was interested in, but who could blame them? Erick was very interested in finding out what else he could make with mana crystals and Wizardry, too.

What he wasn’t interested in was the overreach of Greendale.

Ashes had done nothing wrong; he was completely clean! There was absolutely no reason for Greendale to be coming at him like this! But they were tyrants, who didn’t care for the rule of law unless it suited them. A noble suspected of a grand crime —one that actually required the Crown to take notice and stop— wouldn’t be arrested like this. They’d be approached by representatives of the Viridian Throne and brought to court, which, depending on the severity of the crime, would end up as a black mark on the noble house’s name, or a minor fine.

Or some other lesser denigration.

But if you weren’t a noble, then you got your life absolutely ruined for even being suspected of a crime! It was horrible.

… And Erick knew he’d be dealing with all that later.

For now, Erick was an outsider, non-noble, and thus he was subject to second-class citizen status, like all the dragonkin and otherwise which might live in Greensoil.

Eh.

Erick focused on the battle.

Airwalking guy invisibly approached at the speed of sound itself, the air flexing around him the only giveaway that the attack was coming at all.

Erick did several things fast. First, he allowed his aura into the air, and then he manually fired off about a thousand tiny Bolts of every conceivable Element, with many multiples of those Bolts, all at once. It took a thousand mana.

Eight of the 15 [Counterspell] mages got tripped up by that, their Script Second eaten away by one or two of the Bolts Erick had tried to cast, shadows splashing away magic before it could even form. Counter Mages 9 and 10 each unleashed a spark of shadow that multiplied across all of the remaining parts of Erick’s spellwork, their [Grand Counterspell]s shutting down the other Bolts; their prepared Counter and Script Second eaten by useless magic.

Instantly following his first round of Bolts, Erick manually cast six overlapping Domain magic spells, spreading them out from himself and into the air around in an ever-expanding wave of power, taking 6000 mana to do so. He was down from 55,000, to 48,000 mana.

Those Domains are what caused the remaining Counter mages and one of the warriors above and behind Erick, on top of the dungeon keep, to blow their load. In that flashing instant, they attempted to break his Domains. Only two of them succeeded.

Erick had almost broken the first wave of the attack. Erick’s [Water Domain] and [Light Domain] got shut down, showing that those Counter Mages had some impressive Water and Light-based credentials, which was to be expected, since they knew they were attacking a Benevolence dragon, and that Ashes had a Water Domain, at least.

The Fire, Air, Stone, and Shadow Domains all expanded outward, unimpeded and overlapping.

The Air guy stumbled as he struck Erick’s Air Domain, and Erick transformed a tendril of his aura into his Air Domain and ripped at the Air guy’s own control over his own Air. There was a minor struggle. The man had a Domain of his own, and he was very skilled at breaking other Domains, but Erick was better, and then Erick used [Airshape] to truly rip at the guy, seizing total control of his Air and eradicating the man’s Health, before taking him apart at the waist and then removing both of his arms with the same motion.

He would live; Erick would ensure it, once he dealt with the other four assailants, and the seven more waiting behind them.

As the air guy was still falling forward due to momentum, Erick carved away at a pair of Force Warriors who were much less prepared for Erick, and which only looked dangerous with their large swords and quick strikes. The Force warriors ended up slowly falling to the ground, too, as Erick took their legs and arms from them.

By that time another Script Second was here, and the Mages had another moment to act with their full power, but Erick was prepared for that. His expanding Shadow and Air Domains had only gotten ten meters out at the moment, and Erick had swept through all melee attackers in range, just in time for the first salvos of mage destruction to sail his way.

Erick manually cast some rather well-made reflective spellwork and bounced a good third of that dangerous magery up into the air, harmlessly away.

His Domains kept expanding, because that’s what Erick had created them to do. Now, they reached Wess, and then flowed over him.

Erick left him be, as he disabled the remaining warriors, though one of them did manage to break the Shadow Domain with his own Shadow Domain, or a Domain Breaker skill. Hard to tell, really.

Domains, once released from a person and not directly reinforced, could be broken rather easily by someone else’s Domain. You still needed actual Domain magic in order to fight against a Domain, though. Greensoil had a lot of specialists here and so they could do that, so it didn’t surprise Erick when they killed his remaining Air, Fire, and Stone Domains.

Erick had more power than that, though.

Erick switched to Ice Magic and did a few easy take downs here and there, using Ice that was cold enough to inflict the Stop status effect, which he repeated on every downed person, just so they couldn’t get back up under their own power. In the middle of that, Erick flowed out an Ice Domain, like a tidal wave of domination, washing across the entire ironcrystal courtyard, and splashing up and out, catching every mage in its wake.

Erick left Stopped human popsicles all across the courtyard.

Little bits of blood decorated the white ice all over the land, but there were no permanent injuries. Some people even managed to escape the freezing, like Wess, because Erick left him be, and two mages on the walls, because they were that good. Those mages were the ones who had managed to eradicate Erick’s Water and Light Domains. The final survivor was the Green Circle assassin.

Ice, blue and white and meters thick in some places, layered across everyone and everything except those four people, and Erick.

And the monster by the dungeon entrance was fine, of course; Erick didn’t touch the giant spider at all.

In the still of the frozen land, Erick breathed. That fight had cost him exactly 3 seconds of actual time, and about 30,000 mana. If he needed to [Return], he’d get that 30,000 mana back, but not the mana he’d use for [Return], which is why Erick had saved his Script Second for that spell, so the Script could help him reduce the cost of that magic from 10,000 mana to 500. Erick had been rather sure of his victory, but nothing was ever certain when it came to conflict like this.

Erick looked at Wess. “You are coming with me now, and I am taking you to see The Wizard. Will you comply?”

“I will,” Wess said, without hesitation.

The Circle assassin finally revealed himself, as though the space where ice did not touch wasn’t revealing enough. The man’s green robes flowed as he took one step forward, and said, “I would also speak to the Wizard regarding this matter, and other matters.”

Erick looked up to the walls where the Water and Light Domain mages had managed to hold off Erick’s ice. Those two were not nearly as cool-under-pressure as Wess and the assassin, but they were not freaking out either. They could probably hold it together for a little while longer. Erick looking directly at them wasn’t doing them any favors, though. “Are they going to be able to save the people here? Or do I need to do that myself?”

The assassin said, “They are competent enough to save those here, though a retraction of your Domain would be useful after we have left.”

Erick nodded. And then he had Ophiel descend from the sky in a show of complete force, wearing his 5 meter wide form and layered in spellwork and with his signature reflective shield of silver thorns. Ophiel roared in displeasure-flutes as he landed in front of Wess and the assassin, and then he opened a [Gate] to Candlepoint, to Erick’s throne room, which Erick had already made sure was available, and prepared.

It had taken Burhendurur and some Elites a [Hasted Shelter] in order to get ready for this fallout here, though. But they were ready.

And then Ophiel opened another [Gate] near Erick, and Erick had Ophiel say, “You go here. Deal with you later!”

And Erick said, “It appears I am headed somewhere else for the moment.”

Erick walked through the [Gate], and it shut behind him.

Erick took a moment, there in an unimportant but well-guarded transportation room in House Benevolence used for this sort of thing, to collect himself. And then he transformed into the Apparent King with his crown of black horns, and over two meters tall. A quick shift of clothing deposited his Ashes outfit into a trunk, while he put on more normal clothes. He was ready for the meeting in the throne room, but he took a moment to fix what he had done at the Glittering Depths, releasing everyone from the ice and then healing them all.

Wess and the Circle Assassin, whom Zolan had found out was named Vance, waited in the center of the throne room, at Erick’s pleasure.

Erick touched the All-Seeing Eye on his chest, and wondered if he wanted to keep it. That trinket was how these people had recognized Ashes’s disregard for the rules of the Glittering Depths; he had come walking out of there wearing it, after all. The staff had only appeared later.

How long had that taken them to set up? They had to have been watching from the control rooms of the dungeon, or something like that. They had gotten ready rather fast.

But first things first!

Erick grabbed Ophiel and hugged him tight, saying, “You acted so well, Ophiel! I’m so proud of you!”

Ophiel twittered, “I’m actor! I hide and play good!”

“Yes you do, Ophiel. Very good job. Very good.”

And then Erick looked at the not-golden staff floating beside him.

It looked a bit odd, to Erick, like it was waiting for orders, or something.

Erick asked, “Can you transform into smaller forms, like Ophiel here?”

The staff instantly became a circle of golden wheat with a glittering white gem surrounded by golden grains.

… Erick put the bracelet on his right arm, and then held it up. “Okay. That’s good. Thank you.”

The not-staff twinkled.

“… Okay then,” Erick said to himself, “Time to go prevent an international crisis, even though I’m pretty sure they expected it to go this way to begin with.”

Ophiel twittered, uncaring about politics he didn’t really understand, and instead focused on landing on Erick’s shoulder, taking his rightful, happy place.

The not-staff was inert.

- - - -

Erick let the warrior and the assassin stew for a good 30 minutes in his throne room, alone, at attention on the carpet in front of his dais. They could still communicate with whoever they wished, though, and they did. While Erick spoke to a few people and to Cyril and Yetta over in Odaali about the Odaari event happening today, he kept an eye on Wess and Vance, and on how they telepathically communicated with a lot of other people.

Zolan watched them too. He assumed they were either getting yelled at by their superiors, or they were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, now that Erick had come to the rescue of ‘his Benevolence Dragon’. It was hard for Erick to tell any more than that, too, for they were rather accomplished at not letting their telepathic words come out in the microexpressions of their face, or in the unintended movements of their throats and tongues. Eventually, Erick managed to sort out the schedule for the Odaari hearing happening, and then he turned his attentions back to his throne room, fully.

The Apparent King stepped through a [Gate] onto his throne’s dais, his words a clear accusation against the warrior and the assassin, “You are purposefully interfering with my ability to attend to this Denutha Odaari event today.”

Both Wess and Vance’s eyes got a little wider, before they controlled themselves better than that. Either Wess and Vance were great actors, which was likely true, or else they truly did not know that that was what they were doing.

Wess spoke first, “I do not know your meaning, Wizard Flatt.”

Vance had the decency to at least pretend to honor the position he was in, here in a foreign sovereign's throne room, for he took a bow. With his head still bent, he said, “I am unaware of any plot such as the one you outline, Good Wizard Flatt.”

“Rise.” Erick said, “I have already heard the story from Ashes, and he has already handed over this trinket he made down there.” Erick took out the All-Seeing Eye from around his neck, under his robes, and said, “An All-Seeing Eye. Quite the wonder, actually. It let him see every single part of your attack and also a few more interesting things in that dungeon you have there. I might give it back to him, but it’s a mana crystal, and those are rather interesting.” He put the eye back under his robes, and then he opened a [Gate] to his right, just beyond his throne dais, and Poi stepped out, dressed for diplomatic battle. “Speak plainly, or give a detailed report to my Overseer of Mind Mages. I would prefer both.”

Poi gave a small nod toward Erick, and then stood at relaxed attention to the side.

Wess did not speak.

Vance took a half-step forward. “The Greensoil Republic formally charges Ashes Woodfield with resisting arrest, distribution of magical goods without a license, accessory to murder, accessory to anarchy, and empowerment of demonic forces. Were he less than himself, or not tied to you, we would call for his execution and exile, and accept whichever outcome we could actually enforce, while pursuing the execution option to the best of our ability. But he is a dragon, so we would likely accept exile. Since he is tied to House Benevolence, we would ask for your cooperation in apprehending this criminal.”

The assassin didn’t flinch as Erick ordered him to spill the story, and then he proceeded not to spill any story at all. Vance went straight for the fallout of this whole event, skipping several steps of the normal process of information exchange and thus trying to put himself and Greensoil in a position of better power over House Benevolence.

Erick decided that he wasn’t going to allow them to skip to the sentencing, as he repeated his previous command, but in different words, “I would hear what Ashes has done from your perspective.”

Vance nodded his head politically, and then he stepped back in line with Wess.

Wess took a half-step forward. “Greensoil asks if you are aware of the demonic murders happening in the capital of Greensoil? In Greendale?”

“Mostly. Ashes mentioned those, and I looked into them.”

Wess waited for Erick to say more, but when he didn’t, Wess continued, “Ashes Woodfield has created artifacts of power inside the Gem Dungeon and distributed them for gold to other forces inside the dungeon. This is not a problem, for ironcrystal items are fake magic. But Ashes has also caused items to become real, through Wizardry. This is where the charges against magical item creation come from. It is our belief that Mister Woodfield has done much more than this, though, and has directly given Artifacts of power to unknown demonic sympathizers located in the Gem Dungeon, for the express purpose of undermining the authority of the Viridian Throne, through the systematic murder of judges, Inquisitors, high-ranking merchants, and nobles. The nobles are the only murders which we have not been able to keep out of the Knowledge Mage readers, so we did not try.

“In truth, every murder was a political assassination, with an origin from inside the Gem Dungeon.

“Three out of every 4 persons who were killed were proponents of hardline human-only rule, and staunch supporters of the Viridian Throne. The remaining quarter murders were beloved middle-road proponents, who likely ran afoul of the anti-human murderers.

“There was one notable exception to this pattern. One lady by the name of Kendraii Waters became a progressive in the High Royal Court after she gained an appreciation for the Wasteland outreach programs of three years ago. After the outbreak of dungeon breaks led to an increase in Quiet War tension and the removal of the direct Greensoil/Wasteland Gate Network two years ago, Lady Waters became much more vocal in her calls for peace.

“She was one of the first demonic murders.

“She was ritually slain in a Church of the Holy Host in northern Greendale, desecrating that church and spawning hundreds of imps that then spread into the surrounding city. Over forty people were injured by those imps, but no one else was killed.

“Perhaps Lady Waters was killed because she would have been able to speak to the demons and talk them out of what they planned to do next. Maybe she was killed for some other reason. We do not know, for her soul resides on Hell now; she is unreachable by us.

“Every single killing has produced a Hell-tainted soul, which has been unreachable, and a few have spawned imps, which have proven to be nuisances.

“Ashes has made artifacts of power, and then made them real, and these artifacts have been noticed in at least 2 incidents. Once, at an attempted assassination at the noble house of the Farfields, and at a recorded killing of a head guard, which we think was an opportunistic killing, and thus the murderers did not take the proper precautions to hide themselves from our mana sensers.

“We have linked his Bracelets of [Hidden Wind] and his Breastplate of Absolute Defense to those killings.” Wess finished with, “And so, we request the relinquishment of Mister Ashes to Greensoil and to the Viridian Throne, so that he might answer questions for us.”

Erick pretended to give their words some thought, because that’s what you did in situations like this. And then he said, “Greendale’s request for Ashes is denied. I will now be involving myself directly.”

Wess stepped back.

Vance stepped forward. “Then we rescind our request for Ashes, ask you to leave us to our own affairs, and request that you keep Ashes out of our territory from now until forever.”

“It’s easy for me to honor the request to leave your problems to you, but then you go and attack my dragons with unproven accusations.” Erick stared, as he added, “Don’t ever attack my dragons ever again. Come to me if you have a problem with one of them.”

Vance calmly stated, “Your request will be forwarded to our Grand Viridian King, Darundi Raivo, may he reign on Veird as Adavido does on Celes.”

Erick said, “I require your full report on these demonic murders in order to investigate Ashes myself, and I require your full report on the Riamite incursion into your lands. Whether you choose to give me these reports or not will dictate my response to finding out all this information for myself.”

Wess and Vance betrayed nothing when Erick mentioned ‘Riamite incursion’.

Vance and Wess both bowed instead of giving an answer.

“This meeting is over.” Erick asked, “Where would you like to be deposited?”

“The Gem Dungeon, Wizard Flatt,” said Vance.

Erick opened a [Gate], and the Inquisitors departed.

He closed the [Gate], and frowned.

Poi said, “Wess was truthful as far as he knew.”

“… So Vance knew more, but Wess did not.”

“The Green Circle often knows more than the Viridian Inquisitors, but they’re really just different hands of the same throne, and sometimes those positions of knowledge are reversed.”

Erick thought for a moment about everything that he had heard. Then he said, “I require Burhendurur and Enforcement to do some investigating. Let them know the contents of this meeting.”

“Should I tell them about Ashes?”

“Burhendurur, yes. The rest, no.”

Poi nodded, as he sent out tendrils of thought.

“Thank you, Poi.”

Poi smiled a little, as he nodded again.

Erick had two large events to prepare for, now. This thing with the demonic murders was just one event. The other was over a decade in the making.

- - - -

The prosecution consisted of the King of Odaali, Cyril Odaali, and his grandmother, Duchess Wilhelmina Dominair, Lady of the High Court, eighth cousin of the Viridian King. It was hard to say which one of them were more politically powerful in this particular venue. Erick hadn’t interacted with Wilhelmina in well over a decade, back when he had worked with Odaali-in-Exile to take back their white-walled city from the Halls of the Dead. He didn’t interact with her much this time, either, but she was the main way in which Odaali was actually able to speak at the High Court, here in Greendale.

An older human woman by the name of Ilulia Whitefield was the royal barrister for many of Odaali’s legal cases, and she was the prosecutor for Odaali versus Odaari. She was good at her job, Erick thought, but she was facing impossible odds, so she would likely fail to make Odaali’s case for them.

Those three people sat on one side of a large wooden table.

On the other side of the table sat barrister Tadd Greenfield; an older man of strong eyes and declining physicality, but who had a strong voice and his health wasn’t that bad. He represented the Viridian Throne’s interest in keeping Odaari under Greendale control.

Denutha Odaari wasn’t actually in attendance. Instead, two Inquisitors stood behind Tadd Greenfield.

None of them had spoken more than a few perfunctory words, because the actual people in charge in this room were Erick, sitting at one end of the table, flanked by Poi and Burhendurur, while the Viridian King sat at the other end.

Grand King Darundi Raivo was a 75 year old man of pale skin, midnight black hair, and a strong body, who wore a green and white suit, and a subtle wreath of emeralds for a crown. He had been in power since long before Erick fell to Veird. He was flanked by Vance, the Circle assassin, and some man in dark green armor.

Darundi had arrived ten seconds ago, as the last person to arrive, and only after Erick had sat down.

Erick spoke first, “Greetings, Darundi.”

“Greetings, Erick,” said Darundi. “Two things: One: I want Ashes in custody answering questions for me. Two: I want you to give up this quest for information on Odaari.”

“I want Ashes to be allowed to return to the Glittering Depths, and to be allowed to clear his own name, to work in this land without threat from Inquisitors or otherwise and to discover this demonic threat and put it down himself. And I want Odaari to publicly explain herself, as she wants to do, and as the victims of her crimes want her to do.”

Darundi paused. Then he asked, “Vance? Your opinion on Ashes?”

“We’ll allow Ashes to come back if he agrees to Inquisitor accompaniment. Wess Clover will be that accompaniment.”

Erick said, “Inquisitor accompaniment outside the dungeon, only. Not inside. I will be watching closely when I feel like it.” He added, “I still haven’t gotten that full report on what actually happened with the dungeon artifacts and the demonic murders.”

Darundi said, “Done. Vance will turn in that information to your man Burhendurur as soon as this meeting is over. Ashes will be read in at the dungeon. He is not allowed outside the dungeon lands without accompaniment, but he shall not be infringed outside of the dungeon as long as he doesn’t do any infringing himself.” He went on, “Odaari will explain herself to ten people selected by Odaali. It will be a sealed testimony. No one will be allowed to speak of it outside of that room.”

Erick looked to Cyril, because ultimately the Odaari outcome was his choice.

Wilhelmina eyed Cyril, too, silently urging him to consider the deal.

Cyril shook his head.

Darundi frowned at the man.

Erick said, “That deal does not seem to be acceptable. I would like to know why this is still a problem at all. Why not let her put her story out there to as many people as Odaali desires? Surely her story cannot be that bad.”

“It’s the typical story of a disenfranchised noble who went to an enemy in order to get what they wanted. There is nothing special to it at all, but I will not have stories like that spread, giving other people ideas about how to do the same.” Darundi asked, “Do you want her dead, Erick? Or do you want her transformed? Reborn and Blessed? I will allow any of that, but if she does not die, I want her back. What I will not allow is Odaali to claim that their vengeance is above the authority and needs of the Republic itself. I would also prefer that Odaali never went and got you involved, but I suppose that event has come and gone.”

“I went to them because of a conversation with Atunir; they did not come to me.” Erick continued, “And what ‘needs’ of the Republic do you mean? Is Odaari working on more Plant Magic?”

Darundi didn’t wholly believe that Odaali didn’t contact Erick directly, but he was willing to accept Erick’s words on that at face value. As for the rest, he answered, “Academically; yes. Denutha Odaari is working on Plant Magic. We don’t allow her to cast actual magic, but she is allowed a hundred mana per day, no more than 5 mana per spell. This allows her modicum of self-reliance, for she is almost completely a theoretical researcher now; teaching approved students and living a modest life on palace grounds, under the eyes of the Inquisition. Maybe after a few more years of prayer and repentance her plea of forgiveness from Atunir will actually be heard, and that Quest will close.”

Erick was a little conflicted now, and he let it show, because he was about to just end this intrigue now…

Cyril saw, and he could not help from showing his sudden sorrow at that.

Erick said to Cyril, “Atunir has personally told me that if I [Reincarnation] and Empathy Odaari, that this is acceptable to her. She just wants to close the Kill and Exterminate Quest, and if Odaari is truly repentant, then the only problem is here, among the people in this room.”

Darundi seemed to accept that.

Cyril and Wilhelmina were more accepting, because Erick had told them all of this earlier, and Yetta confirmed it. But Yetta wasn’t here right now, and Cyril… Well.

Cyril solidly said, “Odaali is due our bowl of blood. We will have Odaari speak her reasonings for what she did to all of us, and we would have her unsheltered by any other forces. This includes the Viridian Throne, and House Benevolence.”

“So the sticking point is you want a public announcement with yourself in total power over the situation,” Erick concluded, spelling out the absolute depth of their conviction. “Even if Darundi increased his offer to a thousand nobles and commoners, it would still not be enough.”

“The entire population of Odaali deserves to know what happened,” Cyril said. “Any sealed room report is not good enough.”

“That’s all they want, and that’s not what I’m giving them,” Darundi said, standing. “So now it’s time for the lawyers to talk. Would you like to speak to Odaari yourself, Erick?”

Erick stood, saying, “I suppose it’s time.”

Darundi gestured to the side, and the large armored man at his back opened an orange-colored [Gate] to elsewhere. This was how Darundi had arrived to this meeting, and how Darundi got around Greensoil. The armored man was one of those who had gotten to the Worldly Path part of the way to [Gate], but he had just purchased that spell instead of Walking the Path… Probably. Must have been hard for him since Melemizargo had locked down all Spatial Magic across the world of Veird. He didn’t look old enough to be from before the Teleport Exodus, and it was still possible to set up special zones where one could still learn that magic, so that’s probably what happened there. Kiri had needed to set up places like that when she chose to walk The Worldly Path.

Darundi walked through the [Gate], his men followed him, and then Erick followed them, with Poi and Burhendurur taking up the rear. Ophiel remained behind so Erick could check on what the lawyers would say when he left, while a different Ophiel came along for the ride on Erick’s shoulder. For the most part, Erick focused on what came next, as he stepped down the wide white road leading to the Green Palace of Greendale.

Erick walked with Darundi, saying, “The palace looks as good as ever.”

Darundi said, “I would ask for your men and my men to go deal with the paperwork and otherwise, while you and I walk, Erick.”

Erick nodded.

Vance and the armored guy stopped walking and bowed. Poi and Burhendurur did the same. Then the four of them veered off toward the right, following a small path across the grass between hedges of roses, toward another building beyond the flower gardens.

Erick and Darundi walked toward the palace. The main structure was like a wide apartment building, and almost reminded Erick of a french palace; made for entertaining and luxury, instead of for defense. The gardens out front were filled with small nooks and large open areas with gazebos and small ponds. Gardeners maintained everything, constantly, while a node network and specialty spells provided generalized stabilization for the entire system.

That was all a lie, though, because what the node network really did was make the Grand Green Palace of Greendale one of the most secure locations in this world, with every spell keyed to Darundi and a select few others to allow them complete access, while denying all outsiders.

Darundi led Erick through several arches of those sorts of spells, as they approached the front stairs to the front doors of the palace. The last time Erick had been here, these spells had prevented even him from being able to mana sense everywhere, but now, this All-Seeing Eye allowed him to see past the doors, and to see through the layered spellwork on the other side. There was no trap, or anything like that. There was just a butler waiting to open the doors and a small group of people standing on both sides of a green carpet, in front of a grand staircase in the back of the entrance hall.

And then the doors opened from the other side, revealing what Erick had already seen.

Darundi walked forward, asking, “Are you able to spend any great length of time, Erick? Or only a short while?”

“A few real hours won’t cause any harm.”

“Excellent. Let us adjourn to the White Room.”

A few servants out of the lineup bowed and then broke off from the main room to head toward the servant hallways, behind curtains near the stairwell, as Darundi led Erick toward the left wing.

The white room was, as the name suggested, white. White walls, floor, furniture, ceiling. Accents of gold and silver and green held here and there in the moulding and the ribbing of the furniture, while the light of the world outside streamed in, adding a vibrancy to the space that it otherwise lacked.

A whole bunch of refreshments on a tea table, between two couches, provided more color. Finger foods, mostly, with meats and cheeses and fried options, but also chocolates and cookies. Two tea cups had already been poured and sat steaming next to a teapot filled with more tea, if they wanted more. The staff here worked fast.

Darundi sat down on one of the couches, while he gestured at the other couch, saying, “Please sit with me, and let us speak more freely behind all these layers of power.”

Erick smiled a little bit, and then sat down, flicking aside his robes so they laid beside him instead of under him, revealing a deep black inner lining contrasted with the entire rest of the room, as if the black lines on his robes weren’t already deeply different. “Are you sure we’re not being spied upon? What about that string of power leading from here into your basement? Where a man and woman sit, listening in; and now they are breathing deep and worrying about everything… And now they are apologizing.”

“I trust them with my life, but I don’t exactly trust you, Erick. They will stay.”

“As long as they can keep some worldly secrets, then that’s fine with me.”

“They can.” Darundi said, “Let us begin with how you are Ashes.”

Erick smiled. “Ah! Good. I’m glad I don’t have to explain that, and we can skip ahead—”

“You don’t deny it?”

“You’re the one who agreed to let Ashes come back, and so he shall, and so I shall get to the bottom of this Glittering-Depths/demonic-connection thing happening therein. You will be informed of the outcome, of course.” Erick accused, “To that end: What’s up with Greensoil killing Lady Waters in a false flag operation at the start of these demonic murders?”

Darundi sat back on his couch, and said, “That’s one of many rumors going around, but it’s not actually true from my end.”

“It’s hard to read you, Darundi. It’s one of the things that impresses me about you, but what doesn’t impress me is that someone who was calling for reforms of interactions with the Wasteland winds up dead and imps fly out from that death. It speaks of Quiet War trouble, and that distresses me.”

“We are similarly distressed, then, for I have heard that you plan on unsealing Yggdrasil in the coming months.”

“Resealing. Not unsealing.” Erick said, “Surely you have summoned a demon of your own to find out what they know of these murders. I plan to do so later. Now I ask you true: are these ‘demonic murders’ actually ‘demonic murders’, or are they something else?”

“Someone is killing nobles and turning them into demons. Someone in the Gem Dungeon is involved. Perhaps a lot of people. These are but a few of the major facts of the case. If you can solve this matter through approaching Hell directly, then I’m fine with that, but so far our overtures to Hell have been met with nothing… And a lot of hate, both on our side and theirs. Nothing conclusive either way.” Darundi asked, “Have you heard of what happened in the Gem Dungeon 15 months ago?”

“When the Riamites infiltrated Greendale and got rather far before they were noticed?”

“They didn’t get that far. But they did begin to influence some local politics in the off-color districts. They were drumming up support for various integration policies that would have left us vulnerable to demonic infiltration. Their face-stealing was found out because they misunderstood our various ‘tyrannical policies’, as I have heard you call them, and thought that they could… do whatever it was they were planning on. We’re not entirely sure of that ourselves. The only thing we’re sure of is that those Riamites had gotten away from the nobles responsible for letting them out of the Glittering Depths, and begun to make their own plans.” Darundi said, “When that happened, the nobles prostrated themselves before the Throne, detailing every part of their involvement with the Riamites that did not show them in a bad light, and we dismantled that issue.”

Erick’s eyebrows went up a little, in surprise. “Ah. I assume that the nobles got off with a slap on the face, and nothing more, and then they tried again, and this time they got killed instead.”

Darundi said, “That is what we’ve been able to put together. Every single noble family tied to that original Riamite intrigue and many lesser clerks, judges, guards, and otherwise, have all been killed. The Manfields were first, then the Chesterfields, then the Waterroads, Adamsmiths, and 4 Farfields. One Farfield survived. She is in protective custody.

“Lady Kendraii Waters was among the first to die. All the heads of the noble families followed her same execution style; the transformation of the target’s soul into that of a demon, and the release of hundreds of imps.” Darundi said, “A few of the judges received the same treatment.”

Erick had a few ideas of what might be happening already, but he wasn’t sure. “I need to see the full reports.”

“I would ask you to limit your interference in our affairs, Erick… But I have heard stories of the Riamite menace. That is the only reason I am allowing ‘Ashes’ to continue to exist.”

“That is the only reason I am planning on interfering exactly as much as I need to in order to prevent the worst from happening.” Erick frowned as he lightly demanded to know, “How have you not destroyed the Gem Dungeon by now, simply for the threat the Riamites pose?”

Darundi smiled at that. “It keeps people on their toes to know that ultimate evil does exist. If the Manfields and all the rest would have taken that lesson to heart, instead of trying to profit from it, then they wouldn’t be dead right now. And honestly, I am fine with them being dead; I don’t need idiots like that in my Republic.” He shrugged. “Even not counting that it’s Atunir’s dungeon, that Grand Dungeon brings in too much gold and power for me to discount it that easily. It’s like Spur and how Ar’Kendrithyst used to be, but with much more manageable evil.”

Erick realized something else. “… You’re already making metaweapons and bringing them out of the Gem Dungeon.”

Erick knew how Greensoil would do this, too. All it would take is some minor Wizardry from a person who had made a core and gained base mana production from killing big bosses in the Dark. That was one of the original reasons that Melemizargo made the dungeons, after all; to allow people to actually increase their base mana production. With enough base mana production, and with a core to hold that mana, one could easily make some minor Wizardry.

Enough minor Wizardry to turn metamonds real.

Erick stated, “Other people truly have been turning my own metaweapons and otherwise real, and using them in those demonic murders; Wess wasn’t lying about that.”

Darundi lightly stared, as he said, “Transforming the metaitems of others into all-world items is not as easy as you are thinking. Someone else has figured out the perfect process, though… Unless it has truly been you supplying weapons to my enemies.”

“I’ve accidentally made one real item, and then purposefully made a second.”

Darundi’s stare hardened for a moment, and then he pulled back, saying, “Then you should know that someone else has figured out that process, and they’re able to apply it to items made by others. I wish you luck on finding out who has transformed your Breastplate of Absolute Reduction into a real item. Perhaps you will have better luck tracing that transactional history than us.”

“I made ten of those.” Erick said, “They weren’t hard to make and they went everywhere.”

“… Well that’s disappointing news. You probably have no idea of the transactional history of that item at all, do you?”

“I haven’t given any thought to those items, because I was rather sure that it was difficult to make an item real.”

“Well, it is.” Darundi sighed. “Congrats on the Iron Bandits ripping through floor 200 to 229, by the way; they couldn’t have done it without you.”

“… Do you think that the last Farfield will be targeted for execution by the killer, or killers?”

“Likely not; she wasn’t important at all, but perhaps she will be and the killers will target her, but we have her in protective custody now.” Darundi said, “Every single noble who worked with the Riamites before now is dead, along with at least 28 softer targets, so we believe the killer or killers will likely go into the shadows, to wait before implementing their ‘phase 2’, which we assume will be another political takeover of some sort. We’re prepared for that, though.”

Erick sat back on the couch and had a deep think. “How much actual collateral damage was there?”

“The bursts of imps at each major death has caused collateral damage… But not much. You would have to read the reports yourself to see if you disagree.”

After a moment, Erick said, “I appreciate your candor, Darundi.”

“You’re one of the few people I can trust to be yourself and not lie when it’s important, Erick.” And then Darundi conversationally declared, “I hope that by this exchange of information and by the allowances of your person to return to the Glittering Depths that we shall continue to reaffirm a positive relationship between House Benevolence and Greensoil.”

“House Benevolence appreciates and understands the positions of Greensoil.” Erick said, “I would see Odaari, now.”

“She’s on her way.” And then Darundi picked up a chocolate and ate it, saying, “I hope I had them make your favorites.”

Erick smiled a little, and then picked up a small, blackened scarlet king fish sandwich, saying, “From Yggdrasil’s fish farm?”

“Only the best for the Wizard.”

Erick smiled a lot more at that, and then he ate the small bit of a much larger fish that his son had raised himself, up by Treehome.

The conversation moved on to less important topics, which were not actually less important at all. Like how Erick found the experience of the Glittering Depths, and what was happening down at Storm’s Edge, and the functionality of the Gate Network and how it could better suit Darundi’s needs, and the needs of Greensoil.

As they spoke, Erick confirmed a few things in roundabout ways, just as Darundi was doing as he spoke to Erick.

Darundi had suspected that Erick was trying to undermine the Republic for various unknown reasons, through the use of the Gem Dungeon’s resources or people. He suspected, in the beginning, that Erick had been behind all of these recent murders, for the majority of deaths were of hard-line human supremacists, and Erick was very much against that sort of thing. The Viridian King was also worried about Erick simply pulling the plug on their access to the Gate Network, or doing something else equally horrible.

Erick had always assured people that he would never use his authority over the Gate Network to control the politics of other nations, and he had never broken that promise. He reaffirmed that promise today, though it irked Erick that he needed to do that at all.

Erick was pretty sure that Darundi was feeling insecure about his reign for multiple reasons, only some of which were because the hard-line human supremacists were likely some of Darundi’s staunchest supporters. And now some of those supporters were dead.

On the surface, their whole conversation had been fraught with question and concern, but neither Erick nor Darundi went into the depths as far as they could have gone. Sometimes discretion was preferred when it came to worldly powers.

Both of them knew most of what the other was up to, anyway.

Darundi was a tyrant of and for humanity.

Erick was a cosmopolitan progressive.

Erick wanted to punch the man every time he visited, but he refrained. It would do no good to depose Darundi anyway, for the Viridian King only had a majority control over the politics of Greendale and a federal-level of control over all the rest of the Republic. Even that overarching level of control was only due to his state-sanctioned Green Circle of Assassins; he could legally kill or have killed anyone he wanted in the entirety of Greensoil, but he couldn’t enact legislation or otherwise without the consent of the nobility. That’s how the Republic was set up.

The problems of Greensoil were better solved through grassroots movements, Erick had found, or, as Erick actually preferred, having a bunch of the progressives from Greensoil move out of Greensoil and come to the Crystal Forest…

Which actually brought up a very good point.

One he almost asked Darundi about.

Had Darundi ordered the deaths of those hardliner human-supremacists, himself? Because, with Erick pulling out all the other progressives from his land, those nobles started calling for something too dangerous? Perhaps open war against the Wasteland? Such a step would prove disastrous if it were ever allowed to get off the ground.

Or was Darundi actually hurting for having a sizable chunk of his base murdered out from under him?

Hard to know.

- - - -

A woman guarded by two soldiers stood on the other side of the door, with Poi and Burhendurur standing a few meters away, down the hall.

Darundi rose from his couch, saying, “Odaari has finally arrived, so this is where I depart. It was good to see you, Erick.”

Erick rose from his seat, saying, “It was good to see you again, Darundi.”

The door opened.

Darundi departed first.

Denutha Odaari was bowing inside the hallway as the Viridian King Raivo walked past, and then she rose and stepped into the room. She bowed again, saying, “Greetings, Wizard Flatt.”

She rose. She looked like Cyril had described; white hair in a braided bun, older, perhaps 65, and with a soft vivacity to her crystal-green gaze. She was fully present in the moment, for she knew she would be asked to speak her mind.

Odaari had been waiting for some moment like this for over a decade.

Her guards rapidly cleared away the parts of the refreshments that Erick and Darundi had eaten, and reorganized all of it to Erick’s side of the table. Denutha wasn’t to have any of it? Well sure. She was technically a prisoner and wanted for crimes against the world for her part in the creation of the Daydropper, so some denial of luxury was to be expected; or at least that’s the read Erick got off of her, as he watched her stand there.

For a moment, that’s all Erick did. Poi and Burhendurur walked into the room and stood behind Erick’s couch while Erick studied Odaari…

She looked on edge, but also at peace.

Erick gestured to the other couch, and said, “Please have a seat, Miss Odaari.”

Denutha Odaari complied. Her guards took up a position to Odaari’s side of the room, their backs to the wall.

Erick said, “I would like to hear your story, please. All that you feel is relevant.”

Odaari breathed in, something loosening in her shoulders and in her heart, as she began, “I first met with the Halls of the Dead 43 years ago, in my mid 20s, a little over two decades after the civil wars of the Lori Dukedom and Opalice Empire fractured the incani lands into the Wasteland Kingdoms...”

The Viridian King had been right; Odaari’s story was the story of a disenfranchised noble, who went to other powers to get ahead in life. She had started small with the Halls of the Dead, and transitioned to real horrors once it became apparent exactly how beneficial such an arrangement was for her. With the Halls of the Dead, Odaari had killed a cousin who was in the process of ousting her from an inheritance, and then it slowly spiraled from there over the next few decades.

The Daydropper was her lowest point, and something she had been tinkering around with for years, until Particle Magic came along and she finally understood what she hadn’t understood before.

And now, Odaari was honestly sorry for what she had done, and what she had made. She made a few excuses, from how her branch family of the Odaali’s and how the Odaali’s themselves had treated her, disdaining her Plant Magic as useless, but she recognized how the Wasteland and the Halls of the Dead had taken advantage of that weakness of her character.

Erick let her spill her heart out.

And at the end of it, he said, “Thank you for your history, Odaari.” He continued, “Atunir has made it clear to me that if you were to accept a [Reincarnation] and Blessing, that she would consider your crime absolved. She’s fine with you dying, too. She just wants the Kill and Exterminate Quest done.” As Odaari had a tumultuous moment of horror, relief, and acceptance at all of that, Erick continued, “But Odaali wants to hear your full story, as well, and so I have sided with them to allow you to speak your full story to them, unencumbered by the Viridian Throne, or House Benevolence. But what do you want to happen?”

The guards behind Odaari looked a bit harder at Odaari, and at Erick, as he asked that question.

Odaari softly said, “I want justice to be done, however it needs to be done.”

“… Hmm.” Erick sat back on his couch. “What are you up to nowadays, Odaari?”

Odaari took a moment to orient to the new question, then she said, “Teaching theoretical Plant Magic along with possible applications of various medical and alchemical plants to various fields of expertise… Improved gardening techniques and such.”

Erick said, “If you ask for help, I will give it to you. I will take you out of here.”

“… I wish for justice, not for assistance in running from justice.”

“Okay then.” Erick stood. “It was good to finally meet you.”

Odaari rose and then bowed.

Erick left with Poi and Burhendurur through a [Gate].

- - - -

In a private room, Erick asked, “She was holding back a lot.”

“Yes, she was,” said Poi, the Mind Mage with all those rules to follow.

That raised Erick’s eyebrows.

Burhendurur eyed Poi too, then he said, “She had been practicing that story for a decade. Perhaps even she believes it, now.”

“She does not believe her lies,” said Poi. “She has a story, but not one she can share at this time.”

Erick and Burhendurur both raised eyebrows at Poi

Erick asked, “… You’re breaking protocol again.”

“Not fully, but there are a great many things that I feel need to be discussed, because…” Poi’s facade broke and his anger came out of hiding, as he said, “Because that place is a decaypool of… Of a lot.”

Burhendurur chuckled. “They were giving me the evil eye the whole time, too! Ah. It was almost fun, in a certain way.” He pulled out a folder filled with paper from his robes, saying, “I read the report. Have you gotten any more information out of the day? I think Greendale has an extremism problem, and someone tried to solve it with murder and now it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

Poi sarcastically said, “Historically, if the murder of nobility has not solved your nobility problem, then you aren’t doing enough of it.”

Erick stared at Poi as Burhendurur handed him the report.

Poi shrugged.

Erick chuckled nervously.

Burhendurur smiled wide, saying, “Where is Kiri? She would love to hear this.”

“Let’s not do that,” Erick instantly said. “Kiri is doing really well about not wanting to murder all the humans in charge over there, and I’d like to keep it that way.” He rapidly looked through the report, speed reading as fast as he could. In a short while Erick had caught up to Burhendurur and Poi. “So I’m pretty sure that Greensoil is going to go through a period of extremism, like you say, Burhendurur, but I’m rather sure it’s not going to happen right now. Maybe not for months. This looks like a long-term setup, not a short term gain. Looks like Greensoil knew exactly who the killers would be targeting once the killing started, too, so they posted Inquisitors near those people, but still the killers got through. I’m going to send you a packet of my own information, Poi. Please pull it apart.”

Poi nodded.

Erick sent a packet with all the information of his time spent with Darundi, and a whole bunch of other stuff besides, mostly to do with the dungeon. And then Poi helped Burhendurur pick apart that same packet in a more organized manner.

Burhendurur sighed. “Greensoil has always had an extremism problem, but it’s rare that this problem reaches the higher levels of governance like it has here, in these demonic murders. This whole Riamite problem… That’s new… This is a lot, Erick. We could speak on it for hours, and we should, but the main problem I’m having right now is that you are going back in there, as Ashes. Darundi will therefore know where you are. He might be planning on doing something to you in the Glittering Depths— Yes yes. A [Far Bolt] if there ever was one. But perhaps the real danger is that he knows that whenever Ashes is in existence, that the Crystal Forest is without its Wizard. This is a large security threat.”

Erick said, “Yes. But counterpoint: I’m there, investigating his mess for him, which is wildly out of character for them, which means that they intend to do a run around on Candlepoint, or that they truly do want help, but they don’t want the Wizard to be visibly helping them.”

Poi said, “It’s both.”

Erick suddenly sighed a little, as Burhendurur’s eyebrows went up. Erick said, “Then you both are formally charged with ensuring nothing happens here at home, while I go and stop some Riamites taking over a small part of Greensoil and eventually summoning an Evil God.”

“Holy gods, Erick,” Burhendurur whispered, “Is that really what the Riamites want?”

“The fictional ones. The real ones want other things… And this might not even be them doing this.”

Burhendurur frowned a little as he thought.

Poi had a similar expression.

Erick moved on, “As for where I will start my investigation: The only things that stick out to me are the first death of Lady Waters, and how that one Farfield girl had been spared. I’m going to go check those out with that Wess Clover Inquisitor, and then I’m going back into the Glittering Depths to poke around for answers down there… Or maybe I’ll go the other way around. Not sure right now.”

Poi spoke up, “Before you do that, a few days out here would be prudent. Kiri is backed up rather fiercely and she won’t tell you about it.”

“… Oh. Well yes. Of course I’ll help her.”

Burhendurur added, “There are also a few small things in Enforcement which could use your oversight, and I wish to have a much larger talk with you about these meta-artifacts, and how they can translate into this world.”

Erick smiled at that. “They’re really quite interesting, aren’t they! The ability to continually cast a buffing spell is perhaps their most interesting aspect, and the fact that they don’t seem to wear out through mana expenditure.”

For a moment, Erick flicked on the full extent of his All-Seeing Eye, and witnessed the true forms of his closest friend, and also his Overseer of Enforcement. He had already used the amulet to look at both of them before, but now they were alone.

Poi was a tangle of sky-blue tendrils, wrapped around his brain and all throughout his body, and also extending out of his head like they always did. He was a Mind Mage, through and through.

Burhendurur was a Death Dragon in incani form, looking like a brilliant white skeleton with exposed organs and muscle meat made of blackened and grey scales.

All around Erick, in every shadow, stood the Darkness of Melemizargo, though his white eyes weren’t fully present until Erick looked their way. Erick turned his attentions to other things, though, simply because he wasn’t calling on Melemizargo right now at all, and there were other things to look at anyway, like his throne, sitting over there on that white dais.

That throne was a crown of light in simple white stone, its metaphysical impression much, much larger than it had any right to be, and yet, when Erick looked again, that metaphysical impression was no bigger than the throne itself, which was just a simple stone throne sized for a 2 meter tall person.

The edge of the throne room was a relief of trees layered with colored lights, but metaphysically, it was a forest stretching deep into white mist, into Benevolence itself, and scattered with a thousand holes into other parts of the world. All of that was a magic far beyond what this room actually was, for all the Gate Network was outside, in the Gate District, but this room was probably a good enough symbol of the power of the Gate Network itself that it appeared that way, anyway.

Erick relaxed his control over the All-Seeing Eye and took the trinket off his neck, saying, “Try this out, will you, Poi?”

“Nope,” Poi said, as he looked to Burhendurur. “Give it to him.”

Erick smiled a little, as Burhendurur’s eyes went wide. Erick handed it to him, saying, “Then you try it.”

Burhendurur caught the necklace as it fell into his hand, the dark scaled thing glittering a little white at his touch. For a moment, Burhendurur just looked at it, then he began, “I read about the meta-artifacts in the report. But how do you actually—”

Burhendurur’s eyes went wide as he gasped—

And then he let go of the necklace, stepping away fast.

The necklace just hovered there, surprising everyone, looking like a white light surrounded by eyelids, and a slowly jangling weightless chain.

“That’s it?” Erick asked, “Care to try again, Burhendurur?”

“No thank you. You look too much like Melemizargo when I use that thing... But I can see how it would be useful. I applaud your newfound power, my king.” Burhendurur collected himself, then said, “But to get back to important current events. I really do need you to do a few things for the kingdom…”

Erick put the necklace back on, and listened for a while.

And then he got to work.

- - - -

“Kiri,” Erick said after dinner, after pulling the young woman aside. “You need to hire more people.”

Erick had spent roughly 130 hours in the last three days sorting smaller problems that had backed up here and there, and then he spent the last hour deciding how he actually wanted to help Kiri, going forward. Right now the two of them were in Erick’s office near his throne room, and both of them were sitting beside the window in an informal way. Erick had tried to make this as informal as possible.

But Kiri had gone almost rigid with worry as soon as Erick had asked her to sit down with him. Sunny, her couatl-shaped [Familiar], turned to a darker shade of green and wrapped protectively around Kiri’s neck, all the while glaring at Erick. Kiri had thought that she was going to be demoted, or removed from power, or any number of horrible things, but Erick was never going to do that; he had nixed that possibility rather fast when he planned for this meeting.

Kiri took Erick’s proclamation rather well, all things considered.

“… I will hire more people?” Kiri said, though it was more like a question. Rapidly, she added, “I didn’t think I could?”

“You’re the Gatemaster now, Kiri, and I am not going to take that away from you. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear that you could hire and train as many people as you want.” Erick said, “Pull from the departments you need to pull from. Make the Office of the Overseer of Gate Expansion as big as you need it to be and rely on Burhendurur and Mox more. Enforcement could have cleared up several of the Crystal Forest, new city problems I had to deal with, while the Office of the Exterior could have done more for the social problems I had to clear up, but the simple fact is that this job is untenable for anyone without Time Magic. It is unfair for you, and other people, to have to work this job without that ability. And so, we adjust.”

Kiri went still, taking the reprimand with aplomb. “Heard and Understood.”

Erick smiled. “Good. Here.” Erick handed her the All-Seeing Eye, saying, “I’m going to make another one of these for myself, but you can have this one. It will help you see through every falsehood out there, but be warned; looking too deep can lead to the depths looking back.”

Kiri eyed the black amulet, with its glowing white sphere in the center. And then she took it into her claws, saying, “Well that’s rather ominous—” She stopped suddenly, her eyes going wide, her heart racing hard as her talons gripped the amulet hard. If she would have had skin, perhaps she would have been sweating, but she had emerald scales. A tiny splash of white fire escaped Kiri’s mouth as she stared at Erick, and whispered, “Oh.”

Erick smiled. “I’m proud of you for not throwing it away. It’s an All-Seeing Eye I made in the Glittering Depths. It should let you see through anything and everything, and it should also let you [True Sight] across mana voids, like the one in space. I didn’t see anything out there when I used it… Except for the moons, I suppose. They look a whole lot better with actual buildings on them and people walking around— Angels, demons, and lesser parishioners, anyway. Meditation-based viewing of those lands is less than nothing compared to using this trinket.”

Kiri’s eyes were wide long before Erick started explaining, as she looked at all of him, seeing whatever the amulet was showing her. From how Burhendurur had reacted, it was probably scary, but Erick hadn’t been able to use it to view himself, so Erick wasn’t exactly sure what she was seeing. As Erick finished his explanation, Kiri’s eyes calmed, and she looked down at the amulet in her hands. “How did you make it? Exactly?”

“I learned a whole lot in that Gem Dungeon, but that thing is basically Wizardry, so it’s hard to explain how I made it. We can talk about all that after we talk about a reorganization of the Office of Gate Expansion.”

Kiri thrust her hand forward, saying, “I can’t take this now. Not until you’ve made a second one.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. He didn’t argue, though. He just took back the amulet, thinking that this was probably easier for him, anyway. He would have needed to evade the Inquisitors and sneak into the dungeon in order to get back to his house down there, to make another one of these, and the Inquisitors were already down there in the dungeon anyway, so that sneaking likely would have been impossible. The All-Seeing Eye had only been in his possession for less than a handful of real-time days, but already it felt like an invaluable tool…

But at the same time, Erick didn’t want to add this functionality to himself, because if he did, then everything would always look like an impressionist painting filled with too much meaning and unreality. Right now, he could moderate his connection to the amulet rather well, but perhaps if he made a Class Ability out of this thing…? Maybe that would work.

He could moderate his Class Abilities rather well, but that was due to the Script helping him.

That was a lot to think about, actually.

So Erick just put on the necklace and tucked the eye back under his robes, saying, “Where would you like to start with the reorganization?”

“Let’s get Zolan.”

Erick smiled. “Great start.”

It took them 3 real hours to come up with a good plan of action that would eventually completely remove the necessity of [Hasted Shelter] from the current Gatemaster. This action would cause a lot more people besides just the Viridian King to find out that Erick wasn’t at the helm of House Benevolence these days, so that was a bit ahead of schedule, but it needed to be done.

Zolan did clarify that, “If anyone asks, this is a trial run for long term solutions to needing less Time Magic in House Benevolence, due to a rise in complaints to meetings going too long. It is not because Erick isn’t here all the time.”

Erick laughed at that. “Are people still complaining about extra-long days?”

“Always and forever.”

- - - -

In the next day, a great many people got promotions in House Benevolence, and a great many more jobs opened up in the lower levels.

And Kiri got a staff that she trusted.

Erick also heard from Odaali that their appeal for a true telling of Odaari’s story was denied, and Odaali was going to appeal to the High Court of Nobles; the only force that could actually overturn Greendale’s decree. That was going to take months, though. Erick wished them luck.

Privately, Erick decided he would cut through all that bullshit and just repentance Odaari himself, after he dealt with these demonic murders. Odaari would keep for that long, but whatever was going on in the depths of the Gem Dungeon would not.

- - - -

One thing to do before he went back to the dungeon, though.

In a room in a secured location in the mountains northeast of Candlepoint, Erick stood before a large circle of pale-red metal that Jane had seen once and called a ‘stargate’. It was more like a ‘moongate’, though, because it connected to one moon in particular, or rather, it connected to Hell, which was also a moon, but also a permeable layer of reality here on Veird that existed everywhere, like all the other Elements.

No demon actually lived on the other side of this particular unpowered portal, though. Quilatalap had once explained it to Erick like how demons lived on Hell, but they could send avatars here to Veird whenever someone summoned them. It took real power and desecration of all that was Exalted and Angelic to make a true connection from Hell to Veird; to bring forth a demon-spawning demon, which was usually called a Breach Demon, like the one the Halls of the Dead had summoned during the Daydropper incident.

The same sort of setup, but in reverse, was necessary to summon an angel, but Erick wasn’t interested in angels right now.

Erick cast spellwork into the circular portal and brimstone fire flashed across the metal and the space between like an explosion of black and gold and burning red, ephemeral and heavy with Elemental Vile. The room turned into an inferno that sapped the heat from Erick’s body just as much as it threatened to burn away absolutely everything in the room. But it wasn’t that bad. Sure, the floor melted and the ceiling dripped a little, and imps popped out of that melt and bright darkness like parasite cockroaches, but the spellwork Erick had layered across the many rooms beyond this one would prevent anything from escaping this hellish ritual—

And then the ritual connected, and the fire of the room turned gold, burning away everything and leaving nothing but solid ground, walls, and ceiling in its wake. Gold foil spun down on the corners of the room, forming expensive moulding that traced patterns on the walls and ceiling. The floor transformed into gold and white tile.

The portal swirled with gold, becoming a vertical pool of the divine that rippled red.

A demonic woman stepped into the portal. Her skin was magenta, her dress radiant red, and her horns formed a broken halo that stretched high above her, like a crescent moon with her at the bottom. She smiled, showing white fangs while her eyes sparkled like solid rubies, as she placed her taloned hands together, and bowed. Wings of fire gently spread down and out; subservient.

She was Erick’s personal connection to Demon King Dinnamoth, and her name was Lynkari.

Lynkari rose, saying, “Greetings, Wizard Flatt. To whom does the Demon King owe this absolute pleasure?”

“To whomever is committing demonic murders in Greendale, and unleashing imps from demon-turned human souls.”

Lynkari knew that she would not have been called upon outside of something important, but she did not hide the fact that she was so very, very relieved. She breathed deep the Hell-tainted, yet still-real air, as her shoulders relaxed, and her tense wings of flame transformed into body-draping red robes, open at the front, showing off her ample assets on purpose.

She was incredibly beautiful, which was yet another of Hell’s temptations.

“Greendale asked this four times already, that we know of. We have attempted to locate those turned souls, but we have had no luck in that matter. Hell might not look like it, but our little moon is as vast as Veird and the architecture of it is more nuanced than Fairie. New, non-contracted souls end up in any millions of unclaimed lands. The dangers and horrors that live there usually rip those souls to shreds and then continue doing that, feeding on their pain until the new soul becomes a true denizen of Hell and is able to fight back.” Lynkari said, “That’s what we think happened to those people. But. We will ask around again and this time, since it’s you asking, we might get different answers.” She asked, “Do you want to form a contract? It’d be the easiest way to ensure you remained yourself should the worst happen.”

“I do not. Thanks for looking into this.”

Erick didn’t begrudge Lynkari her attempt at seduction, or her attempt at converting Erick to a demon; literally every demon wanted Erick to make a contract with them, but Lynkari at least took ‘no’ as an answer. She was better than the last three demon contacts Erick had had for the upper echelons of Hell, and Erick didn’t get along fully with Dinnamoth himself, so that guy never showed up unless it was a real emergency.

Lynkari bowed once again as she stepped backward through the portal, silently leaving.

Gold divinity rushed away, Vile power flashing through the world as it vanished from sight.

And Erick once again stood in a nondescript secured location, in front of a circular vertical ring of pinkish hellite, a good five meters across. The gold filigree and mouldings of the room had vanished. Some of the room was melted, though, so Erick got to fixing that.

“So that was a dead-end,” Erick said to himself, as he Shaped stone. “Still had to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, though.”

- - - -

Erick was once again Ashes, and this time he didn’t fly into the Glittering Depths compound on a Platform. He just popped through a [Gate], directly into the courtyard, where people had once again gathered around and acted like they usually did, getting ready to go down into the dungeon. But then ‘Ashes’ had appeared, through a white-lightning [Gate], followed fast by Ophiel, who made himself very apparent, and who fluffed up into his large form before settling on top of the surface dungeon guildhall. Ophiel turned completely invisible at that point, fading from sight.

The little guy had done a great job of distracting everyone.

‘Ashes’ was already through the black [Gate], golden staff in his hands and all his other metamonds on his body where they should be, as he raced into the dungeon proper. The giant spider overlooking the entrance had barely had time to glance his way.

Erick paid no attention to everyone else on the dirt road leading to the hills. He just hoofed it, fast, into the darkness—

- - - -

—And now he was in a white tutorial room.

“… Well okay then,” Erick said, putting his hands on his hips. “What’s up, dungeon?”

One moment please, Ashes Woodfield. A dungeon master will be with you shortly.

Even before Erick finished reading that sentence the air opened up ahead and out stepped Kinder, looking much the same as the last time Erick had seen him, but wearier. Run down.

Kinder said, “You’re somehow working with the Inquisitors now, and you also have a direct line to the Wizard. I would like to formally request that you do what you have to do down here, and then you go out of the dungeon and find the people who are actually causing these noble murders. Because they’re not here. We’ve checked already.”

“Okay. I just need a list of every Riamite who has ever been dragged out of their floor, and I’ll go investigate that.”

“… There is no such list. We don’t keep tabs on those who escape the floors, but we do catch 95% of them.”

Erick nodded, fully expecting this, for it had been in the report. “I believe you, but now you understand why I cannot agree to your request.”

Kinder frowned. “I suspect I’ll be quintupling the investigations we’ve already done.”

“Probably.” Erick smiled, saying, “So let’s go see those investigations!”

“Before we get there,” Kinder looked to the air beside him, saying, “You evaded him out there, but he’s here as well.”

Wess Clover looked the same as the last time Erick had seen him; impartial and calm, with skin the color of dark wood and close-cropped hair. His green armor gleamed. “Greetings, Ashes. I hope that I don’t have to track you down again like this, or else I will need to report these sorts of purposeful evasions to the Throne.” He frowned a little, adding, “I will already have to report that the Wizard dropped you off here for the express purpose of evading us.”

“And I will report to the Wizard that your King agreed that I would be unencumbered in the dungeon, and yet here you stand, encumbering me.”

Wess said nothing.

“… Go ahead and do what you have to do, and I will do the same, Wess.” Erick had been looking the man over, and he saw some odd things about him that weren’t there the last time Erick had seen him, in the courtyard ambush. “So you’ve got a full set of metamonds, then.”

“I’ve been here for over a year, ever since the last Inquisitor oversight for this dungeon was face-eaten by Riamites, along with the majority of others.”

Erick listened, and then he asked Kinder, “Do you have a list of everyone who has made a meta-artifact real? Can the dungeon check that?”

“No, we do not, and the dungeon cannot check that. We barely have a census, and new Riamites are coming out of the dungeon all the time, brought here through people taking the backroads to the other floors.” Kinder explained, “The Glittering Depths is massive, occupying the dungeon space for all of the nearest few hundred kilometers around Greendale, and even further than that in a few places, all in order to prevent the random creation of more dungeons anywhere near the capital. You saw the first and second floors. We have multiple copies of those floors, and the other 3. And that’s not even counting the Eternal Depths, which can get weird and deep. The most we can do is track someone when they start, and once they fall off that track, we lose them until we can find them again and assign them a tracker.”

Erick had read about all that in the reports that Darundi had given him. The Glittering Depths was perhaps one of the most important and never-seen areas of Greensoil, and yet it was full of holes large enough for killers to hide within, thanks to the backroads. Grand Dungeons were like that a lot, really; too much space in them, while also being too hard to fully police. But there was an established solution to that problem.

Erick asked, “Have you considered letting the monsters roam in the deeper Dark? To clear out those hiding holes in the backroads with absolute death? Quilatalap does that in the Grand Benevolence Dungeon. That’s what Wizard Destiny and the Life Binder do for the Freelands Grand Dungeon. I had assumed that’s what you all did here.”

Kinder frowned.

And Wess answered, “The Viridian Throne wishes to—”

He didn’t even have to finish what he was saying before Erick realized what had happened.

“— leave the backroads open for safety concerns, since people do get back there every once in a while, and the protections of the regular dungeon do not extend to the deeper backroads.”

“Well that’s a damned lie,” Erick said. “Darundi uses those backroads for his own gains, doesn’t he? Somehow, someway… I bet this whole thing is just a backroads problem of people moving into his territory unopposed— OH! That’s how the demon killers have gotten into and out of all those noble houses, isn’t it! And the backroads are left open so that the Throne can make metamonds down here! That’s what all of this is; the Viridian Throne tried to make a Dark powerbase for themselves, and some parasite roaches moved in, and you can’t get them out.”

Erick almost sighed as he figured it all out right then and there, and as the expressions of Kinder and Wess all but confirmed his wild theory.

Kinder said nothing.

Wess showed no surprise at all as he came right out and said, “Yes. That is exactly correct. We have been trying and barely succeeding in making metamonds into real artifacts for a long while, and some infiltrators now exist in the backroads with our meta-artifact workshops. Shall we get on with the investigation, now?”

Erick said, “We’re going to be exploring a lot of the backsides of this dungeon; I can see it now. So I have two requirements, first. I want to see that workshop, and I want another person to come along with us.”

Wess frowned a little. “Who?”

Kinder spoke up, “Before that, I would like to introduce you to some eyes-in-the-sky that will be overwatching your paths down here.”

Erick paused. “… Well sure? Who?”

- - - -

George could not believe it as Ashes walked through the door to the control room. He leapt out of his chair and smiled, saying, “Welcome, Ashes! I saw you when you first found that [Murky] in the dungeon! Diving into the waters with those eels is something I never would have done—”

Quince was there, saying, “Pardon my over-enthusiastic coworker.” He bowed.

And then George realized he should have bowed, too, so he did that, but he couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face. Even Inquisitor Wade being there wasn’t a real damper on the moment. Ashes was directly tied to the Wizard! How cool was that! And holy shit that spellwork he had unleashed at the dungeon entrance! The Inquisitors seemed a lot less terrifying after that beatdown, and that was great.

Ashes said, “Hello. Nice to meet you two. I understand you’re going to be our oversight?”

George instantly heard that wary tone. He rushed to say, “It’s not like that, I swear. We don’t spy on everyone and we certainly don’t talk to anyone about any of that— Well. Except for the Inquisitors... by law...”

For yet another time in his life, George realized he was talking too much.

Quince tried to save him, saying, “The dungeon is an unknowable box in certain ways, made that way by the holy communion of Atunir and the decree of the Dark. We can track people when we’re focused on them, but finding them once they’ve taken a wrong turn is exceedingly difficult. We don’t spy in houses when people are present in them, either.”

Ashes asked, “And in the backroads? How does your Sight extend back there?”

George gasped a little, as he looked from Wade to Kinder, and then back to Ashes. “… I suppose the Wizard’s people work fast in knowing all there is to know, eh?”

Quince actually answered the question, saying, “We can monitor you and an area about forty meters around you, but if you move too fast then we’ll lose you in the backroads. Calling on the dungeon will let us find you again.”

Ashes asked, “What about making metamonds in the backroads? That doesn’t alert you here?”

“Not at all,” Quince said.

Ashes asked, “How viable would it be to flood the backroads with monsters? To flush out whoever is hiding in them?”

George looked to Kinder. Quince looked to Kinder.

Kinder said nothing.

Wess answered, “There are a lot of people in the backroads besides the killers. And the killers might not even be in the backroads. That’s just one option. They could be in Utopia. They could be living among the monster levels, and thus releasing the monsters would do nothing. They could be moving through Endless Delve zones and hopping through realities to constantly evade. They might even be living inside Greendale, hiding out, or [Gate]ing in from other lands to kill as they please.”

“You’re pretty sure they’re in the backroads, though, right?” Ashes asked.

Wess said nothing.

“The backroads are the least trackable places, so they might be there.” Kinder said, “Even Utopia is more trackable than the backroads.”

Ashes said to George and Quince, “It was nice to meet you, too. Hope you don’t see anything that terrifies you too much.”

Wess said, “I would like to move on.”

Ashes walked away, saying small words to Kinder, as Kinder followed and Wess accompanied them, until all three of them had walked through the door and the door shut behind.

George waited two moments before he allowed his giggling to erupt and turn into a laugh. “That guy has The Wizard on [Telepathy]! And an Ophiel delivered him here! Did you see those Domains, Quince?!”

Quince scowled, like the sourlemon he was, “Everyone saw those damned Domains, George. You’re too excited for this… This is terrifying, and we’re going to have Inquisitors watching over us while we work, and if there really are people in the backroads then… Then they can probably get in here.”

“Phbbbt!” George exclaimed, "It’s a short [True Resurrection] to the green fields for us if we die here—”

“We could be dragged to the backroads, idiot. True Death.”

George waved a hand. “I’m not worried. We’ve got House Benevolence here now. Ashes is going to cut through everything down there and come out with dead demons in his claws.”

Quince was a lot less certain.

- - - -

In the middle of what looked like a field of golden wheat, Erick knocked on the air, and the air thumped. There was no answer right away. Wess, standing beside Erick, gave no signs of irritation or otherwise, for he had already voiced his concerns with Erick’s choice of accompaniment, and then left it at that.

Erick knocked on the air again, saying, “I know you’re in there! I can see you from here!”

The air cleared. Golden wheat vanished. A house and a garden stood revealed on the other side of a low, tumbled-stone barrier that marked the property ahead.

Clarice glared, “What do you want?”

“I want to know if you told Rebecca her name yet.”

“You’re a day over our agreement!” Clarice spat. “… I should have. I have not.”

“Good. In that case: We’re going into the backroads to hunt the demonic killer, and I fully expect us to end up in some dangerous places in the Dark. Probably floor 5, or other floors like it. Want to do some exploring with us?”

Clarice focused with laser intensity. “If we end up on floor 5 you’re going to [Witness] the past, yes?”

“I’m rather sure that I’m on some destined, Benevolent Path right now, so probably.” Erick added, “It might even work with two extra people there, too.”

“Then yes; I want to go. Give me a minute and I’ll get my gear.”